Under a Dark Sun: Session 17

Session 17: (7/3/14)

Adventure name: The Year of Priest's Defiance

Current PCs / NPCs

Grom Dunestalker - Half-Giant Psionic Warrior (PC)

Lain - Half-Elf Bard (NPC)

Sadiria - Half-Elf Wilder (NPC)

Russk - Mul (stated as a Half-Orc) Fighter (NPC)

We find our protagonists warily investigating the wild-looking man that has just wandered into the ruin from the desert. 

After determining that he (probably) doesn't present a threat to them, the party introduces themselves.  The stranger introduces himself as Thrassos Haruk as he wanders about he structure, as if looking for something.

Upon seeing the cistern, Thrassos insists that the party "release it".  He explains that they must have access to the water within the cistern.  A debate begins about how best to remove the water, trapped as it is by the runes encircling the rim of the vessel, to which Thrassos responds by handing Grom a large rock.

After the stone rim of the cistern is smashed open with the rock, water begins to pour out.  Almost immediately, though, the water rises up into a vague humanoid shape and begins assaulting our heroes.  A thoroughly drenching battle later, and the group has all the water they can drink.  They fill all of their water skins, but despite Thrassos's insistence, Grom refuses to dump the ashes out any of the funerary urns to fill them with water.  "Your loss" is the scraggly wander's only response.

Their thirst sated beyond their wildest dream, the group rests for a while until they hear a voice calling to them from outside the ruin: "Hello in there!  Come out, won’t you?  We have much to discuss.”

Looking outside, the group sees a bearded man riding a howdah on the back of a mekillot, surrounded by a large group of rough-looking men.  The men are mounted on kanks and carry wicked looking weapons.  ‘How pleasant to meet new friends in this lonely waste’, he says.  ‘The king granted this land to my family long ago, you know; and everything on it belongs to me…Everything.’”

Hostilities soon ensues, and the bearded man sends a wave of his armed thugs to assault the group, sheltering in the entrance of the structure.  As the raiders move forwards to assault the party, the bearded man reads from a scrap of parchment, and a large circle the grass around him instantly curls up and dies, turning to ash in seconds.....a Defiler!  Of more immediate concern, a centipede-shaped monstrosity, larger than a kank and seemingly formed of sand and stone appears in a flash and move to lead the attack on the group.

After a short battle, the heroes manage to slay the raiders and hit the Earth Centipede with their weapons until it disintegrates into a harmless pile of sand and rocks.  The man with the beard hurls curses and obscenities at the group for several moments, then gestures more of his men forward.  He reads from another (magical scroll?) and calls forth another horrible Earth Centipedes.  The men this time are lead by a burly Half-Giant with a massive club.

The half-giant's blows hit hard, augmented with the power of his mind, but the party manages to defeat the brute, and his cronies.  The man with the beard again hurls curses and obscenities at the group for several moments, while the heroes enjoy the short respite.

Outstanding Plot Hooks:

• Can they defeat this bearded defiler and his small army of raiders?
• Will our party EVER be able to get to Urik and receive the payout from their caravan?