It’s Tales From The Plunderbund Consortium Tuesday, and as promised, here is the riveting continuation of our tale. In case you missed any of the past blogs/chapters, just go to 9Deuce and look through the archives and start from the beginning to get the full experience.
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Tales from the Plunderbund Consortium
Dark Sun Campaign – Chapter 2
Having sustained mild to moderate wounds at the hands of the gith, and needing to wait for the female Jua Dai to awaken, the adventurers decided to take a long rest. During the rest Ilana decided to molest the magical fruit, at which point she learned that they were fruits of invisibility.
As Ilana finished her magical studies, the female elf awoken screaming, “where is Fanan, my beloved.” Ilana immediately cast charm person on the elf to ensure they would be the best of friends. At this point the elf was calmly informed that Jengi was Gith-chow.
After the screaming, wailing, and gnashing of teeth subsided, the female elf introduced herself as Jengi. As the conversation proceeded, the adventurers learned that Jengi was the daughter of the Jura Dai chief, Tuga Dai. They also learned many of the things they had been informed of up to this point; 1) slavers from Nibenay had been taking Jura Dai elves as slaves to be sold in Nibenay; 2) the Jura Dai had been doing a number of things to hinder Nibenay (the city state, not the sorcerer king) in the hopes Nibenay (the sorcerer king) would free the slaves as opposed to simply destroying the entire tribe (the annoyance v. actual threat matrix); and 3) they kidnapped the druid and poisoned the oasis to punish Cromlin for allowing Nibenay troops to water there and as part of their continuing campaign to free their brethren. During their conversation the adventurers revealed their “interest” in the druid.
Despite the fact Jengi was actively hostile to everyone that didn’t have her under a charm spell, the adventurers decided to treat her as a traveling companion rather than a valuable captive. Upon reaching the Jura Dai fort deep within the Black Spine Mountains, they were rewarded for their trust by having Jengi run ahead and yell, “guards, guards, intruders are here to take the druid, do not let them enter the fort!” The watchtower guards then appeared, arrows drawn and pointed at the adventurers.
Not wanting to have to assault an elven keep, Dimebag and Alexa headed back down the trail. Coraanu and Pane-Pan chose to hide in the woods. Ilana, confused at how her new bestie could act like this (despite not having recast charm person), decided to confront the guards. What occurred next was a vigorous back and forth between three parties. Ilana would tell the guards that they saved the princess and that they should be allowed in to see the chief. The head guard would then say, “you have a point,” at which point Jengi would say, “yes they saved me, but I’m ordering you to kill them, so do it.” Then Ilana would begin her argument again.
Eventually, Chief Tuga Dai grew weary of this pointless conversation and appeared on the keep walls with his head psionicist. Demanding to know who was appearing before the great Tuga Dai, both Ilana and Uk’Chataa introduced themselves. Tuga Dai allowed them to enter the fort but warned them that death by 300 arrows would be swift if they said or did the wrong thing.
Confident in his defiling powers, and in the powers of his chief psionicist, Tuga Dai and the psionicist met alone with Ilana and Uk’Chataa in his private tower. The two could feel the psionicist probing their minds, and they freely granted access. They told the great chief that they were thankful for the freedom they were granted when the Jura Dai elves attacked the slave caravan days ago. They also offered their services in helping free the Jura Dai elves that had been taken into slavery. The two were also upfront about the fact that Cromlin had hired them to rescue the druid, but that they had no real loyalty to Cromlin and House Shom. In fact, Ilana offered her services in helping the elves destroy Cromlin. Tuga looked at her as if she was crazy as completely destroying the village would likely result in drawing the full force of the military power of both the Shadow King and House Shom, virtually ensuring the complete destruction of the elf tribe.
At the completion of conversation Tuga Dai left to confer with his psionicist. Upon returning, he explained that the psionicist had learned that the adventurers were to rescue the druid, return him to the oasis, and then hire on to a merchant caravan heading to Nibenay. Tuga explained that 50 Jura Dai elves had been taken as slaves offered the following deal: He would release the druid into their custody, they would return to Cromlin and say they rescued the druid from the elves, and they would then hire on to the caravan and travel to Nibenay. Then adventurers would then have six months to rescue half of the enslaved elves. Doing so would earn them the eternal friendship of the Jura Dai elves, failing to do so would result in enmity and painful death. The adventurers accepted.
Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, a Jura Dai hunting party was returning from a rather poor hunt. The demoralized party soon ran into the retreating Alexa and Dimebag, at which point, seeing intruders in Jura Dia territory, they attacked. Many elven kneecaps and torsos were axed that day.
Subsequently, Ilana and the others met up with Alexa, Dimebag, and a pile of dead elves. Uk’Chataa then proceeded to “prepare” the meat, and Dimebag (whose battle axe had broken in the fight) crafted a shiny new bone dagger. From there the entire party plus T’klick’chik the druid had an uneventuful trip to the oasis, where the adventurers guarded the druid as he cast many neuralize poison spells to remove the methelinoc from the water. After completing the task, T’klick’chik pulled the adventurers aside and told them that the caravan they would soon be guarding would spend an intire day and night watering the mekillots at the oasis. He hoped they would agree to a nature spirit reading on that evening as the spirits apparently had a lot to say. The adventurers agreed; even Ilana who normally doesn’t take no guff from no punk ass nature spirits.
Upon returning to Cromlin the adventurers accepted their reward, and then spent the evening drinking (Alexa), sleeping with and then robbing some drunk dude (Ilana), and having a pimped out leather jacket with bone embroidery made (Dimebag).
The next morning the adventurers reported for duty with the caravan master, Capt. Gen’erik. During the day patrol the elves were run around the caravan’s perimeter at a moderate distance, while the shorties (Alexa and Dimebag) were to take the far perimeter while riding on crodlu. The bugs would stay in the wagon during the day and patrol the perimeter at night.
The first day’s trip back to the oasis was uneventful, as was the day spent guarding the caravan as the mekillots watered. That evening, T’klick’chik gathered the adventurers around to hear what the spirits had to say.
First, Dimebag was told that to fulfill his focus, he must “find the tower of light that protected men when the silt was blue.”
Ilana was informed that, “the mad spirit of the stream wishes to speak with you.” A likely reference to the possessed elf-hating water source at the clan reservation. Ilana told the druid to inform the stream that, “she will come see him when she is damn good and ready.”
Pane-Pan, to his surprise, was told that “the spirit of Far‑Misc is waiting for you at the Temple of the Sky Serpent.”
From there, the druid turned to Alexa and noted that, while the spirits see great promise in her, she should stop trying to surpass the greatest half-giant barbarian and instead focus her sights on surpassing the greatest halfling barbarian; namely, Nok Thal, the halfling barbarian warlord that raised such a mighty army Hamanu himself was forced to finally enter the fight to stop the uprising. To start her journey, Alexa was advised to first seek Nok’s tomb.
This led the druid to turn to Coraanu and informed him that, “the spirits note that you have magical potential within you. However, they would see you properly trained so that you do not turn to the vile depravity that is defiling magic.” Coraanu was directed to seek out one of the spirit’s greatest champions, a man known only as, “The Mountain.” [DM’s note: “The Mountain” was a former player’s 4e Warden character from approximately 2009] Coraanu was informed that The Mountain had returned to his guarded land in Cresent Forest north-west of Nibenay. He was also informed that The Mountain’s guarded lands included Nok’s Tomb.
Finally, the druid addressed Uk’Chataa-Hookeri, letting him know that, “Mutami is with the one who silenced the Stealers of Songs.” Had Coraanu’s player been in attendance that night I’m sure this would have led to much emotional roleplaying and stuff.
As the reading came to an end, the adventurers returned to the caravan duties. The next morning, about two hours after leaving the oasis, Alexa, holding on for dear life to her crodlu mount, saw in the distance raiders heading straight for the caravan. Expertly swinging the mount around, she arrived in time to warn the caravan and set up defenses.
While the raiders put up somewhat of a fight, for the most part they were slaughtered by the adventurers and crossbow wielding caravan staff. As the last raider sought to flee, Alexa mercifully lowered her blood axes; however, the captain yelled to Dimebag that the raiders were likely from the “Silt Saviors” slave tribe, and that if they captured the former slave turned raider they could torture him for the location of the Silt Savior’s slave tribe and sell the information to slavers. Being a dwarf of low to no moral character, Dimebag set off on his crodlu to capture the raider.
Expertly piloting the animal, Dimebag was able to wrangle in the raider; however, realizing that he was about to put all of his friends and family in jeopardy, the slave-turned-raider bit his tongue off. Dimebag attempted to save the raider’s life (so that he could be tortured later), but the raider soon bled to death.
The remainder of the trip to Nibenay was uneventful, and, per their word, the caravan master bribed the templar gate guards to ensure that the adventurers would not be searched. What new adventures await them in the city-state of the Shadow King?