As you head out across the sands you come to the place indicated in the map - a sunbaked corpse lies half-buried in a sand dune. The body’s upper torso resembles that of a human man, but it’s joined to the body and curling tail of a giant scorpion.
A second figure, equally parched and withered but much more animated, crouches over the corpse, tearing off strips of flesh and stuffing them greedily into its mouth, slurping and chomping with disgusting glee.
Noonan tries finding out what this thing is.
The desert warrior whispers.
"Let's see what we have here. . . "
" . . . not exactly sure, but I think it is highly likely that it will be affected by magic and axes, but seriously, what is that thing?"
Noonan, you recognize the monster as a baykok - a hunter who became utterly obsessed with the chase and indulge excessively in the savagery of the kill, their souls becoming progressively tainted.
When such remorseless hunters perish before they can capture and kill their quarry, they sometimes rise from death as baykoks — flying undead horrors that kill purely for the ecstasy that only murder can bring them.
Noonan relays the information to his allies. Hmm..undead, gotta get rid of that.
Well isn't that friendly looking!
Baykoks can unleash a howl that paralyzes their pray - the call of the wild is corrupted into undeath in a terrible blood-curdling scream.
It has the standard weaknesses of the undead.
Watch out for a paralyzing howl, that is a special nasty attack it has. Noonan is ready to attack.
Noonan blesses the group
Shad moves to Dwalindor
I have a new trick for you, you're gonna love it
He casts leadblades on Dwalindor's weapon
Shad waits for the inevitable retort about messing up the balance or whatever
In that case cast it after telling Dwalindor to come over!
Do e
"Let me try and sneak up on it. Maybe I can help it crossover."
The baykok, rudely interrupted by your actions, advances to M15 and howls its defiance of the living's imposition on its territory.
You feel the dark energy of the monster wash over you in concert with the terrible howl.
Noonan's knees knock for a bit but he gathers his courage for undead smackdowns.
Doesn't look like there is a save
is that a fear save? If so I made it if not paralyzed
Dwalindor lead blades! Your forgot!
Off to dinner but additional lead blade damage
"Roar all ya want. Yer hunting days are over!"
Tariq scrambles over the sands to deliver a blow.
Ba'set launches himself onto his master's prey!
"Calm down! Calm down! I was talking about him, not you Ba'set!"
Noonan zaps the nasty with a Searing Light
The tiger, mystical attacks and the hammer of Dwalindor combine to shred the impudent monster who falls and blows apart into dust on the desert wind.
He leaves behind his bow, a sturdy longbow made of a dark wood bleached by the desert sun.
You recognize the half buried corpse as belonging to a girtablilu. The scorpionfolk known as girtablilus guard many of the oldest ruins in deserts. They drive intruders out of their territories with dire warnings and violence to protect ancient secrets. The race maintains a tribal culture of family groups who live near the sites they guard. Many chieftains are clerics of forgotten gods, oracles of mysterious ancient practices, or shamans empowered by the spirits of the past. Because ancient religion plays such a large role in girtablilu society, the race has a reputation for cultish zealotry and dedication to archaic faiths. What girtablilus don’t usually share with outsiders, however, is that they believe they protect the mortal realms from the terrible spaces beyond by performing the rituals of long-forgotten creeds and preventing intruders from defiling sacred places. While they might make exploration of sacrosanct locations dangerous for the curious, girtablilus do so out of a powerful sense of duty to a purpose that few will ever understand. They guard ancient ruins as well as lost sites of the fallen empires. Girtablilus guard holy sites and maintain some of the last bastions of faith within the secular nation. Girtablilus protect the ruined remnants of cultures and faiths displaced by more modern societies.
You recognize the amulet you find on the corpse (see below) is a personal effect his family would likely appreciate having returned.
The corpse half buried in the sand carries a scorpion tail whip, a composite longbow (+2 Str), a quiver with 20 arrows and two +1 arrows, a small pouch containing 43 gp, and a decorative golden amulet engraved with a spiraling scorpion’s tail (worth 85 gp).
Also on the corpse you find a letter written in strange writing that you have a hard time deciphering.
The letter has a short passage in girtablilu:
"Aunt Rubila,
Lately I see strange humans in golden masks wandering through the deserts in search of lost artifacts. I encountered some not long ago near the headwaters of the Scarab River but they fell afoul of a group of steel ibises - you know who the beasts are when their territory is invaded.
I will journey south, to the tomb of the architect which marks the southernmost border of our protected lands - perhaps I will find the place these monkeys come from and question them to determine why they haunt our tombs. I intend to meet with Bartal and hand him this letter when he journeys back to you in the shadow of the Great Riddlemaker.
- Dakuri
Such a shame he fell so far from home and family. Noonan says some prayers over the corpse.
|
Dwalindor looks at the bow but figures his is as good.
" Let me see that there note. Gives me a chance to try out my shiney new brain bucket I bought from Akeem. This blasted thing better work!"
He rubs his hands together and grabs the temples of his new Helm of Comp Languages and concentrates. You may see puffs of smoke from his ears.
"Well?."
The tomb of the architect is where we came from. Hmm...Perhaps check the headwaters of the Scarab River and see if there are any clues in the remains.
"Well I don't have any idea really, but it makes for interesting reading...This monster guy left some cool gear though."
Noonan casts Lay of the Land to get insight into the area.
You move through the desert sands until they run right to the edge of a narrow, winding river. The opposite riverbank is rockier, and a few thin reeds grow here and there along the banks. Though narrow, the river seems cool and deep and swirls by at a lazy pace. Clouds of humming insects hover above the surface of the water.
A f lock of large, long-legged ibises with steely gray feathers cluster near the reeds, ruff ling their feathers whenever the insects draw too near.
You see bones, not yet bleached by the sun, sitting on the far bank near the ibises.
Err...theya re bones?
Ibises are pretty stringy.
spellcraft
They appear to be human bones - hard to know without getting closer.
Tariq looks at the birds.
"By the way? Are either of the bows we picked up enchanted?"
"Yeah, but wasn't there a riddle about the birds though? Let me watch them for a minute."