Grit moves forward to attack the howler fighting Zok. He will try to move so that Zok can 5' step into a flank with him if that is possible, and swings his club, attempting a power attack.
Zok takes the hit, but howls back at the lizard. Squinting in the darkness he makes a good solid hit back on the creature in front of him.
Gorkhan takes a step towards the howler that had attacked Raun and swings at it with his tembo sword.
The sand howler attacking Raun is staggered by the half-giant's second strike. Bloodied and battered, it cowers before the roaring warrior - taking a step back just in time to avoid Gorkhan's clumsy blow - but doesn't flee.
Grit moves up next to Zok and cracks the other sand howler a solid blow, while the halfling follows up with a slash to the beast's flank.
In addition: The sand howlers have a paralyzing gaze. If you are within 30 ft. of one of the creatures at the start of your turn you will need to make a DC 12 Fortitude save or be paralyzed. You can try to avoid making a save by averting your gaze.
Grit 5' steps to the side of the creature, still hoping to allow a flank at some point and tries to take it down with another power attack, but his focus on movement causes him to loose concentration and his blow is ineffective.
The kreen takes a shot at the howler that was taken aback at Raun's assault and reloads.
Safia more or less ignores the gaze of the howlers. Instead she fully focuses on pulling a little essence from the beyond into this world and enveloping the howlers with it.
Nnn'tkklik'l emerges from behind a boulder and levels his crossbow at the sand howler cowering before Raun. He suddenly stops, gazing at the creature with his finger resting on the weapon's trigger.
Safia calls on the spirits of the Gray and the sand howler feeding on the body of the dead guard suddenly slumps over, fast asleep.
Lashing out in panic, the shaken sand howler facing Raun launches itself again at the half-giant, attacking with its teeth and claws. Despite her rage, the half-giant manages to bring up her shield and block the flurry of attacks.
A few steps away, the other wounded sand howler divides its attacks among the halfling and mul trying to flank it. The battered Zok manages to jump back just in time to avoid the beast's slashing claws, but Grit isn't as fast; the sand howler's fangs tear a ragged gash in his ankle.
The mul shuffles around the creature, closer to a flank, but swings wide with his club.
Zok dodges the claws and does a pirouette, diving back in with a artful slash. He lets out a mocking laugh in the midst of his maneuver, believing he has his opponent on the ropes.
Gorkhan swings his blade at the howler hoping to connect this time.
Raun starts to feel the power of her foes frightened gaze creep over her, and quickly shuts her eyes, severing the connection. She swings her morningstar with all the strength she can muster, and blinks her eyes open in confusion as she feels nothing but air.
Slashing with his recurve bone blade, Zok artfully slices the throat of the sand howler in front of him.
A few steps away, Raun flails at the other wounded beast, trying to avoid its gaze. Gorkhan steps up behind the creature and chops through its neck, shattering the obsidian blades on one side of his tembo sword..
Near the dead guard's body, the third howler continues to slumber under the pall of Safia's spell.
The paralysis lifted with the death of the offending creature, Nnn'tkklik'l takes the shot he originally intended to.
Raun feels her energy leave her as the foe in front of her suddenly falls to Gorkhan's blade. Looking around and finding Zok's foe down she lumbers over to the third, blinking at it as it's sleeps. She quickly unties her shield from her arm, before bringing her weapon down upon the beast's head with a two-handed blow.
"Remind me not to ask you lot to hide again, unless I'm trying to find you that is. At least we don't have to worry about hunting today." Zok said this with a swagger, or perhaps a stagger, his wounds were rather deep, and he looked pale even in the double moonlight.
After addressing his companions he went to work cleaning, gutting and butchering the lizards, getting himself rather splattered with blood. After he was done, he packed away the meat for cooking later and used sand to scrub the blood off of his exposed skin.
Gtit examines the dead beast as Zok goes to work on them trying to make sure they are safe to eat.
Raun's morningstar falls heavily on the remaining sand howler's head, ensuring it never regains consciousness. As Grit watches, Zok quickly carves a good 30 lbs. of stringy but edible meat from the corpses, adding to the party's food stores.
As the halfling goes about his work, you hear distant screaming - the other group of sand howlers appears to have found the guards.
With the eastern sky already beginning to lighten to the pale green of dawn, you move on down the canyon. Sticking near the shaded canyon walls, you push on for an extra hour after the sun rises and begins to boil away the chill night air.
As the gully fills with light and heat, Grit spots a shallow depression in the sand at the base of one canyon wall. Carefully shoveling the rock and sand away, he uncovers a dark hole, just large enough for Raun to squeeze through. After a quick investigation, he pronounces it safe to enter.
Inside, sand covers the floor of an irregular cave carved out of the side of the canyon. It's obviously been used as shelter before - pieces of a humanoid skeleton lie in a jumble in one corner, stripped of any tools or scraps of clothing. At the other end of space lies a rotting heap of chitin resembling a giant flea.
There's no sign of any current occupants, however, so you set about preparing camp as you had discussed earlier.
With Nnn'tkklik'l standing watch near the cave entrance, you fall into an exhausted - and uneventful - sleep before waking late in the day to prepare for the next night's march.
Nnn'tkklik'l can heal 3 pts of HP damage twice more today, if any are below half HP. If that isn't enough, he will shuffle around HP gained from natural healing to ensure that all wake up as healthy as possible.
Raun shakes her morningstar off, rubbing the obsidian head in the sand to wipe the worst of the gore from it. She watches as Zok butchers the howlers, and pokes at the corpse of the guard, pulling anything off him that seems worth salvaging, adding it to the sled, and packing up her weapons.
When they reach their shelter for the day she squeezes her way inside and drags the sled in after her, doing her best to arrange things to be as comfortable as possible, finishing by propping her shield over the entrance to mostly block it for extra protection, and hide their location, pushing sand back over the hole.
The giantess awakes feeling stiff from the contorted position of the small cave, pushing the shield out of the way and crawling outside to stretch and look around.
"Mmm, had yummy dream." she mentions, licking her lips and rubbing her armored belly as she pulls her sled out after her, and generally readies for the coming day.
You awake sore but no worse for wear after last night's battle with the sand howlers. Crawling out of the cave, you gather your belongings and prepare for another night's march. Keeping the dunes of the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes on your left, you plan to travel through the rocky badlands toward more familiar territory around Kled.
Nnn'tkklik'l will remain near the middle of the pack tonight, keeping an eye out for familiar landscape and threats, and helping Grit with any tasks necessary for our survival.
Raun loads her sled up again and equips herself with weapon and shield as they make preparations to leave as the sun descends. She leaves the others to scout once again, but if they pass a good vantage point she will offer to climb it and provide some information on the terrain ahead.
Grit, well armored and with his spells back chooses take the lead for the main group, accepting there may be some scouting done by the faster members of the group. He is looking to call his animal companion soon and so seeks signs of the fauna of the area.
We travel well as a team. he comments. And we are beginning to work better together. We are going to make it.
"Kzzllkk," Nnn'tkklik'l chirps in agreement, "We are much closer now, but more distance still remains."
Zok wakes up and prepares for the night's march in the same sullen way as he did before. He didn't really know what the good was in going where they were going, but he knew that survival on his own right now wasn't a good idea.
You set off into the badlands as the sun falls below the tops of the Ringing Mountains leagues to the west. Picking your steps carefully, you climb out of the gully where you had camped to a flat plateau criss-crossed by narrow canyons and ravines.
Zok and Grit scout ahead while Gorkhan again serves as a rear guard. Raun, Safia and Nnn'tkklik'l form the vanguard.
You hear occasional cries of predators and prey echoing up from the surrounding canyons, but the rest of the sand howler pack does not appear to be following you. High in the sky, the twin moons cast eerie shadows on the rough terrain ahead. Suddenly, Zok cries out in pain.
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A burning pain stabs into Zok's foot. When he tries to pull his wounded limb away, whatever has impaled it jerks back, pulling the halfling off his feet.
Pitching forward, the halfling manages to twist clear of another spike growing from the ground, but a third impales itself in his thigh, holding him fast to the ground. Although he missed them in the darkness, Zok now see dozens of barbed needles sticking up from the sandy ground all around. Whatever is attached to the needles appears to be thirsty - within seconds, the halfling can feel his blood being drained from his body.
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Following a dozen paces to the right, Grit pulls up just in time to avoid walking into another patch of the needles.
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Grit calls out this his companions Its a Sand Cactus. Its a large creature just below the ground and requires piercing or slashing weapons to hurt it through the dirt. Ware the thorns as they can drain your blood. Attack quickly as it is already draining Zok.
Grit thinks he knows where it is and dropping his shield moves in to try to stab it with his spear.
Kjarros had never taught her much of desert creatures and the cactus is no exception. She peers at her morningstar as the others move in to attack the creature, wondering if the spines on the ball would be long enough.
If Zok has not managed to free himself yet then she will advance towards him dropping the morningstar and grabbing hold of the halfling to try and yank him off the spine.
Should the halfling have freed himself then she will instead advance and try to smash the creature's spines or whatever other targets present themselves.
Nnn'tkklik'l carefully makes his way up, paying attention to avoid the reach of the creatures to make it to Zok's position. If he has actions left after the careful movement, he will attack.
Gorkhan swiftly but cautiously moves closer to the cactus, but still keeps his distance. A crystal shard appears in his hand and he fires it towards the thing.
Grit and Nnn'tkklik'l stab their spears into the sandy ground, churning up mounds of dirt mixed with pulpy cactus flesh. The plant seems to shudder as Gorkhan flings a crystal shard into the exposed trunk, but it does not release Zok.
Kneeling at the edge of the needles, Raun reaches out and grabs hold of the halfling to try to help drag him free.
Zok feels the thorns pierce his flesh and does what he can to wriggle free. Being small is sometimes a boon to escape the clutches of larger creatures, and this was no exception. He saw the half giant helping to distract the creature and tried to use the opening to his advantage.
Zok pulls himself free of the blood-sucking barbs without breaking them off in his flesh. Raun lifts him above the carpet of needles and sets him down several feet away so he can examine his wounds.
There's a rippling near Raun's feet as needles sprout up from under the ground. One impales the half-giant bare foot, but she manages to remain standing even as it holds her in place.
Other needles shoot up from the sand near Grit and Nnn'tkklik'l, but the mul and thri-kreen are able to dance back in time to avoid damage.
Safia had been rather absent ever since she put the beast to sleep, babbling to herself or, as she'd have it, to the spirits of the Grey.
Suddenly she snaps out of it, suddenly conscious of the underground thing assaulting her new friends. Without much hesitance she pulls out her spear and stabs into the sand where she sees the needles come out.
Once she sees Zok pull free of the things and escape it with Raun's aid Safia moves towards the little man, careful to avoid the barbs sticking out of the sand. Once there she kneels down next to him and places a hand on his forehead while a sickly glow envelops her hand. "Let the spirits bear your wounds."
Nnn'tkklik'l pulling his spear out of the ground wet encouraged him to attack again in the same area.
Grit tries to drive his spear into the plant creature again, this time power attacking with the two handed weapon to try to end its threat.
Stabbing and churning the sand with their spears, Grit and Nnn'tkklik'l make short work of the underground cactus, its pulpy mass stained red with the blood it drained from Zok.
Safia's spell heals the halfling slightly .
Looking around, you don't see any other patches of thorns in the immediate area.
The mul fusses over the dead plant. Not lets see, is there anything useful we can make of this thing? Maybe get some water from it?
Your waterskins are all full, but you can consume the flesh of the cactus to gain half a day's water and food.
Totally oblivious that the water cask has been taken Grit notes We can eat this pulp here. It is nutritious and contains a lot of water.
Raun sets Zok down and is just readying her weapons again when the creature attacks, spearing her cloth wrapped foot. She barely lets out a grunt however, raising her morningstar, ready to pound the ground to get at the cactus, when the other's weapons finish it off.
She glares down at the thing, disappointed that it had ended so quickly, and lowers her morningstar with another grunt, of disappointment this time. She pulls her foot off the cactus' thorn and wraps it in a scrap of silk to halt the bleeding. She looks around at the others, watching as Safia does something unpleasant looking to the pale halfling, though it seems to make his wounds better.
"Can we take it with us?" she asks, poking the trunk of the thing to see how solid it is. If it seems like it will take some jostling without falling apart she will grab a fur off her sled and wrap the thing in it, before sniffing and trying some.