"Or ye can join us..." - Aggrammar was about to comment, but then the hyena man ran off - "Fine then - shall we take a look around here? Might be some stuff worth scavenging"
We should definitely take a look around, but since the threat here is neutralized, I think we should first go free the person trapped in the other cave, and then come back here to finish up. What do you think?
Nymeria nods in agreement with Zairiah.
After about an hour of searching, near the back of the dale, you find the home of Mahara, its entrance blocked by a stone wall, so perfect it looks as though professional masons created it after six months of hard work, excellent craftmanship. The wall is pierced by a hole, 3
inches in diameter, which allows the hermit enough air to
breathe.
You look inside the hole and see a crotchety old man inside wearing plain clothes looking malnurished and dehydrated. He says, "Ynaldin, have you finally found the answer to my riddle?"
He says, "Are you not Ynaldin? or those annoying hyenas... haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks. I think or a month..."
Zairiah sees if she can push some food through the hole for the poor man.
She's pretty good with opening locks, but this is just smooth stone, and she isn't sure how else to help.
She takes a careful look around to see if there is a seam or crack or other side to this place that would maybe give them some leverage or another idea about how to help the man escape.
The man says, "Thank you! Who are you? May I have some water?"
"We have taken care of the hyenas" - Aggrammar adds - "We have been tasked by Ozodo Idrissi ta find Mahara. Are you him?"
"Not sure how I can fit water through this hole..." - the dwarf ponders if simply sloshing water in the hole will do.
The old man says, "Yes, she is a well meaning soul. I am Mahara, the
mystic and am well known in Tarv, and for years have been visited by
villagers in need of advice or healing. In return, the villagers try as
best they can to take care of me, making sure I am always clothed and
well fed. However, about a month ago, tragedy visited the small village when
those sent to deliver me food failed to return.
The travelers have all fallen prey to the dao Ynadin and his pet werehyenas,
who recently wandered into the nearby mountains from the Haunted Lands.
While the genie and his pets were traveling through the Valley of Echoes, they
chanced upon me, who dwells here in peaceful isolation.
Entering my cave, Ynadin told me to prepare for death,
he expected me to start begging for mercy and groveling submissively at
his feet. Now, I am wise in the ways of genies, maybe not so much as a real Shai'r. I know that dao are
vain, boastful creatures, and through guile was able to trick the genie into a
riddle contest. Full of pride, Ynadin hastily accepted the my challenge, but
was quickly stumped by one of my riddles. Unwilling to destroy the
feeble old man until his riddle was solved, the genie sealed me in my home with
a wall of stone, which he conjured. The stubborn dao now scours the mountains, asking everyone he
meets for an answer to my riddle. It is all a bit funny because well he somehow came to me this morning or was it yesterday to both renew his stonewall or wall of stone spell and happened to have the correct answer to the riddle but I convinced him he was wrong and he flew off somewhere else to find the answer."
He says, "If you could pour your waterskin into the hole I will gladly drink from the side of the rock."
Uh... I think we helped him with the riddle, not knowing about your problem. Apologies.
Fadilah, can your gen fetch something that would help us get him out of there?
... Since he has to renew the spell we know Ynadin will return here, but is that a fight we can win? What do you guys think? Ideas about how to resolve the situation?
Aggrammar carefully pours some water into the hole - "Ok, here it goes. Can ye manage?"
As he pours the water, the dwarf ponders the situation before them - "Not sure what the heck moves a dao, or whatever that fella is. Mayhaps we can strike a different bargain with him?" - he suggests - "Trick him? Tell him we will give him the correct answer to that riddle if he lets us all go safely? He does not know we already told him the right answer, so...."
Nura ponders the situation. "I think that we could take him, with proper planning and a little luck. We have bested his allies, so it would be him against us."
Nymeria looks about, incredibly anxious.
Mahara says, "Well, he will be back sometime tomorrow morning. If any of you are hurt I can heal you. I thank you kindly for the water. And how did you guess Azaltin's riddle. That is an impressive feat. Ynaldin is a very dangerous opponent and his skin is made of stone so he is very difficult to hit. I cannot fight him, I am old but I probably won't regain my strength for a few days."
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Nymeria timidly raises her hand. "...I knew the answer, sir."
He says, "You must be some sort of historian to get that one right. Well, your group has plenty of time to come up with a plan."
Zairiah remembers the woman that is still in hiding and goes to update her on what is going on, and invite her to join the group now that there aren't any hyenas around to kill everyone.
The gen returns and says, "I have your spell"
The party gives Mahara as much water as he feels he is able to drink and then you searc for the girl and she is nowhere to be found, not in any of the two cave you have already searched nor the one you haven't. You go into the cave that you have not visited yet and you see on the floor except for humanoid and goat
bones scattered about.
GM Rolls
You search for 12 rounds and then buried at the absolute bottom of the bones you find some treasure
consisting of 537 gp, a gold ring, a pair of
pearl earrings, a short sword (no
scabbard), and a small, tarnished silver box
containing two ioun stones: dull gray prism (burned out)
and a clear spindle.
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"A spell to remove this wall of stone would be quite potent. I can try, Fate be with us, but the likelihood of success is... low," says Fadilah.
She sends her gen to fetch a passwall spell.
A little over an hour later the tiny water spirit pops back into existence and Fadilah looks quite surprised.
"Get ready!" she says. "I will use a spell to open this stone wall."
"OPEN SESAME!"
The immense power of the spell takes effect, there is a mighty rumbling, and the stone wall vanishes!
"This will only last an hour! Let us hurry!" she says.
Fadilah Intelligence check
Fadilah looks at the cave and the wall and decides to cast the spell on the natural rock instead of the magical stone and opens a doorway that enable Mahara to limp his way out.
He then says, "Wow, a real shai'ra amongst your group one with a marid gen. That is most impressive. Your group is indeed mighty. We ought to leave here as quick as possible and get back to Talv so fast as we could."
Okay, that's a plan.
She starts getting ready, but adds
You seem to be the expert on the dao... or at least more expert than we are. Are you safe if we get back to Talv, or will he just come after you there? Happy to do whatever you need, of course, but do you have an idea of a way out of this?
He says, "I assume you have camels or horses or mules. If we leave and make as quick of time as we can, we can get out of the valley by nightfall and if the group does not rest we can get to Talv by daybreak. If we get to Talv. With your shai'ra's spell there will be no evidence of where we went or how I had escaped. Dao are dimwitted and are not good at deductive reasoning. You can lay low in Talv for a day or two and he will probably go somewhere else or something."
"Well, good. I wouldn't want an angry, vengeful dao chasing me!" says Fadilah.
"So I guess no one is interested in my idea to trick him..." - Aggrammar pondered out loud - "Lets go for a mad dash then"
Okay, time to leave then, immediately.
Zairiah goes over to the bushes where the woman said she had been hiding, just to try once more to find her, but if she didn't respond to being called, then she just shrugs and remounts, ready to head out as soon as everyone was ready.
I like the idea Aggrammar, but let's save tricking him as a backup plan in case he catches up to us.
"Fair enough" - Aggrammar nodded, making sure they were taking the recovered loot along - "Ready when you are. Think that lass is still around? Or that it was also one o'them hyena folks?"
If she isn't here, guessing it was a hyena. If she is still hiding and listening to us, she could betray us to the dao. That's why I was looking. She could also have been an innocent, in need of our help, but I walked out after the hyena surrendered and we let him go, and he didn't go kill her or anything, so if she went with him, she went willingly. I'm guessing she was the screaming voice that we heard, and was going to try and trick us... but honestly I don't know. I mean, why tell us about Mahara?
Nymeria starts taking notes in her logbook.
Ooh, stories of outwitting genies will make for great reading back home!
Mahara says, "If you want to go into the cave and wait for the Dao, that is fine with me but I would rather leave."
He hears about the lady and says, "The hyenas killed all of the people who Talv sent to help me. If there was a lady talking to you it must have been one of the werehyenas."
Zairiah looks around and makes sure everyone is in on the plan to flee, and, unless there are objections, they leave immediately, headed to Talv.
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Mahara climbs atop one of the camels as the group leads the camel train down the goat path from Mahara's Vale, which takes about an hour to do safely and then you make your following the Valley of Echoes to the south-west back towards Talv.
GM Rolls
You see the end of the valley of Echoes as it becomes dusk. Soon thereafter, you pick up the road going towards Talv.
GM ROlls
You push it through the night allowing the moon to guide your travels and at about daybreak, your group makes it back to Talv and you check your camels into the caravanserai.
The group is clearly on edge, and Aggrammar keeps surveying the areas around them - "How does this Dao even move around - he be flyin' right?" - he asked the others and Mahara.
Zariah got drowsy during the ride, but riding through was better than the added stress of camping and trying to set a watch. She wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway.
When Aggrammar asks his question, she doesn't respond, expecting that someone more knowledgeable about geniekind would answer.
Genielore
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"Yes," says Fadilah, "he can fly, like most genie-kind."
The sha'ira stifles a yawn, then says, "This is all very strange. Were-hyenas? I never expected to encounter such. It will make an interesting historical tale, I must remember to write it all down."
"Oh, I can handle that. Don't you worry."
After the party gets to sleep in the inn and awaken the next day in the afternoon. You go downstairs with Mahara to have lunch in the inn. News has gotten to Ozodo and the rest of the town elders.
Ozodo says, "Travellers, we are so happy that you have rescued Mahara our mystic and healer. We have scrounged up 250 gold dinars to pay for your services. Could you tell us what had happened to the party a couple of weeks back?"
They were unfortunately killed. I'm sorry.
"A vengeful dao has been causing trouble," says Fadilah by way of explanation. "Mahara can tell you how the dao had him trapped. IF Fate is with us, the dao will grow bored of this amusement and go to find someone else to torment now."
Mahara says, "Just getting sleep is a joy for this old man. May I ask where your group plans on going next. Are you en route to Muluk or are you going somewhere else?"
Now that is quite a story...
Zairiah gives him the highlight reel about the man who murdered her friend and the job they took on the side to justify coming this way.
Mahara listens to the play by play of your adventures thus far and scratches his chin and says, "May I join you? Going Al-Anwahr seems interesting. I want to stay away from my cave for awhile to give Ynadin some time to find some other thing or person to amuse himself with."
Zairiah wasn't expecting the request, but she is inclined to agree. He seems like a very wise person that she could learn a lot from.
She looks around at the other group members to see if anyone objects, and if not, she is happy to welcome him along.
"From my part, it would be an honor" - Aggrammar nodded. He was about to point out the fact the trip itself may be hard, under the unforgiving sun, but then he kept the thoughts to himself.
"And thank you for this gold" - he turned to Ozodo - "We will put it to good use"
During the three days your party is laying low in Talv, you top off your rations and water now that you have added an extra person to your group and there is a very good chance that it will be awhile before you come across another oasis or village.
You start to acclimate your bodies to travelling at night by sleeping during the day while in Talv. After the three days, Ozodo comes to the inn and Honest Ali brings you your entire contingent of camels for you to set off. It is still light out but it is in the afternoon and she asks, "Is there anything else you need before you set off?"
You say goodbye to the villagers of Talv and if everything goes well you tell them you be coming back their way in about 6 weeks times. You set off along the trail you took to get to Mahara's and follow your way in that direction. You keep up a steady night time caravan pace and after six hours you reach the turn off to the valley towards Mahara's Vale and then you continue onwards going deeper into the Furrowed Mountains.
GM Rolls