Durnast, there's a couple shortbows and a pair of light crossbows. Looking them over, they're both apprentice / journeyman quality, but they'll work in a pinch. You can find 50 bolts for the crossbows as well.
There are thirteen bodies here from the caravan, not counting the Pounders. It seems to you that there might have been one or two others, but you can't recall the names or faces of anyone, in particular, that's not here.
"Montague, is there anything you want to bring back from them?"
Alia gathers broken parts of the wagons to set a pyre and loads the bodies on it. "Care to help?"
She then douses the pyre with some lamp oil she found in the remains nad takes a step back.
"Once I light it, me must get going. This may attract some things here. But we can't let them like that or bury them."
If everyone agrees, she will set fire to the pyre.
If there are any personal belongings Montague collects them as he helps with the bodies. He also searches the wagon, and other for any secret compartments or things he might have missed.
perception
Alia, do you set the pyre on the road, to the east, or to the west?
Montegue, the wagons were smashed up and searched pretty thoroughly. There are some personal belongings --ribbons, costume jewelry, a steel torc-- that might be worth commemorating, but not much else.
By the time you're finished, it's late afternoon. If you ride hard and run into nothing to slow you down, you might make it back to the mesa before midnight.
Alia, do you set the pyre on the road, to the east, or to the west?
Just on the west side of the road.
Then, we aim to ride back to the mesa.
Durnast will take a light x-bow and the bolts, firing a dozen or so to practice his skill,
and will offer the short bow to Artimus, in line with previous discussion of the merits of having a ranged option.
(I'll stash an extra x-bow and excess bolts in my haversack just in case)
Artimus accepts the weapon, along with a dozen arrows.
You enter the boiling lands again, to cross over the chasm where it's narrow, and arive back on the road just as the sun sets. Durnast's, Alia's,and Montegue's conjured horses reach the end of their durations and fade.
How long are you planning to travel at night?
Artimus accepts the weapon, along with a dozen arrows.
You enter the boiling lands again, to cross over the chasm where it's narrow, and arive back on the road just as the sun sets. Durnast's, Alia's,and Montegue's conjured horses reach the end of their durations and fade.
How long are you planning to travel at night?
"If we can get to the mesa in 3-4 hours, let's do it. If not, we'd better camp here in Durnast rope trick room by the broken bridge. If it was hydra territory, it's less likely that other predators will wander here."
Getting to the mesa in 3-4 hours would be pushing it. It would require you to conjure new mounts, hustle them, avoid any time-wasting encounters and not get lost in the desert on a cloudy night.
Doable, but not a given.
"...Maybe we could make it in that time span, but I don't know if the benefit is worth the trouble of hustling there by night, and it looks like we won't have the benefit of moonlight. I have some scrolls of DarkeVision that might be of aid if we wish to try, but if we camp here, or by the chasm, or the cages, we can get to the mesa before noon tomorrow, anyways."
(The hydra's cave, if it exists, would be down somewhere in the great chasm.)
The spider-cloak does the trick on Artimus' horse, who doesn't know what hit her. You climb up into the rope trick space. Is anyone remaining awake during the night, or are you all getting a thorough sleep?
Even if we are safe here, I still think we should stand guard. I'll take the first two hours with Swiftpaws.
Artimus can take the deep watch, starting around 2:00 and going till shortly before dawn, if you like.
The night is overcast, and terribly dark. From the north, Montegue ...
Not sure if the darkness is playing tricks on him or not, he nudges Swiftpaws, Alia, and Artimus in turn, deciding to let Durnast sleep for remembering his spells for the moment.
"I hear something he whispers". "Like a creaking wagon, where none should be, but I don't see anything". "Cover me I'm going to go down and look".
As Montegue clambers down the rope, he find himself face-to-face with, of all things, a hooded man pushing a street vendor cart. It has all manner of knick-knacks attached to its sides: brooms, a pair of old shoes, spoons, some other kitchen equipment he can't name.
"Good night, ain't it?" the figure asks cheerfully. "Would you be in the market for some oysters?"
Would he look like the fishmonger we saw at Gurg's encampment?
If so Alia talks to Montague.
"Montague, we've already see this guy. Last time, I brought his wares and he told us about the dragon that is on our way to Tsar. I think he is a seer."
It's very dark, and you're looking through the viewing port of a rope trick, but that's reasonable, Alia.
Durnast is dreaming that he is berating the others for not informing him of some interesting event...
The figure offers a piece of vellum, tied with twine. "Fifty gold coins. Best oysters for miles."
Montegue looks up towards the entrance to the extra-dimensional space, clearly flummoxed, and shrugs.
Any advice for the poor monk?
Alia remembers the catfish and wonders what oysters in that state will look like. She deftly glides down the rope to answer the hooded man.
She moves to Montague side.
"How did you find us?"
To Montague: "Last time we saw him, it was in the camp and he sold us catfish and good advice. We should get the oysters."
Turning back to the fishmonger:
"I'm sure they will go well with the catfish. We'll take some."
She hand over 50GP to the man and grabs the package with two fingers.
Montague has never tasted oysters, but since Alia seems to think they are safe he buys some as well with a shrug.
Montague has never tasted oysters, but since Alia seems to think they are safe he buys some as well with a shrug.
The smell isn't too bad, as they're well-bound. The hooded figure bows, takes up his cart, and makes his way to the south, the left wheel squeaking all the while.
You until the pack, and the pungent stench of rotted seafood crashes over you like a wave.
He pauses, looks back at you, and says:
"Though Tsar is ancient, desert lands keep secrets older still.
A great one needs his victims bleed, his hunger for to fill.
A giant weeps as long he sleeps, his tears a green relief,
But should he wake and vengeance take, the verdance comes to grief.
If you make haste, amid the waste three allies you might save,
And keep the Shalm from taking balm within their hollow grave."
And then the road is dark and silent, empty save yourselves.
"Mikka, Rasina and Nadeq!!! I knew following the drunkard was stupid but they would not listen. He must have trapped them."
Alia looks at the sky.
It's midnight. Dawn comes in six hours; first light a half-hour before that.
"We should let Durnast rest and prepare his spells. Then even before dawn, we ride full speed where we saw the dwarf and human corpses and track them from here."
"We should let Durnast rest and prepare his spells. Then even before dawn, we ride full speed where we saw the dwarf and human corpses and track them from here."
"If you find this fish market prohpets words to be true, I believe we should leave now". "It sounds like the others might be in trouble, and even if Durnast isn't through resting, even the three of us, with Durnast's spells that he does have might be the difference between life and death. I think we leave now".
"Artimus, what say you"?
Is it now possible to tie the rope to a moving object (like a horse) and the Rope Trick will follow along in tow?
No. Up to eight tons of force will be tied securely to the inter-dimensional rift. Any force greater than that will actually pull the rope free. In either case, the window doesn't move. As to what happens then --the portal closes, or the spell effect is broken, or the space just sits there, unmoored-- remains to be seen.
Artimus, what say you?
Artimus scratches his head. "Tinthariel confirmed the seer's prediction two mornings ago. If the fishmonger remains trustworthy, he has done a good thing by warning us, and we would be foolish to slumber while the alarm is raised. But I am worried about losing our way in the night. What threats would we attract, if we light our way?"
"We can use the road at night to go back to where we left it to find the bodies of the drunkard friends. Then we wait for light to track our friends."
Artimus nods and restores his horse to full size.
Alia will wake up Durnast:
"Get up, we need to go and help Rasina, Mikka and Nadeq. We've just seen the fishmonger seer. He told us they were in danger. Something about a sleeping giant and a blood-sucker. We're going to ride through the night on the road. Then we follow their trail at first light."
"Wha... What? The Fish Seller!? You spoke with him? And didn't wake me!?!?
...This Desolation is a very strange place... Did he tell you more things?
Oh, you already said that he said the others are in imminent danger?
...What else? Anything about Tsar?"
"Well, you probably caught the cant of his rhyme, but you must have missed something because that makes almost no sense..." ;-)
Durnast checks off... 3 more wand charges? And we're ready to ride, Cam flying 30' above me.
An hour later, you arrive at the cages-at-the-crossroads, where you met Veren this morning. You're almost upon it before Chamomile notices that one of the cages, one made of barbed wire, suspended three feet off the ground, holds a figure in deep black robes.
"What can I do for you?" it enquires.
Durnast focuses his arcane senses as soon as he's aware of the figure in the cages they approach.
"...I wouldn't know. The last time we passed this spot, we did not see you here. Who are you, and how did you get... where you are?"
Alia stops her horse facing the hooded figure and takes out an arrow out of her quiver.
"The first one we saw here took our friends away to lead them into an ambush. We won't get tricked again."
She swiftly glances to Artimus :"Is he evil?"
Montague carefully observes the man, and his body language to try to determine if he poses a threat (Although he hasn't found anything out here yet that didn't ;-).
Perception
Sense Motive
Artimus reins in his horse a little more cautiously than you'd expect. "Evil? I'd say so, Alia. Many legends portray crossroads as places of fateful meetings. My old justicar master warned us once that if a man wants something more than his very soul, he can find it at the crossroads at midnight.
"My order teaches that he is a demon, but, to be fair, some sages believe him to be an incarnation of Mocavello. He offers travelers their heart's desire, but always at a price. Some pay willingly. Others have tried to cheat him, but those efforts always end in tragedy."
Montague, you notice that he is not trapped in a cage so much as hovering slightly above the floor of it.
The hooded figure turns to Durnast. "Your friend has the meat of the matter. I have the power to give you any single thing you name. But know you, mortal embers, that seeing your lives flail about like sparks rising from a roaring fire, and then fall extinguished, gives me all the satisfaction I care for."
As he speaks, something changes. It's not so much that he moves, so much as your perception of his position shifts, and he stands before your horses, his hands folded within the sleeves of his dark robe.. "Tonight, one of you may have a boon, anything you name, with no payment."
"No payment ? This is too good to be true. I want nothing from you. Come, we have a long way to go tonight."
Alia turns her horse back towards the south, waiting for her companions. While she does that, she keeps her bow ready in case the creature attacks.
Durnast pauses briefly,
his mind turning inextricably to the mystery of the dagger left him by his deceased master...
"...Yeah, listen to the lady, we don't have time for your kind. Let's ride."
An outright lie would be beneath it. "Trick you" is more problematic. If Artimus' sages are correct, it may be an avatar of the God of Trickery; if so, then yes.