RECAP: BDC 10-10-24

The party is yet in the eastern Sea of Dust, travelling north and east and taking directions from the Rod to seek out the remaining pieces. After a few hours travel through the desert, a surprisingly green canyon appeared in the distance, at the foothills of the Hellfurnaces, but we decide to camp away from it, using a hide camp spell, with thoughts of overflying the canyon area the next morning to learn what resides there.

The next morning from above we see: large groups of small animals, in discrete groups. Possibly herdsmen? Simon, Dog, Calidor and Thrax decide to walk toward the canyon and get a better look.

The canyon is rugged going, but no worse than the desert. A lone sentry is atop the bluff, human with turban and robe, armed with a bow but not hostile. He gives a friendly wave. Another man, in the rocks below, shouts to ask what is seen, and goats bleat unseen. The grotto is filled with goats, and there is water available.

The party is welcomed with cheese and goatmilk. There are no permanent dwellings here, only small and the available cliffside caves, and the herders explain they are nomads and careful not to overload the capacity of the grotto. Calidor asks if there are any trading posts or towns, and they mention a caravanserai at the end of the valley. The valley is haunted, they are warned. The spirts take form of a thundering herd of horsemen, raining fire arrows down on any who displease them. We are advised to camp in the caves, not in the open, and that the ghosts may be mollified with entertainment, song and dance. The ghosts are kind to poor and honest men, though.

After a little trading (Sonja has a big wheel of cheese, which the herdsmen were enamored with), we agree to travel on foot through the canyon. It’s an easy walk – grass, cooler temperature, no sand. The first evening, we find the occasional date tree for foraging. Watch order is Calidor, Sonja, then Simon.

The first evening, there is a short scare in which the Dog alerted on something in the back of the cave, but several attempts to find anything resulted in failure.

The afternoon of the second day, just before looking for a cave to spend the night, Simon spied a copse of date trees, atypical from what we’d previous seen. Upon closer review, one of the trees appears to have smoke coming out of it…? Simon went to check it out, and heard the sound of a large bird moving away – more of a winged humanoid, really, small sized, not an aarakocra. The smoke is coming from a very small campfire, maybe a foot across, with a single lump of charcoal at the center.  Simon described the creature to Jarlebank, whom identified it as a smoke mephit. Simon also found some black blood, likely from the mephit, near the small fire. The coal does not radiate magic, and we theorize that this may be what summoned the mephit.

Everyone moves forward, and Shepard creates water over the coal to no effect. Calidor summoned a smoke mephit of his own, and asked: what was that other one doing? Healing himself, came the response; it’s a coal from the elemental plane of fire, it will cool but it will take a while. The mephit takes the coal with him back to his plane when dismissed.

We began looking for caves, cautious of the time, but the night goes without incident. The next morning, we travel a half day or so, and we come across a small trail leading into the distance. We follow, and the trail leads upward to a path and area strewn with crushed marble. A wall, with a vertical arch and a gate made of timbers, seals off what can only be the aforementioned caravanserai. One of the gates is slightly ajar, but slams shut as we approach. The gate has slammed shut, but there is fair wind here, and might not be indicative of the presence of other people. The wall surrounds this location, but is in bad shape.

Simon and the dog walk up to the gate and push it open. It’s quite wide, 12 feet or more, and there’s a large open area with a stable past it. In the middle are some date trees, a small pond, but doesn’t seem to have any people. The place looks empty and in poor repair, with no obvious signs of habitation.

There’s a large garden, and there are some footprints there. The garden is free of weeds, but the pond water is tepid and covered in scum. There are small human footprints here, and Simon does Residual Tracking: a veiled female in robes made the tracks, small but human. Shepard calls out a hello, but to no response.

Sonja and Calidor check out the stables, of which there a several. There is a granary of some type at the corner, containing old musty straw, and little ceramic pots, some tack and harness, none in good repair. But near the granary are giant rats, approximately 30 of them. Sonja and Calidor back off from the rats.

The rest of the party cross the garden and reach what is likely the main building, with a arcade or plaza nearby. In the plaza, which smells of a smithy, contains small, brightly dressed creatures, with ashen skin and small leathery wings. “Welcome travellers, to the only haunted caravanserai in all the land!” They’re mephits and, frankly, quite rude.

Two glowing figures rise from the forge, seemingly made of flames. The mephitis back away from the thing, now serious but not laughing. Jarlebank approached the creatures, which he thought might be fire elementals, and told them in Ignan they had to reason to fight with the party. The mephits found this hilarious; Jarlebank, far less so. The elementals, it turned out, were Dancing Lights, but hid a salamander deep in the forge, who rose up threateningly. Jarlebank spoke to the salamander in Ignan as well, assuring it they meant it no harm, and it admitted that it was here at the behest of his “Master.”

Deeper into the caravanserai, we are confronted by a large, ghostly figure. “Welcome to my miserable home! I am Udi bin Gleeb, keeper of these stables, It was generous of you to come, we get so few visitors. Come with me to the courtyard and [all sorts of benefices] will be provided.” He has a dagger protruding from his ghostly back. Simon says we will follow, and is not sure that Udi is an undead. The salamander doesn’t work for Udi – “His master is my master,” Udi says.

Two veiled women appear out of the walls with coffee. The coffee smells like coffee, and is delicious. Another woman appears and dances with the first two after coffee is served.

Who haunts this valley? we ask Udi says thieves, executed for their crimes, who hang around in anger and sometimes harass travelers. Udi seems disinterested in whether we should get rid of them. Wanting to see this through, the bulk of the party takes up Udi’s offer of a bath, in service of meeting the Master (we’re too dirty from the road). But once Shepard and Sonja are in the tubs, Dog goes on alert, indicating demons, and everyone prepares for a fight;

Udi flies off and disappears. A whirlwind appears right by Thrax.

Combat

1.  The whirlwind knocks over the table and heads toward Dog. The veiled ladies turn out to be medusae, and petrify Sonja. Thrax attacks the “air elemental.” Jarle looks in to the bath and gets petrified as well. Simon gets stabbed from behind, and sees a human-like creature, like Udi but bigger.
2. Simon’s ghost turns into a whirlwind and blows past them. Shepard tried to avoid the gaze of the Medusae, who are trying to grab him by the hair and snakebite him. Shepard conjured a force knife, which hits the medusa holding his hair. Thrax avoids a medusa’s gaze and attacks, as does Simon, both succeed.
3. Another ghost shows up and Scorching Ray’s Calidor. They kill one medusa, and Simon goes to attack the “ghost” which he identifies as a type of efreet. The efreet hits Simon hard.
4. The ghosts attacks Simon again and casts a wall of fire; Thrax enters the bath house to attack the other medusas, while Shepard Dimension Door’s out to blast healing energy. Simon attacks the efreet, hits several times but doesn’t kill it.
5.  Shepard crosses the Wall of Fire, taking damage but managing to get close enough to heal Simon, who was down to 6 hp. Simon manages to finish off the Efreet (whom we assume is the “Master”) and the last medusa was taken out by Dog.

After the danger had been dealt with, the party investigated the rest of the caravanserai and found some things, including:

• a mithril breastplate
• a magic ranseur
• 3200 gp worth of silver and copper jewelry on the medusae
• several phials of medusa blood (for potion concocting)

Items of note:

• Sonja and Jarlebank are still petrified – essentially stone statues, each weighing approximately 400 to 500 pounds.
• The Rod is NOT petrified – the magic of an artifact of this power is far greater than the ability of a medusa to petrify it. Since everything else on Jarlebank’s person was petrified, however, the Rod is essentially encased in stone, while not itself being stone. It’s unclear whether the stone surrounding the Rod will prevent Chaos agents from scrying it.