Wherein the Expedition Reaches Sietch Altayih, Finn Receives a Bride, and the Warband Presses on to Kelmarane …

• From the oasis where they encountered the Enemy’s scouts, the expedition quickly presses on out of concern that more will arrive soon. Worried that they might be pursued, Rashid opts for a long, circuitous route to their destination, resulting in many extra days on the road.
• Upon arrival at Sietch Altayih, the Company are greeted by the father of Rashid and Ammerah, Sheikh Al’Dafar ibn Al’Hadir, who is beyond grateful to see his children returned with the help they sought out while simultaneously saddened that his youngest son, Sa’id, did not survive. He declares that a feast must be held in the honor of the newcomers before taking Rashid aside to question him. The warband are escorted to baths – Lan-Fan is taken away with the women – which they gratefully accept.
• Arn and Finn are also singled out by Janek Kaalem el-Zaidi, the Fa’iel’s wiseman who is a spellcaster himself, albeit one who is not as powerful as either of them, who is eager to talk with them about the entire situation. They learn that scouts have been sent to the gnoll-occupied village of Kelmarane to seek out the other half of a map that will lead the Janek (for that is a title, not a name as Finn discovers) to a long-lost djinn city known as Yaqut min Alraml that is the focus of this hunt.
• As dusk settles and the Company assemble for the feast, Zistral decides that he would rather be outside, scouting, since the sietch is mostly underground which he finds uncomfortable.
• Sheikh Al’Dafar throws a good feast but, in the middle of it, makes an offer of his ‘family’s water’ to ‘Lord’ Finn via his daughters. Realizing very quickly what this is but not sure how to get out of this without causing an incident, Finn accepts the water from Ammerah, which effectively betroths them. The other members of his warband do not immediately understand what has happened since they do not speak Arabic, but quickly figure it out.
• Outside, Zistral is patrolling and encounters a wounded scout who passes out soon after. Carrying the scout back to the sietch, he will learn that this man is one of those who went to Kelmarane. Finn does some magical healing on the man to ensure that he will survive.
• From Rashid, Finn also learns that a ‘cleansing’ ceremony is required before consummation of any marriage – this will last a week and a day – but the discovery of the scout throws this into flux as Finn decides to take his warband to Kelmarane to finish the task. It will take some days to reach the village.
• Some miles from Kelmarane, the warband discover an old and mostly ruined mosque that will work very well as a base of operations. Lan-Feng and Thorn are sent forward to recon but quickly discover that pugwampis inhabit it. Despite their reticence to deal with these gremlin-like characters, the warband recognize that this mosque is ideally located.
• So they grimace and get to work…

Player Notes:

• CommJunkee continued as GM for this adventure arc.
• Once again, Finn sort of dominated this session. As his player, I need to find a way to incorporate the other PCs into the events more.
• Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at our Olympus Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline. Evidently, I’ve been providing the wrong Twitch address on these although Ronnke’s page simulcast with ours so…
• We’ve also spun up a Twitter account to report our various statuses. Feel free to follow us @OlympusRPGGroup for news and updates.