Wherein Blood is Shed at an Oasis…

Ilanna Hawkeye and Zistral stand their ground in the face of the lizardmen who back off, before then flanking wide to get a proper visual of the main caravan. Realizing that there’s not much they can do to stop the lizardmen short of engaging them, the two scouts return to the main group to advise Ser Dane of this situation. At Finn’s recommendation, word is quickly passed along the ranks of the convoy with further instructions to close up the formation; he also suggests (which his father charges him with overseeing) that the children of the convoy be moved to the center of the caravan where they can be more easily defended should an attack take place. Within minutes, the entire convoy can see the four lizardmen ranging along the caravan’s sides which naturally causes some panic amongst those not armed; Arn is forced to calm down many of the smallfolk in his area (facing the lizardmen) who react fearfully at the sight of the dreaded creatures but he is rather successful at this. The lizardmen follow the column for some time, then break away to the south. That evening when camp is set up, it is done so to maximize line-of-sight to limit any potential lizard ninja attacks and, as a result, few of the expedition rest well for the night. Some, like Haruki, get no sleep at all because they remained awake the entire time. Campfires are noted in the distance as well, which is troubling.

Upon setting out in the morning, it is quickly noted that the same four lizardmen are following the column once more which the expert desert-men among the formation admit is a very bad sign. These lizardmen will trail behind them each of the remaining days, staying just out of engagement range, and with camps set up in the evening.

Some miserably long and hot days later, they reach the oasis but again, Finn urges restraint rather than everyone just rushing forward and leads a small group consisting of Arn, Haruki, Thor’ndil, and Yusuf to ensure that there is not a trap waiting for them. What they find instead is even worse: the water is spoiled! There are a handful of dead creatures scattered around which Arn and Yusuf notice first, and Finn utilizes a flow of Water and Spirit to determine that, as feared, drinking from the spring could be potentially lethal. The team discuss their options and Finn makes the decision to relate this newfound information to his father, along with a suggestion that he (Finn) utilize his spell-weaving to purify any of the water they do get. It is further decided that they wil replenish their water here and, once Finn purifies what is obtained, only the animals will drink of the cleansed water with the remaining water spread out among the people. Finn later addresses the convoy to advise them of the situation – as someone not particularly comfortable with addressing large groups of people, he doesn’t do too terribly though it definitely does not go over as well as he would like.

Late that evening, Arn is on duty and notes that the lizardmen campfires have been extinguished! Realizing that this might hint at an impending attack, he seeks out Finn to wake him; the younger Sardock listens, then goes immediately to advise his father and Ser Rodham who listen without expression. The elder Sardock does not allow Rodham to immediately begin issuing orders and instead asks Finn what he would recommend as a training tool. Finn awkwardly makes his suggestions and is pleased when Ser Rodham agrees on all points before offering a few minor adjustments. All of the warriors are alerted and instructed to get kitted up for a potential fight.

Several hours later, Thor’ndil notices strange movement near the herd animals and alerts Haruki before stealthing forward to investigate; the big Sahudi then informs Arn, Finn and Yusuf before following. Just as Thor’ndil sneaks forward, he catches sight of lizardmen ninjas who simultaneously detect him. This group of ninjas are moving in a pretty professional manner and, as the five adventurers draw closer, there is a sudden cry of alarm on the other side of the camp. Finn realizes immediately that the other attack is likely a distraction while this is the main thrust but by then, the fight is on! Haruki and Thor’ndil engage first, with the former smashing about with his great tetsubo, smashing bones when he connects, while the latter dances about in a very elfy manner that is quite effective. Unaware of exactly what’s going on due to the darkness, Yusuf charges toward the noises, then locates some lizardmen and rushes to engage them while Arn and Finn, who is greatly frustrated at the lack of team cooperation, pursue. During the fight, Yusuf is badly injured but stays upright which is more than can be said for most of the lizardmen as five of the seven are felled with two escaping.

In the immediate wake of the battle, Finn finds a place to throw up, as this was his very first ‘life-or-death’ fight; Haruki commisserates and is reminded of his first fight as well. Finn will then utilize a minor healing weave on Yusuf, though the former gladiator is still quite badly injured.

This victory is big as the lizardmen were considered something of a boogeyman and seeing so many of them felled with no resulting allied deaths results in a great morale boost among the convoy. Ser Rodham does not hesitate to execute the captured lizardmen which momentarily surprises Finn, even as he acknowledges the mercy in doing so. Scouts follow the fleeing survivors and determine that they are unlikely to make a second attempt; this strike clearly cost them more than they were expecting them to.

Many days pass as the convoy continues its westward march under the unrelenting sun. Ancient abandoned elves ruins are passed, leaving the more adventuresome among the caravan wishing they had more time (and water) to explore. Sandstorms strike and no one likes them at all but there are no losses and the terrain gradually transforms into plains as they emerge from the desert which pleases everyone. To Arn’s relief, mana begins to reappear, sporadically at first but then normally (which to someone from Caithness feels intensely powerful.) Behind them, strung along the route of their convoy are the corpses of livestock that fell and were left behind because Ser Dane was more focussed on getting the suffering smallfolk out of the desert than saving the animals. After so many days of unrelenting sand, seeing green grass and trees is a wonderful thing. Onward they push for several more days until they reach the banks of the River Kashk to everyone’s great relief.

But not all of the news is good as a small, long abandoned campsite is found that holds the corpses of feral Vasar…

Player Notes:

• Missing Herodian and Melissa for this session so we discovered that the GM and those two resolved exactly what happened to their characters after the rest of us logged out the previous session.
• Surprisingly free of technical issues for a change.
• Fantasy Grounds was being particularly insane for this session. We saw, by my count, at least six natural 18s, three of which were rolled by one player (me!) in a short span of time.
• Speaking of those crit fails, it’s a good thing we have “Plot Points” in this game, otherwise Finn would died early on due to a critical failure on a Path of Energy roll. According to RPM rules, a crit fail using that Path results in 4d burn damage, which put him at negative hp … and on fire, then he passed out attempting to ‘stop drop and roll’ and took additional “OMFG, I’m on fire” damage (think it was 3d-3?) while the other PCs were failing on DX checks to try and put him out (which brought to mind the Three Stooges – “I throw this water on him to stop the fire!” “Well, it turns out to be lamp oil so …”), which took Finn past his first death check threshold … which I promptly failed by 1. Needless to say, I was very irked – this wasn’t even in combat! – until I was reminded that we had Plot Points. So I burned all of mine (see what I did there?) to reroll that PoE check and not suddenly explode into fire. Am already looking into possible options about how to avoid doing that again …
• As was to be expected, the darkness penalties really played havoc with us and made the fight drag out for a long time.