Campaign Journal: Crossing the Border

 Who's picking sand out of their teeth?

• Jax – Barbarian
• Fred- Thief
• Slick – More Thief

The group began at the restored spring/shrine, recently divested of corrupting demons. Without further ado, they headed for the border post of Eliond with their desert elf guide, Imiriel.

Slick, always slightly invisible, spotted a party of elves a distance off. They didn't quite look like the elves that the party is traveling with, so he circled back to notify Imiriel. She trotted off on her axebeak, and there arose a heated discussion. The other elves were apparently from a neighboring clan, straying across territory in search of a pair of killer lions. After some negotiation, Imiriel gave them a sigil to allow their trespassing, on the condition that any slain lions be brought to Eliond.

As if by fate (or dice) the party was jumped by one of said lions as they traversed a wash. It leapt at Imiriel, injuring her, but she was able to stay astride her bird. Slick, Jax, and Durkan attacked the sprawled beast. Imiriel's bird did a fair Goober impression and stomped it to death.

Onto the wagon with the lion's corpse, and away they went. 

Night fell, and as if on cue, a commotion arose in the dark. “Damnit Kavderak!” The elves threw stones into the dark. Goober stayed close this time. Slick went invisible. The dragon poked his head into the firelight - “Ooo, I smelled blood!” He proceeded to investigate the lion's corpse, damaging the valuable hide. Slick, in his ongoing quest to touch new and interesting creatures, touched the dragon. Kavderak, started, looked around, sniffed, “I see you!” and shot out a cloud of sleep gas. In the entirely wrong direction... Slick revealed himself and gave some BS line about being honored to be in the presence of such an imposing and wise and beautiful dragon, yaddayaddayadda.... So they got along famously and chatted the evening away. Kavderak took his leave, and relieved Slick of some gems, as well as swiping a scroll.

“Worth it!” - Slick.

On to Eliond, a small border village, and welcomed by the local clan-mates. 

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The party split to entertain themselves – Jax and Fred hung in the tavern and tried to gage the room for worry or concern. Slick found himself in the stables and negotiated a “pet the axebeak” moment. Quest completed with all fingers intact.

As the town's gates closed, the guards announced that several “Randir” were approaching. The party learned that these were wandering elves, not beholden to a clan. The six elves were admitted and shown accommodations.

Yells and screams were heard as four wolves materialized in the compound. Damnit. The party assisted a few of the elves who had arrived to fight. Two of the Randir elves were spotted in the shadows. Curious... Slick went invisible, but was spotted by one of the elves who unerringly pointed him out. Fred's arrow bounced off a wolf and he grabbed one of his magic arrows for the next round. Suddenly, a charmed Snogriz Stormvault the dwarf waded into things, swinging a splitting axe he'd picked up somewhere. Fortunately, he's a much better assayer than warrior... Jax went for the biggest wolf. Of course. Amisra, the town leader, backed her up. Another town elf managed to web a couple of the wolves, as well as a pesky spellcaster. Slick, incensed that someone had pointed him out, shanked the offending elf.

Durkan hacked up another wolf, by this time deduced to being a werewolf. Finally, the night was quiet again, as the remaining Randir were slain, and treasure split between the party and village. Snogriz, his head cleared, was aghast at what he had done, and offered the elves an heirloom dagger in penance.

The party left with their guides and a pair of the town's elves for the border pylons between the two clan's territories. Slick pet a riding bison, which lunged at him. 

Slick dodged, and added another thing to his list of "new creatures I have pet."

They reached the pylons without other issues (or dragon visits). A guard patrol of the “Amarben” clan met them, and the party explained their quest and need to reach the ruby sands. The elves took some convincing that the Chaos threat was a concern of all parties, but were soon swayed. However, they did explain that while they would allow the party to cross their territory, final negotiation for the sands would be with their guardian, “Calaquendi-Culu.”The party gifted the elves their remaining timber and some scrolls in thanks. The wagon was unloaded and turned around as pack-bison were summoned to carry the lumber.

The group turned further south and deeper into the desert. The scrub turned to sand and then dunes. As they crested a huge dune, they saw red glittering in the sand below. Ruby, interspersed with the dune sands. Snogriz became quite excited, reeling off the specific gravity of ruby and how he planned to winnow out the gem grains and how much they needed and...

The sand before them began to shift and roil...

DM Notes:

Yes, we're in the desert, so there has to be something big in the sand. It's probably not a sandworm. The three players got a glimpse of it at the table, and they're not telling.

A bit more world-building and random fun. Speaking of, I took a page from Tim's game, and pre-rolled the random events to save a bit of time. Also, in the finally learning to plan ahead book, the werewolf attack: I pre-rolled to determine how many of the Randir would transform. For the two remaining, I rolled spells and chose an order they would employ them. This might not be the best method, especially in a fluid combat situation, but I figured with the small number of opponents, it wouldn't matter much. it allowed me to just check off a spell or action each round and move on. Combat has always been a challenge for me to both keep things moving, as well as make sure elements or actions aren't missed. So scribbling out a list ahead of time might be a good option. 

And of the three randomly-generated combatant elves in the town, one pulled a Sword +1 (+2 vs Lycanthropes). How convenient. 

With this next acquisition, it's high time I figured out how to close out the campaign. Talking with Rondel's player on this, we guess that things would come to a head once the Barrier lenses were restored in one way or another. I've got plenty of material waiting in the wings, and thoughts on a couple of scenarios.

Also, I have two players that have gone a bit AWOL (Rondel had and excused absence). I need to reach out to see if the party has shrunk, and if there is anything I can do. Hate to lose players, so if I can adjust, I certainly want to. Or if things are moving in different directions, I'll accept that, too. 

Have a Sunday Shadowdark one-shot scheduled at a new-to-us brewery. I'm thinking that the one-shots should become a bit migratory, appearing at different venues (e.g. breweries) at different locations to help attract new folks and shake things up. Been needing some new faces, and this could be one way to meet them. And, with the closure of our online Shadowdark campaign, finding a few folks who might be interested in a local campaign is an attractive idea...