Arath Session 13

I got an idea, and the dice agreed with a natural 1. As he sits atop his skiff and thinks about his next move, Arath finds that the ghost of the high priest has put a prayer book among his things. Arath pages through this book, and decides to say some prayers to Ubek, following the ancient text’s guidance for prayer and supplication.
 
That night, he has his first dream. He sees the desert pass by, and finds himself at the foot of the ruined Temple of Aluh Tehar. He knows that Ubek wants him to go there. He has a task to accomplish, but knows nothing more than that.
 
Adventure awaits! I will roll 1d12 but with advantage to see how fast the skiff is able to travel with the wind it has available; the edge is from the prayers and the intervention of Ubek. I roll a pair of 11s. Wow. Ubek is strong. Okay, he’s able to travel 110’ per round, or almost double his normal move. Again, 5-6 miles an hour is not unreasonable, and he could probably cover 12 hexes a day. He needs to travel 20 hexes to get to the edge of the foothills, where he can follow a trail through the hills to the temple.   
 
Day one passes relatively uneventfully as Arath heads southwest to the line of the mountains. He is going to travel where the desert meets the base of these mountains south. He passes north of the Ruins of Vas Anok, about 3 miles out, and can see the city on the horizon. I have no idea what is there, but it cannot be good. I check the dice. It is a city that has fallen into the hands of undead. A cabal of dark sorcerers keep legions of undead there. Yeah. Let’s skip that place.
In retrospect, three miles was probably a little too close.

The night is relatively uneventful; shadelings do not linger this far west as much, but few things come down from the mountains into the desert.

Day two is not quite as good. A medium-strength sandstorm hits in mid afternoon, and lasts for 7 hours. He could try to drive through it, but travel would be slowed significantly, and he would risk getting blown off course. Better to hunker down. He does. Since it is almost night when the storm stops, he just camps here for the night. I figure he’s in hex L5 by this point.

In the morning he sets off again, and the wind is still very favorable. He could be passing sinkholes and such, but the skiff would glide right over those, so I’m not worried about it. He sees something that looks like a huge dragon flying over the mountains quite a few miles to the west, but it seems to take no note of him. Thankfully.

He makes great time, getting to hex R6 before he has to stop again. The day passes with no encounters.

He has a dream. A gargoyle has a group of imps and they attack him, clawing him to death. He sees his sword, again and again, failing to harm to creature as it rips him apart.

He wakes up. He’s going to need a better weapon, or at least a backup with some silver. He makes a natural 12 on his mind check. He decides to start a fire and melt down some of his silver coins to put a silver edge on his blade. He’s able to figure out how to do this with some success, and works the blade several times until he feels like the silver is embedded in the metal. He uses all of his silver coins; this is not a permanently silvered weapon, but will serve him for this adventure; after this, the silver coating will have faded and no longer be effective. He used 40 sp to do this, so is down 4 gp in total wealth. 

Basically, it’s a bit of silvery dust that he can fill his scabbard with, and this will last for the whole adventure.

During day 3, he gets to hex T6, which marks the end of the trail leading through the hills and to the Temple. As he is setting up camp for the night, he has an encounter; it’s a huge falcon that comes down from the mountains. It watches him. He makes the mind check with a 12, and I roll a 1 to see if it is an omen from Ubek. He recognizes this, and consults his prayer book. He says something in Old Gallan, but fumbles it a bit. He uses luck, and manages to fix it in the last moment. The falcon bows its head once, drops a scroll it had been carrying and flies off. He knows that he has one opportunity to summon the falcon for help. It requires a task to read the scroll.

Okay then. He has a scroll of falcon summoning. Nice.

During the night, there is another encounter. It is a group of shadelings that howl at him in rage from the edge of the torchlight. It unnerves him a bit, but they do not attack. Weird.

In the morning, he hides the skiff (as much as he is able), and sets off along the path. The hills are dry and winding, and the path is somewhat rough. He has about 12 miles to travel, which he can do easily enough in about 4 hours. There is an encounter in the third hour of his journey, as he approaches the temple. He comes over a ridge to find a muddy pool with a lyndwyrm basking in it. He makes his sneak check (barely) to avoid being seen. I kinda want to fight it… but it’s level 3. Aw, heck it. What’s the point of the game if I’m not going to kill monsters and take their treasure, right?

He already made the sneak check, so I’ll rule that he can get to an outcropping over the wyrm, and leap on it with a surprise attack. Good thing for that extra +1 edge, because he ends up with an 11, dealing 7 damage as he leaps on it. The wyrm fails its armor check, and is down to 26. Initiative. Arath wins.
Round 1. Arath attacks, missing badly. He uses luck … and still misses badly. Dang. The wyrm spits at him. Arath fails his reflex check, and is slowed. Well… getting away is not going to be possible here. I guess it’s a fight to the death (or summon a falcon to help if needed).
Round 2. Arath hits for 6. The wyrm fails its armor check, so is down to 20. It bites at Arath but misses, which is a good thing. That bite deals 8 damage!
Round 3. Arath hits for 6. Failed armor, so it is at 14. It misses with its bite again!
Round 4: Arath hits for 8. Another failed armor check, so he’s got it down to 6. Dang. He’s doing well (knock on wood). The wyrm bites for 8, but Arath makes his armor check. He’s at 22.
Round 5. Arath hits for 6. The wyrm fails its armor check, and is at 0. That was quick work. I did not expect that to be quite so easy.

Arath checks through its lair, seeing something shining in the murky pool. I roll 2 instances of mundane treasure (with the free one from the lyndwyrm), but there is no magical treasure.
That’s becoming a thing.

In total, the valuables he gathers are worth 54 gp. Now we’re talking. Arath is starting to build a nice little bank account.

He has earned another 15 XP as well as some cash. He’s already nearly a quarter of the way to level 3. That would suggest he’ll hit level 3 some time around session 22. We’ll see.

This session ends with Arath as the foot of stairs leading up to the temple in the hills that looms before him. Time to go searching Dyson's archives for a map…

Arath - Pensive Fighting Man 2 (XP 142)
Armor 5; Hits 26; Move 60’; Greatsword (6); Sling (1)
Might 4 (5); Mind 2; Reflex 1
Fortitude; Luck; Two-handed (+1 edge); Warrior (+1 to hit)
Greatsword 6; Scale Mail 4+1 (Armor of the High Centurion; grants +1 edge with Gallans; no penalty to sneak); Sling 1; Adventurer’s Pack; 7 days rations; Gauntlets of Might +1; Boots of Traveling; Everburning Torch; Decanter of Sustenance (4 people of water per day, healing potion 2x per day); 20’ Levitating Desert Skiff; 120 gp in wealth (coins and jewels); scroll of falcon summoning.