Heart of the Sands
Heart of the Sands was the second campaign of Main Group A and took place mostly in Euha.
The player characters in this campaign:
==Session One===
- Alastor, Boe, Morgan Resamire, Vie, Arldon, and Kenneth ventured across the Acosted Ocean towards Euha with Captain Edward Bethamir at the helm
- Boe managed to speak the name of an Old One that lurked in those waters, Loviggdos, which upset him greatly. Alastor then threw Captain Bethamir off the edge of the ship (though he’ll insist Kenneth did it), infuriating Loviggdos further
- Afterward, as a storm began brewing, Alastor threw the merchant below decks and intimidated him out of their transportation fees, getting the party’s money back, except no one wanted to be involved with Alastor’s “blood money” so he kept it all himself
- The storm brought forth the many tentacles of Loviggdos, attacking the ship as he had done to many others, trying to kill the sailors and sink the vessel
- In the chaos, a large Druid Tortle named Kinoko was woken up from a nap inside of a particularly big barrel and aided the party in fighting the Old One
==Session Two==
- After a fierce battle and almost losing Vie to the sea, the party angered the Old One so much, he decided it was not worth bothering them any longer and sunk back below the waves
- Kinoko decided to join along with the party in whatever they were doing as he had nothing better to do and they did help him not die
- Vie was elected to become the new captain and sailed the party to Sailes in Euha in only a couple of weeks
- After reaching shore, the party met a few interesting characters at the dock but ultimately made it to the gates quickly. They were informed by the guards that a plague was wreaking havoc on the local population and they may only visit the taverns and the temple if they do not walk straight through
- The party decided to go to a tavern, where initially only Alastor and Vie entered after they heard the yelling of a Penguinfolk named Iastes inside. They took on a quest from him to pick up a treasure in an oasis to the west
- Boe and Kinoko then entered to get drunk with the bartender, who Boe later had more intimate relations with
- Alastor and Vie encountered some other patrons that caused them to think about their view on the gods as well as their place in the world
- Boe was extremely drunk and was acting very chaotic evil and found out from the bartender that his condition could be cured with holy water
- The group all took a trip to the temple in hopes of fixing Boe. Inside, the party learns of a group that opposes the gods lead by a man known as the Seeker. Vie also learned from the priest about the goddess Walanai and how to commune with her. In addition, Morgan communed with his god, Milo, to consecrate some water, so that Boe could drink holy water
- After all was said and done, the party left Sailes and trekked west to Sestus
==Session Three==
- As they go west, the party came across a tribe of desert nomads that welcome them into their encampment
- The leader of the tribe gives the party safe rest as well as gifts, a feast, and a ceremonial tea
- Unbeknownst to all, a member of the tribe was working for a secret benefactor and spiked everyone’s tea
- As everyone started to fall asleep, Vie, on guard outside a tent tried to resist, but failed and had a discussion about memories and dreams with the goddess Walanai on the plane of dreams
- When the party woke up, they were without weapons in a large sandstone cell with a priest of Belladonna named Carn. He informed them that they were dropped off in his cell in the arena of a cruel man known as Lord Epimetheus Kalhurst. Carn also mentioned that he was kept from dying in the arena and was used as a healer for any fighters in his cell that could be healed
- As they talked, the doors to the cell opened and a guard demanded them step into the arena center. Boe and Alastor glanced up at the throne where Lord Kalhurst sat, and next to him was none other than Iastes being handed a pouch of gold
- Released from the opposite cell were two cursed werewolves with an intense bloodlust. Each time they fell, they would get back up. Unfortunately for the party, Morgan was slain. In quick succession, the two werewolves were dispatched, with Vie decapitating one with his silver blade
- Carn rushed out onto the battlefield to quickly try to bring back Morgan using revivify. And sadly, it worked, as due to Morgan being a Kalashtar, he had no memory of the party or even himself. The first thing he heard in his head was the voice of Graciel maniacally telling him to “Kill. Them. All.”
==Session Four==
- The guards ran out to pull Carn away as Morgan attacked the air where Carn stood. Kinoko took this as danger and started attacking Morgan. Soon enough, all in the party except for Boe we’re trying to harm Morgan.
- Boe begged and pleaded for Morgan to stop and talk it out with them. Morgan did not listen, however, he did not harm Boe, even when he was literally clinging to Morgan’s body. It was then that Morgan, feeling weak, ate the heart of one of the werewolves and embraced the curse of Lycanthropy within, quickly shifting into a tall white werewolf himself.
- Even still, Boe was willing to die if it meant helping Morgan, as they formed quite the playful bond over the past few months. He was like family to Boe. No amount of oil and flames was going to stop that.
- Alastor convinced the guards to leave Carn in the arena to help heal the party, but the guards still watched over him
- Eventually, realizing he wasn’t going to survive, Morgan threw Boe off him and climbed out of the arena to safety. He started running, far far away.
- The party regrouped back in the cell as the consequence of battle weighed heavy on them. It weighed heaviest on Boe, for he only wished he could’ve followed Morgan as he ran
- As night fell, Carn decided he had had enough and the party broke out of the cell and ran north. They ended up inside what looked to be an abandoned fort from the Fourth Era War
- However, the fort was not abandoned, as the party was cornered inside by agents of The Gilded Circle. The party was offered a place to rest for a price, which they paid
- After much talk about where they were, the party went about exploring what they could in the fort. Boe, infuriated with the party, stormed outside
- Alastor was brought away by the captain of this fort, Ra’nak Ohani. She had Alastor hand over Kenneth, which she cast dispel curse, revealing an attractive young triton. He was Prince Kenjaro Zitalaxi of Ilota. However, to Alastor, he was still his Kenneth
- Afterward, the party came across a chained up half-Orc in the back of the fort. Carn and Arldon offered their lives in exchange for the Half-Orc's and Ra’nak accepted. This young tribekin’s name was Kal'thos, and he became the newest member of the party
==Session Five==
- The party left the fort and wandered southwest and came across the oasis mentioned by Iastes, despite him never intending them to reach it. Alastor and Kenneth dug up and pulled the treasure from beneath the pond, revealing two magical cloaks and a sizable sum of gold inside
- After the treasure was opened, without anyone realizing it at first, the sky turned a deep red as a blood moon was showing overhead in place of the sun. The party saw no harm, however, they knew what this blood moon meant for them and the world as a whole
- The party then made their way to the gates of Sestus, where their contact, Alphonse McHale, quickly ushered them into his home for a debrief of the job and how it was not exactly what they were first told. While they would be killing sandwurms, their true goal was to cease a presence out in The Dust that was disturbing the wurms and making them more violent
- McHale informed the party of the key areas in the town and encouraged them to prepare for the next day when a member of the Dust Walkers would be there to guide them further
- Alastor and Kenneth went to the blacksmith and left with an orange metal warhammer while Kal'thos met with the local priest after angering a priestess of Church of the Three giving a speech outside the church. Next, Kal'thos got wildly drunk while Kenneth, Boe, and Vie played a drinking game and Alastor watched excitedly with the bartender
- Following the events of the tavern, the party did some more shopping in the center of town where Alastor threatened the potion seller and got excited over cinnamon rolls with the baker
- This whole time, Kinoko had been reading books in McHale's home and fell asleep
- Soon after the day’s festivities, the party packed up and returned to McHale’s home to rest, knowing the most difficult of their fights was to begin that very next day
==Session Six==
- The following day, after some bizarre early morning cuddling(?), McHale introduced the party to a woman from the Dust Walkers named Keth'ka, who guided them to the Dust to engage with the sandwurms
- Somehow Boe managed to charm and command one of the two massive wurms and rode it into combat
- Before long, the aggravating presence appeared and the wurms were subjugated as the party fought the sand wraith before them
- After a long hard fight, the party, to their knowledge, defeated the wraith as it dissipated into sand that blew into a doorway that rose from the ground
- One by one, the party followed through the door and were transported to the outside of a massive sandstone structure
==Session Seven==
- The party rested shortly after entering this new domain then headed inside
- Kal'thos informed the party that they were in the "Labyrinth of Locks" (Who's Locks?) from an inscription he read with his Eyes of the Runekeeper
- The party descended further into the dungeon, making their way through the maze as they encountered several doors with inscriptions of riddles to unlock them above said doors
- Eventually, Alastor split off from the party and had to fight one of the dungeon's guardians, The Knight of the First
- The rest of the party made their way over to Alastor and aided him in slaying the foe
- Beaten and bruised, the party rested in the center of the maze as Alastor played his recorder
- After a while, the party was able to solve the puzzle to unlock further descent into the dungeon by distributing their weights on pressure plates
- Following this, Kal'thos went on his own to fight The Knight of the Second by himself. He succeeded
- Continuing on, the party found The Knight of the Third and had a conversation with him rather than fighting him at first, until Alastor dominated him with his Binding Chains he found, then commanded the knight to kill himself (Vie took the knight's helmet as his own from there on out)
- The party eventually placed a stone heart and a stone brain they found in the maze onto a pair of pedestals, unlocking the entrance to the final chamber
- They decided they needed to recuperate and prepare for what they believed was ahead, so Alastor whipped out his recorder once more to play the party to sleep for a great many hours
- Feeling revitalized, the party scavenged the remaining rooms for all the potions, scrolls, and weapons they could get their hands-on (Alastor picked up a cool minotaur mask)
- Upon entering the final chamber, the party was greeted by the wraith they had once fought. They learned his name was Ulathum Ketcz, and this was his demiplane they were treading on
- The battle was hard-fought in the enemy's second phase, as he used his martial skills, hindering the party every time they missed an attack
- Then into the third phase, the wraith raised up an army to attack the party, but it was for naught, as they beat down the wraith and his allies with all the power they could. Boe, dealing the final blow to the creature, ended the onslaught
- The party took their spoils, with Vie attuning to the weapon that Ulathum dropped, causing Vie to surge with earth elemental power while demonic horns erupted from his head
- From there, the party was transported back to the desert as the demiplane collapsed around them
- The leader of the group of Dust Walkers told the party that they had left and arrived back in a fraction of a second
- With that, the party returned to McHale and claimed their rewards for completing the quest, with an unknown future ahead of them
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