Twelfth Session: Swift as Wind, Formed as Wood.

Note: For those unfamiliar with Dark Sun, psionics are called the Will for wild talents and the Way for trained psionicists.

Red Bipedal Lizard

The red bipedal lizards attacked Julius and Shade with their claws. Julius backed off and allowed Alaxander to take his place. They were able to wound the front lizard badly, when Jessel came down the hallway behind them. Alaxander was injured, so he had Jessel change places with him. Alaxander and Julius then began using the way against the lizards, while everyone else just used weapons.
The lizards showed animal level intelligence in their fighting techniques. The final lizard breathed a gout of flame at Shade, The fire singed Shade a bit, but he was able to dodge most of the attack.
They finished off the last of the lizards, then harvested their teeth to use as arrowheads. Alaxander wanted to skin them, but decided they had more pressing matters to attend to. The group welcomed Jessel back, then chose to investigate the lava pool, but found nothing else. Back at the hallway intersection, they chose the east corridor.


Shade went first, attempting to move silently and checking for traps. He came to a door. There he checked for traps. Finding none, he opened it. The door lead to a small five foot by five foot room, with a door on the north wall. He looked for traps in the room, but found none, so he proceeded inside.
He suspected another trap, so he checked the next door. Again, he found none. He tried to open the door quietly, but failed. Upon opening the door, he saw a bandit with a bone dagger. Behind the bandit was a hallway, with two other bandits further down. The dagger wielding bandit stabbed Shade.
Shade swung his club and called out for the rest of the group. He struck the bandit, but suddenly found himself on the mindscape, in a rocky canyon with another of the bandits. The bandit struck at him with a glowing, lighting infused whip and Shade started having feelings of doubt about his own worth. He tired to fight on, with Kalino striking at the bandit who had stabbed at him.

"I can kill you with my brain." - River Tam

Suddenly, on the mindscape, the walls of the rocky canyon grew spikes, which impaled Shade. Shade screamed and collapsed in pain. Kalino grabbed him and fled down the hall to the rest of the group. Jessel stepped up to attack the bandits. He fought the bandit, trying to bring him down. He found himself on the mindscape with a different bandit. He was attacked by the same glowing whip and felt the same feeling of inadequacy. He still managed to cripple the bandit with the bone dagger.
This left an opening that allowed Kalino to rush forward, with his bone longsword, and attack the second bandit. That bandit had a bone dagger as well and stabbed Kalino.
The telepath bandit attempted to break into Kalino's mind, but was unable to do so. Jessel cast a spell to freeze the telepath and prevent him from moving away. The telepath used the way to cause great pain to Jessel, but Jessel grit his teeth and pushed himself forward. Kalino killed the bandit and Jessel ran forward to attack the telepath. The telepath was unable to move, so Jessel grabbed his head and bashed it against the wall.
The hallway opened into a room, with four more bandits inside; three had daggers, but one had a stone maul. They hurried to attack the half-giant. Jessel was being hit, but was holding his own. Kalino ran forward to help and as soon as there was room, everyone else did as well. The bandit with the maul struck Jessel many times, but the half-giant was able to overcome him.
After that group of bandits was defeated, everyone took a breather. Vashti used her last healing spell to heal Shade and Jessel used his magic to heal him as well. Shade sneaked forward and peeked into the next room. The room was filled with bandits, he counted twelve, and they seemed to be guarding a door. They looked nervous and were obviously waiting for the group to come to them. Shade returned the group and reported what he saw.

Kalino, using all of his power.

Everyone lamented the situation, as they were tired and had no healing spells left. Kalino used psionics and his muscles grew larger. Then, while he said he was using psionics, he failed to hide the fact that he was casting a spell. He and his equipment grew fifteen percent larger. He then grew a metal khopesh from his arm. He quickly explained that all of this will only last a few minutes, so he charged the bandits in the next room. Vashti made a mental note to speak to him about his spellcasting later.
Kalino burst into the room, slaughtering the bandits that dared to stand against him. As soon as there was space, Jessel and Shade rushed forward to assist him. Kalino was larger, stronger, and had a better weapon, but he still took damage as normal. Even though two of the bandits were fighting with obsidian broadswords, they all were overwhelmed when the rest of the group joined their companions in the slaughter. The bandits soon lay dead and dying all around them.
Kalino's khopesh became a normal arm once again and he told them he had a few minutes left of his great strength, as he drew his bone longsword. They saw a provision room, but refrained from inspecting it. Jessel smashed opened the door the bandits had been guarding.
Inside, they saw a human man with dark skin, dressed in red. Flanking him were two small creatures made of magma. In front of him was their friend from the village. It was Asli. Although she stood under her own power and stared at her friends, her eyes were pale and lifeless. Their friend had been killed and turned into an undead abomination.

Join us in two weeks for another exciting session of Adventures Under the Dark Sun.

2nd edition AD&D Dark Sun Cast of Player Characters
Julius: Human male psychokinetic. 22 years old. Played by Dave. Speaks Balican, Tyrian, and Giant.
Alaxander: Human male psychokinetic. 17 years old. Played by Ben. Speaks Balican, Tyrian, and Elf.
Kalino: Human male fighter/preserver. 20 years old. Played by DM. Speaks Rammin, Tyrian, and Balican.
Vashti: Human female clairsentient/water cleric. 20 years old. Played by my wife. Speaks Nibnese, Gith, and Balican.
Shade: Half-Elf male ranger/thief, 18 years old. Played by Chad. Speaks Elf and Tyrian.
Special Guest Star: Jessel: Half-Giant male earth cleric. 30 years old. Played by Nate. Speaks Giant and Tyrian.