Session Sixty-Eight: Homeward Bound

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

Everyone disagreed with attacking the armored wagon. Kalino was disappointed, but agreed that finding the gems was more important.
Using the way, Alaxander opened a large dimensional doorway and lead the group to the gates of Nibenay. Kiara changed into her templar robes and introduced herself at the gate. The templars exchanged pleasantries and the group was lead to a small house to stay in.
The house was a one room stone house. There were grass woven partition screens to set up small private areas. Shade and Kiara set up a private area for themselves and everyone else just planned to sleep in the open area of the home.
Before resting, Shade went to the bard's quarter and purchased some poison, along with some mundane equipment. To find the location, Shade had to bribe an elf. He had to pay for more information to find the poison seller.
While there, a small half-elf boy bumped into Shade. Shade caught the boy trying to steal some coins from his pouch. Shade saw the sorry state of the boy's clothing and his malnourished appearance. He handed the boy a ceramic piece and the boy dashed away.

Psionic Athasian Turkey

In honor of Thanksgiving, the United States holiday, I gave stats for the Athasian Turkey, which is mentioned in the Veiled Alliance sourcebook, two years ago. This year, I present the psionic version of the terrible beast.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

	Turkey, Psionic
Climate/Terrain	Forest, Scrub Plains
Frequency	Very Rare
Organization	Solitary, Pair, or Flock
Activity Cycle	Day
Diet	Omnivore
Intelligence	Semi (2-4)
Treasure	Nil
Alignment	Neutral
No. Appearing	1-2
Armor Class	8
Movement	12 fl 9
Hit Dice	3+3
Thac0	17
No. of Attacks	1
Damage/ Attack	1-6 or 1
Special Attack	Poison
Special Defense	Nil
Magic Resistance	Nil
Size	S (3' + tall)
Morale	Steady (11-12)
XP Value	320

Psionic Summary
Level: 3
Dis/Sci/Dev: 2/2/7
Attack/Defense: EW, MT/ M-, MB
Score: 14
PSPs: 38
Psychometabolic: Shadow-form, Adrenalin Control, Cause Decay, Displacement, Flesh Armor
Psychoportation: Teleport, Time Shift

Session Sixty-Seven: Gray Plumed Mountain Part 7

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

The b'rohg skeleton ran forward and punched at the efreeti, but the efreeti deftly dodged the attack. Kalino sent three bolts of magical energy that struck the genie. Alaxadner struck the efreeti with a blast of concussive mental force. Shade rushed to attack, but the efreeti turned into mist.
Julius started to gather the mist into an empty ceramic jar, but no one else knew what to do. Suddenly, the efreeti reappeared at the far end of the hallway. Everyone ran to attack it.
Kalino struck the efreeti and it vanished into nothingness. Julius said it might have been an illusion, because the mist was still present. The mist began to coalesce.
The efreeti appeared behind Shade and the mist vanished. The efreeti punched Shade twice, once on the shoulder and the second strike to his hip, right in his belt pouch. Shade fell to the ground.
Nearly everyone immediately jumped into action and attacked with everything they had. Kiara ran to Shade and healed him. The efreeti had run out of tricks and the party was able to overwhelm him. Julius struck the killing blow.
The efreeti's lifeless body fell to the ground and erupted into flames. The flames burned away quickly and his body was gone.
Keraptis' voice spoke from around them. "That was the most entertained I've been for years."
Vashti called Keraptis a coward and told him to come out of hiding and face them.
Keraptis laughed, "I have no reason to fight you. You may go, or stay as you please. Perhaps you will return and entertain me in the future."
The group murmured and Alaxander opened a large dimensional doorway with the way, which took the group to the guarded lands of the druid Abbas, near the ruins of Kalidnay. Abbas welcomed them and assisted Kiara and Vashti in healing the group. Abbas wanted them to stay, or at least Vashti to stay, but they said they had a mission to complete and could not. Abbas understood.

Alaxander used the way to carry them to the ruins of Nibenay, outside of the giant talking inix's pyramid. However, it was evening and the pyramid was surrounded by undead. Before the undead could attack him, Alaxander scrambled back through the doorway and closed it. Panting with fear, Alaxander told the group that the undead seemed to be laying siege to the pyramid.
The group talked it over and decided to have Alaxander open a doorway into the interior of the pyramid. He would have to open it on the top floor, since that was the only place Alaxander had been. The group agreed and bid Abbas farewell again.
The top floor of the pyramid was a flurry of activity. The tari were surprised by the groups arrival and pointed bone and stone tipped spears at them. Once the tari saw it was the group, they relaxed and went to reinforce the pyramid's doors. The group assisted as much as they could.
One of the tari signaled for Vashti to follow him. She took the stone, the amulet, and the egg. She then followed the tari into the bottom level of the large stepped pyramid.
The talking inix was speaking with some of the tari and had some crude maps of the ruins in front of him. Vashti waited patiently until the inix was ready to speak with her. She did not wait long.
The inix was extremely pleased with the group's retrieval of the amulet, stone, and, most importantly, the egg. He gladly handed over the green gemstone, which wanted to leave immediately. The gemstone introduced itself as the Lord of the Legs. The inix let Vashti use the pearly white stone, which magically rotated around her head and healed her wounds. He took the stone back and then lead her to the top of the pyramid.
In the top of the pyramid, he explained to the group that he would reward them with other treasures, if they assisted him in fighting the undead horde. The group declined and told the inix they had pressing matters to attend to elsewhere. The inix was saddened, but understood.
Alaxander used the way to open a doorway to the trade fort of Altaruk. They stepped through and arrived just outside of the fort. Kalino said he would speak to the guard and he did so. The group witnessed him pass some ceramic pieces to the guard and the guard whispered to seek a woman in the inn. The group didn't ask Kalino about it and were eager to get inside and sleep in an actual bed.

Day 7, Week 1, Macro, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

In the morning, the group listens to Vashti's sermon and she healed their wounds. Kalino told them that he discovered that they were wanted in Tyr. He suggested that if they returned there, they should disguise themselves. Everyone agreed.
Shade inspected the many gems that they had gathered inside Keraptis' liar. The efreeti had punched the gems and many of them were cracked. The group groaned for a moment, but realized that they still had a fortune.
The group happily purchased iron weapons for themselves, purchased a new pack kank, and plenty of supplies. Even the normally tight-fisted Julius purchased an iron bastard sword. In addition, everyone, except Julius, replaced their heavily damaged wardrobes.
Kalino had noticed that an armored fortress wagon was parked outside of the fort and it was very likely that they had slaves. He suggested that they follow it away the fort and attack it to free the slaves.

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. 18 years old. Played by Ben. Speaks Balican, Tyrian, and Elf. 
Vashti: Human female clairsentient/water cleric. 20 years old. Played by my wife. Speaks Nibnese, Gith, Tyrian, Balican, and Urikite. 
Shade: Half-Elf male ranger/thief, 18 years old. Played by Chad. Speaks Balican, Elf and Tyrian. 
Kalino: Human male fighter/preserver. 20 years old. Party NPC. Speaks Rammin, Tyrian, and Balican.
Kiara: Human female fighter/templar, 22 years old. NPC. Speaks Urikite, Raamin, and Tyrian.

The Dancing Half-Giant - A Dark Sun Fable

At a great celebration, in honor of Hamanu, The Lion if Urik, a beautiful half-elf was asked to dance for the gathered nobles and templars. Her dancing was superb and everyone was impressed with her grace and agility. Everyone clapped and cheered as she danced.
The praise that was showered on the woman made a half-giant guard envious. He was very sure that he could dance just as well as the half-elf woman, if not better. So, he pushed his way into the crowd, that was gathered around the woman, and rising on his left foot, began to dance. But the big hulking brute looked ridiculous as he clumsily stumbled around the dance floor. He crashed into the crowd and stomped on several toes.
When at last, one of his huge feet came within an inch of the King's own toes, Hamanu raised a hand. The dancing stopped immediately and all eyes turned to the half-giant and the displeased look on the King's face. King Hamanu stared at the offending half-giant and the half-giant began begging for his life.
The crowd gasped as the half-giant's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground, dead. The other half-giant guards dragged the body of their former comrade away and the celebration continued.

Session Sixty-Six: Gray Plumed Mountain Part 6.

 

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

The tentacles randomly attacked whomever was within range of them. The group fought strategically, attacking a single target and then moving on to the next target. It did not take too long for the group to slay the small black silt horrors that were attacking them.
The group thought about trying to attack the scorpions with ranged weapons, but the angle of the attack would have made it extremely difficult. Shade leapt over the silt and landed in the desert area, ready to engage one of the giant scorpions. Alaxander opened a dimension door, with the way, in the watery area and started emptying the water into the desert area, creating a lot of mud. The scorpions fled from the moisture.

Session Sixty-Five: Gray Plumed Mountain Part 5

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

The group tied themselves together with rope and gathered the shallow bowls. They jumped into the flowing stream of silt, while sitting on their bowls. They were whisked through the hole in the wall and through a tube.
The stream carried them into a room, where a group of men were waiting with nets and clubs. The men caught Shade in a net and pulled him out of the stream and onto the floor. The other men near him started beating him with their clubs.
No one else was caught by the nets, but the group was having trouble dismounting from their bowls without being scoured by the silt stream. The best fighter among the group was wielding a bone carrikal and the men engaged the group fiercely. Shade, with the help of Vashti, was able to break free of the net.
The fighting was rather brutal, as the men had taken advantage of their foes awkward positions. However, once the group was able to gather themselves, they defeated the men. The battle did take a toll on the group. They were wounded and low on magical and mental resources. They decided to rest. They made sure to keep watch.

Day 5, Week 1, Macro, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

Upon waking, the group searched the dead men. The fighter who had wielding the carrikal had a brass key on his belt. Alaxander took it.