Session Seventy: The Gith Problem

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

The group retreated from their location to hide from the gith. They got behind a large boulder and began discussing what they should do next. Suddenly, Shade called out in surprise. From behind, and above, the group was a fifteen foot long centipede.
The centipede's poison burned Shade's skin, but he was able to fight off the internal effects. The group quickly drew weapons and fled from the monster. The centipede gave chase and bit Alaxander. Alaxander could feel the venom coursing through his veins and he cried out. Luckily, Kiara was on hand to slow the venom in Alaxander's system.
The group attacked the creature with fervor, but the giant centipede made use of the terrain. While the group was having difficulty navigating the rocks and boulders, the centipede moved gracefully over and around them.

The giant centipede bit at them and switched targets randomly, trying to inject its venom into all of them. It was unsuccessful. Alaxander climbed on top of a boulder and leapt off, driving a spear between two of the creature's chitinous plates. The centipede bucked Alaxander off and fled into the mountain.
The group was worried, as Alaxander still had the centipede's venom coursing through his veins. Kiara and Vashti thought they could extract the slowed venom, but it would require surgery. Everyone agreed that Alaxander's life was more important than finding out what the gith were up to. Alaxadner used the way to return the group to Kuresh.
Vashti and Kiara took Alaxander into a private room. They gave him some herbs to calm his mind, relax his body, and lessen the pain. Then, they slowly began extracting the poison from his body. It took hours to remove the venom, but Kiara and Vashti were successful. They believed Alaxander would live.

Day 10, Week 1, Macro, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

In the morning, after Vashti's sermon and a communal breakfast, Vashti used the way to locate the Black Spear Tribe. The Black Spear Tribe is the gith tribe that the village of Kuresh paid tribute to. The tribe was still on the move and Vashti checked on them throughout the morning. Finally, the tribe stopped moving and made a temporary camp.
Alaxander was awake and feeling much better. Vashti explained the situation and told him about her desire to speak with the gith of the Black Spear Tribe and try to make peace. Alaxander agreed and the two of them disappeared with a bamf.
The gith heard and saw them appear. They quickly sent guards to surround them. As they were leaping toward them, Vashti remarked how gith reminded her of fleas.
The gith were hostile, but willing to talk. They accused someone from Kuresh of kidnapping a gith child. The gith told a story about a man, who claimed to be coming from Kuresh, and wore the distinctive sash from the village, came to trade. The man stayed for so long, he asked to remain for a night and then return to Kuresh the following morning. He gave the gith some beads and glass baubles, so they granted his request.
In the middle of the night, the gith claimed, the man sneaked into a gith tent and stole one of their children. In the morning, the man and the child were gone. Vashti asked for a description of the man and Vashti tried to explain that the description was not of someone who lived in the village. They accused her of lying.
The gith explained that they would be sending a significant force to attack Kuresh in two days, unless the child was returned. Vashti pleaded with the gith to not attack the village, but the gith ignored her. Exhausted, Vashti and Alaxadner returned to Kuresh.
Vashti sought out her mentor, Sharra, to ask about the mysterious trader, who was pretending to be from Kuresh. Sharaa remembered a trader who fit the description. He came from Nibenay and traded rice with the village. He was in the village briefly and did not communicate any desire to seek out the gith. However, they did notice that one of villagers, Davuth, lost his sash around that time.
Vashti asked if any of the rice, the trader had traded, was still present in the village. Sharra believed there was and went to go search. She brought back a sack of rice. Vashti used the way to find out about the sacks previous owners. Once completed, she thanked Sharra and informed the group that they had to return to Nibenay, because that was were the sack originated.

Alaxadner used the way to get the group to Nibenay quickly. They arrived, again, outside of the dancing gates. Kiara changed into her templar robes and approached the gate, bypassing the other people waiting in line. She introduced herself as a Templar of the great Hamanu and the templar on duty welcomed her with feigned graciousness.
The group was led to a small home to stay, while in the city. This is common decorum among the sorcerer kings and queens of the Tablelands. The home was small, but serviceable. It had no permanent walls on the inside, instead it had woven grass screens to separate the open space into private areas.
Vashti told the group that the rice sack was crafted by House Shom. So, she was planning the visiting the House Shom food warehouse to ask about the trader who purchased it. Everyone agreed and decided to go with her, except Kiara. Kiara believed that her presence would complicate matters.
The group walked to the House Shom merchant warehouse and began digging up information about the man who purchased rice. It took awhile, but there were about to track down a merchant who remembered the man they had described.
After some well-paid bribes, the trader told them that the man was named Samir Karam. He was from Raam and was memorable because he kept bragging about a young lady, Zaina, at Fort Isus, that he was having a dalliance with. He had purchased the rice eight days prior. The group thanked the trader for the information.

Vashti got it into her head that Samir may have returned to Nibenay and sold the child to slavers, despite having zero evidence of such a transaction. She lead the group to the slave area, but it had been closed for the night. The slave auctions would open again just before dawn.
As the group was returning to their borrowed home, an elf approached Shade. The elf bowed, as Shade is the best dressed in the group. The elf said that he had slaves for sale all night in the Hill District. They would be having an auction in an hour, or so.
Alaxander and Vashti, with a bribe, convinced the elf to show them the slaves ahead of the auction. They also said if the elves had a gith child, they would pay more for the privilege. The elf agreed and led them to an abandoned building in the disreputable Hill District.
There were nineteen sad looking slaves; humans, dwarves, a couple of half-elves, and a few gith. None were gith infants. They wore rags, were dirty, and many of them still had bruises from beatings. Seven of the slaves were children. The slaves were wearing collars and with tethered together. Julius was having trouble holding his tongue and keeping his hand away from his sword.
There were a dozen elves around the group, and one of elves began his sales pitch, promising good, docile slaves. Vashti looked at Alaxander and nodded. Julius and Kalino saw the nod and grabbed their weapons. Alaxander used the way to open a large dimensional portal.
The elf abruptly stopped his sales pitch and the elves grabbed their weapons.

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.