Session One Hundred Four: The Forest Ridge

Selia looked toward the splashing noise, but it was difficult to see. Ral and Guthay were not lighting up the sky. She did spot some slight movement and called out, asking who was there. Suddenly, Selia found herself unable to move. She tried to grunt as loud as possible, but none of her companions awoke.
A woman emerged from the darkness and put a hand over Selia's mouth. She was shaped like a human, but had pointed ears. Selia was colorblind, so the woman's skin looked gray and her hair appeared black. The woman told Selia to be quiet, that she would not be harmed.
The woman then asked Selia if she, or the group, were there to befoul her water. She also told Selia that she was reading her mind and Selia only had to think an answer. Selia answered no.
The woman asked about the group's reasons for being there and Selia, who could not lie, told her what she knew. The woman released Selia from the magical paralyzed state and asked her to wake up Dimitria, so they could talk further. She said her name was Raaza.
Dimitria was awakened and she and Selia talked to Raaza. Raaza said she was a creature of water, called an Avasori. She then told them that she was the guardian of the pool and the pool was very important to the elemental lords of water.

Raaza did not get the entire story from Selia, because Selia did not know it, so she asked Dimitria for the whole story. Dimitria, who could also not lie, told Raaza the entire tale, starting from meeting the group at the Lost Oasis. After the tale, Raaza was slightly confused and asked if they had traveled with Samsun. Dimitria said she did, but he had died yesterday. Raaza was disappointed and explained that she was told by her masters that Samsun was on his way to her.

She was given a sword, by her superiors, to give to Samsun. She handed them a bone sword, with serrated teeth embedded in the sides of the blade. Raaza explained that it was a magic sword, but needed to be activated at the Blue Shrine, south of the Lost Oasis. Dimitria said she understood. Raaza told the two women that the group could take water from her pool, but only for themselves. They agreed and Raaza walked back into the pool and disappeared.

Day 14, Week 1, Fifthover, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

In the morning, Clavis made a hearty breakfast. It mostly consisted of cloud ray meat, which the group found delicious. Rafriq offered to take them to the Forest Ridge using the way. Yusef still did not trust Rafiq and said that Raco, whose skull was attached to Yusef's left arm where his hand used to be, didn't trust him either. Dimitria used her magic to create a zone of truth and they interrogated Rafiq further.
Rafiq used a lot of big words and sounded like he was dodging questions, so the group started asking simple yes or no questions. Once they were satisfied that Rafiq was not a slaver or an agent of Kalak, they allowed him to use the way to teleport them to the edge of the Forest Ridge. The trees were sparse. The group had never seen the types of trees present and they took some time investigating them.

Rafiq used the way to see further west. He saw the many, many trees in the ridge and looked around for rain clouds. When he found some, he teleported the group beneath them. The group was amazed at the sheer volume of foliage. In addition, many of the plants were wet.
Suddenly, some vines wrapped around Yusef's throat and yanked him into the trees above. The group managed to free him, but more of the vines attacked other members of the group. Once they were all freed, the group fled the area.
Kraah decided to fly over the canopy and scout ahead. Unfortunately, he was spotted by halflings, who made themselves know by slinging stones at the aarakocra. He landed next the the group and told them that he had been spotted by halflings. The group did not like the idea of a meeting with halflings, so they fled away from where the halflings were spotted.
After running for a few minutes, Rafiq thought that the halflings might know where a rain cleric was, so he stopped and decided to talk to them. Everyone else thought he was crazy, but did not abandon him. Rafiq put some gifts for the halfings on the ground, including some cloud ray meat, an iron spear head, and some hemp rope.
The halflings arrived and quickly surrounded Rafiq. Rafiq used the way to communicate to one of the halflings. The halfling screamed and held his head. The other halflings started slinging stones at Rafiq and Clavis. Rafiq stopped using the way and apologized in Tyrian. The halflings did not seem to understand.
One of the halflings, with cat-like agility, leapt from a branch twenty feet in the air and landed near Rafiq. He signaled for the rest of the halflings to collect the gifts, which they did with great speed. Once the items were gone, the halflings disappeared into the underbrush.
The group waited for a few minutes, but the halflings did not return. Suddenly, Rafiq screamed out in pain and collapsed onto the ground. Selia guessed what might be wrong and tore off Rafiq's shirt. There, on his back, was an agony beetle.

The group started smashing at the beetle, but missed several times and hit Rafiq instead. Most of the group was using blunt weapons, to try and smash the beetle, but Yusef gladly used his dagger instead. They were easily doing more damage to Rafiq, than to the beetle.
Finally, after being harassed, the beetle released Rafiq and began flying away. Selia shot the beetle with an arrow and killed it, at last. Selia then explained that she was told that halflings sometimes uses agony beetles as sling stones.
They sat and recovered for three hours. They ate and drank, but when the halflings did not return, they decided that they weren't going to. A nearby mountain peak had rain clouds around it, so the group decided to head that way.

Join us next time for another exciting session of Adventures Under the Dark Sun. 
2nd edition AD&D Dark Sun Cast of Player Characters 
Dimitria: Human female druid. 20 years old. Played by Mary. Speaks Urikite, Raamin, and Tyrian.
Clavis: Human male gladiator. 30 years old. Played by Dave. Speaks Drajish and Tyrian.
Rafiq: Human male psychoporter. 25 years old. Played by Ben. Speaks Tyrian, Balican, Raamin, and Urkite.
Kraah: Aarakocra male air cleric.17 years old. Played by Chad. Speaks Aarakocra, Tyrian, Balician, and Gulgish.
Selia: Half-elf female ranger. 27 years old. Played by my wife. Speaks Elf and Tyrian.
Yusef: Human male thief. 24 years old. NPC party member. Speaks Tyrian, Nibnese, and Urikite.