Turkey, Earth

In honor of Thanksgiving, the United States holiday, I gave stats for the Athasian Turkey, which is mentioned in the Veiled Alliance sourcebook. This year, I present the earth aspected form of the terrible beast.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

	Turkey, Earth
Climate/Terrain	Plane of Earth, Underground
Frequency	Very Rare
Organization	Flock
Activity Cycle	Day
Diet	Omnivore
Intelligence	Semi (2-4)
Treasure	Nil
Alignment	Neutral
No. Appearing	1-6
Armor Class	5
Movement	12 br 9
Hit Dice	5+5
Thac0	15
No. of Attacks	1
Damage/ Attack	1-8
Special Attack	Spells
Special Defense	Immune to Earth Damage
Magic Resistance	Nil
Size	S (4' + tall)
Morale	Elite (13-14)
XP Value	1,400

Session One Hundred Thirteen: The Battle at Lost Oasis

While the Lost Oasis was burning, the group quickly took stock of their opponents. There was a platoon of foot soldiers and archers, lead by a formidable looking general. There were a few squads of black cassocked templars, a couple of defilers, a squad of way manipulators, and a squad of half-giants.
Opposing them was Abbas, the druid, and a group of forty native inhabitants of the oasis. While the enemy soldiers were formed into ranks, the natives were haphazardly positioned. The group could easily see that Abbas and the natives were not prepared for a frontal assault from a trained military force.
Rafiq and Selia drew their longbows and began targeting the templars with arrows. Dimitria used her druidic magic to bolster the native's combat abilities. Everyone else ran over the flat ground, where defiled ash lay under their feet, and straight into the line of half-giants. 

Session One Hundred Twelve: The Rescue

Once inside the city, the group made their way toward the Golden Tower. Ali had told them that the processing center was in the high bureaus, near the tower. While they walked, Rafiq contact Kraah's mind with the way.
Kraah was not being interrogated at that moment, so Rafiq told him about the plan. Kraah agreed, but had to wait until the beak clamp was removed, because the spell required him to speak. Hopefully, he could hide his words and the templar will not notice that he cast a spell. The chance was slim, but it was the only chance they had.
When the group arrived at the bailey of the Golden Tower, they found that it was guarded by a templar and two half giants. Rafiq expertly bluffed and bribed their way inside, claiming he had business with the Bureau of Trade.

Session One Hundred Eleven: The Plan

The group began planning immediately, on how to rescue Kraah. Rafiq knew any templar building would be warded against teleportation, so it would not be as easy as teleporting in and out.
Dimitria thought they could just wait for Kraah to be killed and then try to recover his body and bring him back to life. Rafiq was okay with that idea, but Selia and Yusef were not. Kraah was good friends with Yusef and he would not risk his life so callously.
Meanwhile, Kraah was locked and bound in a small room. The door opened and the female elf templar greeted Kraah again. She spoke softly and promised to let Kraah live, if he gave her what she wanted.
What she wanted was the gemstones. Kraah refused to talk, but he knew a mind bender was prodding his thoughts. He tried to think of nonsense, but it was difficult to completely shut out her questions. His mind betrayed him several times.

Session One-Hundred Ten: Chaos in the Slave Pens

The group made a plan. They would disguise themselves, with Rafiq dressing up like his father and everyone else as his retainers, except for Clavis. Clavis was a well known gladiator in Tyr and Rafiq's father was his owner, so it should not be suspicious for them to be together. They agreed and Yusef made them all disguises.
Rafiq used the way to teleport them outside of Tyr and they confidently walked up to the gates, skipping the line outside. Rafiq easily fooled the gate templar, tricking him into believing that Rafiq was actually his father. Once inside Tyr, Clavis was instantly recognized and adoring fans started mobbing around him. It took awhile to disperse the crowds and move through the merchant district.
Once the group arrived at the arena, Rafiq attempted to fool the guards there, but the guards were not fooled by Rafiq's attempt at impersonating his father. They began questioning Rafiq about why he didn't sound right, as one of the guards had just talked to Rafiq's father the day before, but Kraah quickly moved in and began to sweet talk them, explaining that Rafiq was a bit under the weather. Suspicious, but not willing to accuse a noble of a crime, the guards sent a runner to check with the noble's estate.
Then, as they were waiting, Clavis punched one of the guards in the face, which bloodied his nose. Everyone was surprised by Clavis' action, but Kraah recovered quickly and used magic to freeze the other guard in place. The guard with the bloody nose began to run and scream for help. Yusef, Selia, and Kraah began chasing the fleeing guard, while Rafiq, Clavis, and Dimitria ran inside the arena.

After Action Report: D20 Cruise

On April 26, 2024, I boarded a plane from my native Salt Lake City, UT to Orlando, FL. I had applied and been accepted to run two 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons games aboard a cruise ship bound for Mexico, for a D20 Cruise event.
Thankfully, a good friend of mine had applied and been accepted as well. This was convenient, because I did not have to share a cabin with a stranger and some of the DMs on this cruise were pretty strange. Neither one of us had ever been on cruise, but we both had decades of experience running games.
My largest concern was my players. I was worried that my players would not like me, or like my game. Basically, I was afraid I would not be good enough.

Session One-Hundred Nine: Tyrian Conundrum

The group continued to fight the templars and the half-giant guard, but Kraah landed next to Rafiq and told him that reinforcements were on their way and would arrive soon. Reluctantly, Rafiq opened a dimensional gateway and the group fled through it. Selia was carried by Yusef and Rafiq was pushed through by Clavis.
They arrived back at the Lost Oasis. Kraah and Dimitria wasted no time in using what little healing magic they had to patch up the group. However, it was not enough and they decided to recover for the rest of the day.

Day 3, Week 2, Fifthover, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

The group decided to rest and recover for another day.

Day 4, Week 2, Fifthover, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

After the group had sufficiently recovered, they discussed their next move. They decided to disguise Kraah and Rafiq. Their plan was to have Rafiq pose as a slave of Kraah's and go to the client village, which the Bishara estate was near, and inquire why the Bishara estate was attacked.

Session One Hundred Eight: Return to the Bishara Estate

Kraah, Rafiq, Selia and Yusef limped through the portal and appeared exactly where and when they had left. They were not in the best of health, but didn't have much time to lick their wounds. Time resumed, as normal, and they scrambled to save Clavis, who was drowning.
Selia tied a rope around herself and handed the other end to Yusef. She then leaped into the water and saw a creature dragging Clavis into the depths. Selia used her bone dagger and stabbed at the creature. The creature fought back, but in doing so, released Clavis. Clavis floated back up to the surface and Kraah was able to push him to shore. Rafiq and Dimitria pulled Clavis out of the oasis and used their knowledge of healing to expel the water from his lungs.
Meanwhile, Selia was doing a decent job of fighting off the monster, while holding her breath. However, once Clavis was safely back on shore, Yusef began pulling the rope and Selia was whisked away from the fight. The monster tried to grab her, but failed and Selia was dragged ashore.
Kraah, Rafiq, Selia, and Yusef were badly wounded, from their fight with the efreeti, and Clavis needed time to recover from his ordeal has well, so the group decided to rest near the oasis for the rest of the day.
Kraah. Rafiq, Selia, and Yusef shared their experience in the paraelemental planes with Clavis and Dimitria. Dimitria was fascinated by the entire story, but Clavis only liked the parts with fighting. They gave the efreeti's bronze scimitar to Clavis.

Session One-Hundred Seven: Assassins!

Suddenly, the world around Selia, Yusef, Kraah, and Rafiq seemed to stand still. Selia was still struggling to keep her head above water, so Yusef threw her a rope and pulled her out. It took the group a few moments to recover and then they wondered what was happening.

Rafiq noticed that they seemed to be in a bubble and outside of the bubble, time was frozen. To test his theory, he threw a small pebble away from himself. Once the pebble was a few feet away, it froze in the air.

Suddenly, a large dimensional gateway opened inside the bubble. The group was uncertain and discussed their options. they could just leave the bubble, and possibly time would resume for them, or they could go through the portal. Kraah really wanted to go through the portal, so the rest of the group agreed and passed through the portal. Clavis was still in the water, but he wasn't going anywhere.

Session One Hundred Six: Creatures of the Forest Ridge

Rafiq was physically, but not mentally exhausted. He mentally connected to Dimitria and had her give him the location of her guarded lands. Using the way, he was able to remotely view her guarded lands and then find his way south, to the Lost Oasis. This turned out to be taxing than he thought and he had to meditate for a few minutes, to regain some mental strength.
Without warning, a huge, hairy beast leapt onto Clavis and bit him. The group was completely surprised. The beast was fast and blood thirsty, Dimitria recognized it as a sloth.
The sloth was vicious and, even when badly wounded, refused to give up. The group took some serious wounds, but were able to defeat the creature. Magically healing was applied and the group moved from the area, afraid the noise would attract more animals or, worse, more halflings.

As they moved off, they talked about what to do next. When Dimitria mentioned that they knew two of the gems were near Tyr, Rafiq asked them what they were talking about. Yusef protested, but Dimitria introduced Rafiq and Selia to the Lord of the Mind. She then explained how the gems worked and that their goal was to destroy the ogre doom. Rafiq and Selia asked what an ogre was and they told them what they knew about the extinct race. When Selia touched the Lord of the Mind, the memories of Julius, transferred to her mind.

Session One Hundred-Five: The Halflings of the Forest Ridge

As the group approached the mountain peaks, rain began falling from the sky. The group was amazed, as they had only experienced rain twice in their lives. Kraah decided to inspect the rain clouds and flew into them. The rest of the group took the opportunity to bathe themselves in the falling water.
Suddenly, Kraah found himself in strange place. The sky was dark, but he could see lightning flashing between clouds and rain pouring from one cloud to another. Being an air cleric, he knew something of the planes and realized he was on the Paraelemental Plane of Rain. What he was unsure  how he had arrived there. He began flying around to investigate.
While he was exploring, he saw a miniature sun and began flying toward it. As he flew toward it, the sun got bigger and bigger. Distances were difficult to gauge, as there was no horizon to compare objects to. He soon saw small flecks of something moving off of and around the sun. He wasn't sure what it could be.

Guest DM on D20 Caribbean Cruise

I have been selected to be a guest Dungeon Master aboard the Event Cruises D20 Cruise. The cruise is from Orlando, FL and visits Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico, and Cozumel, Mexico, between April 27th and May 2nd, 2024.

The cruise will be filled with D&D, as well as workshops, and other games. If you are interested, please use the link below to check it out.
https://event.cruises/d20-cruise-a-ttrpg-vacation/
If you are able to join me, use my code: BRENTDUNGEON for $50 off.
The games on the cruise will be 5th edition D&D, but I am going to run it in OSR fashion, with death being very possible. But there are other DMs as well, if you want a more tame experience.

Most importantly, if you are going, let me know, so we can meet and hang out!

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.

Session One Hundred Three: The Slave and His Noble

Day 13, Week 1, Fifthover, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

The group awoke and Dimitria caught up with Selia, as they passed out their daily rations. Yusef had used some string to fasten Raco's skull to his severed wrist and was talking to it, as if Raco were still alive. Everyone worried about Yusef's mental state; he had lost three friends and his hand in a very short time.
The group returned to the cloud ray carcass and carved off the meat they thought they could carry, leaving the rest for vultures and other scavengers.
They continued their hike through the mountain and, after a few hours, came upon a ravine. They were prepared to navigate around the ravine, as they had done so many times before, when something caught Kraah's eye. He saw some unusual colors on an outcropping, inside the ravine. He flew closer and saw two human men huddled together.

Session One Hundred Two: The Cloud Ray Incident

They rested on the mountaintop for the rest of the day. Raco eventually woke up and they informed him that Cheet was dead. Also, that Kraah and Yusef were blinded. And Yusef was missing his left hand.
Dimitria told Yusef that Samsun had cut off his hand and Yusef was furious. Samsun apologized and told him it was an accident. Yusef understood, but was still upset.

Day 11, Week 1, Fifthover, Friend's Vengeance, 190th King's Age, Sun Descending

In the morning, Dimitria used her magic to restore Yusef's sight. Kraah used his own magic to restore his own sight. Yusef took Samsun's pound of goat butter and said it was his, because Samsun had cut off his hand. Samsun did not argue.
While they burned Cheet's body, the handed out food and water rations. Then, they scattered her ashes on the scant greenery of the mountain tops. Saying goodbye to Cheet one last time, the group hiked into the mountains.