Session 0
Welcome to Athas
Welcome to Athas
Recently captured, our heroes are being dragged through the Tablelands by a merchant guild to the City-State of Tyr. Something nefarious is going on as the party learn, through guards gossiping, that there is an unusually lucrative market for slaves now in Tyr.
Marched unceasingly all night and given barely enough warm water and tasteless gruel to survive their grueling march, the heroes sleep in what shade they can muster near the giant wagon only to resume their march the next sunset.
While being served their meager allotments of water and gruel a mysterious soldier, whom they have never seen, nor do they see again tries to pass a note to Fazanna, the female elf. He stumbles against a rock and draws nearly everyone's attention.
During a brief scuffle, where Fazanna tried to eat the note and Scythe, the green thri-kreen tried to physically collect it from her stomach, she spits the note out and reads it to them. "Be prepared to run," is all it says.
They make a plan to stick together and flee when the opportunity arises.
After a whole night of marching and while waiting for their water rations, boulders begin crashing down on and around them. They smash against the oversized wagon and thud all around them. A few unfortunates are crushed under the enormous weight of the stones.
Taking this as their cue, they bolt east, away from the source of the rocks and towards apparent freedom in the distant hills. Scythe unties the bound halfling Lunan, and Karmos, the half-giant picks him up. They also manage to each grab a piece of equipment from the baggage as they sprint away.
Looking back they notice a small group of giants hurling boulders that suddenly, as if on cue, stop and retreat back from whence they came.
The half-giant and thri-kreen attempt to carry the smaller ones as they sprint our across the empty desert under the hot rising sun. As mid-day approaches the increases to oppressive levels and many begin to wilt under its gaze. They cannot rest however as guards on Crodlu chase runaway slaves.
Ahead the group spots a wrecked caravan wagon, not an unusual site though the goods in the wagon still lay scattered around. Most unusual for a place notorious for its scarce resources. Something should have scavenged this long ago. In the wreckage they see a form moving slightly.
Scythe, ignoring the danger, continues to charge forward, seeking to escape the guards that he failed to notice long ago stopped their pursuit. A bell rang in his head and he loses all control.
The others stop noticing that he has stopped and begin to watch him walk, zombie like, towards the caravan as a voice, only he can hear, whispers to him with a raspy voice, "come to me." Through the efforts of his friends they are able to hold him back but cannot understand what has happened and why he will not respond to them.
Fazanna, believeing the wagon to be an illusion revelas her wizardly talents to the others and shoots a searing bolt of fire towards the wreckage. The group quickly learns it is real and many valuables and goods are now on fire.
Reacting quickly they rush towards the wagon. Lunan obscures the area with a fog that rises unnaturally from the desert floor. The half-giant succumbs to the ringing of another bell and lumbers towards the hunters. Magnamus reaches one and eviscerates it with his glowing blue psychic blade freeing Skarmos from the deathly charm.
Rising from beneath the vast amount of sand, his slumber having been disturbed, a gigantic sand wyvern leaps to the air before circling around and blasting the area with searing heat and abrasive sand. The skin sloughs from the remaining belgoi and parts of the wagon shatter as it soars past and up higher. It begins to circle back to make another pass and catch the survivors of the first blast.
Skarmos grabs the body in the wreckage, a female half-elf while most of the others scavenge something useful from the burning remnants before quickly dashing off.
Scythe, however, remains too long. Prolonging his search, using all four of his appendages, gives the Wyvern enough time to corcle back and make a line straight towards the oblivious thri-kreen. Ignoring the warning he senses in his head he soon finds himself bereft of carapace. His vision blackens and he no longer feels any pain.
The half-elf reveal's herself to be Adira and she arranged for Fazanna to get the note from the guard and the timely giant raid. After some initial mistrust the group eventually unties her. She leads them to refuge from the sun in a small cave whose entrance is covered by scrub and rocks.
She explains that she is part of a group known as The Veiled Alliance in Tyr. She explains that she has been watching Fazanna and recruits the group to assist her in finding out what Kalak, The Sorcerer-King of Tyr, is planning for all the slaves he is buying.