Campaign Report - The Price of Freedom - 06

After rescuing a group of people captured by slavers in the stony barrens east of Tyr, the party returned to the City-State to bring them to safety. The group, then, decided they needed to finish the first job they accepted from House Ghadir of Tyr to deliver a small cargo to their representatives in Urik and went their way to the Caravan Gate. That is when they realized they were being followed by about eight bandits from the Toothcutter's gang.

The group was not worried with this and just kept walking to the gate. That's was their mistake. The gang knew the streets very well and surrounded the party. Their leader, a mul, said the adventurers were putting their noses where they shouldn't and attacked. Since the characters were surrounded the fight was pretty rough, and the bard/shaman was almost killed and left behind. The group managed to kill the gang leader and a good number of thugs, but more were coming and they were already seriously wounded.

That's when Jossi, a street acrobat with connections, showed up and helped them run away through a underground passage under a warehouse. There, she explained the adventurers that they made some enemies in Tyr when they rescued those ex-slaves and helped the House of Suazil. Politics in the City-State is complicated and when you make some friends you automatically make enemies too, since the factions are almost in open war. Jossi helped them escape the Toothcutters but couldn't help them get out of the city, she could not afford being seen with them at that moment, and pointed them toward a alley they could make a path to escape.

That's when a skill challenge began. The group had to get to the Caravan Gate without being seen by the bandit's gang. They initially decided to go through alleys and small streets avoiding more crowded streets, but that only took them half of the way out, the paths to the Caravan Gate were larger and with more people. The party decided to mingle with the merchants and managed to do a pretty good job until they reached the gates. There they met Cubda, a templar, who had issues with them. They decided to talk to her, and if it wasn't for their memory, they would have been in trouble. The templar was about to arrest them without any real accusations when the group remembered they had credentials given to them from Lord Suazil. Cubda let them leave, feeling very angry.

The adventurers traveled for a little more than a day when they reached the place where they left their cargo hidden with three men they rescued. Approaching the place they found one of them dead, half eaten, with blood all over the rock. The group continued with caution and found another one on the floor, being eaten by a giant insectoid creature (Khrutik). Ahead of them were several more of those creatures, a few of them larger than the others and north of the creatures were a Genasi with a great stone sword and the last surviving man they rescued.

The fight was pretty easy, and I made a mental note to redesign those creatures, but that's ok. Not everything needs to be rough (or does it? It's Dark Sun anyway). The Genasi explained he had vision of those men being attacked by those vicious creatures and came to rescue them. He recognized the characters from one of his dreams also and said they were destined for great deeds and asked to join them on their journey. They other adventurers thought that he was kinda crazy but let him tag along since they lost their former companion without any notice.

The new group, then, took the cargo and left to Urik once more. After 3 days of travel they were arriving and Fort Skonz, a House Inika station on the way to Silver Spring Oasis when they witnessed a group of merchants being robbed by raiders. The adventurers could just wait until the assault was over to continue their trip as most would have done in the deserts of Athas, but they decided they would help the victims (looks like the crazy genasi is right about them). The fight was somewhat difficult and I enjoyed using a controller to mess around with my players, but in the end the bandits were almost all killed, except for two wilders that run away. The party found with one of the bandits, one that looked more like a city dweller than a desert raider a ring with the insignia of House Stel from Urik.

The merchants that were robbed were scared at first but one of them came to say thank you to the group and was relieved to know they were not there to rob them also. Xistos, the merchant asked them if they wanted to tag along until they reach Fort Skonz and the party accepted the offer, they could use a little break from walking.

That where session six ended. What will happen next? Why a bandit had a ring with House Stel insignia? Stay tuned for the next campaign report!