Lands of Mystery, Day 2

## Synopsis:

The Adventurers met up again the following morning in the tavern of the Crossroads, waking up to a harrowing discovery: ***The tavern was out of drinks.***

The Innkeeper explained that the marauding Centaurs had prevented the trade-caravans from reaching the Crossroads to bring the tavern supplies. He had hoped the roads would be safer now, after the Party successfully returned the Centaurs to their homeland. But somehow, that morning's shipment had not made either, despite the peace with the Centaurs.

Though the Innkeeper feared the worst about the caravan, the Party offered to investigate it, in return of silver and free drinks once the shipment was returned safely.

Down the southern road, the party discovered a broken-down cart from the caravan. They found a single Orcish corpse, with steel-clawmarks across his chest. None of the cart's supplies had been stolen, so the party deducted it was not raided by mere bandits. Tracking the area revealed humanoid footprints, along with slithery snake-marks in the fresh mud.

Suddenly a familiar voice revealed itself from the bottom of the broken cart; Barney "Bones", though only his skull remained of him. The talkative skull revealed that he had been hitchhiking to travel up north "to pick a bone with someone", but the cart was attacked by purple-clad raiders who abducted two Orcs from the caravan, and stole his magic skeletal body.

As Barney was sharing his tale, Shui attempted to loot the abandoned corpse in the cart, but instead found a Poisonous Snake left behind by the raiders. Though the snake was swiftly killed, it managed to bite Shui and inject its venom into her veins.

Now eager to track down the raiders to find an antidote for the bite, the Party travelled in the direction of the footprints, leading to the mouth of the Wailing Caverns. They were met with the ghastly wailing noises from the underground geyser-winds, from which the cave-system got its name. They bravely pressed on.

Eventually they stumbled across an Old Hermit's camp, scavenging through it to discover an antidote. They discovered the old hermit himself had been watching them all along, as he revealed himself: A Druid of the Fang, though withered, corpse-like, and his body almost more snake-like than humanoid. He was slain in a quick fight, before Shui stole a Mysterious Artifact from him - Leading to another haunting wailing-noise from the cavern-winds the moment she took it.

At last they reached the end of the caverns, finding an underground pool surrounded by lush oasis-growths. A sect of Druids of the Fang had summoned a tremendous Threshadon-deity, to leech it off its magics. The captured Orcs from the Caravan were offered as sacrifices to feed the ancient.

Battle with the Druids of the Fang ensued, the summoned Threshadon ancient fighting alongside the party to free itself, before the Druids were slain and the Party settled down for the night in the caves.

The Threshadon-ancient revealed that it could speak Common when Shui and Mark approached her alone. The two of them promised that they would help free the Threshadon from the cave it had been captured in, and as reward, they were granted two mighty treasures; The Bracers of Neptulon and the Claws of Cyprian.

## Party Experience:

* Today: 420xp
* Total: 770xp

## Trivia:

* The second session saw yet another NPC return from Pirate Mini-DDO, when the Party discovered Barney "Bones".
* **Player-Characters this session**: Astrae, Markrgrl, Mei-Li, Rumika, Salarya, Shui, Stormwolf.