Scorched Earth

Notable NPCs

* Cwylhwch, a sand kraken and Stefan's brainfriend.
* Maharishi, a corrupted couatl and ally of Malazant the rakshasa.
* Russelkiss, a shulassakar and (now ex-) ally of the Wayfinders.
* Ashib, a wanderer and friend of the Wayfinders.

## Introduction

*The Wayfinders all show up to the Sharn lightning rail station at the appointed hour to catch the train that will take them all the way to eastern Khorvaire over the next week of travel. The note that they're handed with their tickets indicates that Russelkiss will meet with them in Gatherhold, the terminus station for their trip.*

*Y'all are at the lightning rail station, boarding the train. An Orien employee brings you to a private cabin, well furnished for the trip to Thaliost.*

## Expedition Summary

The Wayfinders meet on the lightning rail, and quickly get acquainted with each other on the way to Gatherhold, the launching point into the Blade Desert.  Their client, Russelkiss, meets them unexpectedly on the train in Rekkenmark. Stefan realises that she speaks Draconic, and forms his hypothesis that Russelkiss is a dragon.  She reveals that they are to pick up a column inscribed with Infernal runes. When they arrive in Gatherhold, she darts into a shrine of the Silver Flame to recover the map that they are to use to find the artifact.  Reva picks a fight with their client, nearly losing the contract before they even start, before Mik’hael talks her down.

Only a few days into their trip, they meet a mysterious eight foot tall black skinned humanoid who introduces himself as Ashib. He sits them down for a meal, and they learn that he is considerably more dangerous than he looks when he reveals the skulls of eight Valenar behind them.  They head out after their meal with him and encounter a giant, undead sand kraken which infects Tamiyah with mummy rot. They make it back to Ashib before Tamiyah gets dusted, and he reveals a greater portion of his power by offering to trade Tamiyah’s health for a trusted companion.  Mik’hael parts with his divine mount Argent, but Ashib generously grants him his steed - an incredibly ugly and ornery fey camel named Humphrey.

After a few days of travel, in which they survive a fire rain from a Fernian manifest zone, they Wayfinders set up camp in a sheltered cleft between two dunes.  In the night, however, they get awoken by a trio of dust wights. They dispatch the undead beings quickly, but not before both familiars and Stefan get petrified by the necrotically charged dust surrounding the wights. At that moment, the undead sand kraken returns. It reveals itself to be intelligent, and bargains for the Wayfinders to grab the artifact for it instead of their client.  Faced with that or death, they reluctantly agree. It steals Stefan’s petrified body for itself as insurance for their good behavior.

A week later, the reduced Wayfinder team makes their way to the site described on Russelkiss’s map, and encounter a nest of yuan-ti there.  Things are looking grim before Stefan comes to rescue with a fireball spell and helps them defeat the snake creatures. They then move to retrieve the column from the three tiered pedestal.  They face challenges at each steppe, yet Stefan seems to be oddly immune to all of the effects. He eventually comes clean, admitting that the sand kraken resurrected him and implanted him with one of it’s spawn.  The column apparently trapped the souls of the sand kraken, keeping them bound to their undead forms.

The sand kraken expects them to trade the column to it, even going so far as to hold their water supplies hostage.  After a tense conversation, they eventually give it to the undead beast. It releases the souls in a massive blast of psionic energy, and Stefan catches a glimpse of the now-revived sand kraken before it sinks below the shifting sands.

The Wayfinders follow the second half of the map, to the meet site with the now depleted column.  On the way there, they’re assaulted and chased for a few days by a band of Valenar that were looking for them, hired by Her.

After they drive off the band, they all have a dream of purple eyes overnight.  Mik’hael and Tamiyah find themselves irresistibly drawn in a certain direction and they all head that way, Tamiyah being the navigator.  They run into a Vadalis heir, who invites them into a nearby tent for a meal. Inside the tent is Maharishi, a disguised corrupted couatl, and the person that Russelkiss had warned them about.  The Wayfinders find themselves being lifted into the air by a titanic cloud ray, which the tent had been set up on. They fight the disguised couatl before Mik’hael tosses her off of the cloud ray, which is when she sheds her alternate form and assumes her true form.  They eventually drive her off, but not before she swears vengeance.

The Vadalis heir drops them off near the site where they’re to meet Russelkiss before bringing the cloud ray back home.  She meets them in a somber ruin, and does not take the news of the sand kraken resurrection well. She keeps the artifacts that she had promised, and tells the Wayfinders to keep the discharged demonic artifact instead.  Several weeks later, the tired and exhausted Wayfinders stumble into Gatherhold.

## Epilogue

**=== Hundreds of miles away, deep under the Blade Desert ===**

*The being known as Cwylhwch burrowed through the sand, sand sliding against their sleek amber-brown form. It eventually arrives at an ancient cavern, a mile under the shifting sand.  The hollow is hundreds of feet across, and Cwylhwch is the first to arrive.  It waits, only the hood and eyes exposed to the air.*

*And waits.*

*Three days later, the first of its kin arrives, psionic power sparking over their burnished brass carapace.*  ***<Glad home-again, talthoon.>***

*Cwylhwch’s eyes flash, and a pleased thrum resonates through*
the cavern.**<It is, talthoon.  The curse is broken, and we can once again rise. How many of us remain?>**

***<Too few.  We survived the wasting curse, drawn by the Sealed.  What is a few centuries?>***

*As the two speak, others begin surfacing.  Bronzed, dull orange, a virtual artist’s palette of sand colors until there is just over two score of them.  Cwylhwch raises itself from the sand, psionic power limning its body as it floats above the sands, tentacles extended to their full forty foot length.*

***<For the first time in millennia, a cymanfaoedd has been called.  Life has been restored to the tywodneel'chedzz.  Listen to me, talthoon, and I shall tell you of the one named Stefan of the ir’Lain…>***

**=== End Scene ===**

**=== Unknown cavern in the southern reaches of the Endworld Mountains ===**

*Maharishi coils angrily.  Those pathetic mortals had ruined her Master’s plans for the artifact.  Now the sand krakens would swim again, and she would be blamed for it. At least the shulassakar would bear the brunt of their direct might, and she could escape unmolested.  The perfectly flat pool in the corner ripples, and she hisses in pain as she moves over to it, magic missile burns riddling her form.*

*Two sets of purple eyes open in the darkness of the pool as the bottom of it seems to fall away.  She winces as the mind behind it makes contact with her own.*

*A silent conversation follows, Maharishi hissing in pain as the purple light from the pool intensifies.  The light eventually fades, and she coils once again in the middle of the cave, eyes flickering.*

“Fairhaven, in the human nation of Aundair…. I am to be partnered with Malazant for my failures. Seduce a humanoid to gain access to these Wayfinders and discover how they keep interrupting Master’s plans…. And I will ensure that they pay for what they did to me.”

*Her voice quiets as she slips into a healing sleep, secure in the knowledge how to restore herself into her Master’s favor once more.*

**=== End Scorched Earth ===**

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**=== Post credits scene ===**

*The night sky is wide open above the figure and their horse as they ride upon the mighty white steed in the grassy plains of northern Karrnath.*

“This one thinks that the Wayfinders came out of that mess just fine. That beast that I traded for you might be difficult, but he is loyal. Hah. Ashib thinks that Humphrey will grow to like Mik’hael in time – after all, it only took this one three centuries to get on good terms with him.”

*In the distance, the Icetop Mountains peek out over the horizon.*

“This one thinks that Marzana will be overfull with joy at Ashib’s arrival – he has never met the hag of the mounts, but Aesuné assures Ashib that Marzana is not eager to pick a fight.”

*Ashib slaps Argent on the flank to make him pick up a bit of speed as he heads towards the distant, snowcapped mountains.*