Dust Devil Decimation

*Hired by*: Foxwell Dint

*Mission Request*: Collect sample from Elder Dust Devil (either by harvesting or killing means)

*Rewards/Loot*: Paid passage on Captain Bonzo Redal's chartered skiff

*Discovered Places*: The Bones

*Caravan Allies*: Gromlo (antiquarian), Caliban (cook), "Bob" (alarm gnome)

*Monsters Encountered*: Dust Devils (adolescents & elder)

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## Summary

The party rested for the week at Franklin's in Skiff Port, a pirate-y cowboy sort of town. The inn, Franklin's, was run by a tortle of the same name who sported a red bandana around his neck and an out-of-place baseball cap on his head. During the week Aster searched for information on the mysterious bloodhunter named Layla. Raxis began to spread his Celadonian card game Skullduggery. Cedric, Arco, and Eira gathered information about Azura the blue dragon and how to traverse the silt sea in the Dust Sinks. They learned Azura is an old dragon that notably has wands mounted to the tops of its wing talons. Cedric also ran into some retired coworkers from the Solemn Crane Company, Rashida and John. He learned that killing dust devils for their meat, shells, and oil are a very profitable side hustle. They learned of the notable people in the area: Cormin, the harvest master who runs Chokehold and manages all of the processing of dust devil parts; Dyatlov, captain of captains that helm the skiffs; and M'Kaba, keeper of mysteries, who is highly interested in magic items and history and resides at Skimmer's Rest.

After the week of information gathering, the party found Dyatlov. She had a peg leg made of a chitinous claw and wore the *widest* brimmed hat - even larger than the one Arco had just bought. They could tell she used to be a very tough fighter, but now she was more of a... battle grandma. She informed the group the only skiff for hire is on Doc 17. The skiff is named Syzygy and its helmed by Captain Bonzo Redal. It was already charted by someone else, so they will have to work out the details themselves. Upon arrival, the Dziyiri Nakkar Consortium saw many creature-containing boxes being loaded on to the skiff while a young, scrawny, sunburned man was giving specific instructions to a large Loxodon, Foxwell Dint and Captain Bonzo Redal, respectively. Foxwell was a naturalist hired by SPARC to collect samples from an elder dust devil for research. Lucky for the party, he was looking to hire some mercenaries to help him obtain the samples. In exchange for their brawn, the purchase of the skiff's time would be paid for by Foxwell. They immediately agreed, but then realized they knew nothing about the dust devils they were to hunt. Foxwell and the captain informed the party about the large serpentine creatures with chitinous bodies, and how those creatures weaponized vibrations to disturb internal organs. Dust devils do have one weakness, though, radiant damage.

It took over a day's journey to reach the area known as The Bones. Aster learned more about Foxwell's naturalist profession during the voyage, and he even offered to help Aster hatch the griffon egg. After a few hours, the baby griffon finally hatched! It was a girl so Aster decided to name her Zephyra (Zef-ear-ah). The baby was hairless and featherless and about the size of a squirrel. Despite heading into a dangerous situation, Aster wasn't too worried about her new baby since she had specifically commissioned the Keepsafe Capsule for this exact purpose. The next day the party readied themselves for a fight, then Captain Redal summoned the dust devils with a special instrument. Eira had cast water walk, which prevented the party members from sinking into the quicksand below. The clerics and Raxis used ranged attacks and radiant magic to battle the elder dust devil and the three adolescent dust devils that crawled onto the ship. Aster and Cedric focused all their attacks on the elder dust devil. Cedric's wild barbarian magic coincidentally caused him to deal extra radiant damage and a blinding effect, thus helping the party ensure a somewhat easy victory against the four creatures. No crew members even died during the battle! One crew member, deadeye Steve, even got a few harpoon hits in. Arco got the final blow on the elder dust devil and with the help of the skiff's harpoons, all of the creatures were secured for transport.