The Endless Divide - Episode Five

## Synopsis:

Luya Barie set out months ago on an expedition to cross the Endless Divide, also known as The Quiet Lands. She and her crew were seeking the eastern coast of Alune. No one ever heard back from them until one day, a message was sent to the Court of Abishot through some sort of magic. 25 words came from Barie:

"We almost died on journey. Found massive city in quiet lands. Cannot get back. Too dangerous. Met their wizard. They need help. Safe currently. Luya."

Abishot hired the Whispering Cutlass to seek out this lost city of the Divide and its citizens. Over 100 individuals set out on the journey.

This is the fifth adventure in The Endless Divide Saga.

This leg of the journey has the adventurers exiting the dungeon explored in the last episode and crossing the Sea of Sand...

## Mercenaries:

Here you should list out the mercenaries who were on the mission and link to their mercenaries page. Characters should be bullet listed.

* Roars into the Storm "Rits" - Leonin Paladin (Sponsor: Samarthak Khan)

* Bandin Volward - Deep Gnome Rogue (Sponsor: Faithful Boar of the Circle of Faith Guild)
* Xanlun - Paladin/Cleric (sponsor: Apatite Xilon)
* Brutus - Orc Barbarian (Sponsor: Briney Rickington III)
* Silas Draoi - Half-Elf Sorcerer (Sponsor: Harbormaster Procyon)
* Nho Kanal - Lizardfolk (Sponsor: Sierra Echo)
* Berkham - Minotaur Cleric (Sponsor: Vindica)

## Adventure Summary:

**Day 18 (64% Provisions):** Exiting the small shrine to Solisti that was at the end of the dungeon, RITS, Bandin, Xanlun, Brutus, and Silas immediately found themselves in an avalanche of sand that was collapsing into the valley below. Xanlun and Silas, unable to keep their footing are rolled under the wave of sand, buries in its race to the bottom. Xanlun is recovered quickly but it takes a bit more effort to pull the hapless sorcerer from his unwanted potential grave. Eventually everyone rides the sand to the bottom, a bit spread out but otherwise relatively unharmed. Brutus and Silas spot something that shouldn't exist after the sand avalanche, footprints in the sand that just stopped. Going to explore they find a a finger bone exposed. Using mage hand, Silas gently lifts it to reveal it is attached to a hand and presumably the rest of a body. Spying a ring on the hand, Silas used his mage hand to remove it and place it in his pocket but when that happens that skeleton and three more start to climb from the ground and attack the party.

As the party defends themselves, each time a skeleton is killed the person dealing the final blow seems to suffer an ill effect. First Bandin collapses, wiggling on the ground as if his bones had disappeared. Then Brutus, after slaying the second, started screaming and slapping himself all over his body. After killing the third, RITS doesn't appear to immediately react but then charges Silas, screaming about betrayal but seems to come to his senses at the last moment, which was good sense Silas was trying to snap Brutus out of it by slapping him with his mage hand and couldn't react quickly to the unexpected charge. Slaying the last one, Xanlun turned and began randomly running away. About this time help arrived in the form of Nho and Berkham, who had been scouting away from the caravan to determine where the party might reappear. With each of the four afflicted party members recovered from the apparent charm effect they had been under, they searched the rest of the skeletons but the only item they found was a strange silver coin that appeared to be ancient, which RITS took but kept separate from his normal money. Making their way back to the caravan they rested and drank as Silas regaled the caravan with the tale of their heroic exploits in the strange dungeon. Late that night when alone he attuned to the ring he found and discovered it to be a ring of protection. Additionally, Xanlun gave one of the bracelets of sending they had recovered previously to the caravan cartographer, Uke.

**Day 19 (64% Provisions):** Only point of note was a giant shadow that passed over the caravan again...

**Day 20 (63% Provisions):** The caravan finds itself on the shore of a Sea of Sand that flows like water and cannot be crossed with the caravan's wagons as they are now. Bandin discovers a broken wagon with Luya's sigil on it and a large amount of gold (later distributed so each party member gets 25 gold). The party spends the rest of the day building and testing barge designs, ultimately constructing three that can transport the entire caravan.

**Day 21 (55% Provisions):** Setting off, the party is split among the three barges for their protections and begins the journey to find the other side of this Sea of Sand. After several hours of sailing, eight tentacles suddenly burst from the sand and assault the barges. The party heroically fights to defend the barges, with Berkham and Silas obliterating the two attacking their barge with impressive displays of magic before they could damage the barge (meta: Silas had Chaos Bolt jump targets and then Berkham crit'd on Guiding Bolt). However, the other barges sustained some damage in the battle with 9% of the caravans provisions and one caravan member being lost to the sands. For some reason the tentacles seemed more attracted to Bandin (meta: they were attracted to gold). After half of them had been defeated the remaining four went berserk but the part quickly slew two more and the final two retreated. Acting quickly, Bandin and Silas were able to recover 2% of the lost supplies but the remainder and the crew member were gone for good. During the battle Nho did take a bite out of a tentacle in the heat of battle, rejuvenating himself on his enemy's flesh, if there are any ill effects from consuming this flesh remains to be seen.

**Day 22 (55% Provisions):** Finally finding the shore, the barges are scattered trying to land safely but eventually everyone is reunited. Mojitos are consumed in celebration and Bandin splits the gold among the party that he found earlier, unaware it had made him a target of the tentacles. Bandin with his nimbleness is able to recover eight gallons of water from Vampire Cactus (meta: DM convinced to count as 1% provisions hence the no change for the day).

## Outcome:

Having returned to the caravan and successfully crossed the Sea of Sand, the party is confident they are still on Luya's trail but their supplies continue to dwindle...

## Adventure Rewards:

* Ring of Protection (Silas)
* 25 Gold Each
* Ancient Silver Piece of Unknown Origin (RITS)
* Nho leveled up to 2