Fairly short session, mainly because we got highly distracted with off-game talk. I need to start discussing with my players about this, because it's starting to get on Adam's (Jorn) nerves too.
This is also the session where I begin my great experiment of ridding the system of iterative attacks, replacing it with a medium bonus to damage (half level to all attacks). This is partially for simplification. This will lower the potential maximum significantly while only lowering the statistical average slightly (except for Kagemane's, which will be drastically lowered, but his output with a full-round action is...sickening), and create what I like to call 'a normalization of damage output'. It also creates, forcefully, the option of various tactical options available to the party to actually be viable options; because before, the iterative attack was this giant monster that made everyone ignore all other tactical options in favor of it.
I am aware of the debate that the other combat options should be uplifted to be of equal value to higher to raw damage. For those who want to use Iron Heroes yourself, Save-or-Die effects are marginalized for players and should be for monsters as well (pro-tip, keep pure-caster monsters to a minimum), which makes the urgency of having damage potential swing so high less. It is most certainly an experiment, and if the party proves to be hindered to the point they can no longer reliably defeat monsters expected for their level. Please be aware of this process should you attempt it yourself, as it may be necessary to give a larger bonus to damage.
As the party began their quest out of the city, Jorn spied some movement about 700' away in the trees, and had Audrius send his eye golem over to see what it was. As it turned out, it was a buffalo-sized fihyr that was invisible and out in the middle of the day, watching the party. Giving a good idea of where it was, Jorn plugged it with three arrows and began to get closer. The fihyr simply went behind the trees and began to fly up and away from the party, but not before causing incredible fear upon Audrius when he tried to get his eye golem closer for visual inspection (he vomitted and ran away screaming for about half a minute, then had trouble talking straight for two hours after that).
Since it never really showed any hostile actions, and wasn't actually following the party, and they found themselves unable to actually harm it a third of a kilometer in the air with the only person able to shoot at it having to use guesswork since it was invisible to him (hard to describe its position when it's 'up there'), they decided to leave it alone and get back on their trek.
There destination was deep into the desert, more or less straight north the entire way. They entered and traversed the Sighing Desert, a massive territory filled with rolling sand dunes and the occasional monumentally sized rocky spikes of blood-red shale. There is always a constant breeze rolling over the desert that created a sound eerily like the moaning of the dead.
After three days of this fun-filled land, they spied a caravan following them from the south. Waiting a bit for them to catch up, it turned out to be a caravan of the nomad people native to the desert, having fled the city the party just departed from. From what the nomads saw, it was a massive army, fueled by foul sorcery from the Black Lotus Eaters, tearing the entire place down to its foundations (made at least Jorn cough and look away innocently). The party gave the nomads their condolences for being forced to break camp and leave early in the wake of such destruction.
They also noticed Analee. She was disguised to look like someone else, but they could see through her methods. The party then asked to join the caravan for them to join for general manpower, and assured that they create minimal strain on their foodstuffs (being 'just' barely skilled enough to feed themselves indefinitely in this inhospitable land O_o). While traveling, they got a few moments alone with Analee and asked what she was doing there. She said she was posing as a simple peasent refugee that convinced the nomads to take her in, and that the Yellow Night clan was forced to scatter for the time being in the face of such destruction from the Black Lotus Eaters. After a bit of cojoling, she revealed to the party that the Black Lotus Eaters had actually send out several peaceful diplomats to offer rewards to the party for what could be the flower they sought after, and Jorn's own statements revealed that he would possibly be open to such an idea. Since the Yellow Night Clan did not want to go through the dangerous effort of forcefully taking whatever the party had, they secretly killed the peaceful representatives to look like they were killed by the party, which caused the Black Lotus Eaters to escalate their actions until they summoned Saireen and then massed an army to hunt them down.
Jorn gave her a scolding, wished her well with the guilt for being the cause of such death and suffering out of a petty rivalry, and walked off. The party, in their typical fashion, went wordlessly behind Jorn without much of an opinion on the situation (during or after).
A day or two later, the nomads asked the party to scout out ahead for a bit to check for danger while the caravan began to break camp. Going under the shade of a particularly large spike, they spied what seemed to be a moving clout of smoke and flies coming towards them. There was also the ever-increasing scent of burning kitchen waste. Wasting no time, Jorn scampered up the side of the rock spike, and seconds later, half a dozen crocodile-sized beetles the color of pale human skin and covered with oily patches on their carapace erupted from the sands and surrounded the rest of the party. The exposure to the open air also caused the oil patches to erupt in flame, filling the nostrils of the party with a smell akin to rotting carcasses set aflame.
Audrius & Kagemane were brutually injured before they did what they could to start scampering up the rock face themselves to get out of the smoke, and the onrush of flies (scavengers that feed on leftovers from what these 'firebeetles' eat) did little to make the experience pleasant. It was a round or two later before Antric began to cry for aid with the vicious attacks presented that were now focused solely on him. Eventually, all but two of the beetles were taken out by Jorn and Kagemane throwing flasks of acid and daggers respectively into their heads with deadly precision (Audrius did his part eventually, but was hindered by trying to keep out of reach). Audrius himself was almost killed when a firebeetle scampered up after the party and bit at the closest target.
The remaining two firebeetles were herded away by the now arriving nomads, who were experienced with them, but had not expected them to attack (tend to avoid human sized creatures), as it wasn't their mating season at this time. Audrius noticed from the carcasses that they had large ticks between their shells that are primarily used for injecting potions over long periods of time.
The party then rejoined the nomads and travelled for the day, eventually setting up camp again and sleeping. It was by this time that Audrius's eye golem spotted movement and alerted him of the danger. Looking through it, it seemed to be a large, rainbow scaled serpent with human-like arms with vicious talons and a particularly large, unhinged jaw. From the jaw swung an enormous tongue that sweeped from side to side when it left it's mouth. Audrius recognized it as a tracker demon that can smell through time itself in its hunt for the quarry.
The party was awakened and they jumped into formation, suddenly unable to actually see the demon who had shifted its scales to blend perfectly with its environment. It appeared out of nowhere over Jorn, who had been screaming to wake up the rest of the camp, but didn't get a solid hit in. By this point, Audrius did something I hadn't see him do in a long time; use his illusions creatively. He chose the worst possible smell he could imagine, and created the illusion of that, centered on the demon. This overwhelmed the creature long enough for the party to strike it down. They couldn't do much to the corpse, as it was dissolving into nothingness in short order, but this was a reminder that the Black Lotus Eaters are still very much after them.
Eventually, after two weeks of travel, they reach the capital of the nomads; the Silver Flower Oasis. There, they resupply and try to ask a few questions about the city Quarzhasaat, but got only insulted glares and comments about 'fahseen'. While asking someone in a tavern, a stranger interjected, telling them that 'fahseen' is a term that roughly translates as a hell, which the locals believe Quarzhasaat to be. He carries a strangely decorated sheperd's crook and introduces himself as a dreamthief passing through and is surprisingly aware of the current troubles facing the party, saying that many dreams are focused on them right now.
He offers to be the party's guide through Quarzhasaat, as this city of riches is dangerous and their water laws are strange and draconian, and to consider this to be a favour that the party owes him.
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