Technically the prior session was an impromptu session, but I ran through most of my plans that day, and our regular session suffered. Probably for the better, because the player for Cast was unable to make it for that session, so this is going to be a bit shorter than normal.
Heading out, they made camp within the wastelands. While resting, Marshal saw an orc enter his darkvision range, looking parched to the point of being a walking corpse. A dry sirrush of sand and salt stirred around it with gusto that could be felt from his spot, it's cold, dead eyes looking at him with hunger. He awoke the slumbering beast X37 and Tow, who were within easy reach, and the sudden movement made the walking corpse react.
Charging forward, it tore into the group, its aura of salt scouring their flesh while it pinned Tow to the ground and started to literally suck him dry. X37 lifted him into the air, only to find himself overtaken by the swarm of sand and released the creature; which subsequently found itself chopped in half by Marshal's blade. At which point, the whirlwind formed into a child sized humanoid whose face was nothing but a gaping maw, and sucked what liquids it could before being rended by the rest of the party. Technically the dessicator was able to return to swarm form before being killed, and was literally invulnerable to any and everything the current party could do, but we decided to let Cast (the player wasn't present, remember) re-enter the fight for a single round (crawled out of the wagon) and turn on his Sun Plate for a round, which was enough to finish it off.
Within a minute, they heard hoofbeats heading towards them, and a war wagon approached, manned by half a dozen orcs bearing the insignia of the Bloodtooth clan. The lead orc's eyes glowed red (normal orcs only have reflective yellow, not actual glowing eyes) and wore noticeably better gear than the rest, and he demanded of the party to identify themselves and tell him if they saw a salt demon.
With animated gesticulation, Tow cast silent charm person on the vampire orc (as they discovered, but Tome vampires retain their old type as a subtype, so I ruled them vulnerable since they have Dark Minded), so they wouldn't get too hostile. From there, they discovered that the orcs were after the salt demon they just fought, a spawn from the Hungering Maw that already killed some of their clan. With thanks, the orc warned the party to stay away from the forest for the next few miles, because that's where a Blacked Grove outpost was patrolling for the time being; the orcs having a trade agreement with them for aid in food production (both prisoners for the vampire elite and plant growth/create food/water for the rest), in exchange for the occasional hassle with the Empire of the Sun. Not wanting to have an unneccessary fight on their hands, Tow has them leave peacefully by this point.
After a total of a week and a half, they reach the location of the former headquarters of the Barghest's Maw, the Shadow Beneath the Flame; northern base of the mountain peak of the Caverns of Flame, a forest of blackened trees and soot-covered soil. They encounter some passing salamanders, but X37 kills the medium size one in a single round (leaving the three small size ones left to whiff pointlessly against their massive ACs).
Within the barely standing dojo, they find little except a palpable chill, until Tow casts detect secret doors and finds the remains of an underground passageway underneath a broken statue. While there were numerous traps down the hall (ninjas, their shoes are probably trapped), a fair number had rusted shut or broken with age; and a symbol of weakness was accidentally wiped clean, which knocked Tow into a waking coma. He would've likely found it, but they had X37 (about the size of the barghest founder, which the hall's built for) do trapfinding by grabbing a tree trunk and knocking it around the place; no idea why.
There were inscriptions around the place, indicating it to be an ancient goblinoid cavern that mentioned their gods avatar coming down and consuming their enemies; along with a technique of consuming only part of a creature to bestow strength and power.
In the deepest part is a still smoldering censer, the room ice cold. They knocked it over, releasing a cinderspawn which did some Charisma drain to Tow and Marshal (gave it whirlwind attack, and they just had Tow strapped to X37's back) before getting smacked down. Scavenging a bit more, they found a necklace of goblin skulls with inscribed names of historically significant people that died, as well as recently activated alarm wards (Tow wasn't able to identify or tell the party what he saw until tomorrow). Inside one of the skulls is a necromantically enchanted onyx gemstone, but identification won't occur until they return to the Empire of the Sun.
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