Having set out from Delta in the company of a Temple Master and two young Paladins (though, from the demeanour, not as young as Finn), our trio sets out to cross Eron’s Desert, destined for the University. It feels important here to note that our trio is setting out on foot, likely much to Araxis’ dismay, though she is too polite to say anything. Young Finn arranged the journey with his fellow Paladins, and with a needs must attitude, did not question the travel arrangements before committing to the plan to meet in front of the temple door on an atypically bright morning in Delta (though the atypical nature of the morning was not a prerequisite of the plan).
The journey between Delta and Last is a well travelled one, which meant there was a distinct lack of interesting features on the trail. Such things were already likely picked up by small children who passed through the area first, or the occasional adult who never gave up an interest in polished rocks by a roadside. On their arrival they found Last to be what many before them had – plain, but reliable.
With their loaned tents set up the three set about their evening. Daphne communed with Theo, while Araxis and Finn went to the bar in Last. There was moonshine in the bar, which Araxis was determined to down with a suspicious dose of a optimism that it would keep them warm at night. Daphne eventually joined, whereupon Finn kindly purchased her drink (having recently found five gold coins, which, he suspects, she put there in repayment for the damage to his armour). She downed it in one gulp, swearing that the Ribbon at Arms would never serve such swill.
Insides sufficiently warmed and stripped of their lining by the evening’s night cap they headed back to the tents. Araxis warmed some hot rocks for everyone’s sleeping bags and the night passed without incident, though perhaps their dreams were buoyed by stories of dragons and lost temples told by the Temple Master.
As our ragtag group moved away from Last, they could feel the air getting increasingly parched, and could see the sun glittering off the wide expanse of sand that lay ahead. Around midday they stopped to quench their thirst and eat some of the hard cheese from their pack (hard cheese being a requirement on such walks). Daphne spotted a rock that looked like a grinning face, but otherwise they encountered nothing out of the ordinary.
Their encampment for the night was well-trodden (that fun rock was really a stroke of luck); everyone passing this way stops before the yawning mouth of the canyon’s cliffs. Two walls of layered stone lay before them, with the road to the university wending its way between.
In the morning, they awoke to walk through the aforementioned cliffs. It was surprisingly pleasant – the gentle slope of the canyon’s walls mean they had some shelter from the heat of the rising sun, but not so much that they failed to shake off the chill of a desert night.
As they left the shelter of the canyon walls, they could see the gentle, rolling expanse of the desert. They could see it much closer than last time we remarked upon the view, when it was just some sparkles under the sun. Despite the harsh facade there is life in a desert. Finn caught sight of a flicker of a tail behind a rock – likely a lizard startled by their movements.
More seasoned adventurers might have reflected on this uneventful journey as a streak of luck, and wondered when it might end. Our adventurers did not.
As they approach their encampment for the second night of the travels through the desert (Last doesn’t count because it is not properly in the desert, you see), they saw the looking figure of the long abandoned temple the Temple Master told them about. Earlier, sensing Finn was disappointed, he told him this story to give the young man something to look forward to.
“Did they teach you about this?”, he asked. “This was the a Temple of the Oath of Vengeance. You can still make out the inscription above the door, ‘By Any Means Necessary’. Ironic, in a way, for one of that took that too far. They had built the temple in the desert as a suitable climate to accompany their vows. One of them, though, did the unthinkable, and broke his oath. The ruins are the reminents of their mistake.
“We stop here each time we pass to remind ourselves of our tenets of devotion – to honour and do as much good without harm to others, and duty. This is a solemn reminder that we are responsible for our actions and their consequences, and above all, to the oaths we have made.”
Deeply intrigued by the story of the temple, Finn convinced the others to join him for a trip to go explore it before bed. It was an hour’s walk away. While walking to the temple the also walked themselves into a wild magic surge. Such surges are wily things – they can’t be detected, but are easily triggered by any use of magic or magical ability.
Not knowing this, and having no suspicions triggered by the ease of their journey thus far, Finn used his magical ability to detect good and evil. Before he had a moment to register the feelings being relayed to him, the wild magic surge took hold. Finn struggled to control it and redirect its power but was unable. Araxis, in a wild attempt to held, punched Finn with a gust of air. Too late, it struck the now cactus shaped Finn, causing significant damage to his prickly visage. Araxis, meanwhile, had to deal with her own surge of wild magic. It made all in the party vulnerable to piercing damage – fortunate there were no foe in range, and the impact of that surge passed widely unnoticed. A significant factor in that may have been the fact that Finn was now a cactus and had drawn considerable attention to himself in having done so.
Unsure what to do, Daphne picked Finn up, and the two began the walk back to camp with Finn. Along the walk they brainstormed possible solutions for solving this problem. They also disturbed a monster, and were soon swarmed with spiders. Daphne passed Cactus-Finn to Theo, who flew him out of harm’s way. Unaware they were still in the range of the wild magic surge, Araxis cast a spell, which the surge turned into the fortunate side effect of causing a lightening strike on the spiders. This hastened the spider’s defeat, and our protagonists’ journey back to camp.
The return necessitated the retelling of the adventure, for one cannot go into the desert with a Paladin friend and return with a cactus without answering some questions. The Paladins were unable to offer any solution, so it is here we leave our adventurers. Slightly prickly, very confused, out of Ki points, and likely in need of a rest.
