As the party sight land, their long sea
voyage finally coming to an end, they spy another ship on the
horizon. It quickly draws alongside and the Everessememe soldiers
crewing it insist on searching the party's ship. The fail to find
whatever it is they were looking for, but realise the Zhang Zhou is a
graduate of the University of Mongxar and thus obliged to offer help
to soldiers on the Emperor's business they requisition him for their
secret mission. They refuse to let Gordon join Zhang, but do promise
to return him to the small port town of Iskandria, where they suggest
that the party wait in the meantime.
As the party sail into Iskandria, they
see an ancient, but slightly crumbling, town. Despite a large number
of berths, the docks are mostly deserted save for a single merchant
vessel and a few listless dockhands. One of them informs the party
that the docks are normally bustling, but recently caravans
travelling along the desert road have been prevented from reaching
the town by a group of 'mad northmen'. The party then make their way
to Iskandria's premier eatery, Hammurabi's grill for a bite to eat.
Whilst feasting on delicious grills, the enthusiastic Hammurabi asks
for the party' help: a tribe of horrible lizard men have recently
taken up residence by an oasis normally used by his camel and sheep
herds. They are eating the normally well-treated camels
indiscriminately and Hammurabi asks the party to drive them off, a
task for which they will be rewarded with gold and free grills for
life.
The party next visits the Caranvaners'
Guild whose head, Ilu-Shuma, asks them to deal with the Northmen who
have been raiding the caravans travelling into Iskandria. They are
striking out of the hills surrounding the desert road and killing or
taking captive the passengers and crew of any caravans that pass,
leaving the cargo strangely untouched. The party agree to help and
head off to the west gate, passing through the marketplace on their
way.
In the market, the party encounter a
mad beggar who babbles to them about elves having stolen his name,
asking if they could find it if they are going into the desert.
Before he can be questioned further he scarpers, terrified by the
monstrous faces of Gordon and Charlie Martin. With the exception of
Gordon, the part also all buy sunhats.
Their business in town concluded for
the time being, the party head into the desert. They find the
lizardman tribe by the oasis and are told by their shaman to go away
– it's their oasis now. The draconic-speaking Strawson attempts to
negotiate but fails and the party leaps into battle. After our heroes
make short work of the Lizardmen's front line and artillery the
shaman surrenders and agrees to lead the tribe back to the hills
where they used to live.
After the battle is done, Gordon and
Charlie's sharp eyes spot a figure on the edge of the hills to the
north – the party is being watched. Suspecting that it was one of
the Northmen that they are after, the party goes to investigate.
After some disagreements over which way the tracks lead from the
hill, the party decide to follow Gordon's lead. However the have
spent too long deliberating and as they are walking along the bottom
of a narrow ravine, bowmen appear at the top and they see a boulder
being manoeuvred into position at its mouth – the party are being
ambushed! Luckily Gordon manages to push the boulder back the other
way before it can crush the party. The northmen seem uninterested in
talking, their leader merely instructing his men to take the Goliath
alive as he would make a fine meal for 'Mother Wyrm'. After a tough
fight the northmen go down and on the leader's corpse the party find
a crude map indicating a path through the hills.
The map leads to the party to a
rune-covered cave mouth and they proceed to enter. Inside they find
“Mother Wyrm” - an enormous snake that the northmen had been
feeding their captives to. Faced with such obviously dangerous beast,
the party dig deep into their reserves and vanquish the monster in
under thirty seconds.
