The grueling battle continued. Silver Heart got rid of his chains while the attention was focused somewhere else a few feet away. Once he got free he tried to help but as soon as he saw blood nearby his irrational fears made him faint. After the group killed the two snakes that had been taking bites out of them for some time now and after Bruce saw her life flash in front of her eyes they managed to put an end to the life of the cultist chief that was leading the sacrificial ceremony.

Meanwhile a few steps away from where Silver Heart had been going to be offered as dinner something huge hit the wall for the third time and, a few hissing seconds later, a big hole and a powerful acidic stench invaded the room. A pissed off young black dragon appeared through the wall and presented herself as Netridi. The group, aware that all the artillery had been used prepared a valiant escape plan. Bruce courageously ran towards the passed off Silver Heart and after getting a good grip on him everybody ran towards the exit door at the back of the storage house. As luck would have it at they met the butler and a group of guards that were coming for rescue. After a tense negotiation with Netridi the dragon flew away. The group proceded to loot the more than 10 bodies that were laying around and later worried about injuries and met Zurk who had been busy all day with Shona in private affairs.

The next morning Zurk thanked them again for getting rid of the cult in his oasis and wished them a nice trip. The blacksmith also approached them with some extra beer for the trip and advice for Feral and Zandor for their future encounter with the hopefully still imprisoned demon.

The group then left the Oasis of Zurk, crossed the big chasm and travelled through Eastern Red Sea towards the Oasis of Melanides. Hadi warned them during the trip that the next oasis wasn't the most pleasant place to be. It was known to be a slavers nest and Melanides, the old dragonborn female who owned it loved seeing other people fight to death for her own pleasure in the oasis' huge arenas.

The group finally arrived to the oasis and once inside they tried to stay below the radar. However, during their stay Hank, the tattooed dwarf asked them to go with him to see someone who might know about his past and, specially, his father. The group agreed and after crossing several bridges over arenas full of slaves and gladiators they arrived to an old two stories house that looked wizardly in the outskirts of the city. An old dwarf opened the door and, a few seconds later, he recognized Hank. Once inside and with some local beer to cheer their moods the old dwarf told them that Hank's father was part of the group who imprisoned the demonic being that the Cult of the Snake is now trying to liberate. After they captured it his father drew a magical map all over Hank's body that accurately showed how to reach the prison and how to leave. Hank asked then how could it be that the map changed all the time even when he looked at himself in a mirror and the group came to know that the ancient civilization that built the prison had such wonderful knowledge as to allow them to build strongholds with changing architecture.

After hearing the story and discussing about it briefly the group returned to the caravan with Tenari so near and a looming adventure to the old city that looked more and more near each day.

Podcasts

zhymballa3_09.mp3

After the group finished with the bandits they continued their trip back to the oasis of Zurk. There as they were approaching the Lower Gates they met a group of volunteers led by a few cultists that was on its way towards the city of Kargavan. Feral spotted a known face among them, Thelula, the freak who some time ago helped him escape from the freak circus. Feral and the rest of the group convinced her not to go with the cultists and she was told to wait with the rest of the caravan while the group took care of some business.

The group then went to Zurk's house were a still cooperative butler followed them on their way to the Cult of the Snake's headquarters a few streets down the canyon. After some time discussing the best strategy to follow Homa and Zandor went to the rooftop where a very handy skylight allowed them to peek into the second level rooms. In one of them Shona and some unfamiliar faces were discussing about that night's offering to their goddess. After the scene ended the group entered, not without issues, into one of the rooms by climbing up one of the headquarters' walls. After sneaking around the house, gauging how many people were in the building and killing the few unfortunate ones that crossed their way into crates the group then went into the bigger building next to the headquarters.

In that second building built into the face of the canyon they saw what originally was a storage house but was now a cult nest full of red curtains, mysterious chants in the background and what looked like a sacrificial altar at the back. They wandered around and finally hid inside a funny looking cart with circular doors. At midnight the group confirmed that a sacrifice was going to take place and they left their hideout as they overheard Silver Heart being dragged around in the direction of the altar. Moha went in search of the butler as the evidence was being chained to the altar. Regrettably the cultists that had gathered inside the storage house saw them and a violent fight ensued. Most of the cultists quickly fell but the few enemies that stood up, including two dangerously big snakes, proved to be much more resilient enemies almost bringing the life of Bruce and Feral to and end.

Podcasts

zhymballa3_08.mp3

Right before the group left the village Zurk's butler and a female halfling approached them. The halfling, called Homa, was also interested in infiltrating the Cult of the Snake's headquarters and she had some valuable information about that and wanted to join the group. With that new member on board they left the oasis and headed towards Tales' tribe. In their way there they fought a trio of shadowhunter bats over a rope bridge. Besides a battle that included flying spirit companions, Pythagorean geometry and bats being pinned down in the air by Feral, Silver Heart's camel fall into the chasm. Strangely enough the halfling didn't faint at the sight of blood during this battle.

After the bats were killed the group continued its journey and, a few hours later they arrived to Tales' hidden village. After Tales had a blushing encounter with Skin-Like-Peaches, a woman from the tribe infatuated with him the group went to talk with Beard-Who-Speaks, the tribe's master shaman. He told them more details about what the Cult of the Snake was up to. In the past the Cult of the Snake and six desert tribes worked together to imprison a powerful demon. Now the Cult of the Snake wanted to control that demon and use its power against the other main cults. Beard gave Tales instructions on how to destroy the demon now that he had been weakened by years of boredom and he also gave him the tribe's totem which was what Shona and the Cult were currently pursuing. He asked Tales and the adventuring group to end all of this nonsense by going to the Ancient City of Kargavan where the demon is sealed and the cult is excavating and to end it forever.

After the group left Beard's house they noticed that Silver Heart was missing. They expected the worst but decided to enjoy the banquet that the tribe was preparing for them. Once they had a good nap and their stomachs full they left the tribe and started their trip back to the oasis of Zurk. On their way back they fought a terrible battle against the cult on the same rope bridge they crossed the day before. The leader of that group, a female doppleganger that had assumed the aspect of Silver Heart, was pushed into the chasm by Zandor's phantom bolt. Another twenty or so cultists fought and died at that bridge which was among other things, covered by grease, stormed without mercy by Zandor's fire powers, shurikened to death by Homa and sneakily attacked by the rest of the group.

Podcasts

zhymballa3_07a.mp3 (93Mb)
zhymballa3_07b.mp3 (27Mb)

He is very tall, he doesn't seem to take anything personal and his slow pace talking unnerves Tales. He also has shared a troubling hobby of sadistically putting an end to the life of the demons he catches as he hums happily.

She is upfront about her cult and doesn't hesitate using her female attributes to achieve her objectives.

The Red Sea is a desert best known for its harsh temperatures, a chasm of several dozens meters wide that crosses the desert and its red sandstorms. There are two areas of relevance: the cursed lands in the North and the lands of the Slave King in the South. Trade caravans abound, the ones shown are the ones that the adventurer group is passing through in its current adventure: "Caravan through the Red Sea".

A flashback transported the attention to Bane's group a few days ago while they were in the middle of the desert. Injured and with most of the group wiped out by continuous attacks from the Followers of Niggurath the group was attacked one more time. Only Bane survived.

Back to the prison the group was finally able to defeat the group of goblins and the swarm of bats who was desperately trying to free Belezzar, the monster that Bane was keeping in custody. However they failed to spot the goblin leader managing to throw a mysterious pendant in the inside of the cell. While Tales was looting that goblin's body he realized what had happend and let everybody know that any other place in a radius of 50km would be safer than staying there. With an evident lack of curiosity the group lef the prison, picked the goblin bodies to loot them peacefully later and ran away. Bane and his clan's reinforcements which just arrived managed to guide the now-free demonic beast out of the Oasis. Nobody knows what happened to either the revenants or the daemon after that.

The next morning the group started its journey towards the Oasis of Zurk, their next stop which was also located in the big chasm characteristic of the Red Sea. As they approached it some conversation ensued. Feral wanted to know more about the little gnome girls and why they were being searched for, Khairon didn't show excessive interest in the beer feast that the 3 githerai monks were looking forward to in the next oasis based on Hadi's comments and Tales and Bruce started playing spy in the middle of the desert.

Once they arrived to the oasis Khairon faced a discussion between Zurk and a member of the Cult of the Snake while the rest of the group went shopping. They also came to know that the Cult of the Snake were recruiting people for an archaeological excavation in a settlement near Tenari.

That evening the group invited themselves to a dinner with Zurk involving well-cooked bats from the Chasm. There they agreed to work together with Zurk in order to find an excuse to kick the Cult of the Snake out of the oasis. They then went to the old dwarven blacksmith with whom Hadi, the 3 githerai monks, Feral and Zandor were having a men's only night involving copious amounts of beer. They needed to ask the blacksmith for information about the Cult of the Snake's headquarter. However after gathering such information and planning how to infiltrate there Tales felt something and the group decided to first go visit his tribe to make sure everything is fine and then later try to find evidence of the evildoing of the cult. The group picked some camels, arranged with Hadi for the caravan to wait for them for 4 days and, with a passed out Zandor and Silver Heart the fainting halfling admitted to the party the group ventured outside of the Oasis towards Tales tribe's settlement.

Podcast

zhymballa3_6.mp3 (102Mb)

After Feral's partying Zandor scoured the rooms of the citadel were most of the fun was taking place in search of someone interesting. Besides some rumours from an old too-knowledgeable-to-be-good human about the cults getting stronger and wanting to awaken horrors from ancient times Zandor spotted a revenant in search of some mercenaries to help him defend his prisoner for the night. Zandor politely declined and started playing some tricks and gathering a small crowd.

Meanwhile something happened outside. A small crippled and estrabic kid approached Khairon and Tales and offered them some money on behalf of a woman in exchange of saving someone who was kept captive because he was different. After evaluating the situation and contacting Zandor, Bruce and the drunken Feral they accepted the offer and went outside of the citadel into the dark with the crippled kid to follow further instructions. They found another kid who explained to them that they needed to go down the edge of the hill with some ropes, enter a cavern and find their way into the citadel prisons through the underwater stream that feeds the oasis. Once inside they would then be able to free that friend. Some alarm bells started ringing and they decided it was too risky so they went back to the citadel. Once inside everyone except Zandor started drinking and enjoying the night with no intentions of risking their lifes. The revenant had already disappeared but Zandor overheard some merchants having a laugh about him. Zandor approached them and they started talking about different topics until the merchants asked him if he wanted to go down to the prison to see what the weird undead guy was doing. Zandor, happily accepted making Khairon, Feral and the rest of the group follow them from a distance to make sure that he didn't get into trouble. Comments about a sort of "rainman for problems" and Zandor could be heard while the group went into lower and lower levels of the citadel and while they saw too much perversion and depravation that was taking place in this citadel of forbidden pleasures.

Once they reached the catacombs repurposed to be a prison they found the revenant humming as usual in front of a cell. An aura of mental uneasiness surrounded the area. Everyone except Feral seemed to be affected by it. Zandor an Feral went to take a look at the prisoner who was being kept heavily chained with a helmet with no visage covering his whole head and his hands trapped in an iron ball. Bane, the revenant, explained to them that his expedition was initially composed of 20 revenants, all members of a group whose sole purpose is to clean the world of demonic creatures. He is to receive reinforcements the next morning but he fears that the cult of Niggurath, who has been attacking them and killing his companions since they captured the beast, would strike back again tonight in a final attempt to free their minion. He also warned that if the prisoner was to get free of his chains nobody in kilometers would be able to stop him.

As he was explaining the situation with his usual slow tempo some noise came from outside and a few seconds later after a group of goblins and a swarm of bats blasted through the door sending Feral into a coffing and starting a desperate fight to free their friend.

Podcast

zhymballa3_05.mp3 (193Mb)

After finally refusing to give Shona the name of Tales' tribe Bruce managed to convince her to be the first approaching the water surface. Shona saw lichen but she was out of his reach and Tales and his spear went to the rescue. As soon as they touched the surface a monstruous crocodile with two heads flashed towards them. After the first round Shona betrayed the group by firing a lightning bolt towards the stairs destroying part of it and leaving her and Zandor on the upper side and the rest of the group and the crocodile on the lower side. In the subsequent rounds Zandor managed to keep Shona from escaping by using a combination of ghost projectiles and grease while the rest of the group frantically fought the savage crocodile who insisted on taking bites on them. After a few more rounds Zandor managed to push Shona off the stairs and down into the water where she promptly started diving. A few seconds later the group killed the crocodile and beheaded it. Regrettably for the group Shona used this opportunity to escape through the underwater river and when the group tried to get her it was already too late.

After bringing the lichen to the old lady to prepare the antidote for Hadi and healing him the group went to bed. Something awakened Tales that night and as he woke up in the middle of the night he saw someone going away from him and crouching among the caravan members. Further investigation didn't throw any light and they all went back to bed.

The next morning Hadi felt completely well and after packing everything the caravan left the temple and headed towards their next stop: the Oasis of Amja, a tiefling friend of Hadi known for its many parties and funky citadel. The group was invited to a party the night of their arrival and while Khairon and Tales set up a first aid samaritan stand in the resting place for caravans the rest of the group went inside the citadel for some partying. Feral lost all his money in two rounds of combat against a savage orc that offered all his money to whoever won against him on a one on one. However Feral later regained part of what he lost after winning a drinking competition by drinking 6 pints of strong beer straight. While Feral was endulging in some alcoholic induced happiness the rest of the group gathered information while something interesting started developing outside in the caravan area...

Podcasts

Caravan through the Red Sea - 4, Part 1 (3h21m, 193Mb)
Part 2 is missing due to GarageBand refusing to record more than 2Gb. Searching for an alternative recording program..

It’s lucky I found the caravan when I did, because I have no sense of direction and my bastard of a god doesn’t really provide any guidance. At least not that kind of guidance. By the time I fell upon the caravan all of my food supply was dry and inedible. Of course I couldn’t cook anything because the damn desert has no damn trees or bushes. I was pretty hungry by the time I reached the caravan. The people running the show seemed welcoming enough as they had an abundance of food and problems and a shortage of people to take care of either. I’m always eager to help.

Seems like the guy who put the caravan together was sick and the only cure (a special kind of lichen) lies in a temple not too far away. Talk about coincidences. I swear I could feel the holier-than-thou aura of the place from where we were. Of course the juvenile, self-righteous, self-centered and self-important wastes of time, space and energy (you call them ‘gods’) taint and corrupt everything they touch.

But there was no time for contemplation. From the first night it seemed we were being followed but we could never find out who it was that was following us. Bastards were too quick for us. Bad things always happen at night it seems... We set an ambush for whoever it was and managed to surprise each other the following night. The battle was brief and bloody but we didn’t lose anyone - except for a human merchant who was murdered, his limbs spread out in some sick ritualistic pattern. Religion is great, isn’t it? We never found out who did it, nor did we find out the identity of our attackers - they died too quickly. It’s a shame, I would have loved to interrogate them for a few hours. Maybe ask them a few questions too...

Finally, narrowly avoiding a sand storm (I don’t see what the fuss was all about... oooh! sand! I got some in my eye!) we made it to the temple. It was essentially an abandoned hole in the ground, so that elevated it above any temple I’ve been too in the last few years. We managed to get through a sound-activated trap - the blades were easy enough to avoid. Feral the barbarian even made it through twice. He’s a big fellow.

The main underground structure, roughly forming a circle, was lit in its mid-section by a few rays of sunlight that was getting through some holes in the ceiling far off above us. We got the distinct impression that crossing those might be a bad idea. As we descended the well-shaped temple, we kept seeing visions in the shafts of light that I’m sure had some religious significance, e.g. none. We investigated a few of the corridors that extended beyond the main shaft, but found nothing. It looked like an underground river (I never knew those existed!) broke through part of the temple and flooded the ground floor. At its center, just above the water we saw what looked like an altar. I felt an urge to smash it, to get one step closer to going back to my wife and kid, but redemption can wait for now. Something ominous lives down there, we can all feel it. But we can’t see what it is. I hope that thing shits lichen because I’m already sick of the taint of this place. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough...