He nods over at Bran, eyes closed. "I do," he says with a smile. 

"It... it does feel familiar. Yes, it does." Ne'haredowell tries to take in some of the magic of the moment, closing his eyes, not wanting it to be spoiled by what he has to say next. 'Oh, if we could only just live in moments.'

He sighs. "We can't stay here. Al's right." He winces, "Can I call you 'Al'? 'Albie'? Er, no, sorry. Um, yes, he's... right. It's like- I don't know how to describe it- a trick. Fey... The way," he points over towards the right, "feels so good. But. I don't think it is safe. All my body is telling me to go safe." He cranes his neck over to the left. "But... we should prepare." He gestures over to Bran, reflecting back on his suggestion of a trance. "We should find out all we can about this place."

"I concur as I don't think this place is a good place to rest though I hear water down the right path. I know it is adorned by those flowers but discovering a water source could be critical for Santekh. I vote for trying the right path. What do all of you think?" says Arvos

Albert turns to Nare: "Oh you can call me however you want if you consider me a friend!"

Answers to Arvos: "Our spells can create just a tiny bit of water. Much less then the town needs. If we clear this cave and make it safe, we could definitely make many lives much better. Mishakal definitely would bless such endeavors"

Bran listens to the discussion and responds, "While I would like to stay for a time, I agree with Albert and Arvos, making the place safe and secure as Albert says could make the lives of many better is the right thing, may another time". 

Darian nods slowly, his eyes shifting between the paths before settling on the right, where the denser vines and the faint sound of water beckon. His voice is steady but still carrying the roughness of his broken Common.

“Water is… life,” he says, as he grips his bow tightly, scanning the cave once more. “Worth the risk.”

He steps cautiously toward the right path, his movements careful to avoid disturbing any vines, every step deliberate. He gestures for the others to follow but keeps his attention focused on the environment around them. “Step light… no touch Creeper. We go slow, get through.”

Darian moves forward, his posture tense but ready, fully aware of the danger they’re moving into, but confident in the decision to push forward toward the water.

Stealth 22

Acrobatics 22

Albert looks at the agility of Darian in disbelief: "Oh I hope these old joints don't disappoint me now".

He tries to follow Darian shining a bit of dim light from his partially covered staff.

Stealth 18

Acrobatics 4 + 2 from guidance = 6

Nare's darkness spell covers the sand cat, creating an unnatural negative space in the otherwise colorful cave.

Darian advances into the cave, deftly avoiding the thickening and twisting vines. The flowers emit a sweet and pleasant fragrance at your passing, as if begging you to bury your nose in its petals, but remain perfectly still. Your delicate and graceful moves are poetry... a high-stakes ballet in the dark of the cave.

As Albert begins to pass, the vines and flowers slink slowly away from the light emanating from his staff. Unfortunately, your robe drags against on of the twisted roots. The flowers convulse and spasm, emitting a powerful must that fills the air in a 30 foot radius!

Everyone (except Darian who has made it to safety) please roll a saving through vs Charmed (DC 11). If you are immune to charm effects, please declare that.
Everyone, please roll a Nature check.

Nature 16

Charmed | 9 |

[OOC: Trouble with dice roller!]

Arvos has advantage against charm and cannot be magically put to sleep. 

Wis Save -25 (Nat 20) - rolled in game log

Nature - 16

Nature 6 for Darian

Albert 16 wis save and 10 nature

"Oh?!" Nare's eyes widen at Albert's proposal. "Oh ah, yes, a friend... Albie."  'The Golden Company is... really good company.'

He looks about to nudge Albert with a playful smirk but then thinks against it due to the vines.

"Worth the risk?" He wasn't so sure, but they were true, it doesn't hurt to try. He lightly chuckles at Albert's joke. He eases through the narrow crack, thinking that since he's a haregon then he must have no trouble at all---

((Wisdom Saving Throw: 8 + 2 = 10 

Nature: 5 oh no ))

Quote from Inexorabletruth >>

Bran's scythe lost its red pulse at some point throughout the night. And in the daylight it seems like the weaponized farm implement it was modeled after.

Nare's heart is racing during setup, and he has a hard time focusing on tasks at hand, making it too difficult to spot any new helpful resources... unless sand, rocks, or dog hair is interesting to him.

Albert's magical manipulation is noticed by Princess Harkail, and she squints her eyes menacingly. But decides to give in to the charm, realizing the wisdom in his decision to keep moods indifferent. She calls the guards in close to be in range of the spell as well.

Misreading Bran's concerns, one of the kobold guards cuffs Bran on the shoulder in a display of camaraderie. "Good warrior. You protects comrades. Dog die fast. Good kill." his common is thickly accented with the barking inflection of his people, but he does seem to be genuinely conveying reassurance and admiration at your combat prowess.

After the party is packed up, filled with kobold-coffee, and ready to go, Darian whispers something to the Princess who nods. Then he takes up point, guiding them on a slight detour that takes you yet closer to the mountains.

The beverage performs its job perfectly. You sweat profusely... soaking your clothes. It's a miserable sensation slogging in your own soupy linens and armor, but it works to catch the wind and cool your body quickly. The ravaging effects of the sun are much more tolerable through the day, until the afternoon sun starts to bake your clothes dry. But by then, you're already hiking part of the way up the mountain, where some scraggly trees and brush provide a hint of shade to walk through. Whatever path Darian has guided you on has at least kept you safe from further Death Dog attacks. It's around here that Darian slows the group. Ahead of you you see a cavern entrance wide enough to two medium sized people to enter at a time. This seems to be the place that Darian has decided to lead the party.

 The remainder of the trip is focused on returning home without incident as Bran's and Nare's health decline.

Those of you who were bitten by the Death Dogs, please roll two CON saves (DC 11). For each failed save, reduce your maximum HP by 1d10. If your Max HP is reduced to 0, your character is dead (but there are people in Santekh who can resurrect you, unless you'd rather roll up a new character. If you wish to roll up a new character, decide if your old character's remains would like to be buried in the desert, or brought back to Santekh.

As the trail meanders towards the rocky outcropping, you can see the high walls of Santekh in the distance, and A small group of Hachakee tribesman are exiting the gate, weapons in hand. They approach your party calmly, and start conversing with Darian in Hachakee. It's similar enough to Common that you can glean a bit of information. There appears to be trouble back in their home. Something about a curse, and a handful of warriors and healers were dispatched to investigate. Darian insists on coming with them and bids your party farewell. The urgency in his tone suggests that he won't be swayed, nor that he will allow anyone to join him who isn't official Hachakee.

You carry on and Witchdoctor Duncan greets you at the gate warmly. "My friends!" He smiles brightly, hungrily eyeing the crates on your wagons.

While traveling Albert will try to do lesser restoration on both of the bitten companions: "Hold on my friends. I can take the edge off, but don't know if I can heal you"

After saying his goodbye to Darian, Albert heads to the witchdoctors. "Greetings my friend! As you see we were successful. We even gathered some rare materials for you.". Hands him a vial of death dog saliva and the large (dragons?) scale he found. "The first one comes from the mouth of a foul creature - death dog. Those beasts bit some of us, so maybe it can be used for an antivenom. The scale - I just thought it is neat - you might like it or want to trade"

((Con Save 1: nat 20!!! + 2 = 22))

((Con Save 2: 15 + 2 = 17))

Nare trudges through, exhausted. He slumps against a rock under the hot bearing sun. Smiling over at Albert, he manages a chuckle. "That... that would be nice. Thank you." He looks over to his side. Despite not really bleeding it does not look right. "I think it might be infected. If I can find some alcohol later then it might be alright. You too, Bran." His eyes go soft over at  the scythe-wielding fellow. 

"Hope we see you again," he murmurs to Darian before patting him on the back. "May your troubles be light."

At Sanketh he gives a half-hearted wave over at the doctor. "Hiya doc. Didn't find much stuff unless dirt is what you're asking for."

Arvos is glad to be back to the Santekh. He addresses the witch doctor "Yes the crates hold the supplies, but a deal was struck with the Kobold leader. We are going to need to speak to administration here urgently." 

He will walk back towards the office where he first received their orders to report back what they found and the impending deal that needs to be struck

[OOC: Just got home so its going to be short..]

CON SAVES | 2 | 2 |

OOC: I failed to realize that Albert had used Lesser Restoration on Nare and Bran, which would cure the disease (as a poison) before your HP was reduced. So sorry to have held up the game while I figured that out.

Witchdoctor Duncan eyes Albert's offerings with more than passing interest. "Yes, yes! That's very interesting!. If you like, I can take whatever components you've harvested and value them out for you while you return our supplies." He tries to maintain his enthusiasm at Nare's offering of dirt. "Well... dirt can be valuable, depending on the quality. As you can see," he gestures to the desert, "we aren't short on sand. But we have a notable lack of fertile soil. Also, magically infused dirt is always valuable... if the balance is right. This region used to be crawling with dragons. And their presence passively infused plants, minerals, and local fauna, with magic. Too much magic can cause magic poisoning, which some in town suggest is the cause of the blight in our region. But, if you can find soil, plants, bugs, bones, etc that are magic infused, not magic poisoned, they can possess extraordinary properties. Some can grant foresight, healing, limited invulnerability, invisibility, darkvision, or even the ability to use spell-like abilities for a short time... if you know how to use it."  Duncan shrugs half-heartedly, to be encouraging but not to give you too much hope. "I can examine it in my shop if you like, and will give you a fair price for it if it's worth anything."

Please remind me where you got the dirt from. It's been a staggering couple of months IRL, and I'm struggling to remember.

Duncan waves on the carts as you consider your options. "Please bring the carts to Rhyana the Assayer so she can distribute the supplies as needed. She'll give you a note of completion and you can claim your boun-"

Arvos's urgent interruption grabs Duncan's attention. He leans to the side to stare at the quietly waiting kobols. "Wwwwwow." He says... somewhat tactlessly. "So... you just...brought some kobold prisoners right into Santekh." 

"Hardly." Princess Harkail interrupts. "We are here as invited guests of the Golden Company and as representatives of our tribe to negotiate a peaceful trade agreement. We have provided an offering of supplies as good faith. We trust that you will ensure our safety while we are here."

Duncan looks at the heavily armed kobolds. "They're going to have to leave their weapons at the gate." Princess Harkail nods and translates the instructions to the guards who nervously comply. Once Duncan catalogs and stores the weapons he returns to the party. "We don't have any fully trained guards yet. But we have a militia now that can provide escort."

Princess Harkail seems to bristle at the notion of a kobold-hating militia surrounding her and her subjects, but remains silent.

Albert smiles at Duncan: "Glad you like it! Hope it does some good here! Yes, lets talk value later. Regardless, I prefer barter over coin. Oh and also Mishakal has blessed me on our journey. We can fill some barels with water later"

Turns to princess and offers her hand: "Majesty, shall we? Noone is interested in fighting. Just follow our lead"

((oh! he found some dirt in the kobold's cave and also some bone fragments by the entrance of the cave))

Turning away from Duncan's voice and unsticking his blood soaked shirt from his skin from that night, Ne'haredowell winces. It seems some fur got stuck on it. 'Ripping the bandage'.

'Barter over coin?!' Nare's old thieving ways hit him hard like a wagon. What was only a couple years ago feels so long ago now. The weight of just the last few days fall upon his shoulders as he notices his wounds begin to heal. He opens his mouth over to Albert only to find him talking with Duncan. He smiles; he'll tell him later how grateful he is to the cleric for that. "Oh."  He can tell from the way that Ducan's voice sounds that he's not too thoroughly disappointed but not terribly enthusiastic either. His ear catches the words 'magic poisoning'. 'The theory from before!'

He remembers Buckeran's lore on the dragon's nest. "Bones!" He rummages through his backpack, cutting Duncan off mid-sentence. "I got bones as well!" He silently curses himself for not getting that bug he found earlier on his trip. Lennie (his mouse) was just too quick. 

"Uh, huh!" Nare smiles, excitedly like a kid who has so much to show and tell.

At Arvos's words he nearly had forgotten about the crates mission. '... dragon-loving devils.' His ears flatten against his head at Duncan's expected response. He puffs his chest up alongside Princess Harkail's rebuttal. "Yes, we should not fi- fight about this." Nare declares.He too bristles at his witchdoctor friend's apparent hostility. 

"The clan," Nare makes sure to emphasize them specifically rather than just the whole race's name, "fought alongside us in a death dog attack. They are here in good faith, just as us." He tries to parallel them to the refugees. "No one wants to see this land perish. We are all vying for scraps here."

"We got the crates."