1.0 They Came Across The Desert On A Horse With No Name

[St.Drewcifer]

The Children of Altair have made their way out of captivity, having fought off undead, they unlock a door and stand outside the compound, breathing in the fresh air and adjust their eyes to the light of predawn.  Not knowing where to go but heeding the words of the Djinn, they keep to the city wall and make haste away from their captors lair.  Soon bells are heard, the type associated with camels from a caravan.  If the children can make their way out of the city this way they may truly be free.

Rounding a corner they see the caravan, it is nearly full light and it is late leaving, before they can approach the master merchant a beggar accosts them, knowing charity is one of the pillars of their faith the children hand over several small coins they had managed to collect, in return the beggar gives them a smooth stone not unlike amber.

With a pleading look in their eyes the children ask the caravan master to let them join the train.  The master considers briefly and agrees, winking at them and mentioning that they are the children of altair.

The journey is underway and soon the group forgets their recent anguish and regain their scampish ways.

One of the stops along the way is at an oasis, where goat herders tend a vast flock.  The caravan leader parleys with the goat herders and they agree to share the oasis.  Plenty of fresh goat milk and cheese are consumed.

Several days into the journey bandits attack them and kill off several of the guards, the children stay and fight, having grown fond of the other members of the caravan.  They outnumber several of the bandits and manage to slay one before the caravan leader breaks off the fight screaming for everyone to flee to the nearby caves – a black cloud approaches and it is death.  The bandits flee back into the desert whilst all the caravan members make it to the safety of the caves shelter.

The children are together in one group and enter further into the cavern to escape the fiery wrath of the storm.  Ahead of them where there should be only darkness they can see a light, they follow it and it leads into a large cavern where they see their friendly Djinni.  He greets them and wants to see their prowess, skills and be entertained generally, he sets them a variety of tasks in the cavern which involve some magic, swordplay, manual dexterity etc – each of the children acquits themselves well with only a few errors.  They are rewarded well with a choice of items.  With much deliberation belying their tender years, the Children selected a coffeepot, a polished emerald  (5000 GP), a Gold Chased Bejewaled sheath for a sword, a carved zither, a pair of pale blue slippers (slippers of soft movement, aka elvenkind), A boxed heard of goats (18 female, 6 male), a cutlass of Quickness +1, Potion of Dreaming

The magical carpet they are given takes them and their belongings (including 4 horses) into the air and towards their home, on the way they encounter a violent sandstorm which causes them to seek shelter.  When the storm passes they are assisted in being dug out by some noble centaurs, the centaurs ask a favor in return. Their oasis was taken over by Werehyenas who have captured their children and threaten to harm them if the adults do not do the foul lycanthropes bidding.  Any direct attack from the centaurs on the shapechangers will mean the death of their children, therefore we agree to launch a surprise attack on the five strong band.

We split into two groups, one on horseback to act as a diversion whilst the warriors in the group will use the magic carpet to swoop down on one of the creatures.

Total surprise is not achieved by disturbing some nesting hawks at the top of a cliff but quickly the group fly down to confront a lone man guarding the entrance of one of the caves.  Blows are exchanged and the creature does not go down easily, two more of it’s kin leap to its defense.  The group on horseback engage two of their number and have difficulty in hitting the creatures although we find that they are afraid of fire, on of the little warriors uses his flaming sword to good effect injuring one of their number and setting it’s fur on fire causing it to escape into the water to extinguish the flames.  The one were creature at the cave mouth is killed and the centaurs enter the battle to finish off the remaining creatures.  Wounds are healed and a number of gems are found in the creatures possession, the centaurs insist we keep these but we want to share some with them – let there be friendship between us.

We bid this noble tribe farewell and continue on our journey.

The carpet continues on it’s way with the eight children and four horses, soon we recognize more features of the desert that are familiar with us.  Suddenly, we hear a voice and the carpet shoots horizontally into the air, each of the children manage to hang on for their lives, every which way the carpet is turned and the children start to enjoy the tumultuous ride.  An air sprite makes itself known to the party and with the odor of the strange smooth stone the beggar in the city gave us, the sprite is placated and we are whisked back to our homeland.

Just as we come in sight of our home a horrendous silver beast larger than any tree is seen attacking our village, our tribe are picked up and impaled on its thorny body – we watch in horror as the last of our people is taken by this horrific beast.  When it goes it is as though we had dreamed the last few minutes.

We nervously enter our home and find the bodies of five drummers, who might have been hired by our people to protect the area.  We gather up some belongings and make our way to the next nearest tribe, after burying the drummers and taking their drums with us.  We are not sure of our next step but think we might find answers from the Band of Drummers HQ.