FOXTROT
While Alpha, Delta, and Charlie advance east to contact the unknown forces bent on acquisition of the caravan’s invaluable cache of vis, Foxtrot settles in for an easy day of Uno in cantonment. Before the cards are even shuffled, Portent addresses the caravan from the aft porch of the bookmobile. It seems there is a traitor in their midst. Recently promoted Briar Quicksilver grapples Armin Ormanheit arrestingly. Armin and Hansel “Hans” Ormanheit, now in the presumably more authenticate form of icky, four-armed Quori, pop away to nearby desert chimneys, flank the caravan, and goad them derisively. It seems the “Brothers Ormanheit” were Quori infiltrators all along, dramatically revealed by the ingenious ruse of Portent and Xalver’s feigned intelligence leak. Ssatschia had his suspicions all along owing to their unconcealable Quori accent.
Bramrigg “Bram” Stonewander and Waldorf “Wall” Boulderbreaker charge south for Hans aided by Urim Lazenby’s Pelor-powered spiritual sun mace. Bram force-pulls Hans off the chimney so Wall can hammer on him. Toffee and Bear Briar split off for Armin to the north. Gohiru Khalang observes the unguarded tankers in between the divided party and hangs back, a tactic justified when Armin and Hans dimension hop away from their pursuers back to the wagons. A force field hop-blocks Armin stopping him short of the book mobile.
Shaking off Khalang’s insured witchbolt, Hans savages Toffee with point blank crossbow bolts. More arms mean more pain for Toffee, knocked out until Briar’s righteous hands lay some health on him. Hans gets his numerous arms twisted up trying to murder Toffee leaving him stunned and exhausted. Wall second winds and runs down Armin but is similarly discombobulated by her own hammer swing.
ALPHA
Clearing canyons to the southeast, Alpha comes suddenly upon a few giant hyenas and a pair of ogres. Moth menaces them with his shortsword as Scram’s considerable fireball explodes, bloodying pretty much all of them. The ogres reckon Tango is easy prey so the party rushes in to peel them off. Nala methodically chops down the burnt hyenas, working her way counterclockwise around a column in the narrow canyon. The sound of rapidly dying ogres and hyenas attracts the attention of couple of lamia and a third ogre intent on pounding Nala into the desert floor. Scram tosses another fireball which softens up the clog around Nala. Snory and Ssatschia clerically maintain Nala’s greatsword swinging condition. Lucky Tango and critically darting Moth work through the hyenas clockwise around the column. The rising pile of ogre, hyena, and lamia bodies filling the canyon bodes well for Alpha’s dominance until the commotion attracts the attention of things hissing and howling throughout the canyons.
DELTA
On the search for an army of dodecaheathens, all Delta can find is an army of gnolls, jackelweres, and giant scorpions presenting a unified resistance. Hopefully the dodecaheathens are having the same difficulty. Andrakis becomes surprisingly frightened of Ivor Starag, either because Ivor is standing in the middle of the desert inviting all challengers to hurt him or because of the unpredictable effects of wild magic, maybe a little of both. Gamble Watt strikes an injurious power chord on his radical lute opening hostilities on a gnoll and scorpion to the right. That gives Tambourine, Max, and Tanagra a place to start eradicating and the battle is joined. Tambourine is lulled to sleep by a jackelweres until Max scoops her up on his shoulder. The situation seems otherwise manageable until a couple of boulders sail over the dunes at Andrakis and Tanagra. Tanagra gets crushed by the boulder which brings Ivor running. Andrakis is on his game and confounds the gnolls with his mirror images. Bardically inspiring Gamble dodges a boulder. Ivor invites a boulder into his taunting gob. A mass of jackelweres, scorpions, gnolls, and boulder-hucking cyclops roll over the horizon.
CHARLIE
An enormous dust cloud over the desert approaches Charlie as Charlie approaches the enormous dust cloud, dense in the middle from a dust devil, glowing yellow and orange on the left from a fire elemental, and busy on the right from a swirling air elemental. Oh, also a huge dracolich with a skeletal rider possessed of too many laughing heads rising above the storm. Tenebrous “Ten” Shae knows that, to survive a dragon, the party will require a lot of advantageous avoidance to survive; he shares a circle of power with his cohort. Ash calmly selects his finest arrow, takes his time knocking it into the bow, thoughtfully draws the bow, and mindfully plugs that steady-aimed, sneaky arrow right into rider Gghuarrlongh The Undying. Ander, not to be outdone, flips a coin that unfolds into a force ballista and combos that with a firebolt into Gghuarrlongh The Undying. Watc releases his largest ever fireball which is disappointingly avoided by the elementals and dracolich. Sqyylarr has a run at the fire elemental who sets her alight. She stops, she drops, and she rolls out the fire but gets beaten by the dracolich’s tail. The dust devil sits on Ten and Ander and launches Ten into the air elemental. Gghuarrlongh The Undying swings a bone staff around meaningfully and, with accompanying cackle, summons up a clutch of death dogs. Barika breaks a hand trying to chop a death dog. Ten repairs Barika’s hand with a healing word so she will not be at such a disadvantage and summons a twilight sanctuary that will temporarily boost the party’s health. Ash and Ander skillfully break contact with the death dogs. Watc encompasses the battle in a fireball which helps with a couple of the death dogs. Sqyylarr makes use of her artificed maul, Smash, to blind the air elemental. Gghuarrlongh The Undying flies Gghrondeneuxs the dracolich through a golden portal abandoning the elementals to fend for themselves.