Episode 11 – Rescue Operation in the Slums & Sand Elemental Encounter
Date played: 27 June 2026
XP awarded: 1,243 per character (943 base + 200 encounter bonus + 100 skill checks)
Summary
Spotting a combined Templar, Noble, and Dregoth force leaving the Templar Quarter and heading for The Slums, the party changed their plans and moved to warn Korno. On the way Derfel, Kit-Chac, Her, Pterrence, Anselem, Salt, and Tchk'Tchk Gulbadani came across a gang holding children prisoner and chose, very uncommonly for Athas, to have a moral problem with it. They engaged, defeated the gang, and gathered the surviving children.
They reached Korno's safe house too late. The fight was over, the Templars were consolidating, and Korno had been taken prisoner. While the party assessed their options, Derfel found Leviath in a hidden hollow in the rubble, guarding a dozen more refugees.
Levith revealed the existence of The Alliance, a secret organisation living beneath Raam's cistern network. There were two entrances: a dry well in the heavily guarded central plaza, and an outer well near the city walls. The party took a long rest in the hollow and debated. Salt and Tchk'Tchk Gulbadani argued against the central well, where fifty soldiers and Enix lizard patrols made it suicide with fifteen refugees in tow. Derfel and Salt weighed the fog option. The consensus went to the outer well.
Kit-Chac and Salt donated two water skins each to Leviath for the refugees. Pterrence took the form of a Mansivar Templar guard via Disguise Self. Salt conjured a false wall with Minor Illusion and kept an invisible Mage Hand ready for diversions. Pterrence webbed a corridor behind them. Derfel used Animal Handling to call a Templar Enix lizard's release command, dropping it harmlessly into the dust and drawing its handlers off the column; Brave worked the edges. Her and Tchk'Tchk Gulbadani held the column together while Anselem supported from the middle. Kit-Chac and Derfel scouted, and Salt watched the rear.
Three skill check failures across the crossing alerted the Dregoth Cultists. They did not send soldiers. Instead they dropped a skull into the cistern shaft and sealed it shut above.
The skull hit the aqueduct floor in the dark below and began pulling sand and stone into itself. The party, expecting to ambush Templars, found themselves facing a massive sand elemental instead.
Salt opened with Tasha's Mind Whip, helped to land by Pterrence's Portent. Anselem's Command (HALT) failed that cast, so he turned to Healing Word and kept the front line alive. Pterrence webbed the corridor (the elemental was immune), then placed Cloud of Daggers upcast to third level in its path for sixteen slashing damage a round, and slowed it with Ray of Frost. Kit-Chac tried Stunning Strike and Flurry of Blows to topple it; the elemental was immune to both stunned and prone. Her held the line and absorbed its multi-attack, taking 27 damage when it dragged her into a Guiding Bolt. Derfel pressed in with Searing Smite, keeping the fire over Hunter's Mark. The turning point was Tchk'Tchk Gulbadani: the elemental had no defence against Command, so he locked it in place inside the Cloud of Daggers and used Telekinetic Propel to drop it back in when it tried to leave. Salt followed with Cure Wounds to pull Derfel back above zero.
A ceiling section collapsed under the weight of the fight. The elemental fragmented: a medium sand elemental split away and dispersed, and the original skull fell free. Her moved in and took The Skull.
The party was alive, heavily wounded, and in the dark. Somewhere ahead: The Alliance.
Key events
- Korno captured by Templars; safe house overrun
- Children rescued from a trafficking gang by the full party
- Leviath found by Derfel guarding refugees in a hidden hollow; revealed The Alliance
- Water donated to Leviath: Kit-Chac and Salt gave 2 skins each
- Outer well route chosen over the central plaza
- Pterrence disguised as a Mansivar Templar; Salt created diversions; Derfel turned an Enix lizard with Animal Handling
- Three skill check failures alerted the Dregoth Cultists
- Sand elemental summoned via a skull dropped into the cistern shaft
- Elemental defeated by Tchk'Tchk Gulbadani's Command lock plus Pterrence's Cloud of Daggers; The Skull recovered
- Party reached the threshold of The Alliance's underground network
Open threads
- Korno is a prisoner of The Templars; rescue unresolved
- The Alliance has offered sanctuary; a formal alliance is to be secured
- The Skull is in party possession; origin and significance unknown
- The Dregoth Cultists know someone descended the well; they do not know who
- Pete has promised a hard fight next session: high Wisdom, immune to Command