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When morning comes, it's actually a little hotter than it was the day before, which is nearly unfathomable to many of the party members.

Thuskar and Ulster get to work breaking camp and preparing the animals for the day's travels. There is no sign of the hyena that bothered them last night. In fact, there's nothing anywhere but sand as far as the eye can see, other than the mountains in the distance.

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Random Encounter Check (1d10): 10, no encounters.

Everyone used up a day's worth of food and water (Dekker and Artemis both consume 4 days of water each). If Jerrard or Locky want to renew any spells, let me know now.

It is now 7 AM (First Watch) and 110 F.

"Oh my its hot!" Locky shouts as she rises slowly unaware of last night at all, using one of her spare tops she ties it round her head, trying to protect her neck and face as best as she can.

"Rations for Breakfast again... My the Desert is Boring!"

"Actually," Ulster says, "something interesting did happen last night. Sort of. Some kind of dog creature tried to attack our camp. But Babushka scared it off."

"And I missed it! Not fair." Locky sulks quietly, kicking the sand in disappointment.

"There are a lot of staving animals out here, I'm sure," Imani says. "They do most of their hunting at night when it is cooler. I would even suggest that we travel at night, but then we wouldn't be able to see where we were going," she explains as she puts on her veil.

Babushka gets ready for the day as well, tying the scarf around her head. "Do we have a spare scarf for Thuskar?" she asks. "If we don't, maybe we others should take turns lending him ours because he's not going to last without protection."

"Well.. I can see.." Locky giggles, before rummaging through her pouches for something for Thuskar.

(She could get bab to make something out of a shirt or something correct?)

Jerrard shakes his head and packs up his things. "We will move when we are ready. Do you have am idea how much further?" He asks Imani.

(ooc: sure, Babs is a seamstress, so she could even make a cap with a shield and a neck piece, but only the next evening, it takes three or four hours without a sewing machine)

"Hold on," Thuskar protests. "I'm not a delicate flower or anything. I'll be fine," he insists. "I'm better prepared this time, I know what to expect."

Imani doesn't know where the bandits took Syriana, and so has no more idea how much further they have to go than anyone else. She is unable to answer Jerrard's question.

Once Babushka and Locky are placed back on Artemis, the party sets out without wasting any more time, following the tracks left by the bandits.

The next six hours of travel are uneventful, but very unpleasant nonetheless. The merciless heat smothers them, even worse than before. But with their armor off, it is not as bad as it could have been. By the time the party comes across something, both Dekker and Artemis look about ready to pass out. Jerrard and Imani find their lungs burn when they breathe. Everyone else isn't too bad off, in fact Ulster doesn't appear to be having any trouble at all.

Calling a halt, the party sees what seems to be the remains of a band of men and horses. They are partly covered by sand, skin scoured from flesh, and lay stretched out upon the desert. Already, scorpions have descended upon the corpses, feasting on flesh and crawling into mouths. There are 9 human corpses and 10 horse corpses.

"Uh-oh," Ulster says. "Are these...the bandits?"

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It is now 110 F.

Everyone suffers a temporary -1 to STR, -1 DEX, -2 to CON and -2 to hit in this heat.

Because Locky and Babushka are riding, not walking, they get a -1 to -3 (rolled randomly) modifier to any damage they take from heat exhaustion.

7:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Locky makes six CON checks (1d20+1): 17, 9, 10, 13, 20, 7. Locky takes 9-4 (5) damage from heat exhaustion.
Babushka makes six CON checks (1d20+1): 21, 6, 18, 9, 16, 15. Babushka takes 12-7 (5) damage from heat exhaustion.
Jerrard makes six CON checks (1d20+2): 11, 15, 22, 19, 3, 11. Jerrard takes 9 damage from heat exhaustion.
Ulster makes six CON checks (1d20+2): 7, 8, 14, 11, 10, 8. Ulster takes no damage from heat exhaustion.
Thuskar makes six CON checks (1d20+2): 16, 10, 3, 10, 14, 9. Thuskar takes 6 damage from heat exhaustion.
Imani makes six CON checks (1d20+1): 2, 12, 18, 8, 4, 18. Imani takes 12 damage from heat exhaustion.
Dekker makes six CON checks (1d20+2): 22, 18, 7, 20, 4, 19. Dekker takes 12 damage from heat exhaustion.
Artemis makes six CON checks (1d20+2): 10, 9, 21, 21, 11, 13. Artemis takes 6 damage from heat exhaustion.

It is now 1 PM (Seventh Watch). The party has traveled 6 miles.

Babushka hops off Artemis and goes to inspect the corpses. How old do they look?

She turns to Imani: "It cannot be that there was a sandstorm here yesterday and we haven't noticed anything in Ak-Tubal, or can it?"

The corpses appear quite fresh, probably having died in the last day or so. Unlike the corpses found at the caravan site, these ones have not been looted. Their scimitars, elaborately decorated bucklers, belt pouches, and saddle packs are all intact. The human corpses are all male.

Babushka looks for a water skin among the belongings of the men, and, after drinking from it herself, gives the rest of its content to Dekker and Artemis, encouraging her comrades to do likewise.

Spotting a waterskin, Babushka walks right up to it and attempts to grab it. To her surprise, the corpse is less than cooperative. In fact, it attempts to grab at her!

As she instinctively steps back, all nine of the human corpses begin to get to their feet, the black scorpions still crawling over their scoured flesh. They pick up their scimitars and bucklers, and groaning in pain, prepare themselves for battle. Fortunately, the dead horses remain so. The only thing worse than undead footmen are undead cavalry!

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I said before that everyone is suffering a -1 to STR, -1 to DEX, -3 to CON, and -3 to hit. Well, that's when you're not exerting yourself. When exerting yourself, like say, in battle, the party suffers -3 to STR, -2 to DEX, -4 to CON and -3 to hit.

Also, nobody is currently wearing armor and you should all double-check your HP totals in the Character Stats thread, because a lot of you took damage from the heat. Good luck!

Actions for Round 1?

Locky reaches for her symbol, holding it aloft she looks straight at the Skeletons before her.
"By the power of Paladine, be gone!" She shouts loudly, her little Kender voice filled with sudden power.

Turn Undead: 1d20=11
2d6=7 7 Turned.

Jerrard pauses the words of the spell to make missiles of magical energy shoot from his fingers on lips. He lets off two missiles at the creature closest to Babuskha.

1d4+1=2, 1d4+1=3 5 damage