Which one are you?

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Did I mention there will be more devious traps coming up?

Adventure 2.0: The Mashid Heights and the Entrance to Al-Darum

After saving Mord from goblins and renewing the cistern, the people of Rhotas Barav thanked the adventurers. The mayor, having heard of Failn Shalandalan's valor and prior fame, awarded him 100 gold pieces and the gave camels to the party for travel east.

While crossing the  Mashid Heights, a desert-plain, the group thwarted encounters with jackals and giant wolf spiders. Their two day trek remained otherwise uneventful.

The ruins of Al-Darum were once a thriving trade city, abandoned after the collapse of the great empires at the end of the second era of the Middle World. The party went in cautiously, watching from afar as skeletons were clearing debris and rubble from the main roads. A minor scuffle with the skeletons and one of their two-headed dogs proved an easy encounter, and the party searched the city's grain silos, uncovering a stairway that led down into deeper parts of the ruins. The party first went to check any remaining avenues above-ground.

Above ground were the remains of two temples, one to the dragon god Tien Lung, and another to an unknown sky deity, presumably the Sky Djinni. Searching these temples uncovered little, and the party decided to venture down the stairs into the city's past.

This session ended early and will be concluded in Adventure 2.5.

 RECAP:

• The city of Al-Darum was once a vast trading hub between the Old Empires of the Second Age.
•  Animated Skeletons are searching through the rubble of the old city for something. 

The Kaftar

Majirahan scholars believe the vicious kaftar arose sometime after the fall of the old empires that spanned the Middle Kingdom.

Listen, for the legends speak thusly:
El-Ahrairah, the Rabbit spirit of the Moon, and Phoenos, the Bird of the Sun, had a race to see who was faster--and thus who really kept watch over the world more. El-Ahrairah constantly hid from Phoenos' view, using tunnels and shortcuts. He claimed the bird could cover vast distances through the sky, he may as well have the same advantages.

Phoenos grew tired of the rabbit's tricks, and created Buud, the hyena, to chase El-Arairah and make sure the spirit played fair. But Buud became disinterested in the hunt, and thirsted for power and knowledge: if he had the wisdom of Phoenos, the speed of El-Ahrairaih, he could master both of them. It is said that Buud wandered the desert, growing hungry and mad. And when his spirit touched mortals, they became kaftar, half-man, half-hyena monsters.

The kaftar are a warrior tribe, based in the southern Astara Desert. They cliamed the once-great citadel of Nimburu as their own, and from there they send out raiding parties into the lands of Majirah. They are vicious and often seek to enslave other races, preferring to eat the women and children.

A Majirahan scroll claims, The kaftar often travel by moonlight, for they still love the chase of the Rabbit Spirit. But when Phoenos shines upon the earth, the kaftar grow angry and mad. It is unwise to attack a kaftar settlement at noon, when their rage is at its peak.