Pattern Seekers – Episode 7: Gold, Gold, Gold (Part 2)

Our heroes are on their way out of the mines when Pho stops and bristles at somethingahead.  Thea calls on people to stop and Dr Martin see a trio of black circular stones on the ground ahead and rushes forward to bottle one . . . only to have them unfurl into giant scorpions!   Dr. Martin in caught in the scorpions claw and stung, leaving him badly wounded as the rest of the character rush forward to engage.

Scorpion

The combat is furious, with a greased Dr. Martin wiggling free of the claw, Malik the monk grappling one of the scorpion’s tail and then ripping it off!  Zendrink the sorcerer getting caught by a scorpion and electrocuting it (and himself) with shocking grasp.  But soon enough the scorpions are slain, and the characters badly bloodied, just as the Solar troops and Bradley arrive to see what all the noise is.  The scorpions swirled back down into the black stones, now damaged, except for the scorpion tail (held by Malik) and some poison harvested by Dr Martin.

They are escorted back to the Sun Temple camp where their wounds are treated, somewhat, and they can rest.  They decide that the next thing to do is to try and solve the bandit problem that is bedeviling both sides as a step toward getting them to the negotiating table.  So, they decide to borrow a wagon, make it look like it is transporting gold (via props and simple illusions) and then surprise the bandits when they attacked the wagon.  A good plan, so naturally it did not work . . .