Wasteland Wanderers
Strange friends and stranger mysteries can often be uncovered in the Mana Wastes.
Esotericism and Dust
Sable awoke in the wreckage of their cart to find an unknown vanara looming over them. The Ghoran introduced themselves, but the brief exchange between Sable and Shara was interrupted by the simultaneous arrival of an ettin and a catfolk strumming a guitar. The ettin attacked the three wanderers, but they managed to work together well enough to survive. In the aftermath of the fight, a steam cart pulled up beside the wreck, and a gorgeous dwarven woman hopped out. She introduced herself as Ygritte of Clan Moltenheart, and hired the newly-formed trio to clear her trade route that had been taken over by a vengeful earth elemental.
On the ride to the elemental's hunting ground, Ygritte explained that she had been taking her sons to complete their coming-of-age test, and though they had succeeded, wounds had been sustained in the process. The catfolk bard, Bebop, took some time to play a magical composition and heal some of the dwarf's wounds.
Halfway to the elemental, the trade route took a swing through the ruins of an old saloon town. Ygritte pulled up the steam cart on the outskirts when she spotted a spectral gunman in the street, and asked her hired guns to sweep the town for danger. Shara swept through the ruined buildings, and close in on the gunslinger. However, as Bebop and Sable brought up the rear, they were ambushed by a small plantlike creature wielding a spear. This alerted the slinger, who exchanged bullets with Shara. As Sable rushed to support the Vanara, the plant creature attacked Bebop. The fight tumbled into the wrecked saloon Shara had been hiding in, and all was quiet for a few moments. Soon enough though, the gunslinger found a way into the building, and unloaded fiery energy from his hand into Bebop and Sable. However, the mutations that the gunslinger had suffered were not enough to secure victory against the trio, and soon the mutated sheriff and the plant creature were defeated.
After sweeping the saloon, Shara found a diary on the sheriff's corpse that detailed his descent into madness and the town falling to ruin. Battered and bruised, Sable signaled Ygritte to bring the cart forwards, and the trio left the deserted town far behind.
Soon enough, the cart closed in on the last known location of the earth elemental that had been causing so many problems. There, the trio found a cantankerous gnome that demanded they turn back. When they predictably refused, the gnome summoned an earth elemental and sicced it on them. Sable was blinded during the fight, but due to Bebop's healing, Shara's keen aim, and Ygritte running down the gnome with the cart, the team managed to emerge victorious. Once the gnome was dead, the earth elemental returned to aimlessly wandering the wastes. Impressed by the work of her hired guns, Ygritte happily agreed to drive them back to Alkenstar where she would pay them their fee.
