The next morning brings new plans.  Seymour wants us to go after his vardo which holds all his alchemy items including possible potions that can help us possibly survive the desert.  We know Boartore is west but the giant bird went Northwest taking us off course. 

Our water can last us two days at most.  While we don’t have our camels to feed and water we do have four extra guards to feed and water.  I turn to our resident expert of the desert, Pinroy, and ask if he remembers if there is an oasis or other ways for use to get water.  Pinroy says there is a plant called the Cudalupa plant that we can get water from, but water doesn’t taste very good, but it’s water.  I tell him to look for the plants while he is out hunting for his juicy beetles.

Wave is eating his morning rations talking to Ad who is telling him of the Adventures’ Guild and how it started in Furyundy and has spread through the Yeomanry.  There is much lore around the Sea of Dust and the Sun Lich and Ad is heading to Boartore to see another fellow guild member, Ani, who is an expert on the Sea of Dust. 

We pack up our last camel and Seymour rides while the rest of us begin northwest hoping to find the nest of the giant eagle and in it, Seymour’s vardo and maybe some of the Cudalupa plants Pinroy was talking about. We do notice that the morning and evening seem to be the best time to travel, especially since our new friends, Phill, Tom, Will, and John don’t have warm clothing. We don’t travel far before we see to very large insect like creatures with long curled tails and claws watching us from a dune.  Wave shoots an arrow at one of them and Pinroy asks what the scorpion people ever did to Wave that he would want to harm them.  Wave says he was just being safe and Pinroy chastises him and tells him that we should try to talk to someone first rather than trying to kill them.

Pinroy waves his hands in the are and yells in a strange guttural language to them.  One waves it claws and they disappear.

Pinroy darts off and comes back with a plant, its tubular roots full of water – it feels up 2 waterskins.  Seymour takes one of the roots and says once we get his vardo back he may be able to replicate it.  We see the scorpion people many times – some are about the size we saw prior and others are bigger.  They watch us from a distance and once brough us a Cudalupa plant.  We filled up a small keg unsure we could trust them – not sure if the water is poisoned or not.  We will drink it as a last resort.

The road is blocked by what looks like a half goat/half lion creature carrying a staff with three minotaur. She says she is the priestess of the great bird and sicks her bull men on us.  We make short work of the group and continue on our way.

In the distance we see a large outcropping.  Wave looks through his eyeglass and sees Seymour’s vardo amidst all kinds of junk – something that looks like a part of a large ship, other wagons and large logs and skulls and bones of multiple types of creatures. There is no sign of the large bird but there are five minotaur guarding the base. They have a well worn camp set up. 

We send Bill, Seymour and the guards to hide behind the dunes and Wave tells them that we’d light a fire when the coast is clear.  The plan is the camel and I will lure the minotaur away as they others search the nest and figure out a way up to the top of the nest. 

The camel is surefooted on the sand and is fast, but the minotaur are just as fast and it doesn’t take much for them to take the bait.  A merry chase begins and ends with the camel being killed – did I mention this was our last camel.

I am the most surefooted besides Pinroy and I start back toward the others hoping they found a way up.  Sister accidentally does and by the time I get there all but Wave has started up the rope.  We get to the top a bit dizzy as the minotaur were spinning the rope quite a bit. 

We find two slaves up on top – John and Dave.  They tell us that the mama bird comes back to feed the babies.  There are 4 larger fledglings, a smaller brood (that Pinroy wants to eat), and an egg, which Wave takes.  We start looking around when a smaller bird – but pretty large comes in and tells us his Mama is on the way.