When we last ventured to the Great Basin…
The Task Force and their allies had just defeated a figure in adamantine armor who was leading a raiding party through the Calchiroos Tribe of the Roksduens. After downing him, Wil, Breagan and Jusa stripped his sword, shield and armor while binding him.
As you rested in shifts, one guard was posted to watch both the prisoner and the vast dessert around you. After an hour or two, the prisoner awoke but refused to talk until the full Task Force was assembled the next morning.
Once bound upright to a chair, you learned that he is capable of speaking a language which is similar enough to Common to communicate, despite the thick accent and archaic vocabulary. During a combative conversation, you learned that there is another power outside the Basin, the Caerwent Empire, which occupied this land before The Shattering. Using some divination magic, namely Open Book and Detect Thoughts, Oisin learned that the Caerwent Empire has at least one city of immense proportions with more people and magical power than anything in the Basin. This solider of the Empire is a fervent believer in the power of his nation and that eventually the armies of the Empire will roll over the Basin and subjugate it once more.
You also learned that this Empire has a strict order and sense of honor. The solider would not be able to return to the Empire without being executed since he had failed to beat all of the forces that he had encounter in the Basin.
Redfern saved the Empire the trouble by executing the solider in two blows. You decided to split the party, with Oisin, Breagan, Wil and Meru teleporting back to the teleportation circle near Tomo while the rest of the group trekked back by foot. However, the trek itself was not a gentle scroll through the dessert. On the second day during a break, a Purple Worm attacked. It erupted from the sands and quickly grabbed Gwen and swallowed her. While struggling with the powerful constriction and acid of the stomach, she managed to cast Pup Shape and transform the worm into a small, baby worm which caused her to be spat out.
The baby worm was still powerful, but with a heavily reduced number of hit points it was slain without issue. Gwen then harvested two doses of Purple Worm Poison from the corpse.
We now resume with the Task Force regrouping in Kerkrad on the 19th of Shimmerfall.