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Akhilleus follows Drest, but walks a bit slower, without losing sight of the crocodile.

Scouting Out The Mud Hole
The Oasis
7:15pm, Windy, Dry

The duo of Drest and Akhilleus scout out the areas around the pool. They find a couple more slides from the bank into the water, but they are unable to locate any lair or den the huge beast might dwell in. They surmise that this might not be the only place this monster makes its home. However, they don't find any webbed, clawed tracks leading away form the oasis.

They do find several human tracks that lead both back into the city, and also deeper into the desert, but from where they are, they cant tell what they might be leading to.

The huge croc swims around in the center of the pool, looking around at the explorers, slipping below the surface of the water again if either gets too close to the muddy banks.

Actions?

Akhilleus

To Rex:"Do you think it has its hideout at the bottom of the oasis? How deep can this thing be?"

He also pays attention at the footprints leaving the oasis in several directions. "I'm going to ask the slaves about this. Don't get too close to the water." He eyes the croc with a bit of fear, then goes back to the huts and asks the slave brothers about those footprints. "The footprints over there..." He points at his own footprints in the sand and then waves in the general direction of the footprints. "Who made them?"

Drest

"Maybe, it could have dug a hole under the bank and we wouldn't see it if it is below the water. I will check the prints."

Drest examines the footprints to see if he can learn anything more about them.

Valkrina

The rattle could act as a fish type lure perhaps, need to fix a hook to it. Barbed arrow heads or bent nails?

The guilty look. She tries to think if that is a 'yes we have skin drums .... Human skin drums' and they would rather not show those.

I will take the twine. If I can get two wooden buckets and fix the twine between them I could possibly make a long communication device. A variation in the paper cup and string phone.

Not sure what specific way I can use it to lure a giant crocodile but certainly the Oasis kids and even Yuka & Yuti might make fun with sticking their heads in a bucket and speaking and finding the twine tension vibrates the sounds to become an audible voice in the bucket at the other end.

The key is twine tension, a sagging line produces nil or less effect. Bucket size, shape and wood thickness affects the bass sound and volume, a bit crafted lute body.

Scouting Out The Mud Hole
The Oasis
7:30pm, Windy, Dry

As the daylight wanes, Drest looks over the tracks in the sand leading further out into the vast desert. He finds them to be human sized, and mostly barefoot prints.

When Akhilleus asks the brothers about the tracks, they shake their heads and shrug, apparently unsure who made them. They try to explain that they need to leave soon to get back into town before curfew. It sounds like they work throughout the night, but again, the translation is sketchy. They point to the sleeping mats rolled out for you and tell you they will be back again in the morning.

Valkrina disassembles the shell rattle to salvage 5 feet of old, thin twine. She doesn’t find any wooden pails to ruin by carving a hole in their bottoms, though considering the horrible conditions these people live in, they don’t seem the fun loving, easily amused types anyway.

Actions?

Akhilleus

The warrior thanks the slaves with a nod for the mats and says goodbye when they leave. "We better set guard shifts. I don't like those footprints coming and leaving. If the slaves don't know who made them, that means they come during the night, when there's no one here. The beast is our major concern though. Imagine how it will act having so much food when we can't see."

Drest

"Agreed, guards for sure."

Valkrina

Will rig the twine and rattles across the door threshold to at least warn us of intruders trying to break in. She tries to make the best of the area, sweeping up a bit and rearranging the mats and any straw.

I thought the slaves stayed here. Odd that they are going while Kang & Co planned to return before nightfall.

"I could use some of the skinned animal to craft a new handbag. Needs boiling and dye, perhaps a crimson red would be nice. A couple of feet of thin strips cut off from the tail for the strapping and a few teeth to decorate and use as the clasps."

She scribbles a few designs in her notebook, whiling away the hours until sleep or guard duty take turns.

Sleeping Out The Night
The Oasis
7:30pm, Windy, Dry

After rigging up an alarm system over the doorways threshold, and releasing the thick cloth flap that hangs over the opening, the trio sets up a watch order and tries to sleep in these unfamiliar surroundings. With little firewood to burn, there is not enough fuel around to start up a campfire of any size.

Valkrina takes first watch and her shift goes by uneventfully. There is very little action around the Oasis after the Eventide bell is rung, and even less once it gets completely dark out in the desert.

She awakens Drest for his shift before falling quickly off to sleep herself, trying not to disturb the snoring Akhilleus inside the cramped shack.

A short time after Drest begins his watch, he starts to hear strange noises coming from deeper out in the cold Zakath desert. These noises sound familiar to the ones he heard on his watch while they were on their way to Xambaala the night before.

a strange pounding, drumming, and chanting noise can be heard upon the indomitable night winds

He listens for a while, but cant make out any specifics. At least the noises dont seem to be coming any closer, yet.

Actions?

Drest

Drest will stay alert and if he thinks the noises are coming closer he will wake everyone up.

Valkrina

Will sleep until woken.

Akhilleus snores peacefully.

Ready For Work
The Oasis
7:00am, Cloudy, Dry

The horrible nightly drumming noises from the desert do not get any closer to the Oasis, but they do seem to intensify at one point to a loud crescendo of screaming, chanting, celebration. The reason for it reeks of malevolence, yet remains a mystery for now.

The Dawnbell rings out over the distant inner city, indicating the end of the daily curfew. Nothing seems to have happened during the night, and the slave people of the oasis begin their daily routines, most of them moving back into the city to serve their various masters for the day.

When Akhilleus goes outside to do his morning evacuations near the murky pond, he spots the massive crocodile again, slowly swimming across the top of the nasty water, studying how close the fighter gets to the edge of the bank to do his daily duties.

Actions?

Drest

"That drumming and chanting was back again last night, very creepy place."

Valkrina

Pretty sure the drumming might have been on (human) skin drums if the guilty look of the strange slaves is anything to go by though in fairness we were left unmolested.

We should tempt this croc that is lurking. If we expect the others back with a goat lure then wait a while. I wonder if my music ability I used on the wild dogs might work on the crocodile too.

Drest

Worth a try.