Saturday 22 July 2023

Hex Crawl 23 #188: Out of the Camel Came Sweetness

One hex north, six hexes northwest of Alakran.

 

Kneeling in the cleft top of a tawny sandstone hill is the twice life-size image of a camel, carved in bold planes and edges from a paler stone. From afar the camel sports a curious black muzzle, perhaps even a beard, that closer up is seen to be a swarming mass of ants. For the camel continually drools a magical golden syrup that feeds a horde of insects. In turn those creatures are much appreciated by the local birds and lizards.

To avail one's self of the honey the ants -- stinging! -- must be brushed aside and the slow continual drop captured in a vessel. At any time of the day there is a 1/3 chance that two dervishes, a journeyman and an apprentice fighter, are engaged in this collection, and another 1/3 chance that a family of d6 paupers are feasting on this bounty of some benevolent presence. The dervishes, and few others, know that the syrup has healing properties if given to someone who has fasted -- restoring d8 hp if the fast was for 24 hours, and acting as a lesser restoration if the fast was for a whole week, although this precondition may hit the patient worse than the malady being remedied.

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