M.A.G.U.S. - I hate sand

With Ylimor still at the camp site, 3 brave adventurers continued their slog through the sand pits.

Having recovered from his previous near-death experience, Dalibor just sat down in the pool of his own dried blood in the sand and shivered. Both Daramin and Cahir passed their checks, resisting the fear and looking down at the thief with the signature look of superiority.[1] As they began the preparations against further sand ray attacks[2], Dalibor remembered a play he saw back in Erion. Pretty bad, but at least the protagonist, some imaginary dude called Skywalker Anakin, had a memorable line regarding sand.[3]

As they progressed into the next dome... queue sand ray attack.

The two, smaller sand rays have been successfully repelled, but they still managed to sting Daramin and he fell into the sand, shaking in a fit. Dalibor, being the poisoner, recognized the effect, and hurried to help, only to burn his hand in the sorcerer's aura of fire. Cursing, they held down their mate using their bodyweight until the fits passed. According to Dalibor, coming down here was a really bad idea.

In the mean time, about 4 hours passed, and Ylimor himself started his trek downwards.

The other 3 spent so much time arguing about how to proceed while best evading the sand ray attacks, including resorting to use speech and swearing a blood oath against the rays, that I ruled that hours passed and Ylimor was soon within sight. Queue sand ray attack.

As Ylimor struggled against the creatures[4], his teammates raced desperately towards him. Fastest, of course, was the thief, who got into firing distance and shot straight through the eye of the biggest ray. The smaller ones immediately buried into the sand.

Dalibor still had time to run there and start bandaging Ylimor, with the other two way behind, when the two smaller sand rays resurfaced and impaled the thief. Fortunately, he didn't go down in a single move, allowing both warriors to charge in and hack down the beasts.

Cahir, who had previously missed a couple of sessions, still had one health potion left, which Ylimor guzzled down with gusto.

As ominous music started playing, the party gathered themselves, reasoning that staying put was just as bad as going forwards. However, they soon reached the next passage, this time going downwards and morphing into a rocky path.

Ominous music continues.

[1] Count Dooku meme.

[2] Including invisible sacks on their heads to protect against the sandstorm.

[3] So I guess Star Wars reference time?

[4] Quite impressively, all by himself.