Atlantis: Bugs Go Squish

Into a strange new world, a world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery! Except the announcer kinda said it "sor-cer-ray" which I always found weird. 

Pictured: Sorceray.

Anyway, here's last time.

Three of the heroes are on a ship, the Agony, heading across the Red Sea into Joktan. Eithne, already in Joktan, stands on the shore watching the swarm of horrific bugs closing in. She conjures up fire and hurls it at the bugs, frying a bunch of them, but the swarm closes in. Imani lights a torch and lays out with it, burning more scarabs. Akala tries to catch a bunch with a cloth, but misses the little bastards. Eithne, realizing that the bugs are now too close to the ship to safely burn, calls up a wind and blows them off the ship. Thanos summons up punishing red sand to suck the life out of them...but the swarm is still there, despite being depleted.

Imani spurs the sailors to get the ship moving faster, while Akala takes to the sky and calls in reinforcements - there are seagulls near the shore, and they love eating bugs. They snap up some of the scarabs, but then the swarm closes around one of the birds and reduces it to scraps in seconds, to Akala's horror. 

Eithne calls up a wind to drive the ship on, and it finally lands. The passengers disembark and greet Eithne (and thank her for her assistance); Akala and Eithne get the feeling they've met before. (They have, but it's been a good 13 years.) They don't really have time to figure that out, though, before the scarabs return.

The bug-swarm swoops in faster than anyone knew they could move and attacks Thanos and the other former slaves. They rip chunks of flesh from them, and Thanos collapses. Imani takes a swig of booze from Masamba's flask and spits it through the torch, burning a bunch of the bugs, while Akala launches into a fiery speech about how the evil bastards in Khemit are still trying to recapture them. Eithne casts a spell, creating a dome of light around them to keep out the bugs...but she's only able to keep it up a few minutes.

Akala bandages Thanos, and the heroes look around at the bugs. Akala notes that they have the same symbol on their backs as the slaves have branded on their faces, and she wonders if she could cut or burn the brands away. Eithne mentions that she tried, but was unable to reshape their flesh. Thanos tries to call up the red sands again and kill the bugs, but has lost too much blood. He suggests that he and Eithne combine their powers, and they create a fiery sandstorm. Thanos curses Set and all the things that crawl on the earth, and the flames rise higher, burning the bugs to cinders (Thanos and the other slaves whom the scarabs bit feel the pain of their flesh burning away - horribly, the flesh chunks the scarabs took were still alive). The fire recedes, and the sand around them has been rendered red and black in the shape of serpents. Set may have heard them.

The character prepare to move on, but Imani asks for Eithne's help in finding the "prophecy sands" that the Mercenary Queen wanted. Akala actually senses the magic nearby, and so the characters wind up following her into the desert (Eithne notes that she is, again, following an owl). Akala stops at a seemingly nondescript patch of sand, and Eithne changes into a digging mouse and tunnels into the ground...and finds an urn. 

With the others' help, she digs it up. Inside is black sand that feels magical. Imani considers just taking a few handfuls, but Thanos opines that she found it, she should keep it. Masamba notes that other folks besides Queen Nyavinghi would pay for this stuff, and Imani agrees.

Everyone decides that they need rest, so they make camp for the night. We shall see what the morrow brings!