Session Twenty Three
The party reached Alakyrum on the 2nd of Pendaelen. Their first stop was the tower of the great alchemist Urabi al-Chukri, whom they paid an exorbitant sum to reincarnate their fallen comrade, Sharik. This powerful enchantment restored Sharik’s soul in a body he had occupied in a past life – the body turning out to be that of a voluptuous Opelenean woman. Sharik – now calling herself Shikra – remembered most of her old life, and seemed to be again a warlock, though of slightly different inclinations. Barnabas, too, was reincarnated – “Great and seductive mistress, why have you embodied me as a bat?” the erstwhile toad complained.
The next day, Mahmud awoke with a cold. As he coughed and sneezed, he realized that Imran had judged his behavior at the Sacred Well and found him wanting. Devastated the paladin went immediately to the Great Mosque of the Way of Eternal Light, where he met with Mahdi al-Idam. Mahdi was shocked to see that Mahmud’s aura of goodness had disappeared. “My friend…what have you done?” The brooding paladin explained how he and his friends had accidentally awakened an army of undead Thrassians, resulting in the destruction of Kirkuk. This deed was beyond Mahdi al-Idam’s powers to offer atonement. He said he would have to seek atonement from the patriarch, Hamza al-Hakim.
While Mahmud began a regimen of prayer and contrition, the rest of the party went about re-building the Fated. Ethlyn began to solicit henchmen and mercenaries, while Shikra began to re-learn the many spells she had forgotten. These efforts were interrupted after but a day by heavily armed imperial legionaries who demanded the Fated come to meet the Exarch, Caiaphas ibn Süroman, known as the Butcher of Ber-Gathy.
The Fated were quickly brought before the Exarch and his trusted advisors: Hamza Al-Hakim, patriarch of the Great Mosque; Urabi al-Chukri, alchemist of Alakyrum; and Baruch bin Eleazar, guildmaster of Merchants. When the party saw that Sheik Ramman of Kirkuk was with the Exarch, they knew they were in trouble.
While skilled adventurers, the Fated had never been exposed to an imperial Exarch before, and they showed little etiquette or social grace. Worse, their attempted justification of their behavior at Kirkuk was disrupted by internal quarreling, as Ethlyn attempted outright lies while Mahmud confessed forthrightly to what had been done. It was clear that the Butcher of Ber-Gathy intended to execute the party, but Patriarch Hamza intervened and whispered into the Exarch’s ear.
The Exarch gave his verdict. “Since you seek to boldly discover the secrets of kingdoms lost to the sands, let the sands be your new home. I proscribe you from the Empire, and exile you to the Howling Emptiness.” Patriarch Hamza then added his own judgment, placing a quest on Mahmud to right the wrongs he had done. “It is for this reason that you are being given mercy.”
Afterwards, the party was stripped of all their coin and jewelry, and placed under the watch of an Imperial centurion named Androcles. Androcles was ordered to escort the Fated to the Howling Emptiness on pain of death. The Exarch made it clear that Androcles might as well stay there, too. Though he had apparently earned the displeasure of the Exarch, Androcles responded with stoic loyalty, a trait that instantly lost him respect among the adventurers.
The party was given a day to make preparations for their exile, though as proscribed outlaws they could not do business in the Empire. They were able to cut a deal with their friend Damanos, the antiquities dealer, trading him several scrolls they had squirreled away in exchange for his help securing camels and supplies for their exile.
On the 4th of Pendaelen the party left Alakyrum. Even as they left, grim and weary, a crowd was gathering for a public execution. Mustafa, the strange imp that confounded Ethlyn when she was alone, reported that the criminal beheaded was none other than Sheik Ramman, in punishment for fleeing Kirkuk.
As proscribed outlaws, the party did not want to risk encountering any imperial patrols, so they took a slow path through the dunes rather than follow the caravan routes westward. By the 6th of Pendaelen, they were approaching the vicinity of Kirkuk. For a time, they considered approaching the ruined town, but eventually decided to bypass it.
While skirting around Kirkuk, they came upon a merchant caravan that was doing the same thing. The merchants were unaware of the party’s proscribed status, and exchanged pleasantries. The merchants warned the party to stay away from Kirkuk, saying the town was “abandoned and cursed.”
That night the party was attacked by giant geckos from the desert. These were easily fought off; the most notable aspect of the fight was Shikra’s discovery that when she summoned berserkers, her fearless fighters were now women.
On the 8th of Pendaelen, the party reached Cynidicea. The Cynidiceans greeted their queen, Ethlyn, warmly, proudly showing her the irrigation works they were digging to bring the waters of the underground lake to the surface. The Fated then traveled into the underground city where they found comfortable accommodations in their “palace”. The party contemplated simply settling down into a comfortable exile in Cynidicea, but the quest laid upon Mahmud, and the annoying presence of Centurion Androcles, reminded them of their duties. Thus they met with Magdala, their appointed regent. Ethlyn explained to Magdala that foolish adventurers had awoken a terrible danger in Kirkuk, and that it had fallen to the Fated to deal with the situation. “Of course, the surfacers would call on your majesty to save them!” agreed Magdala, who promptly re-supplied the party and provided two of her best warrior-maidens to accompany them in their quest.
The next day the party set off from Cynidicea, not without regret. Turning south-westward, they rode along a caravan trail in the direction of the Howling Emptiness. On the 10th, they reached the oasis of Umm al-Ma. The local chief, Yousef, took them in as guests despite their refusal to say much about themselves. “Many men and women come to the desert to leave behind who they were.” Ethlyn entertained the chief and his Besherab tribesmen with tales of daring and sorcery. Yousef warned them against the dangers of the Howling Emptiness of the south.
By the 11th, the party was back on the caravan trail. Their southward trek led them to a gory scene – the bones of dead camels, stripped of flesh. The ground was blackened, as if scorched, and the scent of a storm was in the air. They were still puzzling at the carnage when the shadow of the dragon fell over them. It was the size of an elephant, its hide a burnt copper hue. It touched down a half bow-shot away from them, and demanded tribute in raspy Opelenean. Ethlyn tried to entreat with the dragon, but she was overwrought. Mahmud, seeing she was making no headway, charged!
As the paladin dashed forward and carved into the dragon, the dragon breathed lightning. The bolt scorched through Mahmud and his camel, killing the camel and badly hurting Mahmud. Androcles, Sapphira, and Pandora now joined the fight and with Mahmud began to hurt the dragon badly. The rest of the party had dismounted and scattered into a wide formation to avoid the dragon’s breath weapon. Celic, a skilled rider, collected the camels so they didn’t flee into the desert. This attracted the attention of the dragon, which took flight and seized Celic in its claws, carrying him off.
Balen unleashed arcane bolts at the soaring dragon, and Zoya, Ethlyn, and Dornethan shot missiles at it. Between these attacks and the prior melee, the dragon was now badly bloodied and flying weakly, and it let Celic slip from its claws… though he was hardly recognizable as anything but sickening pulp after the fall.
Enraged at the loss of their friend, the Fated swore vengeance. Senef used a spell to grant Barnabas the eyes of an eagle, and the bat took flight to track the bleeding dragon. Over the next twelve hours, the party force marched in pursuit of the wounded wyrm, eventually arriving at its lair in the foothills of the Al-Baki range near dawn of the 12th.
The dragon’s lair was a sinister rocky outcropping that seemed almost skull-like in appearance, with deep round crevices high up on its face, and a thirty foot semicircular cave opening at its base. From a hidden vantage point, Shikra summoned berserkers and sent them to investigate. The berserkers boldly ran forward, and found the dragon’s cave filled with coin and treasure – but absent a dragon.
Suspecting the dragon might be somewhere nearby, Shikra decided to summon a scout. She reached into her marvelous bag of fantastic creatures and pulled out a miniature of an eagle. She had been saving the eagle for a time when a bird with keen vision would be helpful – this seemed like such a time. Shikra was more surprised than anyone when the miniature grew, not into an eagle, but into an elephant-sized roc.
The threat of a roc nesting in its lair was too much for the wounded dragon to endure, and it attacked. It had been hidden invisibly on the summit of the rock face, hoping to ambush the party as they approached its lair. Its initial lightning bolt was devastating, badly wounding not just the roc, but also Sapphira and Pandora. Balen suffered worst of all, as his left leg was burned off by the dragon’s lightning.
The rest of the party unleashed missiles on the wounded creature, but even a wounded dragon is hard to kill. As it dived downward on him, Mahmud leaped up at the dragon, into a blast of lightning. There was a thunder stroke, and light and smoke and sand obscured everything. When the sand cleared, the dragon was dead, Cyclone of the Four Quarters thrust through its palate into its brain. Mahmud was unconscious; but good fortune and his heavy helmet had saved him from death. He was soon back on his feat.
While Senef tended to the grimly-wounded Balen, the rest of the party began looting the dragon’s lair. In addition to gold, ivory, pottery and jewelry, the Fated found a backwards curved Zaharan sword made of purplish-black metal, with a hilt fastened in the shape of a vulture. Androcles, who owned only a cheap legionary blade, took the sword and Shikra ordered one of her berserkers to spar with him. Everyone stopped looting to watch the fight. Was the sword something special? It was: When Androcles nicked the berserker, a black energy coursed along his blade. The berserker instantly collapsed, a gaunt and aged corpse. “I’m glad I didn’t spar with you,” said Mahmud.
The party finished sorting and packing the dragon’s treasures on the 13th. Returning to the desert, it began riding westward, hoping to find the caravan route again. Though careful to keep the Al-Baki range to its back, the group had trouble in the trackless wastes and quickly found itself in unrecognized surroundings. When it spotted an oasis ahead, it thought it might be Umm al-Mala. It proved instead to be a village of ogres.
Zoya crept forward to investigate. There were, she reckoned, about a score of ogres in the village. There were also a dozen human captives. She watched in bleak fascination as an ogre picked up one of the captives, a squealing young girl, and carried her off towards a waiting cook pot.
When the thief reported the situation to the Fated, the more pragmatic members advocated bypassing the village. Mahmud, stung by a sense of abandonment by Imran, seemed to toy with what it would mean to turn his back on the needy and helpless. It was a dark moment when a paladin might have become an anti-paladin. But in the end, he chose a different path, and unsheathed Cyclone of the Four Quarters. “We fight!”
To win against so many ogres seemed an impossible task, but Shikra had a plan. Reaching into her marvelous bag, she summoned forth a harpy, and ordered it to soar above the village and sing its charming song. The Fated, meanwhile, advanced with wax in their ears and victory in their hearts. Ogres are weak-willed beastmen, and the vast majority were left enthralled by the harpy. The few that fought were slain in grim hand-to-hand combat. The rest were butchered.
The fight was over before the little girl was finished marinating. Her father, Tamour Siamak, thanked the party profusely for rescuing his family and friends. He explained they were a caravan from Ber-Gathy that had fallen prey to the ogres, and offered to do anything in his power to repay the group. Ethlyn responded with a moving and epic tale of the rebuilding of the great city of Cynidicea, and her urgent need for settlers and merchants… It was a speech befitting a queen. The rescued families agreed to seek out Cynidicea, and their new queen thanked them by giving them all of their trade goods and treasure from the ogre encampment.
Though proscribed and exiled, the Fated could still make a difference…