Opelenean Nights II

Thrassian awesomeness all-around!

May Rakh find peace.

Brutal.

Awesome.

The who-died list would have been easier as a who-lived list!

 

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…

 

Session Twenty Four

The party, which had begun to call itself the Ill-Fated, headed towards Ber-Gathy, where they hoped to seek healing for their crippled comrades. After they arrived on the 17th of Pendaelen, Mahmud was able to convince a cleric of Imran named Kamal to heal Balen of his crippling blow. Senef found a shaman amongst the Besherab tribesmen who could reincarnate Celic. No one was more surprised than Celic when he reincarnated as a lovely elven Bladesinger. Dornethan quickly fell in love with Ceara, as the exquisite creature that had once been his best friend now called herself. It was an awkward couple of weeks.

Everyone was relieved to be setting out for the Howling Emptiness. On 4th Zigelen, the party reached the Oasis of Tuat, and rested at a small caravanserai. Dornethan resisted the entreaties of the local harlots out of loyalty to his “girlfriend,” while Mahmud and Ethlyn learned from the local caravaneers that “the sheikh of Kirkuk was in league with necromantic cultists and awoke an ancient evil.”

On the 5th of Zigelen, the party traversed the sands and reached another watering-hole. Here they encountered a large party of Kemeshi adventurers led by a fighter named Djeer. Senef, himself Kemeshi, quickly befriended Djeer, and the two parties exchanged small trinkets and shared water. Over drinks, Djeer explained were headed to Krak al-Shidda, a ruined fortress in the nearby Al-Baki Hills. After Ethlyn nearly won a drinking game against a giant Kemeshi warrior, Djeer offered to buy her as a pleasure slave for the sum of 500gp. The party gave it fair consideration but ultimately refused.  

The two parties went their separate ways the next day. On the 7th, the Ill-Fated reached the Howling Emptiness. They stationed themselves at a tiny oasis on the edge of the waste. Senef summoned a swarm of nocturnal lizards and questioned them as to the dangers of the region. “Beware the predators that walk without warmth or breathe,” they warned. The next morning, the party set off to the south-west. The Howling Emptiness was a rocky waste with occasional sand-blasted cliffs and jagged rocks mixed with dunes, rough ground, and steep hills.

After evading an encounter with giant flightless birds, the party spotted a series of ruins on a nearby hill. These proved to be mausoleums and tombs, their stately stone surfaces now pitted and aged. All of the tombs had been broken into – or out of – and there was no treasure to be found. One tomb turned out to be the lair of pony-sized wasps, which nearly slew Androcles. Senef noticed a strange cartouche on the tomb – a symbol to “Prince Ibn” followed by the hieroglyph of a crown and a cockroach. Weathering on the scalp of the desiccated, unanimated mummy within the tomb seemed to suggest it had once worn a crown similar to the one pictured, but the regalia was nowhere to be found.

The party felt uneasy about camping near the tombs, so they retreated towards the small oasis they’d camped at the night before. As darkness fell, a horrible ululating wail began to echo across the rocks and sands. “I guess that’s why they call it the Howling Emptiness,” said Shikra (formerly Sharik).

The party continued its explorations of the area. On the 9th of Zigelen, the party espied a low stone cylinder rising from the desert plain. Approaching it, they realized it was actually a well with a stone cover. The stones were all covered with strange and untranslatable carvings, graphed in ways that defied Nicean geometry. Ceara, perhaps overzealous in her new-found body, decided to translate the carvings magically. Upon glancing at them, she was immediately struck dumb; whatever insights the carvings held, could not be grasped by mortals. Senef was able to cure Ceara, and Suad claimed that the carvings were of the very Logos, words of creation from the dawn of time.

While Suad, Balen, and Shikra discussed the soul-searing meaning of this, the rest of the Ill-Fated decided they should remove the lid and see what was inside.  A shaft descending down was revealed. The party descended downward by means of ropes tied off on heavy stones.

At the bottom of the shaft, the party found the long-sought Well of Shadows, a sinister pit of inky blackness. From the pit issued forth hideous shadowy beasts that began to assail the party. Even as these creatures were beaten back, more began to attack. Ultimately the party realized there was no end to the shadows, and decided to retreat – but not before plunging their magical potion bottle into the well in an attempt to capture the wisps of darkness they had long-ago been tasked to retrieve.

With the wisps came something else – something horrific, a soul-eating cloud of darkness that might have destroyed them all had Shikra not managed to stop it with her dark magic. The Ill-Fated retreated to the surface and hastily sealed back up the well. There were fewer carvings on the lid, they noticed.

With the wisps of darkness in hand, the Ill-Fated decided to end their Imperial exile to the Howling Emptiness and travel back to see the Giant Roc that guarded the Carnelian Idol. The mighty bird had told them that only heroes strong enough to get the wisps of darkness would be strong enough to guard the Idol, and it was time to return and prove that the Fated were strong!

On the 12th of Zigelen, the party had gotten back to the Oasis of Tuat. They were flummoxed to see that a maniple of Imperial legionaries was encamped there. The Fated were sure that the legionaries were looking for them, but the soldiers turned out to be on a patrol against Kemeshi raiders that were spotted in the area. Ethlyn explained that they hadn’t seen anything. “They don’t call it the Howling Emptiness for nothing!”

The party decided it would do better to cross the desert away from the known caravan routes, and took a direct north-westerly course towards the Giant Roc’s lair in the Al-Baki. En route, they encountered a marvelous creature: A desert treant, ancient and sad, tending two lonely palm trees in an isolated oasis. Senef, the shaman, befriended the treant, and the party took the time to dispatch some gnoll raiders that had been tormenting the creature.

On the 14th, the party had reached the cooler altitudes of the Al-Baki Hills. Winding their way through the hilly pathways, they stumbled upon a strange trail which Barnabas surmised to have an excess of foot and camel traffic. Following the trail led to an encampment, but its stockade was broken, and there were signs of blasts and fire. There were nobodies. Puzzled, the party left the area hastily.

The next day the Ill-Fated reached the lair of the Giant Roc, might Majid, He Who Had Flown With the Prophet. The roc was dead, slain by death magic. The Carnelian Idol was gone. Senef called on the local jinn and demanded to know what had happened. “Has the Thrassian King taken the Carnelian Idol?” “No…” “So is the Carnelian Idol safe?” “No…” Puzzlement and despair gripped the Ill-Fated.

 

Session Twenty Five

With the Carnelian Idol lost, the Fated were uncertain how to proceed. They decided that the abandoned encampment they’d spied nearby was as good a place as any. They spent the 16th of Zigelen (“Sixmonth”) investigating the camp. In total, the encampment had about 200’ of wooden stockade and a dozen buildings, most 10’ x 10’ huts with one 20’ x 30’ two-story structure serving as a keep. They surmised that the encampment had once held between 100 and 150 people, and that it had been hastily abandoned. Dice and coppers still lay in unfinished gambling games, food moldered on dining tables. The stockade had been broken, seemingly with fire-magic, and the main building was breached. There were no bodies, though some mountain goats had wandered in, and these yelled with painfully human voices.

The party decided to repair the encampment; a hidden mountain fortress seemed ideal in their exiled state. Zoya, meanwhile, volunteered to sneak back to Ber-Gathy to hire ruffians who could keep them informed of rumors. Zoya had to evade a flight of gargoyles and a flying reptile, but this was easy given her talent for stealth and elven accoutrement. She reached Ber-Gathy with little trouble and by the 26th had hired three ruffians – Heydar, Bathsheba, and Kavus, all paid in advance. She returned on the 1st of Esevelen, one of the holiest times of the year – the Day of the Undying Sun (summer solstice), when Imran’s rays are at their most powerful.

After prayers and feasting were complete, the Fated filled Zoya in as to what had transpired during her trip. Work had gone smoothly until the 21st, when the scent of camels had attracted a subterranean behemoth, a grey caecilian some 30’ in length. The beast had knocked over part of the stockade with its tremors and almost gotten to the camels before it was slain. Amusingly, it must have recently feasted on adventurers, for there was considerable gold within, as well as a magical medallion that revealed the invisible.


On the 26th, a villainous manticore had descended on the encampment. The manticore announced it had come for its monthly tribute of one pack animal, and demanded to know why the terms of the deal hadn’t been honored already. Ethlyn quickly explained that they were the new occupants, and weren’t aware of the deal, but would happily provide three camels in tribute next month. Somehow, her womanly charisma and roguish charm carried the day, and the manticore departed thinking it had gotten the better end of this arrangement.

During the intervening weeks, Senef had occasion to consult with the local jinn. He had learned that the carnelian idol was not anywhere within a dozen miles, was not where the giant roc had left it, and was in a location as dangerous as any they’d ever visited.

Senef was reminded of a rumor they’d heard: “Al-Sindor knew that a time would come when the ancient evils he had defeated would rise again. He entrusted to the sheiks of a sacred oasis the means by which the powers of Law could be summoned when the time came.” Had the Fated caused the rise of these ancient evils? Perhaps they ought to seek out the sheiks of the sacred oasis. The jinn let Senef know that more information could be found in Ber-Gathy.

On the 3rd of Esevelen, the party decided it would head for Ber-Gathy. Zoya mumbled something about having just been there, but trudged along. On the 4th, they were waylaid by hostile Besherab nomads from the Il-Fahara clan, but Shikra sent them fleeing in terror with an illusion of a swooping dragon. By the 5th they’d reached Ber-Gathy. There they quickly retained a sage named Ishmech, paying him an upfront fee of 300gp to investigate the myths of the sacred oasis.

Having exhausted all possibilities of avoiding adventure, the demoralized members of the Fated now resumed their expedition to the Howling Emptiness. By the 8th, they had reached the oasis adjacent to the Emptiness, and that night were greeted by the hideous ululating howls that plagued the darkness. The howling spooked them, it seems, for when morning came, they decided to turn around and go find Krak Al-Shidda, an abandoned castle they had previously heard was located nearby and filled with treasure.

Guided by Senef’s jinn wisdom, the Fated found the hidden vale where Krak al-Shidda lay. The castle was in ruins, its only semi-intact building a one-and-a-half story ruined tower. The party proceeded inside cautiously; Zoya saved lives by spotting a sinkhole hidden by rubble, where part of the courtyard had fallen away. Past the sinkhole they came to the ruined tower, whose first floor had been broken open in a long-ago siege. Within was a well filled, as promised, with treasure – and also a curious yellow creeping vine. When Zoya approached, the vine opened up its hideous yellow blossoms and infected her with a foul musk. Senef quickly cleansed her of the disease, whatever it was, and Mahmud – protected from such perils by the grace of Holy Imran – cleansed the well with fire.

The treasure in the well was mostly copper and silver coin, but they did find a magical barber’s kit that magically shaved its owner on command. Androcles claimed this, in order that he might better maintain his soldierly appearance. While this was going on, Suad used his magic to detect a secret door in the rubble – a secret door that led into a dungeon below the tower.

The Fated decided that the investigation of this would wait until the morrow, and settled down for the night. Their hopes of an easy rest were denied: A pack of were-hyenas attacked in the night. Androcles, on guard, had to hold off half the pack at the tower’s entrance to give the rest of the party time to awaken and get ready. Eventually three of the were-hyenas were killed, one was driven off, and one was captured. Androcles survived, but took many bite and claw wounds – a condition that caused the captive to chuckle. Senef took the precaution of curing Androcles of disease. The captive were-hyena explained that he and his pack had spread rumors of the great treasure of Krak al-Shidda in order to attract prey, and that most of the “treasure” in the well actually came from dead adventurers. The captive soon joined them.

 

Session Twenty Six

On the morning of the 11th, the party descended into the dungeon below Krak al-Shidda and entered a long corridor pierced with doors left and right. Zoya almost immediately met with terrible misfortune; as she pried open the left-hand door, a wraith manifested, its ghostly weapon draining her life energy. The wraith had once been a Kemeshi soldier, and his corpse still lay where it had fallen. After the wraith was dispatched, Senef claimed a magical scimitar with a scorpion hilt from the corpse.

The group now passed through the right-hand door. The chamber beyond was largely empty, but the remnants of Old Opelenean glyphs could be seen on the far wall, through cracked stucco. The glyphs detected as magic, so the party chipped away at them until Suad could read the writing. Doing so triggered an ancient summoning spell, bringing a servitor genie into the world. Cyclone of the Four Quarters instantly began humming with fury and battle was joined! The servitor genie was soon brought low by the might of Mahmud. “I submit! I shall grant thee a wish in exchange for my miserable life.” Mahmud did not hesitate. “I wish that my friend Rakh was returned to us now alive and in perfect health.”

Rakh was back! The Thrassian seemed to have been profoundly affected by his time in the afterlife, praising Imran in all things and urging the party to follow the quest from the gods and right the wrongs they had committed. Mahmud was forced to pull his scaly friend aside. “Relax, Rakh. I’m a paladin and you’re coming on strong.”

With the evangelical Rakh in tow, the party now began investigating an armory with dozens of ancient weapons, two suits of brass armor, and a large chest. Approaching the chest awoke the armor suits – where were actually automatons powered by burning oils. The automaton’s scalding flames nearly killed Androcles, but eventually the party triumphed. In the aftermath, Androcles claimed a suit of fine white chainmail that seemed to keep its wearer magically cool even in the desert heat. Ethlyn recounted that she had heard legends of a general named Memet Metaphon who, in his old age, was given a marvelous suit of armor that protected him from heat so that he could still lead raids into the desert without the old man dying of sunstroke.

The next room in the complex was once a library, but the books had all been removed, leaving naught but empty shelves. Ceara’s keen elven eyes spotted three names carved on one such empty shelf: “Al-Mirish, “Al-Kazad,” “Al-Afaz”.  Balen recognized these as battle mages associated with the many wars between Kemesh and Opelenea.

Past the library, the Fated found a room neatly filled top to bottom with piled corpses. The dry heat of the desert had desiccated the bodies, leaving them almost mummified. The religiously-minded insisted that the bodies be burned so that their souls could migrate to their next incarnation. Senef called upon shamanic flame and the next couple of hours were spent in cremation. The Fated were surprised to discover that the bodies had been piled on top of a trap door in the floor. Zoya snuck down to investigate and recoiled in horror: The chamber below was filled with the ancient cadavers of women and children, apparently dead of starvation. The Fated surmised that the dependents had hidden there during a siege, and were trapped. These bodies, too, were blessed with fire.

Past this chamber of horrors, the hallway was partly caved in. A deceased elven adventurer’s feet stuck out from the rubble. “Poor bastard,” said Balen as they stripped him of his loot. Shikra claimed the dead elf’s jambiya, a dagger with a bone hilt fastened in the shape of a falcon. Ethlyn recognized the insignia as of the royal house of Argollë. 

Finishing up their investigation of Krak al-Shidda, the party found a storehouse and a wine cellar. In the wine cellar the party discovered a grotesque and misshapen skull behind the wine barrels, but could make nothing of it. In the storehouse, Suad stumbled upon a strange ring of gilded feathers. He remembered a strange tale of Saladin, a sailor who had been abducted by a roc and dropped from a mountain, but survived because his marvelous ring of feathers let him drift safely to the ground, and surmised this might be such a ring.

Their circuit of the dungeon was now complete. The Fated decided that Krak al-Shidda would be their new base. It had a supply of fresh water, it was in a secure location in the Al-Baki Hills, and it was close enough to the Howling Emptiness that they could still plausibly be obeying the strictures of their exile. And, of course, it had Queen Ethlyn’s approval. “I would be proud to add Krak Al-Shidda to my kingdom,” the teenager noted.

 

The party spent until the 15th of Esevelen cleaning up Krak al-Shidda, checking the dungeon for secret doors (there were none), and building a moat around the castle’s well to keep out wandering goats. On the 16th, the party begin to explore the Al-Baki Hills around the ruins, hoping to eliminate any monstrous lairs which might threaten their would-be domain.

After a day of searching, the party spotted a large, squat tower on the peak of a hill, accessible only by means of a well-constructed wood-and-rope bridge. The bridge looked large enough to support an ox. As it turned out it, it was built to support a mountain giant and his dire hyenas. The giant, who called himself Yaghoub, was initially receptive, inviting Queen Ethlyn to meet with him in his tower and sing a song. Unfortunately Ethlyn sang a song about killing hyena-men, which did not endear her to the hyena-loving giant. Only sacred guest-right prevented her and Mahmud from becoming a tasty meal, but the two beat a quick retreat. The party decided to leave Yaghoub be for now.

The next three days were filled with tedious, sweaty, tiresome searching through rocky ravines, goat trails, and steep hillsides. At one point on the 18th the party had to fight off an attack by phase tigers, but it was almost a welcome relief from the tedium. On the 20th, they stumbled upon the remnants of an old iron mine. The mine shaft followed an iron vein horizontally into the hillside, but there was no iron – none at all. The reason why soon revealed itself, as an elephant-sized creature vaguely resembling an armadillo crossed with an ant appeared, antennas quivering with anticipation of a meal. It was the mother of all rust monsters… or so it seemed to Mahmud and Androcles, who quickly fled. Balen, laughing maniacally, ensnared the beast in a sticky web and then set it afire with burning hands.

The next day the party resumed its search of the foothills. Their boredom turned to panic when a great winged creature soared high over head, and down towards a herd of goats wandering the Al-Baki. There were flames and human-like screams (aaaaaahhh) and then the creature  carried away goats in each claw. After the creature had passed, the party replenished its supplies of food by gathering up some fresh-cooked mutton. This took the better part of the 22nd.

On the 24th, the party reached a limestone hillside that was pocketed with cave mouths. One cave mouth, particularly large, was rimmed with glistening white. Zoya crept forward to investigate. She returned reporting that the cave was encircled with a vast pile of bones – and produced red scales that had fallen amidst the bones. Senef sought communion with the local jinn: “Is there a dragon in this cave?” No. “Is there another threat that we’re not aware of?” Yes. “Does whatever lives in the cave know we are coming?” No. Since they were undetected, the party decided to attack…whatever it was in the cave.

IT proved to be a mated pair of chimera. The pair fought with great cunning, as the second remained hidden until the first was engaged, then appeared in the rear and breathed fire. Fortunately, Balen and Shikra’s summoned minions took the worst of the fire, and the party was able to triumph. 

 

Session Twenty Seven

In the aftermath of the victory against the chimera, the Fated were in a benevolent mood. Ethlyn decided to try again with the nearby mountain giant, and brought him a tribute of a dozen mountain goats and a newly-composed song. These efforts were warmly received, and the mountain giant agreed to leave any humans in the area unmolested provided the party brought him a dozen sheep each month.

After dispatching a cave bear that was resident near Krak al-Shidda, the Fated decided they should return to their explorations of the Howling Emptiness. By the 27th of Esevelen, they had reached the now-familiar oasis a the north-eastern edge of the Emptiness. The strange, ululating oasis again plagued their sleep, but they were otherwise left alone.

In the morning, they set out following an old trail to the south. It was the height of summer, and the Fated suffered greatly from the scorching heat and withering dryness of the desert. By the time the trail led them to a small oasis, they were in no mood to trifle with a flock of giant desert birds interrupting their rest; they slew them unceremoniously.

On the 29th, they began to explore the area nearby. They were cautious about the heat and made sure to return safely to the oasis by nightfall. During the cool evening ours, they were set upon by a flight of seven ichor hawks, condor-sized raptors with blood-ripping talons. Six of these were slain, while one was charmed into servitude by Senef. Sayyid, Senef’s python totem, had a savage dislike of the hawk, but apart from hissing and venomous looks, he tolerated its feathery existence.

The next day, Senef used shamanic magic to speak with the hawk. He learned of a “stone nest where the sun rises” and “a home for night criers where the sun sets.” The Fated felt the stone nest sounded promising, and headed east. After a brief skirmish with a nomadic pack of gnolls, the party came upon a cairn of stones rising about a dozen feet from the rocky ground. Suad advised that such cairns often marked tombs below. While the rest of the party began a thorough search of the surrounding area for some secret entrance into the tomb, Ethlyn sunbathed and amused herself by toppling cairn-stones. This inadvertently opened up a hole into the very tomb the rest of the band was off searching for.

The tomb below dated to the Zaharan era, and was guarded by several deadly traps and a dozen berserker skeletons. After the traps and skeletons were defeated, Suad magically detected a secret door to the tomb’s inner sanctum. A terrifying poltergeist within paralyzed most of the group with fear, but Sapphira slew it with her magical spear.

The party carted the various treasures and grave goods within back to the surface on the 31st of Esevelen, then set out on the 32nd for the “home of the night criers,” which they had by now surmised to be some sort of bat caves. They soon came upon a limestone promontory rising from the waste, its weathered face dotted with cave openings. The caves were home to a vast swarm of bats, and thick with guano – except where smooth trails had been burned through the guano by some creature or spell.

It turned out to be a creature, or three creatures rather: enormous slugs, each spitting a vile acid that could melt stone and flesh. This hideous monsters put up a vicious fight, but were eventually slain. Mahmud and Sapphira distinguished themselves by heroically leaping from a cliff to cleave down into the slugs, while Rakh was bold enough to actually tear into them with tool and nail.

After dispatching the giant slugs, the party ventured deeper into the bat caves. They were stunned to discover a gaping pit that  seemed bottomless. Zoya dropped a torch into the pit; its flame was gusted out by a draft, and she did not hear it strike bottom. An expedition downward by rope saw no bottom after 50’. The Fated decided to knot all of their available rope together to form a 350’ length. Rakh, trusting to Imran, volunteered to rappel downward. At 300’, no bottom was in sight, but he could see the faintest evidence of cave openings in the otherwise sheer surface, another 50’ or 60’ down.

Was this a pit to the Nether Darkness? Or merely an unusually long shaft? The Fated knew they had to explore further. Senef used his shamanic magic to grow a pair of wings, and began flying his comrades down one by one, depositing them each on the lip of the nearest of three visible cave mouths.

 

It was hair-raising work, for at any moment something might have soared up from the pit… but nothing did. Once everyone was deposited in the cave mouth, the Fated proceeded inward. The cave within held a great etched copper bowl, sealed with magical runes, 7’ in diameter. Translated, the runes read: “Sealed within the Child slumbers until the Time of the Awakening.” Suad recalled ancient myths, spoken only in darkness, that the children of the chthonic gods had been sealed in copper bowls in the deep places of the earth.

“We should flee,” said Rakh, his faith momentarily overcome by a flashback to that he’d endured the last time the Fated had awoken something dire. “Coward! No wonder your people are a slave race,” said Ethlyn. “Open it, Suad!” The mage obliged, his magic unsealing the ancient bowl.

The creature that emerged was a true Child of Nasga, its beautiful androgynous face attached to the sinuous body of a giant snake. Its sibilant whispers enthralled the party and might have doomed them all with its mesmerizing dance …Had Balen not webbed it and Ethlyn not beheaded it with her lightning sword.

Within the bowl were great treasures, including a large black sapphire, seven wrought gold bracelets, two maps, a brooch, and a grayish, smooth orb. Ethlyn recognized the orb for what it was: a crystal ball. She gazed within to see how her city, Cynidicea, fared. To her horror, she saw that Cynidicea’s surface had been turned to rubble, its soil salted, its irrigation shattered. An army of thousands of Imperial legionaries encircled its ziggurat, and was pounding it with siege weapons. A final assault could not be more than a day away. Sapphira responded to the loss of her city immediately: “Just as my people died in your service, so too will I die in your service!”

Still, Ethlyn was in despair and wanted no further part of the crystal ball. Balen claimed it and commanded it to show Kirkuk. He saw the once thriving town in ruins, its buildings torn down. The rubble of its wrecked structures had been collected and piled into the sacred Well, sealing up the underwater grotto against whatever lurked within. Next, Balen commanded it to show one of the Thrassian mummies the party had fought in the grotto.

The ball showed an image of a stepped pyramid in a wasteland. At its summit, a struggling human captive was shoved onto a stone altar, where Amur-Sin, the Thrassian mummy king, tore open his chest. Black energies seemed to radiate around the king, as if he was absorbing the life energies of the slain sacrifice. Next to Amur-Sin, the bandit chief Yasir al-Achmed looked on, his face passive and unreadable.

“Things just got intense,” said Ethlyn.

archon wrote: The next day the party resumed its search of the foothills. Their boredom turned to panic when a great winged creature soared high over head, and down towards a herd of goats wandering the Al-Baki. There were flames and human-like screams (aaaaaahhh) and then the creature  carried away goats in each claw. After the creature had passed, the party replenished its supplies of food by gathering up some fresh-cooked mutton.

Nit: mutton == sheep?

Edited by Thomas Weigel to not call the “quote” function.

Well, thank you for answering my musing self-question "does anyone read these reports?"

As far as the goat...mutton... it tasted very good.

 

Read them and look forward to them. It’s a great journal - your pc’s certainly earn every bit of the treasure they take. :wink:

Dedicated reader here as well.

I read them, too. I think that actual play reports don’t generate a lot of comments because there is nothing in them to argue about…

Ok, I’ll admit that Grim Fist is my favorite, but I look forward to tales of Opelenean Nights, as well. :slight_smile:

The campaign reports are the first things I read.

Session Twenty Eight


Turning from the crystal ball, the Fated investigated the two maps they had found in the serpent’s bowl. The first map pointed to a sandy plain in the Howling Emptiness a dozen miles away. It read “Where the lonely pillars lie/stretching upward to the sky/rests that which does not die.” The second map seemed to lead towards an avenue or ancient road, and carried the text “might heads of jade/mark the holy promenade/buried below seek what you wish to know.”

As was their wont, the Fated quickly decided to investigate these maps. It took three days of travel to reach the location on the first map. En route they handily dealt with a marauding lion and a small warband of ogres. On the 2nd of Agitelen, the pillars were in sight – and it was a most impressive sight. Each pillar was 10’ in diameter at the base, tapering upward to a point 30’ to 60’ above. The pillars jutted out of the sand at obtuse angles, and, on close investigation seemed to each be made of a solid piece of material. Ivory.

This was quite unnerving, and the Fated decided to use magic to investigate. Suad cast a divination to reveal any secret doors, while Mahmud activated his marvelous medallion, which allowed him to see the invisible. He was shocked to note a dark-skinned horned efreet hovering over Ethlyn’s shoulder. (As a reminder – back in Session 18, when Ethlyn was restored to life, she began to see a tiny efreeti, with little red horns, on her shoulder. The creature introduced itself as “Mustafa,” and said that its master Dahaka had taken an interest in her. No one else could see the creature at all, and Ethlyn was unsure whether she was going insane or she truly had acquired a demonic familiar. It has since plagued the young bard with evil hints and dark whispers.)

When Mustafa saw Mahmud gazing at itself, the evil efreeti reacted promptly. “Ethlyn,” it hissed. “The paladin has gone mad! He will attack you! He comes to kill you!” And, unfortunately, Mahmud did charge at Ethlyn, shouting “DEMON!” Chaos interrupted in the party. Ethlyn ignited her lightning-sword to ward off the paladin. Mahmud drew Cyclone of the Four Quarters. Balen hurled a web to entangle the two comrades, but Ethlyn’s lightning-sword ignited the webs, burning them all. Shikra wove a hypnotic pattern to mesmerize the combatants, entrancing Ethlyn and Mahmud. Unfortunately Mustafa took the opportunity to attempt to slit the throat of the mesmerized paladin. Rakh espied the danger when he slipped the medallion of detection around his neck, and warded off the evil mini-efreeti. Shikra dropped her hypnotic pattern so that Mahmud could dispatch the efreeti, but Mustafa instead convinced Ethlyn to flee! The bard raced off weeping tears of betrayal and hate, disappearing into the desert sands, with her henchwoman Sapphira guarding her flight.

The rest of the Fated looked at each in stunned silence. Balen was the first to regain his cool. “Well, should we check out the pillars then?” he asked. “We have to rescue her,” said Mahmud. “She’s possessed by a demon.” Under his fearless leadership, the adventurers mounted up on their camels. Senef granted eagle eyes to Barnabas (Sharik-turned-Shikra’s toad-turned-bat) and the keen eyed bat quickly spotted Ethlyn. Riding swift camels, the party quickly caught up to Ethlyn and subdued her. Mahmud seized Mustafa by his tiny throat and choked the life out of him – or perhaps that was caused by Shikra’s spell. In any event, the efreeti vanished in a puff of sulphur, and Ethlyn collapsed in agony, her life force partly drained by its death.

When Ethlyn awoke, it was as if a great darkness had been lifted from her. The young bard spoke of her goddess, Ianna, again, for the first time in weeks, and her songs were again light and airy. Everyone was relieved as she accompanied them back to the strange, toothsome pillars.

“I think these may be the teeth of some great beast,” said Suad. “We should almost certainly leave, for fear we might awaken it.” “Typical cowardice,” said Balen. “Maybe it’s a weapon for our use!” Senef decided the only way to know for sure was to consult with the local jinn. He conducted a shamanic ritual. “Is there treasure here,” he asked. Yes. “Is the creature to whom these pillars belong still a threat?” A presumptive question – what if the pillars didn’t belong to a creature? But the answer was Yes. “Is the creature more powerful than the Thrassian king we awoke?” Yesssss…

Meanwhile, Ethlyn, somewhat oblivious to Senef’s disturbing revelations, had taken out her lightning-sword and was slowly slicing into the largest of the pillars. She had….just…managed…to…get…a…deep…..cut when the ground began to shake for hundreds of feet in each direction, as if with an earthquake. “It would be wise to flee,” said Suad.

Flee they did, back to the nearest oasis. The next day, they decided to investigate the other map. Their trip, on the 4th of Agitelen, was unfortunately delayed by a terrible sandstorm that drove them back eastward. They were fortunate to find cover near a rocky tor for the worst of the storm, but were forced to return to the oasis by day’s end. At the oasis they found a dozen camels dead, torn apart by the savage winds.  They feasted well.

On the 5th of Agitelen, they finally reached the terminus of the second map. This proved to be a strange promenade of massive jade heads, each 8’ to 12’ high, vaguely humanoid but with bizarre proportions and strange, misshapen headgear and helmets. At the far end of the promenade, the heads formed a circle, giving the overall formation of statues the outline of a lower case i. The promenade was home to a hive of giant scorpions. Knowing the terrible poison these creatures carried, the Fated unleashed all of their magic and dealt with the creatures quickly.

Heading to the “dot” of the “i", the adventuers realized there was some sort of granite or sandstone layer beneath their feet. It took several hours of sweaty work to sweep away the sand and dirt, but they eventually uncovered a stone disc carved with runes: Next to each of the statues was a name engraved in gold inlay, and scriptures calling upon visitors to “Ask that You May Know.” Mahmud knew the names: They were old names of the chthonic gods. Suad noticed the disturbing stains and scars near each statue, and knew this to be a place of sacrifice. “Even you all must be able to see the foolishness in trifling with this place!” he said. Suad, Senef, Mahmud, and Rakh retreated from the disc. Mahmud called back, “Our duty is to fight evil, not poke it in the eye!”

The rest of the  group was less cautious, or perhaps more greedy: At first intent on carving the gold inlay from the disc, they found themselves instead ritually cutting their flesh to give a blood offering to these dark, chthonic gods. Shikra went so far as to summon berserkers and have them kill each other in the gods’ honor. Then they asked…that they might know.

Balen asked: “Where is the Carnelian Idol?” In the Tower of the Worm. Ethlyn asked “How can I avenge Cynidicea?” Butcher the Butcher. Zoya asked “where can we easily access lots of treasure?” The endless shaft. Shikra asked “What awaits us in the endless shaft?” Utuk Xul.

The reference to the Tower of the Worm caused some confusion amongst the group – it sounded familiar but no one could place it. Eventually Shikra remembered. “We found Vilstin, that fat and somewhat smarmy rogue trapped under a pile of skeletons in the Zaharan tombs beneath Kirkuk. Vilstin claimed to be a henchman of the Swords of Imran, the famed adventuring company. Remember he said he was leading his party into the Tower of the Worm on the far side of the Desert of Desolation when a magical trap teleported him to the bottom of this pit of bones!” (This happened in Session 21). Balen gazed into the crystal ball and commended it show him the Tower of the Worm – and behold, it was revealed! The tower seemed to have been made from the petrified body of an enormous purple worm, so large that a dragon could safely slumber on its summit. “I don’t think we’re ready for that yet,” said Rakh.

As far as Utuk Xul, Ethlyn knew the tale, but when she recounted it, no one felt better. “The great hero Eranth Bellos came to Opelenea during Al-Sindor’s great crusade. Here he met his friend and companion, the wonderworker Ishmerai ibn Bakr. Together they fought alongside the Prophet to Opelenea against the Efreet Pasha that the desperate Zaharans unleashed on the land. In time they were victorious. When Pazar sunk and Moradask was sacked, many ancient books of Zaharan lore came into their possession. Ishmerai became enthralled with a tale he read in Zaharan myth, supposedly told to Uragasi by the ancient dragon Krios. It spoke of an undying wyrm called Utuk Xul, who slumbered in a bottomless pit in the Howling Emptiness, with treasures and wonders from an age undreamt of.  Pride and greed inflamed, Eranth and Ishmerai departed for the Howling Emptiness and sought out the Endless Shaft thinking they could destroy Utuk Xul. But they were never seen again, and Al-Sindor wept for the loss of his friends.” “I’m not sure if that counts as ‘easily accessible treasure,” said Zoya, bitterly.


The party decided to instead explore a rocky ravine they had spotted the day prior. This narrow, rocky valley was pierced with foul fissures and grim cave mouths. Zoya went ahead to scout out the largest of these. A few moments later she came running back, screaming “avert your eyes!” But it was too late. A huge centipede emerged from the cave, its scores of legs quivering, one sickening eye glistening with a baneful light. Balen caught its eye and was instantly paralyzed, as were Dornethan and Sapphira. Shikra saved everyone by conjuring an illusion over the creature’s eye, masking it. This allowed the fighters to safely approach and dispatch it. Even after it was dead they kept attacking it – Ethlyn kicked it over and over, and Mahmud seemed to enjoy stabbing it in the eye repeatedly. Perhaps the Fated were taking out frustrations from a bad day, perhaps it was simply the exaltation of victory over a long-dreaded foe. (Damanos, the antiquities dealer in Alakyrum, had warned the party back in Session 11 of “a great centipede, with the power to mesmerize those who gaze at it, which haunts the Howling Emptiness.”)

It was by now the 6th of Agitelen, and the party decided it was time to head back to Ber-Gathy to see what their sage, Ishmech, had learned. This was a week-long journey plagued by predatory bands of killer birds and giant lizards, all of which the party evaded. En route they decided to stop by Krak al-Shidda to check on their stronghold. They were rather…annoyed…when a band of a dozen nomads met them not far from the stronghold. “I am Ibn Achmed, lord of Kral al-Shidda,” said their leader, a long-haired well-muscled fighter. “To pass by this road, you must pay my toll.” “I am Mahmud, paladin of Imran, and I pay no man a toll, least of all a man who claims my castle as his own. I challenge you according to the rules of the desert.”

“Hah! Weak city-dweller. I have never cut my hair because I have never been defeated,” said Ibn Achmed, drawing his sword. These were his last words before he was defeated. Afterwards, Ethlyn cut his hair and presented it to Mahmud. Clutching the dark scalp, Mahmud turned to the demoralized nomads. “I have defeated your chieftain! Therefore I am your chieftain! Do you swear fealty?” Much swearing of fealty ensued. (Mahmud rolled a natural 12 on his reaction roll!)

The Fated and their new allies arrived at Ber-Gathy on the 13th. Zoya snuck in and met with Ishmech, the sage, who shared his findings about the Oasis of the White Palm. Most importantly, he had located the fabled Oasis, deep within the Desert of Desolation. As Zoya was leaving, a dusky-skinned man of noble visage confronted her. “Are you Zoya of the Fated?” he asked. Alarmed, she denied even knowing the local language. “I am Abdullah al-Rassan, last survivor of the Swords of Imran. I need to speak with your party.”

Zoya excitedly brought him to meet with the Fated. “My friends,” said the mage. “My henchmen Vilstin told me of your glorious deeds, and of the unjust fate you now suffer. I am your ally in what must come next. My adventuring company, the Swords of Imran, sought out the Tower of the Worm hoping to learn of the star gems and staff of ruling, through which Opelenea can throw off the Auran tyrant and restore our ancient traditions. Sadly, all of our number were slain in the Tower, all save me. But I did succeed in discovering the location of the first star gem and the staff of ruling. It lies in the pyramid of Amek in the Desert of Desolation. Can you bring me the star gem and the staff? I will be traveling to Alakyrum to build the network which will usher in the new era… the Patriarch of the Great Mosque is with us, I assure you…”

Morale soared among the Fated! No more jade statues in the desert. No more 60’ high teeth of underground monsters. No more undying scary dragons or evil lizard kings or howling emptiness. Just a wizard with a quest to get an artifact to defeat an evil lord. Praise Imran.

 

Session Twenty Nine

After a brief and decisive discussion, the Fated decided they would head into the Desert of Desolation to pursue the quest given to them by the sorcerer Abdullah al-Rassan. Before setting out into the Desert of Desolation, Zoya checked in with the ruffians she had hired in Ber-Gathy. Two of the three had interesting tales to tell.

Bathsheba, said “a little town up north refused to pay its taxes to the Empire and so the Butcher sacked the entire place. Killed all the men and sold all the women and children into slavery. He had the bladedancer who lead the renegades crucified in front of the Palace. Apparently she died screaming for some queen to come rescue her.  Butcher said that if this “queen” showed up he’d free everybody, but she never did.”

Kavus reported “I hear a caravan out of Kemesh vanished near the Howling Emptiness. It was holding harem girls for the Butcher’s pleasure and he’s furious it hasn’t shown up. He’s blaming Kemeshi raiders but their ambassador says it’s Besherab nomads. I hope we don’t get into a war over harem girls. They’re plenty of pussy for everybody in Alakyrum.”

In light of this information, Zoya tasked her ruffians with finding the location of the Cynidicean slaves, and left the ruffians with access to enough gold to purchase any they discovered. Meanwhile Mahmud sent ten of his twelve nomads back to Krak al-Shidda, keeping only the two strongest, Wazir and Umar, as bodyguards. Finally, Ethlyn hunted and slew a lion in a glorious sacrifice to Ianna.

On 13th Agitelen (mid-August in the western calendar), the party was en route to the Desert of Desolation. It reached the Oasis of Sidi Hakeim on the 14th, and the oasis of Bou-Farfa on the 15th. Along the way, the Fated slew a thirty-foot long two-head serpent. Suad identified the monstrosity as an amphisbaena. Their travels on the 16th were blessed by the sight of a flight of lammasu, creatures sacred to Ianna – Sapphira suggested this was because of Ethlyn’s sacrifice.

At sundown on the 16th they reached the oasis of Oued Taal. This was the last caravanserai before the Desert of Desolation, so the group stocked up on all available supplies. The next day they entered the Desert itself. During the Zaharan Empire, this region had been the fertile satrapy of Sule, but devastation wrought by war, weather, and land use had gradually reduced it to an arid wasteland. They began heading south-east towards the alleged location of the Oasis of the White Palm and the Pyramid of Amek.

The first peril that the Fated encountered was a dreadful basilisk. The beast might have petrified them all had Senef not raised an obscuring cloud to block their site of the creature; they slew it blindly, but safely. Later that day, Barnabas, the bat, reported seeing a statue rising from the sands to the north. The Fated decided to divert to investigate the statue.

The statue, half-sunken into the ground, bore the visage of a noble Auran. He clutched a tablet obscured by sand. It read: “My name is Al-Sindor. O Zaharans, look upon the wreckage of your great city of Pazar, and despair! Great your magic once was, but now your empire is in ruins. Imran be praised.”

“Did this guy build a statue of himself after destroying a city just to commemorate how awesome his victory was? Best prophet ever!” said Shikra. “Imran be praised,” said Mahmud.

As Mahmud paused to admire the great prophet of Imran, there was a terrible sound of stone shattering, and he plummeted out of sight. He had fallen into a sunken vault, some 100’ below, saved from death only by the vast pile of sand that had accumulated within. His magical medallion revealed that there were huge spiders lurking in the ruins at the western end of the vault. The rest of the Fated hastily joined him below and destroyed the spiders.

Afterwards, the party approached the western ruins. They seemed to be some sort of ancient temple. Past the entrance were archways north and south, while westward golden doors gleamed in the torchlight. The doors bore no handle or fixture, just strange writing. What the writing said was “Do not disturb the vanquished one within. He is the treasure that must be kept.” How this was translated into Common in the minds of the adventurers was “within…is…treasure”. They knocked open the door.

In the room beyond they could see a massive brass lamp, 3’ at its base and 4’ high, sealed with lead, seated upon a high altar. Between them and the lamp were a series of 6 huge statues, arranged in three sets of two on the north and south walls. Between the nearest pair of statues hung a transparent blue curtain. “That must be the prison within which Al-Sindor sealed the efreeti pasha!” said Suad. “Let me consult the jinn” said Senef. “If the Star Gem of Zahar is here, it may be worth dealing with this foe!”

The jinn were forthcoming with answers. “Is the Efreeti Pasha that fought Al-Sindor imprisoned within the bottle?” Yes. “Is the Efreeti Pasha more powerful than the Child of Nasga we fought in the Endless Shaft?” “Is the Star Gem in the bottle?” No. A harsh argument ensued over what the Fated should do next. The argument ended when Rakh stepped forward into the blue curtain. Instantly, the poor Thrassian was frozen solid – not dead, but in a state of suspended animation. Senef was able to dispel the magic of the blue curtain, and the party pulled the Thrass-icle to safety and slowly warmed him up. He was largely unharmed, albeit in damp spirits. Sadly his enchanted axe did not survive the defrosting.

After camping out for the night, the party returned to the sunken temple of Pazar. A red curtain now shimmered between the second pair of statues. Suad was able to dispel this, but a yellow curtain immediately manifested between the final pair of statues. This proved impossible to dispel. Ethlyn decided to ignite her lightning-sword and try to cut down one of the statues. This proved…unwise…. As she was instantly blasted by a stroke of lightning. The lightning burned off a finger and melted her lightning-sword. “My sword! My sword!” she screamed, looking at the charred ruin of her finger.

The Fated decided to explore the rest of the temple to see if they could find a way to bypass the last curtain of energy. After a few hours of searching, they found fragments of writing in an abandoned library. These seemed to have been instructions to some sort of priestly order, requiring that the priests ensure the safety of the brass lamp every moon. Following the instructions allowed the party to approach the brass lamp safely, but they decided to wait until the morrow before disturbing it.

On the 19th of Agitelen, Senef greeted dawn with a divination: “What shall happen if we open up the brass lamp?” No genie can stand before the Cyclone of the Four. So reassured, Senef informed the party that with Cyclone of the Four Quarters at hand, he believed they could defeat the Efreeti. This faith was extended when Balen shared what he knew of the origin of Cyclone of the Four Quarters. “In the 7th century BE, mages in the City of the Phoenix grew concerned about trusting their fate to the Besherab of White Palm, as Al-Sindor had planned for. So they bound together fire, wind, sea, and air to create a scimitar, Cyclone of the Four Quarters, with the power to slay genies. The four entrust the blade to a warrior known as Shaddad. His killing spree curses the blade, and it was buried with him.” [Note: The Fated had discovered Cyclone of the Four Quarters by sheer chance while lost in the desert. See Session Ten].

Convinced of their ability to defeat the Efreeti Pasha, even though Al-Sindor had bound it rather than destroy it, the party unsealed the brass lamp. Immediately the flaming visage of the great genie emerged, a towering giant the height of ten men. Mahmud, with Cyclone of the Four Quarters in hand, hurled forward and began inflicting great wounds on the Efreeti Pasha. It responded by calling down elemental fire… in a moment, Rakh, Androcles, Sapphira, Senef, Balen, and Ethlyn were dead. Mahmud was, of course, unharmed. But before he or the other survivors could strike the genie again, it flew off on winds of flame.

The survivors – Mahmud, Shikra, Suad, Zoya, Ceara, and Dornethan – strapped the charred corpses of their friends onto their camels and sadly set off for Khaibar, the nearest town. They were so dispirited that they did not even stop to investigate the Zaharan tomb they discovered along the way.

Reaching Khaibar on the 21st, the Fated met with Achmed Raisul, a cleric of Imran in the Mosque of the Great Holy One. Mahmud explained what had befallen the party. After hearing the preposterous tale, the cleric concentrated deeply on a strange medallion. He nodded, as if confirming the truth of something, then excused himself to commune with Imran. When the cleric returned, he looked aggrieved. “Imran works with the tools at hand,” he said. He then produced the Mosque’s most sacred magical item, a miraculous ring, and used its power to bring the fallen back to life at full strength. After thanking the cleric profusely, the party decided its next step would be to wreak vengeance on the Efreeti Pasha.

Balen brought forth the crystal ball and commanded it to show him the Pasha. The crystal revealed an image of a purplish rock wall. At the wall, the Efreeti Pasha kneeled before a raven-haired ageless beauty with dusky skin wearing the archaic garb of Old Zahar. “Navana…I am released.” [In Session 11, the party had learned from the archmage of Alakyrum that a sorcerer-priestess named Navana created the Carnelian Idol. She had then vanished, but was allegedly alive and would one day return.] 

I went looking for part of the story, and this entire thread was borked. I think I’ve fixed it.

Thanks! Just finished part one a couple days ago, and I was horrified to discover that part two was unreadable. Really enjoying the session reports.

Re-un-borked the thread. Seemed to be tied to a specific case of the quote function.