Session Thirty-Five
Flush with cash from their success at the Crypt of Badr al-Mosak, the party relaxed in the Oasis for the next week. During the week, Senef’s spiritual communion confirmed that the Temple of Set below the Oasis was connected to the nether planes; the party had the entrance sealed up, as their experiences in opening such gates had so far been quite dismal.
On the 13th of Innelen, Hassan and Princess Shadalah were to be married, and the Fated, as heroes of the hour, were invited. The party presented the bride and groom with a marvelous gift – a 6,000gp diamond placed atop 60,000 silver pieces. Zoya wept tearfully at the wedding, largely over the size of these gifts; but the generosity was well-calculated, having been exiled from the Imperial lands to the north, having a secure relationship with the Sheik seemed vital. The Sheik, patriarch of a gift-based culture, had to reciprocate and so he awarded the party with ownership of the Sandvoyager’s warehouse and compound.
At the wedding, the Sheik’s aunt, Najma, visited them. “It is not fitting that so many promising young men be left unwed to cause trouble! The Sheik has sent me to find a first wife for each of you.” Ethlyn immediately spoke up. “What about me? Do I get a first husband?” The eagle eyes of the predatory matriarch gazed at her. “I didn’t realize you were ready to give up your decadent lifestyle and settle down for child-rearing. I’ll let the Sheik know to get you a good man…” Ethlyn demurred. Mahmud, however, being Opelenean by birth, found the idea of marrying into the Sheik’s tribe appealing, and asked for a suitable companion be found, “intelligent, curvy, with nice hips, and knows how to use a sword!” With love in the air, Dornethan blustered and bothered Rakh until he convinced the Thrassian to give him the philter of love they’d found in the Crypt. Meanwhile, Rakh had found a strange attraction growing with the slave-girl Kerina, whom he was teaching to sword-fight.
On the 14th of Innelen, the party departed the Oasis to seek out the City of the Phoenix. They had traveled only a day-and-night from the White Palm when they were ambushed by a sorcerous sphinx. The great beast unleashed a scouring wind upon them that slew a half-dozen of their camels, and badly wounded several party members. A camel fell on Wazir’s head, cracking his skill and addling his brain, and Balen had several torn tendons and ligaments. Seeing the the party was still in fighting shape after its ambush, the sphinx took wing to escape. Rakh was having none of it – he leaped onto Suad’s flying carpet and soared into the air, where he tore the sphinx to pieces.
After defeating the sphinx, the party decided to search for its lair. Even with Suad’s crystal ball and flying carpet, this still took the better part of several hours. The lair turned out to be a crumbled Zaharan ruin with broken statues and shattered columns, barely visible under centuries of sand. Within the party found silver and gold coin, rolls of silk, engraved tiger teeth, emerald stones, several potions and scrolls, a spellbook, and two treasure maps to the Howling Emptiness. The first led to “The shrine of the Zeolites / Where burn the fires bright”; the second led to “The pool of azure hue, whose waters renew.”
With Balen and Wazir temporarily incapacitated, the party headed back to the Oasis. Rakh Sphinx-Bane was not above boasting, and Kerina was quite impressed by his bravery. “Do you still have the philter of love?” she asked. “We should drink it to seal our love forever.” Rakh immediately went hunting for Dornethan to get the potion back, but Dornethan was hunting Ceara to get her to drink it. Balen, a professional military man, tried to stay above the shenanigans, but when Suad suggested this was because the fire-mage was so…flaming… things degenerated.
The bickering was still going on when the party departed again the next day, again intent on finding the City of the Phoenix. Their south-easterly trek was interrupted after a few leagues by a panicked Barnabas. “Most wicked and voluptuous mistress of darkness,” he squawked. “I have espied a large village of orcs a league from here.” “How large?” “It as bounteous with orcs as your chest is bounteous with... bounty.. 300 or more orcs.” Zoya volunteered to scout ahead to see what had the bat so flustered.
Shrouded by an invisibility spell, an elven cloak and boots, and her own innate stealthiness, Zoya crept towards the site of the village. It was, if anything, larger than Barnabas had reported – at least 300 orc warriors, plus an equal number of orc-wives and twice the number of brood. There were ogres, and a troll, too. The village’s “buildings” were just camel-hide tents, but they were surrounded by a rampart of sandstone and rock, and the vile banners of nine warbands fluttered. The village wall looked newly constructed – some incursion from the Waste to the south.
The Fated toyed with the idea of attacking the village by themselves, but they decided on a more strategic approach. Returning to the Oasis, they recruited three score camel archers from the tribe and brought them forward near dawn. Suad and Balen took to the heavens in their marvelous magical carpet, taking a place well outside of bowshot above the orc village. And then Senef begin a great and terrible spell – the calling of a dragon. As his chant ended, Marduthiamak, a dragon of the earth, erupted from the sands. I will serve you, for a time, the copper-hued dragon announced. “Go to the orc village to the south-east of here. Slay every beastmen there,” commanded Senef.
The Fated had timed their attack perfectly – just after dawn, as the nocturnal orcs were settling down exhausted. Dozens of orcs died still asleep, scorched by the dragon’s breath. Dozens more died to its claws as it cleaved and rended through them. When the shaman emerged from his yurt, Balen fireballed him from above. Orcs that tried to flee the fortress found squads of camel archers everywhere, peppering them with arrows. It was a slaughter. 275 orcs were killed in the fort or trying to escape; another 275 were captured. Only about 110 orcs escaped the abattoir…
And now it was time to loot!