Session One.
A caravan en route to Alakyrum, Pearl of the Desert, was struck by a terrible sandstorm. In the chaos, six members of the caravan were separated from the main body. When the storm finally cleared, the six strangers found themselves lost in the desert with the caravan nowhere to be found.
Striking out east, they traveled for miles, burning through their water and food. Near death, the travelers stumbled upon the ruins of an ancient city. Rising from the wreckage of walls and buildings was a stepped pyramid, its pinnacle topped with statues of three great gods. Mahmoud, who had received religious training prior to setting off on his warrior's pilgrimage, recognized them as archaic representations of Orn, Lord of Storms; Annara, Goddess of Love and War; and Istanul, God of Secrets.
With few options, the travelers warily approached the pyramid. They were gladdened to find a secret door into the pyramid, but disturbed to find a beastman dead just within the entrance. Tor, a mechanic by nature, cautioned of the possibility of traps. Past the secret door, the travelers found three metal shafts stretching floor to ceiling. As they investigated the shafts, Sharik's toad began to croak unceasingly and the travelers felt nauseous. Fearing some sort of poison gas, the travelers randomly opened the middle shaft's hatch and clambered down the ladder they found within.
They dropped down into a chamber lit by the hideous glow of giant beetles. A brief melee ensued, in which one of the beetles knocked down Ethlyn, who hit her head on the hard stone floor. Raziel and Mahmoud proved formidable fighters, however, and the creatures were soon dispatched. Sharik greedly began carving the phospherescent glands from the dead beetles while Senef proved himself an able healer and roused Ethlyn back to consciousness. She was a bit dizzy but otherwise unharmed. Tor busied himself searching the room, and found it filled with spare parts for automatons - a useful find for one with his inclinations. He also gathered up some vials of smoky oil, which he and the alchemist, Sharik, split.
The travelers were greatly concerned that as of yet they had found no water, so they decided to press further into the pyramid. It did not take long for them to plunge into danger. Entering into an abandoned bedroom, they were assaulted by two giant desert lizards who had been feasting on a corpse. The travelers fought the creatures off, but in the course of the fighting, Raziel the two-sword fighter had his hand bitten off. Senef was able to staunch the blood flow, but Raziel was in no shape for continued fighting, and Tor's gleeful offer to affix a blade to the stump did little to make him feel better.
The corpse that the lizards had been eating was that of a strange, white hairless man wearing a golden mask of a bird. The corpse was still wet, so the travelers surmised water must be nearby. Senef decided to risk communing with the jinn. A long and exotic ritual followed in which the Kemeshi shaman danced, chanted, and hissed at the spirits. When his ritual was completed, he announced with confidence that a source of water was nearby and to the right.
The jinn proved right: Within a few minutes, the travelers stumbled upon a band of men wearing bronze masks of a stern-faced god. These strangers, speaking an archaic dialect of Opelenean, pronounced themselves the Brotherhood of Orn and demanded to know whether the travelers were in league with Zargon. Fortunately, Sharik spoke Old Opelenean, and was able to communicate with the Brotherhood. The ancient desert guest-rites were honored, and the Brothers offered up some food and precious water to the travelers. The travelers spent the next few days with these strange, hairless albinos, allowing Raziel to recover from the loss of his hand, and learned some of the strange facts of the city they were in, called Cynidicea. While it was clear that the Brothers wished Mahmoud and Raziel to join their group, the travelers wished only to reach Alakyrum, and begged their leave.
Sadly the Brothers did not provide the travelers with anywhere near enough water to brave the desert, so the travelers were forced to venture further into the pyramid. By means of a circuitous route, they stumbled upon a large store of treasure guarded by a host of giant bees. This was surely a sign that Fate, whom even the Gods must serve, was smiling upon them! Perhaps with this treasure they could buy enough water from the Cynidiceans to make their escape? The travelers quickly developed a cunning plan: Tor coated a narrow hallway with the smoky oil that Tor had gathered earlier, and drizzled a fuse to it. Raziel then incited the bees into following him, even as Tor lit the fuse. The travelers had noticed that the stone doors of Cynidicea tended to slam shut quickly, and took advantage of this fact to trap the bees in the hallway, where the thick smoke choked and killed them. Fate laughed aloud at their cleverness.
After taking the treasure, the travelers found a passage to a lower level of the pyramid. After a brief but heated discussion, they decided to venture downward. They soon encountered a miracle of stonework, a revolving stone passageway. Tor was able to figure out how the mechanism worked, and the travelers decided to methodically work through the revolutions of the contraption. The first exit quickly lead them to the Temple of Istanul, where a dozen sorcerers in faceless masks where performing rites of worship. The travelers humbly introduced themselves and asked for guest-rights. The sorcerers obliged, introducing themselves as the Magi of Istanul. Their leader, Aytollah, was fascinated by the opportunity to speak with sorcerers and learned folk from outside Cynidicea, and the party enjoyed a lengthy discussion over kefir and mushroom kabobs. Ethlyn sang songs of the Auran Empire, which Aytollah had never heard of, his people's interactions with the surface world having ended not long after the fall of Zahar.
Eventually, Aytollah offered Sharik and Ethlyn membership in the Magi, and the two agreed. Swearing an oath by the Staff and Crescent of Istanul upon the crescent-shaped stone altar in the temple, the pair had Istanul's sigil burned into their palms and were given faceless masks to wear.
Aytollah then asked them if they would undertake an important mission for him. Somewhere in the tiers below, he explained, the great Queen Zenobia was buried with her royal scepter. It was said that the bearer of this scepter had such majesty as to be able to freeze a man in his tracks with but a word or gesture. Aytollah believed that with this scepter, he could defeat the priests of Zargon and restore wisdom and order to Cynidicea. None of the Magi had ever found the scepter. But, he explained, the travelers were clearly the Instruments of Fate, sent by that omnipotent power to serve at this moment!
With visions of ancient treasure dancing in their eyes, the travelers agreed to undertake this quest, shouting "The Staff and the Crescent!" to show their enthusiasm. None could see the evil cast on Aytollah's masked face...