The night passes amicably enough, and they open the next day at breakfast. They are planning the day of exploration when a man dressed in furs, escorted by ten soldiers, walks down the street. Two of the soldiers are playing a special flute-type instrument called a tutek, and a third a frame drum called a daf, the three are used together on special and formal occasions. As everyone pauses, the man in the middle grabs a large scroll, unfurls it, and begins to read:

“Whereas the scheming, greedy and cunning nature of centaurfolk is known to all,

Whereas their horse-stature and human appearances are an affront to the sensibilities of decent humans,

And whereas, the citizens of Ber-Gathy have already borne the insulting presence of these creatures for too long,

It is thereby decreed that a state of war exists between the foul and corrupt domain of the desert centaurs and the virtuous and principled Kasbah of Ber-Gathy,

Furthermore, any centaur found to be within the limits of said Kasbah within one hour of the reading of these decree shall be considered a dangerous criminal, subject to arrest. Its punishment shall be a public shaving of the horse part, and a sawing in half, separating the human half from the horse half, in order to attain a more human complexion.

Such is the word of the Sheikh of Ber-Gathy.”

On the streets passing by is a desert centaur who looks downright pissed. The other locals are quiet. It doesn’t look like they are too loyal or want this decree. Alzar asks a few about the desert centaurs, and they have a large tribe up north. If they came to war with Ber-Gathy, it’s no doubt that the desert centaurs would likely emerge victorious.

The centaur who heard, Grimvat, is sputtering and ranting against the locals. Alzar stands and heads out into the street to talk with him. After talking with Grimvat for a few moments, it appears that something else is happening.

Grimvat tells him that the centaurs had noticed some odd goings on around the barracks. In fact, there seemed to be people coming and going that had no right too. He wouldn’t be surprised if that discovery had led to the third proclamation. Grimvat and his people will be leaving Ber-Gathy and heading back north. It’ll take them about 5 days to reach their tribe, more than a week to rally everyone, and then another 5 days to get back. All told, they could be back, with the full tribe roused in anger, anywhere from 15-22 days from now.

Mage Alzar decides to investigate Sheikh Alzar a bit more, and after some conversation with the party, they head out to investigate the barracks.

They arrive at the barracks and begin an investigation from outside. It’s two floors, and there is a wall around shaped like a rhomboid. The bottom and upper levels are more of a square. Stairs must be inside to head up. There are some other buildings, smaller inside the gates. The wall is lightly guarded, and looks pretty thin.

There are five gates on the barracks, three of which are open right now. Through the gates they can make out a stables, prison, a small building for…servants? And some storage, as well as the main building.

Tolvar casts Invisibility on Alzar, who will slip and do some investigating. He has slipped on the Sandals of Speed, which make him move 50% faster, but have no additional impact. In order to get them to work, his hair has changed color to bright yellow blonde. (The magic miscibility rules, in effect here on Hamedh).

As long as he doesn’t attack, cast spells, talk or become detected, he’ll remain invisible. He has two invisibility pots in case he needs to renew it.

He slips into the area. He makes footprints in the sand, but there is no much traffic here that it’s not noticeable.

He heads to the stable first, and there are just some camels in here, nothing major. He can’t get inside the prison, it’s locked. The storage building is actually an armor, and Alzar ducks in and out of traffic. Weapons and armor is kept in here and a few soldiers are on duty, cleaning and checking weapons/armor in and out.

The main barracks are easily opened. There are eight doors that open up to it. Alzar has secured a Magic jelly bean in case he needs to create a diversion. He enters via the barracks kitchen, and then moves into the mess hall. Off the hall is a barracks and quarters for higher level officers in the army. It’s barred right now, and Alzar doesn’t want to open it in case some of the local soldiers are watching.

He heads left instead, and arrives at a large barracks, with about 25 or 30 bunks. Each bunk has two beds, so at night, this room can house…..quick quick math, 58 soldiers. There are around 5 or 6 soldiers in here right now. Easy to pilot a path that keeps him out of their grip.

A door is open, and there are stairs here, and he heads up. To the entry room here. There is a trapdoor, shut and barred, to the roof. The door to the right is locked, the others aren’t. No soldier here, so he opens up both (to have one open for later) and reveals a hallway in front of him and a smaller mess hall on the left. Maybe for the officers? He heads over into the mess (between meals, currently empty) and checks out those doors. There are some servants quarters behind the officers’ mess, but nothing further in.

Mage Alzar returns to the mess and takes another door. This opens into a hallway that meets the one from the other door. There appear to be some smaller bedrooms here, but they are secured. Down the hall are a quartet of locked doors as well – 7 all told. Probably officers or something. He heads back down the corridor he passed. There is a practice room, huge, that opens off the hallway. There are some officers practicing right now as well, three of them. There are five more locked rooms, likely all bedrooms along this hallway. It heads back to the opening room. Alzar needs to get through that locked door in the entry to the right, so he grabs a vial and waits until the entry is clear. This will leave behind a mark.

But the acid destroys the lock. He has four more vials if needed.

This sparsely furnished room contains a table, four chairs and a pair of benches, and there is a tapestry of the desert on one side. The door on the far side of the room is also locked, and another vial forces the issue.

This is a elegant private dining room. There are ornate straight-backed chairs, and soft armchairs around those, silver on the tables or on a shelf along the wall along with crystal is worth some cash. About five or six expensive, unopened bottles of wine are here, some elegant rugs, and more. All told, the rough value of items in eh room is in the neighborhood of 5000 gp. And if a Bag of Holding worked here on Hamedh…

And open doorway to the left reveals a large servant’s quarters with two working right now. There are three kegs of beer in here, rare right now in the Kasbah. A door off the dining chamber is unlocked. Behind here is room with two comfortable chairs, a desk, and simple wooden bookshelves laden with books. The desk is strewn with papers. There is a book on the desk entitled “The Escapades of Marzuq, Scourge of the Desert” Alzar takes it for later reading. The papers are requisition forms for more items, and one authorizing the drafting of 100 soldiers from the local population, signed by Marzuq, and dated four days from now in the future. Alzar grabs that form as well. He does a quick inspection of the books, and they are about trading, building things, and other manuals and how-to books.

The door behind opens into an unusual room with lush layers of furs, shins, hides, and other trophies taken from various monsters. Giant scorpion stingers and even a debbi coat. There is a door at the far end, locked, and now en-vialed with acid.

This large room contains a bedroom with a large amount of pimp-age from Marzuq. Crystal goblets, wine, rich tapestries, a large closet, and more. But there is nothing else here.

Alzar hasn’t come across anything too unusual yet. The draft for a few days hence is odd, but could easily be explained as needing more troops for the war with the desert centaurs. The book is thumbed through, but nothing too terrible is in here, it’s a puff piece about his exploits killing desert creatures and such, maybe even written by Marzuq himself.

Hmm… Alzar begins to search the room. The three acid locks won’t be hidden for too long, but he needs to find something more. This is the right place to start. Does he roll that 1 on a d6? Nope, a 4.

A few minutes later and nothing. He can’t keep up with this, so he pulls out a Wand of Metal/Mineral Detection. Normally it reveals ores, stuff like that, but it can also sometimes reveal hidden switches or doors if they are metal, and on the surface. In this case…

That is exactly it. One charge gone, and he finds a metal switch that pulls back some of the wall behind a tapestry. Back here are three chests, stacked on top of each other, and a table with some letters. He secures the letters for later reading, and all three chests are locked. Just two vials. Which ones, one, or, or three? He begins with the middle one, the lock is destroyed, and inside are some coins. Nothing too major, but he can’t take the whole chest with him. He uses the vial on…the first chest, and as he pops it open, a gas trap is triggered. He fails his save and takes 11 poison damage.

Inside the chest is an ornate desert-style helmet. He secures it. (The best two chests would have been 1 and 3, 3 has a bunch of light, easily carried gems). He also picks out some platinum pieces from the middle chest quickly, and begins to leave

40/51 Alzar
110 platinum pieces
Helm of Reading Languages and Magic


Alzar begins to slip out, but he’s taken too long. Someone has noticed the acid on the locks in the main area, and began to ring an alarm and around 20 guards are milling around. Alzar slowly closes the doors and at the office from the trophy room, uses his yellow jelly bean, cracks it against the floor, and out pops a gelatinous cube.

As he guards search, they see the cube all call out for help. Alzar hopes that the acidic nature of the cube will keep doubt in their mind as to what happened here. And perhaps eliminate clues of his presence. A battle begins in the dining room, and Alzar slips out.

He waits until the stairs are cleared, and then leaves the barracks, and returns.

They head back, and from his room, Alzar uses the Crystal Ball with Clairaudience to spy and listen on events. They killed the Cube, and four of their own died as well. Their best guess is that a mage or thief with magic penetrated the area, broke into the places, including the chests, and then summoned the Cube with a monster summoning spell of some sort in order to create a diversion. Actually, that’s spot on…hmm…these folks are smart

Afterwards, a Detect Magic spell works on the Helm. The following day he’ll memorize Identify and see the score he just grabbed.

Meanwhile, he also learns Comprehend Languages, to cast on the letters he can’t read. He used that first, pre-ID, and the letter is from a High Priest of Nabilah named Xanathon, written to Marduq, calling him the future Sheikh of Ber-Gathy. The wheels are now in motion and the pronouncement of war against the centaurs is forth-coming. Little resistance is coming, and the curse that Xanathon laid is working.

After doing some inquiring, the Temple of Nabilah here in Ber-Gathy is where Xanathon can be found…


The same trick is probably not going to work twice with investigating.

On their way to the temple, a fourth decree can be heard:


“Be it known to all that His Benign Munificence Sheikh Alzar has declared that following official decree:

Whereas it is apparent to all but the most feeble minded that the sun is the most illustrious of heavenly bodies,

And whereas it is of utmost importance to maintain the goodwill of this most blazing orb of flame during the coming strife,

It is hereby decreed that the burning of all combustible materials – to wit wood, dung, oil, cloth, peat, etc – is outlawed during the period of the sun’s resting, lest we incur the jealous wrath of his most hateful self!

Such is the word of the Sheikh of Ber-Gathy”


Man this guy….

They arrive at the Temple of Nabilah. Many come in and out of the front, so the party does as well, calmly.

They are in a large sanctuary with massive stone columns, ancient and carved. A statue of the bizarre Nabilah and her scowling face, and part-beast, part-person persona looms above from a dais in the center of the room. Numerous priests and followers are here, intoning their respects and watching the crowd. There are a bunch of small rooms to the back here, and one door is open and shows acolyte chambers back there, and nothing else. There are two doors leading from the sanctuary on the far side of the room.

Nabilah is popular with folks out west, and most of the people here are nomads or their descendants from the western part of the Sand Mire. Alzar decides to try the invisibility trick again, and the two mages step outside for a few minutes. And just one, Tolvar, appears to return.

Alzar easily opens the door but just barely dodges a priest coming out.

There is a very long corridor here and both doors open onto it. They wrap around the temple and come to the front – one into a room that holds the various offerings brought to Nabilah, such as goat meat or furs. Nothing of wealth. The other is a small dining room with about ten fighters here eating and hanging out. They are worshipers of Nabilah and wear her charms, but have the dirt of the road and appear to have newly arrived in town. They aren’t temple guards or anything. Both of these rooms are right beside the exterior of the temple and beside the main room. The back corridor had no doors off it. Clearly, there has to be a secret door somewhere on the back wall, about half the temple could fit there!

Alzar heads back and gives Volcifar one of the potions of Invisibility. They search, and quickly find a secret door to a corridor that opens into long hallway that apparently runs the length of the temple on the south flank. They find another door as an acolyte comes to the central hallway, and leaves the door open. That way has a long corridor as well, and doors closely, one of which is open.

They slip down and the first one opens into a private sanctuary – no one is in it right now, but it looks very similar to the main one. The door behind opens into a dining hall for the priests. They continue, and the corridor wraps around to the north. They take that and open the door to a large exercise room in progress of being used. There’s even a well back here.

They head down, and there is an alcove that ends in nothing, and finally a door.

The corridor wraps around and brings them t a hallway with three doors off it. All three are unlocked, and have storage for things like supplies, wet goods (including a lot of kegs, barrels, and other alcohol) and dry goods. Mostly it’s food.

They head back to the corridor, and there are two small alcoves to the south. The first has two doors on the right. They open into a library and archives. There is a priest here studying right now. A quick glance at the many musty tomes reveals nothing major, they are on religion, Nabilah, many of her servants, histories of the nomads, and so forth.

The final alcove back here is to a single door. It’s locked. Volcifar tries to pick it and….succeeds.

The door opens into a odd looking chamber. Flanking the door in are two large crystal statues of Nabilah, and the room has quartz tiles. In front is a door and another chamber, and part of the room continues on the right and left beyond the chamber and cannot be seen. No other room they’ve seen appears like this.

The crystal ball scouts the room out, but finds nothing more than two more statues before it ends.

As Alzar walks into the room, the statues suddenly animate and begin to move towards him. They must sense him, even invisibly. In a few seconds, the door swings open and a mage can be seen, with his chamber behind. Alzar tells Volcifar to go check out the other hallway while he fights.

All four statues are coming, and the mage casts Detect Invisible, revealing Alzar, who is quaffing his potion of invulnerability. It has a short life, but a powerful effect. Not knowing what it is yet, the mage casts Haste on the four living statues, Alzar grabs his staff, smiles, and begin combat with the wildly swinging creatures.

The wizard casts magic missile, and the damage is dealt, Alzar takes 15 damage. (Magic damage goes through a potion). Alzar smashes a statue for some damage. They hit a few times, but nothing happens. It’s like hitting him with the full ferocity of a light breeze.

Alzar - 36/51

Seeing Alzar injured, but knowing about the potion yet, the mage sees Alzar shrug off the physical attacks. He tries Web but Alzar pauses to switch rings to the Ring of Free Action and is fine.

The mage sees Alzar’s invulnerability to the statues, and decides to leave. He turns around and begins to collect some things, spellbook, magical items, and so forth. Over the next three rounds, he removes all of the important stuff, then he’ll cast teleport and leave.

The statues will be, slowly, killed by Alzar. He gets 800 XP for killing them. He skips the room for now, knowing that anything of value was likely taken. There are no other rooms out here.

Meanwhile Volcifar, still invisible, heads into the other secret corridor. There is an alcove near the end that opens into nothing, and a door. Locked. Volcifar tries to pick it and fails, so he decides to do a little searching, and finds a secret door in the alcove, and it opens into the library from before. No one is here now.

Alzar, delayed by about 15 minutes, is running out. It looks like the area around the room is denuded people, probably warned about the attack in the crystal room. Alzar heads back up and hears some people in the final corridor he needs to go to. He grabs the Crystal ball and uses it again (3/day normally) to spy and sees an ambush being prepared for him by about 5 clerics and 15 fighters. They are waiting in the hallway just east of the main sanctuary, where the party awaits, the alarm has not reached. They are on both sides of the hallway, so he can’t go invisible and slip through or drop another jelly bean as a distraction and move behind it. Hmm…

He is still invulnerable. He should be for another 15 minutes or so. He can be the diversion. He silently orders his familiar to lead the party to the door. Most of the priests have melted from the main sanctuary, there is one acolyte left. (Alzar sees through his familiar’s eyes) He grabs his staff and leaps into the hallway and shouts out. The fighters and priests charge him and after a few rounds, realize they can’t wound him.

Meanwhile the jackal has led the rest of the party past the back door and down the corridor where Volcifar waits.

In the confusion, Alzar slays a few fighters, and shrugs off some spells like Hold Person (with the Ring of Free Action still on). They realize they are losing, so they back off, and Alzar charges the group that’s between him and the party. They back off and retreat into the sanctuary, and he moves past them and opens the secret door and moves down quickly. He gives a vial of acid to Tolvar to use and stays in the back, keeping his distance.

Tolvar takes out the door’s lock as a small mob moves into the corridor, staying away from Alzar, but keeping him from fleeing. This is a small entry chamber, with a comfortable chairs, couches, and such. Pashtun leads folks in and opens the door on the far end, and finds a dining room, quite swank, with wealthy accoutrements of value. The mage apparently teleported back here and warned the priest, Xanathon. They have begun to set up defenses, overturning a table, and such. The mage cast protection from normal missiles and Xanathon has just cast Striking on his mace.

Xanathon moves in, lead by a glowing mace. He is a tall, gaunt, balding man in his early 40s. He is really enjoying the personal combat. A gold chalice is secured by the invisible Volcifar while the others move in to attack.

The mage casts polymorph other on Pashtun and it works, and Pashtun is now a bunny rabbit. Meanwhile, Volcifar has slipped behind the mage and backstabs him invisibly. His dagger of venom hits and does 14 damage via backstab. No poison comes out though (only on a natural 20 roll will it). The mage cries out in pain and Volcifar is now revealed. Attacks hit the cleric, but nothing damages him.

Alzar is closing on the battle after seeing it in Gilded Ears’ eyes. Alzar sees the damage get shrugged off and suspects a potion of invulnerability on the other side. He shouts down the hallway for Volcifar to use the Ring’s Dispel Magic on the cleric, but he doesn’t hear, and instead stabs the mage again for 3 damage. This time he actually rolls a 20! But the wizard rolls the save and….makes it. Ah well.

The mage is clearly scared for his life. He stands and runs back into the room behind him. Which is Xanathon’s chambers, and Volcifar follows. Meanwhile Locinda takes 11 damage from our good cleric. Tolvar’s Acid Arrow does nothing.

Alzar arrives this round and sees the crowd coming for him. He casts Dispel Magic at the cleric and it works. But the enchantment stands, and the acid from the arrow from last turn still does hurt him, and neither do the magic missiles that follow. A few more weapons bounce off the cleric. The mage in the back is grabbing a potion from the pack he packed up and Volcifar has followed him. His dagger hits the wizard a third time and kills him with 4 more damage. Dead mage. He grabs the vial and backpack the mage had and comes back to the battle room.

Alzar orders Locinda to grab the bunny rabbit and fight a retreat. Tolvar pulls out too. Alzar moves in front to take the hits from Xanathon who is more than happy to switch targets, but his mace bounces off Alzar’s invulnerability.

Mad he demands questions of Alzar. How does this pagan enjoy the same blessing that he gets from his goddess? Is his spirit also removed from his body? This wizard trick won’t stand for long! Alzar orders Volcifar to Dispel the polymorph since it didn’t work on the cleric instead of answering. Locinda drops the bunny and Pashtun is back.

They move to attack the screen of fighters and clerics in front of them, tired of facing an invulnerable Alzar, spent of most of their spells, and tired and wounded, they aren’t much of a challenge, and as Tolvar casts Burning Hands to take down two, and the three others with weapons drawn, moving forward, they decide to retreat, but tactically.

Meanwhile Alzar and Xanathon continues to exchange meaningless blows. He does the same, pulling back from Xanathon who follows. He has Gilded Ears slip behind and scout the back rooms while he continues to fight. The familiar sees a small kitchen, bedroom, but nothing else and pulls out.

As she does, and the party is pushing forward against the retreating folks in the corridor, almost by the sanctuary in front, suddenly blood erupts from the mace hit on Alzar’s shoulder and the priest’s face become some of sure joy. And so the falsity has been revealed. Alzar takes 9 damage.

29/51


Alzar begins to retreat for real, full on running now, and the party has broken into the corridor, the priest is laughing at him and casts Silence in him and it works. They reach the corridor and break into the now-confused sanctuary. Soon enough the party breaks out of the Temple of Nabilah and after a few minutes, is not being chased further. They flee to a different tavern to grab a room and heal up.

They look over the things they know. The backpack has a spellbook, some vials, and some spell components in it. Non e of the magical items the wizard, named Dervill, had on him.

Five Vials, all potions – Poison, Gaseous Form, Polymorph, Healing, Super-Heroism

Once it is decoded, this is…

Dervill’s Spellbook – Read Magic, Identify, Detect Magic, Wizard Mark, Hold Portal, Magic Missile, Chromatic Sphere, Featherfall, Web, Detect Invisibility, Misdirection, Audible Glamer, Haste, Protection from Normal Missiles, Dispel Magic, Nondetection, Item, Suggestion, Polymorph other, Wizard Eye, Daltim;s Flaming Fist, Teleport, Desert Fist


Everybody gets 100 XP for various soldiers and priests in the corridor, and Alzar and Volcifar split the kill of the wizard evenly, they each get 1250.


Alzar sells the golden chalice and splits the gold with the for other folks in the party, skipping himself.

They heal up, and focus on where to go next. Alzar does some research with another temple, and finds out that there is a shrine to Nabilah about two day’s journey away up the Oued Khaud. Maybe they can find more about what is adding Xanathon, and how, there.

After a night’s sleep at a new inn, they head out for the shrine.

This area of the Sand Mire is a bit more civilized due to the presence of water, military, and more. The first day out is pretty tame. That night it’s too. The following day thought things are far enough away from the Kasbah that anything could happen. About three hours from the Shrine it does.

A giant centipede emerges from behind a hill, and suddenly, a few more do as well, and a quartet of giant centipedes, each a few feet long are coming at the party. Tolvar’s Magic Missile kills one and prompts them to head elsewhere.


The Shrine to Nabilah is built into the rock face at the top of a set of hills. There is a large cave moth that opens up. An entry chamber with a statue to Nabilah in front, and there are two green, glittering gems in the eye sockets. It takes a short while for Volcifar to search for any traps or anything else, and then they are pried out

2 green gems – 50 gp each

There are three corridors off the entry way. They head left and find some doors that open into grain and other storage closets. The corridor takes a right angle to the right and they continue, and a door on the right reveals wine storage in casks.

They continue down the corridor and it hits a T. Left is a passage that bends to the right and a door to the left. The right choice sees a pair of alcoves vanish to the left. They head left and the door is locked and picked by Volcifar. The room contains several large tubs, two huge, tightly-lidded vats, and a cluttered workbench. There is a strong stench coming from the room. They are fermenting wine here.

They head right and the two alcoves open into a pair, of doors. As the party nears them, a shout cries out, and both burst open, and two clerics pop out, moving to attack the party. They stop and each cast Hold Person. Locinda is now held.

As combat begins, Alzar casts Continual Light at one, who fails his save, and she is blinded. The other one moves in, and Pashtun moves to intercept him. Battle begins

We win init and miss, mostly, only Volcifar’s Sling og Seeking cracks for 3 damage n the cleric. He smashes Alzar for 5 damage with his mace; it’s humming, likely magical of some sort.

Alzar 46/51

They keep init and Alzar’s staff and Pashtun’s blade each crack the cleric’s 2 AC for 8 total damage. The cleric misses.

The next round the cleric wins init and misses. Tolvar’s thrown dagger critically hits for 7 damage. Alzar adds 4 more from his staff and the cleric falls.

They dispatch the Continual Light cleric.

Alzar grabs the mace, and finds keys on this cleric. They add a bunch of items from their bodies to the magic pile, and then search the two bedrooms and find little.

They head back and take the bend. They carve around the bend and continue, and it bends again and they are at a corridor facing down. They take the right door and try it and in here is a room with a stench, they are making wine here. The items they pulled out and piled outside of the bedrooms can be seen down the corridor.

Probably a portal or teleport spell or somesuch.

He heads back towards the tunnel again, and this time, after taking the bend, turns around, and sees the stairs down behind him. The trap simply teleported you to the end of the tunnel, turned around, so you’d think you were still walking the same way.

They head down.

They arrive at a hall of statues, with a variety of people who must have been famous worshippers of the goddess here. They have her mark on them. They are columns too, reaching the ceiling and supporting the place.

There are two paths out, north and south. With a faint feel of something…necromantic here pulling him, Alzar chooses to head north to a room off the main hallway.

Hello friends. 10 zombies animate to attack them. Alzar controls them all. They will move out and act as people to walk down corridor, scout, try locks and doors, and are in front of the party at all times.

They follow the corridor west and pass b y large, irregularly shaped room, with three statues in it, once in each of the alcoves. Two small hideous ones flank a giant one of Nabilah. As zombies enter, the two smaller ones animate and attack, they are gargoyles. Since they can only be hit by magical weapons, Alzar orders that the zombies move out of their way. No sense wasting their potential here.

Battle begins as a slingstone misses. Pashtun’s magical scimitar slices off a wing of a Gargoyle for 10 damage after a critical hit. Alzar has Tolvar wait on spell use until a better target arrives - his staff misses cleanly. One gargie carves Pastun for 3 on a bite and 2 on a claw.

Pashtun - 33/38

The gargs attack and carve some more off Pashtun – Locinda and Pashtun finish off the wounded gargoyle


22/38


Garg keeps init again, and hits once more for 1 damage. Each one gets three attacks. They attack the gargoyle back and only Volcifar’s sling hits for 4 damage.

The next turn they win initiative for the first time, and then kill it with three hits.

Pashtun – 21/38

They each get 80 XP

There’s nothing else in here. They head back out and find another hall of stone columns, followed by two doors as the corridor bends to the left. The doors are barred, not locked. Zombies open the first door and this is a prison, with ogres trapped, for some reason. The two ogres in this cell immediately attack the zombies. Alzar orders the crew to attack back.

Two zombies die, and both ogres bite it. There is nothing in here, it was a jail.

The next door is identical. They get weapons ready, throw it open, and 4 more ogres are in here and attack. Three more zombies die.

5 zombies left

Everybody gets 150 XP

The corridor goes on for a while. It hits a room with some carrion crawlers, three in all. The zombies kill them all without taking damage. The carrion crawlers can only paralyze, they deal no damage – zombies are immune to paralization.

Everybody gets 100 XP

This cavern appears to be the end of the carved area, and behind it are natural caves. There was nothing else in the room save for some old, decayed and rusted metal fro, a few victims.

The next room curves into a large cave, with little in here save for a well that was dug, there are two exits here. One heads back to the stairs back up. The other finds a large stone across the passageway to the right, They roll it and behind is a cavern that is very large, and has a coasting of dust on the floor around 4 or 5 inches thick. At the far end is a block of stone.

Alzar begins to feel something necrotic awakening. He orders everyone back, and suddenly the block bursts open, and out comes a mummy.


There are some undead Alzar knows so well that he doesn’t need to roll his Necrology proficiency to remember. Since he used to control a mummy back in Thorasia, he knows them pretty well, although not all ancient dead are the same, there are variations on a theme.

Mummies are often pretty durable, hard to hit (this one is even harder to hit with AC 1) durable (this is stronger than normal with 39 hit points) and they have a few special things. Their attack can cause a terrible wasting disease. They can only be hit by magical weapons. They take extra damage from fire attacks. They are a rare undead that gets energy from the positive energy plane, not the negative one.

But, their sight causes fear . Roll to see who stays. Tolvar, Alzar, Pashtun, are still here. The others are paralyzed with fright for 3 rounds. (Humans get bonuses to their saves)

Let’s start this thing. Tolvar doesn’t need permission and an Acid Arrow hits the mummy as it comes at them for 5 damage this turn. Alzar doesn’t have a lot of magic that’ll work here. Vampiric Touch certainly won’t. He didn’t prepare anti-undead spells like Hold Undead. He has no chance of controlling it. His spells today are his normal – Dispel Magic, Vampiric Touch, Sleep, Detect Magic, Hypnosis, Charm Person, Identify, Continual Light, Skeletal Hands, Ghoul Touch, Hold Person. None of those are going to really shine against a mummy.

What else can he bring to the table besides his magical staff? Wands of Salt and Fear won’t work. Frost is weak here. He grabs his staff and uses two charges from it for a lightning bolt, which will do 4d12 damage, save for half. Not exactly the most damaging item he has, but it’s all he can do right now.

I’m going to need some dice

3, 8, 3, 11

Total damage – 25… time for a save… Mummy rolls…10. Don’t know, hold on, let me check the chart.

Save is an 11, fails. By one!

Boom Mummy boom!

Pashtun moves up to screen. The Mummy arrives.

The Mummy wins init. It swings at Pashtun and misses. (it has an THACO of 13, and that’s Pashtun’s AC< it’s not going to hit that often) Meanwhile, it takes 6 more from the Acid Arrow. Alzar and Tolvar miss it.

The mummy wins init, rolls a 4 and misses. They hit and kill it. Dead mummy.

Everybody in the party gains 600 XP

A search of the rock-coffin turns up some gold and gems, and even a wand….


To identify later – Wand of Fireball, 6 charges
2000 gp
52 25 gp gems

They head back to the corridor and continue pressing. As the zombies move down the corridor and past a bend, a snake-like horror slithers into view. It’s eyes seem to while in a hypnotic pattern and it tries to hypnotize the zombies.

Well that’s not going to work. The zombies tear into the hypnosnake. It starts to bite, and one bite kills a zombie. The Hypnosnake is not like carrion crawlers, it has other attacks. Alzar moves in and closes his eyes, closing to the snake, he takes 4 damage from the snake’s chomp.

While holding onto it, it guarantees, he’ll be hit, and it bites him again for 5 damage, but then he casts Vampiric Touch, and it takes 13 and he is healed. The zombies hit the snake for some damage too. A sling stone from Volcifar crushes it and it dies.

50/51 Alzar

Each person gets 400 XP

Volcifar has leveled up, but we’ll finish that post-adventure

They carve open the hypnosnake, since Alzar is not familiar with this creature, and find nothing. You never know, you might find something useful in digestive tracts or some such. There are a few items on the ground though, a mace and shield that look quite nice.

They add the items to the magic pile:


Mace +2, +4 vs Undead
+1 Shield

Will be found later

And the mace Alzar has is:

Mace, +1 vs Lawful, -1 vs Chaotic

They continue on. There is a haunted chamber with a stuck door that had to be forced open, and then there is a haunting feeling here that has to be saved against. Those who fail come across a few minutes later. This area has been carved again. Very lazy work too. Looks unfinished.

A door to the next chamber reveals a wight. Two zombies are blocking the door way. We have 4 zombies left. The wight rushes forward. Alzar tries to control it. But fails.

The wight and the zombies are fighting, but that is a battle the wight will win – it can only be hit by magical weapons. Wight’s are, comparatively, pretty weak, their energy drain is the only think worth moaning about. With the zombies blocking it, Alzar orders Tolvar to use Burning Hands from behind them. He aims it so it hits mostly wall, one zombie and the wight, for 7 damage each. Another zombie steps into the gap before the wight recovers. Angry it begins to slash a zombie as magical missile weapons come in. Two rounds later it dies, but Alzar is down to two zombies.

Considering how many undead they have been fighting, he hands magical weapons to the zombies.

They move in.

The chamber is empty and there is a door on the far side. The zombies open the door and another undead presence can be felt.

This is a Spectre, and she was once a powerful cleric of Nabilah. In fact, she still serves it seems. She is coming out to the wight’s room and cannot be contained by the zombies. A hit by her will remove 2 levels. Its arguably just as powerful as that mummy, and the energy drain is a lot worse. And they are out of spells.


He orders missile weapons from the people and physical attacks from the zombies. Desperate, Alzar uses the same trick, and drains two more charges from the staff. He rolls 10, 5, 9, 4 for 28 damage. This spectre has 27 hit points. If it fails its save too, that’s it. I grab a die 20 and I already know the target is 11. It rolls….2. No good. It dies!

600 XP again.

Both fighters Locinda and Pashtun are close to leveling as well.

Anyways, they find a vault that was guarded back here and that’s the end of the shrine.

Back here are some holy items of Nabilah. They include some of her holy symbols, non-magical book s on her worship, and a lot more.

They also find:

A +2 Khanda
Zoster of Zeal – A belt that can be activated once/day to give +3 to hit for one full turn
Potions of speed and flying
Kamencheh of Calming - When this instrument is played, acts as a pacify spell to everyone who hears so long as it is being played

Chest of Weightlessness

The chests are Hamedh’s answer to a lack of extra-planar storage space so common elsewhere. Alzar has heard about tem, but this is his first one he has found. It’s a medium sized chest, that has been enchanted so that it weighs nothing, no matter how full it gets. This one can hold about 4000 coins worth of space, if they were stacked.

There are other others of import here as well:

1 brightly glowing diamond of unknown make and reason.

210 pp
1550 gp
13000 sp
Gems worth 500gp; 100gpx3; 50 gpx7; 10 gpx17

Since they can carry everything else, they put 4000 sp in the chest.

Alzar takes the 6 books here as well

6 Books on Worship of Nabilah

They begin to head back to the Kasbah, and they lay in for the night one hour away from the shrine. Alzar uses the night to review the books and finds out that one is a diary of one of the chief priests of Nabilah. Xanathon is a servant of the Master of the Desert Nomads. He was sent to foment civil war in Ber-Gathy by turning the Sheikh Alzar against his second in command. He was never interested in a coup, just in a war.

By weakening Ber-Gathy with the civil war, the Master can send some of his tribesman over to capture the city, now denuded of most of its defenses, and then capture it, and use it as a base of operations for points north, east, and south. It’s not like Khaibar is in any condition to take it back. That would remove a thorn, take a major, vital outpost, and give his growing power another victory.

It’s a smart plan. Even if discovered and stopped, it’s not like the Master is out anything major. The traitors will still be ousted and that weakens things for the nonce.

As Alzar reads he also discovers that the spirit of Xanathon is in this diamond. If you bring it close to Xanathon, they should cancel each other out.

The next morning, as they make breakfast, a sound is heard from overhead. A Manticore is flying at them to attack them.



It fires a volley of tail spikes at the group targeting… Tolvar. It hits twice for 8 damage.

Tolvar 6/14

Battle begins. Tolvar casts Invisibility on himself. Alzar uses the Zoster and then throws a knife. It still misses. Even a certain Sling of Seeking does. The Manticore fires another spray, this time at Alzar – trying to take out the mages. Alzar takes 11 from a few hits.

Alzar 40/51

They launch another round of weapons at It as it flies above. It has 22 hit points, and fires a salvo at Alzar and hits just once for 3 damage. It is missed as well.

37/51

This time it pegs Alzar four times for 4d6 damage and deals another 11 damage. Meanwhile a sling nails it for 4 damage.

26/51

Since no one is dead, and it’s used all of its spikes, it flies up and heads away.


They gather their things and hit the road a half-hour later in case it returns or brings friends.

Nothing else bothers them until they return to Ber-Gathy

As they near the Kasbah, they prepare themselves in case they have a hot entrance to make, but no one seems the wiser.

Alzar and party arrive, and do some inquiring. A 5th edict was passed while they were gone requiring all steeds to be fed nothing but meat. That would be fine by Alzar and Pashtun’s giant striders, they like meat. But most are looking rather weak right now.

Since there is a curse on the Sheikh, and Xanathon probably has the cure, or knows how to acquire it. And Alzar has the bribery needed.

They head down and to the Temple of Nabilah. Alzar moves to the front and enters the sanctuary, and then sees a few acolytes and a priest.

“Hey! You guys remember me. I was the one beating down half of your forces. I killed your pet wizard. Remember? Well tell Xanaphon that I found something of his, and he might want it back. It’s a glow-y diamond-y thing. Oh, and tell him that I want him to bring the cure. He’ll know what I’m talking about. Have him meet me at the local fountain, in three hours from now. Well go on, tell him now.”

After a pause, the priest leaves the sanctuary and Alzar heads out. Out to prepare.

Xanaphon comes as expected. He has a small sack with him. Pashtun and Locinda are with Alzar.

“I’ll make this simple. I know that you are vulnerable when the jewel is here I know you don’t want to die, that was the point behind this whole thing after all. You are here. That means you have the antidote with you. You wouldn’t want to risk our…excitement… by giving us a fake cure for the curse.

So, you have one shot to produce the cure.”

Xanaphon opens the sack and pulls out a tube of white dust. “Just put this in the Sheikh’s face and my curse will be lifted.”

Alzar checks something really quickly over Xanaphon’s shoulder, just a flick of his eyes, and then looks back, with a small smile.

“Do you what I don’t like?”

“No.”

“I don’t like liars Xanaphon. You see, while you were paring, I was too. Turn around. “

As he does, he spies three clerics from the other two temples.

“You see I hired them to all cast Detect Lie on you, guarantee that you would be affected by at least one. And there you are, just lying to me.”

Silently, Xanaphon puts another tube of identical looking powder on the table. “That’s the real cure.” Nods from the clerics.

“Alright. I have your gem right here.” Alzar takes the glowing diamond from around his neck and places it on the table. And that’s the signal.

Suddenly a sling stone smashes into Xanaphon’s side, and while he takes no damage, the light in the gem winks out, leaving behind a 2000 gp diamond

Battle begins, Xanaphon cast be touched. He’s level 10, had 41 HP, AC 2, and has some solid spell-age.

Xanaphon wins init opens up with his most powerful spell – Slay Living, the reverse of a Raise Dead. Right at Alzar. Alzar is forced to roll to save. He needs…a 10 on a d20. Rolling….13, he’s fine. He still takes 12 damage though. Alzar casts Vampiric Touch back and deals 8. A few weapons crash against the priest for 5 damage.


Alzar – 47/51

Xanaphon – 28/41

Xanaphon wins init again. He casts sticks to snakes on a few sticks by the fountain and makes some allies for the battle. Alzar casts Ghoul Touch on him but he makes his safe. Acid Arrow flies in for 2 damage. Pashtun stabs his for 5 more.

21/41

Xanaphon loses init and Alzar tries Hold but fails. He takes 5 from the Arrow and 4 from Magic Missiles. Weapons miss. He casts Cure Critical Wounds and heals 27 damage.

39/41

He takes initiative back and casts Striking on his Mace. Locinda and Volcifar each hit for 6 total damage. Alzar’s Continual Light works, and the cleric is blinded.

33/41

Alzar’s team win init, and it’s a lot easier to hit Mr. Blindy he takes 12 damage from weapons this urn can’t cast magic, so swings and misses with his mace.

21/41

Two turns later Xanaphon is dead. He his Alzar for 9 damage.

Alzar finishes with 39/51 (Healing)

Everybody gains 1050 XP

Pashtun and Locinda both leveled up and are now level 5 fighters

Alzar casts Detect Magic and just the mace glows, he didn’t need any other magical items

+2 Mace

They head over to the Sheik’s Palace.

They have to break through the guard here, since many are on the side of a certain Marzuq. They do the invisibility trick again. They don’t know who’s on which side. After a half hour of trying to find the Sheikh Alzar, Mage Alzar comes across him in the boudoir. He looks rabid and crazed. Alzar opens the tube and throws the powder in the Sheikh’s face. This makes Alzar visible.

The Sheikh in a moment is back, and he orders Alzar out for a few minutes to clean up. After ten minute or so he has bathed, shaved, and changed. He remembers everything, including the treason of Marzuq.

In an hour Marzuq has been found and hung. The edicts have been repealed and ambassadors have been dispatched to the desert centaurs with an apology and explanations.


Alzar greets Alzar and throws an official banquet in his honor, and those of his party. The news spreads, and Alzar informs Alzar about the real reason behind the treason and what he uncovered. This was a plot by the Master to break the Kasbah of Ber-Gathy and claim it for themselves.

The group is considered heroes here about for a few days, and a few things are free – lodging, food, supplies, and so forth.


End of X3. The Curse of Xanaphon

There are a few things I like about the module – firstly, it has a decent enough mystery theme to it that really does work. It’s in the D&D world which has less subtlety, but there are places where the writer, Douglas Niles, just says really annoying things to the Dm, such as:

“the tapestries are quite valuable, but of course no lawful characters would even consider stealing from the legally appointed Duke.” The italics are not mine, but Niles’s. That’s just bad writing. Just include the info, and let me run the module. But while he gives the value, in detail, of all of the items in the Shrine and Temple, he doesn’t bother with the barracks and Ducal Palace. Why not? What if I have characters who aren’t lawful? I could have a neutral thief or something right?

The module also suffers from some uneven editing and playtesting. For example, sometimes, the monsters come with hit points already rolled, and other times they don’t and I have to do it myself. In the first battle with Xanaphon, he’s not bothering to wear any armor and is super easy to hit. The description for the final battle simply says, “uses the stats from chapter 2”. That’s just stupid. I get why he’d be armor-less when invulnerable, why bother wearing it? That’s fine. But when coming to meet the people who have the one item on Hamedh that weakens you? Why wouldn’t you pause to toss on some mail or plate or something? I bumped his AC up for the final battle, or else it’s a cake walk that anyone could win.

So there are uneven elements like that to the module. Overall, we made a lot of changes to have it fit the Sand Mire campaign, and I hope you like them!

Levels up!

Locinda is now 41/41 HP
Pashtun 45/45

Volcifar – 24/24

Pick Pockets – 30
Open Locks – 65
Find/Remove Traps – 90
Move Silently – 40
Hide in Shadows – 40
Detect Noise – 15
Climb Walls – 65
Read Languages - 0


His backstab rises to x3

He can also take a new weapon proficiency any time now as well.


Alzar is getting closer to. Total XP: 35835 (Level 6 at 40000)

Back to College of Wizardry

The next day, a guard wizard from the college teleports to the Kasbah. Dhakiy Dreschul is a transmuter who has lived in Ber-Gathy earlier in his career. After helping out the town Dreschul meets with Alzar and they head out to talk.

After an hour or so, Dreschul has agreed to sponsor Alzar to the Arcane Order.

Alzar is teleported back and the company will stay here for a while, safe.

Alzar meets with a few other Regents and guild wizards from the college.

He spends some time with Dreschul though, who walks him through some of the more ancient history of the College of Wizardry…



Long ago, before the fall of Amun-Re led to the opening stanza of the Sand Mire, to the west of Khaibar stood a citadel and home to mages and elders from all over Hamedh. This citadel, named Mathgamhna, was the home to an ancient order of warlocks and wizards.

During the time of Amun-Re’s reign, an evil demipower Dargeshaad, cast down from the heavens, arrived in the area. After seducing many with promises of power and prestige, Dargeshaad began to grow in strength in the area. He was banished to Hamedh because he would not be able to leave easily.

He gathered forces, knights, and mages and began to grow in power and influence. He was checked by the people in Mathgamhna. His followers crafted a shield called the Bright Barrier and stole the Halberd of Mathgamhna and renamed it Betrayer.

Then Amun-Re fell. Wielding these items of power, Dargeshaad saw the beginning of the collapse of the nation Amun-Re forged, and he begun to carve a swath of death across the area, creating his own little fiefdom. No one, save for Lyzandred the Mad, who would fall to lichdom, carved a more powerful or devastating nation as Dargeshaad.

Various elders rallied at Mathgamhna to try and put down Dargeshaad’s advances, but all they could do is build a stalemate. Eventually, via sedition and treason, Dargeshaad won the day, and began to destroy the citadel. As a result, the surviving elders invoked the most powerful of their Language Primeval, a lingua that described magic power in mere words instead of incantations , gestures, and ingredients. They let loose Speech of Twilight, and the world opened up and the Dragon of Shades entered.

Arriving at Dargeshaad’s citadel of Ascavalon, the Dragon began an enormous battle with Dargeshaad. But none from Hamedh could stand against the creature of shadow, power, and malice. And the battle was lost, and Dargeshaad and his side fell.

But the Dragon of Shades was not sated. It vented a massive amount of rage and destruction against an already war-torn and damaged land, and pushed the Sand Mire even further into forming. It would take years before it had its fill and left Hamedh.


And Mathgamhna would lay, silently, a testament to the old days, towering above the growing sands.

Japheth Arcane, the Headmaster meets with Alzar to make the college’s offer official. After looking over his records, magic items, and expertise. In particular, they need someone to teach the Necromancy courses. The last Necromancer they had, Drake, was torturing, experimenting on students, and a lot more. It was pretty serious stuff.

But that won’t be for a while. As of today, Alzar is accepting as an early initiate.

As an Initiate, Alzar cannot leave the area for more than two days without approval from the College, but that’s often granted, especially so with a person of Alzar’s peerage.

Alzar is given a full tour, including the Grand Library and more. Alzar may use the library for research and study, but not for spell making or for copying spells. They have a lot of spellbooks you can use to copy spells from.

The next day Alzar goes to the Grand Library and begins to pour over the texts.

Begin Treasure Maps




In 1992, Slade Henson published this unusual treasure-map themed supplement/module. It features visual treasure maps for players, and a DM’s copy for himself with what is on the back. The players find the map somewhere, hunt it down, and then explore and face the results. It’s very simple.

I will be using at least one map from these, which fits the Sand Mire campaign perfectly. I don’t know about any others though. It’s not a well-known or received supplement.,

Alzar grabs one of the Treasure Maps he procured earlier. It’s clearly done well before the fall of Amun-Re and the subsequent devastation that resulted. It shows a mighty river with a few cataracts and a delta march. On the river is an island, with a pyramid on it. The map calls it Holy Isle, and the Pyramid of the Illustrious One.

But that was a long time ago. It’s hard to figure out where this Pyramid would be today in the Sand Mire. And there are lots of little ruins, landmarks, burial tombs, and more all over.

The map is made out of papyrus, and fells ancient, centuries, and it could be a lot older than Amun-Re. After investigation, the cartographer used full paint from crushed jewels and smells of old spices.

That’s an expensive map. It simply shows a pyramid, but there is no indication that there is anything special there, so Alzar wants to check up on it. It’s a point of research.

Alzar spends four days researching it, while also helping out with the occasional task in the College.

He finds out a few things:

1). The map shows an old burial place of a great pharaoh, one a lot older than Amun-Re. His name is lost and unknown.

2). There are reports of expeditions to the Pyramid of the Illustrious One, but no records of anybody returning with anything

3). There is a rumor that the area, once holy, was despoiled in the general carnage that defiled the area.

4). The old mighty river mentioned is supposed to be west of Khaibar by about 110 miles. There is no mention of those texts of the Holy Isle or its pyramid. But Alzar is pretty sure about the river’s old location, he found four mentions of it.


Alzar contacts his current superior, his sponsor, about taking a trek to find the pyramid. Dhakiy approved. It’s his first adventure, after all.

Regent Dirganun meets with Alzar prior to this foray, and the two of them agree for him to head on out and see what he can uncover. You never know!

He is teleported back to Ber-Gathy and meets up with the various folks here. The next day, they set out.

The river is three and a half days away from the Kasbah. In fact, the Oued Khaud is supposedly a former artery of the mighty river. All they have to do is follow it. They cross is and follow on the north side to avoid the hills on the south.


Two days out they come across a monster that is flying towards them. It’s a large chimera! (I am lifting this encounter from the Curse of Xanathon, which I never ran because I sent in my own desert stuff). More powerful than any other monster they have faced yet in the Sand Mire, it lands.

Erg Chimera – 49 HP, AC 6/5/2 (depending on target), 5 attacks, or a breath weapon, three heads, wings, and the whole problem.

As it swoops down, it leads with its breath weapon. A fire breathe for 3d8 hits most of the group from above.

1, 7, 6 – 14 damage, save for half.

Three camels die in the attack.

The Chimera lands as Alzar’s party moves in for combat.

Tolvar casts Acid Arrow from the back at it, and hits for 3 damage. Alzar runs up and casts Vampiric Touch on it and drains 13. No weapons hit. It attacks Alzar in front with five attacks at an THAC0 of 11 and hits four times for 14 damage.

Alzar 37/51

Chimera – 33


The Chimera wins init and hits three times for 10 damage on Alzar. The acid deals another 4, Magic Missiles 4 more, and Volcifar nails it for 4 damage with his Sling. No one else hits.

Alzar 27/51

Chimera - 21

They wrest the momentum away and attack. Alzar’s staff cracks it for 2 damage, and it takes 10 more in weapons damage. It flies up instead of attacking, looking to flee.

Chimera 9

As it flies off, their missile weapons are missing. Before it leaves range, Alzar uses a Wand of Fireballs charge to hit it while it’s far enough away to not hit the party in the backsplash. It deals 5d6 damage. 2, 6, 4, 5, 2 – 17 damage. Even if it saves for half damage (9) it dies. So the Chimera cries out, and falls down to the ground and dies.

They split the 8000 XP from it 5 ways – 1600 XP each.

They choose to continue on down the road rather than search to try to find its lair. That would take too long, and could be guarded.

Fire breath damage wounded the whole party, and they need to consolidate their mounts and such.

The rest of the day is quiet as scavengers are quite happy with the camel and chimera corpses left all over.

The evening passes quietly, and the next morning they finish up and arrive at a long north/south valley that appears to have been in existence long, long ago. Alzar’s best guess is that they are north of where the island used to be, so they head down.

As they do, a large rumbling in the ground can be heard. Soon a giant worm, almost the size of a purple worm but dun colored, emerges from the ground. Meanwhile, more sounds follow, and 5, 8, 10, 12, 20, 25 of the things pop out of the ground. Now it’s 28 total it looks like. Giant worms that are multiple people lengths long each pop out of the ground and then back under again. They keep on. This pack of Thunderherders are peaceful, but create pseudo-earthquakes when they come through that can cause a lot of damage.


They keep south along the valley, and the rest of the day passes quietly. At night they hear some debbi again, but they never approach the camp.

The next day they continue to march down the old river valley. They pass by some minor ruins, like a few broken obelisks. Other than that, the area is quiet from civilization, but there is a feel of something uncomfortable in the air. Not something Alzar is used to.

Later in the day, the feeling has grown worse, and disquieting. Then Alzar feels a powerful attack against his psyche as some creature, somewhere is attacking him mentally. All of the party are similar effected, and psychic attacks commence.

Soon, the light begins to fade from Alzar’s eyes as he passes out from a mental blast. Only Volcifar does as well though. The rest made their save. Becoming visual is an unearthly insubstantial undead creature. A large battle was once felt here, and it still is. The creature made from many dead replays the death scenes over and over again, and incorporates more and more victims into its final battle.

The people who made their saves decide to grab everyone else and pull them away from the area, and after a half mile that seems to work and the undead creature fades. They make camp, and after a few hours Alzar and Volcifar awaken. Alzar’s intrigued, but has been warned, and he doesn’t have a lot of defenses for psionic attacks.

The next day they travel around the creature’s battlefield, now hunting grounds, and continue south.

There aren’t a lot of creatures here, maybe because of that. They are nearing the pyramid former river-bed is widening considerably and appears to be nearing a delta stage. Alzar can sense undead in several directions as the battlefields from here must have been rife with them.

A few more hours and Alzar can make out a large “island” in the river. His eyesight after all is enhanced by his familiar. Only some minutes pass and others can make it out, and a gleaming pyramid can be made out as well. Alzar feels a pack of undead coming closer from the old island as they near it.

It’s a pack of ghouls. They don’t like to rove at day, they must be really hungry. As they come closer, Alzar reaches out and connects with them on a necromantic level. He persuades 3 to join his forces and they begin to attack their compatriots. The others won’t join him. The three kill 2 before dying themselves, but the pack is reduced from 8 ghouls to 3. They arrive at missile range, and Alzar just tells the troupe to use missile weapons, and stay clear of spells or anything else. The ghouls are dead before they reach the party.

80 XP each

They head over the island and are on the old, ancient Holy Isle.

The Pyramid of the Illustrious One is about a mile away from here, low to the ground, and Alzar wants to save time and resources. He has the group pause, and he uses the Crystal Ball to scout around the pyramid, and sees no entrances, windows, enclosures; nothing. Maybe the entrance has been buried with time. But there are no creatures here either. There are a pair of really small pyramids on the far side. There are a few smaller buildings, mastabas, there are well. They would have held lesser known individuals like court officials, engineers, builders, and so forth.


They head up to the pyramid and establish camp among some rocks in a mastaba, now abandoned. A quick search shows that the ghouls hunted from one of them. The rest are all ruined and dilapidated. After preparing their steeds and such, they have a few hours of light left, so they begin to search the pyramid for openings or clues.

Two days pass. Alzar memories a different, Undead friendly set of spells. He needs to prepare. He cast Detect Undead on day one and found some undead inside the Pyramid. So he prepares.

On the journey here, he finally decoded the spellbook from the Temple of Aumata-Perion by the Hek.

Telvar’s Spellbook –

1st Level – Cloud Ladder, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Magic Missile, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Identify, Sleep, Shocking Grasp
2nd Level – Darkness, 15’ Radius; ESP, Flying Fist, Invisibility, Levitate, Detect Invisibility, Magic Mouth, Wizard Lock
3rd Level – Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fly, Protection from Normal Missiles, Feign Death, Monster Summoning I, Leomund;s Tiny Hut, Scintillating Sphere
4th – Rary;s Mnemonic Enhancer, Wizard Eye


He learns Fly and Leomund’s Tiny Hut, He was hoping for some tool to use against the undead. Instead, he’ll memorize Detect Undead for Sleep, Hold Undead instead of Vamp Touch, Death Armor instead of Ghoul Touch, Knock instead of Hold Person, and Comprehend Languages instead of Charm Person, in case they come across something his Helm can’t read.

Meanwhile Tolvar learns Shocking Grasp and will memorize it for the journey as well as his 3rd spell instead of Detect Magic.

On the third day, while more than 30 feet up from the ground, Volcifar makes a successful find traps roll and uncovers a trapdoor, perfectly built to show no hinges or edge, and precisely the size and shape of a stone. Without pushing the right trigger, it wouldn’t have opened, and held Volcifar’s weight about 15 minutes ago without ringing hollow or anything. It was built well.

They have found the entrance to the pyramid.

Alzar orders everyone to go in very slowly, and to check and recheck for traps. This corridor is ancient. It heads straight into the pyramid, and Alzar pulls out the Continual Light stones and uses them to help see.

Within 30 yards, the hallway, apparently trap-free opens into a large funeral temple dedicated to a god called Ptah. Alzar reads the hieroglyphs around the room with his Helm. In this temple final rites were performed and the body of Queen Aneksi was made ready for voyage to the afterlife under the auspices of the clergy of Ptah. In front of them the corridor leaves and narrows and heads up. They search the funeral temple and find nothing else here, until near the very end, Volcifar detects a trap in front of the far away corridor and takes care of it (Volcifar’s skill is 90% - pretty darn good)

They move into the narrow corridor and there are old braziers that lifted off the ground, and the ceiling drops to about four feet of clearance. They arrive in another chamber, called the First Burial Chamber according to Alzar. It would have been used had Aneksi died while they were building it, and then moved to the proper place above when finished, but it obviously was never needed and there is nothing else here besides the wall decorations.

The narrow corridor moves up again, and back into the center of the pyramid. It’s a long climb up. This is a crypt. Once the funeral rites were completed, and the queen placed in the hands of Ptah, the priests killed themselves to protect her in death, and to keep the secrets of building the Pyramid of the Illuminated One.

And here is a sarcophagus. There are undead here, somewhere, and Alzar needs more info, so he casts Detect Undead. The spell will last for a half hour, and Alzar can detect any undead by number and direction, but not type, by concentrating. There is one undead in the sarcophagus. To the narrow passage to the left, there is one more. Behind him, on the same level, is a third presence, and there is a fourth diagonal from him, between the positions of the other two. His best guess is four separate crypts, each with an undead priest in the sarcophagus. But nothing else. Odd. He would have thought Aneksi would have been one. It’s possible that we have three priests and one queen instead.


Best guess is a mummy. Undead powerful priests tend to be mummies. Could be something else of course, but something like a vampire needs to feed, and a lich would be bored in there. Mummy is the best guess. A priest of Ptah.

While getting ready, Volcifar checks the rooms for traps, and finds one on the platform the sarcophagus was one and disarms it. Alzar hands out Holy Water to everyone. They have some torches light up as well, mummies can take damage from fire if needed. Alzar gets the Wand of Fireballs prepped in case the maybe-Mummy has a shot of opportunity. Locinda gets the undead smashing mace they got from the previous adventure in that Shrine. Because she know show to use a mace-like weapon – the Gada, she only gets a -1 when attacking with it. Her +1 khanda would normally be +1 to hit and +1 to damage, The Mace is +4 to hit vs undead and deals 1d6+4 rather than 1d8+1. Better odds. He hands the Girdle of Ogre Strength to Pashtun, and the Horn of Vahalla to summon the soldiers if needed. It can only be used once/week, so he doesn’t like to rely on it that often, but they may need the cover.


In case this is a vampire, he readies the potion of Vampire Control and a few other items. He has an ultimate weapon, Scroll of Protection from undead, in case this gets really bad. But it won’t protect from undead magic, just undead physical attacks. So if this is, say, a Lich, they still need an answer to its magic.

Alzar has Ring of Free Action and Quick Action; Sandals of Speed, Zoster of Zeal, Rock Jellaba, Bracers of Def, Iuon Stone, on. He has stark blonde hair as well.

They have Pashtun head over to open the sarcophagus. He’ll run back to the line as soon as it cracks open.

Here we go.

Pashtun opens the sarcophagus and heads back.

In a second out climbs a mummy…

Alzar makes a necrology check….and passes.

This is no ordinary mummy. Alzar has heard about them before but never encountered one. This is a Greater Mummy. And his party is in trouble. A Greater Mummy is, for lack of a better word, a cross between a lich and a mummy, in all of the worst possible ways.

It can cast all of its old priest spells, just like a Lich could. It takes half damage from magical weapons, and nothing else physical can harm it. Unlike mummies it is immune to normal fire. It’s also immune to holy water. It steps out, garbed in priestly vestments wrapped around bandages, and wielding a holy symbol of Ptah.

This will not prove easy. It’s too powerful for Hold Undead. There’s no tool in the tool chest for this thing.

It has a fear aura that kicks in and… Volcifar is rooted to the spot and paralyzed with fear.

One down.

The Greater Mummy – 60 hp, intelligence of 17, AC 2, THACo 11, deals 3d6 plus rot for damage, can cast spells as a 15th level priest. Immune to cold, had undead immunities, half damage from magical weapons, no weakness to fire or fire spells, cannot be turned or controlled, immune to holy water.

It’s one of the nastiest undead you’ll see. And our party has just stumbled into it.

Initiative.

Alzar’s group rolls. 5. The GMom…5. I roll again, 9 vs 6.

The GMom goes first, but his spell is so long (conjuration on Hamedh) that it will go later.

Alzar wins init bascially Tolvar casts Melf’s Acid Arrow and doles 5 damage to it. That’s a start. Alzar really doesn’t have an obvious play here, spell-wise. He uses one charge from his staff for spark, 5 charges left, and it will deal 2d10, save for half. 12 damage, it made its save.


Pashtun closes and swings. With the girdle, he gets +3 due to strength, +1 to his weapon, and +1 to specialization. That’s +5 ot hit. The GMom has an AC of 2. Pashtun rocks a 16 THACo, so he would normally need a 14 to hit the GMom, with his bonuses, its just a 9. He rolls a 14 and hits. He will deal 1d8 from his scimitar, +2 for specialization, +1 for sword, +6 from Girdle. That’s 1d8+9, so 10-17. After being halved, it’s 5-9. He deals 6.

Locinda closes too. She needs a 10 to hit (+1 STR, +4 Mace, -1 not too familiar needs the same base 14 as everyone else – needs that 10) she rolls….8 and misses.

The GMom intones one of her most powerful spells. A level 7 spell. Conjure Earth Elemental.


Earth Elemental – 48 hit points, 1 attack that deals 4d8 damage, AC 2, THACo 9. Needs a +2 or better weapon to even hit it. Immune to energy attacks.

Now that’s a major problem.

The GMom ends the turn having taken 17 damage and dropping to 43/60. That’s a hard monster to kill already, but add in the Elemental!!!

Uh oh.

Initiative. We need this. 2 vs 5, we are faster. Whew! Tolvar adds Magic Missile for 2d4+2 damage. 2 and 4. That’s 8 damage. It also takes 2d4 from the second turn of Acid. 1 and 3. 4 damage. 12 more damage from the GMom. Pashtun rolls a 12 and hits for 7 damage. Locinda rolls a 3 and misses. Alzar adds 15 on a staff charge that is not saved.

And then the Greater Mummy does what high level clerics across the world have been doing for a very long time. It casts Heal on itself. It is fully healed. The Earth Elemental sees Pashtun as the threat and punches. Pashtun is 0 with the AC so it needs a 9. It rolls a 14 and hits for 4d8 – 8, 2, 4, 6. 20 Damage.

Pashtun - 25/45

Now we have done nothing but force the G Mom to cast a few high level spells, and we’ve burnt through some of our best things. Alzar used his dues ex machine, the pot of invulnerability already.

Just have to slug this through.

They win init. The Earth Elemental rolls a 5 and misses Pashtun. The GMom casts Prayer. This gives himself and his Elemental a +1 to attack, damage and saves, and -1 to Alzar’s party.

Alzar has no obvious answer. He grabs something he never hoped to use. The Wand of Wonder. He grabs it and fires off a charge at the Mummy. Let’s grab some dice to see what random effect occurs:

He rolls….38. Ironic. That’s a lightning bolt, as per the wand. So, here’s a 6d6 lightning bolt for ya. 2, 2, 3, 5, 2, 3. Not great rolls. He fails his save and takes the full 17. Pashtun rolls a 5 too and misses (he needs a 10 to hit now). Locinda (who now needs an 11) rolls a 12 and hits for …5 plus 5, so 5 damage after halved. Tolvar moves over and casts Burning Hands on both enemies for 1d3 plus 8 damage. 11 damage (no save for Burning Hands).

11 + 17 +5 – 33

GMom 27/60
Earth Elemental – 37/48

They roll for init. Alzar’s 3 vs their2….uh oh. Alzar uses the Ring of Quick Action to go first anyway. It’s not easy, but if he can shoot the Mummy with the staff for 2 charges and 4d12, and it fails its save, it might die before it can likely heal itself. It may hit and not even deal 27, or it may do so and the Greater Mummy makes the save. It’s a long shot.

Alzar uses two more charges. It just had 2 left. 8 and 2, 9 and 3. Not enough. 22 damage total;. Save? It makes it, just 11 damage to the Mummy. But it doesn’t have another Heal spell and casts Cure Critical Wounds instead for 24 damage healed. The Earth Elemental, needing just an 8 to smash Pashtun, rolls a 13 and hits, take 13 more.

Meanwhile the rest of the team attacks. Pashtun needs that 10 and…gets a 17 and hits for…8 damage. Locinda need an 11 and rolls…10. Would have been a hit save for the Prayer spell. Tolvar casts Shocking Grasp for 1d8+4 damage. It’s his last spell other than Invisibility. 6 +4. Ten more damage.

GMOM 22/60
Pashtun – 12/45

Initiative. 5 vs 7, we win it back. We might be able to take out that Greater Mummy. Locinda’s mace rolls a 14 and hits for….4 damage. Tolvar swings with his +1 dagger and needs a big number. He rolls a 19. That’s a hit, for…3 damage. Pashtun? He needs a 10 and gets a 5. Alzar spits his last charge into the staff for a Spark effect and it hits for…7 and 9. 16 damage, one more than needed ot kill it….if it fails its save….It rolls a 5 and does just that.

Whew!

One down.

The Earth Elemental swings and….

Rolls a 4 and misses Pashtun.

Alzar orders Pashtun to back off, he can’t hit the Earth-y. Neither can Tolvar. Alzar has Tolvar invisibility Pashtun, and then moves in front of the Elemental to block it from following Pashtun as he pulls out. Locinda misses, the Elemental smashes Alzar for 17 damage. Alzar drops his +2 axe and +2 Trombash of Returning on the floor for folks to use.

34/51

The Earth just needs a really low number to hit Alzar and does so again for 15. Alzar uses Dispel Magic and banishes the Prayer spell. Locinda hits for 4 damage. The Trombash is picked up. This turn, Volcifar’s fear runs out, and he can do stuff next turn.

19/51

33/48 - Earth

3 vs 6, they win initiative. Alzar drinks a simple healing pot. Volcifar’s Sling can hit. He needs a 14 to do so and does just that. He hits for 1d4+2 for 3 damage. Locida and Tolvar miss with their weapons (Tolvar is throwing the trombash that he has no ability to normally use; he’s just hoping to get lucky). The Elemental, rolls a 6 to hit Alzar and…that’s a hit. (Alzar has a 5 AC, the Elemental, needs a 4 to hit him). 18 damage taken

Alzar 11/51
30/48

Alzar rolls away, leaving just Locinda facing the big bad.

They keep init. Alzar uses the Wand of Wonder again but just grows grass under the Elemental. Locinda misses with a 3, Sling boy hits with a 15 for 4 more damage. The Elemental punches Locinda and her 2 AC. It rolls a 9, which hits, for 21 damage

Locinda 20/41
26/48 – Enemy

They lose init, and it punches Locinda rolling a 15 and…rolls 6, 4, 1, 4 for 15 damage. Locinda rolls a 13 and…that;s a miss she needs a 14. Sling boy misses, and Tolvar rolls a 20 and actually hits for 4 damage on the Earth. (No crits when only a 20 hits). Meanwhile Alzar rolls….35 in the Wand of Wonder – summons aid in the form of a…mouse. Well, that’s not going to do much! Locinda pulls away too. Alzar orders in Volcifar, he can take a hit. And he orders Pashtun to base it and try one hit with the magical battleaxe.

5/41 - Locinda
22/48 Enemy

The Earth wins init again and punches. Only a 1 or 2 will miss and…That 11 isn’t it. But it’s just a hit for 10 damage – got lucky with the 4d8. Volcifar’s uses the Sling close range and gets a -2 to hit and needs a 16 and rolls….an 18. Dang! Take 5 damage! Can Pashtun finish him? He gets bonuses to hit as invisible, and +3 for strength, +2 for axe and -2 for no knowledge. So he needs a 9 to hit here as well with the invisibility bonus and….He gets that 12 for….1d8 - 3, plus 6 for strength and 2 for magic weapon. 11 damage. Not enough to kill it. Tolvar misses. Can Alzar’s Wand of Wonder finish the job? Chromatic Orb on the target, at 6th level of ability is….1d12 damage and it is blinded. It makes the save for blinding, but there is none for damage. If we roll a 6 or higher the earth is dead, and… and it takes…4 damage with no save.


2/48 Earth Elemental
13/24 - Volcifar


I have played this battle for almost two hours it’s that epic. And it just keeps on going. Alzar orders the newly visible Pashtun to hold course and Volcifar to back off, with his solid AC Pashtun might, have a chance at surviving the hit. Initiative? If we can just win this….


3 for us, really fast
7 for the Elemental

Whew. Pashtun needs a 9 to connect and…………….




2

That a swing and a miss. It was our best chance to hit.

What else?

Tolvar needs a 20 to hit with his returning thrown weapon. He got an 18. Alzar orders Locinda to throw her mace and…..She rolls a 12 and…she needs a…12 so….she hits for…5 damage. Dead elemental.


That was a miracle.

8000 XP for the greater mummy, 6000 for the elemental.

Everyone splits 2800 XP

Alzar levels up!

Tolvar is almost there. He needs about 700 or so.

There is no chance that they can take on anything else. Volcifar searches and finds nothing else trap/lock ish here.

A search of the sarcophagus reveals about 1000 gp of ancient coinage, and some ancient archeological items of merit that could be worth 10000 gp or more.

They grab the coins and leave everything else for now. Before they head out, Alzar tosses a Continual Light stone into the corner of the corridor at the left of this room and uses his Crystal Ball to scry down. The next room is virtually identical to this one, and probably has a Greater Mummy there as well. And another past that one. There are at least two more G Mummies here.


They grab their things and head back for camp. They sleep the sleep of the damned. It’s most normal tomorrow, although they are badly injured. He marks the area for coming back via teleport, and they’ll leave and not come back to this Pyramid. They choose to stay here for two more days healing up. It’s easier to make out incoming folks from here than anywhere else. They sealed up the pyramid so no one will know where the secret entrance is.

Over the next two days, Alzar uses Healing and Herbalism prophecies to help heal folks as needed. Vampiric Touches are used on a variety of targets he scouts out to heal himself.

He can cast 5/3/3 spells.

Normal spells again – Sleep, Charm, Hypnosis, Detect Magic, Identify; Continual Light, Hold Person, Ghoul Touch; Vampiric Touch, Dispel Magic, Fly.

On the way home they’ll swap Fly for the Tiny Hut, which can make a shelter each night that has a force shield to protect against weather and temperature. Not too hot or cold, no rain, snow, sandstorms, etc.

Alzar will tithe 10% to the college when they arrive, and they’ll get 100 GP.


End of Treasure Maps. For now…

I made up a bunch of the story, the location and such.

Anyways, they travel home and find a few adventures, and take care of a few bad guys, but a little more than a day from the College, near Khaibar, they spot a mated pair of huge scorpions. They let them approached, and a twinned set of Vampiric Touch and Magic Missile finishes one immediately. The others miss and it’s tail stabs out and smashes Pashtun for 4 damage and poison. Smaller than giants, the poison is not auto kill if you fail a hit. He fails the save and takes 15 damage.

Pashtun - 26/45

They lose init to the scorpion, and it swings and misses. They finish it off and deadly 19 non-magical damage from weapons and kills it.

Alzar carves a few tails and claws and poison glands from it. They split 420XPx2 – 840, divided by 5, 170 XP, and that’s enough to send Tolvar up a level.

Tolvar now has access to level 3 magic.


He learns some more spells from Alzar – Monster Summoning I, Vampiric Touch, Fly.

Return to College of Wizardry

They arrive back at the College of Wizardry. Almost 3 weeks have passed.

Alzar reports, and delivers the 100 GP - not a lot, obviously.


Including his research time, there’s just five months left.

Begin – Drake’s Legacy


Alzar is here by himself two days later when he is approached by one of the Regents. There have been a recent barrage of sightings of undead creatures inside the walls while he was gone. There are some underground areas here that might be related.

Alzar is told a little more about Drake. There have been some wizards that had to be banished or killed after they violated their agreements. One famous was a few years ago was Buthaynah, who was dismissed from the school after unapproved experiment in sorcery turned dark as she captured people’s souls.

(That’s right folks. She was the antagonist in Puppets in one of the first adventures we ever did her in Hamedh. Go back and reread my foreshadowing all the way back then! Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The D&D Dynasty: The New Path of Alzar the Mighty )

Anyway, Drake was doing experiments on fellow students that turned them into undead. But his major laboratory was never discovered, and some of the students never found.

Alzar is going to check out Drake’s old room, never used, and then perhaps slip around and such.

He memorizes Hold Undead instead of Fly. Detect Undead instead of ID.

A frightened apprentice saw a spectre like creature and a few apprentices have gone missing again.

Those are Alzar’s leads. As the College’s only expert in undead and Necromancy, he’s the obvious choice to investigate.

Even after an inspection, Alzar can’t find anything in the room. He is in the Incelsis Tower, and third floor from the top. He walks outside and inspects, but nothing. He tries the Wand of Metal but nothing there either.

He tries a different tactic and casts Detect Undead. Maybe there’s something hidden…and that works. There is an undead behind a wall in the hallway. That’s odd.

He inspects and keeps inspecting until he finds the secret door cache. The Detect spell is over, but he is prepared, and opens the door. This chamber is old, and from the original incarnation of the college. The 8 foot chamber has a circular metal disc, 5’ in diameter, on the floor and on top is a wight who is quite angry. Alzary tries to control it and…he needs a 13 or higher and….14. Controlled.

The Wight is an apprentice turned to undead recently, and still wearing apprentice clothing. Alzar grabs a continually light stone to light up the room there are no light sources in here. The Wight tells him the disc can transport him below to secret labs that have no access point down there, only the teleporter here. Down there are some more wights. Alzar uses his Zoster of Zeal.

They step on it and teleport down.

They are in a chamber with horrible smells. The stone lights it up and there are three wights here. One, a Wight sorcerer, casts Darkness 15’ radius and cancels the light temporarily. Alzar orders his wight to intercept while he uses his controlled powers to try and bring over another. This he rolls just a 2 and none of them join their friend.

Battle begins.

Alzars team wins init. He casts hold undead, since it doesn’t need a target, just works on the closest undead, and he can feel his one closing on the sorcerer while the other two come at him. These are half strength Wights with 2+3 HD, so they count as 3 for his spells. As a level 6 sorcerer, his has a casting level of 6 and he can therefore Hold two apprentice wights. They get a chance to save. One freezes in its tracks. His wight closes and attacks the sorcerer. 18 hit for 1 damage on it. Their energy drains don’t work on each other. The sorcerer Wight casts protection from good. Their wight misses Alzar.

The next turn, Alzar’s wight misses. Alzar casts Continual Light at the one in front of him, hoping to hit it. With blind-fighting, he has about a 50/50 chance of hitting its eyes and…he does. The wight rolls a save and…fails and it blinded, and the place lights up again. The blinded wight can’t get anywhere near him. Their wight attacks Alzar’s and hits for 2 damage.

Alzar uses the light to smash the Wight. He gets +3 to hit, +4 from the blindness, and then +1 from his strength. As a mage, he needs just a 4 to hit, and he does, for 6 damage. It fumbles around and can’t even get near him (it needs a 19 to hit him with its one attack)

The Wight Sorcerer decides to switch tactics and casts Spider Climb on itself and scurries above Alzar’s controlled one. It’s going to leap down on Alzar next turn. Wins Init and does that, Alzar stabs out with his staff and cracks the wounded one again for 5 damage and spins it around. His Wight finishes it off.

The next turn Alzar wins init back. Alzar can’t control the super powerful enemy, so he swings once misses, and then uses his Rock Jellaba to turn into a statue. The enemy wight is confused for a moment and takes 4 more damage. Then it turns and attack Alzar’s Wight and hits for 1 damage.

Suddenly Alzar switches back and smashes the Wight for 5 damage from behind. The wight spins, and it claws by the non-mage wight for some more damage. It’s starting to get tired. A normal wight would have been killed by now, but this one is a lot more powerful.

Alzar swings again and hits for 5 damage. Again it changes tactics and casts Invisibility. But Alzar can see it. Pretending not to, it creeps around using Spider Climb to position itself to ambush Alzar, and instead, he waits, then attacks with surprise and momentum, cracks it for 4 more damage. It falls, and Alzar’s wight pounces on it and hits it while done for another 2 damage. A round later they finish it off and Alzar gains 7500 XP for the various kills, and will find a few items here particularly the items that glow when it grabs his divining rod and casts Detect Magic.

Wizard Wight had Bracers of Defense 6, and a Cassock of Protection, and special item given to guild wizards here when they are promoted. It acts as a Cloak of Protection +1, and can be used to create shield spell once/day at 9th level.


Alzar takes the wight upstairs. He gives the school the Cassock back. He wasn;t able to save everyone, but he did capture one wight. They bring in a priest to Resurrection him (a normal Raise Dead would kill it, but not bring it back)

Alzar is sort of thanked for being successful, more than they thought, but it’s odd to have someone who embraces the undead so much here.

He begins to have conversation like this:


“People have a culturally biased view of undead, that makes them and their animation evil in their mind, no matter what the facts are.”

“And you think that *I* , a high level wizards have this bias?”

“Of course! Allow me to show you why. Imagine that I cast Animate Dead spell to animate one skeleton. Remove from the conversation truly evil and self-serving creatures like the Wight I caught, and just focus on a skeleton, for argument’s sake.”

“Okay.”

“So I animate a skeleton. I have brought back a part of the spirit of the deceased to take the form of its bones, and it’s not fully conscious or aware, and follows my instructions directly. And you believe this process is, by definition, evil. Right?”

“Correct. Taking someone’s spirit against their will is the key part here.”

“Then let’s focus on the key. Now I assume you don’t think creating a golem, such as Flesh Golem, is automatically wrong.”

“Of course not, we even have golems and other constructs of various types here in the College!”

“Precisely so. Ive created golems before, I know how it works. You take an elemental spirit and bind it into a flesh golem, and it will be in that body, not fully conscious. And more over, as you stated, this elemental spirit is doing so against its will. Where is the difference? Both have the same process, same method, and same result. I submit to you either both are wrong and evil, or both are not. It can’t be one and not the other.”

Then the wizard either goes to think or invariably comes up with some non-logic related issue about undead or constructed not under the question. But the discussion of how similar a flesh golem and a skeleton are to each other hits home.

And this is one of the ways that Alzar has this class ability:

11). Fivefold Mages never suffer from a negative reaction penalty due to controlling or animating undead.

Other examples of conversation regarding generally accepted practices in regards to right and wrong.


“So you honestly think that the use of poison is wrong, by default?”

“Of course I do! It’s a tool of assassins and thieves. It’s like playing dirty.”

“Well let’s take a look at poison, truly and completely. Let’s by looking at my axe.” Alzar grabs his +2 axe and tosses onto the table. “This is a magically sharp axe, one that can kill a man in one hit if untrained in how to defend yourself. And unless you sever a head or something, it’s going to hurt. If I take this axe out and hit a peasant with it, it is a painful death. So, if I go to battle with someone, and I use this axe, I am killing, maiming, and hurting people. But, it’s just a weapon. It’s not good nor evil, per se, correct?”

“Correct, it’s how you use it, what you do with it, but that is separate from the axe itself.”

“And poison is the same thing. It’s a weapon, but one that works. Here, this is poison taken from a wyvern’s poison gland. I’m not sure how much you know about poisons, so let me give you some basic information, just to make sure. Wyvern poison is one of the most lethal naturally created poisons out there. If you can get this poison into the bloodstream of someone, it will kill them in a minute or so. In fact, it actually knocks them unconscious after around 15-20 seconds. They don’t even feel the rest. It’s a weapon, and a lethal one, but it’s better on the victim than my axe.”

“So your argument is that poison is just a weapon, like any other, and not evil. But there are aspects of poison that distinguish it from a mere weapon, like a staff or an axe. You can use poison to kill people wholesale. You can poison food or drink. It takes no skill, no effort. It’s not the same thing.”

“No, it’s not, that was an analogy. But weapons kill in large numbers too. There are weapons out there can attack people in large groups, just like poison can. There are weapons that spring, like traps, from unexpected angles of attack, just like poison in a food or drink. Weapons require little skill – I can just take this axe and carve you with it, without being trained in the particulars of the weapon. But poison? Extracting poison gland? Brewing poison from fungi? Keeping it safe? Doing so without hurting yourself? Those are real skills that require much training and understanding. Poison use isn’t any less skilled than axe-play. They are all weapons, just like magic spells”


He sometimes gives the slitting throat in Sleep vs Fireball talk too:

“You think casting Sleep on someone, and then slitting their throat is evil? But casting a Fireball at them and killing them isn’t? The Sleep/Throat Slit is peaceful, and quiet, and they feel no pain. This is a battle, a war, and you need to kill opponents. Meanwhile you can cause them pain before they die with a Lightning Bolt or Fireball. And yet you have convinced yourselves that Sleep + Kill is evil.”


You get the idea.

By the way, in case you care, Alzar is an INTJ on the Myer-Briggs:

Some copies and pastes from various websites on INTJs:

When they are in leadership roles, they are quite effective, because they are able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and are adaptable enough to change things which aren't working well. They are the supreme strategists - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against their current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.

The INTJ's interest in dealing with the world is to make decisions, express judgments, and put everything that they encounter into an understandable and rational system. Consequently, they are quick to express judgments. Often they have very evolved intuitions, and are convinced that they are right about things.

INTJs are ambitious, self-confident, deliberate, long-range thinkers.

They value intelligence, knowledge, and competence, and typically have high standards in these regards, which they continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, they have similar expectations of others.

They are one of the rarest types and account for 1-2% of the population.


Enjoy!

Here’s another one for you. Have you ever wondered about whether Alzar got it on with some of the women in his life? Were-bear Aleigha? His appreciate, Vala? That priestess Marilla here in Hamedh? Is he, perhaps, gay and instead is getting secret man-play with Estaish, Carum or Pashtun?

Nope – Alzar is a-sexual. He is beyond sex and sexual attraction. One of his favorite items he had back in Thorasia was his Ring of Sustenance, which removed the need for sleep or eating. That gave him more time for his studies and his work and explorations. He sees sex in the same way. He’s just interested in a lot more things. In fact, Alzar has never really been that sort of person, running around and hopping on all of the ladies. Even when he was in the military, he was s very dedicated fighter.

Alzar is extremely charismatic, especially for a mage, particularly an evil one, and that has led to a lot of positive reaction from new people. Which he has used. He has empathy. He’s magnetic.


After wrapping up Drake’s Legacy, one of the vignettes in College of Wizardry, Alzar’s next gig is to spend some time doing more research here.

A few days later, Aman Al-Raqib returns from Bralizzar and has decoded where the first gem is likely to be. He thinks its in the Sunken City of Pazar, which Alzar passed earlier to the east of Khaibar.

There’s plenty of time to mount an expedition to the area and begin a search. Alzar uses the time to Dispel another tome:

Crescent Witch Spellbook:

1st – Run, Burning Hands, Charm Person, Read Magic, Detect Magic, Identify, Charm Person, Shocking Grasp
2nd – Invisibility, Stinking Cloud, Darkness 15’ Radius, Baltar’s Lightening, Knock
3rd – Genie Contract, Protection from Good, 10’ Radius, Lightning Bolt, Dispel Magic
4th – Evard’s Black Tentacles, Unburn

He learns Unburn.

In fact, the Arcane Order of Enchantment and Exposition doesn’t have it in their library, and they would, so they copy it from his book.

Back to I9 for a bit.



Alzar decides to head back to Khaibar for some shopping and more exploring. He is loaned a Cassock that is the brand of the College in order to reduce the likelihood that someone will rough him up or anything, and he agrees to.

On the west side of town is a Bastion of Faith. This temple and order were formed after a prophet of the church, Daffyd, was sent to the west to help out various nomadic people. Daffyd served and fought long and hard. He was a holy fighter, who used a parashu (an ornate Indian style ax) to hew the truth and fight against demons.

He accomplished many tasks for his god, and soon brought some fighters that wanted to serve his god, Khshathra, God of the Perfect Society as well.

Daffyd was the first servant of Khshathra, and he brought knowledge of him to many places here in the Sand Mire. The group that surrounded him, hoping to emulate and chronicle his ways formed the church, that would include the Bastion of Faith in Kahibar. They even use parashu axes, just as he did.

The church was formed hundreds of years ago, as a way to fight against the injustice in the Sand Mire generally, the Great Erg of Arir specially, and Khaibar directly. They wanted to be a force for good. The Book of Penitence was chronicled and became the basic text for Khshathra’s worship. An evil demon named Kahabros, self-styled Lord of Evil and a servant of the major enemy deity Hextor fought against Daffyd. Hextor’s anger grew as Daffyd defeated his main servant.

Daffyd’s parashu carved justice and won valor. Despite many temptations from Kahabros, Daffyd persevered. In his final days, Daffyd pledged to join a new crusade beyond the mountains and left, never to be seen again.

It doesn’t have a lot of servants in the city, unlike the Temple of the Great Holy One on the east. But it’s there, and Alzar passes it by.

A low voice calls out to Alzar that he has information on a holy relic and item of power. There is a man with tanned skin and a open shop door smiling and beckoning folks into his shop. He introduces himself as Abu and talks at length with Alzar outside of it, but Alzar gets the distinct impression that he is trying to get more information than give, so he heads away.

More shops and homes pass by.

There is a shop that does not advertise what it is, but has a sign of a crossed Cup and Talisman, the lost artifacts of Al-Akbar. Alzar heads in and sees a man seated at a desk, wearing a white robe. He asks what Alzar’s business is and then states that their store mainly deals in imports of various kinds, but they are mostly in between sales right now, so they are mostly closed.

Alzar heads back out. They pass by a few places The Golden Crescent Bakery remains out of business after Alzar’s party slew the proprietor. There is a bath-house run by Yusuf and over there some Babouches where you can purchase or repair leather goods. Leather is one of the few goods that you can obtain in relative quantity out here. Even the desert has a lot of animals that can be skinned, tanned, and made into things. Next door is a store advertised as the only jeweler in Khaibar, and one of the target of Alzar’s trip here. This is the store of Hassan Abdelqa’id.

He really runs two businesses. One if to take cheap gems, mount them in really cheap but flashy rings and such, and then mark them up and sell them for high. The other is to appraise, exchange, and trade gems and jewelry.

There are a pair of brigand/guards here, and Alzar meets with Hassan. Alzar bribes Hassan with some gold to find out more about Khaibar, and to get access to the higher quality stuff. As Hasssan turns around, Alzar quickly casts Cham Person and it works. At the end Alzar has moved 2000 of gp to gems, to make it more portable, and did not lose any value in the exchange. Without items of extra dimensional space, it’s hard to carry around 2000 coins. Apparently the sort-of pretend sultan, Al’Farzikh, uses the jewelry place to move merchandize and purchase things for his harem.

More stores pass by as as a brothel. It’s next to a lantern and candle and lamp store. There is an open market Alzar is about to hit, and he does so. Here there are many vendors, and Alzar keeps a sharp hand on his items to make sure none go missing. Quickly he can tell that nothing here really appeals. There are items like spices grown locally and incense. Good of various sorts, particularly meat. Meat is easier to find in the desert. Even some rocks like granite and marble are for sale. Household goods, mostly smaller ones, are all aligned.

Alzar takes a different street, passing by nearby taverns that are designed to appeal to folks at the market. He sees a sign that appeals to him, and heads into Ibrahim’s Mint Tea Parlor.

It apparently caters to a lot of off duty higher level officers in the army, higher than the normal brigands that are used. Alzar’s wizard clothing but clear soldier ways (he used to be a myrmidon mercenary – a professional’s professional) gets him immediate respect – they can tell one battle-forged veteran to another. There are 9 present righ now, and about 4 or 5 other patrons.

Ibraham ul’Tabarzin arrives, and he a huge, muscular man. He’s a it older, and clearly a highly trained fighter, and he wears a two handed scimitar, carved and looking magical on his back openly. A green turban and sarousal with a red silk shirt, open faced, finish the outfit.

He smiles warmly and greets Alzar, and they introduce themselves. He brings Alzar over and seats him down on the floor, where he has seven different types of mint tea. Alzar decides on the most popular, and really enjoys it. Alzar is introduced to a few locals that use the parlor a lot, and one actually recognizes him as the guy who helped to fight against that nasty mirror army that popped in the sultan’s palace. He buys Alzar another tea, the one he is drinking, and again, Alzar enjoys it. This guy, Tarik El-Fissa, is a non-commissioned officer in the local military. Alzar gets some good low level information about everything and leaves the Tea Parlor an hour later. Apparently there are a few professionals in the army, and there is a lot of tension between them and the more brigand-y others.

There are many other shops and establishments here in Khaibar that Alzar passes, Mustafa’s ropemaking store another bath-house, wine-makers and sellers, and a guild hall for crafts. But Alzar finds his second destination.

“Welcome to Suleiman’s Shop” the sign says, and Alzar heads in, around 4 in the afternoon. His nostrils are filled with the scents of perfume, and hundreds of special candles are here. There are also some standard torches on the wall as well.

Suleiman Ibn Daood greets Alzar as him comes in. They’ve never met, but Alzar is wearing the cassock from the college. They introduce themselves and Suleiman shows him his wears. Then Alzar tells Suleiman that he is here for the “special” torches. He was told about them from a guild wizard from the college who buys some.

“Ah, you are clearly a person of taste. Good, because Suleiman is a clearly a person of talent!

He grabs a cabinet from behind the counter and pushes it out and opens it. In here are a small number of troches he has made. They will fill, roughly, a 20 x 20 area with a gas that renders most people unconscious (roll for it) when lit, centered on the torch. There’s just enough for one usage, and the gas lasts for about 20 minutes, and people come to anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the person and how much they breathed it.

They are 50 gp each. Alzar grabs four. They aren’t magical in nature, but alchemical.

He heads back out.

He passes by a few folks, a person who makes musical instruments and a smithy, and even an odd…fish market? Alzar stops in and Jamilah Amouih is proud to tell Alzar about it, she’s quite proud. They apparently catch fish up at the Oued Khaud and then salt them and sell them here. They are a delicacy here since fish is rare, and being sold for a huge amount of money, comparatively.

Alzar runs out of time, and it’s almost dinner, so he swings by the Drowsing Djinni Fonduk and has dinner with his party, and then heads home.


End I9 again for a bit.

(And virtually all of that was from the book. You can see why I chose Khaibar to be our major center of the Sand Mire. So many possibilities. Alzar is going to become a regular patron of the Mint Tea Parlor, and every time he is in Khaibar (roughly every third day at the College) he swings by.

Country Sites




Much like Treasure Maps, TSR had a variety of other supplements that had multiple short-term adventures. We did a few of these in the Thorasia campaign, and like the Treasure Map one, there are two short-term that just slides in very well….

Sanctuary in the Sand and City of the Dead

Now this book is more like a short vignette used to flesh out a campaign world. You can use it for things like adding color, or a home base, to an adventure.

Back to I3. Pharaoh


A couple of days later, Aman has finished researching the Sunken City and ready to outfit an expedition. He asks Alzar to head it up, since he is familiar with the area, and not busy. Most of the passages of the book have been deciphered by now.

The Sunken City of Pazar is on the east of the Sand Mire, near the Hek, about two days from Bralizzar.

Aman also marks a few things on Alzar’s map. One is a town on the way to Sunken City they can use as a waypoint – Ak’Ridar. It’s built in a former caldera of a no-longer-active volcano. It’s a tent city, and a major destination of the Sandvoyagers here. It’s the only place that specializes in trade in the area. People mine the edges of it for various metals, then craft them and turn them into really nice items for trade. Traders come in and bring items they can use, and then head back out with the metals and crafted items.

It’s a little bit off the path, but it has an Oasis for refilling waters.

A couple of days from the Sunken City is a village of Nairotan people, who are suspected to have fled from the Pazar after it fell. They can head out, stop at Ak’Ridar, and then head to the Sunken City, and use the Nairotan village as a base if they need.

Alzar swings by Khaibar for a final stop, and they spend a few days getting things all ready. Then the party heads out, and the next adventure awaits.

It’s nine days to get to the Sunken City. They will head to the Gates of Sule and instead of continuing on to the nearby Oasis of Akhir, they will take a different but marked path to Ak’Ridar, rest up, and then the final stretch to Pazar and they will hit the sharp mountains there.

Because of their vicinity to Khaibar, the first two days are quiet. A sandstorm whipped up on day 2, but Alzar simple cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut and they were all fine.

That night, without the Hut to use for shelter, they take extra care with the animals, and things go smoothly. No animals they’ve seen have wanted to come at them.

On the morning of day 3, just as they start out, the front person, Pashtun, mounts another sand dune, and on the other side, a quintet of odd looking creatures causes him to pause. They are Thri-Kreen, large, mantis-people who live in places like deserts. If these are similar to those in Thorasia, they are carnivores that only eat intelligent creatures, such as humans, when desperate. They are built very well for their environment and very powerful. Pashtun signals and Alzar approaches.

The five thri-kreen pause, and one tries to use clicks and such, but Alzar can’t make it out, and their mandibles can’t pronounce normal speech. They slowly begin to move off, and Alzar lets them.

In mid-afternoon, Alzar can make out the volcano that Ak’Ridar is in. They’ll arrive tomorrow. It’s not that big, but rock like that, out here, is easy to make out from a distance.

As day four opens, the sun is overcast. Has the sun been dimmed? This whole journey hasn’t been as scorching as Alzar thought it would have been. Even in clear skies.

They near the town, and there are two major paths that are worn and able to be used. Their steeds and wagons arrives, and a local greets them. They are required to hire someone to use wheelblocks to get to the town, in case of a runaway wagon. Alzar pays, and they head on up. They only have a potential issue once, and the local stops it from even starting.

They round the final bend, and arrive in Ak’Ridar

This tent town is very cramped for space, but Alzar guesses that it has more people than Bralizzar or Ber-Gathy. (It has 2000)

The town has five wells dug and available for anyone to use, and a central, planned oasis, with a stone wall built around it, amount 50 feet in diameter, and it looks like it gets deep. It’s like a pool of water. There are tents that have been here for decades, if not centuries.

A ring around the edge of the town is the mining section, with mining accoutrements and various holdings. In the center is the “estate” of Ali Bahn-Hassad, the ruler, with a variety of tents around a private well. It is designed is the ancient style and tradition of the nomad’s oasis. There are also sections of the town for merchants and locals.

They grab some water and begin to get some information.

This town was formed more than 200 years ago by people who fled the dangers of the Sand Mire, and it’s elevation and mining have helped it – it’s naturally a fort, there are just two paths through the caldera, neither is bigger than ten feet wide at its smallest. They call it the City of Hope. No major attacks by outside forces, no major famine or disease, and no major civil unrest. It’s quite bustling.

There are no Inns or taverns, because there are no buildings. Even the smiths are under the stars (not in tents, obviously). There are places to tether your animals, places to purchase and eat food and drink, and a few places to rent and set up a bedroll or tent of your own. But that’s it. There’s no space either.

The place has a bit of an odor. Humanity living this close together tends to do that, and smells of sewage and metal being worked and sweat and trash all sort of mingle together and hover over the area.

Apparently there was a major fissure formed by the earthquake long ago, and the water table was brought up. That gave this place water, clear, pure, water.

They check out various goods, the metalworking, smithing, and such. From horseshoes to fine metal ornaments, they make a lot right here, with pretty primitive tools. It’s a pretty impressive specialization. It’s clear that they have been honing their craft for generations.


After grabbing some food (dried strips of snake meat) they then have some fresh water and head to bed. The evening passes.

On the next day, they refill their various water containers, drink their fill, and head on out.

A few hours after leaving the town behind, they pass by a small group of dung gatherers, people who gather camel (and other) dung, dried, and bring it back to sell as fuel. There are a few people there.


Later that day, as the group begins to set up camp on the Sandvoyagers trail from Ak’Ridar, they notice something discolored under the sand. They brush aside the sand for a few minutes and they are on top of an old ruin, and old building, once made of granite. There are battlements on the building, so this could be the piece of an old tower or keep or something that fell to the ground. Or, it could be the top of something now buried under the sand.

There’s no way to know, so Alzar marks the place on his map and can some back later with the right magic when he’s level increases, just in case there’s a keep or tower under there worth exploring.


Like most nights, the Hut spell is cast, and like most nights, they rely on it to keep them warm, and safe.

However, tonight is different. Breaking out of the ground , possibly from the unknown ruins beneath, a pack of shadows breaks out. Gilded Ears is the first to notice, and Alzar awakens quickly and feels them. There are 5 shadows bearing down on their position.

Locinda is on watch and Alzar shouts to her and wakens everyone. He tries to control them and needs an needs just a 4 on a d20 and rolls….2. Shoot. These are unusually resistant shadows!

Battle time.

Each Shadow has 18 hp, AC 7, THAC0 17 drains strength as they hit, can only be hit by magical weapons, and they strike first, hunting at night and with the party groggy and can hit anyone, they have no time to rouse a battle line.

Two move to Locinda, one to Alzar, and Volcifar and Tolvar – skipping Pashtun. Locinda is hit once for 3 HP and 1 STR is pulled off her., Tolvar takes 3 and 1 STR. Locinda and Alzar misses while Tolvar Acids the one attacking him for 6 damage. Pashtun smashes the one attacking Tolvar for 5.

Shadows win init. They hit Locinda twice for 5 damage and 2 more STR and Tolvar for 4 and 1 STR

The one attacking Tolvar takes 4 from the acid arrow. Tolvar’s Magic Missile finishes it off. Pashtun moves to Locinda and misses one on her, but she doesn’t and adds 7 damage. Everyone else misses.

The Shadows keep init. Locinda takes 3 and 1 STR and Alzar is hit for 4 & 1 STR. Meanwhile Pashtun and Locinda finish the wounded Shadow.

On the next turn, they grab the initiative from the shadows and Tolvar manages to get two Shadows in a Burning Hands and nothing else for 11 damage, and then Alzar and Volcifar both finall hit and two wounded ones down. One left, and it misses.

It dies next turn.

Minor damage to everyone, and they each get 420 XP.

They will have their strength restored when they awaken.

The next day Alzar memorizes Fly instead Vampiric Touch. This will be the case until they arrive at their destination – it’s going to be vital.


About halfway through the day, they think they are at the place on the trail where they have to break off. Alzar casts Fly to verify it and flies up. The trail has begin to head back north and they need to go east and a bit south. There to the south is a ridge of rock called the Hinjaz. It’s a ridge of hills that’s about 130-150 miles away. North you can see some ruins, and the Oasis of the White Palm is out there, about 2-3 days march north. You can see various rock formations, a few ruins that may be too far away, and to the west is Ak’Radar. But what he wants to see is the Sunken City of Pezar and the Nairotan village, south of them, and they are there – about 2-3 day away. He flies back down and they continue on.


The rest of the day is relatively quiet, with nothing but bleached bones to mark their way.

They rest with the Hut spell, and then march one.

Around noon the next day, slithering coils and a sound can be heard from behind a small rock outcropping. Out from behind it slithers a large serpent, with a body about the length of three Alzars and thicker than one.


It lances over quickly and they move off the animals and create a screen around them. Acid Arrow for nothing – it’s immune to acid. It slides up and chomps on Alzar, but misses.

It wins init and does do again, and Alzar takes 7 damage and makes a poison save. Magic Missile for 5 and two hits for 7 damage.

Alzar - 44/51

Next turn they win first and carve into the snake skin, led by Pashtun who’s critical hit doles out a massive amount of damage-age. Dead snake. They gain 120 XP each.


They carve out some meat from it and use it for provisions.

The rest of the day passes uneventfully. The night as well.

As the next day breaks they can make out their destination. Waist deep in the desert sands, a stone giant stands guard over the aged ruins. Featureless from this distance, the giant appears to be holding something in his hand.


The Garden City of Pezar. Once a major city, and a beauty of beauties. It was on a supremely lush island in the river that flowed from the fountain of Athis by the pyramid of Amun-Re. Famed for its near-magical landscape, flowers, and lush vistas, it was home for a large number of people. They used canals to bring water in for the people and that became the death knell of the city.

Bedrock exposed, the river’s water began to erode the understructure. While the river flowed, the people in Pazar discovered it, and built structures and spells to help fortify against the erosion. Then the curse and ensuing devastation hit, and shortly thereafter, even the river stopped. The vegetation was no more. The spells stopped being kept, people began to leave, and the structure began to sank.


They arrive at the statue a few hours later.

The upper half of the statue from is heavily pockmarked and scarred by the ravages of time and sand. The tablet it holds is half buried in the sand.

Alzar orders folks to uncover the tablet. After 15 minutes or so, it is fully pulled out, and there are ancient language here. Alzar puts on the Helm of Reading Stuff and deciphers it

My name is Maniozimus. Look upon the ruins of the great city that surrounds you and despair. Here, great magic once was. Now you see only the might ruins of mens’ work.

Behind the statue are various ruins here. They head out and investigate. It’s clear that people have been here before doing this. They spend the rest of the day checking out a few ruins here and there, where they are above the sand, and see nothing.

They spend the night here. It’s very quiet. Eerily so. Morning arrives and then spend more time searching after getting new spells. Alzar switches back to Vampiric Touch for today, and even grabs Knock for potential door opening. They head back to the front by the statue to see if there are other ruins when….


One of the stones on the building that Pashtun is standing on gives way, and he falls through the sand and now broken roof into a building below.

Pashtun takes 8 falling damage after falling around 170 feet but onto and around soft sand.

Pashtun – 37/45

In the faint natural light, Pashtun makes out a 100 foot tall done of fitted stone above a broken flagstone floor above him. The entire dome slants towards the southeast and sifted sand and dust have spilled into the vast chamber. On the west a darkly stained dome leans on top of a building that rises up majestically from the sand, with partially broken stairs leads up to its rubble-strewn platform.

Using rope, they create a way down and begin to scale down to Pashtun. In a few moments, they have all arrived in the sunken dome. Alzar left Gilded Ears to guard the camels and such above.

They spend some time searching the room thoroughly. There is nothing in here, but they can use the ropes to climb back out later. It’ll be slow.

They head up the damaged stairs to an old double door of stone. After pushing for a moment, it opens, slowly remembering its purpose in life. This is a smaller room with a tiled floor of the dark entry chamber which opens through archways to the right and left onto narrow and darkened passages.

Skittering out of those passages come a few huge tarantulas.

They move with ease on the sand. Alzar’s group, ready in this darkened area, lead with missile weapons and drop two spiders, the other three are in. One hits Volcifar for 3 damage and the other two miss. Volcifar fails his save and is paralyzed for 30 minutes or so. They stab out and kill two more, and the last one misses, wins init, misses, and is killed


Volcifar – 21/24

They search and both side arches lead to meditation rooms. There is an inscription in one calling this place the Dome of Eilish. One meditation chamber is right by a caved is passageway, the other continues, and there is a door and a buried entrance down the passage.

They open the door and the walls of this 20 by 30 room are lined with racks of bone scroll cases. Like those elsewhere, the floor is tiled, and the west end of the room is filled with sand. There is a broken statue in the room and a carved table that is upended.


Another pair of the huge tarantulas pop up from the far end, and are missed by missiles. At melee range that are attacked and killed.

Alzar moves to a bone case and moves it slightly without opening it – he doesn’t want to damage anything inside. It appears to be empty. He opens and checks – yes, empty. Using that method he checks and numerous cases are empty – nothing is in any he opens up.

He notices writing on a tablet in the statue, many of it no longer legible… it includes what appear to be instructions, and Alzar notes them with his Happy Helm.

They search and find a secret door in this room but it won’t open. It’s not locked, and there is no where to put any acid. They try and try again, but nope.

Alzar casts Knock and it opens towards them. They move in, apparently the mechanisms were on the other side.

Alzar sends his Continual Light stones to the far end of this room. The hall is 60 feet long with a 60 foot ceiling, and 50 foot tall statues. Three pairs stand entry with their backs against the walls. Black marble lines the room and the statues appear to hold staffs. Against the back wall is what appears to be an altar of white marble. Centered there is a huge black gem.

They search first, and then as they begin to enter, a thin veil of blue silk appears between the first pair of statues. As clear as the finest mist, this veil is attached to the staves.

This didn’t appear when Alzar toss the Continual Light rock through, so they back up and exit the room but the curtain is still there. He tosses a coin through it and it falls, and shatters on the other side, frozen stiff. Alzar reads off some of the names on the tablet in the scroll room, and one of them shuts down the curtain. After testing it, they move through. A yellow curtain appears next, and again a name on the tablet shuts it down and a red curtain after that.

The white marble of the altar against the rear wall begins to pulse as though with an inner light. The only thing atop it is a fist-sized polished stone of midnight black, with a brilliant white star dividing it into six wedges. The light of the star brightens with the beating light of the altar.

They investigate, and search the area for traps – but nope. At first it looked like the stone was set on top of the white marble, but it’s actually set into it a bit and pressed down into the stone.


Well, its time, Alzar pulls out the giant gem. The pulsating light passes into nearby gem as it leaves and stops, and the back side has some metal on the gem and that metal can be seen on the altar where the gem was pulled off. The energy is completely destroyed and the altar inert, with a faint wisp of an odd smell wafting up.

Suddenly Alzar makes out a giant chuckle in power and volume and it increases until it shakes the room, and then is gone. Alzar makes his Genie Lore proficiency check.

They have just released the Efreet noble, Kalitharius, back into the desert, and back into the world.

They continue searching, but there’s nothing down here but the spiders. They head back up the ropes and then gather them together and get ready to leave the Sunken City of Pelar.


Alzar wants to get them to an oasis and get some water and non-snake food (that’s also non-special items he has to make some food a day). They begin to head south to the Nairotan village. There is no more east, a large amount of rock is in front of them about 25-30 miles.

The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and night, under Leomund’s Tiny Hut, does as well.

On day 2 from Pelar, a highly unusual thing appears. It’s clearly a mirage of an oasis ahead with some water, but each time they get near it disappears. Everyone can see it too.

They pass a few rock formations that have a large number of giant tortoises happily calling it home. Alzar flies above to scout things out.

That night the Hut protects them from a particularly cold evening.

A few hours later, after flying above, they have arrived at the outskirts of the Nairotan village. Alzar did notice some humans nearby miles away, but not Nairotans.

They are passing by a lot of masabas. These apparently were made of clay, and have no doors, windows, or any other openings, and seem to have never been explored or opened.

After they pass these small buildings, a few minutes later they arrive at the village. They are greeted by some Nairotan people. After the greetings, they are led to a nearby central area, and fill their skins with more water. Alzar meets K’dza, the tribal chief and her subchief and daughter, K’drin. Paor, a shaman of the people, is also here and the triad welcome Alzar and his group to their village. They pride themselves on their hospitality, although few come this far in the Sand Mire, they are far away from caravan routes and have little to offer.

It’s a small village with a handful of buildings, and probably less than 50 people total. Alzar offers to trade them some items, as they aren’t really interested in coin. In addition to the rest of their snake meat for a feast tonight of turtle, they trade some excess items, like spare ropes and such.

As dinner is served a few hours later, Alzar asks about their history. They claim to have been from a city that has fallen asleep, and tell their tale. The masabas have been there since the dawn of time. They are impregnable and there is a spiritual significance to them. A priest named M’rin comes back from a hunt with a few other Nairotan and are warmly greeted. They have some under-sand dwelling insects they have speared, each about the size of a hand. About 6 or 7 of them were captured, and they are cooked and added to the meal.

This communal event, called fire tales, involves the Nairotan telling many tall tales of the history of the desert, and each one is wilder than another.

Alzar asks if he can investigate the 12 mastabas on the next day, and the village agrees.

They stay the night. Alzar memorizes a different slate of spells tomorrow.

The next morning, after dawn-meal, Alzar and Volcifar head out and investigates. There are 6 smaller and 6 larger mastabas, and some have traces of a faint paint on them. They are about 35 minutes from the village. They don’t have any other markings.

Alzar traces many with his hands, and notes no ways in. Volcifar verifies it. They were built to keep what is in, in, and nothing out. Alzar cast Detect Undead to see if any are here, suspecting they might be like the mastabas that were around the Pyramid of the Illustrious One on the Holy Isle.


One of the smaller ones does – just one undead. One of the larger ones has 10. That’s it.

He heads over and touches the wall, trying to control them. He can’t control the 1 or the 10. He is in range. He can just axe open a wall and check it out if he wants too. But instead he marks the exact location as precisely as he can. He can teleport back here later, and just use Passwall or something similar to open the mastaba and then close it again and no one will be the wiser…

They decide to head back north to Bralizzar. That’s where Aman Al-Rafiq is likely to be, and it’s just a few days away from here probably 4 or 5 to Northknife Pass and it’s easy to find, just stay on the mountain chain to their east. This mountain chain encircles the region, and on the other side is the Hek controlled part of the Sand Mire

A day later they are quietly heading back north when a large, flightless dragon can be seen from a few miles away. They decide to hold up and hide, until the threat passes.

A few miles later, the dragon-ish creature, a Vishap, has turned, and is pursuing them,




Vishap - 10 HD, AC 2, THAC0 13, 3 attacks – 1d, 1d4, 2d6 and 2-8, 10% magic resistance, 11000 XP when killed, immune to enchantment/charm spells, can cast sleep 2/day, invis 1/day, suggestion 1/day

Alzar has learned about these famous Hamedhi dragons, They are flightless, magic less and breathe-less, but nasty with some spell like powers.

As it nears, it casts Sleep on Alzar’s group to see if it works. It doesn’t everybody is higher than level 4. Acid Arrow to it for 4 damage. Missiles miss.

Next turn it drops Suggestion on Pashtun who is closing with Locinda. Pashtun fails and the Vishap suggests that it’s really hot and he should take off his armor, clothes, and drops his weapons and run and leave. He starts. Magic Missile hits for 7 and the creature takes 3 from the Arrow.

Vishap 41/55

The Vishap arrives and attacks Locinda, who charged it. It hits twice for 9 damage. Locinda misses. Alzar rushes up. Volcifar misses too.


Locinda – 32/41


The creature stabs Locinda for another 6 damage. It takes 9 damage from weapons.


Locinda- 26/41

Vishap – 32/55



The Vishap bites Locinda and claws for 11 damage and then is missed by weapons, but Tolvar has gotten to a place where he can casting Burning Hands for 11.

Locinda 15/41

Vishap 21/55


The Vishap decides to cast invisibility on itself and leaving. This party is too rough for it. Alzar can see it still though. He casts Continual Light at it as it flees, and it’s not blinded, but it’s still lit up and provides a target for folks to fire at.

The creature can move faster than them, so Alzar casts Fly as it moves away, and It takes 3 damage from a Sling of Seeking.

18/55


Alzar flies above the sand and moves very quickly. He lands in front of the creature and it moves to attack him. He casts Vampiric Touch as it arrives and it takes 10 damage. He takes 7 from claws.


44/51 Alzar

As he battles it in melee, others come near again. It flees, and Alzar flies up again. Alzar starts flinging daggers at in from the air. It cannot hide, and it cannot fight back, and it runs, but eventually, it dies.


They cut off skins, horns, hair, etc.


They split 11000 XP – 2200 each

Volcifar is getting close to another level.

They move out, not wanting to spend the night here where carrion might attack others. Alzar tries to fly around to see if he can find the cave or place the beast laired. I’m giving him a 15% chance of doing so, here we go…


He rolls a 92. Yup yup!

Alright…

He spies an opening in the foothills of the hills to the east with his enhanced senses from Gilded Ears, and he flies over, and checks out a few things. After verifying that the area is clear, he heads in, and scouts around. The cave is large, and there are bones and a lot of rough things in here, but nothing else dangerous or threatening.

The others arrive as Alzar casts Detect Magic and they begin to collect stuff. Let’s roll up some stuff!

It’s Treasure Types are D Y and U

D -10% of copper Nope; 15% of silver, nope; 50% chance of gold yes – 1000 GP; 15% chance of platinum nope; 30% gems nope; 25% art objects yes; 15% magical items – yes.

D gives us 1000 GP, a paired necklace and bracelet made of gems and metal worth 130 gp; Any two magical items + potion – I roll – armor, misc, Potion of Speed.

Y – 700 Gp;

U – any 1 magical item; 1d6 art; 2d8 gems –

Total –

1700 gp
7 gems worth 1050 GP
Assorted Jewelry worth 780 gp
Potion of Speed
+2 Leather Armor
Priest Spell Scroll – Cure Light Wounds, Sanctuary, Flame Strike

Quill of Forgery – This quill can copy someone’s handwriting perfectly if there is a sample. May be used once/week.


They stay the night here, and they will move stuff hither and thither during the evening and packing everything as needed. Alzar will spend more time curing and preparing the goods from the Vishap.

On the morning, after a quiet rest, they head back out. After noon, they begin to pass bear the Sunken City, although to its east, nearer the mountains. Nothing disturbs them this far on the edge of this section of the desert.


That night there are some howls and such, and then some frost hits, but they are fine under Leomund’s Tiny Hut.

As morning on the next day turns to noon, and their normal rest therein, something moves across the sky. It’s a gigantic Efreet. It looks like the one that they must have set free. It’s miles and miles up in the sky and moving swiftly. And now it’s gone.

Desert’s aren’t like woodlands, and there aren’t a bunch of animals to run and hide and be still as a big nasty creature like that one passes overhead. But still, everything feels eerily quiet the rest of the day, as if nothing wants to come out and put in an appearance and risk being seen.

The next day, they encounter a darkened day as the clouds gather and winds whip together ever more quickly. At first it looks like a sandstorm, but the winds ebb just enough to prevent it but shifting sands move around and their route changes regularly from uphill to down, or from rocky to deeply in sand.

The weather fades a few hours later, and they are closing to Northknife Pass. There is a band of Sandvoygers coming out of Bralizzar and exiting the Pass. They camp after refilling at Resurrection Spring, and the next morning they set out, and arrive in Bralizzar later that day.

They are allowed into the town and the other set up in the inn while Alzar swings by to find Aman Al-Rafiq. Aman is in his home as expected, and they greet each other, exchange pleasantries, and then get down to business.

He congratulates Alzar for getting the first gem, but the Efreet Kalitharius being set free was not something they foresaw until they interpreted more of Martek’s book.

Every section of the book is in a different code and language, and book itself is magic and resists attempts to read and understand it magically. Martek apparently predicted the inadvertent releasing of Kalitharius. It was newly translated. There are still parts untranslated, but they can’t wait any longer. The Efreet noble is moving about the Sand Mire, and while not fully empowered (being imprisoned for almost 1000 years on a plane that’s not your home can do that to a power) and he’s spent some time over the west facing the hordes of the Master, which is a nice little bonus. But he’s been seen and any time now, he could land and start blowing up the remaining patches of civilization that linger.

It appears that the second gem is in the Pyramid of Amun-Re. The originally thought they had years to get this stuff taken care of, but now the timeline has obviously been accelerated. There’s no time to put together a huge expedition from the College to hit the Pyramid. He asks Alzar if his party is ready to go, and they agree.

The Pyramid is about 4 days north and west of Northknife Pass. The Oasis of the White Palm is the major center of civilization thereabouts. You can go hit the Pyramid first and then return to the Oasis, 1.5 days away, or swing by the Oasis first for news and such, and then the Pyramid.

The Oasis of the White Palm was settled by a lot of dervishes, which some others there as well. The dervishes here are a group of locals that did not convert to the one faith of Anu, and instead hold to the old gods. They are fervently pro-religion, and their major goal is to protect all of the holy places in the Sand Mire, and that includes the Pyramid of Amun-Re, the largest pyramid in the Sand Mire by far. It dwarfs the Pyramid of the Illustrious One of Queen Aneksi.


Alzar hands his donation of gems, jewelry and gold to Aman for the college, and they begin to outfit. He also gives the Potion of Speed to them.

They decide to head to the Pyramid directly, and from there to the Oasis of the White Palm and Aman will teleport to the Oasis and meet them there after they return.

Heading out Tolvar will be memorizing these spells: Armor (lasts until dispelled, or until Tolvar takes 11 damage – AC6), Sleep, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp, Burning Hands; Melf’s Acid Arrow, Invisibility, Continual Light; Vampiric Touch, Flame Arrow. Normally his spell selection is 4/2/1 at level 5, but as a Conjurer, he gets a bonus spell at each level in Conjuration – 5/3/2 – and those are Armor, Acid Arrow, and Flame Arrow.

Alzar is more than halfway to level 7, which will get him the sexy 4th level Magic. Volcifar’ll hit 6 soon.

They spend the night in Bralizzar and move some stuff, purchase supplies and more, and that day they swing back out of the town and rest at the cave area at the end of Northknife.

Their arrival back on the path, and following the mountains north again is no surprise.


They are off the Sandvoyagers route, the one to the Oasis requires them to stay on the main trail west for two days and then head north. After a few hours, the place is quiet and relatively peaceful and there’s even an Airlancer patrol that can be made out from here.

There are a few creatures that are moving at the edge of the horizon, but they Airlancers swoop down at them they are retreat and can no longer be seen.

The first day endeth.


A scuttling noise can be heard and a large group of large beetles moves out during the cool night, and 16 large beetles move into their camp. These are lower level folks, just a few hp each. They party is up (random.org) and carve through them easily, but is nipped for damage here and there.

The morning arrives and folks begin to move out. Another day passes mostly uneventfully, with Alzar flying to verify their path, and they find an odd rock formation shortly after midday. There are three spires of rock jutting out from the desert. A large middle one and two smaller ones that flank it. The locals call it The Trident. Each one rises hundreds of feet above the sand. It’s a useful landmark and interesting formation, they check it out, but nothing is here.

They move about 5 or 6 miles from the Trident and then camp for the night under the Hut spell. Everything is quiet.

The next day they begin to near the Pyramid of Amun-Re. Alzar swapped out Leomund’s Hut, they are close enough they aren’t going to get exposed.

That night, something odd happens. As the cool night air drains the heat from the sand, an aura of eerie menace surrounds it. The winds shift direction bearing a thin white mist towards the party from the Pyramid and points west. It swirls and dissipates. Out from where it landed steps a solitary figure, appearing from in a leopard skin robe, and ornate headpiece, decorated with many fine jewels.

He is not aware of Alzar’s presence. Alzar can feel him, as an undead. He makes his Necrology check and it’s probably a ghost. He leaves no tracks in the sand and is strangely insubstantial.

Alzar moves up and towards the figure, until he’s about 20 feet away. Then the figure looks up at him and begins to speak.

I am Amun-Re, son of Takosh-Re of the house of Mo-Pelar. That which you see is but my shadow which has walked these lands for time uncounted, in search of mighty men of valor, to plead their aid.

In my time was I Pharaoh of this land now before you. Then, Bakar was a green and beautiful land, blessed by the gods of Heaven Westward with the wondrous spring of Athis, which gave life to our land and nurtured our crops. Yet did robbers raid the tombs of my forefathers and take from them tokens of their passage into the lands of the dead, thus keeping them from their reward after life. I swore that, at all costs, I would not fall prey to their evil deeds.

So it was that I made mighty and terrible war upon my neighbors, plundering their lands of wealth for my own passage. I did enter a contract with a great mage to work a mighty wonder, and, upon the sweat and blood of my people, I did build a theft-proof tomb.

My people turned against me with bitter hatred. I not only robbed our borderlands but taxed grievously my own people, and so took from them their wealth. They rose up in anger, demanding their hold and precious gems, their lives and freedom.

I cursed them, saying, "By the ruling staff and the Star Gem of Mo-Pelar, I curse you. Threaten not my life, or by them and by the holy name of Osiris, will the stopping of my heart also stop the Spring of Athis from her life-giving flow. As the river slows and dies, so shall your land wither in the wilderness. This do I swear by Osiris' holy name and these implements of my power.'

From a sea of upraised fists before me, rose one with a spear. The shaft sped from the darkness, and so, too, that night did the Spring of Athis stop its flow.

In death, my spirit gleefully approached my pyramid. But Osiris stopped my spirit from entering that tomb, for, said he, "Your monument to life was to be the benefit you brought to the people under your stewardship, not this edifice of stone. As you looked only to your death in life, so shall you look only to your life in death. I am bound to fulfill your curse, for you have called it down with power in my name. But I do curse you as well; Amun-Re. You shall not enter this tomb where the implements are of your voyage to heaven until some mortal soul does despoil this place, taking your staff of ruling and the Star Gem of Mo-Pelar from your theft-proof tomb."

Even have I talked with the wind in hope of help. Uncounted seasons have passed, and my Kingdom is not now to be seen in these desert lands. Of it, nothing remains save for my tomb, which stands now as then, untouched by time, sands, wind, or men. Though many have tried to plunder my wealth, none has succeeded, and I am forbidden passage to heaven until one succeeds.

My wealth is thine if thou can but best that which I have built. Remove both my staff of ruling and the Star Gem from my tomb. So then will you gain great wealth, and so then will you release me. Follow my path to wealth or woe, to thy destiny or thy doom.


The ghost of Amun-Re pulls back and leaves.

The Pyramid of Amun-Re is a massive structure, and it might be some feat to investigate, explore, and such. They close on the morrow.


(By pages, the Pyramid of Amun-Re is the longest of the various dungeons and cites in the Desert of Desolation uber-module that combines I3, I4, and I5. Even the final dungeon has a few less pages. So I’m going to perhaps speed through the occasional room or three in order to do this dungeon with any degree of speed. I’m been very descriptive through this campaign, and now, I’m going to use it early, and late, and where needed in between. Here we go!)

The tomb of these pharaohs are not just burial grounds. They are complex religious places that were used to change the dead pharaohs into gods. There should be a sacred temple in the front as part of this complex.

The entire pyramid is known to radiate Magic, and Aman mentioned that Detect Magic spells may not work, since the whole place will set off. No one can teleport in or out either

“The pyramid is about 750 feet square at the base, rising to a height of at least 700 feet. The highly polished rock that forms its exterior is untouched by desert sands, in contrast to the rock of the 20-foot-high wall that surrounds it.

The pyramid sides face the compass points. The only break in the guarding wall is the temple to the south. Entrance is obviously via a platform that opens in the south face, 50 feet above the ground. Stairs climb the pyramid’s south face from a walkway connecting the rear of the temple and the pyramid.

Like the stone of the surrounding wall, the stone of the temple is worn by time, though still solid and sturdy. There are no windows in the temple wall, and only one entrance, gained via two staircases flank a circular basin, climbing 30 feet to the temple porch. The temples roof is capped by one large and two small domes.

A broken lime-cement basin, 100 feet in diameter, with no apparent openings in the bottom lies within the embrace of the stairs to the temple entryway. The basin obviously once contained water, which emptied into a deep channel in the desert ground. This channel leads away from the temple south, passing the building ruins there.

The far side of the pyramid from the party can be seen a tent village occupied by Dervishes. While it is obvious that they travel to and from the temple at the base of the pyramid they do not appear to be blocking travel for others that want to enter the temple. As the party walks toward the temple they remember the warnings they were given about the Dervishes, they still follow the old ways and will defend the old holy sites from desecration with their lives.”

They tie up their animals wand spare goods and such. Gilded Ears will say behind as a watch familiar.

As they approach the entryway, there are stairs here leading to the temples porch and they are of stone, pocked and pitted by time. And sand. There are a pair of Dervishes here guarding two large bronze doors, and as Alzar moves in front, they challenge him and ask why he is here. Alzar wants to be honest, but also doesn’t want to make enemies of the dervish presence here. “We come seeking truth.” It works and the dervishes allow them entrance.

The pass a corridor and then head to the high altar of Amun-Re, a large room with a bunch of dervishes in service. The one leading the service is reading from a book, but most not be getting a lot of luck. The 5 dervishes around the room look upset, perhaps downright mystified. They wait, but the dervishes aren’t stopped.

There are doors to the left and right, and the people here are sort of worshipping, so they head over and open the left and right doors. One heads to a worship room and the other to a quarters, with a lot of dervishes in there. They head to the worship room, and then out the other side to a holy circle, of Osiris on the floor of this circular room. It has an altar as well.

They continue on and arrive at the back end of the temple. The north side of this room is trapezoidal in shape, and there is light falling from the opn archway. This on the pyramid side. They are through the temple.

The stairs climb from the walkway that leads from the rear of the temple to the pyramid’s south face. The stairs are as highly polished as the bricks of the pyramid – they must get regular cleaning from the dervishes. The stairs head up 50 feet above the courtyard below. At the top of the stairs is the platform which gives access to the pyramid.

There are another pair of guards up there. There are too many dervishes, and Alzar’s fears too many more, and so far, they’ve escaped issues. He tells Volcifar to gather their attention, and while he talks to them, Alzar casts Charm Person on the guard on the left, Atfez. It works, Atfez is now Alzar’s really good friend Alzar asks his friend if he’d mind escorting Alzar and his friends into the pyramid, and he’s happy to do so.

They move into a main worship hall with support pillars, coolly dark, and a large statue in the back of a pharaoh. There are two worship areas in the two adjunct rooms, and that’s it. Nothing else. Hmmmm….They check out the rooms – the east one is as advertised. In the left one are a group of dervishes led by a leader. Alzar’s friend mentions that their leader and a few dervishes went missing from this room before. They are offering prayers to bring back them by placing gifts into the hands of a large statue, and those are disappearing in a magical red flame, so the supplications must be working.

Alzar tells Volcifar to do a subtle search while Alzar and Atfez go and talk to the 11 dervishes here. Their great leader disappeared 9 days ago. The one leading this service is the 3rd in charge of the dervish unit here at the Pyramid.

Volcifar gives a heads up, he’s found a secret door deeper into the Pyramid. Alzar pulls Atfez over, he wants to get an idea of how the dervishes will react to the door’s discovery. He proposes it as a hypothetical, and the e reaction seems good, so Alzar grabs their attention, and Volcifar opens the secret door. “Maybe this is where your leader went?”

The Assistant Holy Isaeda of the Dervishes sends a group of 5 dervishes to accompany Alzar’s group and Atfez through the door to see where they go.

There is a shaft that leads back from here and a corridor off that to the left. That corridor ends in an odd circular chamber with a central translucent cylinder in the middle full of water, wet and slimy, flowing somewhere else, Odd. There is another room as the corridor continues that’s very similar but the water is flowing in the opposite direction.

The corridor bends into another large worship room, with another statue of Amun-Re here. Volcifar does some searching and uncovers another secret door. A long descending corridor faces them. Continually Lit stones don’t make a massive amount of light due to the angle, so they head down gingerly, checking various things.

The corridor ends on the south side of a large worship room, one bigger than any others. There are three statues of Amun-Re here, damaged, and defaced with a battered altar. Volcifar finds a pair of secret doors. One opens into a small room, now empty, and no amount of searching reveals anything but a gas trap long-since triggered. The next opens into a grand hallway, larger than anything else with what was once beautiful walls and décor, now destroyed by time, with rubble and marks by axes and hammers that have damaged it. They continue and find a large arch with “Treasure Room” written in five languages around it. Inside are scattered and destroyed chests and pots, long since peppered with dust. There is an archway on the other end, with a opened sarcophagus, once resplendent but battered, as people pulled out gems and metals. Above is an inscription that tells looters they’re too late to do anything, Amun-Re is now beyond their reach.

Alzar turns and tells the shocked dervishes that “clearly it looks like others were here. You should probably head back and report these findings, and grab some items to clean up and do a service to bless the area anew.” They nod and head back, including Atfez.

A few minutes later, Alzar orders some more searching. This is clearly a fake. It’s a good idea to place something like this at the entrance of your crypt, and it’s probably fooled lots of people that found the multiple secret doors in the past. But this is not the tomb.

They find nothing here, no secret rooms, but suddenly someone flipped something and the floor begins glowing for a near-circular section. Two people standing there are teleported, and the rest enter the circle and disappear.

They are blinded momentarily and arrive in a perfect octagon with four arched exits, all identical and separated from one another by identical walls. There are a few levers on the wall and a skeleton on the floor with a sword pointing to one of the four exits.

Alzar taking a moment to suss out there where they are, they move head towards the sword-pointing direction. As the first person moves into the corridor beyond, a warm mist moves up, swirling rust orange, and they block sight and are very disorienting.

They push through the mists and emerge into a longer corridor 10 x 30 foot with mists filling the archways at both ends. One heads down to check it out and moves into the mists again, and moves forward into a odd turning jungle of hallways, twisting. The others join. And after a few minutes they arrive at a 10 foot square clear intersection of hallways, and there are passages to the right and left of the door. The door opens to reveal an empty 30x30 room. Volcifar tells them to stop as he moves to it. There is a trap just inside he removes. There is another one in there as well, but a search turns up nothing.

Alzar guesses they are in some sort of a maze. He’s been in them before, from portal mazes to real ones to the Web of the Abyss on Lolth’s plane. This has empty rooms, traps, disorienting mists, and probably some built in redundancy.

They head left and arrive at an identical looking door which opens into another empty looking room. Alzar tells no one to enter yet, and Volcifar can’t make out anything from the doorway, and like the other other room, there is a large dome over the room. Volcifar sneaks in and is immediately attacked as the ceiling falls on him, a creature that blends in called a lurker has pounced on him..


Volcifar rolls but is unable to get away from the Lurker Above but manages to give the others space to attack it. They begin to stab it with weapons. It automatically hits Volcifar for 1d6 every round and after 1d4+1 rounds will smother him.

They attack and hit it for 8 damage. Volcifar takes 3. They hit it and deal 11. (Just has an AC of 6). It hits and does 3 again. They attack and kill it.

They gained 200 XP each

Volcifar – 18/24

There is nothing else down here after a search, but Alzar’s enhanced senses notice some sort of ledge above. It’s way out of reach about 40 feet above in the dome. Alzar casts Fly and heads on up. There is an observation platform and a door out. Alzar heads to the door and opens it – it was hidden on the other side. There is a small hallway here. He heads down and finds two more observation domes. He grabs some rope and builds a few rope bridges. They have found a way out of the maze. Now, the only issue remaining, often mazes have treasure or monsters or information.

But for now, he wants to explore this upper level while he still has his fly spell active, in case he needs it. They head to a door on the other side of the hallway and it opens into onto an octagonal room with three more doors, a single figure, fighting valiantly against 8 ghouls. Looks like a female warrior of some sort. Alzar controls 6 ghouls and forces them to look like he’s turning them and moving away scared. He comes over and sees the mark of a god here and this woman is probably a paladin of some sort. She detects evil, and sees that him and Volcifar are both evil and the attempt to make himself a useful ally didn’t work. Ah well.

She kills the first ghoul and shouts out that Alzar is next. Ah well.

Ghouls are sent back, and behind them missile weapons follow. In a few minutes, the already wounded Paladin is dead. Lawful stupid indeed.

350 XP each player

They grab her stuff in case she had any magic items (she didn’t). But Alzar now have five ghouls to open these doors and such. They head right into a closet where there were two sarcophagi empty, and as some empty priest rooms next, each open (no door) and roughly 10x15 big. In another set of these rooms are a triad of wraiths that are grouped around an object on the floor. Alzar controls one and has it attack the others. While flanking it, they launch weapons at the other tow, take down one, and then Alzar’s dies and the other dies before reaching the party.

600 XP each

The object is a weapon that Alzar is able to identify with his class ability - +1scimitar, +4 vs undead. Since Pashtun uses a scimitar, and just has a +1 scimitar normally, he gives it to Pashtun and takes the other one back. This one is called Bar-ethel (True Death) on the blade.

They come across a prayer temple, old worn prayer rugs, faded patterns, ad moth-eaten are placed around the core, and in the center is yet another statue to Amun-Re. There is a giant gemstone glittering in the forehead, something new. Volcifar finds a trap door in front of the statue and disarms it. As they are searching the room, the door opens and out pop another group of ghouls 4 this time, looking for food and moving to attack until they are controlled and now Alzar has 9 ghouls.

The room is searched and they find a secret door to the right. A ghoul opens it and leads on. There is an alcove here with faire in front, but it’s just illusionary, Alzar can see through it. They head through it. They find more worship areas, and a kitchen and dining area and pantry. Nothing in any of them of merit.


They enter a domed room with another level on top of it, like the lower ones did and Alzar’s fly spell is……still in duration. He flies up and establishes ropes again, and they climb up to the next level.

They arrive in a ledge at the top most part of the dome from above and there is a door here and search shows a concealed door as well. They have the concealed passage which quickly opens to a low ceilinged, twisting tunnel that lies in a rough cavern, not the pretty walls and carvings elsewhere. This was made by force, not grace. The cavern is pretty large, and there is something in the far corner of interest and a passage to the left. A ghoul heads over holding a Continually Light stone.

They see a golem, a clay golem actually. Ghouls aren’t going to help here, he orders it back. If clay golems here are like the ones in Thorasia, then only a magical blunt weapon will damage it. Locinda switches to her mace, Volcifar will be using just his sling, and Pashtun takes the Trombash of Returning. Alzar moves up with Locinda, they are the only ones with melee attack weapons. Clays can do a lot of damage very quickly. He does some quick math with Tolvar for the battle, and then they move in.

He pushes ghouls on the flanks, in order to keep the Golem contained.

It sees them and moves from its place to fight them. Let’s get some dice!

We get 1 it gets 3. We win init. Magic Missiles nail it for 9 damage, (Tolvar now gets 3 missiles) and They attack. The golem has an AC of 7, it’s pretty easy to hit. Volcifar tags it with his Sling of Seeking for 3 damage and Locinda adds 5. It smashes Alzar, for 3d10 damage, which is 3, 2, 7. 12 damage.

Alzar – 39/51

It wins init and casts haste on itself. They attack and carve off another 7 damage.

Golem – 26/50

The golem wins init (9 vs 2) and rolls a 4 and 16 – hits once for 6, 4, 7 - 17 damage. They hit for another 11 damage.

Alzar 22/51
Golem 15/50

Alzar’s tema wins 4 to 7. Can they kill it?

Locinda rolls … 5 and misses
Pashtun with the items he can’t use well still gets a 17 and hits for….5 damage
Alzar rolls and gets a 9…..he needs an 11. Miss
Volcifar rolls that 11 and….hit needs a 10. 5 more damage
Tolvar casts Burning Hands behind a ghoul and hits for 11 and kills it.

Dead ghoul too.

They share 5000 XP

1000 XP each

Volcifar levels up

Behind the golem is a shelf, and on it a jar. A ghoul picks up the jar and opens it, and inside is a still-beating human heart.


Alzar puts the heart back into the jar and they head left.

It goes for a while and ends at a secret door (not secret on this side) that opens into the normal carved pyramid again. There is an octagonal room that appears to be a storage room and a door on the other side. They head out and in a small triad of these octagons. The one on the right is a chains and manacles sort of space, without anything else. The other is a dining room with some tables and chairs, and a hallway out on the far side.

A magic-user pops into the hallway as they are walking in, and cackles. Munafik casts a spell to give him Minor Globe of Invulnerability. A Sling of Seeking hits him, but does no damage – Alzar’s spellcraft proficiency check verifies that it should have still hurt him – the Globe just protects from spells. He casts Dispel Magic at him, and then orders in an attack by the charging ghouls, and still, none hit him. Nothing. He cackles. Alzar shouts that he’s tired of people who think they are invulnerable and makes an intelligence heck and pulls out the jar.

“Yes that’s right. You know what this is!” Fear is on Munafik’s face as Alzar opens it and shows the beating heart. Munafik is unable to bluff him, so Alzar forces him to tell everything about the level he knows.

Munafik is a high priest of Amun-Re, centuries old. He shows them the rest of these level, turns off traps, and shows them how to activate the Pillar of Athis, a magically trapped a trickery object to get to the final tomb. Munafik is forced to turn over a book of his, the Libram of Ineffable Damnation. Alzar puts the heart back into the jar and pockets it again. Don’t come after us, or else...



They head up.

The water flows up a giant shaft here and back down again on the other side as a huge tempest swirls around. These are the Waters of Athis, that once flowed through the fountain and led to an artificial river in the desert that fed places as far away as Pezar.

There are a pair of giant bronze doors, the ghouls open them up.

Four pillars rise up to the vaulted ceiling and In the center of the room is a stand with a plaque that reads, “Let him who knows our god speak his name” and on the west side of the room, occupying the entire length of the wall, is a reed boat, with a mast lashed to the floor alongside ten ornate, vase-like jars. On the east wall there is a large painting of the same boat as on the west side of the room. In the painting, which is very well done and detailed, is identical in every way save it is sailing high above the clouds and carries a beautiful gemstone in the bow. Two more bronze doors are on the other side.

Alzar has a ghoul grab a jar and opens it – instead is 500 pp. Each of the others has the same –

5000 pp

One ghoul heads over to the painting and touches it, and then pushes its hand into it an through it. It’s like a window. Alzar heads over and looks around. Looking down is 10,000 feet and the Pyramid of Amun-Re far below. The boat is out over a cloud, magically hanging in the sky. Alzar uses his staff to see if there are any platforms or anything there, but nothing. Alzar ties a rope to himself and then quaffs a potion of Levitation and pushes himself out. Others use polearms and ropes to push him out far enough where he can use a rope to secure himself to the boat. He heads over and grabs the gem, and secures it to himself, and then crosses back, this time with them pulling the rope back.

He has secured the Star of Mo-Pelar.

They head out and open the bronze doors.

This is along burial room, with a great sarcophagus in the center. A gold staff lying across it, and a statue of Amun-Re with a carved copy of the Star in one hand and the staff in the other. A ghoul grabs the staff and brings it over to Alzar.

Ghouls open the sarcophagus and out comes a mummy!


A Flame Arrow from Tolvar heads in and it does 1d6 piercing and 4d6 fire. The mummy takes 4 extra damage from the fire. 20 damage total. No saving throw for Flame Arrow’s piercing damage, but yet for the fire damage – it rolls a 5, no save. A Sling hits for 1 damage after halving.

19/40


Alzar orders folks to retreat and hit it at range as ghouls body block it and Tolvar slings over an Acid Arrow for 5 damage. The mummy has to fight (and kill) a ghoul.

Another round and it takes 4 damage. Pashtun moves in with his magical scimitar of undead death dealing and attacks and rolls…20. It takes…..7x2 (14) +4, +2 for 20. Halves to 10. It dies.


That’s an auspicious start for the weapon!

They check things out and nothing is in the crypt. Alzar casts Detect Magic just to make sure and as expected, everything is glowing.

On the walls here are a group if hieroglyphs. Alzar’s Helm tells all about them. There used to be a teleport—spell that teleported water from a nearby freshwater-sea to the pyramid – and it’s still working, and then a second from the pyramid to the Fountain of Athis. It’s a simple matter to fix it up, and in a moment, Alzar has the water heading to the fountain again.

He has the platinum pieces all collected by the group in various backpacks and such, and then the coins they can’t carry are put back in the jars and carried in their hands. Alzar grabs the Staff and Star in each hand, as the hieroglyphs commanded and steps into a patch to the left. The group teleports back to the temple’s main worship area in the beginning, into the midst of a bunch of dervishes.

He shows them the rod and Star, and tells them of the fountain, and Osiris’s blessing returning to the area, and leaves.

For killing mummy and finishing quest – 1000 XP each.

They give 500 PP to the college, everyone takes 100 PP for themselves and Alzar gets the final 4k.

Volcifar
Lawful Evil, 6th level Thief
HP – 28
THAC0 – 18
STR: 14, DEX: 17, CON: 12, INT: 16, WIS: 10, CHA:11
AC: 6
XP: 21940 (Level 5 at 20000)
29 years old

X3 Backstab

Weapons – Dagger, Sling, Yataghan

Proficiencies – Appraising, Disguise, Forgery, Locksmithing, Reading/Writing, Riding, Set Snares, Swimming, Tracking

Pick Pockets – 30
Open Locks – 80
Find/Remove Traps – 95
Move Silently – 45
Hide in Shadows – 45
Detect Noise – 15
Climb Walls – 65
Read Languages - 0

Fights with Dagger of Venom or +2 Sling of Seeking. Also wears Ring of Protection +1 and Ring of Spell Storing – Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment. This Ring, unlike others, cannot be charged with any spell other than Dispel Magic and Mask Alignment (reverse of Know Alignment).

Gold – 750, 100 pp


They spend the night resting. The next morning, Alzar returns to his normally expected spell-list

End of I3. Pyramid



The Libram of Ineffable Damnation is one of the nasty magic books out there. An evil mage who reads it will gain a full level. He’ll wait until he levels up and then use it immediately to gain another level. It’ll work once, and these things usually disappear to head somewhere else afterwards.

Beginning of I4. Oasis of the White Palm




Time for the next one folks!

The Oasis is only a few days from the Pyramid, and the Dervishes are sending a unit back there to let them know about what happened here and the restored fountain currently overflowing. Alzar’s group and theirs will journey together for safety. And things go by pretty quickly. Almost due west is the Oasis of the White Palm.

Twice there are group of creatures that eye the large party, and twice they decide against it. Dervishes are a powerful class, sort of a fighter-cleric with a desert-druid vibe. Imagine a druid, with desert spells instead of forest ones, with better armor and weapons allowed, and that’s not a bad way to look at the dervish class.

A group of those, plus all of the camels, wagons, giant striders, and the whole party, is quite a large pseudo-caravan and since those are guarded very well by airlancer patrols (And there are some of those in the Oasis), there’s not a lot of value in attacking us and angering them unless you are really sure of yourself.


The Oasis of the White Palm is a major linking point for places and people here in the north, and the Sandvoyagers come here as well. It’s also the home-base of the dervishes and their various allies.

They pull into the Oasis and there are a few tents up and such. On the way, the here, the dervishes gave Alzar more information about the Oasis.

Sheikh Kassim Arslan controls the Oasis and most of the locals follows his lead. He’s had the area under his control for more than 20 years and has a reputation is a stubborn man, but fair. There are a few people that aren’t exactly Arslan’s best friend, and there are rumors of a secret slave trade out of the Oasis.

He has two twin sons, and the older of which will inherit the Oasis. The airlancers that operate out of the Oasis of the White Palm are the best of the lot, and several Pegasus riders can be seen overhead right now. As Alzar has noticed personally, flying in the desert is extremely valuable strategically. From intel to speed, it’s important.

As they near the Oasis, it’s under heavy guard and everyone is milling around preparing. Aman Al-Rafiq comes out to meet them and they trade stories.

The woman who should be married to the Sheikh of the White Palm will have a old, archaic tattoo of a Palm Tree appear on her hand. That sign symbolizes the union, and it also appears on the woman that will be betrothed to the Sheikh’s heir. The heir of Sheikh Kassim Arslan is his son Hassan. Meanwhile there is an amulet left that the Sheikh wears as a sign of his rule over the Oasis.

Apparently, the book of Martek mentions that the amulet and the tattoo, when put together, reveal a secret message that can be used to find Khalitharius, the freed Efreet. However, two days ago, the Efreet appeared here at the White Palm and burned down a camp and captured the princess Shadalah. While not positive, Aman guesses that the Efreet took her in order to prevent them from seeing the two together, and the wife of the Sheikh passed away years ago, and thus only one woman currently has the tattoo.

They have been creating war parties and sending out search teams. The dervishes that arrived with Alzar go to relate their news, which is met with some happiness, but not a lot, and then are brought into another search team.

Aman brings Alzar in to meet the Sheikh. Within the main chamber of the tent sets an older man, richly garbed in silks and jewels, and on delicate pillows. There are numerous others in here are well, from guards to a man that looks like the Sheikh’s son.

He addresses Alzar after seeing the Staff of Amun-Re and the two gems that Alzar has. The second of the lot, the Star of Mo-Pelar has been Identified as a Gem of Seeing, but Amun-Re’s Staff of Rulership defies simple magic, it’s much more complex.

The Sheikhs tells Alzar more of the North. Before he was Sheikh, he explored at the head of a variety of groups that ventured out. The North-Eastern part of the Sand Mire is a lot more dense than the southern part. It is rife with unusual and older formations. There is an obelisk so tall that despite being buried under countless feet of sand, it still is hundreds of feet in the air. There is the Crypt of Badr Al-Mosak and the Valley of the Sphinx, there is the Pyramid of Amun-Re and many other smaller ones, there is the broken Temple of Amnissos and the destroyed citadel of Ascavalon. The Trident and the Demon’s Bridge. The Graveyard of the Ancients and the breath-taking Caverns of Al-Sune. There’s the Monument to Martek and the Tomb of the Faceless One. And the shifting sands constantly reveal new lost wonders while hiding others.

They can’t send out too many expeditions to find Shadalah. They don’t want to denude their defenses in case Khalitharius decides to attack. The Sheikh asks Alzar and his group to find the place that Khalitharius absconded with the princess. Clearly he wanted her alive, or else he could have just killed her in the attack on the Oasis.

He asks them to head out and find her and bring her back. They agree to do so, and the Sheikh has his medallion loaned to the party to help them. Aman had already informed him about Martek’s plan.

The Oasis has a few sections – a Sandvoyagers compound, and a variety of other folks from barracks to a nomad camp. There’s also a Shi’ar here, one of the local classes distinct from those on other planes and endemic to Hamedh. Alzar grabs food and water and then they rest for the night.

In the morning he tells Aman about the inability to figure out how the Staff works. Aman will send a message to the College to see if the students and can bring anything up with their research.

They swing by the Sandvoyagers Compound in the morning to get some information and supplies. There is a bazaar here with a variety of merchants, although probably less than normal due to the impending battle-preparations. That can shift the focus of a community.

There are a few tents here, stables, washing area, and such. There’s even a small tavern-inn for the local Sandvoyagers and their employees. Nira is here, the woman they encountered in Skarda’s Mirror. She signed on with the Sandvoyagers. She joins their table and they get caught up on various pieces of business here.

She tells them that there have been very persistent rumors that the princess was not actually taken anywhere. She’s still here in the Oasis. She’s heard that from multiple sources. She connects Alzar with a local sub-chief of the Sandvoyager Guild here. He’s been serving here for almost three years, and there have been some…changes...in some of the dervishes in the last few days. But only some. There is a second, hidden dervish compound on the outskirts of the Oasis‘s vegetation (about 1.5 miles diameter) and most of the odder behaving ones are there.

Alzar decides to check that out. As they near it, he agrees, these dervishes are a bit peculiar, their clothing is a little different, and their manner is as well. Alzar gets Tolvar to cast Invisibility on him again and he scouts out.

The compound here is just 5 tents big, and there are 13 dervishes, no one else. As Alzar inspects, he notices that there are no beds here in the compound’s tents. Where do the dervishes sleep?

He watches, and waits. Soon enough, he sees someone open a secret door in a rock, and head down.

There is something here.

Alzar uses the Star’s Gem of Seeing power and nothing is revealed under it.

He heads over to the secret door, still open, and checks it. There are steps down. Should he head down now, while Invisible, and see what he can find? Or should he grab the group, take down these dervishes, and then go down in force? He decides to scout on down…

Alzar has entered the Hidden Temple of Set

A long stairwell down is flanked by a pair of dervishes at the end and Alzar slips by them into a temple entry room, with the sign of Set on the walls. There are two ways out and Alzar heads to one with a familiar feel. A small cavern to the left of the entry room has four zombies, standing and waiting. Alzar controls them and they will follow him. They head out and attack the dervishes. Alzar wants proof, and gets it, when they try to give the zombies command words, but they fail. The dervishes die after a few rounds, and Alzar still has two zombies. He checks the bodies and finds little.

125 XP for Alzar

They continue to the next room, which is a followers purification chamber, and then a doorway. One zombie heads over to the door but several glyphs of warding discharge and kill it from fire. Alzar decides to risk it and moves through and take s10 damage from the fire, and the zombie will remain guard there.

Alzar 41/51

Alzar is in an outer temple of set with a huge stone idol of a man with a jackal’s head, and two giant red gems. It’s too high up to take right now, so h continues to a door, currently empty room, and an acolytes chamber.

There is a small chest here and a few desks. Alzar does a quick search, and uses a vial of acid on the chest. There are a quartet of smaller boxes in here that Alzar can’t deal with right now, so he grabs the small chest, made of metal, and kicks it through the doorway to the zombie – the glyphs don’t trigger for it.

(inside are magical items of various sorts, Incenses, Periapt and Phylactery)

Also next to the large temple room is a priest’s washing room and a hallway, with a wight stationed as guard, which Alzar controls. The wight will be the one moving around and such.

There is an area off the hallway that is full of the essence of evil. Alzar regenerates one hp/round here. He stays here while the Wight investigates and opens a door to a bed chamber and sanctum of a high priest of some sort –not currently here in the middle of the day. Recently used. He does a search and here is a glowing skull like thing on a chest that he absconds:

Skull of Garath – Powers only usable by evil clerics, non-evil people touching it take damage.

They pass a brazier of purple flames, and there were three skeletons in here Alzar controls and adds to his coterie.

A torture chamber passes and now a room with a golden bird-like idol that is welded to an altar and cannot be taken right now. Beside the torture chamber is a small prison area, and in here are a man who is passed out right now They continue on and find a similar room as the golden idol with but a platinum idol of a monkey.

To the south is a large garrison chamber for the sleeping of dervishes, and there are about 4 or 5 right now in the room. Alzar has his Wight come in and attack, and none of them have any magical weapons, but two try to flee and the skeletons block them off. They kill a skeleton, but the rest die.

A quick search turns up little. They continue on. They arrive at a small kitchen, and that’s the end of the temple. Actually, the wight knows about a secret door here that it opens and they continue on.

The first room beyond the secret door is full of cobwebs, and the Gem of Seeing reveals a pair of hidden spiders up above. Alzar grabs some oil from a flask and sets the webs on fire and steps out of the room. Five minutes later the spiders have died and the webs are destroyed. The webbing reveals a warning about the wrath of Set.

A corridor into another room is thick with carpets and tapestries. There is a jackal head, open, ready to bite, and a keyhole past it. Inside the room is nothing but the cloth. The Gem reveals a trap in the Jackal. Have to have the key to open things up. A skeleton reaches in with a vial of acid opened, and the acid eats the lock but the hand is destroyed on it. Ah well!

They move into the room beyond. A huge chamber throbs under the pulsing dim red light cast from the two eyes of statue right beside a 10 foot diameter pit/. It holds a large altar bowl, and the idol, with clearly magical eyes shot rays across the room. On the far side is another door. As Alzar and his undead finish entering, the doors slam shut. The eyes glow and a ring appears in the far wall and out from the ring walks a zombie, and the ring disappears. Alzar immediately controls it. After a bit it does it again, and a ghoul emerges and its controlled. Next a ghast, and then a shadow. It’s clearly getting bigger and bigger in power. Alzar and his undead move to the idol. The eyes are not that high up, so he reaches over, and as they do, a cackling voice suddenly shouts out that Alzar is about to be banished to the Plane of Pandemonium. And then….nothing. Nothing happens at all. The idol’s cackling is cut off, Alzar takes out the gems and then pockets them.

Why wasn’t he banished to another plane?

2 Gems – 2500 gp each

The doors open back up and the next room, is a another tapestry room, long since rotted with age.

There is an old star here that head sup and Alzar follows, and the Gem finds a trap. The wounded skeleton walks over and triggers it, and a bunch of spikes fly out and kill it and now they walk around the trap, since it needs to be reset.

At the top is a dark room lined with shelves and old scroll cases made of bone. A large pile of ask is in the center of the room and soot covers the walls and ceiling. Alzar has himself and the undead search the various piles of ash and shelves and they find one sealed bone scroll case that is marked…

Property of the sage Martek. Do not open. Most Secure.


And there is another gem stone here, the Star of Khan-Pelar.

Alzar secures them both. One other scroll case has a scroll in it:


Magic User – Globe of Invulnerability, Dazzle, Locate Object, Detect Invisibility


He heads back and takes a different direction from the platform up here and a door is opened by undead to reveal a room with a few smaller humanoids – goblins, all in chains and doing hard labor. They cover in fear from the undead they see. Their mouths are bound. Alzar ignores them and moves into some tunnels and beyond those are some storerooms and more chained servants. This is probably the hidden slaver’s headquarters. There’s nothing back here Alzar needs. He’s found the Gem and scroll, and he is by himself. He orders his undead escort to hide back in the library and shuts the door. He returns, takes 10 damage from the glyph of warding doorway again and then leaves.

41/51 Alzar

There are still a number of dervishes, which Alzar now knows are a splinter group of evil dervish cultists. Alzar heads back, rallies his party a huge number of dervishes and even Aman Al-Rafiq joins them, and they head back in an hour and defeat the ones here. Alzar slipped back behind their defenses, cast Dispel Magic on the Glyph, and then set up defenses, and as the dervishes outside retreat in, they run into him.

Following Alzar, they move and head into the Slaver’s area, and they will end up fighting a triad of two Shadow elves and the other heir of the Sheikh, the one that was the younger of the twins, that run the Slaver’s Guild here. After defeating those three, Alzar gives some of the money to Aman for the college, and then they have gotten a few other magical items that Aman will take. One magic user, an adjunct for the slavers, got away by using Dimension Door to get above the ground, and then fled from the Oasis before a hue and cry went up.

After setting folks free, and such, the result is quite potent.


Aman and the Sheikh Kassim Arslan are completely floored by the fact that there was a Temple of Se there, a secret sect of dervishes, a slavers guild, and a prince running them, and then on top of that is one of the Gems and a scroll case secreted away by Martek!

It’s just too much to fathom right now.

Aman agrees that the handwriting is identical and cracks open the scroll case. Inside is an ancient map, one that was edited by Martek. It includes places and areas not on modern maps. It a very important document in the hunt for the last two gems. It also includes this note:

In the City of the Phoenix did I, Martek, Archmage of the land, seal up a mighty prince of the Djinn, so that in the days ahead which I do foresee, when the Evil One is loosed, the powers that be can release the Djinn and so bring balance. The path and the way I have entrusted to the Pharaohs and their wives, and each might hold a part of the key and together know when and how to unlock the power of the Djinn in the City of the Phoenix.

Aman has never even heard of the City of the Phoenix, but it’s marked on the map on the far northern edge of the modern Sand Mire. Now they have a plan once they can find the other two gem stones. So it looks like, for now, the plan is to find the princess, check her tattoo against the medallion, and then see if they can locate the final two gems.


Alzar has gained 3500 more XP from undead, enemies, and various quests.

Everyone else split 500 each for the final battle.

Everyone got 1000 gp from the Sheikh as a reward.

Alzar has leveled up to level 7. Then he spends a few days using the Libram to gain another level and put him midway to level 9.

So basically he went from 60k XP to 112k with the book.

Normally he would have 4/3/3/2 spells at level 8, so he gets an extra of each as a Path Mage.

He rolls HP again at level 8 and get 3 on ad4.

As you might recall from the first run though, no level gives Alzar as much power as level 8. You might think level 7 (for 4th level Magic) or level 9 (for 5th) would be better than 8, but you would be very wrong.

See Alzar is a dual-class character. He was a mercenary fighter for years and years. In order to learn how to be a mage he had to set aside his fighter ways and learn as a mage. But once his experience as a Mage is better than that of a fighter, he can use both.

What this means is that Alzar gains the THAC0, saves (when better), and abilities of a 7th level fighter. Let’s take a look:

1). Alzar can attack three times every two rounds. He gets an extra attack every other round with all melee weapons
2). Alzar may use weapons, armor, and magical items that can only be used by fighters
3). Alzar has weapon mastery with a battle axe. When using it, he gets 2 attacks/round; +3/+3 to hit and damage.
4). Alzar has a double proficiency in fighting in one-handed style. When he is fighting with one hand, and not two, (such as a battle axe) he gets -2 to his AC and he may use the other hand for something like quaffing a potion or something (not an attack like throwing a rock or something).
5). Alzar owns a Girdle of Hill Giant Strength that he can now use (as a warrior). It gives him 18/00 strength when worn.

With his +2 Battle Axe, Girdle, and Weapon Mastery Bonuses, Alzar is now +8/+11 when he swings his battle axe, and he gets two attacks a turn. His THAC0 is now 14 and that gives him a 6 THAC0 for an AC0.

If you’ll recall, level 8 was when Alzar became a nasty devastating dance of death in combat. He turns into a tank of destruction because he has the full powers of a level 7 fighter and a level 8 mage. He can also use the evil-warrior/priest only Horn of Valhalla he has once/week to summon folks.