Desert of Desolation II

The characters:

Sir Blanque - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person
Marion - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff
Destiny - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone
Bomilcar - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family

It's difficult to tell how these would compare to xyzd&d levels, but they are all extremely good. The only one who isn't of Master ability in his main melee weapon is Bomilcar, and even that's not by much.

The group openly approaches the ancient, but still reasonably intact, temple that stands at the foot of the enormous pyramid structure in front of them. That thing must be at least 350' high. Intriguingly, there is an exceptionally regular stone-lined canal leading to an enormous bowl-shaped depression in front of the sweeping staircases that lead up to the fore-temple itself. This bowl must the origin of the waters that originally composed what is now called the River of Sand on the other side of the Ragged Pillars, but there is no sign of any water. Sir Blanque surmises that it must have been transported here from somewhere else - perhaps it could be restored? Especially now that the tunnel through the mountains is open once again...

The huge double doors that grant access to the temple are flanked by a couple of desert guards in white robes, with scimitars and shields. The players approach openly, and Bomilcar holds up his hand in the universal gesture of greeting amongst the tribes peoples. This seems to work as the pair salute in return and then head into the temple itself, gesturing for the characters to follow.

The upshot is a meeting with the local head of the 'dervishes' who look after the temple. Fortunately, he is an educated man, and speaks a passable form of Low Melnibonean, a language he describes as the 'tongue of the learned ones.' He also teaches the group some basics of the local tongue, which he calls 'Quar'; Bomilcar in particular seems to pick it up quite easily, since it is related to Mong, the native tongue of the Weeping Wastes, and 'pande, the language of the Eastern Kingdoms. Destiny is intrigued, because there is a story among the Melniboneans of an ancient human empire in what is now the Sighing Desert, ruled from a fabled citadel called Quarzhasaat. On an earlier expedition far to the west, the players did venture into the Sighing Desert, coming across the ensorcelled remains of one of the region's towns. They are currently in the southeastern reaches of that region, the local name of which is Kwan.

Their new friend shows them various inscriptions on the temple walls, which are written in 'Old Quar'; Destiny surreptitiously makes sure that her demon of knowledge is getting all of this down pat. The dervishes are incredibly excited by the emergence of the four characters from the mountain range, repeating a saying that, 'The time is come. The time is come at last!'. According to legend and the temple writings, it has been foretold for 1,000 years that a great evil vizier of fire who was entombed shall be released, only to be vanquished by the heroes who set him free with the aid of someone called Martek. This legendary personage is supposed to have defeated the fiery prince in a great battle, and is also the one responsible for various monuments dotted about the region, including this pyramid, the resting place of the last of the 'pharaohs' of the Empire of Quarzhasaat. Bomilcar realises that Martek might be an eponymous rendering of a function, rather than a name as such. Quar (and Old Quar) are inflected languages, which means they have no definite or indefinite articles, and 'martek' means architect - the term could easily be rendered as 'The Martek'.

The legends specify that the five star gems of 'Martek' will be needed to summon his sphere of power, whatever that is - the language is very allusive, kind of like a prose poem. Destiny shows the priest the gem the group found when the fire spirit was released, and he gets very excited; it turns out they have one of the gems already. And apparently a second was buried with the pharaoh in his crypt hidden somewhere within the pyramid his people have been guarding for generations, ever since the curse of sand blighted the land and dried up the waters of the River Athis. The players think this is the same river that used to flow through the mountains to the eastern realms.

With the priest's blessings ringing in their ears, the group goes walks through the main part of the rather large fore-temple, emerging through a huge rear exit that leads to the foot of the monumental pyramid. A flight of stairs, again suitably grand, leads up around 50' to a single entrance set into the face of the pyramid. The group enters, encountering various members of the dervish clan and finding a secret entrance to a passageway sloping downwards into the depths of the pyramid. After working their way through various deserted rooms, some of which have intact traps and others which have been set off by previous interlopers, they find an ornate, but looted sarcophagus. It looks rather too suspiciously like a dead end, and the characters retrace their footsteps to an area off to the right of the main entrance, where they hear the sound of a cascading waterfall. Sure enough, a conduit from high above in the pyramid pours water into a deep cistern, and the group can just about make out a channel leading to their left under the pyramid itself. Sir Blanque has a funny feeling that the water is just going round in circles, when it would originally have been transported or teleported outside into the great bowl, so forming the headwaters of the river. He thinks the group should climb up the sluiceway to see what is up there...

Umpire's notes

One of the good things about this new-fangled interwabs thang is the availability of extra material for older campaign and modules. This is a full set of all of the locales in the campaign, scaled for tabletop use. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/241535/Desert-of-Desolation--Realistic-Maps

The assumption of the campaign module is that the players will have to fight the dervishes, who are characterised as zealous guardians of the pyramid, with an intense will to fight any intruders to the death. This seemed a bit daft to me, since I always like to give the players other options. After they made a good initial impression (helped by Bomilcar's presence - he looks reasonably similar to the locals, unlike the other members of the party), most of the initial part of the session turned into roleplaying and information gathering. Although the characters are all extremely powerful, this is Stormbringer, and even with some tweaks I made for the purposes of character survival, it is still an extremely dangerous combat system. All in all, the players much prefer interaction to dealing death, especially Sir Blanque, who is of a rather Lawful temperament. The looted tomb section of the pyramid itself seemed too obvious to be true, and this lot doesn't give up easily.