Desert of Desolation V

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

Campaign Narrative
The four heroes have just emerged onto another level inside a giant pyramid. They realise that the higher they go inside the thing, the smaller each level will become as it tapers towards the top - and, probably, the harder everything will be. Destiny quips, "It's like a reverse dungeon."

Although they don't know it, the group is now in the level called the 'Halls of the Upper Priesthood'. This is where, in times long past, an order of priests dedicated to preserving the memory of Quarzhasaat lived and died. It is, of course, going to be rather dangerous:

Map from the module. This place is large, so from my point of view it's going to be interesting to see how they cope with it.

The players have climbed up a shaft to the room at the southern extreme of the map as you look at it, room 24. This is a chapel dedicated to the last pharaoh, whose 20' tall statue dominates the place from a large alcove. It has a giant gemstone glittering in its forehead - kind of like the Star Gem they already have. Witch Sight, however, shows that it is not magical, and indeed probably valueless, so they ignore it. Sir Blanque and Destiny administer some first aid to a couple of wounded swordsmen from the group of nine they found in the level below this one. The encounter with the Minotaur and shapeshifting assassins has seriously scared them, and they are too terrified to continue. The party leaves them behind as a guard, just in case any of the other Minotaurs tries to climb up to this level.

A long passage (16) leads into the centre of this area, and the characters can hear thundering water from that direction. They take the first door on the left of this corridor, which takes them to the series of rooms towards the left of the map as you look at it. [They didn't find the two concealed doors, because they didn't look for them - they weren't expecting extra hidden exits in the very first room. In the event, it didn't matter anyway.] This leads them to the room numbered 23, which is a rather dilapidated set of monastic cells, small alcoves designed for the lesser priests. Everything is long rotted away, although a couple of useful potion bottles are acquired, contents unknown. 

The only door leads to an L-shaped corridor, and they proceed into a long, narrow chamber (marked 18), which contains a couple of empty sarcophagi. This room leads in turn to an octagonal chamber, from which the sound of fighting can be heard. They cave in the door and find a woman beset by eight ghouls. She is screaming at them in the name of Ainu, the One God of the locals, and is obviously some sort of holy warrior. Even she won't be able to withstand eight of the things, though, so the adventurers join in and help her clean up.

She then relates her story. "I was tasked with entering this holy place by my superiors. We used to have priests who staffed the pyramid centuries ago, but over time it has fallen by the wayside, and has become infested with creatures such as these. I entered by means of a secret known to my order, a giant offering bowl held by a statue of the last pharaoh in an entry chapel below. I then found myself in a strange area of orange mists, but my faith protected me from whatever those were. Eventually, I came across a chamber containing a large nest. Presumably this belonged to some foul guardians, but they were not present. I was able to use my grapple to catch the latch of a trapdoor in a sort of chimney that led up to a chapel, and then proceeded from there. Before meeting these things, I was confronted by a man who looks like one of our high priests. He laughed at me and blasphemed, so I thrust him through with my sword. He just stood there and took, then walked off deeper into the pyramid. I have fine weapon, but it is no use against sorcery. I think he is part of the curse upon this place. I thank you for my rescue."

This lassie is tough, but she is probably outmatched in this place; besides, the players are actually here to loot the pyramid of its prized Star Gem, and they aren't sure what her response would be to this. Eventually, Sir Blanque says, "You arrived here the same way we did, but you were fortunate to avoid the guardians below - a group of bull-headed men. We only had to fight one of them, but our party plus some others we found in the orange mists managed to escape upwards before more of those creatures arrived. Some of them are hurt, and it would do them good if you could help minister to them. You can also lead them in glorious battle against any demons that try to come up to this level." Destiny joins in, "We have been given the honourable mission of raising the curse on this place, and restoring the waters." The paladin's eyes light up: "The glorious waters of the River Athis! That is a worthy quest. I shall do as you ask and protect us all from the creatures below." She heads off to join the men left behind in the chapel.

Marion is pleased - "That gets rid of that liability," she says. Marion doesn't like holier than thou types, while Destiny finds them positively irritating. "It sounds as though one of the higher-ups is still alive - smacks of necromancy," she says. The others nod in agreement.

The group then emerges into a corridor that ends in three odd-looking separate chambers:

Battlemap showing how much they have discovered by this point.

Each of these domed rooms contains a shaft looking down into the level below, the one that contained the nasty mists. These are at the leftmost (western) extremity of the pyramid, a part of the labyrinth level they didn't explore earlier. Each room below is obviously some kind of trap, some of which have been tripped, with rather gruesome consequences. [The players have no way of knowing this, but these are observation domes from where the priests could keep an eye on the complex of traps below; the lip around the edge on this level is pretty invisible to anyone on the floor below. The priests used to re-set the traps after they were triggered.] 

They retrace their steps, methodically checking the complex as they move back towards the sound of rushing water. Room 17 is another lot of empty priest cells. This area seems to have been living quarters, then; 12 is a communal kitchen, and 13 is a food store. Eventually they emerge into the octagonal chamber marked 5 on the map. This large room is domed, with an ornately carved gigantic lion's head fountain most of the way up the southern wall, from which pours the water they now know as the River Athis. They can make out a passageway above, which presumably leads to the next level up in the pyramid. The domed room also contains two lush palm trees and a couple of altars. 

The waters land in a deep channel and continue northwards through a garden area (room 4), then into a sluice-way of rather familiar construction - it pours down into the lower depths of the pyramid, and was in fact the way they used to come up to the labyrinth of orange mists in the first place. The party ignores this and concentrates on the altars. There are words in Quar engraved on them, and after some trial and error the players work out that they are command words. One combination creates an anti-gravity field that stops the waters temporarily and lifts them up to the entryway to the next level.

Umpire's Notes

This was another example of the party's single-mindedness. They ignored a large part of this level in their determination to move upwards, which saved them from some rather unpleasant undead, albeit perhaps at the cost of missing out on some treasure. This approach is something they have discussed before; they took the decision early on in their careers to get the job done quickly, rather than being distracted. It does have its advantages.

Oh, and by the way, if anyone who knows the module realises that the sluice-way actually comes up in a different location in the level with the orange mists, I changed it so that they could meet the sphinx. I wanted to impart some campaign information to them...