Desert of Desolation VI

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 party has done well up to this point; they feel they are approaching the pinnacle of the pyramid. However, they also know from the holy warrior they met on the level below that there is a corrupted high priest up here somewhere, and he seems to be immune to weapons.

On the left you can see the area where the characters now find themselves - the real tomb of the pharaoh is one level further up, and although they don't yet know this, they have guessed they're getting close. I still don't know why this level is called 'the Gauntlet'...

The party has emerged onto a ledge at the top end of the map as you look at it, in room 1, after levitating up from a large chamber containing palm trees and altars below this. There is a single door, so they take it. [Again, they didn't suss the concealed exit - and again, this was because they weren't expecting one in the first camber.]

They now find themselves in a Y-shaped corridor ending in two separate doors. Taking the one to their front right, they emerge into a strange hallway. This place is absolutely enormous and is brightly lit by some form of magical illumination; this will incidentally rule out Marion's shadow abilities. Flights of stairs lead up through a series of ascending landings, culminating in a large alcove. At this topmost location stands a man in robes, gesticulating in a rather obscene manner. He is accompanied by what can only be described as a giant fist, presumably some sort of construct; it is easily big enough to squash someone. He also has the Obligatory Mad High Priest's Unfeasibly Large and Superfluous Throne (TM). The players can't hear his insults because crashing down on either side of the stairways are the waters of the River Athis, presumably cascading from a location above and beyond the weirdo and his pet fist. Time to attack, then. Boss fight!

However, there is more to this room than meets the eye - this high priest ain't daft. As the party advances, they are flanked by two more summoned guardians at the same time as the high heid yin starts chanting spells of some kind. Bomilcar and Sir Blanque engage these while Destiny and Marion start moving up the stairs towards the high priest. The two creatures are easily despatched by Sir Blanque with his force shield, while Destiny uses her water elementals to negate a fire wall that appears in front of herself and Marion; the high priest is obviously incensed by this development. 

The group re-unites and continues upwards. They are now met by four new creatures conjured into existence by their main foe; these are duplicate images of the players, albeit without all of the magical accoutrements. The big bad guy also sends his pet fist to join in the general mayhem. This fight is brutal, but the characters get the better of their various doubles. The construct, though, dishes out a large amount of damage to Sir Blanque, knocking him out of the fight. Fortunately for him, he doesn't go flying into the cascade, and Bomilcar intervenes just before the giant first thing squishes his comrade. The Weeping Waste warrior scores a superb critical that opens up the construct down most of its side, and out gushes magical mud for blood. The thing staggers and a second blow finishes it.

Marion and Bomilcar go for the priest while Destiny tends quickly to their fallen comrade with magical help. Even Marion's demon dagger just slices through the guy without hurting him, but at least they are keeping him occupied. Sir Blanque recovers and has a quick confab with Destiny; using her Witch Sight, the latter has spotted a wisp of ectoplasm leading out through the double doors they can now see at the top of this enormous room - presumably his soul is somewhere on the other side.

Ignoring the man himself, Sir Blanque and Destiny crash through the doors and take a left through a series of opulent living chambers, following the ectoplasmic umbilical cord. They find a crudely carved passage that eventually takes them to a hidden chamber (number 11 on the map), where a large guardian construct in the rough shape of a man is guarding a rather innocuous-looking glass jar. It contains a beating heart. Destiny engages the golem thing with elementals but Sir Blanque ignores it, leaping past and shattering the jar with his Lawful Sternbrow sword. A second blow destroys the heart; in the other room, Marion and Bomilcar see the high priest suddenly collapse, stone dead. The guardian facing Destiny disintegrates at the same moment.

The other octagonal rooms on this level contain nothing of interest; the whole area after the double doors from the main hall of the waters is basically a rather grand suite of rooms for the comfort of the now deceased priest. Room 4, though, contains a column of waters rushing down from the ceiling above - Destiny and Sir Blanque ignored this on their way past to find the priest's heart. From here, the Athis flows down into the large hall where they fought all those strange things. When Sir Blanque puts his hand in the water, it flows back up towards the ceiling, taking him with it. He shouts for the others to follow.

They are now in the Tomb of Pharaoh Amun-Re, last ruler of the human empire of Quarzhasaat. A large antechamber consists of two long alcoves, one to the left of the characters and one to their right. As they step out of the Well of Athis, the waters resume their downwards course. Sir Blanque's original guess about the river originating from the plane of water is correct; presumably it has been going round in circles inside the pyramid for over a thousand years, and they have now found the source. The alcove to their left contains a 30' long reed boat, which contains canopic jars and large amphorae full of treasure in the form of small gold coins. Nice. At the front of the boat is a large indentation that looks exactly the right size to take a Star Gem.

The alcove to their right contains nothing, but the wall is covered with an incredibly lifelike painting of another reed boat, floating in clouds in the sky. And there is an actual breeze coming from there. Destiny realises this is a gateway to a point high in the sky above the pyramid, so she asks the others to help her drag the inside boat over to the picture window, after looting the contents, of course. The columns here are designed to be collapsible for exactly this purpose. These boats are light enough to be carried by a small number of people.She then inserts the Star Gem they first found when they loosed the Efreet Prince on the world, and the boat begins to float. The party pushes it out through the window and flies over to grab the other boat; it contains the second Star Gem, which is powering it to hold it in place. They tow that one back to the top of the pyramid (!) and moor them both in place. Various people can be seen on the ground, gesticulating in amazement as they stare up at the sky.

That done, they now turn their attention to the rather grand bronze-faced double doors they are sure lead into the pharaoh's last resting place. This is correct. The burial chamber contains an enormous, beautiful sarcophagus on which rests the last pharaoh's staff of office. Sir Blanque takes it, and they all find themselves teleported into the giant basin in the ground before the front temple to the pyramid. The staff shatters and the waters begin to bubble up into the basin and then the canal towards the mountains; the circuit has been restored. At that moment, Witch Sight denotes the expulsion of various creatures and other things from the pyramid into the clear sky, where they dissolve. It looks as the curse on the pyramid has indeed been broken, and in rather spectacular fashion.

Umpire's Notes

The main fight in the hall of the waters could have been even nastier. The players didn't know it, but their initial two opponents were particularly dangerous. Not so much because of their offensive capabilities, but because of their defence. They are actually constructed from magical mud - the high priest had a thing about that - and are immune to piercing weapons. If they are destroyed by slashing weapons, they dissolve into goo and then spawn duplicates, and these are exactly the sorts of weapons the characters are carrying. Fortunately for them, though, Sir Blangue employed his usual tactic of bashing with his force shield while also swinging his Virtuous broadsword. Even so, he ended up lying in front of the pet fist after a fumbled defence against a critical hit, exactly the sort of combination that can be fatal in Stormbringer - this is the reason the players try to avoid combat if at all possible. Even though they are individually very powerful, eventually the odds will prevail. Bomilcar saved his unconscious friend's life with a critical hit of his own - and rolled maximum damage. This was all appropriately heroic.