Desert of Desolation X

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 friends have followed a rather furtive looking individual to a monolith in an area of palm trees and undergrowth to the southwest of the main Oasis of the White Palm. It is now approaching midnight, and the man they saw has gone around to the other side of the monolith and disappeared after meeting a couple of friends. The group is certain there must be a concealed entrance there somewhere - they already know that the Star Gem they seek is supposed to be in a hidden Temple of the ancient god Set.

Checking that everything seems clear, the party does indeed find a concealed way into the monolith, with Marion (after doing her Shadowdance) quietly opening a cunningly concealed entrance that pivots, leading to a long stairway going straight down into the earth. The descent is lit by torches at regular intervals and there is no dust. This place is obviously seeing some regular use. Being mostly quite good at sneaking, they wait until the men who went before them have passed further onward. Their predecessors don't seem to be expecting any trouble; they speak a password at a heavy looking door at the bottom of the stairs and are then permitted access. The door closes again.

The players wait a few minutes and then proceed, repeating the passwords at the foot of the stairs. A very polite zombie opens the door and lets them in, which is just as well because they hear voices from some others who have appeared at the top of the monolith stairs. Slipping inside the large doorway before they are seen by the newcomers, the players find themselves in an obvious antechamber leading to a passage going further into the complex; there is an opening in the wall to their right, where more of the zombie servitors stand waiting. There are several sets of what are obviously cult robes on pegs, so they help themselves to one each and then duck into the alcove to hide from the next group descending the stairwell.

Battlemap of the areas beneath the oasis. There are actually three interlinked areas. The top left contains the Temple of Set itself, while the bottom portion of the map is located underneath the Sandvoyagers' compound to the south of the oasis above ground. The area to the top right has remained hidden to both groups, the cultists and the guilders, although not for much longer. The guildsmen have been digging some rough passageways that have recently broken through into the secret complex (you can see this just to the bottom centre right of the map). The long horizontal passage right in the middle contains three rather unholy alcoves, one of which conceals a long hdden entrance from the current Temple of Set into the even more ancient hidden places.

The players are hiding in the zombie alcove at the top left of the map as you look at it, waiting until the latest group of cultists passes through on their way to the south. In the distance, they hear a door open and then close off to their front left, on the other side of a large chamber to the south. This turn out to have some shallow wading pools containing various liquids, and wet footsteps lead towards the only doorway in the room, inside an alcove to their left as they proceed. They avoid the troughs, figuring they are part of some sort of initial purification ritual or something like that. 

Listening at the door, they hear typical cultist-style monotonous chanting. Rather than disturb the ceremony, however, the party waits until it seems to be finished; they hear the people inside moving off further into the complex. Once they are reasonably certain that the next chamber seems empty, they enter cautiously.

The adventurers are now in what is obviously the main temple itself, which is the room marked 6 on the map. At the northern end of the room is a gigantic statue of the old god, a man with the head of a jackal. In front of the statue is a 10' wide pit edged in a decorative stonework lip; the pit glows red from within its depths. The players move towards this to get a closer look, but it is difficult to make out any features inside the pit because of the pulsating light. Marion lowers herself on a rope and discovers a hidden passageway leading to the east about 60 down. At this point the others hear footsteps and the murmur of voices - the cultists seem to be returning, from the passageway almost directly across from their entry point to the temple. Destiny, Sir Blanque and Bomilcar swiftly follow Marion's lead and move into the hidden passageway, removing their grapple from the lip of the pit above just in time. They collectively hold their breaths, but there are no signs of pursuit and the cultists are all heard leaving by the door leading back out to the purification chamber.

The party follows the secret hallway as it slopes up rather steeply towards the east, ending with a door that they figure must be part of a trapped mechanism in the floor above them. This turns out to be a good guess as they emerge in the middle of a hallway with doors to their left, right and straight ahead. Anyone falling through the concealed trapdoor here would fall 10' into the chute below, their momentum forcing them down the sloping corridor the party has just traversed, and dumping them into the pit in front of the god's statue. Nasty.

They are now at the point marked 9 (T) on the map. However, the group has no time to worry about anything else as the door at the end of the corridor to their left swings open with a counterweight triggered by the trapdoor opening and mist belches into the hallway, quickly followed by an undead creature. Since they have completely avoided the trap in the hallways, they are quickly able to shred the thing, stuffing its remains back into the hidden guardpost from which it emerged, and closing the door to conceal any evidence of their passage. As they do so, they find a hidden doorway (that leads into room 10).

So far they have remained undetected by any cultists who might still remain, but that could be about to change. Hearing a loud scraping noise from the other end of the corridor, Marion urges her friends into the newly discovered secret room, where they wait for whoever the new arrival could be. Unaware of their presence, the high priest (for it is indeed he) enters his private bedroom only to be jumped by four powerful intruders. Sir Blanque knocks the man unconscious with a swift blow from his force shield.

While they wait for their captive to regain consciousness, they search the room. Destiny is delighted to find a small altar to Set on which sits an unpleasant looking skull covered in runes that can cause fear and animate the dead; it glows the same shade of red as the pit in the temple.

Their captive groans and returns to consciousness. Obviously fanatical, he refuses to tell them anything, until Destiny just walks over to his altar and grabs the red skull, showing her true Melnibonean appearance as she does so. This terrifies the guy, who says his name is Corga Kazan; he admits that he is the high priest of the banned cult here. The players already know that some shenanigans taking the form of a power struggle are about to explode into violence in the encampment above them soon, and reckon their new friend has something to do with it. However, they don't want him to know they know about that, not to mention the Star Gem they are looking for down here. They also want to keep him alive to present to the sheikh later, so Bomilcar uses the ensorcelled net he acquired from the devil fishmen in Shazaar to bind the guy, and Marion gags him so he can't shout for help. This whole area is sealed off by secret entrances and exits, but they are not taking any chances. Also, since he is a fanatical cultist, they are not going to leave him behind without precautions, because he would probably just kill himself rather than be handed over to justice.

Sealing Kazan in his own bedroom, the companions proceed back down the hallway to the south, emerging from a concealed doorway into another purification chamber (room 8 on the map). It contains  more cult paraphernalia in the form of bowls containing purification substances for the use of the high priest. Returning to the main temple, they realise that there are only two possibilities remaining to them in their search, both at the south end of the grand hall: a doorway leading westwards, and a long hallway to the east, which contains four more doors. They reckon this latter area will be of most interest, but are unwilling to leave any potential enemies behind them, so they crash through the west door, finding and swiftly killing two of the more senior cultists in their chamber (room 7).

They then retrace their steps towards the remaining unexplored corridor, which pulses darkly with unpleasant shadows. The group is mostly comprised of high Power individuals, and even Bomilcar shrugs off any nasty effects. They check the doors leading from the corridor in the order they encounter them, finding some more cult items and, finally, a prisoner - a man called Barus who tells them he is a member of the Sandvoyagers. He needs some magical healing because he has been tortured by the cultists who captured him. The characters keep him with them because they don't want him to blunder off into the night, alerting any cultists who might still be hanging around the place. Eventually they find a cleverly concealed hatchway, hidden behind a large pedestal on which sits a cursed cult statue. It leads to another passageway continuing eastwards, but this area is befouled with webs and deep dust. A secret area that the cultists did not know about...

Umpire's comments

The party is good at sneaking when they feel the need. They made sure that any fighting that might take place was well in their favour, and indeed only had to indulge in combat very occasionally. A good infiltration session!