Desert of Desolation XI
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 characters have entered a previously unknown section of the complex underneath the Oasis of the White Palm in their search for the third of five Star Gems. Along with a guildsman they rescued from the cult, they are currently right in the middle of the map as you look at it, after having discovered a particularly well hidden doorway behind an evil altar with a monkey statue on it (11d):
They go to their left, eventually emerging into the hidden temple of Set (14), an area unknown even to the cultists:
There is no Star Gem here, but there is a really nasty statue of the ancient deity, with a glowing pit in front of it. The layout is identical to the cult temple the characters have already been through earlier, but this time Destiny is able to tell that the pit is a gateway to another plane. Her guess is proven correct when some zombies clamber out and attack. The group deals with these swiftly, dismembering the things. More noises of climbing can be heard from the pit, so the characters decide that since they don't really need to stay here, they won't.
Heading back to the intersection, they explore another door to their front left that leads into an empty room (15); they get the sense that anything down here is going to be either empty, dilapidated, or both. The only things that can realistically be found will be traps or more undead, because this place looks as though it has been devoid of life for a very long time.
Marion, however, spots a concealed doorway next to the entrance to the latest empty room, and they follow the corridor beyond there. It leads to their left, where there is an an enormously long staircase leading down into the earth to an archway in the distance. Half way along, there is a cavernous area with what looks like a deep pit that emits some nasty looking smoky tendrils; sounds of undead wailing can be heard from the pit (16).
Bomilcar and Marion spot an unevenness in the flagstones as the group approaches the pit, so Destiny uses an earth elemental to support the passageway, allowing the party to cross unharmed. They go down the rest of the stairs, finding themselves in the charred remains of what used to be a library. In the midst of the ash is the Star Gem, along with a preserved scroll case that contains a clue to a place called Phoenix, where Martek has placed a powerful Djinn to help occupy the nasty fire lord Khalitharius at bay while the heroes of the future (i.e. the party) finds out how to destroy him for good.
Since there is still an unexplored area, the party decides to see where that leads, instead of simply retracing their steps through the temple. They will still need to return that way at one point to pick up the high priest they captured earlier, but they want to know what else lies beneath the oasis.
Going back to the south, they arrive in the final room of the hidden part of the complex (18), where they find some exhausted miners sleeping in a heap - guildsmen who have broken through from the cellars underneath the Sandvoyagers' Compound in the oasis above. Fortunately, the man the characters saved earlier, Barus, is the missing head of the guild, and he smooths things over with the miners. They move through the recently dug tunnels to a storeroom with a ladder to a trapdoor leading up into the guildhouse proper. Barus thanks the party and takes his leave of them, heading back up to his domain.
The party returns the way they came. They grab the high priest and move through the temple, retreating to the surface the way they came in, a long stairwell leading from a monolith in the oasis. They immediately take their prisoner Corga the priest to the Sheikh, and he calls a council. The atmosphere is tense, with the fanatical cultist refusing to divulge any information, even when threatened with torture. This makes Sir Blanque very uncomfortable, but Destiny breaks the impasse: "Tell us everything you know about the plans to overthrow the Sheikh, or I will sacrifice your soul to a demon. I have a particularly useful one in mind." The priest of Ainu the one god shrieks; he took an immediate dislike to Destiny upon her arrival, and this statement just confirms his suspicions. She turns and smiles.
Being a high priest, and well aware of what this would mean, Corga breaks and bargains for a clean death. He betrays the younger of the Sheikh's twin sons, and the two are taken outside for justice, which seems to start with being staked out on the sand. It looks as though it is going to take them a while to die...
Umpire's comments
As usual, the players were extremely focused on the task to hand. The result was that they did not fully explore the cellars beneath the Sandvoyagers' Guild, so they missed out on another subplot to do with tensions in the guild plus some Dharzi interference. In the grand scheme of things, though, this didn't matter very much.
I have noted this before, but I don't feel the need to force every single detail of an adventure on the players, even if this leads to situations where up to 90% of an individual module isn't used. I have more than enough material, and of course sometimes this is compensated by way of intense roleplaying interaction with elements I couldn't foresee would grab their attention, which can happen quite a lot of the time. I'll probably make a blog post about using modules the way I do, especially since they are mostly for iterations of D&D and this is a Stormbringer campaign., but I'll wait until I've finished this series first.
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 characters have entered a previously unknown section of the complex underneath the Oasis of the White Palm in their search for the third of five Star Gems. Along with a guildsman they rescued from the cult, they are currently right in the middle of the map as you look at it, after having discovered a particularly well hidden doorway behind an evil altar with a monkey statue on it (11d):
They go to their left, eventually emerging into the hidden temple of Set (14), an area unknown even to the cultists:
There is no Star Gem here, but there is a really nasty statue of the ancient deity, with a glowing pit in front of it. The layout is identical to the cult temple the characters have already been through earlier, but this time Destiny is able to tell that the pit is a gateway to another plane. Her guess is proven correct when some zombies clamber out and attack. The group deals with these swiftly, dismembering the things. More noises of climbing can be heard from the pit, so the characters decide that since they don't really need to stay here, they won't.
Heading back to the intersection, they explore another door to their front left that leads into an empty room (15); they get the sense that anything down here is going to be either empty, dilapidated, or both. The only things that can realistically be found will be traps or more undead, because this place looks as though it has been devoid of life for a very long time.
Marion, however, spots a concealed doorway next to the entrance to the latest empty room, and they follow the corridor beyond there. It leads to their left, where there is an an enormously long staircase leading down into the earth to an archway in the distance. Half way along, there is a cavernous area with what looks like a deep pit that emits some nasty looking smoky tendrils; sounds of undead wailing can be heard from the pit (16).
Bomilcar and Marion spot an unevenness in the flagstones as the group approaches the pit, so Destiny uses an earth elemental to support the passageway, allowing the party to cross unharmed. They go down the rest of the stairs, finding themselves in the charred remains of what used to be a library. In the midst of the ash is the Star Gem, along with a preserved scroll case that contains a clue to a place called Phoenix, where Martek has placed a powerful Djinn to help occupy the nasty fire lord Khalitharius at bay while the heroes of the future (i.e. the party) finds out how to destroy him for good.
Since there is still an unexplored area, the party decides to see where that leads, instead of simply retracing their steps through the temple. They will still need to return that way at one point to pick up the high priest they captured earlier, but they want to know what else lies beneath the oasis.
Going back to the south, they arrive in the final room of the hidden part of the complex (18), where they find some exhausted miners sleeping in a heap - guildsmen who have broken through from the cellars underneath the Sandvoyagers' Compound in the oasis above. Fortunately, the man the characters saved earlier, Barus, is the missing head of the guild, and he smooths things over with the miners. They move through the recently dug tunnels to a storeroom with a ladder to a trapdoor leading up into the guildhouse proper. Barus thanks the party and takes his leave of them, heading back up to his domain.
The party returns the way they came. They grab the high priest and move through the temple, retreating to the surface the way they came in, a long stairwell leading from a monolith in the oasis. They immediately take their prisoner Corga the priest to the Sheikh, and he calls a council. The atmosphere is tense, with the fanatical cultist refusing to divulge any information, even when threatened with torture. This makes Sir Blanque very uncomfortable, but Destiny breaks the impasse: "Tell us everything you know about the plans to overthrow the Sheikh, or I will sacrifice your soul to a demon. I have a particularly useful one in mind." The priest of Ainu the one god shrieks; he took an immediate dislike to Destiny upon her arrival, and this statement just confirms his suspicions. She turns and smiles.
Being a high priest, and well aware of what this would mean, Corga breaks and bargains for a clean death. He betrays the younger of the Sheikh's twin sons, and the two are taken outside for justice, which seems to start with being staked out on the sand. It looks as though it is going to take them a while to die...
Umpire's comments
As usual, the players were extremely focused on the task to hand. The result was that they did not fully explore the cellars beneath the Sandvoyagers' Guild, so they missed out on another subplot to do with tensions in the guild plus some Dharzi interference. In the grand scheme of things, though, this didn't matter very much.
I have noted this before, but I don't feel the need to force every single detail of an adventure on the players, even if this leads to situations where up to 90% of an individual module isn't used. I have more than enough material, and of course sometimes this is compensated by way of intense roleplaying interaction with elements I couldn't foresee would grab their attention, which can happen quite a lot of the time. I'll probably make a blog post about using modules the way I do, especially since they are mostly for iterations of D&D and this is a Stormbringer campaign., but I'll wait until I've finished this series first.
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