Desert of Desolation XVIII

 I haven't posted on this blog for many months. Life became very hectic after being threatened with redundancy yet again, and I applied for jobs, some of them quite far afield. I did this on a previous occasion, before I moved to England, and I was offered one in Cyprus and another in Oman, but I couldn't accept them because they were fixed-term contracts only, and with a young family I needed more security than that. So we toughed it out, and eventually things went our way and I got a permanent job in England. 

And then it went awry too. I knew this wouldn't end up in compulsory redundancy because the idiots doing the dirty did everything wrong; it was, though, clear that they wanted to get rid of as many of us as possible by making the place impossible to work. So we had a family confab and decided that I should apply for jobs overseas again, as well as in the UK. And I got one. I've been working remotely since January for a University in Abu Dhabi, but it has been full on, to put it mildly. 

The pandemic stopped me moving over there, so at least I got a bit of a breather with the family, and we had several important milestones this year - significant birthdays, our twentieth wedding anniversary, and major state school exams, all in quick succession. It looks as though I'll be physically moving quite soon, so I have worked out a way to continue with the campaign remotely; I have quite a bit of experience at that sort of thing now. Before I go, I am hoping to fill in the remainder of the party's adventures and then pick up where we left off. At least the kids are much older this time, so they should be able to cope. They understand why we're doing this.

Campaign Narrative

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

The four friends have accomplished two of six side-quests they need to finish in order to summon the Martek's Sphere of Power - they still don't what that actually is. Each quest starts on a teleport disk set into the floor of one of six side-chapels to an enormous crystal cathedral. So they shrug, and go for number three. They basically picked one and then worked round from that...

This one takes them to a different desert area. They find themselves standing in front of a large black obelisk bearing an inscription: "Touch the minaret to me and I will take you home." A useful set of instructions. The players decide to camp here until nightfall, since it will be easier for them to deal with the cold desert nights than the blazing day. They still have several uses left on their various minor elementals, but they are not regenerating the way they should, so the characters are just being sensibly cautious. This desert is particularly hot and nasty, and it doesn't have much in the way of landmarks - Destiny reckons it's probably another bubble plane, in fact.

As night falls, the stars re-arrange themselves into the visage of a woman, who asks them to come and rescue her. She was kidnapped by an evil vizier ("There's always one of those," says Bomilcar) on her wedding night, and has been held captive ever since. As the vision fades into the night, it leaves behind a discernible trail in the sky. "Looks like it's that way, then," says Marion.

As they start to follow the trail, it resolves itself into what appears like an army of spectral lancers, mounted on winged horses. They all stream in the same direction, determination etched on their shadowy faces; they also totally ignore the adventurers. Eventually, the lancers aim for the ground, land and charge a line of defensive warriors of a similar spectral appearance who are guarding a grandly carved entryway set into a rocky outcropping. 

The nearest of the defensive warriors to the party start to take on a more substantial appearance, but rather than waste any time or effort, Bomilcar simply leads a charge of their own straight through the line and into the entrance - they don't even bother to engage the defenders properly, although they do 'kill' or bowl over several of them on the way there. 

To cut a long story short, they work their way through several encounters and eventually find a woman frozen inside a crystalline pillar of some kind. She holds a silken pillow on which rests the minaret the group is looking for. So they break open her mystic prison, and she fades away into the air with a grateful look in her eyes. "How long was she in there?" asks Sir Blanque. The sounds of battle drifting into the complex from outside also cease. Time to take minaret number three back to its proper place then...