The Great Eastern Desert, the World of Hyboria
13th day of the month of Yuluk, 1279th year of the Age of Aquilonia
Dawn. Full moon, warm, clear, dry
Biblo finds it hard to pull away, to resist the long-dead language's esoteric allure. The sorcerer scholar considers an alternate translation for a key pictoglyph, and it results in ripples of new meaning cascading across the stone tapestry of the millennia. Suddenly, an unsettling undercurrent flows throughout. Instantly, metaphors and allusions are transformed, implying ancient and sinister secrets no man should know; offerings of unnameable sacrifices to indescribable gods.
"Come with me if you want to live," Arthfael tells Biblo.
Biblo looks up and finds he is alone. The libromancer blows out his candle and follows the dusky Cimmerian druid through the eerie ruins near the Sphinx (1).
They escape these stone vestiges and enter an open clearing of dunes and dust (3). Ahead, they see Loche (4), moving east with speed. They hasten to reach him and Arthfael's mighty strides don't moderate their pace to accommodate the slower gait of the scholar. Biblo is left behind in the dust of the millennia.
As the staggered trio moves east, they see blood red sunlight slowly flow down the tremendous surfaces of the pyramids, backlighting their massive forms, and then descending into the ruins, bathing everything in crimson light.
Arthfael catches up to Loche (near 5) and they suddenly see the other group ahead, in desperate straits!
Moments earlier, Garrin, Goniza, Gronda and Roan (at 2) track the footprints southeast into the lost city of the ancients. They follow a river bed that's been bone dry for thousands of years, and approach the broken remains of a long wall (5). The world turns red with the dawn and they see Arthfael and Loche coming toward them from the west, with Biblo trailing far behind (near 4).
Suddenly, from the city of the dead emerge eight living shapes!
Nothing more than silhouettes at first, backlit by the rising sun; it takes a moment for the heroes to recognize them. They are men; more survivors of the sandstorm. Most had been caravan guards, hired wolves from a half dozen outlying nations. Not exactly friendly before, they had been on the opposing side of the heated argument in those final fatal moments of the caravan's existence. Now, starvation and thirst had transformed them into a pack of ravenous jackals. Scimitars bare, hollow-eyed and haunted, they shouted:
"Look! Their wineskins are full! They have water!"
One recognized Arthfael in the distance. "There's the one that led the mutiny against Zorello the Merchant, as the sandstorm broke upon us!"
"That witch demon brought the storm's wrath upon our caravan!"
The heroes' hearts fell as they realized there was a wizard among them! Amenhotu, a Stygian sorcerer who had been on an unholy pilgrimage from the dreaming kingdom of his birth to distant Vendhya. Amenhotu commanded, "Kill them. We shall sacrifice them to the Old Gods of this Dead City, that They may spare our lives!"
"Perhaps the Old Gods have already answered our prayers, my friend," grinned Osak, a Hyrkanian nomad barbarian. "After all, we can quell our hunger with their flesh, and slake our thirst with their blood."
The tactic of ambushing with the low sun at their back would be Osak's handiwork.
The heroes know them all by varying degrees:
- Zhel, a Shemite mercenary with a sword as curved as his hook nose and blue-black beard
Shevata, a Zamoran thief, a dark skinned, dark-eyed rogue, dagger in his hand and guile in his heart
Chedaki, a Hyrkanian archer and Osak's henchman, this is the first time you've seen him off a horse
Thogg, a Cimmerian barbarian of no small strength and no great wit
Skuth, a Brythunian deserter from some defeated army
Khokegi, a silent Iranistani nomad, at home in the wastes
Actions?
Lost City Map:
- The Lost City 3.jpg (663.31 KiB) Viewed 3260 times
Battle Map:
- Red Sands.jpg (366.05 KiB) Viewed 3260 times
All black walls are impenetrable, and 13 feet tall. Broken pillars laying on the ground require a d20 Dex save to leap over.
Loche and Arthfael are 9" (90 feet) due west of the map's edge.
Biblo is 18" (180 feet) due west of the map's edge.
This area of the Lost City is so open, we'll consider it "outdoors." All spell and missile weapon ranges are multiplied by 3.[/ooc]
DM Notes:
Status:
- Arthfael Griogarach: Cimmerian Northman Druid 2: AC 6, HP 12/12, Spells: 4/4 1st lvl and 3/3 2nd lvl
Biblo Phyle: Zamoran Southman Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User 1/1/1: AC 1, HP 7/7, Spells: 4/4 1st lvl
Garrin Locke: Argosian Atlantean Paladin 1: AC 3, HP 11/11, Laying Hands: 1/1
Goniza Devin: Nemedian Atlantean Cleric/Magic-User 1/1: AC 2, HP 6/6, Spells: 4/4 1st lvl
Gronda: Zembabweian Savage Ranger/Thief 1/2: AC 7, HP 17/17
Loche: Pict Savage Thief 3: AC 5, HP 18/18
Roan, Son of Rune: Vanir Northman Barbarian 1: AC 4, HP 12/12
- Protection from Evil (Garrin): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Garrin.
