AL 71 - Scrumptious Desert

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 ### Characters

 Grimkel Cragwalker, Uroroth Crenxith, Enya Leathergloves, Varys, Elilan Shenanigans and Klotar Ange`deVita

 ### Locations

 Thunderdome

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## It all started with a brand new Dragonkin

We were back at home base gossiping with Velma, discussing where to go, finally deciding to return to the cave behind the waterfall, when who should show up but a strange lizard we had never seen before, but we knew instantly to be Uroroth. Apparently, he had been wandering around without memories. And now he's baaaaaack!

After appropriate but brief pleasantries, I donned my goggles, and declared 'OPEN SESAME.' The eye blinked. I pleaded a bit. The wall opposite dissolved, slowly, darkly, and a cool dank air arose to meet us.
Grimkel stepped through, inadvertantly, hahahhHA the unwitting victim.
We reached the same path upward that we saw the last time we were out this way.

We crossed the bridge, walking about a two hours or so, when we see the green orb under the iron structure, which \*this\* time, did not cast shadows.

Uroroth reaches out and touches the green orb.
Then he picks it up, while we craned our necks here and there fully anticipating beings to emerge out of thin ether.
Eventually we flip a coin and decide to go south. Uroroth leads the way.
The path lights up. There are no flowers. This path, unlike the path to the west or east is more crooked and creepy.
Path is still made of the crystalline material, and takes forever to traverse.
After an hour or two of walking, the path descends down into the mist.
Grimkel detects an angry wind and prevented Uroroth from taking a step too far.

An furiously whirling dervish swirled ahead of us

We combat valiantly against the winds dealing psychic damage.

I cast and slice to no avail. I am falling.

Falling.

Falling....

Wait for it...

Loading...

<After falling through the mists for a while, you land on a sun-baked dune of sand. Surprisingly, the impact is no worse than jumping off a platform of modest height - 0 points of damage (though your readied spell has still been used)>

Having noted Uroroth similarly falling, I shook leg in the direction of a loud thud. We met somewhere in the desert and decided to make our way to the mirages that I noted upon my first abrupt meeting with the ground. Hopefully once we get to where I fell Uroroth also sees them and they aren't just a figment of my imagination.

Prior to arrival at the mirage, that is actually a city, I cast invisibility on my fellow traveler and myself. We find little other than the rest of our party. Uroroth amuses himself by toying with the dwarf, tugging on his beard and chuckling, while I can nary help myself from tying Enya's shoestrings together in a knot.

After observing the effects of my handiwork, I go off and look around the ruins.
I find a tall, ornate building with engraved figures and bas relief.
I dig a hole and squeeze through.

There is a round chamber, palace like, very ornate and opulent.
I went back to get the others and we rest briefly in the palace.

After our rest, we look around the round room, note that it is covered in a thick layer of dust and walled by faded frescos. There is a sealed door on one side of the chamber.

In the center is a circular stone. Standing on the stone we look up to see a sandstone piece similar to the sandstone wall that the party found at the ruins. Around the piece are 6 figures around the outside - hunter, archer, reptile with fire, reptile with clouds, spider waving and a serpent, also similar to the ruins.

The notable difference was in the details. The reptile with fire had fireworks instead. The archer's silver arrow was real silver. The hunter looks woodelven. The eyes of the mist reptile were opaline making them look slightly blind, and finally, the spider somehow looks venomous.
In the center of the chamber a stone tablet about 3 meters across looked like a different type of stone than the rest of the building.
Carved with fantastical creatures one would find in the desert - birds, reptiles, sphinx, a sun being. On the outer ring was a pattern of diamond shapes that we knew to be numbers, though what numbers they were we were not certain.
They repeated 12 times around.

Grimkel and the others were hard at work translating the inscriptions they had recorded from earlier. One of the inscriptions seemed to be some sort of security manual. Another spoke of wine hidden behind runes and protected by golems that would activate should an intruder attempt to steal the wine.

The tiles leading up to the stone looked newer than the others beside - as though someone had cut a line through and repaired it afterwards. At the end of the seam appeared a possible secret door. It was unopenable.
We went back and tried the obvious door that was not secret, all piling on. We got it to open enough that we were able to squeeze one at a time through the corridor. Facing the stairs were two chairs of wood and velvet gilded with gold.
32 stairs, we counted!
We reached a door, shrunken and shrivelled wood, that gave easily.
It led to another dusty room with amphoras of dried up shrivelled ex-plants.

Lighting torches, we go through the northerly door. An elven profile appeared on a stained glass.
We attempted to go through. The door appeared solid, but Uroroth kicked it down.
We went through and were confronted by MOAR stairs.
These stairs were steeper. We climbed up and found a pedastal with more diamond
diamonds.

We entered the code from the diamond pattern upstairs. We got an 'error' message. Then we entered the code from the ruins. It displayed a green button with the word 'Activate'
The dwarf pushed it. Something flashed across and the pedestal started to sink and the sound of rushing water from the next room could be heard.
The message had turned to 'Deactivate,' so the dwarf pushed it again and it stopped everything. We exited and headed back in the direction of the stairs. A wimpy glacier of sludge slowly seeped in our direction. Headed back to the stained glass and found the wall wet. I rushed back, casting a quick comprehend languages, and entered the key in, yelled 'My turn! I push the button now!!'
The water did seep down toward the party but no danger of note.

"Establishing connection to Mythinar, connection successful" declared the message that flashed across.

We came back down, and after a brief lightbulb moment we realized the diamond patterns were coordinates and that this would allow us to commuincate or somehow connect. From the message, it would appear that the ruins were... Mythinar??? This will have to be investigated further at a later time.

The party was through the side door in the room that had 3 doors where we had previously gone north (right/up). The door that opened out into a more spacious area. There was a seam in the center.
At the end was a dry fountain with a statue. There were cobwebs and spiders. The inscription at the base of the dry fountain says "The glory of the house of Ilo"
Paintings and frescos galore around but no language to tell us more.

The fountain statue was a man with weapon who was obviously the hero of Ilo (Mad Max ?). Further in was a statue to Trudor, the wizard Wizard had a wand. Continuing on there was a door leading behind Trudor's statue.
A room with a carpet, giant box with gold detailing - BLING!
This thing looked openable
None of us detected any traps. We opened the box. Inside was a mummy
Even mummified, the hair is so elven that it's evident this is the elf in the fresco.
I reached in and took the ebony wand that was humming with power, no doubt it would amplify everything cast with it in hand.
The mummy started to stir so Grimkel threw a fire bolt in and ran away.
Varys ran past the dwarf.

Klo didn't quite clear the door, Uroroth and Enya exited the room, I ran past two rooms.
The mummy got up, Klo was the only one left, the mummy cast a paralysis spell at him, he shrugged it off but will have to get past
Grimkel hurls fire at the Mummy
Then runs away into the hallways past me
Varys does the same
Klo slows it down with Channel Divinity, then books it.
Uroroth slams the door and runs along
Enya and Eli Run away too
Mummy follows and utters another spell
Everyone is enveloped with insects
Klo enters the room just in time to spot 3 skeles in the corners of the room
I tried to run out, they killed me. Then they took my wand :disappointed:

The rest is a bit of a haze - i'm not sure what happened aside from losing my first death save

Eventually Grimkel healed me, I healed Klo, we all managed to escape with our lives and the glasses but lost the wand.

There is much to discuss of what we have learned here today.

**Starring:** Grimkel Cragwalker, Uroroth Crenxith, Enya Leathergloves, Varys, Elilan Shenanigans and Klotar Ange`deVita **Locations Visited:** Thunderdome

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