Game Summary Write-Up (Aug 13)

The group waits a few more days for their compatriots, as they hope will find their way back to town. At the same they realize many other adventuring teams are returning into the spire; some large contingents, with powerful steeds or walking golem-horses. They all seem to find a home for a few days, some of the smallest in an alleyway, hotel or tavern. Large military units, many with hundreds of volunteers that spend most of their days on the back roads, set up camps just outside the town.

Each of the units seem to designate a few of their members to go to the Fountain, some to sing or make a silent prayer or just stand in honoring someone who once walked. These units, drop something, coins, alcohol or other momento to represent something to their units. If you were to watch here just that early morning, one would be tricked that the offerings would drown the water even if for a few seconds. The water subsides and as it does the piles of coins sink low, so too with the men, as they did what they must and moved on.

Most of the party watches the goings on. None realized the mass of travelers and professional warriors that would be here...the sleepy spire town wasn't just alone here in the desert, though it felt like it earlier on in the week. Each party member did as they always did; the psionicist in meditation, the rogue skulking to watch over her party, the paladin with an eye on the fountain and speaking with youth, Galdahad in flight among her avian kin, Maza the Halfling ranger with a small group of city beasts and Arun, retreated to the Sphinx library, with another burning research subject in his mind.

Arlel with her small contingent made the first steps back in to town long before she had originally planned, hoping that her friends truly did make it here. The sight of the Phaetox flying high in the marketplace was a relief, she was always the first and easiest to spot. They connect, and bring together the rest of the team. Dassadar walks slowly over, making no attempt to hide his detect evil casting on Arlel and the rest of her group, and finding no hint of malice. The young cleric certainly recognizes his actions but says nothing, as a swarm of introductions to old and new comrades commence.

One of Arlel's newest allies is the tall, high pitched voiced, incredibly well dressed figure with an effusively charismatic personality, carrying many musical instruments at his beck and even more surprisingly an actual halo on his shining round his angelic head. Zelos tells them they have much to discuss, not just in one mission but one of their colleagues, Arun who is cursed or quite possibly his primary bond is not what it seems to be.

They go straightaway to Arlel's apartment to lay down the known details. They are all a little surprised, the rooms are clean, except for her two mirrors, completely splinterered. Unsure of what this means, they search the rooms and area before they continue sharing information.

Arlel elaborates on what she found not just in the library but in the streets and taverns, legends of powerful items hidden in the pyramids. The local tales speak in particular of an elaborate sarcopogus built for a Raja, able to rebuild & restore both people and objects, if they are adored. Her research shows its most likely resting spot, undisturbed because each team was unclear on its final location. She believes this group, is strong enough to return this artifact to civilization. The fountain portal will lead them there, but the gateway she opened will only last another six hours or they need to find another way back to the pyramid.

So too, Zelos bears legends, but not of an item lost in the sands, but of grief. A genie or otherworldly demon he believes was inadvertently summoned and leaving a wake of destruction. He explains that while Arun summons the memory of a warrior it is another being that is coming through, and he is not the only one who reaches into the midst. Others, far nefarious, are using Gorth for their own darker purposes, and theirs is a trail of blood, murder of heroes in their sleep or younglings in their home, he didn't meet their kin, he didn't need to. The story is the one that Zelos is determined to stop.

The group wonders if it is Gorth which was why their teleport did not enable them to go to the Duo-Diyalla Pyramid. Dassadar expresses some incredulity at Zelos's story, but Zelos begins telling a story of his incredible exploits, the team loses the effort to argue with him. Convincing them but at the same time Zelos believes he best not try their patience or trust too often; Dassadar especially (DM's hint: spells or other tricks on other party members work in moderation, at a certain point PCs will gain immunity.)

They concoct a loose plan of trying to get their friend to summon his servant though not capturing him in a way that could limit him until they determine how exactly they can fully deal with him. Wanting to meet Arun outside of town, they call him, but the scholars in the library reveal he is no longer around. The group does a search they find no sign, and nobody remember where he exactly went to. They find the old lore books he was studying, stories told of great past rogues and scoundrels who went on both desert and Sea of Stones quests. The last book he was reading, left open to the picture of "Raibasghi" a well known desert scoundrel long renowned for coming back from the desert wastes with treasure and magical trinkets; this was one of Arlel's heroes she was delving into. The party wonders if Arun left to go hunting, or, if somehow Gorth was able to take control. They rush out out to look for their ally.

Using his mind-scanning, Hervandos is able to track down Arun, finding him in a tavern, surrounded by dangerous looking rogues. He decides not to reveal their preys location to his comrades as he doesn't want them to be sidetracked as they came to the desert to complete the mission and prefers not to lose the quick way to the pyramids.

Realizing their wasted efforts, the heroes refocus on their original mission, scoping the dungeon & retrieving the sarcopogus. Zelos is torn though, committed to both completing this task and of stopping the killer Gorth, he wonders if he is doing the best thing.

At the fountain, Arlel speaks her command word and they step into the water, then through... into a huge stone room, high ceilings, and the first site of Arlel's volunteers struggling to close an outside door where a huge sandstorm rages. Each steps out into this large rectory, the fountain they emerge from though grandiose in size is far from its peak, as it has seen deterioration and even worse, barely a trickle of water inside the grand central fountain.

As Fesselin the rogue and Maza the druid step past each is given a momentary flash, Fessy works up a defense, as she tries to concentrate in her home and many positive thoughts. Maza fails and is shocked by memories but not her own, of an eerily positive flashes of many people here in this building in another era. The haunting images cascade imaged laughing, playing in the midst of a bygone era when humans, dwarves, Tenders and even elves are in this same place, filled with water, pets,and plants. Lasting a few seconds, Maza regains control of herself...she shares with the rest of the party, unsure of what really happened. Arlel admits none of her soldiers experienced this previously but again this was two Tenderfeet, she wonders if this could be a specific trap.

The group sees the many small statues and frescoes littered in the upper sections of the room, mementos of religious and standard pilgrims. They could tell it was once an eight door church rectory, but now only the main twenty foot tall master-door was in use. A domed roof shows a wondrous scene of angels, devils and aqua dragons flying in a cloudy sky, other details less conspicuous are lost in the dust from far below on the vantage point on the ground.

A kilometer each way, two opposing pyramid complexes reign tall, one to the left the Pyramid of Darkness; Pyramid of Righteousness to the right, Arlel's team discovered with the help of Zelos, three hidden passageways hidden under the sands. Two reach out in the direction of the Pyramids and the last one opposite the entrance doorway. Over the last five days they excavated, and found the entranceways riddled with writings that warn of unauthorized entry and curses for theft. The dark pyramid entrance brings shudders of cold, pain & misery; the one of righteousness brings happy near bucolic thoughts even to the point of mindless euphoria, both are avoided by the soldiers.

They light their torches, choose lots and enter the passageway...