Company+of+the+Phoenix+Session+17

 **12-23-2017**  **The Ruined City of Sand People and The Dark Crevasse Within**

The companions continued through the desert wastes, tracking the party that had escaped them. Alix led the way, skillfully finding bits of cloth to track them. Charlemagne carefully kept his flaming elven sword hidden, carrying a plain sword wrapped in oiled rags that were lit for a torch as the sun fell. Stopping to camp, Tiri and Nalen took first watch, and Alaric and Rhain took second watch with no disturbances.

On the third watch with Charlemagne and Karlissa, a loud ripping of reality woke everyone as it spilled daylight above them where a rent in the night sky showed a sun lighting up a beautiful verdant forest! Three meteors fell from the rift before it closed again to a night sky. Two of them landed in the distant north, but one of them was streaming much closer to them. It impacted the ground a dune over from them, kicking a ring of sand upward.

"Maybe it's a dragon egg!" Alix shouted excitedly, "Mine!" The others raised an eyebrow at him, and moved to cautiously explore the fallen item. In the crater on the other side of the dune, they found a blackened skeletal figure still arcing some blue electricity. The arcs stopped, and a bright white light washed outward and over the companions. The light danced on the elongated eight-pointed star that rested on Tiri's forehead. "It seems divine," Tiri moved down ahead of the others to look it over. The blackened skeleton was winged, curled onto it'self, wrapping around a blade to protect it. The young priestess laid a comforting hand on the fallen angel, and carefully pulled the blade from it's hands as the skeleton slowly fell to ash. The longsword was definitely elven made with beautiful filigree runes along the shaft. It was exquisite and definitely old. Drawn by the interesting weapon, the others followed her down.

"She was female," Tiri nodded to the others, "Some sort of war in the heavens?" She glanced back up to the sky with worry. Nalen knelt beside her, nodding to her, "I've heard of a war going on in the heavens." A cold shiver washed over her as she blinked back tears. A war in the heavens? Her thoughts rushed immediately to her god with worry. She pulled her book of Corellion from her pack, saying a prayer over the ashes of the angel, and light danced along the blade. She and Nalen pushed the soft sand over what little ashes remained.

Curious, Alaric had Charlemagne hold Ashweaver and Tiri hold out the new magic elven blade, and he looked them over for similarities. They were both certainly elven made, and had some similar runes. The runes along Tiri's blade named it Oath Keeper. It seemed that it too was one of the shards.

The other two bodies were a couple of days travel to the north. "We should expedite our travels in case they are carrying items of their own. We don't want anything falling into the hands of those sand people," Charlemagne urged the others to ready their gear. "Maybe one of them has a bow!" Alix exclaimed excitedly. "Angels have fallen to the ground, and all you can think about is getting a bow?" Tiri sighed heavily. "Well... it would probably be a nice bow," Alix shrugged.

The group packed and began moving. "That rent in the sky disturbs me," Alaric stated, glancing back up to the quiet starry night. Tiri nodded to him, "It disturbs me as well... the fact that angels are falling to the ground dead disturbs me more." "There are a lot of questions to be answered," Charlemagne agreed. "I have heard from my god that an extra-planar entity of the most evil intent has... through some means... invaded this world's heavens," Nalen explained, "I've heard that a number of gods have banded together to fight it off." Tiri blinked in surprise, "What evil creature could be so bad that the gods have to band together?" She shuddered at the thought, and glanced back to the sky, "It certainly could have been Corellion's realm we seen... the exquisite verdant forest... and an elven blade." The nobleman paladin nodded his agreement. Tiri and Alaric looked over the blade as they traveled on. It was an elven longsword +1, could store a single spell from each spell level above 0 that she knew, and it also granted her +1 Widsom.

The group continued through the sand, tracking the sandpeople. Hitting the crest of a dune, they looked down into a rocky valley where an enormous crevasse ran through the rock. It looked like an overturned mountain-top. A ruined city could be seen in the crevasse. People were moving about inside the ruin, and guards in similar sand armor watched over the city.

Alaric looked over the area, recognizing some of the architecture of an ancient Netheril floating city... "A long long time ago... there was a civilization called the Netherese. They were incredibly powerful in magic, and each of the sorcerer kings created these massive floating cities... by slicing off a mountain top, flipping it over, and building a city on top of it. They used magic items they created called mythallar that allowed the cities to float. There was one among them, Karsus, who tried to steal the power of magic from the goddess of magic to become a god himself... There was a war between the Netheril and the Phaerimm that was changing the very geography of the world and tearing apart the Weave of magic... he had hoped by becoming a god, he could destroy the Phaerimm for his people... but Mystryl was the only one who had the experience to handle the knowledge of the Weave... and how to distribute magic properly. The goddess sacrificed herself to stop him, ending all magic in the world... When the magic stopped, most of the floating cities plummeted to the earth... taking out most of the Netheril people in one tragic event. Mystra, a new goddess of magic, was reincarnated in Mystryl's place. She immediately recreated the Weave and established new rules for magic so that something like that would never happen again," Alaric explained the story to his companions, "This... this looks like it could be one of those crashed cities." "None of them survived?" Tiri asked, glancing back toward the ruined city before them. "Some tales say that the new goddess of magic took pity and saved a few of the cities and their people, others say none of them survived Karsus's Folly. But even if some survived they were swallowed by the desert and lost to history. The few Netherese left became a wandering desert people. So a lot of rumor and conjecture. Certainly there has been no visible signs of remaining Netherse cities today, but then again, not a lot of people go that far into the heart of desert. It's hot, and deadly, and there's no food," Alaric answered.

Taking it all in, the group looked over the strange ruined city. They took their time, watching it for movement for a few hours. A lot of guards moved around outside of the crevasse. People were gathered up at the edge of the crevasse for some sort of assembly. Some of the people were selected to go enter, though most did not go into it's shadowy depths. Of the ones chosen to go inside, all but one were sand knights dressed in the strange armor.

A heavy military presence was held in the city where a couple of hundred people were living. "Do you think this place alone could be making all of the orcs and wild men search for new homes?" Tiri tilted her head. Alaric shook his head, "Though they seem well trained... there are likely more cities to have that big of an effect here." She nodded, "Then do you believe these are the ones responsible for the assassination attempt?" Everyone looked down toward the overturned crashed city with new eyes... the crevasse almost seemed to go on forever in darkness from here. The echoing ring of that foul "Gold Dragon" man they had spoken with in the strange alley hideaway came back to them, "Seek the darkest chasm that you have ever seen," his deep slow voice had rumbled, "They cling to life there." "This is certainly the darkest chasm I have seen," Tiri continued. 'Whatever is in there... I'm sure it's important," Alaric nodded, pondering.

"I'm not the most stealthiest person to go in there," Charlemagne shook his head, glancing down at the city of people. Tiri nodded her agreement, "My blue hair is really going to stick out here..." "We could shave it off for you," the muscular warrior suggested. The young elven woman blinked wide eyes, touching her hair, "Corellion likes my long blue hair." "What's more important?" Alix asked, "Your hair or your life?" "Well... my life," Tiri nodded, her hands already weaving her hair into a braid that she tucked into her hood. They discussed leaving four people out as an escape route... but being a diversion could mean a death sentence. It was finally decided that it would be best for everyone to go together as it was unlikely they would be coming back out this way. They would take the day to have Alix and Anuul scout it out, and then Tiri pray for blessings of silence the following morning.

A gate to get into the city was guarded by 10 of the sand knights. After a while a raiding party of 30 left the city and went out into the dunes. The companions continued to watch and observe. There was a change of guards at the gate at nightfall.

With little cover available, Alix crept in close, tumbling around a ruined building to see two guards going by. Keeping quiet he was able to move over the wall without getting spotted. As he dropped to the ground, he seen an older woman scrubbing clothing over a washboard in a bucket. There were piles of desert clothing around the area and more dripping on a line next to the woman. She reached down and picked up the next item, drawing it right across Alix's hands as he was reaching for a shirt. Her eyes went wide as her mouth gaped open to start to scream... the young slayer used the hilt of his dagger to quickly knock her unconscious. He dragged her over to a corner, leaving her tied up and gagged, but alive and unconscious. He gathered up some clothing, making up a disguise to blend in better with the people.

As Alix moved further into the city, he came to the edge of the crevasse in the ground where large scaffolding lined the wall going down into the darkness. Walking along the edge, he leapt around the scaffolding to avoid another guard. As two more people walked by, he accidentally stepped into a bucket, tripped, and fell over the edge! He barely was able to grab onto the scaffolding to keep from falling into the darkness. A young sand woman came dashing down, speaking with alarm in a language he didn't understand, and she grabbed onto his hand to help him up!

Grateful, Alix took her hand and used her aid to get on top of the scaffolding, but then she seen his white face and Cormyrian features... and she dropped his hand as she stumbled backward wide-eyed and shocked. She muttered out quickly with fright with a questioning tone. He placed a finger over his lips, and held up his open hand, trying to keep her calm and quiet. She nodded briefly, but kept her distance. He slowly took his hands away from his weapons and held them up, trying to show her he meant no harm. She nodded, raising her hands her too. She pointed off to the distance, "Dah."

When he didn't respond, she tried again, "Dah tu." pointing again more firmly. Alix tilted his head, curiously at her. "Dah! Dah tu," she pointed again, trying tell him to go, raising her voice, "Dah!" He furrowed his brows at her, wondering why she wanted him to go in the direction she kept pointing, struggling with the language barrier. Frustrated, she muttered to herself, and pretended not to notice him as she hummed, and then waved her hand dismissively, "Dah!" Oh... she was letting him go... he finally understood, and he slowly moved quietly away from her with a brief nod of thanks.

He finally made his way around the edge where he could see Anuul waiting for him in the distance. Keeping to the shadows, he made his way to join her to head back to the others. "You would not believe what happened to me," he sighed, "I fell off the cliff and a young girl saved my life." "You fell off the cliff?!" she exclaimed in surprise, "I was nowhere near the cliff!" "I had to beat up an old woman too... she was screaming when I tried to get this disguise," he gestured at the sand clothing he was wearing. "You really beat up an old woman?!" she gasped, "I stayed further out. There were a lot of people on my side."

The two of them made their way back to the group, telling them about the scaffolding where there didn't seem to be many people seemed to be the best way for them to enter. Concerned about it being a one way trip, likely having to find another way out from within the crevice, it was decided that all 8 would go in together.

The companions moved in to the city during nightfall, following the path Alix led them through. The crevice was completely dark and deep. Finding dim lanterns marking the edge of the scaffolding, they managed to find a counter-weight elevator in the scaffolding where a guard was sleeping. Alaric instructed Tiri to weave out her spell of utter silence, and they boarded the platform. Tiri used both of her silence spells to get them down without being heard.

Drifting down deeply into the dark in utter silence, the companions kept still on the platform. If someone were to fall off, the others wouldn't know... they'd never hear the scream. After about 20 minutes of going down into the dark... a purplish light lit dark shades of blues in the cavern. In the distance they could see a tall black tower, fairly unmarred from it's fall into the crevice unlike the ruins around it. It was quiet and unmanned at the elevator landing. Tiri looked around, assured that there was no undead around them. Magic lights flickered in a couple of the windows of the castle. A silhouetted drider seemed to stand guard near the tower. Feeling Tiri start to draw her blade beside him, Alaric swept the young cleric behind him, "Easy... there will be time for that soon enough."

Woot! Level 5 Ding! Merry Christmas everyone!