- This game is under the Fantasy & Action/Adventure genres.
- The game system is Pathfinder 2E.
- This game contains mature content.
- The GM has marked this game as containing personal and intellectual property.
If the GM leaves or deletes the game nobody else will be able to continue the game.
The Pharaoh's Tomb
A lonely group of 500 horsemen stands huddled at the base of a range of craggy, dry mountains, the red light of a dying day casting long shadows behind them. A parched wind, still alive with the desert heat, rustles their capes over their sweatsoaked leather armour. The horsemen have formed a circle astride their steeds and hunch down sadly against the sandy wind.It is your party that stands within this circle of grizzled soldiers. The last thing you recall is enjoying the richness of this land and absorbing all of its strange tales of wealth and greatness. But now you are awake, confused amid these heavily shadowed faces under a deep red sunset.
The weathered face of the commander turns toward you, leather-brown skin setting off his steel-blue eyes. He pulls from his saddle pouch an elegant scroll and reads loudly over the rustling wind its flowing, formal message:
"Know ye! By order of his majesty ruler and trustee of the realm.
Whereas it hath been reported of late to our majesty that certain dark and vile desert raiders have crossed the terrible mountain wastes of the south, over long forgotten paths, thence disappearing into those same forbidding hills.
And whereas our valiant troops have tracked these same vile creatures through the very teeth of that awesome range to the very borders of the most accursed land, known to the wise as the desert of desolation, and being knowledgeable as to the curses of that dead haunted land, did our host of brave knights wisely halt their pursuit.
And furthermore, whereas certain foreign characters, whose descriptions match those of the very group here assembled at my most honoured and revered request, were seen in the vicinity of the tent of Wan-doo the wonderous, wizard of the court, in the later part of the evening,
And whereas those persons did attain entry to said tent and did short-sheet the wizard's bed and do all manner of petty pranks, and did leave for the wizard a certain maid for an alleged date with said wizard. And whereas said wizard did return to said tent with yet another wench whereupon both the first maid and the second wench did begin a loud commotion and disturbance the like of which has never before shaken this stately court and upset the wizard to no end.
Therefore be it decreed that said persons be appointed special force under our majesty to track the course of the raiders from the desert of desolation, where surely even the raiders could not survive, search out their hiding place and bring us back proof that they have found that hidden fortress in the desert. We further decree that they may retain all that they bring forth with them for their own use from that fabled land of treasure and death.
Be it yet further decreed that if they prefer not this quest they may choose death by hanging, death by fireball, death by polymorph, death by flame strike, death by lightning.."
Rolling the scroll back up with his calloused hands, the commander leans down toward you.
"What this means, you poor foreigners, is that you have been chosen to enter that cursed dead land south of here. It means that it doesn't matter whether you were in the tent that night or not, because you are easy to get rid of without ruffling any feathers."
"And it also means,"
speaks the aged, though rugged, form beside the commander,
"that these here raiders have caused his majesty a good deal of trouble with the Barons. You're his proof that he is doing something about them.
Mawhahahahahaaaa"
His laugh rolls through the hills. The commander silences him with a sharp look, then continues.
"We have brought you certain supplies and mounts from which you may choose. There is no water within two weeks tortured ride over the mountains from this spot, and those hills are full of cutthroat barbarians that kill for the sheer joy of it. Without this armed escort, it would be suicide to attempt crossing back from whence we have come. Your only hope, for what it may be worth, will be to follow those tracks and hope that they lead to water."
His lifted arm points southward, and all eyes follow its direction. There in the desert sands, a confused trail mars the surface and leads straight into the heart of the burning land. Looking south across the barren wastes, lifeless dunes roll in an endless succession away from the mountains to the south, east and west.
You have heard tales of this place, none of them good.