Changelings Part II: A Holiday In The Sun

[alhoon]

"So... the Queen that killed the rebels was NOT the leading figure; A God King was supposed to rule this place"
Spontaneously, Seradon takes out a piece of paper and tries to copy some of the sketches, particularly that of the God-King. After a couple of minutes he disgustedly discards a smudged piece of paper with little apparent resemblance to the God-King and starts on another piece while his friends explore the temple. He's not an artist and that's apparent.

[VAN]

Catherine looks at the carvings and the figures in te temple trying to remember if are familiar to her.. Then starts searching the temple.

"Maybe the king was the leading figure... till the Queen decided that she wants more power..."

[alhoon]

"Perhaps we need to find that King" Seradon says.

[VAN]

"We can try of course even if I doubt he is still alive. But we can check if there are cells at the palace and go there."

[alhoon]

"We checked the palace, there were no cells. I was thinking more like finding his sarcophagus or something. I believe he's dead."

[BigBadQDaddy]

Helfried listens as the others go over thr days findings. "What do we propose to do now? We have spent a great deal of time scouring this place and I fear night will not be long in approaching. It may be best if we found ourselves elsewhere when the sun goes down."

[VAN]

Catherine thinks for a moment and says:

"Find the sarcophagus might give us more clues about the king but doubt will be kept in palace otherwise we have seen it. So it is or in a secret room or elsewhere maybe in a crypt or pyramid even if we haven't seen any yet. But I agree that we better not spend the night here, we may have defetead the Queen and the zombies but who knows if this is permanent. We can leave find a place to spend the night, see where we will wake up and then decide what to do. I still hope we will wake up in Paridon now that we have retrieved this powerful belt."

[alhoon]

"I certainly think the palace is not safe for night sleep" Seradon says checking the temple's carvings. "We could either try to sleep here or spend the night in one of the abandoned houses. I would prefer to rest here since it would give me time to perhaps make some meaningful drawing from these paintings"

[VAN]

"We can stay here till you are done with the drawing and go to rest in one of the other houses. I prefer not to spend the night in the palace either. Hopefully we will be safe elsewhere."

[kintire]

The group beds down in a ruined building near the palace. The night passes in complete silence. The whole city seems dead, without any movement even of insects, but the morning doors being the sight of a desert vulture lazily descending trousers the scene of battle on the ridge above the city, the first animal life the group has seen the ruins.

The group's supplies seem small in the morning and hopes of free troops back home are not fulfilled. If they leave at once they might make it much of the way to the paid before the water runs out...

[BigBadQDaddy]

Up at dawn, helfried has packed and awaits the others to awaken. He takes a moment to appreciate the silence looking across the desert landscape. Glancing over the groups diminished supplies sparks a sense of urgency in the warrior and heproceeds to wake the others.
"Rise, Oh rise comrades. If we are to race the sun itself it already has a head start." He mocks.

[alhoon]

After waking up and preparing his spells Seradon is ready to travel "Let's hope our need for less food and water will hold. Should I kill the vulture or not? Do you think we need the food? We could also get a bit of water out of it, although we would need a box and some glass."

[VAN]

Catherine spots the vulture in distance and frowns.

"I think we better get going, I don't want to taste this vulture and even more get water out of it. Lets hit the road and hope we manage to get back."

[kintire]

The group sets out into the desert. As the silent ruins fade behind you, you pass through the recently ruined camp, a few scattered rocks all that remains of the drama played out there, the corpses vanished under blowing sand. As you slowly climb out of the valley, you can see the heat haze building behind you, your last view of the ruins vanishing as you set out across the hard rock waste.

The sun glares down and the heat should be growing, but you are merely slightly warm as a shimmering appears all around you, the sun reflecting off the bare rock setting the air dancing. Mirages of water shimmer around you, and it becomes impossible to see far. Landmarks are few, and you can no longer be certain that you are on the right route.

The journey seems endless, hour after hour in the silent wastes. A few columns of rock rise to break the monotony of the desert, but there seems no sign of the intricate formations of the Djinni garden as night follows day again and again. After a while, the rock waste gives way once more to sand, rolling dunes like a huge sea.

You have clearly missed the oasis and the water is run out, but thirst remains merely a mild annoyance. Travel by day has become more wearying with the dry sand difficult to walk on, although less wearying to the feet. resting at night, however, has become much more pleasant in the sioft sand.

At last the dunes give way to flat sandy wastes, and going becomes easiest yet. Not long after, you strike a small valley in the otherwise flat sands, and lacking any better guide you turn and follow it. Slowly, over many miles, it deepens and you start finding occasional damop patches, and then hints of sandy pools. Then, at a certain point where a continuous if small stream begins to gurgle along the gully, you see traces of a large group of laden camels who turned up the side of the gully at this point, having climbed it to meet you. the tracks are old, and even sheltered by the valley they are impossible to make much of, but you know from the lay of the land around you that they are yours, and you have struck the valley that leads down to the fishing village from which your journey first began.

From here, the way is easy and it is not long before you see the village below you again, and your trusty ship still sitting at anchor in the bay.

[alhoon]

At the beginning of their Journey Seradon looks at the shimmering around them. "Supernatural protection. Our patron seems to really want us to make it back" Seradon says, although he doesn't seem confident it's for the best.
"Magic doesn't seem so bad to you now Helfried, does it?"

As the hours turn to days Seradon passes the time writing what he remembers from the palace and the djinni formations and keeps teaching Helfried Mordentish. He also tries to figure what effect is on them.