A D&D Campaign - Started in 1999
Little is known about the Magian's history. People know that he arrived from the east, most probably Djaper. He has come forth with little about his history, making him an enigma. The Magian did gather his ghost knights together in Djaper and came to Cerilia on a boat. There he defeated the ruler of Pipyret and absorbed his bloodline. He is allied with the Raven and the Gorgon, but the alliance seems to be one of convenience.
Session 116 - killed by Ryel
Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel
676 MR - Summer
The Heroes descend into the shadow beneath the Black Mirage, stepping through an obsidian gate that cracks open only when each of them speaks a truth they would rather abandon. Inside, the air turns cold and thin. Masks carved from shadowglass float in a silent gallery, each one replaying the death of someone the Magian has consumed. The echoes strain at the Heroes’ resolve, but they push through and find the staircase spiraling downward into darkness.
The sanctum’s heart waits below: a vastchamber threaded with strands of blood-red and shadow-black energy. Each thread pulses like a vein, anchoring the Magian’s sorcery to places far beyond this ruin. The Heroes carve through the web, unraveling the power that feeds him, while rift-born creatures melt out of the air to stop them. The chamber trembles as more of the threads snap.
At the center stands the shattered plinth, holding a fragment of twilight shaped like glass—the last relic they need. As the Heroes approach, the shadows condense into the Magian himself. Cloaked in runes and smoke, he descends upon them with a wave of blood magic and impossible force.
The battle twists the chamber around them. Spells warp into illusions. Reality fractures. When his body collapses, he reforms as a creature of pure void, striking with killing precision. But even this final shape falters. When the Magian falls at last, the relic fuses before their eyes into its true form: the Mirror of Dusk.
The sanctum begins to implode, dragging itself into a vortex of sand and darkness. The Heroes race up the collapsing stairway, dodging shards of obsidian and bending gravity, until they burst through the crumbling gate just as the sanctum collapses behind them.
Breathing desert air again, they hold the final relic.
The genie seals will be next.
LEVEL UP!
Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel
676 MR - Summer
The Heroes enter the Necropolitan Frontier, where the desert abruptly gives way to a borderland that refuses to decay. Bones lie exposed but unrotted, bleached clean yet unnervingly intact. Dust storms rise and collapse in silence. The land feels held in suspension, waiting for a command that never comes. As the Heroes advance, skeletal guardians shamble from half-buried ruins, animated not by life but by a cold, ritual stillness. They cut through the patrols and press deeper toward the Magian’s domain.
They soon reach the Ossuary-River, a wide channel of drifting bone fragments flowing like water, carried by magic rather than current. To cross, the Heroes must navigate shifting barges of fused ribs and shattered skulls while skeletal remnants rise from the churning mass to pull them under. The crossing becomes a brutal struggle against the dead and the river itself, but the Heroes force their way through and climb the far bank as the bone-tide roars behind them.
Beyond the river lies the Failed Ascension Pit—an enormous crater surrounded by broken pillars carved with failed incantations. In its center stands a ritual cage, the remnants of an abandoned attempt at immortality. The Magian’s lesser experiments, twisted undead that never achieved form or will, crawl from the walls and attack with desperate hunger. The Heroes fight through the malformed horrors, finally silencing the last of the failed creations.
With the pit cleared, the path to the Magian’s true sanctum opens beneath a cracked slab of obsidian. The Heroes descend into darkness, leaving the Necropolitan Frontier behind as they prepare to confront the architect of this frozen, deathless land.
Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel
676 MR - Summer
The Heroes push deeper into the ruin and enter the Hall of Echoes, where whispered fragments of their past lives swirl around them—memories twisted, rearranged, or spoken by voices not their own. They steady themselves and continue forward, refusing the illusions’ pull.
Ahead waits the Bridge of Paradox, a grand stone span that does not truly exist. Recognizing the deception, the Heroes step off the false path and walk across the empty air on an invisible bridge revealed only through their certainty.
They reach a door that is not a door, a frame opening onto nothing. Understanding the nature of the trial, they close their eyes and walk forward, trusting the unseen. The temple shifts, accepting them, and they pass through unharmed.
In the Court of Sands, the Sphinx finally reveals herself—vast, ancient, and hostile. Her riddles give way to violence, and the chamber becomes a storm of claws, magic, and swirling golden dust. After a brutal battle, the Heroes bring the Beast of Paradox down. As her body collapses, the Sunfire Ankh, a relic formed from her very skeleton, emerges from the remains.
But the victory is brief. The temple begins to fill with cascading sand as the ancient structure unravels. The Heroes flee through collapsing corridors, escaping into the desert light with the third genie relic secured. Only one remains.
Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel
676 MR - Summer
The Heroes cross the burning desert on their way to the forgotten temple-city of Khemetra, the domain of the Sphinx who guards the third genie relic. Along the way they meet a band of sun-marked hermits, pilgrims who warn them that the ruins are alive with trials of wisdom, truth, and humility. With their guidance and a gifted amber charm, the party presses on into the shifting sands.
Khemetra rises from the dunes like a mirage of gold and stone. Inside, sun-bleached corridors twist and loop on themselves, and ancient warding glyphs still pulse with divine magic. The Heroes navigate the illusions and traps until they stand before the sealed Gate of Suns. There, the Sphinx’s unseen voice challenges them with three riddles. Each answer unlocks a portion of the gate, while wrong answers burn their minds with psychic force.
When the final riddle is spoken, the last seal trembles. The gate shudders open—and the temple awakens its ancient defenders. Two Sunforged Guardian steps from their alcoves, eyes blazing with molten light. The chamber erupts into chaos as the constructs swing their radiant fists and flood the room with blistering brilliance. After a brutal fight, the guardians collapses into a dying sun-spark, leaving the stairs to the inner sanctum exposed.
As the dust settles, the Sphinx’s voice echoes through the golden hall, calm and resonant:
“You have passed the questions of stone. Now face the questioner.”
The party descends, knowing the true trial lies ahead.
The Sphinx has ruled its own domain for hundreds of years. Early on, it lived as a marauding beast, preying on local villagers and passing caravans. Over the last century or so, the Sphinx has chosen to expand its domain and become a true regent. A longtime menace to trade, the Sphinx craves territory and power above all else.
Session 114 - Killed by Ryel
Once an itinerant dancer named Keta Pechaya who traveled the Shining Coast of Khinasi, the Lamia revelled in a life of petty theft and drama. An encounter with a minor awnshegh which slew most of her troop resulted in her slaying and usurping the beast, twisting into form of the Lamia shortly afterwards.
Later captured by the soldiers of Besaïam, the King ordered her brought before him so that he might win prestige by slaying one of the divinely maimed. The Lamia proved more than his match and has ruled Besaïam since.
Session 112 - Killed by Horgin
