Citadel of the Sun-King Campaign Diary
Session 2: The Gap Where They Wait
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| The Shalgara Gap that runs through the Pillars of Marnak. |
The Party
Also present:
In Najad
Garden Mysteries
The session opened in Najad, with the party reviewing leads from the week before. They decided to visit the Terraced Gardens, a stepped and irrigated complex of fig trees, bitter olives, and medicinal herbs fed by canals drawn from the Yalga river.
There, they found the twenty-foot basalt stele they’d heard about. Kheperkare inspected the worn surface and confirmed that a three-foot section had flaked or been deliberately chipped away. The group knew that Flame-Speaker Tirah had been studying this very stele.
Nearby, Hasoom took interest in a small overgrown shrine. Its relief showed the winged head of a bearded man, and a faint rainbow sheen shimmered across the carving’s lips. A seam ran around the base of the shrine, barely visible beneath fig roots and dirt. Hasoom, ever suspicious, suspected a hidden chamber. Though he couldn’t open it, he determined the slab covered a hollow space. Unsure how to open the "door" the party made a note to come back later.
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| Flame-Speaker Tirah (left) and Jahair the apothecary (right). |
A Scholar, A Gossip
At the Temple of the Flame Enduring, they met with Flame-Speaker Tirah, who confirmed she had been working to translate the stele. She explained that the stele was from an ancient civilization and mentioned a long-lost sun temple, but until the fragment is found, her work remains incomplete.
Later, the party visited Jahair the apothecary to follow up on a lead. Jahair confirmed he was still missing a shipment of blister toad venom, last expected via a caravan through the Shalgara Gap.
Ramu, curious about the shrine in the Gardens, asked if Jahair knew anything. The apothecary turned out to be more informed than expected. He said he'd recognized the sheen on the lips as lamp oil, and once, out of curiosity, had rubbed oil across the carving. Sure enough, the shrine slid open, revealing a dark stairwell. Jahair admitted he chose not to descend-"not the adventurous sort"-but encouraged the group to do so, if they dared.
Into the Desert
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| A yabshii in full chitin armor. |
Caravan Rescue
On their first day out, headed toward the Ford of Shoseb, the group came upon a narrow gully. As they rounded a blind corner, they stumbled into a standoff: Yabshii (a caste of caravan guides in armor fashioned from insect chitin) clashing with horse-mounted bandits.
Kheperkare and Ramu charged into the fray without hesitation, hoping to aid the Yabshii. Although at first nearly mistaken for more bandits, their actions quickly clarified their intent. Kheperkare killed a rider with a single blow, while Ramu shot another from his mount. The Yabshii took the opportunity to unleash their hishral, six-legged desert beasts of immense size and strength. The hishral trampled several bandits with devastating force.
The bandits, bloodied and shocked, panicked and fled. Two riderless horses bolted west, only to be intercepted and calmed by Hasoom. The party claimed them, naming the horses Bandit and Treasure.
The Ford of Shoseb
That evening, the party arrived at the Ford of Shoseb, a shallow crossing of the Yalga river marked by ruined cairns and a crumbling shrine.
There they encountered Yalenh, a wandering drunk who claimed to be a priest of sorts. He offered to calm the river spirit Shoseb in exchange for a wineskin. Kheperkare handed his over, and Yalenh proceeded to perform a wildly flamboyant and theatrical “rite”—waving arms, chanting nonsense, and finishing with a bow.
Despite the ridiculous display, the ford calmed, and the party crossed without incident. Whether divine intervention or coincidence, no one could say.
The Roc in the Sky
On their second day, traversing the desert beyond the river, the group spotted a lone bird in the distance. As it drew closer, they realized it wasn’t a bird, it was a roc, carrying a full-grown camel in its talons.
The implications were not lost on anyone. This marked the third giant flying creature they’d witnessed in the Wastes, and concern about aerial predators began to mount.
The Shalgara Gap
Ruined Caravans
On the third day, the party reached the Pillars of Marnak, a maze of spires, mesas, and fog-choked gorges. Here lies the Shalgara Gap, the only overland caravan route to the east.
Wary of ambush, Hasoom and Ramu scouted ahead. By afternoon, they discovered overturned wagons in a narrow ravine: remnants of Jahair's lost caravan.
Seven strange figures sifted through the debris. Gaunt, pale-skinned humanoids with bark-like calluses and death masks for faces. When Kheperkare called out to parley, all seven snapped their heads in unison and charged, drawing chipped and rusted blades.
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| Nothing weird going on here... |
The party responded with arrows and javelins. Kheperkare charged into battle atop Bandit, wielding his halberd like a lance. Idrusa blinded one of the creatures with a light spell. By the time the creatures reached melee range, only one remained, and it was quickly cut down.
When they investigated the bodies, the party realized that the masks were the creatures faces, not masks at all...
The caravan had been mostly stripped. Bodies, blood or even signs of a struggle were all mysteriously absent. However, the party recovered 300 gp worth of silks, spices, and oil, and eight vials of blister toad venom—the very shipment Jahair had been missing.
That night, the party camped uneasily in the Gap. The next morning, Ramu spotted humanoid shapes watching them from atop some of the spires. Some of them disappeared, while others remained. Feeling suitably unnerved, the group quickly left the gap, headed for Najad.
Trip back to Najad
Sand Mounds and the Henge
On their fifth day, the party came across a lonely hill just north of the caravan route. Atop it stood a limestone henge, with a glint of metal on a central stone slab. But the hill’s base was surrounded by dozens of small sand mounds.
Hasoom lobbed a javelin into one of the mounds. Kheperkare retrieved it and revealed the body of another masked creature, much like those from the day before, which had been killed by the javelin.
Undeterred, Kheperkare threw the javelin into another mound. This time the javelin did not kill the creature in the sand, and every one of the 74 remaining sand mounds began to stir.
The group did the only sensible thing: they RAN. They didn’t stop to look back.
A Ruin in the Sand
Now slightly off-course, the party wandered northwest. Idrusa noticed a ruin they had missed before, buried and sand-choked. In the center stood a dark stairwell descending into the earth.
Ramu and Hasoom peered down, weapons ready. The session ended with their eyes fixed on the darkness below.
Campaign Notes
- NPCs: Flame-Speaker Tirah, Jahair, Yalenh
- Treasure Recovered: ~300 gp in trade goods, 8 vials of blister-toad venom
- Mounts Acquired: “Bandit” and “Treasure” (horses)
- Encounters:
- Yabshii vs mounted bandits (took part in the battle)
- Roc (observed)
- Masked caravan looters (defeated)
- 75 buried masked horrors (party fled)
Referee's Thoughts
This session really opened up the world. I wasn't sure how the PCs would react to coming across the battle encounter. Turns out they got some free mounts out of it, which was a pleasant surprise!
The fight in the Shalgara Gap gave us our first real taste of weirdness, and the players handled it well. Ramu hit with every single shot with his bow, which turned what could have been a dicey fight. Kheperkare is a menace with his halberd; he can't seem to roll less than a 6 on his damage rolls.
The players officially "fucked around and found out" with the henge encounter. It was a lair of 75 Karuun (the eldritch mask things) that buried themselves around the henge. I figured after the first one, they'd decide not to mess with the dozens of sand mounds, but that wasn't the case. So they were forced to flee for their lives after kicking the wasps' nest.
On the procedure side of things, I made sure to roll 12 days of travel ahead of time to ensure I wasn't stalling at the table. That really helped keep the game running smoothly and let me expand the encounters to feel more natural in the world space instead of just impromptu fumbling at the table.
Next up? Heading down into this mysterious ruin, which marks the campaign's first dungeon delve. Let's see what happens.
Really interesting again. Are there any revisions for the module that came out of the playtest?
ReplyDeleteIt's only been two sessions, but so far things have been going reasonably as expected. Since this is a desert, there is a 2-in-6 chance of encounters per day, so they've had a bunch. The only keyed encounters this session were the ford and the caravan wreckage. I won't count the dungeon, since that's technically next session.
DeleteI actually think the yabshii/bandit skirmish and the karuun lair (the henge) were the most interesting events, and they came from the random encounter tables.
That said, I am considering if I want to expand the tables. Right now there is a 2d6 table, but at the rate that we're getting encounters, I am worried it might start to feel rather redundant if I don't expand them or possibly do something like OSE, where you roll and then get animals or sapient beings on two different tables. I haven't decided on a change yet, but it's something I'm looking at.