Adventure Journal #4: The Lost City

As the five heroes left Fort Laskor on their journey to Giustenal, their thoughts focused on what mysteries might await them in that lost city of the ancients. Little was known about Giustenal, even to Aleanor's knowledgeable companion, Felix. Once a gleaming city on the shore of a mighty lake, Giustenal now lay empty and barren, the lake long since turned to dust. The land surrounding the city and lake promised to be just as desolate, judging by the name given to it today: the Parched Plain.

Still, the chance that some forgotten lore might still wait beckoned to the heroes. If Giustenal still held knowledge that could help decipher the mysterious Crimson Prophecy, the trek would be well worth the effort. Well-provisioned thanks to Aleanor and her connections in the village, the heroes were prepared for a lengthy trip.

Not far outside the walls of Fort Laskor the heroes encountered a small group of riders. Their leader identified himself as Variel, paladin of the Knights of Summer. He and his comrades, he explained, were dedicated to restoring the honor and nobility of days long-past. The knights were particularly friendly toward the aasimar Godefroi, who shared their commitment if not their specific cause. Before moving on, the knights warned Godefroi of orc activities in the area, and bade him to stay on his guard.

Variel's words would be borne out sooner than the heroes expected. Only two days later, the heroes found themselves ambushed, though not by orcs. Instead, a small group of gnoll mercenaries led by a human sorcerer named Lyzat attacked the PCs along the road. Before the battle could conclude, however, the combatants on both sides spotted something far more frightening than their current foes, as a small band of orcs crested a nearby ridge. As the screaming orc war party charged across the open terrain, the heroes agreed on a hasty truce with Lyzat--whatever differences the two groups of travelers might have, they shared the common interest of wanting to avoid being eaten alive.

Together, the characters managed to defeat the orcs, though most of Lyzat's minions perished in the battle. True to their word, the characters allowed him free passage, but not before pressing for answers. The sorcerer admitted that he'd been hired by an unknown individual in Riad's Vale some days earlier, with orders to capture at least one of the characters. No, he couldn't describe his employer--the encounter took place entirely in shadows. In thanks, though, Lyzat agreed that he wouldn't bother the characters again.

With this new information in hand, the heroes decided to give Riad's Vale a wide berth, heading directly into the Cyrene Forest on their way toward the Parched Plain, and Giustenal. A few days into the wood, they encountered a strange tree-dwelling fey creature with potent powers of charm and persuasion. Some quick words from the elven druid Zelaran calmed the suspicious being, who identified herself as a dryad and a protector of the forest.

After confirming that the characters were no threat to her woods, the dryad provided them with a path that would take them swiftly through the forest. Along the way, the heroes also rescued a woodsman being threatened by a monstrous wasp, who thanked them profusely for their help.

At the edge of the Cyrene Forest, the heroes were met with an impressive--if chilling--sight. The land simply dropped off, nearly two feet, down to bare stone covered in a thin layer of silt. It looked as if some giant blade had scraped the very earth clean of soil and vegetation, leaving nothing alive behind. This was the Parched Plain, and over the next several days the heroes battled heat, exhaustion, and some unfriendly (and unnatural) inhabitants of the land. They also encountered a lone dragonblood traveling in the same direction, who insisted that he had been called to Giustenal by a dream. The wanderer turned down their offer of assistance, claiming that he had to reach the city under his own power. He did finally agree to pay them for food and water, but refused any further aid or company.

Days after parting with the dragonblood, the characters found shelter in a string of rocky hills that marked the original boundary of the land controlled by Giustenal long ago. Nestled among these hills stood a small fortress-like outpost, carved from the very rock wall. The heroes soon discovered that this outpost was far from abandoned, however, as they battled the undead remains of the outpost's last few guards as well as a a strange acidic oozelike creature that blended with the gray rock. They also found a few drops of precious healing water collected beneath a virtually dry fountainhead. Though the liquid was potent in restoring both body and mind, naught but a sip was available for consumption.

Two days later, the heroes stood outside the high stone walls of Giustenal. In their approach, they noted that the once-lush lake bed was now filled to overflowing with dustlike sand: a sea of silt was the only evidence that this area had ever been green and growing. Worse yet, the area around the gate was filled with steaming, bubbling pits of tar that blocked both sight and passage. As they maneuvered through this treacherous area, the characters had to fight off strange creatures, seemingly made of the tar itself, that rose from the pools to attack intruders.

Standing before the gate, the heroes beheld for the first time the city's awesome architecture. A great archway loomed overhead, carved with stunning images of the mighty dragons of yore. Engraved runes of Draconic bade the visitors welcome to the Immortal City of Giustenal.

Within, the city lay quiet. Silt from the lake bed lay in drifts. Some buildings lay crumbled in ruins, while others stood intact, barely touched by the intervening centuries. One such building proved, on examination, to be a large temple devoted to some unknown draconic power. Though abandoned by its deity, the temple was still haunted by an insane spirit, perhaps left there since the city's fall. The characters managed to send the spirit to its eternal rest, though this did not answer any of the questions that had already begun to form in their minds.

After camping in a relatively intact shop, the heroes were preparing to continue their explorations when they spotted a small plume of smoke trailing up from elsewhere in the city. Upon investigation, they confirmed that the city was not quite as abandoned as they had expected. A small tent community of a few dozen dragonbloods had settled in the city's coliseum, each one claiming that a dream had called them here. The heroes met with Aurax, a dragonblood warrior who served as something of a leader in the camp and who confirmed the tale they had heard. The dragonbloods had indeed been called here, but by whom and for what purpose none of them knew. The first had arrived some weeks earlier, with more trickling in as the days passed. Now they waited for their summoner to reveal himself. Most believed that some divine force was at work, bringing the dragonbloods here to unveil some higher purpose for their people.

The dragonbloods had little more to report regarding the rest of the city, so the characters resumed explorations over the next several days. A Gloom-cloaked guard station proved infested with the walking dead, and the characters only narrowly managed to overcome their numbers. A grand, ruined palace held many murals depicting a half-man, half-dragon who stood perhaps ten feet tall--perhaps a guardian or ruler of the city in ancient times, or maybe just a mythological figure--as well as a few forgotten treasures.

They also found a secret stairwell in the palace, hidden beneath a movable statue. But these stairs didn't just lead to a basement; instead, they led to a smooth-floored natural stone chamber several hundred feet beneath the palace. Even more surprising was the gaping shaft that dropped from the far side of the chamber. A faint breeze wafted up the shaft, occasionally dropping away before resuming once again. Neither dropped stones nor torches could confirm its depth, and without any sign of handholds (or places to affix a rope), the characters decided to retreat from this mystery, leaving it unsolved for now.

As they ascended the palace's spirelike tower, the heroes soon found that the murals weren't simply works of fantasy. At the top of the tower stood a stone obelisk, its tip snapped off by some unknown force. Impaled upon that broken obelisk was a giant-sized mummified skeleton of a humanoid creature with a reptilian head and a pair of mighty wings. Were these the remains of the last ruler of Giustenal? And if so, what power could have thrown him down and ruined his city?

But this would not be the most intriguing sight from this lofty perch. On close inspection, Zelaran discovered a faint image carved into the stone. It depicted a now-familiar sight: a star falling into a range of mountains, seen previously in an ancient temple in a swamp far from here. The particularly interesting development, though, was that the mountains pictured appeared to be the peaks directly visible in the distance, at whose foothills Giustenal lay. Was this the clue that the heroes had traveled so far to find--did the Crimson Prophecy suggest that something had (or would) fall from the sky in the mountains beyond Giustenal?

Aleanor had to be informed of the heroes' discovery. Bidding farewell to the dragonbloods--whose numbers had continued to grow over the last few days--the characters retraced their steps across the Parched Plain and through the Cyrene Forest. Once safely back in Fort Laskor, they explained their discoveries to Aleanor and Felix. After some thought, Aleanor thanked the heroes for their diligence and paid them the gold she had promised.

She then announced that she would be leaving Fort Laskor for a few weeks. She had to convey this new information to others in her organization, but she asked that the heroes remain in town until she returned. "I expect that we may have additional need of your talents, and based on your report it seems that others may also be interested in your discoveries. Fort Laskor should provide some refuge from such threats, at least for now."

The next day, she was gone, leaving Felix behind to manage her affairs and the characters to wonder, yet again, exactly what they'd gotten themselves into.

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