Across the Burning Sands

A Khamen and Candorra Adventure

(Using Four Against Darkness)

Part 1B of the Six Stones of Sorcery

Introduction

Note: This intro is pure fabrication and was not part of the game. Skip down to the Journey if you want to read about the actual adventure.

It had been nearly three days since our heroes had bested the sphinx and acquired the Book of the Magi. Atoz had been toiling away nearly non-stop, trying to discern the location of the Stones of Sorcery. Khamen was walking back to the Library after partaking of some libations in a nearby establishment. It appears that he was wrong; the Cult of Erlich wasn't going to attack. Nevertheless, he and Candorra took turns watching over the librarian.

As he neared the Library, he could hear shouts from inside. Atoz! He drew his weapons and rushed in. A cloaked man ran into him.

"Stop him!" Candorra shouted.

The man shouldered Khamen aside. As he fell, Khamen lashed out with his blade. It caught the man behind the knee. He fell with a shout, then kept stumbling away.

"Get down!" Candorra shouted. 

Khamen ducked his head. An arrow whizzed by. He could hear it thunk into the stumbling man's back. The man fell dead. Candorra walked over to him and grabbed a parchment from his grasp. She then rushed inside, Khamen at her heals. She made a beeline for the librarian's office, stepping over dead figures.

"Who?" asked Khamen.

"Cultists, of course." explained Candorra, as she reached the office. Khamen peered in and saw Atoz on the floor, blood staining his tunic. Candorra rushed over to him.

"Do you have the map?" Atoz croaked in obvious pain.

"Yes," replied Candorra.

"Then folllow . . ." the librarian commanded before passing away.

The Journey

The very next day our heroes were on camels, riding into the desert. With them was Abdul, an experienced guide. They had hired him to lead them to their destination, a lost pyramid deep in the desert south of city of Alatar. Fortunately, they were able to follow the mighty Phiaro River for most of the journey.

A couple of days into the journey, they were ambushed by several cultists (1). Abdul proved his worth as a fighter, taking out three of the enemy. Khamen took a minor wound but bandaged it up.
I made Abdul a 2nd level fighter, giving our heroes a little aid on the quest. Each character started with 1 bandage. Also, Khamen and Candorra had a potion of healing each.

The next day they spotted a pack of hyena-men (2), fierce inhuman raiders. The hyena-men gave chase but the party was able to outrace them and escape.
Because they were mounted, I gave the party a chance to get away. They easily won an opposed die roll so I ruled that they escaped without incident.

After sheltering from a sandstorm (3) and rescuing Abdul from a sinkhole (4), the party reached a point where the river bent to the southeast.

"We must leave the river, now" Candorra announced, as she read the map. "Our destination lies in the heart of the desert that way." she said as she pointed southwest.

As they made their way into the heart of the desert, four giant scorpions (5) pounced on them. Khamen was stung and poisoned before they drove off the horrid creatures.

"I'll be all right," Khamen insisted as Candorra tried to minister to him.

"Take your potion." she demanded.

"I'm fine," he repeated, despite his nausea and pale features.

Abdul concurred with Candorra. "You are ill. It could hazard your quest. Heal yourself."

"I said I"M FINE. Besides, I may need that potion later." Khamen reiterated as he stormed off.

"Stupid human pride." Candorra mumbled to herself.

The Challenge
Our heroes proceeded into the desert for a few more days. They found themselves surrounded by a seemingly endless sea of sand.

"Are we going the right way?" a visibly ill Khamen asked.

Candorra conferred with Abdul. "We think so. It's hard to tell without any landmarks."

Candorra stopped her camel and stood balanced upon its hump. She surveyed the horizon for a few minutes, then shouted in triumph.

"There!" she pointed.

"Where?" asked Abdul. Khamen grumbled about elven eyes.

"Follow me!" Candorra yelled as she galloped south.

Several minutes later Khamen could see it; a small hill in the distance. But no, that was no hill. It was too regular. An hour after that he could finally make it out. It was the top of a pyramid; the rest had been buried under the sands.

They drew near and dismounted. Suddenly there was a whirling wind and a blue figure appeared.

"Djinn!" exclaimed Abdul.

"Halt!" it declared. "You are forbidden to approach the Tomb of An-Makeran. Turn back now!"

"We are on a holy quest at the behest of the Temple of the Maker. We must enter that tomb." Candorra explained.

"No, you are not worthy. Turn back, or suffer the consequences."

"We will prove our worth . . ." but before Candorra could finish here sentence, the djinn summoned a whirlwind that slammed into our heroes. Abdul and Khamen were knocked to the ground, but Candorra managed to dodge and somersault up to the djinn. She slashed it with her blade.

The djinn pulled a heavy mace out of thin air and began to swing wildly at our heroes. It smashed Candorra, who flew several feet, landing heavily on her back. The djinn then attacked Khamen. Due to his sickness, he moved slowly and failed to dodge. The mace landed a heavy blow on him. He sunk to his knees. The djinn moved in to finish him off.

Just then, Abdul leaped to Khamen's defense. Khamen was able to crawl away while reaching for his healing potion. Abdul sparred with the djinn for a moment before it landed a blow. Abdul staggered back.

Candorra was back on here feet and attacked again, landing another hit. As it advanced on her, Khamen jumped into the fray, stabbing the djinn in the back. It turned toward him.

"I'm baaack." he quipped as he retreated before the djinn's onslaught. But the djinn was too powerful and knocked him to his feet. Once again, he readied a killing blow.

Suddenly, a sword point pierced through the djinn's chest. Abdul stood behind it, his thrust penetrating from behind.

With that, the djinn dropped his mace, which disappeared. It moved away from the heroes, then turned to face them.

"You have proved your worth." it announced with a bow. Then it flourished its hand and a whirlwind swept toward the pyramid. It blew away the sands, revealing a ramp leading down toward a stone door. Four bodies in cultist robes lie near the door.

"Who were they?" asked Khamen.

"They were not worthy." announced the djinn. It then disappeared from sight.

The heroes just looked at each other. They had proved worthy of this challenge, but what of the next? What of the Tomb?

Find out next time!

Game Notes
Obviously, I made quite a few tweaks to standard Four Against Darkness.

• First, I turned it into a hex-crawl wilderness adventure. I created a grid of offset squares (which approximates a hex grid). The characters start in the first hex, following the river. I placed the tomb in a square that was about 8 spaces away from the start.
• Each turn, I would first roll a D6 to determine the direction of the river. Then I could choose to follow it or strike out into the desert. I stuck with the river (more about that later).
• I used my homebrew encounter table to determine the contents of each square.
• I wanted desert-themed encounters, so I re-skinned standard 4AD encounters. For example, cultists were hobgoblins, the sinkhole was a pit trap, etc. The djinn began as a Chaos Lord but I changed its power based on D&D stats.
• I have other 4AD supplements and probably should read through them for more options, but I was too lazy to go through them all. It would be nice if there was a single 4AD bestiary with stats for all encounters from all 4AD products.
• I changed the location of the final encounter. I was originally following the river but then I rolled the boss before I reach the target space. Because I was on my 6th encounter, I decided to draw the adventure to a close. For narrative purposes, however, I wanted the Tomb to lie away from the river. I decided to move it on the map.
• I also embellish a bit when I write the narratives. For example, Khamen took the healing potion right before Abdul scored the killing blow. I moved it a little earlier in the fight.