1.1 A Tale of Two Parties

[St.Drewcifer]

Party the First
Three Elvish Kin, each somehow held in time wake up sealed in a ceramic type of coffin, they are in a desert.
Brevard is a wood elf mage and handy with a sword, very much out of place from his seafaring past.
Aleshar a half elven warrior priest of Ishtar, searching for his half brother but that was over 1000 years ago.
Ren Al Thavan, a High Elf, good with a bow, a follower of Apollo and keeps quiet about his past.

They have been awoken from centuries deep slumber and asked by a Djinn to find the Children of Altair and protect them, they have been traveling across the desert on the course set them.  They hole up in some caves and make offerings to their gods in the hope they have not been truly forgotten.  Apollo and Ishtar make contact with their chosen ones and encourage them to find more followers in this long forgotten land.
Tremors in the cave make them seek answers from Ishtar, the message is to leave the place immediately and seek the shifting sands and find the sleeping man.
Brevard offers up a prayer to Poseidon and after some time traveling come across a large depression several miles across, the sand seems to be shifting around a central point much like an hourglass, on the opposite side some worked stone has become visible with the movement of the sand.  Brevard downs a potion of levitation and with him tied to a rope we get the buoyancy we need to skip across the treacherous shifting sand.  We get to the other side as he gently floats back to the ground.
Water now starts rising from the sinkhole – seemingly the answer to Brevards prayers to Poseidon.

Ren starts climbing and sends his falcon up to scout the skies. The other two start floating up against the wall with the swell of the rising water.
Brevard dives down to commune with his God and is both admonished for his tardy endeavors in summoning Poseidon to this land, but also rewarded with a sweet magical ring.

We get up to a level of openings and start digging through the sand trying to find what we seek, the mage seems to recognize the carvings as very early stylization of his Deity.
We rise up to another level and find Ren clawing away at the sand trying to remove a familiar ceramic coffin, we join together and with the inhabitant trying to force his way out manage to smash the device open.  Just then Aleshar is hit in the back with an arrow, he whirls around to see two desert men on a flying carpet one wielding a bow, he quickly casts a spell which causes one of the men to be frozen in place.  Once the carpets pilot sees this they pull away.

The man who was entombed is a human with some major scars he doesn’t seem wholly convinced we are here to help, he frantically begins searching the cave and the others help, he is looking for his medicine bag.  Aleshar felt a divine power when he cast his spell and quickly goes to the back wall where he puts his hand on a figurine of a coyote, he hands this to the newcomer and they exit the cave before they drown from the continuously rising water.
They make their acquaintance of Naqcman which translates to One Wolf, who proclaims himself a tracker but is shaken by the sheer expanse of desert, Ren hands him two spare daggers and Aleshar lends him his longbow and quiver of arrows.
They look over the lip of the newly crested salt water lake and see eight desert warriors below, they are talking animatedly and pointing to the sky and gesticulating at this place.

Aleshar hatches a plan and tells the others to follow his lead, he casts a light spell behind his head and marches down the dune shouting that he has bought water, One Wolf and Ren flank him with their bows.  Brevard in the exhilaration of seeing his first potential eight converts charges down past the others, this results in the eight desert warriors rushing towards him drawing their weapons, quickly Brevard screeches to a halt and hurriedly gets his waterskin and cup out and pours their leader a cup of salty water.  The leader drinks this down and realizes the import of what he has done, he orders Brevard into his tent and no matter the imploring of the others, questions him alone.  It seems Brevard has unwittingly enforced a salt bond onto this man.  For three days he cannot harm us.  Furthermore they are on the lookout for Sleeping Men, which Brevard cheerfully admits to being, this makes the leader go a little pale and order us out of his hospitality, claiming we are evil.  They quickly break camp and are gone – well that could have gone a little better.

We go back to the lip of the lake and notice the water has gone down a little, we retrieve our horses and gear and seek shelter in the caves during the heat of the day.

We set out at night and soon One Wolf hears a voice, a huge tortoise appears to him, reassuring him that all is well and he should exercise patience.  He also tells him that he must do all that he says. Then a hare appears and contradicts the tortoise saying that he must do all that he says; soon a giant lion turns up and kills the tortoise and the hare and claims to be a guide who will help us to our destination.  We happen across a wild mustang and with great skill One Wolf calms the beast and is soon riding the stallion and we make good time.

Soon a choice of paths presents itself and the lion claims to go up over the mountain is the way to glory.  When we start up this way, the spirits of the tortoise and the hare return and tell the party that the way of the lion represents certain death.  They remember that the two recently departed spirits, while constantly bickering and contradicting each other, were clear in their direction that they must do what they say.  Suddenly, the look changes in the Lions eyes as the light of Coyote leaves him and he throws himself onto One Wolf gashing him across the chest, quickly the warrior moves inside the claws of the lion and thrusts his daggers into it’s eyes killing him on the spot – apparently this was a battle played out before between these two adversaries with and identical result.

The party then decides to go around the mountain and arrive to find a city with the gates being closed and late arriving travelers finding space to set up camp outside the walls, they do likewise.

The Children of Altair
The eight children are currently in a village known to them but a long way from their home, they are given lots of advice from the people, some of it conflicting, it seems that some of their kin are in Rogosto, a city far away.  This seems like a good destination although the children were originally intent on seeking out the band of drummers.  Soon a party of eight desert warriors arrive back into the village, they claim to have found a new body of water in the desert and warn of the evil sleeping men, that are after the children, they council that the children go to Rogosto.
The children overhear other conversations in the village and it seems that these people do not have the best intentions for them and just want them out of their hair as soon as possible.  They decide to want to go to Rogosto and set off in that direction but as soon as they are out of sight of the village change direction and make their way to the city where the band of drummers come from.
Soon they come to a mountain and decide to skirt around the edge, they arrive to find a city with the gates being closed and late arriving travelers finding space to set up camp outside the walls, they do likewise.