001 - Into the Desert

I've been through the desert on a mount with no name.
It felt good to be out of the rain.

It's been a while since I've been in the desert; the heat is somewhat irritating, but the dry air is somewhat pleasant. When Tal'Nir rose above a dune on the horizon, I looked to my brother, Vol, with a smile on my face. The city was surrounded with shiny white walls, with a giant white tower rising from its center. As we entered, we saw that every building was built with the same white stone. It was a bright city, somewhat sore on the eyes.

There was something Vol didn't like about the town, so I kept my guard up with his. It might have been the crowds. Or it might have been that the white buildings reflected light so well, that there wasn't not a spot of shade anywhere. It could just as well been the Wilden we kept on passing by, who was riding on a giant spider. I could tell he wasn't following us, but he still distressed us, because of the Giant Damn Spider.

We initially sought food, but found ourselves in a scuffle not a half hour in the walls. While trying to sell some of my specialized ale to a drunkard by a diner,  I caught a lifter diggin through my pocket, and threw him to the ground. Vol and I roughed up the rest of his gang and and the drunkard (what a ruse); afterward, we let them pay us for the privilege. The pickpocket I first threw on the ground was the only one we left conscious, but I force-fed him some of my ale. It smells like ale, and tastes like ale, but it has a much different effect (it scares the shit out of ya). We picked him up and sent him running back into the crowd, clutching his ass, while I called out "Running makes it worse!" and laughed.

We decided to use their donation to eat in a nicer part of town. The Heated Brew. A gnome served us at the bar; Vol muttered that gnomes are angry because they're short and they have no souls. I laughed, and Vol got magically nutritious gnome spit in his stew. We caught wind of a desert temple, word between the Gnome and a Wilden patron, the same one riding that spider.

We went to the library, the bookhaven; we found a small book about this desert temple, the Temple Ka'Zil, and found a map inside. We rearranged a few of the books (Abysmal Orgies belongs in the children's section!), but the Drow librarian, with some arcane witchery, locked us in. We had to go all the way back up to the third floor to put the books back in place. By the time we left, the sun had gone down, so we found the most affordable inn -- The Heated Brew. When we got there, well after dark, to find the spider hitched out front. Shit. Luckily the Gnome had left for the day, though.

-----------
Today, Vol and I rose early to head for the temple in the desert. We made good time out of the city and got a decent head start, but very quickly learned we weren't the only ones headed to the temple. The Wilden was ahead of us, and a raccoon was trotting behind at an astonishing pace. The slow wheel of time put us traveling together, and so we passed the hours in talking. The raccoon had the most absurd story of them all. He was an elemental construct turned to animal by a vengeant wizard, or something like that. He can't speak the common tongue, so whereas we all talk, the little beasty writes on a pad of paper. His scribblin isn't the most literate, even. Once we put him on the back of the spider, his eyes got wide and he froze in place for the rest of the journey. That shut up his chattering mouth real quick.

Then out of nowhere, four whirlwinds of sand burst from the ground and surrounded us. Damn elementals. All they are is ill will hiding danger in plain sight. Not even sure what we were in for, I turned to see what Vol had in mind. But they went down easy enough. The raccoon could fight fierce, I was surely surprised.  But now he was staring at the ground, maybe seeing something we can't see, or hearing something we can't hear. And at that point the ground caved in under us.