"I'm Isabel, and this is Conrad"

The monstrous scorpions, each the size of a horse, ran across the sand towards the intruders, arrows thudding into their exoskeletons. The adventurers stood firm and quickly hacked the vermin to pieces, dodging nimbly under their massive pincers.

The rocky outcrop the creatures had come from contained several roomy caves which came in useful when the day's rainful roared over the party on its way to the edge of the step and down to the rest of Ascent. For several minutes the only view was like that of looking through a river's waterfall but eventually the water passed and the deep puddles in the sand started to steam and slowly drain away.

After a discussion in the shade, the party decided to set off to the centre of Ascent where the sun rose to see what they could see. On the way they noticed, despite the heat haze, the pit fiend and his hunting party returning to the fort. Desperately the druid summoned a dire badger to quickly excavate holes for the adventurers to hide in. In moments, the party was concealed apart from the wolf's wagging tail but fortunately even the fiend's amazing eyesight could not pick that out from two miles away.

Helpfully a voice called out to them when the threat had passed by and a couple of people in camouflage clothing rose from the sand dunes to introduce themselves. Isabel and Conrad declared their interest in helping lost souls escape the dangerous desert although their evil auras did give the paladin pause for thought.

After some discussion, the party decided to journey with their new guides to the market place on the step edge where the train up the wall terminated. Conrad was quick, though, to advise that getting into the pit fiend's realm was much easier than getting out again.

Night fell before the market was reached so the group camped inside Leomund's Tiny Hut for the night. After an hour or so, Conrad heard a noise outside and took Isabel and the paladin out to investigate. Soon even the paladin could hear noisy skitterings in the dark and sent Isabel back to warn the party. Off in the distance Conrad let out a scream of pain as more skitterings could be heard on other sides of the camp.

Soon the party was awake and up but the noise had gone, along with the bodies of Conrad and Isabel. Ignoring the bad omen, the adventurers retired again and all was quiet until just before dawn. Impulsively, the monk (on guard for this watch) leapt out of the tent to face whatever was making the noises.

Experience
Large Monstrous Scorpions - 400 xp each character

They impale camels here...

Unaware of what was happening on the other side of the portal, half of the party sat down and waited. Shortly, the sound of troops could be heard approaching and the scout had a look down the tunnel. Bursting into view were a troop of duergar sent to investigate the break in digging so the remaining adventurers quickly dived through the shining orange wall to safety.

Now all together, the six (and one wolf) surveyed the world around them. The light was starting to fade as the sun had dipped below the step so they decided to investigate the pair of creatures at the bottom of the duergar-made hill.

After some spectacular trips, falls and tumbles the party reached the bottom of the hill, some more the worse for wear than others. The two guards, though, seemed oblivious to the commotion that was made - and the reason why soon became clear. The strange bloated creatures had their eyes (and mouth) sewn shut so could not see the party coming.

Somehow the Nupperibo detected the advanced party and turned towards them, bringing their halberds to bear. Within seconds they were both lying dead on the ground, green ichor soaking into the sand under a hail of missiles, melee and magic. Even their fear aura couldn't help them.

The druid quickly set to an anatomical study of one the devilish creatures whilst the other examined the lean to. Unnoticed, the second nupperibo stood up, partially healed, to try and attack the druid and paladin. Sadly, lack of sight and hearing (the druid discoved the creatures' ears were filled with lead) had made the nupperibo slow to react and one paladin's arrow at point blank range took it out. Hacking off the head made sure it didn't rise up again.

The party decided to rest in a magic hut with the hill between them and the tower. Little happened through the night although occasional skitterings of night creatures across the sand could be heard.

At 6am, the sun burst into the sky with a whoosh, much larger in size and brightness than the adventurers were used to seeing. An hour later a loud horn could be heard which the druid-cum-eagle was able to determine was blown by a member of a hunting party leaving the tower. A massive 100-foot-long millipede could be seen being ridden by a large pit fiend and followed by a band of scorpion creatures. Ahead of them could be seen humanoid prey desperately trying to escape.

The eagle then soared over the tower and saw dozens of nupperibo being marshalled within the outer walls and other devilish creatures working industriously away around the site. The rest of the party started to approach but, seeing creatures impaled on the spikey walls, thought better of it and instead set off for a nearby rocky outcrop.

After a mile or so, they reached the 20 foot high mound of large rocks and boulders. Glinting in the sunlight could be seen armour and the druid enthusiastically fired off a shot, causing the hidden scorpion to charge from cover.

Experience
Nupperibo - 100 xp each character

Row, row, row your boat.

After a short break to argue over what to do next, the party started to try and work out where the zombies went with their backpacks of rubble. Soon a narrow path was found off to the side that led to a blank wall.
The scout had a poke around and saw his hand pass easily through the wall. The wizard barged to the front to work out this magical anomaly but ended up stumped. "It's an illusionary wall" informed the scout. "I was just going to say that", the wizard retorted limply.
Chafing at the bit, the party surged through the illusion. Well, the monk, scout and wizard moved in and the druid bravely sent in his wolf as a primitive trap detector.
From the ceiling a column of flame descended, scorching all and sundry. The smell of scorched wolf filled the nostrils of the caring druid.
At the end of the short 20 foot tunnel was a blank wall that easily lifted into the ceiling, revealing a water-filled expressway and a bell which radiated magic. Ringing the bell seemed to do little (as the sound was magically created for the ears of the undead only) but soon a zombie-powered barge loomed into view. The undead goblin pilot silently stared as the party boarded before stamping the boards to tell the swimming zombies to stop holding the vessel.
Two miles and 30 minutes downstream, the zombies stopped the barge again and the adventurers disembarked into another tunnel which this time lead to a vertical expressway, something that had not been seen before.
After a while, the party managed to descend to the horizontal tunnel below with some nimbly jumping and tumbling, others falling and screaming from fear followed by pain. Wolves do not like being lowered in ropes.
At the bottom were four unemployed zombies holding shovels which the priest quickly took control of for no obvious reason than that she could.
The passage soon went down a vertical bend but this time the druid's Feather Fall ring was efficiently used by all to get down the 100 foot drop safely. Wolves do not like falling under the unfluence of Feather Fall.
Again four zombies with shovels could be seen and again the passageway turned vertically down.
After descending the final drop safely, the party were happy to find themselves in a long expressway. One end seemed to be full of boulders from a rockfall so the priest set the newly recruited batch of zombies (the 3rd encountered in the last half hour) to work clearing a path.
Walking down the expressway in the opposite direction, the party found a couple of what would have been caverns completely filled with rubble from the mining machines. There was no indication how big the caverns were originally so it was difficult to determine how much rubble had been dumped here.
Further down the tunnel, the adventurers came across a familar beholder station like the ones where the mind flayer and beholder cultists had been slain. The only differences were that the station had been filled to the brim with rubble and a silver orange wall occupied one end of the entranceway.
Being attracted to shiny things, the monk, priest and druid (with now concussed wolf) jumped through. The wizard and scout decided that they wouldn't go through until they discovered if it was safe or not.

~~~~~~~~

The transported travellers painfully fell the 30 feet onto the top of a grey mountain of rubble, maybe 1,000 feet high. Amazingly, no Steps could be seen above them - surely the adventurers were now on top of the world!
In the distance could be a seen a dark red stone fortress. At the foot of the hill seemed to be a lean-to protecting two guards from the beating rays of the large sun. It was a long way from home...

Flame Strike trap (CR6) - 300 xp for each person, burnt or not
Zombies (CR 1/2) - 180 xp for each person except 300 xp for the priest
Understanding the function of the tunnels, caves and zombies - 300 xp for the scout

DM on vacation at TechEd in Barcelona