Singed feathers

Notes for proper report.

Obtaining sacrificial prisoners
Wizard failing to purchase slaves
Invisible carpet to vantage point

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The monk decided that it was essential to provide the harpies with the chance to reconcile their differences with the pit Fiend and so avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Flying out on one of the carpets, the monk approached the towers on a mission of peace in search of harpies to negotiate with.

The harpies were very pleased to see the monk, if only as it meant they did not have to go and hunt for food. The calming influence of his aura meant the avians did nto rip him to pieces on the spot but instead locked him in one of the cages hanging under the towers for storing captives.

After waiting for his harpy captor to fly off, the monk used his skill to slip through the bars and escape upon the flying carpet that was dutifully still floating nearby. With negotiation having failed, the monk retired from the scene.

Now free to bring the Pit Fiend's punishment to the harpies, the party entered the tower with the now-empty hanging cage to wait. Soon three bird creatures were flying up towards them which was the cue for a fireball to be released to great effect.

"Dive, dive, dive..."

Cruising at 600 feet above the sand, ebony black advespa carried payloads of dead sun spider towards Station. Below them, a tiny square flew across the sand dunes bearing a trio of humanoid figures.

"Gold Leader to Gold Two, bandits six o'clock. Flying infringement. The use of lethal force in their apprehension has been approved."

"Copy, Gold Leader." Bzzzzzzzzz......



Dozing off on the carpet in the beating sun, the party were totally unaware of being watched, or even threatened, until a suddenly-calm-and-peaceful flying devil flew past and spun around to confront them. After convincing the creature that their flying permit was genuine, they were allowed to proceed to Station.

Soon the adventurers had reached town and, realising that everybody seemed to be eyeing the carpet jealously, came to a stop to disembark. The trio then proceeded on foot towards the first garrison with a slightly less conspicuous rolled up carpet slung over their shoulders. At the garrison, the spinagon at the desk was more than happy to help people working for the Pit Fiend and put the carpet into safe storage in return for a receipt.

As the evening was drawing in, the party retired to an inn for the night. During their meal, a mysterious whispered voice (seemingly issuing from one of the catering staff) offering wealth in return for an escape from the step on the carpet. The priest rejected all offers and soon the conversation ended. During the night, the monk caught the member of staff listening at their door but let him go on his way.

In the morning the priest and scout went to the first garrison. Again, the monk was left behind as it was felt that his presence could be unsettling at times to those of a diabolic persuasion. The cleric had a plan to trick the devils into giving them not only the carpet from the previous evening but also the flying rug from days before. Despite having a receipt for only a single item, she was sure the spinagon on the day shift would understand the mix-up and be forthcoming. Eventually, after much name-dropping of the Pit Fiend and emphasis of the importance of their work, the two carpets were produced. Unfortunately the extra carpet was not the one the cleric was expecting and more name-droppings and emphases were required to make the right amount of progress.



Two carpets in tow, the three adventurers set off to the edge of town to await the arrival of the rest of the party, unaware of the attack on the oasis. On the way, a desert wanderer accosted them and offered to join their group. Realising that the party was underpowered with the loss of the knight and monk, the priest accepted them on the group's adventurers' behalf.

"Yeah, I'm illiterate so you need to go to building 17"

The wizard, clothed from head to toe in desert robes, rode on towards Station, his camel dragging a rack of dried sun spider meat behind it.

On the outskirts, a spinagon brought him to a halt to enquire about his business. Unsurprisngly, the devil then proceeded to extort gold from the wizard in the form of "taxes". Being acquainted with the ways of the step, he requested a receipt of the payment but the creature used layer after layer of bogus excuses to fend off doing so.

Eventually, Station was reached but the merchant he usually dealt with was unwilling to buy the meat at a reasonable price. Since the Pit Fiend had ordered the culling of sun spiders, a lot of the produce had flooded the market and brought the price crashing down. An exotic meat had now become commonplace. Moving on to another merchant revealed the same story but slightly more gold.

Wondering what to do next, the wizard espied a trio of adventurers that looked short of a practitioner in the arcane ways...

I'll be back...

Below them, the camp was brightly lit with the radiance from a sun rod, defying the darkness of night that covered the surrounding desert. The two people on watch could be easily seen amongst the tents, as could the sleeping winged lion. Ontey-Co motioned the pair of rogues into place on a steep rock right nearby and waited for them to launch arrows into the unsuspecting group. Moments later, the twang of bows could be heard and the druid summoned a raging ball of fire in the camp, causing chaos as people woke to find their tents aflame.

One of the rogues playfully picked off escaped slaves that were running for cover. Soon a couple of fighters had run round the base of the rock to attack them and the half-fiend charged in to help. Blows were exchanged before suddenly a supernatural darkness descended, making combat so much harder and less predictable.

The lammasu flew up to the main rocky outcrop and, losing contact with the half-fiend, brought a holy smite down upon the sorcerer and druid before engaging them in combat. The sorcerer continued to pester the creature with magic spells, draining its strength away and blasting it with pot-shots from a wand.

A raging barbarian also charged up the hill to come face to face with a summoned hippogriff. Within seconds blood and feathers filled the air before the frothing fighter moved on to new targets. Soon only the sorcerer was left and a massive sword stroke picked up their body and cast it to the oasis' pool below. The barbarian, red mist before his eyes, jumped after the corpse and proceeded to hack it further as he landed.

As quiet descended on the oasis, Ruby Ashendown gulped down another potion of healing before crawling off under the cover of darkness into the dark desert...

"Bug hunt ... no... gardening .... no ... harpy hunt ... result!"

The party discussed plans with the lammasu before resting overnight at the oasis. The beast's mission was to maintain a resistance force against the Pit Fiend and its troops in concert with the dragon on the other side of the step. The battle was long and hard but the lammasu was in for the long term. Victory may take many years but eventually Good would prevail. It listened to the party's desire to escape to the next step but was unable to offer assistance as that would leave the resistance forces unassisted for several days - flying down to the next step and returning was not a simple task.

The lammasu did concede, though, that if the party was able to strike a significant blow against the evil forces on the step then it would be obliged to offer what assistance it could in their escape attempt. Such a mission would need a several days to arrange - collecting intelligence, getting its freedom fighters into place, and so on. The party decided to use this delay to visit the Tower and collect papers for those in the party that were missing them. The paladin and swashbuckler decided to remain with the lammasu at the oasis for their return.

On the way to the tower, they spotted some scorpionfolk dragging a few dead sun spiders behind them through the sand, no doubt as food for later. The adventurers flashed their papers (or, at least, those that had them) to the pair of barbazu on guard and were allowed into the main courtyard.

Just as the original members had weeks before, the monk and barbarian queued up for residence papers. After a while the pair approached the main desk when the monk's calming aura surrounded the head clerk. Greatly unsettled by calming ambience it was forced to endure, the devil lashed out with it's own aura of fear. Caught in the middle, the barbarian ran outside into the parade ground where he was set upon my a trio of malicious nupperibo. Spinagons quickly descended to whip their troops back into line but not before the frightened desert dweller had received a number of nasty cuts to his body.

Eventually, after queuing again, the barbarian was registered without further set-back. The scout had also managed to change the adventuring party's name to something less of a mouthful than the last one.

The four adventurers (cleric, scout, barbarian and monk) ventured into the Strip, the long corridor where the pit fiend advertised contracts of work, to see what was currently available. They were not able to see all of the contracts as some were deemed to confidential for such an untested group. What was visible consisted of :

• clear an oasis of undesirables
• investigate reports of unauthorised vegetation encroaching on the step
• cull the number of sun spiders in the dunes above the Tower
• administer punishment to a group of ill-disciplined harpies

It was quickly determined that oasis clearance was to do with the location of the lammasu and the escaped prisoners so the party decided against choosing that one. Hindsight, though, would have shown that choosing this job would have prevented another party taking it up and give the lammasu time to relocate.

The plant and bug missions did not sound as exciting as taking on a group of harpies so the last contract was signed up for. The brief was to raid the harpies' cliff-based home while the majority of them were away on Pit Fiend business. On their return, the harpies would learn of the Pit Fiend's displeasure and how vulnerable they really were. To assist in the mission, a license to fly was issued along with the temporary loan of a flying carpet. To ensure the carpet did not 'disappear', a speaking raven came along on the understanding that it would call out the deactivate command word should the party try to escape the step on it, or in any way deviate form the mission.

The scout remembered the other flying carpet that had been handed in to the First Garrison in Station the other day. If they could borrow that - on the Pit Fiend's business - then the mission would be a lot easier to complete. With that in mind, the scout, monk and raven set off on the magic carpet to Station. On his camel, the barbarian set off towards the oasis to update the paladin and lammasu on the new plans. Some way behind him, another party of adventurers left the Strip and started off in the same direction as the barbarian...

Return of the Imaskari

Before the Pit Fiend, the first level of Ascent was ruled by the Imaskari, a race of humans that retreated from the world as their empire crumbled. Using great wizardry, they hid themselves away deep underground in isolation. For many years their descendants have remained hidden but now that time is coming to an end. The magical barriers that protected them have been brought down from within and now a few Imaskari have returned to the deserts they used to rule. Their favoured pursuit is arcane research and wizards are common. Sand shapers represent the more powerful wizards now exploring the surface again.