Armed with a bag-full of artisan cakes, the heroes make their way back to the Bumblebrook Sanctuary to placate the fairy dragon (clearly frustrated by the party's lack of curiosity as to its name). The dragon pounces on the cakes, eating them all up like there's no tomorrow and then rolling around in the leftover icing. The cakes clearly made an impression! In exchange for the treats, the dragon shows Doc the path to find Peter (from the foothills by Quanlo, down through the Ragneron Forest, and near a lake). Doc struggles to recognize the terrain, but thinks he gets the gist and flings his recently purchased platinum coin at the dragon as a token of his gratitude. The dragon reflexively flies safely out of range of the flying coin, hisses, and vanishes out of sight, leaving the coin to fall haplessly back to the ground unattended. Curious reaction. With the disappearance of the dragon, the illusory terrain fades from existence all around the sanctuary revealing a plain old, grassy, overgrown marsh.
Since it's late evening and the party has a long ride ahead of them (to the desert tomb), they decide to park it at the Troublesome Troll for food and rest. During their dinner, the heroes overhear talk between two miners of some strange discovery deep within the Thanon mine... some sort of huge, ancient stone doorway blocking a newly dug tunnel. They get some much needed rest that night, and Talos awakens before dawn to the sound of a spinning coin falling close to his ear. Opening his eyes, it would seem a plain platinum coin has mysteriously found its way into his room. Talos inspects the premises for signs of intrusion but finds none, pockets the coin, and drifts off to sleep. His dreams are filled with wonderous imagery from a lush, overgrown ruin somewhere deep within a forest, and he's overcome with the desire to visit.
Over breakfast, Talos brings up the topic of the odd coin he found and Doc notices the similarity between this and his own coin. Rifling around in his pockets, Doc discovers that his own coin has gone missing and the two discuss just how it came to land in Talos' possession. Talos claims innocence and hands the coin back to Doc for safe keeping. The lot then begin discussing plans for the day. Most decide that catching the wagon out to the desert tomb sounds like the best thing to do first, and Talos mentions that he'd rather visit these ruins he'd dreamed about... overruled. The heroes head out of the town gates, meet the driver, and get to travelling.
The journey, according to the old man at the reigns, should take about 4 hours given smooth riding (ha). The driver is clearly wary of the journey and not looking forward to what may come of it, but the pay is good. An hour passes by uneventfully as the wagon heads NE away from the foothills and into the sandy desert, and with a few lurches and an exclamation or two from the driver, the whole thing comes to a stop. A wheel had gotten stuck in the hard, sandy, stone-ridden earth. The heroes pile out of the wagon to bitch and try and help push the wagon free of its bondage. Ultimately, after the driver sticks a wedge beneath the problem wheel, the crew manages to heave it free. This delay had cost them 2 more hours, and just as they started to ride again the lot is ambushed by a pack of giant hyenas! Combat ensues.
The driver manages to fend off a couple of the beasts with an old machete until they finally grow a pair and pounce, pinning him to the floor and nearly eviscerating him. Talos' imp dive-bombs the hyena nearest to its master, latching on to its side and stinging it with a nasty poison until it collapses. Showing a bit of its devious personality, the imp then decides to join the driver and three hyenas to "stir the pot" a bit. Eventually, the hyenas are slain, the driver is healed, and the crew gets back on the road.
The remaining couple hours pass by uneventfully, and the wagon rolls up to the site of a strange visual anomaly (the tomb). Large, neon-blue rimmed "bubbles" of space seem to swirl and rotate around the axis of some invisible hemisphere sitting atop the desert sand. When inspected closer, the bubbles appear more to be tears in the fabric of space-time, providing windows into a dark, moonlit landscape dotted with ruined ivory pillars and a sporting a great gaping maw of a hole protruding from the earth.
At first, some folks in the party are taken aback with the power and mystery of this place and consider heading back to Quanlo having had "investigated" the area thoroughly. Fhasys, feeling brave and restless, first wanders into the center of the bubble swarm for a looksee and then back out to attempt to jump through one of the bigger holes. Her first attempt ends up unsuccessful, but her second try vaults her through to the other side. Meanwhile, Doc discovers what appears to be a large humanoid lying face-down in the distance. Doc, Talos, and Vyreth head out to investigate and find what appears to be the scene of a small battle between a handful of red robed mages (identified as being from the mages guild of Quanlo) and a couple blighted ogres.
The rest of the crew ends up following Fhasys into the alternate dimension (through the bubble holes), and they all decide to set up camp for a short rest. Doc stands watch for the duration and the group is ambushed by 10 skeletons that burst from the hallowed grounds and attack. Despite a few knicks, the party makes it through unscathed. As the last skeleton falls, a great, foul mass of air belches forth from the opening in the ground filling the heroes with sadness and bitterness. Steeling themselves, they gather their gear and head down the tunnel leading into the earth.
After a long descent, the tunnel finally flattens out and dead-ends at a large onyx inscribed slab blocking the way. Talos, using his knowledge of lore and arcana, deciphers the inscriptions as being ancient dwarven and reads the text to his group; it's a poem dedicated to the nasty inhabitant of this tomb for which it was constructed, Urzaan. Whipping out a scroll of Dispel Magic, Talos releases the magical lock on the slab and Doc and Vyreth manage to slide it out of the way. Standing before a dimly lit great hallway lined with pillars and torches, the heroes spot a lone sarcophagus at the far-end and decide how to best approach.
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