A13

After buying supplies, the party (Dominic, Ignatius, Jack, Drusila, and the mechanical man) bought passage on the Iron Carriage to Hassan. Within eight hours they were in the small desert town. As Dominic bought some riding lizards, Jack and Ignatius investigated the mysterious mass of riding lizards across the street in front of the Dusty Throat. There another larger party of adventurers were also setting out to pillage the city of Sikak. They were led by Kendrick Freeman, an experienced treasure hunter, and aided by Azara Oas and her men, the Red Hand Gang. It seems the mysterious old lady who told her tale to Jack also told it to Kendrick. As the two groups grudgingly rode across the desert, Jack was very untrusting of the other group and tried to convince the others to attack their rivals now. After two days of uneventful travel, they reached the ruins of Sikak, a half buried pile of stones with several fragile towers poking out of the sands.
     The two groups set up camp and began scouting the city. Kendrick�s promise of magic support arrived in the form of a desert witch riding a huge dire bat. The party quickly decided to investigate the major standing structures in the high quarter, leaving most of the villas to Kendrick. At what seemed a minor palace, they decided to tunnel into the underground area below. That night as the others dug, a mysterious dust mephit walked out of the desert and talked to Ignatius. He referred to his Lord and Lady and how the others of his kind lived down below. After this the party decided to excavate elsewhere for a while. As they excavated the noble villas, a band of bounty hunters arrived at the ruins led by halfling Lash. In the ensuing fight, Lash was killed and the others slaughtered, leaving only the hunter after legitimate criminals, the Red Hand Gang. In the interests of saving a fellow cleric, Dominic convinced him to back down and promised to send word of the location of the Red Hand Gang when they reach civilization.
     After talking to the desert witch, the party learned about the blue dragon in the region, which Jack used to spread fear through the ranks of Kendrick�s workers. In the meantime, the party decided to finally investigate the south end of the city. There they unfortunately ran into a basilisk and Ignatius was transformed into a statue. With some work though Dominic was able to brew a concoction out of the basilisk�s saliva and reverse Ignatius�s condition somewhat. The semipetrified sorcerer and the others then began to investigate the mysterious holes on the south end of town.
     The holes led into the lair of a colony of giant ants. After dealing with some hostile fungus, the party entered an unused hole. The ants had incorporated some of the city�s catacombs in their hive and set up rooms for nurseries and storage. Moving ever deeper into the lair, the party soon reached the queen�s chamber. There a massive battle erupted as the party fended off the enhanced minions of a false queen.   Dominic�s ape was able to kill it as it retreated but not even a web spell could stop the monstrosity coming out of the final nursery, an ant of epic proportions. With a massive blast of attacks and spells, the creature was defeated, and the weary party set up camp right there.
     Beyond the ants final excavations lay a tiled room covered in mosaic of leaves and flames. As the party searched this room and the maze of corridors it led to, they soon realized that the magic of the area made the maze impossible to solve. Also the self-cleaning magics made even coin markers useless. As they wandered aimlessly through the area destroying ancient golems and defeating traps, they eventually found themselves facing an archway leading to a vast pile of coins, gems, and art objects. Detecting for magic revealed a barrier made up of almost every form of magic. The �door� became mirror like and an amazing design etches itself on the door in thin flames. After incinerating the party�s test rat, the door introduced itself as a trapped being from the outer planes, named Cythera. She explained the constrictions to which she was bound and how if the party found the lost key of the vizier, she could be freed and they wealth could be theirs. But she could not tell them who holds the other two key or if her masters lay within.
     With help of Cythera, the party learned of how to navigate the maze by concentrating on the flames and reached the mines beneath the vizier�s palace. After unsuccessfully negotiating with the dust mephits, they retreated back to the surface. In the time the party had spent underground, the dragon had attacked the other camp and three workers made up a makeshift cemetery. Their rivals were busy excavating the vizier�s palace and soon broke into the lair of the dust mephits. Letting them do their dirty work, the party followed the path of destruction and began to search for the key. After dealing with some mold, confusing mine shafts, and an angry umber hulk, they recovered the key and hurried back to the door. They freed the imprisoned erinyes and saw the true treasure hoard as well as the two blue dragons.
     The battle with the dragons was fierce. The female charged out and lay into the party causing Ignatius and Drusila to quickly retreat as Jack shot as it�s behind. Dominic and the other group caught up soon enough and under a hail of blows the first dragon fell. Enraged the brother attacked killing the desert witch and most of the Red Hand Gang in one blast. In the end magic and firearms prevailed, with Kendrick taking most of the hits. Meanwhile Jack, invisible snuck into the treasure room and began to pilfer the best stuff. The battle concluded the survivors agreed to divide the spoils equally.

The Hoard