They set camp. Cassie takes first watch. A child’s shout alerts her. She sees the trogg kid trying to scare three reptillian scavengers. Reptiles want to eat the trogg mother’s corpse. They stand on their hind legs, scaley, heads cock to either side to watch and listen to their surroundings. Trogg child picks up a stick, and waves it threateningly. Reptiles ignore him, and take a bite out of the corpse. Orphan attacks them.
Cassie warns the others, and charges in with her sword to help the child. Rising from slumber the party members quickly arm themselves. Ryogan with knives, Shandi also with a sword, and Leonard with his rifle. Thandi devastates one of the scavengers with a dart of energy that leaps from her free hand. Leonard’s rifle shot sends another of the scavengers spinning away, blood splashes onto the desert sands. Ryogan and Cassie cut the third one with a series of cuts and slashes.
A roar in the distance tells them the fight is not over. From the darkness a much larger version of the creatures runs towards them. The claws on its arms glint in the moonlight. They are perfect for rending flesh. Despite her threatening appearance, the single animal stood no chance against the combined firepower of the party. She falls.
Dawn arrives, and the trogg child stands with Cassie at the edge of the camp.
“Thank you, I will not forget your kindness. I know now that it is time to return my mother to the spirits of the earth.”
Cassie nods. “I’ll help.”
“No, I must do this.” the orphan says with surprising firmness in his voice.
“Then… go in peace.”
“Here – it is a pendant that has been in my family for generations.”
Cassie holds the metal pendant, though it’s no metal she recognizes. A crackle of blue energy shimmers off it briefly when it touches her palm. The trogg child leaves, dragging the remains of his mother’s corpse. Cassie watches until he vanishes in the sandy haze of the desert.
They return to the burnt Trogg village to try and find water. There is a large cask of water, too large to transport. Leonard devises a container to take some back to camp. They boil the water, and drink. Soon after the party begins to reel from halucigenic effects. Vision blurs, and distorts. Still, it isn’t deadly. Cassie takes some water to the injured hooker.
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay… better, much better.”
“Do you need some more pain medication?”
“No… I’m okay… It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Cassie removes the blanket, and is about to change the bandage when she sees it move. She tries to focus on the binding, not sure if the throbbing is a halucination or not. Carefully she unwraps the bandages. She chokes in horror.
The wound is filled with small beetles. Its size expanded to that of a dinner plate. Cassie is stunned.
“Is something wrong?” the hooker asks, but then she looks down. She screams, and screams!
Ryogan who was busy brewing an antidote to the halucinagenic takes two steps towards the injured woman. He casually flicks a dagger which embeds between the hooker’s eyes. She dies instantly.
Cassie looks at him, they both look at the campfire. Together they carefully lift the corpse by the limbs, a few of the carrion beetles fall out of the wound, and run around in circles searching for the meal. Ryogan and Cassie toss the corpse into the fire, then throw more fuel on top. Cassie gives a silent eulogy.
None speak of her again.
Soon after Ryogan completes his antidote, and shares it with the others. With healthier minds the party packs up, and leaves for the desert towards Petropolis.
Hours later they arrive at a depression in the desert. Thandi hypothesizes that they are in a lakebed that dried tens of thousands of years ago. As they continue they see a monlith in the distance. It’s not out of their way, so they approach the monument. The monolith is several stories tall, created from some onyx stone. Its walls from a distance appear polished.
A shadow forms over them. Having seen no clouds before, they look up. Above them is the form of a titanic whale – a leviathan. It is flying towards them. The closer it becomes, the more it envelopes the sky. They can see its mouth agape to swallow anything in its path.
The party run for the monolith. A wave of energy flows out from the structure, invisible to the naked eye, but felt by Leonard and Thandi. Its effects are visible to all, however, as the wave flows over the rocks and sand, ghosts emerge. They stand still, vaguely humanoid, but larger and haunched. The ghosts stare up at the leviathan, and though they have no voice, their memory of fear and panic echo through the living.
Up close to the pillar they see that the monolith is covered in symbols. Its surface shines with a patina of blue energy.
Ryogan pulls a pendant out from his pocket, and holds it close to the pillar. The pendant pulses warmly in his hand. Cassie checks her pockets.
“You damn thief!”
“No I’m not! This is mine, you probably lost yours.”
His attempted lie is clumsy, and Cassie closes in. Ryogan tries to slap her, but the assassin deflects the attack. She grips his wrist holding the pendant, and forces it against the pillar. In a flash of blinding light Ryogan vanishes. Leonard examines the monolith more closely, his hand hovering just above its surface.
Above a the atmospheric roar of the enclosing leviathan continues to rise.
Leonard, having come to some sort of decision puts his hand to the pillar. He too vanishes.
“It’s a teleporter of some kind,” Thandi explains.
Each woman touches the ancient device, and vanish.