The Dweller on the Threshold

The Dweller on the Threshold
Part of The Royal Death Pits of Ur
Date 2086-08-07 GM Villiers Location Badiat_Goldare, The Plane of Ginnistan Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Wilson the Dwarf & Cerberus	Desert Demons	Banished Djinn
Delphi Aishar Ty Vallynn Titan Gulliver	Scorpius1 (F10) Scorpius2 (F10) Crawler (F10) Ghast (F10) Gum Toad (F10)	Banished Ifrit (F10) Banished Shaitan (F10) Banished Jann (F10)
Casualties and losses
0	6	0

Summary

Across the desert's molten breath, they strode with purpose bold.
To mend the rift of ancient tribes, not tempted by the gold.

Through trials fierce and spirits dark, they held the peace in hand,
And crossed the veil of fear and flame to heal a fractured land.

Background

A Professor, a sheikh, and a fixer discover a tablet linking the forgotten Gutian language to ancient Sumerian, enabling the decoding of clues pointing to Queen Puabi’s lost tomb.
To locate the tomb, they hire a team of runners who travel to Iraq who encounter a swamp spirit during their search. The swamp spirit leads them to two powerful djinn Sheikhs, Shaitan and Ifrit, who enlist them as future representatives in a mystical conclave. In exchage for the promise to represent the spirits, the spirits help the runners locate the Tomb of the Scribe, complete their mission, and report back.
The runner now owe the djinn sheikhs a favor.

The Meet

Runners meet with Sheikh Ali a--Ifrit and Sheikh Ali al-Shaitan who take them to a third, Sheik Ali al-Marid. They explain to them that they will have to go through a portal to the plane of Ginnistan, cross the desert and get to the glass-city of Schadou Kiam to show metahuman kind's willingness to risk and potentially sacrifice their lives for the truce between djinns and metahuman kind. By doing so, the conclave could be convinced to enter into a truce.
The great Djinn opens a portal to the metaplane and the runners go through to find themselves in Ginnistan and in front of a lava-desert.

The Plan

Cross the desert (stay by the lava river). Get past the mountain. Stay alive. Attend the conclave. Use the favors granted in the last adventure to get back to their own meta-plane, or astrally project back (those who can) which means having to pass The Dweller on the Threshold.

The Run

After locating and reporting the location of the Tomb of the Scribe to Sheikh Mustafa Al-Saadun, the runners (Ty, Titan, Delphi, Aishar, and Gulliver) meet again with the Djinns; Sheikh Ali a--Ifrit and Sheikh Ali al-Shaitan who take them to a third djinn, their informal leader Sheik Ali al-Marid who demand the runners make good on their promise to represent them at the conclave. The conclave serves the purpose to reistablish peace amongst differen djinn tribes who sided with different allies and got estranged during fights long, long times ago, and meta-humankind.

The Djinns explain that the runners will have to cross the dark desert, pass the great mountain and be at the conclave in the glass-city within seven days, and open a portal to the plane of Djinnistan. The runners enter the portal and find themselves in a lava desert.
With failry low water spplies, the runners question the sanity of entereing into an unknown plane without paroper preparations.
Soon however, they realize the advantage of not having wasted time on making purchases and preparing has its advantages. They are on a timeline, but not in any extreme hurry.

Their first encounter in the desert is with the dwarf Wilson, his three-headed dog (cerberus), a group of three fourtune-seeking djinns who want to loot a distant tower ruin for treasures, and a pair of djinns who strongly oppose that idea.
Wilson in hard set on looting the tower as he sees the opportunity to get large amounts of gold out of the adventure.
Keeping their eyes on the prize, the runners resist the temptation of the treasure and even manage to convince Wilson to abstain from going to the tower and to instead stay focused on arriving at the conclave on time, since he also represents a djinn tribe at the conclave.
If Wilson would fail to appear at the conclave, the runners fear that other factions at the conclave could doubt the sincerety of meta-human kind which is at test at the moment. Such a failure could gepordice the aspired truce the Djinns (thier principals) seek and the runners passionately work for.
The more, the merrier (and more safe).

Following the lava river through the desert, the runners arive at the mountain and decide to take the left route because it semms like it might be less hot due to the sahdows cast by the mountain.

Soon, they hear noises and eventually, during a nightly rest, they are attacked by a group of strong spirits in the shapes of two scorpiae, a cralwer, a ghast, and a gumtoad.
The runners quickly group and resist the attack without suffering any major damage.

Next morning, the three Djinns that went to look for a treasure at the old ruin tower catch up with them. Little do the runners know, that those Djinns are opportunistic fortune seekers who would attack them, if they felt that the runners were weak enough.
Not having suffered any major injuries from the nights attack, and travelling with Wilson and his Cerberus, the runners radiate enough power that the opportunistic Djinns do not attack them.

The runners who are critically low on water bargain with the opportunistic Djinns to show them a water source.
As the runners communicate openly about how important water is for survival, the opporunists decide to squeeze the runners for the bargain and ruequest something immensly valuabel in exchange.
The runners empty a briefcase and present it as a rare item called "The thing that holds many small things", which impresses the djinns who will later fight each other for the so valuable gadget, but first they show the runners a scattered water source which has enough water that is potable after the runners purify it.

From there on, the journey to the conclave proceeds without incidents.

With the meta-humans present at the conclave, the result of the conclave is the re-establishment of peace between the djinn tribes, and between djinns and meta-humanity. The runners make their way back to their own plane by magically projecting. To get back, they have to face the Dweller on the Threshold who torments them with their biggest fears before they are let through.
Titan who is unable to project uses the wish he was granted by the Djinns to get back to the home-plane and does not have to endure the torment of the Dweller.

The runners who feel happy and proud about having helped establishing peace between Djinns and Meta-Humankind make their way back to civilization, looking forward to a cool shower and soft matrasses.

Aftermath

The team reports the location of the Tomb to both their employers. Thalia Sandoval's team of shadow runners was pre-deployed to Ur and was looting the tomb for the Black Lodge while the archeologists being assembled by the Professor and the Sheikh in Nasiriyah were still packing. The mission to stand with the Ifrit and Shaitan is a success, helping to heal the rift caused during The Sundering

Rewards

25 Karma - (25 RVP)

10 CDP - (5 RVP)

2 CDP - (Base)

Aishar, Delphi, Ty each have one favor [use of any available power] of a great form F11 Ifrit. The run qualifies as an initiation ordeal.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Gulliver
Heat, thirst, and then spellbound loosing much of my physical ability.
Thank you team for keeping me alive!

Titan
Metaplane Desert sucks even more then usual deserts ... Still an 8 out of 10, because we got a brawl with some locals.