Into the Desert

Amrat Caravanserai

Shalia and Islana - Two days later you join the caravan of the Ozainae priest-sorcerers outside the ancient walls of the fort. The leader of the Ihara clan sends an escort to take you and the emissaries to the next step of their journey. Although the fort faces the great expanses of the desert, you will not step on its scorching sands for a few days. The fertile lands of the clan Ilhar will give way to arid plains that will transform into the Great Desert of Skulls.

Although allowed to join the priests of the Twin gods caravan back into the Holy city, you are pretty much on your own when it comes to supplies and equipment.

Islana's purchases are collected from the merchants in the fort and taken along for the journey. Yashker offers to buy your mounts from you. His guards will return them to the caravanserai once you arrive at the true edge of the desert. He tells you, horses don't do well in the desert and part of your journey will done by barge along the currents of the Kak'tak river towards Gra'akast.

It’s will always be hard for you to describe the feeling of approaching the desert to someone who has never seen one before. A drying of landscape, a browning of land and a slow disappearing of trees and shrubs and signs of life. Before, all of a sudden, the dunes appear. A sea of golden waves that appears to have no beginning and no end. Nothing prepares once you reach your destination for what you see. The torrid heat that emanates from the land is like nothing you have experienced before. It hits you like a closed fist.

You stare down the most alien environment you have ever gazed upon. The Great Desert of Skulls sprawls in all directions ahead of you. Once you step on its sands there will be no turning back...