In the Desert

General Summary

Ashala and her vegepygmy Saguaro met the party on the road to the Waste at the appointed time. Practical minded but still convinced of the parties foolishness, she lead them into the desert. While Guy focused on befriending desert mice and Suguaro, Tethrys felt a pulling deeper into the desert, on she felt was important to the message of Stormwind.   By day four, the party had traveled 140 miles (35 miles a day) and were not even a quarter of the way across the desert, and the group was starting to get worried. Ashala was firm on her seven day timeline, both on behalf of the supplies brought and her weary respect for the dangers of the desert.   The last evening the party was awoken to the honking of a goose... in the desert. They chased it around the small camp as it pulled things down and out, until it started to beat it's wings.  

With a HONK, the goose begins to flap his wings, throwing up sand and dust. The dust cloud grows, wider and taller, and starts to move in a circling shape, and the cloud begins to roll towards you all. Horrified, Ashala yells "SANDSTORM. COVER." and dives for the rocky outcropping.   The group just managed to follow. The sand whips up around you, the ground below you shifting like water. Ashala yells to cover your face and face the stone, and you hunker down as the wind roars. Through it all, you can hear a semi constant strand of HONK HONK HONK The wind fades slowly. You can all stand, and sand rolls off you in sheets as you do. You're all in sight of each other, but the rocky outcropping is no where to be seen. The Heart of the Land, the only visible land mark for miles, looks further away than before. And rising up on it's other side is a single stone tower.   The tower is decorated with faded mosaic patterns, of stars on a black night sky's background. The tower seems to sink into the sand. There are no windows, and one doorway, facing you. The stone door is shut. From above, you hear one, self satisfied Honk, and can see the goose nod decisively, before flying away, towards the mountains.