Campaign 1

Summary
Introductory campaign of The Hollow Land. Serves as an opportunity to introduce new characters to each other, experience their first combat encounter, and launch the party on a path to a new city and campaign. Set at the Gulgun Caravansarai, this encounter also includes an introductory dream sequence which will follow briefings on Cosmology, History, and Rules.

Dream Sequence:
"You stand in a world upside down; bright, yet clouded, with a dull, piercing rose-colored light from above. A smell like sulfur, but sweeter, permeates the air. Black rivulets of thick liquid run beneath your feet over jagged rocks. You follow the flows as they become streams. Soon you find they converge and disappear into fine cracks in the rock, as if being sucked through with great force. Looking up, you see what appears to be a gentle upward slope of solid stone, gaining pitch as it recedes to become a great red wall of rock which extends endlessly in all directions - disappearing into the pink mist above and all around. You can barely make out what appears to be an opening in the stone when you hear footfall behind you. You see a man, with black skin, cracked and glowing red like hot embers, with lidless eyes and lip-less mouth fixed upon you standing motionless a few paces away. You are afraid. Your skin is burning - it feels like it's burning off. The seething pain spreads as the figure extends its finger towards you. A rushing hiss like wet burning wood issues from it's glowing mouth: whaaa...wake up...WAKE UP!!!!" - Clap loudly to startle the party.

Waking Up:
(Dawn, Gulgun Caravansarai): "The heat of the morning sun and scent of smoldering dung blasts you from your listless slumber. You look around, and through the haze of smoke and dust and last night’s drinking you begin to appraise your surroundings and attempt reassemble your fuzzy recollections. The eroding pale clay walls around you are bare, save for the crumbling openings through which the heat of the day is beginning to enter. All around you, the floor is covered with old tattered rugs and sleeping mats and peppered with all the expected bric-a-brac of a long night of carousing: brass goblets, charred goat bones and smoking pipes. The air is thick with stench and snoring and the memory of too much drink. You struggle to focus - your head is pounding. There are at least fifteen more sleeping bodies in the room than should fit comfortably, and in addition to those at least (# in party) of them are awake, sitting upright and looking just as confused as you."

"You begin to recall some basic details of your whereabouts, though vague and distant. Yes, you are in the Great Steppes - the dry air and heat seems to corroborate that - and you are surely (as you were last night) withing the walls of a caravansarai: a refuge for weary merchants and travelers heading east and west along the Great Way. But who, you wonder, are these companions of yours?"

Introductions:
''Use this opportunity to have the party introduce their characters; their history and purpose for being here. Allow them some time - but not too long - to link up their characters to your narrative (it should be a bit improvised). As soon as the group becomes acquainted launch into the next segment. Interupt as necessary to reveal to the party that they have no weapons on them.''

Enter Ozengash
"As you begin to consider each other's tales with equal parts interest, doubt, and suspition, there is a faint sound the begins to emminate from outside the mud walls. It sounds a bit like the soft crunching of feet on dry soil. BANG!!" Say it loud and clap.

"Before you are even able to register the nature of the sudden blast, there is another loud boom" - slam table "but this time it is the door to the courtyard flying open." Allow party to react.

Ozengash ul-Fermuz is standing in the doorway. He is tall and broad, with an angular face and a dark pointed beard. He is wearing white traders trousers and robes over a thick leather chestpiece, as well as riding boots and a white turban. A wide leather belt with an empty scabbard hangs wraps around his waist.

(Ozengash) - "If any of you wish to live past breakfast today then you will get your malingering asses up and follow me! We are being attacked - raiders by the looks of them...never thought they would stray this far from the coast. Any of you people know how to fight?"