All sense of time and space is lost as you plunge headlong into the whirling black throat of the abyss. Only a numbing chill and a mournful sound, like a million voices crying in despair, accompany you on your descent into the unknown. Gradually your mind is filled with fearful visions, nightmare shapes that reach out of the darkness to claw and bite and scream at your passing. They grow in menace until they are swiftly dispelled by diamond-shaped motes of light, which streak past at incredible speeds. The tiny lights engulf you in a cone of fiery brilliance and a metallic smell of ozone, sharp and pungent, assails your nostrils. A sensation of warmth surges through your frozen limbs. Then, an instant later, you strike solid ground with such a suddenness that you are left stunned and panting for breath.
(I roll a die and get 3. I lose 3 EP from the trip.)
With dread anticipation you stagger to your feet to survey your new surroundings. A bleak and desolate plateau, seemingly devoid of life, stretches into the distance on all sides. Jagged boulders litter a desert of crimson sand, which is stirred to restless motion by fierce and scorching winds. Neither sun nor moon hang in the amber skies above, yet their absence does not leave this world in darkness, for all along the horizon blazes a fire which glows brighter than a thousand sunsets. You stare across this alien landscape and a feeling of helplessness grips your senses as you realize where you have emerged. This is the twilight world of the Daziarn Plane.
A knot of fear tightens in your stomach as you recall what little you have heard about this world. The magicians of Sommerlund believe it to be an astral corridor that connects Magnamund with other planes of existence. So, by passing through a Shadow Gate, one of which is situated below the Guildhall in Toran, a person can gain entry to the Daziarn. However, those who have passed through the Shadow Gate in Toran have never been seen again and the magicians believe that the journey can be made in only one direction. They say there is no escape from the Daziarn.
Your vow to restore the Kai and your stubborn will to survive against all odds refuse to let you believe that there is no way back to your home world. You cast aside your fear and steel yourself for the task of finding a means of escaping from this desolate place. But firstly you must recover the two Lorestones that fell into the Shadow Gate shortly before you.
(I use Divination + Tutelary)
You scan the barren wasteland, straining your senses to detect the missing Lorestones, which must be somewhere among the millions of rocks and wind-smoothed boulders that cover the vast plateau. But it proves a fruitless search: you can find no trace of the Lorestones nor even the slightest indication that a Shadow Gate opened here.
The torrid winds sweep across the landscape with increasing ferocity, forcing you to protect your eyes from the gusts of sharp, stinging sand. The need to find cover takes priority when you sense that the winds are merely the prelude to a storm. To remain here in the open could prove a fatal mistake.
Peering through your fingers you try to find somewhere to take shelter. To your left, in the middle distance, you can see what appears to be a mound of volcanic stone slabs; to your right, but further away, you notice a shallow gully running lee to the wind.
(I choose the cairn)
With plodding steps you set off towards the rocky cairn. Your feet sink ankle-deep into the hot red sand and you can only maintain your balance by leaning heavily into the wind. Walking soon becomes an ordeal and by the time you reach shelter you are near to exhaustion.
Breathless and weary you crouch beside the mound and pray that the storm will soon subside. Then it occurs to you that the cairn is not a natural structure: the rocks have been stacked symmetrically, one upon the other, by someone or something who wished to leave their mark upon this wilderness. You examine the slabs more closely and discover one that is quite unlike the others. Its rectangular edges are even and its surface is mirror-smooth. Inscribed upon this slab are curious spidery markings.