Original Sandsea and Tibicenas

Sandsea — the ring and the lamp

An unnatural sandstorm had uncovered an ancient city around the Sandsea’s oasis. Zhoom wanted to find the mage Zahart, who might know why it had happened. The Hero joined his search at a port whose river had vanished beneath the changed landscape. Sandsharks roamed where marine life had once flourished, and tomb robbers plundered the exposed ruins. Before reaching Zahart, the Hero scouted the port, reduced the threats, recovered stolen relics and fought through the mercenaries guarding the far end of the settlement.

Zahart readily admitted that a Djinn had caused the storm. His servant was no ordinary spirit waiting in a lamp: Zahart summoned Tibicenas with a ring and ordered him to kill the intruder. The encounter nearly ended there. Zhoom intervened with a warning shot and made it clear that Zahart would not survive giving the next order. Zahart released the Hero, then had Tibicenas carry him away. The search had established who caused the storm, where Zahart’s strength came from, and that he had exposed the city to find something buried within it.

To learn how to oppose a Djinn, Zhoom sought the immortal mummy Sek-Duat. The former ruler was hiding in his dynasty’s pyramids, protected by scarabs, undead guards, mummies and the locked approach to his chamber. The Hero cleared the route and assembled the key. When the pair finally reached him, Sek-Duat saw no reason to cooperate. He could outlive Zhoom, flee now and reclaim his throne long after his pursuers were dead.

Sek-Duat escaped on a flying carpet. At Zhoom’s urging, the Hero took another carpet and pursued him through the pyramids while the ranger moved to intercept. The chase ended with the mummy in their custody. Zhoom’s hostility was deeply personal: he accused Sek-Duat of ruling for centuries by pretending to be his own descendants, and of hunting the sand-elves to extinction. Sek-Duat remained defiant until the Hero suggested handing him to Zahart. His fear of that prospect finally gave them a bargaining position.

The mummy had hidden because he could not defeat Tibicenas himself. He nevertheless offered a possible answer: they needed another Djinn, and he knew where to find one. His price was that they take him along. With that uneasy agreement, the search moved from the pyramids into the Cave of Wanders, a maze concealing a magical lamp.

Reaching the lamp meant dealing with the cave’s corrupted inhabitants and the magic holding their treasure chamber shut. Sek-Duat directed the Hero against Kalestri worshippers and their hounds, but gathering the evil essence he wanted did not break the final barrier. The Lotus Spiders’ binding webs proved to be the obstacle. Once the route was open, Zhoom also had the Hero obtain Dreamdust from the spiders. The alliance with the mummy ended in a fight rather than a peaceful division of the prize.

Sek-Duat appeared to have the last word. He hurled Zhoom over a precipice, struck down the Hero and claimed the lamp he had sought for centuries. Then the apparent triumph unraveled: the treasure in his hands was a rock, while the Hero and Zhoom were alive together with the real lamp. Zhoom explained that he had slipped Sek-Duat the Dreamdust. The murders and victory belonged to the mummy’s delusion; neither companion had actually died.

The two left Sek-Duat lost in the cave, reasoning that an immortal had ample time to find his way out. They had gained the means to summon a Djinn of their own. Zahart still had Tibicenas and his ring, but the Hero and Zhoom could finally seek help from someone who understood the power they were facing.

Sandsea — the King of the Sands

While the Hero and Zhoom secured their lamp, Zahart obtained the object he had been searching for: the Heart of the Sphinx. With it he could awaken the mighty creature from its slumber. Zahart believed this would discharge his debt to Drakath, leaving him free to use Tibicenas to rule the Sandsea forever. The storm and the search through the ruins had served a bargain larger than the mage’s immediate ambitions.

The Hero and Zhoom summoned Saahir from their lamp and asked for help destroying Tibicenas. Saahir explained the limit of that request. Djinn could be defeated, contained or bound, but they could not be destroyed. He identified himself as a good Marid and Tibicenas as a former Ghul. Above them stood Efreet, king of the Djinn. Long ago, Tibicenas had experimented with Chaos to rival the king’s power, and Efreet had exiled him. Saahir believed only powerful Chaos magic could have bound him to Zahart’s ring. The Hero recognized Drakath’s involvement and the danger of an awakened Chaos Beast.

The pursuit led into the Sand Castle. Zhoom’s investigation sent the Hero through its defenses, against war hyenas and mummies, and after Zahart’s plans. A search for the gems opening the menagerie wasted precious time when the chamber proved empty. The Sphinx was the real threat. The Hero confronted and defeated the Chaos Beast, denying Zahart the weapon he had brought out of its ancient sleep.

Zahart tried to escape with Tibicenas again. Zhoom’s shot broke the controlling ring, but that intervention had a consequence he had not intended. Tibicenas became free of the mage and immediately made Zahart his own slave. Drakath, he said, had promised that Zahart would eventually lose the ring. Tibicenas thanked the ranger and departed for the Djinn World, intending to settle unfinished business before returning to conquer Lore. The Hero asked Saahir to take them after him.

In the Djinn World, Efreet required service before granting an audience. The Hero dealt with Lamia threatening the desert’s children, freed captive air Djinn, removed clay humps from camels whom Efreet considered deserving of relief, and drove away harpies disrupting his people’s work. The final task was to mark weakened portals with concealing mists so that skilled Djinn could reinforce them. These favors earned the Hero a single request from the king.

Before the Hero could settle on a wish, Tibicenas arrived to challenge Efreet. Saahir fought him at the king’s command, but Tibicenas overcame him. The Hero believed Saahir had been killed; Tibicenas corrected that impression. Saahir would eventually regain enough strength to return, though he expected the recovery to take thousands of years. Losing their ally left the mortals facing a being whose power had already overwhelmed their best answer to him.

The Hero stopped the confrontation long enough to claim the promised wish: strip Tibicenas of his power. Efreet could remove his Djinn powers, but his Chaos powers would remain. The Hero accepted the limitation. Tibicenas was weakened to a level they could challenge, and the battle that followed defeated him. The victory did not depend on an unlimited wish or the destruction of a Djinn; the Hero had used the king’s limited offer to make the fight possible.

Zahart was free of Tibicenas’s control. Efreet treated the victory as another favor and, under Djinn law, offered the Hero a further request. This time the Hero asked for a ride home. Back in the Sandsea, the villagers initially feared Zahart’s return, but Zhoom assured them that the mage was harmless again. Tibicenas had been defeated, and Sek-Duat remained lost in the Cave of Wanders. The desert had been left without a ruler.

Zhoom proposed the Hero for the throne, and the people acclaimed their rescuer. The Hero declined to stay: there were still enemies elsewhere to face. Instead, the Hero passed the crown to Zhoom, who pledged to rebuild the Sandsea with his people. They hailed him as King of the Sands. Once the celebration had settled, the new king had one lingering question for his friend: why spend a wish on a ride home?