The Road That Sank Beneath the Sand
The Road That Sank Beneath the Sand
“Five hostile horizons. One vanished road. A city that was buried for a reason.”
— Hook · explore
“Professor Nahlia Vey spreads a weather-stained map across the table and points to a blank space beyond the Great Sand Sea. She claims the ancient city of Mehet-Khet A lies there, but the only surviving route is scattered across drowned roads, pine markers, badland cisterns, and buried desert stones. If the party can recover the route before a rival expedition, it may reach a city thought lost for a thousand years.”
— Hook · explore
At the Last Lantern Trading Post, Professor Nahlia Vey presents the party with a brass route cylinder recovered from a dead surveyor. Its interior contains a partial star chart, a strip of black reed paper, and a message written in a shaking hand: 'The road begins where the water forgets the sky.' Nahlia offers funding, supplies, and a share of any lawful discoveries, but warns that Marshal Drazan Korr departed three days ago with a larger and better-armed expedition.
Professor Nahlia Vey
Professor Nahlia approaches the party in a crowded frontier trading post after learning that they have experience surviving difficult terrain. She offers a written contract, expedition supplies, and first claim to ordinary archaeological finds, while reserving historical relics for public study.
Rumours
d6 · table- 01A road to Mehet-Khet A begins in a swamp where the reeds grow in perfect circles.
- 02The tallest pines in the barrens bear scars shaped like letters, but only at sunset can they be read.
- 03A red stone cistern still contains cold water even during the hottest season.
- 04Travelers hear bells beneath the Great Sand Sea before a dune collapses.
- 05The lost city was not destroyed. It was folded beneath the desert by its own rulers.
- 06Marshal Korr bought a black metal seal from a grave robber and has refused to show it to anyone.
The expedition's survival depends on water, accurate navigation, and cooperation among people who do not trust one another. If Korr reaches the city first, he may open the waterworks and turn a lost archaeological site into a weapon or a private source of wealth. If the party fails completely, the route may vanish beneath the desert for another generation.
Background Lore
Mehet-Khet A was an ancient city built where five harsh regions meet: drowned bogs, pine barrens, red badlands, burning desert, and the Great Sand Sea. Its rulers controlled a chain of hidden cisterns and star-marked waystations that allowed caravans to cross the wastes. The city vanished after its final ruler sealed the waterworks beneath a monumental gate and erased the roads from every surviving map.
Mehet-Khet A was an ancient city whose location disappeared from every known map. Professor Nahlia Vey believes a route can be reconstructed from several surviving clues hidden across the frontier. The party must travel through bogs, the Great Long Leaf Pine Barrens, red badlands, desert, and the Great Sand Sea while racing a rival expedition to the lost city.
