Rubies are Red, Sapphires are Blue

=Introduction= Barrowkeep is home. A glistening green-blue jewel lost in the arid flats, surrounded by undulating sand-dunes as far as the eye can see. This is a desert town built around a vast, palm-lined oasis, dominated by a circular, flat-roofed monastery to St Cuthbert. It is valued by travellers as a rest-stop across the Blistering Sands and by trading caravans as a good place to sell goods and fuel up.

For the past two months however the town has suffered drought. The underground spring has finally dried up along with the lake and threatens to plunge the town in to ruin. Clerics at the monastery have identified a lost artefact – The Sapphire of Maleastro [ma-lee-stro] – that can end the disaster, and their scrying efforts across a wide cone of the desert have turned up several locations it may be lurking in.

Seven separate parties of able young men and women (of which the party is one) have been sent out to search for the sapphire in what the temple's historian believes are likely resting places of the jewel.

The expedition is lead by a stout, red-bearded Dwarf named Felix Rockheart. Along for the journey are three hunters; Ovyn, Myndra and Zacariah, a Dwarven cleric called Oin, and a wagon driver; a half-orc called Big Billy.

The party arrive at their destination, a crumbling sandstone citadel called Fort Masayef. Felix explained that the fort has had many owners over the centuries, but its downfall finally came at the hands of a group of holy crusaders under the banner of Hextor, who slaughtered the inhabitants and then left the place in ruin. The monastary's historian suggests that due to its remote location it may have once been used as a hiding place for the Sapphire.

The entrance is swamped by a huge sand dune, several of the towers have collapsed in on themselves following the siege, and the western wall has partially crumbled and been submerged in the sands. Felix suggests that the wall, being the only point of entry would be a good place to set up camp.

As the party settle down a flock of red feathered birds leap into the sky and fly away. Felix tells Ovyn to keep a look-out on one of the castle's erect towers and Myndra and Zachariah to assist him in exploring the upper levels, leaving the party free to explore the lower levels.

The stone lined, sand-swamped corridor leads to the basement levels of the castle, and to the left and right are pillar-supported rooms full of broken and splintered crates. The party take this opportunity to look around for discarded goods and turn up all manner of goodies, not least some magical oil, potions and a ring of featherfall.

Advancing further down the corridor, the first few party members begin to feel the tingle of static in the atmosphere which intensifies as they reach a T-junction. In a room to the left is a brilliant blue glow and the sound of raspy voices talking to one another, upon further inspection a pair of beige-scaled lizardfolk are standing to one side of the party's goal - the sapphire. It is suspended and shielded in the centre of a pillar, and four columns occasionally snap with electricity.

=Trivia= The results of various Knowledge checks.

Knowledge: Arcana DC 10 (History of the Sapphire)
Maleastro was a powerful Elven Wizard who lived some six-hundred years ago.

Once belonging to the Sorcerer Gormir the Malevolent, the sapphire was imbued with the ability to call terrible storms and summon destructive floods, and was used to terrorise various population centres. Seeing an opportunity to further his study of summoning magic, the jewel was claimed by Maleastro and a group of his apprentices after a fierce and bloody battle, after which point it was used for good to nourish inhospitable lands for centuries to come.

However, nothing has been heard of Maleastro, nor his prize gem for at least two-hundred years, and it appears to have either fallen in to disuse, or has been added to a desert warlord's treasure hoard.