A Strange New Desert

Those of you who fly up to take a look around see a whole lot of specks of bright red light. They appear to be moving towards your current position from multiple points to the north and south but not from the west (where you came from) or the east (where Snowden is located).

What do you do?

You quickly gather your things and head east along the road to Snowden. You arrive well into the evening at perhaps 10 o'clock. You make your way to the town's single inn, The Butchered Mare, and order rooms and meals.The next morning you rise with the dawn and head to the office of the mayor. There you are greeted by a man decked in wizard's robes who introduces himself as Lord Byron's personal retainer Naardin Malukia.

A slight middle aged man leaned against the wall, deep green robes fitting his form comfortably. As he noticed the group and forced himself fully upright, the many bottles and baubles dangling from a leather bandolier slung across his chest jingled lightly against one another. "Ah, gentlemen. Glad to see you." said Naardin with a friendly smile beneath the upturned hood of a dark blue cloak. He pressed his shiny gauntleted hands into a sort of prayer gesture and bowed his head slightly. "I am Naardin Malukai, chief mage of Lord Byron. I've been informed you're here to help decipher the method of the sudden desertification of the area."

The wizard stepped forward and stuck out his hand, a broom in the corner flying towards it and resting with a clatter into the outstretched limb. Wrapped along it's length we're an assortment of bags and containers strapped in with rope and leather to keep them safe and sound midflight. "I'm coming with you of course. My specialty is Transmutation, but my current theory is something a little more planar. I need more information and a crew to help me get it safely. I trust the ride over here wasn't too eventful?"

Naardin grabs a paper from a scrollcase on his broom, and a quill from a small vial of ink on his chest. He scribbles something idly on the paper as he responds. "Yes, that it is. It's odd they only seem to appear at night. I don't know elementals of any sort to follow any regimented nocturnal or diurnal period of activity. The elemental planes are less regimented than our own in terms of a day night cycle. Particularly the one that is a sea of fire."

He flips the cap closed and it clicks shut, signalling he's finished his note taking. "I suspect there's a portal they're coming through, and that it may be at the center of this new desert. Even that's mostly conjecture though. Hopefully travel will grant us some insight. Any questions? Are you all ready to shove off as it were?" the wizard asks, a single eybrow raised.

Naardin cracked a smile at the conversation before stepping back in himself. "Flying brooms and a decanter of endless water are certainly two of the tools I'd planned to use against these foes. Certainly we'll have to fight more than one, but the plan is to diagnose why they're appearing and cut it off before their numbers grow too unmanageable. They only come out to play at night for now. It stands to reason if we can close their access during the day we won't have to deal with nearly so many. We're a strike team, not a mobilizing force. I plan to cut the problem off at the source rather than dam a river."

At the last question he gave a resigned half shrug. "It all depends on how it's held open. Whether it's a permanent fixture or a temporary one, whether a new one opens every night or the same one opens periodically, whether or not it's even a portal at all. There are many different mechanisms, and until we get a closer look at what's going on I don't think we're going to get much more insight into which this one uses."