An Introduction To Insanity: A D&D Campaign Appetiser

As I mentioned in my first post, I also dabble with creative writing every now and then (and yes, I do realise that writing a blog is also creative writing, however I consider writing my own thoughts and opinions very distant from creating a story).
This particular piece is from a D&D campaign I'm currently devising and polishing, and is meant to be an introduction to the campaign setting for your players. It is a bit lengthy, but you don't have to tell this as a story to your party. You could just as well start playing after the first two paragraphs, using the rest of the story as information you give to your players. Let's get on with the text.

Echoes of The Crystal Mesa

Your caravan has been traversing this desert for what feels like weeks at this point. Endless sands stretch out to all directions. Your destination -- the Crystal Mesa -- is nowhere to be seen. The steady pace of the caravan combined with the motionless terrain creates an illusion of stasis. The only proof of progress are the tracks left behind you.

You hear a signaling horn from the front of the caravan. After looking at the horizon for a while, you spot something: birds, in their hundreds, circling around in the distance. The caravan hastens its pace ever so slightly, eager to reach its destination.

A small glimmer, not unlike the very first rays of sunlight catches your eyes dead ahead. The glimmer starts to magnify in strength with every passing moment, until it seems to outshine the very sun itself. Then you realise that it has a distinct geometrical shape -- a fine-cut crystal, more massive than any you've ever seen. The reflections from its multiple facets dance across the desert sands as far away as you can distinguish.

Soon after, you see a cupola rise from below it. The crystal seems to be suspended above it without any support, and slowly spins clockwise. On either side of the cupola tiny towers begin to come to vision, and after those, the city walls. In a matter of moments the full glory of the Crystal Mesa is in your sight. The city has a three-tier structure to it, and you recall hearing that each tier has its own rules, and that newcomers and merchants aren't allowed past the first tier.

Thinking that you've seen everything, you fumble back into the safety of your cooled cart away from the unbearable heat of the sun. Just as you're about to close the thick cloth canopy, you hear gasps and murmuring from the neighbouring carts. Turning around, you almost lose your footing - the city has risen above the ground, and the birds confirm your eyes that this is no mirage or illusion.

You hear one of the cart drivers clear his throat, before explaining: "Calm down, 's just a way to keep the city safe. Wouldn't be called the Crystal Mesa if there weren't a mesa that the city's built on, don'tcha think?" The driver chuckles at his own witty remark, and goes on to explain that the city runs water along the polished sides of the mesa to ward off predators, monsters, and bandits. The water reflects the surrounding desert sands and clear skies, creating an uncanny effect from afar.

After hearing this, you spot an emerald green line on the ground, three times the length of the city. The running water creates perfect conditions for vegetation to flourish, even in the middle of the desert.

As you close in towards the unseen mesa, a portion of the waters is shut down to reveal a hidden gate, large enough for all kinds of beasts of burden and their cargo to pass through. The gate is adorned with the city's crest, an eagle with three snake-heads and three tails. Behind the gate you see a ramp that extends upwards at a slight angle. The ramp must run for miles inside the mesa before emerging from the top.

Three guards in ceremonial armor, wielding lavishly detailed halberds stop the caravan. You cannot hear the conversation, but you suspect they want to examine the cargo manifests and list of passengers before letting you in. One of the guards starts walking aside the snaking line of carts, holding a small purple crystal in his free hand. He holds the crystal above his head, and moves it slowly across each cart's canopy. After inspecting all carts, the guard throws the crystal up in the air, and it shatters with a loud bang. This signals the two remaining guards to allow passage, and the caravan starts its slow ascension inside the mesa.

As you move out of the scorching sun's gaze your eyes find it difficult to adjust to the dark at first. The air inside the mesa is cool and refreshing compared to the constant heat you endured during your journey. After a while, you start seeing little dancing lights on the tunnel walls. Tiny crystals shine in every imaginable colour, seemingly luminescent on their own. Everything around you is awash with ever-changing light, creating a surreal atmosphere.

Along the way you notice a few smaller tunnels on both sides of the one you're climbing. You imagine the history this city must have, how the founders discovered precious stones, so abundant that carting them out to the nearest city outside the desert before cutting and polishing them would have been all but impossible. Some of the tunnels veer off into total dark, others sheen a promise of discovery and light. Oddly enough, some of the tunnels have been sealed off completely, or reinforced with gates and guards.

The air starts to warm up again as you notice the sun's unending stare searing the tunnel floor ahead of you. Everything beyond is a blur of white, but you do hear the sounds of a bustling city full of commotion and commerce from the surface.

Adjusting to full daylight after almost complete darkness is a greater struggle than the opposite, and you gasp in awe as your sight finally allows to perceive again. The city gates, adorned with the city crest along with runes, motifs, and carvings depicting the history of the mesa loom over each side of the caravan, and are all you can focus on for a good while.

Once your mind comprehends the complex and monolithic gates, the first view inside the city bemuses you for a second time. Towering walls stretch out beyond the gate, with parapets and walkways on top (you notice several halberds moving along rhythmically), and arrow-slit tunnels overseeing the street-level business.

Six guards stand stoic watch over the carts' passage. Three on each side, two wielding halberds as usual. The third guards instead have a heavy chain in their hands, and a strange glowing staff on their backs. Attached to the chains are rust monsters, vicious chitin-covered insects easily the size of a full-grown wolf that crave and feast on everything made of metal. Oddly enough, they are docile despite all the metal around them, and seem only interested in gauging the carts' contents from afar.

The full view of the first level of the city -- the merchant district -- opens in front of you. Stretching to each side and bending inward are two wide streets. The inside of the outer wall is full of housing, mostly businesses and outposts, but quite a few residential buildings as well.

The other side of the street is full of stalls, tents, and huts of various vendors and salesmen. Beyond them, an identical street to this one, only curved slightly more can be seen. The wall behind that street is a mash of mismatched houses similar to the walls next to you. Straight ahead, you see the entrance to the next level of the city. Heavily guarded (you suspect by more than men and rust monsters), the gate is firmly shut. A smaller doorway, large enough for anyone seeking passage to go through has been built at the bottom of the left gate door.

And busy as it can be, you behold the first level's action. A true cornucopia of sights, smells, and sounds: a splash of jade-green ironclad mercenaries escorting a lavender-and-golden retinue of diplomats; a wave of perfumes from a nearby stall, mixed with fresh fish from the next one; languages of all origins, and laughter and shouting, the universal ones.

Suddenly your caravan comes to a halt. You have a arrived at your destination. After a final stretch and a thorough check that nothing has gone amiss, you step onto the streets of the Crystal Mesa for the first time. The caravan leader, a strange and stretched-looking fellow, thanks you for your assistance during the trip, and hands a small pouch filled with coins to you. You suspect he's got plenty of work delivering his goods to more than one merchant along the district. He parts with a nonsensical poem, almost like a riddle:

"Three tiers above a teardrop, thirty skulls on a mountain, if the down goes up does the up have to go down?"

When you shout back at him, he turns with a puzzled look on his face, shrugs, and continues on his way.

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There you have it! My first actually constructed piece of writing that's sort of finished. Well, this one is finished, but I think this story requires a piece by piece approach, or you'd have to wait for years until you could read it. I'm not too sure about using the "you" perspective in the future, what do you think? How about the story itself? Too done already? Can't wait for more? Let me know.

Thanks for reading along,
~Vel