the Journey Home

If the characters succeed in rescuing King Kush, they can return the way they came, down the Forgotten Road to the Palace of Marble, and into the mundane realm of Egypt. If they return without the sarcophagus of the king, the specters do not open the pathway and refuse the characters entry, returning to haunt the covenant until their promise is fulfilled.

A second option for returning home is to use one of the buildings of the city, most of which act as Vestiges, and access the Twilight Void to then exit into the mundane realm. The characters return at the location of the bottle the building is linked to. This can be hazardous, not only because of the dangers of navigating the Twilight Void, but because the bottles of most of these 'afarit lie somewhere at the bottom of the sea. However, if the characters are fortunate, they may have made an ally of an 'afrit whose bottle rests in Bagdad or some other safer location. The jinni can guide them through the Twilight Void without hazard next time the bottle is opened, but the characters find themselves in a foreign land having to explain that they themselves are not genies.

A third option lies in the endless desert that surrounds the City of Brass, which is many times hotter and brighter than any earthly desert. Unprotected characters suffer from blinding glare and +6 damage per round from the heat. Within this expanse there is an Ignem Vestige with a strength of 8 that corresponds to the Egyptian Sahara. The Vestige isn't the endless desert, it is the heat. Being able to perceive this Vestige with Second Sight (or something similar) leads the characters through the Twilight Void to the mundane world.

As mentioned, travel in the Twilight Void is hazardous, but it isn't difficult. The following is adapted from the rules in Realms of Power: Magic, page 23, abbreviated and modified for this specific situation. The characters succeed unless they botch; it is just a matter of how long the journey takes. The leading character's player rolls a stress die + Perception + Second Sight (or other appropriate Ability). The Magic aura does not add to the roll, but a magus may add his Ignem Form bonus (one-fifth of Ignem score). If using a spell, Intellego Ignem base 3 will allow a magus to perceive the Vestige and travel through it, and each additional magnitude adds a cumulative +3 bonus.

Unless the roll botches, the journey takes a base time of one season. Every three full points of the roll total shortens the length by one step (month to day). Botches increase the time, but only to a year for a single botch. Using an Ability associated with Magic does not require additional botch dice, but one associ-

ated with another Realm (such as the Second Sight gained from Strong Faerie Blood) requires a staggering twenty additional botch dice (twice the level of the Magic aura). Theoretically, the characters could become forever lost in Twilight, but that is not the desired result of this story. Instead, the storyguide should take this as an opportunity to transport the characters to any fantastic location she can imagine and have fun with it.

Travel through the Twilight Void should be described as a strange phantasmal journey through the province of Ignem; patterns of white hot light and cold black shadows, mountains of fire and rivers of ice, and temperature extremes ranging from blistering hot to frozen cold. The characters can perceive this, but it does not affect them. While in the Twilight Void, they are immune to environmental conditions, deprivation, and aging.