Azumar

Geography

Azumar is a legend among folks of the desolation desert. Eternally seething sandstorm protect the city from intruder, and magical ward prevent the city to be found within the sandstorm.   If the sandstorm is magically dispelled, the city vanishes along with it. The sandstorm itself acts as both a shield and a deterrent—blocking any magical attempts to locate the city. To reach the legendary city, travelers must first use a location spell to find the sandstorm’s approximate position. They must then physically enter the sandstorm and navigate through its blinding winds and choking sands.   Once they reach the edge of the city within the storm, the travelers must dispel the sandstorm's Magic to reveal the city and gain access. Only then can they enter the fabled hidden city. If the sandstorm is dispelled before travelers reach the city's edge, the city vanishes along with the sandstorm.  

Magic Sandstorm

The dome of swirling sand around the city is 800 feet thick. The properties of the sandstorm are as follows:  

• Any creature that enters the sandstorm for the first Time on a turn or starts its turn in the storm takes 55 (10d10) slashing damage.
• Creatures in the sandstorm are blinded.
• A dispel magic spell creates a 20-foot-wide, 20-foot-high tunnel through the sandstorm that lasts for 1 minute.

  Those who make it through the sandstorm emerge to see the fabled city.  

Description

Magnificient stone buildings jut out of the desert like teeth. Emerging from the smothering sands, the ancient streets wind their way around walls and large buildings.   The hiss of the sandstorm surrounding the city can always be heard.  

Vault of the eLemental Collection

This vault is a 20-foot-high mesa built from 50- to 80-ton megaliths in the form of a step pyramid with a mausoleum on top of it. A stone wall surrounds the vault.   Locked stone double doors stand at opposite ends of this structure. Each double door requires a successful DC 15 Dexterity check to open using thieves’ tools. A knock spell or similar magic also opens a double door. Characters can also try to smash open the doors, which have AC 17, 100 hit points, and immunity to poison and psychic damage.     The torches that light this hall go out if removed from their sconces. The stone stairs descend 60 feet and end at an opening into a thirty-foot-wide by sixty-foot-long hall. At the far end, a dais stands before a limestone door inscribed with symbols and glyphs that glow dimly.  

Sealed Door

The door to the treasure and the elemental collection is sealed. The only way to get past the door is through the use of the sapphire bound to this vault. There is no other way, magical or not, to reach the treasure, wards preventing teleportation and other spell that would bypass the door.   Once the door is open, it leads to a hallway. The walls along this hallway of descending staircases contain a record of the creation of the elemental collection. The plaster and the paintings are perfectly intact. Scenes include images of Orrin Empire wizard tending to the welfare of the people and the matters of the city, reading books, and cultivating his garden.   Closer to the treasure, the paintings depict more recent events that led characters to this place. The final painting is of the characters standing before the treasure. It shows them in exactly the positions they’re all holding, rendered in perfect detail.   Treasure.

• The Nether Scroll of Azumar inside a 24-inch-long, 5-inch diameter cylinder made of wood and encased in a sheet of gold (500 gp the scroll is a thin sheet of hammered copper etched with Draconic writing
• Staff of the Sorcerer King
• Rod of the sovereigns’ servant
• Potion of flying
• Potion of Cloud Giant strength
• Potion of speed
• 100 pounds of salt (worth 10 gp)
• 10 marble bowls (worth 15 gp each)
• 20 square yards of linen (worth 100 gp)
• 20 square yards of silk (worth 250 gp)
• Gold-plated abacus (worth 250 gp)
• 41,330 cp, 1,210 sp, 980 gp and 225 pp

 

Society

  The city is inhabitated by sand colored plasmoid wearing strange masks etched with blue glowing runes.  

Law

The city boasts a military forces. Use the Guard Arrival Times table to determine how long it takes for guards to arrive at a location after a crime or similar incident is reported.    

Hazard

Magic Sandstorm

The dome of swirling sand around the city is 800 feet thick. The properties of the sandstorm are as follows:  

• Any creature that enters the sandstorm for the first time on a turn or starts its turn in the storm takes 55 (10d10) slashing damage.
• Creatures in the sandstorm are blinded.
• A dispel magic spell creates a 20-foot-wide, 20-foot-high tunnel through the sandstorm that lasts for 1 minute.

  Those who make it through the sandstorm emerge to see the fabled city.  

Sands Magic

Creatures can use music to shape the sand to their will zithin the city. As an action, a creature can sing or play music to magically shape the Singing Sands into physical objects as it desires. If the creature succeeds on a DC 10 Charisma (Performance) check, the creature can form up to a 5-foot cube of the sand into any shape. The resulting object is made of sparkling, crystalline sand and lasts for 1 hour. For every 5 by which the creature exceeds the DC, the creature can either shape an additional 5-foot cube or increase the duration by 1 hour. Alternatively, the creature can create a permanent crystal version of a simple or martial melee weapon with the light property, or a crystal version of an object worth up to 10 gp from the Adventuring Gear table in the Player’s Handbook. Once a creature shapes a permanent object from the sand, the creature can’t do so again until it finishes 1d4 long rests.  

History

Genesis

Long, long time ago, Magic practitioners of the Orrin Empire set out to harness the power of the very building blocks of creation with their magic. They theorized that these extremely powerful sources of magic could be used in impossibly powerful spells. But in their raw form, they were too unpredictable and unstable. If they could just distill the power into objects, they would be able to harness the unmitigated strength of the elements. The famed dispel alchemist and the woodworker of the Wyrmwood tree joined forces to create what was later called the Elemental Collection, safely contained in an arcane vault.   The scrolls, too powerful to be kept together were locked in magical vault all around Toriel. The wizards bound a sapphire to a magically sealed vault in the desolation desert and stored one of the five elemental collection scroll in it. Shaping the wind and the sand, the vault was hidden by a perpetual storm.   Trusted plasmoid were trasked with the protection of the vault, and in time, they constructed a magical city around the vault, the city of Azumar.