The Varicolored Desert

Hearsay:The desert in Pelion is impossible to cross. The terrible invincible beast, The Lion called Taggai hunts all that try to violate the chastity of the region.

Special Conditions:In each colored dune everything looks as if looking through cellophane of that color. Prismatic magic is limited to the effects regarding that color. The Lion hunts invaders out of the desert and is only affected by earth magic.

Description:The being called Taggai was hunted many times by mortals and planeborne alike that sought to kill him and wear his pelt. They however cannot understand why he is impervious to all their attacks. The fact is that, as the guardian of the Varicolored Desert, he was granted invulnerability and vicious claws to destroy trespassers. But there is a little more in his duty than most mortals are allowed to know.

During the day, the desert has many dunes, one of each color, inhabited only by The Lion, which changes his color according to the dune he is on. However, once night approaches, he roams to a secret cave where the light of the moon touches him and he suffers a painful death by petrification.

In the night, as Taggai is dead, a huge, green and beautiful forest emerges from the sand, filled with life and trees as high as the eye can reach. Fairies are the inhabitants of the forest at night and those that did not enter the desert by day cannot enter the forest by night, except for the fairies. In the Seelie Court this place is known as Arcadia, the last refuge of Fairyland to which they will head when they are not welcome in the Prime or Outer Planes anymore.

The site has an ability to draw in travellers from quite a wide radius, so there is almost always a few fellow visitors to talk to. Emmerlaus claims to operate the hostel to meet new people and hear new tales of far-flung lands, and encourages guests to spend the evenings telling each other about their adventures and travels, or at least stories and legends from their homelands.

Charcters in each such tale appear in corporeal format somewhere in the plane 1d6 turns after the story has been told. These forms fully believe that they are who they appear to be and act accordingly; however, they will never leave the plane and immediately cease to be should they do so. The apparitions seem fully real to all mundane and magical tests and cannot be dispelled, but vanish without a trace when killed. These forms have a level or hit dice equal to what they are believed to have according to the legends, but never more than 2/3 the highest level or hit dice of listener to the tale.

Current Chant:The young lad Nemti (Pl/male bariaur/CG) roamed by accident by strange roads on his way to find a cure for his people. He escaped the flock to seek for it in Olympus, but ended up in Pelion. Being only 10 with a strange Egyptian face, he befriended Taggai and the fairies, but cannot find his way home or complete his quest.