Editing X4-5-10: Desert Nomads series (section)

=The Modules=
The first two were David/Zeb Cook, intentionally. The third was Michael Dobson, picking it up again.
==X4: Master of the Desert Nomads==
Darokin and the Nomads are at war, and the party is in the reserves at Pramayama between them at the edge of the Desert of Sind. The setting hadn't made anything of this region yet. Zeb (the lazy) had the opportunity to sketch out a measly paragraph on fantasy Punjab, but didn't. Later Mystara supplements will do this, like the ''[[Voyage of the Princess Ark]]''. But anyway.

Here the party wanders through the desert, following the spoor of the army. [[X6: Quagmire!]] has additional detail on the desert, if you like. It's a harsh one.

Darokin's army - get this - has been TPKed. Turns out the nomads have a Master now, presumably not the same Master as ''Blizzard Pass'' (ohhh, Zeb). Now the party has to switch gears from "warriors" to "assassins". They're already deep in the desert, so there's no point in turning back; they gotta cross the Great Pass to knock out the Master where he lives. They get to the foothills, controlled by an abbey whose masters are some strange lycanthropic/undead humanoids called ... sigh... "[[Bhut|Bhuts]]".

It's got new monsters, like those bhuts. Also the [[Tabi]], an Islamic name like Qasit; and the [[nagpa]] treated like a badly energy-drained vrock. And the juggernaut (wooden steampunk killdozer), and the [[Soul Eater]].

==X5: Temple of Death==
The party finally gets through the Great Pass, entering the land Hule. Hule is as expected a [[theocracy|theocratic dystopia]], but here Cook backed off the Islamic(ate) themes. Hule's elite is more Merkabah Judaism if some qabbalist actually succeeded in contacting the Elder Gods... with a side order of Plato. Some towns are dotted on Hule's side o' the map but have no names (Slagovich has a name, but that's for Coming Attractions in X6). Whatever town you enter first, that one officially becomes "Magden" and takes the Magden town map. Really, Dave?

X5 offers five new monsters: the proto-Last-of-Us [[dusanu]], the [[geonid|turtle-jawa geonid]], the [[WTF]] [[malfera]], the <s>X-series doppelganger</s>[[mujina]] who earns Cook (the lazy) an atomic wedgie, and the spectral hound. The Companion Set let in the last three, skipping the dusanu and the geonid.

The Master's name is revealed - Hosadus; his citadel is done up like a chariot. In a theme lifted from ''[[X3: Curse of Xanathon]]'' it's not easy to kill this guy.

==X10: Red Arrow, Black Shield==
Did the players ever wonder: hey, the X4-5 backstory sounds better than the actual series, I'd rather role-play how Darokin fights this war. Here Dobson grants them that chance... and himself the chance to sell [[BATTLESYSTEM]]!! boxes to a new corner of TSR fandom.

This module starts by running the party off the bordertown Akesoli - no Pramayama for them, the Master's punch hits right at home. Darokin knows it hasn't a chance especially once totally-not-Arab nation Ylaruam sides with its fellow(?) Nomads. So the party must roam the Known World convincing other nations to join the fight. There are tie-ins with earlier X-series modules that the party can play, especially down in Minrothad and Ierendi. (For the former, [[X8: Drums on Fire Mountain]] is transferred from Thyatis, likely to push the party toward doing... ''other'' tasks for Emperor Thincol. For the latter, righteous shade is cast upon [[XL1: Quest for the Heartstone|the X''L'' "series"]].) The module has a subplot whose settings, by coincidence, contain fragments of a Crystal Dagger Of MacGuffin. Gee, wonder how that'll work?

The players can have the party - if close enough - participate in some of the battles, as leaders and/or heroes. Here are ''Companion Set'' war-machine stats and those ''BATTLESYSTEM'' encounters. There's also a flowchart-system for travelling cities at a pinch, the Chase Flow Chart: which saves time exploring a massive map if the party's just there for one simple task. Like running like a rabbit OUT of the map.

The artwork is notably bad: some cribbed from ''[[X3: Curse of Xanathon]]''; some just from the headlines. I mean seriously, check out Hosadus. It being 1985, there was some level of anti-Khomeinist sentiment in Western countries.