"Alright Hafer, if I were you I would step into that area of the cubes now. After you do that, I am stepping through the cubes for I have no wish to meet a family of trolls after I have just killed one of them." Waiting for Hafer to step through Ardo readies himself to follow the merchant through the cubes hoping that the trolls are not soon returning.
As you step into the circle/pentagram formed by the five cubes, you become befuddled and disoriented in a way that you've never felt before. With a gut wrenching feeling you see a bright flash of light, then intense black, both momentary, burst upon your mind.
Suddenly you find yourself in a room of strange architecture, gazing intently at the eyebrows and thinning hair of an aged man, a spell-caster by the look of his robes. Your back is pressed against something, thankfully not solid enough to have caused you any pain when you materialized here. Your chest and legs are forcing the wizard to teeter on his stool.
His eyes fly wide as he sees you appear, and his mouth opens in surprise as he is bowled over onto the floor. Your balance upset, and your knees a bit unsteady as yet, you join him, nimbly avoiding crushing the frail old man beneath you.
A crash heralds the next member of your party, who has managed to upset the desk upon which the wizard had been writing and Drethen's stone horse has basically destroyed the desk. A tinkle of glass, and the rush of wind as your friends join you on the floor, strike almost musical accompaniment to the inarticulate whoops made by the startled old man.
There is scarce time to think now, as the rest of the party joins you in this study, each one bowling over the one who preceded him. The old man displays surprising agility as he nimbly scrambles away, avoiding the ever widening flood of adventurers deposited on his carpeted floor.
A chime sounds, and the five lead cubes that brought you here drop to the floor with a thunk. Stepping over and around the bodies arrayed on the floor about him, the old wizard scoops the cubes into a pouch produced from his belt, tweaks his moustachio, and waggles his flaring eyebrows, obviously with delight.
"My, my," he beams. "Welcome to Bralizzar, my heroes! So nice of you to drop in."
Drethen does his best to get out of the way of the others who are arriving behind him. HE is standing towards the back of the room when the last one Ardo pops through. After hearing the old man he first saw speak he looks towards him. "Exactly why are we here for?"
"Wow, Hi, where are we? You guys all ok?" Ardo starts to look around his surroundings to get his bearings and make sure his friends are all ok.
"I'm fine, not any damage as far as I can see. Everyone else okay," Came the reply from Gabriel as he gets in bearings. Looking to the wizard, he will say, "Bralizzar you say? Well it's better than where we came from."
"Ah, my name is Aman Al-Raqib and, yes, this is Bralizzar. Well, this is actually my study, but we are in the town of Bralizzar."
"As for what you are doing here, I'm sure my note said it all, I need you to find the Evil Orb out in the desert. And, time is of the essence as all of the signs and portents are pointing to its return very soon."
Hafer states, "So, we are back in Bralizzar? I just left this town with the caravan about two weeks ago. How did we get back here so quickly?" "That would be my teleportation cubes" Aman responds.
Being a good host, Aman asks if there's anything you all need, food, water, or a fresh change of clothes?
Ardo extends his hand for a hand shake and says “To start I am Ardo, nice to meet you good sir, yes we are here for some adventure, though to be honest we know so little of what you require from us we are in the dark so you will have to explain everything again. While you are telling us of your needs we can of course have some food and drinks.”.
Aman claps his hands and his servants bring in a large assortment of food and beverages. You get the impression that this man is certainly well off and, judging by the number of books in his study, he's also a well educated man.
He goes on to explain that he needs you to go out into the desert and find the lost tomb of Martek. He explains that based on his studies there is some kind of sphere of power that's about to break free of its bonds and that somebody needs to find it and destroy it if it does. It was this sphere that caused the river that used to run through the desert to completely dry up.
He also calls in an elf and introduces him as Jherek. He was hired by Aman to find this tomb should your group not arrive in time. But, now that you're here, he will accompany your party and lend aid where he can.
Hafer, hearing the plea for help, will offer his services to the party as well. He explains that he is skilled in the arcane arts and should be able to help as well.
Aman, also explains that your are currently in the town of Bralizzar (See map). It's a caravan staging area for any merchants who are willing to make the journey across the desert.
To find the tomb, you will have to pass through Northknife pass, which is dangerous enough (That's why it's important for merchants to go in large numbers to cross it). Once on the other side you will enter the desert and there you can begin your search.
Aman gives you some rough directions to locations where he thinks the tomb may be located but can offer no guarantees.
After this long discourse, he sits back to see if you have any questions.