Editing Brightstone Heroes (section)

===Across the Desert===
[[Image:Pharis.jpg|thumb|right]]
A few days later, they accompanied a deep gnome caravan aboveground to the city [[Kerthis]] in the [[Pharis Imperium]]. After gathering information and consulting a map, the group decided that their best course of action was to head south across the desert in an attempt to reach Winter's Gate on foot. The journey was long and arduous, and they encountered many dangers, including gangs of kobolds, giant sand worms, a young blue dragon in its lair, and a skirmish between an army of demons and several tribes of nomads.

Eventually, they found themselves in the ruins of [[Haraxx]], an ancient city filled with undead. Hiding out in a temple dedicated to [[Nalindra]], they found that the temple's priests were also undead... but instead of attacking the heroes, they told them of the city's fall, and how its ruthless leader, Ten-ap, had transformed them all into an undead army. With help from the undead priests, the heroes located and destroyed Ten-ap. In doing so, they also destroyed all the undead within the city, granting the priests the eternal rest they had so long desired. Afterwards, they searched the city for valuables, eventually finding Ten-ap's treasure vault. As there was far more treasure within than they could possibly carry with them, they stayed long enough to mentally fix the location in their minds before Leardon magically sealed the entrance and they continued their journey southward.

Only a few days out of Haraxx, the heroes ran afoul of a group of [[asherati]], having unwittingly stumbled into their territory. Their chief was eventually persuaded to let them go, on the condition that they prove their strength with an endurance trial. A jug of water was placed on the ground between Tol and the chief, and the two were told that the first one to touch the water would lose. After several long and parching hours, Tol eventually picked up the jug and upended it over the chief. Laughing, the chief congratulated him on his ingenuity, and even provided the heroes with supplies for their journey.