🍁Nine Ancient Obelisks

Khlidon was exiled from Asuguh through the Gate of Banishment 5 years ago. For what exactly — he no longer remembers, but surely it was something trivial and he did not deserve such a fate. Even the goddess of fortune was definitely in agreement with him, for proof of that was the fact that he was still alive. He and his two companions lived, or to be more precise, survived near those very ill-fated walls beside a small oasis whose existence no one but them knew of (at least, that was what the three of them wanted to believe). What helped them survive was that they understood the behavior of the southern desert well and knew in detail what was where in the vicinity:
- Sometimes they attacked the newly "banished" and thereby replenished their supplies.
- Sometimes they traded with people from the Illusory City.
- Khlidon himself had a pendant that helped them avoid quicksand, navigate sandstorms without trouble, and also scared off wild animals (though it did not work on the sand worm — the most dangerous entity of the area). 
- To the south of them lived a strange mummy, extremely greedy for all kinds of knowledge — one could profitably exchange records and printed materials with her for things useful in the sands.
- To the southwest, a desert witch posed riddles, rewarding correct answers and cursing wrong ones. The trio tried to stay away from her and only visited her when provisions got truly dire.
All in all, life was hard but not impossible, and sometimes there were even celebrations — for example, a few days ago, when the Gate of Banishment mysteriously swung wide open, out of nowhere Calcite troops came under attack by certain warriors (Khlidon suspected they were members of the "Passionate Desire," which he had heard of when he still lived in Asuguh), and the three vultures got a whole heap of assorted equipment — there was so much of it that they wouldn't have had enough hands to carry it all or backs to bear it. The only annoyance was that the merchants of the Illusory City were unlikely to find any of it interesting. And a little later — a girl, killed by someone, fell from the walls of Mufigur with a bunch of all sorts of goods. They dragged her to their tent, claimed all the valuables for themselves, and decided to chop the poor thing up just in case — not because they were fiends, but simply because they feared she would turn into a zombie and attack them, which, in the context of the war with the Harran Empire, was no longer a rarity. After some time, the desert dweller, obeying some impulse, decided to check how she was doing and saw with horror that her wounds had miraculously healed. For that reason, he and his companions fed her to the nearest quicksand.
- Yeah, guys... This is probably a sign. We need to get out of here.