Temple of the Sands (Site)

                         Location: Most anywhere. The DM is encouraged to move it by moon cycles,
                        cosmic events (the Messenger's appearance, for example) or even changes in
                        daylight.

                         Outward Appearance: The temple always appears out of the desert, literally out
                        of nowhere. Many travelers stumble right into the outside wall before seeing it.
                        The temple is perpetually half-covered in sand, with the sand piling all the way
                        to the roof on one side and descending diagonally until it finally reaches the
                        base, which it does right at the door. The entire temple is constructed of what,
                        on the outside, at least appears to be different-colored sand. The walls are
                        sturdy and hard as stone, however.

                        From the front (the only side the temple ever seems to be approached by) the
                        temple has a large wall of uncolored sand, standing about 20 ft. long
                        corner-to-corner, and it looks equally wide. A small overhang rests over the
                        steps up to the entrance; an extension of the roof colored solely in scarlet. Four
                        pillars stand vigil, holding the extension up. Each is carved and scribed with
                        designs and runes unlike those anywhere on Athas, usually accentuated with
                        different color sands. The doorframe is without a door, but the inside seems to
                        be kept magically dark from the outside.

                         Interior: Once inside, it’s quite obvious the temple is more than it seems. First
                        of all, the main entryhall is three hundred feet long and a little less than a
                        hundred feet wide, with an elevated ceiling at fifty feet above the floor! In
                        comparison to its outer looks, the temple is absolutely titanic. PCs entering
                        also feel a very strange sensation, as if something were missing. In the case of
                        mages using spellcraft proficiency or magic to identify the problem, it will seem
                        to them the place is either Hasted, Slowed, Time Stopped or equally affected.

                        The main room has a sprawling red velvet carpet, starting from the doorway
                        and continuing the middle twenty feet width of the room, all the way up to the
                        altar. The sidewalls are decorated with sigils and symbols of lost meaning, and
                        in many places straight English words are used, but they make no sense.
                        There is no ancient language equivalent of the writing, and nothing can be
                        encoded in the strangetering (although it might be fun to your PCs think they
                        found something), but the intricate writings sprawled on the walls are still
                        amazing. Pillars run just beside the carpeting, equally inscribed. One paying
                        close attention may notice each pillar bearing the picture of at least one
                        timepiece (i.e., waterclocks, hourglass, sundials and even clocks). Detection
                        used on them is inevitably muddled by the overall energy of the temple.

                        The ceiling seems to reflect light extraordinarily well, and just above the altar it
                        has a slightly dome-like impression. Hanging, rather mystically, in this niche is
                        a giant hourglass, or at least the image of one. Upon approaching the altar,
                        PCs will find it’s nothing but an elevated platform of stairs leading up to a small
                        pedestal, on which lies an hourglass sitting sideways on a sundial.

                        Moving the hourglass will quickly reveal the floating image is a magic (or
                        perhaps, light) trick, simply a projection of the hourglass below. The light rising
                        up in pillar-like fashion from the altar is then a little easier to discern, as well. If
                        the hourglass is removed from the pillar, all the symbols and writings in the
                        room will reveal their true meaning- an enormous instruction manual to the
                        temple itself.

                        Setting the hourglass upright causing time to flow either slowly backwards or
                        faster forward, depending on the end it is set on. The sand never runs out, and
                        the approximate exchange is one day for every minute it falls.

                        If the hourglass is kept on it’s side and moved to point like the hands of a clock,
                        the effect is much more profound. For every hour it is directed to point in either
                        direction, it moves a multiple of ten years. If moved one hour, it moves ten
                        years. Two hours is a hundred years, and three is a thousand.