[blockstart:500]
<font:$local$\fonts\fonthead16bld.fnt>
THE LAST CARAVAN
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Guide: (His voice sounds a little hoarse, tired, but there's a hint of something forgotten rising to the surface.) "Yes... I remember this place. I can't say exactly when it was... Life in the sands doesn't count the days like those who live sedentary lives. But I remember... The outlines. The air... It was different. Or maybe I was different."


Guide: "There was... something here. Something that left a mark. Even the sands, which try to erase everything, couldn't do so completely. It's as if... as if time slowed down here to preserve... a feeling. A feeling I'd forgotten. But it's here. I can feel it."

[blockend:500]

[blockstart:501]
Guide: (His voice grows sharper, its former confidence gone) "No… It can’t be. I… I saw it. Here. Right here, where we stand. A wide, sturdy bridge. Made of stone. Leading across this… this chasm."

[He points forward, toward where the chasm and the bridge should be. But there’s only a flat, table-like surface of sand, without the slightest hint of a depression. The guide recoils, his eyes widening.]

Guide: "The bridge… It was there. I remember walking across it… with a load. Always passed here. It was… it was here. Always."

[He looks around again, now with panic in his voice. He realizes that his memory, which had seemed reliable just a second ago, is failing him. Or perhaps reality has changed in the most monstrous way.]

Guide: "I... I don't know what this is. The sands... they can be treacherous. But this... I've never seen anything like this. The bridge... disappeared. Along with the road. And I... I was mistaken. This path... it leads the wrong way. Or it leads to somewhere of no return."

[He looks at you, and his gaze betrays his own helplessness and perhaps a little guilt. He looks away, as if unable to bear your surprise or accusation.]

Guide: "I can't help you anymore. I don't know what this place is. Maybe it's cursed. Maybe it's a trap. I... I will go my own way. As for you... I wish you only luck. You will need it."
[blockend:501]



[blockstart:502]
[The guide steps aside, and his figure instantly loses its solidity. He doesn't disappear over the horizon-he literally crumbles into dry dust, which immediately dissipates in the hot air. Where he stood a second ago, there's now nothingness.]

Me: "Well, that's it. My guide has decided that being a mirage is a much more profitable profession than working as a guide."

[I approach the edge of a cliff that shouldn't be there. The sand flows smoothly into the void, as if someone forgot to draw the edge of the world.]

Me: "So, it turns out we've been following my own imagination for a long time now? Funny. All week I listened to his stories, ate his food, and even shared my plans for the future with him, and he turned out to be just an echo of what I wanted to see in this desert."

[I lightly kick the edge of the abyss with my boot, watching as clods of earth fly down, disappearing into the silence.]


[blockend:502]

[blockstart:503]
You should set up camp at this location. You can choose one of two nearby oases:

First Oasis: 

<usericon:1,47,130>

Second Oasis: 

<usericon:1,161,155>

While waiting for conditions to improve or for a further route to be found, you must restore four pillars that once supported part of the destroyed bridge.

Please bring 10 units of stone to each of the following locations:

First Column Placement: 

<usericon:1,68,84>


Second Column Placement: 

<usericon:1,75,99>

Third Column Placement: 

<usericon:1,101,98>

Fourth Column Placement:

<usericon:1,113,86>

You have time. No one is threatening you at the moment. You can set up camp or restore the pillars in the order that suits you best.
[blockend:503]

[blockstart:504]
All four columns have been restored. Now, more resources will be needed to complete the bridge.

You need to collect the following from your warehouses:

100 units of rough stone 
40 units of processed stone
20 units of wood
These materials will be used to build the main part of the bridge, connecting this side of the gorge to the other side.



[blockend:504]

[blockstart:505]
Resources have been delivered to the site! Workers are already preparing for work-the bridge will be built as quickly as possible.


[blockend:505]

[blockstart:506]
Our hands still hold the dust of hewn stone, and the hum of completed construction fills our ears. The bridge is built, and the path forward is now open-straight, inviting, and empty. But is it worth taking a step? We've been striving for so long to reach somewhere far away that we didn't notice how this place itself became meaningful. Home isn't a point on a map you have to reach, but a place where you decide to stop. Let the bridge remain merely a monument to our past journey. Here our new life begins.

[blockend:506]

[blockstart:507]
On the sand, near the corpse by the old tree at the cliff, lay a letter with the following contents:

<picture:$local$\graphics\letter.pcx> 
[blockend:507]

[blockstart:508]
The bridge is complete. The heavy slabs, so painstakingly hewn by our hands, form the foundation of the crossing, uniting the banks that had long been separated. It seems peaceful now, but this silence is deceptive. It echoes the voices of those who stood here before us-the Saracen warriors for whom these cliffs were their last stand. They laid down their lives here, defending this passage from the Franks and Byzantines, never to return to their homes.

We built the bridge on the bones of those who dreamed of only one thing-to return.

I look at the parchment found at the roots of an old tree. Amir's handwriting trembles, but every word expresses boundless love for the one who awaits him in distant Damascus. He never made it. He remains here, forever guarding this bridge with his invisible shadow.

Our home is here now, and we could stay, sheltered from the world's storms behind our new walls. But can we find peace knowing someone's final request remains unfulfilled?

The construction is complete, but the journey is not. The road east, toward Damascus, now beckons not as a pilgrim's journey, but as a path of redemption. We will cross this bridge not to leave here forever, but to bring home at least a piece of Amir's soul. We will become messengers for the one whose heart still beats with hope. This is our new story-a story of honor, loyalty, and how even after death, love must find its way to the threshold.


[blockend:508]

[blockstart:509]
So, I went to deliver the letter to the addressee in Damascus


[blockend:509]


[blockstart:510]
Our scouts have discovered detachments of Frankish and Byzantine troops, I think we should hurry and be ready to fight them!

[blockend:510]


[blockstart:511]
Our hero is dead! Mission failed!
[blockend:511]

[blockstart:512]
Our people, who tried to survive all the disasters that befell them, were unable to do so. Mission failed!
[blockend:512]


