King Mero III is the ruler of Mars’ Oasis and a ruthless enemy of the undead. He spent his youth fighting undead in the Shacklack Desert before inheriting the crown. Along with his friend, Alabaster, he led a crusade against the evils of the desert, but like his forebears, he was unable to make any meaningful progress. He joined with the Second Alliance near the end of the war. After the war’s conclusion he built a secure facility to house the dangerous artifacts and dragon primarch heads captured during the battles with Xoria and others.

As a young boy Prince Mero III dreamed of vanquishing the Bane of the desert. Knowing that the strongest weapon against the undead was positive energy magic, he trained with the best, the priests of Apollo. His father, King Mero II, forbade his son from taking the priest’s vows, but allowed him to learn all he could about slaying the evil walkers of the night. Mero III entered adulthood with a powerful set of skills for killing undead and a chip on his shoulder.

After gaining his knighthood, Prince Mero III went into the desert on treks to slay undead. He was always accompanied by a contingent of Dythalidee. These forays allowed him to become familiar with the many dangers of the desert, undead, blue dragons, formians, and many other monsters. On one such adventure Mero and his men had the unfortunate luck to be attacked by a pack of land sharks. Mero would have died if Alabaster hadn’t wandered by at that moment. The Sumerian trained mage warrior leapt into action and slew the bulettes, rescuing the prince. Alabaster returned with Mero to Mars’ Oasis. While walking through the desert they formed a friendship that has lasted until this day. Upon reaching the city’s safety, Alabaster pledged his life to Prince Mero III and became his bodyguard.

Time passed and Prince Mero III became King Mero III of Mars’ Oasis. After becoming king he promoted Alabaster to a new role, the commander of the Dythalidee. Alabaster was not a Dythalidee himself, having not gone through their initiation process. Nonetheless he was accepted by the members as their leader. With the Dythalidee under him, Alabaster is the most powerful man in Mars’ Oasis besides King Mero III himself.

Mars’ Oasis’s perennial enemies were eliminated by the Exiles during the Second Alliance War. King Mero III granted each of the Exiles a boon except for Tagenadi as the Xorian knight was an undead. Mero planned to join the fighting against Xoria as well, but he entered the war too late. With the war concluded Mero led the effort in protecting various dangerous artifacts and regenerating dragon primarch heads. Others such as Hektor and Talon were in charge of the physical and magical security while Alabaster headed the active security provided by the Dythalidee. King Mero III, Alabaster, Hektor, and Tagenadi also slew Invernix and Sartoria. Their heads were added to the growing collection in Mars’ Oasis.

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I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
  2. 83 – Call of Cthulhu's Garden (Hem and The Sprouting)
  3. 82 – Tarot Ghosts (George and Fears & Fortunes)
  4. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
  5. 80 – Dynamic RPG Countries (Travis and Tetara)