Post by Zaim al-Daleel on Jul 9, 2008 22:19:07 GMT -7
PCs
Waleed
Ya’qub
NPCs
Mamoun,
Jaheira, Wudei’a, Najiba
8th of Saris
“I trust you are as generous as you are prompt,” said the guard as he stepped from the shadow cast by the moon-lit fountain. His eyes danced uneasily between Waleed’s guards as they spread out, searching the courtyard. Then the guard noticed Ya’qub. “Kor! Did you invite the entire city?” A bead of sweat broke on his forehead and he swiped it away with the back of his hand.
The swarming hornets that had surrounded the fountain earlier in the day were no where to be seen.
"Here," Waleed said as he handed the guard 100 dinari in a small bag, "I trust this will be more than enough. Also, there will be twice that much if you ensure we are not caught and see to our safe escape from here when we are done." Waleed smiled expectantly.
“Such a heavy purse lightens my heart,” the guard smiled. “Follow me.” Heading across the square and toward the rear of the ministry he quickly squirreled away half the dinars into the folds of his robes and beneath his leather breastplate. Throwing you a wink and a smile, he tapped twice lightly on an iron bound door with the pommel of his scimitar.
After a brief moment, the scraping of a heavy bar being lifted and a suspicious voice. “You’re early,” it growled from a slit in the door. “Shift change isn’t…”
The sound of coins dancing in a pouch brought the man’s head through the slit like a turtle from it’s shell. “Of course I am a poor judge of the time.” His open hand appeared and was filled with half the remaining coins. After a furtive glance he pushed the door open and hastened everyone inside.
The door closed behind you and you find yourselves in a dimly lit guard room. On a large table, a flickering oil lamp pushed enough darkness back to reveal a half-played game of Misr Stones and a large pair of sandaled feet belonging to a snoring brute of a guard.
“May Fate bless and keep you, Shari, you bony son of a camel herder,” smiled the guard you’d met beside the fountain, clapping him roughly on the shoulder.
“May your days be long and blessed, Nasr,” Shari replied with a grimace. He rubbed his shoulder and turned to lead the way out of the room.
“Don’t wake Ox,” he cautioned, as if the other were a light sleeper despite all the noise a moment ago. “He spent the day carrying Minister Nur’s litter, and if you know Nur, you know he’s never missed a meal, so best to let old Ox just rest right there as he is.”
Nasr raised a thick, knowing eyebrow. “Yes, and best not to burden him with a share of those coins, no doubt…”
“No doubt,” replied Shari with a nervous chuckle. The man adjusted his scimitar where it hung awkwardly from his thin hips and led you up a short stairway and into the back hallways of the ministry. Dusty moonlight falling from the glass dome above revealed shelves straining under the weight of scrolls, books, and flats of parchment.
Shari shrugged. “As you can see, the clerks have not cataloged everything. The Minister keeps them hopping like chicken’s without heads. Whatever the current fancy of the Amira, may Fate bless and keep her, becomes Minister Nur’s obsession. At the moment, it’s the Cult of Ragarra. Their kidnappings and murder’s have become so brazen as to have reached the ears of the Caliph, would you believe it?”
Shari stopped his rambling and adjusted his scimitar again, glancing toward Nasr. Nasr leaned against the door frame and idly dug a thick finger into his nose.
“Let me describe the catalog system,” Shari said, his voice taking on a monotonous tone. “Each section is divided into…”
Nasr eyed the results of his digging and then yawned. Turning, he lumbered down the stairs and out of sight.
Suddenly animated, Shari smiled and pulled a pair of spectacles from a fold in his robes. “I’ve spent half my life here, roaming these halls as a night guardsman. What do you want to find?”
"Good man Shari," Waleed smiled in admiration, "We seek any information about the Gates of Tadabbur."
The ground didn't shake, the heavens didn't open and Shari merely shrugged and motioned for you to follow. "Never heard of those. We'll try the master catalog first... no guarantee. If you have any other information, " he adjusted his scimitar again with annoyance as it bounced awkwardly with his long, rolling gait, "it might be cross referenced."
Waleed pondered on whether to tell the man anymore, it wasn't like he was trustworthy, he had let himself be bribed after all. But, everyone had a price, as Waleed had comed to learn in the courts of his far away home. "The gates of Tadabbur is only part of a quotation I learned. The entirety of it goes as such:
Embrace Fate, and she will smile upon you. The key to understanding lies through the mists of ignorance. Learn from yesterday to shape tomorrow.
The nine-fold stars have fallen! Waken, Lions of Tomorrow, for the gates of Tadabbur are thrown open!"
Waleed eyed Shari for his reaction, wary of any possible knowledge the man may try to hide. It was evident the man was more scholar than guardsman, and perhaps he would prove more useful as the former than the latter.Re: 061: Ministry of Secrets
"Much better," Shari nodded as you passed through an archway and into a large oval room. "Let's see... lets start with prophecies..."
The lamp Shari read by was starting to flicker low as the night wore on. Jaheira wandered out and returned with some oil to refill it. Shari never looked up from the stack of documents he'd gathered.
"Now this is noteworthy..." Shari tapped a parchment with a long finger. "Its only a few notes on the margins of a translation. Listen to this: '...this would likely be Iman Suhail himself who destroyed all of the library's works on the Geomancers. Its as if he sought to erase them from history...'".
Shari turned and pulled a leather bound manuscript and flipped through until finding his page. "Same researcher, later that year... 'Iman Suhail then proclaimed: Should the gates of Tadabbur be opened, nine-fold stars will rain from the sky to signal Her return. When wheel meets wheel, the past becomes clear and the future opens.'"
Waleed murmered to himself, "
Silver Tongues
Opens Doors
Before Steel
Swords
With
The Three"
Then chuckled as he drew the connection to the three guards. "Can you find anything about the Ninth Geomancer, or the Lions of Tomorrow?" Lions of Tomorrow... Waleed thought to himself, is that what his band of travelers are? Another smirk alighted his face as he tried to think of himself as a lion.
Pouring over items that Shari has pulled from the shelves, and occasionally interrupting him for a translation of phrases in ancient Kadari or the nearly dead language of Nog Waleed is able to piece together the following:
The eastern jungles known to desert dwellers as the ‘Ruined Kingdoms’ is abbreviated from the phrase ‘Ruined Kingdoms of Nog and Kadar’. Beneath the relentless, creeping jungle are concealed hundreds of crumbling buildings, temples, and fortifications: remnants of the doomed civilizations.
Despite the wealth of writings, inscriptions, and magical artifacts that have outlived them, much of the history of Nog and Kadar is fragmented and meaningless because it lacks a cultural context.
Most sages agree that both civilizations evolved around the Nogaro River, with Kadar being the older by far. Many dynasties rose and fell in the region. Over 1000 years ago Kadar held sway over the entire river valley until western explorers enlightened the jungle darkness with the Word of the Loregiver. Darkness gave way for a time but corrupt warrior-kings, khedives, rose to power in the wake of the explorers’ departure.
At the same time, or perhaps after these warrior dynasties seized control of the lower Nagaro, a number of religions expanded and flourished in the upper river valley. Based on a reverence and fear of nature, some of these religions developed into theocracies, unified by the common language called Noga.
The wicked khedives of Nog and Kadar vehemently resisted enlightenment, believing in the strength of their own savage deities. Some describe the fall of the civilizations as divine punishment for that resistance, others believe the empires’ decay was the result of corruption, greed, and exclusion from the prospering, enlightened west.
Waleed’s most promising find of the night was a journal entry. It described “the Lion’s destruction of all traces of the unspeakables’ existence: the breaking of their talismans, the burning of all their records. The prophecy may thus go unfulfilled. However, in his wisdom Suhail made an account of the unspeakables’ works and histories so that future Lions of Tomorrow would be forewarned and thus combat the ninth and most foul of the unspeakable. This text was then hidden away from the eyes of man.”
Wedged in the journal on a thin parchment of what may have been treated seaweed and written in a flowing white script was the following: “Should the gates of Tadabbur be opened, nine-fold stars will rain from the sky to signal Her return. When wheel meets wheel, the past becomes clear and the future open.”
"I think we have run out of time," Shari said, standing to stretch. "The change of guards is within the hour and with them comes the researchers."
He began replacing the documents. "We can try again tomorrow night, there's always the possibility of learning more."
He paused, and looked at the documents spread about. "Still, I will not be able to sleep for several hours yet. When my shift is over I will search some more. Tell me where I can find you and I'll bring you anything I find."
Waleed nodded in agreement and whispered to Shari, lest his companions overhear, where he was staying, hoping the man was more scholar than traitor. "Thank you." Then handed him 200 dinari as they were leaving the ministry.
"Ya'qub, want to stop at the Mosque of the Sacred Fountain, dedicated to Suhail min Zann, next door?"
"Friend Waleed, I must confess that I am somewhat bewildered by the exchange I have just witnessed. What did you hope to learn here?
Nevertheless, I am enjoying this midnight embassy - such intrigue! Certainly I shall continue to accompany you."
You slipped out of the Ministry and around to the court yard in front. On the steps of the Mosque of the Sacred Fountain a figure knelt, arms raised to the graying sky in supplication. As you drew nearer you found the figure somehow familiar; a female, but recognition was impossible in the faint morning light. Nearer still, you realized a shadow crawled across her form; a living swarm of black wasps. Two blinking eyes stared calmly in your direction. It was Adila.
She muttered in a strange language, or at least unintelligently. As she did, wasps crawled in and out of the corners of her mouth. Adila didn’t appear to notice. Gradually a buzzing arose, growing louder quickly. From it, a series of long monotonous syllables:
"Siiisters Three
Vaalley Born
Vaain
Tiime Forgotten
Sttand They
Beeneath
Eeyes Unblinking
Geenerations Waiting
Hiiding”
A pause. “Aaabdo”
As the sun rose, the swarm rose- pouring toward the fountain that was their home.
Adila slumped slightly and looked around, alarmed. “How did I get here?”
"I had hoped to find the location of these gates of Tadabbur, for I think that is where we must travel to, to find the source of Adila's curse." Waleed answered in reply. "But I am unsure now, I'm rather confused. It would be nice if we had a map with a big red X on it to go to, but it looks like we must investigate further if we are to solve this mystery. What are your thoughts on this matter Ya'qub, you are no simpleton by any means, your mental prowess is at least equal to mine, what do you think our next step should be?"
"I would venture that Fate brought you here Adila." Waleed motioned for one of his girls to cover her in a cloak as Adila was sure too attract attention otherwise. "Abdo. Anyone know anything about it?" Waleed furrowed his brow and searched his mind for any revelance.
Waleed
Ya’qub
NPCs
Mamoun,
Jaheira, Wudei’a, Najiba
8th of Saris
“I trust you are as generous as you are prompt,” said the guard as he stepped from the shadow cast by the moon-lit fountain. His eyes danced uneasily between Waleed’s guards as they spread out, searching the courtyard. Then the guard noticed Ya’qub. “Kor! Did you invite the entire city?” A bead of sweat broke on his forehead and he swiped it away with the back of his hand.
The swarming hornets that had surrounded the fountain earlier in the day were no where to be seen.
"Here," Waleed said as he handed the guard 100 dinari in a small bag, "I trust this will be more than enough. Also, there will be twice that much if you ensure we are not caught and see to our safe escape from here when we are done." Waleed smiled expectantly.
“Such a heavy purse lightens my heart,” the guard smiled. “Follow me.” Heading across the square and toward the rear of the ministry he quickly squirreled away half the dinars into the folds of his robes and beneath his leather breastplate. Throwing you a wink and a smile, he tapped twice lightly on an iron bound door with the pommel of his scimitar.
After a brief moment, the scraping of a heavy bar being lifted and a suspicious voice. “You’re early,” it growled from a slit in the door. “Shift change isn’t…”
The sound of coins dancing in a pouch brought the man’s head through the slit like a turtle from it’s shell. “Of course I am a poor judge of the time.” His open hand appeared and was filled with half the remaining coins. After a furtive glance he pushed the door open and hastened everyone inside.
The door closed behind you and you find yourselves in a dimly lit guard room. On a large table, a flickering oil lamp pushed enough darkness back to reveal a half-played game of Misr Stones and a large pair of sandaled feet belonging to a snoring brute of a guard.
“May Fate bless and keep you, Shari, you bony son of a camel herder,” smiled the guard you’d met beside the fountain, clapping him roughly on the shoulder.
“May your days be long and blessed, Nasr,” Shari replied with a grimace. He rubbed his shoulder and turned to lead the way out of the room.
“Don’t wake Ox,” he cautioned, as if the other were a light sleeper despite all the noise a moment ago. “He spent the day carrying Minister Nur’s litter, and if you know Nur, you know he’s never missed a meal, so best to let old Ox just rest right there as he is.”
Nasr raised a thick, knowing eyebrow. “Yes, and best not to burden him with a share of those coins, no doubt…”
“No doubt,” replied Shari with a nervous chuckle. The man adjusted his scimitar where it hung awkwardly from his thin hips and led you up a short stairway and into the back hallways of the ministry. Dusty moonlight falling from the glass dome above revealed shelves straining under the weight of scrolls, books, and flats of parchment.
Shari shrugged. “As you can see, the clerks have not cataloged everything. The Minister keeps them hopping like chicken’s without heads. Whatever the current fancy of the Amira, may Fate bless and keep her, becomes Minister Nur’s obsession. At the moment, it’s the Cult of Ragarra. Their kidnappings and murder’s have become so brazen as to have reached the ears of the Caliph, would you believe it?”
Shari stopped his rambling and adjusted his scimitar again, glancing toward Nasr. Nasr leaned against the door frame and idly dug a thick finger into his nose.
“Let me describe the catalog system,” Shari said, his voice taking on a monotonous tone. “Each section is divided into…”
Nasr eyed the results of his digging and then yawned. Turning, he lumbered down the stairs and out of sight.
Suddenly animated, Shari smiled and pulled a pair of spectacles from a fold in his robes. “I’ve spent half my life here, roaming these halls as a night guardsman. What do you want to find?”
"Good man Shari," Waleed smiled in admiration, "We seek any information about the Gates of Tadabbur."
The ground didn't shake, the heavens didn't open and Shari merely shrugged and motioned for you to follow. "Never heard of those. We'll try the master catalog first... no guarantee. If you have any other information, " he adjusted his scimitar again with annoyance as it bounced awkwardly with his long, rolling gait, "it might be cross referenced."
Waleed pondered on whether to tell the man anymore, it wasn't like he was trustworthy, he had let himself be bribed after all. But, everyone had a price, as Waleed had comed to learn in the courts of his far away home. "The gates of Tadabbur is only part of a quotation I learned. The entirety of it goes as such:
Embrace Fate, and she will smile upon you. The key to understanding lies through the mists of ignorance. Learn from yesterday to shape tomorrow.
The nine-fold stars have fallen! Waken, Lions of Tomorrow, for the gates of Tadabbur are thrown open!"
Waleed eyed Shari for his reaction, wary of any possible knowledge the man may try to hide. It was evident the man was more scholar than guardsman, and perhaps he would prove more useful as the former than the latter.Re: 061: Ministry of Secrets
"Much better," Shari nodded as you passed through an archway and into a large oval room. "Let's see... lets start with prophecies..."
The lamp Shari read by was starting to flicker low as the night wore on. Jaheira wandered out and returned with some oil to refill it. Shari never looked up from the stack of documents he'd gathered.
"Now this is noteworthy..." Shari tapped a parchment with a long finger. "Its only a few notes on the margins of a translation. Listen to this: '...this would likely be Iman Suhail himself who destroyed all of the library's works on the Geomancers. Its as if he sought to erase them from history...'".
Shari turned and pulled a leather bound manuscript and flipped through until finding his page. "Same researcher, later that year... 'Iman Suhail then proclaimed: Should the gates of Tadabbur be opened, nine-fold stars will rain from the sky to signal Her return. When wheel meets wheel, the past becomes clear and the future opens.'"
Waleed murmered to himself, "
Silver Tongues
Opens Doors
Before Steel
Swords
With
The Three"
Then chuckled as he drew the connection to the three guards. "Can you find anything about the Ninth Geomancer, or the Lions of Tomorrow?" Lions of Tomorrow... Waleed thought to himself, is that what his band of travelers are? Another smirk alighted his face as he tried to think of himself as a lion.
Pouring over items that Shari has pulled from the shelves, and occasionally interrupting him for a translation of phrases in ancient Kadari or the nearly dead language of Nog Waleed is able to piece together the following:
The eastern jungles known to desert dwellers as the ‘Ruined Kingdoms’ is abbreviated from the phrase ‘Ruined Kingdoms of Nog and Kadar’. Beneath the relentless, creeping jungle are concealed hundreds of crumbling buildings, temples, and fortifications: remnants of the doomed civilizations.
Despite the wealth of writings, inscriptions, and magical artifacts that have outlived them, much of the history of Nog and Kadar is fragmented and meaningless because it lacks a cultural context.
Most sages agree that both civilizations evolved around the Nogaro River, with Kadar being the older by far. Many dynasties rose and fell in the region. Over 1000 years ago Kadar held sway over the entire river valley until western explorers enlightened the jungle darkness with the Word of the Loregiver. Darkness gave way for a time but corrupt warrior-kings, khedives, rose to power in the wake of the explorers’ departure.
At the same time, or perhaps after these warrior dynasties seized control of the lower Nagaro, a number of religions expanded and flourished in the upper river valley. Based on a reverence and fear of nature, some of these religions developed into theocracies, unified by the common language called Noga.
The wicked khedives of Nog and Kadar vehemently resisted enlightenment, believing in the strength of their own savage deities. Some describe the fall of the civilizations as divine punishment for that resistance, others believe the empires’ decay was the result of corruption, greed, and exclusion from the prospering, enlightened west.
Waleed’s most promising find of the night was a journal entry. It described “the Lion’s destruction of all traces of the unspeakables’ existence: the breaking of their talismans, the burning of all their records. The prophecy may thus go unfulfilled. However, in his wisdom Suhail made an account of the unspeakables’ works and histories so that future Lions of Tomorrow would be forewarned and thus combat the ninth and most foul of the unspeakable. This text was then hidden away from the eyes of man.”
Wedged in the journal on a thin parchment of what may have been treated seaweed and written in a flowing white script was the following: “Should the gates of Tadabbur be opened, nine-fold stars will rain from the sky to signal Her return. When wheel meets wheel, the past becomes clear and the future open.”
"I think we have run out of time," Shari said, standing to stretch. "The change of guards is within the hour and with them comes the researchers."
He began replacing the documents. "We can try again tomorrow night, there's always the possibility of learning more."
He paused, and looked at the documents spread about. "Still, I will not be able to sleep for several hours yet. When my shift is over I will search some more. Tell me where I can find you and I'll bring you anything I find."
Waleed nodded in agreement and whispered to Shari, lest his companions overhear, where he was staying, hoping the man was more scholar than traitor. "Thank you." Then handed him 200 dinari as they were leaving the ministry.
"Ya'qub, want to stop at the Mosque of the Sacred Fountain, dedicated to Suhail min Zann, next door?"
"Friend Waleed, I must confess that I am somewhat bewildered by the exchange I have just witnessed. What did you hope to learn here?
Nevertheless, I am enjoying this midnight embassy - such intrigue! Certainly I shall continue to accompany you."
You slipped out of the Ministry and around to the court yard in front. On the steps of the Mosque of the Sacred Fountain a figure knelt, arms raised to the graying sky in supplication. As you drew nearer you found the figure somehow familiar; a female, but recognition was impossible in the faint morning light. Nearer still, you realized a shadow crawled across her form; a living swarm of black wasps. Two blinking eyes stared calmly in your direction. It was Adila.
She muttered in a strange language, or at least unintelligently. As she did, wasps crawled in and out of the corners of her mouth. Adila didn’t appear to notice. Gradually a buzzing arose, growing louder quickly. From it, a series of long monotonous syllables:
"Siiisters Three
Vaalley Born
Vaain
Tiime Forgotten
Sttand They
Beeneath
Eeyes Unblinking
Geenerations Waiting
Hiiding”
A pause. “Aaabdo”
As the sun rose, the swarm rose- pouring toward the fountain that was their home.
Adila slumped slightly and looked around, alarmed. “How did I get here?”
"I had hoped to find the location of these gates of Tadabbur, for I think that is where we must travel to, to find the source of Adila's curse." Waleed answered in reply. "But I am unsure now, I'm rather confused. It would be nice if we had a map with a big red X on it to go to, but it looks like we must investigate further if we are to solve this mystery. What are your thoughts on this matter Ya'qub, you are no simpleton by any means, your mental prowess is at least equal to mine, what do you think our next step should be?"
"I would venture that Fate brought you here Adila." Waleed motioned for one of his girls to cover her in a cloak as Adila was sure too attract attention otherwise. "Abdo. Anyone know anything about it?" Waleed furrowed his brow and searched his mind for any revelance.