A Push of the Fates.... Zakhara... You Jewel!

Game Master Insnare

I think Maztica by it being only shortly after first contact, made Realmsian characters overpowered vis a vis their Maztican counterparts. They did add some rust rules and stuff but yeah.

It works fine enough if you run an all Maztican campaign without the Amnians. I think it would be cool if they did it 100 years after first contact where the magic/sorceries could have had time to blend or something.

Chun would be a great language to know, the ancient language of Al-ANwahr.

I’m enjoying this game so far.
I want to know if Ibn Taaib is acting in any way that is off-putting by being classically chivalrous in the context of Al-Qadim, though, such as by acting modestly, wishing to protect the women, or thinking a lot about station.

Of course, since I am a junior in this campaign, I wouldn’t want to upset some unspoken understanding by the more senior members.

Whereas I'm going a bit in the other direction. I rolled such stupidly high stats, that using Charisma as my "dump stat" still left it at an 11. I view Paritosh as a bit of the gruff bumpkin out of the high desert. Not used to the finer things in life. More used to scrabbling to survive, and being more loquacious with Jamal than with other humanoids.

Whereas I'm going a bit in the other direction. I rolled such stupidly high stats, that using Charisma as my "dump stat" still left it at an 11. I view Paritosh as a bit of the gruff bumpkin out of the high desert. Not used to the finer things in life. More used to scrabbling to survive, and being more loquacious with Jamal than with other humanoids.

Want to trade? It's pretty weird having Ibn Taaib (a paladin) with no Str or Con bonus. XD

Ummm, no!

You folks will come to learn that Nura has little to no modesty. There is no false front; what you see is what you get, and yes, she is a little rough around the edges.

So how much do we know as new additions to the party? I presume we will need to be briefed by the ladies.

So how much do we know as new additions to the party? I presume we will need to be briefed by the ladies.

Also a little background on the previous expedition would help. Ibn Taaib knows that the party delved into the dungeon and found undead, but little else.

You could retcon asking the Sheikh about the previous expedition.

It's fine, I'll ask now.

So regarding 2e dungeon delving, is there any mechanic I need to know about that isn't in 3.5/PF/5e?

2e is more about being descriptive than rolling a perception check.

Sounds interesting.
Also, I succeeded on a Religion check when studying the ruined mosque. Can I tell anything of its history, the previous expedition, or its significance?

I'm reading through the older posts here to know what we should know, and I noticed that there are some tools at the entrance that we can make use of.

Ibn Taaib will take a spade and a bundle of rope, slinging it over his shoulder and securing it in a way that won't impede combat. He also takes three iron spikes and bundles them, fastening them to his belt, and a torch from the pile of what I presume became 6 torches.

@New Party: To brief, the room after this had over twenty skeletons, and the rod of smiting carried by Zairiah is apparently the scepter of Azaltin. After a brief struggle, the skeletons noticed the scepter and stopped fighting--they are apparently cursed to stay in this form, guarding the palace forever.

Also, the party encountered the dessecated corpse of the high priest/imam of the palace, and he held a bronze scimitar (which Zairiah now has) and a small jar filled with holy oil that increases a cleric's effective level for spellcasting and undead-turning by 3 for 12 hours. Beyond that is a room filled with broken glass, as Zairiah broke some enchanted mirrors, and fought a giant statue, which was blasted to pieces when struck with the rod of smiting.

And that is where we entered the picture.

The tools were on the inside of the busted mosque.

The imam had a bronze scimitar through his body, which killed him.

The party fought two tarnished copper automatons but basically.

Got it. Two, not one.

There is something I didn't get.

The Eleven Baneful Gates are the scrolls where Azaltin wrote the ways to evade death, as transcribed to him by the Loregiver. It was after Azaltin became obsessed with achieving immortality (and turning into an undead) did his brother Amakim and Amakim's advisor Zeenab launch the coup.

Why does Mahara say the Gates were placed after the coup, and by Amakim no less?

Maybe he is old and is mistaken, maybe he knows something. We will have to find out.

Interesting! For brevity, can we say Ibn Taaib and Paritosh return to join the rest of the party?

Well, once Paritosh posts as revived, I will do some GM stuff and most likely you will be able to join them soon.

Got it!
Ibn Taaib tends to Paritosh in what way he can, giving him his thoughts and prayers (literally).

Holy smokes, do you guys post this much every weekend? I was out camping with the Boy Scouts!

Let me see about catching up!

Query: remind me how literacy works in 2E?

Literacy means you can read and write the languages you know. The books and scrolls in the palace are written in Chun an ancient version of Midani written in Zakharan cuneiform or hieroglyphics.

Typically you take the Reading/Writing nonweapon proficiency you want your character to be literate.

So not having taken those, Paritosh is blissfully illiterate!

@Zairiah: What roses?

Those are in Room 3.

I was going through party's posts before I joined just now (searching for Lion), and apparently there is a man (not genie!) the party met just before entering the ruins, called Nerim. Nerim mentioned exactly eleven trials and gave the party the rod of smiting and some goodies.

Nerim also said that "Truth is not obvious, but can be found in the simplicity of a man’s love for his wife."

Yeah...that sounds like sacred love to me.

I'm calling Nerim is Azaltin. Think about it!

He gave the party the rod of rulership (1), knows about the trials (2), mentions this place as his home (3), hides his face and the coup against Azaltin happened after he turned into a 'hideous undead creature' (4), he has magical powers and is not a genie or a sah'ir, having disappeared (5), says that he is 'an extremely old man who has lived longer than I really should have' (6), says the trials represent Azaltin's personality, which is personal knowledge only Azaltin would know (7), and drops a reference to the last of the Eleven Baneful Gates (8)!

I'm 90% sure Nerim is Azaltin, the overthrown undead sultan. What do you guys think?

On a side note, apparently Fadhilah has a scroll in Chun that she translated that Nerim gave her, but I couldn't find the translated script.

@DM: I can read it, I think. When building my character, I didn't know I need to take proficiency in reading/writing. Should I switch something out to become literate?

My computer died, so please bot as necessary.

@Fadilah: I hope you regain access soon. I am sure Fadilah has a lot of interesting contributions.

That actually raises a more general point I wanted to talk about. Nura, Frackit, and Fadilah haven’t posted in a while, and Zairiah, Paritosh, and I are blazing through the dungeon—unlocking rooms and coming up with brilliant conclusions xD

I propose holding exploration until more players join. I can slow down my posting to be one per three days instead of once per day to allow others to join. Would that work for the other players?

Well, it's not looking good. I was supposed to get a replacement today, but now FedEx says it may not show up until next week. In the meantime I'm stuck on a mobile device that is AWFUL for posting.

I can second that.

I'm ok with not posting for a week. You don't play campaigns from 2016-2022 and not expect a week (or three) of no posts.

As the GM, I think maintaining the pace should be fine. We are not moving at a blistering pace.

Fadi, I hear you with the trying to post on the phone. It drives me craze to try and do that. I hope your computer arrives soon. My laptop needs to be replaces and I will probably do it over the summer.

In general, a post per day is what I shoot for. And weekends are hard for me, family stuff, etc. When I get on Monday and see 20+ posts, and the group has moved way forward, it is daunting to try and catch back up with the dialog and such.

History to know the Sultana's name: 1d20 ⇒ 5

Quick question, would you consider 400 years ancient history or not?

Quick question, would you consider 400 years ancient history or not?

I wouldn’t, but I’m an elf.

From a human history perspective, I wouldn't. That would be the 1600s ... old, but not ancient.

400 years is not ancient by my standards, then again, I’m an Arab and we professionally live in the past. xD

400 years is definitely ancient for an American I would think…

I was thinking what would a medieval person think about when antiquity was. Plus it was more for which skill would it be "Ancient History" or "Local History" but that would be a rolled 4 versus an 11 or a 17 considering you are not trained and that third wife of a Sultan of 400 years in the past is not something most people would care about unless she had done something important. If it was against Ancient History, the outcome would have been a bit different.

I do throw a lot of other flair into this campaign some Turkish and Persian and Central Asian stuff.

I definitely feel some Persian influences in this dungeon, so you're doing well on that front!

Regarding the medieval to antiquity issue, I think it’s a cultural thing. Ancient history in Zakhara probably includes things that are older than the Loregiver/Enlightenment by a while, some real ‘mists of time’ things when pharoahs ruled the land etc.

As far as speed goes, it does move a little faster than I'm used to, but also, Nura hasn't had much to add of late. She is illiterate and does not speak Chun, so I've not been reading spoilers for such. I am enjoying the rich descriptions of the rooms, however. Kudos for that, GM!

The descriptions really are *chef's kiss*.

Do we have a date and calendar? I remember reading that this was year 1367, but I don't know the month or day.

I ask because since this campaign has been going on for a while (and will hopefully continue for a while yet), I thought it might be prudent to make an in-character campaign log. Maybe in the form of letters scribed by the sheikh describing his travels in story form (1001 nights?)
I'll provide a link, but rest assured I will try to make it have the most use possible (for tracking other things, such as Raschad's service pledge to Fadilah and Nura, which is apparently a year and a day), as well as any required trading elements.

I allowed commenting by everyone. If you want to add anything to the doc, just write it in, and I'll incorporate it as soon as I can.

Thank you for being so kind.

What time of year is it now and which month and such. The fish in the bathhouse took place over an afternoon. Then the party went to Huzuz and helped the Mamluks with there weapon shipment and they got their own boat that adventure probably took like a month or six weeks in game time. The party then took about a week to get back to Muluk and then went to Sekina Falls where they had their first run in with the Brotherhood of the True Flame and Yodfah's men. Then the party left Muluk because there was a target on their backs and sailed to get the special water that part of the adventure took like about a month or so. Then there was the funeral of Zairiah's best friend. Then they went to on the current mission and to seek Yodfah who had escaped. They then spent three days to get to Tarv/Talv(the books have it listed in two different ways and the party took down the werehyenas and outtricked the Dao.

@Paritosh: Do you really need to go out of your way to hunt & kill me?
;-;

@Nura: This is totally unrelated to anything, but I saw a character portrait that reminded me of your character and wanted to share it here.
Portrait of corsair

@DM: I was thinking about the date, like is it 4 February(or zakhara equivalent) 1367. If not can I assume a date? I can do the time logs.

@Paritosh: Do you really need to go out of your way to hunt & kill me?

I feel bad doing this the scene right after you saved me from poison!!! But the DM said so!!!

I'm clearly using my bad dice though!

Whether you went after the sheikh or Nura was fine by me.

I would say it would be end of March or beginning of April because this journey has taken four weeks or so.

On Dates/Campaign Log: Got it. I'll put 25 Maghreb (March) 1367 as the date where the party (old and new members alike) met and had their bath/feast, and 26 when they set back out to Al Anwahr. The log is ready now, though I might change it to be in a more 1001 night style later.

On Darkness: Apparently darkness incurs a 4-point penalty on attack, AC, and saving throws, as well as forcing movement to be 1/3 or trip (TSR 2100 DMG 119). I think that the penalty on attack is negated by the bonus to AC if two dudes without vision are fighting each other, though.

For example, Ibn Taaib's AC is 5, and Paritosh rolled a 8 on a hit. That's a miss. Incorporating the darkness penalty, Ibn Taaib's AC will be worse (becoming 9), but Paritosh's attack will also be worse (be modified to 12), so still a miss.

Therefore, unless some sort of visison is involved, the two penalties cancel out. If Detect Evil can serve as vision (only vs evil creatures) that means it would take a turn but allow Ibn Taaib to have his normal AC and attack bonus against the demon so long as he is concentrating.

You do not get a saving throw against an AOE spell mostly because no matter which direction you move the ice stones would still hit you. It is usually used when the staff, rod or wand is being used to cast spells that have a saving throw attached to them.

If that's the ruling, then fine, but the example given in the book is a saving throw against a fireball.

In this case, I didn't roll against "Spell" either, because the effect came from a staff.