Ihrin Glares at the man, her hand flipping the dagger in her hand from thrust forward to underhand. She watches the vampire and then looks to her party.
"Are you sure you would like to accompany us. I mean an emissary such as yourself is too indispensable to accompany a Cardinal and his personal entourage. I mean why bother"She says looking at the man with hatred in her voice.
Ihrin Glares at the man, her hand flipping the dagger in her hand from thrust forward to underhand. She watches the vampire and then looks to her party.
"Are you sure you would like to accompany us. I mean an emissary such as yourself is too indispensable to accompany a Cardinal and his personal entourage. I mean why bother"She says looking at the man with hatred in her voice.
"I do not trust you, I do not like your affliction or your affiliation." She says touching the tattoo on arm and unleashing the spear she had within.
"So if you are coming, how about you go and equip these soon to be ex-slaves? That is unless you want them to slow us and you down?"
"I have little authority here." Saleh replies, still smiling slightly. "But if it is the price of my joining your company then it shall be done. Inshallah."
He bows briefly and disappears into the throng of the souk, acquiring clothes and food (although no weapons beyond belt knives) for the slaves.
|
Lucius nods in approval as Mwikali gains them some space from the vampire. "This is a most strange situation. This creature should be evil - as is the magic that made him, but he is not. He calls upon the name of Allah, their name of God, and is not struck down. Although this troubles me I must wonder whether he truly is an aid - we can little afford to turn down help against Nero."
He looks to the others before continuing. "He has told us no falsehoods that I can discern, and if he is a spy then he is a bad one - revealing his mission and master without prompting. If nothing else having him with us means he is not here, or in Constantinople, preying on innocents. If he is a traitor we have the skills to defeat him. God, and Mother Africa, will not easily let us down."
"I have little authority here." Saleh replies, still smiling slightly. "But if it is the price of my joining your company then it shall be done. Inshallah."
He bows briefly and disappears into the throng of the souk, acquiring clothes and food (although no weapons beyond belt knives) for the slaves.
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Meanwhile, in the fey demiplane of Gooseland within the Black Forest, the stalwart heroes Johann Kaltgeboren and Lord Perpireen McGibel, having already reassembled the Wall King's favored intelligent egg-shaped porcelain golem Humpty Dumpty (who'd shattered following a catastrophic fall from the Great Wall of Gooseland, and not all the King's cavalry or other esteemed men of lore had been able to put him back together, until our heroes arrived with the sovereign glue in Rumplestilskin's rucksack), and having driven the Big Bad Wolf and his pack away from Rapunzel's Tower, the Bear and the Sprite now wander into the spiderweb-tangled Tuffetlands, where giant spiders weave silken webs between the green tuffets, forming an eerie maze and lair for a large colony of giant spiders.
When King Humphry X of the Great Wall had rewarded them for putting Humpty Dumpty back together again, he had mentioned that sovereign glue such as the heroes used was made with giant spider silk, and that alchemists and wizards would pay handsomely for giant spider spinarets. He then told the heroes where such could be harvested aplenty by two doughty stalwarts such as they: the dreaded Tuffetlands. And so Johann and Lord Perpireen have wandered south from the Great Wall into this cobweb-shrouded grassland, in hope of getting rich killing giant spiders. They drink antitoxins as they enter the labyrinth of tuffets canopied with giant spiderwebs...
The vampire doesn't lean on his supernatural gifts at all, simply chatting to the stallholders and applying his more 'mundane' charms. He doesn't baulk at fair prices but the one merchant who tries to fleece him sees the less affable side of the vampire and is reduced to a quivering wreck as Saleh stalks off.
The vampire doesn't lean on his supernatural gifts at all, simply chatting to the stallholders and applying his more 'mundane' charms. He doesn't baulk at fair prices but the one merchant who tries to fleece him sees the less affable side of the vampire and is reduced to a quivering wreck as Saleh stalks off.
A bit of honest diplomacy reduces the total cost to 100 gp...
Tuesday night passes with the expedition resting from their week of slogging through the desert in the city of Cairo, at a caravanserai.
During the night, the wary champions hammer out an uneasy agreement with the persuasive and courtly Immortal, under which it will accompany and serve them as an equal companion, all the while observing their actions and intentions...
Saleh repays their faith by insisting on paying for the caravanserai, and providing the best fare that can be found.
Otherwise he stays quiet, as though trying to be unobtrusive. He does seem to pay more attention to Ihrin than anyone else though.
Ihrin glares at the vampire as she eats and drinks coffee. She had a fitful nights sleep her dreams of the beach with the strange woman morph into the dark cold tomb she crawled out of, the brother she admired face twisted into the hideous form of the Nosferatu! She shook them off but the bags under her eyes showed how fitful her slumber actually was!
Mwikali, on the other hand, strode in her outfit similar yet freshly washed and well rested. She joined the former slaves and began to talk to them about her lands and what she planned to accomplish within Africa. She knew it would be painstaking but she also knew Africa was mighty, mightier than anything the Europeans or Arabs could throw at them.
The exact night the...thing begins traveling with them, Alphonse stops sleeping at night. He watches the vampire like a...well, untrained human, but he does so very diligently.
Toshiro doe snot know what to make of the vampire. He seems polite, if very different form what he knows of vampiric folklore.
As such, he inundates him with questions.
"Where is your talisman? Aren't kyonshi...vampires, I mean, supposed to hop everywhere? Are you a spirit possessing a body, or do you make more of your kind by spreading a plague? Your nails do not seem sharp enough for the latter. Or maybe you are one of the vetala from the Indian peninsula? You eat souls and bad dreams?" he asks, among other questions.
Eventually, he gets the idea that vampires in this part of the world are very different from the stories he grew up with.
"Ah, disappointing. Feeding on blood seems so...boring. Everybody drinks a little blood now and then!"
"Where is your talisman? Aren't kyonshi...vampires, I mean, supposed to hop everywhere? Are you a spirit possessing a body, or do you make more of your kind by spreading a plague? Your nails do not seem sharp enough for the latter. Or maybe you are one of the vetala from the Indian peninsula? You eat souls and bad dreams?" he asks, among other questions.
Eventually, he gets the idea that vampires in this part of the world are very different from the stories he grew up with.
"Ah, disappointing. Feeding on blood seems so...boring. Everybody drinks a little blood now and then!"
"I have no 'talisman' and as you can see I have two legs." The Vampire seems quite amused by Toshiro's ideas. "You must tell me more of these vetala though. I have not heard of them before."
He listens with interest if/as Toshiro relates the stories of the eastern vampires.
"Intriguing. I wonder how these differences occurred."
Bernardo says little as the Vampire Saleh el'Dinn, Turkish Immortal, and legendary bodyguards of the Sultan comes into their company. Yet where ever Saleh goes Barnardo is always there or close by. Helping with the paying of items and getting the x-slaves dressed, then when the food is asked for Bernardo helps with that. Helpful, useful and always present.
Machiavelli will take 10+4 on all his KN rolls to work out the back ground of this Vamp, that is 17+10+5 for 32 on all KN skills.
Then, on going
He also never lies as far as Bernardo can tell.
The following morning, the vampire has disappeared. The party takes the opportunity to quickly ride out of Cairo before it can find them again...
Days pass as the expedition turns southeastward and skirts the coast of the Red Sea. The sun rolls around the world, arcing from east to west overhead as the travelers traverse the rocky desert terrain, sometimes seeing mirage oasis in the distance that vanish when they draw closer...
A few days and nights go by, and the champions feel more and more at ease as they put increasing leagues between Cairo (and the vampire) and their backs...
Friday, 15th June, the explorers ford a shallow river that flows down to the Red Sea at around noon, spotting some crocodiles downriver about 300 feet... too far away for the crocodiles to consider giving chase and snatching a camel or perhaps Machiavelli's war gecko...
"Ihrin," the Ogon Fox says while walking one day after they had left Cairo. "I am curious about your reaction to that vampire that approached us. He claimed to be your grandfather, but it was clear you felt nothing but hostility toward him. Is he really your grandfather?"
"I am not sure"she says as she looks off in the distance.
"I mean he could be, I have been gone from home too long. However, I am adopted. I woke up in a dark place clawed my self free and fought my way to be who I am." She says as she continues on staring off into the horizon. She was adopted and had riddled dreams of a past she found familiar but also not.
"He could very well have been my grandfather, all I know is that I need to push the Arab threat back and defeat this demonic incursion to hopefully find some answers as to who and what I am" She says blinking and then turning to Ogon with a smile.
Sunday, 17th June, around 4 in the afternoon, the expedition rounds a bend with a great rocky ridge to their right and a broad plain stretching away toward the Red Sea on their right, and they emerge onto the northern border of Ethiopia, a land which is said to be Christian, and may possibly be the origin of the legend of Prester John, a fabled Christian king said to be mightier and wealthier than all the kings of Europe and Asia combined!
The expedition makes inquiries while passing down through the Coptic Christian cities of Ethiopia about the kingdom of Prester John, and learn that Prester John's kingdom once flourished in the land that is called Ethiopia, during the 12th century, but has long since passed into myth and legend.
The descendents of Prester John still rule Ethiopia, but Prester John himself died some two centuries ago in battle against the Moors. According to the legend told to the expedition by the Ethiopians, a great aerial duel occurred in the sky over Zion, capital of Prester John's kingdom. Prester John rode flew to battle mounted upon the gold dragon Krond, and was slain in an aerial joust by the Graveknight Saladin mounted upon the Blue dragon Aljanahalbarq. Prester John was knocked from the saddle and fell to his death, impaled upon the spiked spire of the Zion Cathedral.
On Thursday, 22nd June, the expedition descends from the highlands and finds a shimmering river flowing from west to east...
The expedition has reached the Kalukawe River, which flows from west to east and forms the southern border of Kukuanaland where it junctions with the Lukanga River.
Following the Kalukawe River east toward its junction with the Lukanga River, the expedition arrives at the river junction at around dusk on the evening of Friday, 23rd June...
As the adventurers follow the Kalukawe River east along its northern bank, searching for a junction that would be the Lukanga River, they at last come upon the northern shores of that mighty junction of rivers, where the vast spectrum of African creatures come to bathe and drink.
North of the junction, a dried up riverbed forms a road that runs north into Kukuanaland...
There are many animals at this great watering hole: gazelles, boars, warthogs, elephants, crocodiles, lions, hyenas and giraffe... But the queen of this watering hole appears to be the behemoth riverhorse, or hippopotamus! A massive female is given wide berth by all the other beasts...
Mwikali looks to Kiku and nods."Find a local bird to talk to find out what it knows" She says in their weird birdspeech.
She looks to her compatriots."Kiku is looking to find local birds to talk too"
Turning to the locals she smiles and uses her tongues ability."Do you know what lies beyond and whether we need to get water now or later."
"Look at the size of it...is that some kind of water cow?"
Mwikali looks to Kiku and nods."Find a local bird to talk to find out what it knows" She says in their weird birdspeech.
She looks to her compatriots."Kiku is looking to find local birds to talk too"
Kiku flies over to some cranes wading and fishing for small fish in the shallows along the riverbank, about 160 feet away from the expedition...
Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!
Turning to the locals she smiles and uses her tongues ability."Do you know what lies beyond and whether we need to get water now or later."
Mwikali looks around the watering hole at the river junction for locals to speak with, but the only locals are all wild beasts. There don't seem to be any humanoids around at this time of the evening.
Mwikali looks to Kiku and nods."Find a local bird to talk to find out what it knows" She says in their weird birdspeech.
She looks to her compatriots."Kiku is looking to find local birds to talk too"
Kiku flies over to some cranes wading and fishing for small fish in the shallows along the riverbank, about 160 feet away from the expedition...
Squawk! Squawk! Squawk!
** spoiler omitted **
The African cranes squawk back at Kiku in the tongue of birds: Ask your questions, stranger. If we know the answers, we shall give true answer!
"Look at the size of it...is that some kind of water cow?"
The behemoth hippopotamus yawns, showing off long, deadly looking teeth, two upper and two lower that seem capable of opening up a suit of plate armor like a can opener opening a can...
The other nearby animals all move further away from the behemoth at this intimidating display of its formidable natural weaponry...
[opc]The behemoth hippopotamus is about 300 ft southeast of the expedition, mostly submerged in the water at the river junction, which could be at least 20 feet deep... A pride of 5 lions eyes the expedition from about 180 feet to the east downriver... A pack of hyenas further away (about 8 hyenas 240 feet northeast, seeming to tail the lions in hope of dining on scraps of lion kill) chuckles nervously...[/ooc]
Seemingly distracted for the last few days and nights by some troubling inner turmoil, Cardinal Lucius D'Borja glances only briefly and with little interest at the behemoth riverhorse and other various beasts around the river junction. He turns to look at each of his companions with a look that has become too familiar to them by now. It is the same expression that was on the faces of Alten, Wulfgar Ivarrson, Lady Giovanna, Arc Du Perdu, Boga the Hand of Jan Hus, The Rabbi, and most recently, Johann, right before they said farewell and left the company.
My dear companions, I fear that I can no longer ignore the troubling dreams and daytime intuitions that I fear might be prophetic. Johann and Lord Perpireen are in some kind of great danger or trouble in the Black Forest, and they need my help. You are a capable band without me, and I shall pray to Our Heavenly Father every day for your success in finding the Lost Mines of King Solomon, and for your safe return, enriched by that fabled king's lost treasures! But alas, I must say farewell now, and fly away to the North. My trusty flying carpet, Seraphim, will carry me safely to my destination, as will God's angels. Farewell, my dear friends, and the blessing of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you now and always, Amen! He makes the sign of the cross over each of his companions before mounting his magic carpet and flying away northward...
"It is a river beast that will kill the unwary and unskilled on the river." She says looking over to Alphonse and then hears about the CardinalShe waves.
When the Cardinal leaves sight she blinks and laughs."He knows I could have teleported him there right?"
This dried up riverbed... says one of the Bantu men, pointing out a dry valley running north from the river junction... leads north to Kukuanaland and the mountain range known as the Solomon Mountains... A pair of peaks called Sheba's Breasts form a natural gateway into Kukuanaland...
A Zulu woman adds: Kukuanaland is ruled by a wicked, degenerate king, who takes council from evil night hags! We must tread carefully there, or we will wind up in the meat pots! They are vicious cannibals, the Kukuanalanders!
"Fear not, we are the Champions we shall overcome these plagues and free this land if these legends be true.'
Mwikali drops her Tongues ability and turns to her friends.
"They say the two mountian peaks, named Sheba's Breasts is the gate way. Beyond is a Degenerate King who takes council with night hags and rules cannibals."
The behemoth grows bolder, and swims closer to the expedition, moving about 60 feet upriver...
The expedition rides north on the riverbed road to Kukuanaland.
Buzzards circle above, accostumed to finding at least scraps to dine on if not carcasses when travelers come up the road to these savage lands...
The sun blazes overhead, slowly arcing across the azure heavens from east to west, sinking behind the rocky desert horizon on the expedition's left as they continue northward until camping each night...
It is Wednesday, 28th June when the pair of peaks known as Sheba's Breasts in the Solomon Mountains come into view on the far northern horizon ahead of the expedition... The gateway to Kukuanaland...
Ogon Fox shades his eyes from the sun overhead and looks north to Sheba's Breasts.
"It seems, at last, that we begin to draw near to our goal," he says to the others.
"How do you think we should handle ourselves when entering Kukuanaland? Will a strong show of force be necessary to dissuade any attack against us, or will it be possible for us to pass through peacefully?"
The adventurers notice multiple cave mouths on both of the mountain peaks known as Sheba's Breasts...
A great bird flies overhead toward the twin peaks, soaring toward and ultimately into one of the dark cave openings on the western Breast of Sheba... Its plumage is brilliantly multicolored, its beak long and curved like a raptor, and its weird cries remind the expedition of the maddening yowls of the desert bandersnatch...