Father Zastoran gives a short lecture what he knows "The strange rune on the scroll is one that is associated with the mysterious wizard-king Nex, although this association is primarily with periods early in Nex’s rule, from a time after he had achieved great power but before his war with Geb reached its height."
"Runes like these were often used to mask the true contents of a page, and often one gifted in magic could pierce the obscuring rune with spells, by observing the map in a reflected surface or under certain kinds of light, while under the effects of mind-altering substances, or after waking from particularly vivid dreams. The rune itself is an obscure Nexian rune that symbolizes a mysterious realm called Kakishon."
Once she braces herself, Almah joins the conversation again. "I know a man, a man named Rayhan, who has made a comfortable life for himself as a merchant, a scholar of note, and a wizard. I ahve visited
with Rayhan several times in the past, usually when seeking his advice on mercantile matters involving the arcane and bizarre, and particularly with matters involving Katapesh’s neighbor to the south—Nex."
"I specifically recall one visit when Rayhan had been researching numerous legendary and mythical realms supposedly conquered by Nex during the Age of Destiny. A place called Kakishon was said to be the most beautiful and valuable of these conquests, but no modern map of the world indicates where such a place may be, or even may once have been."
Before everybody stars flying around, Tariq tries to keep his feet on the ground.
"Well, the fact that it's called 'The scroll of Kakishon' could mean anything. It could just come from there, or take us there, or invoke a curse from there, or whatever." Before Aith can say anything, he quickly adds "of course, a visit to your friend would be in order, though I wouldn't mind sleeping in a proper bed for one night and checking my business for one day." Tariq is sure the business thing is the only thing that could reach Almah's heart.
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So... I was checking my book of genies again and... do you remember the 5 genie heroes of Sarenrae that the book mentioned? Well, guess what, neither of them is Nex or Geb.
Buuuut, there is a recognizable one...
Zayifid.
Wields a delicate but razor-sharp scimitar.
He represents the west wind, upon which secrets thought hidden were carried.
Anyway, I feel really stupid to only realize this now, but thought I'd share. Don't know what it means though. Could it have been the real one and his "secrets" were Loki-like behavior?
Antarah says This is quite interesting... To get to this scroll, we did pass through a small cave which felt extremely pleasant, but it was guarded by some obnoxious creatures. Still, it had some nourishing almonds and it was easy to rest there. You don't think this was Kakishon, do you?"
Realizing that such a paradise would probably exist in another plane, Antarah feels silly for what he said. He blames it on being tired and thirsty, so he helps himself to some water.
As soon as it becomes obvious that the others have an idea of what the scroll is, Aith jumps up so quickly that one might be excused for thinking that she’s doing her damnedest to teleport by sheer force of will. Catching Tariq’s eye, she mostly curbs her enthusiasm, putting her hands behind her in an unconvincing show of sheriff-y restraint, undercut by how rapidly and excitedly she paces back and forth as she listens to Zastoran and Almah’s suggestions.
She starts drawing up a mental list of keys of the sort the cleric mentioned, including who might be a good trip-sitter if psychoactive substances will prove necessary. Undrella, maybe? Her alchemical expertise would be useful, and some of the other knights might want to tag along, so to speak, so someone not of their number might be ideal, if it comes to that.
Aith’s already making soft, strange noises to further punctuate the magnates’ observations, on top of whirling about, so hopefully drugs will not prove necessary.
“Right, a scholarly confabulation, and then we start poking about in earnest. We’ll get this thing open!” the elf manages to get out, eventually. “Perhaps it’s a map, beacon, or other sort of guide? Or some other sort of thing to help us get to the place itself? A lost archmage’s paradise?!!!”
Fortunately for what remains of her dignity, she manages not to squeal.
“Nex is probably long gone, wherever it is, right? Whether some distant refuge of this world or hidden among the planes. If the scroll does contain enough information to get to Kakishon, we wouldn’t be crashing through the gate of where he disappeared to all that time ago? There would have been some record, if that had been the case.” She tosses the concern aside immediately as other thoughts flash by.
** spoiler omitted **
Antarah says This is quite interesting... To get to this scroll, we did pass through a small cave which felt extremely pleasant, but it was guarded by some obnoxious creatures. Still, it had some nourishing almonds and it was easy to rest there. You don't think this was Kakishon, do you?"
Realizing that such a paradise would probably exist in another plane, Antarah feels silly for what he said. He blames it on being tired and thirsty, so he helps himself to some water.
“Maybe modelled on it, in part,” she muses, kindly not focusing on the improbability that the tiny grove could be the real thing, but mind awhirl with the possibilities.
To Antarah's insight Haleen comments "Two down, three to go?"
"If you want to go for the mind altering substances, the cave of Nethys offers itself to take a deep breath of that fog again."
Tariq scratches his beard.
"We've met two of the Templars up to now, and both were corrupted one way or another. I wonder if this is going to be the norm, and what could have happened to bring them down to that condition."
After another few moments it sinks in that wishing isn’t enough to carry her to Rayhan right away, and that if Kakishon has been lost for a few thousand years, it will probably stay that way for a while longer, without Aith having to worry about some other witch stealing a march on her.
She takes a deep breath. “Right. I’m sorry to let my imagination run away with me, even if it is terribly exciting. I mean, we’ve already discovered relics of the Templars of the Five Winds, and that long, long spilth from wars across the planes. Who’s to say that at long last great and terrible deeds aren’t in the offing? I hope – I really hope, that nothing’s going to happen between Nex and Geb again.”
Yes, it’s been four thousand years and some odd, and she’s lived in the aftermath long enough to appreciate just how ruinous magical conflict can be, how thoroughly it can wipe a landscape clean, or worse, but this was Nex, and he and his rival are the stuff of campfire tales among mages the world over. They say any trace of Nex was never found after that one attack by Geb so long ago, and that the uncertainty as to whether he had finally defeated his nemesis has bound the necromancer to this world long after he shuffled off his mortal coil. It’s not completely outside the realm of possibility (but then what is, with enough magic?) that Nex could have retreated to some planar refuge and bided his time, though so impossibly long, and without his long legacy of apprentices tracking him down?
Anyway, Aith’s not patriotic – at least, not in relation to Alkenstar – but she has friends there, and technically, technically, it’s still a vassal of Nex. It would only be right to poke her nose into Kakishon if she can just to make sure that Nex hasn’t been hanging around there the whole time planning to make trouble. She, her friends in Kelmarane, and probably at least most all Garund have enough on their hands with whatever’s going on with these genies.
Tariq scratches his beard.
"We've met two of the Templars up to now, and both were corrupted one way or another. I wonder if this is going to be the norm, and what could have happened to bring them down to that condition."
"I have a sinking feeling we'll have to find out, and that whatever this scroll is, it's related somehow," she sighs, before her exhalation turns strangely, and the embers of her enthusiastic curiosity threaten to flare up again.
"I guess I'm out for now. I have no clue about all that magic stuff. If we're good regarding the gnolls I'd take a leave and check on our business and use the opportunity to sleep in a proper bed again."
"This action Zayifid lured us into might have earned us new enemies. But also a reputation of being a force to reckon with. Overall I'd say it is a win for us and that parchment is a really nice bonus." Almah concludes.
"Our debriefing is done, but whoever is interested to talk the magical artifact some more is welcome to stay."
Yasmeena clearly cannot contain her curiosity and makes herself more comfortable.
"It's a travel of several weeks to Katapesh. Some of the methods suggested to decipher the scroll we could try here and now." Zastoran suggests.
Tariq goes directly to the point.
"Assuming what we try here doesn't work", because he doesn't believe it will, "when do you expect us to leave?"
“Patience is a virtue,” Aith singsongs smugly, before failing to set a good example as she reaches for a scrap of paper to jot down what she thinks might be promising times and lights to test the scroll - midnight under a moon? dawn, to light both a new day and a new world? true firelight, if there’s a real connection with the salamanders? – casts about to see if there’s a mirror in the room (and adds the possibility of a bowl of water or oil), and considers the gradations of lighting she can achieve with a cantrip, all very close to at once.
If, er, substances end up seeming promising (hopefully not pesh, since that’s never appealed, but absinthe or the like might be alright), well, that’s another matter, and will require a bit more thought.
"Perhaps after we exhaust our imaginations as to what we can try here," she adds vaguely, but somehow more helpfully than her last remark, without looking up from her scribbling of ideas.
"No hurry. When it fits." Almah replies. "It is for sure an interesting thing, but nothing with urgency."
Zastoran tries to look at the scroll in the magic spectrum and casts detect magic. The overwhhelming aura leaves the priest stunned for a while.
"Whoa, that's powerful magic!" Zastoran states and sits down.
Almah corrects herself. "Maybe it is a little more urgent than I thought. Please keep it a secret that you have this."
Haleen leaves the meeting. On her way down she stops at Antarah's shop. Once he is back from the meeting too she starts a discussion about armor. "This one is nice, but it is hindering my movement. Maybe it's a better fit for you? Do you have an idea how to improve my defenses?"
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After the meeting, Antarah takes a look at his shop. There is some dust that he needs to clean and all his wares are in his blacksmith back in the group's headquarters, safely locked.
He tells Haleen "I am not an expert armorsmith, but let me think of a few enchantments that could help you. Hmmm, first I can make it easier to avoid some combat maneuvers and to stay balanced . Can't really think of any other."
"I thought more of general enhancements that I'm not hit that easily. I'll think about what kind of armor I'd like, and if there is the time, craft one. But I'd need you to put the magic on it."
"I guess my buckler has some room for additional enchantment too. It is already magical, but as that armor shows, there can be stronger magic for protection."
Almah corrects herself. "Maybe it is a little more urgent than I thought. Please keep it a secret that you have this."
“Of course,” Aith nods. “Though it seems everyone in that place knew there was something down there. I don’t think anyone knew what, exactly, and I think we managed not to give away that we’d found it, but if anyone else works their nerve up to search the depths, they would probably be able to draw the correct conclusions.”
“I suppose we should prepare for some shaken fists and fruitless curses being hurled to the skies against us,” she says blandly, as she prepares a few preliminary tests.
She’s not exactly hopeful – she expects it might be keyed to actual moonlight or sunlight or season, if that’s how the scroll works, for example – but she plays around with cantrip lights at various intensities and in different shades for a bit, before retiring to her office / lab to plan more tests more seriously, as required. Besides, there’s probably sheriff business to catch up on, not least checking in on Undrella, making sure she’s not eating the wrong people, and delivering the dose of wyvern venom to her. At least, assuming she has been behaving.
Aithoaloessa plays around with the light and different angles, but it is all for naught. Light color, brightness, light in front of her, light in the back - nothing.
She lets herself fall back into her chair, she accidentally swipes the little silver spoon, placed there along with a nice set of china to enjoy some coffee. She only notices as the "pling" sound of the metal hitting the floor alerts her to it.
As she bends down to pick it up she glimpses in the corner of her eye how the rune glows softly, time almost stops, and everything becomes really slow. Sound becomes low and stretched and everything besides the scroll feel strangely distant. The rune grows in places, shrinks in others, forms a relief of mountains and valleys with more and more details. Like the sun sinks down below the horizon Aithaloessa's head keeps sinking below the table following her stretched out arm towards the spoon, before the transformation is done.
As the scroll is out of her sight, time snaps back to normal. With the spoon grabbed in her hand, the mage rises again, but the effect on the map is gone.
Tariq goes back to his monastery-inn with thrill.
"Hey! I'm back!"
He greets his apprentice and asks about business and the restoration works. They talk for long about the special almonds Tariq brings, and the almond cake they're going to add to the menu.
"Alright, it's been some busy days and there are more to come, it seems. I'll be sure to get everything ready so you can keep up the good work here. Well done!"
Tariq goes to bed - his bed, finally! He plans on visiting his friends again tomorrow and sort out the benefits of their last raid. There are purchases to be made before going to Katapesh!
As the scroll is out of her sight, time snaps back to normal. With the spoon grabbed in her hand, the mage rises again, but the effect on the map is gone.
As body memory takes over and Aith sits up to flourish the recovered spoon, her mind is somewhere else entirely. With the bit of silverware in hand, the effect of her mouth hesitating between an O of astonishment and an excited grin that a lead has presented itself is ridiculous.
After another few moments, her expression settles on amazement, as her eyes focus quickly again at the scroll, even if it seems to be behaving for now. “Did anyone else see that!? For a minute – or what felt like it – I saw a horizon, a landscape … somewhere else.”
Belatedly, she notes most of her colleagues have already left the room, and she stands quickly to take her own leave, newly inspired.
“I’m going to have borrow this spoon,” she says glibly, before unleashing a torrent or random bits of magical theory as they occur to her in an attempt to explain herself, “Probably only for a couple of days, until I can figure out the right note. Of course! It makes sense, since probably the easiest way of connecting to another plane is by finding the right resonance and then… I mean, please excuse me. I have an idea!”
She gives a little bow to Almah, and then rushes off with her twin prizes, muttering something about tuning forks.
She’ll have to find Yasmeena, because she’ll have a much better ear than Aith does, and that should help quite a bit.
"However, I need to check on our own business too." Haleen states and leaves to visit Kurrelak at the bar and also Hadrah and Hadrod.
"Kurrelak, pour me an ale." she orders and takes a seat. Looking around she finds most things are in order as they should. But the stage is empty. She chugs down the served mug of beer and moves onto the stage.
As she got the attention of most she continues without shouting. "Here is my offer." She pulls out eight gold coins and stacks them on the floor. "You put two more coins on that stack. You fight me in a duel with a melee weapon of your choice for a minute. I only fight back if you land a hit. If you do, you need to stay unharmed the rest of the time and the whole stack is yours. Otherwise it's mine."
"Where are the daring men and women." who think they can fight, but are bad at calculating the chances.
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Antarah replies to Haleen "Sure thing, I can work on that armor and shield no problem. I'll probably need some time though."
Antarah immediately starts to reset his shop. He also starts looking for someone looking for an apprenticeship. Maybe the son or daughter of one of the town residents, or even the freed slaves that just came into town. They probably need some employment. He looks for a younger one who looks to have both the arm endurance and the brains to learn the basics of magic.
He hears Haleen call for battle in the arena, but he's a little tired and would like some respite from fighting.
Some of the guards under Aithaloessa's command groan at Haleen's offer. But there is always some young guy, who is full of himself and needs to show his greatness to all around.
A tall blonde, by the overall looks of noble descent, gracefully jumps the stage. "I'll give it a try. But only if the bet is 1:1"
He hands Haleen the coins to double the stack. Bending down to place them himself is beneath him.
The young man steps back, draws his rapier and cuts the air several times to loosen his muscles.
Haleen takes the coins, stacks them on the floor and readies herself.
Kurrelak who knows the drill starts counting from 60 backwards. Some in the crowd chime in giving the whole scene sense of drama and urgency.
With the time running and the woman not making a move, Corvin takes on the role of attacker and tries some different attacks. Most of them Haleen simply evades, or parries. Some hit her chain shirt, but don't wound her. But as the time is almost over, Corvin manages to draw blood.
It is only a minor scratch, but it angers Haleen quite a lot to be hit at all. But it is only a twitch in her eye. Her winning smile stays like chiseled in rock.
With a quick lunge she returns the favor and before the young man realizes what happens, his nice shirt turns red.
She wipes the rapier clean on a cloth and sheathes it. With a slight bow she addresses the man "Thank you for volunteering. It was my pleasure fighting you."
"Anyone else who wants to give it a try? Anyway, I can assure you, we'll keep the stage alive today."
Retreating to her office, Aithaloessa spares some (few) moments to glance over the reports from the guard about things going on in her absence: nothing too alarming that she can tell so far, so it’s mostly checking off the boxes so that no one can claim the guard have been slacking off. Although the precise reason for it – profit at all costs (which, OK, doesn’t sound like it quite works, conceptually speaking) – rankles, she does appreciate the light touch of the legal system she’s supposed to enforce.
Now, a magical mystery to solve would be much more interesting, and fortunately, she’s got one in hand. Sitting back comfortably in her chair behind her desk, Aith starts trying to replicate what happened in Almah’s meeting room, tossing the spoon lightly up to fall to the ground again over and over, like some clumsy obsessive. She tries one of the plainer spoons from one of the teacups in her own office, and other things that might strike a similar tone, including coins of various denominations.
She takes careful notes as she goes, and makes sure to jot down everything she can remember of her vision while it’s still fresh in her thoughts. Through her door, she can hear the sound of some poor idiot about to be cleared out by Haleen, and she smiles even as she concentrates more carefully to separate background noise from her weird tests. They are, admittedly, the sort of thing that get mages a reputation for being a bit ... strange. Still, there’s only so much tossing odds and ends around she can do before it gets old and annoyingly messy even by Aith’s accommodating standards, so eventually she tidies up a bit, folds her notes into a pocket, and decides to walk out her ideas some more.
She finds where that bottle of wyvern poison has got to, figuring she might as well get visiting everyone’s favourite harpy out of the way too. But first, she needs to track down Yasmeena, before – even though Almah asked her to keep things under wraps – she concludes that Undrella would also probably have some insight into magical sounds, for obvious reasons.
As no one else volunteers to get their ass handed, Haleen moves to the bar again. Pointing at the merchandise - a stack of t-shirts reading "I beat the swordmaster" - she states "We need to do something about that. The thought was funny, but so far no one managed. Well, Yasmeena won one, but that's not earning us any money."
Tariq has a look at the pile of tees. Many different possibilities cross through his mind.
Looking at Haleen, he shrugs. "Maybe... maybe you need to go a bit easier on someone. Maybe the crowd has to feel they have a chance."
He knows this is dangerously close to cheating, but... looking at it from a different angle, you could consider it giving them hope. After all, it's not really impossible to get the prize.
Just ridiculously difficult.
"Maybe I need to raise the stakes so finally a worthy opponent shows up." Haleen ponders. But she is not willing to put serious money on the line. Yet.
Tariq uses the time in town to see if he can sell some of the goods, but he quickly finds out, that even though Kelmarane is a bustling place of trade, no one has that much gold in their pocket AND is willing to buy those specific goods.
He manages to sell some of the mundane stuff and minor magic items like potions, but no one is willing to buy the really valuable stuff even though he offers them at cost.
Undrella is very pleased when she receives the wyvern poison. "What a nice ingredient!" she rejoices. She also is more than willing helping Aithaloessa with singing at the map. This is a challenge for the elf, to not throw herself at the harpy, and it also is in vain, as the experiments bear no results.
The next days the guards spot unusual gnoll activity around Kelmarane. They mostly stay in hiding, and don't enter town. But a trek or two report of partly successful attempts of robbery. When Dashki arrives in town to buy some alcohol again, an interrogation under the influence of free booze reveals that "Those gnolls know that something valuable went missing from the house of the beast and are searching for it, or the humans that took it. They didn't tell what it was though."
Following that, rumors run wild, that the Knights of Kelmarane may have doomed Kelmarane by stealing some item of the gnoll's worship from the house of the beast and therefore bringing the gnoll scouts and eventually all the gnolls to Kelmarane.
Undrella is very pleased when she receives the wyvern poison. "What a nice ingredient!" she rejoices. She also is more than willing helping Aithaloessa with singing at the map. This is a challenge for the elf, to not throw herself at the harpy, and it also is in vain, as the experiments bear no results.
No good deed goes unpunished, and though it’s nice to have someone to talk with about alchemy and the weirder, more abstract sides of magical song – Yasmeena’s a dear, but she’s an artist in a sort of way that Aith isn’t, and Undrella’s unearthly singing comes rather closer to the elf’s more pragmatic approach to the possibilities – Aith is not prepared for the effect of asking the harpy to help her figure out if the right tone is part of the key to accessing whatever the scroll of Kakishon is hiding.
It almost turns her head. If it weren’t for the fact that she knows Undrella is partial to muscular alopecic gentlemen like Antarah rather than lissome ladies with flowing raven locks and – even more crucially – that Aith has someone, even if they’re long-distance right now, she might have thought, just for a moment... Or maybe she’s just misreading things. As poor Antarah knows, some people are just that sultry as a baseline.
In any case, the joys of an impromptu song session aside, Aith leaves the harpy with no clearer idea of how to get into the scroll than before. Katapesh it is, then, sooner rather than later. Besides, it seems likely that that might be the best place to move some of the, um, more specialized weaponry the knights of Kelmarane found in the House of the Beast. Perhaps at the Nightstalls especially, even.
As they slowly make lists and preparations, though, some of the gossip does register with the sheriff, and she feels a bit guilty about the attention the knights have drawn to town.
Antarah isn't very good at dealing with rumors. He gathers the Knights and says "I'm fairly sure these gnolls are being told to come. We just need to figure out who and have them stop."
“Do you think,’ she asks, looking to Yasmeena in particular as someone likelier than she is to be able to propagate a few misleading hints and rumours, “we could get the word out that we – er, I mean some mysterious adventurers – did come through here talking about a big find that was going to cause a sensation in the big city? It might get them to leave Kelmarane alone and try to follow us.”
She turns to Antarah, trying to keep a straight face as she adds, “And then maybe we can ask them who sent them, and tell them politely and firmly that it’s obviously none of their business, and we’re not interested in giving up our loot.”
"Yeah, let the sheriff give them a stern 'talk'." Haleen approves with a grin.
"When shall we leave? Any preparations we need to make?"
"Oh, you're planning on leaving to Katapesh? You are going to bring me there and get your reward?"
Aith’s eyes narrow as the wretched slaver crawls out of whatever hole he’s been lurking in for the past few days, but she resigns herself to her fate of letting the creature tag along to the city, since that seems to be what the Pactmasters demand, and Kelmarane’s not in a position to deny them.
Figures. Some people get prince(sse)s to rescue, or ransom, at least, but she and her friends… She sighs, “I imagine so.”
She tries not to let the idea take over, but the part of her that’s too Calistrian for her own good wonders if they can fob the fellow off on the gnolls somehow, blaming him for the missing artifact. Maybe Tariq could whip up a plausible scroll to switch out? Bonus points if it could be particularly holy magic that Rovagug cultists couldn’t hope to use? It’s probably too much to hope they could get away with it – too many places for things to go wrong – but it would be rather poetical justice, wouldn't it?
"When shall we leave? Any preparations we need to make?"
“I think we can leave as soon as we make sure we’ve enough supplies for the trip, and prepare a list for the market, since we’ll be there anyway. It might be easier to find buyers for some of what we've found – though on that note, apart from knocking any dents out of armour and the like, I suppose if Antarah’s working on anything he’d like to show off where he might land an impressive commission?”
"Hopefully it will be a short trip. And I believe it will be fun to visit Katapesh as the rich people we are now. Last time I went there I got debt free. But now..." Haleen becomes dreamy eyes.