Yardiff Bey's page

Looking out the barred window at the low clouds obscuring the moon, Yardiff Bey could hear his mentor voice in his head Preparation is the key, Yardiff, nothing is more important..

Would that he had heeded his mentor's words, his current situation would be much more pleasant. Thoughts of Ibn Mashad also brought back memories of the Old Empire, sere plains and cacophonous cities, and the path Yardiff Bey took to be sitting, half naked in a prison half a world away from his home.

Yardiff was born to Mella, a concubine of a minor satrap in the sprawling Old Empire. His unusual heritage was thought to come from his mother's desert tribe lineage, their consort with the Efreet was legendary. Notwithstanding the satrap's affection for Yardiff Bey's mother, it was unseemly to have efreet-spawn growing within his harem. Unceremoniously deposited outside the palace gates with small bag of gold, Yardiff Bey's mother took her squalling babe and was lost withing the squalor of the nameless city below.

A resourceful and clever woman, Yardiff's mother quickly found a sound apartment and employment as a washerwoman; knowing full well that all gossip that was gossip traveled through the community of washerwoman. She knew from her time in the harem , that knowledge was power. With her knowledge of palace politics , she was often able to glean meaning from a bit of gossip that the other women missed. Using this information, she would whisper here , or comment there and those that had interest , would pay solid coin for her information.

Slowly over time, his mother amassed a number of contacts within the city's underworld, where information was often more valuable than gold.

Seeing her son growing, his mother saw another avenue for profit. In their apartment's courtyard, she would teach the now 6 year old skills she learned in the harem, how to blend in with the crowd, how to pick a eunuchs' pocket. All skill a child could need to be unnoticed as a palace guard talked up a streetwalker, or a merchant in spice negotiated a smuggling fee with a customs agent.

However exciting his activities were to the young boy, his mother was constantly worried about her son and herself. Others had taken notice of her success and were watching, always out of sight, but she knew she was not alone in what she did. Such worries came to fruition when Mella learnt of something that would spell her doom. A chance eavesdrop outside the window of a bakery, led to her discovery of a scheme to assassinate the satrap and his entire family. His corruption and despotic rule made a mockery of the traditions of the Old Empire, it would seem that someones in the city or central government had finally noticed. Such knowledge burned in Mella's mind....how to profit from such information. '

Unfortunately, she was not given the chance. On a moonless night, young Yardiff Bey woke to a noise from his mothers room. Standing in the doorway, Yardiff Bey watched as a dark-clad man choked the life from his mother. As he did so, his mother's voice came to him [i]What I do is dangerous , my son. There may come a time when others decide the knowledge I possess cannot be told, and will come for me. If that happens, do nothing, I would not have you hurt for what I do. You know where our gold is, use it."/i]

His mother dead, the man looked up from his work at Yardiff Bey. The cold gaze immediately appraised and dismissed, the man turned and left the way he came in, through the window. Yardiff looked down upon his mother, gently closed her eyes and departed his home, never to return.

Using his mother's saved gold, Yardiff Bey traveled to a larger city down the river. Having discretion and caution drilled into him from an early age, even though such thoughts warred against his ifrit tendencies, Yardiff Bey acquired a dingy , room high atop a dilapidated tenement deep within the cities slums. From there, he began to fine tune those skills taught to him by his mother. Listening at the feet of a baker and his friend, Yardiff Bey learned that there was a shortage of wheat coming. Sitting unnoticed beside a guard post, he learnt that the sergeant of the watch's daughter had a proclivity for a certain illegal narcotic.

Though he was tempted, Yardiff never profited from such information. Hoarding his money, he lived simply and continued to try to perfect his methods of stealthy observation.

What Yardiff Bey did not know was that the man who had killed his mother had marked Yardiff Bey , he was watched from the moment he left the home he had shared with his mother.

Those that , for matters practical , had killed Yardiff Bey's mother were always on the lookout for promising youths; of talent and discretion.

Initially unconvinced of his worth, due primarily to the fiery and unpredictable reputations of efreet-descended individuals, those watchers observed Yardiff Bey's uncharacteristic forbearance and were intrigued.

And so it was that Yardiff Bey was not surprised to awaken on night to see a dark-clad man standing at the foot of his bed, the window behind him unlocked and open to the night.

Seeing that the boy was awake, the man spoke softly "You interest us. I will make you the same offer we made to your mother. Join with us. "

The man's statement made it no doubt what would happen if he refused, maybe not today or next week, but sometime in the future he may compromise "their" plans in someway , and he would suffer for it. Sitting up, Yardiff appraised the man in front of him, attempting to determine if it was the same man that had killed his mother. He had not thoughts of revenge, he
realized that his mother's murder had been on of practical necessity.

Seeing Yardiff Bey's probing look, the man said "No , I am not the one that killed your mother, we are many." He then crossed his arms and awaited Yardiff Bey's answer.

Intuiting that his time to deliberate was short, Yardiff Bey's mind raced as he tried to make sense of what the man had said and how easily he could tell what Yardiff was thinking. Looking deep within, trying to be honest with himself, Yardiff imagined how his life would continue should he refuse the dark man's offer. What he envisioned did not encourage. Meeting the man's steady, cool gaze with one of his own, Yardiff nodded once in acceptance.

With a nod of his own, the dark man beckoned Yardiff to accompany him "Leave everything behind, you will be provided for." he said as he paused with one foot on the window sill. Taking a last look at this room that had become his home, Yardiff turned his back on his past and followed the dark man out into the night.

What followed was several years of brutal training, clever tricks, bold adventure, but most tellingly, a singular mission: protect the Empire. Not just the empire, the organization Yardiff was now a part of, believed they worked to protect man and his civilization. Against what exactly? It depended on Yariff's teacher of the day. Some saw the work they did to root out corruption to be the highest calling, others sought to protect the very souls of man from the depredations of demons and devils, others still warred upon those that preyed on the youth, the unprotected. It was revealed to Yardiff that many did not realize they were
controlled by his organization, its methods so subtle that most minds never discovered the threads and webs that controlled them . What was this organization called? Yardiff never discovered, nor was he informed of such.

Over the years, his skills at remaining undetected were refined and tested; he learnt way of entering guarded and locked areas so as to steal the secret therein; and finally the deadly art of combat and murder was drilled into his mind and body, for no man may go hidden at all times. Sometime the only solution was death.

So, Yardiff was content. He had a purpose, noble of idea, practical in execution. He gloried in the training and constant testing of his abilities; the rigor in which he was tested help him rein in his natural
tendencies to reckless and unmindful action. Praise was understandably stingy, the fact that one did not end up floating in a canal was indication enough that your work was adequate.

Still, Yardiff impressed those watching. His skill and devotion to their mission was a great boon to their cause, so much so that he was chosen to accompany a most dangerous and important mission.

Drawn in to a small subterranean room, beneath another of the Old Empire's huge metropolis, Yardiff was reunited with one of his favorite teachers, Ibn Mashad. A master of the blade and of philosophy, Mashad was a man of some sixty years, with the body and reflexes of a man half his age. Many a day was spent with this man, trading blows both physical and metaphysical.

Sitting in a chair before a simple wooden table, a single oil lantern suspended from the wood beam above, Ibn Mashad bid Yardiff to sit.

Seating himself, Yardiff lean forward in anticipation of what Mashad would say.

However, the always inscrutable mentor leaned back in his own chair crossed his arms and gazed at his prize pupil with steady eyes.

Realizing that the testing never really ends, Yardiff struggled to rein in his excitement and leaned back himself in a mirror of the older man's stance.

After some time, Mashad nodded and gave Yardiff a small smile "Good...good. Control is utmost, never allow another to control the outcome of an encounter using your own emotions."

What followed was an introduction into some of the order's deepest secrets. Recently, the influence of a dark power has been seen in the Old Empire. At first, such signs were taken as a danger from within, but it was discovered that the influence instead came from Eredane, a former colony of the Old Empire. That this power could reach such distances was worrying. It was decided that an expedition would be sent to determine the source of this corruption and if possible eliminate it as a threat.

Yardiff had been chosen to be apart of this expedition. Seven ship would leave in a fortnight, Yardiff Bey and Ibn Mashad would be on one of them.

Even though the thought of being stuck on a ship for so long made Yardiff a bit queasy, he was nonetheless excited for the opportunity.

The voyage was fraught with difficulty, storms , then pirates , then monstrous behemoths reduced the flotilla by half and the journey only half completed.

The scholars on board were of course delighted; documenting the sights and discoveries that were found along the route. Yardiff Bey found some of what they saw interesting, but spent most of his time training, to be ready once land fall was made.

The plan was for the ships to put ashore a number of teams that would endeavor to discover the nature of the dark influence. After two weeks of fact finding, they would return to the fleets of the remaining ships and it would return to the Old Empire with the information. Those teams would remain to continue the order's mission.

As plans often do, this plan did not take into account that what was not known. After two more ships were battered to splinters upon rocks unfortunately not listed on the old charts the flotilla was using to navigate by, only one ship remained to ride out the sudden storm.

A break in the clouds and the look out shouted "Land Ho!!". Eredane was in sight!

The captain made for a sheltered cove indicated on his charts. As the battered ship eased into the calm waters of the harbor, a great beast rose out of the waters, grasping
the ship in its clawed tentacles. As others ran to hack at the beast, Ibn Mashad yelled to Yardiff and other of his team "Get overboard, make for the shore. We must
achieve a presence here! Go! Go!".

Conditioned as he was to obey, Yardiff Bey and several others ran and dived into the black water. Diving deep to avoid the creatures' flailing appendages, Yardiff didn't see others swimming on the surface get pulverized as either ship or tentacle slammed down upon them.

Lungs bursting, Yardiff Bey lunged through the water, kicking desperately until he came to the rising rock of the shore. Climbing underwater, he gasped as he broke the surface and fell back upon the hard pebbled beach to look for others.

The scene he saw seared into his mind. The ship and creature may well have been one, for they occupied the same space, the ship groaning under the weight of the fell beast, slowly slipping under the calm waters, leaving only flotsam and the bodies of Yardiff Bey's brothers and sisters.

Running up and down the beach, Yardiff Bey looked for other survivors but saw no movement but the waves. Of the creature, there was no other sign.

Waiting until dusk, Yardiff finally abandoned his search. Weary beyond measure, he grabbed his pack and retreated deeper into the forest. Managing to start a fire, he endeavored to dry his clothing for the night was proving to be a cool one.

After an uncomfortable night, he grabbed his gear and began to make his way down the shore.

Several days later he encountered his first signs of habitation. A small town on a sheltered bay. Approaching cautiously, he came upon a good-wife working outside a small croft, pounding out some grain.

Not wanting to alarm her, he started to give the croft a wide berth when a small band of evil looking humanoids rode up on horses, dismounted and began to harass the woman.

The events of the voyage and the destruction of the last ship has left Yardiff Bey in delicate state of mind. The injustice and unfairness of what had occurred and what was now occurring in front of him spurred him to action. Leaping from concealment, he leapt upon the neared brigand, swiftly bringing it down. The others responded quickly, drawing weapons and attacking. Using all of his skill and training, Yardiff Bey managed not be killed outright, but he was holding his own.

Unfortunately, a number of other brigands rode up at that time, and as Yardiff Bey looked up up in consternation, a brigand had managed to get behind him and clubbed him over the head.

Seeing sparks, Yardiff Bey went down in a heap, hearing the creatures' talking over him "What is that? Never seen one of those before." one voice says "Dunno, the captain will know what to do with it."

Yardiff Bey then felt himself lifted up and bound then slung over a horses' withers.

The next time he awoke was to find himself in the prison cell ruing the day he forgot his mentor's admonitions.