The 29th Scroll: The Wise Woman’s Cave

[Gamemaster]

Midday, 6th of Dar
--
The party left the cemetery and joined Maarouf and Old Rajab in the caravanserai, where the two had already fed and watered the camels. Maarouf only smiled when Sahra returned walking beside Ya'qub, but Rajab handed her a brush and huffed: "Don't forget your place, girl."
"I know my place; your concern warms my heart." She took the brush with a patient smile and went to work brushing down the camels.
The caravanserai was an ancient structure; a piecemeal construction of a scavenged materials. While hardly better than sleeping outdoors, the rooms did have comfortable beds and the food was good.
--
Old Rajab nudged Ya'qub awake and then made his way to the others in their rooms, awakening them each in turn. Sahra and Maarouf already had the camels ready and Turin filled proffered cups with steaming coffee. Few words where passed as they left their lodgings and made their way through the sleeping village. Only a few neglected dogs where awake to send the travellers off.
Ku was waiting for them, sitting cross-legged on a boulder. He leapt up, took the offered emerald bracelet and with a sigh of satisfaction motioned the group to follow him. He set out at a long-strided jog, leading the way back into the High Desert.
North they rode into an increasingly barren desert for nearly ten miles. By the time the sun was an hour above the horizon, a foul stench of decay greeted the travellers on a dry breeze. Someone muttered: "Pit of the Ghuls" and the words made the rounds of the caravan. As the continued, the hazy horizon solidified into a ring of granite hills. The air was heavy with a smell most aptly described as fish left too long in the sun.
Ku pointed out a 10-foot-diameter hole in the side of the hill. "This will lead us to the woman you seek. Inside this cave lives a wise woman who knows all that happens in the High Desert." Ku caught Khafaz's suspicious gaze at a sun-bleached bone that protruded from the ground. "Let us hurry inside; a pair of mated vishaps claim this territory as their own. We will be safe inside the cave, but we'll need to be quick with your question, so that we can leave before the vishaps catch the scent of the camels."
Waleed didn't like this one bit, but he didn't like sitting outside like a target either. Dismounting, he said, "Let's get inside and ask our questions quickly, I do not long for any combat today or relish the idea of returning to missing camels." Looking to Ku, "Lead the way Ku, I will follow."
Furrowing his brows, Ahmar sizes up the cave entrance. "I am not comfortable leaving Sulayman with two desert dragons about!" he growls. Concluding that he will not be able to lead the horse within, he dismounts and takes his weapons. "Let us be quick." he adds.
Khafaz tugged his beard nervously, eyes darting among the rocks that littered the hillside. "What foul deed have I done to deserve such a fate!" He prodded his camel to kneel and then slipped to the ground. He was already headed toward the cave entrance, muttering something about giant lizards with teeth like daggers and ravenous appetites. Turin hastened to follow calling out: "Don't vishaps blend in perflectly with their surroundings? Their desert camouflage..."
"Keep your voice down, koumiss brained fool!" hissed Khafaz. Turin winced, ready for the blow that always followed the rebuke, but Khafaz was too busy dashing toward the entrance.

[Gamemaster]

The caravan laborers exchanged worried glances as they watched the others dismount and follow Ku inside the cave. Just as the last person was disappearing into the darkness, Maarouf gestured for Sahra to follow.
"Go on! Two can care for these camels," he smiled.
"What? No!" Old Rajab protested. "She has a job to do..." Maarouf only shrugged and smiled--Sahra was already running toward the entrance to join the others.
"If anything should happen to Sulayman," Ahmar warns Maarouf and Old Rajab. "You had better be certain the vishaps take you as well." He draws his scimitars and moves towards the entrance of the cave...
Smiling Keesha whispers something to Eakon and pets his head with a rounding motion as she lets him fly away. "Make sure you keep guard around here my love"
"Very well, lets get in"
Midday, 6th of Dar
--
Ku lead the way through a rough, granite passage that was wide enough for two men to walk abreast. The ceilings were high, twice that of a man's height at least. Downward the passage sloped, curving away into darkness. The air smelled faintly of rotten meat, hot oil, and cherries.
"Perhaps this was once a vishap's lair," whispered Turin. "Ow!" Khafaz had delivered a backhand slap with practiced precision.
They'd walked only a short distance--the outside light fading quickly away--when a faint light flickered to life somewhere ahead. It danced as a living creature, fighting shadows that took refuge in the cave's recesses.
"Who is it?" A young woman's voice called out. "Who is out there?"
"It is Ku," their guide called out. "And some friends eager to speak with you."
Out of the darkness stepped an innocent-faced girl, no more than 20 years old, carrying a torch and dressed in rags. She narrowed her eyes and gave a glance at Ku that suggested irritation, then looked at the party and smiled pleasantly. "I am always glad to meet Ku's friends. Please come in." She turned, beckoning you to follow.
"It is as Ala'i said!" Ahmar whispers, his lustrous eyes wide with amazement. "This must the girl the carpet showed us."
In a hushed voice, more to himself than anyone else, Waleed whispered, "Okay, I was wrong, Ku is not the girl, but is this the girl in the vision? Hmm..." Waleed was not sure, magic was always that way, uncertain. He was sure that he thought the girl was attractive, in a 'desert rose' kind of way, then he had to shake his head to remind himself where he was. Thinking about a woman's company was not what he needed right now, but it had been a long time.
Looking back he saw that Ahmar was well armed, he hoped it would not come to that.
Ahmar hesitantly sheathes his scimitars sensing something uncanny about this girl.
"We seek a woman named Sita." he says plainly. "Ku says you know where she can be found."
"An excellent question, and one that I will discuss at length as soon as we get settled." the girl raised her torch higher, peering at her visitors a moment before motioning for them to follow her.
Ya'qub felt Sahra's hand on his shoulder, for the first time aware of her presence.
In the torchlight, young Mamoun squinted his eyes against the oily smoke. He was clearly uncomfortable.

[Gamemaster]

Turning, the girl led you a short way down the passage and into a larger cave chamber. It looked to be her living area: a large carpet with a faded image of a sunflower graced the hard floor. In one corner stood a three-legged brass incense burner, to the left of an exit passageway on the opposite side of the chamber. On the right side of the same exit stood a brass brazier of the type used to burn oil.
Along the right wall were two depressions: one a firepit from which smoldered some oily rags and kindling, the other a shallow pit containing what at first glance appears to be supplies.
"Oh, it smells so bad in here," the girl said when you entered the main chamber. She crossed the chamber and touched her torch to the incense burner.
"Please sit down and make yourselves comfortable." She crossed to the other brazier. "Its so dark and gloomy," she said, touching the torch to the oil brazier. It flared to life, illuminating the chamber in a soft glow.
"Now, what questions do you have for me?"
Waleed spoke up as he found a comfortable seat, not wanting to waste much time, "Most gracious lady, as my traveling companion asked before, we seek a woman by the name of Sita and hope that you could tell us where we could find her." The noble's son smiled gently and hoped his good demeanor would entice the young woman to freely give the information the group needed.
"Will no one in this cursed waste answer us true?" Ahmar asks with barely restrained impatience. Even compared to his normal brusqueness, the desert rider seems particularly agitated, almost frightened. "We have journeyed for nearly the passing of the moon only to be lead in circles!" he continues. "Sita would be a very old woman by now. I believe she was born in Tajar, yes?" he says looking to Khafaz. "Most recently she was a teacher in Vahtov. A woman in that city named Akidya told us Sita died ten years ago, yet the keeper in the cemetary has no memory of having dressed her body. Still others told us she left Vahtov in the company of a young girl instead. This account is consistent with our own divinations of her fate. Can you tell us plainly or no whether Sita still lives, and if so, where she may be found?"
"The name sounds familiar," she replied. "Tell me more about her. She moved to her supply pit and pulled out a woven basket. "Would anyone like a wild mushroom?"
"Oh, thank you." Waleed took up the proffered mushroom but did not eat it just yet. "Mamoun, salt." As his faithful man-servant produced the small salt cellar, he offered it to the young woman. "Would you partake of the Bond of Salt with me?" Asked Waleed politely.
A pause. "Well, I believe it is the duty of the host to offer the salt. Just a moment, I'll get some." She turned and headed back to her supplies.
Waleed, still with his hand out offering the salt cellar, sighed and closed his eyes momentarily. Upon reopening his eyes, he retracted the hand offering the salt and he was sure there would be no Bond of Salt this day. 'Just like the rest' Waleed thought to himself of Ahmar in comparison to the ruffian nomads he had been saved from, 'Just like the rest'.
The girl paused, bent over her supplies, her back to her guests.
"Are you Sita?" Waleed asked, nonplussed.
Gray smoke spiraled from the brazier, producing a oily odor that competed in annoyance with the incense.
"Ku, I can't seem to find my salt," she replied could you check the entryway supply cache?" The woman turned and facing her guests, scratched her chin.
"Sita." Thoughtful pause. "Yes and no."
Ku wandered off back up the passage.
"Yes, she still lives and no I am not her."

[Gamemaster]

Sahra leaned to Ya'Qub and moaned. "I need some fresh air..."
"Yes," Mamoun complained to Waleed. "this air is too foul, I'd rather wait for you outside..." He retched. Retched again. Then with a look of pained shame, vomited on the cavern floor.
"Betrayed!" Waleed shouted out and immediately began the start of a spell. He hoped his powers were enough and that the others would understand that both the young girl and now Ku's lives were forfeit.
She looks angrily at Amir... "do not interrumpt me next time!" Having a hard time she covers her eyes and mouth and then starts wavering her hands, trying to call upon a breeze, imitating the spell she saw his companion call upon in the desert...
Ya'qub grimaced as his stomach began tossing and turning like a small skiff in a hurricane. He sees his companions similarly affected, and gets the sense that at least one of them, perhaps more, will attempt to draw upon the element of air to clear the foul perfume.
As he feels a breeze coming from he knows not where in this cavern, he steels himself against the unpleasantness in his belly, and caring not to keep his nerves, and his lisp, under control, he valiantly cries out, "We theek Thita, to beg her forgiveneth!" With that, he turns his head away, trying to keep down his last meal
"Damn you, girl!" Ahmar coughs holding his hand tight to the keffiyeh wrapped around his mouth and nose. "It is Fahad al-Zakir of Tajar who seeks Sita, not us!" With his free hand he grasps the hilt of his scimitar. "Cease your choking incense or you'll find my blade at your throat!"
The girl scowled. Waleed's shout was still echoing dully in the chamber when Khazaf and Turin scrambled gagging for the exit. Jameel and Silk doubled over and eyes watering struggled to stand.
The air in the chamber began to move. Ya'qub saw Keesha and Waleed both casting spells. He shouted at the girl, his words and Ahmar's running together, and then felt someone collapse at his side. Sahra stared up at him gasping like a fish on a fisherman's table.
The air began to spin around the girl, her scowl turned to a snarl of anger.
Ahmar grasped his scimitar and thankful for the keffiyeh wrapped around his face, stood and awaited a response from the girl. He took in his shadowy surroundings with a glance and noted his allies. Only Waleed, Keesha, Ya'qub had not succumbed to the poison.
The flowing air suddenly became violent. It focused unrelentingly on the girl, tearing at her rags and whipping her hair into a flailing medusa. The flames from the braziers lay flat, flaring and sputtering wildly. The oily rags and embers in the fire pit leapt into the air and spun around the girl in continuous trails of light.
Khafaz heard the howling wind as he crawled through the darkness. He thought perhaps he heard Waleed's laughter in the wind, but it may have been his imagination. Suddenly, to Khafaz's horror the dark passage was blocked by stone. He retched and in his panic ignored the spittle on his chin. Frantically he felt around for the exit but found only the body of Turin. He collapsed there, too weak to scream.
First one then the other brazier fell. Their flames were swept into the black maelstrom of debris that pelted the girl. They illuminated her screaming face as it was struck by her torch. Her face exploded in a spray of blood and flesh. Again the torch struck, and her entire head swelled and disfigured horribly. It was becoming hard to see her inside the womb of destruction as the flames and embers began to fade and die away, but something was happening. No repeated blows from a torch could explain the transformation from innocent girl to towering, hunch-backed hag. As the last of the flames died, her great goat-horned head screamed down at you in primal fury.
Darkness. Howling wind.
"Somebody do something." Waleed strained as he held the howling winds centered on the Hag. Feeling her approach, the novice mage began to sidestep her advance.

[Gamemaster]

Horror-stricken, Ya'qub takes but a moment to react to Sahra's collapse. This girl, who sees the best in Ya'qub, and encourages him to seek it as well, is now lying at his feet. Whipping out his dagger, he falls to his knees covering the laborer, as if to protect her from this new beast. If we must fall, he thinks, we shall fall together.
His plea for forgiveness drowned out earlier, Ya'qub tries again. "Thita! Thita! We mean no harm! We theek only to athk your forgiveneth!" He frantically casts his eyes about, looking for something that could aid them in their time of need.
Suddenly two tongues of flame erupt in the darkness. Ahmar stands among you illuminated by a burning scimitar in each hand.
"Ya'qub, Keesha, Waleed!" he cries. "Use whatever sorcery you have and destroy her!" A war-cry begins in his throat as he prepares himself to spring to the attack...
"Now that's impressive." Waleed muttered as he continued to harness the whirling vortex around the withered Hag.
The sound of Ahmar's scimitars being drawn had been lost in the howl of the whirlwind but the flames that appeared pushed back the darkness and illuminated approaching disaster. Like an ox straining at its yoke, the giant hag struggled forward. Her face was a mask of hatred, her grasping claws ready to rend flesh from bone. Perhaps a portion of her fury was at having its rags ripped from its body. The wretched, naked body was a disturbing display of ancient feminity, being pelted and torn by debris.
Waleed stepped cautiously out of its inexorable path, carefully maintaining his concentration. Ya'qub frantically looked around while trying to shield Sahra. Keesha noted the positions of those around her, perhaps preparing a spell. Ahmar leapt forward, his blades dancing with flames and striking into the whirling storm that tore at the hag. Twice his blades found their mark, searing flesh and eliciting screams of pain.
The creature’s scream was cut off short and the hag disappeared. The whirlwind of debris started to retreat toward the exit across the chamber.
"Do not let her escape!" Waleed yelled as he followed behind her, unwilling to let her cheat death at their hands.
Concentrating as if trying to make a decision Keesha focuses into herself and then opens up her eyes, releasing a spell
"Keesha! Waleed!" Ahmar shouts as he continues to advance on fiendish vortex. "Use your sorcery to block her retreat! Don't let her escape!"
The whirlwind of smoke and debris made it to the far exit and stopped, illuminated by the flames of Ahmar's swords. Ahmar closed the gap swinging- striking at the storm's center. His sword found flesh and he heard a scream. Then he saw her, teeth bared and eyes wide, suddenly appearing from nothingness. She reached a flayed arm through the wind and grasped his robes. A strength as none he'd ever encountered pulled him into the beast's embrace.
Seeing Ahmar pulled to the beast, Waleed immediately ended his spell, drew his scimitar and lunged forward to the attack.
Ya'qub hesitated for a moment, torn by his concern for Sahra, and his loyalty to Ahmar. Looking down once more to ensure that there was nothing further he could do for the caravan laborer, he stood up, dagger in one hand, and the other fumbling with a necklace of large globe-like beads around his neck. He strode purposefully toward the beast.
Keesha finished her spell just as Waleed banished his maelstrom with a wave of his hand. The giant hag froze, her face a mask of hate, intelligent eyes aware but unmoving. Ahmar dangled above the ground, held up by her powerful grip on his robes. As he watched, blood from a pouring from a gash on her forehead, slowed then stopped altogether. Incredibly, the gash began to slowly close and heal.

[Gamemaster]

As Waleed and Ya'qub approached the horned giant standing naked before them, they too saw signs of her foul body repairing itself.
Keesha smiles happy that her spell worked out. "Hurry up, free him before it turns back to life.. the spell should last a while but one can never be sure" "Argggg I hate the desert!!!" Then she smiles, intrigued a bit by the latest occurrences and starting to develop an interest for the kind of magic she has been encountering lately... all those demons and conjuring spells...suddenly she shakes her head as if trying to get those thoughts out of it.. "And where did Ku go?"
Then she closes here eyes trying to watch the outside location through the spell she cast earlier, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ku fleeing if he is outside.
With an angry roar Ahmar draws his arm back preparing to hack himself free of the hag's grasp...
Keesha calls to Ahmar. "Free yourself.. but don't kill it!.. we have to figure out a way out of this and it might provide us the only clue"
Ahmar brought his flaming sword down, hacking at the arm that constrained him. Twice he struck, brutal as an amateur meat cutter. The arm gave with a crack sounding nothing so much as a green sapling snapping in two. Ahmar fell, landing less than heroically on his butt. He was getting up when Waleed charged past, scimitar raised high, primal scream welling up from the depths of his chest.
They all saw the hag break free of Keesha's spell. Reflexively she raised what was once a whole arm to fend off Waleed's attack. The ragged stump was no defense- Waleed's blade bit into her neck like an axe in a tree. The scream that she'd begun died in a wet gurgle before it could ever express the fear and anger she felt at her victims becoming her killers.
Keesha stood ready to cast another restraining spell, but it would have been wasted. The hag collapsed, first to her knees--nearly wrenching Waleed's buried scimitar from his hands--then face first to the cave floor. No restraining spell would be needed for Waleed and Ahmar were in unspoken agreement: the head comes off.
A grisly moment later, the task was done. For a moment no one spoke. The only sound was the labored breathing of Ahmar and Waleed. The cavern was now a shadowy tomb, lit only by Ahmar's flaming swords. About their legs, oily smoke roiled; beneath it were hidden the bodies of those who'd succumbed to the poison.
Ahmar brought his flaming sword down, hacking at the arm that constrained him. Twice he struck, brutal as an amateur meat cutter. The arm gave with a crack sounding nothing so much as a green sapling snapping in two. Ahmar fell, landing less than heroically on his butt. He was getting up when Waleed charged past, scimitar raised high, primal scream welling up from the depths of his chest.
They all saw the hag break free of Keesha's spell. Reflexively she raised what was once a whole arm to fend off Waleed's attack. The ragged stump was no defense- Waleed's blade bit into her neck like an axe in a tree. The scream that she'd begun died in a wet gurgle before it could ever express the fear and anger she felt at her victims becoming her killers.
Keesha stood ready to cast another restraining spell, but it would have been wasted. The hag collapsed, first to her knees--nearly wrenching Waleed's buried scimitar from his hands--then face first to the cave floor. No restraining spell would be needed for Waleed and Ahmar were in unspoken agreement: the head comes off.
A grisly moment later, the task was done. For a moment no one spoke. The only sound was the labored breathing of Ahmar and Waleed. The cavern was now a shadowy tomb, lit only by Ahmar's flaming swords. About their legs, oily smoke roiled; beneath it were hidden the bodies of those who'd succumbed to the poison.
Worldlessly Ahmar kicks some scattered kindling into unlit firepit and touches a burning scimitar to the pile. Once the firepit is burning, the flames licking about Ahmar's blades vanish as suddenly as they appeared.

[Gamemaster]

"Whoever has the skill should tend to them." he says gesturing towards the bodies of their fallen comrades. He glances first at the cave entrance blocked behind them and the passageway down which the hag was trying to escape. With one of his scimitars he pokes around in the mess of the hag's possessions.
Waleed sheathed his sword, grim satisfaction on his face. "I studied the Healing Arts at University in Hiyal, I shall attend to the unconscious but I fear it will be for naught if we don't get out of here with this lingering poison about." Waleed began by gathering the unconscious and sitting them up to get them farther away from the lingering vapors clinging to the ground.
Waleed sheathed his sword, grim satisfaction on his face. "I studied the Healing Arts at University in Hiyal, I shall attend to the unconscious but I fear it will be for naught if we don't get out of here with this lingering poison about." Waleed began by gathering the unconscious and sitting them up to get them farther away from the lingering vapors clinging to the ground.
"Pull them over there." Ahmar says motioning to the exit opposite the cave entrance. "Into the passage."
Keesha She shakes her head at the unnecessary extra violence. "There was no need of.. that"
"Perhaps if you had felt the grip of her talons you would think differently." Ahmar says. "Had your sorcery not halted her attack, she might have killed us all."
Then she turns around and looks into the dark cave closing her eyes briefly and then opening them back suddenly with a light cat-like glow to them. "By the way.. not to break your fun but Ku didn't leave this doomed place! If you see them, get him ALIVE!"
With that she starts looking around for Ku among the shadows.
"I know you are around here! Now come in the open and you will not get hurt.. I have no idea on why you did this but we will hear your explanation... " then she grins and shouts enraged, looking to scare him but fully in control of her emotions... "stay in the shadows and be sure you will stay there for eternity"
"What?" Ahmar says looking up from his examination of the hag's belongings. "I thought that creature had surely fled." He casts his gaze into the shadows of the open passage. "He will be sorry if he is anywhere in my sight." he adds menacingly.
Waleed chose not to move the unconscious to an unknown and otherwise more confining area. Best they were left out here in the large open area where the poisonious vapors could dissipate better.
After his administrations, Waleed was obviously concerned about Mamoun. The adolescent was pale and far too young to die and this made his master speak out, "Ku! You have but two choices before you. Show yourself, answer our questions and help us out of here and we will guarantee your safety, or remain hidden and we will find you and end your life as quickly as we did the old Hag! Easy choices Ku, but you must decide now!" Waleed stood ready to cast a spell if needed, but he hoped Ku would play along.
""Show yourself, you abomination of flesh!" Ahmar roars. "Or we'll crush every lizard in sight until we find you!"
After the death of the hag, Ya'qub slowly turned around and returned to the place where Sahra fell. He dropped to his knees as his abdomen was flooded with emotions that he had not felt since he was a boy...no, since he'd heard his grandfather talking with his mother, telling her that her husband, Ya'qub's father, was murdered by pirates....
Why had this event turned his thoughts back to that shadowy time, long ago?
The gap-toothed caravaneer forced those memories back, as he focused on the present. Here, now, Sahra was gravely ill, perhaps to the point of death, and he still had not wrapped his mind around the affection she showed him, and that he began to sense he felt for her, as well. "Waleed...pleathe. If it'th not too late..." he said, his voice cracking.
"I have done all that I can and did well for Sahra, she should recover soon, of the rest, I cannot say." Waleed replied and continued to look for any sign of Ku. "Come on Ku..." Waleed muttered in a hushed voice.