The 30th Scroll: Preparation for a Descent

[Gamemaster]

"Your promises can be trusted?" a hesistant voice called out from the dark passage from which you'd entered.
"You speak to us of trust!" Ahmar growls spinning around to face the cowardly voice. "Your only hope for life now is to come forward and explain yourself! Stay there and I will come in there myself and butcher you like the pig you are!"
"Yes Ku," Waleed answered, "Do as we say and you shall not be harmed. We have shown ourselves as being trustworthy so far, have we not? Show yourself, answer our questions and you shall not end up as the old Hag has." Waleed had kept his tone even and calm, unlike Ahmar who was on the verge of getting all of them trapped in the poison filled cave for eternity. Yes indeed, Ahmar would have to learn some restraint, but perhaps that is what made him such a good warrior, for now.
The oily smoke covering the ground began to flow and thin. Ku appeared at the edge of the light that reached into the passageway. He craned his neck and saw the hag laying headless in the chamber then whipped his gaze about the room. "I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you!" he trembled. His eyes darted from person to person, clearly ready to run at the slightest sense of danger.
"Ugaq was Ahz'ahk's herald and gatekeeper. The vile hag was fond of saying she was 'herald of a mighty efreeti who could turn villages to ashes'."
"In tears my master Akidya confided in me...what could she do? ...the hag appeared one night years ago, saying, 'Ahz'ahk requires brides and as village leader it is your responsibility to provide them. A year from this night, and every year after that, you will provide me with six females. If you tell anyone of our arrangement, or fail to comply, expect the same compassion shown to Quabah and Hulm.'"
All the blood seems to drain from Ahmar's face, the desert rider's ruddy complexion fading to the pale gold of a sunset. "Ahz'ahk?" he hisses with trembling breath. "She served Him?" For a moment you are not sure if the al-badian chieftain will spring at Ku or collapse where he stands. "Tell me all that you know of this arrangement," he says at last with barely-restrained emotion. "Everything, and what it has to do with Sita."
"That is what I know!" Ku cried. "No doubt Sita was one of the brides. Akidya would deliver mostly the old and infirm, those who be least missed. Ugaq would take them through the gate and deliver them to... him. I don't want to speak his name again."
Looking at the passageway beyond the cavern, "You've doomed Vahtov! His wrath will fall on us!"
"So the plot thickens..." Waleed stroked his hairless chin as if he actually had a beard, "We must take whatever booty we can find. Yes, we cannot live on air alone, and leave at once before he who shall not be named come forth." Looking at Ku, "Open the way out Ku, we leave for Vahtov. Akidya has made her deal, now she must live with the consequences. If we can warn the people soon enough they can leave Vahtov before facing it's doom." Waleed began searching quickly, looking especially for anything that could reverse the effects of the poisonous incense.
"The way is open..." Ku said distractedly. "Umm, I could help you search for booty."
"No. You will not touch anything, but you can help take the injured out of here, now. Do not forget you live at our desire Ku. You have betrayed us, even though you may think for good reasons, you still remain suspect." Waleed locked eyes with the mongrel beast as he would a lowly servant caught stealing from his household, "Now Ku, move!"

[Gamemaster]

"To be in the thrall of that demon is to be doomed." Ahmar says gravely, his expression still troubled and pale. "Ah'zahk would have soon grown tired of Vahotov as he does of all his servants. Yet Ala'i told Fahad that Sita was still alive, and so far all that the carpet has shown is true. I go to find her if any will join me."
If she still lives she'll be in one of two places. Either beyond living in some hell and that passageway will lead you to it, or back in Vahtov incognito." Waleed replied as he continued his search. "I am not bound to your employer's contract with you and I will not go down that passageway, sorry. Too much magic and far too powerful for me to just throw my life away for. If you insist on going, you will go without me, but I will not leave the injured. I will take them back to Vahtov and tend to them as best I can, and also warn the others of what will more than likely happen." Waleed continued his search quietly.
Ku turned and disappeared into the passageway.
Which each passing moment the smoke thinned. The laborer breathing of the fallen became easy and they showed signs of regaining consciousness.
Waleed began searching the cave. Seeing the only unnatural items in the room were the braziers and carpet, he began there. He was not disappointed. Beneath the carpet he spied the broken outline of a slab of rock. After moving his sleeping servant to a position closer to the fresher air near the entryway, Waleed hurried back to examine it closer. It was a stone cover. With great effort he pried it up and pushed it over. It fell with a dusty "thud". Inside glittered overflowing bags of golden dinars and three small oilskin flasks. A small bag held three gems, one an emerald that even in the firelight blazed brilliantly, another a golden pearl, the other a pretty rose quartz.
The last item was thickly wrapped in cloth. A finely crafted magnifying glass.
"It is not out of loyalty that I go to find Sita," Ahmar says in a voice heavy with doom. "Nor do I wish to forfeit my life so easily. There is a reason for my actions though it is not even all known to me. Fate has brought me to the very doorstep of my foe, He who dwells in the Pit of Ghuls, in a sense my very womb and perhaps my grave as well. Surely there is some purpose in this, and I must know what it is."
Sahra coughed and sat up in Ya'qub's arms. She stared into his eyes for a moment, then embraced him tightly.
Khafaz and Turin peered cautiously into the chamber. "Fates be praised! What happened? Who is... was that?" Khafaz gasped. He pointed at the headless giant corpse.
Jameel and Silk awakened. Hearing a portion of the tale, they shook thier heads and agreed with Waleed. They fled the cave.
Once apprised of the situation. Khafaz shook his head. "Vishaps on one side, efreeti on the other." Shook his head some more. Pulled his beard.
"We could tell Fahad his Sita died!" he exclaimed with a snap of his fingers. "Buried in Vahtov."
Turin grimaced. "Ala'i would tell him otherwise." No slap.
"We'll leave Ala'i here; destroy it!" Khafaz nodded, pleased with his idea. "Then we'll all go back to Tajar and report the tragic news. He'll thank us for our effort, you'll go your way with a generous reward and I'll return to my comfortable life as Fahad's Chief Administrator."
"I'll play no party to any lies," Waleed said as he gathered up the gems and magnifying glass, "So if you destroy Ala'i, it will be for nothing and you may be punished instead. I still believe she is in Vahtov. Now come over here and grab these bags of dinars and take them to the camels."
Khafaz ground his teeth and pulled his beard in frustration. "Ahmar is correct- Ala'i has shown us the truth so far, Sita was lead here by the hag and delivered up to.... the efreeti. I cannot allow Ahmar to continue without me. Fahad would strip me of my wealth and position should he learn of it."

[Gamemaster]

"Your courage moves me," Ahmar says wryly. "Though if Fahad knew the peril we faced, I doubt he would ask his most... trusted servant to continue on. Do as you see fit, but if you accompany me I must know I can depend on the skill of your blade rather than the speed of your feet."
"I choose my battles carefully," Khafaz said, smoothing his robes. "One's beard grows longest that way."
Waleed then strode purposely over to Mamoun and lifted him up into his arms, cradling him like a small child. "Good luck to you Ahmar if that is your choice, your destiny may indeed lie beyond into that passageway, but perhaps it's a destiny best left for another day, when you are stronger. As a wise man once told me: The Ox are slow, but the earth is patient." Waleed nodded his goodbyes and took Mamoun from the cave.
"And do not forget the Vishaps," Waleed reminded the rest as he stood at the exit to the cave, "the longer you stay, the more likely you will have to fight them too, but then again that may have all been a lie. You take your chances I guess." With that said, Waleed exited the cave.
Her anger building up with every passing word Keesha spits onto the floor "Brides? was this all about getting innocent woman to be killed? And you played a part of this?"
She looks at Amir straight in the eyes " I know you are a noble one, you would never let Sita die if we can prevent it would you?" Then she turns to her companions "I say we spend a couple of hours searching the pathway around here. If we find nothing, we will come back to the surface."
She looks into the people collecting the treasure "and by the waymake sure we all get a fair share on that" then she turns into Ku and eyes him strongly "Now answer truthfully - how long has it been since Sita dissapeared?"
"I don't know," Ku said, shrugging. "Ugaq took many women over the years! Didn't they say she disappeared from Vahtov ten years ago?"
Waleed raised an eyebrow, surely the woman wasn't as dumb as she sounded. "If I had wanted to steal something, don't you think I would have been a bit more secretive about it? Hmpf."
"Who said anything about stealing? Or that I was concerned about you?" then she just laughs smiling to Amir. "Now what do you say? Shall we investigate a little then?"
"You have a strange humor, sorceress." Ahmar says cheelessly. "Let us hope it will hold against the horror we are surely about to face."
"Well, you are always looking at me." Waleed tried to hide his smile, but it soon turned into a chuckle.
Several minutes after Waleed's departure, the young, handsome dilletante returns with man-servant in tow. "Well, it looks like I'm a better Doctor than I thought. All of my patients have recovered and hence I have no need to return to Vahtov. If you have need of another sword Ahmar, I offer mine."
"And what of the slow ox and the patient earth?" Ahmar asks raising his eyebrows curiously.
Waleed shrugged his shoulders, "I never said I believed that crap." Smiling broadly, he hoped the al-badian could see he honestly wanted to help.
"Courage among men is like water in the desert," he laughs with strange and sudden mirth. "You will find it in the most surprising places."
"I do not like sneaking about like a thief," Ahmar says. "But in this case stealth may be the only way to survive the danger before us." He casts a glance at Ya'qub.
Ya'qub helped Sahra stand when she'd recovered enough to do so. "Jameel and Silk have fled, perhaps they're still outside but I don't trust them to guard our camels."
He looked worriedly at Sahra. "Perhaps we should the laborers back to Vahtov." Sahra's eyes widened in alarm, shaking her head. Ya'qub laid a hand on her shoulder. "I couldn't bear to see you hurt again."
Ya'qub's thoughts wandered back to that fateful day in Tajar.

[Gamemaster]

Ya'qub's mind raced with the calculations. One-third? He could conceivably help his poor widowed mother live a life of comfortable retirement if Fate smiled upon him in this endeavour.
Beginning with the two bolts of fine silk, Ya'qub silently considered what goods might fetch the best prices in trade.
Again nodding respectfully toward Fahad, he said firmly,"For my part, at least, we are agreed."
He smiled his trademark smile: "This simple merchant has made an agreement."
"Oh! I almost forgot. We need to retrieve some items from the packs," Ya'qub said. "Remember Fahad's parting words..."
"Ala'i has advised that you take along as many of Sita's personal items as possible. I have two rather unremarkable mementos from her youth."
He gave the group the following: A set of three iron bells on a cord. The largest the size of a plum, the smallest the size of a marble. When shaken, the bells sound a chord. "Secured to the tail of a camel, the bells can help locate the animal in a sandstorm," he'd said. He then presented a white linen cloth, somewhat yellowed with age. It is the size of a handkerchief with an eagle embroidered in one corner.
"Do either of you know any magic which might make our passing less obvious?" Ahmar says looking from Keesha to Waleed.
Waleed shook his head no.
"Magic? It is all a matter of skill" and then she laughs, starting to move very gracefully without making any noise. Then she turns to the warrior "See?" and laughs. "Of course if harder with all the weapons you are carrying. I could try casting something, but it might disrupt our communication, making us unable to talk to each other. Are you sure you want that?" Then she starts thinking hard on how to cast a modification of the spell she knows.
"I don't like not being to communicate if we need to." Ahmar says with a troubled brow. "Perhaps just something which would quiet our steps and make us more difficult to see against the stone of the cave."
A quick check of the cave revealed two chambers beyond the main one. One was a chamber that was responsible for the smell of rotten meat; bones of victims recent and long ago litter the floor. A chipped and worn cleaver lay near the entrance. A pit of glowing green sand, appearing to have the consistency of quicksand lay in the other chamber.
"This is the way Sita went." Ahmar says indicating the pit of glowing green sand. "Remember what Ala'i showed us -- a pool of green sand. Two women, one young, one old, stepping into the sand. The old woman standing next to a river of green fire. Only the bent figure, wrapped in an aba and burqa, carrying a heavy load of rubble mystifies me. Perhaps that was Sita's fate, to serve as a beast of burden to that vile Thing."
"It may all be a moot point if our magic does not work where we are going." Waleed said as he motioned to the green pool of sand. "However, I think it more important that we not be seen than heard at this point and unfortunately I am not as skilled as Keesha in the matters of magic. Also, if Keesha does cast a spell, she will have to concentrate to maintain it and if we have to run, then the spell will be broken." Sighing at the thought of passing through the gateway with no obvious way of getting back, Waleed continued. "Perhaps someone should bring the mounts into the main room, set up some ropes tethered to the mounts and tied about us when we crossover, just incase we need to come back. In any case, we shold leave immediately. If the truth about Vishaps are to be believed, we should make haste. I am ready to go."
"I am beginning to think your meek demeanor is a ruse." Ahmar says with a smile in his eye. "You have the makings of al-Badian chieftain if ever I saw one. I am agreed. Let us bring the camels and my horse into the cave and save Keesha's magic for when it might be useful -- on the other side of that."
Ya'qub nodded in absent-minded agreement. I'm just a simple merchant, I know little of the ways of magic. But I do have the jellaba which might prove useful...
"Jellaba?.. would you show me that?" Keesha asked, interested
"I had forgotten about that." Ahmar said raising an eyebrow. "Let's bring the camels and Sulayman inside, as Waleed suggested and find the jellaba." He moves towards the cave exit...
Keesha leans to the side of the cavewall and waits for them to bring in the jelleba, looking to investigate a bit further what it can do.
"I have it," Ya'qub replied, confidently. Then he dropped his eyes, and added, "but I have not had the opportunity yet to test it."
"Let me have a look at it" then she looks at the think intrigued. "Do you know what it is supposed to do?"
"The jellaba is simply a cloak that we received from one of the nomad groups we encountered on our way to Vahtov. It is said that this jellaba can conceal its wearer. I'm not certain that it will cover all of us, but it certainly can one, thus making it easier to conceal the others with magic. You know," he adds with a smile, "one less to have to worry about."