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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 20, 2005 15:37:00 GMT -7
2nd of Rahat Nearly two months had passed since Ya'qub and Sahra's wedding and three friends where gathered at The Drowned Sorrows tavern, reliving past glories and enjoying each others company. The evening air was cool enough to make each glad of their winter robes. A server lit the lamp on their table and wandered off to light the others. Few others where here tonight. Keesha had only recently returned from Huzuz and was about to share her tale with Waleed and Ya'qub when shouting outside on the pier interrupted their quiet conversation. Someone came running up the wooden walkway into the common room, shouting words in an incomprehensible language. Suddenly a disheveled beggar hurled into view, her eyes rolled back in their sockets. White foam frothed at her lips as she shouted at no one in particular. The taverns other occupants drew away in revulsion. "Devils..." someone hissed." "Possessed." As you stand, the beggar lurches toward you. Her eyes roll down to gaze upon you with frightening lucidity. She speaks a few distinct words in an unknown, alien tongue before collapsing exhausted, at your feet. www.netvirtuosity.com/chaldera/images/drownedsorrowstavern.jpg
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Post by Waleed Ibn Alurah on Apr 20, 2005 20:29:26 GMT -7
Waleed cocked an eyebrow and didn't know what to think. He had finalized the purchase of the tavern just after Ya'qub's wedding and had since been making minor repairs and getting the word out slowly but surely.
His three friends had come all the way from Hiyal to help him run the business and it seemed they had found a home away from home. One would have thought any friends of Waleed's would be used to courtly life and the finer things such a life would have to offer, but these three were definitely not from the royal court. Indeed, if one had to guess, Waleed had met them in a brothel or dark tavern.
Since he was the owner and had to do something, the idea of throwing her overboard did come to mind, but he quickly put it out of his mind. Perhaps she was diseased... "Hah. No she is not possessed. I have seen this before working in the glorious Fahad's clinic for the ill, blessed be his name. She is merely ill and as a Healer of some skill, I must attend to her illness. Yusuf, Anwar, please help me take her into the back." In the back of Waleed's mind he wondered when he had become so, officious.
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Post by Keesha on Apr 21, 2005 2:16:27 GMT -7
Looking at the creature, she was glad she spent some time studying the literature on demons and possesed people. Afte r their experience with both during the previous months she could not avoid being prepared for next time.
As she was moved to the other room and sure to be in confidence she spoke "Let me check a couple of things first before you touch her Waleed" .. then she inspected her to see whether any of her signals suggested the things she researched or it was something more natural and let Waleed proceed with his healing skills.
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Post by Ya'qub on Apr 21, 2005 5:12:35 GMT -7
Ya'qub's head begins to spin with the events that have just occurred.
He has settled in nicely to his new station, with a loving wife, supportive family, comfortable living arrangements, and the prestige that comes with having Fahad the Magnificent as a powerful ally. Although, he reflected soberly, if Ala'i was correct Fahad had only about two months more to live.
His smile returned when he thought of his wedding to Sahra. He remembered that she was not the most dazzling beauty when they had first met, on the caravan to Vahtov. Her duties as a camp laborer had precluded any time spent in primping and strutting.
But since their return and whirlwind courtship and marriage, she had blossemed, and her position as Ya'qub's wife had suited her. She was no longer the "desert flower," but a fine, strong mistress of the household, whom Ya'qub could trust with his life and livelihood.
These days in the city had been easy. He had found time to help Waleed establish his own home and business here in Tajar, and Keesha had returned. It was good to have them all together again.
He had become a little soft, he thought. Too much good food and wine. He was starting to show the spreading middle that often comes with wedded bliss.
Then his thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of something -- wait, no, it was a woman, and one that seemed to have passed through the Pit of Ghuls itself and return, but just barely.
Ya'qub watched helplessly as Waleed and Keesha rushed to her aid.
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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 21, 2005 8:48:05 GMT -7
Keesha did not recognize any symptoms of a possession, more likely the woman was under some form of curse. Waleed’s examinations revealed no injuries other than hunger and exhaustion.
Half rising from the bed she cried, “Oh great sultans, thank you, thank you, thank you!” This finally was something all could understand as it was spoken in Midani, Zahkara’s common tongue. Holding out her hand she pleaded: “Your kindness knows no bounds, o great sultans, please, have you any food or alms for poor Adila?”
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Post by Waleed Ibn Alurah on Apr 21, 2005 9:16:50 GMT -7
"Rest Adila," Waleed said in a comforting tone, well practiced after spending months caring for the sick, some terminally so, in Fahad's clinic. "You are malnourished and dehydrated. I will feed you, but it cannot be a lot and all at once. It took you a while to get to this state and it will take several days to get your health back, so you must eat lightly at first and not overdo it, okay?" Turning to his two helpers, "Yusuf, please bring a bowl of rice and ground lamb, you know the dish I speak of. Anwar, please bring a flagon of fresh water. Thank you good friends." Once his orders had been given he looked back to Adila, "So, Adila, are you from Tajar? The language you were speaking before upon your arrival was not Midani."
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Post by Ya'qub on Apr 21, 2005 14:24:10 GMT -7
It had been some time since Ya'qub had been this nervous. Well, there was the actual wedding night, when he and Sahra gave themselves to each other for life, but this is different.
In the days and weeks that had passed the carvaneer and merchant was now the master of his domain, and a well-respected member of the community. He had been in his element. Even among friends at the Drowning Sorrows Tavern, he had never felt more at ease.
Then this "woman" burst in, looking for all the world like a thing possessed of some unnatural spirit and babbling in some strange tongue, well, it was enough to upset the good natured Ya'qub.
"Waleed, ith there thomething I could do to be of thervice?" he asked, nervously. He truly wanted to help, but was at a loss.
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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 21, 2005 14:34:37 GMT -7
“O’ great Sultan, thank you! I’m from Muluk, City of Kings, far to the north of Tajar,” Adila answered. She was fairly young and not unattractive--tormented, disheveled, and dirty but not unattractive. She gratefully took the proffered food and drink, prodigiously grateful. Through a mouthful of food she said: “I don’t know what language I speak, I don’t even now how I have come to Tajar. I have fits…” she cried after a downing some water, “its like living a nightmare! I don’t know what I say or where I go…”
With a sigh, she shrugged in a gesture common throughout the land. "It's my kismet, my fate. It's what comes of robbing a priest. Would you hear my tale? Perhaps in exchange for a coin?"
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Post by Ya'qub on Apr 21, 2005 14:46:47 GMT -7
She was fairly young and not unattractive--tormented, disheveled, and dirty but not unattractive. Ya'qub moved in a little closer and was surprised by what he saw. He expected Adila to be a much older woman, given what he had seen earlier. Fascinated, he reached into his conspicuously not-overstuffed purse, and pulled out a gold coin and slid it across the table toward the young woman.
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Post by Waleed Ibn Alurah on Apr 21, 2005 15:27:00 GMT -7
Waleed smiled at Ya'qub's offering of the coin, he was always ready to hear a good tale.
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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 21, 2005 15:27:08 GMT -7
“It was a clear, starry night…what is the date?...truly? Then it would have been nearly three months ago. I was outside the Mosque of a Thousand Fountains in Muluk. For the first time in my life I was beginning to regret stealing something.” Her eyes begged for understanding. “I have learned the errors of my ways, great sultans, don’t judge me too harshly. “It was a fat distracted priest, leaving the mosque, his heavy purse begging to be lightened. I had hoped it to be filled with dinars but instead it held this drab clay seal,” she pulled it from a fold of her robe. It was covered in strange, ancient writings. “I would have returned it, but the writings were so fascinating, almost mesmerizing in the bright starlight. I tried to pronounce the words… foolishly! It was too late. As if on cue, nine meteors streaked across the night sky overhead. That was the first time I blacked out. My nightmare had begun.”<br> members.cox.net/arabianadventures/images/seal.jpg
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Post by Waleed Ibn Alurah on Apr 21, 2005 15:32:21 GMT -7
"May I examine it closer please," Waleed asked as he held out his hand.
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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 21, 2005 15:33:57 GMT -7
"May I examine it closer please," Waleed asked as he held out his hand. "Gladly," Adila replies, handing it to Waleed.
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Post by Waleed Ibn Alurah on Apr 21, 2005 15:44:51 GMT -7
"Hmm.... interesting. Do either of you know Kadari? Keesha, Ya'qub?" Waleed held the seal out to the others to examine if they wished. "If not, perhaps Keesha knows a spell to translate it, eh?"
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Post by Gamemaster on Apr 21, 2005 15:47:29 GMT -7
"If I may," Adila asked, reaching out for the clay seal. "there is a set of markings..."
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