Earlier this week, Najm ibn Marwan was seen hard at work around the quays, "whipping" his hired sailors into shape, procuring provisions and supplies, and seeing to the release of his new-commissioned sailing-ship the Saint Iskameen from the works of the Guild of Shipwrights, easing her into her first embrace by Ocean's waves in the harbor-waters of Cothon.
Summoning his crew and giving them orders as to their places upon this new ship, Najm and his company then laded her down with the procured supplies, embarked onto her themselves, and saw her out from the safe waters of the harbor, beyond the breakwater, and onto the wild wides of Dirac's Sea. The intent was not to pursue any fishing or mercantile activity, but to put ship and crew through their paces, and to ensure that all work together as a united whole. Hence the expenditure in supplies, over and above what would be required for a simple fishing-voyage--400 dinars worth!--this as a downtime expense in pursuit of experience through "doing one's thing" (Najm being a fisherman by original skill, he is seeing to the training of his crew and ship as a fishing vessel).
--and rolling his dice, Najm gets a 10 on 2d6, meaning that he earns xp equal to the gold spent, a full 400 xp!--
But before this venture, Najm was seen to approach the headquarters of the Poor Brothers of the Dead, near to the Gate of Mourners, and there to seek out an acquaintance he's made there, one Julianna. This after the recent expedition he took part in, to "the Facility" ... and what follows is something like the account he gave to her of his adventure there (for 100 xp per Najm's level):
"You mentioned you were interested in some kind of 'storehouse' held by one of the great houses here, that some people have disappeared there, and that you are most curious about the place.
"Well, I have recently visited a strange place; I don't know if it is your interest, but the place certainly is most strange. I was seeking tutelage in the magical arts from one Bartholomew Pettibone of the Survivors of the Tel when I was drawn into a 'conspiracy' to return to a certain House of Gadeed and seek out adventure in the strange place they offer. It is quite different from the Tel al Safina, but instead some thing they hold to themselves, some secret, of which they only allow certain individuals access--or so I surmise.
"I considered myself lucky to fall into such a company, trusted with such adventure! The Processional Way is as beautiful as I have imagined, and the Houses of Gadeed ... but all that is nothing to the strangeness of our passage to this House's 'secret' place. It was a platform that would only accept one at a time. We each had to imbibe a potion of some kind for the platform to work; for those who did so, they disappeared! And when I drank, and stepped up, I found myself transported into a metal box with much noise of blacksmiths clanking.
"Eventually the noise subsided, and the walls flew away--indeed, just as I say! We found ourselves on the plateau above a canyon, looking at a face carved into a higher cliff, with great jeweled eyes. Its mouth opened into a cave-system.
"My comrades were all much confused, talking about a meadow and a forest, but I was quite excited to explore. Unfortunately my recollections beyond this point are hazy--I suspect this place is some kind of djinni-realm, and that my senses were addled--but we did advance up into the caves, and there both discovered a kind of prison, and dispatched some guards with a spell of sleep. (This dispatching would have been all quite easy, except that the blood of the guard my comrades killed twisted into a strange serpent that continued to fight and need further dispatching!)
"The prisoners spoke a barbarian tongue; unfortunately, despite his proclivities for interpretation, Bart could not fathom it, and no one had magic to better understand. These prisoners we freed, sending them to the rendezvous-of-return guarded by my hired-renyu al Rabb.
"From there, we continued working through the caves. There was an encounter with a sleeping pallid creature, which my comrades feared somewhat, but which proved easy to slay in its slumber--except for the same strange blood-magic! And there was an altar with a strange bone-white shortsword, taken up by Lars Fangripper. And a strange dagger, with a 'hilts' of white, and a 'blade' of dull grey--dull-edged, and -colored--but which when Bart took it up by the 'hilts' he fell asleep. And I too, following his example. And ultimately we discovered that the 'blade' was actually the handle--quite an amusing diversion!
"But ultimately the time limit allowed by our bibulations grew short, and we returned to the platform of our arrival, rendezvousing with the freed prisoners. Back out in the open, my comrades noted a 'hole in the sky' above us that was 'still there.'
"But time was short, and so we sent certain comrades ahead, and then tried to send the freed prisoners behind. But alas! the first person we sent through dissolved on the other side! We couldn't deliver these prisoners from their plight, because the deliverance was death! I felt terrible; I tried to convince my friends to allow me to remain behind to see to their safety, or to seek some other solution.
"Yet hard reality prevailed upon me; promising the prisoners we would return again, I departed by way of the platform, leaving them behind. I still don't know what to think regarding this turn of events (other than--perhaps it really is some djinni-illusion??). But what I do know is that if I should join another venture to this place, I feel we must seek the 'hole in the sky'--for surely whatever that may be, it matters more than a mere cave carved out in the face of a cliff.
"But I still can't shake the memory of leaving those people, or the fact that the first of them to 'freedom' seemingly dissolved away ...
"Well, I know not if this is anything like what you're looking into, Julianna, but thanks for listening anyway. You can keep this bottle of wine."
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