Amàrad 2-4, 653 DR. The prisoner is placed into capable hands. Four trips to the Old City. Silda and Vorén find the courtyard of the tree. Visions before the Bowls of Sūdul. Bold monkeys hold curious vigil. The flagstone is lifted.

Continued from The Thugs of Naztū.

Kændor, 2 Amàrad 653

The apartment in Kirin had grown quiet. The dawn’s light filtered weakly through the shutter slats as Ferveo and Zuroolly watched the bound and desperate desert native wrestle with his bindings. The Eshi had told them all he knew but they still did not know enough. They settled amiss the broken bedroom furniture and slept for some hours.

Malor, 3 Amàrad 653

Some hours later, Ferveo answered a knocking at the apartment door. Standing outside the doorway were two soldiers with a gray-robed man standing further back on the courtyard landing. Ferveo spoke openly with the guards, who went to investigate the bodies that had been dragged into the studio. The gray-robed man came forward and spoke with Ferveo. The monk recognized the man as a priest of Sudul. When Zuroolly finally stirred and emerged into the main hall, he was met with an unsettling stare from the Sūdulyn. For an instant he felt dazed as images of the past night cascaded forward from the recesses of his memory.

Ferveo meanwhile explained why they had come here, and although he mentioned Naztū, the priest did not seem to recognize the name. A guard returned from the studio asking about the third man and was led into the bedroom where the thug was bound. As the guards left with the prisoner the priest instructed the two that they were free to go, and should leave the premises. Gathering their things, they left the apartment and found a boat to take them back across the Run Suluth. By late morning they had returned to Zuroolly’s home and rested for sometime more.

Silda sat at a Southshore tavern eating her late-morning breakfast. As she ate, she watched people come and go, meeting glances and stares directed toward her, the strangely dressed foreigner. When done, she took some food up to Vorén. While her pale friend ate and waited out the day, Silda left the tavern to find their new friends. When she found Zuroolly’s house again there was no-one there. Instead, an old neighbor woman named Dēúra spoke with her about the strange little man who spoke with himself until all hours of the night. Silda explained that she was Zuroolly’s adopted sister. Dēúra invited Silda into her small dwelling and offered her a drink from a gourd of klū’da, a local beverage. The two sat and talked for a couple hours. Silda explained to the woman how if one held a cup to the wall you can hear better through it, for Dēúra complained that she could not understand what Zuroolly was saying when he spoke to himself. Dēúra explained that Zuroolly was new to the neighborhood, having moved in about a year ago, and his young friend who she knew little about, had not lived here more than a month. After a few hours, Silda took her leave and returned to the tavern where Vorén awaited.

In the early afternoon, Ferveo and Zuroolly left for the Old City to find the tree and courtyard where Urlun Lokor was said to have died. Traveling east through the City of Jadth, they crossed into the bustling New City and finally found their way to the base of the jungle-claimed plateau. Climbing the pilgrim trails, they passed numerous shrines and hollows among the giant carved faces of the mount. After much hiking along root-covered walkways, and smooth damp staircases carved into the faces of the hillside they entered into the Great Courtyard where hundreds of pilgrims gathered.

Zuroolly approached a group of worshipers and asked if they knew of a courtyard with a tree. The man did not seem to understand the question, responding in a foreign language. Zuroolly persisted with some simple charades of a flat area with a tree. His performance gained the attention of others in the group, but none seemed to understand what he was asking. Frustrated, Zuroolly fashioned an illusion of a courtyard with a tree. The pilgrim’s eyes opened wide as they looked at the magical image. Ferveo noticed two of the Red Guards with pikes in hand, walking briskly toward them. Zuroolly dropped the spell but the guards insisted that they leave the Old City, citing that spells were not permitted there. The two did as they were instructed and exited back to the mount-side and back to the city below.

Tired from the day’s travels, Zuroolly didn’t feel like looking for the others once they’d returned to his home. Ferveo on the other hand felt it worthwhile, and so went into the streets to find Silda and Vorén. It was dark when he found them, but they were easy to spot, a tall pale woman with a sword near a glowing white figure in dark clothes. He led them back to Zuroolly’s where they updated each other on their progress. As they talked into the late evening, the rain began again, but Vorén seemed more than eager to begin his “day” regardless.

Silda and Vorén left Zuroolly’s and made the long trek back to the Old City. While climbing the steep paths and trails that wind up the face of the plateau they saw dozens of pilgrim camps within the faces and outcroppings of the plateau, handfuls of dark figures gathered around candles and fires, worshiping small gods. Finally reaching the top, they entered the Great Courtyard and turned left. Passing through the Serpent Gate they passed some merchant tents. No one rushed out into the downpour to greet them and sell them wares. Continuing past the second courtyard they found another, abandoned courtyard whose walls were pierced and crumbling from the giant woody vines and roots of the surrounding jungle. Amiss tall stone pillars, stood an old bent tree, its roots upturning the massive flagstones of the courtyard floor.

Searching among the flagstones they found a stone more upset then the others, with a space beneath it. Silda grabbed the large stone and pulled it upright revealing a deep space beneath. Vorén peered into the hole and saw an old stone corridor below. Soon the Neveren had lowered himself into the hole and leapt nimbly to the floor below, landing with a clang. Below him, inset into the floor, was a metal grate that he could not budge. Before and behind him were heavy stone doors, while the corridor continued to his sides. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he could see Sha’al shadows standing in wall niches in the distance to either side. Having seen enough, he climbed from the hole and Silda put the stone back into place.

They searched the area more thoroughly but found only a monkey watching them from the courtyard wall. Silda boosted Vorén up the wall which he climbed to the top of to see the monkey more closely. The bold monkey did not seem to mind the pale visitor through he did not wish to be touched. Vorén fed him a piece of bread, which he ate, but soon the monkey grew disinterested and scampered down the outside of the wall into the jungle below. Vorén returned to the courtyard floor, and left with Silda. Together they walked around, moving from courtyard to courtyard. Some of the courtyards they found were overgrown while others were kept in good condition.

On the second tier they found the Pillared Courtyard. A gray-robed priest came forward and asked that they not draw their weapons, that this was a holy place. They assured him they had no intention of drawing their weapons and were permitted to continue. The asked the priest about the murder but he knew nothing of it. He motioned for a priestess to come forward and she was able to confirm that the courtyard they’d found was where the murder had taken place. If they had more questions, she explained that they should speak to the Order of the Red Knights.

The two continued up another large staircase, where they came upon a giant square courtyard dominated by a sculpted pile of large stone bowls, their watery contents pouring into bowls further down in the pile. Small groups of worshippers gathered throughout the courtyard praying toward the giant sculpture. The foremost bowl had fallen and crashed into the flagstones many years ago. Silda approached the small group gathered in front of the fallen bowl. One of the worshipers there explained that they had come to worship Zirrèda of Sūdul. Zirrèda, he explained was a young pilgrim who had journeyed far to reach Jædð in the hopes that the priests of Sūdul could release her nightmarish torments. The priests allowed her to sleep before the Bowls one night and pray for Sūdul’s intervention. That night the priests heard a thundering crack and when they arrived a bowl had crashed to the flagstones, landing where young Zirrèda had been sleeping. The pilgrim explained that Sūdul had been unable to undo Daggon’s spells, and so destroyed the body of the young woman to release her from her torments. The man explained further that Zirrèda was a beacon for all pilgrims, and was an example to all that the gods do hear your prayers. After hearing this, Silda seated herself on the wet flagstones and prayed for sometime, waiting for inspiration from the Dreaming God. Vorén also meditated on the Bowls. Vorén received no inspirations or visions, but was briefly overcome with a strange sensation that he assumed was drowsiness. Following this, the two returned down the plateau, following lines of pilgrims, and then made the long trek back to Zuroolly’s, arriving in the pre-dawn.

As they settled in for sleep, they talked with Zuroolly about what they had found, and not found, making sure to mention the bold monkey by the courtyard tree.

Amor, 4 Amàrad 653

Following some brief disguise work, Zuroolly and Ferveo made the long trek back up the plateau in the morning, through the Great Courtyard and north through the Serpent Gate. Soon they came to the courtyard of the tree and began to search around. While searching, Ferveo noticed a group of three monkeys watching them from a nearby wall. They continued searching and soon there were four. Zuroolly, sent his toad across the courtyard and with a small magic push, boosted his amphibious friend closer to the monkey group. The monkeys became interested in the toad, but it hopped away whenever they tried to touch it. Ferveo watched in amazement as the toad floated gracefully down to the courtyard floor and hopped back to Zuroolly.

Finding nothing further in the courtyard they decided to follow the advice of their friends and seek visions at the Bowls of Sudul. Upon the Pillared Courtyard, Zuroolly had a flashing daydream like he had the morning before at Urlun’s apartment. As he considered this, a gray-robed man approached and spoke with Ferveo. They spoke briefly and were permitted to climb to the Third Tier. In the Courtyard of the Bowls they found hundreds of pilgrims arrayed around the massive bowl sculpture in the plaza’s center. Ferveo spoke with an attendant clergyman about mysteries of Sudul and the secret of the worshippers’ trances. He was given a small explanation which he used to sit and think about the ring, and nothing. Zuroolly too found himself a bare patch of flagstone, and pushed all else from his mind except thought of the ring which they sought. After some unknown time, Ferveo had visions of ruined monasteries claimed by the growing jungle. Zuroolly too had something of a vision, seeing a carved stone face turn cruel, and then revert back. After several hours the two awoke, confused by their experience.

Meanwhile, Silda wandered back to Kirin to investigate the apartment of Urlun Lokor one last time. During her river-crossing, another foreigner who’d been trailing his hand in the water was sucked from the boat and pulled deep into the churning depths. The locals looked either disinterested or amused, while other visitors to the area looked aghast at the man’s empty seat. Once the boat docked, Silda found her way to Kirin island. The apartment building gate was locked, so she walked around back and climbed up to the apartment, breaking the lock on the balcony doors. Sorting through the ransacked apartment she found nothing, no riches, no bodies, no friends. Finding little, she returned to Zuroolly’s residence.

Leaving the Old City, Ferveo and Zuroolly left the Pilgrim’s Road to climb across the stone faces and ledges toward the northwest corner of the Old City’s outer wall. Finding a likely area they climbed the ruined slope until they found some monkeys standing near a crack in the plateau’s wall. An older monkey emerged and approached Zuroolly, holding its palm out. Zuroolly pulled out his toad and set it down but the toad did not wish to be picked up by the old black-masked monkey. After a few attempts to grab the little toad the monkey gave-up and withdrew into the slender crack. Zuroolly excitedly followed, squeezing into the tight space between the two massive stones. Ferveo, more cautiously, followed Zuroolly. The crack opened into an ancient stone corridor that ran within the courtyard wall. Once inside Ferveo suggested that they get the others before continuing. Disappointed, Zuroolly agreed to this.

The two clambered down the mountain-like slope, dropping onto a smaller pilgrim trail from the nose of a carved face. Once on the trail they found their way down to the city and back to the Southshore. Within a couple hours they were back to Zuroolly’s residence. They rested the remainder of the day until Vorén was ready to leave, and then as a group returned yet again to the Old City. Each seemed to know their way quite well this time, and good time was made reaching the Great Courtyard, though the steep climb was getting more difficult with each attempt. Soon they found their way to the lone tree and Silda heaved up the flagstone that barred entrance into the tunnel underneath.

Continued in Secrets of the Sha’al.

• Ferveo Cælestis
• Talôr Dal-Vorenen
• Silda of Wurm
• Zuroolly Hicubaba
• Âhl (Blood Adept)
• Dēúra (Old Neighbor)
• Urlun Lokor (Gentleman, Gambler): murdered
• Naztū (Underworld Captain)
• Zirrèda (Pilgrim): martyred

Played: 14 Dec 2000