GAME

The Street of Pomegranates

You've all drunk deep of date rum and are deeply drunk. Chanting obscene ballads of the caravaneers, you swagger/stumble along the cobbles, occasionally gripping a pomegranate tree for support. It's mid afternoon and hot and sunny. Passersby stare at you with expressions of scorn, amusement, or concern.

In your revelries, you repeatedly heard the latest rumor that has swept through Zul-Bazzir:
Your progress halts when Jewel literally bumps into one of the governor's guards. Equipped in medium armor and bearing an iron-tipped staff, the woman shoves Jewel roughly backward. "Hey!" the guard exclaims. "Watch where you're goin!" Turning her head slightly, without taking her eyes off the group of you, she calls out, "Sir! We got some likelies here!"

Several more guards approach from the two side streets that meet the Street of Pomegranates at this point. You notice one has the ostrich-feathered helmet of a Captain. His thick blue-black beard glistens with the oil of almonds. Although the beard makes his face hard to read, the tone of his voice is casually contemptuous. "Indeed they look like roistering thieves," he comments. "Search them." It seems like the contempt is directed not so much specifically toward you or the guards as at the world entire.

"Hassan Sa'id takes no bribes," the guard captain sneers as he proudly taps a ringéd fist against his medium-armored chest. "And he cares not for a disowned daughter of the Bey." Turning to his underlings, he adds, "Get them into the rug shop. There." He gestures toward a storefront where a servant has been leaning on a broom watching the confrontation. Startled by the guard captain's gaze, the servant snatches up his broom and hurries into the shop. You hear frantic voices from within.

Under instruction from Hassan Sa'id, the guards pat you all down roughly. It is an intrusive and disgraceful experience, but no harm comes.

The chubby male guard searching Sanaa is inappropriately touchy, but finds none of her hidden pockets.

Jewel has not met Hassan Sa'id before now, but she's heard of a blue-bearded guards captain who thinks much of himself and naught of anyone else. A man who lusts for power, a conniver and sadist. The name comes to her. Yes, this man who commands rough treatment with such a calm and sneering demeanor. A man to not be trusted.

The female guard, whom Jewel thumped into, pats down Tobias Moon and finds nothing.

"You're free to go," Hassan Sa'id says smoothly. "Remember our forbearance."

Released from the rug shop, you emerge through the side door into the bazaar.

As you move among the tents of the bazaar, the afternoon sun heats your heads.

Tobias becomes aware that someone is following you. @mathias0077

Golden Ahm-Rani spots a small, graceful person in women's garments who keeps looking away from him when he glances back. She is keeping a distance far enough to disappear if he tries to confront her.

You arrive at the far side of the bazaar, where there are a few restaurants including the Soup House. Odors of salty chicken broth emanate from the open storefront. There are tables and benches both under the roof and in the open space in front of the restaurant. Several tables are occupied by people talking loudly. Nobody is paying any attention to you - other than the eager host, who approaches as you stand looking at the scene. "Table? Right here," he urges you with a great big smile.

Since you want soup, you sit. A few moments later, Golden glances around and sees the follower standing at arms' length. Quiet as a cat. And eyes to match.

"Let's talk," she says to Golden specifically. Then looks around at all of you. "May I sit in the open spot?"

Food is brought and the strange woman eats with delicate, well-bred dignity. Notwithstanding that, you can see she's hungry.

"My name is Sabiha," she says after daintily wiping a speck of cheese from her lip. "I was one of two thieves who stole the jewel from the bey’s palace. My partner Osan and I were supposed to bring the emerald to a contact from Zadj, in the southeast, old enemy to Zul-Bazzir. But Osan betrayed me. I believe he fled east into the desert to the meeting place, at the ruined temple of Yadar. 20 miles east from the Sunrise Gate. The contact should be there by nightfall tomorrow."

Sabiha smiles, and her yellow irises sparkle. "I don't want the gem. I want the letters of credit that the buyer will be giving to Osan. And I want Osan dead. I'll happily cosign the letters with you, if only you'll get rid of that bastard."

"So I'll come with you," Sabiha says, "guide you to the rendezvous and help you with matters there. Then we get the letters of credit and the gem. You return the gem for the reward, and I'll take the letters of credit. Sound good?"

Sabiha nods.

You rent horses fairly easily and head out east into the lawless wasteland.

It is getting late in the afternoon as you continue to ride. The ground is rough, with scrubby thorn bushes and cactus sparsely scattered across the red-orange dirt and gravel. The horses do not love the terrain. They keep stopping to have you pull gravel out of their hooves.

Sanaa and Tobias have bad luck. Their horses get increasingly uncomfortable as you go, to the point that by sunset they are hobbling lamely along and quite slow.

"Two more hours," says Sabiha. Her eyes glow faintly green in the twilight.

"Riding," says Sabiha, "but the contact shouldn't be there until tomorrow afternoon or evening. Plenty of time to get there and ambush Osan."

Tobias massages his horse's legs as the last heat of the day rises up from the sere land into the dark starry void above. There are no clouds and the chill comes quickly.

Distantly, you hear hyenas laughing.

After about an hour, the horses stand comfortably and you are able to mount and ride. The sound of hyenas comes closer as the horses walk. Sabiha guides you by landmarks vaguely visible as faint silhouettes against the stars - a distant mountain, a ruined tower, even a constellation. The hyenas have been silent for a while.

"About a half an hour more," Sabiha says, and then the sound of hyenas comes from all around you and then they are among you.

There's mayhem of leaping and laughing and biting and horses thrashing around, and somehow none of you break a leg, but you're tumbled off your steeds and ignored by the hyenas for now as they hamstring and slaughter the horses first.

You're all without horses, standing kind of on the edge of the debacle. You could run, or you could fight.

You soon put enough distance from the feasting hyenas that it is very unlikely they would bother to leave their kill to chase you. Likewise you can expect that any other predators will go to the scent of fresh blood.

After about two hours running then jogging then walking, Sabiha says " There" and you see the silhouette of a ruined temple that once had three towers set in a triangle.

A light flickers in a lower window. Too yellow to be a torch. An oil lamp and somebody moving around it.

"I hope it's Osan," Sabiha says viciously. Then cautiously: "I really hope it's not anyone else."

Separating from the others, Tobias moves quickly and silently up to the window and looks in. He sees a small, muscular man with a pointy red goatee. The man is pacing in a circle around an oil lamp that is set on the blue-tiled floor of the room. The room looks opulent in an ancient-temple kind of way. There are murals on the walls but they either are masked by shadow or maybe they've been defaced, it's too dark in there to tell for sure. The lamp does not really light the room that well. The pacing man is gesturing to himself, counting on his fingers and moving his lips as if he is rehearsing talking points.

Tobias returns to the group and reports what he saw. Sabiha nods sharply, her eyes flashing green. "That is Osan!" she whispers intensely. "He has the gem. Quickly, let us kill him and take — no, that will not work. I need the letters of credit. We must bide for the contact to come."

Sabiha sighs a little and nods slowly. "That makes sense. I'm glad I have you to help." Her eyes glimmer green, like a cat's.

As you talk, your breaths steam upward in the light of the stars and a faint crescent moon. Where you stand you might be visible from a distance - though not to Osan, who is in a better-lit place.

Tobias saw one door to the large room where Osan paces. The door was at the side about forty feet across from the window where Tobias looked in. The lamp did not fully light the width of the room. There might be doors at one end or the other as well.

You are at the side of the ruined building. The front is obvious. It's where the bigger of the three towers looms (the other two are twins at the back of the square building). The front doors are at the base of the tower. Fallen stones litter the threshold and make you move slow and careful to avoid tripping and getting hurt or making noise. The doors are open. Inside is very dark except for the faintest of lamp light reflected off several walls from the doorway of the back side room where Osan is.

It's too dark for any of you three to walk safely inside the building. Sabiha moves easily ahead, then pauses, turns back, comes to you. "I can see but you can't. We can't light a torch or a lamp, he'll see us," she murmurs. "What do you think?"

. . .

. . .

Jewel smells a Big Cat somewhere. At the same moment, Sabiha makes a small noise - a stifled hiss, like a frightened alley cat.

. . .

A small yellow flame hovers steadily over Jewel's up turned open hand.

At the same moment she sees glowing green eyes reflecting the flame. And then the big cat leaps at her.

Jewel ducks, and the black leopard soars over her head, its attempt to adjust its jump resulting in it landing with an awkward thump in the darkness just out of view.

The hovering flame from Jewel's hand spurts toward the leopard and more than singes it. The big cat snarl shrieks. At the same time, the flame blows back and briefly enrobes Jewel with fire.

The wild beast, though obviously injured by Jewel's fire bolt, evades your attacks. It leaps out the window after Osan. As it goes you notice a bright silver chain around its neck ... apparently it might be a pet.

You also notice that Sabiha is not in the room.

Somehow the oil lamp continues to steadily burn. Its yellow glow does little to fend the chill air from the desert night.

Sabiha is not in the room.

From the direction of the front door of the temple, you hear the sounds of shuffling feet and murmured chanting. It sounds like several people. You notice that there is no glow of torchlight from that direction.

It sounds like the chanters have moved from the entrance foyer into the main room of the temple, where you haven't been. Still no sign of light from that part of the temple, although your side room glows with lamplight and you might think it would have drawn the chanters' attention.

You three move out of the lamplit room, into the darkness of the temple. There are no lights in the direction of the chanting. You move quietly toward the voices — until Jewel trips, making a loud scuffing sound.

The chanting continues, steady and quietly echoing, several voices harmonizing on a minor chord. You guess about eight or ten voices.

Groping in the darkness, Tobias leads the way through the entry foyer to the great doorway that leads into the main hall of the temple. The roof of the main hall is broken and starlight dimly falls on the chanting figures. There are in fact nine of them. They each hold a bare knife, raised toward the stars.

The chanting continues.

You think there is a tenth shape in the middle of the circle of nine dark figures. It is a shape that is hard to see, even harder than the others. As if it is not ... quite ... there.

The chanting stops. The people holding knives turn toward Golden. The weird inchoate thing in their midst begins to swirl and move toward Golden.

"No," says a man with a deep and resonant voice. "We were not expecting you, or anyone else. And you have disturbed the sacred incantation. This is not good."

As you exit swiftly through the window, you hear commotion and a shriek of pain from behind you.

The desert night is cold. It is a long way back to town, there is not a well-defined track to follow, and your horses seem to have gone.

It's dark. You don't have eyes like Sabiha. You have no luck discerning tracks in the starlight.

More screams, and more anguished, come from the ruined temple you've just left.

The desert night is cold and dry. The screams have stopped. You settle down wishing you had packed blankets.

Dawn comes with soothing warmth as the red light of the sun spills over you. The ruined temple is pretty in daylight, the walls are built of white and pale blue stones set in a non-repeating pattern.

Looking basically westward, your shadows stretch across the desert toward a smudge of smoke at the horizon. A long horse-ride and a longer walk away, the city of Zul-Bazzir.

Golden Ahm-Rami easily finds the scuffs where a man's feet hit the dirt and then ran away, as well as the prints of a leopard going the same direction.

Something about being near the temple now makes him feel very uneasy and he gestures to Tobias to hurry away in the direction of Osan and the leopard went. Back toward Zul-Bazzir? Seems like it.

It gets warmer, then hot, as the sun climbs.

Before you've gotten more than half way toward Zul-Bazzir, the footprints come to an area of harder ground where they become untrackable. However, the trend is apparent: Osan headed straight toward the city, as if it was a place of refuge for him. The leopard accompanied him.

You continue toward Zul-Bazzir.

It's about the middle of the morning, another hot day shaping. The streets are moderately busy with porters carrying stuff, shoppers looking for stuff, and vendors vying to sell stuff from their open storefronts.

You've lost track of Jewel, Sabiha, Osan, and the leopard. Somewhere is an invaluable gem, and elsewhere are precious letters of credit.

It's late morning when Tobias starts asking around. It's an hour after sunset, in a comfortable wine shop eating tapas, when a man walks over to your table and sits in one of the two empty chairs. He looks old (with the pointy white goatee and leathery face) but he moves young. His name is Ras-Niss. He comes from Akhet, near the Tomb Hills, two hundred miles south from Zul-Bazzir.

"Osan," he says ...

Ras-Niss twitches his wrist and the porcelain cup at his place flips upright. He seizes the bottle and pours well. Takes a sip, swishes, and smiles. "Good red" he opines. "Now, for Osan: he's a captain of caravan guards, fairly new to the city and hanging about like a wealthy man, measuring out his most recent pay. Has a pet leopard that showed up singed this morning, but Osan hasn't a scratch. Telling some story about the leopard chasing a lizard into a campfire."

"Over in the Shantymaze," says Ras-Niss. "Heard he has a nicer place in there." He pauses. "Some of the people I talked to, said a cat-eyed woman had been asking after him a few days back."