D&D 5E Al-Qadim Moving Through the Flame

Bidding on the rainbow obsidian skull rises above 200 dinars (gp) amidst the clamor of men who've indulged in too much palm wine. Several guards poorly attempting to blend in with the rest, keep an eye on your dealings with their mistress, Jina the Bold.



[SBLOCK=Akilah]Having seen Jina the Bold slicing a pear and drinking palm wine is enough to lay bear the trader's secrets...some of them at least...to Akilah. She is clearly high-born, judging from her haughty air with Salahuddin, the way she seems to look down on the men serving her, and how she seems to hold the simple ceramic cup with an air of wistfulness for finer things. Moreover, her way of flaunting her barely legal enterprise almost seems exaggerated to Akilah's eyes, as if she were reacting to a conservative or moralist household; it wouldn't be surprising if the entire image of "Jina the Bold" disguised a runaway from the Pantheist League. Akilah suspects that keeping this secret is of utmost importance to Jina, for it might ruin her carefully constructed reputation as a hard-dealing merchant-rogue.[/SBLOCK]

[SBLOCK=Salahuddin]Easifa plays with a discarded date pit, which floats through the air moving like a fly - who would be the wiser at a place like this? He (?) conveys back what he has overhead to his master telepathically: One man whispers the skull is cursed as told to him by a trader from Qaybar, another that it is a token left behind by jann a century ago as told to him by his great grandfather. And a third man whispers that the best item of the auction is yet to come – Akdam's Traveling Spellbook.[/SBLOCK]

(lol...my disguise is going to last maybe an hour, tops )

"Jina the Bold," Akilah begins, taking a seat next to Jina and as she speaks."You should be more careful around a Hakima. It is with little effort we see right through the veil lies weaved be men... and women." She finishes while maintaining eye contact as she raises a hand turning down the wine.

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Salahuddin smiles at Jina. She was definitely living up to her name. Openly asking the viziers to look the other way as she flaunted the law. But the viziers would need to speak to that. Salahuddin had no power over the docks or the Sheikhs men. Salahuddin listens to Easifa as the Gen telepathically tells him what he has heard. The book peeks his interest and he try's to think if he has heard of it before. As he thinks he takes a sip of his wine.

"Jina my desert flower. I am no Cleric or Imam. I doubt the dock guards would listen to me on the will of Hakiyah."

He smiles at the woman.

"I am just a humble Sha'ir. Now let us speak of things that I can do for you."

[sblock=Action]Persuasion to get Jina to open up.: 1d20+9 23
Arcana check on spellbook: 1d20+5 23 [/sblock]

Amina sank down behind and to the right of Akilah, sitting on her knees. A little trick that made it easier to pop up to standing more quickly. Servants did that a lot, but they were far from the only ones. Similarly, sitting behind Akilah was expected of a handmaid and assistant, but it also kept her from the Hakima's sight, which was good. She was perceptive. Ankabut would need a plan ready for when, not if, her disguise was penetrated.

[SECTION]The unnerving and prescient stare from the vizier cut to the quick. It was Jina the Bold who normally was the one to provoke or unbalance during negotiations, but with a simple gesture the tables were so profoundly overturned. Her eyes dart around the auction house briefly, realizing how much she has to lose, before smiling demurely at Akilah. "Forgive my humor. Too much time at sea and I've picked up the dark humor of the corsairs." Her eyes dart back up searchingly to Akilah's as she bows her head slightly. She knows.

Sucking her lip, Jina raises her brow at Salahuddin. Desert flower? Oh, these two made a dangerous pair. "Humble? And a sha'ir? Then you are twice as rare. What I'd intended to ask..." she glances to Akilah again, making sure she's not asking too much for the information she will share. A subtle shake or nod of the vizier's head would suffice. "...was if you would do me the favor of looking into the House of Uqab (the Vulture)? While I trade with many desert tribes, these outcasts have been scavenging for antiquities at many of the sites I've visited, working at cross-purposes to my own men. The odds are too slim for it to be chance."

After a moment, Jina's manservant comes bear a leather-bound ledger. Taking it from him, the raven-haired merchant flips the pages with a knit brow. "Here it is, an itemized list of what was lost to the raiders..."

What is immediately striking about the list, besides that nearly 60,000 dinars (gp) worth of art objects were taken, is there are two references to urns marked with old Elvish script reading akashta bariyat.[/SECTION]

[SBLOCK=Those speaking Elvish]Akashta bariyat roughly translates to “shield creature” or "created guardian."[/SBLOCK]

[SBLOCK=Salahuddin]Akdam was a merchant-mage of Zakhara famous for collecting his life's work researching the magic of neighboring lands; however, a war that took place in Qadib centuries ago resulted in much of his collection being looted or burned. Their are persistent rumors, however, that his "traveling spellbook" escaped with his apprentice. It was rumored to be a collection of spells used while on the trail to facilitate travel...spells to summon servants unseen and phantasmal horses, protect one's wares from thieves, not to mention fit a shepherd's crook into an aba's (robe's) pocket.[/SBLOCK]

~ Kaniel did not trust this woman. He did not trust this place: it reminded him of the slave markets in Qudra, where he had seen many like himself stand upon the block and be auctioned off. Pieces of meat to be traded and sold at a whim. He was lucky: the Mamluk had taken him, and thus given him status, a power that no other man may touch.

The others ... While a Slave was expected to be treated well by his master, Chains were still Chains, even if the hand holding them was gentle.

However, Jina spoke of The Vultures, and this piqued Kaniel's curiosity. This Tribe was known to him. All the Tribes of the High Desert were, but the poor Uqab did not have the reputation his proud House of Nasr did. Eagles soared above such scavengers, but that was where he took conflict with Jina's assessment.

" You consider House Uqab to have robbed you?" he finally spoke up, narrowing his yellow eyes at the smuggler, " They live up to their name: Vultures. Rare is it that we see them attack to secure their prize, unless the prey was already weakened to begin with. They must have outnumbered your men greatly, or your men must have had some disadvantage to them, for the Uqab to be so bold."

He let the statement hang in the air: The Hakima already seemed to have a handle on the woman, and Salahuddin was trying a, er, different approach, but he wanted them to have all the information at the very least.

[sblock=Kaniel's Insight]Our Mamluk tries to discern if Jina is giving the entire story: [roll0][/sblock]

[SECTION]"No, House Uqab never would dare attack one of my caravans," Jina the Bold says with a thinly restrained imperious air. "Even these raiders, whoever they are, didn't make off with all the goods they'd sought once my men rallied." Keeping one eye on Akilah, lest her secret be at risk of revelation, Jina taps her ledger. "But the Uqab have made appearances at many of the sites where my men reappropriate antiquities. Several times the Vultures have beaten us by only a day or two..."[/SECTION]

[SBLOCK=Kaniel]Jina the Bold seems like the type who'd have several stories going on concurrently, and "truth" might be a matter of degree and audience. However, she's difficult to get a read on, artfully giving just enough information without revealing her entire hand. Fortunately, she hasn't yet caught on that Kaniel is scrutinizing her reaction.[/SBLOCK]

Najiyah's head was not entirely as focused on the task at hand as it should have been. The undercurrents that passed between Jina and Salahuddin as they tried to outplay one another went unnoticed by the sorceress, though she should have recognized it right away. It was difficult for her to listen to what wasn't being said while her mind kept wandering to that nudge Akilah had given her with a knowing look, and Najiyah found herself stealing glances at Kaniel and wondering what her insightful sister Vizier had intuited. The implication had been clear enough.

To complicate matters further, something kept flicking at the back of her mind during moments just before Salahuddin spoke. It was very...distracting. More than that, it made Najiyah distinctly uneasy, as though she were barely missing something of great importance on the edge of her peripheral.

Therefore, it was not until Jina began listing the stolen artifacts that Najiyah's clouded mind finally tuned in to her present surroundings. The urns held a note of familiarity, and she raised her knuckle to press against her lip while recalling what stories she had heard of them.

[SBLOCK=Najiyah]While Najiyah doesn't speak Elvish or know any lore specific to these particular urns, she did run across many treasure-hunters and charlatans growing up giving fire shows on the streets of Tajar. Ceramic urns marked with strange runes - like those lost by Jina the Bold - are often involved in binding elemental spirits...particularly those associated with the earth.[/SBLOCK]