"The Shepherd"
Burrahobbit said:
"Maqhah al-Nujuum"
The owner of this cafe once had the occasion to give aid to a passing astrologer [remember the Sha'ir's Handbook?]. In return, the astrologer placed an enchantment on the ceiling of the establishment, so that every night, even in this bright and crowded city, the stars wheel as brightly and as clearly as in the middle of the moonless desert. During the day, the locals sit outside and play chess or Taawila [a kind of backgammon], smoking nargilehs and drinking Haroun the owner's famous hot sage drink.
"The Soldier's Rest"
On the now little-travelled crossroads of what was once the King's Highway, sits an old inn, now nearly bereft of customers. But its food is good and its beds are clean, and though the owner has moved to parts far distant, sending a messenger every month to check in and collect the moneys, the two old caretakers are meticulous in their work, and, though close-mouthed at first, have an endless store of tales once you get them going (helped by the fact that they have a near photographic memory for their guests and their stories).
ps. None of this is to knock the old standard roaring fire/grizzled inkeeper/dwarven ale/pretty barmaid trope; I know a guy who wouldn't dream of going anywhere near a place with a singing chimney.
"Maqhah al-Nujuum" and "The Soldier's Rest" are outstanding work, IMHO.
What makes them so great? Because they make sense. They are "extraordinary", but not for the sake of being cool. Well, the Arabic flavor of the first might be kewl-for-the-sake-of-kewl, if it doesn't fit the setting. But my point is, they are the way they are not "to be exotic", but because the people who made them that way had good reasons for it -- there's good background here.
When I was reading "The Soldier's Rest", it reminded me of my favorite short story -- "The Shepherd", by Frederic Foresythe (author of classic thrillers like "The Dogs of War" (about mercenaries in 1960s Africa -- great D&D plot) and "The Day of the Jackal" (about an assassin after Charles de Gaulle -- another D&D adaptable plot).
The plot is basically:
- Pilot flying home from Germany to England on Christmas Eve in the mid-1950s. His fighter jet has electrical problems, and he loses his radio, compass, and most of his instruments. He has to make it home in the dark, with fog below, and no way to signal he's in trouble. He goes into triangle formations over the North Sea, hoping the RAF will notice the emergency procedure and send a "shepherd" plane to guide him to an airbase.
- When he's near ditching from lack of fuel in the North Sea, he sees another plane -- a Mosquito night fighter, only used by a weather squadron now. It leads him down through the fog, to a runaway whose lights turn on just as the jet's engine flames out from lack of fuel.
- The runway turns out to be part of a mostly-derelict RAF station, now just used for storage, a decade after the war. The guy who turned on the lights is old ground crew from the war, the last guy at the base and near retirement himself, and he figured he'd better go turn them on when he heard the planes circling. The pilot is mad, since the Mosquito must have been leading him to another base, and this fool turned on the lights at a base with no emergency crew, etc. On the other hand, he wouldn't have made it more than another few miles inland, so the old fool Joe most likely bumbled into saving his life.
- Joe gives the pilot one of the old officer's rooms to stay in, after the pilot finishes phoning the RAF air traffic controllers to thanks them for sending the shepherd. They actually didn't notice his signal, and didn't send anyone. At the weather squadron, it turns out they upgraded from left-over Mosquitos a few months back. They sold the Mosquitos as scrap, so perhaps a civilian restored one and is flying it. How odd -- it must have a been a civilian pilot, flying an auctioned off old machine, still with RAF warbird markings on it. Probably a veteran reliving his youth. It was foolish of him to try to lead the jet in, in that weather, he could have caused it to crash on civilians.
- The pilot stops by a picture of a Mosquito in his room. It has the same "JK" nose marking as the shepherd. It all makes sense -- "JK" must have been a heck of a pilot, and managed to find his way "home" even a decade later in the fog. The pilot goes to ask Joe about him. Joe agrees "JK" was a heck of a pilot, and could find his way in any weather. He used to refuel after the night bomber escort missions to Germany, and go back over the North Sea to pickup damaged bombers limping home in the dark. The pilot says, "From the looks of things, he's still doing it." Joe says afraid not, sir, he never returned from a mission in 1944.
Anyhow, I've got to use that plot in a D&D story. Perhaps a paladin heals an injured party member, or a ranger guides them in from being lost with wolves after them, back to "The Soldier's Rest", but then has to continue his mission . . . and it turns out he's a ghost. Dunno, maybe I should just leave the story alone.
" seems like a key element.
