Game Date: 8-9 Browning, 994 KC; Play Date: 5/5/2001
8 Browning: Ruqayyah missed her friends badly, and Laylah, the last one around, was usually busy studying with the priests. It only took a few days of being cooped up with Celestians for Ruqayyah to need some time away from the shrine. She longed to see the city, and the swamp, and the sea.
She consulted with Laylah as to what she would need in the swamp. She was advised to get boots, a big stick, and herbs to repel insects, and to leave behind anything vulnerable to water. Ruqayyah then asked Qutaibah's permission to take a short trip to the swamp to see the lizard men and the sea. He in turn asked Afla to help her find someone to take her there.
Afla found a small fishing boat whose owner, Sarah, ferried people between Berigissel and Harwen (a port just east of the Yangar delta). Sarah presented an odd appearance--she had green hair and nails, and webbed fingers. (However, Ruqayyah's appearance was at least as strange: cat ears and eyes, and patterned skin.) Afla explained that they had had contact with lizard men in the desert, and had heard of a related species in the delta; Ruqayyah wanted to see them, and to see the sea. Sarah attempted to describe the sea, which made Ruqayyah's interest increase even more.
The round-trip between Berigissel and Harwen normally took about one full day. If they left now (midday), they would get just beyond the river mouth by dark, and could return by midday the next day. Ruqayyah decided that she'd rather do that (and see the water by both day and night) than wait to do it all in one day. Sarah had a safe place to stow her scrolls, so Ruqyyah went to fetch them while Afla settled the charter fee. (When Ruqayyah asked about how to pay the fee, Afla said she would handle it--it would be nothing compared to Qutaibah's investment in her training. This gift and reminder embarrassed the younger woman.)
Ruqayyah returned, Afla took her leave, and Sarah prepared to depart. Ruqayyah asked about Sarah's green coloring, and was told that it came from her father.
As they passed through the delta swamp, Ruqayyah kept watch for lizard men and crocodiles. From time to time, she called out in the language of the desert-dwelling lizard men. She saw many water birds, frogs, snakes, etc., and even a crocodile, but no lizard men.
In the late afternoon, Ruqayyah had her first glimpse of the sea. When they reached it, she reached out of the boat to touch it. She saw the waves, felt them rocking the boat, and asked who made them. Sarah had no ready answer. They followed the coast east, away from the swamp. Ruqayyah asked permission to practice her magic, shifted to owl form, and clumsily practiced her flying while Sarah found a good spot to drop anchor. Sarah caught some fish for their dinner, and Ruqayyah changed to caracal form to eat hers raw. Sarah asked to feel her fur, and was allowed to pet her.
9 Browning: After breakfast (more fish), Ruqayyah noticed a white shape on the sand a little further down the shore. She pointed it out to Sarah, who thought it looked like a person lying on the ground. They decided to take a closer look, so Sarah moved the boat to the shallows, where they could swim then wade the coupe of hundred feet to shore. On the way, Ruqayyah tasted some seawater; it tasted awful, but she drank a little anyway.
On the shore, they saw that the white shape was a naked woman with very pale skin and long, snow-white hair. Her skin had a slight bluish tint, but she seemed to be alive (though asleep or unconscious), so Ruqayyah tried to wake her. She woke and sat up, which let them see her more clearly. She had dark blue eyes and was easily one of the most beautiful women either had seen. She seemed startled, and spoke a few words in a language neither of the other two recognized. Sarah tried to communicate in Krithian, then Sivian, but without success. She then tried the Merfolk tongue, which the woman did understand. The woman couldn't remember who she was, or where, which made her nervous and edgy. When Sarah tried to explain where they were, the woman said that "Great Sea" sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure why. Sarah tried the one other language she spoke, Naiad, which the stranger also understood, but she seemed to prefer Merfolk.
About that time, her gestures brought their attention to her left hand, which bore a bluish-silver star mark. She noticed it herself, and realized it was important, but couldn't remember why. They also noticed that her ears were pointed; other than that, she looked perfectly human.
The woman tried to stand, and was a little shaky. Ruqayyah magically lent her some strength, which made her feel better, and asked to be taught the language the other two shared. She was hungry, but Sarah told her that food was on the boat, so she tried to swim--and took to it like a fish. She reached the boat well before Sarah, who was a strong swimmer herself.
On the boat, Ruqayyah gave the woman her over-robe, but the nude woman simply draped it around herself rather than putting it on. Sarah explained that Ruqayyah might be uncomfortable seeing her unclothed, and found her a spare tunic that fit better. (The stranger was several inches shorter than either of the other two women, so Sarah's short tunic came to her mid-thigh.) Ruqayyah put her own outer garment back on, and in reaction to the pale woman's immodesty, put on all of her veils. This prompted a comment that those robes looked very uncomfortable.
Sarah tried to describe the desert to the stranger, but had never seen it herself, either. A place with no water horrified the other woman.
The woman began studying the star on her hand again. She also checked her head, wondering if she had hit it, but found no injury. Ruqayyah wished to introduce her to Afla, who might be able to divine more about her. She asked if the woman knew any magic; she couldn't remember.
Ruqayyah asked Sarah about the languages they spoke; Merfolk was the language of her father's people, and Naiads were another people who lived in water. The stranger vaguely recalled Merfolk, and said that Sarah reminded her of them. She was curious about the language Sarah and Ruqayyah shared (Krithian). She and Ruqayyah wanted to learn each other's languages, so as Sarah began piloting the boat back to Berigissel, the other two started teaching each other the names for everything they could see on board, with occasional corrections from Sarah as her divided attention allowed.
The pale woman asked why Ruqayyah wore veils, if she took them off sometimes. It was a matter of "propriety." She liked the desert woman's cat ears, and asked why they looked like that. Ruqayyah "got stuck" in caracal form a few times, which also explained her eyes and skin. She tried to demonstrate the spell, and something went very wrong. A snakelike form, apparently made of water, slithered onto the boat, reared up in front of Ruqayyah, struck at her, then slipped off the other side of the boat. The other two women backed away in fear. The attack had left a damp patch on Ruqayyah's leg, which soon appeared to turn into water itself. In panic, she tried to shed her outer robe, but the affected area was already spreading. Ruqayyah quickly tried Seek Water, and confirmed that she was indeed turning into water. She tried a healing spell, which had no effect. When her body and clothing finished the transformation a moment later, she realized that her body still held its normal shape, and that the boat itself was not affected.
Ruqayyah experimented with putting her fingers into a water-cask, which tingled strangely but had no other effect. She looked at the bizarre shadow that her now-translucent body created. She waited an hour, hoping the effect would pass on its own, but it did not, and she found that she could not end it by choice as if it were a spell she had cast. Her best guess was that it was a curse of some kind, which ironically made her less worried, because in that case, Qutaibah could help her. She hoped that Afla would be waiting for her on her return to Berigissel, and that she would know what to do about this problem. The stranger realized had seen something like this before, but that it had been done willfully, not in this way. She tried to remember the spell, and hesitantly reproduced the gestures and words she remembered. Her body turned into water, more quickly than Ruqayyah's had, and she was able to dismiss the effect immediately, though she was weary after the casting. She shared what she could now recall of this Body of Water spell: it made you harder to hurt, allowed faster movement in water, and allowed you to heal while in the water. Ruqayyah pondered this, and wondered about the water-thing's resemblance to the smoke-snake from the Asanos-dreams. She dangled her legs in the water; this felt very strange, for she could feel the seawater pass through her feet. She tried to shift to caracal form--and turned into a cat made out of water!--so changed back immediately. She was a little concerned about not being able to find the Powerstone she had been wearing at the time, but concluded that it must have been absorbed into this form, much like her clothes are in her animal forms. She found the outer robe she had shed when first attacked--or rather, the puddle it had become. She put it back on as well as she could, but could still not end the spell. She decided to meditate and pray to Jin-Mubik about what to do, but she could not calm her mind enough. She removed the outer robe again, and draped it over the side of the boat, but when she let go of it, it fell, splitting in two--one half forming a puddle in the boat, the other falling into the sea. She took off her tunic and veils, and put them in separate puddle-piles on the deck. Now naked, she was able to meditate. A few hours later, she tried to dress again. Her clothes seemed to have lost some of their cohesion, but she was able to re-attach them. |
Back at Berigissel, Afla was not at the docks. Sarah persuaded Ruqayyah to stay on the boat, and sent a message to the Duz, asking Afla or Qutaibah to come to the boat.
While they waited, the pale stranger watched the crowds on the docks, hoping to see anything that would help her remember more. She did see a few people with red and blond hair, which teased at her memory, but with little result. She had the impression that Berigissel was the largest city she had ever visited, but somehow it was very different from any she had seen (not enough water, perhaps?).
Meanwhile, Ruqayyah decided to practice a seductive dance that she had learned among the Lark Tribe houris. It involved the slow removal of her clothing, so by the time she was finished, many dockhands and sailors were avidly watching. They expressed their appreciation with applause, catcalls, and even a few coins. She decided to be amused rather than embarrassed, and began again. Midway through this second iteration, Afla and Quitaibah arrived on the docks. Ruqayyah didn't notice, but the pale woman pointed them out to Sarah. As Ruqayyah finished the last flourish of her dance, she finally saw the two Duz. She dropped and tried to hide herself. After a moment, she realized that her lower body was melting into a puddle among her dropped clothing, and quickly reasserted her normal shape.
Sarah went to the Duz, invited them onto the boat and tried to describe the problem. Ruqayyah explained that she had simply been trying to shapeshift. Sarah introduced the amnesiac as "Star," and said she knew how to achieve this effect with a spell. Star demonstrated. Afla examined her aura, and proclaimed that she was a water mage--she had a talent for magic, but only for water spells. Afla had not seen this before, and tried to explain how precious a gift this seemed to her desert people.
Qutaibah quizzed Ruqayyah about the episode in detail, while Afla asked Sarah to take them to the Celestians' vineyard upstream of the city. She agreed, took the ship there, and they were shown to an outbuilding near the one Ruqayyah and her friends had stayed in earlier.
Qutaibah prepared himself for the curse-breaking ritual. Ruqayyah, Sarah and Star all volunteered to help. Afla checked Sarah's aura, and stated that she, too, had some aptitude for magic. Sarah had not been aware of this, but was reminded about a time that she had sensed something special about some possessions of a sea priestess she knew back home. With Afla's help, Quitaibah instructed them in the appropriate refrains to sing as the Duz and Ruqayyah danced. After the hour ritual, Ruqayyah returned to human form. Her outer robe was a ruin, while her other garments had many tears in them. The skin on her left thigh and flank was raw, as if it had been partly torn away, and quickly started to bleed into her torn clothes. After consulting Qutaibah, she tried to heal herself, and succeeded. She thanked Star and Sarah, who then left--Star to wander the vineyard (and to clumsily attempt some dancing and tree-climbing), Sarah to keep an eye on her and her boat.
Qutaibah pulled Ruqayyah into a hug, then left to rest elsewhere. Afla offered to loan Ruqayyah her outer robe until they could find her new clothing. Ruqayyah agreed, but was a bit depressed that she had ruined the tunic Laylah lent her. She recalled the coins thrown onto the boat, and went to find them; they totaled about 16 silvers, mostly in small coins. Eventually, everyone turned in for the night.
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This page last revised 10/15/2001. | Copyright 2001 Timothy E. Emrick. | time@sluggy.net