The Journal of Rafiq al-Rashid
The sun rose over the caliphate and the warm sunlight washed over us. I woke on the hard floorboards and was greeted by the hum and crackle of the ship’s power-sphere. Opening my eyes, I took just a short moment to breathe in the new day before memorising some select entries in my spellbook. It was a warm breakfast and a soft bed short of the perfect morning.
A few hours passed uneventfully, when from the bridge I heard Xo-Tang growl a sharp warning. No more than a few hundred yards and closing was a second airship, much sleeker than our own and parading a jet-black banner. You could tell by the grim expressions of our dragonborn cohort that this was not a welcome sight.
We had no more than a few minutes preparation before the pirates began to board us. They were unlike dragonborn I had seen before, green-scaled with a pair of short leathery wings. We used the ship’s size to our advantage, heaving attackers overboard almost as fast as they arrived. Soon after we dispatched the last invaders, the second ship cut loose and began to build distance. Our cheers of triumph were answered by the thundering booms of cannonfire and our ship began to lurch violently out of control.
I managed to tether myself to some decking before the ship hit the water which proved fortunate as many of my companions were flung overboard during the impact. It was then that we noticed Xo-Tang had collapsed at the helm and the ship had lost all power. It would seem that the pirates had lost interest for now but the Jandisari warned us that hunters rarely leave a wounded prey. So, we secured the ship and began to swim to the shoreline in search of whatever aid could be found.
Several minutes later I crawled onto the beach, covered in seaweed and coughing up water. Ahead, Shade had taken several steps before stopping in his tracks. After beckoning us forward, he motioned to several figures who now dotted the landscape. We were wet, exhausted and in need of aid. Knowing this was not a fight we could win, we raised our hands and walked slowly towards the natives.
It was then that I noticed that along with the warriors, women and children could be seen peeking through the undergrowth. These were not a warband, but instead just people coming out to see the commotion. Turns out that the love for street-theatre is universal after all.
The one in charge went by the name Ho, leader of the Mashavites. They were a tribe local to these islands who traded regularly with T’chin navigators who travel through from the empire. We followed them through the dense undergrowth for a couple of hours before it opened up into a vast treetop village with rope-bridges joining up the various makeshift structures.
Ho ushered us up to a particular hut to meet Riah, the tribe’s shaman. Unlike Ho, she was very pale in complexion; possibly a birth defect or the result of her shaman-esque magics, it was hard to tell. Like the others, she had a very good grasp of the common tongue but her accent was more refined, almost highborn in tone. Maybe she is not native to this island, or spent significant time away from it.
I was surprised at how accepting they were of us, Ho had brought us food and comfort and Riah asked for no compensation in brewing a remedy for Xo-Tang’s ailment. After some doses of the concoction, Xo-Tang was roused though still very weak. He motioned for Pang and began to write out a list of items that he needed to complete the mending ritual for the ship to fly again.
The first component on the list was a flower that grew on the outskirts of the village, possibly our easiest prize. The next was not so simple, the tongue of what the locals called “the pig-lizard”. The beast was about the size of a wild boar and had 2 teeth that protrude out from its bottom jaw like tusks. Establishing that taking the beast on head to head would have gotten somebody gored, Raouf began building a simple pitfall trap from poisoned wooden spikes. We then drove the beast into the trap where Shade enacted a coup-de-gras and claimed our prize.
Moss, mushrooms, blessed water and a flint from my pack were the last items on the list and it did not take long for us to gather everything we needed.
Only then did we notice the smoke that spiralled out towards the northern part of the island. The Black Scales had returned to claim their bounty and the Mashavites were being slaughtered while trying to stop them.
The battle was long and brutal, dragonborn were a new nemesis to me and they fought with the ferocity that I had come to expect from our own scaled cohort. It is a mercy that the caliphate maintains good relations with the empire as a war would likely wipe us out entirely. As for these pirates, this kind of incursion is unheard of in Darvish Kupar. It is difficult enough for our sailors to navigate the golden coast, now they must fear the azure seas as well? I fear this does not bode well for the future of my city.
When we returned to the village, Xo-Tang was in much higher spirits. The components we had brought had been transmuted into a thick golden paste. How that would repair the vessel, I did not know. The empire has been very guarded of its secrets and it is unlikely Xo-Tang would feel the will to share.
No sooner had the paste dried, the sphere began to hum again and Xo-Tang gently lifted the boat out of the water. Now we were free to continue our journey towards The City of Pearl.
A few hours passed uneventfully, when from the bridge I heard Xo-Tang growl a sharp warning. No more than a few hundred yards and closing was a second airship, much sleeker than our own and parading a jet-black banner. You could tell by the grim expressions of our dragonborn cohort that this was not a welcome sight.
We had no more than a few minutes preparation before the pirates began to board us. They were unlike dragonborn I had seen before, green-scaled with a pair of short leathery wings. We used the ship’s size to our advantage, heaving attackers overboard almost as fast as they arrived. Soon after we dispatched the last invaders, the second ship cut loose and began to build distance. Our cheers of triumph were answered by the thundering booms of cannonfire and our ship began to lurch violently out of control.
I managed to tether myself to some decking before the ship hit the water which proved fortunate as many of my companions were flung overboard during the impact. It was then that we noticed Xo-Tang had collapsed at the helm and the ship had lost all power. It would seem that the pirates had lost interest for now but the Jandisari warned us that hunters rarely leave a wounded prey. So, we secured the ship and began to swim to the shoreline in search of whatever aid could be found.
Several minutes later I crawled onto the beach, covered in seaweed and coughing up water. Ahead, Shade had taken several steps before stopping in his tracks. After beckoning us forward, he motioned to several figures who now dotted the landscape. We were wet, exhausted and in need of aid. Knowing this was not a fight we could win, we raised our hands and walked slowly towards the natives.
It was then that I noticed that along with the warriors, women and children could be seen peeking through the undergrowth. These were not a warband, but instead just people coming out to see the commotion. Turns out that the love for street-theatre is universal after all.
The one in charge went by the name Ho, leader of the Mashavites. They were a tribe local to these islands who traded regularly with T’chin navigators who travel through from the empire. We followed them through the dense undergrowth for a couple of hours before it opened up into a vast treetop village with rope-bridges joining up the various makeshift structures.
Ho ushered us up to a particular hut to meet Riah, the tribe’s shaman. Unlike Ho, she was very pale in complexion; possibly a birth defect or the result of her shaman-esque magics, it was hard to tell. Like the others, she had a very good grasp of the common tongue but her accent was more refined, almost highborn in tone. Maybe she is not native to this island, or spent significant time away from it.
I was surprised at how accepting they were of us, Ho had brought us food and comfort and Riah asked for no compensation in brewing a remedy for Xo-Tang’s ailment. After some doses of the concoction, Xo-Tang was roused though still very weak. He motioned for Pang and began to write out a list of items that he needed to complete the mending ritual for the ship to fly again.
The first component on the list was a flower that grew on the outskirts of the village, possibly our easiest prize. The next was not so simple, the tongue of what the locals called “the pig-lizard”. The beast was about the size of a wild boar and had 2 teeth that protrude out from its bottom jaw like tusks. Establishing that taking the beast on head to head would have gotten somebody gored, Raouf began building a simple pitfall trap from poisoned wooden spikes. We then drove the beast into the trap where Shade enacted a coup-de-gras and claimed our prize.
Moss, mushrooms, blessed water and a flint from my pack were the last items on the list and it did not take long for us to gather everything we needed.
Only then did we notice the smoke that spiralled out towards the northern part of the island. The Black Scales had returned to claim their bounty and the Mashavites were being slaughtered while trying to stop them.
The battle was long and brutal, dragonborn were a new nemesis to me and they fought with the ferocity that I had come to expect from our own scaled cohort. It is a mercy that the caliphate maintains good relations with the empire as a war would likely wipe us out entirely. As for these pirates, this kind of incursion is unheard of in Darvish Kupar. It is difficult enough for our sailors to navigate the golden coast, now they must fear the azure seas as well? I fear this does not bode well for the future of my city.
When we returned to the village, Xo-Tang was in much higher spirits. The components we had brought had been transmuted into a thick golden paste. How that would repair the vessel, I did not know. The empire has been very guarded of its secrets and it is unlikely Xo-Tang would feel the will to share.
No sooner had the paste dried, the sphere began to hum again and Xo-Tang gently lifted the boat out of the water. Now we were free to continue our journey towards The City of Pearl.
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