7th of Sabze-mah, 631 S.C.

The Journal of Rafiq al-Rashid

We arrived the next morning to the smell of smoke and the sound of crowds gathering. There had been a fire in the residential quarter; the Ibn-Manarghi household had been torched overnight. The word going around is that some street urchin was responsible but got caught in the blaze while trying to escape. The lump in my throat told me that this may be the very boy we dispatched for help the night before and had we not involved him, he may still be alive.

We relayed our findings to Sharif Umar who showed concern but admitted that he was already shorthanded. If this problem was to be resolved, we were the ones who needed to resolve it.

Several hours, some kind words and some greased palms later, we found ourselves standing in the white palace itself. In front of us was a desk of the finest craftsmanship, littered with various officially stamped documents and the occasional ornate trinket. Pasdari, adorned in white robes with blue and gold sashes flanked the hallway to protect the man we were here to see: Visier Freydun al-Mosar, the most powerful man in Darvish Kupar according to some circles.

We stood in silence as the wizened old man subjected the pages to some scrutiny before offering what information he could; The pages were from the fabled Tome of Miriam, which detailed much about the elemental planes and the forces within. The pages we had recovered were just a small part of the ritual and for the Caliphate to be safe, we needed to track down the remaining parts of the book before the cult could.