Game 34: al-Watan

I know that a few of the Ninety-Nine are in Hollin. There's Ad-Darr, The Afflictor; Al-Mumit, The Destroyer; and al-Rahim, the Merciful, who you know as the mother hen Wren over at Werner's sanctuary. Obviously, the best information would come from Al-Alim, the All-Knowing, but I don't know where she is. So out of the Merciful, the Afflictor, and the Destroyer, I think the Merciful is probably your best bet.

There are always Caliphate sailors working at the docks with their ships, but the Caliphate expatriates actually living in Hollin are mostly those at the Caliphate import-export houses, which trade between Hollin and al-Watan. Those houses have worked that route for many generations, and typically their members were born and raised in Hollin.

This isn't exactly a weakness, but the Ninety-Nine brought servants into this plane, the Annur, who Krohn has tried to seduce into his service, but he hasn't been able to.

Wren reiterates again what Ishild said at the end of the last game, that Ord should seek out the rightful Caliphs, or more accurately their descendants, as allies.

Wren says that Krohn has a corp of assassins, known as Cold Comfort, who murdered most of the rightful Caliphs, but a few escaped into obscurity.

Now, given that Ord has no information on where these people might be, that may sound like a tall order. But Wren says an organization near al-Watan has kept records as best it can tracking these escapees and their descendants over many generations - and that organization is the aforementioned corp of assassins, Cold Comfort. Wren says that their refuge is on an island in the water where the rivers merge south of al-Watan.

One of the Caliphate import-export houses is called House Hanan. House Hanan was based in Braddock, and its people and assets were almost completely destroyed by Firestorm. One of their ships, the Venial, has recently arrived loaded with cargo. But, with Hanan's operations ended, they'll be returning to al-Watan without unloading. House Hanan's last survivor is named Sabbas, and he'll be going "home" to al-Watan for the first time on the Veniel's return trip.

After a journey of let's say 6 weeks, Wayward arrives in the Bay of Nasir, the turbulent bay where the Jahara river reaches the ocean at al-Watan. The violence of the water is startling, and the party is surprised to see a few small fishing boats braving the waves. Wayward works its way between these fishermen and enters al-Watan's Najat harbor, which is set apart from the bay by a long stone sea wall.

When the party gets off Wayward at al-Watan's dock, the hive of activity reminds them of Hollin's dock. There are sailors from all over here, and the party doesn't seem particularly out of place.

From the docks, you can already see two features of the city rising behind the dock warehouses. Nearby and rising grandly, there's a beautiful coliseum, three stories high. Further away, slightly obscured by the dusty haze, you can see a walled citadel complex built on the city's highest point. Ord knows that the citadel includes Krohn's palace.

If the party moves inland from the docks, they find that the city is sprawling and covered with an endless array of churches with domes and minarets, which would have been churches of the Ninety-Nine gods before Krohn's rise. Every building in the city is a light brown, from centuries of the desert dust settling into every crack and surface.

Although al-Watan and the Caliphate are rabid conquerors, there's no avoiding that al-Watan is a desert city with few natural resources, and commoners here are typically poor. As a commoner of The "Hidden's" house, Ord is colorfully called "slave of the hidden." But Ord also knows that some recently conquered peoples become actual slaves, and you see many of them working around the city. Their lot varies depending on their work and owner, but is often miserable. And, some of these conquered folks become gladiators.

I said that there are sailors from all over here, and the party doesn't seem particularly out of place. But, Ord knows that away from the docks, the party's clothes will advertise them as foreigners.

Ord knows that Rana has struggled for many years with two runes. The first is an ancient rune of power that Rana translates as "Doubt" or "Second guess." However, he doesn't know much of Doubt's purpose or history. The second is Destiny, which is a spell highlighting a route in front of you - not the route that's the shortest, the best, or the most profitable to take in the future, but the route that, in the end, you actually are going to take. Despite struggling with these runes, Ord knows Rana to be a highly capable runepriest, and Rana would like to come along with the party.