1219 AD, Winter: Arrival

 Before I get into the saga itself, let me get the mechanics out of the way. I chose to begin the saga with an adventure, since I felt the Nile book’s idea of having the covenant arrive as Siwa was under attack, in order to create a natural lead-in, was interesting. As per the solo rules, this is a voluntary adventure, meaning I pick the context and setting, and can choose to increase the difficulty for greater rewards. Next year (of in-game time), I will start the year by rolling on the adventure oracle to see if an adventure happens, more on that later.

I begin by rolling a stress die on the difficulty table: I roll a 7, meaning this will be a hard adventure of Ease Factor 15. However, since Jabril is only 4 years out of gauntlet, I will use the optional rule that the ease factor is reduced by 3 for young magi. Jabril will only benefit from this until 1221.

Next, I roll a simple die to determine complexity. 7 again, meaning a very complex adventure of three challenges. Then, I roll a d100 three times to determine the types of the challenges. 16 first, a Social challenge. 83, a Thriller/Wilderness challenge. 93, which means I get to pick! I decide to go with a Magic challenge, as I already have an idea for the story structure from the beats presented. Finally, I roll a last simple die to check the omens. A 9, which means I’ll be using 9 botch die for this adventure (gulp!).

With the mechanical prelude done, we meet our protagonist and his covenfolk as they approach Siwa, currently in the aftermath of a brutal bandit attack.

***

Meeting the Zaggaleh

It was slightly over a week after leaving Alexandria that they first beheld Siwa Oasis. A more than one hundred mile across depression sank deep into the desert, and standing on its edges, they could see rolling sands become a vast salt lake, and past it, a shock of verdant greenery and glimmering water. The oasis wore twin crowns on two of its hills: one an ancient, wind-battered brick temple atop a sheer rock, the other a veritable fortress of mudbrick, alive with the movement of distant figures. Jabril guessed—correctly—that these were Aghurmi, once visited by Alexander, and Siwa village, the new center of oasis life. The Hermetic’s eyes were drawn to several plumes of smoke in the light forest surrounding Siwa, and to a large cloud of dust, kicked up by a horde of figures, rising near the salt lake. Curious to explore, he motioned his companions onward. 

After some time journeying into the depression formed around Siwa Oasis, Jabril and his covenfolk came upon a band of the zaggaleh, or "club-wielders": the young men who don't sleep within the village walls, but work the fields, guard them from bandits, and deal with travelers and visitors. The young men were busy putting out a fire on one of the date trees that fed the village, but quickly armed themselves and surrounded the group as they approached, eyeing Jabril especially with suspicion. In broken Arabic, they demanded to know whether the travelers were allies to the Berber tribe that had so recently attacked the village. Perhaps not thinking it out too well, Jabril tried to convince the peasant warriors that he was a sahir of the Order of Solomon, come to investigate the disaster. Whether it was because they were unfamiliar with the order or because they distrusted his Gift, the club-wielders clearly did not believe him, and began to shout. 

However, Jabril realized as they did so that these men were ultimately simply frightened due to the recent attack and afraid to be caught off guard again. A little honesty couldn't hurt in such a scenario. And so he told them the truth, or at least as much of it as he felt comfortable with. He was a traveler, a sorcerer allied to a foreign order, who had come simply to investigate the legacy of Alexander, and these were his servants. He would gladly offer them money and the use of his powers if they would simply lay down their arms and treat with him. Ahmad stepped in to help here, charming the young men by admiring their strength of arms and showing off his own skills. 

Gradually, the zaggaleh began to relax their guard, and Jabril was able to piece together the story. Apparently, while the Siwans themselves were Imazighen, also known as Berber, they were a settled people who practiced date agriculture and trading with the caravans. Not so were the Zenata who ranged across the oasis and especially favored the great salt lake. These were desert-hardened warriors, slavers, and raiders who made their living from violence, and often threatened Siwa, which is why the villagers had originally abandoned Aghurmi, for the safer site of Siwa. Apparently, the Zenata had launched a raid on a few date plantations around the village, and before the zaggaleh had been able to respond, had carried off several of the young men, beaten to unconscious while they worked the trees. If the sorcerer from the east would be willing, one coyly intimated, Siwa would certainly be grateful for their return. 

Seeing here an opportunity to make friends, Jabril set off to seek the Zenata, leaving his companions to aid in putting out fires.  

First challenge: Com + Guile (with specialty, rolled 3+1+3-3=4, failure), Per+Folk Ken (with specialty, rolled 5+4+0-3=6, spent 2 confidence points to succeed), Ahmad assists with Str+Charm (rolled 1, becomes 16 after exploding+3+1=20 for an incredible success). 2 successes, 1 failure.

Hunting the Nomads

Finally away from people, where he felt distinctly uncomfortable, Jabril breathed a sigh of relief, and began to work. Seeking out a nest of asps near the sandier parts of the oasis, he greeted them with the imperial commands of a leader, and was able to convince them into giving him some information on where "those strange legged creatures that wear soft pelts" had gone. With their assistance, he was able to find his way to the shore of the salt lake, where he ended up camping for a few days, learning the habits of the Zenata by observation. 

Within a week or so, he had learned to follow their subtle tracks through the sands, and tracked them back to their hidden camp on the side of the lake facing the desert, rather than the town. Rather than battle them, he instead captured one in the middle of the night and interrogated him, learning that while the Zenata had taken men from Siwa, they had been forced under duress to give them up to what the Berber called a "Bride of Ayyur", a sorceress, skilled in the ways of the ancient pagans, who made her camp at the ruins of Aghurmi. Frustrated by this, but eager to meet a hedge mage of unknown tradition, he set the Berber man free, and trekked to Aghurmi over the course of another day. 

While the village itself was easy enough to traverse, climbing the great rock at its center required a great deal of effort, and numerous times, Jabril nearly fell to his death, and even had to camp overnight in a small cleft in the rock halfway up--only realizing after he woke up that there was a path carved, nearly hidden, in the stone. By the time he rose to the top of the stone, a full two weeks had passed since first Jabril had come to Siwa, and he was feeling quite restless to face this unknown mage. At the top, he beheld the beautiful, but partially ruined, temple, with the Stele of Alexander standing at its center, and slaves, working hard to restore it, bound all around, presumably the men taken from Siwa. 

And in the middle of all of them stood a tall, tattooed woman, bearing strange amulets and fetishes all over her person. 

Second challenge: Pre + Animal Ken (with specialty, rolled 8+4+0=12 for a close success), Sta + Hunt (with specialty, rolled 4+3+2=9, spent 1 confidence to succeed), Str + Athletics (rolled 0, botch threatened, rolled 8, 7, 9, 6, 7, 4, 7, 5, 5, somehow miraculously avoiding a botch and only getting a failure). 2 successes, 1 failure.

The Battle of the Temple 

Jabril had perhaps hoped to speak to the Bride, maybe convince her to work with him. But he didn't have the chance. As soon as she saw the strange man, panting and sweaty at the top of the cliff, she tried to strike, crushing one of her amulets in her hand. Jabril reacted quickly, summoning a horde of asps and commanding the largest among their number to defend him. Slaves scattered in every direction as the slithering mass advanced on the hedge mage, and she was forced to hurl her fell spells at the snakes to keep them from her, although a few fangs found purchase in her flesh and she began to falter. 

Not to be outmatched, however, she proved to be an able spellcaster, sweeping away the serpents and hurling spells once more at Jabril. It was only by the skin of his teeth that he was able to craft precise and quick wards against her spells, summoning what he knew of spontaneous magic to keep her terrible destruction magic at bay. Rocks turned to dust from the deflected spells, and the few plants in the courtyard withered and died as the wizards dueled atop the temple. From Siwa, as the sun set and night came, it looked like a strange cascade of lights and explosions, and Ahmad and the covenfolk knew their master had found his prey. 

Alas, that prey had nearly proven enough to overcome him. While she was low on her amulets of power, Jabril was growing fatigued throughout their battle, and besides, was not a battle specialist, with his only real combat abilities being the summoning and control of asps--which he continued to do throughout their fight. Perhaps Ayyur, that ancient god of the moon, disfavored his servant that night, however, as a stray shaft of moonlight illuminated a fault in her defenses. A stray piece of rock had caught her sandal, and the sorceress stumbled, ever so briefly losing focus on Jabril. With sharp eye and cold mind, Jabril summoned a final asp, and hurled it towards her as she began to regain her bearings. She moved to counterspell, but mere moments too late, as the supernatural fangs found her throat, and the poison pumped into her veins. 

As the Bride collapsed, Jabril found himself panting, hard, exhausted by the magical battle--but soon surrounded by the weak cheers of the men, who had hidden themselves throughout the fort to observe the battle. Throughout the night, he was held up by the young men, who half-carried, half-led him back to Siwa, where he received as much of a hero's welcome as the Gifted are likely to receive. 

In the following days, Jabril recovered from his encounter with the Berber sorceress, and investigated her lair, finding only trinkets and the remnants of a hedge tradition he did not even begin to understand. More positively, however, he discovered that a magic aura lay over the temple, and the magical properties of Alexander's Stele. Here was a place where at last, he could make his home, set up his laboratory, and begin to work, with some support from the grateful people of Siwa. 

With some minor agreements sorted out with the town and stonemasons coming to repair his new home, Jabril was able to rest easy, knowing he had finally found his covenant. 

Third challenge: Qik+Summon Animals (with specialty, rolled 3+0+5, cast Momentary Command of the Harnessed Beast to add magnitude 5, equaling 13 for a success), Dex + Finesse (rolled 7+0+2=9, spent 1 confidence to succeed), Int+Awareness (with specialty, rolled 7+2+3, cast Summoning the Creeping Death for flavor, adding magnitude 5, equaling 18 for a success). 3 successes.

Result: Success! Gain 3 rewards +2 xp (becomes +5 thanks to Independent Study), +9 xp from the base difficulty of the adventure, 2 rewards are saved to unlock vis sources later, 1 is spent on 6 BP, all of which are spent on making an arrangement with Siwa. Jabril will defend the town from future raids in exchange for local stonemasons repairing the temple fort of Aghurmi, making it livable, and finishing the partial brick wall, as well as regular supplies of food and basic goods for the nascent covenant. While this isn’t specifically covered under the rewards rules, I think it makes sense given the situation. 

Because of the challenges faced and failed and the ease factor, Jabril took a total of 17 days to solve this adventure, spending the rest of the winter immersing himself in the building process at Aghurmi and introducing himself to the sheiks, the elders of Siwa. The young magus has faced an extremely dangerous encounter for a young mage and come out on top! We'll see how well he does in 1220, though. Edit: I should also note that despite his great expenditure of confidence, Jabril has gained nine points as a result of this adventure, bringing him back to ten. Also, 5 exp will go to Folk Ken, as it’s Jabril’s strongest social skill, and he desperately needs something there. 5 exp will go to Guile for similar reasons, and the other 4 will go to Animal.