Strength of Thousands, Session 10 – Rib

After recovering from our encounter with the nagaji, it quickly became apparent that the problem we had with snakes and their venom wasn’t going to go away on its own. We sought the aid of one of our professors, Zuma, and found him in his office in the Elephant Museum Building (apparently no other building has wards quite strong enough for his liking). He was able to confirm that we had indeed been cursed, and that we’d need to formulate a ritual to break it. During this conversation, we found out that Zuma keeps a snake loose in his office in order to discourage intruders. I knew the guy was overly cautious to the point of paranoia, but that’s a whole new level. Zuma also enlightened us about some of the history between the Magaambya and the nagaji. According to legend: Old Mage Jatembe is that he learned secrets from the severed head of the nagaji’s patron deity, Ydersius, before sewing his mouth shut. This has unsurprisingly led to millennia of bad blood between the nagaji and the academy and may well be part of why we encountered their infiltrators on campus grounds.

Given the importance of this legend, it allowed us to formulate a ritual that even we could potentially succeed at pulling off. It would require one of two basic approaches: to try and abjure and banish the curse or entice it out. After some discussion, we decided that we could catch more flies with honey than vinegar and decided to try to draw the curse out and contain it for further study. For this, we’d need to construct an effigy of Ydersius’ head with a mouth we could sew shut, plenty of smoke to create an environment of concealment and secrecy, and a potent location (we settled upon the Speakers’ Stage, a place of storytelling). I had been deepening my studies in the occult, so I volunteered to lead the ritual. Matthuas busied himself with constructing the head, Meera researched the most appropriate chants in Sakvoth for the ritual, and Faran helped prepare the area with arcane circles for the ritual that evening. With our preparations complete and the other students distracted with Chizire’s newest brew, we began our first experimental ritual:

Slumbering, headless god—severed father of all serpents, accept this power back into the venomous embrace of thy fangs. Serpents’ power, thou art not of us. Return to thy coiling lord and master that all may be set right.

I’m no fluent speaker of Sakvroth, but evidently our combined efforts managed to lure the power of the curse out of us and into the effigy of Ydersius’ head, which we promptly sealed by sewing its mouth shut. The effigy is now with Zuma for further study and research, perhaps he’ll be able to develop some effective protection or countermeasures with the rest of the faculty—or better still: find out more about who exactly is behind all of this?

With the nagaji curse lifted, we felt that it was high time that returned to our extracurricular pursuits. Notably, Matthuas has been working on crafting focuses for his fellow anadi who are finding it difficult to maintain a fully human form for extended periods of time. I’m still of the opinion that it’s the rest of the campus that need to get over themselves, but I guess we’ll have to see which happens first. I hate to say it, but my money’s on Matthuas’ tinkering right now. As for my own work, my continuing studies into the occult have led me to some interesting theories regarding dream magic. I’ve put my research into the Stone Ghost’s fragments on hold and re-directed myself into that. It’s necessitated keeping some odd hours, and I’ve stumbled late into class more often than usual, but I do feel that I’m making some progress here. It’s been a while since I’ve suffered any nightmares, for instance, but Nana has been warning me to be careful studying this area of magic.

Given my progress with the Tempest Sun Mages, Mafika agreed that I should look to other areas where I could apply my skills. It turns out that Zuma had a task for the Emerald Boughs: decoding a series of intercepted communications between members of a barge pirate gang. Unsurprising that this one had been left unclaimed, to be honest—but I had my own ideas about how to solve this problem. I’d learned that this gang had been running a smuggling operation through Nantambu for a while now, and that their agents favoured a certain watering hole near the southern docks. All I had to do was find a suitable mark, turn on the charm, buy him a few drinks, get a room for the night together…tire him out a bit…then make off with his codebook and some valuables while he slept to make it look like a regular robbery. I had all those communications decoded by the next evening, and a copy of their codebook to give to Zuma. He was somewhat impressed but did comment that the gang would definitely be changing their codes once they discovered the theft, but hey: I enjoyed myself at least.

As recognition of our hard work, several of us were promoted from the rank of Attendant (one who listens to their teachers) to that of Conversant (one who can engage in independent learning). Myself, Meera, Faran, Matthuas, Okoro, Ignasi, and Esi (no surprises there!) were being promoted, and each of us were asked to give a short speech on what the best use of our magic is. For me, it was the way in which learning and using the Craft—something that I was forbidden from doing with my own people—had let me find a new tribe; that the use and study of our magic is something that binds us all on a shared journey, deepening our understanding of this world’s mysteries and forming a community like no other which I’m honoured to call myself part of. Afterwards, Janatimo came up to congratulate us and fill us in on how our roles here would be changing. From now on, we would be working more closely with the general population of Nantambu; and that the academy’s quartermaster, Xhokan, had a mission for us.

Reporting to Xhokan, we learned that there’s a reason why the alchemy labs have been experiencing more accidents than usual: one of the accelerants which he had purchased from an old friend and long-time supplier, Bamidela, had proven to be effective but quite unstable (Faran discovered the presence of various arcane additives after accidentally inhaling some of the powder). Xhokan was quite surprised at the deal he had managed to get from Bamidela for this shipment; and while he didn’t immediately suspect his old friend of wrongdoing, this needed to be investigated. After identifying the problem substance, we set off to the market to find out more. Upon arriving at the market where Bamidela conducts his trade, we quickly found out that this “miracle powder” has become a top seller: with people using it not only in alchemy but also in cooking, as it apparently greatly improves the flavour of any food or drink to which it is added. We managed to convince Bamidela to take a break to talk to us about the “miracle powder” (it honestly looked like he needed one), and we learned that he had not made it himself but had received a shipment of it from a fellow supplier: Abeo “the Calm”. Bamidela was able to describe him; but unfortunately, he knew little about Abeo himself—where he set up his own shop, or where he might be found—as he was the kind of guy to turn up when he needed to conduct business and never anytime else. Fortunately, with our work with the Emerald Boughs, Faran and I were able to narrow down some of the docks where this Abeo might conduct his trade and planned a stakeout. Sure enough, that evening, we found a guy matching his description who immediately bolted as soon as he figured out that we were watching him. After chasing him down, we were able to finally get to the bottom of where this “miracle powder” had come from. I’ve found that the quickest and easiest way to get information out of people is for me to lean in to the “scary savannah kholo” stereotype. Meera was at least able to play good guard to my bad guard, and we were able to come to an agreement with Abeo. We knew from the start that he was no mastermind and weren’t surprised to learn that he was following someone else’s instructions: “Frogs-legs” they call her, apparently, and that she was controlling Abeo via gambling debts that no honest man could pay. Our end of the bargain was to get him safely out of town. Fortunately, he had no family or roots keeping him tied here, so it was just a matter of escorting him home to gather his things, then on to the edge of town where he could catch a boat downstream.

All the while as we were leading Abeo to safety, we couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched by something; and after we had seen him off on the boat, it made itself known. A gang of charau-ka ape-folk, worshippers of the daemon-lord Angazhan, burst from the trees—bombarding us with deafening sonic bursts and other…softer, but more physical missiles… Their leader carried a strange object: a round bronze shield, with a purple eye in the middle. As soon as she saw that, Nana could barely contain herself—ordering me to kill that ape and recover the shield. I’ve never seen her like that; but fortunately, the leader seemed to be the only one foolish enough to engage us in mêlée combat—so in spite of the noisy and noisome bombardment—we were able to fell him quickly enough by surrounding him (Nana heartily approved when I ripped his throat out) and then chase off his remaining underlings. When we searched the bodies, it looked like they had made quite a long journey to get to Nantambu, judging from the provisions that they had brought with them.

After returning to the Magaambya, we reported our findings to Xhokan and Janatimo. We were able to find and remove the rest of the “miracle powder” and convince Bamidela not to sell any more until we could figure out exactly what it is. We’ll await further instruction while the higher-ups figure out what our next step should be. We might have to watch our step if this “Frogs-legs” character is as nasty as Abeo would have us believe.

About the shield: the others were understandably suspicious of it, believing that it could quite possibly be cursed; but Nana insisted that no one else but me should have it—saying that it must not fall into the wrong hands. We bundled it up in a burlap sack in case that eye in the middle was some kind of scrying lens. Later on, I was able to examine it more closely and found that around the eye there were some kind of runic engravings in concentric bands that were sometimes more prominent, and at others almost faded into the background. As I made notes, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the text sometimes changed when I’m not looking directly at it. We determined that while the shield wasn’t cursed, the small violet eye in the middle needed to be covered with some lead in case it was used for tracking or scrying. Otherwise, it should be safe for me to use. Nana later admitted that this shield was associated with an old enemy of hers, which honestly filled me with pride. This was exactly the kind of thing my training was supposed to prepare me for—and for the first time in ages, I felt like a true Mwindaji again: a hunter worthy to wear the red. If only mum were still alive to see me now…

Maybe one day, when I’m strong and powerful enough, I can return and try make things right. I’ll never be able to bring Hibiscus back, but I can at least try to redeem myself: overcome my cowardice and avenge my mother’s death. I’ve seen what can happen when one lets revenge turn to obsession, the fate of the Stone Ghost, but I can’t just leave it all behind. Mum and Fang were both summoned by Chief Indomitable Baobab to answer for what happened that day while father meted out his own punishment on me, and only Fang returned to our tent. I guess even Baobab wouldn’t kill a pregnant female. Still, she killed our mother—innocent of any wrongdoing—for my mistake. I never intended any of this to happen, but it still falls to me to make it right. Perhaps then, Fang and I can be brother and sister again—in spite of everything I’ve done. Either that, or my family’s honour is washed clean with my blood. Blood for blood, kill or be killed: our way, our ancestors’ way, the Wawindaji way…