Hooded Warning

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Early Afternoon on Hevensday, Day 12 of October.
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Real time is: 21:04:59 MDT on Mon Apr 26 2010.

Great Gate of Lond Daer

Here are the remains of great watchtowers, the remnants of walls of gargantuan bulk. But they are shattered. The arch of the great gate has fallen, and the watchtowers stand roofless shells. The walls themselves lie leveled, their blocks scattered on the ground. Some force has washed aside all the power and might of Numenor much as the tide washes sand castles from their foundations.
 
To the west and south the ruined city lies stretched out like a corpse upon a bier, desolation upon desolation. To the east stretches the wilderness of the Enedwaith. To the north and northeast the Gwathlo can be seen receding into the distance, surrounded by miles of swamp and fen.

Contents:
Alimah
Kiraz
Mara
Obvious exits:
 Northwest leads to Greyflood Estuary.
 Southeast leads to Enedwaith: Countryside.
 Through the Gates leads to Gateway Road.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
Here the flattened waste of the ancient city meets the desolation of a great empty countryside. The cool autumn sun shines high in the sky. The winds whistle through the grasses, a natural song that turns mournful in the shattered rocks of Lond Daer.

Another sound enters this scene: the booted footfalls of two corsairs and two women clad in black robes. They approach the fallen gates from the west.

[Mara(#22296)] One of the woman, slight with salt and pepper hair, walks with her back held very straight. "I have read in the scrolls that there are many herbs that might be here and prove useful, but I expect that there are more that agents may not have encountered. We shall have to see what we find."

[Kiraz(#32438)]
The younger of the corsairs, Kiraz, looks a bit bored. She walks a bit to the side of Citadel folk, looking out over the ruins. She kicks a rock, then glances over to Mara with interest. "Agents, your eminence?"

"You send traders here?"

[Tasnim(#16424)]
The second black-garbed woman, this one a young girl, treads alongside the priestess. The scribe's head, now scarfless, is given a nod, but she is silent for a while. Tasnim's dark eyes watch the corsair lady as she speaks, but from time to time her gaze drifts around, nervously almost her fingers fiddle with her necklace beads.

[Mara(#22296)] "The Inquisitor and others have sent people in the past to gather herbs and information," the slight high priestess says and she looks around. "Mushrooms...Look, over there under the tree. Those look useful."

[Tasnim(#16424)]
Tasnim's head picks up as the mushrooms are mentioned, and she turns her head to see where the high priestess indicates. "I shall fetch them then, your Grace," the girl nods again, shifting the bag she carries in under her arm, and moving off to pluck the plants from under their tree shade.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
A shadow darkens Kiraz' countenance at the mention of the Inquisitor and she turns away from the women quickly, hiding the pain the in her eyes. She says nothing in return but feigns interest in some distant point beyond the gates.

[Mara(#22296)] "Make sure to keep that red one separate from the white ones, Tasnim," the slight woman calls and she looks at Kiraz for a moment. "Have you seen anything else during your scouting?"

[Kiraz(#32438)]
It is a few heartbeats before Kiraz turns back to answer Mara, and when she does her expression is neutral. "Anything else? Do you mean healing herbs? I am afraid I wouldn't know a useful herb from a weed even if it bit me."

[Tasnim(#16424)]
The scribe now returns, dropping that curious red mushroom into the sack lastly the white ones are kept from touching it by means of a careful twistng and tying of the bag's material. Falling into step again with the two, Tasnim resumes listening. Though the question is for Kiraz, it causes the Citadel girl to glance quickly up, and she shivers. "I saw..." she begins hesitatingly, but trails off.

[Mara(#22296)] "Anything that might affect my ability to gather herbs?" the slight woman pauses. "What did you see, Tasnim?

[Kiraz(#32438)]
Kiraz shrugs her armored shoulders and glances around. "The only person to have been found is a young woman. Anouar killed her," she answers with an odd tone in her voice.

[Tasnim(#16424)]
"There was a man," the scribe says after a moment, her eyes flickering to the corsair woman as she speaks. "A man in the ruins. I," Tasnim looks slightly embarrased, but continues nonetheless, "followed after him when he said he had found water...he was dressed like a corsair, but his accent was strange to me. He led me through a maze of stones, and then pulled me close. Said something about kidnapping me, and taking my life for the one that had been taken. He must have meant that young woman."

[Mara(#22296)] The slight high priestess raises an eyebrow. "That is interesting and surprising. I am glad you have come back to us unharmed." She pauses and then frowns, looking to the side. "Take some of those pink flowers too, the small ones."

[Kiraz(#32438)]
"Why would one of the crew care about her?" Kiraz asks the scribe, looking genuinely puzzled. "Did he have a prior claim upon her?"

[Tasnim(#16424)]
The young black-clad girl dips her head, slipping off again to fetch the items the high priestess has pointed out. But she is not gone far, and as she rises she is already replying, "I don't know. He didn't say much. It seemed he was not as familiar with our language. Before he fled, I tried to find out who he was, and what exactly he wanted, but he only gave me an odd answer: 'No one, I am a ghost.'"

[Mara(#22296)] Frowning, the slight high priestess looks at Kiraz. "Has a uniform or a corsair gone missing recently?"

[Kiraz(#32438)]
"None that I know of, your eminence," answers Kiraz. "I remember my father talking to other corsairs one night. They said it wasn't uncommon for the men to fight over the female prisoners on a raid. That could be the cause of all this."

[Mara(#22296)] "Perhaps." the slight woman frowns again. "On that tree, Tasnim, take some of the berries." There is another pause. "Though if the dead are really speaking to us, that is mildly concerning.

[Tasnim(#16424)]
Tasnim's gaze shifts from the first woman to the second. "'A life for a life' is all he said." At the dead-speaking comment, the girl's tan face pales a little, but she hides it by taking the moment to head for the berry-laden tree.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
"The dead?" repeats Kiraz, her dark eyes widening somewhat. She shifts her weight uneasily and looks around the desolate ruins. "You think he was not a flesh and blood corsair?"

[Mara(#22296)] "That the corsair seemed to have trouble with the language tells me that something is amiss," the slight high priestess says, her voice soft. "That they were willing to risk my wrath...is also not reassuring."

[Tasnim(#16424)]
"If he was not of flesh and blood," the scribe says through a pant of breath as she hops to snatch a few more fruits from the branches, "then I don't understand how he could have hurt me. I bear no cuts, but he had his hand over my mouth and held me tightly. And..I threw a rock at his weapon hand..ghosts do not bleed, do they? He left a trail of red behind."

[Kiraz(#32438)]
"And why try to take his revenge on your scribe, your eminence?" Kiraz muses, glancing to the High Priestess, "When it was another corsair who killed the woman to begin with?"

"Well..." she continues, canting her head slightly, "Anouar /is/ a very strange corsair. He claims the experience but show little knowledge of our ways."

[Hooded_Figure(#14221)] In the distance, atop a pile of fallen wall, a standing figure makes itself known. Covered from boot to crown by a grey-green cloak, little can be discerned. Tall and lean, but little else is obvious upon inspection. A laugh is heard, carried by a light breeze. The laugh is light and rich...

[Mara(#22296)] Shivering, the slight high priestess looks at Kiraz for a moment. "Anouar is a very strange corsair and there are always a few strange ones but...Dark Lord preserve us..."

[Tasnim(#16424)]
"It was not Anouar," says the scribe, glancing back a moment. "I do not know him as well as the others, but I would have recognized him so closely, I think--"

The laugh makes Tasnim start slightly, and a shower of berries comes down as she snaps a branch in the motion. Neglecting the fruit on the ground now, she backs away, peering nervously up where the figure has appeared. "Who..?" She starts to ask, but does not finish.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
Though facing in the direction of the strange figure, Kiraz is no less startled by its sudden appearance as her companions.

She reaches for her scimitar and calls out in a voice that wavers slightly, "Who are you!?"

[Mara(#22296)] The slight woman's hand goes to her dagger and she frowns, standing very straight.

Hooded_Figure's voice, audible, even at this distance, is strangely accented. To untrained ear, perhaps asexual. A high, almost musical voice speaks, 'You are lost. Far from home, in a strange land. I would guess that you do not even know the name of the place you currently reside. You are odd folk, to not fear voices from the grave if they speak to you.' The figure does not move to come closer, or make any movements, threatening or otherwise.

[Tasnim(#16424)]
Unlike the other women, Tasnim bears no weapons, and she lets her backpacing halt nigh the high priestess and Kiraz once more. She stands quite still, perhaps frozen in fear, for she struggles with her mouth to form words and when they do come they are wavering, uncertain. "You're not..was it you? The 'ghost'? The man in the ruins?"

[Kiraz(#32438)]
"Lond Daer," answers Kiraz, with a bit of youthful pride despite the eerie circumstances. She holds her curved sword before her in a guard position, but like the hooded figure, she makes no move to advance. She glances to Tasmin as she speaks, then adds an explanation for her knowledge. "The Lady for whom we sail knows of this place. It is her charts that told us so, though we did not come here on purpose."

[Mara(#22296)] Holding herself even more rigidly than usual, the slight woman with salt-and-pepper hair raises an eyebrow. "I have lived long enough and hard enough to have seen stranger goblins than those that rise from the grave. I am wise enough to have some fear of them, but you were not what I expected from the laughter."

[Hooded_Figure(#14221)] The figure pauses, taking in the simultaneous voices before replying. 'I am no ghost, lost one, nor have you met me before." Now taking in the smallest of the three women, the one who proclaimed themself not a ghost continues, 'Lond Daer you say? Yes, it was called that once, long ago, by men of Numenor. Very long ago. Your 'Lady' has maps of this long forgotten land? That is remarkable, in the truest sense of the word.' As the figure trails off again momentarily, seeming amused, it now takes to the most formidable of the trio, and remarks, 'You have lived long enough to consider yourself wise in the things that walk under the sun and stars? A great many years you have roamed, it seems. I would truly be surprised if you expected me.' and the voice trails off with more laughter.

[Mara(#22296)] Eyes narrowing, the slight high priestess looks at the hooded figure more closely. "I do not claim to know all things, simply enough of those who lurk in the shadows." There is a pause. "Do you find us amusing then, far as we are from home? Or is the laughter intended to convey something else?"

[Tasnim(#16424)]
"Lond Daer," repeats the scribe as Kiraz explains and as the name is uttered more by the figure. "I have seen that in a book of maps in the Citadel, I think." She frowns, trying to remember. But then Tasnim looks up as the priestess speaks. "Laughter meant to mock us, perhaps."

[Kiraz(#32438)]
The young Corsair says nothing in return but maintains her guarded stance - watching the stranger warily as conversation begins to drift to things beyond her young comprehension.

Hooded_Figure lets the laughter trail off, watching the tension rise because of it. Still motionless, the figure changes tactics, 'I had thought that perhaps the name Vinyalonde, as those of Numenor of old, named it, would have survived. Perhaps it is for the best, the past left in the past. To think of what empires, and how many have stood on these shores would crush us all under the burden of it, leaving us unable to move forward. The legacies to live up to, and to look around, all for naught! I do admit, I wonder what has brought you so far north, far from home, to this barren land?'

[Mara(#22296)] "The Will of the One we serve, I should think," the slight older says, her hand moving tighter around her blade. Her voice is vaguely disapproving. "Perhaps you come to help us?"

[Tasnim(#16424)]
The scribe-girl is quiet now, listening as she shifts the herb bag in her hands. Her dark eyes flicker from person to person, but Tasnim says naught.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
Leaving the strange and arcane to the strange and arcane High Priestess, Kiraz slowly edges away from the two women and moves forward a step or two, keeping her dark eyes firmly on the stranger and her sword point between them.

This cautious maneuvering is performed a bit stiffly, lacking the elegance of experience.

Hooded_Figure's reply is a bit flatter, 'Am I here to help you?' a pause, 'Perhaps, but not at all in the way you may think. I just will say, do not stray too far from your ship, and do not disturb the ghosts of this place. Just because you do not choose to believe in their power does not make their power any less real.' The small movements of the young one, like a kitten learning how to stalk it's prey, do not go un-noticed. 'I have tarried overlong.' is all that is said, before the figure turns it's back, and jumps down behind the pile of detritus that once held it aloft.

[Kiraz(#32438)]
A look of relief crosses the 'kitten's' features when the stranger disappears. Kiraz' sword point lowers, but she does not yet sheathe it. Backing up slowly, her eyes still intently scanning the area whence the man was last seen, she says, "I think we should return to the others, Your Eminence."

[Tasnim(#16424)]
Tasnim's attention lingers on that rock pile for a length, even though there is no longer a figure to be seen. "If there are indeed ghosts here, I do not wish to stay here much longer. It is a mysterious depressing place." The girl is still tensed, but she nods in silent agreement with the corsair lady, aiming her footsteps back toward the west.