Araby Quest (Reboot)

To the south of Tilea and Estalia and the west of the Dead Lands lies the realm of Araby. An ancient land ruled by semi-independent city-states ruled by sultans or caliphs in the west and nomadic peoples who traverse the rest of the country's inhospitable deserts. You are one of the many people who call it home and one day, something happens to you.

Choose Your Origin:

[] Assassin

Araby does not have assassins if by assassin one means men and women of low character and virtue who commit murder for some amount of money. It does have the Principled Ones, men and women who have committed themselves to the transformation of the act of murder into an art and science.

You are an assassin who has accepted their first mission as a journeyman.

[] Baridin

Araby is a vast land and the Diwan al-Barid, the Ministry of Postal Service is key to binding it together. Dedicated postmen travel throughout the various terrains, delivering messages and packages. It is also the duty of the Diwan al-Barid to act as the domestic intelligence apparatus of the Sultan of All-Araby. They spy on the magistrates, clerks, clerics, merchants, fakirs, nobles, and slaves looking for the first sign of a threat to the peace and security of the Sultan's realm.

You are a postman assigned to a new route and tasked with observing a new social movement.

[] Cleric

Araby, despite what some might say, is a pious land. The Arabyans worship a variety of gods and spirits in grand temple-complexes in their great cities or in small shrines throughout the villages and towns. The power of these entities shapes the daily life of mortal. It is no surprise then that some will dedicate themselves to serving these powers. They range from the Signs of God/Goddess to the clan elder.

You are a cleric whose village has come under attack by some unknown threat.

[] Corsair

There is no master of the ocean save Dhul-Haniq, God of the Sea and Storms, but al-mujahideen al-bahr or what the northmen call corsairs are the closest mortal will ever come. At least, this is what they say. Corsairs engage in coastal defense, piracy, and geopolitical struggle. They are feared and respected for their seamanship and fighting ability.

You are the captain of a ship on the hunt when you encounter something unexpected.

[] Criminal

Araby is not without its criminal element, be they raiding clans, pirates (much different than corsairs), smugglers, and others. These people struggle between themselves, the authorities, and other groups for the fortune and wealth and freedom of a life outside of the law.

You are one of these figures and trouble has appeared on your turf.

[] Fakir

Araby is famed for her magicians who bind great and minor elemental spirits called Jinn. Fakirs serve in a variety of roles ranging from supporting military actions, advising sultans, investigating supernatural events, and ruling their own domains as caliphs.

You are a journeyman sent to investigate what is upsetting a local spirit.

[] Ghazi

There are foes to the pious and it is the guzat who handle these obstacles to the faithful. Guzat are what the northman call templars. Dedicated warriors who guard temples, holy sites, escort pilgrims, and wage battles against enemies of their god.

You are a ghazi assigned to the protection of a pilgrimage.

[] Merchant

The wealth of Araby is built on the work of the merchants and so they are highly venerated and honored among the Arabyan peoples. The wealth of merchants can grow to where they become high-ranking viziers or even sultans themselves.

You are the head of a minor Merchant House seeking a way to achieve success when you receive an invitation of an unknown figure.

[] Physician

In Araby, health and healing is handled by a series of people, but among the elite of these occupations is the physician. Trained in the investigation and diagnosis of diseases and injury, the physician is often a commonplace figure in the retinue of the wealthy.

You are visiting a new client who reports odd growths on their body.

[] Warrior

Arabyans are no stranger to war and battle. Their ancestors fought the Nehekharans when they first came west, they fought the Undead when the last Great King of the East called for aid, they fought the northmen during Jaffar's Folly, and they have always fought among themselves and the beasts and horrors native to their home. Be it with the long spear, bow, saber, or straight sword, even their foes will admit their skill and ferocity.

You are a new recruit who has just been assigned to your first posting.

Welcome back to Araby. This is a reboot of an attempt I made at running a quest. A variety of reasons led me to my failure, but I have learned from my lessons and intend on doing better. If you have a question, let me know.

Hello to Araby Reboot. This is a reboot of my original attempt at doing a quest. A variety of issue led it to be unfortunately abandoned to include losing all my notes.

1. The quest will be set in 1990 I.C. in Araby. While certain events will occur, do not expect them to happen exactly as they did in canon.
2. The mechanics is based on Crusader Kings. You have six attributes:
   1. Diplomacy effects your ability to negotiate and please people.
   2. Intrigue is your skill at manipulation and scheming.
   3. Learning is your ability to learn and understand concepts.
      1. This is the magic casting attribute for arcane magic.
   4. Martial indicates your ability at warfare and combat.
   5. Piety is your connection with the gods and spirits.
      1. This is the magic casting attribute for divine magic.
   6. Stewardship handles the affairs of logistics and economics
      1. Value Thresholds:
         1. 0-4: Terrible
         2. 5-8: Poor
         3. 9-12: Average
         4. 13-16: Good
         5. 17-25: Excellent
         6. 26+: Heroic
   7. Magic is possible for some characters. It exists in two forms. Arcane magic and divine magic. Arcane magic casts spells and cantrips while divine magic has miracles and blessings.
      1. Arcane magic will be based on the Elementalist/Illusionist/Alchemist Careers from 1e, The Old World, and non-canon homebrew as by this time color magic has not been discovered.
      2. Value Threshold for Arcane Magic:
         1. 1: Salik (Student)
         2. 2-3: Murid (Apprentice)
         3. 4: Wasil (Journeyman)
         4. 5-6: Faikrs (Magician)
         5. 7-10: Pirs (Magician Lord)
      3. Divine Magic does not have a value threshold, but it does have required success rolls based on your piety.
         1. Example: You decided to cast a blessing of healing. You have a piety of 18. This means you have breakthroughs of 30/60/90. You roll an 80+18 and a final report of 98. You heal the person to completely to include recovering missing limbs if needed.
      4. Failing to meet the required roll can result in divine punishment which can last until penance is made.
      5. If you try to cast a spell higher than your current magic skill, then a +10 is added per level to the required success roll.
         1. Example: The spell requires a 7 magic skill. You have a 4 magic skill. The average required roll is 50+30 (Insufficient Skill) and this makes the new required roll to be 80.
      6. Failure to roll the required success roll will cause a miscast and have you roll to see how bad the miscast is. 100 would just be the magic fails to happen with no ill effects. 1 would be rolling on the major miscast table.
   8. Some options may have a write-in slot. This will allow you to write-in an action not listed.
   9. The cultures of Araby are based on the cultures of the Middle-East and the historic practices of Islam. I am Muslim, but not of these cultures, so let me if anything I post is insulting or harmful. I really don't want to offend anyone.

You have eight points, and you can purchase Petty Spells, Lesser Spells, Elemental Spells, Covenants, and Bindings.

Petty Spells (Cost one point per spell)

• Magical Inscription: For a period of 1 hour, you are able to write a text that can be understood by you or those to whom you entrust the key.
• Jinn's Aspect: For a period of 5 minutes, you will gain an aspect of a jinn you have bound or made a pact with.
  • If you have made a covenant or bound a Jinni, you will gain Lightness of Form, reducing your weight by one third, but allow you to have the same degree of strength.
  • If you have made a covenant or bound an Ardi, you will gain Strength of the Stone, your strength increases by one third, but so does your weight.
  • If you have made a covenant or bound a Marid, you will gain Be Water, your flexibility increases as though you were made of water.
  • If you have made a covenant or bound an Ifirit, you gain Inner Fire, your internal body temperature never goes lower or higher than what is healthy for you.
• Accalmie: For a period of 2 minutes, you can cause all meteorological and geological phenomenon stop in a radius of 5 feet.
• Tattoo of the Sandstorm: For one hour, a marking you have drawn on skin will hid the subject from notice. It will not work if anyone pays the subject direct attention, has a strong will, or is particularly alert.
• Blinding Sand: A wind of sand and dust flies toward the target and irritates their eyes.
• Boulders: You create a handle of stones that you can throw at a foe.
• Detection of Treacherous Areas: You are able to detect the presence of moving sands, landslides, and other dangers around you.
• Gentle Fall: When you jump from any height, you fall very slowly as though you weighed as much as a feather.
• Gust: You create a brief gust of wind, strong enough to blow out a candle, cause an open door to slam, or blow a few pages to the floor.
• Hearing the Earth: Place your ear to the ground, you can hear all the creatures moving on it. You can focus the spell and discover the approximate position and size of beings, their number, and the direction being traveled.
• Hiding Traces: When you walk, the land becomes hard and allow you to leave no traces.
• Humid: You create a zone of moisture of 10 yards that can smear ink or make a surface slippery.
• Identify Toxic Fumes: You can detect the presence of poisonous fumes.
• Light: You create a small light, roughly equivalent to a torch, which glows from a part of your body of your choice or an item you choose. You can increase or decrease the level of illumination. It will not work on magical forms of darkness or fog.
• Obedient Flame: You kindle a small flame that flickers to life in the palm of your hand. It will not burn you, but it will emit heat and set flammable objects alight.
• Protection from Rain: You can keep yourself dry whatever the weather, unaffected by precipitation. This affects rain, hail, sleet, snow, and any water falling from the heavens but not standing water.
• Sculpturing: Use a boulder no bigger than the foot, you can shape it into simple forms like bowls, spoons, forks, knives, mugs, etc.
• Water Mirror: On an unbroken surface of the natural water reservoir (puddle, pond, lake, etc), you can see the reflection of beings that passed by it in the last two hours, but only if the reservoir was created before the passage of beings. Details will be hazy and hard to make out.

Lesser Spells (Cost two points per spell)

• Aegis of the Elements: You call on the element of your choice to create a magical equivalent to light armor.
• Arms of the Elements: You call on the element of your choice to create a magical weapon of your choice.
• Blessing of the Flame: You imbue a weapon with the cleansing power of Fire. This turns the weapon into a magical weapon but nothing else.
• Dispel: You dispel existing magic.
• Disrupt: A more aggressive form of Dispel.
• Dome of the Rock: You create a dome of earth around yourself.
• The Jinni's Step: You gain the ability to walk on air at your normal speed.
• Magical Alarm: You mark a spot, allowing you to know when anything moves through said spot.
• Petrify Door: You transform a door into stone. It must be broken down in order to gain entrance.
• Shield of the Elements: You summon a shield of the element of your choice.
• A Jinni's Theft: All noise produced by the target is silenced.
• The Marid's Embrace: You put a target to become drowsy and then eventually pass out. It takes two minutes to work.
• Elemental Ward: You ward an area with the element of your choice, hindering attacks from outside the area. Requires 10 minutes of preparation at the minimum.

Elemental Spells (Cost three points per spell)

• Lore of Air
  • Simple
    • Air Cloak: Air Cloak creates a layer of compressed air as a cloak around you, ensuring partial protection against non-magical missiles. Can be stacked with Aegis of the Elements.
    • Oxidation: By holding an inanimate object in your hand, you can make it older than about 50 years with each breakthrough.
    • Cloud-Cover: You call forth a cloud of the surrounding detritus 6 yards in diameter. All beings in the cloud are rendered incapable of seeing unless they leave the cloud.
• Lore of Earth
  • Simple
    • Assault of Stones: You cause an assault of stones upon a target or group of targets within 48 yards.
    • Find Mineral: You can specify the direction and approximate distance of the nearest one deposit of a selected mineral.
    • Stone Skin: You gain a hard stone shell, but that reduces your natural movement speed and flexibility.
• Lore of Fire
  • Simple
    • Blinding Flash: You transform the flame, be it nearby or one you created yourself, into a blinding spark of fire.
    • Arson: You focus the power of Fire around you to set alight all flammable objects within 20 yards.
    • Drying: You focus the power of Fire to dry an indicated object up to the size of a man or smaller.
• Lore of Water
  • Simple
    • Breath Underwater: You do not feel the need to breathe while underwater.
    • Create Spring: You place your hand on the ground and produce a spring of fresh water where none existed before. It will only last one hour and be affected to the normal forces of gravity etc.
    • Walk on Water: You can walk on water for an hour or as long as it takes you to reach dry land.

Covenants are contracts made between you and a jinn. In exchange for a service or resource, a Jinn will perform a specific service for you. The jinn will not act outside the limits of your covenant, so if you wish for them to do something else, you will have to renegotiate the covenant. (A Covenant costs 4 points and you can only choose one,)

• A lesser Jinni, a spirit of Air, has agreed to cast Air Cloak for you in exchange for a bowl of goat's blood every day.
• A lesser Ifirit, a spirit of Fire, has agreed to cast Blinding Flash for you in exchange for a chicken burnt alive each request.
• A lesser Ardi, a spirit of Earth, has agreed to cast Soft Earth for you in exchange for you to perform a rite in the desert every two weeks.
• A lesser Marid, a spirit of the Water, has agreed to cast Calling the Rain for you in exchange for you to be ritual drowned every week.

Bindings are Jinn you have beaten in a battle of wills and bound them to an item. Bound Jinn want to be free, and they will attempt to free themselves every-time you call on their power. You must pass a test. If you fail even once, the jinn will be free and immediately attack you, meaning you will have to banish or bind it again, but not within the same object as it was previously bound to. (A Binding costs 4 points and you can only choose one.)

• A lesser Jinni, a spirit of Air, has been bound to a glass marble. You must pass a Req 60 each time you call on their power and abilities. If you succeed, the jinni will cast Lesser and Simple spells of the Lore of Air on your behalf.
• A lesser Ifirit, a spirit of Fire, has been bound to a burnt copper ring. You must pass a Req 60 each time you call on their power and abilities. If you succeed, the ifirit will cast Lesser and Simple spells of the Lore of Fire on your behalf.
• A lesser Ardi, a spirit of Earth, has been bound to bag of sand. You must pass a Req 60 each time you call on their power and abilities. If you succeed, the ardi will cast Lesser and Simple spells of the Lore of Earth on your behalf.
• A lesser Marid, a spirit of Water, has been bound to fishbone comb. You must pass a Req 60 each time you call on their power and abilities. If you succeed, the marid will cast Lesser and Simple spells of the Lore of Water on your behalf.