Welcome to sixth story told about our unlikely heros (seventh if you count the Tale of Bashir). Our tale continues as the long trek across the Hunted Lands comes to an close. In the previous stories two different groups converged on the Tomb of Suhail min Zann a famous Imam of the Enlightened God Zann the Learned. From the west comes a group of complete with a Sha'ir, Rawun, Corsair, Barbarian and Desert Riders. After fleeing the City of Kings Muluk on the northwest coast of Zakhara the group battled jackals, Dao, werejackals and the desert itself. They travel with a strange clay disk that refuses to go away, and they come here with hopes of finally learning what it is, and how to get out from under its curse. From the east comes a lone Mystic of Nog, chosen by his order during the Night of a Nine Falling Stars. He has lost his childhood friend Hani to a Holy Slayer, but made a new friend in the Sa'luk Ahmed. They traveled to the mosque built up around Suhail's tomb for diffrent reasons, but both come with good in their heart. After battling Ogres, and challenging Dao boasting contests (and winning!) they have arrived to find the shrine in terrible shape. However everything is about to change...
A caravan of camels approaches from the west, the train is a dozen camel's strong, with seven men all who seem tired. The heat of the sands shimmers, parting like water as the lead camel rider comes into view. He is a wrapped in loose clothing, and sways in the saddle back and forth. Both his eyes are closed, and if you didn't doubt such a thing you would say he is sleeping. The others begin to fliter around him, fanning out in a V on his flanks as the shrine comes into view for them.
The shrine itself is a stone structure built into the side of a rising hillside cliff at the base of the Ghost Mountains. Towering high overhead the mountains reach to touch the clouds but fail to come close enough to that goal. A sandstone wall contains the shrine, forming a courtyard around it, while several canvas tarp covered wells dot the area outside and inside the courtyard. The domed ceiling of the mosque rises up into the air.
Just as the group moves to within one hundred yards the camels begin to whinny. They buck and spit, and quickly ever rider is holding on for dear life. The ground begins to shake, the sand shifting from side to side like some sidewinder serpent's tail. The camels are more than nervous, and with a thud Kasib, the Rawun, falls from the saddle and lands on the quaking earth. Up ahead the shrine's domed ceiling can be seen to crack, a few deeply visible lines race up the dome to the crest. After a mimute the earthquake subsides and all is quiet.
That quiet only last a moment as from out of the mosque come running two young men. Leading them is a giant wasp! The six foot long wasp is black and crimson, with a stinger the size of a scimitar, and front mandibles like Jambiya. You recognize the mason wasp as one of the kind that Kasib summoned in the mountains to aid in your fight there. The two men race out into the open just as the ground begins to shake again.
Now standing only fifty yards from one another, the two men watch the seven as the rumbling begins again. The earth shakes, shifting stand and stone. The walls of the shrine take greater stress, and cracks race up and down the dome, visible even from here. Rocks from the cliff tumble free and fall into the sandy earth as waves of dirt break free higher up and cascade down like water from the hieghts. This second quake lasts a few moments longer than the first. Strangely it comes in a wave, rumbling for a few seconds then slowing, then rumbling again, then slowing. It occilates like this for fourty seconds before it finally stops.
The carvan is in disarray, Ka'im's camel has bolted out from under him and the Sha'ir has had no choice but to ride along with it. The Corsair is standing on the ground, having lept free of his mount, but having let it run free as he leans into the quake as if on the deck of some sambuk. High above the group the massive mason wasp buzzes about.
