1008 Adventures: The Lost and Found

[TetNak]

"I barely even remember that, Sayyid!" Kasib frowns, "I think someone must have slipped wine in my coffee." He grunts, obviously not pleased to be reminded of him stripped naked and singing songs.

[od]

Ahmed looks sidelong at Sayyid, and shrugs. At the comment, his disapproval for the god seems oddly placed.

OOC

For some reason I thought he was considered an enlighted god, just a minor one.

[Vardaen]

OOC

The Lost One should be considered an UnEnlightened God. The followers of Selan (Major Enlightened Goddess) hunt and kill his followers.
However those followers are the fanatic hardcore moralists, and most people in Medinat Al-Afyal and around the Crowded Sea might consider The Lost One a Local God, or a minor Enlightned God. Outside of this region he's not even known of and characters of more tollerant views wouldn't/shouldn't have a real problem with him. More strict folk might.

However the Lost One has never been considere agressive, or violent or evil in any way and even the hardline Selan followers respect the Elephants of the Island understanding that there is something special about them.

The Lions of Tomorrow speak while passing through the Elephant's Graveyard. The stark white bones and ivory of the dead pachyderms lay at peace among the jungle clearing, bathed in the red light of the occasional torch bearer. The elephants you ride continue along the winding path through the area eventually taking you into the next stage of the area. The bones fall away, and a low circular stone wall comes into view. The wall appears to have been made by the placement of thousands of loose stones piled up atop one another and not the tight fitting work of masons. The wall has long been overgrown with vines and mosses of the jungle. As each of your mounts passes through an opening in the four foot high wall you notice placed along the wall, in every nook and atop every stone, overgrown with plants and foliage, small carved statues of The Lost One. The hundreds of statues are like those that you yourselves made only a few nights ago. The number off them, the overgrowth on them, and the shear volume that they take up suggests that they have been accumulating here for decades upon decades upon decades. Among the statues are pieces of jewelry, small gems, painting, scrolls, carvings made from stone and wood, brass worked lamps, and any and every kind of craft and art project honoring The Lost One.

The opening in the low wall has several brass lamps burning with red light shining on your path. Moving through and past the wall you can see up ahead hundreds of if not more elephants. The great gray mammals stand, sit and lay down collected from all around the isle waiting patiently and silently. Only the swishing of their tails or the flapping of their ears disturbs the silence of the area. They are gathered in great numbers around a collection of stones, in an ancient ruined pattern that rises up out of the ground. The base of the ruin must be fifty feet square, the square base rises up into the air getting smaller at each level as it steps upwards to a flat top fifty feet above the ground. The structure is an ancient ziggurat of design foreign to Zakhara, but it would be right at home in Mahasarpa. Atop the ziggurat the light of many burning braziers filters down casting shadows on the dozens of marble statues of an elephant headed god that rise up the side of the ziggurat.

Your elephant mounts come to a slow march and eventual stop at the base of the stone ziggurat. Steps welcome you to climb to the top.

[Bitom]

Sayyid slides down from the elephant with the same grace that he showed in dismounting the camels. At least the elephants are less likely to kick, spit, and bite.

He doesn't say anything, though. Although he is a hardliner and disagrees with any form of unenlightened worship, he does not deny the existance of other gods, and one does not insult a master in his own house.

[Trogdor]

Bashir dismounts in respectful silence. Having lived his life in the Crowded Sea, just to the south of Afyal, he is no stranger to the stories of the Lost One - though he was certain there were few enough, even on Sahu, who had seen this temple or knew more than the barest hints of who the Lost One truly was.

[Brennor]

Ka'im is staring up at the Ziggurat when the elephants stop. It takes him a few moments to break out of some form of reverie and actually notice that progression has stopped.

He looks over the side of the elephant, down at the ground and seems to get a little dizzy at the thought of getting down. That's when the elephant brings up a leg to form a sort of half-way point for the short man. He heaves himself, feet-first, to the side where the leg is raised, missing it on his first attempt and almost falling completely off. Finally, he catches his foot on the elephant's leg and manages to scamper down without hurting himself much at all.

Now that he's down, he looks up at the Ziggurat again and then at the others, as if asking them if they've ever seen anything like this before.

[TetNak]

Kasib gets down, peering up at the massive ziggurat and beings complaining. "We are supposed to go up that thing? Its huge!" The rawun throws his hands up in the air, "HUGE! Why would anyone build anything like that! It is pure craziness!"

[Trogdor]

"To honor the Lost One," Bashir replies. "Men have built far bigger temples and mosques to the Enlightened gods. Besides," he says with a smile, patting Kasib on the back, "after your ride on elephant back, you should be well rested for the climb."

[Bitom]

As he often does, Sayyid smiles at Kasib's discomfort. He motions for Ahmed to handle Rambad's body, offering no help. The man seems determined to do penance, and rightly so. He also tethers Asyia to his arm so that she cannot go off and explore the elephant graveyard. The prospect of climbing all of those steps does not seem to worry him in the least.

[Wayloss]

Jabiir dismounts from the elephant with none of his usual grumbling, he even manages to not take a swipe at kasib, though from habit the thought crosses his mind.
"It'll be a good walk up these steps..." He watches to see if Ahmed will ask for help.