Solo A Maze in Smoke

Nala visits the labyrinth beneath Smokesend and learns some things about her family.

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy roleplay forum. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

This lazy agricultural settlement rests on the swampy shores of the Middle Suvan at the delta of The Kenash River. The River's slow moving bayou waters have bred a different sort of people - rugged, cultured, and somewhat violent. Sprawling plantations of tobacco and cotton grow on the outskirts of the swamp in the rich Cyphrus soils, while the city itself curls around the bayou and spawns decadence and sins of all sorts. Life is slower in Kenash, but the lack of pace is made up for in the excesses of food and flesh in a city where drinking, debauchery, gambling, slavery, and overbearing plantation families dominate the landscape.

Moderator: Gossamer

A Maze in Smoke

Postby Nalahessarajor on October 4th, 2013, 11:41 pm

Autumn 2nd, 513 AV


Nala slithered down from her room after changing into clothes more suitable for taking her Dhani form. It was when she was most comfortable, having the strength of her constrictor heritage and the diversity of arms and hands. To most it would have seemed ugly, a scaly hide with an only vaguely humanoid form, a thick tail where legs should have been. To her, Dhani were most beautiful in this form, at the peak of their capability, and the most fantastic beings in all of Mizahar to be. She could not think of a race she would prefer to call her own, for what could be more wonderful than the Dhani, children of Siku?

She had returned from an earlier excursion to the market, buying for herself a mortar and pestle and 4 jars that could hold 8 oz of material. It was early evening, and the sun had set less than a bell ago, seeing the end of her work day. She always closed the Iron Pipe at sunset, no matter the season, making for busy winters and relatively lazy summers. She closed at that time with hopes of making it to a few other shops before they closed, as being open for all the daylight hours really took all the fun out of one’s day. Hitting the shops just after dark was a daily activity for her, but today she had been on a mission. She had to make some new tobacco blends for the autumn season, to help set her shop apart from the other smoke shops in Kenash. If she could make something nobody else could make, it would make her shop a cut above the rest. Thus why she’d bought the mixing materials.

She made her way to the catacombs beneath Smokesend, proud shoulders thrown back and thick tail sliding across the floor at a leisurely pace. She was in no hurry, the night was young and despite working all day she was excited and full of energy. It was the second day of autumn, Nala’s very favorite time of year. Though the sunny days were waning and the days for sun bathing were nearly a thought of the past, this was the season of the harvest. To freeborns, autumn rushed by in a haze of oranges and reds, the warm colors of the trees as their leaves departed and littered the ground. However to a Rajor, and to many of the other Dynasty families as well, autumn was the call for the harvest, and signaled the beginning of a full year of cascading gold coins. Nothing was better than the harvest season to lighten the heart of a Rajor, especially one so proud of her family as Nala.

The catacombs were a brightly lit tribute to Zinrah, the homeland of the Rajor family, and were a depository of all things that related to their previous home. The great stone walls echoed the feeling of a cave, braziers and torches keeping great alters to Siku in their light. Despite being Dhani and a member of the Rajor family, Nala knew little of her goddess. That was why she came to the catacombs this day, to see if the books her family kept held enough information to allow her to worship the Mother of Serpents properly. Records from their homeland were scarce, but Nala had seen a few in her youth as the Rajors claimed their land and built Smokesend. She searched for those records now, in the well organized stockpile or artifacts from times gone by in the labyrinth beneath Smokesend.


Ledger1 mortar and pastle - 1 GM
4 jars, 8 oz - 2 GM
User avatar
Nalahessarajor
Player
 
Posts: 60
Words: 41406
Joined roleplay: August 20th, 2013, 6:18 am
Location: Kenash
Race: Dhani
Character sheet

A Maze in Smoke

Postby Nalahessarajor on October 5th, 2013, 3:02 am


Slithering through the hallways beneath was calming, and made Nala sigh with pleasure. The warmth of the torchfire all around her, the natural smoothness of the stone against her scales, the feeling of being surrounded by all things Siku and all things Dhani. This was what bliss was, being engulfed by everything that made you who you were and being pleased with it.

Out of the corner of her eye Nala noticed a thin passageway, completely unlit, poking in an awkward direction from the path. She pulled a torch from the wall, slowly moving to investigate the hallway. It wasn’t very wide, and Nala could barely fit through in her current form, and the ceiling was so low she had to crouch. She saw roots poking through cracks in the stone, and tried to think of where she might be in relation to the manor. There were a number of trees on the plantation, and she hadn’t kept track of which direction she’d been heading. Hopefully her tail had left deep enough tracks to find her way in the dust.

The room she entered was full of cobwebs, with unlit braziers in the corners and torches lining the walls. Between each pair of torches was a book case, and in the center a desk with a chair and a number of candles almost completely burned to the base. Some still had wicks, but likely wouldn’t stay lit for more than a bell. Regardless, she lit them, along with the braziers, but left the torches for another time. She slid along the book shelves, hoping that something would catch her eye.
User avatar
Nalahessarajor
Player
 
Posts: 60
Words: 41406
Joined roleplay: August 20th, 2013, 6:18 am
Location: Kenash
Race: Dhani
Character sheet

A Maze in Smoke

Postby Nalahessarajor on October 9th, 2013, 6:23 am

By the flickering torchlight, two books caught her eye. One was tightly bound in snakeskin, the very thought of touching it making her shiver, but it looked as if it had been naturally shed and alchemically treated to stick to other layers of shed skin. This was all plastered together to create a cohesive, if dusty and fragile, book cover. The other book was old and weathered, seemingly bound in leather with intricate designs embossed into the tanned hide.

Nala pulled each of them from the shelf with great care, delicately handling them as to not get a single bit of them roughed up by her presence. The movement sent a cascade of dust to her nostrils, tickling her from the inside and forcing her to hold back a sneeze. Her body overrode her will, however, and a great gust of wind rushed forth from her lungs, echoing through the hallways of the catacombs. She was so startled she nearly dropped the fragile relics, but was able to catch them in time. She froze, listening for a moment to see if anyone had heard and was coming to investigate. Once she was satisfied that nobody had heard the embarrassing disturbance, she continued her work.

Once she found herself stable once more, Nala slithered over to the desk and sat in the chair, gently opening the leather bound book, first. At this point she was enormously curious, a quiet smile curling the corners of her lips. She’d heard from the slaves that cleaned the catacombs and attended to the shrine to Siku that there was an alcove like this where the old things from Zinrah were kept. She’d wandered the underground for nearly a bell before she stumbled upon it, but now her efforts came to fruition.

The book was a journal or one Kalessarajor, a name Nala recognized as her grandmother’s. It described life among other Dhani nearly 200 years ago, and the way of life in the constrictor capitol of Zinrah. It followed the woman from early adulthood into her elder years, and described Shahess, Nala’s mother and Kalessa’s daughter, during her younger days. Nala couldn’t help but chuckle at the undeniable thought that her mother hadn’t changed all that much.

Near the back of the book was where things truly began to get interesting, as it described the families introduction to tobacco and some early mixes that Kalessa had come up with. Some were recipes Nala remembered being passed down to her from her mother, the ones that had stood the test of time and remained Shahess’ personal favorites. Others she had never heard of before, either by simple forgetfulness or dislike for the blends, Nala could not be sure. Some seemed absolutely repugnant, causing Nala to skew her face when she looked at them. Others, however, seemed less dangerous. All of them, no matter what their apparent nature, had a very specific recipe with side notes all up and down the edges of the pages, creating a waterfall of information.

One page in particular, near the end, caught Nala’s eye for the simple fact that it was particularly worn. The title spoke for itself, claiming its contents were “Rajor Gold”, and upon the pages was one of the most complex recipes Nala had seen all evening. It’s additional notes covered a full page and a half past the original recipe, noting what types of tobacco yielded the best blend, where to get each of the spices and so on. As her home was far from Zinrah, and the places mentioned in the book likely only existed 200 years ago, Nala could not follow each and every one of them down to the letter, but she sure would try.

She wanted to know what Rajor Gold tasted like.
User avatar
Nalahessarajor
Player
 
Posts: 60
Words: 41406
Joined roleplay: August 20th, 2013, 6:18 am
Location: Kenash
Race: Dhani
Character sheet

A Maze in Smoke

Postby Nalahessarajor on October 12th, 2013, 1:11 am


Nala set the book aside, open to the page she desired to remember, and picked up the book bound in snakeskin leather. Opening it slowly, so the binding wouldn’t crack, she flipped to the first page with words. In an elegant hand, written with powerful strokes, was a detailed accounting of Siku’s origins as a goddess, and the beginning of the Dhani people.

Nala was almost immediately entranced, this was precisely what she had been looking for! Page by page the book explained the gifts Siku had given to her children, her ideologies and the proper ways to give thanks to her. It detailed rituals, basic to advanced in performance, for nearly any aspect of life that need involve the goddess. There was no way to read and comprehend it all simply in one sitting, but she tried, getting through the basic.

She found a prayer to Siku, a general one for simply giving thanks. Upon reading it, it became familiar to her; this was the prayer her mother had said when they had received the land that would become their plantation so many years before. She smiled, quickly reading over it to make sure she had it solidly in her mind, before taking the book and slithering out to one of the many alters that dotted the passages.

She bowed her head, falling low to the ground as the book told her was proper of one addressing one of the Divines. In the tongue of snakes, she whispered “Dearessst Mother, Ancccessstor of Ssserpentsss, I accccept the giftsss you have given me humbly and with great care. The ssscales upon my tail are yours, the blood in my veinsss isss yoursss, the strength of my bonesss isss yoursss. I am your vessssle, your vasssle, your ssservant. Your will isss my will. Your command isss my action. I love you asss a daughter lovesss her mother, and would ssstop at nothing to pleassse you. My nessst, my home, my heart isss ever open to you. I thank you for the ssstrength you have given me. I thank you for the knowledge you have given me. I thank you for the life you have given me. If there isss anything I can do to repay thessse giftsss, let it be known and it shall be done!”

A breeze hit Nala and surprised her, wind flowing through the underground halls. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a shadow, but when she looked nothing was there. She heard the faintest whisper behind her, and jerked her head around to see…nothing. She gulped, hoping she had not displeased her goddess, and whispered once more “Let it be known, and it shall be done in your name and by my hand.”

“Let it be known.”
User avatar
Nalahessarajor
Player
 
Posts: 60
Words: 41406
Joined roleplay: August 20th, 2013, 6:18 am
Location: Kenash
Race: Dhani
Character sheet


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests