Ak'Allza Malhaddim...

[aka]

The sunlight was dipping just below the horizon of the great dunes in the Calim desert. The sand changing from dark, burnt orange, to deep red and eventually into darkness until the only source of colour that remained came from the streak of sunset outlining the towering sand valleys and slopes in electric purple and deep luminous crimson.

All but invisible against the enormity of the featureless desert two figures move, from high above they become indistinguishable amongst the grains of sand, but approaching them at ground level it can be seen that one is an old man, dressed in flowing, embroidered robes of gold and dark purple, and the other, scrambling along in the sand behind him, is a younger man, rather scruffily attired in an earthen coloured smock and cloak, and using his sheathed falchion almost like a paddle to try and navigate the liquid sand.

The last of the light, which appears bruise like, gradually fades completely, to be replaced by a thousand glistening stars all winking in the canopy of night.

The old man shakes the tip of his staff and an orb of golden light expands around them for a hundred feet or so. Within the sphere there is no wind. The Master wizard Jal'Jabara Jafar stops, waiting for his apprentice to catch up with his one hundred year old bones.

Panting and sweating, the younger man manages to get to the top of the dune. He is exhausted, after hours of dragging his feet though the clinging sand. How his master does it, effortlessly and without tiring, he does not know. At least now the wind has died down, the silence is harmonious and refreshing.

"Young Ak'Allza Malhaddim..." Calls the Master Wizard "...my loyal and 'lazy' apprentice... oh how terrible that I should select, from all of the possible children that day, one so slovenly and so prone to foolishness! But choose you I did and my apprentice you are... with any luck, in another decade or so, we may begin to make at least a half decent wizard out of you..."

The old man turns to face the huge expanse of the open desert before them.

"But master..." inquires Ak'Allza "why in the heavens have you brought us away from the glorious city of Calimport, out into the middle of the great desert... what is there to learn from here?"

The old Master chuckles to himself, drawing his robes around him. He lifts his staff from the sand and spins it once before him, grasping it tightly with both hands. The sphere of light shrinks until it only just contains the both of them.

"Behold...." Hisses Jafar "...the Ancient city of Shoonach, heart of the ancient civilization of the Shoon qysars!" and with that last word he thrusts his staff into the sand, and a great wave shoots out wards enveloping the desert in a great globe of brilliant golden light. Now, all around them can be seen the immense smashed remnants of a city destroyed centuries before. Huge, broken golden domed temples, towers of silver and bronze, glittering with precious stones and swirling details of crafted glass. Here and there the ragged remains of brightly coloured banners flap languidly in the soft wind.

"This is your first adventure my child!..."

[aka]

Jafar makes his way down through the immense, arched doorway of one of the towers, the opening itself, the hight of twenty men standing on top of one another. Huge bronze doors sit open, their bases piled high with fine sand, unmoved for untold years. There is a gap of about twenty paces between them into which the master wizard leads his apprentice.

Inside, a great vaulted chamber, walls glistening as though imbued with ice, hung with hundreds of tapestries each worth a small kings ransom, loggia surround the main hall offering passage into the tunnels within the towers shell, stairwells, secret chambers and the balconies clinging to the white stone exterior.

All this space, devoid of life, empty of warmth or the sound of inhabitants, an elaborate and priceless tomb to an ancient and dead civilization.

The footsteps of the two visitors echo within the huge chamber, as they cross toward the far wall. Ak'Allza feels a sudden apprehension, he feels as though he should not be here, as though he is not welcome. As though the ghosts of the previous inhabitants are waking to whisper and drive him out of their home.

Finally, they stop beneath a huge wall upon which an elaborate mosaic is hung - created from a combination of precious stones, varnished ebony woods, bone and mother of pearl; it's magnificent patterns coalesce into the swirling characters of the ancient language of the first Calum empire. Layer upon layer of script, woven together like the threads of a knotted poem.

"This, my young whelp, is what we have come to see..."

Ak'Allza's gaze tries to take in the enormity of the mosaic, but it is impossible to comprehend as a whole, so complex is the design.

"...this is the story of how Calim, the ancient genie, appeared in our lands, drawing with him thousands of his servants to build the greatest city ever before seen by the eyes of man. It is the oldest text of it's kind in all of Fearun, older than these ruins, painstakingly restored here during the rule of the Shoon Qysars hundreds of years ago: itself it is over eight thousand years old!"

Ak'Allza, awed by the power emanating from the mozaic, reaches out his fingertips to touch the priceless artifact, not even connecting with it he can feel the magic pulsing through his blood.

"Yes my child, this is truly a sight to behold..." Jafar turns to look his apprentice up and down "...it is said..." he begins, whispering as though he were sharing a secret with the younger man "... that hidden in the codex of this script are many great powers of the ancient race of the Djen, Calim's race... and that if a mortal should unlock even a fraction of these powers, he could begin to control the forces of magic as did the genies!" Jafar, infused with excitement cackles his dry, one hundred year old laugh. "of course, none thus far, have been able to do so..." He returns his gaze to the great mosaic.

Overwhelmed, Ak'Allza steps back, the room about him seems to contract and expand like a giant skull, its white stone details glistening in the magelight, like grinning skeletal teeth. Suddenly a sense of dread fills the apprentice.

Almost as if talking to himself, the old mage continues. "You do know that our journey here is not sanctioned by the Arcana, they would not like this one little bit, no no no, and any hint of us attempting to harness unregulated genie powers and they would be all over us like the dragon plague of the seventh age..."

"but master, that is..."

"Yes yes yes..." Jafar motioned him to be silent. "There are many many things that you have taken up until now to be certain." The old wizard continues recording the script with a brush in a small, leather bound tome. "So it is with children, they command the world in it's entirety, until they realize that they have not discovered the entire world, and indeed, that they themselves are not entirely known, then, then the real learning can begin..."

Confused, and slightly disorientated, Ak'Allza does his best to record portions of the mosaic, likewise, in his journal.

"I have lived for one hundred years my slovenly apprentice. And with the power of the Djen, I can live for one hundred more!..." Once again, the master turns to Ak'Allza "With that amount of time I could become a contender for the position of Caleph Arcane... head mage to the Caliph and Syl-Pasha themselves!.. instead of being no more than an elder of the guild Arcana..."

The information doesn't completely sink into Ak'Allza, his master is right, he has relied upon certainties for so long, but what does all this mean, the power of the Djen, his master defying the Vizier of Najjar Sabban and indeed the very rules of the Guild Arcana!

Lost in these thoughts he barely notices that the room has grown warmer, nor does he see the slight flickering upon the wall to their left, as though distant fires somehow reflected upon the cold bleached stone. He does not notice the deep, almost sub-sonic rumbling sound until is just about to reach the chamber, and by then it is far to late to warn his master.....

[aka]

The efreeti comes... like a great wave of liquid fire. Sweeping through the archway and pouring out into the chamber. Around it stones and gems are instantly superheated, decorative glass melts and the ancient walls crack and blister. As it emerges from the entrance it takes the humanoid form of an immense man, at least twenty feet tall, with two great flaming fists the size of a mans head. Upon seeing Ak'Allza and his master it belches out a roar of fire and heat that blows a curtain of hot stinging sand at them.

Jafar turns, no alarm shows upon his face and his eyes become shadowed against the blazing orange fire. He lifts his staff and mutters a quick incantation, a blue field springs up around them and the intense heat subsides somewhat...

"Ikatta Ibikk'tul Ibriakhim Ashkul!" the elementals voice sounds like the grating sound of molten hot magma, sparks fly from its lips as it speaks. With the eruption, it leaps forwards, one of its great fists plummeting towards Ak'Allza. The apprentice is frozen with fear and prepares to be incinerated... but his doom does not come. The white hot fist is deflected by the blue shield which shatters under the impact. The efreeti is thrown back by the force of the blow.

Master Jafar seems to grow in stature and flings several scintillating orbs at the beast which is hammered into the ground, where it remains, smoldering.

"Is, is it dead?" inquires the apprentice.

"Not by a long shot." replies Jafar.

And indeed in confirmation of his words, the efreeti begins to rise once again, a wicked smile plastered across is flame wrought face. It begins to take a deep inhale, its chest expanding like a barrel, a circle of sand about the thing begins to creep in towards its monstrous lungs.

"Down you fool!" cries Jafar to Ak'Allza, pushing him to the ground.

Exhaling, a torrent of flame pours out of the efreeti, filling the chamber with fire that rolls towards the two mages. Jafar places his staff between himself and the barrage of flame and the white hot river splits apart, bending around them, and rejoining behind them until it breaks on the wall far behind, leaving the stones smoking and humming gently as they cool.

Angered even more by this the demon bears down upon them, lowering its head into a charge and giving out another terrible roar of smoke and gas.

Jafar rises to meet it and the two clash in an explosion of blinding light, both parties are flung apart, landing heavily on the cracked and sandy flagstones. Ak'Allza runs to his masters side...

"Master..." Jafar struggles to get to his feet, his face is scorched down one side, and on one hand his fingers are bloodied and broken.

"He is too strong..." says the Arcane wizard "...we were not prepared for this." He turns to Ak'Allza and smiles "it seems we both have a valuable lesson to learn this day."

The efreeti rises up again, steam and hot gas escaping from fissures in its body. It lets out another terrible roar and takes an immense leap into the air above them. Master Jafar begins to chant multiple incantations, his bloody fingers struggle to make the correct semantic gestures. All of a sudden Ak'Allza is enveloped in light, a circle of light that seems to cut away the world around him, his master begins to shrink, and he begins to fall, the last thing he sees before the portal closes is a great wall of swirling white hot fire...

[aka]

It's hard to know how long he fell through the astral plane, or indeed how long he had been laying in the cool, damp grass before he realised he was no longer falling.

The sound of birds were the first thing to bring him round, chirping cheerfully amongst the creeking boughs and whispering leaves. He could feel warmth on his cheek and as his eyes began to work again, brilliant blinding light, sunlight. His hands felt the grass, the moisture from it refreshing against his dry, blistered palms and fingers. Slowly he forced his body to sit up, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, his surroundings came into view...

He was laying next to a muddy track, a route for carts, deep troughs were cut into the trail, some freshly made. All around him, the abundant motion of trees, green and red, yellow and silver, leaves winking and shimmering in the sun. The sky looked bright blue, with whisps of white cloud, as though there had recently been a storm and now everything had settled down again to grow.

He looked one way along the track and it seemed to dissappear into the wood, the other way and he could just make out a little outpost, a slow plume of smoke rising up from its chimmney. Outside the building he could see movement, guards possibly, they looked dressed as if from somewhere close to the Sword coast.

Climbing to his feet Ak'Allza forced his body along the grassy verge of the track, towards what now appeared to be a gate. A sign became visible, overgrown with ivy and march grass, upon the decaying wood, painted in fading golden script, it read, simply: Cormyr

So Ak'Allza Malhaddim, apprentice to the Master Wizard Jal'Jabara Jafar, Elder to the Guild Arcana, and representive of the Najjar Sabban in the court of Calimport, came to Cormyr.

And so began his first adventure...