Carthago !

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Carthago! is a game by G.M., louisxiv just made a site for it.

from Si'aspiqo’s wheeze

192. A Midsummer Dream in Sef

The night was peaceful, no cries of loss or despair from the town nor its necropolis, but then, the unquiet one walked nearer dawn. Dark the direction where dawn’s rosy fingers would show, and end my dream watch whether I will it or no. But soft! What light...?

It is the East. In the distance, a flicker of distant storm, a grumbling trembled the night’s stillness. Then it was gone and distance no longer held my attention. The night was peaceful, no cries of loss or despair from the town nor its necropolis, but cold.

Grave-cold wrapped around me even in the peaceful night. An unfleshed figure in rags was present at the other side of the stone rampart from which I watched. It did not stand, it was just there. Hardly a figure at all, a cold, dark presence. No semblance of a weeping woman, no cry for a lost child. Then the rampart was gone and the shade stood beside me.

“Slave of the false priest! I await you, beyond!”
The voice was harsh and seemed, to my inner ear, to speak the Egyptian language of the oldest hieratic scrolls I have studied, but mumbled and mis-emphasised as if by an elderly Numidian.
“May you know no rest!”
“May the sun burn you!”
“May the sea drown you!”
“May snakes bite at your heels…”

I counter-spelled automatically:
“O Atari! Kentake of Meroe!”
“You who are known as Hathor, Lady of Dendera!”
“Atari protect my rest!”
“Hathor protect my body!”
“May your light shine protection upon my head!”
“Turn back, you who has come forth from the darkness!”
“Turn backwards! Fall down upon your face!”
“No form will enter this house!”
“Atari protects me!”
“Hathor protects me!”

And Her protection was with me. A warm wind blew past me and the dark form crumbed to dust and ashes, blowing back to the dark whence it came, but still a distant wail reached me.
“…We shall meet again…
…on the other side…
…I hunger for your passing…”

From Mago’s Meanderings

193. Treachery in Tamuda

At length we arrived safely at Tamuda once more, having crossed the great desert in both directions, and seen the wonders of the other side. We were dismayed to discover, however, that the city was not as we had left it, with the streets strangely empty and the hut where we had hoped to meet with Kallikrates even more so. Apart from a derisory amount of money left buried under the floor where we had left much more valuable goods. Only a clay tablet left by Kallikrates gave us some hope that all was not lost. It ended with some mysterious quotation from Homer, referring to the fall of Troy, and the Trojan horse. While we couldn’t be sure what it did mean, it clearly wasn’t the message that an absconding bandit would leave along with a box of 600 silver pieces.

Some little time later, we received further reassurance, with a boy carrying a message from Zachary Argentos, a Hebrew friend of the Greeks with whom we had also had previous commerce and with whom we had also left some of our belongings. It said:

ZA. Goods safe. Spies watch you. From Kart. Have house in town. Meeting tonight.

Only Amphius and I were light-footed and unremarkable enough to safely cross the darkened city without attracting unwanted attention, so we accompanied the boy with the message back to the house of Zachary. Despite our stealth we disturbed a dog, but the boy knew its name and calmed it with a word.

Zachary welcomed us and gave us the news as to what had occurred in Tamuda. He reassured us that he was holding all the goods we had left when travelling south, and that they were safe. Kallikrates had delivered all the items left in his care to Zachary, and he and his men were now sailing back and forth between Tamuda and Kart — by which knowledge we might expect their arrival shortly for the two cities are not far apart though separated by a sea.

The tension in the city of Tamuda was caused by the sudden illness during the last two weeks of Tamuda the man, tyrant of the city, who it appeared might be close to death. If he were to succumb to mortality, then the expectation was for civil war.

More to our immediate concern, however, he explained the meaning of “Spies watch you.” Six or seven men from Kart had arrived long before, and by their actions had clearly been watching ever since for our return. It was known they were to hold a meeting this evening.

So Amphius and I were presented with an immediate dilemma — what to do? Deciding quickly we sent a note inscribed by the Greek back to our comrades by the boy to warn them, while bracing ourselves for the perilsome action of observing and eavesdropping upon the meeting. The note said:

Six or seven men from Kart. Might attack tonight. Beware! Put a light outside the door. Amphius.

Having done our best to alert our travelling companions to what we knew, and to put them on their guard, we waited for the boy to return and enlisted his aid once more to take us to the house where the Kart spies had made their lair.

The house was at no great distance — a street or two away — but great caution was necessary to arrive at a point where we might be able to hear what was going on. It was known that a watcher was upon the street outside to give them intelligence or forewarning of any unexpected developments, so we took a roundabout route down a small alley to try to come to the house from behind, running the risks of dogs or neighbours instead of the watcher. We went especially slowly after some early false steps upon the cobbles, particularly once we observed the watcher checking round the corner of the building to look down the alleyway we had chosen.

Luckily, he withdrew once more to watch the larger street, and we were able to make our way to the rear of the distinctive triangular house. It was as well we had both the boy, who knew the way, and Amphius who could see his way as clearly as day. I endeavoured to follow them both without too many errors.

On arriving, we discovered that a small courtyard was formed by a wooden fence a little over the height of a man, and that behind the fence we could clearly smell the effluvia of chickens.

I lifted Amphius up to see over the fence what the lay of the land might be, and he found that there was a bolted gate (on the other side of the courtyard), a loosely shuttered window, and a door — no more, as we were at the narrowest side of the triangular building.

Until now it had been best for Amphius the owlish to lead the way. It now fell on me to climb over the fence and listen at the window; for Amphius would not have their tongue.

Amphius and the wall assisted me atop the fence, and then the goal was to descend as quietly as possible into the courtyard, and position myself below the window. At a stroke, the plan tottered and nearly fell, as I did upon landing. Having some remaining sense (and, in truth, being somewhat winded) I lay quietly without a curse in the filth until the chickens made up their minds that nothing had happened after all.

I cautiously crept to the window and applied my ear.

The first voice that I heard upon doing so was the treacherous Hannibal of Uttica!

A debate ensued between the servant of Baal and adherents of Melkart, as to what should happen next. Hannibal was adamant that his mission took precedence, being decreed by Baal, whose token he carried. His goal was to take the priest of Tanit and his companions, unspoiled if possible, to Uttica, where they were wanted because of what they had found in the desert.

The people from Kart strongly opposed this, wanting to take the despoilers of the holy mountain (and their companions) back to Kart to suffer the fate of blasphemers against their god.

By force of his appeal to authority — Baal comes first! — and a less theistic threat to chop them up good if they should chance their fortune against him, Hannibal convinced the Kart spies that they should assist him.

He also spoke of how terrible we were and that those from Kart did not know what they would face, when they spoke with scorn of Agrippinus spreading his falsehoods in the desert and beyond. “I have seen his miracles with my own eyes. You do not understand who you are dealing with. I have seen hm make the light of Tanit to burn demons from hell. His companions do not flee. One is a woman who can shoot a fox in the eye at twilight. One is a Gaul with the strength of two men. One is a Greek who has the eyes of a cat at night. You will need a whole ship to bring them down, not half a dozen spies.” I noticed with relief that I was not among those mentioned, but suspected it would avail me little.

“Enough!”, said the strongest voice of the Kart spies, “We will abide by the parlay and agreement of powers, Baal is foremost.”

Hannibal then commanded them: “Get in your boat and sail to Kart tomorrow. Get two ships, ram ships if you can, and anchor one west and one east of the harbour, out of sight. When the Greek ship leaves with the priest, whether he turns east or west, you can seize him. Then we can all sail to Uttica and my master will decide what fate is due.”

With that, matters seemed to be concluded and so I withdrew across the fence once more and Amphius and I made our way back to Zachary’s house — not without some difficulty, despite the short distance, but we did find our way. From there, we returned to join our travelling companions as quickly as we might, to discuss what should be done next.

194. Treating Tamuda

From: Agripinus’s Journal

Almost immediately we arrived in town I was approached by guardsmen summoning me to the Big House. There I was ment by an older Numidian, Juva, who conveyed that I was summoned to Tamuda who was gravely ill, and that I was required to cure him. It was not without trepidation that I hurried to meet Tamuda’s summons, failure was not an option! With Baal-Shaq as translator, we entered the main compound and within the grand reception room was a dessert tent. The tent was covered in scribbles and scripts of arcane shapes, some of which I recognised from watching Si’s handiwork labelling jars and samples. Some were Egyptian, others Numidian sigils all were written in ink, blood, or who knows what else. Braziers burned, incense clouded the air from many bowls and in the midst of this fog was a low plinth upon which Tamuda lay.

We’d been searched for weapons before being allowed to approach the gravely ill man, and two guards remained with us at all times. In addition there was another man, Tabat, who appeared to be the local healer and who was obviously agitated at my presence. After an initial diagnosis, it was clear that Tamuda suffered both from a bloody flux and fever, he’d been in this state for 2 days and was unconscious when we arrived.

I set about casting a blessing on myself and allies hoping to give myself the best possible chances of working successfully through Tanit and after washing his body with Holy Water and preparing the rituals, I managed to curtail the disease within his body. A lot more curing managed to bring him to a state of wakefulness and I was able to get some much needed water into him. I also managed to get the braziers moved as they appeared to affect my ability to breathe, so I can only guess what effect it was having on Tamuda.

The rest of the night I spent watching over the patient, and a chair and some mint tea and refreshment was brought so that I could remain near. Micipsa, the Captain of the Guard, put in an appearance and was notable for being fully armed - obviously a trusted man.

At midnight the guard changed and the shifty Tabat had words with them and lots was said that I didn’t understand. At some point in the night I noticed an odd smell from one of the braziers still outside the tent and were I not a hardy fellow I might have succumbed to the sleepy effects it caused. I called Baal-Shaq over to confirm my suspicions and he fell to one knee as he too almost collapsed after taking a breath of it. I immediately got it removed and there was all sorts of commotion involving Tabat who was obviously either trying to ensure I failed in my healing, or by extension, to kill Tamuda himself. We saved some of the mixture for examination later, as perhaps Si’ would be able to divine its origin?

As dawn approached there was little further improvement but I was powerless to do much more until the sun arose. After it did I communed with Tanit herself in an effort to find out a path to heal the sickness. She guided me with shafts of light and revealed that poison gnawed at Tamuda’s entrails also warning of Treason that stalked the halls and I was alerted to the chance of an attempt on my life or perhaps on Tamuda’s.

Without specific knowledge of the poison, nor any remedy, I decided to seek miraculous intervention. This was a first for me, and I committed not only most of my mana but also sacrificed half my own health into the ritual in the hope that it would somehow boost the effectiveness or chances of being able to channel Tanit’s divine healing into Tamuda.

I was shattered, but by mid-morning it looked as though progress had been made, and Tamuda was able to drink more and we got the tent opened up to get some sunlight and fresh air into the place