Maliq Kazim and Fahim Khaleel go to seek information on the great and powerful Almuttaqs. Unfortunately, their inquiries are immediately stymied by being outsiders. Despite their Race, they are suspected of being spies from another nation, who want to steal the great and awesome power of the grand collection of consciousnesses that are the Almuttaqs for use against the Qadir people. The old woman behind the desk of the city's Knowledge Annex is quite specific in those words and the two leave, likely a bit shook by her extreme view. As can be imagined, things largely do not go much better for everyone else.
The groups of Amir Razavi and Aska al-Ali together with Aamir Ahmadi, Aaminah Zaman, and Merilya Jouhari on the prowl for information on the great Songaskia-killing robot do not exactly elicit positive reactions from anyone. As far as most of the city is concerned, it was a creation corrupted by Void Essence which went haywire and probably ended blowing up somewhere in the desert. It is also noted that the creature supposedly killed Qadir as well, further adding to the belief by the locals of this fact. There is also the same suspicion in these "Qadir" asking about a phenomenon some months old, and they are labeled as outsiders rapidly. While not thrown out of anywhere, they gain limited information beyond this local opinion.
Korra Hakim and Azra min Eazim in the meantime face a briefly scary situation. Their goal, to speak to local people about any advancements on the field of clockwork prompts them to meet a supposedly friendly engineer. Inviting them to remain inside of his shop for a moment, he leaves for a few minutes only to return and soon invites them into the "back" of his shop which is really an alleyway. Before the two people realize what has happened, the door behind them is locked. Two large and highly complex Clocktik spiders crawl down the walls of the alleyway, landing on their right while a man approaches from the left beyond which the busy street can be seen. His body and posture are harsh as for a Qadir, he is rather tall, and his robes produce a number of vertical lines on his body. His tone when speaking to the two women likely also chills them, introducing himself as the city's High Priest, a "Rizwan Yushua min Naqidaan, Ab Isaeat Hayitik" or "Rizwan Yushua of Naqidaan, Father of Clocktiks." His tone is icy as he demands to know why the two seek the knowledge that makes technology like his Clocktiks and that of the most greatest faith Esrah Alwattah unique in all of Aloria. The two carefully explain the situation to him and their mission, which he pauses at and gives a somewhat furrowed expression of distaste. He comments he was unaware that Regalian Qadir were so behind in knowledge, considering it was they who helped craft weapons he'd heard had been largely effective against the Bone Horrors. Both women don't really know how to respond to this, and he ends the silence with a slight smile. He merely thanks them and steps aside, letting them return to the street though adds they should consider seeking their knowledge elsewhere. They hustle away to meet back with the others at a dockside tavern. They all report their failure and have largely despaired when Naajy Shamuon and Fawza Mustafa come strutting up, grinning.
These two have been the only ones successful in getting anything useful to the group. Through the use of Naajy's beautiful face, he'd schmoozed and sweet-talked a few of the locals claiming to have been away in Al-Alus for a while and only recently back in his home city. A bit of a lie, yes, but if these two were a group to break the rules than they certainly did with Fawza's moves. Using her magic to subtly break someone's small clockwork gardening spider, she'd then helped the worried young man "fix" it, while also getting some information out of him in return. Coming together, the two had discovered the other side of the story: A minority of the city knew the "truth" of the golem. The machine had last been sighted heading northeast by a group of Qadir on their Time of Tajul, heading to cross the border of Mooriye and the Songaskian Masaya fully. The reason the priesthood was claiming there to be a poisoning of Void Essence was simply because their attempt to secure it had failed, miserably, and they were horribly embarrassed by this failure to acquire such a piece of Sariyd heritage. They also learned that the last place the creature would likely have been seen was Mooriye itself when it passed there almost a month ago.
The group, who had planned to go that way anyway, rejoiced and so headed off on the road with some rented Bakhshuna Jamals the next day, the odd-looking creatures making good time in their trek to the city. Desert sands gradually became cracked earth as the City of Mooriye was located on an arid, cracked earth plain. On the trip, the group would have noted several worn but large-scale collections of pillars and bricks within sight of the road. These were ruins of the Sariyd Empire, of the nation their people had once proudly been part of until their fall.
At their arrival to the massive walled city, an odd scene would come to play out before them, all spoken in Faraddi. Fahim, Korra, Aska, and Fawza approached the gates but were stopped from the high walls by a fat Qadir man dressed in fine robes. He identified himself as The Door Guard for the Seventh Day, being appointed...his formality is long, but in short, he is a priest of the faith of Esrah Alwattah. The group tried to tell him their reasons for coming here, but he rebuffs them with strong rhetoric, acknowledging that while they are Qadir, they are clearly not of the Khaneh and so are either of Al-Alus or are from far beyond the rolling sand and salty sea.
The group of four, after a brief pause to confer among themselves, shout back that they were indeed not from around here exactly, and their attempt to further clarify launches the priest into a lengthy speech about how "the servants of the wicked Regalian Serpent flounder before the questioning by a Master of Clocks" and so on and so forth. When he ends his speech though, the group fire up at him that they are on their Time of Tajul and now had come to the city to learn about advanced clockworks. The man atop the wall paused, popped a date into his mouth and then gave a simple wave, stepping away from the walls and out of sight. The massive gate before them didn't move...until suddenly, a smaller and normal sized doorway opened in the complex design before them. Allowed inside, the four were promptly given what amounted to identification cards, or blocks in this case, covered in copper and brass with a single Qatil slotted into the design to provide it power. As they were told by the Gate Registrant, the Pass allowed them to visit for three days, at which point it would start to let out loud noises every few minutes to alert the city's guards as to their illegal stay.
They are then let out into the city and are promptly surprised, horrified and amazed. It is a cramped mess of streets and high buildings, with the few breaks in the imposing urban landscape being colossal squares in the shape of cogs with markets and lush gated green areas. The whole city is also leveled, with the central areas lower than those closest to the walls which are often high. In the far northwestern corner of the city sits the imposing Grand Hadritya, built into part of the walls, with a straight-shot promenade several blocks long out front with highly complex clockwork devices charting everything from the sun and the moon to the progress of the war with the Songaskians. This final work proves to be the most telling as the group soon realized: this city is a hive of propaganda and extremism. Asking around about victories over the Songaskia ends up with them getting a wave of propaganda in their faces. They decide to stay the three days at a "Visitor's Inn" located near the gate, though the second day features them bearing witness to the City's problems: insurrection against the priesthood.
Their human guards and their clockwork enforcers are everywhere, maintaining city order though their oppressive appearance makes it clear it is more about control. On this second day, the team of four witness a brief battle between a small clockwork golem going after a group of three young children who had been using some type of chalk to write words against the priesthood on a building wall. One of the kids turned around and shot the machine with some kind of handheld gun as the creature's leg suddenly spasmed with the strike of pale Soul Essence, and it tripped, collapsing down onto the ground as the children escaped. The group quickly moved on after that. They also bore witness to the priesthood performing a "Ritual of Extraction" before their temple. A massive device is wheeled out and at their word, activates, extending many prongs or arms out into the air as a deep hum filters throughout the space. Then, slowly, the trails of Soul Essence come slipping through the open air, up from the city streets, alleyways and cisterns, where all the unfound people of the last month had died. Row after row of small Qatil are filled on the device though it soon ceases at half capacity. The priests give prayers for the dead, and their role in helping to power the city before the ritual is over, and the crowd disperses, some of the people approaching the temple in mourning clothing but holding onto devices with full Qatil vials.
On the third day, after one final tour around the market, they return to the City gate, being forced to wait as a large caravan of Tajullers enters. They then leave, the City of Mooriye certain to have left an impression on them, likely having acquired a complex part or two during their stay though keeping it in their packs for later.
Half a mile away outside of the city gates, the rest of the group sat there on the dry, cracked earth plain doing essentially nothing. The region was unbearably hot, though when they had asked what happened to their friends, they had been told about the three days. They were ultimately forced to retreat to the closest thing to shade, a low-lying pile of rocks, pitching their tents and drinking what water they had sparingly. It was harsh weather, though they survive it well due to their heritage (though Naajy gets a massive urge to shed). On the third day though, they observe a caravan headed for the city and go over to talk with the group. The Tajullers, approaching the city from the northeast, were not Khaneh Qadir, instead being from Al-Alus and of the mainline Qadir Culture. They answered that while they had not seen the machine themselves, they had seen its tracks, still heading northeast. They also mentioned something odd. The creature had actually been marching deeper into Qadir territory for half of the last ten months since it first appeared. The Songaskian towns it had destroyed were largely military-fueled "illegal" expansions into the territory claimed by Mooriye despite the nation not possessing any settlements in the area themselves. The machine had then turned, slowly circling back around and was now fully heading for the Songaskian Masaya. The Qadir ended the conversation with a final dark rumor, that the golem had consumed all of the Soul Essence from the villages it had thus far obliterated, fueling itself through the death of others.
Disturbed by this, but having the information they had sought to get, the team waits for their smaller half, the entire troupe promptly getting on their Jamals and heading for the port as they discuss what had been seen. They were forced to camp out a night in some of the ruins they had passed on the way to the grand city, their animals setting a slower pace on the way back. There was only silence that night as they slept and they were undisturbed before they reached the city around noon the next day, heading back to distant Regalia on the next ship to do so.
The Route of the Golem
Red= The Golem
Green = Explorers and visited locations
Red= The Golem
Green = Explorers and visited locations
