6. Zain, The Lovers
Outside the gate a path leads down through a hilly meadow beset by blustery gusts of warm breeze and into a garden bordering a light wood. The garden is edged with low hedges and dotted with trees. There are several people in the garden; some monks can be seen and about 40-50 ordinary looking people from all walks of life. There are one or two who might even be Mages.
Moving amongst the people are some stranger beings, Gnomes, Faeries, woodland creatures carrying trays of provisions and a few ‘wild’ animals- lions, and eagles are noticeable. There are bulls too (but no cows). These larger animals appear to be guests rather than servants.
The most noticeable people here though are a naked man and woman who are walking about supervising the handing out of refreshments. This couple somehow manage to be next to the characters as they reach the garden and greet them, speaking in unison.‘Welcome travelers, we are Zain. Come in, rest a while and refresh yourselves.’
They lead the players into the garden and instruct a group of dogs who are walking upright carrying trays of food and drink to see to the characters’ needs before moving off to circulate amongst the other guests.
As the characters enter the garden everyone must make a perception check. The highest roll of 15 or more will see an immense figure looming over the garden. The figure radiates intense light and is hard to distinguish properly. It is holding a flaming sword and seems to have wings that stretch off to infinity to either side.
If the roll was 20+ the character will notice that the figure is dressed in orange robes.
Entering the garden heals all wounds.
Zain, the Lovers, are young and beautiful, they match a character’s perception of perfection. Should the characters confer they will realise that they are all seeing their own vision of perfection and that it differs from other peoples. Zain always speak in unison, their voices complimenting each other with complex harmonies. Most of the time they move and gesticulate the same as well; although sometimes they form mirror images of each other with their actions. Their full name is The Children of the Voice, the Oracle of the Mighty Gods but this will remain a secret for now.
After a short while they return to the players and say:‘You have arrived just in time if you would like to join the game, everyone has a bit of a head start on you since they played for a while this morning. However, with skill and luck you could catch up and the prize is well worth winning.’
The game involves searching the areas surrounding the garden for gems. The gems are of different colours and sizes and this will reflect their true value. The exact mechanics of this are a mystery though and will be revealed at the end.
At the end of the game the person with the most valuable collection will win the secret prize.
All may play but only one can win.
Everyone is assembled into a group and at a signal from Zain they disperse, chatting and laughing, into the surrounding country through various gaps in the hedges. Some go as groups, some as individuals.The Search
The area around the garden is split into four areas. To the North is the windy meadow that the party crossed to get here, to the East is the open wood, to the South is a barren rocky area and to the West is a lake. Obviously these correspond to the four Elements.
The gems are hidden throughout these areas in a random pattern. Players can search anyway they like; perception, search, magic, whatever. Everyone who was present when the party arrived has an existing stock of gems and these can be stolen or coerced from them. There is no right or wrong here, just choices to be made, often without the benefit of full understanding of the facts or consequences.
Gems will be found in caches of a single type, for instance Large Red or Small Blue. The colour and type will not vary in each cache, just the quantity.The available types are:
Red, Green, Blue and White available in four sizes: Huge, Large, Medium and Small.The numbers of gems in a cache reflect the colour of the gems and the area they were found in.
Number of gems found by area
| Woods (Fire) | Rocks (Earth) | Lake (Water) | Meadow (Air) | |
| Ruby (red) | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Emerald (green) | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Sapphire (blue) | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Diamond (white) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
For each successful search one cache is found, a critical success reveals two. A botch means a character must change areas before another search will be successful.
Roll 1D4 for the colour of each cache: 1-red, 2-green, 3-blue, 4-white.Roll 1D4 for the size of each cache: 1-small, 2-medium, 3-large, 4-huge.
A fellow game player will have a random assortment of caches, 1D10 will suffice; determine contents randomly using 2D4 as above.
Igack will only pick up red gems, distaining all others. His nature will not allow him to give his unwanted gems to other characters though, he will re-hide them and they will never be found again.
At sundown everyone will be summoned to the garden again for the scoring.
Scoring
Red and Blue gems cancel each other out as do Green and White. Cancelling occurs with gems of the same size and once all matching pairs are gone then the remaining gems are counted and are worth one point each, regardless of colour or size.
It is permissible for the characters to pool their resources or exchange gems at any time before the scoring method is known in order to ensure a win. Usually, because of his searching criteria, Igack is well ahead of everyone anyway. He won’t share his gems but is more than happy to accept more red ones to boost his score.
Remember, only one person can win the prize.
Winning the Prize
For the totalling up Zain stand under the shade of a fruit tree in the centre of the garden.
As each contestant goes up to have their score verified they are offered fruit from the tree in exchange for their gems. Some agree, some keep the gems, everyone seems happy and all await the announcement of the winner with anticipation.
Zain will offer the fruit to each character; the fruit colours match the gem colours. Characters will be offered one fruit for all the gems of each colour that they have or two fruit if they only have gems of a single colour.
For instance, red and white gems will net someone a red fruit and a white fruit; Just having green gems left will net them two green fruit.
Igack will keep his gems.
Eating each piece of fruit confers the following:
Red fruit adds +1 to Strength
Green fruit adds +1 to Stamina
Blue fruit adds +1 to Communication
White fruit adds +1 to Intelligence
Once everyone has been scored the winner will be announced amidst general cheering and applause. The winner will step up to receive the grand prize.
Whoever wins will get a cloth bag about the size of a pillow case handed to them by Zain. This bag contains a piece of golden fruit. Eating this will add +2 to Presence and +1 to an attribute of the player’s choice.
The bag itself is magic also. Any broken object that is placed in it will be mended. It will not mend enchantments or living things however.
Continuing on
Zain will direct the party to a path that runs past the lake. The path, they say, will lead the characters back to one of the roads which they must follow until they reach the city. The city isn’t far; they will see it when they reach the road.
Rewards
Participating in Zain’s game gains each character 3XP
Winning the game adds another 1XP to the successful character.
The Lovers
I saw a blooming garden in a green valley, surrounded by soft blue hills.
In the garden I saw a Man and a Woman naked and beautiful. They loved each other and their Love was their service to the Great Conception, a prayer and a sacrifice; through It they communed with God, through It they received the highest revelations; in Its light the deepest truths came to them; the magic world opened its gate; elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes came openly to them; the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, plant and animal, and the four elements--fire, water, air and earth-served them.
Through their Love they saw the mystery of the world's equilibrium, and that they themselves were a symbol and expression of this balance. Two triangles united in them into a six-pointed star. Two magnets melted into an ellipsis. They were two. The third was the Unknown Future. The three made One.
I saw the woman looking out upon the world as though enraptured with its beauty. And from the tree on which ripened golden fruit I saw a serpent creep.[paragraph continues]
It whispered in the woman's ear, and I saw her listening, smiling at first suspiciously, then with curiosity which merged into joy. Then I saw her speak to the man. I noticed that he seemed to admire only her and smiled with an expression of joy and sympathy at all she told him.
"This picture you see, is a picture of temptation and fall", said the voice. "What constitutes the Fall? Do you understand its nature"?
"Life is so good", I said, "and the world so beautiful, and this man and woman wanted to believe in the reality of the world and of themselves. They wanted to forget service and take from the world what it can give. So they made a distinction between themselves and the world. They said, 'We are here, the world is there'. And the world separated from them and became hostile."
"Yes", said the Voice, this is true. "The everlasting mistake with men is that they see the fall in love. But Love is not a fall, it is a soaring above an abyss. And the higher the flight, the more beautiful and alluring appears the earth. But that wisdom, which crawls on earth, advises belief in the earth and in the present. This is the Temptation. And the man and woman yielded to it. They dropped from the eternal realms and submitted to time and death. The balance was disturbed. The fairyland was closed upon them. The elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes became invisible.
The Face of God ceased to reveal Itself to them, and all things appeared upside down.
"This Fall, this first 'sin of man', repeats itself perpetually, because man continues to believe in his separateness and in the Present. And only by means of great suffering can he liberate himself from the control of time and return to Eternity--leave darkness and return to Light".
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TAROT by P D. OUSPENSKY
In the garden I saw a Man and a Woman naked and beautiful. They loved each other and their Love was their service to the Great Conception, a prayer and a sacrifice; through It they communed with God, through It they received the highest revelations; in Its light the deepest truths came to them; the magic world opened its gate; elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes came openly to them; the three kingdoms of nature, the mineral, plant and animal, and the four elements--fire, water, air and earth-served them.
Through their Love they saw the mystery of the world's equilibrium, and that they themselves were a symbol and expression of this balance. Two triangles united in them into a six-pointed star. Two magnets melted into an ellipsis. They were two. The third was the Unknown Future. The three made One.
I saw the woman looking out upon the world as though enraptured with its beauty. And from the tree on which ripened golden fruit I saw a serpent creep.[paragraph continues]
It whispered in the woman's ear, and I saw her listening, smiling at first suspiciously, then with curiosity which merged into joy. Then I saw her speak to the man. I noticed that he seemed to admire only her and smiled with an expression of joy and sympathy at all she told him.
"This picture you see, is a picture of temptation and fall", said the voice. "What constitutes the Fall? Do you understand its nature"?
"Life is so good", I said, "and the world so beautiful, and this man and woman wanted to believe in the reality of the world and of themselves. They wanted to forget service and take from the world what it can give. So they made a distinction between themselves and the world. They said, 'We are here, the world is there'. And the world separated from them and became hostile."
"Yes", said the Voice, this is true. "The everlasting mistake with men is that they see the fall in love. But Love is not a fall, it is a soaring above an abyss. And the higher the flight, the more beautiful and alluring appears the earth. But that wisdom, which crawls on earth, advises belief in the earth and in the present. This is the Temptation. And the man and woman yielded to it. They dropped from the eternal realms and submitted to time and death. The balance was disturbed. The fairyland was closed upon them. The elves, undines, sylphs and gnomes became invisible.
The Face of God ceased to reveal Itself to them, and all things appeared upside down.
"This Fall, this first 'sin of man', repeats itself perpetually, because man continues to believe in his separateness and in the Present. And only by means of great suffering can he liberate himself from the control of time and return to Eternity--leave darkness and return to Light".
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TAROT by P D. OUSPENSKY
