The Eternal Isle The heroes are the sons of Fatim (adopted or otherwise), a tavern owner in Baghdad. Fatim’s first wife, Noor, mother of your only sister Nadya, died during childbirth before the heroes were born. Your mother, Fatim’s second wife, Aisha, died a few years ago of a debilitating disease. Still learning about the family business, your only job is to help your father run the tavern by performing odd jobs and running errands. One night, a foreigner named Abdul, enters the tavern. Fatim greets the man like an old friend. You recall meeting this man before, but you haven’t seen him in years and don’t recognize him. Your father takes Abdul into the back meeting room where they talk for about an hour, before Fatim leads the man upstairs to a room. Returning to the common room, your father hands you a parcel bundled in cloth. He tells you to take the package to your uncle Badni, a merchant sailor, down at the city docks. In the package is an odd-looking cube and a journal written in a foreign language, and you deliver it without incident. Badni is extremely happy to get the item and examines it excitedly. Rewarding you with a few coins for your effort, Badni then calls his crew together and orders them to make preparations for departure. The next morning, a half-dozen of the Caliph’s guards arrive at the tavern. They claim to have information that places a dangerous man at the tavern last night. The description they give matches Abdul, but he is nowhere to be found. Neither is your father. The guards state that Abdul is suspected of plotting against the Caliph, and anybody caught knowingly assisting this man will be subject to punishment. With the object of their search missing, the guards take the heroes to the guard station for questioning. Their captain says, “We’ll deal with your father later,” in ominous tones. Your questioning lasts well into the afternoon, and the inquisitor doesn’t seem to care for the answers you’ve been giving him. He seems rather content to let you stew in the sweltering interrogation room until you tell him exactly what he wants to hear. Just as the inquisitor prepares to ask you the same set of questions for the umpteenth time, a guard enters the room and whispers something to him. You are let free soon thereafter – with no apology and no explanation. Returning home, you arrive to find the smoldering wreckage of the tavern. There is no evidence of a struggle, but the party does find some ignitable material nearby that indicates the fire was no accident. Your father is still nowhere in sight. With nowhere else to go, the heroes should head to the docks to find Uncle Badni. If they do not take this step, have a sailor from Badni’s ship approach them, claiming that their uncle wants to see them. At the docks, Badni explains that there are forces at work here that the heroes don’t understand, and warns them to get out of town quickly.

Seeing that they have few options, Badni invites the heroes to join his crew, assuring them that all of their questions will be answered in due time. With no sailing skill though, he tells them that they will mostly be used as a reconnaissance and exploration team. A few days later, while safely out at sea*, Badni pulls out the cube and shows it to the heroes. “This is the most important discovery in the history of the Middle East,” he says, “and here’s why”. Badni goes on to explain what’s been going on the past few days. The Order of the Golden Caliph Badni, Abdul, and Fatim are all members of a secret society named the Order of the Golden Caliph. Many years ago, the founder of this organization, Mohammed al Aziz, claims to have found a hidden chapter of the Quran in a secret chamber within an abandoned well. These new writings prophesize that the “Golden Caliph”, a man who will lead all of Arabia into a Golden Age, will return to the land if he is awakened from his rest. The Caliphates are believers in this prophecy and believe the time of the Golden Caliph is nigh. The current Caliph’s government has been disastrous. The treasury has been drained by fruitless wars, the guards extort money from commoners for protection, temples and mosques have been looted, taxes are exorbitantly high, and rumors of the Caliph’s debauchery are legendary. The people, once prosperous, can barely make ends meet. About five years ago, some of the Caliph’s bureaucrats spent the night in the tavern and espied your lovely sister Nadya. They must have reported to the Caliph about her beauty, for a few days later, the Caliph himself came to the tavern and spoke to Fatim about Nadya. Though she was only sixteen and her hand was promised to another, the Caliph took her to serve in his harem. He didn’t even bother to pay a bride price, proclaiming that Fatim should be proud his daughter was being given this wonderful opportunity. The family has not heard from Nadya since. Your father and Badni joined the organization soon thereafter, feeling that the Caliph had abused his power for long enough. Being both a heretical and treasonous organization, Caliphates have been persecuted by the government since al Aziz made his beliefs public. Constantly on the run, the group went underground fifty years ago, but continued the search for more information regarding the prophecy. Until Abdul’s arrival, only circumstantial evidence had been found to back the Order’s claims. According to Abdul’s journal, for years he had been following a promising lead in Egypt. The map he had was inaccurate at best, he had spent all of his money, and was running out of supplies.

Abdul was close to giving up when a sudden sandstorm revealed a building that had been hidden from sight. Examining it, the building closely resembled the necropolis he had been looking for. Finding a way inside, Abdul was rewarded for his patience with the discovery of the map cube. On the walls of the necropolis were writings about the Golden Caliph, among which was information regarding the first of the sacred Infinity Stones. With this information, the cube can be manipulated to show a map of where the first Infinity Stone is located. That is where Badni’s ship is headed to. *Once at sea, the Caliph will place a bounty on the heads of Badni and the PCs. Beyond the pirates and corsairs the bounty will attract, the Caliph places obstacles in the party’s way. The Map Cube and the Infinity Stones The map cube is a 4” x 4” map of the Middle East. It is jumbled most of the time, making the map printed on it illegible. When twisted and manipulated in the correct fashion, a point of light will appear on the cube, revealing the general location of each Infinity Stone. The Infinity Stones are power sources which can be used to awaken the Golden Caliph. The stones themselves are oval shaped, looking like a large egg. The middle of the egg has a band of gemstones, all the same type and cut. Each egg bears stones of a different type: Ruby, Diamond, Sapphire, Opal, Emerald, and Topaz. The gemstone band segments the stone into two pieces, allowing both the top and bottom of the stone to be turned independently of each other. Each of the six hidden Infinity Stones contains runic writing that shows how to use the map cube to point the way to the next stone. Manipulating the top and bottom of the stone separately is what gives the information necessary to operate the map cube. The Infinity Stones are spread throughout the Middle East in a pattern that forms a hexagon. Three of the stones are somewhere in the desert, while the other three are either in the Persian Gulf or in the Indian Ocean on hidden/undiscovered islands. When each Infinity Stones is found and placed in close proximity to each other, they produce a light that shows the location of Jaza’ir al-Khalidat, the Eternal Isle, the Golden Caliph’s sunken domain. The Eternal Isle is submerged within the Persian Gulf, directly in the middle of the hexagon. *One of the stones is located in a City in a Bottle. *While the Eternal Isle is rising, the Caliph and his men finally catch up to the PCs. Just as they are to be executed for heresy and treason, the Golden Caliph emerge from the sea to save the party. Even the mighty Caliph is cowed by the Golden Caliph’s divinity. The Golden Caliph rewards the party for their efforts with high-ranking jobs within the

government, saying that he will need the help of honest men to root out evil influences in the land. *After the appearance of the Golden Caliph, Fatim will emerge from the crowd to greet the party. He explains that he set the fire at the tavern himself to eliminate any evidence of his involvement with the Order and provide him with a clean getaway. He has been staying with Abdul in an Order safe house for the past few months. Fatim is proud of what his children have accomplished and looks forward to reuniting the family with Nadya (provided she is still alive). The Golden Caliph In the hidden Quran chapter, the Golden Caliph is depicted as a tall man of noble bearing wearing golden armor and a golden crown. He is to emerge from the ocean and assume leadership of all Muslims. His aura is such that all who see him will know his divinity and must fall to their knees in praise. When placed around his throne, the Infinity Stones will cause the Caliph to awaken and the Eternal Isle to rise. Once summoned from his resting place, the Golden Caliph will rid the Arab world of corruption and decadence, bringing about an age of enlightenment and peace. The Golden Caliph is actually a solar, an emissary of God sent to Earth to protect his people from evil and corrupting influences. After ruling the Caliphate for a year and setting things on a righteous path, the Caliph will disappear, returning to his slumber and leaving his hand-picked successor (perhaps one of the PCs) in control of the empire. At this same time, the map cube, the Infinity Stones, the hidden islands, and the Eternal Isle itself, will all vanish, returning to their previous locations. Everyone forgets that the items connected to the Golden Caliph were ever found and his existence goes back to being the stuff of legend and children’s tales. The Caliph will reawaken if he is sought by a new group of adventurers who seek to restore order to the land. The memories of the populace will be magically changed to remember the Golden Caliph as a good man and great ruler, who overthrew the previous regime in a bloodless coup and died after a short time in office. The altered memories are designed to make the people feel that they are in control of their own destinies, free from the overt influences of supernatural beings.