The Emerald

In Basra, a young man is running haphazardly through the streets, a number of guards are following him. The man rounds a corner and quickly slips in the door to a tavern. He leans against the wall, trying to regain his breath. Outside, the guards run past the tavern. The man waits until the guards are gone, and he looks around. He notices five people sitting around a table in the far end of the room, and he walks towards them.

Sinbad, Maeve, Rongar and Firouz sat and listened to Doubar, telling eagerly about a time when he had learned some "thieves" and "heathens" who had been insulting him, some manners. Then a man came over to them. "Are you Sinbad?" the man asks, looking at Sinbad. "I am. Who wants to know?" "Thank the Gods I should meet you here. You must help me!" Wait a minute, sit down, we'll buy you some beer, and you can tell us what's wrong, ok?" Sinbad looked at the man who a bit unwillingly sat down and accepted the beer Doubar brought him. "Sooner or later the guards will find me, we have to hurry." "How come the guards are after you?" Sinbad asked. "Well, you see.... One of the richest merchants has been robbed, and now the guards are searching everyone to find the guilty. And because of this...." the man took out a bag, in it was a beautiful emerald. "...because I had this on me they thought I was the robber." "No wonder." Firouz exclaimed. "That is the biggest emerald I've ever seen." "But I found this emerald.. I don't know who owns it. I tried to explain this to the guards, but, ecpecially since there was an emerald among the things stolen from the merchant, they wouldn't listen to me. So I ran off, and... now I'm here." "You seem to have gotten into quite a mess" Maeve said. "I was hoping you could help me find the real thief." the man said. Sinbad looked at his crewmates. They nodded. Sinbad turned to the man, "Ok, we'll help you."

The crew found a disguise to the man, so that he could get back to the ship with them without being recognized. On their way back to the ship, Dermott suddenly flew off Maeves arm. "Dermott? Were are you going?" Maeve asked. *follow me sister, to Chairpra* Dermott spoke in mindvoice. "I'll go after Dermott" Maeve said to the others, and turned to follow him. At the house where Chairpra lived, Maeve knocked on the door, and gently opened it. "Chairpra? Are you here?" "Come in Maeve" Chairpra answered "there's something I must tell you." Maeve sat down "What, is something wrong?" "I've been watching you for some time, and I saw what happened in the tavern. I fear there's a demon involved in this." "What, are you saying the man we met's a demon?" Maeve asked. "No, not the man you met. The merchant he was talking about." Chairpra handed a book to Maeve. "Read this" Maeve read in the book. "So there is this demon, a ghoul of some sort, who disguises himself as a merchant or some other rich person, and then he pretends he's been robbed, just in hope that some innocent person is taken for the crime." Chairpra nodded. "And if that person ends up being executed, the ghoul..." "he feeds from the dead....." Maeve ended. "Yes, and make sure that someone is found with his riches, he hides away things for people to find them." "Like the emerald.." Maeve said "I have to go and tell Sinbad and the others about this."

"So.. I don't even know your name." Sinbad said to the man once they were onboard the ship. "My name is Delmor, and I'm a sailor, like yourselves." "And where did you find that emerald?" Doubar asked. "A couple of days ago, I noticed a strange rock, it looked so green, but I didn't see that it was an emerald because it was so dirty, but I took it with me, and I washed it." "Sinbad! Sinbad!" Maeve came running. "Maeve! what is it?" "Sinbad, I think I know what's going on here." Maeve told about what she had found out with Chairpra. "So it's a ghoul, like Vatek?" Sinbad asked. "Something like that. "Well, we'll just have to find this merchant then." Sinbad said.

It wasn't all that hard to find the merchant. Delmor had told the crew where the merchant lived, and when they got there they saw him arguing with some guards. "What!! You mean you haven't found him yet?" "Sorry, he ran away, and..." "Well, keep looking, he couldn't have gone that far." The guards left, and the crew went over to the merchant. Delmor came behind them, wearing a cloak which hid his face. "Greetings sir, I am Sinbad" "Sinbad? The great adventurer? I've heard about your travels. What brings you here?" "Well, I've heard about your riches being stolen, and would like to help." "If you and your crew can find the thief, I'll be grateful. These guards seems to find nothing." "Consider it done. We'll ask the guards what to look for." The crew left, and went back to "the Nomad". "The first part of the plan is successfully accomplished." Sinbad said. "Now we just have to wait"

Later that day the crew went back to the merchant. "We've found the thief, and he had this on him." Sinbad said, and handed the emerald to the merchant. "My emerald.... Where is the thief?" "There was a fight, and I killed him." Sinbad said. "To know you speak the truth, may I see his body?" The merchant asked. "We'll bury him tomorrow." Firouz said. "We left his body down at the harbor." Doubar said. "Do you want to come with us and see him" Maeve asked. "No need, I believe you." the merchant said. "But I'll come down there tomorrow, and I'll bring something to you, a reward for finding the robber." The crew went back to the ship to prepare themselves for the next part of the plan.

That night, a shadowy creature slowly made it's way through the dark, and down to the harbor. The creature spotted something wrapped in a blanket, and made it's way over to it. The creature didn't notice another shadow which slowly came up behind it. "So, now we see your true self." Sinbad said. The creature quickly turned. The rest of the crew came out from where they were hiding. "Game's over, ghoul. I know all about your little game." "Well, well, what a pity you won't be able to tell anyone else." "Don't be so sure, demon." Sinbad drew his saber and walks toward him, the rest of the crew comes from the other sides. "Hah, fools all." The ghoul waves a hand, and all of them are frozen. "Looks like I'm going to have a big meal tonight." The ghoul walks towards Sinbad, a red light starts glowing from his hands. Suddenly a white wave of magic hits the ghoul and he flies backwards, and lies still on the ground. The spell on the crew disappear. Maeve notices the woman standing behind them. "Chairpra!" Doubar suddenly discovers that the ghoul is starting to move. "Sinbad, the demon..." Sinbad turned and saw a red bolt staring to form in the ghoul's hand. Sinbad leaped forward, "Go back to the hell you came from!" he shouted, and cut the ghouls head off. He vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Next morning the crew were talking to Chairpra and Delmor. "I have explained everything to Omar" Chairpra said. "Everything is settled now." "But what about the ghoul's riches?" Doubar asked. "Those were the ghoul's." Chairpra said. "And Omar said that since Sinbad killed the ghoul, he could keep them." "Well.." Sinbad said, we could need some of it to buy food and supplies. But the rest... give it to those who needs it. And Delmor... you can keep the emerald...since you found it."