Hex Crawl 23 #189: The Dharvi of Ship Rock

Seven hexes northwest of Alakran.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dervishes make their debut in D&D in 1976, a mere word on the Desert Men encounter table in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement. By the release of the Monster Manual two years later, the type is described at length: a fanatic warrior order of the desert with high morale, plenty of supporting clerics, and a tendency to build fortresses. 

This usage follows the a mistaken application of the term that dates back to Britain's colonial wars. In reality the Persian term "dervish" applies to a mendicant order of ascetic mystics, Sufis for the most part, some of whom perform the famous whirling dance as part of their practice. The term was misapplied to the followers of the Sudanese religious leader, the Mahdi, during his wars against the British in the late 19th century. It is this sense, of a fanatical army, that D&D has picked up. Sometimes, when dervishes are developed in further detail for gaming, the Sufi practice mingles with the warrior idea and they are enabled to attack in a whirlwind dance with their swords -- starting, I believe, with the Complete Warrior supplement to 3rd edition, although Old School retro-fits have also been seen..

Let's escape the bounds of history, then, and call the red-robed dwellers atop the western end of Ship rock the Dharvi. These are an order of Mitraists centered on an eternally burning Sacred Flame who embrace both warrior traditions and mystical ones. There are three main fortresses to the complex, each perched on a different edge of the great terminal mesa. The path from the Bridge of Red Trial leads to a central crossroad, built about a labyrinth mosaic set in the ground that allows the traveler to choose their path at random, for three roads head off from this hub: one north, to the fortress Satu-Innassar; one west, to the main fortress Shukanum; and one south, to the fortress Shilan-Bari. Besides these three strongholds, a number of hermit huts, waypoint houses, and watchtowers dot the top of the plateau.

Shilan-Bari is the place visitors are most likely to be escorted to, a squat block of brown sandstone with battlements, central buildings, and towers. It watches over the dry plain to the south and west, and the smokes and buildings of Gesshed can be seen from its ramparts. Guests are bedded down on fragran pine-needle mattresses and served a conjured meal of rice and spiced lentils, to be eaten in contemplative silencce before conversation begins. 

Shilan-Bari has a garrison of some thirty warriors, adeptly trained, some to a high degree (average level 3). These are led by a fairly young, saintly-looking man with an aquiline nose and gold eyepatch in the shape of the Solar Disc, called Darish; he is a level 5 monk/level 4 paladin of the Dharvi. The fortress also holds the library of the sect, maintained by an old, tall woman with deep vertical lines in her face: Belessunu, level 7 cleric. 

Nearby is a way down to the desert floor, a long stout cord woven around a bronze chain, staked to the western edge of the cliff and stretched a thousand feet across and two hundred down to an anchor at the bottom. This ceaselessly guarded one-way exit is the Path of the Descending Sun. By grasping the loops at the end of a thick leather strap, one can slide down it in a few harrowing minutes. It cannot normally be ascended, and the Dharvi will undo and cast down the rope with no hesitation if it proves a threat to their security.

Also nearby is the pile of stones that marks the underground seat of the Dharvi sibyl, Kumai. Blinded by staring at the sun, her eyes are now continually covered with a pure, magical white light. She is a thin woman with long, tangled graying hair, in a robe of unfaded, bright red, who meditates continually sitting on a bronze three-legged stool in an austere cavern. Her prophecies are rare, but renowned for arriving without the slightest trace of ambiguity.

Shukanum is the largest fortress, built of red and yellow stones the size of oxcarts, a hexagonal wall with two flanking barbicans and an inner keep that houses the Sacred Flame. A bell calls the garrison of fifty warriors and twenty priests and mystics to an act of devotion, a farewell and promise to the Sun every day as it sets beyond the fortress walls. Great Elder Nablish, whose beard twines thrice around his tall and lean frame, is the keeper of the flame and the foremost exponent of mysticism on the Rock, as well as a formidable Mitraic scholar and saint (mystic level 9, cleric level 11).

Shazar of the Golden Sword, paladin level 10 and monk level 6, is the battle master and instructor who commands the training ground that is the fortress Satu-Innassar. Lean, bald, with a dense squared-off false beard of pure white, she is the best fighter on the Rock. In addition to 20 or so apprentices, she commands 20 heavy infantry behind the tall white walls dotted with arrow slits, and a troop of 24 riders on golden and brown axe-beak birds, of which 16 will be making the circuit of the fortresses at any given time in patrols of 4.