The Caliph, the Thief, his Wife, and her Baby

The Caliph, the Thief, his Wife, and her Baby was a virtual representation of a genetic memory of a member of the Alamut Brotherhood active in Baghdad during the 860s.

Description

A Hidden One is tasked with helping one of the Caliph's wives in exchange for a piece of the astrolabe.

Intel needed

• Database: A Difficult Succession
• Database: Marriage and Divorce
• Database: Caliph's Mother
• Database: Eunuchs
• Database: Harem
• Database: Kalila and Dimna
• Database: Slavery

Dialogue

Entering the Harem

The main entrance to the Harem is well guarded and only a very select few are allowed inside. To get past the guards and so that you can move around freely to locate the wife of the Caliph you will need a pretext for being inside. How will you disguise yourself?

EunuchTeacherMessenger

Pose as a Eunuch, walk past as though you belong here.

You walk past in your Eunuch robes and the guards do not even look twice. Eunuchs can move freely in and out of the Harem, this is the perfect disguise!

Pose as a teacher, tell the guards you have come to teach in the Harem.

The two guards are skeptical about your explanation, saying you are not the usual teacher. They allow you to enter, but you hear them muttering suspiciously to each other as you go inside. You notice that there are plenty of Eunuchs going in and out of the Harem, if you had disguised yourself as one you might have passed unnoticed.

Pose as a messenger, tell the guards you have a message for the Caliph's Mother.

The guards tell you to give them the message and they will get someone else to take it to the Caliph's Mother, since you cannot enter. You are forced to enter the Harem through a window and now will need to stay hidden. If you had posed as a Eunuch the guards would not have questioned you.

Upstairs, downstairs

As you make your way quietly through the Harem, looking for the slave-concubine who asked for your help, you hear a servant talking. She says to her companion that the Ummahat Al-Awlad are having a heated discussion in the next room, while all the Qahramanats are staying out of the way downstairs. The Caliph's Mother is apparently in her rooms upstairs. Which way will you go?

Ummahat Al-AwladCaliph's MotherQahramanats

Go quietly towards the next room, the woman you seek is in there.

You move quietly towards the next room, you hear raised voices belonging to several angry women. These are Ummahat Al-Awlad, slave-concubines who have given birth to a child acknowledged by the Caliph, the woman you seek must be somewhere here.

Go upstairs, the woman you seek is up there.

You slip quietly upstairs and are confronted with a very ornate locked door. You have just finished picking the lock when the Caliph's Mother opens the door and sees you. She screams and you are forced to hastily retreat back downstairs. The woman you are searching for is not the Caliph's Mother, she is the mother of the Caliph's heir - an Umm Walad.

Go downstairs, the woman you seek is down there.

You head downstairs quietly; from the shadows you observe that the Qahramanats are all female servants. The woman that you are trying to find is an Umm Walad, the title given to a slave-concubine who had given birth to a child acknowledged by the Caliph. You are forced to retrace your steps back upstairs, hopefully the woman you are looking for is still in the same room.

The Caliph's Wife

As you are trying to listen to the argument between the slave-concubines, a small hand touches your elbow - this must be the wife who wrote to the Bureau. She tells you that the other Ummahat Al-Awlad are all angry, since she is the Caliph's new favorite concubine. They fear her baby will be chosen as the Caliph's successor instead of their sons. She holds out her piece of the Astrolabe, saying she will give it to you as payment if you take her son out of here, or find a way to ensure his safety. How will you proceed?

Send the child awayDivorceGrab the piece and run

Tell her to reassure the other Ummaht Al-Awlad that she will send her son far away from the city once he is old enough.

The wife's expression clears and she agrees that this is a sensible plan. She hands you the Astrolabe piece, you've earned it for taking the risk of breaching the Harem's very guarded gates. You leave quickly and quietly, very relieved not to be trying to conceal a baby under your cloak!

Suggest that she divorce the Caliph.

The woman replies that she is only a slave-concubine and not a wife so divorce is not an option! She throws the piece of Astrolabe at you in frustration and runs off down the corridor in tears. You catch the piece and leave quickly before any guards investigate the sounds. Suggesting that she send her son away when he is older would have been a better choice for everyone.

You have no ties to this woman, all you want is the piece of the Astrolabe.

You manage to snatch the piece from her hand but she shouts in alarm as you run back down the corridor, with a large group of guards in pursuit. The Caliph shows no mercy to those who are caught in his Harem! Perhaps suggesting that the woman send her son away as soon as he is old enough would have been more tactful and less risky.

Outcome

All correct answersAt least 1 wrong answerAll wrong answers

Getting into the Harem is supposed to be difficult, you made that look very easy. Those who live and work in the Harem thought you were right where you belonged.

You leave quietly, ears strained for the sound of people coming after you. Just as you round the corner outside the Harem you hear shouts, but you are already gone. That was a little too close for comfort!

An alarm was raised as you were leaving, you were chased out of the Harem at a sprint. As you rounded a corner, you slipped, and the piece of Astrolabe falls to the ground with a clatter. You snatch it up and continue running, hoping desperately that it was not damaged.

Mission Completed! You managed to leave the Harem carrying a piece of the Astrolabe. That was well done. One more piece of the device is safely in your hands. You should prepare yourself for retrieving the next one. Good work!

Outcome

The Hidden One received the astrolabe piece as thanks for their help at the Harem.

Behind the scenes

Choices within each step were reordered based on the score given in the application's source code, from best possible choice (score of 3) to worst possible choice (score of 1). Considering the hint included in each step points towards the best answer, it is assumed that is the canon choice.