Long, long ago, before the words of men were even put to parchment, hidden amidst the vast Radoom Desert lied the Silver City of Nibios, whose walls, roads, and architecture were made of nothing other than precious metals and magnificent blue sapphire deeper than any ocean. The city was so wealthy that even the slaves ate succulent foods and drank water and wine to their hearts’ content. One day, Sultan Ali-Baboona, the benevolent ruler of Nibios, was gifted a curiously elegant lamp from a mysterious masked stranger. The sultan took it in gratitude, and as he rubbed his hands across its surface in admiration, he quickly came to learn that inside this lamp was a djinn - for it suddenly appeared from within the lamp! As many have heard, djinn grant three wishes to those who find them, so Ali-Baboona wished for all citizens, including himself and his family, of Nibios to live forever. He then told the djinn he would save his other two wishes for later. The djinn twirled his long and thin mustache, gave a mischievous smile and said “Your wish is granted, oh wise one.” Ali-Baboona then summoned the djinn back into the beautiful lamp, and his wish was granted. However, now several thousand years later, Nibios is nothing more than a pile of filth and rubble, and the sultan and his subjects have slowly transformed over the centuries into hideous and clumsy creatures who have been denied the gift of death.
Ali-Baboona, seeing what had become of his beautiful wife and son due to his myopic ambition, in a desperate, futile attempt to rid them from his sight and memory, decided to eat them. This, of course, did not work, and they can now only be described as large piles of living excrement. Disgusted and ashamed with himself, the sultan sought the djinn in the lamp to unwish his first wish, only to learn that the lamp was empty.
Over the centuries, while sages and travelers were still infrequently traveling to Nibios, Ali-Baboona was told that a djinn was said to be buried within the tomb of a long-forgotten pharaohess of a now-dead civilization. The pharaohess had come in possession of her own djinn trapped inside a magnificent jewel, and after having used two wishes, she - thinking herself clever - wished for more wishes. As Ali-Baboona understands, this wish essentially stole his djinn away from him and allowed the one trapped in the jewel to escape. It is said that the pharaohess went mad (a common side-effect of wishing for more wishes) and soon thereafter died. A great tomb was built for her and filled with her treasures that have been skillfully guarded. It is said that the jewel was her most precious possession, and so it was placed in her sarcophagi with her.
As word spread further of Nibios’ degradation, traveling merchants stopped their visits, and Ali-Baboona was forced to beg whenever lost travelers regrettably found themselves within his walls. Most who came were thieves who could easily take whatever they wanted until the magnificent city was nothing more than crumbled foundations.
You are the first to enter Nibios’ gates in hundreds of years. Ali-Baboona has asked you to retrieve the djinn in the jewel. If you return to Nibios with it, he has promised to save one of his wishes on your behalf.
