Kastajhan was the greatest sorcerer in Constantinople. He lived in the 15th century at the time when the Ottoman Empire destroyed the Byzantine Empire. Kastajhan was able to vault mountains, speak with the dead, walk on water, and cast the sun from his eyes. However, Kastajhan's greatest longing was for immortality. He searched endlessly for a clue to eternal life, a lead to the Well of Eternity. He scoured every great library, consulted with wise hermits and travelled on great quests.

On his last quest Kastajhan headed towards the rising of the sun in search of a whisper of a rumour of a memory of a man nearly three hundred years young. After five years of perilous journey and exciting adventure, Kastajhan eventually found the old man - and with him the Well of Eternity.

Upon his return the sultan commissioned a carpet to celebrate Kastajhan's success. The carpet was to incorporate the route of the journey, a map leading to the Well of Eternity. The carpet took a year to complete, and then the sultan ordered Kastajhan's death. One thousand assassins were sent to kill him and steal the carpet. That night terrible screams echoed across the city as one by one the assassins failed. By morning, everything was quiet.

Eventually, someone ventured into the sorcerer's home. There they found a dozen corpses plus a hundred man-sized scars, marks and burns etched into the walls. Of the other eight-hundred and eighty-eight assassins, there was no sign. Kastajhan was also dead, unmarked, lying on the carpet, his face contorted in agony.

The sultan then took the carpet and gave it to one of his scholars. He demanded to know where the Well of Eternity was. Four days later the scholar was dead, found brutally hacked to death. The carpet had gone.

A few historical texts mention the carpet. Death always surrounds it, sometimes worse. One report from the 17th century mentions a huge monster with five arms and nine eyes that sprang from the carpet to kill an entire village.

The last recorded sighting of the carpet was by the explorer Sir Richard Burton when he entered Mecca in 1853 disguised as a Muslim. There, he met a man with pale eyes who told him the legend of Kastajhan's carpet. Two weeks later, Burton spotted what appeared to be the carpet owned by a beggar. He tried to buy it, but the beggar would not sell. When Burton came back with more to offer, the beggar was gone.

The Man with Pale Eyes

Associated with the carpet is Cherad, a man with strange eyes. At first glance Cherad's eyes appear to be without irises, but inspection reveals that his irises are just very, very pale. Possibly blue, possibly grey. Cherad is unusual in other ways - he is almost 6'8" tall and gaunt with it, grey-ish leathery skin pulled tight over a lean frame.

Cherad is a man of few words. He often appears slow to react, but his eyes reveal a cat-like alertness.

Campaign Options

The above was developed with a historical campaign in mind. For some games, this history will need to be modified a little. Below are several campaign options. It would not be hard to convert these into further options, or perhaps combine them all.

Fantasy

The carpet is perhaps twelve by ten feet in size. Around its edge are writings in a forgotten language. The centre of the rug is woven in some kind of abstract design and inhabited by the spirit of the sorcerer Kastajhan.
Kastajhan's spirit can be communicated with once the writing has been translated. This describes a simple ritual for speaking to it. However, Kastajhan's immortal spirit is quite insane and little sense can be made.

The Sorcerer: Cherad, the man with the pale eyes, is a sorcerer searching for the carpet. In particular, he believes it holds the key to immortality, and he is desperate to find it. If he chances across the PCs he will let them know that he is interested in the carpet, should they happen across it. If Cherad discovers the location of the carpet then he may hire the group to retrieve it.

The Gift: The carpet may fall into the characters' hands in several ways. First, they might stumble across it in an old shop, or it might be booty from a raid somewhere. Alternatively, it might be part of a gift of thanks, perhaps from an old wise man or wily merchant. The PCs still have to translate the writing before anything can be made of the carpet.

The Fortune-Teller: An old woman has a fortune-telling stall at a travelling fair. She uses a pack of cards, similar to tarot cards, and the reading is done on the carpet. Somehow, the magics in the carpet manage to provide her readings with a degree of truth. Sometimes, for a fee, she invites the oracle to speak. When this happens she invokes Kastajhan's spirit, which then says a few meaningless words, enough to please her clients.

Horror

The carpet is an assassin's weapon, the prized possession of an unpleasant cult. The carpet is quite small, barely six feet by two. In the centre is an abstract pattern into which people see different things at different times. Around the edges is a oddly twisting line that is actually a written chant. The chant is in a language long dead and rarely written about.

Cherad is the cult's chief assassin and takes care of the carpet. He is never very far from it, especially when it is in use. To take affect, the target needs to be standing on the carpet while the chant is intoned twice. The chant can be intoned by anyone, anywhere. The victim will then die shortly afterwards. A fatal accident, heart attack, infection, it could be any one of a dozen ways.

For a few days after the death of the victim, some claim to see the victim's face in the carpet's pattern. A week later (should Cherad not have reclaimed his carpet by then) and the face has vanished into the pattern.

Moving: One of the characters is moving house. Unexpectedly, as he sifts through everything he comes across an item that has appeared during the move - an old and faded carpet. It might be a mistake, or he might be lined up for assassination.

A Mysterious Death: The characters are talking to a mutual friend, a collector of antiques. Today he is especially pleased as he managed to come across a valuable item - the carpet of Kastajhan. He bought it in
a small junk shop in the city. Two days later he is dead, and the carpet is missing.

The Old Book: One of the characters discovers a picture of the carpet in an old and musty tome. It is not described except as the Blood Carpet of Kastajhan, a deadly weapon of an old cult. The chant is reproduced faithfully, but not translated.

Cyberpunk

Istanbul Electronics is a small but reputable hardware company. The board of directors are all members of a wealthy Turkish family. Recently they have traced their lineage back to the great sorcerer Kastajhan himself, and are now interested in finding the carpet.

Cherad is the company 'fixer' and has been charged with the task of finding the carpet and returning it to the family. The board are prepared to pay a princely sum, but Cherad considers the money only as a last resort. Cherad is heavily augmented and implanted, and very dangerous.

The carpet itself is quite modest, being of fairly traditional design. There is no sign of a map. However, the carpet is a source of bad luck, particularly where injuries are concerned. Small cuts become infected, light wounds develop complications. Increase the severity of any wound caused in the presence of the carpet.

The Gang: The carpet is kept by an old man in one of the sprawls. The old man runs a junk shop in the centre of razor-gang territory. The gang use his shop for information and specialist hardware. In return, they protect the old man and his property. Cherad has discovered the carpet's location, but evaluates a direct strike too risky. Instead he hires the characters to perform the dirty work.

Bad Company: A rival company offers Istanbul Electronics information leading to the carpet. But there is a price - marriage between the two companies families, joining them forever. Before that happens, Cherad hires the PCs to raid the company to find the information.

The Collector: An old antiques collector is intrigued by the sudden interest in the carpet. He offers money for information leading to the carpet's discovery, and hires the PCs to find it. If they retrieve it for him he thanks them and pays them handsomely. When the PCs ask his name, he smiles and whispers one word: Kastajhan. He is never seen again.

Science Fiction

Kastajhan's carpet is actually an ancient alien relic. It has a texture quite unlike earthly carpets, and is decorated in a way almost unpleasant to the eye. The carpet is a mish-mash of patterns and vibrant colours all competing for position. This strange pattern is actually a star-map of sorts pointing towards a small moon in a lonely system. There immortality awaits.

The legend of the carpet was brought to human knowledge when Burton mentioned it in his diaries. From these diaries the carpet has aroused the interest of Cherad, a rich collector of alien antiquities. He not only wants the carpet, he wants immortality.

The Alien: An old and wise alien approaches the player characters to hire them as escorts. He needs guides to help him through human space. He has with him an old carpet, something he keeps with him at all times. Eventually he trusts the PCs enough to explain about Kastajhan. He is venturing into human space to consult with some of the great wise humans. Perhaps they can decipher the map and find the treasure.

The Ride: A young alien believes he has copied the map on the carpet and identified the location of the treasure. He relates the legend to the PCs (who own a starship), along with where he saw the real carpet long enough to make a copy. He tells them that the map leads to great treasure. The map points to a distant system, well away from trading routes.

The Steal: Cherad has traced the carpet to an alien trading house. He needs that family checked out in detail, to see if they have the carpet. Cherad does not want to ask directly for that might arouse suspicion. Instead he anonymously hires the players to do his dirty work for him. The trading house is a family business and has little to do with humans.

Copyright (c) 1993 Steve Hatherley

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