Tariq Ibn Faruq

Affiliation: Al-Araf

Position: Commander

Background

You are the commander of Al-Araf, an insurgent organization fighting to free Iraq from the grasping hands of foreigners. Your path through life has been long, twisted and filled with difficulties, though none as great as what brings you here today.

You were born in Iraq several years before the fateful Gulf War of 1991. During that tumultuous time, your parents had cheered for the Western forces when they entered Iraq and joined the ill-fated Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein in the south. Within months the Western forces had withdrawn and their promised aid to those fighting against Saddam failed to fully materialize. In the aftermath your parents were part of the 400,000 Iraqis that fled or were expelled during Saddam's attempt to secure his rule.

Your parents eventually settled in London and you were raised in the large Iraqi community there. You were fed a steady diet of stories of your homeland and your imagination grew fat with them. The tales were beautiful and terrible in turn, telling of suffering, hardship and joy blended together until it was hard to tell one from the other. In each of the tales lay the seed of longing. In you this seed was well planted and its growth brought you to where you are now.

When the Second Gulf War began in March of 2003, it seemed at first as though your parents' and community's dream could come true. Iraq would be liberated from the hands of Saddam Hussein and so many Iraqis who had fled his tyranny would be able to return. You were halfway through your first and last year of university when it all began. The fire that burned in your parents when they rose up against Saddam so many years before was an inferno in you, fueled by a decade of stories and dreams.

By May you had left university behind and found employment as a translator with Aegis Defence Services, a London–based private military company. Those with a familiarity with the language and culture of Iraq were in high demand. In August you first set foot on your native land, emerging from a transport plane at the recently renamed Baghdad International Airport. For all that your views have changed on the forces that brought you here, one thing has remained constant: your certainty that you will never leave Iraq. It is your homeland, and one day you will die here.

Your faith in the good intentions of the Americans and British for Iraq died slowly, nibbled away by what you saw and heard day after day for more than four years. Disdain was the best of what most of the foreigners felt for your homeland and your people. You saw hatred and murder, rape and pillaging, week after week. For a long time you ignored it, until it could not be ignored. Then, for a time, you believed that it would be punished and stopped. Eventually, grasping at straws, you held onto the thought that a few years of this, even the worst of it, was worth eventually having a free Iraq, able to chart its own course.

You met Alya in November of 2006 at an emergency hospital Aegis forces were protecting. She was eighteen and the most beautiful girl you had ever laid your eyes upon. Her parents and younger brother had been among the 215 killed in the November 23rd attacks in Sadr City by Sunni militants. Alya had to have her left foot amputated because it was badly mangled.

Alya had other relatives before the war, but did not know how they could be found now, or even if they were alive. The past three years had turned the entire nation upside down and many people were lost or divided from their families. It left Alya alone in a dangerous city in a divided nation in a troubled world. In the long months of rehabilitation and care Alya received at the hospital, the two of you grew close. She became a bright light in a world that had steadily become darker. You became her protector.

In late spring of 2007, the two of you were wed. It was a small ceremony, done in the traditional fashion. Neither of you had many friends, but they were all there. All things seemed possible. It was the happiest day of your life. It is a bright flame in your memory now, one that hurts so very much to touch.

Alya was raped and killed on August 4th, 2007. Her body wasn't found for three days. Those three days were a great pit slowly opening inside of you, knowing but not accepting that she would not be coming back from the market. When she was found, you went calmly to identify her body, playing out the ritual that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been through since the war began. You were just one more Iraqi seeing a loved one bloody and lifeless for the last time.

Your spirit went with Alya when she died. You carried on as an empty shell for another month somehow. Each day when your work was done you calmly asked after the investigation into her death and then returned to your empty apartment. Somehow you managed to eat and sleep, though you remember that only as if it were a dream.

The case was quietly closed on October 6th. The investigators stopped talking and said they had other cases on which to work. You recognized that silence. You had seen it for years now. It meant that the ones responsible were the untouchables: Coalition soldiers or military contractors.

You bribed one of the investigators with your pay for the past month, six months of pay for him. He gave you copies of the case files. You looked at the faces of the three Americans who were never going to be held accountable for Alya's death and you knew what it was that you had to do.

Two months later Steve Anderson, James Rodriguez and Austin Harris died in a car bombing. You had seen and heard so much since you came here that it was easy. Aegis taught its employees about the types of threats they were likely to encounter. That information--plus what everyone learned just listening to stories--had taught you everything you needed.

You disappeared after their deaths. It was possible that their deaths would be traced back to you. More importantly, you could not stand to play any role, however minor, in supporting the forces that were occupying your homeland. You found a new type of work, seeking vengeance against all those that had despoiled your land and your people. Looking back now at those long and empty months, it is clear that you were still grieving, lashing out blindly, and quietly hoping to have your life ended for you.

Yet for all your blindness at the time, you did at long last admit to yourself that your youthful hopes for Iraq were doomed if nothing changed course. The Iraqi government was a puppet to foreign interests. The land was being plundered of its riches. And always, it was the Iraqi people who suffered the most. Much of the western world looked in horror at the figure of 5,000 western soldiers killed over the course of five years of fighting, while ignoring the fact that roughly one million Iraqis died of violence in the same time period. More than one in thirty Iraqis had been killed in the course of five years and three times that many injured.

In 2009 you met Abd-al Aziz Mamoon for the first time. Abd-al was of indeterminate age even then. He was a holy man in every sense of the word. His presence was an awesome one, evoking both a deep terror and profound humility. Abd-al told you that he had been looking for you and that you had a place in his plans. He promised a way to drive all of the foreigners from Iraq and the certainty of his simple speech rang as truth. He said only that you must be willing to risk everything, even brave Hell itself, to assure victory. You agreed quickly, understanding so very, very little of the truth of the words of Abd-al Aziz Mamoon.

Abd-al needed you to serve as the day-to-day commander of an organization he planned to create: Al-Araf. The name Al-Araf comes from the seventh Sura of the Qur'an. Araf is the fortress that separates The Garden of Paradise from The Fire of Hell. You were Abd-al's first recruit, a leader, organizer and "face" for Al-Araf. While Abd-al would give direction to Al-Araf, you would lead it.

Abd-al was a scholar, well-learned in the lore of all things, particularly ancient and esoteric matters. When first he told you that he sought to summon and command the evil jinn mentioned in the Qur'an you though him mad. Though the Qur'an does speak of such things, you had never believed in a literal interpretation. Abd-al displayed his capabilities quickly and surely though, performing what could only be called feats of magic. It was here that you first began to understand that when Abd-al spoke of braving Hell itself to the point of damning one's own soul, he had not spoken metaphorically.

In a state of shock and awe, you set about gathering the people and materials that Abd-al needed, constructing Al-Araf at his bidding over the course of several years. Many of his objectives made little sense to you, but awe and increasing belief that Abd-al could do what he promised when all else was failing drove you forward. Raids on museums for ancient artifacts, excavation of old ruins, travel to places that seemed of no importance on specific dates for rituals at specific times; all of these and more you arranged at his behest.

At last Abd-al announced that the time had come for the work of Al-Araf to begin in earnest. On the night of the winter solstice Abd-al commenced a great ritual with a number of the spiritual apprentices he had taken on. You were permitted to watch, though you knew little of what was to transpire. Every moment of it burned itself into your mind. If there was any question remaining about the state of your soul, it was gone now. What was done was more vile than anything you could ever have imagined. You still wake some nights screaming from the horror.

Abd-al brought forth a jinn of terrible power. He claimed that it was one of the most terrible that had been bound by Allah himself. Whatever it was, its powers surpassed what Abd-al had imagined. Once loose, it could not be bound by the wise man. It took the lives of two of his assistants before those remaining drove it away. The thing was loose in the world and controlled by nothing but its own taste for despoilment and evil.

You heard of the attack on a small town many miles away a week later. More than 50 people Iraqis were slain, their bodies left contaminated and twisted. The officials thought it was some form of biological or chemical weapon, but you knew the truth. It was the jinn that Abd-al Aziz Mamoon had brought forth.

Abd-al buried himself in his manuscripts and tomes for three weeks. When he emerged, he was more gaunt and terrifying than ever. His eyes burned with the fire that only mad men and holy men possess. It is here that first you questioned whether he was more of the former than the later. While he had been closeted away, a second, larger attack took place, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 Iraqis. That the new attack also claimed the lives of some number of western forces was barely notable to you as you wrestled with the notion that you had helped unleash something that could do more than drive away the foreigners, but claim the lives of your own people en mass as well.

Abd-al announced that he had discovered the means of binding the jinn that had been released. He spoke with certainty when he stated that soon the creature would do his bidding and that the occupiers would be driven out. He asked for you to arrange this very meeting today. He said that deals must be reached regarding access to certain places of power across Iraq and that prophecy spoke of this meeting and the fruits it would bear. So it came to pass that you once more set out to do the bidding of Abd-al Aziz Mamoon and gathered together representatives of the puppet Iraqi government, the military contractors, and American agents, telling them only that Al-Araf was responsible for the attacks and that you wished to discuss terms for their cessation.

As Abd-al saw you drifting from his side, he has put even more dangerous ideas in your mind. He has suggested that there are ways to bring back your beloved Alya. Life and death belong in the hands of Allah, and yet, she died not at the end of her days, but tortured by Western interlopers. You fear to let anything Abd-al does touch your beloved, but if it is true, if he can bring her back, how could you not try everything for her?

Contacts

Joseph Prince: Joseph Prince is the head of Blackwater International, a US-based military contractor. He is also a fundamentalist Christian who wants exterminate 'heathens' and convert everyone to his religion. Blackwater is the worst of the worst in terms of crimes against the Iraqi people.

Field Marshall, The Right Honorable Lord Lockwood KG: This old stuffed shirt has been running Aegis since the time you were with their mercenaries. Aegis has always been primarily interested in money. From what you've seen and heard, Lockwood is well-connected with a number of UK-based oil businesses.

Abd-al Aziz Mamoon: A holy man, a mad man, or both, Abd-al Aziz holds incredible power. You have damned yourself eternally at his behest. Despite all this, he remains the greatest possibility for an Iraq free of Westerners. Your only fear is that little of Iraq will remain for the Iraqis after his "cure".

Qamar Abd-al: The daughter of Abd-al Aziz Mamoon, Qamar is a mystery to you. Her father always keeps her close. She serves as his eyes and ears in all matters arcane, though her cheery disposition is very much at odds with her father's seriousness. The poor child knows little of life. Her father has requested that you watch over her at this meeting.

Sabriyya Nejem: The leader of significant Sunni insurgent group, Sabriyya Nejem is a potential ally. You've heard through the grapevine that he has grown increasingly fed up with the unwillingness of Sunni government officials to push for the end of western corporate and mercenary presences in Iraq.

Basit Ibn Karim: You respect Basit Ibn Karim as much as you can respect any man in the corrupt Iraqi government. He does seem to care for the Iraqi people... or perhaps it is all a politician's ruse. Regardless, he does not hold the power to make the changes that must be made. The Westerners will not allow him that power.

Wafi Nagi: You once heard this man speak ferociously, railing against the Western pillaging of Iraq. Though he was a Sunni, he seemed to care for Iraq. Of course, once he made his way into the government, his railing slowed and then stopped aside from campaign speeches. He is a traitor to the Iraqi people and nation. The militant group that put him in power doesn't even respect him anymore.

Munir Faiz: This scum is an American businessman in Iraqi clothing. He leads a group of politicians who personally profit from the ravaging of Iraq and claim it is all for the best.

Abilities, Artifacts & Resources

Stats

• Combat: 4
• HP: 5
• Sanity: 4

Glowing Cone

This glowing cone grants its possessor knowledge of the military orders of any one faction this turn. This information will grant the intervention ability to anyone possessing this knowledge. The cone may only be used once.

• Side Effect: The user suffers 3 sanity damage.

Goals

• Reduce Western influence in Iraq.
• Prevent further harm to Iraqis.
• Get safe access to (or control of) Kirkuk or Babil for Abd-al Aziz Mamoon.
• Keep Qamar safe.
• Find out more and decide whether to try to bring back Alya.