The saga continues. NB, Sunaeco happens to be an aquatic elf character of my own. He briefly appeared in a prior adventure I ran, "Diplomacy", when he was fetched in across the planes by the PC party to take part in a high-diving contest on their behalf (they had other options, but decided he was their best bet). There, he met the widowed Janni princess Mishari Al-Khalifa, and exchanged pleasantries. Sunaeco is at a time in his life where he is beginning to think he should plant some roots and raise a dynasty. On hearing that she had emerged from her period of mourning her late husband's heroic death, and was "on the market" so to speak, he decided to pay suit to her, she being a lady of exceptional beauty, talents and wealth. The dry remarks of some observers that she was perhaps a little out of his league notwithstanding. I have been using my social mechanics rules to determine the outcome of his advances, matched against a number of other potential husbands she may be interested in...which gave me the idea to use this as a hook for this adventure, details of which will become evident on further reading.
Previous installments:
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They arrived at the cave not long after the Janni response, a patrol of Janni Mameluks led by one Bey Jibran Barakas. Their trackers were examining the signs of a recent struggle. The effects of the passage of the earthquake centipede-daeva were evident, and the shaking of its passage had made other signs harder to read. The remains of four slain guards, crumbling piles of dust in armour, had been found near the entrance, two on the material plane, two on the ethereal. The main thing that could be discerned about their deaths was that they were slain quickly, and not by the mandibles of the giant insect which would have torn their armour much more severely and imprecisely. It was most likely they all died very quickly indeed, such that none of them escaped.
The insectile monster was not the only creature to have emerged from the cave. A small horde of leaping, gibbering minor daevas of the weakest kind had come with it. The Janni called them the Aesma. The pack had separated from the centipede and while it had veered northwards into Gilgamesh’ kingdom, the aesma horde went south and set upon a Janni caravan.
Individually the Aesma were far easier than the centipede to destroy, for they carried the seed of their own destruction within them: a mortal blow would cause them to explode. There was literally nothing left to regenerate.
“The centipede’s poison may have slain the guards on the material plane, but I think it unlikely they would all succumb at the same time and all have been felled here where they stood. There are places where their armour has been pierced by the thrust of a blade or spear point, and it appears their attackers struck precise blows at vital organs.
“The walls of stone blocking the passage downwards have been breached, by magical means, perhaps some kind of disintegration magic.”
“Have you ventured down into the depths yet?” Gilgamesh asked of Barakas.
“Not as yet, your Highness.”
“Let’s all go together and see what we find. But I agree that the signs point to this being a deliberate act. If it is anyone from my Kingdom who has wrought this mischief, their punishment will make the gods tremble.”
Down into the depths of the mountain they plunged, reassured that there were no apparent side passages by which they might be ambushed or cut off and surrounded. Barakas knew the wards that would be expected and the passwords to bypass them, but some checks revealed that they had already been discharged or dispelled.
At last they arrived in the huge vaulted cavern where lay the fabled Palace of Za-Hadrash. A beautiful, bejeweled structure behind great shimmering translucent walls of some kind of magical force, that were decorative in the manner of stained glass as well as being effective at keeping in creatures that might emerge from the Chinvat Gate – a device somewhere within that palace – into the material realm.
As Gilgamesh stepped into the cavern, a mouth suddenly appeared on a stone pillar nearby, causing everyone to flinch reflexively and ready their weapons.
The mouth spoke, in Celestial.
“A private message for King Gilgamesh of Uruk and he alone will be delivered in this cavern. If he stands within, and alone.”
Gilgamesh translated these words for his companions.
“It’s a trap!” exclaimed Ed-Wyna. “Don’t do it, Father.”
“I concur with the Marshal.” Said Sumu-Abum. “It is too dangerous.”
“Gilgamesh does not fear danger” said the King. “Someone wishes to speak with me, then I will hear their words. Perhaps all that has happened today has been simply to get my attention. We could bring an army of soothsayers and scholars here to spend the next three weeks deliberating over what happened and what the message might have been. Or I could do as the mouth said and find out in three minutes. But just in case…Sumu, use your Clairvoyance spell to keep an eye on me from afar.”
“Yes, Oh my King.” He cast the spell and then all save Gilgamesh retreated up the passage.
At a certain point, an approximately humanoid being suddenly winked into existence close by Gilgamesh whose Khopesh was raised in an instant and ready to strike. But the being simply stood and spoke and did not make any hostile moves. It did not take the King of Uruk long to discern that this was a programmed illusion.
The being was tall, a head taller than Gilgamesh though of a leaner, more streamlined build. Of course, being an illusion, he could infer nothing about the creature’s apparent height or whether it faithfully represented a real being at all.
It was blue-skinned, with four arms. One held a spear of black metal out at its side at a jaunty angle. Harnesses about its body held various other items of equipment.
The being had an aquatic aspect to it, with webbed hands and feet, and gills, as if adapted to life in a body of water.
This struck a familiar chord in him, reminding him of certain intelligence he had managed to gather about his rivals for the hand of Mishari Al-Khalifa. A name came to mind that was shortly after confirmed by the illusion as it spoke.
“Greetings, Gilgamesh of Uruk, from one King to another. I am the great Sunaeco, King of the Sea Peoples of Oerth and your rival for the hand of Mishari Al-Khalifa. It has been a good contest between us, has it not? But now that the game draws near its conclusion, I must ensure my success at any means at my disposal. For I must have her, you understand? And I am not accustomed to losing.
“Know this: even now I am within the fabled Palace of Za-Hadrash that you see before you, conversing with dark powers through the Chinvat Gate and inviting them into your world. For I have the power to create openings in the barriers that seal the palace. You have seen the proof with your own eyes by now, I think. And I intend to permanently destroy those magical wards about the palace from within and release a Daeva horde upon your lands, unless you send word to Mishari Al-Khalifa that you are withdrawing from the contest. You have had just a small taste of the devastation that is to come if you do not comply.
“Do not speak of my involvement, or I will do the same It must be our secret. You will simply tell Mishari that you have had a change of heart and fear that you must decline before things go any further between you. You have until sundown of the Spring Equinox of your world to comply.”
That is sundown tomorrow, then, thought Gilgamesh, amidst growing outrage at some miserable lanky fish-man with a surfeit of limbs threatening to unleash death upon his people because he couldn't win the affections of a woman fair and square. Not very sportsmanlike.
“By sundown of the day I have stated - which by the time you have received this message will not be long, I think - I will know if you have not carried out my instructions, and I will then carry out my threat.”
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