THE ROAD TO OERTH
Previous installments:
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The road to Oerth was not simple. Sumu augured that it would not, in fact, be an easy task to find Sunaeco’s realm from the standpoint of the Janni oasis on that world.
Gilgamesh had certain powers of planar travel that derived from his divine ancestry; he could part the veils that lay between worlds for a short time by an effort of will but he was not empowered to open a portal to a place he had never visited before or he had no material from to act as a focus. The Janni merchant might possibly be located and pressed upon to take them to the oasis by his own means of plane shifting. That would put their feet on the ground of Oerth as a starting point. Or the merchant might provide them with some goods he had traded from that world, which would let Gilgamesh open a portal to a random location. But that would still leave them with no orientation and potentially thousands of miles from their intended destination. A map obtained locally, or from the Janni merchant if they were lucky, and a Divination might point them in the right direction. Or it might just tell them it was somewhere “off the map”. Sumu still had the ability to cast a Find The Path spell that day, but that would only be useful when they were quite close to their destination.
Ur-Zababa, meanwhile, had a Scrying prayer still ready to expend. If he had a good enough description of Sunaeco, or his matchmaker, or preferably some other being in that area that was weak willed and might not easily shrug off a scrying attempt, then he might scry on them and gain knowledge in his mind of the locale; but he had no means of planar travel and they had no means to transfer that knowledge to the mind of Gilgamesh. A verbal description was not enough.
“If you ask me, my King” Ur-Zababa mused, “the best thing to do is send word to Mishari’s people, come clean about the whole affair because you have done no wrong, and ask for their help in looking into this. You once told me her grandfather the Vizier of the Amir was a mighty wizard. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Gilgamesh shook his head. “I envy the simplicity of your mind, Ur-Zab. But it is not so simple. I have not remained King of Uruk for so long merely by the strength of my two arms. There are two reasons why I do not wish to pursue such an obvious solution.
“Reason the first, I do not know the full consequences of this Sunaeco making good on his threat. I do not fear a battle with monsters unleashed from Za-Hadrash. But I may not hold the tide back in entirety, and those waves that get past my blade might wreak havoc on my populace.
“Reason the second, it will show weakness to the Janni and Mishari in particular if we cannot deal with this ourselves. A suitor does not call on his sweetheart for favours if he wants to remain long in her affections.
“This Sunaeco – if it is he – being here, in our world, in a position to do us harm, when we have not the first idea of where his own treasured lands and possessions lie to strike back at puts us at a huge disadvantage. No, Ed-Wyna spoke rightly, our first act must be to redress that balance and we must do it ourselves.”
“I have a plan forming. Let me tell you of it, first, then let Sumu augur whether it might bring us success…”
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The omens were positive for Gilgamesh’ idea, and so they put it in motion.
First, they needed to travel to a faraway place where dwelled a blind Shedu that Gilgamesh knew of, that was blessed with oracular powers. Gilgamesh parted the veil of existence to transport his group to a place of solitude he maintained on the Plane of Radiance, a floating cyst of smoky, multi-hued crystal that had been a gift from his patron Shamash the sun god. The extreme conditions of heat on that plane were harmful to some members of his party and spells of resistance were first cast, though they were not to remain there long. The interior of the crystal was shielded from the otherwise blinding radiance without, and very beautiful. This was merely an intermediate point on their journey to the plateau where the Shedu, called Lidunnamu, dwelled with his family. Gilgamesh shortly afterwards opened the way to the Lidunnamu’s lair and greeted the creature and its kin respectfully.
Lidunnamu’s oracular powers were risky, for to activate them, it was necessary to answer a series of riddles. Success provided the answer to the question, but failure came at a forfeit of some kind or another. The information provided would be the equivalent of various divination spells, such as Commune, Legend Lore or Discern Location.
Most useful of all, was the Shedu’s ability to divine the location of, or information about, even creatures it had never itself encountered.
Lidunnamu’s information came also at a price, in addition to the potential for risk if the riddles were not correctly solved. Gilgamesh would owe the creature a quest. But the precise nature of this and its resolution will not be told here.
Fortunately, Gilgamesh and Sumu-Abum were quite accustomed to the game of riddles, and played often between them to pass the time. And so, they were able to unlock the shedu’s powers to their advantage.
Lidunnamu’s power of Discern Location would be used to obtain information about the locale they needed to reach, but it was known that this was not guaranteed of success if the subject was protected in some way by powerful spells. So first, they required a Commune to find out what target would offer them the best chance of success.
The first handful of questions soon eliminated the notion of directly discerning the location of either Sunaeco or his matchmaker Serise. Evidently, both were shielded by powerful magics such as Mind Blank.
Ur-Zababa for his scrying needed a creature of small will, likely to be an easy and unprotected scrying target, so no familiars or animal companions, that had seen Sunaeco (specifically, the Sunaeco who was Gilgamesh’ rival for the hand of Mishari) within the past day and had not traveled more than a mile from where it had last seen him. They phrased their questions to avoid directly asking things about Sunaeco or his own location or state of mind, which might be shielded from divinations. The answers to their carefully worded questions indicated that yes, at least one such an animal existed that remained in the vicinity of its last sighting.
They then asked if the creature fitting that description that had seen Sunaeco most recently, was in the world of Oerth, or else in Gilgamesh’ lands?
The Shedu’s response, was: the latter.
This was rather damning.
“Now to determine where his stronghold lies on Oerth.” Gilgamesh said grimly. “Ask about the matchmaker. She will at least know where it is, if she is not there already.”
They asked the Shedu if such a creature as had previously been specified, existed, but that had recently seen Serise Lendri the matchmaker for Sunaeco famed for her dancing skills. The answer came back: yes.
And did this creature reside on Oerth? Yes.
And was it amenable to Discern Location? Yes. Scrying? Yes.
Were there any people within a mile of this animal that had seen this woman within the past hour? Yes.
“Oh great and wise Lidunnamu, I implore thee to tell us of the location, precisely, of this creature. After I have answered the riddle you will surely now test me with.”
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