Gilgamesh and the Golden Palace of Za-Hadrash - Introduction - Part Nine

   Previous installments:

• Introduction - Part One
• Introduction - Part Two
• Introduction - Part Three
• Introduction - Part Four
• Introduction - Part Five
• Introduction - Part Six
• Introduction - Part Seven
• Introduction - Part Eight

Another player character appears in the tale at this point: Cerys Landry, no mere dancer but a powerful sorceress; the mandolin player is her pixie familiar, cohort and constant companion Echo.  The half-ogres that get a brief mention are also PC's, Leguzh Leafcrusher and Baurig the Free.  The woman with the bear is Reynardia Yargrove, the Great Druidess of the Sheldomar Valley and a canonical World of Greyhawk NPC.  

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Their target was now sat on her haunches on the grass and was catching her breath. The swirling pattern on her skin was fading. They moved in around her and Gilgamesh ended their Etherealness.

What the interlopers from Uruk had failed to recognize, being unfamiliar with local hazards, was the nature of the space the dancer's performance had taken place in:

A faerie ring.

And none of them possessed fey blood…so the ring immediately afflicted them with wild magic of a chaotic nature.

Gilgamesh was attacked by a Finger of Death effect, which naturally he shrugged off with little effort, being famous for his immense constitution.

Sumu-Abum never made it to the Material plane; he found himself trapped in a shifting, confusing Maze of shimmering walls of force.

Ed-Wyna felt the paralyzing influence of a Temporal Stasis wash over her, which she successfully willed away before she became entirely frozen.

Ur-Zababa was afflicted by a Horrid Wilting. His skin cracked and parched and he felt the effects of extreme dehydration, that might have killed a lesser man.

Ed-Wyna unleashed her Rope of Entanglement on the surprised woman. It lashed around her pinning her upper arms against her torso and then snaked down around her thighs and tied her ankles together.

Immediately a commotion sprang up around them. “Damn, where is Sumu with his Silence spell?”

Ur-Zababa, grunting hoarsely from his parched throat, grabbed the girl’s shoulders with skin peeling from his hands. Yet she just twisted away and slipped out of his grasp like an eel, her agility apparently unhindered by the ropes that bound her.

Gilgamesh realized things were going to be more difficult than they had hoped, so he adapted the plan: he opened the Gate underneath her. And so she would have a soft landing, he (naturally) opened it into his royal bedchamber, directly over his bed. Where a startled-looking #2 wife Bam-Ninki was already lying, evidently awaiting his return (he’d only gone out to kill a giant centipede, for goodness’ sake, what sort of time did he call this?)

But she did not fall; she just hovered over the Gate, magically suspended in the air. Someone would have to shove her through.

“Grab her, Bam!” he cried. Bam-Ninki’s expression was a mixture of shock and disapproval, as she had evidently hoped to have her King all to herself tonight in Uruk.

Then many things happened at once, before Bam could react to his command. Tiny arrows began raining on them from all sides, from invisible assailants. The few that penetrated their defenses carried some kind of sleep poison, which they were all able to resist. Several Deep Slumber spells went off on them, but they were all too hardened to succumb to such magic. Squawking birds rained Colour Sprays on them. The dark-haired mandolin player was suddenly next to Gilgamesh in the blink of an eye and she touched him. He was able to shrug off the Otto’s Irresistible Dance – not so irresistible in his case, for he was famous for being resistant to such compulsions, of course. Ed-Wyna, however, did succumb to the touch of an invisible assailant and she began helplessly dancing a jig. A half-man half-cricket thing struck up a tune, calling “That’s the spirit!”

Outside the circle, the handsome brunette with the bear companion had a look of great anger on her features; she swiftly cast a spell on her bear, and its claws lengthened and its muscles bulged, magically enhanced for battle. Then she changed into a similarly large ferocious looking bear, herself. As the two of them lollopped up the hillside to aid the golden-haired one the elven bard gestured towards them and cast a spell that made both of them grow to Huge size. The galloping of centaur hooves was heard also and two large arrows glanced off Gilgamesh’ breastplate, knocking him back just a little though they would have skewered a normal man. The half-ogres had also snatched up their weapons and were moving in to do battle.

Roots suddenly lashed up out of the ground and struck at Ur-Zababa viciously, drawing blood; then a huge Air Elemental appeared from nowhere and grabbed him, lifting him into the air.

The golden haired woman, Cerys Landry – for it was indeed she – had at first been bewildered and taken by surprise; then her surprise turned to a look of annoyance. She looked down to see a richly appointed royal bed beneath her and the startled young lady. Then she glanced up and down at Gilgamesh, and her expression changed again. She shrugged an arm free of the entangling rope without difficulty and gestured towards the Air Elemental that had seized Ur-Zababa and said in Auran, the language of the air elementals – which Gilgamesh spoke fluently, himself – “Don’t kill him.”

She looked up at Gilgamesh with large, lustrous eyes and a smile upon her soft ruby lips that could melt men’s very souls.

“This might be the done thing where you come from, but I like to at least know someone’s name before I let them tie me up.”

“Lady, I am Gilgamesh, son of Lugalbanda, King of Uruk, who your King Sunaeco has wronged most grievously.”

“Well, Gilgamesh of Uruk, you don’t look like a habitual kidnapper, so before things get too unpleasant how about we just sit down together and have a chat instead?” she intoned huskily.

And this seemed to Gilgamesh, a highly reasonable suggestion, after all.

He flung out his arms, and exclaimed in a booming voice:

“Ed-Wyna, Ur-Zababa, Sumu if you can hear me; I have changed my mind. I will talk with this woman instead.”

Gilgamesh was, after all, famous for changing his mind.

Cerys easily shrugged the Rope of Entanglement from about her arms and shoulders, demonstrating that it had never really been a hindrance.  By now, Bam-Ninki had managed to stand up on the bed, and was clutching, rather ineffectually, at Cerys’ legs. Cerys glanced down at her and shook her head.  A faint but unmistakable hint of icy menace to creep into her voice. 

“Don’t do that, dear.”