It was my coming of age ceremony today. It didn’t go well.
Some sporadic intervening entries describe Enu becoming a full-fledged Mage and recognised adult, as well as occasional insights on the descent of the town.
That blasted Lissana! As I aided Enmerkar with the daily rituals, she insisted on ‘helping’ - my foot! A full hour longer than it should have taken in the end, and it only got worse from there.
First that idiotic earth cleric Zuuthusu wanders up to the gate, blathering some nonsense about it being “our fault” the town is falling apart - as if he would know the difficulty in maintaining the protective wards! - and brings a mob with him, then Lissana of all people goes out to tell them off. Strangely enough, it seemed to work for a while, but inevitably I had to step in and solve the issue. No help from her, though - asking “What do we do?”, as if she didn’t know fine well!
Of course, a mage’s work is never done. No sooner was that resolved than an alarm bell rung at the gate, and with Sedastra and Enmerkar busy it of course fell to me to handle it. In what can only be called a boon, it turned out to be an outrider for a trading caravan headed to town, which had gotten lost some way out. Gathering a few somewhat competent individuals, I went to rescue them from their plight and bring them and their cargo safe to the town. The dust clouds grew rapidly more stormy as we left - perhaps next time someone thinks the wards are failing they ought be sent outside them for a while? - but there was a distinct point where they simply ended. Curious, and worryingly like what one might expect from a curse…
Some distance further a body was found, with a riding krakath fairly nearby engaged in fighting some sand spiders. Those armed with sticks scared them away, and the krakath led us to the caravan. A few hours later, after we had rested, we led them back to Urukag, taking care to point out where they had left the path. They were promptly taken to the Hall of the Mountain to be housed, and as one of their number was ill the Stonetalker was sent for.
Some people are never satisfied! First you brave the storms to rescue them from the Drylands after they failed to follow a clear path and got lost, then you send for the Stonetalker to cure them of their injuries, and what do they do? Grumble and ask why we don’t do more. Were the town not so desperate for trade they would have found themselves promptly shown to the gate, but as it stood I had no choice but to send Asanna to fetch Nendu. Unlike Zuuthusu, he seems to understand his place, and shows proper deference to the magi.
Once Asanna had left, though, Sedastra came to Lissana and I and said she would show us something. It seems that behind the dais in the main hall there is a passageway that leads below the town! There, deep beneath the halls, she showed us the cistern, and told us how the wells were not “running dry” - they had run dry some weeks past, and we had been providing the town with water. Whilst Enmerkar has the duty of checking the water levels, it seemed he has been shirking it - rather than filling a large area below the town, there was but a few hands of water there. Sedastra only thought to investigate herself after his response to Zuuthusu’s stirring of crowds was murder, not arrest or proper criminal procedure.
Sedastra informed us she would be taking some bonded ones to see if, perhaps, one or two of the wells might merely be silted, and could be cleared with effort. I returned to the traders, and somewhere along the way Lissana went off to do… whatever she does when left alone. Only then did I find that, in a fit of idiocy, Asanna had brought Zuuthusu as well - naturally, Enmerkar’s Bonded One, Ashu, did not take kindly to it and entered brandishing his spear. I promptly dealt with him, and so the room was cleared of earth clerics and hot-headed warriors - although the ill matriarch had apparently died in my absence.
That some of Zuuthusu’s fool followers followed Asanna in only caused further nuisance, and Enmerkar thought to enter combat personally. Strange. Riots at the gates I easily quelled by appropriate deployment of force, then went to see just where Nakurru had gotten to. The Yellow Mountain, apparently, with his Bonded One, Rabi. It can only bode ill.
The NERVE! After his failure to tend the cisterns and his warmongering Enmerkar thinks he can chastise me for neither killing nor taking captive Zuuthusu? When his bonded one interrupted my efforts to deal with the situation! We go to Ur, but I do not lead the expedition - I only hope it is the sensible Asanna, not the idiot Lissana. Of course, such hopes are foolish - she does, and so we are doomed.
[A few days of mundanery pass, noting some supplies being purchased]
Apparently some Keldians feel the need for long sentimental farewells. Of these Kissaru traders, it seems Ubar - brother of the former Matriarch - is by far the most sensible, not causing undue fuss. Kadas, the son, seems to appreciate the service we did them, but Tima, the daughter who has alas claimed the leadership, clearly doesn’t realise the risks taken to save them, and cannot get over the death of her mother. Fool.
The first problem we encountered was, surprisingly, not due to Lisanna. The pass we intended to travel through was blocked by a landslide. Were I the sort of idiot blathering about the town being doomed, I might have argued this were some sort of “trapping us, keeping us here”. As Tima did. Pripat, Asanna, and Borlun went up the mess to see how far the trouble extends, but failed to notice the Spear Cacti. Incompetence prevails. Ubar and I continue to smoke pipes, and after some consideration of options concluded taking the old pass would be the wise solution.
As the merchants rearranged cargo for a quicker ascent, Asanna noticed an individual stumbling through the desert - Aksu went to fetch them. It turned out to be Rabi, Nakurru’s Bonded One. Presumably their trip to the Yellow Mountain ended poorly. His eyes were gouged out, and his tongue lost - in the few moments before he expired, he wrote something about “Do not … door” (open or close, he was unclear) and “The Bull Bull Bull Bull Nak-”, his bond vanishing as he died. The Earth Cleric took care of the body.
The pass was narrow, unstable, bothersome, monumentally tall, and wholly lacking in water, but otherwise unremarkable . The Brilliance came, and Nendu found a cave to shelter within. Interestingly, it contained carvings akin to those on the hall of the mountain - they depicted a square tower in the centre of a town. Strange to note, there was no writing in the room whatsoever. After the Brilliance passed, we made our way on, into a fissure in the rock. Far above us, we saw something familiar: a square tower in the ruins of a town.
My slumber was disturbed by a swarm of insects attacking the trailed body of Rabi. Clearly a mundane matter, I directed someone less important to deal with the situation. Aksu removed the surprisingly wet body (it seems Nendu’s assessment was flawed), whilst Nendu fled, taking the flies with him.
I questioned them to determine who was responsible, quickly finding - as I suspected - that the Earth Cleric was incompetent. Why Keldians listen to them I will never know. To pass the time whilst Nendu found wood to burn the body, I went to explore the city atop the cliff, with a few others (our entry was slightly delayed by a Heatflyer, which injured Asanna).
My familiar decided to feed a little on Lissana, leading her to shove me into the courtyard in front of us, where a dust devil monstrous thing attacked me. And then she kicked me. I must get a Bonded One soon, and then get revenge upon her.
With Lissana disposed of until later, it seemed appropriate to further explore the court yard. Nendu was keeping the ghost occupied, so I sent Borlun over a wall to explore further. The idiot went over the wrong wall, it turned out, but when Nendu returned the logical assumption was, of course, that he had simply wandered off, ignoring my orders. I suppose you get what you pay for. Still, we went to look for him in the cave.
It was mostly full of sand, with walls covered in rock art: keldians under triangles, as though below pyramids. In the alcove there was evidence of something having clearly been moved recently. The smashed remains of a carved pot, once having held some manner of resin, lay on the ground - clearly Lissana passed through in her huff. I sent for Anlil to examine the resin then continued on to the tower.
Anlil informed me it was some toxic resin, so I burnt it off. The Earth Cleric gave some useless orders to get past the Tornrait, so I analysed its pattern and made a better plan. Aksu, Kunlil, and I paused in a side chamber, and I had a word or two with the ghost whilst Aksu restored Kunlil’s senses. Anlil’s bravery fled, and he ran away before we even arrived. Nendu provided another convenient distraction, and we progressed onwards to the tower.
Borlun was, in fact, under a rock, poisoned by something. We took a rest whilst it left, then retrieved him. Nendu then retrieved the Tornrait’s bones, and I reclaimed a Yellow…Rod? Staff? Sidastra was never clear when she discussed it, but a treasure of the Magi. On the upper floor I found its stand, and carvings on the walls showing the Yellow Mountain, with the structure below it in full view. Keldians knelt in reverence before it, with clouds of smoke, or perhaps speech bubbles, issuing from their mouths. And, unlike the previous drawings, this one had text. Leaving it for a moment, the upstairs had merely smashed furniture, aside from a figure outside the window - the silhouetted figure of an eagle-winged keldian. Unfortunately, it vanished ’ere I could talk to it.
Atop the tower, Borlun was busy collecting bits of stuff from the Heatflyer’s nest. I surveyed the land ahead, then sighted the Yellow Mountain, far in the distance, before returning to examine the runes - thoroughly esoteric, but it seems the decoration was not such. A name: Pazuzu.
We progressed onward, soon reaching Kuthar. Lissana was, of course, a fool and incapable of seeing the correct fork was to the right, but she capitulated in the end. Shortly ’ere we arrived, Pripat and Kunlil went to investigate a tower whilst Nendu sought water - increasingly, I come to the opinion that he is remarkably useful, for an Earth Cleric, but then I am reminded of his failings: he found nothing. A further mark against Lissara, of course, is her willingly handing control of the water over to him. Idiot.
Kuthar has, of late, been rather hostile to Magi - apparently one of the Black Order was in charge and singularly failed to prevent a group of rebels from taking the town. We passed some peasants, who Lissana seemed to want to talk to. Fool. She even decided to bring the yokels with us. We passed a number of abandoned farms of no interest.
Worryingly, Kuthar seemed abandoned. We made our way into the town, heading for the centre where, I am told, there is a pool of water, the halls of judgement, and the hall of the magi. A brief encounter with feral frians took little time to clear up, and a strange sounding crack from the rock seemed worth quietly ignoring - my familiar suggested there was something magical, powerful, and very dangerous.
Signs of violence in some of the buildings suggested that whatever fell upon this town could break through walls of rock. And something appeared and injured Pripat with large teeth. And blew up a wall. Kunlil tended to the wounded.
We made our way to the market, dealing with a few frians, before encountering a naga. It attacked. I dodged.
After evading the naga’s initial assault I made my way to the pool of water, taking the opportunity to refill my water flask and wet my face. The creature, however, had snuck back whilst I was distracted, and surprised me by leaping from the pool. Through wit, guile, and social grace I persuaded it to permit me to take the treasures of the Magi from their halls, and returned to the caravan whereupon the others similarly made deals with it to acquire water. It also informed me it had been sent by [Deerkur?], who had paid it in material wealth, to take the town.
We progressed on our journey towards Wind’s Canyon, then came across a military encampment of those from Kuthar. Their leader informed us of how they had fought and bested the Naga several times, but it seemed unable to die and thus returned again and again until they fled the town. Now they were preparing to assault Wind’s Canyon in attempt to capture [Deerkur?] again.
My slumber was disturbed today by my familiar, clearly unnerved about something. The fire immediately thereafter was not especially pleasant, either. After extinguishing myself I saw to examining the damage - the sweet scented chest and feather cloak I obtained from Kuthar had, disappointingly, sustained some smoke damage, but no further important damage occurred. Interestingly, however, the yellow rod seemed to have become somehow strengthened. I must ask the Magi when we reach Ur. The Passing had come as I slept, explaining my familiar’s unease, and fortunately had brought with it a veritable rainstorm. I would have held it as reason to have Lissana’s hide if that were her sole excuse for setting fire to our tent, but she mentioned something else that, upon later reflection, sounds remarkably similar to the silhouette I thought I saw out the window of the ruined tower. Curious. After the stonetalker tended to my burns, and some discussion was had with [person in charge], we made ready to leave the camp for Winds Canyon.
I was asleep when we arrived in Winds Canyon, and learned after awaking and resolving some issue for the traders that the others from Urukag had been led off somewhere by a clerk - clearly, they had the good sense not to disturb me for something unimportant like arriving in lodgings. I took the opportunity for a stroll in the marketplace, finding as I reached the clerks’ office that I had acquired an entourage of Kunlil and someone else. Appropriately furnished with a guide, I was shortly being treated as a Mage ought be.
Dirkuur [sp?] was otherwise engaged when I arrived at the compound kept in proper order for Magi, but the staff provided comfortable waiting, food, and water. The Mage himself arrived a little later, and aside from an overeagerness to attack when we have a well-defended city in which to easier defeat the rabble from seemed altogether not unpleasant company. Certainly he has good enough sense that he brought the majority of the wealth of Kuthar here. No sign of the rest here - presumably Lissara got sidetracked by some inconsequential thing and took them with her - but no point inquiring further until after dinner.