Grettir was disappointed. He had been granted a personal audience with Ptah and had rather hoped that this would be the triumphant culmination of his year long quest to find a means to rescue Nickar and the Rangers from whatever entrapped them. He had travelled to the ends of the Earth, battled armies of demons and undead, all with the idea (sent to him in a dream by Osiris) that Ptah could open the Void and create a pathway to wherever his allies were held. Ptah was ever so grateful, and gave him a gold medallion, that he could trade for a favour – just not the favour that he actually sought. Whether the genial god could not or would not do as he wished, was unclear. Ptah did seem to be trying to tell him, but frankly he had understood very little of what he was told in a speech mostly comprising what Paradoxides liked to call “gnomic utterances” that had little meaning to a plain-speaking warrior, who liked to go at philosophical arguments with his sword.
Paradoxides and Ubaron seem to have had no more luck than Grettir, but perhaps they asked more intelligent questions, for they were referred to Thoth, the God of Knowledge. Grettir and Jason went with them on a reed boat that sailed through the ether, piloted by a giant dog-headed man, to the Temple of Thoth. There the two wizards traded their amulets for a long conversation with the Ibis-headed God. As far as Grettir could make out, this was just another long monologue of gnomic utterances. The magicians occasionally nodded sagely. (He remembered that this was just the sort of thing that the swots and teachers’ pets did at the village school). The main lesson he took from Thoth’s words was the distinct possibility that if you dicked with what he called the anomaly you might disappear like the Rangers and not emerge until some considerable time in the future. Grettir had responsibilities – a wife, children, a realm to defend. It would be more than inconvenient to just disappear for a century. Who would slay all the demons that were apparently queuing up to break into MiddleEarth these days if he were unavailable for even fifty years? He did pick up on speculation that the anomaly might either be the work of a god, or the unintended consequence of some powerful magic. This latter possibility was always something he’d suspected. Nickar the Dangerous was potent and brilliant wizard but not known for his care and attention to detail and prone to Unintended Consequences. When and the wizards left Thoth’s presence, Grettir noted that Jason lingered for a private session.
One practical suggestion from Thoth was that if they wanted to look at the anomaly from the astral plain, then Grettir should be able to find his own temple – the one he and Rendip Rim had founded in Sequarl Town. So when the dog-headed man returned them to the Temple of Ptah and thence to Lydius, they borrowed the Ship of the Dead once more to seek it out. Miriam and Samuel came with it, along with Trevillion and Kolgrim. In fact Grettir was hardly needed as a pilot, they simply headed eastwards until they could see the cluster of astrally significant structures that was Chittagong. From there it was straightforward to find the shining dot that was Sequarl. The anomaly was to the southwest.
It manifested as a beam of pulsing bluish light above an island, that looked to be the summit of a broken mountain, surrounded by choppy seas. Jason went into a trance. It became apparent that he had become a devotee of Thoth (as Grettir was to Osiris and Ubaron to Isis). When he awoke he told them that the anomaly would probably burn out in an ephemeral’s lifetime, perhaps half a lifetime. They flew up to the top of the mountain and found that it ringed a deep crater, with water at the bottom. They did a few experiments, consulted Thoth once more and decided that this was it – down there was the Prime Plane. However, they rather suspected that if they went in they would find themselves decades in the future, with no way back.
On the rim they spotted, what seemed at first to be an interesting rock-formation, that they then identified as an ancient yew tree. Those with the senses for it realised that it was immensely powerful, but did not feel evil. Paradoxides woke what turned out to be an elf. She told them that her name was Delorean and she was from Elfheim, not Middle Earth. She was observing the anomaly because she thought it was beautiful and interesting. She more or less confirmed their surmise that if they went in there they would be taking a one-way trip to the future. As with the Gods with whom they had spoken, she displayed the insoucience of an ageless immortal being about the passage of time.
One interesting observation was that she had seen a Grell entering and leaving the pool. They knew little about Grell. The mountain troll they captured (Last Man Standing – E14) had mentioned them and suggested that the Grell had augmented the Orc leader, Oglog. Grettir had once fought something in the Hall of the Mountain Kings (Xorn Rider – F8) that he had thought might be a Grell. It had clothed itself in impenetrable darkness, wielded a whip that seemed similar to to Paradoxides Vorpal Blade, that chipped his sword-blade and scored his magic shield, and cast powerful magics. If he never met another, that would be quite soon enough. Comparing notes with the elf, he became more convinced that it had indeed been a Grell. Delorean had nothing very flattering to say about the Grell in general and described them as “hard-minded”.
Unwilling to take the plunge into a chancy future, the party returned to Sequarl on the Ship of the Dead. They rested up for a couple of days before setting sail for Lydius once more. En route they wanted to locate the Tower from which they had rescued Zilzana (Banishing Apep – G18), as they recalled that they had never finished looting the place, and because Grettir thought it might offer the prospect of some sort of back door into Tyros. They didn’t find a tower, but they did find a similar-sized rock with some ruins upon it. When they investigated the ruins they found a basement with demons, undead and a nagga – a magic-wielding snake woman – upon whom Grettir and his companions took out their frustrations. They never really worked out whether this was the same place but noted that much of the loot had a distinctly South Seas flavour to it. There were no secret ways from there into Tyros though.
G-21
OE Date: May 695
Characters: Grettir, Paradoxides, Ubaron, Jason, Trevillion NPCs: Kolgrim, Samuel, Miriam
Real World: March 2011; Where: Surbiton
See also Ubaron’s Diaries