It is almost half way through May and Paradoxides is still doing hard sums in a tower in Basi. Grettir grows impatient. He thinks there is no harm in having a bit of a reconnaissance to Uskedir. Ubaron teleports himself to Atlanis with Grettir to arrive around midnight in local time. They are still a long way from Uskedir, but Grettir has brought with them the statuette that is the Nihrain Steed. Ubaron says the words of summoning and suddenly in place of the statuette is a huge black stallion. They mount up and Ubaron bids it carry them to the Temple of Ptah in Uskedir. The demon steed carries them swiflty through the night and into the following morning. Nothing broke its stride – it galloped across several wide rivers – and no eye marked its passing. It drew to a halt outside a ruined gatehouse – perhaps as close to the temple of Ptah as it could get – and turned back into its icon. Grettir and Ubaron explored the gatehouse until they were able to find a suitable teleport location. They climb to the top of the gatehouse to take in the view and see a huge ruined port city. There is an extensive harbour with an island in the centre and an impressive citadel. A Black Rock road snakes away to the south. Everywhere they look is ruined and overgrown, but here and there substantial buildings still stand, especially in the citadel. Ubaron teleports them back to Sequarl.
The next expedition there adds Wilf and Girindor to the party, along with Aurelius, and Kolgrim to bolster their teleporting and flying capability. There is also a young muscular priest of Ptah called Amon Sil, obtained via the Temple of Ptah, with a not exactly whole-hearted recommendation from the High Priest. Grettir guesses that he was the only volunteer, but there is some steel in his eye and Grettir likes the look of him. The party teleports in relays back to the gatehouse in Uskedir. From there they explore the city over several days and several separate trips.
They find Uskedir to be full of dangerous hostile plantlife and traps set by humans. They form the view that there are Imperial Special Forces operating in the ruined city and Atlanean warriors and shamans oppose them. They quickly realise that they will look like Imperials to the Atlaneans and like Atlaneans to the Imperials. On their first night in Uskedir they become acquainted with the ghouls. They come at midnight in huge numbers to attack the basement where the party have encamped. The shy away from Wilf’s holy water sprinkler and Grettir finds that he can turn whole rooms of them to dust by expending ka to banish them. However, there appear to be infinite numbers of ghouls and Grettir’s ka is finite. They teleport back to Sequarl and this sets a pattern for further exploration of the city: teleport in; spend the daylight hours exploring; return another day.
During the daytimes Girindor reconnoitres on several occasions in a range of animal and bird forms available to him. Some of these are involuntary expeditions since he is twice abandoned in Uskedir by malfunctioning teleports. (Indeed the party begin to appreciate the teleporting skills of Paradoxides compared those of the backup magicians). Girindor encounters a number of birds that he believes to be serving Atlanean shamans and slays an owl in an aerial duel. He is also pursued by an Imperial magician on a flying carpet and blasted by lightning bolts.
The interest of the Atlaneans is confirmed when a column of sixty heavy cavalry clatter up the Black Road. The party are exploring the citadel at the time and retreat to the black rock keep as the Atlaneans prepare an assault. Once more they teleport away – this time they stay away for ten days before returning. Another teleporting hazard is that their teleport locations are being systematically tampered with between trips. Luckily nothing tampers with their original teleport site at the gatehouse.
All this while, Amon Sil has been casting auguries to locate the Temple of Ptah. He is frequently thwarted in this by the overwhelming sense of fear and doom emanating from the island in the centre of the harbour. However, he does sense something in one of the towers of the citadel. They eventually find a shrine there to the gods of the old pantheon beneath a secret trap door in the basement. There they encounter an ancient priest of Ptah who converses with Grettir and Amon Sil. He explains that the Demon Lord who destroyed the city in the Fall is sleeping on the island. He also informs them that the Phthet of Ptah is in the possession of the sleeping Demon Lord. He does not recommend waking him.
Returning to Sequarl, Grettir seeks a second opinion from Rendip Rim, the High Priest of Osiris, who doubles down on the old priest of Ptah’s advice and adjures him not to risk waking the Demon Lord except at the express order of Osiris himself. Whatever is going on in Uskedir between the Atlaneans and the Imperials, if either party is trying to tamper with the Demon Lord they are either very stupid, ignorant or mad.
So Phthet of Ptah in Uskedir is inaccessible. Grettir turns his thoughts to Byzantos.
F-25
OE Date: May 694
Characters: Grettir, Girindor, Wilf, Ubaron NPCs: Kolgrim, Aurelius, Amon Sil
Real World: November 2002 ; Where: Surbiton?
See also Salrod’s Diaries