Anatolian Bronze: Session 4
Secure in the knowledge that they were heading into a trackless terrain of warring tribes and desert predators to visit a sphinx in her lair, our heroes departed Bithnia the next day. Their enemies would have to mad to follow them.
Accordingly, the party which caught them up the following afternoon appeared to be mad, or at least fanatical worshippers of Baal.
"Give us the witch!" Their priestly leader called from the hilltop, "And we shall spare the rest of you!"
"Witch? I'm a student of the House of Life!" Alexo retorted.
"Aargh!" added Holgar as he charged towards the leader, completely ignoring the advance of the three swordsmen. His assessment of the situation proved to be quite correct, as Kerinos conjured entangling vines before transforming into a Dire Wolf. After a certain amount of mauling, Alexo succeeded in putting the survivors to sleep. The priest, however, proved able to inflict grievous injury upon the Galatian with his bare hands, and it took the quick action of Giallos to keep him standing. An arrow from Osina ended the fight. As the priest died, he vowed that "none shall have you!".
A short discussion of the benefits of interrogating the captives vs killing them ensued, the former course winning out when the subject proved willing to tell Holgar eveything he knew, and to take a blood oath to not trouble the party again.
Meanwhile, Alexo discovered something that he didn't know. His leader, whom he had followed into the desert on holy crusade, was not a servant of Baal. Concealed in a case about his neck was the insignia of the Egyptian deity of primeval waters. His name, Alexo remembered, was Nun.
Seeing the body, Holgar remembered him as a priest from Troy, who had been thrown out of the temple of Baal for undisclosed reasons. When Alexo suggested the party take his head and that of the dead swordsman, "to impress the tribes", the rest of the party eventually capitulated.
It may have been the stench of the roughly-cured trophies that attracted the lions some days after. When the heads were bowled at them, they were certainly happy to not follow the party any further.
After some weeks of further, uneventful travel, the party reached Helen's abode. Helen proved to be the most impressive thing that anyone present had ever seen, as she flew down from the mountain top on her outstretched wings and landed on the platform between the monoliths. Helen greeted the party politely and asked what had happened to their seventh member.
It eventuated that Helen, like all oracles, has an interesting relationship to time, space, and personal boundaries. She identified the seventh as Osina's missing sister, Maia, and said it was imperative that the party rescue her. When the party stated their perfect willingness to do this if the sphinx would tell them where, they were told that they would not succeed, but that it was necessary that they try. It was also in their future best interests to ensure that at least one witness escaped.
The party followed the sphinx's directions to a mud brick fortress overlooking a river, on what had once been the border of the old Hittite empire. There was a small but serious army of present-day Hittites attempting to reclaim the fortress from the weird religious sect that had taken up residence. Helen had further informed the party that these were fanatical worshippers of a god called Mithras, who did not in fact exist. This detail was causing them some embarrassment, which they were attempting to rectify by kidnapping young druids, who would (theoretically) retain their powers once converted.
While the party was discussing the benefits of waiting until dusk and then climbing down the cliff, Alexo noticed a set of hieroglyphs cut into a nearby rock. She translated "ENTER BY THE RIVER". An examination of the river revealed a consistent eddy that looked like it might mark an underwater cave. Osina, for whom the prediction of failure rankled, dove in immediately and discovered the hidden entrance.
It is a convenient fact of fortress design that secret entrances and dungeons are generally found in close proximity. When the rest of the party caught up to Osina, she had already located a cell containing a number of druidical children, but her sister was not among them.
"What do you mean," an irate voice proclaimed from the stairs, "we have intruders in the dungeon? I thought they'd all left!"
"I think this is a new lot, your Grace."
"All this and the Hittites too? Mithras preserve us!"
The ensuing battle was as brutal as it was brief. Giallos proved his god was real by unleashing a thunderwave up the corridor. The subsequent appearance of a Galatian and a Dire Wolf distracted the defenders from the presence of Osina, allowing her to get behind them. Alexo attempted to pepper the Hierophant with fire bolts to no success, but Osina managed much better with her bow and knives.
In the midst of the rather one-sided chaos, Osina remembered the oracle's words and pretended not to see a terrified minion escaping. She also realised that something extremely noisy and violent was taking place upstairs. The Hittites had stormed the gate! As she turned to finish off the Hierophant, she witnessed a small, greenish cloud drifting from a stand of barrels in a corner, and settling on the man's face. He keeled over, dead.
The source of this cloud proved to be bright-faced young boy, who had up till that point been hidden. "Are you Osina?" he asked. "Maia said you'd be coming." All further discussion was perforce postponed, in order to escape the invading Hittites. Alexo did contrive, however, to divest the Hierophant's corpse of his lacquered armour and a valuable carnelian ring. He did not appear to be a secret devotee of Nun.
The boy, whose name was Jason, informed the party that Maia had been taken by a strangely similar party of people who came through the hidden entrance but a day previously. Of vastly different nationalities, all their eyes had been blue. They had not seen fit to free the other children. Osina immediately set off down the river and located their trail.
The trail led to a clearing in the forest where some great magic had been worked. After examining the scorch marks, Alexo said a gateway had been opened between this world and those that lie to either side. She was quite excited about the possibility of entering the realm of the dead, but when Jason said it smelled like the Fey Wild, the party were inclined to believe him. In any case, the gate had long since closed.
Lacking other options, the party returned to Helen's lair. The presence of the young druids constrained them to eat vegetarian and accept a train of puppies, bunnies and bluebirds.
Helen consoled Osina with the prediction that her third attempt to rescue Maia would be successful and promised to advise the party when and where the blue-eyed band returned to the material plane. Furthermore, she provided the next verses of the prophecy.
You who defend the All, be joyful!
For you are not alone.
By axis divided and axis allied,
you are too.
The beast who would destroy the All
doth have three heads.
Though the heads are not often in accord
the three heads are of one beast.
Mulling this over, the party set out for Bithnia, promising to deliver the children to John of Cappadochia and another bag of rocks to Thothmes. These included sulphur, the fire stone, and something black called "coal".