Underwater City of Gold
Airy watre float down to the city. It is on a big underwater plateau, ruined and very old. We find the remainsof a golden palace and a set of gates with a very well-preserved statue on top. They lead to a set of (trapped) stairs going down. The statue has a crown and scepter at his feet, is holding a scroll and is pointing at the scroll.
Quiteria saves a sample of palace rock to talk to later. The scroll is written in some sort of pre-Babel babble, but Af-Af manages to decode it into Hebrew. It says "My name is Death, in mercy the gods appointed me."
We Part Water to dry things out a bit, dispel the traps and head downstairs. Everything is build on a bigger scale, as though the city's inhabitants were about 20 feet tall. We come to a room full (emphasis on full) of fairly fresh blood. There is an enormous creature fighting a naked unarmed man in front of a huge marble throne, in which an invisible man is bound with visible chains. He has blue wings and wet robes. The naked man is strangely dry. The monster has horns, many rows of teeth, and two snake tails for legs. He bites the man in half before we can stop him, then turns on us.
Harald chops off the monster's head, which he doesn't seem to mind very much. Quiteria burns it to ash, which bothers him more, and we all jump into the fray. Many blows and a fireball later the monster is down, but regenerating. We burn the pieces and that appears to be the last of him.
The naked man from before reappears, no longer in halves, and speaks to us in Hindi. He thanks us for saving him - he is cursed with immortality and has spent the last year or so continuously fighting and being eaten by this monster. He identifies himself as Ladderlad, and happily receives Gerbertus's debt of 7gp. He appears to be in his fourties, and looks pallid and harried. He talks like a commoner. We give him some clothes and chat for a while.
Ladderlad came here to free his son-in-law Arenea, the guy chained on the throne. He was chained there by Ladderlad's arch-nemesis, the lich Arvalon. Many years ago Arvalon attacked Ladderlad's daughter. Laddelad killed him but his father lichified him and her returned. Ladderlad himself is untouchable by air or water, cannot eat or sleep, and lives a life of eternal suffering. Arnea is a Yaksha from Alaka. He knows Okba, and says he's probably dead. His workshop is near lake Gosakunda - a lake dug out by Shiva's trident in the Pala Empire. Af-Af knows where it is.
We pull at Arvalon's chains to no avail, try shrinking him but that doesn't work either. Harald lends him his tooth and the metal passes through him, allowing him to escape. They tell us a bit more about this city.
This is Mahabalapur, once the city of Demon lord Bali, who conquered the whole world. He comes back once a year to hear his praises sung. Ladderlad came here looking for Ubaratutu - the guy who has not necessarily joined the Circle of Liches organized by Utpala.
Ladderlad doesn't know why the Unknown men got mad at Harald, but offers to help us make friends.
On our way out we find some giant enthroned mummies with jeweled scepters. Quiteria dominates three of them, who hold back the other four and give us a shiny scepter. We head outside and close the mummies back in. Arnea disappears to get some stuff, and returns with a golden cage and a bone lyre. If we play the lyre he will come help us. The cage holds a small gold mongoose named Fury. If we follow his path he will lead us safely through India. He will stay with us for a week, starting now.
