Underwater City of Gold
Airy water float down to the city. It is on a big underwater plateau, ruined and very old. We find the remains of 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 forties, 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. The jewel on the scepter is one of the glowing diamonds of the Naga. 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.
We ask about the 4 naga cities to be hacked simultaneously. To find the Unknown Men and Rajarajachola drop Ladderlad's name and it should be fine. Some may dislike us and others like us. RRC can be found in Thanjivor (southeast india) follow strait between India and Sri Lanka north. Nolanda University to the north, best in India, had a resident Naga about 500 years ago. They have a huge library and can give us info.
Arnea takes us to Paliputra, near the university. The king is Vigrahapula, it is right on the Ganges. The city is enormous but all the buildings around us are empty, as the population has shrunk greatly. Arnea advises us that many castes have taboos against speaking with outsiders, and to be careful how we appear to anyone we wish to talk to. He and Ladderlad leave us.
We dimension door to the university, which appears to be somewhat on the decline. There are some Tibetians here learning. After much red tape and hassle Af-Af gets us an audience with some Naga scholars.
Naga and Garuda are mortal enemies. There was a Naga genocide far to the west, then the Nagas had a terrible civil war. Naga civilization mirrored India, but sparser and underground/water. Nolanda maybe named for mangrove-living Naga. After civil war Naga agreed to leave India. After the left a king of Kodambas was buried in one of their ancient cities. Kodambas from north Himalayas. This bothered the Naga so much they set a magical rule stating that entry into the inner sanctums of their temples can only be done once every 100 years. Not a particular date, but once someone (or a small party) has entered the next must wait 100 years. Also, once you have entered one city you may not enter another. The centers are designed such that they can only be accessed simultaneously from several places.
We get locations of Decca and Bodiwatti (along the Kali river). They are connected to some other cities. Maybe three cities is enough. The Naga's location is spread among the Helmet that Knows, The Eye that Sees, the Stick that Does and the Word that Opens.
Sarpasatra/Mayanpur - snake sacrifice was in Tacshacila, in Pakistan, familiar to Dawa, near where Alexander fought. It is outside the teleportation barrier.
Ganges was designed to protect India, summoned by Baghivata to wash away the troops of Semiremus. Years later thousands of cows were sacrificed, their blood formed the river Chambal, which joined the Ganges, creating a watershed dangerous to outsiders and un-teleportable. River Narmanda goes the other way. Teleportation within India should work more or less, but is a little wacky near the edges. There are still Rakshassa in Lanka.
We rest, then start our long dimension door relay towards Decca, then Thanjivor. A bird tells us to ask Nahu the Frog in Decca. We land in the woods and find a small town, apparently Nagapur, at least partially inhabited by were-wolves. A native boy directs us to ruins with a statue Menasa, mother of snakes. We find the temple and Fury locates a safe teleportation landing pad for us and shows us the path from there to the door. Inside the temple is a statue of a six-armed woman sitting on a lotus. On the ground are inscribed the words "Menasa welcomes all to her realm who ask".
