Late 1888. At Shisur, the beginning of the caravan route across the Rub'al Khali.
The trail towards the Rub'al Khali heads straight northwest, coalescing just to the north corner of the great horse-hoof-shaped pit, 20 hexes deep and 50 hexes across its widest point. The widest point was the "straight" of the hoof and it consisted of an overhanging cliff of unstable rock; the other edges of the pit were unsteady slopes of sand. Shisur means "the cleft" in Arabic. Standing where only a narrow ledge of rock separated it from the cliff of the pit stood the fortress of Shisur, built in 1532, a native said, by the Sultan al Tuwariq. It was a dilapidated lump of a structure, more like a decaying pyramid whose surface had been removed to reveal the rock fill, than a fortress of any description. Partway up was a platform above which rose a circular tower. A few guards were regularly stationed atop the tower and on the platform. To the east of the pit and fort was assembled a rough town of tents. To the SSE of this, brush had been piled to make a large enclosure for camels and horses. The Party was allowed to pitch its tents at the edge of the tent-town nearest the southern point of the pit and the camel enclosure. Mr. Blake eyed his quadruped neighbors with unconcealed distaste bordering on malice.
While the Party set up its tents, Penrington followed his resolve to check out the pit for the expected entrance to Lost Irem. He rented a shovel from a townsman and, leaving his rifle safe from the insidious sand, slithered down the pit and attacked a spot beneath the cliff a little to the south of the tower fort. Despite warnings from several of the natives as to the unstable nature of the rock wall, the hunter persisted. A chicken became fascinated with the ground he spaded up and Miss Costorari laid some good-humoured bets with some locals as to whether the man or the chicken would first be struck by dislodged rock. To everyone's horror, however, not only were a few pebbles dislodged, but the entire cliff face above Penrington gave way. Miss Costorari only just stepped back in time to avoid being part of the tumbling debris. Although Mr. Forester tried to cast a Force Wall to blunt the damage, he failed, and observers saw the hunter take a blow to the head before he was swallowed up in dust and rock.
Po and Dr. Davis were the first down, and both tried desperately to remove the rocks to rescue their companion. But the tons of rubble were too much for even their extraordinary powers. Miss Costorari worriedly coaxed them back out of the pit, nervously eyeing the rest of the risky cliff face. All that had been found was the splintered handle of the shovel on which was, unmistakably, fresh blood. Shaken, the doctor continued from a distance trying to move rocks with her TK, while Po used his mindscan to search within the rubble. To no avail. "Mr. Penrington is no more," the boy announced, and then retired to a tent where he could safely use his more intense clairvoyance, but still he saw sand, sand, and yet more sand. Sadly he resolved to meditate and pray for the lost hunter's place on the Wheel of Life. Miss Costorari stayed near the pit edge for sometime, hoping for some glimpse of the hunter's spirit, but knowing that not all spirits appear after death.
Mr. Forester searched out the imam consulted earlier, and arranged that he perform the local version of Last Rites for Penrington. The imam agreed and went into the tower, returning with some incense which he burned as part of the ceremony. The doctor was clearly still in shock as she attended the rite.
It was a sober Party that gathered again to discuss their options. Dr. Davis' knowledge of astronomy indicated that the alignment of planet and constellation associated with the return of Irem had already commenced. She had no way of knowing what the precise alignment was supposed to be. It was clear to her, however, that the city should appear very soon, if the legends were true.
The group recalled the writings Miss Costorari had studied of the Market Town of King Ad Kin'Ad. The part about "having 7 tall towers: Wabar", Abdul had translated as "Ubar", meaning "great well". So the group visited the well of Shisur. It was small, only 3 feet in diameter and lined with stone. Miss Costorari proposed being lowered in to see if there was an entrance to Irem therein, but Qidan was horrified at the thought. "She's a woman! What if she is unclean. This is the town's life water." No spells were allowed to be cast at the well. The inventors managed to angle some light into the depths and Po used his clairvoyance to look around, but found that the water table seemed closer than expected and that the water merely seeped from the surrounding mud and rock. There was no subterranean opening that he could find. Forester and Blake's geological skills indicated that the pit was a sinkhole that once had been a cavern, possibly once full of water. The well seemed to be drawing off that same aquifer. To one side of the town, its only crops grew sparsely; that area had once been a river. Long ago. Now palms and millet grew and enough fodder to feed the town's two cows. Shisur was a minimal oasis. Forester checked the northern camel trail for signs of an ancient well site but, though he climbed to the top of the first dune, saw nothing that was helpful.
Mr. Blake said, "We believe that there is an entrance to Irem in the pit that claimed Mr. Penrington. We also think that there may have been an entrance through the Tomb of Hud back in the Valley of Death. Perhaps the City of Irem is actually between the two entrances, back the way we came. It was a big city."
Steele: "Not three days journey big."
Davis: "We should have some idea of its size from having circumnavigated it twice when in the Void."
Costorari: "In the Void we had no sense of time, no sense of scale. We do not know the city's size."
Watches were set for the night:
First watch: Steele, Smith, Po
Second watch: Steele, Blake, Costorari
Third watch: Forester, Ava, Davis
During first watch, a dog was heard barking and a breeze from the north seemed to ruffle the tents on that edge of town. Steele's IR vision noted only that the temperatures were dropping as expected for a desert night, but Smith set himself, watching the northern tents. Then the dog yelped in fear and seemed to be running towards the Party's site. Steele poked his head into the men's tent to wake the others. Suddenly 4 djinni appeared, each one throwing a whirlwind of rocks at different tents on the north edge. A couple tents collapsed as the guards in the tower raised an alarm. Smith, ready, cast an entangle, covering all four djinni and lots of tents. He was surprised to see that his entangle seemed truncated as it passed by the fortress.
Po telepathized one of the djinn and learned that it was focussed on killing all in the tents but daren't go near the tower. Via Infrared, Steele perceived a warm spot - human-sized - climbing the tower wall although he could not see anyone there with his normal vision. He fired his grapple at the climber and had the satisfaction of seeing it impact and the climber fall. However, his cable was snarled somehow.
Ava emerged from his tent, armed; Blake and Forester followed, holding their foci. Davis, enveloped in a burka, emerged from the women's tent, Voronika, grabbing both sword and rifle, had to pause to also find her burka. Smith noted a ForceWall shimmering near the tower and yelled out the information, as a total of 6 djinni seemed to be blowing up tents, the latest two uncomfortably near the Party's. Ava and Costorari almost simultaneously shouted "To the Tower!" Then the former, understanding Smith's point, shot the ForceWall and brought it down. Then he added, "Madeline, get to the tower!"
Figures suddenly appeared near the tower guards on the platform and attacked; one of two guards went down. The party started running. The natives tried to escape their tents, screaming. Djinni continued killing whatever came to hand. Confusion reigned. Another ForceWall appeared to block the Party from the tower; this time Costorari, using Penrington's rifle, brought it down.
Smith was confronted by a djinn at close range and entangled it, though he was caught in his own spell. Steele and Costorari attempted to help Smith (although the machine man's wild swing missed and left him with his back to the melee) but disengaged once Davis reached the tower wall and turned to attack the djinn mesmerically. The tower smelled of frankincense; it had been used so long for the storage of the material that it was permeated and the djinns could not abide it. The rest of the party scrambled up the walls, Blake in the lead. Atop the platform, Po, Steele and Costorari aided the beleaguered guard in taking out two nisnasis. Po's foot was damaged in the battle and Costorari fell to a boulder thrown by a djinn.
His forcefield up, Blake continued up to the top of the tower where he confronted two more nisnasis who had just felled the last native bowman. Hit in head and shoulder by the monsters, the radiologist tumbled from the tower. Blake fell to the ledge between tower and pit, unconscious.
Davis and Ava made it to the platform where the doctor had to decide between healing the bleeding Po or guardsman or the downed gypsy, OR continuing her mental attacks on the djinn. Resolutely she continued the attack while Lok wailed Blake's name. Forester, too, continued his flash attacks on djinn as they appeared and disappeared.
One tower nisnasis tried a throw at Steele and was shot by the waiting Ava. Ava and Steele tried to dispatch the second tower nisnasis as it leaned over to observe and attack, but failed. Po headed up the narrow stairs and felled it as it rushed at him. Steele leaped to the top of the tower where he could see, out on the desert, an advancing line of camels coming from the north. In the middle of the camel troops were 4 more djinni surrounding one camel. The Evil Prince of Yemen, without a doubt. Yemeni camel troops had rifles. Forester put up his ForceWall around the tower top in defense. The group gathered atop the tower, Forester's wall being proof against the djinni boulders. Davis started healing the guards' and Party's wounds.
Suddenly an anguished shout resounded from below, "Where's my cane!?!" Lok's face showed his relief. Just as Blake had regained consciousness at the edge of the pit, a wounded Qidan reached out from the tower door and hauled him into safety. Two more nisnasis lay dead inside. The damaged radiologist had quickly ascertained that his cane was missing, rendering him effectively out-of-combat.
The camel troops assembled at the north edge of town as 6 djinn surrounded the pit. Po located the cane down in the pit by clairvoyance. Steele cobbled together a torch at the end of his grapple which he lowered into the pit to provide light. While the Yemeni troops shot at the light, Davis grabbed the cane with TK. At that moment, others saw that the Yemeni Prince was chanting. The sky began to glow green; a huge city with 8 great towers appeared upon and above the existing encampment of Shisur. The Party seemed to be in the middle of the green glowing city whose main gate directly faced the Prince and his troops, though above them. The Prince's vizier started walking up a glowing green path to the gate with the chain. He rotated one of the symbols. A 40-foot-tall figure materialized off of one of the towers and walked around to stand at the gate.
In consternation, Dr. Davis let go of the cane and turned her mental attack upon the vizier. And took damage herself! She switched from her attack to her telekinesis, trying to push him away, as the vizier struggled to hold on to the chain. Because it was clear that the attack had slowed the vizier, she tried again and again, taking damage herself every time. Despairing of effectiveness, the mesmerist gave up her attacks shortly before she would have gone unconscious from the stun damage. She returned to rescuing the radiologist's cane.
Others watched as the vizier made the final rotation and seven gigantic figures stood near the gate. He reached for the chain and turned to bow to his Prince - but could not seem to let go of the Chain. Steele nearly cheered: the Yemeni - not knowing about the 8th god Gad, the one before wisdom - had gotten the combination wrong. One of the giant statues grabbed the vizier; others did so as well, proceeding to pull and dismember him. Davis lowered Blake his cane - cracked and useless as a support but with its radium container undamaged.
The Prince seemed to frown and shrug. Suddenly 8 djinni became whirlwinds, pulling up sand from the pit into the sky, forming an upside mountain poised above the city. Steps of sand were revealed, solidified by the djinn out of the sand, leading down into the pit in a graceful spiral. The Prince began his dignified descent. His four personal djinn established 4 layers of Force Wall between the party and the prince.
Realizing that the Party had ranged attacks that could bring down a ForceWall and, possibly, the Prince, two rifles were shuffled around, Ava (the best shot) taking Penrington's +2 rifle and Costorari taking the French rifle his lordship had been using. Smith readied his fruit. Steel readied his grapple. Blake led off with a radiological blast. Unfortunately the radiologist had to try 4 times before an intense enough blast took down the first wall. Steele followed taking down the next. Costorari then shot and failed to do enough damage to the third.
The djinn reassembled the walls and the Party tried again. Blake knocked down a wall, Steele took out the 2nd, Costorari again failed and, time running out, Smith stepped forward to take out the third. Ava punched through the last and hit the Prince as well, in his chest, though much of the bullet's force had been lost against the wall. The Prince hastened his descent and the Party could see that the whirlwinds had uncovered a large cavern. At the base of the stairway of sand was a large black block of stone.
The djinni recast the ForceWalls. Blake failed to take one down but Steele brought down two. Costorari took out the third and Smith the fourth (with enough force to have taken down two). Ava then shot the Prince again in the chest while Davis hit the Prince with a mental attack (again taking stun in the recoil). Nonetheless, the Prince, wounded through his personal armor, still reached the block and readied the hammer and chisel he had brought.
Suddenly, from the cavernous darkness, Penrington miraculously emerged and swung his sword at the occupied Prince. Although he was struck in the head, the Prince's armor proved its mettle; he turned to face the hunter, hammer and chisel in hand. The ForceWalls returned.
This time only Steele managed to take down a wall. Davis did not wait for more; she again made her mental attack and again took damage. As Penrington swung again, the Prince said something in Arabic and blocked the swing with his hammer. At that moment, a hairy figure jumped out of the darkness onto the Prince, and the two rolled down into the pit. It was a troglodyte! Penrington paused for a moment and then took up the tools, carving "Oog" into the black rock. A djinn hastened into the darkness after Prince and troglodyte, ignoring the hunter as he finalized the naming of the city. Suddenly the sand mountain began to pour out of the sky, like a great hourglass starting to drain. Penrington ran for the stairs and started up the spiral at a dead run. Sand and dust filled the air, obscuring further observation.
Gradually the dust settled and the Party looked in vain for Penrington. Then a pile of dust shook itself free of the pit: Penrington! Complete with hat!
The glowing green city vanished at dawn, but Forester had taken many, many pictures. Able to detect their radiation, Blake located the tutor's goggles that had been appropriated by the evil Prince's late vizier. The Prince's camel troops were, of course, long gone. Davis spent time trying to heal any of the djinni's victims who had survived enough to benefit. And, of course, the Party asked Penrington for his story.
When Penrington had dug into the pit he hit a crusty level, broke through and fell - just as the cliff collapsed. Deep underground, he was buried. When he came to, his head and one arm had been freed. Momentarily, he thought some dogs were digging for him, but it proved to be giant ants directed by trogs saying "Oog." Apparently they said "oog" a lot. Penrington assessed them as "quite a friendly bunch." They reacted to the symbol of Irem that he drew with the knee-slap that meant "it is finished" to the Arab people. Penrington paused in his recital to speculate that the Party had misunderstood their earlier encounters with troglodytes, probably due to the evil Prince's influence. After all, one of the ants had even rescued and brought him his hat.
Penrington had been particularly befriended by one troglodyte whom he called "the Brave One", and with whom he had traded a mirror for some rounded rocks. The Brave One was, apparently quite fond of round things. The Brave One guided the hunter around the underground city which, apparently, had been built in the cavern as it seemed relatively intact, 8 towers and all. Strangely, though, the main gates "opened" onto solid rock which seemed an odd construction. But then less odd than the notion an entire city could be swallowed whole. His direction sense unimpaired by the run up the spiral staircase, Penrington could say with assurance that the main gate was directly in line to the camel trail across the Rub'al Khali. The smaller gate faced south, towards a huge tunnel away. The 8 towers had doors into them. Seven of the doors faced into the city, each door had the symbol for one of the Old Ones (local gods, Saba, etc.). Each of those seven towers had a bas-relief carving of a person, male or female matching the old one, done in an Assyrian or Babylonian style. On one tower the symbol over the door had been defaced; comparing notes the party determined it was Katool, the betrayer. The eighth tower, near the small gate, had its door facing out of the city, and seemed to be analogous to where the party had found the statue in the Void.
Penrington thought it likely that, if the legends were true, the trogs were the real inhabitants of Irem. They lived off a type of moss which provided both light and nourishment, and water.
Penrington described potshards he'd seen lying across building doorways, and inscribed with the symbol for Irem. He had no idea of their significance but thought their original forms had been Grecian. Blake reacted with strong emotion when the hunter admitted that it hadn't occurred to him to bring back some of the shards. "However," the hunter reached into a pocket, "there were vast vats of these - blobs that smell like frankincense." Davis looked at the clear, shimmering globules.
"Silver frankincense!" she breathed in wonder. "Well done, Mr. Penrington!"
"There were vats of them. Big vats."
Blake looked nonplussed and then a smile over-spread his face. "But you, Penrington, have the only pocketful in the known world."
And," the hunter continued, "you know I said the Brave One liked round stones. Well, one of the three he gave me was a pearl - perfectly round. Not like our freshwater pearls."
Blake's face was a study. "That's unique! We're rich!" The radiologist exclaimed. "You're rich," he amended.
Penrington smiled, "And he wasn't the least interested in something that wasn't round that I picked up down there," displaying an uncut ruby the size of his thumb.
"Some of this will have to go to the King of Oman," Ava observed.
Blake, looking at the noble, nodded, "And some you will have to present to the Queen, courtesy of the Ava Expedition."
Davis mourned, "Challenger will never believe me. I said they were intelligent."
Ava said, gently, "No one will ever believe any of us. But there are Forester's pictures and these treasures Penrington brought up. So it has not been for naught."
Next Run: Goodbyes, Hellos and New Clues?
Note: The Party currently has clues for three possible new adventures:
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II
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