Chapter Two : Taking It to the Other Side

So there I was sitting in a boat in a foreign land sailing on a strange sea and my mind took the time to wander back to the transmission that had literally been broadcast around the world it’s a good thing my memory is almost photographic for as I remembered the words where and what we might end up doing started to make more sense.
So of course I was within one of the shops of an old friend and Priest of Loki Malaki Amargas and while his shop looked more like an elegant high end clothing store his basement held one of the most extravagant Temples of Loki. Perhaps I should make a quick note regarding my faith there are really two sides of the coin those that are more of the playful nature and those who are more of the deceitful inclination. Malaki’s Temple was of the playful variety and that is all I will say about that since even saying this much could be enough to threaten the lives of any who might read these pages. For just for the record while I prefer the playful temples I have to admit some of the best times I have ever had have been at some of the more deceitful Temples. So it was within Malaki’s Temple while a number of other worshippers and I continued enjoying ourselves that I had heard the message from the altar which many of us myself included were prostrated near. Well I will admit I was actually prostrated between two of my friends Armand and Singard at the time hence why I perhaps did not give the message that much attention at the time. But alas now as I began to appreciate the complete change in the environment those words suddenly came back with crystal clarity. I have transcribed the words as I had recalled them.
Kills Gods Dead
They have said “Imagine a resource whose exploitation allows us the capacity to span any amount of space with any amount of men and materials. With proper experience, a possibility exists for rendering the aspect of time elastic. Such a resource and such a capacity is almost beyond estimation in terms of its value, both for commerce and for matters of policy. Having found this, it is our duty to industrialize it, tame it and insure its renewable supply. Ruminating on the costs or methods, given the game changing value of our finds, is beyond trivial. These things are ours and they are for the bold.”
The ‘costs’ they refuse to ruminate over are your lives and the lives of everyone you know, at the least. They are dupes of the Dreaming God. If you cannot stop them, you must raise the price beyond what they are willing to pay.
Start small and hunt them all. Summon them and Bind them or catch them in lair. In either case, block the exits with elder signs. Under the Eye of Light and Dark, within E’s Wheel of Mist, while speaking the Dread Curse of A you and your allies, covered in the Baneful Dust of Hermes, fire the Lightning Gun again and again as needed. Construct for the gun a turret and endow it with the Seal of Isis and the Voorish Sign applied as many times as you are able. Summon the gun with the Wish Projector when pointed at the right thing. Add the Orb of Penetration and Orb of Sight to the gun to increase its charge capacity. Add the Soul Catcher and Wench Newsreal Lenses to its face to increase its salvo impact. While reloading the Lightning Gun, surround the turret with the Barrier of N and Voorish Sign and Voorish Sign and Voorish Sign again. Watch helplessly as your allies are rendered. Fire with True Strike and True Strike. Get the Dreaming God or He Will Get You. This is our best guess for him. Something less may do for the rest, but don’t count on it.
Well there you had it and from what I now began to realize the portal was not doubt a tool the inhabitants of this realm had decided to use as their access point to our reality. It also seemed that we had a number of tasks to accomplish. 1) Finding the objects needed to create a weapon which we were to use to destroy some avatar of the Dreaming God. 2) Deal with the perhaps unwitting minions of the Dreaming God. 3) Find a way back home after we are done. Well I will admit even for someone as tantalizing attractive and as wickedly intelligent as myself I was actually glad to have Morgan the Nimble and his companions along just in case I got in over my head.
So there we were about to encounter some kind of ocean travelling vessel that had a strange lights coming from the front when suddenly the Stone of Tongues started to glow and just like that Nialla our Warlock and Null our Priest glowed and vanished within the Stone. Well I will have to admit I did go into a state of shock well ok perhaps shock is to strong of a word because I was actually quite calm I just suddenly was drawn even more to the hidden mysteries of the Stone. I decided it was time to stop thinking about it and I touched the stone and said the phrase that would unlock its power and enable me to communicate with the inhabitants of this world. I will admit whoever had created this orb must have some strange sense of humor but who am I to talk so I recited “In the brightest day, In the blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight, Let those who worship evils might, Beware my power…, Green Lanterns light!” And with that the Stone glowed and I could feel its power surging within me I will it admit I was a felling I could get used to I had to remember to control myself otherwise the others might have noticed just how hard my nipples were and that I was suddenly flushed. I motioned for the others to come forth and take their turn at the Stone so that we could get this show as my Mother was fond of saying on the trail. The others were able to use the Stone but I did find it interesting they seemed not to have the same reaction that I had experienced. Well not matter as the craft approached we could hear a voice being broadcast into the air from the top to the vessel. Now what was odd was the vessel seemed to moving by some kind of complex metal paddles that seemed propelled it from the rear, in addition the craft was emitting steam from the top while the whole device seemed cylindrical. It seemed to identify itself as the Inter Island Transport Authority and seemed to be inquiring about our lack of what they called running lights and why we were out here and if we needed assistance. I considered responding but I will admit I was still coming down from the high from the Stone. Shiron looked to me and I nodded to imply for him to go ahead. He was able to inform them that we were just fooling around and they seemed to accept that answer and moved off.
So now there we were in the middle of an ocean surrounded by four small islands and we could make out lights from what I was later able to determine as east coming from two islands. Well as there was no wind it soon became apparent that we were going to need to find another way to travel. Everett the Captain said well we will have to fall back on the oars and he along with his First Mate Skippy went below and came back up with four oars. Shiron looked to me and I could swear he had a look like he expected me to be pulling an oar I mean really I was trying to do my best here but seriously manual labor give me a break. As it was there were only four people who could row anyway so Shiron, Morgan, Malcolm the Paladin and the First Mate rowed while the Captain steered and I kept watch. I will admit I was so tempted to turn change my appearance to resemble a big burly male with a whip and just say stroke. But my friend Morgan was down there stoking with the others and I realized he might not find it humorous so I contained myself. We decided to for the more southern of the two islands since they were both lighted and it was closer. We still had the cover of night but I began to wonder exactly how long did we have before daylight. For the way I figured it we needed to either be on shore and prepared to ditch the boat or be in a position to seek a base on land while the ship headed back to the islands where we first arrived. Regardless we were in need of information and I had no doubt once we came closer to the island Morgan would be able to disembark and gather the knowledge that we needed. As we arrived at the Island we were looking for a spot to perhaps dock but even after circling the island one side seemed to possess a large fortification of some kind while the other was dominated by a large expansive beach. I was decided we would use the cover of night to conceal ourselves while Morgan took a small dingy and rowed to shore to gather information. He would have an hour since that was the duration of the Stone’s magic and by Loki was I feeling the effects of that magic like nothing I had ever experienced before I could tell I was going to need to spend some quality personal time below while he was gone otherwise I might end up betraying my problems with my libido. It’s a good thing my silence spell lasts longer than five minutes plenty of time for me to deal with my problem.
Morgan made it back about an hour later and just as time would have it was just about time to touch the Stone of Tongues again. I swear by my Patron Loki and even Dionysus, Aphrodite and even Pan does that stone have an effect on me. So it was with much discipline and my Hat of Mystery that I was able to continue without the entire ship seeing just how flushed and excited I was. So enough about my personal issues for now with the return of Morgan the Nimble I could focus on more intellectual concerns like how to accomplish our mission and find a way back home. Now regarding the matter of finding a way home I had a feeling that we were not actually alone and that some power or powers were assisting us and using the Stone of Tongues as a conduit and if all went well it might very well be our way home once we had achieved all of our objectives. So as I had anticipated the task of scouting the Island without being observed was child’s play for Morgan the Nimble. He had returned and filled us in on what he had observed it had seemed that the use of precious metals for utensils and well as advance construction as well as moving vehicles that could travel on the land as well the water were commonplace in this realm. The others at first did not seem that impressed but Morgan did not disappoint for then with an elegant flourish produced a written work that he had acquired called the Red Menace and handed it to me telling me “I thought you might be able to make us of this Markessa.” Well the Red Menace was indeed the mother lode for I was able to determine that is was some kind of union trade paper that was written for the very island from whence Morgan had just returned. The island it would seem was called Defender Island and it referred to contracts that were being finalized with the larger island called the Isle of Plenty. The Red Menace also included pictures while in black and white were of amazing detail of the clothing worn by the inhabitants. Then men seemed to be depicted wearing solid suits while the women wore odd hoop skirts and ornate hats which seemed to be taken in the daylight hours. Now those pictures lead me to believe that sooner or later daylight would indeed arrive at some future point. There were also indications that Defender Island was as the name implied a military island while the Isle of Plenty seemed to be an agricultural as well as perhaps a political center of some sort. So of course this left us with many questions regarding our courses of action in order to move forward to our objectives. 1) Disembark on Defender Island and either send the boat back to the Isles from whence we came or scuttle it. 2) Head out for the Isle of Plenty and perhaps find the political center. 3) Send Morgan back to Defender Island in order to gain further information in order to make a more informed decision.
I will admit I was in favor of choosing another island but the concept of gaining more information finally won me over so it came to pass that Morgan once again returned to Defender Island with the task of finding more information. I had related to him our main objectives being a map of the area, a location in order to set up a base of operations and perhaps a location to find clothing or local currency. While Morgan left I was able to once again take care of my libido issues below deck with the excuse of needed to take a short nap. So after a little more than an hour Morgan had returned and once again while I never doubted him for a moment he proved without a shadow of a doubt why he had been chosen for this mission and I will admit I gave a sigh of relief. For he had not only returned with a map which included scheduled ferry routes but also found a location called the Government Travel Center which was as he described an elaborate center which included everything from a library, lodging as well as plenty of people. While of course he had also found a shop of sorts that I hoped would enable us to acquire local currency since while I planned to play it by ear I wanted to have some of their currency on hand just in case for bribes and such if needed. So it was with the acquisition of detailed map of the region that we were able to come up with a plan and since Morgan had also found out that daylight was perhaps three hours away the time for action was at hand. We decided to send the ship back to the chain of islands where we first appeared with instructions to return for us in four days. We also gave them instructions if we failed to return that they would have to attempt to complete the mission without us. So it came to pass that Morgan the Nimble, Shiron the Kensai and I boarded one of the two dinghies’ and departed for Defender Island.
So what can be said about the strange new world that stood before us strange yet wondrous did not seem to really seem to cover it. We decided to ditch the dingy near the beach under a makeshift dock I actually did not plan to go back for it I figured we would at some future point be commandeering one of their local transports. So using the cover of darkness we made our way too the establishment located by Morgan which he said had held supplies. I will admit I was impressed not only by the construction but also the sheer size of the buildings that we passed by. As we arrived Morgan deftly picked the lock at the rear door of the establishment and the plan was for him and me to go inside and investigate while Shiron stayed outside with the Stone of Tongues. Now it was ironic that no sooner had we stepped inside then Morgan told me that he thought he heard voices outside. At first I figured it must have been Shiron just talking to himself but as Morgan came back toward the exit I could make out the distinctive accent of a northerner perhaps even one of my countrymen. My deduction was correct for before us standing with weapons and armor and a full beard was none other the Malcolm the Barbarian. So to say the least he stood out just a little on a land where the locals wore form fitting cloths and were clean shaven. But he was a hulk of a man and I will admit it that did cause me to become a little more talkative than was perhaps necessary. For it seemed that he had appeared out of the Stone of Tongues and had told us that he had answered a call for help. Now Shiron told a similar story relating that the Stone itself had informed him mentally that help was on the way. So of course Malcolm was a little off balance to say the least. I was able after a brief time to relate to him the gist of our current predicament and how it related to the broadcast that had been heard around the world. Suffice to say we all therefore decided to move inside and begin our search for local currency and perhaps even samples of local clothing. Once inside I made sure that I showed Malcolm how to use the Stone so that he would be able to comprehend the languages of this strange new land. After a detailed and though search I was able to find a set of clothing that seemed of similar design but seemed worn. While Morgan had located a safe of some kind as well as four boxes of which three he was able to pick. One was no doubt broken but with a quick incantation I was able to open but the release door sprung out and would have fallen to the floor were it not for the lightning quick reflexes of Morgan the Nimble. Within the four identical boxes we found coins with the exact same amount of coins which turned out to value thirty seven point ninety five (37.95). Morgan was also able to crack the safe and I would have taken that was well were it not for the objections of Shiron. I mean I could see his point he might look at this as stealing but I looked at the inhabitants of this realm and all of their possessions as the enemy and therefore ripe for plunder. Oddly Malcolm backed him up believing that perhaps a full scale robbery might draw more attention the just hitting the four coin boxes up front. I could really care less I just figured as I pocked the coins and placing them in to my Backpack of Containment I just hoped if a bribe was needed in the future after covering Morgan and myself there was enough left for the others. Sadly I came to the realization as we could see the Government Travel Center from her but we still did not have adequate clothing for everyone. So I decided to take a gamble I convinced the others of the need for clothing and so we set out locate and establishment that would fit our needs.
After circling around for a short while it was actually easier than I had thought to find a store called Peoples Clothing. Once again Morgan skills with his picks worked the charm and in short order we were inside a marvelous establishment that as the name implied was without a doubt a clothing store. Now I will admit the fashion sense of the women here left a lot to be desired at the very least there were life-sized puppets which showed the proper way to wear the clothing. Shiron was able to locate clothing bags and everyone with my direction picked out at least three sets of clothing I even made sure to acquire clothing for the beautiful Warlock Nialla and Null the Priest just in case the Stone decided to return them to us unexpectedly. So I worked for a few minutes to make sure that everyone looked the part and I even offered to cut Malcolm’s hair for him not that I wouldn’t have liked to do many other things with such a hunk of a man but figured I would have time once we acquired lodgings at the Government Travel Center. He was kind of hesitant and I could understand I mean it was after all a very handsome beard but I knew it had to go sooner or later and it looked like it was going to be later. No matter so while I placed my new wardrobe within my Backpack of Containment I called on my Hat of Mystery to alter my outer were to resemble the long dresses and ornate hats of this fashion senseless realm as well as conceal my Elven ears. With one final check of everyone’s wardrobe we were ready to depart the Peoples Clothing and further explore the city before dawn.
We decided to wait until daylight for the streets to become crowded before we made our way to the Government Trade Center. I was able to convince the others to let me do the talking since after all this was the kind of situation I was born for. I mean I was going to be the first Hyborian to have a chance to infiltrate this new world so to say the least I was thrilled. When we arrived I could see once again the grandeur of this place I could not quite figure out if there technology was just this advanced or if they had managed to harness the powers of magic to a level far beyond any I had ever seen before. There seemed to be around forty or so other inhabitants in attendance in various states. I realized that I probably would not have mattered when we had arrived but at least now it would perhaps not stand out as much. I was able to bluff us into a room well actually a suite for four on the premise of visiting a soldier in the army the only strange part which I was able to play off was the lack of any cost for our lodgings. The clerk with which I spoke even let me know that we could use extra space when our soldier paid us a visit since when he had asked I of course had said we were visiting a soldier. He let us know about the schedule for events including a grand cookout scheduled to be held on the beach in the near future. He then motioned for a serviceman to come to my aid to assist with my bags and escort me to my room. Perhaps I forgot to mention the building was over one hundred and forty feet tall well I was led into small room and the doors closed and I could suddenly feel like I was suddenly lighter. I once again was able to convince the clerk that all was well and then the doors opened and we were suddenly at least one hundred feet up. I was able to determine this because I could see through the window down the hall that we were no longer on the ground level. As we approached out suite I realized a few things quite quickly. I was going to have to charm the clerk because I was going to have to use my skills and my magic to gain as much information that he had to offer about not only our room but situation that we had volunteered for. After that I just might use him to satisfy other needs that I had acquired thanks to the Stone of Tongues but then again like my sisters often like to say so many men so little time.