Our Octopus Guide

or Najm's Account of Babilar, City of Spires

 Babilar was not at all what I had imagined from the tale told by that old salt we listened to by the fire in the Denyan Isles.

We heard of a woman in Cothon, a ship captain, who had been to Babilar; and going to her, she told us some wares we might carry in the hold of Rihha to trade for something in turn in the ocean city. I took on some soil (yes, soil), as well as some good wines and some Ismiirli pale ale from Ghlar, and several jars of spices. Durham, meanwhile, took on a box of children's toys. These were the kinds of things we took for trade.

Also getting from her good directions to this unusual city, we set forth, stopping first by Sesel's iqta', and then following the coast up the horn to the Denyan Isles, and then following them north and northwest. 

Our journey out took about a week and a half. Bart and Gan vexed me along the way about the price for their passage, arguing that they would act as guards, and so in fact I should be paying them. As we drew near to our destination, we encountered a bare rock of an island and found a man stranded upon it. A very strange man who called himself something strange and foreign--Bumerane, or some such.

Beholding the city, my imagined vision of it was much upended; Babilar is not a city underwater, of mermen or squids, but a city of spires rising above the swell of waves from their foundations well below the surface of Dirac's Sea. Just how a city came to be founded in such a strange way is a great mystery, though there is some indication that the sea may have risen to overwhelm the foundations in some ancient age.

We did our trading, and also asked around the city after its customs and its constitution. It seems there is some chief named Tempest who commands the city in general, but that some consider him a tyrant. Among those who do so are those who worship some pelagic sroish entity called Kir.

Interested in exploring somewhat, we engaged with a certain Kir-ist, Aleida, to enter into a spire formerly controlled by them, but which had become flooded with the unusual tides that haunt the city. There were certain items within, which the Kir-ists were unable to take with them when fleeing the flooding, and which they wished to have again.

We dove into the flooded portion to explore. The spire proved to be haunted with lesser dindins, among other things, which we were able to drive away with aggressive posturing rather than the shedding of blood.

Entering further within, we discovered strange rooms kept magically dry by the barring of water from entering within, and dominating this area was a great image of some luminous serpentine sro, likely Kir or like to Kir, standing like some idol. It appears that Kir was venerated as a kind of spirit of healing and rejuvenation, if not still still so venerated.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the water itself turned against us as we entered another flooded space within the spire, and Demitrytus was struck unconscious by some elemental being of the currents itself. How were we to extricate ourselves from such a predicament that the water itself was attacking us? But the creature turned out to be some kind of mu'agh or something, a slimy translucent blob. I struck it with lightning called forth by Saint Iskameen's name; yet my sorcery failed, while Bartholomew Pettibone was able to transform it magically into a kyni hawk.

We assured the newly transformed hawk that we would attempt to help it escape its new watery prison. We also discovered there was a giant cephalopod inhabiting deeper tunnels, but as we attempted to collect bait fish to offer it for passage, Heijo and I were attacked by dindins. I managed to stun one with a magical dagger in my possession, while Heijo drove off the other with a deft spear stroke, though not without suffering a bite in return.

Bart now took up communication with animals via supernatural philosophy, and we negotiated passage through the cephalopod's demesne in return for several days' worth of fish (it was quite a large specimen, so this amount was not so exorbitant as it might seem). Bart proved quite persuasive, and the creature agreed to guide us around, revealing otherwise secret chambers.

With its help, we were easily able to collect other things desired by the Kir-ists. It led us through quite a myriad of chambers that would have otherwise taken quite some time and ingenuity on our part to fully explore, making its help well worth the weight of fish and the labor of the crew acquiring them all.

Unfortunately, our explorations included the discovery of some mad sorcerer who seemed to have been trapped within, who proceeded to knock most of us flat with a thunderclap. Fortunately, on the other hand, Bart's own sorcery proved greater, and the madman was transmogrified into an amphibian (still quite magical) which was duly captured. This would bear more investigation, of course.

But, having accomplished these deeds, the time to return to Cothon-Gadeed is nearing, and I will put aside my pen for now.

[written as Najm for 100 xp per level]