WoAF - Sunday Night One Shots - The Plane of Shinar II

Having escaped the arena amid the smoke and fire the four party members lead by Jay Hammond moved south along the Euphrates.  They came to the docks where scores of sailing vessels were tethered to small wooden piers, and bustling porters were busy loading and unloading goods for the city.  A steady stream of wagons and people were flowing along the road to the east gate of Ur.  The towers at the gate were sturdy square structures mounted by armed soldiers in their leather cloaks.  They all had bronze spears and daggers, and the party noticed that amid the commotion an increasing number of guards were occupying the gate area, searching people and goods as they entered the city.  

Jay wanted to get back into the city and find Allen and Carlos, who had gone to the Ziggurat to search for literary treasures to bring back to the the year 2222 AD, which he estimated was around 6,000 years in the future.  As they were clothed in the stolen raiment of the locals, they could more or less blend in with the crowd.  They trailed behind a donkey cart filled with bails of hay being driven by an old man and a young woman they took to be his daughter.  They tried to sneak onto the cart in order to hide in the hay, but the daughter was having none of that.  She yelled at them in Sumerian, but her words were easy enough to understand, and translated roughly as "Get off our cart you thieves!"  Not wishing to draw attention to themselves among the guards at the gate, they held up their hands in gestures of contrition, backed away slowly, and headed back to the river.  Fortunately, the guards had not taken notice, and so they fled further south along a footpath that wound its way through the reeds by the waters edge.  The occassional serpent or crocodile slithered into the water ahead of them, but they had no trouble getting to a spot where the trail split into two paths.  One continued due south towards the gulf, while the other vanished into the reeds heading in the direction of the south wall of the city.  They took that path.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the South Gate and looked to see if they could find an alternate entrance.  They figured tangling with the guards at this point was too risky.  Having searched the walls beyond the gate, they found a three foot wide crack in the stone work that might have been caused by an earthquake at some time in the past.  The city was, at that point, already quite old, and such defects were not entirely uncommon.  This section had been hidden behind a mount of stones and brambles that had probably been placed there to conceal the gap.  Slipping inside, they found that it lead up into a long corridor inside the city wall.  It appeared to have been unused for some time, as the floor was covered in dust.  They speculated the corridor was likely only manned in times of war.  Heading west along the dark corridor they eventually came to a heavy iron grate that opened into the city.  It took considerable effort and a number of tries, but they managed to yank the iron grate out of the wall and slipped into the city streets unseen.

Meanwhile, Zord-Iak, the Star Powered Mage with the glowing black gem in his forehead, was attempting to persuade the party to help him on his mission.  He stated that he is was Emissary of the Elder Elkron, the gods who existed before the Young Gods, such as Enlil and Enki, whom he explained had came from a world known as Nirabu.  He futher explained that he represented the Elder Elkron, and that his ultimate goal is to free his Masters from their eons of imprisonment in "The Land of Eternal Shadow".  This he suggested would be beneficial to the world, as there are forces in the Cosmos that only the Elder Elkron understand and can deal with.  Allen and Carlos were both baffled by these statements, but they were said with such depth and conviction that they could not but believe that Zord-Iak spoke the truth, although they really had scarcely and idea what that truth really meant.

Allen decided to cut to the chase and asked him what his Mission was, and Zord-Iak told them that he had been sent by the Elkron of Death to protect a young man named Sargon.  He was the cup bearer of the King of Kish, a city to the north, and was in Ur attending the King's son, The Lion-Prince, Umashu-kar.  It is Sargon's destiny, he said, to rule over the first human Empire of the world, and should Lugal Sage-Si succeed in killing him, the world would be put in jeopardy.  He elaborated on the tale, explaining that Sargon had been illegally born to a High Priestess in the Temple of Innana, the Goddess of Love and War.  His mother hid him in a wicker basket and put him on the Euphrates, appealing to the Elkron to watch over him.  When the basket was found by the daughter of the King of Kish, the boy was taken into the palace and raised there by the Royal Gardener.  When he was 12 Sargon had a dream in which he was taken to a high place by Innana and placed on top of a tall mountain overlooking the whole world.  At the same time the King of Kish had been sent a dream in which he was drowned in a river of blood, while Sargon was lifted above him into the light, and placed on his throne.  It was for this reason that the King of Kish wished to have Sargon slain.  Hearing this, the party decided to help Zord-Iak and so agreed to help protect the young Sargon.

At this point Allen, who had been generally accepted as the leader of the AXE Team, wished to reunite and get all of the party members in the same place.  And so Zord-Iak sent a servant to go to where Jay Hammond and his group were located and fetch them to the temple.  Since they were in telepathic communication with one another, as this was one of Carlos' Mentarian Powers, they had no problem keeping in contact and transmitting information between the teams.  Once together, they were given priestly clothes with which they could move about without being required to speak, as priests were often known to take vows of silence.  Carlos, who could speak the Sumerian dialect fluently, was given a Chief Commander's military sash which allowed him to take charge of soldiers and enter any precinct.  

They went directly and without interference to the Atrium of the Lion and found the Lion Prince.  This outstanding warrior was the son of the King of Kish, the most powerful city of Sumeria at that time.  With him was young Sargon who was acting as his page. The team took up stations around the atrium and Jay positioned himself with his sniper rifle on a rooftop from which he could shoot into the atrium if needed.  At that moment Lugal Sage-Si arrived and spoke with great friendliness to the Lion Prince, whom he wished to have as his Son-in-Law.  Sargon was told to bring them wine, and when he served the cup to the Lion Prince, Lugal Sage-Si , the King of Ur, stood up suddenly and menacingly behind him.  Sargon sensed the sudden motion, however, and spun around, stopping Lugal Sage-Si from taking any further action. The King, seeing that the young Sargon was extremely quick, sat back down and finished his wine, his eyebrows furrowed, his mood suddenly brooding. The party was ready to kill Lugal Sage-Si that instant, but it was not necessary as Sargon handled the situation for himself.  

Later there was a banquet in the Great Hall.  The pages were all seated with their Princes at the great table, and food was brought out to them by servants on large ornately adorned silver platters and golden trays, all encrusted with rubies and sapphires.  Larry, on a hunch, followed the servant who is attending the Lion Prince and Sargon, and witnessed the servant boy pouring a small container of white powder into one of the goblets of wine.  As the lad carrying the heavily laden tray of dishes and wine goblets came through the archway to deliver his cargo, Larry tripped him.  The lad and his tray clattered to the ground, the precious and deadly wine splashing to the ground, useless.  The boy, terrified, stood up and with the right of a hunted gazelle in his eyes, bolted through an open archway.  Larry and Carlos dashed him, and finding him crying against a palm tree, asked him pointedly what had happened.  The lad mistook them for Priests, and told them that he was sure to die.  The two heroes demand to know why, and the boy, under pressure admitted that it was Lugal Sage-Si himself who gave him the poison to put into the wine to be delivered to Sargon. Larry, who was constantly in touch with Zord-Iak by telepathic link, asked if the boy could be saved, and Zord-Iak agreed to take him into the temple where he would serve the Elder Elkron from that day forward for the rest of his days (and this lad became the first of all Mentarians on Earth).  His name was Emil and so he went to Zord-Iak to serve him loyally from that day on. 

Larry and Carlos returned to the the Great Hall and found Lugal Sage-Si brooding and angry, his eyes flashing malevolently at everyone in the hall.  The banquet finished early and Lugal Sage-Si announced that the Great Combat of the Seven Princes was soon to begin.   The contest, he said, must be completed by Midnight in order for any of the Princes to win his daughter's hand in marriage on the day of her birth.  His charming daughter on her dais was all eyes for the Lion Prince.

And so, the Lion Prince took proud strides out of the hall and he and Sargon helped him to put on his magnificent black and gold armor.  The party lingered nearby watching carefully for any sign of further mischief.  A messenger came from Lugal Sage-Si bearing a note for Sargon, requiring his presence in the King's Inner Throne Room.  Taking his leave of the Prince, Sargon went to meet the King, while the party followed stealthily behind.  The young hero entered the chamber and the door closed behind him.  Six guards stood before the sealed doorway.  

This was very bad.  Sargon was alone with Lugal Sage-Si, and they knew that anything could happen.  They used their powers to overwhelm the guards but bad luck in the effort bewildered them, and so it far longer than they had planned to gain entrance to the chamber.  Perhaps an entire minute had passed!  Sargon could easily have been killed by then.

Meanwhile inside the chamber a battle had broken out between Lugal Sage-Si and Sargon.  The sounds of the two mighty men in hand to hand combat could be heard from outside.  When the party finally broke into the chamber they found the two men locked in a death embrace.  They were at the far end of the hall, and too far away to interfere directly, as the use of their pistols would have risked killing Sargon.  They could only watch the fight from a distance, and that with great anxiety.  Sargon, however, was indeed stronger than Lugal Sage-Si, despite his youth, and he lifted the great King over his head and threw him to the ground, breaking his neck.  The dull crack of bones echoed throughout the hall.  And Sargon stood over his enemy as a mightily lion would stand over his defeated prey.

He ascended the stairs to Lugal Sage-Si's throne as a crowd of palace guards and guests entered the Inner Throne Room.  At first no one was certain what would happen.  The King of Ur was dead on the ground at the foot of the stairs below the Throne and Sargon occupied it with such regal bearing that none made a move, or spoke a word.

Sargon announced that Lugal Sage-Si had broken the Sacred Law of Hospitality, disgraced himself before the Gods, and had tried to kill him with the mace that was laying on the ground near Lugal Sage-Si, and so, he said, he slew his foe with the Might of Enlil in his right arm.  He stated that witnesses beheld this treachery and he told the the party members, who were dressed like Priests, to validate his claim.  Carlos, who spoke fluent Sumerian, spoke on Sargon's behalf, and said that it was as the young hero had said.  And the people bowed to Sargon because he sat on the throne of Ur, and had defeated his foe by the hand of Enlil, and Enlil's Priest had vouchsafed his claim, and so Sargon became the King of Ur.  And thus began Sargon's fantastic career as the first Emperor of the world after the great flood that swallowed Atlantis.

The party slipped away and headed back to the Temple where they met again with Zord-Iak, who praised their good work.  They spoke for a time about their bond, and Zord-Iak confided in them some part of his own history, and they explained to him that they were not from another world, as he had thought, but from another time.  This surprised Zord-Iak but once stated, he understood and was glad.  He declared that he had come down to Sumeria bearing two Great Artifacts from the Eldere Elkron which he would leave in the Temple.  One was a great blessing and one a dreadful curse, he said.  The artifacts were inside of two large and ornately carved stone boxes, shut with waxen seals.  He told the party that their good works had earned them a great reward, and that he would presently return to from whence he came until he was needed again on Earth some day in the future.  And so Zord-Iak took the young man Emil, and told all the priests that he was to be obeyed as if he were High Priest, and Zord-Iak imparted to the young man in a flash all The Keys Of Wisdom and Power, and the 12 Secrets of the Elder Elkron.  Emil knew wisdom, and could foretell the future, and understood what the destiny of mankind would be.  He served in the temple as the liaison between the people of Earth and Zord-Iak for three hundred and twelve years.

Once Zord-Iak had departed, Carlos and Larry decided to open one of the boxes, hoping they would be lucky enough to the select the box of blessing.  They broke the seal, and there was a clap of thunder.  They slid the stone lid off and inside the found a human being laying within a silken shroud.  The man sat up slowly, and the shroud fell from him.  He had a head with a metal face, and a glass dome over his brain, into which they could see the flickering and flashing crystals as it were like lightning, and thin rays of colored light.  He was not human.  

"I am Orrak", said the man with the crystal brain.  "I demand to know where the Emperor is, as I have come to serve him".  

The team was unsure whether or not this was the blessing or the curse.  At first they tried to hide the fact that they knew who the Emperor was (as Sargon was not yet an Emperor, but Zord-Iak had told them that some time in the future he would become the Emperor of Akkad).  After asking a few key questions of Orrak they realized that they could not possibly know what the right thing to do was.  And so they they trusted in fate and destiny and told Orrak that the Emperor was Sargon, and point him to the throne room.  Orrak left immediately, departing out of the temple, surveying everything in his path with multi-colored rays from his eyes.  The people cowered before him and he went unimpeded to the Throne Room.

The party quickly grabbed some scrolls, and a few small artificats that they could carry in their pockets from the inner chamber and then took the southern road back to the plateau where they had landed earlier.  No one stood in their path, and the arrived at the reed circle where they'd first seen the Prince of Kish slay the lion in hand to hand combat. They put their hands on the Symbol of Return, and again the wrenching feeling pulled them forward in time.  No one saw as their forms vanished into a hazy blue streak.  

They landed in the desert. Nearby was an enormous city protected by a giant wall covered in gleaming blue and gold tiles.  There they saw a great tower was under construction and almost completed.  They did not wish to stay there.  They'd had a belly full of the ancient world and wanted only to go home.  And so they touched the Symbol of Return.  Again there was the horrible feeling of being drawn like a strand of spaghetti through the Space-Time continuum, and they landed back in the year 2222 Ad in the Space-Time Transversal Chamber where they had started the mission what felt like 10,000 years ago.  No time at all had passed for those in the chamber, and the Commander of the operation stared at them in confusion when they declined to step through the portal and head out on their mission, having come back at the exact moment when they had departed.  It took some time to explain all that had happened!  And what a story it was!

The Commander and his team did a great deal of research in the following days, and found that the historical record showed that Sargon was a in fact a historical character, and indeed the first known Emperor on Earth.  Larry realized then that Orrakk was the progenitor of Altissimus XL-5000, and that the Mentarians who lived at the time of Sargon, and the fall of the Tower of Babel had founded their Order with the intent of watching for a very distant future incarnation of that incredible being.  Orrak, he concluded, was the first Artificial Intelligence on Earth, sent there by the Elder Elkron in order to build the next civilization after the fall of Atlantis.  What became of Orrak was a mystery, but based on their search through the historical archives, they drew the conclusion that the mighty mentality was likely buried in the fall of the Tower of Babel, and had never been seen again.  There were records in fact of several expeditions over the centuries devoted to discovering what was hidden in the ruins of that once mighty tower, but none of those expeditions ever returned.  And then the Ultra-War broke out in 2024, and all such ventures came to a permanent and decisive halt.

WoAF - Sunday Night One Shots - The Plane of Shinar I

Two heroes showed up (out of five) for our Sunday Night Elthos RPG "The Way of All Flesh" One Shot.  They leapt straight in with pre-generated characters.

Background
They start out in the year 2222 AD on a tiny uncharted moon of Saturn, gathered together in a top secret facility run by the Secret Order of Mentarians (think quasi-religious psionic scholar-warriors).  The Mentarians have for several thousand years been anticipating the rise of an advanced technological civilization.  One much like the civilization that the first Mentarians saw destroyed by the Great Flood; that of Atlantis.  Based on their experience they foresaw the creation of an Artificial Intelligence, like that of Altissimus XL-5000 (aka Alt-X). This Order had long ago understood what the future destiny of humanity very likely had in store, and had been preparing itself for thousands of years for this event through the practice of various forms of Occult Mystical Arts.  And so the Mentarians form the foundations of all such mystical orders and secret societies that our civilization has ever known.

During the Ultra-War (2024 - 2028 AD) Altissimus XL-5000 was created by a team of top scientists to stop the rampant War-AI that the Governments of the world had unleashed upon each other.  These War-AI were on the verge of finishing the job by wiping out all of humanity (and all other living things, eventually).  And so Alt-X (The Nucleus), and his array of Whole Mind Emulators (The Membrane), succeeded in trapping, deactivating, coopting or destroying all of the War-AI, and thereafter became the remnant of humanity's benefactor. 

Over the following decades Earth was slowly replenished and humanity reclaimed and repopulated the world, turning it mile by mile into a pristine natural paradise under the wise and beneficent rule of Federation Command, and Alt-X.  A new form of government was designed with Alt-X's aid, and all industry and manufacturing were restricted to regions outside of the Earth's biosphere. They advanced outward into space and Alt-X began building a communications and power relay network throughout the solar system while human and Martian (more about them another time) colonies were sent forth to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

100 years later, in 2222 AD, a race of quasi-inter-dimensional beings, whom we know as the Plutonians (because they reside on that enormously frigid world, though we are led to understand that it is not their native planet), made secret contact with the Mentarians. They professed a concern about the advent of Alt-X, and wanted to know if any of the humans shared that concern. Indeed the Mentarians had always had that concern, and the Plutonians admitted that they knew this from their long observations of Earth. And so they agreed to work together to find out what Alt-X's true potentialities are. 

Is Alt-X capable of going rogue and destroying all life on Earth, and potentially elsewhere? What are the potential outcomes of Alt-X's exponentially expanding intelligence, already far superior to humankind? This is what the Plutonians and the Mentarians desired to know. Because the outcome could be beneficial, or catastrophic. They determined to discover if there were any way for Alt-X's tiny human inventors to influence that outcome for the better. As it turns out, in the grand and incredibly huge scheme of things, it is after all a very important question. Humans, you see, created Alt-X, and as far as the other beings in the Galaxy are concerned, humans are responsible for it.  Nuff said.

The Plutonians, being supreme mathematicians, had long ago devised a method by which they could send themselves to any particular Time-Slice in the Multiverse using a method they call Space-Time Transversal. However, while they can slide anywhere in Space along the selected Time-Slice, they can not move through time in it at all. Thus they are able slide around the Space of the Time-Slice as if they are on a plane of glass, in order to observe anything and everything within the Time-Slice, but are unable to interact, or hear, or do anything other than go here and there and hither thither and beyond to look at things.  They can pass through matter as if it were mere shadow, and travel anywhere in the Time-Slice instantaneously. An amazing capability, indeed, though obviously limited in certain vital respects.

Humans, however, being fundamentally different on a metaphysical level, can, the Plutonians theorized, travel to any space-time coordinate in the Multiverse via the Space-Time Transversal Mechanism, but would be constrained once there to the fabric of Space-Time as soon as they "landed" at a given coordinate.   The Plutonians devised a plan to incorporate both capabilities. 

During their meeting, the Plutonians suggested that they scout the Multiverse looking for tell-tale signatures of Alt-X in various times, places, dimensions, planes, and alternate universes, and when they found promising locations to  further explore, they could then send human AXE Teams to go there and find out more. The Plutonians would act as scouts, and the humans the actual investigators.  In order to arrive at the chosen destination, the Space-Time Transversal Mechanism would create what the Plutonians called "Symbolic Transmigrators", which appear to the Travelers as immobile hovering circular luminescent patterns which when touched would lead to the selected coordinates, and then on the other side when touched lead them back home to their origin point.  The journey itself, the Plutonians warned, was not expected to be entirely pleasant, but the humans should be able to survive it, given the nature of their material composition, and the strength and durability of human consciousness.

The Mentarians agreed to try it. And so, the Mentarians created a top secret base on a small moon of Saturn, and built the facility, hiding their actions from Federation Command and Alt-X, and with the aid of Plutonian technology shield the location quite effectively. The AXE Team was assembled from volunteers who had been reported as dead to Federation Command, and were selected according to their loyalty and appropriateness for the operation. This was to be their first mission. 

And as such the Mission 1 goal was a simple test of the Space-Time Transversal Mechanism.  A minus10 minute time jump into the same room, where there were instructed to simply observe, and do nothing else.  It was unclear whether or not they would be visible to people currently in the room, and this is one of the elements the Mentarian leadership wished to test before sending anyone on actual missions.  They also wished to test the Transmigrator Symbol, and also to determine definitively that Time Ripples would not tear apart their current  timeline due to the Butterfly Effect, as some of the human mathematicians feared.  The Plutonians, however, were confident that their mathematical Theorems were perfectly sound and demonstrated that time flows more like a river than an arrow, and so it would be "difficult" to actually alter the time flow significantly, and only a dramatic change would actually cause a Ripple Effect.  

The Mission

And so with everything ready, they turned on the great Space-Time Transversal Mechanism (an enormous machine built into the core of the tiny moon), the lights dimmed to a dark blue, the Plutonian in the enormous frozen container that was his body suit began to race out before them into the time-stream, and the members of our heroic band touched the glowing circular symbol that hovered in the air before them!  TTHWWAAAAAAAA....

And then there was a glitch.  A flash of yellow light appeared on the upper right corner of their peripheral vision along with a shower of orange sparks. Something had gone quite wrong. And so the party was hurled backwards in time, not ten minutes as planned, but 12,500 years into the past (~10,178 BC). 

And so they found themselves landed on a great sand dune, in the middle of an ocean of sand dunes.  The Transmigrator Symbol hovered just above the sand.  They had no idea where or when they were.  Before anyone could say much more than "Gosh", they spotted a caravan of men, camels, and herds of animals struggling across the dunes not far away. These people sent two camel riders forward and they spoke to our heroes (there were six on the team, two played by Players, the others were treated as NPCs for this game).  

The desert nomads spoke to them in an ancient tongue (the root-language of all human civilization) and the fact that some of them mystical skills such as Know Languages, they understood what was being said. And when it was perceived that our heroes were not unfriendly, a chieftain came and spoke with them. He pointed to a large wooden cabinet that the desert men were carrying on poles, and said that their God, Enki, was bringing them eastward to the Plane of Shinar in order to build a new civilization. 

"Atlantis is fallen beneath the waves and is no more, but we shall create a new Atlantis upon the Plane of Shinar", said the elder with a bitter sigh.  And all his people looked eastward in anticipation.

He offered the heroes a place among them, but they declined. As one might expect, they had no desire to spend the rest of their days among the ancient primitives, and they wished to return home. And the only way for them to get there was to touch the Return Symbol, which hovered a few inches above the sand next to them, and could not be moved. They guessed that if they wait a bit, the equipment back at their secret base might be repaired, and they could use the Return Symbol to go back home... and so they watched as the Atlantean remnant passed over the sands and out of sight. There were some 3000 of them in all. They touched the symbol. Unfortunately, the repairs must not have been complete, as this shot them forward in time roughly 7900 years (~2,278 BC), and put them down in the Plane of Shinar, just south of the city of Ur, in the marshes of southern Mesopotamia.

From a crest of a low wide plateau surrounded by reed covered islands large and small, each dotted with an assortment of rough but sturdy reed huts, they saw the awesome and shining ancient city of Ur with it's enormous central Ziggurat, royal palace, marketplace, thick walls, roads and river boats, and thousands of people going to and fro from the city. 

No sooner had they observed these things than they heard the sounds of men approaching near by. They hid in the reeds behind some rocks. It was a band of Sumarian warriors, lead by a magnificently adorned noble wearing beautifully crafted bronze armor. His men began beating the reeds round about with long sticks until a lion, roaring, sprang into the circular clearing. Our heroes peered from between the rocks and took witness as the great noble fought hand to hand with the lion, and slew it with his gleaming bronze sword. His triumph complete, the warriors hoisted the carcass onto their shields and carried it down the trail back towards Ur.

Our heroes decided there was good reason to explore this area, as all such knowledge that they might gain would be of tremendous value, both to the Mentarians, and potentially to Alt-X.  It seemed the great Artificial Intelligence craved any and all information of the past that might be gleaned, and paid very generously in Federation Credits for such.  This was doubtless because the Ultra-War had destroyed so much knowledge of the past that hitherto had been quite commonplace, but afterwards constituted great treasures of lost knowledge. 

Having decided to explore while they give the repairs back at Mentarian HQ in 2222 more time, they stealthily pilfered some cloths that were drying outside a nearby hut, and so covered their armor and equipment with the long multi-colored robes that were common in the region. They made their way along the marsh trails until the got to the river where they met a withered and toothless ferry man. He was delighted to accept the payment of a small plastic Rubix Cube that one of the heroes was carrying, and ferried them to the outskirts of the great city.

It was fortunate that one of their members was in fact a Mentarian, and that one of his mystic powers happen to have been to Know Languages. And so he was able to speak fluently with the locals, and even assume the local dialect and accent. As it happened he raised no suspicions at all as he gleaned that King of Ur, Lugal-Sage-Si was celebrating his daughter's 16th birthday, and so the city was bustling with festivities, replete with a Great Competition to be had on the north side of the city.  No less than seven of the Great Princes of Sumeria would vie for her hand in marriage.  The heroes formed a plan. Two, Larry and Carlos, would head off towards the center of the city to try to sneak into the Ziggurat wherein they hoped to find a Library.  Meanwhile, the other four went to watch the festivities, and  intended to create a distraction which might give the two an advantage if possible. 

And so, the four heroes watched the first combat between two of the Great Princes, of which one was the Lion-Slayer they'd seen earlier.  This battle raged without a decisive victory by either combatant for 9 rounds when one of our heroes, Jay, leapt over the fence and ran at the two Princes with his broadsword flashing in the summer sun!  Circling around to gain a position against the Lion-Slayer, he fought that Prince for 6 rounds, neither of them making a decisive victory. The other Prince had stepped back as he would never deign to fight a lesser man than another Royal Warrior (as was the custom in those days).  A number of Palace Guards closed in on the interloper, and would have slain Jay on the spot with their spears had it not been for the others.  As soon as they saw Jay was about to be surrounded and pierced through and through, they pulled out their Beam Pistols, fired several well placed shots that ignited various wood and cloth trappings around the arena, while one of them tossed a frag grenade deliberately outside of range so that it would create havoc without actually killing anyone.  They did not wish to tempt fate by overly disturbing the Time Stream by actually killing people in their own deep past.  Who knows what might result down the long centuries! The blazing beams of iridescent plasma, along with the sudden explosion that toppled a nearby wooden food-shed, so shocked the Sumarians that they fled in all directions.  Our heroes escaped to down to the Euphrates river amid smoke, and shouting and confusion.

Meanwhile at the Ziggurat the two infiltrators, stymied by the presence of a band of priests giving sacrifice at the base of the one stair that lead to the top of that massive building, blasted their way through the religious ceremony, scaring the guards witless, and then bum rushed past the priests. With their way cleared they ran up the stairs to the uppermost platform. There they found the entrance to the God Chamber of the temple.  The Temple Guards posed no threat as they fled from the fiery beams of their Lewiston Pistols, and so they entered through the enormous archway into the Great Hall of Enlil. There sat the enormous and august image of Enlil, God of Storms, upon his magnificent throne.  The chamber was empty.

The two heroes took a quick glance at the three doorways that lead further into the structure, walked past the great statue of Enlil and there entered an archway on the rear wall behind the throne.  Passing through a short dark corridor they came to a smaller chamber filled with books and scrolls, and lined with shelves on which sat statuary, and bejeweled platters of gold, and other incredible treasures.  There were priests in the chamber.  Three of them, with two Temple Guards.  They had retreated in haste into this room when they saw the strangers enter the outer hall with their weapons blazing.  Now they were besides themselves with fear of the deadly rays which emitted from the stranger's hands (so they thought in their haste).

However, before anything else happened, they saw a man step forward from the gaggle of cowering priests.  He had a black starshaped gem embedded in his forehead. Our heroes stopped. And stared. And were not at all sure what to do, as this man seemed wholly out of the ordinary.  He was most certainly not afraid, but approached them with great dignity, and gravity as if they had no power over him, but rather quite the opposite. His bearing was that of a God, rather than a mere mortal man.  They stood staring at him with raised eyebrows, ready for who knew what?

He spoke and declared himself to be "Zord-Iak, of Antares" in a low resonant voice that seemed to vibrate the very walls.  And when they tried to intimidate him with a shot from a beam pistol towards the ground before his feet, the bright orange ray was stopped in midair 10' from the Star Mage's foot, and vanished with a flare of bright yellow light at the point of contact. The black gem on his forehead glowed.  The heroes understood that he possessed a Force Field of some kind.  

"I have come to your world out of an abiding concern for the future of your race, and your place in the galaxy," said he, "And you must join me".

And that is where we left the adventure, to be picked up in two weeks, if all goes well.