Part MMMCLXVI: Serpent's Feast
Serpent's Feast
Nineteenth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
You leave the Opaline Vault behind richer in glassteel, but also in far more ethereal and precious coin, information, the names and identities of three merchants loyal to the Opal Throne who trade in Dis. To your surprise one of them is a minor efreeti malik. That is one way to obfuscate the Opal Throne's influence you suppose, assuming they had actually found a trustworthy fire genie and you have partaken in far stranger partnerships than that to doubt the notion out of hand.
Unfortunately, not all your plans in the spheres of air and stone came to as fruitful an end. The Order of the Arcane Seal has shown no enthusiasm for cross-training in the middle of a war they are even now scrambling to meet the demands of according to Dany, and while the Shaitan Academy of War has proven more open to the idea of collaboration in the abstract, doing so in practice requires navigating so many bureaucratic hurdles you suspect they may have been placed there with a purpose. It makes sense you suppose that the Peerless Empire would not wish the school that trains its battle mages to become entangled with foreign powers too easily. Perhaps you might speak to the Sultana when you find the time.
***
Twentieth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Alas that time is a treasure even more precious than secrets, certainly scarcer. As you return to the Deep you do not seek the court at once for there is one greater power you have much to speak of for the sake of mutual profit. Yss the Timeless has changed much since you first found the belt bargain hunting in Braavos, but one thing that has not changed about the god to which so many traders now pray. He will always give an even-handed deal.
"Great One, the staff you have reforged for me has served in many a time when no lesser spell would have been enough, but as the power drained from it time and again I began to regret that I must call upon you each time to restore that power. This I say for both the worth of your time and for my own profit that the staff should feed itself rather than requiring a sacrifice each time," the words, formal though they be, are blunter than you would use before any other god, but Yss can doubtlessly appreciate the honesty and desire for a better bargain alike.
The great scaled head nods, a gesture you have never seen of the avatar before, perhaps a mark of growing affinity to this new age, or simply a concession to men who would sooner silently converse by gesture than the communing of thoughts.
"I ask therefore if you are willing to confer upon the staff the power to feed as the belt which was the first of your anchors to be found by me and mine."
"For the ssstaff be fed... creaturesss of hunger... it must devour," the voice of the God echoes in your mind.
You nod in turn, for this you had expected, any bargain is in some measure reflected in the coin by which it is paid. Before you make an offering there is another matter you would place before the gaze of the Great Serpent however. "By the arts of my lost ancestors and the intercession of the Old Gods whom you know..." And had that been an odd conversation to have with Galaneia before you parted ways aboard the Hunter's Moon... "I have seen made serpents of the sea to better battle the malignancy of the Deep Ones. It seemed meant to be that one of your true Children lead them for you are the Father of Serpents."
"What... bindingsss?" the Great Serpent hisses in your mind.
"The same oaths that bind the naga, no more," you reply plainly. The golden-scaled children of Yss have proven their worth time and against since their awakening into this age.
"Let it tasste creatures of the sssea then, if that is to be its domain," comes the reply unwavering as ever, for all the hungry anticipation you sense lurking behind it.
What sacrifice do you make to empower the staff so that it might feed?
[] Write in (CR 16 Minimum, the nature of the sacrifices will influence the feeding mechanism)
What sacrifice do you offer for the creation of the Divine Servitor?
[] Write in (CR 18 Minimum, at least one of them must have a swim speed)
OOC: Yes, CR 18 is expensive, but you guys are making a very powerful harbinger of Yss will upon the seas.
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