Concord of the Spheres Part Thirteen
Seventeenth Day of the Fifth Month 293 AC
For hours on end you bargain and you deal, you offer gifts where it costs little and ask for aid where you would struggle, and all the while you cannot help but wonder: what would the long-dead builders of this tower think of the bargains made in their time-worn halls? Would they be prideful that one who shares their blood, their heritage, deals as something vaguely like an equal with the powers of Stone and Sky? Would they know fear thinly veiled in disdain that such powers even openly walk the world of form? After all, you had never heard even a whisper of a tale of any dragonlord calling on a spirit in battle, wishing upon wind, earth, or water.
The board is set and the pieces are moving... Having cut a simple deal offering amble embassy space to both the Dominion of the Djinn and the Peerless Empire within, or in the case of the former above Sorcerer's Deep, you move on to import and export taxes. Both your new allies have precedent for dealing with smaller states contacting them, generally new domains cut from the deeper reaches of their own realms. At first sight the laws are equally favorable though in different ways, though a closer inspection reveals that where the Djinn seem to be genuinely concerned with free and fair trade the Peerless Empire policy encourages dependency by trade and the forging of future tributary states.
As you push back against these tariffs, obliquely showing your understanding of their purpose, the Sultana just as adroitly assures you that she has no intention of expanding her influence in quite that manner over the Garden. The agreement you hammer out under the gaze of the subtly amused Lord of Armun Kelisk is
considerably lighter on the incentives for your traders to sell raw materials and luxuries while buying weapons, tools, and other essential manufactured goods.
Whether you had achieved such preferential status on the strength of the cloak of tarnished gold alone you know not. However, upon recounting the tale of your raid on the Hellship and the prisoner you had freed from its bowels, both the genie lord and lady look upon you with renewed respect and, though it is no small feat to recognize it, a hint of trepidation.
Lords of an element and masters of wishcraft though Djinn and Shaitan both may be, they neither understand nor trust the gods. The impulses that drive men to seek out a higher power for aid and guidance seem strange to them, as do the seemingly mad deeds a faithful servant may perform in the name of his or her god. This cultural uneasiness only serves to make the desire of the Sultan of the Efreeti to ascend to godhood seem all the more perverse to them.
If there is one thing both those before you can be said to fear, it is the thought of an army of fanatics driven forth by the fiery whips of their hated foes, even their serving to make the heir of Ibis burn brighter.
Thus it is with great care that you address the matter of the gods most honored in Sorcerer's Deep, the Old Gods, who care only that their laws be kept and the Heart-Trees be kept hallow, the Merling King, more concerned with the ordering of death than of life and great foe of the Deep Ones, and last of all Yss, whose worship is more akin to trade than any other god you have ever known or heard of.
While the Sultana remains deeply wary of making direct alliances with any god in her own name, she proves entirely willing to see you as an intermediary for any such dealings. Sultan Zafer proves somewhat more daring, wishing to meet with Zathir, Scion of Jazirian, 'to talk of dreams and hopes'.
You thank him for the offer and add: "I do not idly speak of gods and powers, for it is my thought that we might strike the Sultan where he is most vulnerable..." So saying, you toss a coin of Living Brass in your hand, following the evil gleam intently. At the last moment you snatch it up. "This is what I aim to take from he who dwells in the City of Brass, among torn and twisted souls. Let him be without the means to pay his armies, to trade or collect taxes. The souls of his victims yearn to be free even in death..." You continue, carefully explaining the plan to sacrifice Living Brass upon the altars of the Merling King, for no other price save destroying even more of the foul metal.
"Such a working...." the Sultana trails off for the first time since you had met her, less than utterly certain as to what her next words should be. "It would not be swiftly done, even by a god, and while it is being accomplished you would face the desperate wrath of the Brazen Throne. Strength with strength we would have to face, mayhap even onto the ruin of the field upon which it is fought. Would you approve that such a battle be fought upon your realm, with all the risks it carries?"
What do you reply?
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OOC: You had some really good rolls in here, though helped by the fact that you could use magic to augment them without committing a faux pas. Genies are made of magic after all, and both the Sultan and Sultana were using mythic abilities to push on their side of the scales, though it was only a middling effort on their part.
Never mind.