The Lost City – Part 4 (Session 30)
”Milo Usamigaras!” the priest responded.
”Nope, just Milo.” came the slightly self-conscious answer.
The room they entered was deathly quiet. Mazi resignedly shook her head at Milo. He cleared his throat nervously, the noise sounded exceptionally loud in the stillness.
”But I do know Usamigaras-” he let the statement hang in the air for a moment. ”Personally.” he finished weakly.
The tall, rotund man spoke again, ”You are not Usamigaras?”
”No, not as such. But I come bearing news from Him.”
It was impossible to tell with the mask, but Milo got the feeling that the man grew immediately suspicious. ”News? How are we to trust strangers with news from Usamigaras?”
”Look at me!” Milo said with his arms spread wide. ”Can you see anybody else besides someone looking like me bringing news from Usamigaras?”
”The Evil Ones are very clever. You must prove yourself to us.”
”Prove, prove, prove. Alright, what do I have to do to convince you?”
”We ask for a sign that you are from the great Usamigaras.”
”A sign? Why didn’t you say so? I’ve got signs, plenty of signs.” Milo mentally reviewed the spells he had prayed for that morning. Somehow he didn’t think a divine storm would be an appropriate display. Then he recalled the recitation he had prepared. Milo fumbled for a moment with his bag of holding until he withdrew the parchment with the holy words he had inscribed that morning. He also withdrew Usamigaras’ holy symbol, the five-pointed star.
There was a collective intake of breath from the gathered thirteen. It was then that Milo noticed the same star inscribed on the floor beneath his feet. He grinned before sobering his face and mind. Milo spoke solemnly, ”I will now recite the words of Usamigaras.”
Milo held the holy symbol in his outstretched hand. A divine power seemed to enter him as he began reading. The words that issued from his mouth were of no language he recognized. It was as if the divine energy were translating his base words into a heavenly message. As he spoke the star beneath his feet began to glow with a bright white radiance. The light traced out previously unseen sigils. They radiated out from the star to glow under the feet of all gathered. Whomever the light touched seemed to be infused with strength borrowed from the heavens. The thirteen masked worshippers seemed to be affected even more than Milo’s companions. He sighed wistfully as the divine power drained from him after the completion of the recitation.
Brigit’s gruff voice broke the silence as she attempted to whisper, ”Milo, why’re tha stones glowin’?”
”Just go with it.” Milo whispered over his shoulder.
The robed men fell to their knees, prostrated before Milo. ”Please do not worship me.” Milo said as he helped the leader to his feet. ”You’ll give me an inflated head if you keep this up.”
The man bowed his head as he spoke reverently, ”What shall we do for you, oh great Chosen One?”
”Chosen One? That’s kinda nice. I could get used to this!”
”Have you come to lead us to the Promised Land?”
”Now that depends. What’s your definition of the Promised Land?”
”The Promised Land is below. The caverns from whence we were expelled.” He said as if Milo should already have known. ”Have you come to lead us against the Evil Ones? To smite them down?”
Milo nodded, ”That was basically the idea; a little bit of smiting, a little bit of mopping up. Generally cleaning of the lower caverns of any unsavory, evil types.”
”I am Auriga Serkinos, I am High Priest of Usamigaras.”
”So, um-” Milo said, at a loss for a moment. ”Are these all that is left of the followers of Usamigaras?”
”We have some few others in our stronghold down in the caverns, but they are besieged by the Evil Ones.”
”How many, and how far?”
”There are perhaps fifteen to twenty more of us below.”
”And what are they besieged by?”
”By the evil of Zargon and his High Priestess, Zenobea.”
”Of course, Zargon. We’ve heard about him.”
”How is it that you do not know of all this, yet you are the Chosen One of Usamigaras?”
Milo thought fast, ”Well, this is a challenge for the people of Usamigaras. Not just for you, but one that has been given to me as well.”
Auriga nodded sagely, ”Usamigaras is wise in all ways. And these strange companions of yours?” he pointed to Jeremiah, ”This one we recognize as a man, but he has not covered his face. You bear the semblance of Usamigaras, so there is no need for you to cover your face. But these, the small bearded man and the strange women, we do not recognize.”
Milo suppressed a laugh at Auriga’s description of Brigit. ”This,” he said, indicating the surly dwarf, ”Is a dwarven woman.”
”But she has a beard!” Auriga said in confusion.
”All good dwarves have beards.” Brigit answered for herself.
”You’ll find that dwarves have many idiosyncrasies, Auriga.” Milo added. ”Some take more getting used to than others. Her name is Brigit.” Milo walked to Mazi. ”This is an elven lass, her name is Mazithra. The man here is Jeremiah of the barbarian tribes of the plateaus. His companion is Kella.”
”Why has Usamigaras sent you here?”
”To free you. He’s been quite insistent on that.”
”Are you to be our leader then?”
”I will certainly lead you back into the Promised Land. After that, we’ll see.”
”With what forces to you propose to help us? You must be very powerful to succeed against the Evil Ones.”
”We’ve seen our share of battles. We haven’t even died that often.”
Auriga started at Milo’s statement. ”You come from the afterlife?”
”No, no, not exactly.” he glanced at Jeremiah and Kella. ”It’s a long story, probably best we don’t get into it. Suffice it to say that with our help I am confident that we can overthrow Zargon and get you back home.”
”We outnumber Zargon, Zenobea, and their priests, but they have powerful magic. We do not know if we can overcome them. But we must have faith.”
Milo remembered Kanadius and his warnings of Zenobea’s power over the mind. ”We’ve heard that they have more than just magic, is that true?”
”Zargon himself is magic. Queen Zenobea, she is not normal. She has lived for many, many years. Since the death of her husband, King Alexander centuries ago.”
”This King Alexander, was he a good man?”
Auriga nodded again, ”He was, until she disposed of him in a most foul manner. He had put her aside for worshipping the dark arts. He had taken another wife in her place. She slaughtered him and his new wife in jealousy.”
”I see.” Milo decided to bring things back to the present, ”Now, what kind of preparations have you made to free the others?”
”We are few, we are students of the arcane arts. Our powers do not make us a good match against her. She is very powerful; our weapons seem to do little harm to her, our spells even less. We are not enough to overcome her. As I said, the rest of our people are trapped below. We manage to get messages back and forth, but-“
Milo interjected, ”Messages? How do you get messages to them?” He hoped for a secret way below that they could use to infiltrate Zenobea’s forces.
”We have carriers that ferry messages to the others.”
”Through passages? Secret passages?”
”There is a passage. Zenobea’s forces may know of it, but our powers are sufficient to hide us from them. We do not have enough magic to hide a large force.”
Milo considered all the information they had obtained thus far. He felt they had a good chance of freeing his god’s people. They may need help from the other two groups of the lost city though. ”If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to discuss with my companions our options.”
”Very well, we will depart and offer up thanks to Usamigaras. Our Deliverer has come.”
Oh boy, Milo thought to himself, how many ways can this go wrong?
I was actually a little concerned that this post wouldn't be as favorably received since it was almost completely composed of dialogue. 
