Aetius informed Zardoz that he had nothing to fear from them…for now. The Serpent men did not want the city of Zul-Bazzir destroyed any more than he did. He warned Zardoz that Ragnor, the living god, would now strike against the city, now that it had been devastated by the Red Zombie Plague. Zardoz noticed that Aetius still worn the crown that he had seen in the drawings in the temple of the serpent god. Aetius explained to him that the crown had transformed him from a human to a serpent man over a period of years. He also told him that he and his serpent brethren would be waiting in the shadows. Suddenly a gas cloud appeared around Zardoz and he once again found himself in darkness. He awoke to find himself back in the streets of the city. He quickly went forth to find his companions.
Zardoz told the other party members of his meeting with the now serpent man Aetius. He also contacted the now awake Yazd and consulted with him conducting the ceremony for summoning the Angel of Oblivion if the forces of Ragnor the living god should breach the wall. Yazd also began to create walls of thorns around the city to make it harder for Ragnor’s land forces to reach the city. Everyone else began organizing the defense of the city with Thayne Blackblade and them men still under his command. Zardoz then decided that it was time to unlock the mysteries of the Horn of Bull God to find out if it would be of any use in the coming conflict.
Zardoz, Motard, Torvir, Fenngar, the vile and evil female sorcerer Nivhaca, along with Zardoz’s henchmen, found an abandoned section of the city and got on a roof top and blew the horn. There as a brief flash and the street below was filled with Minotaurs. The Minotaurs attacked immediately.
The battle was relatively brief and the Minotaurs were dispatched (one was actually polymorphed into a horse by Nivhaca) but there was one thing that Zardoz noticed: The Minotaurs would not attack Torvir, who wore a Bull God ring and was a member of the Cult of the Bull God….
Through experimentation in the catacombs beneath the city, Zardoz determined that wearing the ring was not enough: The Minotaurs that were summoned by the Horn would not attack someone if they wore one of the rings of the Bull God and if they had gone through the initiation ceremony to become full members of the Cult of the Bull God. The experiments resulted in the deaths of a number of slaves and also introduced a large number of Minotaurs to the environment of the city’s catacombs. Dealing with them would have to wait for now for a small army was spotted heading towards the city.
The new leaders of the city of Zul-Bazzir approached the oncoming army, surrounded by as many heavily armed warriors as they could find. As it turned out, this was a group of mercenaries that had fled the city of blank in disgust, no longer willing to work for Ragnor, the self-proclaimed living god for any price. A price was quickly negotiated and terms were reached and the mercenary army joined in the defense of the city. It was at this time that Zardoz noticed that a number of the mercenaries, including their commander, wore the same ring as Torvir did. If anything were to happen to Torvir, there would be others that also blow the Horn of the Bull God.
After the negotiations with the mercenaries were complete, Yazd informed Zardoz the in order to complete the ritual to summon the Angel of Oblivion, they would need two artifacts: The Angel’s Wings and the Sword of the Angel. In his research with an ancient book, Yazd had found a map that marked the location of an abandoned temple in the mountains know as Valley of the Forgotten Gods. If the map and the ancient manuscript were to believed, both the Wings and the Sword would be found there.
Despite the addition of the mercenaries, the city was still lacking numbers for an effective defense of the city. Motard agreed to travel north to attempt to recruit some of the rugged tribes of his homeland. Fenngar went with him as well. They left the city on the fastest horses that they could find. After attempting to recruit more allies, they would join up with Zardoz and his expedition at the abandoned temple. With Motard and Fenngar on their own quest, Zardoz, Torvir, and Nivhaca sent out to find the artifacts that were necessary to summon the Angel of Oblivion.
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