Luke nodded as the boy completed his story. "You did good. No one of your experience should be stuck in a meat grinder like that. Fate has a habit of putting us where we have to be, not where we want to be though. You got in, you got this information, and you got out again, and that gives us a chance to hopefully do more."<br/><br/>He fell silent for moment before holding up his phone. "Aaaaaaand speaking of which, here's what I can add. I checked the usual tomes ... Spates Catalogue of Nameless Horrors, Tobins Spirit Guide ... and here's what we have to work with."<br/><br/>"Azhi Dahaka, three-headed dragon incarnation of destruction, is descended from a female creature who was infamous for her sins and vileness. He was one of the chief servants of Ahriman, the antithesis of Ahura Mazda, who embodied light and all that was positive and benevolent. Azhi Dahaka was the father of dragons, and strongest amongst their kind. He lived in an impregnable fortress in Kuuirinta, which scholars believe to be somewhere in Mesopotamia, and attempted to steal power from the Yazata deities Anahita and Vayu to depopulate the world. He was stopped, so he turned to Ahriman. Ahriman infused him with power and he went wild, ravaging across the ancient middle east for some time and killing anyone who opposed him. I guess he has a bit of anger management issues, so maybe we can recommend a good therapist for him."<br/><br/>"Now, eventually Keresap, a mythological hero, emerged to fight the creature. Keresap was believed by many of his contemporaries to be a son of Vayu, the Persian God of the Winds and Storms. Keresap was unusually young. Some texts say that he was only nine years old, others a little older, but all agree that he wasn't out of his teens when he struck down the dragon. He later fought Obi-wan on .. no wait, wrong story."<br/><br/>"Keresap wielded a mace with the head of an ox on it, and struck Azhi Dahaka three times: once in the shoulder, once on the head, and once in the heart. He also struck him thrice with a sword. With each injury, snakes, rats, scorpions, and other vermin bled from the wounds. Ahura Mazda himself is said to have intervened, warning Keresap that if he killed the dragon, the vermin would erupt from his corpse and swarm the world. Keresap opted to chain Dahaka up in a cave beneath the dormant volcano of Mount Damavand. Some legends indicate that he used a lion's pelt nailed to the walls of the cave to somehow wrap up the creature."<br/><br/>He paused, looking again at Anoushirvan. "I don't suppose that mace rings any bells, does it? If it's a fatebound relic, having it along ought to make our gribbly a tad more careful. Or piss it off beyond all recognition." He shrugged then continued to relate the info he'd dug up.<br/><br/>"The defeat of Azhi Dahaka led to the freeing of Aranavaci and Savanahaci, the two most beautiful women in the world. Hmmm ... beat the monster, rescue the Princess. That's original."<br/><br/>"At some point in the past, before his defeat by Keresap, Azhi Dahaka was defeated but not imprisoned by Atar, the spirit of Divine Fire. Needless to say, just how this was done isn't written down anywhere. Divine fire I can maybe help out with though."<br/><br/>"And lastly, just to add to the confusion, the legend of Azhi Dahaka is often conflated with the legends of Zahhak, a ruler of ancient Persia who is said to have been a homicidal tyrant with the heads of snakes grafted onto his shoulders by Ahriman. Zahhak is said to have been defeated and chained beneath Mount Damavand as well as/in lieu of Azhi Dahaka, but the scholars and historians are not certain if this is the mixing of legends over time or if Zahhak and Azhi Dahaka's stories are one and the same."<br/><br/>"Now, the way I see it, we have two possibilities. One, the ritual isn't complete, and Azhi is still tied up. We go in, kick ass, take names, and make sure anyone who knows the ritual doesn't walk out the far side. Two, the ritual is complete, but Azhi hasn't come up yet. In that case, we have to try and bind him again, or in worst case scenario, destroy him. Given that's already been warned against, I prefer we not do that unless it's a matter of last resort."