So one of my players is a Warlock with a genie (Marid) patron. As we're playing quite a long term campaign I want to do a bit more to develop individual storylines more. One idea for this I had was having the Marid patron being in some kind of war with an Aboleth on the material plane (which may come into another player's background as well but haven't fleshed that out yet). I want the Marid to make contact somehow but trying to work out the best way to make this happen. I'd like to have a bit of a build up to the character's first in-game encounter with their patron but struggling to think of the best way of doing this/work out the best mechanic for how the Marid would make contact. Can it be as simple as a voice emanating from some body of water but if so how do I get the character to seek that out? Would a Marid be able to communicate through dreams? Can a goldfish turn up and pass on a message?

My current forefront idea is using the character's vessel and having that start to glow with a light that gets brighter the closer she gets to some pool of water that maybe she can have a vision in?

Any and all suggestions are very welcome