Far Isles Session # 98 - Tower of Armul Urthag

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 7)
Chaff (Vivimancer 7), with familiar Pretty Bird and riding raptor, Sue
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 7), with familiar Hermes
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 7)
Wilhelm (Musketeer 2) [NPC]

Finding no appropriate landing spot on the hilly end of the island, the party rowed ashore to a narrow beach at the jungles edge, and schlepped their way overland toward the tower. Before too long they intersected with a road of unusual design. The surface, rather than a rutted cart track or cobblestone surface, was made up of a continuous strip of grey stone-like material. Obviously old, but apart from a weed poking through here and there, in remarkably good shape. Since it appeared to wind from the water's edge up  to the tower itself, the party took the easy route and followed along. As they approached closer to the tower, they could see it was constructed of a similar grayish material, and covered in greenish lichen which suggested it was of ancient origin. Like the road, the stone showed no signs of mortar or seams; instead it looked to be made of one continuous piece of 'stone'. Over 150  tall', it was featureless except for a couple of banks of amber colored windows on the upper levels. In addition, the top featured a strange collection of poles, round plates and cables. As for access, there was a metal staircase wrapped round the base which led to a pair of massive metal doors about 30' above the ground. As Kwinsea started to search for traps around the stairs, she also noted a small opening at the base of the tower which was largely obscured by a collection of jungle fronds and ferns. The party went over to check this out, cutting out the foliage to uncovered a 3' high round tunnel leading into the base of the tower. Rodrigo lit a torch and tossed it in, revealing the passage to be about 40' in total length with no obvious branches to either side.  Noting that Chaff was just the perfect height to walk upright, the vivmancer was coerced into exploring further. Apart from a human skeleton sprawled across the floor at about the halfway point, he found nothing of interest except, at the end of the tunnel, a narrow shaft leading down. Collecting the rest of the party to have a look, they noted iron rungs set into the wall of the shaft. Tying the torch to some rope, Rodrigo lowered it down the shaft, finding that it descended about 60' before entering a room or space below. Rodrigo volunteered to squeeze down first, but wasn't about to trust the rungs. He reached into the bag of holding and hauled out one of the long metal bars looted from the crystal eggs. He set this across the opening, secured his rope to it, and lowered himself down. 

At the bottom the swashbuckler found a circular room with a flat wall at one end. Around all around the walls were metal racks with panels of glass bulbs, switches and little colored squares. In the centre stood a separate panel, this one with a similar collection of lights and things, but with a massive double pull-double throw switch dominating all. When nothing jumped out at him, Rodrigo called the rest of the party to follow him down. Unfortunately, that meant Chaff had to leave his new riding dinosaur to wander free outside. Reaching the bottom, Chaff and Kwinsea both experienced a vague feeling of deja-vu; this equipment reminded them somewhat of the Kalandrian cosmic computer and the bastard space-elf barge. Definitely not your typical wizard tower look.  And speaking of looking, the party spread out to search the room. Kwinsea went to look for secret doors along the flat wall; she noted there seemed to be a hollow space behind , but could see no way to access it. Rodrigo and Awg started to argue the pros and cons of throwing the switch. Chaff listened to their exchange for a few moments, then impetuously walked over the the panel, jumped up, and hauled down the switch. Everyone froze, but when nothing happened, Chaff jumped up again to throw the switch to the upper position. This time something did happen; a deep hum filled the room, and the glass balls and coloured squares on the panels started to light up and flash in seemingly random patterns. Overhead, several long strips in the ceiling lit up, bathing everything in a cool white light. In front of Kwinsea, the stone wall slid aside to reveal a pair of metal doors.  Next to the doors was a small panel with two lit squares on it. Awg sauntered over and pressed the bottom one. There was a rumbling sound from behind the doors, and a few moments later they opened to reveal a small metal clad room. Awg and Kwinsea gingerly stepped inside, and observed another panel. This one had five squares from top to bottom. Awg reached over and pressed the second from the bottom. The doors started to close, slamming shut as Rodrigo dove over to try to stop/join them. The swashbuckler then started punching the bottom square frantically, hoping to save his companions.

The Cellar

Said companions had the sensation of being hauled up in the air, and after about half a minute, the doors slid open again. It opened up into a large circular room. There was a circular staircase going up at the far side of the room, while a larger pair of metal doors graced the right hand wall. Otherwise the room was empty as far as they could see; however they didn't look long as the doors closed again and they found themselves falling, only to have the doors open again to reveal a frantic Rodrigo staring them in the face. Reassured that the room was safe, everyone now crowded in and watched Awg press the third button. The box rose again, and after a short time opened up into another round room. Again there was a circular staircase (going up and down), but no doors in the outer wall. There was also a scattered mess of old metal crates, mostly destroyed. Poking around, Chaff uncovered a few square, metal wrapped, soft bricks. He cut one open to reveal a brown crystalline material, which a little sniffing identified as a sugary substance. Meanwhile, Awg strained his/her ears to listen over the rustling sound Chaff was making, and heard something moving over around the stairwell. Rodrigo donned the ring of invisibility and crept over the look. He found, hiding behind a few ruined crates, a rather scruffy looking man. Dressed in crude skins, he looked like he could use a square meal and a drink. Going back to the party, they decided to break out some rations and water, then go over to the man and offer him some while eating some themselves to prove it was safe. At first terrified of their strange strangers, the man soon took the offering and started to gorge himself.  Once he was done eating, Chaff said a simple 'hello'. To which the man responded, in an archaic but recognizable form of Common. Questioning him, the party learned he (who's name was Gor) came from a village in the jungle. As to how he got to the tower, Gor reveled he'd been selected with several other villagers to be sacrifices to their god Armul Urthag, who's home was this tower. The god had come to the village with his two 'yellow men', as he did once a year or so, and selected several of the youngest and fittest adults as sacrifice. It was a great honor to be selected, and Gor came along gladly. But once at the tower, he was frightened by what he saw; the sacrifices were locked in metal tubes and a multitude of things stuck in them. Gor ran away and hid, but has been too terrified to look for a way out of the tower ever since. Asked where this all happened, Gor said somewhere on the floors above. He'd been taken there in the moving metal room and didn't really know which floor the sacrifices or Armul and his yellow men were located. Asked about Armul, Gor described him as a tall man with reddish skin, but looking very old and decayed. His face was also covered in gold or something. 

The party tried to convince Gor to come with them, but he refused to leave his hiding spot. Awg gave him a dagger which Gor accepted gladly. After a quick double check of floor below via the moving room, the party decided to use the stairs to go up. With an invisible Rodrigo in the lead, they made their way to the next floor. This was not wide open. Instead, there was a corridor leading from the stairs to what they guessed was the moving room doors at the far end. Crouched motionless to each side of the doors was a humanoid figure. Halfway down the hall on each side was an opening. Rodrigo crept down to glance inside, keeping one eye on the crouched figures. Through one opening was an empty room. In the other was a strange mass of metal framework and machines. In the centre was looked like a freestanding door frame about 3'deep. The swashbuckler retreated back to the party to fill them in. But rather than explore further on this floor at the moment, they decided to continue their climb. 

"Yellow Man"

The stairs came to an end on the next level; another set of circular stairs could be seen at the far side of the room where the moving room doors should have been. This room, unlike the others below, was not lit up by the cool blue overhead lights. Instead, the only lighting was natural, coming through amber colored panels along one wall. The warm yellow light fell on a series of tanks around the perimeter of the room, 22 in total. These were made of metal with a glass door on the front. The party entered warily, going over to look at closest vessel. Inside, a withered human body floated in a greenish fluid. Stuck into the body was a multitude of hoses, wires and similar pointy things. Awg, meanwhile, went over to the windows, and discovered the centre one was actually a door. It opened onto a narrow, rail-less balcony facing the jungle to the south east. Meanwhile, inside the room the party started to fan out to look around. As they did, the bodies in the tanks suddenly jerked into movement. Doors were opened, fluid poured out, and the grotesque bodies ripped themselves from their attachments and started to shuffle towards the party. Aug called out to everyone to retreat to the balcony; they could deal with them one by one in the doorway rather than all at once. That seemed like a good idea, so they ran out the door and prepared to meet their foes. First shot went to Wilhelm and his musket, blasting down the lead body. He then got out of the way to let Kwinsea blast another dozen with a lighting bolt. But still they kept coming, so Awg and Rodrigo flanked the door and starting chopping them down one by one. Several times one of the warriors was grabbed and slammed against the door frame, but eventually all the attackers were shot, shocked or stabbed and the danger was past. 

Worried now that anyone on the floors above would be alert to their presence, the party rushed the stairs hoping to get the drop on any foes. With an invisible Rodrigio in the front, they  blundered up the stairs and right into a 'yellow man'. This was a tall humanoid, consisting of sickly beige plates assembled over a metal framework. Of more immediate interest was the raised arm which consisted of some kind of blast weapon. It fired, catching Rodrigo (and to a lessor extent Awg behind him) in a gout of flame. The swashbuckler pulled out a lighting termite grenade and jammed it in the end of the blast cannon. It exploded, slagging the automaton's weapon and spraying Rodrigo with bits of molten metal ...

TO BE CONTINUED ...

TOTAL XP

638

GAINS

None

KILLS/VICTORIES

22 Kryo-Tank Drained Villagers

LOSSES
None (yet)

Pointless Musings on 1977 Classic Traveller Skills

For no particular reason, I've been looking at the 1977 Traveller skill tables. Putting aside the weapon skills, a few thoughts on general skills come to mind:

Out of 23 listed skills, there are three which are open to just a single career; Ship's Boat (Navy), Forgery (Other), Steward (Merchant). 

Forgery and Steward makes some sense restricted to their particular careers. Ship's Boat seems odd though; I would think merchants and maybe scouts occasionally have to buzz around the solar system rather than jump through interstellar space. Of course the 1981 rules fudged/fixed this by allowing Pilot (with appropriate penalties) to be used in place of Ship's Boat. But still ....

Each career has from 10 (Other) to 14 (Merchant) skills available to them. 

Looking back to the first point, maybe that's why Merchants don't get Ships Boat. They're already at the top of the 'range of skills available' list. Maybe it was a game balance decision? Still sucks for Scouts though. But they usually die in character generation anyway ...

Every career qualifies for Computer, Electronics, Mechanical, Medical.

I'm sure this says something regarding assumptions of how the game is played, or the default setting. Not sure what though; things break frequently, including the characters? Note that if your Traveller group is missing any of these skills, there must have been some sucky dice rolling involved.

Marines and Army look pretty similar when it comes to skills.

Well duhh. Differences are minor. Army qualifies for Air/Raft and Forward Observer, while Marines can get Vacc Suit. Which makes perfect sense if you follow the assumption that Marines specialize in ship boarding actions, and Army are the ground-pounders.

Navy can get Forward Observer?

Directing orbital bombardment? Schlepping along with the Marines when the poor jarheads have to get their boot's dirty planet-side? Some early draft of starship combat where FO was required? I'm probably over thinking this one.

When it comes to shady dealings, the difference between Merchant and Other careers is slim.

Both Merchant and Other have a lock on most of the dodgy skills; each get Bribery and Streetwise, and Other adds Forgery to the mix. Which goes to support the assumption (never really spelled out anywhere in the rules) that Other is a criminal underworld career; and suggests that Merchants are more smuggler than CEO. 

No Gunnery for Marines 

I like to think of my Marines as Royal Marines, who traditionally supplied the gun crew for one turret on a circa WW1 Royal Navy battleship. Not gonna happen with this skill list. 

No Admin for Scouts

And we trust these guys to make our star charts and record data on the known universe? Oh well, they usually die in character generation anyway ...

No Leader or Tactics for Navy

Seems like this would be a given for a military career. But again that bumps the total available skills up high for Navy. And if you follow that line of thinking too far, Navy Marines and Army all start too look pretty much alike. 

Far Isles Session #97 - Palace of the Faceless Inquisitor

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 7)
Chaff (Vivimancer 7), with familiar Pretty Bird, and riding dog, Puppy Whuppy
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 7), with familiar Hermes
Rodrigo (Swashbuckler 7)

The ship was barely at the dock before Lynessa assembled the crew, distributed their pay, and released them to the taverns of the Fogbound Quays for a few days of drunken debauchery. She then turned to the business of repair and resupply, while the party likewise fanned out across Xin in pursuit of their own needs and desires over the next number of weeks.

• Chaff and Kwinsea both tracked down their previous magical mentors (Lady Volana and Xerious the Free, respectively) hoping to add to their spell-casting repertoire. After making suitable payment and performing the requested services, the two settled down to spend the next month in study. Chaff walked away with Chimera I and Blood into Rope, while Kwinsea learned Swarm Transformation and Winter's Wail;   
• In the meantime, Awg visited the calmonari villages and recruited a pair of his/her kin to replace their lost crewmen;
• Once done with spell research, Chaff went shopping for guns from Opher the Gunsmith. She had a new wheel-lock to offer [750gp] which the vivimnacer snapped up. She also showed Chaff her latest invention; a pair of massive bombards. Hideously expensive (10000gp each; 500gp of powder per shot), big (6' long, 3000lbs), destructive (4d6 ship HP damage and chance of fire damage; fires as per catapult in terms of ROF and crew), and likely unreliable. But Chaff's eyes glittered at the thought of having these big boom-boom's on the boat, so after clearing the expense with the rest of the party, he bought them both. And hired a couple of new musketeer gun crews to operate them;
• Chaff also went shopping for a new ride, getting a small raptor dinosaur at a bargain basement price from Vadaris, Predominant Lord Chamberlain of the Satyric Chamber. Dinosaurs are so yesterday among the elite; the latest fad is arctic creatures from the Cold Nar;
• The party also chipped in to get Wilhelm and Lynessa gifts in appreciation of their cheerful service. A fine cutlass for the captain and a bejeweled cuirass for the sergeant; 
• On the magic item front, the party made rounds of the temples to look for potions of healing. Unfortunately, the party is now persona non-grata at most of the temples in town due to their connection with the destruction of the Temple of the Three Virtues and the fire-balling of the Temple of Brall. But the main temple of Garu Dar was willing to deal; they were too stoned to notice what's going on. Six (6) were purchased;
• Likewise, a sage [Palova] was hired to identify the crystal fruit. They learned that crystal fruit allows the individual who eats one to access a higher intelligence (as per the spell Contact Other Plane.) She offered no advice on how one would go about eating one of the fruit without dental disaster; 
• Kwinsea also hired a different sage [Lancarious] to learn more about the liquid lighting the party had liberated from Iomnogoren's lair. She learned that it was essentially the essence of lightning in solid (well, liquid) form. Rich in elemental magic, it could probably be used for lots of magical things. But in an immediate sense, he directed Kwinsea an alchemist who could use it to make lightning related potions. In the end they used they  had to make 3 lightning thermite grenades [2d6 damage in 10' radius, save for half].

Last but not least, the party retained the services of yet another sage to research possible 'god-level magic' that would allow them to follow through on their plan to mask the mists. At the end of their busy month, the party returned to get their information. The sage Gervis described to them a substance known as "The Null". It was the primordial stuff from which magic was formed at the beginning of the universes. It is known for it's ability, among other thing, to overwhelm and mask magical emanations. Gervis did have information on the location of a sample of this "Null", in an old tower to the far south that supposedly dated from before the Godswar that set the planet back to the stone ages millennia ago. The only problem is the party would need something in which to collect the Null; it just can't be stuffed in a sack. The good news was Gervis knew where to find such a thing, an containment device known as a stasis cube. The bad news is it was hidden somewhere in the sprawling mass of the Palace of the Faceless Inquisitor. So the party now faced having to do a little break and entry into the home of the mentally unstable and horrifically powerful ruler of Xin.

After a few moments hesitation, the party decided they had no choice if they wished to go ahead with their plan. They knew a little about the Palace; as the centre of government for the city, it was actually considered public space for the most part and wandering around inside would not be difficult as long as the party didn't act too suspicious. However, the Palace was known to be an indecipherable maze made up of dozens of structures and gardens, and miles of un-mapped and un-mappable passages. Regardless, their first choice was to reconnoiter on foot, so next morning they found themselves arriving in the main courtyard of the Palace, along with the public officers, petitioners and prisoners. Choosing a stairway and door at random, they plunged in.  

They entered into a reception chamber; in one corner stood a stone fountain overflowing with a sticky mauve goo. They choose to ignore this, and exited through a second door into a gallery or museum. The walls consisted of one massive painting depicting a bacchanalian feast. While well done, it was most notable for the eerie feeling that the figures were moving about in one's peripheral vision. Also of note was the cluster of table in the centre of the room, at which sat an old man transcribing text from a massive tome. Chaff went over the engage the gentleman, Tiberian by name,  in conversation. The exasperated scribe explained he was scribing a copy of the Legal Codex of Xin in green ink. When asked why, he explained it was at the orders of the Faceless Inquisitor. And if you could please go away; he had much to do and had no desire to arose the wrath of his mercurial sovereign. Chaff apologized, then surreptitiously cast mind slave on the man to make him more cooperative. From his new best friend, Chaff learned that travel and searching in the Palace was not going to be easy. It had some means of sowing confusion on those who roamed it's halls. It was never clear how to get to where, or even where 'where' was at any given time.  If you were supposed to be 'there', the Palace would allow your destination to be easily found. Otherwise, good luck. Tiberian illustrated that point as he tired to give directions to the party, and hopelessly fumbled the attempt. 

Not sure what to make of Tiberian and his confusion, the party pushed on through another door. This led them along a covered gallery with windows overlooking some unknown courtyard, then down a few flights of stairs to a solid oak door. Once more barging in, they found themselves in what was obviously a torture chamber. Racks and chains and burning  braziers abounded. Curiously, none were in use, although the room was occupied. In the center sat a man tied to a chair, moaning in agony as second man read doggerel verse to him. The 'torturer' turned on the party and demanded to know what they wanted.  Apologizing, they stated they had gotten lost. But what, pray tell, was going on? The torturer explained the man in the chair was a poet, convicted of writing salacious and seditious verse about the Faceless Inquisitor. And his punishment was to spend 101 days listening to the worst poetry that could be found. With that, he turned back to reading to the moaning man, and the party decided leaving would be a good idea. Back up the stairs, they found the gallery oddly changed and unfamiliar; wasn't there a door over there before? Convinced now that Tiberian was right, they fumbled and stumbled around for awhile before finding their way back to the scribe, and then quickly made their way back outside. They would have to find another way besides brute exploratory force to find the stasis cube. 

Sitting down in a tavern to discuss, the party floated to idea of an aerial survey. But that was shot down as it didn't help them find the location of the cube. What they needed was to find someone with extensive knowledge and 'free passage' of the Palace, to pump them for information. What about the maintenance crew or cleaners? They might know. More inquires directed them to the west side of the Palace. Most of the cleaners and labourers lived in the adjacent Blackmilk district, and they would arrive and depart from that side of the Palace. The party set up shop there one morning to watch the process. Boatloads of people would arrive at one of several courtyards, to be met by overseers who would hand out their assignments for the day. The workers would then disappear into the mass of the Palace and re-appear at day's end to collect their pay and head home. They certainly seemed to have no trouble getting around and returning to their start point. The party decided to head into Blackmilk, find a tavern, and ask some questions. Doing so, they struct up a conversation with an old labourer by the name of Ricktor. His story of how they were able to operate in the Palace matched up with that of Tiberian the scribe; the Palace knew where they were supposed to be and would put up no obstacles in the way of their work. Given a description of the stasis cube, Ricktor seemed to recall seeing such a thing in his younger days, on display in one of the quaint little gardens of the Palace. He had no idea where that garden was; it hadn't been in his area of responsibility for 30 years.  But he called over a young custodian named Jord, who knew exactly the garden under discussion. It was now old and overgrown. And apparently dangerous, as he'd been warned not to enter it. He wasn't sure why. But he was able to give a brief description and point out the general location on a rough sketch map of the Palace. 

With that information in hand, Chaff and the ebony fly got invisible and performed a scan of the Palace from the air, locating the garden with relative ease. The vivmancer then returned to pick up the rest of the crew, Kwinsea riding the fly with him, while Rodrigo and Awg rode in the bag of holding. He landed them in the least overgrown space, a well-manicured lawn dotted with flowerbeds. Kwinsea then used the stole of the sacred to cast a locate object spell, which directed her to an adjacent structure which appeared to be a thickly overgrown octagonal greenhouse. There were several doors, but before any one could get too close, a weird voice came from one of the flower beds: "I wouldn't touch the doors. Dangerous, too dangerous". Looking for the source, the party was shocked to find it came from a 15' foot long pink worm with the face of a man. Questioning the odd creature (Germander by name) , they learned first of all that he was responsible for the lovely garden they'd landed in. The worm also explained the reason for his warning; the doors were covered in a spongy fungus which will explode with an astounding blast if disturbed. Unlikely to cause harm, be definitely will attract the attention of someone or something awful. They party didn't question  the 'awful' part much, but instead turned to figure out the doors. In the end, Kwinsea braved the stole once more and cast silence 15' radius on one door. Rodrigo then bravely (and silently) opened the portal, revealing a vine chocked interior. The vines started to move, and in moments some of the tendrils had assumed the form of a woman's face. It came close to the swashbuckler, and seemed to pucker up for a kiss. Assuming it was his turn to take one of the team, Rodrigo complied. The experience left him with the faint taste of dandelion in his mouth, but the vine-lady then dispersed. This opened up the centre of the greenhouse, where Rodrigo immediately spied the stasis cube sitting on a fluted column.  He scooped this up, and then with a final farewell to Germander, the party alighted on the fly once more and headed for the "No Man's Sea. Once aboard, they instructed Lynessa to put to sea immediately, she having been pre-warned to have everything ready to go on a moments notice. 

Following the directions provided by Gervis. the "No Man's sea sailed south for an unevertful week and a half, finding themselves amidst the truly tropical Isles of Endless Smoke. Finding the isle in question was easy, and they were soon circumnavigating the small jungle island. Apart from the thick growth, the outstanding feature was the great grey monolithic tower which stood on a series of bare hills at the north-east end of the island.  Here, they hoped, they would find "The Null". 

TOTAL XP

0

GAINS

Stasis Cube

KILLS/VICTORIES

None

LOSSES
None

Far Isles Session # 96 - Empyrius at Last

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Awg Wahmn (Calmonari 7)
Chaff (Vivimancer 7), with familiar Pretty Bird, and riding dog, Puppy Whuppy
Kwinsea (Aquamancer 7), with familiar Hermes
Sgt. Wilhelm (Musketeer 2) [NPC]

They waited under the dome for about a day, but nothing happened. The party crowded once more around the bowl to ponder further steps. Kwinsea took a closer look at the seeds, and determined they were ordinary pomegranate seeds which ranged from relatively fresh to long desiccated. Chaff decided to eat a few, a difficult task given his mouth full of broken teeth. But they had no effect. Kwinsea then wandered back through the sand dunes to find a crab to speak with, to learn more about the comings and goings around the structure. The crab, in his crabby way, confirmed that the Firebird Amazons came to visit on their giant flying snakes, no more than once a moon. One would go over to the bowl, drop something in and then the whole structure would sink into the sands. The others would wait, and anywhere from hours to days later the structure would rise once more, the departed amazon re-emerge, and all would fly away once more. Asked when the last visit had occurred, the crab indicated almost two moons ago. Based on that information, they party once more tried to search and poke around the bowl, even going so far as to take out seeds and drop them back in again. But still to no avail. After some discussion, they decided the best way to proceed was to go to the translucent bubble structure which they assumed was the Firebird Amazon lair. There they could search for the elusive pomegranate tree and/or approach the amazons and ask for help. 

The party headed back to the ship, sailed up the coast a short jaunt to get closer to the bubbles, and then headed to shore once more. They decided to approach openly, in the hope the amazons would see they meant no hostile intent. After an hour or so crossing the island and climbing the low pine covered ridge that ran down the centre, the bubble structure appeared in a clearing a couple of hundred yards ahead. They didn't get much closer before a four amazons appeared from behind the structure. Three fanned out with javelins at the ready to cover the approaching party, while the fourth  stepped forward and called on the party (in Terocolidian) to halt and state their business. Chaff spoke up in answer, and explained the party meant to harm and wished only for assistance to deliver a message to the great Empyrius from some of his  former colleagues. The spokes-amazon (Hestiphalis) was brusquely non-committal until Chaff let slip something about helping Empyrius escape the mists. At that Hestiphalis became enraged, shouting that none shall take the Adonian from them.  As her three companions trotted forward to launch their missiles at the party, she raised hands and chanted a spell. Awg and Wilhelm were immediately paralyzed in place. Chaff rushed forward to get in closer range for a spell, while Kwinsea used the stole of the sacred to successfully cast silence 15' radius on Hestiphalis. The aquamancer then followed up with a seasong which dropped the three javelin wielding amazons into slumber. Realizing now she was outclassed, Hestiphalis turned and ran, outpacing the puffing Chaff and disappearing  once more behind the bubbles.  

Kwinsea once more risked the stole to dispel the hold on Awg and Wilhelm. Seeing no hope of willing help from the amazons now, the party decided to kidnap one of the sleeping women and take her back to the ship to interrogate. Just as they prepared to do so, however, trouble appeared in the distance. Three amazons on flying snakes appeared over the bubbles, headed straight for the party. Looking to fly away as well, Chaff would use the ebony fly  to carry himself and their captive away. Kwinsea had a potion of flying, while Chaff planned to use the wand of flying on Awg and Wilhelm. Unfortunately the wand crumbled after using it on Awg, which would have meant abandoning the dour musketeer to his fate. Awg gallantly refused to  leave Wilhelm behind, so Chaff passed over the ring of invisibility and cast a transparency spell, hoping to two could avoid capture and make their way back to the shore and the ships boat. Luckily, the two made it, even though the woods around them soon filled with Firebird Amazons beating the bushes to find them. 

As for the aerial pursuit, Chaff, Kwinsea and captive made it back to the ship well ahead of the amazons. Chaff first of all sent all the male crew below, then slapped their captive (Isabella) awake and cast mind slave to charm and question her. With the two flying snakes fast approaching, Chaff asked that Isabella intercede on their behalf and convince her sisters that they meant no harm and just wanted to talk to Empyrius. The enthralled  amazon was more than happy to comply, and shouted to those now hovering overhead. She talked back and forth with the leader (Ianthinia), and seemed to convince her the party was safe. Her flying snake landed on the deck (the others remaining overhead) and Ianthinia alighted to talk (through the grovelling Chaff) to the obvious leader, Kwinsea. The details were a little opaque, but it seemed that  the Firebird Amazons relied on Empryius to perpetuate the species. Generally every couple of months, when the stars were right, one of the selected amazons would go to the dome to be with Empyrius.  The time was actually now nigh, so the party asked if they could use the opportunity to come along and try meeting with the Adonian. Ianthina noted that neither of her sisters were ready, but Empyrius might be interested in someone new i.e. Kwinsea. Recalling that Chaff once had to 'take one for the team' with the Pale Lady, she agreed to the plan.

Accompanied by the Firebirds, the party returned to the pavilion. They cleaned up Kwinsea and made her presentable, then handed her a single pomegranate seed and told her to drop it into the bowl. Then everyone else left to wait outside in the dunes. The structure settled in a smooth motion until the edge of the dome was level with the sand. At the bottom, Kwinsea found herself faced with a set of red and white stone doors, guarded by a monstrosity of a cyclops. Curiously, it had what looked light a metal helmet in place of its head, and when it turned to face the aquamancer, a beam of light emanated from its eye to illuminate her. A few moments later she observed another face in eye looking back at her; a round, fleshy, man's face. After watching her for a minute, the face disappeared and the cyclops pulled a key out of it's waist band. It unlocked the door, then led Kwinsea into a short tunnel to another door Which he obligingly unlocked and moved out of the way for her to pass through. She found herself in a wide corridor lined with polished copper plates and illuminated by crystal lanterns. Here awaiting the man she'd seen in the cyclops eye, who gestured her forward down the corridor and through yet another door. Once through, Kwinsea found herself in a garden with trees, a placid pool, and a path. All illuminated from above by a warm, yellow glow. She followed the path and around some trees, there coming up a blanket and pillows laid out on the ground. Standing there was a god-like figure, small wings on his back, and naked but for a layer of gold dust. This then, she established, was Empyrius. Apart from establishing that fact, and gloating over his own majesty, Empyrius would entertain no questions until other matters had been attended too ...

... Once the opportunity to talk arose, Kwinsea learned a few things from Empyrius. In addition to having an immensely over-inflated opinion of himself, he was also quite content in his leisurely existence as the 'father' of the Firebird Amazons. Unlike his fellow Adonians who seemed to have driven themselves to insanity in attempts to escape the mists, he had no desire to leave. He admitted he had no means to beat the mist, and explained that it was some type of abstract intelligence from between the stars that fed on magical energies. It traveled the universes, looking for places of deep magical power, then separated them from their world to join the collection of lands the party knew as the "Far Isles". The mist would drop these lands onto a new world, then lift and search that globe for another source of magical energy to collect and feed off. The only way to stop it would be an anti-magic shield or mask of some sort, to block it's 'view' of the arcane emanations. But no mortal magic would due, since even the magnificent Empyrius could not deal with the mist. It would require power on the level of the gods themselves to do the trick.

Having learned all she could, Kwinsea made her goodbyes to the magnificent Empyrius, promising to return some day. She then worked her way back past the guardians and back up to rejoin the party. She explained all she'd learned, and assured the Firebird Amazons that they were now done with Empyrius and would be on their way. Turning the charmed Isabella over to her sisters, the party headed back to the "No Man's Sea" and prepared to sail for Xin to rest, recuperate, restock and plan what to do from here. After an uneventful passage (and a 6% customs fee), they found themselves a week later tying up to the docks of the Fogbound Quays. 

TOTAL XP

12900 each [PC's]**
200 [Wilhelm]**

GAINS

Gold dust from Empyrius (10gp)

KILLS/VICTORIES

3 Firebird Amazons [defeated/captured]

LOSSES
None

** for finding Empyrius