Well, the remainder of this day has passed far less eventfully than earlier. We've started to fly ack to town, having realised that if the weather is bad, and the ground becomes muddy, landing could prove unpleasant. We'll leave the falcon back at town, and start again) to walk towards Wallara.

Lyril also did a sending to me earlier. She passed on some news. Apparently, the Heldannic freeholds have broken off diplomatic contact with Thyatus. She didn't know why, but found it unusual, given that they were allies. I'm not sure really what to think of this turn of events. Perhaps it was an alliance of convenience against the Alphatians. Now that a large part of Alphatia is gone, perhaps they don't feel the need for the alliance anymore, and would rather squabble over whatever gains they made...

But then, I really don't have a clue. It could just be a clash of ideologies... Or maybe someone farted in front of the wrong person. Honestly, I think I should just concern myself with the consequences, rather than the reasons.

Back at town... And now walking away from town. Wonder how long before we're back again? At this rate, we'll end up creating a road between here and halfway to Wallara, since it feels we've trodden the path so many times...

Well. Seven days have passed, and we agreed to ask Leo if he could find out who the most powerful creature looking for us is. The answer is Pyre. Not the most agreeable of answers. I can't say it makes us feel any more comfortable to know that Pyre is actively looking for us.

Well, maybe he just wants to talk to us? Haha.

Well, another week has passed. We feel slightly reassured at the moment. I comtacted Pyre earlier, at Leo's suggestion, and simply asked what he wanted with us. Pyre indicated he wished to do a deal with us. Leo couldn't quite verify his sincerity in that regard, but did say that Pyre does not have intentions of killing us.

I feel a bit unsettled about this. We have by now agreed that we will meet with Pyre, and see if we can make a deal, although we wonder what it is he wants from us. We feel fairly sure as to what he is offering. A piece of the Sundered Man.

I have decided to delay doing another sending to Pyre until tomorrow morning. Just a few moments ago I did a sending to Nemon warning that we might need a hot extraction shortly.

As an added precaution, Gurzurk has begun building an underground stone bunker where we are camping.

Pyre sounded very confident and self assured when he replied to my sending. I guess I would too, if I was something that even other dragons feared.

I told Pyre where we are, and that we'll wait for him here. Fortunately, he indicated that he would be arriving in a few days. This gives us some more time to prepare. Namely, Gurzurk can continue work on the bunker.

By the Pantheon! Pyre is absolutely huge! He was about 400 feet long. Del wasn't anywhere near that large. Del was only about 100 feet long.

Well, the fact that I am able to write this diary indicates we didn't die. This is good. In fact, we managed to convince him to leave for a few days so we had some time to think it over.

Think what over? Well, he wants the mirror. In exchange, it looks like he'll give us a piece of the Sundered Man. We really don't know what to do. We would really like to have both items, but clearly Pyre isn't going to be quite that nice unfortunately.

When Pyre left, he said he would return in two days. Enough time for us to wait and ask Leo what it is we should do.

We did discuss the matter further today. One possibility was to ambush Pyre when he returns. After all, it would be our best opportunity. He would be away from his cave, and his kingdom of orcs after all. Unfortunately, Melany's deity indicated that "Pyre would notice a blow from Roland", which kind of put a dampener on that idea.

We discussed the matter further today. We have decided that we cannot hand the mirror over to Pyre. If, for exmaple, Pyre had the other components necessary to activate the star device, then he really could cause untold damage. At least until someone destroyed the last remaining star device.

So, again, I did a sending to Pyre, telling him of our decision. Unfortunately, he replied saying that perhaps the followers of Thasmodean would be more generous. That does not bode well. I sincerely hope he was bluffing.

Well, perhaps we can continue on, and hope that he ends up holding onto it?

And why is it that I always seem to do sendings for this group?

Damn! We asked Leo about where the nearest group of Thasmodean followers who seek pieces of the Sundered Man are. The answer is "Pyre's jungle". I guess he wasn't bluffing them. Damn!

Just how did they find out anyway?

Well, we can't ignore this anymore. Lani, Zim, and uria have teleported back to the falcon. They'll fly it here, and then we'll all leave for Pyre's jungle.

We were picked up by the falcon earlier today, and are now en route to Pyre's jungle.

Dammit! It just isn't clear what we should do. Perhaps we should just give the mirror up for a piece of the Sundered Man? After all, we know the Sundered Man is far more important than the mirror. Surely?

We have arrived at the edge of Pyre's jungle. Tomorrow we will be able to ask Leo another question, so we'll fly about aimlessly for a little while.

One of the possibilities we are considering is teleporting in and quickly killing the followers of Thasmodean. This should actually be quite do-able. After all, if we catch them unawares, then they shouldn't stand much of a chance, not against a barrage of spells thrown their way. And we can find out a description of one of them by asking Leo a question.

To this end, I informed Nemon that we may be requiring a hot insertion shortly.

Ah, as a pleasant aside, Lyril did a sending to me this morning. She has had more interesting news. Several countries, including Darokin, Karameikos, and the Five Shires have made an alliance called the Western Defence League. Perhaps all of the recent world events have made them feel they need such an alliance. Times have surely been turbulent.

Well, that was the interesting news. The bad newsa is that the followers of Thasmodean are accompanied by another variant of the Night Walker. This one is 100 feet long, and 15 feet wide. Again, entirely black. It's known as a Night Crawler. This is the creature Leo found out about when we asked him for a description of one of the members of that group. T'zaz is the one who verified the information, although I think I interrupted her. She said she was busy. Maybe she was making a magic item?

Zim scried on it. It was surrounded by some humans, who were talking to some orcs. Damn. This is not good.

Perhaps teleporting in by ourselves is not a good idea. I'll rest, and this afternnon, having rememorised some sendings, I'll ask for help from Lyril, and any friends they can call in.

(afternoon)

ha. Lyril and Or-len are such charming people. They have actually teleported in to talk to us.

I can say that things are looking somewhat better now. Initially we discussed with Lyril and Or-len people they could bring in to help with an attack on the night crawler. Namely, they indicated they knew a few people who could help, including Loren, another ranger, Quillian, a warrior, and a fellow called Weston, the "human liberator". He's apparently excels at liberating people of their belongings. At the moment Quillian rules a Barony in Norwald - poorly, by all accounts.

It seemed like a workable plan. Attack the Thasmodean followers. In that distraction, perhaps Quillian could sneak into Pyre's lair and steal what we need, and anything else that catches his eye.

But what we have going now is possibly even better. In a way. At least we may not end up drawing Pyre's anger. Basically, I asked Pyre if he was willing to negotiate. We began with an initial offer of one twentieth of a ton of Cynnabrul, at which Pyre laughed... But it was soon obvious that he is willing to negotiate. Presently, we have agreed upon one and a half tonnes of Cynnabryl, in exchange for the piece of the Sundered Man. Once half is delivered, he will hand over the item, and then of course expect us to be faithful to the contract.

Tomorrow, we will see if he is willing to kill off the followers of Thasmodean for extra Cynnabryl.

I am so relieved that he appears willing to negotiate. Of course, he might just be trying to backstab us. Well, might as well wait to see how well things go tomorrow.

In other news, Lyril commented that two people have recently published books. One says that Mystara is hollow, and that people live within the hollow region. This author claims that he got to the hollow area through an island called Aegos (was in Alphatia), which had a tunnel to the centre of the planet. A fascinating concept. If it is true, then why has no-one heard it before? I think I'd prefer to believe it to be true, just because it would make life more interesting.

There has also been another book published, but one that is given far less credence. It was written by a halfling that says that there is a sun in the middle of Mystara that is controlled by powerful halflings for the sake of stupid elves and humans. Well, this book sounds a bit far fetched.

Interestingly, the first book was released simultaneously in many different countries. I wonder if the author was oncerned that if the knowledge wasn't released everywhere, then some groups might try to contain its spread? Well, whatever the case, it has proven to be a popular book.

Lyril commented that she and Or-len were about to investigate these claims, before we sidetracked them. I wonder what they'll find out?

Today we finalised our deal with Pyre. We have agreed to the extraordinarily large sum of two and one quarter tonnes of Cynnabryl, in exchange for a piece of the Sundered Man (once half delivered), and the immediate deaths of all the followers of Thasmodean (including the night crawler) that are presently in Pyre's jungle.

We have agreed on a location to meet. Lyril and Or-len scouted there for a bit. It's basically a fort, populated by orcs. They said they saw the humans there, but no sign of the crawler.

We are to teleport to meet at the location in siz days. We will be shown the piece of the Sundered Man, so that we can verify its authenticity (that is, get Leo to ensure it is what it is - that is, if he cannot figure anything out about it, then it is what we think it is). We will then ambush the followers.

In the meantime, we wait. Lyril and Or-len are going to go back to Norwald, and return when necessary. They won't be bringing the extra help, since it is no longer necessary.

Lyril left some presents for us mages. Very nice of her. She basically left us some spells. For me, she left two sixth level spells, beyond what I can presently manage, but I will get there one day. The spells are really quite awesome. They are Chain Lightning, and Tensor's Transformation.

Did I say that Lyril and Or-len are nice people? Well, they are.

Today is Rushnikesret, the Festival of Lights. Today I and Turia, with some help from the others, commemorated the loss and return of Lal. Well, given we're not in Sind, we had to improvise somewhat. Unfortunately there were no laterns drapd in colourful cloths, but we try.

I think Zhi liked the idea that when it is Rushnikesret, adults spend most of the day playing dice games.

In the evening, we let Leo play the part of Lal. Once we found him, I thinka ll enjoyed the idea of feasting...

Sigh. I wonder if the people in Sind are being allowed these traditional events. I hope so. But who knows what the Hule oppressors are like.

A most satisfying day.

It can be summed up as we teleported to the designated location. We were shown the piece of the Sundered Man by an orc. Leo verified its authenticity. We then waited in ambush for the followers of Thasmodean.

The battle was surprisingly quick. There were five humanoids, and the night crawler. I killed two of the humanoids with a fireball, another was cut down by Roland, one was killed outright by five arrows from Or-len, and the other was killed by Safranna.

Pyre swooped down and grabbed the night crawler, wounding it deeply. He then lifted it into the air. Meanwhile, the night crawler managed to gouge its tail deeply into Pyre - a wound which Pyre simply ignored. Then Pyre dropped the night crawler from about 100 feet. It's impact with the ground shook the trees.

That was the battle. It was over in twenty seconds. Safranna stuck all of the creatures with her sword. The crawler disappeared, as did three of the humanoids creatures (which had begun dissolving). It looked like the other two humans were mages.

We spoke briefly with Pyre before he left. Basically to finalise our deal. Good heavens, I'm glad we didn't get into a fight with him. I don't think we would have stood a chance.

Lyril and Or-len have never seen a dragon as big. The biggest they have ever seen is 250 feet long - not nearly Pyre's 400 feet. I wonder if Puyre is the dragon of Mystara?

Well, maybe he just casts something like enlarge upon himself?

Either way, I hope the deal holds up. esides, there's a few less followers of Thasmodean to worry about. In particularl, one less night giant variant.

Thasmodean must be getting real pissed about now.

Hmm. I guess the Sundered Man really does mean quite a lot to Thasmodean.

We've teleported back to the falcon, coutesy of Lyril. I made arrangements with Martin for our first two and a quarter tonnes of Cynnabryl to be sent to the orcs in this region.

Presently, we are heading back to the bunker.

Well, maybe now I won't have to do as many sendings. Hmm. Actually, now that I think about it, I can't recall a time when the party has thanked me for doing these sendings for them. Actually, some of them even look unhappy when I say that the party can pay me for the components. I don't know what they think I am, but I'm certainly not a charity service. Well, adds new meaning to the concept of a thankless task.

We have rearrived at the bunker which Gurzurk set up for us. We've realised that these plains are in fact part of Wallara, so somewhere around here there should be some chameleon people.

Well, first thing is first, and that is that we'll let Gurzurk perfect the bunker, so we can leave the falcon here, and travel on foot. We really don't want to head back to town and start walking again. Enough is enough.

The bunker will take ten days to finish.

We asked Leo another question today. We wanted who the most powerful of the hostile creatures after us was, but Leo couldn't figure it out. I guess the question was too specific. Perhaps we should have asked for who one of the most powerful was, rather than the most powerful.

Oh well. Win some, lose some.

Glorious. A busy day today.

Firstly, the bunker was satisfactorily completed.

Secodly, Leo, Mr Useful himself, told us that the nearest group of creatures hostile towards us are a group of assassins in Darokin City (Lady of the Noose people?). This is quite reassuring.

Thirdly, Lyril did a couple of sendings to me. The first bit of news is that three of Darokins main cities have been flooded (ones near the river, including Darokin City). The second bit of news is that rogue elements from the Ylaruam have again raided Thyatus.

And more notably, we are currently travelling with one of the chameleon people to, presumably, one of their towns (if they have towns). We met him when Turia, myself, and Melany went out to the plains and just waited. In short notice, one of the chameleon people appeared in front of us. It was a very good idea of Lani's for a small group of us to do this.

The chameleon people look kind of strange. They look like they are just made of swirly colours. I guess that they can control it to match their surroundings very effectively. We certainly didn't notice him.

After a short discussion (Melany cast tongues), he indicated that he can help.

So he started to lead us somewhere. No idea where. It's not like he's terribly talkative. And he wanted to jog all the way. Crazy! Like he expects us to be able to keep up? Even without the platemail, I'd have difficulty. Although Melany seemed to find the idea of jogging pleasant. Dammit! ne day I will have teleport without error!

Well, the others caught up at some point. After some time, Melany decided to do a know customs, and found that it is in fact very insulting to walk in someone elses shadow. No wonder he seemed to keep moving around weirdly.

One should also not smile when approaching a village or settlement, in case there is bad news. Only when informed that all is well is one allowed to start smiling again.

They also have things like ritual combat, although not to the death.

We'll rest the night now. Our guide seems a little disappointed at our slow pace, but oh well.

Actually, it was amusing his expression when Melany cast Blessed Abundance. I guess they don't have many priests?

In the middle of the afternoon today we arrived at on eof the Chameleon peoples settlements. It's clearly a settlement just by virtue of the fact there are a number of the chameleon people here. All have that same, swirling colour look. All are naked, and have no obvious external genitalia. I wonder how they reproduce?

Interestingly, there do not appear to be any children.

In the evening, there was a meeting about what should be done about us. The meeting took place ater some ritual dance and animal spirit gobbledygook. Some said we should be removed from their lands, while others said we should be taken to see the keepers of knowledge. At this stage, we have no idea what the final decision was. Well, we were allowed to participate in a feast (of burned meat, unfotunately - at least they do cook the stuff).

Well, I guess they agreed to send us on to the keppers. At the rate we are travelling, our guide believes we should be there in about a week.

Again, Leo has proved most helpful. This time he found out that Pyre heard of us through the followers of Thasmodean.

Interesting. I wonder what they offered him. Perhaps they made an offer, and he decided that he would see what we could offer instead.

Perhaps their offer simply wasn't very good. I wonder if the Night Flyer sent up against us was in order to get the mirror off of us so they could pay Pyre with it, in order to get the piece of the Sundered Man.

Hmm. Too many unknowns.

Oh man has today been real busy!

Earlier today we arrived at the ruined city of Risulvar, where we met the Keepers of Knowledge. Good heavens, this city is loaded. It has crystal columns, and the walls are veined with gold. Risulvar must be worth a fortune. It looks like something worth invading for. I must remember to warn these Chameleon people of that.

Well, all of us are now "initiated", although none of us are quite sure what we have been initiated into. However, earlier a venerable Keeper stated that they could tell us nothing until we were initiated.

I cannot say the initiation seemed terribly difficult. After spending all afternnon in a cave, thinking we were meant to be doing something (but in fact we were just meant to wait), we were lead back to the city. In particular, we were lead to a place where there were two tall columns, ones we had earlier seen chameleon people jumping between.

It tunrs out that we were expected to leap the same columns, before a crowd of curious chameleon people of course. The chameleon people first painted some strange paints on us, in some no doubt important patterns (and which no doubt didn't look very stylish on Zhi).

We then, one by one, leapt between the columns. The columns, 15 feet apart, are 100 feet off the ground, so a fall could be quite dangerous. However, as we saw, anyone falling seemed to get teleported to the top of the pillar they were trying to reach.

It was meant to be a test of courage and wisdom. Well, maybe there's something I don't know.

Or maybe it's just doesn't seem difficult to us because we're adventurers. Admittedly, Lani just glided, Roland managed to jump it without gliding, Turia took one step and easily jumped the distance, Gurzurk circumvented jumping altogether and went through the stone, Leo just used his wings, and several others used fly spells in case they didn't make it.

I'd like to point out that I was the only purist who didn't use any magical or unusual means to leap the distance. My jump was based purely on skill.

Having become initiates (of what we still don't know), we were each given a strange bent wooden stick called a boomerang, a spear, and a bullroarer (makes load noises when it is swung around quickly).

Subsequently, there was a celebration and feast. You know, I think that these chameleon people aren't that bad.

Finally, we were told what we wanted to know. First, the same old Keeper told us of how the Nimmurians were bootd out of their homeland by the man scorpions. So it was the Nimmurians own kindness that lead to their downfall. Well, good luck in their quest to re-take their homeland.

The elderly fellow then went on to describe how the Nimmurians destroyed all but one of their star devices, to prevent the man scorpions from using them. For the remaining star device, a priest left with the three controlling device. That priest travelled, and met one of the Chameleon people. Unfortunately, the priest was dying. He told this to the chameleon person, but soon died. He was buried in a cave, with two of the controlling devices. The chameleon person took the third, and sealed the cave, but unfortunately, the device was later stolen from him.

The Keepers do not know where the cave is, although they think we might be able to find out if we read the Nimmurian archives.

All very interesting. I'm now extremely glad we didn't give up the mirror.

Anyway, much more importantly, we each got given a free magical item. It was like a lucky dip. We each reached into a bag, and took the first thing our hands came in contact with. What an amazing bag. I wonder if it is actually creating magical items on the fly? Perhaps I could ask.

Well, I can't wait until tomorrow, where I get to identify what we just received.

I just finished surveying the magic items. I cannot believe what we have been given. Ten magic items is really quite a lot...

Well, they are:
Me: A ring of blinking
Turia: A ring of invisibility
Lani: A chime of opening
Melany: Winged boots
Gurzurk: Jewel of flawlessness
Zim: Dust of appearence
Roland: Silken shirt of invulnerability Safranna: Bracers of archery
Leo: Nolsen's marvellous pigments
Zhi: A bag of fortune

Interestingly, the items are all quite relevent to each of us. Ah, it really is quite wonderful.

This should at least help us survive a little while longer.