Lunadain, Felmont (month 7) 22, 1028

We head off in the Star Seeker. We intend to search for the Moon's that orbited Asterius before it was destroyed.

[Rewind. We speak to some Pentaegg gnomes. Gero and Jebmip. They've invented masks that can be used to survive in unbreathable locations, such as underwater, or in toxic environs. You add water to little crystals, and the crystals generate air for several hours. The crystals cost 20gp. The masks might normally cost about 20gp each or so, but our initial bunch will be fore free. We get them.]

We start heading to Captain Corsha's base.

Gromdain, Fyrmont (month 8) 9, 1028

We meet up with Captain Corsha. We ask him about the moons. He seems to think that going to the asteroids of Damocles (too small to be moons) would be suicidal. He doesn't expect us to survive. He says several of the asteroids were controlled by Captain Cortal Ihetram, the piratical. He's a lifeshaper.

Ihetram is one of the nine original dark Pyrondians. He might even have powers like we have. He's meant to be over 1000 years old.

Incidentally, Pyrondians (not Dark Pyrondians) reproduce in a manner more akin to plants than animals, using buddings and the like.

Captain Corsha gives us some charts to find the "moons".

We communicate with Prince Finn. We think the name of the Life Shaper might be a command word to the ring. Alas, he's been put in prison. It appears some people may have caught on to him being a vampire. It appears he's got little choice but to become mortal, unless he wants to be destroyed.

Thora agrees to use the Staff of Life to return him to life. We teleport in, bust him out, and teleport away to Thora. He is returned to life. We teleport back.

We inform the Queen via sending of the change in circumstances. She tallks about stringing us up if we ever show our faces. Hmm.

We decide to find this Life Shaper.

Gromdain, Fyrmont (month 8) 23, 1028

Turia joins the ship, to be with Grey.

Gromdain, Ambyrmont (month 9) 2, 1028

We arrive at the site of Damocles.

By this stage, Lani has produced a flying, crystalline faery, named Tinkerbell. If it wants to, it can leave behind sparks in the air as it flies, and can make little tinkling noises.

The asteroid field here is extremely dense. The Starseeker is likely to be damaged if it goes in there. With Zim piloting, the Falcon would probably be fine.

We survey the area for several days.

Nytdain, Ambyrmont (month 9) 5, 1028

We've observed several heavily built over asteroids. They appear to fom a ring in the dense field. Signs of civilisation. One of the large asteroids has a chunk taken out of it. We can see it appears to be riddled with passages. We observe it for longer.

We observe for a while.

Soladain, Ambyrmont (month 9) 7, 1028

A ship arrives, investigates the large asteroid, and docks. We decide to send a team out to find out what they're doing.

We assemble an away team, consisting of Grey, Turia, Zim, Lani, and two Sindhi marines, Jana and Maden. Someone casts Mass Invisibility, and Telepathic Bond. Grey casts Shield Other and Tongues on Turia.

We teleport over. We need the gas masks straight away. The air is bad. We have enough crystals for eight hours.

We teleport to a docking door near where the other ship docked.

We go inside, whilst Turia heads off outside. Inside is a large ship that was burnt out a long time ago. The air does not improve. There are three exits from this room, one of which shows signs of fire damage. We hide in there.

Turia spies. She listens in (to the Dark Pyrondians on the ship) and finds out that this is some kind of base, abandoned, but the defences are still intact. There is more than one ship here. The Dark Pyrondians are trying to loot the place, and are looking for something specific, but the guardians are proving troublesome. They've been here a few weeks already. There doesn't appear to be more than ten or twenty of them. It sounds like there's some sort of competition between the ships. They have masks.

We start exploring. There are traps.

[On the side, Grey announces that he is now a priest of Hecate. Zim barely manages to avoid saying "I told you so"]

We find another hangar, then a smaller room. We find some round things with gas inside, but have no other apparent purposes. We also find some stone balls, and cabinets with suits of armour and weaponry.

We go up two levels.

We find a room with bunk beds. They are inhabited by corpses. One died of a collapsing ceiling, the others as a result of some kind of gas, maybe. They appear to be Pyrithians (green skinned not pointy ears).

Wandering along on the top level, we get hit by a Dictum. No-one is effected.

Further on we find a mostly completed ship - it has its housing but no creature in it. There's also a stone golem standing over a bunch of dead Dark Pyrondians.

We try to sneak past the stone golem, invisibly. It doesn't seem to spot us. We find another incomplete ship. We also find a workbench where someone has done some stuff recently. It appears they've been making traps. Someone might be living here. We move on.

We go back to level 2. Turia stays behind to see if she can find out who's been making the traps.

We find a room with hay. Grey hears people dying to the south and west. The south door has a big red X painted on it. On opening it, we get blasted by a prismatic spray.

Zim goes insane and starts attacking us. Zim Mazes Grey, and Temporal Stasis' Grey.

Maden, who appears to have gone paranoid, attacks the newly megalomaniac Zim.

Grey fixes Zim up with a heal.

Grey then fixes up the paranoid Maden.

Grey then opens the dooor a second time, assuming the trap to have been discharged, only to be blasted again. Grr.

We head on, trying to find the source of the screaming. We find a room with a variety of ship parts. Against the wall, hanging off a strake, is half a Dark Pyrondian. On the other side of the room are a pair of large creatures, similar to what you might expect from Alien. One of them is eating a Dark Pyrondian. They leave on seeing us open the door. We hear more screaming from the south.

They appear to be intelligent, judging by teir ability to bar doors.

We follow, but appear to lose them. We get blasted by an Incendiary Cloud later.

We move on, and find the Dark Pyrondian vessel. Blood is smattered near it, and it shudders. We go in, and find one living Dark Pyrondian, terrified out of his wits. The hatch shuts behind us, after we hear some giggling. We open it, and find one of the large creatures. Its brain is very large and visible. We kill it.

Behind it, we see two more. They do some spell effect, which is clearly neither arcane nor divine, and disappear from view. They have gone away. We hear hissing from further down.

Lani has heard of them. They are called Seribiliths. They apparently have weird mental powers, and are known to like kill people in imaginative and painful ways. They are demons. Kind of the iillithids of demons. They like plucking brains out of people, and toying with them. They are normally solitary, as they like to spend their time honing their mental abilities.

We tell Turia to rejoin us, and get the Troy to head over, so we can get the Dark Pyrondian ship to safety.

Turia gets lured into a trap along the way. She manages to escape with a nasty bite. She was rather well hidden, so perhaps they spotted her by other means?

Unfortunately, the Dark Pyrondian vessel died whilst we were away, perhaps as a result of earlier wounds.

We go down to explore the lower levels, hopefully away from these creatures.

We find a few vats, one of which contains a living creature. We think it's a baby ship being grown.

Later we manage to sneak up on a Pyrithian, and capture him. We try to talk to them. They seem to be the trapmaker. He's Sergeant Daneld, S1532, Imperial Scouting Service.

This is the imperial fleet base. The empire is no more, evidently.

This base grew ships, which is a valuable resource. He volunteered to stay behind to prevent the resources here from falling into the hands of the Empires enemies. He has been here for years without hearing from anyone. A ship left a while ago to try to get help, but hasn't returned.

We agree to ally with each other for now. He knows where the other Dark Pyrondian ship is. He leads us there. As we get closer, we hear screaming. We enter the room, and find six of the creatures, tossing around bits of Dark Pyrondian. There is one Dark Pyrondian left standing, backed into the corner.

Grey lets loose with a Cone of Acid, badly wounding two of the Seribiliths. The Dark Pyrondian wavers between shooting his unusual crossbow at Grey, or at a Seribilith - he opts foor the nearest Seribilith. The crossbow shhooots many bolts with some rapidity.

Zim then blasts them with a Horrid Wilting. Two die.

One of them goes, attacking Zim. The air ripples between the two of them. Zim is unaffected.

One then tries to wrest control of Grey's mind, unsuccessfully.

Another one then creates an area of darkness in the room.

Lani goes into the room, and starts chanting. Tinkerbell dispels the darkness.

More combat continues. One of the creatures calls forth a miasma of darkness that hurts us, and also makes Zim feel unsettled.

Lani summons avoral guardinals.

We kill off all of the Seribiliths. The Dark Pyrondian then makes a run for it.

The Sergeant smiles grimly, and shoots at him. The Dark Pyrondian turns out to be better than he looks, and manages to evade much of the damage.

We subdue the Dark Pyrondian.

We move further in. We hear the sounds of more... And two voices, complaining about who should get rid of them. There are three groups: two Dark Pyrondian groups, and a group of Seribilith's. The latter are threatening both of the former. The Sergeant moves about, and shoots a crossbow bolt, making it look like one side is attacking the other. General melee ensues.

Unfortunately, the Dark Pyrondians band together to drive the demons away. We move in to clean up.

Combat ensues. We have the advantage. We win. We capture another leader type.

We loot.

Sergeant Denal has heard of the second captured leader guy. He's a lieutenant of Captain Cortal, one of the major Dark Pyrondians.

We interrogate our prisoners.

Overall, we killed one Captain, and took two other Captains prisoner. They are all senior lieutenants of Captain Cortal. He decided to capture this blasted base - he didn't believe it was haunted anymore, etc. These three simultaneously attacked, and were meant to determine the secrets of how to grow ships.

One of the ships, of the captain we killed, had left earlier with loot, and should be returning sometime.

We chat to the Sergeant as well. The war he grew up with had been going on for three or four generations. The war was called the Last War. He's pretty much spent his entire life in the military. He's special ops.

We discuss what to do. We'll wait and do divinations the next day - we could try to get in touch with remnants of the Pyrithian fleet.

Commune:
* No remnants of the imperial fleet exist in any significant number. * No imperial ships left, although that doesn't mean they haven't gone pirate, etc.
* Unsure if any of the imperial hierarchy exist. * Some imperial ships have survived.
* There are bases that are favourable to ex-imperial people. * The ship here is viable as a ship.
* There is risk with trying to tranfser the baby ship to a ship hull. * The Sergeants original colleagues have survived. * No Pyrithians of rank Captain or above survived when Damocles was destroyed.
* There are no unprotected libraries that contain information on life shaping majic.
* Unclear if the Dark Pyrondian vessel that left will be returning within the week.
* None of the alliance who fought against the Dark Pyrondians, etc, have their command structrure intact.
* The majority of Pyrithians in the void are slaves. * None of the original life shapers are still alive. * Badly worded question as to whether Captain Cortal knows the names of any of the original Life Shapers.
* Captain Cortal is alive.
* Life shapers are creatures.

We try sendings to friends of the Sergeant, who left on the ship... The third one succeeds. He's a slave. He got captured. We get his location. He's in a meeting place, some sort of slave markets. Hmm.

We try to negotiate with the Sergeant, for the facilities here. He will allow us to transport and use the ship making facilities here, and allow us to use them as part of an alliance, but they will remain property of the Imperial fleet (what's left of them). And he will travel with us, and all the while we will also try to look for remnants of his people.

We'll start dismantling and transporting the equipment here to the little green planetoid we earlier took.

Moldain, Ambyrmont (month 9) 11, 1028

We're just about ready to with a full load of equipment.

At the same time, a Dark Pyrondian vessel starts to approach. The Star Seeker teleports away. Our other vessels hide. We set up an ambush.

We capture them, and the ship.

Captain Cortal was one of the original Dark Pyrondians that were created. Apparently he has powers, such as the ability to read ones mind.

Moldain, Ambyrmont (month 9) 18, 1028

We finish the transportation of all of the equipment.

The Captain indicates that he wants to take a month off. Grey takes some leave, Zim works on construction, and Lani works on figuring out how the ships are crafted. It's not easy. They're not magical enough. Far too biological. It's weird. The druid, Alarrain, proves to be very helpful.

Apparently, the council has also indicated that their financial backers want more money from this venture: they want to repay their loans. They're getting antsy. Our best bet is to find a profitable form of trade. Wood and metals are likely to be valuable here, but we need something to take back that is of value. The Captain would like to investigate more moons, as civilised places are what we need to find.

The duid also feels that the plants on Green Home could well be profitable, as they are all new and unusual species.

So, we're heading off to find moons after the month is over.

The iron out here is meteoric, And it's cheap. However, meteoric iron isn't exactly hugeuly valuable. It's not required in large amounts after all. Still, it might be worth while to a degree.

Grey has a crazy notion that maybe all planets are hollow.

Zim has some leave and becomes a father. There is a party. Gwen delivers a bouncing baby girl. Their zodiac is the Pegasus. Born at night, whilst the moon was up. At the celebration, Turia announces that she's pregnant.

Grey also announces that he's successfully petitioned Vanya.

We discuss where to go.

Ixion (Centaur)
Matera (Gorgon) (visible moon of Mystara) Patera (Chimera) (hidden moon of Mystara) 1. Alphatia (Pegasus) (fragment of Asterius) 2. Valerias (Basilisk) (there be Dragons here) 3. Mystara
4. Vanya (Manticore)
(...Tears of Asterius...)
5. Tarastia (Salamander)
6. Khoronus (Griffon)
7. Ordana (Dragon)
8. Protius (Warrior)
9. Alphaks (Hydra) (fragment of Asterius) 10. Thanatos (Giant)

Moldain, Sviftmont (month 10) 18, 1028

We discuss taking a break. Possibly years will pass. We try to plan. Zim would like his daughter to be six years old before beginning his quest. However, it may be best for Zim to do his quest last, due to the nature.

We vaguely plan out a ten year time line.

We start travelling to the plentoid of Alphatia. Whilst travelling, Lani and Zim petition their respective deities.

Nytdain, Sviftmont (month 10) 26, 1028

We arrive at the planetoid known as Alphatia. It's a chunk of rock spinning through the void. It appears to be dead. It's about 900 miles across.

We send out fighters to explore.

Lunadain, Eirmont (month 11) 1, 1028

One of the pilots says he's found a broad plain of metal.

Lani goes down, incorporeal, and looks at it. It's a 1kmx1.5kmx20m deep field of pure iron. That's a lot of iron. It's worth a lot. The environment is dangerous, but it's probably worth the risk.

The Captain thinks it'd be quite worthwhile. Double profit, most likely. Hard to tell.

During this time, the Council back on Mystara decides to set up Green Home as a permanent base. People start applying for the position.

The Captain reports the find to the Council.

Lunadain, Eirmont (month 11) 8, 1028

We find nothing else during our investigations.

We start heading to the planet Vanya.

Moldain, Eirmont (month 11) 18, 1028

We arrive at the planet Vanya. There is one moon. It's dark at the moment, and we see lights, but only in a small area. We land nearby, in the Falcon, during the day. We walk in, towards a village area.

We see Pachydermions. They're waiting for us. We get ambushed by a bunch of them, with spears. They look like peasants. They seem paranoid. They disarm us, and escort us in. They don't seem very friendly.

They escort us to the barn, and board us up. They take our weapons away, and bury them.

They then get together, and argue about what to do with us. They think we're weird shock troops of the Pyrithians, or spies, or something like that. It seems like they're at odds with Pyrithians. Hours pass, as they don't reallly know what to do with us.

They have another meeting after lunch. They don't seem to have a solid hierarchy - everyone gets a say. There are several factions. One wants us to go away so they don't have to worry about us. Another faction thinks we're spies, and something should be done with us. The final faction says they should talk to us. The final faction wins, mostly because the other factions don't know in the end what they can do with us.

No-one suggests putting us to death. Tinkerbell, who's listening in, realises that they're thinking about killing us, but they never speak it aloud.

They're from Pachydermia, on Damocles.

There are Pyrithians here, further up the river. They are taking the water of the Pachydermions.

The Pyrithians are damming the river upstream, to irrigate their crops. They say that because they're upstream, they can irrigate. But the Pachydermions leave the stream alone because it's being nice to the people further downstream.

There are a couple of thousand Pachydermions, and a like number of Pyrithians. But the Pyrithians only have about 150 soldiers. If the Pachydermions decide to go to war, then all Pachydermions wiill go to war - not just a small number. It is their way.

They have a strange culture. Very peaceful, very democratic. They are interested in metals, as they have few here, but have nothing of value to offer in return, other than spiritual peace.

Their god is also strange. Apparently, their god is a reflection of them, not the other way around.

They don't really stand a chance against the Pyrithians. They're just too peaceful.

We stay the night.

Nytdain, Eirmont (month 11) 19, 1028

We go to speak to the Pyrithians. We fly over an area that appears to have been devastated. Some sort of blight, clear felling of the trees. It's a big area. Perhaps 50 miles by 50 miles.

We speak to Flight Lieutenant Alarrain. We pick him up, and we go to investigate.

We see creatures moving at the border. Huge creatures. Animals are fleeing before them.

They stop. When we get closer, they appear to be huge insects, all of the same type and size, about 10' length. The insects start constructing things. The animals start fleeing towards the insects. It appears there are more insects behind them. The insects start constructing fences. They've herded the animals into a big pen. They then move in and start sorting the animals by type. Bizarre.

There appear to be several areas where these cells have been formed. The creatures appear to be stacking stuff near the closed off area. Feed perhaps? Grey tries a sending. They appear to be intelligent.

Lani goes down, to see if they're magical. They're not magical. After trying to sort Lani's projected image, it ignores the image, and goes back to work. Lani tries to communicate with it. Not successfully. Lani manages to get herself identified as a threat.

It seems the process has been going on for a while, as the middle area has started to regrow. Allarrain thinks they've been goin at it for about 6 months. Within years they could do the whole moon.

We watch for a few days. After a few days, they've pennned them, sorted them, then eaten them. They then leave behind eggs, more than one each. The probably separate predator from prey, so they don't kill each other. They did not mate.

This would be a nasty weapon. Drop an egg on a a planet, and see what happens.

We go to see the Pyrithians.

Soladain, Eirmont (month 11) 21, 1028

We arrive at where there are Pyrithians.

They say that about 6 months ago, there was a falling star in that direction.

We chat for a bit.

They show us a strange animal. A goat.

We chat about the irrigation channel. He says they've got to do what they have to do for their children. He's adamant, and he has a point.

We stay the night.

After chatting to them about the meteor, Lani believes it's very unlikely that it was in truth a meteor. It seems more likely that it was something else.

From Lani's calculation, Vanya was at its closest to Mystara six months ago.

Lunadain, Eirmont (month 11) 22, 1028

We show the Pyrithian the bugs. He realises they have a problem.

He suggests a firebreak. But that is rather impractical.

Thora pops along and offers some advice regarding crops.

We could also get the Pachydermions to grow the crops.

The Pyrithians have a town. We will go there soon. First we show the Pachydermions the bug problem. They understand it's a problem. Who wouldn't?

We then go to the Pyrithian town, with the local Pyrithian leader.

Thora gives suggestions for druids that may be able to help out if we need it. Geirstein the Bowleg (Druid of Frey). Asta of Nemmen (Druid of Freyja), from Vestland. Some druid in the Ylaruam. Some arch druids: Ferian the Wanderer (has a reputation of not being found unless he wants to be found). The Great Druid of South East Brun is Arbana (lives near Wendar, follows Terra).

We go to the Pyrithian town. We inform them of the problem. They can't help much, but are clearly worried.

We do a commune:
* there is a guiding intelligence
* it is not a single creature
* there is no guiding intelligence on Vanya * it is a hive mind
* there is something on Vanya that could be used to nullify them * unkown if the animal break would be useful * no answer to if something arranged for the insects to arrive here * the date of the meteor's landing was not significant beyond what we already know
* there is no-one on the moon attempting to aid the insects * no response to if it was bad luck
* the something on Vanya to nullify the insects is animal * it is intelligent
* it too is likely to be a problem (unfortunately) * Vanya is full of mega-fauna
* the period from laying to hatching is less than a fortnight * there is a non-animal potential solution to these creatures on Vanya * not a poison
* the insects have no purpose beyond that which we have already witnessed

We chat to Flight Lieutenant Allarrain. He thinks bringing in another druid might be beneficial.

We start having people do some research on the potential druids. We're going to fly to Vanya in the Falcon.

Tserdain, Eirmont (month 11) 24, 1028

Additional druids to add to list:
* Shahira Bint-ghalib (the Ylarii druid) * Aziz Hooknose (another Ylarii druid)
* Vilana Bickers (half elf, Alfheim refugee in Darokin) * Derek Caromil (Darokinian druid)
* Jarandros Trettas the Older (druid in western Thyatus, a horse racing expert)
* Yuri Tushima (human in the five shires)

We arrive at Vanya. We punch through the Sky Shield, and go in. The air smells like rotting vegetables. It's as bad as a stinking cloud. We wear our gas masks. The visibility is also bad, although it gets better as we descend. We use a potion of flying in the vase to ensure a more controlled descent.

Unfortunately, we're over water. We get a sample. Lani figures out that it's slowly poisonous. It appears to have various dissolved organic compounds in it.

After a while we start to feel sick. The two marines start throwing up. They're experiencing stomach distress. We put a potion of create air in the vase, and the air about us is cleared. We start feeling better, and the marines are pretty much okay after ten minutes.

We finally find land. The vegetation is weird - it seems to grow outwards, and it's brightly coloured. We also find a gigantic insect, about six foot long). It look at us. It's some kind of giant centipede. It watches us. The centipede demonstrates the ability to make tools, creating a spear from a small tree. It hefts it, and throws to where the flight muscles might be.

Another ten centipedes appear. They have pre-manufactured spears. Without saying a word, they hurl a volley at us. The volley is much more effective than the makeshift one. They damage an engine. We leave.

We drop a potion of invisibility in the vase, and are effectively in silent running mode.

We fly for a bit, then dip down again, and find a clear area. There's no signs of regrowth. We then find a fence. We're in a pen, much like the beetle things are making on the moon. In a nearby pen, we find hairy, weird creatures. They don't respond to our attempts to communicate.

Whilst waiting about, one of the centipede-like creatures come along, grabs a creature, and eats it. The creatures in the pen are of about the same size as it, six foot in size. The creature in the pen didn't fight back.

After a while, some more centipedes come along, and deliver some cut vegetation, feeding them.

We look about elsewhere, and follow some trails. We find more pens and cattle, but not much else.

We go 100 miles away, and find more of these creatures.

We go 500 miles away, and hear screeching noises. We find a battlefield. Six foot long centipedes versus 16 foot long beetles. They fight to annihilate each other. There have virtually no tactics. There are more of the centipede-like creatures, but the bettle-like creatures seem to be winning. There are some scavengers about.

We explore the beetle territory, and find them performing virtually identical tasks.

Loshdain, Eirmont (month 11) 27, 1028

After exploring around for a few days, the story is much the same, except there are different types of insects, some even 20 feet long. They fight each other.

Lani puts a centipede type insect in stasis, and we retain it for analysis. We also hold on to some plant life. We also pick up a dead one to dissect.

Gromdain, Kaldmont (month 12) 2, 1028

We get back. During travel, Lani examines the dead creature. It does not appear to be a natural ceature. In fact, it has some similar characteristics to outsiders, from the planes.

The brain is almost non-existent.

More information from our rsearchers on druids: * Gerstein was demoted for some reason. * Asta of Nemmen has apparently been going up the ranks pretty quickly. * Shahira is reputed to be an excellent scholar. She lives in the desert. * Aziz is also reputed to be a scholar. * Derek lives in Darokin is a failed merchant. * Ferian the Wanderer lives in Wendar and is known for his skill at hunting and tracking.
* Yuri left Karameikos when it was invaded by the then Duke Stefan. Queen Arianna, his daughter, is now the ruler of Karameikos. He is meant to be quite strong.

We try dismissal on one of the bugs, but it doesn't work.

We grab one of the bugs on the moon, and Lani dissects it. It appears to be similar, with some outsider characteristics.

We go to meet with Shahira, to speak to her. In her cave, which has lots of books, shelved in an orderly fashion. She doesn't seem to trust Grey. She offers some advice, but isn't keen on coming with us, at least not for free.

We then go to speak to Aziz. He's in a house. Aziz seems much less orderly, but more amiable. He'll need to pay someone to do his lectures whilst away - probably 500gp, plus 100gp/week.

We then speak to Asta of Nemmen. She's in a log hut, somewhere in a village in the wilderness. Very personable. She definitely agrees that we have a serious problem, and will help if her Jarl agrees to it. She's heard of Thora, and her berserker husband, and is interested in meeting her.

Tserdain, Kaldmont (month 12) 3, 1028

We've now heard of Karben the Triton (we leave it at that, him being a triton).

Our researchers also find Elera Walker, a druid in Glantri (which is technically illegal, but she passes off as being a strange mage).

We next try to find the Wanderer. We cast a sending. He's willing to meet us at some twin blasted oaks in two days time. He'll find us.

Before that, we go to speak to Elera. It's a small tower. Her robed apprentice says she is expecting us. We get taken to a mage-like auditorium. She is willing to help us by casting spells on us, but is unable to leave Glantri.

Nytdain, Kaldmont (month 12) 5, 1028

We go to the twin lightning blasted oaks, and wait. After a while, we notice there is a possum watching us from a tree. He turns into a tall man, with a bit of grey at the temples. We explain the problem. He's heard of this before in his travels across the plains. He says we are looking for something called The Horde. He says we should do our research, and then leaves.

Lani has heard of The Horde. The Horde is associated with the sphere of matter.

We start researching it. Aziz has heard of the name as well.

Soladain, Kaldmont (month 12) 7, 1028

The Horde is a frightening life form native to the Elemental Plane of Earth. A Horde comprises many bodies, but only one mind. They are all clones of one another. Hordes do not consider any other life form intelligent, and have no compunction about destroying it. In battle, they do not care about individual survival. Some people have managed to negotiate with the Horde, but only after belting the crap out of them.

They have ES and telekenisis as abilities. They communication via telepathy. They are also extremely smart. They are extremely lawful, and will sacrifice as may bodies as necessary to achieve a goal. There is no known limit on the number of bodies that can exist in a horde. However, they cannot control an area greater than 100 miles across. They have been known to appear on Mystara, much to the dismay of those nearby. When overrunning human inhabited lands, they will put humans in pens much like any other creature.

Kryst, Erdeen, and Urdine are enemies of the Horde. The first two are from the elemental plane of earth, and the third are from the elemental plane of water.

Erdeen's are chaos elementals of earth. They have been known to help adventurers when the mood strikes them. They hate the regimented nature of the horde.

Undine's are chaotic elementals of water. They look like featureless transparent snakes, and change shapes easily. They have magical telents. Little is known of their social structure or ultimate goals, if they have any.

Kryst are native to the elemental plane of earth, are telepathic, but communicate by etchings if they think their telepathy will have poor results. They are known to wage a neverending war against the horde, but the horde looks like it's winning. They are golden, spikey, balls.

We fetch Asta, for her advice.

We've met a Kryst before, in the cave where Tom the trader was. We do a sending to the Kryst. It agrees to meet us. We gate to an air filled cavern on some other plane. There are three Kryst in this cavern. One speaks into our minds. He remembers us. They serve us preserved refreshments, water, old rations, and so on. He agrees to help us, and more of his kind will follow. They will draft a formal agreement for us to mark later.

Apparently the Horde we are threatened by has reached its maximum size of about 100 miles across. The Kryst thinks it may spawn another Horde, so we should destroy it as soon as we can.

Apparently, with some great expenditure of energy, the Horde can grow individuals in a period of hours.

The Kryst is a scout of some kind. He scouts it. He thinks they should be destroyed, and that we should not waste too much time. They want to expand, and so will probably head off in one direction. There are probably about two to three thousand of the Horde at the moment.

We have a ggeneral meeting, with the Pachydermions and Pyrithians involved.

The Pyrithians introduce the draft. There are some rebellions. We kidnap their leaders and show them the Horde, which they don't believe exists. The rebellions don't get very far.

The Pachydermions march en masse to help.

Grey also arranges for a number of his troops to come here.

The Kryst gives us some tips and pointers for defeating them [the Kryst has ranger levels, and has the Horde as favoured enemy].

We also pay Aziz to come and help.

We spend a couple of months making decent preparations. We make big (timber) fortifications. Zim will make illusions of Kryst. The Horde will try to kill the Kryst if it believe the Kryst are setting up a base here.

The Pyrithians seem very capitalistic. The Pachydermions are more communistic.

Three more Kryst turn up during this time.

Towards the end, 200 Kryst arrive to help. They believe it is a golden opportunity to actually kill a whole horde.

Roland and Safranna rock up to help out as well.

Soladain, Vatermont (month 2) 7, 1029

The battle begins.

The Kryst sally forth, and Zim makes illusions of more. The insects retaliate. We lure them to the fortifications. The insects wait until a sufficient number have arrived, and then they attack.

With the initial fight, we take insignificant casualties, but they take almost complete casualties. This amounts to almost half of their forces. They start growing reinforcements, and the rest of them arrive to attack.

Gromdain, Vatermont (month 2) 9, 1029

After waiting two days, they amass forces and attack.

This day is more of a blood bath. We win, but not by much. We take 21% casualties.

Tserdain, Vatermont (month 2) 10, 1029

The battle continues. Again, the fighting is brutal. We take 20% casualties, but they take more.

Moldain, Vatermont (month 2) 11, 1029

They don't come to attack us, so we have to sally forth to attack them.

This time, we win conclusively. We slaughter them. With some commune with nature's, we find and kill eggs and lone Horde members elsewhere on the moon.

The locals suffered the most casualties.

The druids find a deposit of platinum in the Pyrithian territory. This is a source of trade, thankfully.

Through commune's, we learn that the Yuan-ti were responsible for this Horde coming from Vanya. They also watched the events that unfolded with interest.

We surmise that perhaps they made a deal with the Horde: kill those on the moon, and they'll take them elsewhere, whilst getting the moon to live on as a home free of other species.

We return to Mystara to rest and relax. The Council decides that the Yuan-ti are as solved as they're ever going to be, and decide that exploring beyond the asteroids is too dangerous. They're going to turn the Star Seeker into a cargo ship, to turn a profit. Some of the crew and officers decide to quit. Grey and Lani leave, but Zim stays on.

They downgrade it to holding six fighters.

The Troy will be based at Green Home, and will explore the nearby area.

Moldain, Vatermont (month 2) 25, 1029

Lani and Grey formally end their period of service aboard the Star Seeker.

Lani goes to the Hollow World. To petition Razud.

Lunadain, Klarmont (month 6) 15, 1029

Lani gets back from the Hollow World. She has successfully petitioned Razud.

That afternoon Thora is called in. Turia goes through labour. Grey is banished, and gets smashed with some of the boys, for a while.

Gromdain, Klarmont (month 6) 16, 1029

After a long labour, Turia delivers a healthy girl in the morning. Grey and Turia name her Ksatriyani.

Grey also presents "Turia's Gardens". What Grey had pretended to be fortifications turns out to be a series of domes, large greenhouses containing different climate zones, with plants from all over Mystara. Magically climate controlled with areas to sit. Open for public viewing with a small fee. There are a group of druids here who have been consulting on the project.

Lani gets employed by Baratkand.

Lunadain, Felmont (month 7) 1, 1029

Some bumming around relaxing occurs.

Loshdain, Eirmont (month 11) 13, 1029

Some of us receive a mysterious invitation to attend a hunt, sent by Duluth the Huntsmaster. As far as we can tell, Grey, Lani, Zim, Roland, Safranna, and Xeris have all been invited. We know nothing of the invitee.

We find out nothing about him.

Loshdain, Eirmont (month 11) 20, 1029

We assemble, including some cohorts (Kanla, and Lani's cohort Rohir, a Ee'aar).

A portal opens in front of us (a gate spell), and an elf steps out. He casts the clerical version of tongues. He is here to escort us to the hunt. He is Mithlond, one of the attendants for the hunters.

He gives us the promised (magical) gifts. We then go through the gate, and enter a forest clearing. There are various elves there. We speak to the elf in charge, Duluth the Huntsmaster. We're on a preparatory plane, on which there is a gate to another plane, a rather dangerous plane.

We are hunting Terarnedvus. They are known to have spellcasters among their number, and consider themselves the top of the food chain on their home plane. They will probably hunt us back.

This plane we are going to is rare, as it has only one entrance. Instantaneous travel does not work there.

We're currently on Arboria. He has in the past hunted a Balor, as an example of a tough creature he dealt with.

Others have entered the small pocket plane on which we will be hunting (it's about 10 miles across), but no-one has returned. We cast some protective spells, then go through the gate to the other plane. Some elves stay to guard the gate. The rest of us go hunting.

We are travelling through a forest. The sky seems pretty close.

After a while, they call a halt. They then say it's time for the hunt to begin. They transform into dragons, kind of skinny with horny growths. They say we have 15 minutes to get back through the gate. If we make it, we get to keep our gifts. If not, oh well.

Grey was right: it's a trap.

We go to a spot where we can hide.

Lani has heard about these kind of dragons. They are beast dragons. They love to hunt, and they're really good at it. They aren't known for their spellcasting. They have a half cold, half electricity breath weapon. They also like to go around in animal form.

We hide and chat for a short bit, trying to figure out what to do. We then summon various creatures, and send them off in random directions.

Unfortunately, one of them spots us. Fortunately, Lani manages to spot it. This is an amazing advantage, as now Lani can "see" where the other dragons are. The big dragon has also shapeshifted back into elf form, and appears to be slowly tracking. Ahead of it the dragons patrol the sky, searching sector by sector. The one Lani now dominates appears to be responsible for our sector.

Not long after this, Safranna, who was out laying false trails, is spotted, and attacked by the big dragon. Safranna is killed.

We move on for a while, then decide to try and lay an ambush for the big one. We flash a mirror to get his attention, and he falls for the bait. He takes two dragons with him, one of which is the dominated dragon.

He arrives, and moves to attack Xeris. We then ambush him. We summon lots of creatures, attack it, hit him with spells, and pretty much everything we've got. In the end, it's killed by a Mel's Acid Arrow as it tries to flee.

The other dragons flee in disarray, and even attack each other in their confusion. We search the plane, and find its lair. We also find Safranna's stuff.

There is lots of loot.