We discuss going to the future to try and prevent Baratpur from being destroyed by beams of white light.

Turia, Grey, Zim, Furir Elin, Lani, and Rohir, will go to the future, to try and prevent this event from happening.

We leave from and arrive in an alleyway. It is hot summers day, and a marketplace is nearby. We disguise ourselves, and venture forth. The skyline seems a bit different, but otherwise the city seems the same. There's been a heat wave recently.

As we talk to a merchant, a light, making a buzzing noise, heads to the city. It's bright, but not the destructive light. It zips about the city, and zips into the market place. It's very fast, makes a roaring noise, and not very big. As it goes past, all goes quiet, although we can still hear each other speak. We see more lights appearing, zipping about.

People appear to be screaming, but are gradually fading away.

Another light comes blazing along, and in its wake, people are frozen in place.

We then see the bright light we saw before appear, and it encompasses the whole city. After the white light dissipates, and the whole city is gone. We are standing on a grassy plane.

We then see a bunch of meteor-like things blazing down. One impacts near to us. In the impact crater is an old man in copper robes - he shimmers and is slightly transparent.

Looking at nothing in particular, he says:

We find a coin in the bottom of the crater, a copper coin. Lani expects that the other coins would be tens of miles away, and so some searching is required. Fortunately, after holding the coin, Lani thinks she can find the other coins. We head southwards to collect the first coin.

We come across some farmers. He says the current year is 1081. The present ruler of Baratpur is Rani Ksatriyani. The farmers have noticed that Baratpur just went missing. We requisition some horses.

We arrive at where we think the next coin is. We find signs of battle, and a badly injured mountain giant, unconscious. Somewhere behind, or even underneath the giant, is the coin. The giant has a crest with a dragons head impaled on a spear.

We note that the communicators aren't working. Probably need retuning.

We heal the giant up so it can speak. He is named Granite. He was fighting Dominigon the Blue. Granite has been hired to retrieve some treasure that the Blue dragon stole. Granite indicates an illusion covering up Dominigon's lair. Undoubtedly the Blue has the coin we want as well.

We head in, with Granite. It's not long before we find Dominigon. Inside is a huge sword, which looks pitted and scarred, is stuck point down in the ground, and is crackling with energy. There is no pile of treasure, but there is a single silver coin. Dominigon is protective of the silver coin, and seems upset that "we've" snuck off with his treasure. Hmm.

Dominigon is willing to trade the coin for a mere three hundred thousand equivalent gold. We refuse. It isn't long before combat begins. We win, with no casualties.

We search for treasure, but find none. Perhaps the treasure was replaced by the coin?

We take the coin. It seems the two coins repel each other. Grey concentrates on the coin. I can polymorph 3/day up to an hour of my size or smaller. Grey's personality changes to be more boisterous, he gains more energy, and gains a aggressive manner. Much like a dragon. These effects are not noticeable to Grey (and may be noticed by the others).

We rest the night before heading on.

Not too far away we find the next coin. It's in a cave, near to which is the carcass of a dear, and some bits of fur. Within is a sphinx. The sphinx asks for a camel as meat in exchange for earning the right to hear his riddle.

"A maiden walks a hillside of white flowers. She lifts a black veil to show her face, then lowers it again. Who is the maiden?"

Lani and Zim pretty quickly figure out that it's the moon.

We get the coin, and a future favour. Zim gets the next coin. It has the ability to cast phantasmal force.

We travel on, and come across the big salt swamp in Sind - Namkin Ylaka. Within we find a large stagnant pond. The only sign of anything being alive is a faint shimmering over the water. It forms to a ghostly image, showing a pale man, dripping wet, bleeding (the blood disapppears when it hits the ground). His eyes our haunted, and he says something, but we cannot hear anything.

Grey goes underwater to have a look, but finds nothing.

Lani feels the presence of two coins here, one with the ghost, and one in another location.

Zim seems to be a bit more playful than usual.

It seems he was killed by a manta ray. Lani and Grey, polymorphed into a fish and an eel, notice some manta rays. They have red eyes.

Lani finds the coin. It's being worshipped, on an altar, by many, many of these red eyed manta rays.

It seems the ghost wants its body recovered, and to breathe again. On agreeing to this, he gives us the coin. Rohir takes it. Rohir looks a bit bored. It gives him the ability to make potions.

Turia tries to steal the body and coin whilst we create a distraction. The creatures can cast spells and energy drain. It's good we only fight them with summoned creatures.

Turia gets the stuff. She comments how the pathetic fools had no chance.

We now have five coins.

Lani figures out how to arrange for a portal. We do so, a portal is formed, and we go through to another plane.

We are in a grassy area, on a Hollow World like place. Nearby is a place, including a keep, that has been mostly disappeared.

Near to us is a wishing well. It indicates that one should wish for the good of the Kingdom Trann. This is the place from which the coins originated. The well is magical, our coins are not (anymore).

Lani examines the well. It is a minor wishing well, but there is an actual way of getting actual wishes out of it.

We go to the other side of a moat. On that side are various buildings that bear a resemblance to the things we've dealt with to get these coins - eg, a dragon-like building painted blue.

We look in the dragon shaped building first. There is a dragon on the back of one of the coins. The construction of the building seems to be such that it is made of one giant piece of stone. Zim gets us past a pair of locked doors. Inside it looks like we're on the inside of a dragon. There is plush furniture. We find a half written letter. The writer of the letter is concerned about Durhans recent warlike stance, and it's recent increase in magical power, from unknown sources. It indicates that the entire kingdom could be at threat.

We catch a really small blue pseudodragon keeping an eye on us. It's the same as the dragon on the back of the coin. The dragon identifies the figure on the other side of the coin to be his master. The dragon thinks that his master might be in the vaults, which is a safe place. He's not sure where it is. He opens a secret compartment, within which is a marble. To the vault.

The familiar, Popiel, still has a connection to his master, but the master has been asleep for a while.

Popiel says it's been getting hot here in the last few days. Popiel says the building is actually a petrified dragon. Master always said Waste Not, Want Not.

We need more keys.

We go to the Sphinx building. There's some illusionary magic about the Sphinx that makes it a little tricky to get in. Inside are various pieces of art. Zim dispels the illusionary artwork.

By touching the electrum coin we found (held by Zim) to various illusory murals, the scene changes, revealing maps. One shows clearly how to get to the vault, and includes instructions on how to remove two traps. The vault itself appears to be anti-magic'ed.

We grab what we think is the key, and move on.

When we go outside, it seems as though the sun is closer. It's warmer.

We try the black mausoleum-like building. There is some kind of Maze trap on the door. Lani dispels it. We enter.

The crypt is eerie and disheartening inside. There is a floating tray there, which gets us drinks. Rohir touches the gold coin to it, and a potion with flecks of gold in it appears.

A ghostly voice asks if it could be of help to us. It indicates that the potion is a revival potion, which could be helpful for reviving his master. He comes from one of the coffins. An apprentice who had an accident, but still serves his master in death. It indicates that there is only one key.

We move on to the next building. A pillared place. It appears to be a place of worship. There's pictures of red eyed manta rays fleeing a warrioress.

Turia puts her coin on a plate. The building shakes, and the pillars turn into four giant bronze golems. They indicate that they are Turia's to command.

We hurry back to the well, with Turia's golems in tow. Lani throws her coin in, wishing for the benefit of the Kingdom. We get some instructions, and the ability to read the nearby sign. The instructions pretty much indicate to do what we've pretty much already done.

We head to where the vault should be. The golems are too big to go in, but we instruct them to guard against the enemies of the Kingdom. We open the door to the vault, and go in. We go down the staircase, past some empty guard posts, and past the traps that we know how to disarm.

We arrive at the vault itself. There's a place for the marble. We put it in. The vault door opens - it's a seriously well locked and secure door. Inside are stone slabs, on which are people resting - familiar looking people. There's also a big eye in a vat of green liquid. Our magic still works. We get the people out, and revive them.

The eye is a mummified beholder eye, causing the anti-magic effect. We destroy it. After they are all revived, they quickly teleport to the surface. As they teleport to the top, one of them is saying it's hopeless, that there won't be enough time.

We rush to the surface. The sky is filled with the sun. It's really hot. The five wizards are floating in the air, performing some kind of ritual. They ask for assistance. We try to help them, winging it. Fortunately, we aren't bad at winging it. The ritual is painful. Fortunately, we succeed, and the island is put back in its place.

They relax a bit. They indicate that Durhan is the problem. He's become monstrously powerful.

They believe he's done two spells. In the first he picked up a city, and was attempting to remove the city and then throw it into the sun. They think his power has gone across to another plane. Now that we've saved this city, we should have saved Baratpur as well. Apparently Baratpur is the sister city to this city, due to a kind of analogy.

Durhan has also been raising an army to invade. They have been raising an army to fight Durhan, but none of them are proficient in the ways of war. They need a general. They summon a steed to speed us to the battle. The steed is an Oratus, and looks like a giant blowfish. We hop on. Popiel comes along to let people know that we represent the Council of Mages.

The Council is going to go around the Kingdom, trying to enlist people to aid us. They don't expect their army to last past the first battle. The army has only been training together for a few days.

The Oratus is wide enough to transport the entire army of Baratkand.

Hmm, the Oratus could well work in the void.

We head off, trying to find the battle. Popiel explains the nature of the islands, how they orbit, etc.

Some time later we go past an agricultural island. People on it are worried for their son, who was kidnapped five days ago, by soldiers from Durhan. He was special, as he had magical powers. We get one of his items. Lani tries a discern location, but it fails. We wonder if the kidnapped individual might be where Durhan is getting his power.

We travel on.

Hmm, Popiel appears to be a female. Oops.

Later, we go past an island that is flying towards the sun. We land, and rescue about two hundred people from certain death. We get them to collect weapons if possible. The Old Sage of this island indicates that something is disturbing the orbits.

The villagers tell us where the army was congregating.

More time passes. We rest.

We find two islands each with large groups of people. There is some sort of tracery between the two islands.

As we approach, a bunch of archons appear around us, and ask us our business. It appears the archons are from a neighbouring kingdom, here to help against Durhan. They find Durhan chaotic, and thus their enemy.

They have heard tales of spellcasters going missing.

One island has Durhan's forces on it. Our forces have organised themselves into six vague groupings. If not warlike, the people of Tran fortunately outnumber Durhan's forces.

We land. People stream towards us, wanting information. We try to organise things. Lani notices that we're being scried upon, but only after she casts detect scrying. Zim makes the scrying go away by casting Screen.

Turia and Furir Elin turn up with soldiers from Durhan. They want to rebel, as Durhan has been a terrible ruler. We accept them to our ranks.

Oh, we have the bronze golems with us.

We organise the army.

Turia is used as a scout.

Army details (round 1):

Force #1 (2-4)
Leadership factor: 17 (Rohir)
Number: 1000
Type: 1000 Longbowmen with longswords
BR: 96 (good)

Force #2 (3-4)
Leadership factor: 20 (leader of personal guard) Number: 1200
type: 1000 swordsmen, 200 elite pikemen with pikes +2 BR: 92 (good)

Force #3 (4-4)
Leadership factor: 25 (Furir Elin)
Number: 750
Type: 600 swordsmen, 150 krysts
BR: 111 (excellent)

Force #4 (5-4)
Leadership factor: 21 (Lani)
Number: 1050
Type: 900 swordsmen, 150 spellcasters
BR: 113 (good)

Force #5 (6-4)
Leadership factor: 62 (Grey)
Number: 1400
Type: 900 axemen, 500 swordsmen
BR: 130 (good)

Force #6 (8-4)
Leadership factor: 22 (planar spider mercenary) Number: 1350
Type: 900 longbowmen with longswords, 450 planar spider mercenaries BR: 103 (excellent)

Force: golems (10-6)
leadership factor: 16 (Zim)
Number: 10
Type: 10 bronze golems
BR: 328 (elite)

Force: archons (8-6)
Leadership factor: 26 (Coronatus, leader of the archons) Number: 20
Type: 20 archons with flaming swords and longbows BR: 504 (elite)
Notes: can choose to envelop

The enemy are all equipped identically, in swords, shields, and black armour. There are six enemy units, each with 1000 soldiers. The enemy are well drilled, and well equipped.

We send an archon and the leader of the personal guard as representatives. They meet with the enemy commander, Vlack the Betrayer (he used to work for the ruling wizards). He says no mercy will be granted to our forces.

Combat is engaged. Zim's golems assault an enemy unit, who attempt to hold their position. One golem falls off the island. However, many of their soldiers are slaughtered. Their force is destroyed.

Grey's forces engage an enemy unit. Grey's unit tries to trap the enemy, which attempts to attack back. However, Grey's forces lose. We take 40% casualties, they take 30% casualties, and Grey's forces are also seriously fatigued. However, neither side holds the battlefield.

The next force to engage is the planar spider mercenaries. The mercenaries are getting intel from Turia, giving them a bonus. Both forces attack each other. The mercenaries take 20% casualties, the enemy forces take 10% casualties.

The archons try to the enemy unit, but are lured into a trap. They take 40% casualties, but the foes they fight take 70% casualties. The unit routes.

Furir Elin's force engages the enemy. She attempts an assault, the same tactic as the enemy employs. The enemy forces take 30% casualties, whilst Furir Elin's forces take 40% casualties, and are fatigued.

Lani goes next. Lani lays a trap that the enemy fall into. Lani's forces take no casualties, whilst the enemy forces take 40% casualties, and retreat back a bit.

The next round of battle begins.

Zim's golems attack the fortifications at the end of the cable they just romped over. Zim's golems partially ruins the keep. (There are five other keeps, at the end of each of the other cables.)

The archons move to help Grey's force. The archons inflict 60% casualties, and take no casualties themselves.

Grey's forces try to finish the job started by the archons, but do poorly. They take 60% casualties, whilst Grey's forces take 50% casualties.

Furir Elin's forces try to hold their ground. The enemy withdraw.

Lani's forces attempt an assault against the enemy that is retreating before them. Her decision pays off, as the enemy panic before the assault. The enemy take 60% casualties, and Lani's forces take 10% casualties.

The mercenaries attempt to lure the enemy into a trap, but the enemy try the same. The mercenaries take 20% casualties, the enemy take none.

Rohir's force attacks the force retreating from Furir Elin. The enemy forces take 10% casualties.

The personal guard attack the keep. Both forces take 30% casualties.

The next round begins.

Zim's golems inflict another 30% casualties on the enemy fort on cable 1, and makes them seriously fatigued.

Grey's forces destroy the enemy force they were engaging, but take 20% casualties in the process.

The archons help the mercenaries. They take 30% casualties, but destroy the enemy in the process.

During the fight a storm came, settled over the battlefield, and started blasting us, the leaders of the forces of Trann. Magic from Durhan, most likely.

At this point, the enemy forces flee.

Vlack the Betrayer approaches. He wants personal combat, and Grey obliges. Vlack changes into a giant snake as he approach. Combat ensues. Alas, poor Vlack is pretty pathetic. We take him prisoner.

We secure our position, release the cables, and question prisoners. It appears that Durhan would have been directing his forces from the foothills near the edge of the island. We set out to find Durhan, to deal with him. The party, plus the six golems, march overland in hunt of Durhan. We travel through the island. It's weird, as the terrain is like a garden of undead plants. This is not normal. The plants look like they've had the life scorched out of them, but they continue to grow anyway.

We pass by an abandoned village. It has been long abandoned.

We pass by a group of people. They look hungry. They hope to flee to Trann. There has been little food here since the storm came (a storm that lingers in the foothills). Life has not been good to the people of Volde.

They say Durhan can see through the storm.

We keep going towards the foothills. There's a storm floating above the foothills.

We protect ourselves from electricity before going under the cloud.

After a while of being under the cloud, a long thin wire comes from the cloud overhead, with a skullcap on the end of it. Distrusting it, we engage it. Grey smashes the skullcap, and the wire withdraws into the sky.

A few minutes later, another one comes down. And then another one. Etc. Lani casts an anti-magic field, to prevent a successful attack. We travel on, and end up with several of them trailing us.

A while later we come across some ruins. We enter. They appear to be administrative buildings. We rest here. The night passes uneventfully.

We suspect Durhan may be in the sky, given we can't find him here on the ground.

We go outside, and get blasted by a meteor swarm from the clouds. We run back inside. Zim casts arcane eye, and sends it up into the sky to have a look. The eye follows a strand up - it goes up a ways, before splitting. Further up, it splits again. This continues, and each time it gets thicker. It seems these strands are probably all connected to a single master strand. Alas, Zim's arcane eye gets dispelled before finding the source.

Overland flights are cast, and we teleport above the cloudline. Above the cloudline is a whole network of gold wires. At the centre is a 30 foot tall man. He looks angry and in pain. At the end of some wires that aren't floating in the clouds are bodies. He isn't wearing much, and his body appears distended. In fact, he's only wearing a belt, a grey belt with the golden wires coming off.

Turia charges him, and sneak attacks him for some damage. He's not wearing any armour of other protections, but has much in the way of deflection bonuses.

He glances at Grey, and in doing so somehow casts one of the most powerful spells Grey has ever felt. Grey somehow resists the DC 42 save. It's a 10th level spell. That's immortal level power.

We engage him as best we can. Zim weird's him, and manages to stun him for a round.

We attack him in a paltry way for a bit. He then casts another 10th level spell, this one inflicting much cold damage. Furir Elin dies.

He looks considerably surprised to see us still alive after that, and a little fearful.

Furir Elin, who's now some sort of undead, attacks Lani. Lani is very badly hurt.

We manage to wound him such that he is near death. Turia goes for the kill, except a gate opens behind Durhan, a big demonic claw comes through, grabs the belt, and pulls it (along with Durhan) through the gate. The gate shuts, breaking all of the wires in the process. They drift to the ground, including the people on the end of the wire.

Furir Elin, being undead, is killed by her armour as it keeps trying to heal her automatically.

We go to the ground and explain what's going on. The people at the end of the wire are mages. Durhan snaffled up all of mages from this country and attacked them to the machine. He was using them to increase his own power.

Durhan wanted to conquer the rest of the world to get more mages.

We go back to our army, with the mages in tow. The ruling wizards arrive shortly thereafter with reinforcements. They raise Furir Elin from the dead.

They will undo the spell on their city, which will restore Baratpur. They will also reward us.

We return to the capital. The ruling wizards link hands, float in the air, and cast wishes. The city is restored. There is a bit of confusion.

We get gifts. Turia gets a jet black blade (Nightblade of Arvendor, a short sword +2, can throw as many stars from the blade as one has attacks as a standard action [d8 damage, made out of force])

Zim gets a bronze golem.

Lani gets a ring of wishes (two left).

Grey gets a rod in the shape of an elongated blue dragon. Once per day the rod can turn into a blue dragon. However, if it is slain in dragon form, it's gone. A young adult blue dragon. Neat. Might make a good gift for Ksatriyani.

Furir Elin gets Old Besse improved, by way of a wish.

The wizards discover that the Durhan's item was an artifact called the Shadow Belt of Orcus.

We are gated back home. Except we're falling, in the midst of a really big, mile deep crater. A mass fly quickly fixes that predicament.

Jacaine came through with us, and hmm's. Jacaine comments that they only undid one spell (the phase shift one). However, they didn't exactly undo the spell that was hurling the city to the sun. So Baratpur is probably on the way to the sun. However, it should hopefully still be out of phase. Hmm.

We discover that our communicators don't work here. We rest overnight to rememorise.

Lani discerns the location of the missing Baratpur. It's in the core of the sun.

Lani summons an Elder Fire Elemental, to ask it about the sun. It says it is hot, and home to the Fire Elemental Ruler. Our magics would not be strong enough to protect us from the heat of the sun. The centre of the sun is solid fire (although a fire elemental can move through it). Fire elementals live there, and we get Sending details for one of them. Unfortunately, he wants nothing to do with us. Unfortunately, that fire elemental wants nothing to do with us.

Lani tries to gate us to the Ethereal Plane, to where the sun is, but it fails for some reason. Lani tries again, this time a little away from the surface of the sun as it would be in the Ethereal Plane. This latter works. We head to the sun after Rohir casts Find the Path to Baratpur. We travel. We then try a teleport. We move in 500 miles. A phoenix on the Prime Material plane sweeps past our vision as we arrive.

Lani then tries a teleport of 45000 miles. This works fine. The ambient light here is yellow green, and there is a deep rumbling noise in the background. We teleport again, another 45000 miles. The light here is green, and again there is a deep rumbling noise. The sound of fire. Lots of fire. We make a third 45k jump. The rumbling is now very loud, to the point we have to shout at each other. The light here is deep blue. Jump number 4: everything is now violet, and the ethereal material here is fairly viscous.

Jump number 5: we appear, floating above a structure, within which pillars of flame are moving through (on the prime). We have a look. It appears we're in a fire elemental village.The structures are made of some kind of fire.

Jump number 6: it is even more viscous, and is quite difficult to move. It's also getting more difficult to see.

We jump back to position 5, at the village. Lani shape changes into a small fire elemental, and gates to the fire elemental village. She appears in very solid fire, and is standing on something made of more solid fire. She speaks to local fire elementals. They're suspicious, as someone has been stealing food. Oh, apparently one can fly through the currents to move about quickly. Lani sees if she can help find out who has been stealing stuff. On a short investigation, Lani doesn't come up with much, and returns to the ethereal plane to chat with us.

We decide it's best if we all go in. We can do this by being polymorphed into Magmin. We shall do so tomorrow.

We all go to the village. We introduce ourselves, and agree to help out. Lani scrys on the thief, and it turns out to be a lizard of some sort, about 10 feet long. We teleport to it, and try to subdue it. It's not very fierce. It appears to be playful. Lani calms it down. It has a collar with its name on it. We take it back. They want us to keep the pet.

One of the elementals agrees to guide us to the core of the sun. We start travelling. It appears we're going through an incredibly dense gas at the moment, according to Furir Elin.

By this time, we're in something denser than lead, although being Magmin we're fine.

We meet some Helions. They bump us up to higher authorities. The city has been seen (Baratpur). Eventually we get lead to a giant hollow black sphere, within which is a variety of elementals and a huge pillar of fire, 200' tall. It picks us up, and expresses happiness at seeing Melly, the fire lizard we picked up. This guy is a god. He is willing to help us in return for returning Melly to him. He takes us to where Baratpur is, and blows it back for us. He then indicates we should return to whence we came.

Zim asks if he is also known as Ixion, and he most firmly answers in the negative, appearing upset. We leave. We return to Baratpur, to check it's okay. It is. We travel back to the past, taking the hint of the god. Oh, that wold be why we couldn't teleport to the centre of the sun - one cannot gate into a God's domain.

(On the side, we do some stuff with the Queen of Ostland. Thora indicates that a audience with Queen Yrsa is possible without getting clapped in jail. Thora also indicates that Prince Finn is now betrothed to a local daughter of a Jarl - he seems happy with this. Grey, Safranna, Roland, Zim, Lani, Turia, Furir Elin, and Jussinea go to meet with the Queen, as it's about time we smoothed things out (Jussinea and Furir Elin are just tagging along). Before going, we speak to the Myoshiman's, and arrange for a Charm of Protection from Theft, in exchange for a Daern's Instant Fortress. This we will use as a gift for the Queen to try and help smooth things over - it's also an item that we don't know how to make. We will present it in a glass steel frame to also make it difficult to steel the charm itself.

We go there, and arrive on the court scene. Turia notices that Azgrimm, the old gnarly cleric, is unhappy with the soon to be wedded couple. Turia also notices that Geir (the younger brother) is shooting daggers at Prince Finn, his brother. They also have a younger sister, and she seems pretty happy. We arrive at a full court situation.

Prince Finn welcomes us warmly. The Queen talks to us diplomatically, and indicates the previous bad blood between us, related to her son being taken away by us. Azgrimm makes a quip at this (Azgrimm does not like the Queen much, due to various earlier events). Grey indicates the remorse of the party, and presents the parties gift. The Queen accepts this graciously, and pretty much appears to forgive us, more or less. Chit chat ensues.

Whilst there, Furir Elin likes the looks of Prince Geir, and tries to make a move on him. Grey starts up some dancing to facilitate this.

The night passes.

We stay a few days. The Queen has a chat with Furir Elin whilst she's here. Grey kind of made Furir Elin seem interesting. The Queen ends up thinking that Furir Elin is a Valkyrie (well, like the Valkyries, anyway).

Alas, Furir Elin didn't really get along well with Prince Geir. The prince seemed pretty jealous of Prince Finn, and couldn't stop talking about him. Oh well.

We wander off, and will next come back at the wedding in a couple of months.)

A couple of days after we return from Ostland, Roland asks for some aid in investigating the disappearance of a passenger vessel in his waters. We, of course, agree. We teleport to Alpha to meet with Roland.

A captain witnessed the ship disappearing. The ship was the Wave Leaper. The captain who witnessed it (the captain of the Reid Bottom, a fishing vessel), comes before us to explain what he saw. He seems nervous. He explains he was out fishing at night. He saw the large vessel, about 40 miles out to sea in the great bay. The lights from both vessels were visible. Then the lights spun around, as though perhaps they were going around in the great whirlpool (which is a long way away), before the lights disappeared. The fishing vessel went to investigate, to help, but there was nothing to be found. No debris, even.

The Wave Leaper came from Thyatis, but Roland doesn't know for sure exactly which port in Thyatis it departed from.

We'll investigate after Zim and Lani memorise spells more appropriate to water-oriented activities.

We all (Zim, Lani, Grey, Furir Elin, Safranna, Roland, Turia, and Rohir). We go out in two fishing vessels (Grey, Turia, Zim, Furir Elin on one, and Lani, Rohir, Safranna, and Roland on the other).

In the night, whilst resting, the wind outside picks up, as a storm blows in. A bit unusual for this time of year. We're close to the position where the other vessel went missing.

The sailors are looking worried. We are currently running one small sail. Various of us get sick.

By morning, the storm passes, although the wind keeps blowing us. If it keeps up, we'll end up hitting the north shore. Rohir prays, in order to get Control Weather. He casts it, and it improves the weather. It manages to get both vessels. We group up. One of the ships has a broken mast (it's just plain gone).

We head back to port. We arrive that night. It was a freakishly unusual storm, although we could detect no magic.

We do a commune via Leo:

We go to Thyatus city. We go to the harbour area. It's a huge harbour, capable of holding 300 ships or so. There is also a lesser harbour for holding military ships. We find the port master's office. We speak to an under-port master.

They aren't surprised we're after the Wave Leaper, as it's a luxury ship. We're given the schedule, on a piece of paper, and some advertising. It calls in to a variety of ports. There is an office here where one can make bookings. We decide to try scrying on the captain first. Lani casts Greater Scrying in a quiet location, but it fails. We go to the office for the ship - it handles multiple ships, including the Wave Leaper. The captain is called Quintis Nerva. We get to have a look at a log book after Lani acts all charming, and tear out a page when Turia distracts the clerk.

We take the page away, so we can cast Discern Location. We go back to a room we hired so Lani can cast the spell. The Captain is at the Edge of the Abyssal Deep, the Elemental Plane of Water. Lani knows of this place. There is no gravity there. The Elemental Plane of Water is one of the most benign of the Elemental Planes.Outsiders here tend to be playful and cruel. Dispel Magics are popular here on non-natives to the plane. The Abyssal Deep is an area that has a gate to the Abyss. There are some whirlpools, hotspots, etc, on the Elemental Plane of Water. There is a City of Glass (only half filled with water) that is a big trading city, and a neutral location.

Grey manages to get in touch with the Captain. They have little control over their movements. They were sucked into the water to where they are now. They are using magic to maintain their air, and are ready to defend themselves, as they have already been attacked a few times. He indicates that a Mistress Tien-Tang may be of help to us. This is the family name of a Duchess of a Thyatian island.

We speak to some students, one of whom has a council member as a father. He indicates to us where we could find the Tien-Tang family residence in the city. We go there. No member of the Tien-Tang family is in residence at the moment. The caretaker gives us a teleport location on the island. He also indicates that the Duchess' nephew was going on a cruise soon as well...

We teleport into a den of lower class gambling dens. Hmm. This area seems to be of very low class, with prostitutes, etc, nearby. In the background is a volcano, with a nice structure nearby.

Hmm, this apparently is a tourist destination.

We make our way to the private residence of the Duchess. After informing the guards of the threat to her nephew, she grants an audience with some promptness.

Incidentally, the Duchess is moving up in the world, as she used to only be a Baroness, then a Countess, and is now a Duchess. She used to be an adventurer. It's said the island she now rules used to have a bad reputation, with mists rising that caused people to kill each other. She discovered it was caused by an artifact, and basically turned the island around into being a fabulous tourist destination. Occasionally mists rise that cause people to want to have an orgy, etc. Interesting.

She is quite light weight, slightly slanted, appears to be 20 years old, etc.

When she meets with us, she has already confirmed via sending with her nephew what has happened. We explain to her what we've discovered.

She's apparently a powerful mage. We will set out to help them once we are better prepared, in the morning.

She sets us up with quarters in her volcano hideout. It looks bigger on the inside than it does on the outside. We are put in a location where the mists will not be able to influence us. The Duchess indicates that she is unable to control the mists, but does testing to ensure that only mists with nice emotions are released.

We rest.

We communicate with the captain again. He says they are being threatened by something bigger than the ship. We scry and gate to the captain. People start filing through.

Most people escape to safety. However, some norsemen insist on staying, to defend the ship.

The threat to the ship is not visible at the moment. Apparently it makes a swishing noise as it goes past. It seems to come by every hour or so.

The captain would also like us to save his ship. Lani uses the Dimensional Sextant to determine the nearest portal. It just so happens to be one to the Prime Material Plane. Interesting. We get back some of the crew, as it seems that with the construction of a few items, it might be possible to steer the ship.

Time passes. The noise returns. Something big goes past, about 90 feet long, with a very wide wing span. It looks like a manta ray. Huge. The noise sounds like engines. It's an underwater vessel, like the Alphatians have. But a lot bigger.

Interesting. We will try to investigate it. Another hour passes. It comes past. Lani shape changes into a water elemental, and pops over to look at it, with the extra benefit of a haste.

Zim, from the sound alone, determines that it has four propellers. Interesting.

Lani catches up to it. It's a big grey shape. It's made out of some smooth metal, possibly mithral (although that would mean there was lots of it. There are little port holes at the front of it. Lani also finds a hatch at the side. There are four underwater propellers at the back. No signs of weapons. Lani peers into a porthole, and sees something that looks like the star seekers bridge. However, the entire bridge appears to be empty.

Lani watches it for the next hour. Occasionally the helms-mans wheel moves, by itself. The design looks gnomish.

Another hour passes. We move to board it, the entire team. Via a grappling hook, which Lani attaches, we get next to it. We teleport inside.