Nytdain, Thaumont (month 3) 12, 1028
We divvy up treasure.
We think about how to spend money.
We get Leo to do a divination about getting the Kirekan, the war creature Zim sent to another plane. We need to get it back in case it's rampaging about killing people.
The response talks about the Grey Waste. This is a plane. It's the halfway point, the nadir of the lower planes. The primary battlefield between demons and devils. It's not a nice place, a place of apathy. It's an entrapping plane. If we go there for long enough, we won't want to leave, although we can forcefully take people away.
Demons resistant to fire, cold, and acid, immune to electricity and poison. Good and/or cold iron is required to wound such creatures.
Devils resistant to acid and cold, immune to fire and poison. Good and/or silver to wound such creatures.
We decide to wait for 48 days, to get magic items made.
Turia gathers some information on recent events in the Grey Wastes. She hears there is currently a war there. She also hears of the creature: it appeared, killed most of a unit of dretches, and then trundled off. This gives us a starting place to investigate.
Moldain, Yarthmont (month 5) 4, 1028
We're set to go! We gate in to the place where it appeared.
We appear in a grey void. Everything is grey. There's a stunted tree, mostly dead, nearby. The signs of the Kirekan are obvious. There are rotting dead dretches nearby.
The sounds of what mighht be combat come from not too far distant.
Safranna leads the way, following the tracks.
As we travel, we spot some incorporeal people on a hillside watching us. They flow towards us. Turia says they just hang around, but otherwise do nothing. They're spirits. They want us to tell them things, anything. They seem despondent.
These are naked, true spirits. Not undead. This would be their final resting place.
They follow us as we chat to them.
In the distance we see a herd of nightmares.
We continue to march for many hours.
We make camp.
During the night some manes approach the camp. Lani scares them away.
Later, another creature approaches. A spiked barbed creature. It's a hamatula (a barbed devil). He doesn't fight us, and instead seems to be after the manes.
Nytdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 5, 1028
It's very depressing here.
We continue.
In the distance we see something glittering. We teleport up to it. It's an opaque silver magical sphere thing on the ground. Large. The tracks head directly for it.
When we approach we can see low earthen fortifications. However, there's no sign of life. The fortifications face the portal, although some have hurriedly been set up to face outwards. Many devils lie dead here. There are probably demons on the other side.
The dead devils tend to be the lesser ones. Mostly lemures, and a couple of imps.
Lani knows that silver portals lead to the outlands. More civilised areas. The silver portals are quite prized.
We go through. We're enter a terrain which looks much like Mars. There are no fortifications on this side.
There are several archways on distant hills. The tracks head towards one of the archways.
We get to the archways. There is a sign there: "Use a green gem to get to the Cage." This is scratched out, and replaced by "don't do that, it will take you to Carceri [a difficult plane to leave]. Use a diamond, that'll take you to Mechanus."
We try the diamon option. We chose the correct option. Nearby is a village. There is a vertical wall of something green, with fields and such, in the distance.
The crops from the village all sway in the breeze perfectly symmetrically, and all look identical.
The tracks seem to deliberately head off.
We seem to be in an interlocked and rotating plane, made up of many cogs. Strange.
We speak to a villager. All villagers are very orderly, and march in step. The villagger we speak to indicates that the creature has left a swathe of destruction (things like wheat were disturbed - how horrible!)
Even the clouds are orderly and shaped.
Later, we are aproached by a centaur-like creature. A mechanical centaur. He asks if we have seen a manticore, but we haven't.
Night falls, as though a switch is turned off. We camp and rest.
Loshdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 6, 1028
When the lights are turned back on, we continue on.
After a half day, Safranna notices that it has changed direction. Apparently it stopped for a while, possibly a couple of hours.
We change cogs today.
Lunadain, Yarthmont (month 5) 8, 1028
We are intercepted by a group of Inevitables, four red skinned with gold capes, and two black skinned with gold armour. They are her to bring Grey, Lani, and Safranna to justice. Grey for being an oathbreaker, and Lani and Safranna for being undead. Apparently life extension is unlawful.
Using his knowledge of law, Zim argues that Grey was himself acting under orders. Grey's case is suspended.
However, no argument suffices for Lani and Safranna. They try to teleport out, but some of the red guys were ready, and counterspell.
Lani and Safranna flee. The inevitables who were after Grey only observe.
Lani and Safranna plane shift back to Mystara. The inevitables indicate that they will be upped in the priority list.
The inevitables indicate that the Kirekan has left their controlled territory, in the direction of some formians.
We go.
Gromdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 9, 1028
We find a place where the Kirekan waited for many days. We are now seven days behind it, according to an Onyx dog Zim has. We follow.
Moldain, Yarthmont (month 5) 11, 1028
We find a portal The tracks head directly into it.
Lani and Safranna gate in. Lani thinks it either goes to an elemental plane, or the prime material.
We go through. It's a desert. We're on Mystara. Lani flies up. She can see the Kuriken in the distance. A few miles away.
We approach. It's just standing there, doing nothing. Lani cats Rary's telepathic bond, but it resists.
Grey tries to communicate via sending. It says it is home, but it's too late, too late.
Grey communicates again, and it talks about Pelenzor the mighty. Perhaps a city of some sort?
grey tries to reason with it, regarding returning to the red realm. It doesn't consent. Lani tries to dominate it. It seems to have great will.
We go away and rest.
Nytdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 12, 1028
We come back. Lani tries again. Lani succeeds. Lani casts Rary's telepathic bond.
It can hear, by sensing vibrations and smell.
Grey takes it back to the red realm. We communicate with it.
It knows "how to return" - this is how it knew of the gates.
It seems Pelenzor was destroyed. The Kirekan tells us this:
"With golden gates and emerald fields, stood Pelenzor the Lovely. 'Midst sharpened spears and burnished shields, stood Pelenzor the Mighty.
"O come ye, soldier, hear my tale, of bravery, glory, and warriors hale For
'pon yon Plains there stood a realm, whose might They could not overwhelm.
"They of the Dark, deceivers all, They who heed the Outer call. They came
in forces bringing doom, yet for Pelenzor there was naught of gloom. For bold and brave, most serene stood Taranitha, the city's Queen.
'Harken, men, of bold Pelenzor! Heed me, bring the enemy war! The foul ones
shall be turned back ere long, while we in our glory remain strong!'
"Alas! For such did not transpire, for Pelenzor were the tidings dire! Walls did fall, temples did burn, yet true honour did Pelenzor earn In its
hour of death, for warriors bold made Dark blood run still and cold.
"With battered gates and empty halls, stands Pelenzor the Burned. 'Midst fallen spires and tumbled walls, stands Pelenzor the Dead."
A red dragon flies over. He seems... intense. He indicates the arrow should not leave this realm. He offers to guard it if no one else is suitable.
The dragon is Ironstar. He likes war. Grey and Ironstar chat about war related items.
Grey leaves the Arrow under the protection of Ironstar.
Grey's archaeologist at the north pole is a Nagpa, Hork. Grey meets with him to see if he knows anything of this Pelenzor. He hasn't heard anything about Pelenzor. We go to the desert and have a look around. Grey summons lots of earth elementals to poke around. They find structures 120' down.
Loshdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 13, 1028
Zim and Lani come in in order to magically dig down to the structures under the ground.
Grey teleports about, trying to find anything of interest in the region.
Grey finds grassland 9 teleports to the north. 2 teleports further north reveals foothills, and maybe mountains in the distance. Grey teleports around more.
Soladain, Yarthmont (month 5) 14, 1028
Lani and Zim continue to cast stuff whilst Grey teleports around.
Grey follows a chain of mountains. Grey rests in the wild.
During the night Grey spots five large leathery creatures fly past.
Lunadain, Yarthmont (month 5) 15, 1028
Grey continues to teleport about. He finds a prairie extending off in the distance. Grey teleports high over a group of horsemen, and teleports down ahead of them. They're centaurs. They know of the Heldannic Knights. They have a colony nearby. Their nation is the Free Prairies of Eseri. I am speaking to members of the Shen Esei.
Grey shares bread with some members of the clan. A human comes in to join us. He's from the city of Miraise, also in the Free Prairies of Eseri.
Each clan (including human clans) has a king. The kings and queens elect among themselves who will represent them.
Grey finds out where we are, and chats with the clan and the human for much of the day. We exchange tales.
Grey returns to the party and informs them of what he found out. Zim and Lani have pretty much finished digging. They've uncovered a city which seems to have been razed to the ground.
Hork finds a bone hair pin. By its design he thinks they're human.
Gromdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 16, 1028
We search about. The elementals find caverns underneath. We make an opening.
There is a passage, fairly intact. There's writing at the entrance. It seems to be graffiti. Hork isn't sure what material was used to write the graffiti.
We rest and rememorise before going in.
Hork finds a thigh bone fragment with large teeth marks on it. He makes some interesting remarks on this discovery.
Tserdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 17, 1028
We head in. A ways in we find a pile of rust, glowing. Possibly a variation of continual light which still works even if the object is destroyed?
We find some bones and charcoal, and a bronze shield that seems to have been used as a cooking pot. Looks like human bones are in the shield.
We find a heavily nicked bronze sword.
In another area we find more bones, many piled in a corner. Enough bones for a dozen people, some from children.
Further on, we hear a groaning sound. Zim detects the aura of one strong undead. Lani goes forth to have a chat. She finds what is probably a wraith. It's hanging over some bones, moaning. It ignores Lani. The bones it's hovering over include at least one adult and at least one child.
We head further on. We find a place where a heavy door would once have been, except it's been ripped off by something powerful. Inside is a pile of rubble on top of a stone block acting as some sort of blockage. We move it aside. Light comes from down there. A stone hemisperical part of the wall has been continually lit.
Safranna finds tracks no older than a couple of months. The tracks are of something very wide being dragged (or dragging itself) along. We follow the tracks.
We find a well. Grey sends some little air elementals down to have a look. They find some mostly empty tunnels. They weren't able to explore everywhere.
We explore this level more. We hear some more moaning. Lani goes forth, and finds a group of wraiths surrounding a raised area which might have held liquid once. We avoid them
Later, we come across what might have caused the tracks Safranna spotted a while ago. A Grey ooze. We kill it.
We find another exit, blocked by a large slab of rock.
We explore the rest of this level before going down the well.
We find the signs of a battle. They appear to have been in a defensive formation in a corner. There is no sign of weapon damage to their bones. They were killed very quickly. Possibly been killed by a spell or by incorporeal creatures.
Zim finds coins on their bodies, but the type of coinage is diffferent to what we found above.
Nearby we find another two bodies, one of which is non-human. Perhaps a gnoll, but who knows.
Lani finds a secret door. A foot thick wall length that comes out. There is no obvious metod for opening it. We passwall past it. There is a smooth and dry tunnel on the other side. This side of the secret wall section is magical. Very old magic.
Further on we find bits of what were probably bronze golems.
We find a magically warded bronze door. Shut and intact. The door is to protect whatever is inside, and for non-detection.
After some time, Zim could get past the traps. Instead, we'll let Lani memorise then cast Analyse Dweomer, to get the pass phrase.
We rest so Lani can rememorise.
Moldain, Yarthmont (month 5) 18, 1028
We return. Lani casts Past Life on the bones of the woman and child beneath the first wraith. She's running down continually lit corridors, holding a baby. She gets backed into a corner, and turns to face her pursuer. A troglodite with a bronze sword. She gets hacked to death.
Lani also casts Past Life on one the soldiers who died in formation. They died fighting many wraiths.
Lani casts Analyse Dweomer on the door. Lani finds that the spells are crude but powerful. The wards protect the door from physical damagge, lock the door magically, prevent teleportation and divination.
Beyond is a massive treasure haul. The walls are magical. The statues are magical - almost certainly golems. Some items of treasure are magical. Some chests are closed, but a couple are open. Some doors lead beyond.
There are perhaps a dozen stone and bronze golems.
Beyond the doors is more treasure. However, one of the doors contains something other than treasure. Instead, it contains a young female in a crystal sphere. Grey heard a tale from the centaurs of such a woman. She loved a man from another clan, but that was not allowed. As punishment, she was suspended in time. However, her lover found her, and thought she was dead, so he commited suicide. The elders of her clan thought it would be cruel to unsuspend her, so they extended the duration so she sould be suspended in time indefinitely.
Some investigation (Analyse Dweomer) reveals that the crystal encasing the young girl can be dispelled with a Limited Wish, Wish, Miracle, or powerful enough dispel magic.
We spend some time trying to find out what happened.
Loshdain, Yarthmont (month 5) 20, 1028
We find out that these ruins are 8000 years old. The oldest written records we know of are from Linear, 3000 years old. We speak to some dragons, and they do not know of anything this old. They can only tell us: "The elves fucked it all up."
They confirm that this place was not always a desert.
Past Life's reveal that this place was once a beautiful garden city. It was attacked and evidently lost to troglodites. The troglodites slaughtered everyone. The warriors that died by being killed by wraiths seem to have been here after the initial defeat of Pelenzor.
It seems that at some point in the battle against the troglodites that some event happened, or news of some kind, that caused the defenders to lose heart.
We do divinations. Since we're guardians of the realms, we actually get told information. Leo gets the impression that mortals shouldn't normally know this information.
We dispel the crystal around the girl. The block fizzles away.
She is Princess (now Queen) Jasinnia. She seems to be taking it relatively well.
Yes, they were attacked by the forces of the Carnifex. They knew they could not win, but they hoped to hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
She informs us of the events leading up to her being suspended.
When looking at our maps, she says everything is wrong. The sea is too close, for example.
She wants to see living people, so we take her to Serraine, Sind, and Thyatus. She then goes to rest, in Sind.
Soladain, Yarthmont (month 5) 21, 1028
We chat to her more. The war with the Carnifex had been going on for centuries. It was only recently that the great general Brell had started to make progress. The Carnifex were engaging in a war of extermination. As they killed more of us, their gods grew stronger, whilst our gods grew weaker.
Queen Jasinnia wishes to rebuild Pelenzor, somewhere... In the meantime she wishes to discover more of the world as it is now.
She has an item which has all the knowledge of Pelenzor. Secrets, magics, and all sorts of other magics.
She decides she would be happy to commute between Sind and Seraine as she learns of the world.
We create a 1/day gate key for her.
Over the next few days we show her Guardian Mesa.
We then return to the Star Seeker, and spend about a month retraining the crew and making decisions before embarking.
Lunadain, Felmont (month 7) 1, 1028
We embark.
The Captain says that the Council wishes us to engage in more of a trade/exploration role. They feel that the Yuan-ti threat is gone (although we very much doubt it has gone).
Some of the old crew have left. We have some new crew to man the ship we captured, Troy.
A new officer, Alarrain, a male elf, from Serraine, will pilot the Troy. A druid. Troy rejected the first two choices. The Troy is not particularly large, and will have a crew of 9 marines.
The Valiant will also be with us on this trip, as will the Falcon.
Alarrain has a rank of Flight Lieutenant.
We spend the next few days doing some atmospheric maneouvering, before some more shakedown cruise around Matera.
The Skyfarer is now equipped with speaking tubes.
We'll also check out Patera to see what the situation is there.
Tserdain, Felmont (month 7) 3, 1028
On the third day of the shakedown cruise near Serraine, one of the crew notices something large following us, under the cloud cover.
We move to find out what it is. We see the back end of another ship.
We launch an invisible Falcon, and try to lure the other ship out. Zim flies close enough to recognise an Alphatian Yacht. The crew is in uniforms, but not imperial uniforms. Lani goes invisible, and dimension doors close. The crew speak Alphatian.
Lani sneaks onboard, and inside. The Captain is on deck inside some crystal, transparent enclosure. Lani finds the Captains room, and starts looking through papers. Their orders are to pick up supplies. Lani looks for longer. She finds more orders, this time to discover the capabilities of the Star Seeker, and follow it on any mission.
They're shadowing the Star Seeker for sure. They are part of the New Alphatian Confederacy.
They have an interesting policy document.
Lani takes all papers, including ones from the locked chest. They can't fail to notice their absence.
We get busy copying.
Zim returns the papers. They don't seem to have noticed.
We return to Serraine. The next day we use the teleport drive to leave without making our capabilities obvious.
Moldain, Felmont (month 7) 4, 1028
We spend the day at Matera.
Nytdain, Felmont (month 7) 5, 1028
We arrive at Patera.
Apparently relationships with the Empire have deteriorated. They don't think the Empire is infected anymore, but they do believe they have been influenced. They would appreciated our assistance.
We go down on an away mission, and have a chat.
The Empire of Myoshima believes that Selimpore was responsible for the lizard spies, and so now prepares for war, although our Selimpore contact hopes that this is not the case.
These Rakastans are actually a reletively recent arrival to Patera - they come from Belaine, near the baronies. They originally came here as a trade outpost, although are now independent. They trade things like rubber and other strange materials.
Our Selimpore contact is Duke Edward.
We will let Flight Lieutenant Alarrain, Knight Bachelor Werner, and an unusually slick marine by the name of Harshal, handle the trade negotiations.
The main ship will approach Myoshima to attempt a diplomatic solution with Myoshima.
We approach the capital. It's very densely populated. Hundreds of thousands of people.
We land the Falcon nearby, on a road. There are Rakastans on stilts in some very watery fields.
Some Rakastans on tigers approach us. They take us to their governor. We take four marines with us, and leave four behind.
Everyone here is a Rakasta.
Our guards are elaborately dressed.
In an adjacent room, someone casts True Seeing. They notice Lani is dead. They aren't happy.
We then get introduced to the governer, who resides in an extremely richly annointed room.
The vizier (a mae evidently) does most of the speaking at the start, and is rather unfriendly. However, Grey evidently makes an impression on the governor, who indicates he in interested in hearing what we have to say.
Lani sings them the tale from the start.
The governor believes us. He says, however, that no sign of them has been seen.
We are given quarters for the night.
Later, on the way to the quarters, a warrior approaches us, and says he has seen the shape shifters, and he wants to know more. However, he is not allowed to speak of it, hence why he is being cautious.
All of our quarters have spy holes.
Later that evening, they bring us a meal of fish and rice.
The Rakastan slips in, later in the night. He is Shika Katay. We cast Rary's Telepathic Bond, so we may communicate freely. He saw the shapeshhifters in a bordello in the city. He feels that they may be biding their time.
We tell him of them.
We wander around the city, seemingly randomly, until we go near the bordello region.
We find the correct bordello, and go inside the provocative place. The Madame parades a bunch of females in front of us.
We take her out, and knock her unconscious. We go back to the palace. The Vizier comes out, looking annoyed, after Shika gets him to come here. The Vizier casts True Seeing. He sees what the creature is, and he orders the unconscious things to be taken to a latrine pit.
We return to our rooms.
Loshdain, Felmont (month 7) 6, 1028
We get to see the governor. In the room, it looks like the creature was disected, probably in front of the governor.
They believe us now. We give them the Detect Shapeshifter spell.
The Vizier comes to see us. He says we may wander the city, and pick anything to be ours. The governor must give a gift, else lose faith. The bigger the gift, the more face he will gain. If we take too big a gift, then we will be beholden to him.
We get some gifts.
That afternoon, we are invited to an extensive, ongoing dinner, with about 60 other guests. Lani ends up getting decorative dishes after claiming "religious" reasons for not eating.
We discuss matters of trade and the like.
Soladain, Felmont (month 7) 7, 1028
We return to the Star Seeker, which has been mapping in the meantime. We inform the other country of the events in the Myoshiman Empire.
We also learn about some of the other countries on the moon.
Selempor, the place with Duke Edward.
The Empire of Myoshima.
Rajahstan, a collection of 12 loosely allied city states, heavily populated.
Surabayang, cutthoats and thieves on some islands.
Malacayog, islanders current being invaded by the Myoshimans.
Kompor-thap, a spiritual country inhabited by Pachydermions, the elephant people.
Lunadain, Felmont (month 7) 8, 1028
We ask Leo to do a commune for us:
We teleport to where the Pachydermions are, in a mountain range.
We pass by a temple (?) as we get closer to the city. We go inside. Inside is a pool of water, around which stand some elephant headed creatures, making noises from their trunks. They don't pay any attention to us.
We go to the city. We ask to speak to their spiritual leaders. Most of the city is build out of big slabs of stone. There are no ostentatious decorations. They worship a Pachydermion god, Ganetra, fountain of all Knowledge (he's in the Sindhi pantheon), and also meditate on the natture of thought, etc.
They have a very fateful outlook on life, and believe in Reincarnation.
Holy Ones have white skins. They are well along on the Path to becoming immortal. Ganetra was the first (and so far only) one to succeed. It happened about 1038 years ago, when Ganetra gave his knowledge to us. They don't remember their previous lifes. Holy Ones are born with white skins.
We get lead to the Most Holy. We warn him about Yuan-ti, and ask him about how to become immortal. He says there are several paths, five in fact. He tells us exactly what is required of each.
They have detailed histories and archives here. It would take weeks to go over.
We spend a couple of weeks here.
[Grey sets his researchers to research the information.]
During the two weeks, Justinia gets some advisors. One is a Sindhi Rishiya (cleric), who will teach her history and geography. The second one is a Karameikan girl who is well versed in modern politics (a noble girl from an important family). The third advisor is a shabby guy with a big black hat and an eye patch, carrying a staff, a well travelled Alphatian. He will be her language tutor. He's been around and seen a lot, and knows how to spin a good yarn.
A book also falls on Zim's head, and opens to a page about the Sphere of Mattter, and becoming immortal. It talks about putting pieces in the right place, etc. Weird, and very Garel Glitterlode.