After about a week in the Phlogisiton, we hit Realmspace. It’s decided that we will duck into Garden’s (an airworld) atmosphere to replenish our air. As we are heading towards Garden, I happen to notice something off the starboard bow. It looks like ship to ship combat. Lightning is sparking around the ships. I call out to everyone. Kenari, who is up in the crow’s nest, takes a vision potion and starts calling out details. It’s a hammership and an elven warbird. The hammership is flying the crossed cutlass and starwheel of Bral, a “friends of the fleet” pennant and….the House of Seven Stars pennant. It’s the Dauntless. Oh – Captain Hoopaka!! And PIRATES! I hate pirates. Dirty, thieving, stealing, marauding, lawless bastards. Taking and destroying without a thought for anything but plunder. A white-hot jolt of hatred and rage moves through me, settling into a steely resolve. My eyes are trained on the warbird just waiting till I can board.

Lenata puts on some speed and we move quickly towards the combat. As we are approaching, there is an explosion on the main deck of the Dauntless. Lenata decides to maneuver the ship to try to sheer off a wing on the warbird. As soon as we are close enough, Kenari and I move to the warbird. Like me, she has the means to independently Dimension Door herself – it’s a useful skill. We find ourselves in a dark cargo hold deep in the ship. Kenari starts looking for any materials that may be flammable – she’s thinking of making of a bomb. We don’t find anything in the cargo hold and so move into the hall. A Pirate of Gith walks right past us as we hide in the shadows. We find the door to what must be the armory – Kenari quickly finds & disables the traps and locks on the door. I let her go first, in case she missed something, but she’s good at this and nothing happens. The armory is surprisingly well-stocked for a pirate ship – swords and other weapons, all masterwork material. Digging around, Kenari finds a gold bracelet behind a chest and I find one of beads behind a shelf. There is nothing flammable here, though I am less enamored of her “blow it up” plan. I do love warbirds. As we are about to leave this room, the entire ship shakes and rocks – a hole is blown through the outer hull and we both narrowly and nimbly avoid getting sucked into space. Kenari reaches for me as she transports herself back to the Nomad, but I miss her hand. I am alone in a hallway aboard a ship of the Pirates of Gith. You know, I have always wanted my own ship and warbirds…well, they are truly beautiful ships.

Having decided I am going to take the ship, I stand upright, flick out my fans and begin moving purposefully through the corridor towards the sounds ahead. As I am walking towards the door, four Gith crew members enter the hall right in front of me. They seem a bit surprised to see me there. Smiling my most ingratiating smile, I attack the closest two with no preamble. A flurry of blows and two heads roll down the hall behind me. As the corpses drop to the floor, I smile again at the remaining two and begin to trade blows. They both miss me somehow, but I don’t. At some point, I realize Lenata has used the Nomad to sheer off the other wing of the warbird – DAMMIT WOMAN, STOP HITTING MY SHIP! The third falls and is trying to crawl away from me when I kick him to his end. As I am fighting the fourth, I am hit from behind by a lightning bolt. I turn and the epitome of a pirate stands behind me. A gold jacket, a giant hat with a plume, a silver cutlass (ok, really?) and a grin like my own greet me. I move quickly towards him and we engage. He’s good this pirate, much better than his crew. I hear what can only be the thumps of ballista from the Nomad – NOW THEY ARE SHOOTING AT MY SHIP?? We trade furious blows and he doesn’t miss, but I’m still standing and giving as good as I’m getting. I pull a muscle at some point which slows me some, but land two more hits and manage to disarm him. He casts another spell and a mace forms around his fist which he starts to hit me with. I take a few deep breaths and renew my attacks…with another round of blows, I reach in and drive my whole fist through the middle of his chest. The pirate drops at my feet. Kenari has reappeared in the hall with me at some point. I turn and look down the hall towards the crew of the ship – covered in blood and gore, their Captain a pile at my feet and smile. The Gith all appear terrified and as one, they planeshift away.

The Captain and the rest of the crew from the Nomad have boarded the warbird. As Kenari and I are making our way towards the deck, the ship starts to burn with an eerie blue fire. Why – WHY IS MY SHIP ON FIRE? NO NO NO. Not my beautiful ship.

We get off the warbird as the entire beautiful thing goes up in blue flames. I had heard that warbirds had a self-destruct built in, but I was hoping it wasn’t true. We check on the Dauntless. They seem to be ok. Hoopaka has things well in hand. They think it was a random pirate attack because lately they’ve been dealing primarily in luxury items (I smell a half-breed dragon there). We go back to the ship and I set about cleaning myself off.

Kenari had apparently picked up the pirate captain’s sword and is playing with it up on deck. She realizes it won’t work for her, but gives it to the captain. After wearing her bracelet for a while, she suddenly screams “IT’S CURSED.” Apparently, it’s making her think before she speaks. Poor cat. The horror. Ef Utan tells me my bracelet will give me second chances….but only one time for each bead. Interesting…

We get our air in Garden and head into the Phlogiston from Realmspace to Refuge. This leg takes only 5 days. When we enter Refuge, we are stopped by Giff bombards, but they recognize the group and the ship and so we are passed through without any trouble. From Refuge it’s Pirtel (a sphere of asteroids and not much else) get more air and then 2 weeks to Darnannon. I spend the downtime working with Melchior and Ef Utan on combat training trying to figure out how we will be most effective given the disparate nature of our skill sets. I also spend time training the crew – those who are interested – in martial arts.

We finally make Darnannon. The stars in the interior of the sphere have this strange, faint green tinge to them. Within an hour we are approached by three warbirds (oh…I am still sad about my ship) with Imperial fleet colors who pull up alongside of us. An emissary from one of the ships comes over. It’s a Lashunta – I’d heard of them – but never seen one – they look much like us, but more…refined? And they have antenna. We are told that we can get water and refresh our air while we are waiting for our meetings. We are completely flanked by the warbirds as we head towards the base. I spent most of my time out on the deck watching the ships as they gracefully escort us. The base is huge – massive butterfly ships that have fused together in orbit over a tiny water world. The base is busy – a half dozen man-o-wars, other ships all come & go. Kenari is in the crow’s nest looking out and relays to us that she sees a structure that is circular – maybe a mile across and ring like with blackest space inside.

Hours later we receive a message that dinner and passage to the base have been arranged. Admiral Admiral Villus Leafbower has invited us to dinner and formal attire is required. Glad I packed thoroughly. Lenata tells us about this Admiral and from the sound of it, he is no one to trifle with. We all prepare for dinner in our formal dress and I have to say, Melchior slays in a bow-tie.

An elf shows up and creates a disc for all of us to float down to the base. The setting for dinner is formal and beautiful as most elvish things tend to be. The food has a strange aroma, but Melchior starts looking very excited. The Admiral (older than I imagined, close to 1,500 years, but more imposing because of it) comes in with a large wooden box that he sets on the table. Drinks are served and the Admiral starts by calling us an interesting collection of adventurers. He goes on to explain that their high priest had had a vision of us. Like the angels, he mentions that fate has been nudged along to put us together as a group. Also, because of their high priest’s vision, they had arrived at the decision to let us into Darnannon and then to Akiton. Also, the box was left here to be given to Melchior.

Melchior opens the box. It is bronzewood – something from Greyhawk. It’s an ever box? I’ve never heard of one. There are some runes on it that seem to be holding it together as it is really old and beat up. There’s a gun inside. “It can’t be.” Melchior tells Lenata: Try and scry this. Lenata does. It doesn’t exist. Her spell is perfect and the thing does NOT EXIST. Melchior is totally stunned. He shuts the box and says “I am greatly… I accept this with great humility. This is … thank you. Many thanks.” You know, I never wanted a gun…but that gun…it just looks really special. You’d think it was just a beat up old gun if it were not for the glowing green runes.

The Admiral then says “Now we will have to spend some time explaining what is different on the other side.” Kenari says: “On the other side of what?” The phlogiston. See, many think that the phlogiston exists throughout the Prime. That is not the case. Just as there are spheres – there are gigantic superclusters that are referred to as galaxies. From an outside perspective, some of these look like a huge cloud. That is the phlogiston viewed from outside. Between these galaxies, and between the stars in the ones without Phlogiston, are infinite distances of empty space – The Dark Tapestry. The other side of the gate exits in the next galaxy over, in the Golarion system. Kenari: If there is no phlo – how – how do ships manage? Adm: Well, It’s a long trip.