We start walking back up the stairs, but it’s been a ridiculously long day. Our time in the dreaming felt like 12 hours at least.

Kenari is still ridiculously excited about this gun. She tries to show it to Melchior, but it reacts poorly to him – apparently the thing is psychically linked to Kenari now and only she can use it. I’m thinking about guns though and how it’s probably time I start training seriously with them. That Crocodile fight would have been better if I hadn’t had to keep jumping ON the stupid crocodiles.

We explain to Lenata and Melchior what happened while we were in the dreaming. Lenata tells us she tried to walk the line again and got nothing. Melchior tried – but apparently got a bit singed. He’s still smoking a little. But at the end he had a vision of his homeworld, Oerth, and of a huge metal cylinder slams into his planet – it was recognizably his home world – but different – like a future vision apparently.

We start heading up the stairs and as we go we discuss our next steps. We decide to try to get to Rempha. Kenari finds a tuning fork partway up the stairs…for planar traveling but to where and who dropped it? The stairs start creaking and then crumbling. Kenari jumps over the gap. Ef Utan tries, but falls. Kenari quick swaps places with him and then dimension doors herself back to us. This is taking forever and I am ridiculously tired, so I step to the top of the stairs and start tying a line just in case. As everyone gets to the top the blue sparks that had been all over us die out.

As I’m at the top, I realize the green people are gone – and so are their lizard mounts. Our ship is gone! Holy tablets – is that a Nautiloid?? My hands drop to my weapons as I watch the ship flying away. There are tracks all over from the Shobhads. I jump to higher ground to keep watching the Nauiloid. It’s heading SW and moving farther away. Lenata scries and talks to Aspodel who reports she took off as soon as the Nautiloid appeared. Aspodel says she will start heading back our way.

We search the area and Melchior and Fynn find something…not a person – chopped in half. It’s about 2 feet wide by 12 feet long…it’s all tissue with a single black eye and 3 claws around its eye. Lenata says the whole body is just nerve tissue and Ef Utan christens it a “nerve worm”. Someone else notices that the tuning fork we found has the numbers “193” on it.

The Nomad eventually returns and Lenata takes the helm – piloting us into the crevasse. Fynn operates the planar sails as we shift into the ethereal to go through the rock. Kenari spots a bright light in the distance and we had that way. The light coalesces into 8 forms – crap – angels again – these guys are always in the way – and these are warrior angels holding maces. There’s only 8 though, so I’m thinking this is doable. Lenata gets off the helm and comes out to speak to the angels. The Angel tells her “Turn away.” Fynn notices that they have the symbol of Mertion (the 4th Heaven) on their belts. Lenata implores the angel to let us through, but the Angel tells her “You will retreat. We will report to the authorities.” I’m seized with an irrational sense of total fear. We decide to leave and seek the other end of Rempha – hypothesizing that if this is Mertion, maybe we can come from the other way. So we retreat.

Fynn swaps the keys and we are suddenly back on the Prime. The ship is falling & spinning out. As usual, I fall off the ship – but quickly step back to the deck. The deck and the mast crack and there’s a giant hole in the ship now. Somehow, Lenata gets below decks and gets Aspodel off the helm. She pulls the ship up about 100’ away from the ground. We make it back to the crevasse and Ef Utan starts mending the ship. Apparently, it’s going to take at least 10 hours to repair the ship, so we decide to get some rest.

The next day…night….what day is it anyway? We decide not to tangle with the angels and use the tuning fork we found to shift. I tie off just in case. I’m kind of tired of falling off the ship. It feels strange compared to our usual transitions. We are now orbiting a different planet. Where a moon would be is a pyramid the size of the Rock of Bral. we see a number of spelljamming barges – Barges of Ptah mainly. The stars here are unfamiliar to all of us and there is lots of greenery. Also, the desert is more yellow than red. Where are we? Lenata notes that the Priests of Ptah compare to the Celestians in their enthusiasm for space travel. We decide to fly a white flag and a feather flag.

Kenari notes 3 ships heading towards us from 1 direction as I spy 3 Roman triremes approaching from the other.

Out of nowhere, Ef Utan mentions that if you cross math & magic – 193 is a prime number.

The barges of Ptah arrive and a human man in a jaguar cloak and another man in a feather cloak come over on a floating disk with some soldiers. Kenari tries speaking to them in mulan, the language of Mulhorrand, and offers parley. The dialects are different – but apparently, everyone can understand one another. They tell us that they are Igyptos and that this planet is Nile. They want to check our ship for Romans and contraband, which the Captain gives them permission to do. Ef Utan asks what year it is and one of the warriors replies that it is the year 5847 of the 153rd Dynasty, the reign of Emperor Ral Ada Hotep. We are told that we may dock in the water only, and to strictly obey the laws as the primary punishment is enslavement. Honestly, I’d like to see them try. We would make horrible slaves. But laws are laws and docking in the water really isn’t an issue. We are told to check in with customs and given a pass of some kind. Kenari secures all of the planar keys on her person and as she does so, she notes that the one for the Prime, our old one, now says 19.

We are escorted to a dock in the city of Khemet-Aladria. This city looks like none of our visions…so what is this place and if the Illithid dropped that tuning fork – what are they interested in here?