Anya,
I am currently in Grommspace, on the Hadozee home world/capital city – but you know that now. And obviously your Uncle is still with us. We are preparing to leave the safety of the city to travel into Kaiju lands to attempt to summon a Smalljammer. That may well be the craziest thing I have written down yet. But here we are. Desperate times call for desperate measures – or something. So as usual – I will have to sum it all up.

We did get into the X-Crawl. It was amazing. When “save the universe part 2” is over – I am going to start cage fighting for real. The roar of the crowd, the thrill of victory – it is intoxicating. We fought an Anais Hag first, then entered a circus like…ride of some kind – but we’d have to stop and fight or figure out the puzzle or both at once. We fought gnolls while a bard tried to ensnare us with her music. She was good – but not good enough. The gnolls ended up surrendering. There was an alligator and a chuul too. If you’ve never seen a chuul – imagine a wyvern sized crayfish and you’ll get it. It stank to high heaven. It was in the next room I really hit my stride and as the crowd started screaming “Blood Fist” (I ripped out a heart in there somewhere – poor little gnoll) – I screamed back “I can do this all day!” So yes, turns out I really like match fighting. Kenari though – that cat – we end up in a room with fire giants. One of them broke one of my fans! (Lenata fixed it – so it’s ok, but still). But Kenari – she grabbed one of those things – plane shifts to a water plane and LEAVES IT!! Can you imagine? So damn clever. The second giant ends up yielding and Ef Utan takes his sword. By now, the crowd has named Ef Utan “The Bear” and he is hamming it up – as is your Uncle. Working the crowd was a huge part of this show – so we are all trying our best. We had to fight five giant marionettes in another room. Ef Utan turns most of them into kindling with that ridiculous sword of his – the crowd loved him by the way.

We eventually wind up in what they call a “break room.” While we are there – time freezes – some guy in a cloak appears. Taj brings Tavist & Melchior into the room. Tavist confronts the guy – “This has to stop. What do you want?” The guy says “The traveler Kaolin has need of you.” And next thing we know – Taj and Tavist have disappeared. So no more wonder twins. A second guy in a cloak appears – dances with Kenari as she tries to get the jump on him and then says “you are needed” and then Kenari was gone too!

We are in the rest room for a while – and time is still stopped – then Kenari reappears with a glowing, blue crystal ball in her hand. She asks the Captain – what is it? The Captain checks it out and relates that she sees the Rock of Bral, but it’s floating in the Astral and a floating god-corpse is with it. Kenari tells us her adventures while the Captain keeps trying to figure out the crystal.

Eventually, we shift. Because the Captain got the crystal sphere to do something. We are now in a room high up – the windows are all broken. Fen recognizes some cloth on the ground for a group that calls itself “the Ranks of the Fit” and tells us we are on Gamma World. I’d heard of this place and knew I would really like to NOT BE HERE. Turns out Anna, I was right. Just avoid Gamma World. It’s basically awful. We were attacked by a giant goose. Geese are awful enough – they don’t need to be the size of a pony. Even Melchior – who is more easy going than most – said “this is a horrible place.” He was very right. We see out the broken window – way down the street – a mindflayer riding in a palanquin on a giant tentacled lizard – which is a thing I can’t unsee now.

We get down to the first floor and find ourselves attacked by four mechanical beings. Because of course we do. But as we are fighting – 7 other people appear – they are in matching jumpsuits with belts & gadgets and they say “Javelin to base. We’ve found it and you’ll never guess who’s been lugging it around.” The mechanical creatures take off. Kenari – who’s snagged a gun off one of the androids – quickly says "it’s mine. I found it.’ One of the newcomers says “Yeah, that’s them. Where’s the lawyer?” Fen, who helps himself to a gun as well, asks how he can help them. One of them tells us we need to get out of here as this place is apparently about to explode. We are teleported away – and on the assumption that anywhere is better than Gamma World – no one complains. Vedis & Fen are sick and then sick again as we bounce to another location. These people tell us that they are fighting the same fight as us – and that they have been trying to find us – but we are hard to locate. Outside fate or some such nonsense. They follow us by where we’ve been. And considering the chaos we leave behind – that seems pretty fair. Turns out they want the crystal ball for some machine of theirs. Vedis negotiates – pointing out that we need a ride home.

They do mention that the Illithids have been using chronomancers like batteries (we knew that) but that now there are only 3 left. Kenari says she hopes Leodette is one of them.

Turns out the blue crystal sphere is some kind of probability drive. The guy talks about how we can call a smalljammer. Apparently I get to be an ingredient in a spell. So that’s different. He tells us we are being blocked somehow.

There was a rather long debriefing session when we got to their base. Something about a divine compact and how it’s failing. They give us some stuff to help us out – including some stamps of delivery that will direct our package in the now where we need them to go. He points us towards some groups that will offer assistance, followers of Celestia and Desna. There’s some talk about the Illithid factions. And then they shifted us one more time and we were here – on Grommspace. I knew right where I was and was able to detail for the others our location in relation to where we wanted to be – which is basically at the Hive since our ships went there. Luckily, I remembered that there is a Celestian presence here and a House of 7 Stars office. So here we are Anya. In Quoj on Grommspace. Remembering that because of the Kaiju and the spells that protect the city – there is no portal to anywhere. That would have been too much to ask for I suppose. We have hatched this plan to summon a Smalljammer which is going to require us leaving the protection of the city! So I am excited about that. A Kaiju! I have always wanted to see one up close. Your Uncle has commandeered rooms in the finest hotel. Lenata has communed with Celestian to get the answers to some questions, there is a great deal of shopping going on.

The only other item of note was a visit the Dreaming – led by the Captain. We meet a dragon – Sartier – the Captain says. He tells us of the Rule of 3 (cause we never hear enough of that) and we are hit with visions…Celestian, Leralos, Desna. Sechnet/Asmode/Istus. The Lady of Pain/a serpent/the Spelljammer. Then: Morden Cainem/Esteban/a monolith. Then finally Ecladrah/Luigi/A mindflayer. From the dragon: Those are the guardians.

And we all woke up in a cold sweat. So there you are. I’ve been awake since to take the opportunity to write this all down to you. I understand from local House office that the Killroy will be here in 3 weeks. I am going to leave this letter with the post here to send to you – but I hope to beat it home in our own Smalljammer.

Take care of yourself. Stay close to home.

E.