Ef and Etsuriko attack, Mel casts Bubonic Plague in the room vs. the Illithids. She changes the atmosphere and Ef sees the cluster of Illithds wink out but it’s more like a hologram being shut off. As that happens the tube part of the tubes drops to the floor and chunks pull together into a vaguely humanoid 9ft tall brain golem.

Kenari hacks at tubes on the machinery with her Acid Dagger. Finn triggers his summon spell dampening and hacks at the machinery too. Finn finds a “striator” that illithids use to write with and takes it.

Lenata Flame Strikes the Brain Golemn as it continues to form and it washes off like water with no effect. Ef uses his Flame Tongue to attack the Brain Golemn in a flying charge. the brain matter refills the hole that he slashes. “Neutral Creepy” – Dinya casts Detect Chaos and stabs with Cat Herder and misses. Etsuriko moves up by Dinya. Mel casts Mind Thrust at the Golemn. It Mind Thrusts us. 5 POINTS DMG.

-1 HERO PT FOR KENARI. She tries to phase shift on it but fails.

Finn enables HASTE on party. Etsuriko uses flurry of blows on it as it burbles into a pile of goo. Mel takes a sample of goo. Ef uses a scroll of Scorching Ray to make sure it doesn’t regenerate. As he does a silver tendril shoots out from one of the tanks and hits him in the ankle as he feels stupider. -6 INT. Lenata affects his chances of fate and the attack then misses. Dinya notices the attack.

Etsuriko attempts to cut off the tentacle and it pulls back in the space between the tubes. Mel attempts to sense it and gets a burst of psychic static from it. Mel, in a burst of frustration, casts a Polar Vortex over the area where it is as we all get splashed with goop from the tubes. Finn and Kenari check the small rooms. Canisters with multicolor mist wired into the ceiling and floor.

Lenata casts RIGHTEOUS CONDIMNATION on herself. Ef casts Lightning Bolt on it. Dinya holds. Machinery at front of room is nonfunctional. Etsuriko checks to see if there’s wiring, we didn’t catch and that’s why things aren’t popping. There are some large wires in the bottom right corner. Mel looks for more baddies that might be hiding. She finds a fiberoptic camera on the west wall. Mel heads to the room with the mist.

Kenari flicker steps over to Etsuriko who needs help breaking the wires, and she breaks with extreme prejudice as she crosses wires on the machinery. Fluid starts to boil in the tubes.

Finn tosses alchemist fire in the room with the mist and goes to the next room. The door opens up and sees computer screens and REF SAVE. The door he just closed is blown out of its frame 30 ft into the isle as it
knocks Finn back his head hanging over the raised platform. 16 pts BLUDGEON DMG. His clothes are fine though his shoes are heavily scuffed. The lights in the room go dim.

Etsuriko “I think we broke it.” she flicker steps up to Finn on the stage. Mel tries the middle room on the left and sees machinery similar to a planar aperture drive on the Dodger. This definitely isn’t original to the ship.
Mel attempts to remove the tech but doesn’t think she can salvage it. She then decides to take her anger out on the tech with her gun. It’s def hybrid technomancer territory. Dinya helps Mel break things.

Ef flies Lenata around critter hunting. It shifts around like Venom goo. “Brain Ooze” reacts badly to telepaths and close contact. It feeds on intelligence and heals itself with it. Lenata tries to hit it with an ice javelin but misses.

Third room is glass bottles full of pale amber fluid. Kenari grabs three of them (for science).

Finn opens the last room to a wide array of conduits that lead to a 2ft diameter column rising up in the center of the room. At the top of the column kind of blurry and hard to focus on about chest level is a pale vaguely translucent brain floating there. It makes his circuitry itch.

Ef uses his magic missile want but can’t overcome its resistance. Tubes burst and flood the area around it.

Etsuriko stands next to Finn, takes count of everyone and looks for enemies.

Mel goes to Finn and sees the floating brain and attempts a MIND THRUST for 51pts dmg. Brain goes POP! All of the machinery seems to have gone quiet.

“Hey what was that noise? I found these funky bottles of stuff.” – Finn identifies them as bodily secretions from Illithids. Are they the source of their spell resistance? Mel goes “Ooo! Fill my armband with that shit!”

Finn – “Do we have porters? Where are the porters?”
Etsuriko “For fucks sake Finn, grab a bottle.”

Lenata uses a Holy Javelin at the Brain Ooze. Ef drops Lenata and attacks with his sword and dagger and kills it.

We decide to be thorough and make sure the tubes are destroyed. Mel patches into computer systems to try and self destruct the tubes. Some of us disable tubes. Ef looks around and sees nothing else in the room.

Mel does her computer checks – No destruct protocol for anything on this level. However, there are environmental controls and whatever the computer is feeding out of she gets two pieces of data: Figures in tubes are chronomancers. Collected energy focus generated by the chronomancers is being funneled to a single point somewhere deep in the Dreaming. (It was a rift in the Dreaming that caused the loss of Falak 13). As to the video feed it seems to be monitored from 3 different points on this level and one below it.

Suddenly sirens go off.

Dinya and Kenari share mental images of what we remember of the ship.

MIND LINK: KENARI, LENATA, VEDIS, DINYA AND EF UTAN

We enter and go through an access shaft. Mel uses the control panel on the wall to try and access the computer system. Primitive tubes!

Pattern of burns and laser bursts along balcony so looks like AFTER when the Parasol Patrol was here. Mel says do we want to check the radiation room since they couldn’t before?

We’re being watched by cameras on the wall. Finn feels a shiver as the dimensional anchor about the space seems to flicker for a moment. Etsuriko grabs a camera off the wall and hands it to Mel.

Etsuriko and Mel and Dinya go to radiation room. Moderate lvl radiation readings as Mel opens the door. One tube has a being in it with a stencil: STARSHIP WARDEN. Computer workstation in upper right corner. Mel
looking for computer logs. Med readouts on figure show in stasis, encrypted notes about a parasite infestation. Statis, life support and a mid level force field. Mel accesses files – ALIEN FACEHUGGERS.

VIDEO FEED OF CAMERAS ALONG THE BALCONY. Generation Ship called the Warden that came from North America on Earth.Crate pops and has racks meant to hold things double the size/thickness of a quarter. Crate behind guy in tube is cracked and that’s what is leaking RADIATION.

We all port and step to the island with the access tunnel. Mel activates the elevator as Finn and Kenari see froghemoths swimming in the water and about half way down as we see it going into the floor…
we’re used to the fields of portals and this is almost like going through a portal but we’re still in the same place on the other side. Weird shifting feeling. 5 more minutes to the bottom floor. We notice another fluxuation in the anchor – borderline power outage.

Mel’s emotion sense picks up on a dozen or more as the tube lowers down.

Ef Utan powers up with scrolls: Shield, Badgers Ferocity, etc.
Kenari activates Shield necklace.

Platform island in large pool with human tubes on one side and android tubes on the other. Long tadpole pool on the right. Movement in room to the south and some to the east.

Lenata casts GLIMPSE OF TRUTH. Lots of cameras on all four walls around us near the ceiling. Ef ferries us across the pool. When Finn gets closer to the wall with all of the bodies behind it he gets a tingling sense
near another door and wall as well. Door to chronomancers is def trapped with lots of electricity. Finn touches it with his hand with the Illithid circuitry. Some of it flows out, reconstructs and goes into the pad.
The anti=personnel field drops and the door clicks open. Each tube has a creature in it – Elves, Elan, Dwarves, etc. South end is a staged area with machinery and Gieger-ish Illithid craft to it. In the center is a large
broken sphere with signs of activity and recent work done. Len does heal checks inspecting tubes and Mel looks for computer records. All are “rated” but no definition as to what the rating is. (Human – Class 5 etc).
Cables connect to the machinery down south. Finn looks for a control panel. Ef casts Diamond Spray on the cables and takes 22 points of dmg as it blows out with a big burst of energy and Ef giggles. Dinya facepalms.
The lights in the room drop to low light levels. The doors click shut and a faint buzz as the anti-personnel field goes up. Finn casts a summoning dampening field. 100ft per 10 rounds.

Tubes start to explode. Kenari flickersteps to the door and pulls some wire out of the wall to deactivate the field. Mel goes to use the panel to open the door as the tubes boom. Finn and Etsuriko arrive at door and Finn
uses circuitry to get the door open as more tubes explode.

Room south, Illithid tech everywhere – to the right is rows of bodies in tubes with machinery. MIND BLAST. Four Illithids crouched down among tubes that Ef hits with Magic Missile.

Finn stealths and searches for machinery since he’s not fighting. 32/28 – a lot is broken but some reasonably intact. Three power stones pulled out of it fully charged. Acid Short Sword. Two hours wandering so far.

The Ancient Brethren

Before anything there was nothing and out of this nothing Came the Ancient Brethren.
- Old Celestian text over the Gates of Wisdom

Before the existence of any Gods or even the Planes, there were the Ancient Brethren. The average person doesn’t even know of their existence and anything they may know or heard of relating to them comes from unsubstantiated rumors and myths.

The Ancient Brethren consist of an uncertain number of entities; however, most learned scholars consider the following to be among them; Asmodeus, Jazirian, The Serpent (Mok-Slyk), The Spelljammer, The Lady of Pain.
Their roles in the creation of the multiverse are merely speculation and legend.

A derided and hotly contested segment support that an Illithid God, Ilsisine*is also one of the Ancient Brethren.

Jazirian Couati God, Lawful Good, His realm known as Uroboros, the Gates of Wisdom, could be found in Solania, the 4th of the 7 Heavens. The Ruby Palace of Sardior was said to appear here on its way through the Planes. Jazirian with Ahriman established the fundamental principles of planes: the Unity of the Rings, the Rule of Threes, and the Center of All, creating the ring-shaped cosmos. Jazirian was killed by Merrshaulk.

Rumor: It is said that Mok-Slyk was the one who taught Vecna magic

Ilsisne “Great Brain or Powerful Brain” patron deity and creator of the Illithids. Oryndoll is considered a holy place. Based in the Caverns of Though in the Outlands. Foes of Ilsisne include Lloth.

Asmodeus – Prince of Darkness, he who is most feared, keeper of the Rovagug, the Rough Beast. Asmodeus is often considered to be one of the Ancient Brethren. Prince of Darkness, one of the rulers of Hell, one who is Most Feared. Penned the contract of creation. He is the one who keeps the Rovagug “The Rough Beast” trapped in the Pit of Gormuz, the only key to its prison kept by Asmodeus.

Celestian: The Far Wanderer, Oridean God from Oearth. One of the major powers worshipped on the Rock of Bral. Celestian got along with other gods of travel from other pantheons (Ie Desna) but especially his brother Fharlanghn the Far Traveler also from Oerthian Panthion. Celestian has several astral devas at his disposal whom he could call for aid when needed. There is a College of Celestian on the Rock of Bral (Lenata Starborne graduated from there) and a large temple in the Barrier Peaks on Grayhawk. Portfolio: The cosmos, stars, space, firmament, sky, wandering, exploring, traveling, dreams
Aliases: Celestain
Domains: Travel, Wildspace, Knowledge, Trickery, Psionics
Superiors: None
Allies: Dalt (GH), Delleb (GH), Fharlanghn (GH), Heward (GH), Keoghtom (GH), Lendor (GH), Murlynd (GH), Pelor (GH), Procan (GH), Rao (GH), Velnius (GH), Xerbo (GH), Zagyg (GH), Rais (SJ/GH), Muamman Duathal/Marthammor Duin, Sehanine Moonbow, Hermes, Puchan, Selne (FR)
Foes: Erythnul (GH), Hextor (GH), Iuz (GH), Tharizdun/Dark God (GH), Vecna (GH/RL), Wastri (GH), Elder Elemental God, Great Mother, Ilsensine
Symbol: An array of seven “stars” (a diamond, amethyst, sapphire, emerald, topaz, jacinth, and ruby) blazing with the fire of distant suns on a black circle.

Labelas Aneroth: “Lord of the Continuum” he guards against those who would alter history. Little known Elven God of Time, longevity, the moment of choice and history, has few followers. No known alliances or conflicts with other Gods. Lives in the realm of Arvandor on the plane of Arborea.

Desna: Varisarian Goddess, one of the original 8 deities but instead of building Golarion, she built the Heavens, Ancient Goddess of Freedom and Luck with aspects in travel. Desna strongly opposes Lamashtu and actively hunts the demigod, Ghlaunder. Night hags hate Desna. Desna is an enemy of Xhamen-Dor.
Desna’s home is Cynosure, a demiplane on the material plane in a castle known as Sevenfold Cynosure. It can exist simultaneously in Elysium and Cynosure if she wishes it.

Sekhmet “The Lady of the Slaughter, Avenger of Wrongs”, Chaotic Neutral. Violently opposed to the “Pale One” and those that follow that dark deity. Goddess of Women and vengeance.

Istus – The Goddess of Fate is the Baklunish goddess of fate, destiny, divination, the future, and honesty. Her symbol is the golden spindle with three strands. Three aspects; a cold maiden, a haughty noblewoman and an old crone. She has a strange cloud-like companion who is a Prince from the Demiplane of Time. Istus dwells in the Web of Fate.

The Lady of Pain – One of The Ancient Brethren, She does not This enigmatic being serves as the ruler of Sigil. None know her origins, or even her nature; she has existed for as long as Sigil has, and Sigil has been known almost as long as mortals have existed on the planes. Never speaking and rarely intervening, she acts only through her servants, the dabus. Resembling the dabus in some respects, the Lady appears as an expressionless female, hovering a few inches above the ground, never making a sound. Her pale face is ringed by a crown of blades, protruding from her flesh, and those whom her shadow falls across are flayed alive, sliced to ribbons by her very nature.

There are almost as many theories about her origins as there are citizens of Sigil; some serious, others less so. Some claim she is merely a fiend, the first being to discover Sigil and thus taken by it to rule. Others claim she has her origins in the ancient past of the multiverse, a contemporary of the Serpent or the Dark Powers. Still others claim her a daughter of Poseidon, an advanced form of dabus, or even seven giant squirrels on each other’s shoulders with a ring of levitation and a costume.

She does not allow Gods to enter her domain though clerics are tolerated. Illithids are not seen in Sigil though they do send spies and emissaries there. Etsuriko is the only living person known to have heard her speak.

The Spelljammer – The Spelljammer is a legendary ship which looks like a gigantic manta ray, and houses an entire city on its back. All spacefarers (people who live in wildspace) have heard of the Spelljammer but very few have ever seen it themselves. It is this ship that gives its name to “spelljamming”, “spelljamming helms” and anything else connected with spelljamming. The ship has been reported to have been seen in countless spheres for as long as records go back. Even some groundlings (people who live on planets that have very little or no commerce with spelljamming communities) have legends about it. There are hundreds of conflicting legends about this ship, and a mythology has developed about the ship that is similar to the legends surrounding The Flying Dutchman.
The Spelljammer is one of The Ancient Brethren.

The Serpent (Mor-Slyk by the ancient Flan peoples) is an entity of godlike power, believed to be the personification of arcane magic.
The Serpent appears as a long, snakelike, semi-transparent entity. The Serpent’s head bears draconic features, and several dorsal ridges run along its back.
Relationships
The Serpent is said to be a member of a group of unfathomably old entities known as the Ancient Brethren, which though similar to gods, are not exactly gods, though some beings honor them as such. The Lady of Pain, Asmodeus, and Jazirian are also sometimes said to belong, or to have once belonged to this group, and supposedly Vecna is a descendant of the Ancient Brethren. There may also be a connection between the Ancient Brethren and the draedens and baernoloths born before the multiverse began.
The Serpent is believed to have personally instructed Vecna in the ways of magic. Vecna’s mother, Mazzel, told her son that the Serpent gains its power by devouring the souls of those who honor it.
Other rumors include that the Serpent is a guise of Asmodeus, or that the Serpent doesn’t exist at all. Perhaps it is only Vecna’s own madness and insight whispering back at him from within the darkness of his own one-eyed skull.
Source The Great Library of Grayhawk

Mordenkainan – Oerthian archmagis (30th level spellcaster) and leader of the Circle of Eight on Grayhawk. Vecna may have destroyed the circle of Eight on his first attempt at becoming a greater deity. Mordenkainan is credited with creating a great many useful and powerful spells. It is said he inhabits The Tower of Urm and uses it as a vehicle to travel the multiverse,

Estevaan – One of the top movers and shakers of Sigil, Estavaan the Merchant Lord is head of the Sigil Office of the Planar Trade Consortium.

Black Monolith – with glowing lights projecting an image that shifts. (We had a vision of it while walking the spiral path on the desert planet) Melisande Denaris recognizes it as Guidance.

Eclavdra – Eclavdra is the leader of House Eilservs and the most powerful priestess of Lolth. Her former consorts include Lyme, Derakhshan, and the demon lord Graz’zt. She also has a son, Athux. Eclavdra now serves as Lolth’s chief diplomat, as well as the supreme mortal ruler of her organization and religion. Eclavdra is a powerful, ravishing drow priestess of Lolth. She is known for her cruelty and complex scheming, and her total lack of compassion. She eliminates rivals before they can become threats.

Luigi – The Beholder (Owner of the Laughing Beholder)
the famous beholder and tavern keeper. Luigi is an extremely wise and knowledgeable beholder who is one of the very few members of his race to understand the beholder’s destiny to learn and to teach. Luigi is a civic minded and well-liked citizen of Bral and spends most of his time listening to the rumors of far spheres and great adventures.

Luigi is more than happy to share information with anyone who cares to seek the answers from him, but he has an infuriating tendency to withhold vital knowledge. He cannot reveal knowledge that would upset the balance of the cosmos and on many occasions that could depend on something as simple as an adventurer knowing where to find a fabled ruin or a reclusive hermit. All he asks in return is a story or song for his many patrons.
The Laughing Beholder is rarely troubled by bullies or hoodlums. Large Luigi’s powerful magical abilities quickly put an end to trouble virtually before it starts.

This is where Commodore Vedis Valentine worked for years as the head tavern wench before she became an adventurer. Luigi also warned the Spelljoined that the Illithid were using the Chronomancers as batteries and using Fate Eaters within the Loom to clean up their changes to avoid being noticed by the Fates and Fortunes. It was also he that explained the significance of the Spelljammer tattoos in their ability to be “unstrung from fate”.

• Mindflayer Wizard* – A couple possible theories
  Illithids eschew magic in favor of psionics, those that choose to study wizardry over psionics are often ostracized and disconnected from the elder brain. They must achieve immortality via undeath instead of merging with the Elder Brain, becoming Illithid litchs called alhoons. These alhoons are only concerned with their own survival rather than that of the hive.

Strom Wakeman is an alchemist and explorer from Grayhawk. Wakeman, an enterprising trader and scholar of Underdark exotica, allowed himself to be captured by the Illithid on one of his expeditions. With a non-magical mixture of various herbs that Wakeman named laethen, he was able to preserve his consciousness through ceremorphosis, and learned to use his psionic powers to keep from having to consume brains. Thus, he worked against the Illithid plots from within. The legend of the Adversary was born from his frequent sabotage, though the actual acts were never connected to him. The players’ characters in the adventure become his agents in stopping the illithids’ plans, as his own movements rely upon secrecy from his “fellow” illithids.

Illithid does a Mind Blast. Dinya knocked unconscious. Kenari grabs another leash and teleports another Fate Eater. Mel casts Cosmic Truth on Illithid. 3 rounds confused.

The Fate Eater attempts to attack Ef and ends up flat footed as it misses. Another attacks Etsuriko. Lenata attempts to intervene but fails to twist it’s fate. 21pts dmg to Etsuriko.

A Fate Eater moves down to get Dinya and Lenata casts Holy Smite that gets everybody but does 56 to the Illithid. It wakes up Dinya, however she is Shaken for 3 rounds.

Ef attacks a Fate Eater 3 times for 68pts of dmg. He hits one and channels a Dispel Magic effect into the strike, causing the light animating to flicker in the Fate Eater.

Vedis strikes the Fate Eater with Sardior’s Fang for a crit and dumps another Dispel effect through the attack for 28pts of dmg. Primordial Surge causes -2 to Fate Eater.

Etsuriko does a flurry of blows for two strikes for 19pts. Mel does a Mind Thrust for 32pts dmg. It misses attacking Mel and she detects a similiarity when Leodette would influence time.

Lenata casts Greater Dispel Magic and all of the light goes out of it as it collapses. The other one gets pissed off. Dinya attacks the Fate Eater for 18pts dmg. slash/force

Ef does a crit on the Fate Eater and slices it in half as part of it lands in Finn’s lap. “My pants! These were given to me by the Queen of America!”

Lenata channels to heal everyoe as Mel dismisses the Bubonic Plague on the ship and activates the ship filtration systems. Can Mel make an innoculation for the disease so we can all get shots?

Etsuriko goes over to the Penumbra and it’s a bit of a mess. A few crewmen are down/lost and one in major shock as she was a man before she got bit. Another crew member was an expert cook and now just wants to make weapons. Takero says the 3rd ship took off in the phlow headed for Greyspace. Mel plays target practice with the Fate Eaters in the phlow. The dead ones on the deck get to be put in the freezer for later cultivation as there are Feats for eating Fate Eaters. Ken ports Lenata over to heal what crew we can. Ef hacks the Fate Eaters floating in space. Dinya is restored.

Mel takes us on a tour of the ship and shows off the Planar Appeture Drive to Dinya. In there set in the core is Cat Herder, her weapon. Like an older version? Whaaat?

Vedis gets back to piloting the Penumbra and we take off to chase the 3rd ship towards Greyspace while Lenata sleeps to get her spells back. Mel uses her sensors to try and find the Illithid ship.

She picks up a disturbance in the phlogiston of the wake of a ship. We come upon the sphere Crystal gate for Greyspace as Mel notices the difference and the fire pots on the shell that act like stars.

We make it passed the chancey part past the outlying Beholder world and maneuver through the Grinder and continue in system past the sun towards the center of the system and Oerth.

Mel scans from orbit and finds its riddled with planar transit points and moderate time displacement. A particularly strong sense of a cluster of gates on one of the continents. A real dense array of necromantic magic in the norther part of the continent. Oh that’s a dark kingdom ruled by Iuz, a demigod. What’s with this geocentric system? – Mel

Mel does a sensor check on the Barrier Peaks to look for the fallen ship/Silver Citadel as we think that might be a Fate Eater factory. After 20m she zeroes in on a large mass of metal there and picks up something shielding it somewhat and there’s a dimensional anchor affecting the structure. We can take a shuttle down to Oerth. It’s rough, but Mel gets us down safely. We port and flicker step down wit the group as we’re parked on a flat shelf of rock barely big enough 150ft up. Skies are darkening and it’s starting to rain. A wide variety of tracks of creatures over an extensive period of time. Most start near that metal wall and lead out of the valley space. The metal wall has faint lines in the metal about 15ft square in the side of it.

**Blessings of Luck and Resolve and Protection From Evil from Lenata – +2 morale vs. Fear. If you fail you can end spell for a +4 morale bonus. +2 AC etc.

Ken works to open the field to get to the metal wall and thinks she MIGHT be able to open it. Ken manages to open the door….

Clerics:

Bennu – 5th lvl Human Cleric of Bast – Pilot – 0, 1st, 2nd, 3rd – PILOT

Garrick- 4th lvl Dwarven Cleric of ______ – 0,1st,2nd

Shariti – 2nd level Elven Cleric of ______ – 0,1st

Raziya – 2nd level Elven Cleric of ______ – 0,1st

The clerics will cast the following:

0 lvl: Guidance (+1 on attack roll, saving throw or skill check for touched creature)

1st: Bless (+1 on attk rolls and saves against Fear)

1st: Divine Favor (+1 per 3 levels on attack and damage rolls)

1st: Magic Weapon: Weapon gains +1 bonus

1st: Obscuring Mist*

2nd: Magic Boulder (like Magic Stone, 3 boulders)

2nd: Magic Siege Engine – Siege Engine gains +1 on targeting and damage rolls

Bards:

Kerrigan – 3rd lvl Half-Elf Bard

Raelin – 1st lvl Human Bard

Shedinn – 1st lvl Catfolk Bard

Nyx – 1st lvl Gnome Bard

Umbero – 1st lvl Half-Elf Bard

Inspire Courage +1 (1st)

Inspire Competence +2 (3rd)

1st: Abundent Ammunition

1st: Enhance Water

The Plan:

Obscuring Mist will be cast so when they come out of the Gate it will provide cover.

The Bards will sing to give +1 to attack and +2 to skills.

The Clerics will cast Bless, Guidance, Divine Favor and Magic Weapon or Magic Siege Engine to add another +4 to attack.

The Bards will cast Enhance Water to make containers of flammable alcohol and bind it to a flask of alchemist fire that they will attach to a ballista arrow (or other ammo).

They will then cast Abundant Ammunition to make a lot of them.

Hopefully this will make decent explosive arrows that they can use in a surprise attack!

Location

The Artful Driftdodger (Bridge)

Ongoing effects

We ended at the top of Combat Round #3

• Life Bubble (12 more days remaining)
• Surging Euphoria + 1 to Attacks, Saves, and Checks (3 rounds remaining)
• Control Atmosphere – Bubonic Plague (120 Minutes remaining)

Initiatives

22 Illithid – Staggered – 2 to hit, saves, checks
19 Kenari ^
18 Melisande
17 Fate Eater
16 Lenata
16 Fate Eater
15 Dinya
15 Ef Utan
11 Etsuriko
10 Fate Eater (22)
9 Vedis

Theridon conversation remembered – the destruction of the Elder Brain kicked him into the future through the Ether Gap. Friendly ghost? Could he help us scout the Illithids since he’s an undead?

Dodger’s sensors – distortion effect hits the ship. rod of light runs through Lenata through the deck and a booming flash from the bulkhead wall side of engineering. A figure in black armor with a pole arm appears. Dinya the Grave Cleric. Kenari met her, right? The silver frog ship I think… you’ve got the heads?

I tell the rest on the Penumbra and grab Vedis and we port over to the Dodger. Finn sits up and goes “I’m in charge right?” as Etsuriko tells him to lay down and takes command while Vedis is gone.

Mel scans Len, no disease, no radiation, no parasites. Detecting faint like readings from time manipulation effects. She gets a sense of “debugging.” Len is out cold, faint white glow. Luck based magic? Ken whispers in ear “Im going to go pilot the ship now, kay?” Nope, she’s out. Mel recognizes the great relic “Cat Herder” used to jump start the “other ship.”

Dinya was at Loom, investigated Loom and it pulled her here. There was a lot of “goo.” Illithid goo influencing the Loom perhaps? Leodetta the Time Mage is still good and not Illithid. Is the goo still on the blade? Silver shit? Can we analyze it? One other difference, it’s a whispy ectoplasmic variant that quickly disappears. Mel scans it though and picks up a psionic signature and luck magic. FateEater goo? Chronomancer goo the Illithids drained?

Dinya and crew took lightning bracers from Frog Ship that was powering it. Bracers combined with their items keyed them to be able to go to the Loom from there.

There’s a brief flare of light from the Med Bay and Len sits up. “What just happened?” I no longer have any arcane anything anymore. All of my arcane magic is gone! I no longer have access to it for some reason. Whatever happened changed me so that everything is Divine. Something happened to her Fate line to change her. What Dinya followed to get here was her Fate line. Dinya touched the threads attached to her weapon and sliced off the goo with a Smite. The goo was adding chaos to the mix.

There are obscure tales of Sardior the Dragon mettling in races to produce more Psionics, as Vedis talks about gentically modified Elans and Maenads.

“ALL HANDS ON DECK, CONTACT AT EXTREME RANGE.”

Ken ports Vedis back to Penumbra with Len as Ken and Dinya stay on Dodger. THREE SHIPS coming in quick on the 20ton range. Average nautiloid is 40tons. Giving off a familiar and unpleasant tentacle based signature.
Etsuriko wakes up Finn with “wakey powder.” Why do you think I was asleep? I know she was holding out on me!

Len casts Blessing of Luck and Resolve on everyone on Penumbra. +2 on Fear saves. Dinya aura has +4 saves on Fear effects.

Ef casts Shield, Bulls Strength, Fly and Badgers Ferocity.

Mel fires the Dodger at the lead ship that blows up in fireball 200ft across…in the Phlow… shockwave created from explosion as we make Reflex saves as the other ships blow up too. 20pts dmg to shields of each ship.
Etsuriko makes sure nobody ported over on the Penumbra and Ef helps. Mel uses her sensors and emotional sense to see that the ship has gotten more crowded as an Illithid holding three leashes holding Fate Eaters.

The Illithid lets go of the leashes so Ken grabs one and teleports a Fate Eater out into the Phlow. Mel Mind Thrusts the Illithid for 29pts who takes it in stride. Lenata teleports onto the bridge with Vedis who readies her Fang. Dinya swings at the Illithid but misses. Ef uses Dimension Door to go to the bridge of the Dodger. A Fate Eater takes a bite at Vedis but misses. Etsuriko Abundent Steps to the bridge. A Fate Eater misses a chomp.
Vedis attacks with the Fang and hits doing 1pt WIS dmg + 8pts dmg and then crits with Mind Blade for 13pts and -2 to checks.

Ken ports back and Mel casts Life Bubble on us all. Lenata effects the luck “Tugging Strands” and makes the Illthid miss Mel. Len then tries Chains of Light but it makes its save. Dinya swings at a Fate Eater and misses badly (-2 to hit) Ef attacks Illithid. A Fate Eater hits Vedis and for a moment she forgets how to wield two weapons at once. Etsuriko uses her fans to attack a Fate Eater to stagger it, hits a few times and then slips and becomes flat footed.

The Fate Eater then disappeared and 3 more showed in it’s place. Ken grabs the other one that still has a leash, just misses getting hit, and ports another one off the ship.

Mel makes the bridge air toxic and rust colored suddenly on the Dodger. She then gives one of the Fate Eaters the Bubonic Plague. Len touches the Fate Eater and casts Homeward Bound, dismissing it back to its place of origin. POINT TO REMEMBER

Dinya attacks a Fate Eater, hits one and then strains her back for 1pt of STR dmg. Ef full attacks the Illithid, and so does Etsuriko. Illithid attacks Etsuriko but Len tugs and keeps it from hitting her. Vedis uses Energy Push/Wilder Surge on Fate Eater smacking it against the wall – +1 checks/attks for next 3 rounds.

LIFE BUBBLE LASTS FOR 12 DAYS.

THOUGHT: If the Fate Eaters are found still floating out in the Phlow after the fight, could we capture one, keep it in a stasis on the ship and analyze it using the Artful Dodger to find out what it is exactly?

Taj shows up with her retinue. Welcome, but I’m sure you won’t mind that we all go through the Kenari Protocol now that you’re here. (Hey she remembered!)

*Detect Evil, Aberrations, Psionics and Compulsion – Bio and Heal check by the surgeon

I’d like to be invited onto the Penumbra. Sure, but would you like to see what we killed first? Why wasn’t I informed?

With fabulous but obivously insect oriented ettiqute Melisande addresses the queen bug with all the laboratory results she could need. We enter the med lab and Melisande shows the Illithid lord on the med table with the holo scans. “What do you want to know?”

If we get more than one Illithid lord brain with the node, can we triangulate the location of the Elder Brain?
Could we turn it on enough to create a camoflouge brain scan? What about removing the “node” and turning it into a Species Graft surgery? Mel – “That’s something to research!”

Melisande shows off her surgery methods vs Xixchill methods. Hers can be done in 6-8 hours including recovery.

A xixchill messenger runs up to Fen and hands him a scroll with a wax seal on it with the symbol of a WHEEL on it. Finn opens to read beautiful calligraphy in common.

“We’ve been trying to reach you about your spelljammer’s warranty.” with a locker address in Waterdeep XD

A moderately tall human woman with an armored bodysuit similar to Melisandes show up, looks in, and fades back out again. (Finn notices)

Melisande has a dark sense of humor and an unwavering loathing of Mindflayers so she’s definitely willing to help.

Taj is interested in the tech but she knows it’s only temp here so she’s more interested in what they’re planning to do next. We ask Taj about the Illithid Magic Users:

There was a mindflayer who helped the 7 Stars from the inside during their past campaign. After heavy divination they were able to identify a human sage named Strom Wakeman from Sigil who had concocted an herbal concoction that had allowed him to preserve his consciousness after going through the Illithid change. Met briefly in the hallway of the Overmind complex. Other than that, no idea where he is now.

Could we create an infection for the brain to affect the Overmind instead of a bomb? Might be more effective.

Can hook us up with a scroll to summon Taj or Kattar. Vedis gets two scrolls of word of beckoning.

Drow are at war with Illithids, and if I recall Kenari met one that particularly hated Illithids. Dude with a pretty mace that Kenari hopped around following once. Tavist also has a Drow baby.

A little hockey puck sized thing flies into the room, zips around and hovers above Melisande’s head. “Oh good I’m starting to get them working again.” “Smile for the camera!” She hits a button and then sees the puck’s perspective.

We discuss the possibilities of spells that could be caused Permanent. RESISTANCE

CAT’S GRACE AND BULL STRENGTH MASS SCROLLS

Ask Taj about making Wonderous Items for us to use the Detect Abboration spell at will. (THEY LIVE)

Taj detects Vedis’ sword as being a psionic heavy hitter – a Divine Psionic Relic – The Fang of Sardior. dedicated to the Dragon God of Psionics.

Etsuriko describes where they fought the Overmind before, and Mel says it sounds like the storm in the gap of the Ethereal above the City of the Seven Seraphs. Could the Overmind be setting itself up in the Citadel of Planes?

The Serenity is in drydock getting a refit. Melisande’s ship has big guns that can fire from a bigger distance than ours.

Our crew were happy and incarcerated after the drunken brawls they got into. We should get them out and stash our ships in the Harrowing so we can bring them with us for easy access.

Fin suggests painted mascots on each others ship and gets nicked by a chonker tortise cat.

Ken asks Melisande about a resource for the chronopartical exotic matter and she remembers a lab that made one once before it disappeared. Can we interface the time machine with her ship or the Penumbra?

If the Silver Citadel is where they are creating Fate Eaters, what if we disrupt that and remove their cover from messing with reality?

Githyanki envoy shows up demanding an audience and Taj is off.

Ef Utan and Ella Sorpic meet as Finn tries to hit on her and Ef warns her off.

Could we use Cereberal Parasites as a form of attack? Could we ask the Githyanki?

We gather our cohorts on the ship and move the other ships into the Harrowing, and then head to Oerth and Greyhawk. Melisande quizes the planes people about the Artful Dodger being safe in the Phlow.

Melisande invites Lenata over to learn to pilot the Artful Dodger as Aspodel pilots the Penumbra.

STRATAGIES

1. Can we give the Illithids fleas with Cereberal Parasites?
2. If the Silver Citadel is where they are making Fate Eaters, if we launch an attack that removes their generation will that prevent their cover from doing more to reality without getting attacked by the Fates/Fortunes?
3. Can we make a bomb for the Overmind? What if we infect the Overmind with a disease?

A ghostly semi-translucent figure of a Drow in weird sci-fi armor suddenly appears on the ship. Etsuriko acknowledges it with a half bow. It doesn’t seem to notice as it turns on its heels and walks through her and fades out.

Kenari jumps down from the tail and does a hero landing as Ef transforms into an air elemental and floats down to the deck to ask Etsuriko what’s up with the ghost. We see more evidence of a larger battle before we
make it out of the Boneyard. We see the hightech Elve ship again as it blows away dozens of Scro ships. Between Ef and Kenari we pick out details of parts of ships, helms, etc and letters of their Orc god. The wreckage is real but images of the battles are ghostly.

As we approach the Tears of Selune we head towards The Hive. There is a sizeable disruption as Lenata navigates the shockwaves from a massive explosion on the main laboratory asteroid. KA-DOOSH!

As the shockwave settles down something doesn’t feel right. There’s something off. It’s almost like a pulsing sort of feeling. Lenata asks the ship and gets an impression of confusion. Melchior rolls out of bed
and heads up on deck to see a chunk out of the asteriods where the main labs were. Kenari wonders if it’s a pulsing feeling if we can figure out where it’s pulsing from? She asks Lenata and Ef and between them
they figure out it’s coming out from beyond the nest towards us. Could the Pulse have caused the explosion?

Off beyond the rocks and moving towards us quickly is something vaguely round not with a purple effect like the Illithids, but more of a cold silver burst and an odd Enterprise/Defiant looking ship comes towards us.
It’s FAST. Lenata does evasive manuvers with the Penumbra – the other ship is a 1/4 size of our ship.

Meanwhile… Melisande (Queen of Swords) pilots their ship through the wave full speed and just manages to avoid crashing into the asteroids as the Penumbra dodges. The planet below is vaguely Gollarion like as their ship comes to a
screeching halt. Internal comms are out and 3 survivors out of the 5 skeleton crew. She attempts her telepathic bonds and cannot detect the rest of her mates. She checks internal coms to see if she can get them online.
“Members of the Artful Driftdodger, please respond!” “Radar Love, talk to me!” No response. Some lower level crew respond. Patra (MerHiss), Ella and Five are survivors. She checks with ship sensors to see if there’s
anything recognizable around about the manta ray ship or the asteroids around. This matches the place where KaChak stayed behind…

Kenari and Etsuriko look at the ship as we pull aside and Kenari elbows Etsuriko. “Hey, you wanna? It’s right there…”

Melisande believes she recognizes some people on deck and tells her people to stand down. “Figures, you know everybody…” “That’s why I’m the Captain! We’re in a lower tech situation so we might have to finagle this.”

Kenari, Etsuriko and Ef Utan appear on the bridge as “Asshole Alert!” blares across the bridge and Melisande pushes the button to shut it off. “Hi I’m Captain Melisande. It’s Kenari, right? How’s the gun?”

“LOVE IT! I’ve even got a plasma weapon now! So what are you doing here?”

We rode out a phasmic anomaly and my crew and I with our multiple ships were shot off into different realms. Can you tell me the date?" She discovers that her ship can’t orient to the date as it’s Pre-Gap. No injuries here other than bumps and bruises. We didn’t blow up the lab, we’re just riding the wave. How can I help? We need to get this ship into dock before Taj and her family try to attack you.

Lenata messages Taj to let her know that the Penumbra is us. Kenari hops over to their ship and grabs some flags to wave to let the incoming ships know we’re ok.

Melisande messages the Hive about KaChak but doesn’t get a response… she does get a ping from his communicator though.

Taj’s big fluffed up insect buddy pops up on the Penumbra. “Are they with you, Finn? Do you vouch for them on this ship?” (Claws are full, sent Katar)

Melisande grovels as Katar appears on her bridge. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend!”

“Is this with you?” Kenari says “Yes, we’re friends and all good here.” Katar ports back as the two ships pull into the docking bay of the asteroid to find chaos of dust and foul smells. Whatever it was it took out one of the major research labs.

Melisande takes Five and MerHiss to come with her. “Woaah! Another Catfolk! Where you from? I’m from the High Mountain Clan. Me I’m from Mulhorand. Nice to see another Catfolk out and about.”

“The bugs are in a bad place right now but otherwise you’re not welcome. Please stay put or keep within your ship radiuses. "

We check out Melisande’s ship as we talk. Ooo you’ve got an Armory? Vedis does Detect Psionics and Melisande lights up like an Xmas Tree. Vedis notices that Melisande is an Aasimar as well and is most likely a
descendent of Lenata. We share stories of the most vicious attacks we’ve done over drinks. Melisande asks to run some genetic test on Lenata in the Med Bay and Lenata agrees.

Melisande notices suddenly appearing two more emotional presences approx 35 ft outside the ship. Those are Mindflayers… “TENTACLE FACES! 5 O’CLOCK!” as she points to the port window behind her. She steps over to the
viewport and sees a pair of them and one is the bigger one like an Illithid Lord. “Illitharid.”

Finn left the ship and went to the bar past the sentries.

Vedis uses a Mind Thrust at the smaller Illithid but it made its save. WILL SAVES. it mind blasts us for a moment then levitates across from us outside the window. Etsuriko pops behind the Illithard and thumps it with a Quivering Palm that kills it dead. KADOOSH!

Lenata hits the Illithid with Holy Smite and blinds him for one round. Kenari flicker steps on top of the ship and snipes the Illithid with a Dragon Pistol. Melchior moves out and shoots it with his guns. Ef moves into
position with a wand of Magic Missile.

Melisande creates a Polar Vortex 20×40 cylinder of ice and calamari in a blender in the air around it. She releases it and it goes SPLAT on the ground.

Finn shows up with some liquor wholesalers. “Am I the only one doing my job around here?” as he waits for someone to cover it up.

Kenari tells Mel as we cart the bodies away that we need plenty of skin samples for the Detect Abomination spell. Maybe some vials of blood too? The correct measurement is “trash bags.” How many trash bags of illithid guts does it take to affect a Scry spell?

We go into the Med Bay as Mel lays down the corpse to do the analysis as it lights up. They are bigger, stronger, more evolved, more like network nodes between regular Illithids and the Illithid Brain.

Kenari gets her skin and blood samples as Mel gleefully dissects the Illithid.

Lenata wonders if the “network node” could be used against the Illithid to detect where the Brain is, to misdirect the Illithids, etc.

Melisands offers to psionically link us all (Vedis, Lenata, Kenari agree)

We could put Melisande’s Ship into the Harrowing to dock there as a secure place that we can access if we need. Can the ship go through the Flow safely?

Mel’s ship has an AI but isn’t alive like ours. The Nomad is here. The Serenity is expected to arrive within a week or two.

Word comes through the bug guard that Melchior has been summoned. We need help in the Disaster Zone. Melchior has been deputized to help Taj’s clan as law enforcement.

Up to Level 8 surgeries on Melisande’s Ship. 1 hour or so.

We discussed our tattoos and how they keep us unstrung from Fate. Melchior’s gun keeps him from being found. Could it be that they are tracking us because of Finn and Etsuriko? What about Finn’s Illithid tech tattoo There’s something funky going on here. Four of us have tattoos. Finn has the Psionic Circuitry. Melchior has the gun. That leaves Etsuriko who has heard the voice from the Lady of Pain. Vedis gets paranoid about Etsuriko being trackable. Kenari couldn’t find anything electronic. Vedis spends time scanning for Psionic detection while we travel. Metacreativity and Psychoportation being the Tiefling/Finn with the Illithid Circuitry. And a bit of clairsentience in the circuitry.

Finn remembers that Tavis is originally from Greyhawk with a half-Drow lovechild back there (four of swords). Ef, Vedis and Lenata make Perception checks. We make our way to the edge of the Crystal Sphere when they for a flash of a moment get a vision of an insane Cat’s Cradle of threads across the field of view with titanic Looms that is are feeding out of for a moment. They realize they see for a moment a number of threads running through the bridge and the ship 1/2 inch in diameter or so. Six of them end with us as a chill runs up their spine.

Kenari and Ef sit on the tail as we smoke a bowl and Kenari sees three dots in the distance. “Huh what do you make of that?” Kenari passes the bowl and nudges Ef. Let’s get back to the bridge and step on the gas, shall we?

Lenata hits the gas… it needs an energy manipulator to work like that. A psion could fly the ship! “Reflux saves all around!” Twice as fast now. As we pull away and the ship portal dilates closed, the dots grow larger moving fast and hit the portal before it closes. Arrowhead shaped and metal plated. When they hit the phlogiston Lenata has to make a reflex save as they explode into fireballs. JETS! The ship is rocked as Etsuriko flips and lands on the ground. Lenata maintains her grip on the helm as Kenari and the captain waiver slightly. Lenata stabilizes as we surfed the explosion wave through the flow towards Realmspace. 8-9 days instead of 3 weeks.

Lenata talks to the ship and finds it can’t hold this speed for long. You can sacrifice life force in order to pilot in a last-ditch situation.

Etsuriko works with Finn on the still and meditates to commune with the ship.

Vedis prays to Sartior the Psidragon. Doh we’re in the Flow, gods can’t hear us here.

Kenari tries to see if anyone is following us, but she doesn’t see anything.

HALFLING WEED EDIBLE GUMMIES. PHLOWRIDERS! ALL MY FRIENDS LOVE A PHLOWRIDER on those long trips in the flow!

As we head past Garden the next planet in is Discworld with a massive mountain in the middle. World of Beholders. Here is a debris field that appeared here 15-20 years ago.

As we go through the asteroid field, Kenari spies a ship amidst the debris field that’s like a Klingon with a cloaking device. LARGE Elven ship – sort of. Not present-day Elves though when you look at the weapons on the thing. INS Stormbreaker. I see another sort of apparition appear, this time though it’s not just one ship. I see the big Elvenish ship and a green/yellow Smalljammer. Can’t quite identify quite what they are as they recede into the distance. There’s an odd smoketrail as a missile from the Elvish ship explodes into a giant double mushroom cloud as bits and pieces of the ships fly towards us as the debris field. The manifestations are large and similar to Haunts. “Traumas of the past” The debris field is haunted and known as The Boneyard. 2/3 of the way through – Vedis and Etsuriko are hit with intense waves of nausea as space flexes for a moment. Rest of us a brief moment of nausea. We see the ghostly apparitions again. This time from the other side perspective as we see 3 approaching craft with a missile coming towards us and the Elven ship/Smalljammer in the distance.

Similar but larger version of the Goblin Blades during the Inhuman Wars. These are more like the craft who pursued us and blew up in the Flow. The missile arrives and things go white. It fades and we get this fucked up feeling like someone is watching us. (which is different then when?)

A ghostly semi-translucent figure of a Drow in weird sci-fi armor with a gun suddenly appears on the ship. DIBS ON THE GUN! Kenari called dibs!

Vedis with a migraine makes her way to the deck to look down at the crowd gathering around the ship. “Beauty, isn’t it?”

Ef navigates the crowd to get us through to the ship as we all board and prepare to leave.

10 fighter types show up and look up at the captain. “Detail from 7 stars warehouse. How would you like us to deploy?” Between them and Etsuriko’s monks they move everyone back.

Sleight of Hand – One pouch with 8 gp in it. Small roughly hewn carved figure in wood that looks like a bear with a small, folded piece of parchment with colored thread. “Daddy this is for you.” How sweet.

Etsuriko and Ef Utan scan the shipments coming in. An odd shipment for Finn comes in. Sand? A still? Worst case he makes a lemon scented cleaner for the ship.

The ship is OK with everyone and mostly OK with Melchior. It has a Shield spell that it projects, and it can rotate Shield points with a crew action. Panels are mostly “Intent” based.

We talk about what to do next. Talk to Luigi? Get our crew back from the Tears of Selune? Then what? Greyhawk sounds good as that’s access to more of the groups of 3. Also access to Sigil. What about the Citadel of the Planes? We do have the key.

Lenata needs to commune with the Prime again so we can narrow it down. Finn starts talking about Azmodeus and Lloth and we’re all DUUUUUUDE.

A scruffy orc girl comes by and says he will be tending bar this evening. “Fat Vegas Glen Campbell?” – Melchior after he’s retired

We walk into the bar and slap some gold on the bar and say “Hey Luigi stop me if you heard this one before! What do a Beholder, a Drow and a Mind Flayer have in common?” Easy, they all live in the underworld.
He takes the gold and casts Cone of Silence on Kenari as she makes rude gestures at him in sign language. Vedis invites him to join us on the ship later to talk. We go out from the Rock and discuss inside.

“Small bit of pride that one of mine made it all the way.” Above us 3 sun images wobble and resolve into giant candle flames but dim like through a fog. “By this point you’ve seen the pieces of the puzzle. But now you have the ship – (one of the lights brightens) and the others have reached The Loom (the 2nd one brightens) and far in the future the Unity of Rings has been achieved and the circle has been closed. Now the real work begins. You’ve seen some of the alternatives to our world.”

The major image changes to shows some of the worlds we’ve been to and spreads out like a rainbow. A wall of black oily shit starts to obscure and cover one after the other. “It’s a matter of simple survival. You’re one of
the three groups that have been made it. The rule of three has been satisfied. But, the link between the alternates, the weak spot, the spot they’re focusing their effort on….” the image forms a familiar planet. “The lynchpin is the planet Oerth – Greyhawk.”

The major threat in Greyhawk is in the Deeper Dark. As to allies, your best allies are going to be the Drow. As to the Illithid Wizard… ask the one you call Mamma Bug and her scaly sidekick. Tavist?

The tattoos are what keeps us free from Fate.

The illithids are using the chronomancers and breeding Fate Eaters.

So do we cold call the Drow or find a guide or what?

The images change back to the 3 flames. Vedis notices that when she looks close, she can pick an image out of each of the planes. One of them is us on the deck of our ship. One is the Parasol Patrol surrounded by a web of
threads in the Loom. The third shows a a crew in a conference room on a starship as they talk to a human looking figure accept that they’re translucent/ghost like. It has a vase in its hand resting on the table. As it turns
you realize the ghost is of Finn’s brother and Etsuriko’s former captain, Theradon (the Death Card).

CYBERWARE TECHNOLOGY GUIDE. STARFINDER GUIDE. – BIOWARE??

New ship gets a Wow reaction as we docked the thing. Both group’s names are associated with the ship due to the rumor mill. Finn and Vedis went back to the ship to keep onlookers and gawkers away. We discuss our plans with Luigi and the possibility of a joke:

“Hey, what do a beholder, a Drow and a Mind Flayer have in common?”

We make our way out of Shou Town around 9 bells and the streets are busy. Around the corner and facing us are 6-8 city guard and in front of them is DiaDan Cartan, advisor to the King. He smiles. Outstanding I had heard you had come to dock and made an alliance between 7 Stars and the Spelljoined. Since I gather the meal is done, would you care to join me for some conversation?

We sigh and march through the city over the land bridge to the Castle Skyview. We are taken to a smaller parlor room in the castle. Two guards remain out in the hall. Cartan pulls out a scroll and ink at his desk and asks about the warship. Is the Spelljammer a warship? “It’s a legend and not one I’d like to encounter again.” – Cartan. “It sounds like something the Fireball Alliance should study.” NOPE.

Etsuriko explains that 7 Stars has the Spelljoined under contract and takes full responsibility for our actions. Kenari drinks some POTENT wine and avoids the need to speak my mind and the truth.

Kenari pours what remains of the Truth Wine into her wine flask as Ef helps distract Cartan.

Etsuriko sums up and says, “Ok then can we go now?” (sigh) Yes, you can go.

We are being followed by a small brown ferret. The other we notice in the shadows is a ninja. “A hedge of ninjas!”

Ferret has leather collar with silver oak leaf on it as it cleans its whiskers. Elven? Kenari offers to give it a ride and a snack, but it declines. Etsuriko sends asks a monk to send a messenger to Luigis when we get there so we can ask them to get supplies.

We head to Luigi’s bar. He’s not on duty or available at the moment as one of the human backups is tending the bar. We order a round and find Luigi worked last night. We leave a message for him from Vedis and have our drinks and leave. As we get to the dry dock area there is quite a crowd.
Our ship is bigger than an Elven Warbird apparently.

Kenari feels something tugging at her belt. I reach down to grab and grab air. Sandyfoot twirls my bag around his fingers. You’re getting lazy! So, when are you going to give me a tour of your ship? Come on dude, cut me some slack and be honest with me. What do you want? So rude! Let me know when you feel better and take a bath why don’t you? Dude’s just bitter I called him on his BS.

We notice some particular faces: Erdonna Shipwright, shipmistress of Braal. Meridon Sandyfoot. Serig Tomajoch, mayor of Gif town. Honor guard of Lady Serena and Marion Silmara, etc. Etsuriko asked for an honor guard from the monestary to keep people away.

Finn is out front trying to sway the crowd. No sign of the captain.

Etsuriko greets the ship and she gets a whisper of “Bloodfist” in Shou.

We make our way inside the ship and lay dibs to various rooms while Lenata goes to introduce herself to the Helm of the Smalljammer and attempts to pilot is back to the Hive. Kenari goes up to the Weather deck to be a scout while Vedis decides to press all the buttons on the console in the Helm room. “Let it be known that Kenari wasn’t the one pressing all the buttons tonight.” Vedis runs her hand over the console and gets the feeling that “this feels right” as she presses a button.

There’s a click from over on the side from the closed hatch with the ladder. It’s arcane locked. Kenari unlocks it and sees thick webs covering the ladder down and a fog filling the interior corridor below me. Kenari flicker steps back to the helm and feels like she went the wrong way for a second before ending up in the helm room.

Vedis swears she hears something from outside the doors in the hallway.

Ef messages Vedis and asks her to reverse whatever she did.

Ef changes into an air elemental down the hall swearing that the room has changed. Swears he saw a weird cluster of lights sparkling down the hallway.

Vedis presses more buttons, no discernable effect.

Ef notices that the air is turning bad fast. Stinking cloud effect. Finn wretches over the side of the ship as Etsuriko wrinkles her nose and Melchior coughs slightly.

Etsuriko grabs Finn and weaves through the webs and smoke with Finn over her shoulder.

Lenata feels a weird buzzing feeling as she’s piloting. From below the main window a spear sized magic missile goes WOOSH. Kenari quickly marks the button.

Vedis presses more buttons, and the doors change. Kenari tries to study the console but it’s a magical construct she doesn’t fully understand. Etsuriko dumps Finn in a bedroom. A large mouth appears in the ceiling and proceeds to mutter gibberish and disappears.

Ef sees another cluster of lights as he moves towards the bridge and Vedis messages that she needs him for the console. Ef wooshes through the crack in the door and forms inside the room below the command deck just in time to see the mouth disappear.

“Welcome to the party! (hurk) – Finn
“Who is that! What is that? I’m just going to leave.” – Ef

Etsuriko apologizes to the ship as she attempts to make her way back to Melchior.

Kenari attempts a piano chord of buttons as she mutters “This might do it!”

Kenari pulls Vedis back from the console as everything goes back to normal. “Don’t touch anything!” As Vedis pouts Kenari goes “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Ef shows up on the bridge to see Kenari keeping Vedis from touching the console in prime role reversal.

Ef figured out that Vedis triggered the ships guards and ward effects. We study the ship as the weeks pass on the way to Rock of Braal.

We survive on Ef’s Arven Rations (lambdas bread), Melchior’s Murlyn’s Spoon of Gruel, Kenari’s whiskey and Lenata creating Food and Water. Melchior teaches us all to Boot Scoot Boogie as we’re drunk and high.

We enter Spiral Space and get to Braal. Lenata and Ef greet the harbor master as they’re the least drunk. The rest of us go arm in arm to find food as we’re trashed. We look at bad street food as Etsuriko says
“No we’re going to a restaurant!” Finn assumes the carry-all position as he expects Etsuriko to carry him. “There goes Finn, the Ass of Braal.”

We drunkenly stumble in the Burnt Tail at the beginning of lunch rush. Etsuriko orders a lot of food as Ef pays the man. Finn talks loud and slowly “We’re going to her room, and WE ARE GOING TO EAT.” as Etsuriko carries him through the restaurant.

The raft and water ripples as the god walks and Melchior falls off the boat. Kenari switches places with him so he ends up on the boat and Kenari is in the water.

“Never has the term Thorax Shadow been so upsetting.”

Sky rip is closing as Kenari looks at the rip. It seems to shift and change, the one image Kenari can see is areas of the Outlands where the gods of the prehominid races reside. Often confused with the Celestial Mantis that is the god of the Thri-Kreen, Achaekek is usualy worshipped by assassins and is originally birthed as an agent of divine justice. Most of the worshippers come from Gollarion.

Kenari ties a rope to the raft and teleports to the island and pulls as the others swim and push the raft with some work amd climb up the island.

The Mantis God screeches and Fin, Melchior Vedis and Kenari take 13 points of sonic dmg. Lenata and Etsuriko take 9 points. We all panic and then decide on plane shifting to the Ethereal plane so we can
watch what’s happening while the God passes by or fights or whatever. The mantis stomps around for a bit and then for the next hour or so a large godzilla kaiju shows up and the battle ensues.

The mantis flies away and Godzilla curls up around the statue as it takes a nap. We talk about taking notes and samples from the Kaiju to sell to the cult.

Ef is 2/3 through his watch as he picks up some movement off in the distance. A good ways away is a vaguely familiar profile, tentacles in front with big shell in the back. Illithid Nautiloid in the Ethereal.

We wait for 40 minutes then Finn and Kenari start looking for Kaiju scraps very quietly. Start picking up vials of Kaiju blood. Few pints of kaiju blood, can’t really tell the diff between mantis and Godzila.

Vedis looks for Illithid signs as we harvest but doesn’t see anything. She does notice however a small chip off of one of the Kaiju’s scale the size of her coffee table imbeded in the ground.

It is starting to rain though. Finn and Kenari use the acid burst weapons to free the scale from the ground. Ef casts Grease to loosen it up. Etsuriko makes a strength check and yanks it out. The
corroded ground crumbles away noisily but the kaiju doesn’t wake up. We put the scale in Ef’s bag of holding.

We use rope to ferry the boat over and Finn and Lenata find the tracks of our Hadojee guide but see that he’s long gone and agree we need to bite the bullet to do the ritual.

Lenata starts and Ef and Vedis pitch in as emerald green flames light the braziers as we get through the 1st two hours of the ritual. The sky begins to darken and rain begins to fall but doesn’t impede
the green flames. Over 10 minutes it builds up to tropical storm levels. Out in the water of the lake the ship that rises up out of the water looks like a Smalljammer but it’s almost twice the size.
The lines are the same, it’s a black and gold color scheme that comes up from underneath the water. Mel and I have a bit of a headache as the ship pulls up to the beach.

Kenari and all awe in its beauty as we stroke it and give it a kiss before climbing aboard the sexy beast. Lenata conveys her gratitude to the gods and the ship for its arrival.

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.

What Kenari is looking for:

Cure Disease Scrolls/Potions
Cure Poison Scrolls/Potions
Endure Elements Scrolls/Potions

Quick Freeze Oil
Mosquito Repellent
Deodorizing Agent
Stink Oil
Vermin Repellent
Scent Cloak
Beast Lure
Sunrod

Maps?
Normal compass?

So do we could find a door to Sigil and we could get home, right? Might Kaolin have a gate to the House of Seven Stars on Braal? How about a Celestian temple here for Lenatta?

Large tree village with elevators toting giant mushrooms. There is a small trade office for House 7 Stars in the capital city a mile and a half away on top of the cliffs.

Decorative adobe work and wood structures. Landing field for jammers and city extending into the gigantic tree. Not a walled city. Drew looks around for a dock master for directions and swears casually
and charismatically as an old Hadogee gives him excellent directions. Fucking A.

We go through the streets and the maj of the populations are the Gromm (gorrilla like humanoids like Hatuk). Hadogee are there, but also four armed white gorrilla large creatures (Gorralian – evil) doing
business there. A variety of small shrines / temples to a number of different space gods interspersed with larger stone/wood carved statues and altars to what look like monsters. Finn suddenly remembers
the other annoying thing about Kaolin’s homeworld. The lights keep them away, but outside the city Kaiju lurk and there are cults to the living gods. Nobody’s a virgin, right? We’re safe on the sacrifice front?
Kenari buys some good quality weed to restock her pipe stash while they walk through the markets (100gp worth), and some carved beads for her hair.

We go down 1/2 a block to find the 7 Stars Trade Office with an older balding human guy with a Van Dyke in posh swashbuckling garb with his feet up on the counter playing cards with an elderly 1 armed Hadogee
and drinking a big jug of ale. Kenari sees that they’re cheating to help each other play (playing just for fun). We walk in and Finn throws a gold down and says “Deal me in” as Etsuriko face palms.
Their eyes go wide as they look up and one stands up. “Hey boss lady, nobody told me you were coming. Want a drink?” Finn palms the top 5 cards off the discard pile while they’re not looking.

Killroy’s Folly will be through in about 3 weeks? Yeah, I know you’ve got an emergency scroll or something around. Let me see if I can figure out where Wilhelm put it. The Hadogee gradually scoots back and drinks
to get away from Etsuriko. Hey Wilhelm, what did you do with all the Project Bugbite stuff? I’ve got a Message scroll with the home office. Etsuriko lectures Finn on using his authority to get people
to come get us quicker than a ship. Dude tells us portals don’t work due to the magic that keeps the Kaiju away.

We need to get lodging and bill to the trade office while they work something out, and therefore we can look for what’s necessary for the ritual. Lenata and Kenari head to a Traveller Shrine while Vedis
goes shopping for magic items. Weapons made from obsidian and carved volcanic glass. Ef looks to get supplies and lodging while Finn looks for the best place around to stay.

Lenata communes with her god and asks questions while Kenari lays out some items at the altar: sunrod, sparker, and some candles.

No portal to Braal
Can we find everything we need for the ritual within this city? No
Can we find everything on this continent? Yes
Will a smalljammer be able to land safely here? Yes
Can we stop the entities trying to cockblock us? Unclear.
Is there a portal to the Illithid homeworld? no
Citadel of the Planes entrance within the Triad but not on this sphere.

Shopping List: Quick Freeze Oil, Mosquito Repellent, Deoderizing Agent, Baby Powder, Stink Oil, Vermin Repellent, Scent Cloak

Cure Disease and Cure Poison? Available, reduce the price by 10%

Ritual Ingredients:

The Tattoos
Circuitry that Finn has
Etsuriko “One who has heard the voice”
1,000 gp perfectly clear chunk of amber

Ritual Location: The Face of Jira – the big god Kaiju – Holy site 200miles from here in the Hoohaka Mountains. Would the Cult know the best way to get there?

Message sent to 7 stars base: Message relayed, Finn request forwarded to Anya, will advise with more info when we can.

We go to the inn and call it a night when things get interesting. We find ourselves in the Dreaming walking through a heavy mist when we slowly see other figs appearing around us. Except for Ef who is Dream Scarred and can’t dream as he snores away.
Vedis is slightly glowing. As we walk through the mist ahead of us is a ruby colored light. Aren’t red lights usually bad? – Kenari Not always – Vedis
No sound other than when we talk to each other. If this is a dream, can’t we make what we want happen? – Kenari

Finn imagines a rock and then throws it at the red light as it disappears into the mist. Vedis hears a sqwak of a gleaming eyed crow as it looks at us and then flies towards the red. I think we need to follow it?
After time the mist opens into a clearing as solid ground appears under our feet – 30 ft circle – cliff like mountainous terrain. Unadorned except for a single worked stone colum with a ruby the size of a round shield on top.
The raven flies and lands on Vedis shoulder and tugs on her hair. It caws at the column and flies off.

Finn manifests a rope connecting all of us. Kenari investigates the column and sees that it’s Dragon Stuff. Holy site to Sartior the God of Dragons (ala Vedis’ sword). TN His realm is said to travel.
The column is massively psionic. Vedis touches it to see if she can manipulate it. It’s not a PsiCrystal but when she touches it the ruby emits more light and shows a shifting pattern.

Vedis sees: The patterns reveal a face with features shifting and settle down into a Raven. The area behind it roils and smokes and the raven flies forward and it’s wings drive the mist away like
parting curtains. WILL SAVE. She overcomes the awe as she sees the image of a perfect gigantic dragon of glowing ruby that turns and glares at her with a non-verbal feeling of “Hey you did it -about time!”

Everyone: The patterns change and in Draconic a phrase rings out telepathically “Rule of Three” we see figures appear 3 at a time – Celestian, Lavalos Aneroth (Elven G of Time) and Desna.
The second three: Sehkmet, Azmodeus, and Iseus the Goddess of Fate
The third three: Lady of Pain, a gigantic serpent, and The Spelljammer

And then it gets more interesting…

Another image of three: Mordenkainan the Mage, Estevan from the Planar Consortium, and a weird image of a black monolith with glowing lights projecting a major image that shifts and change
Another trio: Ecladra the personal assistant of Lloth, Large Luigi the Beholder, and a Mind Flayer kitted out in a wizard style holding a decanter of bubbling brownish liquid

Telepathic contact: “Those are the guardians.”

As we ask what of, we get the image of Geiger mindflayer shit as we wake up startled and Vedis with the weird feeling that she’s working for the dragon now.

ADD A HERO POINT

Dudes dressed in light gray jumpsuits with belts and gadgets and heavy boots. One is obviously human, one is half-orc. Entire group turns on the androids at once and the androids bolt.

Kenari lifts the gun and says “It’s mine, I found it, I’m keeping it. Do I need to test it?”

“That’s them,” dude says. “Where’s the lawyer?” Finn introduces himself and picks up another gun.

Vedis – Hello who are you looking for now?

Dude – Not who, what. We’ll be in trouble if we stick around. – He pulls out a rectangular thing with lights on it and waves it around at us (scanner).

Vedis waves around the compass in parody as they joke about antiques. We need to leave as a giant fireball is going to land here soon.

Finn searches bodies for ammo for guns. (2 batteries for Finn and Kenari) – Time Worn Plasma Guns, roll required for use. Kenari – 5 charges / Drew – 2 charges / Batteries – 6 charges

Malfunction roll – last charge used, attack rolls, natural ones, or if it’s in your hand when you take a critical hit

He checks our tatoos before we all gather in a circle and he twists a device that teleports us. Vedis and Finn get sick.
Kenari – You have to use machines to do this? No wonder it felt like shit. (squad lady gives us the side eye)

Kenari – We seem to have shifted to another alternate reality when they moved us.

Dude – Multiverse 16 notation. Mentions Mortinkiainan the Wizard. You’ve popped on our radar because if you’re fighting the Illithids, and because you’re basically invisible to our means of detection.
We can only track you based on the ripples in time after what you’ve done. We’re fighting the same sort of fight, but in a lot more places than you’ve realzied, and we’re losing.

He throws up a holo image of NeoTokyo kind of place (alt 119) with super heroes. Then shows it after the Illithids collapsed the quantum wave and it looks like it’s drawn by HR Geiger.

Maj. Ernest Thomas, Dept Seven, Project Javelin.

That sphere is a piece of Illithid equipment that they can use to “throw a wrench into the works.”

Vedis explains how we used it and it needs to be recharged. Apparently that won’t be an issue. If we give you this thing, can you take us back to our Prime 19 and our ships?

Dude – They caught our trace, we need to move again. Ef – How do I get one of those? Dude – Ah the D-Hopper, we can discuss that later.

We’re now in a jungle area. 40 ft tall red skinned humanoid with bat wings flying in the background.

Ef – Other than the rock, what do you want?

Major – We’re unstrung from Fate. Harder to track when not on our alternate.

Lenata – Are you guys casters? Not exactly. They warp more like Leodette (Spheres of Power character that burns spell abilities).

Major – Vast majority of chronomancers have been taken from Prime 19 into a battery pack/sledgehammer to mess with the time line.

Kenari – Ah yeah, that’s what I saw in the Barrier Peaks.

Major – There are 3 chronomancers left. Leodette would be one of them.

Ef – So we need to find the other two?

Major – Useful, but there’s other things to do. Looks like we need to get out of here.

Two extra tall Illithids show up and in front of them with metal collars are a phallanx of humans with auto rifles who start shooting as we phase out.

Vedis gets grazed for 12 and Etsuriko for 8 damage.

Lenata hands the Major the sphere. He draws a tuning fork with bluish chrome out and pings it and puts it against the sphere. It crackles with blue electricity and disintigrates and the sphere is charged.

This is what we need to reverse engineer some things. This is the core of a probability drive that they use when not using their inate abilities. This will be a game changer.

Kenari – So what do we need to do now? Just keep continuing to cause trouble and distractions?

Major – Yes and no…we can help though. I see you haven’t figured out the tattoos yet? We have some info that might prove useful. I see you still have the child from Oeddertchonk with you (he scratches
the Skittermander on the head). This one’s about two. They mature around six. About one of your months short but years basically equivilent.

I’ve spent some time on your side so…. Rule of Three, right? You all, the favored of the Jammer, you can call a Young One. Finn – You can interface with Illithid tech. Etsuriko – You’re one of few
who have heard the Lady of Pain speak. You all should be able to manifest transport. The Spelljammer has many children.

You all are getting “cock blocked” by people messing with the time stream. The people with the green cloaks are Prime 19’s Time Wardens.

I should be able to put some tools to use at your discretion and get you all back home. First we’re going to make our way back to My world (half-orc). We’ll get you some info and a Priming Ritual for your
tattoos. We port again.

We come out on the other side and the street is moderately populated with bldgs in the same places but different. More of a 1950s Brooklyn feel. As we appear the caster girl creates an illusion that changes
our clothes so we look like appropriate street clothes. Kenari is the only one who gets a slightly off look (dressed like a hippy).

We head to a storage building – whispered convo with a desk jocky – the windows dim and he points us through a doorway with lights. Lenata asks about it and he says that’s a Bioscanner. WE NEED ONE!
Let me report in and we’ll get you some gear and home. Them – Have much info will you share with us? Us – How much time you’ve got?

Thai food and cheeseburgers? How about some more ale in cans like we had back at the X-crawl?

We can’t afford to have an alternate as close as yours is to ours fall. The breakdown of the Divine Compact should worry you all then. It proceeds sentient races way back in the primordial era. It’s a pact
of various gods to not step-in to use avatars directly against other followers. It must always be through agents.

We are given a short ritual (3 rounds and high Spellcraft checks) to try and call a Smalljammer.

He hands Vedis a leather satches with 6 potion vials – 3 of one color and 3 of another as he whispers in her ear. “We heard about what happened with Finn.”

3 Blue – Potions of Vehicle Handling

3 Amber – Potions of Mechanical Aptitude. (+5 tech bonus)

He pulls out a RING. Give this to one of your point people. +5 to identify scrying tech. (Kenari)

STAMPS OF DELIVERY (6) – If you have an accurate address, package up to 5 lbs. lick the stamp and stick it to it. Step back and it will appear at the address.

Celestian – Legolas Sinerath – Desna (Blue Butterfly) – Rule of Three – Gods who are on our side.

Given a copy of a Detect Abboration spell – Cloakers, Beholders, Illithids, etc. WE NEED THESE ON GLASSES. Ef tries the spell and Vedis half glows as she’s the abberant subtype.

Ours is one of 5 key realities. We fall, and everything else falls. What are the other four?

Aerth – Earth 13
Earth – Earth Prime
Oerth – Earth 19 – Us
Uerth – Earth 7 – birth of Ravenloft, Finn stole a car
Yarth – Earth 23
_{~
X-Crawl – Earth 5
~}

We’ve been able to identify a number of factions within the Illithids themselves:

Thoon – outcast cultists – bigger Illithids who went to the Far Realm and came back changed.
Tamers –
Nourishers –
Lore Takers -

Time Wardens – Green Cloaks that help us
Time Reavers – will fuck us over

They take us down to a lab full of equipment and use it to send us back….

We appear on the top of a cliff that drops off on our right to truly massive trees. Ahead of us rises a city built of stone and the branches extend over it.

Etsuriko and Finn realize where we are – The Hadogee Homeworld.

Tavist the Dragon attacks a Brain Golem. Golem misses Taj and slips on tadpole water and falls prone. I try to transpose a golem into the pool but fail. Brain golem that falls pops like a zit and splashes
over Taj and Estiteria as Leodette ducks behind the machine tubes. I dimension door and then teleport Tavist beyond the Force Wall that the more powerful golem put up as we switch places.

Tavist the Dragon grapples with the Illithid and is attacked by the Illithids armor, but it doesn’t effect him since it’s electric. The Illithid then disappears in a purple puff.
Taj’s husband slashes the brain golem as Estiteria trips it with her scorpion whip. Leodette casts Warp Edge on Quatar’s weapons. Atheron casts Acid Splash on the Brain Golem attacking Torgyr. Marmut kills
off the Brain Golem with Magic Missiles.

A Large Brain Golem appears next to Tavist.

Torgyr flies over the pool and notices something moving and gathering together into the pool.

Taj uses True Strike and hits the brain golem with Disintegrate that causes it to poof into nonexistence.

An even larger Brain Golem made out of half-dead tadpoles arrises from the pool.

Tavist the Dragon throws the other Brain Golem into the pool. Kenari teleports back to cover of the tubes as Estiteria continues her Bard Song and shoots the golem with her blast pistol bracelet thingie. “Oooooo!” (Kenari)

Leodette casts Improved Haste on Quatar as she feels a strange temporal vibration all around her and announces it.

Tavist the Dragon is knocked unconscious by the large brain golem Mind Blast and transforms back. Torgyr is knocked unconscious and lands into the water of the pool.
Taj uses a Hero Point and casts Greater Dispel Magic on the Huge Brain Golem. Chunks of it start rotting and falling off of it in big chunks, effing it up pretty bad.

Dinya attempts to hook Torgyr with her Guisarme to pull him out of the pool and ends up spearing him in the leg as she used her Smite Chaos to make sure she latched on.

Kenari moves to observe the other Illithid. Taller and thinner with armor like Falak 13. It has a fancy pistol as a sidearm and is carrying a fist sized crystal in one hand.

Atheron casts Glitter Dust on the Giant Brain Golem and Marmut casts an Electricity Ray on it.

Estiteria shoots a golem with her blaster again.

Leodette feels the time vibration again and can tell that the brain golems take notice. She taps into the energy and can tell that time/space is being reshuffled. She gets a momentary vision
of being out in the flow and all of it is BURNING. It feels like big things are clicking into place and not good things. She tries to manipulate the energy but fails (1) as her eyes glow violet and
an arc of energy throws her back unconscious as she fades out of view and then fades back.

Atheron casts Web to try and entangle the two brain golems. Marmut casts Magic Missile on the golems.

We feel a physical vibration going through the decks as time static radiates out.

Torgyr casts Burst of Radiance on the remaining Illithid who is Dazzled for a round.

Taj thinks the tadpole pool is like an Illithid Helm and casts Disintegrate at the object sparking at the bottom. A booming sound as a large geyser explodes up from the bottom of the pool and knocks the Huge
Brain Golem over splashing everyone. There’s a moment of silence then the lights go down red and the pool begins to boil, filling the room with steam. All of the Psionics have to make Will Saves.
Taj babbles incoherently as Quatar freaks out and attacks Taj.

Atheron summons Air Elementals. Marmut gets out his Long Bow and attacks the Brain Golem before switching to his Crossbow.

The smaller Brain Golem attempts to attack Dinya with his fists but is webbed. Estiteria shoots the brain golem again as Torgyr flies down to the remaining Illithid.
Dinya attempts to attack the Brain Golems but loses her weapon in the webbing.
Tavist casts Invisibility and flies down toward the Illithid. Kenari flicker steps to the Illithid and steals the gem out of his hands while he’s Dazzled.

Tavist flies up at the Illithd and uses his Starwheel Pistol w/ True Strike.

“WHY WON’T YOU JUST DIE!” Estiteria shoots the golem again as the webs catch fire.

The smaller golem collapses to its knees in the boiling pool. The large one is taking damage and begins to wobble and glow.
Marmut drags Itharion and Aphosso out the door as Leodetta warps Estiteria, Taj and Quatar over by the door.

Torgyr casts River of Wind against the illithid that knocks it prone. Taj casts Disintegrate on the prone Illithid taking out it’s right arm and leg.

Dinya attempts to get her weapon back out of the webbing.

Leodette feels a surge like time has jumped 20 minutes or so. She gets a weird sensation of something “arriving.”

Taj and Quatar are teleported by “Tanyet” as it says “You are needed NOW!”

Torgyr hears the sound of a pressurized pod opening as Falak 3 sounds like they’re done!

A figure appears in black hood and cloak by Estiteria and the rest. The figure seems to be flickering back and forth between human and Illithid.

A figure steps out of the steam and looks at Torgyr. It’s humanoid/female with circuit patterns glowing. “I’m glad you’ve survived this far.” – Falak IV

Kenari and Tavist fade out back to their time as she yells out to Estiteria “Write me!”

-14 HP / – 2 Travel Points / 4 Flicker Steps – KENARI

Area I: II

20 Lenata
16 Vedis
13 Ef Utan
13 Etsuriko
11 Kenari
6 Fire Giant 85
5 Finn

Ef Utan – 5 min left of fly; frostband sundered and destroyed
Etsuriko – one fan destroyed, one -5 hp
Kenari – pirced through and thrown to the other side of the giant from the rest of the party.

We pick up next game at the top of round four of combat.

Taj and Tavist disappear along with two Mind Flayers. Down to 1 Brain Golem and 2 Mind Flayers (one slightly larger).

Etsuriko attacks the Brain Golem three times and disembowls the Brain Golem. Will saves required as Mind Flayers attack – Lenata ok, Etsuriko ok Ef ok Vedis ok Melchior ok (3 hp dmg and Shaken)
Vedis uses Dazzling Blade Discharge and attacks Mind Flayer with Sardier’s Fang and Mind Blade off-weapon. One of the Mind Flayers is Blinded as Ef takes an Attack of Opportunity with his Flame Tongue.
Vedis smacks the Mind Flayer multiple times and discharges a psychic strike. Melchior shoots at the damaged one multiple times and blows away it’s shoulder. Lenata attacks the damaged one with her
Spiritual Weapon. Ef attacks the damaged Mind Flayer with Flame Tongue and Adamantium Dagger that crits the Mind Flayer and throws him back 20 ft as it squishes against the wall and dies.

Will saves again – Ef ok Len ok Mel no (unconscious) Vedis no (unconscious) Etsuriko ok (3hp dmg – Shaken)

Mind Flayer casts Chain Lightning on Melchior that hits Ef Utan.

—

Finn and Kenari set 3/5 charges so far and haven’t seen anything outside on the hull. We get the feeling that we’re being watched, however. As we’re sneaking by we peer through one of the windows and there’s a row of cells with figures in them.
A blonde with glasses in a jumpsuit in one of the cells.

Off in the distance Finn sees space combat and a trio of Elven Warbirds against a phalanx of Illithid nautiloids. Finn tries to send it via message but it’s no longer in effect.
We’ll be done with the charges in two rounds.

—

Tavis and Taj are in a spherical room somewhere briefly before she tries to redirect it but ends up back in the room. Tavist sees a trap door and the remains of a scorch mark on the floor. From a laser pistol, or some other technology.
Tavist checks the door for traps (no) but it’s locked and he disables the thought trigger as it irises open and a ladder goes down to a platform with a rail – Tavist activates the plaform that drops slowly
to a large hallway with bubble chambers, many of them empty, but 5-6 of them still inabited extending about 80’. The deeper they get into the ship the warmer and more humid it gets. Taj checks them out but
it looks more like holding cells than life pods.

—

Etsuriko attacks the Brain Golem with bare fists. Vedis uses a HERO POINT to wake up and Inflicts Pain against the Mind Flayer.
Lenata – “Close your eyes!” She casts Burst of Radiance that blinds the Mind Flayer for one round.
The remaining Illithid pops out as Etsuriko attacks the remaining Brain Golem and pummels it into pudding.
Melchior wakes up. “Ouch!”

Vedis goes to the door and tries to find a way to open it.
—

We finish setting the charges and move toward the balcony and find the rest of the group.

—

Taj tries to Message Finn and Vedis – We’re fine but lower down. We’ll rendevou at where we think the Elder Brain might be.

—

Vedis checks the door. Looks like a Psionic Lock. I open the lock and the doors open to an almost waist high wall of mammals/rats with exposed brains swarm into the room.
Kenari drops an Alchemist Fire and Dimension Doors back up to the balcony. Will saves – Vedis is down again. Mind Blast as the Cranial Rats attack.
Ef casts Fireball and Lenata casts Diamond Spray.

Finn tries to climbs up to the balcony with Kenari and Etsuriko but fails, so he lays down some fire between him and the swarm.
Melchior barely claws his way up to the balcony. Kenari lowers a rope down for Finn and Lenata and Vedis who take damage from rat bites.
Vedis Ghost Steps up to the balcony. “Nope!” and then uses a Fire Energy Push against the swarm.

Etsuriko checks our perimiter to make sure we’re not being snuck up on. As she looks out she hears the crack of the bombs going off. The forward bunch of tentacles snap off and the ship lurches.
Finn and Lenata fall on their asses as everyone else keeps their feet. The lighting in the room switches to dark maroon light. Ef activates his Fly spell and moves outside the door into a larger chamber.
Lenata casts fly to follow Ef. Finn climbs up the rope to the balcony. Melchior drinks a healing potion.

—

Taj and Tavist – They get to another sealed doorway. Smaller chamber 20’ round with a single pod here. Skinny human with blonde hair and glasses and a jumpsuit.
Tavist slams his fist against the pod. “Who are you?” Dude is out cold. Tavist disables the pod to open it up. A patch of wall opens up to a drawer 6 ft wide.
Tavist finds a device that looks like a weapon with a coil and a backback style straps to it. “Of course I take the thing!” He picks up the guy and throws him over his shoulder.

Taj tells Finn where they are and Kenari says “Hey, I know where that is! Let’s go on the outside of the hull and get to them!”

Tavist shoots the window/bubble with his laser pistol but it doesn’t go through.

Kenari leads the others to where she saw the bubble with the blonde guy.

—

Ef and Lenata see no end to the rats as they enter from multiple points. They fly back into the room and see everyone gone. As they’re about to fly up through the hole when a massive cloud of jaws forms around
them and does 20 pts dmg.

We head to Tears of Selune to meet up with Taj and the fleet that she can gather and plan.

A Landing Party for teleporting outside the hull of the ship, planting bombs, and breaking into the Dreadnaught.

Six Ships to coordinate an attack.

*BUFFS:

Cat’s Grace +4
Bull’s Strength +4
Protection From Evil +2 resistance bonus to saves and +2 deflection bonus to AC
Owl’s Wisdom +4
Bless +1 morale bonus and save vs Fear
Weapons Against Evil – ignore DR of evil creatures (9 rounds)
Shield +4 AC
Communal Non-Detection
Battlemind – Taj and Tavist
Dazzling Blades
Unlimited Ammo and Reloading Hands on Melchior

Invisibility for 14 minutes (Finn and Kenari)
Taj has message open with Finn*

The ships start their attack as we come in around the sun and we teleport over in our separate groups.

Finn and I come in on the bottom of the ship and work our way towards the tentacles to place the bombs.

The rest of the group attempts to teleport to the balcony / bridge area. Tavist casts lightning bolt on the thick red glass of the balcony that shatters and they land on the floor of the bridge. Large double doors and lumbering through it 14 ft tall is a large bipedal brain golem.

Will saves required as the golem attacks.
Taj attempts a disintegrate that fails.
Melchior shoots it and Etsuriko carves at it with her blades.
Tavist casts Lightning Bolt that fries it into a pile of goo.

Another one walks through the doors at the far end of the room as Etsuriko attacks it 3 times. Yet another one walks through the doors.

Vedis throws mind blades and accidentally ports next to the golem (blade fail) as she crits with fire damage with another blade.
Brain goo splashes over Vedis as Melchior shoots it repeatedly and it dissolves.

Ef casts Diamond Spray on the third golem.
Lenata strikes with the spiritual weapon again that eruptts with fire when it attacks it.

Four Mind Flayers come floating in the doorway – Taj and Tavist make reflex saves as one turns toward him and two turn towards her with flashlight things that port Taj away while Tavist resists. “You bastard you left me!”

Finn and Kenari – place the first bomb and the second one outside the hull near the tentacles and remain undetected.

Vedis thinks we’re being set up on a wild goose chase. Ef and Kenari ask around. The Egyptians seem legitimately sincere. One of Ef’s alternates was a famous tomb raider. One of Kenari’s alternates was a High Priestess of Bast before she died fighting the tentacle Ilithids.
Etsuriko thinks the death of a God would be a big energy boost for whatever the Illithids want to do, and maybe they want to do it at the Citadel of the Planes? Lenata does a check of the crews and doesn’t detect any Illithid infections.
Etsuriko’s alternate is a fighting instructor/sharpshooter.

The Illithid God took out Ra and left Osiris with his hands full, leaving Horus leading the pantheon. Ra was poisoned by a dominated demigod in his court (info doesn’t appear in our Oerth religion). The only thing that could’ve stood in his way was the Fatebonded, but sadly their ship was destroyed by the time they
made it into the system by Nautioloids.

We’re sitting down for dinner when the Egyptian leader says we’re in the right place. I was told there’s one way to prove that we’re legit and our info is good. He looks at Etsuriko and
pulls out a highball glass and pours some smoky whiskey into it. Pulls out a parchment envelope and pulls out a tuft of orange fur and drops it in the shot. A Hero’s Drink? Etsuriko sighs, says Finn’s in
charge of the ship, and drinks it. Vedis says it’s Hadogee fur?

Etsuriko says Kaolin sent them. She’s not a Saint. Any saint you have to brush vomit out of their fur is no saint. Finn slaps her on the back and Etsuriko elbows him in the ribs as she drinks it.

A catfolk loses a bet with the Egyptian as he says “By the gods she was right, she actually drank it!”

We’re 4-weeks to Torril.

Kenari studies the Bearnaloth Poison. They predate all the other fiends, deep into the abyss before all others. Massive, unique and incredibly powerful, considered myth by many. From the Primordial past.

The demigod was Konshu the lunar god of vengeance. (ala Moon Knight). Finn claims that was his alternate and everyone laughs.

Nearest Temple of Ra would be Mulhorand back home as we strive to keep the Avatars of Ra alive.

We’re at the edge of Realmspace and we can now access our bags and smoke again.

ATTENTION 7 STARS – our outposts are under attack. In the meantime the Greyspace offices and properties on the Rock of Braal and the associated Harrowing have all been under direct attack. BE WARNED.
At least one Nautiloid has breeched the harowing. (from one of Taj’s secretaries)

We decide to take the Nomad to save the Harrowing and the other ships will meet us at Mulhorand. We enter the HArrowing with the Nomad and I see a number of buildings around the theater and circus
with a lot of smoke rising. No other ships in the sky. 3 /4 of a mile closer to the town by the river is the Walking Castle. The docks seem mostly devoid of people but there’s the motion of people out in
the distance. Don’t see any mindflayers or mindflayer ships.

Lenata sends a message to Hatuk. Hatuk – there was an attack. Most of us are fine, still putting the pieces together. Currently manning the castle. The Nautiloid left hours ago.

We decide to leave Melchior with the Nomad but first go to check out the Walking Castle to make sure everything is ok. Five figures are gagged and bound with Hatuk and Gheldaneth freed slaves with weapons.
Some of the siege weapons are destroyed.

Vedis gets a status report from Hatuk. We’d just gotten back from Gheldaneth when they came from out over the desert and people started dropping like flies. We got a few good hits on them with the castle before they stopped over
the sanguine theater for a while and then took off over the desert. What did they want with the theater? One of the new recruits did a good job and managed to identify them as being under a form of compulsion (some of Kenari’s followers).
This may be how they figured out how to get in. I’m betting we know who is pulling the stings of these puppets. Our new guy found them out. A Male Catfolk. Anak the Claw of Bast from the Rock of Braal (Favored Soul/Oracle). He’s got black fur and a white fur birth mark.
Is this the apprentice they spoke of?

Hatuk – I think we know what they were here for. It was brought to our attention that there was someone escaping the temple of Isis and we were under instructions to help any Chronomancers. This one… he pulls out a scoll and hands it to Vedis.
She opens it up and sees in her own handwriting and signature – “Dear Vedis, Don’t lose these guys, they’re more important than they seem. I can’t write more. Love Vedis XXOO”

Evidentally they’re now gone. We got them out with the slaves, but a female, tall, red hair and a a red robed guy with tattoos all over his head (red wizard) and a weird sparkly Dwarf. CHRONOMANCERS.

We need to create an Immigration Checkpoint to scan incomers for mind control or infection. Will write up a plan for followers and send to Loki.

“Melchior with a big gun with a cask labeled Old Trolls Piss doing the Captain Morgan pose”

There are a lot of unfamiliar faces from Seven Stars helping organize.

Lenata attempts to see if she can scry the redheaded chronomancer that we met, but doesn’t get anything.

We leave Hatuk and others to take care of things and head through the portal to Gheldaneth as we leave Melchior with The Nomad. As I walk up to the door from the basement I find four traps on this side of Egyptian make.
I listen at the door and hear murmered conversation – a pair of voices bickering over the costs of silks imported from Shou Long. It becomes quiet and I crack open the door to check. I introduce myself and she bows and
offers to make clothing for us to fit in. I offer her some silver for her kids. We get a fake collar for Vedis so she and I can be the servants of Lenata.

We form up our entourage and head out into the city – Ef and Etsuriko make reflex saves – and nimbly avoid getting run over and hold us off from traffic. Trio of chariots – Out of the way, peasants!
Lenata creates an illusion of a wall in front of the chariots and causes them to stop up short. The call for the city guard rings out as Kenari ushers everyone to get a move on! We head past the temple of Isis and the Temple of Bast to the mercantile district.

We get to the Temple of Ra – It’s only 1 in the afternoon so why does it seem like it’s getting dim outside? Something is happening to the sun…. I think this is bad. The temple is about to close when the priest steps up with credentials. Kenari steps up to smooth the way
and we get in through the gate. They escort us in to a room full of squabbling priests. Our priest steps into the conversation. We can stay but they are freaked out. The oracles of the temple are going to try some ritual divination to see what’s going on.

I get this weird feeling as the ritual commences – I get a momentary image of the “apprentice” – the Tiefling from the Wheel of Fortune

Bits and flashes of the ritual through the smoke – momentary image of Ra with the Ankh Staff – violent images and reddish smoke – Kenari picks up on an image out in space of a Sun and a massive mind flayer
dreadnaught just off of the side and a vaguely purplish energy going from the ship to the sun – pattern of stars is Realmspace!

01/14/22 GAME NOTES

Vedis/Nomad attacks Naut #1 and everyone but her is affected by a fear effect.

The Serenity gets rammed by Naut #3. Valis attacks Naut #2. Human fighters coming out of Nautiloid #3 to attack Serenity.

A large shockwave from the Spelljammer pushing the ships back as Naut #1 is destroyed.

Taj/Serenity fires and takes out the lead siege weapon of Naut #3.

Purple light shines out of windows of Naut 2 as EIN ship pulls back fast.

Large shockwave as more nautiloids go boom and the human fighters drop like puppets with cut strings.

Fear effects fade away after battle ends and Kenari teleports over to the EIN armada ship that got messed up to try and help people.

Acrid vapor and smashed walls and a good 3rd of the ship is gone on the EIN. Kenari runs to aid survivors and one blows a whistle to set off an alarm. Kenari convinces them she’s there to help and heals and teleports the worse off over to the other ships.

Taj finds and tries to communicate with prisoners and get some off the ship.

Lenata teleports over to help with the wounded EIN as Takero pilots the ship she left.

We argue about reconditioning Illithid ships and the tadpole pools that pilot them. “Mammas don’t let your tadpoles grow up to be Illithids” song.

Ef Vedis and Lenata dump a Hero Point into their Spelljoined Tattoo and a holographic image pops up of images of us dressed very sci-fi, and Illithids and one dressed oddly in a suit with a tall white collar but all in black and a small wand (Illithid Priest) in a tunnel like a brick lined sewer.The redheaded chronomancer’s face, and then something that might be going on now: a scene in the Harrowing – the people in the town and New Gheldaneth are hiding from the Nautiloid that’s currently in the demiplane.

The last image is a bald headed black guy in stylized Jack Kirby armor with a goatee mowing down four Illithids with some kind of weapon.

THE SPELLJAMMER shows up with a pod of space whales, as well as one of the Seven Stars flag ship vessels.
Taj interrogates the crew to ask about the whereabouts of Falkirk as Kenari prepares to search more rooms.
Vedas wants to get on the Spelljammer but Lenata cautions against it as no one as ever returned from it once the enter the large gravity
well.

The Nomad gets caught up in the backwash of the Spelljammer and takes 13 hull damage and loses one of the lower level crew over the rail.

Another ship shows up, an Illithid Nautiloid, larger than usual but not Dreadnaught size.

I just manage to open another locked door and find the room is filled with stretched out sinews of a nervous system across a room rooted like a plant and twitching. I step out of the hallway and yell for attention but can’t get anybody.

Taj and Tavist teleport over to the Nautiloid command deck and doesn’t see any beings on the ship.

I go tell Vedis of the weird brain thing I found and ask her to check it out.

Five more Illithid Nautiloids show up following the vector of the Ancient Nautiloid.

Vedis intimidates the slaver crew.

I throw some acid at the weird brain thing but not much happens. Vedis finally comes to check it out. It’s dark and nasty psionic shit. nervous systems of half a dozen sentient beings turned into a battery almost. It’s all tied into the ship. She attempts to use Empathy and has to make a will save and takes 7 damage.

The Slaver ship is rocked by an attack of some kind of energy bolt. Finn sees that the attack is coming from lightning ballista on the Valis.

Kenari sets a trap in the room with the strange device to go off if someone opens the door. Vedas mind blasts the nervous system.

Lightning ballista attack hits. Ef and Vedis are unconscious as an explosive reaction the mind thrust as the nervous system disintegrates.

Taj and Tavist get onto the Valis and notice Falkirk has taken over the Valis. Tavis immediately attacks with his breath weapon., Taj uses Breath of the Black Dragon. Taj diverts Falkirk’s teleport so he ends up in front of Tavist, who does a full attack with his claws. Falkirk falls to his knees spitting blood and Tavis attempts a coup de grace attack to finish him off and guts him.

Lenata teleports Ef and Kenari teleports Vedis over to the Serenity leaving the slaver ship abandoned as it spins out of control with a blown out hull. Taj has the Valis continue destroying the slaver ship as the bomb goes off and it bursts into pieces causing a shock wave that rattles the other ships.

Finn and Melchior fire their ship weapons at Nautiloid #5.

“Really? Him>? You called HIM sir?” – Ef
“He pays more of my checks” – Finn

Taj – I require more information now. We fill them in. Taj suggests going over their delivery notes to try and track them down. We discuss theories while they look over the paperwork.

Endpoint in the Refuge System. A page of the Captain’s Journal radiates magic while the Xixchill checks it out. Columns of numbers and bills of lading for large amounts of exotic materials, mineral salts, etc. Lots of stuff she has in her biolab.

“Extraordinary rewards for anyone who runs across or brings in anyone who dabbles in time magic.” She tells their staff to transmit an alert to all 7 Stars offices that we’re offering all chronomancers refuge and safety.

We discuss plans to disguise ourselves as the other crew and follow the route. Finn pipes up and I hand him a brush and tell him to brush my tail as the adults talk. (BURN)

Dis, River Styx, Arboria, 5 -6 other places have doors to the Citadel of the Planes. Highly conflicted info though. Every room is someplace else. The OTHER Vedis had a key to the Citadel, didn’t they? Where’s the key? Lenata
could ask the Plane where the door was.

Flashback to Communicating With Dead to get answers from the Other Vedis about the Citadel of the Planes and the key he had.

3 inches behind the wooden seahorse. – where is the key – on the headboard in the captain’s bed – found a psionic trap that I disable. Open to find a small iron key 2-3 inches long. I take the key and poof back to the group.

where were the pods being delivered? -Tears of Selune in Realmspace.

How do we contact your delivery source? – Stationary orbit around the leading edge of the Trailing Tears.

Vedis ceremonially burns the other captain and Kenari scoffs “Sure, she sets a fire on the ship and it’s a ritual!” XD

We talk about Vedis and her Maenad Ritual Looting upon death and Kenari makes notes “Tell people it’s part of my religion…” XD

Flashback over, I describe the weird sphere that I saw in the Armory and ask if she can tell anything about it. Kenari theorizes… if it’s not magical or psionic, how was it so dangerous? Perhaps
it was the casing of the bomb for those radioactive stones? Taj uses their staff to cast a Technomancy spell to try and identify it. It sounds like a privative Nuclear Device!

Taj is pissed that there’s an Illthid base in her home area. She asks for a blood sample from Sapphira and we decide to look on the other ship bridge for it. We debate with Taj and Tavist about joining us
to go after Illithid. “Working for denotes payment doesn’t it?”

We get the other sails and take our ship to go to the Tears while Taj casts Scry on Sapphira with her blood source. 14 minutes of scrying of her on the deck of a ship – Squid Ship. Hadogee in the rigging, Lenata recognizes the starfield – still in this system. Human figure with dark hair, goatee, slightly armored and smarmy figure that Tavist recognizes – Falkirk? Old acquaintance who is dangerous and nuts. Hates everyone but Tavist apparently.

Vy appears and wraps itself around Tavists left shin. She likes you! Lenata communes with the plane while Tavist fixes the ship. Taj pilots the Probe while Lenata pilots the Nomad.

Illiana passed on a message to Tavist through Taj’s nest that one of their subcontractors is on the run because amongst their number is a Chronomancer (one of the other campaigns).

08/13/2021 GAME NOTES – FRIDAY the 13th

Liquid metal scarab looking thing in the middle of the room with the tubes. Klassath checks it out and says it’s a Timerogenesis Tank that Illithids use when experimenting with their subjects. Kenari argues with the others via Message and stomps her foot as she growls. FINE! I’ll watch the ship from the docks.
Lenata takes Ef Utan shopping for magic items and scrolls as the others finish up in the bar as our counterparts leave to head back to their ship. We notice ships coming in, some Egyptian but not Mulhorand, and also some EIN ships. Arrowing class.

Vedis gets us rooms at the brothel. Finn takes up small talk with various ships (Melchior plays bodyguard) as a Seven Stars tradesman on the docks as he tries to gather information. Ef and Lenatta fake shopping while following Vendar and see him pick up his Simi on his shoulder as he disappears into an alchemist shop
before making a bee-line for their ship. Ef and Lenata try to BS the gnome alchemist to see what Vendar got but Ef fails as he doesn’t reveal client purchases. Lenata casts prestidigititation to try and look
like a Vampire and intimidate the Gnome. Spell doesn’t work though. They try just being honest about Illithids. Ef gives him the bag of 2-headed silver coins as a bribe. The gnome provides
him an ingredients list and then some complicated street directions to get to a spell shop in The Canopy.

We see stuff being carried in, pretty normal supplies, etc. Klassath notices a trio of Githyanki warriors in hunting garb and hides even more as a result. They have an animated conversation about the ship and then keep going.
I notice in the crowd a few pockets of Egyptian style people of different varieties, Two seem humans, but the third one is majority non-human. I see a figure go onto the ship and a face
that seems really familiar. A figure of a a female tiefling, tight ass. SAPPHIRA! With both hands and looking hale and hardy, and even more gothy and then heads below decks after talking to the crew boss.

Klassath follows the Githyanki as Kenari and Etsuriko argue about setting the ship on fire to alert the cops. No, don’t destroy my ship! Your ship? Not so long ago you argued against stealing it and now it’s your ship…

Ef reads the ingredients and Melchior says 1/3 of it sounds like a hangover cure.

Klassath follows the githyanki as they slip down an alleyway. He sees a “darkside candle” around the corner and a group of githyanki with their back to him and across from them are 3 other figures. One pulls the hood back and it’s a Githzari.

Githyanki want to conquer (Romulans). Githzari don’t (Vulcan). Both agree Illithid want to die however. Still very odd that they’re talking together as they hate each other only slightly less than Illithids. He sees some pale pirates as well.
They pull out a jewel and it hangs in the air as a silence spell activates. An animated discussion ensues between them and he tries to sneak closer. They are Shasalkoo (?) and ovetures from that organization to the pirates – to be successful we must
adhere to the RULE OF THREE. Pirates are interested but skeptical, but are willing to listen because the both are there pitching the idea of UNIFICATION. They mention a distubing rise of Illithid activity
in general. Klassath reveals himself and mentions the ship. They are furious at the thought. The Dockmaster is the only thing keeping them from taking it down. Klassath reveals our plan to overtake the
ship in transit. One of the warriors thinks he knows Klassath as a renegade. Anyone who opposes our Queen is a friend of mine.

• Rumors are that Falks Space has been found. There were 2 great Prime Material homeworlds for the Illithds: Penumbra and Falks Space: Starsystem of Illthid worlds.
  The planet Faragos in Falks Space is where Githyanki ancestors were born before they made slaves.*
  *******

Finn gathers info – tries to intimidate the dock worker. They’re bodies, but they’re staying on the ship! Now go away!

Ef and Lenata follow directions that end up at a hole in the ground. How bad do you want these spells, Lenata? Really bad! Ef decides to Use Magic to get TRUE directions to the shop because he’s tired
of Gnomes messing with the tall people. They get to the shop and Lenata asks for he scrolls as Ef looks around and says to the the Living Rune “If you’ll be good I’ll be good.” They’ve got the Fools
Teleport but not the Gilded Whispers one. They go to get something to eat while the scrolls get copied.

Klassath – he rejoins KEnari and Etsuriko.

Melchior wants to go shopping at the Alchemists so he can get some dust of sneezing/choking to make some nasty ammo. SUCCESS. Finn buys some alchemist fire (5) to encourage Kenari and get Etsurikos eyes off of him. He also buys a bottle of highly potent alcohol.

Vedis chills in the brothel and tries to get people to sing sea shanties with her. She’s drunkenly off key but gets some of the hookers in pirate gear to sing along with her.

Kenari and Klassath have philisophical discussions about the Athar and gods while they smoke a pipe and Etsuriko meditates with “Don’t let Kenari set anything on fire.”

~~

Next morning – We all meet at the docks to get passage on the ship. Most of the crew we see are humans or Maenads. Wait here for the captain on deck. No thanks, Kenari flicker steps up into the Crows Nest.

Simi perches on Vendar’s shoulder as he greets the group. Finn attempts to seduce the captain with alcohol in an attempt to sleep in a good room. You are aware what the Captain keeps in his room, right? (wink wink nudge nudge)

Vedis invites Vedar to lunch at Finn 3rd wheels that shit. (jokes about threesomes abound).

On the ship – A rogue Modrone wanders up the docks. I see another glimpse of Sapphira wandering around talking to crew before she goes below decks again.

We take off in the ship through the Astral Plane.

We debate how best to sneak aboard our duplicate ship to see if we need to steal it or work with our duplicates to obtain use of the ship.

Suddenly the air pressure increases and Etsuriko’s eyes roll up as she crumples onto the ground. Down the street in shadows looks like the bastard child of a cephalopod and a gorilla peeking out of the edge of a building staring at us. Finn shoots it, I port in and hit it before running out again. Lenatta casts Fireball.
Crates burst into flames. It stands up about 12ft tall like a Neanderthal Illithid as it snarls and charges with 3 ft long tentacles waving as it grabs Klassath. Melchior shoots it repeatedly and kills it.
Murlynd watches out for us all, whether you believe or not. Klassath – Oh I believe, I just think he’s a guy, not a god.

Will saves again as Kenari falls unconscious. Swarms of cranium rats attack. Vedis casts a cold energy push. Lenata sees a bigger, bulkier Illithid out the window of the warehouse carrying a mace and chain.
Illithid cultists of Thune, says Klassath. Klassath ports out and runs after where he thinks it went. Ef and Melchior ran after it. Finn looks around the warehouse and doesn’t see out of ordinary. I grab Lenatta
and port outside to follow them. Finn feels drained of power points as he fails a Will save. The feeling of being watched is gone.

Vedis attempts to cut the head off of the dead Illithid beast to show the authorities.

Klassath follows a Nerve Runner and attacks it with its chain and steps on it as it smokes.

Finn looks around the warehouse and finds a concealed compartment in the floor with light scripting. Since I’m not there to laugh at him he tries to open the compartment. He opens it to find not much other
than a few pieces of parchment written in archaic Elvish. Seems to be correspondence regarding Leafbower and negotiations between two unknown parties. Notes on ways back between some of the alternates with some who know the ways between the worlds: Sapphire Mage, Mordekainan of Earth, Elminster (heard on Mulhorand). Greyhawk seems to be a nexus point where you can slip between worlds with references made to The Silver Mount that lies in the Barrier Peaks.

Kenari sees that they’re gone and gets out of the rain back in the warehouse as everyone finishes their search and comes back to the warehouse. Vedis decides to march back to the docks to find
an authority she can report the illithid to. The Foreseen guards decide to come to her as she calls out to them and explains what happened. They say they’ll be caught in 15 minutes or so and takes possession
of the head as Vedis fills out forms.

The weather recedes as the time storm fades away. Finn wants to transcribe the pages, sign them, and place the copy back into the compartment. One of the Foreseen is standing behind him watching with amusement.
as Finn bluffs his way out of it. Whoever finds this in the future is going to credit me for it!

Vedis wants to find where our alternate selves went while some of us check out the ship. We walk to the dock areas to find the ship when Klassath has to make another will save. (fails- unknown reason)

Vedis has to make a will save (makes – unknown reason)

Ef and Klassath see a male maenad dressed like the captain standing on a street corner rolling dice with some unsavory half orcs and fiends. An Egyptian styled Canine female stands behind him.
Klassath reasons that they wouldn’t know him so he goes up to play dice. Ef watches behind looking for variants. Finn goes with Klassath to act like the financial backer at the dice game.
Kenari nudges Etsuriko – I think it’s just you and me again.

Male Vedis passes Vedis a drink. Klassath fakes taking a drink. Elven Absinth.

Etsuriko and I continue to the docks to check out the ship. The name is The Probe which is different. Some of the flags are there (7 stars, Oerth Home Port-Hold of the Sea Princes – Bastard Son of one of the Sea Princes)
Kenari argues the moral logic of why we need to steal the ship. You’re the one who wanted your own ship, right? Let’s at least check it out to make sure if they’re evil or not.

Conversation carries on in the dice game as male Vedis says to Klassath: “Pardon, but you might know. What are rumors about you people invading a Prime World called Faragoss?”

Klassath “No idea, I’m a bit of a black sheep with my people.”

These are stories about them laying waste to Prime kingdoms, not Illithds. Well that’s not a good thing, says Klassath. Oh yeah, some of the apocryphal legends about where we came from. It’s the mythic
world where we started before the Illithid.

Wait, what? says our Vedis while Male Vedis takes notice of her. Oh no, you’re Aunt Mitzies kid, aren’t you? I’ve been trying to get away from family. (F) Vedis offers to buy (M) Vedis a drink.
Canine Kenari (Kendar) is more Anubis styled and a stiff, formal Shifter. They don’t drink, but meals work fine. Finn BSes his way into the private room with drinks with the Vedises as she introduces him as her lawyer.

Klassath takes his gambling losses and joins Etsuriko and Kenari by the ship.

(m) Vedis is here looking for something. He pulls out a scroll and it looks like odd looking rooms. I’ve got a key, I can get in if I can find the doors. Every room of the structure exists on a different plane.
It’s on the Prime, I’ve got a key to the door, I’ve just got to find it. It’s got a room in the City of Dis. Finn knows it’s not House of 7 Stars. Doors in Shadow, Elysium, Isgard, Aboria, Abyss, Astral, Water, Carchery and the Prime.
The Citadel of the Planes according to legends. Finn has heard of it, supposedly really old (Treaty of Two Skies between the Gith people-old). Vedis informs him that Lenata can speak with the planes if
you need assistance. I’m not hurting for cash flow, so maybe we can exchange something else? What do you know of the Illithid? If we can get your assistance with transportation back to the Prime, it would be a lot faster
if we could catch a lift back to Greyhawk. Why do you want to get there anyway? He rolls up the scroll and says “I have my reasons.”

We scope out the ship when Klassath appears. The crew is predominantly Maenads apparently. I port Klassath and myself where the Captains Cabin should be. Medieval 60s guy pad. I attempt to deactivate the locked desk.
Klassath finds a secret panel in the bed post and a small door in the wall where there shouldn’t be any rooms. I unlock the desk while he checks out the bed post to find a slender wand that he leaves inside to check out the odd door.
Secret Sex Toy Stash in the dimensional footlocker.

I look through the desk and paperwork. Seems reasonably above board with trading but find a hidden door in the back of the desk. Papers rolled up tight like scrolls. Private correspondence or marching orders
- this crew are looking for the Citadel of the Planes and any information or to capture anyone experimenting with time magic. Correspondence with the Harmonium and some high profile bounty hunters.
I wonder what the Harmonium would have to do with this as Ef answers and Etsuriko theorizes that the Illithids probably took them over. Etsuriko hears voices in the hall and we port off the ship and notice that some of the crew are having a difference of opinion

with the dock staff. There’s a Cone of Silence so I flicker step over and hide as I try to read lips. There’s a disagreement about unnamed cargo that no one wants to specifically name. Oh that’s not good.
If the cargo is slaves, we’ve got some liberating to do.

Vedis and Finn make transportation deals with the (m) Vedis. check back tomorrow as we take care of cargo. We port into the cargo hold real quick. I crack a sunrod and Etsuriko sees that this is Xixchill work in the cargo hold. They’ve got 80 people in stasis being shipped
like cargo. Yup… slaves.

After Ef Utan’s fight, we decided to leave the pits. Kenari took her winnings and was able to free 10 slaves from their condition. Ef Utan is leading us back to Gertrude’s house when he notices that we are being followed by House Cavendish affiliates (you know, it’s handy that everyone here wears these house colors) and those affiliates, in turn, are being followed by a female Githyanki.

Kenari and I dimension door to the Githyanki – immediately behind her and realize that she is quick on her feet and a little twitchy. Turns out her name is Squick. As we’re talking to her, Fyn does his usual thing and loudly calls out to the Cavendish tails, inviting them for a drink at Aunt Gertrude’s house. While we walk back to Gertrude’s (if we weren’t a weird group before) Melchior gives the two Cavendish people The Good News.

I stay on the porch with Fyn and Melchior, while Fyn talks to the Cavendish crew. They tell Fyn they had just heard about us….Fyn rather adroitly points out to the these two (who may not be the brightest) that they are sitting on the front porch of their House’s primary rival. The two finally grasp the position they are in and get a little more talkative. They tell Fyn that Justin Cavendish’s favorite brothel is the The Silver Feather and he goes there a few times a week. Fyn sends them on their way with some gold and loud expressions of appreciation.

The rest of the crew talks to Squib who says that she knows we’re looking for Corbus and that she can help. She lays a map out on the table that’s marked with a route that crosses a half dozen planes. It runs from Carrigmore to Idrisil to the Plane of Shadows to the Astral. The map is burned and incomplete.

Squick is apparently a big fan of the Seven Stars and so she wants to help us. Fyn briefly talks to Squick in Githyanki. She seems surprised.

Aunt Gertrude returns to the house and Fyn starts to lay it on….I’m not really clear what he’s even trying to achieve here, but it doesn’t matter because Aunt Gertrude is apparently immune to Fyn. She slaps him briskly. And so Aunt Gertrude is one of my very favorite people. We go in to dinner and it’s a riot. Apparently everyone forgot how to behave – all at once – and in spectacular fashion. While we are dining, Squick takes it in her head to cut Fyn’s food and feed him like a baby and I just can’t help the hysterical laughter that boils out. I forget what Aunt Gertrude says – but all of a sudden Squick rears up like she’s going to try to smack her – Ef Utan (quick on his feet that guy) catches Squick’s hand – jostling the table – and Aunt Gertrude tells us “knock it off children.” So we do.

In the morning, we take our leave of Aunt Gertrude and Kenari plane shifts to the Astral plane to wait for Corbus. Squick comes with us. We arrive in the blank silver void that is the Astral and look around. Ef Utan sees a glint like off glass sort of to the west. Lenata speaks to the plane – we are about 50 miles from where we wanted to be. There are no powerful beings between us and the portal and Corbus has not arrived. We allow ourselves to fall in the right direction and eventually stop at a pool portal that leads to the Shadow plane. Ef Utan notices the glint again off in the distance. Fyn analyzes the portal and says that it is 2 way. He notes the key to it and tells us that on the other side he can see a blasted landscape with stunted, leafless trees that is all dark – just variations in shade.

We decide to wait here so we can talk to Corbus – we don’t want to trap him or get into a fight. Kenari notices the glint too and so she and I decide to investigate. I look at Fyn and tell him to STAY. We dimension door towards the glint and eventually find a humanoid figure that appears to be made of clear glass – and it creepily follows as we move about – but does not react when I touch it. Since it doesn’t seem to be any kind of a threat, we dimension door back to the group. It follows us. So that’s not creepy. The Captain thinks it’s an Observer – the kind of thing that shows up at big events. They were supposedly made by psionic gods. As the Captain checks it out – she realizes she can see how it views us – except for Melchior. For a moment, the image shifts for her and she tells us she sees wild space and asteroids that are joined by huge clear tubes and behind those asteroids are a flickering array of lights coming from unstable planar rifts leading into multiple different planes of existence. Violet starts squirming and squeaking and the vision ends.

“I’m thirsty after all that walking! Let’s check this place out!”

Lots of girls and different species running around in corsets. Humans are actually the minority around here. 3-story bar with inside balconies overlooking main area. Ef looks for dangerous types as Finn and Etsuriko look around.

They zero in on the fact that they know somebody here! 4-years ago the Void Skimmer and the Misfits. A ninja-style bar with feet up on the bar drinking. A Goth pirate, all black with black mask covering eyes and mouth. Dreads coming out the back with black shirt.

Bangles in his hair. Chained purplish metal belt. Starwheel pistol. Yellowish-mottled skin – GITHYANKI. One of the crew who brought Ozzy back from the Dark Sun world.

Finn – This seems like a more reliable source to question, let’s ask him, eh?

Kenari orders drinks while Ef gets us a table. Finn w/Etsuriko following go to talk to the Githyanki. Good sir, I seem to recognize you from past dealings. Are you willing to talk?

He kicks the stool beside him. Have a seat!As long as the holy people don’t talk to me we’re fine. Klattha, you can call me Klattha. Pardon me, I’ve been drinking.

Finn introduces himself and the 7 stars, and how we’re looking for information. He offers him back at the table. Can you help us get a private room? The bill will be on my friends. Which one? Oh all of them. I like you!

Posh meeting room arrangement, big table and posh tapestries, well liqour and munchies. 20 GP +20 GP for magical interference.

Bit of a cager, are you? From time to time. I’ve been known to pop in there from time to time. Rescue a few slaves, get gutted a few times, good times! Kenari puts her feet up and lights a pipe and passes it.

Aoskar the God of Portals? Seek the Dock Master. Missing chronomancers? Ask the Forseen. How do we contact them? Do I think of a crime and get one to show up? A roast chicken with 18 legs? Better taste like chicken.

More forms and bureaucracy? Oh yay! This is your field, Finn. Lots of black around, black plate mail, lots of skull motifs and such.

Funny you should ask that, I’m looking for a friend of mine, The Sapphire Mage. Oh I HATE those guys! That mage was nice and then he was nuts! Maybe he was implanted? It is what it is.

Knock on the door. Portly elderly halfling man with a double sized wine bottle with a 1/4 inch of dust. Delivery from the Lady? Mistress Sindona. We don’t know her… I KNOW HER. Mistress says to say this is from Casamir’s private collection and he’ll be pissed when he hears you’ve drunk it. 900 yr old bottle of Elven scotch.

I haven’t seen the Sapphire Mage in years, over a decade ago. I just heard about his disappearance. Hadn’t heard about illithid connections (grr).

I show the book to Klathha to see if he can make anything out about the Sapphire Mage Book. Illithid language mixed in with the magic formula and math. Maybe Etsuriko with her ring of scholars could read it?
She tries: odd words repeated : Quantum and Earth Prime

Could they be trying to get to this Earth PRime to try their Operation Mastermind thing again? Maybe we can get there first thanks to the Dockmaster? Says Etsuriko.

Klattha asks Finn about his Illithid circutry. What’s up with that right there?
I received this unwillingly from a nautiloid ship while battling them with the house of seven stars.

Ef can tell that Klattha is an Athar, one of the ones who believe the gods are frauds. Gods are just people with power, right? “I know I am,” says Finn. “FINN NO!” says Etsuriko.

“Have you heard the good word of Murlyn, my friend? I see the pistol you’re carrying.” I got it from a poker game, actually.

Kenari pulls out all of her guns. I’ve got this one, and this one, and this one, and this one…

Melchior tries to prosthelitize with Klathha about Murlyn and the Githyanki tells him to step off.

Come on Melchior, you can tell me all about Murlynd, Kenari says as she pats the seat next to her.

Someone mentions hamsters, and Kenari cries into her beer about Elliwinkle as she tells the story. Melchior cries in sympathy and consoles her with the emotional support Skittermander, but it happens to be grumpy tonight until it cleans the platter of leftover chicken and burps.

Klattha looks at his drink. That’s good whiskey!

Are we going out in a vampire city tonight? Well, my Wisdom is shot, that sounds like a great idea!

Snow crystals in the air outside, 10-15 degrees cooler than when we entered. No accumulation on the ground, though. Kenari marvels at the twinkling lights and pretty colors as she’d never seen snow before.

Vedis – bureaucracy takes forever… let’s just get started!

Kenari tries to taste the snow and it sends a small charge through her and makes her whiskers twitch. TINGLY!

Mostly Shadow Planetouched people around. Small slender human woman bedouin in style with just the face showing and tattoo on her forehead (eye with spheres) appears. Her eyes are rivited on Vedis. She does forehead salute and says “Good evening milady” and continues on.

We notice a symbol of Foreseen around “eyes in middle of horns” and talk to a cop on a floating rock come down to patrol shift in a white uniform. Vedis flags him down to talk. Samsarin – race that’s been reborn over and over again. Let me know the nature of your business and I’ll direct you!
He farts. I apologize, I used to be an adventurer. It’s a curse. Another fart. Kenari pulls her scarf up over her nose. You don’t want to see me if I fail a CON check when I’ve been drinking!

If there’s one person the dockmaster hangs out with, that’s Deathmaster Terrowell from the Ice Grave Enclave. Who’s that? Tourists. He points to the iceburg. She’s the head mortician. Like the Dustmen, but more engaged in this side of reality.

She hangs out in a tea house and a few markets. You didn’t hear it from me, though. The White Lotus Tea Room, to be exact. He farts again, very badly. Kenari lights a candle that flares largely from the polluted atmospehre. Twinkling lights, bad smells, Kenari doesn’t feel so good.

Let’s get some strong tea, we’ll feel better. Dirty stick water? Eh. No that’s cinnamon, says Vedis. Nasty floating spider in the corner, NO NO NO. Kenari gets a seat out on the balcony with some fresh air so she doesn’t have to look at that.

There’s a party of fey on the other side of the table. Eladrin, satyr and brownies… four different kinds of lizardmen playing knucklebones… and a leprechaun. So… what DID happen when you walked into the bar? One of the fey snorts and waves me a way as my ears ache. They gossip about minor things.

Lenata casts Zone of Silence around the table to give us privacy. Deathmaster is a Black furred catfolk going to gray, with a semi-transparent specter of a Ratfolk bartender. After an hour a mostly human reddish skinned woman dressed like the githyanki though swashbuckler with shoulderbag comes in and waves outside the zone.

Finn approaches her. How can I help you? My name is Alyssa Starbow and we need to talk business. I represent the Bookbinders and we deal in information. You passed through the docks with an unidentified rare tome of some sort and we’re interested in adding to our library.

We just want to secure the information before the Steamwalkers do as they tend to do horrible things. No offense, but as long as I keep it nobody can use it, and you’re business practices are already not trustworthy.
Ef gets the impression that she is legit. Vedis checks her Empathy – interested, eager, curious, slightly frustrated. I shake hands with her and activate my bracelet. She doesn’t seem to be lying.

Etsuriko scans the crown for undue attention. Someone seems to be staring at our table from a 2nd floor balcony across the street. Forseen robes on the logo. I could just go say Hi… Ef casts Shield on her before she goes long stepping.

What’s going on? says Klattha. Oh they just do that.

Etsuriko appears non-threatening to talk. He holds out a scroll to her and walks off. She pops back to the table and hands it to Vedis. I think he wanted us to have this.

Vedis checks out the scroll. We’re directed to meet the Master of the Docks in the Warehouse District at the Warehouses owned by the Spelljoined. Ef, when did you get a warehouse? Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey.
So that means anything in it is ours, right?

Alyssa scribbles down a teahouse down in Destiny’s Bodice. You can find me here. That’s Casamir’s old haunt, right? It rains a lot (The Rains of Casamir.)

We head to The Garter – warehouse zone. Nice, big wooden warehouse fills a single city block with a plaque – Spelljoined Offical Business Only with a bell. Finn tries the door but it doesn’t open for him. That’s because you’re not Spelljoined! Kenari opens the door and sticks her tongue out as they walk in.
Not used in a while, office, piles of wood, flickering light in the office.

Ef walks up to the office and opens the door. A skinny human Mulhorandi with a simple tunic is doodling in a ledger and scared by Ef Utan. “Really, you’re doodling in the books?” What are you doing here? I work here!

Are you one of mine? Asks Kenari. Nope… darn I was hoping. We’re the Spelljoined!

He points at Finn. You… you’re the one who died from Syphis! BWAHAHAH! That’s right, it’s been 100 years and the time docks are opening again, aren’t they. You’d been dead for 300 years!

Whose been keeping this place going, then? Do we owe back taxes?

If I remember correctly… her great grandson (points to Vedis). Who’d you have a kid with??? asks Kenari. Could be one of 3, maybe? says Vedis.

Lenata picks up the start of rain outside with a massive boom of thunder before everything shakes a bit.

I’m going to have to message my superior about this, the kid says as he leaves with a scroll tube and a pen. Finn and Kenari are curious about the warehouse contents and history as Ef goes outside to see
if anyone is here to meet us. As he does so, a figure teleports in floating above the ground, staff in hand. Dockmaster.

Massive psionic energy radiates off the guy. Bring the Rest. It’s not raining where he’s floating. Kenari shoves record books from the warehouse into her bag to read later.

We step out into the rain as Vedis opens her umbrella. We get the feeling we’re being analyzed down to the molecular level as the Dockmaster looks at us. I’ve been judged by gods before, Kenari mutters.

Good, the threads have come together. Now that you’re here, various forces including myself and your Reigar patron Tain, Mordenkainan, etc have done our best to keep you away from the Fates and Fortunes to continue to fight the Mind Flayers.

Now things have reached a fracture point and they’re breaking through everywhere. CLAP OF PURPLE LIGHTNING with a ghostly image of a purple nautiloid. Events far from now are reaching ahead. You are among the few who have a chance to stop them.
Be careful, beware, probabilities haven been juggled to get you here today. As I said, forces. The Spelljammer and the Lady are two of those. After all it is the rarest of things to actually have heard the Lady of Pain speak.

You are but one group among many. You’re going to have the opportunity to face them in arenas where you can do damage. You’ve already heard about the Alternate Realities. Yes, what about this Earth Prime can you get us there so we can stop falling behind the Illithids?

The rain is thinning… this conversation can no longer be protected. Watch each others backs. Always look for the rule of three. Lightning cracks, static fur. Freaking gods!

Three lighting strikes. Everything shakes, warehouse flickers in existence and a massive kaiju stomps through. Kaleidoscope flicker that doesn’t reset exactly to where it was before. Now the warehouse has a for sale sign on it.

The Captain, Violet, and Klassath are no longer here.

Shadows linger at the edge of the road and are unable to step on the road. We walk for a few hours as Ef scans around with Detect Magic. Ef sees a bright white light on the road approaching at a significant rate of speed down the road. It seems like a standard light spell moving quickly. Directly above it 100ft or so is a Space Shark with a weird light inside? Is it a ship? Twice the size of our ship.
Our road is roughly 100 ft across. Lenata says to huddle up and casts Sphere of Invisibility. As it passes Vedis and Etsuriko see that it’s a ship, not a creature. The light was it’s way of having a “foot on the road.”

Next break on the road – Ef spots a crack in the road. Inch or two in one edge of the road. We make camp. A glance up the road shows a trio of figures in the direction we’re headed. I dimension door down the road to get a better look.
Two males, one female, pale skin, read hair, fine features, mostly human looking, non-descript clothes. Something off like an Aasimar. Long swords and a dagger. Crystal jewelry so probably a caster type.
Vedis- sounds like Elan, psionic people. Let’s camp casual and see what happens!

They approach and hail us. They offer food if they can sit with our fire. We have a Hearthstone from the ship. Lenata casts tongues since Vedis can’t speak Elvish.
They have meats and a variety of seasons and spices with them. Where are you all hailing from? A small outpost in the plane of air off the beaten path.
Yes this is the way to Hirayata – aka the City of Seven Seraphs. It should only be a few weeks travel. A FEW WEEKS? SO LONG! Ef passes around shots of healng potion/ale.
They start talking about the city. Etsuriko, Finn and Ef Utan recognzize the tone of voice and delivery like a resident of sigil talking to a Prime.
It’s a city founded underneath a rift between the shadow and the ethereal with the city in a stable bubble in the middle. It’s the 7 seraph statues that hold back the chaos. There is pure balance there. Good for every evil, law for chaos, etc. Millions of entities.
There are also docks there from various planes as well as time periods. The ruling class is well entrenched vampires, very old. The Dockmaster is the lord of the docks district, as old as the city itself.
Illithids are banned and their thralls are not looked well upon.

Other than caravans pulled by 6-legged lizards not much happens until the “morning.” We part ways with the Elan and move forward. The space outside of the Lattice takes on a Haunted Bajou look. Shadows, moss, bats, etc.
The road has narrowed to 40 ft. Kenari takes vanguard and sees motion among the shadowy undrgrowth but nothing approaching the Lattice itself. The area outside of it is very well populated. Glimpse of a shadowy alligator, etc.
6-8 days of travel with few encounters. Occasionally other ships go by. Even the next model over from the Nomad. Big triangle of metal ship? Another 4 days out the sky seems twisted. As we get closer it resolves
more into a roiling circular ball-shaped storm cloud all silver and black in the distance. The Rift/Radia? We’re passed by others on the road. Tinker Gnomes? 4 gnomes with big green goggles and overalls come flying up the road in metal framed contraptions
belching green fire. That was awesome! I’m waiting for the explosion to happen – Lenata. What I lack in speed I make up for in style – Melchior. I should stick my thumb out next time! – Kenari

As we approach the city the air gets hot and burning. Ef puts on the face-hugger Carigmoor rebreather. Others have coughing fits and are sickened. The rest of us get acid trip level awareness.

+2 ALCHEMICAL BONUS TO WISDOM

Lenata casts Air Bubble on those who are sick and tends to them. Kenari wets her scarf and ties it around her face. The weather gets weirder as we get closer. There’s shit from the Ethereal and all sorts of stuff in the sky.

Vedis has a bit of a bad trip. There’s a lot more lightning and funny different colors in the sky as we move on. Vedis gets struck by blue lightning that arcs to the dagger and Ef’s manacles. I drop the dagger in time but Ef doesn’t. Smoke comes out of Vedis’ ears as her hair stands on end. Psionic overload as she crackles with arcs. Very Dragonball Z.
Are you OK? KEnari pokes Vedis with a non-conductive stick. Kenari’s fur stands on end as she static shocks people and laughs. Vedis shoots off some excess power points and puts on a light show.She stands on the edge of the road shooting off while out of the swamp a tentacle wraps around her ankle.
She blams it with an energy push. Bits of flesh flying everywhere as she blasts off her excess points. As if Finn puking wasn’t enough! – Etsuriko

About 40-50 miles out there’s a sudden shift in the sky. Before it was haunted feel, now to the right it looks like water with ships heading in and out. In the shadowy sky past it are spelljammer ships. Lots and lots of traffic. We hear the dim roar of the winds of the Radia.

Thunderbolts and lightning, not crazy colors anymore. Darkness intensifies. Every time lightning cracks we swear we see skulls and such as the light flashes. Melchior gets freaked out and runs down the road.
Etsuriko is psyched that we’re finally moving faster and keeps up with him. Kenari dimension doors and hooks his belt with a grappling hook. IT’S GOT ME! as Melchior scrambles away in fear.
When he realizes he can’t escape he crouches and sobs as he pulls his hat over his head as Kenari pulls him down the road. Murlynd forgive me!

Vedis calms him and Melchior cuddles Vi as his Emotional Support Skittermander. He tells it stories of Murlynd in soft tones as he strokes it.

The water gets closer and we feel like we’re on a bridge as we walk on. The road has narrowed to 30 ft and the wind has picked up as the waves splash over the road. Finn and Lenata are washed off the Latice into the water. I try to port off the Lattice but find I can’t. Finn casts Fly and drops a rope to Etsuriko as he takes a rope out to them.
Ef guts dunked by water and Vedis gets swept out into the water. Ef grabs hold of Lenata. Finn has the rope that Ef drops. I unhook Melchior and throw the rope out to Vedis and Finn swims by to grab her.
Finn swims and grabs the captain as Kenari tosses the rope w/ grappling hook near by. Big black shark with red eyes! It breaks water 15 ft behind them. 65 feet long? Ef hovers and casts lightning bolt when it pops up again, nailing it just before it gets a mouth full of the captain. I think we should keep the ropes tied to them. What do you think?

Everybody tie down with the rope like when we’re on ship!

Ef swept off, Etsuriko bangs her head and sinks. Lenata casts fly on Kenari and herself to go get them. Two forms sweep out of the clouds fast. Jet black terydactyls. Kenari just manages to get out of the way as Lenata gets raked across the back.
Vedis throws her mind blades at them and they shriek and fly off. As we get them back on the road Finn says “But even wet my outfit looks better.”

As we proceed forward we see a tunnel that seems to go through the storm. It feels weird in the tunnel as the sky is like fractured glass with each sliver showing a piece of different sky.
A massive city 20 times the size of Greyhawk. The side we come out on has a huge bay with multiple kinds of ships and vehicles. Dockyard twice the size of Greyhawk.

It’s raining again but smells faintly of lavendar. At least it smells better than Sigil! KEnari moans as she wrings out her fur.

Tunnel opens up into a circular landing like a ferry landing. Out in the water looks like a massive iceberg that looks odd – dead bodies frozen together. Even somewhat artfully arranged.
A small barge approaches and a tall dark hadogee steps out. I heard we had travellers out here. Welcome! We pay the ferryman and he takes us to the city. Architecture is very mismatched.
Floating platforms with railings and guys directing air traffic. The iceberg is their burial ground for the city. Any big rules? The usual theft and murder, etc. Rules free zones for more illegal commerce.
The Forseen are the guards that run the docks and they have a tendency to detect trouble rather quickly. Vedis asks about vampires. Hadogee laughs and turns around to show his fangs. There are numerous temples for conversion if you wish.
He sets us down at a busy dock. First time I’ve seen one where humans are a minority.

Madame Susigians is a bar for questionable companionship and answers to your questions. 25%/30% population are vampires. Melchior is not happy. Finn, you’re not thinking of conversion are you? Because you thought it pretty loud.

Winnings is enough to purchase 10 slaves to free, preferably female as Carigmoor is not a great place to be.

Ef picks up on the fact that we’re being followed by House Cavindish affiliates. They themselves are being followed by a female Githyanki with a funny looking metal hat.

He messages Etsuriko and me that we’re being followed. I suggest that Etsuriko and I teleport behind the Githyanki and battle begins.

Githyanki summons a weapon and shakes her head at us .“Don’t…”

Don’t what? We’re just here to talk, you’re the one following us. She’s wearing a mithral tinfoil hat. Does it work? I usually don’t give them a chance.

I haven’t tested yet. Do you know where they are so we can test it? Follow us and you’re sure to get that chance. Excellent!

Finn – Good sirs! (waves) I believe your’e looking for me! Don’t go anywahere! He says as the Cavindish guys decide to leave.

Shall we go somewhere more discreet where we can talk? Finn heading back to Gertrudes. Melchior wraps his arms around their shoulders and begins to preach the word of Murlynd. Have you heard the good word? He puts a glazed expression on their faces.

Ef explains family circumstances to the Githyanki. Is there anything these humans can’t do?

Servants balk abit but let us in to the estate. Finn and Melchor talk to Cavindish men (Earl and Roderick) on the porch as Etsuriko watches and rolls her eyes. Finn orders servants around to get drinks and snacks.
They’re never that respectable to me! – Ef

Cavindish men had heard about us at the fights. They’re rank and file so they have zero influence. Except now they’ve been seen on the front porch of the Sorpic House, haven’t you?

Justin Cavindish favors The Silver Feather brothel on the Western Port if you want to try to run into him. He gives them each a gold piece as he announces loudly his thanks for their help and dismisses them.

I hear you might be looking for someone and I know where you can find this person. We sweep off the table and she rolls out the map to point out her location. I try to sweep a candlestick holder into my bag as Etsuriko picks it out and sets it back again.

Map points out the route – Carigmoor → Yggdrisil → Plane of Shadow → Astral Plane → where they’ll be in 3 days.

What’s your angle? I heard you were friends of the Seven Stars and I admire this group very much. I want to work with you. It works for me, any enemy of the Mind Flayers works for me, honestly. Flattery will get you everywhere, especially with Finn.

Well met, you’re fluent in Githyanki! Fluency is a specialty of mine. Is THAT what they call it?

Any particular encounters with the Illithids to set you on the path? Or is it more of a cultural thing? It’s a cultural thing.

Finn is pretty sure she’s a Slayer and asks her. She’s had one too many hits by tentacles so she wears the hat. Drug addled and eyes bulging, Kenari passes her the bowl to takes the edge off. She appreciates the hospitality.

I offer to teleport and say Are you sure? I can’t aim… So about this ship… oh come on, I haven’t tried it yet! Can we go now? Sure, hold hands and sing kumba ya! She elbows next to Finn to hold his hand.

Ef – You know, we could rest first as Etsuriko pats his shoulder and wipes blood off her hand. Blood, shmud… look at my shirt! Lenatta rolls her eyes. I mended your shirt, Kenari. Oh yeah! OK, we can rest (pout) and do it in the morning.

Dinner – I prefer my carapaces extra crispy, please. – Squick!

The Lady of the house returns and raises an eyebrow at the flurry of activity of the staff. Ef humbly approaches and explains what’s going on as Kenari points at Finn. She pinches his cheek. You always were a good boy. SLAP! ASK next time.

I would next time! Slap him too! Ef points to Finn as he shovels the BS and smoothly explains his actions. What an artful architecture of complete BS! I’m really impressed! It’s still my house though! SLAP!

You could learn some social graces from him! Squick is curious about this social interaction as I explain it’s a way family greets each other around here. NO IT ISN’T! says Ef.

Squick cuts up food and offers it to Kenari explaining Githyanki saliva is a delicacy. I try it but it’s not good at all as I cough up a hairball. Cat saliva is useful too, but I don’t share it with everyone. I was just trying to be nice and share with you!

We’re having so much fun and we’re going to fight Illithids together! SQUEE! She offers food to Lenata next. I’m good, really!

Etsuriko just barely manages not to laugh as her jaw twitches but we know her and recognize it.

I GREET YOU AS FAMILY! SLAP! (Squick) Lenata prestidigitates most of her food onto Finn’s plate. He shovels the BS as Squick feeds Finn and the BS doesn’t stop with how good it is.

Etsuriko loses it finally and LOL as she thanks Gertrude for the best time ever.

Squick obviously considers slapping Gertrude on the back of the head as a greeting as Ef Utan notices and grabs her wrist to stop her.

Are we wrestling now? Nice lady they told you a lie, don’t slap Gertrude. Gertrude turns around and stares us down. KNOCK IT OFF, CHILDREN!

We eat dessert in silence and kick each others shins and bite our lips as we try not to laugh. Squick holds her breath as she thought breathing was the only thing she was doing. She turns blue and falls unconcious for a minute before she wakes up again.

Is that Githyanki custom? No, she’s just literal. The skittermander crawls out of Vedis’ coat as the tentacle reaches out to grab food off the table. Squick looks around the table to see if the tentacle is coming out of Finn.

Squick says “That’s just wrong!” as she sees it (ala Tribbles). Vedis sighs and puts the harness on the Skittermander and puts it back in her coat.

The next morning we clean up, drink some coffee and Kenari focuses on the Astral Plane as we hold hands in a circle. The plane shifts into the bright light of the Astral Plane where all spells are Quickened.
We scan the area and at first don’t see anything. Ef sees way off in the distance relative West a glint of something off of a reflective surface. He points it out and then it’s gone.

We ask if Lenata can commune with the Plane to see if we can find where we are and where Corvus is. We’re about 50 miles from the mark on the map. That’s not TOO bad, right? Could’ve been worse!

The mark is probably a color pool but it’s not on the map. There aren’t any powerful beings between here and there. Corvus is not in this area.

We jump and fall in the right direction as we take off towards the spot on the map. About 50 ft from where we stop is a black color pool about 30 ft across. Finn says this one goes to the Shadow Plane. Black=Shadow? Who’d have thought, right? – Vedis

Ef sees a reflection again and it’s gone. We’re probably being followed again…

Portal = Key is a 2 in black sphere of marble – No special circumstances to use. 2-Way portal. For one round you’re able to see what’s on the other side = On the other side it’s dark. Stunted leafless trees, black in color. Swirling darkness. 200-300 feet off is a road.

Etsuriko and I Flickering Step in the general direction where we think we see the glint. At first we dont’ see anything but then it looks like a humanoid made out of clear glass. We looked through it before it registered and is 15 ft to our left as we hide. It doesn’t seem to be moving. Nothing I’ve heard about Planes-wise.

Etsuriko says hello to it with no reaction. Kenari, ONE of us has to touch it. What if that’s what activates it? Etsuriko grabs my hand and we move as it follows us. Well THAT’s not creepy.

Kenari is the voice of reason for once and Etsuriko says “Well I’m going to touch it.” Reverse psychology, everyone. Now Kenari has plausible deniability. Nothing happens. Well the heck if I know what to do about this thing.

We flicker step back and it copies us.

Vedis uses knowledgs Psionics. It might be an Observer. They tend to turn up at big events and fixed points in time. They do not directly interfere in things for the most part. All the things we’ve done and NOW is when it shows up? We have an interstellar audience now – Finn.

One or two tales of Observers who intercede, but probably BS. They are ridiculously powerful. Sent out into the universe by one of the great psionic godminds. Vedis concentrates and examines it. She sees it’s view of us except for Melchior because of his guns. Apparently his magic guns keep him from being seen.

For just a moment the image shifts and she sees Wildspace and 6-8 asteroids joined by big transparent tubes. Behind them a flickering array of colored lights of unstable planar rifts that lead to multiple planes of existence.
(Edge Station Laboratories). When she sees it the Skittermander starts sqwacking and squirming. It reminds me of something that Falak-13 said. Could the Skittermander be from this place? Seems to make sense that they’re from it to me.