Journal—Log of What's Happened in Our Game

7/29/06 [Lily]

Quinn showed Ento the layout of the ship and a picture of the gizmo, aka power coil, that she needs. He seemed pretty keen about going after it. There may be some hope for him yet... risking lfe and limb just out of curiousity's sake. Then Konima showed up. Konima seemed to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. He was incredibly dismissive of Ento when Ento was trying to tell him about the gizmo rescue efforts. Ento wandered off (to cool off, I assume) for a bit.

Meantime, I visited a few tents. Someone threw a boot at me. I finally got one ship person to talk to me a bit. Seems like they were damaged in a war with some group they call the “Uglies.” The ship people are from somewhere called Earth. But, I've no idea what plane that's on. They also don't seem to like magic much. Since they wouldn't let me help with healing any of them, I used a green moonstone to heal some burnt trees. It did seem to help the trees.

Once Konima disappeared again (he seems to do that a lot), Ento reconnected with the captain. Kane turned up and joined them. Ento and Kane decided to actually try to rescue the gizmo. The captain sent a ship person with us—Lt. Jansen Lincoln. He happens to be the one ship person that actually talked politely to me. He's a “Communications Officer” though I'm still not clear on what that is.

We got into the ship, even Konima came along. And, yes, I trailed along too even if I think that captain woman is too arrogant and rude for words. I gotta protect my elf, ya know? Inside the ship, it's dark and the lights don't work right and it's very gray & metally. (I know that's not a word, but just go with it.... There's metal, metal everywhere.) When we got near the place with the gizmo, we ran into Uglies! And Jansen is right, they're ugly! There was a big fight. The Uglies use nasty power-staff-thingies. We were triumphant in the end. Ha! Take that, Uglies! We even got the gizmo we went in for and were able to return to camp with it. Maybe the captain will give us a nice reward? Though it sounds like she's just gonna help in the war with the Varulaani, which I'm still not understanding why even we are mixed up in that war. We haven't gotten any good loot in a long while. Sigh.

7/23/06 [Lily]

James, Entobiar, and I picked up Sir Pierce and the 4 of us headed to the crash site. The air was full of acrid smoke there. The metal ship is half-buried in the ground. There are a few small fires left, but most of them have burned out. There are lots of signs that people have been moving about out here, though no one is in sight at the moment. Ento figured he could lead us along the tracks, but it turned out to be unnecessary. As soon as I started to approach the ship, a voice called out “Stop!” We turned and saw a woman in a torn and burnt jumpsuit.

The woman, Quinn Ballard, took us to the temporary camp the ship-people had set up. There appear to be about 80-90 survivors here. They're all pretty ragged and banged up. The woman, Quinn, is the ship's captain. She's very tired and very arrogant. She refuses any of my offers of aid in healing her people. She's pretty rude about it. And she seems to think I'm a child. Pooh. There's some gizmo she needs out of the ship to track where the other 2 ships went. She seems to want us to go get it. But, she's been rude so I'm not inclined to risk my life going in there just to spare her. James and Entobiar were a little more polite about it and discussed the details of what exactly she needs.

7/15/06 [Lily]

I remember my promise to the Guardian Dragon and I stop in a bookstore. I buy a bunch of books—some for me, some for Ento, and some for the Guardian. Mine include a book called “Sorcery and Me.” I also got Ento a book on archery by Cade herself. For the Guardian, I got a variety from a history book and a trashy romance.

Back at the palace, we inquire about the black box. It turns out it was the casket that Caden, er... Faust was in. Konima's brother. Konima took care of the box. In fact, he took care of it so well that Caden is up and about and not dead any more. Though he does keep complaining when I call him Caden instead of Faust. So sue me. I knew him first and best as Caden. It's his own fault for changing his name like that anyway.

We have a group (including Konima!) discussion about our next plans. First, there's this whole war thing that Caden, er Faust, seems bent on joining and Konima seems keen for it too. Looks like we'll be heading off somewhere to help the war effort. Konima took 3 of my titan marbles. I'm not too happy about that.

We see 3 points of light in the sky after the discussion has broken up. They grow larger and have fiery tails. One grows huge and then the earth shudders. There's a light to the west that fades into a sullen glow. The other 2 lights go off in different directions. Cade thinks they are some kind of flying ships. Marcus asks us to check out the lights. He also agrees to help us with stuff to improve our ship (the sailing ship we helped Captain Korea defeat). I'm not sure, but Konima seemed a bit disappointed about that. I guess he wanted to “buy” his own equipment?

I think we finally decided to meet at dawn in the kitchen and to check out the flying ship/meteor after breakfast.

7/8/06 [Lily]

We make a camp on the grounds in town for the night. We wake the next morning to the clash of steel (well, Entobiar woke... I kinda just rolled over and went back to sleep). Ento went to investigate and found 3 people practicing their sword-play. A Lord Gorvan, a Pierce, and a boy named Alcander. The lord's symbol seems to be a blood-red rose coiled about a silver and gold lance. Pierce is wearing a symbol of a sword crossed by a similar lance.

We talk to the boy, Alcander, for a bit. Then his mother shows up. Her name is Cade, as in she's the Queen of the Elves here, Lady Dragon herself. She too mentions that black box and seems to assume we came for it.

We're on a healing mission though. She agrees to work on Kylie and she takes us to her mansion which spans several trees. By this time Kylie's so sick that Ento has to carry her. He deposits Kylie in the designated room and Cade kicks us out while she works. Ento and I explore the town a bit, but there's a distinct dearth of moonstones here.

6/30/06 [Lily]

We continue onwards. Eventually we see a faint light glowing ahead. The glow is coming from a room and in its heart is a brilliant white carved archway. (Dream deja-vu again!) There are some runes on it, which we pretty much can't read. Even with a Read Magic spell, all I get is something about abandoning hope and a ruined city.

Turns out the archway is a portal. We step through with no ill effects. But on the other side, we find tiny spiders. Thousands of them. Kylie dispatches them with a Fireball. I was a bit dissappointed because she wouldn't let me use my Fire titan marble and red moonstone. I really did think those would've made a bit of fiery death for the spiders!

We have lots more tunnel travel waiting for us after that. It ends at another gateway portal. We camp on the other side (this one is spider-free).

The next morning (I say morning, but it's so dark down here there's really no way to tell what time of day is actually is), we have long corridors and dark tunnels to travel through. At one point the wall was broken down and we could look through and see a long-dead city surrounded by water. I didn't notice a blue orb, but I'm thinking this is more dream deja-vu. At the next portal, we hear chains and scraping sounds, but we step quickly through the portal to avoid the whats-it. The other side of the portal is mercifully quiet.

The corridor from this room seems a tad lighter. It twists and turns and ends up in a rough-hewn cavern. We can smell fresh air and see sunlight at the top of a long flight of stairs. An old man sits at the bottom of the stairs. He says he's the Guardian Dragon. I give him a gem and he lets us pass. He really wanted a book, but I didn't have any I was willing to part with. But, I promised to bring him one on the way back if we come this way. He warns us to “ 'Ware the rangers” as we leave.

I figure ranger-Ento can handle any local elven rangers, so I'm not to worried. Icarus gave Kylie a map and, with it, Ento leads us northwards towards the main settlement. Several hours later, we hear singing. The singer is an elven woman named Larissa. She asks us if we're here for the box—a large black box currently located in the city. I've no idea what the box thing is about, but she agrees to help us get Kylie to the city for healing.

Two more hours of travel and we reach a city built among the trees. Most of the housing seems built into the trees. There's quite a few people about, including a group wearing wicked black, hooked, spiked armor. I'm guessing they're the rangers we're supposed to beware of.

6/17/06 [Lily]

That night at the Inn, I have a vivid dream. There's a long dark corridor and a white shining arch. Then, there are trees shading a grove that hides a crack leading down into the rock. There's an elven woman in a white dress. And, then there are houses among trees and small figures. A dragon with silver wings alights on a rock and roars at something. Finally, there's a ruined city nestled in a dark cavern that's lit by a blue orb over a dry fountain.

The next morning, we head back to Icarus' mansion. Along with Kylie, Icarus leads us through a maze of gardens to a grove of trees. Inside, he opens a passageway down into the dark. It's kind of eerie how closely this resembles a bit of last night's dream.

I passed on the journals I found in Stonepointe. I figured that Icarus might like to read the journals of his parents. He tells me that “Chance met Fate” will let his parents know that we can be trusted. And he asks us to “Give them my love.”

We head into the darkness and follow a straight passage for a long ways. Then we hear some weird noises... just before a herd of Goatsuckers attack! It's a bit of a battle and it doesn't help that Kylie is so sick, but we manage to triumph. Ento, ever the knowledgable ranger, informs me that the Goatsuckers are actually called Chupacabras. I'll never remember that and have trouble pronouncing it, so they're gonna stay Goatsuckers to me.

6/10/06 [Lily]

I impressed myself. Icarus' herb garden looks terrific—the plants are strong and their colors are more vivid. Looks like my job is done here. Ento & I head back to the Inn.

At the Inn, we find a very cold Kylie who can't find Konima. We head out to look for him. It appears he may have headed up to Icarus Hope's place (weren't we just there?) by himself. Halfway back there, we find a dead goat. The bartender had mentioned something about creatures that occasionally exsanguinate the odd goat. Looks like one's on the loose tonight.

We end up back as Icarus' home. Konima comes out, argues with Kylie, vows to go it alone, and heads off without us. Kylie was too sick after that to go back to the Inn, so Icarus let her stay there. Ento & I got to trek all the way back to the Inn... again.

6/4/06 [Lily]

When things seemed to be winding down and some of the others had headed off for a tour of the home, I asked Icarus about moonstones. He pretty much only knew what I've already found out. He did let me experiment with a green moonstone and a droopy rose plant. It worked beautifully at restoring the rose bush. Wasn't hard to do either. And I didn't seem to harm the roses in the process (I was kinda worried about not being able to control the magic well enough to not go too far and end up hurting things). Icarus gave me permission to experiment a bit more and I headed off to the herb garden to see what I could do there.

Ento and James stayed behind with Icarus. James pretty much just stared at Icarus. Entobiar tried a few conversational gambits. It's the first time he's had someone to talk to in elven for a while. Probably even longer for Icarus. Ento was able to learn that Icarus remembers the Crescent Isle as being beautiful though it's been a long time siince he's been there. For some reason, young Icarus had to go with the Varulaani to preserve the isle. The question is—Why? And the next question is—How did he get here from being with the Varulaani?

6/3/06 [Lily]

After dinner at the Lighthouse, I went exploring a bit. I managed to find a couple moonstones—one is of the healing variety. And I found one shop with a few magical charms for sale. I picked up a coin on a necklace that does Light at will. The shop keeper was really nice. He also gave me his daughter Nya's oilskin coat. So, if it storms again, I'm prepared!

I'm not sure where all everyone else was while I was shopping exploring, but a sailor from the Deuces Wild managed to find us and collect us for the trip to see the Admiral. I'd been assuminng that we'd meet him at the Inn's tavern or something, but no. A carriage took us up into the hills (where the fancy houses are) and dropped us off at the admiral's home.

We were told that the admiral (Admiral Icarus Hope) was in the rose garden and, indeed, we find him gardening there. He offered us lemonade (quite good actually). I filled him in on what Akima told us. Turns out that Icarus Hope is Cade and Marcus' son (or Lord & Lady Dragon's son if you prefer). We found out from him that there are tunnels that run under the ocean from Santrellis to the Crescent Isle. Of course, they're sealed. And, of course, there's a reason they were sealed—they're very dangerous. There used to be a whole city under there too. It's long dead now and the directions to it are lost.

5/21/06 [Lily]

Looking around the port of Santrellis, it seems to be a home port for Hope's merchantile fleet. Most of the ships here are flying the crossed rose and sword that's his fleet's symbol. The land around the port rises up in a series of hills. The higher you get, the larger and fancier the homes get.

The captain makes arrangements for us to lodge at Galen's Inn. She recommends we try a restaurant named The Lighthouse. It doesn't take much more than that to send us off to eat there. The restaurant has several levels. We head to the top so as to get a good view of the port city. We get seated and start looking at the tasty menus. Then, the world stops.

And I mean that literally. Colors around us seem both more vivid and yet seem washed out. Nothing and no one moves around us. With one, er, two exceptions... Akima, the woman from the first island we landed on (see the 3/18/06 journal entry if you've forgotten her) and her husband, Jim. Akima looks just like I remember her. Jim looks like a black-winged angel. Akima tells us that they (plus Caden and Kylie) need our help. She says that no magic native to this world can cure Kylie. This immediately calls to my mind that Lady Dragon/Cade is from another world and she practiced medicine there. And, Akima seems to confirm this by telling us that the solution lies on the Crescent Isle. Apparently, “Their son can guide you.” to the right place. She and Jim also say something mysterious about needing Caden because “the balance has been broken.” Then they promptly disappear and the world returns to normal. Great. Now all we need to do is find their son, convince him to guide us to the Crescent Isle, find a Queen (she's queen of the Exiles, right?), and convince some woman from another world/queen to fix Kylie. Yeah, right, no problem.

5/13/06 [Lily]

I'm too depressed to do much journaling today. The stupid storm raged on for like 24 hours. After the captains' meeting broke up, I tried to ask Captain Chance Hope about moonstones, but she couldn't or wouldn't tell me anything new. Neither did Captain Rooks nor Laucorn. I gave Chance one of my healing moonstones to sort of thank her for her time. But not learning anything from the 3 people most rumored to know moonstones is a bit of a let-down.

On top of that, it seems I can't really use them properly either. Everyone headed back to the ship as soon as the storm stopped. Well, nearly everyone. Entobiar waited for me and I didn't remember seeing Kylie go so I checked her room. She's sick. She can't get warm though she doesn't feel fevered. There are these magical thread things around her though. I tried to heal her with a CLW spell and a healing moonstone, but it didn't work at all. The threads even seemed to try to climb up into the moonstone. Entobiar had to help her to the ship, she's that sick. I thought maybe it was being out in the storm that got her sick, but no one else is. It's very depressing to not be able to help and to not be able to use the moonstones.

We reached Santrellis after several uneventful days. It seems to be a large island. The city is quite clean and kinda pretty since there are plants and flowers everywhere. I guess I'll get to spend my time here trying to hunt up a proper healer for Kylie.

5/6/06 [Lily]

Korea seems happy the next morning. Marius has figured out how to shave several says off the next leg of our journey to Windfall. Apparently, fewer days at sea are a good thing. We all load back onto the ship in the afternoon and take off, undock, or whatever the sailors call it.

Our trip to Windfall is pretty much uneventful. At least until we're nearly there. On the last morning of the trip, the sun rises blood-red and paints the sky a neon pink. This plays into the old adage concerning “Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning.” Though in some places they prefer shepards instead of sailors. And indeed, it wasn't long before we saw black clouds gather on the horizon. We barely make it into Windfall's port before the storm hits.

We all quickly head to the Royal Arms where rooms have been pre-arranged for us. Most of us make it in before the worst of the storm lets loose its rain and lightning. The sky is so very dark and the lightning is ominously purple. I'm definitely glad we're in at an inn and not outside on the ship.

The last time anyone around here experienced a storm like this was just before the war with the Varulaani. It seems to have the locals a bit worried. The captains of all the ships in port have settled in a private back room here at the Royal Arms to discuss what the storm might be bringing. The last captain to arrive was Rooks Traules himself. He was drenched. He headed straight to the captains' meeting. I didn't get a chance to ask him about moonstones. Rumors have it that he knows quite a bit about them. Oh well, maybe later.

Other bits and pieces that I managed to pick up:

Captain Chance Hope might know some more about moonstones.
Her father is Admiral Hope who led the response to the war from Varulaani.
Admiral Hope is an elf, aka Exile.
Brigid came with us on the ship to Windfall in hopes of meeting up with Captain Chance Hope.
Brigid's husband (Trakal Traules) killed Chance's mother and injured Korea's sister, Kiaryae.
Things used to be very strained between the Traules' and the Hopes' and Korea's family, but the war kinda united them.
Brigid has a 4-year old son named Arlian. He lives in Santrellis as being on board ship during a war just isn't the place for a child.

4/30/06 [Lily]

The morning of the second day, we headed off up into the hills where the old residence is located. Along the way, we picked up Brigid as a guide. We got to the residence without much happening.

We had no problems getting inside the mansion. The place was remarkably untouched and unlooted. We found a variety of non-magical items. Someone found something called SPAM and a thing called a Twinkie. I found some books on magic of a sort I'm not familiar with. I also found some journals. They seem to match some of the pictures we saw within the home. These journals appear to be by a husband, a wife, and the wife's brother.

Inside, we didn't find anything to indicate where the missing teens are. Brigid says that they only sleep on the porch outside and they never enter the mansion. That seems to be true since nothing inside looked to have been disturbed since the occupants left. We heard humming outside though and, when we went to investigate, we found a woman (a strikingly beautiful one at that) wandering around outside. We questioned her about nearby caves or such and she showed us the way to a cave. Some of us slipped inside while the others stayed outside and socialized with her.

The cave seemed to have 2 main rooms. The first looked like a bedroom/living room. The second, deeper room housed... a bunch of cages filled with teens! I was able to unlock the cages and let the teens out. They told us the woman (though in their version, she had big, black wings) was the one who imprisoned them. We busted out of the cave and the woman seemed a bit put-out that we had released the teens. What did she think we were going to do? I mean, we told her we were looking for the kids, she showed us to the cave... why'd she do that if she didn't want us to rescue them? Anyway, Entobiar sent a few arrows after her when she grew wings and flew up. She shouted threats at us and went POOF.

She left behind some goodies in the cave though. A small chect contained a pair of silver and gold-wrought slave bracelets, a potion of cure moderate wounds, a potion of Quicksober, a potion of Resistance, and a wand of Daylight. Below these items (which were on a stackable tray inside the chest) were several pouches that contained a total of 1,322 gold. Not a bad haul, huh?

We got all the teens back to town. Calloo Callay! I'm not sure what all everyone else did after that. Ento and I sat in the tavern and read through the journals. They're weird and interesting, but didn't really explain much about why they left and stuff. But, it does appear that Lord and Lady Dragon's real names were Marcus and Cade. Cade has a brother named Tristan. More details on what we read:

The woman (Cade) is young when her journal starts, but she's already a doctor. It chronicles not one, but TWO quests to save her world (which is clearly not this one).
The journal of her husband (Marcus) starts a bit later but chronicles a similar quest, though it's clear he's not with his wife the whole time.
The journal of Tristan, Cade's brother, is decidedly darker in nature. It starts with his kidnapping from the home realm of the elves and being tortured for long years before he was rescued.
Cade eventually becomes queen of the elven lands on her world and has twin children. Her world—and their children—was lost to she and Marcus in some sort of cataclysm.
They eventually found their way to this world and are working at building a new life. There's no mention as to why she and Marcus abandoned their home on Stonepointe. It is clear, though, that when she stopped writing in that journal she was in middle stages of a pregnancy.
Tristan's journal is a bit more somber than his sister's—he's had a harder life, and one that was somewhat lonely. It's clear that he made it to this world as well.
Tucked into Tristan's journal is a battered photograph of three elven adults with two young elven children. One of the men is dressed in red, with a black dragon rampant on his chest. The woman is dressed in dark blue-green. The other man—he looks like the woman—is dressed in steel gray robes. The children are dressed in blue. On the back of the photograph are written the words “Outside Shugenja High” and a series of numbers that one might assume must be some kind of date.

4/8/06 [Lily]

At Stonepointe, it's much like things were at Port Royal. Everyone heading off to do their own thing. James seemed to stay on the ship, Danub went off to talk to some gnomes, Reyon headed to the temple to make a donation and later gathered information on the secretive Taliestinites who worshipped a god of magic. Kylie seemd to just hole up at an Inn. I've no idea what the others did. The captain was seen talking to an older man, probably about ship repairs.

I, in search of moonstones, set off with Entobiar to the temple Marius pointed out. The temple currently serves all faiths and creeds, but once served the Lady of the Trinity (whoever that is). A priest of Dian Cecht (whoever that is again) greeted us and pointed us towards Father Stein.

I learned that Father Stein only made a few moonstone charms long ago. He no longer has any. I learned a few odds and ends from him. Back at the ship, we meet up with Brigid, the shipwright's daughter and Trakel Traules' wife. I talked to her for a while about Exiles, Lord & Lady Dragon, and moonstones. Later, the party gathers one by one at the Harbor View Inn. I kinda rounded everyone up for an activity the next day—checking out why kids are disappearing at the old residence.

Items gleaned from the day's information gathering:

Lord and Lady Dragon—first among the Exiles; from another realm.
The two of them lived outside Stonepointe about 10 generations ago.
A few kids that went up there to the old residence haven't come back.
Kids go off to visit the old residence to see if it's their fate to leave the island. The visit is something of a right-of-passage for them.
Determining their fate has something to do with thier Dreaming—whatever that is.
Master O'Kerry's (the shipwright) daughter might know more. Her name is Brigid and she appears to be half-elven.
Trakel Traules' ship is The Hurricane. And it sank a Varulaani ship this past week. Possibly the ship our supply ship was supposed to be supplying?
Brigid is waiting to be picked up by Chance, the captain of a ship named The Wild Card and Admiral Hope's daughter.
When Lord and Lady Dragon came to Stonepointe, they were dressed unusually in white coats and long pants.
Lord Dragon had a dragon tattoo curling around his arm and that's where they got the nickname Lord and Lady Dragon.
Lord Dragon was a warrior. Lady Dragon was a healer of some power.
They defeated many pirate ships, the area was rife with them at the time, and became heroes.
They only stayed 5-6 years before sailing away. No one's sure where, but possibly to the Crescent Isle.
There's a song about the Lord and Lady of the Crescent Isle, the Queen of the Exiles and her Prince-Consort, that might be about them.
Rook's son Laucorn can use the moonstomes too. (You did know that I hadn't forgotten them, right?) Brigid once saw him use a blue moonstone. He threw out his hand while crying out a “No!” during an attack and a shimmering shield appeared. The shield protected him, Brigid, and the ship they were on.

4/1/06 [Lily]

Early on the third day at Port Royal, we all get back aboard The Deuce's Wild and head back to sea. We're heading to Stonepointe this time. Marius says it's about a week away by safe routes. Entobiar chatted with Marius for a bit and got a look at the ship's maps. According to Marius, if this trip follows their normal routes, we should be going from Port Royal to Stonepointe to Windfall to Haven's Bay to Santrellis (which is where Marius is from).

We spot a ship off in the distance after a couple days' travel. When it gets close enough, we see it's the Varulaani ironside ship named “Maidens of Staffordshire.” The captain seems a bit put out by the name, muttering something about none of the maidens being maidens. (Turns out her father is the Lord of Staffordshire and the captain herself is one of the maidens that is one no more.) The Varulaani ship is way out of normal Varulaani territory, plus it appears to be a supply ship—who do they think they are taking supplies to way out here?

I'm not sure why they rushed to battle, but the ships started firing cannons at each other as soon as they got within range. No discussion. No get-out-of-my-water threats. Just the BAM! of the cannons. I had fun using my Web wand from Greenwich's treasure room. I tangled up several of The Maidens' cannons. Konima did something nifty too... He grew to like 12 feet tall! The battle was pretty confusing to me with people from both ship jumping onto the other ship. We won of course, but it was hard for me to follow what everyone was doing.

I did some healing using my wands in the aftermath. Not as much as I've had to in previous times, seems we've got more people with healing abilities these days. But, I did get to try out one of my Moonstones! I'd figured out which one seemed tuned to healing and used it while casting a Cure Light Wounds spell and the spell cured a bit more damage than normal. It didn't seem to work in conjunction with the wand, but it worked with the spell I cast myself. Coolies! I'm still spending every free moment studying the Moonstones I have so as to figure out what they can do. Entobiar tells me that Marius thinks there's a temple on Stonepointe that sells charms carved out of Moonstones, like in dolphin shapes and stuff. Guess I know what I'll be doing with my time at port in Stonepointe.

After the battle, Captain Korea invited us to lunch in her cabin. She offers to let us have the new ship, which at this point needs a good bit of repair (both ships need some in fact). There was a good bit of discussion about what to re-name the ship. Suggestions included variations on Raven (Konima), Sea Wench (me!), Albatross (James), and Plesiosaur (Kane—um, Kane, what were you thinking?!?). There was also discussion of who would be captain of the new ship, but I'm not sure what was decided. I kinda zoned out 'cause I knew it wouldn't be me. What I know about running a ship wouldn't fill a thimble (and a halfling-sized thimble at that). Besides, I have Moonstones. Y'all know my priorities, right?

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We had no further problems reaching Stonepointe.

3/25/06 [Lily]

The Deuce's Wild is a pretty good ship. The trip isn't too boring either. There were all kinds of interesting fireworks when some halfling named Archimedes found Faust's coffin in “his” hold. Apparently, the cargo master wasn't told ahead of time that there were guests (us) and that we had baggage (coffin). He's got quite a temper, that one.

As the ship sails to Port Royal, we pick up bits of information about the area. Or, some of us did. Most of the guys seemed to be having a serious discussion of what our purpose in being here is. It sounded very philosophical and very boring. (halfling with short attention span here, remember?) (unless treasure is involved!) Anyway, Marius drew a rough sketch in chalk on the deck for Entobiar which showed various islands. Varulaani to the east. Exiles (elves!) to the northish. Unexplored, wild continent to the west. Lots of dotty islands in between.

Other bits and pieces of info come our way. The Deuce's Wild is part of Admiral Icarus Hope's trading company. Admiral Hope is the leader of the Alliance that stopped the Varulaani's expansionist tendencies. Those tendencies seem to have been encouraged/pushed? by some “fell power.” But, it's unclear what the status of that fell power is now. It seemed to work behind the scenes. Also, there's pirates around. The Traules brothers are the most notable. Trakal and Rooks are their names. Possibly related to our captain? Hmmmmm. Marius is from a island named Santrellis. It's a different island from where Port Royal is. As I said, just bits and pieces.

We reach Port Royal without incident and get some time in town. Our time in town was not without incident though. The boys got into a bit of a brawl with some bigoted sailors. The bigots seemed real put out to see elves like Konima. Apparently, Exiles are just not usual around here. There also seemed to be an issue with James' wings. And possibly the new gnome.

On the bright side, I found some new magic. Moonstones. They're possibly both arcane and divine. Some people can harness their power. It's rumored that Rooks Traules had a canon mounted with red moonstones which was able to rip a Varulaani ironside in half. I bought some, of course. They are smooth, round orbs about the size of a gold piece and come in a variety of colors. Who knew I'd be able to find so many interesting things in my travels? Excuse me while I find a quiet spot to study my moonstones in. I have every intention of being one of those people who can harness their power. More than that, I want to be one of the very few people who understand their power.

3/18/06 [Lily]

Our first night on the island goes well. In the morning, I had time to study one of the marbles before everyone decides we should do some exploring. After hiking for some way, we reach a waterfall and a crystal blue pool. I got close to the water to fill my waterbottle and this big turtle with a wicked looking beak pops out at me. We beat the turtle back into the water and are rewarded with clapping. The clapper is a woman named Kima. Kima says the turtle, Y'Kina, guards the place to make sure no one loots the shrine of the goddess of sea-farers and travellers, Akima Omnus. Kima tosses us crystals on slender chains (they'll protect us from the turtle) and she heads under the waterfall. Inside is a cave with a simple altar. Dozens of tiny ships containing rolls of parchment float in spirals of water around us. Pretty cool. But, I'm not willing to take the chance of finding out what would happen to me if I did try to loot the place, so I head back to camp to do more marble studies. Not sure what the rest of them do.

But, pretty soon a ship shows up. With a female captain. It's just like the dream. The ship is the Deuces Wild and the captain is Korea O'Toole. Her first mate is Marius. We work out a deal that gets us a ride on their ship.

3/16/06 [Lily]

We manage to straggle out onto the island beach. Standing there dripping, we see Konima (alive), Caden/Faust's coffin (I can't get used to calling him Faust), and Viktor's body. And if that isn't bad enough (I mean Viktor's body being here, not Konima being alive), Viktor's wounds are healing and when his body is touched, it disappears. Great. He's alive and somewhere in the world or universe or multiverse (whatever). Just great.

We make shelters and Konima reads the book from the hooded man. It's a religious sort of book about The Morrigan who apparently is the goddess of war. I'll stick to Celestri thank you very much. [fyi, Kylie is gonna dm this part of the campaign]

3/11/06 [Lily]

The City of Glass is massive. A glass dome keeps the sea out and the air in. The city itself is packed with apartments, shops, taverns, inns, etc. Anything you could possibly want can be found here.

After we dock at the city, Kylie handed us each a ring with an unusual symbol on it and 6 blank spaces. Kylie does some careful study to figure out how they work. (I did some shopping in the city during her studies so I don't know what all she did.) (She also seems to have picked up some monkey-like critter for her familiar. I missed how she got him. But, that's okay, I got to go shopping. In a city where anything can be found. That beats monkey-critter any day of the week in my book.) We learn that the symbol on there is for going back home. And, we can also add new places to the blank spaces. I tested it out right away by binding the City of Glass to the ring. It worked too. Now there's a new symbol of the city on the ring and only 5 blank places.

Time is of the essence, so I wrote Greenwich a thank you note (loved that treasure room!) and off we go back home. A crackle of energy, a flash of light, and BLAM! we're in Tekva Amaris right outside Caden's mansion. His butler even seems to be exceptiing us. He also doesn't seem to know that Caden is dead. It's almost like Caden is able to communicate with him. Is Caden a ghost?

The butler sends us off to talk to Celes. We hire a truck to get out there. Turns out Celes is a dragon. A big dragon. One who promptly ate Den, the Rok. I know it's not polite, but good riddance. She talks to us a bit about what the Waning Star can do and how to use it. Then there is an interminable argument on the proper way to use it. Yawn. In the end, we each picture what we want to have happen (like, “the titans cancel each other out and go back to sleep”) and all touch the Waning Star at the same time. More flash bang!

BLAM! We're in the middle of a titan battle. Massive amounts of power are weilded by each titan... and in moments it's over. The titan of fire fades last of all, seeming sad and yet accepting. He drops 4 marbles and is gone. Before we can even catch our breaths and figure out what exactly happened (but not before I got the 4 marbles. hey, I know where my priorities are), Viktor picks up the Waning Star (Yo! Where'd he come from?!?) Another battle ensues, this time us versus Viktor. And we actually won. Because, get this, magic doesn't work! Then again, before we can catch our breaths, a hooded guy pops in and, you guessed it, takes the Waning Star. (which is just a coin at this point... its power is lost to us now. pout.) He tosses it up and it just keeps going. What plane it ends up landing on is a mystery to me.

He tells us that magic is gone because all the elements are alseep. Without magic to stop them, forces of Hell are moving in on the world intent on destroying it. He says this world, our world, is one of the first of its kind. It would be a shame for it to be destroyed. (d'yuh think?) So, he puts magic back in the world. (hello? who is this hooded guy? um, what is he?) Then, blast him, he took our planes-hopping rings. (how'm I supposed to get back to those nifty shops in the City of Glass now? double pout.) He takes Konima's sword from Kylie. (you better believe she hated losing that at least as much as I hated losing my free ride to shopping in a city where anything can be found.) He also gives Kylie a book saying “Here. He'll need this.” This was followed up by “I hope you can all swim.”

BLAM! We're in the middle of the ocean. A small island is nearby. Konima is there. Hello? Where are we? Blast it, I'm all wet...

3/4/06 [Lily]

Karishti has indeed filled the cave around the ship with air. The murlocks chuck a bunch of spears at us before retreating into the ship. I stayed mostly on deck for the first bit, but several of the guys went right after the murlocks. I discovered that the ship has a magical shield. Mostly the shield seems to keep fresh air around the deck and inside the ship. I found that activating it didn't do much to disrupt the ice the ship was stuck in. It also afforded no protection from falling ice chunks. Yes, we learned that the hard way. But, Kylie's scorching ray and fireball got us mostly loose from the ice.

There was a scary moment when we finally got the ship completely out of the iceberg... mainly because the big, huge, massive, gigantic shark set his teeth into the tail-end of the ship and pulled it out. For a moment I thought it was pulling us out so it could have a Lily-snack, but it turns out Valoch got himself into a shark form and was able to talk the big, huge, massive, gigantic shark into helping us. It saved us an hour of chipping away at ice. But, I've got to say it, “Bad Valoch! Bad!” As a note, next time anyone wants to have a big, huge, massive, gigantic shark flash its teeth that close to my precious little body—WARN A GIRL FIRST!

Meantime, the rest of the boys were down in the ship hunting murlocks. And finding murlocks. The boys managed to dispatch them (they are way easier to defeat in air where weapons work normal-like). We all joined up and continued down into the main hold of the ship. There we met a much more formidable opponent—a Fire Giant. He looked like a black and very, very large dwarf (though at first he just looked like a grinning murlock, but that must've been an illusion). As formidable as he was, he still got knocked out and tied up.

During the battle with the Fire Giant, the ship's first mate came out of hiding. Let me tell you... my jaw about hit the decking. No, nothing special about the short little first mate. It was the room he came out of. A treasure room. I don't think I've ever seen so much treasure in one place! Who am I kidding? I never saw that much treasure in my whole life! A mountain of gold and jewels. Mountainous!

Greenwich showed up about then. A considerable amount of wheedling later and he did share some more info about the Waning Star. He said, “It can do many things, lead many places... riches, power, freedom. It represents balance through chaos—it doesn't just give power, it takes it from elsewhere.” Turns out Greenwich actually used it once and that's how he got all that treasure which the Waning Star got from the royal line of Fire Giants. Did I tell you about the treasure in that room? Piles of gems and gold. And other things. I got in there for a a few seconds (before Greenwich pulled me out.... Spoilsport!) and something really interesting just jumped into my pocket. I dunno how that happened (*wink*wink*).

Anyway, we were pretty exhausted from our murlock-hunting, ship-freeing, treasure-drooling day. Oooops, that last was just me. We all piled into Greenwich's room for a little nap. His bed is huge needless to say. But, he must've done something to us to make us sleep deeply, because when we woke up, we found the dratted gnome of a first mate had played a variety of pranks on us. At least all I got was water. Poor Kylie got magical glue all over her fingers. There was a package and a note though. The note said that the Waning Star is in the black sphere (that's the package) and we can take whatever we want from the treasure room! But, silly Greenwich only let me have 5 minutes in there. Is that fair, I ask you? How can a litte'un like me properly appreciate (and loot) a vault of that size in 5 minutes?

While the rest of the do-gooders sat there and basked in the goodness of getting the Waning Star and nobly made plans for getting back to save the elves from a certain icy death, I took my 5 minutes in the vault. You know those people. It takes them an hour to decide they need a plan. Then oodles more time to actually come up with one. Not that it will be ever really followed. I figured I'd be in and out of the vault before they'd even realized I was gone. I mean... saving elves is all very nice (they should be nicely grateful, after all), but a treasure vault with a mountain of gold is simply not to be passed up. How did the others do it? Do I care? I guess not.

Excuse me while I count my gold....

2/25/06 & 2/26/06 [Lily]

I had another one of those ship dreams last night. This time I was on the ship, The Deuce, itself. A ship named the Raven was tacking along with us. The sun tinged the sky blood-red. I thought it was evening (“Red sun at night—Sailor's delight.”), but it turns out it was morning (“Red sun at morning—Sailor's warning.”). I woke up before finding out what we were being warned about.

I woke to hear a massive and constant roaring. Investigation showed that Karishti, the Djinn from the Plane of Air, had opened a portal to the Plane of Water. The roaring was the noise of a waterfall. After a bit of wrangling, we distributed the goodies in the chest. I got the Amulet of Polymorph Something. When I put it on, I ended up with fins, 4 arms, and a long serpent's tail. I wasn't too happy... I'd envisioned myself exploring the Plane of Water as a cute lil mermaid. Not a monsterous Naga. I couldn't take the amulet off either. Karishti (the Djinn) got it off by breaking the necklace chain. Then she pocketed it. I didn't even get a chance to see what having 4 arms could do for a girl. Sigh.

We headed into the Plane of Water after that. Vast ocean, blah, blah. Lots of swimming, blah, blah. Shark escort, bla.... Ack! We see an ice formation ahead of us and head towards that to see if there are caves or something to escape the sharks. They take off when we get near the iceberg. Plan worked, huh? Au contraire. Big, huge, massive, gigantic shark separates itself from the iceberg and heads for us. I see a man waving at us from one of the caves on the iceberg. [lily note: a new iceberg. and viktor is working with an ice titan. is this a related icy theme?] It was a race to see if we could reach the waving man before the big, huge, massive, gigantic shark ate us. And we made it into the cave, just.

The man who was waving at us? He's a giant! Like 25 feet tall! I'm like eye level with his ankle. Greenwich seems pretty nice though. He offers to help us find the City of Glass if we help him recover his ship. It's lodged in the iceberg about a league down and he can't get in to get it out because he's too big to fit in the cave opening near it. Oh, and it's surrounded by 30 murlocks (these critters have fishy heads and humanoid hands & feet).

Off we go. Greenwich distract the big, huge, massive, gigantic shark while we head to the ship. We find the ship easily enough along with 2 murlock guards. We quickly learned that (a) we are abysmal assassins and (b) weapons work differently in water. While we ineffectually dealt with the 2 guards, Karishti entered a cave near the ship and began filling it with air. The air pushed the other murlocks back which was lucky given how difficult it was to take out the 2 guards. I'm hoping that once we have air in the cave, Kylie's fireball will help dispatch the rest of the murlocks with more effectively.

2/18/06 [Lily]

We're in the Djinn's palace on the Plane of Air. The Djinn, Karishti, had a ceremony for all her dead people. She offered to come with us to the Plane of Water in the morning. That night we had our pick of palace rooms to sleep in. Some of them still containing the stuff of the previous (and now dead) occupants. I managed to be ‘good’ and not take anything that didn't belong to me.

Our sleep was interrupted though.... a fight in the palace ballroom. Three men came through a portal of glowing purple to kill the Djinn. Konima intervened and a battle broke out. That's the noise that woke the rest of us up. We rushed to the see what the noise was about and found the Djinn unconcious and nearly dead with Konima valiantly defending her. He'd killed one of the attackers by time we got there. A second one changed into a wolf form and stopped most of us from getting to Konima in time. Our fighter-types ganged up on the wolf and dispatched him. The third bad guy tried to escape with the dying Djinn, but Konima foiled that attempt. The bad guy settled for tossing Konima through the portal. He jumped through as well and it closed behind him.

A little healing and the Djinn woke up. She didn't seem to know why they were after her. Kylie was extremely distraught over Konima's kidnapping. She seems to be keeping a death-grip on the sword that he dropped before being tossed into the portal.

I searched the werewolf and found a message on him. In some language I didn't understand so I was forced to show it 'round and ask the others if they could decipher it. It took a spell cast by Kylie to figure out what it said. It was orders to kill the Djinn. And... it was signed by Viktor, Konima's father.

So, it looks like we'll be leaving for the Plane of Water immediately. The note mentioned a specific city that Viktor was heading to. I expect we'll be heading there soon.

Translation of note: “Erron, somehow the Djinn escaped her own palace. She will return once we have left... to bury her beloved comrades and restore her house to order. Bring her and hold her within the realm of Kartakass [lily note: this is apparently where Konima was tossed]. I will join you there once I've taken care of some business in the City of Glass [lily note: this city is on the Plane of Water]. The titan of ice makes headway, but without the Star, I fear we will never awaken the rest [lily note: the rest of the titans?!? bad!]. Move quickly.” Tis signed Viktor El'Lellyreilas.

2/12/06 [Lily]

We left Avreenla (the town/creature/airship) and are now on “solid” ground by a golden palace. It's very quiet and, suspiciously, there are no guards. Inside the open palace gates we find a courtyard covered with about 60 random pikes sticking out of the ground. At the top of each one is an impaled, dead guard. I mean, their bodies are stuck like 10 feet in the air. A careful search turns up only one person—barely alive.

With some teamwork, we get her down and heal her. She's dressed like the guards, but it turns out it's her palace. She's Karishti the Djinn, though initially she told us her name is Seraphi. Guess she didn't trust us. Though, I guess 60 dead people would make you distrust strangers a bit. She says she was attacked by a huge, brute of an elf that looked a tad like Faust. He exuded an aura of terror which lingered until Valoch entered the courtyard. [lily note: what's up with that? isn't he a druid, not a paladin?]

Anyway... the nasty elf (who Konima and Karishti both seem to know is Konima's father, though neither seems to want to admit it) was accompanied by a winged someone who seemed to deal with the guards. No clue on how he got all those pikes to sprout up like that. They came because they were looking for the Waning Star (yes, our Waning Star). He picked its last known location from her mind—the Plane of Water. We plan to chase after him to the Plane of Water to try and get it before he does. Karishti, the Djinn, decides to come with us.

Notes on new stuff we learned about the Waning Star:

It's an anchor for chaos and order, good and evil.
It was crafted by Osiris.
If you look at it and see only a coin, its power is lost to you.
It was made to travel unknown to most of its carriers.
It's powers are normally released slowly.
Only in times of great need should its full powers be used.

Previously...

Caden brought a small group of mercenaries (us) together to take advantage of the fighting throughout Terra Mystica. We fought a few campaigns with him and then picked up an arrogant elf (Kylie) who was looking for help for her people. Figuring there might be some treasure in it, we headed north to the elven territories.

The elves certainly do need help. An Ice Titan is bringing winter and ice back to the world (again) starting with the elven region. In our travels, we could see the huge titan in the distance. We also got to meet many Rokegriths (orcs) who seem to worship the titan and certainly form the bulk of his army. They've been harrying the elves. And, things have gotten much worse as the titan gets closer and closer to the elves' territory.

Our studies have indicated that the ice titan was once put to sleep by a Seed of Fire (from the Plane of Fire). That was the Plan B of the heroes of that time. Plan A was to get an artifact called the Waning Star. This artifact is moved between the planes, so we had to leave our world to begin a search of the planes for it.

Our first stop was the Astral Plane. Visiting here turned out to be a Bad Idea. We met up with a ship there.... a space ship from our past. In fact, it contained the party of heroes who used the Seed of Fire to put the ice titan to sleep 1000 years ago in our past. But for the party on the ship, none of that had happened yet. We met Faust who, in our time line, later became Caden and formed our little band of mercenaries. We also met a very young and inexperienced Konima. And that was the disasterous part. We didn't mean to do it, but somehow we said or did something which caused Faust et al to act differently and it totally changed history. Kylie did her best to put things back to normal, but some things, and notably Konima, remained changed.

From the ship, we headed off to an empty city. The city of Sigil. There, we spent quite a bit of time in the huge library trying to research our problems. Mostly we just acquired a few new members to our group as we woke people that had been suspended in time for untold ages. We did manage to get a key that should help us with further plane-hopping. We were able to use a device in the Wizards' school in Sigil to get us to the Plane of Air.

The Plane of Air provided us with a pleasant visit to a town aback a huge creature named Avreenla. And, it provided us with a nasty battle with flying attack birds. We saved Avreenla's town from the birds and in return Avreenla took us to the palace of a Djinn. Avreenla's town elder thought perhaps the Djinn might be able to help us in our quest for the Waning Star.

Our previous campaign journals