Earth. Under Sky, Under Earth

Scribe Notes

Summary

GM: Keith
Season: Autumn 825 WK
Night: Tuesdays
Location: Online
Level: Medium/High

Party

1. ??? - Jacqui
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four
5. Five
6. Six Dylan

Employer

Adventure Background

Back in 793, the Gentlefolks Adventuring Society, discovered a spelljamming helm in the sunken city of Pasifika. The helm was fitted to a ship, christened the Eagle and the crew and a Guild Party went to the moon. Exploring the ruins there, they discovered a library that contained books written in an unknown language and kept preserved by a magical stasis field. Unfortunately if a book is removed from this field, they rapidly crumble into dust. So this library was left alone until it would be possible to translate the books in situ. A few more flights to the moon were done up until 796, but after that, there seemed little point in returning especially since, it took at least three days to get to the moon, and even to reach Thunor would take roughly seven months. Freya could be reached in three months but a portal there had already been discovered and opened in 795. So there seemed little need for the Eagle so it was put in storage. Plus, the moon was crawling with hostile bugs.

During the last flight to the moon, a research facility had been discovered where research had been done into superluminary flight. The crystal found there was installed into a mush more powerful helm that was on [City in Flight | a more powerful helm]] A smaller, and cracked crystal, was also retrieved and fitted onto the Eagle but it was decided not to test it in case it broke and left the ship and crew stranded in deep space. However, when in Autumn 815, when the sun went out, the Eagle was launched in an attempt to find out what was going on. The crystal actually did make the helm faster but the trip would still take over a week, as they didn't want to push it too hard. However, about five or six days into the trip, the sun flared up again and, rather be fried in the intense heat, they took the chance and dialled up full power. The crystal cracked, dropping them back to their usual speed, but they had managed to jump out of danger and end up near Freya, where they landed, disassembled the ship, and passed all the pieces through the portal to Alusia.

During the last five years, it became possible to translate all those books, while avoiding the Selenites, thanks to rune portals from ship to library (the ship lands in a random spot, or hovers, then takes off again), bubbles of force, and translation spells. It was discovered that the helm they were using is a prototype for 'proof of concept' and had been hurriedly dispatched to Pasifika while the city was being overrun with Selenites. This is why it is so slow compared to what the theory says. A normal helm should have a maximum speed of 400 million miles per hour instead of the 2,500mph of the 'Eagle', but it seemed, before the crystal broke, they got very close to that speed. So, either they need a new crystal or a more advanced helm, or both.

On a different matter, a search had been going on for the fundamental 'elements' of the Alusian Plane in order to either destroy or banish the eldritch horrors' lurking in Pasifika. It is highly likely there is a Great Old One sleeping at the bottom of the Abyssal Trench that needs to be dealt with by bombarding it with a blast of Elemental Harmony vibrating at the correct cosmic frequencies given by the periodic motions of the planets, i.e. the 'Song of the Spheres'. The harmonics of the Alusian system has been calculated but obtaining samples of the pure Elements has taken much of the preceding two years and several red herrings. Given that each planet represents an element, it was thought that pure Earth would be present on Ariel, yet astrology readings seemed to contradict this. It wasn't before Lunarian astrology was taken into account that it was realised that Earth equaled Alusia and that it was likely that the astrology reading 'Earth, Under Sky, Under Earth' referred to the Pellucidar Cavern, the same place where the raw crystals, being a rare type of quartz, can be found for the helm.