Trash and Burn

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Trash and Burn
GM: Scott Whittaker
Season: Summer 793 WK

Party

• Aqualina, Water Male Orc (Scribe)
• Slasher, Non-mage Male Orc (Mil Sci)
• Shooter, Non-mage Male Orc
• Gorthag, Non-mage Male Orc
• The Reverend. Necromancer Male Orc (Leader)
• Tony Birdane, Namer Male Elf
• Flamis, Fire Female Human

Time on adventure

01/04/92 to 12/05/92 AP

Employer

None

Mission

Basic exploration. Rescuing a dragon

Plane

Glorantha

Heroplane

Brittania (and maybe a few others)

Places visited

New Pavis - City on Gloranthia

Old Pavis - Ruins next door

London - City on Britannia

Major NPCs encountered

Windwhistle - a wyrm

Dasnac - Hellhound

Sarah - disembodied voice on the HMS Eagle

King Richard the Eighth - King of Brittania

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsu9301.zip

Scribe Notes

31/03/92 Guild meeting time again. Thank goodness for that. I had already missed one opportunity for adventuring because I wanted to get some training in using weapons. Starflower had pointed out, since I was in a reasonably tough and strong orcish body, that I might as well take advantage of it. Fair enough but I'll be very glad to get out of it. It's like wearing an ill fitting set of clothes. They just don't feel right. On Starflower's recommendation I signed up on an adventure that had four other orcs in it. This adventure involved a trip to a recently discovered plane, called Glorantha, where we were going to investigate a ruined city and see what we could find. No party employer this time, just that these orcs had heard of the place and wanted to have a look. My fellow adventurers on this trip were: Slasher - a very big orc with several battle wounds. He had a reasonably high PB for an orc. He was 5'11 with long arms. When asked what weapon he had, he thumped a GIGANTIC two handed sword on the table. He was also wearing chain mail and carrying a crossbow. He told us he was a close combat specialist. Shooter - Slasher's twin. He favoured the crossbow. Apart from that they were virtually identical. Gorthag - An uglier orc than the other two. He was wearing chain mail and a large sword. He told us he liked drinking. The Reverend (Rev). He was a shorter orc than the others, only 5'8, and 18 stone. He was wearing leather armour and carrying a hand and a half sword as well as a crossbow. Also there were little bits of skin hanging off him. The others referred to him as a 'holy man' but I soon figured it out. He was a necromancer. Tony Birdane. This guy wasn't an orc. Instead he introduced himself as a humanoid. He was tall (6'2") and average looking. Most of him was hidden in a greyish hooded cloak. He said he was a Namer by hobby. I strongly suspect he's an elf and I hope the others don't find out. Apparently orcs think that elves are rather tasty. As for me, Aqualina, currently I'm inhabiting a male orc body (I originally was a human female) which was 5'7" and just over 14 stone. I was immediately christened 'Runt' by the others as they reckoned I needed a proper orcish name. I was wearing a nondescript aquamarine cloak (and not much else, apart from the loincloth, the red sash of defense, a scimitar and crossbow). I told them I was a water mage. Talking of new names, Tony was christened Tody by the others. Party leader etc was decided next. The Reverend, became the leader as he was the smartest of their group. Slasher was the military scientist, and I became scribe. I think it was because I already had my pen and paper out. All the other orcs pointed at me and said "Scribe!". We discussed where we were going. The ruins in question are called Old Pavis, with the city of New Pavis next door. Old Pavis was a favourite spot for treasure hunters but there was so much of it that there was a good chance that there was still something to be found. Also the New Pavis authorities kept a strict control on things. The access to Glorantha was through the local Trade Delegation, just fifteen minutes away. No need to take horses. Once the meeting broke up, Tony and I went to the Guild Library to find out more about Glorantha as at least two other parties had been there. The others decided to check out the Gloranthan Troll bar, called the Thunderbreath Gobbleguts, that had opened up recently in the docks. Curiously enough, since the place opened, the number of robberies, muggings, etc in the area had been cut at least in half. The story is that the trolls had been discouraging crimes in that area as getting mugged on the way to the pub was bad for business. I found quite a lot of interesting things about the place. For one thing, magic is divided into Cults, rather than Colleges. New Pavis had rules about weapons and armour. No armour was to be worn and weapons had to be peacebonded. The orcs weren't going to like that. To be allowed onto Old Pavis we were going to have to fill out some registration forms for adventuring licenses. There was a curfew in force, at least there was when the last adventuring party was there. I left Tony in the library while I wandered down to the bar to find the others and tell them what I had found out. As I suspected they weren't too impressed when I told them about the peacebonding and the curfew. When I arrived, Rev was talking to a rather scorched looking human at one of the tables. It was one of the Guild firemages, a chap called Spandex. He had been one of the first adventurers to enter Glorantha and was now part of the trade delegation. Rev was quizzing him for information and was basically learning the same stuff as I had. The others looked like they were settling down for a long drinking session. 01/04/92 I got down to the courtyard just in time to watch Slasher attempting to break the record for the amount of stuff to be loaded onto a mule. I was hoping he wasn't going to break the mule. However the mule soon made its feelings known by kicking him. Slasher tried to hit it back and missed. Finally we split the gear between two mules. We headed off for the trade delegation building. Once there we were magically scanned for iron. Seemed the stuff was rather valuable over there. Instead they use bronze, which is rather valuable here. Hence there were quite a few controls on trading the stuff. Once we entered the courtyard we were told to stand on a circular patch. Without warning, everything faded out and we found ourselves moving rapidly through some sort of multicoloured pyrotechnic display. I thought it was fun but Gorthag and Shooter were rather ill. Shortly after that we materialized on an identical area. It was dusk here (Glorantha is 12 hours out of phase with Seagate) which suited us fine as we planned to travel during the night and rest by day. So we set off. Dawn found us near a convenient cave so we decided to settle down. Slasher kept himself busy setting up traps - lots of them all around the place, including some very large bear traps. Ugh! I'll have to be careful where I step. He had also scattered caltrops about. One trap had been baited with some silver pieces. Meanwhile I went water hunting but all I could find was a small brackish pool. 02/04/92 (Seagate time) I drew the last watch with Slasher. Near the end of it, just as it started to get dark, there was a large CLANG. Investigations showed that one of the bear traps had caught a sabretooth tiger. Looks like its sabretooth for breakfast. The silver pennies were gone but the trap hadn't been triggered. Slasher reckoned it was pixies and started making plans to catch one. I told him he was wasting his time as those things move very fast. When the others arrived, Rev started skinning the tiger while the others had breakfast. They ate it raw. I decided to make a small fire and cook my bit. .2. While we were munching on breakfast, we suddenly heard the sound of a horse rapidly approaching. To my dismay, I realised the rider was one of the Guild Fire Mages. Slasher yelled at her to stop as the path ahead was littered with caltrops. She managed to stop the horse before it stepped on too many of them but ended up falling off and landing in an undignified heap on the ground. She sat up and started removing caltrops, while muttering something under her breath. I recognised her as Flamis. I had never met her personally but she was a firemage with a reputation of being a bit of a pyromaniac, but not as crazy as some. She was a reasonably short person, just slightly taller than I had been, with short blond hair and a freckled complexion. Most of her clothing was hues of red. She told us that the Guild Astrologer reckoned that we were going to need some extra firepower. While I was 'meditating' Shooter found me. He wanted to know if the newcomer was a Guild member or potential dinner. I was very tempted but decided to tell the truth. A few hours later the camp had been dismantled and we set off. I decided to scout on ahead. I did notice however that Shooter was eying up Flamis's horse, Flamefoot, rather hungrily. I could tell he was restraining himself and reminding himself that it was not a good idea to eat a fellow party member's horse, especially when said party member could fry you in retaliation. Nothing of interest happened that 'day'. When dawn started lighting the sky we settled down to camp. 03/04/92 Again it was Slasher and me on watch when one of the traps went off. This time it was a large snake, about 9 foot long. Slasher immediately grabbed one end and began munching on it. With a muttered 'Excuse me' I grabbed my scimitar and chopped off three quarters of it before Slasher had a chance to scoff the lot. It got divided up among the rest of us. Of course the other orcs had it raw, but Flamis had already lit a fire so Tony, her and I cooked our bits. Flamis was spreading a thin layer of some reddish sauce on hers before cooking it. When Gorthag noticed, he said 'Oooh yummy. Tomato sauce'. Before anyone could stop him he had scooped up a BIG dollop of the stuff and had spread it rather thickly on his portion. Shooter decided to have some too. What it really was, hit them about a few minutes later (it takes a while for an orc to realise that something is not quite right). Both of them made a rush to the ale barrel and began guzzling down the liquid with gusto. Flamis explained that the stuff was actually tandoori sauce and one of its principle components was chili. Slasher was rather intrigued by the effects of this stuff on his fellow orcs and wondered if it would make a good contact poison. So he coated some on his sword reckoning it should do extra damage. Flamis asked him whether he 'wreally' (she's got a really bad lisp) wanted his sword to do extra damage. When he said yes, she muttered something. Suddenly his sword burst into flame. Slasher was so surprised he dropped it, then stared at Flamis very suspiciously. She said that it wouldn't hurt the person using the sword as it was special magical fire and would go out in a few minutes. Sure enough it did, however Slasher still regarded the sword suspiciously before picking it up. On the way down the trail, at about midnight, we suddenly spotted a huge twoheaded snail in front of us. At that moment from behind us came some sort of scorpion man, and from the sides came four humanoid goats. Ambush! We were neatly encircled. It was time to draw swords and go for it. I went for one of the goat things on Slasher's instructions and nearly dropped my sword. (We later found out that the goat-like humanoids were called broo). Soon all the orcs were engaged in combat, forming a sort of defensive ring around Flamis and Tony. Just then, the scorpionman was enveloped in flame. He must be tough, as he survived it. Meanwhile I was having difficulty hitting my broo but Slasher was helping. Once that one was down we went to help the Rev. I noticed a burst of flame out the corner of one eye. Flamis had toasted the snail. I heard her boast later that it was a double-effect dragon-flames. Finally we had defeated them all. We were planning on capturing the last one but it decided to kill itself first. The corpse of the snail revealed two uncut gems, one small and one large. Neither of them were magical, but they looked valuable. We decided to follow their trail to see where they had come from. To our surprise the trail suddenly disappeared in an area that Tony said had a magical aura. I backed off from it as I was convinced it was some sort of ward. Tony reckoned it was some sort of teleportation area. Just as he examined it, the magic disappeared. The cooked snail was rather delicious especially after Flamis added something she called garlic butter to it. According to Tony it was a Dragonsnail. Meanwhile Rev had been doing a Speak with Dead and discovered that these things had been sent by a magic-using broo to ambush anyone who came down the road. This broo was based somewhere in the ruins of Old Pavis. These creatures had been affected by chaos. Slasher wanted to know what chaos was so I attempted to demonstrate. First I heaped up three piles of sand then use a colour cantrip each to turn them different colours. The heaps represented order. Then I mixed them all up. That represented chaos. Slasher finally got it when he realised that the creatures were mixed up bits from normal creatures. A short while later we decided to camp. I managed to find a small pool of clear water that was big enough for me to immerse myself in. So I cast a waterbreathing on myself and went to sleep. A little while later I was disturbed by Slasher laying traps all over the place. 04/04/92 When I woke up and clambered out of the pool I suddenly realised I couldn't remember where Slasher had put all those traps. I had to call him over to help me out. He wasn't sure either but I managed to find my way back to where the others were. I think that dip must have put me in a good mood as I even said 'Good morning' to Flamis. Nothing very interesting happened for the next four days.

08/04/92

We finally reached the river that lead down to New Pavis. Flamis had offered to fly us down but we finally vetoed that idea because of the mules. Someone got the idea of making a raft to sail down. While the orcs got busy and did that I wandered over to the nearest fishing village and asked them what sort of fish were in the river. I was told that there were all sorts, including some sentient species. Now that was very interesting. I'd have to keep an eye open for them. As construction progressed, the resulting raft became more and more elaborate, finally resembling some sort of war barge. I helped out with the construction under the water then, when it was finished, cast a Ship Strength on the whole thing. The trip down the river was much faster than it would have been if we had rode down, especially with a Mage Wind going. It was also much more relaxing. However, to my disappointment, I saw no signs of intelligent aquatic life. Once we arrived at New Pavis, two hours later, we beached the raft and wandered over to the guard house. There, we had to fill out some forms. Another requirement was to remove our armour. This meant that we were treated to the sight of the orcs having to peel their armour off. It turned out they hadn't removed it for months. Slasher reckoned we should all stick together so we ended up staying in Rowdy Djoh's Inn. This was a bit of a dive but the orcs liked it. While some of them went off to be healed (and then get drunk) Flamis and I decided we would go shopping the next day, so we went off to our rooms. We ended up having a long talk. She's really okay once you get to know her. .3. 09/04/92 The orcs were noisily settling down for the day, talking loudly about which bit of the ruins they wanted to attack first, when Flamis and I got up. She got the jewels from Rev, explaining that she had this magical thief-proof purse, so they would be safe, and that we ought to get them valued. We borrowed the city map, and headed for the wealthy part of town. Flamis seemed to think that we'd have a better chance of finding a good jeweller there. She was right. We found a shop run by a dwarf. He examined the gems, and declared that the smaller gem was a ruby worth 200 lunars (a lunar is equivalent to a silver penny), and the larger at least 5000 due to its rarity, although he couldn't tell us what it was. We could bring them back later and he'd get his father to identify it. When Flamis told him where we got them from, he dropped it as though he'd been stung, exclaiming that the gems must be contaminated by the chaos creature. We had to take them to the temple to get them cleansed (which cost a hundred lunars, even though as it turned the magical fire had done a pretty good clean-up job). The priests were shocked when we told them we'd eaten toasted dragon snail. I vowed never to eat chaos creature again. Flamis wanted to find out more about the chaos creatures and the gods these people keep on talking about, so we went to the Temple of Lhankor Mhy, the deity of knowledge, where they had lots of books and people who could answer our questions. It turned out that chaos creatures were made by the chaos gods. There are lots more kinds, including blobby things that stick to ceilings and drop on people and a thing that sounded a minotaur with a pumpkin head. Real strange beasties. They also told us that there was currently an information swap between them and Alusia. I went off to talk to the people at the local river temple, while Flamis went to the Yelmalio temple. We figured that this was the closest one to the Fire College even though it was the Sun God. I found out to my surprise and delight that there really are intelligent fish in this place. It was afternoon by the time we got back and rested a while before waking the orcs in time to get to our appointment with the dwarves. The dwarf's father told us that the larger jewel was a very rare purple diamond. He agreed to cut it for 5000 sp and half the offcuts. As a cut gem it would be worth 30000 lunars here, and who knows how much back in Seagate. He also agreed to set the ruby in a ring for Flamis, who seemed to fancy it. (Ruby = red = fire-mage = it figures...) The orcs had come up with a scheme for making broo-skin armour. They have the skin, but cleansing it will be risky and will cost 6000 lunars. I agreed to loan them the money, and the Rev signed for it. It will be ready in two weeks time. As twilight fell we crossed the bridge, heading for the Griffon Gate into Old Pavis. Flamis and Tony were riding the mules, since their horses were left at the Inn. The orcs are planning on lots of heavy treasure so we needed the mules. There were guards at the gate who checked our passes and let us in. The big rubble was a pretty good description of that place. Heaps of broken stone stretched for miles and miles in front of us. Not a single intact building in sight. Flamis wondered aloud as we clambered over the wreckage what kind of explosion could have flattened an entire city like this. Then one of the orcs called out and pointed. A dark hole against the darkness which could only be a stairway leading down. The orcs formed up with Flamis and Tony in the middle, and down we crept. A passage opened up to the side. Flamis, who can see further into the darkness than the rest of us, said that there were three entrances leading off to the south before the passage ended. In front of us we could all just make out a doorway. Shooter kicked the door open and Slasher slipped into the room. Not cautiously enough. Something fell from the ceiling and wrapped him up like a slimy blanket. Shooter fired, doing more damage to Slasher than to the thing. Flamis cast and the thing went up in a ball of flame, revealing a very angry but completely unsinged Slasher. In the remains of the blob there was yet another gem. Abruptly Flamis called for silence. Then we all heard it. A noise. From past the door on the east wall. Cautiously Rev pried the door open with a crowbar. Revealing blackness. Magical darkness which this see-in-the-dark infravision stuff can't penetrate. It advanced towards us. I backed away. thinking this could be very dangerous magic. Slasher fired into the darkness, followed by Shooter and Gorthag. Something unhuman screamed. Suddenly a evil leering creature with great leathery wings loomed out of the darkness. A gargoyle. Followed closely by a dark troll and two trollkin. The trollkin set about clobbering Rev, while the rest of us (except Flamis who was busy trying to cast spells, backfiring most of them as I discovered later) surrounded the gargoyle. It looked to be getting the better of the fight until I managed to get an especially good hit on it from the rear. Then Slasher finished it off. The troll took a lot of killing but eventually it was all over. Rev had got one of his trollkin, and Tony had managed to skewer the other with his rapier. Only one of Flamis' spells had gone off and that didn't do much. She was looking tired and distinctly fuming, muttering nasty words in dwarvish. The orcs looked hurt. Only Tony and I were undamaged. But there was treasure. The troll had a magical wand (which Tony said detected silver) and a magical crystal (which stored fatigue). Flamis' eyes lit up at that one. She explained later that she was tired of running out of fatigue from casting spells. Apart from that we found 98 copper 31 silver 6 gold, 2 cut gems, an earring, a gold circlet, and a scroll written in an arcane runic script that none of us recognised. We decided to rest for a while so we could get some fatigue back. Tony and I stayed on watch while the others rested. Twelve hours later we felt a bit more alert. 10/04/92 We decided to take the lot back to the city and discovered it was near midday. The orcs got themselves healed (cost 300 silver) while Flamis and I got the items divinated. The priests took the scroll in exchange for the divination. We found out that the crystal did indeed store fatigue points, up to eight of them, but there had to be at least one left in it at all times. It also had to be attuned to the owner. Flamis attempted to attune it but failed. When no one else objected to her claiming this object for herself, she paid 500sp for one of the priests to help her attune it. The wand did detect silver, any silver within 40 feet, but only had an 80 percent success rate. No one else wanted it so I hung onto it for now. I suppose it could be useful for locating sunken treasure ships. Once twilight came around, we headed back to the ruins and reached the spot where we had been and carried on down the corridor. In a side room, we found one of those pumpkin headed chaos creatures asleep. Instantly all the orcs aimed their crossbows at it. I protested at first, saying that this didn't seem to be an honourable act, but the others pointed out that chaos creatures weren't very honourable anyway. So my crossbow bolt joined the volley. Exit one pumpkinhead. There we found 55cp, 9sp and a gem in the bedding. The gem was picked up with the aid of a rag and securely wrapped in it, in case it was chaos contaminated. I tried the wand and discovered there was silver in the next room. So we went to check. In here were four figures standing around some sacks. They were troll sized and one was wearing what looked like silver armour. Tony then told us that it was a zombie. We all aimed our crossbows at it and fired. It fell over. Meanwhile the other dark troll zombies shuffled out. These were easily defeated owing to the fact that only one zombie could fit through the door at a time. So it was a case of queue up here to be really dead undead. In this room we found 142 copper, 20 silver, 7 gold, 5000 lead pieces (troll currency the orcs said) and a size 23 set of silver chain mail. Troll sized. Too big for even our largest orc. Since we had now cleaned out this area, it was decided to make it our base of operations. The corridor terminated in another blocked stairway. According to what we could figure out, topside, the entire building was blocking it. .4. 11/04/92 We rested here for the 'night'. In the "morning" we discussed what sort of treasure that we wanted to find. Of course the orcs wanted to find really BIG swords. After a while I got bored with all this talk of weapons and wandered off in the direction of the large, flooded, quarry. About quarter of an hour later Flamis caught up with me. I hadn't gone far. The others weren't very far behind her. Flamis decided she needed a very large fire so she could perform some sort of ritual. We managed to find enough wood for a reasonable sized bonfire but that was it. We lit the fire and Flamis sat in it. She also wanted if anyone wanted a Protection from Magical Fire. I took one. Then she started concentrating on what she called a Flame Sight ritual while the rest of us kept watch. While she was sat busy with the ritual we were visited by a wingless dragon, otherwise known as a 'wyrm'. His name was Windwhistler and he told us that he was a priest of the Sun Dragon. He had flown over to see what we were up to, and was soon satisfied we were nothing to do with Chaos. Just then Flamis fell unconscious in the fire. Frantically we attempted to put out enough of it so we could get to her. Windwhistler told us not to worry and that he would help. By some magical means Flamis was soon awake and the fire was out. She told us that she had seen a vision of a black clad human with horns and a belt of living heads. Windwhistler identified the creature as a worshipper of Thanata - a Chaos God. Flamis also mentioned she saw a large sword with a black hilt in the background. Of course the other orcs wanted it. Windwhistler warned them against it. Soon the wyrm left us as he had other places to go to. He did mention that Alusia seemed like a nice place and that he might pay a visit. Flamis warned him to be careful as there are a lot of dragon hunters in our plane. We had already determined that the Thanata dude lived somewhere below the rubble in this area so we started having a poke around. I was feeling rather nervous about this. An hour or so later, Shooter fell down a hole. He was unhurt and the rest of us followed. Flamis was one of the last down and she was caught by the other orcs. The corridor went west and was only wide enough to go single file. Gorthag volunteered to go to the front. Soon we found a small room with doors to the north and south. Gorthag opened the north door and got hit by a poison trap. Beyond that we were attacked by a dire wolf with some sort of cold gas attack. We all took damage from it while the three big orcs jumped on it and wrestled it. Meanwhile the rest of us backed into the room where I cast Resist Colds all round while Flamis let loose with a DragonFlames, killing the wolf. Tony read the wolf's aura and told us that its chaos mutation was caused by a priest of Thed, cast about a week ago. The mutations were extra toughness and the cold breath. The corridor lead into a room with three levers on the wall. We decided to check the other door in the first wall. Sure enough there was another dire wolf. We all shot at it and it died. At the end of that corridor was a room that was a mirror image of the other one - again with three levers. We went back to the first room. Some aura readings and we discovered that the switches were used to open secret doors. We had a hot meal and four hours rest before proceeding.

12/04/92

A secret door had already been spotted in the north wall, but we found that other secret doors were opened when only one of the levers were down, one in the south and one in the east. The north one lead to a blocked passage. The same thing happened in the other room and we soon determined that a north/south corridor ran between the two rooms with the opposite corridors blocked. That left us with three eastwards corridors to explore. We wandered down the one from the northern room, which turned south and dead ended. There was a door on the corner in the north wall. A sign said Mirror Room. According to Tony. it hadn't been opened for ten months. The southern corridor was a mirror image except there was no sign on the door. Last opened, about a year ago. The centre one went down twenty five feet and ended in a door. There was no sign there either. Last opened eight weeks ago. The wand detected silver in a north-easterly direction in the mirror room. We opened it. Inside was a sign on the wall saying 'Fire. Walk with me'. The floor was a void except for four fire trails and an ice trail. They all ended up at a door on the opposite wall. Flamis and Slasher tried the fire trails and got burnt. Gorthag tried the ice. He seemed quite safe as he walked along it and reached the other door. He opened the door and saw four goblins, three even bigger goblins, a goblin king, a dire wolf, and a broo. The orcs carefully shut the door and locked it. When we opened the door on the end of the southern corridor. The sign in this room said "Trust in Fate to get through. All Fates must be conquered". Again the floor was void except for flat topped pillars, at floor level, with different symbols on them. Slasher hit a pillar with a sledge hammer and started vibrating. We soon found out that the circle with a dot inside is the symbol of fire, while the toroids were cold. We found we had to jump from symbol to symbol but only land on the stars. All of them had to be landed on. This meant leaping over the other ones. Well, we all tried, some were more successful than most (lucky Flamis - she doesn't burn easily and could heal herself when she did). If we missed we ended up either landing on a strange symbol and being affected or being sent back to the start. I took damage from the fire and cold, managed to miss and land on a chaos one. I was so close to the other door that I decided to take a chance and step on the last unknown symbol, instead jumping and risking being teleported back to the start. It turned out to be pain and it felt like my insides were being ripped apart. I fell through the door, barely conscious and definitely exhausted. For some reason Shooter found he was allergic to his armour so I lent him my sash. .5. Inside we discovered a stone dragon. We all felt awed. I curtseyed. Flamis and the big orcs went for the door - which was sealed. Tony fainted. The dragon told us that he had been imprisoned here during the Chaos Wars - a long time ago. We had to find three swords and stick them in him to free him. One had a red hilt, one was white, and the other was black. Guess which black one. We also had to find a staff with a retractable blade and stick that in him as well. They are somewhere in this complex and we may keep them when we have finished as well as any treasure we find. This must qualify as a good deed. We also found out that his main power was Transformation. Even better. Maybe I can get my old body back this way. A wave of warmth passed over us all and we found that we were fully healed and any chaos features removed. That meant Shooter could put his armour back on and I got my sash back. A door behind the dragon lead towards a passageway. The walls were mostly covered in carvings of Chaos defeating everything. Not nice. A hundred and fifty feet down we encountered a wall of blackness. Occasionally flashes of colour could be seen. Tony said that it was some sort of teleportation field with a destination of Glorantha. We tied ourselves together, however as the first one went through the rope parted with a very clean cut. I wasn't very sure about this at all and Flamis had to talk me into going through it, mainly by pointing out that I didn't really want to stay there by myself. We found ourselves in a hexagonal room with a black marble floor. I felt like I had been in a desert for a week - not a pleasant feeling for a water mage. I couldn't detect any water either. All I felt was complete misery while the others tried experiments. The orcs attempted to break down the walls and only succeeded in breaking the pickaxe. Finally we determined that all walls and floor were magical and the walls needed to be hit in sequence. We did so and the entire room started spinning. I passed out. When I came around, I found myself in a crumpled heap in a large square room with four doors, one in each room. Above each door was a symbol, a different one for each door. My dowsing detected water behind the east door, and the north door symbol we remembered as being fire. From that we deduced that west was earth and south was air. This was verified by opening the doors. We found a wall of water, a churning vortex of air, non-burning fire, and a solid wall of earth. I felt better as soon as I touched the water and cast Water Breathing on the entire party. I wanted to head straight in the water but Rev advised caution. Guess he's right. We ended up deciding to try the water anyway. I soon found this water was the oddest I had ever encountered. For one thing the waterbreathing was redundant. We could have breathed it unaided and we could talk to each other. Also it was possible to standard walk without any visible means of support. However I could still swim, if I wanted to. Flamis spotted something glinting below so we went down to look. It turned out to be an extended octagonal cylinder with a button on each face. The buttons are black and each side was a different colour of the rainbow, all colours plus octarine. Also there was a button on each end. When Gorthag pushed one of the end buttons, the end rose slightly, rotated one face, then popped back in again. Meanwhile I decided to summon a dolphin to see what we could find out about this place. The spell worked but somehow I don't think it was a dolphin I got. About that time Gorthag pressed both ends of the device. Both ends spun off but Rev managed to catch them He put them in his pack then looked into the cylinder. For some reason he became entranced and we had to snap him out of it. Then we found that the lids wouldn't stay on. Somebody pressed the button on the octarine face and we were all enveloped in scintillating colours which seemed to be sinking into us before it vanished. The item then fell apart and disappeared, including the two end caps. The last magic to impact on us was Light Alteration. Just then I spotted something swimming towards us. It was white and had what looked like a bottle for a nose. By the way it was swimming it looked more like some sort of shark. Rev asked it the way out. It wasn't sure. but it did know the way to a place where we could find lots of beer. The orcs went straight for it. It took quite a bit to coax them out of it. I think discovering the area of vodka just in front of the way out helped. The vodka was very intoxicating and was even better than the stuff Kishwa had. I decided to capture some in my waterskin and take it back. Hopefully I wouldn't drink it first. This stuff was GOOD. Somehow I made it though the opening but everything after that was a bit fuzzy. I think I went to sleep. I think we all did. 13/04/92 We woke up with no hangover, surprisingly enough, and discovered we were lying on a floor littered with cushions. There was a door in one wall. We went through it and entered a room containing a table and chairs. A voice said 'What do you want?'. It seemed to be coming from the table. It didn't take us long to determine that whatever food we ordered would appear on the table, however the table did balk at some of the orc's selections such as marinated elf. As well as the usual breakfast, I ended up with several bars of chocolate, some weybread, fruit, faerie wine (just like the stuff on Tir-Na-Nog without the magical effects), doughnuts (just like the ones from Alphonses) and some icecream. The last two were Flamis's idea. The doughnuts were so delicious I had to request some more because I ate the first lot without realising it. Also, somehow, Shooter had managed to create some light while Slasher had been blasted by a shockwave. I think it was because the Rev said that the place was high mana. Shooter then proclaimed he was a mage too. After a while of this, the table 'suggested' we had had enough and that we should leave. We took the hint, went through the door, and found ourselves standing in what looked like a main street. Tony then told us that this plane was called HeroPlane. The street was empty and Flamis took the opportunity to protect us all from magical fire. Around us were signs pointing in different directions. One said 'Information' and another said 'Clothing' and the one pointing behind us was 'Eatery'. Flamis and I wanted to have a look at the clothing shop. If it was anything like the eatery behind us, then there were somethings I could finally get - once I had the body to wear them. However Rev decided we were going to the library so we started following the path labelled 'Information'. As we did. everything else vanished apart from the building ahead of us. We reached it and entered. Inside were rows and rows of books and manuscripts. Just inside the entrance was a counter, blocking further progress. Something metallic came out from behind it and asked us what we wanted to know. Rev did most of the talking. We found out that HeroPlane was connected to all other planes and there were at least 33,516 ways to get there. We had to find the correct gate to get back to Glorantha. When Flamis asked what gate we required we all felt some mana impact. It was like being probed by a Mind Mage. The being behind the counter said we needed to find a water gate. Meanwhile Shooter was wanting to know how to become death aspected so I told him about the lake near the drow city I encountered on my last adventure. He managed to get a map for it. Rev obtained a map showing where the portals are and was told that we would find the staff through the water gate. Flamis was getting plans for some sort of weapon called a bazooka, while the orcs were getting drawings of double crossbows. I was just getting bored. We followed the path to where the water gate was located and found a small lake. We jumped in. To my surprise it wasn't water and we ended up landing in a heap of feathers contained in a small room. There was a door in the wall. Somehow Shooter's sword was turned a bright neon pink. He started scraping the colour off until the sword burst into fire. Flamis was grinning. Tony then informed us we were back on Glorantha. The door opened out into a corridor and we cautiously advanced down it. Suddenly the floor dropped out from under us and we found ourselves spiralling down a descending shaft. I was hoping there would be water at the bottom so twisted around so I was diving. Wrong move. We smacked straight into some sort of invisible barrier and I managed to dislocate a shoulder. Fortunately it wasn't my weapon arm. This time we were inside a large crystal chamber which someone remarked could be the inside of a gem. Floating in the centre was the staff, surrounded by a high magical field. I threw a chocolate wrapping at it and the wrapping went right through it. That told me that the staff was somehow out of phase with the rest of reality. Flamis tried to snare it with a web but the web had nothing to hang on to. We sat and meditated on the problem for a while while purifying. Shooter discovered that it was possible to float all around the room, as if we were in water, so it wasn't long before they're all bouncing around the place and cannoning off the walls, ceiling and floor. Flamis then tried to hit it with a Weapon of Flames spell. To her utter surprise, a fiery duplicate of the staff appeared. She later commented she had to be at least another five ranks more experienced for that to happen. The original staff still floated there, unharmed and untouchable. Meanwhile I was speculating whether that high mana zone around the staff could be treated as if it was water, irregardless of what effects Flamis was observing. I mean firemages cannot cast spells in water, but then all the water I had encountered so far had been of a rather unusual nature. Since my water form talent also makes me partially invisible, it might put me in phase with the staff. A million to one guess but there was nothing to lose. So I tried it. After the fourth attempt of entering the zone (that talent still needs practise) I felt the talent kick in. I reached out and found I could now touch the staff. So I grabbed it and cancelled the talent. The staff also phased into solid form. Suddenly we found ourselves back in the room with the four doors leading into the elemental areas. The water one was now sealed. One down, three to go. .6. Flamis examined the staff, especially the four buttons spaced evenly around it. She came to the conclusion that any one of them would be used to cause the blade to spring out. I presume that was so at least one button would be easily accessible. Meanwhile Slasher is wanting to give my shoulder orcish first aid. I declined his offer. Shooter pressed one of the buttons and a six inch long, wicked looking blade sprang out from the end of the staff. It was then possible to twist the other end in order for the blade to spring back. Flamis took the staff back and gave it several practise swings. She must have been pleased with the results as she stowed it with her other one. We entered the fire door and found ourselves surrounded in flame. Fortunately Flamis's magical fire protections were keeping us from harm. Like the water plane, it was possible to walk, or swim. I chose the latter. After a short while we noticed that Flamis was turning into a fire creature. It didn't take us long to realise that the same thing was happening to the rest of us, although a bit more slowly. A lot more slowly in my case. I tried resisting the effects but to no avail. Soon Flamis looked like the fiery equivalent of my water form. The orcs followed suit ten minutes later and I was another ten minutes behind them. A rather odd experience but one that was not totally unpleasant. Flamis suddenly became even more fiery as she switched on her fireflight and zoomed ahead of us. Suddenly we spot two, rather large, fiery creatures - this planes version of fire giants, that want to invite us for a six course lunch, with us as the courses. Flamis sped around behind them while I ascended. The Rev dropped. The others stayed where they were, preparing their crossbows. We all fired at the left target - as Slasher instructed. It died instantly. The crossbow bolts also burnt up. The other creature charged the group of orcs. Meanwhile Rev ascended rapidly towards it sword drawn. I decided that was a tactic worthy of a swordfish and decided to do the same. The giant managed to hit Slasher. Slasher's flame flickered and nearly went out. At that point Flamis cast a spell and the giant went out. Slasher was looking in a rather bad way so Flamis fed him some healing potion. Then I got her to put a fire flight on me so I could scout ahead as well. We were barrelling along at a fair pace when we suddenly bounced into some sort of invisible barrier. On the other side was a stream. Boy, did it look inviting. However there seemed to be no way in, or around either. I tried going up and down but the stream remained in front. Flamis sped off to see whether or not it was possible to find a gap from following the stream and discovered it travelled in a circle. As far as I could tell, that was real water on the other side and it was looking more inviting by the second.

We tried hitting it and throwing spells at it but nothing worked. Flamis was rapidly going through her repertoire. Finally she used Web of Fire and somehow managed to penetrate the barrier with it. We touched a strand of the web and immediately found ourselves on the other side. The stream was now behind us with a barrier blocking access. Darn it. We continued on. Soon Slasher spotted three glittering pyramids in the distance so we decided to see what they were. They turned out to be sentient. One spoke, reckoning Slasher looked tasty. Rev asked them for the way out of this plane of fire and was told that we needed to find the fire door. It didn't matter in what direction it was in. They told us they hadn't seen the sword we were looking for either. Flamis was trying to burn a hole through the base of one of them, by using a Heat Metal spell but all the reaction she got was the pyramid thanking her for a very pleasurable sensation. Meanwhile I was getting bored with this and started continuing on in the direction we were going. Any direction seemed to be as good in this place. The others finally caught up. When we looked back, the pyramid had gone. At that moment we heard a chuckle from an indeterminate source. Just then, in front of us, a hobbit appeared. The three big orcs rushed forwards and started hitting it. It didn't seem to be affected by that. Shooter decided to try another 'magical' incantation. The hobbit disappeared, leaving Shooter convinced that he actually was some sort of mage. I was suddenly passed by three large orcs as a large, red hilted sword, appeared in front of us. They tried to get it but found that it was illusionary, just like the staff was. Didn't stop them trying to grab it though. A hellhound then appeared introducing himself as Drasnac, which Rev started to have a chat to. I was more interested in watching the antics of the other orcs. They turned to attack the hound, but beams of light from the hound hit their weapons and caused them to appear 40 feet away. There was an immediate mad scramble for them. Meanwhile Flamis cast a Weapon of Flames on the sword and this time it worked. Rev grabbed the sword and had to evade the other three rushing at it all yelling "Mine!" Meanwhile I saw the way out, straight up, and went for it. I had had enough of this place. Once we found ourselves back in the room (with the fire door now sealed as well) Rev had the other three dice for the sword. Gorthag won. The look on his face was like he was in love. Flamis discovered that her Aspect had changed from water to fire. In fact it was more like double fire. Fortunately I still had my water aspect. Flamis also had some special potions of elemental water which could change an Aspect to water. Since she couldn't use them any more she gave them to me. Just in case my aspect got changed. Tony had determined that the sword was semi-sentient and magical with a primary purpose of containment. Gorthag would need to bond with it in order to communicate with it. That shouldn't be too difficult. Gorthag and that sword looked like they were going to be inseparable. The next room we entered was through the Air door. I presume it's the white hilted sword we're after now. This time, after stepping through, we found ourselves on the deck of a ship. At least that's what it looked like, even though the deck was enclosed in some sort of glass. All we could see out was air. There was a layer of clouds far below. Also on deck was a bunch of men in uniform. They looked like some sort of ships officers. One of them stepped up to us and asked us where we had come from and what we were doing here. Rev attempted to explain. To our surprise he just nodded and said that we weren't the first to appear in that manner. He then summoned a couple of the officers and told them to conduct us to the VIP quarters. I soon figured that this guy was the captain. He also told us this was the HMS Eagle and they were on their way to find one of their ships that had gone missing. We were taken to some plush quarters and shown inside. Then we discovered there was some sort of force barrier blocking the entrance. The table was stocked high with food. I started eating some of the fruit. Rev reckoned I should be eating more red meat as other orcs do. I strongly reminded him I'm not actually an orc and stalked off to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. It didn't take me long to figure out how to fill the bath with water. Once that was done I cast waterbreathing, then immersed myself and had a nap. When I finally awoke I was dimly aware of someone banging at the door. So I got dressed and went to see who it was. It was Flamis. Apparently the others had been getting a little concerned. The Captain was there too. He introduced us to a disembodied feminine voice which seemed to come from midair who said her name was Sarah and she was the ship. The Captain then explained that all mages had to be registered and we all had to put our arms in this box to register the fact that we were mages. I did so and felt a pinprick. Flamis, Tony and Rev did likewise. Even Shooter put his arm in the box. Obviously he still thinks he's a mage as well. The Captain then showed us around the ship, starting at the firing range since the orcs wanted to know about the weapons that the guards were carrying. So we were showed something called high explosive bullets which destroyed half the target. Of course the orcs wanted one of those weapons. Somehow I suspected showing them the ships armoury and weapons was not a good idea. We were also shown places like the ships recreation room, pool, library and something called a movie theatre where moving pictures could be seen. The three big orcs were rather fascinated with that so we left them there. Sarah arranged for some suitable entertainment for them. Meanwhile the rest of us were in the library studying this place. Tony told us that the plane we were on was called Brittania. I'm not sure what the others were reading about but I asked Sarah to show me some pictures of various things such as coral reefs, fish life. She said that merfolk also lived here so I asked her to show me some scenes of their culture and society. After a while I got bored with looking at pictures so I wandered off, enjoyed the pool for a bit then went back to our room. There I just sat and talked with Sarah about various matters. Meanwhile Flamis had gone to one of their meditation rooms and started a FlameSight ritual in order to get a location for the sword. She received a picture of a fortress. When she described it to Sarah, Sarah recognised it as their destination, some sort of pirate base in a place called Afghanistan. Later on, we assembled in our room, except the three big orcs who had decided to take up permanent residence in the movie theatre, and planned how we were going to get in this place. I reckoned that since this society was air based then why couldn't we sneak into this fortress from underneath, especially if an underground river flowed under it. After all they had to get their water from somewhere. Rev thought about it then concluded it was an excellent suggestion. .7. We found the other orcs in the movie theatre and discovered they were watching something called 'cartoons'. Something about a wolf like creature trying to catch a very fast bird. It was very violent. The orcs were loving it. So did Flamis when things started exploding. Anyway we explained to them what we were going to do. They started going on about some strange weapons that they had seen in the movies that someone by the name of Rambo had been using and that they wanted some. Sarah wasn't about to give them any. Finally we left them to it.