The Fox vs The Marquessa

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Fox vs The Marquessa
GM: Stephen
Season: Summer 817 wk
Night: Thu in Royal Oak
Level: High

Party

1. Lath - (f) Human Air Jono
2. Erzsabet, Lady Hillborne - (f) Human Namer Julia
3. Zohar Haima - (m) Human Water, Admiral of the WK Chris
4. Ace, the wonder dog - Dean
5. Starflower - (f) Elven Mind - Jacqui
6. WordSmith - (m) Human/Lizard Namer - Errol
7. Cher, Lady Maltheim Cross, Suarime Binder, played by Sean

Employers

1. Count Richard of Foxcourt
2. Marquessa Dulcinea of Bowcourt

Mission

Truth, Justice, and Peace

1. Bring Marquessa Dulcinea to justice for her crimes against Foxcourt and the people of Bowcourt. Gratuity of ~50,000sp Alchemical services each.
2. Bring Richard formerly of Foxcourt to justice for treason and conspiracy in the murder of Duke Frederick of Aquila. 1,000tsg bounty.

Required skills, actions or mannerisms

Subtlety: This is defined as; delicate or faint and mysterious, cunning, wily, or crafty – aka ingenious, clever, skillful, adroit, cunning, crafty, wily, artful, devious. Also so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyse or describe and making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something delicate.
Discretion: This is being careful and prudent in one's speech or actions, especially in order to keep something confidential or to avoid embarrassment.

Lines of Enquiry

1 - After meeting with our employers separately we agreed to undertake investigations on their behalf.
We then before heading to the WK undertook a side trip towards the Lunar Empire and went to see the fates who gave us an avenue to explore to satisfy our employers to an extent. This however involves correcting some Chaos incursions to the plane by the placement of some items of Law in strategic places. The particular items of Law are to be found in the city of the Ruby Scourge.
While there we also visited Death who advised us that the Ruby Scourge was overdue Deaths invitation to rest awhile with him.
Oh what to do!

2 - We started on the western kingdom politics angle and we uncover some uncomfortable truths but nothing amazing.

3 -

Scribe Notes

Chapter One: Of Many Meetings

We began by meeting with Karli the Namer, and were instructed firmly not to mess things up. Most especially, Carzala should not become part of the Western Kingdom. Then we were to meet with the Marquesa, followed by the Count. We were led into a sitting room where there was a young human lady, taking tea. She said that the Marquesa would be seeing us soon. Then the Lady herself appeared, a remarkably well-preserved human woman. She explained that Richard of Foxcourt had taken advantage of the current situation to return and to stir up strife in the area, and that she believed that he was about to start a civil war. She told us that she authorised us to carry out the sentences that had previously been handed down on, and gave us a sheaf of legal documents. She expected us to follow all the laws of the Kingdom in so doing. No impropriety must be seen. We obtained permission to further investigate. She was offering cash. Before going to meet with Richard, we studied the legal documents. Richard was found guilty of being complicit in the murder of the Arch-duke in 804, and sentenced to death or exile. Should he ever set foot in the Western Kingdom he can be executed.
We are then led into a somewhat more masculine room, where a human male was waiting. He offered wine. He then told us that he had been framed for something that he did not do because it was politically expedient; the Marquesa wishing to place one of her nieces in charge in Foxcourt. His troops had been active in defending Foxcourt against the drow; but now the Marquesa’s troops were active in Foxcourt, causing a lot of hatred and strife. He presented us with legal documents accusing the Marquesa. He offered the services of master alchemists, skilled in working with warpstone.
Regarding Michaelmas. The official story was that agents of Rashak entered the cathedral and destroyed all and sundry. Richard was killed, but survived, and that made him vulnerable to accusation. The other survivors were the Marquesa, her son, and two bodyguards. It is likely that the agent who betrayed the location to Rashak was also killed. The church itself should have provided ample protection against attack.

Day 2
Since it might be relevant, we studied and copied maps of the Western Kingdom, especially of Foxcourt. We established a bind point at Kilroy’s front doorstep, where we would return if banished. We went to Slippery Rock to buy restoratives. We also took time to discuss our various abilities and plan what to do next. We decided to head for Foxcourt to order to investigate the “bandits” via Konigsburg (where the Michealmas incident occurred). Captain Zohar persuaded us to first talk to the Fates.

Day 3
We took the portal to Tycho City, had breakfast, then we flew to a place on the edge of the Lunar Empire where there were many temples including that where the Fates dwelt. There we were greeted by a matronly woman. She did tell us that she wasn’t happy with the path that Karli is taking. After some discussion, we asked where we could find the evidence that will identify who was actually responsible for the deaths at Michealmas. She told us that Rashak was, of course responsible, but neither of our employers was the betrayer. We will need to gather witnesses and present them with an incontrovertible truth. She told us that there was a well in the far east of the Lunar Empire that will led us to incontrovertible truth.
In return she wanted a favour. She wanted a Guild Member who has given their self over to the Courts of Chaos. We needed to restore the balance, by placing Artefacts of Order in appropriate places. Seagate, Novadom and a weak spot in Mittlemark Hapstat. These Artefacts of Order were to be found in the Vaults of the ancient Elven City in Terra Nova. We should take no more than we need.
Death wanted to see us, so we went down to the lake and caught toads to put in our mouths. And then we visited Death. A boat made its way to us, poled by a couple of humanoids. We went with them. There was a cold that felt like it would not be unwelcome, bringing an end to struggle and strife. And there was Death standing before us. He too, had a task for us. In the East there was one who was capturing souls, and needed to be stopped. He was currently mortal, but was trying to change that. His name was Kurzon, a master of necromancy, and should be found east of the glowline, in a small town (Molarisor). The lost souls (from the Michaelmas massacre) were taken into the Great Spire in the Gatar Depression, but are most likely in tatters. In the Elven City, there was one who has been avoiding Death for a long time, known as the Ruby Scourge.
We then returned to the Guild.

Chapter Two: Of Many Murders and One Cathedral

Day 6
At the Guild, we discussed with Karli what we had learned. Erzabet shared that she thought the King might be a shape-changer wolf, and that one of his cousins most certainly was. Apparently Richard of Foxcourt was also currently a shape-changer, and his alchemists were able to confer shape-changing abilities on people.
There was a knock. It was a Guild librarian returning Patch who had been wandering again. There was also a message. It read: “Truth may be accessed on the Plateau of the Blue Moon, on the Night of the Blue Moon on 26th - 28th Meadow.” Lath then organised the Guild librarians to find out where this place is. When we went to the library, they were working on a massive map of the Lunar Empire. When Lath asked, they pointed out the location of the Plateau of the Blue Moon. I took the time to memorise as much of this map as possible.
We decided to go to Konigburg and see what we can find out, firstly regarding the relationship between Foxcourt and Bowcourt and how the current acrimony came about, and secondly investigating what happened at the Cathedral. Lath cast gaseous form on the party, and we travelled, arriving at a statue in a copse of trees just outside Konigburg. Then we walked into town. People studiously avoided us. Lath organised us a warehouse as a base of operations and a place to stay.
Then we visited the church. It was no longer in use, but there were guards about. Lath, under the guise of writing a book, set about organising access to the place. Captain Zohar decided to try finding a philosopher who might know about the history of the dispute. Meanwhile, I made my way (followed by the Wonder Dog) to the local red light district to see if information might be obtained from those who worked there. Erzabet went to the court.

Day 8
Discretely, we went back to the church. The building itself was perhaps 50ft by 30ft and had a large hole blown in one wall. The grounds were consecrated, but this effect ended by the church, indicating that it could not be re-consecrated. Detect aura showed nothing detectable within the chapel. It appeared to be a magically dead zone. There was no mana at all in there.
Inside the church we investigated the corner where the Marquessa was said to have escaped on Michealmas. We found that there was a priest’s hole that might possibly accommodate one, maybe two persons, but not the Marquesa and her guards. I attempted divination using stored mana from my powerstone, but found there was literally nothing in there to divinate. I used psychometry on the walls to ask what happened to the protections – the answer was “soul curse”.
We picked up a piece of paper and took it outside. Then it had an aura of formerly living, but there was no answer to the question regarding the last magic to impact. I picked up a piece of rubble with claw marks on it, and tried psychometry on it to determine what manner of creature damaged it, but there was nothing. In fact, it appeared that the object had no history beyond the two minutes since I had taken it from the chapel.
Lath started talking to the groundsmen, scaring them silly, asking them to send the previous gardeners to us who might know more of the past of this place.

Day 9-12
We spent the next two days greasing palms and talking to people. I didn’t say much, because it seemed that elves were not popular in this place.
We learned that four Michaeline chapels had been prepared for the meeting. The royal guard had decided at the last minute which would be used. When witnesses were asked what happened they said that there was a flash of darkness from the chapel, and then swirling fog surrounded it. When they returned, it was full of dead bodies.
We found out that the Marquessa and Richard’s father had history when they were younger. Something personal, not necessarily romantic. This fell apart around the time Richard’s father married, and relations have steadily got worse. We checked the other chapels and investigated the nature of the magics that had been applied. Numerous rituals, spells and artifacts had been used, some as expected, others novel. This was done by the Royal Wizardry Squadron, and we arranged a meeting with them. Some of them had died that Michealmas night, who had been in the chapel. They didn’t really tell us much that we didn’t know already.

We decided that it might be a good idea to request an audience with the King. Sher told us that she had been here six years ago, and had actually seen the King turn from a wolf into a man in front of the royal court.
We were told initially that the King would see us on the first of next month, and were told to come back the next day. A man wandered into the room where we were waiting, and introduced himself as “call me Rick”. He knew that his mother had hired us to deal with Richard of Bowcourt. Lath asked for his take on the matter. Officially the rule of law must be followed. Unofficially, Foxcourt troops have been less effective, and taxes down. It would have been better for the Kingdom if this rift hadn’t happened. However, if evidence was found, it might be possible to grant a royal suspension of Richard’s sentence. Of course, the Marquesa would not be happy.

Chapter Three: Of Much Ado About Death

Day 15
We returned to the Guild, and debated whether we should go to Terranova first, or go to the Plateau of the Blue Moon. It was considered that if we can locate the Elven City we could go there. We looked in the library, but the scribe notes were less than helpful in terms of how to get there. There were partial maps of the coast of Terranova, but they had little information about the interior. This meant that it was debatable how long we would take to find the place, it could be weeks, and therefore we should proceed to the Plateau of the Blue Moon first, since we had to be there at a particular time.
The library did have maps of the far east of the Lunar Empire, and we were able to locate the plateau in question right over the far side of the empire. Going by cloud at 160 mph certainly appeared to be an option. We could use the portal to Tycho, and fly by cloud from there north-east, and go around the northern edge. Erzabet said we should take some strong liquor in case we encountered a certain blind dwarf. But it was decided to go around the southern edge and deal with the aforementioned necromancer first. We were warned not to be too ostentatious with our magic in and around the Lunar Empire.
So we took the portal to Tycho City and arrived at the Guild outpost, a tower just out of town. We were out of fatigue as is usual when using such portals. We went into town and had dinner, then slept at a nice hotel until the predawn. Then we left town and Lath summoned a cloud, and a pair of elementals. We took tea and rested on the cloud, and felt much better. After travelling at twenty thousand feet for fifteen hours, in the predawn darkness along the Poison Coast, we flew into the rising Sun across the hills, avoiding all the nastiness in there, and were approaching the target village by mid-afternoon. We landed. Lath wanted to make a defensible position, but we had forgotten to pack an Earth mage.

Day 18
Captain Zohar got out a crystal of vision and investigated a homestead on the outskirts of the village. There was a human working in the fields, all very ordinary. Lath cast flying on us, and we landed out of sight of the village, then wandered in on foot. There was a bustle of activity, and a person with a hayfork came out to meet us, speaking Lunar. Lath asked if there was a necromancer troubling the area, but the person said there was not. From his aura, we deduced he was indeed human, under no compulsion, skilled in farming, and no magic had impacted him in the last season. Then we purchased local foodstuffs, and asked about the local town, learning nothing unusual.

So we walked to the town. It was a typical farming town, but there were earthen ramparts around the place, presumably decided to deter raiders. Runners headed into the centre of town as we were sighted. We were met by a pair of burly young men. Lath introduced us as a band of hunters, looking for somewhere to spend the night. The townsfolk seemed to be fairly typical common humans. The first suspicious thing we came upon was a ward of animate dead, triggered by any dead sentient travelling through it, that had been there for some weeks. It would animate any dead bodies that crossed it. Lath told the guide that one of us was injured, so a healer would come. Then she damaged Captain Zohar’s foot.
As we walked on to the Inn, we saw a shrine to some kind of fertility deity. The Innkeeper offered us an attic room where we might sleep. Lath spent some time contriving to get the guide interested in Erzabet. His name was Marcus. We learned that there was a tax man who came every year, but no local lord as such.
Food arrived; fresh layered vegetables, fruits, cooked meats, and such like. There was wine to drink with it, watered but not unsatisfactory. Everyone here seemed a bit nervous around us, which wasn’t that surprising. As evening came, people were avoiding the Inn, which was also not unusual. The herb woman arrived, told Lath to tell him to avoid walking on it, and applied a salve. As we went upstairs, Captain Zohar grabbed her, as Erzabet cast a compulsion on her. Then she asked about the necromancer. She said he was a good man who protects the town; 5’11’ with dark hair, and middle-aged. Normally he would have returned to town from working in the fields where he was supervising the workers; people who had tried to attack their town. His house had a brown door, and there were roses in the front garden. He came from the south about five years ago. She did not know how he might have annoyed Death. Then Lath cast knock-out gas so she forgot what had happened, then woke her up with the counterspell. She left, and we went to talk to the Innkeeper. But he didn’t want to pass on our message to the necromancer that we wanted to see him. Lath decided to use her voice spell so everyone within miles heard her request.
We waited outside, and then about half an hour later, after sunset, a number of people began approaching. They were some kind of variant zombie. They looked much more intact and less “damaged and rotting” than normal. Behind him was a cloaked figure. He called out, asking what he wanted. Lath explained that we wanted to talk with him. The undead seemed quite focused on Lath. Lath explained that we had been speaking to Death, and that Death wasn’t pleased with him. Erzabet pointed out that the problem was that he had bound the souls in them, whereas Death was waiting for them. And Death doesn’t like waiting. Lath offered to take him to see Death as one of the alternatives. The others involving destroying the undead, him, and quite possibly the town. Or just releasing the older zombies. He could not leave his undead troop for more than a few days. Erzabet started playing chess, hoping to communicate with Death. But that didn’t work.
After a while we came to the arrangement that Lath would send her air sprites to work the fields, while he released the older ones among the undead. Then, in the morning, he would go with Lath and Erzabet to visit Death.

Day 20
In the morning, the necromancer came back, telling us that he had released many souls from the undead. We got on the cloud and travelled around south and west, around to Death’s temple. Cher, Captain Zohar, Wordsmith and I waited by the lake, while Lath and Erzabet went to see Death. When they returned the necromancer got along quite well with Death, in between being terrified; and ended up becoming another of Death’s agents. Then we returned him to the village. Lath made arrangements to place one of her statues here, requesting a suitable plot on which to place it.
Wordsmith as we veered off course: “This is what we know as a granite cloud…”

Day 22
We took off at noon and an hour or so later we found the Plateau of the Blue Moon, rising 6000ft above sea level. We could see some humans in blue robes making their way up trails to the plateau. There appeared to be trolls on top of the plateau. We landed on the trail above the blue-robed people, and set up a camp. About half an hour later, the people in the robes arrived. They were humans, and worshippers of Truth. Lath spoke very truthfully to them, after offering tea. She told them about the trolls, which were a danger known to them. They were happy for us to go with them. It took four days.
They told us that the incontrovertible truth was one of the truths that might be accessed at the Temple of Truth. The Temple only appeared at the night of the Blue Moon on Plateau of the Blue Moon.

Day 27
As we approached the top of the trail, a couple of trolls attempted an ambush, but died quite quickly.

Day 28
We saw a rippling line of light come across the plateau, leaving behind it a blue mist. The pilgrims left us, telling us that to find the Temple we must remain focused on the Truth. Then, they walked into the blue mist. We drank tea to raise our willpower, and then we walked into the mist. As one party member at a time walked in, they vanished and dropped off mind speech. When we went in we could see each other again, and the mind speech came back, but wavered in and out. This appeared to be something like the astral.
I concentrated on visualising the chapel where the Arch-Duke died and seeking the truth about what happened on Michelmas night. We all ended up going in slightly different directions. Erzabet and Lath found something resembling a temple, with a well inside. A bit later, I walked into the same place, followed by the rest of the party, only it looked different to each of us. I saw a chapel with a font in the centre. We felt we should drink the water, and so we did, all of us. We were filled with truth, and knew we could not lie. To seek the incontrovertible truth I realised I must dive in and search for the source. We found ourselves confessing truths about ourselves. But Lath and Erzabet were best at it, or perhaps they had most to confess.
They returned and recast a number of spells. They told us what they had learned. Rashak had chased the souls of the Duke’s Guard and followed them. So, it was in fact the Duke’s Guard who betrayed him, through no fault of their own. And they had all died.

Chapter Four: Of Lightning and Raining Frogs

Day 29
We were banished back to Kilroy’s residence, and returned to the Guild. After describing my ability to scry for places using maps we went to the Guild Library. There we found rough maps of Terranova made by adventures who had viewed Alusia from high above while they orbited the world in flying ships. We also learned that the Elven City was called Old Kadath, and even found some maps of the place (apparently adventurers had been there, but done a remarkably poor job of describing its location). I dowsed with the outline map of Terranova and found that the pendulum gravitated to a point in the middle of the Northern continent of Terranova, some distance due south of the western coast of the most eastern of the Great Lakes. And then it flicked away as if something was trying to prevent me from locating the place.
We discussed how to get there. It seemed that Lath’s cloud would be helpful. I suggested taking the portal from the Sea of Grass to Pasifika, and flying from there. The librarian explained that the ocean north of Pasifika was known to be dangerous and unpredictable… due to the fact that a great daemon had once been imprisoned there. On the eastern coast of Southern Terranova is the Empire of the Sun. That was inhabited by short elves who lived not much longer than humans. The place where we thought the city might be was once a deadly sea of salt, but has since been flooded. To the north was an area full of sentient wolves who could nullify magic. But then Lath explained that she had a ship which can travel through portals that it creates, arrive at a determined place on another plane, and return to a place on this plane. And it was now here in Seagate. However, there were problems… the navigators on board were not good enough to be able to return safely. So we decided to go via Pasifika after all. We used Lath’s gaseous form to get to a statue in the Sea of Grass, way to the east of the portal. Consequently, I had trouble finding it, so it was almost evening when we got there. But we went through, and found that it was mid-afternoon in Pasifika. Lath made a cloud, and we flew normally for some hundreds of miles. Then, she summoned a hurricane to push us west at something like two hundred and fifty miles an hour… Which made my danger sense go crazy.
Starflower: “You really are a wandering disaster area, Lath, in every literal sense of the word.”
We reached Terra Nova around the time it got dark again. We aimed to go through the gap between the North and South continents, but as we flew over we could see that there was no gap. The continents were joined by a narrow isthmus. Lath calmed the storm as we started up the coast. Sometime later Lath said that she could see a glowing building below. Then, the rest of us saw a light welling up… and we were caught in a flashing column of lightning. There was some damage, but the worst of it was that the magic went away. The cloud vanished and we began to fall. Not for long, as most of the party sprouted wings, or otherwise began to fly. Captain Zohar grabbed Wordsmith and arrested his flight. Now in drake-form, I went to help Sher, who was having difficulty as a variety of objects sprouted from her that had apparently been itemised, and grabbed a two-handed sword in my claws. Then I got below her, so she could land on me.
And then Sher looked up and saw some things approaching. A couple of minutes later and our spell effects came back. I dropped the sword, as it had shrunk to a tiny thing. Sher jumped off my back and dived after it. The approaching creatures were now clearly humanoids, maybe some kind of skinny dwarves, perhaps thirty of them. Lath started blasting them with whirlwind vortex when they came close enough. Bodies started plummeting… And then the last of them were on us. And it was humanoid frogs, and they exploded (actually alchemical bombs which they were carrying blew up). Lath let loose another round of whirlwind vortex, and I blasted them with my breath weapon. By the time they came falling past us none were active. Except the one that woke up and tried to attack Sher. She whacked it, and it went falling. Eventually Lath caught it safely, unconscious and not dead. Captain Zohar collected its bandolier of five alchemical bombs.
We landed on a small island… but there was something there that reacted badly to my ESP. We took off immediately. Lath decided that she didn’t really need to land in order to summon a cloud, after all. Finally, we were safely on a cloud. And then we discovered we (and the cloud) had got infected with mana worms. From that island. Captain Zohar triggered an immolation which helped to get rid of them, but the most effective thing was to flick them off with a non-magical dagger. It took hours before we noticed that they had eaten some of the duration on our spells.
It was midnight, but we continued on, flying through the night on the cloud, some thirty odd miles off the coast. Some of us watched while others slept. And then Lath’s air elementals told her that the water was trying to reach up and attack the cloud. So Lath controlled the weather… But after some discussion and watching, she could see that it was actually an extraordinarily large water monster of some sort.

Day 30
Around dawn we could see the coast to the east and beyond an impressive mountain range, some of the mountain peaks higher than the cloud, and some looking quite unnatural. And then the air elementals alerted Lath to the arrival of an air-borne monster…

Chapter Five: Of a Rift in Reality

Someone on the cloud: No, the broadside is the one Lath is standing on…
Soon we could make out something flashing in the distance, in the moonlight. Captain Zohar took out a crystal ball, but was unable to focus on whatever it was. He asked who else had a crystal, so I took out one of mine, and was rather more successful. I saw that it was a roiling flying ball of silvery chains, some with blades and spikes. Lath sensed that there was dead spot in the control weather, perhaps two miles away to the east, moving at about thirty miles an hour. She sped up the cloud and we raced away at perhaps sixty miles an hour.
Eventually, Lath turned us in towards land, and it continued to track us. She began building up the storm behind us, as we continued north. The thing headed towards the weather bomb and seemed to eat it up, and actually increased speed, cutting a tunnel through the storm, where Lath’s control diminished.
In an attempt to determine which of us it was attracted to, Lath cast the one thing faster than the cloud, her wind-walk, on Kilroy. He flew off, and came back a bit later, explaining that it been drawing him towards itself and had eaten some of the duration. We concluded that it was might be some kind of mana magnet, attracted to magic of any kind. Lath said there were also two fixed mana magnets on the coast, but we could not see them. In the end, we simply out-ran the thing, and then headed inland.
We were a long way north as dawn approached, and past the major mountain range, though there were still snow-capped mountains to the east. Then Lath said there was some kind of cross-wind taking over her weather control; essentially a stronger weather control than hers. She was using the elementals to maintain some kind of steering on the cloud, and they got us out of there, as Lath’s storm was basically sucked into itself, shrinking down into a vast weather drain. Soon after dawn, heading east, we could see great bands of earth-waves below us in the mountains. What had happened here, we could only speculate. Then, we saw something glinting ahead on the ground below. An unusually shiny lake, with a shiny river flowing out of it… shinier than water ever is. It was shining so brightly that when Captain Zohar looked at it through a crystal, it was hard to look at. The ground around was grey rock, bare of vegetation; although we were not above the tree line. The shiny material could be looked at with resistance to light. I cast a limited precognition spell on myself, Kilroy, and Captain Zohar wind-walking down to the lakeside. I saw myself and Kilroy (the trusty wonder-dog) safely by the lakeside, but Zohar was missing (this was probably a result of some anti-predictive magic he had not advised me of). Erzabet: It’s shiny, Lath. We’re adventurers, and it’s shiny.
So, some of us went ahead and went down. Captain Zohar was first to land, perhaps five hundred feet away, followed by the rest of us. Erzabet found a plant so we look at its aura, but there was no poison affecting it. Kilroy went to look at the lake, but could see no aura. I approached, and cast ESP, but there were no creatures with emotions. Captain Zohar tried to gather some material from the lake using telekinesis and a flask, but it went clunk. The lake was apparently solid. So, we went to have a look at the outflow. Kilroy went closer to investigate. It appeared to be some kind of perfect flawless, light-enhancing crystal. However, we could think of no quick way to extract it, before we had to leave, and return to the cloud, and travelled on east.
About half an hour later, Lath determined that something was eating her weather control again, along the southern edge… and something was slowing the cloud, doing something weirdly fractal to it. Now we were over the mountains; there were trees below us, mostly conifers. Then suddenly, my danger sense went mad… yelling at me. So I yelled at the party. Lath stopped the cloud, and we looked ahead, and saw a gap in reality, a void of nothingness… a part of Alusia which was JUST NOT THERE… Yet, the trees marched on beyond this rift. We backed off from the gap, and then started to slowly parallel the rift, heading north, until we found a point where it ended, narrowing to a fissure, then a crack. We left a marker, rounded the end of the rift and headed on. As we rounded the end, we felt ourselves suddenly, somehow, widen, and then came back together again. More unpleasant. But at least the rift might provide a means of getting rid of the chain thing, which according to the elementals was still following us.
We saw it coming… as we headed south paralleling the rift. We turned east, and used a crystal to watch it as it approached. But the monstrous thing didn’t slow down, or pause. It carried on, unaffected. And the crystal went blank. By this point, we were really worried. And to make things worse we came upon another rift, which was angled such that it would intersect the other rift some two-four hundred miles south. So, we turned north, and paralleled the rift again. Lath summoned a bird from the other side of the rift, which flapped frantically and then fell to the ground dead. But we couldn’t recover it. So we did it again, with Kilroy watching. This time we were able to learn that the rift was actually a vacuum; an airless void.
After rounding the end of the second rift, we headed east… until we found the end of another rift, which appeared to intersect the other two, somewhere hundreds of miles south. But eventually left the rifts behind us, as we came out of the mountains into a broad grassy plain, with plenty of animals and bird life below us. And it was a high mana zone. And then it wasn’t.
We came up with a plan, which was to land and camp, drop the weather control, and put up a scry guard. I tested this plan with limited precognition spells, and it appeared to work. We were still there after eight hours, although it was raining. So that is what we did. We landed the cloud; small animals scattered. We hacked the undergrowth away, and Kilroy made a hide. When I cast ESP I found that the place was literally swarming with wildlife; far beyond anything I’d sensed before.

Chapter Six: Of a Protected Swamp and of Ancient Elves

Sometime after sunset, there was a bright flash of light to the south-east, followed sometime later by a loud rumbling that went on for some time. Lath thought this was something to do with her weather control collapsing in on itself. Kilroy set up a rune portal in a chamber safely well underground.
Lath: “Oh, by the way, everybody, I keep all my loot on my kitchen table.”
Erzabet: “We are experienced and capable adventurers who are not waylaid by shiny things.”
Then we divinated the party. Everyone who had gone into the well was affected by truth magic – and the waters we took with us are potions of truth. We also learned that we had come close to some massive and ancient artefacts, whose magic was now degrading and not working as it should. There was no detectable locate magic on any of us. But we were all somewhat more fertile; as an effect of the area where we were. And finally we rested, until dawn. Then I did another precognition spell, based on the plan that we would continue as before, flying on the cloud with a large weather control, and air elementals. Looking six hour into the future, I saw most of the party standing on a rocky outcrop in the middle of a swamp. So, Lath went and sat on the door-step and did her rituals. It was mid-morning before we left.

Day 31
As we flew on for the next two hours, we could the plain become more lush, more verdant, becoming wetlands and, finally swamp. Lath reported that her weather control was butting up against something. So, we stopped. We could see swamp as far as the eye could see, with the occasional stony protrusion, one only thirty feet from us. We spiralled down, and sent Kilroy to check out the landing zone. He came back quickly, and explained that something had gone wrong with a summoning spell, and he had summoned an angry spirit. There was another outcrop a few hundred yards away, but Lath decided to look for a larger outcrop. About twenty miles away, there was a rise in the land that formed an island in the swamp which bridged the edge of the area that Lath had sensed was not in her weather control. There was a lot of animal life below us – and I felt a sense of safety about half-way across the island. We decided to land. There was a magical aura on the other part of the island, which involved some kind of protection. Wordsmith performed a divination upon it. It was a forty thousand year-old rank two hundred ritual of protection. Elves would have no difficulty crossing to the protected area. Summonables, extra-planar beings, and such like would have big problems.
Then Lath and Kilroy saw something akin to a crocodile in the swamp. A very big spirit crocodile… So I began to lead the party across the island and through the barrier. I felt almost nothing, but the others had to resist the magic. Sher and Lath got stuck behind an invisible barrier. I tried hauling Sher across, but she slipped out of my grasp. Lath then cast a wind-walk spell, and she and Sher took to the air. The crocodile thing came up onto the land, and promptly changed into a bear spirit. Sher and Lath went to another nearby outcrop that bridged the barrier. I flew to them, took Lath’s hand, and successfully drew her through the barrier. Sher petrified herself, but that did not help.
Wordsmith: The person that can cast unbreakable on a rope is the one that is petrified…
Neither Lath nor Sher seemed keen on crossing the barrier. But I was able to lead Lath through. Which left us with the problem that was Sher. In the end, Kilroy animated the petrified Sher, and walked her across. Then Erzabet performed the True Form ritual to get her back.
And we flew on over the swamp. Which was teeming with life. We soon discovered there was a five hundred foot ceiling beyond which we could not fly, because the winds went away. After some hours, the endless green became interspersed with ruins, mostly sunken into the swamp. It was a mess… and not just because of age. The demonic emperors Ahriman and Istu had fought here. Then we saw reptilian figures flying towards us, with humanoids on their backs. Drakes, and probably elves on their backs. So we went into a holding pattern and waited for them to approach.
As we came closer we saw that there were six drakes with two armoured elves on each. We decided to begin by attempting negotiation, but that proved… difficult. Their leader and I conversed, but with little useful result. They were plainly elves from long ago, for whom humans were nothing but slaves. When I referred to party as my friends, and stated that I would not go anywhere without them, he seemed quite sure that I was under some kind of magical coercion, and shot me with an arrow of sorts which seemed intended to dissipate control spells. After a while we gave up and departed. And found a place to land. And argued some more.
We eventually came to the conclusion that we might attempt to sneak in, using what amounts to a submarine created by Kilroy, composed of bound air inside bound water, moving with the Captain’s mage current. And then I had a better idea. Lath had the ability to turn the party into conveniently small creatures that I could carry while I teleport. I could teleport up above the city, scry-guarded and invisible, carrying the entire party; then turn into drake-form and glide down.
Lath: All we need to do is drain the swamp…

Calendar

Summer: Meadow (1) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
		Beltane Full Moon	1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
	28	Full Moon	29		30		1		2		3		4
Summer: Heat (2) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	5		6		7		8		9		10		11
	12		13		14	Midsummer Eve (Faerie Day)	15	Solstice	16		17		18
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26	Full Moon	27		28		29		30		1		2
Summer: Breeze (3) 817wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
	3	Day of Death	4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21		22		23
	24	Full Moon	25		26		27		28		29		30

Consequences

Loot, Purchases and Expenses

Item	Qty	Effects	La	Ez	Zo	4	5	6
Purchased
	1	...
Looted
...

Mutations

Charges

Buffs & Mil Sci

Long Term

Magic (caster)	Rank	Caster	Effects	Dur	Erzabet	Captain Zohar	Lath	Kilroy	Starflower	WordSmith	Cher	Bert (Air Elemental Left)	Eernie (Air Elemental Right)
Flying (Air Mage)	20	Lath	Wind picks you up. First time takes 1 min, after takes D +2 pulses to arrive.	10.5 hours			Y		Y		N	NA	NA
Barrier of Wind	21	Lath	Def of 42% in close, melee or ranged.	11 hours			Y				Y	NA	NA
Vapour Breathing	16	Lath	Can breath.	8.5 hours			Y		Y		Y	NA	NA
Feather Falling	9	Lath	Wont fall to your death.	5 hours			Y		Y		Y	NA	NA
Resist Heat & Cold	20	Lath	6 effects better on the weather table and 6 less damage from heat or cold.	21 hours			Y				N	Y	Y
Enchant Armour	23	Zo	+48% Def, +1AP and +23 spell armour	12 hours
Water Proofing	10	Zo	as it says	33 Hours
Mind Shield	8	SF	as stated	27 hours
Mind Speech	12	SF	as stated; planar range via headband	6 1/2 hours
x	x	x	x	x
Walk Unseen	6	Ki	As it says	7 hrs
Water Breathing	6	Ki	As it says	7 hrs
Smite	20	Ki	First strike has additional resist or d+21, stunned and prone	21 hrs				Y	Y		Y
Rune Armour	20	Ki	+25 Def, +5 AP, 2xSG	10.5 hrs				Y	Y		N

Short Term

Magic (caster)	Rk	Caster	Effects	Dur	Erzabet	Captain Zohar	Lath	Kilroy	Starflower	WordSmith	Cher	Bert (Air Elemental Left)	Eernie (Air Elemental Right)
Fast as the Wind	16	Lath	7 to TMR up to 16 total TMR	44 mins	Y		Y		Y	Y	Y	NA	NA
Enhancing Enchantment	14	Lath	+14 ranks on either range, rank or damage.	16 pulses	Y		Y				N	NA	NA
E&E Gen	10	Erszabet	+X to MR vrs E&E Charms	~11 hours	Y		Y				Y	NA	NA
E&E Spe	~11	Erszabet	+X to MR vrs E&E Charms	~12 hours	Y		Y				Y	NA	NA
Celestial Gen	~10	Erszabet		~10 hours	Y		Y					NA	NA
Celestial Spe	~11	Erszabet		~12 hours	Y		Y					NA	NA
Weap of Flames	17	WS	+18 SC , +9 Damage, +17dam Undead etc	22 mins					2	1		NA	NA
Counters on entities	9	WS	+29 MR vs entire Branch	14 mins								NA	NA
Counters on areas	9	WS	+57 MR vs college	14 mins		Y						NA	NA
Tome of Tales		Erzsabet	+1 step vs fear or awe checks (1 times wp goes to 2 times wp)	24 hours	Y		Y		Y		Y	NA	NA
knights folly		Erszabet	+1 rank milsci	24 hours	Y	Y	Y		Y			NA	NA
hair braiding		Erszabet	+50 vs charm, demon charm, bardic voice. 25 DR from behind, enh dur one spell, +3 ag, +25 seduction	until sunrise	Y		Y		Y	Y	:(	NA	NA
Rose tea		Erszabet	swap 7 stat points from one stat to another		Y		Y			Y		NA	NA
Silent Death bringers Tea		Cher	+45% Stealth, -5 of percentile die, and +5Ft (over personal and racial max)							Y		NA	NA