Notes on the Journey

By Talon

Volume 3. 25 Alturiak 1369 to 13 Hammer 1370.

Fortunately, the signs on the shops were all in common and we were able to make our way through the strange streets to the docks. I expected strange ships, but I never imagined how fantastic they might actually be! I stared in amazement at the marvels berthed here. Such wondrous constructs I could never have dreamed. Many were fashioned after sea creatures such as sharks and squid. Some were made of crystal. Other were constructed in shapes completely unrecognizable to me.

27 Alturiak, 1369 -- Into a sea of stars

7 Ches 1369. Garden in the Stars

After it was clear that we couldn't screw things up too badly if we were let loose, Grog granted us shore leave. A few of us wandered around a bit before almost getting ourselves killed in a bar fight. A princely bribe (provided by Myk) greased the situation and we instead ended up getting drunk and telling stories all night in the bar.

9 Tarsakh of the Storms, 1369. Beyond the Crystal Sphere.

14 Tarsakh of the Storms, 1369. Spider Ship!

24 Tarsakh of the Storms, 1369. Arrival in Grey Space.

30 Tarsakh, 1369. The Elven Fleet.

1 Mirtul, 1369. Our Mission Revealed.

8 Mirtul, 1368. To Gamerol Base.

Captain's Log, 11 Kythorn, 1368. Jonas Reelock of the Wasp ship Long Arrow . The Remains of planets.

We reached the crystal sphere of Morog Space after many days in the flow. Our journey here was without serious incident, allowing me to fully enjoy the experience of being in the flow for an extended time. It was a marvelous sensation. Ash took most of the duties at the helm. He seems to really enjoy flying the ship.

It took two tries with the portal device to open our way into the sphere. Krik told us that this was normal for Morog space, but unusual overall. He also shared a little lore when we told him we were looking for Gamerol Base. He told us of the huge turtle-like creatures called gameriods that travel the spheres eating comets and small asteroids. He happened to mention that Gameriods tend to lay their eggs in areas of geologic instability, areas where earthquakes or volcanoes are common. It made me wonder about the earthquakes plaguing Daggerdale. I hope there is no connection there, but is worth remembering for our report to Mazarale. He thought the name Gamerol Base might have something to do with the creatures, but knew not what the connection might be. He also told us that Morog Space once was home to a large number of planets but the all that now remains is clusters of asteroids and smaller rocks. No one knows what became of the planets.

Captain's Log, 14 Kythorn, 1368. Jonas Reelock of the Wasp ship Long Arrow -- Space Mammoth

We have spent the past 3 days exploring the edges of Morog Space. Our planet locator does us no good as there are no planets remaining here. Today we were discovered by an enormous ship crewed by close to 90 ogres. It was a heavily armed ship with at least 4 heavy catapults, 4 heavy ballista and a jettison. We signaled a desire to parley after they started moving toward us. The ship massed 90 tons but the helmsman was considerate enough to match up gravity planes before coming alongside. I presented the mercenary charter to the Scro leader type that came on board our ship. He signaled to the Ogre ship after reading a bit and the weapons trained on our vessel were raised. We were instructed to follow the Mammoth in to Gamerol Base. We would get additional orders as we needed them.

Several of our crew remained below decks during this operation. When they came topside their appearances were completely changed. Myk looked like the forest troll. Moorgin appeared to be a wide-mouth goblin, and Egwene looked like an orc. The priestess explained that these disguises were a boon from her goddess to aid us in our quest. It was unnerving and I had to frequently restrain myself from drawing a sword when ever one of them came close to me. Fortunately, we had a couple of days to get used to the new look before we arrived at the base. During that time I decided to put the Sword of the Dales in Myk's magical quiver and carry the evil sword at my side. I was curious about the origins of this blade, but learned nothing except to note that there was a small grey star on the pommel of the weapon.

Captain's Log, 16 Kythorn, 1368. Jonas Reelock of the Wasp ship Long Arrow. Gamerol Base.

Krik had told us that Gameroids were big, but that had not prepared me for the sight of Gamerol Base. As we approached we began to make out a huge turtle-like creature the size of the Rock of Bral. The creature had to be at least two and a half km long, 1.5 km wide and a good kilometer deep. Long before we should have, we hit its air envelope. It smelled of goblinoids. The ogres gave us a rough sendoff, jostling us with their gravity plane after telling us to approach the gameriod's mouth. I tried to get a feeling for the nature of these instructions from the Scro's demeanor. It seemed to me an easy way to get rid of us if our charter had not, after all, passed as genuine. In the end I reasoned that our little ship had posed no threat to the hulking Mammoth and that if they had wanted to destroy us, it would have been easy for them to do it days ago. We went.

As we made our approach, it became clear the gameriod was no longer living. We came up to the mouth and it swung open on giant hinges, allowing us access to a concealed docking bay. We could also see that the enormous eyes were made of glass or some other transparent material. On top of the creature's shell were dozens of bunker-like pits that seemed to house several tiny ships that could hardly have had room for one small man each. We later learned that these wickedly bladed little "Arrows" are flown by kobolds and were equipped, in addition to the blades and small ram, with Greek fire projectors. There were approximately 2 dozen squads of Arrows. Each squad was comprised of 5 kobold arrows and 3 hobgoblins as a command team.

There were only a few other ships in this docking bay. One was a scro Mantis ship (60 tonnes, 12/75 crew, 2 M ballista, 1H Catapult). There were also a squid ship and a tradesman. The bay was about 100 feet by 275 by 300 feet and could only hold a handful of ships. We docked inside and upside down as Ash nearly squashed the goblin deck hand guiding us in. There were a set of massive, hulking towers overlooking the docks. Behind the protective fortifications were hobgoblins manning ballista. We minded our manners and gave them no reason to fire on us.

We were met by an important-looking scro that did a complete inspection after reviewing our papers. He gave us the rules, including 1) obey the orders of all scro, 2) bow to war priests before speaking, 3) areas marked with a black fist or a red skull were off limits and etc. Now, at least we had a clue to where we would have to look for answers. He gave us directions to the chamberlain where we would get mission assignments and billeting. Then, after collecting our gear, we were on our way.

The entire base was built of wood and a little stone, on the inside of the hollowed out shell of the gameroid. There were huge corridors and rooms and then narrow corridors and small, town-like settlements. Throughout everything there were lots and lots of troops. We received our billeting assignment and told to report back in four days to get our first mission assignment. The mercenary quarters were housed on six full decks. On the way we passed a scro compound with four doors marked with black fists and one with a red skull.

We stowed our gear and were headed down to the mess when a huge gif came thundering down the hall begging to be hidden. It was laughable in a way. What was he going to do, stand behind me? He ducked into our room and cowered behind a chair. I started to sputter but Myk cast an invisibility spell on the big guy just as a scro war priest, covered with potatoes and gravy came round the corner. He glared at us and demanded to know where the gif went. I bowed and told him that we saw him running down the hallway. He was coming from the same direction as the scro and headed down the hall away. The war priest searched our room but turned up no trace of the gif. He stormed out and we were left with Private Potulous of the gif navy. Or at least recently of the gif navy. He missed his ship when they went on their last mission. Partly because he had gotten into too much trouble with his practical jokes.

Potulous was a font of information about the base and we pumped him for all we could. There were about 175 gif mercenary troops here on three ships, one hammer ship and 2 clippers. There were lots of humans (2 decks worth) and lizard men. There were 7 foot tall insectiods with spikes and many goblinoids. The gif estimated more than 1300 kobolds, 1000 scro, 1000 goblins, 1000 hobgoblins and bugbears and a few hundred ogres. We learned that the main docking bay is in the rear of the base and that there was something in the middle of this place that the scro want kept hidden. There is an elf on board that Potulous saw talking strategy with the scro leaders. He was a pale or white skinned elf with black plate armor under a cape and hood. Potulous saw him standing near the spy-master's quarters.

The gif lead us topside and we bribed a hobgoblin to let us talk with Blik, a kobold pilot and a survivor of three missions. He showed us the workings of the little ship and told us of a typical mission. He was quite animated and more than a little crazy. He did not seem to know that the ship was a life jammer. A spell told Myk that some magical force connects the little ships to the base in a way that must sustain the life force of the kobolds enough to allow them a chance at survival.

Potulous then led us to the aft bay. There were lots of ships here. The bay was huge and filled with ships. I counted about 50 but I'm not sure the count was accurate as the ships were all jammed in together. I did see at least 5 nautaloids and one shou dragon ship. There was also a black elven Man-of-War ship. When we corralled a kobold to find out about that ship's owner, the dogman pointed up to another balcony where we saw none other than Kymel Kilsek looking back at us. He gave a patronizing little salute and disappeared into the crowd. I began to get very nervous. What could he be doing here?

We left the bay thinking to return to our quarters. As we passed the kobold warrens, however, a big slug-like, toothed monster burst through the wall in a spray of kobold blood and body parts. It had been hunting. We set upon it as it turned on us and within a brief moment it was dead. Kobolds began poking their ugly little dog-heads out the broken opening. When we interrogated them, they did not know what this thing was, only that it had just killed seven of them and that it was not the first time one had shown up in the warrens.

Our next stop was a hobgoblin tavern. Myk got into a fist fight with a leader type known as Manmauler. The ranger/forest troll defeated Manmauler and we all became close friends. This led to us helping the hobgoblins in a raid against the bugbears who had captured some hobs and were holding them captive. We broke in, retrieved the hobs, altered the bugbears' ale and took some captives of our own before calling it a night.

Captain's Log, 17 Kythorn, 1368. Jonas Reelock of the Wasp ship Long Arrow. Day 2 in Gamerol Base -- what we came for.

We checked on the Long Arrow this morning just as a scro mantis ship was coming in. Our ship was in good order and we bustled around a bit to observe the mantis. We watched while an elven commander was dragged off the ship. He was bound and on his knees, obviously badly beaten and mistreated. He was hauled off to the prison deck.

Our explorations today took us bottom side to an area where war games were practiced. There were a few humans, mostly shou, practicing here but it was generally quiet. We found extensive gardens for food and air supply in this area as well. We had not gotten too far when we ran into the war priest again. He questioned us again and was quite disagreeable, asserting his authority over us and being pushy. I followed all the necessary form, giving him nothing to work with. I had more than enough experience with his type while serving aboard the pirate ships. I did not have anything to prove to him or myself so he had nothing on me. We moved on without incident.

Toward evening we started working our way closer to the center of the base. We found a set of large doors marked with the black fist. We moved away to a deserted corridor and Myk disappeared, turning ethereal to investigate. He went through the doors, into a temple to Gruumsh and then into another huge room. In this room we found the secret of Gamerol Base. The enormous room was built of massive bones and gigantic metal plates. In it was a huge pit filled with the black slug-like form of a witchlight marauder. The horrid creature was a good 300 feet in diameter and thousands of feet long. Myk immediately retreated when he discovered this thing and did not fill us in until we had returned to our room and were hidden behind the safety of a concealment spell.

During our discussions, we brought Potulous fully in and he seemed okay with a rather sudden reversal of sides in the battle. I don't know if it was because he is desperate for the military hierarchy I am fulfilling as his captain or because he doesn't like the idea of scro destroying entire worlds with the marauder.

We are left with many questions. We decided to use Ash's bag of devouring to deliver a report to Mazarale through his tower. This would allow us to get our information out and still give us an opportunity to find out more. We discovered that Ash had already sent through diagrams and descriptions of the infant marauder that we battled outside the kobold warrens. He had even sent back samples of the dead beast. Our plan now is to capture the annoying war priest for questioning. We need to find out more if we are truly going to help the elves destroy this threat.

Our unanswered questions include:

1. What control do the scro have over the marauder?

2. Who is the elf spy

3. What has the spy told the scro?

4. What is the spy up to now?

5. Why is Kymel here?

6. Who is the captured elf commander?

7. Are there other important prisoners here?

8. Can we get any prisoners out?

9. Can we get any information from the prisoners to pass along if we cannot get them out?

10. How many troops are here?

11. How many ships?

12. Can we lay any traps or glyphs to cause trouble?

13. Are there any sabotage opportunities that do not jeopardize our mission?

Myk went out scouting again and found the prison deck. It was well protected by guards and monstrous back up systems. In the cells were mostly goblinoids, including a few scro. There were five humans who looked like mercenaries. There was only the one elf.

The ranger found the spy-master's quarters which were guarded by two scro war priests. He also found a closed off part of the ship what was dark and forbidding. Black skulls paved the floor and an altar of black skulls adorned the main chamber.

When Myk returned, four of us, Myk, Troy, Moorgin and I all went to check out the sealed off section of the ship. There we found an undead scro war priest of great power. We battled him and his minions and finally destroyed them all. In his chamber we found a strange chart that appeared to show an unfamiliar crystal sphere.

In the spy-master's chambers we fought the two war priests and caught the spy-master himself. He was a strange creature with strong tentacles or antennae attached to his head with which he entangled me during the battle. We pursued him through a series of secret passages until finally catching up long enough to kill him. Myk cast a spell to speak with his undead spirit. We learned that the witchlight marauder is controlled with the use of a key. He did not know (nor apparently do any of the scro) what the key looked like. They are containing the marauder now by tapping its life force to use the gameriod shell as a spell/life jammer. The key may be located in Shadowspace, but the scro do not have a map as it was lost a long time ago.

In the spy-master's rooms we grabbed lots of plans and documents for return to the elves. I tried to memorize as much of the other information as I could in the short time we felt we could stay in the room. We stayed as long as we could and then returned to our quarters for the rest of the night.

18 Kythorn, 1368. Uncovered!

In the morning we returned to the Chamberlain's for our mission assignment. All was going well and I though we were actually going to get away with our ruse until The scro Mordekar came in with a scro captain. It was Commander Wrackblood. We were unmasked. We fought our way out of the Chamberlain's room and ran. A plan was hastily formulated. Myk turned us ethereal and he disappeared. He went to get the elf Commander. We rushed back to the room to get the rest of our crew. The alarm was being sounded throughout the ship. Fortunately, we were able to stay just ahead of the alarms. We picked up the rest of the crew, abandoned any hope of going back forward for the Long Arrow, and headed aft. The fore decks were swarming with the enemy and we held out no hope that the confusion would be great enough to allow us to escape that way.

We met up with Myk and the elf Commander in the Aft docking bay moments ahead of organized pursuit. Troy had gone ahead and located a ship for us to hijack. He was sputtering something that made no sense until he go to the part about the bionoids. Bionoids are deadly elven biological weapons. They are elves that chose to be turned into something deadly and powerful for the first unhuman war. In battle they transform into raging, insectoid warriors arrayed with armor and blades made from their exoskeleton. They are blindingly fast and awesome to watch fight. There were also four of them between us and the ship that was our last, best hope for escape. The elf commander quickly sized up the situation and moved forward to meet the bionoids. He spoke for a moment with the bionoids while they still retained their elven forms. He tried to convince them that they were welcome to return to the elves, they did not need to continue their self-imposed exile. They felt differently. They felt mistreated and cast away by the other elves. They sought refuge in the goblinoid army because they felt accepted here. They refused the commander's offer. Tears began to flow as the commander tried again to convince them and they began their awful transformation. The gems set into their skins began to glow as they changed. The commander drew out a small triangle and struck it once with a rod. A beautiful, mournful chime rang out, startling in its power. The bionoids' gems shattered and the four fell to the floor, dead. I was crying and running for the ship as they fell. I grabbed the elf and hustled him along with us. I tried to speak some soothing words as we ran, but I doubt he heard me.

We arrived at the ship and dashed aboard. I was struck with wonder. The ship looked like a huge manta ray, with its tail curved up behind and overhead. We were casting off when I and the others got the sense that this ship was something more than an inert construct. It struck me somehow that this ship had an alien kind of life to it. It was not the same as the crystal/plant ships of the elves, but something with a more organic flavor. I was left with a taste along the furthest edges of my mind of phlogostin and stardust and the cold acid bile taste of fear. I tried touching the ship with my senses but got blocked out. Egwene seemed to develop a deeper rapport with the ship and it allowed her to take a seat at the helm. Ash was throwing fireballs at our pursuers and I was rapidly firing arrows into the throng that was trying to organize an attack. The Smalljammer (as we learned to call it) was thrumming with energy as soon as Egwene took the helm. This was a good sign. I was sure that the launch time normally required of a spelljammer would be our doom. This was no ordinary ship to be sure. We were hardly aboard before it was straining its lines to be away. Myk, with two deft bowshots, cut the lines mooring us and we were away. The ship pivoted like a graceful dancer and slipped out the docking bay door like nothing I'd ever seen. I instantly fell in love with this ship. As soon as we were out of the bay, our ship heeled all the way over until we were keel to keel with the gameriod. It raced along the underside of the base gaining speed the whole time. Several times enemy ships approached only to break off when they got close. By the time we reached the forward bay, we were moving incredibly fast and shot out from under the base, well ahead of our pursuit. A squad of arrows moved in on an intercept course but again, as they neared, all broke off. As they reached their closest approach, one kobold climbed out onto the forward deck of the tiny ship and shot a crossbow bolt at us. I realized two things at the same instant. One was that this was our friend Blik, and second was that he had attached a line from the bolt to a harness that he was wearing. I raced to the rail and grabbed the crossbow bolt as it came in. When I had it, I hauled in the line with the crazy little Kobold on the other end. His little ship also came in. It flew in on its own and landed on the deck. As soon as it was on board, it blended in with its surroundings and was nearly invisible.

We later learned that Blik too was on an elven mission. His objective was information gathering with special emphasis on ship plans. Less than an hour later we reached the crystal sphere wall. While the in-bound journey took days, the frightened Smalljammer raced through the distance in a flash. Eleven days later we were back in Greyspace.

When we reached the site of our rendezvous with the elven armada, we discovered the scene of a huge hostile engagement. Debris was everywhere, floating in the void. A couple of scro hammer ships wove through the wreckage, looking for survivors and salvage. Egwene started the Smalljammer on a slow tumble, matching trajectories with some larger bits of debris and the burned out hulk of an Armada-class ship. After a day of tumbling through space, we found a chance to escape the area and we set a course for Realmspace. It was a journey of several weeks before we caught up to Selanos and the remains of the elven fleet we had left in Greyspace. We learned that the scro had hit the fleet hard and that battle was the cause of Wrackblood's return to Gamerol Base. The elves had lost much in the battle.

We turned over the captured documents, Blik and remains of the spy-master to Selanos. Hours of debriefing meetings followed. Mazarale probed into my mind again and released the hypnotic cover he had implanted. I was back to being Talon again. Mazarale asked about his wasp ship and we had to tell him we had good news and bad news. He was not happy about the loss of his ship, but he was awestruck by the Smalljammer.

18 Elaisis, 1368 --All's Quiet in the Dagger Hills

22 Elaisis, 1368 -- Recovering the Key

. . . he who touches the key to the creature awakens it. He who remains in physical contact with the creature controls it . . .
. . . Key hidden in red celestial body. . .
. . . key is silver . . .
. . . key is shaped like a diamond . . .
. . . key beats like a heart . . .

#4 Sohhoras: Treasure is here
#5 Lukkum: Choking mist
#6 Ivussus: Sweet forest
#7 Empunatus: man comet
#8 Chonnot: freshwater
#9 Wirrit: caressing wind
#12 Kiffin: sleeping giant
#13 Pajjax: Silent plains (?planes)
#15 Delless: Spotted clouds
#16 Tryggtt: Wet death
#17 Myyn: Pyramid sun

Finally we got room assignments and ship assignments done (Dragonfly: Cora, Myk, Troy, Moorgin, Tolavin; Smalljammer: Ash, Beldin, Egwene, Krik, Potulous, Blik, Shusaka Iki, and Talon) and we scheduled an all-hands dinner meeting.

23 Elaisis, 1368 -- Underway to Shadowspace.

24 Elasias, 1368 -- End some headaches, begin others.

I was called in to deal with Kora's problem. She, Egwene, Myk, Krik and I met to discuss options. Egwene wanted to try a powerful Heal spell. All concurred except the elf. It was clear she was too afraid of letting herself hope that something might work. We had a heated discussion and in the end she agreed to take the spell. Days later, she was still without migraines and we had cause for hope that they were gone for good.

1 Eleint, 1368. -- Becalmed!

Mandar's ship, the Golden Warrior, was an amazing conglomeration of ship parts and designs. Built of scraps, it highlighted the most fantastical bits of several different ship types. His crew was a bunch of humanoid rabbits. We were invited aboard and warmly welcomed. He even used a tremendously long line to tow our ships out of the "dead-wood sargasso." The sargasso disrupted the magical connection between the helm and the wood of the ships. It would likely be at least a month or two before we could get our ships underway again. In the meanwhile Mandar suggested hiding them on an asteroid field where none of the asteroids collided with each other.

We towed the ships in and set them down in a cavern on one rock. As we left behind the air envelope of the Smalljammer, it appeared as though the cavern turned into a shallow crater. The illusion completely hid the Smalljammer and the Dragonfly from view.

2 Eleint, 1369. Squid attack.

5 Eleint, 1369. Blik's other mission
We learned from Blik that today the other part of his mission to Gamerol base had come to conclusion. When he was there, he had arranged to get all the kobolds off the base on a false mission. This was done after they had infected the carcass of baby marauder we had killed with a deadly fungus. The fungus should have matured today and spread throughout the air envelope of the base. If things went according to plan, It should kill every living thing on the base with the exception, most probably, of the adult marauder. It is unlikely that any poison would be powerful enough to kill the behemoth. We discussed ways that we could still get into the base and deal with the monster without getting infected by the fungus ourselves. The spell casters had some ideas they would research.

14 Eleint, 1369. The spy among us

Moorgin knocked out the traitor and hauled him in for interrogation. Krik put his skills to use and we soon discovered that the elf had been thoroughly worked over. His mind had been shattered and reworked with magic many times. His mind was completely unreadable by magical scryings. Despite all that had been done to him, he knew well what he was doing when he betrayed us. We investigated his quarters and found more of the little bugs and 5 empty bug cages. With a magical spell we put the traitor in a state of suspension where he could be held until our return to the elves.

In the center of the gray island we found a steel plate covered with indecipherable runes. We stood atop the plate and triggered a portal. A roaring pillar of light burst up, closed in from the top, and descended down to engulf us as a low chuckling arose from nowhere.

We found ourselves in a huge room with flaring torches. The laughter was louder here. On each of the four walls was a large balcony 80 feet up from the floor. The balconies were shrouded in ghostly white fire. Skeletal forms of pegasi stomped up to each rail and gave an imperious shake to their undead heads.

A mental link with something was formed and each of us heard it speak into our minds. "I've waited a long time for more playthings. Give up in despair now, for no one has ever lived to pass the test." Immediately several red, skeletal warriors appeared and attacked. As I destroyed one, its bones hit the floor and flared up in a reddish burst of flame.

As we were fighting the skeletons, ten mages appeared on a low balcony. Each stepped out of a door in one of ten big coppery tubes that came out of the walls surrounding the room. We had to get down from the pedestal in the center of the room where we arrived, fight past the skeletons and get up to do battle with the widely spaced mages. There was a huge spell battle that followed. After killing one mage I stepped inside the doorway to a copper tube and was instantly engulfed in white light. It burned through me and there was a brief, but intense struggle of wills. I won and felt infused with power. I staggered out of the tube as it crumbled behind me. Myk had done this just before me and learned that this was the only way to destroy the thing that lay at the heard of this place. One of the mages tried to do this and was destroyed. Another went in and survived. The battle continued, with each of us ducking into a tube when we got the chance. In the end it was a close thing. We captured a couple of the mages and forced them to undergo the test as each of us could only go in once. Myk killed one mage that survived and we later learned that this was very unfortunate. The mages that we had been able to capture were freed from the evil influence of the heart of Sohhoras when the last of the tubes had been destroyed. In the end, we were able to rescue a couple of the mages and get them away. I had regrets that we had not been able to save more of them, but I forced myself to focus on the positive. We destroyed a terribly evil creature (or at least gave it a big, painful setback), rescued a couple of prisoners, and gained an incredible reward. The infusion of power stayed with us as we found our way our to the cavern and back to our ship.

15 Eleint, 1369. A stillness in space and time

We spent several days traveling throughout the sphere, learning a little more about each of the many planets. All seemed frozen in time and stagnating. It became clear that many of the planets were tied together in some strange ecology that involved a comet and gates that once transported material from one to another. Somehow, all that stopped and has failed to restart.

26 Eleint, 1369 -- Beholder grave

As we were preparing to enter into the center of the sphere through a gap in shadow-covered asteroids, we discovered a strange object. It was a flat square of marble, 250 yards on a side and 10 feet thick. In the center was a red dome and around the perimeter was a flowering hedge. Myk learned that the hedge was there to contain undead beholders who were within the red dome. We were preparing to explore when Egwene summoned her efreeti who went in, destroyed the beholders and left with a box containing some so called "spirit stones." There was one spirit stone for each of the six beholders.

We took some of the flowers that appeared useful for repelling undead, and left the place after planting a few orc weapons and other bits of salvage we had accumulated. Perhaps the beholders that left this tomb here will believe that it had been desecrated by orcs or scro.

27 Eleint, 1369. Dragon's eye moon

Shusaka Iki had a strange vision this morning. It involved Troy. When the strange seer came to the morning table Troy asked him what he was seeing. Shusaka proceeded to show him with a gentle touch on the builder's face. Troy later related the vision to us. It was of an endless plain of parched clay. There was something in the distance and with great speed, the builder sped toward the object. It was a swordsman doing forms. Troy then had the sense that there was a long passage of time until the plain was filled with thousands of warriors doing forms. On the distant horizon, roiling clouds raced by. The light never changed, but warriors were dying in the distance. They were dying because something was coming. The only reason It was not here yet is because the warriors are there.

Later that day we reached another planet. Pajjax was a grey, muddy construct that first looked as though it were hills set atop a pile of rope. A small purple moon hung above. This purple moon appeared to be the eye of the constellation The Dragon. We decided to try to fulfil The Dragon's request made when we entered the sphere. He asked us to return his eye. As we approached, We learned that the planet was actually a sentient thing. The grey hills were an enormous head. The coils of rope were long, thick, lashing tails. We could have easily been destroyed but Pajjax was interested in deal making. He had stolen the dragon's eye as a moon for himself. He was now bored with it and was willing to trade. We told him of the beholder grave site and he was interested. Beldin conjured an illusion of the marble structure and Pajjax, assuming it was the real thing, told us to leave it and take the eye.

As Potulous and some others went below to rig up a towing line, a huge uproar was raised. From the sound if it I could tell the bionoid rabbit creature, created by Krik in his experiments had been released. I shouted for the insect to get below and charged down the steps. I found Troy and Moorgin decapitated and Potulous disemboweled. I slipped in front of Myk, hoping to give him enough time to bring either spells or arrows to bear. The priest of Shandakul used his powerful magic bow to kill the creature quickly. Inside Krik's rooms we found that the bionoid had crashed through the wall separating his cell from Krik's. The insect was torn to pieces by the bionoid. The priest and priestess were able to raise Krik, Troy and the dwarf. We put the body of the bionoid back in his cell and I gave very strict orders to Krik about new limitations on his authority. He now has to get direct approval from me before doing any experiments. He did not understand. He refuses to see that with his ability to create things such as the bionoid, he has great responsibility for the results.

After this horrible series of events, we got back to the task of returning the Dragon's eye to the constellation. We harpooned the purple pearl and towed it away from Pajjax.

29 Eleint, 1369. Vision regained

We replaced the Dragon's eye and it thanked us for the favor. It gazed about the sphere for a time before speaking again. Then it told us of a new object near the center of the sphere. A small thing near the sun. It also told us that the name of the sun was Diss. Then, once again, the Dragon fell silent as it gazed off and all around the sphere.

High Harvest Tide 1369. The Feasting.

Our Harvest feast was odd, spent on the deck of Mandar's cobbled-together ship deep in Shadow Space. Egwene provided a grand feast with a lot of excellent food, but the mood was subdued due to the task yet ahead.

1 Marpenoth, 1369. Skeleton mine.

We discovered a long lost weapon from the first unhuman war on this day. As we cruised along on our way toward the center of the sphere, a whitish bundle plummeted through our air envelope and hit our deck with a crash. The bundle unfolded itself into a dozen skeletons. They tried to attack, but Egwene was on the deck. Power blazed from her holy symbol and the bones turned to dust in an instant.

2 Marpenoth, 1369. The Kragen inside

We reached the strange object near the sun and discovered it was a ship that was supposed to be carrying Issha, the hero of the people from Lukkum. We learned that a monster was inside and it was responsible for the death of Issha. With a command, the ship split open and the Kragen was released. It attacked us and I fired off a few arrows before Myk's holy bow put an end to the beast. We probed about in the ship and found some of Issha's notes. Of most interest was the explorer's thought that the heat of the sun did not pose a serious threat to exploration.

Nearby Tryggtt was our next stopping place. It was a place of vast oceans of black water and small green islands. The stench of decay and swamp gas was almost overwhelming. Many of the crew were sickened by the smell. Egwene cast a part water spell in one spot and nearly killed us as the swamp gas, released from the pressure of the overlying waters, erupted out of the muck in huge bubbles. The problem here seems to be complete stagnation.

3 Marpenoth, 1369. Planet of the Dragons.

Our next stop was at Kiffin, Sleeping Giant. There were wrinkled hills of dull gray leading to smaller hills of red. It was dry and hot with lots of mice and small plant eaters. As we approached one of the red hills we discovered that the hill was covered by enormous red scales. Each scale was ten times the size of the smallest one on the body of Flame. We realized with a shock that left our throats dry and our hearts pounding, that each of these red hills was a gigantic red dragon. We left quickly and quietly, hopefully never to return.

We made it to Delless before the last watch of the day. There was a form of signal light coming from the bottom of the small desert planet. As we approached, we discovered the cause for the planet's name of "Spotted Clouds." Lying in amongst the clouds, apparently resting on the cloud surface were many thousands of roaches, each the size of my fist. The looked to be sleeping, but we gave clouds with spots a wide clearance.

At the signal light we met Sall Jorff, last living survivor of an expedition from Gorros to explore Shadow Space. His companions had all either died over the years or disappeared with the ship long ago when some of them went off to explore Tryggtt. Sall studies the bugs here and was pleased with the solitude and his work. He did offer to trade us information that we may be seeking in exchange for our help. He needed us to help him get some measurements from a living queen roach. We agreed to help in exchange for the information.

We flew up to a cloud where a queen was known to rest. She was there, sleeping on the cloud. The queen was much larger than the other bugs we had seen. Just her head was longer than my body. We walked across the cloud (!) and approached the sleeping insect. There were a few tense moments while the measurements were being taken, but she remained at rest throughout and before long we were again safely in Sall's tower.

Sall told us that the last communication he had with his ship came as the team reported they had found an ancient lizard man shrine on Tryggtt. The writing on the walls of the shrine was "startling." We could find the shrine in a cavern on the east side of the bottom of the planet, on an island surrounded by white lilies. We all felt a surge of excitement as we heard this. We are ready for some of the missing pieces to start falling into place. We have gathered a lot of information, but there have been some crucial missing pieces. Perhaps the answers will start coming form the long dead race of lizard men of Tryggtt.

4 Marpenoth, 1369. Cold Iron Heart

5 Marpenoth, 1369. Warden of the reptile temple.

After the croc battle we explored the tunnels for some time before stumbling upon the main temple chamber. To get there we passed by a pair of gargantuan black snakes with the aid of Egwene's spell. In the temple chamber we discovered a dusty altar in the center of a very large room. The room was also filled with awful stinking water at least waist deep. The room was filled with a dull greenish glow that illuminated paintings that covered the walls. The artwork depicted snake-headed humanoid figures with dark blue flesh. The figures were disturbing as they appeared to be frozen in acts of worship to some unseen god. The flickering reflection off the water onto the paintings made them seem to writhe and twist along the walls.

As we approached the sun, the temperature continued to rise until the rabbit crew was incapacitated. As the temperature became nearly unbearable there was a sudden and unexpected change. Without any indication of what was going to happen, we were inside the pyramidal celestial body. We had arrived in paradise. We landed in a meadow of wildflowers. The smell of fresh strawberries filled the air. Drifting clouds floated by above us. Far off in the distance, past drifting clouds we could make out the surface of another inner face of the triangular pyramid. The length of each side must have been at least 300 miles.

8 Marpenoth 1369 - The Inaii of Myyn

Huge trees with enormous spreading branches served as aerial perches for these winged inhabitants of the sun. The Inaii were the only creatures we found in the sun, and they appeared to be living in paradise with everything they needed. They too thought they had it all. We noticed a few disturbing things however. First, we noticed that the yellow cholla did not seem to be replacing itself as quickly as it was being consumed by the Inaii. There were bare patches in the reed groves, and yellow cholla had fewer seeds than did the purple cholla.

The purple cholla, supposedly poisonous to any living thing was growing and reproducing well. We further discovered that rather than being poison, it was much juicier than the yellow cholla and had a wonderfully sweet banana-like flavor. Strangely, while we were assured by every Inaii we met that the purple Cholla was deadly poison, we found evidence that Inaii had eaten the purple cholla recently and had been doing so for quite a while.

15 Marpenoth 1369 -- The horse-headed face of Bane

Usoff was not happy when we returned to the amphitheater in the company of the proud and charismatic general. The general went to stand in the amphitheater while Beldin presented our case. He told them that we and the Fellowship knew the yellow cholla would not last for their people. He told them we knew about the purple cholla and that we knew the herd leaders were eating it and telling lies to the herds. He did a masterful job of weaving just between outright threats and careful rhetoric. He concluded with an honest account of how we came in search of the heart of the Ootok Idol and how the only way to return to the Red Sun and to continue into the future was to turn it over to us.

On our flight, we towed the beholder barge (the real one, not the illusion) in to Kiffin and left it with him. He was happy when he learned that it would not disappear like the other one.

18 Marpenoth 1369. - Strawberry winds

4 Uktar 1369 - Another wind from Shandakul

We said goodbye to Blik today. He told us his mission was complete and that he was going to be going on his way. We wished him well on his journeys as well and he sped off in his little Arrow. I'm sure this time my imagination was not playing tricks on me when I saw his ship flicker out of sight in the distance as a shimmering outline of a black Man-of-War momentarily blotted out the edge of a constellation. Blik was playing several games at the same time it appears, and Kymel was one of the other players. My thoughts went back to our discovery of Kymel's black ship at Gamerol base and his mocking little salute as he disappeared into the crowd. Just what was the purpose of the game he was playing at? I fear that I shall only know when it is far too late.

18 Uktar, 1369. Morog Space

It matched gravity planes and approached. We signaled our willingness to parley and the insect ship came along side. A hatch opened and we were greeted by five elves seated each in his own chair inside. They declined an invitation to come aboard. They asked to see our papers. I had Egwene do a quick scan as Potulous went for our documents. They checked out okay and told us that they were looking for us. We reported that we remained on target to complete our mission and we should be able to wrap it up soon. They appeared pleased and left us to make their report, flying away in the huge insectoid ship. This thing struck me as similar (if not identical) to the thing we found on the island the Greased Ferrets had called Mysthaven.

23 Uktar. 1369. Awaken ye Marauder!

We took the key aboard with us and headed in toward the marauder. The key started showing ghostly veins that throbbed and pulsed in time with the beating of the key. The deep beating had become so low that we felt it in our bones more than we heard it in our ears. Fortunately the thing was light so we moved it along with us. We game out of the aft docking bay into a huge room filled with broken, empty cages.

Myk went in to scout and ended up causing a set of gargantuan doors to be knocked down by a trio of 20' tall monsters. The things were slope-faced horrors with many arms ending in huge bony blade like claws. They moved immediately to attack us. I tried in vain to get the key out of the way before being attacked by a smaller monster that was spewed out of a wound in one of the big monsters. I tried, also in vain, to use the key to let me control the smaller monster as I believed it was a form of marauder. Instead of giving me control of the beast, when I touched both it and the key, the energy from the key completely healed it. The battle with the marauder spawn lasted forever. Finally, after being crushed and bowled over by a huge marauder spawn, I went down under a punishing fury of clawed attacks.

I came to after a couple of powerful curative spells from the priest and priestess. We moved on into the next room and found the Witchlight Marauder still slumbering in the room at the center of the gameriod shell. Myk flew the key down to the huge worm and we saw it disappear inside. It rumbled and ripped open. From the wound rose the iron heart of Iki's vision. A violet light grew and faded then grew and faded again. The worm began to seethe in its pit. Myk stayed in contact with it and we all ran back for the Golden Warrior. We flew off the gameriod in time to see the monstrosity burst through the side of the base and fly off into space with its eyes open and its thousand foot body sheathed in a violet glow. The huge iron heart hovered 200 yards above the marauder.

As we sought to clear the gameriod, we were engaged by a scro scorpion ship. The scorpion was quickly going to pound us into dust with its superior weaponry so we maneuvered to get within spell and bow range. A furious war of spells and missiles ensued as the Marauder lurched to a sudden standstill. A few moments of fighting left the Golden Warrior on the very edge of disaster, with Mandar unconscious in a state of spelljamming shock. The Marauder had rejoined the battle though and rammed the scorpion for a huge amount of damage. Meanwhile, the fanatical lizard warriors had caught up to us again in a wasp ship. They were bent on firing on the Marauder's heart. We tried firing on them, and Troy, Moorgin and Ash flew over that way to fight the lizards. The Marauder, in a horrifying attack, swallowed the entire scro ship before turning on the wasp.

Before the marauder could close, an even larger something came racing past. We caught a glimpse of a manta ray ship so large that an entire city perched upon its back. A glimpse was all we got as it sped by with unbelievable speed. This looked curiously like our Smalljammer, except that its size was nearly unimaginable. Fortunately we were out of the manta's way. The wasp was not. It got hit by the turbulent wake caused by the thing and broke into a thousand pieces. Troy and Moorgin got tumbled in the wake and shook up a bit. Ash, closer to the thing, got completely sucked up into the wake and may have been either killed by the force or dragged along behind in a great tail of debris.

Moments later, long before it should have, the ray passed out of the sphere with a huge flash of colored light as it opened a great portal from Morog space.

15 Nightall. 1369. The Worm's Journey

Towed by the Marauder and making repairs as best we could, we returned to Grayspace to pick up our Smalljammer and dragonfly. The ships had recovered from their misadventure in the deadwood sargasso. I made sure that all the charts were updated with the sargasso's coordinates before we left the asteroid field and headed on toward Realmspace.

9 Hammer 1370 -- Elves in retreat.

We reached the Rock of Bral in Realmspace after several uneventful days. Trouble may have finally been avoiding us as our small flotilla made its strange way through the flow. We made contact with the elven embassy and learned where the elven fleet would meet us. We did not stay to dally.

13 Hammer, 1370. Symbols of esteem.

We met the elves at a huge citadel in space. It was formed of several Armada class ships permanently joined together. The Man-of-War class ships were now all traveling in fleets of at least seven. The wrath of the scro seems to have fallen heavily on the elves. The once proud and seemingly matchless fleet was broken and scared.

Our return, however, was met with much rejoicing. We were welcomed back and a great ceremony and celebration was given in our honor. We were rewarded for capturing and returning Tolavin the spy as well as for coming back with the Marauder under control. Each of us was awarded with a silver chain from which a great star shaped diamond hung. They were awarded as medals of elven esteem. They were each also magical. Mine protects from magic missiles. We received a reward of gold and were given a fully equipped Hammer ship fitted with a Major helm. Mandar was also rewarded and was even able to sell his cargo of air for a great profit.

We celebrated with the elves and spent many hours in debriefings until we were exhausted and drained and wanted to go home.

| Volume 4 |