From the journal of Vedis Valentine
I dressed and went to breakfast, humming a merry little tune. My spirits remained elevated until Ef went to go pay a visit to his merry widow friend. Well, apparently I am easily forgotten after all. I resigned to lose myself in something I generally don't: research. Tain's library is immense as it is eclectic. There was bound to be something helpful in the way of knowledge about the Planes, or so I thought. He only had the barest glimpses of things, including the same map of the planes I've seen in every other book I've found on the subject. It even looked like it was done by the same artist, perhaps the same rendering. Still, it was more than I knew before we started this journey. I came from a weird plane, that doesn't mean that I know everything about the others, or much of anything about my own. The transition between Dream and Prime was a lot like waking up. I don't remember much. So far intuition has served me well, but I can't expect to be so lucky all the time.
We shove off in a day or so because we missed our first departure window. The Arcane are very particular about windows of departures and arrivals. It's all very complicated and to not regulate that would cause chaos and confusion in their very busy trading lanes. Never having seen a mid-air spelljammer collision, I can still say that I never want to. So we play the waiting game once more. Everything is ready. Our new crew members are on board. The Elves sent us a Shu Seer, a prissy, pissy female elf as our engineer, and a FAT elven Xenobiologist. Honestly, who ever heard of a fat elf? We've already had one of his creatures try to break free. He came out chasing it and I dropped it with a little bit of power. That 'sleep' ability Luigi taught me still comes in handy.
We've taken on one more crew member besides the ones sent by the EIN. Dassam has come to join our merry band of misfits. I'm happy for Kenari's sake, but I'm wary that he might be joining us for nefarious reasons under the guise of 'love.' I haven't been so cruel as to mention the thought to Kenari. I'm sure she'll be keeping a close eye on him while she's not keeping him tied up in her quarters. That's why we missed the first window: he came running up the docks as we were pulling out. Landing and getting him aboard cost us. Delays and more delays. Perhaps the Powers are stalling us for some reason?
Well, now, that's interesting. I've just received an invitation from Tain for the command staff to go out for drinks. His tone was positively smug and he'd mentioned something about the bar being 'in town.' Could it be that he's taking us out to the World Serpent? That would be something, wouldn't it? I can't imagine how he'll react when we tell him that we've been before. Maybe he'll be mollified when we tell him about escaping from Ravenloft?
I told his messenger that we'd be happy to come. Now to inform the rest of my fellows…
From the journal of Kenari Sanura
A few hours later I hear a knock on the door interrupting my story to Dassam of how we all met. Damn, I was just getting to the fight with the werewolves, too!
"Tain invited us to dinner at 10 bells, Kenari," Lenata informed softly before walking down the hall.
I sighed as I traced patterns through the fur on Dassam's chest. "When your patron buys a ship for you and is kind enough to arrange repairs, you kind of need to show up when they ask," I say with a pout.
"I will be here when you return," he replies with a kiss to the top of my head. "When you see him, thank him again for throwing that party so long ago," he says with a smile as he helps me out of the hammock. "In the meantime, I will see what I can do to help the crew."
I slip the shiftweave on over my head and with a shake it turns into my frillier outfit that I had designed for "stepping out." I run my hands through my hair and turn to smile before leaving to join the others. "I'll be back before you know it."
We meet up outside of Tain's estate at Ten Bells to find that the eccentric Reigar has gone through another change of tastes. This time, with his bright blue mohawk and dress reminiscent of the plague-ridden scholars Ef Utan and I met while travelling The Stair, he definitely seems to have outdone himself; or maybe it's the strong young men in togas carrying him along like he's some kind of Pharaoh of Refuge. As long as he doesn't expect me to peel grapes for him, I'll play along though.
Eventually we make our way through town behind the entourage and Tain is set down in front of a bar called The Epic Helm. I wonder if they are named after the Spelljammer? As I am pondering this Tain gets up and knocks three times on the door as he scatters glitterdust with his other hand. Before us the door starts to change… until a symbol of a snake swallowing its own tail appears upon it. The same symbol that we saw so long ago in our attempts to flee the Demiplane of Dread.
"Mitchifer, I'm BA-ACK!" Tain announces as he flings open the door and we once again enter the World Serpent Inn, the multi-dimensional bar where if you're not careful, your trip to the toilet may last for decades in another dimension.
We shuffle in behind the exuberant Reigar and quickly scan the area for any of the usual suspects out to get us, but instead once again find someone I hadn't seen since Ef Utan and I had our little adventure: Gimras Silveroath. Ef Utan quickly makes his way over to say hello, and once I get a glance at who is with him, I quickly follow suit. Let the others get drinks from the bar if they want… when someone willingly associates with that many snakes, it gives me the willies.
As I walk up I can pick out bits of conversation about Sigil, but it quickly turns to the tall mechanical caped creature standing with him.
"May I introduce Word of Wisdom," Gimras says as he turns to the creature at pats it on its stony arm. "I met him when we both got our hides out of Sigil."
"Forgive my impertinence, but… what are you other than a Tinkergnomes wet dream?" I ask in disbelief as Tain also comes up to inspect him with taps along his…well… armor, I guess.
"I know, right? I'm surprised I haven't had to pry them off by now," Gimras replies before chugging an ale.
"I am a Warforged… or more specifically, a Psiforged from Ebberon," Word explains. "I escaped my masters and was found by Gimras here, who said he could help me in my travels."
Now this is interesting. The rest of the group eventually join us as Word begins his tale and we barrage him with all sorts of questions from "Do you dream?" to "Do you eat or breath?" Good things to know, right? Especially if one of us ever ends up in the middle of the Flow again.
After what seems about an hour Gimras burps loudly and announces that he's leaving Word in our capable care while he goes off to find a bathroom. Oddly enough… I don't think there IS a bathroom down the hall he stumbled down, which means…
"Crap! He just stuck us with the bill, didn't he?" Vedis groans. I chuckle to myself, as I probably would've done the same thing.
"Small price to pay for a new friend, right?" I say as I clap my hand on Word's shoulder and try not to wince as my hand reminds me what he's made of.
"I don't suppose Gimras told you what you're getting into with us, did he?" Lenata asked with chagrin.
"No… but he did say that you go on many travels and that I would see much with all of you," Word offered.
"You've got no idea," Ef Utan mutters before taking a swig of his ale.
"It'll be a crash course in multi-racial multi-dimensional world saving!" I grin.
"Hopefully without the crashing part…" Vedis adds.
"Yeah, we don't need another time like…" Ef Utan retorts
"Well anyway, it'll be fun!" I finish quickly.
We spend the rest of the night sharing stories and doing our best to fill Word in on some of the different places and races we've seen while he explains his world of Ebberon and how their ships are powered by Elementals instead of Helms.
Eventually we take our leave of the World Serpent Inn and make our way back to Refuge and our ship, where we ask Hatuk to set up quarters for Word while the rest of us try and sleep off our nights festivities. I happily find Dassam and while resting in our hammock tell him of our amazing new friend and his amusing "swishy" walk. I swear… the way he manipulates that cape all the time, you'd think he was a stage performer.
The morning thankfully comes with no interruptions, and I am able to climb the stairs to the deck without being teleported to who-knows-where. I do see an interesting sight, however, as it seems Ef Utan and Word are going to do some morning sparring exercises. I know Ef Utan has been dying to have something other than a ship mast to spar with… but I don't know… Word looks pretty big and tough to me, despite the cape.
"Well this I've got to see," I say with a raised brow. No sense in staying down here where I might get hit with flying debris, however. I look up into the rigging and see that the Hadozee have the same idea as they cheer from above. With a grin I run to the mast and quickly make my way up to join them. "Ef would probably kill me if he heard this… but my money is on the new guy," I say to the cheering watchers. "I think he's got mental powers like Vedis does or something."
We all eagerly watch the battle below and whistle and cheer when Word floats into the air and surges forth in a charge and the sparring begins. I almost fall off my perch with laughing when Ef Utan slips and accidentally punches Lenata. "That's the problem with being a referee," I joke between chuckles.
After the morning fun is over and all the bruised bits are healed we gather for morning breakfast and share some of our views regarding our new… guests.
"Personally, I don't care for that Elven engineer," I say around a mouthful of dried venison. "Bad enough that Elves think their crap doesn't stink all the time… but her demand for her own room is a bit suspicious to say the least."
"Are you suggesting that you follow her, then?" Lenata asks as she pours a glass of mead. "You seem the most capable of the lot of us to find out what she's doing."
"I was getting to that bit… but yes," I say with a lopsided grin as I lean an elbow on the table. "My gut tells me I don't like her… so now my brain wants to find out why."
"That Shu seer is a bit off too," Ef Utan adds as he grabs a biscuit. "I think I'll ask Takero to keep an eye on him, since he knows the language and all."
"What about the Elf with all of the bugs?" Vedis asks as she leans back in her chair. "Who knows what all of those things are for."
"I agree…" I say as I nod towards Vedis. "Besides, when's the last time you ever saw a short chubby Elf? There's definitely something odd going on there."
"And what about your furry friend?" Ef Utan says with a cough. "He DID join us right around the same time, you know."
I fight to keep the nonchalant grin on my face as my claws dig into my leg under the table. While I would love to tell him what he can do with his suspicions about Dassam… my brain just manages to remind me that Ef Utan is just being cautious… as he always is. "Don't worry… I'll be sure to question him extensively," I say with a wink.
Ef Utan snorts in derision before he looks to the rest of the group. "Well then," he says as he stands from the table. "I guess we all know what we're doing while we wait for the go ahead for take-off. We'll meet up tomorrow morning and share what we've discovered. Agreed?"
Several days out into the flow and the command staff is getting anxious about the possible traitor in our midst. To be honest, all three of the new crew the EIN sent are suspect. Kora disappears for hours at a time and she had insisted, quite stridently, that she get her own private quarters. Tolvin the fat elf has a nervous, twitchy air about him and he hangs out with bugs all day… on purpose. Shusaka Iki, the seer, has been heard muttering to himself, things like 'I'm sorry' and 'please make me whole again.' Dassam has fit right in with the rest of the furry crew, doing his best to learn how to lend a hand with the sails and being generally helpful where he can. I think that Kenari's man is legit.
We had a 'company' meeting to discuss these things. We brought Word in on it. I don;t know why but he just seems to exude an aura of trustworthiness and competence despite never having been on a ship like ours before. I've spent some wonderful watches just talking with him about the creatures of nightmare that spill over into his home world and the arts of the mind. Sadly, he'd never heard of the Dream Stone, but I have a feeling that we'll need his help to solve the mystery.
As it stands now, Kenari is to be keeping an eye on Kora, Ef-Utan has placed Takero in charge of figuring out what Iki is muttering about in Shu with the help of his intelligent rat, and Word and Ef-Utan will be watching Tolvin for any signs of strange behavior. We'll all be on alert as we can be.
Days have passed and we've entered into the sphere of the fanatical Lizard Folk the EIN warned us about. Kenari discovered Kora clutching her head in private and urged her to come speak to me, thinking it might be latent talent displaying in painful ways. I did my best to try to put Kora at ease and persuade her to talk to me about her problem. She's terrified of losing her commission should it come out to the EIN that she is 'defective' in some way. Her whole family has been in the Navy. In the end, I got her to sit still long enough for Lenata to come and look her over in private. Her condition is simply known as "the Pain" and Lenata is unable to cure it outright, but we've provided Kora with the hangover remedy potions and they seem to help somewhat. It will have to do until Lenata becomes skilled enough to work the magics through her god to make it go away indefinitely.
Lenata also spoke to Iki, Cleric-to-Seer, but so far he has denied that anything is amiss. She even went so far as to offer what aid she could to him if he'd only tell her what he;s going through. He said he'd keep her offer in mind and we've heard nothing of it since. That is one enigmatic Shu. It must come with the territory of being a Seer.
Ef-Utan and Word caught Tolvin releasing one of his bugs on deck. He'd been using them to send messages about our position to the SCRO. For now, he's been confined to quarters with Word as his guard. Our interrogation of the poor elf got a little hairy for a bit there, I think that tensions were running high and some of us made some threats that we didn't really mean. It became clear that he was being blackmailed into it, as the SCRO are holding his family hostage, but he also stood to gain a great deal should his information prove helpful to the evles' enemies. We're keeping everything quiet in case he's not the only spy on board. We don't want to SCRO to know he's been made, and we're going to try to use the last messenger bug to send them on a false trail.
With each day we grow closer to the Sphere of Shadows, although we have weeks left to go. I have no idea what we will find when we get there. For now, we're just hoping nothing happens to us before we do.
The day passes rather uneventfully… but during the evening I notice Kora acting rather suspicious as she suddenly drops her tools she was using for repairs and walks off. Hmmn… mind control, maybe? You never know these days… I silently follow the Elven woman to the top deck and watch as she crawls into a large coil of rope and disappears.
Well, I can't exactly join her in there… so I do the next best thing and climb into the rigging to see if I can get a bird's eye view. As I look down I am surprised to see that she isn't doing anything criminal… she's curled into a ball and crying while she holds her head. Crap… I was hoping to be justified in my irritation with her… not suddenly feeling compassion, dang it! I throw down the toothpick I had been chewing on in silent disgust and head back to my quarters. I guess I'll try to talk to her away from the others tomorrow and see if she'll share what's up. I wonder if she's like Vedis and Word with those weird mental powers? Or maybe she's going through addiction withdrawal? Either way, I think Vedis or Lenata might better equipped to help her out.
Early the next morning I corner Kora and gesture her into another room for some privacy as she looks at me warily with tired eyes. Ok… how do I go about this? I scratch my head as I turn towards her and sigh. "I'll just put this bluntly. Your constant disappearances were getting questionable, so I followed you last night and saw the pain you were in. Is there anything… would you like to…"
Kora looks even more worried and I can just see those walls going up in her head. "Sorry, I'm not very good at this," I sigh. "We're all freaks here… so if there's something weird going on that you need help with and are afraid to tell people…we'd like to help… if we can." I tap my temple. "Is it a…what did she call it… a Psionic thing? Are you hearing voices and need to get away from people, maybe?"
Kora's eyes widen but she remains silent as she looks at me nervously. "Look… just go talk to Captain Vedis about this, ok? I think she can help you out… whatever your problem is."
"If those are my orders," Kora finally replies, albeit reluctantly.
"If that's what it will take for you to do something about this, then yes. Dismissed…or whatever," I say as I wave her out of the room and back to work. Geesh… hopefully she'll talk to Vedis, anyway.
Later that morning we all meet again for breakfast to share what we've learned (if anything).
"Well, according to Takero, there's definitely something fishy going on with our Seer… but nothing that screams 'I'm a spy for the Scro.'" Ef Utan begins as he pours a drink. "He's doing a lot of praying for forgiveness and asking to 'be made whole'… which probably has something to do with the fact that for a Seer, he's not radiating a lot of magic. Still worth looking into, though."
"So Vedis, did Kora come see you?" I ask as I grab a piece of fruit.
"Yeah… took some prying, but eventually she confessed that she's got chronic migraine problems. Nothing so devious as you thought… but still something pretty debilitating that could effect her position with the EIN if they found out."
"I've started a regime of medicinal treatments for her that should help…" Lenata spoke up, "but it's only a temporary balm until we can find a more powerful healer who could help. Unfortunately, the magics are beyond my ken right now."
"What about the bug man, Tolvin?" Vedis asked as she looked to Ef Utan.
"Meh… he's been skulking about, but nothing yet."