Continuing our incredible string of perfect attendance, Chris (Dojango Sangaree), Chuck (Arnoux Urag), Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe) and Paul (Marik) all appear on time and under budget. Bruce makes a big deal about this.
Marik decides that he wouldn't be able to live if Yaggo's Boat left him behind in the horrific wasteland of Aeldrine, with its funny-looking natives and its intelligent, hostile oceans. To allay his fears, he performs a quick augury to determine the remaining length of the Stay. He comes up with an answer of 180 days. He says that this is a lot longer than the result he got on his last attempt, a prediction that has unfortunately been lost in the mists of time. The other characters are skeptical.
Antok of the Storm Tribe suggests rather out of the blue that the group should learn some language spells and head off to talk to the Riggers. He figures that because everyone says the rigging is a really bad place and nobody goes there, it must be a really good place to go. He suggests that there might be things to trade, or lots of drunk college girls. Dojango Sangaree suggests that he's insane.
It also develops that it is actually tougher to turn a boat into a flying carpet than previously suspected, as the entire area of the selected "carpet" must be placed under the spell. In the case of the characters' boat, this amounts to an area of something like 8 hexes, for a base cost of (6 + 2x7 = 20 energy). The group decides to come up with alternate strategies for transportation.
The characters depart from their temporary haven in the Rope-Necks' cavern, bound for the Blue Flower Valley. Before their departure, they make some efforts to hide their boat, in the hopes that it might still be there when they return. As always, they travel in style: Marik turns a tarp into a five-hex Flying Carpet (costing him 14 energy less one for his skill bonus). The whole group climbs aboard and hangs on as Marik wafts them on their way. They fly full out at the carpet's maximum speed of about 54 kph, at a treetop-hugging elevation of only 20 meters (about 5 meters above the higher bits of tree coverage). The characters all assume that terrible things will happen to them simply because the gamemaster is figuring all this information out. They are deeply surprised when they have an uneventful trip.
The one near approach to excitement the characters enjoy during their journey appears surprisingly rapidly from behind a moderate-sized hill. One of the massive Aeldrine giants lifts up into view, hefting a Volkswagen-sized rock as if it were a baseball. Fearing that they might be one of the birds the giant was hoping to hit with one stone, they take a substantial detour around the thing.
The characters have little trouble determining when they reached their destination. They fly into a steep valley and note that there are blue flowers everywhere: on the hills, in the valleys, even under the rocks and bushes and trees. They also notice that someone has set a substantial bonfire, largely using uprooted flower bushes as fuel. They see about a dozen folks standing nearby, watching the blaze.
The group immediately starts making contingency plans. They set down some distance from the bonfire. They estimate that three of the group can fight, leaving only four locals for each of them (maybe less if a couple of them chase after Bauen). Marik proposes to use Bauen as a weapon, but his idea is voted down by the others, who think that Bauen's distraction value will be greater.
The characters' plotting is disturbed when they notice what seems to be a very big ghost floating by. The thing is quite the specimen, featuring horns upon it's head and a long, scaly tail. For all of the characters' consternation, it just drifts on past them. The characters follow it, curious in spite of themselves. They are just in time to watch as another spirit, this one a Rope-Neck, drifts up towards the bonfire from a different direction. One of the locals stands out in front of the ghost and presents a quartz stone to it. The characters watch as the spirit is drawn into the stone, which the tribesman then places into a large sack. He repeats the process with the horned and tailed ghost.
By this time, three of the other tribesmen have taken note of the characters' presence. They approach and offer challenge, using gestures to communicate their suspicion of the characters' lack of good motives. The characters take stock of the fellows, noting that they are equipped for bear with spear and axe. This standoff lasts until the spirit-trapping tribesman approaches and uses a Borrow Language spell to establish communication.
The shaman introduces himself in Market Tongue (borrowed from Antok of the Storm Tribe). He speaks to Antok, saying: "I am Yashuf, of the Khemet. You lead this group?" Antok looks over at Dojango Sangaree for approval, then says "Yes". Yashuf doesn't miss a beat, and says to Dojango: "I am Yashuf, of the Khemet, you lead this group?" Dojango suggests that he does and laughs while Antok fumes. Yashuf goes on to gesture to one of the spear-wielding tribesmen, introducing him as his lieutenant Tashhat.
With some measure of actual communication established, Antok and Dojango negotiate with Yashuf over the number of flowers the characters may take, and how much the Khemet will get for allowing the characters the privilege of gathering flowers. The characters, remembering the three spirit traps they recovered from the Rope-Necks, offer those in exchange for the right to gather as many flowers as they can carry. Yashuf accepts, then tastes the spirit traps to judge the strength of the spirits inside. He says that the woman was a shaman and is quite powerful, and that the Rope-Neck is strong as well, but the man (who tasted bad) was a thief and a coward, and is by far the weakest of the lot.
Marik asks if the spirits are dangerous. Yashuf explains that some of them are. He mentions that some of the spirits in the villages are called Freezers, and can kill. He suggests using magic and enchanted weapons against them. He seems to regard the spirits in the villages as more of a nuisance than anything else: they teem like flies, but they are almost too weak to be worth gathering up. It is because they exist that his people set their spirit-drawing bonfires out in the wilderness - if a bonfire were set close to a village, the Khemet would be overrun by clouds of weak but hazardous spirits. Yashuf also tells Marik that the spirits the Khemet capture are traded to the Khetaf trader Kadush am-Ahat.
The characters start gathering flowers the next morning. They find that it is difficult, back-breaking work. By the time a day has passed, any erstwhile drama any of the characters might have found in the farming life is cold and dead. Antok's labor-saving plan to freeze the bushes gets shot down on the grounds that the Khetaf might object if the bushes were killed, but he does it anyway sometimes. Dojango points out that the characters got permission to gather flowers, but not to freeze plants, start fires, or anything else. This doesn't stop Marik from putting some flowers into a bowl and casting Create Food upon them. The result is a sort of minty stew that he feels he could get used to in a pinch.
By the end of the first day of flower picking the characters determine that they will probably have to work for about four days to gather as much as they can carry (assuming that they use a flying carpet to transport their bounty).
In the dark of the night after the third day of flower-picking the characters are awakened by a bright flash of light from the direction of the Khemet camp. They rise to see four figures approaching them. The leader of the group is a well-dressed but rather corpulent fellow. His companions include a wizened, brown-skinned man in a loincloth and two burly goons in spiky metal armor. Antok decides to make the odds look a little less even and bolsters the group's numbers with a Simple Illusion of two more demeks, very similar to Dojango.
The newcomer proves to be the trader Kadush am-Ahat. He has clearly heard about Yaggo's Boat, and offers to pay the characters good money to go back to the boat and find spirits, accompanied by one of his servitors. He claims to be willing to pay good money (which to him means gold) for strong spirits. During the conversation, he also displays quite a bit of interest in Antok, whom he examines very closely with the aid of an amber-tinted monocle. The characters (particularly Antok) feel a touch nervous about this display. Antok in particular feels something like a choice side of beef hanging upon a hook, awaiting the kiss off the butcher's cleaver.
In an effort to dissuade Kadush from his interest in Yaggo's Boat, Antok tries to explain the probable spirit situation upon Yaggo's Boat as, "So much wheat, it's hard to find the chaff." Both Kadush and the other characters look at Antok as if he were insane. Kadush's loincloth-wearing companion makes circling-finger gesture towards his ear. Even so, this outburst persuades Kadush that it is time to depart. He heads back to the Khetaf camp, urging the characters to consider his offer.
The characters discuss Kadush am-Ahat's offer. They generally don't like him, in particular because they don't know what he does with the spirits he buys from the Khetaf. They speculate that Antok might have drawn the trader's interest thanks to his habit of eating magically-powerful souls, of which he has recently consumed five. They also suggest that Kadush may have noticed this and might not believe that the characters are here simply to gather flowers: he might think that they are here to poach spirits that would otherwise be hid.
Dojango suggests that the group should move their camp immediately, and not just to get closer to the remaining flowers. At the time, most of the characters are full of aches and pains and don't want to move, so they decide to move their camp on the following evening. As an added precaution, Antok takes a morning off from picking flowers to make some Continual Light rocks.
When it comes time for the characters to move, they use another of Marik's flying carpets to get them about 8 kilometers away from the Khemet camp.
The morning after the characters' move, they meet up with yet another Aeldrine giant. This one appears more interested in talking to them than in throwing boulders, so they don't flee immediately. The creature booms out, "Little people. You are picking flowers. Why do you pick flowers?" The characters explain that they are picking flowers for medicine, but they don't know anything more about actually making the medicines. The giant introduces itself as Three-Oxen. The characters refrain from speculating on whether he got his name for his looks or his appetite. Three-Oxen seats himself massively, then sniffs and tells the characters that they don't smell right. The characters guess that he means that they are not from Aeldrine.
The characters wait for Three-Oxen to take the next move. It doesn't take long - the giant draws the crushed body of a gaurman out of his pocket and drops it upon the ground in front of the characters. The characters take a quick look at the body, and quickly determine that the fellow had been equipped for bear, and that it was his misfortune that he didn't know he was hunting elephant. He had been carrying an axe and a crossbow, but only fragments of the weapons remain. The gaurman also carried a scroll case. Three-Oxen gestures to it and tells the characters, "What does it say - it is too small for me to read" Three-Oxen explains that the gaurman said something about hunting traitors before he died. He also says that the gaurman had been flying when he met him, and that he had attempted to shoot him with a crossbow.
Marik opens the case and inspects the contents. He finds a number of interesting documents, including:
Marik reads through the documents, and tells the other characters what they say. He also takes the scroll for himself. Nobody objects. The characters conclude that bad things are probably going down on Yaggo's Boat. Marik reassures Three-Oxen that the agent was looking for other people from the boat, and that he worked for Gufteng. They tell the giant that they do not know if he is good or bad, as they have never met him.
Three-Oxen thanks the characters for their help, then attempts to help them in their goal to gather flowers. He sweeps up a double-handful of plants and pours it over Dojango, who ends up buried in pile of dirt, roots, bunny rabbits and plants. The other characters to their best to convince Three-Oxen that while they appreciate his efforts on their behalf, they'd prefer to gather the flowers on their own. Three-Oxen seems to accept this. As a side benefit, he transports the characters back to Yaggo's Boat.
The characters arrive at the Landing to find that the Red Pikes have thrown up an earthwork palisade around the ramps. However, they notice that there are very few men actually manning the walls. Even worse, the wooden gates are shattered, broken from the inside.
The characters give their farewells to Three-Oxen then head inside to talk to the Red Pikes they can find. They find one Red Pike willing to talk. He tells them that all the excitement happened five days ago. First a caravan of important Venturers and people from Sayoch Bounty, with all their dependents and soldiers and goods, came through in a big caravan. They headed for Thunafel, but left a detachment of their bodyguards behind. Second in line was a gaurman named Angun who said he was an agent from Hall Warden Yanag. He ordered the Red Pikes to stop the Venturer caravan that had just gone past, claiming that their leaders were defaulting on loans from the Venturers. The Red Pikes ignored these orders, opting to side with the Venturers who had already departed. Things became even more complicated after a battalion of gaurmen from Prince Gufteng's army emerged. A battle ensued, with the Red Pikes and the Venturers' bodyguards on one side and Prince Gufteng's gaurmen on the other. The Red Pikes managed to push the gaurmen back onto the boat, at tremendous loss. They haven't emerged since. The Red Pike thinks that Sayoch Bounty is under siege. Some men were sent in to gather news, and he expects them to return sometime today.
The characters decide to head back into the boat to deliver their flowers to the Red Tower. The main corridor is littered with the signs of recent violence: several dead gaurmen, pincushioned by arrows, all of them looted (their boots, helmets and metal buckles have all been taken). The passageway ends at a doorway sealed with a black. Marik becomes ethereal and takes a look through the door. He sees an array of armed gaurmen behind it, and pulls back very quickly.
Antok claims that he knows a way to get around the door, through the Warrens. The route will take a half-day, and go through four doors sealed with reds and one sealed with a green. The group debates their possible strategy. During the conversation, Antok comes up with another plan: fly up to the deck and get inside through one of the hatches. The characters equip themselves with sacks and wax from the Red Pikes for their trip. At this point, Arnoux Urag mentions that he saw angels with ichor-dripping blades up in the Maelstrom when Yaggo's Boat first arrived. The other characters are unimpressed, and continue with their plan.
Marik gets a critical success on his Flying Carpet attempt, and does an excellent job of piloting. Antok creates an illusion of an opaque black sphere around the characters to protect them from the effects of the Maelstrom. He adds a small port in front to allow Marik to navigate. Just to make Arnoux happy, he makes the port in the shape of a naked girl's silhouette.
The flight goes well right up until the characters reach the deck. Without warning, a screaming figure hurls itself through the illusion barrier, shattering it in an instant. Antok gazes full upon the Maelstrom and goes berserk, matching the madman now facing him on the carpet. The two of them fall to the deck, clawing at each other with insane fury. They are swiftly joined by two more madmen: a bausker and a one-armed gaurman. Antok savages all three of the others.
While Antok fights like a madman, Arnoux manages to spot a hatchway, sealed with a red. Dojango unseals it to allow Marik to fly everyone through. Marik brings the carpet through, then uses apportation to bring Antok through as well. The characters are able to see the Forward Gallery below them. They can tell roughly where they have entered from the sight of the Zullkreftsskul Academy in the distance.
Faced with the incredible wealth of lux gems on the roof of the Forward Gallery, Dojango and Arnoux are overtaken with greed. They reach out to grab as many as they can before Marik brings the flying carpet down to the ground below. Sadly, Dojango misjudges his reach and falls from the carpet, plummeting to his death. The disturbance in the carpet's trim almost causes Arnoux to follow, but he saves himself at the last moment.
The session ends with the characters back in the Forward Gallery, near the Zullkreftsskul Academy. Each of the survivors gains four experience points.
The players hold a brief moment of silence for Dojango. Chris' next character will start at 104 points, and will gain an additional 25 experience at a double rate.