The Sands of Time and Shadows of the Past

These are the titles of a pair of linked scenarios you can find on the support site for Stormbringer here. I've been intending to use them for a while now to add some more information to the overarching campaign plotline.

Bomilcar's narrative
We are still spending some downtime in Ilmar. Jorthan is mostly doing business; Destiny is studying; and the rest of us are just getting on with it, chilling out and enjoying the start of summer. One day, Sir Blanque comes back from a trip to the shops with rather a bemused expression on his face, carrying what looks like a child's satchel. "This little girl ran up to me, clutching a flute and this package," he says. "She had a really intense look on her face, thrust this at me and then ran off into the crowds. She was quite distinctive, with different coloured eyes, but even so I lost sight of her very quickly."

Might as well open it, then. Inside is a diary, The Logbook of Varlim Sarraber. This causes some consternation, because Sarraber was a well known adventurer from the height of the Lormyrrian Empire, around one hundred years ago. He travelled across the Young Kingdoms and beyond, and his diaries are held in the royal library at Iosaz in Lormyr itself. Nobody knows what became of him, but it would seem that we are holding his final volume, because it looks unfinished. Sir Blanque settles in to read.

It turns out that Sarraber became very interested in some place called Quarzhasaat, a city in the region of the Sighing Desert to the northeast of Ilmar. According to his notes, Quarzhasaat was supposedly engulfed by the desert just before the great wars between Melnibone and the Dharzi, over a thousand years ago. Sarraber's journal includes his rough map of where he thinks this legendary place might be. He has a couple of oases marked on it, and a cross that marks an approximate location a few days' travel beyond them. The diary ends with a description of a gorgeous palace in the midst of a sand-covered ancient city. It is not clear how the volume was retrieved, or what it was doing in the hands of a street urchin of Ilmar. Anyway, the tale piques our curiosity, especially Destiny's, because of her interest in all thing historical. We decide to ready an expedition of our own.

Jorthan knows a little bit about the Sighing Desert, and taps into his network of connections at the Consortium of Ilmar to find out more. The place is effectively a cold desert, and lack of water means that we will need to use camels rather than horses. Apart from Destiny, of course, because her magical steed doesn't require sustenance. Sometimes that demon horse can be really useful. There are some nomadic tribes that live there, possibly using scattered oases and the foothills of the Nameless Mountains as their bases. Anyway, we will each need a goatskin of water per day, and given that we know nothing about the place it would be wise to take precautions. We over-prepare by buying three camels for each of us to help carry the water and provisions. That way, if one or two fall ill or something, we will still have reserves.

Off we go: Jorthan, myself, Destiny, Marion and Sir Blanque. Jorthan is getting right into this; he has something of his family's wanderlust about him, and it means he gets to go somewhere even his famous father never saw. We make good time to the northern hills, and take a break at the Tizun Thane estate. The locals are delighted to see us again, especially since we saved them from some evil night terror things the last time we were here; they freely supply us with everything we need. Nobody knows what is happening at the mansion itself, and nobody cares enough to go and look, so we assume that there is still a power struggle going on there. The innkeeper inquires about our camels, and we tell him we are going a little bit of the way into the Sighing Desert. He tells us to call in on the Bedu tribe; these proud nomads have a temporary encampment at the first of our marked oases, and may be able to give us some survival tips. He knows this because they often come to the village to trade and for information. He also gives us an indication of how to behave when we call on them - "Approach them openly in broad daylight to show that you have no malicious intent," he says. Jorthan is particularly interested in making contact with some of the people of the region, for future reference. "Oh, and one last thing," the inkeep says, "If you present their sheikh with a well-made, practical gift, you'll have a friend for life." Fortunately, we have just the thing - a superior quality spear we took from the Sahuagin, which is still strapped to Destiny's horse.

Off we go, and make contact with the Bedu as suggested. They are very interested in our little group, and even Destiny passes without comment - they've never heard of Melnibone, which pleases her to no end. Jorthan presents the sheikh with his present, and he seems most impressed - "A fine weapon indeed!" he says. He signals a feast, and after an hour of small talk we get down to business, asking him for his advice on how to cope with the desert conditions. He seems gratified that we are bowing to his expertise, and he gives us plenty of advice: "Always wear loose robes over your clothing and equipment, because it keeps out the sand, and also helps with concealment; the glint of metal can be seen from miles away. Smear soot and charcoal under your eyes across the top of your cheekbones because it reduces glare. This is a cold desert, but even so the sunlight reflected from the white sands has been known to cause temporary blindness. If you do have to fight, attack the enemy's encampment at night by moving through their camel corral. Camels are always noisy, so you will be less likely to attract attention this way. If you are lost and come across what looks like a faint trail, follow it; the chances are it will lead to an oasis, in either direction."

After spending the night with our new friends, we take our leave, heading towards the final oasis before we strike out towards the supposed site of the city from Sarraber's journal. We make good time [critical navigation roll by Jorthan] and take a break. After refilling all of our goatskins, we continue towards the northeast. At evening on the third day, we hear the sound of a flute coming from a tall dune up ahead; "Didn't that girl who gave you the journal have a flute?" Jorthan asks Sir Blanque. As we approach the top of the dune we hear the jingling of bells and spot what looks like a caravan in the distance, heading off at a very slight angle to our own approach. We decide to follow, aided by an almost full moon, and just as dawn breaks the caravan disappears over a rise. We struggle through the soft, drifting sand, and look down into a valley, the very vista described in Sarraber's journal. There is no sign of the caravan, but there is a large ruined city surrounding a perfectly preserved citadel. Jorthan reckons this place must have housed ten thousand people. From our vantage point, we are able to make out regular depressions denoting canals and a sophisticated irrigation system, now all covered in glistening white.

We make our way into the city, heading for the central citadel; there doesn't really seem to be much point in doing anything else. The place is covered in sand, which occasionally drifts in the constant wind to uncover dead bodies - thousands of them. The entire citizenry seems to have been wiped out in some sort of calamity as they went about their daily business; the place is full of their desiccated remains. There is one large octagonal building that seems eerily free from the ever-present sand, so we go in to take a look. Obviously this was once a place of Chaos worship, and friezes around the interior show worshippers and priests partaking of various form of abandoned passion. Repeated throughout is a pair of images, the first being a massively muscled young man with an ancient face. The converse is a wizened, bent old man with the face of a handsome youth. Destiny says this was a temple to Slortar the Old, the most ancient deity of Chaos. I've never heard of him, and she explains that his cult is waning now, but is especially attached to pleasures and pains of the flesh. Looking at the images in this place, I believe her...

We leave this temple and go straight towards the gleaming citadel. A patrol of skeletal guards in decaying equipment salutes us, but otherwise ignores us completely as we approach the entrance. This is the only part of the city with any signs of life, and the place is bustling. We are met at the gates by the Grand Vizier himself, who busies himself, fawning over his new guests. "Welcome to Bahlahim!" he says, and then snaps his fingers; some flunkies appear to take us to our guest suite; he then says we can call on the Caliph at our leisure. On the way we pass a gorgeous fountain fed by crystal waters from beneath the desert. This is real, so the source must still be there, and the runes carved all over the fountain indicate that the waters can heal. We each refill a goatskin.

Once we are ensconced in our gorgeous suites, we turn to one another for a discussion. The whole place is stunningly beautiful, but strangely enough when looking out through the windows, we see the city as it once was, rather than the devastation we have just passed through to get here. Sir Blanque and Destiny both say that their witch sight is going crazy; the whole palace is covered by an illusion to make it look gorgeous, but if they concentrate, underneath is the dreary reality, which accords with the outside. Strangely, though, the people here are real, although starving and in rags. The whole place radiates very powerful magic indeed. Since this is not fabled Quarzhasaat after all, we begin to think that perhaps the whole region now known as the Sighing Desert was a great realm, perhaps an empire of sorts, and that Quarzhasaat was the capital, served by many other beautiful cities such as this one. The devastation is therefore on a regional scale.

Nobody seems to bother with us so we decide to explore further. There is a guard tower just off our chambers, so we go to have a look. Destiny warns us that underneath the glamour (technical magic term there!) this tower is extremely dangerous, with rickety, decayed wooden stairs leading around the inside to a viewing platform at the top. She is curious to find out what might be seen from up there, and since she has a couple of levitation runes and an air elemental to keep her out of trouble if she falls, she volunteers to be the one to take a look. Fortunately, she doesn't need any magical assistance, but when she returns she has a rather puzzled look. "There's someone's body swaying from the remains of the rafters up there. It looks like suicide," she reports.

She does, though, say that from her vantage point she was able to see a beautiful/decayed rooftop terrace nearby, with various members of the court lounging around. There seems to be a pool of some sort, so we go there to investigate. The locals pretty much ignore us, and we approach the pool. It is a fountain-like object, but instead of water it is full of quicksilver. Floating in the middle is what looks like a large, multifaceted sphere; something dark can occasionally be glimpsed in its depths. As we get closer, we hear a polite cough from behind us. "Mine, I think," says a rather strange looking man. He is dressed in rags, even to my eyes, but has the appearance of someone in the prime of life, albeit with an unsettling far away look in his eyes.

Sir Blanque exclaims, "Don't touch it! The quicksilver will poison you!" The reply is peculiar, even for this place, "Oh, that's all right, I'm the one who put it there. I'm immune to the stuff anyway, since I'm immortal." He then gazes off wistfully towards some imagined horizon. This guy isn't quite all there. Even so, it turns out that he is right. He just sticks his hands into the liquid poison and lifts the gem; now that it is out of its containment, we see that it isn't a globe after all, but a very large heart-shaped crystal. "It's nice to have visitors," he says, rather vaguely. "Would you like some company?" Since there's no point in refusing, we acquiesce, and he sort of decides to follow us.

Destiny tries to engage him in conversation, and he replies with some vacuity: "A Melnibonean. How nice." Destiny asks about his immortality, and he tries to think for a while. "Oh, that. Yes, well, I'm a very powerful sorcerer you know, and when I summoned Slortar I asked for immortality, and he said yes. I think he was tickled by my audacity. Anyway, he said that in return for ten thousand years, he'd take ten thousand souls." We look at one another - that was the population of this city. He continues, "He took the people in a single night's orgy of violence and destruction. It replays every evening; so you'll see it for yourselves later." He then returns to whatever strange musings occupy the remains of his mind.

I for one don't like the sounds of this; neither does anyone else. So we decide to explore the palace as much as we possibly can to see what else we can find. Destiny reckons there must be a source of some kind for the illusion, and says as much. The weirdo, who finally introduces himself as Qaleb, makes a vague sound of affirmation: "Yes, it's called N'urlgaash. It was one of my summonings, a while ago, so it's very powerful." Destiny whispers that it sounds like a named greater demon. Brilliant.

We pass through some servants' quarters and kitchens as we go towards another guard position. This one is occupied by a man who, by the looks of it, has torn out his own eyes. He stands at attention, gazing out unseeingly over the wasted city. I think if I stayed here to see the god's carnage every night for a thousand years I'd probably do the same.

Leaving him at his post, we finally enter the court of the Caliph. This place confirms our suspicions; everyone is going through the motions of a daily routine, while underneath lurks the quiet terror of Chaos that will explode every evening. The Caliph waves at us condescendingly and mutters something about an audience later, so we just leave him be; we really want to get to the bottom of this before nightfall. Behind the Caliph's throne and dais is a large ornate set of double doors, so we head straight for that; nobody even bothers to interfere. The Caliph pointedly ignores Qaleb, who is still tagging along behind us.

The room beyond contains a massive altar, which is covered in the same types of runes as the fountain where we found the weird crystal. Close inspection reveals some scrape marks on the gorgeous (to my eyes) parquet flooring, so we heave and finally shift the altar sideways, revealing a flight of stairs going down into coolness.

Lurking at the bottom in a chamber of shifting light is a large blob of darkness, from which several large tentacles writhe. It greets us in beautiful tones. "Good evening, travellers. I am N'urlgaash. I am obliged to warn you that I am a very powerful demon of protection, bound by Qaleb there. I am required to maintain the illusions above, and also to attack if you do not immediately leave this place. There is a way to dispel me, but unfortunately the terms of my binding do not allow me to divulge it to you."

A wave of energy pulses from the thing and Marion goes down, her countenance a mask of nothing. Jorthan responds by turning round and trying to smash the crystal Qaleb is carrying, but his blow glances off it harmlessly. "That's the spirit!" says the demon. Sir Blanque uses his Virtuous sword to do the same, and this time the heart shatters. The now familiar feeling of transportation through the void engulfs us...

I wake up to the sound of fighting; a dying weird demon man ghoul thing is lying near me, with one of Marion's trademark dagger slices running down the length of its leg; another one is nearby, killed by Sir Blanque, I would think. Several others are running away at high speed. It transpires that everyone else remained conscious during the transition, and Marion woke up from the visions being inflicted upon her by N'urlgaash; she was being assaulted by the Chaos visitation we would all have seen if we had stayed in the palace. As we arrived in this place, wherever it is, we were attacked by a group of what might pass for the locals, wielding clubs and rocks, but Marion and Sir Blanque made very quick work of a couple of them.

We draw breath and look around. This place is grim and grey: very little light, no stars, everything made of shades of grey, and drifting wisps of light grey mist. Marion looks right at home. One of the things that attacked us dropped a large burlap sack in its haste to escape, and something, or rather someone, is wriggling around in there, trying to get out. We slit open the sack and out pops a little guy, festooned like a jester or something. He introduces himself. "Jermays the Crooked, at your service, ladies and gentlemen," he says, as he does an intricate little bow. "I am something of a traveller, and it looks as though I have ended up on the Shadow Plane." Marion looks delighted at this. Jermays explains a little more, "I am really pleased to make your acquaintance. If you hadn't come along, those creatures would probably have eaten me for lunch, not that there is really much more than gristle. I take it you are all from the Young Kingdoms? This place borders your home plane, so I propose that we go towards the capital, for lack of a better description; we might all find a way home there. It's called Ameeron. It's over there somewhere..." The funny little guy waves a vague hand in a general direction, so we shrug and go that way; it seems as good as any other in this place.

Jermays chats away as we walk, completely unperturbed by everything that seems to have happened to him. He tells us that the Shadow Plane is a sort of limbo, a place for the refuse of the multiverse, people and others who have been forgotten by the Lords of the Higher Worlds. It apparently connects various other planes of existence, and according to him it is no coincidence that we arrived not long after him. "These things happen to me all the time," he explains with a smile. As we walk, we lose track of time. This place is grim, and the ground is occasionally fissured by long crevasses from which issue strange shrieks and groans. This is not somewhere I'd like to stay.

Eventually we reach a stinking dump surrounded by the remains of low walls. "My friends, may I present the lovely city of Ameeron!" says Jermays with a flourish. As we move towards what once looked like a gateway, a large man in some sort of armour constructed from linked metal rings looms out of the gloom; he seems to be wearing a very large helm fashioned like the head of a giant ram. He plants a halberd in the ground in front of him and shouts at us: "None shall pass without a toll. I think, given the size of your group, that a single soul would suffice." I realise with a start that it isn't a helm he is wearing - that's his head. Looking around, we spot at least five similar beastmen, two of them carrying bows. We could probably take them, but there is no telling what else is lurking in this place, so Jorthan decides to bargain. "I tell you what, instead of that, how's about we pay you in gold instead?" He shows the beastmen one of the large gold tiger coins of Pan Tang that we acquired in Shazaar, and this really grabs their attention. We just pay the toll and enter. "What a nice man" says Jermays.

Ameeron - image from another scenario in the First Stormbringer Companion

This place seems like it has been constructed from the architecture of dozens of different worlds, all crammed together in the gloom. There are various strange movements in the shadows, and screams echo from beneath our feet. Marion is loving it - her shadow dance seems to be working automatically at full capacity. 

As we enter a reasonably large square, we hear an altercation from an alley behind us. A young boy sprints out from the shadows, only to be entangled by the stroke of a long whip. Several men dressed in flowing black robes emerge to mob him. "In the name of Arioch!" shouts the one with the whip, who looks like their leader. Rather than see the poor guy dragged off by cultists, we strike into them, and a combination of blows and an explosion by Destiny's fire elementals sees them off. At one point in the confusion a strange red beam lashes out from another alleyway, aimed at the leader. It misses him, and from the corner of my eye I see the beam strike and fry the entire corner of a house. The fire goes out almost immediately, though; it is almost as though its energy is leeched off into the very air.

One surviving cultist gets away, and the boy nods and thanks us, doing a runner himself. From the alley whence the red light appeared, a strange looking man emerges. He is dressed in rather gorgeous golden armour made from metallic scales, and his ornate helm is fashioned to look like the head of some sort of serpent man; the eyes are made from valuable gems. He is holding a little weapon with a handgrip, almost like a small spear or javelin, and is also carrying a very long, slender pointed sword. He pushes up his helmet and introduces himself. "My name is Ahld, and unless I am very much mistaken, I believe that you too are not originally of this place. I offer you some shelter, and the possibility of a way for all of us to escape."

Ahld leads us through the gloomy town for what seems like maybe half an hour, before we fetch up at the dilapidated partial remains of a tower. "I know it's not much, but it is defensible, and that counts in this place," he apologises. I see several large metallic beetles rooting around; Ahld notes my curiosity and explains that they are mechanical guardians of his own making. The ground floor is mostly full of rubbish, but it turns out that the first floor is fully intact, and Ahld has turned this into a serviceable suite of rooms. "Murtok! Wine, please - we have visitors!"

Ahld's strange servant serves us some barely palatable red wine from a variety of chipped mugs and glasses. He seems to walk oddly, and there is a glint of metal from beneath his long robes - some kind of armour, perhaps? There is, though, a strange whining sound produced by his legs every time he moves. Ahld apologises for the quality of the wine, explaining that this is about as good as it gets in this place. "I'll get straight to the point. I am a scientist, and I have been experimenting with dimensional travel. Unfortunately, my prototype burned out and left me stranded in this place. I did, though, manage to find another traveller such as myself, a man by the name of Gunther Pugh, someone else who is stuck here. I met him at the only serviceable tavern in town, the Inn of the Poxed Harlot (lovely name, by the way) and suggested that we pool resources; he immediately turned on me and tried to stab me. Presumably he wanted my craft for himself. Anyway, to cut a long story short, if we can acquire his engine, I can affect enough repairs to get us all out of here. I am, though, asking for your assistance; the man is a very capable fighter, and unfortunately already knows me. You, however, he will not recognise. Shall we join forces?" Since there doesn't seem to be much alternative, we agree. Jermays rises and thanks Ahld for his hospitality. "I think we should go as soon as we can," he says to us with a wink.

After leaving, Jermays turns to us; I think this is the most serious I've seen him so far. "We cannot trust that man," he says. "I know quite a bit about the multiverse; he is a Granbretanian scientist, of the Order of the Serpent - and quite high ranking too, I should say, going by the quality of his equipment and helm. The insane hunger of Granbretan recognises no bounds, and if they are not stopped on their home plane, they are capable of engulfing the multiverse. I think that this fellow Pugh knows something of this, and I for one would rather deal with him. We just need to find him first..." We agree; some of what Jermays sounds familiar from our conversations with Lady Merut of Chaos.

We come across what looks like a reasonably broad colonnade that leads to what passes for the town centre, and eventually reach the tavern. As we enter, what little conversation that is taking place dies down. The place is half full of people, all of whom look as though they are drinking to the point of insensibility, which seems eminently reasonable. Knowing that we need to get information as soon as possible, Jorthan produces another of the golden coins and buys drinks for everyone. This immediately makes us popular, and we sit down for something to eat and drink; we don't inquire too closely as to its origins. We do manage to strike up some desultory conversations with the locals, and overhear some others. At one point, proceedings are interrupted by a wild-looking crusading priest guy, preaching about damnation and his heroine Anastasia, who is waiting to emerge from some sort of stone dome and cleanse this place. The locals jeer at him; apparently he's being saying this for nigh-on twenty years, give or take. Sir Blanque whispers in my ear, "I don't care what those folks are saying; look at the guy's staff!" The preacher, who goes by the name of Hezekell, bears a long rod tipped with the triangle of Law. It would seem that something else is going on in lovely Ameeron.

We follow Hezekell and ask him politely to stop; Jorthan says we would like to hear more of what he was talking about in the tavern. Hezekell realises that we are newcomers, but strangely does not seem worried by Destiny's presence; if he is of Law, then he comes from some other plane, because he doesn't recognise the Melnibonean. He says that he is pleased that some at least are taking him seriously, and explains that he arrived here twenty years ago in the service of Anastasia, the great champion of Lady Mirath of Law. They were apparently chasing a lich called Morban from their home plane, and Anastasia was carrying a machine that would imprison him. She ordered Hezekell to wait outside Morban's mansion in Ameeron with the 'nullifier key' while she went in to encase the lich within a great stasis dome; upon her signal, Hezekell was to let her out. He's been waiting twenty years for the signal... We say we'll try to think of a way to help him, and then take our leave; he gives us rough directions to his temple, in case we really do decide to come and visit him - he doesn't look too hopeful, probably because what passes for life on this plane is so dispiriting.

Jermays is quite excited by this information - he thinks that Anastasia's machine might help us get out of here, so it would seem that our next task is to rescue the man called Gunther Pugh. According to our tavern informants, Ahld did indeed meet with Pugh, but after a heated conversation the latter left in a hurry, clutching his throat and stomach. One of our drinking companions was adamant that Ahld slipped something into Pugh's drink. Another said that he was sure Ahld said something about Pugh changing his mind, because he only has a few days left. It would therefore seem that Jermays is right; Ahld cannot be trusted, because he obviously poisoned Pugh. Destiny says that she overheard someone who saw Pugh being captured by the town constabulary, i.e. the thugs who run the place; he will probably be paraded this evening in Punishment Square, under the great clock tower. This is the only real landmark in Ameeron, a strange looking tower everyone calls "Big Ben" for some reason; apparently that's the name of the bell, not the clock. So that's where we go. Our description of Pugh, garnered from our various sources, is of a tall man in a green coat, with a large guard dog.

Big Ben isn't difficult to find, because what passes for a crowd in this place is heading in the same direction. There is a large dais underneath the great clock tower. The bottom part of the tower is open to the air, with a large scythe connected to the pendulum, swinging back and forth. Several of the familiar beastmen have strapped some poor unfortunate to a cart, and are having fun pushing him to one another across the path of the scythe; the locals are taking bets on how many passes it will take before he is sliced open. The compere is a huge obese beastman with four arms, bearing a couple of halberds. Behind him is a large jail cart full of prisoners, and I catch a glimpse of one answering to Pugh's description. He looks really ill. 

Sir Blanque points in the direction of one edge of the crowd, where a young girl with mismatched eyes holds the leash of a huge black dog; she seems to get around a lot! She gestures towards the cage, so Destiny sneaks around behind the crowd and the guards while everyone's attention is on the scene beneath the scythe. She unlocks the cage and lets everyone free, grabbing Pugh's arm as he emerges. The incensed prisoners start to mob the guards and a riot breaks out, the most activity we've seen in this town. We escape down a side street in the confusion.

As we pause for a breather, Pugh introduces himself. As Destiny uses her newly acquired magical healing knowledge to purge his system of the poison, he greets Marion by name. "Haven't seen you for a while; how are you doing?" She says he's never met him before, so he shrugs and say, "Well, that often happens to servants of the Balance." As he begins to recover, he leads us to an abandoned mill (with no river) where he has hidden what he calls his 'planar yacht'.

It's a glorious sight, a beautiful barge with a furled sail of some strange, shimmering material. That will be huge when it is opened. Pugh sits down with a sigh and admits that he sees no way out of our dilemma without dealing somehow with Ahld. He gives us some background: "I am actually from the same word as Ahld, but from another continent called Amarehk. Ahld is a Granbretanian scientist, and so by definition is a psychopath. We met in the tavern and he tried to threaten me to get me to hand over bits of my yacht so that he could cannibalise parts for his own machine; when I refused to co-operate, he poisoned me." We reciprocate, filling him in with the story of Hezekell and Anastasia. Pugh looks brighter at this: "To be honest, even if we could patch up one of the two planar machines, either mine or Ahld's, I don't think it would do us any good. We would still require a power source. It does, though, sound as though this Anastasia has exactly what we need."

Jorthan makes a suggestion at this point: "In case you haven't noticed, Marion seems particularly at home on his plane. Even by her standards, her abilities in the shadows are rather impressive. I think  we should deal with Hezekell, Anastasia and the lich, and then work on your yacht. If you tell Marion what you still need from Ahld, she can just sneak in and take it." This meets with approval, so we head off to meet the somewhat deranged Lawful priest.

On the way, Jermays gasps and says, "There's old Niun!" He points us in the direction of a man with gray hair sitting on a wall, swinging his legs. He looks up, and greets us all by name. This place just gets weirder all the time. He takes a special interest in Marion, calling her a servant of the Runestaff. She starts at this and shows him the tip of the staff we found in the tower in southern Argimiliar; she also tells him the story of the vision we received there. Niun is most impressed. "The Runestaff is due to relocate itself to the world of Granbretan," he says, in another of those increasingly common non-coincidences. "It would appear that you saw the Warrior in Jet and Gold, the most important servitor of the Runestaff on that plane. You are destined to piece it back together and present it to him, so that he can take it for Hawkmoon." This causes even more consternation; that was the password we used to find the tip of the staff in the first place. Niun then looks at us all blankly. "Who are you?" he asks. He then seems very happy. "Oh good, that means I've forgotten you all. I once sought to know everything, but then I was cursed by Orland Fank of the Runestaff. When I have forgotten everything I once knew, I will be released from my curse. I'm really pleased not to have met you!"

I just sigh and move off; all of this interplanar stuff is really confusing. I let the others do the talking when we find Hezekell at what passes for his temple. As we head off to the stasis dome thing, Jorthan says, "Could you describe Anastasia's appearance, please?" Hezekell replies, "Certainly; she possesses great beauty, although she can be rather stern and aloof. Strangely enough, her eyes are different colours." "What, like that little girl over there with the flute?" interjects Sir Blanque. Here we go again...

The flute player, who seems incapable of speech, comes over and takes a strange looking rod from Hezekel's hand. She snorts at the priest in utter derision, gives a very good imitation of a look that seems to say something like "Finally!" and heads off to an enormous stone dome, which she touches with the rod. The dome instantly disappears, and she walks back to Hezekell. Pugh and Jermays say that it's all up to us now - combat isn't really their thing, apparently.

We just go straight in, heading towards the centre of what was once quite an impressive looking mansion. Waiting for us in the great hall is a pale, but handsome tall man, with something of a rather resigned look about him. In a corner is a statue of what can only be Anastasia. The man apologises; "I am Morban. I am really sorry that you have all been dragged into this affair. You see, I never really meant any harm. All I did was petition Chaos for immortality so that I could enjoy life. I was a very affluent noble, you know, and I love my luxury. Anyway, I was cursed with undying life in death, and then Anastasia came knocking. She wiped out my parents and the rest of my family because she said they were associated with Chaos. She is a bit of a maniac, you know. Anyway, in the chaos (ahem!) I escaped to this plane. She followed me, and sealed me here. I was, though, able to turn the tables on her and manipulate her own science - I won't call it magic - to imprison her too." He sighs. "Now that the stasis field has been breached, it is only a matter of time before she recovers. She will then either try to kill me permanently, or bind me to some Lawful hell. I made a mistake; now all I seek is the death I cannot have."

At this, Marion smiles. "I can offer you something else. I can place your essence in my dream staff so that Anastasia cannot harm you. I will then release your soul." Morban is very grateful for this stratagem, so Marion touches the crystalline tip of her little staff to his form; he seems to turn in on himself, and his body slowly disintegrates with a sigh. The staff glistens and then is still. It's a bit of a shame; I quite liked him.

Anyway, a few minutes later Hezekell troops in with little Anastasia. She goes up to the statue of her bigger self and touches it with the same rod as before; immediately the paladin recovers and moves into a combat stance. She then sees the sifting pool of ash that was once Morban and thanks us profusely, if sternly, for succeeding where she could not. She explains that the energies being released by the impending Great Conjunction enabled her to manipulate enough time and space to create her little simulacrum of herself. The one thing she couldn't do, though, was communicate properly and, "Poor Hezekell here isn't very bright; despite my best efforts, I couldn't make him understand what I wanted. I improvised, and sent my projection to the nearest plane for aid. That was the Young Kingdoms, so I approached you, Sir Blanque." With that, she produces a shard of the demon heart that sent us here when it was destroyed. "I was planning to use this to imprison Morban for ever, but I see that you have destroyed him already. For that, I thank you, and bless you in the name of Mirath." She, along with her little doppleganger and Hezekell, then evaporates into motes of being that dissipate back to whatever plane they came from originally. That's a relief, I was expecting a horrific fight and some really difficult choices. 

We find the power source for the stasis dome and rather carefully take it to Pugh's hiding place. Over the next day or so, he tinkers with his planar yacht. Marion and Sir Blanque seem to have special affinity for what he calls 'science', and pick up quite a bit of both 'engineering' and 'electrical' knowledge along the way. Pugh describes what is still missing, and Marion goes to Ahld's hideout to filch what we need. She uses her enhanced abilities on the Shadow Plane to do do so, albeit with one moment of panic, and returns with a weird-looking coil covered in what looks to me like some sort of black fish oil, but which smells different. Pugh connects everything, and his yacht pulses into life; it's quite a magnificent sight.

Jermays is particularly pleased. "We can just maroon that Granbretanian scumbag here! It seems a fitting way to repay him..." We then sort of 'transition' to a dark sky full of stars; Pugh calls it 'space'. His navigational device picks up a path that apparently shows us the way back to the Young Kingdoms, and we sail along that particular route. Pugh calls it 'a moonbeam path'. Marion points her dream staff into space, and the soul of Morban is released into whatever Fate holds next for him. There is another moment of transition, and we put down onto normal water, surrounded by a mist generated by Pugh's craft. He says it's easier that way; it doesn't scare any locals...

We sail towards a familiar coast, straight into Ilmar.

Umpire's notes

This was probably our longest single session. I try to keep things to a maximum of two and a half hours, because the players have limits to their patience; this one was over three hours. However, they really enjoyed it, because some of the overall plotline elements are beginning to come together very nicely. There were only three incredibly short moments of combat, all of which were over and done with in a couple of minutes' real time. Everything else was exploration, social interaction and plot management. I must admit that I had no idea how they would handle the end, with its possible conflict between Law and Chaos - which side would they take, if any? The idea to deal with Morban by use of the dream staff came entirely from Beth - these thirteen year-olds are really clever...