3^rd day since we came to this strange land. (Eirmont 1^st)
We have spent the last couple of days traveling in a way. Really, Fulric carries Galladin and Gnubnaver in his feet claws as they fly all day, while we sit around playing spottle or other campsite games, and then at Sundown we teleport to the new spot, as seen in Fang’s Crystal Ball.

We have tried to keep tabs on Dentiata using the crystal ball as well, but all we can tell is that he has gained a sailing vessel and charmed the entire crew to be his loyal servants.

Today we are spending the day as guests of Fulric’s “sister”, a Dryad named Reya. I don’t really know how siblings work with Fey, but I guess in a way they are all family… maybe? It’s complicated, as is much in this world.

Reya seems to have taken a liking to Ko’ar, and they have spent most of the day in each other’s company. Adriana noticed it too. I think they make a cute couple, but my wife doesn’t think that Reya sees him in that way.

Anyways. I have not had much to write lately and am unsure if this is a good thing or not, with all things considering.

De’Ath has returned to muttering in his arcane language. He has been in a particularly foul mood since he discovered that he cannot reach his library back home using his pocket anymore. Not since we left the Inn. He still has a map in his mundane pocket that he had pulled out while in the village of Darkswamp.

Fang has been making his own studies using his crystal ball. He has been attempting to use it to learn more about the world we have found ourselves in, but I don’t know how much he has learned. Sometimes he will entertain us with a tale or a song.

And Adriana and I have spent most of the last few days just relaxing and reminiscing. She started a game of “Never hath I ever” yesterday, unfortunately it ended up being just the two of us playing. If we keep on with this wait and teleport, travel style, I think I will have to come up with some more games to play, and a way to ignore the stench we smell while teleporting.

4^th day and man this land is strange.
There is a lot to write today, I hope I don’t miss anything.

We arrived on the shoreline early last night, there was a forest there and immediately we began exploring, we eventually discovered that further inland, the forest opened, and that the roads just past the forest had changed from dirt to polished metal. Next to this road was a small vegetable farm. The farmer looked at us oddly, and I couldn’t help but notice that he was green.

He looked similar to Fang, but without the orcish teeth.

Another farm on the other side of the metallic road was being cared for by a tall red woman with four arms sprouting from her slim body. She also looked at us in wonder. As we followed the metallic road, the area had become more and more urbanized, but the land that was not being farmed was metallic. Only the farmland had dirt.

We reached some sort of marketplace, and the buildings we saw were nothing like I have ever seen before, even Adriana seemed lost for words. The buildings were made from the same shiny metal as the roads, but a lot of them had large areas that we could see through. Like windows, but with glass in them.

The market had strange shops, including a shop that sold strange looking brightly colored clothing with high colors. Another shop sold what looked like small horseless chariots. And some of the people of this town seemed to ride around on these mini-chariots.

We tried to talk to the mini-chariot salesman, but we could not understand a word he spoke. When all seemed lost, we heard a soft voice speak from the street towards us. The creature speaking was a short, halfling sized cat person. He appeared like a Rakasta Halfling if you can believe it. He had bushy hair spread out like a wild tabby, or one of those Nithian long hairs. He was calling out to us in Orc.

Now I don’t speak orc, but a few of our team do, so this was intriguing.

The Mini-Rakasta ushered us over to a small tea shop and he ordered us some drinks, which I immediately recognized by the smell. It was Koughee, the same Drink Adriana brews at home!

Fang discussed something with the Cat in Orcish, and it turns out that they like the Orcs, and consider them a good, hard working people. Times must have changed.

Fang was able to determine a few things, of which I will list below:

• There are several different people in this city, each from a different world
  • Kizinti – the Mini-Cats,
  • Tharks – Green four armed Orc like people
  • Kali – Red Skinned Slim, four armed people.
  • Formicans – Ant-like insect people
  • Vixicans – Attractive Fox-people
  • Pyrathians – Green skinned Humans.
  • And Quicklings – Halfling sized people, really thin, and move like lightning.
• They crashed here in their ship, “the buzzard.” 3 years ago. Something about our world made their ship no longer fly.
• They are almost all merchants, with a few soldiers, and a few are learning farming for the first time. That skill was being taufght by the local Orc population.
• Last year they converted their ship into this city.

Gnubnaver figured out after we discussed a few things amongst ourselves in Thyatian, that Kizin, our host, could understand us. It turns out they have a special earring that helps them understand languages spoken, it just doesn’t help them speak it. Makes sense if everyone has one, then you can all just speak your own language.

Kizin, offered to sell us one, from his shop, so we followed him to the bizarre clothing shop. Once there Gnubnaver bought the earring. And for the life of me I don’t understand why, Fang bought some clothes. The merchant took gold coins, because apparently the gold can be used in the city for repairs.

Fang changed his clothes, and Dear Valaria he looks strange.

He now wears a black tunic with pink, green, and white lightning bolts stretching from his left shoulder to his right hip. The tunic is loose fitting, apparently the style, but it leaves most of his waist uncovered, and we can now see his navel. The shorts that come with it are form-fitting and tight. If he didn’t have such a big belt buckle, I would say it was immodest, but bards and their fashion…

Back to topic: Kizin did not believe Dentiata’s arrival would cause any problems, he was a human, and humans are barbarians, but not unwieldy barbarians in his eyes.

Disheartened we headed farther into town and were caught in an evening meeting called by the town mayor. (Who apparently used to be the captain of the ship).

The mayor was one of these Pyrathians, the green skinned people with a normal number of arms, named Captain Rendon. As we walked to the central tower, I couldn’t help but notice the stylized sun that was on Dentiata’s robes. It was all over the city, but instead of black it was gold inlayed.

The mayor gave orders left and right, mostly seemed to be daily chores and from the people’s reaction it was more because he liked to remind them that he was in charge and knew what was right for them. (Again, all of this was translated for me by fumble, so please filter it through a gnome mind to understand). Then the mayor sat in an Egg-shaped metallic chair.

When everyone left, we approached the guards, and were granted an audience with the captain of the city guard, a General Weenack.

Unfortunately, we were unable to convince him of the dangers that Dentiata imposed, and that even that magic existed. We had to choose our words carefully, to make sure we didn’t make things worse by telling them about the upcoming apocalypse of the Great Rain of Fire.

As we left, Adriana got a strange look on her face, and so we moved back to the clothing shop before she spoke. Something had poked her mind as we left the tower. These are her words, not mine.

“Someone poked my mind”

A few others had felt it too.

Kizin’s brother was in the shop, but Kizin was out, and so we waited, until Kizin came back and panicked. It was just announced by the city over some sort of bard-in-a-box, that we were to be arrested, and that any mention of or use of magic was now forbidden in the city.

Kizin hid us in his basement for a bit, where, much to my amazement, Gnubnaver and Galladin purchased outfits similar to Fangs and put them on. It was all I could do to keep myself from bending over in laughter at the sight these three now possessed. Fang asked about the Sylized Sun symbol, apparently it is the first letter of the word “Denethix” which is “Buzzard” in Thyatian. This caused De’Ath to giggle a bit.

Trust me a giggling Vulture is not something you wish to witness. When we were shown the full name of the ship written in Pyrathian, we all stopped.

That looks like the word “Coot”

We were joined by Mercy the Quickling.

It was revealed that Kizin, the Kizinti, Bella the Kali, and Mercy the Quickling were leading some sort of Rebellion to free the city denizens from Captain-Mayor Rendon. When they crashed, the captain’s personality changed completely. He somehow modified the ships communication system that worked through the bracelets to lock them on people’s arms and to explode when they leave the ships radius. Kizin believes that the change has something to do with a mysterious prisoner they were forced to take on at a previous stop, that has disappeared since the crash.

Gnubnaver took a look and removed the bracelet from Mercy’s wrist. It exploded in the corner with a poof. Not large, but it would have taken out the Quickling’s arm and maybe chest.

Shortly, we were joined by a Kali woman named Bella. This was the same woman who ran the koughee restaurant, who helped us through a series of tunnels under her establishment.

For the safety of our group, and their rebellion we have been asked to leave

We are now sitting in a farm at the edge of the town. Since the farmer, the “Thark” we saw earlier, has allowed us to stay the rest of the night, Mercy has been bringing people from all around tonight for Gnub to remove the bracelets, and teach them how to remove.

Eirmont 3rd – In the Past
I cannot keep using this “Unknown date” +a random number, format anymore. It is driving me crazier than normal. So I am reverting to the Calendar I am familiar with, and just putting unknown year.

This morning as we woke, a small speck appeared on the ocean horizon. Fang used his Crystal ball to confirm that it was, in fact, Dentiata and his enchanted pirate crew.

This left us with little options. This is where we would have to stand our ground. And thanks to our new friends in the Denethix rebellion, we had a small army at our disposal, who were all thankful for the removal of their bracelets. Adriana and Mercy began modifying their farm tools, which seemed to use a magical energy to dig, into some sort of ranged weapon. I know my wife will probably give me a lecture on the energy itself after seeing me refer to it as “magical” but honestly, it is, isn’t it?

Anyways these farm tools were originally modified from the old soldier weapons they had on their flying ship before crashing, and Mercy was able to modify them back with Adriana’s help. She was in heaven, soaking up all the information she could about this new stuff.

Ko’ar, Myself, Gnubnaver, and Galladin spent time setting up basic traps, and snares near the coast. Fang stepped up and coordinated everything. He and Fulric were comparing notes on Dentiata and had come up with plans on how best to deal with him.

Unfortunately the enemy ran ashore early evening, and the battle was intense. The Denethixians managed the traps and kept the pirates busy while our party dealt with Dentiata directly. We did our best to keep anyone with advanced weapons from being put under his sway.

We used the advanced weapons to first try to sink the ship in the ocean, these weapons shot bursts of blue lightning out and we had hoped they would catch the ship on fire. We managed to get one sail aflame, when a huge ball of pure blackness appeared on the Bulbous bow, preventing any more of the weapons fire to pass.

This ball of blackness was immediately followed by a spread of black spears shooting out of the darkness, which smashed into us. Ko’ar was knocked back by these, and Fulric was pinned to the ground. By time Dentiata landed, we were already in rough shape.

Galladin, changed his form into that of a bear and attempted to maul Dentiata, but as soon as he was close, the bear became passive, and turned to look at us in defiance. I thought we had lost for sure when this happened, however, we lucked out. With Fang’s and Gnubnaver launching bolt after bolt of crossbow fire at Him, Ko’ar and I focusing on hit and run tactics to stay out of his focus range, and Adriana and Fulric launching every magical attack they had, we eventually wore him down.

The final blow came when Dentiata fell to his knees and Ko’Ar rushed in, swiped my sword and lopped his head off.

We lost track of Galldin during this, and that was probably for the best, as our battle had brought the city guard who arrested all the survivors, pirates, rebels, and ourselves.

Later that Night – Adriana’s Notes
We were all too tired to fight the guard, and they launched some sort of knock-out bomb into our group. We woke in a prison cell. This was definitely not the cell that we were used to though. The “Bars” to keep us in were actually a clear wall of the same energy from their weapons. touching the wall caused a small shock. It made you numb but didn’t do any actual harm any of us.

Gnubnaver, tried to use his new magical abilities he had been learning to try to find a way out. He was trying to be subtle, but I could tell, even if the others didn’t notice. Unfortunately, whatever he was trying, didn’t work. I watched in amusement as he would curse in gnome under his breath and try different things.

It was quite late at night when the outside door opened to show Bella, our tall, four armed, Kali friend dressed in black, and girl looked good. Behind her was Galladin, still dressed in his new ridiculous clothes. At least he wasn’t a bear. The two of them released us, and the rebels from the cells. We decided to free the surviving pirates from their cells. Maybe it was professional courtesy, maybe it was their way to apologize for what they had done under Dentiata’s control, but they remained silent during this, and well behaved.

We were all ushered into a long black rectangle box. Inside was of similar design to my cloud-clipper, so it must have been a transport of some type. We left the city again, and using the ring of teleportation De’Ath had with him, our party left.

Eirmont 6th – Julius
We have returned to the town of Darkswamp. We entered the Comeback Inn. The inn is quite busy, but we were able to sit at a table int he common-room. Something seemed to be bothering both Fulric and De’Ath. I shook it off as to all of us being eager to head home to our time.

Afterall we had done what we came here to do, right? We came here to stop Dentiata from gaining the Egg of Coot, and with him dead, that was mission accomplished. Despite this Fulric and De’Ath seemed uncomfortable.

Galladin, and Gnubnaver being the more vocal of the group tonight managed to gain us audience with the Owner of the Inn, one Fredigar Cripps. it took a bit of persuasion, but he eventually took us to the gate below the Inn. Making us all swear to secrecy. You see Fredigar had a talisman, a pendant of 8 mystical sections and runes that he wore around his neck. This amulet allowed him to control the gate and the where/when it would open to.

He opened the gate for us, and we all entered, Fredigar too.

We did not arrive where or when we had hoped. Fredigar had been basing his opening on the memories of De’Ath, by far the best one of us to know when in the future we were needed to be arriving.

When we stepped out of the gate, the gate imploded, in a way. The amulet that controlled it broke into it’s component parts and 7 of them were pulled back into the gate, leaving us with one. The gate itself was different as well. Someone had fastened plates of metal to key parts of the gate, and had covered most of the magical runes on it.

When we went upstairs, the Inn was vastly different. Paintings that had previously shown great battles of the Great King Uther and the Blackmoor army, now depicted humanoids in black leather clothes with pieces of metal bolted to their heads and bodies destroying Uther’s armies with blasters, like the weapons we had used on Dentiata’s boat just a few days earlier from our point of view.

These “Oard” had somehow destroyed the history we knew.

In the different Inn rooms were metal and glass coffins with several of these Oard in them. I don’t know if they were alive or not. One of the Coffins was different. Instead of an Oard, it held a sleeping Kali woman. It was hard to tell because of the glass, and the age, but she looked like a slightly older Bella, the Barista.

Adriana locked herself in that room for a couple hours, promising to find a way to bring Bella out of this “Sleep -Pod” as she called it.

All this time, the gate seemed locked. The door to the outside world showed a strange desert. Galladin tried to communicate with one of the plants nearby the Inn, but it tried to eat him. Needless to say, this is not the reaction he was expecting.

No other life seemed to be in the area.

Eirmont 6th – Bella
When I went into the pod, we had lost. I was placed into the pod to keep some sort of hope alive for the resistance. I honestly didn’t think I would ever wake up.

When I did, wake it was to a familiar face. From her perspective We had just parted ways days before. But I had to let her know the horrible truth.

Adriana Skyratchet Valarian helped me out of my pod, and even though she was nearly half my height, she practically carried me to the common room of the Inn where a plump man sat drinking with Ko’ar the tall Kzinti from the moon.

After a proper meal I was able to explain to them what had happened since they left.

Once he was close enough, the captain fell under his control. Then Oard 15621 declared that magic was too dangerous to exist. It declared war on magic, and not just magical users, but magical beings, magical places, and magic in general. Oard 15621 ordered that any to fall in battle were to be brought back in the Oarding process.

This lead to an ever increasing Undead-Cyborg army that was under this one creature’s control. The one place, ironically the Oard could not enter was the Inn. Only living things could pass through the main doorway to the Inn, which made it a target. the Oard sent in wave after wave of attacks on this one, magical building. Our entire resistance moved base to the Inn, what was left of us. In the end the Oard found a way by drilling through the bedrock under the Inn.

We escaped though the glowing doorway in the basement. We arrived in a post-apocalyptic world where no life existed. From Mercy’s calculations, it was 1,000 years in the future. The Inn had been turned into a charging station or something. There were Oard stasis pods in every room. We deactivated many of them, but one we found empty.

It was decided someone would stay in the pod in hopes of meeting up with our future friends, who might know how to fix the problem. The rest were to see what they could do to learn about the gate and this new world. It was decided I would go in stasis.

So here I am, alive. according to the Bird-headed one, we are 4,000years from my original time, and so 3,000 years from my friends. But they have a plan, I think.

Using what is left of the Control amulet, some of their team will travel to regain the rest of the amulet so that they can go into the past and stop Oard 15621 from being brought back to unlife.

I do not have the energy to join them on this trip, and so am staying with Adriana, Fulric, De’Ath, Pan Thanar, whome I just met since waking and, Fredigar, the builder of the Inn. We are going to be trying to find the clues my friends left 3,000years ago for us to find.

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Credits

• Oard art by Jez Goodwin, from the Module CM6 Where Chaos Reigns.