We decide to head back through the portal, stow our gems (scorpy snacks), and rest. We conceal the gems in the lab storage. We examine the pylons in the lab – they appear to be perfectly serviceable – nearly identical to the ones that are out on the plane. As far as we can tell, they’ve never been used. The raw materials are prepared but not ready to be activated. We decide we will take these to Sherine at a later date, though we are worried about carrying such large scorpy snacks across the plane.
We have an uneventful night’s rest.
The following day, we put four of the large crystal pylons on the sled and prepare to head back to Sherine. We talk to Habistaw and Meriliel. They seem happy to be exploring the place – but are happy to let us go on without them. We explain that we’re bringing the crystals to Sherine – and warn them not to mess with the balance of things because the bubble is unstable.
To minimize our time dragging these giant scorpy snacks, we decide to make as straight a route as possible. We get all the way back to Sherine’s tower without event and knock on her door. She asks if we set up the pylons – which we tell her we did. “Excellent – we can leave at any time now.” We ask if she’s going to leave, and she says she wants to stay and complete her work.
We show her the new pylons, and she’s pleased – and asks us to carry them up to her workshop so she can get them active — they can be used to stabilize other parts of the bubble.
Ariza asks if it’s been difficult to stay here for so long. Sherine puts her arms across her chest and says, “Well that is none of your business!” clearly offended. Rem’e and Rhun try to defuse the situation, with some success – Rem’e apologizes for the rudeness. Sherine goes into her house.
As Rem’e plays a jaunty tune, Rhun and Liadan carry the four gems up to the second floor of the workshop. Two are already there, making six. Her lab seems reasonably normal.
Outside, Ariza and Binx (the big cat) look around the grounds. Ariza is wary of Sherine.
Rhun and Liadan ask Sherine, “If you manage to stabilize this plane, what will you do?” She says she hadn’t thought that far ahead, but perhaps she’d bring her research back to the University in New Albion. “Or perhaps I’d stay here.”
Rhun asks “How many pylons do you need to keep the plane stable?”
Sherine replies, “These kinds of bubbles are not all that uncommon, but because this one has all four elemental planes in it, I’ve been able to anchor it to the prime. There are weak points – and we’d need to stabilize them. Currently the plane of earth has been slowly taking over. We have to be delicate about how to maintain the balance. The pylons you’ve placed near the portal have anchored the bubble to the material plane.”
She tells us that with the glasses we should be able to see where the pylons should go. There are some shaitan (earth djinn) on the areas of earth, but they may not be willing to speak with you. “They claim this place as their own, and they tolerate my presence here because I hold off the other planes.” She suggests we might try to pay them off … could destroy them. She seems to be feeling us out.
Ariza, listening from outside, calls up to ask her what she did to make deals with them in the past. Sherine explains that sometimes she makes deals with other elementals.
As we drag the two new pylons to the west, we discuss for a long time what to do about getting the key from Meriliel, and discuss the situation with Sherine and Paso Lao’s interest in taking ownership of this bubble.
We travel for a while, seeing glinting of minerals around us. All we see ahead of us is earth. After we’ve traveled a while, we find the weak point. It feels thin and fragile. Ariza decides to patrol the perimeter with Binx, feeling uncomfortable in the area.
We can almost feel that this part of the bubble is part of the elemental plane of earth. Ariza and Rem’e keep watch while Liadan and Rhun set up the pylons. Liadan fires them up.
Suddenly we hear a strange voice from the stone, and a strange creature emerges from it. The creature is barrel shaped with three arms above and three legs below. Liadan recognizes it as a xorn. Rhun casts “comprehend languages” to understand the terran language it’s speaking. The xorn says, “Stop! Home.” A second one comes up from the ground, and says “Leave food, leave food”. They seem to be explaining that they live here. The second one says “Tasty! Tasty!”
The xorn start coming toward us as Liadan and Rhun continue trying to set up the pylons. Rem’e tries to yell stop – without success; Rhun and Liadan try as well – without success; then Ariza yells “STOP!” in terran and they turn to look at Ariza. And she draws her sword. Rhun hears her and says, “do it again!!” She does and tries to intimidate them. Rem’e waves his gun to help and the xorn take a step back.
The xorn say “Leave? Leave?” Rhun says, “repeat that back to them, Ariza!” She does. The xorn step to each other and speak “leave food?” Liadan knows that they like to eat metal — “give them some food!” she says. Ariza asks Rem’e if he has his sling. He pulls out his sling staff, puts some silver in the sling, and flings it off beyond the xorn. Ariza yells “leave!” again.
Rhun has managed to get the second pylon upright now. The xorn continue to say, “Leave food, leave food, food, home, leave” and start coming toward us again.
We decide to try to incapacitate them and put them back through to the plane of earth. Rhun casts sound burst, but they don’t appear to be stunned. They attack, causing Ariza a bit of pain, and combat is engaged.
After a tough fight, we defeat the xorn, and Liadan returns to activating the crystals. Rem’e explores the area and finds a small tunnel in the earth. Ariza and Rem’e go into the tunnel. The tunnel goes straight down – Rem’e ties a rope to descend. It’s a squeeze, even for the two of them. At the bottom of this chimney, there is a chamber. Scattered about are the xorn’s snacks. There are lumps of gold and other metals and gems. 11 ingots of gold (50gp each), 7 garnets (100gp each), 6 tourmalines (100 gp each), 2 topaz (each 500gp), 5 ingots of adamantium (100gp each).
Liadan has fired up the pylons, but we realize it’s going to take a while for the weak spot to get stable. We move away from the pylons, and camp out to watch the pylons grow stronger. When Liadan sees them in good standing, we head back toward Sherine.
On the way back we discuss what we should do. We decide to talk to Sherine about Paso Lao and about the key to her crypt.
When we meet with Sherine, Rem’e explains “There’s a potential complication: Paso Lao thinks he has a claim to your bubble. Clearly you’ve been here and are still here; this is yours. But we wanted to let you know that this is what he’s thinking out there.”
Rhun adds to this, and Ariza also notes that “there’s more than just Lao here – there’s also a key that’s been taken from the Church of Abidar – lost through gambling by a priest who’s no longer there.”
We note that our mission is to return the key to the church. She asks us what we’re going to do. We agree to take two more crystals – but we also intend to speak to Meriliel about the key.
We rest for the night. In the morning we ask where the next pylon should be placed. She says there is another earth plane weakness that needs attention. “But the djinn will be troublesome. To the north the white dragon is also troublesome – I’ve been able to keep it away with my golems. To the northwest is an efreet with whom I have a truce. The weakness in the water realm is underwater.”
Rhun begins thinking over his spells that might help with water and fire. Sherine says she has some items to help with that … a ring of swimming and some potions.
We decide to go speak with Meriliel about the key. After several hours of walking back to base camp we find that Habistaw has arranged to have some creature comforts brought in from the tomb. Habistaw and Fedor are sound asleep – Meriliel is not around. Habistaw opens his eyes, “What a great nap. Hey guys!”
Rem’e finds a set of tracks heading north that are likely Meriliel’s. Ariza sees a clear trail to follow.
We speak with Habistaw and Fedor – and exlain that we’re looking for Meriliel. We warn them to watch out for the dragon, the efreet, and the djinn. They take a lot of interest in this. We ask Habistaw if he can help us with a boat – he pulls something out of his vest and suddenly a big rowboat lands in front of us. Habistaw says they should stay and watch over the gate with the denizens of the plans out and about.
We tell them to watch the boat, and we go to find Meriliel.
Tracking is a little slow. The tracks lead to the northwest toward the efreet. As hours pass, we rest for the night. In the morning we continue on over growing mountainous terrain. We spend another night in the mountains. In the morning we see a vast expanse of desert. We can feel the heat.
Rhun casts “Endure Elements” on each member of the party. We head on out through the desert. Before long we find a stream of fire that we must jump over. Around a sand dune, we see a red skinned creature waiting for us. The creature has a snake like body and is carrying a spear. The creature is a salamander, an evil creature of the planes of fire. They are feared for their military prowess and renowned for their metal working. It comes towards us and says, “Stop scum”.
We converse with the salamander. We learn the Meriliel has come through and is speaking with his master, the efreet. He lets us pass if we agree to kill the efreet so that the salimanders may leave. We agree to this…
We follow Meriliel’s tracks until we find her speaking with the efreet. We greet her and ask her to introduce us. “Be humbled before the greatness of Sixibel,” says Meriliel. We see that the efreet is 12 feet tall and female.
“Bard, who are these?” asks Sixibel. Meriliel explains that we are her companions. Rem’e sees the key hanging around Sixabel’s neck. Rem’e asks about the dragon. ….The efreet demands payment from us: we must attack the water elementals. We leave with Meriliel.
Before leaving the dessert, we turn on Meriliel and demand to know what deal she made with the efreet. After some significant persuasion and intimidation from Ariza, Meriliel reluctantly explains that she traded the key for a name. But she would not tell us the name.
We gather Meriliel, and head back to Sherine’s.