Scampering through the trees, the wild man is silent the entire trip. Occasionally, he glares at the cleric and grunts. His eyes shift to the others occasionally as he beats his chest. Yet he does not speak another word. Whistling comes from his direction at times. On more then one occasionally he's seen barely sliding down vines or slipping through branches of one tree and dissapearing into the next, then emerging from what it seems the opposite direction.

When they arrive at the twisted branched tree, Zane begins to climb it.

"This is most decidedly not what I had in mind," sighs Fareeda.  "Bringing word back to the professor, resting up, and exploring the tomb was the plan.  Now we have to find out what happened to him, if possible, or figure out how to leave this place, if not."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, though.  Something as large as the Scilandar had to leave some form of trace... hadn't it?"

She appears to be a combination of worried and annoyed.

Jibril just shakes his head, ignoring Insane the caveman's grunts.

Convinced that the ship was just hiding under some invisible aura, he goes marching over to the tree to see if anything was really there.

Lambrac stared up at the big, empty tree, silent for a long time, first in shock and confusion. He couldn't say he was surprised, really. Disappointed, certainly. Angry, definitely.

Quietly cursing Hingleswip, Lambrac took a sip of his water bottle, trying to remain calm. "He's teleported the ship before, remember? That's how he got us into his mess. Now he's gotten it going again, and abandoned us here. It's probably what he did to his last team." he explained, voice tight with bitterness and suppressed rage.

"Unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome," Thaniel quips as he wanders around the tree, looking for some hint that ship was ever there.

Krogan also grunted in annoyance at seeing that the ship had vanished.   He didn't believe, like Lambrac did, that the gnome had purposefully abandoned them, but he had no proof one way or another, so he kept silent on his opinion.

While the others were searching for the ship in the tree, he looked around the area, to look for anything that might have taken them.   Like tracks from large animals (something that might have prompted to Professor to try to escape), or perhaps tracks for a group that might have used a sledge to pull the ship away, as unlikely as that sounded.

He focused his Draconic Aura on his senses, trying to see what he could find.

OOC:
15:52, Today: Krogan rolled 20 using 1d20+3. search.
15:52, Today: Krogan rolled 12 using 1d20+1. listen.
15:52, Today: Krogan rolled 7 using 1d20+1. spot.

Surprised, but not entirely shocked that her Uncle had managed to misplace the airship Linni followed Jibril to where the ship would lie if it was still lodged in the tree. She hoped it was still there, the other possibility lingering in the back of her mind was the teleportation went awry. Her Uncle was knowledgeable, but the clear exercise in arcane power had exhausted him. She only hoped there were no other side effects to the spell he cast.

"He better still be here." She muttered to no-one in particular. She didn't believe her Uncle would deliberately abandon her, but did not put it past him to have another 'accident'.

"Wasn't your... ship... supposed to be here?" Asha queried her newfound traveling companions, glancing at Yaotl in confusion before turning to the rest of them with a shrug. Her confusion was evidently echoed by those around her, and she decided to remain silent while the others sorted things out. After all, they knew far better the capabilities of the strange contraption and its evident captain.

Krogan turned to the druidess and nodded.
Yes.   This was where it was.   The gnome had lots of magic, and teleported it there when flying reptiles ate enough of the flying shop to make us crash.
He might have had to teleport it again if they found him again.

"After he blew it up on his engines." Lambrac muttered sourly, but Krogan's words stirred something in his mind. "Wait..." He ran up to where Zane was climbing the tree. "What did you mean about 'dactyl' earlier?" he called.

Abbas, wary of the Professor's notorious illusion magics, searched around for something to throw. There were no stones but he managed to hack down a small branch which he hurled up to where the tree would have rested. Sure enough, the branch disappeared a few metres off the ground and a wooden clunk resounded moments later.

Zane decided to go one better and launched himself at the tree and began climbing. He too completely disappeared from sight about half way up the trunk.

Strange magic indeed...

A minute passed before a gruff yet tiny voice called down, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What are you all doing just stood there?" He chuckled gleefully. "Come on, up with you, dinner's nearly ready!"

The rope ladder suddenly materialised, suspended down from thin air.

Abbas carefully took the doubt he had had, with all said by his companions, and  tucked it away in a very small mental pocket.  The elf had wondered if it might be illusory, as some of the discussions with Thaniel and Linni had touched upon, or some created fabrication of trees to hide the ship within - a skin like the chameleon he had heard... but Lambrac's notion of teleportative magics could have as easily been the case - perhaps not to strand behind the party... but accidents occurred everywhere, even in magic.  Or perhaps an even larger drago-pteradactyl they called it - could have scooped up the ship as a nest?  Who knew.

Having the rope beneath his hands as he held it for the others to ascend more easily... that was a comforting confirmation with which to button away the doubt.

"After you," he offered neutrally, calmly, assuming defensive position while the group had hands occupied in climbing, and treating nothing as out of place.

Relief washes over Fareeda more comfortingly than the water from the pool Zane led them to.  She wastes no time in climbing the ladder once it is lowered, calling up, "you gave me quite a scare, dear professor!  But still, I am glad for the protection it will offer us against the presence of unfriendly eyes."

"And we do have some rather interesting information to impart, along with some guests..."

Thaniel clears his throat and looks about before moving up the ladder with typical elven ease. "An interesting tomb has presented itself for investigation, professor," he says, handing his employer his full waterskin.

Even Lambrac was relieved to hear Hingleswip's voice and see a rope ladder descend. Invisible, of course. He still had his doubts about the man, but at least he wasn't going to abandon them here. At least, not now. Stewing on his thoughts, Lambrac was in no hurry to ascend, but finally made his way up the ladder and back to the ship.

PM

Krogan laughed with delight, both at the power that the gnome was displaying, and the bizarre thought process that made him do such a powerful spell when camoflage would probably have served as well.

This gnome is truly the most entertaining man I've met in years.   

He waited for the others to climb the rope, guarding their way, just in case.

"What's for dinner?" Jibril remarks as he bounces safely back onto the hull of the ship.

"Alright, Yaotl. You'll need to stay down here for now." The druid patted her companion's head comfortingly.

"I'll be back soon. Have some fun! Just don't get into too much trouble." Her gaze was mock-stern as she looked at the young dinosaur before smiling and rubbing his chin. Then she turned to ascend the ladder.

The group, visibly weary from their first day in the jungle, slowly made their way back up the rope ladder. The Professor watched their ascent with interest, his tiny frame only becoming visible as each adventurer passed through the bubble of invisibility. His beady eyes squinted at the two new additions, then widened at the large dinosaur sniffing around the base of the tree.

Once everyone was on board, he glanced around from face to face, evidently expecting some introductions and explanations.

Krogan chuckled at the gnome's expression.
Professor Hingleswip, may I introduce Asha the druid, and Zane the "native".   The lizard down on the ground is Asha's friend. 

He smiled, happy to be the diplomat of the group for a change.

"And in addition, we did manage to find water, thanks to our new friend Zane," Fareeda adds.  "Also... something I think you might be interested in.  It looks like some form of tomb."

Krogan nodded in agreement with the druid.
Yes.  The tomb is ancient elven, and possibly very advanced.  Possibly belonging to an unknown civilization.

He was really trying to sell the tomb idea, since it looked very interesting.

Growling, Zane moves along the tree and scampers onto the ship deck. He doesn't seem to pay the others any real attention as he moves from one spot to the next. Picking up odds and ends, the strange man sniffs and snorts. Upon hearing his name, he stands upright and grunts."No down. Bad? No down." Odd.

Moving over to Linni he snorts at her and gets close. Tapping her nose, he backs away and lets out yet another grunt yet more quiet. He sticks to moving on all fours staring at the others. With a tilt of his head, the jungle man starts picking up odds and ends and when bored or unsure of what they do, throws them over his shoulder.