Elwood marvels at the sight of looking down on storm clouds from a calm, cold, sunny sky. He rearranges his belt, removing it and then fastening it on again over his cloak to hold the cloak snug, then joins Mort and the dragon at the front of the ship.

"I think I mentioned it down below when we found you, but my name's Elwood. Do you have a name? What should we call you?" he asks the young dragon.

"If I have a name, I do not know it," the dragon replies to Elwood. "My keepers never talked to me."

"Where do we go?"

"Is there a name that you like? We could always give you a nickname till you figure it out" Mort offered as he stared out in the direction that the ship was heading.  He looked for landmarks that he might recognize.

"I signed on to help find Master Fando and this ship. He, Master Fando, that is, is lookin' for some Seventh Magic. I just pray it's not the magical disaster my patron warned me of. Where do we go to look for this Seventh Magic? Beats me, pal."

Elwood nods at Mort's suggestion of a temporary nickname, at least until the young dragon finds a name it prefers.

"Yes! Give me a name! That would be wonderful!" the dragon replies. "I wouldn't know what a name is, certainly not a good name. I always liked the sound of 'Pumpkin'... until I found out it was an orange gourd. I do not believe I look like a gourd, and I am certainly not orange."


Looking down on the terrain below doesn't quite look the same as it does when looking at a map. Oddly, the map representations try to emulate the terrain in three dimensions, but at this height, it all looks flat.

Oddly, it only the two Dwarves that recognize the mountains now far to the south, even though they've never seen them from this elevation. They are so large compared to everything else that they stand out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:11, Tue 10 May 2016.

Fando staggers up onto the deck now that the motion of the ship has calmed down. He's looking a bit green around the gills, as the saying goes. Apparently, he gets airsick.

"Ohhhh... ugh... aaa... Are you sure the ship is level? My stomach is still doing flipflops... Ohhhh," he manages to say.

"We were heading to Lhamsa to get the next piece from the Saffron Order. I think we still should. There is a magical compass in the mechanisms that uses the first piece of the Septagram to point to where the next piece is. I was fiddling with it when the storm hit. I couldn't get it to point to any other of the pieces, though... just to Lhamsa."

"I don't see any reason for retrieving it from the monks should be a problem... unless they are completely unreasonable."

"Gierdon and Durek seem to know where we're at, so we shouldn't have any problem finding Lhamsa. I think the question we should ask ourselves is: how do we approach them? Do we swoop down in our flying ship and impress the hell out of them, maybe intimidate them to give us the piece."

"Or should we land somewhere out of sight and approach on foot. Play the 'humble' card."

"By myself, I would go humble. But with a ship, a minotaur and a dragon, not to mention our motley crew, perhaps intimidate is the way to go."

In reply to Fando (msg # 212):

While we could try intimidation, I think that being humble will show better results.  If it doesn't work then we can resort to intimidation or more as required.

"I can do my best to look fierce but I'm not inclined like my brethren to just go bashing folk around.  Not really my thing. Though bashing them gargoyle was actually kind of fun.  Which reminds me that I need to find me some sort of magical weapon or gauntlet cause I'm all out of gargoyles"  Mort grinned at the last part.


Back to dragon naming.  "Heard of a dragon called toothless, but you got teeth so that won't work.  What kind of breath do you got, most tales of dragons speak to a breath weapon."

"What do we know of this monastery? I think I need more information before deciding whether intimidating them might be necessary. If no one here knows much about them, I'd suggest landing somewhere not far, and trying to find out more of them first before we go."

In reply to Elwood (msg # 215):

I agree with finding a landing place nearby, but out of sight of people.  It would be a shame to lose such a prize as this ship.  As to intimidation, there are many forms of intimidation that could be used should the need arise.

In reply to Elwood (msg # 215):

I agree with finding a landing place nearby, but out of sight of people.  It would be a shame to lose such a prize as this ship.  As to intimidation, there are many forms of intimidation that could be used should the need arise.

"I'm not about to go around strong arming people, so lets play it softly like decent people," said Aaron.

After considering Mort for a moment he wandered over to him and murmured, "Looks like you have decency in you. You may be a good companion after all!"

"Not much is known about the monastery at all," Fando answers Elwood. "They are very reclusive. A little over a hundred monks live there--the Saffron Order."

"There are said to be deadly fighters... without armor, without weapons."

"Twice a year, Lhamsa is the staging area for all the clans in the surrounding mountains to bring their goats to market."

"I did some research on them before I left, in case I might need to stop there."

"If they have a piece of the Septagram, I doubt if we could take it by force anyway. We'd need an army just to breech their defenses."

"I'm glad none of you are that...  um, violent."

"We could be firm but gentle," Anneth suggests.

I tend to use violence as a means to an end.  That said, when it can be avoided it should provided the end result is beneficial to both sides.

He still wasn't an expert at steering a flying ship, but he was getting the hang of it.

"Okay, then," he calls to the others, "we continue heading to Lhamsa and we land somewhere out of sight."

"As Fando pointed out, though, there are a dozen or more clans in the hills. It'll be hard to keep them from spotting the ship. We're not exactly invisible, you know!"

"Can't really help you with that," Anneth mumbles, for once seeming embarassed.  "I mean, I know how invisibility magics work, but..."

"Good. It's settled." said Aaron. "I'll keep a lookout for any settlements on the way, so we can skirt around them." Then he settled himself in the bow to keep watch.

Mort gave a snort of, "good to know that some people think so."

"Do the monks place any value on Magic, was just thinking that I was surely impressed and thankful that a flying vessel arrived in time to rescue me.  If a flying ship arrived at their outside the monastery it would be hard to deny that someone with a flying ship is not of some importance.  I should think that they would be agreeable to speak with us."

"Lhamsa is still in Glantri--the Land of Magic," the Elf replies. "So they aren't going to be impressed by magic alone, not even a flying ship."

"Although I haven't heard of them wielding any great magic, I also haven't heard them having anything against magic... but I wouldn't put it past them if they have a way to neutralize magic... or ways to work around it."

"Anyway, keep in mind that pirates also have ships. I doubt if there are many ships here in the mountains, so as far as they are concerned, any ship is as likely to be a pirate ship as not."

The ship soared majestically over the mountains. It was a whole different perspective up here than from the ground, but it didn't take long to get used to it. After that, finding your way was easy if you were at all familiar with the mountains. Rodrigo and the Dwarves were.

It does get tricky approaching Lhamsa without being seen, but somehow Rodrigo manages. He finds a spot to set the ship down behind a rocky prominence that will make it hard to be spotted.

Tying it up to some large boulders is the best you can do as there are no trees in the immediate area.

So half of you can make the short trek to Lhamsa while the others stay behind to guard the ship.

Those going are Aaron, Anneth, Elwood, Fando, Gierdon, Mort and Tom.

Those staying to watch the ship are Anya, Durek, Kareth, Rodrigo, Rukao and Talis.

In reply to Mysterion (msg # 226):

Making sure to have all the gear I think I will need even for what I hope to be a short journey.

Elwood also gears up and gets ready to set out.

OOC: Did we see any towns or villages near our landing zone? If so, I'd like to visit there first to get some intel on the monastery and its monks.

Mort quickly got his gear ready as he was use to traveling light.

"I'll hang to the rear of the party, most city folk tend to get a bit apprehensive with me marching through their town.  If you be needing me in the front you need only say the word" Mort tried to give a knowing wink to the others having seen a few others do it before.  He wasn't sure that he was able to pull it off or not.

Come on Aaron lets lead the way.  Elwood, just make sure you keep us moving in the right direction.