Adam rubs behind his head.  "None of the adventurous sort of pressing matters.  All politics.  While things didn't turn out near as bad as I was told from declaring war on Wrashk...  It sure generated a lot of paperwork."

  "I can't decide if it's a good sign or bad sign about our lives how casually that kind of thing can be mentioned." Eh, kidnapped a political figure and declared war.  Now I gotta fill out these triplicate forms and it's a real hassle you know?

Maverick says, "Oh... I'm reminded... I should check on on him and see how he's doing."

Angel nods. "Don't forget to take your parents. Me: I'm going to do some catching up with my own parents. Guys? This is probably the best chance we all have of kicking back for a bit before the next threat comes along. Enjoy it while you can."

Carla nods and ohs! She looks at Adam and telepaths, "I have telepathy now, so I can more or less talk with you. But then again, I remember singing for you and it didn't hurt you..."

Adam smiles at Carla.  "That's great, Carla!"

"I wonder if her telepathy works on speechless tigers," Lucky thinks.

The next few weeks are pretty uneventful.  Mits Sith is replaced by one who claims to be a wizard.  She's miffed about being separated from her adventuring friends (a surprising first from the various Mittenzez.) Dido, Callie, and Terdisas.  But before long she's reunited with them and they seem to be rather happy that there's been a break from non-stop adventure for them as well.

But word reaches everyone's ears that an invading army from the Astral Sea has been spotted near the ruins of a giant fortress to the far north, beyond Wrashk's lands.  Adam holds an informal meeting with the heroes.

"I could send scouts to investigate, but if they were to run into anything serious, well...  You all are much more likely to survive an encounter with an other-worldly commando or two than anyone else I know."

"Count me in!" Mits chimes.

  It was a much longer vacation between shenanigans than Matt was expecting, at the very least.

  "Well, not like I'd let any Mittens run of alone to deal with that.  Even if she'd think it was more fun that way.  Do we know anything else?  The Astral sea is a big place."

Angel glances at Mittens. "You taking your other friends with you?"

Carla telepaths, "Actually, they have volunteered to train up Mittens' siblings. I'm sure they will be OK with her going on one or two adventures without them."

Angel says, "Well sure, but that doesn't stop me wondering if Mittens *wants* them along. My parents could just as easily teach those kittens."

Maverick says, "Why not just take everyone?"

---

OOC: And if we go the "everyone" route, can always flavor that the "others" are fighting other off-screen enemies.

Adam gives a description of the monster spotted and Mits identifies it as a githyanki.  She then nerds up the lore on the githyanki.

"But I'm sure Carla knows more on that topic than me.  Odd thing is, that region would normally be beneath the notice of Astral Diamond poachers.  Old ruin, so maybe they caught wind of a valuable relic hidden there.

"In any case, I'm fine with whatever experienced adventurer coming along, but I don't want my noobie sibs to get themselves killed on their first adventure.  They're probably more suited to kobolds invading a copper mine than gith invading the Prime Material."

  "I suppose that would depend on how safe the mine is-" Or how much the GM uses 'Kobold' as an excuse for 'hand made specifically for the party death traps' "Though I would expect the average Gith to be more dangerous in a straight up fight from the sound of it."  Level gaps will do that.

Carla telepaths, "Githyanki are the pirates of the Astral Sea. As Mittens pointed out, they normally look for treasures found only in the Astral Sea. Normally. Sometimes, though, they look to plunder other planes. When they do, it is as Mittens guessed; because they found something valuable to their conquest."

Angel says, "No time to waste then. We need to get to their goal before they do." she then looks at Adam. "So any word on why they hadn't succeeded yet? Is the fortress guarded?"

Adam shrugs.  "I'm told they've been abandoned for a long time.  So maybe they've already succeeded."

"Maybe not." Mits interjects.  "So let's go!"

  "Well, hopefully whatever they are looking for is only dangerous on a geological scale and not a planar scale." Because a world shattering kaboom is a touch less worrisome than a universe shattering kaboom. Oh how this job ruins your standards.

Angel asks, "So do we get a teleport there?"

Adam nods.  "Yeah we can have you teleported relatively close.  The ruins are pretty remote, so you'll have to hoof it the rest of the way."

"Which means horsies!  Yay horsies!"

Couple day's journey is indeed shortened thanks to mounts provided.

  The scene transition fast travel service is making so much money right now.  But it's still hard for them to compete with the 'You probably have enough ammo' department.

  "So, are we talking straightforward planar pirates?  Or ones who keep talking about honor with a very selective application pirates?  We already know they aren't pirates who never steal from people pirates."

Angel looks at Carla.

Carla shrugs and telepaths, "Everyone is different. For all we know, we could be lucky and be running into 'were actually trying to save the universe' pirates."

Maverick says, "There are two kinds of githyanki they will be: The kind who live because we allowed it. Or the kind who die... because we allowed it."

"My guess is ordinary super-powered thieves."

After following the trail, the PCs discover a ruined
fortress with a spiral staircase leading down.

Humanoid tracks are found leading to and from the staircase.

"Down we go!" Mits chimes.

  "Well, can't argue with the factual accuracy of that claim Maverick." Because it really is true at this point.

  Why is it that with so many still functioning ancient traps and such, there are no ancient escalators?

Carla, Angel, and Maverick follow down in that order... Maverick sticks to the shadows or behind people as much as he can. Angel is sneaking also, having gotten good at it.

Carla telepaths, "Unless there are objections, I'm going to light the way."

If no objections are made, she does just that.

When the characters start down the spiral staircase, read:
Descending the stairs, you see light coming from around
the next bend and hear the sounds of a fight.
If the characters are wary, they might be able to surprise the githyanki; roll Stealth checks against the
githyanki’s passive Perception score of 22.
When the characters see the room, read:
A large pit has been dug in the middle of the room. Several
unusual humanoid creatures are spread around the room,
with silvery weapons drawn. Two in the middle of the pit
appear to be fighting.

---

Too sleepy / distracted to run combat.

  22 Perc? How cute-wait, that's actually pretty reasonable.  We're just in a party with A: A Fighter with sight beyond sight. B: A Maverick.

  Were this a less serious Not Darkthorne, Matt would request Mittens play the American Gladiators theme to the pair fighting in the pit.

Angel and Maverick fire crossbow bolts at the enemy! Angel's sticks into the gith warrior's armor, but Mav manages to get his bolt between the armor, hitting the guy for a lot of pain!

However, Maverick vanishes. As usual.

"Githyanki invaders!" Mittens calls out, blasting one of the baddies that some mysterious person just badly injured, "That was just a warning shot.  Surrender and you'll be spared."

"Intruders!" the injured Gith tells his allies, "There's angels among them!"

He charges at Matt, expecting to shrug him aside to get at Mittens.  Clang!  Heavy shield says no.

"Angels?  Of what?" an ally of his answers, turning the corner to attack.  SLASH!  Nope.  Didn't down Rainbow like he was expecting.

Rainbow seems to wobble like when people swing through holograms in scifi films. Yet she is solid enough to defy any movement past her. She answers, "Carla and I are angels of Pelor... though Carla is also favored by the Raven Queen."

Carla unfurls her wings, which shimmer like metal before she hurls them forward, firing metal feathers at the enemy, cutting them!

---

Angelic Blades v War1, War2. Hit(29)! Hit(34)!
 dmg: 15

War 1 HP: 75 - 15 = 60
War 2 HP: 118 - 15 = 103

Annoyed that her last shot didn't draw blood, Angel takes special interest in the guy she couldn't hurt earlier and THUNK, nearly kills him with THUNK one of her arrows... the other hits the second guy in his left bicep. That smarts. Still better than the first guy with an arrow in his femoral artery. "We have a healer. If you surrender, you live. If you don't, you die like an ant crushed under a boot."

Secretly, though, she is relieved none of her allies are hurt just yet.

---

Biting Volley v War1, War2. CRIT(40)! Hit(38)!
 dmg to War1: 49
 dmg to War2: 19

War1 HP: 60 - 49 = 11 bloodied
War2 HP: 103 - 19 = 84
This message was last edited by the player at 05:20, Tue 01 Nov 2016.

"We'll finish this later," one of the Gith says to his opponent.

The rest of the enemy closes in.

"I'm gunna love making you eat those words!"

One takes a swing at Matt, but doesn't connect.