"Is that what I think it is?" gasped Talis.

"I have no idea. What do you think it is?"

In reply to Aaron Gray (msg # 298):

Not seeing anything that needs killing I look around for any other doors or hatches.  Careful not to touch anything magical.

There are no other doors or compartments that you can see in this room, so Tom goes back into the hold and decides to see where the other end of the plates go. They might just form a loop, which would makes sense in a way, but at the front of the ship, they disappear through another wall that has a door in the middle of it.

Cautiously opening that door, Tom finds another strange apparatus connected to the plates. It's sitting on a small pedestal, known as a binnacle in naval parlance, and is a metal disk with a glass cover. Under the glass is a septagram that has a gem set at each point.

In reply to Mysterion (msg # 300):

I call out loudly enough for the others to hear: Fando, come take a look at this.

When he heard his name called, Fando hurried forward to where Tom was. He looked through the door.

"Well, well well. What have we here?" he says.

"You'd think the septagram would be a dead give-away, wouldn't you? But drawing a septagram or even a nonagram is just a natural progression from a pentagram. Making a septagram is one thing, empowering it is a whole different thing."

"I'm not sure if this is actually powered by the Seventh Magic. The inventor could merely be using it for control... yaw, pitch, roll and speed would make sense."

"Casting a few spells might reveal the truth, but we'll probably need to repair the plates to be sure."

While the others conversed, threatened Halflings, and threw their arms up at the "recklessness" of magicians (pah, where would they be without magic!), Anneth fished for her inkpen and an ink...oh, that was just not acceptable.  She'd left those behind!

Her mood lightens as Fando mentions Aristobulus' attempt at warding his home.  Once she is done her full attention is devoted once again to the old man.

You know what, I forgot my ink and inkpen!  Silly and irresponsible of me.  I'm going to see if Anneth can't commit knowledge of this room, and the runes, to her memory, even in an imperfect way.

12:23, Wed 29 July 2015: Anneth Mage-Singer rolled 4 using 1d20 ((4)).
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Wed 29 July 2015.

Rodrigo admires the magical skill that went into the making of the ship, although truth be told he has no idea how it all works.

"So how can we repair the plates old man?" he asks Fando.

In reply to Rodrigo (msg # 304):

Talis laughed "Well it looks like Durek and Geirdon will be able to earn their keep after all!"

The big Elf slapped his friend Durek on the back "What say you, Master Waggle-beard?"

Rodrigo looks at the dwarves doubtfully. "Do you think they can fix it? I wouldn't have thought this was their forte.. battle axes yes, magically flying ships... no."

"We can repair the damaged plates," Gierdon responded, "possibly even the runes, but that won't restore the magic in it. That will take a wizard."

He looked at the others, particularly Anneth and Rodrigo.

"A mage fire would help, but it isn't necessary. It'll just take longer without one."

While Gierdon explained to the others about repairing the plates, Durek examined those nearby, particularly the undamaged ones still in place. He was concerned about what might be on the back of the plates, if anything, because it might not be discernible on the broken plates.

It wasn't hard to slither under the plates, and he made a mental note of how they were suspended--held in place by brackets!

He was quite surprised to find more plates against the wall, hidden in the shadows behind the array. Were they plates that weren't needed? Were they spares?


"Hey, everyone! I think there might be spare plates back here!" he called out to the others.

Not surprisingly, the plates were set on edge in a rack... no doubt to keep them from sliding all over the place.

He quickly counted them--seven.

In reply to Durek (msg # 308):

"The real question is what our strategy is going to be.  Why repair it if we can't fly it.  Why fly it if we have no place to take it?"

"Should we sell it?  Study it?  Find its rightful owner?"

Talis considered the issues.

"What do you guys think?"

"I think we should remember why we are here... We were hired by Ember Rain in Glantri City to track down Master Fando, who had apparently recently discovered one of the seven pieces of the Septagram which holds the keep to the 'Seventh Magic' and maybe to fixing the radiance - if the radiance is indeed broken."

We knew that Master Fando was heading to Fenswick so we travelled in that direction and at a village called Haggiskott, which we reached at sunset on the first day of travel, we stopped and asked after the missing mage - and the barkeep said he had gone into the hills to look for rock samples."

"We met a merchant called Wyndham Kellar who had inherited some things from his cousin Delron. There was a place (or maybe a thing?) call 'Strange Magic' up in the hills close to the village, along with a backpack and an old sword. The merchant just gave us the backpack and sword, which was pretty dumb because the sword had a secret compartment with some gemstones in it and the backpack had a secret compartment which contained a contract between Delron and Fando for the old mage to be led to 'the ship in the hills'. The merchant also said he wasn't interested in claiming possession of 'Strange Magic', although he might have had a different opinion if he had known that it was an incredible flying airship - assuming that it is 'Strange Magic' we are standing on now!"

"Then there was something about another different sword (the sword of Koth) that a dwarf called nobody stole from an ogre, who had in turn stolen it from a tribe of hobgoblins. We helped him defend himself, but that doesn't seem to be relevant otherwise."

"The next morning we travelled up to the ship in the hills, killing an entire tribe of hobgoblins on the way, and took out a nameless Halfling and his bodyguard who were holding Fando the Sage and trying to get him to fly the ship. We also saved Fando's bodyguard, Anya Canson. Fando had apparently just came up here because he wanted to see the flying ship."

"We have explored most of the ship now, firstly to find Anya' missing equipment and weapons but got distracted when we found the magical plates that probably let this ship fly - when they are all in place at least. We haven't asked Fando about the Septagram, which was the whole reason we started this adventure, although we have seen a Septagram on board the ship!"

"Did I leave anything out?" he asks, turning to the rest of the part. Then he turns to the sage.

"So Master Fando, do you have a piece of the Septagram? Or is that not important now that we have a whole Septagram on board this vessel!"

In reply to Rodrigo (msg # 310):

"You missed one important thing: our main mission, up till just now, was secret." said Talis.  Turning to his new friends (Aaron, Elwood and Tom) "Apologies, companions, but it is not our place to reveal our employer's desires, but apparently that has now gone by the wayside.  Though we have no way of holding you to continued secrecy I hope our recent adventures has forged a warrior's bond with you.  I'm sure our employer will treat you fairly if you wish to help in our endeavors."

"Opps," says Rodrigo. "Yeah, I knew I was forgetting one thing."

In reply to Rodrigo (msg # 312):

Tom replies with a chuckle.  As long as there is money and good times I'm not going anywhere or saying anything to anyone not already here.

"I swear the Oath of Murlynd not to divulge your secret. And now that I know your quest, I have a feeling my Patron may have sent me here to meet you for a reason."

"Well, that was quite enlightening," the elderly sage comments.

"However, I must correct you on one key point. A septagram is not the same thing as the Septagram. While the ones here on the ship might eventually allow me to unravel the secret of the Seventh Magic, finding all the pieces of the Septagram could unlock  those secrets more easily."

"I have every intention of continuing my search for the pieces of the Septagram. As such, we might find one of the pieces on this ship, so we should finish searching. If there was a piece here, it might have been taken by ship's captain, but it might also be hidden here somewhere."

"It occurs to me, though, that if we could get this ship flying, it would speed my search for the pieces."

"Master Fando, I promise we will resume searching the ship in a second, both in hope of finding a piece of THE septagram and hopefully also Anya's equipment. But I have to ask one thing, Ember Rain sent us after you because he thought you'd found at least one of the missing septagram piece already. Is that correct? And why would he think that otherwise? Did he know that you knew about this flying ship? And is this ship called 'Stange Magic'?"

OOC: Can we get a sketch of the ship? Doesn't have to be fancy, a hand sketch on a bit of A4 would be really great to figure out where we are and what is left to search.

In reply to Tom Wolf (msg # 313):

Aaron slaps Rodrigo on the back with good cheer. "Of course we will honor our newly found companions' secrets."

"I am guessing that the name of this ship is Strange Magic since that is the name painted on the bow and stern," Fando replies.

"As I've already informed Talis, no, I do not have the piece of The Septagram... well, not on me. I left it hidden in the inn when I decide to come up here and investigate the ship."

"And, yes, I did inform Ember that I had the piece. In a way, we are partners, both working to learn this secret."

"I have no idea if Ember knew about this ship. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, but it seems unlikely. He might have been intending to explore it himself, though, while leaving me to pursue my original course."

In reply to Fando (msg # 318):

"If he did he did not mention it to us.  It would seem a bit odd for him to send us off after you and then simply walk the same road a few moments later."

"What happens once we secure the ship?  Can we get it moving again without bringing back tools and such?"

"What happened to the crew?  Did anyone see a ship's log?"

"I didn't," Anneth states very matter-of-factly.  "I'm very much for helping to get this ship airborne.  I just wish I could detect magical energies, because I'm sure there's something we can't readily sense just underneath us, that would be a great help..."

"I don't suppose any of the rest of you are decent carpenters?" Durek asks. "If we're going to get this ship flying, we'll need to repair that hole."

"I think Gierdon and I can replace the shattered plates, if the right ones are here, probably repair the others."

"Yeah, I was wondering where the crew went. If they'd passed through the village, someone would have seen them. Yet, nary a word."

"I'm thinking the hobgoblins may have captured them... or killed them. Maybe the Halfling knows."

"C'mon, Gierdon, let's get those spare plates out and see what we've got."