Qui-Lin dashed a glance to Daladin.  This was all beyond her.  "Do we get them off the ship?" she asked.

"I suppose we help them get back to this 'chaos portal'---whatever that is," Atraxus says. He considers the odd Babbageetz for a moment, and then shrugs. The Half-Orc then goes to undo the latches blocking the strange creature's way...

OOC:

21:47, Today: Atraxus Wildheart rolled 5 using 1d20+2.  Insight-Is Babbageetz trustworthy.

Do I believe him? YUP!

Atraxus intends to open the way for Babbageetz, but I want to give people a chance to stop me just in case they disagree.

"You will help me?" Babageetz asks, sounding almost surprised.  "A being strange as I makes a request of you, you do not even ask for reward, you just say yes?"

The bizarre creature pauses just a moment, and adds, "I like you."

Babageetz turns, its broad flat feet flapping against the deck, and leads the way.  Not far, but it offers some quick explanation.

This ship belongs to a race of creatures with fuzzy faces, big ears, whiskers, and tails.  Babageetz does not know who they are, other than that they are very, very organized and structured, which is an awful thing.  They sent this ship to his home to capture what they call "specimens", and Babageetz was among them.  Then the ship returned to home of the creatures, where everything is iron and reasonable and so boring its frightening, but Babageetz, who had been pretending all along to be very stupid, managed to steal the ship when most of the creatures were off.  The others fled.  Then, a little too late, that controlling this bizarre ship was very, very difficult. Turning things at random did not seem to work.

"And the rest is history," Babageetz says.  "Or it will be.  The screaming morons were afraid of the light outside. Where they come from, there is nothing like that, only endless dark caves.  They ran around, and somehow set free these round metal things that started to fix things.  I called a Gate back to Chaos, it will come soon.  The other creatures of chaos are in rooms protected by strong warding magic- chaotic beings such as I dare not even touch the latches, the metal freezes!"

Babageetz does not bother to check on whether this all makes sense to anyone.  Where Babageetz comes from, sense is optional.

"I hate those fuzzy faced order-things," Babageetz says.  "Trapping, caging... horrible.  They called me 'Slaad' and asked if I was defective... why?  I am what I am, and everyone is very different, I told them there were no kinds and types and categories of us, all are our own, and organization is a perversion, but they said I was lying.  Stupid creatures.  Ah, here we are."

Past the stairwell on the bottom deck is a hallway, with small doors, set staggered on either side, rather than opposing each other.  Each has a small window with an iron grate, and a large but simple looking iron bar latch device.  There don't seem to be any locks!  But each of the latches has a symbol etched into it, crafted so that when the latch is down, the symbol is complete.

Atraxus grins at Babageetz.

"I know all about being considered 'strange,'" the Half-Orc says with a hint of amusement in his voice. "But if you can help return these creatures to Chaos, I suppose that would go quite far in helping keep the people safe here---especially if some of them are as unpredictable as the 'morons' we dispatched earlier."

Atraxus follows the slaad toward the other cages. He hesitates before attempting to open the mechanism.

"Are any of these creatures dangerous?" he asks Babageetz, shooting a glance toward his companions as well. "Should we take precautions before releasing them?"

"Everything is dangerous," Babageetz.  "Dangerous to what, that is the question.  Some creatures are made of such pure Order that the very existence of some of us threatens the philosophy of their existence.  But if you mean Big Teeth and Sharp Claws, sadly, the most dangerous is me.  And then the Morons.  But I do not hear them anymore, something very final probably happened to them.  Only a matter of time, I knew.  You cannot expect to last forever running around screaming."


With the little grated windows, Atraxus would be able to peek inside and see what's in there.


Babageetz adds:  "This realm, it is your home, yes?  It is a crossroads.  Many things pass here, as if the Planes are strings, knotted together here.  That is the reality of this place. Here we are close to Chaos, so I can go home easily, that is why I tried to be here.  That is where these beasts are home.  But never, ever try to control a creature of chaos.  That is hateful to it.  So... once they are free, it is certainly your freedom to defend yourself if you must, but please allow the creature its freedom too.  If they do not wish to return with me to the never ending storm of Limbo, they do not have to.  As long as they are free."

Daladain had been quiet while studying the charts. Some was pure madness, other parts made sense to his strange brain. After some moments he spoke up to his new companions. “This is strange indeed. Some of you will know of Chaos Magic, but do you know it’s opposite, Order Magic? Some think of them in binary terms, as black or white, good or evil. They are wrong. Order is not good, it is worse than chaos, it seeks to control everything, with no room for freedom. Our world is a balance, good and evil, order and chaos, black and white. When the world is out of balance, bad things happen. Read your history books; the worst despots in history valued order, their version of order. Order is very, very bad.”

He turned to Babageetz. “These creatures on the ship. If we free them will they cause harm to the innocent souls that reside here? Will they engage in wanton violence, or will they simply go about their business? I value freedom above all, but will not release daemons to destroy this world.”

"Order magic is a hideous thing," Babageetz says.  "It built this ship, though, and this ship feels the pull of its masters and will not stay here forever."

The strangely froggy creature manages a peek through a grated window... it seems to have some fear and/or discomfort approaching the door.

He starts talking, and it appears to be to whatever it is that is inside.

"Do you see how we are misunderstood?  They hear chaos, and all they ever think is, 'will we suddenly attack?'.  As if campaigns of terrible violence were not done by Order!  Chaos can be art, Chaos is expression, but do they ever ask, if we free you, will you suddenly start painting the walls with surreal abstract images?"

Babageetz turns to face the party again.

"Iron.  Iron is awful stuff.  This dear creature in here looks like it would cause very little harm even if it did, so you probably have nothing to worry about.  I cannot be certain, no creature of chaos ever can be, but it is clearly lacking in claws or big teeth or such things.  Of course it may be able to shoot death beams from its eye, but if it was so dangerous those long tailed vermin would never have caught it, right?  Please, I fear time grows shorter."

Qui-Lin glanced from Daladin to Babageetz in a comical series that looked like she might get whiplash.

"I'm so totally confused," she admitted.

"If we free you guys, and you go home, that's all good.  Right?  But if you stay, you're going to clash with the people here, who aren't fans of random chaos. So, I get you guys believe in free will and all that, but if you've got any sway on your people, please don't make us regret freeing them."

Atraxus sighs as he resigns himself to what he must do.

"I suppose bargains are difficult to make with creatures of chaos," he says. "We can free your friends, and I will pray that they follow you back home. Should they choose to stay here, I hope they are friendlier than the 'morons' we dispatched earlier."

Atraxus opens the door to release the captive, but makes sure to position himself so that any attack would get directed at him first before his friends...

A guarantee had been unlikely, and probably false, so the honest response from the strange fellow reassured Daladain as best it could.

“Okay,” he said, “how can we release them without harming ourselves?” He looked at the cages and began to formulate some ideas.

Boldly, Atraxus opens... door number one!  Their are three more!

There are three extremely peculiar creatures here.

Two of them look like bizarre hybrids, mockeries of ordinary animals- they look sort of like beavers, but have duck bills!  They look up with great uncertainty, not being very big.

Babageetz calls to them:  "Yes, my beauties, creatures of chaos, breakers of rules, you are free!"

He is rewarded with a sound that is somewhere between a gurgle and a coo.

"I do not know where these came from," Babageetz says, "but they are adorable.  And poisonous!"

The other creature in here is a cloud.  Not a very big cloud, although it certainly has all the features of your standard fluffy white atmospheric water vapor mass.  It looks like if it tried, it could probably rain on someone, but probably not more than one person at a time as the cloud is only a few feet wide.

Then it opens its eyes.  It's still very much a cloud, but now it has two eyes.

"A Spuf," Babageetz says with a sigh.  "I think it is a kind of elemental.  You are free as well, Spuf!  Fly, be free, go home!"

Daladain shrugged as the strange looking beasts emerged. He stepped forward and released the catch on door number two...

Door number two...

At this point, Babageetz is impressed with the party.  Very impressed.  They don't bother looking through the little grated openings before opening the doors!  Now that is a commitment to the forces of Chaos!

"You are my dear friends," the slaad mutters, and apparently it is directed at the party, not the creatures in the rooms.


The next room contains flying creatures, two of them, with a wingspan of about four feet, bright colorful feathers, and... well that's it, they're all wing, four wings seamed together in the middle with no creature between them.  This doesn't seem to bother them in the least.  They flap out and hover in the hallway near Babageetz.

Someone overly attuned to logic, like a Dwarven engineer, might point out that given the size and the relatively slow wing beat of these wing-things, they really shouldn't be able to hover like that.  But aeronautics is not their concern.  They hover.

"Halfway there," Babageetz says.  "See, nothing ferocious.  I don't think those rat finks had it in them to capture anything too fierce."

Qui-Lin took a step back and watched in growing trepidation as Daladain threw open doors and released these creatures.  She swallowed and hoped they were doing the right thing.

Daladain grinned. He was clearly enjoying seeing the strange and wondrous creatures. “Time for the next door.”

And still Daladain opens doors, without pausing to look through the grates.  His willingness to embrace "Whatever!" is utter joy for a slaad.  It is the same joy a Demon gets watching a mortal commit acts of evil, or one of the noble inhabitants of the Upper Planes feels when observing kindness.  For some reason, all of these beings think it is simply wonderful when a mortal embraces their ethics.

Daladain releases another creature that is covered in feathers, as was the wing thing. But this has no wings.  Instead, it's body is long and... well mostly just long.  If a very large boa constrictor had fluffy and colorful feathers instead of reptilian scales, this would be it.  It has no visible eyes, but slithers (very snake like slither) out into the corridor.  The head raises as if inspecting the surroundings.

"I should reward you well for this!" Babageetz says happily.  Flappy feet slap the floor as if it was doing a quick little dance, but with no sense of rhythm.  "Freedom for all!  Freedom in the endless Everything!  Come with me, our way home should be here!"

Babageetz takes a moment to explain.  "This place, this world, this is a place of many portals, and portals are easy, so it is easy to get home.  I made this ship come here... I think I did... so I could make the portal for home but it fought me.  I will go home, I think it will go home too."

It's that last cage where things make even less sense.  There doesn't seem to be a creature inside, just a wide, gaping black pit.  The kind one expects to find on the floor of a cave or deep dungeon corridor.  But on the lower deck of a ship it seems an obvious insult to geometry.  And then it moves.  It slides across the floor headed for the open door... always a deep dark pit into void, but moving.

"Oh that," Babageetz says, with a slight hint of worry.  "That's a... um... a... I saw one once, yes, I saw one, and this... this is another one."

A big grin crossed Daladain’s face, laughing at the sheer insanity of the situation. As the snake like creature slithered away he quickly reached for the final door and flung it open, curious to see the living black void.

Babageetz looks at the black void moving out of the little room.

"That's... it's... well it is chaotic, this is true, but I don't believe it has been fed recently and I think we should hurry back with whatever is willing to come with me."

The Slaad turns, and its big feet start stamping towards the ship's bridge.  Most of the "Creatures of Chaos" stay close, but the two duck-billed furry things seem unclear on the concept.  Babageetz scoops up one and carries it, and scoops up the other, and decides it is too awkward to carry both.

"Here, you carry this," Babageetz says as he holds out the creature towards Daladain.  "I do not wish these to be food, either."

Daladain took the strange looking duck-billed furry thing and held it gently. Today was going to be one of those odd days!

He looked over at Babageetz and the others. "Time to leave?"

If the consensus is to evacuate then he will try to grab as many maps and other materials as possible before departing, but not risk his life doing so.

"Let's get out of here," Qui-Lin said uneasily.

"Agreed," Atraxus says while giving a wary glance at the strange, shadowy creature.

"I can lead the way," he adds. Atraxus draws his sword, and keeps his shield in front as he moves forward through the ship...

There is a shudder and lurch from the ship as they return to the bridge.

Babageetz helps in Daladain's quick search, but it's not a very neat effort, as it involves wrangling a variety of creatures while tossing things in every direction, looking for whatever might be of particular importance.

They are in a rush, with little time to examine things.

As they grab their way through the bridge, and then the lounge above it, they are met by...

Kealoha.  Returning from a chase on the main deck.

"Well that was weird," she says.  "You'd think those things had never seen the sun before."

"They haven't," Babageetz says.

Kealoha stares.

"Take this," the Slaad says, handing her the second platypus.

"Ummm..."  Kealoha responds.

"I sense it is not truly a creature of my home," Babageetz says.  "Despite how it may seem."

"Umm... sure... also there were these things like flat round metal crabs..."

"Gearlings," Babageetz says.  "The Morons let them out.  They have been repairing this ship, that is why we all must go.  They fix, they make things correct and proper and right and orderly... very disturbing."

Hastily, they gather up what they can- documents and scrolls, several cases of cheese, rope, and, from the stairwell, four peculiar metal flasks that seem to weigh less than nothing.  Instead of down, they want to go Up, from the moment they are taken out of the rack that was restraining them.

When they finally make it back outside, the ship is shuddering, and beginning to pull against the rock spur upon which it was impaled.  There is no sign of the last Gibberling.  But there is a strange round vortex hovering just above the deck.  The interior looks a lot like the eye of the Chaos Storm did- swirling mass of nothing and everything.

"Home!" Babageetz says excitedly.  "This is where we part."  The slaad looks at Daladain, and adds, "Your service to me, I will remember for as long as I can."

The Creatures of Chaos... except for that slithering pit thing that is still somewhere in the ship... seem drawn towards that vortex, except for the furry duck billed beaver things. They seem uninterested.  If anything, they are afraid of it.

Daladain looked at Babageetz and smiled. “Meeting you was fun, I was glad to be able to help. If you are ever passing this way again then look me up and we will share a good bottle of wine.”

He glanced down at the duck-billed creature, sensing its nervousness. He wasn’t normally at one with animals but he did his best. In a gentle voice he said to it, ““You are free. You can go with them if you wish,” he gestured towards the vortex, “or you can come with me back to the guesthouse and then go wherever you wish.” He pointed at the guesthouse high on the cliff side. “You are free now, you can choose.”

He wasn’t sure if the creature understood any of what he said, but he would let it decide if it could. If no choice was apparent he would keep a gentle hold on it and carry it back up to the guesthouse.

They make their way back to the guesthouse, confused, perhaps, about what it all means.

Behind them, the Gate opened by Babageetz brings the others back to the realm of Limbo, home of absolute chaos.

As they ascend up to the cliff back to the guesthouse, another odd event:  the ship, apparently repaired and working off some deeply embedded magical order to return home, does so, pulling away from the cliff and rising majestically through the air.

Going up is strangely easy.  This is because the "loot" from the ship included those strange metal flasks that want to fall up instead of down.  With them stowed in packs, they make the characters feel oddly light.  All four could probably easily lift Daladain, three would do it for the much lighter Qui-Lin.

The party has both of the platypuses.  They didn't want to go with Babageetz, and it seemed to much to separate them. The little fairies that live in the Guesthouse are actually delighted to see them, because they were hoping you would rescue someone from the ship, and even if there were no people per se to be rescued, fairy folk will certainly accept the rescue of innocent animals as a good deed.

Although, there is some discussion over whether these count as innocent.  They are strange.

Speaking of strange... it is not merely through battle that experience is gained.  Encountering and learning about the strange and unfamiliar counts just as much if not more.  Each of the returning characters is advanced to second level.

We also advance to a new thread:  Union at the Guesthouse.   

Did we find anything on the ship that we took, other than the charts and stuff?