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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Isida Kep'Tukari" data-source="post: 4140292" data-attributes="member: 4441">Lupaz, you remember the Pungent Shrew now.  Captain Grass is a vegypygmy, a race of small plant creatures known for their cunning and viciousness.  His whole crew is plant creatures, from young treants to the more humanoid voldoni, and their ship, like yours, is living.  However, it clearly lacks the power and capabilities of the Khora Aisa.  If you intend to cut off the Shrew, however, you must leave immediately if not sooner, and taking the time to gather rumor could see you late to your meeting with the Shrew.Nissa, in pondering the possibilities of paying in dreams, you consider what you know of them.  They are often used to purge the day's tensions, do mental housecleaning, and to collate the mind's contents.  And people dream all the time, not just at night.  Some scholars say all random thoughts, all "day dreams," all passing fancies are also considered a part of this dreaming.  To be deprived of them for any period of time could render one... a little mad.~~~~~~~~~~~Upon hearing your quest, Captain Merri's eyebrows shoot into his hair with such vigor you think they may take up permanent residence there.  Clearly he's startled with your audacity.  But after a moment, he begins to chuckle, then laugh, and then roar."By the hair of Chaos' tangled locks, you folks don't think small, do you?  The Glass Malestrom?  Teeth of the Maw, now there's a sailor's challenge for this ship!  And in three days, we're going to have to run right through the thick of it.  Well, lads and lass, I hope your swords are sharp, because the Malestrom attracks trouble the way flowers draw butterflies.  And I tell you, the trouble is all sharp, ye hear me?  Prepare to cast off!" he bellows to the crew, and the captain stomps to the wheel to make ready the ship.Seeing the immanent departure, Tempest, Ekilu, and Obobooboo hasten to let you know their plans."I've gotten solid word of where the Stormdancer is docking.  I know Fee would listen to me if I managed to find her, and if I could convince Fee..." Ekilu trails off for a second, caught in a memory.  "If I could convince her, we'd have a powerful ship on our side.  She knows dozens of other captains.  But if I miss her here, I don't know when I'd be able to find her again.  I will part company now and try to get us more help," he explains.Tempest is even more brief, and his eyes blaze with bright fury.  Something he learned here had clearly affected him.  "I've gotten meself a word on the Sand Skipper.  Ye say we need to stop the flow of trinkets t' the Kingdom, right?  Well, the Skipper hauls pretties out of the Sunscortch Wastes by the holdful, so I needs t' go have meself a little chat with her captain, eh?  Catch up to you lubbers later!"  With that bold statement, Tempest takes to the air, arcing to gain altitude over Bluegorge."I found a friend!" Oobobooboo declares, his pink body sprouting a pair of arms so he can wave them for emphasis.  "He's weird!  And he know Glop-In-The-Sewer!  So he's gonna show me the fun way in!"  Thusly confused, Oobobooboo dives over the side of the ship and is gone.  Trebuchet and Lupaz think they might know what the ooze was babbling about, Trebuchet especially.  There's more than one semi-sentient ooze in the bowles of the castle in the Kingdom of Knowledge.  The little pink ooze might have just found some brethern to help him find another way in!  Or he might have just absorbed some bad whisky.  It's hard to say with him.Ekilu gives a bow to the other members of the party and leaves the ship just before the gangplank is drawn up.  With a heave, the Khora Aisa draws away from the Crystalline Falls, and the crew is busy hauling sail, putting up the anchor, and other tasks that keep them busy for long minutes as the sails are unfurled, the wind determined, and a course charted.  It's after these long minutes that Anna Cale, the water genasi priestess of the Whale Mother, comes over to the group."I have a message from Coron, the tempest twin.  He left me this amulet he was wearing, and said you could use it to contact him.  He said he and his were going to spend a few days recovering and then head to the Copper Mountain," she recites carefully.  "He told me to bid you 'good hunting,' and that 'time would be on your side.'  He hopes to find some information to pass on to you."~~~~~~~~~You said on through the days and nights, Captain Merri and first mate Zay piloting the Khora Aisa in shifts to make sure you get there in time.  The seas swiftly turn from water, to kelp-choked beds, to mud, to sand, and finally...It's early on the third day, and there's been an odd sound on the horizon.  A kind of high-pitched sound, almost like a hundred thousand windchimes singing at once.  Captain Merri starts barking out orders at the crew as the sand beneath you picks up speed and begins to turn clear.  For a second you think that you're returning to water, but a closer examination reveals something more disturbing.  It's glass.  Shards of clear and smokey glass running together in a strong current.As if that wasn't enough, a shout from the bow directs your attention ahead.  Before you is a huge malestrom, miles and miles across, swirling in a huge whirlpool of glass shards, their lethal song singing in the air, the chiming of glass overwhelming everything.  Above the pool whirl glimmering birds, shining wings as they dive and pull things from the water, sometimes being pulled under themselves.  Occasionally waves and gouts of glass erupt from the surface, fountaining everything with razor-sharp shards.And you're going to sail through the middle of it.Welcome to the Glass Malestrom!</blockquote>

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