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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 91691" data-attributes="member: 150">Pavel’s Journal, Part II (aka Something a little different)Pavel’s Journal, Part IIWe were whisked up into the sky – a terrifying thing, let me tell you – in this odd airship.  By and large we were too distracted being angry with Worf and the others who had gotten us into this predicament to notice Dyvers getting smaller and smaller beneath us.  We were, however, introduced to the rest of the crew.  There was a captain named Jimbo.  Other officers, whose duties I was never clear about, named Jordi, Weasley and perhaps more.  There was a Golem named Tiktok.  And the leader of the little troupe?  A maimed human named Commodore Pike, a legless, bearded lunatic who was carried about in some sort of chair, but a metal chair with 8 articulated, moving legs that walked him around, rather than the more normal, static four legs.  Oh, and the name of the ship?  Enterprise, of all things.  Having finally met the man (half-man?  Demi-man? Manlette?) responsible for the whole show, we started demanding a few things, first and foremost that we be dropped off, back on solid ground, and released.  Naturally it wasn’t going to be that easy.“But I need you,” Pike said. “I hired Worf, but he seems a bit too unsteady, a bit of a drunk.  But I must complete my quest, and you are the only ones who can help me.  Besides, I like you.”“Oh,” said Eli.  “Everyone starts out  liking us.”When Pike continued to carp about Worf being unreliable, Eli pointed out, “you know, you don’t look very smart, complaining about him being a drunk when you’re paying him in beer.”Minimonk sniggered.Pah asked,  “What’s in it for us?”Irk added, “Is there gold?  We never get any gold.”It became clear that we weren’t going to be taken home until we helped him with his quest.  And, being an adventurous lot, they started asking what the quest might be.  It turned out that Pike was after something called the Golden Fleece. So, yes Irk, there would be gold, of a sort.   And it wasn’t even on our world – there’s a heady concept.  We had all been so focused on the debate that we had not noticed that the ship had continued to climb, until not only Dyvers, but the world itself appeared to be small enough to carry in my hand.  And we grew closer to another planet, perhaps a moon.  And that was apparently the place where we would find the Golden Fleece.  I was convinced that I was dreaming.  Some terrible, spoiled horsemeat-induced dream.  But the moon kept getting bigger.  I was terrified.  While I was trying to get my bearings, Pike went on to jabber about a spider temple of some sort, an evil place that we could raid and loot, but I don’t recall the specific details.I had to look away, to distract myself.  I wandered up to the Afterdeck, where the wheel was being manned by a gnome.  When I expressed some interest in how the ship was navigated through air and between worlds.  The gnome offered me a seat behind the great wheel, and I took it.The Wheel felt smooth in my hands, but I was startled by an very unusual sensation, feeling that the wheel was somehow draining energy from me.  I found I was able to direct the ship’s movement mentally while I held the wheel.  It was easy, almost intuitive, but it drained away all of the spells I had memorized for the day, leaving me feeling quite uncomfortable.  I scowled at the gnome, weighing the possibility of tossing him overboard, but decided against it.  It was good to know that I could steer the great airship if necessary.  I only hoped that losing the spells was temporary.  As we had some time in transit ahead of us, we decided to stake out some space for ourselves and get some rest.  We slept in shifts through the night, fitfully, and when morning came I was relieved to pray and find my spells restored.  The ship had made great progress while we slept, and was flying above the surface of a great sea.  Ahead, in the distance, we could see a small Atoll, which turned out to be our target, the island on which we would find the fabled Golden Fleece.  Pah had a new fixation.  Both Tiktok and Pike were wearing hats – black stiff hats with wide brims that curled up above the ears – and Pah wanted one of them.  Badly.  She alternated between asking for it (or just saying she wanted it) and trying to sneak up on Pike or Tiktok and trying to steal it.  She was never successful, something that was striking – such a gifted thief, to be completely unable to snitch a simple article of clothing . . . there was something special about those hats.  Perhaps that was why Pah was so fixated on them – maybe she had already sensed what I was only able to deduce from her behavior.  At any rate, I found myself wishing she would find a way to get her hands on one of those hats.  We landed on dry land on the small Atoll, and joined the major players in the Enterprise’s crew in a trek inland to look for the Golden Fleece.  Our band took up the rear, trying to stick together and not be too close to or too far from the lunatics leading us into the jungle.  We were met shortly after entering that jungle by an odd tribe of tropical gnomes.  The took us back to their village, held a great feast in our honor, and told us all about their great diety, the Sun God.  Then they prepared an offering and we waited in a huge ceremonial clearing for the arrival of their god.Now, I am a religious man.  Every day I feel the power of the touch of my god, Ehlonna.  I see her in every leaf, every branch.  But I’ve never seen her, the "real" Ehlonna.  If a mortal can truly comprehend the presence of a god.  I don’t know many of the most devout in this world who have – and this whole goofy short society gets daily visits from their sun god.  Obviously I was a little skeptical that this creature would actually be a sun god.But, at the same time, they see this creature as a sun god – and as I serve Ehlonna specifically in her Sun aspect.  I felt a kinship for these people, for their touchingly juvenile ritual, and their pure adoration of the Sun.  I found myself waiting among them, feeling like one of them, and looking at the crew of the Enterprise, wondering what I was doing.Then the sun god arrived. It was a rodent the size of a roadside tavern, covered in glittering, golden fur that seemed to shine with an inner light.  Here was the golden fleece, the subject of Pike’s quest, in the body of the gnome’s sun god.  The great beast made it’s way into the clearing and started to munch away on the offerings of fruit the gnomes have left.  I stepped forward, using my animal friendship ability to try to make a connection with it, and it was starting to work, but then Pike started shouting for us to attack it, there it was, get the fleece, and so on. When we didn't move fast enough, he cast a charm on Irk, who suddenly started to support the Commodore's position in the debate.  And that just wasn't going over well with the rest of the Dragoons.So we attacked Pike and his men while the gnomes scattered and the sun god fled into the jungle.  We concentrated our attacks on Pike and Tiktok, who started emitting a blinding cloud of smoke almost as soon as the combat began.  .  I wasn’t going to let that stand any longer than I could.  I decided to give him a bit of a hot seat, casting heat metal on his chair and warning him that unless he released Irk “you are going to fry in your own ass carriage.” I thought it was pretty clever, but minimonk, plinking away with his crossbow nearby, didn’t snicker.  Maybe he only laughs at Uri’s jokes.  Anyway, the fight shuffled on, Tiktok trying to protect his master, Pike trying to escape, the other Enterprisers not being very effective, Irk trying to break up the fight before someone got hurt, and our band trying to put big holes in the ever-fleeing Pike.  In the end, Tiktok fell trying to protect his master, while Pike escaped into the jungle.  I’d spent most of my spells again, the party wasn’t too badly hurt (although Irk was still a bit muddled).  The good news?  Pah got Tiktok’s hat.  And what a hat it was.  When she pulled it off Tiktok’s body an illusion faced, and we saw him for what he was – yet another warrior, no golem at all, and Pah managed to figure out how to use the hat – a magic hat of disguise – in a few minutes.  The gnomes had scattered, as had the sun god.  Pike was gone, as were the other survivors of his landing party.  But we knew one thing.  We were not in a footrace to get back to the Enterprise first, before we were marooned on this . . . place. More next time . . .</blockquote>

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