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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 1099" data-attributes="member: 41">9-- Object Ho!  Eleven-nines! The very next day, Ragna confers with the party. She stresses the need for unity. She says that if they run across a small enough ship, she believes that the eight of them (the party, Ragna, Mishkal and Hamm) could still take it and leave enough of the crew alive to sail back to Haven.  She is hopeful that they might yet return home as Free Beings.Before the party can answer her, Mishkal interrupts the parley and exclaims "Object ho! Eleven-nines!" (In the plane of air, directions are described on two axises, one running from prow to stern, and one running from starboard to larboard, both describing clock faces. So, eleven-nines is eleven o-clock front to back, nine o-clock left to right.). The party hurriedly gathers their gear, and prepares to board the object, should it prove to be a vessel. Kyreel tells the party that should they encounter a superior Wind Duke force, she wants to surrender rather than fight. The Wind Dukes, she reasons, are the group's true allies, and certainly more trustworthy than this pirate scum.  Indy says "Pirate . . . scum?" and stomps away to pout.  Thelbar points out that if they were to surrender they would be hanged, as they are now criminals in the eyes of the Dukes. Kyreel, however believes strongly in the Truth inherent in Justice, and restates her opinion. No resolution is achieved. After a tense hour of waiting drags into a tense afternoon of waiting, the group realizes that whatever the object is, it's very, very big. Miles long, most likely. Ragna tells the party that it's a prime pocket, and there are only two kinds of those: The kind the Wind Dukes make, and those made by a Sundering. She's not sure which is worse. The Wind Dukes pull huge sections of Prime Worlds through to the Plane of Air for use as military bases and even cities. That option would likely spell the end for them all. Sunderings occur when massive cataclysms rip parts of a Prime loose and send it violently through a dimensional portal. The most common cause for a Sundering? When Gods make war. "If you're lucky," Ragna says, "the Sundered island is territory belonging to the looser." Over the course of the next day, the island slowly comes closer. As the Marrow Down (or what's left of her) approaches, it becomes obvious that this island is the product of a Sundering. Essentially triangle shaped, it includes a tropical lake surrounded by lushly forested hills, with jungle lowlands toward the sharp edge. All around the island are trees and rock flaking off from the edge of the prime pocket, slowly drifting away from the island that birthed them.  There is some sort of structure protruding from the center of the lake, but it is difficult to determine any details.   The underside of the island is rocky and jagged.  A thin stream of water drains away from the lake, falling away from the massive floating island in a stream that extends away as far as the eye can follow.After some tricky navigation ("All together now, lads--fall!  Fall!") , the remainder of the Marrow Down lands on a rocky 'beach' near the tip of the triangle.  Ragna asks the party to determine if there are any Hostile sentients on the island, while she tends to the wounded Raiders. Desiring to keep her sons from fighting, she orders them away from the party and sets Mishkal and Hamm to the task of building a new ship. A brief foray into the island reveals tracks of large, clawed beasts, as the tracks of great cats.  The party reports this information and organizes double watches, explaining to Ragna how this is done on land.The next morning (always a relative condition here), the party determines to map their new home.  The first thing they discover is a tree-village inhabited by intelligent monkey-like beings, who build elaborate tree-top structures, but arm themselves with crude spears.  Fortunately they are not hostile, and after some spellcasting the group is able to communicate their peaceful intent, and are taken to meet the tribe's leader.The creatures are quiet, intelligent, and thoughtful.  They mark their own history, care for their young, and utilize magic, fulfilling Indianichus' "three determinates of civilized sentience".  The monkey-people (or Phanatons, as their name for themselves is pronounced in common) have some unique characteristics.  Their history revolves around a series of cultural heroes, revered for their ability to think creatively and introduce new ideas and concepts to the tribe.  The Phanatons possess an amazing aptitude for learning, picking up a crude version of common speech within hours, but seem entirely unable to imagine.  Thus, they have no art that has not been made before, no new tales that have not been told before, and no new living strategies that have not been tried before.  The sundering of their island has thrown them into a confusion almost akin to insanity.  They cannot comprehend an event that does not have historical parallels, and cannot adapt.  They can, however, perform any task to the exact standard it is demonstrated to them, and they obey any commands given by a recognized leader without hesitation."These creatures would make perfect sailors", Thelbar observes. The leader tells the group that the big cats and lizard-kin have come down out of the hills after the Sundering.  He does not know why the island splintered from the prime, but suspects it may have something to do with the snake-people of the lake. No one in the tribe remembers the event, but they all remember a period of great disquiet and terror amongst them, and when it was over, they found themselves in this 'land where the sun has gone hiding'.  In addition to their confusion, the clan is terrified and hungry, refusing to leave their trees for fear of being eaten by one of the large predators that now roam their territory.Taran vows to protect these beings, calling them the "first worthwhile creatures we haven't had to kill in this whole damned plane".  The group tells the chieftain that they are going to have a look around, and see what they can do.  A plan to escape the island is beginning to form.On a foray out toward the hills, the group encounters a massive dragon-like lizard-- a twenty-foot tall behemoth that runs on its hind legs and snatches Indy whole into its gullet!  The thing has teeth like daggers, and for the first time in their young adventuring careers, the heroes believe that they have likely met their end.  They face a terrible lizard--a king amongst its kind.  Rex is in awe.Fortunately, the group manages to land several lucky blows, and cut Indy from the creature's throat before he is suffocated or crushed.  Shaken and battered, the group retreats to the Phanaton's tree-home, fearing to face Mishkal and Hamm in their current sorry state.The next day, they return to Ragna and her sons, noticing that the surviving gith are up and around and healing nicely.  Mishkal and Hamm are as surly as ever, and the staring match between the half-orcs and Taran almost erupts into an outright brawl before cooler heads can intervene.  Taran mutters under his breath that next time he fights those dirty bastards, he'll finish the job.  Indy chimes in, threatening to hang them from the mizzenmast until the gulls pick at their eyes, and then feed the remains to the sharks!  Taran stares at the elf stonily. "There are no sharks here, Indy," Thelbar says.The group meets with Ragna and lays out the following arrangement:  The Wind Duke Navigator is to be their prisoner alone, and they will take him to the Phanaton settlement.  Ragna may meet with the Phanaton leader, and if he is willing, can enlist the monkey-creatures into helping build a ship.  She is warned, that if she loves her sons, she would do well to keep them from even hinting that they might harm one of the Phanatons.  Thelbar instructs her, in no uncertain terms, that a third bout between his group and her sons would be their last act.Ragna is overjoyed to hear the news, and replies that she is confident that she can teach the Phanatons to build a ship out of whatever native material is available, and furthermore, if the creatures are as clever as Thelbar says, she'll turn them into the fiercest crew of pirates the plane of Elemental Air has ever seen.The Phanatons prove amiable to this course, and take to their instruction readily.  They show Ragna and her boys how to build out of a native silk-like material that hardens into a fibrous strength.  Ragna, for her part is overjoyed, and is soon predicting (loudly) a piratical reign of terror the likes of which will make the Wind Dukes shiver in their sleep at the mere mention of her name!</blockquote>

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