Spaceships and Sorcerers

[Krautman]

The Superalaceon System

The Superalaceon System. A sphere of little note aside from the oxygen-rich planets perfect for refilling a spelljammer's air envelope and the sturdy metals of its planets. However, because there's a civilization in this system that hasn't made first contact, mining operations are illegal.

It was a standard day, really. Lots of ships had come in to refill their envelopes since it would be two or three days to a planet with a suitable atmosphere. Then, something happened. The smell of magic, followed quickly by a call to adventure.


"Space is an odd place, ain't it? You turn left, there's a merchant empire of psychic penguins riding flying pigs. You turn right, and there's a planet made mostly of water inhabited by Sahuagin. Of course, there's also that gas giant inhabited by Strix. Yeah, wildspace is rather odd, and that's why maps of it are so important. The books of maps even more so, even if you've gotta track the orbit of a planet. They're not perfect, but they help.

But, what if I told you a tale? Back in the golden age, when the ships were flying castles and cities that could hop from one end of the galaxy to the other in a day, when they could plop down right in the middle of Realmspace without anyone batting an eye, that they'd had something much better than a map on their ships?

It wouldn't be surprising. They kept wizards, sorcerers, clerics, and druids on board their ship, so they had access to divination. But that's not important. These casters had the magic of the golden age- much stronger than anything we've got today. They could use that divination magic to make a perfect map of every part of the universe. And they did.

I have part of it right here, a page of the Geonomicon- a perfect description of the ecology, climate, and every little detail you could want about this miserable little rock we're sitting on. Of course, it's a little outdated. But only a few years or so. My point is, this is a page. And I got it from a pirate.

The Geonomicon's pages are out there, somewhere. The tales of every planet, maps of every treasure the crews of ancient ships buried or hid away. Locations of mines and ancient cities long lost, and the ways to find the hidden worlds. I'm a bit too old to do much adventuring anymore. So I'm putting out a notice to anyone who hears this and hops in my Spelljammer- I never found the pages. Never left this planet. But I'm givin' everyone here a chance to do so. I'm gonna be gone soon. When I shuffle off the mortal coil, I want you to promise you'll use that Geonomicon to find me, and show me just what I was after all these years. The Infamous Miner's my spelljammer, an' I'm leavin' it to whoever takes me up on this offer."

---

Planet Dollahshort (Superalaceon-2)

Most of the town had ignored the words of Bugeye Joe. He'd earned a reputation as the town loon ever since he managed to crash a boat out in the desert, where he built his shack. He only came into town to buy supplies and tell the children fantastic tales of people as tall as buildings and treasures worth more than the entire nation. But they were just stories. Really, the tallest halfling ever born was four feet tall, so someone a whole six feet high just sounded ridiculous to them.

Claude "Deadeye" Love, quickest draw this side of the Samwise River, was not most of the town. He'd grown up hearing the sorcerer's tales of life off Dollahshort, and if nothing else wanted to go pay his respects to the man. He'd hooked Burrito up to the cart, and was headed out to see what the old man was on about. Pistol in its holster, he got in the cart and began riding.

He made his way to the old man's shack, a full four feet tall (small, but livable for a halfling.) and held his hat in his hand. That ship out back was the old man's pride and joy, and he'd do his best to make sure it had something done with it. He pushed open the door and stepped in, Joe sitting at a table with a pot of coffee.

"What's this about magic books an' spellstuffers, Joe?"

The elderly halfling shook his head and indicated an empty chair. "SpellJAMMER. It's that boat out back. Bought it before I crashed here. Anyway, Deadeye, make yourself presentable! Thar's a lady present!"

Claude looked over at the chair, obviously confused. There wasn't anyone there. "Uh... Joe, I think your eyes are goin'."

[Rain]

"Look at the table," Hotaru said cheerfully, sipping from a tiny glass of milk and sat on a pincushion that had been divested of its spiky attire and placed about the centre of said table, "Saotome Hotaru, pleased to meet you!"

"So, Joe, you crashed and couldn't fix your ship? You did better than most people that crashed, at least," the martial artist said, swinging her legs off of the cushion and placing the empty glass carefully down. Then the cream-haired female rose to her full height: four and a quarter inches. Even with her own people, she was tiny.

[Vinestar]

"Hello? Anyone-" With an audible thud, something solid bounced off the door frame of the old shack. After an intake of breath and mutters about blinks and whatnot, a rather tall woman scrunched down and awkwardly shuffled her way into the cramped enclosure. "Oh, there are people." Outside of the building, a sleepy tiger yawned and eyed the donkey with interest. Granted, it was full and all, but it couldn't hurt to keep an eye on the next potential meal.

[dblade26]

A few moments after the rather tall woman entered, a strange figure appeared in the corner of Joe's house. No, appeared wasn't the right word, because clearly it was just some tacky decoration of Bugeye's that the others had somehow overlooked.

Because really there was no other explanation for the sudden appearance of what seemed to be a two-foot tall penguin dressed up in the infamous black footie-pajamas of your typical ninja with a katana strapped to his head by an ingenious little fastening device.

Presently, the 'tacky decoration' pulled up a seat at the table and started speaking. "That should be everyone who's likely to show up, so the area is now secure, dood. Now, I was told that you're offering interesting opportunities...or was it fish, dood?"

[Krautman]

If the presence of the small woman had confused Claude, the presence of a giant had left him speechless. And then came the penguin, leaving the halfling stammering.

Bugeye took another sip of his coffee. "Sorry 'bout him. This planet ain't even heard of a Spelljammer, so humanoids other'n halflings are kind of a shock for the boy. Don't think thar's any penguins here either, so Dohwar 're just as odd."

Eventually, Claude found the presence of mind to holster the gun he'd been pointing at the tall woman. "So... what's all this about your ship?"

"Ah, right... the Infamous Miner, an ol' ship from my space-travellin' days. I'm gettin' too old to adventure, but I'm still wantin' to see the Geonomicon 'afore I go. So... I'm offerin' y'all... well, Claude, anyway, know he wants to get off world. Anyway, I got an old terrestrial-class spelljammer an' two Geonomicon pages- one for Dollahshort here an' one for Superalaceon-5. They're yours if ya search for the rest of it."

[Rain]

"I don't really have much choice," Hotaru sheepishly admitted, springing into the air and settling down on top of Claude's head, "I pretty much used up the last of the money I had getting here, and I'm not sure how to earn it back other than by selling treasure. So... I'll come along!"

The brunette waited for a second before realising that had come out far more mercenary than she had intended, and hurriedly added on, "Besides, I like adventuring and fighting monsters and the like. It'll be fun!"

And that just made her sound unhinged.

[Vinestar]

"Hm... Right. Can I have some more information on this Geonomicon? From the sounds of it, it sounds like a powerful magic artifact?" Shifting slightly in her seat, the tall woman scrunched her back lower so that she was at least eye level with some of the people. Perhaps next time she picked a quest, she'll make sure to check out how proportional everything is.

[Krautman]

Bugeye took out a yellowed piece of paper showing a view of Dollahshort from space, as well as a cross section showing the planet and its three satellites- a flat earth world rich in iron, a small cluster of miniature suns, and a giant sphere of water. He took another sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, that sounds about right. The Geonomicon was made usin' ancient magic- stuff from the days when wizards could make new worlds with a wave 'a their hands and the like. The pages have some kind 'a enchantment on 'em that lets 'em update themselves. What's more, it ain't just a page of words- keep turnin' it over and it'll show you more an' more information. Honestly, I just wanna see it out of curiosity. But I'm sure you kids'll find plenty a' loot lookin' fer the pages."

Claude had lit a cigarette, offering one to everyone in the room as Bugeye Joe took another page and placed it next to the one for Dollahshort.

"Here's where ya should probably start, ease Claude into the whole Spelljammin' thing. This right here is Superalaceon-5, the planet farthest from the sun. Does anyone know what the word "Kaden" means?"

(Anyone who speaks Draconic, or anyone with Knowledge: Arcana can speak up.)

[Rain]

"Cloud," Hotaru piped up, folding her arms and nodding, "So it's an air planet?"

For reasons linked to her basic tuition, Hotaru's knowledge of languages was surprisingly large... but almost entirely expressed through academic tongues. Out of the languages the martial artist knew, only a handful were really much use with communicating with people: common, undercommon, and elven. The potential use of being able to communicate with pretty much any extraplanar entity was limited at best.

[Krautman]

"That's right, it's draconic. Accordin' to this, thousands of years ago, dragons had a hell of a civilization going. A' course, they're dragons, an' tore each other apart trying to get at hoards. Still, they left a lot of ol' military bases behind, with a lot of advanced stuff. Might be somethin' you can use to power the Miner's spelljammin' helm. The one it's got right now is kinda beat up, but it should work until ya can trade up."

Claude, meanwhile, was looking over the map on the Geonomicon page for Kaden.

"Hold on, old timer. Says somethin' about a security system."

Bugeye nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Yep, dragons had some pretty fancy toys back in the day. Machines that would do the work for 'em. That's what the security system is, nothin' a bounty hunter an' some professional adventurers can't handle. Should be an old receiver in there too so ya can keep in touch, or just listen in to the news."

[dblade26]

Grail grabbed the offered cigarette in his beak with a thankful nod and somehow took a long pull off of it through his kabuki-stagehand style mask, contemplating all that had been said so far.

"I do have certain goals in mind and possession of even a few pages of the Geonomicon would do a lot to get me closer to completing them, dood. I typically work alone as well but working with a group has its advantages and you all seem like far more likable people than the usual spacejammer mercenaries, dood. Even without that, my bottom line is that as long as I get a cut of whatever profits we make I'll be willing to work with the crew in whatever way i'm needed, dood. Also, will there be fish because if not I've been horribly misinformed, dood."

He somehow managed to puff out a smoke ring despite not having lips, and look irritated at the lack of fish despite his face being hidden.

[Rain]

"I don't think we're going to find any fish on an air planet," Hotaru mused, folding her arms and nodded, "But the idea of ancient dragon defence devices sounds fun! I wonder how hard it is to punch them to pieces?"

It was rather hard to believe that someone so tiny could punch anything to pieces. Some sort of demonstration might be in order... if anyone could be bothered to disbelieve her in the face of a ninja penguin and priest with a tiger.

[Krautman]

Bugeye shook his head to Grail. "I don't see a lot of fish out here in the desert. Folks on the planet ain't even figured out a teleport spell yet, so no wayfarer's guild. So, long story short, no fish." He thought for a moment, and snapped his fingers. "But, once y'all are done on Kaden, go to the ol' dwarven space station outside the sphere an' ask for Galmar Beardfist. He's an old friend o' mine, he'll help set you up with gear and some fish for the Dohwar. An' as for Kaden's security, the dragons abandoned the planet thousands 'a years ago. Shouldn't be much resistance left."

The elderly halfling pushed his chair away from the table, as did Claude. Bugeye removed a portrait of a large gnomish spelljammer from the wall and removed a small sphere of bronze from the alcove behind it.

"Here's the Infamous Miner's ol' fuel source. Used to cast Acid Orb, gave the ship some real power when it absorbed the magic. Thing is, after the crash an' without decent materials to work with, it's sorta weakened. Right now, it'll only cast Acid Splash- it'll be enough to get you to the edge of the system, but it ain't fast enough for real spelljammin'. The command phrase is 'ready for don't say this part launch.'" He tossed the sphere to Claude, who caught it easily, and began looking it over. Bugeye gave everyone an old man's grin. "Now! Who wants to see your new ship?"

[Vinestar]

A smile slowly spread across Roxy's face as she heard more about the Geonomicon. Perhaps there were miracles inscribed within those pages for the holy woman to research- and then perhaps perform. She rather liked creating miracles. It was addicting. Perhaps she could even meet Sun Wukong in person!"I hope the ship isn't as cramped as this building. I don't really work at my best hunched over like a mad alchemist's henchman, eheh."

[dblade26]

The dohwar ninja nodded thoughtfully. The lack of fish was a definite problem, but the possibility of a ship, a way to accomplish his goals and future fish were all a good bargain. "The Geonomicon will definitely be useful to me as I already said, dood. Now, I'd also like to see the ship, though rooms to stay in won't really be a problem for me."

[Krautman]

Bugeye got up and took his staff, walking out the back door. As the group followed him, he ran over a mental checklist.

"Now, she ain't much- just a ship me an' my ol' crew found floatin' in space. Didn't even have a helm 'afore I installed it. But the Infamous Miner's a good place as any to start for a new crew- a pinnace."

As the group finally exited, they'd see a long artificial lake- almost like a runway. A makeshift dock reached out to a medium-sized ship floating in this runway, a set of jaws painted on the front seeming to devour the waves. Claude looked it over. Hailing from a desert town called Gamgee Gulch, he wasn't quite familiar with ships. That might be why he didn't bat an eye at the series of pipes filling out the sterncastle.

"Quite a piece 'a work, old man."

[Rain]

"Bigger than the town I'm from," Hotaru supplied, scratching her chin and judging the height from dock to deck. Not a problem at all. Casually, and at an utterly perplexing pace given how tiny she was, the brunette human ambled down towards the boat and, like a particularly deadly and intellectual flee, jumped aboard in one smooth motion.

[dblade26]

Grail simply waddled up the gangplank just like an ordinary penguin would if ordinary penguins wore ninja outfits and had katanas strapped to their heads.

"A spelljammer this size works fine for my needs, even if I'll be providing my own rooms and accommodations, dood. Nothing personal really but I like to have familiar surroundings when i'm sleeping or meditating, dood. Anyway, provided we can get going and whatever area we stop at for supplies has sardines available, you've got yourself a ninja and whatever else you need me to be, dood."

[Krautman]

The deck of the ship was surprisingly clean, with its barrels tied down and the masts ready for sailing. A hatch led belowdecks, and the sterncastle had two large windows showing the ship's helm- a kind that seemed more at home in a museum than on a working ship. However, it was polished to a shine, with a compartment for the sphere they'd been given built into it. A quick look belowdecks would show a larder at the bow, with a few hammocks hanging from the sides. At the back, there was another storeroom, with an empty chest and a ring of keys next to it. Claude also made his way up, while Bugeye was describing the peculiarities of the ship.

"The Miner's helm is pretty old. Been in the crew I used to work for for generations before they switched it out, captain was a lich you see. Name 'a Captain Redwind. Thing is, he eventually disbanded the crew an' let us take what we wanted. I got the Miner, one 'a the shuttles we used on board the Eye of The Storm, an' a map of some planet. Map turned out to be Kaden's Geonomicon page, but this was 'afore anyone knew that pieces of it still survived."

[Vinestar]

The cleric dutifully followed the others on to the ship, appraising it with her eye. Behind her padded Hobbes, who gave the air a sniff before slinking off towards a suitable napping spot. Though old, it was functional and ideal. When you were a part of a religious order, you looked for practicality over looks. Much like how simple bludgeons worked much better than the fancy gilded stuff for bashing heads in, really.

[Rain]

"Ooh, nice," the tiny girl said, rushing around and examining the ship at high speed before returning to the group and hopping up onto the cleric's head, sitting there, "So... when do we leave?"

[Krautman]

Bugeye waved his staff a bit.

"After you whippersnappers quit yer jawin'! Or, really, whenever y'all want. Remember- I reckon Kaden'll have some of what ya need fer yer travels! As fer me... gotta get ready ta introduce the townsfolk when the inevitable diplomats get here."

[dblade26]

"I'm ready to start on this adventure if everyone else is, dood." said the ninja penguin "The sooner we get started the sooner I can get fish and then focus on work, dood."

[Vinestar]

Taking out a metal clad tome scrubbed so much that it acted as a sort of mirror, Roxy held it up the holy book in front of her to see the tiny person sitting on her head. (The clergy of Sun Wukong were taught to be rather practical and openminded). Idly, the cleric raised a finger and began to attempt to pet the miniature being with it gently. She had stroked plenty of small birds before, so she used that principle.

[Rain]

"H-Hey!" Hotaru protested, pouting as the girl patted her head. She guessed it was sort of fair, given that she'd chosen to sit on the cleric's head, but that didn't mean that the seemingly giant hand reaching from nowhere wasn't, you know, really disturbing.

[Krautman]

As everyone boarded the ship, Claude looked at the strange orb and the sterncastle, opening the door. At the back of the room, the helm sat, resembling a large furnace made of cast iron. However, the material was a good bit more durable, being Pure Ore from the plane of earth. He walked forward, moving the door aside and placing the ball inside. It soon began floating, and a gentle whine could be heard as the water behind the ship became frothy. Small animals behind the ship began ducking underground.

"So, what did he say made the ship go? Ready for... Launch?"

At this, stuff happened. The engine roared to life, and the Miner made its way to the end of the lake serving as a runway in seconds, skipping along the surface. The ship's keel scraped against the mud at the end of the lake. But now, the Infamous Miner was airborne.

As they passed over a small town, high above the ground, the townsfolk looked up in awe. This was the first time they'd ever seen a Spelljammer. The awe was brief though, as soon they were leaving the planet's atmosphere, a cloud catching in their air bubble, the painted maw of the ship first to leave the world. Claude was tightly gripping onto a handle, having never travelled so quickly before. The halfling was laughing heartily though as the ship passed by the tiny suns orbiting the planet.

"Holy crap! That was awesome!"

Continuing to laugh, Claude took the Geonomicon pages downstairs and locked them in the chest, giving one of the keys to it to the Dohwar and Cleric as well. It would be a while yet before they made planetfall, so Claude set to cleaning his guns to pass the time. This included a pistol almost as big as Roxy's arm and an arquebus.

---

Kaden's Third moon

The habitable moon of the farthest planet from the star Superalaceon was a snowy mess. The trees were barren, the snow so thick it would be above the heads of both the Dohwar and the Halfling. And it was still building up. As they came down, they could see a Dancing Lights spell cast over what seemed to be a runway for nautical ships, although frozen over. There was a distant flash as a wizard wrapped in thick cloaks brought his staff down and shattered the ice over the lake into manageable chunks. He waved down the ship, which slowly brought itself in. As the Miner landed, the wizard moved down the cloaks to speak to the crew.

"How 'bout this weather, eh? Just follow the river, it'll take you to the the settlement."

[dblade26]

Gazing at the huge snowdrifts and frozen river outside, Grail Tsunami felt his penguin-y heart fill with a sense of instinctive, nostalgic wonderment and joy.

"I'll go umm...scout out the terrain and let the people in the settlement know we're coming, dood. For I move swift as the night wind, leaving nothing to mark my passage save for whispered rumors as is true of all ninja, dood."

As soon as his serious sounding speech was over he practically dived out of the ship and into the icy river, slipping around on the ice, sliding into snowbanks on his belly and flopping into the river to swim around underneath the chilly water only to emerge and barrel happily into the snow again, rolling around and not even bothering to suppress the occasional gleeful cry of "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dood!" as he frolicked in the general direction of the settlement like a small penguin-child on holiday.

[Rain]

Roxy was probably feeling rather uncomfortable as they came in to land: Hotaru had taken one look at the temperature, then dived for warmer climes. This meant that the cleric had to deal with a tiny girl staying inside her clothing where it was much cosier, though she had apparently settled quite cheerfully around her collarbone. It was a bit cramped but ''much'' better than having to deal with the temperature in what amounted to a tiny layer of cotton.

[Vinestar]

Roxy herself was attempting to do pious training and align her inner self with the universe and other stuff along those lines. For a brief moment, she thought she had it. Turned out she had just fallen asleep after boring herself. Feeling movement somewhere near her chest, the cleric glanced down and saw the tiny girl camping out in the folds of her clothing. It was cute enough to make the woman consider sewing a special padded pocket for the tiny specimen's comfort.

[Krautman]

The wizard waved to the group as Claude worked the helm to send the ship forward into the river. The river flowed down at a gentle slope, and into a dark tunnel. Eventually, the tunnel opened up into a tremendous cavern, lit by many torches, clearly carved out long ago for something much larger than a human. This was fortunate, as there was a tremendous bazaar where merchants of various races were hocking their wares, and behind them a sizeable inn. There were docks at the end, a landing pad for proper spelljammers off to another side. A warforged raised a gangplank for those on board to come down before getting too mooring the ship. A gnome at the dock had a stack of paperwork ready as he waved, lighting torches on their dock. After taking the fare for docking, he greeted the crew properly.

"Hullo hullo! Welcome to Kaden. Joseph of Yorworld, that is, Bugeye Joe, sent word about transferring ownership of his vessel. I... assumed it would be bigger, honestly. Nevertheless, despite his word, there's some paperwork you need to fill out for joint ownership, I'll leave that to you. Head on down to The Sword and Sword and discuss everything you need to. I'd also recommend the bazaar for outfitting your ship properly for long travel."