![[BtS-52-1.png]] We quickly made our way to the bridge, opening the door to find a room full of anxiously expectant admirals (and [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Handler]]). It took some time, but we explained the full details of the encounter which everyone seemed fairly happy about. Once we were done retelling [[Claude Berezina|Claude]] explained that all we could do now is wait, which everyone agrees with. When calling out the confusion around the [[Spatiotemporal Shift Induced Interplanar Leyline Oscillation|SSIILO]], [[Nissetass]] piped up that the from all calculations there should not be any massive time difference. I think it's possible that due to [[The Stormwall]] the [[Spatiotemporal Shift Induced Interplanar Leyline Oscillation|SSIILO]] affected [[The Ring]] later than most of the other places on the planet. Technically speaking the leylines had stabilized in [[Zothar]] by the time we were leaving on [[Zarkisiss the Sailing City|Zarkisiss]], but with the amount of turmoil in the nation it was basically impossible for us to fix our magic to properly adjust for what had happened. I still think there is something we are missing about the entire situation, though I'm sure we'll work it out eventually. With our report on the situation over we were dismissed, though allowed to stay on the bridge should we have anything more to discuss. Upon asking, it seems like we will need only 1-2 more weeks before we are able to setup communication with [[The Ring]] which is good news. It seems that when the [[Corinau]] delegation comes to [[The Horizon Project|the Fleet]], [[Ex Nihilo|Group 13]] will be present at the meeting with them. I'm quite happy with this information, and considering I was already planning on doing a bunch of language learning, hopefully I'm able to tack on their language. This will take quite a bit of time, as it is unlikely they will bring language learning material with them on their first delegation, however we will see how things go. I stuck around for a bit to gauge the admirals' responses to the situation. [[Rivera]], [[Avhoste]], and [[Merrigold]] were all talking to each other about the maneuvers performed and the naval portion of the combat. They seem excited about the situation, which I think is a good thing. [[Rauchster]] and [[Gorgrun]] also seem to be excited about this civilisation, although for a different reason. They were in a deep conversation about steam engines and how to make magical versions of them for greater effect. It seems as though they might be making some really interesting breakthroughs in the near future. As we left the central tower, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] decided to head off the galley to spend some time alone, which I found odd. I think [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] followed him, but they haven't come back yet so I assume everything is fine. All things considered they are probably both getting a drink, with [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] calling [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] an alcoholic for breaking into the galley which is definitely closed at 2 am. > [!Recap Note] > [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] went to study the staff in the galley. While the two of them did end up having drinks together, it only happened after [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] was caught sneaking up on [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]. The stolen staff was revealed, and ended up just being a +1 staff of fairly high quality. This wasn't revealed to the rest of the [[Ex Nihilo|group]], who still don't know [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] took it. --- Abadius 16th, 2430AS Things felt a little odd this morning if I'm being honest. Last night was the first time since going through [[The Stormwall]] that we had heavily exerted ourselves, and it feels now as if there is more power available than there was before. This clearly manifested in me as I had grown my ninth tail, showing just how far I had come from the three I had when I met these lively idiots. I figured that I should start looking into what powers might have developed, as I can feel some oddities in my shoulders that aren't just from sleeping in an odd position. I can also tell that my sword has some additional magic now available inside it, so more sylvan calligraphy translation was in order. Given that I expected the day to be calm, I decided to focus on learning Celestial instead of rushing to try and become more combat effective. Before heading off, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] decided to try and cast sending back to [[Arcanist Thugi|Thugi]]. I have no idea why he would try this, especially considering the fact that there is an entire team dedicated to figuring out how to do it and they say it will take weeks. I guess he was just looking to try and do something with newfound powers, because I'm pretty sure he didn't have the magical energy to cast that before today. As expected this was a dumb plan and instead of reaching [[Arcanist Thugi|Thugi]] he got a response from some demon or devil. The response was also extremely hostile, with the creature wanting to know what [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] had "escaped" from, as he mentioned escaping [[The Stormwall]] in his message. [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] called him an idiot for this entire thing, apparently earning her a flick in the ear. [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] wasn't going to just take that, and she quickly asked me to let her show me something. She motioned for me to pick her up, and as I did so she shrunk to the size of a tiny rat! She then whispered in my ear, asking me to put her inside [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s clothes. I obliged, swiftly dropping her down his back and walking away. I soon heard a commotion as [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] apparently bit the bottom of his spine, causing [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] to try a bunch of different magical methods to get her off. Both time jumping and dimension door did not do the trick, but he eventually managed to get her out by force. It was entertaining to say the least. ![[BtS-52-2.png]] I went down to the library, with members of the [[Ex Nihilo|group]] occasionally coming around to check on me. They came around once to confirm some purchases with me, and as things have shaken down it looks like I'm not going to get any magical items until our next payment. Honestly this is fine with me, I'll just make sure the next purchase is a nice big spend. Notably both [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Badda]] are getting tattoos, with [[Badda]]'s hopefully allowing them to eventually turn more into a dragon. I can't say I agree with that sentiment, but as long as they are happy with their choices it doesn't really matter to me. Around midday there was an announcement from [[Claude Berezina|Claude]], informing the fleet that a diplomatic solution had been reached with the new nation and that a delegation would be sent to the fleet soon. There was a bit of cheering, but not much else changed as expected. It was around then that [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] came around to ask if I wanted to sneak around to [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]]. I immediately declined this offer, as it was an absurdly stupid plan considering we were already told to wait for the opening [[Varr]] and [[Aureon]] would make us. Why take such a risk when a perfectly good opportunity was about to become available? He seemed to understand this, but it was obvious that he was bored with nothing to do. He randomly sent to [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Handler]] to inform her of his earlier sending attempt, to which she immediately replied that he now needs guards. Apparently the last person who did that had a demon show up and attack them. Towards the end of the day I began to work on my sword, trying to uncover what new abilities it might hold. I still can't make out the entirety of the text, however I can see more of it now. The inscription now reads > A blade gifted through millennia to ███ █████. Who will stab ██ ██ ████ █ ███ from within The new text didn't make much sense at first, but it was clear from the "stab" part that I would need to test it out against an enemy. I went to the back of the ship to test against some dummies, finding [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]], [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]], [[Gorgrun]], and [[Rauchster]] all in the area. [[Gorgrun]] and [[Rauchster]] were working on a new steam powered disk thrower, and [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] were testing it out. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] used some new tactics to combine a glue bullet and an alchemists fire in the same shot, yielding a surprisingly deadly fire glue which I definitely never want to be hit with. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]]'s guns also seem to have additional power just as my sword does, and from [[Andrii Khareno Roi|Andrii]]'s explanation they apparently do additional damage to evil things. This lead to [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] hanging around [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] in hopes that a demon would appear, although one unfortunately never did. He did mention shooting a particularly evil looking seagull and seeing it's affects though. As for my weapon I first went up to a dummy, focusing more energy than normal into a strike. This strike occurred normally, although things still felt a little odd the moment I struck, as though my blade reached further than it should have. I took a step back and did the same thing again, uncovering that I can perform a limited range teleportation! Further investigation uncovered that this teleportation is only possible from shadow to shadow, and when not travelling the entire way through shadow I can only go 30 feet. I can go a full 60 feet if the entire path is in shadow though, an impressive ability considering I can use it approximately once every half minute. Wanting to find out more, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]], [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]], and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] went to the workshop where [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]], [[Wilborin|Wil]], [[Arkai]], and [[Badda]] were working on their magical items. As it turns out I am capable of going through windows with this ability, although it is important to note that someone paying attention would probably see the odd movement of the shadows. It's still an extremely useful tool to say the least. After scaring [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] a bit with it I checked up what she was crafting, an invisibility rune for her armour to turn invisible with. As for the other two, it turns out that [[Wilborin|Wil]] should now be able to spread out some of his excess healing to a secondary person, a useful tool for when he doesn't want to use a massive healing wave that might help our enemies more than us. [[Badda]] spent some time also upgrading their gun, which is now capable of shooting fire which is impressive to say the least. It also has a dragon's mouth at the tip now, a nice aesthetic touch I guess. ![[BtS-52-3.png]] --- Abadius 19th, 2430AS The past few days have been fairly calm, everyone just working on the tasks they had designated for themselves. Today was different however, as we awoke to the classic letter under the door from [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Handler]]. A "structural integrity issue" had appeared on [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]], and we were being assigned to go and fix it. Knowing exactly what this actually meant we headed to the docks, quickly rushing over to "help". Once on board we were met by [[Aureon]] who took us down into the bowels of the ship, not before subtly nodding towards [[Iris]]' room as we passed by. We were taken four levels down to the very bottom of the ship where the majority of the storage seems to be. Some crates had been moved to the side to reveal some damage in the form of erosion and rotted wood supposedly caused by the negative energy plane. We quickly decided that [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] would go invisible to sneak over to [[Iris]]' room while the rest of the [[Ex Nihilo|group]] repaired the ship. Before leaving, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] linked all of us with a telepathic bond to make sure we all could keep in touch in case further assistance was needed. [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] then made our way up the stairs as quietly as we could, although I was having a somewhat difficult time doing so. I couldn't shake the feeling of having my tails despite always hiding them while on [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]]. I made a bunch of creaks on the way up the stairs alerting some of the crew, but instead of thinking that someone was sneaking around invisibly, which I doubt would ever cross their minds, they believed the ship was falling apart and became incredibly worried. By the time we made it up to [[Iris]]'s room we found her right outside her door, speaking to a couple kobolds and a tiefling about the concerns of the ship breaking down. With the entrance into her room blocked, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] wanted to use a new spell to put an invisible eye in her room, but he was going to make some noise while doing so. To hide the sounds I moved back over to the stairs, intentionally causing a terrible squeak which sent the Kobolds into a frenzy. The spell went off without a hitch, but unfortunately [[Iris]] was using a rug to cover over her ritual circle. We used the telepathic bond to ask for some help from downstairs, explaining the situation and that we needed someone to pull [[Iris]] downstairs for a bit. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] was up to the task, coming up and explaining that [[Iris]] should come down so they could properly explain the damages. She agreed, though likely only to appease the kobolds still going crazy over the sounds. Once downstairs [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] was able to delay her return with an overly complicated explanation, giving us a good amount of time to break into the room. [[Iris]] didn't lock the door when she left, making the whole process fairly simple. Once we got inside both [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] decided to do a once over with detect magic. Unfortunately we probably should have done so earlier, as the abjuration on the door was probably an alarm spell. There was apparently no visible reaction to this from [[Iris]] down with the rest of [[Ex Nihilo|the group]], so we continued with our task. The rug was carefully pushed to the side, and both of us began to quickly copy down the circle. As soon as we were done and confident with the results, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] used dimension door to put himself out in the water and then become visible. This gave me a shadow for my relic to use, allowing me to also teleport out the window. Now out in the water I used the potion of waterbreathing on my belt to go down and inspect the hull from the outside, making sure that the damage hadn't gone all the way through. which it hadn't. I spent a couple minutes down there before coming back up, thinking that would be enough to make it convincing. Once I was ready to go, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] offered to use the fly spell on me, but I had other plans. Focusing on the new feeling in my back I was able to cause wings to sprout, something I had been hoping I would one day be able to do. It was also the perfect tool for drawing away any possible attention [[Iris]] would have been paying to her room, as in [[Zothar]] these wings are considered an incredible mark from the ancestors. I made my way back on board [[The Horizon Project#The Hope Seeker|the Hope Seeker]], spotting both [[Iris]] and [[Varr]] staring at the wings with both surprise and admiration. It was around then that the rest of [[Ex Nihilo|the group]] came back to the top deck, and as such [[Iris]] came over to thank us for the work and send us on our way. She did ask to touch my wings, then speaking about the blessedness of them while clearly in a bit of awe. I couldn't have asked for a better potential distraction. With our job done we boarded the small rowboat and began to head back to [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the Sthira]], with [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] beginning to compare notes on our way over. >[!Recap Note] >This session's title is a reference to the hit song from Bad Lip Reading, "Seagulls (Stop it now)". > [!Recap Note] > Thanks [[Rondogbot]] ([[Wilborin|Wil]]'s player) for the memes for this session. [[Aidan]] was out of town and thus a little out of it for this session.