Caelesti's notes

Date

3/16/2006

Log

The party located the object that they saw fall from the sky. It looked like a large egg with a strange-textured shell. There was a hole in the shell, and a plate on the ground that could have covered the hole. The ground in front of the hole was withered and smelled acrid. Carric cast Detect Magic on the "egg" which radiated slightly. He then searched the area outside the egg and found a large bird-like track, like it had just stepped out of the egg.

Talon stepped into the withered grass and looked into the egg. It was dark inside, but she could see wads of webbing dripping with slime. Carric, possessing darkvision, stepped up and looked inside as well. It looked a little spooky, so he tossed in a Sun Rod. Having gained some courage, Carric stepped inside. He examined the webbing and even tried to cut it, but couldn't. He stepped in farther and noticed unfamiliar runes on a small panel. Carric cast another Detect Magic inside and got the same reading. Carric spent some time sketching the runes.

While Carric was sketching, Talon pulled out the wine, sharing it with Siobhan. Caelesti climbed up on top of the egg, because she could. Yoshi simply stood, not unexpected for a monk.

When Carric finished sketching, he left the egg to look for more tracks. Siobhan and Talon started singing to inspire him, or simply to sing. Caelesti, who was inspired, started dancing atop the egg. Perhaps he was distracted, but he found no additional tracks. Or maybe the creature flew away.

Carric explained to the others that he believed the egg was a craft that transported a creature from space. He then went to find some local animal resident and question it about the creature. Carric located a woodchuck and cast Speak with Animals. The woodchuck appeared friendly, but knew very little. Carric asked Tan-Kuran to fly about and look for owl nests or other nocturnal creatures, while he continued talking with nearby critters. Nothing else was learned.

Carric wanted to wait until nightfall and query the nocturnal animals. Since it was still morning, the party looked for things to do. Carric said he wanted to press some of the runes to see if they were buttons that might activate something. Caelesti decided to climb down and move away from the craft while people experimented with it. Talon cast Unseen Servant to press the buttons so that nobody had to risk being whisked off into space. The buttons did depress, but the craft did nothing.

While the rest of the party partied, letting the day just pass by, Yoshi took the craft's hatch and hid it some distance away.

Time passed. At dusk, the party laid out bedrolls since it was a pleasant evening. Carric, meanwhile, was out looking for animals to question. He found a fox that had been in the area when the craft landed. The fox had seen a strange bright light, heard the loud crash, and saw the creature that came out. The creature was about human-sized and wore some sort of clothes, though clearly not shoes (the foot print was a taloned foot).

The party set up watches for the night. Carric and Siobhan were to take first watch, followed by Talon and Caelesti, and then Yoshi. During first watch, Carric heard rustling, which was followed up by an arrow whizzing over his head. Carric called out to wake the others ...

Talon's notes

Date

3/16/2006

Log

We came upon the Hill of my dreams, in search of the squashed cow of my dreams.

But the cow pancake must have been eaten, because it was no longer there. Instead, just a large, egg-shaped object covered in something resembling tree roots. Personally, I never saw such a thing fall from the sky. And the tale I heard (and the dream I had) was of a flaming meteor, not an egg. But the boys seemed to think this was the object that fell from the Bane Moon, so I went along with them.

There was a hole in the egg, matching the dimensions of a circular disc, we found was separate and lying on the grass. The grass was withered in a circle and reeked of rotten egg vomit. Blech!

Carric, Siobhan's young sex pup, fumbled about with a Detect Magic spell and declared that the egg was faintly radiating an aura, but could not determine the type.

I was concerned that we were marking up the ground. "Shouldn't we stand aside so Carric can look for tracks?" I said. Carric agreed. Siobhan and I sang and played music to boost Carric's tracking. To get out of the way, Caelesti climbed on top of the egg and danced in time to our tune. Unfortunately, Calesti's gyrations distracted Carric a good deal. Though he did eventually manage to find one print - from a man-sized, bird-shaped foot. Very curious, we all thought! Very intriguing. We speculated as to whether it was a pure bird creature or more of a lizard-bird - apparently coming from the Dark Moon and all.

I was the first to attempt the inside of the egg, but it was full of webbing, so I backed out and Carric (being stronger) took over. I gave Carric one of my Sunrods for illumination. It was then that Carric found a series of strange runes - none of us could translate. He theorized, I think correctly, that the runes form the transportation control panel of the egg. I conjured up an Unseen Servant to test the runes. They depressed, but with no visible results.

"We need to show those to the priests at my temple," Yoshi said. "This could be very important!" So Carric sketched the runes.

Then I suggested we hide the portal covering so that the Mysterious Bane Creature - could not return again in the egg. The party very sensibly agreed. Yoshi went off down the hill to hide/bury the portal covering - which proved surprising lightweight!

Carric was eager to interrogate small furry animals about the egg. He and his eagle spent an inordinate amount of time in search of such creatures. We girls were getting bored. So I opened my knapsack and spread out a picnic blanket with flasks of cinnamon-spiced wine, nuts and dried fruits. We girls made quite a party of it! We invited Yoshi to join in our festivities when he returned from hiding the disc, but he chose to stand guard instead. Very silly!

Carric finally found a woodchuck to talk to. I'll call the woodchuck "Chippy" for the sake of my tale. "Chippy" did recall a great noise in the night and popped his head out briefly, but couldn't see well in the dark. Chippy went into great detail about the hole he lives in and the necessity of keeping one's head down, especially around foxes. Carric gave Chippy additonal nuts, but received no additional information for his generosity. Chippy's last words were for Carric to be on the look out for Chippy's missing Auntie.

Carric then said he wanted to hang out and wait for nightfall in order to interview some small furry, nocturnal creatures. We were all having a good time partying, so we agreed!

The sun set and Carric spied a fox. Carric did his Speak with Animals thing, translated for us, and Mister Foxy opened right up. "Have you seen my Missus? She's quite the looker, isn't she?" "Yes, a real Vixen," agreed Carric. "I have a fine burrow here-abouts. Me and the Missus do quite well. She's really something, isn't she? Got any food to share?"

"Tell him we know where he can find a tasty woodchuck," I said, but Carric ignored this and fed the beast from our rations.

Foxy told Carric, "Yeah, I saw it land. Big, tall thing got out. Smelled real bad!"

"Did it look like us?" asked Carric.

"No. Yes. No. I didn't stick around when I saw it!"

"But was it our size?" Carric pressed.

"Yup, about that tall. With- with- what do you call that clinging stuff - clothes?"

Carric, "Oh, it wore clothes? And did it have a round head like ours?"

"Yap, yap, yap." The spell ran out. Carric tossed Foxy a last treat and Foxy ran away.

We decided it was time to set up watches. "Who's got a tent?" asked Caelesti. Apparently, their previous companion, Nessey-something had a tent she used to share with Caelesti. I told Caelesti, "I sleep under the stars with my *private* silk bedroll, cloud pillow, and stuffed baby dragon, thank you."

Caelesti seemed a bit dejected at this, but soon stripped naked and plopped herself down in the cleaner area of grass.

Carric encouraged the rest of us to go to sleep right away, so he could "stay up" alone "on watch" with Siobhan. "Why don't we cuddle up and watch over each other's shoulders" he suggested to Siobhan.

Siobhan and I exchanged knowing looks. "I think Carric would like to lie on his back and keep watch on the stars." I said, with a wink. Siobhan sighed. "Carric's so young," she said.

"But always happy to learn from an older, more experienced woman!" Carric told her.

"You two better really keep watch," Yoshi said, very seriously.

Siobhan nodded and moved a safe distance away from Carric.

Then I rolled over and went to sleep.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

-Talon the Bard