Of Blue Skinned Merchants and Market Detectors

The order stayed in Sellah for the remainder of the week, resting and waiting for Markas to return. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only party member attracting attention from the higher ups. Vixi had been out at the same cliffs I frequented. While she was meditation with her pact partner, the little fey asked Vixi if she was happy. Vixi replied that things were good but no, she wasn’t completely happy and proceeded to tell the fey how much she missed her adoptive family. And she explained just how much she missed the sword lessons given by her adopted, paladin father and just using a sword in general. Magic was fun and interesting and made her feel closer to her birth mother. But in battle, magic lacked a certain oomph. The fey sprite offered to blend her essence into any sword of Vixi’s choosing. That way Vixi could get the drive she wanted in battle while she retained the magics she used to feel close to her mother.

Yvala avoided me for the first two days after I found her with my diary. She actually seemed ashamed of using it, or at least that’s the impression I got when she apologized to me. I accepted, grudgingly because I was still pretty pissed about the situation. As I got up to leave, she said “Look Tavia, I know I pushed you too far, but please don’t close yourself up again.” What she said got me thinking, and I probably would have pondered it all day, if Markas hadn’t returned.

It had been just over a week since Markas had left Sellah. He was different, filled with a drive that he had been missing before. He told us of the odd behavior of the shadar-kai and that he had been contacted for an audience in the Shadowfell. He didn’t know for sure what it was about, but he was sure it would be important. At the very least he thought it unlikely that he would continue traveling with us. He apologized for leaving but insisted that it was his duty to go and left as quickly as possible once he said his goodbyes.

Nor would Karel continue traveling with us. Some of the council elders had worked with Far Plane portals in their youth, and with luck they would be able to close the one on Trion. Karel bid us a much fonder farewell than Markas, saying that we had all made fine travelmates and that it was a shame none of us were dragonborn, as we were such fine warriors. He said that he would readily join us with our quest, were he given permission to do so by his mother.

So it was that we left Sellah a party of five – Kyri, Yvala, Vixi, Kalena, and myself. Five girls up against the world and still searching for a way to save Perinor. I’m not sure who should be more worried; us or the world.

The elves and eladrin invited us to stay, but there wasn’t much for us to do other than helping with the skirmishes with the local drow. As doing so wouldn’t help our mission, we politely declined. Nonetheless, they showered us with gifts, including a dress of chain that felt light as silk when worn. I accepted it to replace my well-worn armor.
We returned to the Southern Stream with no good idea of where to sail next. Most of our original options had been investigated and found to be in worse shape that Perinor. As we had acquired a healthy amount of cash from our travels, a trip back to Aurincia seemed like the most reasonable thing to do. Not only could we check in with the counsel, but we would be also to replace some of our worn gear with upgraded equipment.

We had no sooner set foot on the ship when a swirling silver portal appeared. When it subsided, a gypsy wagon stood on deck. It was painted with large gaudy glyphs in a variety of colors. Instead of horses, the wagon was pulled by three creatures that looked like panthers made entirely out of sharp blades. Seated at the reins was a blue humanoid dressed in black silks and festooned with jewelry. Even seated I could tell he was tall. “Hello!” he cried out as he climbed down, jewelry clanking.

“Well, well. It’s been quite some time since Tierro’s been to the World. Yes, yes a very long time indeed. Far too expensive of a trip to make when one expects little return. But the market detector is never wrong and it has led me here so here Tierro is. I am Tierro the Trader. If you have gold to spend, Tierro’s the mercane to buy from. Best deals on any plane and he always gives you the true value on any item.”

Yvala grinned manically at the trader’s appearance and the rest of us looked at each other with more than a little excitement. Afterall, we’d just been talking about the items we each needed to replace. Kalena, however, wasn’t just going to take this guy for his word. In the course of our travels, Kalena had become our accountant and overall treasure keeper. It made sense, seeing as how much of our collective wealth was in ritual components. It turns out that she’s pretty stingy though when it comes to purchasing. She also has to get the best deal. Kalena walked right up to Tierro, put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot on the deck before asking, “And just how do we know you’re giving us the best deal? It’s not like there is anyone here to compete with.”

Though the mercane stood nearly two heads taller than our slight wizard, he looked plenty cowed by her questioning. Maybe Kalena’s glare held a bit of that gleam she gets when she’s about to fireball someone – it scares me. Tierro clutched his hands to his chest and exclaimed, “My dear woman, Tierro would never swindle such fine ladies as you. But to calm your fears, he will show you his methods.” He threw an arm around Kalena’s thin shoulders and drew her toward his cart. From the seat he pulled two melon-sized glass globes. One had a blue glow and showed a close-up of the coastline of Danaria with a flashing dot, most likely indicating our current position aboard the Southern Stream. The other had creamy clouds that swirled about the interior. He held up the first and said, “This is my market detector. It notifies me of the exact location of any persons in need of Tierro’s services.” He held up the other and said, “This is my universal appraiser. It determines the value of any weapon, piece of armor, potion, piece de’ arte, and even the value of information. Both were crafted by the goddess Erathis and how they came into Tierro’s possession is a very amusing story. But it can be told after matters of trade have been attended to.”

A couple of things were of utmost importance. First, a new set of hide armor for Vixi since she would now be doing most of the protection for the party. Upgraded robes for Kalena were the second purchase. Our third purchase was an upgraded crossbow for Yvala since we relied so heavily upon it for sneak attacks. All the items were brought out by Tierro’s three beautiful assistants-Gamma, Sigma, and Zeta. All three had the most flawless alabaster skin and wore silk purple chintons.

Most of what we had to sell was of low level and median quality. In other words, it wasn’t worth very much. We put the value toward the purchase of our new items. While we eyed some of the more extravagant items Tierro had, Yvala elbowed me. “Hey, the orb pays for information,” she said. “Tell him about your travels. That’s got to be worth a couple hundred gold.”

“Why me? Kyri’s probably got a better grip on the whole thing,” I replied.

“Because you’re the one that just got blessed by her god and turned into a storyteller. Just go on,” she said, shooing me forward toward the mercane.

I sighed but realized that she had a valid point. “If your orb pays for information,” I told the merchant, “then I think it will have a keen interest in what I can tell you about the state of the world.” I began with our meeting in the tavern and the sack of Aurincia. I wove the tale through meeting Yvala in Vertinia and how we stopped Tiamat’s duality with Vecna by restoring Zariel to power. But the time I got to our meeting with the gold dragonborn on the isle of Trion, I noticed how easily the tale was flowing from my lips. When I finished retelling our adventures on I’wakanaan and Danaria, I could see that the entire ship was sitting about the deck listening to me speak.

When I had finished, Tierro began to consult the universal appraiser about the price of my story. Before I could think much about the audience I had acquired, the universal appraiser changed. Black clouds now swirled about the inside and I could just barely make out the figure of a woman in a blindfold and gold chinton. When she spoke, her voice was warm yet firm and commanding. “Tierro,” she said, “I am calling in my marker.”

“But my lady, I am in the middle of a transaction,” Tierro stuttered.

“I know Tierro, I have been listening. The story these travelers have told is intriguing and there is much that I wish to know more about. I want them brought to Hestavar at once so that I may question them personally.”

“But, my lady, the cost is too high and they would not fit into my wagon.”

“So use the ship. I trust you know how to prepare it, and the vessel will make traversing the Astral Sea far less tedious,” she paused and her voice grew a little harder, “I am calling in my price Tierro.”

Tierro bowed deeply. “Yes, my lady. They will be there by tomorrow.”

She nodded and the cloudy interior of the orb returned to its normal cream color. Tierro stood and signaled to his assistants. “Gamma, gather the pigments to make the paints. Sigma, pass out brushed and bowls. Zeta, get the spelljammer helm and meet me on the quarterdeck.” The assistants rushed to their tasks and Tierro turned to the rest of us.

“We’ll be plane shifting the entire ship and all souls on board. To do that, the sails and hull need to be painted with glyphs with the correct symbols.” The party indicated what we could each do to help, from missing paints to dictating symbols to climbing through the rigging to paint the glyphs. As I had knowledge of both the symbols and familiarity with sailing, I volunteered to prepare the topmost sails. By the time I returned to the deck, the work on the rest of the ship had been nearly completed.

Tierro stood up at the helm, chanting a spell. First the spelljammer affixed to our helm began to glow, then it began to spin. The glyphs began to shimmer and glow, starting with the ones closest to the helm and spreading outward. “Everyone grab hold of the ship!” Tierro shouted over the rising din. I caught a final glimpse of the shore as I grabbed the railing and gasped when I saw it had color-shifted into the blue range. I shut my eyes and felt my chest tighten as if a giant tentacle had been wrapped around it. After a few seconds there was a pop, like a cork pulled from a wine bottle and the pressure released. I opened my eyes, but to my dismay I saw the coastline of Danaria.

But we plane shifted. I know we did, I felt it. I thought. Up at the helm Tierro was swearing up a storm and cursing every god he could think of. I glanced back at the shore and noticed that instead of the healthy greens and rich browns of the real Danarian coastline, all I saw was shades of grey. That’s why he’s swearing, I thought to myself, we shifted into the Shadowfell.

Kalena grabbed my arm as she hurried up to the quarterdeck. Tierro had calmed down enough to tell us, “Something went wrong. Probably a glyph out of place or painted in the wrong color or it was drawn wrong altogether. Gods but this is why I didn’t want to be the one to have to bring you to her.” He sighed and looked up at the blank sails and sighed again. For a second he looked as if he would start ranting again, but thought better of it. “You’ll have to go ashore and get more plants for the pigments. That run used most of what I had.”

Kyri was all no nonsense about the whole situation. “I want a Hunter’s Headband to use when we go foraging and a list of all the herbs and pigments we need to find.”
“Yes, yes. I have one of those. Sigma, go get the Hunter’s Headband out of the cart. As for herbs, we need Goldthorn, Lady’s Slipper, Mireblood, Calf Thistle, and Bachelor’s Blue Button. We need red clay and mica as well.”

If looking at the grey coast had been slightly unnerving, walking on it was even more so. It felt like someone was watching over your shoulder, yet when you turned there wasn’t a soul in sight. The forest was also was devoid of any sort of bird or woodland creature.

“The faster we get out of here, the better,” Yvala said with a shudder.

“I think I’m starting to agree with you again,” I replied.

Further conversation between the two of us was cut off by the sounds of crashing up ahead. A quartet of zombies under the control of an Orcus cultist broke through the underbrush. “Devour the brains of the unbelievers!” he shouted. The zombies rushed forward.

I tried to hook onto the threads of divine power that would call up the hot winds that turned undead, but they slipped through my fingers like spider’s silk. Sigfrida’s swap of my powers less than a week ago had all but erased the divine connections needed to perform such a powerful spell. “Fine time to be unable to turn zombies,” I muttered aloud to myself, hoping that any annoying valkyrie watching me would have heard it. I sliced through the decaying flesh with my new sword and as I did, I noticed that the martial stores I had been imparted with offered up new moves and tactics that I never would have noticed before. And the arcane rivers of power provided me with means to capitalize on the openings my enemies left. A distant enemy could be pulled closer. An extra flick of my wrist and a whisper could stun an enemy and send him stumbling back into a waiting Vixi or Yvala. I was so caught up with exploring my new powers that I didn’t noticed that the fight had finished.

Yvala was ecstatic with the thought of me sliding enemies toward her in the future. “It totally makes up for you not being able to turn them anymore,” she gushed. “I mean, you’ll be able to do it to more than just undead. And that means more stabbing for me!” Her gleeful laughter at the last statement was so infectious that I stated laughing. And once I stared, Kalena and Vixi joined in. We only stopped when Kyri reminded us that we had a job we were supposed to be doing and that we were in the Shadowfell. The last part shut us up pretty quickly.

Kyri was easily able to find the plants and clays Tierro needed to make the glyphing paints. She is, afterall, an elf – and a ranger to boot. The rest of us were there to carry the supplies and as protection.

We returned to the ship without another attack and set to work pounding the plants into pigments and mixing paints. This time, after all the painting had been completed, it was double checked by someone who hadn’t worked on that particular area. Tierro resumed his place at the spelljammer on the helm and began the ritual anew. As we had gathered more than enough pigments, Tierro recommended that we first plane shift back into the world rather than attempting to calibrate a plane shift from the Shadowfell to the Astral Sea. Not wanting to get stuck somewhere else, the Order and the sailors heartily agreed.

The Shadowfell blurred to blue and the crushing feeling returned. I felt the pop and I snapped my eyes to the sun shining gently down on the true Danarian coast. We set about preparing the ship for the next run with a reasonable amount of efficiency considering that we had just gone through the whole routine twice. As we were going through the double checks, communication appeared on deck. This one was blue with silver swirls and to our amazement, held the face a familiar dragonborn. “Hello mammals!” he says with great enthusiasm. It was no other than our dear friend Rhegar.

We left our tasks to go and talk with him. Afterall, the last we had seen Rhegar he was leaving with Garn to retake their northern homelands of Arborea. Once we had all said hello, Kyri asked the question on everyone’s minds, “Why are you here?”

“Well the fight has gone well. We have cleaned out most of the scum that thought to conquer Arborea. But I have heard distressing news and am in need of assistance. Is your ship still off the coast of Danaria?”

“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” Kalena answered. “What is it that you need help with?”

“An avatar of Bahamut is being held captive by the forces of Tiamat.”

“That is distressing news indeed,” replied Kyri, “Do you have any idea where he is being held?”

“I have some details but very few. What I do know says that he is in the Astral Plane.”

“Then you are lucky that you caught us when you did,” said Kalena to Rhegar. “We were about to plane shift to the Astral Sea. We have been summoned there by Erathis.”

“Yeah we got gods hanging out the doorbell here,” said Yvala off to the side. I surpressed the desire to laugh out loud at her comment.

“Plane shift? You have been busy in my absence. Well, I am prepared to help you in your quest if you can help me in mine. I’ll need a few days to get to your location.”

“Can we wait for Rhegar to get to us?” Kyri asked Tierro.

“The goddess wants you to her palace most expediently. Tierro thinks it better that we shift to his location instead.”

“Excelent,” said Kalena. “Rhegar, wait right there.”

The Southern Stream shifted to his location and we appeared out of a cloud of mist. We took Rhegar aboard and made the appropriate introductions. Tierro called everyone to their positions and we began the ritual for what would be the last time that day. This time why my eyes opened after the plane shift, a huge grin broke out across my face. Up at the helm I could head Tierro whooping and hollering. Even the sailors were cheering. The ship was floating in midair. In every direction, I could see stars twinkling in the sky. Off in the distance sat a shimmering sapphire glow. Tierro pointed at it and said, “There she is - Hestavar, the bright city! We made it the Astral Sea!”