Alenka could barely see the dragon's faces. The mighty red's black eyes couldn't be made out, but she knew Torgtho's right head was scanning her, scanning Keichi, scanning Caleb, seeking to defend himself against their enchanted blades. The dragon's right head turned to Caleb, but Alenka wasn't fooled. The right foreclaw rushed toward her, meant to capitalize on her momentary distraction, of which there was none. She jumped, moved her feet to catch it. Her pupils fastened to the base of the dragon's neck, she was one small pounce away from being in range.

The dragon, reading her eyes and body position, and disgusted at her on his forearm, feinted at Keichi, who shrunk backwards, offering only blades. Torgtho's left head snapped at Caleb, who didn't entirely dodge out of the way, the invincible teeth scraping enchanted armor. Alenka's larger muscles prepared for the pounce. Torgtho's right head reared back to deny her a target, the head moving into position to snap her in two as she lunged.

But lunging was not her plan today. Alenka rolled off the claw, concentrating on her flight. She air dashed directly to the shoulder that he had left exposed to defend his neck and attack.

Parry ball wishes you success in your endeavor!

Alenka knew from many fights where the dragon's armor was weakest, where the interlocking scales would yield best to pressure. She didn't aim there though. With all her might she placed the rapier right through one of the scales. The mild pressure was the tendon, and just a bit... there would be a bunch of nerves. Torgtho shifted rapidly, sending Alenka spinning backwards a couple feet, pushing her upside down. She curled her body to avoid the claw that she heard but did not see. Torgtho would not attack her allies effectively for a few more seconds. She began looking for the next nerve to strike, even as Torgtho tried desperately to guard himself whilst casting a spell.

Alenka awoke to gentle shaking and a bit of a pleasantly chilly draft. Opening her eyes, she could make out Caleb's figure in the dimly illuminated but finely appointed bedroom that they shared. Caleb was rubbing his neck directly under his chin, and spoke in a teasing voice.

"You're stabbing stuff in your dreams again."

Her heart rate slowed. Those dreams weren't bad, not at all. Torgtho had been a monster, and their adventures since then had been against humanoids mostly. She figured the dreams were her way of keeping in shape mentally. That was, she figured, the challenge- physically the years had not been hard on her, her conditioning motivated by the knowlege that, one day, there would be large battle, and she would be there. A battle in Umbra, a battle not even witnessed cursorily by the sun.

She nestled closer to Caleb, inhaled the chilly coastal Dulian air, and closed her eyes.

------
"I'd like to hear about the air pirates, Archmage."

Fraren looked over at Orath, who had spoke up. Orath, too young even for the faintest of beards. The air pirates story was long and boring- air pirates had never even threatened dwarven lands, and likely not even the human lands. Later, he vowed, he would tie his laces together with Mage Hand. Or his version of Mage Hand, at least. For now he could at least ask for a better story.

"Nay, that story is boring. Tell us, Archmage, of dragon clans!"

Morgrim looked around the room. The youngest dwarf apprentices stared at him, waiting. The older ones, along with the few Wizards of Crossroads proper, were all relaxing after the meal. It seemed he was to be the entertainment for the youngest pupils again.


"Well now, I didn't spend all that much time near their great city. My friends and I- Alenka, Rigby, Keichi, Caleb, and Ash- were trying to chase down a great evil- a "Seryantic". We knew from

looking at an astral record that one of them had been called into Caligo around there, and there were stories of a great dragon, Torgtho-Fieso, the head of the Skydeath Clan."

"What's a Skydeath clan?

"The dragons of that isle have clans- groups of families- that live as close to each other as dragons can bear. Metallic clans have good dragons in them, chromatic clans have evil dragons. There's a few gem dragons in each, but those are rarer still. The Skydeath clan is a clan that believes that evil dragons should be in charge. To figure out what was going on, we had to ask several dragons questions, and eventually we figured out that Torgtho's allies were hiding deep under Caligo- that they had found an old artifact. We had to use a spell to go through the ground, and when we got there, there were several evil dragons there, painting on evil runes."

Orath opened his mouth, and Morgrim glanced at him, and continued.

"Yes, the runes were Seryantic ones. They were trying to make the artifact be able to kill a lot of people- humans, dwarves, elves, the lot of us. They were going to use this power to attack the Seryantics, or so they believed. They attacked us when we entered, and we had a great battle indeed. One of the dragons had a sphere he could use to call on divine powers- after all this time, we still haven't figured that out."

Morgrim gestured to one of the two Orbs of Tiamat that his party had captured, this one mounted at the front of the Tower's mead-hall.

"The others attacked us. Each dragon breaths a diferent type of element, and these dragons had practiced over centuries to get theirs just right. Acid that dissolved our spells, cold you couldn't avoid, and so very much fire. My friends attacked them, and I cast the most powerful spells I knew. I can still remember every moment of that fight, but it wasn't even over after that. We had a brief delay, and we asked Octessa Mellon, the wizardess from our allied Zem Tower, to come and help. There Torgtho and his allies came in, with an amulet that could curtail our escape. Torgtho was masked in an antimagic field, and he immediately slew Ash, and swallowed him. The rest of us tried and tried to remove his spell, and finally, I understood what he did not. I finally caught the very edge of the weave he used to make the area devoid of magic, and the entire thing unravelled. Without that, we were able to hurt him. He did escape, though. We summoned many good dragons, and they looked at the artifact, and then we called in another ally- Rixs Noucat- and the Orthodox Church of Zem resurrected Ash."

"I thought Ash worshipped Latukefu?"

"Oh, he does. But, well, we are well regarded in Emerald, Ash in particular. It was his cunning that saved Zem Tower, so they would definitely not abandon him, even at his death. Once he was alive again, we planned an attack on Torgtho- Latukefu told Ash wehre it was- and we pounced upon him and quickly finished the beast."

Orath asked "So are we safe from Dragons?"

"There aren't any evil dragons within miles of here, and very few in all of Pallia. You were safe from dragons before you were born, and not through my actions."

Fraren's eyes narrowed and he asked, "What about Seryantics?"

-------------

Keichi Gahn left Nod's temple. He had been very pleased with the results of his donations over the years- the "clerics", obsessed with math and reality, had helped him over the recent years. The "Spellbreakers", a group of fighting forces with great magical resistance, would likley be important in the coming crusade. He was still deciding if he should share the new Thradcoating paint with Voriph- rendering an airship so resistant to fire and electricity might help with a war with Umbra, but what if there was another Vix-Thur? He walked back towards Emerald, passing near a vacation home of some well-to-do Miaran noble who, he would be embarrased to admit, he knew essentially nothing about. But he did notice some signs, and he was seeing them more and more. Nobles of all stripes were spending more of their time looking powerful, and less of their time actually being powerful, more of their capital on armies and weapons, and less on economics and control of their laands. Under Emperor Ravalis, an edict had been passed- with enthusiastic noble support- allowing for the collection of all debts. What seemed to be aimed at enforcing gambling debts from two rather notably dishonest Margraives had had another effect- nobles could now be expected to materially pay back debts owed to anyone, even commoners.

Were these related? Was this related to the coming Crusade, this jostling for respect? A reflection of a zemnian Empire with an actual emperor again? Just the kind of meaningless posturing that Arcatans were famous for?

Keichi had no answers. His holdings were real enough, his wealth and notability more than adequate for his purposes.




STLK - This armor can only be worn effectively by those of at least 7th level in the Stalker prestige class. Those without see this as medium armor, Chainmail, with all the normal stats of Chainmail.
SLS is the damage reduction versus slashing weapons that chainmail gets.

-------------




10 Years-


As you guys noticed, you played through a decade of Caligan time in about an hour and a half. Since we are normally used to spending an hour and a half to resolve thirty seconds of combat, this is somewhat of a change (like seven or eight orders of magnitude?). As the Caligan years are longer than Earth years, anyone who keeps their character age in Earth years need add 14 to it (10.1 for those none of you tracking your age in Caligan years).

These years have seen large changes to your characters, and probably some changes to your outlook.

Alenka has an underground series of spies, even in territories normally answering to the "Night Cloak". All of Miara and Pallia are well reported by this. She has a son with Caleb, to whom she is married. Her grandfather has mostly retired from his duties as a knight to dote upon his grandson. She has become the most financially successful of the group by far, as her fashions marketed extremely well in Voriph, which has experienced a resurgance economically after the desposition of Vix-Thur.

Ash lives south of Emerald with Srelindel, and he is considered a demigod by most. Worship of Latukefu has spread among the human lands, and some of the nobles even dress in simple elven styles at times. He is wildly popular in elven lands, a literal living legend.

Keichi something something chop slice / remember to do the armor

Rigby has massive temples in Queris and Kuromera, and has mobilized pixies to some degree worldwide, spreading pixiekind to many forests and even some of the more urban areas. The changes in Queris are most profound- with Arcatan men he has essentially established control over the coastal areas, and allowed the residents to choose lives with a bit more order. Slavery is abolished anywhere vaguely civilized, and Dehoob has "elected" a treant.

Morgrim has several towers- Dulal, Pallia, Voriph, and Zemnia. These towers are centers of magical learning, and the one in Pallia is becoming renouned by dwarves all over the world. He also has a son, and has married into nobility with the the dwarfess with the sexiest beard in the history of the entire toroidal world you inhabit.


I'm relatively shocked that you guys picked such an early date here, and I've had to cut short some of the narrative, which I apologize for. I think this mostly covers what goes on, however- again, sorry for the brevity, there's a lot more I'd have liked to have in here.



Of note- you guys should take the time to ensure you are fully kitted out. As rich as hell PCs at the top end of a power curve, you should ensure that all your Tura's are +10 equivalent, and that you are wearing some cool magic hoo-joob in every slot. Here's the slots:


Head, Face, Throat, Shoulders, Torso, Body (armor), Hands, Arms, Rings (2 slots), Waist, and Feet.

Also listed as:

One headband, hat, helmet, or phylactery on the head
One pair of eye lenses or goggles on or over the eyes
One amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt, or scarab around the neck
One vest, vestment, or shirt on the torso
One robe or suit of armor on the body (over a vest, vestment, or shirt)
One belt around the waist (over a robe or suit of armor)
One cloak, cape, or mantle around the shoulders (over a robe or suit of armor)
One pair of bracers or bracelets on the arms or wrists
One glove, pair of gloves, or pair of gauntlets on the hands
One ring on each hand (or two rings on one hand)
One pair of boots or shoes on the feet


If you don't have something in a relevant slot, you would at least have a cheap (sub 8k) piece in that spot.

http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicItems.htm

And maybe:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items

These aren't inventory lists by any means, but if you see something you like lemme know. You know, with the almost 24 hours of spin up.

Rigby is buying bracers of armor +8 (for 64k), Cloak of Etherealness (55k), Gloves of Archery (+2/+1 with bows and crossbows, 25k), Boots of Speed (12k), and the custom Belt of Rearrangement (44k).


The Belt of Rearrangement allows you to as a free action on your turn up to thrice a day, teleport any item on your person to your hand. If you are already holding something in that hand, it will teleport to somewhere on your body, sheathed, folded, or otherwise put away, as you desire.
This works with all weapons 2 handed and smaller, and any item up to twenty pounds. If you don't have a place to sheath or hold the item, then it will fall to the ground after the teleport, and in no case can this item be used to access or store something in an extradimensional space.


For the eye slot, you can all have Scouters if you so desire- I forgot that Rixs is your BFF and you personally had a hand is saving the Voriphan emperor (0 gp). Alternatively, you can have Lenses of Premonition (+1 temporal bonus to all saves, +6 to init, +1 dodge bonus to AC), also for free.

Alenka renamed her ship: Enola Fae.

Hah!

Obviously you can't use that name for two reasons (no Enola, real world pun). But you are not stuck with "Airy Tart" if you want to offer one that is allowed it will be accepted and retconned.

Auntie Enola will be very sad.

Damn. I thought "Airy Tart" was perfect.

Perhaps we should try an adjective different than "Airy".

And where or when Alenka did anything to warrant such ASSumption from the party is a mystery.

Jerks!

I might add a bit more to this later, but I haven't been doing any writing for this atm.

The session left off with everyone in the middle of a fight with at least three of the demon wizards you guys abandoned a decade ago, and an older version of Rim-Thul the Cruel (now Rimsable). I didn't mention his umbran style of dress and the fact that his skin is a bit more like theirs- it seems he's spent this time helping the Umbrans and hating you all just SO MUCH. The bigger concern is the lilting voice of the prime channeler of the nameless one down the hallway, and the fact that every round he's done something annoying to the battlefield, first causing a thin but brutally cold mist to damage all those who are flying (20 / round), and the second being to start some kind of awful death field to waltz down the battlefield.


I really liked the airship battle and hoped you guys did too. I wanted a more interesting model of it, but I didn't have time to do that really. I really liked how it documented the scale of the damage your team can rapidly inflict with war machines and decent strategies- your slightly superior airships helped a bit. Still, if I was going to do something with ships or airships or vehicles in general, I'd want a more detailed system. Pathfinder has some vehicle rules, but they generally do the round-by-round simulation, and many of the weapons take several rounds to fire- plus, the elemental bombards are not modeled anywhere, obviously