Only Ciprian, Gavril and Ursina were aware as four Vooniths clambered up unto the deck of the Sellen Starling. Ciprian started his Bardic Performance as he had seen such a creature previously at Briarstone. He also cast Good Hope on the party.
The first Voonith let out a Blood-Freezing Howl which dazed Paullus, Skywin and two of the shipmates. The second attacked Gavril as the third let out its Howl, which dazed the other two shipmates. The fourth attacked Erevel and tripped her with its bite attack, then it clawed with all four claws.
Armania stepped away and fired a magic missile at one of the brightly colored, long necked amphibian.
Gavril and Ursina each attacked a Voonith near them, while Paullus stood dazed. Skywin and the crew all
Erevel began to stand from prone but was hit again with a bite attack which knocked her back to the deck of the ship. She pressed on attacking from the prone position.
Ciprian, who was on top of the cabin, jumped down to flank with Gavril, swung and missed. Armania found herself on the deck as she was bitten. Ursina ended up in the same position. Meanwhile Erevel was merely trying to ward off the Voonith attacks from the prone position. Armania defensively cast Haste. Gavril studied the damned creatures and continued his attacks. Ursina did the same. Skywin, now merely shaken, called out for someone to steer the ship. The four crew split up two at the rear to handle the tiller and two in the front, watching for shoals or other dangers.
Paullus, also shaken, moved to the edge of the ship and fired arrows at the Voonith attacking Erevel. Erevel decided not to stand this time and merely attacked from prone.
The battle continued and the party wore down the Vooniths. Skywin and the crew managed to get the ship back under control. Ciprian was darting all over the ship, jumping to the roof and then back down again. Gavril dropped one enemy, Erevel another, then Ursina. That left one that was soon dispatched by Gavril and Ciprian.
Skywin and the party took stock of the ship, all seemed fine as they made their way away from Illmarsh, which it certainly was. No more sighting of the red-sailed ship was seen and the party set about with healing and the shaken conditions wore off. Grossa and Wreben seemed no worse for the wear. It seemed that they were protected by the cabin's walls from the howls of the Voonith or maybe they didn't notice.
After sailing further from Illmarsh, Ciprian again started to study Lowls' Journals. Piecing together the notes, extravagant marginalia and just plain nonsense, Ciprian again came to a more definite set of knowledge.
"Lowls selected a caravanserai in a vast Dreamlands desert as his initial destination. Here, he planned to talk with other dream travelers to gain information about how to locate and appease the Mad Poet."
Finally Ciprian pieced together the Dreamlands excursion occult ritual and understood how to use it to travel to the Forsaken Caravanserai. The ritual takes 50 minutes to cast, requires a miniature staircase made of polished horn and ivory worth 25,000 gp. The ritual requires knowledge arcana and knowledge planes with at least 2 and up to 6 secondary casters. All casters take damage on completion of the ritual, failure causes an animate dream to appear and attack the casters.
The ritual must be cast at night on the Material Plane. The casters begin chanting the incantation while they pass around the miniature staircase, feeling each of its 70 steps. With each passing, the staircase appears a bit heavier and a bit larger. The primary caster drops the miniature staircase on the ground as the incantation is completed.
Success opens a portal where the staircase lands, revealing steps leading downward from wherever the ritual was performed (even if performed upon a rooftop or the deck of a ship). The casters can step forward to descend this staircase together; doing so puts the Material Plane bodies of the casters to sleep and thrusts their psyches into the Dreamlands. Before the completion of the ritual, the primary caster can utter a specific string of words that allows the portal to open in a specific area of the Dreamlands. Otherwise, the portal opens at the Forsaken Caravanserai. In the Dreamlands, the casters manifest lucid bodies identical to their Material Plane bodies, but take the ritual’s backlash damage.
Any caster wishing to wake from the Dreamlands and return to her body on the Material Plane must succeed at a DC 25 concentration check to do so. This is a full-round action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. The DC of this check is reduced by 1 for every 2d6 points of damage the traveler willingly takes to her physical body as part of the full-round action (this damage can’t be reduced in any way). If successful, the caster awakens. The caster can try again if she fails her concentration check. A caster can use her character level + her Charisma modifier as her bonus on the concentration check if she isn’t a spellcaster or if that value is higher than her usual concentration bonus.
"Well, I'm glad we don't have a staircase. Dreamlands sounds horrific! What if we can't even wake ourselves?" Ciprian sighed while yawning. Lets get some sleep. The rest of the party agreed and hit their hammocks after eating and helping to anchor the ship.
Paullus did not sleep well. He awoke screaming with Night Terrors and felt fatigued. Erevel did not have Night Terrors but still suffered from Black Death and added Paranoia to her madness. Gavril awoke without the buboes of the Black Death and felt sprier than the day previous.
After eating and starting down the Glass River, Ciprian began looking through the other books, but with no focus to drive his research he could not make any progress. He did come upon a book that had been converted into a clever hiding spot: the centers of the book’s pages have been removed, leaving a space about 6 inches square and 4 inches deep that is undetectable when the book is closed. Inside this space is a miniature staircase masterfully carved from horn and ivory.
"I knew Lowls had to have one of these, he went to the Dreamlands, probably with this ritual," Ciprian exclaimed.
"Let's go tonight! Maybe we can learn more about Lowls so we can find and kill him," Gavril exclaimed slyly.
"Why do we want to go to the Dreamlands?" Armania asked.
"We know that we lost our memories there when Lowls took us with him to see the Mad Poet," Erevel quickly answered. "Perhaps we can get our memories back!"
"Maybe some of us don't want to," Armania said remorsefully.
The conversation continued for most of the day until night fell. Finally the crew decided to try to enter the Dreamlands and after the ship was anchored began the ritual. Ciprian was the lead caster with Ursina attempting the Arcana knowledge checks. With four successes, Ciprian dropped the staircase on the deck of the ship and just as described a staircase led down to an ethereal bottom. The group marched down the steps, took some damage and emerged on a vast and featureless desert under a blistering sun. The heat shimmered in the distance, creating an air of unsettling illusion when looking toward the horizon. The only structure in sight was a partially ruined limestone caravanserai.
No tracks were evident as the shifting sands driven by the wind quickly covered all prints as the group moved toward the stone building, cracked and crumbling with age. The stone building was the same pale tan color as the sun-bleached desert that extended to the horizon in every direction. A single, wide entrance, large enough to admit laden mounts, pierced the north wall of the structure and opened into a central courtyard. The northeast corner of the building was wholly collapsed. Drifts of sand and tufts of weeds indicate that the building has been long abandoned.
The caravanserai was mostly one story except the far south end which had two levels. No windows were evident on any wall. In the entrance before the courtyard were three doors or doorways, two to the east and one to the west. Gavril moved up to the first door on the east which was only a half door topped with a wide shelf. A tattered curtain dangled from the lintel blocking any further view. Neither Gavril nor Ursina heard any noise. Erevel heard nothing beyond the double doors to the west.
Ciprian moved further into the courtyard which contained several stalls for animals as well as two low stone posts bearing empty circular bins. Across from the wide passageway stand two small doors flanking a long trough. The bins may have held straw for oats for animals once stabled there. There were no animal smells around indicating that the area had been long abandoned.
Paullus moved up to the half door and using his sword brushed aside the curtain revealing a cool, comfortable passageway leading into the caravanserai. The room contained only a few bare tables, chairs set at odd angles and a narrow, barred door.
DM's Notes: The party earned 1200 XP for the evening starting their way to level 8.
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