Journal

Session 9
October 15, 2002

We attended Sebastiano's birthday ball. Of the many people who were there was Quera Benai. I asked her if she had had any strange passengers on her ship lately. She had and it turned out to be the man we are looking for. She dropped him off in... I also briefly spoke with Dakon. He told me that if he found his pocket watch missing that he would know where to look. I of course took him up on his offer and removed it from him. I also did a lot of other collecting of items. The guests were quite well off. After the night had merrily gotten on a bit, Cora, who was with Magdalena, walked up to the musicians and made them stop playing. She then informed Sebastiano that he would be punished by god. She then turned into a demon with plated wings and started pelting the house with meteors and attcking Sebastiano. During the fight, Haroun and Saraseia protected and even healed the demon. I managed to grab a plate from the demon. As soon as she had knocked Sebastiano down, she flew up through the roof and set fire to the house and around Sebastiano. Adriano and Magdealena immediately began to put out the fires. Saraseia and I carried Adriano's mother outside to safety. Once outside, I saw Haroun stabbing at Sebastiano while Antoine tried to protect him. Everyone was watching this. I couldn't believe that the assassin couldn't even manage discretion. My star started glowing. I took it out and it spoke. A man's voice said, "Protect the children." Afterwards we all had a talk. Saraseia admitted that she was probably undead and that a demon named Sorath was trying to kill her. Apparently the demon that we had just encountered was trying to protect Saraseia from Sorath.

Session 10
October 22, 2002

We set off for Kohn.

Session 11
October 29, 2002

We arrive in Kohn and must add our names to the list of arrivals; Haroun and I put other names. We discover that the name of the person we have been following is Marianna Zirce Veii Volehr. I head off for the local guild and later meet back with the group at the Gold Dragon Hostely, where Zirce also happened to have just checked out of three days ago. At one point Saraseia begins to speak in Zirce's voice, rather sing-songy, which is extremely disturning. We find out that Zirce spent most of her time there in the academic quarter in one of the monasteries writing. We search for the monastery she was in and find it. She had been writing commentaries on two books, Trouble at Red Mountain and The Legend of the Dragon. Haroun and I notice that we are being watched. We go outside to investigate and he tells me that they are the man and woman who he had spoken to earlier today. Assuming that they posed a threat to us, Haroun suggested that we dispose of them. I agreed and we attacked, but were horribly defeated. They take us into custody and take us to the palace to see the emperor. The man and woman were actually the empress and her bodyguard. The empress exacted punishment by soundly beating Haroun. I was afraid that she would do the same to me, but she did not. Instead, she did something worse. She took all of my money. I will never again trust Haroun's judgement. Never. I decided for the first time that night to drown my sorrows in rice wine. I can't wait to leave this country.

Session 12
November 5, 2002

Heading East, we catch up to Zirce along a river. She speaks to us briefly, but suddenly attacks us and splits into four. One of the four wears a long coat and has a firearm. The second wore a dark, sleeveless silk shift. The third wore a Dtai cloak and had white rose petals in her hair. This one used a strange gun-like weapon that burns holes. The fourth wore a coat stained with blood. She seemed to be on fire. We seemed to defeat her. I managed to take all of her weapons and a strange leather pouch of sorts. The weapons will probably be worth a lot.

Session 15
December 3, 2002

We go back to Dtai. I find out from the local guild that Oalien is invading Gedersov. I tell Saraseia in private and then the others. Later on, we have a birthday party of Adriano. Saraseia and Ancelaine make him a Previn pastry and Luca gives him a black kitten. What an interesting idea. Next I think that I shall have to find myself a red cat just to fit in with all the other mages. I decided to steal everything he had and give it back to him as a gift. Then, we go up to the Scarletti School only to find Sorath and Abadona arguing in the headmaster's room with the headmaster asleep (unnaturally I assume). We speak with them briefly and Abadona leaves. Sorath then attacks us. I am unable to get at Sorath and in fact find myselk on the floor slipping away almost into death. Abadona comes back in to stop Sorath, but he somehow manages to take Saraseia's body and leave her spirit. Being almost dead...I can't talk about it...

Session 16
December 10, 2002

Session 17
January 22, 2003

Most people go to hell in a hand basket; we came on a ship. We were invited into Armeid's home. When we were all seated on the floor, an image of Saraseia suddenly appeared inside of a box. We saw her waking up and a man sitting by her side. He said that Sorath told him that he would be bringing his mother home. There were a few other scenes with Saraseia and Sorath. She seemed alright.
We asked Armeid about her country and she told us that there were 7 major cities. She also said that there is a gate from here to the village of Santa Margarita in Dtai. I asked about the form of currency in this region. Armeid pulled out a piece of paper. It was wonderfully light, which will allow for easy transfer... The main dish around here is glop, something I don't care to have to eat for very long. I've eaten rats that were tastier. Apparently this country is at the end of an epidemic of the white plague. We were warned to be very cautious and maybe to not even go out, but I couldn't possibly stay inside the whole time with so many new and interesting things around. We had dinner with a few friends of Armeid's. Ancelaine and Adriano stayed upstairs though. Adriano didn't come because he was ill and Ancelaine didn't come because of religious fanaticism. We heard loud noises outside caused by what Armeid calls a "bike" which is a mode of transportation apparently. We had devil's food cake, which was the best thing I have ever eaten in my life I think. Ancelaine wasn't too happy about the cake though and refused to eat anything. Afterwards, Mikkos and I talked about buying choclate and lasers to take back with us for trade. It sounds like a good idea as long as we will definitely be leaving by ship.
I woke up the next morning with an orange cat on my head. I suppose it's a sign for me as the red mage in the group to follow the trend and get my own cat. Cats must be awfully hard to hide though. I've never tried stealing one before.
We went off to go see Abadona once we found out that she actually lives in this city. When we got to her house, she had eyes and she looked oddly like Persephone. She told us that she could return us quickly to the north if we gave her our loyalty. We said that we would think about it. On our way back to Armeid's house, I felt something. When I looked at my belongings I discovered that the wallet I had stolen off a man earlier was gone and in its place was a note. I asked Izrain to read it. He told me that it said something about that the man was impressed by my skill at the trade. It had a name, Eigar ali Sande. I was very amused. When we got back to the house, I asked Armeid how to go about contacting people and gave her the name. She looked in the fone book and used one of those funny boxes to try to talk to the man. She said that he wasn't home. I decided to try to find him in the morning.

Session 18
February 5, 2003

We have a rather heated discussion about whether Mikkos should buy a laser for his ship. Armide calls Eigar and he says that he will come over in a bit. Armide offers to be the translator, which makes things a little more awkward than I would like. We continue to argue about lasers. I decided to put my money towards chocolate mostly because it seems to be the most likely to gain a profit. Eigar comes over and we talk for quite awhile. Apparently he is not only a good thief, but also a spy. After dinner, we talked about travelling and I told him that I am from the North. He looked very surprised. Then he mentioned that he likes to travel and I invited him to come along with us because I certainly would like to get to know him a little more. It's not everyday that I run across someone who can match me at my art. He says that he is in between jobs and wouldn't mind coming along.
After saying goodbye, we left to go to Abadona's house. She told us that she will help us to kill Sorath if we pass a test and find her love, who is apparently the Angel of Free Will. He is currently residing in the Tower. Abadona then knocks us all out, somehow, and I find myself in an empty void. I couldn't see or feel anything and I felt rather lonely. Then, Abadona's voice spoke to me. She asked me what I would have if there were no one else, no one to keep score. I couldn't answer. Then, she kept talking about lonliness. I know what lonliness is like! I don't ever want to go there again. I know what it's like to have no one else to turn to. She told me to love as much as possible before it is too late.
Then she let me go and I could hear the others speaking to her. When we had all passed the test, we found ourselves on a road in the middle of nowhere. We walked along and came to a man who turned out to be Divine Judgement. Who has the right to judge anyone? No one certainly has the right to judge me. The man told us that Abadona trapped him here for attending to his duties too closely. After walking further down the road, we came to another man sitting and writing, a shadow of Zirce with a white rose, and a shadow of Arjin. The man sitting at the desk said to call him Hue. He said the book is his diary. He seemed read all sorts of things about us from the book, which was rather disturbing. He said that Abadona trapped him in the void because his answer to the diminishing magic problem was masss holocaust. Haroun took a rather sick interest in this. He said that he had conspired with Lord Seir.
Then we came up to a steel door and entered a room. There were pictures of Abadona and papers on the walls. The papers said something about a university degree in biology. The pictures of her made her seem very normal and human. Abadona came in and told us that we would be fighting Sorath in the next room.
We stepped into the next room, which was an arena, to face Sorath. He was calm and ready. During the fight, I stole what I think are memories, or something from him. He just kept laughing. I administered the final blow with my dagger. Even before Sorath had gone down, flames had sprung up all around us. I tried to run away even though there was no place to go.
When we returned from the void, Abadona told us that she would send us to the Tower, where Saraseia was now being held. We told her that we needed to rest and get a few things in order first. When we walked outside, the sun seemed brighter than usual.

Session 19
February 12, 2003

Armide showed us that she has a forge below her house. She forged my three daggers, Mikkos' sword, and Ancelaine's spear. My daggers now seem shinier, lighter, and stronger. Adriano went to the library to have the papers translated into Ninevean. Apparently the librarians became suspicious of Adriano and called the authorities, who started looking for him. Adriano and Ancelaine decided to stay on the ship for the rest of the time. Mikkos sold his wares from the ship. I added some of my gil toward buying chocolate, which I am sure will turn a very nice profit. I talked to Eigar about getting a small laser and he said he could get me one. Abadona talked to Haroun through the black box and told us that she would give us a map and send us to Babel. We accepted. I feel as though Nineve was altogether not such a bad place. After all, I managed not only to come away with a cat, a laser, and 100 gil worth of chocolate, but I also managed to steal a heart.
When we were all on board the ship, Abadona began whatever it was that she was doing. We all fell unconscious and when we woke up, we found ourselves close to a new shore. When we got closer, we could see an enormous tower that reached up to the clouds and beyond. We disembarked and walked toward the tower. A door slid open and we entered a white room with really strange furnishings. Out of the next room came a boy that looked very much like Adriano, but he said there was no relation. The boy's name was Dominico and he had apparently been inside the tower for a while because he was able to get around easily. He said that the tower would not allow him to leave. He offered us drinks, which just materialized out of nowhere. Then he brought us up to floor 042 inside a very fast moving room. The room we walked out into was white like the other room. Inside he pushed many buttons and there was a picture of a Saraseia on the wall. She was lying on a bed and seemed to be unconscious. Then we saw a picture of the man who we were looking for. Simon was also in the same condition as Saraseia. Dominico brought us to the floor that he was on. Suddenly, we could hear someone talking to us in our minds. We told him that we came to take him out of here. He told us to go up to the Vision Room and he would give us further unstruction from there. We went back up and talked to him about how to get him out. Then writing appeared on the wall that said "Greetings" and listed all of our names. Then the person or whatever it was changed from words to a voice. The voice said that it was the Tower and said that it was god, which I highly doubt. It told us that it was sad that it was dying and that it loved all of its "children" meaning the various Angels and Demons. Even Ancelaine did not believe that it was god. Suddenly red lights began to flash and the wall said, "Association Error." On the wall were pictures of us, which melted into other people. I became Saraseia. We hurried downstairs to get Simon. He told us how to free him. Then we went to get Saraseia. When we came into her room we saw strange scenes occur on the wall behind Saraseia's bed. We grabbed Saraseia and stepped into the room to go back down. When we reached what was supposed to be the first floor, the number flashed "666" instead. We stepped outside anyway and it was the first floor, but with 666 all over the walls. We left as quickly as possible. When we got outside there was a terrible storm. Oddly, the rain stung a little, and when a tasted it, it tasted like tears.
We got back on to the ship and endured the strom for about a week. In that time we discussed our plans. I spent some time training Garfield in the art. Suddenly one day Saraseia got up and started laughing. It wasn't Saraseia, but the old queen of Dtai, the one that was trapped in a crystal. She told us that she wanted to get out of the crystal and that her son was waiting to be born. We agreed that the son was probably Sorath. The new baby would mean turmoil for Dtai since it would be the rightful heir to the throne. We decided to go to Kateene.