We checked into an inn before worrying about selling the ship. We all slept soundly that night, after our first hot bath in weeks, good food that wasn't dolphimari, and a proper bed. The witch visited me in my dreams.
She told me she had a nemesis within the orb, and she sensed that I was powerful enough to bring our party in. She was right; I could now travel into the orb itself. Her nemesis had a temple within the world of the orb.
I asked her about the security of the orb... she said that would be a concern. The dragon had been hovering over the inn. It was drawing a bit of attention, but less than we would have expected. We could try to leave the orb with Saigarn, but we weren't sure if the dragon rider would attempt to compel him to take it to the Ku Rog.
The next morning, we entrusted Sam the carpenter with repairing the ship and negotiating its sale. He was in the best position to do so. We then went to the bar where we'd first recruited the A'aloss crew and asked around until we found out where we could find Saigarn.
Shatain found that Saigarn had sent the kids home, but hadn't left himself. He'd gone to a Ku Rog bar across town. The walk was about 20 minutes, the last 5 minutes or so spent in the Ku Rog section of town. We were definitely drawing some looks, but we weren't picking a fight and we were armed and competent.
We reached the inn, only to be stopped by 2 large Ku Rog bouncers or soldiers. They told us the inn was closed. We told them we were here to visit Saigarn... they chuckled, said we must be here to pay off the rest of his debt, and waved us in.
We stepped in to what appeared to be a gambling den. It was fairly calm, for what we'd expect for a Ku Rog gambling den. Heads slowly turned as we stepped in. I immediately stepped up to the bar and ordered a round of ale for the bar. The bartender accommodated us begrudgingly, and asked why we were here. We told him we were looking in on a friend. Saigarn walked over as we got our filled tankards. The first sip was a little rough... it tasted like low quality ale spiked with hard alcohol.
We asked Saigarn if we were interrupting him, but he told us he'd concluded his business, with a nod to a particularly large Ku Rog in the corner. We asked if we could ask about a bit of business, and didn't feel we were in the best place to discuss it. He walked with us back to the A'aloss side of town, to a small, quiet inn. We refilled our tankards and sat down to conversation.
We told Saigarn we'd received a request from the witch to help her inside the orb. He was a little surprised - as far as he knew, entering and exiting the orb wasn't that easy. I told him it was within my power. He told us he had no problem doing this; he'd want to take it inland a few days march where he'd be more comfortable. He wasn't particularly worried about the dragon rider.
He did tell us that General Isador did have a spy network in the city, so if he didn't know we were there already, he would soon enough. We told him that was a concern, but we felt helping the witch was something we needed to do.
He asked us to march with him until nightfall, and he'd take it from there. It was early in the morning, so we could get him well outside the city. There were no problems on the march; the dragon rider seemed to drop into the city. We suspected she was talking to the General Isador's contacts in the city.
We didn't see the dragon for the rest of the day. We stopped in several small villages along the way and stopped to refresh ourselves frequently; Saigarn seemed to know everyone in the countryside. Night came, and before long we halted. Saigarn told us he was ready when we were.
Shatain, Brennen & I linked hands and I shifted us into the orb. We appeared on what appeared to be the same stone table where the witch had been imprisoned on the island.
There wasn't a lot of light, but it seemed like we were on the inside surface of a sphere; a hodgepodge of different building all seemed to be crammed together wherever we looked in the landscape. It seemed to be very large, with the stars replaced with torches and bonfires from various settlements. The whole island seemed to be here.
We looked around in wonder. The witch told us that it was quite remarkable; as near as she could tell, each time land was added, the sphere grew larger. Land had been steadily added over the last thousand or two years, and she didn't know if there was an upper limit. It seemed to replicate her home when she entered the orb.
She quickly got onto business. She told us 4 plots down (she pointed in a given direction) was her greatest enemy. She believed it was a former wizard of Oritan that had fallen into undeath. He was interfering with her creations. We would find him inside the temple. She wasn't entirely sure of his abilities. She knew he was particularly powerful with illusions, so we should expect trickery. She also believed he was locked to his plot of his land, as she was.
She had ensured most of his minions would be... otherwise engaged, but he would still have a small personal retinue. I believed we would also be encountering demons. She told us the shadow demons seemed to be attracted to the light of the lighthouse. She played with it, and eventually got them to go down and merge with the fire elementals. Her army was impressive, and growing. Her enemy was destroying them any time he got a chance. His army was mostly demons of various sorts.
Our magics felt much more powerful here. Everything would hit harder. I asked about ointments that would help me prepare spells to pierce illusions - the witch sent her minions to gather the ingredients. I settled down to prepare my spells accordingly. At the end of my meditation, the witch's minions had returned with 2 ointment preparations.
We asked about daylight... she told us that there was a day time, but it didn't affect the enemy's power. We told he we were ready. 3 large eagles landed on the table; she told us they were loyal to her, and would carry us to the edge of the mage's land. It was far safer than crossing the territories of other inhabitants; they tended to be rather territorial. She gave us slabs of meat for each of us to feed our eagles. We did so, and they picked us up to carried us into the night.
They dropped us off about 50' in front of the entrance to the temple, then took wing into the sky above. The building was about 50' wide and 120' deep, and reached 80' into the night sky. There were spires and peaks and other trappings. The temple was on what appeared to be a the top of a mountain; it was at least about the top 2000' of a mountain.
The night was dark. I cast light on my holy symbol, illuminating the immediate area. We approached the door. There were brass knockers, but no apparent locking mechanism. Shatain checked for traps, but didn't find anything. Brennen stepped forward and opened the door.
The door opened with a bit of a creak. Brennen opened it far enough for us to enter, and walked in. The room beyond was dark. I followed him, and Shatain entered behind us. There were about 12 pillars on each side, and six side areas on each side. The alcoves were deep enough that they might conceal doors. There didn't appear to be a 2nd floor; 80' up was a ceiling that appeared to be covered with gargoyles. The inside space was about 40' x 70', and it seemed like there was a hallway at the end of the room where an altar would be.
Shatain went into the room scouting for traps. She made no sound whatsoever. She looked back at us about half-way into the room, and motioned that the room appeared to be clear. As she did so, we heard a creak of stone wings above us; the gargoyles seemed unsettled in their sleep.
Shatain stayed ahead of us as Brennen & I moved carefully into the room. We did our best to remain silent. About 15' into the room, I made a small misstep; the gargoyles rustled, but didn't come down. We waited a minute or two before continuing. I made a few more missteps, but we were able to get across with only a couple more steps.
Through the hallway, we saw a slightly mind-bending sight. There was an upright, convex disc about 120' high in the center of the room, edge on to us. The walls of the circular room were covered in dark, murky water, as though gravity behaved differently inside. The convex disc was 30' thick at its middle. On one side we could see an inky blackness in a well of some sort. On the other side was an old man in robes sitting in a throne. The chair was oriented so that the convex faces of the disc were 'down', and the man was facing towards the ground, relative to us.
I cast True Seeing on myself. The old man was about 60' away, and now I could see was no old man at all. It was a hulking, greenish-black monster. It was roughly humanoid, squatting where the old man would be, and had huge claws. The beast was a demon - a glabrezu. On the other side of the disc, where there had been darkness, we could see 6 babau demons chained in a circle on the opposite side from the glabrezu.
We decided we couldn't fight this monster in this world. The demons were far too powerful in this world for us to take them on. We moved stealthily across the door, and almost made it without waking any gargoyles. They shifted a little, but right at the door I made enough noise to wake 2 of them up. We exited and closed the door, waving to our eagles. They spotted us and picked us up just as the gargoyles burst out of the doors.
The eagles were fast enough. The gargoyles gave chase for a few hundred feet, but eventually we made it out.
We went back and discussed our options with the witch. She explained that casting the Glabrezu out of this realm would cost her a significant amount of her power - however, she could cast many spells on us that would make us more effective in combat. We went through the list, and between her powers and mine, our chances looked good.
She increased our strength and constitution, gave us a barky coating that made our skin more resistant to attacks, made us very resistant to magical attacks, made our weapons temporarily magical, and gave us the ability to pierce most illusions.
We took flight again with our eagles. After the brief journey, we arrived back at the temple. Outside, I made our weapons aligned with good, and cast a variety of magics to further increase my combat effectiveness, including doubling my size.
Finally, I gave a pebble an aura of silence so we could run across the room. Everyone was ready. I opened the doors, and we ran through the gargoyle room. We left the stone in the hallway so that we would not alert the gargoyles during the combat, and entered the room.
I jumped into the room, trying to rotate as I did so to move with the gravity. I hit the floor hard, on my side. Shatain was next to me. Brennen fired an arrow to keep the immediate attention off of us. He hit with a sunforged arrow for 15; the Glabrezu was definitely aware of us.
Brennen continued with his barrage, hitting with his 2nd and 3rd sunforged arrows for 30. The Glabrezu appeared in front of Brennen, and attacked. 1 pincer hit for 17; it bit for 12, but missed with his 2 smaller claws. I hit with my 2nd and 3rd attack for 44. Shatain bluffed the demon, and attempted to backstab, but missed.
Shatain attacked again, hitting with her 2nd attack for 36. Brennen drew his axe and attacked, but missed. I attacked again, hitting with all 3 attacks for 62. The demon died. Brennen took its head.
We ran through the outer room with the silence stone, leaving the rest of the complex undisturbed. Outside, I healed Brennen up and we flew back to the witch.
The witch was very happy when we returned, and admitted she was mildly indebted to us. We rested. I found that though my magic was much more powerful here, it seemed to take twice as long to regain my spells every time I needed to - I couldn't stay here for long.
The witch told us she would contact me if she needed again. Our service complete, I transported us back to the normal world. It was still dark; only 4 or 5 hours had passed while we were in the orb. Saigarn had continued traveling and broke his light jog as we appeared. He told us all was quiet; if the Ku Rog were pursuing, they were far behind. He returned the orb.
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