(G223 28/11/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G223 28/11/2014  via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 226  (23 Marpenoth)(October) cont...........

It took a while to get everything ship shape again. The boat hadn't suffered to much at the jaws of the
turtle since it had mainly been biting Gurudor. We welcomed Mr B back on board and continued on our way.

As we rowed I took in more of the surrounding lands. I was looking out for beavers but nature seemed to
be pretty sparse on this Plane.

So far I am greatly disliking the place. The Vast Swamp is a dangerous, smelly and unforgiving area.
Add to all that a perpetual night and you have quite the most horrid place I have ever been and I've been
around a lot of pretty nasty places!

It's difficult to tell time here too, but I judged it was about six o'clock in the evening when we all
decided we'd had enough rowing. I found as good a camp site as I could and so here we are. I am writing
this now from the dim light of one of the everburning lanterns.

I've just spent the last two hours looking for beavers, but to no avail and have returned to camp to
eat the last of today's rations. After that I'll get some sleep. Thank Silvanus for my magic bedroll,
as I doubt I'd get any rest in this awful place otherwise.


DAY 227 (24th Marpenoth)(October)

I've come to the conclusion there is no peace to be had in this Plane. Let me here recount today's
adventures.

We arose, ate breakfast and started loading up the boat with our pots and pans. I decided to have
a very quick look around the camp for tracks thinking I would again find nothing.

Instead I happened upon a tall purple skinned humanoid that looked like he had eel in his ancestry.
He was lurking in a bush, perhaps having his morning movement for all I know. He wasn't happy to see
me although I did say 'Excuse me.' and cast some sort of lightning bolt at me.

I repayed this rudeness with a 'Sudden Stalagmite' but this only slowed him down a little. He then
ran at, and stung me. I fell to the ground and slipped into a dreadful nightmare.

The others tell me that they heard my cries and rushed to my aid. Sylvia was first to arrive and
bravely put herself between me and the creature. As Gurudor ran up she cast 'Sanctuary' on me.
Mirabella shot at the nasty fellow from the boat and Sylvia summoned her magic weapon. It managed
a few blows against my friends, but Gurudor slew it with several massive strikes from his two handed
sword.

I was dragged to the boat and dumped onboard. When I awoke we were already casting off from the
shore.
'Did you loot it?', I asked. Sylvia smiled and showed me a big bag of gold.

After rowing on for some time we found that the beacons had lead us to another jetty from which
a path, in its turn, let to a gate house of some gloomy building.

I turned into an eagle and had a fly about, but could not see much except for an empty courtyard
and some roofs. Mirabella had a sneak about as well but came back with a shrug and not much
to report.

Not the stealthiest of fellows, Gurudor rather ruined all our prep-work by stepping up to the
entrance and shouting, 'Is anyone there?!'.

With a sigh, Mira skulked in. Myself and Sylvia followed. There was a set of steps leading
up to another ruin and a heavily overgrown courtyard. Just as Sylvia approached the building
some kind of winged nasty swooped in and attacked her.

I cast 'Avoid Planar Effects' on her and she cast 'Daylight' on Mr B's collar but even then we
couldn't get our eyes on the thing as it flew back into the darkness.

Something then cast 'Ray of Enfeeblement' on Gurudor and Sylvia and they were both so weakened they
could hardly walk in their armour. Sylvia glimpsed something though and cast 'Searing Light'.

I strode through the overgrown courtyard, it was no hindrance to me as a druid, and went through
a hole in the wall. I spotted one down a corridor and cast 'Hypothermia' at it. It tried to get
away but by that time the others arrived and it was slain.

(G221 14/11/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G221 14/11/2014  via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 225  (22 Marpenoth)(October) cont  ....

Perhaps because I had no great desire to go back to the gloomy lands of the Plane of Shadows I found
things to keep us busy for the rest of the day.

The four armed thing we dragged through the portal and I dumped it in the main room. It was a fascinating
and immensely impressive being and would look incredible once I had stuffed it.

All other bodies were buried though, under the supervision of Gurudor.

Our short foray into the lands of Shadow made me think that having something on our side that could hear
and smell very well would be useful. There is magic that druids can use to 'awaken' creatures so that they
become sentient, intelligent and can talk. I'd never tried it but it sounded like a good idea. It can't be
used on Nature's Companions though, so Mr B was out of the equation.

With that in mind I changed into an eagle and took a scout around the local area. I was looking for dogs
really, but I saw a robed figure walking about so landed and turning back to human form, hailed them.

As the figure came closer I saw that it was hooded, carried a bow and was female.
I wanted to keep my distance, but she drew closer,
'Ahem! This is a dangerous area you know!', I tried as an opening comment and piece of general advice.
'I know that.', she replied.
'Where do you live?'.
She didn't remove the hood, but replied, 'This is my home.'
'What are you doing?', I said, but had already assumed she was out bagging a rabbit for the pot.
'Hunting.'
'Ah yes.', I said, stepping back nervously. I hadn't liked the way she had said that.
Not really sure I was going to like the answer I asked,
'And ... er ... what are you hunting?'
'YOU!'

She pulled back her hood to reveal her hair was made of snakes. Even without my books I realised she
was a medusa. As she gazed at me I felt my limbs harden, but with a colossal effort of will I shook of
the sensation of my whole body hardening and changed into an eagle, flapping into the air as fast as my
feathery limbs could take me. She'd managed to hit me, but thankfully my druid constitution fended off
her poison.

I flapped home and landed, breathing a long sigh of relief. I'd been right in the soup with that medusa
and I could have ended up as an interesting ornament in the swamp, a scratching post for deer and a
noteworthy landmark and warning to passing travellers. I still shudder to think of it.

Next I talked to Kithguard, and bribing him with a decent dinner got some information from him. The four
armed beast was a Ghirrash. His name was Jherremor. The ferryman had been Sithreal and his two headed
hound was Ephmeral the dusk beast. The ferry followed the beacons apparently to a place where the
'willing disciples to our cause' went.

The others attended to their various activities, sharpening swords, smoothing out dented armour and
the like while I skinned, deboned and stuffed good old Jherremor. My greatest masterpiece!

Tired now. Going to washup and turn in. My last night with Lavinia before I go once more.

DAY 226  (23 Marpenoth)(October)

These swamps are pretty nasty, I realised, and decided to search only around the immediate vicinity of
Wisphaven from now on. I saw alligator tracks, snake marks and other things, but then spotted a beaver
dam. Beavers have very good hearing and sense of smell so I approached and using my magic talked to
the dam owner.

He was a nice enough fellow. In my mind I dubbed him 'Noddy' after an old school friend who talked the
same slow thoughtful way. He was just a home type though, I suppose most beavers are, and was not to be
lured away to a life of adventure. It seemed unfair to force him to come to the Plane of Shadows so I
left him to it. My skill with magic was not yet quite ready for awakening creatures anyway.

So, we banded together once more, our supplies all ready and our loins girded, myself, Mira, Gurudor
and Sylvia went through the portal. Mr B leading the way of course.

I tried a few magical experiments first. I cast a 'Avoid Planar Effects' spell to see if I could then
cast a light spell. I could, and with no 'barrier' to break through to do it. I deemed the 'APE' experiment
a success.

We set about exploring more of the building on the other side of the portal. Upstairs was a sort of
throne room and observatory. The walls were high and there were shuttered openings just below the ceiling.
Looking more closely at the throne we saw it was carved from obsidian.

Sylvia, our resident expert on the Plane of Shadows whispered, 'This is the Dusk Lord's Throne. He was the
ruler of Sansendale, which Archendale conquered in DR 1232.'
She didn't know any more than that, it was just something that had bubbled up from amongst the kittens and
puppies in her brain, a half forgotten lecture from her university days.

The irrepressible Mirabella sat down on the throne, planning something amusing no doubt, but this triggered
the appearance of two ghostly creatures that formed from the surrounding shadows.

Sylvia attempted to turn them, with no effect other than a flash of light. I tried a new spell I'd read
about called Shadowblast, a spell I'd researched ages ago and forgotten about until now. I hoped it would
be useful and it was. For use against denizens of the Plane of Shadows it proved effective and one of the
ghostly creatures was blasted to nothing by it.

The other tackled the last one. Sylvia and Mira closed in on it while Gurudor simply tried to wrestle
with it. It was difficult to hit, but not impossible and Sylvia was the one to land the final blow.

Once everything had calmed down I opened up a shutter and looked out across the landscape. I could see
dim lanterns marking a path through the swamp. I suppose this was the route of the ferry.

Back down the stair then and further looking about revealed nothing more than lizardman tracks. Back at
the boat we loaded it up with out gear and each took an oar. Following the beacons we headed further
into the swamp. At no point did anyone say this was a bad idea although I'm sure I wasn't the only
one thinking it.

We followed the beacons for eight miles, stopped for a late luncheon, then rowed on for another eight.

Just as I was thinking of asking the others if they fancied stopping for the day the boat hit something
so hard that we tipped almost all the way over and Sylvia and Mr B fell out.

As we got to our feet I could see the head of some giant angry turtle creature trying to pull the front
of our boat down into the water. It pulled half of its great ugly bulk onto the fore cabin and breathed
scaling fetid steam onto us. It was blistering and painful but I managed to summon up a batch of crocodiles
and sent them to fight the dreadful thing.

Mira targeted it with her bow and shot arrows at it and Guru charged straight for its jaws. Sylvia climbed
up onto the boat and tried to turn the turtle-beast, suspecting it was undead, but to no effect.

We all tried to fight it as best we could, me with my army of crocodiles, Gurudor with his sword and
Mirabella with her arrows. Mirabella ran and jumped on its back, but could find no weak spot though she
could keep her footing.
Guru was so badly injured by hits snapping jaws that he retreated to the cabin and was healed by Sylvia.
He did managed to 'Bless' us all before he left though, which helped our attacks on the beast.

I cast 'Hypothermia' on it. That, the crocodiles and the savaging that Mr B was doing while swimming around
it eventually finished it off and it groaned a terrible bubbling death sound and floated back down into the
swamp.

(G220 07/11/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), MI) 22

(G220 07/11/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), MI) 22

And so Ensign Kirk and Madame Swankee got down to business over the 10kg of chilli powder.

Soon Mieon was bored though and wondered back into the bazaar. She noticed that quiet a few heads turned
to follow her, but no one was aggressive. The market was busy, filled with mainly Babi-Ijo traders and
races from other nearby systems. There were Kazon and Norlot guards and plenty of robots going about
their business.

As she ventured deeper into the bazaar she noticed she was being followed by a black robed figure.
She sat on the next bench that she found and beckoned the figure over.

The fellow seemed to be prepared to talk and introduced himself as Huntuw but would not show his face.
When she used her suggestive powers to get him to reveal himself he pulled the hood back just far enough
to show he was hideously disfigured, his face a patchwork of skin.

'My race are afflicted with a dreadful phage my dear, we travel far and wide in search of a possible
cure. Races we don't know about greatly fascinate us. I wonder if I could take a blood sample from you?'
'No!', yelped Mieon.
'Would you come back to our starship?'
'No!', she repeated. But she did ask if he knew anything about shield systems and he said his race
of people had some fine shields they could sell her in exchange for samples.

He took her to a nearby place to eat. She ordered something vegetarian, thinking that it would be
harder to posion or drug and he told her more about his race. They were know as vidiians, he was
a Honatta, a sort of servant, and his master was a vidiian called Yvante.
She told him a little about the federation then asked,
'Why are you so scared of Yvante?'
'Scared? Not at all. He is a wise and noble master. A great artist among our people. Would you come
and meet him in our hotel?'
She said no, but agreed to meet him on neutral open ground so they took a taxi to the one only green
area on the moon, the hydroponics gardens.

On a bench Yvante waited for them. Another robed figure, he greet them, 'Pleased to meet you!'.

Mieon decided to contact Kirk at this point and when she told him she was meeting with some vidiians
he yelled at her, 'Get out of there!'

As she started to make her excuses to leave they took out their Vidiian Harvesters and stunned her.

....

She woke some time later in a small room, on what felt like a starship of some kind, lying on a hospital
bed. The room was dark and gloomy and cluttered with medical equipment. A dull fug of smoke filled the
air.
A gurgle drew her attention to a body on a bed on the other side of the room. Here lay a Kazon, wired into
several machines with all sorts of tubes sticking into his body. She tried to wake him, but all he could
do was flick his eyes open a little and point at the door.

Mieon went and looked at the door. There was a keypad there and it did not look too complicated. Using
her wide experience of poking her finger at computers she managed to open the door. In the next, equally
dull, gloomy and dirty room she found another hospital bed with an alien tied down to it.

She released him and he took a test tube stand from one of the lab desks in this room. Mieon armed herself
with a microscope, planning to use the base as a bludgeon.

There were two more doors here and she tried the lower one, which lead into the ships cockpit. There were
two seats, a central console and a (currently blank) viewscreen. Around the sides of the cabin were other
consoles. At one of them was a vidiian, clutching a wound in his side and frantically punching buttons on
it. Mieon rushed in to attack.

The vidiian trapped her in the viewscreen end though by raising a forcefield, but he was neatly skewered
on the end of the alien's test tube stand when he came charging in. The vidiian made to flee and from
the other room, pursued by the alien. Mieon then heard a series of crashes followed by a spludging sound
of something heavy landing on something meaty.

She smashed away at a console next to her, but it wasn't until the alien came in and hit buttons randomly
on another console that the forcefield was lifted.

Using her powers of console poking she brought the viewscreen to life. It showed the interior of the
hangar, but a small boxed out area showed another vidiian (that looked like Yvante) frantically cutting up
another member of the aliens race and stuffing the pieces into a cool box. The alien cried in despair and
made to go get revenge, handing the Vidiian Harvester to Mieon.

Not really knowing what the thing was, or how to operate it, she pointed it at the corpse of the vidiian
and pressed some buttons. Somehow she managed to teleport its reproductive organs across the room where they
hit the wall at a reasonable velocity with a messy splat.
Finding she couldn't repeat this feat, she dropped the device.

The left hand door, the one she hadn't tried yet, did not yield to finger poking though and they took
some bottles from the lab and threw them at it. None of them were acid though, as Mieon had hoped.

Next she picked up an electric meter of some description and stuck its probes into the keypad. She set
the device to maximum, which did indeed open the door, but gave her a nasty shock.

The next chamber was similar to the last and a cupboard held all of her stuff, so she retrieved her
phaser, comms badge and grenades. The next chamber was the largest yet, a sort of cold storage area for bodies and
bits of bodies. The other vidiian was here, but seeing them enter, fled into another room.

He spoke to them through a coms port on the door telling them to 'Just get out!'. Mieon wanted revenge though
and tried to open the door.
Suddenly a forcefield surrounded them. Mieon used her powers of fascination on the vidiian but then the alien
(translated via the comms badge now) pointed out to her,
'We are running out of air!'

Mieon released the fascination and the forcefield dropped. Next the larger doors to her right started opening,
revealing a cargo bay below. Beyond that light was coming in from the hangar through open cargo door. The
vidiian was inviting them to leave.

Mieon decided that this was a good idea, but before she left, she shot up the door then threw grenades into the lab.
As they left the ship she threw more grenades into the cargo bay.

With alarms going off everywhere they were scooped up by an approaching security detail. A guard robot called
'Officer 6-ZYT' took them to the shipyard guard booth.

During their interview with the guards here she learned that the alien was from the planet Treebad and was called
Vanoost. He was confused and scared, seemingly from a planet without warp technology and not aware that their
was life beyond his own planet.

When she'd used her charms to secure her release, he asked if he could come with her, so she took him back to
the AS where she met up with Kirk.

Ensign Kirk told her that after he'd realised she'd been taken by vidiians he'd hunted out their ship and
even managed to wing one of them with a phaser shot. The comm badge had not given her location until she'd
left the vidiian ship and he'd deemed it sensible not to beam her out of police custody, but had kept a lock
on her just incase.

Vanoost went for a lie down. He looked pretty exhausted. Crewman Rumbleton gave him the once over and reported
back that the treebadian was ok apart from the loss of one of his kidneys.

(218 24/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 21

(218 24/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 21

DAY 80 (mon) cont ...

The first thing Kirk did when he got a moment to himself was write up some notes on what was needed
done on the Aeroshuttle.

''
[ ]Adapt kirk alpha 1 to incorporate auto removal of any weaponry or additional items that were not carried onto the
   ship or are not authorised by me.
[ ]Fix shields
[ ]Get power core upgraded and engines (probably tied together)
[ ]Improve weapons
[ ]Fix hull plating
[ ]Increase replicator limit, if possible.
[ ]Add protocols to kirk alpha 1 to auto protect the ship if we leave it.
[ ]Find out from Chakotay what resources are available.
''

Meanwhile, rather concerned about finding herself a place on Voyager Mieon started enquiring how she could get
some firearms training. She located Kirk by asking the computer and after talking to him went and discussed things
with Chakotay. He decided to attach her to the Aeroshuttle crew as an 'Envoy' under Ensign Kirk's command.

Kirk decided to go along with the Deck Six Armoury schedule until such time as he drew up his own. This allowed
them to go along to holodeck training.

During this day they were told that Telek R'mor of the, Romulan Astrophysical Academy was due to leave, back
down the worm hole he had come from and that this was the last chance to send some messages home.
Mieon had nothing to say to anyone back in the Alpha Quadrant.
Kirk's letter was to the point, but uninspired, along the lines of,
'Hi mum and dad! Not dead. All going fine.'

Whether this message was to get back to his folks, or anyone's folks, they would never know, but R'mor said
he would do his best.

After getting off shift, Kirk and Mieon met again at Sandrine's, the holodeck bar that Lt Paris was running
most evenings. Paris took an instant interest in Mioen and talked to her as much as he could.

Kirk had asked her to keep an eye out for B'Elanna Torres, the Chief Engineer, so when she arrived Mieon tried
a bit of the old charm. Torres was more interested in talking about wormholes with Ensign Kim though.

Kirk and Mieon went back to their respective cabins at 2000 hours.

DAY 81 (tue)

At 0700 hours Ensign Kirk and 'Envoy' Mieon reported for duty at the D6A. Mieon held the equivalent rank of
Crewman so basically anyone could order her around.

There was firearms training, then Kirk reported to Chakotay and they put together a crew for the Aeroshuttle.

The crew would be as follows:

Ensign Kirk - Aeroshuttle captain
Crewman Sandra Paterson - Pilot. While not a skilled pilot Paterson would be taking intensive training courses.
              There was a real pilot shortage onboard - hence the use of Noxus previously. However
              the cardassian was tired of being a target for beatings from the Maquis portion of the
              crew and was laying low in his cabin, rarely coming out.
Crewman Dell        - Engineering.
Crewman James Rumbleton - Science station and trainee medic. Rumbleton would be taking the science station on board
              and due to the other skills shortage on board would train as a medic.
Envoy Mieon        - Operations. While not familiar with Starfleet regs, Mioen knew her way around a console and
              was competent enough with comms and sensors.

Chakotay briefed Kirk on the Aeroshuttle's first official mission in its new role. While he encouraged Kirk to use
his initiative and to a certain extent select his own missions when not required to do anything specific for Voyager
he pointed out that they were passing a star system known as Rivo and that its inhabitants were known to be sufficiently
advanced to have shield technology. He suggested Kirk might be able to trade there to get one for the 'shuttle.

The 'shuttle was not only unshielded but painfully slow, so they started getting ready to go as fast as they could.
Details of the Rivo system below:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


The system of Rivo has two main populated planets : Rivo-2, home to the Burung Mera and Rivo-3 the
planet of the Babi-Ijo.

Rivo-2
------

Known Locally as 'Ruma Burung'. Population: 3 billion. Tech : Warp, Transporter, Replicator

This is a small M class planet, about half the size of earth. It has low gravity, but a stable atmosphere.
It is mainly forests and mountains. The planet is almost totally covered in trees and rather than concentrated
cities, the planet is covered in endless treetop villages.

The dominant species of Rivo-2 are the Burung Mera, a race of plump feathered avian humanoids. The gravity
on Rivo-2 is light, about the same as the Earth's moon, so it is an easy place for the BM to fly in.

They are aggressive in their nature but apart from the long running war with the Babi-Ijo they are not
by nature war like.

Most of the technology of the regional species is not their own, but discovered in archeological sights
of an ancient and dead race. It is thought this race died out when the Babi-Ijo ate them all.
Their is some evidence to support this.

Burung Mera recognise each other via plumage and non-language skwaks. Humans are in essence faceless
to them. They can recognise individuals of other races via their voices, but this is nullified when
using the universal translator. With more than a few people to deal with it is best to wear different
colours to avoid confusion, assuming their are no obviously visible differences such as size.


Rivo-3
------

Known Locally as 'Ruma Babi'. Population: 45 billion. Tech : Warp, Replicator (Low level)

The Babi-Ijo are a war like, lazy, gluttonous race of pig faced humanoids. They enjoy eating so much
they often resort to cannibalism and will eat any other species they can catch.

The planet is mostly barren desert, with vast cities that gather around the small seas and salt water
lakes around the planets equator. The planet is a large ball of rock, it has no iron core, but it is
far enough away from the star of Rivo to not suffer too much from the solar winds.

However, species not local to the planet should take precautions against radiation.

As the planet has no plate movement, there are never any earthquakes or volcanoes. This has meant that
the Babi-Ijo build perilously tall skyscrapers.

The Babi-Ijo are lazy and corrupt. Graft is endemic in all industries and professions.

They use a currency based on food. The planet is made up of 12 different nations that are federated
into one planetary wide empire. Each nation has its own currency but these are prone to hyper inflation
and pretty much worthless. Food stamps though are used for most trading and are stable, as each stamp
can be traded for a meal.

The Babi-Ijo store food in buildings much like a bank. Each food bank is shielded with a strong forcefield
that prevents transporting and heavily guarded with robots and mercenaries. This is to prevent local
criminal gangs from stealing food and food stamps.

Many food items are rare and are traded for huge amounts.

Babi-Ijo recognise each other by smell and thus all members of a humanoid species look much the same
to them so using scent as a disguise is a viable option. They do not see colours and cannot focus.
This makes them terrible shots, so weapons fired by Babi-Ijo usually have (unreliable!) auto-aiming.

The 17th Rivo War
-----------------

The two planets of the Rivo system are currently at war. The Babi-Ijo are winning and have almost
succeeded in completely blockading the Burung Mera planet and moons.

The Babi-Ijo are too lazy to fight themselves and build endless armies of robots and hire mercenaries,
mainly Kazons and Norlots.

The Burung Mera favour suicide attacks, and are expert bomb makers, often implanting bombs inside their
own bodies.

Since the Burung Mera have recently developed transporter technology the Babi-Ijo have bought forcefield
tech from out system to counter it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dell started putting together as much data as he could on the planets in it and ran search algorithms
on key words such as 'shield'.

Research was done on weapons that might be traded, but it was decided that this might not be such a good
idea and probably run foul of the Prime Directive.

Instead they replicated 20kg of various exotic spices for trade.

As the ship's day rolled around to 0000 hours, Kirk and Dell went over forcefield protocols for the
'shuttle and Mieon read up on Babi-Ijo culture.

DAY 82 (wed)

The Aeroshuttle launched from Voyager at 0800 ship's time. Crewman Paterson managed to keep things under
control despite her minimal amount of training.

At 2000 hours they arrived in system and were hailed by a patrolling Babi-Ijo vessel, a smallish picket
ship.
'Unknown vessel, identify yourself!'
'I am Mieon of the Federation Vessel Aeroshuttle. We are here for .. er .. trading..'
'If you are trading.', grunted the Kazon mercenary at the other end, 'Then follow this route we are transmitting
to you.'

The route lead to a base on a moon orbiting the Babi-Ijo home planet. They docked in one of many hangers and filled
in the required paperwork. There was some confusion over 'System of Origin' since they were from the other side
of the galaxy.
Talking to the robotic harbourmaster and sending through their ships logs eventually got them permission to trade
at the base.
'Patching you through to the MTT system now.', said the robotic voice and their computers were given permission
to use the bases trading system.

Kirk put together ten trades of 1/2 gram samples of spices and set the price at 350 FS (food stamps). About the
same price as a pair of shoes. He had no takers though.

After that they took a look at what shield systems were for sale. What was cleared for civilian use seemed to
be total rubbish. Prices ranged from 50,000 FS to 2 million. All were too big to be fitted into the AS.

They waited two hours, but there was no interest in the spices so Kirk decided to take a walk around the public
market that was in the centre of the base and took Mieon and Dell with him.

As they left the hangar a robotic security guard told them they could only take pistols beyond this point
so Kirk had to leave his trusty phase rifle behind.

The market had shops surrounding it, mostly small affairs built into the bulkheads. One took their interest,
'Madame Swankee's Exotic Alien Emporium'.

It was run by a, frankly, fat and ugly Babi-Ijo woman.
'Head towards the ship yards if you are after shields.', she shorted, but she did admit she would be interested
in sampling some of their 'alien' spices.

Saffron she said she might buy, vanilla she didn't like, cardamom was ok, but cloves and cinnamon she thought was
horrible. Thinking these people probably went in for strong flavours he went back to the AS and replicated ten
samples of the hottest chilies on the replicator system.

On his return she tried the Savina Jalapeno, which she liked a lot. The next one was even hotter, but she had
some kind of allergic reaction to it. As she frothed at the mouth and gagged Kirk sedated her with his
Medical Tricorder.

Mieon rushed out and brought back a security robot with her.
'Can you do anything for her?', she pleaded.
'I am a security robot madam.'
'Can't you call someone?'
'Does this woman have insurance?'
With the last of her strength Mrs Swankee reached into the till and pulled out 2000 FS.
The bot put in a call and five minutes later a medical robot arrived.

Once she was back on her feed, Kirk went back to the AS once more and replicated 10,000 FS and 10kg of
Savina Jalapeno. He gave Swankee 2000 FS to cover her medical bills and a further 500 by way of apology.

(G215 26/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 20

(G215 26/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 20

DAY 78 (sat) cont....

Kirk instigated a point to point transport remotely from his location. Not a very easy manoeuvre to do, even
for a fully trained Ensign, but Kirk had spent a lot of time writing programs to help with this sort of thing.

They arrived in the area where the prisoners were being held and shot out the locks of the cell. For some reason
Noxus shot the lock of a third empty cell.

Kirk, using his Tricorder, set up some forcefields within the Aeroshuttle to start 'pushing' the Norlots out
of the ship. This was partially successful. Another tricky thing to do remotely.

Mieon started to use her mystical powers and enthralled a group of Norlots. They were weak minded folk and
listened to her, enraptured, as she talked of matters of no importance.

Meanwhile, a squad of six Norlots arrived at the holding cells. Noxus experimented with his wide beam phase
rifle, but it had little effect on such heavily armoured troops. When he saw Kirk take out two of the Norlots
in the front rank with well placed headshots he realised what was the best tactic.

During this time Mieon was doing her best to use her mystical powers to hold off the Norlots from doing too
much damage onboard the Aeroshuttle.

Ensign Mannus and Crewman Paterson, the two Starfleet prisoners, picked up alien carbines and joined the battle as
another squad of six Norlots arrived. The firefight was short and brutal, only two Norlots survived to make
a run for it and Crewman YYY was badly injured and unconscious.

Once she'd been stabilised though, Kirk flexed his teleporting skills once more and beamed everyone back
to the ship, including Crewman Sendine who had been captured earlier.

When it looked like the ship might get away, the plasma turret started firing at them. Kirk returned fire
by beaming bags of replicated grenades into it. He then beamed a bag of fifty grenades into the bases
nuclear reactor and ten at the Norlots on the landing pad.

This was enough to keep the Norlots occupied long enough for an escape.

DAY 79 (sun)

The Aeroshuttle arrived back at Voyager at 1200 hours. Vedik had arrive first and had helped with the
visit of Talvath from the Alpha Quadrant. He had left though, by the time the shuttle arrived and
Voyager was ready once more to get under way.

The crew and passengers of the shuttle went to med bay to be healed and checked over. At 1800 most
of them were released to rest in their cabins or do as they wished.

Noxus felt fit enough to do a bit of hairdressing and his first client of the day was Crewman Paterson
who seemed to have taken a bit of a shine to him. She left a 50 gram tip.

When he got to his cabin he found that his monkey was sad, so he fed it some human food and it seemed
to cheer up a bit.

Meanwhile, Mieon had a meeting with Captain Janeway. The Captain was always interested to welcome and
talk to visitors onboard Voyager and was greatly interested about how Mieon had come to the Delta
Quadrant, but alas the young Orion knew nothing.

A crewman showed Mieon around Voyager, her cabin and the messhall. She met Neelix in the messhall and
he made her some fried chicken.

Back at her cabin she got together some paper and a pen, to start keeping a diary. She also drew
some simple pictures to put up on her cabin walls and make it more homely.

Before he turned in for the night Kirk traded his loot to the Quartermaster, talked to Lt Andrews and
Chief Engineer Torres.

DAY 80 (mon)

Noxus awoke to find his cabin full of monkey poop once more.

Kirk reported to the D6A and was informed that Commander Chakotay wanted to talk to him.

This is what he had to say:

''
The captain has given me permission to refit and use the Aeroshuttle for Away Missions. Tuvok is planning
an 'Elite Force' unit. I am thinking something along similar lines, but with a more diplomacy and trade
leaning.
Towards this end I've decided to give it a small crew and send it out to initially look for dilithium
deposits and trade opportunities. This will run in conjunction with Neelix in the Baxail. He is over stretched
at the moment and it would be good to take up some of the burden of supply and diplomacy.

To be honest I've got my doubts as to who to put in charge of this, but I remember you're behaviour on
Markov-Kalto and I generally approve of your actions on Treebad. So, I'd like you to take charge of the
Aeroshuttle and get it in order. I'd recommend increasing its Warp Speed although how I'm not sure what
with the energy issues we have on Voyager.

Keep Noxus as your pilot, and keep an eye on him. Take OG with you, might be useful for the diplomatic
side. And draw two Starfleet Crewmen from the roster.

I'd recommend one from engineering and another from ops, but that's up to you.

You'll form the crew of the Aeroshuttle in effect. Once you've got your crew sorted out, I have an easy
away mission lined up as a sort of trial run. I'll send along the details later.
''

(G213 12/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 19

(G213 12/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 19

DAY 78 (sat) cont....

The Aeroshuttle was currently not fully functional, but with every other craft in use it launched from
Voyager with Ensign Kirk at the Operations station, Noxus as the pilot and Crewman Michael Sendine at
the Engineering station.

Noxus piloted them well to the Hamras system where the romulans were last know to be and it took 12
hours to get to the planet.

At 1800 the Aeroshuttle reported a life sign floating in an escape pod drifting past. They teleported
the being onto the shuttle. It appeared to be a female orion, a species usually only found in the Alpha
Quadrant.

Carefully they carried her through to the crew area at the aft of the shuttle, although Noxus did
manage to bang her head on the doorway as they went in.

When she finally regained consciousness they managed to gently get some sense from her. She said her name
was Mieon, that she was indeed an Orion and she had vague memories of being a slave girl. Other than that
she knew nothing. She had no recollection of how she could have come to the Delta Quadrant or anything
much about her life up to this point.

They replicated her some clothes so she could change out of her life support suit and continued on their
way.

An hour later they were hailed by a small shuttlecraft. It was Videk. They had just finished repairs to
the shuttle and were going back to Voyager as fast as they could. He also reported that the two Starfleet
personnel they had been with had been captured by pirates and were being held on a nearby moonbase.

Videk sent them the quadrants and they continued on to the moonbase, arriving around 2300.

Scanning from orbit they could tell the base was shielded, but they did pick up two Starfleet comms badge
signals coming from the accommodation block.

Three small spaceships approached them. Kirk opened a comms channel,
'Greetings ... uhhh... can we land?...'
Mieon pushed him aside and said something incoherent.
A blunt headed alien in heavy looking armour came on the screen and said,
'Identify yourself, alien vessel!'
'This is a captured ship, we are looking to come down and trade!', improvised Mioen.
'Understood. Land on Pad C. Co-ordinates to follow.'

Noxus landed the Aeroshuttle while Kirk replicated three crates self-sealing stem bolts for
trading purposes.

Once they landed though they began to realise they had misjudged the way the moon base operated and
were met by a squad of mean looking Norlots in space suits.
'Puny aliens! Surrender at once or be blown to smithereens!' they declared over the comms channel.
'I guess we could surrender... but...', said Noxus.
'Just don't lot them on the ship, they might take the cargo.', said Mieon.

Their discussion was interrupted by another loud demand,
'You have one minute to surrender or face utter annihilation!'

Kirk replicated a button and transported to the location of the prisoners to check that it was possible.
Noxus and Mieon discussed further options, but Crewman Sendine said,
'I'm more worried about that plasma turret that is pointing at us!'

In the end they surrendered. They were told to come out with their hands up. Norlots are just as happy
to keep their spacesuits on as not, so since there was no atmosphere on this moon, the crew of the Aeroshuttle
had to don theirs to exit.

Mieon was first out, and saw a squad of twelve Norlots. They were short and stocking humanoids, dressed in
armoured environment suits and holding large snub nosed projectile carbines.

Kirk and Noxus teleported into the moonbase, into a store room. Noxus started opening the crates, as always
very interested in acquiring other people possessions.

As he wondered what to do next, Ensign Kirk heard Mieon on this comms badge.

'There are three of them on board the ship. We should get out of here real quick!'

(G219 31/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

(G219 31/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

DAY 225  (22 Marpenoth)(October) cont ...

In the dusky gloom I could make out a boat leaving the jetty. No more than a dark blob in sea of even
greater darkness. In what little light there was from our party I saw Mirabella leap onto the ship.

Gurudor shouted at me this up to the others. There was a man on the deck of the boat and he said
'Who sent you?'
'No one!' declared the halfling. She gulped though, when she saw a two headed dog sniffing at her.

I turned into an eagle and took to the air. Flying over the boat I could see the man was a shadar kai.
I had no idea what the dog was, but I could see four skeletons sat at the oars. Gurudor unsheathed his
bow and fired at the shadar kai, one arrow zipping into the water and another finding its target.

I decided to go for a big spell to begin with and cast Flamestrike. I felt some sort of magical block
on the spell, but with will power I struggled past the block and managed to cast. The blast injured
the shadar kai and the dog and destroyed the skeletons.

I flew down to forty feet. The shadar kai tried to hide from me, but I could still see him. Sylvia
had cast a Magical Weapon and a glowing shillelagh was pounding away at the poor hound.

Thinking that any other spell I cast that involved light would hit the magical 'barrier' (most likely
a property of the Plane of Shadows itself) I opted for Magical Stone. But part of the spell requires
that the stones are thrown. I'd rather forgotten I was currently an eagle!
In the spirit of research then I grasped them in my talons and threw. They fell in the water and
pattered harmlessly on the deck.
The last stone hit the shadar though, although I doubt he hardly noticed it.

I landed on the boat, and noted that Gathan had climbed up the side. The boat had moved a few dozen
feet from shore and he had swam across.

I turned back into a human and clumsily attacked. I dropped my sword, shield and backpack as I
slipped on the deck so I merely kicked the shadar kai in the chest as he came at me.

As Gathan also attacked, the shadar kai struck him down and the lizardman collapsed in a bloody
heap. As the combat continued Mirabella, who had jumped over the side a one point to get away from
the hound, tried to make it back on board, but slipped and fell back into the water.

As the shadar kai went to finish off Gathan, I picked up my sword and attacked. My scimitar bit deeply
into his flesh and he fell to the deck dead.

The magical weapon had killed the hound at the other end of the boat and pummelled it into a bloody heap
of bones and fur. The fighting over, me and Mirabella rowed the boat back to shore. Mirabella whispered
to me, 'Don't tell the others about me falling overboard!'
I nodded and smiled. Well, I won't tell the others, but I've noted it here!

Anyway, once Gurudor and Sylvia were on board we explored the cabin and looted the place. There was a
chest that had treasure in it including a small dragon bone lyre and some sort of writing on a parchment
no one could read although it included some musical notation.

After that we discussed our next move and during the lull in the excitement I took some soil, water and
plant samples, putting them in my specimen jars.

Sylvia motioned to us that she had heard something though and we went over to the east where we found a
caged lizardman. Once we'd established we were friendly we let him out. He didn't speak common but using
me phrase book and Sylvia's Comprehend Language spell we established his name was Steersissk of the
Sharptooth tribe.

After that it was decided to pop back through the portal. Mira had been cursed by the shadar kai during
the combat, something that I'd not noticed so we waited until to wore off. While we waited she argued
with Gurudor over something ... I'm not sure what as I was looking at my specimens, but they swapped a few
sharp words.

Well, anyway, we went back through and looked to one of the doors to the north of the main chamber.
Once Mira had opened it Guru went in, but I noticed something. Something pretty nasty looking, big, with
four arms.

As Guru went it, it revealed itself and said,
'You are not supposed to be here! Good! I need fresh meat!'

With that he made a grab for Mira but she fended it off and the fight began. I cast Bear's Endurance on
Gurudor and then started filling the place up with crocodiles.

The beast made another grab for Mira as everyone rushed in to the melee and picking her up it stuck her
onto a meat hook that hung from the wall. Poor Mirabella! Although she writhed in pain from the spike
in her back, because she is so very small, she was not going to die.

Sylvia moved round the creature to help and heal the poor halfling. The beast went for its next target
and grabbed at Guru with two arms while it ripped and rended at him with the other two.

I continued with my tried and tested tactic of being a crocodile ring master and having summoned seven
of the blighters sent them in to attack the beast, their jaws snapping and tails slapping.
Well, there isn't much that can stand against the attack of seven crocodiles and down it went, underneath
a hail of blows. You could hardly see the thing for crocodiles.

The creature defeated then, we found a pair of wooden chests in the room which had some treasure in them.
The whole lot we took back into the Lost Refuge, or should I say 'Wisphaven' as Lavinia now wanted to call
it.

Exhausted from all the fighting, we decided to call it a day for adventures into the Plane of Shadows.
Sylvia healed Gathan and he regained unconsiousness. Syvlia could currently understand his language as
she'd cast a spell earlier to talk to Steersissk. Gathan seemed quiet annimated when he was back on his
feet and had a lot to say. When the others asked what he was ranting on about Syvlia said,
'Oh he's just happy to be here!'
She revealed to me later though it was more along the lines of,
'Why won't you smooth skinned idiots just let me die?'