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| The Pyramid Beyond Time and Space |
They continue experimenting in this way until Sissy expresses a need for some food, and a door appears in the tunnel. They quickly duck through and find a small room with several cushioned pods, that look like they are designed for people to rest in. There is a table laid out with a sumptuous meal - but they decide not to try it. Sissy decides that this is a magical wishing place, and wishes for treasure. Another door appears and they duck through to the next chamber.
This room is empty except for a single blue plinth with what looks like a covered parrot cage on it. They withdraw the cover to see a glass specimen cover over a severed human head. As they lift the cover, the eyes of the head flicker open and he begins to scream.
They step back, and the head stops screaming and calls out to them, begging to be killed. They ask him what is going on, and he explains he is Carter Holmes, and an extremely evil man who deserves to die. Renko asks what exactly he did that was so evil and Holmes rattles off a half dozen appalling crimes, including the vivisection of children, etc. Holmes explains that he can only die if they devour his brain. They ask if he has a sky key, and he says yes, and the memory of it is in his brain - which they can get if they eat his brain. He also says that he has magical powers which can be theirs if they devour his mind.
Needless to say - they are not keen. They are fairly convinced that eating Holmes' brain will result in them being infected by some sort of alien parasite. Sissy wishes for an exit, and a door appears. They go through the slimy mist and find themselves back at the entrance, where Orca is still pulling on what is now a giant mound of rope.
They leave the horse behind and decide to leave. They figure they can always return to get the sky key from Holmes' head if they are unable to learn it anywhere else in the Ultraviolet Grasslands.
They head back to Behemoth Shell through the dark pine forests. On the way one of the fast horses gets loose, and is lost. they decide against going after it, and make haste out of the woods. That night, they hear howling of wolves, and a pack of wolves start to approach the camp, trying to pick off one of the horses. Weirdly, though, they are accompanied by and assisted by what looks like a flock of ten or so large red carpets, which try to wrap themselves around the terrified animal.
They drive the hunters off with a few well placed shots, and examine one of the carpets, which they killed with a clean shot. It looks like - a carpet with a hole in it. They are a bit nonplussed by this particular bit of weirdness, but set a watch and head back to Behemoth Shell as fast as they can.
They decide to head onwards to Moon-Facing ford as soon as they can, and set off as soon as they are rested and they've purchased supplies. They realise they've spent about six months in the UVG by now, and have collected half of the sky keys.
After two weeks of travel, in lands that they are pleased to dosciver actually has grasses their animals and porcelain walkers can forage in, they come to the Moon Facing ford. This is a large fast running river in a deep ford, running north to south, beyond which they can see the Near Moon - a small moon (but still enormous) that hovers just above the Earth about a week westwards.
At the rivers edge, they see a drowned corpse tangled in a tree - left there by some flood. The body is wearing some sort of large metallic amulet that doesn't seem to be affected by the slime and mold covering the rest of the corpse. They remove it, and Renko does some quick analysis of it - it does appear to be magical and they take it. It doesn't occur to them to bury or retrieve the body.
They arrive at a small riverside kraal, inhabited by nomad quarterlings, small humanoids with furry feet who herd animals and live in yurts. They are very welcoming to the travellers, and are delighted by their stories. They feed them well and give them a bed for the night and are then delighted when Renko gives them breakfast, and then second breakfast from his automatic kitchen appliances.
They bid goodbye to the friendly midget nomads, and then head on to the larger kraal at the Moon Facing Ford. As they approach, two Spectrum Satraps stop them, and ask for their travel permits and licenses for their vehicles. Expecting a shakedown, they say they have none but they have never needed any. but the Straps simply ask them to pay a couple of hundred dollars, fill out a brief form, and then give them travel passes and vehicle passes for the entirety of the spectrum satrapy. All very painless and efficient.
The krall is celebrating the moon-tide, where the changing tides of the moon cause the flow of the river to change direction. It is a time of celebration and many local markets. Naturally, the caravan decides immediately to go on a week long binge. But first they decide to get some money from some of the fungal goods they collected. Renko also hires an assessor of goods to tell him about the amulet - apparently it can change into anything they wish - but once they decide on a thing it will be the only thing they can change it to.
They try to sell the rainbow spores but are unable to find a buyer. Sissy manages to sell a few bags of the blue fungal delicacy they collected from the polyhedral glasshouse. VO complains that he has been working for them for a month now and he still hasn't been paid. There is some discussion of an 'internship' but Vitreous Orange is not deferred. They agree to pay for his partying, but then they enter into an argument about whether Vitreous Orange should pay for his own food and accommodation - which is kind of the last straw for him.
Then the festival begins and all arguments are forgotten as the drugs and ale flow. Sissy and Vitreous Orange are both gifted with portable bardstones with a recording of the Epic of Frondal (an ancient quarterling legend) on it. Renko unfortunately gets into a game of chance and loses Sissy's walker in a game of chance.
Sissy is naturally outraged, and demands his walker back. They argue for a time and finally Renko hits on a cunning plan. He inscribes the rune of returning on th eamulet, and then orders it to be turned into a very large gold ingot. He then uses the ingot to buy the walker back from the quarterling trader he lost it to, and then they hightail it out of town. Once safely out of town, Renko casts returning on the ingot, and then turns it back to the amulet. A perfect scam.
A day or so out, they are caught up to by a posse of 20 or so of the trader's family and clan - they demand to search them for the ingot. Renko is very reasonable and allows them to search through the camp. Eventually the apologise, shamefaced, and return to the ford. The caravan decide they might try this scam in every location from now on.
They come across a community of quarterlings as they get closer who seem to have begun building some sort of low brick ziggurat. Their leader greets them, and asks for alms - they are seeking to build a ziggurat to break the power of the Near Moon. Renko gives them a few coins and they head to the Near Moon.
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| The Near Moon |
As they approach the moon, the great tides affect them in different ways - nausea, memory loss, loss of balance. minor nut noticeable. Under the moon, in permanent shadow, are shallow swamps where the water cannot evaporate. Around the shadow of the moon, at the rim of the swamps, in a crescent, is a settlement, clustered around a large shimmering black dome. People come and go from the dome and as they get closer they learn it is a luxury pleasure palace of the Spectrum Satraps - which they can stay in for a price. They agree to pay, and enter, and find rooms for themselves and shelter for their animals. The place is called the Spectrum Lodge, and as they quench their thirst at the local bar they find themselves talking to Life-Is-A-Game, the quarterling bartender who seems unnaturally wise and does not behave like a quarterling - rumour is that she is an ultra from the north. They ask her about sky keys and she says she does know the location of one - and she will tell them if they go to the Near Moon and find her friend, Memories-Best-Forgotten. Once she (Memories-Best-Forgotten) is brought back, she (Life-Is-A-Game) will tell them where to find the sky key. Life-Is-A-Game is happy to provide transport to the surface of the moon.
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| Life-Is-A-Game |
The caravan, happy to have a lead to a third sky key (that doesn't involve eating brains), readily agree...
