The pair produce the sky key - a very light football sized blue globe that glows slightly. They ask for $200 for it, which the Neo-neanderthals readily agree to, leaving Ish and Lisciac wondering whether they should have pushed for more. It's not obvious how the Sky Key works - but they are glad to have it. Dante and Renko are a bit dubious as to whether this is the genuine article, but they discuss terms under which the Limelanders might buy into the caravan if they prove their worth.
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| The Porcelain Citadel |
They rest up for a couple of weeks and decide to attempt another raid on the Pleasure Palace. They take both walkers and Vulcan sits atop one with the Red Globe that shoots laser bolts. They arrive at the Pleasure Palace and once again park out front. Renko has bought a vertical wheelbarrow to help him carry the kitchen implements out. They slip into the house and into the great hall where the pile of silken hats and kitchen implements still sits. They hear howls outside,and smell the sickly sweet smell of the creaturs once again. Vulcan talks to the grasses who confirm they are in great danger. Out of the tall grasses the creatures come - seven or eight of them. They leap into the walkers with the creatures pursuing them. Two of them manage to clamber up on one leg of a walker. Vulcan blasts one with a laser - missing the creature but searing the bodywork of the walker. With combined bolter fire they manage to kill one creature, but the second one climbs up to the rim of the howda and attacks Lisciac. She manages to defend herself and drive it off with a spear, and they outpace the creatures in their walkers and return to the Porcelain Citadel.
Renko tries to get the magical implements to work but is only able to make dog food. Lisciac tries to buy an apothecary set, but is shaken down for all her possessions in return for it, including her shaman kit and all her possessions. She runs to Vulcan, who threatens the merchants and they begrudgingly return the trade.
They decide to head onwards - they only need to find two more Sky Keys, and they spent nearly two months at the Porcelain Citadel. They check they have sufficient supplies and head out towards the Last Serai.
They head westward, leaving as soon as the purple haze breaks. At about three days out, the Porcelain Walker they purchased at too good to be true prices suddenly lurches to a halt. They see if the can repair the technology but nobody can deduce what the breakdown is. They decide they can still make it to the Last Serai provided they load their supplies into the remaining walker and everyone other than the driver (Dante) walks.
After a further day west, they overtake three bedraggled and wounded looking figures. They approach cautiously. It appears to be three bodies of Iron-Pot-Six-Body, a Porcelain Prince, who explains they were ambushed by revolutionaries and managed to escape. They offer a reward of $50 each to escort them back to the Serai, which Ish and Lisciac eagerly accept.
The Serai itself is a series of low, ancient adobe buildings clustered around a low hill centered around a strange and mysterious antenna. Iron-Pot-Six-Body thanks them and pays them, and they enter the Serai, unmolested because of their host.
Most of the Serai is actually underground, in a series of ancient and luxuriously appointed chambers burrowed deep into the Earth. The place smells of woven carpet and damask spices. The group check into luxurious accommodation, while the Limelanders choose the slum slave quarters.
As is their usual first business, they ask around after a sky key - and Iron-Pot-Six-Body is able to help them - he has heard of a sky key. There is a man, King Elre the Dreaming, who is said to be in possession of a Sky Key. The group are extremely excited about this and search the Serai for King Elre - finally finding him deep in a storage room stacked among some boxes - he is in hibernation in some sort of cryogenic sarcophagus. Lisciac sees his REM and realises he is dreaming - she tries to use her dreamwalking powers to enter his dreams but she is unable to. They agree she will try again at night, but again she is unsuccessful.
Meanwhile Vulcan tries to make contact with the local revolutionary cell, using his secret handshake. He contacts Vok, the doorman at his accommodation, who invites him to a cell meeting that evening. Vulcan foolishly offers his services to the revolution and Vok mentions that they need someone smuggled out of the Serai into the west.
Meanwhile Renko and Dante have worked out how to revive King Elre - but they will need 1,000 litres of pure water. They manage,miraculously, to find a merchant who can procure this for them, but at a cost of $1,000. They pay, and begin the revivifaction process. Meanwhile, they purchase four ponies and four heroic steeds, ready to make a swift getaway.
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| The Dessicated King |
The King awakes! He looks more youthful and healthy, but he is very vague and befuddled. He explains he was entrusted to travel this way into the deep future in order to save the chosen ones from the end of the world with one of the sky keys. The group had already searched him so they ask where it is. In response the king thinks, and then does a series of strange, jerky and specific hand and body movements. He repeats many times until he is certain everyone has memorised them, and explains that this, along with the other two, will allow them to travel to the sky. Vulcan is convinced, but of course realises that the blue sphere that Ish and Lisciac sold them is a fraud. They draw guns and there is a tense standoff. The outcome is not really resolved but Vulcan makes clear in no uncertain terms he wants his money back. But he has to dash to his rendezvous.
Vulcan finds his revolutionary meeting and is presented to Barush Velk, who has a significant price on his head. He is a poet, who wrote a satirical limerick against the Porcelain Princes. His bounty is $2,000. He needs to be taken secretly to safety amongst the Spectrum Satraps...
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