Dragonsphere – Space Oddity

Written by Vetinari

First thing as I leave the Hightower mountains, I decide to travel to Slathan ni Pathan to get my shifter ring back. It's not such a good idea, because the two imbeciles who guard the access to the swampland have decided that since the new developments any shifter is fair play to be run through with their halberds.

Callahach's finest.

I try everything, telling them that I am a shifter that just wants to go home, that I am NOT a shifter, that I don't know anything at all, this exchange always ends with me getting shish-kebabbed by these two dumbasses.

So, I decide to explore the other two realms. While Brynn-Fann has nothing new, our good shaman friends in Soptus Ecliptus remember us well.

That would have been useful to know when I first came here, though.

They say that the King's soul is trapped in the Spirit Plane, under guise of a small black egg. They however need a spirit bundle to take me there, and I already used the one I got to heal Llanie.

It was... like... a... something.

The spirit bundle was made of bone, feathers and (obviously) magic, and I happen to have all of them right now.

I put the feathers on the half-eaten bone...

I think it's still greasy from the leftover meat.

… and then use the vortex stone to imbue it with the magic which I had taken from the rope. Presto! A spirit bundle.

Don't try this at home, kids.

Before going gallivanting in the Spirit Plane, however, I want to check what more can be done here on the good old Material World, so I announce myself to the Caliph. I try to explain the situation to him and he seems to take it pretty well, all things considered.

Full disclosure: the shamans also talked to him about me before I introduced myself.

I play some other games of Desert Sands and I manage to win a couple of prizes, which, as usual, are pretty disappointing.

Flies and rotting leaves. Wonderful.

Apart from the flies, I also win a flagon of deep red liquid called Soptus Soporific, which seems to be a drink particularly appreciated by the Soptus. As per custom, we have to share the drink before I go, but our unnamed sap apparently doesn't know when to stop.

Thiiiss is reelly naiz.

Luckily, I have the presence of mind to use my Atlan to “heal self” and the drunkenness goes away. Our shifter comments that even a smaller dose of the Soporific would put someone who is not a Soptus to sleep.

I could now go to the Spirit Plane, but I have just acquired a couple of items that solve a pair of conundrums that I had to face in the other two realms. So, I decide to go there first.

In Brynn-Fann, I release the flies from the jar near the toadstool circle, and the toads are so engrossed in trying to eat them that don't mind me getting there and snatching the crown.

Walking in and out like a boss.

The crown is not a normal crown either, but a key-crown.

It was on a door.

I then proceed to Slathan ni Pathan, where I offer the guards a good old-fashioned drink.

Yes, that was what I was expecting.

I drink the Soporific, heal myself, the guards drink it, they die (actually they just go to sleep, but let me dream just for a moment) and I can finally access Slathan ni Pathan.

When I arrive at the Cave of Shifting Dreams, entering gives me another set of visions.

Still better than Dolby 3D.

These are actually mostly premonitions of how I will die: me skewered by a guard, me jumping down a well, me run through during a sword duel. Not particularly comforting, folks.

Anyway, I proceed to the shifting monster who was blocking my path earlier, and since I am a shifter, I just demonstrate the shifter ability of healing to make him let me through to the shifter village.

Quaint place.

Here we see that the shifters are leaving in squalor: building materials and any kind of wealth are denied to them, and this sort of oppression has led most of the shifters to spend more and more time as plants, rocks and animals. “Someday the whole race may die out – which would suit the other denizens of the kingdom just fine.”

The old woman seems to recognize me, and it turns out that my name is Pid Shuffle. Some time ago the Queen Mother's guards entered the village under royal decree, conked me on the head and dragged me out of here, claiming that I was a wanted criminal.

This of course being all a setup, I explain the truth to her and she says that she has my ring, which I tossed to her just as the guards came after me.

You know what would combine the characteristics of all three of this animals? A dragon.

I thank the old woman, and while saying goodbye, I comment that she doesn't sound that old.

Go figure.

I leave Slathan and since I have run out of things to do, decide to finally travel to the Spirit Plane with the Soptus shamans.

I expected something a little less... pink.

The shamans say that in order to reach the soul of the king, I have to pass three trials. The first is a maze where the sorcerer could have helped because he was known to have maps of the spirit plane. The second is the trial of beasts, where to defy the beast you must call upon the beast within you. The third is the guardian of the egg, which must be distracted from its guardian task and then appeased by a substitute for the treasure he guards.

I begin the first trial with the maze of fire.

Yeah, I know this one.

This is pretty easy, since it is just a mirror version of the pillars of air that I solved in Hightower. Next is the trial of beasts, which turns out to just be a pit full of snakes. Since I must “call upon the beast within”, I just turn into a snake and crawl through.

Luckily it wasn't this beast within.

I arrive at the end of the path, where a big and ugly roc stands guard over his nest.

Seems more like a platypus than a roc.

The black egg I am looking for is obviously inside the nest, and the roc doesn't let me near. The only thing that the roc does, apart from guarding the nest, is to quickly devour a bunch of grapes from a nearby tree which keeps regenerating itself, feeding the never-ending hunger of the giant bird. Pid comments that there is obviously magic involved.

The roc is not interested in anything I can offer him, but I bet that will change if he has not those grapes to chew on anymore. So I use the vortex stone to absorb the magic from the grapes.

This works like a charm, since the famished roc is now looking for some other fruit to eat, and I can feed him the rotten sticky dates I have been carrying for a while. They stick to its beak and he flaps around trying to get them off.

Thankfully I never did try to eat those dates.

While the roc is distracted I swap the black egg with the black sphere I took from the sorcerer's study and skedaddle out of here. Now that I've got the soul egg, all that remains is to infiltrate the castle of Gran Callahach to find the King, give him his soul back and then... I don't know if I have thought this all through, actually.

Session Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours 30 minutes