The Great Air Battle, and Round Three
Around dusk, we saw another ship coming towards us. The liklihood of another ship this close seems remote, so we readied for attack as we watched four skiffs leave that ship. Not responding to our hails, we had to assume defensive positions. I proudly destroyed 6 foes, but took immense injury. I was more than irked that the mangy mutt took a bad hit, and then Xander healed him while I remained barely alive. I grudgingly understand since Xander did not see me, but still, waste a healing on a mutt? Sheaf does seem rather attached to him though; it might snap him to lose Aecshere. Tic had created quite the battling atmosphere with the sea shanty, Repel all Borders...that helped me keep going.

As I blinked in pain, Lucan stood there before me. It was like he suddenly appeared, or my sense were dulled from the pain. He did not whisper sweet nothings or tortures in my ear this time, but rather seem annoyed at my presence. Since I was a size larger with my magical belt of growth given to me by Sal for saving his life two times over, I decided to yet again grapple him...if nothing else but to hold there so Sheaf could "heal" him, or rather damage him, since he was undead, with the wand that he was carrying. Unfortunately, Lucan again decided that my presence bored him as Grilsha laid magical pain through my body. When Lucan disappeared as a gas cloud (how uncreative - he did that once already), Sheaf did heal me enough for me to function.

Grilsha, who was floating around at this point, floated back to her ship, and we then noticed that the other ship was on a collision course. This couldn't be good since the Captain was dead, and none of us had any proficiency with navigation. Could that be Garrow at the wheel? My brain tried to not accept the fact that the two vampires had somehow made an alliance. Xander and I tried, but failed utterly, just as we felt the shuddering crash of the collision. I grabbed one of the knocked-out shipmates, as Sal and Tic cast feather fall on all of us for a safe landing.

Meanwhile, the air and fire elementals that formed Clouds Destiny battled it on the way down, finishing in a gigantic explosion near us.

Getting to Round Three
This is beginning to feel hopeless. The battle did cause injury to Grilsha, but nothing of which she couldn't heal herself, and the loss of Lucan for the second time was leaving a feeling a frustration, at least to me. The Ambassador, of which I suspect Sal was getting infatuated with as he guarded her with such care throughout the battle, came out of her hiding, anxious to speak to us. Before the scuffle broke out, it seemed noticable that the Ambassador and Lucan had slight crushes on each other, but with our explanations of his changes, she started putting the puzzle pieces together and agreed that he must be stopped. She sold us silversheen potions that might aid our weapons against him, sent a trustworthy friend of hers with us (another warforged named Pious), as well as the password to the skyport, where she thought Lucan to be going. I ensured that she would stable our mage horses for us, and we were off to the skyport, for yet another round with Lucan.

One airship was in dock: Clouds Destiny. Although we had the password, the gnomes at the airship drew weapons. As I neared, I recognised the telltale glaze of charm that Lucan tends to leave behind. It was clear that talking with these gnomes would not resolve anything, but we could at least not kill them. They were quite valiant, and fought bravely. As I was knocking one out cold, Sheaf suddenly came out of nowhere behind me, fully shifted, flying over all of us, and over to the airship, knocking off a half elf, who was in process of retracting the gangplank. I was most impressed. He tried to grapple the other half-elf, so I started my jumping and tumbling routine to get across to Sheaf and assist. I became petrified as I nearly fell over as a gnome tried to knock me off of the boxes where I was currently standing. I was most distracted, and in retaliation, I jumped on his sorry little half pint butt.

We all finally got across the gangplank, and Tic diplomatically and desperately explained to a very irrate captain our concerns and of the Ambassador's blessings. He grudgingly staked us passage on Clouds Destiny. I drank a lot of ale and immediately retired to the room of which was assigned to both Tic and me. The following day involved many inquiries about an intruder in the hold around midnight. I initially thought it might be Lucan or Grilsha, since the captain knew nothing of them when we enquired, but the sheepish looks on Tic and Duval's face tells me to not bother asking.

Round Two
The inability to capture Garrow, our first encounter with a vampire, probably didn't leave us much encouragement as we were unable to capture Lucan as well. Once in Trollenport, I visited a local temple to follow-up on the box of dirt, where it was confirmed that a vampire would consider that a source of life, but unfortunately, he could just re-create another box, so using ours as bait would probably not work. Following up on the Krell clue gave Tic the ability to discover that Ambassador Krell was hosting a masqerade party...a perfect opportunity for the likes of us to get a word in with the Ambassador. Tic got a beautiful dress, and I wore a sexy noble costume, as well as Sal. Duval went as a footman, and the rest stayed outside in case of trouble.

I left my weapons, but kept a potion of healing and mage armour for any potential issues. Duval tried to sneak several weapons in, and surprisingly, they only found one dagger. I went immediately to the bar and drank enough for both Sheaf and my sakes since he was unable to come in and enjoy the fine wine. I think he would have passed out from claustrophobia anyway. I did pick up a dance partner, but it didn't last too long; although I didn't feel badly when I saw how fast Tic and Sal lost their partners. Clearly we should all practice our dancing as we slay mighty foes. The Ambassador was finally spotted, with Tic and Sal quickly stalking her for a quiet word. I decided to babysit my brandy and watch for trouble. I must say, watching Duval trying to fit in as a servant was quite amusing. Suddenly, I saw a handsome man on the dance floor yell out, "you would charm me woman!?" My heart started beating harder as I realised we had our second chance for the capture of Lucan. I tried to get in to throw the holy water that Sheaf had given me earlier, but like an idiot, I lost my balance and it flew off, missing Lucan. Another battle ensued, only this was far more confusing because the dancing partner of Lucan and her monk friends that suddenly appeared seemed bent on hurting our party, as well as Lucan. She seriously scrambled Xander's brains, who had come rushing in as the crowds went rushing out, that lasted for what seemed an eternity.

Oh yes, you guess it. Lucan disappeared again, although he did get more creative and decide to form into a bat instead of a gas cloud. Bravo Lucan.

Another Vampire
Haven't we had enough of vampires? It's bad enough that we couldn't take down Garrow, but it would seem that we are tortured with yet another vampire. The discovery of his possible vampirism took place when we finally sighted the carriage. Our strategy was to run past the carriage, and have Sheaf entangle the carriage, which was successful. We moved to surround the entangled mess of horses and wood. I enjoyed some acrobatics by jumping onto a horse, then jumping to the next horse, and then finally jumping onto the carriage roof. As I moved around the roof, I saw Duval struggling with Lucan at the back of the carriage, so I jumped Lucan and grappled with him for awhile, only to have him whisper tormentingly in my ear that "it's been fun, but I've got to go", and then leaving me to eat dust as he moved off in the form of a gas cloud. What is it with vampires? Garrow liked whispering in my ear annoying little tidbits of torture as well.

Sal had managed to literally fry all of the horse traces with a fireball, and he tried to fry the gas cloud, but with no effect. His sister simply disappeared. We did discover a box of dirt or ashes left behind by Lucan, of which my religious background told me that he would need it almost as a life support, which led to the suspicion of Lucan being a vampire. We took the horses, and Duval had fun burning the carriage...then we moved on to Trollenport of Zilargo - the land of the gnomes.

Riding Hard
The next few days involved the hardest riding I have ever endured. We discovered that Lucan escaped in a stage, so as we went through towns, we questioned the passing of a stage. Towns confirmed the stage, and the presence of a red-haired lady, but nothing else. We assumed that Lucan and the sword was in the stage. Our first night in the open involved a conflict with a giant chicken, thanks to Aecshere's stupid wanderings. Sheaf should keep that mangy mutt closer to him. I don't particularly favour dogs, and I haven't noticed any loving from Aecshere to change my mind. The chicken squawked into camp, and we all watched dumbfounded as the chicken took several hits. No chicken should have that much constitution. I suspect a breed of chicken more deadly than a farm beast. Finally, Xander decapitated him. Perhaps Aecshere has some good by warning us.

As we ran through towns, we discovered we were only mere hours from the carriage. Since we had to rest at night, Anvil elected to run ahead while we rested since he did not require rest. While catching up to them always seemed just out of grasp during these 600 miles of riding, it was looking hopeful.

The Ape Test
Although I am unclear of the details, we were summoned to a person named Viorr. He seemed interested in hiring us for some task, but first wanted to test our abilities (I suspect) by bringing in the free roaming ape alive from his beautiful gardens. He did not seem to mind blood, but death was not acceptable. I rather painfully lured the ape to the others by unfortunately taking an attack by the ape before I could get going. Just as we were starting to make headway subduing the ape, we discovered the presence of a second ape. Eventually, both were subdued, and we gained Viorr's trust to share the task ahead of us.

Viorr shared the little known event of a stolen magical sword by one of their own of the Dark Lanterns named Lucan. Unfortunately, Lucan seems to be of much higher magical powers, including no effect by attacks and walking down towers like a spider. Since he did not have these abilities before the stolen sword, the Dark Lanterns believe the sword to contain evil. Viorr gave us a letter proving we were weorking on behalf of the King, and provided mage horses for a fast travel to Trollenport, the city that he suspects Lucan to be going...Krell was the only clue he could provide, as well as Lucan's stronger abilities of combat finesse, espionage, and disguise. Also, Viorr provided Lucan's sister's name, Grilsha, but we later found out that she was gone...most likely with her brother.