Session 38: Saving Chandos Report

General Summary

Previously

Having completed the mission imposed on them by the Arcane's message in the Hive, and solved the mystery of what Captain Hobart of the Skyrunner was after, the party has destroyed the threat of the Ravager. After ensuring that the survivors of the Hive have a fighting chance at survival (with the crew of the Windblade now having a functional ship, even if it is a former beholder scout), the Surprise heads in system. Their intent is investigate Chandos, the displaced planet from Realmspace, before deciding on next steps.

Session Notes

On the month-long voyage in system, the party works on their individual projects. Jessa continues to experiment with the silver slime, coaxing it to clean and do minor repairs on the ship, and on Windy. The party reviews what they know of Chandos:

Windellian, a veteran traveler of Realmspace, recognized the distinct characteristics of Chandos in the planetary locator, shortly after the party entered the system. The planet mysteriously disappeared from Realmspace a few years ago. According to the rumors, a Chaos Mage named Grimbald accidentally made it disappear when attempting to enhance a There/Not There Cannon created by his mentor Heisenberg. The accident involved a Wild Surge of magic, and an artifact called the Horn of Chaos, taken from the infamous Zolnar's Asteroid.
When talking with Zurvan in the Temple of the Four in Grantz on Paraxis, Zayer asked whether the sudden appearance of Chandos disrupted this system. Zurvan told him that the disruption was minimal. When asked, Zurvan says his ability to perceive Chandos is limited, but there is definitely life on the planet still, and there is a damaged spelljamming ship in orbit of the world.

Reaching Chandos, the party finds that it is a spherical water world dotted with hundreds of small island. According to lore, Chandos is very unstable, apparently a loose collection of rocks that shift as the planet rotates, causing the small islands to constantly appear and disappear. As the Surprise orbits Chandos, it encounters a strange ship, which some of the party recognize as a Giff Great Bombard. The Giff are hippo-people who travels the space lanes as mercenaries for hire. Most sign on to other ships, and there are only a few of these Great Bombards reputed to exist.

As the Surprise warily approaches, they can see the huge giff bustling about deck, and a human with bright red hair hailing them.

After they approach close enough to merge air envelopes and shout (warily avoiding being in front of the huge cannon), the boisterous figure, who can be none other than the legendary Grimbald himself, welcomes them as friends and invites them aboard. After a short exchange, the Surprise comes alongside, and Grimbald invites them to the captain's cabin (while Jessa inspects the huge bombard gleefully). During the conversation, they learn that Grimbald captains this ship, "The Forlorn Hope", having hired the giff to help him with his mission to return Chandos to Realmspace. Grimbald recaps the original incident (From Session Summary #122 of the Dark Suns campaign, 1/20/99)

A few years ago, after returning to Realmspace while investigating something for the Knights of the Reluctant Circle, Grimbald decided to visit his mentor Heisenberg, who had set up a laboratory on Chandos to ensure privacy for his experiments.
Heisenberg had been working on an advanced version of There/Not There, that would make something disappear (actually, go elsewhere, not clear where. So, more of a NOT THERE spell), with a greatly expanded area of effect. His work was being funded by one of the governments in RealmSpace, who wanted a weapon that could make an entire enemy ship disappear. While Grimbald was visiting, he spent some time helping Heisenberg work on his new spell.
One of Heisenberg’s hobbies was the study of Space Legends and Myths. He is particularly interested in the legendary SpellJammer itself, and had found several artifacts said to have come from it, compiled different accounts of sightings of it, etc. Heisenberg got a report of a sighting of the SpellJammer within RealmSpace itself, near H’Catha (the beholder planet in Realmspace). He promptly left to try to track down the lead, asking Grimbald to keep working, since the government was getting a little anxious waiting for results (Heisenberg had been working for over 2 years).
The problem was a lack of sufficient power. While the spell was apparently moderately successfully when cast by Heisenberg (he could make small buildings disappear occasionally, which often set his work back months, when it wasn’t the right building), the power was drastically reduced when he attempted to create a wand. Heisenberg had tried creating a larger object, similar to a magical cannon, but the power was still only sufficient to make moderate size boulders disappear. Grimbald, after Heisenberg left, came up with the idea of using the Horn of Chaos as the power source, just to see if it would work. (Jessa is horrified at Grimbald's cavalier approach to weapons research, a subject she takes very seriously).
Grimbald continues, saying that he set up a test using the Horn in tandem with Heisenberg’s magical bombard, after a week of preparation, aided by H’s various apprentices. According to Grimbald’s calculations, he should have had sufficient power to make an entire mountain disappear. The test was a bit too successful. Not only did the mountain disappear, but so did the entire planet, leaving Grimbald and a few of Heisenberg’s apprentices floating in space. Grimbald quickly teleported them back to the Rock of Bral, and fled back to Grimbald’s home on the Bazaar through the Bral-Bazaar Gate.
While elated at having his theory prove correct, Grimbald was feeling rather guilty at making a planet with a few thousand sentient inhabitants disappear. Also, Grimbald was concerned that his role in this would become known, and that he would be sought as mass murderer. Grimbald was convinced the planet still existed somewhere, he just has no idea where.

After taking care of some other urgent matters (including more work helping the Knights of the Reluctant Circle ultimately restore the sun of Realmspace to light, and visiting Archin in Pirtelspace, where he got briefly involved in some nasty business involving the Champion's Games and 18,000 wights in the Free City there), Grimbald met the wizard Khellek at Skyport.

Khellek had his own reasons for wanting to leave Archin, and the two hit it off. With Khellek's help, Grimbald was intent on finding a way to restore Chandos. Returning to Realmspace, hiring the Giff (and their bombard), and doing some new calculations with Khellek's help, Grimbald enchanted the Great Bombard to replicate the accident. It partly worked--rather than restoring Chandos, it brought their ship to Chandos. The ship was damaged, the helm limited to tactical speed, and Grimbald's magic was (even more) wildly unstable in the strange conditions of Runespace. The ship has been floating here for 3 months or so, supplies dwindling, air fouling, as the pair of wizards have tried to figure a way out. Grimbald is quite happy to see another Spelljamming ship, and asks them to retrieve the original Not There cannon from Heisenberg's workshop on the surface. The party agrees (more out of a sense of duty to help Chandos than anything else). Khellek agrees to travel down to the surface and help them. Apparently, Chandos is a nasty place--there are competing, nomadic barbarian tribes of dwarves, humans and orcs on the surface, as well as mobile, carnivorous plants in the equatorial regions, and smart, magical fish in the oceans--on top of the constantly shifting land. However, Heisenberg created an artificial floating island, hidden with magic, for his workshop. The magic has faded, and so the party (correctly) expects to find inhabitants. When they arrive, they find an orc village led by Og Mosgog. The orcs are remarkably civil and peaceful, if wary, but happily accept the party's help eliminating the threat of the carnivorous plants which have infested the western part of the island. The Surprise finds the laboratory, and the party manages to obtain the Not There cannon (using magic and the Reality Comb to stabilize it), and destroys a large number of the carnivorous plants from above. They return to the village of grateful orcs, and Zayer decides to cast a divination spell, where he is surprised to talk with the Spirit of Chandos, since the planet is apparently a Life World. The party reassures the distressed spirit that they will help return the world home. Returning to the Forlorn Hope, the Jessa works with the giff to prepare the magical bombard, refusing to let Grimbald anywhere near the process, while Windy works on repairing the help. Zayer and others distract the pouting Grimbald, while Zreestram and Khellek hit it off, finding they have much in common ("Oh, you used to be evil too? What a coincidence!" After a few days of work, very careful calculations, and shooing Grimbald away, Jessa is ready to fire the bombard. When she does, the spell envelops the planet and both ships, and they find themselves back in Realmspace. Grimbald, Khellek and the Giff are grateful, and the ships go their separate ways.

Zayer wants to return to the Rock of Bral (his home) to charter a ship to save the orc tribe, as he promised.
Jessa is intrigued by the idea of working with the Giff for future "weapons research"

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists