I doubt Nisha will ever really know the extent of what I went through for her, but in some respects that’s a good thing. There’s stuff that happened there that even I’m ashamed of doing and will likely regret for the rest of my life. But still, the ends justified the means in my opinion as I now have my treasure back, and no dragon hoard could possibly top the riches and wonders of my beloved.
      The journey we embarked upon to get Nisha back from the unjust death she suffered started at Death Hart, some hollow iron sphere floating in the plane of negative energy. Obviously we needed someone who had been there before to guide us there, or at least point us in the right direction. I suppose the Dustmen felt sorry for me, or at least deemed it within their interests to keep on the good side of an aggrieved archmage, because they gave us a guide who seemed, for lack of a better word, pleased to help us. It was probably more along the lines of indifference, but dustmen don’t really show emotion all that much. In addition to our dustmen counterpart, we also managed to procure the services of a cleric of Ra. No doubt a sun cleric would come in handy dealing with the undead. Just as we were about to go and start our trek into the unknown, the Asura showed back up on our doorstep. I hadn’t expected to see her there, but she was Nisha’s friend as well and had every right to assist in the journey. That, and I was glad for the like-minded company.
      With our party all gathered and ready to go, we made our necessary preparations for the journey: healing potions, amulets of attunement, extra arrows, the usual sorts of things you’d want to bring if you were going to start a war, or wade into one. From what the dusty had told us, there were four different sections to this particular city, none of them really aligned with either of the others, and one that was run by so many different people wanting power that it was a struggle within itself. Each of these sections had its own door leading into the sphere, whereupon our guide would recognize which city section we were in and make a recommendation from there. He had little to worry about, what with the undead pact and all, but the rest of us were fair game for whatever horrors the inhabitants could dream up.
      The first section we learned about was run by a lich under the name of Zzarkatuzarr. For some odd reason the name sounded familiar. Rather archaic, but definitely familiar. As I was thinking about it, the answer suddenly dawned on me: the name was Thayan. Of all the lousy luck, we were going to be stuck in the same city with centuries old lich, dating back from the first red wizards of Thay. In fact, if my memory served me correctly, this particular lich was the apprentice to Thayed himself, the very first red wizard that started it all. Despite breaking with tradition on so many levels, I could feel my own blood boiling at the thought of having to deal with a red wizard, let alone the potential to rely on one for information. Clearly we were going to have to find another section ofhe city, or one of us would likely end up starting something. Two capable wizards blasting each other to pieces would likely result very poorly for the city and get us nowhere fast.
      The next section was the White Conclave. The dusty could tell us little about this section itself, except that it was run by one Muresh, who seemed to be an enigma in himself. The rumor was, that this section of the city dated back to its original inhabitants. A fortunate stroke of luck if this happened to be true. Finding notes to the origin of a city would require some old knowledge, and if we were to find it anywhere, that’d be the most likely place.
      The third area of the city took up approximately one third of the total sphere, and was run by various people seeking to make a name for themselves in their small world. Between vampires, T’nari, and other random undead, it would likely be a very poor choice to find anyone willing to help us there.
      The last place in the city was run by three Sooloeese liches, and was called Soolan of the Undying. From what I remember in my research of various planar wizards, Sool was rumored to be the Netheril of a prime called Greyhawk. If that was the case, I certainly didn’t want to meet up with them. Despite being lazy and quick to anger, Netherese wizards had a nasty habbit of blowing things to pieces for their amusement. If Sooloeese wizards behaved in a similar manner, it wouldn’t bode well. The notion that made this section of the city less of a choice for us, was the rumor that these three liches feasted on souls. For some reason, no one in the party really wanted to test this rumor out and find the truth that might be buried within it. Besides, I had seen, and fought, enough liches in the past few days to sicken me, so I was looking for a change of pace.
      Considering all of our options, Muresh seemed like the most likely candidate. He was an unknown to the dusty, likely ascended into power by might and ability, rather than station, while keeping his mystery. In addition, he was a member of what was supposed to be the oldest people in the city. That’d come in handy when we started to talk business. Which left one question unanswered: why exactly would they help us? We needed something to trade, some reason for this guy to help us out. I doubt my plight and current goals would impress the undead too much. Then I remembered what we had picked up the last time we were on Toril. While in the temple of Karsus, we recovered a few quasi-magical wands and items. I had a general idea of what they did, but without a mythallar present, there was little chance of getting to use them. This city though, happened to have one built at its center to power all the magical protections keeping them safe from the abuse of the negative energy plane. We at least now had something to barter with. And if an unlimited charge magical item didn’t impress Muresh, I was sure a red wizard would love to get her hands on some ancient Netherese artifacts.
      Having both the knowledge, the motivation, and the ability to get what we intended to do done, we set out to Death Heart. A quick planar hop, skip, and a jump later we were standing in front of the sphere itself as it slowly traversed its way around the plane. The place was exactly as the dusty had described, a giant metal sphere, presumably with four different doors set into the intersecting lattice work of plates that composed the sphere. It looked like it had seen better days, but it was still standing, which was a testament to the architecture of the place; nothing withstood the constant assault of the negative energy plane for long.
      We scoured the surface of the sphere facing us for a few minutes before we found a large metal door set into the outside of it. Placing a hand onto the metal pad opened the door up with a sort of hissing and grinding sound. Behind this door was a long corridor warded with all sorts of various protections against undead creatures. It seemed to me to be more of a prison than a warding device. After all, the occupants were undead. Our dustmen companion had a few spells prepped and ready for these wards and made it through them with little more than a few pained grimaces and tattered clothes. At the other end of the corridor was another door, similar in purpose to the outside door. Pressing a palm up against it, the door slid open and revealed a sprawling city to us. For all the wonders in the world, it seemed like a rather dark Sigil. The curve of the walls and the buildings on the ceiling, it all matched. The only thing different was that it was spread out over a sphere, instead of a torus.
      The four different sections of the city were fairly easy to identify, or at least separate apart from each other. Along each of the borders of the city, there was rubble and debris, obviously the front of some sort of war. The section we were in seemed a bit older and more elaborate, while the other portions had different themes and architectures, or in the case of the unclaimed land, none at all. From what the dusty could tell, we had gotten rather lucky and made it into our desired section on the first try. The next thing we needed to do was see Muresh, and I had a feeling that wouldn’t be easy. Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long to make our attempt at finding him.
      As we got out of the entryway to the sphere we were confronted by a contingent of guards, all armed to the teeth. I convinced the leader to come forward and managed to convince him that we had a purpose here, and that Muresh was likely the only one who could help us. Leading us on a short tour through this section of the city, we were kept under close guard and watch. I doubted they’d fair well if we really wanted to escape, but our best bet at asking an official for help would likely work better if we cooperated. Before too much longer we found ourselves in close proximity to an elaborate state building, where we again made our claim to yet another of the local hierarchy. He deemed us worthy of speaking with High Councilor and proceeded to fetch him. Some time later, he arrived and looked us over, and proceeded to tell us what he knew of the information we sought. He wasn’t all that knowledgeable himself, but he at least seemed to know where we could find what we were looking for, which was a plus.
      Of course, you can’t get something for nothing, or at least I was suspecting, so I inquired about his reason for helping us. Aside from wanting us gone from the city as quickly as possible, supposedly to alleviate unrest (imagine that, unrest in a city of undead, who’d have thought), there was a particular book he wanted retrieved as well. Not entirely sure why a religious and prominent leader would want a book that held no real power or knowledge, he let us in on his little secret. Putting up walls of illusion, and bubbles of silence all around us, he transformed from the Muresh we had met into a Raksasha. I was all for killing him right then and there, the evil bastard, but he did provide us with what needed, so in a way we did owe him one. We agreed to return with a book for him, in the same building that held the knowledge we sought, as a sort of gesture of good faith, to show that we meant no harm to those in the city. When we completed that task, we’d be allowed to leave without being harmed, almost as a sort of penance I guess. Turning back into his undead form, he pointed us in the direction of the building we were after, which was strangely in the focal point of the dispute between the four city sections. Muresh had told us that the building wasn’t the reason for dispute, but I imagine someone construed it that way somewhere along the line.
      Setting out to the tower, we made quick work of some forces that were laying in wait, not for us, but for anyone who happened to come by that way. The outside of the tower was only warded with a single alarm spell, set to alert the Sooloeese liches when someone had entered it. Bypassing the spell, we made our way inside and proceeded to make our way up the levels quickly. At the topmost level of the tower, we found what appeared to be an old personal library and chambers. We flipped through the books and found the one Muresh was interested in and kept it with us. The very last book on the shelf, had what I needed, but was protected by some sort of trap the soul spell, obviously meant to keep the book protected. Using a cantrip I floated the book out onto a table, and examined it a bit more closely. The gem itself was large enough and certainly of a high enough quality that it could contain quite a few souls. On closer inspection, it already had a few within it. I was all for leaving the poor sods in the gem and getting on with things, but Clueless was much too interested in getting them out for me to argue with him. Taking my time, I examined the dweomers and was able to pull all of them out of the book. Of note, there was an illithid who claimed that he would owe us one, and a yugoloth who didn’t live much past a few seconds. We weren’t about to take chances that he was going to clue unsuspecting people into our actions.
      After freeing the inhabitants from the gem, I disarmed the trap on the book and proceeded to read all about the origins of the city and its creators. The idea they had was noble, but based off something flawed and evil to begin with it was doomed to failure. At least the original architects were thoughtful enough to leave the location of their inspiration written down within the pages of a book. Surprisingly enough, they even noted that the place was full of petitioners who were seemed to be leading normal lives in a place that was constructed specifically for them. The inhabitants of the doorstep even had their own religions, and nations, and governing bodies. It was like a miniature planar cosmology, all packed into one location. From what was written, it seemed like the place was much too large to search without knowing where your goal was, which was a problem we had, but I was determined to not let that stop us.
      Gleaning any immediate useful information we could from the book, I took it with me when we left. Shemeska had expressed interest in knowing this place’s location, and this would certainly whet that appetite. Returning to Muresh, we gave him his book, and he immediately held it aloft, showing his command and power over his assembled peoples. While they were all groveling and he was relishing in the newfound power he had over them, we quietly made our exit, having what we came for. On our way out, I left a little a present to detonate in the skies over the white conclave. It wasn’t meant to destroy anything, but to get the attention of the red wizard who’d surely be keeping an eye on goings on in this part of town. If it worked the way I wanted it to, the Thayan would suspect someone in that part of town of putting up a fiery Halruaan skyship. If it sparked a war that deposed the Raksasha, all the better. It didn’t quite work out that way though.
      Once outside, the explosion detonated in the skies over the city, and I was immediately scryed upon by none other than the red wizard herself. I rolled my eyes and listened to the illusory image she had present herself to us. I was less inclined to sit around and wait for her babel on about how wrong it was, so I disjuncted the image and the scrying device and proceeded to open a gate to the next leg in our journey. While I was opening the gate, her image reappeared and she cast some sort of necromantic spell at us. Just from the feel of the spell hitting our death wards and other protections, it was powerful enough to make life quite miserable for us. We quickly hopped through to the other side and took a breather for a few hours to let everyone recover and replenish their spells and prayers. The giant sphere that was eternity’s doorstep hovered a mile off in the distance, taking up the whole horizon as far as the eye could see. Once inside, we’d likely end up talking a baern. If things went sour, the more preparation we had the better. Besides, while everyone was resting, I spent my time conversing with the Red Wizard back in Death Heart. She was a formidable opponent, and I wasn’t hesitant to let her know that. Besides, I doubted Mystra would look favorably on her servants trying to provoke other practitioners of the art into a fight.
      After having sufficiently rested and prepared for the next event in our journey, we got closer to the doorstep of eternity, the resting place of lost souls, and the playground of the baernaloth. Entering through the outside of the sphere, we stepped into a room with three doors. Each door seemed to hold a different locale on the plane, ranging from cities to jungle forests. The sphere itself seemed to have separated me from all of Mystra’s might, but the weave still existed, even if I couldn’t feel Mystra’s presence in it. Aidan and Toras felt the same way, and we knew we were in for a lot of trouble if this turned into a series of battles. Fyrehowl, much like I could still feel the weave, was still able to sense the planes whispering to her. Fortunately they were in the mood to help and directed us into the door with the city.
      As we approached the gates the city, there were several armed groups of guards standing at regular intervals around the walls. One of them stopped us and told us that the city was under quarantine until the gods lifted the curse from them. Not entirely sure why they didn’t have their own clerics cure these people who were sick, we pressed for more information, but he was reluctant to say. After much debate and talking, we were able to get the name of a priestess within the city we could speak with if we decided to enter inside. On a hunch that they didn’t know of magic or the arcane and divine powers those in our party possessed, I sent a sending to the priest, knowing that if he responded he’d likely be it the know. If I didn’t get a response, it was quite likely and very possible that that wouldn’t know what to think. I’m not one to play at being a god, but if it ends up getting Nisha back to me, I’d be willing to put myself through an awful lot. Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary as the priestess did respond, although he claimed I was a priest from over the seas, as he hadn’t heard my voice before. A priest, huh? I guess I could play at being a priest. I served Mystra, not exactly as a priest, but I could fake it if I had to. She told us to meet her at the temple after evening service, and he would explain everything to us.
      Informing the guards of our intentions, the let us proceed into the city, swearing an oath to shoot us down if we tried to leave the city before the curse was lifted. As we entered into the city, a few people tried to run out behind us, intent on escaping while the guards were occupied with us, but the had prepared for that contingency. Arrows thudded hollowly into bodies as they were pinned to the door behind us. I did my best to ignore what was going on, unable to take much more senseless death until I had Nisha back in my arms, safe and sound. Proceeding through the city, we made our way up to the temple in the center of town, by the statue of the Shepardess that guarded its entrance, and inside. The place made me feel rather queasy, but I was able to withstand the intense feeling of evil that washed over the place. The Asura and our dustmen companions were looking a bit pale, which for a dusty says a lot, and so decided to remain outside, where people seemed to pay them no attention at all.
      Inside the temple, we waited patiently at the back for the service to come to a conclusion. As we waited, we watched the high priestess of the temple mark an individual or two with a blue smudge on their foreheads. Each person marked, fell to their knees in what appeared to be apology and depression, and mumbled prayers under their breath as the rest of the congregation left. Outside, the Asura continued to examine the temple itself, and told us of the statues that were hiding under illusions outside that covered the majority of the building. This only seemed to cement or idea that the Baern were somehow using this place in some sort of unholy act.
      Once everyone had left the building, the high priest came over and introduced herself to us. Seeing that we had no place to stay, and that we were here to help, she made arrangements for us to stay at the house of one of the recently chosen people. Seeing as how they were chosen to placate the gods as a sacrifice they would likely have a free bed for the evening. I cringed a bit, obviously a little disconcerted at the idea of sleeping in a condemned person’s bed, but accepted the offer graciously none the less. After all, being caught outside in the streets after dark wasn’t a good idea unless you wanted to join the ranks of those chosen.
      We picked up the Asura and the Dustmen from outside and made our way over to the room we’d be using as residence for the evening. The man who answered the door was expecting us and welcomed us as though nothing was amiss and a member of his family wasn’t going to be sacrificed this very evening. We spent some time talking with the little boy and his father, telling him made up fanciful stories of the land across the sea, while at the same time remaining very neutral on matters of religious or political importance. This kid seemed to have a certain knowledgeable spark about him, and he could even seen the Asura, which was a bit of a change. No one else could see her, why could he? In the pits of our stomachs, we knew this kid was next on the list to be sacrificed. He was abnormally inquisitive and just seemed too bright and attentive to really belong here.
      Going to our room, everyone but Aidan stayed up the night, listening to or scrying on the scenes outside, trying to get a glimpse of the monsters that were taking these people apart. At some point, both Clueless and I scryed on Nisha, Clueless managing to get a little bit more of an image out of the attempt due to the surreptitious way in which he scryed on her. Apparently some place with large glassy black walls. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was at least something. Perhaps it was the same temple that various traitors who believed in other gods were sent to from the city. It wouldn’t be that farfetched for the Baern or someone similar to have taken an interest in torturing my wife, just to get under my skin.
      The next morning, we found that there was an addition to the familiy, another young child, about the same as the boy we met the previous evening. Everyone there seemed to think that she had always been there. We didn’t really question this, as if Baernaloth were involved here, then there was sure to be something wicked going on. We told the father that we’d take them both to services that morning while he opened the shop. Going back to the temple, we left them sitting in a row near the front with a few members of our own party, just for protection. I took a seat in the front with the other priests, noticeably standing out from the rest of them, as the services began.
      As they progressed, the high priestess decided it would be a nice touch to have the priest from across the seas perform a small sacrifice for them, to illustrate that he was here to help. Not wanting to upset anyone there, or to blow my cover, I consented reluctantly. Glancing at the alter where I was to sacrifice the goat they had brought, I saw the four statues from yesterday staring back at me. Mumbling an apology to Mystra, which I hoped she heard, I turned around to address the audience. In a loud voice I told them “In my service to the gods, I have seen this rite performed many different ways. What I shall show you is just one of the many ways we praise the gods in our land.” Turning around again, and bowing to the statues, as I got down on one knee, I felt another of those sickly sensations washing over me, making me cringe and my tail hug my leg. Raising the ceremonial dagger an assistant handed me, I held it aloft before the statues and continued, “In honor of the gods, in the hopes that we may be forgiven.” 
      Standing up, I slit the goat’s throat, and shuddered as the warm blood sprayed forth onto my hands, making me feel queasy. I closed my eyes and finished the sacrifice, leaving the bloody corpse of the goat sitting on the alter, my hands and the dagger coated in its blood. The high priestess came over to me, and following her lead, I cupped my hands and took some of the blood spilled on the alter. Raising it up, I put it before the muzzle of one of the statues, closing my eyes and sobbing inwardly as I felt totally vile and robbed. As some sort of phantom started to lap at the blood cupped there, I felt a long thing tongue extend and curl around my hand, holding it in place while it drank its fill, even though the statue hadn’t moved in the least. Fighting back the urge to wretch, the tongue finally let go, flicking a few drops of blood across my face as it retreated. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and continued to follow the high priestesses examples. Taking yet more blood in her hand, we ventured out to the front of the temple, smearing the blood across the outstretched hands of the shepherdess that guarded the temple.
      Once back inside, I cleaned my hands and proceeded to light the candles as I was asked to, while the priestess began marking people in the audience for sacrifice. My heart practically jumped out of its chest as she picked the child we knew to have a gift. It was inevitable that the Baern would do something like this. They love to see people suffer in agony, or vent their rage. I was already doing both, so what more they expected to bleed out of me was beyond my ability to predict. As the service drew to a close, the condemned people were gathered up and left to pray in the temple, while the high priestess gave us leave to venture around the city. I asked her a few questions about the other temple outside the city where the sick minds were sent, and she described it for me. Sure enough, black glassy walls. We now knew where we needed to go, but first, we needed to destroy this belief in the faux-gods the Baern had set themselves up as. At the very least, we needed to offer them a chance, and if possible save the boy. 
      Taking our time, we waited until the evening, when we returned to the temple, intent on picking up the child and gating out of the city a few miles. As we got there though, we learned that the child had already run away along with one of the other condemned. The high priestess asked me to help, and I agreed to do what I could. She reached out and put a small gray mark on my forehead. Presumably that would keep me safe the horrors that sought out the condemned, but somehow I doubted it. As a group, we looked to Fyrehowl for a bit of guidance, and asking the planes she gave us a direction to go. Running off in that direction, the rest of the party turned themselves invisible to hopefully avoid being seen by the creatures that would soon be stalking those still on the streets. As we were running, it became known to us that we were being followed. The high priestess obviously didn’t trust me, or wanted to see my actions when I found the child and his co-conspirator. As we ran, I darted in and out of buildings and alleys, changing my shape numerous times to confuse them. Eventually, the scry singled me out and I changed back into my normal form, still running through the city behind the rest of my party, intent on getting to the child and getting us out of the city.
      As I emerged in the courtyard where everyone had gathered, I could see the fiends attacking the child and his accomplice from the sky and the ground, guarded closes by my friends. As the others continued to attack from invisibility and the servants of the gods fell to the ground, I looked at the scene in mock horror. Turning towards the priestess and her companions who had just run up behind me, I said “Run! I shall sacrifice myself to placate the new gods that have come to declare ware. Run, for the sake of your gods!” Apparently she believed me and stopped dead in her tracks, mumbling something about the god wars as her and her companions turned around and ran towards the temples. As the last of the fiends fell, I opened a gate to the outside of the city, a few miles distant in case the guards happened to investigate further. Once that was complete, I summoned a meteor swarm to scour the rest of the fiends in the area from the sky and the ground, leaving all the building untouched, but the road scorched as though a might battle had been fought there. On the edge of the fountain, I left a copy of the book that led us here, in the hopes it would enlighten a few, and stepped through the gate. Once outside, Clueless conjured up a storm of unbelievable size and magnitude. I was all for showing off the power of the gods to cover our tracks, but destroying the city wasn’t exactly my intent. I suppose clueless just didn’t realize the extent of power that spell would provide. Going into a mist form, we all floated along the road toward the black glass tower way off in the distance. Even at our rate, it would take six hours to get there. At least in that amount of time we’d know what were planning on doing when we arrived.
      The tower itself was guarded by a force wall, which I dared not breach with magic, knowing who lived there. Instead, I teleported us inside, and fortunately for us, we made it without incident. On the door was the phrase “Touch the door and speak your name. Ask permission to enter, and at the sufferance of the father you will meet the son or the servants of the father.” Knowing this was the last leg of our journey, I pondered the possibility of this all being a trap, and a voice spoke in my head, which sounded much like the child’s voice from the bag. I turned and looked at everyone else, who had apparently heard the same thing. Clueless reached inside to the bag of holding to find the child inside, but came up empty handed. It was at that moment we realized that the child was someone who found amusement in our antics, and someone with a good deal more power than we suspected to begin with. With a sigh at having been fooled yet again, I pressed my hand to the door and spoke my name, before the barrier became intangible and I stepped inside.
      The furnishings inside were elaborate, much like we expected to find in any upscale home of evil. We waited around a few moments, and just as we were about to try our luck with one of the many doors exiting this foyer,  an ancient looking arcanaloth stepped out from a different door. The good news for the moment was that it wasn’t a Baern, even though these creatures were the next most distasteful. We took the time to explain to him what our purpose here was, and how much we knew of the outside world, in the hopes that we could trade this information for Nisha. Apparently the ‘loth had been kept here in the castle, at the behest of both the baern and the rest of his kind, to watch after junior, the littlest baernaloth. It was a matter of training him to understand the planes and their connections, and to amuse him with new toys and feelings so that he could grow into the vile monsters that we had seen before. The only exception being that this one was a sick attempt at progeny and breeding, while the others were spawned from unholy depths of evil in the planes.
      Eventually it all came down to one question, one that we asked the arcanaloth, and the same question asked to us in return: what do you want? I spelled it out for him in detail, the one time I would ever answer that question to anyone in such a position to abuse my answer. In return for Nisha, I had to leave something. Specifically what was up to me, but it had to be of value, or importance. I had left so many things here, from the time robbed to me, expectations, naivety, you name it. Apparently some of my rambling pleased him for he accepted the deal if we would also provide him with news of the outside.
      As he brought us into the room where he was keeping Nisha, I was abhorred. She was in small pieces, glued into a tree of sorts. I don’t pretend to understand petitioners and death, but that had to hurt. I closed my eyes and looked away as the ‘loth began the process of reassembling her from the tree, which protested angrily as he did so. All the while, we told the stories of the towers, Vorkanis’ rise to power, and of his return. Leaving out key details about ourselves, we painted the picture he wanted to see of Vorkanis, offering up everything we could think to tell him.
      When it was finally over, I had Nisha’s petitioner unconscious in my arms. Now that I had her, I was ready to leave, and hopefully we wouldn’t have a problem with that. The ‘loth excused himself for a moment to ask his charge for permission to let us leave. When he returned a few moments later, he nodded and said we could leave. Exactly how was left to question. As we were pondering this in our heads, Nisha and I were teleported outside the sphere into the negative energy plane. I leaned Nisha up against me and quickly cast a protection spell over us to keep us safe, while I looked around and tried to figure out where the rest of my friends were. I waited a few minutes, just in case Clueless was being his usual difficult self and bartering for more information, before I began to get worried. Pacing around nervously, I started steeling my nerves to march back into that sphere and retrieve them, hopefully with a bit more of an idea on where the exit would be. As I was recalling the spells necessary for this trip, I got a message over the sending stones, finding out that everyone else was okay, if not a bit miffed at having to deal with the ‘loth, yet again. I let out a sigh and got Nisha and myself to Tradegate, where we then went to Ysgard, and my tower. Relaxing there until Nisha’s petitioner could recover the strength to be resurrected, we waited patiently.
      As we were waiting for Nisha to recover, Fyrehowl went back to Sigil, paranoid that someone would summon her using that book of derelict magic she had entrusted her true name to. The following day, she apparently stepped through a portal and was whisked away to some prime material plane, the subject of some sort of summoning and binding spell. While I was waiting by Nisha’s side, my ear twitched as she called out my name. A string of words, followed by her true name spilled into my mind. As my dazed mind parsed them, I realized what needed to be done, and we all set out to find her. Fortunately, before we managed to get very far, she was returned, although understandably nervous, and told us to meet her in Sigil. We still had a Nisha to revive before we could do that though.
      When the time came to bring her back, I was trembling nervously, waiting for the ‘loth to have renigged on his deal. Fortunately, everything worked as planned. Nishas’ petitioner disappeared in a flash and a heartbeat later was replaced with the real Nisha. I let out a heavy sigh as Nisha immediately latched herself on my neck, hugging me fiercely and nearly breaking me in two. I continued to hold her softly, and just sat there, basking in her presence, as he recovered from the shock and memory of all that happened to her. When she was calm enough to let go of me, I told her of our trip to get her back, leaving out only the details that would upset her. Once we had finished our respective stories, we all decided we should get back to Sigil and see what disasters had befallen in who knows how much time had passed. Stepping back outside, we made our way to Tradegate, and then back to the Portal Jammer.
      I had a letter waiting for me, apparently from Shemeska, who was off on business and would be stopping by in the next day or so. In the meantime, Fyrehowl desperately wanted to tell us something, but appeared as though she were under some for Gaes and unable to do so. Suspecting the worst, we proceeded to get her drunk on fey wine, and read her thoughts, so she wouldn’t have to tell us. The creature that had summoned her was not a second rate wizard, but one of the Baernaloth who wanted to see that Shemeska was protected. Exactly from what didn’t make sense, but having no choice but to agree to her terms of service, she did so. At least now that we knew she needed protecting, we could provide it.
      While getting Fyrehowl drunk, Nisha decided that alcohol would be a fun thing to play around with. Given her recent experiences, I didn’t begrudge her that, but the fey wine was probably the wrong thing to start with. After taking a shot, she came over and kissed me. The next thing I remember, aside from the taste of the wine splashing against the back of my throat, was waking up naked with Nisha on the roof of the inn, right in the middle of the deck of the spell jamming ship. Fortunately, we were covered up in a blanket, and judging from the pounding of my head, I doubted that either one of us was coherent enough to think of such a thing, so it had to have been someone else in the party. Either Clueless, or Aidan, as Fyrehowl was too drunk to think much of it either.
      As I was sitting down to write this after returning from the gatehouse and a talk with its occupants there, I came across a sensory stone in my pocket. I picked it up, needing a distraction from having dealt with Shemeska’s moving into our inn earlier that afternoon. I rubbed my thumb over to the smooth surface and watched as various scenes and things flooded into my mind. Skipping over the minor details, I got to what had happened last night. Curiosity got the better of me I suppose. I watched as images, feelings, and sensations washed over me from the previous night, and I could feel the edge of being tipsy returning as I drank the wine Nisha had forced on me. After that unwitting drink, we both for some reason decided it was a good idea to use the catapult on top of the inn to throw pies at people. I suspect it was all Nisha’s idea, but we both seemed equally at blame in the chaos that ensued. Lacking the actual parts to make the catapult work like a normal one, I substituted a telekinesis spell in their place. Between us, we managed to deck Toras with two pies as he wandered off somewhere, and also got Fyrehowl as well as she leaned out a window to watch. I think I managed to get Clueless at some point as well, but whoever it was, was trying to be sneaky and invisible. I’m sure there were some innocent bystanders who got hit as well, but most of it was lost to a kiss Nisha planted on me as we ran out of pies. Within the span of a few moments, we were both wearing nothing at all and making passionate love on the desk of the ship, in plain view of anyone able to get up that high. Nisha’s legs were and tail were curled around me, as my tail reciprocated the action, affording us a little bit of privacy, but not enough. Even now as I write this, a warm blush returns to my cheeks at the thought of such careless audacity, but I regret none of it. The whole act ended in a fit of laughter, as we tried to get up, but found ourselves stuck together, tumbling back to the ground. We kissed and hugged, laughing and generally enjoying each other’s presence before we both fell asleep in that pose.
      I’m thinking I’ll have to share this particular sensory stone with Nisha, I think she’d enjoy it. For one in a long time I end on a much happier note. I have Nisha back, and my world is complete once again. Let’s hope it remains that way. May Mystra’s smile looking lovingly upon you.