The group arrives to find the temple is now surrounded by a fort of sorts and lots of workmen are running around setting up foundations for ship laser emplacements. The area is currently guarded by a missile frigate that is on loan to the Frye family. The families are notified that the kids are back in town, and a meeting is set for their return to the homeland.

At the meeting, the families discuss the alien space station and the only piece of proof, an ornate vac suit. The group hands it over to the parents. It is later identified as being an unkeyed Imperial Royal Commando infiltration suit, the first to ever fall into Colonial hands. It is extremely high tech, such that most of its refinements look like ornamentation due to miniaturization and design mastery. It has all the expected optical active-and-passive camouflage and electronic surveillance suites (personal as well as battlefield sensor modes) as well as a worn bio-computer, neutrino commo gear, Imperial Royal IFF, nearly indefinite life support, self repair mode, and many more nanotech based whiz bang gizmos that have Colonial scientists guessing. And drooling. Pictures taken by the group seem to have been sabotaged somehow. Repairs are ongoing, but prognosis is not good.

Although the group failed to conceal their presence on the station, they minimized the impact: the two definite proofs are the missing vac suit and the Duncan sample the spider took. Did the aliens notice? Will there be any retribution? Should a follow up mission to that area be sent? What prep school has Duncan’s mom chosen for him?

After gingerly venturing out, the group discovers their lair is a bomb shelter under a partially collapsed parking garage. After a little work they manage to find a working vehicle that someone left behind. It is a Mr. Fission Upright Cat Racer LE (rebranded BRDM) armored car, complete with 14.5mm MG and commander’s cupola 7.62mm MG. It also sports half of a giant pincer embedded in the armor plate, an apparent souvenir from the last excursion. This particular model has a baby nuclear reactor though it seems to burn through fuel quickly.

Luckily for the group, it comes with an essential feature, a GPS complete with several destinations pre set. HIDEOUT, BLACK MESA GRILL, PENGUIN, and STASH. Current location: HIDEOUT.

Choosing to try their luck with STASH, the group sets off, alternating driving between Hallé and Hallé’s bodyguard. Without too much difficulty, the group makes it to the general area of the STASH, but do encounter a glowing figure that they decide to avoid. On getting close to STASH, they meet a 30′ tall humanoid carrying what appears to be a fire hydrant mounted on a solid metal pole as a weapon. Duncan opens fire on it with the main gun, hitting it in the chest and shoulder. He is more than a bit unnerved to discover she is a female giant. She hits the vehicle with her metal pole, damaging a tire which reduces the vehicle’s mobility.

Meanwhile, a much smaller giant throws a grenade at the vehicle from the opposite side but it bounces off before exploding. Li, on the commander’s MG opens fire but has a critical mishap and destroys the weapon!

She manages to dive into cover in time to avoid serious injury as the ammo cooks off and the gun burns.

Thanks to Hallé’s driving, Duncan gets to see that the smaller giant now has a minigun firing at the lightly armored vehicle. He coolly takes it out with the 14.5 and various people scheme to exit the vehicle to capture the minigun and hopefully more grenades.

Meanwhile, the really big giantess has gone to one knee and wails something that people fail to understand, though it could have been a lament for Edwina. Anxious to see if this giant is actually Jocasta, Hallé exits the vehicle in her racing suit and tries to talk to her. The giant continues to cry and babble in her incoherent way. While she isn’t attacking in earnest, she does bat the barrel of the main gun away, bending it beyond repair.

The group searches the STASH to find that there are some tools and fuel but nothing they really want. They do manage to steal the minigun, which might come in handy since the commander’s MG got damaged.

The group puts on a replacement tire only to have it loosen somewhat down the road. They tighten it again, but apparently some threads are stripped because it fails again later as they make their way to PENGUIN.

Li’s bodyguard, who made it through the dragon battle and all the Chained Islands battles, vanishes with a scream as she is stung and plucked from the cupola. Half of her is returned and the creature that did it scuttles off into the night.

Limping into town, the group discovers that the Penguin lives in a converted old church that is now the St. Barbara the Blessed Stuntgirl Women’s Shelter and Car Repair Shop in Virginia City. The Penguin is a nun named Sister Angeline of Aboa. She lives there with Lenore, Althea, Carrie, Brenda, and Christine, all former showgirls turned mechanics. They do not allow men to enter the premises for more than an hour.

Li makes a point of making sure that her bodyguard gets a proper burial in the cemetery out back behind the shelter. She manages not to get converted to Sister Angeline’s faith and feels better that something right was done to commemorate her guard’s life.

The showgirls welcome Edwina (Hallé) back warmly and the group sits down for a meal. During this interlude the group asks the Penguin what she wants in return for her help.

Sister Angeline says that she wants Edwina to bring Jocasta back home to the Shelter where she can be taken care of. She is quite firm despite the group telling her that Jocasta has changed much for the worse. It isn’t clear whether Angeline really believes this is the original Edwina or not, but the other people treat her like she’s family.

When the group mentions that their old armored car is in bad shape and needs extensive repairs, she says that they should definitely take Edwina’s car since it is ready now. She points out the mil grade power plant, the mil spec tires, mil spec suspension and mil spec shocks. It is the new Sassmobile!

The group takes it for a spin, and their first stop is the Black Mesa Grill where they buy all the fried chicken they can afford. Biker gang fanboys flock to ‘Edwina’ for autographs and hugs and before long they almost triple the chicken purchase with their own credits.

Using a combination of kind words, plenty of fresh warm fried chicken and the apparently familiar sight of the Sassmobile, the group manages to lead Jocasta back to the shelter even though it takes longer to skirt the city.

Their obligation fulfilled, the Penguin offers to open a portal for them, but says that she isn’t sure how this will work out for them since they arrived in this dream in such an unusual fashion.

There is some conversation about the nature of dreams and who can visit them. Hallé is labelled a Dream Walker who can return to other people’s dreams if their body is in close physical proximity. FX is called a Dream Warrior who can have lucid dreams (e.g. ones in which he can control certain aspects but only for ‘true dreams’). Hallé mentions that she lacks a trainer, and Angeline of Aboa says that she will attempt to find her in the waking world to talk more.

She makes a portal for the group, big enough that they can try to drive the Sassmobile through. This portal seems more stable than the others, especially the one the Dragon made which seemed to be almost like a maw, writhing and unstable at the edges. The transition is smooth, and only Duncan suffers any ill effects. Instead of being devoured or otherwise waylaid by shadowy forces, he comes through the portal unconscious, and it takes strong drugs to wake him up.

The group finds itself in a cargo bay with large crates that have alien writing on them. Most of the gear they accumulated in the dream realm has vanished, with the sizable exception of the magic items and the Sassmobile!

Upon exiting the cargo bay into a corridor which is entirely transparent, FX discovers that he has a major problem 80/100 with deep space and suffers an immediate panic attack. Fleeing back into the cargo bay he hides out and won’t willingly go back out there for now. Other side of the coin is Li, who finally feels like she is back in real space. While the others take an exhausted nap from an overstimulating dream life, she busily spends her precious sleep time staring at the stars, calculating her location in the universe. Before the others get up, she believes she has reoriented herself in the heavens and knows somewhat where she is.

The group is on an alien space station and its approximate location is well within human space. In fact, she figures it to be fairly close to the Imperial homeworlds. This means that the aliens have an agenda that hasn’t been shared with the humans, information the Imperials would spend a fortune in energy and money to learn more about. However, human intruders exploring a secret space station might not stay too healthy if discovered or tracked down. It’s time to think about getting out and leaving no traces that the group was ever there!

The first two illegally search official Tombo filing cabinets, logged customs documents and sealed computer records to find the trail. When two unfortunate low level bureaucrats are found working late, they are added to the pile and put to the question. Both lackeys elect to find new employment afterwards rather than face the possibility of a return visit.

Who is more brutal? Is it the sweet talking, laser sharp witch who seemingly reads their minds even as they’re trying to come up with lies? She even knows where all the kickback accounts are! We have to move that money! Or is it the charming ice blue eyed devil who effortlessly mangles the high-defense outpost security system so thoroughly that the automated turrets still randomly open fire on authorized personnel weeks later?

After a few minutes it is obvious that the two louts don’t know anything about the kids other than their logged arrival and lack of departure information. Despite uncomfortable pressure to find out more, the two lackeys escape with only promises to keep their mouths shut and their eyes on the lookout for the reappearance of some very important teenagers.

Not that they have much recourse, legal or otherwise. It is a lost cause trying to find any electronic or physical trace of the covert visit, the only fingerprints remaining are the bruises the lackeys carry off to their new jobs. And all the data recordings have been emptied. Professionals, or military. Does it really matter which they are?

The third parent is the most persistent and soon locates the erstwhile civilian guide the kids used. Apparently the still active Imperial scout is trying to file an Imperial claim for a local island chain he just visited. The crack Frye lawyer team swoops in on that and soon overpowers the minimal Imperial representation with piles of boondoggle and the invaluable help of an amicable Colonial judge. In short order, and many bribes later, the Frye Island Retreat is legally owned and the heavy laser turrets have been ordered.

Six three man search-and-rescue teams are sent to the islands, each with a powerful radio and medical supplies to report on any sightings. They eventually find the temple and an additional surprise that keeps them far busier than anyone expected. They call for help!

Deciding on a personal visitation to expedite the search, Duncan’s mother takes along her personal arsenal. Who knew that mousy little Kay Frye knows how to expertly handle a wildly illegal military grade x-ray laser minigun? Even that dragon better think about finding a new retreat when she hits the beach…

Jasper nods to himself, if only they knew all the places Kay has seen and had a hand in blowing up. Innocent, ha!

Cintamanta 11:13: A curious meeting between two worlds occurs when Alec Cobb and Jim Blackwood meet at a bar and grille in town. Father Alec defers from the title and the collar in the informal restaurant, and Jim, feeling more than a little out of his depth, hurries to pass on his lack of news about FX’s whereabouts. Frowning, Alec says that his Church grapevine has also failed to pick up any word on where his brother might be. Despite the parental Cobbs checking military contacts, medical contacts, and what Imperial friends they still have, it seems that FX and his friends have fallen off the planet and into some dark rabbit hole. Sharing their concern forms a foundation of trust, and soon they are swapping funny stories about FX and his outlandish pranks. An easy friendship opportunity emerges that both examine and decide to accept. Like FX himself, they represent both sides of the divinity coin and sharing the knowledge of a complex person they both know from different viewpoints gives them a common ground. They part for the evening still concerned but still hopeful that he’ll turn up soon with another crazed scheme for mass confusion and public property destruction. Yes, they know him that well.

Cintamanta 03:34: Another mother sits at an unmarked but highly modified terminal in a hopefully secretly rented warehouse. Scanning current Imperial alerts and security warnings, she fails to find any notices about recent captures or inductions. By habit she checks for any 117 names but thankfully the Talents local Imperials are looking for are all feral.

I knew they wouldn’t find her, she cackles to herself. She is the One and no Cobb Big Money Meat Factory will ever be able to recreate my perfect success!

I wonder if she will enjoy the flight crew job I plan to recommend her for. To see the stars again, that would be a lovely thing. I’ve been planetbound for so long…

But so few can see the heavens like she will. She had to have the time to grow up like an ordinary kid, normal in every way. Everyone deserves that, even kids like her. If only the so-called experts knew! She will gather up all the local stars in one small hand and scatter them glittering to every far corner of the galaxy!

Finally one last square deposits them on the roof where the elusive man, Anjiro Dufresne, is waiting for them. Behind him, three fifteen foot towers spike with irregular gouts of brilliant energy.

Bursting with questions, the group manages to squeeze out a bit of info including that
- Anjiro and FX have met before, and each time FX was the teacher. Apparently the cycle has turned and it’s Anjiro’s turn to hold the cards and be inscrutable. Comments are made about how well he’s playing this role.
- Edwina Sass once visited here and he made that statue in her honor. Sometime after he made it she must have died, because he also tells the group that the shadows on his island are fragments of her psyche roaming around forever lost. Perhaps the statue would have gained additional powers if her soul had been reintegrated, but the chance went unrealized.
- the Pestilence is coming (and yes, it’s the mice from Jake’s Halo, and no, they aren’t really mice). It is later revealed that they are actually killing all the elemental guards in the tower as the group is talking to Dufresne. It wasn’t stated outright but it’s quite likely the skeletons in the craters were mice, not men.
- that this place is a dream that they have physically entered,
- that he believes this particular dream is owned by the whale thing swimming below,
- that if you wake or kill the dreamer bad things will happen to you if you don’t escape beforehand,
- and that FX should subdue the dragon in the dream realm (Far Meadows?) if he hopes to win.

In order to help the group escape, Anjiro decides to release some of the islands by turning off two of the three gems that power that process. He gives the gems to FX and Hallé and warns them to guard them with their lives as the gems are tremendous power foci and irreplaceable artifacts on their own. The group wants to warn Red of the impending disaster, but Anjiro points out that one of the top islands bounced off Red’s Aerie so he has all the warning he should need.

With most of the hapless satellite islands falling into the ocean, Anjiro can now afford to power a portal for the group which he says is not a direct route back to Remnant but to another dream where he believes a penguin will be able to help them. Despite the many questions they still have, Anjiro ushers them to the portal with a quick goodbye and adds that they will meet again.

Most of the group passes through uneventfully, but FX finds himself relaxing in an idyllic and somehow familiar place. Unlike the previous portals where shadowy beings were trying to grab the travelers, the inhabitants (who look disturbingly like cherubs) actually boot FX out when he doesn’t leave fast enough to suit them!

Getting LG the giant back to his island prison is the next item on the agenda, so the group floats up, past the angry Sisters, but the giant isn’t visible on either Eater’s or Hope. At Jake’s Halo, the group is bemused to discover a giant pair of boots and a skull. The cute and innocent looking mice disavow any involvement in dispatching LG. Duncan engages a mouse in single combat, and comes away from it losing a toe. Despite being tired, the party makes a point of going back to Red’s Aerie to rest rather than stay near the sinister rodents (whose numbers have tripled in a week). As proof of LG’s death and their goodwill, the group drags along the boots and skull to show the Red’s Aerie villagers.

Much to their dismay, instead of being pleased, Red and the shaman tell them they need to return the skull back to Hope as soon as possible. So despite being out of spiritual energy, Hallé makes a float out of sheer determination and up they go! After digging out the gate stave, they replace it in the gate and return to Red’s Aerie again. This time it is safe and they camp for the night.

In the morning, with some misgivings, the shaman gives the statue to Hallé and she melds it to the rest. One to go! Traveling back to Hope, they discover that LG is recovered and unhappy about being trapped in his island again. Deciding to take the high road, they bypass Hope and travel to Dufresne’s Verdict.

The Verdict is harsh indeed, a bleak blasted landscape where most of the geographical features have been repeatedly flattened by tremendous forces to leave craters and even fused glassy patches. Li notices three intact humanoid skeletons embedded in the bottom of one crater.

On peering down to Fall of Truth, a gently swaying, sometimes vertical island, they see that there is a brilliantly glowing pinprick of light which nonetheless illuminates the entire island. On the reverse face of the island there had only been moss and some gnarly vines clinging to the rock, but this outside edge has trees and other foliage growing toward the light. They also note a clearing near the light where everything has been burnt away by its energies.

With the bodyguards standing guard at the edge of the Verdict, Hallé summons a float to descend to Fall of Truth’s edge below. An unexpected LG honey bee buzzes by the balloon, dividing her attention and causing Hallé to lose the envelope’s integrity. Once again the whole group falls!

Most people manage to grab on, but FX and Hallé tumble down the island, FX holding a slight lead. Hallé uses her acrobatic talents to overtake him while simultaneously getting the statuette out. As they get closer to the blinding, incredibly hot light, both notice they are actually being physically drawn to it with increasing speed. Hallé manages to touch the statuette to the light just before they become french fries.

However, without the glowing statue to redirect their fall, both start tumbling down the face of the island again. Hallé finds a hold soon enough, but FX bounces and skids several times before he is launched into a fatal plunge that will end badly in the ocean far below.

Disoriented, battered, and now facing death, FX is twisted around by a lucky updraft which faces him towards the islands again. Remembering back to some action vids he watched, he twists and stretches desperately to direct his free fall toward the nearest island and is amazed to see that he is actually heading toward it! However, reality tells him it won’t be enough, the edge is just too far away without another crazy lucky updraft.

Falling relentlessly toward the lip of Eater’s Island, FX is suddenly jarred to a near downward halt by an impact which shears him to a new vector that easily clears the edge and tumbling head over heels onto the island. Stunned for a long moment, his first reaction is to stand up in amazement and check for broken ribs. Running his memory back, it felt like he’d bounced off a rock but opening his shirt doesn’t reveal a puncture. Instead two hand print bruises are highly visible on his chest.

Shaking his head in disbelief, FX summons Rooster and uses its unnatural agility to rejoin the group who has returned to Dufresne’s Verdict.

While they wait for FX to climb back up, Hallé looks at the completed statuette which now shines with an inner glow and has much finer details. While it looks somewhat like her, the face is wrong. For one thing, it’s too old, and another it has bushy eyebrows. Nice smile though. On the bottom is a mostly illegible autograph, which Hallé puzzles out as Edwina Sass.

With morbid curiosity, Li checks for more skeletons, wondering how they died and if there might be radioactivity here. She notices something out of place but isn’t sure what it is. Then movement catches her eye and she sees the distorted shadow of a person move, only there is no one there to cast it. Calling out, she warns the party that something strange is going on. More odd, twitching shadows are spotted jerkily approaching the group. The scene closes with the group making a quick circle while they figure out their options. In the background, the silent glassy black tower waits patiently to mop up any survivors.

During the transit past the Eater’s Island to Red’s, FX suddenly decides to go exploring the island just after saying otherwise. The group tackles him and gets the torc off, only to have Hallé decide to try it on. Another set of tackles later, Li manages to fling it off the edge of the island (and unbeknownst to the group, into a pond in the island below).

Due to some bad luck, some of the group falls into the pond below as well, and Hallé gleefully reclaims her torc. At the once friendly village Red manages to reset the torc and removes it safely. He tells them that it is the slave component of a slave/master set and that it has an obsession and conversion functionality. The latter transforms the user into an obedient ape slave.

The group rests for a week, allowing Duncan to recover and Hallé to learn the float magick. Li and FX do some goodwill work and try to gain some skills with the villagers. Hallé can now create a basket and gasbag envelope (sphere at the moment) to lift or drop up to a limit of 4 people encumbrance and 1200# total weight at a rate of 100′ per minute through air or 10′ through water (cost is 1 spirit chip for 1 hour for envelope alone, 1 chip for basket, and caster must fully concentrate on maintaining float or it will vanish.)

Back on the hunt again, the group goes for the blue statuette on the Sword of Damocles, a freely moving chain that has been known to kill creatures that get too close to it. The group spies a young boy comfortably sitting on the chain as it whips crazily around and finds out from the village that he is the statuette. On closer inspection, he carries a paper lantern and wears a strange hat that looks like a half open umbrella with the shaft torn out.

Braving the increasingly hostile undulations of the chain, the group notices a small thundercloud forming above the chain. It starts raining, making the entire chain length slippery. And the wind starts picking up. Despite best efforts by the group to fall off, Li’s safety lines and planning help save various people. Small lightning bolts from the cloud fail to seriously influence the battle, and the tide turns when FX manages to control the chain and extends it to Red’s island instead of leading off into space. The battle finally ends when FX manages to touch the kid with the melded statuettes, thus forcing him to join the others. Li recovers the hat but the lantern is nowhere to be seen.

The following morning Hallé discovers the lantern, undamaged, at the foot of her cot. It is a silk and wood lantern with a decorative ideogram on each face. It is meant to be carried rather than hung.

Second island (Red’s Aerie): Climbing up the vine wrapped chains isn’t as difficult as first believed but Duncan does manage to take a header into the pool below.  This island has some shrubby trees and a curious bunch of fetish people who revere Afefe and are led by an old human named Red.  They tell the group about some of the islands above them and what awaits them.  Red explains that the Eightfold Way the little people refer to are actually eight statuettes that Dufresne created.  Red reveals that Duncan and Li have no magick about them, FX has a strange magick aura, and Hallé definitely has magickal Talent. In fact, Red offers to teach Hallé the ‘float’ magick, but the group decides it is more expedient to have Red ferry them instead.  The natives offer to trade but no one has much they want.

Third Island (Eaters of Truth):  The group avoids this island because they heard that there are 4+ packs of dangerous apes who live on this multi tiered island.  Red lands them on a chain leading to the Sister’s Knot and departs with a wave.   At this juncture FX falls off a chain but manages to break his fall with tree foliage instead of trunks and manages to escape the Eaters’ island without further injury (thanks in part to Rooster).

Sister’s Knot:  Not a true island, Sister’s Knot is a tangle of chains that form a medium sized habitat for a group of surly teens in leather jackets.  One of them begins miming Duncan and forms a kind of psychic bond with him.  The Sisters give the group some information about other islands and Dufresne the magi.  They also claim to have some special unarmed skills that help keep the inmates in line.  The group trades for the white statuette and then forges onto the next island.

Fourth Island (Hope):  Surrounded by an animated bone wall which spears people trying to pass through or over it, the group finds a gate with a large heavy bar that requires three people to move it.  Rooster is able to leap over the wall, so FX goes to see if he can find a tree he’s heard about here.  The tree is a strange pine with a scattering of withered and ripe pinecones.  On closer inspection, the pinecones have laughing human faces and pulse like hearts.  To drink one, you rip open one of the protruding veins and suck down the juice, squeezing as you go.  The face grimaces horribly as you do this, of course.  It is rumored the fruit can also be used like grenades but no one has learned the process yet.  FX sorts through the eight kinds of fruit it has and settles on taking a glowing fruit.  Having the melded statues in hand and saying ‘Gift’ (a secret word the fetish people taught the group) allows FX to ripen two more fruit which he also takes.

Meanwhile the group opens the gate and starts taunting and shooting LG, the two headed giant that terrorizes this island.  During the fight, a crushing blow destroys Duncan’s other sabaton making him the Barefoot Squire.  During a rush to the gate the giant also bats Tómas, the other male bodyguard, into space, never to be heard from again.

After the group wounds LG, he grudgingly makes a deal for the yellow statuette he holds, part of which is the possibility of letting him through to the temple island back on CoG2.  Rooster interjects here that FX’s guardian might not approve but is ignored.  LG then charges down the chain to put some hurt on the Sisters of Mercy and anyone else who has kept him penned up.  While the giant is pummeling one of the Sisters, Duncan starts suffering sympathetic bruises and contusions from the one that was mimicking him.  Luckily, that Sister escapes serious injury and Duncan stops taking the injuries the other should have had.

From here, the group could go to the highest island Dufresne’s Verdict, a vertical island called the Fall of Truth, or a tilted island called Jake’s Halo.  They opt for Jake’s Halo, and make the climb to

Fifth Island (Jake’s Halo): Mouse people live here, some of which have magickal talents.  They were brought to the prison as a fast breeding food source, but have managed to carve out a safe haven for themselves above most of the creatures that would eat them, especially the voracious gulls.  When FX tries to open the portal to the Temple, the attempt fails and Rooster tells him that it should be available next week.   The group trades for the pink statuette and rests here as it seems to be safe.  In the process of putting on and taking off the magickal helmet, Duncan notices that there is an additional decoration on the left side, a tall rectangle surrounding a series of nine gold crosses in a 3×3.  It is constant throughout any appearance changes, even when disguised as something prosaic like a baseball cap.  This is definitely new!

The group fails to find the guide that was recommended to them.  He apparently fled his house in Tombo for unknown reasons.  After locating a replacement, the group travels to the island they believe the temple is on.  Not only is there a temple but a native dressed up to play the part of a ‘high priest’ is waiting for tourists to arrive.  Unsure whether this is the place, FX uses his sword to locate the dragon and the temple again.  Both seem to be some ways off.  Trying a new infinity sign with the Corona pen, he opens a portal that apparently leads directly to the temple.

Upon passing through the portal, Li experiences something different than the others.  She is passing through a dark void and is pursued by a bunch of shadowy figures.  Luckily she manages to pass through the portal before they catch up.  On the other side, she is disoriented.  Her directional sense is gone!

Before actually entering the temple, Duncan is saved from a foot crushing by the crumpling of the armor around his right foot.  Rooster later tells him that the armor damage is permanent.

Exploring the temple, the group finds a stairway leading to a 100×100 room with two features, a set of four dragon statuettes in the corners and a large floor mural of an army (seems similar to the one from the crypt painting).  When the statues start to glow, the party deduces that the dragon is getting near.

FX and the rest of the group emerge from the temple to challenge the dragon who patiently waits for them from a beach outside the half submerged structure.  After FX issues a challenge, the dragon scoffs at the group and summons a giant portal that sucks the group into a dark void that leads to a place of the dragon’s choosing.

One of the bodyguards fails to escape the shadowy hunters in the void.  See ya Raoul!

The group appears in a small cave on a rainswept floating island that is  covered with grass, heavy beaked gulls, bird nests and lots of bird poop.  The  island floats over a large featureless body of water (which nonetheless seems vaguely familiar to Hallé) and is overshadowed by another island.  As the rain stops and the sun shines down, the group notices several huge chains connecting the two.

After an uneventful trip back to Cintamanta, FX asked his parents to put in claims on the crypt since they had family members there, and more experimentation ensued.  Without serious injury Hallé figured out that she was Aquagrrl, with only minor injury Li figured out she could absorb large amounts of electricity without injury, and with serious damage to home and neighborhood (not to mention a passing ship) FX figured out that he could summon a dragon.  Sometimes, but not often.  Or maybe only once.  And it flew off.  Damn.  Come back!

After talking to Rooster, the group decided that they had to pursue the dragon to its new Shattered Isles location, probably an ancient temple.  After some preparation including hiring bodyguards for each member, and possibly locating a local former scout guide, the group headed off on their bare bones transport to the Shattered Isles.

Li proposed a trip to the desert to test her intent to become a Colonial Scout.  The hired guide suggested they try the north coast to ease into actual survival training in stages.  Traveling to and visiting Darwin was uneventful, but the troupe soon headed south in hot pursuit of their recently stolen speeder.  After discovering that the thief was chasing after and killing aliens, possibly on FX’s behalf, the party met the aliens and briefly the killer.

Duncan discovered that it isn’t wise to stare into the sun (or even a tiny nuclear explosion) and required some corrective surgery to recover his eyesight.  He also had some hair replaced due to a campground cooking accident but decided to chop some of it off again when his mother told him it made him look just like his father.

Li located a handy guide for her trip, did a bit of sightseeing, then got to meet real live aliens and observe them interacting with a hostile enemy.  Not wanting to receive the same attention, she offered supplies to treat the wounded but was ignored.

Hallé managed to summon and then banish a small blue flame that acted most strangely.  Duncan had surmised that emerging powers might be active in times of stress but Hallé managed to summon this flame during a quiet moment.

Though the group is unaware of it, both Duncan and Hallé’s moms were instrumental in deflecting public and media attention away from the group’s presence at both scenes where aliens were killed.

FX found a spot in the valley that seems to correlate to where he first found the Hill in his dream.  Aliens followed him and attempted to conceal the crypt? there from him.  A hired digging team has just helped unearth a metal crypt? door with an ancient seal inscribed on its face.