Crouching Spider, Burning Dragon

The party didn't have to wait too long before a white speck in the distance grew into a large white dragon, beating its wings to catch up with the soaring balloon. The paladin transformed himself through powerful magics into a large white half-dragon and flew out to converse with the creature. The dragon, unable to suppress her lust, raced forwards to embrace him but was firmly rebuffed with the edge of a sword. Flying on past, the dragon was peppered with Fireballs, Flame Strikes and fiery breath. Her ardour cooled, the badly burned dragon dived away out of range with a summoned pair of pursuing celestial hippogriffs falling far behind - even air elementals can't catch a dragon in flight.

With the threat removed, the balloon continued its journey and at the end of the day was brought to land at the base of a waterfall high up in the wall of the cone. After refuelling and a good night's sleep, the party continued on towards the step still many miles above.

A problem became apparent when they found a cave to stop in later the next day, formed from a collapse of weak rock from the cone's all. Free-flowing water was absent close under the step above so the gnomic turbines could not be used. Falling back onto the success of the storm-powered refuelling, Lightning Bolts were magically summoned to top up the fuel tanks.

The atmosphere clinged to the surface of the step above them for five miles in similar fashion to the layer over Escona. A shiny haze could be seen, though, many miles off which they hadn't experienced before. As the adventurers travelled horizontally under the stone ceiling above them, the haze was eventually discovered to be a miles upon miles of near-invisible spider silk threads. And where there is spider silk there are, of course, spiders. Soon hundreds of tiny and - a few miles further on - not so tiny arachnids landed on the balloon after drifting through the air on trailing strands. Although of no threat, the monk took exception and annoyed the druid kensai by dispatching a few. Soon a spider the size of a pumpkin landed on the top of the flying craft, only to be squashed by Banaar's mighty fist.

Still the craft sailed on through the fine curtains of silk towards its goal ...

[[White dragon - 300 xp each (partial success)]]
[[Tiny monstrous spider - 5 xp for the monk]]

Benedict and the Bandit

The storm elemental created a lightning bolt which shook the ground as it attempted to deter the spellcasters from irritating it. As that failed, it then got in close and physical by thumping Adriana unconscious. Seering Light, Magic Missiles and Fireballs still continued to fly in from other quarters and the elemental was soon destroyed.

The bandit hunters returned to camp long after the elemental had been vanquished. The paladin had a tough enough battle on his hands preventing the captured bandits from being tortured at the hands of the hobbit. Realising that the prisoners could not be taken with the party and that law enforcement representatives were few and far between in this area, the paladin decided to force a promise out of them. As long as the bandits returned to a productive life without crime, they would not be punished; if they did - and he left them with little doubt that he would be checking up - then justice would be done and punishment would be swift. To help them on their way - assuming they managed to untie themselves from the trees to which they were bound before wild animals took an interest - the paladin left some platinum pieces next to their armour on the floor. Their weapons were not given back to remove temptation.

The balloon, now fully fuelled up was ready to fly. Unfortunately, it was still night time and the vast cone rising just a mile away was invisible in the darkness. So despite having saved hours using the energy of the lightning storm, the party still had to wait until dawn.

The next day the mission restarted and was soon rising steadily to the step above. The flora and fauna was much different to what they were used to in Escona. There were signs of civilisation but few and far between due to the exceptionally steep nature of the surface.

One group of locals did intercept the balloon by flying out to it under a flag of truce. A quartet of powerful raptorans demanded the travellers pay the toll of a major magic item before continuing on their journey through the territory of their mistress, a mighty white dragon. Failure to do so would illicit her wrath which, surprisingly, was the option the party opted for, leaving the emissaries to return from whence they came.

[[Storm elemental - 450 xp each for those involved]]
[[Bandit dilemma - 100 xp to the paladin]]

Perfectly stormy

The route taken by warm air and falling water around the steps means that thunderstorms are common across the surface of the cone. This proved to be the case as the Prototype Gnomic Airless Balloon came to the end of its third day at the cone's foot. Thunder rolled across the step and lightning leapt from cloud to cloud.

The balloon became bathed in orange St Cuthbert's Fire as the heavily charged air surrounded it. The gnomes were exceptionally interested in testing out their hypothesis that using the electrical energy of the storm would shorten refuelling time immensely. Jaget, as head of the school of kinetics, was soon in place with a metal Prototype Gnomic High Performance Refuelling Rod held aloft. Within moments lightning was crackling down from the sky and into the refuelling mechanism and the test was deemed a success. Jaget was unable to participate in the cheering, having come under the influence of what looked like a rather frenetic version of Otto's Irresistible Dance spell.

A mile away, Benedict, Squick and Banaar were on patrol looking for bandits. They were convinced that the huge balloon must have attracted the curious and they were soon proved right. Half a dozen horsemen armed with long spears came into view and charged the trio. The first wave of three were quickly dispatched; the first had his horse disembowelled beneath him before himself being beaten unconscious as he lay on the ground; the second was knocked flying out of the saddle by a stunning fist; the third received mental damage which also stunned him. The second wave, seeing the fate of their comrades, turned and fled.

High above the balloon, a particularly large release of lightning ripped a portal to the elemental planes which in turn dragged a large Storm Elemental through before collapsing. The fierce but dim-witted creature was immediately attracted to the glowing balloon, much to the consternation of the party standing by it. Searing light and magic missiles did not deter the elemental from reaching its target and soon it was standing atop the structure, bellowing with pleasure as the glow of St Cuthbert’s Fire flowed into its body.

[[Six bandits - 300 xp each (partial success) for those involved]]

4 miles and rising, 5 miles and ... oh...

At Zumcan, the Lieutenant in command of a platoon of cavalry patrolling the ruins greeted the floating travellers when they landed. He had been alerted that the party were on a mission through the area but, although expected, the arrival of the huge balloon was still surprising.

The adventurers spent some time exploring the blast site, collecting fragments of broken stone and smooth glass as they went.

After discussing their plans, the party decided to go vertically up from Zumcan to quickly reach the source of the devastation. Current thinking was that, if they travelled at night when the air was denser then they would rise easier and not need so much fuel. The gnomes were more than happy to put this to the test.

With the next nightfall, the balloon was rising much higher than it had been before. The temperature starting dropping as they rose and the air became thinner, making it both difficult to breath and harder for the balloon to rise. After rising five miles, the party called off the exercise before everyone not protected by magic froze to death or suffocated. The direct approach was out.

The gnomes entered all such discoveries into books that were stored in the Black Box, a wooden ox painted black. The intention of this device was that its contents would be used by subsequent Gnomish expeditions to avoid and resolve any problems encountered by the first group. Based on a rota, one of the gnomes was designated Black Box carrier to get the documents to safety in the event of a dire emergency.

Of minor note, Zindig has started behaving oddly. When given an opportunity, and often when not, the gnomish expert on communication will wax lyrical on Squick’s skills and abilities. This activity currently brings mild amusement to his colleagues.