Last night was Atlantis, and we delve ever deeper into the mysterious continent of Australia Mu. Here's last time.
The heroes are left, after the ghost-ship battle, with a glittery feather, all that's left of Akala. They head back to Port Serpentslice and consider how to get their owl-friend back. "Sounds like a magic thing," muses Jengo, and Eithne considers what kind of spells she could throw at this situation.
Meanwhile, Akala looks around and sees that she's standing on the ocean. Everything is glowing and slowed down; she assumes she's hallucinating (it happens). She turns and walks across the ocean to the continent, and sees that Mu is flat and alabaster, like polished marble. She looks to the sky and sees flying cities - maybe the City of the Owl-People, which she's been to, but also other ones. She sees one crackling with Vril energy and flies to it, preparing to land.
Back in the waking/living/real world, Eithne invokes her soul name and summons Akala back with the powerful magic it unleashes. Akala appears in a column of light and sparks, and blinks in the sun. She relates what she saw, and laments that Eithne didn't wait 20 more minutes. But at least she has something to study.
Looking into her books and histories, she finds descriptions of the Sky Temple of Altjira, a Vril-powered structure that flies around the continent of Mu, making a full circuit every 90 days. It crosses ley lines on solstices and equinoxes, drawing power to keep its Vril engines charged. Akala decides she would like to visit it, since she saw it in a vision, and starts plotting out where it would be. She figures that it's just about to cross the Taran Mountain range; the heroes can catch up with it, but they need to leave now. Otherwise, it would faster to just wait the month until it comes back around.
Imani goes to the port and hires the Dorothea, a small ship with a very enthusiastic Atlantean named Hesper as the captain (and first mate, and cook). The characters board and it becomes quickly obvious to Imani that this woman has never captained before. Taking her aside, Hesper confirms to Imani that she won the ship in a card game and doesn't actually know what she's doing. Imani graciously agrees to help her find her feet as a kind of informal first mate.
They ship rolls merrily along, moving northeast around the Mu coast, and then sailing inland up a river. Akala spots trouble - Ahl-at-Rab hiding in blinds along the riverbank, clearly planning a raid. She points this out to the others, who decide to nip this shit in a bud.
Eithne hurls a blast of fire at one of the blinds, not seeking to kill the inhabitants so much as scatter them. The blind goes up in sparks and fire, and the Ahl-at-Rab within slip out into the water...but then a bunch more stand up and hurl throwing weapons at the heroes.
Akala takes to the skies to look out and hurl javelins, while Eithne calls up a shield around the ship. Imani stands on the bow and bellows at them to let the ship pass, and that would be intimidating enough, but Jengo lets fly a volley of arrows at the Ophidians. They officially decide that this isn't worth the trouble and retreat, and the ship continues down the river.
A day or so later, they arrive at the falls at the foot of Taran Mountains, and the heroes disembark (Hesper and her crew mock up some quick facsimiles of the characters so that maybe they can get through Ahl-at-Rab territory without getting hit on the way back).
The heroes camp; Akala tells them the Flying Temple should be crossing their path tomorrow morning. In the middle of the night, they all wake with a start, and find this thing:
Eating food out of one of their packs!
Akala recognizes it as a bunyip, a creature native to Mu that lives in lakes and rivers and comes out to hunt. They try to scare it away, but it sits back and lets out some loud chirp sounds...and the characters hear more chirps in response.
Eithne flings sparks at the bunyips to try and drive them off, but though they hesitate, they don't flee. Several of them leap forward to attack, but Jengo lets a volley of arrows loose and hits most of them. Akala flings a chakram and bounces it off the head of the one in the camp (which is currently trying to eat Jengo), and Imani grabs a torch and tries to drive them off. That doesn't work; these things only show marginal fear. She instead grabs a spear and impales one to the ground.
Eithne hurls fire at one, finally scaring it off, and Jengo bonks the one clawing at him with his club. The one Imani skewered pulls itself free and decides that this prey isn't worth it, and the creatures flee.
The characters keep watch, not wanting to find bunyips in their stuff ("Guess we should have tied up our food in a...bunyip box").
The next morning, Akala points - a cloud is moving toward them, pearly and colorful in the rising sun. The Flying Temple of Atljira. Eithne summons up her magic and turns Imani and Jengo into adorable kittens, and then shapeshifts into an Uluka. Together, she and Akala fly up to the temple and land.
The stewards of the place recognize Akala's name and have read her chronicles, and tell her that she and her friends are welcome. The temple can only be opened for the King of the Skies, however, the chosen Uluka leader. They offer to help the characters to their quarters and change out their armor and weapons for robes and books.
Next time, owl-king politics!
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