The Quest of the Sundered Cosmos

Five adventurers; Tsanaq-lu, Swanson, Darien, Albrys and this other guy meet up before King Euric of Wheland in his citadel at Tarrin, who orders them to head to Davinport to get a ship to investigate why the sun is black and that there are no more moons or stars in the night skies. The ship is guarded by a man in a purple hat. They then head all the way to Davinport, buying a wad of smoked cheese on the way. Darien pilfers the ship owner's hat, and they head off to the barren sea to see that it is thickly enshrouded in prismatic mists.

They find an island and anchor the ship to a stable part of the waters, where they see a giant oyster beneath the ship. Darien ties a ten meter rope around his waist and has Albrys and Swanson hold on to the rope. Tsanaq-lu gives Darien a needle laced with paralysis poison, and Darien dives in. He successfully paralyzes the giant oyster, and siezes the giant black pearl. Then he tugs the rope twice and is hauled back up on deck. Swanson gives a dramatic speech along the lines of the black pearl representing their quest.

There they set out rowboats to bring all five of them to the island, and they explore until they find a dragon statue with rubies for eyes. Swanson, the captain of the S. S. Stormhost, tosses a rock at the ruby, but it nearly hits him with a laser beam. Swanson attempts to do it again when an old man who lives in a mountainside cavern stops him.

The old man explains his theories that the entire planet of Astaremas has been taken apart and stitched together into a gigantic transdimensional patchwork, along with pieces of many other worlds. He presents them with a massive machine with turbines and propellers. While he is pulling it out of his cave Swanson successfully takes out two rubies.    Darien attempts to intimidate the old man into telling the truth, and he is in fact is. They bring the machine to the keel of the ship via rowboat, and the old man gets to work securing the thing to the ship. The ship, to the gobsmacked surprise of everyone one board, lurches upwards begins to fly. They order that they fly south, and they encounter a flock of flying stingrays. Later the ship hovers over a radioactive wasteland and see a pack of radioactive ghouls roam past. Tsanaq-lu fires an arrow at them. He misses.

Later they catch sight of the glorious marching city known in the many tongues of the universe as Gathox. Gathox proceeds to walk from the desert to a steaming, tangled jungle, and it opens its massive maw from which reaches many arms that uproot bundles of jungle trees to be reformed into more buildings. It also sucks up a lake with a massive straw from its mouth, and then the straw plunges deep into the earth and drinks a massive volume of black ooze that the old man tells the party is petroleum. Unfortunately the propellers and turbines that are attached to the ship begins to run out of petrol, and they all land close to Gathox.

The same band of irradiated ghouls that Tsanaq-lu shot a crossbow bolt at enters Gathox - in particular the neighborhood of The Kettle - through the Gate of Exploding Brilliance. The party and the crew follow them in, and see the market, known by Gathoxians as The Dregs. Albrys looks at a laser pistol that is on sale, but a pair of Mi-chiw guards push him away. The party eventually coalseces around a heavily guarded stall selling a license that allows anyone to get any amount of resource from the X'Xul with a favour in return - in this case, the party wants to procure petroleum to get the ship moving again. The license costs 5000 gp, so the party seeks a quest on the market's gigantic notice board.

One is the request of a man from Berchan Favela who asks someone to kill off the crocodactyls that are plaguing his rooftop terrace farm. The reward from the task is 1500 gp. On the way to Berchan Favela, they encounter a casino/gladiatorial arena called Vu Ma's House of Resplendent Fortune seeking mages. Tsanaq-lu signs up to fight in the arena.

While the rest of the party join the audience of mutants and aliens sitting on the bleachers, Tsanaq-lu walks past a long row of spiked steel cages holding fearsome mutated monsters. The audience grows angry and impatient, and Tsanaq-lu marches fiercly into the sandy floor of the arena, painted with blood and strewn with bones and carrion. The massive wooden door opposite to him bursts open, and from it storms a stitched one. It misses its first strike, and Tsanaq-lu uses his sorcery to disguise himself as partially invisible. The undead mutant misses him again and the sorcerer casts a burning hands on the mutant. The monster slashes him with its halberd, knocking him down from 5 to 4 hit points.

Darien tosses a gourd of pig fat on the monster, and Tsanaq-lu sets it on fire with a fire bolt. A brutal, bloody melee commences until Tsanaq-lu is reduced to a single hit point. Darien hurls a crowbar, which harmlessly bounces off its shoulder. Enraged, the thing attempts to climb past the steel grid between the arena and the audience. Tsanaq-lu uses this as an opportunity to cast another fire bolt on the stitched one, and it falls to the ground. He then uses the crowbar to decapitate the stitched one after thirty-something tries, and it is finally killed. The audience goes wild and they cheer him on.

Triumphantly Tsanaq-lu leaves the arena, and is rewarded 100 gold pieces, three sticks of dynamite, and a gold medal by the owner, Vu Ma. The rest of the party moves through a crowded mob of many excited mutants, and see a bunch of vendors selling snacks and a guy selling wax models of Tsanaq-lu's glorious victory. Albrys, the half-elf, decides to loot the carcass of the stitched one and procures an empty pistol. Tsanaq-lu decides to spend the rest of his day at the Bar with No Name. The other four members of the adventuring party walk over to a thrift store known as Berling's Goods and Antiques - located in the approximate middle of Kermen territory, where Albrys buys fifty bullets for his pistol. They leave the store, and walk to Li Zhao's Dollhouse, to buy a pork golem or two.