Entry 1

Megwen[*] has gifted me a journal! She said she's always collecting them but doesn't use half, and seemed quite excited about me chronicling my activities. Not that she can read Kreen. Maybe that is for the best, like a secret code

Theodore is very impatient, will write more later.

It is later, and much has happened! I am in the library of a Mercane! Nickelodeus has sadly gone but that does give me time to write while the sleepers sleep.

Ah, I should back up. I am slowly sobering up and my mind is in many pieces. Note to self, do not try to keep pace with Theo.

Meg, Theo, and I were making our way from the Shattered Chain up to Daggers on account that Daggers is closer to Theo's lodgings, when out of the alley runs, of all things, a lone astral elf! Astral elves, of course, normally only travel in packs. I side-stepped to avoid being run down by the frantic fellow and what does he do upon seeing us but immediately hide behind Theo, babbling something about wolf-bats, quite beside himself. Being quite full of 'liquid courage' I marched straight down to investigate.

Down the alley I found myself confronted by two slavering beasts that Megwen identified as worgs, which are about as big and hairy as giant space hamsters but significantly leaner and scarier. Riding on the back of one was a hobgoblin, which is like an orc but with a warm color skin, only this one was missing its lower legs. Later Seb told us her name is Zurah. Zurah and the worgs, whose names I never learned, tried to shake us down like common pirates. Although we outnumbered them, three of us were very drunk, so we made a tactical retreat aided by a light spell of some kind from Navi.

The astral elf is called Navitacus, he has a full title but I've forgotten the rest of it. He is very much like Megwen, middle height, spectacled, rather reedy and nervous, not imperious as is usual for the astral type.

Once we were at a safe distance we struck up conversation with Navi. He's friendly but he didn't give many straight answers. He did say he needed to meet The Collector. We had nothing better to do so showed him the way.

The Collector is a Mercane, he is a bit more approachable than usual for that kind, just as odd as his reputation. Has much too much room in his estate. Very inefficient use of space. He invited us to dinner and introduced us to Seb, another hobgoblin, who is orange and blind. (Theo saw her fall from the sky earlier! He was telling us about an 'orange orc' but we thought he had gotten into something other than booze.)

After dinner the Collector said our meeting was fate. He said something else actually, I asked if he meant fate and he seemed very pleased with that. He showed us to the domed room in the middle of the estate, which is filled with nothing short of the most fantastically intricate multi-system orrery.

No! He didn't show us right away. He called for Nickelodeus, who is a musical autognome in his service, to give a proper dramatic flair to the unveiling.

Anyway the orrery was very magnificent, the Collector said he's been working on it for some time and was able to read the future in it, somehow? He said he foresaw us coming here, although he thought there would be one more, and he asked us to work for him. Theo was a little reluctant to enter a contract and Megwen outright refused but it sounded like a great idea to me and Navi and Seb.

Navi recognized something in the machine and talked to the Collector about his brother, apparently Navi is looking for him and he passed through and traded to the Collector but asked for secrecy. Navi asked for secrecy about his being here, too. Maybe he's being hunted?

The Collector gave us a card for the Cracked Husk Shipyard to go pick out a ship and then go to his assistant Noss for a line of credit for 20,000! Quite a lot, but will it buy a ship? I know they are not cheap.

He offered us rooms for the night. Megwen left because she has classes in the morning despite my and Theo's best efforts to set her up with Navi for the night. Theo and Seb went to sleep it off. I went to the library with Navi and spent more time with Nickelodeus. I haven't spent much time around autognomes aside from the rickshaw-drivers, which Nickelodeus is much too delicate for. Like an awakened music box! Gnomes do create such strange wonders with their tinkering.

That catches me up to the now, at any rate. I wonder what Navi is up to? Elves don't have to sleep either so he wanted to look at books. Perhaps studying for his secret mission!

Seb also doesn't seem like she's from anywhere I know. I've certainly never seen a hobgoblin before tonight. She said she was looking for her tribe. I think someone brought up the Neogi but my memory is a little hazy. Snatching up unsuspecting folks is definitely something they would do.

As the hangover sets in I begin to regret some rather hasty decisions tonight, but I do look forward to being on a proper ship again.

*Every name and unfamiliar word is written and scratched out several times before settling on a spelling that approximates the right sounds. Certain letters like M and B are simply written in Common.