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A trip to the City of Glass proved pretty easy.  In about a week, we were told that there was a trade caravan headed to the One Eyed King's realm, with part of it going out to meet another caravan at the "city of glass" to pick up and exchange goods and bring them back.  They agreed to let us travel with them and we were offered the use, just this once, of horses from the royal stables.  The King wasn't about to let us exert too much influence on him, and was already creating distance. Maybe if he hadn't heard too much about mom, I don't know, but ... at least we could assure our moms that we hadn't flirted with him at all.

First thing we did was go look at a caravan to get an idea of what we were going to travel with.

Caravans Well, I'm not sure what the caravans look like from other cities, but getting ready to set out from this one is an interesting feat.  The caravans have three types of very large spiders that are their mainstay. The first group is racing spiders, which weigh between 80 and 120 pounds and which can carry from 120 to 160 pounds (for day-in and day-out travel) at speeds up to eighteen miles per hour.  They like to run out and then mill around and run some more. Racing spiders are the easiest to breed and the cheapest to buy, but they don't carry much, don't keep good company with a caravan, and can't carry many riders (a large man in armor just makes them collapse to the ground and sit there, looking put out).  On the other hand, they make good scouts and most militias will have skirmishers mounted on racing spiders and armed with spears, spear throwers and slings.  They stand about eight feet off the ground and look like overgrown daddy-long-legs. Next are the ha'spiders, which weigh between 160 and 200 pounds (and carry from 240 to 400 pounds) and which are the mainstay of most caravans.  They carry riders and cargo at a good pace, and don't have trouble going slower than their fastest pace. Wandering mercenaries, heros and sell swords tend to ride ha'spiders, with a second one in tow for their gear.  They stand about twelve feet off the ground (that is the top of the round ball that is their body, which is like a large beach ball, the legs go up past it and back down -- just like a daddy-long-legs legs do) and cover ground at about twelve to fourteen miles per hour. n'spiders are like pack horses and carry cargo, often in long lines, one behind the other.  They are even less intelligent than the other kinds of spiders, about ten feet off the ground, weighing about 240 pounds, and moving at about ten miles per hour. They are related to donkey spiders, which before the One Eyed King introduced oxen, were used on all the farms in this part of the world (a donkey spider is about 60 pounds, no one rides them, but they can pull small carts, a small plow and provide other labor.  They don't work well in teams). The oxen have eight legs and are very muscular.  They cover the ground at a steady pace of about three to four miles per hour.  I suppose they can move faster, I've just never seen them move faster (or much slower).  They are used in teams of two or four to pull wagons and carts. Also, most caravans will have a few spider-camels.  With eight legs, each ten to twelve feet long, these are fast, ill mannered, bad tempered, and spit gunks of spiderweb when irritated.  They look like camels, with lots of legs, and come from a desert world that one of the strands is anchored to. Horses are rare.  The One Eyed King brought them to StarStrands and only his paladins ride them -- as well as a few of the city guard -- they are considered an important gift. The spiders eat sun nettle seeds and some green stuff as well as some smaller bugs (a bug needs to be the size of a carrot or smaller before one of these spiders will eat it).  Sun nettle seeds have a meat that tastes like a sunflower seed and that is about the size of a cashew, with a paperthin shell that tastes a lot like a very salty sour cream potato chip (for real!). The three types of spiders used in caravans all have a special leg that they use to harvest the seeds.

Since we had a week to get ready, we took our boat out, down the river, by the shrine, and home.  I was impressed that no one had tried to follow us, but it seems that most people thought we were coming and going by using the star shrine -- so they thought that they knew where we were going.  Most people didn't feel like messing with the star shrine for a while, not after what happened to all the spiderkin.

I was a little worried that they would be after us in force, but it turns out that all of the ones that were after us had gotten themselves consumed by the shrine and the other ones both were glad that they had gotten eaten (the gangs don't like each other) and blamed them for what happened to them.  Doesn't always work that way, but I was relieved to find out that they were not going to be a constant worry and risk.

From the star shrine we sailed home, through the dust realm area.  Even the shadow berries and mice had faded out of that end of things.  We were very cautious, but the area is very quiet and very empty.

We gave our Mom's the necklaces.  They liked them, flaws and all.

My Mom thought it would make a great educational trip for us, and called Ariel's mom for permission for us to take a field trip. I didn't get all the details.

Then we went shopping.  Mom went shopping with us, for some suggestions.  After all, we needed some trade goods.

First, I bought ten dollars in American pennies to go with the Canadian pennies I had.  Then we bought some woven handkerchiefs and some that were dyed with fancy dye work.  I also picked up some yo-yos and Ariel bought several pounds of spices -- especially cinnamon, cloves, pepper and anise seed.  We each packed five pounds of salt, in one pound packages.  That gave us stuff to balance out the saddlebags that Mom bought.  That was her gift to us in return for the necklace.  Strange, the flaw seemed to fade to nothing when I gave it to my Mom, and the Opal developed real fire in the light when Ariel's mom wore it.

Ariel's mom gave us some gear to go with the saddlebags (rope, a small care kit for horses) and we were given a very strong tent.  It wasn't as tall as some tents, but what it gave up in space didn't matter as much to us as it would have to an adult, and she told us it was a "true four person, four-season tent."  I was glad that there were just two of us using it. She also gave us a magic stone that cleanses things -- with a little effort it is perfect for keeping us from smelling when baths were not available.  She also gave us almost a half pound of needles.  She said that we would be surprised just what a good thing they would be.

We also were given a lantern and camp stove kit and my Mom took us out to buy trail food.  Seems that there is more to long distance travel than trail mix and finding a good market to buy meat pies and fruit in.  Ariel's mom gave her a bow and arrows.

Well, with our gear, and a change of clothes and everything ready, we were excited to go.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... Or should I say, back at the pig farm. Opal was pretty shocked to realize only one person would help her.  While she was relieved not to be executed, the pig farm wasn't what she was expecting.  She had been raised on stories of noble pig keepers (the Welch story cycle, actually) and wasn't ready for a pig farm, with its stench.  Her husband wasn't really ready to return, either. She thought they should sell the pigs or turn them into food and leather, perhaps a tannery.  Obviously she hadn't smelled one, but her husband, instead of fighting with her, took her on a visit so she could decide what kind of tannery she wanted. That was enough for her.  While he was surprised to find out that he had inherited the entire farm, he was grateful to get an offer for it.  They could sell the farm, buy trade goods (so they could travel with the wealth) and make a new beginning in a new city. Opal was a great deal less contrary when she was trying to find some way to be different from her sisters and to be heard.  In a new city, with a new start, perhaps she could be something or someone else.  Her husband wasn't as smart as he looked, but he was a hard worker and had a great aptitude for city guard duty and military service.  Perhaps ... They decided to head to the One Eyed King's Realm or maybe other parts.

On the way back to town we encountered spider midges.  1d6 points of SIZ for a cloud of them, with hit points = SIZ. They attack like a corrosive acid (actually lots of little bites) for an amount equal to the points of SIZ that attack someone (so, SIZ = 3, 3 hit points for the cloud, attack as a dash of acid 3 every round).  Luckily they burned off easily.  We decided to be more careful of where we were sailing.

We also by-passed the shrine -- we were making good time, and from a distance Ariel's falcon spottend some people in what looked to be an ambush.  We needed to remember to be very careful.

So, we ended up back in town with two days to go before the caravan left.  Time to get acquainted with our horses and the rest of the caravan, get our place in the travel line, discuss trade goods and trade, be grateful for Ariel's mom and her suggestion that we needed scarves to wrap over our heads and our noses and mouths (sure enough, we were going to be behind a lot of other people).  Ariel also got to try out her bow in StarStrands.  She is good with that thing, I wonder if I'll get range like that with my spells some day.

While getting ready, we saw Opal and her new husband.  They seemed happy, though we stayed away from them and their wagon.  Guess they decided not to stay on the pig farm.  She was dressed like a member of the minor nobility, with a crest as if she was a countess.  He had his armor and a horse as well as the team of oxen that pulled their wagon.  They had a large load of woven fabrics and rugs I could see, though the wagon was a home as well as transport, so I couldn't see everything.

The initial leg out from the city was pretty calm.  The farms outside the city are fortified, the land is pacified.  As a result, there is little close to the city worth a raid and nothing inimical lives there.  We did encounter some random dust devils on the road (POW/WILL = 2d6+8, STR, hit points = POW.  Attack 2d6 vs. a target if they envelop it and succeed in a POW v. POW contest).  Chaos/disorder tainted things, Ariel disposed of them from a distance with her bow.  That got us the thanks of the caravan master and the token of the day.  We also got an offer to ride at the front of the caravan, but thought better of leaving the safety of the middle where we were.

First Day's Camp Sounds like a description, but it is the name of the first camp site.  It marks the edge of the territory controlled by the city. I guess that a city has a hard time controlling anything beyond about a day's travel from it. This camp is in the middle of a large field of light purple (think of a bright lilac color) flowers with green/purple foilage. They stand between four feet and eight feet high.  (You know, I'm in Canada, and everyone tends to use metric, but the magic that taught me the English language left me with the old fashioned measurements in my head.  I'm learning metric, but I still think in the old fashioned stuff when I think in English.  I don't know).  The flowers and the foliage have sharp spines, several inches to a foot long, and the flower part can actually shoot the spines or thorns at things that molest them. These are sun nettles, and they look like a cross between a sunflower and a large nettle.  The seeds are very nutritious, with a lot of protein and fat.  The spiders use their special legs to strip the nuts from the nettles and the spines just glance off the legs. The camp is paved with bright yellow and bright blue bricks and it surrounded by a brick and earth wall about six feet high and about six feet thick (at the base, it is shaped kind of like a triangle, only rounded at the top).  At the top of the berm are sharpened wooden stakes, about another six to eight feet tall.  The path to the camp takes an "S" curve through a field of sun nettles, and they surround the camp to a distance of about one hundred feet at the least.  The path is paved with bricks and they are cemented together and stacked up about six bricks thick. They sure protect the camp too.  Something big tried to get through the field at us.  I'm not sure what it was.  In the morning it was just a lump with sun nettles growing on it. I undersand they grow wild, and I've seen clumps of them here and there, but they grow really densely around the outlying camps and fortifications that mark the reach of the city.  The nettles provide food and protection for the people and are an important crop. The roots reach very, very deeply and pull salt out of the core of the starstrands (while they pull salt from the salt deserts of the world the spider camels come from).  Without them there wouldn't be enough salt for the people who live in this world.

The path we traveled on was kind of a road for this part of the country.  It was mostly trampled down dirt with grasses growing out to the vegetation and stuff that is around it.

A road of brick marks the pathway.  Usually it is bright green, though in some places it has other colors.  I understand that originally it was one color out to the end of the city's reach, and another in the neutral areas and then each city or village that claimed a part of the road had its own color.  Those days are past.  The green bricks have a magic, and are slowly spreading the length and breadth of the road, to a width of six feet.  Non-magic green bricks are used to make the road wider to the edge of the city's domain.

The green bricks are hostile to chaos tainted creatures, but they form a very small zone.

On Chaos/Taints In Shattered Norns/StarStrands, chaos consists of the inchoate (unformed) and the unbalanced.  It is the unnatural intrusion of things that are incomplete and unbalanced into the world -- it is not randomness, though many times the effect of being tainted can be unpredictable.  Some of these creatures are chaos infected or tainted species, others are chaos manifestations in a set matrix. Certain lines and people embrace the inchoate and the unbalanced for power and advantage.  Usually they sacrifice either will (POW) or force in return for an infusion or twisting of the natural order and a hope of an advantage. To be tainted is to be touched by the inchoate or the unbalanced. To be twisted is to either be tainted or to be evil or to be part of the left-handed path (which is not necessarily evil or tainted).  To most people, tainted = twisted = evil = unnatural, but the relationship between the various status states is not that rigid. For more, see the Shattered Norns background materials, etc.  Introduction to Starstrands, etc.

The next couple of days were pretty calm, except we did encounter some bandits.  The spotted us at a distance, came close enough to take the measure of our guards and defenses and moved away.  It looked as if they were riding wolves, thought they weren't clear at the distance.  Only the Kar Manta had wolf riders, and it brought them from outside. (For statistics,  -2 to siz vis a vis a normal horse, +1 to speed, can climb up to an 80 degree surface, not useful for impact charges [e.g. heavy lance] and they eat an awful lot, compared to the ha'spiders or horses. Heck, our horses were real grain burners -- if we hadn't had so many pennies to spend I'm not sure we could have afforded them.  I can tell why they haven't spread far, outside of the guards and paladins).  The caravan master said that these were pretty ragged looking for the Kar Manta's crack troops, and pretty far from home.  I didn't say anything about the Kar Manta being in the "past" tense, though from the talk, it was behind the City of Glass giving way to the taint and vampirism it descended into.

It made sense to me that the survivors might be a little ragged and driven far from home.

Skygate Well, that is what they called the next camp, though that is probably an exaggeration.  Still, it is pretty neat. As you know, along the ridges that mark the lines that the web's main lines run, all sorts of strange things happen, including movement towards the center or straight towards the end taking people into the air, until they reach the limit of their weight, then they drop. Trees, which appear to move by growing (I'm guessing here) grow into the air, with their roots out in the air, but somehow magically connected to the soil below.  You can see rows of trees growing into the air, but I've never seen one fall. At Skygate, there is a ring of twelve trees, connected by beams and webbing and platforms, high in the air.  If you get three hundred pounds of weight, you can just about reach the bridge that extends down from it into the thin air (so to speak).  Makes it hard to get to, and a safe place to rest. The trees are inhabited by dryads, friendly folk and untainted, but web weavers. We were careful, as they don't like open fires.

Then, two days out from the City of Glass, we were attacked by Ha'Dire Wolves.

Think of them as giant wolves with spider fangs reaching out of their mouths (wolf +2d6+12 to STR and SIZ, bite 2d8+2, +2d6 acid venom for bite, 1-5 on d6 = a chaos taint for the wolf).  The Kar Manta bred them, and they and the wolf riders used to operate as skirmishers and for recon in force and commerce raiding.

The pack was pretty fierce, but we (the caravan) slew most of them and drove off the rest.  Two of the guards were badly injured, but we (Ariel and I) were able to cure them.  Ariel and I had stronger healing magic than most of the people in the caravan and felt that if they were hurt fighting for us, we owed them the use of the magic.  It appears that not everyone feels that way and some withheld their abilities (or so I think).

They had scourged things pretty well, so we made it safely to the City of Glass, there to meet the other caravan and make some trades and decide on some direction without meeting any other creatures or problems.

The Red Glass Inn. This was the first place we were that had a "real" barn or stable.  Kind of.  It was a large structure that looked like a toadstool cap sitting on the ground (later, I found out it had been a giant toadstool mushroom).  The curved surface raised up and down and the animals went in and out of those places.  The entire place was kind of like a giant U.  The barn was at the left top of the U.  Then, at the base, there was a pond that caught water that ran down hill into it (the sort of thing in Texas they call a stock tank).  At the right top of the U there was a tower made of glass spikes and giant thorns lashed together with spider webbing and stacked on top of each other (imagine a wedding cake sort of stack, each layer made of pencils sticking up and down -- hmm, a better image is a bundle of pencils held together by a rubber band.  Then, another bundle, slightly smaller, stacked on top of that, etc.).  It went up for about sixty-feet.  I understand that the inside is a collection of bubbles.  I didn't go. The U itself is made of tomato plants, jagged red glass fibers, thorns and solidified webbing -- a wall about two stories tall that looks like lacework from a distance and like a bundle of sharp points up close.  Next to the tower (to the right of it) is the Red Glass Inn itself, a three story building of bubbles lashed together in webbing and glass fibers, with spikes sticking out at every angle.  Inside they serve a beer that is made with local grains, sun nettles and tomato juice.  Even without the geas that sounds really, really gross.  The bubbles are all made of solidified saliva -- spit -- to which I thought ick.  Then, when I found out that the beer is fermented "organically" (using giant termites) it was double ick.  Ick some more. I stayed far away from the inn. The proprietor is supposed to be a good guy -- or at least not as bad as the people in the city.  He fled when they turned to vampirism and consumed all of their children and poor and visitors and ... I didn't want to hear the rest of the story. They were pretty bad. No wonder mom did what she did. He came back when it was all over. There are people, mostly "upper crust" types, who insist that the Red Glass Inn is an experience not to be missed.  The spider who owns it, they claim, is not to be missed as well.  But, he doesn't like females (seems that in his species, when males reach the age he has reached, the females eat them and process them into food for the eggs they lay after eating a male. He lives in fear that someone will manage to eat him in spite of his defenses). We stayed in the "normal" camp that was set up in a ring of stones.

We got to the "City of Glass" and set up a protected camp, with some of the people in the group insisting on staying at the Red Glass Inn.  

The deal was that the caravan we were with was going to the One Eyed King's kingdom, but, only part of it was going that far.  It was to meet with a caravan from that realm, and another caravan and one group would return to the City, one group would go into the darklands, and one group on to the One Eyed King's realm.  We would be meeting everyone, but returning to the City (and our boat, and returning the horses).  It was a great trade festival, and fun.

We had a lot of fun trading.  Picked up some spider silk and some amber.  Gave Opal a gift of the last of our trade goods as she decided to head off to the dreaming city.  I'm not sure she has forgiven us for not becoming queen, but at least she was able to be civil, and she was delighted at the four pounds of salt and the spices as well as the bright colors in the fabric we gave her.  She was overcome when Ariel gave her two ounces of needles.

In return she gave me a ruby ring, it was badly flawed but the flaws cleared up as I wore it.  The ring had been a focus she intended to wear when she proved that her real name was ruby.  Since it hadn't happened, she had decided to part with the ring, but it had lost most of its value from the flaws.  As I wore the ring and it came together, I realized that it would turn fire into healing energy and that as long as it was warm, the ring would slowly heal me.  It could also store some magic energy.  

She gave my friend Ariel a long knife -- a twenty one inch blade with a nine inch handle.  Had a slight curve and came to a sharp point.  The grip was ivory -- something that gets "sticky" when moist instead of slippery.  She told us the ivory was from the fang of a sea creature.  It was carved into a dappled surface, kind of like a lizard's scales and had two falcons set into the handle, one on either side.  It came with a simple sheath made of leather.

Guess I should note that the ring was falling apart and had a medium salamander trapped inside of it -- to provide energy for the healing conversions -- but also a real problem for whoever had the ring.  The knife comes when called, but is also poisoned and has the bad habit of inflicting papercut type cuts on its owner, so that the poison is a constant threat.  I made peace with the salamander, who moved into my sword, and Ariel is immune to poison and heals well from papercuts. Yes, they were nice gifts, but badly flawed, like the giver.

Then we got one real surprise.

Glass Wraiths

POW 20+d6, (SIZ/STR/HIT Points = POW), INT d2, APP -d6, does fire damage of 2d6 (100%) per melee round to one locations each melee round, imposes fear on any who fail a POW v. POW attack.  Take x3 damage from normal weapons, x2 from bladed spears, x.2 (that is .2 or two tenths) from pure impale weapons (arrows, etc.), x4 from hammers and other hard mace type weapons (only x3 from clubs).  Move 4, locus is the City of Glass.  Undead/tainted creatures. Force = 2.  Pure magic cutting weapons do damage x1 (normal damage).

Well, they were pretty nasty critters as far as burning people and being scary as all get out.  But they broke into little pieces pretty fast.  At first I thought it was that dragon talon rune that Ariel has.  They attacked at night, but her falcon had warned her and she led the guards against them (I'm not sure that impetuousness curse has worn off all the way).  But it seems pretty much everyone that hit them really had an effect except for the guy with the heavy horse and lance.

The group that spun out of the dark, glowing red veined and smoky dark, was dispatched quickly enough.  We didn't see any more for the first three days we were there waiting for the other caravan and then trading with them and we really looked over the City of Glass a lot.  Must be a rare survival from what happened to the city.

But this bunch was enough.

A little child had gotten seperated from her parents as the wraiths showed up, and we found ourselves in the melee and then looking for the child.  Just as we found her, everything shifted.