nome usiness

That night as he kept watch over the party Darkhawk saw a shooting star flash over the city towards the west and for the first time the humming noise that had so concerned Cain on the journey to Ardelphia. The following morning he reported this to the others and all agreed that it would be for the best if they found out what this noise was.

After meditating Ako was able to identify the ring as being a ring of holiness. The silver band was decorated with intertwined oak leaves. Darkhawk sipped the potion and decided that this was a potion of invisibility. Trimus checked the scroll and found it contained two spells, invisibility and dispel magic. They travelled slowly looking for any sign of the humming noise but could hear nothing. Not even Cain could hear the noise now.
"Perhaps what ever it was has left." Suggested Jodotha mounted upon an expensive black stallion.

That night, deep in the wooded hills, during his watch Jodotha heard a loud hammering noise. Waking Cain he went off into the woods to see what was causing the noise. Moving silently through the shadows Jodotha followed the hammering till he came to a clearing in the woods. He judged that something very strange had happened here. Trees were split and the ground had been roughly ploughed up, this was no natural clearing. Towards one end of the clearing he could make out small figures hammering away at something by dim lantern lights. Not wanting to attract attention to himself by getting any closer he returned to the camp and woke the others.

"Gnomes you say." Said Trimus rubbing the last wisps of sleep from his eyes. "Hammering on something, did you get a look at it?"
"Not clearly." Said Jodotha. "What do you think it might be?"
"I'm not sure, but it might be another craft like the Phoenix. I want to meet these gnomes they may be able to tell us something about how we can fly the skyship." As Trimus packed up his gear, Jodotha turned to Darkhawk and asked. "Skyship, Phoenix? What is he talking about?"
Darkhawk explained all about the skyship as they made their way towards the clearing, Jodotha looking more and more astonished with every step.
Now that the sun was up the view from the edge of the clearing showed that a handful of gnomes in gaudy striped pantaloons and shirts were arguing and working on something hidden by a large green sheet of oilcloth. Trimus stood and slowly walked into the clearing but he was stopped by a voice from above his head.
"Who goes there? Friend or foe?" the chirpy voice asked.
"Err, friend." Said Darkhawk quickly.
"Oh good came the reply, "I'm stuck up this tree, can you help me down?" Sure enough, sitting on a branch of the tree was another gnome, as brightly dressed as the others. Darkhawk reached up and helped the small figure to the ground.
"I'll take you to Dunbar Stormkinder. I'm Podlo Stormkinder." Prattled the gnome as he scampered to keep up with the longer strides of the humans. On reaching the oilcloth he ducked underneath and came out with an older gnome whose beard and trousers were streaked with oil. This figure offered his hand and when he saw Trimus pause wiped it hurriedly on his shirt before presenting it again. Stifling a smile Trimus bent down and shook the gnomes hand.
"I am Trimus D'Alberon. May I be of assistance?" asked Trimus.
"Have you come to help us fix the Cloud Clipper?" inquired the older gnome. "We crashed, we need to get back to the city, Serraine is its name, you might have heard of it, it's a flying city."
"We will help if we can." Aggreed Trimus turning to his companions who were all trying not to laugh at what the gnome had to say.
"Good. We are out of fuel and you could help us refuel it." The gnome rummages around in the back of the skyship and pulls out a wand which he hands to Trimus. "This needs more fireballs in it. This is what makes the Clipper go."
"It will take some time to fill this with spells." Trimus said.
"That's no problem." Said the gnome. "We've got to put the wings back on the Clipper anyway and make a runway, and get the dents out of the cabin so you've got plenty of time."

The next few days were chaotic. The gnomes were always arguing over even the slightest action while everything that the companions did to help seemed to go wrong. Heads flew off of hammers, axes got stuck in trees, trousers fell down and tools went missing. One night while Darkhawk was on watch a pack of werewolves blundered into the camp. Darkhawk changed form and with the help of Jodotha, Ako, Cain and Trimus managed to kill most of them and scare the others away.

During the fifth day while Trimus was struggling with a recalcitrant fitting on the Cloud Clipper's wing he noticed a little grey-green figure with large eyes and long pointed ears staring at him from the woods. Turning sharply Trimus loosed a set of magic-missiles at the figure which yelped and ran off screaming amongst the trees.
When the others came to see what caused the noise Trimus pointed into the woods.
"A gremlin, that's been our problem. He has been sitting around watching us and causing everything we do to go awry. I don't think it will be causing us any more problems."

That day they made more progress than on all of the preceding days put together, there were no unfortunate mishaps, no unexplained weirdness and no embarrassing accidents. That night they sat around the campfire tired but satisfied. As Trimus sat by the fire roasting a rabbits leg on a stick he suddenly smelt something burning. Looking down he saw the hem of his robe smouldering. Instantly suspecting trouble he scanned the edge of the clearing and caught a brief glimpse of movement amongst the bushes. Firing off another set of magic missiles at the movement Trimus was pleased to hear a yelp. Jodotha fired his crossbow at the sound and heard a bolt hit home with a soft thud. They scampered over to see what they had hit. Lying, spread-eagled amongst the bracken was a gremlin, Jodotha's crossbow bolt protruding from it's ribcage.
"Aw. You killed it." Sighed Dunbar sadly. "We were going to capture it and take it back to Serraine with us."
Trimus gawped at the gnome, the image of the chaos a gremlin could cause in a gnomish city filled him with dread. "Believe me." he said "It is better this way."

It took a few more days of hard work to clear away enough trees to manufacture a runway for the Cloud Clipper and get the skyship air worthy again. It seemed that they were just in time as on the morning of the tenth day Podlo Stormkinder ran around the camp shouting. "Quick! Quick! The city's here! We must fly." The gnomes bundled chaotically into the belly of the Cloud Clipper and with a roar the skyship bumbled along the runway and into the sky.
"City?" asked Darkhawk "I can't see a city."
Trimus shrugged and scanned the sky but he could see no sign of the fabled city either just the Cloud Clipper zooming upwards into the clouds.

The rest of the journey to Akarros passed uneventfully. They arrived at the lake just before nightfall and camped there, Darkhawk catching some fish for supper which they ate looking out over the lake. The following day they booked passage back to Akesoli and their home by the lake.

Jodotha left the others to visit the Thieves Guild in Akesoli so that he had a licence to operate while the others rode back to the house. Trimus was impatient to get to the Phoenix but was halted at the door by Madam Thuly who was upset to hear of the death of Grabthroat but who also had news for the companions. "Yes it was about two days ago. An elf came calling. He asked if you were in, I said 'No, but you would be back soon' and he asked if he could wait but I sent him off with a flea in his ear I can tell you." Madam Thuly said with gusto.
Hearing this Trimus scampered down the secret passage to the skyship the others close on his heals. Dispelling the wizard lock on the door Trimus heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the Phoenix where they had left it. Opening the door he climbed aboard and made his way to the cockpit. Gently unwrapping the key from its velvet sheath he inserted it into the aperture in the control panel.

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