Sam obviously awakens because his slow, heavy snore abruptly stops with a snort and is quickly followed by a bit of a coughing fit. Rubbing his eyes with his fists as he sits up Sam yawns and says "G'morning" in the same breath. He takes a moment to look around the room and reacquaint himself with his surroundings, first looking to Elthana and the others in their beds, then looking at the foot of his own and on either side looking for Ógra and Boris.
"You all don't know down from up but you make comfortable beds, I'll give you that much," Sam absently answers Griff before fully realizing the bird-beak is even here. "Oh hey, Griff! Good to see you indeed made it back home. How's things for you and yours? Miss much while gone?"
Through the discussions, Gewyn mostly listens, simply letting people reveal however much they are comfortable with, though he appears deep in thought. He turns his mirror over an over again in his hands, only stopping briefly when the one who looks like Rynwell comes up.
Gewyn is already seated in his cloud, looking into his mirror, though it hard to tell how long he's been at it. His response is delayed when Griff comes in, but he does put down the mirror after a moment and say "Well met again, Griff. This place is quite simply a marvel to my earthly sensibilities. Would that I could vacation here whenever I had a day to spare."
"yes I am thanking you for looking after me while I was in your home, but I am happy to being back. It was difficult for my wife I am thinking, I was gone for over a month here and there was no evidence of where I was gone, my wife was thinking maybe I am being dead, so she was happy for my return." Griff offers the beak equivalent of a smile to the group before asking his own questions, "yes here the big down is where it should be, it is maybe being difficult for you to change this and walk on walls and such yes? Would you like teaching how? It is something we teach the children when they are small. I will be showing you the map room and Akiin but then helping you to be escorted where you are needing to go, is there anywhere you need to visit whilst you are being here?"
As Elthana completely wakes up, her dream comes back to her. She shudders a bit at the thought of it and looks to Griff in a different light.
She looks to Sam, "I don't think there is a place that sells lodestones, Sam, I think we need to help with their kobold problem and hopefully we can get one from that, that sum it up, Griff?" she turns to the birdman, and then asks, "Was it just you at the door this morning or were there others?"
As Griff enters their room waking folks from their sleep and greets them Vin is a bit sluggish but just assumes with everything going on he just didn't sleep well. Vin can't help but be a bit happy at their news. "I'm glad we could get you home Griff. I wish we could be visiting under better circumstances. I'd be asking for a tour of the city and would love to meet your family. If things are ready and we can get going, we shouldn't waste too much time. That said, we probably need supples to travel to oir destination right?"
Nef gives a big yawn. She was of course awake. She may still be subdued but still dutiful in always being vigilant whenever something is happening. Vin looks to her and the others who struggled to land when first entering and knows Nef is too proud to ask. Vin hasn't exactly practiced the skill of directional... falling? So...
"I wouldn't say no to some pointers on travelling in your world before we go." Vin offers to take him up on the finer parts of traveling in a world of suggestive ups and downs.
Griff chuckles, "you are being on floor yes, and I am not knowing of anywhere to be buying whatever you are calling a lodestone..." He snaps his attention to Elthana when she mentions kobolds, his expression souring "yes kobolds are being a scourge on our lands, they are trying to invade and take resources, like little spies we kill them if we find them here and sometimes let them being loose to fly back to outposts so we can be destroying their places, but mostly we guard. Help is appreciated." As vin asks his questions, Griff thinks a moment, "travel between lands here is all done by flying, there is no roads between cities like in your plane, you will see, I will be showing you, but first, we finding lord Akiin, yes? Follow me!".
Griff takes you all down a few corridors, and descends a few spiral staircases until you all reach an enclosed courtyard. As you observe the inside of this palace you find that everything is carved out of one massive chunk of crystal with no visible seems or evidence of prior construction work anywhere, it is a marvel to behold. As you exit the large building and cross the court yard you see what appear to be flower beds set into recessed sections of this yard, each one covered in a thick layer of some kind of moss on the bottom from which all kinds of colourful flowers grow. Above your heads an endless expanse of pale blue sky is only interrupted by funnelling clouds which spiral quickly upwards as if being perpetually sucked up and into a void beyond your perceptible distance, there is also one mighty thunder cloud far far away which does not seem to be moving away from you like the funnel clouds. "This is protected courtyard, no wind here" explains Griff, obviously missing some vital information that seems common knowledge to himself. He leads you further and enters another building in the opposite side of the courtyard giving a knock on the crystal door before Akiin's booming voice vibrates through from the other side, "IS IT THEM!? BRING THEM IN?"
Sam is still in a state of mild awe and disbelief. These sights are just beyond his understanding. He should be working at a forge or sitting at a bar or some other more pedestrian endeavor, not walking amongst the clouds and seeing buildings that make no actual structural sense. Still, he's not lost his grip on reality entirely so he knows this is real... Mostly.
"So everyone here can fly?" Sam asks when Griff talks about travel between lands. "The natives, I mean? No earthbound walkers like me and Boris and Ógra?"
"there are being plenty of races who cannot naturally fly, this is true, but changing your own up is something that can be learning by everyone... Some people are living their lives with the big down not at their feet." Griff nods to Sam and then opens the door greeting Akiin who waits inside.
The room you step into is not a vastly wide room, but the ceiling is extremely high and the room noticeably cold, several tables line the floors and at one stands Akiin who greets the group loudly and with an unmoving enthusiasm "I HAVE THE MAPS! BUT THIS MAY BE TRICKY FOR YOU ALL, I WILL HAVE TO ASK MY SIBLINGS WHERE THEIR LANDS ARE RIGHT NOW! HAHA!" he points to a map rolled out on the table which seems to not be made of paper but a thin leathery, partially translucent parchment.
The walls in this room are lined with books but instead of a ladder to reach the ones high above them, there seem to be walkways up the walls all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling itself has a carved design of interconnected circles in some kind of pattern, it is annotated and labelled with several symbols in an unknown language.
Muir smiles as his ears flap excitedly "You have quite an extensive library here. Do you mind if I take a look while you figre out where their lands are currently? I am very curious of your history and the last time the portals opened."
Elthana is speechless as she walks through the courtyard following Griff. She wonders how they keep the wind out of this area, but doesn't ask as it seems just like a normal thing to them, he might not even know.
She can't help herself but smile as she sees Akiin, and she wonders what sort of relationship he and Sergor had. She hopes at some point she'll be able to ask. She gathers in close as he pulls out the maps, trying to make heads or tails of it.
As Muir mentions going up to check on books, she turns to him frowning, "Muir, we don't really have time for that. The treasury is falling now and we need all resources to get this lodestone. We don't want to have to pull you away from whatever hole you find yourself in a book."
Turning back to Akiin, "Your siblings? Are they available?"
Muir smiles "Of course, while we wait I will just peruse while you discuss....That is if Mr.Akiin does not mind. Times flies here don't forget...." Muir chuckles at his clever play on words
Akiin nods to Muir letting the loxodon peruse, and as Muir outs one big foot on the wall he takes less time this time transferring his weight and disbelieving the pull of gravity on his own body, steadily he lifts his other foot off the ground and stands, perpendicular to the rest of the group.
"HERE ON THE MAP, THESE LANDS ARE OWNED BY MY SIBLINGS, WE SERVE THE PEOPLE ON EACH LANDMASS, BUT THE TROUBLE IS THAT EACH LAND MASS ISN'T JUST FALLING, BUT MOVING AROUND IN THE SPACE BETWEEN US, THEIR GENERAL DIRECTIONS ARE HIGHLIGHTED HERE BY THE WHITE ARROWS, BUT AT SOME POINT THEY PASS BEYOND THE EDGE OF THE VASTNESS AND COME BACK AROUND THE OTHER SIDE!" As Akiin points to the map, the more intelligent members of the group realise that the map itself is minimalistic and has no way of accounting for the third dimension of height differences that the falling islands may have, with this fact in mind, the map is informative yet relatively useless.
The less intelligent members of the group look at the map sagely, rub their chin and "Mmhmm"s in an interested and satisfied way.
"Understood. Must be quite troublesome for those not born to it, I suppose," Sam notes. He wonders if perhaps he should find a book or two to go look at instead so he doesn't have to try to cope with this nonsense and silently curses Muir for thinking of that way out first.
"Where do we need to go, precisely? And how much trouble can we expect in obtaining a new load stone?"
Muir hanging out on what would be the walls in his world is looking at the books. He sees one of interest. He finds 7 circles, annotated, which reminds him of the 7 planes; earth, fire, water, wind, fae, celestial, and Muir's plane. This feel important to Muir. There is one central circle surrounded by several others within one larger circle, seven main circles in total, some with overlapping ovals that always seem to hold the central one within it, others have smaller circles within them, one looks very odd as it is divided into four. But the seven circles remain prominent to him.....If only he could understand the language...He becomes frustrated not recognizing any bit of it. He decides his best course of action would be to "Hello down there! What language are these notes in specifically this one with the circles that have annotations all over it up here on the ceiling. Perhaps Griff could help me while you all discuss the map down yonder."
"THE LODESTONE IS NOT REALLY A STONE AT ALL, IT IS THE BONE OF A DRAGON WHO PLOTTED TO DESTROY THIS PLANE" Akiin laughs as he points out a group of smaller islands in the south of the map, "SOMEWHERE HERE IS WHERE THE BODY LIES, BUT IT IS ALSO THE PLACE WHERE WE BELIEVE THE DRAGON CULT ARE COMING FROM... THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT I'M NOT SURE WHERE IT IS NOW!" he looks from one face to the other expecting some kind of laugh in return, despite the fact that no joke has been said, "ANYWAY! LETS SPEAK WITH DUUN THEY'RE ALWAYS FUN, I WONDER IF THEY'RE STILL A GUY? HAHA!" with that said Akiin walks off to a table which looks different to the rest, in laid in the top of it is a polished slate of crystal which changes colours in swirls like oil drifting over water. Akiin mutters a chant to himself and puts his hands on the table, a spark of lightning jumping between his hands and the polished surface as he does. The colours swirl faster and faster and the group waits, Akiin looks uncomfortable at the prospect of waiting, but he too stands expectantly and silently and waits.
Griff jumps up with the swoop of his wings and lands skillfully on the wall next to Muir, looking up at the carving on the ceiling he starts explaining to Muir, "the language is being Auran, the common tongue of this plane, though some of these words have their base in what you are calling primordial I am thinking... See this one in the middle, it is called material, it is your plane yes, then that one with the four sections is the faewyld, up above is the celestial planes, opposite the faewyld is this plane Thaeir, and the oval surrounding it connecting our planes is an in-between place, it's name might be in these books but it is not being labelled here."
Before they move away from the map, Elthana stares at the thing, trying to comprehend what is what. She finally points to the dark circle in the middle, Vox Trontitor, "What is that?"
She follows Akiin to the other table, amazed at another beautiful sight in this gorgeous plane and questions spur all around in her head. She finally picks one, "Isn't Shenoh's island closer?"
"So anyway, about all these planes and all," Sam inquires. "What's up with that?"
"What I mean is, most of us didn't even know about other planes. Seems like the others did but his the fact. Anyway now we got portals popping up all over the place like cooties after a eight year old's sleepover. You having the same problem here or is it just the one to our place?" Sam asks. "Cause frankly a lot of people are scared, or trying to scare people, claiming invasions and war and such... You seem more familiar with the planes so... Yeah, what's up with all this?"
Akiin lifts his hands off the table and the swirling stops, "AGH BUSY BASTARD AIN'T ANSWERING ANYWAY." he does a happy little jog the short distance back to the map table to see what Elthana is pointing at, "AH YES! VOX TONTRITOR IS OUR STORM SORCERESS, THE GOD OF THIS PLANE, SHE RESIDES IN THE THUNDER CLOUDS ABOVE ALL AND DIRECTS OUR PLANE THROUGH MYSELF AND MY SIBLINGS...
SHENOH IS MY SISTER, ANOTHER OF THE DJIINI LORDS, THOUGH HER ISLAND IS CLOSER ON THIS MAP IT WILL HAVE MOVED SINCE THIS MAP WAS MADE, WE COULD TRY HER NEXT!" before he can jog back over to the polished table to try to communicate with his sister he stops and listens to Sam's questions. "THAIER HAS NO PLANS FOR INVASION, WE OWE SERGOR AND THE MATERIAL PLANE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE FOR INTRODUCING US TO A NEW SYSTEM OF TRADE, NOW WE DO THINGS WITH GOLD! HAHA, THE PLANES KNOWN TO US BEFORE THE PORTALS CLOSED ARE WRITTEN UP THERE... DO ANY OF YOU READ AURAN? OR PRIMORDIAL?" he points directly up to the carving on the high ceiling over head, just as Muir pointed out it displays a large circle, containing several smaller circles, all connected by a central circle. He explains each of the annotations as he points. Describing how the material plane is in the center, surrounded by; the numerous celestial planes, the faewyld, the plane of water, the firey hells, Thaeir, and finally the plane of earth. Some of these planes have smaller circles within them, some have broader ovals encompassing planes and symbolising a shared demiplane, it all becomes rather tedious in the explanation but Akiin finishes by saying "IT'S ONLY WHAT WE KNOW, AND BY ALL MEANS THESE COULD HAVE CHANGED IN THE PAST FOUR THOUSAND YEARS THAT WE HAVE HAD NO CONTACT." He grins at the group apparently awaiting praise for his great feat of marvelous mapping.
Sam obviously awakens because his slow, heavy snore abruptly stops with a snort and is quickly followed by a bit of a coughing fit. Rubbing his eyes with his fists as he sits up Sam yawns and says "G'morning" in the same breath. He takes a moment to look around the room and reacquaint himself with his surroundings, first looking to Elthana and the others in their beds, then looking at the foot of his own and on either side looking for Ógra and Boris.
"You all don't know down from up but you make comfortable beds, I'll give you that much," Sam absently answers Griff before fully realizing the bird-beak is even here. "Oh hey, Griff! Good to see you indeed made it back home. How's things for you and yours? Miss much while gone?"
Through the discussions, Gewyn mostly listens, simply letting people reveal however much they are comfortable with, though he appears deep in thought. He turns his mirror over an over again in his hands, only stopping briefly when the one who looks like Rynwell comes up.
Gewyn is already seated in his cloud, looking into his mirror, though it hard to tell how long he's been at it. His response is delayed when Griff comes in, but he does put down the mirror after a moment and say "Well met again, Griff. This place is quite simply a marvel to my earthly sensibilities. Would that I could vacation here whenever I had a day to spare."
"yes I am thanking you for looking after me while I was in your home, but I am happy to being back. It was difficult for my wife I am thinking, I was gone for over a month here and there was no evidence of where I was gone, my wife was thinking maybe I am being dead, so she was happy for my return." Griff offers the beak equivalent of a smile to the group before asking his own questions, "yes here the big down is where it should be, it is maybe being difficult for you to change this and walk on walls and such yes? Would you like teaching how? It is something we teach the children when they are small. I will be showing you the map room and Akiin but then helping you to be escorted where you are needing to go, is there anywhere you need to visit whilst you are being here?"
"Teaching?" Sam asks. "We all figured it out. We're all on the right floor now, aren't we?"
"You happen to know of a place that sells these load stones?" Sam asks. "That is why we're here, not a shopping montage..."
As Elthana completely wakes up, her dream comes back to her. She shudders a bit at the thought of it and looks to Griff in a different light.
She looks to Sam, "I don't think there is a place that sells lodestones, Sam, I think we need to help with their kobold problem and hopefully we can get one from that, that sum it up, Griff?" she turns to the birdman, and then asks, "Was it just you at the door this morning or were there others?"
As Griff enters their room waking folks from their sleep and greets them Vin is a bit sluggish but just assumes with everything going on he just didn't sleep well. Vin can't help but be a bit happy at their news. "I'm glad we could get you home Griff. I wish we could be visiting under better circumstances. I'd be asking for a tour of the city and would love to meet your family. If things are ready and we can get going, we shouldn't waste too much time. That said, we probably need supples to travel to oir destination right?"
Nef gives a big yawn. She was of course awake. She may still be subdued but still dutiful in always being vigilant whenever something is happening. Vin looks to her and the others who struggled to land when first entering and knows Nef is too proud to ask. Vin hasn't exactly practiced the skill of directional... falling? So...
"I wouldn't say no to some pointers on travelling in your world before we go." Vin offers to take him up on the finer parts of traveling in a world of suggestive ups and downs.
Griff chuckles, "you are being on floor yes, and I am not knowing of anywhere to be buying whatever you are calling a lodestone..." He snaps his attention to Elthana when she mentions kobolds, his expression souring "yes kobolds are being a scourge on our lands, they are trying to invade and take resources, like little spies we kill them if we find them here and sometimes let them being loose to fly back to outposts so we can be destroying their places, but mostly we guard. Help is appreciated." As vin asks his questions, Griff thinks a moment, "travel between lands here is all done by flying, there is no roads between cities like in your plane, you will see, I will be showing you, but first, we finding lord Akiin, yes? Follow me!".
Griff takes you all down a few corridors, and descends a few spiral staircases until you all reach an enclosed courtyard. As you observe the inside of this palace you find that everything is carved out of one massive chunk of crystal with no visible seems or evidence of prior construction work anywhere, it is a marvel to behold. As you exit the large building and cross the court yard you see what appear to be flower beds set into recessed sections of this yard, each one covered in a thick layer of some kind of moss on the bottom from which all kinds of colourful flowers grow. Above your heads an endless expanse of pale blue sky is only interrupted by funnelling clouds which spiral quickly upwards as if being perpetually sucked up and into a void beyond your perceptible distance, there is also one mighty thunder cloud far far away which does not seem to be moving away from you like the funnel clouds. "This is protected courtyard, no wind here" explains Griff, obviously missing some vital information that seems common knowledge to himself. He leads you further and enters another building in the opposite side of the courtyard giving a knock on the crystal door before Akiin's booming voice vibrates through from the other side, "IS IT THEM!? BRING THEM IN?"
Sam is still in a state of mild awe and disbelief. These sights are just beyond his understanding. He should be working at a forge or sitting at a bar or some other more pedestrian endeavor, not walking amongst the clouds and seeing buildings that make no actual structural sense. Still, he's not lost his grip on reality entirely so he knows this is real... Mostly.
"So everyone here can fly?" Sam asks when Griff talks about travel between lands. "The natives, I mean? No earthbound walkers like me and Boris and Ógra?"
"there are being plenty of races who cannot naturally fly, this is true, but changing your own up is something that can be learning by everyone... Some people are living their lives with the big down not at their feet." Griff nods to Sam and then opens the door greeting Akiin who waits inside.
The room you step into is not a vastly wide room, but the ceiling is extremely high and the room noticeably cold, several tables line the floors and at one stands Akiin who greets the group loudly and with an unmoving enthusiasm "I HAVE THE MAPS! BUT THIS MAY BE TRICKY FOR YOU ALL, I WILL HAVE TO ASK MY SIBLINGS WHERE THEIR LANDS ARE RIGHT NOW! HAHA!" he points to a map rolled out on the table which seems to not be made of paper but a thin leathery, partially translucent parchment.
The walls in this room are lined with books but instead of a ladder to reach the ones high above them, there seem to be walkways up the walls all the way to the ceiling. The ceiling itself has a carved design of interconnected circles in some kind of pattern, it is annotated and labelled with several symbols in an unknown language.
Muir smiles as his ears flap excitedly "You have quite an extensive library here. Do you mind if I take a look while you figre out where their lands are currently? I am very curious of your history and the last time the portals opened."
Elthana is speechless as she walks through the courtyard following Griff. She wonders how they keep the wind out of this area, but doesn't ask as it seems just like a normal thing to them, he might not even know.
She can't help herself but smile as she sees Akiin, and she wonders what sort of relationship he and Sergor had. She hopes at some point she'll be able to ask. She gathers in close as he pulls out the maps, trying to make heads or tails of it.
As Muir mentions going up to check on books, she turns to him frowning, "Muir, we don't really have time for that. The treasury is falling now and we need all resources to get this lodestone. We don't want to have to pull you away from whatever hole you find yourself in a book."
Turning back to Akiin, "Your siblings? Are they available?"
Muir smiles "Of course, while we wait I will just peruse while you discuss....That is if Mr.Akiin does not mind. Times flies here don't forget...." Muir chuckles at his clever play on words
Akiin nods to Muir letting the loxodon peruse, and as Muir outs one big foot on the wall he takes less time this time transferring his weight and disbelieving the pull of gravity on his own body, steadily he lifts his other foot off the ground and stands, perpendicular to the rest of the group.
"HERE ON THE MAP, THESE LANDS ARE OWNED BY MY SIBLINGS, WE SERVE THE PEOPLE ON EACH LANDMASS, BUT THE TROUBLE IS THAT EACH LAND MASS ISN'T JUST FALLING, BUT MOVING AROUND IN THE SPACE BETWEEN US, THEIR GENERAL DIRECTIONS ARE HIGHLIGHTED HERE BY THE WHITE ARROWS, BUT AT SOME POINT THEY PASS BEYOND THE EDGE OF THE VASTNESS AND COME BACK AROUND THE OTHER SIDE!" As Akiin points to the map, the more intelligent members of the group realise that the map itself is minimalistic and has no way of accounting for the third dimension of height differences that the falling islands may have, with this fact in mind, the map is informative yet relatively useless.
The less intelligent members of the group look at the map sagely, rub their chin and "Mmhmm"s in an interested and satisfied way.
"Understood. Must be quite troublesome for those not born to it, I suppose," Sam notes. He wonders if perhaps he should find a book or two to go look at instead so he doesn't have to try to cope with this nonsense and silently curses Muir for thinking of that way out first.
"Where do we need to go, precisely? And how much trouble can we expect in obtaining a new load stone?"
Muir hanging out on what would be the walls in his world is looking at the books. He sees one of interest. He finds 7 circles, annotated, which reminds him of the 7 planes; earth, fire, water, wind, fae, celestial, and Muir's plane. This feel important to Muir. There is one central circle surrounded by several others within one larger circle, seven main circles in total, some with overlapping ovals that always seem to hold the central one within it, others have smaller circles within them, one looks very odd as it is divided into four. But the seven circles remain prominent to him.....If only he could understand the language...He becomes frustrated not recognizing any bit of it. He decides his best course of action would be to "Hello down there! What language are these notes in specifically this one with the circles that have annotations all over it up here on the ceiling. Perhaps Griff could help me while you all discuss the map down yonder."
"THE LODESTONE IS NOT REALLY A STONE AT ALL, IT IS THE BONE OF A DRAGON WHO PLOTTED TO DESTROY THIS PLANE" Akiin laughs as he points out a group of smaller islands in the south of the map, "SOMEWHERE HERE IS WHERE THE BODY LIES, BUT IT IS ALSO THE PLACE WHERE WE BELIEVE THE DRAGON CULT ARE COMING FROM... THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THAT I'M NOT SURE WHERE IT IS NOW!" he looks from one face to the other expecting some kind of laugh in return, despite the fact that no joke has been said, "ANYWAY! LETS SPEAK WITH DUUN THEY'RE ALWAYS FUN, I WONDER IF THEY'RE STILL A GUY? HAHA!" with that said Akiin walks off to a table which looks different to the rest, in laid in the top of it is a polished slate of crystal which changes colours in swirls like oil drifting over water. Akiin mutters a chant to himself and puts his hands on the table, a spark of lightning jumping between his hands and the polished surface as he does. The colours swirl faster and faster and the group waits, Akiin looks uncomfortable at the prospect of waiting, but he too stands expectantly and silently and waits.
Griff jumps up with the swoop of his wings and lands skillfully on the wall next to Muir, looking up at the carving on the ceiling he starts explaining to Muir, "the language is being Auran, the common tongue of this plane, though some of these words have their base in what you are calling primordial I am thinking... See this one in the middle, it is called material, it is your plane yes, then that one with the four sections is the faewyld, up above is the celestial planes, opposite the faewyld is this plane Thaeir, and the oval surrounding it connecting our planes is an in-between place, it's name might be in these books but it is not being labelled here."
Before they move away from the map, Elthana stares at the thing, trying to comprehend what is what. She finally points to the dark circle in the middle, Vox Trontitor, "What is that?"
She follows Akiin to the other table, amazed at another beautiful sight in this gorgeous plane and questions spur all around in her head. She finally picks one, "Isn't Shenoh's island closer?"
Gewyn doesn't make any of his usual small talk. Instead he silently and intently stares at the map with the planes, eyes scanning it, brow furrowed.
"So anyway, about all these planes and all," Sam inquires. "What's up with that?"
"What I mean is, most of us didn't even know about other planes. Seems like the others did but his the fact. Anyway now we got portals popping up all over the place like cooties after a eight year old's sleepover. You having the same problem here or is it just the one to our place?" Sam asks. "Cause frankly a lot of people are scared, or trying to scare people, claiming invasions and war and such... You seem more familiar with the planes so... Yeah, what's up with all this?"
Akiin lifts his hands off the table and the swirling stops, "AGH BUSY BASTARD AIN'T ANSWERING ANYWAY." he does a happy little jog the short distance back to the map table to see what Elthana is pointing at, "AH YES! VOX TONTRITOR IS OUR STORM SORCERESS, THE GOD OF THIS PLANE, SHE RESIDES IN THE THUNDER CLOUDS ABOVE ALL AND DIRECTS OUR PLANE THROUGH MYSELF AND MY SIBLINGS...
SHENOH IS MY SISTER, ANOTHER OF THE DJIINI LORDS, THOUGH HER ISLAND IS CLOSER ON THIS MAP IT WILL HAVE MOVED SINCE THIS MAP WAS MADE, WE COULD TRY HER NEXT!" before he can jog back over to the polished table to try to communicate with his sister he stops and listens to Sam's questions. "THAIER HAS NO PLANS FOR INVASION, WE OWE SERGOR AND THE MATERIAL PLANE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE FOR INTRODUCING US TO A NEW SYSTEM OF TRADE, NOW WE DO THINGS WITH GOLD! HAHA, THE PLANES KNOWN TO US BEFORE THE PORTALS CLOSED ARE WRITTEN UP THERE... DO ANY OF YOU READ AURAN? OR PRIMORDIAL?" he points directly up to the carving on the high ceiling over head, just as Muir pointed out it displays a large circle, containing several smaller circles, all connected by a central circle. He explains each of the annotations as he points. Describing how the material plane is in the center, surrounded by; the numerous celestial planes, the faewyld, the plane of water, the firey hells, Thaeir, and finally the plane of earth. Some of these planes have smaller circles within them, some have broader ovals encompassing planes and symbolising a shared demiplane, it all becomes rather tedious in the explanation but Akiin finishes by saying "IT'S ONLY WHAT WE KNOW, AND BY ALL MEANS THESE COULD HAVE CHANGED IN THE PAST FOUR THOUSAND YEARS THAT WE HAVE HAD NO CONTACT." He grins at the group apparently awaiting praise for his great feat of marvelous mapping.