After everyone has a change to rest and recharge, the party travels west to retrieve the last missing part; the Condenser Orb. After a short trip, the party comes across the impact zone. The orb isn’t there, but there is an obvious trail to where it rolled, a nearby cave.

The party sees a faint blue aura coming from the mouth of the cave, roughly 50 ft away.

What do you want to do?

Stone turns to Natasha,

"Natasha, perhaps you could use your exceptional sneaking skills and your admirable perception to safely determine what is going on in that cave. What do you think?"

"Anything for you, darling."

(Natasha smiles at Stone and sneaks up to the mouth of the cave, taking a peak inside.)

Stealth:

 11

Perception:

11

Natasha quietly approaches the cave and when she is gets to the mouth, she sees the source of the blue glow. It’s coming from the Condenser Orb as it absorbs water from the air around it. The orb sits 20 ft into the cave and the blue light emanating from it illuminates something else, a pair of sleeping Black Bears in the back of the cave.

What do you do?

Stone asks Penelope,

"Miss Penelope, do you think you could try that magic hand trick again? Maybe we can let sleeping bears lie."

"I would have to sneak in close enough, remember the hand only has a short range and can only pick up objects of a certain weight. If someone were to escort me, I'd be more than happy to try."

"But of course M'lady."

Stone turns towards the cave and carefully sneaks over to its mouth.

Stone's stealth =lesser of 14 or 21

The orb small enough for Mage Hand to work, I’ll just need a stealth roll from Penelope. 

Stealth: 19

Penelope and Stone sneak to within ten feet of the cave mouth, and despite Stone’s bulky armor, they do not disturb the sleeping bears. Penelope is able to use her Mage Hand and retrieve the condenser orb. The trip back to the airship is uneventful. You send the orb up the pulley system and a crew member runs it to the Captain. As you all climb the rope ladder to the deck, you can hear Captain Scarfang swearing from the engine room.

Once you arrive at the engine room, you find the captain grumbling to himself and scratching his thick beard in confusion. “I don’t get it, the confounded thing should be working. All of the parts are there.” He gives the Condenser Orb a quick tap and watches the energy pulse through the air.

He waits for a moment then throws a hand into the air and shouts, “The mephits!” He spins, runs to the side of the ship, and looks over the edge. “I knew it! The damned devils broke free!” The captain turns to the party and gives a bit of a nervous shrug. “So, my ship is the fastest around, but it is not necessarily because of advanced technology. We use a... well... let’s say a technique that is frowned upon in some circles to give our craft a little extra kick. We managed to wrangle a couple of Steam Mephits after they nearly destroyed my family’s ship. At first we were just gonna kill ‘em but then I had the idea to use their abilities to power the ship instead of the old fashioned way. Looks like they busted free of their chamber in the crash. We are stuck in these trees until we get ‘em back!”

The captain tells the party to wait a moment and runs below deck. He returns a few minutes later with a few small cages, a strangely shining compass and a blowgun with some darts. “I got one last task for ya’ll if you don’t mind!”

What would you like to do?

Stone maintains his composure despite this unexpected delay.

"Why don't you tell us what you would like us to do? I would also like to remind you that when this all done we expect to be rewarded for our efforts in restoring your ship."

“Of course, of course,” the captain replies, “once we get moving again, i have just the thing to reward you lot.” He hands the party the compass, the blowgun and 15 darts.

”The compass points in the direction of elemental anomalies, the cages have antimagic barriers placed around them that will stop the mephits from using their magics, and the darts have some powerful tranquilizing capabilities. Knock ‘em out or hit ‘em with a dart, but don’t kill ‘em, whatever you do! We need those blasted little things! I should have the damages to their chamber fixed by the time you return.”

“Ok, let’s do this.”

Stone grabs the compass and climbs down off the airship. After waiting for his companions to climb down from the ship he checks the compass and heads off in the direction it indicates. 

" I suppose I still have some steam in me. Are any of you good with this thing? I think might be at a sort of 'disadvantage' with particular object." She gestures to the blowgun.

 (OOC to find out whether I have any advantage with the Blowgun I just equip it to my character on the character sheet? If so my hit is +3)

OOC: no special advantage, it’s a simple ranged weapon. So if you have a  proficiency in it you can use it. 

OOC: I can't use it (sorcerers aren't prof. in all simple weapons)  it makes some sense for Penny though because I think it would just be weird for a dragon lipped being to use a blowgun. Imagine a crocodile trying to use a blowgun.

(Natasha takes the blowgun and the darts.)

"I've got this. I've had to knock out some people in the past. Usually I just slip something in their drink, but I've had to use one of these a time or two."

(Natasha smiles mischievously.)

"So, which way are we going? It's safe to assume they're not where we've already been, or we would have seen them. So where haven't we been and where are we going now?"

Stone checks the compass and heads in the direction it leads.

The compass leads the party to the northwest. After about a half mile of walking you come up on a rocky outcropping near a cliff. You can hear the sound of running water and you see thick plumes of steam rising up into the air.

What do you do?