The session started where the last left off - with the party running like mad from a collapsing temple and an appearance by the Lady of Pain. With even the pair of Sensates in the party deciding against this particular experience, the group wisely fled the area and headed into the Clerk's Ward, towards the Hall of Speakers.

After the group arrived (and caught its collective breath), they decided to take few minutes to try and confirm whether or not there actually was a portal to the Realm of Winds (aka Elemental Plane of Air) up in the lattice work of the spiky buttresses that adorned the Sign of One's faction headquarters. As Shazarr asked around, Rusteen was pleasantly surprised (and groped) by his 'girlfriend' (sex bunny), Nymphia. She was just on her way back from a hunting trip outside of Sigil and had caught sight of the party and wanted to see what Rusteen was up to. Especially since they hadn't shared a bed in quite some time.

Shazarr soon enough had confirmed that the previous information was true - there was indeed a portal up in metalwork of the Hall. After entering the building and ascending the stairwell to the roof, the party decided to try and gain the supposed key to the portal - a feather from an executioner raven that is to be held in the teeth. Rusteen was about to unlimber his bow and shoot a bird for its plummage, but Nymphia asked him (batting her eyes, wiggling her hips, shaking her breasts) if she could get it for him. Naturally, the drooling woodsman agreed. The party then watched her stalk one of the birds - first with a certain amount of lust, and then with a certain amount of horror. After stalking the raven, Nymphia pounced upon the creature and killed it with her bare hands (and teeth). Unconcernedly licking the blood off her lips, the wood elf calmly handed the dead bird to Rusteen so he and the rest of the party could get their feathers.

After that incident, the group rather quickly climbed the rest of the way up to the portal. Zin took one last paranoid precaution and focused his sight so that he could see if there was truly a portal present. (There was.) So, with nothing further to distract them, the group jumped off the building and into the portal.

Since they were arriving on the Elemental Plane of Air, the party was greeted by an endless, clear blue sky. Unfortunately, Greymankle and Jack weren't entirely comfortable with this and continued falling towards the ground they were certain existed - somewhere 'down' there. Zin, Ginaea, and Shazarr (being more used to unusual planar environments) managed to keep their wits and remined hovering in place. Rusteen, who would have fallen, was saved by being distracted by Nymphia who wanted to engage in some zero-g sex.

Fortunately for the falling pair, Jack came up with a plan to try and save them. Taking hold of his favorite rope, he tied one end to himself the stone prince and then threw its end to one side, casting his rope trick spell. With one end of the rope suddenly anchored in place the falling pair was jerked off course and swung around multiple times before slamming into the confines of the extra dimensional space. This allowed the rest of the party to catch up, and convince the pair that 'down' only exists in the mind of the beholder. Thus, movement on this Inner Plane is done by flying - or rather, falling with style.

After gathering their remaining wits, the party stepped out of Jack's space and resumed their travel towards the City of Glass. After a time, they caught sight of a tiny glass marble which grew and grew in their field of view. Soon, they party could make out the details. The City of Glass is a town built inside of an immense, clear glass sphere. The City is roughly a mile in diameter and is divided into two halves by a thick dividing equator. Each half appears to be the mirror image of the other, with 'down' being defined as towards the equator for both halves. Entrance to the City is gained by one of numerous tunnels that pierce the equator and lead inside. These entranceways then branch out to give access to both halves. Upon choosing a half, the party was able to get their first look at the Inner Planar version of Sigil.

Once inside, the party could see that the City had been built by being carved from the same glass that comprised the domes over the halves and the equator. It seems that the City had once been a solid sphere that has had its interior carved away over the milennia. The buildings were of many different shapes, sizes, and arcitectural styles. Despite the relative nature of gravity, most inhabitants were polite enough to walk just as they would anywhere else. A few beings still used the flight of falling to reach the upper stories of structures, as there are no external stairs or other climbing aids. Given that all the glass is transparent, privacy is maintained through the use of curtains, paint, paneling, or just creative carving of the interior walls.

Although not as crowded as Sigil, the City of Glass did was fairly well populated. The people in the City had the same general makeup as those in Sigil, but the unusual inhabitants were of Elemental origins rather than Planar ones. So, there were a number of genasi, genie-kin, and element-borne races (such as mephits). The group could also see people that had elemental pets - a dog composed entirely of fire, a parrot made of gemstones, etc. After seeing the environment, the group followed the first rule of adventuring when in a new city - go to the bar.

Rusteen grabbed and intimidated a dust mephit to get directions to a bar called "The Breezy Kilt". While Zin and Greymankle decided to figure out how to get the Realm of Waves, Shazarr sampled some inner planar beer. He received a mug of dark ale, into which was placed a scoop of solid fire (a "Roaring Volcano Ale"). The tiefling found he enjoyed the flavor of boiling beer.

For his part, Zin found that there were three ways to travel between the elemental planes within the City of Glass. First, the party could travel to the Bazaar in the center of the City and step through a public gateway. Second, they could search the back alleys and find a lesser known gateway or even a "thin spot" in the planes. Third, if they were native to the elemental planes, they could simply slip through on their own where ever they wished.

Greymankle, having asked a fellow earth genasi, discovered a more important fact. Even though there is a City of Glass on each elemental plane, they are not quite identical. There are two halves of the city for a reason. One half, not the one they were in it seems, is the "guest" half and is always filled with air. The other half, which the party was in, is the "natives" half and is filled with the dominant element of the plane. So, had they stepped through the market portal to Waves here, they would find themselves to be underwater. Not wanting to swim, the party left the bar and traveled to the market in the other half of the Wind City.

The Grand Market of the City of Glass is a broad plaza in the center of each half of the City. The area is filled with stalls and carts of merchants. The center of the plaza is filled by a tall (glass) tower, which is the home of the local Mercane merchant. It seems the Mercane is the "blue guy" of Ginaea's memories. Although the being - a ten-foot tall, blue-skinned giant with six fingers on each hand - appeared identical to the one in the gith's memories, the party was not yet in the Realm of Waves. To reach the Elemental Plane of Water, the party had to step through a glass archway to one of the other Cities of Glass. There were a total of six gateways in the market - Metal (Earth), Flame (Fire), Wave (Water), Wood, Positive Energy, and Negative Energy. Looking through the gateway, it appeared as if the arcitecture of each City of Glass was identical, but with different people in each one.

The party stepped through and followed Ginaea to the Mercane merchant in the Wave City. It was immediately apparent that something odd was going on as the creature was identical to the merchant in Wind, even having the same name ("Narenek"). Ginaea then proceed to pester the Mercane about the purchase she made and any clues he might have as to who she is/was and what she was doing in the City of Glass.

It took a bit of time, but as Ginaea was able to describe the purchase exactly, Narenek as eventually convinced that she was a legitimate customer. As he revealed what he knew, things got a bit more confusing for everyone involved. First, although Ginaea claims that this purchase is her first real memory and it happened two years ago, the Mercane said that the exchange happened only one year ago. Second, at the time of the purchase Ginaea wasn't a colorful githzerai in service to the Sensates. She was a water genasi named Malja who was a member of the Godsmen. (He then congratulated her on passing her tests and ascending to the next level.) Finally, the equipment, while mostly mundane contained an overly large number of test tubes and some rather disturbing sounding syringes. Zin suspected they might be psionic in origin, and convinced Ginaea to purchase one more so that they could examine one up close.

Given that they would have to wait for 24 hours for the order to arrive, the party decided to find a house of amusements and fulfill Augustus' mission in the City of Glass. This led the party to an establishment known as "The Fishbowl". Once inside, the party proceed to exhaust themselves, although most had the same idea. Rusteen and Nymphia retired upstairs to rent a room and enjoy each other's company. Jack decided that he might as well carry out his plan of advertising free samples of his services (along with the opportunity to compare notes with some of the employees). Shazarr also fell into the art of physical induldences, but he choose all of the aquatic employees. Zin and Ginaea decided to engage in intellectual and psionic pursuits. Zin mostly ended up creating moving targets for a knife throwing contest.

Eventually, at 4am, the party was finally on the brink of exhaustion. Shazarr was on the stage, engaging in a mud wrestling contest with a female cyclops-kin. Everyone else was sitting rather listlessly nearby and watching the show. At this point, a rogue modron assassin (and member of the Dustmen) burst into the bar. Wielding four repeating crossbows, it delcared that it had identified its target and pointed the weapons at a Doomguard who had become drinking buddies with Rusteen and had been cheering Shazarr on. The rogue modron fired - and the poisoned bolts struck Rusteen and Zin. The Doomguard then hauled off and savaged Rusteen with a massive blow from his warhammer.

Although there were only two opponents, the fight was very hard was all of the party (with the exception of Greymankle) was severely exhausted and suffering for it. To help with the fighting, Nymphia lept to the defense of Rusteen and revealed that she wasn't just a rather viscious ranger, but a full-out bloodthirsty berserker barbarian. The fairly brutal fight eventually ended with the rogue modron turning invisible and escaping, while the Doomguard was killed by a massive flying head kick from Greymankle. A search of the body revealed a note that showed that someone had been spying on the party for quite some time and knew the strengths and weaknesses of the group. It was apparent that someone had hired the pair to kidnap Shazarr.

The session ended with Zin doing some scrying on the writer of the note - a gray tiefling that was still in the Wave City someplace. Next time, the party will determine how to spy on the spy and the man who hired him, as well as picking up the psionic syringe from the Mercane and trying to determine what sort of psychic surgery could be done with it.

Authored by: Ken Lipka E-mail me: krlipka@yahoo.com

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