Rhin retreated into some sort of meditation for a bit, and Hrir returned with rights to 85% of his adamantium. Tranquility was disrupted when fires started breaking out in and around the temple and library. After losing some spellbooks, Rockaneeshoo wished that the books hadn't been burned. His wish came true, but several of his reagents and beakers were destroyed instead. Realizing that the Heart of Fire was responsible, and that they had to take action or risk constant invasion by fire elementals, they started looking for ways to get rid of it. Enli prayed to Ibenaikad, and was told that attuning oneself to the Heart would help as a temporary solution, but that incorporating it into the wheel was the best long-term solution.
A legend lore spell was then cast, revealing that the Heart of Fire is actually the heart of a fire prince. It also revealed that to attune oneself, one must submit to the curse and sacrifice one's most valued possession to the flames. Only then could one harness the powers of the Heart. However the heart of the attuned would be that of the Heart itself, filled with passion and conflagration.
Siala contacted Zana and said that she wanted to get the Wheel back, and could the party come to the secret hideout. Zana said she would see about it. Pelema showed up the next day to discuss things, apparently on Zana's advice.
Pelema admitted that Jiyoomenath's body was under the control of something else, but that she hadn't discovered a weakness in it yet that could be exploited. She did admit that the sigils did not function with the being possessing his body, and that orders could be ignored at this point. However, she said that he was starting to become suspicious now that Calathinius had disappeared, and that by disobeying him in order to bring any of the party back to the hideout would probably mean instant retaliation. She also refused to tell the party much about the location of the hideout, stating that as with all successful guerrilla cells, each cluster should be separate from the others so that if one is compromised, not all of them will be compromised.
She said that she was working on a way to bring the Vlemniir creature down without killing Jiyoomenath, and without setting the party up for suicide. She said that Vlemniir's wheel is essentially the same item that Jiyoomenath was creating, and that allowing it proceed would actually still be in their best interests. She also squashed the idea that adding artifacts to the wheel added special powers to it. Apparently the attack on the party that seemed to use one of the gems in the wheel was merely a Magic Jar spell that used one of the un-filled gems in the wheel, and not an inherent power of the wheel. She also said that she didn't think that the imposter could actually use the sigils at all to tap into their communications.
As a final thought, she said that the horned devils that had been working with Vlemniir seemed to have their own agenda, and that perhaps they could work out a way to make Vlemniir and the devils fight each other so that the party could swoop in at the last minute to finish off the weakened survivor. Or something like that.
The party agreed to let her have the Heart of Fire, and they wrapped it up in stone and handed it to her. She said she'd be in touch, and teleported back home.
The party then paid a short visit to Calathinius. He re-iterated that the flying castle was probably over the waters between the mainland and the trade nation to the south. He also said that he had a somewhat better idea of where the Court of Lumat was located, but that he only knew that it was a cliff fortress on the edge of the great desert.
The party went to Luniel, and then flew south to a human port. They paid a sailor/merchant for some basic information about the trade nation to the south, and then flew off as clouds for a few hundred miles. After 9 hours over the water, they spotted the flying castle about four thousand feet up. It was surrounded by clouds and rotating winds. The party found it impossible to fly close to the castle in cloud form, and difficult to fly close to it in solid form. Rockaneeshoo made Inky fly up from underneath, but Inky was unable to penetrate the wall of winds from below. Urgmob then flew directly above the castle and then became solid. He plummeted towards it and was buffeted by the strong winds. But he compensated nicely, and activated his wand of levitation at the last second to come in for a soft landing on the main dome. He sent a mental image to Rockaneeshoo, who then teleported everyone to Urgmob's location. Peeking over the edge, everyone could see an open courtyard with about 15 reclining giants encircling a musician playing a flute. The music was soft and sad, but calming. Everyone made a will save, and then the words "to be continued..." floated in on the dulcet tones.
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