Two weeks after the destruction of the Dustplane, Frankel was reborn into a new centaur body. The Beastlands folk were very pleased with Frankel's efforts on their behalf, since many animals had been trapped in the plane powering Rakni's ambitions. There were no centaurs except Frankel on the plane when it blew, but several hybsils (creatures similar to centaurs, but a bit smaller and less boisterous) had been trapped there, and their release has assured Frankel of a kind reception among any hybsil community with a Beastlands-worshipping priest. A hippocampus spirit also came to thank Frankel on behalf of the many sea creatures who had been imprisoned. In short, Frankel had acquired a reputation in animal communities across the plane as a protector of beasts.
The manta ray that had brought the survivors back from Dustplane had indeed overstepped its bounds, but the Beastlands response was as casual as the ray had been in doing it, and no actual punishment seems to have taken place.
Frankel asked his sponsors if they could tell him anything about the bandit Tiger that he'd been seeking. He learned that many people call themselves "Tiger", because they're actually weretigers, because they like the mystique, or for whatever reason; most such people are Chaotic, with no particular preponderance of Good or Evil among them. And one of the horses in the area had (quite luckily, since divination is not among the Beastlands' strengths) heard of the particular Tiger Frankel was after. The bandit, who seems to have no affiliation with tiger spirits, has been involved in horsenapping, taking horses from their homes and forcing them to work in a criminal organization. One horse that understood Common believed that Tiger had taken his name first because he was perceived as ferocious child, and later because he'd acquired an item to do with tiger claws. The horses saw no obvious signs that this Tiger was a cambion.
Frankel was then sent off to the grey elven forest. He appeared under a tree and saw lots of other trees around, but no hint of a sky. Silvana was there to meet him, along with Plant Dude (introduced to Frankel as the Taproot of Rillifane) in his old elf guise.
- Plant Dude: [to Frankel]
- "You good is."
Plant Dude then walked up the side of the tree Frankel was under...and then walked upside-down along the underside of a branch, not bothering with anything so silly as gravity. From his new vantage point, he was able to reach down and pat Frankel's head.
Silvana then introduced Frankel to two of her followers, the faerie dragons Quizlik and Jilbi. Quizlik introduced itself by casting taunt on Frankel (by sticking its tongue out), but Plant Dude patted Frankel's head again and dispelled the effect immediately. Jilbi then dumped water on the area before Plant Dude grabbed it and hauled it out. (Apparently the pair had been hanging out with Hajmola during his captivity in the forest.)
- Plant Dude:
- "You be good."
- Quizlik: [to Frankel]
- "Give us cake!"
- Frankel:
- "I'm sorta peckish myself. Comes from being dead."
- Quizlik:
- "You came back from the dead? Cool! Can we try that, Silvana?"
- Jilbi:
- "I want to die first! Kill me, Quizlik!"
- Quizlik:
- "No, me first!"
- Plant Dude:
- "They small is."
- Quizlik:
- "Only in size you dumb old elf."
The faerie dragons had seen a centaur before...a centaur bard who'd given them grapes (though not cake). Frankel was next introduced to Mooncrystal, a unicorn who often gets stuck babysitting the young faerie dragons. (All three of them were originally from forests bordering the Keeplands, not far from where Frankel's tribe came from.)
- Mooncrystal:
- "I heard the 'dragons misbehaving again. They have learned some very bad manners recently."
- Silvana:
- "It's not their fault. It's Hajmola."
- Quizlik:
- "Hajmola is cool."
- Plant Dude:
- "Hajmola no is."
The next stage of the plan called for Stealth, Silvana, Frankel, and Pepper to transport via plants to the trees Silvana had planted just outside the mountain dwarves' caverns. Unfortunately, the spiders had grown webs over the trees, and there was likely to be combat when the party (what there would be of it, anyway) emerged. Frankel had no equipment, and the forest was not someplace one could pick up a morning star. However, in the "real" forest surrounding the entry point to the IF demiplane, there were a lot of orcs, some of whom would probably have morning stars, so Frankel and Pepper (plus, in the end, the faerie dragons) could just head out and grab one (without attracting attention emerging onto the Prime, unlike Silvana or Stealth). (Unlike spiders, orcs could be defeated by equines of Frankel's and Pepper's caliber with no more than hooves and knives -- bootstrapping lives!)
- Silvana:
- "So here are my instructions: Avoid contact with any large bipedal birds you see. They are called axe-beaks. Don't kill them, even if they try jumping you. They aren't evil, just hungry. And don't believe everything the faerie dragons tell you. They are mischievous; also, they have been promised an adventure."
- Frankel:
- "We'll give them one. Captures, torture, last-minute rescue, the works. ;-) "
(Silvana believes the orcs had been placed in that forest to monitor the progress of the grey elves; as the number of elven rangers in the area increased, the orc population could be expected to drop. The orcs may in fact be having problems, but that's thanks to the Axebeak Lord's pets running around eating all those yummy orcs.)
The intrepid force emerged on the Prime in search of orcs with morning stars. Frankel started looking for tracks, which briefly interested the faerie dragons, but their attention span was soon exceeded, so they turned invisible and wandered off. And we at last find out what equine adventurers talk about when nobody else is around.
- Frankel:
- "So have you met Mooncrystal?"
- Pepper:
- "Yes, she came with Quizlik and Jilbi. Her mother is a priestess. She was born a unicorn. I was born a horse."
- Frankel:
- "Are you attracted to her?"
- Pepper:
- "I don't know. I'm still not sure whether I'm a horse or a unicorn. Or a demon-beast, which I also was, for a while. I'm not sure what other unicorns (or horses, or demon-beasts) think of me.... One of these days, I would like to find a mate, but we always seem so busy. Plus, after what everyone says, I don't even know if I can have kids."
- Frankel:
- "Mate or not, just a friend of the opposite sex and your own current species is often a good thing to have."
- Pepper:
- "Do you feel like this too?"
- Frankel:
- "Yes, except for my friends in the party I do feel very alone."
- Pepper:
- "You're lucky. You know what species you are."
- Frankel:
- "You're a unicorn. You just weren't born one. Sorry to be flippant, but the past is only a help when it gives you a direction. It has to be an engine, not a weight."
- Pepper:
- "That is excellent advice. Everyone else in the party just seems so...comfortable with change. You know? Like getting new bodies and stuff like that."
- Frankel:
- "Thank you. Well, I figure it's the survivor's instinct -- they usually haven't had much choice in the matter."
- Pepper:
- "I'm sure that there are lots of centaurs out there who would find you very suitable. We just don't adventure in places with other centaurs -- like Dustplane."
- Frankel:
- "And the East. Have you spoken with her?"
- Pepper:
- "I don't feel impressive enough yet. I think I'll wait till I'm name level...we unicorns live a long time, you know."
- Frankel:
- "Actually, I know very little about unicorns, but that is good news."
The conversation was cut short by the sound of angry orcs in the distance; apparently the faerie dragons had gotten into trouble, so Frankel and Pepper headed off the rescue them. They rushed into a clearing and found seven soggy orcs shooting at the faerie dragons; this was down to five, with three wounded, by the end of the surprise segment. One of the corpses had a morning star.
- Orc: [Orcish]
- "@HJ%^K#&!"
- Frankel: [W. Common]
- "For my own part, I believe the problem is closer to metaphysical in nature. Now die!"
Frankel and Pepper each killed another orc, the faerie dragons disabled two more with their euphoria gas (ever seen an orc giggle?), and a young shaman appeared and prepared to cast.
- Shaman: [W.C.]
- "What you say, horse-man?"
- Frankel:
- "I want one thing, then we will leave. And not be followed. At all."
- Shaman:
- "What is it you want besides death?"
- Frankel:
- "Death I have already had, fool. It will not come to me again. I want this morning star. That only."
- Shaman: [looking at the dead, wounded, and euphoric]
- "You take, horse-man!"
The shaman fled the scene, and Frankel picked up the morning star.
- Quizlik:
- "Are we done already?"
- Frankel:
- "I did sorta promise that we'd just take the morningstar."
- Jilbi:
- "Shouldn't we follow the evil guy back to his lair?"
- Quizlik:
- "And rescue the maidens and cake?"
- Pepper:
- "You most certainly cannot follow. Not without us. Either we all go forward or we all go back."
- Quizlik:
- "Onwards!"
- Jilbi:
- "We can't all go, stupid. Frankel promised."
- Frankel:
- "Many adventures are like this, I'm afraid."
Meanwhile, the last orc was standing quietly wondering what it should do. Frankel pointed. The orc nodded and ran.
On the way back, the party was accosted by a pair of axe-beaks, but Frankel exuded calm rangerness and befriended them.
- Quizlik:
- "Wow! He made friends with an axe-beak."
- Jilbi:
- "Neat. Should we make them happy?"
- Quizlik:
- "Maybe we should make Frankel happy too."
- Pepper:
- "No."
The adventurers reached the forest, where Plant Dude sent the axe-beaks on their way and Pepper resumed his training.
A few weeks later, Pepper was fully trained, and everyone was ready for the jump to the dwarven caverns. One of the lower-level forest priests linked to Silvana with an uplift spell, boosting her abilities to 11th level for a turn and allowing her to do lots of precasting, topped off with a plant door into a tree and a transport via plants to the trees in the mountains. (Some other forest priests did some additional precasting on Frankel and Stealth.)
The transport itself went without a hitch. The party arrived in webs but were able to shrug out of them. As they moved toward the mouth of the dwarven caverns, Pepper's danger sense went off, and a pair of phase spiders emerged from the trees behind them. The party sprinted for the cave, figuring it was better to fight there than in the open, and ran across a burrow hidden in their path. Silvana spotted it before everyone was on top of it, allowing Stealth and Frankel to evade it, but Silvana and Pepper fell in and were surprised by a bunch more spiders. They were all 4 HD or less, as demonstrated by their complete incapacitation in Silvana's precast aura of terror.
At this point, the dwarves opened the cave entrance and pointed a large number of loaded crossbows out the door. Frankel and Stealth ran in, Pepper and Silvana ported in, and the phase spiders decided not to eat three rounds of crossbow fire in pursuit of their quarry.
The dwarves greeted the party with two pieces of news: Beeel had arrived more than a week earlier (delivered to their doorstep by Clynthia, a paladin of the ki-rin backed Wind Temple, and Raleef, her flying ether-traversing steed) and begun training for kensai-8 and relearning his quadruple specialization, and there was a tribe of centaurs in the area that appeared to be looking for something.