Envoy's expedition has journeyed into the southwestern portion of the Wandering Roams, into the region most frequented by the giant, lumbering creatures known as Goliaths … and the crowds of smaller creatures that follow them about, known as Zakis. Although an airship would theoretically make Goliath-hunting that much easier, there are numerous tales of Goliaths somehow managing to knock fliers out of the sky, and – as fate would have it – the area that the Goliaths are believed to visit the most happens to be underneath the no-fly shield of a Forbidden Zone.

A wagon train of supplies had to be left behind as a "base camp", when the ground became too uneven, and signs of Goliath combat became more frequent. Dromodons have been the beast of burden of choice, thanks to their camel-like capacity to store nutrients if need be, and their general durability. The maps show that the scouting group on Dromodon-back is now underneath the fringes of the Forbidden Zone, but so far there has been no evidence of any instability in the use of magic, nor any danger in flying – at least below the cloud level. Still, the two Earth Mages in the group have been able to sense the presence of the Forbidden Zone, strongly enough that it serves as a compass of sorts … "north" being replaced by the center of the Zone, that is.

The way deeper into the Forbidden Zone, coincidentally, lies more or less true north at this point. The ground has become more uneven and rocky, and it looks like the center of the Forbidden Zone may actually correspond to a ridge of mountains further north. Not far to the west, it looks like there are several bleached bones scattered about, while to the east, a sky garden can be seen drifting leisurely along just below cloud level, followed by some translucent, slightly iridescent shapes that suggest the presence of one or two waashu.

Envoy's scouting team includes herself, Mage Iona, a mutated lion-Khatta by the name of Ari (who has four arms and just as many swords), a Titanian scout by the name of Backhand (because he knows the land like the back of his hand, he claims), and Jaffi of Madara (a Zerda scholar sent from Abu Dhabi). Even though Envoy is capable of flying, they have four riding Dromodons between them, and a fifth as a pack animal with extra water and other supplies, although the two mages could probably coax necessities out of the ground if need be.

Mage Iona carefully keeps one hand aside, focused on containing what looks like an ethereal image of a spinning chunk of rock with several cracks in it. The ghostly rock shivers and splinters from time to time, shedding phantom bits of dust and fragments … yet never diminishes in size.

From the back of her mount, Envoy scans the horizon ahead for signs of movement, such as dust clouds. "This place seems so desolate. What do the Goliaths and Zakis live on?" As she shades her eyes, her horn can be seen to glow slightly with a held spell of her own.

The Zerda pipes up, "Actually, there are several sources of food out here, for those who can find them! First of all, there are the sky gardens … such as the one that you see over there to the east. They occasionally rain seedlings and bits of organic material known as 'manna'. Furthermore, there are herds of waashu that drift past, and it's believed that some of the natives actually find means of bringing them down … though I've heard that waashu 'meat' is only barely palatable. Furthermore, many of the plants you see here have rather extensive root systems that extend far beneath the earth, stretching down to the water level … which is far, far beneath."

Iona opens her mouth as if to speak, but lets the Zerda ramble on instead, smiling self-consciously.

The Zerda keeps rattling, "… for instance, the Xients live primarily off of 'manna', but supplement their diets with the krokoa plant, which seems like an inhospitable, prickly plant on the surface, but which has nutrient-laden roots of considerable size. The tubers from this plant, if boiled to kill off bacteria, can actually be fairly nutritious, though it is an acquired taste… "

Backhand whines. "Hrrr. You wind up little-guy's voice-box now! He no run out for miles!"

"Then let's head for that sky garden," Envoy suggests, pointing east. "It would make sense for animals to follow along beneath it. I fell into a waashu once, but I never considered eating one."

"Into a waashu?" the Zerda pauses a moment to refill his lungs. "Really? And you live to tell about it! That is positively amazing! So, how did that happen? Did it attack you while you were flying? Did you get caught in a storm?"

Meanwhile, the riders turn their beasts eastward, pursuing the slowly drifting sky garden.

"Oh no, nothing so dramatic," Envoy says as she turns her Dromodon. "I jumped off of a Rephidim pier to try and catch a tigress and a black Khatta. We landed on the waashu, but it was under attack by flying creatures that seemed to consist largely of teeth."

Iona hisses in sympathetic pain at the description. "Fascinating," is all the Zerda can offer. "They stupid," is Backhand's opinion. Ari keeps any opinions to himself, as per usual.

"So we dove into one of the holes that they chewed into it, so that they couldn't bite us," the Aeolun continues. "Then the whole thing deflated and landed in the Desolate Band. Very sulphurous inside."

"The Desolate Band?" repeats the Zerda, his ears picking up even more. "What was it like there? That is a Forbidden Zone, you know – one of the larger and more mysterious ones! An ancient curse upon the land there causes thinking people to turn into beasts! But you suffered no ill effects, I can tell."

Envoy says, "We were only there for one night before being rescued, but where we landed, there was a group of bestial felines living in a spiky tree."

The Zerda nods. "Hmm. Cohabiting in a tree. Intriguing. Perhaps they have developed a symbiotic relationship with the plant life… "

Iona smiles. "That would probably be a warpwood tree. They grow in large numbers in the drier portions of the Savan."

"They also showed evidence of cannibalism though," Envoy points out. "I'd like to see if there is anything that can be done to rehabilitate that region."

The Zerda blinks. "Rehabilitate? But that would mean destabilizing the new ecology that has asserted itself there… "

After much more in the way of exchanges between Envoy's odd statements of her previous adventures, and the Zerda excitedly asking question after question (and offering several hypotheses), the group gains on the sky gardens. The Titanian is first to crest a broken hill. "Whoo!" he bellows. "SHHH! I sees rollers!" He points down into what amounts to a valley, where, as the others reach the crest, they can see several spheres of varying sizes rolling along the ground, roughly following after the sky garden and the waashu.

"What are they?" Envoy asks Backhand, leaning towards him to whisper.

Backhand barks, "Rollers!"

Envoy blinks twice, then looks to Jaffi.

Jaffi – the Zerda – rides up beside Envoy and clears his throat. "Those would be Xients. They are a nomadic people. They have the most curious means of locomotion – namely, rolling up into little balls and … well … rolling for long distances. They are capable of bipedal locomotion as well – typically used when they have to go uphill and haven't enough momentum to crest the hill. They move their material possessions in those larger, artificial spheres."

"Do they deal with strangers well?" Envoy asks the Zerda. "Maybe they could tell us where to find a Goliath."

Backhand laughs. "They's okay. Somes o' them. The nasty ones done won't let us even close-like."

The Zerda says, "They are a fairly social people, despite their nomadic nature, but sometimes easily excitable. Many of the tribes have at least some contact with those few airships that pass through the Roams … though I can't suppose that there would be too many passing through this particular part of the Roams, naturally."

Envoy smiles, "Let us try to talk to them, then. I don't think they can roll faster than our mounts can run."

Backhand laughs loudly at this. "Not chasing us back uphill, nuh uh!" He turns his Dromodon mount slightly sideways, leading the beast in a careful descent down the somewhat loose earth, keeping closer to the areas that have more patches of vegetation rooted into the dirt.

Nudging her own mount, Envoy follows, grinning as usual at the prospect of meeting a new race.

The group is about halfway down into the valley when the rollers start to go uphill, and some of them start unrolling and waddling on up. Some of them look akin to anthropomorphic porcupines, while the others look more like armadillos – though they each share fairly similar body proportions, somewhere between "humanoid" and "animal standing upright". Despite their semi-feral body build, their bellies display signs of clothing and jewelry, with more concern for ornamentation than worries of modesty or function. A few notice the party, and they can be heard chattering to the others, as they point up toward Envoy and her entourage. Some of the Xients jam stakes into the dirt next to the larger spheres they push along, so that they won't roll back downhill again. It looks like, for now, they're holding position, watching Envoy and her party descend into the valley.

"How do we say hello?" Envoy asks Backhand as they get closer.

Backhand duhs, and then he says, "Oh yeah … I gots a 'We're Pals Honker'." He digs around in one of the many bags strapped to his body, and pulls out an overly complicated-looking horn-like device. He screws off a cap, and pours some water from his canteen inside. He screws the cap back on, then blows through the horn. It makes a slightly warbling call.

Envoy tries calling out with the same warbling sound.

The sound is fairly easy to imitate, as it turns out. An answering cry comes back from the Xients … and they start rolling back down into the bowl of the crater-valley, and unroll some of the spheres. By the time that Envoy and her party are almost to the bottom, they have set up dome-shaped tents and mats in a quickly assembled camp.

Backhand fishes around in his bags. "They likes to trade stuffs."

"Herbs and spices?" Envoy guesses.

Backhand nods-nods. "Yah! They likes stuff like that. They's pretty good cooks. When they gots meat. Which ain't often. So I guess most of the time, they's so-so cooks."

The Zerda suggests, "They are also fond of trading trinkets – especially items that can be incorporated into bead-work. They don't have the 'shiny-fetish' of Vartans, but they can appreciate something 'shiny' as much as the next person."

"I don't suppose they've ever seen amber before?" Envoy asks.

"Whaz 'amber'?" asks Backhand.

The Zerda laughs. "Oh! Not likely, in these parts. Of course, it's possible, depending upon whether they've traded with any passing airships or not. Considering how quickly they laid out the welcome mat for us, that is a very real possibility, I should add."

Envoy grins to Jaffi, and asks, "Magical amber, even?"

"Far less likely, I should say," the Zerda offers.

The group makes it up to the perimeter of the camp. Several of the porcupine and armadillo-like creatures trundle up. They stand no more than three or four feet tall as adults, it would seem. There are no obvious mammalian features that would easily distinguish gender, as in certain bipedal species. A general difference in body build and style of attire and general disposition suggests that the "armadillos" are the males, and the "porcupines" are actually the females of the same species. With a hasty judgement from the postures and how the creatures interact with each other, it looks as if this is a patriarchal society.

Envoy watches Backhand for her lead, not knowing how Xients would react to a female alien.

Backhand gallops on into the camp, with what seems to be utter disregard and carelessness … and, which, upon closer examination, probably is. Still, he manages not to run anybody over, though he still leaves a few rolling Xients in his wake. "I gots pretties!" he bellows, demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge of whatever the local language is, but demonstrating his point by jangling around some metal necklaces.

Leaning in towards Iona, Envoy asks, "Does this seem ironic to you? In most other lands, those necklaces would be quite valuable still."

Iona smiles. "Ironic. Yes." She winks. "But something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it."

The Zerda laughs. "A favorite Khattan saying!"

Iona says, "I think the Khattan version is a bit more verbose and flowery, though."

Envoy chuckles, and removes a nugget of amber from her pouch, which she rolls between her hands while singing a cantrip to soften it.

Backhand leaps off his Dromodon, and shows off his necklaces to a gathering of Xients. They wave around some items of pottery – predominantly spherical in shape – as well as implements made from oddly shaped bits of bone. One of them has a cage (spherical, again) that contains a big-eyed, flightless bird. Another has a container filled with some writhing grub-like creatures that resemble miniature Gooshurms.

Iona smiles. "Ah, the delights of impressing the natives with feats of magic!"

Envoy keeps working the amber into a spherical shape, using more magic to smooth and shine it, until she has a large golden-swirled marble. "Do you recognize any of those animals they're showing, Jaffi?"

Jaffi wanders over to the spherical cage, then startles and leaps back. "Oh, by the First Ones! It's an eep!" He almost drops to all fours as he scampers away.

"Eep!" comes an echo from the cage.

"Perhaps that is where they get their meat?" Envoy ponders. "Maybe eeps won't explode if you keep them dizzy enough?"

Jaffi covers his head in his hands, and waits a while. There is no explosion.

Iona blinks a few times. "That … looks sort of like an eep. I'm not getting any closer to tell for sure, though. Not unless it's positively necessary. Keeping eeps dizzy? How strange. But I suppose if anybody could do it, the Xients could, what with all that rolling… "

Envoy dismounts, marble in hand, and tries to pick out the leader of the group – assuming he'd be the one with the most jewelry.

If that's the case, Envoy finds an armadillo-esque creature with quite a bit of jewelry, and numerous designs etched into his leathery "shell". He looks up as Envoy approaches.

The Aeolun smiles and bows to the Xient, and introduces herself, by simply pointing to her chest and saying, "Envoy."

The Xient stands up, nodding. "Envoy?"

Envoy asks, "What is your name?"

The Xient nods. "Whadisyurname." He smiles.

Switching to Vykarin, Envoy tries the question again.

The Titanian, meanwhile, is seated, which makes him only a little taller than the Xients. He licks his chops, eyeing the maybe-eep in the cage.

The Xient nods, and laughs. He pop-clicks, "You speak northern tongue! I am Chief Tonga," in a fair approximation of Vykarin.

Envoy smiles! She click-pops back, "We seek the… big-moving-wanderers. Do you know of them?"

Chief Tonga nods. "Yes! Be careful! We are not far from the Graveyard of the Great Ones, where the Heart of Storms resides."

Envoy's eyes widen at the news! "Can you show us where to find this?"

Jaffi's curiosity, meanwhile, has overcome his fear, as he inspects the quasi-eep. "I do say … this is not an eep … or, at least, not of the Ashdodite variety. It must be an entirely different breed!"

Chief Tonga nods. "Yes, but stay far from there, or the Curse of the Great Ones will befall you, and the Sky Gods will become angry!"

The exile wonders if this refers to the center of the Forbidden Zone somehow. It sounds like a good candidate for a Heart of Storms. "Thank you for the warning, Chief Tonga. I have a gift for you, to express my gratitude for your help." She holds out the amber marble to the Xient.

The Xient's eyes glitter as he eyes the piece of amber. "A teardrop of the Sun God!"

Envoy blinks, but doesn't contradict him. After all, amber comes from trees, and trees use sunlight.

The Xient eagerly scoops up the amber bead. "And I have gift for you, too, Child of Sky." He begins rummaging around in a bowl-shaped container.

Envoy takes a quick look around to see how the others are faring, while the Chief does his search.

Iona just seems to be trying to keep out of the way, lacking Envoy's lingual abilities or anything to trade. Jaffi is intently studying the not-eep through the bone bars of the cage. Backhand is examining what looks like a helmet fashioned from some sort of skull. Or maybe it's a planter pot.

Rustling her wings a little, Envoy tries to catch Iona's attention, wanting to tell her about the Graveyard before any of the others.

Iona's ears perk up, and, as she's not distracted by anything else at the moment, Envoy's subtle hint works. She looks in Envoy's direction, catches her look, then quietly walks over, with an inquisitive cant to her ears.

Once the Jupani is close enough, Envoy whispers to her, "Good news, although possibly disturbing. Chief Tonga says there is a Graveyard of the Great Ones not far from here, near to the Heart of Storms, which I take to be the center of the Forbidden Zone. He also says there is a curse of the Great Ones that befalls those who enter the area, and something about the Sky Gods becoming angry as well."

Iona frowns. "Well, a curse could be superstition, or any number of things. There is a phenomenon known as 'radiation' that accompanies one of the Forbidden Zones in Lamu, I hear. And Forbidden Zones often feature 'angry sky gods' in the form of freakish weather."

"He will show us the way to go to find it, but I wanted your opinion first," Envoy whispers. "A graveyard for Goliaths would probably mean lots of machines, if they really are part machine. And machines can be dangerous, even when they aren't built by Titanians."

Iona nods. "I certainly would not argue with that. Hmm." She furrows her brow. "We might want to make sure our Titanian friend doesn't try to 'fix' any machines." She pantomimes swinging an invisible hammer.

Envoy nods in agreement! "The Xients have some contact with the Vykarins too, it seems. The Vykarins have Sky Gods too. You've met Fenter the Chaos Mage, haven't you?"

Iona nods. "Oh, yes, of course! But you should know that many of the small ground-based cultures who have limited contact with airships or Rephidim have notions of the 'sky gods'. Many of the airship traders exploit such notions. Eventually, people catch on … but there are still enough isolated groups out there, that you can still find belief in "sky gods" … and even when they learn that airships are the vehicles of mortals, sometimes the idea just gets modified."

Envoy nods and smiles, "Chief Tonga likes the amber, too. He's giving me a gift in return even."

As if on cue, the armadillo waddles over, holding a necklace. It's a necklace made from a very tight-looking cord, with a rectangular card dangling from it, with strange shapes etched into it that appear to possibly be of some sort of runic significance, but not from any language Envoy might recognize.

Envoy pulls her own necklace up through her collar so it rests outside her robes, then bows and accepts the unusual necklace from the Chief.

The Chief's eyes widen as he regards the amber necklace … and then gets a better look at Envoy's horn and wingtips. "Ah! My pardon! You must not be a Child of the Sky, but rather a Child of the Sun!" He bows so low that he almost rolls into a ball.

Backhand wanders over, grinning seemingly from ear to ear, with a skull cocked sideways on his head like a hat, and carrying a spherical cage with a not-quite-eep inside. The Zerda follows along, still peeking inside the cage, and scribbling down notes on a pad.

Envoy feels suddenly awkward, but doesn't know how to dissuade the Chief without upsetting his beliefs. Instead, she examines the odd card and cord of the necklace before tying it to her Vykarin one.

Iona raises an eyebrow. "You seem to have made a favorable impression on the locals."

The card is made of a fairly smooth material, possibly plastic or some more sophisticated material than that. It most probably was not made by the Xients.

"This is an artifact of some sort, but I don't recognize it," Envoy says, showing the card to Iona. "And yes, I do tend to make an impression of one kind or another."

Iona scrutinizes the card. "It is not any sort of mineral I recognize. I don't see any mold lines. Hmm. I don't recognize the runes. But I'm not even certain if they are runes. They are not organized in a linear fashion. For all I know, these lines might represent a single character."

Envoy hangs the new necklace so that the card rests beneath her amber piece. "Maybe it came from near the graveyard."

Iona nods. "Possibly so. What did the Xients have to say about the necklace?"

Envoy asks Tonga in Vykarin, "I am honored by your gift. How did you acquire it?"

The chieftain looks up, and says, "Ah, Great Ones were great with rage, so too the storm, and fought many days and nights! After the battle, we scavenged of Little Ones and broken pieces left by Great Ones." He gestures toward the spherical cage and the not-quite-eep the Titanian carries. "That one was from Great Ones too!"

Envoy blinks and turns to look at the cage held by Backhand. "You don't mean to eat that … bird, do you, Backhand? It came from a Goliath, possibly. It might be an immature Zaki or something."

Backhand licks his chops. "Good eatin'!"

Iona blanches. "Can't you eat something else? This might be something valuable!"

Jaffi adds, "And it might explode!"

Backhand whines querulously. "No eat?"

"No eat!" Envoy says. "What if its mother is out there looking for it? Do you want to be squished by a Goliath?"

Backhand sticks his tongue out, and his ears droop. "Aw, all right." He sighs loudly, looking regretfully at the bird. He opens the cage door. "Fly, be free!" He grabs the bird by the midsection and pulls it out. The bird's eyes bulge more and it lets out a choked "OOP!"

Envoy eeps! "No, don't let it go!'

Backhand stops in mid-wind-up, preparing to toss the bird. "No? Oh! All right." He roughly stuffs the bird back into the cage-ball. The bird makes some panicked eeping noises once it's let go … but it doesn't explode, and it doesn't really seem to have suffered any injury despite the rough handling – quite unlike any normal bird that size would undergo. (But then, eeps are hardly 'normal birds'.)

Envoy takes a closer look at the caged bird. "I think I know what the curse might be. Barabbas said he learned how to merge animals from studying the Zakis. This bird and card were found after a big battle between Goliaths, so maybe it's a hybrid created by … bits of blown up Zakis."

Jaffi blinks. "You mean to say that somehow organic residue from the Goliaths spontaneously rejoined to create an entirely new life-form? Astounding! This could be a veritable cornucopia of new and varied life-forms!"

Envoy blinks. "Well, it might have just been an eep originally that got merged with something else. We'll have to be careful when we reach the Graveyard of the Great Ones."

Iona shudders. "This is evoking sinister imagery."

The Titanian licks his chops. "If we find more birdies, can I eat one?"

"Do you promise not to hit any machines we find with your hammer?" Envoy asks, before answering.

The Titanian whines. "Uhm … no."

Iona fixes a warning glare at the Titanian.

The Titanian hugs his sledgehammer protectively.

"Then please don't eat anything we come across," Envoy says. "And don't hug it too close. If Goliaths are part machine, then maybe your hammer will become part of you as well. Then how would you scratch?"

The Titanian's ears and eyebrows shoot up in alarm.

Envoy asks Tonga again, "Have you seen anyone afflicted with the Curse of the Great Ones?"

The chief answers, "No, but Great Ones have mighty power!"

"But they fight with each other?" Envoy asks.

The chief nods. "Constantly!"

The chief hunches down. "The Great Ones see each other. They roar mightily! They charge! Gallumph, gallumph! They smash! They roar again! And again they smash! Then … the battle ends … they leave!"

Envoy considers this, while translating for the others, and then asks, "But they do not fight to the death?"

The chief says, "No, Goliaths cannot kill each other. They get old, go to the Graveyard … then are reborn, emerge again anew!"

Envoy nods, and relays this to the others.

"Do the smaller ones that follow fight as well? What happens when their Great One goes to be reborn?" she asks Tonga.

Tonga replies, "The Lesser Ones follow the Great Ones, and mimic them. They bash against each other. Many Lesser Ones die. They are happy but stupid. They follow the Great One into the Graveyard, then come out again."

Envoy smiles, and thanks Tonga again. To the others, she says, "The Zakis wait around while the Goliath regenerates, it seems. We may be able to capture one then."

Jaffi claps his hands together. "Ah yes! Our very own Goliath! The Emir will be ecstatic!"

Envoy says, "The Zakis don't seem to be actual Goliaths though. They just … imitate them. The relationship must be complex."

Iona says, "Maybe they're baby Goliaths? Ah … minus the machine part?"

"That would seem likely, but we'll need to find an adolescent Goliath to confirm it," Envoy says.

The Xients start rolling up their spheres. It looks like they're preparing to resume their migration after the sky garden.

Iona nods. "Well, it sounds like if there's anywhere to find one … we're in the right place!"

Envoy gets final directions from Tonga while she can.

Tonga does more than give directions. He pulls out a scrap of leather (yet another sign that there must be some sort of animal life out here) that has a map on it, and he presents it to Envoy, being so kind as to mark out a "you are here" spot on the southern half of the map.

With that parting gift … Tonga waddles up the slope, then rolls up into a ball once he reaches the crest.

Envoy ahs, and shows Backhand the map. "Can you guide us to the Graveyard from here?"

Backhand examines the map, looks up toward the north, looks off at a few odd rock formations shown on the map. "Sure!" His tail wags.

Envoy says, "Lead on then! At least to where we can set up camp."

Backhand saddles up. "On to find great big Goliaths!"

"And not try to eat them, remember," Envoy adds as she mounts up.