Streets of Sigil(Lady's Ward)

Jaspar nods, and, made to think before he speaks, takes a whole moment before responding. "Of course I agree. But there are some caveats of course. I am attempting to use a poor Common translation from a Drow-speech approximation of a illithid concept. There are no words in telepathy when used as illithid use them, as we speak in four-level conceptual identity. As most non-illithid cannot recieve illithid thought without reeling, I am forced to compress and over-simplify to the point of losing the most pertinant points.

But your point is made, as even that conversation we have had has ingrained a feeling of slavery and unwillingness in your mind, and tainted your belief. Therefore, perhaps it is best if Ibid explains it. You may find he is more eloquent than he seems."

With this, the tall, swarthy man turns to look at Enzo, his demeanor calm, and unfazed by the mention of his life in the battle pits of the Inquisition. His voice is smooth and calming, betraying his old life as a bard. "You may address me when you wish, Master Enzo. There is no great hurry, as we will have much time upon the Enlightener, though there, my duties are much more pressing. For the time being, I am in a rather pleasant mood, having had a good human cooked meal and decent conversation." He smiles wryly, and cuts a look at Jaspar. "If there is any few things that grates on me about Quasuropsine, it is that he can neither cook, nor dance the subtleties of conversation as a human or elf can. He never eats, and never learned the culinary beyond illithid recipes, which are utterly inedible for most civilized folk, and he prefers telepathy to the sparring match that is speech. It does the heart good to put into port to see people a bit more like myself."

Ibid pondered for a moment, never breaking stride. "The Enlightener is something very similar to a mobile fortress, but of an illithid design. The ship it is based on uses what Jaspar refers to as a "psionic chain drive", where four illithid share the duties of converting their psychic energy into motive force for the ship, which allows it to fly through the air, and through space. The backup was a device that sucked the souls out of thralls, using them to power the vessel.

"The Enlightener has neither. We have what is called a "spelljamming" helm, which converts mine or Jaspar's magical ability into speed and flight. When one of us is powering the craft, the other walks the decks or rests, as possible. Jaspar can power the craft for weeks at a time, while I keep lookout. When there is trouble, I take the helm, while he defends the ship.

The Enlightener is also a gigantic warship, known as a dreadnaught. Normally equipped to carry over one hundred illithid and an elder brain, when the ship appeared to Jaspar, it had most of its thrall and crew chambers replaced with ritual halls, libraries, and a crystal array which provides the craft its planeshifting abilities and planar defenses. It can hover in place, or land on liquids, or submerge beneath them.

So, functionally, the Enlightener is a rather fearsome planeshifting, flying wizard's tower and psionic sanctuary. Jaspar and I got it about two years ago, and have been using it to make his research work easier. We have a permanent berth at the Rock of Bral, on the Prime, and have used it to visit a great many places, but ironically, we have yet to find a cavern in Pandemonium large enough to planeshift the Enlightener into. I personally find it most soothing when we go to Air or Water. Those planes are beautiful, and so awesome in scope."

Distance concerns in space are minimal, with Jaspar's magical power and lack of need for supplies leaves us a great deal of air and food for long distance travel, and gating over to Air quickly resupplies any loss of atmosphere. Mostly, we skip most of the travel time by teleporting the ship to a known port.

We have spent a great deal of time on both the Ethereal and Astral. I find the Astral pleasant, but we rarely spend any time there, with the rrakkma constantly pursuing us. The githyanki have some serious problems with illithids, and Jaspar and the Enlightener are a flag of war in front of them.

As for Pandemonium, we are currently dabbling in a xenohistorical question Jaspar is considering. He believes that the illithid race is not part of the divine creation, and in fact came from the Far Realms. Due to the evidence in a tome we recently acquired, the Illithiad, we're following up on some human researcher's work. This has involved some Astral work, as well as some in Pandemonium, but since portals of the size of the Enlightener are rare, it is difficult to make for a precise landing point in its cavernous depths. With his work thus far, we believe there is some link between those two planes and the origins of the illithid race. We are attempting to communicate meaningfully with the kaorti, but it seems that they are unwilling to speak, preferring to flee.

(Editted to repair sentence fragment.)

"We are headed to the Rock of Bral. It could be considered Sigil's parallel on the Prime, much as the Great Deeping Delve or the City of Brass are called in the Inner Planes. Much as Sigil is a hub of travel for planar portals, the Rock is where most of the ships like Jaspar's dock, though next to none of them can planeshift. You will see beholders and illithid, drow and elf, dwarf and man, giff and neogi. An array of creatures to make the bustle of Sigil seem almost... homogenous. There we will board the Enlightener, and we will see if you are willing to join us on the next leg of our journey."