Only the High Elven Court and the magipunks know the significance of the artifact. When the elves returned from their years of exile following the great war, they first landed at Tilecra. From there, they dug in against the forces of the new creatures and spirits that had come to pollute the once beautiful world. A strong fortress of living ironwood held out the evils of the world. Elven wizards wove powerful wards into the wood to repel the horrors of the outside world. Jera had grown much cooler and much of it had gone through an ice age of creeping glaciers that changed the face of the world forever.

The flagship of the returning elves, the Latilae, or "jewel" was kept intact as a symbol of the return of the elves to reshape their world. The elves cast strong enchantments on the ship to slow the ravages of time. The fastest of all helms propelled the ship in its day. The ship's creator, Salvarah Diah, made the ultimate sacrifice that the ship might fulfill its mission of delivering the ancients to Jera to mend the world. Through an unlawful pact with a necromancer, his soul took the helm as its new abode. The spirit of this powerful sorcerer provides most of the magimotive force to propel the craft, and provides for much of her defenses.

The elves took great pride in the Latilae, a dish-shaped craft the size of a small city. Legend has it that it can hover with no magical infusion. No wizard need man the helm to keep it afloat in such manner, only to aid in propelling her through space. Salvarah built into the ship's defenses many abilities, of which few are recorded. It is said that a strong force wall surrounded the ship and that enemy ballistas and arrows failed to ever penetrate the ship.

Since the discovery of the accounts of ancient text surrounding the ship by the magipunks, they have lusted after its power. To them, it would enable them to travel to Lunelle, a magic-rich moon of Jera. Lunelle is the only source of adamantite, an ultra-hard, light metal used in the very best shields and armor. The punks wish to build their newest automatons with adamantite shielding. With these they hope to overthrow the powerbase of Asterland.

SETUP: After the party's latest adventure, their fame spreads as to their abilities. The leader of the group (or the highest-level fighter-type if the party has no official leader) is approached with a map, a story, and an offer. A halfling by the name of Snievel and his half-elf companion Igraine tell the following story, Igraine the spokesman:

Many years ago my family owned a great sailing ship, the Osprey. We traded with the Felann Empire and grew rich until we were attacked by pirates. We lost our ship to them, but as they forced my mother and father onto a small lifeboat and set them adrift, my father carried away his most prized possession, an enchanted astrolabe that could tell him the directions to any port in Jera. Though my father never again raised the money to set sail again, he treasured the device all of his life, looking forward to when he could return to his first love, the sea.

After his death a year ago, God bless his soul, we held a funeral at our home. He had many friends and aquaintences, being the goodly man that he was. In the course of the funeral, the astrolabe came up missing. My mother felt so distraught by the theft that she consulted a wizard, a friend of our family, to find out who stole it. Through sorcerous means he informed us of who had stolen the device, one Urva Trik, a friend of my father, and unknown to us, a thief. We sent for the police immediately, but somehow he got wind of it and fled before the guards could apprehend him. The wizard followed his movements through scrying, finding to his surprise that the man was, in fact, a doppling snakeman in human form. He fled to his lair in the mountains to the east of Asterland, where others of his kind dwell in hiding.

Your job, of course, is to recover the astrolabe and, if possible, kill the thief that stole it. Be warned though, the snakemen are notoriously tricky, and every word from their mouths will be lies and deciet. They will try to bargain with you, but don't let yourselves become victim to their hypnotic enchantments.