View source for Astronomers, Astronomers Everywhere

Back in Basra, we go looking for Al-Haithem, who has just gone missing.

On the boat a message arrives from the Papal throne, inviting Quiteria to come to Rome on June 12 to meet with him. Our good friend John Chrisentius arrives right at that moment to invite us to dine with him and his father on June 12, at the very same time. He will take it much amiss if any of us don't show. He also gives us a scroll case with the following written in latin:
  
  Demogorgon        Occus
    Juiblex       Pezuzuzaz
       2              2
  Yenogas, a prize for the tiebreaker
       - The council of 9

Yenogas is the demon god of Hyenas. Cave in the Bugid Emirates, east of the Abbasid Caliphate. Kut-E Kaftar, near Kermin, ruled by Bugids

We scry on Al-Haithem and see him on a cold mountaintop with a confused older Asian man. We send a message to the danger gang then teleport to the mountain. Everyone there is very surprised to see us. Ibn Unis is there, and the Asian man introduces himself as Jong Xi-Xun. We have apparently arrived at a great astronomy contest, organized by Ibn Unis to find the best astronomer for the Danger Gang. The contestants are Al-Haithem, Maslama al Madria, Vidjianndi (from India), Muhammed Al Busjani (Spain), Ariavatha (Basra), Jong Xi Chang (China), Issac Ibn Sassan (Jewish, Spain), Othric (HRE), and Yelenthiel (Jewish). They wanted Utpala and Gerbertus too but couldn't find them.

We propose as a contest that the astronomers look at a star chart from the south pole and try to deduce facts about the land under those stars. Whoever gets the most true facts wins. 

Astronomers on Southern Hemisphere: Kandam, Jungleland, Australia - other 4 get. Dwarves born beneath these stars live on an island, attacked by 2 sides. Women whose heads detach and fly around. Dwarf dinosaurs who live on islands. Volcano worshippers, gigantic brain corals, sons of the eagle: Fled a sunken continent.

We reveal Ariabata as a cheat (he knows nothing about astronomy, but is very good at reading minds) and declare Al-Haithem the winner.

We take Jong Xi Chun back to Dong Jing, stopping by Basra to pick up the relevant princess. We land at Jong's jewish friend Shi's house.

Shi goes out to do bureaucracy for us, accompanied by monkey Ailyll. We see lots of horseshoe crabs everywhere. The calligrapher we seek is sequestered, working on calibrating the ancillary. A group of strange characters employed by Lao have been seen around. Lao himself, his daughter and the emperor left yesterday.

The princess says she can get us partway into the palace, but there are tons of guardian spirits everywhere. We bring her to the palace, fill out forms, answer some questions, then are locked in a room for a while. We squish a little crab who's looking at us funny, then sneak out. We find Hakim's room and go through his stuff, fight some guardians, then make it into the palace gardens. We encounter a grizzled old man who tells us he's under a geas to rob or bother us in some way. We turn a blind eye while he 'steals' some gold, and he offers us some tea in his lean-to later. We sneak around the gardens more, and finally find the golden pyramid within the maze of To Lazo. The pyramid is guarded by two 8 foot tall ladies, who we kosh. Inside we find our calligrapher, as well as a terrible tiger headed monster who can decapitate three people with a single stroke of his sword. Every round. Quiteria Suggests to Chu Yan that he flee with us, and he complies. We barely make it out of the palace alive, then teleport back to Basra.

Back at the boat we talk with Chu Yan and Al Hithem, but are interrupted when someone casts Earthquake on Basra and a bull headed man rather reminicent of the tiger man from earlier tells us that General Gao has found his prey! General Gao is very tough but the entire population of our fleet band together and fight him off. We hide Chu Yan in the portable hole and sail away to hide from further animal headed antagonists. We raise our dead and heal, but when we try to raise Dawa his head says "Cho Ya can get you out of your pickle. Scry on him."  We augur and scry, and apologize profusely for missing our tea date. Cho Ya proposes a clever plan by which he duplicates Chu Yan for us, using Tillism in Eon, Lao's city, to slow down time so he can cast the spell. He will then leave us the duplicate and return the real Chu Yan to Lao so he'll stop attacking us. He also promises to tell us the results of the real Chu Yan's calculations before Lao finds out. 

We point the boat towards Madagascar and rest.

Planet Impact predicted for September 9!!!