The Wandering Bards
Adventures of a Federation Trading Ship exploring various Realms
Newbie Yogi had graduated from the School of Ascension, picked the Omni Adept class and was now exploring a Profession. The Wandering Bard was a subclass of Omni Adepts that functioned as the Explorer / Evaluator / Traders of the Federation. Key among the abilities of the Omni Adept was the Shapeshifter ability, which was required for the secret and not so secret blending in function.
Uncle Rumi said goodbye personally to Newbie Yogi, handing him a cup of Kopi-O-Kosong made with Kopi Luak, Siew Dai, requesting lots of interesting new spices to cook with. The crew of The Honey Be waved goodbye, undocked from the Sukshma Sharirya Shipyards on Ringworld Alpha and transited through the Realm Gate to Emerald Mausoleum to pick up some Amrita as their basic trading goods.
They emerged from the Ygdrassil portal on Emerald Mausoleum as a bunch of rainbow unicorns towing a wagon covered in green and gold leaves. The Honey Be was like the crew, also a shapeshifter, changing external form to blend in with the Realm. The crew of the Honey Be became Elves, to match the Celtic theme of Emerald Mausoleum. The Shrouded Gaia planet had just come out of Shrouded Winter sleep mode and was in the Wood phase of the Wuxing, the green spring energy was very vibrant in the air of the Gaia Planet. Lush green shoots were sprouting all over, providing the Emerald Jade color of the planet in Wood phase. One of Cernunnos’s Treant Protectors, a giant walking tree, came over with a bunch of bees to provide jars of Amrita, the Nectar of Immortality. The Nectar was prized in all the Central Worlds for generating the blissful vibe of Amrita, a sensation of blazing golden liquid honey tasting of sacred fire of purification dripping down the crown chakra and causing rainbow lighting to flash everywhere in one’s rainbow body.
The crew thanked the Treant, and entered the Ygrassil portal on towards the Khadgamala Queendom. They emerged from a blazing golden pyramid into a teeming metropolis full of traders. It was a huge bazaar area trading vibes of all kinds. They specialized in golden yellow Dana Pajnaparamita (perfection of generosity) though, so they exchanged some of the Amrita for Dana. They thanked the wonderful traders of Khadgamala and entered the golden pyramid to port to Sukhavati.
The Pure Land of Sukhavati was a bliss world. It was the most welcoming realm in all the Federation. The name of the place was literally Land of Bliss. They emerged from a red central pillar as monks dressed in Gold and Red robes. Om mi Tuo Fuo, they said to the monks standing around the Realm Gate. Sukhavati was known to be so welcoming, so they traded some Amrita for some Welcome Home vibes. They then entered the red central column to some of the outer worlds.
They exited through the gate into Haight Street in San Francisco. It was hippy central, still in the 60s. They emerged at Buena Vista park dressed as some hippies, with 60s rainbow tie shirts and sunglasses. Newbie Yogi immediately headed to the Sword and Rose to pick up some Pan and Asha magic oils, and some Ganesh and Elf King powders to offer to Ganapati and Cernunnos (https://www.theswordandrose.net/essential-oils) and traded some Amrita. Various cloaked Beggars came to trade good vibes, some of them were the ship avatars of the Gate Builders. Mystics of various kinds from Berkeley detected the Realm Gate ripple and came over to trade their bespoke vibes for various Federation vibes. It was a good trade, the goodly hippies of San Francisco were always chill and had good stuff to vibe with. The crew then headed further out into unexplored territory in the outer rim.
The first new place they came to was the Enlightened Kingdom of the Mole People. They emerged as a bunch of furry moles in a dark dank underground cavern. The air felt oppressive and full of fear. The mole people were afraid of the surface calling it The Terrifying Void and their absolute monarch broached no deviance from conformity. The crew quickly left, the vibes of fear and oppression were incompatible with their constitution. As they were leaving a kindly mole woman stopped them. She whispered to come with her. Turns out she was a Rebel Matriarch. She protected her family and friends from the Terror Aura using a vibe called Womb of the Earth Mother. The expedition transmuter quickly transmuted some Amrita into Taste of Freedom and traded her some for some Womb of the Earth Mother. Taste of Freedom freed entranced moles from their Fear of Void that kept them controlled. They sent a tachyon message to all the other Wandering Bards over comms network to avoid this realm for a while until they got over their fear of outsiders. It was blocklisted from the trading network. They provided the Matriarch a comms beacon in case she wanted to trade or leave the hell hole. They went on to another realm.
The next realm they appeared in was very orderly. When they emerged from the realm gate they noticed their bodies were all robotic. It was a tech realm in the Plane of Order. It was a Modron world (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Modron), dedicated to order and logic. The crew decided to leave because the Modrons had no respect for the sacred and would likely deconstruct them into parts because that was their way. They reduced the sacred into components and reproducible instructions, destroying the Vital Force. They left a warning beacon by the realm gate and broadcast another blocklist request, warning other Bards from the area. The transmuter left behind random vials of Chaos Monkey and Trickster just in case some Modron was willing to try something new and quickly left.
They decided to try one last random jump before they returned home to Ringworld Alpha. They emerged onto a wide open grassland as humanoids with wagons pulled by strong muscular horses. The people of the plains were friendly, so they traded freely with them, providing samples of vibes from the different Realms they had visited and obtaining rare spices and foods in return. They partook in the local customs, danced and sang with the locals and then as the sun set they waved goodbye and vanished into the sunset. This was a good realm, they left instructions for the other Bards to come by regularly and trade with these kindly folk.