Imperial Date 1472 March 16

After a bit of investigation, including interrogating Morana under guise of a medical examination, a conversation with the head of the local spaceport, a trip to the library, a trek out to Ken Banu's house, and a visit to the local hospital, they discovered that librarians on this planet carry automatic weapons, Tom Morana's boss was missing (possibly kidnapped) and was probably someone Nina Ka-Fai used to know, the Golden Bird of Zi Amon was cursed and guarded by snake people, snake people really like marshmallows, the box had either a "Sarnuvian Gnasher" or a tiger in it and in any event shouldn't be exposed to rock music, Ken Banu was just some old guy living out on the edge of town with his dog and Silar was probably just crazy, and the hospital desperately needed more tongue depressors. Based on that information, they decided to take all the jobs except the dog poisoning one, and made a fair bit of change in the process.

On March 18th, they set off again, jumped to an uninhabited sector, and then jumped again to Eschatos, arriving at 5 am on April the 4th. Luckily, between all the jobs they'd picked up and pre-payments they'd received, they just made their mortgage, life support, and maintenance payments. Burrin convinced Gordon Farther, one of the ex-cons, that he'd like to stay on Eschatos rather than go all the way to Tlalox; then they scoped out the two planets between them and Tlalox, decided Andrevale was the way to go, and picked up two passengers and a shipment of freight.

Then, the business of the Jeweled Bird. Fae (who had followed them there in her personal ship) told them that it was currently in one of the Temples of Zhu Rakh, gave them the temple's rough location, and, when asked, informed them that it was guarded by "20 or 30 snake people." (And that it had been returned to the temple a few hundred year's ago by a group of intrepid do-gooding adventurers, who the snake people ate.) They took their air raft out into the hills and were there in no time. The temple itself was carved into a cliffside, with statues of birds and snakes on either side of the entrance, and guarded by three snake people, two with swords and one with a laser pistol. The group ambushed the guards, and the combined martial might of Alice, Shmiff, Athene, and Burrin saw them swiftly dispatched.

Upon entering the temple, they saw a room with a pedestal, but between them and it was a cage full of flying snakes, which they decided not to antagonize. Burrin discovered a secret door with his infra-red vision, opened the door by poking at it with his sword cane (and standing back from the explosion that ensued as it opened), and then Athene scouted ahead and warned them to avoid various hissing side tunnels. The secret passage eventually led to the room they sought, where they discovered the pedestal in question, with the Jeweled Bird upon it -- and upon a pressure plate. After some discussion, they switched it for a snake head provided courtesy of Shmiff (I think, correct me if I've misremembered that point) and escaped from the temple before a horde of angry snake people began rushing out of it.

They even managed to make it back to civilization and take off in their ship before the whole city was overrun by snakes. They jumped to Andrevale, arrived on April 12th, ditched Trey Masters there, and put the whole incident behind them.