"Are you sure this is where they were heading?" Tiegorus asked.
"Yes ma'm," a human answered. "The kenku told me that they were heading for that cluster of asteroids up ahead. He couldn't—or wouldn't—give anything more specific."
Tiegorus looked at the cluster. The Calla Maraine was still traveling at spelljamming speed, because the asteroids were not close enough to disrupt the field yet, but it wouldn't be long before they dropped to tactical speed. The squid ship was equipped with a cloaking helm, which proved fortunate. Shortly before they left a number of unsavory looking characters had started to gather around the harbor, and it looked like things were going to get nasty. The wizard left an illusionary squid ship in the berth where they had been docked, so with the cloaking helm running, no one noticed their departure. For two days the squid ship had traveled hard to intercept Onestar and Hall. So far, there had been no sign of them.
Bagath emerged from the hold and joined Tiegorus on the forecastle.
"How's the halfling?" she asked.
"He'll make it." the druid said. "He's offered to make us something called pizza, as payment for saving him."
Tiegorus just chuckled, and resumed looking at the asteroids ahead. A few minutes later the squid ship dropped to tactical speed just outside the field. There were close to a hundred asteroids in the small cluster. It wasn't sufficient to be called a cluster world, but it was still large, and the asteroids certainly had some dangerous natives.
Tiegorus couldn't imagine what the bard and the samurai wanted from this place. She recalled a legend she had once heard about a red dragon that lived here, using the asteroids as a blind for his lair, the same way a groundling hunter uses tall grass to hide his post. That didn't matter at the moment. She needed to find the two travelers, and fast. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach, like something terrible was happening back on Spectre.
"Tempest," Tiegorus said into the speaking tube, "keep us cloaked for now, just in case."
For close to an hour, the squid ship lay motionless near the group of asteroids, waiting for any sign of life. Finally, Tempest called out...
"A ship was through here about two days ago—I'm detecting the residue of a spelljamming field!"
Two days, Tiegorus thought. They could have completed their business and started back by now. She thought for a minute before turning to Bagath.
"Do we still have some of those special bolts we picked up on Anadia?"
"Yes, what of them?"
"I need to send a message."
"BATTLE STATIONS!" Meridian shrieked. "Eloelia, get us airborne!"
The Eternal Wanderer was under attack, and the worst thing was, the crew couldn't tell who was doing it. Heavy weapon fire was coming from one direction, while small arms fire was coming from the docks. Mornja was frantically barking orders to the weapons crew to return fire. The ship's heavy ballista was almost ready to fire when a catapult shot found it's mark and shattered the weapon into worthless bits of wood. The hit also killed two of the ballista's crew, and left the other two injured.
"Small arms!" the Giff thundered. A crossbow bolt was lodged in his shoulder, but he gave it little thought.
As the Eternal Wanderer's crew began to rain arrows onto the attacking ground troops, Illeria, the battle wizard, prepared an attack of her own. Huddled in the relative safety of the aftcastle, she muttered an incantation, then sprang up, directing one hand toward a group of attackers on the dock. In an instant, eight of them were covered with frost and ice. They shrieked with pain, and three of them fell into the icy water. Four fell dead on the dock, and the last staggered away toward the rest of the force.
Another attacker, a scro mercenary, jumped abroad the hammership and turned to the nearest crew member he could see. It was a human, who carried no weapon and wore no obvious armor. This kill would be easy, the scro said to himself.
His enthusiasm fell fast when the human suddenly changed appearance. The scro was right in front of an illithid! The humanoid turned and tried to run, but he wasn't fast enough. Estress pinned the scro to the deck and wrapped his tentacles around the victims head. The scro let out a horrid, agonizing cry as Estress devoured his brain fluids. After a few minutes, the lifeless scro was thrown into the water.
Finally, Eloelia was able to generate a spelljamming field, and the hammership broke from its moorings and banked wildly into the harbor. Summoning all of her strength, Eloelia forced the Eternal Wanderer aloft.
Sadly, a shot from a heavy catapult struck the ship midship, blasting a gaping hole in main deck. The sudden shock was more than Eloelia could handle in her weakened state, and the hammership banked and fell back to the water. It landed first on its side, dumping several of the crew into the icy water. It righted itself almost immediately, and the cold crewmen began to climb back on board.
The destruction of the hammership resumed.
"Hall, wake up. We're here."
Hall-ee-moor Dargass blinked his eyes a couple times, forcing him to regain consciousness. Onestar stood above him, his armor almost... glowing.
"Where are we..." Hall muttered. The world began to return to his focus, and he could tell that they were still in the cramped quarters of the shuttle. He knew right away that they were no longer moving.
"We've passed the interdimensional portal," Onestar said, turning away from his friend and picking up a few last pieces of paper and a quill pen.
"Did you finish with your redesigns?" Hall asked, tossing the blanket away from him.
Onestar nodded. "We can do most of the work here, ourselves. We'll bring Pascal, Estress and a few of the others inside and work on it here. Ville can use the Wanderer to pick up a few things. It looks to me like it'll be about three months refitting time."
Hall stood, yawned, and moved to the door. He opened it, taking a look outside. The shuttle sat in the middle of an immense cavern, one that seemed to go on forever, with no visible way in or out. The cavern looked like it was lit by torches, although none were present.
The ceiling was hidden by shadows, and the floor had the color of rust to it, sploched here and there a bright crimson or burnt black. To the north of where the shuttle rested was a veritable king's ransom of gold, gems, jewels and treasures beyond imagining.
This was The Dragon's Cave. This was Onestar and Hall's private treasure trove.
"I still get the chills every time we come here," Hall said, rubbing his arms by reflex. The air circulated, ever so slightly, and smelled fresher than any ever smelled.
"I have no idea why," Onestar commented sarcastically. "Simply because it was you, me and Lord Monitor alone aganist one little dragon..."
"A little dragon!" Hall exclaimed. "Garrash was a Great Wyrm! The granddaddy of all red dragons! And you have the nerve to call it a 'little dragon'."
The samurai laughed long and loud. After looking at him with disgust in his eyes, Hall joined him, and laughter echoed off the silent walls. When the laughter ceased, memories flodded back to the pair, memories of exactly what happened that day four years past...
"I wonder what happened to Lord Monitor," Hall asked, more to himself than to Onestar.
"Last I heard, he was making his way back to Omnispace," Onestar replied. The samurai removed a chest from the shuttle and began walking over toward a small cottage built near the treasure pile. "His explorations are nearly over. He never would tell me of his project, you know? I tried for weeks to find out why he was so far away from Omni. That's the problem with magi. Secretive as they are old."
Hall just nodded. With an effort, he turned around to look to the southern wall of the chamber. There, under a tremendous torch, was a stone tomb the size of the Wanderer. Hall stopped and stared at the tomb for a minute before Onestar realized that he was talking to himself. The samurai placed the chest down and walked back to the bard.
"Paying your respects?" Onestar asked.
"To this day, I find it hard to believe that it was just you and me aganist a dragon. I've heard, and told, tales of huge parties of adventurers, scores of paladins with their gods on their side, who chase those creatures and have failed."
"Well, we had a little help."
"Lord Monitor was incapicated. There wasn't much he could do. I somehow managed to lull that dragon to sleep with a song, and you used that magical sword to slay it."
"I notice you never tell anyone that story," Onestar asked.
"Who'd believe me? I don't believe it myself."
The two men stood there and looked on at the tomb.
Worlds away, on The Spectre, the hammership Eternal Wanderer was breathing its last gasp of life. The attacking craft hovering above it was still bombarding it with shots and jettison: for the most part, the ship was so many splinters now.
Ville, Blaise, Phantom and Zebart stood near the end of the docs looking on in horror. Only the aftcastle remained in one piece, and it was slowly sinking into the harbor. For long minutes, there were no signs of life coming out of the water. None of those present saw any of the crew swimming away from the ship.
Time passed. Holinor, the Lizard Man leader of the Narrashan Towing Company watched with the others, keeping a close eye out on the activities going on around them. He saw several large humanoid creatures, some wearing metal armor, others wearing studded black leather, moving back to a shuttle at the far end of the dock. Holinor's companions, the others from Narrashan, were ready to remove the remaining members of the Eternal Wanderer to safety should they be discovered.
Zebart stood closest to the dock. Looking through a spyglass, he scanned the harbor for signs of life. Suddenly, he began jumping and pointing toward the water.
"Meridian! Meridian!"
Indeed, Meridian, the Kenku navigator, was swimming toward them. His movements were slow, staying near some broken and blasted chunks of driftwood, trying to blend with them. His wings looked wet and somewhat bloody; odds were he was unable to fly, or did not want to reveal his position.
"My agentssss will bring him to ussss," Holinor added as he began to pull on Phantom's sleeve. "It isss not sssafe here. We ssshould move to a nearby sssafehousssse of mine. Come."
Phantom and Ville, the shock wearing off and their battle-honed senses taking charge, followed him. Blaise Pascal paused for a moment, then reached out to grab Zebart and drag the tinker gnome along. Holinor stood in front of them, holding open a door. As they passed through, each one of them felt a strange sensation. When they entered the room, Phantom recognized it as Holinor's office.
"Ssssspecalizzzed teleport ssspell. Of my own devisssing," he explained.
A minute later, another "door" opened, and two tall Lizard Men half pulled Meridian into the room. His wings were wet with blood and saltwater. He was in pain, but still remained on his feet. In one hand was a large metal door knocker.
"Were there any othersss?" Holinor asked one of the Lizard men.
"No, sssssir. Only thisssss one." The pair tried to get Meridian to move over to a nearby cot, but the Kenku began fought them. He shrugged, struggled with his helpers and tried to run to the far wall, but his legs finally gave out from under him. Phantom was over to his side the same time as Holinor.
"Meridian, what happened?" Phantom asked.
"Escape plan beta," Meridian said, his voice barely a whisper.
"What doesss he mean?" Holinor asked. Phantom did not reply, but rather took the knocker from Meridian's hand and ran to the other side of the room. There, he held the brass doorknocker up to a closet door.
"Pantageas!"
There was a loud hiss and a green glow enveloped the knocker and door. The hiss grew louder as the brass doorknocker melted into the door, become part of it. Phantom took the hinge and rapped it three times.
Ville moved over to Meridian and began to check on him. Holinor, a shaman as well as the leader of Narrashan, muttered some words over the Kenku. Meridian became more relaxed and drifted off to sleep.
"He will resssst," Holinor said. "Now, what isss going on?!"
"Escape plan Beta," Ville began, "is one of our ship escape drills. The knocker over there is the key."
At the end of the third knock, Phantom reached for and opened the door handle. As he opened it, a hand from inside began to reach out with a short sword. Phantom grabbed the dark-skinned wrist holding the weapon.
"Damian!" Phantom exclaimed.
"Phantom!" The door flung open, revealing a much larger room than a mere closet. Ville explained to Holinor that the knocker was actually a Hold of Holding. Onestar, some time past, managed to acquire one and made good use of it. The hold was not used to store shipments, but rather personal belongings and other valuable items. Onestar decided that the Hold would also be a viable escape method. If the ship was boarded, all the crew (save one of the senior staff, who knew the codewords) would enter the Hold. The knocker would then be removed from the ship, and the crew would be able to escape through interdimensional space.
Inside was sufficent food and water for six months, along with several healing potions. Eloelia was inside, being treated by Father Beloque, a priest of Celestian. Karamon had his shoulder wrapped up, it appearing that he had been shot by an arrow. Karamon didn't seem bothered by this, however; just another medal for him. The others were all right, baring a few scrapes and bruises. Damian was talking to Phantom, telling the security chief what happend.
"...and then they began firing on us. We had no idea who was attacking or why. The hull was holed, Eloelia was on the helm at the time, and she's in shock. Meridian began sounding evac manuevers, and we entered the Hold. What happened?"
"The ship's been sunk. The Wanderer is no more." Phantom spoke quietly, but his words echoed off all the walls. Everyone heard him, and they hung their heads, either softly crying or praying to whatever gods would listen.
"Who would do such a thing?" Father Beloque asked.
"We don't know," Blaise commented. "First the Dizantar attacked me, then they take out the ship. What could the... by the eternals!"
*What is it?* Estress said.
"What about Onestar and Hall? They're in the middle of nowhere with no protection!"
"There must be something we can do to help them," Li T'sing said.
"Perhaps there is," Ville replied, then turned back to Meridian, now healed and sitting up. Holinor was fixing his wing. "What happend to the Helm?"
"Jettisoned. Standard procedure." Meridian's no nonsense, short answers were always to the point.
"Was it damaged?"
"Doubtful," the Kenku replied.
"Good." Ville turned to Holinor. "Do you have some way to get it back?"
"We do have an underwater ssssalvage operation," the Lizard man answered, hissing. "But a helm without a ssship will not help."
"What we need to do is get to the dreadnought now and bring it back," Ville replied. "We get it here, we can take them out whoever they are."
"Yah, that'd work," Karamon added. "But how're ya gonna get it here? It's a good month's trip back to where we left it."
"The Sisters"
"Huh?" Phantom said. "Who said that?"
Everyone looked at Blaise. Blushing, he tried to hide the fact that he said anything, but he knew the damage was already done. He stood and walked over to Ville and Holinor.
"There is a way it can be done. Do you know of The Sisters?"
"Of coursssse," Holinor replied, his tounge wriggling. "Everyone in Greysssspace knowssss the Sssssisssssterssss. But they are too unreliable for transssportation."
"There are tricks known only to Arcane," Blaise said. "If you can get us to The Sisters, I can get us back to Realmspace to retrieve the Dreadnought and return it."
"Thissss will cossst you, you know." Holinor said.
"What's the price?" Phantom asked.
"We will do it for the Sssisssterss' sssecretsss."
Ville and Phantom both looked at Blaise. The Arcane had already revealed more than he wanted to, but he had no choice. Once, Onestar offered him his trust. He called an Arcane a friend. Besides, there are ways of changing things later if needed.
"Done."
