Mastering the Ship of Lost Lirea
Subsequently Kanaka met his end in the cold life-draining clutches of the psychic undead horror known as the Caller In Darkness, created by the foul arts of Lashimire and then foolishly released by one of the band of explorers of Lashimire's lair, one Kuda Maskall.
During the Growfest week prior to setting out on their voyage, Jess took her gnome protegé Kantelleki out in the magical submersible for some training. After several days of effort, he managed to master its complex steering controls, adding to the list of people able to pilot the ship. He also manages to figure out how to operate the sonic disruptor field.
However, understanding of how to control and target the disintegrator cannon continues to elude him.
The Newlyweds: Sunaeco and Yasmina
However, neither of these two ladies are able to figure out how to work the sonic disruptor in spite of Samson's helpful instructions - at least, in the few days that elapse between Port Stolm and the Olman Straits.
The Bear Necessities
Louteah Learns To Shoot
Quaenas finds Louteah the young bronze dragon passenger they picked up from Lashimire's Isle fascinating. He wants to learn more about the ways of dragonkind. There are reasons for this interest that go back to Quaenas' unhappy past...
When Reynardia first came upon Quaenas in the Dreadwood, he was in a bad way. A green dragon/elf hybrid, most likely the product of a doubtless unwitting union of elven mother and the deceitful, shapeshifting ravisher Vaectorfinyairuxo on one of his wanderings. But Quaenas had a unique problem that had seen him exiled from the wood elf community of his birth. He was unable to control the discharge of his breath weapon, a thing that had led to great harm and sorrow.
Reynardia had a solution; she knew of a dryad called Amarantha, custodian of a marvelous harp that could transform a willing being into a Woodling, a creature of living, animate wood though some sacrifice of themselves was required. For Quaenas, that sacrifice was the draconic half of his heritage - an aspect he surrendered willingly.
Now, he had embraced his new existence as a Woodling. Yet some small trace of draconic blood remained mingled with the sap of his new veins as a reminder; and thus, his fascination with Louteah and a wish to cultivate her acquaintance.
To make conversation, Quaenas offers Louteah the opportunity to learn to use a bow. They clear a length of corridor on the passenger deck and warn people to stay in their cabins, setting up a target in the hold.
Louteah is able to draw Quaenas' bow without difficulty; looks are deceiving and she is stronger than he is. Soon there is a clattering of arrows bouncing off bulkheads.
Well, it passes the time.
Quaenas now feels emboldened to ask Louteah a string of questions...
"What do you eat? Do you eat less when you're a human? If you eat dinner as a Human and turn back to a Dragon are you hungry again? How fast can you fly? How high can you fly? Do dragons poop? Do dragons poop while flying? Why did you pick this humanoid form? Is it your favourite form? What's your second favourite form? Do you do magic? What sort of magic do you do?"
And so on...
The question of what Louteah prefers to eat will soon be resolved: she prefers to hunt for her sustenance, in dragon form and can swim and breathe underwater without difficulty. And she joins the other hunters to feed.
Louteah does not eat quite as much as Quaenas might have imagined as she is not a very big dragon. She is Medium size in dragon form (though at the bigger end of the Medium range). Her food requirements to sustain her dragon form are greater than human requirements so she can eat less if she stays in human form all the time. If she then changes to dragon form without having eaten enough she will feel hungry. But any food requirement deficits "reset" on a daily basis when she rests so she doesn't accumulate a "nutrition debt" by staying in human form and only eating like a human for ages.
She will say "mind your own business" when asked about her excretory habits. She will use the latrine when on board like anyone else though.
She can take other human forms. Her favourite adopted form is that of a human "childminder" her parents sometimes employed when she was just a wyrmling, when they were busy with affairs of state in the Mist Kingdom. Her name was Itotia. "She's old and married now. Well, human-old I mean. At least 30. I'm about the same age she was when she used to look after me. Sixteen. I liked her so I adopted her as my favourite human form."
She can do some small magics. "I can make a magical shield for myself, and detect magic. I can make spooky noises. I can talk to animals ('Hi Oberon!'). I can zap people with electricity by touch as well as with my breath. I can whisper to people at a distance."
Louteah will also be very curious about the world in general and also ask many questions.
Crossing the Amedio Bay
So far the vessel has been cruising over the continental shelf around 100 feet from the ocean floor, gradually moving away from the east coast of the Hook Peninsula on a South-By-Southeast bearing. Late afternoon on the fourth day out from Port Stolm, the sea bed falls away beneath the Imp and a dark lightless chasm yawns beneath them.
Dray, visiting the forward observation lounge, peers out through what everyone hopes is magically reinforced glass like Tsai Ying's armour.
"Has anyone yet tested how deep this vehicle will travel?"
The answer appears to be a negative.
"Let's not go down there, then."
For several hours they proceed suspended over the bottomless pit of the ocean deeps. Then, suddenly a cliff rises ahead of them. Someone prods Kantelleki awake on the bridge and he frantically throws the magical propulsion into reverse and engages the braking fins as he steers upwards. There is a bit of a commotion as people are jolted forwards and then scrabble to keep their footing as the vessel inclines up. They rise up over the lip of the land shelf and the moment of danger is averted.
"Good job we weren't going at anywhere near full speed."
Fenelda, Tsai Ying and Earle go for a stint in the airlock as Fenelda surveys the surrounding area with her Arcane Eye. It is sometime in the small hours and land cannot be sighted, but by the stars and moon their course heading should still be good. They reduce speed though until morning when they can take a proper look.
By the following morning Fenelda is able to confirm that they are on course to pass through the Olman Straits later that day.
Reynardia Departs
"It's been a lovely few weeks away from all the intrigue, but I am needed at Court. My request to be heard by the High Council to plead for formal recognition of Coryn's Hold has been granted. After that, well a few matters that I need to deal with have been piling up back in the Dreadwood. I may be able to rejoin you all at some later date but can't promise anything."
There will be fond farewells from Cerys, Echo and indeed Pumpkin; and Oberon gets lots of hugs and kisses on the nose.
"Quaenas, I'd like you to continue the fine job you're doing as my agent and representative of the folk of the Dreadwood, and accompany this voyage to its conclusion. If I don't see you before, I'll expect a full report on your return."
Reynardia will be Wind Walking to the mainland and finding a tree with which to transport herself to Sasserine. There she will use the teleporter pad maintained by Cerys' people to teleport up to Ashton on the Sheldomar river, and thence a short continuation of her Wind Walk up to the capital of Niole Dra.
After Reynardia's departure, Cerys and Echo emerge from the lavishly pillowed and perfumed haven they've set up in the forward observation lounge and take more active interest in the operation of the ship. Cerys actually rolls her sleeves up and reveals her hidden talents by cooking everyone a really tasty lunch. (This is in contrast to Tsai Ying's efforts of the previous day, which were a culinary experience best to be avoided though everyone was too polite to say so.)
Feeding Time For Batazoax
The Imp happens upon a school of huge sharks. This leads to a revelation, regarding Cerys' mysterious pet snake Batazoax, which, knowing Cerys as they do, some have speculated may be more than just an unusually coloured serpent.
Cerys makes her way to the bridge, turning heads as she sashays through the corridors as she is provocatively attired in a revealing two-piece bathing costume made of red dragonhide that leaves little to the imagination. (As famously worn in the "Diplomacy" adventure, whereby she seduced Sharlocke the Chief Librarian of the Tower of the Arcanaloths of Gehenna; a distraction that ultimately lost him the contest, though he considered himself to have come out on top as far as the personal upsides were concerned. Incidentally, this striking garment was fashioned from off-cuts of softer parts of the hide of the dragon Androchynus of Monmurg infamy.)
Batazoax is curled about her. They gaze out of the forward viewport at the massive sharks chasing down their fishy prey. Cerys talks softly to the serpent, caressing his scales. "In the mood for some shark-meat, my lovely boy? Yes of course you are. Time for the hunters to become the hunted. Let's go, then..."
They vanish from the bridge and are seen through the viewport to appear ahead of the Imp, in the water, right amidst the shark-pack. The sharks begin to turn on them, but Cerys is far too agile for them to gain a purchase on her with their jaws. Then the snake transforms, growing larger at an alarming rate...sprouting a series of clawed limbs....massive jaws...curling horns...wings....Batazoax is now revealed as the colossal Behir that Cerys charmed during the Stormbringer Juggernaut adventure. Since then, he has been taken care of at her stronghold The Beacon (fed on cows regularly supplied through the teleporter pad link by Ashton-based livestock trader Lord Charles Bohan of Willesden.)
Batazoax, formerly a pet creature of the wicked giantess Arozza Stormbringer, has by now become thoroughly co-opted to Cerys' cause, and serves as a willing cohort. He has also received a number of enhancements provided by his new mistress - the wings being an obvious, tangible addition.
The watching audience on the Imp see the incredible sight of sharks being swallowed whole by this mighty creature. Cerys hangs on to its neck, riding bareback, assisted by her magically extending golden hair that binds her more securely to the beast. She revels in the thrill of the hunt.
The remaining sharks flee. They are faster swimmers than Cerys' monstrous mount and make their escape. After this, she and Batazoax surge upwards and break surface and go for a fly around. They return by teleportation sometime later.
"I saw some shipping up ahead. Quite distant at the moment. A larger vessel and a few smaller ones. I couldn't make out the flags. Crossing the straits from the South Olman Isles to Ludarectla by the looks of it. I just thought you should know." And with that, she saunters off with a satiated Batazoax in snake form coiled about her supple form once more.
Let's Be Murderhobos
Jess orders Kantelleki to "Take 'er up Mr Bachin". As the forward viewport on the bridge breaks surface and the waters run off Jess peers through her spyglass.
"It's a Scarlet Brotherhood galley, a large one. Quinquereme. Three pinnace escorts."
Keoland is not officially at war with the Scarlet Brotherhood yet, but relations are not good and there are sometimes flashpoints. The Brotherhood are nominally "friends and allies" of the Olman nation of Ludarectla, using the Yuan-Ti insurrection of the Amedio of a few years earlier as their excuse to invade and "liberate" Ludarectla from the control of Empress Meladuna (rather like Keoland did with Shelloraztica and Timborexa, in fact). However there were indications at the time that the Brotherhood had had some involvement in the Monmurg conflict providing support for Terractus and his schemes.
Some said that open war with the Suel-racial supremacist Scarlet Brotherhood was an inevitability. There was no appetite for it as yet though, what with Keoland still recovering from Monmurg and the Amedio conflict, still working to stabilise Sterich and perhaps liberate Geoff from giantish control, and lending aid to Furyondy in the North against the forces of the mad demigod Iuz. Also, there were Suloise nobility at court in Keoland who were sympathetic to the Brotherhood if not openly supportive of them.
To Dray and Jess, stood on the bridge of the Imp regarding the distant vessel, these subtleties of realpolitik did not feature much in their thinking. The Brotherhood were bad guys, everyone knew that; Jess' piratical streak and occasionally reckless nature conspired with Dray's nose for a quick profit:
"Let's go sink it, shall we?"
Shortly after there is a knock at the door of the observation lounge. Echo answers. "Hello Jess. Watcha want then?"
"We've come to borrow your monster."
The plan is to attack the galley below the waterline, using the disintegrator cannon to weaken the vessel's hull, then ram it with the Imp, then send in a huge water elemental and maybe some conjured sharks to make general mayhem. The monster will be a useful thing to cover up the involvement of a submersible and make it look like a random attack by some leviathan of the deeps.
Cerys is not immediately convinced. "Is it really worth our while?"
Jess: "Come on, what's the point of a submarine with a disintegrator cannon if you don't sink a ship with it now and then?"
Dray: "There could be rich pickings."
She sighs. "I suppose it might be fun. What do you think, Batazoax? They want to use you. What's that? You want to help them?" The snake makes an obvious nodding notion. She turns to them. "Well, it looks like you're in luck. Bat's up for some wanton destruction. You've got to let your pet monsters off the leash sometimes. I'll just watch from the bridge though to keep an eye on him."
Gentle reader, Cerys, though she generally fights on the side of goodness, is sometimes given to amoral behaviour. Perhaps increasingly and inexorably so, with the waxing of her arcane powers.
Various people aboard the vessel have differing opinions about Captain Jess' decision to make an unprovoked attack on a ship that probably has crew on board who are not evil, just ordinary people obeying orders. Fenelda, though she has no love for the Scarlet Brotherhood, thinks it would be wrong. Louteah's instincts are against doing such a thing, but she does not feel sure enough in her understanding of the world outside the Mist Kingdom to voice a strong opinion (and as a recent addition to the ship's complement she doesn't really get a say in the matter anyway).
Sunaeco and Yasmina are too involved in each other to care (Sunaeco just shouts "go away" when someone knocks on their cabin door, and there is ribald laughter from within from the pair of them.)
Sufyan does not approve, on the grounds that it is taking an unnecessary risk and was not in the plan that they made. In fact, he objects quite strongly.
Cerys smooth talks him, and gets him to calm down. She explains that the Scarlet Brotherhood are enemies of Keoland just as the Sultan of the Efreeti is their enemy, and would he pass on such an opportunity? Also, the capabilities of the Imp have not yet been battle-tested. This enemy vessel should be an easier target and lesser danger than challenges they might encounter on their way to the City of Glass. "It will give the crew useful practise in operating the weapons and so on."
Sufyan will back down, and admit she makes some excellent points.
Cerys comes to the airlock to release Batazoax, along with the people doing conjurations. And as an afterthought, she conjures a huge water elemental to accompany her monster and obey its commands (for it can speak when not in snake form, and is actually smarter than some crew members...). This is in addition to the one Jess summons with her magical Bowl of Water Elemental Command. Dray meanwhile, by the grace of Zilchus to whom he will of course tithe some of the profits, calls forth a fiendish huge shark. Jess blows her Horn of the Tritons to summon more sharks. While this happens, Pumpkin is zapping the hull of the galley with the disintegrator cannon in several places; not enough damage to hole it (yet) but enough to weaken it over a wide area.
Then there is one big blast from Pumpkin's cannon and the Imp powers forwards, ramming the vessel in the same place at half its top speed. This causes massive hull damage and this cascades across the already weakened hull sections.
Surprisingly, though, the vessel does not sink right away. These huge galleys are built to survive large amounts of damage. Within, damage control gangs rush to try to shore the breach under the command of capable and experienced officers.
And they might have succeeded, were it not for the colossal mutant behir and a pair of huge water elementals that surge through the breach and begin smashing and biting and clawing anything and anyone in their way.
One of the elementals forms a vortex that sucks sailors and marines alike out of the breach and deposits them right in the middle of a waiting pack of conjured sharks.
Some spellcaster aboard makes efforts to dispel the elementals, but these do not succeed.
Still, the mighty vessel does not surrender to the waves. Pumpkin continues delivering blasts with the cannon to soften the structure up for one of the water elementals to smash. The sub makes some more ram attacks, at lower speed to save their own vessel from taking too much damage.
It is not a clean fight, but messy and brutal and it takes more work than expected to sink the ship. But at last, she lists heavily over and starts slipping down, the waves washing over her decks. By now most of the surviving crew and marines have abandoned ship, cramming into launches or just swimming for it hoping to be picked up by one of the small escort vessels. He'd be all for giving chase, but Cerys calls Batazoax back in telepathically. She's seen enough destruction for one day.
Afterwards a team of people emerge from the Imp under Water Breathing spells and pick over the sunken hulk of the vessel. Spells of Detect Magic are employed to find some enchanted items that went down with the vessel. There are some other more mundane items of value found close by. To completely strip the ship will take a long time, so they just take the choice picks and then leave.
Having obtained a reasonable haul, and deprived some mothers of their sons and daughters, and possibly triggered a war between The Scarlet Brotherhood and Keoland if the subterfuge is uncovered, the Im'po'potle's Trove and her crew proceed southwards beyond the Olman Straits and the Densac Gulf into the vast expanse of the Vohuon Ocean.
Read the next installment here
