A Ship of Their Own (5-12 Patchwall 586 OY, 1/17/99
RL) The
Hagfish and Dardak return to Bral, with the head
of the dragon mounted on the Hagfish. Upon docking, the Dardak
quickly earns the dislike of the gnomish dock keeper, for reasons that
are unclear. The crew go off to do various chores. They try to register
the helm, a step all legitimate ships must take, but the oddity of the
thing throws the Bral bureaucracy for a loop, and they delay the process.
Using his background in seafaring, Camen patches the rigging back together.
A crew is hired from dock-front taverns, all for 4 g.p. per month each.
They include Fingle (Hadozee who demands 5 g.p./mo), Kirios (a good looking
guy, very concerned with his hair), Backdash (famed for his speed), Nagatho
(dark skinned guy who misses eating the Bungu birds of Ginsel), Negesu
(Nagatho's brother), and some other guy named Wax or Gazel or something
who mostly stays out of the way.
The Dardak's officers grow weary of Bral's red tape, and choose
be on their way without first registering the helm. With this clear violation
of harbor rules, the dock keeper becomes infuriated and tries to stop them
with city guards. The guards lack enthusiasm and barely make it to the
end of the dock before the ship sails.
The Dardak accompanies the Hagfish to the region of the
Grinder where Capt. Hound claims the White Kindori was last seen. They
search by moving on parallel courses 1-3 miles apart, wandering around
the asteroid field. At one point the Dardak is snagged by several
huge spider webs strung between asteroids. Moments later the asteroid spiders
clamber down the webs to collect their prey. In the ensuing battle, Nagatho
is badly injured and almost dragged away, but he is rescued by Diyab's
daring freefall swashbuckling.
Last
modified: Wed Jul 21 17:03:54 MDT