Meanwhile, back on Miraburg, Fingle had a strong impulse to rejoin his friends. At the docks he found an elven ship, the Golden Lightning, a Dragonfly hull built from a starfly plant. He convinced the pilot, an elven woman named Calydë, to take him out to the Dardak. The only other crew person on board was Heidi Gladdensnoot, a wizened old gnome who strongly disapproved of the hairy deck ape. They sped off to meet the Dardak at impressive speeds. In an unfortunate incident, the Golden Lightning's catapult accidentally discharged a catapult loaded with a bucket of wash water, striking the Dardak. The mutinous crew of the Dardak refused Camen's order to return fire with the heavy ballista. Fingle came aboard and the elven ship left.
They then followed the remaining gargoyles to their asteroid, a wedge of barren reddish limestone several hundred feet long. At one end was a 160' high cliff crossing the gravity plane. 40' up from the grav-plane on one side, in the middle of the cliff, was a rectangular cave entrance. Directly beneath it, a caved-in cave entrance spanned the grav-plane. They parked the ship a few hundred yards in front of the cliff, to wait, rest, and regain spells.
A few hours later, fully rested, Fingle took it upon himself to scout out the cave. He snuck in psionicly Camouflaged, but the gargoyles spotted him and pounced. He fled their ambush into space, and they pursued. They could fly faster on their leathery wings than him, and their claws, horns, and teeth were tearing him apart.
The rest of the Dardak had been unaware of Fingle's departure, but as they became aware of his predicament they lept into action. A rather chaotic freefall melee ensued. Some events: Jos tied on a rope and lept out to attract attention. He soon did, as a gargoyle sought to cut the rope and drag him to their lair. Fingle, in a last ditch effort, activated a gnomish handheld-self-propulsion-device-that-uses-hardly-any-smokepowder. However, it exploded into a blinding cloud of smoke enveloping him and his pursuer. Someone distracted a gargoyle, hitting it with a ballista bolt. Axel accelerated the ship towards the asteroid, allowing Fingle and Jos to get back aboard before the gargoyles could get them. During the battle, one gargoyle was killed and the remaining two retreated to the cave. However, the ship was heading towards the cliff! They desperately tried to turn to miss, but undermanned and with damaged rigging they could not. The Dardak rammed the cliff at full speed. Luckily, full speed was pretty slow and the damage was light. However, the continuing abuse of the hull was taking its toll, and the ship was judged to be nearly crippled.
They limped off a ways to recover, again. However, a bit after Axel finished up spell memorization, two figures were spotted leaving the cave mouth. They sped off in the opposite direction from the Dardak. The ship immediately gave chase. One gargoyle was slowed by its injuries from the last battle and they soon caught up. As they approached, it flung a bag of coins at the ship and pressed together its hands in supplication. Axel dispatched it with a spell. They watched as the last, unwounded gargoyle sped into the void faster than they could pursue.
Jos, Axel, Camen, and Fingle explored the cave. They found Galerinnon, a grommon, and a goblin tied up within. All were recently dead and obviously tortured. Any valuables seemed to be already removed. There was also a 4' diameter pit, from which emerged a stench of decay and mysterious clattering noises. A dropped torch revealed the pit opened into a large cavern that crossed the grav-plane. Camen tied a rope around his ankle and dived in head first. Jos managed to grab hold of the rope before Camen collided with the other side of the cave, wearing out a good pair of leather gloves in the process. Camen saw the source of the stench: several rotting bodies. He also saw what was making the noise: a pair of carrion crawlers. As Jos pulled him out, one crawler ran up the ceiling to the rope. They managed to wrest Camen from the thing's grasp and pull him out, but he was paralyzed by its poison. Next, they lowered the dead goblin. When the crawler seized it, Axel detonated it. Jos was splattered with goblin fragments and the carrion crawler fled, traumatized for life.
The Dardak limped back to port. It was greeted by Mayor Silver,
his men-at-arms, and numerous townspeople. Silver was properly grateful
after they related their story, corroborated by Capt. Ornak. Silver promised
to fix the Dardak in his shipyard. The gnomes could stay in a house
just outside of town, but the Dardak's crew would still be responsible
if they came inside. And he promised them some beer off the next shipment
as payment to Kaiketsu.
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modified: Wed Jul 21 17:03:54 MDT