#6 - Marksman Diplomacy

The PCs had the ship. It was theirs.

Problem was, they still had no way to control it. Sure, all opposition had been slain, and at least one opponent had evidently jumped ship somehow. And with the next day dawning, control of the ship was a problem yet to be solved. For the time being, the Sky Talon didn't look like it would fly into a mountain face, but one never knew....

To appease the restless displacer beasts trapped in the hold, Xoma chopped up one of the dead cultists and Halbazar, dangling fearlessly from a rope, pushed limbs through one of the portholes in the stern-side hull. This seemed to appease them for now.

A thorough search of the airship yielded a hidden chest which contained, aside from some coins and potions, a canister similar to the one that had incapacitated them the night before in the Bookmark Inn (courtesy of Jag, the bardic gnome). Which gave them a new plan: gas the displacer beasts with the same "knock-out juice." In another daring feat, Halbazar was dangled over the edge with a series of ropes and managed to first close the open hatch and squeeze the canister  through the cargo hull porthole.

It worked. The displacer cats were out cold, along with the caged Aundairian nobleman who was believed to be the owner of the Sky Talon. Before succumbing to the vapors, he called out, "Please do not harm the beasts!"

But by this time a new visitor had appeared on the horizon, and he shortly closed the distance: A heavily-armored half-orc riding a wyvern. Older and more grizzled-looking than Rendar, he also looked competent and dangerous with both his composite bow, sword, and wicked-looking maul. The wyvern perched above the wheelhouse and the half-orc parleyed with Rendar and Cyzicus. Seeming amused by their success in taking the ship, he then demanded "the emperor's key" and said that if they gave it up, there would be no more trouble.

Above, Cyzicus, shifter of the Eldeen, seemed not to accept this trade and decided on a new diplomatic tact: an arrow. It sank into the shoulder of the man's banded mail, but the half-orc only let out a sigh. "I guess this does have to get messy," he growled and attacked.

The fight was brief, and was largely one-sided. The wyvern failed to grasp Cyzicus in its claws and the half-orc himself didn't manage to feather anyone with his own bow. The wyvern was worn down with crossbow bolts, arrows, and spells, and so the rider and his beast retreated. But not before the "Infernal" Halbazar used a grease spell and made the half-orc drop his bow to the ground hundreds of feet below.


In the hold, Cypher and Doongul pushed into the cargo hold and dragged the loose but unconscious displacer beast back into its cage. Sealing up the door would be another matter to deal with.


Wenrick, still in the wheelhouse, pointed the PCs out to what appeared to be a worked cave entrance jutting out on a wide rocky shelf in the the mountain, just to the north. According to the maps, it was the Deep Mine, some sort of permanent mining operation affiliated with House Kundarak.