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[Jon Potter]

"J'inn has not found the lizardfolk yet," J'ann told Ayremac. "But it seems that she's heading for the bridge." The holy warrior considered the information and sighed.

"Let J'inn know that we're on our way," he said. "If they do find her tell them to contain her until I arrive."

"She's after the helm," Maleko said nervously.

"There is little that she can do alone," Ayremac confided. "The helm requires two to operate, and it's not like she can just remove it from the ship."

"That's Grawl's plan," Del told him as they started to move toward the door.

"Then he will be disappointed," Ayremac said.



Another umber hulk corpse lay slumped on the boarding deck. This one was visibly burned on one side of its body, and an unpleasant smell filled the area. A narrow staircase spiraled up into a hole in the ceiling. A pair of double doors were closed at the far end of the room, and two smaller hatches let out onto the "spider leg" grappling rams. The door on the left stood open and smoke was billowing around the opening.

"Smokestick!" J'inn announced when he looked at it.

"She's signaling the other vessel," Ixin guessed and Cerrakean nodded, gesturing to the staircase in the center of the room.

"Where's that go?" she asked.

"The bridge," Ixin told her as she and J'inn sealed the hatch. Cerrakean shot up the spiral stair at once into the domed chamber above.

It was an oval room twenty feet long by perhaps fifteen feet wide made, it seemed, entirely of glass. Two of the enormous, forward-thrusting spider legs flanked the chamber, and the main body of the ship rose up at the rear, giving Cerrakean a clear view of some type of ballista-like weapon mounted there. The chamber was dominated by what looked like a double-sided throne with a seat extending from each side of a central back. The whole was worked in a motif of interconnected bones and spider webs. The seat facing forward had a commanding view of the area in front of the deathspider and was cushioned in red velvet. The seat facing backward, however was unadorned and had a cage of bone that still held a shriveled humanoid corpse imprisoned within it. Half a dozen similarly desiccated humanoid corpses lay on the deck around the throne.

Jinissi was outside, clinging to one of the grappling rams beside her signal smoke. Beyond her, Cerrakean could see that the Dire Hag had maneuvered closer, and a boarding party that included the chain devil was making its way toward the deathspider.

"We're about to have company!" Cerrakean yelled down the stairwell and J'inn darted toward an exterior viewport. Ixin stepped back from the sealed door and crossed her arms.

"Let them come," she purred glowering at the hatch as if she could somehow see the boarders beyond.

"Remember why we are here, Ixin," Ayremac cautioned as he and the others entered the boarding deck. "Standing and dying for no good reason will not help us find the sword."

"Well whatever we're going to do we'd best do it quickly!" J'inn cried from his spot at the port. "We've got maybe 10 seconds before the boarding party's banging at the door!" Del looked around at the chamber, noted the presence of two of the ballistae-like weapons, and formulated a plan.

"Can you operate that weapon?" he asked J'inn and the Buomman looked at him strangely.

"Enough to fire it, I suppose," he answered. "Reloading it might be another matter, but..."

"Fine then!" Del cut him off. "You do that. Target the party first and then the ship if you can manage it." He looked at Ayremac and Maleko and asked, "Can we get this ship powered up?"

"I told you it's powered by-" Ayremac started to argue, but the marshall stopped him.

"I'll volunteer to act as the source," he said quickly. "And we're out of time to argue! Though I've never seen a ship powered this way, I have some nautical experience. Grawl has an entire crew and a ship at his disposal... we need to take advantage of our position here."

“Del, that sounds like a great plan," Ayremac conceded with a nod. Then he moved to join Ixin at the hatchway she and J'inn had just locked. "I will secure the door.”

"Okay, let's give this a try," Maleko sighed and started to follow Del up the stairs. "I really have no clue what I am doing, mind you."

There was a sudden roar as J'inn and J'ann fired the ballistae-like weapon. It rocked back violently, propelled by the explosion of fire belching from its muzzle. If it hadn't been contained by a pair of stout chains it would likely have ended up on the other side of the chamber.

As it was the deafening blast gave everyone pause until J'inn and J'ann, peering out through the port gave twin whoops of joy as they slapped hands.
"We got 'im!" they cried in unison.

Their shot, hurried and untrained though it was, still struck with deadly accuracy, impacting the kyton squarely and vaporizing his torso entirely. The shot then exploded into a mass of webbing that caught all of the surviving boarders in its entangling strands. Ayremac hurried over and looked out at the Buommans' handiwork.

"Well struck!" he congratulated them both.

"I still would feel more comfortable if we could block the entrance," Maleko said nervously. "Who knows where Jinissi is." Cerrakean slipped eel-like passed him on the stairs and vaulted down to the boarding deck.

"I do!" she barked. "She's outside on the hull."

"Well that's good," Maleko said, relieved and the hobgoblin raised an eyebrow.

"Is it?" she asked. "We already know that she can pick the locks on this thing. And I don't have a clue how many ways into the ship there are. Do you?"