[Interludes #7] Re-negotiation
"Captain, first give us all you know about the ship and who could be on it. Do not hold back anything you know would be useful from your experience," Maleko replied as the elf, too looked back over at the strange ship. "Also we get any choice items we find on the ship." Grawl's gaze snapped back to the elf at once.
"Is that so?" the githyanki growled, baring the brown stumps of his teeth as he glowered down at Maleko.
"If you want our help, it is," the wizard said coolly. The captain started at that, surprised by Maleko's nerve. Behind Grawl, Cerrakean barked laughter.
"You'll find that the elf's got a bit o' steel in him, captain," the hobgoblin said, scratching shamelessly. "He doesn't back down from a debate and if you want to cross swords... Well, then you'll want to talk to me or brown eyes over there." She jerked a thumb in Del's direction. Del drew himself up and squared his shoulders as the captain turned to look at him. Grawl sneered and squinted back at Maleko.
"You can keep what you can carry. No more," Grawl proposed and Maleko nodded.
"Agreed," the elf conceded. "What did Shroud mean by calling the ship a derelict?"
"He meant it's a derelict," Grawl sneered. "The neogi don't just sit by an' let another ship size 'em up the way we're doin'. If that was anything less than a derelict, then we'd be swarming with umber hulks instead of bickering over terms like a couple of mercane!" He spat on the deck near Maleko's impeccably polished boots.
"Can you spare any of your men to accompany us or are there any brave ones who may want to find some treasure or show their skills in battle?" the elf asked and Grawl burst out laughing. He turned to the crew and spread his ropy arms.
"Who wants to join these three on a mission to the deathspider?" he asked and the crew seemed to shrink away from him. No one spoke up. "Come on, now, lads! Don't be shy!" His cruel grin did not falter as he turned to look once more at Maleko.
"It seems you'll be needing to earn your own-" he began but a single shout from the back of the huddled crew halted him. The crowd of crewmen parted and a female lizardfolk limped forward. Her scales were light tan in color, but ashen and crisscrossed by cracks and scars and gouges. Her left eye had been sewn shut, bisected neatly by a terrible scar.
"I will go with them," the lizard woman hissed. Her tongue, long and pink, forked out of her mouth, tasting the air. Grawl snorted.
"Well, elf, it looks like you'll be havin' help after all," the captain said. "Let me introduce Jinissi, former slave of the neogi." Del perked up at once. It was easier to leave behind the regalia of the janissary than it was to lose the training and the very mention of slavery was abhorrent to him. He felt immediate sympathy for this former slave... despite her snake-like aspects.
"How did you come to be in service aboard the Dire Hag?" he asked her and she turned her head to regard him with her one eye.
"Captain Grawl bought me at auction on God's Rest," she said simply. There was a slight sibilance to her speech but otherwise her common was flawless. Del eyed the captain again and the half-elf wondered just how much he'd compromised his morals in the furtherance of this quest. And on the heels of that thought came another: How much more was he willing to give up?
"Aye," Grawl said. "But that was years ago. She's earned her freedom thrice over since that time." Jinissi nodded deferentially to the captain.
"What do you know of that ship?" Del asked her. "What is its layout? Number of crew? Defenses? Weaknesses? Whatever you can tell us." Now she nodded at Del.
"The Deathspider is built to be a raider. The legs serve as piercing rams, skewering and crippling other vessels so that the neogi's umber hulks can swarm the enemy and capture them easily," she said, displaying through her descriptions a keen intellect lurking behind her reptilian appearance. "Usually it will carry a crew of four neogi, double that number of umber hulks, and perhaps a dozen slaves."
"Sounds like fun," Cerrakean quipped and Del saw a glint of anticipation in her eye as she looked over at the Deathspider. Could she really be that confident? A single umber hulk would present a challenging opponent, facing eight at once seemed mad.
"What of the Neogi? What kind of fighters are they?" the hobgoblin asked, eager to assess the full threat. Jinissi hissed laughter, but there was no hint of mirth in her cold eye.
"They are frail fighters," she said and gestured to the halfling, Bloj. "Not much bigger than him. One blow is enough to put them down." Cerrakean grinned at that.
"How do they fair against spells?" Maleko asked and Jinissi shrugged.
"I am no spellcaster," she admitted. "But I do know that the neogi are strong of mind. They are capable of exerting their will over others."
"Great," Maleko said under his breath.
"You look as if you have seen difficult days... and lived to tell about them," Del said. "We welcome your aid."
"The neogi are not kind to their slaves," the lizard woman hissed, touching the scar on the side of her head. "Especially not those who see the open skies and dare to dream of freedom." She looked at the vessel drifting ahead of them and her scales flushed with bridled emotion.
A similar rush of adrenalin surged through Del at the prospect of exploring the deathspider. He could get a closer look at what he surmised, from this distance, to be a weapons platform of some kind, although one unlike any that he'd seen before. It looked like a ballista, but it lacked a bow. What was the ship made of? He could see no seams in its construction. How did it move? Certainly not by those gossamer bits of webbing that festooned its hull. Enduring the icy stares of Grawl's crew he had surreptitiously studied as much as he could of the Dire Hag. The Neogi Deathspider seemed far more compelling and Del smiled, envisioning a shipyard full of such vessels.
But the reality of the situation reigned in his enthusiasm. It was highly unlikely that such a vessel would simply be abandoned. Given what Jinissi had told them, it had a significant crew. Where were they now? And why were they not reacting to the Dire Hag's presence?
"Captain," Maleko said hoping to appeal once more to the githyanki warrior's pride in his power and rank, "some of the equipment we gave you for this voyage would be useful to us at this time. If we could have them back for this mission we would increase our chances of bringing you what you desire." Grawl made eye contact with the elf giving him hope of success. Maleko added looking in awe at the ship, briefly peeking to see Grawl's reaction to his comments, "I think that this is a great treasure and you would achieve great prestige if you were to help us obtain it. It certainly would be exhilirating to fly such a magnificent vessel as a Neogi Deathspider."
"Think of the tactical advantages such a vessel would afford. With a Deathspider always at your flank, no one would dare to oppose you," Del added, seeking to bolster Maleko's argument. "You could turn your enemies with a mere showing of force and save your own ship the wear and tear of battle."
"You are Clueless!" Grawl snapped. "Flying a Deathspider will invite attack from every vessel on the Astral Sea! The Githyanki would strike at us on sight! As would the Illithids. Even other neogi vessels would hunt us!"
"Then what are we doing here?" Cerrakean growled. "Why risk approaching the thing if it's worthless?" The captain shook his head, smiling ruefully.
"It's not worthless, you prime-bound idjits!" he told her. "There's armaments, an' cargo to be salvaged. Not to mention the Helm, for The Lady's sake!"
"The Helm?" Maleko prodded; he could almost hear the capital letter in Grawl's words.
"Aye, elf. The Helm," he confirmed with a nod. "Have you not wondered what makes ships sail on the Astral Sea? There's no wind to speak of, or had you not noticed that?"
"I noticed," Del said quickly and Grawl rolled his eyes.
"Every ship requires a Helm to power it," the captain said. "It's thought that propels a body on the Astral. But there's limits to what a single mind can haul under its own power... unless you've got a Helm." Maleko looked again at the Deathspider.
"And this Helm is valuable?" he observed.
"If it can be removed... and if you know where to sell it," Grawl told him warily.
"Well, to secure it, you should be willing to give us temporary use of the items we gave you as payment for passage then," the elf suggested in a perfectly reasonable tone but the captain shook his head.
"You ask too much, elf," he told him. "Those items were part of a separate negotiation. You'll not be seein' them again so let's speak no more of it. Either you're willin' to go or you're not. Now what's it to be?"
This time it was Del's turn to bristle. He hadn't the stomach for Grawl's condescension. "May I remind you, sir, that you are still under our employ. Your ship has been brought to a standstill." He gestured to the crew. "Your men are afraid. They won't maraud a Neogi deathspider for you. Yet you would send us to do your scutwork without the full support of our protections, and lay claim to what we find?" Grawl turned to look at the half-elf as if he couldn't believe what the man was saying.
Jinissi took a surreptitious step away from Del, keeping her one eye on the captain.
"If we decline this proposition, what do you intend? To turn around and go back?" Del went on, not noticing the growing tension in the crew as he kept his attention and ire focused on the githyanki. "That outcome is certain - you will have nothing of the reward. You have just as much as stake in a successful endeavor as we do. Hand over the magic items and take their worth out of what we find."
Captain Grawl scratched at his leathery chin and turned away from Del, shaking his head. He reached out and took a short length of chain off of Shroud's body. He held it in his two hands as if weighing it and then tossed it onto the deck.
"You make an interestin' argument, prime. An' you've a lot of opinions about me an' my crew an' how things ought to run on my ship," the captain said, his tone even, but his demeanor menacing. "But there's only one way things run on the Dire Hag and that's MY way!" He made a gesture with his hand and Shroud's eyes and mouth glowed more brightly.
At the same moment, the short length of chain the captain had dropped onto the deck in front of Del twisted and writhed like a snake, growing impossibly long as it reared up from the boards. If Del had had a weapon in hand, he might have been able to swat the thing away, but his hands were empty and so it wrapped twice around his body almost before he knew what was happening. He squirmed to get some leverage, but then his arms too were encircled in chains and he was pinned.
"Don't hurt our 'employer', Shroud. It's not his fault he's so ignorant," Captain Grawl said as he stepped up to Del. The githyanki gestured at the silver vastness around the ship. "Look around you, boy. There's no law out here but my own. The way I see it, my offerin' to re-negotiate was more kindness than I had to show. So you'll either explore the deathspider or you won't, but either way this is where you're gettin' off this ship. The question really is, will you be gettin' back on again."
