Session 238, Part Four
Party Boat
It was now time to cross the vast empty space between the southern and northern half of the Gyre. Gupta was gratified to hear that their first port of call would be Ascetia. She had waited a long time since the sweeping beam of the lighthouse caught her eye and inspired a fascination that she could not fully explain. While they traversed the empty void, she stood at the prow, slightly nervous with anticipation. As well as the regular sweep of the lighthouse, another source of light attracted her attention: smaller, irregular pulses in the darkness to the north-west. When they persisted, she dutifully reported the occurrence, despite knowing that doing so would cause them to divert from Ascetia.
What they saw though a spyglass (and confirmed with Korrigan’s clairvoyant eye) was a Golden Legion warship, very much like – no, identical to – the Aurum Treasure, moving at a sedate pace across the void, busy with activity (indistinct at this distance) and emitting prismatic beams in all directions.
They pointed the Coaltongue at the newcomer, but jumped ahead to take the crew by surprise. (If they couldn’t handle what they found there without back-up, they would jump back to the Coaltongue and engage them ship-to-ship.)
When they arrived, battle-ready, they were overwhelmed by pulsating noise. But instead of finding themselves in the midst of demonic legionnaires, they were surrounded by frolicking fey, who – though surprised by their arrival – were used to such strangeness and soon welcomed them aboard and enjoined them to dance along to the beat – a beat provided by the repurposed alarm system they had been subjected to on Av. The lights were faeries fire glancing off a round, golden globe suspended from a high vantage. It had been worked to provide multiple facets from which the faerie fires could dance.
This was indeed the Aurum Treasure, and these were refugees from Av, rescued by none other than Rock Rackus who now stood at the helm. He saluted them and beckoned them over. Shouting over the din of the music, they asked why he hadn’t responded to Korrigan’s telepathic messages. Rock lifted his skullcap and showed them a tin-foil lining inside: “You guys put me on to the works of the Grumbler, don’t you remember? The tin-foil hat was his idea. Stops all kinds of mind-control naughty word in its tracks!” He told them he had salvaged the ship and renamed it the Aural Pleasure. They misunderstood and laughed heartily. “You guys have dirty minds. I mean aural – for the ears!”
All of their fey friends were here: Sly Marbo, Rambylon, even Mista Knyves, whom Uru had been so fond of. He was overjoyed to see the cantankerous ettercap and greeted him enthusiastically.
Rock told them he was headed to Egalitrix to rescue Thisraldion. This presented them with a quandary. They figured out his current trajectory and realised it would bring him to Elofasp, home of the terrifying supplicants and ravants! They couldn’t allow him to press on alone, but they didn’t want to have him tag along with them either. He lacked subtlety and was a terrible glory-hog. At first they suggested that he back-track and wait for them: “We have business on Ascetia, but after that we can move on Egalitrix together. Why don’t you head back that way towards Dunkelweiss. It’s a plane where beer is good for you.”
“We’ve already been there!” shouted Rock. “Stayed there for days!”
It was no good; they would have to come along. It wouldn’t be long before they struck at Egalitrix now anyway, and they would need all the help they could get.
While this was being arranged, Uru was made aware of some tensions aboard the ship – the enmity between Rambylon and Mista Knyves persisted. Rambylon sidled up alongside Uru and told him he had seen Mista Knyves captured by the Golden Legion as they rampaged through Clover. “That’s not the real Mista Knyves, it can’t be!” he said.
There was a simple way to resolves this: Uru asked Korrigan to train the power of the Humble Hook on his ettercap friends and establish his real name. Korrigan obliged, without alerting the target, and told Uru that ‘Mista Knyves’ was in fact Copperhat the Headless! Leon squinted at him. His truesight did not penetrate the disguise, so it was no illusion. “Must be a polymorph spell,” he said.
Uru glowered and stalked away. Korrigan watched him as he sidled up to the ettercap, whispered something in his ear and then cut his throat!
The partying fey gasped and formed a wide, wary circle.
Wind whistled out of the slit throat. As the life drained from Copperhat’s polymorphed eyes, he was able to utter, in a mysterious, sibilant, sing-song whisper: “They’re he-ere!”
Baffled, Uru almost wished he’d kept him alive long enough to ask him some questions, until Uriel stepped up and proved that such caution was unnecessary: he summoned Copperhat’s spirit, firstly to prove that he was really, finally dead, and then to quiz the angry little creature.
“What did you mean by that?” he demanded.
Compelled to answer, Copperhat said: “Look behind you.”
They did so and at first could see nothing. Then they noticed a blackness against the blackness – two different shades of black, one looming out of the other – a vast shape, growing gradually lighter and more distinct, until they realised that what they were looking at was a gaping mouth of immense proportions, dwarfing both of their ships. In seconds it engulfed them and as it began to close, they recognised it as an undead whale, grown to an impossible size.
Weary Enid’s leviathan had swallowed them whole!
End of Session