Chapter 2: Rites of Passage

[Jeff]

Ralsor turns to Matheu for a moment, speaking quietly—seeming to explain how the pseudodragon will be able to find them again.

Goran expends the last of his healing spells, minor evocations that easily stabilize both Amal and Pel. They are certain to live.

Ralsor turns to Goran, Streko, and Grafth. "Well, I suppose you're my passengers, now. Host, and I'm not even making any money off of this situation." The Lyrandar pilot smirks, the first moment of levity since the battle.

"Welcome aboard to the Thunderhead, then. In the morning, I'll give you the grand tour. But for now, bring your friends belowdecks with me. I'll show you where you can take them, and where you'll be sleeping."

He looks to Kal. "D'Deneith, you stay up here and keep watch, all right?"

"Are you the captain, then?" the gnome woman asks.

"Yes."

The gnome smiles. "Very good."

Ralsor gives her a funny look, then begins to lead Grafth, Streko, and Goran down the steps.

Matheu prepares to take wing again. Is there anything else? I will be returning to Passage no more, after this.

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Goran casts Cure Minor Wounds, healing Pel and Amal 2 hit points each.

[Darren]

Kal raises one hand and waves non-comittally at Ralsor's question without turning around as he walks to the wheelhouse.

[Jeff]

Kal walks up the steps into the wheelhouse. The room is elegant, windows facing every direction. At the center, the wheel itself is carved of darkwood, and smooth and carefully lacquered. Several small Siberys shards are inlaid into the face of the wheel. Kal can sense the magical tension in the air, the presence of the air elemental whose conduit is the helm itself.

On one wall is a map of Khorvaire within a frame of glass and wood.

[Jeff]

Ralsor leads Grafth, Goran, and Streko down into the passenger deck. The gnome follows them down. While most ships usually too crammed—rooms too small, corridors too narrow—the marked lack of a crew makes the Thunderhead seem fairly spacious. When they reach the hallway below (with several doors on each side), Ralsor leads them to a cabin with a few cots inside. "Lay them here. I'll get you some water, blankets, and linens."

"Healer," he says to Streko, "You can sleep in here with them, if you want to keep an eye on their condition."

Then he points down the hall to the one of the doors nearest the stairs back up. "That's where the rest of you can stay. Don't nose around any other rooms right now, all right? As I said, I'll show you the rest of the ship tomorrow."

"I'd rather sleep in my own room," the gnome says timidly.

Ralsor scowls. "Right, we have to talk first, you and I."

After Amal and Pel are made as comfortable as possible, the Lyrandar captain leads everyone back up to the top. He stops and looks at the Malov-thing corpse.

"Burning...yeah, that's fine," Ralsor says, thinking back to what Streko said. "But please don't burn it on my ship. How about setting it on fire, then dumping it to the ground. We're over the grasslands right now, I'm sure it wouldn't pose any threat. I can bring the ship down lower. Just don't, umm, drop it on a farmhouse, eh?"

To everyone, he says, "I'm steering us due north. By morning, I can put us almost two hundred miles from Passage. I don't know if House Orien or any of Passage's authorities will try and pursue us. They might. If they've got dragonhawks and know where to look, they'll catch up to us in no time. But I'm planning on going directly above the Duskwood, in hopes of losing them. In the morning we can talk about where to go next for supplies and healing. Maybe Windshire, maybe Varna. I don't know yet. I need to think."

[Joe]

Streko will make a place near Pel and Amal. "One last thing, Ralsor. The warforged on deck is hur...damaged and needs to be looked after. As sh...as it was helping to protect your ship and our lives, I hope you will see fit to take care of...her."

Streko smiles his most winning smile and bows deeply to his Lyrander host before closing the door and turning his attention to his two living, non-mechanical patients, trusting the others to dispose of the body and help the warforged.

[Josh]

Listening to Ralsor, Grafth nods in agreement. "If my memory serves me, that trajectory would take us closer to Windshire. Probably a good choice for us: not as accessible as Varna, and closer to Fairhaven."

Grafth will help with the disposal of the body, and will take some time to check over his belongings, ensure the security of the dragonshard, make some notes in his bound journal, and pocket a platinum dragon.

When people are settled a bit, and after the tension has died down a little, the shifter approaches the airship captain. "I owe you an apology, Ralsor; there was too much information to give you on first meeting. My companions and I have been through much in the past several days, and it has been hard to know who to trust.

"You have shown yourself to be, at risk of your own life and lifestyle, sympathetic to our needs, and I would like to repay you as best I can." Grafth removes the dragon and hands it to the captain. "I don't know if this can begin to compensate you, but I am offering it to you in good will. If you are interested, I will fill you in as best I can on the facts of the matter at hand."

[Darren]

Kal moves slowly through the wheelhouse, taking in his surroundings. He runs his hands lightly over the wheel and it's embedded dragonshards. Kalarian then moves to the large map on the wall and stands studying it with his hands folded behind his back.

[Jeff]

Matheu wings off into the darkness.

"One last thing, Ralsor. The warforged on deck is hur...damaged and needs to be looked after. As sh...as it was helping to protect your ship and our lives, I hope you will see fit to take care of...her."

Ralsor looks down at the warforged for a moment. "I take your point. She offered to guard this ship, and she did. There's nothing I can do for her right now, but one of my priorities wherever we go is to hire a new artificer for my ship anyway." He looks to the wall where acid and lightning have scarred the side of the forecastle. "If you can help me convince someone to actually join my crew—I'll pay his or her fee—then I'll have him fix up...her as well."

The grunt work of dealing with the Malov-thing seems to fall to Ralsor and Grafth alone. The half-elf finds a tarp from a storage room and throws it over the putrid man then heads up to the wheelhouse. He sees Kal looking at the map. "You might to start thinking about where we should go next. I know of one thing that might help...then again, it might not." The Lyrandar grasps the wheel and the Kal sees the Siberys shards take on a soft glow immediately—they respond to the half-elf's dragonmark. With more concentration than actual turning of the wheel, Ralsor directs the air elemental to steer the airship slowly and downward...

Then he returns back to the main deck and joins Grafth near the starboard bow. He strikes a tindertwig to the ground, lights a torch, and sets the Malov-thing's body to flame as it balances on the rail. When Ralsor and Grafth see the ground nearing, and a rocky, boulder-strewn patch of land, they shove the body over...

Ralsor returns to the wheelhouse to slow steer the ship back up higher into the air.

After Grafth speaks his words of gratitude and offers the platinum dragon to him:

Ralsor takes the coin and stares at it for a moment, then smiles. "We're in this together now, trust me. Aldronivus sent you to me, and that means all my time stalling with my house is over. Things are going to start happening and I'll have to be involved somehow. The usual fare for airship travel—along established Lyrandar routes, mind you—for a single passenger is one galifer per mile. Per mile. And you thought the lightning rail was expensive, right? See, airships can't match the rail for speed, but House Orien hasn't the maneuverability or sheer versatility of an airship. Of course, they have more customers. It's a....friendly...rivalry. Most of the time."

He presses the platinum coin back in Grafth's hand. "So you see, by morning you alone would owe my house twenty of these shiny coins, and I'd earn a just a small percentage of that. And your friends would cough up just as much, each."

"So let's make a deal, shall we? Until we know exactly what we're getting ourselves into—at which point we'll negotiate again—you and your friends are my crew. I need to find myself an artificer, to repair my ship and now to fix up my new security officer. I'll pay for that. If you purchase supplies and food for the crew, and you help me steer clear of the law for a while, you can all have free fare on the Thunderhead."

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If there's anything else you wish to do before passing the night, say so now. Otherwise we move into the early hours....where, unless there are any other events, the night will pass and you'll get some hit points back from rest (yay) and you spellcasters will get your spells back. (Streko will need to select his spells for the next day; Joe, you can do so in a private thread.)

[Darren]

After studying the map a bit longer, Kalarian looks to Ralsor. "We are in your hands, now. To be honest, I don't know where to go next. Our leads are drying up quickly. That....thing....obviously was not Malov. We may have had leads in Passage or Fairhaven, but I don't think we can return to either place just now. That shard, and your man...Aldronivus?...are the best leads we have to figuring out what's going on."

Kalarian looks a silent question at Grafth, then decides to verbalize it. "He seems to know a lot about the shard. Maybe we should show him the book? And the written map? Maybe it will make sense to him?"

[Josh]

Grafth nods in understanding as he reclaims his money. As Kal and Ralsor discuss direction, the shifter adds, "Aldronivus's message did say that if we were unable to stop Malov, it would 'begin in Fairhaven', whatever 'it' is. As for the book, yes, I feel we should show him, but let us wait until we are rested, fed, and all together again. We need to know what Pel has discovered; it seems best that we discuss all of it at once."

Grafth heads to the cabin Ralsor indicated earlier to get some rest.

[Jeff]

Ralsor, in a somber mood now, heads to the wheelhouse and sets the ship to its evening course. You are learning a little bit more now; evidently he isn't needed at the helm to power the ship, but whenever the ship needs to change speed or course, it is he who needs to direct it. The Mark of Storm that he bears and the use of the dragonshard-studded wheel somehow allows him to communicate with the elemental.

For tonight he merely asks Grafth, Kal, and Goran to take revolving shifts on deck, one at a time—just in case. At some point Matheu returns and he perches atop the forecastle, watching silently for a long time before drifting into sleep himself. The rest of you crash, one by one, in your bunks. Streko passes the night in the room with Pel and Amal, both of whom will need a great deal of rest to recover.

The novelty and excitement of being aboard an airship—especially one that's off the "beaten path" of Lyrandar routes—is nullified by exhaustion. You began the day aboard a lightning rail on your way to Passage and now you're ending it hundreds of feet in the air and miles away from Passage.

Pel stirs during the night, and Streko hears her occassionally mutters words. Mostly nonsense, but occassionally more discernable snippets: "What is wanted...?...I am not....one of you......"

At one point Streko wakes from his own sleep, startled to see Pel sitting up on her cot. She looks over at him, her pale lavender eyes seeming not to focus. She speaks clearly, but it's hard for him to tell if she knows who she's talking to. "The rites are not complete....the casters are slain...the Claw failed again.....Passage is not secure...the book not recovered....but I am near...."

Tears roll down her Pel's face, she shuts her eyes, and lays back down into a deep sleep. It takes a while for Streko to get back to sleep after that haunting moment, but weariness overtakes him again.

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Each of you heals 3 hit points. Streko and Tangat are at full health already, and Goran is feeling all right. Grafth and Kal still hurt the most, but unless they're wounded again in the next day, they'll be fine.

If Streko is able to take monitor Pel and Amal over the course of the next day, they'll heal twice the normal rate with a successful Heal check. Also, Joe, you need to choose spells for Streko.

And this brings Chapter 2 to a close! Commence to Chapter 3!