Episode 64: General Shago & the Hidden Moon

Having taken control of the Blue Goblin's Skull, the Crew of the Blackjack must hold it against the onslaught of General Shago's new, more powerful form. Afterwards, they come up with a calamitous distraction so that they can slip into the Hidden Moon.

Attack of the Hidden Moon Armada

After claiming the Blue Goblin Skull, the ship's new commanders set up rest rotations and secure the self-destruct controls. The defeated crew skulks off, escaping on lifeboats, except for a handful of officers and an oddly friendly erinyes. The devil proclaims her loyalty to the Lady Elenwe Heskiloth, Mistress of Chaos and Paladin of Ashaya. El skeptically humors the fiend and learns more about her unexpected allies on the Hidden Moon: the frogs, the wolves, and the wild mages. Years before, when she traveled there on reconnaisance, she seeded support for herself with those who sought the elevation of Ashaya's influence.

As they continue their journey to the Hidden Moon, the crew can see an armada rising from it to meet them in space. Lance has been waiting for this moment. He pulls a card that he's been saving for this moment and channels every ounce of magic in his body into the Skull's spell cannons. He unleashes twin meteor swarms that devastate teh enemy fleet.

The Skull uses the dsitraction to go right through the fleet at full thurst. But before celebrations begin, they are alerted to incoming boarders. They rush to the top deck to face a host of devils and led by the blue abishai General Shago, who is bursting with electricity.

The Shago Showdown

Nia blasts Shago and his lightning corona reacts strangely and unstably. El seizes the opportunity to rush in and smite with her weapon Bedlam. Nia warns that Shago might be a living bomb. El shuogs off the concern and strikes again, dropping Shago to the deck. But instead of dying his wounds bleed lightning. His scales scorch and slough off as his body expands and bursts. Two wings, a tail and a long neck emerge as Shago undergoes dracomorphosis, becoming a gargantuan blue dragon.

El strikes again with Bedlam, but Shago ignores her. The blue dragon unleashes three blasts of unerring magic that wound the Royal Consort Nia. Aymer leaps to defend the Consort, invoking her ancestral spirits and wielding her blood blade with deadly force. Her strikes weaken Shago as the red runes on Aymer's blade drains her life force to increase their power. The spirit of Dillothel Heskiloth herself tears down the dragon's throat, but the wyrm unleashes a devastating cone of lightning that tears through the combatants.

The lightning blast tears across the battlefield wounding fiend and friend alike. Lance retaliates by dropping the bass, a divine word that banishes all of the fineds back to Hell. Thunderfox, Nia, and Tiik polish off the last of the fiends and give support with healing.

El and Aymer contine their relentless twin elf assault on the blue wyrm, smiting with Bedlam and dealing damage with ancestral spirits. In the process, Bedlam's chaos magic shrinks El down to the size of a fairy, but she still strikes the dragon just as hard. Shago blasts again with his lightning, wounding the Crew even more. But without his allies, the tide has turned against the wyrm. The combined attacks from Aymer, Lance, and Nia finally bring Shago down after a gureling fight.

His massive, lightning scorched corpse is dragged onto the ship. The crew briefly considers renaming the vessel the Blue Dragon Skull, but Admiral Silversang has other plans.

The Dreadnaught Distraction

As they approach the Hidden Moon, Admiral Nia sets a course for a moon port, accelerates the ship to ramming speed, and activates the self-destruct timer. She orders everyone to abandon ship and summons the Blackjack to her in its nondescript barge form. The crew evacuates to their original ship as the Blue Goblin's Skull spectacularly smashes into the HIdden Moon.

Using the distraction of the crash, they stealthily make their way to a goblin asteroid orbiting the clockwork moon. They meet a group of frog-like slaads who hail El as their chaos champion, They host a celebratory dockside dance. The frogs, who call themselves the Lechugas, explain that Malfador's troops are dealing with the crash on the moon port. The goblin city is mostly deserted except for the guards at the moon gate.

Nia surveys the Blackjack, the crew, and their resources, planning the infiltration of the Hidden Moon while sending a message via ident-a-hedron to summon Of the Forge the Spark to the odd goblin settlement.

Now assembled, the Blackjack Officers plan to bypass the fiendish guards and waarforged colossi who guard the moon gate.