Episode 13: The Gray Angels Report

General Summary

Getting ready for the Feast of Flayer's Fall. Some VIPs come to town and the party makes a good impression with Nia's with and Way's endless cuteness working on Paz, the fire genasi. An invisible faerie dragon, THC the Puff, showed up and pledged a favor to Nia in exchange for bringing him back to life. He also grouped up with Lance, Spark and Xeno to perform their viral magic vaccine reverse Aleph Zero enchantment on all the Beacons in the hold.

Dirk, the head of the tourney train, agreed to let the crew bring some of the papers forward to other locales after most have been dropped off at the tourney. He also spoke privately to Nia about a problem they have been having with the Gray Angels and that they had an old temple nearby for a base. He offered a bounty for each hobgoblin head, and mentioned a ship that had been captured by them could be used for Lunapalooza as long as it was returned to Dirk afterward.

The crew did some augury and discovered it would be good luck to just waltz in pistols popping so they dropped from the sky against a full moon in a feather fall maneuver. Unfortunately, Xeno guided them a little off course for the landing, but, fortunately, Crocodile Kate fired off a lucky ballista bolt as the Blackjack passed killing the enemies spellcaster before he mumbled his first magic.

The crew had been roused with a speech promising revenge for the death of Crocodile Kate from the first raid on the Blackjack (she got better). Still, a motivated crew bulldozed through the temple's exterior guard then the front interior guard with a stealthy one-two punch.

The crew found no doors with locks, but, no traps, and the guards had the key. However, opening the door revealed a basilisk! it was a monster trap. Xeno almost got turned to stone on multiple occasions, but a fireball from Spark's new wand and some strong magic luck from Nia and Lance mean the crew smashed through the early temple defenses with barely a scratch.