Episode 27: Elven Starships Ahead

Dracohydra and Bug Brothers

The dracohydra roars a command, "Slay your father!" and the legion of hand-crafted soulforged in Father Ozniah Zug's workshop turn as one and advance on their maker. Their eyes glow ruby red, matching the gem in the dracohydra's chest. They repeat the command with droning artificial voices.

Zug asks the crew not to kill his children. Nia obliges and orders the crew to focus their attacks on the dragon. El, Exalted of Dreams and Nightmare of Waking proceeded to put the beat down on the dracohydra. El knocked off two of its heads and Nia blasted it back with eldritch power.

It reacted by belching fire, killing many of Zug's soulforged children who were caught in the blast. It did not survive to breathe again. Upon its expiration, the soulforged Bug Brothers returned to normal and Spark took the ruby from its chest.

Ruby Dreams of Previous Worlds

The crew argued with Zug about the gem. Spark wanted to ask the Athos Eye about the visions and headache he experienced right before the dracohydra's attack. Zug suspected that an interaction with Spark, the wannabe blue goblin, had set off the rampage and killed his children.

They finally agree to let Nia identify it, revealing it to be a Ruby Weave Gem and older than the world itself. She asks Jenny to try to access its mind if it has one. Jenny linked to the gem and brought the minds of the crew with her.

They experience a vision. Time rewinds, revealing gem dragons hidden in the earth. The many worlds in the Pit fracturing from a single original world. The ruby reuniting with a millions of other shards to form a massive Ruby Dragon created by Bahamut and Tiamat.

After the vision, the crew gave the ruby back, grabbed their prizes and boarded the Blackjack. On the way to Taur na Cair, Athos revealed the dragon in the vision to be Sardior who shattered into the gem dragons long ago. They are one of the sources of psionic power in the worlds and are probably responsible for why blue goblins develop psychic powers.

Spark extrapolates this means there are sleeping gem dragons near Goblin Town and in Ta-Arma. As the crew arrive at Taur na Cair, their hedrons pick up a distress signal from the Cradle of Starships.

*crackle*"This is the Cradle of Starship in Taur na Cair. We are under attack. Shooting stars fell out of the sky and undead have emerged..."*crackle*

The call for help is interrupted by gurgling laughter and the screams of the dying. They dive into the forest to help.

Attack on Taur na Cair

Shadows and fog fill the dark spaces between the trunks of gigantic trees. The shadows materialize into actual monsters and attack Spark when his armor clanks too loudly. Lance summons daylight to chase the monsters away.

A dark hooded figure, a bodak, snuffs out the light and turns its death gaze on the crew. Lance holds its gaze for a moment too long and feels his life slipping away. But a spark of celestial light inside him blocks the darkness just in time. El strikes the bodak with the Moon Blade of House Heskiloth. The radiant power blasts the bodak out of existence.

The crew arrives at the Cradle's Fall and notice that the waters pouring down are mixed with blood. They begin their climb up the stairs carved next to the falls. They arrive at the Cradle itslef to find dozens of decapitated elves and a trail of blood leading towards a raised platform.

The crew followed and were assaulted by strange thorn creatures who killed themselves on Nia's Agathys Armor. At the end of the trail lies a Telperion Moon Raider covered in vines and other planty parts. A dullahan shows up atop a nightmare screaming for vengeance against House Heskiloth.

It unleashes a fearsome roar and hurls a flaming pumpkin head at the crew. NIa knocks it off its mount a lot, but the horse keeps picking him back up. El unleashes the smites with aplomb. Eventually ,the dullahan falls, but then RISES AGAIN RELEASING ITS DEATH HEADS. It also tries to behead Spark.

No sooner does it summon its allies then Lance targets them with his holy magic, spurned on by danger to his friends, a kick of wild magic luck and a pinch of divinity, Lance unleashes more magic artillery than the Blackjack can, ending all three death heads at once.

The dullahan's pumpkin head recoiled in shock before El shoved the moonblade of Heskiloth up his back and Nia knocked him down a waterfall. His loyal nightmare steed picked him up and they fled into the ethereal realm with a curse against House Heskiloth. The officers breathed a sigh of relief as the rest of the Blackjack's crew showed up and began cutting free the raider in preparation for the Blackjack's ritual.