“How we be out running a volcano?” Kildo asked as rivers of bright, orange magma continued to flow from the cone-shaped mountain. It showed no signs of abating as it shot out internally from the earth. This was a natural occurrence. Nothing was going to stop it but nature itself. Thick smoke rose as ash, like snow, drifted around them. It began to accumulate on the ground. He felt the temperature rise as sweat dripped from his armpits, and it would get hotter. There was no high ground or protection, as even the building they emerged from was little more than rubble from the seismic activity. Many of the surrounding structures were already shaken to ruins.
“I can outrun a volcano. In fact, just about anything,” Guo Gan said, stretching his legs.
“I’m fire strong,” Kai said.
“That be great fer ya. But me and Scomatch, who loves a good fire to be sure, not be having the spells left-”
Interrupting the dwarven cleric, Scomatch said, “I can cast fly on us.”
“I thought you were out of spells?” Kai questioned.
“Big spells.”
“Rigga provides. Be casting it mage,” Kildo said.
In short order, the super friends were flying, except Guo Gan, who flashed forward down a main road toward the town and docks. As they flew, they didn’t see anyone around. The area had already been abandoned. The closer the town became, the more people carrying belongings and leading animals were seen and heard, and there was a mass panic out and toward the docks. Shouts of alarm and dreadful cries of fear and terror filled the air. It was deafening. It was already apparent there were too many people and not enough ships.
Guo Gan, ahead of them, weaved through the streets. The monk's words were shredded as he tried to yell and finally motioned to follow him where their spelljammer, the Space Ghost, was docked.
Kildo’s stomach lurched as they rose over a tall building. The contents of his stomach threatened to come up. It was hard to follow Guo Gan as the air was filled with floating ash and smoke. There was no color, just shades of grey. It was surreal. Ships were already flooded and overcrowded. People were fighting. A few lay stabbed on the cobblestone streets, while some were knocked or pushed off the packed crafts. As they fell overboard, their screams echoed as they fell into the air bubble around the Rock of Series. They were quickly cut off as they entered the vacuum of space. A few picked up dropped treasure or stuffed coins into overflowing pockets from murdered victims, not realizing gold was worthless in the face of an angry volcano. Any semblance of order was gone. It was every person for themselves. Mass panic. Chaos.
Kildo breathed a little easier as they arrived at the dock where the Space Ghost was moored. They’d make it off the asteroid. They’d beat the volcano. Fortune seemed to favor them as they didn’t have to deal with throngs of people or hysterical mobs at the docks. The flying dwarf then scratched his beard. The area was unusually void of any activity. He then understood the old dwarf's saying. Fortune always changes, and not always for the better. Their damselfly spelljammer and ticket off this burning rock was missing. The port was empty.
“Damn you Odium!” Kildo bellowed, cursing. Ahead of him, Kai was flying and pointing. The volcano's rumbling and buildings' tumbling shredded any possibility of hearing the paladin. Down the way were other spelljammer ships. Most were small and damaged by falling debris. However, a few ports down one was intact. It resembled a sea-going sailing ship, but its front resembled a hammerhead shark, with a flattened hammer-shaped front section. A dozen or more sailors scrambled along the deck in full-blown panic, preparing the ship for launch. There were also six individuals at the end of the pier to board the ship, directing the sailors with the last bit of cargo being brought onboard. They appeared to be the command staff of the hammerhead spelljammer. Their clothes were dirty with soot and burned in places. Several dead bodies were blasted apart around them. They too had to fight their way to the docks. However, the battle that took place wasn’t one-sided, as they all were bruised and battered.
The first was a half-orc in heavy armor. He had a sloping forehead, a jutting jaw, prominent teeth, and a bulky build. Holding a short bow, he pulled arrows from some nearby bodies and returned them into a quiver at his side. A greatsword was strapped to his back.
Next to him was a human monk with a mohawk and thick black makeup going across his eyes. Wearing a robe torn away on the left side, he was practicing a martial arts kata.
An attractive human woman with dark hair dressed in black leather sat on a nearby barrel. She seemed bored waiting for the ship to be ready as she twirled a dagger in her hands.
Two more humans, a magic user in full robes with his hood up, talked with another. He had dark hair, a goatee, and donned heavy armor with a dragon motif. A thick, large cloak was attached to shoulder pads that curved upwards.
The last person hung back. Female and short in stature at five feet tall, she wore a singed and ash-covered long dress that was once of superior quality and accentuated her curves. Pulling down her hood, there was no mistake with her dark grey skin and straight, snow-white hair that she was a drow. It was Lady Icosa. Turning toward the party as they approached flying, her eyes went wide. Then her mouth curled into a snarl. Straightening herself and smoothing her dress as best as possible to regain some dignity, she said, “My, you are a tenacious bunch.” The drow’s form shimmered and waved as she went invisible.
Gaining their attention, the other five slave lords looked toward Lady Icosa and then to the party.
“Har, har, har! Puny fishman. Yer are ‘n da wrong element!” The half-orc warlord yelled and fired two arrows at the flying triton, with one striking the paladin.
The woman in black leather retrieved a crossbow next to her and loaded a bolt. The mage in the back formed a mote of fire in his hands. It sailed toward Scomatch, who weaved away in the air.
The halfling mage formed his own orb. It bubbled with green liquid. Scomatch threw his chromatic orb back at the archmage slaver. The sizzling liquid splashed across his front. His clothing was little more than rags being burned by the volcano, torn by the mob, and now melted by acid.
“Life is death. Death is rebirth. Rebirth is life,” Kildo chanted as he upcast, Bless. Each member of the group glowed by the buff spell. Seeing missile weapons would be prominent in this battle, he landed behind a crate and three barrels for cover to ensure the party remained blessed.
Kai pushed his flight as he flew straight over the ships and landed north of the archmage. He brought Wave to bear in preparation for a fight.
The slaver cleric with the peacock feathers in his headband began a flourishing of casting. A mighty spell was forming. A ‘pffft’ sound of someone passing gas came from the cleric. Shocked, his eyes followed the source. Scomatch thumbed his chin at the slaver as he countered the spell.
A crossbow bolt ‘whizzed’ toward Scomatch.
“Shield spell!” Kildo yelled up to the flying halfling.
“Baby spell!” Scomatch shouted back as the bolt nicked his shoulder. Poison from the tip began to spread black along his shoulder veins quickly. The effect reversed itself, and it was pushed from the wound and burned in a puff of smoke.
Four daggers flew toward Guo Gan. The wood elf dodged the missile weapons as he ran. “You stole my tattoos! Those should be mine!” the slaver monk yelled to Guo Gan and motioned to face him.
Guo Gan, leaping over some cargo on the docks, landed on the ground, feet wide apart and supporting his weight with his fist smashing into the floor, cracking the wooden pier, while his other hand was out away from his body, pointing diagonally upwards.
“Superhero landing! Superhero landing!” Scomatch exclaimed in excitement.
Pulling Qiekamis from his back, Guo Gan batted murderously at his foe. The quarterstaff smashed into the slaver monk. With each hit, Guo Gan’s crab tattoos glowed and drained the slaver’s life energy. Qiekamis grew brighter than before. In six seconds, the slaver monk was nothing but a dried husk. He toppled over. The winds from the volcano pushed him like a dry leaf into a nearby crate. The wood elf appeared all the healthier for it. The slaver woman in black leather stepped back in shock. Guo Gan was upon her instantly and threw a roundhouse kick into her right arm. She was knocked down to the wooden docks. His tattoo’s glowed as they also sucked away some of her life energy.
The half-orc warlord retreated from the vampiric-like monk toward the rear and Kai. Drawing, he fired two arrows from his short bow. One stuck into the paladin’s plate armor.
The archmage slaver saw going through the paladin was their only way to get on the spelljammer hammerhead craft. Weaving his hands, he cast a spell, but it had no discernable effect on the paladin.
Scomatch flew in closer and cast, Shatter. The archmage’s eyes went wide and dove behind cover. The full force of a loud gonging of intense sound waved encompassed around the half-orc warlord and slaver cleric.
Flying parallel to the halfling, Kildo saw the same three bunch up. This was his chance to offset some of his brother Dito Hammerhand's slaver activities. A vertical column of divine fire roared down from the heavens upon them. The slavers screamed as they burned by righteous flames.
However, at the same time, Kai cast, Gust of Wind. A ten-foot wide and sixty-foot-long blast of air pushed the three slavers down the pier and away from boarding the hammerhead spelljammer. It also had the unintentional side-effect of putting out their burning clothing from Kildo’s flame strike.
“Miss me?” came the soft, feminine, and unusually accented voice of Lady Icosa behind Kai. The drow’s form grew as eight legs sprang out of her two. Her body melted into the form of a gigantic hairy black spider. Instead of a spider-like head, it was more humanoid with eyes, nose, and mouth glowing with intense fire, like that from a dwarven furnace. The arachnomancer’s mouth clamped onto Kai’s leg, dragging him back toward the pier's edge.
The slaver cleric picked himself up from being blown across the area by the paladin’s gust of wind. Seeing Scomatch approach with fire and acid in his eyes, he quickly pulled a dagger and flung it at the halfling.
“Ouch! Hey that hurt!” Scomatch yelled as the small trickle of blood from where the blade nicked him on the arm.
“I surrender,” the female slaver assassin said. She tossed her crossbow in front of Guo Gan’s feet. She seductively crawled along the wooden pier to the monk. Curving her way up, she stood inches from his face. She moved in closer but was stopped by the butt end of Qiekamis as he thrust it into her gut. Looking down, she brought her hands around his face, lightly brushing his crab-like tattoos. “You’re a monk. You wouldn’t hurt a woman, would you?”
As her lips leaned closer, Guo Gan said, “No, but Qiekamis would.” The monk’s tattoos flashed in power as the sentient quarterstaff glowed bright green. The slaver assassin’s eyes went wide. She screamed as her life force was drained. There was a metal ‘clanking’ sound as she dropped a hidden dagger mere inches from Guo Gan’s groin. Her lifeless husk crumpled to the ground. Stepping over her shriveled form, a newly reinvigorated Guo Gan ran and leaped across the hammerhead spelljammer. He made several incredible jumps, and flew into a flying side kick to the other side of the pier into the drow arachnomancer’s bulbous abdomen, knocking the creature back. She lost her bite grip on Kai.
The half-orc warlord shielded his face with his arm as he pushed through Kai’s gust of wind spell. The paladin was waiting with Wave. Thrusting the trident, it stuck into his armor and stopped the slaver cold. Pushing through the pain, this action helped the half-orc as he was held in place. He knocked an arrow into his short bow. He pulled and fired. The arrow ‘thunked’ into Kai’s armor.
The slaver wizard seemed perplexed about who to attack as a mote of fire formed in his hands. Seeing Kildo hovering in the air, he launched the firebolt. It sailed over Kildo’s head.
Flying down the docks toward the pier to board the hammerhead spelljammer, Scomatch yelled, “I told you I’m out of spells! Look at what you are making me do!” He pulled a scroll from his satchel. He began reading an indication and cast, Fireball. A bright streak crossed the battlefield. Sculpting the evocation spell around Kai and Guo Gan, flames engulfed the half-orc and the arachnomancer spider.
Launching himself into the air and traveling over the moored spelljammer craft, Kildo cast, Guardian of Faith. A towering spectral guardian in the form of a dwarf appeared between the arachnomancer spider and the half-orc warlord. The manifestation comprised of a war hammer and shield with the blazing ankh symbol of Rigga, the Earthmother.
The arachnid skittered back from the spectral guardian. Distracted, Kai lunged with Wave. Its three prongs stabbed into the spider’s carapace. It shrieked as green ichor sprayed out. The arachnomancer’s legs pulled into its body and transformed back into Lady Icosa. Her white dress was stained with blood. She began casting. A white glow emanated next to her. A perfectly rectangular doorway hovered a foot away enough to allow a large creature to pass through. It hummed with massive energy. Clutching her chest wound, the drow threw herself into the dimension door. The top retreated to the bottom and winked out of existence.
Seeing the drow flee broke the morale of the slaver cleric. His heavy footfalls on wood resounded as he ran westwards away from the party down the dock.
Next to Kai, Guo Gan jumped into his gust of wind. Like he was skating on ice, he was pushed southward. He held Qiekamis like a lance. The slaver wizard’s eyes went wide as the tip of the quarterstaff smashed into his chest. His ribcage crushed, and unable to breathe, he gasped and had a despairing look in his eyes as he died.
The half-orc warlord pushed through the headwinds toward Kai. Drawing a greatsword, he swung at the paladin.
The slaver's blade momentum slowed. Kai easily parried the blows with Wave. “You should have used your bow.”
Turning his attention to the slaver cleric, Kildo pivoted in the air and flew back westward toward him. “Woah! Watch it!” Kildo shouted as he barrel rolled in the air as Scomatch threw a fire bolt trying to hit the fleeing cleric. Turning his attention back, he regained speed and plowed into the slaver’s back with his shield, knocking him down.
The fallen cleric cast, Word of Radiance. Burning and searing pain radiated out and coursed through Kildo’s ears. As the slaver began to rise, a fire bolt from Scomatch exploded into the back of his head. He was charred beyond recognition. Dead.
As the gust of wind continued to batter the half-orc and seeing Guo Gan running back up the pier, Kai disengaged the warlord and jumped onto the hammerhead ship. “I’m the dread pirate Kai! My wrath is as massive and treacherous as the sea! I’m taking command of this vessel! A share of any and all treasure will automatically be given to the crew!”
The sailors, numbering fifteen to twenty, loading crates, barrels, and chests, all looked at each other. They eagerly nodded and then turned back to Kai and bowed their heads in submission. “You’re orders captain?”
“What’s the name of this ship?”
“The Space Dragon.”
“Secure the cargo on the Space Dragon! Get the ship ready to disembark! We’ll be leaving on my command!”
“Kai! Dismiss your gust of wind!” Guo Gan shouted. The airstream ceased as the monk charged, leading with Qiekamis. His quarterstaff smashed into the half-orc’s armor. His cheek became sunken as the monk’s crab tattoos glowed with power.
The two continued to trade blows as the slaver's greatsword bashed into Guo Gan. There was a massive gash along the left side of the monk.
Kildo’s guardian of faith made a sweeping motion as the magical weapon blasted into the slaver, burning him with radiant damage. Its energy spent; it erupted into a shower of sparks and disappeared.
Scomatch turned in mid-air and headed back toward the hammerhead spelljammer. Forming a mote of fire, it flew. The fire bolt blasted into the warlord half-orc’s back.
Returning to the air, Kildo flew across the dock and landed behind the last slaver on the pier. He bashed his war hammer into his back. He followed up with his shield and smashed it into the muscular legs of the warlord. The dwarf was stopped cold by the half-orc mass and strength.
Kai also launched himself from the deck of the spelljammer. He lunged with Wave. The prongs slid off the half-orc’s thick armor.
Attacked from multiple sides, the slaver wildly swung his greatsword, attempting to parry or block. Guo Gan’s quarterstaff came thrusting in. Its tip smashed into the half-orc’s neck. His throat crushed, his mouth opened, gasping for air. He dropped his greatsword.
Guo Gan maneuvered Qiekamis into the slaver’s mouth. Helpless to stop the monk, it tip rammed through and out the other side. The sentient weapon and crab tattoos flashed in power as they drained the slaver’s life force. There was an audible ‘slurping’ sound as Guo Gan’s grievous wounds began to heal. All that remained of the half-orc slaver was a husk of its former self.
A violent eruption shook the very core of the Rock of Series. Like meteor swarms from a powerful archmage, chunks of molten rocks rained down. The heat was intense. Panicked screams echoed throughout the area. The rumbling and quakes almost made it impossible to hear. The asteroid was breaking itself apart.
“Grab the corpses! We’ll search them later! Get to the ship!” Guo Gan yelled.
Dragging the slave lord’s bodies and hauling them onto the spelljammer, the crew of the hammerhead ship began to panic.
“Captain Kai, what do we do!” shouted a crewmember.
“Do you have a helmsman strapped in!?” Kai asked.
“A fresh slave was installed in the helm!” The crewmember motioned for the party to follow him. Descending into the ship, they entered a large bridge. In the middle was the helmsman chair. A swirling design inlayed the plush, cushioned material. The ornate chair was perfectly balanced on a large azure-blue crystal embedded in the deck. A retractable golden helmet was on the helmsman’s head with a multitude of wires above and attached to the ceiling. They sat with their back turned to the party.
“I’m commandeering this ship. I’m the dread pirate Kai-”
“By Belial’s blessing! I already know who you are.”
Taking a step back, the chair swiveled, and the person turned to face them. A tiefling sat. He retained his ancestors' physical characteristics: curved horns, a non-prehensile tail, pointed teeth, and cloven feet. His skin color extended past normal human color into a reddish hue, and his hair was a dark blue. His eyes were solid orbs of black. He had fiend blood in his veins, likely a devil, as a sulfurous odor surrounded him. It was Odium.
“I’m so glad to see you! What happened?” Guo Gan asked.
“I only know what I overheard. Shatterkeel and others betrayed and did something to the slave lords, but I don’t know what. The slave lords were the ones who took our ship and captured the others.”
“Where is the crew now?” Kai asked.
“They are down in the hold.”
The hammerhead spelljammer shook violently. Everyone had to grab onto part of the ship to avoid being knocked over. The Rock of Series was breaking apart.
“Belial guard us!” Odium cried.
“Shut it Odium!” Kildo bellowed and then quietly added, “Rigga, guard us.”
“Get us out of here! Punch it Odium!” Kai ordered.
The ship’s engines revved and powered up as the hammerhead pulled away from the docks. The vessel turned sharply. Odium throttled it forward. Kildo looked at a monitor and saw the Rock of Series become smaller and smaller. He was blinded momentarily as a massive explosion and brilliant flash filled the screen. From where the asteroid previously existed, spherical fireballs expanded outward in a cloud of massive rocks and quickly cooling hot magma. The newly formed asteroid field traveled at incredible speeds toward them.
“The nine hells. Brace for impact!” Kildo shouted.
Warning alarms blared throughout the ship. Every conceivable light on the bridge’s console flashed panic red. Heavy impacts to the hull knocked into the spelljammer. The hammerhead vessel shook violently and threatened to tear itself apart. The lights flickered and went out. The ship and crew of the Space Dragon were plunged into absolute darkness.
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