The Quietreach shipyards have completed the assembly and installation of the astral throne, comprising the dragon compass liberated from Phlouwurz, the astral gem liberated from Ulrozax, and the ship’s helm astral throne proper liberated from the sunken Dusty Reaver claimed by STEVE, into the helm of the Eberron airship, liberated from the temple ground station of the City of Shade. Ander salivates audibly.
Xalver addresses Charlie Company at the dedication of the Batship Crazy and reminds them that the three parts of the Opeth vision now in play are:
1: The inverted triangle vision displayed in three colors: ice blue in the upper right, fiery red in the upper left, golden yellow at the bottom. Those colors stream from the corners.
2: Tophe the headroller does battle with some unfortunate company of adventurers equipped with weapons represented by the golden portion of the triangle.
3: The triangle moves closer to the vision observer. The blue and gold corners break from the red corner, herald the dragon APPOTHROMAX, and vanish.
Here with an update on the vision is Brother Im. Adherents of Quastarte, and its successor Quietreach, are already acquainted with the ice vis; indeed, it is no exaggeration to say Quastarte coalesced around ice vis in the way that ice vis coalesces around cold ley lines of magic. Similarly, Brother Im’s lapin organization fulfills the stewardship for a complementing fire vis which coalesces around hot lava ley lines of magic. And it is no coincidence that blue and red make up two corners of the vision triangle as demonstrated literally and symbolically when Im dramatically produces a literal red triangle corner from his tunic. Im does not anticipate existence of a third golden vis but does anticipate the end goal is a device that combines ice vis and fire vis into something even more powerful.
This mission, then, is to jump the astral-throned airship Batship Crazy into the astral plane, locate the dragon APPOTHROMAX, and liberate his portion of the vis mixing triangle thing. Questions?
Ander wonders how the astral throne operates exactly. Exactly? Well, they have a really good guess . . . a pretty good guess at least . . . well, you’ll work it out. And how many crew are assigned to the mission? Technomancy Regent Solana candidly admits that any crew helpful enough to participate are inherently too valuable to risk. But Solana herself is available, subject to sufficiently discouraging terms and conditions.
Watc wonders whether APPOTHROMAX is possibly amenable to cooperation in this endeavor. Xalver is curious about that himself.
Ash wonders if any provision has been made for anti-dragon equipment should a dragon fight become necessary, but rampant supply chain issues along the Sword Coast and the ensuing inflation have made provisioning a challenge.
Once the party has boarded and explored the airship, Martial Regent Hidhall Aacis offers a class on operation of the 12-pounder cannons lining the lower deck. All information and instruction conveyed, the shore party disembarks.
Artificer Ander assumes helm position, grasps the wheel, tickles the dragon compass, and intuitively harnesses the power of thought: GO! A blinding, swirling, disorienting, freezing environment engulfs the airship. Several of the party lose consciousness including pilot Ander. Sqyylarr awakens Ander and directs his attention to the silver lining that forms a tight bubble of normalcy around the airship. Ash, recalling a previous Tophe-driven experience in the astral plane to meet imprisoned Tharizdun, glides himself astrally by the power of thought [optional movement of 3*INT] to Watc and clanks her awake on the cheeks. Watc leans over the gunwale to look for landmarks below, but it’s all bubble lining. Taco-Cat licks Barika awake below deck. Ander wakes Ten and they review the after-action to fine tune Ander’s operation of the helm.
While Ander makes small, slow, experimental turns, a githyanki pirate ship drifts intrusively into their bubble and fires upon them with forward cannons. Reacting to the unprovoked smashing of their freshly restored and painted airship, Sqyylarr, Barika, and Watc drop into the starboard cannon battery to return fire while Ander pulls into a port spin to place the gith ship into broadsides. The maneuver might be unnecessary as Ash glides out to the tip of the prow, double crits a githyanki pirate overboard, and threatens to capsize their entire ship. Ten faerie fires the pirates just in time to advantage their salvo of cannon fire that clears the pirate deck as it slowly enters the bubble. The unfortunate last surviving githyanki pirate ignores Ander’s demand for surrender, eats a couple of 12-pound cannon balls, fires back from his own cannon, and is knocked overboard by Ash’s sneaky slayer spray.
Ander slips alongside the adrift pirate ship. Ten leaps over and claims maritime finders-keepers instantly doubling the size of their fleet.