After leaving
the Scarlands, the Swordfysh sailed the skies of Ghur for several weeks. They
passed through one or two Realmgates on the voyage, all the while looking for
trade routes between Free Cities on which to lurk so they could snap-up the fat
merchant ships they might encounter.
Unfortunately they had no luck at all; whether that was through navigating the
wrong way or poor choices of cruising grounds they couldn't say. Either way
they saw not a single skyvessel on their hunt.
Soon they were running low on supplies, since their usual method for securing
food and strong drink was to take it from other ships by force. So they
decided to head to Bilgeport, in Thondia. They knew that the merchant shipping
nearby would all travel in heavily guarded convoys - since the piratical reputation of
Bilgeport was well known along the whole Coast of Tusks. But they would at
least be among friends in the pirate haven.
The nearest Sky-Path Realmgate, that was not jealously guarded by Kharadron
boats, was the Blunderwreck Skycove - a desolate metalith archipelago with
only a tiny settlement. The gate there would take them to Mangrel Island in
Vensoth Bay. Mangrel was still a very long way from Bilgeport, and the
crew grumbled about the prospect of short rations for most of the voyage, but
Krashhart was his usual optimistic self: He assured them they would
definitely take a prize ship laden with goods along the way.
+++
But when they got to Blunderwreck they found an unexpected and quite different
source of income.
An astrologer wardokk, called Kurbak Sloop, and his apprentice had been
stranded there for a week - as very little shipping passed that way. They were
desperate to get off the cold and windswept archipelago - Kurbak said
something about signs in the stars that needed to be followed but he was a bit
cagey on what that meant. He explained that he and his crewmates from the
skyship Leaky Bukkit had been successful in raiding a hidden vault
buried in a Thondian forest.
Kurbak Sloop's tale was long and rambling, full of confusing digressions and
included lots of pointing at papers covered in his crudely-scribbled star
charts. But several of the Swordfyshes' had their wandering attention snapped
back by some interesting details... mostly about the treasure Kurbak hinted
at, in a very off-handed way.
The wardokk promised Krashhart that he could pay them handsomely from the
stash of supplies and treasures in his encampment if they were willing to
transport him back there. It took him a long while to talk the crew round but
eventually the Swordfyshes all agreed when he offered to pay some up-front
with two barrels of wine from Hammerhal and a large slab of smoked flathorn
meat.
They bundled Kurbak Sloop, his apprentice and their baggage aboard the ship
and set a course through the Sky-Path gate to Thondia.
The journey took 12 days of hard sailing; the ship and crew were in a sorry
state by the time they rushed through Ursricht's Kill (after hearing some
horrible rumours about the nasty flying beasties that nested there!).
The wardokk had marked on a map exactly where his camp was, but when the
Swordfysh finally arrived over the edge of a vast and fairly
nasty-looking forest they found there was no safe anchorage anywhere near the
mark.
Krashhart announced he and Old Mudgob would take a small shore-party in to get
the loot and they would rendezvous with the ship and the rest of the crew in
four days. Kurbak Sloop would stay on board the ship, where the remaining crew
could keep a close eye on him, to make sure there was no "funny business".
+++
The shore-party:
- Lord Krashhart - Leader - Warchanter and explorer
- Old Mudgob - Hero - Weirdnob Shaman
- Hook - Brute armed with a Brute Choppa and a hook
- Lugger Dag - Brute with a pair of Brute Choppas, red bandana.
- Yardarm Gark - Brute with a pair of Brute Choppas, blue bandana.
- Leeway Ruk - Brute with a Jagged Gore-Hacka, red bandana.
- Docker Goff - Ardboy with a pair of Ardboy Choppas, top hat.
+++
Wyrdlights danced around the northern edges of the clearing.
The crackling orbs of baleful energy illuminated the dark and tangled forest
with a strange sickly blue-green light and gave the air a horrible taste. They
set the orruks' nerves on edge as Old Mudgob and Krashhart carefully observed
the area. This was the spot they had been looking for - he could see the
bamboo structures and flags amongst the Gnarloaks and monster bones.
But the encampment was no longer held by the wardokk's crew, even though
he had been very confident it would. They might have been chased off by the
floating spheres of malignant arcane energy, forced out when another warband
attacked, or they may have just packed-up and moved on to another camp site.
Whatever had happened, the camp was now occupied by a bunch of iconoclastic
fanatics. They seemed skilled in stonecraft and, as the orruk pirates watched,
they were industriously dismantling a stone statue of Nagash.
Krashhart had ordered the crew to give the Jade Obelisk cultists no quarter
and swore he would take down the Nephrite Priestess - the cult's leader. He
and Leeway Ruk crept around the west flank, hoping to find a pathway through
the Gnarlwood that would allow them to ambush the Priestess.
Old Mudgob, Lugger Dag and Docker Goff waited for the prearranged time on the south
side of the camp.
While Hook and Yardarm Gark watched from the east.
At the agreed moment the pirates moved in on the camp, heading to their
assigned positions. They rushed into battle and quickly took down the nearest
cultists: a Desecrator and a Defacer.
Krashhart and Leeway burst out of the trees and smashed the cult's Obelisk
Bearer but Old Mudgob and Docker Goff fell in the counter-attack that
followed. The Jade Obelisk did not seem to have been taken by surprise as the pirates
had expected! Soon after that Krashhart and Leeway were knocked out too.
Even so, neither side seemed to have the upper-hand as yet and the battle
could have gone either way for a while. Then as the Wyrdlights drifted away
and the sickly light faded a Mindstealer Sphiranx appeared on the edge of the camp.
The Mindstealer sprang out of the trees and bounded across the battlefield,
tipping the balance from stalemate, to defeat for the pirates. They grabbed
their dazed mates and withdrew into the darkening woods.
++++
Beaten but not broken, and fairly furious with Kurbak Sloop for not giving
them all the details, Krashhart and the Swordfyshes pressed on through the
Gnarlwood. By the light of their lanterns they found a bag containing a shabby
leather-bound book stuffed full of loose papers. Many of the pages had scratchy symbols drawn
on them that looked familiar - it was more of Kurbak Sloop's charts!
They found a defendable spot on top of an outcropping rock, set watches for the night and looked
through the dogeared and grubby notes. They were not very far from the hidden
vault that the astrologer wardokk had rambled on about!
The Swordfyshes were keen to check it out, so Krashhart and Old Mudgob agreed
that they would have a look the next day...
~ ⦽ ~
