Back to Slipstream! On a Friday, whaaaaat. Here's last time.
Our heroes are on Avia, having received a heroes' welcome. A bunch of Bird-Men want to join the crew, but the heroes are flying around in a Bird-Man yacht, which isn't terribly big. Remembering that they saved the King of Dracos from an assassination attempt (way back here), they decide to head to Dracos and see if they can get a discount on a Dragon Ship.
First, though, they hire some new crew members. In addition to their old from Whoot, they take on:
- Chirp, a gifted mechanic
- Rill, a skill marksman and gunner
- Nary, a medic
- Craw (named after the late prince, which turned out to be somewhat unfortunate in hindsight), a warrior whom Zeenia picked because she felt he looked "fun"
The flight is fairly uneventful, apart from a near-miss with an asteroid. They touch down on Dracos and tell the guards they're here to see Lord Ssokar. It takes a little back-and-forth (Ssokar isn't a ship dealer, and their last interaction was somewhat curt), but Zeenia implies that there's some diplomatic points to be scored here and that's catnip to a Dracos. The heroes are admitted to see Ssokar and he listens to their request - they're looking for a new ship and was hoping their service to King Ssoriss would be helpful. Ssokar agrees and tells them where to go, and radios ahead to explain the situation.
They wind up purchasing a new ship, and the Dracos mechanics transfer their static bomb and nose-mounted tangle gun. The new ship is bigger and faster, and better armed - there's a swivel-mounted ray gun on the left wing and a swivel-mounted rocket gun on the right. It costs them the money they got from King Throx (no one on the crew is a good haggler), but they head back to Avia feeling good about it all. Well, except perhaps for Iris, who is a little sad to leave the Zeenadu Zenith. They fly both ships to Avia, and take the new one, christened the Darkwing, off on their quest.
They have room for more crew, so they stop on the fragment of Hosbec to see if they can recruit someone. Hosbecites are skilled hagglers and salesmen, and boy howdy do they need someone with those skills. They wind up hiring Anburn, the Hosecite they met some time back when they delivered cargo to this fragment. He agrees to join the crew in exchange for 10% of whatever bounty or scrap they take, and some assurance that they'll take on such material when they can. That arranged, they take off again and head for Boroosh.
En route, Anburn asks if they're planning to hire a Borooshian navigator - they're the best in the Slipstream. The heroes hadn't considered that, but it's a good idea. Anburn tells them that Borooshians have perfect sense of direction, even in space. They live underground in labyrinthine tunnels, and the surface of their fragment is rocky and prone to earthquakes. There's no way to know where the cities are, so you basically have to land and look around. Iris picks a good spot for landing with notable foot traffic, and she, Zeenia, Abbas, Craw, and Anburn disembark and go searching.
They've been looking for a few hours and have put some distance between themselves and the Darkwing when with a terrible roar, a massive bipedal lizard leaps out of the rocks! Anburn identifies it as a Borooshian Quaker, and hides behind a rock (he is not a combatant). Iris manages to get off a shot, which doesn't remotely bother the creature, and it grabs Craw in its mouth and shakes him. Abbas leaps on the thing's head and starts clawing at its eyes, while Zeenia gets under it and tries to stab its underbelly. Its hide, however, is far too thick. Anburn radios back to the ship for help, and Iris draws her sword and slashes at the beast's legs. It stops its foot and causes a small quake, but Abbas and Zeenia keep their balance, and Abbas' claws finally strike home. He digs out its eyes, and then sinks his claws into its brain, killing it.
Abbas roars in triumph. The Darkwing arrives, and Nary, the medic, tends to Craw's wounds. Anburn congratulates the heroes, but then points out the patrol of Borooshians pointing rifles at them. The heroes explain themselves, and the patrol agrees to take them to King Prognosh, the Supreme Navigator. They'll have to be blindfolded, however. Since the Bird-Men are claustrophobic, they stay on the ship, while the heroes and Anburn go underground.
The patrol leads the heroes on an hours-long march, and eventually the sounds of wind on the plains is replaced with the sounds of city life. The blindfolds are removed, and the heroes are taken before the massive throne of King Prognosh. Zeenia tells him that their visit is twofold - they're looking to hire a navigator ("Not a matter for a king," guffaws Prognosh), and they're looking for Queen Anathraxa's secret lab.
Prognosh muses, and then tells them that he has no love for the Queen. He does know, in fact, where the lab is. He agrees to have two guards show them to the lab, but warns that they will not engage in any violence and if the heroes are captured, they are not to indicate that King Prognosh helped in any way. "Now," he says, "what is your plan?"
The heroes, to their credit, manage to avoid telling the truth, which is that they don't really have one.
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