XLV. Ship of Fools

A flat desert stretched out under a purple sky. The air seemed to radiate an evil heat, burning into the yellow sand of the desert.
Familiar territory.

Arnold, Elana and Arimir were in disguise, as . . . maintenance technicians. They came to the stairs leading up into the A deck of Lolth’s spider ship and the Matron’s Chamber. The marilith on duty looked familiar.

"Please state your business!" the marilith demanded as the "technicians" approached her desk.

"Don’t you know?" Arnold replied, hoping to bluff his way into the ship. "This has been scheduled for days! Routine maintenance of ship systems. If the bosses find out you forgot about it, it’s all our necks! So let’s keep it on the QT, alright?" His two "assistants" nodded in agreement and looked worried.

"Oh, alright," the marilith agreed. "Go on in. But make it fast, we don’t have all day if you’re going to power down." She waved the three in.

Once they were inside, each of the three went to their previously selected target locations. Elana headed to the thorax of the spidership, looking for an "access panel" in the A deck storage room. Arimir proceeded to G deck, where the turbines needed "adjustment". And Arnold went on toward the spider ship’s control room.

In the engine room, Arimir approached the first turbine, opened his tool kit, and began to unscrew an access plate in the transmission. One of the engine room crew called out, "Hey, what are you doing?!" "Routine inspection," bluffed Arimir. The crew creature shrugged and returned to his station. Elena, opening the access panel in the storage room, replied in the same way to the same challenge, with the same result. Arnold had to satisfy several such queries, but was able to make it to the control room and begin his own "inspection." And out of their tool kits, each of them quietly retrieved a special item, which they placed where each would do the most good.

Suddenly, an alarm began to sound, loud and piercing. "What’s that?" Arnold asked, as he re-sealed the access plate he had opened up. A crew creature replied, "Don’t know. Will find out." The creature scuttled off to consult his superior, then returned with the news. "Attack somewhere. Heightened security." Arnold nodded. "Well, good thing I’m through with my inspection. I’ll just be leaving you to your duties now."

Meanwhile, Arimir, hearing the alarm, likewise packed up. "We’re done here!" he called out to the engine room crew. He quickly got up and headed for Elana’s inspection location, and then the two of them looked for Arnold, whom they found on his way back to the thorax of the spider ship. From there, the party attempted to slip silently out of the ship. They almost made it, until they ran into a huge, amorphous column with multiple waving pseudopods.

"What the heck is that?!" cried Arnold. "Nothing good!" answered Arimir, who quickly cast a wall of force to block the eldritch horror from approaching any closer. Elana and Arnold quickly ran to Arimir, and the three adventurers quickly plane shifted out of the spider ship. Just as quickly, they shifted back to the ship, just as the three R-bombs detonated!

In the confusion caused by the detonations, Arnold and his companions made their way to the ship’s control room. Elana then let loose a greater shout, which did heavy damage to the room and blew out one huge window in the spider ship’s head! But no sooner had Elana done so than the party heard the sound of feet running toward the control room. Arimir quickly cast a wall of force, trying to block access to the room. Elana shouted again, causing further damage and shattering another window. Then Lolth’s minions were upon them!

Arimir got off a quick sonic chain lightning, blasting the amorphous monstrosity, a drow caster and the hapless marilith who had let the party into the ship. His knowledge of the outer planes told him what the thing was. A yochlol. Handmaiden of Lolth.

Mystical words came from the drow. A dimensional lock spell! No easy retreat this time, it seemed. Elana didn’t let that stop her from hitting the marilith with Otto’s irresistible dance. The demon began dancing–a strange sight considering it had no legs. Arnold tried to take advantage of the marilith’s reduced defenses and attacked the demon, but did no damage. The yochlol advanced on Elana but also missed. More sonic chain lightning from Arimir continued inflicting damage on the minions of Lolth.

The drow sorcerer spoke again, and now Arimir felt a sudden urge to dance! A tremendous yell from Elana struck the enemy, but the yochlol in turn bit her, inflicting a bloody wound. She felt suddenly tired. Arnold tumbled past the sorcerer to strike and wound the dancing marilith. The sorcerer paid Arnold no heed, focusing on Elana. A huge, disembodied hand attempted to crush Elana, but her ring of free movement defeated the attempt. She in turn dispelled the dancing enchantment afflicting Arimir.

The yochlol suddenly climbed up the walls of the room, charging toward the flying Arimir. Not before Arnold struck him a minor blow. But a much heavier blow from the halfling rogue proved fatal to the marilith! "Well done!" Elana called out to the halfling.

Another blast of sonic chain lightning from Arimir rocked the sorcerer, but not enough to heep him from making Elana start dancing! As Arimir floated to the ground, he came within reach of the yochlol, which promptly bit him for heavy damage. Arnold tried to tumble out of the way, but the yochlol struck the halfling as well. Now Arimir was able to send a huge orb of electricity at the drow sorcerer. The ball devastated the dark elf, who shrieked and fell dead. The battle seemed to be about to end in the adventurers’ favor.

But the yochlol suddenly shanged into human form, and promptly fell upon Arnold, striking twice. And then the reinforcements showed up! A noble salamander slithered up from the lower deck of the spider ship, and immediately protected itself against sonic attacks. Recognizing this, Arimir shifted to an orb of cold, blasting the salamander, who was acutely sensitive to cold! The yochlol, meanwhile, drew a bow, hit Arimir with an arrow, then turned to Arnold but missed. Arnold’s halfling ears detected approaching footsteps, and he quickly hid behind a control console.

Another orb of cold from Arimir disrupted the noble salamander’s spell attempt, but in turn he took another arrow from the human-seeming yochlol. And worse perils now appeared, in the form of a huge iron golem! The gigantic construct poked its way into the control room. But Arnold, well hidden under the control console, took advantage of the situation and began trying to disable the console, hoping to find a way to sabotage the spider ship!

A wall of force appeared, protecting Arimir from further projectiles from the yochlol, which turned to attack Elana. Not before she was able to cast a mass healing spell on the party. The iron golem advanced toward Arimir . . . and bounced off the wall of force, giving the valiant caster time to blast the yochlol with a sonic orb. Elana’s second mass cure bought the party more time. Which they were going to need: still more reinforcements joined the battle.

Turning to spider form, the yochlol bit at Arnold again. The rogue tumbled away and fled. Another wall of force came into being, thanks to Arimir. Elana directed a blast of sonic energy at the control console, adding to the damage Arnold had already done to it. Arnold continued pulling at the wiring and linkages under the console.

But now the yochlol found a way to negate the walls of force: it climbed out one of the broken windows, then teleported to the iron golem’s location! Once there, it shifted again to human form, and cast greater dispel, bringing down one of Arimir’s walls of force. Arimir’s sonic cone shattered the control console, causing sparks to fly. Elana did likewise, then braced herself for the iron golem’s onslaught, which wounded her severely. But she avoided an even worse attack: a newly-arrived drow cleric of Lolth pointed a long black finger at her, attempting to cause an implosion that would destroy her, but narrowly missed. A second drow caster gestured in a similar manner: a finger of death aimed at Arnold! But the rogue ducked down to the very floor of the control room, avoiding the spell. Another drow ran toward the cleric.

Once again, Arimir sent a sonic cone into the control console. The ship suddenly lurched. He quickly dropped the second wall of force and flew to Arnold. Elana tumbled away and sent a sonic orb at the console. It exploded under the relentless onslaught! She then tumbled toward a broken window, trying to fly out of the control room!

The yochlol, however, had one trick left up its pseudopod. Arnold felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to befriend the amorphous monster! "Hi there!" the hapless rogue blurted to the creature. As he did so, the iron golem advanced toward him and breathed. Poison! Elana and Arnold retched, weakness almost overcoming them.

Shrieking in anger, the drow cleric pointed a bony digit at Arnold. The very space around him contracted and fell upon him. A huge implosion struck the befuddled halfling. Arnold was dead!

There was no time to reach him, to retrieve the body of the valiant rogue. There were too many of the enemy, and only Arimir was left in the control room. He tumbled out of the battle, flew through a broken window, and together with Elana, gated back to Sigil. As the two Enterprise agents fled, the last sound they heard was a tremendous explosion that shook them as they passed through the gate. Shrapnel, glass fragments and monstrous body parts flew everywhere. The head of the spider ship was reduced to charred and smoking wreckage.