“Quick!” Haldin shouted to the helmsman. “Follow it!” He swung the wheel, and the ship dropped. Mordan and Tarrel hung onto the rail to avoid falling.
The creature dropped into a wooded ravine, and the ship followed. The sides became steeper, turning into rocky cliffs, and the creature suddenly slewed sideways, disappearing beneath a large overhang. As the ship flew past, they could see a low, wide cave entrance, shadowed too deeply to tell how far back it went. The winged creature had just landed, and small figures were running to beat out the flames from its wrappings. By the light of the small fire, they could just make out the dark shape of another airship. Fire arrows started to come up from archers at the lip of the cave, and Haldin ordered the helmsman to stand off and hover out of bowshot.
“This is it!” he yelled, dancing with glee. “Come on!” He led Mordan and Tarrel back to the equipment hold, and they set about preparing for their mission.
Mordan slung a leather bandolier over his shoulder, holding several flasks of holy water. He had seen what it could do to undead, and after being so helpless against the flying creature, he wanted to have at least some means of fighting from a distance.
Tarrel rummaged through a collection of scrolls, pausing occasionally to feed one into his wooden scrollcase. The case wound the scroll inside itself like a capstan coiling rope, and waited for the next one.
Haldin already had his repeating crossbow slung on his back. He picked up a backpack filled with loaded magazines, and another bandolier of holy water. Crosswise with this, he slung a second bandolier with many small pouches.
The deck was a bustle of activity when they emerged. All the fires had been put out, and the flying creature’s acid had been sluiced with water, leaving only minor scarring on the deck. The wounded had been taken below, and the rear ballista restrung. Wooden crates were stacked on deck beside each of the ballistae; they contained ceramic globes packed in straw. Both the heavy weapons had been swung around to fire from the port side of the ship, and the repeating heavy crossbows from the starboard side had been remounted to port.
“Here’s my plan,” explained Haldin. “The airship will attack the cave entrance, providing us with a diversion. Meanwhile, we will make our way to the ground and find another entrance.”
Tarrel looked skeptical.
“Are we going to wait for Brey?” asked Mordan.
“She can join us when she is able.” replied the gnome. “We can use the remaining daylight to scout for way in that is less heavily guarded.”
“Just the four of us?” asked Tarrel. “Couldn’t we take a few reinforcements from your crew?”
“It would be more difficult to avoid raising the alarm,” Haldin replied, “and having seen what the four of us were able to do at Fort Zombie. I am confident we shall be enough. Besides, the ship’s crew are not trained for this kind of mission; I fear that we would only be leading them to their deaths.”
“So how do we get down there?” asked Mordan. “I’m not sure I could climb down a rope one-handed.”
Haldin smiled. “That will not be necessary,” he said. In response to his gesture, one of the crew stepped forward, holding a wooden hoop about three feet across and as thick as a man’s arm. It was equipped with four hand-holds, and a thin string ran across the center.
“One hand should be sufficient to hold onto a life ring,” he said. “Are we ready?”
“Not quite.” said Tarrel. Reaching into his coat, he brought out a wand of transparent glassy crystal. “Better if they don’t see us coming,” he said.
Something unseen disturbed the branches of the trees on the valley side. There was the sound of three bodies landing softly on the ground, and after a few seconds Tarrel dropped the magical invisibility that had covered the three of them.
They made their way along the valley side to within a few hundred yards of the cave mouth. Looking up through the trees, they could see the airship moving to attack; fire arrows flew up from the cave while missiles rained down on from the side of the ship.
Haldin pulled a small piece of bone from a pouch on his bandolier. Holding it up, he muttered an incantation, and as his two companions watched in surprise, a milky glaze formed over his eyes. He looked around for a moment and then trotted off between the trees. After a few minutes, he seemed to have found what he was looking for. Keeping his milk-white eyes fixed on the ground, he motioned the others to follow him.
“Something undead has come this way,” he said softly. “Hopefully, we can follow its trail and find a way into this place.”
