Jammers:Chapter 3, Turns 30 Summary

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crave feedback:)

Past turns and further information (such as who's who) can be found at the
Jammer's webpage:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/3001/jammers.htm

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-------------- =storyline break
*************** =time break

IC:
Italapate finds a nice section of flotsam to curl up on and fall asleep.

Holland decides, "Focus the healing on Raken.  Once he is up and around our
healing abilities increase.  Nilaroo is the next priority."

Vais shakes his head, obviously exasperated, "Raken will aid our healing
abilities, in 8 hours or so. He was helming, remember? He'll have no spells
ready."

Holland blinks a few times and says, "You are correct Vais, Nilaroo should
be the priority, we need him up and moving to construct our life-bouy."

Pate raises his head, obviously unable to sleep.  "At... this point... I would
just... like to say.... 'I told... you so....!"

Vais glances at Italapate, "Of course, if someone had simply cast the
enhance rating spell on Raken before the scro closed with us, instead of
waiting til they had bombarded us several times,  Raken's healing wouldn't
be needed." Vais turns back to the buisiness at hand, working on the
wounded.

"I didn't know... precognition... was part of ...your makeup, Vais,"
Italapate raises an eyebrow.  "Point is.... Raken shouldn't have been....
on the helm... in a....hostile situation.... whether we got the spell on...
him or not....."

Ferric makes his way over to Vais to have his wounds tended.

Vais looks up at the tall warrior and says, "You can wait. I'll get to you
soon enough." and finsihes up his work on Raken. Then he moves to
Italapate, frowning metallically he begins to work.

"Appreciated," Italapate says. "I'm sorry if I sounded... snappish,
earlier. I'm not mad at... you....." He sighs, then winces in pain.

"Right."  nods Robert, wincing a bit from pain, "Nilaroo it is then."
Settling himself slowly down next to Nilaroo, amid the odd moan,  Robert
utters quietly, "Winds of life, Lady Akadi, grant this hairy soul some
small measure to breathe easier this day."

"Last healing prayer left." Robert speaks up from where he is at Nilaroo's
side, "Who get's it?"

"If you expect him to work at all, he'll need all of it til he's fully
healed." Vais says.

Robert nods and prays again over Nilaroo.  His wounds are closed and he
awakes, but the gromman looks exceedingly pale.

"Don't try anything to drastic."  Robert says, "You had a close call  there."

Holland continues, "Deigatt, please keep an eye on the other Scro ship.
There might be survivors within the wreckage."

Deigatt stands alert on the wreckage of the SILENT STAR and watches for
signs of vessels in the space around the company. With a barely audible
sigh, he looks again at the slime-covered vipership and then at the
company. "Where his Galan?" he asks abruptly.

"Dead.  He went down before the STAR broke apart.  He was bleeding badly,
there's no chance that he'd still be alive after this much time untended.
Let's get this raft made and get the helm on it. If we find his corpse in
the process fine but we don't have time to waste.  Our air won't last
long."

The minotaur grumbles. "We've lost a second member hof hour company hin has
many hexcursions," he says solemnly. "I do not like that statistic."

"I don't know what the odds were last time," Vais remarks, "But this time
I'd say the survival of any of us is miraculous.  If Galan is our only loss
we should hold ourselves lucky."

Italapate grunts.  "Hmpph!!  Spoken like a golem." He shakes his head, sadly.

"Thank you." Vais answers.

Deigatt has continued scanning the other scro wreckage. "There har scro
moving hin the debris hof the ship that Kain destroyed," Deigatt says. "Hit
halso happears that hits helm was destroyed."

Holland reasons, "It is my hope that the green substance did not actually
consume the viper, but instead just covered it.  It is of magical creation,
perhaps it will disappear magically as well, or at least lose its deadly
properties.  Deigatt's helm-surge invisibility only lasted an hour."

Holland concludes, "I threw some Scro weapons overboard, after a few hours,
which we need to rest and heal anyway, we can use them to check the status
of the green slime.  If the slime is still active, then our next avenue
would be to fashion some sort of craft out of the remains of the STAR.  We
would gather what we can from the wreckage, I did not see any magical
surges from the other viper, perhaps its helm is intact as well, and then
head back to Bral."

"Waiting an hour or so, might not be wise."  Robert says while gingerly
feeling his chest, "Damn, I think I cracked a couple of  ribs.  We're
floating defenceless above a _scro_ world.  Resting here, is asking for
trouble. Didn't we have some healing potions on the STAR?" Robert asks.

"I have one potion with me," Deigatt offers, taking a vial from his pack.

Holland says, "Why don't you give that to Nilaroo and see if it revives him
a bit more," turning to Vais Holland asks, "Could you bandage wrap Robert's
ribs or something?"

Deigatt gives the vial to Nilaroo and helps him drink it.

"Perhaps you should leave natural healing to me." Vais says curtly as he
examines Italapate. "I'm sure the scro will appreciate having everyone in
good health when they come upon us sleeping here."

Italapate winces.  "Oh, yeah.  I'm in great health. That's so much better......"

"Good, it hurts. Maybe next time you'll be less anxious to run into a
minotaur when he's casting a spell." Vais answers. Vais moves over to
Robert and begins feeling his ribs. "Sit still."

"Uhmmm, in case you were getting a bite to eat when this thing started, it
was the Scro that did this," Italapate says.

"And why were you hurled into them?" Vais asks rhetorically as he continues
working.

Ferric looks over as he fashions a large loop in a length of rope.  "Come
now, you're not that bad.  I thought coyotes were made of sterner stuff.
Besides 'Pate I have just the job for you.  Grab this loop, make sure you
have a good hold on it.  Now you see that big chunk of the hull there?  I
need you to put that lasso on it."

Vais calls to Italapate, from where he is working on Robert, "Don't get
heroic now.  It won't take much for those wounds to reopen.  Stick to light
work."

Italapate steps next to Ferric, and the Moune's agent clearly sees that
Italapate's clothes are soaked in blood.  The thighs of his leather pants
are a deep red, the sheen on them indicating that they are still moist.
Pate's wood and bone vest is a shattered mess, that he finally struggles
out of.  His normally rich, dark skin has a chalky palor that rivals
Ferric's own.  The young shaman takes the loop of rope, questioningly.  But
first he answers Ferrics jibe.  "Coyotes are resilient, that... is true,
but they frequently get hurt," he looks into Ferric's eyes.  "Not ...all of
us ...can be steel golems after all.  Now, ...what do you want me to ...do
with this?  I really ...don't know ...how to use a lariat."

Billy steps up next to Italapate. Putting his hand on Italapate's he says,
"Why don't you rest for a while. I wasn't involved in the battle and am not
wounded."

"If you can tie a rope to this, bola" Robert asks Ferric as he unwraps the
weapon from his waist, "I can try to hit something for you."

"Sit still." Vais says, "or you will puncture a lung."

"Yes mother."  Robert says, "Ouch, that's tender." eyes watering as he
tries not to move as Vais does his thing.

Holland looks at his spell book for a moment and then sighs, "Shouldn't
memorize
until I rest.." To measure the effect, Holland picks up a piece of flotsjam
and hurls it at the side of the viper-shaped mass of slime. The debris is
immediately devoured by the slime. Holland sighs again, "It would seem that
the viper is a lost cause.  Time to switch to option Two; rigging some sort
of vessel out of these ruins."

Holland says, "I am going to memorize some Mending  spells. Those who can,
please start gathering pieces together and retrieve all of our valuables
and foodstuffs from the wreckage of the STAR. Once everyone is conscious
and moving, we can investigate the wreckage of the other viper for items of
value and begin our journey back to Bral."

Talus looks nervously around, "We should be on the lookout for the scro
from the other ship.  They may not have all died in Kains attack.  And
there may be more ships in the area who may come to investigate." After a
second long look around, Talus starts working to grapple some of the larger
sections of the Star together, stopping every so often to scan the area for
danger.

Grigree moves to help Talus.

Looking at Ferric Holland chuckles, "Better start thinking about how you
are  going to explain this to the Lady.  I imagine this is not going to do
your
blooming career with the House much good."

Looking back from where he is pulling on the rope drawing the raft and
another piece of STAR closer, the grey skinned warrior says, "Since I
wasn't the Captain it won't hurt me in the least. My only duty is to gain
experience and learn something about the rigors of space life.  This, I
think, qualifies admirably.  Lady Moune will count the loss of the ship a
small thing against my return as well as everyone else's. Of course we do
need to get a new ship to get there."

"Uhmmm," Italapate opines.  "Captain, Holland, sir?  If it would help, do you
want me to hold my breath all the way back to Bral?  Or maybe we can breathe in
shifts?  Do you think this little raft has a sufficient envelope to support us
all the way to Bral?  Perhaps, now would be a good time to return to the
planet.... lots of air there.  Lots of hiding places.  Lets tie some
flotsam together, put a helm on it, and go down to where there is fresh air
and water.
I'm sure the elves could use some help, and maybe we can score a ship there...
after all, with our own helm, we don't need to find a space-ship.... any boat
would do....  Hells, a big enough wagon could serve to get us back to
Bral." He rubs his chin, pondering.  "Damn... now that I would pay to
see....."

Holland answers Italapate, "If the group wants to head back down to the
surface, than so be it; wants to head to Bral, so  be it as well.  Between
all of the clerics/mages, air is not going to be a problem.  Wall of fog
spells will replenish the air supply. Though, maybe it wouldn't be that bad
an idea to land on the planet.  Other ideas?"

Billy's eyes are bright as he looks around the wreckage. His face drops
when he looks at the slime ship. "Poor Galan..." His gaze lingers for a few
more seconds and then he turns back to his crewmates. "I'm sorry that
Deigatt and I weren't there to help you," Billy says. He goes on to retell
his and Deigatt's part in the battle. "And that's when everything started
turning to slime. If only we could have immobilized the pilot... I'm sorry
I couldn't get you the ship." Billy hangs his head in dejection.

Billy sighs deeply and sees Leera lying nearby. He goes over and lays his tiny
hand on her shoulder. After a few seconds, Leera's colour improves and her
breathing deepens. She wakes up coughing weakly.

Leera struggles to stand up after Billy's touch brings her awake. Failing,
she contents herself with propping herself up against a piece of wreckage.
For several moments, she watches her comrades actions and looks around.
Seeing the now slimed Vipership, she asks "Was the Helm <cough> destroyed?
What are we going to do now?"

Billy quickly fills her in.

Upon learning of the salvage mission underway, she pleads "We've got to
find my spellbook.... it's in my footchest. It shouldn't be hard to find. I
could probably cloak us in illusion to help us descend to Spiral or escape
the vicinity."

Pate notices that Leera is searching her person, "Here," he says, handing
over the darts.  "You might be wanting these."

Everyone gets to work. Holland sits down and studies Mending spells from
his spellbook.  Nilaroo plans to rig a raft from the pieces of the STAR
still about.  With Grigree's help he gets to work adding to the flotsam
already being pulled in by Ferric, Talus, and 'Pate. Individual possesions
are encountered floating along with the debris and recovered by 'Pate
whenever possible. Several chests, packs, shipwright's tools and containers
of food are among the recovered items.

Vais continues working on the wounded, his sarcastic jibes moderated by his
gentle, cold hands.

The Helm, still affixed to a section of the bridge is found floating toward
the outside of the pocket.  Carefully it is drawn in and secured to the
growing raft.  Holland aids the lashing and installation of the Helm with
the use of his spells, under Nilaroo's careful direction. The process is
incredibly tense, as helms are known to shatter (releasing their magical
energies in wild surges) when mounted on vessels without the aid of the
equipment in a shipyard. Luck is with the company, however, and the process
goes by without a hitch, thanks to Nilaroo's skill and Holland's magic.

After two hours and much hard work the Company of the Silent Star has a
vessel 30 feet long and 20 feet wide which looks only slightly more ragged
than most of the Company's members.

Billy gathers what was salvaged of his stuff. He sighs. "Well, I guess I
have what is necessary to survive. Gold and stuff can always be
replaced..."

"I have two more healing potions hamong my things," Deigatt says. "I
purchased them hon Bral from the priests hof Tyr."

Deigatt carefully feeds one potion each to Seguld and Kain, awakening them,
though both are obviously still weak.  Raken remains the only one
unconcious.

Slowly opening his eyes, Kain groans and winces as his burned lips crack.
He laboriously rises to a seated position, tearing away the remnants of the
armor he was wearing. "I picked the wrong Scro to fight didn't I," Kain
groans as
he lightly brushes his hand over the burned tissue on his left leg.

Ferric shakes his head.  "Well now that we have a craft, of sorts, I
suggest we head back to Spiral and try to meet with the elves as 'Pate
suggested."  Pointing to the other Scro ship he says, "If we merge
envelope's with that viper to try to scavenge from it we'll foul our air
with all the smoke from the bomb.  In the battered condition of some of our
company I wouldn't want to risk it."

"I should take the helm for now." Vais says, "Where are we going?"

"Hmmm," Ferric strokes his chin thoughtfully, "Our options are none to
bright thought they are considerably better now than when there were two
scro ships after us.  I suppose the question now is whether we wish to
return to Bral without a ship or not.  If we choose the heroic option we
could head back to Spiral lick our wounds and try to take a scro ship by
surprise.  Of course that would probably cost us a couple more of our
number.  'Liberating' a ship on the way back to Bral is also an option and
would probably be much easier than facing another crew of battle hardened
scro.  Other than that unless someone has a good line of credit on Bral we
will be stuck with a raft for quite a while."

"Hoom," the battered grommam stands, leaning against the rail, "I have my
doubts as to what kind of atmosphere we can sustain in this throw-together.
And if we are seen, we will have no mobility.  I would suggest trying to
make Bral, and worry about Mourne after we survive." Nilaroo idly rubs his
furless patch of new skin over his abdomen, watching the fundament
nervously.

Holland, ticking off a finger, adds, "We might be able to get help from the
local resistance to sieze a Scro ship on Spiral, but there is a lot of
danger involved in that option, though luckily Spiral doesn't have any high
atmosphere winds like Shipwrecker does," ticking off a second finger
Holland continues, "If we fly straight back to Bral we will be easy
pickings for anyone since we don't have any crew-served weapons, but there
are good odds that we will make it there in relatively one piece."

Holland says, "So far, there are two votes for Bral. What do the rest of
you think?  Spiral or Bral?  Or perhaps a third location?"

Billy looks at Holland. "I wanna go home."

Talus gazes over the makeshift craft the group has cobbled together and
comments, "I would not like to return to Bral like this.  We would never
get any work again.  Lets go back to the planet and see if we can steal a
new ship from the scro."

"I favor returning to Spiral hand trying to take one hof the scro's
military vessels," Deigatt says. "Hit would be dishonorable hof hus to
return to Bral without a vessel, hand hit would greatly complicate hour
hagreement with Lady Moune. Returning to Spiral will be dangerous," the
minotaur continues,"but hif we har successful hit will have been well worth
the risk: We'll be a stronger fighting team, hand we'll have a ship to show
for hit."

"Not knowing much about the history of Spiral," Robert asks, "but does it
have any dungeons or crypts that we could search, to get some new weapons?
Gaining a ship down there is going to be harder. I'd suggest heading away
from the planet too." Robert adds, while fiddling with the bandage Vais put
on his chest, "If the scro over there, see us leave they might not expect
us to come back."

Leera asks Kain to show her the map of the sphere. When he does, she
exclaims, "Ah... I though I remembered that!" She calls Holland over. "See,
we're going about this all wrong. We've got more than two choices. Spiral
is too dangerous, and Bral too far away as well as too embarrassing. One of
these other planets has GOT to be <cough, cough> closer. Which of these
planets are closest now? From what little I know, either Minial's Arch or
Numeliador would be safer than Spiral at the moment. Both are elven worlds,
and maybe a scro head or two would serve to win some help...."

Holland frowns, "About three days to Numeliador, perhaps two to Ironpiece."

She asks Seguld, "If we get to Ironpiece, do you know anyone there who'd
help us?"

Seguld struggles to prop himself up on his elbows with one hand holding
tightly to his chest and ribs. "YaGitMeTaIronpiece,
I'llDoWhate'erIC'nTaGetYaBackTaBral. ItMayCostSomeMoney, ButWit'The
HelmAn'MostaTheWealthStill'Vailable, YaMayBeAbleTaGitANewShip.
NoPromisesMindYa, ButItMayEvenBeALegitimateVessel F'rTheCompany."

Leera concludes, "In any case, we've got better options than either Bral or
Spiral.

Pate opines,  "I would like 'Roo to confirm that we can get a raft together
with enough air tonnage for us to get anywhere other than Spiral. If he
gives the go, then I would want to go anywhere but Spiral. We hopefully
have our good will charm from the elves, so they might be disposed to
giving us aid, and Seggy says he can give us a good word at Ironpiece.
Either choice is preferable to Spiral. "As far as being embarassed going to
Bral," He shrugs, "I've seen worse things come to port. Most everyone there
is adventurers, pirates or traders. They understand this kind of thing...
and Moune isn't likely to give us much grief.  After all, she hired us as
adventurers... she understood the risks to her ship.  If she cared about
the ship that much, she would have used it to transport more grain."

"Air is not a problem, Coyote.  Defenses, on the other hand..." Nilaroo
shakes his head.  "I truly do not like the idea of Spiral."

Holland replies, "Understood, but no one is just going to give us a ship."

"Stealing a ship from a dock full of scro, isn't something that will keep
us flying" says Robert.  "If we fail in taking one, this raft isn't going
to out run anything."

Holland asks those who are conscious, "What are the thoughts for the other
viper?  They might get rescued..  Don't want them to be able to indicate
that we headed back to Spiral. Would fouling their air to the point of it
being deadly do the trick?"

Leera also adds, "We should leave them alone. They can foul our air as
easily as we can foul theirs. And we're in NO shape for a fight." Leera
replies, "And this is all the more reason not to head back to Spiral. We
should head for a safer harbor, and come back to Spiral later in the raft
if we absolutely have to. Our first priority should be getting away from
here... now."

"Hindeed," Deigatt adds. "Hit would be hunnecessarily cruel to hasten their
suffocation. Hunless we hintend to kill them houtright, we should leave
them halone. I do not hoppose Leera's suggestion to head for some place
hother
than Bral hor Spiral," Deigatt says, "but has she says we need to hurry.
Which way shall we go, Holland?"

Ferric sighs "Sadly, I do agree.  Caution seems to be the better part of
valor this day.  Let us spend a few minutes more here salvaging what we may
and head out for Ironpiece."  Tying himself off he jumps and floats out
into the debris searching for the chunk of the ship with his chest bolted
to decking.

Holland sighs and looks up at the stars for a brief second, shaking his
head  slightly and then looks back down at the star-charts in front of him,
"Ironpiece."

Kain says thickly, "Alright, glad you've all got this under control. I'm
going to try to..ouch..recover some of my focus."  Unable to bend his badly
burned leg, Kain sits with one foot tucked under the straight leg.  Closing
his eyes, Kain quickly slips into a meditative trance.

"One other thing," Robert says from where he's sitting looking out at the
wreckage, "Where ever we go, don't head directly there, so those scro know
where we're headed."

As the group makes ready to depart, Leera gathers her strength to speak and
asks her comrades, and Holland in particular, "I think it would be good if
I were to cloak the raft in an illusion till we're out of scro territory.
To do so, I'll have to rememorize the spell, and I'm not sure if I'm up to
it. <cough> If I fail, something like that (she points at the slime ship)
could happen to us. Should I risk it?"

Holland replies to Leera, "I believe you should study and cast the spell.
As pointed out, we can not outrun or outfight anyone at this time.  We need
to make sure we don't get put into that position."

Holland works out the course and briefs Vais, once finished Holland says,
"Okay.  Let's move out."

Leera spends a few moments studying her spellbook. Looking up, she
instructs Vais and anyone else who's listening, "As we head toward
Ironpiece, let's get as far from the planet as quickly as we can. Head
directly away from it in the beginning... when it starts to look small,
then head toward Ironpiece. My illusion should cloak us, but only if we're
not viewed with the planet as a backdrop... I'm going to make us look like
empty space."

The exertion of speaking has obviously tired the illusionist, and she rests
for several minutes before casting her spell. No change is immediately
apparent. She then informs her companions, I've surrounded us with a bubble
that looks like empty space when viewed from outside."

The battered raft moves away from Spiral, and heads into the starry void of
wildspace...

Date/time: 10:00 am 12th day of the 6th Month, 5049 OC

"We look on the same stars,  the sky is common,  the same world surrounds
us.  What difference does it make by what pains each seeks the truth?  We
can not attain to so great a secret by one road..."
Symmachus,  "Memorial on the Occasion of the Removal of the Altar of
Victory from the Senate House" (392 AD)

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State
Adjunct Faculty, Humanities Department, Columbus State Community College