-The Ardent survivor, Jacky-
“Gene, are we still following them?” My first mate nodded while wearing a griffon mask over his face. “I’ll take up the wheel, we should be a few hours from wherever they’re going now. Go get an hour or two of rest while you still can, we’ll wake you when we arrive at the ‘Caves of Intrigue’.”
“Of course Jacky.” He waited until I got the spare griffon mask on my face and found the two airships we were trailing on the horizon, there was also Daring Do in a highly noticeable cloud. I took the controls and Gene went off to get some much needed rest.
I would easily keep my focus having gotten plenty of sleep. After taking a calm drink from a canteen of water I brought with me, I started steering the ship after our quarries. The morning sun was rising and I could already feel the heat filtering away the cold night air.
I wondered if we were ready for the coming fight. I couldn’t leave anyone alone on the ship, we needed absolutely everyone for this.
No point in getting cold feet now, we were going to do this thing and try to interfere with the plans of those guys. First order of business would be to deal with the two airships, while parking our own in an out of the way place.
Clockwork’s airship was fairly big and Caballeron’s airship was a relatively small one, we could easily disable both. We’d have to wait until they were actually in the caves before doing that, so we’d have to give them a small head before attacking the ships.
We’d drop down on the airships we’ll ransack and then Gene will land the airship a good distance away after we’re done looting them quietly, we did not want anyone stealing our ship.
Daring Do was probably close enough for them to have noticed her and would likely set up an ambush, but they wouldn’t see us coming by a mile.
-Three hours and several course corrections later-
Having slowed the ship down, I kept my masked face watching the two ships land in the sand and could see numerous ant sized figures disembark. We were barely beyond the horizon from them, they couldn’t have possibly spotted us.
Daring was likely not as lucky, as the cloud she was inside of was ridiculously visible and suspicious. In fact it was close enough for them to have spotted as it slowly drifted over their heads, she should be cautious and wait a bit before going in after Caballeron, Teatime and Ahuizotl.
We were still somewhere in the Saddle Arabian the dessert, didn’t know where this location would be on a map though. All I knew was that there were some mountainous rocks out here and not much else aside from that.
It was getting hot and I was beginning to hate the feeling of sand in my clothing, everything was just plain uncomfortable in the desert like that. The air being hot enough to pop popcorn was certainly the worst part of this, at least I was not stuck walking on the sands.
As we encroached slowly, I decided to go get the crew up and we would prepare our assault. It didn’t take me long to get Nefer, Flotsam, Belfry and Gene up on deck. Gene however was still a bit groggy from not getting much sleep, but I think he’d be okay.
While we continued our approach, I moved to the bow with Gene as he placed a griffon mask on his face. Flotsam took the steering and was keeping us on a steady course, she needed to learn how to pilot the ship somewhat anyway. Nefer was too small to effectively pilot the ship and Belfry wasn’t smart enough to do it, both of them working together might be able to successfully pilot the ship in an emergency.
I could see Caballeron holding the scorpion shaped key becoming clearer as we got closer. He approached a cylindrical pedestal just sitting out here in the middle of nowhere. There was something possibly sticking out of the pedestal, but I couldn’t see what it was at this distance.
-Caballeron-
Looking at the six curved spokes sticking up out of the stone, I could already tell what they were for. I sat the scorpion down on the pedestal on the spokes that would represent the scorpion’s legs and took a few steps back.
There was a click and the tail rose up and the light on it intensified. It fired a powerful blast of magic into the sand and then the ground started to rumble impressively. We backed up towards the ships and looked in front of us as several massive statues rose from the ground.
There were six humongous pony shaped limbs curving up and out of the sand, the entire area shook as the sand bulged up and started to slide away from the massive structures rising up.
There were three large pony heads and the front halves of three humongous stone ponies poking out of the ground. All three of their stone jaws started to lower and the sound of stone grinding against stone sounded out through the area to reveal that their mouths were staircases leading downwards.
We had three entrances to choose from and there would be a lot of treasure here that has been untouched for who knows how long, I couldn’t wait to get my hooves on it.
“Be cautious those of you who have opened this place, for much trouble you will have caused just by this one act of grace. For any magic unleashed here will be difficult to put back where it is found, so beware the things that you find below the ground.” That voice sounded deep and particularly masculine, but it didn’t seem threatening in the slightest. “Now travel inside and take what you will, provided that you can avoid whatever you unleash while getting your fill. Be careful of fatigue, as you enter the ‘Caves of Intrigue’.”
“Well now… that wasn’t particularly ominous at all.” It sounds like our compatriot Teatime has seen the likes of this before if he was so willing to be sarcastic about it.
“I can agree with that sentiment at least, it is a fairly common sign of danger to hear a magical voices speaking warnings. Sometimes they don’t mean nearly as much as they try to portend, though we should heed the warning all the same and trot cautiously.” I turned to my stallions to start ordering them down into one of three pony statues mouths.
We needed to set up a trap for Daring Do. Did she really think I wouldn’t notice the cloud that’s followed us all the way from Nagrahbah? There weren’t any other clouds in the sky this morning and this paltry attempt at stealth was laughable.
Whatever incredible deathtrap I could find to throw Daring into, I can only hope it will finally deal with that nuisance permanently this time. I would walk away from this with my payday in hoof while leaving Daring to her untimely doom, I so do enjoy giving her a challenge.
-Thirty minutes later, The Ardent Survivor, Jacky-
We were floating over the ships and the clockwork golems were not looking up. I didn’t think they were given orders to attack anything outside their given fields of view which was decidedly horizontal.
“Okay guys, get ready, they left behind some trouble. Two goons for Caballeron and a good number of clockwork ponies from Teatime. Ahuizotl went in without leaving any guards at his back and took his whole menagerie of large cats with him.” I was addressing my crew, but there was one thing I had wondered about and wanted to get out of the way first. “Doesn’t it bother anyone else that one of the cats Ahuizotl has at his beck and call is an ordinary house cat? I mean it’s kind of absurd that long face is open to a minion that doesn’t seem as vicious, big or even threatening like that.”
“Now that you mention it… yeah, that is a little weird. I mean why does Ahuizotl bother with the average house cat?” It would seem Flotsam was a little curious too, even Savannah looked a little interested in the subject. I didn’t think house cats would actually be good as minions. “I can understand the tiger, cheetah, panther and even the lynx given they are all pretty big cats, but the house cat is the really odd one of the bunch once someone points it out.”
“Nefer, Belfry, whenever you’re ready to attack Caballeron’s watchers. We’ll make our move after you start.” I received a quick salute from Nefer and Belfry before turning to the others. “Everyone else call a target before you jump so we don’t land on each other, we’re looting these ships like the pirates we are. Take most of the water and anything that isn’t nailed down that we can carry or fit into our ship, I’m taking the lone golem at bow.”
“I’m eying the one at mid-ship, starboard side.” Flotsam called as she took in a small portion of banana peel and started chewing.
“The one between what Jacky and Flotsam called.” Savannah looked ready to pounce onto it.
“Aft, port side.” Gene made his call and then we waited for Nefer to go in with Belfry.
“Let’s go Belfry!” When Nefer was taken over the side by Belfry to deal with the two goons, I pulled the saber out of from behind me and raised it high above my head in a reversed grip as I jumped.
As I dropped it looked like I was going come down on top of the golem and skewer it with the saber… instead I rammed a hole through the deck one foot to its left. My aim might have been slightly off because of The Ardent Survivor drifting away a bit and I didn’t adjust before jumping.
I groaned audibly as the golem came over to the hole and looked down at me, laying on the floor below the deck.
I slowly stood up and tried to pry the saber out of the circle of jagged wood I put through the deck, only to find it was pretty much stuck where it was. I looked up at the golem and gave the soulless eyes a flat stare.
“You’re going to shoot me aren’t you?” The response to my question was fairly obvious, several clacking noises and an opening jaw preparing to fire a miniature cannonball at me.
-Gene-
A perfectly executed prey attacking dive to drive the spear I wielded straight through a golem’s head. Having destroyed the crystal of that one, I immediately moved for the next one while ripping the spear free.
I couldn’t let them get any successful shots off on me or the others and downed another one with a burst from my wings pushing me forward.
-Savannah-
“Oh yeah, show me what you got pony bot!” This thing started bucking wildly as soon as I landed on it, I should probably join a rodeo sometime. That would be pretty fun, like this currently is. “This is fun, you guys have got to try this!”
I titled my head back as something zipped by my face and the golem I was riding on just lost its left ear from another golem shooting at me, it took a sea pony to the body a second later.
I grabbed my ride’s head and jerked it to the side and it shot a hole in another golem’s head when I pulled on its remaining ear.
“Come on, just try and get me off of you!” The golem turned its head one hundred and eighty degrees to point at me with an open mouth clacking. “Uh oh!”
A spear rammed through its head before it could fire in my face and it was ripped clean off with a swift jerk from Gene.
“Be a bit more careful with what you say Savannah, especially with Jacky being in the area.” Gene flew up looking for more golems to destroy. As I started to moving towards the door leading into the ship.
-Flotsam-
I smashed apart the golem I belly flopped onto and saw that Jacky was in trouble, I ignored that Savannah was riding one in a wild manner and tried to focus on what to do next.
I swallowed the banana peel chunk in my mouth, pushed myself backwards off the destroyed golem’s body, lifted it up and swung it around to fling it at the other golem aiming down into the hole Jacky made in the ship.
The golem was bowled over before it could fire its shot, one that just went off harmlessly into the sky. I dragged, flopped and slithered my way across the deck to look down at Jacky trying to free her sword from some wood.
“You okay down there Captain?” There was just something that made me grin about Captain Blackcap’s luck.
“Could be better… might eventually be feeling even worse later today. I can’t actually complain about things really, that just tends to make everything worse!” Jacky grumbled out as she pulled at the sword with both talons and started leveraging her entire body against the chunk of wood it was stuck in. That looked like it would take a while. “Go help Savannah and Gene by making sure all threats out here are neutralized, if there isn’t any more trouble start gathering up stuff to take!”
-Nefer-
“What the…” The first of the two ponies were too busy watching the attack on the other airship. Belfry smacked the pony across the back of the head with his front legs and started spraying that strange smelling mist everywhere. “Ugh… what is that...? Grandma my socks are full of pigs again, can I get a canister of tennis pears?”
“We’re under…!" The other pony began coughing as he inhaled large amount of the mist and didn’t get to say much when Belfry rammed into him and made his head bounce off of the railing. "Everything turning orange…”
Something whizzed by my head making me lose my balance and fall off of Belfry, I looked in that direction to see Gene ripping the head off a golem ponies head with that spear and then he flew up to the airship before it could drift too far away.
“So cool…” It was awesome to see everyone working together so well! I wasn’t nearly as strong as they were, but Belfry more than made up for that for me.
-Ten minutes after the attack, Jacky-
“Okay we’ve tied up the two thugs, dismantled most of the golems and stole most of the stuff... go park the airship somewhere safe Gene!” Things went pretty well, aside from my body going through the deck of a ship being the only minor hiccup. “The rest of you will follow me in, Gene will catch up to us.”
I turned to one of the three large pony statues that led down into the ‘Caves of Intrigue’, I walked through that entrance with my friends following me down the staircase lined with magic lights straight into the depths.
The Wondrous Cave was supposedly a singular place and easily navigable. The 'Caves of Intrigue' had numerous directions to go in at the bottom of the steps.
Our first major problem was the possibility of getting absolutely lost.