Legion of Canned Heroes
Chapter 11 of Alternities
The space inside Dan's magic canister was lively. His five were joined by the four of Team Hathor plus Lois Lane. Kara had the fine idea of taking them into the Cloudsea with the talisman about her neck, where they'd be safe from attack by octoids. She was supposed to locate the airship and bring them out on its deck. With any luck, they'd all find enough swag to make the jaunt profitable.
Dan noticed Lois on the lower level, where she'd slid open the hatch to peer down at Castle Rotbone. It was night there, so Lois did something surprising. She tapped on a canister at her belt, and Sylea misted out. "Sylea! I had no idea you could survive in the Cloudsea."
The vampire looked down at the haunted forest below. "With your indulgence, Daniel, I shall make a short hunt, and then return." At his reluctant nod, she dove out the hatch and became the bat form, quickly lost in the darkness.
Lois looked a little chagrined. "A gal's gotta eat. At least she can see our light for getting back." She made a rueful grin. "To think—right now we're actually in the Cloudsea, but the canister is a type of 'room to nowhere' that can be set to any location. Tekniker science, I'm told, is a blend of tech and magic."
Dan had perched on the lower of the spiral steps. "Yep. It's what ended up destroying them when they split into the 'good' versus 'evil' Teknikers. You could learn a lot by visiting the library at Eolca."
"I just wish I'd brought Jimmy along to record this on film." Lois pulled her fur lined coat closed. "I wish I'd known about this last night. That shelter on the floating city is okay, but the magic heat globe isn't as warm as it is in here."
"That reminds me," Dan said. "We need to restock on food, and the best shelf life comes from Earth. I'm gonna pay a visit to Ed's horror show. He's always trying to get me there to riff on those old movies."
"Do you have a hostess like Vampira?"
"No, and I think he needs one for ratings. That's what draws the guys. I've got a perfect candidate in mind—an undead mage named Wicca who spends all her time in the harbor district. We'll feel her out about having her own show, once we explain to her what the heck TV is."
A blond bruiser came partway down. This was Ironfist, the Norman crusader who furnished the muscle of Team Hathor. "Gent and Lady, we have the signal from Kara. Let's go topside."
"As soon as Sylea gets back," Dan said. "She went out for a little nip." Ironfist went back up.
Lois had been admiring his strength. "Orchid tells me he can cleave a tree with that broadsword."
"I don't like to think about it." Dan's own broadsword didn't have the same horsepower behind it. "Here comes Sylea." With the group complete, they ascended to the upper platform.
Five at at time could be summoned out the top, and the entire group had exited in seconds, upon which Kara gave the canister back to Dan. They stood on a slightly canted deck of wet wood in moderate fog. The place smelled close and musty. Little could be seen of the ship beyond tall masts that loomed above, devoid of sail, long since rotted away. Distant booms reverberated, along with the elephant-like calls of octoids. It wasn't long before the first detected them. A shadowy, tentacled shape spun up from below, having glowing red eyes set at the base of the dome. White rings emanated from the head, and all knew enough to hit the deck. Orchid sent a fireball to chase it away. As the spell closed in, it illumined a monstrous, warty face.
"I suggest," Hathor said, "we clear the deck and get down below."
Kara indicated a desire to check out the demon portal, which caused Lois no end of concern. "Don't worry—I'll just peek inside. Who knows? It could be a viable mission some day." She lifted off, but paused when Dan asked about the chance of carrying the ship out of here. "It doesn't look stable enough. It would probably fall apart." Moving farther out, she inverted and plunged into the mist.
Ed had climbed up to the wheel house. "Dan! There's charts and stuff here. We might have some swag." The rest of the group joined Ed topside to explore the staterooms and cabins. In one of them, a skeletal sailor rose from a chair, but Pete's serrated black sword cleaved rib bones, nearly cutting it in half. Yet another one jumped on his back from a net overhead.
"I've got it, Pete!" Bonnie conjured a whirlwind to lift the undead off him, but it was strong enough to hurl Pete against a bulkhead, where the skeletal warrior shattered.
"Cheeze," Pete muttered. "I'd be better off with the jolly roger." Bonnie's spells were sometimes quirky. A sea chest yielded old style clothing, a log book, and a treatise on Cloudsea lore.
Dan carefully paged through the damp leaves. "Here's something for the Eolca scholars. They'll pay well for it. What else we got?"
Zena leafed through the log, noting sketches of demonic forms. "Hey guys, I think we know what happened here. They actually went all the way to the bottom to check out the demon portal. And we thought they crashed here. Face is, they never made it back up. I wonder what happened?"
It was Ed who hit the jackpot, rummaging through the captain's cupboards. A wooden box held a ring that fairly glowed with energy. "Here's something for the magic boys to play with. No telling what it does. I sure as hell don't wanna summon anything down here." He left it in the box.
Team Hathor came up from below with reports of a powerful ghost who guarded the arcane machinery that powered the ship. They'd found a few items of worth, mostly of historical interest. Sisra had keen interest in the captain's log. "May I take that to Montfort? The sorcery master is an expert on archaic tongues. I'm sure he can decipher it. Then we'll know what happened here."
Dan handed it over. "Sure. Why don't we take all this stuff there? Ed can tell his fairy story, and Master Baltus can tell us the one about Team Ullor and Elvira."
"Did somebody say party?" Zena bumped fists with Bonnie. "I mean, if that's okay with you, Lois. Your boss must be spazzing by now."
"I think one more night will be fine. Say—where's Sylea?"
The group traded dread looks.
"She must have gone down with Kara," Ed said. "Holy smoo!"
The demon plane
Kara was surprised to find Sylea at her side. The two looked around a yellow world of noxious air and stilted, bizarre plant life. Somehow it supported people, who Kara guessed were lost souls condemned here for eternity. Or perhaps the Teknikers had found a place for those they found undesirable. Animals pulled carts over cracked and dry soil, where fissures emitted the foul gasses. Evidently there was an even lower level. No one had noticed them yet. In the distance, a blue gargoyle stood atop a rocky outcrop, watching the workers. When one of them tarried too long at socializing, she threw a stream of cold mist at him, freezing him solid until he thawed out.
"It is no place for us," Sylea decided, benefiting from the lack of a sun—a lack that also meant Kara had no business being here.
"You're right. Let's get back to the others and see what they found out."
The derelict ship
Kara and Sylea returned after about thirty minutes, during which time all were anxious to get the captain's log deciphered. Might he have entered the demon plane? It could explain the magic ring. As planned, they all gathered near to be siphoned into Dan's canister, which Kara would fly out of the Cloudsea, and back to the floating city's teleport to Montfort. Anticipation was high about what the captain recorded, and what his talisman could do. The Hathors had made a modest amount of money, while the Dans stood to make quite a haul.