Chapter 1: Seeds of Destruction

These were tough opponents, their claws precise and deadly, Quaxiver thought to himself, for even his blade flurries were not enough to parry all of their attacks which penetrated his defenses. He pressed his own attacks, still hoping to do significant harm to the one he was engaged with. Surely they had to fall soon!

The faerie lights flicker on a wave of phase as Ziggy realizes he's got to boogie back into the melee. The astral elf strides forward, palm towards Quaxiver's dance partner, pushing the creature back with sheer force of personality.

Ziggy runs his slender fingers through Quaxiver's bloodstained fur, channeling groovy healing vibes into the hadozee.

This One raises a magical shield against the barrage and follows up with another lightning blast. Again, if he can angle the blast to get others into area of effect he will.
Ha! Take that you misshapen maggot

Imti, forced into melee combat, tries to use her staff to beat the thing away, but finds that it's a tougher opponent than her last one and doesn't manage to land a solid blow.

Quaxiver's retaliatory strike cleaves the psurlon that's been brutalizing him nearly in half, the roaring flames arcing out to another of the creatures and nearly dropping it as well.

Ziggy pushes the corpse of the psurlon away from his companion and swoops in, his healing magic knitting some of his wounds shut.
Quaxiver: Recover 5 HP

The follow-up blast from This One's dragon's breath finishes that psurlon and shocks the last one, but overall does very little to the remaining beast.

The remaining psurlon, seeing no escape, desperately tries to take Imti down with it! Imti blocks the creatures bite, knocks its first claw away, but takes a nasty cut from its other one.
Imti: 20 vs AC. Damage: 5 slashing

With only the one enemy remaining, you make short work of it, leaving the four odd creatures dead on the floor of the bridge.

Ha! This One kicks the down creatures in the head for good measure.
Crackles of electric still lingers around his beard for the next minute.

He pokes around to see if there actually is some salvage to be found

"Thanks Ziggy." Quaxiver finally had a moment to catch his breath, letting Zig'gythiel's healing magic restore a little of his life force. "There was no way to see past the shapeshifting facade of these ones," the hadozee rued. "Just means we have to treat whomever we encounter as hostile. No chit chat!" He nagged the others, and then looked out at the observation deck, once again trying to see if there was some ship hiding in wildspace.

"I expect more of these kind up there," he pointed towards the command deck.

"Just a healthy dose of caution, really," adds Imti as she follows Quaxiver, her luminous body shining starlight across the fleshy walls of the nautiloid. "When you're traveling alone out at sea, suddenly everything and everybody sees you as dangling on the hook."

She keeps her eyes flitting across the halls, attempting to pick up any suspicious movement.

"Into the belly of the beast, our heroes go," says Ziggy overdramatically. Quaxiver is right, no chit chat. The better to hear Ziggy's splendid narration!

With the immediate threat ended, you begin to explore. You first head up to the observation deck and can see Moondancer still holding nearby, waiting for you. The sight from up here is quite beautiful, the asteroid field set against a backdrop of a starry plain as far as the eye can see.

Finding nothing of interest up there, you head back to the bridge and then up a ladder to the navigation room. Lying on the floor of this raised platform is the headless body of a mind flayer. The stench of the rotting corpse is unpleasant, to say the least. The dead mind flayer lies in an otherwise open space where you imagine the ship's helm used to be.

Laying on the floor near the corpse is an Ioun Stone (Reserve) containing a single use if the Shield spell.

From there, you head up to the command deck by ascending another ladder. An impressive chair is posed at the end of a catwalk so its occupant can look down onto the bridge floor. Green, glowing maggots crawl over the chair's current occupant: a headless mind flayer corpse.

Quaxiver had led the way up the stairs, and he stood at the spot where the dead mind flayer, judging that he couldn't have died that long ago if the corpse were still stinking. He picked up stone, and then suggested to the others, "If we wanted to get this ship up and running, here's where we could install the helm we salvaged from the Star Moth.. Once we clear this body out that is.' There was nothing else left to do on the navigation deck without the spelljamming helm, so he proceeded up to where the captain's chair was. This headless captain, for Quaxiver assumed he was the captain, might be worth examining further.

"What do you think Jzu? Think he knows anything?"

Despite not being the target of the question, Imti answers, "Even if he did, he got no mouth to say anything." She leans forward and picks up one of the maggots, giving it a sniff before popping it into her mouth to test its taste.

Ziggy has just lost his appetite. All of his appetites.

"It'll take forever to get the stink out," the astral elf says, holding a silk handkerchief to his nose.

Not needing to eat This One has no opinion about Imti eating habits. And Ziggy thinks that mindflayers are sexy, with him as a metal man and a flying monkey no one in this group can judge others.
I have seen one of these before. He says as he sees the Ioun Stone that Quaxiver picked up. I know there are different ones so I have to examine it for a bit
He puts it in his pocket.

When they are satisfied that the ship has no more surprises he gathers the group.
Well gentlemen. We have a choice to make.

Quaxiver's attention to detail pays off as he finds a secret compartment in the captains' chair. The compartment contains a black scroll tube with a scroll of Wall of Force within.

"Here, one of you will be able to use this better than I would." Quaxiver handed over the scroll, "Only because I'll usually end up being in the thick of the fighting.

These upper decks are clear. Best to check what is in the lower holds next, before we try to fly this thing."

Lower decks? Yes lets do those. Then we should have covered everything. Right?

Heading down to the lower decks, you find that most of what was once here has been ransacked.

Cargo Hold
You do find several weeks of food and water as well as several barrels of pickled brains floating in brine (food for the mind flayers). There are several human corpses, which have circular bite marks all over them, indicating that they were killed by the neogi. On the corpses, you find 23 gp, 117 sp, and a bloodstone ring worth 50 gp.

The Brig
The rotting corpse of a headless mind flayer lies amid the hacked-up corpses of three hulking creatures with blood-spattered white fur. The condition of the corpses suggests that something or someone was feeding on them. The mind flayer corpse still wears a +1 breastplate embossed with tentacles.

Food and water - That is good. That breastplate could net us some coins aswell. Unless one of you want to wear it? Ziggy perhaps?

This One organizes the haul and prepare it to be send to the Moondancer. Supplies, a bit of treasure and two magic items.

"The neogi story is true then. The psurlons lost out. And the mind flayers were caught in between."

"We should give all of this to Captain Sartell," says Imti, one pouch now full of glowing maggots. "She did give us a lift off that one planet before even knowing us."