Dungeon Master (Karma System)

The Sixth Knot left Ironcloud with medicine, replacement pump assemblies, preserved food, and three crates of mining tools secured beneath its deck.

The outpost lay northeast of the stronghold, built into a narrow cut where two mountain ridges met. Its dock could accept only one small airship at a time. Larger vessels dropped cargo by crane or landed twenty miles away.

For Five Knots, the route was exactly the kind of work they had hoped to find.

Tessa kept the ship above the rough currents that rolled over the first ridge. Kesh marked their position from beacon towers and old cuts in the mountain. Min monitored the lift chamber while Belda and Orin checked the cargo lines whenever the ship entered turbulence.

The Sixth Knot was still new enough that every unfamiliar vibration drew someone’s attention.

They reached the outpost before sunset on the second day.

Miners and maintenance crews met them at the dock. A damaged water pump had reduced the outpost’s supply, and the replacement assemblies were unloaded before the food. Five Knots helped carry the crates into storage, collected the signed delivery tablets, and spent the night in a bunkhouse carved into the ridge.

They departed the following morning with an empty hold and a favorable wind.

The other ship appeared shortly after midday.

It approached from behind a northern peak, flying a freight company’s colors. Kesh noticed it because the vessel descended instead of taking the faster current above the ridge.

”They are matching us.” He said.

Tessa adjusted their heading by several degrees. The freight ship adjusted with them.

Belda left the forward line and opened the equipment locker. ”Could be another route vessel.”

”There is nothing on this line until the outpost we just left.” Kesh replied.

The first bolt struck The Sixth Knot’s stern rail.

The heavy shaft punched through wood and vanished into open air. A second crossed above the deck before Orin finished shouting a warning. The approaching vessel was firing on Five Knots with deck mounted giant crossbows.

Tessa dropped the bow to evade.

The Sixth Knot descended along the cliff face as two more bolts passed through the space it had occupied. Min redirected power from forward thrust to the lift chamber, slowing the drop before the airship reached the broken currents below.

”No signal.” Kesh said. ”No demand.”

”Then they did not come for cargo.” Tessa answered.

The attacking ship was nearly twice their size. Reinforced plates protected its lift housing, and weapon frames occupied both sides of its forward deck. Its crew had the advantage in range and numbers.

Five Knots had the better pilot.

Tessa drove The Sixth Knot between two stone spires too narrow for the larger ship to follow directly. Kesh called the turn before the passage opened. Belda shifted the forward sail while Orin locked the starboard line. Min fed power into the stern vanes.

Their ship rolled through the gap and rose sharply on the current beyond it.

The attacker climbed over the spires. That cost it distance, but not enough.

A weighted line struck The Sixth Knot’s rear rail and wrapped around it. The cable snapped taut. The entire ship jerked sideways.

Three armored figures launched from the enemy deck on hooked glide lines.

Belda cut the first line before its rider reached them. The attacker swung beneath The Sixth Knot and disappeared from view. Orin met the second at the rail with a hammer. The boarder’s boots struck the deck, and Orin’s blow drove him back into the cable.

The third landed beside the lift controls.

Min abandoned the engine panel long enough to strike him with a burst of force. He hit the mast, recovered, and drew a short sword.

Five Knots no longer looked like a racing crew.

Belda crossed the deck and forced the swordsman away from Min. Orin broke the second boarder’s wrist, tore the hook from his harness, and threw him over the rail. Kesh kept calling terrain while firing a crossbow whenever the enemy ship exposed a crewman.

Tessa flew through it all.

She turned into the cable connecting the ships instead of away from it. The attacker had expected to drag The Sixth Knot closer. Sudden slack dropped the heavy line across its own forward weapon frame.

”Now!” Tessa shouted.

Belda severed the cable at their rail.

The enemy crew hauled from the other end. The line snapped back across its deck, ripping one weapon mount sideways and tangling the forward controls. The larger ship veered.

The Sixth Knot climbed into a narrow rising current along the mountain wall.

Its attacker tried to follow with damaged steering.

The ship struck the current at an angle. One lift vane folded. The vessel rolled hard enough to spill two crewmen from its deck, then dropped into the descending air beyond the ridge.

It vanished below the stone edge.

Several seconds later, a distant impact rolled through the mountains.

No one aboard The Sixth Knot celebrated.

”Damage?” Tessa asked.

Min examined the lift controls. Orin moved toward the stern.

”Rear rail is torn out.” Orin said. ”Hull split around both supports.”

”One steering line is binding.” Belda added.

Min looked into the open engine housing. ”Lift is stable. We lost part of the stern vane when the cable pulled us sideways.”

Kesh checked their position and swore.

The fight had carried them east of the return route. The damaged steering made the direct western current too dangerous. Their safest path curved south around two ridges before approaching Ironcloud from below.

”How far?” Tessa asked.

”If nothing else breaks, a day and a half.”

Something else broke within the hour.

The damaged stern support shifted whenever Tessa turned. Orin braced it with spare timber, but the repair would not hold through the stronger currents ahead.

Kesh found an abandoned signal station marked on an older chart. It occupied a ledge far off the active route. Reaching it cost them another three hours.

The station’s dock had collapsed years ago. Tessa brought The Sixth Knot down on a flat stretch of stone beside the ruined tower while the rest of the party controlled the landing lines.

The ship settled with a groan.

Orin climbed over the damaged stern and stared at the splintered rail.

”Minor damage.” He said.

Belda joined him. ”You sound angry.”

”I am deciding how many pieces of their ship I would need to fix ours.”

The wreck lay somewhere beyond two mountains.

Five Knots had no intention of looking for survivors.

Before darkness fell, Belda found a broken token caught beneath the damaged rail. It had torn from one of the boarders when Orin threw him over the side. The token carried no family crest. One face showed a black anvil stamped over an older mark.

Kesh copied it into his route book.

”Recognize it?” Tessa asked.

”No. But someone in Ironcloud might.”

Min examined the metal and found the edge had been filed to remove a number. Whoever prepared the attackers had stripped obvious identification. The altered token nevertheless proved the crew belonged to an organized company rather than a band of opportunistic raiders.

They secured it with the signed outpost delivery records.

The night on the ledge was cold and windless. Without the engine running, The Sixth Knot creaked as its frame cooled. Five Knots ate beside the damaged stern and took turns watching the sky.

Belda asked the question no one had voiced during the fight.

”Do you think anyone survived the crash?”

Kesh had seen the ship lose a lift vane, roll, and enter a descending current. He had heard the impact. ”Not enough of it remained under control.”

”That is not an answer.”

”No. I do not think anyone survived.”

They had killed boarders before. All five were adventurers as well as fliers. Death in a fight did not surprise them. What angered them was the reason for it. They completed a contract, helped Renn reach a lawful refuge, and left the dispute behind. Someone chose to turn that brief contact into a death sentence. At least that was their best guess. They couldn’t think of any other reason for them to be caught in an obviously planned attack by dwarves.

”We tell Rod everything.” Tessa said. ”Then we tell Dorran enough that he does not send another sponsored crew into the same route blind.”

Orin looked at the torn stern again. ”After we fix the ship.”

They worked by rune light until Min ordered everyone away from the engine housing before exhaustion created new damage.

At dawn, the mountain air carried the smell of snow. Kesh recalculated the southern route with a wider margin around the strongest currents. They possessed food for four days and water for three. The abandoned signal station contained a dry cistern but no working pump.

Five Knots were not stranded.

They were merely very far from home with an injured ship and a new enemy.

The following morning, Belda climbed the tower with Kesh. From its upper platform they could see the broken line of the mountains and, far to the northwest, a column of smoke too thin to come from a settlement.

It rose near the attacker’s likely crash site.

”Fire could mean survivors.” Belda said.

”Or the lift stone broke and ignited the hull.” Kesh replied.

Reaching it required taking their damaged ship across two uncontrolled ridges in the wrong direction. Anyone alive there had tried to murder them without warning. Tessa made the decision that kept The Sixth Knot and its crew safe.

They did not investigate.

Tessa entered the decision in the ship’s log. She recorded the hostile attack, the crash, the smoke, and why a damaged vessel could not safely reverse course. If questions came later, Five Knots would not rely on five exhausted memories to produce the same account.

Each member signed the entry. It was ordinary airship practice, not preparation for a lie.

Kesh added the estimated position of the crash and the last known heading of the attacker. If Ironcloud later sent a recovery crew, the record might keep them from searching the wrong valley. Five Knots would not risk The Sixth Knot to rescue their attackers, but neither would they conceal information that could save an innocent salvage crew.

Orin completed the brace shortly before noon. They tested it by lifting The Sixth Knot only a few feet, turning the stern against a weak current, and setting it down again. The support held. Min recalibrated the steering response so Tessa would not have to compensate for the damaged vane by instinct alone.

The delay gave Kesh time to study the attacker’s approach. It had known their route and cargo schedule. Random raiders would have demanded surrender or attempted to seize the delivery. These attackers fired before identifying themselves and continued after the empty hold became obvious.

”Someone paid to remove us.” Kesh said.

No one argued.

When The Sixth Knot finally rose from the ledge, its party had shifted from anger to certainty. The attack belonged to the trouble surrounding Renn, and the distance from Ironcloud had been chosen to leave no witnesses. None of the adventurers were stupid, they knew why this happened.