G went to the ship's other side to find Jowl Beard standing in front of an open wall. The panel was a meter and a half tall and swung open into the passageway.

Jowl Beard stepped aside as G entered the room. In the soft light, G saw piles of rich clothes and paintings of fantastic scenes he had never dreamt could exist mixed in with chests and boxes. The inside of the hidden room itself was five meters long and four meters wide. Several large beams were built into the walls that supported the upper decks, and in the center was an open room with two large boxes. To the right was a small table with a couple of chairs.

G walked closer. These were not boxes but tall containers with windows built into them. The sides had metal ribbing, making them look like grey bars at first glance, but the bars framed long windows. If the containers were lying down, they might have looked like coffins that emitted a soft blue glow. However, what caught his eye in one of them was a man's face. A tall bearded man with a heavily tanned complexion, a scar running down his face, and dark black hair, he looked like he was sleeping.

G stopped and looked at Jowl Beard standing back in the doorway. He didn't seem inclined to enter. "What is that?" asked G, pointing at the large container with the man in it.

Jowl Beard shrugged, "It emits the glow of a containment spell. He looks human, but as to what he is or if he is alive or dead, I have no idea."

G nodded, "Tocai, can you tell what race that person is?"

"No, the magic of the container blocks my ability. He looks human," said Tocai.

Next to the containment container with the human was an empty container of the same type. This open container didn't glow. G walked over to one of the smaller chests and lifted the lid. Inside were many items, gem-encrusted chalices, silverware, platters, and coins. The contents shone with gold and silver. G's eyebrows raised, and he whistled softly, seeing all the treasure. He waved to Jowl Beard to come look at the wealth. It must be worth quite a bit; there were several other chests around the room, and he methodically went about opening each in turn. He found more gem-encrusted items and one smaller chest under the table that was full of coins and gems of all types.

"What do you think now?" G asked Jowl Beard.

The hobgoblin entered the room and looked at some of the contents. "I'd say someone has accumulated a great deal of wealth."

G agreed with that; this was a lot of gold, silver, and other riches. G knew in any game, he would be giddy right now with all the wealth he was going to steal, but for some reason, he didn't feel that way here. Was this really a game at this point? Who did this all really belong to? It was not like the owner or owners of this ship had ever harmed him, and he didn't even know who they were. His mind raced around these thoughts as he came to a decision.

G looked at the hobgoblin. "Jowl Beard, what happens if we close this room back up and leave it?" The same feeling that had led him here and nudged him to save the plants was now urging him toward a decision.

Jowl Beard looked angrily at G. "I do not know. They didn't find these things, but it is possible that when the Queen retrieves this ship, others might. My name is Kargan, elf!"

G nodded slowly, ignoring Jowl Beard's obvious anger over his new name. "I think we should close this back up and leave it. I wouldn't say I like stealing, and I can't analyze the man in this magic box. It might be his for all we know, and I'm not a thief." G cringed a bit when he said that because he knew that if this were just a game, he would have absconded with all this wealth. But here, he was making a choice in a more fixed reality.

Jowl Beard smiled at G while nodding. "A wise and honorable choice."

G's head tilted sideways. He had not expected that answer. G was still fending off the little evil voice that kept saying "take it" in his psyche. "Take it all, run off and be rich till the end of your days," it said. At least the hobgoblin liked G's choice.

"Tocai, what do you think?" thought G to his familiar.

"I think you can't eat it, and very little magic exists in here other than the caged man and the chest on the table," said Tocai.

G hadn't thought of that; perhaps some of those daggers or swords were magical. It was a difficult moment, but he decided not to look, as it would just make that tiny voice harder to ignore. He shrugged and turned to leave. "Let's close this and keep going." G looked at the timer on the quest for Tocai and saw that he had less than six days left to complete it.

Jowl Beard stepped out of the hidden room, and G closed the door. There was a soft click, and a light seam raced around the door's edge. A second later, G could not tell the door existed. He ran his hand over the area he knew was the edge, and it felt like one solid piece of wood. He tapped it, and it felt and sounded solid.

"Huh, it was a nice bit of magic or woodworking or both," he thought, looking at the timer again. "We should get moving."

"That is a fine choice, elf. You surprised me again. All dark pathway elves would have taken that treasure for themselves," said Jowl Beard as he followed G back up the stairs.

"Yea, I never did fit in well with my peers," said G with a half-chuckle. He had not met another elf and had no idea how they acted. But his heart felt lighter, and the mental nudging had stopped.

"You make a jest at my praise. Dark elves are not your peers. For one, they are dark purple or blue of skin. They scar their skin with many patterns because they believe the pain makes them stronger. They would kill you on sight for not being one of their race. I've seen few other races of elves in my life, and all of them were killed by dark pathway elves or their soldiers," said Jowl Beard.

They were making their way up the stairs to the deck when they heard goblins talking. It was muffled, but it was clearly goblins. G held his hand up to stop and sank back down into a crouched position, inching up to the edge of the stairs to look. It took a few moments as he slowly lifted his head over the edge rail around the stairwell opening. There, down below the slightly sloping deck, were four goblins searching around the goblin camp, and his map noted them as red dots. They were sniffing the air and following the trails of blood. He could hear many sounds in the distance down the roadway and faint rhythmic drumming, marking time. It was growing louder. G cautiously slunk back down below the edge and waved Jowl Beard down the stairs to the lower decks.

He looked at the ransacked captain's cabin, then motioned down the lower stairs. When they reached the lower area again, he whispered to Jowl Beard, "There are several goblins near the ship and many more coming down the tunnel with drums."

Jowl Beard took a deep breath and then spoke softly, "We are too late to escape them now. We should return and hide. Many will come if they plan on returning this ship to Mirbor. Drums are only used when more than five hundred soldiers are on a forced march."

G nodded, and they hurried back down to unlock the astral ship's hidden room. As they descended the last set of stairs, he whispered, "Count to five from here and push the spot again." A few moments later, they were both in the hidden compartment. G closed the door quietly, and it softly clicked shut as G heard the shuffling of boots making their way down the stairs.

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He stood there for several minutes, trying to hear any noise through the now-closed magical door, but he heard nothing. It was nerve-racking as he waited for an unseen goblin to shout an alert. Long minutes slowly passed, and no alarm signaled their need to fight and die at the hands of hundreds of goblins and hobgoblins.

The deck shifted, tilting a few degrees. G heard loud grating as rubble moved around the outside of the hull, then the sound of muffled footfalls running back up the steps. He looked at Jowl Beard, who was standing there with his hand on his sword hilt. A bundle of silk rolled off its pile and hit the floor. The noise wasn't loud, but they both jumped.

G looked at the ornate wooden dining chairs with cushions on the seats near the table. He tried to move one of them to the wall where he could sit and think, only to discover that the chairs and table were attached to the floor and would not budge. He sighed and sat on one. At least they wouldn't slide around. The ship shifted again, jerking the chair. G placed his hand on the table for balance, and he felt mana flow. A flickering light appeared on the wall above the table. A large round silver disk made from the same metal as the ship's embossing centered above the table on the wall became white and slowly grew brighter.

As the two of them watched, the mirror's center changed, and scenes of dirt and stone rolling across the deck appeared. The view included the ship's top from the mast above the main deck. The view allowed G see the outside of the ship through the mirror. On both ends of the ship were a pair of large four-legged creatures that reminded him of elephants, except these had several trunks, were pale white, and had small floppy ears. G looked at them intently, and he saw they were not trunks. A beak was in the center of the mass, where he would expect a mouth. Not sharp like a bird but rounded and thick and looked like it could crunch rocks.

Several tentacles from each creature were pulling stones out of the way and off the deck at each end. Around the bizarre creatures were dozens of goblins and hobgoblins holding chains attached to them or in teams shifting the big stones back away from the piles being made. They were moving the rubble off the ship amazingly fast and taking great care not to damage the deck.

The ship shifted again as a small army worked to free it from its stony prison. Whoever was leading that group wasn't wasting any time here.

Jowl Beard spoke softly as he watched, "Those large creatures are burrowers. The dark elves use them to clear passages and build their cities. There are only a few of them in Mirbor, and the Queen sent them here. This shows her desire to have this ship. If she knew about this room, she would have her whole court and all their soldiers here digging it out. Let us hope they do not discover it or us. I didn't sense any of the magic of this room when you found it. It is possible they will not either."

G looked around again. Certainly, there was a fortune in this room, but he wanted nothing to do with it for some reason. He looked up at the mirror as the stone and debris were removed from the ship's helm. G didn't know how they would steer a ship like this. What he saw uncovered was a small wheel with pedals and levers next to it. Like some medieval spaceship, which he guessed it was. There was a body there, a medium-sized smashed crustacean that now consisted of broken pieces of shell and chitinous limbs, each with small claws at the end. The being had some form of cloth outfit on, but G didn't recognize much else with all the destruction and rot. Was the dead creature the pilot or the captain?

In the clear area below the ship's edge, just inside the mirror's view, he saw hobgoblins and goblins erecting purple tents with light blue symbols painted on them. In front of the tents stood a small group of elves with dark purple skin wearing black hooded robes with swirling red designs printed on them.

"Who are those people?" asked G.

Jowl Beard looked at the images as the group moved away from their view. "I believe those are the royal court magicians. The younger ones. I suppose they are not young, as dark pathway elves live a thousand years easily if they don't get murdered. These are the younger apprentices, and the taller one in the back is Count Penirshi Shribezrar. He is one of the Queen's favorites. If they find us, you can expect a horrible end to your life. A hobgoblin commander may just execute you or me, but those elves will not. We need to find a way to escape from here."

G surveyed the stacks of items and chests, then turned to his familiar. "Tocai, do you sense any magic in here that could aid us?" After a moment of silence, Tocai responded, "The boxes in the center contain magic. The ship's planks and boards emit an ambient light of magic, and enchantment in the metal mirror allows you to see the upper deck. Additionally, there is a hint of magic in the cloth stacked behind you. I detect no other magical presence in this room."

G's gaze shifted to Jowl Beard before pointing to the small chest on the table, which remained unmoved despite the ship's movements. He pulled it towards him, but it appeared to be stuck to the surface. He lifted it and placed it back down, only to find it still stuck. G quickly realized that the table had an enchantment to keep items in place, a helpful feature on a moving ship. As much as he was curious to dismantle the enchantment, G refocused on the chest, a simple wood box with brass fittings and no clasp or lock.

Jowl Beard interjected, "You shouldn't tamper with magic you don't understand. It could bring us more harm than good."

G raised an eyebrow. "More harm than facing five hundred soldiers?" He rubbed his fingers together, preparing to open the chest, but whispered to Jowl Beard, "I won't touch anything." He peered into the gap he created as he slowly lifted the lid. Inside, he found a light blue velvet lining and a small pillow in the middle, while the lid held a matching pillow to keep the contents secure. G's attention was drawn to a thick black ring made of onyx with an inner band of a dark glass-like material, which contained motes of blue and gold light moving slowly like flecks of sand in a miniature river. The void metal band pulled the light from the tiny motes, emitting a soft glow. As he inspected the ring, his magic sight revealed a prompt.

G used his artificer identify skill, and a prompt popped up.

Do you wish to identify this item?

He chose yes.

Magic Ring, Unknown.

Description: Unknown.

Effects: Unknown

That wasn't very useful. The ring, however, was very powerful; he could feel the magical enchantments emanating from it, and something about it unsettled him.

G mentally asked his familiar, "What do you think?"

Tocai didn't respond right away. "The ring is magical. It is powerful enough to mask its own power."

G nodded and looked up at Jowl Beard, standing a few steps away from the table and chest with a scowl on his tattooed brow.

"What do you think?" asked G of the hobgoblin.

Jowl Beard tore his eyes away from the ring, looking at G intently. "I think you should not play with magical devices you know nothing about, especially one made from void metal."

G's eyebrow went up. "Void metal? How can a void have metal?"

Jowl Beard huffed as he spoke, "Void metal is used to construct items that affect the mind. It is very rare to find, and you should not play with it."

G nodded. "I understand. Let's continue our search for something more useful," said G as he reached to close the small chest. The ship lurched to the side. He looked up to see the burrowers pulling it out of the rubble. With a shudder, the ship tipped and slid a few feet onto the roadway.

G looked down just in time to see the ring sliding out of the chest on the table. He reached out with his left hand to grab it as it teetered. He fumbled, his hand hitting the box as the ring slid across the pillow, bumping the edge and tumbling out. He attempted to grab it with his right hand to keep the ring from hitting the floor as his chair, still attached to the floor, jerked him sideways with the teetering ship. He opened his hand wide, hoping to catch it still; he tilted it, turned his hand, grasping, and the ring touched the end of his third finger. There was a cracking sound, and his hand whipped back, jerking his body out of the chair into the tumble of bolts of silk, paintings, and boxes sliding across the floor.

G lay there pinned under the mess as his hand throbbed. He heard tearing and the sound of breaking wood somewhere far above. But it didn't seem to bother him. It was kind of soft and comfy in all the bolts of silk.

Tocai's mental voice tore through his comfort in his new lodgings, "G, you're wearing the ring. It's affecting your mind."

"Nah, it's fine, Tocai. It's just a ring. I can barely feel it," G thought back. Although it throbbed on his finger and hurt, he was confident everything was fine.

"I'd like to point out that you should be panicking now and trying to remove it. It's affecting your mind. Take it off!" replied the stern mental voice of his familiar.

"Of course, if you want. I wasn't trying to make you unhappy," said G as he tried to push the box, pinning him to the bolts of cloth and the wall. He felt the ship right itself as several more items crashed off the pile above him. A pair of strong hands gripped his arm and pulled hard as Jowl Beard yanked him from the pile, removing the box that pinned him with G's face.

"Thank you," said G quietly, rubbing the sore spot on his temple and cheek.

The floor beneath them moved up and down, nearly causing him to lose his balance again. He glanced at the scene in the mirror to see that the ship was now free of the stone rubble that had pinned it. Two of the burrowers still held it at one end with their strong tentacles. The image of the cavern moved slowly as the ship was pushed away from the pile of stone.

He didn't feel the grating of stone on the hull. "Is the ship floating?" asked G, still looking at the images.