[Someone can give me a Perception or Investigation check to see if there's anything else of interest in the cavern]

Investigation: 9

Zaius lets out a sigh of relief as the spectators leave the cavern, then shrugs as Erma wants to continue exploring the cavern.  ‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh?  Let’s see what else is hidden around here.”  He gives the cavern a quick scan.  Perception: 8.

. (OOC on vacation through the weekend and posting will be slower than usual.  Please bot if needed.)

Zaius and Roy find nothing of much interest. There's a few slightly pretty rocks that the ogre seems to have collected, but on closer inspection they turn out to just be fairly worthless quartz.

You head back aboard your vessel, and hand over the bag of holding to Boatswain Tarto as Saerthe slips past the other tyrant ships on patrol and sets course for Toril. "Now comes the easy part," Tarto says, lighting a fresh cigar.

…

It has been a few uneventful days, except for the revelation that Saerthe is an excellent dragonchess player. Tarto continues your training to keep your edge and stave off boredom. You've now memorized each card in the Wildspace creature silhouettes deck she brought along.

You're gathered on the Command Deck at mealtime when Saerthe says, "Feels like an asteroid coming up on us." As the ship slows down, Saerthe remarks, "I'm sure I'm right but go get a visual to confirm."

Tarto hands you back the sending stone. "Just in case. Now go stretch them legs."

Erma looks at others and says, "What exactly are you expecting us to do? Be on guard for anything or something more specific?"

"Just get a look and report back," Tarto replies curtly.

"A spelljammer can feel the mass of something nearby in wildspace," Saerthe expands, in what you've come to recognise as their lecture voice, "and if they're as fabulous as I am, get a sense of things like density and shape, too. Hence: 'asteroid', not 'ship'."

"But I don't like surprises, there's no substitute for a good set of eyeballs, and I don't know if you've noticed, there's not a lot of windows in this hunk of rock," Tarto gestures with her cigar to the plain stone walls all around you. "So, go stick your head out and make certain. One of them big holes in the side of the hollow deck'd be my choice," she suggests dismissively.

Roy looks around for whatever passes as a “space suit” (not sure if it’s needed or not, if not retcon) to don and take a look outside both for what Saerthe described, and a closer look at the “rock” they were flying on/in.

[No suit is needed, you'd be aware that the air envelope extends some distance out from the "hull" of the ship.]

You head down to the hollow deck, where you can look out into wildspace through the large openings in the bell of the ship. A rocky debris field floats just outside your ship's air envelope. About half a mile away, a pock-marked asteroid rotates slowly. The asteroid is at least three times larger than your vessel.

[Make a Perception check; Vehicle (space) proficiency applies, if you have it.]

“Aye, Boatswain!” Zaius, eager for some action after a few boring days, leaps to his feet and follows Roy to the hollow deck.  “Now, what do ya make of that?”  he asks Roy as he squints his eyes and tries to make sense of the large asteroid nearby.  Perception (with space vehicle proficiency) 18.

.

Zaius catches a brief glint of reflected starlight, as if by a metallic vessel of some kind, before it disappears behind the asteroid.

Perception: 6

Roy just sees a really big rock floating among the smaller debris. [Guess what the DC was?]

Erma is staying in the tunnels and calls out, "Anything interesting?"

"Do you want me to go report back so you can keep watch?"

Roy shrugs, “All I see is a really big rock….. I guess that’s the asteroid she’s referring to?”

Zaius shakes his head “No, there is something else there. Look!  It is the glint of a ship behind the asteroid”  He points toward the rock and calls back to Erma “Warn the others and tell them to get ready.  I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like the looks of this.”  Zaius keeps an eye on the asteroid, looking for any additional sign of the ship.

Erma scrambles back to the command deck or wherever they just came from and says, "One of ours believes that it might not be just one thing - that there might be a ship hiding behind the asteroid and sneaking closer. Any new instructions?"

"Probably pirates," Tarto replies to Erma, "They're known to be active around here. Doubt they'd try to bother a beholder ship though."

Meanwhile though, those back on the hollow deck see a strange distortion in space moments before a winged, sharklike creature appears in front of them. It has blue skin, four wings, and a hornlike protrusion on its head. An armored figure rides on its back. The rider says, "Hail to you. I've come to retrieve something that is of interest to my employer. Please produce the human named Miken Haverstance, and all will be well."

Roy looks at Zaius, shrugs, looks back at the rider replying, “Who?”

Zaius snorts and looks at the newcomer and his flying creature sideways “Doesn’t ring a bell.  What does your employer want with this character and who in the bloody hells might you be?”

"Come now, our agents confirmed that he was sent aboard this vessel, and that he completed, shall we call it, 'his mission'? Why risk your lives in this lie to protect a traitor? I assume you must have discovered his deception by now. I'm afraid I must demand that you hand over the human to me immediately." The githyanki shifts her weight and tightens her grip on the reigns in such a way that somehow draws you attention to the extremely sharp-looking horn of her mount.

To Zaius's second question, she replies, "I am called Qitru, and I serve at the pleasure of Vocath the mercane, Hero of Fyreen, Lord of the Fifth Moon of En, Judge Supreme of the Arena of Blood. My lord wishes simply to reward the human, as promised, for services rendered. I confess I do not understand the degree of my employer's interest in the creature, to have committed so many of his assets in this system to his extraction, but I follow my lord's orders without question nor compunction," she finishes threateningly.