Shazay Jordan- Great Alluvial Sand Wastes, Athas
Dusty pounded down the vast tracts of sun-blasted sand that so many of Athas's worst creatures call home. Though a number of creatures were plenty of monsters dwelling within these sands, only one would fit Shazay's purposes-- only one held enough edible meat to be sent to the Necbromancer: the Mekillot.
A beast thirty feet long and weighing six tons, the Mekillot is one of Athas's most infamous theoretically-domesticated animals. Though it is often put to good use pulling mobile cities and caravans of impossible worth, a Mekillot is never truly tamed unless actively controlled by a powerful psionicist. If not, it retains all the same animal dumbness and stubbornness commonly found in cattle-- stuffed into a body as big as a school bus and weighing the same amount. Mekillots are famous for both their fantastic weight capacity and their habit of crushing and eating their masters.
The Mekillot Shazay was hunting for had, until recently, been one of Thunderbolt City's premier beasts of burden and mascots. Where most mascots have friendly or inspirational names like "Scaly" or "Stalwart", this one had a name that encompassed its role in life quite well: "You Bastard". You Bastard was presently engaged in mortal combat with a lesser Earth Drake. The Earth Drake, bleeding from several gaping bite wounds, did not appear to be appreciating the important lessons it was learning from this experience. For the moment, You Bastard was occupied.
Shazay Jordan stared intently at the radar on the dashboard. It depicted a set of green dots on a circular framed landscape, much like the last eight times Shazay checked it. Confident that he would not be evaded by a reptile the size of a school bus, Shazay grinned madly. As Dusty crested the immense dune in front of him, the Mekillot's form gradually showed itself.
Shazay thumped on Dusty's metal roof, trying to catch Frederick and George's attention.
"Ay! We got our target! You see the big lizard up there eatin' the other big lizard? We're gonna throw barrels at it! Nut up an' get ready!"
Julius Aldo, Sindibad Darude, Jack Morgan - Unknown Archipelago, Antagarich
It was just a short trip through the teleporter room to reach Antagarich. A quick transfer of coordinates to the attending Jawa, a flash of light, several infinite expanses of space at extra-relativistic speeds travelled, and there they were.
Describing Antagarich is nearly impossible, though the most concise word that describes it is "convenient". It's quite convenient how almost all of the land is traversable on horseback. It's quite convenient how the only resources one could find on the magic-blasted earth of Antagarich is the only resources needed for, say, one warlord to wage wholesale war on another. It's quite convenient how nearly every life form on the planet is not only entirely willing to fight to the death for glory and gold, but that it is willing to do so for a small one-time payment. It is especially quite convenient that the inhabitants of this world are so skilled at creating immensely valuable and immensely useful trinkets, but are so awful at actually holding onto them. This last point would serve the party present quite well.
By the standards of the many warlords (known as Heroes, after their penchant for leading vast armies and dying horribly in narratively-appropriate ways), Julius Aldo and his army was far from up to snuff. In the world of tobacco metaphors, Julius' army was a plug of coca leaves: certainly unable to compete with the others, but they didn't need to. For Julius' needs, Sindibad Darude and Jack Morgan would be more than enough.
All that Sindibad (and, by extension, Julius and Jack) needed from this world was a pendant: The Pendant of Death. He didn't know what it looked like, but "a necklace with a skull on it" would be a fairly good start. In due time, Sindibad would realize, with equal glee and disappointment, that his assumption was wholly correct. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of lost trinkets scattered across the world would mean that Sindibad could end up with several dozen priceless artifacts long before he even saw a glimpse of the Pendant. For all he knew, it could be in the possession of the greatest Hero on the continent, or it could be in the possession of a shipwrecked survivor, or it could be trapped deep in the bowels of a mighty dragon's ship. Luckily, Sindibad would not have to spend much time on foot.
With another bright flash, a very nice aerial vehicle came into being right behind Sindibad.
With room for three plus half a ton of cargo and controls so simple a lobotomized alien could fly it, the Combine Hunter-Chopper is the one useful thing Shadow Eternity had ransacked from its respective universe. However, the orange crystals that glowed when you shot zero-point energy into it were a very interesting party favor, for what little other use they had.
Sindibad whistled reverently at the Hunter-Chopper. He ran his fingers along the chopper's canopy-- glass reinforced with elements hitherto-unknown to mankind, and now used exclusively for tempering the materials used in police helicopters. For some, it was the perfect sign of phenomenal scientific advances being used for bloodshed. For others, it made the glass reflect light in a very fascinating way and blocked more bullets than regular bulletproof glass. Whatever its effects on the human psyche, Sindibad was absolutely thrilled at the possibility of using this mighty vehicle.
As Sindibad stepped into the pilot seat, Julius and Jack settled in wherever they could find space. Without its supply of mines, the inside of the chopper was uncomfortably roomy. It cried out for someone to fill it-- with explosives, with riches, with corpses... anything would do.
