Liriel winces from her wounds but collects herself again. "More bad luck at the gambling tables, Liam? You really should be more selective about whom you put yourself in debt to. Perhaps one might take this as a sign from the Gods to make an early departure from town once we've worked out where you're going to take us then?"
"Er...It's nothing too important, just a contractual obligation dispute." Liam walks over to the sleeping bugbear and places his wand against it's temple. He triggers it for a coup de grace.
"Yes my first mate will be here in a bit and then we can leave, in the meantime care to tell me the details of your trip?"
"Er...It's nothing too important, just a contractual obligation dispute." Liam walks over to the sleeping bugbear and places his wand against it's temple. He triggers it for a coup de grace.
Elvom winces as Liam executes the bugbear.
"Yes my first mate will be here in a bit and then we can leave, in the meantime care to tell me the details of your trip?"
"Very well. Being dispossessed of them, your secrets are safe with me." Elvom replies with a polite nod. "Our trip is due to Liriel's research; she will be best suited to explain the route to you."
Elvom walks over to Lyre. "Walk with me."
Taking over a secluded table nook, Liriel starts laying out the copies she made of the maps she found at Margrave. "This basically is the area we're going to practise some treasure hunting in. What I need for you to do is to take us there and if possible pick us back up in a week. I don't need you take us all the way back to Sharn, dropping us off at a lightning rail station would do nicely. And I'll look over your engines on the way up. Besides from the way things look, I'd warrantyou weren't planning on laying over in town that long anyway."
Taking over a secluded table nook, Liriel starts laying out the copies she made of the maps she found at Margrave. "This basically is the area we're going to practise some treasure hunting in. What I need for you to do is to take us there and if possible pick us back up in a week. I don't need you take us all the way back to Sharn, dropping us off at a lightning rail station would do nicely. And I'll look over your engines on the way up. Besides from the way things look, I'd warrantyou weren't planning on laying over in town that long anyway."
Liam nods sagely. "That sounds acceptable."
A female elf with long blonde hair enters the cabin and approaches the table.
"What's with the monster corpses outside, Liam?" She asks.
"Pariem! Where have you been?" Liam inquires, ignoring her question. "Liriel this is my first mate, one of the finest sorceresses I've ever met." He introduces her.
The elf raises an eyebrow and then a hand, offering to shake. "Pleased to meet you." She says.
A female elf with long blonde hair enters the cabin and approaches the table.
"What's with the monster corpses outside, Liam?" She asks.
"Pariem! Where have you been?" Liam inquires, ignoring her question. "Liriel this is my first mate, one of the finest sorceresses I've ever met." He introduces her.
The elf raises an eyebrow and then a hand, offering to shake. "Pleased to meet you." She says.
Sorcery huh? Must be real handy not having to clunk around a spellbook! I'm Liriel Opaline, "Liriel" or "Opal" to my friends. Formerly Engineer First Standing on Ceran's Folly. I hear it's been raining burnt gargoyles lately." Liriel takes her hand and shakes it with great enthuisasm.
Lyre nods at whatever Elvom is saying.
Although what about Liriel?
She terminated her prior relationship without compensation. In my experience, one does not walk away from money earned without reason.
Also, she strikes me as the kind who keeps her friends close but her enemies closer.Elvom looks over at Liriel shaking hands with Pariem.
"Shall we have a look around the ship?"
Sorcery huh? Must be real handy not having to clunk around a spellbook! I'm Liriel Opaline, "Liriel" or "Opal" to my friends. Formerly Engineer First Standing on Ceran's Folly. I hear it's been raining burnt gargoyles lately." Liriel takes her hand and shakes it with great enthuisasm.
Pariem smiles and shakes your hand firmly. "An engineer? That will be nice, our current Mek-Head is a nice fellow but, well, I'm not sure he knows what he is doing." She looks at Liam and sighs. Liam just shrugs with a 'I've tried my best' look on his face.
"Shall we have a look around the ship?"
The Leaping Sphinx is an advanced skyship with spacious and richly appointed quarters. It has fallen on hard times however and the signs of multiple emergency repairs are obvious on it's hull and superstructure. Still you have no doubt that it is probably one of the fastest and most agile airships in the sky. As you poke around the ship you find it has all the amenities and resources you would expect from a small castle, with a libary, forges, crew quarters and even a sparring hall for martial training.
The Leaping Sphinx is an advanced skyship with spacious and richly appointed quarters. It has fallen on hard times however and the signs of multiple emergency repairs are obvious on it's hull and superstructure. Still you have no doubt that it is probably one of the fastest and most agile airships in the sky. As you poke around the ship you find it has all the amenities and resources you would expect from a small castle, with a libary, forges, crew quarters and even a sparring hall for martial training.
Elvom walks around inside, admiring the ship and making small talk with the crew.
First place that Liriel goes to is the engine room to refamilliarise herself with the engine and the repairs she made last time she was here.
As you enter the engine room, a massive place of glowing crystals and sorcerous turbines, an older gnome with a wild white beard and ridiculously oversized goggles falls from the engines scaffolding with a curse and lands on his rear end in front of you. His toolbox tumbles after him and he shields his head with his hands as equipment is scattered everywhere.
"Dagnabit!" He curses. "I cracked another power coupling!"
Getting to his feet he spots you for the first time. "Eh? Who are you?" He inquires.
"Oi! be careful with that! I spent 20 screaming seconds bolting that into place while a very angry dragon was chewing into this boat for toothpicks. Took me 2 more days to finish adjusting it afterwards."
The gnome looks rather ashamed. "Eheh, sorry I'm rather new to engineering." He says. "I'm still adjusting my workstyle. Caranden Twinkletoes at your service." He says, rubbing a grubby hand clean on his overalls and then offering it to shake.
"Liriel Opaline, pleased to meet you." She takes the hand and shakes it vigorously. "You'd better learn to be light and fast on those twinkle toes if you're going to last under Liam."
Twinkletoes sighs. "So true." He replies then turns back to collect his scattered tools.
You take a look at the engine and feel a sigh of your own coming on at its state of disrepair. Caranden tried his best no doubt but it looks like you have days of work ahead of you before the engine is in tip top shape again.
"Liriel Opaline, pleased to meet you." She takes the hand and shakes it vigorously. "You'd better learn to be light and fast on those twinkle toes if you're going to last under Liam."Twinkletoes sighs. "So true." He replies then turns back to collect his scattered tools.
You take a look at the engine and feel a sigh of your own coming on at its state of disrepair. Caranden tried his best no doubt but it looks like you have days of work ahead of you before the engine is in tip top shape again.
"Tell you what, Carenden. Get something to eat... get us both something to eat. And make it a good meal, we're going to be here awhile." Liriel starts unpacking her tools and sets them to order.
The Leaping Sphinx launches soon after, all aboard agreeing leaving sooner is better. That night the Captain invites you to dine at his table with his first mate for a sumptuous feast.
"So tell me..." Liam asks as he spears a pile of sweetmeats with a long fork. "You say you're on a treasure hunt, what treasure are you looking for specifically?"
"So tell me..." Liam asks as he spears a pile of sweetmeats with a long fork. "You say you're on a treasure hunt, what treasure are you looking for specifically?"
Elvom looks to Lyre and then to Liriel. Only a precious few seconds, but the silence following Liam's question seems to stretch on for nearly a week.
Finally Elvom gives Liam a serious look.
"Merely a bauble..." Elvom offers. "...with a terrible past. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can dispose of it. We shouldn't eve..."
Elvom catches a hard glance from Liriel, and abruptly stops speaking.
"The sickness?" Liam inquires. "Terrible I hear, you're looking for a treasure that can cure that? Hmmm." He says, scratching his goatee. "There certainly can be money in cures."
Pariem rolls her eyes at her Captains mercenary attitude. "It sounds like their on a mission of mercy Liam, let's try and not take gold from the pockets of suffering innocents this week, hmmm?"
Liam has the good graces to look at least a little abashed. "Not from the poor, certainly." He replies. "But I'm sure their are some well to do suffering as well..."
Pariem shakes her head with a long suffering expression on her face. "I'm not sure if I've encountered many Shifters with money, what do you think Lyre? Do your communities tend to have an excess of wealth?"
"Generally not" Lyre responds not sounding all that comfortable with the way the discusion is going.
"Fear not, the Captain is merely a business man." comforts Elvom, "Finding opportunities to turn a profit is his trade."
Elvom ponders the best way to turn a shark off the scent of blood.
"For all we know, the cure will spread as uncontrollably as the sickness."
Elvom looks to Pariem for help.
"It would be quite expensive to enumerate every recipient and demand payment; especially those who do not witness our provision of such."
"That's true." Pariem replies. "And you know how much trouble magic has caused us in the past Liam, best just transport these fine folks and look for that one big score elsewhere, it will come to us eventually."
"Fine." Liam says, blowing out a sigh. "At this rate I will never get to retire will I?"
Suddenly the skyship shudders, suffering from some impact and an alarm begins to wail. "Captain we are under attack! Come to the bridge!" A voice declares over the internal vox speakers.
"Damn!" Liam shouts standing up and tipping over his chair.
"Will you join us?" Pariem inquires of you as Liam races from the room. "We might need your help..."
The bridge is a sunken down bay surrounding a raised command chair. Strange instruments and glowing panels fill this pit and crewmen are bustling back and forth between them. You can tell at a glance that piloting a skyship is nothing like steering it's nautical equivalent.
Overhead a glass dome protects you from the wind and you have a pretty good angle to see much of what is occurring outside. A dozen Harpies circle the ship as more are arriving off the port bow, the new arrivals carry what look like barrels that they fling one at a time at the skyship, which explode on impact.
Liam hisses in frustration as his crew tries to turn the vessel away from the flying pests, unfortunately even a ship as agile as this one cannot outmaneuver creatures with natural flight.
As Liam shouts at the crew, cursing their inadequacies, Pariem turns to you.
"Join me on the Deck? Let's see if we can't chase away these beasts!"
"Especially since they've gone to all the trouble of bringing their own defeat with them. Time for some skeet shooting! Let's get on the combat deck, I know the way!"
As her opening move, Liriel is going to wait until the Harpies carrying barrels come into range and then lob a fireball into their ranks.
As the three harpies still armed with barrels approach they are suddenly engulfed by what looks alike a black storm cloud that descends rapidly from the sky and they seem to disintegrate within it's core. The cloud descends, lightning crackling along its length to land on the deck of the ship. You realize it's some kind of elemental or perhaps an ooze as it extends crackling pseudopods toward you in a hostile manner.
Initiative
Elvombor +7
Liriel +6
Lyre +3
???? +0
As the three harpies still armed with barrels approach they are suddenly engulfed by what looks alike a black storm cloud that descends rapidly from the sky and they seem to disintegrate within it's core. The cloud descends, lightning crackling along its length to land on the deck of the ship. You realize it's some kind of elemental or perhaps an ooze as it extends crackling pseudopods toward you in a hostile manner.
Seeing the lightning slither across the pseudopods, Elvom realizes this is probably going to be a magic-only type fight. Not in possession of a magic weapon of his own, Elvom draws the Warhammer +1 he picked up from the fight on the bridge.
"Oh, this will hurt..." Elvom grimaces, "...but at least it's not a fire elemental."
Elvom swings at the Warhammer +1 at the lightning ooze.
Seeing the hammer that Elvombor has drawn, Liriel gives him an encouraging smile.
"I'll see what I can do with your weapon in a moment, but first lets give you some protection against what it's going to try to do." She touchs his armor, casting an Armor Enhancement infusion to give his armor the property of Electrical Resistance 20.