"Ahem. You seem to have some animosity against mages. Just for clarity bludgeoning or otherwise maiming the ships mage will not be tolerated and retribution will be swift and decisive. At least by the ships mage and presumably the captains as well."
"Any and all others are fair game though as far as I'm concerned. Just save me their books if you can please. "
"Tar'jub good at self-control, and even better at losing it when Captain wants," the imp says with a toothy grin. "Tar'jub agrees to Captain's deal!" Responding to Sparel's caveat, the imp quickly adds, "Tar'jub hates mages, True! But Elf half-mage not so bad. Tar'jub promises not to eat or bludgeon crew, not even mages or elf half-mage. And not interested in books either."
"Also maybe Tar'jub would appreciate more names. 'Elf-half mage' and 'Scary black-haired lady' take too long to say, although 'Captain' not so bad."
"As good-will gesture, Tar'jub offers his mage to Captain. Still fresh! Maybe Captain would enjoy mage even more than Tar'jub! Imp poison extra spicy, so maybe Captain waits a while if that not his preference." Thinking for a moment, he pokes the mage and inquires: "Mage have any objections? No? Ok!"
"My Name is Sparel Radymah. This is Lucrecia Henderthane"
"Sparel i assume your minions can arrange that the mage be properly stowed for later consumption and made a non threat to our ship. Thank you Tar'jub just remember that i prefer the pretty girls"
"Splendid!" Lu exclaims and grins at the inp. "Welcome aboard!"
"The unseen Crew can do nothing more than man the ship. They're of no use in fighting etc. However, I have a solution. Tar'Jub was it? Can you bring him to the hold for me please? Also, Welcome Aboard." Sparel says the last over his shoulder as he walks toward the hold.
Assuming he complies Sparel walks down to the hold and directs TarJub where to lay the body. When the imp unceremoniously drops the prisoner in a corner Sparel waves his hand and the man posture shifts so he's laying flat back, legs together, hands over chest. Sparel then casts a spell and the man turns to stone.
With a "this way" motion to the imp Sparel walks back above deck.
Tar'jub aids Sparel in placing the mage and is surprised when the mage turns to stone. "Tar'jub would not think to petrify mage. Very clever of Sparel!" he says as they head back up to the deck.
Tar'jub aids Sparel in placing the mage and is surprised when the mage turns to stone. "Tar'jub would not think to petrify mage. Very clever of Sparel!" he says as they head back up to the deck.
Sparel turns back, makes a little bow to the imp, then heads back upstairs.
Heading back above deck Sparel stops by the captains quarter,
"Your guest is in the hold. Let me know when you're ready and I'll thaw him out. " With a respectful little nod Sparel continues to the outside decks.
Outside in the sunlight Sparel closes his eye and leans his face toward the sun. He smiles and breathes deeply as he allows it's warmth to cover his face. He thinks to himself, "Immortality via undeath may be a means to an end, but I can find a better way. I'd hate to give up the simple pleasures of sun in ones face and wind at ones back. Plus wine."
At that last thought he returns to the small table and chairs Lu has set up for wine.
He pours himself a glass and sits in an open seat.
"To Alkenstar then." He says raising his glass slightly to Lu. "I wonder what diversions we can find for ourselves while we ride." He takes a sip of wine.
Having returned to the game when Sparel and Tar'jub stoves away the mage, Lu is already busy resetting the board when the elf returns.
"To Alkenstar, and diversions zen!" she lifts her glass in reply while Lima continues to sort the pieces. With a smile Lu leans back. "Myself, I'm content with good company, good wine and a good game. I reckon we will get enough excitement when we close with the mana-wastes. It will be most exciting to see how zey interact wiz ze ship, don't you zink?"
Having returned to the game when Sparel and Tar'jub stoves away the mage, Lu is already busy resetting the board when the elf returns.
"To Alkenstar, and diversions zen!" she lifts her glass in reply while Lima continues to sort the pieces. With a smile Lu leans back. "Myself, I'm content with good company, good wine and a good game. I reckon we will get enough excitement when we close with the mana-wastes. It will be most exciting to see how zey interact wiz ze ship, don't you zink?"
"I hate that place. Most of the fighting was on the ground level. Hopefully we can avoid most of that mess by staying high enough."
"Here's hoping." Raises a glass.
"To hope!" she laughs and refill their glasses. With her eyebrow conspicuously raised, she continues. "Zings will get interesting ozervise..."
"To hope!" she laughs and refill their glasses. With her eyebrow conspicuously raised, she continues. "Zings will get interesting ozervise..."
*clink*
The very next morning, Aiesha took the ship back up (after re-energizing the engine and buying two weeks' worth of food at a local township) into the skies, and it went humming, above the clouds, towards the south.
A simple and uninteresting ten days later, she started to take the ship down below the cloud layer and one afternoon, calls everyone down into the cockpit so that they can all look from the observation window.
Below the ship are two starkly different landscapes. Directly below and behind the ship is a peaceful, idyllic farmland, patrolled by the occasional gleaming golem and populated by healthy-looking people. Just ahead of the ship is a broken, blasted wasteland, where the ground is broken and in jagged, stone edges. Blue patches of a moldlike substance grow in massive patches across this boundless wasteland, though significant amount of it are clear.
Aiesha turns from the helm, ratcheting the velocity lever back to '0', and the ship grinds to a hovering halt. "So," she asks, "How do you think we should approach the Wastes? I've heard they don't even have magic in Alkenstar, and I don't want my baby falling from the sky."
"This is new territory for me. I don't have a map in front of me. Can we fly around this? If not I say we get as much altitude as possible. Perhaps we'll get over all this mess. "
Aiesha shakes her head. "We can fly over it, but the Duchy of Alkenstar is within the Mana Wastes. If we want to get to it, we have to go into the Wastes. I just don't know if it's safe to take the ship into the airspace . What do you think?"
Praetorius has a slightly confused look upon his face and waits a few moments before commenting "Well I have no idea about how anything works but i think an important question is can the Ship fly us to Alkenstar? or are we worried about them shooting us or something?"
"I zink, we are worried zat ze ship hits a dead magic patch and turns into a regular ship. Zey don't fly..." She looks at the map for a moment before putting her finger on a blue line, "Zere appears to be a river zere that runs close to Alkenstar. Does zis ship float? Zen we can take zat paz. We might need wagons ze last part of ze trip, but it should work noh?"
Suddenly realizing an unpleasant possibility
"We're going to have to walk, aren't we? " Clearly Sparel is not happy about the possibility.
"Let me check something."
Sparel casts arcane sight and looks out the window.
After it is determined if that works or not.
"I need to gather some information. I'll be back in about 20 minutes. "
Sparel excuses himself, snapping his fingers for his familiar in the corner to follow him. He goes to his chambers, locks the door, and takes out a eyeless mask covered in script. After putting the mask on and spending the next 10 minutes attuning himself Sparel begins to read as many books as possible on the subject of the mana wastes.
Knowledge:
Arcana
Geography
Local
And for good measure
Spellcraft
Aiesha nods to Lu's question. "Yeah, the ship floats, but we have neither sails nor oars. And with no magic to propel us...if the current doesn't go our way, we're done. And how would be get out of the Mana Wastes?"
Sparel, reading through tomes in quick suggestion, learns a number of things:
Alkenstar is known to be a magic-less kingdom. In fact, it was this lack of magic, and the monstrous, powerful creatures known to infest the Mana Wastes, that prompted the invention of firearms. Devoid of magic, however, is a bit of a simplistic view. While there are portions of the Wastes where magic simply won't function at all (and this includes magic items, constructs, spellcasting, and currently cast spells) there is more of the mana wastes where spells' effects are redirected unpredictably into an effect that is something other than what the caster intended.
Returning to the group,
"We may want to consider getting on with a wagon train going to the city. An experienced one. Unfortunately without my magic I'm just a smart guy with little else to offer. "
"well during the day im just a pale man with a severe sun allergy. I was thinking if it was possible to get high enough that the mana wastes or whatever this blasted land is called wouldn't affect the ship we could just jump into the city. I am always a proponent of using operation Darkness is Falling"
"well during the day im just a pale man with a severe sun allergy. I was thinking if it was possible to get high enough that the mana wastes or whatever this blasted land is called wouldn't affect the ship we could just jump into the city. I am always a proponent of using operation Darkness is Falling"
** spoiler omitted **
"Theoretically staying high enough is the best plan. However, I'm not confident it will work as I do not know how high the mana waste problem zone goes. Also, we can get down, but how will we get the weapons back up to the ship? Or us getting back up for that matter? Getting down is easy. Getting up is hard. "
Tar'jub wanders into the room after having spent some time wandering the ship's corridors investigating any room that wasn't locked.
Tar'jub lands on the table and listens to the discussions with interest. After a while of back and forth, he interrupts to add his opinion. "Tar'jub is ok with flying in. If the boat falls, Tar'jub keeps flying," he says with a smirk on his face. "Maybe Lucrecia's idea is better though for keeping boat in good condition. Sail boat to Alkenstar, easy to load weapons. Otherwise Tar'jub need to fly weapons up to boat. Too much work!"
At this point Belor steps out quietly from the shadows.
"I would vote we not risk taking the ship into Alkenstar until we know what will happen. Be it the possibility of crashing or simply being shot out of the sky, we can not risk the ship in such a manner. I would propose we infiltrate on foot or by carriage."
He begins pacing back and forth as he speaks.
"Once in Alkenstar we can ascertain their feelings towards our ship and its endeavor. Then perhaps we could change their attitudes to more positively towards us. Perhaps we could make them believe we on some more noble journey or maybe we could create some friendly or not friendly contacts and allies inside the foundry."
"Ooh, someone new! Tar'jub not make your acquaintance yet. Pale like Captain? Pointy-toothed too?" the imp says when Belor steps out of the shadows.
Going back to the matter at hand, he adds: "So we go to city, make friends, make deal for guns, then maybe come back and get ship to put cannons in it? Tar'jub ok with that. Tar'jub wonders where a good spot to leave ship would be."
"I will leave the decision to my co-Captain, although it saddens me that we not be able to go by gyrocoptor"
"Perhaps we could hire a tug-boat? Or simply walk, yes ... " Lu comments on the ships lack of non-magic propulsion.
To herself she mumbles. "Maybe we should have zought about zis earlier ..."
Belor smiles at the excited Imp.
"Why yes I am pointy toothed as is our friend here. My name is Belor Silver. It is nice to make your acquaintance."
He Then turns his smile to the rest of the room, getting a little more devious in appearance.
"Well if you want to get there very quickly and discreetly I do have a way to get us around the mana wastes directly into the heart of Alkenstar."
Belor draws a very black looking dagger and shows it to the group.
Very interesting indeed ... "Or perhaps we can simply commission zem by letter or a representative ?"
"Alkenstar is on a river. Can the ship navigate the river or is it too big? If it can then I believe that's our solution. " Thinking a moment. "However, we may need some flesh and blood deck hands as my spell isn't reliable in the mana waste."
"Though if we don't take the river I suggest we approach from the south even if we have to fly all the way around this mess it's the shortest into and out of the waste."
Having a sudden realization Sparel shouts
It was extremely sudden and some may be startled.
"I know of a spell that deals with primal magic to some extent, but there's a hell of a backlash. You see, when the unstable neoformic matrix of the reality genortofobic strands are broken due to artifact level magic the ..."
Sparel goes on to explain the Supress Primal Magic spell and function in far more detail than is necessary. Though most of it was incomprehensible you think you get the gist.
"...However the spell only last for a few minutes. Enough time for me to assist if we get into any real trouble, but not enough for me to saunter through the waste. However, it should be enough time for me to teleport near the city, as it is a dead magic zone, and arrange to meet on the outskirts so I can teleport back in later and then teleport out with the weapons. I have another means to deal with teleporting with that much volume. It may take a few days to get everything, but shouldn't otherwise be a problem. In theory anyway. Alternately, I could craft an item with a continuous effect. That would allow me to saunter through the wastes, though I have little reason to do so on a regular basis. A useful thing to have I suppose, but extremely expensive to craft. I'd have to do some calculations for an exact amount, but I'm certain it wouldn't be cheap."
"Edit, or perhaps I can go in and hire a knowledgable caravan to bring the cannons out to us. I'm sure this isn't the first time the cannon makers guild has dealt with this exact issue. They probably have such people on standby."
"Or I could teleport us all in. We hire a caravan and guard it on the way out. "
" Further, I believe that I will be able to see the null and primal magic zones if I have a certain spell up. However, in order to make it permanent and therefore useful for our entire trip i'd need a certain amount of diamond dust. That's just a theory, but we can test it before we go into the wastes. Hell, if that works we could theoretically fly closer to the city and navigate the wastes by avoiding null and primal magic zones. That's just a theory, however. "
Map
"Alkenstar is on a river. Can the ship navigate the river or is it too big? If it can then I believe that's our solution. " Thinking a moment. "However, we may need some flesh and blood deck hands as my spell isn't reliable in the mana waste."
Map
"Alkenstar is on a river. Can the ship navigate the river or is it too big? If it can then I believe that's our solution. " Thinking a moment. "However, we may need some flesh and blood deck hands as my spell isn't reliable in the mana waste."
"Yes, zat sounds good. But we would hardly need to come would we?"
"Yes, zat sounds good. But we would hardly need to come would we?"
"Well, my concern is more about the city. The entirety of it is anti magic. I'm not especially interested in being in such a place without some muscle around. "
"Well, zat is a compelling argument I suppose ..."
"Well it seems perhaps it would be best to hire a caravan although we may also want to take the Gyrocoptor to have air support especially if we must fight during the day, Me and Belor are less than helpful at such a time and Sparel may also be unhelpful thanks to this blasted land. If anyone objects to this plan speak now"
"How much do these cannons weigh a piece? I may have an idea to simplify this even more."
When prompted to do so.
"I could permanently bring an outsider, i'm thinking elder air elemental, to the prime material. There are other options if the air elemental isn't strong enough. I was hoping it would be enough because of it's speed. Regardless, once it's here it's no longer a magical affect. It will simply be as you or I are. Assuming it can carry at least one of the cannons we can bargain with it to aid us in return for some sort of reward. "
"Tar'jub have another idea! Bind elder water elemental instead and make it push boat in water. Then we take in boat and no one suspicious of flying ability."
"Tar'jub have another idea! Bind elder water elemental instead and make it push boat in water. Then we take in boat and no one suspicious of flying ability."
"That would probably work. "
"Sparel that sounds good enough if Aiesha is ok with that course of action then let us take it."
"So we will sail ze ship trough ze Mana-wastes ? Hmhmp. A fascinating trip, no doubt ..."
Oh my, interesting indeed. I wonder - should I come or ... hide perhaps?
"it'll take a few bound elementals to push the ship in the river. More if you want it to go fast. They'll need to be compensated. I'll prepare the necessary spells for tomorrow."
"Very good Thaumaturge, Lucrecia I assume you will be able to guarantee his safety."
looking over to Aiesha
"I apologize for defiling this magnificent ship with the taint of such a land but once we have our cannons we may truly undertake glorious voyage"