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All right, I've had to come to a decision. I just don't have the time for PBP anymore with the daughter and my work schedule. I am withdrawing from all my games. I thank you greatly for the good times, and sincerely apologize for any amount of your time that I've wasted these last months. Dien thanks for coming and playing, sorry it didn't work out.
In a matter of moments both of the crossbow wielding guards are down, one to a combination of a slash from Droskar's sword, a gouge from Austru's beak, and finally Aurica's arrow. The other guard looks on in horror, but before he can react, a particularly large shard of ice from Lailani's blast rams into his throat. He drops to his knees shuddering and groping for the shard. He succeeds at removing it, only to immediately pass out as blood gushes from the nearly fist sized wound. The remaining guard turns and runs back the way he came heading toward the farm wall where the trap door lies.
One of the guards, finding himself suddenly surrounded, breaks and runs inside the open door, though he receives a nasty gash from Droskar's sword and a dent in his armor from Maleghk's hammer in the process. Once he gets inside he fumbles at his pouch for a moment, retrieving a clear glass vial bearing a light blue colored liquid. The other crossbow bearing guard runs inside as well, before turning and launching a bolt at Maleghk. The guard's offbalance shot only manages to drive a bolt into the dirt at the dwarf's feet however. Lastly, the large, axe-wielding guard that Aurica saw earlier hustles into the room at the sounds of the commotion.
Sorry. I should have posted this a while ago, one of my coworkers is out with cancer for a few months and I've been covering some of his shifts. Another of my coworkers took vacation this past weekend, so I've worked like 16 of the last 18 days, 12 hour shifts. I have a day off on Thursday, so I think I can get us going again then. Thron has borrowed a computer from someone and so should be able to post. Many apologies, I'll try to keep it consistent once we start again.
At the sounds of Aurica activating the wand, the woman in the room turns around, and seeing no one, says "Who's there!?!" in a frantic voice. Aurica completes her casting and the stirge appears outside the door. It tries to sink its long proboscis into one of the guards, but can only find armor. One of the guards shouts "Wha' tha' hells? Kill this damned thing." The woman inside is alarmed at the guard's shouting and crouches in the corner beside the desk, her arms covering her head. She appears to be obviously no threat to anyone. ______________________________________________________
A pair of guards stand in front of a slightly ajar door. Aurica slips between them, brushing the door as she passes, and causing it to creak. Both of the guards turn at the noise, but, of course, cannot see the invisible Aurica. "Musta been this damned wind off the lake," one of them remarks in a thick Arcadian accent. The other man merely grunts and shrugs in response. Inside, Aurica sees a rather cluttered warehouse floor, with some (to her) strange metal barrels sitting in front of a smaller space. A woman stands in front of a desk in one corner of the room, staring intently at a sheave of papers in her hands. In the next room and giant stack of boxes, chests, and barrels takes up nearly the entire room. The stack rests upon a large pallet with wheels. Two large metal rings protrude from the pallet, a rope tied to each, the loose ends carefully coiled at the base of it on the floor. A man stands guard in front of a shelf near the wide loading door on the north wall. After a short search Aurica finds a trapdoor in the southeast corner of this room, mostly hidden beneath to rolling pallet.
After listening to your conversation a while, Phaerine speaks up again, "If you can accomplish this with stealth, it would certainly impress me, however, if that fails, speed will be of the essence. It will be easy to bribe the Zephyrian Guard to stop investigating as long as you aren't in their custody." A grimace comes over her face as she continues, "If you fall into ARAL's hands, however, they will likely kill you and the other operatives, as their location has been compromised." "One last thing," she says, drawing a small bag from one of her desk drawers, "this is 500 zephyrs, use it to get anything you need for this mission. Now, may the gods be with you, good luck, and all speed."
Sorry if that post is a little bit dense. Phaerine is one of my favorite characters I've ever made, so I may have gone overboard on my descriptions of her. I'll get a handout thingie for your warehouse sketch done after I get home. Switching back to nightshift tonight, so I'll be up all night, hopefully.
The next morning dawns and Lailani, an early riser, rounds up the rest of the group. You leave the apartment building in the predawn light, columns of smoke still perpetually rising over the city. After a brisk hour's walk, the five of you (counting Austru) reach an opening in the cliffs, and Lailani expertly leads you up a series of tunnels, spiraling ever upward, eventually emerging atop the cliffs. From here the entire city is laid out before you, a sea of stone, wood, metal, and people extending from the cliffs to Lake Zephyr. Lailani leads you on, heading toward one of the compounds on the top of the cliff, one of KAESCo's airship foundries, this one specializing in custom work. The sun is fully above the horizon as Lailani flashes her identification to the guards, who then allow you pass through the gates and into the yard. The pearl elf leads the group across the yard, avoiding areas where airships are being assembled, to a small (compared to the hangars around the yard) building marked 'Main Office'. The inside of the building is well appointed in a utilitarian manner, all the wood a fine grain, the floors umblemished granite tiles. A young copper elf man nods to Lailani and says "Lady de Celeste will see you in her office." He gestures down the hallway, an action of habit, as he is quite aware that Lailani knows where Phaerine's office is. Lailani leads you to the room, an unassuming and unmarked door in the middle of a long hallway bearing many such doors. The kineticist knocks which is immediately followed by a feminine voice calling "Enter," from within the room behind the door. Upon stepping through the doorway you see that unlike the rest of the building, the furniture in Phaerine's office is lavish. Deep brown upholstery, with touches of golden thread, and gold threaded buttons covers the two chairs and the short couch arranged in front of her desk. The desk itself is reddish stained cherry wood, its top covered in carefully arranged papers, trays, and a large crystal pedestal bowl holding chocolates that sits in one corner. A number of paintings decorate the walls, some are landscapes, depicting Lake Zephyr, Zephyria, and the last a place unfamiliar to all of you. Another is a hunting scene, two men on horseback follwing a group of dogs chasing a strange looking stag-like creature. The final two are portraits, one of a middle aged man and woman in noble finery, the other of a young boy playing with a child's toy on a lawn. All the other accoutrements in the office are as fine as the rest, from the heavy drapes on the window, down to the gold pen in Phaerine's hand. The woman herself fits the office she sits in. She wears a crimson dress slashed with white, a bit of golden embroidery decorating the neckline and sleeves. Her short-cropped brown hair bears a golden barrette and she wears a bit of makeup to enhance her natural beauty. As the four of you enter the room she rises, bringing her golden hilted sword and ivory handled revolver into view. What appeared to be a dress while she sat is not really a dress at all, but instead she wears close fitting crimson trousers and a gold-embroidered white half-skirt that covers only her right leg. The white slashing of the top seamlessly transitions into the half-skirt, and is altogether a rather dashing look. "Prompt as always, Lailani," the human woman says in her strange accent, smiling. "We were going to send you over to Vashalle tomorrow, but an issue's come up, and I want you all to handle it." A frown crosses her face, followed by a look of deep concern. "While the city has a government that nominally rules it, in reality the major corporations pull all the strings via bribes, or straight out intimidation. Obviously, different corporations have different goals, and each is vying for the power of the city government. Markaas doesn't like this shadow war, but is forced to play along in self defense, since he nearly lost the company when he tried to stay out of it. Anyhow, the point at hand is that a couple of members of the security force under Octavius' command have been captured and are being held in one of ARAL's warehouses in the warehouse district of the old city. They're probably being tortured for information that ARAL can use against us. We want you to get them out." Phaerine retrieves a folder from the top-left drawer of her desk and hands it to Lailani. "That folder contains dossiers on the two captured agents as well as the location of the warehouse and a sketch of the inside of the building. Don't ask how I got the sketch. Read it all, memorize it, and burn it. There's simply too many people around the warehouse district both day and night to do this quietly, though I still recommend night time, so this will be a smash and grab type of operation. Do it quickly and get out. The last piece of paper in the file is where you need to take the operatives once you've freed them. Any questions?"
"Don' get lost dwarfies." Kregas says as you depart, her tone mocking. "Just waddle on up tha stairs ta fine ya room." She smirks and returns to sitting at the small desk beside the entrance. No one stops Aurica from taking Austru into her room, which happens to be up two flights of spiraling stairs, the first more like ascending platforms, intended to accomodate gemmil who are bunking on the first floor up, the second much more narrow. Each floor has ten apartments, save the gemmil floor which has only six, and the ground floor which has only eight. A stairwell rests at one end of the long hallway that runs through each floor, and doors to each apartment sit along the hall at regular intervals. At the far end of each hall an open doorway leads into a communal latrine, complete with small curtained stalls. The latrines lack any gendered segmentation. The ground floor has a bathing pool, open to all inhabitants of the apartment building. KAESCo has installed running water in the building, for both waste disposal and bathing purposes. The small, spartan apartments consist of three rooms each, a bedroom, sitting room, and kitchen. The kitchen is stocked with a small amount of non-perishable foods, such as vegetables and fruits sealed in glass jars with metal tops. (Think Ball brand glass jars for example) The sitting room has a couch and a pair of wooden chairs arranged around a low rectangular table, a small bookcase with a selection of popular books rests in the corner of each. The bedroom consists of a single bed and a chest of drawers. The things in Aurica and Maleghk's rooms are slightly too large for them, sized for humans and elves, but workable. The things in Droskar's room are larger, sized for gemmil and generally at the proper size for him, though the bed is esentially useless to him, as it is designed for one that is humanoid in shape. Lailani's room is like the others, though it has been decorated as she sees fit.
Lailani leads the group back across the river, this time walking across one of the broad pathways on either side of the Rail Bridge. Another three-quarters of an hour later they come upon a six story building in one of the nicer districts in town. Inside, wide hallways contain a series of doors on each side, and a stairway at the end of the hall. Lailani:
This is an apartment building owned by KAESCo where they put up their security forces. You've lived here for a number of years, up to you on the exact amount. As you enter the building, a gemmil woman approaches you and says, "'Ey dere queenie," she looks over the group and continues, "Must be tha provincials ya takin' ta Vashalle wit' ya." She walks to a small counter against the wall and grabs a list, looking over it. After perusing it for a few moments, she says, "Ponyboy gets 13, n' the shorties got 26 n' 29." Lailani: The gemmil woman is Ennie Kregas, originally from Arcadia. She's a generally infuriating person, who may or may not have started the tradition of calling you 'Ice Queen' or 'Frost Queen'. Sadly, she's also undeniably very talented, at least as talented as you are. She's talented with fire and has shown the first hints of a talent with water, and therefore the extremely desirable steam. She's been a part of the security forces since a few years before you joined. The reason why she's on such a lowly duty as this is that like most militaries, the KAESCo security forces rotate through all the basic jobs like cooking, cleaning, and keeping watch, regardless of individual talent. Ennie is taking another group with her to Vashalle around the same time you do.
Lailani leads the group onto one of the passenger cars at another platform, bypassing any fees by flashing her KAESCo identification card to the security staff. After a very brief ride, the group makes their way off the train after passing over the Castrium. The bridge over the Castrium here is called the 'Rail Bridge' as it is the only crossing point of the Castrium for trains. Here on the eastern bank, a large yard is used to transfer goods between Arcadian Rail and GMT cars, since the two companies use different gauges of track. A few entire cars are lifted by crane between the tracks, specially designed to fit into an undercarriage that bears the wheels of the car. Passengers, like the group, can reach the river bank by going down long ramps that stretch to the north and south. Lailani leads the group to the south, along the riverbank, toward a long belt of green visible from the top of the ramp. It seems to be mostly free of the smoke that pervades the rest of the city. Small bridges lead out to a pair of small islands, that also seem to be part of the park. The air in the park is much fresher. Groves of many kinds of trees dot the rolling plain of the park, and a cool breeze blows off the river. In the distance to the south you can see a enormous hollow in the rock over half a mile deep, carved by the river over millenia, and resulting in the huge waterfall known as Castrium falls.
Sorry about the delay. Between work and taking care of the little one by myself (her mother has a part time job now), and trying to get this map done, I got behind. The map should be posted on Roll20 tonight or tomorrow depending on how busy work is and what stuff I have to do at home. You can find pretty much anything you could find in late 1800s London here. So until I get the map posted, I can roll with whatever you guys want to explore, or we can move on to the meeting the next day.
The next morning dawns in much the same way as the last few have: the klack-klack of wheels on rails, and a well made breakfast delivered by the staff of the rail line. A few hours after dawn, the grey cliffs appear on the horizon and the group spots their first airship, zooming past them, heading westward. Phaerine points out the floating disc that is Upper Zephyria, still barely more than a speck in the sky at this distance. Lailani:
You recognize the ship as a GZAC Zephyr I, the most common ship among non-corporate owners, and an extremely common sight to those who frequent the skydocks where you occasionally works security. Another hour later, the train is running alongside the cliffs, and airship sightings are becoming more and more common by the minute. The train makes stops at a few smaller cities and towns, on its path to Zephyria, at one point stopping a half hour to exchange the half-burnt, hole-riddled cargo car for another of the same model, this one also bearing the blue-on-bronze KAESCo logo on the side. As you continue on the towns and cities grow closer and closer together until, excepting signs posted alongside the railway, there is no longer any way to tell when you've left the boundaries of one and entered another. Dwellings and other buildings begin to appear on top of and built directly into the cliffs, growing more frequent as you continue east, until they too seem to have no end. Shortly before noon, the train rounds a long curve and the cliffs sweep back to the south revealing Zephyria in all its soot-stained splendor. Your position on a rise descending into the city gives you an excellent view. The three miles between the cliffs and Lake Zephyr are completely covered by the city. To the south, innumerable circular platforms jut out from the top of the cliffs, connected by long steel walkways and supported by massive steel girders that reach a quarter of the way down the cliffside. Airships of varying sizes, shapes, and purpose take off and land on these platforms continually, a carefully coordinated chaos. The entire cliffside is covered in openings to businesses and houses, a latticework of ramps and platforms connecting them to one another. One can even spot a train moving into the cliff near the railyard ahead of you. Further ahead of you to the east, the River Castrium bisects the city, spanned by only three bridges. A dizzying array of watercraft, from small barges and ferries transporting people and goods across the river, to luxury yachts, to larger merchant vessels transporting goods to other cities on the shores of the lake. Five islands sit in the widest part of river near the opening in the cliff that the river comes from. To the north lies the warm waters of Lake Zephyr, technically a giant hot spring, and the reason behind the warm climate this far north. On its shores stands the old city, covering just over a square mile. It's walls still stand to this day, though the gates are never closed anymore, and the outside of the walls seem to be stained with soot. Much of the western half of the old city seems to have been converted to warehouses to service the nearly endless array of docks that cover the coast. Smoke rises into the air from factories across the city, the only notable exceptions being the old city and Riverside Park, on the eastern bank of the Castrium. The smoke is most densely concentrated outside the western and southwestern walls of the old city, the entire district a haze. Strangely, you can spot only two lines of rail inside the city proper, one crossing through the middle of city and over the Castrium on one of the three bridges, and another leading to a large dockyard outside the western walls. For all that the lower city of the valley and middle city of the cliffs draw the eye, neither holds a candle to the burnished steel disc that floats above the city, nearly twice as large as the walled old city. Jets of steam erupt from the disc, and a half dozen cables connect the floating city with the cliffs, other cables, or perhaps pipes, hang loosely from the nearly taut main cables. The fact that you can see the cables from this distance speaks to their thickness. Airships of various shapes and sizes land and take off from platforms much like those on cliff, and all the while the upper city hangs motionless. Shortly thereafter, the train pulls into a large railyard and train station. GMT logos (brown letters on a green elipse, within a red elipse) decorate most of the large surfaces, and many of the smaller ones. You disembark from the train onto a private section of the platform, led by Octavius and Phaerine. The woman turns, and after you're all on the platform she says, "Feel free to explore the city today, Lailani will be accompanying you to make sure you don't get yourselves lost or killed. We'll need you to be at the KAESCo skydock tomorrow by noon. Good day." She gives you all a nod, then makes a gesture to Octavius and strides away, the rangan man following.
Question: Would you guys be okay with a corporate espionage-ish mission or two in Zephyria before you fly off to Vashalle? I have a few cool ideas, and I made this stupidly detailed map of Zephyria (that I still need to color) that I'd like to actually use for a bit before we go galavanting off to another continent. If you don't want to, I'm still fine with sticking you on the airship right away.
The bandits dealt with, Phaerine leads the group back to the luxury car, which is still in a pristine state, a jarring transition from the blood soaked, singed, and otherwise ransacked cars behind it. She puts on a pot of tea and sits in the same chair she occupied before the bandits so rudely interrupted you. "You handled yourselves well," she says, smiling. "I'll have to mention this to Markaas. Now rest up, we'll pull into the GMT station in Zephyria in the morning."
As Aurica ties the thief, she notices the yellowish glint of gold through the very slightly ajar top of one of the chests in the small, cage-like room. What remains of the bandit ranks has fled, their mission a failure. A small number of other bandits were captured by others on the train, including a few near the front of the train captured by Phaerine and Octavius.
Droskar drives his blade into the minotaur's chest, shoving him to the ground. Grotts convulses on the floor before going mostly still, a pool of blood spreading as only his chest heaves accompanied by wet, sucking sounds with each breath. Aurica's arrow strikes off a horn as the minotaur falls, as Austru manages to claw the frightened human thief. Maleghk and Lailani move forward, the dwarf blocking the man into the cage, just after a shard of ice whips through, narrowly missing the thief. In response to all these events, the man drops his blade, pulls his other dagger and throws it to the ground and drops to his knees, hands up in front of him, then says "Don't kill me! I give up, I GIVE UP!"
Maleghk and Aurica both land blows on Grotts, but the minotaur's armor and hide prove too much for Lailani and Droskar to get through. The bandit leader looks severely injured as he thrashes wildly trying to kill the interlopers. His wild attacks are all easily avoided or blocked by Maleghk and Droskar, and the minotaur is on his last legs. Meanwhile, Austru tries to take a bite out of the human in the car, but the man nimbly avoids it, drawing a dagger and stabbing it into the big bird.
Lailani takes a moment to gather her elemental powers. Threads of water appear the in the air, swirling up around her in a spiral and then flowing together into a particularly large and heavy chunk of ice. "You criminals leave me no choice!" she cries as she flings it at the minotaur assaulting Droskar. Aurica rushes into the cage, casts a spell and reaches through the bars and around the corner to tocuh Maleghk, delivering a good deal of positive energy that closes the dwarf's remaining wounds. Grotts takes a series of blows from Droskar and Maleghk and bellows in rage, striking back at the dwarf with his axe and the centaur with his horns, landing a solid blow on each. The dwarven gunman goes down to Austru's uncaged fury, lying in a bloody heap on the ground as the halfling archer diverts her attention to the bird. Austru's enraged visage frightens her and she drops the arrow before she can even fire it. She turns and flees, diving out of the speeding train and safely rolling to her feet as it speeds away. The human thief finally gets the door open and dashes inside. "Boss it's open, let's get this gold and get the hells out of here!" he yells in a Zephyrian accent.
Grotts takes a swipe at Austru as the big bird flies by, but misses low as the bird dives downward, streaking across the floor. Frustrated by his miss, he stamps his heavy hoof and turns back to the dwarf, swinging his axe and trying to gore him. Maleghk defends himself from the first blow, a heavy overhanded strike, but is unable to stop the minotaur's backswing. Grotts' horns are no match for Maleghk's steel armor and clatter uselessly off the dwarf. The rogue at the door continues working at the lock, ignoring the fight as best he can. The dwarven gunman fires a shot at Droskar but puts it wide trying to avoid hitting Grotts. He says a number of foul things in dwarven as he reloads his weapon. The halfling cries out in rage as Maleghk and Austru kill her canine companion, but her rage merely translates to her shot harmlessly pinging of Droskar's armor.
Droskar's hooves, Aurica's arrow, and Austru's beak and talons reduce the gemmil man to a bruised and bleeding corpse. Grotts howls in rage and charges forward, goring Maleghk just as the dwarf passes his centaur ally, leaving a grievous wound. The dwarven gunman and halfling archer set their sights on Droskar, both shots finding their mark. The arrow strikes the centaur in his left shoulder finding a gap in his armor inches from his neck, while the bullet enters his body just above his front right leg. The archer's wolf dashes forward toward the dwarf and centaur.
Droskar opens the door, revealing a scene of chaos ahead. The bandits broke into the train by blowing open the wall of this car, which seems to be some sort of cargo car. One unlucky guard was caught in the explosion and his corpse smolders by the wall, filling the space with the scent of burning flesh and hair. Another guard lays in a bloody heap on top of the remains of a barrel, obviously dead, while a third lies at the feet of the figure dominating the car, a huge minotaur with red dun fur. The minotaur grips a greataxe in his hands, a buckler strapped to his left arm, his body covered in studded leather armor. A few more figures stand about the room, a gemmil man (normally the biggest in the room, though he looks small compared to the minotaur), a dwarven gunman, a cloaked and hooded thief, and a halfling holding a bow, her wolf companion beside her. The gemmil man has just smashed open a cage containing a man-sized bird, which Aurica recognizes as Austru. The thief seems to be trying to open the lock on a cage in the middle of the car, from the entrance of the car, you can't tell what is inside it. The gunman and archer are just loitering, apparently keeping watch. The minotaur notices Droskar, turns and holds up one hand toward the centaur, the familiar signal for another person to stop. "No reason to turn this bloody, horse-man. You go back the way you came and we won't even chase ya." he says, his voice a deep gravelly rumble. "This here car belongs to the Grotts gang now, and since I'm Grotts, well that means it's mine. Now run along!" Know: Local DC 10:
The Grotts gang has been robbing banks and stores in small towns across the western part of the central valley for the better part of the last year. You've never heard of them robbing a moving train before though. Know: Local DC 15:
The minotaur is Donkan Grotts, one of the leaders of the Grotts gang, along with his brothers Abart, and Andur. Know: Local DC 20:
Rumor has it that Abart is the real leader of the gang, and his brothers are just the lieutenants. A bounty for any of the brothers or there whereabouts has been active in Zephyria for months. Know: Local DC 25:
The Grotts brothers used to work for Arcadian Rail and Air Lines (ARAL). Abart was an engineer, while Andur and Donkan worked as security staff.
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