Chapter 22 - Fear and Loathing in Dragon City
I'd been drowning my sorrows in the bar of the Aeronauts Club for some time. Norg carried me out, saying something about a crashed airship. The barkeep started to say something about my tab, but thought better of it.
The trip to the city was a haze of returning to sobriety. Being back in the air helped a great deal. I was shocked to discover it had been over a year since we lost the Arngeir against the Scourge.
Since I was recovering, I was not captaining the vessel, so I cannot be held accountable for it being shot down and crashing into the city.
The city has fallen to Horrors and the Great Dragon, Vasjendas. We make our way as surreptitiously as possible, but there are too many eyes. Vasjendas apparently objects to anyone in the skies.
We spy a group of patchwork undead huddled together, acting like Namegivers. The Astral is Tainted. Thorkell recognizes them as horror constructs, but can’t identify them fully. LaShana sneaks up to listen to them. They’re building fortifications, and have 3 Master Abominations, including the Unending Disappointment and Unsettling Epiphany. We figure we’re in Uncomfortable Silence territory.
I suggest Moe bring out his flying carpets and make us invisible to scout the city by air. We soon find a watchtower with guards. One of them starts waving at us. They appear to a whole Elf, but LaShana notices stitches in his skin. He tells us about a Great Dragon who wants to keep the skies clear. He offers to help us find the airship after we meet with his Master. He works for the Uncomfortable Silence.
We take back to the air, but lower, which slows our progress.
As the sun begins to set, we spot the dragon looming over us. The dragon, Vasdjendas, recognizes Norg, who worked for him about 2 years ago. He insists we land. He tells us one is in the center of the city. We land into a crowd of abominations. The elf guard from before arrives and escorts us to the Uncomfortable Silence.
Uncomfortable Silence
The Silence wants us to find a lab and bring its location and defenses.
We take a nap to rest off the fatigue.
When we wake up, we find the crew with the Silence. About 20 dwarves, but also elves and trolls from other ships. First Officer is acting Captain Torvall of the Freedoms Trade. It’s in the center of the city, where all the action is. They were flying towards Caucavics.
Captain of Troll ship, flying to Eastern Caucavics. The ship is destroyed. They’ve been here for a year and a half.
Captain of Elf ship was returning from Caucavic to Blood Wood. Ship destroyed.
The Elf Construct shows us a map of the city, divided into 3 sections. Scouts have never returned from 3 different locations. Closest is Disappointment, on the SE side of the city.
First Outpost
About 2 hours later, we arrive at the first area. Things start getting more hectic. We’re approached by some curious monsters, but Moe allows us to Walk Through a wall to avoid them.
We find a large group of monsters bashing on a larger monster. LaShana tracks the large creature’s trail back to a building that is not on fire.
We find 4 more blobs of flesh with several eyeballs guarding the building. LaShanna sneaks in through a window. She comes back having seen a huge monster filling the halls, and blocking her path. We fly on top of the building and Walk Through the roof into the room guarded by the huge blob.
Inside the room, we find lots of surgical equipment. There’s a grate in the corner where several corpses lie. There’s also a bookshelf with several books. Of interest, there are 20 vials of mysterious liquid. We gather up the vials for transport, destroy several of the tools, and sneak back out. About halfway back, we throw the vials into one of the flaming buildings. Moe also casts Other Place to make a fast transport back to the lab.
Silent Report
After providing our report, the Silence gives us leave to depart with the crews. The Elf construct brings us back to the map room. He points out the dwarf ship in the center of the three territories. Moe sets up another Other Place to evacuate the sailors when needed.
We head for the flaming airship at the border between Disappointment and Epiphany. Once we find it, Moe opens a door to bring the crew. They leap to start repairing the ship. Several of the Grotesques start to attack us and the crew.
Standing aboard the ship, I start directing the crew to work harder, while inspiring my fellow adepts to fight harder. The constructs know the importance of good leadership, and focus their attacks on me. Shortly after I lost consciousness, the crew finished the repairs and boards the ship for take off.
Moe shook me awake, and I immediately take command of the ship to get her airborne. Shortly afterward, the Dragon starts to chase us, but we’re able to avoid his fiery breath and outpace his flight. When we reach the edge of his territory, he ceased pursuit.
We drop off the crews near their respective homes. We finally return to Throal. After some discussion, we register the ship with the Aeronauts guild as Black Phoenix Down.
Statistics:Posted by Dougansf — Mon Jun 14, 2021 2:35 pm
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As the airship approached as close as it dared we saw another brazen ship fly over the city only to be shot down by Vesdenja's fires. This would be no cakewalk. As we approached on foot we noticed what appeared to be horror constructs. From Norg I learned that three beings that I'm still not sure aren't horrors were warring over territory in the city. It appeared we were in the Uncomfortable Silence's territory. We decided to be stealthy and used a combination of Moe's flying carpets and Notice Not spell to avoid the majority of the beings. One flying one appeared before us and warned us of the dangers of flying in the city. As if the freshly downed airship was not warning enough. Apparently it wanted us to meet with the Uncomfortable Silence. We decided to ignore this invitation, but some time later were told in no uncertain terms that the neutral response we had received so far would turn hostile if we did not comply. Being in the middle of a dragon's territory surrounded by abominations, we decided it would be wise to follow.
The Uncomfortable Silence's representative welcomed us and told us they would give us the location of the airship as well as release any living crew from previously downed airships. This turned out to be more people than we thought, some from as long as a year ago. The stipulation for this help was scouting out a facility in the Unending Disappointment's territory. This seemed much more reasonable than making an enemy of the thing's territory we were currently in.
We set out the next day to find the facility. The entire inside of the facility seemed to be writhing and alive. We decided to burn it down and get out of there. The Silence seemed grateful and released the survivors to us and pointed us in the correct direction.
Moe used his magic doors to bring everyone to the airship once we found it. It still needed plenty of repairs, but the horror constructs coming our way did not seem willing to grant us that. We fended them off as best we could while protecting the non-adepts. The ship shuddered as it took off. I hoped the patch job would hold. We didn't have long to wait before putting her through her paces. Vesdenja took great offense to us leaving his territory and gave chase. Fortunately, our crew was able to dodge the dragon fire and make it back safely. Norg decided to name the airship the Black Phoenix Down.
Statistics:Posted by verse86 — Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:08 pm
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Well over a year since the Arngeir was lost defending Kampung Gajah the aeronaut club finally deigned themselves to listen to me and pony up some cash for the recovery of the airship I landed on a hydra in Vesdenja's burning city. It had only been sitting in the magical fire for over two years at this point, what could possibly have gone wrong?
As it turns out, a lot.
I found Sandrin drunk in the club's lounge, grabbed Moe as he was coming in to inquire about joining, found Thorkell discussing the virtues of Swiftwind ship design, and, by the time we made it to the docks, LaShana had appeared from somewhere and joined the group. We hitched a ride north to the Scorched Tusk moot on a merchant airship, who offered to takes us all the way to the city.
As we were approaching, another airship flew over the city and was shot down, so we decided to leave the ship a few miles out and approach on foot to try and render assistance to the other crew. We pushed hard through the night, the fires providing plenty of light to see by. The city was a hive of activity, hundreds if not thousands of abominations scurrying around. We overheard some talk about setting up defences against the Unending Disappointment and the Unsettling Epiphany, so I guessed the three super abominations we had heard of last time we were hear had each claimed some territory and found servants to fight their war. If I had it right we would be in the Uncomfortable Silence's territory.
After some deliberation we decided to rely on Moe's illusions and carpets to hide us and avoid contact with the undead on our way to the wreck. This did not work out, pretty soon a less abominable abomination waved at us from the top of a watchtower and warned us that big V did not like things flying in the city. It also offered assistance if we went to talk to its master, the Uncomfortable Silence.
We tried to ignore the request and keep going and, just as the sun was rising, big V decided to come have a chat. Or just demand that we land. At which point we were immediately surrounded by undead. Was Moe losing his touch? Or was something else going on?
At this point we were pretty firmly told we had to go talk to the abomination in charge, who was willing to assist with the rescue if we did it a "small" favour: locate the abandoned Scourge facility that was churning out more abominations by the day. With little choice but to agree, I negotiated a night of rest for us while they fetched the crew from the wreck.
The next morning we found out that several crews over the last two years had been stranded in this hellhole by Vesdenijas. Sandrin went off and talked to them, other than terrible judgment they seemed to be all fine and were eager to leave. I was not entirely sure we should take them on, since they had failed to notice the giant flaming city before and then just decided to fly over it for no reason.
The prettiest of all abominations (not a very high bar that) showed us a map of the area and several possible locations where they suspected the facility could be. We set out for the closest located in the Unending Disappointment territory and the way there was surprisingly hassle free as the undead seemed more concerned with fighting each other than dealing with us.
As we approached the location, we spotted what I can only describe as a mobile blob of flesh going to town on several abominations and we heard something about a Scourge scouting party. This understandably drew our attention and LaShana led us back along the tracks of the blob. This took us to the outskirts of the city, to a building that was surprisingly not on fire.
It was also guarded by four more blobs, so LaShana went ahead to scout it and returned saying the inside of the building was almost entirely filled by a massive flesh blob, but there was a room in the middle. We got ourselves to the roof and through the roof into the central room, which turned out to be some sort of lab.
A quick examination revealed some vials filled with a suspicious liquid, several mad magician journals and a pit full of namegiver corpses. We grabbed the notes and the vials before wrecking everything else. Moe prepped a portal into the room and then we left to return to our "employer", stopping along the way to dispose of all but two of the vials.
At the Unsettling Silence we gave our report, Moe informed them of where they could portal directly into the lab and we ready to go find our ship. Moe prepped another portal to get the crews to the ship safely and we set out for the centre of the city.
One again we were mostly ignored by the swarming undeads and reached the wreck with little trouble. It was in better conditions than I feared but still required a lot of work, thankfully Moe was able to bring four almost complete crews to help us through the portal.
And then half a dozen flesh blobs converged on our location.
We quickly moved to intercept them before they could murder the sailors fixing the ship and were quite successful in holding them off, only a handful of sailors died even if Sandrin dropped before the end and LaShana got pretty beat up. Still in a surprisingly short time we were in the air and flying out of the city, when big V had another tantrum. With two airsailors and two other adepts trained in manning an airship we managed to keep ahead of the senile old lizard long enough that it gave up the chase.
On the way south we dropped one of the crews, blood elves, on the bank of the Serpent so they could make their way home and another at the Iceclaw moot before returning to Throal.
And so the aeronaut club acquired their second ship, the Black Phoenix Down
Statistics:Posted by sigfriedmcwild — Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:31 am
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**As the magic flows across the page the words come into view**
Adepts returned to the scene of a Scourge plot to incubate Hydras, the goal was to retrieve the crashed airship. The vacuum left by the Scourge has presented a number of interesting factions.
Faction: Undead Grotequerie
Brief: A group of undead battling for control of the Burning City
Status: Currently infighting
Notable Actors:
Undending Disappointment - Undead Master
Unsettling Epiphany - Undead Master
Uncomfortable Silence - Undead Master
Faction: Vasdenjas
Brief: Great Dragon
Status: Active in Scythan Mountains, protecting airspace of Burning City
After Action Report: The adepts located and destroyed a Scourge lab that some of the undead factions were searching for, they managed to rescue a number of stranded sailors trapped in the burning city as well as recover the airship, now dubbed the Black Phoenix Down.
no
Reporting Senior Agent: Bearded Dragon
**The words vanish as the magic dissipates**
Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Sun May 23, 2021 7:43 pm
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In my normal cultivation of relations with the variety of local leagues and groups I was spending time at the Aeronaut Club, the group looks to travel the rivers of the sky, while not the same as a river I enjoyed the comradery of the group. I was visiting with Thorkell and Sandrin, Thorkell and I were both concerned with the state of Sandrin after the loss of the Arngeir. LaShana was also attending the club looking to cultivate more connections for exploration and development of her new Scouting abilities. Quite suddenly Norg broke into the room and exclaimed that he had found the ship, and we needed to go and recover it. This got an immediate response from a number of the members, most notably Sandrin.
The ship was the victim of one of the battles to stop the cultists of the Scourge. Norg and LaShana had both been responsible for the downfall of the ship, ramming it into a Hydra. The burning city was left in the northern reaches of the Scythan Mountains. We arranged travel on a trade mission to the Scorched Tusk moot in the Caucavics and convinced them to divert towards the Scythan Mountains for us to investigate. As we approached the mountains, the town was difficult to miss, the entirety of the town was on fire. In the distance we could see the outline of another air ship approaching from the west, closer to the town than us. Suddenly a ball of fire spurt forth from somewhere within the city striking the other ship and causing it to crash. Our captain and crew balked at moving closer, so we were set down at a safe distance on the outskirts of the town. Norg was most worried about getting to the crashed ship and attending to their well being, the sentiment was echoed by everyone in the party.
We approached the city and came across a horribly unexpected scene. Hordes of undead abominations stitched together in hideous mismatches of normalcy. As we crept forward under illusory assisted stealth, we noticed that they creatures seemed to be speaking. Not a normal circumstance when dealing with undead. As we listened in, we began to understand that the city was split amongst three creatures, and they seemed to be battling for control of the city after the vacuum left by the Scourge's defeat. The Uncomfortable Silence, the Unending Disappointment, and the Unsettling Epiphany each controlled an army of undead that had been created within a hidden Scourge laboratory.
None of us were too keen on dealing with this many undead, nor their politics. We opted to shroud ourselves in illusion and fly close to the rooftops directly in the direction we thought the downed airship to be. As we progressed, attempting to avoid notice, one of the creatures flagged us down from a watch tower. Hesitantly we approached, as it had yet to raise an alarm. The creature explained the situation of the city a bit further, advising that Vasdenjas claimed the sky and would hunt down anything above the city. That explained what attacked the airship. We gave a brief explanation that we were attempting to check on the downed airship. The creature attempted to bargain, and said that the safety of the crew could be traded with his master. Once again, we preferred to have nothing to do with the situation and continued along the roof line. A short time later it began to become quite dark, after a short interaction with Vasdenjas we were forced to travel on foot and were corralled by the grotesque creatures.
They brought us to their master, the Uncomfortable Silence. They had already reclaimed what remained of the airship crew, and they would allow them to go free if we could find the Scourge Lab for them. We spoke with the airship crew, and actually found that a number of crews were being held here, Elves from the Blood Wood, Trolls from the Iceclaws in addition to the Dwarves of the merchant ship from Throal. We begrudgingly collected what information the creature had on this lab and worked on possible escape plans for the sailors if this didn't pan out.
We moved towards one of the possible locations for the lab, upon the way we encountered a group of grotesques beating a puddle of flesh and cursing at it. Apparently it was a minion of the Scourge. We took a gamble on it being from the laboratory and LaShana tracked it back towards the edge of the city. There we found a large fortified stone building that was not on fire, and surrounded by other flesh puddles. LaShana infiltrated the building through a window, but was unable to confirm the existence or the contents of the laboratory. The floors were covered with large flesh puddles, which would make entry difficult. However we opted for an asymmetrical approach to entry. We flew high over the single story laboratory and dropped onto the roof. I allowed us to enter with a casting of Walk Through and we dropped into the building. The room was better described as a torture chamber than a laboratory. People in various forms of dismemberment and a bit of parts in the corner, the workbenches were covered in tools and alchemical concoctions. I scoured the benches to find anything magical that may be assisting in the horrid transformations, a series of vials containing a magical liquid. We collected them all and Norg proceeded to trash the rest of the place. The last thing I did was start a casting of Other Place upon the door to the lab.
We fled back towards our 'employers', stopping to dispose of all but two of the vials within the fire of a burning building. Prior to continuing on, I completed the casting of Other Place upon the largest set of doors that I could find. We then returned to the creature and advised of the location of the lab and the portal to it. It gave us the directions to the ship Norg was seeking and we prepared the crews to assist in the repair. Another casting of Other Place on the doors of the holding area and we quickly made our way to the ship. When we arrived I finished Other Place and brought the crew through the portal to assist with the repair of the ship.
Not long after we had begun, then we had grabbed the attention of the locals. We kept them off as well as we could as the crew completed repairs. The battle was difficult and the waves crashed hard against us. Sandrin fell from exhaustion, but we quickly revived him as we took to the air. The combined efforts of all the crew helped to gain enough altitude and distance to give us the ability to avoid some of the most deadly of the fireballs that chased us until we were free. We dropped the elves off on the northern reaches of the Serpent and directed them to Smuggler's Respite, the Trolls were returned to Iceclaw Moot, and the rest of us returned to Throal with the newly dubbed Black Phoenix Down.
Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Sun May 23, 2021 7:43 pm
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ECR: 10
Difficulty: Medium
Player Rewards:
Lashana: 69000 LP, 1400 SP, 3 TIPs
Moe'huane: 69000 LP, 1400 SP, 3 TIPs
Norg: 69000 LP, 1400 SP, 3 TIPs
Sandrin: 69000 LP, 1400 SP, 3 TIPs
Thorkell Gulbrandson: 69000 LP, 1400 SP, 3 TIPs
Alt Rewards: None
Journals: 3450 LP, 350 SP
GM Reward: Calina (7,500 LP, 650 SP, 3 TIPs)
Downtime:
[Item History] at Step 26 (Rank 4)
[Research] at Step 24 (Rank 6, Step 24 with Library)
[Librarian] Knack Spend 1 success to reduce Research time by 1 day
[Craftsman] at Step 38 (Rank 11, +2 if metal) can make mundane items, weapons, and armor
[Efficient Forge Weapon] at Step 31 (Rank 13, +2 if metal, can forge rank weapons at once)
[Rapid Forge Weapon] at Step 31 (Rank 13, +2 if metal, can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Rapid Forge Armor] at Step 31 (Rank 13, +2 if metal, can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Design Enchanting Pattern] at Step 34 (Rank 12)
[Craft True Pattern] at Step 39 (Rank 12, +2 if metal)
[Craft True Pattern] Ring of Endurance: Ask for details
[Craft Spell Matrix Objects] at Step 23 (Rank 11) Standard - 5 days -1000 SP; Enhanced 6 days - 2000 SP; Armored Matrix 7 days - 4000 SP
[Design Enchanting Pattern] at Step 23 (Rank 11)
Summary:
The party traveled by airship with a merchant to the burning city Northwest of the Skol Mountains. They witnessed another ship getting shot down and landed outside the city traveling through the night to rescue the surviving crew. They spoke with the Uncomfortable Silence and arranged to scout a suspected Scourge laboratory in exchange for using the Silence's scouts to keep the crew safe. They destroyed the lab, located in the Unending Disappointment's territory, and created a portal that led from the Silence's territory to the lab. After moving to the airship, located in the midst of battle between the Silence's and the Unsettling Epiphany's troops. They kept all of the crew safe; they were comprised of airship crew from three different ships. When they departed, they were chased by Vesdenjas for a short while before the Great Dragon returned to it's lair.
Statistics:Posted by predajey — Sat May 22, 2021 4:30 am
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Date of Last Game Played: 2021-05-11
ECR: 11
Discipline: Illusionist(11)/Messenger (6)/Boatman(7)
Unique: Air Sailing among other magical powers
Downtime: Research 5 - step 13(16 with library bonus)
Craft Spell Matrix Objects:(11/23) Standard - 5 days -1000 SP; Enhanced 6 days - 2000 SP; Armored Matrix 7 days - 4000 SP
Design Enchanting Pattern:(11/23)
Statistics:Posted by Xzandrate — Sat May 15, 2021 2:33 am
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ECR: 10 (491715)
Discipline: Thief 10/Scout 6
Quote/Unique: Well that was....interesting/fun/unique!! Can we do it again?
Notable Abilities: Enthusiasm and an ability to fumble/stumble into trouble. Can also open...and close....doors - possibly even if they are locked....and a wicked bow
Also can speak some languages, track things, be incredibly sneaky, survive a bit in the wild while navigating!
Downtime: none
Statistics:Posted by Lashana — Thu May 13, 2021 2:08 pm
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Date of Last Game Played: 5/19/2021
ECR: 11
Discipline: Weaponsmith 11/Warrior 8
Quote/Unique: "Fascinating." Thorkell brings the downtime activities. Besides that he is a perceptive and tanky troll.
Downtime:
[Craftsman] Rank 11 / 38 (+2 if metal) can make mundane items, weapons, and armor
[Efficient Forge Weapon] Rank 13 / 31 (+2 if metal) (can forge rank weapons at once)
[Rapid Forge Weapon] Rank 13 / 31 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Rapid Forge Armor] Rank 13 / 31 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Item History] Rank 4 / 26
[Research] Rank 6 / 24
[Design Enchanting Pattern] Rank 12 / 34
[Craft True Pattern] Rank 12 / 39 (+2 if metal)
[Craft True Pattern] Ring of Endurance: Ask for details.
Statistics:Posted by verse86 — Wed May 12, 2021 7:51 pm
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ECL: 10
Discipline: Monk
Quote/Unique: "Respectfully, I must now punch you."
Notable Abilities: Very polite dinosaur. Fully Item History/Research a Journeyman TI in one week.
Downtime: Research 1/22 (+3 for 20sp), Item History 4/25
Last Game Played: 2021-05-02
Statistics:Posted by bronzemountain — Wed May 12, 2021 7:23 pm
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Last played on: MINE MINE MINE! ... ahem, this is my rumor so irrelevant
ECR: 10 (789495lp)
Discipline: Gauntlet 10 / Air Sailor 5
Quote/Unique: The punch is not the goal, the punch is the way
Notable Abilities: PUNCH! JUMP! some awareness, some navigation, some wilderness survival, the worst physician this side of the mountains
Downtime: none
Statistics:Posted by sigfriedmcwild — Wed May 12, 2021 6:25 pm
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Effective Circle Rating: 9 (407,370 LP)
Discipline: Air Sailor 9 / Troubadour 4 / Sun Herald 6
Unique: Melee, Social, Inspire Others, Thrown, and Navigation
Last Time Player Played: 5/1/21
Downtime:
- Craft Weapon at Step 7 (Rank 1) (Weapons up to Damage 2, 1 Day per Size)
- Item History at Step 21 (Rank 7)
- Research at Step 21 (Rank 7) (Step 24 with Library)
- Librarian Knack Spend 1 success to reduce Research time by 1 day.
Statistics:Posted by Dougansf — Wed May 12, 2021 6:24 pm
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GM: Pub
Difficulty: 10M
Rumor Source: Norg
Rumor: Norg knows the location of a "like new" airship abandoned by its former owners and would like to retrieve it. No big deal, other than being crashed, in a fire that has been burning since before the scourge, in a city the great dragon Vesdenjas claims as his own, where 3 abominations created by scourge cultists are fighting for supremacy. Easy peasy. Oh and a hydra may also be roaming around.
An Invitation
Location: The Scytha Mountains
Alt Reward: None predetermined
Note: 3-5 Players
Statistics:Posted by predajey — Wed May 12, 2021 6:15 pm
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