5.1 KiB
| title | created | updated | syndicated | public |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00043 | Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:20 -0700 | Mon, 19 Dec 2022 08:03:25 -0700 | yes | yes |
00043
Pirates?! Again?! Alex groans, unfortunately he's run into this crew of dastardly mostly cybernetic punks in the past. Nasty group back home, always kept the precinct busy. Not necessarily with the detective work, it was always a little obvious when they showed up. They have a flair for the dramatic.
Alex shouts to Inky & Jarrod "Come on, we need to get in one of those balloons and fast!" he then darts off in the direction of the nearest abandoned balloon in the market place, not looking to see if his companions had followed him.
internally I know these guys have pulled off smaller heists, they could just be attacking the hotel to plunder riches from its guests. They don't seem the likes of a retrieval team.. Then again, that Blavin fellow has multiple teams working for him, and he doesn't seem all too picky about how they get the job done, it wouldn't be surprising if he'd hired some brigands hoping they'd get the gems faster.
Alex conjures up another bug, a stag beetle this time, and casts it away at the pirate ship. It'll probably take some time to catch up, but once it does we'll be able to keep an eye on the pirate's ship and general actions, at least within line of sight of the bug.
As Alex reaches the balloon he grabs the ruby hilted dagger and cuts the mooring lines keeping it down, and jumps into the basket preparing for take off.
You spot a balloon that has already been knocked half loose of its mooring by the pirate attack. The basket is listing to the side and tugging at the one remaining rope tying it down Its owner scurries around in circles trying to secure it.
The vertical panels of the balloon are all different colors, creating a brilliant rainbow pattern. The large woven basket is large enough for maybe three people.
You leap inside, swinging the ruby hilted dagger at the remaining mooring line. The balloon owner cries out in dismay. The basket shifts beneath your feet as the balloon tugs it skyward.
In the burner, a small sunspoke---a minor fire elemental---is merrily burning away, producing a modest flame that is hot enough to lift the balloon slowly above the market into the sky. There is a knob valve on the side of the burner to allow more oxygen to flow in, thereby feeding the sunspoke and encouraging it to burn more intensely and raise the balloon higher and faster. The valve is currently only about one third open.
A pile of blankets in one corner of the basket---and that area of the basket itself---is covered in blood. Somebody injured in the pirate attack must have temporarily climbed into the basket looking for cover? As you're about to look away, something large-ish (small for a human, large for an animal) under the blankets shifts and moves.
Inky stares after Alex's sprinting figure before shrugging and stepping towards one of the stalls selling sandwiches bowled over by one of the large boulders. They place some loose change on the stall's wooden sign that had tipped over on the ground and pocket one of the sandwiches displayed inside an open chest oven. Next, they pick up several of the scented candles scattered on the ground by the crash, throwing some coins in the direction of the disoriented vendor before continuing at a leisurely pace up the steps to the hotel, taking in the balloonship and surrounding scenery. The members of their merry party arriving first can hold their own as well as the fort of a hotel.
You do a little leisurely shopping as the vendors and other shoppers put out fires and tend to the injured. With a couple scented candles and a sandwich safely in your pocket, you start to climb the cloud steps, enjoying the scenery as you go. Bread and Confidence have quite a bit of a head start on you, and are nowhere to be seen. As the stairway winds around the mountainside, the market and its bustle recede from view, and soon you are quite isolated and alone.
The majesty of creation is humbling here: the endless, roiling ocean of cloud; the towering mountain of rock. It's as though this was the creator's playground when they were still trying to figure out scale. Before they quite got it right for human-sized creatures.
About halfway up your climb, it starts raining sheets of paper. You snatch one and read it. Some heroic fantasy about slaying demons and facing great peril. You grab another. A bodice-ripping romance. Another. A gourmand's food tour of Basmentaria, eating their way from coast to coast. A murder mystery whodunnit. An aetherwael handler's guide to interplanetary travel. How to grow your own fortified pumpkins. On the Care and Maintenance of Fortles. The Rise and Fall and Rise of Palace Runesocesius. Within a minute, you have fists full of an entire library's worth of snippets and passages.
~
It looks as though Alex will approach the hotel by balloon from the non-pirate side. And Inky's approach by stair will deposit them at the hotel entrance, roughly pirate-adjacent.
WHAT DO YOU DO