ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
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Multiple Settings From A Great Height
- Thread starter The Omen of Death
- Start date
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Choice 3 has been chosen with 3 votes!)
“I should have anticipated such a question from you, Unworthy,” the captain says, scowling. “The Gahl’vuhr Sehn is a governing body which oversees all operations and protocol undertaken by us Auvahrs, as well as Tenurs and some subspecies of Comors. They strictly enforce the rules and policies put in place to maintain some sense of order among the sky islands, although Unworthy ones such as yourself are unfortunately exempt from such regulations.
“However, it has probably not escaped your notice that Gahl’vuhr Sehn has their work cut out for them at the moment. Just a bit of chaos going around, that’s all, thanks to what’s going on at the surface. I should also mention that just because myself and my crew are members of the Gahl’vuhr Sehn, we are not especially high-ranking in the organisation.” She cocks her head to one side. “Perks of the job, you might say. It’s probably the only reason why I let Mother Ghared save your skin.”
You have never heard of this Gahl’vuhr Sehn, not in all your years living at your island. Rules and regulations? You and your family have never needed such things. That’s the whole point of life in the sky islands. You are free. The thought of other people trying to limit such unrestrained freedom makes you feel rather worried about what might be really going on.
1. Ask her about this airship
2. Ask her about the people on board
3. Stop asking questions
“I should have anticipated such a question from you, Unworthy,” the captain says, scowling. “The Gahl’vuhr Sehn is a governing body which oversees all operations and protocol undertaken by us Auvahrs, as well as Tenurs and some subspecies of Comors. They strictly enforce the rules and policies put in place to maintain some sense of order among the sky islands, although Unworthy ones such as yourself are unfortunately exempt from such regulations.
“However, it has probably not escaped your notice that Gahl’vuhr Sehn has their work cut out for them at the moment. Just a bit of chaos going around, that’s all, thanks to what’s going on at the surface. I should also mention that just because myself and my crew are members of the Gahl’vuhr Sehn, we are not especially high-ranking in the organisation.” She cocks her head to one side. “Perks of the job, you might say. It’s probably the only reason why I let Mother Ghared save your skin.”
You have never heard of this Gahl’vuhr Sehn, not in all your years living at your island. Rules and regulations? You and your family have never needed such things. That’s the whole point of life in the sky islands. You are free. The thought of other people trying to limit such unrestrained freedom makes you feel rather worried about what might be really going on.
1. Ask her about this airship
2. Ask her about the people on board
3. Stop asking questions
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
2 would be a natural follow up question.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 1 vote, last question will also end up being answered here just to move this along, as well as getting out of the area and onto the next part)
“This airship carries only Auvahrs and one human,” she says dismissively. The captain appears to be referring to the races which populate the sky islands, though you have never encountered an Auvahr in the flesh before. “A standard crew, including mercenaries to guard the merchandise should we run into any trouble. We also carry a few valuable prisoners from the last island.” There’s a pause, and you wonder if she might be referring to the caged mutant you saw in your bedroom.
“What about…” You voice the question which has been plaguing you, glancing over to the red-haired woman. “Mother Ghared? She’s a human.”
“Quite right,” the captain replies. “Gahl’vuhr Sehn policy requires that every airship within their organisation carries a representative proficient in restorative abilities, to ensure survival of the crew in the worst-case scenario. It was Mother Ghared who saved your life, against my express wishes. She may be human, but she is a formidable representative of the Gahl’vuhr Sehn and can withstand the high altitudes, thanks to her rather abstract nature. If you wish to speak to her whilst you are here, you will do so only with the greatest of respect.”
You look towards Mother Ghared, but her expression betrays nothing of her inner thoughts.
You then lastly ask her the question of what the airship is.
“You stand aboard an Auvahr-Tenur Airship, Year 2XX5, Model CXXP,” the captain says with a certain note of pride in her voice. “We Auvahrs are known well for our skill in ship construction, but see little sense in naming them. These vessels are not built for long journeys, as you may know. Although the Tenurs work on the advanced mechanisms, it is not mandatory to employ them as members of the crew and we carry no Tenurs aboard at this time.”
She appears to be referring to the races which populate the various sky islands. You have heard of the Tenur race before, but have never encountered Auvahrs before. For your entire life, you have been content to remain on your little island without once venturing out into the unknown. At times like this, you wonder if such a decision was altogether wise.
“Where are you headed?” you ask.
“Island 45H, according to the sky charts,” she answers. “You Unworthy ones do not name your islands, do you? How quaint. We can respect that, but it makes it harder for us to make a decent reference point. Among us Auvhars, the island is known as Majeruk.” The captain glances at one of the instruments in front of her. “We will reach Majeruk within the hour, at which point you can disembark and get off my damn vessel at last. Unworthy, we carry a decent amount of cargo on board and I will not have your presence contaminate the merchandise further. I will be glad to be rid of you.”
This news brings you some hope. It sounds as if you might have a chance to reach an island not unlike the one you left behind. That seems a sensible way to proceed right now: move on, rebuild, and re-settle upon a new island. It seems that not every island has met the same fate as yours, but how long will that last? When will the world stop shaking?
"Anything else you would like to ask, Unworthy?" she asks condescendingly. You consider any other questions, but come up with none, therefore you resort to shaking your head.
Standing up from her desk, she strides over to the door of the room and beckons to you with a single talon. “Mother Ghared. Unworthy. Both of you, follow me. We’re going up to the balcony so that I can educate this girl a little on the world around her.”
You follow the captain back onto the upper deck, onto a raised platform protected by a thick metal railing. Up here, you can see that a mystical crystalline device has been installed into the top of the airship. It seems to be made out of hundreds of tiny pieces of metal, interwoven together in a blend of silver and black. You cannot guess at its purpose, but the whole thing is humming with energy. Surely it must power the ship in some way.
“The lens here will magnify any singular point on the surface, within a set range,” the captain explains. Behind you, Mother Ghared scrambles up next to her. “Right now, it’s focused on one of the human-inhabited regions far below us. Think of it as a giant magnifying glass, except that this one takes about two hours to realign the location. Not very practical, in theory. Usually, we just use it to pinpoint any turbulent weather conditions coming our way, but we don’t have a lot of contact with the people on the surface anyway.” She stands back, allowing you to take your place in front of the device. “Step up to the lens, Unworthy. Take a look for yourself at what’s happening on the surface!”
Warily, you move forward as she requests and peer into the giant lens.
The first thing you notice is just how much detail the instrument is showing you. You can see houses down below. People. Trees. In fact, if you look in the right location, then you can see exactly what people are doing. To be honest, it makes you feel a little uncomfortable to be using a device that could technically be used to spy on people. You adjust the lens using the controls on the side, coming out of focus in order to try and look at something else in the same region.
A black spot shows up on the lens.
As you focus in on the spot, you realise with alarm that you are looking at the ruins of a whole cluster of buildings. No, not just buildings. That’s…that's an entire town. Big enough to be a city, even. It’s just a burned-out hole in the ground. More black spots appear on the lens now, hundreds and hundreds of them, like termites crawling through the earth...
That isn’t all. Some of the black spots are surrounded by a sea of red. You move into sharper focus now, going a bit further up, and see that a red river is flowing from a…a mountain? No. it can’t be. That’s a volcano. That means…
Your heart skips a beat as you swiftly scan the rest of the surrounding region, looking for any signs of life down there. There are still people there. They’re alive, but they’re not living. The earth has cracked all the way down the middle, right across the centre of the entire continent. It’s a crack which extends far and wide, beyond what the lens can see at this position.
The patch of red is accompanied by orange…and then blue. Are those flood waters? Just what is going on here? There’s so much going on at the surface that you can’t make head or tails about what you're really looking at, let alone grasp the bigger picture. Is it just a constant stream of natural disasters? All at once?
“If you are looking for a specific, detailed explanation on what has happened,” the captain says, “then you are all out of luck. Nobody can tell you what happened at the source. If you were close enough to know for sure, then you would already be dead. What you can see before you is what's going on right now.” She gestures to the crack running down the middle. “That’s not the result of a normal earthquake. Nor do we believe that a number of volcanoes erupted all at once, purely by accident. Mother Ghared has offered her views on this.”
“It is possible that there was a split in the energy flow between the human nations,” Mother Ghared ventures. “Everything feeds off energy. Input and output; produce, waste and conservation. Energy is what keeps your islands suspended in the sky. It’s what breathes new life into you. When there’s too much of it in one place, and too little in another…” She shakes her head sadly. “The Gahl’vuhr Sehn call it a “temporal discharge”, although that kind of phrase is largely inaccurate. It’s a measure of great force which saps an enormous amount of resources from the planet itself. The planet, of course, reacts accordingly.” She shrugs. “That’s my theory, but there are others. War could be the trigger. Mass deprivation of world resources. It was always going to happen one day. All we know is that there are no outside forces at work. Everything’s that happened…is something that we did nothing to avoid.
“Needless to say, the effects upon the sky islands have been disastrous. The tremendous energy drain has disrupted the gravitational pull to an extreme, causing many of the islands to fall out of the sky. Countless airships have been leeched of their power, stranding them in open sky.”
“Not on my watch,” the captain growls. “I make my own preparations. When our energy cells were depleted, I immediately had the helmsmen switch to our back-up source and keep us airborne. We should survive until we reach the next island. I don't care what those humans did on the surface, but they're not going to bring an Auvahr ship down.”
Mother Ghared's words swim through your head, but you are still staring at the scenes before you in a state of utter shock. Is this what’s happened to the world? Why? What could be worth this? But at the same time, you remember the experiences you had just days before the island started falling. Changes in the wind. Abstract extremes of temperature and air pressure. Unexplainable disturbances in the atmosphere which were thought to return to normal within the year.
You don’t know what to make of this. You don’t know what to make of any of this. How can you survive in a world like this, so chaotic and constantly at war with itself? Will you really be safe up here in the sky? The only plan you can think of is to find a new island to settle on, somewhere that you can start again. That would be nice. Wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice?
Where do you go from here?
Abruptly, the captain switches off the lens completely. The vision before your eyes turns to a sea of black, disorientating you momentarily.
“Now that I’ve answered your questions, Unworthy,” she says testily, “I expect you to answer mine. Who are you, and where do you come from?”
You don’t see any reason to lie. “We do not name each other,” you say truthfully.
“Excuse me?” The captain frowns distastefully. “You don’t have a name?”
“Nobody is born with a name,” you answer. “Among humans, the parents name a child at birth regardless of whether they ask for it or not. It is not customary to use names among my people. Giving yourself a name only makes it easier for someone to gain power over you. Bearing in mind the kind of lives we lead with each other, it’s unnecessary.”
She swears under her breath, clearly put out by your words. “What am I supposed to call you, then? Pigeon Girl? You Unworthy ones are a strange lot. I’ll be damned if I let one on board my ship ever again if I have to put up with this nonsense! Now, tell me which island you came from!”
“We don’t name our islands either,” you say, confused at the question. “For the same reason.”
The captain gives you a long-suffering look which suggests she is coming to the end of her patience.
“I’m sure it doesn’t matter which island she came from, captain,” Mother Ghared reassures her. “You saw what happened. Her island must be at the bottom of the sea by now. Very few survived the fall.”
“All right, all right. Maybe you’d just like to say that when I tell my superiors that I took in an Unworthy on board my ship. Gender? Female. Name? Non-applicable. Place of birth? Some island that fell out of the sky.” She stares at you angrily. “Listen, girl, you’re not making it easy for me to fill out the required paperwork. I’m not even going to ask how old you are, because you’d probably tell me that you only count backwards using the constellations at a certain time of the year. Can I at least get an iota of cooperation from you, Unworthy?!”
As she talks, your gaze is drawn to a strange sight upon the horizon. You hadn’t seen it before, but it looks as if it’s coming this way. Slowly, you step forward to peer at the foreign object approaching the airship.
You see what appears to be a mass of black clouds on the horizon, lit up by a blaze of yellow and white flashes. The atmosphere around the airship is becoming increasingly turbulent, and you feel the vessel shake beneath your feet, making it difficult to keep your balance.
The captain turns to see what you’re looking at and swears out loud. “Just our luck,” she mutters. “Damn lightning storm could put us all out of commission.” Without hesitation, she starts to shout orders down to the crew below, reverting back to Common Tongue as she does so. “Bll hflmsmfn pn thf blfrt! Thfrf’s b ljghtnjng stprm bpprpbchjng thf shjp. Bfgjn fvbsjvf mbnpfvvrfs jmmfdjbtfly, pr wf wpn’t lbst fjvf mjnvtfs!”
You see the crew members scramble to their positions quickly, working amongst themselves to turn the ship around before it makes contact with the imminent storm. The captain turns to you. “We’re going to try and steer around the storm, Unworthy. It’s a big one, and with such short notice we might not be able to make it. But I’m confident I can get my ship through this. It's rare for a lightning storm of this size to appear without any warning, but...”
“Is this to do with what's happening on the surface?” you ask worriedly. There was no sign of any such storm until now. The change in pressure was simply so drastic for this to happen naturally.
The look in the captain's eyes tells you the answer to that. “Unworthy, you’d better get yourself below deck where it’s safer,” she says grimly. “Just stay out of trouble. That way I won’t have to worry about protecting your neck.”
With that she rushes down the steps, still shouting orders as the storm draws closer. You hold onto the railing tightly as the ship starts to change course, but at this distance you have a feeling that it might be too late. A crackle of white-blue lightning flashes not too far from the vessel, and the wind is getting stronger.
(Very sorry for this long piece of writing, felt inspired to write a LOT. If you read all of it kudos to you.)
1. Stay on the upper deck, ready to help
2. Retreat into the cabins below deck
“This airship carries only Auvahrs and one human,” she says dismissively. The captain appears to be referring to the races which populate the sky islands, though you have never encountered an Auvahr in the flesh before. “A standard crew, including mercenaries to guard the merchandise should we run into any trouble. We also carry a few valuable prisoners from the last island.” There’s a pause, and you wonder if she might be referring to the caged mutant you saw in your bedroom.
“What about…” You voice the question which has been plaguing you, glancing over to the red-haired woman. “Mother Ghared? She’s a human.”
“Quite right,” the captain replies. “Gahl’vuhr Sehn policy requires that every airship within their organisation carries a representative proficient in restorative abilities, to ensure survival of the crew in the worst-case scenario. It was Mother Ghared who saved your life, against my express wishes. She may be human, but she is a formidable representative of the Gahl’vuhr Sehn and can withstand the high altitudes, thanks to her rather abstract nature. If you wish to speak to her whilst you are here, you will do so only with the greatest of respect.”
You look towards Mother Ghared, but her expression betrays nothing of her inner thoughts.
You then lastly ask her the question of what the airship is.
“You stand aboard an Auvahr-Tenur Airship, Year 2XX5, Model CXXP,” the captain says with a certain note of pride in her voice. “We Auvahrs are known well for our skill in ship construction, but see little sense in naming them. These vessels are not built for long journeys, as you may know. Although the Tenurs work on the advanced mechanisms, it is not mandatory to employ them as members of the crew and we carry no Tenurs aboard at this time.”
She appears to be referring to the races which populate the various sky islands. You have heard of the Tenur race before, but have never encountered Auvahrs before. For your entire life, you have been content to remain on your little island without once venturing out into the unknown. At times like this, you wonder if such a decision was altogether wise.
“Where are you headed?” you ask.
“Island 45H, according to the sky charts,” she answers. “You Unworthy ones do not name your islands, do you? How quaint. We can respect that, but it makes it harder for us to make a decent reference point. Among us Auvhars, the island is known as Majeruk.” The captain glances at one of the instruments in front of her. “We will reach Majeruk within the hour, at which point you can disembark and get off my damn vessel at last. Unworthy, we carry a decent amount of cargo on board and I will not have your presence contaminate the merchandise further. I will be glad to be rid of you.”
This news brings you some hope. It sounds as if you might have a chance to reach an island not unlike the one you left behind. That seems a sensible way to proceed right now: move on, rebuild, and re-settle upon a new island. It seems that not every island has met the same fate as yours, but how long will that last? When will the world stop shaking?
"Anything else you would like to ask, Unworthy?" she asks condescendingly. You consider any other questions, but come up with none, therefore you resort to shaking your head.
Standing up from her desk, she strides over to the door of the room and beckons to you with a single talon. “Mother Ghared. Unworthy. Both of you, follow me. We’re going up to the balcony so that I can educate this girl a little on the world around her.”
You follow the captain back onto the upper deck, onto a raised platform protected by a thick metal railing. Up here, you can see that a mystical crystalline device has been installed into the top of the airship. It seems to be made out of hundreds of tiny pieces of metal, interwoven together in a blend of silver and black. You cannot guess at its purpose, but the whole thing is humming with energy. Surely it must power the ship in some way.
“The lens here will magnify any singular point on the surface, within a set range,” the captain explains. Behind you, Mother Ghared scrambles up next to her. “Right now, it’s focused on one of the human-inhabited regions far below us. Think of it as a giant magnifying glass, except that this one takes about two hours to realign the location. Not very practical, in theory. Usually, we just use it to pinpoint any turbulent weather conditions coming our way, but we don’t have a lot of contact with the people on the surface anyway.” She stands back, allowing you to take your place in front of the device. “Step up to the lens, Unworthy. Take a look for yourself at what’s happening on the surface!”
Warily, you move forward as she requests and peer into the giant lens.
The first thing you notice is just how much detail the instrument is showing you. You can see houses down below. People. Trees. In fact, if you look in the right location, then you can see exactly what people are doing. To be honest, it makes you feel a little uncomfortable to be using a device that could technically be used to spy on people. You adjust the lens using the controls on the side, coming out of focus in order to try and look at something else in the same region.
A black spot shows up on the lens.
As you focus in on the spot, you realise with alarm that you are looking at the ruins of a whole cluster of buildings. No, not just buildings. That’s…that's an entire town. Big enough to be a city, even. It’s just a burned-out hole in the ground. More black spots appear on the lens now, hundreds and hundreds of them, like termites crawling through the earth...
That isn’t all. Some of the black spots are surrounded by a sea of red. You move into sharper focus now, going a bit further up, and see that a red river is flowing from a…a mountain? No. it can’t be. That’s a volcano. That means…
Your heart skips a beat as you swiftly scan the rest of the surrounding region, looking for any signs of life down there. There are still people there. They’re alive, but they’re not living. The earth has cracked all the way down the middle, right across the centre of the entire continent. It’s a crack which extends far and wide, beyond what the lens can see at this position.
The patch of red is accompanied by orange…and then blue. Are those flood waters? Just what is going on here? There’s so much going on at the surface that you can’t make head or tails about what you're really looking at, let alone grasp the bigger picture. Is it just a constant stream of natural disasters? All at once?
“If you are looking for a specific, detailed explanation on what has happened,” the captain says, “then you are all out of luck. Nobody can tell you what happened at the source. If you were close enough to know for sure, then you would already be dead. What you can see before you is what's going on right now.” She gestures to the crack running down the middle. “That’s not the result of a normal earthquake. Nor do we believe that a number of volcanoes erupted all at once, purely by accident. Mother Ghared has offered her views on this.”
“It is possible that there was a split in the energy flow between the human nations,” Mother Ghared ventures. “Everything feeds off energy. Input and output; produce, waste and conservation. Energy is what keeps your islands suspended in the sky. It’s what breathes new life into you. When there’s too much of it in one place, and too little in another…” She shakes her head sadly. “The Gahl’vuhr Sehn call it a “temporal discharge”, although that kind of phrase is largely inaccurate. It’s a measure of great force which saps an enormous amount of resources from the planet itself. The planet, of course, reacts accordingly.” She shrugs. “That’s my theory, but there are others. War could be the trigger. Mass deprivation of world resources. It was always going to happen one day. All we know is that there are no outside forces at work. Everything’s that happened…is something that we did nothing to avoid.
“Needless to say, the effects upon the sky islands have been disastrous. The tremendous energy drain has disrupted the gravitational pull to an extreme, causing many of the islands to fall out of the sky. Countless airships have been leeched of their power, stranding them in open sky.”
“Not on my watch,” the captain growls. “I make my own preparations. When our energy cells were depleted, I immediately had the helmsmen switch to our back-up source and keep us airborne. We should survive until we reach the next island. I don't care what those humans did on the surface, but they're not going to bring an Auvahr ship down.”
Mother Ghared's words swim through your head, but you are still staring at the scenes before you in a state of utter shock. Is this what’s happened to the world? Why? What could be worth this? But at the same time, you remember the experiences you had just days before the island started falling. Changes in the wind. Abstract extremes of temperature and air pressure. Unexplainable disturbances in the atmosphere which were thought to return to normal within the year.
You don’t know what to make of this. You don’t know what to make of any of this. How can you survive in a world like this, so chaotic and constantly at war with itself? Will you really be safe up here in the sky? The only plan you can think of is to find a new island to settle on, somewhere that you can start again. That would be nice. Wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice?
Where do you go from here?
Abruptly, the captain switches off the lens completely. The vision before your eyes turns to a sea of black, disorientating you momentarily.
“Now that I’ve answered your questions, Unworthy,” she says testily, “I expect you to answer mine. Who are you, and where do you come from?”
You don’t see any reason to lie. “We do not name each other,” you say truthfully.
“Excuse me?” The captain frowns distastefully. “You don’t have a name?”
“Nobody is born with a name,” you answer. “Among humans, the parents name a child at birth regardless of whether they ask for it or not. It is not customary to use names among my people. Giving yourself a name only makes it easier for someone to gain power over you. Bearing in mind the kind of lives we lead with each other, it’s unnecessary.”
She swears under her breath, clearly put out by your words. “What am I supposed to call you, then? Pigeon Girl? You Unworthy ones are a strange lot. I’ll be damned if I let one on board my ship ever again if I have to put up with this nonsense! Now, tell me which island you came from!”
“We don’t name our islands either,” you say, confused at the question. “For the same reason.”
The captain gives you a long-suffering look which suggests she is coming to the end of her patience.
“I’m sure it doesn’t matter which island she came from, captain,” Mother Ghared reassures her. “You saw what happened. Her island must be at the bottom of the sea by now. Very few survived the fall.”
“All right, all right. Maybe you’d just like to say that when I tell my superiors that I took in an Unworthy on board my ship. Gender? Female. Name? Non-applicable. Place of birth? Some island that fell out of the sky.” She stares at you angrily. “Listen, girl, you’re not making it easy for me to fill out the required paperwork. I’m not even going to ask how old you are, because you’d probably tell me that you only count backwards using the constellations at a certain time of the year. Can I at least get an iota of cooperation from you, Unworthy?!”
As she talks, your gaze is drawn to a strange sight upon the horizon. You hadn’t seen it before, but it looks as if it’s coming this way. Slowly, you step forward to peer at the foreign object approaching the airship.
You see what appears to be a mass of black clouds on the horizon, lit up by a blaze of yellow and white flashes. The atmosphere around the airship is becoming increasingly turbulent, and you feel the vessel shake beneath your feet, making it difficult to keep your balance.
The captain turns to see what you’re looking at and swears out loud. “Just our luck,” she mutters. “Damn lightning storm could put us all out of commission.” Without hesitation, she starts to shout orders down to the crew below, reverting back to Common Tongue as she does so. “Bll hflmsmfn pn thf blfrt! Thfrf’s b ljghtnjng stprm bpprpbchjng thf shjp. Bfgjn fvbsjvf mbnpfvvrfs jmmfdjbtfly, pr wf wpn’t lbst fjvf mjnvtfs!”
You see the crew members scramble to their positions quickly, working amongst themselves to turn the ship around before it makes contact with the imminent storm. The captain turns to you. “We’re going to try and steer around the storm, Unworthy. It’s a big one, and with such short notice we might not be able to make it. But I’m confident I can get my ship through this. It's rare for a lightning storm of this size to appear without any warning, but...”
“Is this to do with what's happening on the surface?” you ask worriedly. There was no sign of any such storm until now. The change in pressure was simply so drastic for this to happen naturally.
The look in the captain's eyes tells you the answer to that. “Unworthy, you’d better get yourself below deck where it’s safer,” she says grimly. “Just stay out of trouble. That way I won’t have to worry about protecting your neck.”
With that she rushes down the steps, still shouting orders as the storm draws closer. You hold onto the railing tightly as the ship starts to change course, but at this distance you have a feeling that it might be too late. A crackle of white-blue lightning flashes not too far from the vessel, and the wind is getting stronger.
(Very sorry for this long piece of writing, felt inspired to write a LOT. If you read all of it kudos to you.)
1. Stay on the upper deck, ready to help
2. Retreat into the cabins below deck
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
2. Best not to get in the way and follow the captain's instructions.
(I enjoy reading so I have absolutely no problem with long pieces, I would even encourage you to write more if you feel up to the task.)
(I enjoy reading so I have absolutely no problem with long pieces, I would even encourage you to write more if you feel up to the task.)
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 1 vote!)
Taking the captain’s advice to heart, you head below deck towards the relative safety of the corridors. There’s nobody else down here, as all of the crewmen have gone upstairs to steer the ship clear of the storm. You start to head towards your bedroom, wondering what will happen next…
A violent tremor shakes the airship, throwing you off your feet. Fearfully, you stay braced against the wall as the atmosphere around the ship becomes increasingly more turbulent. The storm is very close now. Suddenly, you hear cries of alarm go up on deck and the loud tearing of wood. You grab onto one of the banisters for support as the entire vessel rocks back and forth…
You hear the sound of thunder. It’s right above you. With a start, you realise that the crew have failed to steer the ship clear in time. The storm has made contact.
The noise around you is now tremendous. Rain and sleet pour in from above, and holes open up above your head as lightning rips through the airship. You cower in the corner of the corridor, frantically looking for cover, but you don’t know anywhere that’s safe anymore. Perhaps you have overstayed your welcome.
1. Hide in one of the cabins
2. Look for a way to get off the airship
Taking the captain’s advice to heart, you head below deck towards the relative safety of the corridors. There’s nobody else down here, as all of the crewmen have gone upstairs to steer the ship clear of the storm. You start to head towards your bedroom, wondering what will happen next…
A violent tremor shakes the airship, throwing you off your feet. Fearfully, you stay braced against the wall as the atmosphere around the ship becomes increasingly more turbulent. The storm is very close now. Suddenly, you hear cries of alarm go up on deck and the loud tearing of wood. You grab onto one of the banisters for support as the entire vessel rocks back and forth…
You hear the sound of thunder. It’s right above you. With a start, you realise that the crew have failed to steer the ship clear in time. The storm has made contact.
The noise around you is now tremendous. Rain and sleet pour in from above, and holes open up above your head as lightning rips through the airship. You cower in the corner of the corridor, frantically looking for cover, but you don’t know anywhere that’s safe anymore. Perhaps you have overstayed your welcome.
1. Hide in one of the cabins
2. Look for a way to get off the airship
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
Hiding will do us no good, better to have an escape plan if things get really bad. Maybe try and find a crewmember.
Solosgar
Junior Member
Agreed.
Taji
シルバー
>look for a way to get off the airship!
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The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 2 votes!)
Judging your chances of survival on board this ship to be diminishing by the second, you start to search the surrounding cabins for a way out of here. There has to be something that you can use. Airships are fitted with emergency safety measures for use in the worst-case scenario, such as equipment failure or a particularly vicious storm. You're not on the surface, after all. You’re not in one of those strange human ships which take people over water, able to throw yourself overboard and swim away from all the pandemonium…
Inside one of the cabins near the back, you find a disused aerial vehicle which is fitted with an engine of some kind. At least, you assume that it’s an engine. It looks quite similar to some of the devices you saw in the captain’s room. Buttons and dials cover the inside of the vehicle, and there is only space for one person to drive it.
The craft is covered with dust and cobwebs and looks as if it hasn’t been used in some time. You have no idea if it still works. If you’re really unlucky, it might even blow up in your face.
From far above, you can hear the sound of the storm growing louder and louder. You can no longer hear the voices of the crew members from before. A chill goes up your spine as you realize that the airship is being dragged deeper and deeper into the storm.
1. Try to operate the vehicle
2. Decide not to risk it and continue searching for another way out
Judging your chances of survival on board this ship to be diminishing by the second, you start to search the surrounding cabins for a way out of here. There has to be something that you can use. Airships are fitted with emergency safety measures for use in the worst-case scenario, such as equipment failure or a particularly vicious storm. You're not on the surface, after all. You’re not in one of those strange human ships which take people over water, able to throw yourself overboard and swim away from all the pandemonium…
Inside one of the cabins near the back, you find a disused aerial vehicle which is fitted with an engine of some kind. At least, you assume that it’s an engine. It looks quite similar to some of the devices you saw in the captain’s room. Buttons and dials cover the inside of the vehicle, and there is only space for one person to drive it.
The craft is covered with dust and cobwebs and looks as if it hasn’t been used in some time. You have no idea if it still works. If you’re really unlucky, it might even blow up in your face.
From far above, you can hear the sound of the storm growing louder and louder. You can no longer hear the voices of the crew members from before. A chill goes up your spine as you realize that the airship is being dragged deeper and deeper into the storm.
1. Try to operate the vehicle
2. Decide not to risk it and continue searching for another way out
Taji
シルバー
>2. decide not to risk it and continue searching for another way out.
i believe it's better to look for other methods first. we could always go back to the aerial vehicle in case we don't find anything more useful. with the danger looming not so far from the airship, however, i do hope we would resume this search speedily....
i believe it's better to look for other methods first. we could always go back to the aerial vehicle in case we don't find anything more useful. with the danger looming not so far from the airship, however, i do hope we would resume this search speedily....
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ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
Took the words right out of my mouth. 2
Solosgar
Junior Member
Agreed with everyone else. 2.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 2 has been chosen with 3 votes!)
You continue searching through the other cabins for any alternative methods of escape. The ship is shaking rather violently by now. Within minutes, cracks begin to appear in the walls and ceiling, until you realize that the damage to the vessel is more serious than you thought. Frantically, you look around, you are within distance of reaching that vehicle you found earlier, however there still could be another option you could find.
But again there's the risks of using that vehicle, but considering things seems to have possibly reached dire straits, you might not have time to find another escape route, but maybe the airship is still structurally sound enough to keep going long enough to allow you to find another method...
Right now, its a matter of figuring out whether you have enough time left to try to find another method of escape, or thinking it would be better to use the option you have lying in-front of you with something that could either not work or worse blow up in your face.
1. Come to the conclusion you have no more time left and try operating the vehicle
2. Come to the conclusion you still have a bit of time left and continue searching for another option
You continue searching through the other cabins for any alternative methods of escape. The ship is shaking rather violently by now. Within minutes, cracks begin to appear in the walls and ceiling, until you realize that the damage to the vessel is more serious than you thought. Frantically, you look around, you are within distance of reaching that vehicle you found earlier, however there still could be another option you could find.
But again there's the risks of using that vehicle, but considering things seems to have possibly reached dire straits, you might not have time to find another escape route, but maybe the airship is still structurally sound enough to keep going long enough to allow you to find another method...
Right now, its a matter of figuring out whether you have enough time left to try to find another method of escape, or thinking it would be better to use the option you have lying in-front of you with something that could either not work or worse blow up in your face.
1. Come to the conclusion you have no more time left and try operating the vehicle
2. Come to the conclusion you still have a bit of time left and continue searching for another option
ViciousVip3R
Merchant of Death, Quest Log Fanatic
1. Maybe I'm not too imaginative, but I can't think of anything realistic that would be more helpful than the vehicle. Time to bail.
Taji
シルバー
i agree. i really want to find a better way to escape, but i'm not that brave nor suicidal (for better or for worse). we haven't found anything, so let's >1. come to the conclusion there is no more time left and try operating the vehicle.
pioca
softie
dunno man i like to take risks sooo:
✧ 2. come to the conclusion you still have a bit of time left and continue searching for another option
✧ 2. come to the conclusion you still have a bit of time left and continue searching for another option
Solosgar
Junior Member
Oh boy, ties!
2, because why the heck not?
2, because why the heck not?
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Well, looks like a tiebreaker is needed, sorry for the delay, and based on circumstances, if shit is going down with things beginning to crack, you bail. No chance in hell I would consider that the ship could last a tad bit longer. And let me just say my tie breaking decision actually just saved you all from death. You're welcome. So Option 1 has been chosen by tie breaker.)
You decide you have no time left and rush over and step into the vehicle and strap yourself in, before realising that you have no idea how to physically turn it on. With a frown, you examine the numerous buttons and dials on the dashboard in front of you. One of these must start up the machine – if it works at all, that is. After about a minute, you manage to narrow down the correct button to just two of them. They are all labelled, but naturally the words are written in Common Tongue. You begin to hear a noise you subtly wish you hadn't, parts of the ceiling began to give way and collapsed, which meant you needed to make a very quick decision before you become the victim of being crushed like you would have if you had tried to find another method of getting out.
1. Push the button which says “Jgnjtjpn”
2. Push the button which says “Sflf-dfstrvct”
You decide you have no time left and rush over and step into the vehicle and strap yourself in, before realising that you have no idea how to physically turn it on. With a frown, you examine the numerous buttons and dials on the dashboard in front of you. One of these must start up the machine – if it works at all, that is. After about a minute, you manage to narrow down the correct button to just two of them. They are all labelled, but naturally the words are written in Common Tongue. You begin to hear a noise you subtly wish you hadn't, parts of the ceiling began to give way and collapsed, which meant you needed to make a very quick decision before you become the victim of being crushed like you would have if you had tried to find another method of getting out.
1. Push the button which says “Jgnjtjpn”
2. Push the button which says “Sflf-dfstrvct”
pioca
softie
✧ 1. push the button which says “jgnjtjpn”
official clown business
Okay so our name is Piss and we are the Mafioso
in a split-second decision between life and literally svjcjdf i make the judgment of smashing that jgnjtjpn button and jgnjtf the fuck outta there
Taji
シルバー
>1. Push the button which says “Jgnjtjpn”!
Solosgar
Junior Member
After some debate, I'd press "Sflf-dfstrvct." After all, I doubt that the button choices are really as simple as they might seem.
The Omen of Death
My presence has marked your eventual demise.
(Option 1 has been chosen with 3 votes!)
You press the button and the vehicle immediately roars to life. Twin engines fire up and you are thrown back in your seat as the craft blasts through the weakened hull and out the other side, breaking free of the airship completely. From here, you can see that the storm has devastated the ship almost to the point of complete destruction! You can't see a single living soul on board the upper deck, and you have a feeling that both the captain and Mother Gherad must be among the dead. The airship is covered with the bodies of mercenaries and crewmen, and you are lucky not to share in their fate.
With a shudder, you turn your vehicle around to fly away from the ship. You don't know how to drive this thing, exactly, but the controls seem to respond to your touch and you're just glad to get out of here. Gauges pop up all over the dashboard, none of which means anything to you. Fuel, altitude, energy levels...no, you haven't a clue how any of this works. You'll worry about it later.
Grimly, you accelerate away from the doomed airship and fly your craft as far away from here as possible, dodging and weaving through the last of the storm. As you depart, you can just make out the violent wrenching of wood and metal as the airship is ripped apart.
For the next few hours, you travel through the open skies within the comfort of your flying craft, searching far and wide for your next destination. The wind blows through your hair as you accelerate forward, and you feel a kind of freedom wash over that you’ve never quite experienced before. Throughout your life, you’ve been content to remain settled upon your own island, never venturing out into the skies around you. Just a few hours in this craft is enough to tell you that there’s much more to life than that.
Even so, you don’t want to push the limits of this vehicle too much. In fact, you have a feeling that it’s starting to run low on fuel and energy. You will have to land somewhere soon, if only to refuel, but ultimately you want to find a new island to settle upon. A new home to call your own. A place where you can start again…
You pass the remains of several islands floating in the sky, broken chains dangling uselessly into empty space. As you approach, you realise that these are parts of bigger islands which have already fallen towards earth. Nothing remains there anymore. They have all suffered the same fate as the place you used to call home.
Continuing on, you eventually do find an island which is still intact. You do not recognise it, but from here you can see that there is a fair number of inhabitants. You can see houses and huts on the ground, indicating that there is some kind of community there. Of course, you have no idea how this community will react to your presence.
1. Land at this island
2. Ignore it and keep going
You press the button and the vehicle immediately roars to life. Twin engines fire up and you are thrown back in your seat as the craft blasts through the weakened hull and out the other side, breaking free of the airship completely. From here, you can see that the storm has devastated the ship almost to the point of complete destruction! You can't see a single living soul on board the upper deck, and you have a feeling that both the captain and Mother Gherad must be among the dead. The airship is covered with the bodies of mercenaries and crewmen, and you are lucky not to share in their fate.
With a shudder, you turn your vehicle around to fly away from the ship. You don't know how to drive this thing, exactly, but the controls seem to respond to your touch and you're just glad to get out of here. Gauges pop up all over the dashboard, none of which means anything to you. Fuel, altitude, energy levels...no, you haven't a clue how any of this works. You'll worry about it later.
Grimly, you accelerate away from the doomed airship and fly your craft as far away from here as possible, dodging and weaving through the last of the storm. As you depart, you can just make out the violent wrenching of wood and metal as the airship is ripped apart.
For the next few hours, you travel through the open skies within the comfort of your flying craft, searching far and wide for your next destination. The wind blows through your hair as you accelerate forward, and you feel a kind of freedom wash over that you’ve never quite experienced before. Throughout your life, you’ve been content to remain settled upon your own island, never venturing out into the skies around you. Just a few hours in this craft is enough to tell you that there’s much more to life than that.
Even so, you don’t want to push the limits of this vehicle too much. In fact, you have a feeling that it’s starting to run low on fuel and energy. You will have to land somewhere soon, if only to refuel, but ultimately you want to find a new island to settle upon. A new home to call your own. A place where you can start again…
You pass the remains of several islands floating in the sky, broken chains dangling uselessly into empty space. As you approach, you realise that these are parts of bigger islands which have already fallen towards earth. Nothing remains there anymore. They have all suffered the same fate as the place you used to call home.
Continuing on, you eventually do find an island which is still intact. You do not recognise it, but from here you can see that there is a fair number of inhabitants. You can see houses and huts on the ground, indicating that there is some kind of community there. Of course, you have no idea how this community will react to your presence.
1. Land at this island
2. Ignore it and keep going
pioca
softie
✧ 1. land on this island
