StormLord Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Jack and Akihiro climbed aboard the Enterprise having retrieved the printable Message scroll from the Constructor connected to the Bounty Board. A few minutes of fiddling before Akihiro deciphers the strange mechanism that actually activates the scroll and calls them to their job. A few tense minutes pass before The Enterprise, along with everyone and everything on it, slowly shimmers out of existence. The Enterprise reappears swaying gently in the waves just outside a large coastal village. Behind the village are lush snow-capped mountains as far as the eye can see. In the distance beyond you see a large pillar of black smoke some miles away. Several other ships are in the port, mostly moving cargo on or off, several people are already pointing and staring at the strange ship that just appeared from nothing. A group of men in hooded brown robes are waiting on one of the empty docks, they're looking right and the ship and appear to be waiting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 "Let's move. It will do us no good to idle here," Akihiro claims, walking towards the hooded individuals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Jack, after having surveyed the area through his spy glass, calmly grabs Akihiro by his collar when he tries to walk off. "What the hell, lad? I know it's close but ya still don't want to be swimming your way to shore do ya?" After making sure the ninja is still firmly on the boat he turns to a fairly beefy woman with green eyes, red hair, and an incredibly thick Irish accent, which Akihiro would know at this point is Jack's first mate who everyone either calls "Irish" or "Irish Mary". "Get the crew ready to dock, but also be ready to leave when needed eh? We're here for work, not pleasure." Irish gives him a quick salute before heading off, shouting orders to the crew, and soon the ship is docking at the dock with the hooded men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 "It would have been faster to swim," Akihiro points out. He doesn't move after that, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 As the ship approaches the leader of the group pulls back his hood and several of the other figures move quickly and precisely to help with the docking. The leader(a somewhat short, slightly pudgy looking man with pointed ears and receding blonde hair) stepped forward and spoke to Jack and Akihiro. "We the Order of the Pale Shadow prayed for our Goddess to send help to defeat the scourge of this land and she has sent you to us. An adult dragon has woken from it's ancient slumber and now terrorized all of the nearby mountain villages, we seek the safety of our village to return and you seek the lure of a dragon's hoard no?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 Jack scratches the back of his head, mainly because he was suddenly kind of worried about if he was supposed to act a certain way since apparently he was sent by some goddess. A normal person may conclude that no, you don't need to change how you act. Jack was not a normal person. "Aye, that's what we're here to do, save the town and off the dragon! So let's get down to it, what should we ought to know?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 "Indeed." Akihiro says, nodding at them and patiently awaiting an explanation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted September 21, 2019 Author Share Posted September 21, 2019 The man nods slowly. "We have been observing the creature both mundanely and through Brother Carl's divinations. We know that is is an adult Red Dragon, the rough location of its den, several pastures it regularly visits for food." At their leader's behest a shorter man with long red hair and a longer redder beard steps forward, makes slow methodical hand motion and a light hum. A feint plae glow gathees around his hands before a sort of image projection appears in the air in front of him. The image show a large...well Red Dragon, easily as large as The Enterprise, swooping down and picking up two sheep with its front to claws. As it pulls up and turns over its shoulder and turns toward the spying eye, it inhales with a deafening roar before dowsing the eye in brilliant flames. The image goes dark, and the projection fades. "Hmm...it seem to be near Greystone Farm, lines up with the smoke in the distance. We can lend a guide and horses up the mountain." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted September 22, 2019 Share Posted September 22, 2019 Jack waves a hand at the offer of horses. "Don't worry about transportation, we can just fly The Enterprise up there. We only need the guide." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 The man flashes a look of legitimate surprise when Jack mentions "Flying there" on The Enterprise. "Well I...uhh......" The lead trailed off as he seemed to lose his words, he looks down to his side at the Dwarf who glances up and shrugs very slightly. "Very well. Brother Carl will accompany you as a guide on your ship if he may." Brother Carl steps up silently to the edge of the dock and nods slowly. "Is there any other way we could be of assistance?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Jack pinched his chin as he looked back to his ship in thought. Finally he turns back to the monks. "Do you happen to have spare powder and cannon balls? I'm not an expert at slaying dragons exactly so I figure if possible we should bring extra." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 The man thought for a moment on the subject, he didn't seem entirely sure. "I will see what we can find, cannons are not a very common commodity for naval vessels as I'm sure you know. Especially not as many as your ship seems to have." [65] He gathers the needed measurements for projectile size and weight before sending the other robbed men off. Jack and Akihiro could watch as they basically went ship-to-ship asking crew members. Most came back with little, but few got good hauls. In the end Jack gets two kegs of weak gunpowder, a crate of sandstone cannonballs, and a small box containing three "Curse balls". The leader of the brotherhood opens the box and shows each of the faintly glowing stone spheres to Jack. "I did not think there were any of these in port still, but never the less here they are. Specially crafted cursed cannonballs from the mages of Waterdeep. The first covers the target with webs, the second explodes into a lightning bolt, and the third freezes a large area around whatever it hits." He hands the box to Jack."Now, godspeed and may the divine protect you." [From this point you can have Brother Carl point you in the direction of the lair, go hunting for the dragon, or something else idk] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted October 11, 2019 Share Posted October 11, 2019 Jack gingerly takes the box and gives the man a salute and a smile that's quite strained, likely due to the very magical items in the box. He hands the box off to some other unfortunate crew member who rushes to store it, and nearly trips on a stray bit of rope before luckily recovering and heading below deck. Jack himself turns and starts barking orders to get the ship in the air and on the way to the dragon's lair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted October 26, 2019 Author Share Posted October 26, 2019 Brother Carl guides the ship over the cloud layer and towards the snow capped mountain tops. Between two peaks you see a sort of depression, a large area made flat by a huge animal trampling it. The snow here has long melted away, though above and below you can still see buildup, there are several piles of bones and charred remains littered around the depression. Towards the taller of the two peaks there is a cave entrance leading off the depression, a light trail of smoke wafts out of the top of it and you can see the heat shimmer from on the ship. Location discovered: Dragon's Lair The dragon doesn't seem to be home right now, but if the scrying eye was anything to go by it'll be back with dinner soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 Location: Dragon's Hoard Sucrose awoke, shaken by the stark cold fingers of oblivion and yet...she wasn't shattered, not even fractured. In fact she was somewhere, somewhere really hot. Bringing the rest of herself into being she looks around to find herself standing on a small sea of rubies and amethyst and emeralds, all entirely mundane. Under the deep crust of gemstones is a mound of gold, some in bars, some in coins, but all everywhere. Resting at key points in the pile are a sword glowing with some kind of energy and a staff of similar bent and in the middle a huge egg almost as tall as Sucrose herself pulsing with life. Beyond this glittering hoard she see she's in a cavern of some kind with several pools of bubbling liquid rock towards the outer edges of the hoard. Vicious bone sculptures and other signs of a huge predator line the walls of the caverns. She can feel a dreadful presence looms over her, the owner of this place will return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Jack turns to Brother Carl, with a look like he just had an idea on his face. "You might want to get below deck, I'm thinking of taking some of our extra powder from in the holds, we'll bury it in the dirt outside the cave, while I stay inside it and wait for the dragon while the ship hides. Then when it comes, I can blow the powder and we'll have the jump on it, yeah?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Sucrose giggles loudly, slowly scrambling down the pile. "Oh! I'm not harvested! That's nice." She skips out of the cave shortly afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormLord Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 [28] Carl nods and begins making his way below deck, during this time someones comes up to Jack with a report of there being approximately 70% powder and shot reserves left, with an average combat engagement consuming about 10-20%. They want to know how much powder to offload. As Sucrose makes her way out of the cave the heat radiating from the nest quickly shifts into cold icy winds whipping down into the cavern. She reaches the cave mouth and sees a mountain top covered in a couple feet of snow in a large relatively flat clearing around the mouth of the cave. Two particularly large and pointy piles of snow stick out among the white backdrop, along with of course the Flying Ship floating a few dozen feet above the ground and off the mountainside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Jack nods to the sailor. "Get about 50% of it, we want our best shot at killing it before it can retaliate after all. Off load it over..." Jack trails off as he points a bit in front of the entrance, noticing something is now standing in the mouth of the cave. He tilts his head before clearing his throat. "I'm gonna go make sure that isn't something dangerous, and THEN set up where I pointed." With that, he goes and throws a rope over the side and slides down, approaching the cave entrance after doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Sucrose puts a finger to her chin at the sight of Jack as the small gem skips out of the cave. "Oh, other gems here? Hmm. That's funny!" she giggles at the human in front of her, making the logical assumption that one would make by glancing at a civilized humanoid figure. Upon closer inspection though, she quickly realizes that it's some kind of organic creature. "Oh! My mistake. Hmm... ten touch stumps, two gravity connectors, vision spheres, and... Appearance modifiers to boot. Just where did you come from..." she mutters to herself, scratching her chin with a pout as she scrutinizes the pirate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Jack for his part, looked rather uncomfortable under the gem's gaze. After a few moments of consideration, he decided it was likely not hostile even if it was weird. "I uh... came from my ship. Up there." He gestured vaguely at the wooden vessel. "Uh, I don't know what you're doing here but you probably ought to clear out, we're about to fight a dragon and if you get caught in the crossfire you could be hurt." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 She smiles. "Oh, that is just incredibly precious. A speaking organic being! And not a gem in sight!" Sucrose says, walking around Jack and examining the man from all angles. "Well, no matter. I must return to Gem-Controlled space as soon as possible. Care to share where the nearest colony is?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Jack continues looking a little weirded out until the gem made it clear she wasn't a native. At that point he seems to come to a realization and sighs. "Ah, you didn't come here on your own I take it? Yeah... you're not likely going to find any Gem-controlled space here... But if you come with me we might find some place like that!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Henderics Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Sucrose giggles. "I'm supposed to be harvested right now! Can't very well go places like that. So yeah, I didn't exactly get here myself." "Well, I suppose I have little choice but to accept. I, am Sucrose, Facet-3Z8A Cut-0AA. Do you have a designation, Biomass?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj1225 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Jack smiles in a way that says he has no idea what this being is talking about, but doesn't want to admit it and seem rude. But, he seems to get the jist of the question as he holds his hand out for a hand shake. "Captain Jack Attwater at your service. And behind me is my ship, but I'm sure you guessed that already. You uh, might want to climb aboard if you don't want to help deal with the dragon, you're less likely to get attacked on it." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts