10-13-2018 - Game Transcript for The Rift: Part 1
We arrive at a small port town, limping our ship into harbor. The town was known as Banbuldor. From what we understand of the area, (possibly through Thorin and Armella) the church doesn’t have a heavy presence here. It seems unlikely we will attract any enemies.
After Azandar briefs us on what parts both the engine and boiler need for repairs, as well as all of the other damage done to the ship that need to be repaired with either wood or iron, we calculate the costs to be around 1,000 gp. We figure we need to pull our money together to make this happen.
Several of us are sitting in the dining area, talking about what we need to do. Azandar, Hikaru, Armella, Thorin and Ruby are present. Rodrick leans his head around the corner from the stairs, and walks out. He kneads his hands back and forth, looking nervous.
“Um.. guys? Since we’ve got a… a mess with the ship anyway, I was kinda talking with Ruby, and wanted to bring it to the rest of you. What if we…. Upgraded the ship? Instead of repaired it?
Azandar turns, “What do you mean, upgrade the ship?”
Rodrick continues. “Well you’ve all kind of seen Firelord… some closer than others… What if we fit the ship with the same fuel he uses? It’ll give us more power, maneuverability, speed, and distance per weight.
“The fuel barrels are 5 gallons. I think we can run the engines at full speed for, 2 hours, maybe 3? If we need to, we can even kick them into overdrive, burning 2 to 3 times the fuel to move 4 to 5 times faster.” He hesitates. “It’s potentially damaging… but… if we need to move fast… it balances out.”
Thorin chimes in, “We won’t need the coal, right?”
Rodrick continues. “Correct, the fuel for the thermo-kinetic cells is lighter than coal. Although it is volatile, I can teach everyone on the ship how to use it.”
Thorin muses, “What’s the cost, though?”
“I can make the fuel… we just need to buy the materials. It’s made of some sort of flammable liquid; I like ethanol, since it’s a cleaner burning alcohol. I like to add in a little bit of phosphorous, as well as a bit of…” he keeps kneading his hands and stepping back and forth, “I also incorporate a little bit of thermite, which helps it burn longer and faster. That is what makes it volatile, but I can try to make it more stable.”
Thorin presses, “If we load up on coal instead for the trip, how does it compare to this fuel?”
Rodrick suggests, “I Have a decent supply already made for Firelord. If we can’t find enough here… but the cost will really be for creating the parts to use it in the engine.”
Thorin continues to look concerned. “Well if we were just to get that stockpile for the ship, that’s what I’m asking—what will it cost? Will it be equal to coal? Less?”
“It depends where we can get it…” Rodrick thinks a moment. “What kind of deals we can make… Back before I switched my workshop over to a thermo-dynamo power source, I spent a little more on the price but I got a LOT more efficiency out of it.
“For a month of use, I spend roughly 70 gold to make enough fuel to run my shop for the entire period. It’s about… a 20 gold increase for a month compared to coal, which cost me 50.”
Thorin contemplates it. “So it sounds like a… 40% increase in price over coal?”
Rodrick hesitates. “Thereabout… I did have a fairly good supplier…”
“A 40% increase in price isn’t a bad tradeoff…” Says Thorin. “Considering the benefits.”
Azandar chimes in at this point. “I’ve spent all my life working on steam engines and turbines and that. I don’t know anything about a kinetic energy fuel based system. You’ll have to teach me everything you know.”
Rodrick smiles. “I can teach you everything. I can give you a rundown right now. I can even give you a tour of Firelord—it’s the same thing, we’re just going to upscale it.”
Thorin butts back in, “It’s not much different from the current operation-just instead of coal, we use fuel, right?”
Rodrick tries to explain, “Well with coal, we make steam, and that propels the ship. With fuel, we use exhaust vents—we’re going to push the ship with exhaust.”
Azandar comments back, “I will definitely have of take a look at Firelord.”
After discussing the options for some time, we surmise that overall, the cost of converting the ship would be significantly less in the long run than trying to just fix it back to its normal working condition. In addition to filling up with food and water stores, we’re looking at about 2,000 gold for everything. After checking on all our money, Thorin brings up the chest he found from the mindflayer’s office. In it… is 2,000 gold pieces.
Thorin considers something, before asking, “How will these upgrades… help our altitude?”
Azandar chimes in again. “At the moment, that island we were hunting is out of reach.”
Rodrick smiles, “Can everyone just join me out on the deck of the ship for a moment?”
Everyone walks out to the deck, but Rodrick goes down to the hold. After a few minutes, we hear a mechanical hum start up, and then there’s a slight hiss. Then we hear really heavy footfalls on wood as Firelord steps out of the hull and over, and jumps down on the ground. He turns and looks at everyone, and a mechanical voice says, “This will be no problem.” His feet starts vibrating as he jets up into the air 60 feet, in about 6 seconds. Once he gets up to that speed, he slows down, his hands starts venting fuel, hovering; he is shifting his weight between his hands and feet to maintain altitude. Slowly he starts descending a few minutes later.
Meanwhile, our unnamed tiefling is awakened by a loud sound outside. He draws his sword out of his sheath, hearing what sounds like a rumbling and a stomping sound somewhere in the ship. STOMP. STOMP. Then it’s gone. He then hears another rumbling sound, somewhere outside the ship, and it’s ongoing. BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
He looks for a window, and runs up. He stares out of it, and sees the most frightening, ill-begotten sight he’s ever seen up until this point in his life. A giant metal humanoid thing is floating in the air, on fire. He leaves his room with the plan to go fight the creature. He tries to find his way through the maze of hallways, getting lost multiple times as he doesn’t know the ship.
Eventually though he finds his way out on deck. Everyone is standing there watching this spectacle, and they do not notice him. Focused on the creature, he observes it—and sees that it is most obviously technical in nature. He lowers his sword a little bit, and uses one hand to pound his chest. “ARRRRGH!!” He charges straight toward the object with his sword raised, ready to cleave it in two.
He leaps off the balcony, and comes down with his sword on the descending Firelord. His sword hits the armor plates, and it goes CLANG. It vibrates in his hands for a moment, but it doesn’t seem to affect the beast. He continues striking at it, trying to destroy it!
There’s a reverberating CLANG, CLANG CLANG CLANG “ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!” as he’s trying to destroy this thing and knock Firelord out of the sky. After what seems like an eternity Firelord is back on the ground, not too worse for wear from the sword strikes. The tiefling puts his sword back in its sheath so he doesn’t lose it. He starts hitting the mech with his fists.
Thorin leans over to Azandar, “Can you put a leash on your pet, please?”
Azandar just shrugs, continuing to watch.
During all this, Rodrick has been kind of nervous—scared almost—because he recognizes what jumped on his mech. It’s just not quite the right size for what he’s used to. So he’s having a mild panic attack, he remains sitting there not moving, watching this unrecognizable guy beat upon his beloved Firelord.
Azandar sighs deeply. The tiefling slows down, looks up at him, points to his sword, then at the mech, as if saying, “Do I need to?”
Azandar looks between the two a few times, and shakes his head no.
The tiefling hops off of the top of the mech, looks at it, and walks toward Azandar. He’s now observing his surroundings, finding himself on an unknown new place, the dock of some city.
Firelord is still just standing there where he landed. Rodrick is trying to gain his composure inside. He manages to shake his head and clear it of all the crazy thoughts running through it. No longer panicking, he takes one more look at the individual who attacked him, and see he is not who he thought he was.
At this point, if there’s a hiss as the cockpit slides up, Rodrick siting inside with a weird look on his face. “When did we pick him up?”
Azandar pipes up, “You can blame me for that one.”
The tiefling suddenly looks over at Armella, noticing her in her church armor. He points to her specifically, goes into an aggressive stance, holding his sword out as if for combat.
Armella just stares at him.
The tiefling remains motionless, not changing his stance for about a minute.
Rodrick shifts his gave to Azandar. “Well I’m not blamin’ anybody, it’s just a long time since I’ve seen one of his kind. I don’t know they existed on this plane.”
Azandar shrugs again. “I don’t know anything about his kind, but he was stranded in the middle of the ocean and he needed help, so we invited him onto our ship…so he’s with us now.”
Seeing no particularly aggressive action from Armella, the tiefling reverses the sword and slams it into the dock. He starts removing the hand axes hanging at his waist—of which there are 6—starting with one that has the head of a buffalo on it. It appears they all have an animal face engraved on the side.
Placing it on the ground next to the sword, he then follows with one bearing the head of a wolf. Another with a deer, then a bear, then an elk, then a mountain lion. He seems to arrange them methodically, with carnivores on the left and herbivores on the right.
Ruby leans toward Armella and whispers, “Seems a bit… archaic, ain’t it?”
Armella shrugs.
The tiefling, now finished laying out his axes, reaches back and pulls out his pony tail—rings here being held there in a leather thong, and each ring also bears the head of an animal, matching one of the axes. He places them on the hilt of his sword. He removes his rings—a gold and silver one—and places them on small notches in the metal weapon. Lastly he pulls out a crystal and places it on the round pommel. The entire time, eyeing Armella closely.
Once he’s finished, he says, “You destroyed my tribe. What do you say?”
Armella looks back, nonplussed. “The church might have, but I didn’t. You do look a little odd. With the church’s history… it’s not surprising?”
The tiefling leans down and takes the elk axe in his hand, then hangs it on the cross guard of his sword.
Armella speaks up again. “I’m not going to hurt you, as long as you don’t punch me in the face first.”
He then takes the bear axe and wolf axe, hanging them on the sword as well. After a long pause, he speaks. “The council has spoken. You are innocent.” He removes the axes, putting them back on his belt, along with all of the remaining items. He yanks his sword out last and puts it back in his sheath.
Azandar leans toward Armella, “I suppose he was passing judgment on you?”
Thorin turns to Rodrick, “Rodrick, you seem to recognize his kind. Do you know what’s going on here?”
Even the tiefling turns to look at Rodrick curiously, his head tilted.
Rodrick looks back at the tiefling, meeting his gaze. In broken infernal, he says, “I’ve spent time where your kind was born.”
The tiefling glowers a bit at the response. “How you speak that…?” He replies in infernal.
Rodrick hesitates, then replies in his tongue, “The arch devil Asmodeus has my mother kept prisoner. I was permitted to visit her for a short time.”
The tiefling cocks his head a bit and nods. He goes back to looking around him, at the mountains and city, as if finished with the conversation.
Rodrick addresses him in common now, “Did you… come from that place as well? …..Do you know how to get back?”
The tiefling turns back to look at him, then shrugs and shakes his head.
He asks in broken infernal, “Do you have a name?”
With the same look, the tiefling shrugs again. Then in infernal, he says, “One calls me……Deliverer.” As he says it, it doesn’t seem like he likes the name.
He replies back, “I am Rodrick. For now.” He smiles.
The tiefling looks puzzled at the “For now” part.
* * *
The automatons come to help the company load the supplies on the ship. As the robots start exiting, Thorin turns to Rodrick, “Why don’t you park… him back in your ship. We need to plan on the things we’ll need.” He gestures at Firelord.
Both Firelord and Rodrick give a simultaneous thumbs up. He closes the mech door, it lights up a fiery orange, and he moves it back into the hold.
Thorin then turns to Azandar. “Hey, Azandar, I’m glad Rodrick can communicate with him in his language, but he seems to follow you. Can you get the…. I don’t want to say stowaway… the additional member on board? Once he’s comfortable, we need to get together and discuss the exact parts for the ship. Let’s all meet together. Armella, why don’t you go with Ruby to order supplies and food and what not… Us three engineers can go get parts. We’ll each take some automatons with us.”
At the mention of food, the tiefling points to his stomach and then to his mouth.
Azandar, seeing this, turns and says, “Come, I will get you some food my friend.”
He shakes his head, and points at his mouth.
Azandar stops, looking confused. “Well there is food… inside the ship? We store food aboard.”
The tiefling, ignoring this, begins to wander to the outskirts of town. Azandar grabs him by the arm, “He have plenty of good food?”
The tiefling stops, and says very plainly, “I get food.”
Azandar sighs, “Alright. I’ll accompany you to get food then.”
After the two head off, they find themselves surrounded by mountainous terrain. The tiefling easily catches some rabbits and finds several berry bushes. Azandar starts munching on rations he pulls from his pocket. “You could always come to the food on the ship…”
The stranger stops. “You need food…. I give food.” He holds out the berries. Sighing again, Azandar gratefully takes it and puts it in his pocket. “Thank you my friend.” The tiefling continues to forage.
Meanwhile, Ruby and Armella go out to get food with little trouble. Ruby acts skittish and seems to use her cloak more often. At a signal, the automatons start loading food to the airship for them.
Rodrick and Thorin, in charge of fixing the ship (and without Azandar there), head to town to find a mechanic shop and blacksmith. They barter for the best prices they can, lowering the cost from 1,200 gold to 1,050 gold. Buying all the parts that they need to ready the ship, including all the new components for the engine and new fuel system, they start working.
They plug away at it the entire night, pounding and building the brand new engine, fuel, and boosters to propel the ship forward. As the night wanes into dawn the next day, (now the 4th day of Readying), Rodrick and Thorin continue to work tirelessly. They are getting close to being finished.
Ruby and Armella finish stockpiling and inventorying the fresh food. Azandar and Riley finally return from their overnight hunt, bringing it back to the ship. Azandar carries a string of rabbits and a sack of fruit, and the tiefling follows after hauling a large deer over his shoulder.
They ready the food, cutting, gutting, and skinning what’s necessary. The dawn becomes day, day becomes evening. The ship is ready to go after much toil and labor. Rodrick starts to teach how to maintain and use it. Thorin, having gotten a pretty good lesson during the building process, helps. Azandar catches on fast, and the others do their best.
(Side RP after the game between Chantry, Jessi, and Emily – done over the phone, recap below)
During this evening, Ruby runs into Rodrick in the hall. He mentions that there were a few last minute parts they needed to pick up, spares in case anything breaks, and some extra tanks for fuel.
Ruby looks nervous, still fiddling. She’s seemed nervous ever since the mindflayer, and especially since her time alone as Arabella, going to church, and losing some of her memories. She mentions her concerns with being in this town, even though it seems relatively peaceful. She knows the other town—where they faked their deaths—is honestly not too far away, and they do have enemies. She worries about Rodrick going out alone, and even the fact they all went out during the day. “Should we be… I mean, not… ourselves? Do ya know what I mean?”
A slow grin spreads on Rodrick’s face. “I think I know what you might be suggestin’.” Ruby seems nervous still, but relieved. He pulls out a list. “Honestly, I haven’t thought about it, but now that you’re bringin’ it up, Rodrick is supposed to be dead.” After further talking, she suggests maybe Ragnar the Dwarf should go, the two agree and go their separate ways to get dressed.
Ruby stops by Armella’s room, and discusses the same concerns with her. Feeling a lot safer if Armella were to come with them, Armella agrees to doff her armor and go out in regular street clothes to draw less attention. Realizing she has never seen Ragnar before, Ruby explains who he is before she heads to her room.
Armella finishes and heads down the hall, seeing a burley red-bearded dwarf waiting for her at the end. She comes up to him. “Since you’re obviously not Thorin, I take it you’re…. Not Ruff… I can’t remember what she said… Ragnar?”
“Aye! Yes, I be Ragnar. You must be Miss Armella.” He seems friendly and jovial.
“Yes. I’m going to town too, then. …I didn’t know you had a dwarf in you?” She looks at him, studying him.
He laughs and explains a bit, then says “Yes, we went into town but forgot some stuff, and Ruby mentioned we ain’t aught to be seen.” He shrugs.
Ruby returns—now Sarah Bueley—a sailor-type of girl with more common clothes and brown, short hair. Like Ragnar her voice and personality seem different. Around her neck, she wears her faux-Tarj necklace and a ring on a chain.
Ragnar laughs when he sees her. “I remember ye!!” as they both had spent time together infiltrating the Chatsworth corporation for Luther once upon a time. At the time, they really didn’t understand who the other was, but it becomes apparent now. She laughs too, “Oi been feelin’ baud aboot not tellin’ ye, but yea, tha’ was me oolright.”
They all discuss the plans for the outing, and go pick up the necessary supplies without any mishap or incident, despite Ruby’s initial worries. Returning home, they get some rest.
(End Side RP)
The team sits assembled in the dining room of the galley of the ship, around a large, empty table. Although no one voices it, there is concerns now where to go. There is still uncertainty about Alwyn, Elingrad has brought about its own dangers, Elbion seems distant since the “war” happened, and we’d lost sight of the flying island.
Ruby clears her throat, looking more nervous than ever.
“I’m mighty sorry about our loss at the island, I know we had hopes of findin’ some of your ancestral artifacts there, Mr. Thorin. And… I know many other places we might’ve gone seem… hostile.
“I must needs tell y’all of something that may be… important. I’m sorry I never mentioned it afore now, it did not seem relevant at the time. But… seein’ as where we’ve been, and what we’ve gone through, and… and what we’re each lookin’ for…”
She hesitates, not sure how to continue. Her voice is shaky at best. She pulls out a bag of paperwork and scrolls, things she’s kept in her room and been working on for the past few weeks. She begins to lay them on the table.
“Mr. Luther had a…a lockbox, hidden in his office. He kept some of the worst of the worst rumors there. Anything that passed by his ears havin’ to do magic artifacts, or places so deadly even his greatest treasure hunters would never return from. Several months before he hired y’all, I helped him retrieve some documents from an old friend who passed away, Samuel Willstock. They ended up in that box.
“It was a deed to some material possessions, and a long letter. In it, Mr. Willstock described a trip he’d taken in his youth; he was blown off course during a fierce storm, and when it finally abated, he was left with one engine blown, hundreds of miles off course … in… the Rift.” At this, she unrolls a parchment scroll, with a hand-drawn map on it of the other side of Terra, leaving it open on the table.
“He described the poisonous look of that water and island peaks rising out of the sea, blockin’ his way out. Page after page, Mr. Willstock seemed to grow more manic. Strange things happened aboard his ship they couldn’t explain. Instruments spun and they had to use stars for direction. He finally detailed a cove of strange artifacts he came upon... Glittering crystals, rare furs of animals thought to be long extinct. Dozens of ancient weapons from the pre-Rend in pristine condition, radiatin’ some otherworldly power. Trinkets and oddities never before seen that filled the cavern from floor to ceiling. Even gemstones that… floated. Unsupported.”
She glances uncertainly at the others, trying to gauge the reactions. The tiefling seems unconcerned, and is crunching on what Ruby suddenly realizes is bugs. She’d already spoken with Hikaru about the weapons that might be here, and determination seems like fire in his eyes. She looks at Thorin and Azandar at the mention of the floating crystals, knowing each of their needs for them. She glances at Rodrick, not sure with his age if he’d ever seen the Rift himself, or had a desire to seek out its magic. Her eyes alight on Armella, who looks stone-faced. Stuttering, she continues.
“Mr. Willstock wrote that he thought it a lair of some unnatural beast, and he and his men hurried to make repairs to leave through a canyon before the creature returned. They dared not take anything for fear of retaliation, or what the treasures might do to ‘em. It was just his word that this existed. No one ever came back from the Rift. He would’ve been thought crazy and lost his business if he’d told anyone, ‘cept Mr. Luther and only then tellin’ him after he died…
“…But, when I saw the stones Thorin found… it reminded me of his notes. When Mr. Zander’s father brought them up, I worried. I feared it might be true, but I kept it hush-like because it meant nothing before now. But… I reckon if it was true, and if that lair is still there, these many years later…? Undisturbed, unguarded perhaps… we may find something powerful and ancient that could help protect us. And no one would likely follow us… We could be safe.”
In the quiet, she kneads her hands together. “I remember his notes, I remember the weather-beaten map Mr. Luther pulled from that letter. It was burned into my mind. I’ve… spent some time these last months tryin’ to re-create it. Cross-referencin’ books I could find on geography, and trade routes, but not much ever goes past the Caliphates.” She sighs, “Just, the more we been together, the more it seems like…there may be somethin’ there for us.”
It’s deadly silent now. Everyone seems to be holding their breath, unsure of what to say. At the mention of the words, “The Rift,” it sends tingles down everyone’s spine. No one goes to the rift. Everyone at the table knows that. And now, one of us, is suggesting we go to that very place.
Thorin looks concerned, having grown up knowing the stories—hearing the place by different names as well. He tries to remember any tales from his studies about it. He knew some millennia ago, something spanning the entire world tore out of it and nearly ripped it apart. He breaks the silence first, mentioning his understanding of things. “It sounds kind of like what you were referring to, Ms. Pennington? That the rift might be a lair of some sort of creature? From what I’ve heard or studied of it, anyway.”
Rodrick, extremely, terrifyingly pale, speaks up next. “Not just any lair. There… was…. A serpent… that essentially surrounded Terra at one point, about 3,000 years ago. There was a group of heroes that tried to stop it from waking, but… woke it. They killed it before it could destroy the entire world, but… while it was freaking out and dying, in its death throes, it slammed into Terra and caused terrible destruction. That’s why magic is broken, why some races are gone. Why I know this is fact… is because my father was with the group that killed it.”
Ruby pales. She had no idea Rodrick knew about it.
Armella stands and quietly speaks. “Why do we want to go in it?”
Rodrick looks at her, “All I know is my father told me to never go there, but if I didn’t listen to him…I would learn more about magic than I ever knew.”
Suddenly Azandar, who hasn’t spoken up yet, stands and says, “My vote is to go with Ms. Ruby.”
Ruby looks more distraught. “Well it’s… I know the histories mention people dyin’ trying to get there, and we know the tales of the Rend with the serpent, and… I know even Luther had expeditions of olden days go, before I ever worked for him, that… never came back. Just… it’s been naggin’ at my mind so much, and all those notes I’d read with Mr. Luther about what was found there by someone who did survive… presumably… it just lines up mighty fine to what those here might need or want. I just… I wanted to bring it up ‘cause I thought it needed to be spoken of. I didn’t feel right keepin’ it a secret any longer. I wouldn’t wanna go there in a million years, normally, but… I just…” She trails off.
Armella turns with a frustrated glare to Ruby, and looks at everyone else. “We actually want to go to a place… where no one ever goes. Where we might die…to find some type of magic? If this ancient group went around doin’ stuff with magic, and caused it all… We want to go to that?! Possibly bring back something from the old world into this world?”
Ruby stammers, “I’m—I’m terribly sorry, I-I didn’t mean to make this an awkward subject, I meant to just inform y’all about what I knew, that’s all, w-we don’ have to head anywhere near there if nobody wants ta, I ain’t forcin’ nobody—“ shaking, she stands and starts to scoop together the documentation and paperwork, and roll up the map.
Hikaru stands and stops her, putting his hand down on the map. “…There ain’t no way in the highest heaven or the lowest hell that I’m missing an opportunity like this.”
Rodrick crosses his arms. “A long time ago I promised Hikaru I’d do whatever needed to be done.”
The tiefling, unsure, looks over at Azandar. Azandar turns to look at Ruby, then at Hikaru, and back to the tiefling. He shrugs, then says, “I will help you bear this burden, Ruby.”
The tiefling in turn, pounds his chest twice with one hand and points.
Thorin sighs. “Seein’ as we’re in such trouble anyway, what’s the difference if we go there to die or not?”
Armella is quiet, and actually does look upset—much more than she ever expresses normally. With a tight voice, she says, “So… we’re going to… crazy mythical magical place… looking for Hikaru to get his revenge, which has been eating away at him forever, and we’ll feed into that, and we’re going into a place that will likely kill us, and perhaps fulfill that idea that we will die. We don’t know anything else except… that it’s magical.” She adds with sarcasm, “It looks stunning… just what it was before the Rend.”
After a moment, Thorin speaks up again, “Well… since we’ve already come face to face with a dragon, maybe we’ll find something to combat it?”
Armella turns to him. “Creatures are one thing… what if we bring something back? Hikaru can go get some magical sword, I don’t think he’ll let it go. But are we going to loot the whole place and bring it back, and potentially cause problems again? People went in before and it bloody tore Terra apart. Are we gonna do that again? What arrogance.”
Thorin chimes back in, “But… they stopped the thing from tearing it apart?”
She scoffs, “It still destroyed whole parts of the world!”
Azandar stands, looking at the map. “Needless to say, whatever happened there, happened 3,000 years ago. We’re not going there for what they did. I don’t think it’s arrogant.”
Armella mumbles darkly, “It’s just for revenge... For curiosity.”
Ruby, having backed away from the table a bit with her arms full of her papers, comes up to Armella. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to upset ya at all M-Miss Mella, that was not my intention. I ain’t wantin’ to go out for revenge, or mess with nothin’ magical, I j-just… I…” she begins to shake as she speaks, the stutter that Arabella had much more present.
“I-I just can’t get what happened out of my head, what--what happened with that monster in town. It-It nearly killed you,” she chokes back tears, “and ever since I’ve felt like I’ve been havin’ more questions than answers. Goin’ to church w-wasn’t helpin’ none, and seemed to c-cause even more problems...” She fiddles with her faux-Tarj necklace out of an old habit. “But the church do push us to seek knowledge, don’t it? This…place, has just b-been on my mind so heavily, and I--I wondered, maybe there be answers out there? Old text, literature, somethin’ that might put me at ease. I dunno, I—I—I just feel so lost.” Ruby starts to cry.
The tiefling speaks. “Life…dangerous. This place…. Dangerous. Is so different from life?”
Rodrick turns to Armella and Ruby says, “If you need your mind settled, or questions answered, there is somebody that we could talk to. I don’t want to call him, but if you ask me… I will.”
Armella turns her gaze to him. “Is this gonna be the same person who spoke with Emma?”
He hesitates, “……Yes, this is my father.”
She quickly responds, “Then I think I’d rather not. Personally.”
Rodrick gives her a look. “All I’m sayin’ is he was there. He can answer any question you have and it would be a first-hand experience. Not… stories.”
Thorin looks at him. “Although it might be first-hand, the issue is, could we trust any information he gives us?”
Rodrick responds with certainty, “Yes. He has never lied. And that is why I don’t like him. He speaks the truth, and it’s not what I want to hear. And it hurts. I don’t like him… but he would not lie.” There is unquestionable emotion in his voice as he finishes speaking.
Armella sighs, “I’m clearly outvoted anyway, and it’s not like I can get off of the ship. Well we can go… if that’s what everyone wants to do. Although,” She gives each and every one of us a hard, frustrated look, “If you’re seeking more than knowledge, I’ll throw you off the ship and leave you there.” She turns and immediately leaves the room.
Ruby takes a seat in the vacated chair, now quiet. Everyone else glances around. The tiefling breaks the silence.
“Clearly… we’ve irritated her.”
* * *
“I do agree with her on some parts of it,” Thorin continues his conversation he’s having, sometime after Armella’s departure. “Bringing stuff back from there… we’ll want to be… cautious, as to what we procure from our travels.”
Azandar agrees, “Absolutely. It’ll be prudent to be careful… I don’t want to be thrown off the ship. Let’s just say that much.”
Thorin continues, “She is not the captain, but she does have some influence in the church. She does carry some weight with that. And… as we got into this as a group, her feelings should be heard and considered. But, seeing as our ship is fixed and upgraded, and we have all that we need, and we all agreed to head there in the end, Miss Pennington, we will need to discuss a route and how to get there, based on the documents we have now.”
Ruby, still flustered from earlier but more her usual self now, begins drawing out on the map their path of approach. Because it’s just a copy of the original by memory, she’s unsure of the exact locations.
Thorin looks concerned. “So where are these original documents, then? Since the Rhenese came in, do they have it in their possession now?
“Well,” Ruby starts, somewhat hesitantly. “Mr. Luther’s lockbox was in a very secretive place. I was the only person he ever trusted with that information. Probably because he was getting up in years… it was hidden beneath some furniture that should normally be immovable, in the floor, in a box, locked with a key that only he had.” She sighs, not sure if she should even share this, but with the war and Mr. Luther’s fate uncertain, she speaks the truth.
“And how old were these documents?” Thorin continues, curious.
“We only received them a few years before you all joined the company, and he didn’t die long before that—“
“No, no I mean, this account… he was younger, wasn’t he? How old was the expedition? Would the land have changed at all since then?” Thorin corrects her.
“Oh!” Ruby blushes, “Sorry, yes. Well… we—Mr. Willstock, Luther and I, are only human after all, so I can’t imagine the record would have been more than.. 60 years old, perhaps?”
“Well,” Thorin continues, “At the very least we can head toward this supposed entrance, I guess… That’s all we can do at this point. Let’s leave at first light, so we’re not incurring more charges against us.”
Ruby can hear the grumble in his voice, knowing money is a sore spot for dwarves. But at the same time, she knows Thorin took it upon himself to fund the entire stocking, repair, and upgrade of the ship. Even though they had agreed to pull their money together, Thorin brought out all the gold they found in the mindflayer’s chamber. She’s still surprised at his (what she used to perceive as an uncharacteristic tendency for all dwarves) generosity, but is trying to work through her feelings on it.
(Almost) everyone beds down for the night in the airship, not worrying about spending on lodging in town. Ruby spends the evening walking past Armella’s room over and over, on little pretend errands to the kitchen, the hold, or anywhere else she can think of an excuse to go; each time hesitating and fidgeting with the notion of knocking or going in to her friend, but each time walking away, not knowing what to say. Rodrick is up the entire night, eagerly double and triple checking the system before morning. Waking the next day, we head out.
Thorin is helping plot a course with the automatons, adjusting the consoles’ instruments to set a course for the unexplored wastes of the great Rift. Hours seem to stretch on as we drift through a thickening fog. We know we are above the deepest parts of the deepest oceans, and it is utterly unnerving to blindly sail above it. Our only solace is the altitude gauge on the dash, hovering at an indicator of 1,500 feet above sea level.
* * *
Weeks creep along, uneventful and uncomfortable. Every few days, the automatons lower hoses to the sea to bring in new water for the steam engines. Everything seems deathly silent, and it’s only as the final days of the month wane that the fog begins to drift away. Far below us, the sea glitters dark and ominous. Swaths of greens curl through the water like colossal blooms of algae. Looking around the ship, there is only endless miles of still ocean to be seen.
Dawn the following day, you wake to a chorus of urgent beeping from the automatons.
“BEEEEEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP WHIRL.”
Thorin jolts at the helm, startled. “What’s going on?? Are we under attack?”
The tiefling runs out of his room, confused by the noise and robotic creatures zooming everywhere in a hurry.
Rodrick notices something is definitely wrong with the automatons. They are standard grade, not advanced machines like what he’s made before, like for Luther, but something’s certainly off. He heads up to the main deck to let Thorin know, if he doesn’t already.
“Hey! The automatons are basically malfunctioning at this point, they’re not going to be much use to us. I’m not sure what’s up yet, but I’ll try to figure it out!”
Thorin looks over, irritated from the beeping. “Are there any that ARE functioning?”
Rodrick trails off, “Not to my knowledge….”
Thorin sighs. “Greaaaat. Just great. Well Rodrick, could you let Azandar know to keep an eye on our new crew member? Or you… you were able to communicate with him the other day.” He gives him a look. “What was up with that?”
Rodrick shrugs, “Long story short, I spent some time where he’s from…. So I picked up some of the language.”
“Oooooookay…” Thorin continues to look at him funny. “So, maybe get Azandar and go with him, so we don’t worry about our new friend attacking the automatons, or destroying the ship we’re on. If you can sort things out, great. If you come across Armella or Ruby, have them stick together or—actually, have them come up here so I can help keep an eye on everyone. Maybe then you and Hikaru can help tend to Firelord and the engine?”
Rodrick nods. “I’ll pass on the knowledge that everything’s malfunctioning, and we need to be careful. I’ll see what else needs to be done.”
Thorin, striking on an idea, exclaims, “OH! And if you have the time, try to shut them down and reboot them to see if the issue is fixed? Even IF that means only getting one back on at a time… I don’t care. But having one or two automatons on deck would DEFINITELY be helpful.”
“Okay! Where… do you keep the switch for those?” Rodrick looks at him with a kind of sheepish grin. “I usually spend time down in the hold, I’m not as familiar with the ship.”
Flustered, Thorin responds, “They each have a separate switch, there’s no primary off. Rodrick, I don’t care where you take them, back to your hole in the wall if that allows you to figure out what’s going on. I know you did some upgrades for Mr. Luther before, I just need a few up here to help run the instruments.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you!”
Rodrick heads back down towards the hold, specifically keeping an eye out for the tiefling.
Automatons run past Armella’s room, beeping loudly. Having stayed up most of the night meditating, she grumbles. “This is why I don’t like robots…” She exits the room, watching some run down the hall and around the corner. She makes her way up to the deck to see if anything is going wrong, and to check at the helm to see if there’s anything to do.
She arrives, going up the stairs to the helm room. Automatons run about, spastically saying everything from, “The engine is on fire!” to, “We’re under attack!” and even, “We’re losing altitude!” Entering, she asks Thorin, “Is something wrong with the automatons or is something actually going on?”
He turns to her. “Oh! You just missed Rodrick, but good thing you’re here. They’re malfunctioning, and we don’t know why, or what’s wrong with them. But I can definitely use some help on the instruments.
“If you don’t mind going to find Miss Ruby at the very least, you can help keep an eye on her there, or come back up to the bridge to help. Hopefully Rodrick helps figure out what’s going on with the automatons, and can get them back up and running… I can handle it right now, except for the automatons not shutting up.”
“BEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!” another rushes by, spinning in circles.
Armella eyes them suspiciously. “As long as we know that no one else is on board messing with them then, that’s good.”
Many of the ships instruments start to whirl crazily, no longer indicating the height, direction or speed of the vessel. Peering from the windows, dark, absolutely immense shadows loom forty miles out, skirted by the morning mist. They reach up to the clouds, literally scraping the sky.
Thorin whistles. “Well that looks to be like our destination. I’ll stop the ship and keep us in place until we can figure out what’s going on and we can keep track of everyone.”
Armella nods, “I’ll go find Ruby.”
Thorin calls to her as she’s leaving, “If you can bring her back up to the bridge, I’ll need her for information on the account, since she’s the only one who would know… and also for her safety.”
She sighs as she exits the helm room, “We’re all going to hell and a bundle of sticks… I’ll go find her.”
Rodrick turns a corner, and suddenly comes upon Azandar trying to wrestle an automaton off of our tiefling friend. He appears to be in a grappling match with the machine, and it had grabbed on to his tail. The tiefling struggles to grab ahold of it and smash it against the wall to get it to let go.
Azandar shouts over the fray, trying to get him to stop, “NO!! No no no!! Aaaaaah… great.” He sighs, the automaton already smashed and on the ground.
Rodrick rushes up, reaches inside the machine and starts ripping out parts—whatever is useful—and says, “We need to go shut down the automatons and try to help fix them.”
The tiefling holds up a broken machine arm. “Like this?”
Rodrick calls behind him, “Bring it with ya!” He runs off with an armful of parts.
Azandar comes running after, with bundles of parts in his arms as well.
The tiefling looks around and, grabbing the rest of the automation, drags it long with him as he follows.
Out the windows they are running past, massive shapes can be seen in the distance, skirted by the morning mist. Rodrick notices them and takes note, but keeps on heading down to the hold, his mission firm in his mind. He keeps looking for other automatons on the way, trying to drag them down to the hold to restart them.
Passing one window, Azandar slows to a stop, standing mesmerized for a moment, and almost dropping his bundle. He says, almost in a whisper, “There it is…”
The tiefling stops and looks with him for a second, eyeing the mountains. Azandar shakes his head and continues on his way, his friend following after.
Automatons continue to diagnose false problems for the engine. Some say, “There’s a fuel leak!” others continue to report “Enemies nearby!” They are running and beep everywhere. Rodrick, after a few seconds, senses a way to quickly shut them down. He turns to Azandar.
“All the ones that come to report something, Azandar, pull the circuit! It shuts them down!”
Azandar starts pulling circuits. Rodrick turns to the tiefling. “Any that come to you, just.. I guess, punch them in the face! Shut them down with mechanic failure.”
He then hurriedly tries to use the components he grabbed to build a better automaton, hoping to get a working one to help Thorin. Furiously starting to repair these things, he pulls old parts out, puts new parts in and snaps gears together, working like a madman. After several long minutes pass, Rodrick plugs a circuit back in and an automaton springs to life. “Yes!!”
* * *
Armella, after retrieving Ruby, has returned to the helm. Along with Thorin, there are two MUCH more advanced automatons in the hold with the group, no longer going haywire and helping the captain as programmed.
The others are being reset, and there is gradually less beeping. Thorin chuckles, “It looks like Rodrick had some fun. Couple of bashed parts…” he peers at the nearest automaton. “Anyway. Let’s see... let’s make out way slow and steady.” Pushing the ship forward, he scans the horizon. He is able to keep the ship relatively steady, despite the poor performance from the instrument panel. Ruby looks out and tries to perceive where they can go to enter the Rift.
More and more of these gargantuan mountains fade into view, greeting the airship like a shroud of wraiths; the rays of dawn glow upon their jagged peaks, which grow higher, and higher… ten thousand… fifteen thousand… twenty thousand feet, leaning toward your ship, cloaked in shadow, like the jaws of a great, otherworldly beast.
Ruby gives a visible shutter. Thorin looks at her, “Does any of this look familiar to the account you read?”
She looks back, “I can’t tell. I only saw it from the above view of the map. It’s entirely different seeing it in person. They’re… jutting out at us. I’ve never seen mountains like this.”
As we make our cautious approach, the mountains seem to grow exponentially in size. Their presence feels even more threatening up close. Unlike any mountains you’ve ever seen before, this entire range leans out toward you at an alarming angle, as if Terra herself wanted nothing more than to send their abominable peaks back to the churning sea.
During this approach, there’s a sudden moment when all of the maintenance automatons aboard the ship cease their beeping and slump over, inactive. Even the more advanced machines, who were helping captain the ship, experience shuttering convulsions as their inner components overclock, collapsing them in tangled heaps.
We all stare in shock at the failing machinery, now forced to steer the ship manually from this point onward.
Thorin says, “Well… at least they’re not yelling at us now.”
Sighing, he turns to Ruby. “Miss Ruby, since you have a keen eye, it’d be good for you to help me out here.” He leans over to the comm tubes on the wall, speaking down to the Hold. “How’s it looking down there?”
Rodrick’s voice carries back up through the tubes. “They all went down! Every one of ‘em.”
Thorin thinks a moment, then replies back. “Well we might need some more eyes on deck. Bring the others.”
Azandar turns to their tiefling. “Well… we tried. You did good, my friend.” He gives him a light slap on the shoulder.
The tiefling shrugs, returning the light slap; which is more like a hearty smack on the back.
Azandar straightens up from the hit. “Well, looks like we will need your keen eyes. You seem to have keen eyes for hunting. Now we will need your keen eyes for navigating.”
He looks back, and responds in his broken common, “Keep look out.”
They all head up to the deck to watch the inevitable approach of the Rift.