Arceroth

The Vanishing Kingdom

Kalla

"You got a horse? I had to walk along side the caravan most of the ways, even though I paid for a seat. Something about 'the wheels sinking into the sand," Sev shrugged, laying his staff across his shoulders with a quick spin before draping his arms over the staff.

"And I was certain a woman as capable as you would be fine, as you said, these combatants lacked in skill" the warrior mage continued, "besides, I was never out of ear or spellshot should you have needed assistance. But if you truly need my capable self to keep you safe from some rude men with swords, then I shall be more than willing to provide such assistance."

Before he could continue a yawn broke his rhythm, one he struggled to cover with his arms resting on his staff. Looking slightly embarrassed Sev turned to walk out of the church.

"Regardless, I think I shall retire for the night," he said over a shoulder as he made his way outside, angling back towards the inn.

Despite his apparently relaxed exterior Sev was on edge, not from the bodies scattered about, though that didn't help. Nor from how Maeve had called him out, indeed he enjoyed friendly banter and a woman with a some fire... or ice as the case may be. No, it was the apparent Grusk blood he'd seen in that other man that caused Sev to, almost unconsciously, summon a thin barrier of air around his person. It would only stop a single strike, but that was enough to stay an otherwise deadly ambush. Not that such a barrier saw use as he strode back to the inn through the blood covered sands of the town.

He was always wary of seeing another Grusk, for the same reason he never liked to pull the same trick twice with his magic. The first time you perform the trick the audience, or victims, are caught off guard. But the second time they are watching for the trick, expecting it. That was how magicians were caught and exposed, or, in combat, killed.

With only him around he could hide his tainted blood relatively easily and no one would ask questions. But when they see another Grusk hiding his nature they would become suspicious of those around them, looking more closely for signs that they might also be tainted. Sev had managed to go his, admittedly short, life thus far undetected through a combination of illusions, lies, and running away. Hopefully he wouldn't have to resort to the last one, it only raised suspicion and made enemies. Considering the number of powerful people in the town, from a barkeep able to cut down a small army, another from the Scar with an air gift surpassing Sev's, an attractive Isoli princess-mage and who knows what else, being found out likely wouldn't be good for his health.

If there wasn't any reason to stay here he'd have left, but between the common folk in trouble, the promise of room and board as long as he helps, and the previously mentioned attractive Isoli mage, he didn't want to simply up and leave. Not yet at least.

Placing another simple air ward over the door to his inn room, and doing his best to ignore the smell of smoke and blood, Sev collapsed in the bed barely out of his clothing.

The Vanishing Kingdom

Kalla

"I don't pay much attention to politics," Sev explained with a shrug as he followed them into the church. Upon seeing the Isoli woman begin healing the barkeep Sev was suddenly disappointed he wasn't injured, as much as the pain would hurt any excuse to get a good looking woman to touch him. He briefly considered using his illusions to fake an injury but that could be easily disproved and considering the condition Allard was in he probably shouldn't take attention away just for his own amusement.

"I've been to Portea, it's alright," the warrior-mage said to himself while thinking back to if he'd heard anything about these four families. He remembered some offhand comments about the 'four rulers' or 'four houses' but he had been paying more attention to the barmaid who was wearing a delightfully low-cut top instead of the conversation.

Next morning her father didn't find his excuse that 'he's a good tipper' a good enough excuse for finding Sev in his house and the mage was forced to use his magic to escape. Needless to say it was a good day.

"I second the soft, cool bed comment," Sev spoke up, pushing aside those thoughts as the conversation continued around him, "I only just got into town and fighting after a day of travel is not my favorite. Much less the multiple days it took to get out here."

"As for helping out, I'm free and this seems interesting enough for now. I'm no fan of rulers of any stripe, especially those like this Emperor of Greed. Hell, I'll help out for room and board," Sev added with a charming, if tired smile, before adding with a wink at Maeve, "and perhaps some good company."

Soulless Shadows

Aboard the Tiresias, briefing room

"Hey honey," Vance said as Liz took a seat, sliding over to lean against her table, "don't think I've seen you around here before, what do you say we-."

Before he could finish a massive hand closed around the back of his neck, dragging him away and half throwing him back into his chair.

"Mission now, women later," Grant said warning as he retook his own seat, glaring at the younger man. Any complaints vance may have had were silenced as the last two members of his team along with the ship's vice captain and a senior engineer walked in. Eric and Jim were brothers, at least, that's what they told everyone, and tended to be troublemakers in their free time, really only their skill at and willingness to go on scavenging missions allowed them to be tolerated.

The vice-captain, Huxley Winters, was a stern but fair man and son of the previous captain. While the position wasn't supposed to be hereditary it didn't stop the Winters family from controlling many upper leadership positions. As Huxley entered he directed the engineer with him, known simply as Scott, to put a large, cloth wrapped and apparently very heavy package onto one of the tables, which groaned under the weight.

"Everyone here?" Huxley asked needlessly as he scanned the two teams, "good, let's get this started.

"The details of this mission shouldn't leave this room, hopefully the troubles we are experiencing will be dealt with before the general crew notices anything. In short, one of our primary boilers isn't working."

"The boiler itself is fine, technically," Scott corrected.

"I'm getting there," Huxley paused to glare before motioning to the package which Scott unwrapped. It resembled a block of steel as long as someone's forearm, nearly as wide and a bit more than a hand span thick. Oil seeped from several smaller holes drilled in the face while salt encrusted larger openings lined the sides.

"This is the steam distribution manifold from boiler A2," Scott explained, "it stopped working about two days ago, it's supposed to manage steam pressure through various systems but was causing several lines to over-pressure while neglecting others. We've rigged up a stopgap measure, pushing the output from A2 through A1's manifold, but that won't hold long."

"In short, in a few days things will start getting cold," Huxley took over, "we'll have to direct power away from unnecessary systems, heating, lighting, support craft, that kind of thing. Your mission is to find a replacement. We've located three possible places," Huxley paused to pull out a map and lay it out on the table, "the first two are in this town, the ruins of Yonkers. It had two main boiler plants, one located near the port and the other inland to service housing. The city has doubtless been scavenged before, and the steam plants are a primary target of anyone's missions, but we're hoping the manifolds were too heavy and difficult to extract when compared to other parts.

"The other location," Huxley paused to pull a black and white photograph from a pocket and put it next to the map. It showed a distant and slightly blurry photo of another airship, "is this, the Hephaestus, a ship reported lost last spring according to messages we received. Our scout pilots found it drifting near by, frankly I'm surprised it's still afloat but it'll have several manifolds we can use. But it's likely crawling with Touched and who knows what else."

"Have you tried, I dunno, fixing that thing?" Vance asked, one foot up on the table and nodding to the manifold.

"It's a precision tooled piece of kit," Scott answered, "none of the machine shops on board are capable of the accuracy needed, we plan to try anyways, but the chance of it working is low."

"Do you really think anyone here is stupid enough to go to a ghost ship?" Grant spoke up.

"That's why there's only two teams here, Old Man says we're not desperate enough to force you try that. If it drifts over land we might try to force it down by punching holes in the balloons but it's over sea right now and we don't know where it'll end up," Huxley replied, "Grant, your team is senior so you get first pick."

"The port plant," the large man grunted after a moment's thought.

"I've written details for how to identify the manifold here," Scott said, handing out slips of paper, "in short make sure you find the part number on the side and match it to one of the numbers here."

"Finally while the manifold is the most important, keep your eye out for other things, Merc tanks, good food, you know the like," Huxley finished, glancing at Jarrad, "which location do you prefer?"

Soulless Shadows

Aboard the Tiresias, briefing room

"Any idea what this meeting is about?" Vance asked to the mostly empty room.

"Probably a scavenging run, like always," groaned his teammate, Grant.

"With only two teams?" Vance replied incredulously, Grant simply shrugging in reply.

For most of the ship it was a normal day, kids ran up and down the narrow steel corridors, their laughter echoing throughout the ship. Dozens of hands tended to the makeshift greenhouses that had been built atop what was once two cargo ships. Each ship consisted of a large, mostly empty, hull between two massive sausage shaped helium balloons. Steam driven propellers covered the outer hull at regular intervals while a nest of brass pipes where the two ships had been joined connected the four total boilers to one another. The giant propellers spun lazily as the sun rose, simply working to keep the ship stable.

As workers, engineers, medics, teachers and hundreds of others woke to go about their various jobs the Scavenger corp was also gathering. Or, at least, a portion of them. While there were six total teams, all of which would typically be deployed whenever the ship neared the mainland only two of the groups had been called. The most senior team, lead by Grant, a man as big as he was ill mannered, but none the less always brought his team back alive and with supplies, was already gathering with two of their four members present in the small meeting room. The other group was an odd pick, and relatively new, all of them relatively recent additions to the ship. Jarred and his niece were survivors of a lost ship, doing them no favors in trying to make friends with the more superstitious of the crew. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Jarred had become a scavenger.

Keket was more of a mystery, picked up at the last stop she didn't talk about her past, and few asked. Everyone had dark pasts in this world, best to just ignore it, but there was still a need for strong fighters to protect scavenging teams and, lacking other skills had found her way there.

Finally Eliza had more the air of a child of wanderlust, her unique combination of engineering knowledge and physical ability making her ideal for recovering parts for the airship. Perhaps she was why that group, despite being untested, was asked to come to this meeting. Everything on the ship was at least decades old and always needed replacing, and engineers were generally too valuable to risk on missions.

Regardless the ship chugged through the air, several smaller ships launching from the makeshift top deck carrying fishermen with massive nets and crab pots. Distant singing could be heard from an early morning workshift tending to the ship's engines, more religious crew bowed their heads in morning prayers, chefs in the ship's galley began preparing meals for those working and mothers walked children to classrooms. Most unaware the scavengers were preparing for another dangerous mission even as they went about their day.

Soulless Shadows

@13org approved

minimum players reached, will remain open for 2 more.

op coming soon(tm)

Soulless Shadows

@Jollan Accepted on both counts

Soulless Shadows

@Lotrix Molick

Has been approved!

The Vanishing Kingdom

Kalla

"I was looking for a friend," Sev shrugged as Maeve questioned him, "almost found one, but he had the bad manners to blow himself up. That's who the explosion was, no one was hurt by it but him. Think he wanted to take me with him. I swear, people these days refuse to accept when they are beaten."

Sev paused a moment to scowl at the blade of his spear, pulling a rag from a pocket and began cleaning the blood off before it could dry. Of course, this was only partly a front, allowing him time to inspect the other Sylve that had joined them. No military uniform, didn't look like a government official. But he did seem quite skilled with his gift of air, more so than Sev was with his own though he would argue he was better with light, if he was ever to admit to having that gift.

Seemingly satisfied with the now clean blade Sev pocketed the rag and held the staff out, chanting some meaningless phrases that sounded like a spell. Rings of light ran up and down the length of the spear, it's form shifting and changing till it was once again a staff. While Sev had removed any markings indicating the weapon belonged to the Sylve military it was still recognizable as such to a trained eye. Better to allow people to make the assumption the weapon had been transformed into a military style spear than he was just carrying such a spear around.

"Local lord doing deals with bandits against his own people?" Sev asked, looking up in contemplation as he thought, leaning his staff against his shoulder, "that's a new one I think."

Soulless Shadows

"If you see a man without a shadow, shoot it;
If you see a shadow without a man, run."

Thirty years ago they simply appeared, strange creatures made of shadow, all over the world. Anyone they touched simply changed, these shadow touched no longer cast shadows in any light and seem to lose that which made them human on some fundamental level. We call them the Soulless.

The mainlands are lost, dominated by ethereal shadow beasts and their legions of soulless humans. We survive because of two facts: the shadows fear bright lights and the Soulless don't work together like true humans. Now the survivors of humanity live on small islands, their coasts kept illuminated by great fires at night, some use electricity to power flood lights, but such technology was considered dead long before the shadows began to move. Great airships, once cargo haulers and passenger liners became flying cities. Safer than the islands as Shadows can't fly, but harder work to survive on.

For now, survival is all we can manage, for how can you kill monsters that you can't touch?

-----

The world of shadows is an apocalyptic steampunk setting some of my friends asked me to run. Currently there is no map or set list of nations so much is up for creation. That being said there are some key concepts of the world all must know:

-Mercureal: Often simply called 'merc' is a naturally occurring gas often found beneath great mountain ranges. While highly toxic and more than slightly flammable it is the substance on which the world ran before the shadows came to life, and is now the one thing keeping humanity alive. When combined with water at one part per thousand it dissolves into the water like salt. The merc treated water has a lower boiling point, vastly lowered transition state energy requirement and, most importantly, once turned to steam will not condense, regardless of temperature, so long as it is kept under pressure. When it finally does condense the water becomes normal with the merc seemingly replaced with a mildly toxic salt.

-Shadows: called many different names by different cultures, the shadows are an enigma. Generally inactive during the day they flee from bright lights, but don't seem injured by them. They pass through normal matter at will, ignoring walls, doors, bullets and explosions. There has never been a confirmed case of one being killed, and all attempts to contain one for study have similarly failed with spectacular results. Any human they touch becomes soulless, in fact this seems to be the only way they can interact directly with the world.

-Soulless: While appearing human on the outside, they are anything but. Most notably they do not cast shadows, this property has never been explained, though it has been studied. Soulless are capable of coherent speech, tool use, teamwork and even cultural persuits such as art or music, but they seem to decline to use any of these when left on their own. Groups of wild soulless act more like beasts than men, fighting for food, not using tools, failing to maintain their own health and appearance beyond basic needs and the like. Despite this, when challenged by untouched humans they will take up arms, pretend to be normal, even entreating others with promises and lies. Despite everything one things remains constant, the soulless always try to stop humanity from surviving. They pin down people so they can be touched or kill them, acting on some collective instinct. The change from human to soulless is instant, a marine who moments ago fighting to save his comrades will gladly turn his weapons on his friends the moment his soul is taken. Often they will try to hide their condition to infiltrate safe islands or airships where they can sabotage and kill.

-Technology: Due to the discovery of Mercureal this world has gone down a vastly different path from our own. Electricity is considered a technological dead end, used for lighting and creating sparks, but little else. Instead the world uses machinery powered by steam. Special tanks able to hold merc-steam under immense pressure are used as batteries or fuel. During the great war, which ended shortly before the shadows rose, great tanks were powered by these steam cells. Afterwards personal automobiles using the same tech were on the rise. Gunpowder does exist but is much harder to find due to the situation, most arms are steam weapons, using merc-steam to propel pellets at near supersonic velocities. Several steam guns are even able to break the sound barrier. While weaker than normal firearms, these steamarms are much cheaper to use and easier to find ammo for since any merc-boiler can recharge their tanks.

A discord is... coming soon^(TM). RP will be mostly on RPguild but the discord can be used for quick back and forth conversations that one player then posts allowing for in-depth conversations. I shall be the GM and control the NPCs running the airship the players find themselves on. Exact details are yet to be determined but the RP will likely follow a single airship that the players are notable members of and their struggle to survive in this broken world. Politics between different ships and the various safe islands as humans fight over supplies, drama between friends as people are pushed to their limits. I hope all of this will be central in this RP.

Update: Discord Get!

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The Vanishing Kingdom

Kalla

"This place was a lot easier to find during the day," Sev grumbled as he glanced down another side street that went nowhere. Using illusions to stop others from keeping track of him was one thing, but it also sometimes resulted in him getting lost himself. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, half the reason he came to this town was to get lost, but when he actually knew where he wanted to go it could be annoying. That Isoli had said something about using magic, right? To be honest Sev hadn't paid much attention to what she said, first he was... enjoying her presence behind his illusory eyes and later he had left as she was talking.

"Hey!" someone shouted from behind him, prompting Sev to turn around to see a pair of injured bandits, or rebels or whatever they were, approaching him. The lead bandit pointed at Sev, "he looks like easier prey than that chick."

"I don't know," his companion replied, "there's blood on his spear."

"Did you two happen to run away from town square? I believe there was an Isoli in a short dress and a man the size of a small bear," Sev asked, apparently unconcerned.

"Let's just deal with him and get out of here," the first bandit said, charging forward brandishing a worn saber. Sev sighed, pointed the tip of his spear at the man and chanted something under his breath. A series of burning red runes burst into existence around the short blade at the weapon's tip. The charging man's eyes went wide just as a ball of fire shot from the weapon and struck him in the chest.

"Uhg, why did I pick fire, in this climate," Sev groaned as the burning rebel screamed and ran around in panic. He made eye contact with the other bandit who, after a moment, turned and ran. The Sylve warrior mage sent a barrage of icicles after him with another spell, but at range his aim wasn't good enough to get a solid hit, and simply shattered against brick buildings or buried themselves in the ground. With a shrug Sev stepped around the now prone, and smoldering, man and followed the pair's tracks backwards.

In short order he finally found the town square, and was a little disappointed the lady had finished off all the other bandits, he had been looking forward to swooping in to save her. He briefly considered covering his spear with the staff illusion again, but he was already running a bit low on mana, probably being around half. And if the next day promised as much violence as the night had he'd need every drop.

"We're probably dealing with rebels," Sev called out towards Maeve as he came to a decision, walking into the bloody square with his spear still on display, "said something about an emperor of greed, mean anything to you?"