Excession

Through Darkening Skies - original weird fantasy sky pirate adventures

We have room for a few more players and time to induct them, if anyone is into it.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

Private Box, Hallway

"I can spare no bodies, Kira," the thrall says in the Vampire's voice. "Kurze is hunting, The Son is occupied, Burke is worthless to us, Willa has no ship."
"Where is she, Orohome?"
"South, far south, now, but she is coming."
"If Kurze and the Captain are back by the time she shows her face-"
"They will not be. You know this. I know this. Calculate, Kira."
There is silence.
"Fucking... you're right. We can beat her but the Captain will be pissed about the losses."
"You must choose from among your agents, Kira. Find the star and we can... manage, the Desolator."
"I'll find someone, someone always owes me."

Adrian feels a black pit open in his stomach before the words are spoken.
"Why not the ones outside your door?" the Vampire says.

The Cells

The Orc does not reply. He meets your gaze and says nothing, silently fishing a small wooden box from his pocket.
Casually, deftly, he rolls a cigarette with the contents. His right hand was once broken, trembles so slightly where it never healed right. His metal knuckles glint dully in the hissing light of the sconce in the wall. Tendons shift in his forearms, biceps swell in the curve of his arm. With a ruby-tipped light stick, he ignites, and inhales.
As he speaks, acrid smoke plumes from his nose and wafts to the high window of your cell.
"I was like you, once," he says. "What will you do if your god is ripped from your heart, Cold Hands?"
His voice reminds you of visiting monk who came once to your monastery, mild like summer tundra. You are suddenly aware how your fists ache, but faintly, to kiss his face.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

I think making Cold Hands fistfight a Vampire would be very cool. This portends nothing.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

I am currently in no position to critique pacing

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

@Excession

Quick Question: Do bad things happen if the six bodies of a goblin fail to remain within close proximity of each other?

@rush99999

You've got a maximum dispersal range of around 12 metres, and that's where you feel a kind of... signal loss. The distant body has slowed reflexes, weakened cognition, goes catatonic if they're fully out of range.
You could arrange your bodies at 10m intervals with minimal negative effect - you know when you go into work on two hours less sleep than usual and you can feel yourself being kinda slow? The result and sensation are kind of like that.
A goblin left catatonic out of range for a few hours can start to lose autonomous brain function and asphysxiate.

There are horror stories of goblin bodies cut off from the whole that become independent and strange but this has never been proven. Trollkin a whole would consider experimenting with such a thing to be monstrously cruel, like cutting off a human's arm just to see what happens. But maybe some untroll maniac has tried it.
Could this be foreshadowing? We'll see.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

Good enough. No clauses that'll fuck you over an interruption. Eavesdropping is fine if you have a reasonable expectation that you are standing on protocol - such as if someone in authority is aware of your presence and has not yet given you leave to step forward. Like Orohome. But are you willing to play them off each other?

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

<Snipped quote by Excession>

Since Chwegwn would have thoroughly read that agreement, could he make a roll to recall a loophole in the aforementioned obscure clause that would allow him to avoid the fine?

@rush99999

Hmmmm I can allow he just remembers because he seems the type, or you can roll Intellect/Academics with the caveat failure will add a complication to Chwegwn's near-future.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

@Excession

Do either of the captains have a reputation for violence against people who interrupt or eavesdrop on their conversations?

@rush99999

No, they're both quite non-violent but they will make a note.
Kira might fine you for the offense, citing some obscure clause in an existing agreement.
Orohomi cannot be eavesdropped on if they don't want to be, safe to assume either they want you to hear this or they have deemed you irrelevant to their wider plan. They might be allowing you to eavesdrop purely to use it against you later. The only safe assumption with an elder Vampire is that they are thinking ten steps or as many years ahead.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

The Cells

The prison quietens; the chatter and shouts have stopped, leaving only the cries of unbroken beast and the weeping of captives. Even the guards seem on edge.
You sense someone approaching - their gait is measured, but betrays weight in the soft pad of the stride and vibrations in the floor.
An Orc steps into view, wearing only linen trousers and soft-soled shoes, and you immediately understand why. You can read the scar-writ saga upon his frame like a mother tongue.
Those five lines from the left temple to the right cheek, over the eye; claws. They intersect a neat score to the corner of the lips from... a light blade, a rapier perhaps. Pockmarks from a pellet gun warp his shoulder. A puckered indentation just above his hip recalls the bite of an axe.
His knuckles are worn steel fused over the bone.
He squats until his pale brown eyes are level with yours and says nothing for a time.
"You're no more trapped than I," he says in accented Trollish, and you recall you've heard ths name of this one. The Unfortunate Son.

The Streets

One of Leadbelly's henchmen sees you approach from half a street away and ushers you past the lines of glaring specators who have to wait their turn to enter the worn red edifice of the arena.
You're pointed to the corridor to Kira's private box. She has posted no guards that you can see, but that's unsurprising. Few Scions live long if they can't defend themselves with surpassing style.
As you approach the the door, up steps and steps and more bloody steps, you overhear voices beyond the door marked VIP.
"...an't spare the bodies with those bastards on the wind." Kira says, sounding nothing so much as tired.
A high, strangled voice replies in sing-song. Adrian, so paranoid, immediately looks at the ceilings and sees a fat black spider on the lintel of the door. The speaker must be one of Orohome's Chorus.
"She will come here, Kira, with or without the star, and neither ends well for anyone."
"You send someone then!" Kira barks.
You have a very narrow window to interrupt, or listen; if the spiders have seen you, it is the Vampire's choice not to announce your arrival.

Pirates of the Darkening Skies

Worst case, just return to the scene of the crime.

@Abstract Proxy

Good news, I did think of a fun interaction for Cold Hands while the others are being subjected to Mild Horrors.