Mysteries of the Floating Islands

[GoldenCityBird]

"Name's Briar Speckle-Throat. And as for my purpose..."

You rolled a 3 on your convincing check.

"...no point in cooking up a lie with someone like you. Doctor's been asking about a relative who was on the voyage. I owe him a lot, and he's refused every payment I could come ip with. So... yeah, I'm supposed to be helping guard the prisons, but my shift was almost up anyway... they won't notice."

They sigh.

"Also, my gender's none of your business."

[Florien]

Weird standards of courtesy you've got out here, not telling me, yes? I'll use neutral-animate to talk of you unless you object, then, and I won't bother asking you where from you are.

Anyway, prisons. Very interesting. So, relative of a doctor? I've got a partial crew manifest here, and I've got... three confirmed survivors and two casualties who I don't have names for. No idea what happened to the rest of the crew and passengers as of yet, but I assume they're not here, otherwise there'd be a lot stronger of a rotting meat smell, yes? Just give me a name I'll try to figure out what happened there. And could you elaborate on prisons and the purpose thereof? Is it perhaps to contain... dissidents who haven't yet been hung? Seeing as there's rumors of mass arrests near here.

Incidentally, are you entirely aware with this place crashed? I've been looking into it with the Science Team here. Well, not literally here, they're kind of dispersed. Oh, and your name is normal format for dragonsorts of this region? I need to know. For diplomatic purposes.

Oh and elaborate on the doctor too. Basically, tell me everything, assume the only thing I know is when you're omitting or lying about something, and we'll see what I can help you out with, yes?

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus had seen Avanyiss' hand signal, and understood fully her intentions. He stays hidden for now.

[GoldenCityBird]

"Alright, here goes..."

"First of all, the doctor's relative is, uh... something something-tail. I'll have to ask again - I suck at names.

"As for the prisons, well... alright, you may be missing some context... basically, that fort you've probably seen - the one in the cliff - isn't property of the Rashbold Kingdom. It's all part of the Dragon Kingdom. I don't know what the heck the Queen was doing there, but she's here and she governs. The prisons have, as far as I'm aware, only been used to house assaulters, murderers, violent people like that.

"My name's pretty normal - Briar's pretty rare, but the overal structure is what I think you're getting at.

"Uh... the airship crash, right? Yeah, it crashed, like, a week or so ago, I can't remember too clearly.

"And finally, as for Doctor Kyriaki... he's pretty much the only person Fortside with any medical skill. Alchemist by trade, at first, but, due to the lack of medics, he's been in charge of all the healing stuff. I'd love to tell you about how he's helped me, but... I'll probably just... clam up or something... you should ask him when you get the chance."

Briar draws in a heavy breath. "Can I ask some questions? Like, well, who precisely you are? And, well... if you'd be willing to help me with a couple of things? I'll make it worth it in return, you see, but... it feels like it'd be quite a lot to ask of you. Oh, and also where your allies are."

[Florien]

Allies? They're around. I figure I shouldn't expose them just yet, armies off to the sides, as they say. You could have a team waiting to stab me, I could have a team waiting to stab you, it's all a question of whether that will happen. Optimally, it won't come to that, and we're off to a good start! Nonetheless, I'd rather not have mine out while your gunners wait to snipe us as the shadows are left by us. Anyway, was the name in question ahhh... Aaron Thorn-tail? Because, thus far, unaccounted for. Thanks for noting your name is standard format here by the way.

Anyway, on to your questions, I suppose. I'm Avanyiss, Avanye without, Evireiter by line, female. Ignore the middle part of my name tag, you wouldn't have the context to get it, I haven't properly found a translation for your languages for it, and it's irrelevant to your questions, and of course I'm happy to help! We'll fix your problems, I'll get paid, the rest of the science team will... ahhh... also get paid. Caveat, within reason. If your problems are "blow up every island out of spite" that is beyond my current capabilities to deal with in a timely fashion. Magic is... wro- ahhh... different here, so I'm not at peak efficiency, not that I was back with the guild.

[GoldenCityBird]

"Thank you, Avanyiss" Briar says, bowing. "I feel that it's getting rather late. I shall return to the fort. Meet me outside here at midday if you need me."

They turn to leave, and start walking away.

@Florien, @SmilyCube112, @MadameButterflyKnife:

What little light you all have starts to become sunset orange, or fade away almost entirely. It'll be best to find somewhere to stay for the night, before it gets too dark.

[Florien]

Alright. So. We've got a place to go tomorrow. For now... I think we're best suited staying in the ship. Now, the captain's cabin may be inverted, but they're usually designed to be extremely defensible. and being upside down won't change that. Given that there's a bunch of useful metals and things, I think it likely there's probably some intact food supplies in here somewhere. Food is most likely stored in the bottom of the ship, so near the top of it right now. Most likely it's primarily dried smoked salted meat, and we do have rot-water on board, but it's possible there's some... better drinks. You two track down food and drinks, I'll get to the captain's cabin and see if I can't set it up to make it more livable.

Avanyiss walks off to go deal with that.

>Use that map from earlier to find the Captain's Cabin, and get there.

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus, after seeing Briar leave, comes out from hiding before hearing Avanyiss telling him to go get food and drinks. So, he goes and does just that.

> Search the ship for food and drink.

[GoldenCityBird]

@SmilyCube112: You roll a 1 on your search

You don't find any reasonable food on your adventure. You do, however, manage to find a way to, uh... slightly fall off the edge of the island and onto a ledge.

You roll a 3 on your falling preparedness.

Fortunately, you manage to find a decent handhold on the exposed bedrock.

@Florien:

You manage to find what's left of the captain's cabin. It's almost entirely ruined, with no obvious way in.

[Florien]

Well shit.

Ahh... well... there's... I don't want to blow up everything I don't want to blow up everything I don't want to blow up everything... there's got to be something else. Something something something else

Captain's Cargo Hold. Bottom of the ship, and therefore the top of the wreck, enclosed, only one entrance... Should be secure enough.

Avanyiss looks again at the map, trying to locate that.

>Try to get there and see if that place is actually accessible.

[SmilyCube112]

"Dammit, at least I got the landing. Gotta be more careful." Magnus quietly says to himself, as he climbs back up, and returns to the ship.

[GoldenCityBird]

@SmilyCube112: You successfully return to the surface.

@Florien: One look at the map suggests that the captain's hold is, in fact, accessible in the ship's current condition.

For the both of you: Lethargy starts to set in from the day's physical and mental tribulations. You should probably get some sleep.

[Florien]

Alright. Yes. Sleep. Go.

>Set up base in the Captain's hold and sleep there.

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus decides to just go to a passenger room and go to sleep in there.

[GoldenCityBird]

@Florien: You manage to set up base outside the captain's hold. The door to the hold is a little stubborn to open - not worth exhausting yourself over just yet.

@SmilyCube112: You set up camp inside one of the upturned passenger rooms. It's a little rough, but what can you do?

----

Morning arrives, the two of you having slept well. Magnus wakes up with no difficulty, while Avanyiss wakes up with a mild fever.

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus, after waking up, goes looking to see what food can be found.

> Look for food/drinks for breakfast.

[Florien]

Hell yeah I'm DISEASED!

Probably! Might just be due to really bad sleeping conditions. After that, we set up, gather up, and head to that fort to help out Briar. Or possibly suffer a murder attempt. One or the other. Maybe both.

>Figure out a way to reduce the feeling vaguely gross and then do that.

[GoldenCityBird]

@SmilyCube112: You roll a 4

You're able to craft a reasonable breakfast for both yourself and Avanyiss, using the food that youkve managed to scrounge up. You now have two Reasonable Breakfasts in your inventory.

@Florien: You roll a 2

Bugger, you simply can't think of anything that'd help right now. Well, no matter, you can bear with it... right?

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus, satisfied, heads off to find Avanyiss, hoping it won't take long. Once he does, he says to her
"Heya spectral kitty, here's breakfast!"
before giving her one of the two Reasonable Breakfasts.

[Florien]

Spectral Kitty. Why? Why do you call me this? I am ILL, child! Oh woe! I shall VOMIT FORTH MY INTESTINES SHORTLY AND BE DECEASED!

Or perhaps I'll throw up slightly once in a couple of hours and feel better, it's really a tossup! Anyway... We should probably hurry to this prison. Briar seems nice and only vaguely like we'll be stabbed to death thereby.

Avanyiss consumes the food in front of her, vaguely hoping it's poisoned so she doesn't have to deal with being sick, then

>Heads off to the prison because being early means she'll get to sleep longer, and perhaps get everyone at the prison sick too.

[SmilyCube112]

"Oh. Didn't realise you fell ill. Also didn't need to yell." Magnus says, before consuming his Reasonable Breakfast after Avanyiss left. He then heads off to the Prison.

> Walk to the Prison.

[GoldenCityBird]

Avanyiss and Magnus are now well-fed! Two Reasonable Breakfasts have been removed from Magnus's inventory.

The Cliffside Fort

The fort engraved into the cliff is as intimidating as it was before. After some minor scouting around, you manage to find yourself in front of a large door. It's flanked by two Draconic guards, wearing light leather armour different from what you've seen on most of the other guards.

One of the doorside guards, blue-scaled, tall and brawny, speaks up. "Hold it, you two. No non-Draconians come in or out of the fort without the express permission of the Dragon Queen."

The other guard, shorter and skinnier, with green scales and fierce red eyes, adds, "State your names and why you desire entry. Perhaps the Queen would hold some sympathy to you."

[Florien]

Yesyes, one moment, I didn't bring a passport with me because this is a monarchist hellscape where passports are not a thing, but... yes. Me. I'm Avanyiss, Avanye without, Evereiter by line, Female. As for reason for requesting entry, Briar Speckle-Throat or some such wanted to meet me and my compatriots here.

Maybe outside, maybe inside, not entirely clear, yes? Ask.

Oh, also, let it be said for the record I'm very interested in seeing the king hanging from something by the neck for no particular personal reason because monarchy is an insult, especially when long-range communication is so easy, and I do have some past experience with coups and installations, so quite besides the Briar-wanted-to-meet-me-here business, if the dragon queen would be interested in talking new titles and an electoral system of some kind in exchange for coup expertise, I'm here. But check for Briar's existence first, yes?

Avanyiss pauses for a moment, before thinking of something else.

Also, while you're going back there, could you check the medicine cabinet or whatever you have for some fever reducer?

[SmilyCube112]

Magnus is now internally worried, but complies anyway. "M-my name i-is

MagnusHe pronounces it as "Mang-noos"

. Magnus Ingvar. And, also, please don't put me down as an Anti-Monarchist, because I'm not. We're just here because of Briar."

[GoldenCityBird]

The shorter guard scoffs. "Briar? That loser? Why, I should-"

The larger guard nudges him. "Watch it, Marcus." He looks closely at Avanyiss and Magnus. "Anyway... if this whole thing is about one of our ranks, them I'll go up to the barracks and ask."

As the larger guard retreats into the jail, the shorter one stands in the doorway, smilng broadly. "So... up against the king, eh? Well, if you've any questions, I'm willing to answer them."