A Dream of Quiet (IC)

[Scarlet Dragon]

After getting Drake to the entrance Pyrus leapt in to, Dancer puts his passenger down. "Hurry, no time argue" He manages to say before turning around and quickly following Pyrus into the ship pausing briefly to note the unfamiliar smell of the stranger they are following.

[Recaiden]

The inside of the ship isn't all layered soulsteel plates. There's a little of it, yes, but there's mainly stone and wood and lesser metals. Unlike outside, there are no pyre-flame lamps. The halls are lit by glowstones, and mostly the cheap red ones, painting everything with an unsettling crimson color.

He's going to make you chase him. The man is fleeing through the halls with no sign of stopping or slowing, but rather, he's running at a normal speed, with Pyrus easily closing the ground, until he hears that call and looks back. The light around the fleeing man flickers and dims as he redoubles his efforts and sprints down the hall at inhuman speed. As you round the corner, moving from the access to the main hallway, you get the distinct feeling that you're being watched.

"Both these halls would eventually lead to the bridge if you took the right turns, so it matters not." Masque runs after the others waving at Drake and Raziel and Wing to follow.
"But I'm not sure we can keep up."

[Tavar]

"But we lose nothing if we try. So why not make the effort?"

[Drascin]

"We probably can't keep up, no. But if he's going for the bridge too, we'll arrive only a bit later than him and we can "discuss" it with him. And if not, while he's doing whatever we can start this up from the bridge and see about setting it into a course straight for the Mouth of Oblivion. Either way, time to continue running" And with that he's going to let some of the others get in front and then dart forward after them, trying to ignore the protest of his lungs.

[Rhyvurg]

"Please stop running! This thing is practically made of tissue paper, we're going to break someting! If you don't know what that is feel free to STOP RUNNING and ask!"

[Recaiden]

"You came all the way here and you just want to talk? Why?" He slows down a tiny bit. Maybe. It's such a slight change that it might not have happened.

"We are making the effort, Wing!"

[Leliel]

"Oh, I don't know, not fight with you!?"

[Rhyvurg]

"No, we're here for a different reason, I just want to talk to you, specifically. You're no friend of the Lion, and neither are we. Whatever the reason for your presence, I'm sure we can help each other."

[Recaiden]

"We...Maybe we can work something out. Come no closer though." He slows to an impossibly fast walk.

"You are right, I am no friend of the Lion. You were the ones that broke through from Creation, yes?"

[Rhyvurg]

"Don't take it the wrong way if I admit nothing for the time being. I just really need to know one thing. Do you intend for this ship to remain in it's present location and condition?"

[Recaiden]

"..." He looks back at Pyrus.
"..." Frowns, and glances back forward.
"..." Sighs.
"No, I don't. Let us settle our differences after we deal with it, then?"

[Rhyvurg]

"Then the way I see it, we have no conflict of interests here, there's no reason we can't all get what we want."

[Drascin]

"Fine by me. Let's get to the bridge fast. I give it five minutes tops before the guys outside notice that the biggest problem they have came in here and decide to send for us. We can argue details later."

[Leliel]

"Kay cool. Don't have time to trust you, but I'll settle for watching you right now."

[Recaiden]

"Fine. It's still a ways ahead. Follow me." He points ahead, towards the left passage where it forks, and starts off again. Moving fast, but not trying to escape.

It's still a ways off, and it takes a minute or two to get to the place which he marks by saying "This is it." And it looks it. There are a number of tubes and pipes leading in above the doorway, and the entrance itself is far more ornate (and far more solidly constructed at its core) than most of the doors (although there was one made of soulsteel that you passed a while ago).

The man is visibly nervous as he slows to approach the door.

[Drascin]

Of course Drake is not very far as he does, ready to twitch and ear out for the ping of his spider-sense. Let's see if they got lucky...

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus keeps him in sight, sticking close.

[Recaiden]

Pyrus, the feeling of being watched intensifies. There's definitely something else here.

Shadow Dancer and Raziel start to pick up on the same sensation, a sixth sense saying that this strung out little group is not alone.

Drake, something is going to go wrong soon. There's a future threat in this room.

The man puts a hand on the door, and it lights up, in a five-fold pattern flowing out from the center. It separates into two halves and begin to slide open. He lets out a sigh, clearly relieved that whatever he did worked, and goes to step inside.

Pyrus and anyone else can follow with nothing really happening.


The bridge is normal, but also strange in its Underworld way. There's one chair at the center, with an ominous assemblage of metal and bone hanging down from above, terminating in a pitch black spike an inch or two long at its center, and with many bone rods and clasps surrounding it. At the front of the room are a number of blank crystal panels. Beneath them are a bewildering array of controls. In the center there is a spoke wheel, as for directing an oceanship, with four large levers and twelve smaller ones surrounding it. On the right side lie a lot of dials, with a good number of switches thrown in and a number of metal horns for speaking to other places. On the left side there is a large crystal orb on a pedestal with a number of hollows cut into it, as well as more horns, and a number of cables running up from the floor to the ceiling. The corners of the room appear to be decorated with human eyes.

[Drascin]

"Everyone on guard. Something is going to go really wrong real soon" Drake says, taking his hands to his pockets and sliding them into his gauntlets again.

"Nice decor. I kind of expected more spikes though" Drake jokes nervously as he starts eyeing around for the inevitable threat - and starting to check the controls before approaching them. Damn the need for secrecy as long as possible. He'd feel much safer with his anima flowing and the hum of his mind at full blare. It'd drown the creepy sounds of this goddamn place at least.

[Scarlet Dragon]

Shadow Dancer looks around the room and sniffs the air in the room cautiously, his cat ears swiveling back and forth trying to pinpoint any other presences not their own. As he enters the room his claws unsheathe from his hands "Me agree, sense others", says Dancer.

[Recaiden]

Masque points up at the machinery above the central chair. "That should control everything. It's what we use in Voidstriders. Plugs right into the brain. Any volunteers?" This is asked in all seriousness, and the other man recoils a little bit at hearing that.
"These others will be backup controls. Or for multi-tasking work." She looks around, and a dark circle appears on her forehead. The Abyssal points at the orb. "There. That turns it on. Someone figure out the flight controls."

The man looks at Darke, and asks sharply. "How is it going to go wrong? What do you mean?" Then he scurries over towards the orb that Masque has pointed out.

[Drascin]

"I mean I have this little gizmo that gives me warning when danger approaches, and it just pinged so we better figure this out quickly. I'd rather we give this a check before latching anyone, though. Boobytrapping the controls until the thing is finished is what I'd do, at least." Drake says, offhand and tense as he looks at the controls carefully and tries to remember everything he's studied about Strider control systems and first age airships hoping it applies here...

(What roll would this require, Lore or Occult or both?)

[Rhyvurg]

Pyrus turns to the guy he chased. "Hey, you obviously had some plan for this ship, how were you going to fly it?"

[Recaiden]

"Like any airship. Do none of you know how they run?" What? There are people that don't live in ruined first age cities that maintain high-magitech? The Exalted should know better than those sad folk who don't, at least.
He edges Masque aside and puts a hand on the orb, tapping it in a quick pattern. It lights up, and displays all around the room come alive. The long screens pipe in a view from outside the ship, in each direction, althoguh right by the ship is not visible. People are swarming in from the towers, in basically every direction. They are being opposed by the reanimated dead that you all raced past.
"Let's worry about the danger later. My necrotech won't hold off all those ghosts for long. I was going to fly it like this." He smiles, relishing a chance to show off.

He moves over to the front controls, pointing out and moving levers.
"Lifters." The ship shakes, and you can feel it, very slow, start to move. "Thrusters." He slams a bar all the way forward, and you feel like you might be thrown off your feet for a second, before recovering balance. The thing moves forward a lot faster than it moves up.
"The wheel steers. The little levers should maneuver how it turns."

He goes to grab hold of it and tilt/spin the ship up and to the east.

"Now what were you going to do with this thing?"

[Leliel]

"So like a bus or a train then then. Got it.

...Not that I would know what either of those things look like, I just read about them. Probably couldn't operate them if my life depended on it."

The last bit of the verbal backspace was even true. Driving was not one of Raziel's stronger talents.

[Scarlet Dragon]

"Plan, keep from Lion, take if could, destroy not" Dancer succinctly if brokenly explains in his limited understanding of Flametongue.

[Drascin]

"In full honesty, my plan was to see if we could set it on a course for the Mouth of Oblivion, and bail a bit before it actually falls in. For a variety of reasons, not the smallest of which is that this thing is way too much of a hassle and a target to be worth keeping. I did consider setting it in a ramming course for the Lion's fortress instead, but we'd be giving him back all the materials to rebuild it and it's not like it'd actually hurt him.

But I'm open to suggestions"

[Recaiden]

"I like the barbarian. I was going to take it if I could, and sabotage it if not. But even with your interruption, we can clearly take it."
"You can't just do nothing with it."

"If the ship's weapons are up to it, we could bring it back to Merciless. And destroy the place. Or take it far away, maybe to defend your city." An opening or a distraction, whichever.

((A Wits+Lore roll on those controls might find out about such capabilities.))

[Rhyvurg]

"I don't like that idea. There aren't enough of us to defend the ship from hostiles attempting to board. And an attack on Merciless itself will draw out the Lion for sure. He would slaughter us."

[Drascin]

"Pyrus is pretty much right. Whoever we sent on the attack to Merciless would basically be a sacrificial lamb. The weapons in this thing can hurt the fortress, but I doubt they can hurt the Lion himself and I'm not exactly keen to find out. He'd just have to walk out, kill everyone on the ship, and retake it, and then he'd have his ship back and be angrier than ever. Some of our lives in exchange for somewhat inconveniencing the Lion doesn't seem a fair trade to me, but then I'm not exactly boss here. At most we could do a drive-by, but staying around to actually bomb down the place is unlikely to end well.

And yes, we could take it back to defend the city. Except that the second it comes out the city has a ship like this, we're going to be facing like triple the attacks. I'd give it maybe a month before the Realm and Lookshy start sending assassins to slit our throats and steal it from us. There's been wars fought for less powerful remnants of the First Age than this thing. And that discounting that the Lion would probably send every one of his remaining deathknights at us. Basically, this ship is one serious hot potato and whoever has it better be able to defend it around the clock, and protect it from boardings when using it.

And I'm not sure at all we can"