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Dantony leads you down one final corridor- you appear to have been moving upward during your conversation.
He pulls his cloak tighter around himself and opens a vast bronze-plated door...and the wind plucks at him with a thousand fingers.
It's cold, and a bit damp; the current of the air is so fierce as to actually drive away the scent of the city, no mean feat. You appear to be moving across a causeway leading from the side of one, taller tower, and the top of a shorter one. A dome, resembling those in use by wizards concerned with matters of celestial observation, caps the shorter edifice, its rotunda studded with crystalline windows and plated, as the door was, in bronze. You can't see any obvious entrances, even as you reach the side of the dome and the wind abates in its shadows.
You know Anshar that may just be a good name for it. "Patchwork Beast". Dentin walks the edge of the causeway looking down, obviously fearless about heights.
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Excellent Avatar of Uri by Retun of Lanky (Aka Lanky Bugger)
Dantony presses the cube to the dome, in an almost invisible depression; even as he draws it away, backing hurriedly, it begins to collapse like a shuddering, mechanical flower, revealing...the ship, in a deep amphitheater.
It resembles from above nothing so much as a lute; the prow dominated by a massive ram of pitted black iron. A thaumic spine juts from the foredeck, like a dagger of copper sufficient in size to gut a titan.
The center of the deck is dominated by the crew quarters, a cylinder of black-banded plating. The aft section sprouts a sphere of the same coppery metal as the thaumic spine, with circular windows of smoked crystal and bizarre scores and grooves across its surface.
Two similar spheres sprout from the lower decks, one on the forward starboard section, and one from the aft port. Stubby protrusions that might be cannons, or thrusters of some description also jut at all angles. The whole might appear beautiful, a masterpiece of artifice....
If it weren't for the fact that the thaumic spine is the only clean section. The rest is a solid patina of rust, verdigris, and what appears to be lichen or mold.
Bolts are scattered below it, apparently jettisoned by the vagaries of metal fatigue. If you listen carefully, you hear what appears to be rats, or something similar, but larger. No section of plating appears to be continuous with any other; patchwork is the correct term.
Dantony looks on it, and raises an eyebrow.
"Well...the spine is clean."
"Mother..." Silence starts before turning to Dantony. "Please tell me she moves better than she looks. Because if prettiness is her strong suit, m'fraid we're all screwed."
"'Patchwork Beast' she is. Let's see about dealing with anything that might either prevent us from flying or cause us to descend more rapidly than desired," Aloysius said, as he approached the ship, listening more closely to the scratching noises
OOC: If nothing more important appears, Aloysius is going to see if he can track down what's making the noises.
Awareness: (1d20+15)[31]
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Avatar: Baron Blood by Uncle Festy.
The noises appear to be emanating from a set of partially recessed pipes that run along the sides of the vessel.
It sounds less like the scuttle of rats and more like the slither of some sort of reptile or long-bodied insect.
Tod seems unable to say anything more as he simply gapes in...let's be nice and call it awe.
OOC
Spoiler
So who has Prestidigitation to clean it up?
Also, where's our Rugged Scoundrel of a pilot? You know, the one who confuses distance and time units, and can't decide if he wants to shoot first or second?
Dentin walks over to the side of the ship and swipes a finger down the side. I really like what you have done with the lichen, great camoflage! Unless of course the ship isn't supposed to be this color?And what about all these parts on the floor, I guess you are going to tell me that they are extra parts? He turns around sniffing, he moves toward Aloyuios looking for the source of the noise.
You don't see much besides....ship. You detect nothing that looks like a trap or other mean-spirited object.
You do, however, tentatively identify the slithering noise as temple asps or a similar creature.
Reaching out he grasps Aloysius' shoulder. Dentin gently pulls Aloysius away from the ship and glances at Dantony Is there a reason you are keeping snakes in this thing? He quickly uncoils a bowstring from around his wrist and bends his bow, stringing it while his eyes are on where the noises are coming from. His eyes glow a dim but brilliant green as he does so.
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Excellent Avatar of Uri by Retun of Lanky (Aka Lanky Bugger)
"My understanding is that they're supposed to power the ship somehow. I'm not entirely certain how, unless they're magical or something...maybe that clerk you scrottled off with has some idea."
He snorts, softly, and keeps walking.
"And I don't think they're exactly flapping around loose. You'll see."
Dantony presses the cube to a much more obvious depression on the ship's underside as you reach it, and it sinks in, as if the surface were porous- even liquid. You note a flash of greenish light- some arcane process has taken place.
The door opens with a HSSST of trapped air, and you breath in the scent of the patchwork beast- musty, true, but with a hint of...something. Not quite a perfume, more the ghost of one. A suggestion of flowers, somewhere.
The decor of the entry hall is opulent to the point of oppression; whether because oppression is necessary to produce it, or because it is simply too rich, too much at once, is up to the viewer's social conscience. The floor is covered in woven carpet in deep purple, wine red, and gold; the walls appear to be ornately carved, reflective black stone, studded with friezes of jade and ivory. Breaking them on both sides, however, are some few features that are....unusual.
Firstly, the flowers. An alcove on each side contains terrariums, and each terrarium contains, in addition to complacent-looking beetles with carapace as brilliant as gems, a wide variety of orchids and flowering vines, twining up a frame bolted to either side of the nook's rear; nozzles and spheres of slightly turbid water complete the picture mysteriously. The alcoves apparently explain the scent.
Secondly, and more obviously, the snakes.
A tube, made, for some perverse reason, of clear (albeit fairly thick) glass, runs along either side of the corridor before disappearing into the wall. The tube contains snakes; a massive, rutting tangle of them.
Anyone knowledgeable about reptilian habits, and anyone else just savvy, realizes that 'rutting' may indeed be appropriate, as some of the snakes are juveniles or young. A few, however, are long enough to have shed their skin quite a few times- their passage chokes the tube for their brethren.
A strangled WHOOSH of air sounds and the snakes seem, for a moment, to be in an accelerated time-frame, until one realizes they are in point of fact being carried by a current of pressurized air to some far-flung destination elsewhere on the ship.
As the air current subsides, you realize that the snakes in the leftward tube appear to be more vigorous; those in the rightward seem sluggish, or even diseased.
"I gather that the leftward snakes are the power source for this ship's thaumic equivalent to a Blood Helm, and the rightmost are the exhausted fuel. But what purpose," Aloysius inquired, "do the plants and insects serve?"
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Dentin moves over and looks closely at the snakes and the terrariums Looks like I found my job onboard. His eyes twinle as he says so. He says figureing The terrariums may be there to restore the sick ones or to feed them or something I'm guessing but lets listen and look around a bit and we'll figure it out. I'm thinking we may want to be hiring a ship's wright on this tour. Or the flowers may be entirely decorative. Dentin looks at everyone with a shrug. Dentin looks carefully at the contents of the tubes and terraiums and how/if they interact.
Spoiler
K:nature (1d20+15)[28]
K:Arcana (1d20+5)[6]
Spellcraft (1d20+5)[17]
handle Animal (1d20+7)[12] - mostly to figure out how to deal with getting the snakes from point A to point B safely if need be.
heal (1d20+8)[28] -how sick/damaged are the right side snakes?
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Excellent Avatar of Uri by Retun of Lanky (Aka Lanky Bugger)
Dantony gives an elaborate shrug to convey not just specific, but total, ignorance of the ship's functions. He hands a red-ribbon-wrapped scroll to whomever's nearest, and makes for the exit.
"Good luck.."
He mutters, pulling out a cigar.
"....You'll need it."
Greyen:
Spoiler
Know: Nature- You recognize the snakes as, indeed, temple asps- poisonous, but not aggressive.
The flowers are also somewhat poisonous; while the process is complex, you recognize among the lilies the basis for several potent venoms and narcotics.
Even the frogs are 'poison-dart'.
You have no clue how anything magical around you works, at all.
You are, however, able to hazard that the tubes rely on some form of conjurative magic.
From what you can tell, the system for handling the snakes is complete sealed, perhaps to avoid people failing their handle animal checks and getting owned by viper venom.
The sluggish snakes appear to be nothing more than that- sluggish, as if they had spent some time basking on a rock. They don't look close to death, more tired. A good cup, or snake equivalent to a cup, of whatever snakes have instead of coffee should perk them right up.
Dentin spends a few moments looking at the terrariums obviously very interested in the contents. He pops up I get it now, I am thinking too hard. These are decorative, poisonous as hell, but still decorative. I wonder whats down here... Dentin see Dantony leave and then wanders down a hall way himself, sniffing along while dragging his hand along the wall to leave his own scent as a guide back.
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Excellent Avatar of Uri by Retun of Lanky (Aka Lanky Bugger)
"Thank you kindly, Dantony," Aloysius replied in the sincerest tone he could muster to the guard's sarcastic wishing of good luck. As soon as Dantony exited, Aloysius opened up the scroll and read its contents aloud to the others.
OOC: I'm assuming Aloysius got the scroll; he was pestering Dantony about the ship's machinations so it makes a reasonable amount of sense, if there are no objections.
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Avatar: Baron Blood by Uncle Festy.
Did Dantony leave the cube? If so, Tod will snag it, and begin examining it closer.
If not, Tod'll just settle for wandering around the ship, exploring.
Spoiler
Take 20 on the Awareness for the cube and ship (+8 Bonus). I'm not looking too hard at the ship, more just trying to get a sense of where things are, although if something leaps out at me, I'll take a closer look
Search (for interesting things in the ship) - (1d20+15)[16]
The cube was absorbed by the ship itself. You briefly saw two tiny figures struggling during the flash of light, as if the cube were some sort of repository or prison. You detect, by way of interesting things, the same things Dentin does while exploring.
Dentin, you find a long hallway with a number of identical doors; all appear to be formed of the same dark, polished metal, and are studded with circular depressions. Next to each door is a bank of circular tiles, the same size as the door's markings; each one contains a letter, though often several differing scripts are represented. The tiles gleam faintly- apparently they're made of silver, or at least, silver-plated.
In addition, a few feet inward from the entrance, you find a hatch above your head, and the pull-handle for what may be a collapsible ladder.
Further in, past most of the doors, you find a bulge of veined and filigreed copper on your left, suggesting a spherical chamber intruding into the ship's body. Another juts similarly further back on the right. Circular hatches with a mysterious rune carved into their surfaces are centered on each bulge.
Midway down the ship's spine, another hatch is set into the ceiling, and yet a third is placed just before the corridor's end at the stern. This last is jutting from another copper sphere, this one protruding from the ceiling.
Aloysius, the scroll reads as follows:
"To our esteemed newest employees;
You are hereby granted the use of the vessel in which you now find yourselves, as per the terms of your contract. While it belonged to an eccentric counselor of the late king, we believe his eccentricity to be nonterminal, so you should find it useful.
As per the further terms of said document, you are commanded to make your way to the village of Tromsway, at the center of the rings; enclosed are navigational co-ordinates and instructions for their entry into the ship's systems.
Once there, you are perforce commanded to investigate the recent rash of attacks by savage beings, with an eye to the possible interference of hostile forces both foreign and domestic; further, you are asked to investigate any activities that run counter to our overall mission of progressing the people's state of life and any persons who preach messages of ignorance.
-LEGIFECTUM VIIXI.I
The whole is written in violently red ink with a florid, looping hand.
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