Present Party: Aria, Emori, and Steve.
Setting: The world itself is comprised of several floating islands, surrounded entirely by open sky and with no visible land below. The island our party finds themselves on is known as "Parofell" - party of the larger skyway known as "Varovayn." The begin their quest in the port city of Flitshaw, and end the session in Port Aimore.
The party picked up where their last session left off: having just spoken to Hacker, and returning to the white void of System Space.
The System quickly found the party, and they questioned it, regarding the new information they'd learned from Calnan, Amaya, and now Hacker. They wanted to know if they were really going to get their wishes, in the way that they wanted. They wanted to know if what they were told was true. The System showed the present party what their wishes would turn out to be.
- Emori was shown her brother Emmet as he is at the time she left. He’s hovering in the air, on his back, with his legs and arms dangling down, and head tilting back. His mouth is open in a silent scream. Then, she was shown what she will receive: she sees herself, holding her brother, as he is brought to her safely... and then the Dreaming Dark. These are creatures of the Dream Realm, who have the desire to open a portal there. They had taken her brother by mistake, and now, it seems, they've found their correct target: her.
- The System declared, “The outcome of this conflict is unclear due to the Free Will Protocols. According to the Administrator, as powerful as you are right now and as powerful as they are, you have a 47.9% chance of winning. This percentage is subject to change.”
- Aria had a similar vision. The System clarified some of the wording in her wish: "Your wish is difficult to grant because the concept of the word ‘soulmate’ is subjective, and world-dependent. Your world does not possess ‘soulmates.’ However, based on the wording of your wish, the simple fact that you will return to this world, and my superior logic, I deduced that this is the creature you mean.” And she was met with the image of her lover, Silas. He’s in a foggy, dense forest, filled with trees that are black, dead, and leafless. His hands are tied together at the wrists and pulled up above his head. They’re tied to one of the lower branches on the tree. He’s pale, bloody, and left standing in that spot, barely conscious. Then, she is shown what she will receive: she sees the two of them, freed, but constantly moving. Constantly running. Putting up protective wards against her former goddess. Never knowing peace, always knowing that this creature will be coming for them. As they keep going, Silas looks worse and worse for wear.
- The System informed her, "According to the Administrator, there is a 79% chance that your goddess catches up to you, and a 98.3% chance that you will defend this man against her. As you are now, you have a 45.1% chance of winning that conflict. There is also an 88.6% chance that this man will die within one year of being rescued. Cause of death is unclear. All of these percentages are subject to change due to the Free Will Protocol.”
- Steve was shown a copy of his contract with his accounting firm that had a new condition written into it: 8 weeks of paid vacation time per year. The System warned him, "The Free Will Protocol is still in effect."
- When asked to clarify, System continued, "Other mortal creatures may have disagreements with this implementation. You could also be - as I recall the term - ‘fired’ in the future, for one reason or another. As well, in your line of work, and as far as the Administrator has told me, there is a… 42.3% chance that you will be arrested for tax evasion in the next five years of working for that company. This percentage only goes up, but how much is dependent on millions of variables that cannot be fully accounted for yet, due to the Free Will Protocol."
Armed with this new information, they handed over their tenth Shard, officially marking their progress halfway through their contract. In their next world, they were told their role: aspiring pirates. They were whisked away to their eleventh world, wondering if Hacker's promises to them really were true, and if they were better off working for it than System.
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They arrived in a bustling trading city, with no clear architectural pattern. Some smaller buildings and shops were made of wood, other larger buildings of gray stone. The streets themselves were filled with merchants, calling out wares that the party could only assume were from far off places. It was hot and particularly humid in this area.
The three of them receive a message in the back of their minds, from Hacker: "Your mission is to break the queen."
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| Map of Parofell Country in the Varovayn Skyway (Map made by me, using Inkarnate) |
They found the nearest tavern, and asked around for some information. The city they were in was called "Flitshaw" and it was the only open port in Parofell. They thought that "the queen" might refer to a ship of some kind, but the bartender didn't know of any ship called that. She did say, however, that Leona at the tavern by the docks - The White Rat - would know better. They asked a bit about sailing and trading, but didn't really get anywhere at this tavern with that either. Lastly, they asked about a ball or festival coming up. There wasn't, but it appeared that there was a "council meeting" in the city of "Aimore" that had great food. The party quickly learned, however, that this city was closed to non-citizens of Parofell.
When the characters arrive in new worlds, they always receive visions of this world's past, present, or potential futures. Emori had seen a group of six people in fancy clothing, wearing masks. She wondered if they had anything to do with things here, or if one of them - the only woman - was this "queen." Sadly, there was no information found on this.
However, one word caught their attention, as they talked about sailing and trading. The bartender had used the word "skyway," which caught the party's immediate attention. They left the bar not long after that, and walked towards the docks where they saw an awe-inspiring sight. There were wooden ships with two or three masts each by the docks... floating in the air. Below them, where the ocean would be, was nothing but open, blue sky and white, fluffy clouds. Going closer and looking down, over the docks, there wasn't any sign of land below. Just more clouds that got thicker the further down they went.
Knowing now that oceans did not exist, they felt more prepared to inquire about sailing. They found The White Rat, and talked to Leona, the goliath bartender. She told them that one Captain Taylor was looking for more crew, or so she thought. He was in town for the time being. She could send him their way, and they could meet with him in a room upstairs if they wanted, though he might bring a few guards. They decided that would be their best course of action. He'd probably know more.
They also inquired about a way to get citizenship in Parofell, so they could go to Aimore. Leona claimed, "I mean... you get a ship, a crew, and some money, and lotta sky-farers will say that's good enough to be considered one."
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| Capt. James Taylor Captain of The Avon Vale, Parofian Pirate Lord (Art from "Legend of the Cryptids") |
When he spoke with them, he was charming and friendly. Both Emori and Aria couldn't help but swoon, just a little. In terms of joining his crew, he was willing to take them on if they could help him with something:
"When I come back to Parofell, I often spend some time helping out the tribe of lizardfolk to the west. See... a lot of pirates and people around here think that they can just... enslave the people who were here before we were and I've decided that I'm not okay with that. So, I have an ongoing deal with the tribe to the west. I free a certain number of their tribespeople from slavery. While I'm gone, they hold that same number of people from my crew. Normally, I'd go out into the jungle and make the trade myself - their people for mine. If I treat their people well, mine don't get killed. Easy enough. Unfortunately, I can't be the one to take their tribespeople back to them; I've gotta meet up with someone before sunset. If you can escort these lizardfolk into the jungle, back to their tribe, and then bring my people back here... you've got a spot on my ship."
Additionally, if they joined his crew, they discovered that they'd be allowed access into Aimore without necessarily being citizens. Taylor insisted that he'd take care of it. The party took the quest, and helped the five lizardfolk out of Flitshaw and back to their tribe in the jungle.
On the way, they spotted something strange. It was a black creature, no larger than a softball with a glowing green light in the center of it. It watched them for a moment, and then sped off into the jungle. They decided it wasn't a good idea to follow it.
The trade was easy enough, with the party mentioning they worked for Captain Taylor. Among this crew, they met Stella - a mousefolk, who introduced herself as Taylor's first mate. From the crew, they gathered that Taylor did this often and, as he'd said, the lizardfolk were kind to his crew, as long as the tribespeople were returned.
There was a landmark that Taylor told them would be best to camp by, since many of the nocturnal hunters did not go near it. He called it "The Anchor" and it was a huge, gray marble column, overgrown with vines and flowers. From the top hung chains, whose links were six feet long. Each chain had ten to twelve links left, hanging down and resting on the forest floor.
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| Dustin Star-Strider Shaman (Art by bearcub on DeviantArt) |
They discovered that Dustin was a good storyteller, and knew a lot of things. Once again, they asked about "the queen."
"If it's a ship, it sounds Kaetorian," Stella mentioned. "In which case it's best not to mess with it."
"I just got back from Kaetor," Dustin remarked. "I try not to stay there long."
When asked why, Stella explained, "The Kaetorian Armada. They're enemies of most pirates, and anyone who considers themselves friends of pirates."
This "armada," they learned, wasn't human either. They were machines, run by gears, wires, and magic - commanded by a war-mongering admiral called "Kane."
Dustin sighed, "When your army is big enough and they don't need to stop to eat or sleep... what's to stop you from conquering the world? They've already started on their continent, slowly but surely."
"Does Captain Taylor fight the armada?" Emori asked.
"Sometimes," Stella answered. "Captain Thompson though, she's... the number one force fighting them in the sky right now. She's a friend of our captain's."
The last interesting thing that occurred was that Emori and Dustin had a brief discussion in the morning, after realizing that he hadn't slept and looked no worse for wear. He didn't have to sleep, and he'd stayed up to listen to the Anchor speak. He didn't elaborate much on it, only that it spoke sometimes and that if Emori wanted to hear it now, she'd have to "cross the whole Helarkix" to do so.
Early that morning, they returned to Captain Taylor, who welcomed them to his crew aboard The Avon Vale.
Before they left the tavern for the ship, out of curiosity, Emori tried to reach out to Hacker, to ask it about this queen, hoping that no other co-worker of System would hear. However, she didn't get Hacker. She got in contact with the creature the party only knew as "The Red Void." (referred to as "Red" here, to make things easy.)
- Red gave her some insight on a queen, after learning which world Emori and her friends were in. There were many queens in the world, but the one based on the person Emori described from her vision sounded like "Queen" - a creation of Kane's, part of the Kaetorian Armada. She would be located in Kaetor.
- Emori asked about someone who they might need to save, for the sake of the "world's story," which this creature seemed to know a lot about. Red told her that the two vital players in this conflict were definitely Captain Thompson, but that Captain Taylor being alive would not be detrimental at all to the story's progression.
- Captain Taylor's real age was 22. This was more for teasing him about it on Emori's part. Up to this point, she'd been playfully trying to guess it.
After that, the party boarded The Avon Vale, and set out for Port Aimore!
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ART LINKS
https://legendofthecryptids.fandom.com/wiki/(Steady_On)_Flying_Prince_Brasse
https://www.deviantart.com/bearcub/art/CM-Green-Leader-696407353
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Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!
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