The Kobold Crew Transfers to Commerce

Reminder:  only Duquesne and Commerce have 24 hour days, but Skyway dates are sidereal.

Vrontag dawned and it was a beautiful day.  The five Freelancers, packed and ready, ate breakfast and headed to the Cliffshadow docks to check in.  They'd been told to do that first, and not bring the mounts until everything else was settled.

The Audouze was larger than other airships they'd seen.  It had swept back wings, and floats tucked up along its sides.  A rounded cage up front housed an air elemental, and Hikawera heard it muttering "Let's go let's go let's go!" in Primordial as it bounced around impatiently.  They boarded and met the captain, Lausus, who was neither impressed nor dismissive of five Freelancers occupying berths for the trip.  A bright green winged snake danced around him as they spoke.

They checked out the hold space and storage for 5 mounts and food; all was in order.  Captain Lausus explained they would be making two stops on the way to Commerce, at the mighty thalassa Olyokoma, and then at Waypoint Chance.  By spending time at the places in the inner reaches, they not only took a profit, but "caught up" to Commerce.

Once the Freelancers were settled into the two cabins allotted them, they went back to the Freelancers Tavern, and retrieved their mounts.  Quelenna's owl gryphon was still young & unrideable, but obeyed a lead, and they got to the docks without incident.

About an hour before Daystar zenith, the Audouze took off from Cliffshadow, taking Cathance, Hikawera, Tai, Ana, and Quelenna with it.

The large airship was very fast, the air elemental happy to be going and apparently on very good terms with the captain.  Once past the Duquesne boundary, the Audouze headed inward, and while the Freelancers now had a view of Duquesne's leading and lower surface, it was receding behind them.

Cathance tried to entice her compatriots into dragonchess with her, but to no avail.  Quelenna was trying to practice lockpicking, and Tai had acquired jeweler's tools and some settings, and was creating metal knickknacks, and trying to set some gems.  Ana was busy with her new grimoire, and Hikawera was perhaps trying to learn, or write a new ballad.

They ran into storms on the third day out, but nobody really suffered for it.  Air elementals are good that way.

On the fifth day the air felt a little different and they weren't sure why.  Out on deck, the captain peered over the stern.  "Look," he told them, and they saw, glittering in the Daystar, Olyokoma below them.  It was immense, almost as large as Duquesne.

As the day progressed, the airship kept descending, and the thalassa loomed larger and larger.  They slowed and started banking in a wide, wide turn.  The Audouze had reversed its direction entirely when a Rain sagani on a peregrine gryphon arrived, and she brought them across the boundary.  "You are off course," she told the captain with a smile.  He shrugged and replied, "It could be no other way."

The pilot guided the airship over the featureless water, until they saw what appeared to be a craggy tower thrust up from the surface.  As they got closer they realized it was an island of coral.  The crew extended the floats, and the ship splashed down on the salt water, the air elemental muttering unhappily.  And then they were docked at Namorik, the only city on thalassa Olyokoma that housed air breathers.

As some cargo got unloaded, Captain Lausus told the Freelancers, "We will be here a full day to negotiate cargo.  Feel free to debark, get an inn, take out the mounts.  They probably would like to stretch their wings.  Take care though; wild osprey gryphons nest nearby, and if you fly out of view of Namorik, you could get very lost."

The docks they stood on were moving with the water.  As they were talking, another airship was getting towed out of the docks by a team of osprey gryphons.  They started out swimming, and then all leapt into the air in sync, the airship following, dripping water off its fuselage.  The whole place smelled very strange, of salt water and kelp and fish.  

The Freelancers did get their mounts out so that they could stretch their wings.  Cathance tried to get to where she could see the osprey gryphons nesting, but realized they were so fast, they might try to eat her and Jigsaw.  Quelenna used her winged boots and a lead to take the yearling owl gryphon out as well.

Most of Namorik that they could see was Sea elves and tritons; the sagani there were mostly Rain sagani, with a few Wind sagani.  

The next day, which was a couple hours less time than it would have been in the middle reaches, the Freelancers were reboarding the Audouze.  It had taken on a small supply of fresh fish, and a cargo of dried fish and seaweed; and also some small crates of very fancy pearls, coral, and jewelry.  Two burly Rain sagani came with them as guards.  They eyed Quelenna, practicing her lockpicking, suspiciously.

Then an osprey gryphon team was hooked up to the airship and it was their turn to be towed out.

The Pungarehu hanyou sat at his desk, contemplating his mission backlog and this Daystar cult headache that was exacerbating it, when the message came in to his sending stone.

what you doing for Apastron Damakaios?  what I'm doing is sending you 5 more Freelancers.

He closed his eyes a moment, then sent back.

what did I do to deserve such an honour Arnari

He was surprised to receive another message via sending.

it's good for you, Damakaios; you are shorthanded and cannot use recruits.  This group's a wizard, sorcerer, bard, monk, and barbarian.

Damakaios did not sigh.

very well - send me the details, I will make ready for them

The Audouze rose up from Olyokoma, and once they crossed the boundary it felt like the thalassa moved forward under them, despite the airship leaping forward on the labours of the air elemental.  Before they were in any danger of the trailing waterspouts, the airship turned to port and headed to system north.

Days passed with the airship's orbit canted at a significant angle.  For a few days, the airship slowed each day at about the same time as they'd crossed the boundary, and then it just seemed to wait.  At apoapsis, there were no skyliths or thalassae of note.  Periapsis migrated significantly inward.

The Freelancers occupied themselves as they had initially, except Cathance also tried to entice the cargo guards into dragonchess (unsuccessfully), and Quelenna restricted her practicing with locks to their cabins, not wanting to provoke the guards.  The fish dishes for meals were really good though.

After a prime, they started approaching a small skylith, which looked like a bottom-weighted anvil, perhaps 10 miles across at the relatively flat top.  The top was covered in grasslands, with scattered trees and streams that somehow found low ground to meander through.  One end appeared to be stone; but it was hard to see, as rain had started.  As they got closer, the Freelancers realized it was a large fortress, with long low quonset huts for warehouses, and proper airship docks interspersed with ballistae and trebuchets.

Captain Lausus was busy working the lights, vouching for the airship before it pulled into the docks, as guards were coming out in good order to man the large weapons.  But all was well, and they were soon secured in a dock.  The Audouze unloaded the preserved fish and seaweed, as well as grains and spices from Duquesne; these were supplies for the Waypoint.  Also they unloaded the crates of fancy jewelry, and the guards debarked with it.

The Freelancers' mounts were transferred to the garrison stables, to allow the Audouze to clean its holds.  Then they got to meet the station personnel and the garrison over dinner and drinks.  Quite a few of the garrison were nekomata, the station personnel tended to be Rock sagani.

Over the course of the next day, the Freelancers stretched their legs, and all the mounts stretched their wings.  The stablemaster warned them to listen for the warning horns while they were out:  two long blasts for debris strike, one long and one short blast for storm.  The pegasi in particular were very happy with the grasslands; but they had to return to the garrison post haste when the long-and-short blast was sounded.  They made it back before a strong squall blew the grass flat and would have blown anyone flying above it right off the skylith.

The Waypoint personnel and garrison were delighted to get a visit from Freelancers, so their time inside was not wasted.  Tai and Quelenna took the opportunity to spar with guards, and all honed skills.  Ana and Cathance spent time talking with the wizards, although they did not really spar or duel, since the wizards needed spells to be ready in case of an attack.  Somehow, during the conversations, Cathance figured out counterspell and added it to her repertoire.

That evening, Hikawera entertained the waypoint by telling the tale of his compatriots' experiences vs unfriendly earth elementals at the hamlet of Ophelia.

After a full day and a half, the Audouze loaded up with bolts of silk and some expensive dyes from Sullimany, wooden crates of fine teas from Zephyr, and one small locked crate of jewelry, then took off for Commerce.

The Audouze took off very quickly and turned to starboard, both accelerating and moving its orbital plane back to system normal.  It did not do this all at once, however; Captain Lausus explained to Ana how the orbit changes were calculated to avoid having to navigate around Olyokoma, which was disruptive and annoying to fly around.

Anyhow, it took another prime to get to the middle reaches, by which time Pembroke had aligned to Duquesne on the other side of the system.  Commerce loomed above; the Freelancers looked up at a round skylith, perhaps 60 miles across, with a variety of airship traffic.  Every once in a while a flash of light could be seen as the airships and towers signalled each other.  The Audouze overshot from below, and then rose past.  A Windscout patrol paced them at a distance, but the pteroti flew off as a human pilot on a peregrine falcon joined them to guide them over the Commerce boundary.

By now they were approaching the leading edge of the skylith.  A ridge of mountains appeared to loom over a large bite taken out of the right hand side of the ball.  As they crossed the boundary and slowed down, they saw the bite was actually a huge crater, with a lake in the northern end of it.  The Audouze veered to starboard to fly over the crater, which sported rivers and agriculture, then turned smoothly to port to head south and approach the crater rim.

The top of the rim was covered in houses and villas, with gorges cut by rivers in various places.  A team of draft pegasi flew up to meet them and guide the airship to a dock east of the biggest gorge.  The Freelancers could see the airships and docks to the west were for Pteroti and other Commonweal peoples.

The airship was secured in short order.  They debarked, with gear and mounts, and headed south into Ripa Daneo to find the Freelancers Tavern.

In the early afternoon of Okeanostag, 2nd prime post-Apastron, Tai, Quelenna, Hikawera, Ana, and Cathance arrived at the Ripa Daneo Freelancers Tavern.  Their mounts were brought to the stables, an occasion which brought Quelenna's owl gryphon joy, as it was reunited with most of its hatchmates.  Then they were brought to a bright red hanyou, wearing high quality studded black leathers, who introduced himself as Damakaios.

Damakaios sported a variety of daggars.  He welcomed them, and brought them up to his office.  They looked with interest at his orderly chairs, weapons and maps on the wall, extremely clear desk.  Hikawera sat on one of the chairs, somewhat gingerly, and it did not say "Good morning, sunshine!"

Damakaios told them he was forewarned of their coming, and gave them an overview of Ripa Daneo, Gata Nahaki, and general layout.  He pointed out that if they were in need of items the quartermaster lacked, there was Inky Agora which generally had whatever one needed.  Then he gave them a tour of the villa.

Right outside the office appeared to be a trophy room.  In one corner was a familiar sight: a scale model of Cliffshadow Freelancers Tavern.  "Did Dryali make this?" Hikawera asked.  "No, Fine Branch did," Damakaios told them.

They went downstairs and Damakaios introduced them to a Mikumwes halfling in full plate armour.  "This is my second, Naranjos," he told them, and introduced them all.  Naranjos was delighted to meet them, especially another Mikumwesauk!  He gave off an extremely happy-go-lucky vibe, but Tai, Cathance, and Quelenna saw through the façade.

Damakaios also introduced them to four other Freelancers as well as Estarai, the Cloud elf archivist.  Her eyes twinkled as she told them "Pleased to meet you."  Certainly she was not as stuffy as Nyls. "Come see me later, so I get all your names right."

They did not see anyone they knew until later, when Dryali came in from skydiving.  Hikawera's smile became a little forced, and he called out "Good morning sunshine!!!" at the Dark elf, who looked a bit taken aback. "That was brilliant!" the bard continued.

Dryali glanced around, and seeing Damakaios was not in evidence, took Hikawera aside.  "Have you met Damakaios?" he asked, and Hikawera said, "Yes" but before he said more, Dryali warned him, "Damakaios is pretty serious about property damage, and frowns upon wanton use of spells like shatter and other destruction."  Hikawera was dismissive of Dryali's concern, and Dryali took his leave.

Thus did Cathance, Ana, Tai, Quelenna, and Hikawera become part of the Ripa Daneo Freelancers.  Who knows what adventures and intrigue await them!