2025/09/26: A Bridge in the Sky Part 3
General Summary
Buzz, Everett, Kelsey, Knight, Malakai, Nimbus, Othar, Union
The party made their way up to the ships, with Tyramir (Kelsey's blue dragon) giving them a steady ride. Bubbles swam around happily in the water below for the time being.
The Ragnarok was still hovering where they'd left it. The winds had gone still around it, however, making for a much smoother landing. The crew reported that not much had happened while the party was away, but they were getting sensor signatures from outside the storm, suggesting ships were circling. When Othar asked, they said it was initially 2-3 signatures, but now appeared to be 3-4. All relatively small, though that would still be in the realm of 200 tons.
The adventurers opted to get Doyle over onto the ship to investigate and also try to get Malakai to sign up for the crew in hopes that his stronger angel blood would get him a higher authority level.
Most of the adventurers headed over to the Totenkreuz with Malakai and Doyle.
At the bridge, Malakai interacted with the promotion console. It flashed blue, white, and then gold, and he was officially ordained as a lesser officer of the Totenkreuz.
Looking at the damage console, Nimbus and Malakai realized the ship was self-repairing: The area Othar had damaged was now marked as lemon-yellow, not orange-yellow.
There were plenty of other command consoles on the bridge. Some were for supplies, some for personnel, some for weapons, some for engineering, and more. The navigation and power systems were unfamiliar to Malakai as they were later found to run off divine faith magic.
Doyle wanted to do a tour of the ship to give him a starting point on investigating everything. Knight volunteered to escort him.
Union and Everett were sent to Engineering. They found perfect Newtonian shapes in crystalline form in the engineering room. That's what they'd seen last time. Union called back to the bridge to tell Malakai about this. He had to use non-ship communications methods, since there were no active comms panels anywhere in the room.
After losing interest in engineering since nothing worked for him Everett began looking through the ship for some sort of alter or temple to the god or gods that the angel's running the ship were associated with. Coming upon a floor that consisted of a large garden with a lot of religious iconography and a small monolith. After attempting to pray at the alter to contact the god or gods it was connected to, Everett's god suggested Everett did not want to get in touch with/pray to the gods the room ws dedicated to. Examining the iconography and art around the garden Everett determined the dedication seemed to be something about the heavens, birds and war and bringing peace from the sky?
In the background, Doyle was doing a Myst/Riven speedrunner impression through the entire ship, with Knight tagging along and occasionally holding things for him. Doyle was a problem-solving machine, and Knight was starry-eyed with joy at getting to witness it and help. (Doyle quickly ended up using Knight as wallhacks. Doyle was also apparently hacking angelic runes, somehow.)
About an hour and a half of Buzz and Nimbus figuring out the unintuitive power systems later, they'd mostly fixed the weapons. Force accelerator cannons, arcane missile pods, kinetic storm spheres. The latter was doubling as a tractor beam.
Othar, who had stayed on the Ragnarok, checked with the crew about the sensor returns. Apparently the four ships outside the storm were much bigger than the readings indicated. (1150 tons) He telepathically contacted Killgleam, who told Kelsey, who passed it on urgently to the rest of the group.
While the rest of the party was discussing what the fate of the ship should be, Doyle and Knight came back with their gathered information. There had apparently been intense betrayal and intrigue and corruption going on. About four seasons worth of '80s drama, and seasons 2 and 3 were very iffy on children watching it. And then it became Game of Thrones.
Some of Doyle's findings:Crystal mine worked by gnomish slaves. It had been captured from evil dwarves and they just kept the slaves working.
There was a burgeoning empire that fell because it was too top-heavy?
The vice-captain (Rrackdar Llence), knew about the slaves, but he'd become the captain because he betrayed the original captain. (Heroditus) The original captain was the one who hired the whole crew for the crusade to help the peoples of the material plane against the many evils beseting them.
The new captain was still serving Good, but due to the questionable alignment the ship was increasingly losing effectiveness.
Conaria. In the Vale of Hermonides, in the Crypt of the Sacred Hollow. That's where the old captain was imprisoned, as in the spell. In a mountain crypt.
Vale of Hermonides is apparently the valley once owned by the Angerious Empire.
Love affair. 2nd officer (Nefea) was a woman of great beauty, and she was the one who convinced the 1st officer to betray the captain. She may have been a classic type 2 nephilim, (aka part demon) not an angel.
1st officer was effectively blood brothers with the captain.
Apparently the Angerious Empire was something of blood purists and wanted to free the material plane from mortal rule?
Also, apparently much of the crew is still alive and is evacuated to a lifesaving demiplane.
Captain may have been some dark bloodline angel who was on a redemption quest?
Original captain: Heroditus
Current(?) captain: Rrackdar Lense
2nd officer: Nefea
Chief engineer: Gdlen Zequin
The chief engineer didn't really take part in any of the politics, he just ran the ship.
Four escape pods, all have been used. Each has a section of the crew stored in a pocket dimension.
currently 99 celestial blooded Aasimar/angel descended crew have been rescued.
The first guy out of the pocket dimension near engineering was huge, and a partly ripped uniform. Massive and heavily muscled, like the teacher's husband in Fullmetal Alchemist. He has tiny fluffy white wings. Apparently the escape pod dimension nearly stops time; the man was still wounded when he came out. A bunch of blond and silver-haired people came out after him, some wielding force rods like those the party found in the armory.
They were greeted by Malakai, Buzz, Kelsey, and Nimbus.
The big guy is the chief engineer. He hadn't realized there were evil people on the ship, though he was aware the efficiency was dropping. He had no idea about the slaves.
Rela, one of the crewmembers (rather shy about being pointed out), is from Rael-Aestra.
The chief engineer took charge after reluctantly realizing he was in charge. The ship usually has a crew of about 800. About 46 were in his escape pod. He didn't want the party to open the other pods quite yet; Nephya was in one of them.
The only two archmages on the ship capable of casting Imprisonment were Rrackdar and Nefea.
As far as the engineer knew, the ship was dedicated to polytheistic Good. That didn't align with what the party had found about the altar in Engineering. They bunch of them went down to take a look at the knee-high obelisk down there. Malakai felt a vibe of light and dark from it. He was confident it didn't connect to Heaven.
The party and crew opened the two escape pods not near the bridge. Some gunners, some marines, plenty of other crew. Acting Captain Gdlen got the crew together and briefed them on the situation.
He also informed the party that where the Ragnarok would take about four days to get to Rael-Aestra, the Totenkreuz can get them there in four hours while towing the Ragnarok.
While the crew prepped for travel and combat, Nimbus, Union, and Othar headed out to try to get eyes on the ships outside the storm. Othar was in his soulfire dragon from, and Nimbus and Union were riding his harness.
From above, the ships outside were silvery-grey with a bit of beige, and they were shaped like a capital I. The arms of the eyes had what looked like helicopter blades. Othar, getting closer, realized the ships were moving far faster than their gawky appearance suggested. Union didn't see much in the way of mental defenses, and the crews seemed to be mostly human, with some elves and dwarves.
It was surprising that the ships were even holding together; they were extremely sparsely built, a very narrow, stripped-down frame with lots of raw struts connected to pulleys and the like. Ramshackle, but extremely fast. Still approximately 1,100 tons, and armed. Ballistae, catapults, all made from silvery metal. There were some weird ballistae that could apparently fire giant shuriken. Also, cannons.
Union contacted one of the ship crews. Apparently they're the "Free City Sky Pirates", though they often just call themselves "the Rebels". They saw that someone's messing with the Totenkreuz and decided that whatever that was was likely to be in trouble, so it would be an easy target. Or they'd get an opportunity to loot the ghost ship. Good times either way!
Union gave a mental suggestion to the crewmember, telling him that maybe the Totenkreuz wasn't a ghost ship anymore and might not be the best target.
The Totenkreuz was able to make a speedy ascent and escape, dropping the storm and putting all power to engines. The Rebels barely had time to react and start investigating before the ship had made like a UFO and left.
Four hours later, the angelic ship came down above a large archipelago. The islands along the coast were covered in jungle and some ruined castles. In the distance, as night was falling, the multicolored lights of Rael-Aestra were visible in the distance.
Doyle established that after a few days, he'd make himself available just outside the city to be picked up. If that didn't work, he'd try again after another few days. Othar would be checking on him by scrying regularly. Codewords: If he mentions monsters or anything of a draconic nature, that indicates that everything is not as it seems. If all is well, there will be no message, but maybe icons and other indicative glyphs.
The party dropped him off in the jungle, near one of the ruins. There were campfires in the area, hopefully manned by people he could manipulate and/or join up with.
The party made their way up to the ships, with Tyramir (Kelsey's blue dragon) giving them a steady ride. Bubbles swam around happily in the water below for the time being.
The Ragnarok was still hovering where they'd left it. The winds had gone still around it, however, making for a much smoother landing. The crew reported that not much had happened while the party was away, but they were getting sensor signatures from outside the storm, suggesting ships were circling. When Othar asked, they said it was initially 2-3 signatures, but now appeared to be 3-4. All relatively small, though that would still be in the realm of 200 tons.
The adventurers opted to get Doyle over onto the ship to investigate and also try to get Malakai to sign up for the crew in hopes that his stronger angel blood would get him a higher authority level.
Most of the adventurers headed over to the Totenkreuz with Malakai and Doyle.
At the bridge, Malakai interacted with the promotion console. It flashed blue, white, and then gold, and he was officially ordained as a lesser officer of the Totenkreuz.
Looking at the damage console, Nimbus and Malakai realized the ship was self-repairing: The area Othar had damaged was now marked as lemon-yellow, not orange-yellow.
There were plenty of other command consoles on the bridge. Some were for supplies, some for personnel, some for weapons, some for engineering, and more. The navigation and power systems were unfamiliar to Malakai as they were later found to run off divine faith magic.
Doyle wanted to do a tour of the ship to give him a starting point on investigating everything. Knight volunteered to escort him.
Union and Everett were sent to Engineering. They found perfect Newtonian shapes in crystalline form in the engineering room. That's what they'd seen last time. Union called back to the bridge to tell Malakai about this. He had to use non-ship communications methods, since there were no active comms panels anywhere in the room.
After losing interest in engineering since nothing worked for him Everett began looking through the ship for some sort of alter or temple to the god or gods that the angel's running the ship were associated with. Coming upon a floor that consisted of a large garden with a lot of religious iconography and a small monolith. After attempting to pray at the alter to contact the god or gods it was connected to, Everett's god suggested Everett did not want to get in touch with/pray to the gods the room ws dedicated to. Examining the iconography and art around the garden Everett determined the dedication seemed to be something about the heavens, birds and war and bringing peace from the sky?
In the background, Doyle was doing a Myst/Riven speedrunner impression through the entire ship, with Knight tagging along and occasionally holding things for him. Doyle was a problem-solving machine, and Knight was starry-eyed with joy at getting to witness it and help. (Doyle quickly ended up using Knight as wallhacks. Doyle was also apparently hacking angelic runes, somehow.)
About an hour and a half of Buzz and Nimbus figuring out the unintuitive power systems later, they'd mostly fixed the weapons. Force accelerator cannons, arcane missile pods, kinetic storm spheres. The latter was doubling as a tractor beam.
Othar, who had stayed on the Ragnarok, checked with the crew about the sensor returns. Apparently the four ships outside the storm were much bigger than the readings indicated. (1150 tons) He telepathically contacted Killgleam, who told Kelsey, who passed it on urgently to the rest of the group.
While the rest of the party was discussing what the fate of the ship should be, Doyle and Knight came back with their gathered information. There had apparently been intense betrayal and intrigue and corruption going on. About four seasons worth of '80s drama, and seasons 2 and 3 were very iffy on children watching it. And then it became Game of Thrones.
Some of Doyle's findings:
currently 99 celestial blooded Aasimar/angel descended crew have been rescued.
The first guy out of the pocket dimension near engineering was huge, and a partly ripped uniform. Massive and heavily muscled, like the teacher's husband in Fullmetal Alchemist. He has tiny fluffy white wings. Apparently the escape pod dimension nearly stops time; the man was still wounded when he came out. A bunch of blond and silver-haired people came out after him, some wielding force rods like those the party found in the armory.
They were greeted by Malakai, Buzz, Kelsey, and Nimbus.
The big guy is the chief engineer. He hadn't realized there were evil people on the ship, though he was aware the efficiency was dropping. He had no idea about the slaves.
Rela, one of the crewmembers (rather shy about being pointed out), is from Rael-Aestra.
The chief engineer took charge after reluctantly realizing he was in charge. The ship usually has a crew of about 800. About 46 were in his escape pod. He didn't want the party to open the other pods quite yet; Nephya was in one of them.
The only two archmages on the ship capable of casting Imprisonment were Rrackdar and Nefea.
As far as the engineer knew, the ship was dedicated to polytheistic Good. That didn't align with what the party had found about the altar in Engineering. They bunch of them went down to take a look at the knee-high obelisk down there. Malakai felt a vibe of light and dark from it. He was confident it didn't connect to Heaven.
The party and crew opened the two escape pods not near the bridge. Some gunners, some marines, plenty of other crew. Acting Captain Gdlen got the crew together and briefed them on the situation.
He also informed the party that where the Ragnarok would take about four days to get to Rael-Aestra, the Totenkreuz can get them there in four hours while towing the Ragnarok.
While the crew prepped for travel and combat, Nimbus, Union, and Othar headed out to try to get eyes on the ships outside the storm. Othar was in his soulfire dragon from, and Nimbus and Union were riding his harness.
From above, the ships outside were silvery-grey with a bit of beige, and they were shaped like a capital I. The arms of the eyes had what looked like helicopter blades. Othar, getting closer, realized the ships were moving far faster than their gawky appearance suggested. Union didn't see much in the way of mental defenses, and the crews seemed to be mostly human, with some elves and dwarves.
It was surprising that the ships were even holding together; they were extremely sparsely built, a very narrow, stripped-down frame with lots of raw struts connected to pulleys and the like. Ramshackle, but extremely fast. Still approximately 1,100 tons, and armed. Ballistae, catapults, all made from silvery metal. There were some weird ballistae that could apparently fire giant shuriken. Also, cannons.
Union contacted one of the ship crews. Apparently they're the "Free City Sky Pirates", though they often just call themselves "the Rebels". They saw that someone's messing with the Totenkreuz and decided that whatever that was was likely to be in trouble, so it would be an easy target. Or they'd get an opportunity to loot the ghost ship. Good times either way!
Union gave a mental suggestion to the crewmember, telling him that maybe the Totenkreuz wasn't a ghost ship anymore and might not be the best target.
The Totenkreuz was able to make a speedy ascent and escape, dropping the storm and putting all power to engines. The Rebels barely had time to react and start investigating before the ship had made like a UFO and left.
Four hours later, the angelic ship came down above a large archipelago. The islands along the coast were covered in jungle and some ruined castles. In the distance, as night was falling, the multicolored lights of Rael-Aestra were visible in the distance.
Doyle established that after a few days, he'd make himself available just outside the city to be picked up. If that didn't work, he'd try again after another few days. Othar would be checking on him by scrying regularly. Codewords: If he mentions monsters or anything of a draconic nature, that indicates that everything is not as it seems. If all is well, there will be no message, but maybe icons and other indicative glyphs.
The party dropped him off in the jungle, near one of the ruins. There were campfires in the area, hopefully manned by people he could manipulate and/or join up with.
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Doyle Bellcroft, the Ragnarok crew, Gdlen Zequin, Rela, Totenkreuz crew, the Free City Sky Pirates
Created Content
Union
Othar
Buzz Gizmo
Everett
Knight of Darkhome
Kelsey of Kaelund
Nimbus Zhayress
Malakai
Report Date
24 Sep 2025
Primary Location
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Related Characters
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