The Voyage of the Golden Dragon (IC)

[PallentisLunam]

The summons comes in the middle of the night. Its form differs. One is a scrawled note borne by one of the great owl messengers of Sharn. One is an arcane sending from a House Sivis scribe. One is a black shafted arrow inscribed with secret runes fired through a window. Its form differs, but the message is the same:


There is a situation. You are called at haste to serve in the name of the king.
-V

There is only one man in Sharn with the authority to issue such a call to arms, Viorr Maelak. Viorr is the Captain-Commandant of the Dark Lanterns in Sharn and as such answers only to the Lord-Commandant and is a mere two steps removed from King Boranel himself. His headquarters is a small unassuming greenhouse at the peak of Myriad Tower in one of Sharn's middle districts. Its only guard is a disguised beggar across the street. At the beggar's nod the heavy iron gate of the tower swings open on perfectly oiled hinges to admit each agent.

Inside the tower, Viorr himself sits at a desk in a small jungle that seems quite reminiscent of how Xen'drik is described in stories. Viorr is an old man well past his fifties. He has the appearance of one enfeebled by age, however it is well known that this is all an elaborate con to enhance his formidable interrogation skills. And it is also well known that only the very good grow old in the Dark Lanterns' line of work.

As operatives arrive Viorr wordlessly signals for them to take a seat on one of the benches. The Captain-Commandant signs and stamps missives, while a trained dire ape shuffles and stacks the same, arranging them for dissemination. Only once all of the sent for Lanterns have arrived does Viorr set down his seal and rise, with the aid of a cane, to walk over towards the gather servants of the crown.

"A hostile cell has taken over the Golden Dragon, an experimental airship. Their affiliations are, at this time, unknown. Their declared goal is to ransom its prestigious passengers. In the hopes of achieving this aim, they have threatened to detonate a device which plays directly against the unique qualities of the Golden Dragon. Gilean," at this Viorr gestures to a wizened gnome who is being helped into the room by the great ape, "Has reviewed the technical aspects of the threat and deemed it credible. The Golden Dragon, unlike most airships, operates via a set of paired elemental rings. With a standard airship, a single elemental ring is used to provide thrust. However, in this case, it is the rings themselves, rather than the soarwood construction, which provide the vessel with lift. The hijackers maintain that their device can disrupt the pairing of the twin rings, unbind the elementals, fire and water respectively, and send the vessel crashing into the belly of the city, causing untold devastation. Your primary directive is the preservation of the Golden Dragon. Failing that your secondary directive is to rescue as many high value individuals as possible, with the standard procedures determining your priorities. And finally, in either case, you are charged with the identification of this hostile actor and retaliation against them. Time is of the essence."

Viorr waits expectantly for any questions that might be posed as the great ape helps Gilean to take a seat in the Captain-Commandant's chair.

[bcool999]

Rowly

Rowly was reading a recent treatise on post-war politics in his inn room when the owl swooped in through the open window, deposited the letter, and left just as quickly. Rowly quickly bookmarks his place, right where the author was beginning to claim that with such firmly established national identities, the original point of the war to unite Galifar under a single ruler is now unobtainable and so the war will not resume. Unobtainable? Nonsense, what was conquered once can be conquered yet again. The real keeper of the peace is the Mournlands, and the fear of losing their own nations in a similar calamity, or even worse, their enemies obtaining such a power and turning it against them.

Dismissing his idle musings, Rowly reads the missive and burns it before exiting the inn and making his way to the meeting.

Clicking his tongue at the news of the Golden Dragon's hijacking, he had wanted to book passage on the ship himself after the politicians had their turn, Rowly asks about the matter at hand, "Do we have a means of infiltrating the ship, and perhaps a map of the interior?"

[Evil_Goblin]

Protector didn't even need to read the message that arrived. The seal with the letter "V" was enough to tell him what he needed to know. He quickly threw the sealed message into the forge's red hot coals and watched the letter disintegrate into nothingness.

He withdrew his shin plate, still red hot from the forge and dipped it into a barrel of pigs blood. The familiar sights and sounds of the boiling and coagulated blood filled his ears as it hardened the gleaming silver plate.

After a few moments, Protector cleaned and re-attached the plate. He gathered his small bag of belongings and slipped on his gloves and vest.

He was ready.

Some time later, he arrived in the exotic office that made him long to return to the dense jungles that he felt much joy in. He didn't sit on the bench in fear it wound crumble under his weight. He stood in the corner, the cold stone pressed against his back, assuming a defensive posture watching the doorways and their boss.

Protector listened intently to the decreped man and nodded as he took mental notes of their mission.

So, we face an unknown enemy of the kingdom... Do we know their numbers or if this is a ruse to draw our attention away from their main objective?

He nodded again as the crafty human asked about the ship's design and their means of entering the ship.

Unless we enter the ship magically they will know that we are arriving unless we pose as negotiators.

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Grimal

Grimal disposed of his message in the usual way and made his way to the meeting with haste. He listened passively as the mission was explained. "So the priority is the property and THEN the people - got it. " Grimal noted coldly.

He leaned on his polearm and scratched his chin absently. "Where is the ship now ? is it on the move or docked ?"

[WhamBamSam]

Torr

A hulking black-haired shifter enters the room. His face is hard and serious but there's a twinkle of what might be excitement in his eye. An enormous dog with long white fur bounds in behind him, its tail wagging and the missive clutched in its mouth.

"Worry not," Torr says upon hearing the missive. "I'll hunt down these new enemies. We'll fetch back the empire's toy and the people on board."

[PallentisLunam]

Rowly"Do we have a means of infiltrating the ship, and perhaps a map of the interior?"

Viorr shakes his head. "The full schematics have been archived. We are doing our best to locate them but the request was made quietly so as to avoid a panic. It may take too long for them to be delivered. However we do have a general description. He motions towards Gilean.

The old gnome sits up and takes a deep raspy breath. "The vessel has two main decks and a smaller cargo hold. The bridge and maintenance facilities are located on the main deck. Below are passenger amenities, cabins, a gambling hall, dinning areas, and so forth. The cargo hold has a set of bay doors for elemental skiffs and a loading ramp. It also contains what would have been the brig during military operations. Access to all of these is controlled from the bridge." Gilean pats the ape on the arm and the gigantic creature lopes over to the door that Gilean entered and retrieves a leather bound trunk. "I have been working on a project that you may find useful in this mission." The ape sets the trunk on the floor beside Gilean and opens it for him. Gilean extracts what appears to be three thunderstones "These, when struck against a hard surface, will create a field that seals in all but magical sounds within twenty feet of their detonation."


So, we face an unknown enemy of the kingdom... Do we know their numbers or if this is a ruse to draw our attention away from their main objective?

Unless we enter the ship magically they will know that we are arriving unless we pose as negotiators.

There are over a dozen hijackers. Apparently, a small team infiltrated the ship by posing as the work crew tasked with loading supplies for the ship's maiden voyage and then more embarked after control was seized. Among the hostiles are several minotaur and some with flight capabilities. The hijackers are unaware that their actions have been discovered. It is their intention to unmoor the ship, move it into position and make their threat public at dawn tomorrow. How you handle the situation is, of course, up to you, but, at the moment, you have the element of surprise.


"So the priority is the property and THEN the people - got it. " Grimal noted coldly.
"Where is the ship now ? is it on the move or docked ?"

Yes, the priority is the product of years of costly, dangerous research that is worth more than it could transport in gold. The Dragon is the largest airship ever constructed and also the fastest in the world. Before the end of The Last War it was set to guarantee Brelish air superiority over the entire continent. Also, incidentally, by saving the ship you will at the same time be saving the souls aboard her. Viorr sniffs and mutters something about talent and willfulness being correlated. "The ship is docked at the top of Sharn's highest tower. The last report has the loading ramp still open.


"Worry not," Torr says upon hearing the missive. "I'll hunt down these new enemies. We'll fetch back the empire's toy and the people on board."

Viorr nods, "Indeed."

[bcool999]

Rowly

Rowly listens carefully to what is said before collecting one of the stones and examines it, "Interesting... Thank you Gilean, these should prove useful indeed." He places the one in his bag and leaves the other two for the others if they want one before saying, "If that loading ramp is still usable we could sneak our way aboard with a bit of Invisibility and Silence. Gilean, do you have an idea of where exactly that device to bring the ship down would need to be placed in order to be effective? Finding and disabling that first would take away one of the enemies trump cards, especially if they don't realize we disabled it."

[Centaurion]

Kyra had come immediately when summoned and had remained rather silent during the briefing. Now, after the others have asked their first questions, she adds:

"So, to summarize: We know that the ship has been infiltrated, we do not know what exact organization is behind it, and can merely guess about their actual motives, but we know about their plan to detonate the ship. We also assume that the hostiles do not know about our awareness of the situation, and that the ship is still docked. What I do not understand, and which could prove very useful to know is: How did we obtain our information in the first place? Do we have a contact aboard? A mole?"

I am just focusing on the point that we apparently know well what the infiltrators plan, but somehow they did not find out, which hints that we either have magical or mundane means of spying the group -- either before they boarded (but we were unable to respond or so), or after they boarded (which would suggest that we have a contact person on board).

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Grimal

"I wonder if taking the engine room would be enough, then perhaps calling on reinforcements.Or do we need to clear out the enemy at the same time as we progress." Grimal wonders.

[PallentisLunam]

Gilean, do you have an idea of where exactly that device to bring the ship down would need to be placed in order to be effective? Finding and disabling that first would take away one of the enemies trump cards, especially if they don't realize we disabled it."

The old gnome tugs at a lock of curly hair hanging over his ear. "I am not entirely certain, but the vessel was conceived as a man of war, therefore its bindings were created to withstand simple banishment spells or similar magics. With this being the case the device must be both powerful and ingenious to work. But it could be done. I think there are three places the device could be. First, on the rings themselves, intending to disrupt the entities' connection to their bound locations forcing them to manifest their entire beings nearby, and even when bound fire and water don't really get along. However I find this least likely due to how highly exposed the rings are. Second, on the bridge, intending to disrupt the ship's control of the two elementals, which would then fight via the coupling and could very well destroy the rings. Third in the belly of the ship there is a special room that serves to carefully being small portions of fire and water together to produce steam for the ship's non-flight operations. If too much power is drawn there then the propulsion and lift will be insufficient to keep the ship aloft.


How did we obtain our information in the first place? Do we have a contact aboard? A mole?"

"To reveal that could compromise ongoing operations, and you don't need to know. Suffice to say that we obtained this information from a reliable source."


"I wonder if taking the engine room would be enough, then perhaps calling on reinforcements.Or do we need to clear out the enemy at the same time as we progress." Grimal wonders.

"The Lanterns have not yet informed any other organizations of the incident and you five represent all of our uncommitted assets in the city. We would like to keep a lid on this until it is resolved."

[Evil_Goblin]

Protector frowned slightly as they others spoke.

If the rings are unlikely to be the actual target due to their construction, we should focus on the control mechanisms and this steam room....

He paused as he tried to put his rambling thoughts into a cohesive sentence.

They only need to disrupt the controls for the elementals to wage open war against one another. That seems to be the best unavoidable incident. Disrupting the steam supply could be resolved quickly if we knew what we where doing... However I would say to check this steam room first.

[WhamBamSam]

Torr

"If I sniff around for mages, might that tell us anything, or do you think they'll be able to activate whatever their device is without magic? I'll know whether there's an arcanist's scent in either of these rooms if I get close enough, but it won't help if it's just a minotaur pushing a button."

[PallentisLunam]

"If I sniff around for mages, might that tell us anything, or do you think they'll be able to activate whatever their device is without magic? I'll know whether there's an arcanist's scent in either of these rooms if I get close enough, but it won't help if it's just a minotaur pushing a button."

Viorr looks to Gilean and Gilean shrugs. "All I know is that such a device is theoretically possible. It would depend on the proclivities of its designer how exactly it would function."

[PallentisLunam]

Once the questions have stopped Viorr looks around, meeting everybody's eyes, and nods. "To the King's work then," he says in dismissal.

A brief journey through the light drizzle that is a perpetual feature of life in Sharn ends with the squad clustered in the shadow of a tower in the skyway. Some hundred yards away, and a few dozen yards up, moored at the highest point of the highest tower is the Golden Dragon. The ship's fire ring glows a bright orange and its water ring shimmers like a still lake in the moonlight. The loading ramp is clearly still down. More than a dozen portholes run along the middle of the ship's hull.

[bcool999]

Rowly

"Hmm... give me a few minutes... I need a closer look." Rowly murmurs to the rest of the squad as he digs into his pouch for a glass eye. Minutes of chanting and gestures later the pupil of the glass eye dilates and then focuses as though it is a living thing.

Casting Clairvoyance on the ramp since I am now close enough. I would like to place the Sensor in a place that I might be able to see who is around the ramp, and see if there are others peeping from the portholes if such a placement is possible. Unfortunately, my darkvision doesn't work through it as I gained that via supernatural means.

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Grimal

"I wonder if they have any look outs watching the side opposite of the ramp" Grimal wonders aloud.

[PallentisLunam]

A large warforged, covered in spikes with a crab claw in place of its right hand stomps around the hold in an impatient manner. The hold and the loading dock seem otherwise deserted.

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah184/Pallentis/Lyrandar_Tower_-_Airship_Dock_zpsbuy7gmhg.jpg

Apologies for the stitched together nature of the map. The Clairvoyance sensor is at the base of the loading ramp. The angles don't allow for it to see into the loading bay and the portholes at the same time.

[bcool999]

Rowly

Finished with his observations, Rowly lets the spell energy dissipate and the glass eye in hand returns to a dull glassy gaze as opposed to it's almost life-like gaze before. Letting out a sigh, Rowly conjures up a minor illusion, displaying all he saw in detail. "Here is what I saw, the way forward appears to be clear, barring any invisible watchers. They seem to have a warforged patrolling at the ships hold. Now we could sneak around him, or take him by surprise. Either way, I think we have a good chance to make it aboard unnoticed. Any thoughts?"

Casting a Silent Image to project the map to others. Maybe it's a waste of a spell from a metagame perspective, but if this was a real life situation a team like this would share whatever images were captured by a drone before infiltrating.

[Centaurion]

Kyra observes the process with curiosity and an appreciative look appears on her face, followed by a nod, as if she would want to say "nice trick!".

"I am not sure whether outright battling the guard outside would be wise, in particular if our actions could be observed from aboard the ship: Either they'd send some support or they would close the ramp as soon as they can, closing our window. Unless of course, the guard would just stumble and fall down the gangway." It is not entirely clear whether this was a joke or not. If so, she's not laughing, but it could well be dry humor. I think, deception is the more viable option here. Anyone who can make us invisible or silent?"

[bcool999]

Rowly

"I can cast the illusions you asked for. We don't have to jump the guard if you wish not to, but I believe we have a good chance of knocking him out if we attack from stealth. After that we can close the gangway to prevent any more enemy reinforcements from arriving if they are any more to come. Or we can continue on sweeping the ship." Rowly says in response to Kyra.

[Centaurion]

Having gained the additional information, Kyra nods to Rowly's suggestion. "I agree, our chances are good and the opportunity to put him down is promising. Now's the time for last preparations then." She starts to manifest a few powers to prepare for the assault.


I check tomorrow what powers she manifests. Nothing too unexpected though, I guess. Claws and stuff.

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Grimal

"Sounds like we have a plan - we take out the single guard with stealth and carry on." Grimal says.

[WhamBamSam]

Torr grunts in the affirmative and rolls the tension out of his shoulders. Beside him, Snow wags his tail, looking expectant.

[PallentisLunam]

Descending from their lookout the squad moves across one of the innumerable sky bridges that connect Sharn's many towers. When they ascend the tower to which the Golden Dragon is moored Rowly calls for a halt and weaves the ambient light around them into strands which he then bends around the five agents. When the spell is finished the only indication anyone would have of the Lanterns' passing would be rain hitting something that isn't there.

As the squad approaches the base of the loading ramp the metallic echoing clangs of the warforged's heavy strides greet them. A hideous wheezing and whirring also mark his movements and he seems to be grumbling to himself, a sound like scrapping metal.

[bcool999]

Rowly

Reaching into his bag, Rowly takes out one of the stones of silence they were given before the mission. Looking to the rest of his comrades to check if they are ready, he throws the stone at the ground near the warforged, taking care not to directly attack it lest their invisibility be broken.

Using a stone of silence here. 2 left.

[Centaurion]

While they were still on the other platform, Kyra manifested two powers. While doing so, three spots under her skin in her torso suddenly emit a bright yellow light for a moment, partially clouded by her clothes.


Share pain (Psion 6 -> 6 hours, 3pp), target: Psicrystal.
Claws of the Beast (PsyWar 2 + practised manifester -> 6 hours, spending (5 normal + total 6 from 3 quori shards) = 11 pp to gain retractable claws with 3d6 damage.))


On the way to the other platform, Kyra suggests to link their minds together so they can all communicate mentally while the silence effect is in effect. It will work for 1 hour. She then manifests another power.


I assume that everyone is in. If not, just note it somewhere. Using Mindlink as a psi-like ability. Psi-likes are augmented to Manifester level power points; manifester level 6, power cost 1, so augmentation 5 -> 5 additional targets.
Also manifesting vigor, augmented by 5, so spending 6pp for 30 temporary HP on her and her psicrystal each.


Kyra nods at Rowly after having let her claws slide out, signaling she was ready.

Over the mindlink:

I will summon an astral construct once there is no noise. I'll try to put it behind it, to add to the surprise.

[WhamBamSam]

Torr's snout elongates, claws extend from his fingers, and his already powerful musculature expands even further. Beside him, Snow's frame becomes more muscular as well. Under the cover of invisibility, their bodies warp still further.

Torr shifts, sharing it (including relevant class features and feats, i.e. those from Warshaper and Longtooth Elite, but not the extra natural weapons gained) with Snow.

They spend one turn prior to the throwing of the stone of silence buffing up with the Warshaper Morphic Weapons ability (2 move actions apiece). Torr increases the size of his bite and unarmed strike by one category. Snow increases the size of his bite and grows a claw attack.

Upon the throwing of the silence stone, Torr and Snow surge forward to attack the warforged in a whirlwind of soundless fury.

Torr charges the warforged with Pounce.

Unarmed Strike (Iterative 1)
Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]
If at least 10 damage is dealt, trip check for Knock-down: [roll2]

Unarmed Strike (Iterative 2)
Attack: [roll3]
Damage: [roll4]
If at least 10 damage is dealt and the warforged is not already tripped, trip check for Knock-down: [roll5]

Bite
Attack: [roll6]
Damage: [roll7] +1 Con damage (Longtooth Elite)
If at least 10 damage is dealt and the warforged is not already tripped, trip check for Knock-down: [roll8]

Claw 1
Attack: [roll9]
Damage: [roll10]
If at least 10 damage is dealt and the warforged is not already tripped, trip check for Knock-down: [roll11]

Claw 2
Attack: [roll12]
Damage: [roll13]
If at least 10 damage is dealt and the warforged is not already tripped, trip check for Knock-down: [roll14]

If both claws hit, Great Rend damage: [roll15]

If at any point a trip succeeds, Improved Trip attack with Bite.
Bite
Attack: [roll16]
Damage: [roll17] +1 Con damage (Longtooth Elite)

Snow charges the warforged with his bite.

Attack: [roll18]
Damage: [roll19] +1 Con damage (Longtooth Elite)
If attack hits and the warforged isn't already tripped, trip check for Trip attack: [roll20]

[Ragnarok'n'Roll]

Grimal

Grimal charges the other warforged. He normally had no quarrel with other warforged, just this one ended up on the wrong side apparently. He silently roared to himself as he drew close, flying into a rage.

"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr"



Free action : Enter rage (gains 1 temporary action point)

Standard action : Charge Warforged


Attack: [roll0] (+12 normal, +2 rage, +2 charge) + Action point [roll1] = 38
Damage: [roll2] + [roll3] Berserk weapon ench + [roll4] Acid Damage = 27



AC: 18 (22 normal -2 charge, -2 rage)