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[IronyOwl]

It's not the chimney itself, is it? Or like they burned some wood that had the memory imprinted on it so the soot is all in there?

Have Trence turn into a small dragon and wriggle his way down and then back up the chimney. Have Uncle doing thaumulocations while this happens to see if anything changes.

[Devastator]

Well, that does make you feel really icky.  It's also a bit tricky to pick which dragon to crawl down the chimney as.. Cold is right out, being all pudgy.  Water is skinny, but the tiny claws make it hard to get a grip.  Venom can make it through the top, so that's what you go with.

An active Thamulator still makes you feel icky, though.  That may never go away.

You don't find anything yourself, but Uncle.. uncle does.  After you climb back up he tells you to stay in dragon form, and you move your hands over each other, miming like your wrapping up a line or coil of wire.  He says that it's invisible, and to keep it up.

Several minutes later, once you're almost out of mana, it arrives.  An invisible thing bumps into your snout.

To be Continued.

[Devastator]

The sun is bright, hot, and you feel light.  All below is whiteness.  Not smooth, but fluffy, like icing.  Cake icing.  And the wind.  The wind was never what you like, but here and now it is fun and fine.

All too early you have to spiral down, back to the ground.  Back to your family.  It's been months since you've seen the sky.  Long months.  Too much darkness.  Too much being quiet.  Too much hiding.  And they are your family, yes.  But you know inside that they aren't your real family.  They don't get big.  They don't fly.  They don't turn into anything.

But they love you anyway.  It's just.. you don't know everything that's going on, but there is danger.  And you can't go outside.  Not much, not often.  Too many months.  Once, twice, three times..

..will there be a fourth?


"Mom, those are wings!"

"Quiet, Willis, we aren't supposed to be here."

"But those are wings!"

"Shush."

And the kid reverts.  Well, he was almost out of mana.  But damn.  Big, although not big-big, a bright white colour, long limbs, no horns, and with two giant wings.  Impressive.

Is it worth using a mana potion for experimentation, or will you wait until you reach Aethrem to test it out?  You have seven.

[IronyOwl]

Wait. There is no rush to experimenting with the power of flight, because there is no end to experimenting with the power of flight.

...unless we want to experiment with carrying the whole party so we don't have to hire a boat.

[NJW2000]

Wait. There is no rush to experimenting with the power of flight, because there is no end to experimenting with the power of flight.

...unless we want to experiment with carrying the whole party so we don't have to hire a boat.

+1

[King Zultan]

Wait. There is no rush to experimenting with the power of flight, because there is no end to experimenting with the power of flight.

...unless we want to experiment with carrying the whole party so we don't have to hire a boat.

+1

+1

[Devastator]

Restraint roll (4)

"You gotta give me a ride, Trence!  You can fly!"


The first stop is a fire temple on the west back of the Bite.  It's actually further south than the volcano, but it's built well up on an outcrop, giving a really clear view of it.  It's of a four-layer design, with living quarters and beds on the first floor, followed by storage and offices above, followed by a sort of purification and meditation room.. scorching hot.. before the final chamber at the top.

The chamber is made of dark basaltic rocks, with a floor of hammered fresh copper, giving the chamber a reddish glow.  At the center is a basin made of a greasy-looking reddish-black smooth rock.  There is a hole in the middle for dropping offerings.  Here, hopefully, you'll get a lead on a fire elemental dragon form.

What did Trence bring to represent himself to the fire altar?

[King Zultan]

What about a torch or a flare?

[NJW2000]

How about a little dragon effigy made out of sticks?

And possibly a small amount of gunpowder or flammable oil, it being Trence.

[Devastator]

How about a little dragon effigy made out of sticks?

And possibly a small amount of gunpowder or flammable oil, it being Trence.

"Flaming sticks"

"Sure!"

You drop the flaming effigy through the dark hole, and it falls into the distance, far below what should be the bottom of the bowl.  It vanishes in the distance.  At that moment, you begin concentrating, once again calling upon the elemental spirit to inform you of dragonkind.

There is, once again, puzzlement and confusion, but like the previous times, you are shown a vision.

Unlike last time, it is not specific.  You are on tan-coloured sands, with the sun rising in the distance, behind a string of distant hills.  Behind you there is nothing, but long stretches of dune-covered trackless waterless desert.

How are you going to identify this location?  You wonder, as you let the fine sand fall through your fingertips.

When you awaken, there is sand on the floor around you.  Just a few handfuls.  Hopefully it'll be enough for Uncle to figure things out.

To be Continued.

[Devastator]

The next leg of the trip is a repeat of the trip north, skirting close to the coast, hugging until you end up at a port.  Likely the same one that you switched boats at before.. but this time you have another captain with you, so the pirates wont' know the rich people are changing ship again.

There is also the smoky underwater volcanic vent again.  Once you have a fire dragon form.. maybe you'll look down there.  Probably not any valuables, but Fire/Water whelp Trence might be the only person in the world who can get up close to an underwater volcanic vent and live to tell the tale.

Although it's the second leg, the homestretch west of the jungle that's the most dangerous.  It's the bit closest to the Isle Perilous, and you're hugging the shore, hoping that the navy doesn't show up.  Or at least being close enough to land to make an emergency beaching if necessary.

"You know, Trence, if you could fly you could go way up high and see if there are any ships coming for us."

That's a compelling argument.  And you do have 7 mana potions.

..Fine, it's worth one potion.

-1 Mana Potion.  You now have 6.

Trence then sits forward of the mast, on the very front of the ship, just above the spray from the bow.  Then he turns into a great white winged dragon, and as he comes up to his feet, Willis jumps aboard.

The next few moments are chaotic.  Trence manages to abort the takeoff, and Willis manages to not get his head smashed, but the dragon is very cross at his friend for jumping aboard without warning.  Still, they do sort it out, and the two of them go up again, Willis clutching a rope quickly tied around the Flight Dragon's neck, legs braced under a second rope, tied behind a bone ridge just above the wing roots.  Reasonable.

And flying is amazing.  You can see everything.  Clouds, fish, sharks, the ship cutting a fine path through the water, with the thick jungle to the east and the open sea to the west.  There is no great fleet coming for you, so for today things are safe.  Some instinct drives you to ride the air, some part of you knowing where the good air is and the bad air isn't, and another part simply revels in the breeze, joyful in a way you haven't ever felt sea travel to be.  Lovely.

..and it's over.  Well before you could get up to cloud height, well before you could even feel you properly got upwards, you have to come in for a landing.  It was maybe five minutes total before the potion ran out, and half of that was getting ropes up and getting ready to fly.  Not nearly enough.  And you have six more potions.. a lot, but not nearly enough for a big flight.

Still, it was good to know that you could carry Willis, who is looking rather windburnt.  Your eyes, for some reason, don't seem to notice the wind while airborne.  His, on the other hand, do.  Have to get some goggles if you're going to make a habit of this.

"So, do you think you could carry everyone if you were a big flight dragon instead of a flight dragon?"

Umm...

To be continued.

[Egan_BW]

Can Willis shoot from up there or do we need to work out a saddle in addition to goggles?

[Devastator]

Can Willis shoot from up there or do we need to work out a saddle in addition to goggles?

Willis, thanks to his supernatural aim ability, yes.  A saddle would be a good idea, though.

An issue is that Trence's equipment isn't there when he turns into a dragon, so he'd need to put the saddle on every time after transforming.

The rest of the trip takes a good solid three weeks.  You have to change ships twice, once at the small pirate port, and again at Port Silver, each time transferring your small cargo over.  There are two attacks by sea creatures, which goes a good way towards paying your fare.  The downside is you can't stop at the wind altar like you wanted.. the winds are blowing the wrong way by the time you go past, and you'd have to threaten grevious bodily harm towards the captain to get her to delay a week or two waiting for winds to allow a landing on the barren desert shore.

The trip isn't super enjoyable as well.  On the way down you get rained on no less than three times, and the winds are mostly against you, except for when that would let you land on the shrine of the winds.  The monster attacks are enough to pay your way, but not enough to make a profit, although the crew is a lot happier about the low encounter rate than you are.  Although they are interested in the tale of how you killed the most badass of sea monsters, hitting both a giant squid and an incredibly annoying giant fish in consecutive weeks, even.

Resisting the urge to go flying again is also a lot easier in the bad weather.  You don't have a lightning form, after all.

At least south of Rustian things start looking up.  Apparently at the bottom of the world the winds are really predictable.  They're pretty much always blowing from the west, around the world endlessly.  This lets them make good time, and indeed, they have a sail plan that lets them sail well on such a wind, having an extra sail just for this purpose.  It also starts getting colder, and you start dressing appropriately.  And dark.  It isn't the true polar winter, but on the last couple days, the sun sets only a few hours past noon, and is very late getting up.

At the end, you see a long boom, supported by several buoys, marking the 'channel' for the artificial harbour, a mess of masts and ships and floating platforms, linked to the mainland by one long, guarded, pier.  Those are full on ballista-armed towers covering it, more than large enough to sink or cripple ships.  Hmm.  Best be careful.  On shore you can't make out too much.  There are some buildings, but they're not normal.. one building takes up like a square kilometer, but is only two levels high, and the other small ones have no windows.

To be Continued.

[Devastator]

The large building is some sort of customs and exchange station.  It's also bloody cold, despite being fully enclosed.  Unheated.  Bloody robots.

It does look like you could, theoretically, conduct a visit without ever leaving the building.  There are a dozen robots, all humanoid models, acting as traders and trade agents, as well as a few 'officials' of sorts who can conduct negotiations and commission other things.  There is nobody from the Adventurer's guild, though, which is odd.  Everywhere else in the known world had representatives in most settlements larger than villages.  But Robot Antarctica must do things differently.

It's also boring.  You make a nice profit on your Valterran weapons, which gives you some profits, but it's boring.  You didn't come across half the world to this lonely place simply to check in at the designated trade station.  You're going to explore the island and see what there is going on.

+3 upgrades of cash.  You now have 9 upgrades worth of money.

What do you do?

1. Check out the landscape.  Explore the wilderness areas of Aethrem.
2. Check out the city.  What does robot society look like?
3. Check out the mine.  What little you know about the place is that its built around a giant mine for robot heartmetal.  There are still mining operations going on.

[IronyOwl]

Robot society! Should be fun to see how these nerds do business.

Plus I don't care how cold and robotic it is. There is always room for shenanigans.