The party continues working on the ship and investigating their new surroundings.

Hazel searches through Lavender’s supplies of dried herbs and tonics, finding 3 potions of healing and 1 potion of Fire Breathing.

A few items are left on the TO-DO list:

Torren and Schmead head into town to get a paper map of the local region that NOVA can use to plot navigation. While in town they also purchase enough food for the entire party to last at least 5 days. The Kobolds have enough food for themselves to last that period. When they return, Hilda claims she will cover the food expenses on the ship and reimburses them for what they purchased.

Jasiri helped Boomspear with making more explosive spears and although he doesn’t understand how they work, he manages to assist Boomspear get through a majority of the process without blowing up the ship. Jasiri and the Kobolds continue to dig out the ship.

In order to jumpstart the engines they will need an electrical source. Vaelyn volunteers to catch shock lizards and Hazel and Excalibur join. They set off in search of the creatures and eventually find a few of them in a small glen. Hazel suggests talking to them and casts Speak with Animals. Hazel then tries to summon Good Berries but they look unhealthy, so she doesn’t offer them to the lizards. Instead, she says the ship should have plenty of bugs for them to eat. The lizards agree and climb up Hazel who desperately tries to hide Doom and Gloom in her cloak.

As they return to the ship, Vaelyn collects bugs to give to the lizards. When they return Vaelyn tosses his bug collection onto the engine where the lizards climb up and discharge electrical energy, killing the bugs and starting the engines. They then skitter off into the ship in search of more bugs to eat.

Vaelyn takes Hazel aside and thanks her for essentially doing the entire job. It went a lot more easily than he anticipated and a lot less violently. Hazel smiles and says she’s happy to help, the lizards seem happy. She apologizes her goodberries aren’t edible and offers to get him other food if he’s also hungry. Vaelyn realizes how hungry he actually is and immediately leaves.

When Torren returns from the trip to town, he goes to see Tobias in the Brig. No one notices, since no one is around. Tobias mocks Torren’s arrival, asking if he’s brought more people to come and kick the shit out of him. Torren apologizes to Tobias, saying he didn’t anticipate it to get so out of handa and gives Tobias an apology note. Tobias scoffs and asks if it’s a joke though Torren ensures him it’s not. Tobias nods and claims he will take it at face value. Tobias makes an additional plea to allow him to join the crew, which Torren quickly declines.

NOVA informs Jasiri when he finishes with the Kobolds that Torren went to visit Tobias. Jasiri brings Tobias dinner and they have a short chat. Jasiri also apologizes and says he will speak with the group about letting him go free. He also promises to try and keep Torren out of the brig for which Tobias thanks him.

Hazel goes to see Vaelyn after dinner and prepares him an herbal tea. When she knocks on the door, Vaelyn doesn’t answer and asks her to just set the tea outside of the door. She asks if he’s okay and he says Torren would be able to explain to everyone a bit better. Hazel heads to Torren’s door.

She asks Torren what is wrong with Vaelyn and he claims he’s just a little hungry and has a very particular diet. Hazel also inquires about his notes and Torren explains it’s a form of emotional healing. This comment intrigues Hazel who hastily walks back to her room.

Torren goes to see Vaelyn and they try to come up with a plan to give Vaelyn something to feed on. They go out into the woods to set traps throughout the night and wait. After a while, they go to check on the traps and find that they’ve caught a shock lizard and a rabbit. Vaelyn feeds off both of them but barely keeps his hunger at bay - it doesn’t fully satisfy. Vaelyn thanks Torren for being here, saying it means a lot to him. [Author’s Note: <3]

The Week Continues

Over the course of the week while the repairs are made a few items of note take place.

One evening Jasiri and Torren sit down to talk. Torren apologizes with another note saying Tobias didn’t deserve that kind of treatment. He explains it was vengeance by proximity. Jasriri says this is a second chance - people will know who the party are one day, and they shouldn’t start their journey this way. They will turn Tobias in and let the justicars deal with him appropriately. Torren says he’s trying to grow and avoid reverting back to his past trauma. He wants to be better. Jasiri shares the same sentiment and the two part ways for the evening.

The party holds a Town Hall Meeting amongst the crew to decide what to do with Tobias. Multiple options were discussed, but they group settled on their original idea - to turn him over to the authorites when next able so that he can be punished according to the law.

The Kobolds are initiated into the crew in the same manner as the party, with NOVA registering their names one by one.

Take Off!

Once all of the problems are sufficiently fixed, the ship is finally ready for take off. The party meets up in the command room to prepare and deal with any issues that might arise.

“NOVA… Let’s do this!”

Several problems arise:

  • Jasiri manages to successfully remove a large boulder that falls onto the ship when it begins to take off.
  • Hazel conjures a large cloud that successfully blocks the brightness of the sun, keeping Hilda from crashing.
  • Schmead and Excalibur manage to direct a large flock of birds out the way but only manage to get half to safety. The rest are hit by the ship…
  • Vaelyn successfully fixes the stabilizers causing the ship to list one direction.
  • Jasiri successfully holds a broken hose spewing water in place while the Kobolds repair it.
  • Torren fixes NOVA’s communication issues by successfully reconnecting cables to the Nexus.
  • The ship starts to lose power and Schmead successfully tracks another shock lizard to help give it a second boost (though the lizard is killed as Schmead tosses it at the engine).

The ship is in bad shape but Stormbreaker is finally in the air! With everything stable, they make it to their first destination… Port Revelry.

Gangster’s Paradise

The city is half destroyed and in ruins. Scorch marks and ice that never melts cover the ruined half of the city, caused by the titan when it attacked three years ago. The remaining half of the city is filled with people who couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. Crime runs rampant as people struggle to survive.

The massive ship settles into the water of the harbor, attracting the attention of anyone in eyesight.

The Kobolds remain on the ship to guard it and perform repairs while NOVA ensures it is unable to be operated by anyone who is not an authorized crew member.

Hilda uses the remaining life raft to get to the docks. She explains that there are people here she wants to join the crew. A group known as the “Stray Dogs” (former pirates without a ship) is a group of individuals Hilda has met and trusts. They have camaraderie between them here as they’ve been abandoned and are in between jobs - and Hilda wants to get them back on their feet. Many of these people can fill some of the basic roles on the ships crew.

She also explains that there’s an extremely talented engineer here in the city named Hermann Voltz who she wants to join the crew. He is an expert in Celestial technology, and is better suited than anyone for helping to get the Strombreaker back to full operation. He was with a group called “The Makers”, a non-approved Artificer Guild that does work outside of the Church’s Law. Nilbeck - Hilda’s old mentor - says he can be trusted. Four artificers, including Hermann and Nilbeck, worked together on a project that built a massive canon that was nearly powerful enough to take down a titan. Their creation put three of the four in prison, with Hermann going into hiding. Hilda tasks the party with tracking him down. She seems convinced he could be persuaded to join the crew by having the opportunity to work on an ancient mythical ship.

Vaelyn brings up the point that with all eyes on the party, it’s going to be challenging to find this person in secret and smuggle him onto the ship without the eyes of others noticing.

Once they reach the docks, Hilda leads the party to a small forge and introduces an Orcish blacksmith named Urgan. Hilda had promised him a job on the ship when she eventually found it, and she came to deliver, offering him the furnaces on the ship that he could use as a forge.

When asked about Hermann, Ergan lead the group to a private area within his shop so there wouldn’t be any eavesdroppers. He explains the situation in Port Revelry: that after the titan disaster happened, corruption spread and more organized crime syndicates took power. He explains that there are three main active groups:

  1. The Abandoned
    • The city government is in their pocket
    • White collar crime - mafia-like
    • Resides among the upper echelons of the city
  2. The Crows
    • Newer to the city and moving in on the Abandoned’s territory
    • Larger organization, spread out in other cities and regions
    • More street level crime - operating in the lower levels of the city
  3. The Whispers
    • No issues with other Organizations
    • Information brokers that will sell to the highest bidder (Power and information are worth more than gold)
    • Extremely difficult to find

Hermann Voltz is working with the Abandoned and the Crows. Since going into hiding no one has seen him in over three years.

Urgan suggests the party head to “The Goose and Gander” as it’s a good (and safe) tavern nearby if we want to start looking for information. He recommends asking for Nona - she’s the innkeep there and a good person. She has hired protection for her establishment that keeps the place a small beacon in an otherwise dark place.

As the party leaves, Hilda stays with Urgan to look for more people and get him set up on the ship. She tells the party that she will only be going between the ship and the docks, so she will be easy to find if needed.

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