2020-02-04 - Aerial Delving - Arkadius Hogg
Feb 5, 2020 15:20:32 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2020 15:20:32 GMT
Ffirst Airmail is his greatest achievement, Arkadius will always labour the point whenever asks him. Combining work with pleasure is a sure-fire way of making sure you really do enjoy your days to the best of your ability. And Ffirst Airmail kept him in the air, away from the hustle-and-bustle of the streets, away from the clutter of the alleyways, and the people of the city. It wasn't that he disliked the people, he just felt more... at home and free up in the sky.
It also meant he had the opportunity to travel to different, more exotic places. Such as the island that rooted itself into the ocean not too far away that he vowed to add to the network (see "Return of the Prince"). And then there's the less exotic, but no less wonderful destinations, like Daring Heights. Arkadius, not long after founding Ffirst Airmail, had taken a business trip to meet his inspiration in Daring Heights, Wendy. She was the inspiration behind Ffirst Airmail, "post with a difference".
But that story isn't what we discuss here, it's just one of the many causes leading on to the story of how Arkadius was to visit the Plane of Air.
Dearest Swan,
As previously discussed, I have taken on a new personal interest of a more... interplanar nature. I am interested in finding out more about the different planes, specifically fire, earth, water and air. I will admit that one of my regular adventuring companions, Wil Frozendagger, was the one who piqued my interest and started me off with this line of thought, with his close connections to the Plane of Water.
I was on one of my regular trips to Daring Heights, delivering a bundle of mail to Wendy for onwards delivering. She had taken a copy of a local notice knowing that I would be visiting soon and knowing that I have this new particular hobby of looking into information regarding the four planes, and thought I may find it of interest. It happened to be a posting for adventurers from one Raksus Highwatch, a Priest of Melil and Commander of the Errant Guard no less.
Wendy was right, it really did pique my interest so I stuck around, asked her to keep ahold of the mail to return to Port Ffirst till I was back. And immediately traveled to the meetup point. There, I bumped into Markas, Bones and Heret... and also Wil and Sheryl! What a pleasant surprise. Me and Sheryl remarked on how, as always, Mathew was missing. (Note: It's been far too long since we met up together. Must make a point of making this happen soon.)
On arriving, we were ushered into a rather plush meeting room, where there was a lovely, rather... strictly-held person called Jirelle, and a rather less strictly-held Torven (again, note: I don't remember the guy's name, and honestly I don't think it'll really ever be relevant again. I will call him T for the rest of this writing). They advised us that something in the Plane of Air was disrupting local currents and patterns, making life for the beings of the Plane rather... difficult. I can empathise with that, having mapped out the natural air currents above Port Ffirst to find the best, efficient routes through the city for deliveries. I know that a current changing even by a few inches, especially when you're working from memory, can completely mess with your entire schedule, so for them... it must be bad. Very bad.
So, we set off to travelling to the Plane of Air. I will admit, I was very much looking forward to this even if all of the currents and everything were off. I imagine that the Plane of Air must be a liberating place of freedom for the likes of me. A near-infinite space where you can just... fly. It sounded like my idea of paradise. Maybe one day I'll emigrate there.
But for now, just a brief visit, and while we were there we were set to travel by airship. How would we get there? ...Hmm. Interesting. We were to be... slingshotted there. In pods. White, spherical pods. We were led to a yard, where there were these pods which could be magically fired into the sky, and when they were, we would land at the dock in the Plane of Air where the airship was waiting to take us to the disruption. Interesting contraption, not sure if I quite like the idea of being part of a slingshot maneuver, but hey ho it happened and it was not entirely uncomfortable or unsafe. We survived.
The airship set off, and began using the air currents to get us to where we needed to be, the place where all the air currents were being disrupted from. Of course, with the currents being disrupted it meant the journey at the end wasn't as smooth as we would have liked. Everyone else seemed prepared, when we lost one of the masts, for us to crash-land. For some reason, I didn't and I took a bit of a tumble. Pretty sure I landed on a wing, and bent the very end out of place. It hurt, I'll tell you that much.
We landed in what seemed like a runway. Very convenient. Most of the crew also took a bit of a tumble, but none of them seemed to be too banged up, they were able to keep the ship intact at least, which is a positive. T informed us that the main passageway, while more efficient path to what we assume to be the core, probably wasn't the best and safest route, and led us down a (another convenience) side passageway.
We set off down the corridor, and eventually noted that things were going a little weird, given that the whole asteroidy thingy seemed to be rotating, taking the corridor with it. For most of the floor-walkers amongst us, this caused a few issues. For the winged amongst us, we elected to float a few inches above the ground to stop the rotation being an issue, and for the Markas' amongst us there was no issue at all. He ran on ahead, checking that the path ahead was safe. When he did, I nose-dived down to be next to him. Easy. The others took other methods to dive down, of various levels of safety.
Markas had noted that the next passageway seemed to be cylindrical, and had rotating parts. In each of the three parts rotating around were a slightly raised floor part and a switch. Two of the three parts had traps, and the third did not. I was able to use Mage Hand to pull the switch, and this stopped the passageway rotating around, allowing us safe entry to the next point. Markas went on ahead to scout out the remaining three slots, to identify whether we could get a path. He did a very good job, to be fair. Very useful.
On the way through, I found a bluish gem, embedded in the wall. It felt like it was calling out for something... magical energy. I stuck a Mage Hand into it, and it recessed into the wall, and the rotation of the entire asteroid... stopped. It seemed like it was on a timer, which didn't help, but hey... Mage Hand has a decent enough range, I could keep it going for a little while. Long enough to help people through this passage, and maybe the next.
Ah. The next passage. It was... well, it was a swingy bladey axey corridory of deathy. Thankfully with the way that the asteroid had began resting on thanks to the assistance of the blue gem, the corridor was orientated in a way that there would be an easier path through. Markas went first, showing just how athletic, acrobatic and dramatic he was. After one glancing blow, he was able to make it through easily. Sheryl went next, and she... well, she didn't do as well as Markas, but she was still impressive.
Wil volunteered to go next, and from personal experience his skill-set is similar to mine. I quickly mentally asked Ida if she minded travelling with him, assuming that he would make a botch-job of making it through the corridor, and knowing I'd be able to remotely help getting him back up if he went down. She accepted and Wil took her gladly, and boy did I not regret that choice. I gave him specific instructions that if he were to take harm, keep Ida on him afterwards and I would heal him up, otherwise pass Ida on to whoever did the worst in the passageway. If he was a drum, the blades and axes were wielded by one of the worst musicians on the planet! The moment he got to the other end, he passed Ida on to Sheryl, who then passed her on to Markas.
While this was going on, Heret and Bones were both checking out the mechanism that controlled the corridor. They worked out that if a certain number of hardened objects found their way into certain places along the corridor, all of the swords and axes would find themselves no longer moving. That would mean we'd pass through unharmed. Of course, I wasn't risking my life on the path, and waited for their investigation to conclude, which was also successful.
At the end of the next corridor and around a corner, we came across a huge stone door. Markas offered to open it, while we all took strategic positions around in case anything happened. When the door opened, we came across what we assumed to be the core of the whole place. It was a spherical room, full of stormy weather. Odd, but okay.
Floating around inside were platforms, and at the very center an orb which grabbed my attention and held on to it like tunnel vision. It's what we were sent here to investigate and solve, so it was what I would do. Markas was similar on a sigil floating around the outside of the room.
At this time, we realised that T was missing. An earth elemental made to attack us, and didn't do a great job, but a boomerang thing hit me and Bones upside the head. I immediately added T's name alongside Khaosborn's on the list of people I didn't like immensely. The list had now doubled in size.
We cracked open the orb, it seemed to be some kind of... prison, maybe? Holding something inside? The thing inside, some kind of ancient aeons old elemental, also took exception to T's traitorous behaviour, and went to give him a giant high-five.
T evaporated on the spot, when the giant lightning hand passed through him. I mentally removed his name from the list, and the length of the list halved again. The elemental left, and everything seemed... fine again.
We found a note amongst T's leftover possessions, ("T. Our assassin. Get to the first seal and take it out. Then destroy the evidence. Leave no witnesses. Glory to the Vanguard."), as well as a few other things. Investigation still pending on some of these elements, and I will write a follow-up on this later, perhaps.
With the airship fully out of commission, we had to wait for a while for rescue, before we were able to head off back to Kantas and the Material Plane via another slingshot pod. I had a jolly-good time flexing my wings and flying around, while the others seemed to enjoy each other's company on the boat. I don't like being constrained to one spot for too long, I get bored otherwise.
My search for information on the other planes continues.
Kindest regards,
Arkadius Hogg
It also meant he had the opportunity to travel to different, more exotic places. Such as the island that rooted itself into the ocean not too far away that he vowed to add to the network (see "Return of the Prince"). And then there's the less exotic, but no less wonderful destinations, like Daring Heights. Arkadius, not long after founding Ffirst Airmail, had taken a business trip to meet his inspiration in Daring Heights, Wendy. She was the inspiration behind Ffirst Airmail, "post with a difference".
But that story isn't what we discuss here, it's just one of the many causes leading on to the story of how Arkadius was to visit the Plane of Air.
Dearest Swan,
As previously discussed, I have taken on a new personal interest of a more... interplanar nature. I am interested in finding out more about the different planes, specifically fire, earth, water and air. I will admit that one of my regular adventuring companions, Wil Frozendagger, was the one who piqued my interest and started me off with this line of thought, with his close connections to the Plane of Water.
I was on one of my regular trips to Daring Heights, delivering a bundle of mail to Wendy for onwards delivering. She had taken a copy of a local notice knowing that I would be visiting soon and knowing that I have this new particular hobby of looking into information regarding the four planes, and thought I may find it of interest. It happened to be a posting for adventurers from one Raksus Highwatch, a Priest of Melil and Commander of the Errant Guard no less.
Wendy was right, it really did pique my interest so I stuck around, asked her to keep ahold of the mail to return to Port Ffirst till I was back. And immediately traveled to the meetup point. There, I bumped into Markas, Bones and Heret... and also Wil and Sheryl! What a pleasant surprise. Me and Sheryl remarked on how, as always, Mathew was missing. (Note: It's been far too long since we met up together. Must make a point of making this happen soon.)
On arriving, we were ushered into a rather plush meeting room, where there was a lovely, rather... strictly-held person called Jirelle, and a rather less strictly-held Torven (again, note: I don't remember the guy's name, and honestly I don't think it'll really ever be relevant again. I will call him T for the rest of this writing). They advised us that something in the Plane of Air was disrupting local currents and patterns, making life for the beings of the Plane rather... difficult. I can empathise with that, having mapped out the natural air currents above Port Ffirst to find the best, efficient routes through the city for deliveries. I know that a current changing even by a few inches, especially when you're working from memory, can completely mess with your entire schedule, so for them... it must be bad. Very bad.
So, we set off to travelling to the Plane of Air. I will admit, I was very much looking forward to this even if all of the currents and everything were off. I imagine that the Plane of Air must be a liberating place of freedom for the likes of me. A near-infinite space where you can just... fly. It sounded like my idea of paradise. Maybe one day I'll emigrate there.
But for now, just a brief visit, and while we were there we were set to travel by airship. How would we get there? ...Hmm. Interesting. We were to be... slingshotted there. In pods. White, spherical pods. We were led to a yard, where there were these pods which could be magically fired into the sky, and when they were, we would land at the dock in the Plane of Air where the airship was waiting to take us to the disruption. Interesting contraption, not sure if I quite like the idea of being part of a slingshot maneuver, but hey ho it happened and it was not entirely uncomfortable or unsafe. We survived.
The airship set off, and began using the air currents to get us to where we needed to be, the place where all the air currents were being disrupted from. Of course, with the currents being disrupted it meant the journey at the end wasn't as smooth as we would have liked. Everyone else seemed prepared, when we lost one of the masts, for us to crash-land. For some reason, I didn't and I took a bit of a tumble. Pretty sure I landed on a wing, and bent the very end out of place. It hurt, I'll tell you that much.
We landed in what seemed like a runway. Very convenient. Most of the crew also took a bit of a tumble, but none of them seemed to be too banged up, they were able to keep the ship intact at least, which is a positive. T informed us that the main passageway, while more efficient path to what we assume to be the core, probably wasn't the best and safest route, and led us down a (another convenience) side passageway.
We set off down the corridor, and eventually noted that things were going a little weird, given that the whole asteroidy thingy seemed to be rotating, taking the corridor with it. For most of the floor-walkers amongst us, this caused a few issues. For the winged amongst us, we elected to float a few inches above the ground to stop the rotation being an issue, and for the Markas' amongst us there was no issue at all. He ran on ahead, checking that the path ahead was safe. When he did, I nose-dived down to be next to him. Easy. The others took other methods to dive down, of various levels of safety.
Markas had noted that the next passageway seemed to be cylindrical, and had rotating parts. In each of the three parts rotating around were a slightly raised floor part and a switch. Two of the three parts had traps, and the third did not. I was able to use Mage Hand to pull the switch, and this stopped the passageway rotating around, allowing us safe entry to the next point. Markas went on ahead to scout out the remaining three slots, to identify whether we could get a path. He did a very good job, to be fair. Very useful.
On the way through, I found a bluish gem, embedded in the wall. It felt like it was calling out for something... magical energy. I stuck a Mage Hand into it, and it recessed into the wall, and the rotation of the entire asteroid... stopped. It seemed like it was on a timer, which didn't help, but hey... Mage Hand has a decent enough range, I could keep it going for a little while. Long enough to help people through this passage, and maybe the next.
Ah. The next passage. It was... well, it was a swingy bladey axey corridory of deathy. Thankfully with the way that the asteroid had began resting on thanks to the assistance of the blue gem, the corridor was orientated in a way that there would be an easier path through. Markas went first, showing just how athletic, acrobatic and dramatic he was. After one glancing blow, he was able to make it through easily. Sheryl went next, and she... well, she didn't do as well as Markas, but she was still impressive.
Wil volunteered to go next, and from personal experience his skill-set is similar to mine. I quickly mentally asked Ida if she minded travelling with him, assuming that he would make a botch-job of making it through the corridor, and knowing I'd be able to remotely help getting him back up if he went down. She accepted and Wil took her gladly, and boy did I not regret that choice. I gave him specific instructions that if he were to take harm, keep Ida on him afterwards and I would heal him up, otherwise pass Ida on to whoever did the worst in the passageway. If he was a drum, the blades and axes were wielded by one of the worst musicians on the planet! The moment he got to the other end, he passed Ida on to Sheryl, who then passed her on to Markas.
While this was going on, Heret and Bones were both checking out the mechanism that controlled the corridor. They worked out that if a certain number of hardened objects found their way into certain places along the corridor, all of the swords and axes would find themselves no longer moving. That would mean we'd pass through unharmed. Of course, I wasn't risking my life on the path, and waited for their investigation to conclude, which was also successful.
At the end of the next corridor and around a corner, we came across a huge stone door. Markas offered to open it, while we all took strategic positions around in case anything happened. When the door opened, we came across what we assumed to be the core of the whole place. It was a spherical room, full of stormy weather. Odd, but okay.
Floating around inside were platforms, and at the very center an orb which grabbed my attention and held on to it like tunnel vision. It's what we were sent here to investigate and solve, so it was what I would do. Markas was similar on a sigil floating around the outside of the room.
At this time, we realised that T was missing. An earth elemental made to attack us, and didn't do a great job, but a boomerang thing hit me and Bones upside the head. I immediately added T's name alongside Khaosborn's on the list of people I didn't like immensely. The list had now doubled in size.
We cracked open the orb, it seemed to be some kind of... prison, maybe? Holding something inside? The thing inside, some kind of ancient aeons old elemental, also took exception to T's traitorous behaviour, and went to give him a giant high-five.
T evaporated on the spot, when the giant lightning hand passed through him. I mentally removed his name from the list, and the length of the list halved again. The elemental left, and everything seemed... fine again.
We found a note amongst T's leftover possessions, ("T. Our assassin. Get to the first seal and take it out. Then destroy the evidence. Leave no witnesses. Glory to the Vanguard."), as well as a few other things. Investigation still pending on some of these elements, and I will write a follow-up on this later, perhaps.
With the airship fully out of commission, we had to wait for a while for rescue, before we were able to head off back to Kantas and the Material Plane via another slingshot pod. I had a jolly-good time flexing my wings and flying around, while the others seemed to enjoy each other's company on the boat. I don't like being constrained to one spot for too long, I get bored otherwise.
My search for information on the other planes continues.
Kindest regards,
Arkadius Hogg
