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Pumping the locals for information on best paths to Leros was not as productive as I might have hoped. I had been expecting known trade routes, but instead got a rough map indicating where pirates were presumed to be operating in Philosophical Lawless Zones. There just didn’t seem to be much of a government to speak of beyond the village level at best and what trade there was seemed to largely be with the immediately neighboring villages as opposed to regional.
Still, that was sufficient to get us a rough idea of a course to chart around the lawless zones. It looked like trying to avoid the lawless zones entirely would increase our six day journey to Leros to twelve days. While I was annoyed at the idea of having to add to our journey to avoid idiot pirates, it was a better option than having to battle more of them trying to steal our stuff.
There was some debate of taking the castle with us or leaving it here while taking the rebuilt airship instead. I was not entirely comfortable with leaving the castle unattended for long given that we had a known hostile army that was keen to acquire it. On the other hand, the castle was large and unwieldy at best for transport around the Anomaly. Plus taking the castle on a flight high in the sky was a sure way to attract attention to it. After significant debate back and forth, we elected to take the airship now that we had moved the castle to a more central location for our trips. Hopefully leaving most of the powerful members of our team behind to help the Untremi defend the castle such as Valith and Stormfire would keep assaults to a minimum.
In the end, the decision was made that those going to Leros would be Katlyn, Jacob, Kuroko, enough of a crew to run and defend the airship, and myself. The first day was largely uneventful beyond some fishing vessels, and a couple of locals in a balloon. On the second day though the airship shuddered and our speed dropped dramatically as everything lurched forward as a result of inertia.
(Vanatica) Status report!
(Bridge) Losing some altitude, minor damage to the front hull, slimy stuff on the front windows, and one rotor is nonfunctioning.
(Katlyn) Did we hit something, or are we being fired at?
(Soldier) If we’re being fired at, it isn’t very effective.
Katlyn sped off to the deck to get a look around while I made an albeit slower dash for the bridge. Once there, the view from the deck window was sort of wavering and distorted. Which made it hard to discern what exactly was going on. Katlyn was already reporting her findings from the deck.
(Katlyn) Some sort of goo on the deck. A sharp stinging sensation on any exposed skin that touches the stuff. Extremely painful from the look of it. Got a few crew up here that got splashed with the stuff.
Sounded like jellyfish venom or something similar. That also went along with the reports of goo or slime on the front of the ship. I was not particularly enthused about the idea of giant flying jellyfish if they were anything like the tales I had heard back home.
(Katlyn) Stuff looks difficult to counter outright. Superficially damaging, it apparently is fairly normal nematocyst stings, but the “venom” is simply expanding nitrogen gas. So it inflicts mechanical damage as it blows up the tissues. Artificial bends essentially. I am going to have to use some obols as proper treatment of this is going to be problematic with the resources on board. Still not seeing any sort of a creature out here though.
(Jacob) Looks like we’ve run into a cloud-jelly: a creature built of atmospheric gases via enhanced interactions between them. Not likely a major menace, but we are entangled in the fringes of the “tentacles”. Semi-solid, but detached bits will slowly revert to normal atmosphere. Their “toxin” is painful, but rarely affects anything past the upper tissue layers of dense-matter creatures.
(Katlyn) Alright, everyone inside the hull then!
(Vanatica) So keep plowing through and we should break free?
(Jacob) We may be able to power through. Otherwise we’ll have to cut the tentacles.
(Katlyn) Any easy ways to detect it? Like does it show up on thermal or ultraviolet?
(Jacob) It will show up on magical detection, air current or cloud detection, and distorts sound passing though it to some extent. It’s just hard to separate from the surrounding atmosphere save for its relative lack of small scale movement.
(Katlyn) Alright, I am sealing my armor and going to go cut us free. I’ll use an obol to give myself the ability to see it.
I heard the distant sound of a swinging lightsaber whirling around at great speed, but we did not seem to be breaking loose like anticipated. Katlyn flew up to the top of the airship to try to better ascertain as to why.
(Katlyn) Problem: this thing is several cubic kilometers in size. Mostly ahead and above us too. Going through it isn’t really practical.
(Vanatica) Alright, we’re reversing course then.
It still took awhile to get free and drop altitude enough to get out of the way of it. What “slime” was left on the airship sublimed into atmospheric gases within an hour – albeit at a great increase in volume. The “lift areas” did the opposite, as near vacuum areas contracted. The blatant violations of the ideal gas laws managed to annoy even Jacob amazingly enough. He took out his frustrations by tinkering with the forward view screen to allow it to highlight the creatures in the future so the crew could steer around them.
That eventually revealed a fascinating, if largely transparent (or occasionally foggy) gaseous biosphere, drifting in the sky – normally high enough to avoid hills and such. None of it was apparently sapient though. Part of me wondered if this was an artificial ecosystem, or if this had somehow naturally evolved on some strange world in the multiverse. Reminds me of the stories of creatures living in the depths of gas giant worlds in the cloud layers far below most people entered. Some tales claimed that such things could reach the size of a star destroyer or even larger. If these jellyfish were of any indication, then there was likely to be truth to those tales. Although probably such creatures were likely made of something solid or semi-liquid as opposed to compressed gases like these things.
At least they weren’t likely to pose much hazard to us while we were inside the ship. The sheer difference in density made affecting us as difficult as us affecting a creature made of condensed matter.
Day four saw us boarded by “pirates” who adamantly insisted we were a flying bar and demanded drinks. Jacob quickly got swept up in the revelry, card games, and drinking games. They were mildly amusing, if not especially serious.
(Katlyn) Frat boy rarely change, even across the multiverse it seems.
Katlyn’s theory was that these people had extract their worries philosophically. That (or some variation of it) would certainly fit the pattern seen so far. They definitely seemed slightly detached from reality, genuinely couldn’t take anything seriously, and seemed to be more than a bit drunk on something other than alcohol. I just had concerns that this was cover for some more subtle act of piracy than the previous instance of taking hostages and demanding ransom. As such I began conducting a sweep of the airship looking for anything untoward going on.
It quickly became apparent that the “aura of fun” around our new guests was contagious and not just something that affected only Jacob. Quite a number of the crew were quickly getting caught up in it all and beginning to act silly. So far it didn’t seem to be affecting Katlyn or myself, but there was no clear way to discern how long that was going to last. At least there didn’t seem to be a bunch of pirates looting our stash of obols or taking my crew as slaves. By this point Jacob seemed to have at least partially broke free of whatever was influencing him and began reciting readouts from his tricorder.
(Jacob) We’re being affected by the residue of a whimsy cannon. A rather delicate distillation, but it will leave those directly affected without the ability to be serious about anything for at least a week. The effects of the residue usually pass in ten or fifteen minutes after you are out of contact. An unusual and generally non-lethal combat option, likely useful against nigh-invulnerable sorts.
(Katlyn) So these pirates were shot with a whimsy cannon?
(Jacob) Looks like it, or they used it on themselves. Otherwise they’d probably want to steal something.
I briefly contemplated simply throwing them overboard into the ocean below as a final reward for engaging in piracy, but elected against it since they hadn’t done anything hostile to us yet. As it was, we took precautions to prevent thefts once these pirates came out of their revelry. At that point they would be given a choice of either the easy way or the hard way off the airship.
Eventually the pirates came out of their revelry and elected to take the easy way off the airship. Especially since they were badly outnumbered and outgunned. We were able to find a small island along our route that was suitable to leave them on. It was small enough that there weren’t any villages for them to harass, but not so small that they were likely to starve or be unable to build a small boat to go somewhere else. The leader of the group did make a declaration that they would return one day to steal something to prove that they could.
(Vanatica) And I will vaporize you like the last bunch, just to make a point.
At which point one of the pirates suggested to Katlyn that I needed some of my anger drained off.
(Katlyn) You know, they have a point.
I shot her a look that told how much I did not appreciate the sentiment.
(Katlyn) Oh come now, what if we could drain off the Dark Side from Sith? Or antisocial behavior from the Faded? Hmm, we might need a really big bucket for that stuff. Disposal of it all might also prove to be an issue.
(Kuruko) That is possible based on what I have seen in your movies, but would be a stopgap measure if the underlying behavior didn’t change. Hosing someone down with an opposing emotion to whatever they fell to would be even more temporary.
(Katlyn) Hmm, locations strong in the Dark Side are places where people have been extracting the Dark Side philosophically and then dumping the waste into the environment.
(Vanatica) We have no evidence that knowledge of Philosophy has ever been present in our universe.
(Katlyn) But we’ve also haven’t been able to understand the core mechanics of Sith Alchemy either. Much like we hadn’t really understood the true nature Sith Sorcery until the Anomaly helped us crack that little nut.
Oh, now there was an interesting point. So much of Sith (and for that matter – Jedi) lore was lost to time and only indirectly referenced from ancient holos and the occasional holocron promising power at a terrible price. Just how many Sith Sorcerers and Alchemists had there been at the precipice of the deep well of knowledge we have acquired in the last few months? Even limited mastery of those forces based on very incomplete knowledge could very well have entered into legends and myth. And we, with a much more complete understanding of the underlying principles….
(Katlyn) Perhaps if you are going to be the Sith Sorceress of the family, I shall become the Sith Alchemist!
I wasn’t sure that was wise, but then again, I couldn’t exactly claim I wasn’t experimenting with powerful and potentially dangerous abilities. I highly suspected Mother would hardly be approving of what I was doing either.
Things were relatively quiet until the eleventh day when alerts started sounding about inbound missiles. Reaching the bridge, reports started coming in that the missiles were inbound from some sort of submersible. Evasive maneuvers weren’t really practical in an airship and we lacked any substantial shields or armor due to the very nature of the design. There wasn’t much to do beyond hope that the missile guidance systems were particularly atrocious. Depending on the size of the warheads, one hit may well bring us out of the sky very quickly.
There was a loud thud that rocked the airship and immediately the computer systems went offline. Several members of the crew began stumbling around in a daze while I felt something push at my mind. My training against Force Mind Tricks kicked in and I was able to effectively push back at that. Once that passed, the first thing I noticed was that Jacob’s tricorder was beeping. I also noted that the pilot was no longer at his post and was holding his head while stumbling across the bridge. I moved quickly to take the controls and push for a rapid ascent to hopefully put us out of range of the incoming missiles.
(Jacob) Ugh, Memory read errors, data corruption, missing files…. They are stealing my data and not even in the polite way of just making copies. Watch out, we have data thieves.
(Katlyn) Missiles appear to be a payload loaded with some sort of alchemical concoction. Possibly Green.
(Jacob) A good deal of historical and past scan data is missing. Several books are now filled with randomized text, computer files are missing, several crew members are quite confused, and the cook has lost several favorite recipes. The missiles are definitely loaded with a variation of Green, but are set up to transfer information to the attackers as opposed to simply erase it.
I briefly pondered whether this was an attack by someone with a grudge against us, but decided the profile fit too well with what we knew of the locals and their “eccentricities”. Ergo, this was likely the work of more pirates or whatever they wanted to call themselves. They probably were running on the insanely naive idea that since they weren’t physically hurting anyone, that escalation in retaliation was uncalled for. I, for one, wanted to get our data back as well.
It wasn’t difficult to rig up some explosive depth charges given the materials we had on board. Once we had those set up, it was a simple matter to drop altitude and start dropping the explosives where Jacob’s scans said the submarine was located.
Meanwhile Jacob was fiendishly hammering away at the sensor controls muttering about no one stealing his data. The air around him began to sparkle with an ominous green glow. At a guess, he was doing that informational attack trick of his and was engaged in fierce combat with somebody on board that submarine. At a guess as he started snickering to himself, he was winning the fight.
With sensor (and obol) scans indicating the location of the sub, it wasn’t too difficult to stay ahead of it and keep dropping depth charges in its path to prevent attempts at escape. If they were smart, they’d surface soon to surrender before we damaged their hull enough to cause it to implode. Then any survivors would be sent off as witnesses to the tale of horror that is the doom of those that mess with the airship and the crazy lady in charge.
Soon much of the crew was getting to be extremely confused as to what was going on and we had reports of a lot of green fluid pooling in various locations onboard. On the other hand, Jacob announced he had managed to transfer all the stolen information back and had it stored in his tricorder for safe keeping. Presumably he could restore all the missing memories and data to our crew and systems as well.
(Jacob) I am rotating hull polarization in this frequency to stop future attempts to steal our data. I am open to any suggestions beyond that.
(Katlyn) Force them to surface somehow so we can board them? They don’t seem keen to do the obvious.
(Jacob) Sure.
What came rising to the surface was not what I would have expected in the form of a submarine. Water was pouring out of numerous holes that appeared to be screen doors as opposed to hull breaches caused by our depth charges. The ship itself was less smashed than a ship filled with air would be. Likely the creation of a fully aquatic species then. Definitely didn’t appear to be a species I recognized though. It also appeared that much of the crew had abandoned ship. Oh well, time to board, take prisoners, and then loot anything of value as the spoils of combat.
(Jacob) Why would any of them stay if they are an aquatic species?
(Katlyn) Probably they were covering the escape of the others.
If the captain stayed behind, that was going to be a point in his favor. If he had fled, well, that was going to reflect quite poorly on him if I ever ran into him again. On the whole, we recovered hundreds more flasks of Green, a fair supply of other philosophical essences, and some odd technical gear. Definitely appeared that the undersea species had a better technology base than the surface bunch. We also found that we had a total of five captives: the Captain, Chief Engineer, two gunners, and a random crewman who had been trapped in a compartment. With them firmly in our control, it was a simple matter to take the Captain aside and put him through the process of intimidation and interrogation.
(Vanatica) Alright, let me guesss: the modus operandi is to steal knowledge, technology, and techniques from others using the Green?
(Captain) Actually, we extract information from nowhere and dump the green waste product on other people. We’ll steal data too, but mostly on intent on inflicting our own accumulated ignorance on others. Probably not surprising why no one ever remembers where their supply of Green comes from.
(Jacob) Why dump it on other people rather than store it somewhere?
(Vanatica) Because to them it is a hazardous waste that others sometimes find useful I think.
(Jacob) Then why not sell it instead of dumping it on people?
(Katlyn) Insufficient demand for the stuff compared to how much they are generating?
(Captain) Nobody wants that much of the stuff. And if we try to store it underwater, it tends to leak.
Ah, I had forgotten the issues less developed aquatic species often had with maintaining separation of fluids in their environment. Most I had interacted with (like the Lotados) had access to full galactic technology and thus had the materials, seals, and welding techniques needed to prevent such issues. These locals likely didn’t have a fraction of that knowledge.
I was somewhat tempted to let them back into the ocean at an altitude of twenty kilometers for their trouble. After all, I had seen people spreading ignorance, but nothing quite so literally as this. Still, I found myself hesitating. There was a situation here that could potentially be of value to us if we played our cards intelligently.
(Jacob) Do you think we could sell this much in Tindalos? I would rather have a way to make this work for everyone even if they were being obnoxious about how they were doing it.
(Katlyn) Tindalos is a relatively rare birthright though. Not going to be a lot of demand there I suspect.
(Jacob) Not to people with the birthright, to people in the actual dimension. The creatures there are a cognito-hazard. And while the birthright is rare, it does tend to affect others as well. The “recreate yourself” level dose can change Birthrights though. The creatures of Tindalos that get summoned tend to be at least half-informational, if only due to the entropy level there.
(Katlyn) Well, I suppose we could set up a market in Avrinthos with a decent shipping method, although the issues with the enemy fleet and army would make that an issue.
(Jacob) And Vespene Gas is an informational manipulation at a basic level. Wait, there is a connection with it to the source of the blueprints, which is the Gamesters.
(Katlyn) Wonder how big a dose would be needed to rewrite a false god or even a pantheon?
(Jacob) Zin’s world may have uses as well.
Already my mind was racing through the implications of this development. With a bit of targeting trickery, we might be able to dump a load of Green onto a batch of Vespene Gas and deal a heavy blow to the Gamesters without firing a shot against their fleets and armies of slaves. With sufficient amounts of Green, we might even be able to force a rewrite or ascension. And this did open up the avenue of dumping Philosophical waste by exporting it to universes where it was better suited to either repair damage caused by other means, or as a weapon against things that were robust against more conventional attacks. Still that was a level of control we were lacking and the locals definitely seemed to be “unrefined” enough to meet that need fully. We needed a society that worked on this stuff at the level of a science.
Closest match for that was the Federation and Starfleet.
We still hadn’t gotten word regarding the arrival of reinforcements from Starfleet yet, but it had been eleven days since the last check in on that front. A quick radio call back to the castle returned the news that the first preliminary groups had started arriving with more on the way. It looked like either by luck or the design of someone above us that we were rapidly accumulating the weapons we needed against the Gamesters.
One final thought did occur to me.
(Vanatica) Hmm, concentrated ignorance would be a life extension drug back home.
(Jacob) Oh wow, THAT is a huge market. Sure everyone only needs some every few decades and probably very little, but it gets multiplied by such a huge number.
I wasn’t sure that it was the wisest thing to be selling – the trillion year stagnation of the Final Empire was evidence of that – but the potential market for what would otherwise be “waste” was hard to deny. I still felt that having some generational turnover every so often was ideal so long as there was a means of keeping the knowledge and wisdom of the previous generations around to act as a guide. Jedi and Sith did that via holocrons (when they weren’t seeking immortality), and most of the rest of us had to settle for ended up in the history books and holos despite the Jedi and Sith almost always taking center stage in most conflicts.
One thing was for certain, there was likely to be a place for a Sith Alchemist if Katlyn decided to go that route.
Creative Nonsense 