[khorboth]

A travelling group of traders comes through in a dirigible. The traders won't let anybody inside their airship/home. The locals are convinced that it's powered by a super and want to drag him out with pitchforks and machineguns, but the travelers insist they are just using old technology.

Option 1 - There really is a super and he feels really guilty so he's trying to make the world better for the normals.

Option 2 - There's no super. Just old tech.

Option 3 (kinda dark) - It turns out that the old technology is based on whale oil and that's why their keeping it secret.

Option 4 (darker) - There's a super and he's their slave. They make him do the flying thing through some kind of nasty torture.

Option 5 (still darker) - There was a super, but he'd dead. His body is super-buoyant and they are using it for flight. If they miscalculate ballast, they may fly into orbit.

Option 6 (eew) - There was a super, and her dead body IS the dirigible. They've tapped into her nervous system and are controlling the powers through crude electrical zaps.

You said you wanted "some gritty elements." Choose your grit level.