[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Soon enough, the carpenters completed the work and helped raise the harpoon cannons up the side of the envelope and mount them in place, about 10 yards fore and aft of the centrally-placed crows nest. They placed the harpoons and powder in sheltered trunks, on the deck to either side of the cannons, and Beatrice declared herself quite pleased with the results.

For her part, Doc Bascher spent as much time as she could away from the airship, knowing that a long voyage lay ahead. She took a nice room at a local hotel, and made another discovery when she pulled the blackout curtains closed in preparation for sleep.

As soon as the room plunged in to near-total darkness, the little green bird glowed as brightly as a lantern, and began to trill a happy song. Apparently, it liked the darkness very much, and Doc Bascher fell asleep to its cheerful notes.

After another rest, the Paradise departed once again with topped-off tanks, in a direction nearly opposite of the path normally taken by most airship traffic. The lodge members wanted to see how far they could get.

In preparation for this leg of the trip, Claudia had prepared spells back in Nieuw Haarlem that allowed the engines to run more efficiently and, in combination with the full tanks, A.J. hoped that would get them all the way to the destination portal.

The voyage began with clear skies and temperatures a few degrees above the 70 degree, and the Paradise made good time with the last remnants of the Nieuw Haarlem windstream at its tail. That petered out after a couple of days, though, and by then Henrietta’s spell indicated they needed to turn away from it.

A few hours after the departure, Beatrice heard the trapdoor in the hamster ball thump open, and watched with bemusement as a folded cheap lawn chair emerged and clattered to the deck, followed by Doc Bascher. The veterinarian had cut the legs off a pair of her khakis and tucked the tail of a t-shirt through the neck to make a trailer-park bikini.

She popped open the hatch in the hamster ball, ducked through, and set up her lawn-chair on Beatrice’s fancy new fighting deck, flopped down in it, put on her Ray-bans and unfolded a reflector to get some sun. Beatrice shrugged and decided she wasn’t needed, if Doc Bascher planned to spend her time up top, and went down into the envelope to take a nap.

A few hours later, the speaking tube from the above whistled, and the group heard Claudia warning about large creatures winging toward them.

Frank and Beatrice quickly scrambled up the ladder. Once there, they spotted the three large avians and Frank got out his binoculars and Beatrice ran toward one of the harpoon cannons.

Through his powerful binoculars, Frank saw that the approaching reptilian flyers had wingspans in excess of 30 feet, and probably ran 12-15 feet from nose to the barbed spike on the ends of their scaly, whip-like tails.

Fearing something draconic, Frank unslung his rifle, took a knee, and propped it on the railing around the wooden fighting deck. As the beasts approached, Frank took careful aim and, with one shot each, took down all three of them before they got within range of the harpoon cannons.

Beatrice griped a bit at the loss of the carcasses, but Frank gave her complaints short shrift. He said he didn’t know if those things breathed fire or not, and he certainly didn’t like the looks of the huge barbed spiked on their tails, and that meant he didn’t want them to get close.

They moved along with a wall of clouds to their right, which eventually gave way to a vast, empty sky. A few hours after they left the vestiges of the windstream, though, they received a warning of stormy weather from an unusual messenger.

A.J. was at the helm, when a large, brightly colored bird appeared at the window to the bridge, after having somehow made it through the lattice and nets. It pecked at the window and, forward, Grunt’s head whipped around at the sound.

Grunt’s ears perked up as he “whuffed” and sat down, wagging his tail. Encouraged by the foo dog’s actions. A.J. opened the window and the bird, about the size of a large parrot, hopped in and chirped out, “Hello, hello, hello!”

A.J. greeted it, in turn, and the bird said, “hello!” again and cocked its head, looking at something behind the pilot. A.J. turned around, and saw Hops About and Twirls Thrice, the faerie girls, sitting on the weapons rack, swinging their feet and watching the proceedings with great interest.

The bird must have decided they posed no threat and turned its attention back to A.J. The two proceeded to get into a conversation featuring many repetitions and requests for clarification, but the former NASA engineer eventually worked out that a large storm was blowing up from below and this “Kekeko” bird had flown in to warn them.

A.J. left the helm, went outside and looked over the side. Below, he saw greenish and dark gray clouds roiling up, miles below. Alarmed, he went back to the helm, pitched the nose up and firewalled the throttle. He wanted to try to avoid getting drawn into the clouds while running ahead of the vast storm.

A couple of hours later, the storm put A.J.’s decision and his piloting skills to the test as winds from below and aft slammed into the Paradise. The airship rocked and swayed, and up in the envelope Beatrice heard the superstructure started to groan.

A.J. spent the next several hours hanging tough and then, despite the fact that the storm raged on, the exhausted pilot called for Steven to come and relieve him. Steven took the helm and A.J. went down into the cabin and collapsed in the glow of the little green bird.

The gale continued more or less unabated for about 12 hours before it seemed ready to break up. However, the kekeko warned A.J., who had returned to the helm by then, that the storm hadn’t finished with them, yet.

Sure enough, a few hours later, the winds blasted the airship again and raged another four hours or so.

Still, A.J.’s approach had proven wise, and as the storm wound down to gusts and spatters of rain, the weary crew found that the Paradise had survived with minimal damage they could easily repair themselves.

The storm clouds eventually flattened out into a vast gray deck, far above them. As the rain cleared, the crew saw off in the distance, to the starboard, a towering green fountain of life that rose from the depths and disappeared into the clouds, above.

The air took on the sepia tone and the sweet taste that told them they had wandered into a nutrient fall. A.J. thanked the kekeko for the help, and asked it where it had come from.

The magical bird told them it had come from something called the “sky tree,” a tree that took “many sleeps” to fly from root to crown.

Once they’d digested this revelation, the group made further inquiries. After a fair amount of back-and-forth, the group learned this “sky tree” had at least one huge hollow spot that apparently held a portal to the iconic realm of Briah.

Moreover, the kekeko told them something dark had come through that gate, and hunted through the canopy for those who dwelt in it. In exchange for its warning, it asked the Red Rocks Lodge to come and help.

A.J. said that, while they’d like to assist and might do so in the future, they had another responsibility to honor, first. After that (assuming they survived it), A.J. said the group might have the capability to take on something from the realm of demigods.

The kekeko seemed disappointed with the response, but also seemed to understand. It fluttered to a gap in the storm-wracked netting and flew away.

With that, the session ended.

##

Funny Quotes

(Beatrice sees the harpoon cannons for the first time, and gets really excited.)
Beatrice: Can I get ‘em all?! How heavy are they?
Frank: Why am I the voice of reason, right now?

(Beatrice eagerly advocates the use of the harpoon cannons against targets such as the rocs, and Doc Bascher chimes in, noting that the cable would allow them to keep the bodies suspended for leisurely dissection.)
Frank: We don’t reel it in! It reels us out!
Beatrice: I am so in love with Doc Bascher, right now!
Frank (to Doc Bascher): Don’t encourage her!
Beatrice: You should see the look on your face, right now!

Frank: We’re regressing back into insanity. I thought we were past all that.
Beatrice: I’m pretty sure we never left.
Frank: This is why I drink cocaine.
Beatrice: I told you to go get some.

Beatrice: I’m so excited by this!

Claudia: There’s a big bird! There’s a big bird coming!
Frank: Just sing him the alphabet!

{Beatrice draws out the deck plans, which include a sturdy safety railing.)
GM: I hereby lodge my semi-official complaint about your violation of genre norms.

Henrietta: We’re bird-hunters, now?
Doc Bascher: Ka-kaw, motherf*****s!

Beatrice: That was the easiest 900 lbs of fertilizer, ever! Can I get a flaming harpoon? (for the rookery)
A.J.: I’m not carrying it. We’re not flying in there. We’re walking.
Beatrice: I have a wooden leg!

(Doc Bascher is delighted with the green bird.)
Doc Bascher: Can we name it Meryl Cheep? Chick Jagger?
Beatrice: She does not get to name the bird.
Frank: Quacky Chan? Conway Tweety? McCauley Cawkin’? Christopher Squawkin’?
Doc Bascher: Coolest pet, ever!

(The celebration party goes into full swing.)
Beatrice: We’re making sure nobody puts a wreath on A.J.’s head.
A.J.: They take it off my head and put it on Steve’s head. Bye!

(The bird glows bright green, in the hotel room.)
Beatrice: We should name him, “Highliter.”
G.M.: “Chemlite”?
Doc Bascher: I like my names, better.

##