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Session 5

Blimp My Ride

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Back at Garlant's castle on Phatax Alpha, the party stewed over their betrayal of their own dimension. After a few moments of somber reflection, it was decided the party should build a blimp. Garlant introduced the party to Chento, his head castle mage. Chento, though very adept as a spellcaster, was also a proficient architect, and would be able to help the group come up with a plan to "blimp their ride."

The final design of the blimp was crafted over the next few hours onto a blueprint. The canvas balloon portion of the blimp would be made to look like a shark, complete with fins. The ground of the blimp's bottom section would be tempered glass, reinforced with magic. From there, a hatch would be easily accessible. The blimp would ultimately not be lifted by helium or hydrogen inside the balloon, but with magic alone. With this method, one could utilize the balloon portion of the blimp to contain more room to be utilized.

The zeppelin would require two methods of power. A stationary-bicycle would keep the fins of the shark moving, propelling the ship through the air. Powering all the utilities and magics would be something comparable to a trash compactor. Chento explained that as long as something- anything- is put in that compactor once a day, the engines would stay on. He warned the group not to put too much into the engine at once, as that could have disastrous effects. Unfortunately the man did not elaborate.

With the tempered glass and the hatch was to be a slot in the wall for attacking. Of course, sometimes non-magical methods couldn't do the trick, so the party opted to put spell dispenser by another hatch, this one in the center of the shark's "mouth." Into this dispenser Chento put spells such as fireball, and lightning bolt.

Worrying for the structural integrity of the beast, the party thought it best to have a protective spell cast onto it. Chento agreed to put a hex that would negate any damage dealt to it- to a point. With that last detail, the blimp's blueprint was complete. Now they had to think about how to furnish their grand creation.

Chento introduced them to a man named Mike. Mike Ea. Mike was the furniturologist on staff at the castle, and he was prepared to get the party whatever decorations they wanted for their blimp. Among other things, the party agreed to put an oven and full kitchen set inside. They didn't want a house, they wanted a home.

Lastly, Rolen was interested in the complex arts of alchemy, and wanted to purchase for himself an alchemy set. Mike Ea introduced the group to a frazzled-looking woman by the name of Grodea. At their approach she raised her arms into the air and said in a shrill voice, "whattya need?!" The group was unable to tell if she was annoyed by their presence, or enthusiastic to help them in any way she could. After some intense deliberation, Rolen bought some chemical components, as well as a pot that, when activated, could speed up the time passed within.

With the plans for the blimp finally completed, the only thing to do now was to wait. Chento assured the group that the blimp would be complete in only a few days time.

The few days passed and by Chento's grace, the blimp was complete. It look even better than their paltry blueprints could ever have depicted. The party was ready to soar, they just needed some objective.

Luckily, Garlant had a few. With eager showmanship, he described each possible mission for the group to take. At the mention of the name Nos Falardu, Roberto's ears perked up. In D'lema, where Nos Falardu oversaw, they were having a problem with were-creatures. Without much hesitation, the group chose this thread to follow. With a goodbye hug and kiss from Garlant, the newly made blimp lifted off the ground and north to D'lema.

They stealthily parked the blimp a mile out of town and casually strolled the rest of the way. There, they discovered D'lema to be quite the gothic little city. People who looked guilty for simply existing walked quietly from one location to another, keeping their heads down. Near the center of town was a building that looked somewhat like a combination between a mansion and a church. This they assumed to be Nos Falardu's home.

After knocking on the door, the party was answered by a butler-looking man, genial and upright. They were told to wait in the sitting room for Nos to see them. After a few minutes a tall gaunt man walked down the stairs, with what seemed like an eternal frown plastered onto his face.

Thoradin laughed at the man's almost stereotypical appearance, "you look like a fuckin' vampire," he said in his characteristic slur.

"W-w-well," Nos stammered, "fuck you!"

Despite this rocky start to the conversation, Nos was still willing to allow the group to help him. As Garlant had already described, the town had been having a bad time with were-creatures lately. Nos stressed that his town is strongly against were-creatures. He wanted the group to go out and look for more information.

Looking at the available bars of the city, the party noticed a pattern. They were mostly named after religious figures. Salador's Light, the Hope of Salador. One exception to this rule was a pub called the Pig's Hollow. What a pig's hollow was, the group didn't know.

At the Pig's Hollow the party met with a man named Gordon Feller, who was happy to tell the group what he knew. About two months ago, his brother, Robert Feller disappeared. Soon more people began to disappear. These people who disappeared later came back as some variety of were-creature not long after. There was something strange about these creatures, however. When they bit someone, that person didn't themselves transform. No one had any idea how the were-creatures were spreading.

The party thanked Gordon with a shake of the hand and a flip of the coin, and left the bar. They decided to stake out the city during the night, looking for an appearance of a lycanthrope. Before too long they heard a moaning, accompanied by the scuffling noises of feet- no, hooves. The party turned the corner to find a were-boar, his hands in front of him as he shambled.

"Help me!" The boar shouted, as if in pain. "Heeelp meeee."

The group tried to ask questions, but it didn't seem the beast could hear or understand them. There was nothing left to do but kill it, thought they.

Without too much hassle, the boar was killed. As it fell to the ground, it started to fade and shift back to its human form. When it was done changing, the group could see a little boy, dead. It was then they noticed a glass canister embedded in the boy's arm, labelled "RF."

The group thought and thought and thought. Suddenly, it occurred to them. Wasn't Gordon Feller's brother, Robert Feller the first person to disappear? Could perhaps he be behind all this? The party went back to the Pig's Hollow to talk to Gordon.

There they learned little more. It was clear Gordon was not in on this whole situation. Gordon was, however, able to tell them a few of the places where Robert often enjoyed to hang out. The location that stuck out to them the most was a warehouse on the north side of town.

This warehouse was clearly deserted, they came to see. What few windows weren't boarded up had smashed glass.

Making their way inside the warehouse, it seemed to be empty. That is, until they turned a corner and saw a hideous monster rocking back and forward muttering to itself. This creature seemed to be some sort of rat and human hybrid.

"Ratman," it said, "I'm Ratman."

"Hello? Ratman?" The group asked.

"Intruders! Ratman gotta report intruders. Report to Robert."

"Where is Robert?" They asked.

"Robert's out getting more victims. He's wearing Ratman's skin. He needs it to be seen in public."

Through clever deception, the party was able to convince Ratman that they were in fact Robert's angels, and he wouldn't have to report them.

The party heard the door of the warehouse open, and they moved to hide in the shadows. Who they presumed to be Robert came in, carrying a huge bag over his shoulder. The bag seemed to be struggling. He swung the bag around and poured it out. Inside was a young woman, who seemed utterly confused. He grabbed an empty cannister from a crate full of them and walked over to some cauldron apparatus. He dunked the cannister into the cauldron, filling it. Robert slammed the cannister into some sort of tagging gun, and put it to her arm. With a shriek, the thing was on her. The level of the fluid inside the cannister began to drop, and her shrieks grew louder.

At this point the group thought it best to reveal themselves. Roberto and Thoradin focused on subduing Robert, while Rolen went to take the canister out of the woman's arm. Rolen successfully pulled the cannister off the woman, her shrieks subsiding.

Soon after Robert was pinned to the ground. Seeing his impending death likely, he thought it appropriate to give his backstory.

"I was sick of all the vampires in this city. It's not just Nos," he added, seeing the surprise on everyone's face, "three quarters of the people in this damn city are vamps. I found a formula for transforming people into mindless beasts. I thought, heck, why not? It's not as if vampires have souls anyway."

The group seemed to share Robert's distaste for vampires. They let him off of the ground, and began to talk logistics with him. It seemed there was a relationship between the strength of the best he can turn one into, and the sanity left after the transformation. Weaker creatures like were-rats were left addled, like Ratman, but still largely aware. Were-boars are slightly stronger, and slightly less conscious as a result. Werewolves are stronger and harder to control, and were-tigers are both the strongest and the most insane.

The party hatched a plan. They would go to Lockseed, take some of the prisoners. They would then return here and turn those prisoners into tigers, and release them onto the population of D'lema.

Luckily, they were able to attain the prisoners and return without much of a hitch.

"Perfect," Robert said, clutching his hands together, "now the real fun begins."