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[ 11374 ]

Across the Sea of Sanguire

[ 2007 ]

 

[ August 2, 2007 ] Stocking Up in Phort Santonio . . .

Of course, this didn’t sit well with Ozone (or any other RK, for that matter.) The Rank-13 healer immediately ordered that all the cargo space on his airship be stocked with food, blankets & other essentials for a quick flight to N'Orleón to offer aid to those affected by the storms. He then began to bless and enchant the supplies, investing them with magical healing properties. He gave the other RKs just a few hours to collect their needs and be aboard for take off.

Something else the RKs heard in the taverns & marketplaces of Phort Santonio was that these hurricanes had created even more buzz about this year's Rainbow Tide festival than the New Mün Equinox. No human had heard of a hurricane entering the Sea of Sanguire in their lifetime, or even that of their grandfathers. According to the elves, such storms were more common in ages past, but none had struck for several centuries. The fact that 2 powerful hurricanes had hit the same town in the past 2 months had piqued the interest of sages & weather watchers from around the world. Many believed an answer to this mystery might be found by performing the right rituals in the right place at the right time, which (of course) meant at the Rainbow Tide on So ‘Gapa ‘Lagos.

As the RoachKings were approaching a tavern in the old harbor quarter of Phort Santonio to celebrate their last few hours in port before the long voyage across the Sea of Sanguire, a young man was tossed out the front door of the establishment and landed on his ear in the muddy dirt in front of them. “And here ...” said the large angry bouncer in the doorway as he crumpled up a large poster and threw it in the mud beside the boy, “…you can have this trash, too!”

“Thanks, asshole! I wasn’t bothering anyone; I was just trying to find fast passage,” he said as he picked himself up & began to brush off the driest clumps of dirt, not bothering with the soaked muddy areas. It was then that the RKs noticed he was wearing a tie-dyed tunic. Even through the mud, the bright colors of his clothes and the poster caught their eye. “Try the Prancin’ Pony, ‘cross town!” The sentence was punctuated by the slam of the tavern’s front door.

The kid started to stagger off, trying to get into an alley and out of sight, but the RoachKings noticed he was wearing all tie-dye and they asked him "what's up." He filled them in on the news glaring off his crumpled, muddy poster [see illustration, at right.] He told them he was a poster-hanger with the Surj street team and he'd missed his boat to the Rainbow Tide Festival. Somehow, he got left behind & now he was looking for a way to get there in a hurry. He said he was pretty sure he'd missed the show by now, though, because it was the following night. He also repeated a rumor he'd heard - that the RoachKings were supposed to make a surprise guest appearance on stage with SURJ at the Shoreline Shell. Of course, as he explained, there were rumors about the RKs showing up every year and it had never actually happened. When the kid realized that he was actually talking to the RoachKings themselves, he nearly had an anxiety attack. They offered him passage and he jumped at the chance.

Within hours, the airship was ready to sail and the RoachKings gathered aboard, settling in for the long flight over the Sea of Sanguire.  A few hours before sunrise, they finally embarked from Phort Santonio.  It seemed as if the past 12 hours had been a blur of activity but as soon as they saw the city receding behind them and they reached cloud-level altitude for long-range sailing, the atmosphere just seemed to invite them to take a deep breath and look ahead – out to sea.

First, they sailed directly west, out into the Sea of Sanguire for a few dozen miles before turning to port on a sou’western tack. Off to starboard was a chain of several small islands that spread out further to the west. Shady & By-Tor nodded knowingly to each other when they saw these small, thickly-forested islands silhouetted by the moonlight gleaming off the surface of the sea. As the RKs sailed away from shore, they realized that they were finally leaving behind the people of the Braish Empire, with their restrictive ideas about magic, their repulsive prejudices about elves, and their “boomsticks.”

To the southeast of the RKs' flight path, between the airship & the coast of Santuk south of Phort Santonio, were the fabled “Bubble Islands”– what were now fairly well-documented stories of whole islands that just popped up overnight, sometimes complete with their own simple tribal societies. These islands just as quickly vanished overnight as well, leaving completely different islands in their wake. This was said to be the reason why no society had ever successfully settled the coastal lands south of Phort Santonio: any settlement that had ever sprouted up had just gotten raided by these overnight tribes over & over again. They never seemed to bother the mostly-underground hobbit villages that dotted the landscape inland from there.

For the next 17 hours, the airship sailed through the soft, lazy clouds over the Sanguire Sea. The prevailing wind averaged about 10-15 miles an hour; Ozone pushed the airship to an average of about 30, with very few breaks for the crew.  To all the RKs, Ozone seemed to be on an inspired mission. His aura had elevated in power recently and now he literally glowed, especially around his wings. His single-minded obsession with healing any & all who had suffered in the hurricanes left him unable to really interact with anyone at any length. The RKs all began to believe Ozone had transcended to another state of being.]

Throughout the trip, Shady continued his ongoing study of some new spell, and he expelled some gnarly black plasma blasts every so often in his apparent efforts to devise some new effect. He was often on the deck, blasting his black bolts over the side, into the clouds & to the sea below.

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The Rainbow Tide Festival . . .

18 March - After nearly an entire day of sailing at 2-3 times the speed of the prevailing wind, Shady seemed to get something right once and his spell generated a lightning bolt of black energy. Just then, something absolutely unplanned occurred: Everyone touching the deck felt & heard a loud THUD on the hull of the ship, and those with a quick eye saw a person’s body thrown violently from the front of the airship, starboard side, at an extremely unusual angle.

Draken flew out into the cloud and quickly caught the person, who turned out to be a strangely dressed unconscious elf - with no apparent means of flight but with a unique 2-bladed weapon. This cloud-bounding stranger remained unconscious until Ozone brought him around. He introduced himself as Maelstrom Cloudsurfer from Chandalier, a sea elf city in the Great South Ocean.

Soon afterward, as the airship neared the southernmost point in the its arc across the sea (several hundred miles out,) those RKs who were going to the Rainbow Tide Festival - including By-Tor, Draken & Shady - departed the ship. Flight was a must for all.

As the RoachKings flew southward, the clouds gathered. The RKs understood that this was due to the fact that they were flying toward the edges of the Sanguire and the Wizards’ influences were not as strong in these outer regions.

They flew over the So ‘Gapa ‘Lagos Islands from the north, spotting all manner of strange creatures on the smaller islands. From one of these islands came a shrill cry that got their attention; they agreed to come back later to investigate for a hunt.

As the RKs flew over Alle ‘Basi Island, they angled around the largest volcano to see that the Shoreline Shell was lit up with concert lights. They heard the final strains of a great instrumental by Surj called “La Villa Strangiato.” As they flew toward the Tide-Dyed amphitheater, the thick storm clouds around them were brewing & rumbling. Shady cast one of his new Black Lightning spells for effect. By the time the RKs were near enough to the Shoreline Shell to really see what was going on, the boys of Surj had strummed their way into an impromtu intro to “Jacob’s Ladder” and the RKs heard Geddy call out to the crowd, “Lady’s & gentlemen, I believe we have some truly special guests with us tonight. If you’ll direct your attention to the skies behind you, please help us welcome to the Shoreline Shell - THE ROACHKINGS ! ! !” Draken created his own guitar of gold, By-Tor settled in at Geddy's keyboard, and Shady picked up Geddy's other bass. That's when even the RoachKings themselves were surprised to see Raal slide almost unseen onto Neil's secondary drum set.

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Raal, having arrived earlier, couldn't have been more grateful for the brown acid. He had been in the audience at the Shell and he had been sure he was seeing an hallucination when Draken, By-Tor & Shady had flown in to take the stage with Surj. So he'd done what any tripper would do: join the jam. He had sneaked out of the audience, into his ninja gear, and onto Neil's secondary drum set without anyone even noticing.

They went into “Natural Science” next, then all 3 parts of “Fear” in order.

After the show, the RKs partied backstage with Surj, Draken chatted with Alex about the new "mannacite" battery in Alex's MPD guitar (that's "Manna Powered Device," of course.) Draken also spoke with a Lord LeBeaux from Gusseaux. He was there to accept a generous gift from the band to help the devastated city of N'Orleón. Draken learned of the seemingly absent efforts of the Gusseaux nobility to help the poor peasants whose homes & lives were destroyed.

Later, By-Tor wandered up onto the hillside of the large volcano nearest the Shoreline Shell. There, he spent hours reading the stars and asking the heavens the question, "Were the hurricanes natural?" The answer he got was "Yes, of course the hurricanes were natural; everything in nature is natural, even the will of the gods."

At the festival, Raal & Draken both saw a group of “Acolytes” of the “Cult of Shadowstorm” who derided the person calling himself "Shadowstorm" out on that stage tonight for being “so ‘just-like-what’s-his-name, with the wildly underplayed mannerisms, etc., etceterah! The real Shadowstorm would never play like that."

19 March - The next morning after the Rainbow Tide Festival, the RKs flew back out to the small island where they had heard that obnoxious cry.  There, they discovered what appeared to be a cross between a red dragon & a donkey. It was being chased by some floating giant worm monsters, which the RKs hacked on for practice. Then it was on to N'Orleón to catch up with the airship.

 

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[ August 3, 2007 ] Into N'Orleón (or, "Pariah dogs & wandering madmen, barking at strangers & speaking in tongues") . . .

[The flight into Orleon was simulated on Google Earth.]

Once in N'Orleón, the RoachKings discovered utter devastation. Entire sections of the city were still under water and only a fraction of the homes & businesses were still standing. Everywhere they looked, people were struggling to survive. No one seemed to know when help would arrive & so they had begun to revert back to “survival of the fittest.” The flooded streets had become a new Bayou and were now ruled by the ol’ Cajons; their younger generations made up the gangs that ruled the few streets not under water.

Most of the nobility had been gone during the storm (they could afford to vacate,) so they had been safe, but they had come home to find no home. They had begun having their homes restored & rebuilt, but the Cajons were revolting. “We won’ fix ah own backyahd fois mah frain, Ah tol’ you one sumting.” Still, the nobility didn’t care about the Cajons’ homes, they wanted their own homes repaired first. “Besides, the Cajons like the swamp."

Upon arrival, Ozone had anchored the airship in the center of what once was a park, and he had begun distributing supplies & offering healing. By late afternoon, the word was spreading quickly to the poor, who had begun to gather at the makeshift hospital established by Ozone. It was in the lines to receive a blanket that the RKs met Blue Billy, a blind blues man down on his luck but full of good info about the local situation.

The RoachKings learned that the nobility of this province, the "Provencount du Gusseaux," had entered into an arrangement with the Fuhren of Bankor, allowing the [Christian Nazi] regime to drill well-holes in the swamps, looking for a peculiar sludge. The sludge-drilling project in the swamps had angered the "Black Mamba," voodoo queen and master of all the creatures of the swamp.

20 March - Early the next morning, the RKs went out into the swamps to investigate and met the Voodoo Kin Mafia, who set up a meeting between the RKs & the Black Mamba. By-Tor noticed that his battle suit (which had been sparking a lot lately) was making the swamp folk very nervous, so he left it behind when they prepped for their trip back into the swamps. At the meeting with the Black Mamba, the RKs learned of the last drilling platform still in operation and they assured the apprehensive voodoo queen that they would help her cause.

[ August 4, 2007 ] Battle in the Swamp . . .

The RoachKings headed deeper into the swamps and eventually came upon the drilling platform, where the nazi stormtroopers of the Divine Reich of Bankor (using "shütgöns") were in heated battle with members of the VKM. The native swamp operatives seemed to be utilizing the help of swamp-things. The drilling crew seemed to be continuing with its work in the midst of the fray.

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When the RKs entered the melee, Raal flew directly up to the derrick (on the tower some 50' above the main platform,) where he stealthily & acrobatically took out a stormtrooper & the derrick man. Draken landed on the nearest roof and handily tossed one stormtrooper far out into the swamp. Shady landed on the far right corner of the platform and took out another stormtrooper while a swamp-thing climbed up onto the platform behind him.

By-Tor flew under the front of the platform then out the left side, curving up & over and landing on the near left corner of the platform. He snapped the neck of one stormtrooper & used him as a shield against a shütgön blast from the front. He then tossed the unfortunate stormtrooper's shredded body up, blocking the blast of another stormtrooper firing at him from the roof above. Draken sent this stormtrooper off the roof, too, and By-Tor charged the 2 other stormtroopers firing at him from the corner, taking a shütgön blast to the chest at nearly point blank range. Having removed his battle suit (because it offended the VKM,) he had only minimal armor, but his "iron skin" invulverability protected him from any significant damage. He was stopped only momentarily by the blow-back blast of the firearm, and then immediately continued his charge, spearing the 2 stormtroopers right through the chain-link fence railing & taking them for the 20'+ drop into the swamp below. He immediately noticed the oily film on his skin from the swamp water.

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Raal was still up on the derrick when the pipes begin to creak & moan. He surmised that they were about to blow & he quickly flew down to the drilling platform below, taking out another stormtrooper in the process. The pipes then blew & the RKs soon realized that the sludge blowing out the top of the tower was taking form as a sludge monster of gigantic size. Draken was flying near the tower at the time & he cast a Web of Entanglement over the monster, with the golden dragon focusing extra cosmic power into the web for strength. Draken soon realized that no web would contain this blob-like creature as it morphed out through the openings in the net, stretching out long tentacles and beginning to swing them in Draken's direction.

 

Having taken out a second stormtrooper on the far side of the platform, Shady flew up toward Draken to help battle the sludge monster, but he flew directly into a lucky swing by one of the monster's flailing tentacles and he became entangled by the supernaturally sticky sludge. The monster used Shady's momentum against him, swinging him up & over and slamming him to the swamp floor. The monster did this once again, apparently jogging Shady's memory as the RoachKing then teleported out of this predicament.

Meanwhile, Raal had tossed a knock-out smoke bomb into the open drillhaus tool room, putting the rest of the drill crew to sleep. Raal was now battling with 2 small sludge monsters that had grown out of the larger blob & had slimed their way down the tower to the drilling platform. By-Tor made his way to the drillhaus and kicked in the door to the machinery room.

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As By-Tor found a way to shut down the drill table, one of the smaller blobs entangled Raal's leg. He flew down through the opening in the center of the drill platform, then out the far side & up onto the roof of the drillhaus. By the time he landed on the roof, the tentacle had been stretched to its limit & Raal assumed his "Immovable Stance" to hold his position. Shady, who had been slimed by one of the smaller blobs now, too, had realized that teleportation was the way to extricate himself (& others) from these sludge monsters. Draken tried to get to Raal, but arrived too late. Raal had attempted to grapple with the blob & his hands were now stuck to the creature's tentacle along with his leg. The futile attempt had thrown off Raal's balance & he lost concentration on his Immovable Stance. In an instant, the sludge tentacle snapped back like a rubber band, taking Raal with it & slamming him into the steel wall of the drillhaus tool room. Shady, who had teleported into the air above & outside the reach of he sludge blobs, dove directly at the small monster when he saw Raal's heel protruding from the tentacle that had just snapped back into the drillhuas wall. Shady flew in, grabbed Raal by the ankle, & teleported him out. Shady then flew up to join Draken & the golden dragon, who had discovered that bolts of cosmic energy did have an effect on the major sludge monster. The Golden Rider blasted the creature into a solid carbon state and Shady's black lightning set it ablaze like a charcoal briquette. Meanwhile, down below, Raal had set the 2 small blobs ablaze with grenados and he used his super strength to crush the drill pipe, cutting off the source of any regeneration to the sludge monster.

Once the immediate threat had been neutralized, the RKs interrogated Günter, the Foreman of the drilling crew, and easily convinced him that the RKs were his saviors. He was quick to take up the cause of rebuilding the platform and getting it back up & running, and for the time being, the RKs allowed him to believe he could & should.

Meanwhile, Shady teleported to Pasadena Island and returned with the "Magic Bus," which they used to seek out the Black Mamba. She was not quite pleased with this "abomination" being in her swamp and she nearly got violent with Shady over it, but Draken's charms soothed her. She was also quite willing to befriend anyone who was associated with "the Healing Angel of N'Orleón," as she called Ozone. And so, the RKs achieved good relations with the Black Mamba, Voodoo Queen of the N'Orleón cypress swamps.  Afterward, Shady returned the Magic Bus to Pasadena Island and teleported back to the swamps.  While there, he instructed Chiles to take PI to the mountains west of Kel Ket.

In the meantime, Ozone solidified his legacy and officially became a demi-god of healing by single-handedly ending the suffering of the poorest victims of the N'Orleón hurricanes.