returnjourneylogs | PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA

PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA

May 4th, 2022 – May 11th, 2022
Welcome, bhadra, to the city-state of Bhujerba! The Peregrine touches down on May 4th, in a proper port — airships are the only way on and off the city, so the Aerodrome is a busy and bustling place. As a sky-city built on a mountainous structure floating ten thousand feet above the ground, it has little in the way of wilderness, but it has a sprawling city with deep mines stretching down beneath it. Look down past the railings when the thick clouds part and you'll see the world below; look up and you'll see great blue crystalline structures, a mark of the deep magicks that keep the city in the sky.

The full OOC write-up for the port is here. If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.

1. Disembarking

It's been months since the ship made port, but whether it's been days or months, it's always exciting to see somewhere new. The Aerodrome is thriving with people, passenger ships and merchant ships and military ships alike making berth in the docks, all contributing to the rivers of people pouring in and out of the building. The sounds of the crowd bounce around the vaulted ceilings, humid tropical air hotter still for the press of bodies everywhere. Navigating the crowds takes a certain confidence, lest you get knocked aside by a burly creature carrying a crate on his back, or separated from your companions by a throng of chattering flight stewardesses.

Of course, not everyone will disembark. Inmates cannot leave the ship without a warden as escort, and wardens are responsible for inmates in port — they don't have to be glued to each others' sides, of course, but it's harder to make trouble under a watchful eye.

2. The Cloudborne Tavern

Thanks to the Navarch, there are rooms booked in the Cloudborne for passengers who do not want to trek back and forth from the Peregrine. Staying above a busy and bustling tavern isn't always the most restful affair, of course, given there isn't really a closing hour, but it certainly makes for a life experience.

The tavern below is full of colourful characters, drawn by the ludicrously cheap pints. It isn't uncommon for people to get soundly drunk, but a watchful Seeq keeps an eye out on the place: get too rowdy or violent and you might find yourself thrown out on your ass.

3. The Lhusu Mines

Though the mines are closed, there's plenty to do in the labyrinthine tunnels winding deep into the mountain.

The Paling — Talk with the locals in the taverns and on the streets and you might notice a frequent topic of conversation: the paling's fall. The paling was a Crystal used to create a magick barrier that kept fiends at bay in the mines, so that the miners could work safely. However, something — or someone — has stripped the paling of its magickal energy, and now the fiends have overrun the abandoned tunnels. Sometimes they even make their way out and attack the locals. It is imperative that some brave hero makes their way deep into the tunnels, finds the paling, and recharges its magick power. But so far no one has been up to the task...

Hunting Marks — A bulletin board in the Cloudborne has posters for bounties, seeking hunters willing to deal with the fiends that spill out of the mines. Many are for looking for materials, such as bat fangs fresh from the jaws of the massive, four-winged bats, or bone fragments from the undead skeletons. Or, for the particularly ambitious: the mighty Nidhogg, a colossal snake with a highly venomous tail spike. A prize awaits the first to return with its skin!

Filthy Pirates! — Not everyone ventures in to mop up trouble for the locals: the mines are a considerable draw to those who are happy to risk the fiends for the chance to loot the goods left behind. Many people have fallen in these attempts, leaving gil, armor, weaponry and other goods strewn through the depths. Be careful, though: not all treasure is as it seems.

4. Shopping!

The marketplace is as busy as the Aerodrome, with massive crowds clustered around covered tents, wooden booths, and humble cloths laid out on the stone floor, all bearing incredible wares. The atmosphere is raucous: people haggling boisterously, children scampering between adults' legs, people hollering for others to move, move, as they shove their way through with carts of purchases or goods for sale.

Food is plentiful: turnips and onions are particularly popular, given the season, and tomatoes fetch a high price. Street food vendors sell stewed cockatrice (chicken-esque!), chunks of moist cactus, flank steaks on sticks, and something aptly called "bacon bread".

And, given the war going on and fiends loose in the world, there is no short supply of weaponry and armor. Swords, pikes, bows, axes, daggers, even a small number of rudimentary firearms, all available to those with ample coin. Armor is popular too, with artisans prepared to make it custom within a day or two — leather is affordable, but the price of metal could feed a laborer for a year.

Beware of pickpockets. Happy shopping!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

As long as you're not alone.

[And no other inmates get any bright ideas. Theo.]

Magical and human-shaped? [Claire glances around to make sure no Moogles are in hearing range--] Have you seen the little... rabbit people?

I have. [And the interest, the absurd joy of it, is palpable for all she tries to mimic Claire's polite hush.] I was a real rabbit once, old breach, but nowhere near as organized.

Incredible, this whole place. And I'm not usually all that impressed by ports unless I'm living in them.

[She says she was a rabbit once like someone might admit their shoe size. Claire blinks as she rewinds her memory, stopping at the right part, and recalling that yes. She did indeed say she was a real rabbit once. And then carried on so easily.

Maybe that will be her some day, too.]

I think I'll only be unimpressed if we end up in a city anything like Boston or London. This place feels familiar, in some regards, but mostly entirely different and new. It's beautiful.

[Boston and London. City-slicker.]

Done London, once, but it was way back when. And I wasn't very focused on it, I guess, that version of me didn't really care about her surroundings.

Funny you wouldn't want to see anything familiar, though. Most people get homesick quick. Bad, there, or-?

[Claire's quick to shake her head.]

No. Home is wonderful. But I won't be here forever. I'd like to see what I can before I'm back in a place without indoor plumbing.

[A somewhat relieved nod; it's nice to not be immediately met with something harrowing. Refreshing, even if she's envious.

But the indoor plumbing remark has her fighting not to pull a face.]

You don't strike me so much as the before-plumbing type, if that makes sense. What year?

[It makes sense. Some don't catch on.]

1772. 1968, before that.

[Misty was a rabbit, and Claire's done some traveling.]

Born in 1918, if that helps clarify anything.

Not at all. [Said rather cheerfully, after she's chewed through a cheekful of bread.]

Are you magic, or is this more of a machine or ship kind of deal?

[Historically, Claire is very bad at explaining this. She is trying, though. And Misty's question makes it a little easier.]

Magic. I suppose, anyway. I can't do magic, mind you, but there's something in my blood that allows me to... travel through time. At certain places in the world.

[She can explain it with a calm, steady voice, but she still looks like she's waiting for Misty to call her insane.]

Like a...species-wide thing? Are you some different kind of human?

[She doesn't seem it, but weirder things have proven true. Intrigue is obvious on her face, but there's little by way of outright suspicion.]

[Between Misty and Loki, she's having to think about herself a lot.

Not her favorite hobby.]

I don't know. I suppose I am different, but I am entirely human, I assure you. It's just... something myself and others can do. My daughter, son-in-law, and grandson are capable of it, too.

Grandkids.

[Her eyes dart to the ceiling. To convey what emotion, Misty herself couldn't say.]

I don't know that I'm buying totally normal human, that's sounding like you've got something funky going on. In the blood, like a...curse, or a superpower. Do you control it?

[Claire just takes it as a reaction to her age. No offense taken. She's getting up there in the years.]

I believe I'm the only grandparent on board. But the... traveling, it's equal parts gift and curse. [She feels you, Spider-man.] When I'm near the stones I can hear them. There's a pull to them, for people like me.

[She once thought it was a buzzing, like bees, but it struck her later that it was more of a screaming. The screams of those who don't manage to make it through.]

I think passing through over and over takes a toll, but I haven't really been eager to test it. It's painful. Like the seams of your skull are being tugged apart.

You look into seeing if you've got some weird blood tie to them? The rocks.

[Because this sounds very much like some freaky curse.]

Way back in the family tree or something, it sounds like your family's got something wild going on.

It's something I've wondered, but my parents passed when I was very young. If they had any time traveling adventures, I was too little to notice.

[Part of that is her joking. She doesn't remember her parents very well, but if they had this ability, it's unlikely they knew.]

Who knows? Maybe I can find an answer in our travels. Probably not here, though.

PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA

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