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

"Taking advantage of whatever pleasures this world has to offer for a few days," Lucifer says matter-of-factly. "I suspect what I'm doing and what you're doing aren't all that different, in that blowing off steam kind of way."

Focusing outward, instead of inward for a change, maybe. He waves a waiter over to order a drink.

Left to fill in the gaps based on his choice of words and her own limited impression, Misty arrives at no conclusion she wouldn't delicately describe as unsavory. Her chewing slows as she considers this.

"I don't know that I'd call them similar at all," she replies, primly. "But glad everyone's enjoying themselves."

"Is that a hint of moral superiority I detect?" Lucifer asks with a faint smile. His senses are well-honed to that kind of thing - sort of inevitable, given his family.

"So picking fights with the local wildlife isn't you blowing off steam?"

Moral superiority to Satan feels, to her, like a given, so she lets that sit in favor of the more objectionable accusation.

"The kind of people who work things out by killing wildlife are the kind of people who don't deserve to keep breathing." Matter-of-fact, as she carves a portion of meat into manageable pieces. "They're getting closer to the exits all the time. They're a danger to people out here, and danger to anyone who needs to get into the mines. People use the parts when I drag them out."

Lucifer looks like he's about to quip back, for a moment - and then he glances at her, and around them, and drops his hackles. Shrugs.

"I'm too used to dealing with these inmates," he finally says, relaxing slightly. "If my partner were here, she'd be trying to find the saboteur. Probably succeed, too."

Reading into the gaps here isn't necessary or invited, but done idly. The swell of something oncoming, the release of pressure. Advancing on toward something more comfortable, something wistful.

"What's the difference?" She asks, after cycling through a handful of potential replies. "'Too used to dealing with these inmates'. What would the response have been if I was on the other end?"

"I would've pushed you," Lucifer says frankly. "Tried to dig into your motivations, see what makes you tick."

But it's not his job to pick apart the motives of other wardens. With wardens, it's idle curiosity, and she doesn't owe him any explanations for how she spends her time in port.

An eyebrow raises, but she remains otherwise focused on her meal.

"And how's that work out, on average?"

Lucifer shrugs. "Fine, so far. I'd venture to say I've made actual progress with one or two, even."

Which is more than he can say for some of the other wardens, who seem much more disheartened by the whole process than him.

"What about you? Developing a rapport with anyone yet?"

"Don't think rapport's really the kind of thing I can measure this early in," she replies, one shoulder rising and falling. "Haven't been out and about all that much, not too many organic openings to introduce myself. Don't like it feeling forced, so I'd rather wait it out."

Which is agonizing, in a way, but the alternative would make her feel cold.

"Really? I've always found just saying 'Hi, I'm Lucifer' works fine. As a conversation starter, anyway."

He gets such a wide range of reactions. But, maybe she doesn't.

"But you've been doing this longer than me," he admits after a moment. "I know enough to know that patience is important. How long would you say, on average, it takes for an inmate to graduate?"

PORT: THE SKY-CITY OF BHUJERBA

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