Greetings,
Ahappi does his best to call questers of your band back together to confront the charging lancer-cavalry, and enough do group together to form a defensive front, but not a shield-wall or other tight formation. The lancers come crashing in and you survive their powerful charge by either leaping aside or parrying their blows. They gallop past, wheeling around and dropping their lances to draw glowing short-spears that you soon learn are enhanced with Truespear miracles of Polaris-maybe more devastating than the lance-charge itself! They trot back in to engage the line in melee; Boamund considers conjuring an Ice-Wall to stop a charge but sees no such charge was coming so he aborts. Ahappi calls for the wounded to be dragged behind the line and so it is done. And then the real fight begins!
Shrett takes a wicked spear-wound to the guts and falls, covering himself with his beetle-shield, but the merciless Sky Cavalry soldier keeps hitting him, next crippling his leg. But Bog, having drawn his maul and crouched behind Fraud until the first foe was defeated there, comes to the rescue and stands over Shrett in defense, saving his life. Fraud and Bog's opponent is wounded in the right arm and takes time to call on Polaris's blessing to heal it, which saves him for the moment. Boamund and Ahappi square off with their opponents, serially disarming them so they have to draw flaming broadswords instead; and eventually Boamund's foe even loses that sword, so he gallops off to recover his lance and charge back into melee late in the combat. Fraud gloriously beheads his foe in a deft sword-stroke. Bog's original foe hadn't been able to reach him so has to run around the line and gets to the rear just in time to confront Fraud. Ahappi kills his foe at last and comes to save Bog, who has fallen with a grievous head-wound from a Truespear. Shrett recovers enough to begin fighting back, too, and he deals a series of blows to the golden horse of their opponent that it finally drops, screaming in pain from mortal foreleg wound, and pins its rider down close to where Shrett can hit him, too. Boamund moves behind a fallen horse as the lancer charges back in toward him and Fraud, so the lancer switches to spear at Fraud but his lance gets knocked into the golden soil, flipping him head over heels out of his saddle. Boamund and Fraud rush him, he fanatically fights back just with his shield, and soon the battle is over. The band of questers is bloodied and the Sky Cavalry has fought to the last man, but more are coming to reinforce them and so Ahappi calls for the wounded to be recovered and for all to retreat; you do.
Bands converge on the gates, different members trying many tricks and heroic feats to reach them. Somewhere else, a great hairy mammoth appears trumpeting, and lancers charge after it. In another direction, a giant wind gust blows at Certami angels, hurtling them back into the distance. In a third place, a hail of balls of lead rains from black clouds that appear in the sky, bloodying the cavalry and forming a field of obstacles that their mounts trip over. The immense Firewood Gates are open and crowds of residents, startled by the approaching commotion, make way as questers rush inside, quickly mingling with the populace. A bright light is visible inside the city, toward the western shore. Riders and fliers of Polaris slow and turn away from the gates, picking off stragglers. Soon you are safely within the port city.
The Great Port of the Gate of Princess Starry Eyes is a large city built of bright yellowish stone flecked with gold, and mostly comprising flat-roofed one-storey buildings. It has several huge courtyards, and wide roads paved with the same stone that all lead west, sloping downwards gently, to the harbour, from which the light of Lorion dominates. The crowds of people here are mostly similar Sky Folk, generally golden or white of clothing and skin, some winged and some not, and most appearing to be types who ply their heavenly trade upon the river, visiting stars along its length. Yet the population within the walls has swelled with great masses of other folk blurred within them, some of whom come into focus if you squint, and their diversity is staggering-surely of all people in the world, so many unfamiliar to you. It is a gathering beyond your comprehension, with more people packed into one great city than you have ever seen. And the flow of people heads for the harbour.
What/Who is Princess Starry Eyes, Ahappi wonders? He remembers stories. The Great Port lies at the juncture of the Sky River and the Styx. If one jumped into the river and sank or swam far enough down, one would reach the Underworld's Black Ocean. In the ancient days, Princess Starry Eyes lived on a small island. She was clever enough to settle an argument between two oceanic serpents, directing one into the Sky World and the other to hold up the Sky Dome. These two serpents were Lorion, the Celestial or Sky River, and Sramak or Sramake, the Outer or Primal Ocean and hermaphroditic mother-father of rivers. Every year the three of them met at her island and sacrificed together to honour this agreement. Princess Starry Eyes is so famous for her peacemaking skills that many other deities have come here to find comfort and relaxation, or seeking her aid to settle controversies. Since the Dawn, she and her people have been quietly focussing on trade across the Sky. Sramak is notable as a being that hates Seshnela, having sent the Luathans to aid in the Shattering of the Godlearners. You start to look for Princess Starry Eyes's temple, but run into Mularik and his band, and he tells you there is no time to linger; that everyone needs to go to the harbour, so you do, as he says that there will be time for recovering from wounds aboard the Sky Ship. Seeing Bog's crippled state, his Zzaburi healer recovers Bog to the point of stirring again by the time you get to the Sky Pier.
You reach the Old Harbour with daylight remaining. It is a great bay opening to the west into Lorion, which looks more like an ocean than river, it is so enormous. Around the bay on three sides are innumerable buildings. Looming above them to the west are two huge towers of red stone that rise spectacularly into the sky near the opening to the river. There are brightly coloured sailing and rowing ships docked or anchored along the bay, all of unfamiliar styles but most hinting at Sky affinity.
The entire, pulsing crowd surges onto the harbour's Sky Pier, having condensed into one unit. You feel their presence in more than physical ways; there is a singular Oneness. Facing the dark waters of the bay, the assembled throng begins to sing as one. The energy of the song manifests as a series of ropes of golden energy extending into the black waters, stretching and pulling at the bay's centre.
[You all opt to give 2 MP here-adding Passion of “Song of the Sky Ship” at POWx5%– can use to augment Sing rolls for 1 MP in future]
Eventually, as the crowd swells and the song with it, the water stirs as if boiling. Something like the back of a gigantic creature breaks the surface and the crowd's song rises in awe and shock. Water cascades off it, creating waves that rock the ships in the bay and crash onto the shore, washing through the crowd and sending spray across the city. Some people get dragged away into the dark depths, but the singing continues, tugging at the magical ropes holding onto the obscured hulking form.
Some of you opt to dodge the surging waves; others embrace them and feel the mix of the cold waters of the Styx and the warmth of Lorion. None of you are swept out to terrible deaths in the bay.
The broad back rolls over and sinks, revealing a titanic keel upon it before it does, and now all know that this is no sea monster but the ship itself. The power of the ritual strengthens and the sky outside the walls becomes indistinct. The myriad of voices amplifies, and the great bulk rises again from the waters, looking at first like a town but the water falls of it, revealing its ancient naval superstructure. Rising, it groans and writhes, masts shrieking and breaking, turning over and sinking again to the dismay of the crowd, some of whom cease their song to call out in fear. You keep singing bravely; none of you shaken by the event.
Calls arise from the crowd, “Sing!! Join with us or all is lost again!” in many tongues. You suddenly see Mularik and his band near you, and they sing too, gesturing in encouragement. It is a tremendous worship ceremony directed at the ship-god. Some of you sing well, and feel the Song of the Sky Ship swell within you.
Those of you that sing well have words and notes flow into your song that you never knew and now will never forget. The ship rises once more, higher in the water, masts reforming, slowly settling, wallowing and rocking. It stabilizes as smaller ships hurry to help it, casting golden lines. The golden ropes of worship pull the ship toward the docks. It moves swiftly and sleekly now. Mularik shouts out in jubilation, “Ready… now! Go! The Boat Planet has returned to the Sky! Board Waertag the Reaver's War Boat any way you can!” And people rush forwards as similar calls go throughout the crowd. Some of you leap into boats that are rowed toward the ship; others stay in or move into the waters and swim for the ship, and soon you are among the first wave to begin to board.
You realize in wonder that, for the first time since the Closing, the Boat Planet would now be visible across the entire sky of Glorantha, and you may also wonder what that means. Is the Closing ended? Ahappi, in particular, ponders what the massive ramifications might be. Some might not be good!
The ship touches the huge Sky Pier's dock lightly, even delicately, and the mob surges, boarding. Ropes and gangplanks descend, giving access to those not already boarding, and others fly or take heroic leaps aboard. As you board, vague forms of crewmembers shake a cloth over your head, humming a tune, and the forms of all crew on deck become clearer. You are gathered together with other familiar people including Mularik's main band. Officers in ancient Western-style naval outfits, many of them with Waertagi features, speak out: “Sit and become a puller of the oars, or stand beside the pullers and become a singer of the watch; you choose. One and all must aid the Boat Planet's rise from this bay onwards.”
Bog and Shrett sit down to become Pullers; the others stand by them as Singers. And you feel wonderful benefits from these quest-roles infuse you.
At the stern, where all of you can see, stands the Deck Officer: a stern but somewhat fair giantess the height of three men, wearing the glittering silver shirt and trousers of a sailor, her bright green hair tied behind her head, her frame stocky and strong. She carries a big gnarled club and an aluminium knife strapped to her legs, and paces the deck restlessly, bellowing orders, checking ropes, encouraging rowers and watchers. Her voice thunders across the decks now, “We have risen anew. Lords and ladies of the universe, and other beings, we stand upon the deck of a new world. For success, we must unite. The voyage depends on our unity. Thus together, we may change the world. Crew, grasp the ropes, set the sails; heave the oars, pull to the beat, sing to the rhythm!” And a drumbeat starts as the crew bustles about and the ship, fully loaded now, casts off from the pier's dock. Shouts of joy turn into one new song, rising and falling as one wave. Most of you feel some energy return from participating; Ahappi gains a one-use (no-action-cost) Voice magic from his song.
The Great Ship trembles a moment as oars seize the water, then slowly but gracefully inches forwards, turning toward the two towers flanking the bay's exit. With each drumbeat, each crescendo of song, each united stroke of the oars, it pulls out farther. Along the encircling crescent of shore, the faceless crowd remaining at the harbour cheers madly, tossing gold wheel coins into the water in sacrificial celebration. A flock of birds and winged beings circles; when they flap their wings, wind fills the several gargantuan sails. The Ship of the Sky moves out, past the mouth of the harbour and into the current beyond, where its water gleams as blue scales, and its waves are as infinite fins, and in the distance the form of the celestial river Lorion is seen to be a slowly undulating serpent; not a typical river confined within banks, but its sides ever-changing, shifting the banks within certain confines. Somewhere in the distance must be its enormous head, but the ship does not sail that way. There must be a distant bank on the Celestial River, which would be the Desert region of the Sky, but you do not see it; the river is as an ocean.
Fraud and Bog choose to look away from something odd as you depart. The others See it. There was a shadow (not of darkness, but a silhouette of Light) at the Western Gates. An outline of a colossal man, whose feet were by the two red towers and whose head stretched to the arch of the sky. It was just a glimpse, but it took your breath away and at first you do not understand it. Moments later, realization strikes you: you have seen the Young God aspect of Yelm, who is welcoming the return of the Boat Planet as a Just event, righting past wrongs; he must be a reflection of the Youth constellation nearby. Boamund is so moved by this, sensing that the Young God himself looked down with warmth into Boamund's eyes, that he is inspired with new connection to the Sky/Fire, and gains a single use of Young Yelm's Sunbright miracle (cast using Sorcery skills but as if it was Theist magic; i.e. cannot Shape).
Calm descends across the deck; everyone gets quickly into the working rhythm of life aboard the Sky Ship. Regularly, an officer comes along and orders certain groups of pullers of the oars and singers of the watch to take a break, and those groups disperse to wander the ship. Your turn for a break soon comes. Mularik notes, “The journey's true challenges begin. We must survive on this ship, not leaving it, until we reach a destination. Here, too, we questers act with respect. We are but guests. Risk neither the ire of Commander Gold, nor the Captain Himself. Enjoy your break.” You ask if he might heal your wounds; Shrett notes his “minor” injuries and Mularik dourly says that if they're minor, he'll survive, and he turns away with his band as you decide to try Fraud's Healing skill, which does get Shrett's abdomen back to better health. You treat some other minor wounds with First Aid or Heal and then explore the ship.
The ship's scale is beyond reckoning [MAP IN DROPBOX]. Its shape, too, is incomprehensible, as it is not constant. Without the crew noticing as they work, the ship's shape shifts, the power of the Movement Rune flowing through it. Like the sea goddess Triolina, its structure is amorphous; sometimes you look at it there are three masts, or one, or none; it may have one rudder or two or be a wheel; many banks of oars or none; and a ram that might be a skull, a shark or a spear. Towers may appear anywhere on the deck at times.
There are a few constant features, though: the main decks where the oars may be (or where rowers work the ropes instead if the oars vanish), the stern where the huge steering oar is, the mast(s) if any, an isolated golden doorway at midship guarded by five burly warrior-sailors, and a staircase near the bow which leads into the dark volume of the hold, and is surmounted by a great figurehead like a dragon's jaws. The wood of the ship is a fine brown hue, with golden struts reinforcing and decorating it.
You can See the rowers and watchers if you try. They are all very different people from around the world. Few languages are familiar to you, but some speak Western dialects or Seaspeech. There are people of dark skin like Pithdarans you know, but also blue- and orange-skinned folk that are alien to you, in clothing beyond imagination, and then there are the non-humans. One band is of scaled things with rabbit-like heads. Another has bee-heads. Yet another are luminous beings, not even humanoid but seeming made of living, scintillating quicksilver with three mutable faces. And there are ducks and keets and newtlings aplenty, and even a band of dwarves plodding about singlemindedly fixing or maintaining things. Everywhere you go, the people are different. No one pays you any heed. The ship's crew are several dozen in number, busy at their tasks and very proficient at them. The officers are more individual and focussed on specific tasks-in addition to the deck officer there is the sounder or bowline woman at the bow; a great pig-headed Lady Pig that sometimes is seen entering or leaving the Hold; a green-skinned man in green clothes, that others call the Exalted Guest, who wanders the ship watching; and a steersman always at the stern.
Shrett sits back down at the oars and attunes with the Movement Rune, feeling its flow but not a receptivity to giving it magical energy here. The rest of you go to the bow of the ship. There, you see the officer called the Sounder: a humanlike female, 3m tall, with very big blank eyes and an extremely thin build, golden skin like glossy metal that shines from within, and ageless and delicate but dextrous and deft in her actions. A length of golden cord hangs over her shoulder; one end sporting a heart-shaped lead plumb bob dangles from her right hand but the other end of the rope merges with her body somehow. When the Deck Officer tells her to, she skips to the tip of the bow and tosses her twirling plumb out, where it splashes and sinks quickly as she plays out the rope expertly then shouts the depth out, instantly knowing when the plumb has hit the belly of the River. She carries about her business as you look at the grand draconic jaws opening from the deck into a staircase descending to the Hold.
Fraud and Bog go down there and midway meet Lady Pig: a SIZ 25 pig-headed woman wearing a large peasant dress. You ask if Bog might go rest down there and she grunts in affirmation, offering to lead you but cautioning to Bog that her babies and the animals there are not to be eaten. Fraud bows to her and she curtsies back, shyly trying to hide her row of teats and squinting with her little piggy eyes. She shows you through the many decks and stairs of the Hold, past vast cages and paddocks of fabulous beasts of all kinds; some you know, some that seem familiar from myth, some extinct, and many you have never imagined. The smells, sounds and sights overwhelm you. Soon you're in the depths, where it is dark and cold near the stern, and “dark men” (Uz) are there in a group at the Sky Ship's bottom, closest to the Styx, where they are comfortable. They say that they await a sign; they are not sure what it will be but they will know when it comes; for now they sing to aid the Ship. The Uzko, great trolls and Enlo questers there welcome Bog into their group and he rests with them; Fraud returns to the others on the main deck and soon they find a place to rest for the night.
Ahappi seeks the Exalted Guest (whom he learns is Waertag the Builder): he seems to do nothing but watch events on the deck, and is bedecked with Water and Law runes; a great Waertagi indeed. He just concentrates. With some distraction, he engages in brief conversation with Ahappi, “The ship is of my design, and invited I was to regard our journey. Tis fine indeed for us to sail again.” He listens to Ahappi explain how he's the greatest hero of the sea and grimly smiles that he's heard that many times before. Asked what Ahappi can do, he says that “they come soon”, that enemies will try to stop the War Boat; that as a Singer of the Watch he is to defend the Pullers of the Oars so they are not stopped from rowing. Ahappi says he is eager for this to come; the Exalted Guest replies that he is eager to see the journey's end. Ahappi feels energized that he has met his original distant ancestor and gotten his brief attention as Waertag turns away to return to his wandering and watching.
The night (of the eternal daytime of the Sky realm) unfolds and you rest. What will the quest's journey bring, now that the real challenges lie ahead on the currents of the Celestial River Lorion?
You learn some things about where the War Boat is going, from Mularik and others' conversations around you while you rest. It shall repeat its original path, down the Celestial River southwards [see modified map of the Sky in Dropbox; your expected trip) and then down from Lorion to Sramak, thence into the Underworld/Styx, from which it was recalled by the Song at Starry Eyes Port. It must repeat that Underworld journey across the Black Ocean and then return to the Sky at the Gates of Dawn again, in the east; in total an eight day trip from Sky to Hell and back. Mularik said something cryptic about “a destination”. Perhaps that destination will vary.
You've repeated some of the myth of Waertag the Reaver that Mularik recited back in Caelaca's temple-up to “The General of Heaven sent his golden horde and Waertag met them in martial combat, besting them with skill and strategy and speed.” Or so it seems…
Languages still matter on the ship. The crew/officers all speak Seshnegi/Western dialects and Seaspeech (Lady Pig haltingly). The Deck Officer giantess's voice rings out in an exotic language that makes sense to everyone on board. Few others might be able to talk to you.
John
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