Journey to the North

Matt turns to Mikhos, "Just down those stairs over there," he says, pointing, "But what are you planning to do?"

As the ship keeps falling faster and everything collapses around her, Persephone decides to stop mucking around, "Well... This is a lost cause then..." she says. She then spreads her wings and flies through a gap in the ceiling.

In the bowels of the ship, an explosion occurs, loud enough to awaken Fang from his slumber. "What is this noise!?" he mutters to himself in the draconic tongue. Sensing danger, the wyvern then decides to break out of the ship. He launches a great fireball at the door, opening himself from the outside world. He quickly flies out of the ship.

"Not to worry friend, I will fix this." Mikhos runs toward the stairs and hurries down to the engine room. He is greeted by ferociously hot blasts of steam that would peel skin. "Whoa." He dodges just in time tumbling don the few remaining stairs. He gets to work trying to find the source of the problem. "I might not be able to save the ship, but I can at least slow down the rate of decent." He spots something stuck between a few gears and becomes quite curious, "What have we here." He uses the tools in his coat to scoop up the viscous substance, and to his dismay an eerily familiar slime comes to mind. "Is this BASE_SEVEN...BASE_SEVEN everywhere! Oh...gods forgive me for such a reckless deed in science." He says to himself quietly as he puts the tools back and brings out an orb like device. The ship starts wailing, explosions tear through some of the hull, and as the pressure in the engine room builds fires form around the alchemist. Mikhos removes the vial he kept in his coat pocket and the orb lights up, slowly scanning the vials contents. "Alright this should do the trick." The orb floats, suspended in midair it slowly disassembles the bits of BASE_SEVEN and the gears start turning again. "Excellent the ships engine should be working fine now, but I still need to find away out or the crash might kill me." the alchemist hurries back up the stairs dodging shrapnel and jets of steam as the ship blows itself apart. He heads back with the group on deck and shouts, "We have to find a way off this thing now!"

Matt looks over the railing of the ship and sees a familiar silhouette below, illuminated by the glow of the fire emanating from the ship. He gives the group a sly smile, "Why... We fly away of course!" he chuckles, "Allow me to show you!" He then climbs over the railing and jumps off the side of the ship. As he falls, he calls out in the draconic tongue, "My friend, fly to me!"

Fang hears Matt calling out to him and flies beneath him, catching him as he falls. "We must hurry, my friend," Matt says. Fang flies up next to the ship. "Climb on!" he shouts.

Mouse sarcastically squeaks at him, "You could've killed yourself, you know!" She climbs onto the wyvern's back.

BASE_SEVEN leaps off the ship and attaches itself to fang. The wyvern snarls at BASE_SEVEN as fresh acidic burns appear where it landed BASE_SEVEN is apparently not capable of holding onto anything without dissolving it as well.

As liam and his pets jump onto the wyver's back he scoops up base seven and hold him safely in his arms and chuckles "Matt wouldnt be happy if you burned his friend now would he base seven?"

Finished emptying his stomach over the railing, a more than miffed Jormung began climbing the main mast of the ship, now harrowingly close to smashing on the ground. With no desire to lose any pieces of the ship or himself, Jormung steeled himself, clinging onto the very top of the mast, and looked up to the heavens. With the full strength of his voice, he bellowed:
"Beloved Genovefa, mistress of the winds, take me into your keeping! The life-threads of my war-comrades lie close to the blade, unless you can provide them safe passage."
Jormung felt a vibration reverberate through his veins, and knew that a power was coming over him. No longer feeling danger, he became elated, and began to laugh excitedly.
As he began to chant, a massive swelling of wind billowed up from underneath the ship and thrust it aloft. Recovering from the sudden jerk, Jormung continued his song, and the tidal wave of air pushed the ship back into the air. But even after just a few moments, Jormung felt his muscles tighten and fatigue, and knew that his ability to sustain this power was dwindling. Gravity would catch up to him eventually.
Matt had better thank me for this he thought.

In the distance, hiding in the cloud cover was a massive air ship carrier, the Eden and its captain Zakaer an insectoid pirate had seen what was going on. Her ship was coming close and over loud speakers set up along the side of the ship she shouted to the heroes "Hey there, seems like your ship is in some distress! Would you like some help? Judging by your Wyvern your from the northern city state i've heard so much about!"

Matt gazes upon the monstrous airship carrier. Fang growls softly at the new presence, but Matt pats him gently on the neck to calm him down, "Be silent, my friend," he whispers, before the wyvern begins to roar. "Do you think we can trust her?" Mouse squeaks. "It appears we don't have much of a choice in this matter," Matt says, "It's either this, or we walk into the city... And I hardly think we'll be welcome there." He then thinks to himself, "Besides... She also knows about my homeland." He tells Fang to fly to the airship carrier.

As Jormung sings the song to keep the ship afloat, Persephone flies back to the ship and enters the cockpit again. She begins to pilot the ship towards the airship carrier, trailing Fang. "I hope this damn thing stays afloat long enough..." she mutters to herself.

When Jormung saw the airship carrier his heart began pounding anxiously. Struggling to maintain the divine wind, sweat poured down his cheeks and his eyes turned bloodshot and teary. His face was red, and his muscles strained to squeeze blood through his veins. He was ready and willing to set the ship down wherever he could, and the Insectoid's carrier was as mush a blessing as Genovefa's winds.

G.H.O.5.T was in shock as the aircraft carrier came in to view, the risk he took to board the ship in plain sight in order to sabotage the heroes efforts was all in vain. He had failed his mission and he knew there would be know redemption for him. His only option now is the honorable one, G.H.O.5.T plans to take his life, and in an act of shear will (or outright desperation) G.H.O.5.T prepares to jump off of the large wyvern down to the forests below. As he frees his legs he hops to his feet, and with his arms still bound he tries for a leap. He would not have his death however as an arm reaches out to restrain him.

"Oh no you don't!" Archie wheezed as he struggled to pull G.H.O.5.T back firmly onto the wyvern. Archie cackled at the attempt to jump by the assassin.
"We're not done with you yet, bottom feeder! You still have some information that's valuable to us." Archie knew his miniscule strength could not completely subdue him and G.H.O.5.T. ended up being thrown onto his face near the rest of the group to be fully restrained. As he did so, he said to Matt, "There's nothing we can do but trust them. Either that or we all fall to our deaths."

Archie shouted to the Insectoid Pirate with a tired voice, "Fortune smiles upon us if you'll take our group! Our current situation is not a desirable one!"

She chuckled "Well, come on over! Make sure to land the airship in the center of the deck, we have it prepared for the crash landing! Make it fast before i change my mind, the direction your heading in is full of infected, it's a damn nightmare up there!"

Persephone thinks to herself, "Infected? Damnit captain, what the hell are we getting ourselves into now?" She pilots the ship onto the deck of the airship carrier. The vessel is practically in shambles after what happened to it. Fang trails behind and lands next to the airship.

the airship smashes into the deck and grinds to a halt creating quite a bit of noise as it does. Zyshbek swears violently into the intercom and yells "what was that?!"

Zakaer laughed and shouted into the intercom "Calm yourself Zyshbek, its fine. We picked up some fellow sailors in distress! Calm on up and introduce yourself already. Of course thats if you can separate yourself from your precious engine." She walked over the wreck and the heroes "Wow, lucky we found you when we did. How did this happen?"

Matt glances over at G.H.O.5.T and says, "That damned freak there wrecked my ship."

Jormung, his skin ruddy and blood trickling from the corners of his eyes and mouth, stumbled woozily over to G.H.O.S.T., raised a knee to his chest, and knocked the armored man to the deck with a firm kick to the gut.
Then Jormug trembled, and collapsed to the floor, fast asleep.

Matt smiles as Jormung kicks G.H.O.5.T in the gut. "Thank you very much, my friend. Have a good rest," he says.

G.H.O.5.T collapses with a well deserved knee to the gut. He lays on the deck of the ship in silence.

Archie was wobbling around on the deck. Flying was tough enough as it is for him, but the collision had turn his stomach upside down. He managed to hobble next to G.H.O.5.T.
"Alright, coward. I think it's time you start making sense. I know virtually every assassin group there is, but this Eye of the Order is a new one. What do they want with our deaths?"

G.H.O.5.T turns his head ever so slightly and stares at Archie. "I have nothing to say to you... my mission has failed, they will be seeking my head and no doubt sending another to finish you in my place." He slowly rises, approaches Archie and speaks up, "I may no longer have a place in the Order, but my allegiance is still bound to them."

Liam smiles and walks up sitting down next to  GHOST "Now, my friend, you can sit there and bull shit at us all day long. I know, you know, and we all know...you are an assassin. An punk with no real allegiance to anything but his own wallet and his own skin. So you can make a choice, tell us what you know or i will simply feed you to my Wyrms, they're hungry." He was talking very civilly, never letting himself sound angry or cold to him, he was simply stating the facts.

She rolls her eyes "He isnt going to say a damned thing yet, ill put him in the brig and give him a few days of stagnant water and maggoty bread to think it over." She motioned for a few crew members to bring him down and then she said "Im going to Silvergold for few days to refuel and restock. You should come with us, you guys looked to be heading north through the infection... we could help for a price"

Liam nodded "Of course, we will come with you and i will pay you quite well for your help if you come with us."

Matt chuckles, "I'm a pirate who knows how to get things," he says, "Whatever you might need, I'll get it." He then glares at G.H.O.5.T, "And you better say something pretty damn soon you little-"

Persephone quickly flies out of the cockpit and tackles Matt to the ground, "What is this I hear about an infection!? Are you trying to get me killed?" she whispers at him.

"... Oh yes... I forgot you weren't at the meeting, Persephone. I suppose I'll explain later. We have more pressing matters to attend to as of this moment," he says, almost sarcastically.

"Hmph," she says. She quickly gets up, allowing Matt to stand up.

The prosperous mining town of Silvergold loomed just ahead in the distance. Mountains framed this picturesque human city from the north. Continuing on just over the mountain range would put one near Drakin land. Archie reflected on the long history of battles between the Drakin and the humans. Silvergold was a key battlefield for many years now. Only a few times has it been tekne over by the Drakin and each time it was reclaimed again. Even as Sivlergold drew closer, Archie recalled his most recent dealings with Sivlergold.
He had arranged for the Drakin to sneak in a ambush the town completely, an offer they could not refuse. Yet even as the attack began, they were counter ambushed. Archie had informed the humans of this attack in exchange for the safety of the Rat People.
He wasn't proud of the event, but he had to put his people at the top of his list. The Rat King was still unsure of how Liam, his closest friend, would react.

They landed shakily just outside the city, jolting Archie back into reality. He was thankful to finally be off of that horrifying airship. The first few steps on the ground were quite relieving.