The port city of Veldross was considered big by the locals. Next to the larger capital city in the middle of the chunk, it was the hub of trade with the sole sky-port located in the middle of the city. A constant cloud of airships zipped around the tall needle, the many ports pinwheeling out of the building to hold each ship arriving or facilitating their departure. Despite the sky-port, the city was made of a mixture of stone and wood, nearly a shanty town with crooked buildings, packed taverns, shady parts alleyways with stray hands on knives and greedy eyes, guardsman in the pocket of the criminal elite, and a mayor played like a puppet. Wooden walls surrounded the town, rich enough to afford walls yet poor enough that the walls were barely all there...<br/><br/><i>The Obsidian Wing</i>sat anchored alongside the sky-port, tied down and rested from her long journey across the Abyss. Crew members buffed out the marks of her travels, laughing at the stories they told of their previous adventures to crew both new and old. The blockade would have been easy to avoid, but their timing had been just a few seconds off. Otherwise, that stray patrol would have missed them, now their ship was on every wanted board in the Eastern Imperial chunks. They'd flown to Veldross for some time off after meeting their employer, the crew's pockets full of new coin as their smuggling got them a hefty sum for each of them.<br/><br/>The more popular taverns sat at the base of the sky-port, allowing the crew to busy themselves without being too far from the port and their ship. Valkyrie, the imposing barbarian First Mate, stayed on board the<i>Wing</i>with her puppy companion Shae, the fluffy bundle held in a pouch attached to Valkyrie's chest, her little feet and tail free to flop about as the ever-busy First Mate performed her duties. The quartermaster, Ari, stood on the sky-port docks arguing quite loudly with a tired man and his cart full of goods, the little halfling standing on a chair to be... relatively level with the man. The air mage, Breeze, meditated behind the wind globe located behind the wheel. The air genasi floated softly behind her station, the woman soaking in the wind blowing softly across the deck.<br/><br/>It was her presence alone that the wind didn't throw the crew about like dolls.<br/><br/>The chief gunner, Gwri, jangled and jingled his way around the deck, waddling from cannon to cannon. The rabbitfolk's hefty suit was stuffed full of powder and brushes, fire chord in every pocket, with rifle shot bulging in every little pouch. He took his job seriously, especially after having been ordered to fire during their escape. The cannons required maintenance, after all, especially in such extreme conditions as smuggling past a naval blockade.<br/><br/>It is an hour or two before noon, the red-gold post-cataclysm sun burning close to the apex of the sky. The sky was the same auburn it has been since time immemorial, tainted by whatever broke the world. Legends say the sky was once blue. Some religions even follow that legend. No one currently alive has ever seen a blue sky. The horizon was broken up by the distant floating chunks of the new world, while below... was darkness. Wards surround the lush chunk, intent on keeping any would-be accident from dropping another soul to the Dead Lands below.<br/><br/>A letter slides underneath the doors of the<i>Wings</i>primary boarding team, messengers delivering a missive to each member of the team for a summons to meet their capable captain...<br/><br/><a class="username" data-user-id="9206" data-username="dae mec" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/9206/">dae mec</a><a class="username" data-user-id="8632" data-username="EldridSmith" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/8632/">EldridSmith</a><a class="username" data-user-id="9202" data-username="Seraph Darkfire" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/9202/">Seraph Darkfire</a><a class="username" data-user-id="9242" data-username="Simply Existing" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/9242/">Simply Existing</a>