Re: Piracy on the Seven Skies (Sky Pirates IC Thread)

[Goldstone14]

"A noble woman become a pirate? Pft! I'd be as likely to spontaneously turn into a freakin' penguin griffon."

She smirks, then looks at Apollo before shutting her mouth and looking like she had said something vaguely dumb to herself.

"Anyway, we should turn her over. Not a single pony is going to believe that some noble turned pirate."

[jaguargamma]

"Don't be too quick to criticize. You might enjoy being a penguin griffon! I know I did! I think I've got that spell marked in one of my spellbooks..."

[Paper Shadow]

Mori rolls his eyes at Frisky's request. Another softie, it seems. "She'll just weigh any crew she's on down," he comments, "What captain would want her enough to pay as much as her family or the Sun Sky would?"

[AleneShazam]

"Wait," Trigger interjects with a glint in her eye. "Technically, we nabbed her. Do we get a cut of the ransom? Or pay?"

[jaguargamma]

Frisky rolls her eyes and smacks her forehead with her hoof.

"She comes from a noble family that deals in antiques and relics," she simmers. "They're one of the lesser families that aren't doing so hot, so it's unlikely that they'll be able to pay any sort of ransom. But her background would make her useful for hunting priceless relics worth more on the black market than what the Suns would pay to buy her. It's just a matter of convincing her to join a crew and harden up to pirate life."

[Goldstone14]

"Your missing the point Frisky. This is Golden Sky territory, and nothing is of higher value then your hard earned bits. That woman? She's money. And I be counting your luck your part of the Skys to, since if you weren't, they'd probably be stripping you of your valuables and ransoming you off to the higher bidder too, what with your particular attributes. This is what it means to be a member of the Skys, you respect the code. Be grateful we have safe harbour here, and don't risk it on some romantic dream of pirates and swashbucklers. Cause your in the wrong line of work for that."

Horizon sighs, closing her eyes and looking at Hep.

"Ignore her, she's clearly new and... unused to our line of work. Im with Trigger, how much would we get out of it, since it is technically our haul? We don't need to lug a noble around."

[Senshuken]

While Apollo mean have looked somewhat... uncomfortable with the conversation that they all were having, he appeared conflicted about it as well. He really couldn't afford to mess out on the payday, but to sell a mare to be tortured for it? It also didn't help that he wasn't apart of the skys, but he wasn't going to mention that aloud.

"Well... she is kind of a minor player at best on the noble scene these days and I don't think her husband did the kind of things that would have the Sun's target him or his family out of spit... Her family might also have some relics and artifacts worth accepting as barter as well..." As uncertain as he sounded, it very much seemed like Apollo was more trying to convince himself that Purse wasn't going to suffer a terrible fate more then anyone else.

With his moral code bent enough to accept the current reality, his expression grew more serious as he answered "While I'm happy for our generous rescuers to have a share of whatever payment we get for her, I feel like it would only be fair and reasonable that whatever rewards come from her are divided up depending on the amount of effort that went in to securing her and getting her here. After all, if we had left her behind she would have been worth little more to anyone then as a Black Sky chew toy."

[Faege]

After listening to everyone's arguments and comments, Vulcan slowly speaks up, his voice extra gravelly from lack of alcohol.

"I get where Risk is coming from, but it's too dependent on uncertain variables to be a good investment," He says slowly, rubbing his claws together absentmindedly to generate little licks of fire.

"The actual costs of keeping a captive alive and loyal - not to mention training - is surprisngly high, and there's no guarantee that she'll meet your expectations. From what I can see, she seems like nothing more than a trophy wife, not much competence in that powdered mane of hers."

He glares over at Hephaestus. "Not to mention it's entirely possible for my bit-grubbing brother to simply sell her off without having to consult us. Technically, since she's in his brig, she's his property. Of course, I'd hope that he'll give us a fair share, after all, I'd hate to have to rip a limb off of him..."

Intimidate:

"We could buy her back, but again, it doesn't seem worth it."

[Espresso]

"Okay, hey now, no need to get aggressive here," Hephaestus raises his claws up in defense. "You lot survived the Black Sky, that's a feat worth rewarding in itself. If we manage to finagle a good price out of her, I'll make sure you all get a fair share."

He turns to Frisky. "As Vulcan said, unfortunately while I can understand your idea, it's just too risky to be worth the investment. She's a captive of war - if you try and recruit her she's more than likely to just bolt at the first opening, and you can't keep an eye on her forever. That's just not how we deal with captives. The safest way to get a good amount of extra cash from captives is to ransom, and failing that, selling them to one of the more warlike Skies for a nice premium in addition to raided goods."

As he says that, the ship draws close to El Dorado. Up close, it's much easier to appreciate just how massive it is. It really is just a floating city, a massive island of steel, brass, and clouds tied together with powerful pegasus magic engines. The city seems to have a few layers, each rising higher than the last - the outer most ring appears to be docking for ships, with the next few rings showing busy streets, while the inner most ring seems to be fairly quiet.

The Forge Star, Hephaestus' ship, slowly draws up to one of the many docking strips, parking next to one of the long metal catwalks extending out of the city. Heavy chains are brought out to moor the ship to the pier. A plank is lowered to bridge the ship and the pier.

Before anyone can get off of the ship, however, a sharply dressed pegasus mare comes on board with a clipboard, and approaches the group. She nods politely to Hephaestus, before turning to look at the party. "Before you can enter El Dorado, we need to take down some of your details for record purposes. Please tell me your name, affiliated Sky, if applicable."

[Goldstone14]

"Grey Horizon, Hidden Sky. And I swear on the code not to steal a bit of coin I didn't earn, so don't go assuming I'm gonna rob anypony."

With a small smirk, she pulled a coin from her bag, tossing one to the pegasus.

"And here, have a bit, for your trouble, eh? Can't imagine checking every pirate ship coming into port is a very... peaceful job."

[Senshuken]

"Apollo, freelance." Apollo was quick to answer, deciding not to lie and claim a connection to any of the skies in the event that doing such a thing would get him on someone's wrong side.

[AleneShazam]

"Hair Trigger Fire," Trigger says. "I'm with the Brass Sky."

She indicates to her gun-legs proudly as proof.

[jaguargamma]

Frisky glares at Horizon, but accepts Heph's answer. She still doesn't like it, but she's not in a position to really do anything about it.

"Frisky Risk," she says to the unicorn. "Undecided."

[Faege]

"Vulcan. Brimstone Sky." Vulcan says, without hesitation.

[Espresso]

"Please keep in mind that unaffiliated pirates are not afforded the same degree of protection as those with Sky insurance, though the Enforcers will try to make sure everything stays in order."

The mare nods at each members answer, but she stops at Vulcan's response. "Unfortunately, sir, whilst I respect your length of career, legacy skies are not factored into our records. May I put you down as unaffiliated instead?"

Hephaestus leans closer to Vulcan. "Listen, I know we've had some bad blood before. But isn't it time to let go of the past? You can rebuild your hoard in the Gold Sky, I'll make sure you're treated well. What do you say?"

[Faege]

Vulcan clenches his jaw for a moment. He sorely wishes he has alcohol with him... but surely it'll get better once he gets into the city. "I'll think about it," He says to Hephaestus, before looking to the mare. "Unaffiliated."

[Paper Shadow]

"Grey Horizon, Hidden Sky."

Mori smirks and whispers "I could have called that," to whomever is closest...

To the clipboard-weilding mare, he answers with "Memento Mori, I'm unaffiliated too."

[Espresso]

"Memento... Mori... Unaffiliated..." The pegasus mare murmurs as she notes it down on her clipboard. "Thank you all for your cooperation. Enjoy your stay on El Dorado. Your spending is appreciated."

She turns around, and steps off the ship, heading up to the next docking ship for checking.

"Alright, now that that's done with, please follow me. Our boss doesn't want to be kept waiting."

Hephaestus gestures for the group to follow him, and he quickly sets off at a brisk pace.

The streets of El Dorado are busy. Countless shops and stores line the streets, neon signs flashing with the outlines of shapely mares, or mugs of drink, or shapely mares holding mugs of drink. Equipment repair and sales shops dot the landscape, with carts stacked full of crates parked in front. Pirates of all sorts can be seen, be them pony, or griffon, even zebras and minotaurs. Most of them are roaming in gangs, stumbling out of bars and laughing rancorously, shoving each other around, and in a few cases, just sitting in the midst of one of the gardens of El Dorado, having a moment of quiet conversation.

Hephaestus takes them past the outer rings, going up a flight of stairs that intersects each of the rings, with a landing allowing access for each ring. The direct route cutting through the rings makes it so it doesn't take long at all to make it to the innermost rings of El Dorado, which are much more quiet and contained. These seem to serve as residence for those who live on El Dorado, as well as more domestic shops and services. There also seem to be larger halls and buildings, presumably rented out to organizations and ship crew as a base of operations. Hephaestus even ignores those, and continues to take the group straight to the dead center of El Dorado, which is a ziggurat-like stepped pyramid of gold and brass, gleaming in the sun.

A pair of guards stand in front of a set of massive doors, enough for a whole ship to fit past. "Halt!" They call out, lifting rifles to point at Hephaestus. "Do you have an appointment with the great Sky?"

"I have been summoned to the center for a report," Hephaestus responds confidently. "I did not know it was with Sky Prince."

The guards look at each other, and nod. "The Sky is expecting you. You may enter."

"Thank you."

The doors grind open, and Hephaestus takes a deep breath, stepping into the ziggurat.

Inside is a pile, nay, a mountain of gold. Golden artifacts, coin, ingots, bars, enough gold to build a house out of is stacked up, and wallowing within the gold is a great golden serpent. It's not as large as Dreadwing, not by a long shot, but it's easily as large as the Huntress. This is Prince, one of the great Skies, for which their organizations are named after.

"Oh, hello! Welcome to my office," Prince hisses, smiling toothily at the party. "How are you doing this fine day?"

[Paper Shadow]

Mori stares at the enormous being, mouth slightly agape. "Fine," he stammers, "Fine, just fine." He then sidesteps himself behind Vulcan...

[AleneShazam]

Trigger looks around as they go through El Dorado. It's no Grind, but it's still impressive to look at.

When they get to the ziggurat, though, Trigger is thoroughly impressed. She can't even fathom the engineering required to keep a monstrosity of metal like this in the air.

Then she comes face to face with Prince. For a moment, she instinctively goes to run, her survival instincts against massive predators screaming at her to move. But she quickly quashes those instincts, and calmly bows her head respectfully without speaking.

[Faege]

The moment Vulcan lays eyes on Prince, his flight or fight response goes into overdrive, and his fiery wings almost automatically flare out of his crippled stumps in a vain effort of intimidation, his spines raising with hostility towards a perceived rival.

Within moments, though, Vulcan has gotten his primal urges under control, and he lowers his heads a little so he's not staring directly at Prince.

"We're doing fine, considering we just had a ran-in with Dreadwing itself... we have your Sky to thank for that, Sky Prince. My brother Hephaestus's response was prompt and efficient," Vulcan says respectfully.

Fiery wings:

[jaguargamma]

"A little numb, but I'm peachy," Frisky calls over the rain falling around her.

Her pirate hat is now waterlogged and draped over her face. The rest of her outfit is now hovering in the air, well away from the torrential rain falling from the small stormcloud above her so the books in her pockets don't get ruined. There's a trail of water leading back through the door behind her. Her belly is lit up like a torch as the crystal inside it reacts to its proximity to El Dorado's massive engines.

"Yup. Right as rain."

[Goldstone14]

Horizon goes stiff, seemingly noticing something about the dragon noone else has, before leaning to Apollo and whispering to him quickly.

"Apollo, slight issue, Prince may know. Just fair warning."

She looks back at Prince and puts on a nervous smile before chuckling.

"Just fine, I have to say... Just... fine."

She gives the large dragon a look, as if askin something of him.

[Senshuken]

When they entered the grand center of the Gold Sky's floating city, Apollo's attention was not instantly drawn to the massive bucking dragon that ruled one of the pirate skies and instead his gaze was drawn right to the massive horde of loot that said dragon was basking on. His mind raced with the possibilities as estimates of just how much of that pile he would need to set himself up for life weighing against the risks of having to deal with the dragon on top of it, the security that would no doubt come in to enforce their leader, the difficulties in actually taking said pile of treasure back through the city while no doubt under attack by enforcers and opportunists all the while hoping that there is a ship docked that would either be bribed to leave instantly or easy to take over. As the massive piles of risks and logistical nightmares started to pile up, the 'rewards' quickly lost their appeal and Apollo just decided to remain quite and not draw attention to himself.

As Horizon whispered her concern to him, he nodded his head in understanding before moving to stand next to her, happy to stand with her to show his support regardless of what happened next.

[Espresso]

"Ah, yes! Your little run-in with everyone's favorite griffon." Prince's grin twists into a distasteful sneer. "That must have been quite the experience. I did not expect Reaver to bring Dreadwing itself to bear. That was a miscalculation on my end."

Hephaestus shifts uncomfortably. "If you'll permit me speak, sir..." Prince nods, and he continues, "Sir, it almost sounds like you expected Reaver to appear."

"Well, of course I did. After all, this whole mission was a set-up." Prince says plainly. A few seconds of silence pass before he raises an eyebrow. "What, have you not figured that out already?"

He turns around, and plunges a claw into the hoard. A few moments later, he retracts the claw, revealing a stone orb nestled in his palm. He shows it to the party - it's unmistakably one of the orbs present on the ship. "The Elements possessed by the Purse family are fakes, but we needed to make them appear real. What better bluff than to send someone to actually try and seize the cargo? Evidently the fake bounty worked to convince Reaver to mobilize."

He smirks, holding the orb up to the light and admiring it. "Now all he has to work with are a bunch of worthless rocks."

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