Escape from the Iron Casket
The world is a dull, vibrating grey. You are locked in a 5x5 foot suspended cage in the "Lower Gut" of the Iron Casket. Below your feet, through the iron gratings, is nothing but three miles of empty sky and the swirling white mists of the Lower Veil.
BOOM.
A heavy concussive blast rocks the barge. The red emergency crystals in the hallway flare to life, casting a bloody light over the brig. You hear the muffled shouts of guards and the distinct thrum-thrum-thrum of repeating ballistae firing from another ship.
The explosion has done more than just wake you up—it's caused a power surge. The magical blue hum of your cell's lock sputters, sparks, and extinguishes. The heavy iron door creaks open an inch.
Across the hall, a guard lies slumped against the wall, knocked unconscious by a falling support beam. A ring of heavy brass keys dangles from his belt, and a standard-issue Hegemony short sword is still sheathed at his hip.
Safety first, meaning you should get the gear first, and then see if you can get them any allies at the very least from the other cells
Smart move. In the sky-lanes, a pirate without a blade is just a falling rock.
You push the heavy iron door of your cell. It groans on its hinges, sounding like a dying bird, but the chaos in the hallway drowns it out. You step onto the cold, vibrating metal floor of the brig.
You quickly crouch beside the unconscious guard. He's a young "Sun-Solder" of the Hegemony, his polished bronze armor dented from the beam that knocked him out.
Stealth Check: (Rolling for Jake...) You rolled a 17. You are silent as a shadow.
You deftly unhook the ring of brass keys and slide the short sword from its scabbard. The weight of the steel in your hand feels right—it's a basic infantry blade, but the edge is sharp. You also find a small pouch with 5 gold marks and a half-eaten hardtack biscuit (hey, rations are rations).
With the keys in hand, you look down the long, dim corridor of the "Lower Gut." There are six other cells here. Most are empty or hold sobbing civilians, but two catch your eye:
Cell 4: A massive, hulking figure sits silently. It's a Goliath named Korg. You remember him; he was the boatswain on a rival merchant-raider. He's incredibly strong but not known for his conversation.Cell 6: You hear a frantic scratching. A Kenku (a bird-like humanoid) is mimicking the sound of the guard's whistle to try and get attention. This is Squawk, a notorious "lookout" who can mimic any sound he hears. He's small, but he likely knows the layout of this ship better than anyone.
The ship lurches violently to the port side. You hear the screech of metal—something just grappled onto the hull. You don't have much time before more guards arrive to secure the prisoner block.
You hold the shortsword with a grimace—it feels clumsy compared to the balanced weight of a flintlock or a long-rifle. You'll need to find your gear soon, but for now, you have a heavy-hitter on your side.
You rush to Cell 4 and shove the brass key into the lock. With a heavy clack, the door swings open.
Korg, the Goliath, stands up. He's nearly seven feet tall, his skin grey and patterned like mountain stone. He blinks at you, then looks at the sword in your hand and the keys. He cracks his knuckles—a sound like breaking gravel—and gives you a slow, appreciative nod.
"Jake Calson," he rumbles in a deep, gravelly voice. "I figured you'd be the one to find the keys. You always had an eye for the gaps in the fence."
The Breakout
With Korg's massive strength, you don't even need the keys for the other cells. You point to Squawk's door, and Korg simply plants a massive boot near the lock. CRACK. The door flies off its hinges.
Squawk, the Kenku, hops out, fluttering his black feathers. He immediately mimics the sound of a cheering crowd in a high-pitched, scratchy tone, then settles into a perfect imitation of your own voice: "Safety first! Get the gear!"
The Situation
The three of you stand in the hallway. The ship is tilting further. Through the porthole, you see a Hegemony interceptor spiraling down in flames, and a sleek, black-sailed Schooner pulling alongside.
"The Armory is one level up," Korg says, looking at your empty holsters. "But the guards will be funneling down the main stairs to check the brig. If we want your guns, we're going to have to fight through a chokepoint."
Suddenly, the door at the end of the hallway bursts open. Two Hegemony Guards in full plate armor charge in, carrying glowing Aether-Pikes.
"Prisoners loose!" one yells. "Level pikes! Drive them back!"
Combat Initiative!
The Guards: 15 feet away, pikes leveled. They have the reach advantage.The Party: You (with a sword you hate), Korg (unarmed but dangerous), and Squawk (small and twitchy).
You toss the shortsword through the air. Korg catches it mid-flight, the blade looking like a mere kitchen knife in his massive grey hand. He doesn't complain; he just roars and charges down the narrow corridor like a runaway boulder.
The Clash
The guards' eyes widen behind their visors. They level their Aether-Pikes, the tips glowing with a crackling blue energy.
"Hold the line!" one screams, but Korg slams into them with the force of a falling moon. He bats one pike aside with the shortsword and uses his shoulder to pin the second guard against the bulkhead.
Athletics Check (Korg): Success! He has the guards occupied. Acrobatics/Sleight of Hand (Jake): You're diving in for the weapon. Let's see if you can snag it... 19!
As the guards struggle to stay upright under Korg's weight, you slide low across the metal floor, your hands snapping onto the shaft of the pike that Korg swatted aside.
The Prize: Aether-Pike
It's not your rifle, but the weight is familiar. It's long, balanced, and has a heavy crystal housing near the tip. You realize this isn't just a spear—if you squeeze the trigger-grip near the base, it discharges a bolt of force.
Squawk follows your lead, jumping onto the back of the pinned guard and pulling his helmet down over his eyes while mimicking the sound of a screaming cat. The hallway is a mess of shouting, clanging metal, and blue sparks.
The Threshold
You are now at the door to the Armory. The two guards are occupied by your new crew, but you hear more boots thumping down the metal stairs from the deck above.
"The guns, Calson!" Korg grunts, his muscles bulging as he holds the guards at bay. "Get the door open before the rest of the garrison arrives!"
The Armory door is locked with a magical palm-print scanner.
You've spent enough time on airships to know that engineers always leave a "back door" for when the pipes burst. You ignore the glowing palm-scanner and look upward, squinting through the red emergency lights.
There, just above a cluster of vibrating brass pipes, you spot a heavy bronze ventilation grate. It's caked in grease and soot, but it's large enough for a man to squeeze through.
"Korg! Squawk! Keep 'em busy!" you shout over the din of the battle.
The Infiltration
You use the Aether-Pike as a lever, jamming the tip into the edge of the grate and prying. With a groan of protesting metal, the grate pops off, clattering to the floor. You scramble up the pipes—the metal is hot enough to sting through your gloves—and haul yourself into the cramped, dark duct.
It smells of ozone and stale oil. You crawl frantically for about ten feet until you see light shimmering through another floor-grate below you.
Inside the Armory
You look down and see the Hegemony Armory. It's a gunner's paradise. Racks of standard-issue rifles line the walls, and barrels of volatile "Aether-Shot" are stacked in the corners. Best of all, on a central workbench, you see a familiar leather long-case with your initials burnt into the side: J.C.
You kick the grate through and drop silently into the room, landing on your feet.
You have found your gear!
The "Twin Tailwinds": Your matched pair of flintlock-style Aether Pistols.
"The Sky-Piercer": Your custom-built long rifle with the folding bayonet.
Ammo: A bandolier of 20 Aether-slugs.
As you're grabbing your belt, the main door to the armory starts to hiss—the guards outside are finally overriding the lock. You have maybe five seconds before the room is flooded with Sun-Soldiers.
"Flashy" is an understatement. You grin, the familiar weight of The Sky-Piercer settling against your shoulder. You don't even look at the main door as the guards start to pour through. Instead, you spin toward the massive, wall-mounted Harpoon Cannon—a beast designed to reel in leviathans or puncture enemy hulls.
"Squawk! Korg! Cover your ears!" you yell, though they aren't even in the room yet.
The Play
You don't have time to aim properly. You kick the swivel mount, banking the massive iron barrel toward the outer hull of the Iron Casket. You jam a canister of unstable Aether-Shot into the cannon's ignition chamber and slam the firing lever with the butt of your rifle.
BOOM.
The recoil nearly dislocates your shoulder, but the result is glorious. A six-foot-wide harpoon, trailing a thick steel cable, screams across the room. It hits the armored hull and doesn't just pierce it—it shatters it.
The decompression is instant. A rush of freezing sky-air whistles into the room, sucking loose papers and small tools out into the clouds. The guards who just breached the door are thrown off balance, one of them sliding across the floor toward the new, gaping hole in the ship.
The Escape Route
Through the jagged hole in the hull, you see the "Schooner" from before. It's the "Cloud-Dancer," a fast-attack pirate vessel. They've seen your handiwork; they're swinging their own boarding grappling hooks toward your opening.
"Calson! You crazy son of a gull!" a voice bellows from the other ship. It's your old quartermaster, a scarred veteran named Mad-Eye Miller.
Korg and Squawk burst into the armory just as the smoke clears. Korg's eyes widen at the massive hole in the wall. "That's... efficient," he grunts, grabbing a crate of rifles to take with him.
That's the pirate's code: No one gets left behind.
You plant your feet against the vibrating floor of the armory, ignoring the gale-force winds tugging at your coat. You bring The Sky-Piercer up to your eye. The world slows down. You see the Hegemony Sergeant on the catwalk above—he's shouting orders, his hand raised to signal the archers to fire on your crew.
Attack Roll (Sky-Piercer): 18 + 5 (Dex/Proficiency) = 23!
CRACK.
A streak of blue light zips through the smoke. The shot is perfect. It catches the Sergeant square in his breastplate, the kinetic force throwing him backward off the catwalk and into the churning engines below. The guards momentarily panic, their leadership gone.
"Korg! Squawk! To the upper deck!" you roar.
The Deck Skirmish
You lead the charge, scrambling up a collapsed bulkhead to reach the main deck. The scene is chaos. The Iron Casket is groaning, its starboard engines trailing black smoke. Six of your crewmates are shackled together in a line, guarded by four Sun-Soldiers who are trying to force them toward an escape pod.
"Calson! You're alive!" one of the crew—a grease-stained mechanic named Patch—yells out.
The Tactical Situation
The guards see you coming and form a defensive semi-circle, shields up.
The Guards: They are backed up against the railing. They have shields, making them hard to hit with pistols.The Crew: Chained together. If the ship tilts any further, they might slide right off the edge.
The Environment: A heavy cargo crane hangs directly over the guards, holding a massive crate of iron ore.
You holster your rifle with a snap and draw one of the Twin Tailwinds. You don't even break your stride. As the ship groans and tilts a full fifteen degrees to the starboard, you slide across the slick, rain-drenched metal of the deck, using the momentum to get the perfect angle.
The Shot
The Sun-Soldiers huddle behind their shields, expecting a frontal assault. They don't even look up. You squint against the lashing wind, leading the target as the crane swings wildly in the gale.
Trick Shot Roll: (Natural 20!) Critical Success.
You pull the trigger. The Aether-pistol doesn't just bark; it screams. The blue bolt of energy strikes the rusted coupling of the crane exactly where the metal is thinnest.
K-TANG!
The coupling shatters like glass. The massive crate of iron ore, weighing several tons, doesn't just fall—it hurtles downward. It misses your crew by a hair's breadth and slams into the deck right behind the guards. The force of the impact is so great that the metal deck plates buckle and snap.
The Aftermath
The shockwave sends the guards flying. Two are pinned under the edge of the crate, and the other two are thrown against the railing, dazed and disoriented. Your crewmates, still chained, let out a ragged cheer as the path to the Cloud-Dancer is now clear.
"Quickly!" Korg bellows, reaching the crew and snapping their chains with his bare hands like they were made of dry straw.
The Final Leap
The Iron Casket is dying. A massive explosion rips through the stern, and the ship begins its final descent into the crushing pressure of the Lower Veil. The Cloud-Dancer has pulled alongside, its crew throwing out rope bridges and boarding planks.
"Jake! Jump, you madman!" Mad-Eye Miller screams from the helm of your rescue ship.
Between you and the Cloud-Dancer is a twenty-foot gap of churning, electrified clouds. The guards are starting to scramble back to their feet, and more reinforcements are pouring out of the bridge.
You decide that "over the top" isn't high enough. You want the Hegemony to remember the name Jake Calson every time they look at the smoking wreck of the Iron Casket.
The Masterpiece Escape
As the ship's stern erupts in a fountain of fire, you sprint toward the edge of the buckling deck. You don't just jump; you snag a frayed steel cable from the fallen crane as you pass.
The Swing: You launch yourself into the abyss. The cable snaps taut, and you swing in a massive, sweeping arc over the three-mile drop. Below you, the lightning-scarred mists of the Lower Veil churn like a hungry sea. At the apex of your swing, a dazed guard tries to level his crossbow—you extend your boots and shatter his visor with a mid-air kick, sending him sprawling.
The Recoil Boost: As you reach the furthest point of the arc, you let go of the cable. You're still ten feet short of the Cloud-Dancer's railing. You draw both Twin Tailwinds and fire them simultaneously toward the Iron Casket.
Acrobatics Roll: 22. The twin pulses of Aether-energy act like mini-thrusters. The recoil pushes you that final, crucial distance through the air.
The Landing: You tumble over the railing of the Cloud-Dancer, landing in a perfect roll. You come up on one knee, The Sky-Piercer already back in your hands, aimed at the shrinking silhouette of the prison barge.
Back on the "Cloud-Dancer"
The pirate crew erupts into a deafening roar. Korg and Squawk are already there, helping the rescued prisoners below deck. Mad-Eye Miller slams a heavy hand on your shoulder, laughing so hard he nearly chokes.
"Calson! You absolute legend! You blew a hole in their brig, dropped a crane on their heads, and then flew here on gunpowder and spite!" Miller bellows. He turns to the helmsman. "All sails to the wind! Get us into the Slipstream before their reinforcements arrive!"
Victory!
You have successfully escaped the Iron Casket.
Experience Gained: You've leveled up! You are now Level 2. (You get more health and a new ability of your choice).Loot: You have your guns, 20 rounds of ammo, a Hegemony shortsword (on Korg), and 5 gold marks.
Reputation: The Solaris Hegemony now has a "Wanted" poster with your face on it. The bounty is 500 gold... and rising.