2023/03/01

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms: The flight of the Gannet

The party and their forces were marching on the secret base of the Gannet with the hope of stealing or disabling the craft. As they continued on, the base came into view. The base was a rather large affair with what looked to be a number of docks for ships, Five Fingers didn't have any knowledge of anything else like the Gannet though if there was another ship at the base that would be a rather large problem. That question was one for later however, as the party and their force needed to get onto the base in the first place before there could be talk of a second ship or not.

There was little subtlety in the party's approach to the base. Between the likely odds that the conflict with the border defenses had alerted the base, as well as it's rather difficult to hide a force 250 strong marching on you the party was noticed by the base rather quickly. As such the plan was to charge the defenses and hopefully get a foothold inside the base itself so that it would be harder for the defenders to repel them. The first fight was at the gate for the base, there there were a number of the garrison who had been pulled from whatever jobs they were doing to repel the party. The party ended up engaging a officer and a work crew that was only armed with the coal shovels that they had on them. Despite the party's reservations about fighting a work crew, the work crew were still soldiers and had sworn oaths to defend the base. The foreman of the work crew was particularly dangerous as he had a mechanikal arm that was quite strong and resilient which struck Xavier and Abe rather hard. Despite the strength of the defenders the party eventually gained their foothold, causing the Ordic forces to retreat further into the base to set up new defensive lines. The party only cared about the Gannet however and kept their force together to continue moving towards the now visible ship.

As the party got closer to the Gannet, they saw its many unique features: Firstly the Gannet sat rather low on the waterline, with only a little bit being above the surface of the lake. Second the Gannet seemed to have wing like structures that were just under the water, what these wings were for was uncertain, though the safe bet was that they were for some sort of aerial propulsion. The party fought their way to the docks and then forcibly boarded the top deck of the Gannet. Abe, Xavier and Kitten took the fast way down onto the top deck, jumping from the higher dock to the top deck. Kitten was the only one of the three that landed well, with Xavier injuring his leg, and Abe plunging his foot through the surface of the deck entangling him for the beginning of the fight with the crew of the Gannet. This crew was significantly better trained and equipped and the admiral in charge and his two warcaster lieutenants provided fierce resistance to the party's assault. Towards the end of the battle, the Gannet began to leave its dock and then pitched upwards, taking it into the sky. The party and the part of their force that had made it aboard quickly took control of the ship though were puzzled as to how to land the ship.

Abe decided that he probably knew how to work this thing and was proven right as the lever he pulled leveled off the ascent of the Gannet. With them no longer climbing Kita and Shakes began figuring out how the Gannet worked so that they could have an idea as to how to safely land it. As this was going on, Xavier was learning that he was very uncomfortable with the situation that he found himself in, and was huddled in a corner awaiting his imminent reacquaintance with the ground. Thankfully for Xavier, Shakes was confident that he could land the Gannet back on the water so that they could pick up the rest of their soldiers and then make haste back to Five Fingers. The way out had one remaining hiccup as the submersible airship was too large to pass through the canal that linked Mere Dorou to the ocean, though knowing about the Gannet's flight capabilities the party took to the skies once more and then landed in the ocean, allowing them a relatively tame passage back to Five Fingers.

As the Gannet and the party approached Five Fingers, they broadcast a message that they were friendly and to not fire upon them once they got closer. This message also asked Laryana to be ready to receive them so that she could look the Gannet over. Five Fingers was rather surprised that the party was able to commandeer such a unique vessel and the party and the force were given a hero's welcome upon their return. In the coming days Ord would come to the negotiating table, as the loss of the Gannet proved a rather large blow to their forces, and the risk of losing more wasn't worth continuing to retake Five Fingers.