Back in the airship’s bar, Arjahn Mjakhim and Alex Starfade were debating what to do next.
“I say we stop him as soon as we can and force him to explain what he knows”, shouted Alex, in his usual noisy self.
“I have a recorder on him, he won’t be doing anything without us knowing,” replied Mjakhim, showing Alex his end of the recorder.
“Well I’m not sitting around waiting for something to happen. I’m going to find him. Also, we need to find Moo. She left for the small hangar not long ago, and she's undoubtedly causing trouble with that beard of hers.” And with that, he sped out of the bar, in the direction of the hangar.
Arjahn Mjakhim turned to the barman and said “I think you better hold that crispy food, my friend.”

***

At the meeting place, Zaliphone’s mind was whirring, trying to work out the situation. Here he was, at gunpoint. No-one knew where he was and no-one was coming to find him.
“Now just listen here,” he blurted out, for want of an escape plan. “We never agreed on who would be here.”
“That sort of thing should be discussed before anything begins,” retorted Georg, loading his firearm with an ominous click.
“Something came up,” stalled Zaliphone, deciding on a course of action. “So if you’ll excuse me I’ll just go now.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Georg, and he pulled the trigger.

A shot exploded out of the gun, just as Zaliphone threw his alcohol-filled bottle towards Georg. The impact of the bullet shattered the bottle, making shards of glass fly in every direction. Zaliphone heard the bullet whip past his ear and lodge itself in a pipe behind him. Steam engulfed the pair as the pipe ruptured.

In the bar, Arjahn Mjakhim jumped at the sound of the explosion he could hear in his recorder and ran out into the central hub. He had heard the hissing of steam and such a thing was only held in the engine room, next to the control room. How did they get in there without being noticed ?

In the small hangar, Mary Cow was stroking her beard. Then she stroked her beard before stroking it once more. Alex Starfade came into the hangar just as the muffled sound of an explosion reached their ears.
Mary Cow stopped stroking her beard and looked startled.
“What was that?” she asked, turning to Alex.
“No idea, Moo,” we better go check it out. “Also, your beard is lush, have I ever told you that?”
“Oh you,” she replied, wondering why a comment like that would arise at such a time.

They ran back out of the hangar and towards the sound. At an junction in the main corridors, they ran into the masked Arjahn Mjakhim.
“Zaliphone’s in trouble,” said the tall man. “I think he’s been shot.”
“How did that ever happen?” asked Mary Cow.
“Long story,” replied Alex Starfade. “Let’s find Zaliphone first, then we’ll explain.”
The airship began to vibrate, softly at first, but then faster and faster. They ran off towards the control room.

***

Zaliphone was dazed. The sound and light of the explosion had thrown him off balance. He had lost all bearing and was stumbling around half-blind. He came across a form on the ground and recognised Georg. The man did not stir, and as Zaliphone began to see more clearly, he saw that a bottle-shard had pierced his treacherous contact’s eye and gone straight through into the brain.
The sight made his stomach turn, but there was no time to be sick. The pipe that had been shot was no doubt of some importance as the airship began to shake severely, tanking to both sides.

The door of the engine room opened and Mary Cow fell in, followed by Arjahn Mjakhim, who had apparently kicked her in, and Alex Starfade. Behind them, Zaliphone saw the bodies of several crew members.
“What…” he started.
“The depressurising of that pipe behind you must have set off a chain reaction,” said Arjahn Mjakhim, “There seems to have been a discharge of electricity, killing everyone in there.”
A sudden judder made them all lose balance. They fell onto the ground and the door slammed shut behind them.

Mary Cow went to open the door and shook the doorknob.
“It won’t open,” she called.
“You’re probably too small to turn it correctly,” replied Zaliphone, and he went over to try for himself. The door wouldn’t budge. “There must be something blocking the door from the other side.”
Arjahn Mjakhim knelt beside the body of Georg, and extracted the shard of glass. “It would appear that your little meeting didn’t go very well,” he said smoothly. “You have some answers to give.”
“I think there’ll be time for that after we get out of here,” shouted Mary Cow, as another series of explosions could be heard. Suddenly, the airship banked and the four were thrown into the front-side wall.

“The airship's in a nosedive,” shouted Alex Starfade, his voice somehow louder than all the noise around them. Sparks flew from machinery and alarms began to screech. The airship was shaking more than ever now and the four were thrown around the room as the ship spiralled. “We’re going down!”

Mary Cow, Alex Starfade and Arjahn Mjakhim go off to find Zaliphone who has just been shot at by his contact. The shot has ruptured a steam pipe and the ship is starting to shake. They find Zaliphone in the engine room. The ship's crew are dead as a result of the explosion. The four (Georg died in the explosion) are stuck by something blocking the door. The ship is now going down and has fallen into a nosedive.

Zaliphone -
The ship is in a nosedive and there's no way out of the room. How do you react to the current situation?
Arjahn Mjakhim -
The ship is in a nosedive and there's no way out of the room. How do you react to the current situation?
Mary 'Moo' Cow -
The ship is in a nosedive and there's no way out of the room. How do you react to the current situation?
Alex Starfade -
The ship is in a nosedive and there's no way out of the room. How do you react to the current situation?

The ship was out of control. The spinning was lurching the four around the locked room.
“We’ve got to find a way out,” shouted Mary Cow. She unsheathed her hench sword and started beating the walls with it. A shudder jerked the weapon out of her hand and the spinning metal joined itself to the ruckus.

Alex Starfade dodged the blade, which missed him by mere centimetres and planted itself into the already broken pipe. He grabbed onto the sword and steadied himself. Repairing the pipe could stop the flow of steam and save them all. Arjahn Mjakhim had had the same idea and looked around for something to block the hole. A sudden thought hit him – He could use the corpse that was flying around and place a limb into the breach to stop the outpour. He reached for the corpse and pulled it towards the pipe. Pulling a hand towards him, he stuffed it into the hole.
The steam stopped flowing. The juddering slowed down and the ship stopped spinning. Alex gave a cry of triumph at Arjahn’s success and turned to give the good news to the others who had stopped flying around the room.

A hand came out of nowhere and slapped him across the face, followed by a burning sensation. The pressure had been too much for the corpse’s hand and it had come shooting back out.
“This is getting out of hand,” said Arjahn Mjakhim. He removed some explosives from his belt and placed them on the door.
“Are you mad ?” cried Zaliphone. “The blow from that will kill us for sure !”
“Don’t be so sure,” replied Arjahn, “even without a mask, I could survive this explosion.” And he pressed a button on his belt. A soft explosion was heard and smoke filled the room.

Coughing, Alex Starfade went towards the door. He banged on the door which didn’t budge.
“Well that worked really well,” said Mary Cow.
She unjammed her sword from the pipe, just as the ship began to spin and judder once again, the sound of creaking and snapping metal all around them. With it, she started cutting at the walls again.
“That’s useless,” said Zaliphone, flying past her head and hitting the right-hand wall.
Even as he said those words, a rip appeared in the wall. The hench sword had struck true. A small hole appeared.
“No-one could possibly get out of there,” snorted Alex Starfade, “and anyway, you get out and you fall to your death.”
“Think again,” answered Mary Cow. She dived out of the window and stroked her lush beard thrice and thrice again. A sudden electricity coursed through the hairs and they started spinning. Faster and faster they went until they turned into a whirring blur.
“So long, losers !” she cried, as the helibeard rocketed her away from the ship.

Flying to a safe distance, she observed the scene before her. The massive ship was smoking and was, as felt, in a spinning nosedive. The ground was getting closer and closer and small forms could be seen jumping from the ship. “At that height,” she mused, “they would not survive”.

As that thought went through her mind, it collided with solid ground. The ships sheer size made it seem so slow. The front collapsed into itself, the aircraft’s weight driving it into the ground. An explosion ripped through the ship’s canvas and engulfed the craft in a ball of flames…

Everyone's trying to get out of the room. Alex Starfade gets smacked by the corpses hand after Arjahn tries to block the outpour of steam with the corpse. Mary Cow manages to slice her way out with her hench sword and uses her helibeard to fly away. The airship collides with the ground and is engulfed in a ball of flames

None for now ! But get your battle hats on

Smoke was thick in the air, fires were burning and cries could be heard all around. Zaliphone opened his eyes. And closed them. The fire raging around him was too strong. He rolled onto his front and pushed himself to his hands and knees. He felt as though his body was broken, but somehow he could still move. He crawled forward, towards where the air seemed to be cooler, but was stopped in his tracks by a form. He felt around with his hands and felt something hard attached to something more palpable.

“If you touch my mask one more time, I will be forced to end you,” came a voice from behind the hard object.
“Ar- arjahn ?”
“The one and only, now get me out of this mess before we both burn,” replied the tall man. Another explosion rocked the area and Zaliphone was blown forwards onto Arjahn Mjakhim. The supine man let out a groan and pushed him away. Screams could be heard coming from far off to the right as a huge piece of metal snapped under the heat of the inferno. Zaliphone brought himself back onto his hands and knees and felt his way down Arjahn, looking for what could be trapping him. He tried to open his eyes several times but was instantly blinded by a wave of the blaze.

His hand touched metal. Carefully, he lifted the mass off of Mjakhim’s legs and threw it aside. The man groaned again and tried to bend his knees. Pain coursed up his right leg, like knives jabbing deep into his bones.
“You’re going to have to help me,” said Mjakhim, over the noise of the fire. Zaliphone, now on his feet, helped Mjakhim upright, and together, they started limping towards the cooler air. Zaliphone’s eyes were getting accustomed to the heat and he opened them up a crack. To his left, he saw the unconscious form of Alex Starfade and parts of the now shredded corpse of Georg.
“Forget him,” said Arjahn. “We can’t save everyone.” A blue light was now emanating from his mask, coupled with several strange sounds.
Zaliphone knew he was right, and it was with a heavy heart that they started limping away, leaving Alex Starfade to perish in the flames.

From nowhere, a whirring sound came from above them. They looked up to see a small form darting towards them from the heavens.
“Is it a bird?” asked Arjahn Mjakhim.
“Is it a plane?” echoed Zaliphone.
“IT’S ME, BITCHES” came the voice of Mary Cow. She had swooped in using her well-preened helibeard and latched herself onto Alex Starfade. The Moo then flew back off again, the limp form of Starfade hanging under her.
“Well I guess that’s that,” chuckled Zaliphone. “Now let’s get out of here for real.”
They stumbled on, through the carnage around them. All the crying voices had now gone quiet and the only sound to be heard was the crackling of the flames. The only survivors were apparently those that had been in the bomb-proof engine room. They picked their way through corpses, Mjakhim’s legs all but useless.

“Over here!” came the voice of Mary Cow, and they spotted her with Alex Starfade, a short way away, far from the flames. They went on to meet her. Upon arrival, Mjakhim slumped to the ground and observed his leg. Zaliphone went over to Starfade’s lifeless body.
“Dead?” he asked.
“Not yet,” replied Mary Moo. But we need to patch him up soon or he’ll be joining the dead back in the wreckage.
At that moment, a soft, maniacal laugh came from behind them.

The three looked around and spotted the barman, engulfed in flames, his skin already starting to peel back. He stumbled forwards, towards them, a platter of charred food in his hands.
“You made the ship crash,” he laughed, the sound chilling Zaliphone. “And I had made some crispy, crispy food for you.” He then threw the platter at Alex Starfade’s body and ran, half screaming in pain, half laughing in madness, the flames consuming him, fueling his newfound insanity…

Everyone's out safely from the wreckage, though Arjahn's right leg is injured and Alex Starfade is dying. They think they're safe but the barman, turned insane by the pain of being engulfed in flames, attacks them.

BATTLE - Burning Barman - Controlled by: SERIOUSLY THOUGH
- Strength - 8 (-4 burning damage) - 4
- Accuracy - 4 (-4 burning damage) - 0
- Endurance - 10 (-4 burning damage) - 6
- Agility - 7 (-4 burning damage) - 7
- Luck - 1 (-1 burning damage) - 0
- Intelligence - 3 (-3 burning damage) - 0
- Stealth - 7 (-4 burning damage) - 3

Health - (2ST + EN) = 14
Status - Burning, loses 2 health per round.

Current status of players
NOTE - Health is worked out like so (1EN + 2ST) if your ST is higher than your AC - (1EN + 2AC) if your AC is higher than your ST.
For example - Arjahn Mjakhim has higher AC so it's (1EN + 2AC) = (4 + 2(10)) = 24.
Attacks will be worked out based on a randomly generated number (RGN) factored with your ST or AC (based on the attack you chose to make). Damage based on your ST or AC and the enemy's EN.
I'll be factoring in the other stats as we continue but for now we'll keep it simple to test the system
NB - Defence from an attack is determined by EN.
NB - You currently have no weapons (but don't worry, you might find them again in the wreckage if you survive this battle )



Arjahn Mjakhim
Health - 24
Status - -4AG (right leg)
Current Armour - Mask, +4EN.
Current Weapons - Fists, +2ST; Stones on ground

Zaliphone
Health - 21
Status - OK
Current Armour - None
Curren Weapons - Fists, +2ST; Stones on ground

Alex Starfade
Health - 26
Status - Unconscious. Unable to attack.
Current Armour - None
Current Weapons - Fists, +2ST; Stones on ground

Mary "Moo" Cow
Health - 28
Status - OK
Current Armour - Beard, +2EN
Current Weapons - Fists, +2ST; Stones on ground

Zaliphone -
Attack/Run? Any special moves you want to break out ?

Arjahn Mjakhim -
Attack/Run? Any special moves you want to break out ?

Mary 'Moo' Cow -
Attack/Run? Any special moves you want to break out ?

Alex Starfade -
You can't do much; you're unconscious (for now)