World Tree MUSH

    You have to give the Imperial Navy some credit. They've done their best to try and keep Verdigris from being overflooded by everything else in the World Tree. Though their efforts were focused mainly on pirates, smugglers and others that would try to bring illicit goods that would disrupt the standard ways of life and they left 'tourists' to be tourists for the most part. For many that meant a new world to discover and learn about it's anachronistic Victorian Age.
    The best place to go to learn about Verdigris as a whole, most locals would direct one southward to skip the Capital, and instead make their way to the aptly named Discovery Bay. The city itself built on wonder, discovery and adventure, where science and lore collide into one grandoius endeavor of it's own right. And to do a little discovery of one's own there is no need to go farther than the Informatorium. Part library and part museum, the entire facility was maintained by a society of explorers and adventurers, archiving information without the burly bias of the Imperial Navy looming over their shoulders. Which would be why the Informatorium not only has the largest naval museum in Verdigris, but one that's dedicated equally to the pirates of both good and ill intent as it is to the nations military prowess. Archives, displays, chatty attendants in general; there's no better place to go simply to learn more.

    It was a very refreshing experience to travel along the vines of the World Tree, arrive upon a vast new world, and not be required to fend off waves of attackers just because you were different, or fell under their definition of a monster. These were the thoughts of a Sphinx that was visiting Discovery Bay after receiving a report from the Explorer's Division. The report had stated the world was welcoming, and that was enough! It had her curiosity. 

    Being told it was open to a bit of diversity, the sphinx pads through the streets, in her true form, taking questions from anyone that asks. She's happy to speak of Ravnica and its ways just as long as people told her at least a tidbit or two about the city that may not be on paper or in a museum. Thus far, she has enjoyed herself!

    If there was one better way, well the visitor seems to already know it. To get to know a land, you get to know it's people. An honest to goodness Sphinx still gets an odd look or two, but more out of curiousity than anything else. It was one of those creatures you heard about in tales but never expected to actually see walking the streets with your own eyes. Like dragons. Or... well, even the Society doesn't speak much of Cyberia despite their expeditions into it's mysterious borders. Don't worry about it.
    A sphinx while marvelous is probably not the -strangest- thing to be seen in Discovery Bay, to say the least.

    It doesn't take long for word to travel though, especially of such a interesting guest, and one that has made no secret that she's an 'otherworlder' so to speak. But in the din of the streets and the occasional clatter of mechanisms elsewhere in the city doing who knows what things of discovery and SCIENCE, the clatter of boots on the rooftops is all but lost to the streets below...

    People were the heart and soul of a realm. What they believe is the foundation of an empire. Treat them well, and such a place shall flourish. Questions are given, answers are given back, one person even tries to riddle at the Sphinx once or twice and finds out just why these creatures are so well known for it. 

    With all of that done, Isperia has made her way to one of the primary vistor centers, wanting to see just what is shared publicly to everyone. The difference between what the public knows, and what the government wants people to know, can often give hints on just what kind of governance is running the country.

    That would be the other advantage of Discovery Bay. It was part of the Victorian nation, but with all the new wonders and potentially profitable discoveries it lead to, the government mostly let it be. As long as the scientists and explorers don't drudge up something that's going to turn into a national threat.... on the other hand, that's also part of why they allow them their own city on the opposite side of the continent most likely. Most of the people here are the adventureous sort, related to such, or work in the shipyard. Which recently started working on airships as well.

    The only real propeganda being spread is that from the Imperial Navy about all the worst things about Piracy, but we already covered how Discovery Bay at least respects the less sinister parts of pirate naval life.

    The clunk of scrambling boots can be heard a lot more thoroughly as they skid down the rooftop of the visitor center. A few roof titles clatter over the edge and onto the pavement below as they're dislodged. There's a vage fwooshing sound like something lost in the wind. Followed by the thud of reinforced boots to the pavement as a figure cloaked in dark greatcoat and lavished tricorne lands outside, a bundle of some sort clutched under an arm. She looks one way, then the other way, the white fox-tail protruding between the coattails swaying in the opposite direction, before she finally turns and bolts into the center.

    Only to skid to a stop as ni everyone in the structure but the Sphinx let out a gasp of shock. The unoccupied gloved paw slaps to the vixen's face in a fit of exasperation. "For as much as this city is thriving on science and wonder there be a severe lack of abandonded buildings!"

    Seems the Sphinx is buried in a book further in the Visitor Center. So buried, in fact, that she misses the gasps and shocked noises for a few seconds. It's the silence and the following exclimation from ... whoever that is, that finally gets Isperia's gaze to leave what she was reading to see what was going on. "Hmm?" Abandoned buildings? "Why would they need those?" A direct question, right to the cloaked one. Clearly she's unaware of what is going on. Yup.

    "Because they're better for dramatic faceoffs of course. Open space, convenient structures, occasionally extra weapons layin' 'bout if you're lucky--" and then the vixen pauses to peer in the direction the question came from, considering everyone else is cowering away from her. "--Oi! Of all the bloody luck, the 'wonderous visitor' be here too."

    Behind her there's a bit of yelling from the street, which for whatever reason appears to be getting a bit darker outside...

    "No more places to run..." she shakes her head a bit, then bellows with a surprising amount of volume for the sleeker build beneath that coat. "Alright ye landlubbers, everyone outta the building!" That's really all it takes to get everyone else to scramble for the back of the building to find an exit. The vixen grabs her hat with one hand and makes a quick but still grand sweeping bow. "Captain Rhimehart, yadda yadda, no time for the full introduction lass. My reputation usually proceeds me anyways," is added with a wink.

    Then she spins back to the doors with a flourish as she returns the hat to her head, gives it a slight adjustment, then drops her hand to grab the pistol-like handle from her belt and pull it free. As she snaps her arm to the side the gun-like weapon becomes fully visible, a sheen shimmering down the stylized blade that extends from it with the motion. "But ye best be followin' the rest if you don't want yer visit to be ending in a Bad Time."

    As Renya readies herself long shadows stretch beneath the doors, followed by a hissing like vapor as they distort upward and contort into several gangly figures with the darkness falling over them in cloaks. Distorted voices rasp from under the hoods in "the Maw hungers" and "Darkness consumes" and other such creepy ramblings.

    People run, citizens scatter, and Isperia does ... none of those things. in fact, she's still sitting in the same spot, holding a book in one hand, with a quizical look across her face. "I do not know you, but I will accept your statement. However, as for needing to run..." The book is snapped shut as she spots the shadows slipping in through the door, "I think not."

    "Suit yerself," is replied with a shrug. "But don't expect riddles to do ye much good..." She at least reconizes what a Sphinx is known for.

    As the shadowy figures finish their reformation the firstmost one rears its gnarled appendages and lunges towards the vixen. Though it almost looks like it's grabbing not for her but the bundle still wrapped under her other arm.
    Only to get her blade shoved into its midsection. Then pulls the trigger point-blank and a blast of aetheral cold from the calisabre freezes the figure from the inside-out, causing it to shatter into bits of ice as Renya wrenches the blade free.

    "The book, the book." The others continue to moan ominously as they tried to shimmy past her, floating more than walking.

    "What, this old thing?" Renya holds up what is indeed a book over her head. "But I just checked it out, you shadowy scallawag. Wait yer turn." Another shadow-cloak lunges at her, this time forming a blade of darkness from one vaporous sleeve to parlay with her own blade.

    "The Maw craves the book... it savors the words of the old one..."

    "If ye gonna stand there, at least do something to help!" the wily vixen snaps over her shoulder.

    "Well, it seems you have found yourself in quite the predicament, captain," Isperia muses. Captain?! It's the hat, isn't it? It has to be the hat. "Now now, don't be hasty, I was getting t here. No point in having the book -I- have get damaged, is there?" Isperia asks as she rises, setting the book down behind the desk she was near, before turning to regard the odd beings. "Hmm. Some dark beings seem to be after you. What book did you 'liberate', hmm?" Without another word, a barrier shimmers into existence around the sphinx -and- the vixen nearby. "Would you mind explaining the situation?"

    Renya ripostes off the one forming the blade and kippups back just in time for the barrier to flare to light. The cloaked shadows are for the moment stalled, thumping and clawing at the shield and not really thinking of trying to find away around it instead. "It's ... 'borrowed' from the Infotormium." In other words, she technically stole it? "To be fair, it was to keep this shadow cult thing from getting it first, so it probably be one of their tomes of dark arts or what not."
    Followed by a long pause as the shadows scratch at the barrier. Though something in the Sphinx's gaze, maybe something in the otherworldliness of her, seems to spook the vixen a little as well by the way her tail flicks back and forth in a frizzle. "... Okay, so I was probably maaaaybe going to ransom it off instead of just giving it back," she admits with a shrug. "Ain't no pirate worth her seasalt gonna be doing it out of charity, good or bad."

    As they press against the barrier the robed shadows seem to partially lose their solidity again, as if trying to find a means to seep through it like they did the doors. Enough that the hoods rumple back from their faces when they press close, revealing the gastly gallow things that can vagely be called a face underneath.

    With a snarl Renya takes a step back and resumes a ready stance with her calisabre.
    "~A zealous carniverous aggressive armada; and they go by the name of Fangs of the Nether
Like thousand thousand millions piranhas in the air.
And the tingle on your skin you feel in the dark might be the Hungry Ones who contemplate leaving a mark
So if you're reaching for a light switch make sure you're prepared.~"

    Yes, you heard that right. Yes, she sang that last bit. Make sure you remember to count the shadows...

    "You pitiful creatures have no power here," Isperia informs them, allowing the barrier to begin to move forward, hopefully pushing them -back-. She regards the vixen once again, "Mm, a pirate then. Well, at least you are trying to help -in a way-. I cannot fault you for it, but I must ask. Why not just destroy the book? Why did they see fit to keep it if it is so important?" She's genuinely curious. There's no sarcasm to her voice at all. ... One may wonder if she would ever BE sarcastic in the first place. 

    Her sharp glare turns back to the creatures. "Return to the shadows from wence you came," she orders as the barrier seems to fold around. Not surrounding the vixen and the sphinx, but the monsters instead. That's when it starts to shrink. "You are no longer wanted, here."

    "Aye, that I am. But as ye can see," a nod to the robed shadows, which are bewildered that not only can they not seep through the magical boundry but that it also contorts to close around them as well. "There be worst things than pirates out there." At the last question all Renya can do is shrug. "Adventurers, trophies, scientists wanting to research every wee thing. You know how it goes."

    As they're closed in on the shadows lose more of their coherence, becoming more the amorphic mist and shadows they originally slithered in as. Followed by an audible *plop* as they're compressed into a single point within the barrier and disappear as it collapses them fully. Into whatever shadowy hell the damn cult spawns from.

    "I'd wonder what ye just did," Renya quips, "But I've followed the Vines enough to know magic when I see it."

    And just as slowly as she rose, Isperia takes a seat again. "Mm, yes, that's correct. From Ravnica, if you have heard of it. As for the research aspect?" She seems to sigh lightly, "Oh, I understand how scientists can be quite obsessive over their research, beyond their morals. So very well," she says, fully from experience. It is almost as though she can hear the explosions from Nivix from a whole other world. 

    With the apparitions dispatched, the sphinx regards Renya again. "It appears your pursuers have been dispatched. I imagine you plan to retreat with your ill-gotten gains, at this time?" At least the sphinx is making no clear moves to stop the pirate.

    It's hard to not have heard of 'The Wanderer From Ravnica' by this point. But other than a faint nod and a twitch of one ear Renya doesn't really show much mind being paid other than a casual acknowledgement. Though it's likely hardly that passive in the back of her mind. Then looks at the old battered tomb in one hand, shifting it to the other, and back again. "Aye... initially..."
    But then with a sidearm flick tosses the book towards the Sphinx. "But ye sound like ye better know what to do with this accursed thing. Bloody hells, I have enough eldiritch nonsense to worry bout with the undead pirates and whatnot." The calisabre is retracted and returned to its sheath, a gesture the vixen uses to execute another more lavish bow this time, drawing the hat from head and tipping it forward once more. "Captain Renya Rhimehart, Pirate Princess of the Verdigris Skies," Pirate, but she didn't say 'seas' huh? "Thanks ye for yer assistance."
    As she stands upright once more her tail swishes to her side, dislodging a capsule from within her coat that goes *POOF* at her feet. It's like a smoke bomb swirling up to obscure her, yet it's actually a frosty mist instead of smoke, and by the time it clears she's vanished!

    ... Except for the doors clicking shut behind her as she leaps back to the rooftops in her departure...

    Seems that as the book is tossed, and Isperia catches the tome with a barrier spell similar to the one used against the creatures, she's distracted enough to miss the Vixen's egress. "Hmm, well met, wherever you have gone, Captain," the sphinx muses before glancing over the book. She'll have to decide what to do with it- wait, no, it just burst into flames. "The Izzet League does not need to have another chaotic thing to research with," she decides as the ashes flutter to the ground. The sphinx hates black magic, and things that could be considered evil in general. Part of being what she is, and the guild she rules. "Perhaps this place will learn a lesson." She shrugs, doubting it.

    Does evil burn more brightly in fire? Maybe, or maybe it's just because it's a book made of paper and what not. It's one heck of a minature bonfire though before it finally burns itself out as brilliantly as the magic ignited it.
    As the flames die out and the barrier fades something falls out of it and clatters to the floor. A gold dubloon rattles around in that way coins do before finally settling, and while at first one may be wary it's clear it wasn't a part of the book if it didn't burn with the rest of the 'evil'. Maybe the wily vixy tucked it there when she bobbled the book between her hands.

    That the 'heads' side of the coin is a crossbones with a fox's head replacing the usual skull seems to point to such. The other side? A cipher, but a clever sphinx would have little trouble decoding the contact information hidden in it. In case she ever needs some pirating done. Or just because Renya passes the trinkets out to help spread her reputation. Either, or, probably both.