Forums » General Roleplay » Punks of Steam Harbor (FINISHED!)

Steam Harbour, built on a Sky Stone anchored down to earth by gigantic chains hooked to the Stoney earth bellow. Sky stones are highly magnetic chunks of land that moved over time either by rolling down mountains or being washed up on hurricanes or tsunamis, over magnetic areas of varses with the opposite polarization! This is an interesting act of science and geology, but no one would ever build a house on it let alone a city! But a brilliant architect named James O'Shire realized that if you anchor the sky stone to the ground it wouldn't flip the city off like a bronco, and toss hundreds or thousands of people into the hard Stoney ground bellow! The city started construction about fifty years ago and finished about twelve years ago... But we begin our story today, at the funeral of Mr. O'Shire, builder and mayor of Steam Harbor.

"Great man but I never really met him," Icias told a visitor to the city, "I heard his radio monologues every Wednesday at noon, but as far as actually met him no..." There had been rumors of a man who had offered O'Shire immortality for twenty five million Shill, but the mayor pushed that offer out the door, and the secretive party seemed angered by this and promised to destroy the city one step at a time. "But that was all rumor," Icias explained to the dwarf who asked him, the short bearded fella tossed the Bearon a single Shill and thanked Icias. The Bearon tipped his hat and watched the dwarf and his kin leave the tavern and head out to the parade outside. It was to celebrate the life and achievements of their fallen mayor but it all seemed like a tourist event to Icias.

Jeston's hot air balloon landed on the Steam Harbour airport, where arrivals and departures took place. He paid a hundred Shill to a guard to land.
Jeston had come to Steam Harbor for the parade of O'Shire, he once met the great man when Jeston came to Steam Harbor on business. O'Shire was excited to meet him because dwarves hadn't come to Steam Harbor very often, (It was declared neutral by dwarf kingdoms.) Jeston looked around him and breathed in the fresh air, it had been 14 years since he had last been to the place but it had felt like a century. He needed directions to the parade, but no one would stop and talk to him.

Icias was near the center of town in a small dusty tavern under a lower class apartment tower, it was called the Black Shamrock and it was just a bellow his home. Swigging some Honey-Shine he smiled, it was his second mug of the thick booze and he was starting to feel fuzzier then his fur. Icias was a bounty hunter, he had once worked as an inventors apprentice building small bots and mines for the military but he quit one day on a whim and now used his knowledge to create his own devices for capturing criminals alive and turning them into the authorities.

Though this was a lower class area it was litterally two or three blocks over from the inner city where the upper and middle classes lived so the parade could be heard in the distance. "I don't know why people are celebrating O'Shire's passing," he spouted to an elf who didn't care his opinion, "just morbid is what that is!" The elf was no normal elf, from the high lands or wooded area like most elves, this one was a Drow! Very rare, some believed they didn't even exist anymore! The hooded Drow dropped a Shill on the counter paying for his drink then left, "he looked *hick* familiar..." Unable to place where from Icias went back to his Honey-Shine Whiskey.

Since no one would stop to answer his question, Jeston went to the Black Shamrock for a drink, when he opened the door, a Drow budged him with his shoulder on his way out, 'Out of the way, blemish.' the Drow groaned at Jeston as he left. Jeston muttered some swear words in an Elvish language to describe the rude Drow. Even though Dwarves and Drow were subspecies' of elves, they never got along, 282 years ago, there was an event now called the 'Elf Civil War' where Dwarf kingdoms teamed up against Drow kingdoms. Jeston had fought in the war and it had lasted 17 years until the Dwarves finally won. At the end of the war there were very few Drow left, with only about 4 million still roaming around the Earth. Ever since then, Drow have been hiding in unknown places, no wonder people had fought they had gone extinct.

Jeston took a seat at the bar, the bartender came up to hi and asked, 'What can i get ya?', Jeston looked on the shelves behind the bartender, trying to decide what to have, then he saw a bear-like man having a Honey Shine Whiskey two seats away from him, Jeston pointed at him.'I'll have what he's having.' he said to he bartender who nodded and went to fix his drink.

The Automaton nodded roboticly, as his gears clicked he turned and poured the drink, it was sweet smelling but one of the strongest drinks in the house. A favorite amount Bearon kind being from their homeland on the other side of the world the Ember Isles it had a hint of cinnamon flavor to add a bit of home into it. Icias laid down three Shill, "if your my kinda drinker then the first glass is on me!" He had been in relatively good spirits, the Bearon had left his home to come to this side of the world only after his older brother died fighting the dark things about twenty five years ago, and had started bounty hunting soon after that. "So where are you from? Far Horne??" He said refferingbto the other side of the world, "or Grey Gate??" He said reffering to this side of the world. Most people lived in or around Grey Gate, and looking at his race alone the Bearon figured, "your from the Tall Shore aren't ya, the land of Drow and Dwarves to the north east correct?" It didn't much matter to Icias, unless of course he had a bounty on his head...

'Yea i come fro the Tall Shore...ironically of course.' Jeston laughed, 'What about you?' he asked as the Automaton put the drink on the table and the dwarf took a sip. 'I don't see many people of your kind here.'

"Nah, there aren't a lot of us in Grey Gate but the Shire," land around Steam Harbor, "is filling with more and more of us each winter. Workers who can go out in the cold Grey Gate blizzard seasons and work just same as any day..."

'So what type of work do you do?' Jeston finished his drink and put it on the table where the Automaton picked it up.

"Inventing is my work, making small contraptions either for trappers hunting out in the Shire's unforgivin Grey Stone, with a bit of weapon smithing mostly for friends only..." Sighing the Bearon's big eleven foot body started sobering him up already so he ordered another drink. "For money however I use my tinker bots and traps to hunt bounties, how bout yourself dwarf?"

'I came here for the parade of O'Shire, its been 14 years since I've been here and James changed my life. Not sure why people are having a parade instead of just having a special funeral for him, am I right?' Jeston said as he heard music and laughter outside.

"A celebration of his life their calling it..." It was odd but two Honey-Shine's in, Icias didn't really care too much about the cities social events, "how did O'Shire change your life?"

'Well when I first came here, I was pretty depressed and had lost all hope, I even thought about killing myself, however O'Shire appeared to me and opened my eyes, he showed me that there is still hope and to never give up...Ever since then O'Shire has become a big influence on my life.' Jeston sighed, 'I may be 592 years old but I felt like....I felt like I hadn't truly lived, that my life was a short one filled with nothing but alcohol and wars. I realise that it could be something better...'
A tear began to go down Jeston's face, he wiped it away, 'Forgive me, I'm not emotional like this.'

"Your how old!?!?!" Icias nearly dropped his glass, Dwarves only lived to be about two hundred, two fifty if they were lucky, this guy looked older but not that old. "Are you an Alchamist?" Icias asked, how did you get to be such an old geezer?" Icias had heard of mortals making deals with Necromancers as rare as they were but he wondered if this old fella had an alternative method, "unless your a Necromancer..." Necromancy was outlawed years ago but a few dark alchemists still practiced it.

'First of all, Ii would not like to be called an 'Old Geezer' thank you very much, I'll have you know that the oldest dwarf to ever live was more than a millennium years old, if anything I'm still technically a teenager and second of all, I'm not an Alchemist or Necromancer, in fact Dwarven Necromancers are rare since my kind believe in skill rather than sorcery.'

"I've never heard of a dwarf over three hundred years old, never in my life," Icias rebutted, trying not to make more offense. "I guess you old folks in Tall Shore stick to the north mountains then." At this time of merriment and joke making in the Black Shamrock their was a ruckus going on in the street two or three blocks over. The casket of James O'Shire had been dropped and the crowd was in panic as the figure that had once been the cities founder stood! Seeming to be alive once more, the figure looked around at the crowd with eyes of black and hissed loudly! Walking as if he was a marionette the corpse studied his surroundings before leaping at a well dressed gentlemen in the crowd ripping at his flesh with his undead, half rotten teeth! "Anyway, so that's how I captured that four armed automaton spell caster by using an old coffee maker and an elves under garments!" Bearon laugher filled the bar as the two of them were the only ones still inside the tavern. The Automaton had gone to the back room and the people in the bar had gone outside with a bit of commotion. "That's my favorite story Geezer, and a true one at that!"

Jeston laughed at the Bearon's story, 'Ha ha, you think that's crazy, you should hear about my 5th ex wife!' he said and he was about to start the story until he heard screaming outside and a man came running inside, panting. 'What's going on out there?' asked Jeston, getting out of his chair, 'O'Shire......is......alive...but he's ...different..' said the man trying to catch his breath. Jeston pulled out his steampunk- styled shotgun and turned to the Bearon, 'Hey Bearon, wanna come investigate?'

His left hand pulled of from his satchel a little robot with a hammer and tiny Sheild for arms and a key in its back, "you took the word right from my mouth Geezer!" Icias smiled as his right hand rested on his five shot, Hand Cannon pistol. Apart from his Tesla Dagger it was his only weapon, the power of a small shotgun but the weight of a hand gun. As for the robot, it was small but extremely fast and was quite the foe if you under estimated it! As the two ventured out door O'Shire could be seen jumping an unrealistic distance as he tackle his next victim through the window of a butcher shop!

"As far as I can tell that's probably a powerful Necromancer Spell..." Necromancers magic worker a lot different then alchemists magic. All an Alchamist had to do was use an ancient Wizard's Rune to create a spell circle giving them the ability to heal or cast fire, frost, or shock spells. Necromancers however used something called a Soul Drip, as long as the animation was alive it drained the casters own health. The most powerful the zombie the more powerful the Necromancer.

"If this O'Shire is an animation it means a Necromancer was able to get close enough to jolly ol' James's body with a dagger and carve an animation circle in it some where." They had to act fast, the two didn't have time to search the entire crowd for the Necromancer, they had to find the animation circle and break it! That meant locating the carving on James O'Shire as he jumped around killing people and either slashing threw the necrotic circle with a dagger or destroy it with a gunshot. That may not sound that difficult but if you hit the wrong spot on the zombie it will just get madder, not weaker. He could still be on a rampage as a headless corpse depending on where the Animation circle was carved on his body!

"I'm ready when you are ol' Geezer!" The Bearon Said winding up his little bot who went by the name of Axel.

'I suppose so, I'm not really comfortable about killing the town's founder though.' Jeston said, loading his gun.

9 Automaton guards showed up, three of them went to the broken butcher shop window and aimed their guns, waiting for the zombie to come out, 'You are under arrest for the crimes, :Disturbing the peace and murder, please surrender immediately' said one of the Automatons. After the zombie didn't come out after 10 seconds, the robot repeated the words every 10 seconds.
Automatons were programmed to say certain phrases for the jobs they do, guards woudld approach the criminal, say the crimes they have committed and for them to surrender. Doctors would ask the patient about their condition and tell them the medicine they were going to be given. Automatons could be pretty useless and stupid, if they asked a question and they didn't hear properly, they could do something completely unrelated to what you asked. O'Shire thought it was good to have the Automatons dumbed down as intelligent robots could lead to an uprising.

The other six robots were attempting to calm the citizens down, saying phrases such as, 'We are here to help' 'Please clam down.' 'You are in an unsafe area.' 'Please return to your homes.' Jeston sighed, 'Stupid robots.....so what do we do first Bearon?'

"Given as we don't know where the animation circle is on his body, it's probably best we try removing his arms so he stops grabbing people and eating them..." Icias scratched the back of his head with the barrel of his gun, "what did you say you did for a living?" Icias laughed as he pushed through the armed Automaton's firing line flashing his Bounty Hunter's badge "Icias Frost-Fur, Rank A Charletton Hunter! We'll take this from here, the dwarf is with me," Icias stepped through the broken window of the butcher shop and sighed at the eerie interior. As far as bounty hunters went he wasn't half bad, there was E: The ones in training, D : the lowest official rank, C and B: Middle of the line bounty hunters, A: top ranked hunters who were funded by cities to keep peace in case of riots or major city crime, then finally S class: dealing with not only the same type of criminals as A class, but also dealing with Demonic possessions. "I hope your guns all loaded," Icias said as broken class cracked under his boots.

' What a disgusting mess.' Jeston said as he saw a corpse with a arm caught off and a bloody face on the floor, 'What a savage...so what exactly is the plan?' he said, examining the body, 'We find the... 'circle' thing, kill the founder of our town, and probably get hated by the patriots of Steam Harbour and zombie - lovers, then what?'