Humans took to the skies before we the invented the wheel. First with gliders, then balloons, first with sails, then with steam, to the first stuttering internal combustion engines that hoisted early aircraft aloft. On these wings, we bypassed a harsh landscape, isolated communities grew into interlinked regions, which became industrialized nations. People flocked to vast cities where smoke-belching factories produced steel and clockwork, marvels of mechanics each greater than the last. But when these innovations and industries were turned to war, the results were so great and terrible that the world was plunged into chaos.
It has been twenty years since the end of the end of the world. The cities now are desolated tombs, the landscape more wild and deadly than ever. Only small communities and isolated enclaves survived the gas bombs, wild storms, and lawlessness that pervaded for the decade-long apocalypse. Slowly, tentatively, they reach out to one another, once again trading and sharing what little they have.
But the world is more dangerous than ever. Bandits and pirates lurk in the skyways. Old armies and old soldiers try to restore the broken ideologies of the past with force. Terrible beasts and foul machines take wing. The world is overwhelmed and isolated, and none can afford to mount an effective defense for long.
So, they hire mercenaries, whose brightly painted and wild machines take to the air to battle the forces of evil. For a fee, of course. Heroes and scoundrels all, the Flying Circuses are, for better or worse, the last line of defense between civilization and darkness. Their lives are exciting, glorious, and inevitably short.
And for some unfathomable reason, it's the life that
Isabelle Morganthau has chosen. Along with her boyfriend Arren, her girlfriend Wulf, and her friends, Isabelle founded a mercenary company called the Minnows. Together, the team battled bandits, giant birds, fae creatures, an army of barbarian soldiers, and a fellow mercenary company. They made allies, made money, had some pretty wild sex, and confronted some of their demons along the way.
If you haven't read the first story,
you should do that. But if you press on anyway, you should at least know who you are.
Isabelle is a member of a people known as Fischers. She and her boyfriend Arren come from a town called Kaltbrunn, a little fishing community of the faithful that, until recently, was under the control of a lying, manipulative High Priest. That same priest gave her a terrible scar across the side of her mouth with a ritual knife. She has grey skin, blue blood, shark-like teeth, and dark bags under her eyes, robbed of sleep by the visions her patrons send her, because her people are hybrids of humans and creatures from the deep. She was born on the coast of the Dark Sea, a turbulent and storm-wracked sea containing a multitude of cosmic beings who the Fischers worship. To show their devotion and record their lives, the Fischers wear luminescent tattoos across their whole bodies.
She's 19 years old, and has been 19 for about three weeks. She's been shot, fallen out of a plane, made out with a cute girl with wolf ears, founded a company, and killed five people. She's had a busy few weeks.
Her early adventurers happened in the region of Voisin and the Fokker Mountains, the areas closest to the Dark Sea where she was born. Himmilgard, the continent on which she lives, is sub-equatorial, so it gets warmer the farther north you go. The Minnows recently got a cargo plane, and have been making distance from their home since then. Where have they gone?
Location
This will be the setting for, at the very least, the first half of the story.
[ ] The far northern Macchi Peninsula, a warm and beautiful region. It is the center of production for the castor bean, one of the most vital materials of the modern world, and known for piracy.
[ ] The chilly, rainy Damiler Coast to the east, industrialized and still hanging on. The most urbanized region left, it is under constant danger from warlords as well as the old governments that persist.
[ ] The frozen Sablatnig Steppe, a region of ice and snow which, while sparely populated, contains the largest oil production resources left. As we're entering early summer, it may be somewhat tolerable.
[ ] The vast Lohner Forest to the northwest, the oldest and most deeply magical place on earth. The trees here can be hundreds of meters tall, and it is rumoured the King & Queen of the Fae hold court here. (Wulf's origin)
[ ] The Dorand Valley, which is much like the Voisin if it were uncorrupted by the Dark Sea. It is known for the megaprojects in the pre-war period that reclaimed much of the lowlands from the sea. (Minna's origin)
[ ] The rocky Albatros Plateau, a harsh land poisoned by the toxic waste of the corrupted Rhona river and current target of Goth expansion. It is defined by the vast number of refugees that settled there after the Great War. (Heinrich's origin)
As a mercenary company, the Minnows take jobs from whoever they can. Town governments, other companies, private interests, anyone who can afford to keep their planes flying. Who gave them their latest job?
Job
[ ] The burgermisterin of a small village, who needed dangerous creatures cleared from an old mine.
[ ] A zeppelin trade company, needing an escort through pirate-controlled space.
[ ] A fellow company, needing escort as they bomb down the base of a sinister clockwork threat.
[ ] The people of a poor village, who need protection from the militia of a larger community attempting to annex them.
TL: DR - You're a cute Cthulhu cultist, a bisexual biplane mercenary, and you're going to fly planes, get rich, and kiss cuties.
There will be violence, there will be smut, and there will be fairly simulationist aircraft combat rules.
