This story is a sequel to Across the Sea of Time
[First Person] [Alternating Perspectives] [Science Fantasy]
The Sea Series: Book Two Beta
NOTE: You do not need to read the previous book to fully enjoy Upon the Sea of Sky.
After dying while saving the Emerald Hive, being reincarnated as a batpony, and elected the leader of a "to be formed" pirate crew, Kaily, now Captain Stolen Ruby has to find out what exactly the DMs meant by 'magical Reaper Invasion', and try to stop it. At her disposal is a single three masted galleon, a former pirate captain, powerful but irresponsible wizard twins, a pyromanic dragoness, an arcane engineer, and a hazy idea of what doom she is meant to stop.
Upon the Sea of Sky is a work of Science Fiction, specifically the Science Fantasy genera, which combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. You can expect to see magic and all things FiM (made a bit more Swords and Sorcery), and also crashed alien space craft, AIs, high technology, and themes meant to explore the human condition.
Upon the Sea of Sky is inspired by FiM, my old D&D games, the works of Isaac Asimov, Clive Cussler, and Douglas Adams. While there is a running joke and plot point involving Star Trek, you do not need any knowledge of Trek to enjoy Upon the Sea of Sky.
Proofread by the Amazing Timuri
Dedicated to NFire, Bringer of Good Fiction, Architect of Legacy.
Well, I look forward to reading further these adventures upon the skies!
*insert random story intro rap here*
6027443 Everything is better with pirates!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfs2FRgp-ow
6027572
You've made my day again!
6027619 I try
Now I'm gonna have to watch No Game No Life. Although I think I can infer from the rest of it how the twins are.
Side effects may include mild headache, drowsiness, dizziness, insomnia, feeling restless or nervous, mild nausea, constipation, weight changes, decreased sex drive, impotence or difficulty having an orgasm, dry mouth, yawning, or ringing in your ears. Consult a wizard before trying to remove the curse. If you are allergic to curses don't get cursed. Use as directed. Ask your wizard about curses today.
In the Star Wars universe, those are called "evasive maneuvers".
*announcer voice*The Town of Startsville... is ON FIRE!
I kinda wish I read Beta before Alpha. This felt much more exciting. Must have been because two sisters arguing is not as exciting as sailing a pirate ship.
------
seized
losing
the
literally
6027736
Not really. The twins are tones way the fuck down from those guys actually. They would already be the Queens of someplace if they were exactly the same. No seriously. King of a land by episode 3.
Actually, the Enterprise is sapient and likes to watch the clouds. It gets distracted.
As i said before...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfs2FRgp-ow
Why am I getting the biggest One Piece vibe off this. Pirate by name but only ever fight other pirates and help the citizens. Seems pretty Straw Hat Pirates to me.
6028089 This was not at all inspired by One Piece. I actually hate One Piece. I am saying this because well, my storytelling is literately a blender. Any resemblance to One Piece is 100% unintentional on my part. The real inspirations for this storyline are:
Startrek Voyager, Morrowind, and Luke the Warrior.
They're called spars, Kaily. If you're gonna be a pirate captain, might want to brush up on the proper terminology.
Poor Starting Townington.....why must you always burn?
Hopefully Pine will acclimate enough to not need the Charm curse...but at least s/he's under it willingly to avoid going down a dark road until s/he understands what's going on. It's also nice to see the twins are lacking in the natural magic department with the munchkinning they did for their Heroic Drama powers.
6028112 They would be OP if I gave them thestrial magic too. See, as decedents of pegasi, batponies can fly, stand on clouds... but they don't manipulate clouds. They an just perch on them. What do they do instead? They manipulate shadows like pegasi do clouds.
Whats this bit called Captain.
Where did you get that?
Well, it was stuck in this bit of chain, oh, the chains gone, and that big spiky thing. Wonder what it was.
Ever wanted to go fishing for a boss with a 500 lb iron anchor from a flying ship?
6028307 Yes. Yes I have.
Starting Townington
it's name should be Startington
and moar flying ships!
6027572 10/10, needs animation and voice acting.
6027736 I read your corrections without reading what your correcting, it came out like this:
seized losing the literally....
it's only partially funny, but have I got to do that more often!
6029890 wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2013/08/02/126870/big_thumb_3c8a37c2f358d35eec4e12fc0b7a319b.jpg
6029905 fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/293/d/1/the_airship_battle_by_spikedmcgrath-d2cttcd.jpg
lets go with magic/dugeonpunk themes for this one!
6029945 I agree, that will be a good juxtaposition for this stuff in the other books:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut71Sxyy98U
6029965 you did well, for a human tank.
...
psych!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsccDIHyA0
6030040 Bolo Mark XIII's were pretty awesome weren't they?
6030049 Hell yeah!
6030196 Just imagine Old XXXIVs like Crusader now. :P
6030212 yeash, yeah, deadly
or a Mark M...
6030439 The Starforge?
6030443 not quite what I was imagining, but that fits.
You know it's an adventure plot when everything is already on fire.
Now that is a great and appropriate skull & crossbones for this little party. Makes me wonder what the party back at the hive will think once they start to hear rumors about it and the actions of the crew flying it as their standard. Well, assuming that they do hear any rumors.
Balance! That's what they get for using such an optimized build.
Intro town is on fire? Figures.
6035444 Oh you bet your ass they are going to get karmaed something fierce for that little trick they pulled. Discord is the one who set up the power granting spell after all.
As for whether the other party will hear roomers about them... read this spoiler and tell me what you think:
I bit my lip and started to plan the best method to take out the mage. She was the biggest threat. I had a lot of firepower, but wasn’t very quick because Gretta was heavy. Surprise was my best chance. My cloak might take a hit or two before being useless. Maybe if I ran for the cover of some of the barrels on the docks I could get a defensive position and-
Right, super mega death mage. Plans were probably irrelevant.
“Ah screw it. I’m probably going to die anyways.” I sighed. “Alright Gretta, let’s do this.”
I narrowed my eyes at the door and rushed forward. I squeezed Gretta’s trigger, a torrent of pink lightning bolts shattered the wooden planks, then sprinted through the shattered door with a roaring shout.
“Lyyyyyraaaaa Heaaaartstrings!”
6035456 Oh hell yeah.
6035474 Sometime later tomorrow the whole thing goes up. I promise.
Leeeroooy Jeeeenkiiiins! heh TF2 Heavy, Lyra Heartstrings, has joined the Party.
It was interesting to see Genesis' point of view there at the start of the chapter. It will be interesting to see more from her point of view, since you don't often get much villain viewpoint.
Speaking of Genesis, the fight with her went downhill quite rapidly. This is why every D&D party needs a healer....and bards really aren't up to the task of major healing. I keep find myself thinking that a pair of Latigo runes indicating Magic and Technology certainly does not push someone beyond the bounds of the Heroic Drama rules....after all, Pathfinder does have a couple magitech-type classes (Alchemist and Gunslinger, from the same block of books that produced the Magus class).
With Rubys setup, do they share a mana pool, or is is split between conciousnesses? How many other dual mind, body spells are there, given Ive spotted a few for placement and movement and even spell reinforcement?
Ah, that was the term I was looking for, a Keel gun. Given you have to have all that ballast and weight in the bottom, might as well form it into an armoured barrel? laso, because of music induced bard, will understand not only making it insensitive to damage by acoustic attacks, but create them? Load it up with Tremor spell crystals, and call it Disaster Area?
Polar Bears? Thats something that could be handy, given how nasty they are normally, now, are they leveled up enough to cast Reduce Size, polymorph? So you end up with Hornet Bears. As in, a nasty minded vicious highly agile flying insect that can fit through eye slots or other gaps, quietly if need bee, then let the spell fail and have i revert back to polar bear? Be a real pity if it was swallowed.
Ring of Sustenance, That is one heck of a piece of kit. either those things cost a fortune so you dont have to flog many, or if they were cheap enough, you could flood the student and stock market set with them.
Ok, ok, who here took a line to catch up with Lyra at most, then read her quote out in Heavys voice.
new magic template appeared? and the idea, knowledge that Spellcraft, the players can write their own homebrew during the game rules are in play? Oh crud, I can see the sylabbic matrices forming now.
I have not failed. Ive just found ten thousand ways to turn a frog into an orange.
Ah, that was it, Lyras Gatling fires pink lightning, magic, but given Im simple minded, would she get more shots out of her power crystals if they were just used for propulsion of non magical sling bullets, with Abundant Ammunition on the short magazine?
6038972
The wording of the spell states the familure shares the master's body, but retains all it's own abilities. Lucky ahs her own spells, her own spells per day, her own everything. except body.
2.3k GP is nothing. Especialy when you can cast a fw spells to transmute dirt into gold.
That's actually part of the core rules, DM's just bitch about it and usuly refuse to let players use them despite the clear guidelines. YOu can find them here: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/magic/designingSpells.html
She only jsut not got access to D&D magic. Abundant ammo wand anypony?
Sweet Celestia, she just ran in.
Very heroic.
You sound angry.
If you feel like you're going to regret it, you probably will.
Wonder Twin powers activate! "Twin-voice in your head" should be interesting for the future. Ah, and we picked up some lunar pegasi/batponies. Looks like the crew is growing both in knowledge and in size. Both are good things. Let's hope that Captain Ruby/Kaily has time to plan the next fight, because she didn't do to well with on-the-fly commanding. Oh, and Lyra was there.
-----
Does
Leeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!!
More crew members, yay!
Facing down genesis for thee second time...everything went horrible.
I take you are applying the dramatic Rule of Three/Third Times the Charm trope here?
Cause...Ruby's pretty much gotten wrecked every time shes had to actually fight. I get she's just a nerd, but damn, harsh.
(On a slightly different topic, don't vampires have fast healing? I just noticed that Ruby cast cure light on herself after the epic slimjim drop.)
Great chapter over all, and I can already tell compared to its sister story Sea of Sand this one is gunna be "Fucking Dark".
(For Lyra, at some point Ruby should totally cover her in combat with the Doom themesong XD)
Said everyone reading this.
Also, awesome version of awesome song is awesome;
6040148
Well, trained an seasoned fighter verses some nerds with powers they dont fully understand how to use yet... That's about how that goes. But yes, third time will be an even battle!
She has fast healing 1. But would you rather wait 1.5 minutes for your broken elbow to heal in combat (heal 1 HP every 6 seconds) or do you want to do it in a few words?
Not really grimdark, but this is a more action/adventure/danger story. Also you know, enemy DM mentioned in epilogue actively trying to kill them...
Done and done! The win will be doubled!
6040250 I actually used that song because this came up on my playlist and I was like... "Yeah! :D"
6039245
It can be... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlJULk0f9xA
The problem with using D&D powers, the big one, is the game is turn based. The rules are written under the expectation that combat will usually last less then 10 turns, and you can think as long as you need to. To successfully use them IRL in real time you would need to have that Sherlock power of freeze time and predict moves, or have premade, well practiced plans to combo moves. This will be worked on :3
Ahh, figures that the town was burning on account of Genesis. Here's hoping our heroes are able to ruin her day thoroughly.
Human world Lyra? I bet we just found a future crewmember.
Hell. Yeah.
Yes, yes it is. It will be even better once the resident pair of wizards soup it up.
Crap, well that fight didn't go so well, Lucky wasn't so lucky. They really need to pick up some healing abilities, would the access to druid spells that one of the twins have address that?
Welp, guess they have the crew they were looking for, now they just need to start making all that gear that Lucky and Risky have in mind.
6040943 No worries, a cleric is inbound! Also ironically, Lucky was pretty lucky in their exploit could be exploited to save her life, yet to be lucky, she had to be unlucky to luck her way out of the unfortunate situation. Luck is weird isn't it?
Epic slobber knocker of a fight, can't wAit for round three between Ruby and Genisis. I have a Feeling that things will not be so one sided next time.
Also can't say I didn't see the twins overconfidence catching up with them. Just didn't think it would be that quick. O.o
As for other things, like the stuff Alahor was talking about...
You do realize she's been turned Into a vampire, right? I didn't see ruby doing any kind of feeding or even mention it. In terms of lore... A reason she prolly can't get her vampire powers to function is she needs both sunlught and more importantly blood to fuel them.
Just a thought.
Heavy Magical Weapons Lyra joins the party. I swear that sounds like something from Nanoha.
Lucky and Risky perform the Fusion Dance to cheat death. Or should I say Piccolo and Nail? Do they have a pool table in there at least?
Pine exists more than a one-off character, yes... I have high hopes for her corruption and transformation into a useful party member, she already gave in on the gender identity.
Glad to see Ruby is starting to get with the program, but shame there was yet another near death. I can't wait for Genesis' eventual defeat. And possible turning.
Yup...
Also good to know she's an avid gamer. I like that.
Poor Starting Towngington, gaming version of Redshirts, eh.
6044264 Slobber knocker? o.0
6044428 Yeah but no wifi or apps.
6044516 I'm glad you caught the engineer bit, most people missed it.
6044870 I know! At least their fire department and carpenters are very well paid!
6044920 Slobber Knocker: noun
orig. professional wrestling. def. a hard hit or punch; can also stand for a blowout in a competitive sport.
That fight was a slobberknocker!
(Also, sorry for the poor grammar in the first post you responded to. Was typing on a phone)
The popmannn would like a lemon gwanade... (also, not a problem Meep)
Bring forth the Holy Lemon Grenade of Antioch.
The Enterprise first battle is going to be against an unkillable Black Dragon, that says Ni? Tis but a scratch.
Carbon nanotubes, compressed, good. Infused and embedded spell forms, good. Magic generators, storage, accumulators, good.
All we need now is the secret of the General Products hull.
You know what we need now? A ship full of ninja ghost pirates. A crew that doesnt exist.
6061079 I'm glad you're into things.