Two large airships, The Scarlet Merchant and The Appleseed, had arrived in port today. Both were behemoths of cargo ships from one of the biggest commerce Guilds in Tarishitar. Since they were larger than normal ships and had arrived fairly close, both the deckhand and maintenance sections had to scramble to disembark and embark the cargo AND perform maintenance. However, there had been plenty of times in the past where this had occurred. With a mostly veteran crew, both cargo ships were prepped to leave the next morning before the end of the work day.
A long day it was for certain members of the maintenance crew, especially the artificers and aircraft crystal maintenance. Both ships had malfunctioning elevation and azimuth control crystal sets. The crystal tech, Zek, was tasked with replacing both of the crystal sets and both took two hours each. Zek had experience with airships since he was a child, and was a skilled crystal handler. By the end of the day, all he wanted were a couple of strong drinks and a hot meal.
The Witch's Gown, a tavern that brewed the infamous black out ale, named Witch's Snot, was the place he traveled two. There were two reasons for this: one, he knew the place would be filled with disgruntled workers, thieves, gangsters and not so nice people, and two, he knew the owners since they were children and wouldn't mind a night with their talented daughter. It was a lively place when he walked in, a bunch of bar goers were dancing and cheering to the upbeat rhythm the talented daughter was playing on her violin. Even though Zek was a couple times her age, he hadn't met very many violinist that had as much talent as she did, nor had a bigger chest.
"Good Evening, Maria. You're looking just as beautiful as you did a decade ago." Zek said to the owner of the Witch's Gown; he had known her since she was a child. He had been best friends with her parents, but they were gone now. He outlived her parents, his parents, his childhood friends and his siblings by at least thirty years. Somehow he had stopped aging in his late twenties, while everyone else had continued to age.
Maria gave a sarcastic grin and went to the kitchen to fetch his usual, the best gruel she had and never ending Witch's Snot. Zek could hold his alcohol, and knew it was for the same reason he didn't age. It would take a normal man one and a half drinks to get hammered, it would take him five, nine to get black out drunk. Zek sat down on the bar stool at the counter, and once Maria had given him his first pint he turned around and scanned the bar. He could see many usuals and newcomers here.
He leaned over to the individual next to him, "When the owner was in her teenage years, she was very much like her daughter up there. Beautiful, talented and a firecracker. After a few years of her trying to court me, she finally understood why she couldn't have me…" He started without paying much attention to who he was talking to. "It took her to meet my old pile of bones of my brother to realize how old I was and how weird it would be to marry a person five times her age. Ha Ha!" He laughed. He didn't care if people knew how old and special he was; most importantly he didn't know why he was in the condition he was in. His parents were airship artificers and normal humans, his five siblings were normal and even his nieces and nephews are normal. It was just him, never aging and watching as the world around him change.
After one hundred and twenty two years, it was finally time for him to change. Tarishitar was a great place, and he had a great time for most of his lifetime. It was time for him to leave a mark on the floating city, and he had the perfect plan for it. He just needed a certain amount of people to help him with his plan; and that was why he was at the Witch's Gown.
"Hey, wanna get paid a whole lot and have an exuberant amount of fun?" he asked, finally looking to see who he was talking to.
