====== Chapter 11: Castle in the Sky ======

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Once Rath's manse was settled, the group set off north to check out the mountain that Berrel had marked as Isha's new manse.

The tornado that was Rathimund tore through the sky and approached what appeared to be a large mountain. As they got closer... a large FLOATING mountain. Isha peered at it from a distance and there was definitely a gap between the bottom of the mountain and the ground below. And the ground below seemed to be dead, dying beneath it for miles. Not a good sign.

As the tornado came in to the area, three people flying on large birds swooped down toward it, lances aimed at the people riding it. Isha readied her sword and Grant brought his bow down and aimed.

As the two groups met, arrows flew and two of the three were hurt and banked off, back to the floating mountain. After the first pass, the third rider chose to back off too, and flew back to the mountain after his comrades.

The dragon-blessed decided to land the tornado on the ground instead of the mountain and inquire at the city right in front of it what the deal was with the town on the top of the mountain.

No one really paid them any mind as they came into town, and they headed to an inn that folks pointed them to named the Storm Tossed Nest. There they got rooms and spoke to the innkeep about the folks on the top of the mountain. Isha noticed some dude eyeballing them from the corner of the Inn so Az went to "talk" to him.

Apparently his name was [[exalted:dragonbloods:Pendar]], and he was from some Lookshy bureau or other trying to discover the secret of the mountain that kept it aloft in the hopes of applying the same technology as a defensive strategy. He told Az about the supposed "leader", Redfeather, and that the race of bird people on the summit grudgingly complied with the humans who had sort of taken over hundreds of years ago due to superior firepower technology. 

Everyone came over to talk to [[exalted:dragonbloods:Pendar]], but mostly Rathimund, while Az went to set up a meeting with Redfeather via the Innkeep. An hour later or so, the Innkeep informed them that a meeting had been arranged and that they would be escorted from the ground at 8am the next morning.

In the morning, they met a birdman escort who piled them all into some sort of basket and off they flew, to the summit, while Isha was nauseated.

Once they landed, they were escorted to Redfeather's house and spoke with him. The guy was certainly an elitest Isha thought and they definitely felt themselves the betters of the bird people whom they had basically enslaved hundreds of years ago. Generally, Isha didn't really care about the nonsense politics of the people on the mountain. Really, all the cared about was getting control of the manse without interfering with these people if at all possible. Assuming they didn't claim it. And if they did, and didn't turn over control of it willingly...

As they talked to Redfeather they steered the conversation in a manner to gauge whether or not they had control of the manse. Doesn't seem like they did. Good.

Isha requested an escort show them around town. She had noticed that the buildings varied in construction quality. She could tell where the humans had built, where the bird people had built, and what was presumably the original construction from the first age.

A bird person named Tailwind showed them around and after while Isha picked at him about some kind of bird people historian that they could talk to about the time before the humans came and such like that. After some uncomfortable shuffling, Tailwind eventually brought them to the birdpeople elder named Gale. Gale talked to them about the history of the bird people and the lore of how their people first came to this place.

Apparently, they'd cleared the area of demons when they'd first come. So at one point, the bird people must've been a bit more militant back then.... at any rate. They talked to Gale for a while and eventually got down to the point of the matter. Isha asked him if he knew where some of these doors into the first age towers were located, because she and her group were going inside.

He wanted them to agree to do things in the interest of the bird people... to the tune of ousting the humans. Well, Isha didn't really care who sit on top of the mountain as long as they weren't adversarial to her. It would be annoying to own a mountain manse and have the native know about you but not like you.

Well anyway, it did seem that the humans might be difficult to turn into followers or allies. They seemed to think they were the kings. And perhaps they were, over the bird people anyway. But the chosen of the dragons were still yet another level above. It probably wouldn't work out.

Isha agreed to do what she could for the bird people if they were to help her. They at least seemed somewhat agreeable. Gale summoned his granddaughter Winry to journey with them into the manse.

Winry lead them down to the basement of Gale's house and indicated a bricked-up wall. The group tore down the brick to reveal an obvious entrance into the tower. Az was able to read some some of the words, and inspected the door carefully for more clues.

"Scattered petals of the thousand-tooth blossom" Isha said out of the blue. Az was quiet for a moment, then, "that's what it says, huh?"

All four of them then charged essence into the door and it opened just wide enough for them to slip through.

Isha went first and stepped on a trap, knocking everyone down and banging them around. Az demanded to go first after that. 

Once they got past that area they came to a hallway. The group stood there while Az carefully inspected things. He found a room with essence cannons it it, to be aimed out of the tower. Interesting.

After not finding anymore traps, they headed up a set of stairs. They came to another level and a stone golem stood in their way. Isha walked up to it and it stood aside deferentially. The others did the same. It did, however, stand in the way, blocking Winry. After some discussion, Winry was convinced to remain down while the others headed up to the top.

When they got there, they came to large control room. And then, things became clear.

This wasn't a manse. It was some sort of first age warship that used local manses to power itself. Except that most in the area were disconnected or drained. Which was why it had turned to sucking life out of the surrounding vegetation to keep itself powered, if minimally. They would have to claim this for their own for sure, but Isha still needed a manse. Perhaps one of these listed on the large lighted map. It had lots of details about the local layout of the leylines and manses. Any of these ought to do.

Just as she was selecting a manse to claim from the board, in walked two people. Two demons. They seemed to think they had a claim on this flying citadel despite the fact that they were incapable of entering it for centuries and had to wait until someone else did. Well, no time like the present to quite fully stake a claim on this massive war machine. Isha drew her sword and prepared for a fight.