Europa unchained:Story so far
In a Europe...
in which the peace imposed by the Wulfenbach Empire has been rocked by the disappearance of the Baron and the mysterious time-freezing of Mechanicsburg the upstart Duchy of Styria (located close to Luxembourg) was planning to become a major player thanks to its large modern air-fleet and the Duke's secret technology: the mysterious Cloud Box. The capital of Styria (also called Styria) however has suddenly been wiped off the map by a vast cataclysm (as yet unspecified).
This catastrophic event may have been precipitated by Anjeza's theft of the Cloud Box or by the demonic-seeming abilities of the mysterious stranger who encountered Caspar on the road to Styria, warned him away from the doomed city and gifted him with "Brimstone" a decidedly Demonic mechanical horse. Somehow the Marchioness, terrifying, brilliant mistress of the Styrian air-fleet, foresaw the disaster and forced several Sparks (Marius, Willi) to flee in "La Bouleversante" a walking steam ironclad into to forests of Northern Styria. Anjeza, carrying the Cloud Box stowed away on this craft. La Bouleversante is piloted by Akkern (NPC) a high-strung squirrel-construct fleeing the disaster in the company of the love her life: Sven. In their flight they meet up with Caspar, mounted on Brimstone.
La Bouleversante, damaged in its headlong flight was ambushed by Bärchen, small, cunning forest-dwelling Bear-constructs. After some negotiation the Bärchen matriarch agreed to let the party go, but they were ambushed again by an armoured octopus scout of the Styrian Air Fleet. After a tough fight the scout was freed from the mind-control device fitted to its armour and in gratitude became Willi's "man"servant.
A scout-craft of the Air Fleet hove into view. The Bärchen melted into the forest and Akkern, crazed with fear drove La Bouleversante off at full speed, crashing the craft. Caspar, going into Spark mode, used a Jumping-Clank he had created to catapult Anjeza onboard the airship. There she survived a tricky and poisonous bit of diplomacy only to find the airship steering itself towards imprisonment. Destroying the remote controls and defeating Flying Clank Ninjas she was able to commandeer the craft and pick up Caspar and Akkern. Meanwhile Willi found himself alone with the Cloud Box as the Dreadnought, flagship of the Styrian Air Fleet descended to pick him up.
As the Fleet departed Willi was reunited with the brilliant and deadly Marchioness, who had (flashback) terrified and enthralled him in Styria. She presented him with Jacques, a lion-man created as a side effect of one of Willi's cosmetics and swept him off for an intimate meeting. Meanwhile Anjeza, Caspar and Akkern in the scout airship were playing hide and seek with hunter-killer airships and attempting to find a way onboard the Dreadnought in order to rescue Willi. This they succeeded in doing, being aided by Severine who, though felled by a poisonous spider-clank, gave them a device to guide them to the Dangerous Materials Lab. Brimstone, now the size of a huge hound was ordered by Caspar to carry Severine to the scout ship. Akkern promised to keep the airship close to the Dreadnought and gave Caspar a blue flare to fire off when they needed rescue. Severine's device lead Caspar and Anjeza on a "short-cut" via the mighty gas-cells of the Dreadnought in which they battled a Gas Dragon and Caspar created the Seamstress, a sewing-clank to seal the rents created by the battle. The Seamstress turns out to venerate Caspar as a deity.
Meanwhile Jacques met the mysterious Severine of the Styrian resistance (to the Marchioness and in fact the previous mad Duke) and went looking for Willi. Finding him in the dangerous materials lab with the Cloud Box he attempted a rescue but was opposed by the lightning-wielding Science-Colonel Thermiovski. Their battle set off the safeguards on the lab, which started dropping loose from the Dreadnought. In the nick of time Jacques saved the hapless contstructs trapped in the lab as well as Scudamore Cheese, a Spark who had become trapped there while attempting to steal the lab's secrets. Fleeing together with the unconscious Willi and Thermiovsky they were reunited finally with Anjeza and Caspar only after Jacques had been captured and the Cloud Box lost.
Our heroes meet up with Willi's personal servant, an armoured octopus who introduces them to an agent of the free Aerial Shire of Godalming. Godalming did not sink with the rest of the UK because it was hoisted, fields, church, houses and all into the air by the powers of the Precessing Stone, harnessed by the local spark Squire Tregardeny, who also fabricated the Weather Engine that conceals Godalming-in-the-Skies from view. Godalming houses many souls, a curious mixture of market-town merchants, farmers, smugglers and sky-pirates. If the Marchioness can find Godalming and conquer it with her air-fleet and take possession of the Precessing Stone she will have a permanent base in the skies independent of any nation.
