So, I've mentioned that I have Skycrawl, the setting and rules neutral system for exploring the endless skies of the Azure Etern!

But can it work with...

FLYING CIRCUS!?

"Space begins at 100,000 meters. You are not reaching it in a biplane," Erika said.

"Oh YEAH!?" the flying circus known as the Skydancers said.

Now, all four of them are flying in the endless cloudy expanse of the Azure Etern, Himmilgaurd lost in the mists behind them.

Before they knew it, the four teenage pilots were well and truly lost - wandering and evading harrowing dangers for several hours until, at last, they found themselves at Gorehold, a towering mountain that floats above an swirling field of magical healing flames.

The natives of Gorehold, a species of gentle mothpeople, take in all wind tossed travelers, to heal their wounds. They're more than happy to help give the Himmilgardians some succor.

But they admit, they have no idea how to reach the Plannet (a land so large that it's people have no idea they're in the Azure Etern) known as Himmilguard. They are lost.

"I told you this would happen," Dev, the skyborn, said.

After a few short adventures doing odd jobs for the hospice of Gorehold, the Skydancers have managed to aquire a ship - a sailing galleon that once cruised along the coast of some place called Espania? They never heard of it, but it can catch the wind!

After knocking out the gun decks and replacing them with flight decks, the four teens are ready to set off - with a goal and a plan. They're going to sail to the rumored land of Scalvap, which is supposed to have a library full of chats and directions...maybe some back home?

So, we begin with resources. There is a resource called Track, which represents your awareness of your location and awareness of other lands. The Skydancers begin with 5!

Now, we determine the Journey Steps.

Scalvap is Distant (6) but on a normal orbit (+0), and they've heard three rumors about it during their investigations (-1) for a total of 5. Risky to try on 5 track, but not impossible.

Each day begins with the GM rolling on the ATMOSPHERE table, then the PCs describe their sailing, spend track (if any), and roll their Sailing check. Anyone not rolling sailing takes a Drift Day action!

Afterwards, the GM rolls on the ENCOUNTER table.

And then a new day!

DAY ONE

The Skydancers are sailing along the edge of a massive firestorm - the same firestorm that Gorehold orbits. Sooty ash and choking winds rise from it. Everyone is miserable, save for Franz, who has a gas mask (and doesn't take it off.)

The Skydancers could spend 0 track and roll with a penalty, spend 1 track and roll normally, or spend 2 track to allow between 2-4 to roll, taking the highest result.

The roll is "sailing, navigation, observation, anything that makes sense" - since this IS system neutral!

The Skydancers deliberate and decide that since Dev has the highest keen (+4) and since the GM declared that sailing would use Keen, Dev would use Keen! KEEN!

They also decide to horde their track...it is a long trip. ANd, besides, a penalty is just -1! Not that bad!

However, since they haven't found a current...that means there are TWO penalties! Which...-2...a bit more nerve wracking. Still, they're going to risk it!

Dev rolls...and gets a 13! IN FC, 10 is a miss, 11-15 is a partial hit, 16 is a hit and 20+ is a crit! And, GUESS WHAT! All rolls in Skycrawl have Crit Fail, Complication, Success, Strong Success, Crit Success! (Rolling a nat 1 and failing would be a crit fail, in this case.)

So, Dev got a success: He has a choice between finding a current and taking no steps! So, the ship catches the warm thermals rising from the firestorms - sailing more smoothly now.

The other three characters: Franz, Monkia and Hannah, all of them get to choose what they do!

Hannah, the Student, decides that she's going to try out this fancy new science called "ocery", which is the art of distilling exotic elements from the winds as you sail through them. Franz, who has a crush on Hannah, will help her!

Monika, the Fisher, will stay in the crows nest. She can handle the cold better, so she'll keep the spyglass out!

Hanna rolls 3d10 (keeping the higher) plus Calm (which is the stat for being cool and collected and not exploding yourself with alchemy. She has 3 calm!

However, she also has a skill (a special student ability) in Engineering, which applies to this! Since it is KIND of chemistry! So, that's +1 for that! So, 3d10k2+4!

Fortunately, basic distillation takes no roll.

So, fiddling and twitching knobs, she...rolls 1d100!

And she gets a 36! On evens, you get two measures! On odds, you get one! So, she gets two measures of...fluour, the element of change. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, in the crows nest, Monika rolls her Keen (-1, hey we can't all be good at our jobs)

Since Hannah doesn't need help, Franz joins Monika up there, kept warm by his coat, and Monnika keeps telling him he has to actually ASK Hannah out if he wants to smootch her! With his extra dice, she gets a 17! A strong success!

They're at Track 6 now!

However... the GM (me) now rolls their encounter roll! 3d6, read top to bottom. 4, 4, 3

4: Challenge, so the next two numbers are turned into a percentile result
43: Living Lightning is curious and/or hungry!

Now, I roll 2d6 again to see what this challenge offers/threatens!

3 and 1! This creature *offers* Track, but it *threatens* treasure!

Monika see's at first: A crackling, buzzing swarm of lightning. She recognizes it from Himmilgaurd...

"LIGHTNING SPRITE!"

The Horror of the Heights (available RIGHT NOW on DRIVE THRU RPG!) turns out to have been a good purchase. Sentient lightning cloud is a random result, but it fits! So, the crew scramble their planes from the flight decks, take damage, lose fuel, gain stress. Normal FC stuff!

But here's where a major rule in Skycrawl kicks in.

You can't recover. There's no fuel to add. There's no chance to rest and recover stress. There are no mechanics to fix planes.

They're all a bit more precarious as Day Two begins...

DAY TWO

The clouds part and the Skydancers see that they're now sailing through an immense collection of floating, carved pillars, tumbling slowly through the air like they've been cast into the heavens by some ancient god. They trim the sails, and move cautiously...

Dev spends 1 track to roll without penalty. Since they found the current yesterday, he's rolling sans penalty! ...and he gets an 8. That's a *Complication.* They lose the current, and Dev can CHOOSE

1) Gain Exhaustion
2) Take Damage
3) Pay 1d3 track and take 1 Journey Step.

The most logical seems to be taking damage. So, the Skydancers watch as Dev tries to thread between two pillars. "Move...move a little...a little...down, move down, Dev, move down!" Franz says.

"I'M TRYING, FRANZ, THIS IS-"

The mizzen cracks against a pillar. Ropes go flying!

One clocks right into Dev's head, sending him sprawling. He takes 1 wound. He's now rolling at -1 for everything! Fuck. Sucks to be Dev.

Everyone else will take a drift day, since they're not navigating.

Hannah goes up to the crows nest, while Franz takes the rudder and Monika goes to tend to Dev's wound. Hannah gets a 16! She adds +1 to their track (back to 6!) and Franz and Monika are combining to both apply the Recovery action to Dev (1/2 his wounds twice, to 0!)

After emerging from the pillars, the Skydancers see something strange: a vast school of fish, swimming through the skies, while diving in and out of a floating orb of waters! Monika, putting her training to use, catches plenty of fish and everyone gets a good meal!

(This is a Opportunity result on the encounter, finding Resources with Good Meal! That removes 1 exhaustion, which I'll rule removes 1 stress from everyone! So, we're all less on edge and get +1 XP!)

DAY THREE

The crew awaken to see what life is like in an endless sky...sometimes, rain can come from *below*, flung up against their ship's hull, whipping back. Monika, who is glad she can still hear her patrons, enjoys the show.

Dev spends 1 track and rolls with penalty (since they did lose their current.) This puts them back down to 5 track. He gets 14! And Dev wants to get GOING! They haven't taken ONE step forward yet! They're still at 6 steps to go!

Fortunately...even with a mere success...

You can advance your steps...if you either spend 1 track OR...raise the Danger by 1.

So, he does the latter. This adds +1 to the first die in encounters (Raising the chance of dangerous encounters for the future.)

For their drift day, Monika gets to the crows nest, while Hannah gets back to the Ocery lab (She wants to see if she can't collect more of this weird stuff and fiddle with it) and Franz, aware that they're at risk, decides he's going to paint the ship with some dazzle camo!

Monika fails her roll - gaining no track. Hannah gets two measures of citrile! Element of appearances. Curious...

Meanwhile, Franz makes an "appropriate skill check" to try and lower the danger.

In Flying Circus, there is a move called "press your luck", which means if you do something risky, you just...do it! With the GM then getting to apply any soft or hard moves they think appropriate!

So...the danger drops, but Franz gains 1 stress from being cold as hell and wet!

And it works out! If he hadn't painted that camo on the ship, the result would have been 4, 1, 3...a challenge! BUt WITH the dazzle cammo, it's 3, 1, 3. And if the first number of an encounter is 3, there's no encounter.

Quiet, calm flying.

DAY FOUR

They have 5 track and 4 steps to go!

On the next day, the Skydancers emerge from their bunks to see that they are flying through a vast, drifting collection of shimmering spores and free-floating flowers. Beautiful...but eerie.

Dev spends 1 track (down to 4!) and he gets a FREAKING 20! A CRITICAL! He can take a journey step AND he finds the current! The spores make it quite easy for him to find the current of the winds and they make good time!

Monika stays on watch - gets a regular success, which sadly, adds no track.

Hannah, meanwhile, has some phire and she has some citrine and she's gonna stick them together and see what happens!

Hannah is just like this. Franz is going to help.

THIS actually involves a roll!

She gets a 21 (Thanks Franz), meaning that from one measure of Citrine and one measure of Phire, she creates 1d4 doses of an admixture of DOUBLE strength! And when you combine the two you get...gemstones! Precious gemstones!

(There's a table that tells you this.)

So, as Franz watches, Hannah creates six (rolled a 3, x2) gloriously beautiful gemstones of otherworldy beauty. "Oooh," Hannah whispers. "Fascinating!"

(Admixtures can be sold as the combined value of the measures made to produce them, times two!)

And once again, they luck out: 3 on the encounter! No encounter. Quiet sailings...

DAY FIVE

4 Track! 3 Steps!

Our heroes awaken to find they are sailing through thick, terribly dense fog, shrouding the way. Muting sound. Quiet. Ominous.

Dev spends 1 track and rolls and gets a 17 - a strong success! Since they have the current, he takes a step. They're down to 2! They're getting closer! Monika, with Franz's help, keep an eye out - and they get an 18! So, they're back to 4 track!

Hannah, still giddy over her gemstone creation, puts out the scoops and gets another two measures of citrine! Delightful!

But then the GM rolls an encounter.

And another quiet day. They sail through the mists - full of danger, yes, but nothing too bad.

DAY SIX

2 Steps, 4 Track

They have moved far, far, far from the Sols - the living stars that dot the Endless Etern. The world is dark and the the place feels cold. Terribly cold. Everyone gets into coats, save for Monika, and they light lanterns.

Dev spends a track - and gets a 13. A mere standard success. He chooses the option of spending an extra track (putting them down to 2) to take a step (putting them at 1!)

Monika and Franz once more take the lookouts - and fail to gain any track, due to the cold and chill.

Hannah, in her labs, tries to combine citrine...with citrine! And she ends up with...a NEW element? IRRIDINE!? FASCINATING! She's taking so, so, so many notes.

The ship sails on...and the GM rolls for the encounter.

6...2...4

A threat is coming...

As they sail through the darkness, Monika hears something distant and buzzing. She swings her telescope around and sees, for a moment, the a glint from the lanterns. Then chattering machine guns fill the skies! Bullets stitch across the ship (dealing 1 damage to its Defense.)

Six black painted biplanes roar by, their pilots mysterious, multarmed creatures of shadow and darkness. As they wheel around, our crew scramble and a night fight with high altitude rules kicks off! Flying Circus happens!

Afterwards, our heroes come back, with even less fuel, even more damage, and even more stress.

DAY SEVEN

1 Step, 2 Track

The Skydancer's ship comes closer and closer to the Sol that their destination orbits around - and but while the air is lighter, it remains COLD.

Hail hammers against their ship and Dev grits his teeth. He gambles it all and spends 2 Track, so that he can roll with assistance, letting him roll 3d10k2+4! And...he gets a 21!

...with a fault!

What's a fault? A fault is when you roll a 1 and get rid of it cause you're getting assistance. It's a rule in Flying Circus! It means whoever is assisting is put into danger...

Since Monika was assisting...well...

Dev and Monika work together, with Monika unfurling extra sail.

But then a chunk of hail smacks into her and almost sends her pitching off the ship! Hannah and Franz grab her back, but she's taken 1 wound and is in some serious pain! But the steps have hit 0...

And since they critted, they skip the encounter for today and ARRIVE!

(Normally, you have to do one last day at 0 before you actually arrive.)

Dev makes one last roll - an arrival roll - and succeeds. They arrive at their destination!

Sailing out of the fog and hail, the Skydancers arrive at Scalvap, where they can sell the admixtures that Hannah made in exchange for whatever they use for money around here. Then maybe our pilots can burn off some stress with vice (there are whole NEW kinds of people to fuck!)

They can find someone who can repair biplanes (surely SOMEONE has seen a rotary engine around here?) and they can start on the next step for their journey home...

And it is going...to be a long one.

Maybe long enough for Franz to finally ask Hannah out!