In orbit around Venus, the group decided it was best to seek out the right equipment for entering the low lands, and hopefully learn some information about where they were headed. Reviewing what they knew of Venus, they decided to land in the Ishtaran city of New Elysium.
At the space port, they made some small talk with the dock worker before settling their fees, then they headed into the city.
The city resided under a large dome that was intended to protect the people from the hazardous atmosphere in the years before terraforming had made the levels of sulfuric acid in the air diminished enough to breath without a mask. Even with the dome, the air had a slight tang to it from the remaining acid.
As they traveled into the city, they passed people doing all manner of work. Farmers tending fields, builders working on homes, blacksmiths forging weapons and everything in between. Carm could not help himself and managed to collect a medium sized wagon of produce and herbs to begin new culinary adventures with. Among Carm’s acquisitions, were a bushel of Aphroditian apples, which Seraphina was very excited about.
The adventurers knew that the light of Day would not go for a long long time, so they felt no real rush to make their way into and out of the city. Venus has a very very slow rotation and so a Venusian day can take as much as six months on Earth; which means there is also 6 whole months of darkness as well.
Max decided to try and find out information in a very nice restaurant, while Zaphod made his way to a dirty looking stall in the market that had a bunch of drunks hanging around it. They both did fairly well in their chosen environment asking about RAM terrorists and lowlanders, and walked away with knowledge that the low lands contained a large population of lowlanders who were relatively friendly, but also did not seem to want people wandering around down there. Zaphod also managed to get directions to an area of the lowlands that apparently had a large lowlander village in it.
Knowing as much as they could learn, the adventurers made their way through the market and gathered heavy body armor designed for use in the lowlands, that would specifically protect them from the oppressive heat, pressure and acidic atmosphere. Some of them also picked up some weapons that would not corrode.
When they got back to the Maelstrom Rider, they decided to speak with the dock worker a little bit more and managed to make friends with him through food. Carm was able to make something not entirely unpalatable with the vegetables that he acquired and Seraphina was able to make a wonderful set of apple treats. The dock worker was very excited for the food and told them to come back anytime and he would take care of them.
A short flight later, the group of adventurers found themselves slowly trudging through the lowlands ‘soup’. Visibility was very low and the ship’s sensors simply refused to work properly. Scott could not locate structures or too much else and so when they asked if there were any signs of life nearby, Scott could only tell them that there was a large biomass not very far from them.
The adventurers hoped the large mass was the lowlander village they had come to visit, and so began to head that direction. When they got within the vicinity of the mass, they were sieged by a massive swarm of swamp hornets. Alex began blasting the hornets and the others did their best to fight off the menacing insects.
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