Travel

It’s raining today in the city of New Babbage.  Perhaps the rain will wash some of the filth away.  I doubt it though. 

Woke up with a headache.  Bought some “Miracle head tonic” from a merchant.  If it doesn’t work I’ll have him beaten.  A merchant should be held to his promises. 

I’ve had an “Interesting” week.  By “interesting” I mean the old Arabic curse “May you live in interesting times.”  These are certainly interesting times. 

Aside from the problems with the Sultana, my private airship, the “Zulfigar,” has apparently ceased to function as it should.  My pilot, a truely talented man in the ways of airships, had thought it a wise idea to replace the High Output steam engines with untried Tesla vacumn generators. 

He hadn’t informed me that his test flight was when he was to take me to an important meeting in Messina.  The airship performed more than admirably for about fifteen minutes before suddenly loosing power.  After a rather rough landing somewhere near the Cliffs of Dover, my talented pilot realized that too much power had gotten into the engines and essentially cooked the wiring. 

What am I to do.  I wanted to kill him but he was also the only one talented enough to actually fix the problem.  I tolerate his eccentricities due to his remarkable abilities. 

I thought a quick trip to see the archives at Messina would let me think things through clearly.  The situation with the Sultana has not improved.  I saw that she was wearing a ring.

I was stuck in a small English seaside town for three days.  It’s all very well. As I sat there by the shore, I had time to research. 

That was when I found something truely amazing.  The thing I sought wasn’t in Messina at all.  It turns out the Venetians had captured it during the battle of Lepanto and brought it back to the Doge’s palace in Venice. 

It seems I must plan for another trip…assuming my pilot fixes the airship.