Jorlak

Maybe someone more familiar with technology would know of a purpose for the door-framed device. The first thing that comes to Jorlak's mind is a mirror, but it could just as easily be a part from a vehicle, perhaps with some security features. Meanwhile, in order to have something to report, he'll probably need to wait and see what gets extracted first.

Karogeth

"I'm headed back in to keep watch of the cargo bay whilst the girders cool down. They shouldn't by that much, while those fires still rage. When they get under control, we need to throw up a cordon: Until then I'll see to it that the heart of things is secure. We'll keep what we can safe, expanding that as more becomes possible."

The ferry makes crosses the river again, and returns with some Karazthan fire-fighting equipment, although even with powerful hoses trained of the burning buildings it will still take some time to put out all the fires.

The Karazthan are having trouble with manpower; attempts to expand the cordon takes away men from fighting the fires, and while bystanders are mostly willing to move back, the civilians engaged in fire-fighting are not willing to leave the area.

Karogeth

He sighed as the concept of 'when' seemed to be beyond his compatriots.

"First the fire. Then the cordon. When you've got that sorted, I'll be by the cargo bay."

Jorlak

The priest guesses that it might take a little while until the Karazthani is ready to extract something from the wreckage. It belatedly occurs to him that it might be better if Karogeth doesn't have a chance to realize that the same face has been among the onlookers for a rather long time.

He leaves the vicinity and backtracks its path, on the off-chance that it dropped something interesting prior to the actual impact.

With manpower at a premium, a couple of street urchins manage to slip past the minimal cordon, trying to pretend they're doing something towards fire-fighting, but actually give Karogeth the impression they're more interested in nicking stuff. From the wreck.

* * * *

Meanwhile Jorlak isn't completely sure of the direction the airship took while it crashed; from what he saw earlier it appeared to come down across the river in the same direction the wreck ended up facing, so anything that dropped off before it crashed into the waterfront buildings would have ended up in the river itself.

At this point the river not deep on this bank; only shallow-draft barges can tie up at this part of the waterfront. The main navigation channel is further out on the Academy of the Mind side of the river.

Jorlak extends his senses into the murky water, searching for anything that somehow doesn't belong. There's the usual tangle of detritus you'd expect; a few boots, at least one dead body in an advanced state of decay.

And something strange; an artefact about the size of a head, with that half-melted, half-grown nature of artefacts of the ancients. Not covered in weed or murk, it probably hadn't been there long. It's about three or four feet below the surface, and about twice that distance from the shore.

Karogeth

Unacceptable. He calls one of his escorts off the duty, pointing out the troublemakers, with instructions to remove them fromthe wreck by any means necessary, lethally if they won't go quietly, then return to firefighting. He really hoped they wouldn't need to be summarily executed, but frankly, the stakes were higher than their lives.

Jorlak

It is possible that the submerged artefact in that location is merely a coincidence, but it is still a worthy find, and likely better than trying to get something off the airship.

Assuming, of course, that Jorlak can get it away from here without being intercepted by the Karazthani. They might not have considered the possibility of losing something into the river, but they can't miss the implication of someone with sodden clothing carrying a bulky object away from the scene.

Ideally, he would like to get one or two others from the Temple, along with a suitable container and a spare set of clothing for whomever wades out to retrieve the object. But contacting the Temple for help does not seem to be feasible. He might be able to catch the attention of someone across the river at the point, but this isn't a spot where that would be useful. Still, he looks toward the opposite buildings, trying to recognize any useful prospects.

Not even a couple of lightning wand shots over their heads is quite enough to drive the urchins back, and it needs on to get shot before they see sense. Fortunately for the urchin the wand was only on the low-voltage stun setting.

Jorlak looks across the river, and the closest buildings on the opposite bank are the extensive city-within-a-city of the Academy of the Mind, with it's walls and spires. One of the towers is missing.

Karogeth

With that one dealt with, Karogeth resumed his watch. Guardians, hadn't this ship suffered enough? The ignominy of being pulled apart by avaricious hands was not something he intended to permit. Privately, he was glad they hadn't had to shed blood yet, but with this city it was probably only a matter of time before even a low intensity shot wouldn't be enough. He hoped the firefight was going well, but he needed to perform his own duties as best he could.

Jorlak

The priest thinks about the incident that led to this airship being shot down in the first place. He might be able to get the attention of someone within the Academy, but that would be likely to complicate things.

Under the circumstances, he can expect this side of the river (and the wreckage) to attract some attention from the other side. He needs to be certain he can find this location again, and then back off so he won't be noticed.

Jorlak thinks he can probably locate the site again by lining up distinctively-painted mooring post with a building on the opposite side of the road.

Meanwhile the Men-in-Black, with the aid of the fire-fighting equipment brought across the river, have managed to bring the fires more or less under control.

Karogeth

He waited until 'More or Less' had no chance of becoming 'Out of' before gradually reassigning the men to a closer watch on the perimeter, keeping his own eyes open to ensure no-one was approaching the cooling wreckage.

Jorlak

First, the priest wanders back to the dock, to see whether returning across the river will be within his budget now. Then he returns to a vantage point with a view of the wreckage.

Jorlak finds he's just about got enough coin to get back across the river, and that the boats will be sailing for as long as there are people still wanting to cross the river.

Meanwhile the girders have cooled sufficiently for the transfer of the cargo to begin; since there's quite a bit of it, it will be a long job.

Jorlak

That sunken object is not going to retrieve itself, and his best chance is to get that retrieved before the Karazthan think to check the airship's path for jetsam.

He uses the last of his coin to return across the river and proceed to the Temple. While returning, he thinks about how he will explain this to the High Priest. Getting help behind Nuildal Zalyn's back might be possible, but it would not be a good idea. It might be as simple as "Zardor asked me to find out what that wrecked airship was carrying. It looks like one piece fell out near the river bank. While I could wade in and retrieve it myself, I would need help to get it back here unnoticed."

Karogeth

It was going to be a long job,but that just meant diligent oversight and hard work. It hadn't yet been necessary to kill any looters in or around the crash site, and that at least was a small mercy.He ensured as best he could that vigilance was high: anyone seen trying to steal a piece of Karazthan technology was going to have to be dealt with very swiftly and very harshly, or they'd be facing a rush of opportunist looters.