Kingdom of Loathing

Chapter 22: The Red Zeppelin

You wish to be a Pastamancer? Very well. I will teach you all I know.

***

"We got the first half, my dudes," Cassidy tossed the charm up and down. "Now we just gotta find the other part."

"Apparently, Ron Copperhead is in this place called the Red Zeppelin," Teresa informed, studying the map. "What the hell is a zeppelin?"

"From what I've read inside books, it's kind of like a blimp," David tried to explain. "But unlike a blimp, it's connected to the ground."

"So, that thing from those weird black and white movies?" Ava asked, scoffing. "Boring!"

"Boring or not, that's where the second charm is," Tori shrugged. "So I guess we have to go there."

"Does anyone know where it actually is?" Allison looked up from the map in Teresa's hands. "I can't be so stupid that I can't see it on the map, right?"

The squad leaned over and scanned the map for the red Zeppelin, but it wasn't marked anywhere at all.

"Why don't we call the Council for help?" Teresa suggested. "They should be able to give us some basic info."

So, Cassidy contacted the Council on her phone and had a bland conversation with Councilor One. Fortunately, he knew the approximate wherbouts of the zeppelin.

"It's somewhere inside the Big Mountains, so you can narrow your search down to that," he said. "Also, you'll need a ticket to get in. Fortunately, we have some, but you'll have to stay put for just a little longer until we can get it over to you."

So they waited for about five minutes when a package flying above their heads dropped into Cassidy's arms. She opened the box, which contained six red tickets, and each of the adventurers took one.

Finally, they set out for the Big Mountains with their tickets in one hand and a strong will in the other.

***

As the mountains peaked over the trees, Tori spotted a large, red object in the distance.

"What in the world is that?" she asked, craning her neck. "Why didn't I see that when I was sent to meet the Toot Oriole?"

"Either we're blind," Allison said as if she knew what she was talking about. "or that thing wasn't there before."

"Hey, Allison's right for once!" Ava agreed. "That thing definitely wasn't here before!"

"I can sense a large amount of magic there," Teresa informed. "I'm assuming that it was a concealing spell for the Red Zeppelin. Whoever owns that thing definitely doesn't want random people in it."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Cassidy began to sprint.

The others, having nowhere else to go, also ran along with Cassidy. Through the trees and past the smaller mountains, they finally reached the Red Zeppelin with what seemed like a crowd of angry people at the entrance of it. As they got closer, there were cultists, pilots, and... an eagle? It definitely wasn't as strange as some things they had seen before, but for Cassidy, it ranked in her top five.

"Looks like we'll have to get through these people to go up," David gulped as he scanned through the crowd. "Do we have to fight, though?"

"We can just use Allison's cooking to scare them away," Teresa suggested, holding up the boxed lunch Allison made for everyone.

"Hey!"

"Awesome idea!" Cassidy clapped. "I wasn't even hungry anyways."

"You're actually being serious? Is my cooking that bad?"