Piper's Pier

This port city sits like a clockwork crown upon the atoll of a slumbering volcano. Decades ago, ingenious pioneers from Metrix tapped into the caldera's reservoirs of heat-pressured water and natural gas, building the network of boilers and pipes that gave the place its name.

Thus thermally powered, Piper's Pier grew rapidly into a bustling hub of mercantile endeavor and transport ingenuity. While the port's many wharfs are packed to the gills with sailing ships, it's the cloud-piercing moorings and launch pads that serve the most elevated entrepreneurs and explorers.

On any day, the sky is filled with airships of all kinds, from bulbous merchant zeppelins to rocket-powered skimmers that paint jet streams across the firmament. And while most of these lofty travelers concern themselves with legitimate business between seafaring settlements and distant Metrix, a nefarious few ply a very different trade. Piracy!

Corsairs of the Skies

Aeronauts

Piper's Pier is the essential port of call for the most fleet and flashy captains: the Aeronauts. These wind-daring navigators traverse the clouds for exploration and profit. They are the faster couriers and the most exciting option for travelers who wish to reach the giddiest heights and farthest locations.

While the high skies can be even more perilous than the High Seas, with precipitous descent added to the usual hazards of drowning and death by cannon-fire, these pilots let nothing fly in the face of their lofty ambitions. One day they may fall, but until then, they shall enjoy the freedom that only the open sky can provide.

Smugglers, Thieves, and Raiders

Through a web of bribery and blackmail, smugglers and thieves do a prosperous trade under the nose of the Coast Guard. Covered by forged documentation and palmed payoffs, stolen goods can be unloaded and fenced into the city's bustling black market.

Airborne raiders gather to share secrets and broker deals at the Mechaneer's Bounty, a tavern blimp tethered to a towering elevator. The mysterious proprietor, known only as Cirrus, has his sticky fingers in so many pies that even the governor must turn a blind eye, else have her dirty laundry aired for all to see. Within Cirrus' businesses, the worst kind of pirate can wheel and deal in privacy, as long as they pay a portion of their plunder to the crime boss's coffers.

Governors and Guards

After Piper's Pier wrest its independence from Metrix in the brief Clockwork War, a governor has been elected every five years from the most prominent and prosperous merchants. Despite Piper's Pier running mostly on private enterprise, the Governor's Chambers manages the thermal infrastructure, docks, and Coast Guard. It's the governor's job to keep the pipes clear and the populace safe from pirates and other marine menaces.

Governor Practiss has dominated Pier politics for over a decade. Though her last election was stained with scandal and accusations of corruption, Practiss has maintained a copperplate grip on the city by expanding the Coast Guard and filling her office with handpicked cronies.

Suspicion is that Practiss has a clandestine alliance with the crime boss, Cirrus. Lubbers with a penchant for talking bilge claim that Practiss and Cirrus are one and the same. Of course, such notions are best not voiced within earshot of the Coast Guard or the governor's skywardens.

Corporate Interests

While most companies of Metrix origin were ousted during the Clockwork War, the Cogwerx Conglomerate still maintains a foothold in the Pier. Under contract to the Governor's Chambers, they run some of the infrastructure, and build and repair the skywardens.

The only company permitted by the governor to own its own docks, Cogwerx receives sailing ships and airships filled with cogs and immigrants from Metrix, and sends them back, packed to the gunnels with raw resources, especially gold.