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Six more tales of steampunk adventure in the skies of Victorian Africa. |
Size: 6 Entries
Created: August 20th, 2025 at 12:17pm
Modified: September 26th, 2025 at 12:59pm
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British East Africa in the 1880s. A place of mystery, intrigue, and danger. Powerful tribes, many hostile, the descendants of once-great empires, rule the plains and forests. European colonial powers jostle for advantage as they struggle to push inland from their coastal enclaves. A rail line is being driven from Mombasa toward Lake Victoria, drawing laborers and speculators from every civilized continent. The rails have reached Nairobi, a still-tiny boom town where wealthy entrepreneurs rub shoulders with cutthroats and railroad workers, but to reach out further, one must travel by for or wagon, or by one of the ramshackle airships that connect the scattered settlements.
One such ship is the Kestrel, once a steam-powered river lighter designed to haul cargo up the shallow streams that reach inland from the coast. Rescued from the scrapyard and slung beneath a balloon, she has been given a second chance at life as a carrier in the aerial cargo trade.
Business is good in the booming colony, but in every pub and hostel, at the end of every pier, in the alley behind each tavern lurk dangerous men (and women!) of questionable motives, each with his or her own scheme to claim their share of the colony's wealth by whatever means come readily to hand. No one completely escapes brushes with these charlatans, and Captain Clinton Monroe's crew are no exception. Join them aboard the Kestrel as they sail the skies to high adventure.
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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2345562-Beyond-the-Rails-2-Soldier-of-the-Crown