Getting Together: Uniting Your Party in Aether Skies

November 14, 2025

Unusual Beginnings for Adventurers in a World of Clouds, Secrets, and Storms

In most tabletop campaigns, “the party meets in a tavern.”
In Aether Skies, that’s almost impossible.

Taverns exist, yes — but they cling to the sides of floating cities, perched over a cursed world, humming with Aether engines and paranoia. People don’t casually introduce themselves. They don’t trust strangers. They don’t assume anyone telling them the truth actually is.

So when a group of adventurers, mercenaries, explorers, or skyship misfits come together, it shouldn’t be mundane. It should feel like destiny forced their hand — or disaster made the choice for them.

This post provides unique, world-specific methods for bringing a party together in Aether Skies, from conspiratorial recruitment to shipboard emergencies, from dream-driven meetings to official summons.

⚙️ Why Party Formation Matters More in Aether Skies

Aether Skies is a setting built on:

secrets
factions
eldritch anomalies
old wounds
and mistrust as a survival skill

Your players shouldn’t meet the way heroes do in classical fantasy.
They should meet the way people do in a Cold War thriller.

And when they finally trust each other?
It should feel earned.

⚓ 1. Shipwrecked in the Sky

The party meets because the skyship they’re on is falling.

The characters aren’t a crew — they’re strangers on the same vessel, just trying to survive a catastrophe.

Possible causes:

An Aether parasite eats the engine mid-flight
A sabotage attempt goes wrong
A dream-bleed tears reality open in the cargo hold
Pirates attack with experimental weapons

They must work together to:

stabilize the leaks
fight something crawling through the vents
land the ship before it becomes part of the surface ruins

By the time they reach safety — or crash into trouble — they’ve already shed blood together. Instant bond.

🔍 2. Summoned by a Faction… for Conflicting Reasons

Each character thinks they’re here on a different mission.

A perfect option for intrigue-heavy games.

The Aethernati, Piatracas Syndicate, or the Church of Theopholis summons multiple operatives — but each receives a different briefing:

one is told to retrieve an artifact
one is told to protect the vault
one is told to spy on the others
one is told the job is routine maintenance

Eventually they realize:
they’re all being manipulated.
Someone wants them together.

But why?
And will they stay together once they realize they weren’t meant to trust each other at all?

🌀 3. A Shared Nightmare

The party meets in a dream before they ever meet in person.

After Haven’s return, dream-bleeds spread through the skies.

Each player dreams the same surreal scene:

a floating dinner table set for five
a cracked statue whispering their names
a skywhale bleeding light
a door that won’t stop knocking

When they awaken, they each bear the same mark, phrase, or memory.
Maybe the dream shows them a city that no longer exists.
Maybe it shows each other’s faces.

When they finally meet in the waking world, the recognition is instant — and disturbing.

Are they chosen?
Cursed?
Linked?
Or is something behind the Curtain playing games?

🔧 4. Forced into the Same Cover Story

The party is thrown together to maintain a lie.

During a festival, investigation, or public crackdown, city guards demand identities and citizenship papers.
Nobody has the right documentation.
One fast-talking PC announces:
“We’re a ship crew. Together.”
And now they must:

corroborate lies on the fly
pose as a crew for several days
secure a ship to prove it
avoid the real crew they’ve now impersonated

This is particularly fun in:

Kerfluffle (chaotic)
Granglehold (dangerous)
Theopholis (punitive)

Eventually, the lie becomes reality.

🚢 5. Inherited a Skyship… Together

Your party all shares a mysterious bequest.

A strange will is read.
A dead explorer leaves their skyship — battered, half-sentient, and probably cursed — to multiple unrelated individuals.

Why them?
What connects them?
No one knows. Not even the ship.

Maybe the ship itself has opinions about this.
Maybe it knows something the characters don’t.
Maybe someone else thinks they deserve the ship and wants it back.

The crew becomes a family because they have no choice.

🥣 6. The Feast That Brings Them Together

(This pairs beautifully with your Thanksgiving post.)

A public feast is held in a city plaza, on a skyship dock, or inside an engine-hall.
A plate of food is served to several people at once—then something happens:

the food glows
everyone shares a vision
an Aether parasite scuttles through the dishes
guards raid the event
someone collapses, whispering each PC’s name

The characters are pulled into a single problem — and into each other’s lives.

🎭 7. A Failed Heist

Every PC was independently hired to steal the exact same thing.

The vault opens.
Four thieves.
One artifact.
One beat of stunned silence.

Then:
“We should talk.”

This method is especially juicy when the artifact is:

humming with Aether energy
whispering thoughts
reacting to one or more PCs
not actually in the vault

Rivalry becomes necessity fast when security locks down.

🎶 8. The Ship’s Tradition: First Toast

Everyone meets during a ceremonial welcome aboard a skyship.

Before each voyage, the captain offers a “first toast” — a ritual meant to ward away the Curtain’s attention.

Tonight, the toast goes wrong.
The drink glows.
The ship tilts.
A whisper answers the captain’s prayer.

Everyone who drank is now spiritually “linked,” and only together can they uncover why the ritual failed.

🧩 Final Thoughts: In Aether Skies, You Don’t Meet People by Accident

Whether the party forms through shared nightmares, forced lies, faction manipulation, or a skyship in distress, their meeting should feel like a collision of fate and consequence.

In the skies above a broken world, nobody gets together intentionally.
They get together because something bigger than them demands they stand together — or fall alone.

And once they bond?
They become the only thing keeping each other sane as the clouds whisper and the engines tremble.

Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!