Dragons & Dirigibles

When Jaf Daskal betrays the sinister fellow who paid him to recover a mysterious ‘treasure,’ he feels like he’s being pursued by the Dragons of Vashtar as he and his little band are launched into a bizarre adventure of fraud, power, sex, drugs, and religion that culminates in a battle for freedom.
Dragons and Dirigibles is a steampunk adventure story that begins the saga of Jaf Daskal, an orphan brought up by a poor elderly woman on the afterthought town of Kipple. From her he learned some appreciation of universal feminine attributes; from the city he learned to adapt and fit in, to be everybody’s friend, and to bend ethics in order to survive.
After suffering personal tragedy, the newly-minted cynic goes into free-lance work, doing whatever pays, contracting to recover a mysterious treasure on the desert land of Mobahey. There he signs on three drifters, one oh-so-sharp and one oh-so-peculiar, and the three head out on a hunt. But first, Jaf also arranges with the original discoverer of the treasure map, an eccentric old sort, to betray Jaf’s sponsor so the two can make off with the treasure themselves.
Once the ‘treasure’ (two big rubbery balls) is brought back to town the sponsor figures out what’s up and comes after them like the Dragons of Vashtar, and the little band makes a hasty uncharted escape, finding themselves in the unknown land of Caliuga, a place settled by wayward travelers over the past couple centuries.
There they are mistaken for the Empire’s Inspector General, Caliuga’s first contact with the Empire ever, bringing joy that the land of castaways will soon be re-connected to the Empire, with all its blessings.

The Caliugan settlements have mostly prospered peacefully, but the most recent arrivals (before Jaf and crew) are trying to consolidate and gain power over the others by forming a continental union and are coercing other colonies into joining; it is into this vortex that Jaf and his crew are drawn. Fraud, confusion, intrigue, schemes and plots ensue as Jaf is sucked into the politics of Caliuga, and it all culminates with battles and bloodshed.
Dragons and Dirigibles is the first in a series of stories told by Jaf Daskal, a man of another world who has been many things in his life, and is somehow often mistaken for noble or heroic. Here he begins a shameless look back at his career that made him famous enough that people would care about his life, and candid enough that they would enjoy his account.