Doc [3] tugs on Sairi and helps him to his feet.
[4]+2 He uses his knowledge and looks him over, seeing that Sairi's cloak prevented any splinters from scratching him badly. Shouting out orders, he returns to Vicky's bridge.
Luther [6] locates the bridge
just fine. He looks at the nobs and levers, the buttons and dials, the gauge and the big wheel in the middle. Truth be told, he ain't familiar with flying machines. He ain't rich enough to have his own, see. He reckons touching everything will do something, so he goes ahead and pushes all the pushbars to the top. He presses a good deal of the buttons, too, and gives the wheel a good spin.He feels something start to hum, and watches a gauge labeled
CORE PRESSURE slowly climb. Another gauge (
MAIN AIR HOLD) sluggishly starts to turn, trembling towards
5. But the ship isn't going anywhere.
[4] Closer examination of the buttons he pressed tells him that he activated a trio labeled
AFT VENTS,
MID VENTS, and
FORE VENTS Perhaps they'd be used to depressurize the boilers in case of troubles.
Eunh [5] finds a small ladder, unfitting for a man of his stature. But it leads up, and up he wishes to go. It leads to a small observatory at the top of the ship, alongside the dormant chimney-doubling-as-a-mast. He looks around, picking up a pair of binoculars tied to the rails so that it won't fall and shatter.
[5] The ship he saw earlier isn't around. Maybe he just lost sight of it. Clear thing is, they've gotta watch their backs or find metal in it they don't want. The pirates are fleeing, but trying not to make it obvious that they are. Some are firing at the Queen's ships, some are slipping towards the open air, and some are crashing in flames.
Forgot to mention. Apex is one of the floating continents. It's got sea, sure, but it just happens the sea is a couple hundred ticks down. Like I said, Apex's between Second and Third oceans. It's one of the highest continents that's got civilized people like you and me. Any higher, and you get either barbarians, savages, or true wyverns. Plants grow better the higher you get, and some decide they ain't satisfied with livin' off the land. The moral of the story is, stay away from continents above the Third Ocean. There's a reason folks don't go there.Eunh sees it, then, a flash of dying sun against untreated metal, coming from that-away. He looks that-away, and sees an orphaned cannon, reflecting the sun as it sails closer, and closer. Still very above Vicky, though, so if they were trying to use the cannon, they made a bad choice. On the other hand, if they got bombs...
Roland [2] runs to the cannons, and sees that they're all inside the ship. The hatches and ports are all closed, and he's not sure where he's going to find shot and powder.
[3] His days as the top gunner of the Queen's navy were all with the help of a good firing team. Still, once, he was at the controls of a cannon personally, on a royal gunship. He finds the recessed door of the door to the storage, and he slides down the ladders to retrieve a single cannonball, the type he made.
6 Hatch up, load, push the cannon forward (
It's quite the heavy one.)...
Jameson [1] goes to the engines. He speaks into the message tube, but he forgot to undamp it, and nothing is passed on to the bridge. He hears the boiler click, as the alchemical primer flame lights the fuel in it. He peeks in the window, and sees that there's little left.
Arden [2] realizes that he doesn't actually know how to load a cannonball. He never did, himself, just supervising other people who did know how to do it, but not how to handle the special concoctions he makes. He loiters, watching Roland expertly slide shot into one of the cannons, then he wanders to the deck, priming his weapon. One regular shot ready to be fired.
I'm afraid so. Even the cards I got are a bit of a stretch, to be honest, and I don't think I can take another. Still, if one of our heroes pass away, I suppose you can join in.
Sairi [2] ignores the fact that the Victoria is trying to leave, and instead combs the drydocks.
[5] He finds
an old fisherman's string, thin, light, and strong; he finds a dock hook, heavy and reliable, and liberates it from the rope oppressing its freedom. He finds a big box, huge enough that three men have to lift it, marked NAVAL FIRING SOLUTIONS CLOCKWORK MECHANISM-CONTRAPTION in crude red stencil. Probably one of the navy robots, used to lend a helping mechanical paw when human resources ain't enough. It'd surely be useful, only if they can bring it on-board.bump
Thanks for the nudge. This old man ain't dead yet. I still got time to serve on this good earth.