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[UXLZ]

Well, no harm in confirming it.

"You and your mother? Are you the captain's son?"

Ispil grimaced slightly. Monster hunting wasn't something for just anyone to try and do - the ones the stories spoke of were probably foolish knights who'd decided to take it up for glory, and failed spectacularly.

"I'm afraid the irony is beyond me, can you explain?"

This conversation, while vaguely interesting, wasn't really going in the direction he would have liked. He needed to try and figure out a way to get the boy to leave, or at least discover if he'd have time later for reaching his goals.

"After we make land, will you be staying put for repairs or heading out once more immediately? Truth be told I'm surprised this thing is still floating at the moment, what with all the holes."

[Dwarmin]

"The Captain's me mum, yeah." He says, a bit proudly. "She said me Da' was eaten by a Kraken, when I was small..." he says, giving you a sarcastic glance. "...And, it's ironic that Captain Maeloc found out he could make alot more gold by owning ships and materials and things they knew people would need to buy, than exploring the New World himself. He ended up richer than than Gods, and didn't have to do any of the hard work...

As for the ship, I suppose we'll need to dock her a bit at the nearest land. She'll need some repairs after this beating. Maybe take us a day or so, is all." He comments.
 

[UXLZ]

"A... Kraken? if your mother was there to see it, I'm surprised she's still alive."

The mother was probably making it up. Even from the small amount he had been taught, Ispil knew that Krakens were extremely rare. The father had probably just disappeared one day.

"The Gods have no need for money. I wouldn't be surprised if you were richer, though I understand what you mean."

It was nice to know he'd have time, even if it wasn't long. If he couldn't manage it tonight, then perhaps tomorrow would bring new opportunities.

Only a day? That doesn't seem like much given all the damage I saw."

[Dwarmin]

"Oh, it's not as hard as you'd think. Ma makes sure all her parts on the ship are ah, standardized, is the word. Which means if you want to repair something, you know exactly the size and shape of it-you use the same tools to fix the same parts, so you don't need specialized labor to fix your ship. All you have to do is fit it in. We'll slot in some new beams into the hull, pump out the seawater with our steam engine, the weld whatever needs holding together till we hit port. We've done it plenty of times." He says.

[mainiac]

While the others dashed off to every part of the ship Natalie just moved a few paces away and watched.  The crew hustled and bustled every which way and she just politely kept out of their way as she reassessed.

The ship was, she decided probably not going to sink.  She didn't understand how but this crew seemed to still be calm in defiance of what would be common sense.  In particular that captain seemed to let the devil care because she was too busy.  Natalie waited for the captain to seem bored again and decided to try approaching her anew.

"Captain, my apologies.  Clearly this ship is never going to sink on your watch.  Your skill is a spectacle that is hard to believe.  It gives me an idea that might be useful for the both of us...

I'm interested in how a skilled captain keeps a leaking ship from being a sinking ship.  I see business opportunities there.  And you are clearly a very good captain who is unfairly maligned by passengers who are afraid of your vessel.  Perhaps I could write a brief account of your skills?  Just take a little time to show me the things that your vessel can endure that would sink a lesser craft.  That way when I am on land again and talking to others about ship safety I will be able to honestly tell them about your great skill and how it keeps a vessel afloat.  Since you dont seem to worried about anything going on here do you care to give me the tour?"

((I'm not trying to interrupt whatever chicanery that Ipsil gets up to, Natalie is just interested in learning more about the risk factors of ship sinkings for her business aspirations.  The ship should be big enough for him to skulk about in peace I think.  Although I really do hope her isn't killing us all here...))

[UXLZ]

((Oh, damnit, sorry Dwarmin, I thought I'd replied to that post of yours yesterday. And it's fine, Mainiac, there's going to be time when the ship is docked anyway. Probably. Even if I somehow manage to sink it before we land which I'm beginning to doubt my capability of, we'll hopefully be capable of swimming to shore, or Dwarmin will be kind and just do a 'Blacked out at sea but woke up on a beach' things >_>.

Also, I've gotta laugh at the weapon flavor.

Ker - Hand-crafted longbow, forged from much effort and time.
Nigma - Trophy of a thousand kills.
Ispil - Can opener. ))

"That's a very smart way of doing things, but where do you get your 'standardized' parts from? Do you carry your own parts or does the place we'll be docking at have some?"

There was an opportunity for delaying things further here, it seemed, but it probably wouldn't go anywhere. Even then, Ispil really needed to avoid implicating himself. He was already doing something that was probably a bad idea, no need to make it worse.

[mainiac]

((I would be pretty hilarious if sinking the ship just resulted in a TPW though.))

[Dwarmin]

"...Since you dont seem to worried about anything going on here do you care to give me the tour..."

Captain Catherine seems to absorb your words. You wonder how much of her stereotypical Pirate Captain manner is just a friendly cliche and how much is real.

She leads you on a tour of the vessel...

"Aye, greenlander. I can do that. Maybe you'll even learn something. And though you may not guess it, I'm a businesswoman myself-I'm always looking for investors.

...

First rule-the Captain's got to worry about everything. But she can't let that worry show, you see? My crew has to know I'm not afraid...of anything. Even though I've got a lot to be afraid of. My own sons on this boat, you know? So I've got a lot to lose. I can't let them see that, though. A Captain's got to be strong...charismatic...and not afraid to employ a bit of theatrics, if the situation calls for it.

Experience is what makes the difference, girl. If I panicked like you all wanted to, the crew would have felt the panic too-like a disease...

It took me a good part of fifteen years to learn what I know-I started as a cabin girl, running like a monkey around the rigging, doing the scut work. But I learned the sea, and I know the sea. It's why my crew trusts me. Alot of them have been sailing longer than I have.

....

This hull is solid Summer Empire Oak, girl, but she's lined with steel plates and beams at certain joints. Good for deflecting cannonballs. Used to be you could never sail a ship so heavy, but with the steam engine we can power through anything. The engine is the power, girl. We use sails, o' course, but we also have a dual screw propeller-it's a sort of spinning thing that propels us right through the water. This storm is alot less mean when we're not at the mercy of the wind.

Sailing itself is a lot safer than it was a hundred years ago. How else did me move so many men and material to the New World?

...

See, we sprung a leak down here, which was what Mr. Earl was so concerned about-but see that wheel-door behind you? It's called a bulkhead. I can get a man to turn that wheel, we could more or less right off this deck, but it wouldn't sink the ship. We've also got pumps powered by the steam engine to help us move water out, if it gets too heavy. Beats the nine hells out of a bucket."

She also shows you her store rooms, where there are a number of standardized ship parts in clearly marked contained-so, for example, if the propeller is broken they only have to replace it-rather than carving a new one to exact specifications.

The Captain ends her tour in the mess hall.

"That's about it. Rest I could teach you, but it'd take a life on the sea, which I doubt you're apt for."

---

"That's a very smart way of doing things, but where do you get your 'standardized' parts from? Do you carry your own parts or does the place we'll be docking at have some?"

"We buy them wholesale, from the Oestel Company-they make alot of the parts all ships use these days, at standard size-you could say they made the standard size, using arcane mass production...the company ships parts to all the ports in the world, makes a bit of gold, you can surely believe. We can fix our ship from the ground up, near any civilized place in the world." He says.

[UXLZ]

Ispil tries to remember what he knows about the Oestel company. He didn't get out of the monastery very often, but surely he'd heard of them at some point.

"Is there anything you can't fix? It seems pretty amazing that you could rebuild  the ship from scratch like that... Though doesn't that mean your ship has no soul? No uniqueness, if everything is standardized?"

Aside from the crew and the Elemental in the boiler, that is.

[Dwarmin]

"...well, I never thought of it like that...I suppose, yeah, our ship is like every other ship. It'd have been nice to have something unique to just us, but back in the days when they made them unique I doubt me and my ma would have been able to afford to run a ship like that...between a one ship with no soul, and two souls without one ship, I'd choose the former." He quips, smiling after puzzling out his own unintentional cleverness..

Ispil recalls that the Oestel company is big...really big. It was the first company to really get into mass production and industry provided by the steam age of the new world, mixed with the knowledge of the arcane arts earned in the old world. They make pretty much everything-toilet seats, plows, longswords, screw propellers, dog food, clothes, soap, lamp oil...they make everything, at the cheapest prices, all at once. And all the same, so you always know what you're buying from them.

He thinks it's still run by Elves. Or just one elf, who controls the whole thing like a spider in a web. He can't recall her name...

[UXLZ]

Ispil shrugs and smiles.

"I guess that's fair enough, but I still think it's sad. I grew up in a monastery so it may just be my newness to this 'mass production' thing, though."

Where were those gloves..? This room should have some, it wouldn't really make sense for them to be anywhere else, but he wasn't completely certain.

[Dwarmin]

Ispil is certain they would have a spare pair of gloves somewhere in the steamworks room.

[Flying Dice]

Ker tries to judge how long it'll be until they make landfall. The sooner this infernal ride is over the better.

[UXLZ]

Even if the room has some, is there any indication where they are?

"By the way, don't you have to manage those pipes behind you or something? Does magic auto-regulate them?"

[Dwarmin]

Ker tries to judge how long it'll be until they make landfall. The sooner this infernal ride is over the better.

Ker thinks...whenever he goes to sleep and wakes up, they'll certainly be at land. Or at the bottom of the ocean. He really has no way of guessing how long specifically to either outcome.

Even if the room has some, is there any indication where they are?

"By the way, don't you have to manage those pipes behind you or something? Does magic auto-regulate them?"

"Doc Smoky runs the engines-he's our 'engineer'. Every now and again, he'll check on them, and make some adjustments...I'm just watching the fence so nobody sneaks past me, and sabotages them..." He comments idly, seemingly zoning out back into his novel.