Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Graybeard
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Rip tried to pretend he didn't hear the grumbling, and led the way down to where a rope ladder was being lowered toward the Queen Alice's Revenge. "It's customary to carry one's sword in one's teeth on a thing like this," he said, "but I wouldn't advise it. If you're not used to using a Jacobiel's ladder, that's a good way to give yourself a radical tonsillectomy. Instead, get everything stowed and follow me down. I'll go first, to be ready with a Slow Fall. You shouldn't need it, since you all look pretty agile, but it never hurts to be sure."

Five Slow Falls later (two of them cast on Rip himself), a rather tired Rip and three colleagues stood atop the envelope of the Queen A. "Move quietly," he cautioned the other three. "We don't want to give our presence away." It didn't occur to him that having the airship suddenly caught on grappling hooks and dragged through the air at 200 knots would probably have tipped the crew off ...

But in any case, things down below seemed quiet. Eerily quiet. Not a sound could be heard from the cabin, no shouting, engine noises, nothing. It was like the ship had been deserted.

[OOC: Sareth, over to you, unless you'd prefer to leave the process of discovery to this crew ... the mind boggles.]
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Sareth
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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It didn't take long to discover that the Queen Alice's Revenge had not fared well with the trip. The gas bag had been rather badly penetrated, and was deflating even as the new arrivals tried to walk along it. Descending inside, they discovered that the interior wasn't much better off. The ship had apparently been left more or less unsecured for rapid movements, and the contents of everything had been strewn about everywhere. Large amounts of the equipment had been damaged or destroyed outright.

On the bridge, a skeleton crew had been stationed. They had responded to the sudden change in the ship's position by being bashed, bruised, and brained by a multitude of items, to include the aft bulkhead. This had rendered them unconscious, and easily trussed up.

[OOC] Over to you to determine if there are any fun and interesting surprises aboard beyond the crew. But I wanted to be sure the airship itself was rather a mess...[/OOC]
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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The damaged crew secured, Rip paused to survey the carnage, but his mind was occupied elsewhere -- which is to say, on the aroma emanating from the general direction of the galley. He was becoming aware that he hadn't eaten for a rather long time ... Well, the away team had the authority to change priorities in what they were looking for. Didn't they?

"Slight change in plans, kid," he said, addressing Tom. "We're supposed to be looking for plunder here, but I don't really see any gold or priceless elven artifacts or any of that stuff, do you? The 'plunder' is down that way, if my nose knows what I know a nose knows. That's got to be the best smelling beef curry I've come across in years. Go see if you can liberate some. This thing doesn't appear to have riches worth crap -- but they have one hell of a cook."
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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''So, we're boarding another vessel to steal food? That sounds afoul pirate like to me. So, there cook better then ours?'' Leana asks then thinking about lightning,

''Hmmm, oven plus electricity... Think how fats we could cook food that way!''

... Leana pauses for a moment

''Ummm, slight problem, I kinda forgot, how to...'' Leana pauses, with confused looks coming from Rip and Tom

''Ya, I forgot how to smell, is that a problem? Which appendage does that again?''
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Tom had been dreamily floating slowly towards the galley when Lola had asked the question, whereupon he lost the dreamy look in his eye and replaced it with one of confusion. Random thoughts were trying desperately to coalesce into some manner of conclusion in his head; Luna had been a bit strange since coming onboard. She exhibited abilities beyond her years with magic and specifically, lightning magic. Unlike Rip, she hadn't gotten tired when she'd essentially blown up the engine room. She occasionally referred to herself in the third person. Also, she was most likely insane, and she had now forgotten how to smell.

Could it be... that she was some sort of alien? Tom shook his head as he heard Ma Brambil's voice (or how he imagined her voice would've been, he didn't have a clear rekuh... reko... rekuhlekshion) scolding him for being mean and thinking mean thoughts about the poor girl. Who was he to judge? Maybe she was just from far away. He'd heard once that there was a place where people couldn't smell because their koozeen was so spicy it set fire to their nostrils every time they put it in their mouths. Maybe she was from there...?

"Uhm, your... your nose, miss, I think," he squeaked hesitantly. "But I'm not sure, I mean, you could smell with something else!" He added hurriedly. Didn't want to make her feel out of place. "I suppose, y'know, if'n ye were inclined, like, maybe your tongue? Or something, but you'd need the correct biulogikal bits what would let you do that, you know, and..." he trailed off.

"Anyway, I'm off after that curry! Haha, delicious curry!" Tom booked it down the corridor towards the kitchen, following that delightful smell. As he got there, his enormous stirring spoon already out of some pocket on his grubby pants, he stopped for a moment. There was a low growling noise coming from the galley. He considered calling the others, but decided against it. Lyla wouldn't think very highly of him if he came back a minute later with his tail between his legs... On the other hand, he might get hurt. For whatever reason, Tom rearranged his cross-shoulder belt, gripped the spoon hard and with an indistinct yell which would've been great as a warcry if he'd been a bumblebee instead of an ape descendent, charged into the galley.

He tripped on the doorframe and sprawled, face-down, at the feet of a very small dog, growling at the rat's tail peeking out from behind a cupboard. Tom took it all in, then got to his feet, dusted himself off and walked to the door. The very small dog looked at him for a moment, big stupid tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth as a look of blissful, happy thick-headedness spread across its face before it turned back to growl some more at the cupboard.

"Galley seKYUU--" Tom's voice broke. He cleared his throat. "Galley secured, Mister Rip! They've got curry on the hob! No cook though! There's a dog too, and probably rats!"
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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"Of course there are rats," Rip said. "This is an airship. Airships have rats." At least we don't try to cook them. He was remembering a certain food stand up in Rinkaiel ... and the amazing thing was, the proprietress made rat taste good. (Until you knew what you were eating, anyway.)

He left Tom and the girl to plunder the galley, and took Xzen in tow as he made a quick inspection of what remained of the Queen A. Truthfully, there wasn't much. The cargo holds were empty; obviously they hadn't made contact with their prey yet -- or if they had, the prey had won. That was something to think about. It also seemed entirely plausible, because another thing that seemed in short supply was crew. It simply took more than the five people that they'd found stunned, and then hog-tied, to run an airship this big. The berths certainly had room for more crew members than that. So where were they? One other thing: not a single portable weapon remained on board.

"You kids done down there?" Rip called. "We'd probably better get back and let Kattie know what's going on here."
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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''You right! The nose smells!'' Leana exclaims after a moment of attempting and finally succeeding at smelling,

''I should really brush up on my anatomy,'' She says closing her eyes, shortly after small bolts of electricity spark all around her, though very tiny and not reaching more then three centimeters away. Her hair begins sticking up again, when she opens her eyes her voice picks up in speed, by a large amount;

''Soweregonnatellthatnogunshere? What'ssoimportant'boutthat?'' She shouts, her entire body shaking, quickly moving to Rip,

''Comeoneletsgo! Hurryup,don'tdally! Runcook, run! Hu-'' She stops shouting, looks at her arm,

''Awwwww, the electricity wore off.'' She says with a frown.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Back aboard the Bonny Read, Katie was pacing. This was not particularly unusual or alarming (at least, no more so than anything Katie did was.) However, she was also muttering to herself. That *was* worrying, and so the bridge crew was being especially quiet and circumspect.

"The Queen Anne's gas bag is looking really ragged and ripped, and I am guessing the inside is probably a horrid mess as well. I only hope Rip has better news than I expect. Because if not, we're going to have a problem."

"Um..." One of the bridge crew who was new and not very swift on the uptake, not to mention overly brave and underly discrete, shifted and spoke in a soft voice. "I thought things were going well."

"Lunkhead!" Katie shouted. The entire bridge crew flinched, but when Katie didn't seem inclined to do anything particularly violent, physically or mentally, they heaved a collective sigh of relief. "We were going to hold a wonderfully intact airship hostage to get the goodies. Instead, we have an utterly trashed airship that wouldn't be useful to those bastiches, and a perfectly good airship they may well decide they would like instead. Instead of pulling a fast one on the other side, now we've upped the stakes!" Katie gnawed her lip. "I guess we have no choice. If Rip doesn't have some very good news, we're going to have to just eliminate the other guys and steal the treasure for ourselves." Katie sighed. "I wonder what's taking Rip so long? I bet that cook is plundering the galley while that girl is doing things with the electrical conduits that would make a Tsuirakuan dominatrix' hair curl..."

"I hope they bring back a puppy!" one of the crewmen quipped. The resulting bit of mayhem kept Kate pleasantly occupied (and the rest of the bridge crew unpleasantly occupied) for several minutes.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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"Come on, we need to get a move on," Rip said. "You kids bringing the dog?"
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Lightning begins sparking around Leana again; With it coursing through her body she gets a 'little' hyper active; running around, jumping, shaking, fast blinking and talking.

"No!comeoneletshurry!"

She quickly gets back to the BR and rushes to the bridge.

"HeyKatietherenoguns! What'sthatmean? Ripsaystheothershiphasnoguns! Sowhat'sgoingon? Werepiratesaren'twe? Sowhat'sgoingon? Anythingbadhappening? Wegonnaattacktheothership'speople? Andwhywasstealingfoodfromtheothershipaprioity?" She shouts once getting to the bridge, fidgeting and shaking all over, also running around the place while shouting.
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