Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

For in-universe game play. Journey through both familiar and foreign settings, explore lost ruins and forgotten cities, and try to bring light to the darkness of the world... or, you know, blow stuff up. Either way.
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Graybeard
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: Just to move things forward a little:]

Distantly, and half asleep, Rip heard Shorty's voice through the communicator tube.

"Forward crow's nest to bridge."

"Come in, Shorty, what's up?"

"The Queen Alice's Revenge, sir ... she's altering course."
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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During part of the time that Rip had been asleep, Garlock had been exchanging stories with the gunmaster for a while, who still would not let him play with the guns. However, it was still amusing to trade tales with such phrases as "He was so shock he shit himself!", "And then everything exploded!", and "...with a melon!". The magus left the forward gunnery after a while and took one of the crew beds alongside the wall and slept facing the wall, his hood kept down by hand. If there were an upper or lower bunk to choose from, he never took the upper one. Too easy for someone to stab through the mattress from below.

The cat had investigated the Bonny Reed a bit more thoroughly on its own while Garlock was talking. He was finding all the nooks and the crannies, as cats are wont to do. He did so without speaking to the crew, even though he could clearly do so. The only person to hear him was Tom. Everyone else had received a flat glare every time they said something like "Here puss-puss." or similar. Some cats like attention, and some cats hate the air you breathe. We're not certain which side of the fence the cat was. He returned to the crew quarters shortly after the magus, and dozed.

Time passed...

"Stop screaming...idiot..." *Snore*

We all know how communication tubes work. Point A to Point B, but anyone nearby any of the receiving ports can hear. Muttering in his sleep, Garlock half-heard Shorty talking, and then awoke...sort of. He heard the brief exchange from the bridge and got on his feet. However, anyone observing the hooded man would find that he was walking across the room towards a doorway and SMACK goes his head.

"Ow."

Both he and the cat went off to the head, suddenly remembering the need to go. Grumbling to the effect of "No ground or tree around... Damn humans are lucky I learned the system..." were heard, obviously from the black cat. Moments later, the two of them returned. The familiar went back to bed while Garlock went towards the bridge, checking on something.

"Altering course for us? Or something else?"
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Sareth
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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"I'm not sure, I... Just a second..." Shorty could be heard moving about, vaguely, and then... "They just ducked into the cloud cover just overhead. I've lost them."

"Keep a sharp eye out."

"Yeah, I can do that."

Several minutes passed, and then a slight shudder ran through the ship. It was subtle, not enough to awaken newer sailors, but to old hands that knew every vibration of an airship, it was enough to cause their dreams to shift.

"Forward crow's nest... is something going on out there?"

"Uh... I'm not sure. I don't see nothin."

"Rear crow's nest. How about you?"

Silence.

"Rear crow's nest... Report."

Silence.

"HEY, GLORFINGLE! WAKE UP!"

Silence.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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"Ricordiel! Get up there and check on Glorfinkle!"

Rip wasn't sure whether he heard the command, or imagined it, or dreamed it. Anyway, he wasn't going to get any sleep until they stopped shouting, so leaving Thurston snoring peacefully under his bunk, he rose, threw on a shirt, and headed for the aft crow's nest.

Glorfingle, whoever he was (one of the guys wearing a bad-karma red shirt?), wasn't there.

"Luminosita's nethers ... another damn fool rookie fell overboard again," Rip mumbled to himself. He'd left the field glasses on the floor of the crow's nest when he fell, at least, so Rip bent to pick them up ... and noticed that the stool a lookout sat on was wet. With something that had a worrisome odor and texture to it.

Ambient light wasn't enough to see what had happened, so Rip decided to risk a momentary Light spell, casting it on the floor of the lookout so that it wouldn't be seen easily from off the airship. That did the trick, all right...

... As it exposed a large pool of blood and other stuff that Rip really didn't want to think about.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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What happened next couldn't be ignored, even by the most inexperienced rookie aboard. The Bonny Reed suddenly rolled, then went into a turn, and then the back end began to shimmy like an exotic dancer fishing for tips, doing a slow spin in mid-air. Inside the bunk room everyone asleep tumbled from their bunks.

Below, in the engine room, swearing would have been heard, if anyone could have heard anything over the engines. Two strange men, neither of them members of the crew, were rubbing various newly bruised bits of themselves and running for the door.

"Blimey! When he said to sabotage her, I thought 'could be fun!' But frak me that hurt!"

"Shut up and climb! That jolt would have wakened everyone aboard!"
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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"Slow fall!" Rip cast, for the first time in years, as the aft crow's nest tipped violently. Of course, it wouldn't do any good if the thrashing tossed him entirely out of the airship, but at least it might give him time to latch onto a line if he bounced out and against the envelope.

Speaking of lines, what was that? There was a line going up from here ... That shouldn't be there ...

"Bridge! We've got company!" he shouted down the voice tube as he noticed the small airship above him.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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In the crew quarters...

"Mmfff fgttk gkttff!"

"What?"

"I said, 'Get this damn cat offa me!'."

During the tumble, some got lucky and only fell from their beds to take a bruising. One man found a black furry mass thrown from an otherwise-empty bed into his face that wouldn't be moved, hell or highwater, without grievous bodily harm inflicted in kind. Fortunately, before any drastic measures could be taken, Garlock appeared in the room and removed the cat with little trouble, allowing it to cling to his shoulder instead. The hooded figure glared around for a second, then spoke.

"Rip said we have company. You seen anyone around?"

"Do I look like I've seen anyone?"

"No, guess not. One more thing. By any chance...do they call you Hungry Joe?"

The man shook his head, looking at the magus oddly. Why did he keep asking such strange questions? Best to leave the crazy ones alone. Anyway, men on board means keeping an eye out, which in turn suggests searching the ship, and Garlock was just heading for the mess when he saw movement. Looked like someone heading from the back of the ship to climb up higher into the passageway of the aft crow's nest where that Glorfingle was suppose to be. That means...yes! The magus went to a communication tube and spoke sharply.

"Heads up, Rip. You've got company."

He waited for no reply, because the urge to follow was too great. Climbing up, Garlock considered his options. Fire? No, they needed air and stuff, plus rupturing something would be a bad idea. Black lightning? No, still too harsh for the passageway. Ice ball? No. Acid? Hell no. Force blast? ... Hmmm... Well, he saw that they were already halfway down the passage, so why not give them a little scare? Creating a simple barrier, Garlock focused an energy ball of dull gray, went "Mwa ha ha ha haaa!!" out loud and dramatically, and then released said energy ball.

On the other side of the hall, the blast of force missed the men and struck the wall. There was a shudder and some sort of blastwave from it that knocked the men on their asses, but nothing more.

"Great, another looney wizard. Keep going! He can't risk the- Ohshitrun!"

The two men scurried up towards the aft crow's nest faster now, because the mage looney appeared to change into a glowy-eyed dark-faced thing with black gauntlets full of sizzling-hot fire, charging after them. This was one of those false images used to keep people guessing about Garlock, but the gauntlets were real enough, and he had the will to use them. For the moment, though, he was flushing them towards Rip.
Last edited by Garlock on August 8th, 2009, 11:08 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Thanks for the warning, but what do I do now? Rip thought. Still half asleep, he'd run up the access tunnel to the crow's nest armed with nothing more substantial than a blackjack. (Well, actually, it was just one of the dinner rolls, but it had absorbed enough magic somewhere to solidify into the consistency of stone, so might as well make the best of it.) Somehow he didn't think that was going to be much good against whatever was pounding up the tunnel in his direction. But he had an idea...

Fading back into the shadows, he watched as two men emerged from the tunnel, puffing from the exertion. "Quick!" the smaller and more nimble man shouted. "Up the rope!" He started to climb. Good; he hadn't noticed Rip. The larger man followed a few feet behind ... and then the two men realized they had a problem. They weren't going to be able to get away with the rope tied to the Bonny Read, after all. The smaller man shouted again, "Cuthbert! Cut the rope!" and continued to climb. The other guy used a free hand to haul out a machete, definitely not just of rope-cutting size but of Rip-ripping proportions. He didn't see Rip either, and swung the blade wildly, severing the rope ... and suddenly Rip knew what to do.

His offensive magic was a good ten years in the past, and he didn't trust himself to cast a Force Bolt without some unintended consequence, like incinerating at least himself and probably also the airship. His mending skills, however, were first-rate, and he'd been applying one in the engine room earlier that looked like just what he needed now. Gesturing at the rope, now being ascended at top speed by the two men, he uttered a single word:

"Grease."
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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Reyn awoke with a start as the ship tumbled and almost threw him from his bunk. As he looked around in confusion he saw Garlock run off apparently in pursuit of something. The entire place was a mess; several people had fallen from their bunks and other things lay strewn across the floor. The air rang with cries and demands to know what was going on. It seemed out of everyone Garlock was the only one that had any idea what had happened.

Scrambling from his bunk and pausing only to pull a dagger from the belt he'd left beside his bed Reyn ran after the mage. He had no real idea what he was going to do if he did catch up but right now it seemed as good idea as any. Climbing up he stuck his head into the passageway just in time to watch what he assumed was Garlock chase a couple of panicked men towards the aft crow's nest. For a moment he hesitated unsure about whether to go on or not; the shadowed mage with the burning gauntlets did not look like he was about to distinguish friend from foe. Shaking his head and cursing himself as ten kinds of idiot he climbed all the way up and continued to give chase.

As he ran it became apparent that Garlock had some sort of plan as he seemed in no hurry to catch the two men; he seemed content to merely drive them forwards. Feeling somewhat more confident about his own safety Reyn arrived in the crow's nest just in time to watch as their quarry climbed started to climb a rope to safety. Just as he was wishing for his rifle he heard as Ripcord cast his spell and watched in a sort of horrified fascination as it unfolded. The two men who had been scrambling up the rope quickly enough suddenly began to slide slowly back towards them much to their confusion. They tried to climb faster to no avail as they began to move downwards at an ever increasing rate. Soon they were simple falling and one crashed straight back into the crow's nest. The other was not so fortunate and he disappeared over the side his scream soon swallowed up by the clouds.
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Re: Airship Pirates, Chapter 1: Isabel

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[OOC: Thanks, Reavey; that was exactly what I was hoping would happen...]

Rip barely heard the "AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH" of the big man disappearing into the darkness below the airship; his attention was on the other fellow who'd fallen back into the crow's nest. Well, I brought this thing along for a reason...

WHAP!

Whoever the invader was, he became only the second person Rip had ever seen felled by a blow from a fossilized dinner roll. (The first had been during an unfortunate moment in the cafeteria at Sashi Mu, and he really didn't want to think about it any more.)

He got on the speaker tube. "Skipper? We got a prisoner up here..."
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