Tanitctuatl-Southern Heat For Northern Lights

The Icewalker's face turned almost beet red at the Admirals words.
"As you will." he said witheringly to her, and turned, ushering his followers out ahead of him. "But remember wench, all actions have consequences. Only hope yours are not more than you can handle."

The Admiral snorted. "Savage." she muttered.

"Now then Captain, as you heard all flights are grounded for the duration of the storm, and with the onset of winter, it's likely to last at least a week. Even so, don't think your getting out of service. You ship out tonight to Port Spinacks, just south of Fort Bear. Something about a shortage of medicine or the like. Speak with Ensign Spirdon, he'll sort out the logistics and find you a mast. Dismissed."

With that said she busily returns to the papers in front of her. The Captain salutes and walks out the door, muttering under his breath as he passes by, more than a little pale about the face.

Tanitctuatl snapped a salute across his chest to the Admiral and turned to follow the Captain in silence, keeping squinted eyes out for the Icewalker and his ilk in case they wished to start something.

The Captain is grumbling to himself, and you overhear something about him hating the sea. After a moment he whirls about to face Tanitctuatl, an ugly look in his eye.

"Tanit. Go round up the men. It's been ages since we had to ply the waters and I have no idea if the ship is even water tight anymore. We're going to have to give her a tarring and we'll need help raising the mast anyway. And our dear quartermaster is going to have to produce a minor miracle if we want to keep our gas envelope with us..." he grumps. "Most of them are still technically on duty. So they have to be somewhere in the base, I think they're bunked in in Garrison 021. Spread the word. Anyone not reporting within one hour gets their pay cut for three days."

Tanitctuatl snaps a salute again and quickly begins searching stations and local on-duty/off-duty hangouts, sweeping through each with the grace of a clawstrider heedless of his own size, growling to any shipmates he sees simply, "We prep for the Sea, Cap'n's NOT pleased...", knowing full well that each of them had enough service with their captain to know that when the captain was annoyed, lateness, shabbiness and anything else not PRECISELY what is needed would be dealt with harshly and swiftly.

Tanitctuatl spends about an hour and a half hunting down crew members most of whom saunter off towards the ship, but a few take longer, eventually being found in such places as in the ship, in the sewers, in the room of the Admirals' daughter, and passed out drunk underneath a pile of balloon fabric.

After about 2 hours everyone has been found and informed.

Tanitctuatl quickly heads back to the ship and salutes the Captain, "Crew is present and accoutned for, Captain..."

During your absence it seems that the underside of the boat has received a very rough-and-ready tarring. It certainly wouldn't hold for many sea journeys, but it seems solid enough to last for one.

"Ah, Mister Tanitctuatl" The captain turns, barely mangling the name at all. "You got all the men here in good order I see, which, no doubt must have taken some deductive skill if I know Leumer."

"Seeing how the quartermaster is currently having conniptions over having to carry our own envelope AND the still unspecified cargo we'll be picking up it seems I must turn to you again." He gestures sourly about him. "You may have noticed that we are docked in the Icehome Aerial Port Fortress. You may also have noticed that the sky is fulled with ah... "frozen razor blades" I believe the admiral put it, making traditional flight impractical, barring someone figuring out how to properly armor what is for all intents and purposes a balloon, with a very definite weight limit."

"Now then, and here we come to the crux of the problem. You may ALSO have noticed that the port, where, as we are restricted to the waters, we will be departing from is about half a mile from here, our ship is very heavy, and we do not seem to have been given any immediate way of moving it. Suggestions Mr. Tanitctuatl?"

As you look back at the captain you see a sort of cautious light in his eyes, and you realize with a sudden certainty that he is testing you with this.


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Succeeded on a Per+Awareness to realize the captain is testing you.

Tanitctual turned and looked the ship over from where he was standing, placing one hand around his chin and stroking it in thought, suddenly looking much more calculating than his size let on. "Well, Sir, we have options..." He began, the cunning in his voice ringing clearly past his brutish frame, "We could set this on skids and pull it there, or a sail, but I doubt that would work...or logs...we could roll it there on a frame...Lads..." He said, tilting his head toward to crew, "Do we have any spare skids from the Ice Fleet's last layover here?"

Most of the crew looks blankly at you, being vaguely aware that Icefleet is a thing that does stuff. Sometimes. In places. The important thing is that Windfleet is better. Because.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence the Captain sighs and says "Aye, they left some skids here but she ain't outfitted right to take em on. We'd have to drill into the hull first to mount 'em." he adds kindly, but doesn't volunteer any other aid, and is still looking at you with an air of expectancy.

Tanitctual shoots the crew a, 'thanks for being useless, guys' look and runs a hand over his face. "Ok...." He looks the ship over again and sighs, "Ah..we can build a frame to set the ship in with the runners fastened to THAT, negating the holes in our ship..." He said in epiphany.

The Captain's brow raised and he nodded at the men, who sighed wearily and began to gather up timber. In about 2 hours the frame has been built around the ship and the runners are being fastened.

(Well, I seem to have time to rp and I really must get to doing this, as per the person to RP for Ent.)

Tanitctual goes to the Captain and tells him "I think this will do rather nicely. Would you care to get this underway?" He seems rather confident in this measure and was eager to see this work out, so as to "pass" the Captain's test.

As the men push the ship the skids slide slowly over the frozen rock of the courtyard. In a matter of minutes the ship is approaching the gates of the fortress, situated atop the hill.

From the gates you can see it is an almost straight run to the docks, though there is a lot of foot traffic that will need to be cleared out of the way.

The more pressing problem is that the Windfleet landing ground you are departing is atop a hill, and the docks are at sea level. The ship weighs easily a ton, is sitting on what amounts to giant iceskates, and the storm has coated the streets in a thin layer of ice and snow, despite some city-maintenance workers best efforts.

It is at this point that the shouting of the crew alerts you that gravity has thrown in it's hand, as the ship begins to slide forward of it's own will, pulling men along with it.

"Hey!" Tanitctuatl barks at the ship as though it were a dog to be scolded, running up quickly to the back of the ship and gripping the rudder firmly, slamming his feet through the ice crust and into the street as he braced himself and held the ship still, growling, "Did I say 'disembark', you hunk of driftwood?!" He looks to the crew, "Hey, this thing's getting underway! All aboard!" He barked, then yelled to a passing skiier, "You there! Get those people off the street! This whole place is about to become a runway!! 5 Dinars to you if I don't hit anyone!"

Your feet cracks through the ice back onto the surface, and your heels skitter along the ice, as the great ship moves forward apace pulling you along with it. Several crewmen scramble aboard in time, including the captain, who blazes with a green power as he effortlessly sails onto the deck, quickly turning to help crewmen over the gunwhale.

You yourself manage to draw your legs up and cling to the rear of the ship as it picks up speed, leaving the rest of the crew trying to catch up. However the cry has gone out and you can hear civilians screaming and people running, though from the back of the ship you can't see any such thing.

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Str+Ath+1(stunt) @ diff 3 to stop the ship
Rolling...
Results for 11 dice: 2 successes[ 2 1 7 4 8 6 2 5 6 5 4 ] (TN: 7)

Wits+Ath to cling to cling to ship, instead of getting left behind
Rolling...
Results for 8 dice: 4 successes[ 0 2 4 2 8 7 2 3 ] (TN: 7)

Tanitctuatl clambors onto the deck of the ship and dusts himself off as he makes his way to the captain's side, "The ship is underway, Captain, we will be in the water shortly..." He stated simply with a hint of wry humor at the normality of making such a statement.

The Captain stares blankly for a moment, before a look of terrible comprehension, comes over his face. A sort of sickly mixture of awe and dread.
His mouth hangs open uselessly for a mere moment as he tries to construct a reasonable sentence in the face of these events, and your calm acceptance of them.

Then he apparently remembers that he's the goddamned Captain, and it will snow in Chiaroscuro before he appears as out-of-depth as a wet-behind-the-ears rank cabin boy.At least, where most of his crew can see. A glint comes back into his eye, and he nods curtly, assuming a small smile, the barest upturning at the corners of his mouth.

"Very good Mr. Tanitctuatl!" he says loudly "Now-"
With a shuddering crash the ships lurches to one side as a particularly heavy, and slow cart is clipped by the speeding frame. With a crack, one of the supports holding the ship snaps, and the deck lurches sharply. Men fall and scatter, sliding across the sharply tilted deck like marbles rolling down a slope. The Captain snags a sail-line and you yourself manage to hold your balance with the aid of the nearby rail.

The ship stills, but now veers off course. If it continues as it is it will slide into the harbor, but will continue on, smashing into a pier with crushing force instead of moving into deeper water. The Captain shouts to the men, to brace for impact, but your eye is drawn to the heavy rope used to moor the ship, and a large stone pillar.

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I don't actually have your numbers on me right now, but that's not likely to change for about a week, so enjoy free auto-success on the "Notice potentially useful shit" check.

"What?! Dammit all!" Tanitctuatl growled and snatched up 3 mooring lines, quickly tied them into a bowline knot and climbed the mainmast, jumping off the yardarm and looping it around the pillar as it sailed past, releasing immediately and rolling to a standing position several yards later.