PLAYER PLOT: Grand Theft Dreadnought

[sclavus]

WHO: Flint, Vane, everyone volunteering for the Dreadnought plot
WHAT: Stealing a Dreadnought!
WHEN: Justinian 7-9
WHERE: Somewhere between Brandel’s Reach and the Waking Sea
NOTES:Violence, bad words, etc. Feel free to post your own top levels, or hop around in various threads. We can do group threads or individual ones, whatever works!!

The Journey; Sails and Ropes and Dreadknots

As the ships push out from the Kirkwall docks, it’ll be clear on each crew who has final say on each deck. On the Walrus, it’s Flint, on the Reaper, it’s Vane, but the mission they have is the same. Despite how often the two captains bicker on a daily basis, when in action, they’re a well-oiled machine, minimal communication needed, decisions made with grunts, looks and nods. These men know each other, know how they fight, how they sail, how they command, and there’s a damn good reason neither’s murdered the other as of yet.

Daily life on the ships is crowded and active. There’s always a set of crew on the deck, making adjustments to the rigging and sails, either on the deck floor or high up on the ropes, and depending on how afraid of heights and how nimble you are, you may end up one of those people higher up. While Flint is more often on deck, Vane is more often up high. There’s watch outs posted on the masts, bow and stern, but only half the crew is above deck during the time traveling from point A to B.

Many will be below, catching some sleep in the rows of hammocks in the crew quarters (where you will have your own set up), or in the galley, scarfing down food, possibly listening to John Silver spin old wives tales to anyone interested in listening, or sharing pirate stories with the newcomers. The pirates in the crew will guffaw and shove at each other, making rude commentary and rough housing, or lounge around drunkenly yammering while the seas are calm. It keeps spirits high and the men bonding.

At night, it’s quieter on deck, fewer manning the ship, and you may be able to catch one of the captains in their quarters, mapping charts or drinking idly, waiting for sleep.

Scavengers; Can you Dread-Not?

When the ships arrive at the stalled Dreadnought, they aren’t alone. It seems, over the time the vessel has been stuck and abandoned, a hive of scavengers have moved in, picked away at the bones of the ship, and settled in to make homes out of the ghost hull.

We came for the ship, not the attachments. This means removing them.

After sending some scouts to inspect the situation, the Reaper and the Walrus weigh anchor behind a cliff to discuss strategy, the two ships brought together tight, with Vane, Flint and Silver crossing over to one deck to decide on the angle of approach and method of attack.

The Dreadnought is run aground too close to the shallows for the Walrus to maneuver up to her side properly. While the scavengers don’t have cannon or large guns to attack the approaching Riftwatch crew with, a head-on conflict is still unwise. The Reaper will make the approach, as it’s a smaller ship with less hull draw, and engage from a short distance with arrow volleys, to hold the attention of the scavengers on deck. Meanwhile, the fighting crew from the Walrus, aboard the Reaper, will take to the water, boarding the Dreadnought through the oar deck, and start to clear out the hull, moving towards the top deck, until they can clear an area for the Reaper to pull alongside, allowing the rest of the crew to board.

It’s murder time, kids!!

Parking and Peacing Out; The Dreadnautical Return

So You Found A Dreadnought. Now What?

Now, it’s hauling this massive bitch back home, as Charles Vane eloquently puts it, while wiping blood from a cutlass. Silver will be put in charge of the Walrus, and Flint will stay behind on the Dreadnought as leads are tied to the thing at varying points on the bow.

Towing it back through Brandel’s Reach and the long journey back to Kirkwall will be a tedious and tiring thing, but each lead must be watched carefully, and each ship must pull at the same speed to insure none of the ropes snap, causing the whole caravan to come to a halt and another hour or so of work to be done before they can be underway again. Ropes will need to be tended to, repairs may need to be made, inventory accounted for, and of course, someone has to drive the thing.

Feel free to take this time to explore the Dreadnought itself. There’s only the barest traces of gaatlok remaining, and the shattered shell of what was once a cannon, but it’s interesting nonetheless. The ship was once home to hundreds of Qunari, and while there isn’t much remaining to tell of them, the atmosphere of it still hangs about the ship, like phantoms in mist.

After the Dreadnought is maneuvered into the secret cove where it will remain hidden until the Division Heads decide what to do with it, the crews of each ship will be returning to Kirkwall, and a mission report will be posted to the Riftwatch network, where everyone can weigh in their opinions on it.

Comments

dreadknots

[sulahnan]

[ By the time she's pointed to the rigging and told to climb, all of Athessa's brave (read: stupid) talk about pirate booty, seafaring adventure, and her pirate backstory is washed away like the evidence of her seasickness on deck, replaced with the acute realization that yes, she is scared of heights, and gosh isn't staring straight up at the sky just much more preferable than looking down?

She shuffles over to Vane and miraculously manages to neither look down nor cling to Vane himself for dear life as he tethers her to the mast. ]

Cool, cool, cool, awesome. And the rope won't cut me in half if I fall and stop falling all sudden-like?