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CREW CLUB
WHO: Forces + Some special guests
WHAT: Boat Combat 101
WHEN: Post-Orzammar, early Justinian
WHERE: The Waking Sea, etc
NOTES: A catch-all for mandatory naval training. OOC information located HERE. If you didn't sign up but still want to join it, feel free to jump in.
WHAT: Boat Combat 101
WHEN: Post-Orzammar, early Justinian
WHERE: The Waking Sea, etc
NOTES: A catch-all for mandatory naval training. OOC information located HERE. If you didn't sign up but still want to join it, feel free to jump in.
Early in Justinian, roughly half the would-be sailors and ballista engineers and mages and anchor shard bearers in Riftwatch pile onto the sleek Tevinter-styled schooner in the outfit's possession. They cut out from Kirkwall harbor in the early hours of the morning, and won't return for two days. Unfortunately, this cruise is more bootcamp than a yachting tour along the Waking Sea coastline.
Over the course of the next two days, training participants will be run through the gauntlet; they'll be assisted by a skeleton crew of a few seasoned hands who are used to working the ship, but otherwise will be expected to jump when they're told to jump, climb when they're told to climb, and not complain too much about the questionable state of the food coming out of the ship's galley.
Anyone with a fair amount of experience in any of the fields covered by training may be volunteered as a section leader—so if you're someone with sailing experience, or who knows a thing or two about offensive magic, you may find yourself in charge of organizing and conducting the lessons for the people around you.
- SEAMANSHIP
Bowlines, hitches, and bends—oh my! The first thing any good sailor needs to know is how to tie an array of basic knots. Practice tying off lines; practice tying up your friends! Just don't call the thing you're putting a knot into a rope.
Speaking of lines, while they're learning the basics of how to secure them, everyone will also receive a crash course on basic rigging and how the ship functions. No one will be expected to actually sail the damn thing (that's the sailing master, helmsman and captain's job), but they will be expected to fall in and help haul away on the right bit of line when barked at. They'll spend a few hours drilling on the grueling work of lowering and raising sails, making a series of minute adjustments to bring the ship to a better "point" of sail, and then scrapping the whole setup and doing it all over again until everyone knows which barking orders mean what. On the plus side, the crew knows a wide variety of extremely risque work songs to set the tempo for all of this. So at least there's a soundtrack to sweat to.
And while the dangerous work of securing the sails is left to the valuable topmen of the established crew, everyone will be required to go skylarking—ascending the ladder-like ratlines to climb into the upper rigging of the ship. On the plus side, the Tevinter ship's masts aren't half so tall as an Antivan merchant vessel's, so unless someone is very sensitive to heights, it's likely only a nauseating experience rather than a paralyzing one.
COMBAT DRILLS
As with most combat, naval strategy boils down to a relatively simple truth: If you have the advantage of numbers or firepower, give chase; if they do, retreat. While there are exceptions—insert convoluted tactical outliers here—, the bulk of naval combat features two main stages: closing distance (in which you aim to do as much damage to the other ship as possible at range in an effort to wound or exhaust the crew aboard), and boarding actions (where you jump onto the other boat and kill however many people you can find until someone surrenders).
With no targets to chase, no actual fighting will be simulated. Instead, everyone will be familiarized with some basic concepts and instructed that if they ever are in a real fight, that they will be expected to follow directions and 'try not to fall in.' Heartening!
- DEFENSIVE DRILLS that everyone will be run though include: the raising and lower of boarding nets—dense nets raised along the ship's sides to entangle enemies attempting to, you guessed it, board the ship—, and being acquainted with the orders to man the rails, the most orderly way to put out fires, getting out of the way when someone with more expertise is doing on the fly repairs, and fundamentals of What Do Do When Someone Is Wounded (spoilers: the answer is 'get them below decks, and if you can't do that they get them out of the way'). Mages, rifters, and anchor bearers who can use shielding magic/have some kind of shield-based abilities will be familiarized with stations along the ship's rails and in the rigging from where they will be expected to defend against the likelihood of projectiles, oncoming enemies, or (rarely, given that these are southern waters) other magic.
OFFENSIVE DRILLS include learning the basic anatomy and operation of the ship's weapons. This particular ship was designed with a crew of mages in mind, and so has a limited number of weapons. It's outfitted with three medium sized swivel-mounted ballista (one at the front of the ship, and two in the rear). It also has two catapults on the main deck, one to port (left) and one to starboard (right).
The ballista's fire heavy bolts which have, for this the purposes of training, lengths of rope secured to them in hope of retrieving them once fired (though some losses are to be expected…). The catapults typically fire a wide range of ammunition—bundles of caltrops, balls of nails and pitch designed to be set on fire before being lobbed over, and pots filled with quicklime, ativan fire, angry bees, venomous snakes. You know. All the usual stuff you might throw at someone to ruin their day. Luckily, today everyone will be firing jars filled with paint and aiming to find a target among a series of barrels which have been floated out in the catapult's range.
Once everyone knows the basics, everyone will be broken out into teams for a catapult marksmanship contest. The teams (which you either signed up to play out or potentially handwave by checking the appropriate box on your sign-up form) are:
| TEAM ONE Marcus Gabranth Benedict TEAM TWO Edgard Barrow Darras TEAM THREE Tony Diana Glimmer TEAM FOUR - RNG says this team wins. Congratulations! Your prize is an extra ration of booze with dinner (sorry, Ellis)! Ellis Jone Laura |
TEAM FIVE Matthias Kostos Zoya TEAM SIX Nikolai Byerly Fenris Colin TEAM SEVEN Derrica Gwenaelle Margaery |
Mages, rifters, and anchor bearers with offensive abilities will be given more specific instruction as to which targets on a ship are the most vulnerable/most useful to damage. Damaging or destroying sails, rigging, or anything which propels and steers the enemy ship is as much of a priority as exacting casualties. Anyone with long range offensive abilities will be run through similar hit-the-floating barrel drills in an effort to identify range, accuracy, and general effectiveness.
STILL WATERS
Late in the day, the ship will arrive at it's overnight port of call—a secluded inlet East of Kirkwall that's remote enough to be unobserved. In the relatively calm waters, anyone who wants to try their hand at swimming is more than welcome to do so, though it isn't required.
However, everyone with an anchor shard and anyone familiar with combat around closing rifts will be taken ashore. After a thorough survey of the beach and surrounding tree line, they will receive extremely pointed orders that what they're about to do shouldn't be shared with anyone outside of Riftwatch, made part of any official record, or utilized in the field without express orders from a Division Head. Then those with anchor shards will be tasked with opening rifts.
Highly experimental and generally exhausting, the aim will be to determine how many rifters it requires to open a rift when the Veil is relatively intact (whereas usually the practice is only done to open places where the Veil is weak and likely to soon open a rift on its own). Anchor bearers will be split into groups—those opening the rifts, and those following after them to immediately close them. Any reinforcements are just around in case something goes wrong and a bunch of shades or demons fall out between Step 1 and 2. The work is slow, and methodically done to make a dangerous thing as safe as possible, and very tiring.
And when that's all done, everyone who went ashore can return to the ship for something to eat, a reasonable amount of sleep (unless you've been saddled with one of the night watches), and whatever other mingling people might feel compelled to do. The return trip to Kirkwall consists of more drills, more marksmanship practice, and more knot tying.
WITHOUT HIS HELM
The entire concept of magic as referenced so easily by the people of this world still feels like some kind of joke. Nikolai keeps waiting for some familiar turn of phrase to crop up, something that would sound less like it had been lifted from the pages of a children's story.
And yet—
"It seems to need little prompting beyond raising a palm and allowing the connection to form. There's a lack of...control. I couldn't prevent that connection if I tried, I don't think."
It makes these things less a weapon and more like the curse Nikolai had carried with him. They operate independently of him.
SURPRISE
That much he'd known already before now, but it confirms itself with every fresh bout of opened and subsequently closed rifts. They demand differences occur in the world's weave, yes, but he feels no more in control of it than the sun in the sky or the waves that lick pale shores. "When I summon elements in battle, it is different: they yield when I bid it so, they flare under pressure or fury—"
He reaches for a nearby waterskin, drinking deeply from it before passing it in offering to the man at his side.
"I do not believe our anchors would do the same, no matter our skill or familiarity. Perhaps I am wrong."
unbelievable this boon is wasted on nikolai
Only to be supplanted by the reminder that grisha is not a word that fits the mages in this place, or the ones who have been brought here through rifts.
"A few months of practice might yield some control over it," Nikolai says, though he follows it with a more pragmatic, "Though I from what I've read of the information available to the Research Division, I think your assessment is correct."
His hand turns over, fingers flexing into a fist then shaking out the last, lingering pains. (It doesn't ebb fully away. The ache is set deep into the bone.)
"Thank you," in return for the waterskin, tipped towards Gabranth in punctuation. "How do you feel about our work here?"
no subject
And there is discomfort in the fact that he cannot discern exactly what work Nikolai references in his question. The waterskin is taken, still dripping with cool condensation in midday heat. His pale eyes linger across the contours of Nikolai's knuckles.
"...I would not question Commander Flint's purpose in conducting these exercises."