The Hiring - Chatter

[SpaceBadger]

This is like pulling teeth!

If you don't mind, Mr. GM, we are trying to roleplay here and would like to know some details that our characters would have observed with their eyes during the previous daylight, and some they should be able to feel with their hands at arm's length, and see with whatever they are using for light in this search of the ship. (What ARE they using for light, anyway?)

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

Is there a catwalk from the tail up to the solar boiler? Or climbing a 30 degree rope ladder? Or ???

Did you retain the rope ladders on the exterior of the airship shell, or change it to a rope webbing all over, or ???

[aramis]

You see by the dim light from the electrics - lots of gas bags, the catwalks and their railings, and not bloody much else... Because there really isn't ANYTHING TO SEE; no evidence that anyone other than crew and the obnoxious frenchman made it aboard.

opening any of the doors other than the exits from midship or aft balcony or the gondola airlock would wake the dead - they're heavy, squeaky, and not-flat. The equalization vents require steam pressure to work, or hours on a hand crank. Same for moving the main spars to flight positions.

Other than that the NPC's on the crew have spread out already and opted for duty station bunking because it means privacy and quiet, there is little to find. Climbing up to the mirror is rather a risk - a failure is falling overboard. And at 40' AGL, that puts the bag top almost a hundred past that... but due to the slope, it won't be a terminal velocity hit. (a 70' fall isn't fun, tho.) And yes, it pretty well takes an acrobat to climb the bag itself... it's sheet aluminum, rather than doped fabric Climbing it is noisy.

Don't forget that the guys on the ground are better than you at guarding due to a combination of sheer numbers, no lack of sleep, no major fire risk, and being able to focus on about 36 square meters to do so. One came up, and they called on it, and the non-military firewatch got to him first.

There are 3,000,000 cubic feet of hydrogen and girder... and probably 40,000 linear feet of 5' diameter gas-cells, for 1.2million sq ft of animal intestine. A couple miles of pipes, too. Air, steam, water return, and voice. you can see, at least in silhouette, anyone on a catwalk inside. At least two spare cells would be rolled and stowed, and enough patch stowed to make a third.

The compression bags are likely linen with rubber. and compressed with electricity.

[SpaceBadger]

[If I had a witness on the stand this evasive I'd be asking the judge for an admonishment... ]

Q-1: On the exterior of the aluminum airship shell, does it still have strategically-placed rope ladders as I described, or did you change it to an overall rope webbing as you mentioned once before, or is there some other means of climbing on the outside of the shell?

Q-2: On the exterior of the aluminum airship shell, for climbing up the apparent 30 degree slope from tail to topside where solar boiler is located, is there a catwalk or rope ladder or what?

McBean has ordered Carson and Jeb to go up there and search. You blocked the original route by stating that it required steam to open the hatches (very odd that McBean did not know that until they had already climbed up to the upper airlock... ). I'm trying to figure how McBean expects Carson and Jeb to get up there.

Carson has Agility 5 and Endurance 3, but only 2 in Mountaineering, so he would only get 2 dice to roll 2 successes at TN 1: 1/36 chance of success, 35/36 chance of falling. Climbing with such a high chance of falling does not seem a reasonable way to go. Having either rope ladders or webbing seems a likely precaution.

[McPerth]

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

You blocked the original route by stating that it required steam to open the hatches

The Highland Pride is expected to run most of its atmospheric time on sails, so without steam. If the steam is needed to open the exterior (vaccum thight) doors, that would make the exit to exterior imposible most of its atmospheric time (and I guess that's when one is expected to go there)...

As McBean is not stupid, I guess he should have foreseen this. My take would be that exterior doors open lateraly with a cranck mechanism. Would that be posible?

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

(very odd that McBean did not know that until they had already climbed up to the upper airlock... ). I'm trying to figure how McBean expects Carson and Jeb to get up there.

Shute McBean would have known about that (unless the idea above is taken into consideration), but McPerth, being no engineer (nor having much idea about engineering, to say the least) did not...

Off course, if going to the top deck is so difficult as Aramis says, Carson and Jeb would not be ordered to search it (after all, the possibility someone went there is very low), and the search would be limited to the interiors.

Originally Posted by aramis

You see by the dim light from the electrics - lots of gas bags, the catwalks and their railings, and not bloody much else... Because there really isn't ANYTHING TO SEE; no evidence that anyone other than crew and the obnoxious frenchman made it aboard.

opening any of the doors other than the exits from midship or aft balcony or the gondola airlock would wake the dead - they're heavy, squeaky, and not-flat. The equalization vents require steam pressure to work, or hours on a hand crank. Same for moving the main spars to flight positions.

Other than that the NPC's on the crew have spread out already and opted for duty station bunking because it means privacy and quiet, there is little to find. Climbing up to the mirror is rather a risk - a failure is falling overboard. And at 40' AGL, that puts the bag top almost a hundred past that... but due to the slope, it won't be a terminal velocity hit. (a 70' fall isn't fun, tho.) And yes, it pretty well takes an acrobat to climb the bag itself... it's sheet aluminum, rather than doped fabric Climbing it is noisy.

Even so, after the second or third sabotage attempt, you would not expect the crew to take risks and asume no one else has climbed the ship, hence the search...

Originally Posted by aramis

Don't forget that the guys on the ground are better than you at guarding due to a combination of sheer numbers, no lack of sleep, no major fire risk, and being able to focus on about 36 square meters to do so. One came up, and they called on it, and the non-military firewatch got to him first.

If not for the fog limiting the visibility to a few yards at best...

[aramis]

Originally Posted by McPerth

The Highland Pride is expected to run most of its atmospheric time on sails, so without steam. If the steam is needed to open the exterior (vaccum thight) doors, that would make the exit to exterior imposible most of its atmospheric time (and I guess that's when one is expected to go there)...

As McBean is not stupid, I guess he should have foreseen this. My take would be that exterior doors open lateraly with a cranck mechanism. Would that be posible?



Shute McBean would have known about that (unless the idea above is taken into consideration), but McPerth, being no engineer (nor having much idea about engineering, to say the least) did not...

Off course, if going to the top deck is so difficult as Aramis says, Carson and Jeb would not be ordered to search it (after all, the possibility someone went there is very low), and the search would be limited to the interiors.



Even so, after the second or third sabotage attempt, you would not expect the crew to take risks and asume no one else has climbed the ship, hence the search...



If not for the fog limiting the visibility to a few yards at best...

WRONG.

First off, there's been ONE sabotage attempt - the others were not sabotage.

• 1 case of patent infringement and peculation. No evidence of, nor attempt to, sabotage the mission. He'll get a couple years and a dishonorable discharge.
• 1 case of simple warehouse (mis)management to the detriment - barrels corrode naturally. And the tradition is, when possible, to always ship the oldest barrels first. see: Inchem's Formaldehyde Health and Safety Guide
  (Formaldehyde corrodes iron and mild steel, like that used for storage drums, quickly. It's a ticking clock. The fresh barrels should last at least a year.)
  The incapacity is simply a man with a formaldehyde allergy.
• 1 case of a madman with a cause - and a plan to sabotage. But his is political. He saw a ship with a boiler, caused a distraction, and couldn't get past the guards fast enough.

Only one door set is steam operated, and I've said that 3 times already - the upper airlock - because it has to open downward. All the others are about 100-200# doors on hinges. There are, of need, dozens of small vents in the envelope. they run along the same level as the balcony - just above the sails. Probably manually opened as a weight savings. Not big enough to crawl through. One could, in theory, open one or more portholes in the upper gallery - I would presume they'd be commercial style naval ones simply to save on costs - and that means fitting thorough a 1' or a 1.5" round window. If you're big, ain't happening without surgery.

I've never described webbing on the outside - there is no reason to be up on top EXCEPT to get to the boiler - and it's a fairly easy walk up the aft of the gasbag if one's not under steam - the hard part is climbing the tail. A swung monkey fist can put a rope over, and hence the TN5 climb.

Given that they've multi-man teams at the 3 tie-downs - they don't need more than a couple yards. Unless there's help from on board by dropping a line over.

[McPerth]

Originally Posted by aramis

WRONG.

First off, there's been ONE sabotage attempt - the others were not sabotage.

• 1 case of patent infringement and peculation. No evidence of, nor attempt to, sabotage the mission. He'll get a couple years and a dishonorable discharge.
• 1 case of simple warehouse (mis)management to the detriment - barrels corrode naturally. And the tradition is, when possible, to always ship the oldest barrels first. see: Inchem's Formaldehyde Health and Safety Guide
  (Formaldehyde corrodes iron and mild steel, like that used for storage drums, quickly. It's a ticking clock. The fresh barrels should last at least a year.)
  The incapacity is simply a man with a formaldehyde allergy.
• 1 case of a madman with a cause - and a plan to sabotage. But his is political. He saw a ship with a boiler, caused a distraction, and couldn't get past the guards fast enough.

That's not McBean's vision...

After 3 such incidents in less tan 24 hours, either:

• The REC is totaly untrustworthy (either by negligence or corruption). If so the Highland's Pride should leave ASAP from their hands...
• The ship has been cursed (would the Priest of the REC be so kind as to bless and exorcise it, please?)
• There's a Black Hand behind so many incidents

So, I believe he cannot be blamed to be a little paranoid right now...

Originally Posted by aramis

Only one door set is steam operated, and I've said that 3 times already - the upper airlock - because it has to open downward. All the others are about 100-200# doors on hinges. There are, of need, dozens of small vents in the envelope. they run along the same level as the balcony - just above the sails. Probably manually opened as a weight savings. Not big enough to crawl through. One could, in theory, open one or more portholes in the upper gallery - I would presume they'd be commercial style naval ones simply to save on costs - and that means fitting thorough a 1' or a 1.5" round window. If you're big, ain't happening without surgery.

I've never described webbing on the outside - there is no reason to be up on top EXCEPT to get to the boiler - and it's a fairly easy walk up the aft of the gasbag if one's not under steam - the hard part is climbing the tail. A swung monkey fist can put a rope over, and hence the TN5 climb.

Given that they've multi-man teams at the 3 tie-downs - they don't need more than a couple yards. Unless there's help from on board by dropping a line over.

As I described it first, there's a deck on the top of the envelope, with spiral stairs (not just catwalks) goingh there through the whole of it. If this has not changed, the upper door is precisely the one more to be used in atmosphere when the ship is not under steam.

If that is seen as not adequate, then things change, off course...

[SpaceBadger]

Originally Posted by aramis

WRONG.
First off, there's been ONE sabotage attempt - the others were not sabotage.

Well, now that we have Word of GM, I guess we can accept that - but as PCs operating on limited info, the other troubles could certainly be taken as indications of a plot to keep us from making the trip, in which case it would be foolish not to check the solar mirror for something that might be set to go off when we activate those in high atmosphere - BOOM!

Originally Posted by aramis

I've never described webbing on the outside - there is no reason to be up on top EXCEPT to get to the boiler - and it's a fairly easy walk up the aft of the gasbag if one's not under steam - the hard part is climbing the tail. A swung monkey fist can put a rope over, and hence the TN5 climb.

Our recollections differ as to the web reference; unfortunately, "web" is only three letters and thus too short to search. So am I to assume that the encircling rope ladders from my ship description (which you originally approved before your re-design) are no longer there?

If the walk up from the tail is THE way of getting to the solar boiler when not under steam, I think there would at least be a rope ladder or some other hand-hold permanently in place to make it routine and easy rather than hard.

A nice, reasonably complete description of the ship and especially its ways of getting from one part to another would go a long way toward improving our ability to decide and describe the actions of our PCs.

Originally Posted by aramis

Given that they've multi-man teams at the 3 tie-downs - they don't need more than a couple yards. Unless there's help from on board by dropping a line over.

Sorry, I have no idea what you mean by the above paragraph.

[aramis]

Originally Posted by SpaceBadger

If the walk up from the tail is THE way of getting to the solar boiler when not under steam, I think there would at least be a rope ladder or some other hand-hold permanently in place to make it routine and easy rather than hard.

A nice, reasonably complete description of the ship and especially its ways of getting from one part to another would go a long way toward improving our ability to decide and describe the actions of our PCs.

Why would there be? There's no good reason to go up there without the cooperation of the engineering staff. There is almost no reason EXCEPT sabotage I can think of for someone to be going up there - it's over 50 feet away from anything that needs be accessed underway.

Sorry, I have no idea what you mean by the above paragraph.

As to the last paragraph - the ship is tied down by three ropes - and is 40' or more above the ground. You don't need to guard the ship - just the ends of the tie-down (and for a ship 800' long, guarding it while grounded takes a LOT more manpower), because if people can't get to the rope, they can't get to the ship quietly. The exception being if someone aboard is helping by dropping a 4th rope down away from the nose - because any rope dropped from there would be dropping too close to the guys at the tiedowns.

40' up is a bit much for a grapnel, too.

The ship-shake was the madman having his partner ram a wagon into the guards in hopes of going up the rope unseen. He failed. The wagon caught the rope itself.

[SpaceBadger]

Still a little unclear on planned schedule for this morning.

- hand prisoner off to Veers and his men, let him be the Major's problem, not ours; give affidavits of evidence if necessary

- send wire to Holmes (possibly by way of Inspector Lestrade) re possible involvement of Moriarty?

- farewell breakfast?

- await arrival of Army Warehouse supply wagon(s) which were promised by noon at the latest; as soon as these are unloaded into our cargo bay and everything secured, take off to being our journey to Venus???

- somewhere in the midst of this, a public farewell ceremony, possibly speeches, say goodbye to loved ones???

[aramis]

Well, at the moment, approaching the building may be tricky. There's Royal Scots with loaded weapons. And a royal carriage.