Heroica RPG - Quest #129: Flying the Coop

[CMP]

"May be best to finish our sweep of the place and take care of the remaining vampire and Melville. We might just be standing on a trap at this point."

"Entirely possible. If Melville went through the trouble of having all of his people mind controlled, you'd think he'd've at least put them on guard."

"Or they were preparing it to be blown up... Either way, I think we should focus on finding the rest of the crew first, and worry about the ship later. If there is nothing left on this floor, should we move to the next one?"

"Hate to say it, but there's nothing we can do for the Magpie right now. We still need to find Zasies. Jules, too. If he's still around..." she added, a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Fireship. Run that into a port or into an enemy fleet and the havoc is unthinkable." Guts shrugs and says in a non-committed way: "We should move the gunpowder to the Apocalypse somehow."

"You're right, so stop thinking about it. I'd sooner light you on fire and catapult you onto that thing. No offense. Getting it onboard somehow is an idea..."

A good plan, but I haven't a clue how we'd pull it off. Still, if we have the time we should move the gunpowder before we leave.

"Erm, maybe. Without a crane - which I ain't seeing around, oddly enough - it'd take hours."

The heroes head down the hallway, past the clearly collapsed second prison cell, and go up one of the few flights of intact stairs.

The gun battery is eerily quiet. It's immediately evident there aren't any more soldiers, undead, or Crimson Crown around. The so-late-it's-early star-ridden night sky casts a faint light inside through the open windows. Dusty-looking cannons and piles of cannonballs litter the area...and large rings in the somewhat dirty floor make it abundantly clear that even the battery's gunpowder was cleared out and moved onto the Magpie, save for a few opened, half-empty ones sitting by the cannons. Illdria growls, annoyed, at the lack of anyone's presence.

"What the hell? This Veken should be waiting right here, with a contingent of loyal morons or undead and holding a 'kill me' sign."

Knife-Tongue pokes his head out of one of the gunports and looks out into the inlet leading up to the grotto. The huge, iron-plated warship's mast is nearly level with the heroes, though it's still a ways out, too far to hit with anything other then the cannons.

"Cap'm, fhe Apocawypfe if fhiww hewe."

"Huh. Hasn't moved an inch." Melvin scratches his thick, greasy beard. "Do they...really not know we're here yet? Damn, I dunno if this is a stroke or luck or the illest of omens!"

'<Eh? Oh. Heheh. Funny.>' Omen pads out from somewhere around the heroes' legs. It's hard to say whether he's been there the entire time or not. '<Guess that's master's fault for giving me such a silly name. Trying to be all edgy, I'm sure. He was such a hothead back then.>' The cat licks his paw.

"Hmph. If you're trying to describe Jules, you've picked the last words I would've used."

'<Heh. This was a...long time ago. Things seemed different back then. More innocent? Heheh, no. Wrong word. Definitely the wrong word. Easier? Better. But I guess Heroica wasn't around to cut through the ranks like a hot knife through milk.>' Omen's whiskers twitch. '<No no, wrong word again. I must be hungry. I figured I ought to tell you heroes the letter I. Seemed important. I'm sure you know why, many of you are smart folk.>' The cat looked around intently. '<No bat, huh?>'

[The Legonater]

If they really don't know we're coming, do you think we could destroy their ship right here and now? Obviously it would bring the whole place down on us, but it might be worth it. That's if this isn't all a trap, of course.

I keep a nervous, watchful eye on the cat.

[UsernameMDM]

Hoke searched the Gunnery for anything or use or some type of clues.

"Can anyone see any activity on the ship?" Hoke asks, after finishing his search.

[Emjajoas]

"I can hardly see ten feet in front of me," Mortimer mutters. "Can your dragon scout without alerting anyone?"

[UsernameMDM]

"I can hardly see ten feet in front of me," Mortimer mutters. "Can your dragon scout without alerting anyone?"

"We've tried it before, but, now that we know what we are dealing with, I think we got lucky and weren't blown out of the sky."

[Emjajoas]

"I suppose it was a long shot. Have we the telescope? I doubt you can see much in this darkness, but..."

[Myrddyn]

Erik looks at the group of heroes discussing the Apocalypse, then over at Illdria.

"Hate to say it, but there's nothing we can do for the Magpie right now. We still need to find Zasies. Jules, too. If he's still around..." she added, a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Jules is in the Laboratory, isn't he? And the laboratory's locked with 8 letters - L, M, C, H, P, A, E, and I. Dunno what order they go in, but I reckon we ought'a get there and figure it out, now Omen's given us the last one."

Erik starts to walk to the Laboratory.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Myrddyn

[CMP]

If they really don't know we're coming, do you think we could destroy their ship right here and now? Obviously it would bring the whole place down on us, but it might be worth it. That's if this isn't all a trap, of course.

"No. That metal plating could withstand three, maybe four ships worth of cannons. And we aren't blowing up my ship. Maybe you're ready to die some greater good or whatever, but I hired you to help rescue my people, and escape on my ship. Both of which we have yet to do. Going off this map, the only places we haven't gone are Melville's office and the lab. We know the lab is locked down with this letter combination, but what about the office?"

"Jules is in the Laboratory, isn't he? And the laboratory's locked with 8 letters - L, M, C, H, P, A, E, and I. Dunno what order they go in, but I reckon we ought'a get there and figure it out, now Omen's given us the last one."

Where did you get C from? I don't like intervening too much with stuff like this but I have no idea where you got C and I want to make sure I haven't screwed up completely in giving you these letters.

[-obelix-]

"No. That metal plating could withstand three, maybe four ships worth of cannons. And we aren't blowing up my ship. Maybe you're ready to die some greater good or whatever, but I hired you to help rescue my people, and escape on my ship. Both of which we have yet to do. Going off this map, the only places we haven't gone are Melville's office and the lab. We know the lab is locked down with this letter combination, but what about the office?"

"Don't worry captain, that is exactly what we will do. I cant say I look forward to seeing Jules again, after what he pulled when we first met, but we cant leave him in the hands of Bonapartes that's for sure." Thalion turns to the rest of the party, "Should we head for the office than?"

[Myrddyn]

"Yeah. Maybe we'll find another clue for the laboratory door there."

Erik walks to the office.

[JimBee]

"Hoke is right, this may as well be a trap." Hybros scowled. "Why are we always walking into traps?"

"We also have not been to the lookout tower, but let us go to the office first."

[UsernameMDM]

"Let's be on our way then."

Hoke and Torc make their way to Melville's Office.

[Emjajoas]

Em follows behind the party, watching their backs.

[-obelix-]

"Hoke is right, this may as well be a trap." Hybros scowled. "Why are we always walking into traps?"

"We also have not been to the lookout tower, but let us go to the office first."

Thalion nods, "Sounds good, but speaking of traps, we shouldn't leave this thing ready to fire at us when we sail away..." Thalion approaches the gun(s) mounted at the window(s) and attempts to dismantle it(them). Once he finishes, he follows the rest of the party.

[Scubacarrot]

Guts hands Hybros 3 Grand tonics and takes a Mead, Smelling Salts and Nostrum himself.

"You're right, so stop thinking about it. I'd sooner light you on fire and catapult you onto that thing. No offense. Getting it onboard somehow is an idea..."

"I wasn't suggesting we run the Magpie into the apocalypse. I want to be able to leave this place, I doubt the dragon's coming back around. But, I wonder if there's a way to resolve this and keep the Apocalypse intact... She would make a fine prize..."

[The Legonater]

You trying to assemble a personal fleet there, Guts?

[CMP]

"Don't worry captain, that is exactly what we will do. I cant say I look forward to seeing Jules again, after what he pulled when we first met, but we cant leave him in the hands of Bonapartes that's for sure." Thalion turns to the rest of the party, "Should we head for the office than?"

"He's trustworthy. I'm sure of that."

"Hoke is right, this may as well be a trap." Hybros scowled. "Why are we always walking into traps?"

"In your defense, walking into the traps is pretty much the reason you're here."

Thalion nods, "Sounds good, but speaking of traps, we shouldn't leave this thing ready to fire at us when we sail away..." Thalion approaches the gun(s) mounted at the window(s) and attempts to dismantle it(them).

There's not much Thalion can do to dismantle the cannons - they're far too heavy and solid to do any real damage to.

"I wasn't suggesting we run the Magpie into the apocalypse. I want to be able to leave this place, I doubt the dragon's coming back around. But, I wonder if there's a way to resolve this and keep the Apocalypse intact... She would make a fine prize..."

"I wouldn't want to price a docking permit from the Bonies on one of their stolen flagships."

The heroes head back to the office with the crew in tow. There they find a rather heavy, iron-reinforced door. Much like the one upstairs, this one has a combination lock. Unlike the one upstairs, there are only three slots, and they don't seem to be letters or numbers. In the first slot is a ship, in the second is a bird, and in the third is a skull.

"Eh? Where'n Olegaia does Melville get these ridiculous locks? Hm....didn't we find a clue or somethin' earlier, some of these symbols look familiar...."

[JimBee]

OOC: Pie, going through the topic I found this. I think you forgot to add the XP.

Dyric steps on A1 very slowly - the tile remains quite steadfast underfoot. He steps into the doorway opposite the one they entered with ease. The party has crossed the trapped kitchen. Everyone gains one scaled level of experience, and the party starts following the path.

Hybros inspects the lock, and recalling the scribbles on the back of the game night schedule, flips the pictograms to show a ship, a bird, and another bird in that order.

"It seems the Bonapartes have poor taste, not that that is a surprise, eheh. I almost liked this place better when it was crawling with auto... ehem, machines."

"In your defense, walking into the traps is pretty much the reason you're here."

"Perhaps it is almost time to consider a new career.... heheheh."

[CMP]

OOC: Pie, going through the topic I found this. I think you forgot to add the XP.

Hybros inspects the lock, and recalling the scribbles on the back of the game night schedule, flips the pictograms to show a ship, a bird, and another bird in that order.

Sorry, I'll fix that in the next update.

Hybros turned the slot in the lock, but they didn't exactly end up as intended. He rotated the third image twice in order to get the skull to show, but as he did so the other two slots also rotated twice. Now they showed a skull, a ship, and a bird.

[Scubacarrot]

Guts tries rotating the first slot to see what happens.

[CMP]

Guts tries rotating the first slot to see what happens.

The first slot rotates freely on its own, now showing a ship, ship, and a bird.

[Scubacarrot]

You trying to assemble a personal fleet there, Guts?

Guts shrugs and grins. "The Wind Thief is a lass that could do with some companionship, don't you think?"

"I wouldn't want to price a docking permit from the Bonies on one of their stolen flagships."

"Oh, but I have a couple thousand gold pieces that disagree with that, plus, they owe me."

[UsernameMDM]

Hoke watches as the Alchemists try the peculiar lock. Trusting their abilities, he turns about and on guard, keeping his eyes open, not wanting to be caught unawares.

[Scubacarrot]

The first slot rotates freely on its own, now showing a ship, ship, and a bird.

Guts tries the second slot.

[CMP]

"Perhaps it is almost time to consider a new career.... heheheh."

"At least you're good at it by now."

"Oh, but I have a couple thousand gold pieces that disagree with that, plus, they owe me."

"I wouldn't call in any favors with the Bonies after wiping out their secret military base. And assassinating one of their admirals. And stealing his ship."

Guts tries the second slot.

The second slot being rotated turned both the first and second slots. Bird, bird, bird.