Your Sweet Ride Pt. 2: Vessel Details and Naming Contest

The goal of this post is two-fold: a description and name for your first “NPC“, the trusty dirigible. Since this is your ship, I believe you guys should name it. Add some ideas here in the comments, and I’ll take whichever one seems to be either 1) my favorite or 2) your favorite. Maybe both – we’ll see what happens.

‘Your’ ship is the property of Magnus Greenbottom, a merchant of Shadowhaven (guess what the next post will be about). It is the beloved runt of his fleet. Rumor has it amongst his employees that he won it years ago in a bet, and it was the ship that started his merchant career. Now that he is established, he doesn’t travel often, and has heavy cargo haulers for his larger trade routes. Instead, he has allowed able skyfarers (i.e., you) to purchase shares in this ship in hopes of getting some use out of the old girl.

Magnus sees to the vessel’s outfitting, basic maintenance, and most importantly Trade Council registration. Without a Writ of Commerce from them, your ship could be shot down, pressed into service, or scrapped at the whim of the local Trade Council commander. Under the terms of your contracts, you each maintain a single share in the ship, while the owner (Magnus) retains an additional 5 shares, and the captain (JWW’s character) retains an extra share. Any proceeds from voyages are divided in this way.

As a crew, you have all had at least 1 voyage together on the ship. You are all (at least) passingly familiar with her design and operation. During your last voyage, the ship took some heavy winds on its way back into port, and is currently in “dry-dock” undergoing repairs.

Gondola. Your dirigible is composed of two sections: the envelope, which provides the lighter-than-air lift, and the gondola, which contains crew and cargo. The gondola began its life as a small orcish galley, and this heritage is still evident; it is unclear how it came to be converted to a dirigible, but there are many converted ships in the skies. The hull has a shallow draft and wide, open design, resulting in an almost flat bottom. Although the spine of the ships ram remains, the iron or bronze that covered it has long been removed. A small poop deck was added when the vessel was refitted, sheltering a squat aft cabin, used mainly for equipment storage and occasionally sleeping, as well as an elevated location for the helm and waysphere (mounted in a brass fitting within the center of the helm’s wheel).

The main deck is low and flat, divided by a central raised causeway where orc taskmasters used to oversee their goblin rowers. Now, the rowing benches and chains have been removed, and replaced with open cargo sections secured by strong hemp nets. Balancing cargo between the two sections is of key importance, particularly in rough weather.

Two sails on either side of the vessel provide primary propulsion for the vessel. These are attached to extendable boon masts that can be swung out into place. In addition, these sails provide some added measure of agility to that provided by the rudder (game effect: as a boating action, you may give up half your acceleration and reduce your topspeed by 2 to gain +2 to handling on subsequent boating actions.).

While the envelope provides most of the lift (vide infra), the hull itself retains some of its former capability (imbued by orcish runes burned into the planks by magical fire) from its days as an orcish vessel. However, all of the thick outer planking that was removed during the coversion weakened these magics dramatically (game effect: without the envelope, the ship loses its climb bonus. Handling is at -2. Acceleration and Top Speed at 1 and 3, respectively).

Envelope. The ships envelope is semi-rigid, containing a ribbed skeleton of hardwood that helps it maintain its shape. It is covered with thin fabric that is nearly airtight; the inside of the envelope may be accessed through a small opening, if necessary, but this opening is usually sealed with resin during flight. Originally, the envelope was filled with hot gasses by a steam engine; however this engine was destroyed in the windstorm that put the ship into dock. Magnus has enlisted the local Windpriestesses to provide a more reliable solution to filling the envelope.

The steering fins are made of a light wood laminate, and controlled by a series of ropes and pulleys. Twin steering rudders give you additional control (game effect: maneuvers made that substantially involve turning are made at a +1).

Around the outer edge of the envelope, rolls of spare sailcloth are stored. These serve 2 purposes, first as emergency supplies and secondly (and certainly more frequently) these sails may be unfurled and tied down to the gondola, resulting in a nearly enclosed ship. This minimizes the crews’ exposure to the Glow, but also limits their view of surrounding areas (game effect: when in place, you are at -4 to notice skill checks while in the gondola, but no longer require daily glowmadness checks. Due to the nature of the ship, glowmadness checks are always at a +2 while aboard).

Gear. Magnus knows that to protect his investment in this vessel, he must keep it reasonably supplied. The ship has freshly mended nets for trawling food, 3 casks for water storage (lasting up to 16 weeks under careful rationing, 12 more typically). An assortment of tools, from cooking equipment to pickaxes, shovels outfitted and basic repair supplies are also stored in the aft cabin. For defense, he has included a single small wooden cannon (pintle mounts are present both fore and aft), and a single blunderbuss. Limited ammunition is also aboard. Other basic equipment (small oars for maneuvering in port, gaffs, ropes, etc.) can be found stored under the vessels main causeway.

That’s your ship in a nutshell. Use the Wind Rider (pg 35) to determine all other statistics. Now, let’s hear some names!