The next morning Zeru wakes up from his hammock above where the bed was supposed to be. The bed was a little too confortable, Coral currently resting on it. He quckly changes from his kitty sleepwear into a set of seaworthy clothes he had prepared. The last thing he does is gently lift Coral into his pocket and tie his chain around his chest.

Upon seeing the ship Zeru is amazed, his father's ships were nothing like this. After noting the figurehead, with a bit of a smile, he stops at the bottom of the gangplank. "Peleps Zeru, Permission to come aboard?!" He yells to the deck. He was one for superstition, and he hopes that introducing himself to the ship would help more than simply asking the captain for permission he already has.

There's no obvious response to Zeru's call, besides a few crewmen peering his way... then a slight breeze shifts through his hair, carrying a floral fragrance. Someone's perfume? Who can really say?

On the deck, an older, stocky man with a grey-streaked beard calls out to Zeru. "Git on board already, young sir, she won't bite ya." Chuckling, the man Zeru has heard referred to as 'Mister Donnegal' starts yelling more commands at the crew while Lasuri accompanies the Outcastes.

Zeru can still hurry to join the others before the tour ends.

Tageru appears as soon as the call was issued, already dressed in his armor and his clothes. He carries little beside his gear, only a single bag, probably his clothes. In daylight, his true appearance is visible:

An incredibly muscular man, with an arm the width of an average man's leg, and in his jade armor, Tageru looks a bit...scary... His vibrant green eyes glow in the sunlight and he approaches the deck. He bows to the ship, and enters, without much more ceremony.

"You should not ask permission from the small god of the ship, it is not it's choice to make. Only the captain has the authority to deny you entrance, and I'm pretty certain he won't do so, since you're officially a part of the crew. You're a Dynast, you should know better than to ask a small god for such a thing. That can only embolden the little god to misbehave." Tageru says to Zeru when he sees his act.

Zeru smiles at the figurehead. "Sultry Minx, I think I will enjoy living on this ship." and with that he rushes on board to get back in line with the Outcastes. As he passes Mister Donnegal, he says in a cheery tone. "'tis best to be polite with a ship sir. Without a sense of respect, she'll toss ya a soon as any horse will." Then he joins up with the group.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologizes rubbing the back of his head. "I had a long night." He says cheerily for just having woken up.

(OOC: Here's the links to two maps of the West, so you can all follow along while plans are exchanged: http://darksiren.net/stuff/West-Map.jpg and http://darksiren.net/stuff/West-Map-Full.jpg . The second one has Sorrow's Veil's location pinpointed on it, for future reference.)

Hands resting on the map table, Lasuri raises his head at people's arrival, granting them a small, if sincere smile as they approach. "Oi, come on in, no need to be shy - this is going to be our planning room for a while, so might as well get comfortable with it." The captain takes a moment to let people catch their breaths, and gestures towards the impressive-sized map covering the table at the center of the room. Pins and marks indicate places of interest to the alliance, marking every important location with color coded symbols. Cobalt marks Alliance bases or hideouts, azure allied nations and cities or groups, and red marks enemies and dangerous areas. For now, there seems to be quite a bit of red spread across the map...

"Allright, listen up." Lasuri begins, his tone becoming more business-like. "I'd rather not eat all your time with boring expositions, so let me get straight to the point. As it currently stands, the Alliance has taken to a triangular pattern in its travels. Sorrow's veil is one of the points, Coral is another, and An-Teng is the last. Why the pattern, you might ask? Well, the answer is actually a no-brainer. We've haven't got the manpower to fan all over the West as it stands, so the best thing for us to do with our limited resources is to move between allied nations and Alliance holdings while we patrol. So we move from our allies in Coral to Sorrow's Veil to Dreamer's Idyll in An-Teng. All the while, we keep an eye out for allies and threats, both to ourselves and the West in general. Defeating other people's enemies can give us strong allies eventually, so that's always a plus for us."

"Now. The trips to Coral are shorter usually, and we're in the habit of making those when we've got cargo to sell or supplies to buy. Coral's our main base of trade, right now. We could potentially build more trade lines in the future, but for now they're the ones most willing to take our stuff with little questions asked, and the ones who will sell us what we need without giving us a huge over cost due to bad rep. We're not dangerously low on supplies right now, but having more never hurts."

"On the An-Teng way, we've got plenty of threats - new pirate groups wanting to make a name from themselves, dead things near the Isle of Shadows, and of course, the Lintha. So there's plenty of threats to tangle it this way and try to clean out. That's also the way we head to when we want to get info on the Realm. Miss Thornbloom has contacts in the area, so that's how we get the pulse the Mainland."

"Anyways. That's a lot to digest right now, but that's the gist of it. Ask away if you have any questions, and throw in your suggestions - our next move won't be dictated by me alone."

"Ha, plenty people prefer to just be told where to go, though," Jadira says dryly. The brunette leans against one of the side tables in her dark green longcoat (buttoned now) and sable pants. "Choice is easy enough though. North towards Coral or south, southeast-ish towards An-Teng. North is the shorter way, unless we stop off at Abalone... we might have Coral's letter of marque, but we're our own allegiance, so Wavecrest tends to be... friendlier. Usually."

"I'll put my vote in for An-Teng myself, I've not checked on the Idyll in a couple months," she concludes. "And we've not much loot to foist off right now anyway. Always a chance the Lintha will give us a good fight."

Treon had woken early and refreshed, heading for a soak in the baths before dressing to go and visit the ship, carefully braiding his hair with the ribbons and pulling on his long charcoal coat, this time strapping his Daiklaive, sheathed, at his side.

When he reached the vessel he gave the dryad, for it could be no other spirit, on the prow an elaborate bow before he boarded.  After boarding, he wandered the deck for a few minutes, keeping out of the way of the crew as he did, waiting for the others to arrive and the tour to begin.  As each person arrived, he bid them good morning and gave a little bow.

"A beautiful vessel, Captain Leomaris, Lady Thornbloom," he says as the tour finishes.  "And one that has been well cared for."

"My own personal reccomendation..."  Dove began, looking over the map for a moment, and thinking on this.  "Would be to secure some proper working materials--I've noted some of the damages to the ship--and I believe with a certain degree of effort and resources, that I may be able to get the paddlewheel functional--that alone will give us considerable leverage against any possible peers we may come against--As such, I would reccomend any earlier targets to be ones who would conceviably have the tools and materials we would need...  Or, we could simply warm up against some lesser crews"

"You noticed that, eh? We've lacked the expertise until now to fix it," Jadira says helplessly to Dove, "but the Dryad is still one of the better ships in these waters defensively. We're lucky for that."

"Proper materials -- other than harvesting or making the stuff ourselves, our best bet would be to try to cannibalize it off of other ships of similar make. Most every sizable force has at least one such vessel, but again we have to choose our enemies carefully."

"If we manage to capture enough loot, we could possibly trade for some material, too. It'd be pricey. But... a lot of wealth from unexpected places ends up in Coral, as you all must know. Even from Skullstone. After all, they are allies." Jadira shudders just a bit at the thought; she isn't all that fond of the island nation of the dead, though wouldn't dare challenge them openly with one ship.

"I like the idea of going to Coral, I haven't been in years, and I wanna see the sunrise again. But the tradeoff is that Coral is a common port of trade and any pirates would be looking for ships coming from there to pick off so to speak. We're more likely to get attacked after coming from Coral then going straight to An-Teng." He rubs the back of his head again, he usually wasn't involved in the planning stages of missions, just the execution part. "Well that's what I would do anyways." Zeru says.

All of you consider the possibilities...

[Private to Platinum Dove: Of the major Western forces, you know Wavecrest has several artifact ships but rarely use them, the Guild has many and the Realm has double that. The other sources of such material you've read about are in or around shadowlands, or deep underwater: The Isle of Shadows, Skullstone, or in the sunken cities rumored to be in the deep Southwest past Wavecrest. However, one could possibly count on encountering pirates who have captured artifact vessels, such as the Lintha, or unscrupulous privateers. As for *making* material, the books in Sorrow's Veil provide the theory but you'll need a facility specialized for such craft. Make an Int+Lore or Occult roll if you want to think further along those lines.]

[Private to Cathak Garel Treon; Chihultoc Thafur; Cynis Tageru: You know the Realm employs the most artifact ships in all Creation. The Guild also owns a sizable amount. Wavecrest has a handful of small First Age ships, but only bring them out in defense of their homeland. Coral is not known to have artifact vessels, instead employing large numbers of exceptional Second Age ships. However, one could possibly count on encountering pirates who have captured artifact vessels, such as the Lintha, or unscrupulous privateers.]

[Private to Ledaal Mia; Peleps Zeru; Lasuri Leomaris: You know the Realm employs artifact ships of similar make to the Dryad in the West, and some even larger ones. You also know the Guild owns many such ships, but Coral close to none.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:07, Sat 25 Oct 2008.

"Actually..."  Dove begins.  "While I was looking through the collection at Sorrow's Veil--I managed to find some interesting charts of the area...  Specifically, back in the Shogunate, there was apparently a secured harbour right about..."  She took a careful look at the sea-chart, glancing around a few times, then pointing at a spot roughly two-hundred miles to the southeast.  "Accounting for time and whatnot--but it was meant to service the ships of the day, and was sufficiently secured from external threats that they didn't believe it could be access by unauthorized individuals.  There's a chart on how we can get down there...  Admittedly, it cuts through several hot-zones for various other pirates, from Lintha to the more traditional sort--but if we can secure that place, we'll not only have a safe haven here, but we'll have a place where we can manufacture improvements and upgrades to our fleet as it grows."

"That's cetainly an idea" Zeru says, thinking. "But you talk as if it's uninhabited, do we know that's the case?"

"Hrrm, well, that wouldn't take us more than a couple days to reach, assuming fair weather, of course!"

Jadira grins at Zeru. "There's no way we can really know til' we get there. Well, we've got a heading, it's on our way... we'll just have to do a little reconnaissance once we're close. We've got some stealthy folk, don't we?"

She glances towards the Captain, prompting Lasuri's opinion on the plan.

"Great work, miss Dove. That's certainly something we should check out. Until we get more ships on our side - I would assume some of you might want to commandeer a vessel of your own eventually - the Dryad is our main fighting lady, and she's not as good as she could be. She was up for repair when we caught her, and we just didn't have the skill or knowledge to restore her fully..."

He turns towards Platinum Dove, then nods. "Until now, that is. I'll admit I'm awfully interested in that information you just provided, miss Dove. Having another potential hideout in that area would be pretty useful, actually - the more checkpoints we build between our other strongholds, the better. That, and we'd gain a facility where we can repair both the Dryad and other potential captured First Age ships, as well."

He nods, his eyes still turned towards the map, before lifting his head and regarding the others in the room. "I'm all for checking this place out, and secure it - if we find out we can take whatever resistance is out there. If we can't by  pure force, there's still the possibility of taking it by guile. We've certainly got good talent on our side... So it's all a matter of using it properly."

"Well, that decides it, then. We'll prepare for sailing southwards towards miss Dove's coordinates, and see this place for ourselves." He nods, then looks at the faces around him, waiting to see if anyone else has anything to add.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:17, Sat 25 Oct 2008.

"Aye sir, I'm a fair hand at any part of the ship, any duties that need doin?" Zeru asks. "I'd like to get a feel for the lady here." He stops, thinking about what he just said. "Ah... I meant the Dryad... No disrespect ladies."

"Well I was going to throw my vote in for An Teng, and I think I still will," Treon says as he considers what Platinum Dove has told them.  "Once we have checked out the dockyard, at least.  I agree another base of operations would be most useful, but until the Alliance has more ships, we will find it hard to hold more bases against pirates, Lintha and other such undesirables.  Not to mention the attentions of more worthy nations who would simply like a functioning Shogunate-era docks for themselves."

"This means we will need to be prepared to defend the place against some fairly serious players, at least once it is known that we have captured it.  Whilst I'm sure as Platinum Dove said," he nodded. "It will have automated defences, at least if it is to be a prize still worth claiming in this day and age, we have to consider that these defences are necessarily ones we can defeat.  And so others can too, especially when emboldened by our success."

"This isn't intended to discourage you, Captain and the rest" his gesture encompasses all there.  "But to give you something to think about."

"None taken!" Jadira says merrily to Zeru, before listening seriously to Treon...

"Well, that's why we're going to look before we leap, so to speak. At least we can see whether it's worth taking now or later," she points out, taking a nearby quill pen and marking the spot Dove had just indicated. "Besides, having the best workshop in the world doesn't mean we'll have all the materials we need. Or the time."

"Anyway, we'll point our nose toward An-Teng afterward. Zeru, how good are you with navigation? Or if you'd rather be out there sweating..." She points out the windows towards the team Mister Donnegal has tasked to hoist the telescoping mast and assemble the sails. "As for me, I'll be polishing the weapons. Ha ha! I'm pretty sure we'll have use for 'em!"

Jadira turns to Lasuri, sparkling emerald eyes a contrast to her sharp salute. "By your leave, Captain!" With that she starts her way downstairs from the bridge toward the foredeck.

"I'm pretty good at Navigation." Zeru says, "Although I've never tested the extent of my prowess I can get us to where we need to be."

[Private to GM: How do you want to handle this? I couldn't find any rules regarding sailing in the core rules.]

The crew makes quick work of readying the Spring Dryad II for its next journey at sea. With commands from Captain Lasuri and Mister Donnegal serving as bosun, the mast is raised, the sails unfurled, the plank and the anchor raised.

Jadira is in her own world, giving the ships' weapons her brand of tender loving care with the help of her gunnery crew. They take stock of the current stores of ammunition, which is plentiful.

The rest of the crew may aid the preparations in whatever way they wish, roam the ship's decks or simply rest as the journey begins.

Finally Captain Lasuri takes the helm, with Zeru as navigator. Jadira flares briefly emerald as she raises the wind in the sails to give them a boost on their way...

---

OOC: All right, here's how it'll be done... According to Ex2 Core, the Sail skill covers both navigation and sailing.

Navigation is actually plotting the course. Zeru gets to sit there with the map and the compass and judge by the wind and the position of the sun and whatnot which way Lasuri should point the ship. That Navigation roll is a Int+Sail. Lasuri gets to roll a Wits+Sail for actually *piloting* the ship; the result determines how well he follows the course and possibly deals with bad weather along the way.

So, just remember, if I want navigation it's Int+Sail; actual maneuvering the ship, Wits+Sail. Zeru - roll your navigation, Lasuri - roll for piloting, and everyone make their last post(s) if any before the end of the thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:16, Sun 26 Oct 2008.

Zeru settles down near the help with a map in his hand. He licks his finger and holds it into the wind gets confused, and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out some lint and tosses it into the air, noting which way the wind carried it. He tilts his tri-corner hat down before unfurling the map and making some calculations with the compass. He jumps to his feet. "Alrighty cap'n you just turn the girl about a quarter turn port and we should be heading in the right direction. Providin' the wind doesn't change of course."

[Private to Storyteller: 21:18, Today: Peleps Zeru rolled 5 successes using 7d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7. Navigation. ]

He inclines his head to Lady Thornbloom "Of course we should find out what is there, yes."

Treon is quite content to leave the navigation to other people for the day, quirking a grin at Zeru's careful adjustment of his hat before settling down to actually perform the calculations involved.  Instead of lazing around however, Treon elects to join Mister Donnegal on the decks, doffing his coat and placing it out of the way before joining in with the raising of the mast and the setting of the sails.

Tageru starts the journey and the day with some exercises, push-ups and gymnastics. He's rather agile for a man of his size, and also strong. He didn't say anything at the meeting-he didn't care too much which way they would go. As long as it's not back home to the Realm, he was fine with it.

When he finishes his workout, he comes to the captain: "Well, since I don't know anything about sailing, I must ask you whether there are any things that need to be done on the ship that I might do. I don't want to feel useless while traveling, and even though this ship is fully manned, I'm sure there's something I can do to be useful and to entertain myself. I'm mostly a warrior, but I'm also a good healer so I can be the ship's doctor, if we don't already have one..."

Enjoying the first steps of a new journey, Lasuri, smiles and nods towards Zeru, adjusting the wheel precisely to the new indications. The Captain spends a few seconds readjusting his initial heading, obviously trying to follow the man's directions as faithfully as possible before the journey begins...

Satisfied with his adjustment, he nods back to Zeru. "Thanks for the good work, mister Zeru. You'll be the responsible of guiding us, so keep a sharp eye and let me know of any adjustment we'd have to make." He smiles, then turns towards Tageru.

"The ship doesn't have an assigned doctor right now - we have a few people who can take care of First Aid in in pinch, but I'm sure you'll agree that's not the same as having an actual healer on board. So the position's yours, valid... Right away." He smiles again, then turns his gaze towards their heading.

"Don't worry though, your warrior abilities're gonna be more than welcome sooner or later. There's a lot of different ships sailing banners we're not friendly with in these waters, so we have to be ready to defend the ship at the drop of a hat... And that's when I'll also count on all of you as well."

[Private to Storyteller: You rolled 6 successes using 9d10 with the White Wolf Exalted system with a target of 7 ((4,3,8,8,10,4,1,7,8)).]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Sun 26 Oct 2008.

The Dryad is well on her way, with few if any mishaps. The winds remain favorable, and their heading stays true.

The two days of sailing are spent with no events of note, leaving the crew ample time for training or leisure.

---

OOC: I will be posting beginning of Phase 2 shortly. Total XP up to this point will be posted very shortly. You have 2 days training time, post if you will be using that time to train anything.