Rodrigo is up on the quarterdeck, but whatever he was expecting, he wasn't expecting as little as he found. All that's there is a typical ship's wheel, one that's meant to control the ship's rudder.

However, when he puts his hands on the wheel, he realizes that the pedestal is mounted on some sort of gimbal mechanism that allows the whole wheel structure to move both left and right as well as forward and backward.


He can feel the magic flowing through the ship and up through the wheel when Fando re-inserts the piece of the Septagram into the forward device below decks. In fact, that's how he knows that's what Fando did.

There was no anchoring mechanism keeping the ship on the ground, so it lurches and begins to rise, leveling off as it does. It stops about 10 feet off the ground.

When the ship lurched into the air, Elwood checked the bandages over the stab wound in his side. No new bleeding, that was good. As the ship stabilizes, he makes his way to the aft deck. "Well, Rodrigo, that went well. Where to now?"

Rodrigo experiments carefully - very carefully - with the steering system and the new controls. He slowly works out how to control the ship in all three dimensions.

The fair haired elf looks up. "Where to? North to the town of Lhamsa. It isn't too far from here since we are flying. Then we will kick some sense into the Saffron Order and get them to hand over the next piece of the Septagram."

Once the ship is in the air and moving forward, Fando climbs up to the bridge.

"Yes, we go to Lhamsa! I'd rather spring this ship on them as a surprise," Fando replies. "If we stop in the village to get the other piece, word is bound to get out."

"Well, now, that's not something I anticipated!" he comments, as he glances up at the masts. "I see the wheel controls the direction of the ship, on three axes, but what it doesn't do it control the speed. That's a function of wind and how much sail we have."

"Do any of you know how to rig the sails?"

If any of  you think you might have a bit of sailing experience in your background, then you can say you can rig the sails.

Otherwise, you can make an Intelligence check--roll under your Intelligence on a d20 for some knowledge of sails.

As she excitedly scribbles down things that only she will be able to make heads or tails of, Anneth walks up to the sails and looks at them.  Gods, she knew there was something about them that was familar...something just on the tip of her memory... She looks at her notes.  A character on her note turned into a sail.  At that, she sets her hands down, and commits herself to thinking on the sail in front of her.

21:01, Today: Anneth Mage-Singer rolled 6 using 1d20 ((6)).