The Log of the HMAS Marigold OOC Thread

[walkthebassline]

I think you're missing a member of the crew on that list. ^   

 

WHOOPS! Sorry about that, Bassline. my feet were shrieking when I was writing that.

(sciatica[pinched sciatic nerve] causes shooting pains in the legs and feet. I get them bad sometimes, right after a moderate weight loss).

No worries at all; its a pretty large cast to keep track of. I do hope you feel better. Being in pain is never good.

[The Corsair]

I think you're missing a member of the crew on that list. ^   

 

WHOOPS! Sorry about that, Bassline. my feet were shrieking when I was writing that.

(sciatica[pinched sciatic nerve] causes shooting pains in the legs and feet. I get them bad sometimes, right after a moderate weight loss).

The upside is that it means you've lost weight!

[Stella Gaslight]

My body did the same sort of thing to me when I lost weight.  My gallbladder went nuts and had to be taken out.  The humen body is full of weird.

[MWBailey]

Thanks for your concern, folks

OK. Now to summarize, synopsize, etc. for Episode 3:

The Team is called to an address that is a cover for a safehouse belonging to Her Majesty's Secret Service. Rourke has been newly raised to Second Lieutenant. In the meeting, it is revealed that the team's use of the upper atmosphere for rapid transport and their success in previous missions has made them the apparent best choice for a secret mission into Russia posing as a German raiding party, to destroy the facility and ruin good relations between Russia and Germany, for the sake of maintenance of the current blance of power.

along the way, both Rourke's and Issa's status as vampirically-destinined individuals is revealed each to the other. since Mircer Handthorpe was a fledgling of Mina, and Rourke is her creature as well, Rourke is in actuality Issa's "dark uncle," so to speak, but they both decide mutually to keeps these facts under wraps, thiough Rourke's status beciomes public, if undiscussed, knowledge.

They are jpoined by Mina's familiar,. a bat, one of the whole of the swarm that Mina turns into when she travels for long distances. it and Rourke share a telepathinc link, and Mina often 'rides' the bat and talks with Rourke. The rest of the crew may or may not be aware of the fact.

They are also joined by Little Thomas. At the end of the scond episode, Miss Scott became the recipient of the soul energy of both the Ruling mummy and his wife/consort, and thus became a timeless or perhaps immortal being herself. Thomas is a mummified cat which was raised when Starling had to perform a raising ritual to deal with a situation in the British museum (between episodes). He is utterly devoted to Starling, and completely undead.

The raid goes off as planned, except that it goes awry when Joe is captured by the crew of one the gigantic "Juggernaut" tanks stationed at and being built by the factory the team is raiding. Rourke manages to use one of the ATLATL torpedo rocket launchers from the Marigold to launch one of the Marigold's torpedoes at and seriously damage the tank, but fails to rescue Rooney, partly because he is unaware that Rooney is aboard the tank, having been captured by one of its crew when he tried to sneak aboard.

The factory is eventually destroyed, partly by Rourke egging the damaged tank on and drawing its fire, and also by the efforts of Starling, Redburn, Issa and Hawthorne, each pair successfully laying and detonating their charges. Talbot is trapped underground in the catacombs beneath the factory, but manages later to escape. Rourke takes a pair of gliding wings from a stack of old junk in the factiory, and after a bit manages to climb to the top of a tower and glide away just as it crumbles after its foundations are blown apart by another massive shell from the tank.

He manages to escort to the ship Issa and Hawthorne, Starling and Redburn having already escaped. Rourke tries to leave the ship again to look for Rooney, but is blown back aboard again by the massive blast that obliterates the factory. The episode ends with Rourke in sickbay, having sworn not to leave Joe in captivity, and reading the files captured by Issa and Hawthorne, which reveal that the greenies at the factory were of a new strain developed to fight alongside the russian soldiers, who were to be given a genetics-altering drug to make them unattractive to the greenies as prey, and thus also making it possible for human "handlers" to order and direct them.

As teh Fourth episode opens, the team is preparing to ostensibly go to Finland to test "long distance explosive charges," but it is clear that teh orders are actually a cover for the rescue operation for Joe, though they will be diosowned if they are caught by the russians. Starling is also going to Helsinki to "see a specialist" about her lingering leg wound, sustained in the flight from the factory.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[Evelyn Adler]

Issa (Lady Elizabeta Hohenzollern (again, somebody correct me if I have this wrong).

You were right - in suspecting you got it wrong! 
Issa is Iska Helene Elisabeth Baroness von Rabenstein, not related to the von Hohenzollerns at all (then she would be a princess...), but Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, is her great-grand uncle.

[Shipwright]

Hullo,
Question about the Marigold - those rocket pods I spied at the front, are they conventional solid propellant rockets similar to the Mysore or the Congreve, or is it more mid 19th Century?

I assume they are for ground attack, or close-in assault due to the curvature that is needed to get any sort of range out of them.

Or have we kind of skipped forward a bit and have rockets that can fire straight for long distances?

[MWBailey]

Hullo,
Question about the Marigold - those rocket pods I spied at the front, are they conventional solid propellant rockets similar to the Mysore or the Congreve, or is it more mid 19th Century?

I assume they are for ground attack, or close-in assault due to the curvature that is needed to get any sort of range out of them.

Or have we kind of skipped forward a bit and have rockets that can fire straight for long distances?

All of the above, save that they most likely are some combination of liquid and solid fuel (I haven't gotten around to diagramming their operation yet). Note: those gigantic maxims on the front of the control car have been replaced with more-practically-sized gatlings.

The 'rocket pods' are an artifact of my sometimes-odd method of drawing; they're actually rocket tubes, in the same sense as torpedo tubes; the rockets are torpedo rockets, each a bit longer than a man is tall, but just barely light enough that a man like Rourke (who is strong as a bull) can carry two plus the ATLATL launcher into the field. See Rourke's attack on the Juggernaut tank in Episode Three for a description and operation of the launcher. Not the most confidence-inspiring of contraptions, but it does work. They are accurate enough for use as torpedoes against other ships, but ballistics do matter; they are not cruise missiles, and though their range could probably be increased by nosing up the ship's angle of repose, even that addition would probably leave their accurate range somewhere in the realm of a couple or a few miles; the half-turretted two- and four-pounders would be a better choice for distance bombardment.

[Zeppelin Kapitan Fritz]

     I am having trouble coming up with a character, as I don't know what would be plausible in this setting. It also appears that the game has already started.

[walkthebassline]

     I am having trouble coming up with a character, as I don't know what would be plausible in this setting. It also appears that the game has already started.

The game has started, but it is running in chapters that are fairly self-contained. Part IV is just starting and it is not too late to join.

As for plausibility, I'd suggest running any ideas by MWBailey, either by posting them here or shooting him a PM.

[Stella Gaslight]

Yes please join us.  The game may have started but It hasn't gone to far yet.   The two best ways to go about it I can see is be a crewman or someone sent to run the testing on the Marigold (you can interact with the crew in london right now.)  Or being either a prisoner or worker in Russia. (You can interact with the players there now and the london crew later.)

[MWBailey]

A technician to do the testing of the long-distance barrage exsplosives would be good. Just a word to the wise, the 'testing' mission will probably turn into one for rescuing Lt. Rooney from the Gulag; I was thinking that maybe Rourke, because of Piggott-Steng's (his immediate superior and head of Royal Airship Corps Intelligence) request for a look-see at the thing the prisoners there are expending their labor to build, would be looking for an excuse to traipse over into Russia, and that it might be (ostensibly) to chase a Russian gunship or other border-patrol craft that fires on the Marigold, thinking, rightly or wrongly, that they have crossed the border; the charge testing would be more than enough to attract attention.

But, whatever you prefer.

--------------------------

As for plausibility, I'd suggest running any ideas by MWBailey, either by posting them here or shooting him a PM.

Also by The Corsair, since this and Episode Three are his episodes

[The Corsair]

Just a note Bailey, avoid the word 'Gulag' given that it's about 50 years off and isn't actually translatable to 'work prison' (it refers to the government department in charge of work prisons and such)

And yes, run ideas by me for this game but do not consider me the voice that speaks the final word because I may well refer back to Bailey if I feel the need as this may be my game but it's his series

[MWBailey]

Just a note Bailey, avoid the word 'Gulag' given that it's about 50 years off and isn't actually translatable to 'work prison' (it refers to the government department in charge of work prisons and such)

And yes, run ideas by me for this game but do not consider me the voice that speaks the final word because I may well refer back to Bailey if I feel the need as this may be my game but it's his series

I stand corrected. Time to go word-shopping again...

[Shipwright]

For my first post can I create the prison? As though outline where what is and what is who?

[The Corsair]

Sure, though seeing as it'll give quite a lot of plot-important info would you mind PMing it to me before it gets posted so I can make sure it all works out?

[MWBailey]

the people of the veche who are visiting Talbot are just a sort of scouting party, sent to contact him and let him know what's up. Their orders are to wait until the Marigold arrives and Rourke lets Marenko go before they infiltrate the camp and raise unholy hell...

[MWBailey]

Making a further post to get the ship in the air and moving. pardon the double post here as well.

Fixed the "God-mode" aspect of the veche operatives; there is of course no way they could know Talbot's exact mindset or intentions, but his 'emotional scents' (fear, jubilation, happiness, sadness, etc. ) would be there and should be detectable to a sensory-heightened being such as a vamp.

As I was yesterday, I will be out for most of today at the Texas Birthday Celebration at Washington-on-the-Brazos, performing in period costume (Runaway Scrape) with the North Harris County Dulcimer Society. I'll post again sometime tonight (if the queue has  turned over by then) after I get back home, provided I'm not too wiped out to do so.

[Shipwright]

Hullo, one last question.

What's with the whole vampire thing? Is it common knowledge, mostly unknown...?

[Stella Gaslight]

Now I might be off and wmb might post to correct me but organized vampires are secretive but known to the people that need to know.  They like their privacy and prefer to handle problems on their own.  The best analogy I can come up with is like spies in movies those that have the clearance know about them the rest don't except for legends and such.

[MWBailey]

Stella's correct. It's pretty much a secret society thing. The Nadir court is tolerated for its services to the Human court, and vice versa. Despite what those with low-level clearance might think, either population is capable of completely destroying the other, or of mutual destruction, but have chosen to work together.

There are of course madmen on both sides who seek ways to effect the aforementioned total destruction of the others, but thankfully they have so far been either unable to set their plans in motion, or have been foiled in the attempt by the relevant side's security force, or in some cases by a collaborative effort on both sides.

[MWBailey]

I really dislike hearing myself carping about rules and etiquette, so I'll keep this as brief as I can.

Please, refrain from putting words into others' characters' mouths or moving them around without permission.
Example
For the sake of this example,

Player A's Character's name is George.
Player B's Character's name is Bill.
-------------------------------
Incorrect:
Player A:
"What are you doing, Bill?" George asked.

Bill replied, "I am writing an example for a roleplay. What are you doing?
-------------------------------
Correct:
Player A:
"What are you doing, Bill?" George asked.

-------------------------------
-------------------------------
Player B:
"I'm writing a roleplay example," Bill answered.
-------------------------------

See the difference?

'well, its obvious what the other would say, so I just did it for them, it saves time.'

Nope. Sorry, but none of us are God (I know I'm not, even though I'm the originator of the series), so we really don't know what the other person is going to say, or even how they'll word it. If we turn out to be right about what they would have said or done, that's coincidence, not proof -- and as for the time angle, if we tick the person off, they might just refusde to post for a while in retaliation, which sets us back instead of moving us forward. So, please let us refrain from moving other people's characters or writing their dialogue for them unless we have specific written permission to do so. Meaning, written in the OOC thread, by the other person, for the person who is moving the other person's character. 

To Wit:
Captain Wallace, your character has made a mistake; Mina did not send the Vecheniks to contact Wallace; the veche sent them at the Novgorodian Emissary's behest, at Mina's request.

Perhaps the problem is partly my fault. If so, I apologize.

[Cpt Wallace]

Removed the last two lines to allow you to answer Talbot's question

[MWBailey]

Thanks!

[MWBailey]

I'm taking care of some family business right now, but should be able to post for Rourke &c. later tonight.

[Cpt Wallace]

And it's captain talbot