[MH] Caribbean by Night

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Not that I don't get your point. However, I failed my resistance roll against nitpicking.

What tariffs? Books only have VAT. Also, what's with dealing with Goddamn Customs. All the various times I've ordered books they've sailed through GC.

Customs must hate me for some special reason, as I've several times had to go to Höfði and argue over receipts just to get my stuff. Even when sent stuff that I didn't pay for, such as playtester copies, I've had endless trouble and sometimes not been allowed to take possession, as there was no receipt, they claimed, so they couldn't process it.

Customs seems to employ the incompetent, tyrannical petty bureaucrats too awful to fit in at the IRS and be overseen by Phil, the Lord of Insufficient Light.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Customs must hate me for some special reason, as I've several times had to go to Höfði and argue over receipts just to get my stuff. Even when sent stuff that I didn't pay for, such as playtester copies, I've had endless trouble and sometimes not been allowed to take possession, as there was no receipt, they claimed, so they couldn't process it.

Ah, I've heard about such trouble before. Though how is it the fault of GC if the law and regulations they're working with is particularly stupid?

[Icelander]

So... that went places.

One player just absolutely refused to accept the existence of Antarctic Space Nazis in HPL's Dreamlands. He voted that the PCs close their eyes and refuse to believe in them and then the swastika-decorated zeppelin would just disappear. It didn't. But the zeppelin and two flying galleys were chasing a sky schooner of some sort through terrible polar winds. After a bit of thought, Alice Talbot (PC) declared that anyone Nazis were trying to kill were probably the Good Guys, so helping the schooner was their duty as the Heroes.

Three out of four players were overjoyed at discovering Nazis in their Mythos. And Don Rafael de la Vega was pretty much universally beloved, especially after they discovered that any reference to a damsel in distress would provoke instant proclamations of unqualified support for the PCs' brave quest, to the resigned horror of the other Sky Pirates of the Rocinante.

The pudgy Zancas, the ship's mage, confided to Lucien Lacoste (PC) that "El Capitán, he is a brave man and true, wiser and more cunning than an old fox, but he has a bit of a weakness for the senoritas, especially if they happen to be in distress. Still, he is a very good Capitán for all that and until death, it is all life."

As it turns out, the Antarctic Space Nazis were not just following the Rocinante out of pure meanness. In addition to a hold full of salt, the Rocinante had also 'acquired' some other items, not necessarily originally theirs, from the Men of Leng and their new and mysterious masters. Items like a pallet of gold, jewels and art objects, two MG42 machine guns, a Gebirgsflak 38 AA gun and several cases of ammunition.

Oh, and they're flying over the Plateau of Leng, where there is always night, the lost city of Unknown Kadath is in view ahead of them and Teddy Smith (PC) is making alchemical explosives to launch magical firespears from the swivel-guns aboard, while 'Nonc' Morel has started gathering energy to 'recharge' the mystical diamonds he has tapped for various rituals.

The other players are pretty sure that using these diamonds, which are fairly aglow with the unearthly cold magics of the Lords of the Last Waste, is a bad idea. And they know that 'Nonc' Morel has acted very strangely since he started using them like candy. Strangely like he tried to steal some of the diamonds Alice Talbot was carrying, once he ran out of his own, and only gave them back when Don Rafael held a rapier to his neck.

All in all, until death, it is all life.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Three out of four players were overjoyed at discovering Nazis in their Mythos. And Don Rafael de la Vega was pretty much universally beloved, especially after they discovered that any reference to a damsel in distress would provoke instant proclamations of unqualified support for the PCs' brave quest, to the resigned horror of the other Sky Pirates of the Rocinante.

So, they're getting on with the pirates like a zeppelin on fire?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

So, they're getting on with the pirates like a zeppelin on fire?

Just so.

It made the players sad when I explained that a single spark would not set a zeppelin on fire, any more than a lit match will ignite petroleum if you drop it into a barrel without mixing petroleum fumes with air first. Even incendiary machine gun rounds were fired by the dozen in order to try to set historical zeppelins on fire and it really needs a lot of them or bigger payloads of incendiaries. So hoping for a spark to ignite a zeppelin from non-incendiary rounds from an elephant rifle at long range was essentially like hoping for divine intervention.

Of course, when Teddy Smith thought about the magical firespears they had and the possibilities of launching them from TL4 swivel-guns aboard the skyship Rocinante, he wanted to turn back and blow up the Nazi zeppelin. And that's when he found the Flak cannon.

[Icelander]

The Rocinante is captained by the flamboyant and dashing Don Rafael de la Vega. His Frirst Mate is a hard-bitten, badly shaved, balding pirate who introduced himself as Gaspar, and Zancas, the ship's mage, has already befriended the PCs, as 'Nonc' Morel used his magic to cure him of a bullet wound that likely would have proven fatal.

There is also Tao Chi'en, an Oriental gentleman aboard, serving as the cook, and a quiet man, no doubt with some food-prelaratory duties, known only as El Sanguinario.

This leaves at least fifteen crewmen. Would anyone like to suggest some characters?

Bonus points for an existing fictional character who seems like he could make a good sky pirate (with any changes necessary), stolen from speculative fiction and other media likely to have been enjoyed by a Chilean girl born in 1984 and into all sorts of fantasy, both in Spanish and English (though her early reading was mostly in Spanish, but sometimes translations of very popular writers from English).

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

This leaves at least fifteen crewmen. Would anyone like to suggest some characters?

I strongly suggest some of the major characters from George McDonald Fraser's The Pyrates. You might have to tone them down a bit, but they're very memorable.

Addition: some of the pirates from the Asterix series are also memorable, and the series has been available in Spanish since the 1980s.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I strongly suggest some of the major characters from George McDonald Fraser's The Pyrates. You might have to tone them down a bit, but they're very memorable.

Addition: some of the pirates from the Asterix series are also memorable, and the series has been available in Spanish since the 1980s.

Great suggestions!

Now I have an excuse to read a George McDonald Fraser book I've somehow never read and the Asterix pirates are a briliant thought.

[Icelander]

Well, Antarctic Space Nazis are addictive and fun, but I note that the PCs have actually left them behind for the moment, and are currently approaching Unknown Kadath on the Plateau of Leng on the skyship Rocinante, with its crew of approximately twenty larger-than-life roguish Sky Pirates, led by the swashbuckling hidalgo Don Rafael de la Vega.

If we manage to get in a session this weekend, I should probably nail down the exact responbilities of the Sky Pirate crew before the nightgaunts strike. Or the shantaks.

The Rocinante is a sky-sailing schooner that can carry a cargo of about 30-50 tons, excluding its crew, necessary spare spars, sails and rigging and some supplies. It usually has a crew of 30+, but that's in order to have a boarding party and still be able to work the rigging. The twenty survivors of the battle with the Amfortas (ASN zeppelin) are still more than sufficient crew for basic shiphandling.

How the Rocinante flies is unclear. It exists in the Dreamlands, after all. As best the PCs can tell, it carries with it invisible aether that functions as the surface of a sea. The ship's wizard appears able to make alterations to the level the schooner flies at, but when he is shot, it is difficult for anyone else to cause the vessel to rise, though his assistant and apprentice did try, before 'Nonc' Morel (PC) tapped a diamond energy source for a truly awe-inspiring ritual speeding them upwards and onward by a following wind still under his control.

The Rocinante is but lightly armed, mounting merely two swivel-guns, in addition to the personal armaments of its ruffian crew. This is because gunpowder is largely unknown in the Dreamlands and these are the largest weapons they've managed to have cast. Incidentally, when asked about their homeland and origin, the crewmen give wildly different stories, but agree, broadly, that they've sailed these skies for several seasons.

In any case, I've identified the following crew positions:

Captain: Don Rafael de la Vega
Quartermaster:
Ship's Mage: Zancas
First Mate: Gaspar
Bosun:
Carptenter:
Gunner:
Cook: Tao Chi'en
Assistant mage:
Apprentice:

In addition to a couple of petty officers and then the rest being able 'skymen', have I forgotten any obviously important position?

[dcarson]

Sailing master?