Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
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Post by Airellian on May 19, 2011 19:35:18 GMT -8
I was waiting for you to sort out things with the ship.
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Post by Daos on May 20, 2011 0:34:07 GMT -8
Dromond
(From Of Ships and the Sea)
This ship is the largest of the galleys used by the Byzantines as coastal runners. The dromond is extremely long (between 130 and 175 feet) and slender, with a beam of only 15 feet. In addition, the craft sports two masts with triangular sails--although its real power stems from a double row of 25 oars on either side of the ship.
Dromonds can carry a respectable amount of cargo (between 70 and 100 tons) and a crew of about 200 men. During times of war, these ships can carry an extra 100 warriors, and castles can be added fore, aft and amidships to act as firing platforms for the additional troops. The dromond also possesses a sharp ram.
All in all, dromonds prove very fast and powerful vessels. Unfortunately, their slender designs render them susceptible to capsizing in rough weather. For this reason, dromonds usually sail in sight of shore and beach at night.
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A dromond can have a max crew of 200, but it only needs 85 to be sailed effectively. A ship usually needs 1 officer for every 10 crewmen, so that's somewhere between 8 and 20 officers (not including the captain).
Although 85 is the bare minimum we need to run the ship efficiently (we can do with less, but the ship's speed suffers), we probably want a little more than that in case anyone dies on the way, we'll have backup. On the other hand, the more crew we have, the more treasure is going to be split up. So there's that to consider.
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
Posts: 1,284
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Post by Airellian on May 20, 2011 4:06:55 GMT -8
Regarding my inventory items, I'll just go with: - 2 short swords
- 2 spears
- 2 lances
- Sunny already has enough daggers
- 2 short bows
- 200 flight arrows in multiple quivers
- 2 more sets of clothing.
- 8 bottles of greek fire
The other inventory items we discussed earlier were diplomatic gifts to the other races.
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Post by Daos on May 20, 2011 15:37:54 GMT -8
Okay, I added all of those items to your inventory, under 'stored items.'
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
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Post by Airellian on May 21, 2011 8:39:18 GMT -8
Some ideas for the gifts for the diplomatic mission: - Art
- Bronze or brass statuettes
- Tapestries (scenes of religious or historical significance)
- Clay vases (also depicting scenes of religious or historical significance)
- Other forms of hobbit art that maybe I don't know about
- Religion
- Copies of the Scroll of Seven Virtues
- Copies of the Tablet of Origin
- Copies of the Light of Solace church canon
- Other items of religious significance that maybe I don't know about
- Miscellaneous
- Bolts of colorful cloth made of cotton
- Barrels of beer and wine
- Tobacco in the form of pipe weed
- Songs commissioned from world famous bards
These are just a few ideas. What do you think, David?
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Post by Daos on May 21, 2011 18:49:07 GMT -8
Those sound good to me.
As for crew size, I think I'm going to go with 89. That way, we get a few backups, and I only need 8 officers. I can just promote the 8 rowers I statted out for the old ship.
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
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Post by Airellian on May 22, 2011 7:29:16 GMT -8
A crew of 89 sounds good to me, David. Can we get a description or summary on the 8 officers and the captain? And also for the three other members of the diplomatic mission?
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Post by Daos on May 22, 2011 9:49:10 GMT -8
The other three representatives, I haven't written up yet. As for the eight officers:
Baster Fellmoon - Male Human Mage (Navigator) Hugon Barker - Male Halfling Fighter/Thief (Carpenter) Kalla Firebrand - Female Human Thief (Quartermaster) Deshavi Janab - Female Human Fighter (Sailmaker) Kelp Redhome - Male Halfling Thief (Cooper) Elegant Skysong - Female Human Bard (Piper) Cassima Oakenshield - Female Halfling Cleric (Surgeon) Carver Baldort - Male Halfling Fighter (Lookout)
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
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Post by Airellian on May 22, 2011 10:16:46 GMT -8
Ooh! Nice. What about the captain?
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Post by Daos on May 22, 2011 20:04:54 GMT -8
The captain is a female human thief named Taska Whitecairn. I've statted her out and giving her a backstory. She's by far the most fleshed out NPC in the crew so far.
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Post by Daos on May 23, 2011 14:40:38 GMT -8
I didn't want to clutter up the Vignette thread with OOC posts, so I decided to post it here. Nice story. It helps to see how this all started with a narrative.
Do you have plans of any more, filling the gaps between then and the present?
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
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Post by Airellian on May 23, 2011 14:50:12 GMT -8
I have some vague ideas on how to fill in the gaps, yeah. I don't know if they're interesting enough to write entire vignettes for, but we'll see. Glad you liked it. Some of those ideas: - Sunny goes to convince the Guild of his plan.
- Sunny is sent as an envoy to Celestos to get them on board.
- Sunny goes around recruiting the officers and the captain, sort of like in Ocean's Eleven.
- Sunny finds a genius builder to build the ship.
- Complications arise. Remember those hobbit robbers? They were supposed to be "patriots" in the vein of Robin Hood exposing the corruption of the government, because supposedly the Guild is funneling money into the Governor's illegal projects. In reality, they're just thieves.
- Vignettes detailing the hobbit political process and the complications arising from that. Things like the election, Chamber committee meetings, Assembly votes, et cetera.
- And on and on...
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
Posts: 1,284
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Post by Airellian on May 25, 2011 11:05:06 GMT -8
Doo doo dooooo.
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Airellian
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Sunny Greenhaven
Posts: 1,284
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Post by Airellian on May 26, 2011 14:18:15 GMT -8
Olly olly oxen free!
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Post by Daos on May 26, 2011 14:23:46 GMT -8
Yes?
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