Sky Pirate Quest
- Thread starter Diomedea
- Start date
- Original
Eurocorp
Resident Corporate Megalomaniac
John Irons
"Captain Irons, you have requested my presence?" The man in front of the captain asked, with a flat look on his face.
In front of this sat Captain Irons himself, with a displeased frown on his face. His light Brown Hair was neatly combed, as it usually was. But what caught the man's attention was the photograph clutched in Iron's right hand.
The room that the meeting was taking place in was a rather large one, but most of its space had been taken up by various tables, with assorted contraptions and weapons scattered all over the area. But there was still enough room for a modest desk, and four chairs.
"Mr. Cohan, the authorities have been hunting us, for how long, but more importantly, why are we being hunted, why, when we are in their minds at least, a minor nuisance?" Irons asked the man, now known as Cohan.
"About seven months sir, and we are still at it. The Union appears to be on the brink of war over the Slavery debate. So of course they are trying to delay it, and what better way than to go after a bunch of pirates." Cohan responded with cautious tone, Irons could change moods so quickly when the subject of the Union came up.
"An accurate summary of why we are being hunted, we are a scapegoat for their lies." Irons crisply replied, while keeping his gaze on the photograph.
"I am sorry sir, but I am afraid I don't understand where you are going with this line of conversation." Cohan replied, careful to skirt around the issue that Irons was presenting to him.
"You know exactly what I am talking about Cohan! My son was sent of to die in the war against Mexico, they didn't even have the nerve to give him a funeral. Sons are supposed to bury their fathers, not the other way around. If the United States wants to label me a fugitive for disagreeing with them, they I say let them try." Irons replied, his voice filled with conviction.
"Of course sir, I never meant to offend you. I just wanted to know what you thought of all of this." Cohan replied, careful to maintain eye-contact with Irons, as if he were a wild beast.
"I am fighting for myself, and for my country. They say I am a pirate, that I am a piece of lawless scum. They may say this now, but when the South acts up, guess who they will be crying to help them?" Irons replied, his voice now taking a low tone.
"You sir, they will be asking you to help them." Cohan took a pause for a moment, before continuing."They will need privateer's to attack enemy shipping, and with the possibility that the South will take a portion of the United State's Navy, they will need our assistance." Cohan replied to his captain, now worried about his own health.
"An acute summery Cohan, they will need our help to win a war." Irons briefly paused, as if he were making a decision that would affect his life. " But, we shall not help them, they have turned their backs on me, and my son. So I will turn my backs to them. They will rue the day they turned their backs on me, when they betrayed me." Irons once again paused, however this time he picked up a map and began to circle various areas on it."You see, no matter where you go, people want protection, from what they consider wrong. In the North they wish to be free from the fear of slavery, likewise in South they are afraid of losing the protection they have for the same practice. In the end it is all the same, they are all cowards. They only care about their own security, under the guise of liberty!" Irons screamed at Cohan, before calming down.
"Sir, I know I only have been on this ship for three months, but I have a question that has always been on my mind. Why did you choose to choose this life? You clearly could have found better service in another countries' army." Cohan asked Irons, now thoroughly intrigued by his captain's ideas.
"Cohan, I could have joined any nations' army, but I didn't because of my ideals. Look at Great Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, Japan, China, and the Spanish. They may have different cultures, but the politicians are the ones who make the decisions, and I don't want to follow any of them." Irons lips pursed into a snarl. "But in the end never forget this Cohan, politicians do not solve problems, on the contrary, they are the problems made manifest." Irons replied, his eyes now have lidded, and leering over Cohan.
"Yes sir, I will remember this conversation, in case something like this ever pops up again." Cohan replied, before a briskly walking away, careful to avoid any potential wrath that Irons may direct his way.
While Cohan was leaving, Irons continued to stare at one of his maps. On this map stood two colors, Black and Grey. The predominately Southern states were black, while the Northern states were colored Grey. Under his breath he muttered his thoughts on the situation. "The road to success will be paved with hypocrisy, and the blood of those who actually believe the rubbish expounded by both sides."
Slowly, Irons began to recline in his chair, while still looking at the map. Perhaps he could make both a statement, and make a nice fortune at the same time, it would take a miracle to avoid a succession. But no matter what, he would give each side their due.
"Captain Irons, you have requested my presence?" The man in front of the captain asked, with a flat look on his face.
In front of this sat Captain Irons himself, with a displeased frown on his face. His light Brown Hair was neatly combed, as it usually was. But what caught the man's attention was the photograph clutched in Iron's right hand.
The room that the meeting was taking place in was a rather large one, but most of its space had been taken up by various tables, with assorted contraptions and weapons scattered all over the area. But there was still enough room for a modest desk, and four chairs.
"Mr. Cohan, the authorities have been hunting us, for how long, but more importantly, why are we being hunted, why, when we are in their minds at least, a minor nuisance?" Irons asked the man, now known as Cohan.
"About seven months sir, and we are still at it. The Union appears to be on the brink of war over the Slavery debate. So of course they are trying to delay it, and what better way than to go after a bunch of pirates." Cohan responded with cautious tone, Irons could change moods so quickly when the subject of the Union came up.
"An accurate summary of why we are being hunted, we are a scapegoat for their lies." Irons crisply replied, while keeping his gaze on the photograph.
"I am sorry sir, but I am afraid I don't understand where you are going with this line of conversation." Cohan replied, careful to skirt around the issue that Irons was presenting to him.
"You know exactly what I am talking about Cohan! My son was sent of to die in the war against Mexico, they didn't even have the nerve to give him a funeral. Sons are supposed to bury their fathers, not the other way around. If the United States wants to label me a fugitive for disagreeing with them, they I say let them try." Irons replied, his voice filled with conviction.
"Of course sir, I never meant to offend you. I just wanted to know what you thought of all of this." Cohan replied, careful to maintain eye-contact with Irons, as if he were a wild beast.
"I am fighting for myself, and for my country. They say I am a pirate, that I am a piece of lawless scum. They may say this now, but when the South acts up, guess who they will be crying to help them?" Irons replied, his voice now taking a low tone.
"You sir, they will be asking you to help them." Cohan took a pause for a moment, before continuing."They will need privateer's to attack enemy shipping, and with the possibility that the South will take a portion of the United State's Navy, they will need our assistance." Cohan replied to his captain, now worried about his own health.
"An acute summery Cohan, they will need our help to win a war." Irons briefly paused, as if he were making a decision that would affect his life. " But, we shall not help them, they have turned their backs on me, and my son. So I will turn my backs to them. They will rue the day they turned their backs on me, when they betrayed me." Irons once again paused, however this time he picked up a map and began to circle various areas on it."You see, no matter where you go, people want protection, from what they consider wrong. In the North they wish to be free from the fear of slavery, likewise in South they are afraid of losing the protection they have for the same practice. In the end it is all the same, they are all cowards. They only care about their own security, under the guise of liberty!" Irons screamed at Cohan, before calming down.
"Sir, I know I only have been on this ship for three months, but I have a question that has always been on my mind. Why did you choose to choose this life? You clearly could have found better service in another countries' army." Cohan asked Irons, now thoroughly intrigued by his captain's ideas.
"Cohan, I could have joined any nations' army, but I didn't because of my ideals. Look at Great Britain, France, Prussia, Russia, Japan, China, and the Spanish. They may have different cultures, but the politicians are the ones who make the decisions, and I don't want to follow any of them." Irons lips pursed into a snarl. "But in the end never forget this Cohan, politicians do not solve problems, on the contrary, they are the problems made manifest." Irons replied, his eyes now have lidded, and leering over Cohan.
"Yes sir, I will remember this conversation, in case something like this ever pops up again." Cohan replied, before a briskly walking away, careful to avoid any potential wrath that Irons may direct his way.
While Cohan was leaving, Irons continued to stare at one of his maps. On this map stood two colors, Black and Grey. The predominately Southern states were black, while the Northern states were colored Grey. Under his breath he muttered his thoughts on the situation. "The road to success will be paved with hypocrisy, and the blood of those who actually believe the rubbish expounded by both sides."
Slowly, Irons began to recline in his chair, while still looking at the map. Perhaps he could make both a statement, and make a nice fortune at the same time, it would take a miracle to avoid a succession. But no matter what, he would give each side their due.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
I got nothin to compete with that. still don't like the name through.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
I'm wondering if I should abandon my own vote, honestly. The whole point behind Browncoat was that he was this relic of a bygone age that just refused to go away. Doesn't really work if we're not in the twilight era.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
vote for Amadeus
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
That was my other idea.vote for Amadeus
We'll see if any more voters show up.
Eurocorp
Resident Corporate Megalomaniac
What do you have against Irons?
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
his name is boring.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
The name doesn't sound pirate-y enough.
- Location
- Denmark
Japan wasn't really relevant to the average American at this point of time. China either, for that matter. They were states in the far east where the colonial empires were expanding their influence, not really seen as civilized nations. Besides, neither really had politicians as we know them. China was an Empire, while Japan was... something that could be described as a sort of hereditary military dictatorship mixed with a feudal monarchy, I guess.
The Austrian Empire, on the other hand, should probably be included, especially since Spain was mentioned. At this point, Spain was a second-tier nation, while Austria was one of the superpowers of the world. Also, Great Britain should be United Kingdom or the British Empire.
Eurocorp
Resident Corporate Megalomaniac
To me Irons was using them as a coma prison, to him they are all the same. They were all equally corrupt governments that he despises. But yeah, I should've used Austria and Portugal as well.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
I just had a thought.
Would it be possible for the characters not chosen to show up as NPCs? Crew members, rival pirates, lawmen (corrupt or otherwise), that sort of thing? I'd hate for the loosing profiles to go to waste.
Eurocorp
Resident Corporate Megalomaniac
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, I'm calling it so that I can get the next update out sometime today, it was pretty close though. You are Amadeus Xavier Machina, infamous inventor, a 2nd generation immigrant from Germany to the United States of America.
Sure! Saves me work, though I've already decided on who the recruitable 'special' crew members are. The non-chosen options will certainly show up in some capacity.
Also, if his name is Jonathan, it wouldn't be shortened to John, but Jon. Minor nitpick, but the name isn't Johnathan.
Sure! Saves me work, though I've already decided on who the recruitable 'special' crew members are. The non-chosen options will certainly show up in some capacity.
Also, if his name is Jonathan, it wouldn't be shortened to John, but Jon. Minor nitpick, but the name isn't Johnathan.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
I'm not arguing about John/Jon/whatever, I'm arguing about irons. Irons is a crappy surname for a corrupt CEO and it's a crappy surname for a pirate.
EDIT: Well then. Looks like Browncoat's going to be a southern lawman in this verse. The Reynolds family has been (hunting) pirates for as long as there have been pirates (to hunt), and just because dear old mom didn't give him any sisters is no reason to break the family tradition.
Why did I specify him as being from the south? So that he can still fulfill the "Remnant" part of the original idea behind him.
Last edited:
- Location
- Denmark
Portugal was a minor nation at this point. The Netherlands and Belgium were more prominent. The Ottoman Empire as well. It was decaying at this time, but it could claim quite some power.
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"I'll show them! I'll show them all!" You silently swore to yourself as you made final preparations for your flight from Baltimore. The converted warehouse around your ship, once full of bustling workers and machinery was now bare of all but the handful of workers who had chosen to stay with you. You, Amadeus Xavier Machina, son of a carpenter who had come to America seeking his fortune, had invented the best airship in the world at the age of 25! Shame that no one else seemed to think so.
They had called you mad when you had suggested your idea of a hydrogen powered internal combustion engine. Your math was sound. You knew that your math was sound, but apparently no one wanted to move on from the comfortable, the ordinary, the mundane. They said that they would explode, that somehow it would ignite your lines and then cause your main bag's hydrogen to explode, killing everyone. As if you were so stupid as to not think of the danger and design counter measures. They simply couldn't appreciate the elegance of your design. More powerful than conventional steam boilers, and it used the same fuel as your main gas bag. Normally airships were forced to release gas into the atmosphere as they rose to avoid bursting. Instead of wasting it, you moved it to secondary storage containers and burned it as fuel!
Still, no one had wanted to give you any funding, so you had built your first engine with your family's savings. It wasn't perfect, but compared to the belching boilers most airships used it was beautiful. You had shown it off to every respectable investor in the city, and a few outside of it. You had expected to be showered with the praise and acclaim you deserved for you magnificent piece of engineering. Instead they called you "Mad!" MAD! So you then borrowed money from every disreputable source you could find. You put everything you owned up as collateral. Your house, this converted warehouse you had made your workshop, even your proposed airship was collateral to three different men. But you had done it. You had built this magnificent ship, the noble [NAME], which you knew was the fastest ship in the air! Most airships could only go 10-11 miles per hour. The fastest had reached speed of 12 or even 13 miles per hour. Your beauty could go a blistering 15 miles per hour, outstripping anything the world had seen before!
[]Name the ship
[] I don't care!
Unfortunately, it seems everyone had already decided you were crazy, so even after your very successful test flight, no one was willing to give you any funding. No one was even willing to let you transport cargo on your ship either, certain that it would go up in a blaze. Most galling of all, they had taken to calling your most wonderful airship "Machina's Folly!" With no money, and no way to get money legitimately , it appeared that you were ruined, with barely five dollars to your name. However, that meant that they would certainly take away you lovely ship, which was simply intolerable. No, if you couldn't make money legitimately, you'd just have to make money illegitimately...
The hanger doors that served as a roof for the warehouse slowly opened wide, revealing the clear night skies above you. The nine men and women from your work crews who had chosen to stay had already begun filling the main bag. Surrounding the oblong bag on both sides were the main decks of your ship, appearing like wings from the ground. Two bridges above the bag, and one below connected the two main decks to each other. Each deck had it's own internal combustion engine, propellers, and rudder for added maneuverability. Most of your crew were uncomfortable with being so close to the main bag, but you knew that you'd rather die quickly in a hydrogen explosion than the slow fall of thousands of feet to the ground. It wasn't as if there was a way to survive the bag catching fire in any airship, after all.
With a groan from the wooden planking, your airship slowly rises out of the warehouse as it becomes lighter-than-air. Yes, soon they'd learn to fear the sight of your ship on the horizon. You'd become the most feared sky pirate in America, and prove the superiority of your designs with blood! That'll show them! You let out a burst of laughter, and begin the first step of your journey into legend...
First Act:
[] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
[] Head for another city! There's too many people looking for me in Baltimore.
[] Go to the Washington DC and head for Airship One! It's time for your debut!
[] Write-in.
--------------------------------------
Charsheet and Ship Sheet are up. Boy do those skill dice hate you. Two nat ones and Four twos on out of 10 d10 rolls. However, due to your background, your ship is five years ahead of its time, and your attributes are a little better than average, so you should be okay.
They had called you mad when you had suggested your idea of a hydrogen powered internal combustion engine. Your math was sound. You knew that your math was sound, but apparently no one wanted to move on from the comfortable, the ordinary, the mundane. They said that they would explode, that somehow it would ignite your lines and then cause your main bag's hydrogen to explode, killing everyone. As if you were so stupid as to not think of the danger and design counter measures. They simply couldn't appreciate the elegance of your design. More powerful than conventional steam boilers, and it used the same fuel as your main gas bag. Normally airships were forced to release gas into the atmosphere as they rose to avoid bursting. Instead of wasting it, you moved it to secondary storage containers and burned it as fuel!
Still, no one had wanted to give you any funding, so you had built your first engine with your family's savings. It wasn't perfect, but compared to the belching boilers most airships used it was beautiful. You had shown it off to every respectable investor in the city, and a few outside of it. You had expected to be showered with the praise and acclaim you deserved for you magnificent piece of engineering. Instead they called you "Mad!" MAD! So you then borrowed money from every disreputable source you could find. You put everything you owned up as collateral. Your house, this converted warehouse you had made your workshop, even your proposed airship was collateral to three different men. But you had done it. You had built this magnificent ship, the noble [NAME], which you knew was the fastest ship in the air! Most airships could only go 10-11 miles per hour. The fastest had reached speed of 12 or even 13 miles per hour. Your beauty could go a blistering 15 miles per hour, outstripping anything the world had seen before!
[]Name the ship
[] I don't care!
Unfortunately, it seems everyone had already decided you were crazy, so even after your very successful test flight, no one was willing to give you any funding. No one was even willing to let you transport cargo on your ship either, certain that it would go up in a blaze. Most galling of all, they had taken to calling your most wonderful airship "Machina's Folly!" With no money, and no way to get money legitimately , it appeared that you were ruined, with barely five dollars to your name. However, that meant that they would certainly take away you lovely ship, which was simply intolerable. No, if you couldn't make money legitimately, you'd just have to make money illegitimately...
The hanger doors that served as a roof for the warehouse slowly opened wide, revealing the clear night skies above you. The nine men and women from your work crews who had chosen to stay had already begun filling the main bag. Surrounding the oblong bag on both sides were the main decks of your ship, appearing like wings from the ground. Two bridges above the bag, and one below connected the two main decks to each other. Each deck had it's own internal combustion engine, propellers, and rudder for added maneuverability. Most of your crew were uncomfortable with being so close to the main bag, but you knew that you'd rather die quickly in a hydrogen explosion than the slow fall of thousands of feet to the ground. It wasn't as if there was a way to survive the bag catching fire in any airship, after all.
With a groan from the wooden planking, your airship slowly rises out of the warehouse as it becomes lighter-than-air. Yes, soon they'd learn to fear the sight of your ship on the horizon. You'd become the most feared sky pirate in America, and prove the superiority of your designs with blood! That'll show them! You let out a burst of laughter, and begin the first step of your journey into legend...
First Act:
[] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
[] Head for another city! There's too many people looking for me in Baltimore.
[] Go to the Washington DC and head for Airship One! It's time for your debut!
[] Write-in.
--------------------------------------
Charsheet and Ship Sheet are up. Boy do those skill dice hate you. Two nat ones and Four twos on out of 10 d10 rolls. However, due to your background, your ship is five years ahead of its time, and your attributes are a little better than average, so you should be okay.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
[X] Daedalus
Thought about naming it Icarus, but then I thought "What was that guy famous for?"
[X] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
With the civil war starting up soon, I want to make a name for ourselves so that we can get privateer status when it does.
Thought about naming it Icarus, but then I thought "What was that guy famous for?"
[X] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
With the civil war starting up soon, I want to make a name for ourselves so that we can get privateer status when it does.
LostDeviljho
Flame Dragon Princess
- Location
- The glorious Pacific Northwest
- Pronouns
- Any
[X] Daedalus
[X] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
Deadalus works for me.
[X] Search for a ship to, uh, pirate!
Deadalus works for me.
