Shorlixa/WPTheTempest
Where I detail the First Age ship extensively. Read carefully.
Contents
The Tempest
The Tempest is an excellent First Age ship that is still in relatively good repair. It's design is much like a conventional ship, but longer and thinner with a sleek design and made from orichalcum. It's hull is smooth and slippery and is designed to prevent anything from sticking to it. Rolls to climb the hull/attach something to the hull incur a +2 difficulty.
It's controls have been broken down into four different parts: Weapons, Engines, Maintainance and Surveillance. Each set of controls comes with a remote that allows control over the system from any part of the ship and requires the commitment of 6 motes of Essence. Multiple exalts can attune to each set of controls with the permission of those already attuned but the commitment cost remains the same. There is also only one remote per control. However, being at the control table also allows control over the system without needing the remote.
Basic Stats (which actually do not reflect its full capability)
Speed: 15/30 on Sea, 20/40 Submerged Maneuverability: 1S Endurance: Requires commitment to the controls to function and regular maintainance Crew: 60/15 (or 4 Solars) Cargo: Quite a lot Armor: 20B/20L Health Levels: Ux15/Mx10/Cx5/Ix2/D
Weapons System
The Weapons System is currently only connected to five other weapons on the ship. There are also various disconnected weapons aboard the ship. None of the weapons require further commitment of essence or a hearthstone to function as they draw all their needs from the ship. They also may not be removed from the ship. However, this only applies to those attuned to the Weapons System. If unattuned, exalts must spend 1m to use a weapon for a scene. Mortals may spend 1wp to use a weapon for a scene. However, if a weapon is connected to the main system, the one attuned to the Weapons System may designate up to two people with the authority to fire the weapon. In such a case, no expenditure is required. If attuned to the Surveillance System, the one firing adds a +2 accuracy bonus when firing the weapon. Otherwise, weapons fire with a basic accuracy pool which may be enhanced by Archery charms where they would be appropriate. Players add half their Dexterity + Archery score to the dicepool.
Now that they are in Creation, the weapons may absorb the ambient essence in their surroundings and store them for future use. Each connected weapon may store up to 30 motes. Each disconnected weapon may store up to 20 motes. These motes may be used to fire the weapon without any cost to the user and if the weapon runs out of motes, the user may feed the weapon more motes as well if they have an essence pool. Weapons gain 2 motes every hour when in Creation. Also, if the weapons are connected to the main Weapons System, the attuned user may fire off weapons with no multiple action penalty, up to her Permanent Essence score, in one action. This is a special Speed 6 action that may not be flurried with other actions. However, weapons take as long as their speed score to recharge. So if one fires a Very Large Concussive Essence Cannon with this action, it takes 16 ticks for the weapon to recharge.
Connected weapons:
- Two Large concussive essence cannons
- One Very Large concussive essence cannon
- One Heavy Implosion Bow
- One Lightning Ballista
Disconnected weapons:
- Three Medium concussive essence cannons
- Four Small concussive essence cannons
- One Medium implosion bows
- Three Light implosion bow
- One Lightning Ballista
||Weapon||Speed||Accuracy||Damage||Rate||Range||Cost to fire|| ||Small Concussive Essence Cannon||4||12||15B piercing||1||75||3m|| ||Medium Concussive Essence Cannon||5||11||20B piercing||1||125||5m|| ||Large Concussive Essence Cannon||6||10||30B piercing||1||200||6m|| ||Very Large Concussive Essence Cannon||8||9||45B piercing||1/2||300||7m|| ||Light Implosion Bow||6||11||1m: 5L/7B 2m: 12L/15B 3-yard radius||1||500||1m/2m|| ||Medium Implosion Bow||6||10||2m: 12L/15B 5m: 20L/25B 7-yard radius||1||750||2m/5m|| ||Heavy Implosion Bow||8||9||5m: 25L/30B 10m: 50L/60B 15-yard radius||1/4||1125||5m/10m|| ||Lightning Ballista||6||10||20L piercing||1||1000||5m||
Inactive weapons (unusuable but repairable with the right materials and tools):
- One Storm Hammer
- One Essence Twister
- One Lightning Ballista
The Weapons System also has an Essence Shield function avaliable but requires a large expenditure of motes to function. It requires 10 motes and 5 ticks for the shield to be raised and another 5 motes every tick to maintain the shield. When raised, the Shield increases the difficulty of all attacks made against the ship or its crew to be raised by 2. Obviously, the shield is not functioning at full capacity.
Engines System
The Engines System controls the movement of the ship. The user may command the Tempest to either submerge or surface as a (Speed 5, DV -1) miscellanous action. When it submerges, a physical shell emerges to cover the deck so the crew is not required to go below decks when the ship is submerging. If used as a form of attack, the pilot must roll Dex+Sail to ram the Tempest into another ship when surfacing.
The pilot can also command the Tempest to move in any direction s/he wishes and at any speed up to the maximum speed indicated (through furling and unfurling sails and/or powering up the engines), though a sail roll may be required for complicated movements, like ramming. Controlling the ship's speed and movement is a reflexive action, though ramming is a Speed 5 attack that may be flurried with other actions. There is an auto-pilot function which may be engaged at the cost of 3 motes, and after the pilot decides on the speed and direction, the auto-pilot will follow the given instructions. Auto-pilot may be disengaged at any time as a Speed 3 action.
There is an overdrive function that can be activated at the cost of 5 motes to double the maximum speed for one hour. But this damages the engines and after every ten hours they are overdriven, the engines require repair or the engines function at half capacity. Also, the overdrive function leaves behind a sticky trail of chocolate that makes tracking attempts on the Tempest easier. And attracts its own share of sealife too.
One last feature of the Engines System is the Haze Shield. The generator is located in the engines of the ship but may only be used to generate haze around the ship, with the ship always in the direct centre of the haze. It does not require a hearthstone to function but mote costs are doubled. The Haze Shield may also store up to 10 motes by drawing from surrounding ambient essence and regains 1 mote every hour in Creation when it is not in use. Other statistics follow those mentioned in WotLA, pg 92.
Maintainance Systems
The Maintainance System keeps track of the health of the ship. A user can instantly have readouts of the functioning capacity of the ship as well as track damage to the ship and where repairs are required. Attunement to the Maintainance Systems gives a +3 dice bonus to all rolls to inspect and repair any part of the ship. The user may also change the cosmetic features of the ship, such as colour and even scent. This can be used to give the ship a +2 dice bonus to Stealth rolls. Creative usage could provide bonuses in other ways.
At the cost of 3 motes, the user may also modify part the exterior of the ship as a Speed 5 miscellanous action. By weakening a seperate part of the hull, the user may strengthen another part. This allows damage to be spread throughout the ship, reducing the external penalty to maneuver the ship by half (rounded down). It also allows the user to strengthen one part of the ship and increase its ramming capability, allowing a +3 strength bonus to the attack. However, it renders other parts of the ship weaker and a perceptive attacker may seize the opportunity to attack the weak spots. The user must spend another 3 motes to remove those weak points as another Speed 5 action, but doing so also removes the strength bonus to ramming.
By committing 10 motes to the ship, the user may increase the ship's soak by 10L/10B for one scene. Doing this causes the exterior of the ship to glow and shimmer with essence, rendering all Stealth rolls invalid. This also prevents the user from using the cosmetic change or external modification function.
Surveillance System
The Surveillance System has two modes. An internal surveillance mode and an external surveillance mode. Only one mode may be engaged at a time. When activated with the commitment of 5 motes, a holographic projection of the area appears. This map only appears from the remote or on the main console of the Surveillance System. For the external surveillance mode, it follows the statistics of an Atlas of the Unconquered General (WotLA, pg 92). When on the surface, it shows the details on the sea surface. When submerged, it shows the details of the surrounding sea. The projection may not reflect both at the same time. If used in conjunction with wielding a weapon from the ship, the external Surveillance provides a +2 accuracy bonus to attacks made by the weapon as it allows for more accurate targetting.
Internal surveillance allows the user to observe what is occuring within the ship. It accurately pinppoints the position of all creatures aboard the ship and one can zoom in to any part of the ship to observe in greater detail. People are represented by dots though, much like the external surveillance mode. It can also keep track of the cargo and supplies aboard the ship. There's some problems with the system though and certain parts of the ship are blanked out. There is a function to listen in on parts of the ship, but that's been damaged.
The Surveillance System also controls the system of airlocks and can control who can enter or exit the ship when underwater. It used to be able to control security all over the ship, but as with many things on this ship, it's broken. But it can still be used to open and close doors on the exterior of the ship automatically.
External lights may also be turned on by the Surveillance System. But as with lighting torches in a dark night, the lights draw its fair share of attention when they're underwater.
Attached to the Surveillance System is a Compass of Imminent Strife. Details are given in Oadenol's Codex, pg 34.
Other Details
The Tempest comes equipped with two launches dubbed Puddlejumpers. They're small and swift, able to detach from the main ship to sail on their own. They're also able to sail both on the water and underwater. Each launch can fit three people comfortably and five uncomfortably. They're mainly of use for quick scouting trips but can't travel too far from the main ship without an essence user aboard. Communication with the Puddlejumpers may be done through the Surveillance System. When detached, the other systems are no longer connected to the launches. One launch has a light implosion bow. The other has a light concussive cannon. Both weapons are detailed above. Travelling more than 500 yards from the main ship requires 2m of essence every hour and communication with the main ship will no longer be possible. There are indications that the range can be made even further if the ship is properly repaired.
There are a lot of rooms in the ship and very spacious ones as well. Officer rooms are obviously meant for Solars and are very spacious and well furnished. Time has taken its toll though, and the rooms have been given food designs. There are also plenty of rooms for the crew. Currently, each crew member can have a room to themselves although each room can house four people comfortably. There's a main mess hall connected to the kitchen where the crew may eat. A few other rooms appear to be for recreational purposes and there's also a room that appears to have been a training room. All of them have deviated from their original function thanks to extensive tinkering by the automata.
Each officer room has a place where a Resplendent Personal Assistant and a Recorder of Everlasting Glories has been fixed. The Resplendent Personal Assistant is only able to tell the time and does not function as a compass. The Recorder of Everlasting Glories has been damaged and requires repair to be used again. It is possible some of them may contain scenes regarding the previous owners of the ship.
All bedrooms are furnished with a Thousand Comforts Lounge. Not all of them are in working condition. Also, some have a tendency to change into a lump of mashed potatoes or a loaf of bread or some equivalent soft and lumpy food. They're still comfortable to lie on, just unusual.
Each cargo room comes equipped with a Cargo Preservation Spindle that affects the whole room. However, only one of the Spindles is currently in working condition.
Sails on the ship are made from steelsilk and are extremely hardy and require little repair.
Essence Lamps dot the ship, turning on when they detect a sentient creature coming in range. Not all of them work and some turn on at odd timings or always remain on.
Rooms of importance have a crystal control panel to prevent unauthorised access. Unfortunately, they no longer work and people can walk in and out of places as they feel like. The crystal panel just controls the opening and closing of the door.
