Seek casts Izema a toothy grin as he ties off the rope around his waist. "Ah, lovely (pleasure)! You already know how this works (delight? amusement? joking?)!" A moment later Seek grabs the mast with both hands and uses his feet to gently, but firmly, shove you off of the mast and over the side of the ship! You sail over the side, easily clearing the railing and the hull! But instead of dangling limply at the end of the rope, you hit a point level with the ship's deck, sink down about ten feet below it, and with a motion that makes your stomach lurch you suddenly reverse direction and go back upwards! You clear the deck again, going up until you're about eight feet over it, then sink back down again with another lurch to your digestion. Down, then up, then down, then up again, until your momentum is lost. You bob a little as you level off, floating even with the deck. Ever so slowly, you begin to drift outwards, away from the ship. That's when the rope stops you. Swinging down from the mast, Seek uses the rope to slide down to the main deck, and gently tugs you back towards the ship. Once you get close enough, he reaches down, grabs your hands, and hauls you back onto the ship. "My apologies (sincere) for the method of explanation," he says, untying the rope from your waist. "Over the years, we have tried many other methods of explaining how the gravity plane works (exasperation? annoyance?), but for some reason this is the only method that actually sticks in the minds of those new to spelljamming (delight? amusement?)! Apparently, it is something that must be experienced to be believed (extreme amusement). Now, had you slid out far enough to pierce the air envelope (serious), then we would have a problem."
Drakk was interrupted in his studying, he could have sworn he heard a faint scream. Walking outside of his quarters, he saw Izema bobbing around the ship wildly. For a moment, Drakk thought Izema would be dead, but then he realized that some sort of artificial gravity was holding him roughly level with the deck, and a long rope held him within the bubble of air. Curious, Drakk drew near to where Izema was suspended to ask him what had happened.
Looking over Tarkaz sees Izema fall overboard and then launch back up, "That isnt something you see everyday...guess its good to know what will happen if you fall over!"
"well that was fun" he says and he climes back over the railing. his eye twinkle "(excitement) can you control your self out there? or is it like a wizards levitation spell?(his hands aren't showing his emotions at this point) if you could get yourself under the ship could you use it to walk upside down? is it as elastic every where or does it get weaker when you reach the edge of the field?" "and" and he pauses here, a dangerous toothy smile spreading across his face "can i do that again?"
Shrill, almost screeching laughter greets that last comment. "Haha! Of course you can do it again (sincere)! But if you do, make sure you climb up high enough to clear the railing, and always have a catch-line attached (extremely serious)! While there are ways to control your movement when off of the ship (concern? Not sure on this one), those tricks are not reliable (serious). Without a lifeline, you are at the mercy of the gravity plane. It is... supposed... to be the same strength until you reach the edge, but I have not tested that (curious). Float too close to the edge and it will push you through the air envelope (deadly serious). Once outside, normal gravity happens once again (amused?)!" Leaning out over the railing for the aftcastle, Captain Naresh snorts in amusement. "Actually, yes, you can walk on the underside of the ship's hull while the helm is active, or when outside of a planet's gravity well! It makes repairs much easier! Some ships are actually designed with the gravity plane in mind, with weapons stations on the upper and lower sides of the gravity plane to make covering all approaches more easy! However, such ships also seldom land, preferring to make port in floating space docks. At least one ship hull I know of mirrors itself on top and bottom! An odd design, mind you..."
well (controlled reserved. didn't know the compound hope the 2 together work) there will be time for me to be foolish latter(embarrassment) but until then i think i have a watch to attend to(contemplation?).
Before you can do that, a bell next to the door heading down into the hold rings. The two halflings emerge, each carrying a basket with a lid. They walk among everyone, ask each person a question, then hand out a package wrapped in waxed vellum! When one of them gets to one of you, they ask their question, which turns out to be "fowl, boar, or vegetables?" Izema takes note that the Vanara takes a vegetable bundle, which turns out to contain a sandwich! Well, kind of a sandwich. Basically it is a bread roll stuffed with filling of some kind. Seek's appears to contain cucumber, onion, peppers, some kind of hard cheese, and something red you don't recognize. After you make your choices, the halflings request you open them carefully as the cook needs the waxed vellum back. Tarkaz, when they get to you one of them apologizes and says that the cook isn't familiar with the dietary needs of your people. They give you the same options, but ask if you want the cheese or not. Drakk, one of the halflings adds that if you prefer, Sandy offered to share her lunch with you instead. The sandwiches are tasty, but oddly cold. Not chilled, but actually cold somehow, like they'd been packed in ice!
Drakk looks to the Halfling handing out food and says "Unfortunately I'm a bit busy at the moment, I have alot of studying to do and frankly cannot take my mind off of it. I think today I will take the boar, though tell Sandy I would be more than happy to some other time.". Unwrapping the boar sandwich, Drakk hands the vellum back to the Halfling before heading back to his quarters to continue reading the book he borrowed.
Drew accepts the fowl sandwich and nods his thanks. Drew is still rather speechless from watching Izema plummet from the ship and somehow come back safely and alive.
Looking at all the options Tarkaz asked if he could have two, stomach rumbling, eyeing both the vegetable and boar options. "We are omnivores, hunting giant boar and other savannah and river game, but also relish a good vegetable addition as we are also farmers...and cheese...my tribe, we loooove cheese" his mouth begins to water, he waits for a response before taking what he would desire
Garutis eyes the half longs giving out food. If there weren’t people to stop them, he would devour them in a heartbeat. However he accepted the “Fud” they offered, and without a second glance threw it down his stomach.
His nose detecting food long before his eyes the halfling rushes over to the fellow pair. “Halflin’s! Oh halflin's my stomach will be all filled up in no time at all with the smell of that meal you got." Ohmen quickly rushes over with a newfound enthusiasm quickly grasping one of the packages and tucking into whatever food was inside, all the while chucking scraps of meat of pieces of bread to Wisdom who would both catch them mid-air or peck them off the deck’s salt-stained boards. Having feasted upon an array of colourful vegetables and rich meats the halfling quickly passes the packaging backwards before speaking out again with a rubbing motion to his stomach. ‘That WAS delicious!” He proceeds to lick the grease and fat off of his grubby fingers before licking his lips. “Mmm, So, When is the second portion? I do certainly hope that was starters” Stepping closer to the pair of halflings he continues “You haflin lot got any spare lil meaty bits for my birdie? I'll take any extra's myself too!" Meanwhile, within this cage of flesh and bone Ohmen watched out from he knew all to well that he did indeed have days worth of rations with him. He, however, wanted to see how far these halflings would go and how much he could gain, especially since he was one of their own after all.
Smiling, the halfling duo do ask if anybody wants seconds, then one of them snaps their fingers and pulls a larger bundle, similarly wrapped in waxed vellum, and hands it to Garutis. "Sorry, this is for you." It contains half of an unidentified roast bird, about the size of a whole chicken! It is cold, like the sandwiches, but still edible.
Grabbing both a boar and vegetable bundle the Minotaur simply takes off the wrap entirely and begins to double fist both sandwiches at the same time! Peppers, cucumber, onion and cheese meeting the boar meat with all the other goodie and any sauces within, some filling pours out falling onto his chest... With a mouth full, "So good" the words barely make it out of Tarkaz's mouth before he takes another mouthful if both sandwiches at the same time, "This bread, so buttery..." again the words barely escaping, everyone having to almost translate a foreign language
Taking a bite, a strange expression came over Drakk's face. He had been on his way to his quarters, when he stopped. Looking back to the Halfling who had served him, Drakk says "ðês eoforswîn ungemete limplic. Wuldrig râd dôð best sw¯æsende yfel âsendan fretan in hlêgðrâge ðrâg! Oh... Pardon me, I said this meal is delicious! Finest boar I have ever tasted! I definitely look forward to see what else we eat here on this ship!". With that word, Drakk Pat's the Halfling on the shoulder before stepping back into his room to continue his research, after finishing his food of course.
From Geonomicon: Travels in the Arcane Inner Flow Silgis: One of the two moons of Tinsenail, and an interesting place! I'd only intended to make a brief stop on this barren-looking moon, but wound up staying almost fourteen days, taking in the sights, the people, and above all else, the food. Settlements, and indeed most life, are concentrated in deep canyons that break up the surface of the moon. While the barren outer crust of the planet is airless and waterless, the canyons are more like the lushest pine forests of my home planet! Pines, firs, larch, redwood, cedar, and a rare species of tree called a bronze-pin spruce fill the canyons amid rushing rivers and waterfalls, surrounded by the cliff walls. The russet-colored inhabitants of those canyons are kobolds, but much more civilized than any I have met before! They build their lovely homes of native stone and wood, tucked in against the canyon walls and dug into the stone! Decorative fretwork lines the eaves and balconies, offering impressive views of the valley no matter what you look at! They carve intricate statues of various creatures, but there is a prevailing draconic theme to most of their works. I never had a chance to see such a structure, but apparently the kobolds worship a goddess named Silgisarr, and named their 'planet' after this apparently draconic matriarch! The kobolds are no strangers to spelljamming culture and travelers. Indeed, three major ports exist, one within each of the widest canyons! Merchants hawk their wares along the docks, trading wood, stone, ore, precious- and semi-precious gems, extremely fine wool, woolen cloth, and native foodstuffs to travelers from as far away as the outermost planets. They welcome tourists as well. During my stay amongst them I saw underground caverns filled with glowing crystals, other chambers used to grow the wide variety of mushrooms that make up a staple of the Silgisian diet, and many other interesting sights. And sheep. I didn't understand why there were so many sheep at first. It didn't take me long to figure it out. Sheep thrive in the limited grass coverage and can live off of certain kinds of mushrooms abundant in the caverns. These are not normal sheep though! With unusually soft wool, they provide a material so fine, so soft, you could use it to swaddle an infant without worrying about rashes! Wool should not feel silken, but this, somehow, does! But the sheep provide a secondary use as well. The kobolds make great use of mutton in their cooking, and have perfected the cooking this meat to an art form! Mutton burgers, mutton sausage, mutton bacon! I expected to have gotten my fill of it after only a day or two, but fourteen days in I found myself craving more of their cooking! Truly, it was with sadness in my heart that I was forced to continue my journey onwards to other planets and spheres...
During the last few days, many things were learned. Drakk grew slightly annoyed with the Geonomicon, hoping it would have more concrete information than the travelogue it obviously was. But to counter that, he got to man... er... kobold... the helm. As a given helmman could only run the helm for up to sixteen hours before needing a break to recharge their magic energy, that meant Drakk finally got a chance about the time that Ohmen found himself unable to stay awake (or possibly control the voices vying for control of his body). Getting over his initial shock, the kobold soon learned to enjoy his time on the pilot's seat, watching the stars as the Moonsister sailed the starry sea. Ohmen, for his part, was still something of an enigma to the crew and his fellow adventurers. He began to suspect that Rasmus had a suspicion about what truly lay under his robes, but as the elderly mage showed no signs of acting on anything, he opted to leave Rasmus be for the time being. Instead, he devoted his time to learning how to control the ship with more efficiency and trying to suppress the urge to go totally halfling on everything and everyone. Tarkaz and Drew finished their repairs to the ballista, double-checking everything to ensure it was functioning correctly. On a whim, the minotaur decided to check over other parts of the ship, frowning at the obvious state of disrepair he found. Between the two of them, they were able to cobble some minor repairs to other things. During their inspections they came across something unusual and slightly ominous. A vertical cabinet of sorts, built into the center of the hull. It had been mostly hidden by cargo, and they hadn't seen it until conducting a thorough search of the contents of the hold. The cabinet was cool to the touch, but required a key to open. Drew's skills made short work of the lock. The cabinet turned out to contain... food. COLD food. REALLY cold food. It took a bit of magical research, but they soon realized that the chest had a permanent spell of cold cast upon it, which kept the contents almost ice-cold! A quick talk with Sandy, the cook, soon revealed to them that the enchanted "freezer box" was a fairly common piece of kit aboard spelljamming ships. After all, it was hard to keep meat fresh without chilling it first. Currently, the chest holds half of a boar, several unidentified fowl, and other odds and ends wrapped in waxed vellum. Izema got to spend time up in the crow's next. The view from that high wasn't horribly different from the one on the deck, but with the rigging out of the way it was possible to see in all directions. When not on duty, he played around with the gravity plane, using some weights he found in the storage room. The gravity plane extended forwards about as far as the ship was long, and the same distance behind and to either side as well. He learned that if he was careful, he could leap from one of the yardarms on the mast, swing out over the side of the ship, and land on the bottom of the hull ready to fight! He also learned what happened if he slipped outside of the air envelope. He had a scary couple of seconds before Seek hauled him back inside the envelope, and vowed not to do that again. It was so cold outside the bubble of warmed air that he couldn't hold the rope!
When Drew was not working on bits of the ship with Tarkaz, he would still remain near his newfound friend, but instead of working on the ship, he would be sharpening his punching daggers, practicing lock-picking, making sure his bow was in a constant state of readiness, and trying out new moves and maneuvers with his weapons. But when he wasn't doing any of that, he was observing the weapons and fighting styles of the other members of the group when they trained. Mainly to size them up in case of a betrayal, but also to see in what ways they could all work together as a cohesive team.