Ratcheting back a few time-sinks

I'm trimming a few time sink NINGs, as my free time has been diminishing lately. I've dropped out of New Babbage, Winterfell, Al-Andulus and Victorian Second Life, no offense meant to those fine virtual communities. I think I have duplicate accounts on both Babbage and Winterfell; sorry, not much I can do about that-- NING has a very weird database.

Americas

I heard about a new pirate-Caribbean themed sim from Miss Elegia Underwood called AMERICAS. Alas, I only had time to walk around a bit and have a nice chat with a few people seemingly in charge of the place. They seem gracious enough, and it is a lovely sim.

Even more interesting, the folks in charge appear to be interested in intersim naval battle. More on this as it develops.

The Return to Fusang: A Meeting Long Delayed

After long absence due to RL commitments, the long story arc of RETURN TO FUSANG, detailing the adventures of diverse citizens from Steelhead, Caledon and Winterfell in their journeys in the Celestial Kingdom (a fictional China), is almost at an end. The latest episodes are here:

Ancient Magic and a Long Delayed Visit by Hotspur
Return to Fusang: Crescendo by Darien
An End to Dark Magic by Eva
Journey to Fusang: Party 29 by Fuzzball

Tune in to the final episodes!

IRON MELEE: A quick thinking Commodore must always improvise

“To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee” -- Ahab, to Moby Dick

Say, in a fit of hubris, you take out the fragile MSS TYRIAN into a free for all at Port Merrimac. And your blood-mad city mmanager has you hove to up against a lee shore, nowhere to go but down to Mr. Jones' locker.

O'Toole in the JACKSON (Tyrian class, against the island) Hilra in TUMBLEWEED (Taos class, conducting brisk fire)

Say, further, that the inevitable occurs:

Spectacular explosion as another ironclad sinks

What course of action is left to a quick thinking Commodore?

ATTACK, of course.. Leaping over to the other ship in the smoke and fire from the JACKSON's explosion...

O'Toole conducts one man boarding action

Firing trench mortar into the enemy ship...

Tumbleweed below the waves

BOOOYAHHHH!!!! Take that!

A huge ruckus!

Another fine IRON MELEE night, folks! Thanks for coming!!

Photo Credits: E. Bellambi, A. Hendrassen

Zai-Gear Ironclads now available at Steelhead Port Harbor

The Autocrat Asturias has made his current ironclad designs, Vanguard and Brawler, available to the public at a very reasonable price. I have decided to host his vendor on my dock in Port Harbor, Steelhead City. If you are interested in picking up either or both of these unique designs, drop by the dock. There's even some handy water nearby to rez it in.



(Zai-Gear Vendor and Kandace Commons' Freebie Mosquito Ironclad Vendor, on the dock at the base of the tower)

The Vanguard has a low profile, two heavy turreted guns and a medium, and can ram (though this is not the optimal attack for this hull). Vanguard is best employed in a 'stand off and potshot' style of attack.

The Brawler is a smaller hull, and quite nimble. It has a firethrower, making it somewhat unique among ironclads at this juncture, as well as a medium gun, decent armor and a ram. Brawler has a small footprint and can be hard to hit as it is low to the waterline. Brawler attacks best close up where it can get 'personal' with its fire weapon and ram.



Grab yourself an ironclad and meet us for IRON MELEE night, every Thursday night at Port Merrimac!

The SNS Fleet is now a reality

You can now pick up your SNS Fleet trilogy:: Apache, Taos and Goliad, from Ye Old Curiousity Shoppe (Tensai's Store) in Steelhead City. The Fleet Uniform has also been boxed up and is for sale next to it. All of these items are quite affordable and will provide great value for a small investment. The SNS Fleet ships and uniform were designed with Steelhead in mind-- brash, stylish, and lots of heavy weaponry involved.

Join the SNS today, and come smash things with us on Thursday!!

Aether Salon: 19th Century Submersibles

To be more precise, 19th century submersibles around the time of the American Civil War, their impact on the development of the diverse technologies and influence on warfare at the time.



Part One will be a lecture (and possible Demonstration?) by Mr. Jasper Kiergarten of New Babbage, describing his own CSS Hunley build in greater detail.

Part Two will be a historical survey of American Civil War submersibles and semi-submersibles from the "mystery sub" of New Orleans through the Union Navy's ill-fated Alligator boat. This will be conducted by Commodore O'Toole of the Fleet of Wrath Exiles.

April 19, 2PM SLT. Place: Babbage Palisades

Who are you blogging for?

I was amused by the recent listing of Second Life themed blogs and journals on SECOND LIFE. This came to my attention by quite a few people congratulating me on Hibernia's showing of fiftieth place out of however many it was that was cited in the list. My feeling at the time was "eh, that's nice". I wondered when I first read that announcement how one even goes about judging what a "top blog" is, anyway. One can't place too much emphasis on objective measuring of subjective things, especially something that is supposed to be a personal statement, like a journal. I was NOT surprised to read the author's comments about how badly updated the tools that track this particular information are. Even the vaunted Technorati has many data gaps and errors, to the point of still ranking blogs and journals that don't get updated more regularly than six months at a time. So I truly felt for the author of that piece, who actually went and vetted Technorati's results against reality, all 1800 entries worth. I respect the effort.

Still, it makes me wonder why people journal in the first place-- clearly much attention was paid to this recent ranking and many people felt slighted by not being included or that other journals and blogs were included that were in a "dead" state. I know of one individual routinely journals for a group she is the alpha female of that actually posted on the subject to a group, proclaiming that the effort of blogging was pointless, since they weren't mentioned in the top fifty. That seems a bit extreme. If one person is reading what you write, is that enough? Or ten? Or twenty? The answer is in the eye of the writer, I think. Blogging and Journaling is an intense public/private activity, and requires some degree of discipline to get and keep readers. For what it's worth, Hibernia can pull in about 100 to 300 visitors a day, with spikes for controversial or well-referenced posts (three, in particular: How to be a DJ in Second Life, Starting your own Radio Station with Media Master (now, sadly, OBE), and a post I did on community building called How does your virtual garden grow?). For the most part, traffic comes from Google hits or the 40 or so regular visitors I get every day or so (thank you, Google Analytics). Sure, I see if people read this thing. Sure, I am flattered by the return visits. But for the most part, Hibernia is something I do for my own benefit. There are MANY better blogs and more well read blogs out there. I like this one, because it gives me something back, too. I don't really care how well it does in rankings, don't really go out of my way to promote it or anything of the sort. I am glad people take the time to read it (particularly the 40 regulars), and will stick around for a while yet.

Had to share this one...

Thanks, Eva!

Iron Melee Night! A Grand Good Start!

With a Big Bang Boomeroo and a Rat-a-tatta-tat!

Last night was the first in the regular series of Thursday Night at the Fights (ship fights that is) at Port Merrimac, Roatan, on the edge of the Blake's Sea. The area surrounding Roatan has an amazing amount of sea room to fight in, and about 18 combatants showed up to put some iron in the water. Alas, your humble narrator's humble babbage device kept crashing on him, but he got back in for a pickup game at the end. And thereby hangs a tale, to be told in a few brief pictures.









Here's a few pictures the Autocrat Asturias took:

(Direct from FLICKR)

Infiltration

As the ship fitters and coalers worked round the clock in the shipyard getting the task force ready, I poured over the meteorological reports for the next three days. Ironclads are coasters, for the most part, and I didn't like the pressure front building up. Seas would be fine at start, but the window of operations would be quite small indeed if we didn't wish to be caught in a gale on the return trip.

If only there was a way to engage with this.. Object in a more open eyed manner. Not for the first time, I wished for more intelligence. Almost providentially, I heard a little scratching sound on my office door.

"Enter!"

In the doorway was a small figure.. a child dressed in a motley fool collection of rags and bobs. He (I assumed it was a he) was snuffling and nervous, and looking up solemnly.

"Yes? What brings you here, lad?"

"Please sir, he said you'dn give me half a crown to bring this... It weren't my idea!"

He thrust forth a rumpled note. I glanced at very familiar handwriting.

My eyes widened. A slow smile played out on my features, which must have reassured my little visitor who held out his hand experimentally.

"Tell you what lad, here's a guinea. This be good news, indeed!"

The boys eyes went wide, but he did bite the coin, which proceeded to vanish in the rags.

I read the note carefully.

Good day Commodore

I trust this short note will find its way to you within a reasonable amount of time.
Should you be able to send in an operative, I offer you the services of the Black Barnacle Pub as a place to recon from. It is at the very edge of the flotilla (NW) and you may be able to access it unnoticed.
It should be visible easily, as it is built from some extremely large tar barrels
There is a hidden berth underneath which may be of service. Good luck.

Ever at your service
SD

If this was whom I thought it was, I knew SD fairly well. He was offering me a key to the city, as it were.

I leaned out and yelled for the Officer of the Day (not the unfortunate Bunwah, who had had to order to his rack hours ago, but a new youngster). She came running up with the Aethergraph set. I had seen the germ of an idea when I was reading this missive.

I wold need Hazleton for this. Fortunately the little tramp steamer captain is never far from the Blake Sea, and I raised him on private channel rather quickly.

"Hotspur! to What do I owe the honor and pleasure?"

"Stow it, Enoch. Do you still have the smuggler's hold on your vessel, the one with the underwater doors?"

"I prefer.. underwater exploration access point, Commodore. Smuggling is such a dirty word".

"Mmmm hmmmm. Can you get to Port Merrimac within the hour?"

"Certainly. I am about 300 nautical miles to the West."

"Come as fast as you can make steam. I will brief you when you get here."

This was madness, but why not? I had to see. Quickly, I ordered the dock crew to ready a Holland Submersible.

The lookouts at Ship Breaker rock sang out. GYREFALCON sighted!



And so Enoch Hazleton's steamer quickly pulled into dock, and just as quickly Enoch was summoned to the back office. His short, rotund body shook with laughter at the notion I outlined to him.

"Why not? I've heard of a floating island before, but have never seen this with my own eyes. Sounds like an adventure."

"They appear to be of your sort, Enoch. I couldn't steam within a mile of the place without being fired upon. Are you up for this?"

"Oh, Aye, Commodore, I can make a grand dumb show for you, play the smuggler and all. They have to have some dealings with my lot to survive this far.. how can they feed themselves, else?"

"I thought you'd say that.. I'm having the Holland placed in your hull as we speak."

By my reckoning we had two hours under full steam before we were in the Object's space. I used the time preparing my kit. Camera, knife, pistol. Some gold coins. Civilian gear. Oxygen rebreather. Water jet boots, goggles. Mr. Hazleton and I had had dealings before, and tonight would not be the first time I had used his special lower hatch.

The trip was uneventful-- the weather would hold for at least another 12 hours, then start to pick up. We followed the course the Lady Bellambi had set, and sure enough, there it was, like a giant floating junkpile festooned with cannons. Ships of all descriptions were tied together in a strange hodegpodge that defies description.

"You're on, Hazleton... play dumb!" I said, heading for the hold.

The Holland already had its electrical motor humming as I approached. Separation would be difficult to accomplish with little noise, but the water was deep here, and I had faith I could operate under this Object with no difficulty.













Sometimes, a simple plan works best. I was in.



And now, time was of the essence.

an Open Invitation to Thursday's Iron Melee

Starting this Thursday we'll begin a new weekly series called Thursday's Iron Melees. Every Thursday (Except the last week of the month) we'll have a free for all ironclad battle, ctf, defense or whatever is arraged for the night off Port Merrimac. It's free to attend and RP is not required, this is just carnage, fun and the glory of battle.

Thursday’s Iron Melee @ 7:30pm PDT at Port Merrimac



Combat system: Ironclad Combat System (ICS)
Rules: leave the drama at home, it's time for hammering iron and the reek of cordite in your nostrils.

An Audio.. erm.. TREAT

As a favor to Mr. Mason, I am hosting his dramatic reading of SILK AND STEEL by Ron Miller on Hibernia Audio.



Enjoy!

Prepare the Riposte

Follows PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS by about 10 hours narrative time

I read LCDR Lamunda's report with growing consternation, disbelief, and then mounting alarm and anger. Furious, I tossed the aetherographic flimsy on my desk and looked up on the chalkboard for the Officer of the Day. Bunwah.

MISSSSSSSSSSSTER BUNWAH!!!!! Report immmediately!!!

I can summon up the full force of these leathery lungs when needed. He dashed up from the shipyard, out of breath.

"Have you seen this latest report from the BUFFALO? Something about a floating fortress out on the sea?" "Yessir! I had it brought up to you straight away!"

"Good Lord, Man! Any conclusions?"

"N-N-Nossir, this is outside our experience. More data is coming in now. We have a projected path for 'the object' encountered South of here."

"Bring up Fleet Intelligence, CDR Bellambi's shop. We need to plot where this thing is going next, get a flyover of the Object, and some measure of objective speed."

"Yessir?"

"NOW, sir, NOW! Not a moment to lose!"

I unfurled the map and tacked it to the cork chart board. The Object was several hundred nautical miles away, and moving with the ocean tide in an oblique angle relative to Port Merrimac. LCDR Lamundas' observations were rushed, but he did not state the Object was under power.

Jonas, last pilot from the old Middlesea Fleet Air arm, still stubbornly wearing his tattered Middlesea greens, popped his head in.

"Yes, boss?"

I leaned back and gestured at the chart, and handed the oldster Lamunda's hurried missive. He read it, and whisteled, eyes lighting up.

"Jonas, we have an unusual occurence south of here.. some sort of 'floating fortress' if you will.. a group of ships, tied together. Floating in the tide. I need you to perform a flyover. Stand off a goodly distance, but close enough to measure current, direction, acceleration (if need be), and some idea of what this Object is. In short, anything meaningful, we need. I trust you.. use your judgement."

Jonas nodded, flight helmet already buckling on. "Boss, I'll take the Luftschiff. It's expensive for fuel, I know, but I'll need her speed and maneuverability."

"Authorized. Godspeed, sir... and Jonas?"

"Yes, Boss?" turning back .

"Don't get killed. There's damned few of the Middlesea generation left any more."

He smiled, touched his eyebrow in what passes for a salute, and headed out to spin up the Luftschiff. Soon I could hear the steady thrum thrum thrum of the engines as he headed South and Southwest.

I pounded my fist into my hand in frustration. There was a time when he led a squadron of Aerial Dreadnoughts. See what genteel poverty has reduced us to.

The Lady Bellambi poked her head in.. "Sir? You summoned Fleet Intell? What's up?"
I just sent an aerial reconnaissance Southwest of here.. about 500 miles out. We have a situation. .. I swiftly recounted the essence of Lamunda's report. CDR Bellambi whistled, read through his report twice, and looked up, a grave expression on her face.

"We need to build some intelligence for what we are dealing with, Lady Eva" I stated. "Where did this Object come from? Who is aboard? Where did they get this form of weaponry? How do they keep their level of technology? And about a dozen other questions.. Most of all, we need to find a weakness here."

Lady Eva took out a compass, a protractor, and a book of Logarithmic equations. In about thirty minutes, she had appended my chart thusly:



She looked up. "Sir? Based on guestimation, weather patterns, ocean tides, and the latest meteorological data, This is the best I can do for a guess about where it will be next. As for its intentions and how we can contact it, I simply lack the data."

"We won't need to contact it..."

"Why not?"

"All will be explained momentarily....

BUnnnnnnnnnnnnnwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhH!!!!"

and again, the nervous face of CDR Bunwah filled the doorway. "Yesssir!"

"How many Tyrian long Range Mortar boats do we have in service, at this moment?"

"Hmmmmmmm... With a fast engine swap, 5. without the swap, 4."

"And Kotetsus, and Lavancos?"

"About 9 of either one.. slightly more Lavancos, sir."

"Here are your orders. Prepare a task force of every Tyrian you can get sailing in the next 48 hours. Give each one an escort of a Kotetsu or Lavanco."

"where are we going, sir?"

"We're going to bomb this interloper into the stone age, Commander Bunwah. And then some..."


TO BE CONTINUED with "The Court Martial of LCDR Darien Lamunda"

Piracy on the High Seas

TO: COMMODORE H. O’TOOLE, COMMANDER, FLEET OF WRATH EXILES, PORT MERRIMAC, ROATAN

FROM: LCDR DORIEN LAMUNDA, late CDR, anti-piracy wide patrol, FWES SHANNON, from the stateroom of FWES BUFFALO, CAPT HUSZAR commanding

SUBJ: SOUTH BLAKES SEA AREA, INCIDENT REPORT, AAR

Commodore, I and my crew are writing this from the cramped crew’s mess area of the BUFFALO and we hope to get it transmitted by wireless aethergraph as soon as we emerge from this squall. Sir, we have encountered a deadly nest of armed pirates in the oddest place imaginable. I am transmitting this as fast as I can to forewarn you in case of danger, a more complete After Action Report will follow.

I had the SHANNON out on a wide patrol to the South, as your standard patrol sweep orders of the day stipulated. I was extremely fortunate to have CAPT Huszar in the area with me, about 2 nautical miles off but within signaling range. He had been working on the engines of the BUFFALO, and was out testing some innovations he was making on her power plant. At 0500, my lookout for’ard noticed an outlandish ramshackle structure at the extreme edge of the horizon, just outside of patrol range for the fleet. I signaled to the ranking officer in these waters, CAPT Huszar, per fighting instructions. He signaled he would close and we both steamed towards the structure.

Sir, it was like a floating island, that’s the only way to describe it.

A conglomeration of ships, mostly wooden hulled, all bound together into a giant mass of singular flotsam, larger than any vessel. There appeared to be activity on board this.. thing.. as well. Our appearance on the horizon generated much activity—we could see little figures running about in a state of great excitement. We put up the signal for “Are you a vessel in distress”, but these were not answered with any signal that was apparent.

As we hove close, we could make out more detail. Sir, this place is amazing. There is evidence of greenery—parks, some forms of agriculture, industry, smokestacks… and many ships tied to the conglomeration of hulls. The residents remained silent as we approached. I signaled to CAPT Huszar, who suggested we fire a salute charge to get their attention.

Dutifully, I had the forward gun packed with saluting blanks and I fired twice, the interrogative signal—again I was attempting to determine if this crowd of castaways needed urgent assistance.

Sir, that is where all hell broke loose. As we rounded the far point, we encountered an artillery battery of several pieces of heavy caliber. We were instantly under fire. To add to our woes, a giant ironclad of the Fear Engine variety, flying no colours, heaved around the point and commenced a brisk, if somewhat ill aimed, fire in our direction.

Your orders are very clear on this point. IF fired upon, we may defend ourselves with every effort. Sir, all I can say in my defense is that they caught us flat footed. We thought this would be a humanitarian mission, and it backfired.

The battle was short and vigorous, and I think we gave as well as we got for a while. Unfortunately, the SHANNON was struck with a shell of a new type, one that causes incendiary explosions to spread over the deck and not readily douse with great effusion of sea water. Alas, this started secondary fires, which spread to the ammunition bunker, and that put paid to the Shannon. A tremendous explosion broke her back, and she settled into the water rapidly. I was extremely grateful that chance brought CAPT Huszar to be in these waters; else we would have been captured (or as seems more likely, killed) by these strangers.

I am happy to report we managed to save all hands, although two of them suffered from severe burns as a result of the attack, including Engineer Cadet Asturias, the Autocrat’s nephew.

At present, I am steaming back to Port Merrimac with crew on board the BUFFALO, and our two wounded in the sick bay. I understand that you will likely wish to convene a court of inquiry into this matter, so I have given my sword to CAPT Huszar in anticipation of your further orders.

I will not speak to defend my own conduct or actions; I shall only state that I was under the impression the SHANNON was responding to a very large shipwreck and anticipated that the inhabitants were in dire peril. Nothing could be farther from the truth. These people are well armed and very disciplined, and have at least two ironclads that I could see; their artillery is quite advanced and they have some airship cover. I consider this construction to be a threat and am sending this warning ahead to you.

Next: Prepare the Riposte

Party at Port Merrimac

The Fleet of Wrath Exiles had a grand old time welcoming our friends (and some total strangers) to the land of Lilliput and Port Merrimac.

View Full Album

Technorati Tags: Fleet of Wrath Exiles,Port Merrimac,Roatan

On the heels of the TAOS comes the APACHE

At Murakami Steamworks, the lads are not satisfied with resting on their laurels. The TAOS, they declared, deserves an escort ship. So using a scaled down version, they have built a smaller, faster, nimbler ship for infiltration and escort duties. Here is the APACHE, which may not have the brawn of its sister ship, but it has plenty of fight in its own right.



With two single gatling turrets and a medium cannon, the APACHE may not have the weight of broadside of the larger TAOS, but she can move fast and hit hard.



She also is one of the narrower middlesized ironclads, being narrower than a Monitor class with a tad more firepower and about the same amount of armor.



Another fine addition to the Steelhead Navy!