Alyssia, wielding a shovel, completes the destruction of the second pipe, releasing a fresh blast of searing steam .
Although Fortinbras didn't find any sort of instructions on the engineers, he did find a curative potion on the eladrin handmaiden's unconscious body.
In a grave voice, he announces that there has been an emergency in the engine deck and that as a safety precaution, the lifeboats are being prepared. "Please make your way in an orderly fashion and one of our fine sailors will help you on to a boat. Ladies first, please." Once he's finished, Minister Lee has returned with a tiefling dressed in a fine coat. The tiefling nervously drains his wine glass and chucks it overboard.
The king turns to Jesselle. "Miss Wesmere, this is Geoff Masarde, the chief engineer and designer of the Coaltongue. I'm sending him and five sailors with you to fix this. Good luck." With that, the king strides away with Minister Lee shadowing.
Masarde looks at Jesselle and asks with a Danoran accent. "Explain on the way?"
"Alyssia, with me! We have to let that elemental out!" He looks at the engineer. "Thank you, I'll put in a good word for you."
The woman nods respectfully, "Right away your Highness." With that she turns to Masarde and motions back the way to the engine room.
She mutters under her breath, "Getting my work out today..."
Jesselle begins to work her way back down to the engine deck almost as fast as she took to get up. This time as she does she explains, "We followed the suspect to the engine deck and when I arrived I could make out two individuals at either side of the boiler turning wheel valves. Within the boiler itself I could see a very bright fire burning and I swear what looked like something wanting to break out.. One of my team said that we had to break one of the pipes in different locations and before I left to report that the ship may explode, we ruptured one of those pipes and a whole lot of steam was released."
Fortinbras, being gravely injured, drinks the potion then follows after Nishoh and Alyssia.
Nishoh grimaces. "Step back Alyssia." Nishoh raises his pistol and fires at the elemental gem.
Fortinbras catches up and follows Nishoh's bullet with an arrow.
Telesan heads over to Alyssia, taking the brawler's hands in his so he can examine them. He channels power through himself and into Alyssia; the burns on her hands begin to heal. He calls to the henchmen. "If that thing is going to pop an elemental I suggest you get ready to fight"
Nishoh's bullet and Fortinbras's arrow ricochet harmlessly off the the gem. "That didn't work," shouts Alyssia over the roar of the furnace. "Any other ideas?"
Nishoh's mind races. Have to relieve the furnace...have to get the heat down...destroy it? No, too hard, would probably burn to death before I managed that. Drown it? Bah, maybe as a last resort, besides I'd probably sink the ship. Cold magic? Even if I had it handy I wouldn't know who had it or if it was enough. Damnit, think! Either way he figures getting the gem out can help. Steeling himself, he runs in and grabs it, trying to get it out as quickly as possible.
Telesan keeps talking as he heals Alyssia. "We need to pull the gem out and then we have to stop the pressure from building.There's firedust upstairs, we could use it to blow the furnace."
He yelps as Nishoh darts forward. "Not with your hands!"
He yelps as Nishoh darts forward. "Not with your hands!"
Jesselle continues moving forward and down as she leads the engineer and sailors. She asks Masarde, "How do we do that? We have to relieve that pressure somehow."
Nishoh plunges his arms into the flames. His cursed heritage protects him from the worst of the blaze, but still, the heat is excruciating. It takes Nishoh almost to the brink of death, but he clutches the gem and pulls it out of the furnace. When removed from the fire, the gem's inner light fades and dies. The heat from the furnace drops significantly, but pressure is still building.
Jesselle and Masarde arrive just in time to watch Nishoh, arms black and smoldering, pull the gem free. The tiefling engineer gasps at the sight. "By the Bleak Gate, man. We have tongs for that sort of thing!" He looks around, trying to assess the situation. "We have to crack the furnace. Where is the firedust kept?"
"It's a floor up...with a charm that keeps it cold. If we threw that cold charm in the furnace would we still have to crack it?" The eladrin moves over to Nishoh and starts healing his burned arms.
Pain. Searing, burning pain. Pain unlike what he had ever experienced before. Nishoh could juggle coals for fun, but this was something primal, something powerful.
"Aaaarrrrrggh!" He rips the gem free and collapses out of the room, dropping the gem at his feet. He remains on his knees, cradling his badly burned arms to his chest. Make it stop...No. We're not safe yet. Think, damn you. Lives are depending on it. Think!
"It was based on an early Danoran design, but the implementation of the magical capacitor and the 'Brand' would not have been possible without Risuri innovation. The capacitor draws excess energy from the furnace, which it uses to power the ship's controls, lighting, and the Brand; a weapon of my own design that can obliterate a Danoran battleship with a single shot. from the furnace, which it uses to power the ship's controls, lighting, and the Brand; a weapon of my own design that can obliterate a Danoran battleship with a single shot..."
"Fire Brand!" Nishoh splutters through his pain. "It will use the excess energy, fire it into open water!"
With Nishoh's comments Jesselle seems to perk up and starts, "Telesan and I have been to the controls and were told that just about anyone should be able to use it. I figure we do not need much finesse to fire off a shot or two into the open water."
She turns to the Masard, "You and your men could still perpare with the firedust and if you need to destroy the boiler, do so, but give us a chance to avoid that?"
Looking back at her companions, "Are we ready to make the run back to where this all started?
After tending to any more wounds Jesselle takes a deep breath and leads the way back up towards the Brand controls with some haste.
Fortinbras nods as Nishoh talks, his fingers moving about in the air as if shuffling something. He stirs when Jesselle speaks. "Hmm? Yes, I'm ready to go."
As the group moves back towards the Brand, Fortinbras--a remarkably calm and pensive expression on his face still--regards Nishoh. "That was quite a bold move, Nishoh. You are a more daring man than I."
Nishoh nods to Jesselle, sighing with palpable as Aurlia heals him. His arms are still black, but they no longer sear and throb. "See if you can get help either way Jesselle."
He stands and gives a shrug to Fortinbras. "It was a calculated risk. My kind is resistant to fire, so I was best suited for the task."
The controls to the Brand are located in the fore of the ship, on the gunnery deck. This is the room where the sabotage first occurred. The guard still lies unconscious on the floor and a cool ocean breeze blows into the room from the open window that the Duchess dove from. Cries of terror filter in from above as the passengers begin to crowd onto lifeboats.
The controls themselves are a dizzying array of levers, switches, buttons, and arcanotech devices. The entire contraption vaguely resembles a pipe organ built of glass and shining brass. Unfortunately, because this was intended to be nothing more than a simple cruise, the controls are not calibrated.
The woman sees to Nishoh's wounded hands with a quick arcane chant there is a brief white-blue glow and the healing energies see to the tiefling's wounds.
Jesselle walks into the Brand control room and starts to look over the complex array of devices and controls for a few brief moments, "Let me see... I've got nothing, sorry."
"Damn, I almost got it! Everybody look around, try to figure this out!"
Jesselle continues to look around trying to understand and recall some of the things that was said about the Fire Brand. 'Was there not that one paper that came out speaking to the theories?'
Something within the machine clicks and a light flashes on the display under the words Conduit Connected as Nishoh fiddles with the controls. One third of the task is complete.
"Maybe...try that lever there? Seems to make sense considering the placement."
"Um. Maybe if you hit that button then turned the lever?"
A low hum ripples through the ship as immense energies are diverted. Blue and white electricity crackles through the glass pipes attached to the console. The Brand is primed. Now the inspectors need to find how to fire it.
"That seems to have done it! Now, how do we fire the thing?"
"Right there, I'm sure of it. That's where I'd put the switch."
"Did we, uh, did we aim this thing? Blowing up a lifeboat is a good way to get fired" Telesan chuckles nervously. Beads of sweat roll down his face.
"Aim towards open water and down. The only beings dying today are fishes, and I'm willing to make that sacrifice."
The electricity crackling through the glass pipes turns a a violent shade of red. The thrumming from the engine deck begins to build to crescendo, threatening to rip the ship apart. Then, with a roar, a massive gout of flame erupts from the figurehead. It impacts about two hundred yards from the bow, vaporizing a massive volume of water. When the steam clears, the inspectors can clearly see the hole in the ocean before new water rushes in to fill it. The ship shudders one last time before falling still. They have saved the Coaltongue.
*******
Before all the dignitaries have even been fished out of the sea, Principal Minister Harkover Lee has the constables sequestered inside of a spacious cabin with on the gunnery deck. His unflappable demeanor remains, but there is a dangerous edge to his voice. Assistant Chief Inspector Delft has managed to join his cell, although he leans coolly in a corner, chewing tobacco.
Lee begins. "I need to know what happened down there. Tell me everything."
Jesselle is really glad that the Coaltngue was not destroyed and damaged in any significant way, and especially glad that she and her companions did not all die in some fiery explosion.
"Minster," Jesselle starts. The young woman begins with her part of the events with her and Telesan finding a room for Duchess Ethelyn and then returning to fetch her for the King's speech.
"When we returned we all felt that something was amiss and had to break into the room. When we did we found Duchess Ethelyn fleeing out the window using some sort of magic to safely land atop some large sea creature with tentacles." While she does not know the type of creature she attempts to describe it the best she can. "Atop the creature was I can best describe as some otherworldly woman with skin is the color of water in the moonlight and her hair looks like tangled kelp. She has a sharp, austere face and her eyes are without pupils."
"The Duchess than gave us a warning, and I quote I am sorry. But I must do as my lady commands. I bear you no ill will, but I do what must be done. If you wish to live, flee now. You do not have long." Jesselle says and considers back to that moment when she considered just that, for a moment. "And than the beast, Duchess, and strange woman, slipped back into the water."
She takes a moment and continues, "That is when a several firey creatures moves to bar our way, a halfling, who was disguised earlier as a cook carrying a platter of pastries about the reception, threatened us to move no closer with a sword to the throat of one of the guards, and the Duchess handmaiden, Sokana, used some sort of magics to move to the deck below us and made for the engine deck. Telasen pursued the handmaiden while we fought off the fire creatures and rescued the guard. The brief combat ended with the creatures returning to whence they came and the hafling fleeing using invisibility magics. The rest of us than made for the engine deck."
The Bard lets the events sink in before she continues, "Upon reaching the Engine Deck we found the main boiler over heating and within moment of exploding. There was, what we now know, some sort of elemental gem placed within to make the engine go critical and destroy the Coaltogue. We managed to detain the handmaiden Sokana, defeat the disguised workers, and delay the boiler's explosive build up long enough to return here to the Brand's controls where we calibrated and fired the weapon to release the excess energy."
"I would like to give credit to Constable Winthrope for apprehending Sokana even while in the midst of combat. Constable Nishoh also deserves credit for removing the elemental gem from the boiler without thought to his own safety which gave us the needed time to fire the Brand." The young Constable says in giving her two fellows their own personal acknowledgements.
The woman looks to the others to fill in events as they might have seen or know differently.
Nishoh backs up a little. Oh crap, I hope we did this right. "Down!" He instinctively throws himself over Aurlia and Jesselle, ready for the worst. But a moment later when he's still alive (that pain in his arms is a clear reminder) he looks out at the hole in the ocean with awe. Wow. What a piece of destruction.
*******
Nishoh had been expecting this; they had, after all, done quite a bit of damage. He looks over at the others. "Perhaps you should start with the teleporting mage..." Nishoh waits for the others to begin and tell of the people trying to destroy the ship. He adds in any details if he feels them needed, but he stays quiet until the fight below decks. He blushes at Jesselle's praise.
Nishoh clears his throat. Here goes nothing. "The furnace was overheated and heading towards a meltdown. It was going to explode and take the lives of dozens, if not hundreds with it. I made the decision to start destroying the pipes, the idea was to relieve pressure. I can't say for certain how much it helped, but it is my belief that it gave us enough time to disable the remaining traitors and keep the furnace from exploding. I take full responsibility for any damage to the pipes."
He grimaces. "Firing Brand was also my idea. When I was given a tour of the ship, I was given broad strokes about how the weapon worked, including that it drew off excess energy from the furnace. I came to the conclusion that it could keep the furnace from exploding by dissipating the energy into the water. In that regard, I can happily say that I was completely correct. Also." Nishoh fishes into his jacket pocket, wincing at his burned arms and pulling out the firegem. "This was the source of all the trouble. It was placed in the furnace."
Aurlia stands rigidly, hands clasped behind her back. "Sokana and I exchanged words while I was trying to detain her. She claimed that what she was doing was, and I quote, 'The only way to save Risur', and that she'd 'Rather die a hundred deaths than let Risur be corrupted.' The woman has clearly seen or heard something that has her convinced Risur is in danger."
Aurlia clears her throat before continuing. "I think everyone in this room knows I am an Eladrin. Sokana is one as well. While I am keenly aware that she is a dangerous traitor I would like to, ah, request that she not get the traditional traitor's punishment. I know of an enclave that would happily take her, they would keep her under heavy guard, and be grateful for the presence of another Eladrin woman."
If the Principal Minister is shocked by the Duchess's actions, he does not show it. He calmly takes note of everything the constable's relate, asks several pointed questions. Afterwards, he stands up and shakes your hands. "You did well today. Your actions prevented an international incident and possibly saved the life of our king." He looks to the Assistant Chief Inspector. "You have good men and women here. Use them well. I must speak with the king." The aged wizard takes his leave.
Once the Principal Minister had left, Delft steps forward. He lets out a deep breath through. "Well, shit," he begins. "We've got a hell of a lot of paperwork ahead of us. Do you have any questions for me?"
Aurlia begins pacing the room. "If I may speak frankly I want...I mean I wish...If we could...BLAST IT." The eladrin pounds a fist against the wall, her breathing heavy. She stares at the floor as she speaks. "Let's get it all out in the open then. In the back of my mind I've been dreading this since the Duchess jumped out that window. We all know that the Duchess is ultimately responsible for almost killing the king and half of the state officials. And, well we all know that she was my sponsor into the RHC. Ethlyn used a female Eladrin to carry out the attack on the ship and I.." Her voice trails off. Slowly she reaches up one hand and starts yanking off the 'beard' glued to her face. When she beings speaking again her voice has a higher feminine pitch.
"I am one as well. And honestly, I'm amazed no one has clapped me in irons yet. The Duchess sponsors a female Eladrin into the RHC and said constable just happens to be there when the Duchess attempts mass murder using another female eladrin? If I was an outside observer I wouldn't trust me at all. I would...I....I don't know. I just want to know what's going to happen to me."
Delft nods, seemingly unsurprised by Aurlia's confession. "As of right now, nothing. I suspect the Duchess hoped that you might join in her sabotage. That your peers can attest to the bravery of your actions today should keep you clear." The Assistant Chief Inspector pauses to pull a tin out of a pocket in his leather greatcoat. He plucks a pinch of tobacco from the case and puts it behind his lip. He thinks for a moment while he chews. "Unfortunately, I am going to have to pull the lot of you off of this case. Too many conflicts of interest."