Baster runs the length of the ship, helping secure goods and people.
He then secures himself with a rope not far from Keddemas, hiding behind the mast in the dim stormy light, so as to not be seen by the half-elf.
I'm on to you, Keddemas. If you try something fancy, I'll know it !
"Thank you Leylyn" Unfortunately, Ithriel isn't able to do much since his eyesight is limited.
Endrian stumbles as he moves to acquire a rope and secure himself, the rocking of the dirigible from the buffeting winds causing him to struggle to keep his balance.
Once secured he tries to assist, but the vessels rocking motions and his own exhaustion keep him from making any real progress.
The winds are swiftly followed by torrential rain. All traces of the land below are soon lost. The helmsman struggles to keep the dirigible airborne. Safely secured by rope to the ship, you weather the storm as best you can but it soon becomes apparent that the worse has yet to come.
Jevon continues to cling to the railing, unsure of what to do. He looks around for their three 'charges' to see if any of them are above deck.
Tim gets his winter blanket and wraps it around himself and ties it secure then goes back outside to his post and secures himself and starts using mage hand and prestidigitation to keep ice and rain water from building up or pooling anywhere.
When he sees the figures out in the rain, "Beware there are creatures out there! Keep an eye out! Have weapons at hand just in case, but don't strike without provocation!"
Upon hearing Tim's warning, Baster peers through the furious rain, while clinging closely to his mast.
But the enormous lurches of the buffeted airship and the rolling black clouds make him unsure of what he glimpsed: several clear shapes or scintillating patches in the darkness of the storm ? Were they not mere flashes of lightning ?
"Well, it keeps getting better and better !" he growls between clenched teeth as the rain and the winds slash around him and try to pierce through his clothes and armor to drench him.
For now, his scale mail offers him a measure of protection - but how long will it last ?
Still hidden behind the main mast, Baster peers at Keddemas again.
Try something ugly now, you bastard. Anything ! So long as I'm not freezing here in vain !
At the risk of losing his balance, Baster loosens the rope which ties him to the mast, making sure he has three or four yards of fighting space diameter around the mast.
A second rope would have been handy. Well, it's too late for that now.
"Jevon, what's going on back there?" Leon said over the roar of the storm.
Something had the rear of the ship riled but he couldn't tell what it was.
As the weather worsens, Ithriel attempts to cast Resistance on everyone that he can reach.
"Not sure Leon. Tim says he see sumfin'" Jevon calls back. "I can't make out anythin' in this piss." He adds, while the wind buffets him back and forth on his rope.
As the rain begins, Endrian calls out to get people inside their cabins "Quick! To the cabins! You'll freeze if you are out in these conditions for too long!!!"
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Perception
Leylyn knows exactly what to do in this situation...
"Riders on the storm~ ♫ ♬ ♪..."
Baster can't help but laugh heartily when Leylyn's song pierces through the cacophonous din of the storm.
Yes, woman: that's the spirit !
Still clinging to the mast, Baster sings back what he can make of the lyrics, loud enough to hear his own words above the fury of the storm, with a tongue and jaw made numb by the cold:
"Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone..."
Sweet Eveldine !
"Riders on the storm !"
"There's a killer on the road
...
If thou give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yea !
...
Sweet Eveldine, have mercy on us, sinners and saints, healers and murderous men alike !
"Riders on the storm !"
Hearing Leylyn's song over the din of the storm Ithriel finds himself thinking, It appears nothing can dampen her spirits, not even torrential rain.
A peal of brilliant white lightning arcs through the sky and the deafening thunder resounds like a cannon.
Moments later, the clouds ahead part for a second, allowing a brief glimpse of what appears to be a veritable wall of clouds, swirling into the sky.
As the dirigible slowly heads straight towards the vortex, the helmsman's voice can be heard from the cabin, projecting from strange mechanical projections on the deck.
"I advise anyone still on deck to get to cover. This is no natural phenomenon, and the ship ain't listening. The winds guide us now!"
Jevon will quickly untie himself and make his way to an interior part of the ship.
After managing to untie himself, Ithriel was unable to see which way the cabin's were. "Baster, are you still around?!" he shouted over the storm. "I need help getting back to the cabins! I can't see!"
"Over here Ithriel." Jevon calls out from the still open door to the deck. "Hurry up mate, things aint lookin' good out here."
Makes his way across the deck towards the sound of, what he thinks is, Jevon's voice.
Tim grabs a bow from someone heading inside and will retie himself, with four ropes in different ways, away from the edge but not inside, rather near one of the tubes to talk to the pilot yet where he can still see with clear line of sight.
Well this will be an interesting test of endurance.
Tim will cast Shield if any debris starts flying around or if he sees anything try to make a pass at them. He also has the bow ready if need be.
Ithriel feels a hand on his shoulder, as someone from behind approached him.
"There" Baster's voice says "let's get you inside".
As Ithriel gets inside the ship, Baster has a sweeping look at the ship's deck around him, just to make sure no one is staying outside.
Then the nobleman hurries inside to join Ithriel and Jevon and the others, clasping the door shut behind him.
"I hate being helpless in that storm" Baster growls to no one in particular.
Then, as if the thought just occured to him, he whispers harshly to Jevon and Ithriel: "And I'd hate to think that the traitor we searched for might have stayed on the ground and have cut this ship's tether when the storm reached us !"
"But I thought all of the suspects were aboard the ship?" Ithriel whispered back.
Leylyn gets inside.
"Brrrr~ it sooo cold outside, What should we- HEY, I can totally see my breath, look!" Leylyn exhales a few times until her breath stops being see-able. "Aww, that didn't last long..."
"Don't mind me: I'm just soggy and rambling" Baster whispers to the Elf.
Loud, at Leylyn: "Well, Leylyn, the temperature inside the ship being what it is, you should be able to keep your lungs intact at least."
After ensuring that each crew member was safely inside, Endrian stumbles through the doorway.
Landing at the feet of Baster, clothes drenched and shivering from the exposure, he times his stand with the violent rocking almost correctly, but loses his footing, reaching out blindly and grabbing onto Baster's shoulder and setting himself right.
Almost immediately, he draws his hand back, "My lord, I'm sorry..." he manages before another violent jolt knocks him from his feet.
Giving up, he props himself up in a corner.
"Well, anybody see anything interesting before the storm hit?" he then chuckles, realising just how stupid he must appear right at this moment.
"I am sorry to say that I did not." Ithriel says while not seeming to have any trouble with the rocking of the ship.
"Nothing whatsoever" Baster answers Endrian.
"Let's hope this journey will not be in vain. Let us try to survive it, at least."
Baster unknots a rope he had coiled around his waist.
"If anyone would like to secure himself for extra security, let him be my guest" he says, offering the rope to anyone who would have it.
"I just realized that I definitely dislike being tied up, no matter the reason why."
The dirigible leaves the storm swept area... a second of unbreakable silence hangs in the air like a covering of dust in an old room.
From the portholes on the walls you spy the clouds whirling up... not down.
The dirigible is in the eye of a storm leading to the heavens.
Soldiers whisper quick prayers, the helmsman can be heard reciting a short prayer over the soundhole.
===
Helmsmen pray,
For fair winds and a clear sky
The smell of flowers in the air,
The feel of their skin as it's touched by the breeze
An eagle soaring above,
spirits in the ship's wake at play
To witness a work of art that only God can create,
The sunset at the end of day
At night a million stars in the sky,
Safe passage in a cloud-sea's lee
When the time comes to die as for all it must,
To awake in Eveldine's Heaven where nothing ever rusts
And always there would be,
Fair winds and a clear sky
===
As for the three suspects, they are all there and accounted for, looking as terrified as everyone else... except "Tiny". The halfling has veritably passed out in fear on the floor.
The dirigible slowly mounts the skies into the blue horizon above and slowly, the winds shift ever so slightly...
And the ship plummets towards the ground below.
"Uh......is it supposed to do this?" Ithriel asks while hanging on for dear life to the most secured object he can find.
"Uh oh!" Jevon says with a surprised look on his face. He braces himself against whatever is available and prepares for the worst.
Thank goodness for the foresight of wearing four ropes.
Tim calls down the pipe to the pilot, "What happened? Can I help?"
Baster's face blanches slightly, and he reaches for the nearest handhold in the ship's interior.
"Eveldine, have mercy on us all !" he murmurs.
It starts with Endrian slowly beginning to slide across the floor, his wet garments providing assistance to the force of gravity.
He throws a hand out to stop himself, but he cannot brace himself, his moist hands slipping on the floor of the inside of the dirigible.
Eventually his slide ends with a thud against the far wall.
"I think somethings wrong..." he says.
The dirigible then begins plummet.
"Eveldine, be with me in death as you were in life" Endrian prays before closing his eyes.
"... Gentlemen, It has been a pleasure adventuring with you!" Leylyn says as somberly as she can while holing onto the doorknob for dear life.
Baster looks at the bard.
"Likewise, Leylyn. But I regret not having had enough flute lessons with you!" The nobleman lets out a strange barking laugh.
He stays silent for a few seconds, his gaze turned inwards. Then he grinds his teeth, and raises up his arms to try to catch on some handhold to go out of the room.
"I'm going to the helm ! If I must die, it will be while riding this beast of a ship."
Baster lets out a terrible swearword as he lets go of the window frame he was hanging on and falls crashing onto a bunk bed affixed to a wall.
Stunned, he lays sprawled on the slanted floor of the ship's room.
Ithriel closes his eyes and begins to sing.
Ithilinde templa,
Miqula romen lisse,
Sul tel'lina,
Quanta ar'tiri coia.
Sunrise sweet kiss
Song of the wind
Life to be full and bright
Leon's stomach lurches as the craft begins to fall, but through it all he is strangely calm. He smiles at the absurdity of it all and begins to laugh, rich and hearty. In those long moments of free fall he seems happier than anyone has ever seen him.
Not really how I expected this to end. I guess I'll see you sooner than I thought, Hope...
The mighty dirigible comes sailing downwards through wind and rain. The deck is buffeted as the members of the crew cling on for their lives.
The helmsman is heard straining against the wheel and moments later, the dirigible pulls slightly up right before touching down with a crash loud and hard enough to sunder rock and stone beneath.
The airship is now firmly wrecked into the sides of a mountain, near the base.
Everyone make a Reflex or Fortitude Save
Jevon manages to get out a "Son of a b..." before flying down the suddenly tilted hallway and slamming into an interior wall with a loud thud. He crumples to the floor momentarily dazed but mostly unharmed.
Leon wasn't really sure what had happened. The ship had lurched rip pining the feeling of weightlessness away and hurling him like a rag doll. When he regained his senses his ears were ringing and his eyes stung. His mouth tasted like metal. A little dilerious he put his hand to his head. It came away red. He must have hit his head. He couldn't even really feel it, which was a sure sign that it was nasty and would hurt like hell later.
So I'll deal with it later.
Without much thought to his own injury, he wiped the blood out of his eyes and pulled himself to his feet to look around the wreckage.
"Head count! This is Leon! If you can hear, sound off! We need to figure out who's missing or too hurt to answer."
As the crashed hard into the mountain, Ithriel lost his grip on his hand hold. He slammed hard into the other end of the hallway, and everything went black.
Ref
Leylyn's head bursts out of a pile of rubble. "Here! Somehow a mattress broke my fall... At least I think It was a mattress..." She says as starts to squirm out from under the debris. "Whew. Ok, Let me help Leon! MARCO! ..." Leylyn shouts out as she begins to assist Leon with the searching for injured.
Perception
Despite Leylyn's usual goofy nature, she has trouble focusing and is obviously a little shocked at the ordeal.
Endrian, not bracing himself against anything as the dirigible fell from the sky, enjoyed a few moments of free fall before the vessel crash landed.
The crash left him beaten and limp, he is unable to respond to Leon's call within the rubble.
"I'm alright." Jevon scrambles to his feet in the wreckage a stunned look on his face. He looks around repeating quietly "I'm alright...." He then starts laughing and does a little jig before regaining control of himself. He immediately starts looking around for other survivors.
Endrian slowly comes to, Am... Am I dead?
He looks at his surroundings, the remains of the dirigible and the mountainside slowly coming into focus.
Of course not, I have served Eveldine well in my life. She would not abandon me to...
"ARGH!" A blinding pain shoots through Endrian's left arm as he comes into consciousness.
He looks down and sees some of the debris pinning him down and a particularly nasty gash on his arm.
Struggling to release himself with just his right arm, he manages to clear away the majority of the rubble and free himself.
He then touches his arm, saying "Eveldine, shine your healing light through me"
The healing closes the wound, but isn't enough to ease the pain.
He hears some voices, one he recognises as Leon's, another as Leylyn's and finally Jevon's. He calls out in reply "This is Endrian, we should all move towards Leon!"
One broken wooden beam is pushed aside, revealing Baster underneath. He stands up, unharmed, but looking somewhat dazed.
He absent-mindedly picks out some wood nasty wood splinters lodged in his armor. As chance would have it, none of the splinters managed to pierce the scale mail.
Baster shakes his head, getting a grip on himself, and then looks at the wrecked airship aroud him, taking some time to get accustomed to this new predicament, while hearing the voices of his comrades calling out.
"Baster here !" he proclaims calmly: "I am not injured."
"Ithriel Latairn, are you all right ?" he calls out.
No response.
Baster begins searching through the wreckage.