awakeMarch 12th, 2051 AD
The players begin with an introduction to the world of Abney Park's Airship Pirates, learn some of the basic mechanics of the game, proceeded through some samples of combat to teach them the basic game mechanics, and then we did a refresher on their Airship, the Scarlet Lady.
The scenario opened on the New Deseret skyloft, as the characters wake in the Evil Lamprey tavern. Finnius P. Cloudbody, a Skyfolk trader, wakes to find himself draped turtle style over one of the tables with a pink boa wrapped around his waist. He remembers wavy blonde hair and that she was a navigator, and that her name was Jenny. Edmund Churchill-Wintermute, a former Neovictorian Imperial Naval Officer who jumped ship when he realised that the truth about the outside world was not what he had learned, wakes to find a small derringer (Damage 4) strapped to his thigh with a lacy blue ribbon. Green Harry, a Neovictorian navvy who escaped from the drudgery of the Change Cage cities, wakes to find that his body has been painted (luminescent) smurf blue, all except for his fingertips. Each of the rest of the player characters has a residue of blue paint under their fingernails, and were responsible for this (even if they don't remember doing it). Green Harry is not happy about this, and almost attacks Finnius after the latter tries to hide his hands. Once the player characters calm down a bit and realise they have to get back to their ship, the Scarlet Lady, they pay their bar tab to the Evil Lamprey owner, Mean Hook Thomas. Mean Hook also tells the characters some of the scuttlebutt that he's heard the last little while. Of primary note is the fact that rumour has it that the Imperial Air Navy (IAN) has a new ship class, the Shark, in the works. There's also news that there's an IAN pirate hunting vessel in the area, but he doesn't know its name. Finally, he tells the characters that there are two other privateers docked at New Deseret at the moment, the Blackbird and Carrigan's Wake.
The player characters finally decide to make their way back to the Scarlet Lady, where the first mate, Black Angus McTavish, disciplines them. He punishes them for their tardiness in returning to the privateer ship by making them swab the deck, and Green Harry's blue skin by making him use a toothbrush to do so! Edmund is informed by one of the crewman, part way through the process, that Captain Tempest wants to see him as soon as possible. He leaves the deck to go and see her. While the rest of the player characters and a few of the crew clean Harry of the blue skin paint/dye, a petulant Finnius sketches a lewd drawing of Harry's genitalia on his back. While the crew and the player characters get a good laugh out of this as they continue to work on the deck, Finnius is quick to help scour it off Harry's back as Angus McTavish arrives to see how they're progressing.
Meanwhile, Edmund goes to see Captain Katharine Tempest. She's not amused by the tardiness of the characters' return to the Scarlet Lady, and tells him that the ship will be leaving New Deseret shortly, as she has learned of a possible bit of salvage they can undertake, and that the crew has been getting restless, so there is a need for a bit of "pirate-y action". She tells him to make sure the ship is secured and that everything is ship shape, and says that he should ensure that the cannons are fully functional. She says that with the information on the pirate hunters and the possibility of battle looming in the days ahead, she wants the cannons ready to roar.
Angus McTavish summons Finnius to his quarters near the cargo deck to talk about the ship's accounts. Angus has been checking the accounts, and someone is stealing from the ship's funds, as the account books do not balance. Since he's one of the premier traders aboard ship, Angus has Finnius go over the accounts, but he is unable to find any discrepancies.
Aaron is ordered by Edmund to inspect the ship's guns and make sure that they are fully operational. Aaron gets Owen Kincaid, the Scarlet Lady's chief gunner, and a small crew to accompany him in this duty, and they find that a few of the guns are not operating up to spec, including the one that Green Harry is responsible for. Aaron chastises the Misbegotten, but doesn't punish him, much to Angus's displeasure. While they work, Edmund comes up to Aaron and tells him that something doesn't feel right about the Scarlet Lady, and Aaron promises to look into it. In preparation for the ship's departure, the engine crew runs some engine tests, and Aaron senses that the ship's weight is off. When he asks Edmund about it, the former IAN officer doesn't know if they've taken on cargo, but he'll ask about it.
The entire crew of the Scarlet Lady, including the player characters, assembles in the cargo hold one hour before departure, where Captain Tempest addresses them. She tells the crew that they've got a new job, a "pleasure and pain" task, that there's a rumour of a good salvage job up for the taking some 200 miles due north of the skyloft (a trip of about 2 hours), and that there's going to be some "pirate-y action" as well (the crew cheered at this notion), but that there's also some danger ahead, due to the rumoured presence of an IAN vessel hunting pirates in the area, as well as the talk of a new Shark class vessel of IAN ship ("What's a shark?" half the crew inquired, but nobody knows). She addresses the issues with the cannons (which Angus has informed her about after chatting with Edmund and Aaron), and Aaron says that the maintenance issues wiill be resolved within the hour - before they leave port. Captain Tempest tells them they had better be, or she'll be taking it out on his hide.
Led by their Captain just before she dismisses them, the crew shouts out the ship's motto: "For the Scarlet Lady!" (with swords raised high).
Since this was the first session of the game, the players had to get used to a few things, in addition to having to go through some sample combats, and they seemed to struggle a bit more getting the hang of the game mechanics than did the Friday night group. Overall, the session of Abney Park's Airship Pirates went pretty well, but the player characters seemed to focus on the wrong "mysteries" of the session to this point. It'll be interesting to see what the characters do in the next session of the game and how they handle some of the stuff I throw at them.
Overall, the players seemed to have a good time of it, and the characters they're playing have a good degree of potential. I'm just having a blast running both gaming group right now with the system. Arrrrrr!!! :)