Friday 21 September 2012

Wet Bristles: Royal dignity fail. It's curtains for the workshop...

Wet Bristles: Royal dignity fail. It's curtains for the workshop...: Autumn! That season of mellow fruitfulness, and bloody cold workshops, is nigh, if not upon us already. So it is time to put soft furnishy b...

Saturday 25 August 2012

Dammit.......air Krakens everywhere

Well the marlin appears to be cursed! The crew ready for a mission to Wales when the boy got the pox. Who knows how a small boy caught the pox. Persephone was not amused! So we were on countdown to see if fhe pox would clear in time to make the mission. We fought the pox but the pox won!
As it happens we then find out that the mission to Wales was then doomed due to the sudden appearance of air Krakens. The royal dirigible corps been derelict in their duties again perhaps? Perhaps released by sabeuters? Who knows. All we do know is digger got himself involved in some sort of skirmish this weekend instead, the medic .....well I think she is imbibing some of he more 'medicinal' liquids. Pox boy looks like he has been peppered by a blunderbuss and persephone is just getting on with things. Me well I am counting the costs of a failed mission and wondering if we will ever get this damn airship off the ground again.
Well good luck to those few brave folks who fought through the kraken to gather in Wales, I hope you get out unscathed.

Phinneas

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Preparations......

So you have had an introduction to some of the crew. Digger has told you how he ended aboard the marlin as have Persephonetans the boy. Well not the boy as his language skills are not that well developed yet!
I am yet to give you my story I know but as the so called leader of this group of ne'er do wells I have other things to organise first.
We are heading off on a mission soon to meet up with some other crews. These social gatherings are good to gather intelligence on interesting things that may need to be 'extracted' from the wrong hands. Of course enabling me to sell them on for a price! They are not only useful for gathering intelligence but usually good fun too! It seems like a while since the crew had some fun together.....
However I need to make sure digger is under control as I don't really want him taken in by the royal dirigible corps if I can help it.
I am hoping the journey will be easy, I have heard nothing of air Krakens in the airways above Wales recently which is always good news, though I would love to try out the new harpoon system I have just installed. Imagine capturing and tethering the beast! Tame one and use it to power the marlin's flight Now there is a challenge......

Well enough for now work to be done, repairs to be made orders for the requisition of some provisions be issued to the crew.

Bee seeing you soon
PB

Saturday 4 August 2012

Aah finally another entry for the role call.....

After much cajoling  Baker has persuade me to write a biography of myself which I do with some trepidation. It is not easy for a lady to find independence in this day and age from her family and the way in which I left mine has meant I have had to guard myself closely from would be suitors, assassins and bounty hunters.


My name is Persephone Leeford the only daughter of Sir Algernon Leeford, an eminent archaeologist and tomb raider. When not off plundering catacombs in south America my family lived within the city whilst my dear papa lectured on the finer points of tribal culture at the university. My brothers were brought up to be educated young gentlemen and encouraged to follow in the footsteps of their father. A wasted  expense in my mind as Algy, the eldest found comfort in opium to alleviate the pain from a duelling wound after trying to protect the reputation of some song bird from the theatre which turned him in to a dribbling idiot. Whereas Nathaniel was taken from us when he blundered in to a dispute between tribal leaders and after trying to make peace between them found himself as the celebratory meal when a truce was brokered. I on the other hand was not formally educated. Of course I had a governess echo tried her best  but there is only so much sewing a girl can take and I found that by hiding behind the curtains in papa's library I could avoid all manner of beastly feminine chores. I read and devoured the books in her and when done I started on the maps and codes and came across an unusual manuscript which seemed to point to a lost treasure and an unusual artefact.

I had always secretly longed for adventure after seeing papa and the boys set off on their missions. Then the opportunity arose. Unbeknownst to papa Algy had fathered a child with the song bird and said child was left on our doorstep. Papa was away on one of his trips which left me holding the founding. I knew Algy was in no fit state to care for the child and yet I could not for the life of me bare to leave him with the sisters at the orphanage. I got as far as their door and something quite strange happened. The child babbled at me thinking I was his mama and with that I walked home, gathered up some books, manuscripts and a change of clothes I walked away with the boy and off to seek our fortunes.

Papa was furious when he returned to find that not only that his prized manuscript, a small amount of money and his only daughter had taken off but that his only potential heir to his vast fortune had gone with her. He vowed that he would find us and force our return either through marriage to one of the many suitors he has chosen or in bits via the assassins he had sent!

Baker found me and the boy much as he found the others. We were on the same air ship bound for Europe and after some disagreement about the levels of noise small child should make when excited and hungry found that we had a shared interest in finding fortunes. He told me about his the Marlin and his need of a navigator and cabin boy to go with his physician and muscle man. I decided a life in the clouds would be more beneficial for.myself and the boy as it would take us out of plain sight for a while so this is where we have ended for now.

P


Friday 3 August 2012

Digger - role call



Name:  Digger
Role in crew: Exploration, reclamation of items, scavenging for parts, amateur antiquarian. Not adverse to violence.

Specialities:
 Finding things of value <legally and otherwise>, Making tea, Appropriate levels of violence, Explosives, Writing up of exploits, Keen antiquarian.

Background:
I grew up in south london, son of a teacher, and eldest of a brood of boys. I did passably well at school, and decided to further my education. I was thrown out of a degree in archeology for dissolution, I travelled about, working form place to place, doing jobs ranging from serious exploration of the Peruvian jungles for antiquities, to being the doorman at a most seedy emporium of young ladies,  to gain enough money to settle down.
Didn't really work, and after a particularly ill planned trip to North Africa, wound up destitute, badly shot in the left arm, and partially naked in Marrakech, relying on my wits and a good set of running boots to get me through. I was, needless to say, in trouble.

How did you end up on the Marlin IV?
Well, Mr Baker found me. I was working in a house of ill repute. Not as one of the, erm, employees, but as one of the employees, if you catch my meaning. Anyway, he found me....don't know what he was doing there, posh fellow like him. We got to talking and, well, he seemed to like me and offered me a job. I jumped at the chance. Once I got used to being aloft I settled in quite nicely.
The ships doctor, and engineer  even got together and fixed me up a metal and leather  assister for my poor shot left arm. Good bunch the crew, mostly. I spend my time looking for places of interest along the way, sort of like a tour guide. A tour guide with a gun and a trowel. And a partly mechanical arm. Life's interesting, ain't it?

Digger

Crew update

Well I mentioned a while ago now that I was going to give you some background on the crew which has actually been harder than I thought! The only one who really wanted to give a little insight on his history was digger. And he knows he should do as he is asked.......most of the time. The ladies however have been less than forthcoming and being ladies I don't really want to push them to much on their background! Perhaps we don't really need to know! Just know we have a medic and a historian. Digger certainly wont want to divulge info on our medic as he lives with her and I am sure it would be terrible to wake up dead! I also don't want to go into details as I live with the historian/ navigator and the cabin boy! Well I will give you diggers story soon but for now bye bye and good hunting.

PB

Monday 30 April 2012

It's bloody cold.

There I was, minding my own business, when I am rousted out by his lordship waving his stick and telling me it's time to get some "bally work done".
So.
Here I am, miles above god only cares where. It's foggy and I am cold. I left my bloody coat in bloody Marakesh. As it transpires, I was actually doing some field work, and had been staking this  particular place out for some time. But no. All gone up in smoke. Oh well.
Time for a cuppa.
Digger.