johnosevens
Member
"Doesn't mean she doesn't still need help," I say, "Trust me."
It occurs to me that firefighting is dangerous. I need to prepare a spell to maintain the 'freshness' of a burning floor. Fire is an oxidation reaction, after all, same as rot or rust. It should work... But not on the spot, and not when trying to focus on that means I won't be looking if Brandy suddenly needs a timely TK Pulse.
On ten attempts (including the first two) you manage to nudge the waitress four times (including the one mentioned). Of those successes, the first and third are the best, rolling her a quarter turn each, the other two shifting her slightly. She has by this point rolled over three quarters of a turn, and groaned once.
That groan has let Brandy know that she is alive. It has taken ten minutes for her to reach her (the last of your successes occurring as she arrives), crawling on her belly to spread the weight across the floor, while holding that scarf over her face.
"Come on, girl," you hear her say. "We've got to get you out of here. Boy, I wish we had a rope. Harry, how come you didn't think of rope? Yeah, blame it on the man, right? Brandy, why didn't you think of rope?"
She shifts the girl and tries to grab under the shoulders, but she can't lift the girl.
"Harry," she calls, "the floor doesn't feel that bad, but I don't think I can carry the girl out. Advice?"
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
John, not Harry. I'm John Caldwell Sevenwind in this world.
Ten minutes strikes me as far too long - the floor would've burned through by now if we were right over the fire. This gives me some confidence as to what's going on below: either the others have gotten ahead of it and the fire isn't spreading as hot any more, or the fire in the room below isn't getting enough oxygen, in which case gods do I hope they don't think to breach it - the resulting flashover would kill whoever did it, and if there's any flour barrels in the kitchen, the subsequent dust explosion would probably kill us all.
"Stay flat. Move back to arm's length, then drag her a few inches. Shuffle, then drag. I'll come out to join you if you think it's safe."
If she says it's alright, I'll lay flat and shuffle out to join her, thankful my grandfather taught me that Army crawl they do. I suck at it, but it's a better way of moving than just an untrained shuffle. Between the two of us we should be able to nudge her onto ground solid enough to stand on.
Sorry--it does say that on your character paper, but I don't always remember and I don't always check. I should be used to it--I had a guy call himself Kaiser Sodzhe for several worlds, and had to remember that none of the indigs had any clue that that was not his real name. It was an interesting reminder to everyone that you are who you pretend to be in these worlds, because usually no one can prove otherwise.
Yeah, that was iffy from my side, too--but since you're 1@ with your TK pulse and your chance of success is down near 40%, if it was going to do any good you were going to have to use it multiple times at once per minute, and I was going to have to stretch out the situation.Ten minutes strikes me as far too long - the floor would've burned through by now if we were right over the fire.
So, how good are you at this B1@2 Belly Crawl skill? I'll want to give you an SAL. You manage to get out to join them either way, as it's not that difficult a task and your bias is pretty high.
--M. J. Young
As you attempt to belly crawl across the floor, the mining helmet keeps getting in the way--it falls off twice, largely because you can't really twist your neck high enough to keep it in place while keeping your weight spread across your chest, arms, and legs. It takes a long time for you to get to Brandy and the girl.
There is definitely more smoke over here, and it's much hotter. Brandy has in the time you've been coming made a couple feet of progress, but nowhere near what is needed.
"I don't know if we can get out of here that way," she says. "I'm thinking maybe we need to get one of us under each of her arms, then get as much of a deep breath as we can, get our feet under us, and move as quickly as we can back toward the stairs. Of course, you're the expert here. How does that sound to you?"
--M. J. Young
You and Brandy get under the arms of the unconscious waitress, and together on your mark you lift her and drag her out of the balcony area to the stairs.
Flames are starting to show along the wall at the far end of the room.
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
Bugger! I really wish I actually knew the right way to carry someone over my shoulders. Two years at sea and I still don't think I'm strong enough to actually carry her dead weight alone.
"We have to get her down the stairs. I'll take her shoulders, you take her feet, and we'll get her outside, alright? We have to get the hell out of this building. Ready?"
I wait for Brandy to be ready, get my arms under the girl's shoulders, and on three, hoist. Let Brandy go first.
It's not a light load nor an easy task, but you lift the girl as Brandy supports the legs and leads the way down the stairs and to the back door. (Unless you've got a sling of some sort for that axe, I'm assuming you left it at the top of the stairs.)
You go out the back door and realize just how much smoke there is inside the building. More firefighters have arrived while you were inside, including the captain, and the outer wall on the kitchen side is being drenched by the bucket brigade but giving off significant amounts of steam.
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
(Belt loop - standard means of carrying an axe, as any Rennie would know.)
I'd love a minute to assess the situation. If I happen upon Tara I'll suggest to her to have the bucket brigade switch to sand to keep the steam down - steam burns can be nasty.
Otherwise I'll focus on getting the girl to wherever they are setting up triage. Don't I have a version of Cure Light Wounds or Lay on Hands that doesn't require a Holy Ground? I'll use that on her, try to revive her.
You have half a minute. You spot a very busy Tara directing the effort, and a glance from here tells you that she knows you're out but can't talk right this moment. You see no triage or first aid area at this point, but fortunately none of your firefighters are hors de combat.
You might mean one of these:
--M. J. Young
You and Brandy get the girl to a safe spot on the other side of the wagons, and lie her on the grass. The wagons still contain gear.
Brandy asks what she should do next.
By this time, Tara is headed toward you, apparently wanting to know what you learned.
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
I have Brandy hold position for now.
Then I debrief Tara on what we saw in there: smoke coming up through the floor, fire mostly localized in the kitchen but burning into the upper floor and the common room before too much longer. Recommend sending a bucket brigade up the stairs to start dousing the floors - keep them cool and wet to keep the fire from burning through - and breaching the kitchen from the outside, so if there is any blowback it's into open space, not into the common room. If we can breach the kitchen without causing an explosion, we should stick with water. It's more dangerous - the steam could be lethal - but sand won't be effective on a fire this widespread, and will do nothing for the walls.
Then I'll see what Tara directs myself and Brandy to do.
Tara nods. She starts picking people from the group, "You, You, David, Thomas, You--" she grabs nine altogether. She then says to you, "Take these and set up the bucket brigade to get water upstairs, and let me know when it's substantially doused. I've got eight left with me, including the chief, plus Brandy, and she and I will get some gear to use to breach the wall--try to do it without bringing down the chimney--but not until I know you're out of there, because I don't know that we won't lose the supports for the second floor when the wall breaches. From what you tell me, it looks like the fire is contained within this back corner, up past the chimney in the middle. Maybe if we pull the near section of the rear wall we can get inside at a point that's not already burning up the wall, and we'll have the shortest line to the pump. Good? Go!"
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
I nod and get going. I'm relatively strong and won't get tired since I... oh bugger I didn't get to re-up my spell. I'm not immune to fatigue today. Alright, I'll take a spot somewhere on the outside, nearer the pumps than the fire, since I don't naturally have the indefatigable stamina to work a pump or hurl buckets for a great length of time.
If I can get a moment with Tara before I leave, I'll suggest that if she does so near the chimney she can probably breach safely without waiting for us - the chimney is itself almost indestructible relative to the rest of the building, and there won't be another vital support nearby as that would be redundant and piss-poor design - the nearest vital support is probably easily ten to twenty feet to either side, if I'm remembering my physics correctly. She should be able to bring down the walls right near the chimney without damaging anything else (in a burning building of this sort, the chimney is often the only thing that remains, virtually untouched even as the whole building burns out from around it, if I'm not mistaken).
She acknowledges your suggestion.
Your team starts running buckets to the second floor and flooding it. Some of it goes up as steam, but a lot of it finds its way through the floor to the kitchen below.
For the moment, the fire is contained.
It seems to take quite a while, but you eventually get a report that Tara's team has pulled down part of the wall, visible from the top floor. This lets the smoke and steam vent, to some degree, from that area, making it easier on your people.
--M. J. Young
Over the course of the next half hour, the heat and smoke start dropping. Eventually the fire is out.
There are some minor cuts and scrapes, and the waitress you rescued has revived and is sitting by the wagon. The kitchen has an open wall by the fireplace, and is filled with mud (dirt dug from the yard--there was no sand in the wagons--mixed with water).
The captain looks around. "Thank you, everyone," he says. "You all did marvelously well. Tara, your crew is still on duty; keep someone here to watch, and get the gear back to the office, start cleaning and repacking. I'll want my command staff to meet, to discuss what we can do to improve and what we should have had available but didn't, but not right now; I'll get a time posted for this by tomorrow morning. Everyone else, get some rest. Tara? Harry? Anything to add?"
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
John, not Harry. I haven't been Harry in three years.
"Rope," I grumble, "I need to remember to bring some bloody rope. I'll see if we have any budget left..."
If the Captain has nothing else, I'll help Brandy and them get everything back into the wagons, and make sure our rescued waitress is recovering well before heading back to the station.
Sorry--I know, I keep forgetting. You'd think with that name tag there I'd remember, but I don't.
Everything gets packed up quickly, and Tara and Laws take the wagons back to the station, with your help. Brandy says she's going to get some sleep, as she (and you) must be back for the midnight shift.
I'm guessing you're going to retire to your office and do the remove fatigue. The captain has gone home; this is his day off.
Word reaches you before evening shift that the captain wants the shift supervisors you, Tara, and Matt (who was not there) in his office around ten tomorrow, which he hopes is good for everyone.
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
Yes, I'll go back to my office and bump my remove fatigue. Yay for two more days of mellow stimulant high and not fearing exertion.
Should make it easy to be there for ten.
After that meeting, I will want to go check in with the matchmaker, first, to see how long until the wedding and if there are any preparations I should be making, and then I need to check in at my house, as I haven't been home since this business with the fire crew started and I need to make sure everything is still intact, and see if I have had any message about tenants yet, as I am still looking to rent out the half I'm not myself living in (especially after I went through the expense of remodeling the whole damn thing when I first bought it, and I did intend it to be an investment that would pay for itself).
The meeting, then.
You mention ropes.
Tara says that she would have liked to have something like grapples. The axes are good for knocking a wall or door in, but she wanted to pull the outer wall out, and it was not easy devising a solution for that.
Matt was not at the fire, so although tired he mostly listens with interest.
The captain suggests that better techniques for moving victims might be needed, and maybe some equipment to help with that--not only ropes, but litters or harnesses of some sort. He also asks whether there are techniques that should be added to the training. Not everyone in the crew knows how to use an axe effectively, he notes.
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
Axe training and ropes are a definite, and we do need proper training for rescue and carrying. Litters and harnesses should be standard equipment at the squad level, but no lower - I don't want each individual having to schlep such a thing, but having a couple in the wagons can't hurt. I don't actually remember how a fireman's carry works, so I'll suggest that we track down someone in the force who has a background in wrestling, as they would know effective ways to lift the weight of someone the size of oneself or larger. I'll also specify training in how to properly drag someone without hurting them, so that smaller firefighters (Tara, Brandy) don't have to deal with trying to learn to carry someone, say, my size.
Also, I agree with Tara on the idea of grapples. I don't know if that goes along with ropes without saying, but yeah grapples. And maybe one wagon could be outfitted with a manual winch, for bringing down heavier or more solid walls?
A winch is a good idea, but the question becomes how to anchor it. The wagons are not that heavy--they're made to be moved quickly and easily even with a lot of gear in them, so a few bags of sand and a medium cask of water are the heaviest things you've got. On the ship, winches were simply built into the decks or beams. If you make it heavy enough to use against a wall you'll have trouble moving it, but if you don't then when you turn it it will pull itself rather than the wall.
The captain suggests asking people at the docks for solutions to that, but the dock winches are similarly connected to the pilings and piers, so they might not have an answer that works for you, either.
I was going to "add" things to the contents of the wagons, but then I discovered that I don't have those on the data sheet I keep for you, so humor me with a reconstruction. Verify what you remember on these points.
You have two wagons. I recall at one point that they were going to be small enough for a person to haul, but I also have vague recollections that we were talking about keeping horses at the station. Are they horse-drawn, and if so how many horses does the station keep?
Wagons contain:
shovels
axes
buckets
sand, probably in buckets?
water, in medium cask
Adding to them:
ropes
grapples
a litter
harnesses
Crews wear:
Miner's helmets
??
What have I missed?
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
We have one man-drawn wagon that has the vital supplies - the axes, shovels, sledgehammers, and buckets that we need to arrive on the scene first. We have one horse-drawn wagon containing the heavier supplies - the cask of water, the sandbags, the litters and harnesses - that are more necessary after the initial assessment has taken place. To that effect, the station keeps two horses.
Crews wear:
Mining helmets - leather with padding, absolutely no metal.
Gloves - standard leather work gloves, perhaps double-thick in the case of those expecting to be involved in breaching crews, again absolutely no metal.
Other than that, generally dense, water-absorbing fabrics. No flax, nothing with tar in it. If cotton is readily available than denim, otherwise leather for most and unoiled sailcloth for everyone else (so they can be kept wet while close to a fire, since we don't have Mylar or Nomex yet).
Rope - This should be relatively high-quality rope, given the need to balance strength versus weight, and should also be soaked in water or another non-flammable agent before use. Anyone entering a building is expected to carry at least enough of this to escape a second-story window, and know enough knot-tying to do so safely.
Jewelry of any kind is also strictly prohibited. I myself have two earrings in my left ear that I must take out when working. Again, this is because almost all jewelry contains metal, and metal conducts heat.
I'll suggest the idea of adding foldable legs to the horse wagon. In addition to using the horses own power for pulling, deployable legs (as exist on modern fire trucks, among other things) allow the wagon to get a better grip on the ground and dig in when pulled against, giving better leverage for the winch.
Then again, we have horses. Tie the ropes to the horses and have them do the pulling. Two horses should be enough to pull down half-burnt wooden walls, no?
Agreed to forgo the winch in favor of using horses for now. Horses do get a bit skittish around fires, but they should be manageable.
Grapples will be in the large wagon, since they're probably going to be used with the horses anyway.
Training in rope use will be added to the regular regimen. There are a couple of people on the crew who have a high amateur level of ability with knots and rope use, although none comparable to you, so you're going to have to show them what they need to know and what they need to teach.
Refresh my memory: how did you expect to find someone to rent the other half of the duplex? (E.g., did you contract an agent to represent you for this, or post notices with a contact place, or something else?)
Things are otherwise quiet. You contact the matchmaker about a month before the wedding date as the weather is starting to cool a bit, and she says now that you are back everything can move forward on schedule. What you need to do, she says, is figure out where you will be taking your bride after the wedding, both in the short term and in the long term. You will also want to wear a good suit.
We are again approaching an area in which the culture of the world has to be created, because it's not a relevant part of the world description as usually played. I'll make a few preliminary comments, and you can give me your thoughts on the subject. That is, what are the customs associated with a wedding?
For Better or Verse I put the bride in green to represent fertility. It might be that color is irrelevant, and the bride will wear what she likes; or that color signifies class or station in life (I think that is the case in some Oriental cultures), so that different brides wear different colors.
I'm not going to reproduce the vows here unless you want them. Everyone has his own idea about what the vows ought to say.
That's probably more than I should have posted, but it will certainly get ideas flowing--unless you'd like to take them to another thread and have your colleagues on this board suggest what would work as a Durnmist wedding?
--M. J. Young
johnosevens
Member
I believe I posted notices in common areas like high-class taverns and the better end of the docks. You said there was no such thing as a real estate agent in this world, so I was mostly posting 'for rent' notices in places likely to attract the kind of upper-middle-class, young-family types I was hoping to rent to.
I can teach knots. This sort of work shouldn't require the vast array of knots that my Army grandfather taught me, or that seafaring would require, only that they be quite good at the handful I need to teach them. Get it into their bodies so they can tie these few knots blindfolded and half asleep.
I like the Odinite wedding. Seeing as I am Asatruar myself, every inch of that calls to me and I would want it to be just like that. But as you said, this is neither our culture nor my Viking ideal. I think the best way to produce something truly unique is indeed to crowdsource it to the boards. Let's see what A1Nut and Scott and them throw into the mix, and maybe we can boil off something worth bottling.
The unfortunate thing is I don't think I can really afford vacation time. Are honeymoons customary here? If they appear to be, I'll approach the Captain about the idea of time off, but I feel that a spectacular shooting-down is in my future, considering we're in the middle of inventing a bloody fire department. Still, I have to ask. I wonder if my colleagues will come to my wedding? Especially since the Captain and Matt are basically my only options for best man. Unless Captain John randomly happens to be in town that week, which would be win.
That's another thing I'd like to do - keep tabs on when the Piper passes through, and make sure to go down to greet them and visit with the Captain whenever they do. Seeing as it's been less than a year since I've been back, I doubt I've missed them, or if I have, not more than once.
Then again, it's possible Captain John might have retired by now. That spell I left for him - the entire cargo hold full of fresh food sailing into Emerald - might have made him rich enough to settle down. Heck he might own the Piper after that.
It's very difficult to keep tabs on the Piper, particularly in Durnmist, the first port after the crossing of the Greater Syndic. Obviously ships leaving from Durnmist headed north up the loop carry news of what ships had arrived in the ports before they left, and so there's sometimes a few days' notice of a ship coming; but unless harbor patrol has spotted her and come back with reports, you don't get news of ships coming in from the Syndic before they arrive. On the other hand, the trip averages something just under a year--the theoretical shortest run (the run that is constructed of the shortest recorded time between each pair of ports on the run) is 174 days, but it is possible for ordinary delays to put it over 450. 200 days is typical. Time being critical, a ship is rarely in port more than forty-eight hours.
If nothing else, that means that if the Piper arrives in time to plan to have the captain at your wedding, it will have to leave before time, and if he is there for the wedding it was entirely unexpected.
Actually, it happens that it is in port a few days after the fire, running a bit ahead of schedule and glad for it, but they can't stay for the wedding. You don't hear about it until they're preparing to depart, but Captain John delays departure for two hours so that your friends can congratulate you.
I thought that was what was happening with the rental.
You stop by the house, and a lady brushing off her steps across the street notices you.
"He ain't here," she says. "He's never here. You lookin' to rent? I ain't never seen 'im."
--M. J. Young
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