In that case I will go back to the office and finish out my shift.
It occurs to me that we really should be keeping the equivalent of a ship's log. If we haven't been doing so already, I'd like to begin doing so now. Granted we don't have someone quite the equivalent of a ship's captain who is never off-duty, but a rotation of log entries by each shift supervisor should fill the same role - not only a history of what we've used, resource-wise, but a running report on everything we've done. For posterity, if nothing else.
Once my shift is over, I'll go to the bank and withdraw the amount I owe. I'm sure after living in Durnmist and working in what is essentially public service for almost a year now, I must have heard of some sort of charity, soup kitchen, outreach program, or something. I'll drop it in their donation box on the way home and consider my sacrifice fulfilled.
You catch the clerk just about to lock up for the day--and not happy about having to add one more transaction to the books after four o'clock. But he gives you your requested money and has you sign for it, then grumpily stuffs the paperwork in the book and closes the doors a bit too firmly as he leaves.
The nearest thing to a charity you know is a place down on the docks that tries to get drunk sailors back to their ships, or if they are too far gone to identify their own ships to put them in a hammock overnight so they are less likely to be robbed. They don't have an anonymous donations box of which you're aware.
--M. J. Young
Fine, I'll go there, and donate as anonymously as possible. If they require full details I'll fill out the donation slip using Captain Peter's information.
There's really nothing else? No soup kitchens? No homeless shelters? Hmm... This is something to think about at great length later. Right now I'm tired and need to get home to my wife.
They don't require any information. It's just that you have to hand the money to someone personally, and they'll be offering their thanks. Maybe you can figure a way to deliver the money less personally, but you'll have the problem if you use a middleman that your ability to maintain your anonymity is inversely proportional to your ability to trust the delivery boy. I'm interested in how you manage to maintain your anonymity in this situation (since it is inherent to the spell that you avoid being the object of gratitude for the sacrifice), but we'll let you get home to your wife and continue the story while you consider that.
As far as you know, there are no soup kitchens or homeless shelters, nor orphanages nor any other charitable institutions in Durnmist, save only this effort to help drunken sailors avoid getting robbed or left behind by their ships.
It does give one something to consider.
Arabella heard that there was something happening downtown today, but not any details.
--M. J. Young
I'll just walk in and hand it to them. They don't need to know who I am. If they say 'thanks,' I'll say 'none needed, it's not from me' and have a day. I know why I'm doing it; if this is as close to anonymous as is possible here, then I've done my due diligence.
I'll get in and put my belts down, kick off my boots. I probably still smell like fire. If Arabella will stand for it, I'll greet her with kisses and tell her about the fire downtown. If she thinks I reek too badly, I'll go take a bath, and then tell her about the fire. Either way, I'll ask about her day, too.
Everyone in this world reeks; and taking a bath is a very time-consuming venture most people only do a couple times a year. Smoke is typical, considering most houses are heated by wood fires.
She's interested in the fire, and also in what the General's people thought.
--M. J. Young
I'll tell her about the fire, and about the arson investigation. I'm going to draw her out on what the General's men said. Keep her in suspense. Let her catch on that I'm holding back something awesome. And only when she's bouncing on her toes like a puppy to see what it is will I tell her about both my Captain and the General's man talking about opening a new office and promoting me to Captain in the same day.
She is, as predicted, excited about that. She notes that if you were at the downtown office you'd be closer to home--close enough to pop in for lunch--and closer to the central office, where you could continue to impress the General's staff.
"Mustn't hope too much, though," she says. "You know how slowly things can go with government."
I'm assuming it's clean up, eat, and get to bed.
--M. J. Young
"Everyone seems hopeful about it, though," I answer, "Our timeframe looks like... six months at the very longest. Then again, with the Captain and I looking at one district and the General's office looking at another, who knows? It would be nice to be closer to home, though..."
Other than that, yeah, clean up and into bed sounds good.
You have a quiet run to your next break. Any plans?
--M. J. Young
Implement shift-chiefs recording logs, even if they seem uneventful. The random musings of one commander might inspire another to do something interesting, so, yeah.
Mention to my Captain what the General's staffer said, including who that guy was, assuming I got his name, and find out what he thinks of it.
Write to Jacob to see how he's coming on that hose I ordered a couple of weeks back.
See if the carpenter I enlisted a couple of months ago has my second ladder ready to go yet.
Write to my original Guard Captain to see if that business with the pirate trap ever went off as planned.
Take Arabella out to dinner at least once, and perhaps visit with the in-laws. I never did get to meet her sister yet, for instance.
The captain smiles at the shift log idea. "Obviously something you got from your seafaring days, when navigators had to track even sightings of birds because they might have meaning to someone; but it makes good sense for us, too. Just be careful what you write about your subordinates--they might be shift supervisors one day."
He raises an eyebrow at the information about the General's staffer. "Of course, even though he's very influential and well-informed, he's not the General, and he might not be speaking for the General. Still, it's promising, and good to have a positive reputation. Once they decide, though, we'll have to go with whatever they decide, even if it's not what we would have preferred."
Jacob is having trouble with the hose, but he's got some prototype garments that might work as fire protection suits.
The ladder is ready.
And indeed the pirate captain behind the business that led to the murders has been taken into custody, and is set to be tried next week.
My vague recollection is that Arabella's sister is older and married; does that fit your memory, or should I dig through my notes?
--M. J. Young
I recall her having an older sister who is married to a man being primed to take over the family business.
If I have free shifts during the trial, I'll make sure to go. Since I was involved in the case, I'd like to at least be on hand even if they don't need me, for the sake of completion.
If Jacob would like me to look at the prototypes, I'll gladly give them a try and see what I can come up with.
I'll set some of our crew to installing the second ladder.
And of course, wait to hear from the General's office.
Until then, business as usual.
For the next eighteen-day run nothing remarkable happens. You manage to attend the trial, which is rather straightforward.
A couple sets of the fire-resistant clothing are delivered to the fire house. They appear to have a tight-weave underlayer and surface layer, with loose fill padding within that looks like it would soak up a fair amount of water. That would make it heavy, but keep it from burning. It also might work to block heat when it's dry, because of the padding, although the cloth would not be fire retardant.
--M. J. Young
While it's not exactly Mylar sheathing, what the hell, you've got to start somewhere. I'll put one on and give one to whoever will fit the other (probably Brandy, since I like her and, not being a shift supervisor in her own right, I get to have her on hand more often than Matt or Tara) and see how moving around in them is, first dry, then wet.
If Durnmist's summers are anything like home, getting sopping wet in one of these will be a welcome relief, heavy may it be.
Which leads to a question - does wearing armor require a skill in MV? Based on my experiences with it IRL, I would think so. It would definitely be a low @1 Tech or Bod skill, but it should require a skill, though I'm not sure what it would effect. Possibly how quickly one puts on armor, or recovers from, say, being knocked down whilst wearing it? Any thoughts on this?
1@1 Wear/Operate Light Armor T X@1 ?
1@1 Wear/Operate Light Armor B 7@1 as a martial arts device?
Donning the armor is a skill. Generally if it fails it means it doesn't give you the necessary protection. The skill is rarely checked, that is, it's a relatively low-tech skill usually with bonuses, so it's only in very low tech worlds that a roll is made, but if the roll fails the armor cover value doesn't apply. I've not had it come up very often in play, but if it did I would figure that on a low failed roll the character is unaware that it's not properly attached until it comes loose in the fight, while on a high failed roll it's obvious that he can't get it on right. A botch would probably mean that he is unaware that he donned it in a way that will hamper him in combat without affording him protection, or that he's created a hazard that the enemy can exploit.
As far as bias level, I would go with @1 or sometimes @0 skills in the tech bias level of the materials, e.g., T1@1 for leather, T2@1 for padded and wooden, T4@1 for soft metals like copper or brass, T5@1 for iron or steel, T9@1 for polymers and plastics. "Powered" armor has to be assessed according to what the power does.
For martial arts, the donning of passive armor remains a tech skill. If the armor used as an active defense, e.g., blocking attacks with bracers, it becomes a B7@5 Advanced Parrying skill.
You actually never work with Tara unless you both respond to a fire or are at a training exercise, since you and she are both always shift supervisors when on; Matt is the swing man, who is a supervisor when there is no other supervisor on but works some shifts under the direction of one of the other supervisors.
You manage all right in the suit. It's a bit hampering dry, and adds about forty pounds to you wet, but it's well distributed. Brandy is not sure how long she could carry it wet; it would take more strength than she anticipated.
Durnmist summers are a bit warmer than home, and getting them wet definitely makes them cooler.
--M. J. Young
I'll ask Brandy about her experiences, and evaluate the suit myself.
How well can you (I) move in it dry?
How well can we move in it wet?
How long does she think she could wear it wet? dry?
Do we think we could carry gear and/or climb a ladder as well? I personally want to test this.
Does it afford any actual protection from fire? If we have anything on hand that we could burn in a firing barrel, we can do a small-scale test here, otherwise it looks like she and I are heading out to the lake for a weekend.
Considering she says it takes more strength than she anticipated, does it feel like something she could work up into? Like, could she wear it longer with more experience, or does it seem like she's just not strong enough to perform with it on? (And the same for me.)
Dry it's more like wearing a heavy snowsuit--it doesn't really encumber you much, but it pushes you to the limit beyond which you would be encumbered. You probably carry more than five pounds of gear when you're fighting a fire, and with this suit it would slow your movement and make difficult tasks more difficult. Empty handed you can manage fine, and you can carry almost twenty pounds of gear before it is more of an impediment than that.
Soak it, and it's a different story. You move very slowly and are already lugging a lot of weight, so even empty-handed you can't do much that's complicated--stick to the simple stuff. You could handle maybe twenty pounds more before you couldn't walk more than a few steps, but everything is a struggle with this extra weight.
It would take a lot of experimentation to see if there's a way to douse it without making it as heavy as that; it takes about four gallons of water (which adds about thirty pounds to the ten pound suit), but whether you could limit that to two gallons of water and have it distribute evenly is not obvious.
Brandy is about equal with you on strength (you weren't in a field that required a lot of strength training on the ship, other than the part about climbing the rigging which you managed to avoid most of the time).
When it's dry it reduces the penetration of heat through it, but it looks like it could catch fire. Soaking it is a tricky aspect--wet it does not block heat as well, but it can be re-soaked to cool it again, and it holds enough water that it doesn't ignite from flame. (I'm not completely certain how you would test all this without setting one of the suits on fire while you're wearing it, but I'll assume for the present that you didn't do that.) It is warm like a snowsuit is warm, in that it retains your body heat when its dry; but it has the same insulating effect against heat from the outside, and when you soak it with cool water it cools you fairly quickly, although you get wet to the skin.
--M. J. Young
Alright.
Once Brandy and I have finished our evaluations, I'll write up a report. Two copies, one for the Captain and the log, one for Jacob, detailing exactly what the problems I've had with it are and how we could do better. Perhaps less quilting and more, thinner, more tightly-woven layers? Thick more like layers of canvas than a suit made of quilt. And maybe make the exterior layer out of something less flammable? Leather comes to mind, or some form of rawhide, although that would make it harder to soak as well. I'm not entirely sure how to make it better, but as it is, I can't recommend this for use in the field, it's just prohibitively heavy.
Before I send that report, though, I'll show the suits to the Captain and see what he thinks, let him evaluate them as well. After all, if I'm just incompetent at using these things, and he knows something I don't, well, better safe than sorry.
The Captain concurs with your report. He's not certain about canvas--it's used mostly for sails, and is very heavy, although it does tend to shed water a bit better than the cloth used here. The fact that it sheds water means it's less likely to stay wet long enough to prevent it from burning. But then, it's really a question of whether what Jacob has done is the best possibility or whether he needs fresh ideas.
Leather is an interesting possibility.
--M. J. Young
I'll suggest leather, and that he should go with something focused less on the use of water and more on the idea of insulating base materials and things - like leather - that are inherently less likely to burn.
While I await my father-in-law's reply, business as usual continues.
Jacob will consult with a tanner. He is, of course, in the textile business, and fabric almost by definition is flammable. A cloth and leather combination garment may have merit, although generally leather is more difficult to maintain and doesn't recover as well from a good soaking, from what he understands.
Over the next rotation you get a minor fire here and there--things to which the old watch would not have responded, letting the residents fight their own fires until they start to get out of hand, but which the residents now seem to think are better fought by professionals than left to their possibly inadequate efforts. It keeps the crew in practice and at the ready without posing any serious risks to personnel.
--M. J. Young
After those minor fires I'll speak with the Captain about the idea of public education - teaching people how to escape a fire, and how to contain one with minimal risk until the professionals can arrive. I don't want the locals to give up fighting their own fires and let them get out of hand waiting for us!
On an out-of-game note, I'd like to ask again that you consider finding a way to Verse me out. Not that I'm not enjoying building up Durnmist, it's just that being stranded in a low-everything-bias world as my first (and so far only) Verse is starting to drag, considering all the things out there in the Verse that Don't Work Here.
There are three fires in the next cycle, all of them exactly that sort--people called for the fire department and waited rather than trying to put out the fire themselves. One of these fires was a good three miles from the station, well outside your coverage area, and Tara gave it up for lost by the time she got the crew there, putting her efforts into containing it so that the adjacent buildings wouldn't burn. The owner was a bit irate, but she told him if he had a problem he should push the city leaders to open more firewatch stations; he was far enough away from theirs that she did not have to fight his fire, particularly when he obviously didn't do anything to try to fight it before she got there. He came in to complain to Captain Peter the next day, who told him much the same thing, and supported Tara's decision completely.
--M. J. Young
I'll commend Tara as well, and add this to my next report to the General.
On your next rotation, when you are on the midnight shift, there is a fire a block away. The local watch spots it and alerts you immediately.
--M. J. Young
I rally the crew and get a move on. Wagons, ladders, gear, everything. Too bad we don't have one of Tara's pump trucks online yet...
It's a residence over a clothing shop. There is a woman screaming about her baby still inside, and a man trying to keep her from running back in. The fire seems to have started upstairs and has not yet found its way down. Figure it is two and a half stories--that is, the shop is on the ground floor, the primary residence above, and a small attic bedroom at the top.
The fire on the second floor is pretty bad. Your team is organizing ladders and giving instructions to members of the watch who have also responded.
--M. J. Young
I'm not waiting. I know I can heal myself, so...
I put on a jacket, dump a few buckets of water over myself, cover my mouth and nose with a scarf, my head with a helmet, and approach the woman.
"Where is your baby, ma'am?"
The child is in the nursery on the top floor.
--M. J. Young
Naturally. Well, it's about time I got my planeswalking shoes on...
How close is the ladder to ready?
How long has this fire been burning?
What are the odds that I don't have to go through this burning building the long way in order to save the kid?
The short ladder has just been offloaded; it reaches the middle of the second story. They are still unpacking the long ladder, which should reach the third floor windows.
No one is quite sure when or how the fire started.
--M. J. Young
Then I grab me a rope and grapnel and hit the short ladder. I'll use a grappling hook into the attic window to climb up. By the time I get the baby, Brandy can get up the ladder behind me, and I can hand off to her, then we can both descend.
May Tyr, god of valor and duty, give me the nerve to overcome my fear of heights... Courage, Honor, Duty, Frith...
Is that a prayer (as in something I should be checking for whether it works) or simply a hope?
--M. J. Young
Simply a hope, although I wouldn't object if Tyr saw fit to answer. Whether or not you feel like dealing with dice is up to you on this one - I don't feel like bogging down the game long enough to work it up.
Grapple in hand, you get half way up the ladder and freeze. It is a good twenty feet from your head to the ground, and you can see it.
--M. J. Young
I close my eyes, take a moment to center myself, look up, and keep going with my eyes on the window, letting my hands and feet find their purchase. The going is slow, but I'm not going to let a child burn just because I'm a coward. Gods forbid...
Yes I'm terrified. Courage is doing it anyway.
Swallowing hard and not looking down you resume your climb, slowly but steadily, and from the top of the ladder you cast the grapple.
You've never thrown a grapple before (that I'm aware), but you figure it out easily enough having seen the pirates do it enough times. You catch the window, and haul yourself up, very slowly given the weight, and reach the window.
Smoke is coming out of it, but there does not appear to be fire in the immediate vicinity; there is a lot of heat, mostly from the second floor.
--M. J. Young
How big can an attic be? I'll survive the heat for a couple of minutes. I open/break the window to let the smoke out, then climb through and activate my ... Don't I have some version of night vision psionic?
You knock the latticework aside and pull yourself into the room. Focusing on your eyes, you pull in the dim light and pierce the thin smoke.
You see a small bed, about half the size of a twin perhaps, against the far wall. A frightened boy, perhaps two years old, is sitting on it. The temperature must be over ninety, and the smoke tickles your nose and your throat, but it's not yet a desperate situation.
--M. J. Young
--M. J. Young