Screen 1
Rick – I’m envisioning these as horizontal panels.
ONE:
Extreme long shot, PEGASUS at Aether, the IRON CROWN opposite, breaking through the CLOUDS. We want the distance, here, so both ships will appear relatively small in this panel.
PEGASUS has sails raised – they were, after all, making good way, and thus they have the weather gage, for all it will do for them against the Iron Crown’s mechanical propulsion. Specifically, PEGASUS has SAILS out at the FOREMAST (FORETOPGALLANTSAIL and FORETOPSAIL) – MAINMAST (the MAINTOPGALLANTSAIL and MAINTOPSAIL) and the MIZZEN MAST (MIZZENTOPGALLANTSAIL and MIZZENTOPSAIL). PEGASUS has been running larboard close reach, meaning that the wind has been blowing towards it, but it’s sailing about 45 degrees into its direction to the left. The sails are thus all filled to reflect this. It is a pretty fast point of sail, but it unfortunately leaves the Iron Crown with the weather gage.
(And… I could be entirely incorrect about this, as my research is far from complete. Hopefully one of our readers will correct any mistakes I’m making here so I can get it right next time.)
As stated, IRON CROWN, with its own propulsion, does not have to worry about the weather gage.
1. SABRE: Coffey!
TWO:
Angle from the PEGASUS QUARTERDECK.
A general description of the background action we’ll be seeing on PEGASUS in the next few screens: Everything is in motion as CREW are rushing for battle – CANNON are being rolled out, BUCKETS of SAND are being carted, along with BUCKETS of loaded powder. CREW are rushing to the rigging.
Now, specifically on the QUARTERDECK – SABRE is striding quickly towards the HELM, the GLASS still in her hand. WEST close beside her, looking back, over his shoulder. DRAKE is following them, mostly because he doesn’t know what else do to. DRUM is following DRAKE, mostly because he knows Drake doesn’t know what else to do.
The HELMSMAN – COFFEY – is at the WHEEL, and is rapidly spinning it to turn the ship further to port. For reference, commands are given to the helm and thus the tiller, so she wants Pegasus turning further larboard, she’s ordering the tiller turned in the opposite direction.
2. SABRE: Hard a-starboard!
3. COFFEY: Hard a-starboard, aye-aye, Captain!
THREE:
SABRE tosses the GLASS to DRAKE, who catches it, a little surprised.
4. SABRE: Keep an eye on them…
What’s the weather gage? Is that the better of the wind or…?
The weather gauge basically means you’re upwind of your opponent. You get to decide the pace of the engagement, because they can’t sail against the wind to reach you.
For a quick and easy description of what it means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_gage
Drake seems uncomfortable with a fight where he just stands and watches the opponent. Seems he prefers to punch it or shoot it with his pistol.
It is also a fight where Drake’s allegiance is supposed to be on the other side.
Hm, looks like I’ll need to set aside some time to go through the almanac. I thought Hollern and Tanitin were two different places.
Ah, I am wrong. Was thinking it was 2 sided. It appears to be more complicated than that.
Fueille (Court of Stars) has dominion over Tantin where Drake (and Hans) hails from. Allyria (Rose Court) is where Lady Sabre is from. Then there is the Hollern which is something else.
“The Easterly expansion, relatively recent as the Aether has calmed, has resulted in a renewed race by the Great Powers. The recent unification of the Hollern has placed them behind both Allyria and Fueille, while the Vaunuk seem to have abandoned such movement altogether, regularly launching new expeditions into the wider Aether in search of new Lands.”
So there seems to be Vaunuck and some more. Are they trumped up city states or bigger?
PEGASUS doesn’t have a tiller. It has a helms wheel. You can’t have both a tiller and wheel. In the small boat sailing I’ve done (with tillers) you just say what direction you want the boat to go, although Wikipedia said the other way used to be common. But you don’t even have a tiller so it doesn’t matter. To see why you can’t have a wheel and a tiller, see what a tiller is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller
Huh! It turns out that the wheels were originally rigged to match the direction tillers moved. So the orders would be the opposite of the ship’s movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_wheel I didn’t know that.
Today’s screens were dipped in Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander. I approve, though obviously Greg took a lot more away from the books than I did.
Any thoughts on how you would show how close the Pegasus is sailing to the wind and where the wind is coming from? There’s a lot of tactical information lost, I think (I could be dense and missing it), between the text and the art–but I haven’t a clue how I convey that visually.
I would expect that Drum would love to know the tactical significance of what is going on. Drake, on the other hand, doesn’t strike me as the curious type–he knows he would never have to fight a ship and would leave it at that.
That first panel is very pretty
I wonder if the fact that Drum’s been making himself useful around the ship, getting to know the ins and outs, while Drake has just been making a nuisance of himself will effect the coming battle. It seems to be that unless one ship boards the other, Drake will remain relatively useless in a ship-to-ship confrontation.
Of course, by the look of things, the Iron Crown could just ram the Pegasus clean in two. If their intent was annihilation of the enemy, I wouldn’t fancy Lady Sabre’s chances.
I am sure Drake would make for more than a reasonable Marine–if only the Iron Crown had rigging to shoot sailors out of…
I’ve just discovered this and have caught up! Loving it so far. 🙂 Sabre is the best. I’ve always wanted a female equivalent to every Harrison Ford character ever, so it’s hitting all the right notes for me.
Welcome aboard!