Isabela (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likebigboats) wrote2015-06-14 01:00 am
likebigboats) wrote2015-06-14 01:00 am
Entry tags:
Memory - The Qunari dreadnought
Stealing the Qunari’s tome had felt nice. Thrilling, even. Add onto that the notion that delivering the tome to Castillion will end the threats to her life, and Isabela was just incredibly excited. Unfortunately, things never go smooth.
An Orlesian convey was transporting it to return the relic to the Qunari. The Qunari know about the theft, and one of their dreadnoughts have been dispatched. For a long time, it’s just a ship in the distance, but eventually it’s clear just where it’s going. Thing is, a naval chase is excruciating: Isabela orders everything they can to keep a lead, and the hulking warship never dwindles away. It’s surprisingly good at keeping up, considering how bulky and generally intimidating it looks - and once it’s in range, it starts taking potshots with cannons. Moral starts running thin, as from the human cultural and technological perspective, there’s basically a scary ship of zealots you can’t outrun and has starting “spitting fire and thunder” at you.
Still. The only thing she can do is keep trying to outrun it. Give the relic back, and either the Qunari kill her in the process of retaking it or you live long enough for your former employer to kill you for losing another “precious cargo.”
As the chase drags on, the weather’s taking a turn for the worst. The smart thing, purely in terms of sailing, would be to try steering clear of storms, and if she's got no choice then to try minimizing the ways the storm can damage the vessel. But Isabela’s in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.
Isabela decides to steer the damned ship into the heart of the storm herself. Because if she can’t win, she can at least tableflip and make sure EVERYONE loses. It’s a testament to the quality of her crew (for all that they are dirty, no-good pirates, and for all that Isabela barks orders and insults that reflect that) that they go with it with minimal objections.
So now it’s a scary dreadnought bearing down on her ship spitting fire and thunder, and an awful storm with actual lightning and thunder and churning water threatening to ruin everyone’s day. Lots of feelings of doom, a healthy dose of fear and desperation, and in the end both ships crash in churning water, and Isabela’s going into the cold sea...
An Orlesian convey was transporting it to return the relic to the Qunari. The Qunari know about the theft, and one of their dreadnoughts have been dispatched. For a long time, it’s just a ship in the distance, but eventually it’s clear just where it’s going. Thing is, a naval chase is excruciating: Isabela orders everything they can to keep a lead, and the hulking warship never dwindles away. It’s surprisingly good at keeping up, considering how bulky and generally intimidating it looks - and once it’s in range, it starts taking potshots with cannons. Moral starts running thin, as from the human cultural and technological perspective, there’s basically a scary ship of zealots you can’t outrun and has starting “spitting fire and thunder” at you.
Still. The only thing she can do is keep trying to outrun it. Give the relic back, and either the Qunari kill her in the process of retaking it or you live long enough for your former employer to kill you for losing another “precious cargo.”
As the chase drags on, the weather’s taking a turn for the worst. The smart thing, purely in terms of sailing, would be to try steering clear of storms, and if she's got no choice then to try minimizing the ways the storm can damage the vessel. But Isabela’s in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation.
Isabela decides to steer the damned ship into the heart of the storm herself. Because if she can’t win, she can at least tableflip and make sure EVERYONE loses. It’s a testament to the quality of her crew (for all that they are dirty, no-good pirates, and for all that Isabela barks orders and insults that reflect that) that they go with it with minimal objections.
So now it’s a scary dreadnought bearing down on her ship spitting fire and thunder, and an awful storm with actual lightning and thunder and churning water threatening to ruin everyone’s day. Lots of feelings of doom, a healthy dose of fear and desperation, and in the end both ships crash in churning water, and Isabela’s going into the cold sea...