The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Out of darkness, born are they
02:05 Dec 02 2008
Times Read: 759

Captain Rianna thumbs the capped rim of her Prima Nysoiv pipe as she glances over the navigational logs for her merchant vassal, "The Blue Passeri". She muses as a ring of Cavendish tobacco smoke circles her wrist.



Then there is a sudden lurch that nearly spills her tea. Rianna turns in her chair and pops the cap on a pneumatic tube and calls out "Mr Penwelter! What the Hell are you doing to my ship!!" The seasoned aviator glances out the portal and calls back through the tube, "Nutten' Cap'n. There just be a bit o'ah Squall, don'yah worry Mum. We'v 'ad worse." The captain sets down her pipe and say, "I'm coming up. Batten down the hatches and prepare to rise above it." She reaches for her rain slicker and starts up the gangway stairs.

As she gets to the hatch, she finds it stuck tight. "Damn those idiots.", She thinks "They locked me in." She pulls down her goggles and turns the small wheel on the lens activating her glowing optics. As the yellowish light fills the dark hatch well, a drop of dark red liquid drips onto her hand. "What the hell?" She pushes hard on the hatch and it starts to give. There is a thud as something heavy slides off the door onto the deck boards. The wind catches the hatch door and swings it wildly open. Rain plinks on her slicker as she gazes down on the body of one of her Marines. His face crushed by falling off the lookout mast. She leans down to see blood still pumping out of a large hole in his chest. A sudden chill creeps down Captain Rianna's spine as she looks out into the storm and sees the cause. Lightning crackles around the shadow of a huge airship hidden deep in the coming storm. "My gawd no..." She scrambles for the helm screaming, "PENWELTER!!! GET US ABOVE THE STORM!!!" She grabs a tube and yells" ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!! Ready the broadside! Power up turbines!"



The remaining crew scramble around her and battle the winds to comply with the captain's commands. She turns to the shadow in the clouds wiping away the water. pulling out a pin, her left lens slides out extending her vision for a better look.





As though the dark clouds were giving birth, a long golden bowsprit pierces the clouds followed by what appeared to be a ram. "Brace for impact", she spits as she wanders where the cannons are. She can clearly see a black flag of piracy, but no visible weapons. Then as she watches, lightning strikes the long point from all directions and starts to glow brightly. Rianna grabs a rail as her ship rises steeply to avoid the storm. Thats when she realizes that's just what the pirates were waiting for. "No!, our belly is exposed! They don't want to risk the envelope!! But it was too late, a flash of blinding light and the searing pain....then darkness.....

"Cap'n, Cap'n are yeh ok Cap'n?" The voice does not wake her so much as the trembling muscle pain of thousands of volts of electricity like hot needles spasm her to consciousness. Even before her eyes adjust, she thinks of her vessel and crew. "Re....report.." She steadies herself on her first mate as she rises. "They took er' Mum....they took er and leff us 'ere" She looks around to see she is in the long basket of an emergency hot air balloon. "They let us live...dey even gave us a weeks supplies, but they scuttled yur ship lass. Dam Storm Reavers they waz, pirates o'the storm. Did you see the name Mr. Penwelter? She asks, holding her aching head. "Yes luv, The Hinderscipe.

The Bones of a giant
00:46 Dec 01 2008
Times Read: 751

While perambulating the main deck today, Mr. Parks pointed below at the skeletal remains of a dirigible. I took out my field glass and gazed over the hulk. There was no signs of fire and the raw frame was not bent torn or crushed. It was as though the airship landed and died. It was Genevieve our Naturalist, who first pointed out the most frightful detail. If it was pirates or disease, The crew's bodies would have been there too. If the crew survived a mechanical break down, they would have made temporary shelter from the recent storms. My crew, though primarily rational men and women of science, seemed to take this as a bad omen and begged me to push a higher bearing. I acquiesced to them and called the helmsman. As we begain to rise, I took one last look and saw words painted on the side of one large deck plate. It said " Beware the Scrap Dragons".