Difference between revisions of "SS Unsinkable"

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***When the sea serpent catches you then you take damage. This can kill you if your health is too low.
 
***When the sea serpent catches you then you take damage. This can kill you if your health is too low.
 
**[[Shields]] help against monster damage.
 
**[[Shields]] help against monster damage.
−
**Evading the monster by going in the direction it's coming from to catch or eat you will make you get caught or eaten.
 
 
**To hurt the monster you have to throw or fire when you get the line about the tentacle chasing or the monster's mouth being open to eat a player. This is also the time to run away if the monster is targeting you. While it is possible to do both, you should move first to prevent getting damaged.
 
**To hurt the monster you have to throw or fire when you get the line about the tentacle chasing or the monster's mouth being open to eat a player. This is also the time to run away if the monster is targeting you. While it is possible to do both, you should move first to prevent getting damaged.
  

Revision as of 11:36, 19 May 2021

Warning.png WARNING: Sailing can be dangerous! Fires burn you, ice makes you slip and hurt yourself (it adds up if you move a lot), monsters deal damage! Each of these sources of hurt can kill you!

The SS Unsinkable is a swamp-dragon-powered steam boat owned by Chidder, who runs a smuggling operation out of Ephebe. The boat requires a group of players to work together in a chaotic, difficult mission to operate the boat, deal with the complications and dangers involved in the journey, and successfully bring the cargo to its destination across the Circle Sea. Success can reward the group with a share of ambergris, used to buy things from Niknax.

Each ship launch is an instance, so different groups can attempt a run at the same time. The mission is generally said to take at least an hour, though an experienced crew might get it done in 20 minutes.

As announced [1]: 

The Ephebian smugglers need this rush delivery on the other end of the Circle Sea in four hours, and only the smuggler fleet's fastest and least reliable ship, the dragon-powered SS Unsinkable, can make it there in time.

To make it across, four players must cooperate to steer the ship, wrangle the dragons into behaving, put out fires and repair any holes in the hull, search the storerooms for supplies to do all of the above, and perhaps even fight off a sea monster - all while contending against the ever-changing hostile weather of the ocean.
Unsinkable.png

Starting a mission

At first you need to be the leader of a group of at least 4 players. Say 'help' in Ephebian to Chidder and then 'yes'.

You can only start after 2 roundworld hours (120 minutes) since the last time you started sailing. So if you take an hour to sail to destination, you have to wait another hour. If you take 20 minutes you have to wait 100 minutes. So for the cooldown it doesn't matter how long it takes to do the mission.

Once you succeed once (or more times) to reach your destination (with cargo?) and/or get higher skills and/or special equipment, you will then be able to start the mission with a smaller group or maybe even on your own. 

Chidder says to Leader in Ephebian with a nautical Ephebian accent: Great!  We'll just get the ship ready.
Chidder goes into the tunnels for a minute, his shouted orders echoing out from the tunnel mouth, then comes back out.
Several smugglers carefully carry fragile-looking crates out from the tunnels, across the beach, and on board the ship.
Several smugglers disembark the ship and stomp back across the sand to the tunnels.
Several smugglers carefully carry wriggling swamp dragons out from the tunnels, across the beach, and on board the ship.
Several smugglers disembark the ship and stomp back across the sand to the tunnels.
Player1, Player2 and Player3 board the SS Unsinkable.
[starboard side of the upper deck]
  *       
 / \      
   +*     
|   |     
v-*-@     
|x|x|     
*-*-*     
This is about halfway down the upper deck of the SS Unsinkable.  It's not a large ship - the upper deck stretches about ten yards to fore and five yards to aft, with the giant paddlewheel behind the ship taking up another five yards.  A ladder here leads down through a hatch onto the lower deck.
The ship is floating peacefully at a standstill.
It is a warm backspindlewinter's midday with a gentle breeze and a beautifully clear sky.
There are six obvious exits: fore, aft, port, port aft, down and overboard.

The ship is not moving at first, for that you need to wake up the dragons. Don't do so until you are ready! Without proper wrangling the dragons will burn the ship and everything in it.

Rooms / Tasks / Skills required

Many skills are required to do things on the ship. This is a work in progress, many are probably missing and the exact uses and ranges need to be determined.

General

Everyone needs:

  • Adventuring.movement.sailing so you are not shoved into walls or into other rooms/overboard while the ship is moving.
    • Also, the ropes that you tie will last longer.
    • Without appropriate footwear, the best being the smuggler's seaboots, you can often lose traction, made worse when the boat is covered in ice, and this will cause you to be flung around more - taking damage, being moved rooms.
      • Adventuring.acrobatics.balancing can replace the need for footwear, and with a high enough bonus it can even help prevent slipping on ice with bare feet.
      • A 250+ balancing bonus is generally enough but you may still get flung around rarely. (Burden may influence this skillcheck?)
    • As you wear more pieces of the smuggling outfit you will succeed more easily in staying in place while the ship is moving.
      • Known smuggling outfit pieces are: smuggler's seaboots, smuggler's tricorn, smuggler's longcoat, smuggler's lingerie.
  • Adventuring.movement.swimming to swim overboard the ship for repairing the hull and to keep up with the ship if it moves when overboard.
    • Being tied to the railing with a rope will pull you along, but your rope frays every time it pulls you along until it eventually breaks.
    • To follow the ship you also need adventuring gp, therefore you need to raise adventuring.points to have more of them. If you do not have enough gp you will wash out to the failure beach with no way back.
    • Failing the sailing check can also throw you off the ship.
      • If you are carrying heavy things, like filled buckets, you might fall underwater.
      • Emptying or dropping the buckets should help you move back to the surface and board the ship.

Exits on the ship: 

        fore
port fore | starboard fore
         \|/
   port - @ - starboard
         /|\
 port aft | starboard aft
         aft

Ship steering

  • Looking at the compass in the cabin or the sun / stars gives you the ship heading if you have enough adventuring.direction.
  • You can get your position with adventuring.direction by looking at the charts in the cabin or when holding the navigator's sextant by looking at the sun / stars.

When looking at the ocean from the upper deck you see a map of what's around the ship two rooms away from the ship.

  • When on the mast, you see three rooms away, one more than from elsewhere.
  • Climbing up and down the mast requires adventuring.movement.climbing.tree.
  • Example from the mast:
You look out over the sea:
  ~~O       @ the SS Unsinkable
 -nn~n      P the Smugglers' Cove (starting point)
n~~~~O~     ~ the Circle Sea near the SS Unsinkable
$~~@~^*     H land
G~~P~~-     * an iceberg
 HHHHH      n a rocky outcrop
  HHH       $ some dire seaweed
            G a whirlpool
            v a backward current
            _ a coral reef
            ? dense fog
            = an ice floe
            O a giant turtle
            - some driftwood
            . some floating debris
            @ a wrecked ship
            ^ a forward current
            P a hidden dock near Ankh-Morpork (destination!)

Important note! When looking at the ocean, the ship is facing towards the TOP of the map! ^ The map updates as the ship turns a few seconds after you turn the wheel (if the ship is moving). Unless you then center the wheel you will keep turning.

Changing the ship's heading is done at the fore end of the upper deck.

Someone needs to be holding the ship's wheel to control where the ship is going.

  • There are five positions: leftmost | left | center | right | rightmost
  • You can turn the wheel up to 4 notches from leftmost (port) to rightmost (starboard).
  • You can also 'centre wheel' to go straight.
  • When you change heading stuff will go flying in the opposite direction all throughout the ship.

At the start of the voyage, the ship is facing completely hubwards. Thus, when looking at the ocean at the start you would position yourself like this: 

                 hubwards
turnwise-hubwards   ^  widdershins-hubwards
                 \  | /
      turnwise <- ship -> widdershins
                 /  | \
turnwise-rimwards   v  widdershins-rimwards
                 rimwards

This next map shows the directions as we normally orient it in the terrains with the north upwards, the ship is going from Ephebe in the "west" (rimwards) towards Ankh-Morpork in the "east" (hubswards). 

                              turnwise
           turnwise-rimwards     ^      turnwise-hubwards
                            \    |     /
Rim ... (Ephebe) rimwards <- Circle sea -> hubwards (Ankh-Morpork) ... Hub
                            /    |    \
        widdershins-rimwards     v     widdershins-hubwards
                            widdershins
                          (wash out beach)

centre [wheel]                                          Turn the ship's wheel back to centre position.
  hold [wheel]                                          Hold the ship's wheel to keep it steady in its current position.
  turn [wheel] <port|starboard>                         Turn the ship's wheel in a particular direction.
  turn [wheel] <left/port|starboard/right> by <number>  Turn the ship's wheel in a particular [notches] direction by multiple notches.
 
Impossible Voyage : Steering - Help file
steering             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage

 Name
      steering - how to avoid hitting things                                    
 Syntax
      hold <wheel>                                                              
      turn <wheel> port/left                                                    
      turn <wheel> starboard/right                                              
      centre <wheel>                                                            
      l charts                                                                  
      l compass                                                                 
      l sea                                                                     
      l sun                                                                     
      l stars                                                                   
 Description
      Using the ship's wheel located at the prow, you can steer the ship to     
      avoid obstacles. This only works when it's moving, of course.  When       
      you're holding the wheel, you'll also automatically look at the sea       
      whenever the ship moves.                                                  
                                                                                
      The map of the sea has two versions, depending on whether your asciiart   
      setting is enabled.  For non-screenreader users, the asciiart enabled     
      setting is recommended.  In this map, fore is displayed at the top -      
      turning will rotate the whole map around you.                             
                                                                                
      If you're not sure where you are or which way you're going, you can use   
      the charts and the compass located in the bridge to get your bearings.    
      Skilled navigators can also tell their heading from the sun during the    
      day or the stars during the night.                                        
                                                                                
      Note: port means the left of the ship and starboard means the right of the
      ship (as opposed to your own left and right).                             
      In the Circle Sea, hubwards is east, rimwards is west, turnwise is north  
      and widdershins is south.  This is of course different if you are         
      elsewhere on the Disc.                                                    
 See also
      cargo, repair, plug, power, rope, storerooms

Engine / dragon wrangling

There are four swamp dragons:

  • Bitey the sky blue swamp dragon
  • Nugget the dark purple swamp dragon
  • Idiot the bright red swamp dragon
  • Aggy the pale green swamp dragon

Doing pretty much anything with the dragons, including looking at them to see their hunger, boredom and sleepyness, uses crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming (You feel better at judging the moods of animals.)

  • Taking the dragons takes some crafts gp, but looking at them does not.
  • A minimum of 200 bonus is suggested so that you can see their needs and so they don't run away from you too fast.
  • At 250 bonus you see more precisely how bored, hungry and sleepy the dragons are with numbers.
  • At higher bonuses the dragons do not start fires when you enter the room where they are burning (well less often anyway).
  • Taking a dragon is skillchecked and requires crafts gp. They can also escape fast, especially when very bored.

There are some things to keep in mind when wrangling the dragons.

  • You should play or feed with only one dragon at a time when they are not placed in a circle.
  • If there are any toys on the floor of any room with a dragon then boredom will go up very fast.
  • If holding an engineer's brush when playing with the dragon, then you will automagically use it. This seems to drop boredom to 0 (it becomes invisible).
  • If there are any foodstuff on the floor of any room with a dragon, then hunger will go up very fast. This includes if you try to feed again before the first foodstuff is completely consumed.
  • Hunger is only reduced when the last bite/drink of the foodstuff happen.
  • If boredom goes too high (around 80%), then the dragon will go wander in the room and amuse itself by breaking and burning stuff all over the ship.
  • Dragons do not open doors or hatches. But trying to feed or play in a storeroom of a moving ship will probably result in a lost foodstuff or toy before it works.
  • When a player enters an engine room with a dragon, there is a grooming check which if failed makes the dragon put the room on fire. You have a few seconds to stamp out fire to prevent it from becoming too big. After that you'll need to pour a bucket filled with water on the fire.
  • It is prudent to always stamp out fire just after entering an engine room. But if two dragons spray fire on the floor you won't be able to stamp, you'll need to pour water on the fire.
  • Having a dragon in a burning room entertains them, reducing boredom. But it breaks the ship.

You need to fill the boilers from water tanks found in storerooms, since other water sources do not work.

  • Completely filling the boilers at the start is usually enough to get to your destination.
  • If you flush the water for a fast stop you'll need to refill them though.

There are two boilers on the ship, one on the port side, one on the starboard side.

  • The ship moves when dragons heat up at least one boiler.
  • Having two boilers nearly boiling (result of having one dragon fire on each one) makes the ship go faster than having two dragons working on the same boiler.
hit <dragon> [over the head] with <control rod>   Bring a misbehaving dragon under... "control".  By knocking it out.

l boiler
This is an aptly named contraption for boiling large quantities of water into steam.  Its main body is a large iron barrel with around a dozen pipes running through it.  According to the large embossed symbols and arrows on the barrel, it looks like the Engine should be filled with water and then fire passed through the pipes to boil it.  Wide pipes lead out of the Engine into the ceiling and floor and a red lever is mounted on its side.
According to the dials on the side, it seems to be completely empty and cold.
 
Impossible Voyage : Power - Help file
power             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     power - how to get your ship moving                                        

Syntax
     fill <mk i boiling engine> from <water tank>                               
     get <dragon>                                                               
     place <dragon> in <circle>                                                 
     feed <object> to dragon                                                    
     throw <toy ball>                                                           
     squeeze <squeaky toy>                                                      
     pull <dragon> tail                                                         
     pull [red] lever                                                           

Description
     The SS Unsinkable is a dragon-powered ship, using revolutionary new steam  
     technology in the form of two Mk I Boiling Engines, or "boilers" for       
     short.  This means that instead of sailing with the wind, you will be      
     wrangling dragons.                                                         
                                                                                
     To get an boiler running, first obtain a water tank from the storerooms    
     and fill the boiler from it.  Then, place up to two trained swamp dragons  
     in the marked red circle to start heating it up.  Once it gets hot enough, 
     the ship will start moving.                                                
                                                                                
     Periodically, the boiler will need refills and, more importantly, the      
     dragons will get hungry and/or bored.  The former can be resolved with     
     more water tanks and the latter with food and toys.  Be warned: hungry     
     and/or bored dragons can be very destructive!  It's recommended to use     
     only as many dragons as you can handle.  If you've awoken too many         
     dragons, a control rod from the storerooms can be used to put some back to 
     sleep - sleeping dragons will not wake up unless picked up or disturbed.   
                                                                                
     To stop the ship, simply pick up all the dragons from both of the red      
     circles and wait for the boiler to run out of heat.  There is also an      
     emergency lever, which will flush all the water out of the boiler and      
     stop the ship immediately.                                                 

See also
     cargo, plug, repair, rope, steering, storerooms

Securing crates / people with rope

This uses the coils of rope and adventuring.movement.sailing.

You must secure the crates with ropes if you don't want them to fly off everywhere and get damaged.

  • This is best done before getting underway, because crates that are not tied down get damaged.
  • Ropes begin to fray after too much turning of the ship, so you might have to untie and tie them with a new rope to secure the cargo again.
    • Doing this while the ship is moving can lead to crates moving and taking damage.
    • You can repair the crates when they are damaged, the same way as the walls and the hull.
  • With a higher sailing your knots/ropes will last longer.

When you are on the top of the ship you can tie yourself to the railing.

  • You need to untie yourself if you want to go below deck. This needs to be done in the room you were tied.
  • As long as you are tethered it will pull you along when the ship leaves while you are swimming around trying to repair the hull, break the ice or cut the seaweed, at least for a while.
  • Each time it pulls you along, the rope gets damaged and will break off after too much abuse. If you fail to notice and fail to swim along (lack of adventuring gp) you will lose the ship and wash up on the beach with no way back.
  • You can look at the rope in the room it was tied. When it is fraying you should untie, bury the frayed rope and tie with another rope.
  • With a higher sailing your knots/ropes will last longer.
  • Note that even without the rope you will automatically try to follow the ship with your swimming skills and adventuring gp.
tie <crates> down with <rope>             Tie some crates down securely so they
                                          won't slide around when the ship
                                          experiences turbulence.
tie me to [the] railing with <rope>       Tie yourself to a railing so you can
                                          safely swim around the ship without
                                          getting left behind.
tie <living> to [the] railing with <rope> Tie someone to a railing so they can
                                          safely swim around the ship without
                                          getting left behind.
untie <rope>
 
Impossible Voyage : Rope - Help file
rope             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     rope - for tying things                                                    

Syntax
     tie {me|myself} to [the] railing with <rope>                               
     tie <living> to [the] railing with <rope>                                  
     untie <rope>                                                               

Description
     When the ship gets damaged or attacked by dire seaweed, a brave soul must  
     go overboard to repair it or cut away the attacking seaweed.  To avoid     
     getting left behind, that brave soul might decide to tie themselves to a   
     railing with a rope.                                                       
                                                                                
     When the ship hits things, its cargo can slide around dangerously,         
     crushing swamp dragons and sailors alike and possibly becoming damaged.    
     To avoid any unfortunate loss of cargo, the crates could be tied down with 
     a rope.                                                                    
                                                                                
     The better you are at tying knots, the longer your rope will last before   
     it breaks.
 
Impossible Voyage : Cargo - Help file
cargo             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     cargo - something to protect                                               

Description
     This is your cargo!  You should try to keep it intact - the more cargo you 
     arrive at the destination with, the more you get paid.  As long as a crate 
     isn't completely broken, it counts!                                        
                                                                                
     Cargo crates can be damaged by being burnt by fire, being chewed on by     
     dragons, or being thrown around the ship by collisions.  You can avoid     
     these by putting out fires quickly, keeping your dragons well-fed and      
     entertained, tying down your crates with rope, and trying not to steer     
     into obstacles.                                                            

See also
     repair, plug, power, rope, steering, storerooms

Repairing the ship / clearing the hull / fires

Carpentry to repair the boat or crates when damaged. This uses (at least) crafts.carpentry.furniture.

You can use the repair syntax with the appropriate tools and materials.

Crates, doors and walls
repair [damaged] <crate> with <boards & nails>           Repair a cargo crate with boards and nails.
repair [damaged] <direction> door with <boards & nails>  Repair a door of the ship with boards and nails.
repair [damaged] {wall|walls} with <boards & nails>      Repair the wall of the ship with boards and nails.
Hull

From the upper deck you can leave overboard, swimming in the ocean around the ship. (Or washing out of the instance depending if you are tied and your adventuring.movement.swimming skills and the weight of your inventory.)

To prevent washing out of the instance you should tie yourself to the railing or stop the ship. If your rope breaks and you fail to swim along the ship (adventuring gp) you will wash out at the beach and have no way back to the ship. 

repair [damaged] hull with <boards & nails>              Repair the wooden hull of the ship with boards and nails.
Things on the hull

You should also check if there's ice or dire seaweed that needs to be cleared from the ship.

  • Dire seaweed does not like ice and will leave.
The ship plows through a field of floating dire seaweed, some of which glows green and latches onto the hull aggressively!
Syntax:
cut seaweed with <weapon>

The SS Unsinkable's hull has a few patches of sea ice frozen onto it, dragging the ship down, and is in perfect condition.
Syntax:
break ice with <weapon>

In addition to the hull, ice will gather on the floors, which can cause the player to slip upon entry. Floor ice is broken with the same command as hull ice. Breaking ice uses fi.po (confirmed by TM).

Putting out fires

Small fires (just one dragon flaring at you when you enter the boiler room) can be put out by stamping if you do it fast: 

stamp out fire                                                             
stamp fire out

Using the fire bucket (filled with water): 

pour <bucket> {over|on|onto} fire          Pour a bucket of water on a fire to put it out

You can bring your own bucket from outside the ship.

  • The fire buckets from the ship each holds about 2 gallons.
 
Impossible Voyage : Repair - Help file
repair             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     repair - keeping up the ship's condition                                   

Syntax
     repair hull                                                                
     repair {wall|walls}                                                        
     repair <direction> door                                                    
                                                                                
     stamp out fire                                                             
     stamp fire out                                                             
     pour <bucket> {over|on|onto} fire                                          
                                                                                
     cut seaweed with <weapon>                                                  
     break ice with <weapon>                                                    

Description
     When the ship hits obstacles, its hull will take damage.  The ship's hull  
     serves as protection for the lower deck of the ship; once it's taken too   
     much damage, it'll become breached and the inner walls of the lower deck   
     will start to take damage instead.                                         
                                                                                
     The hull and the walls of the ship's lower deck can be repaired while      
     holding a hammer, using a board and two nails per attempt.  The hull can   
     be repaired from any room in the sea surrounding the ship, while the       
     walls must be repaired individually by going to each room.  This means     
     that it is usually more efficient to keep the hull repaired than to allow  
     it to become breached and repair each of the inner walls.                  
                                                                                
     Similarly, when a room of the ship catches on fire, its walls will take    
     damage over time.  If the fire isn't put out quickly, it'll grow in size   
     and do more damage the bigger it is, as well as spreading to other rooms   
     once it reaches maximum size.  If an inner wall is totally wrecked,        
     damage will pass through it to damage the hull.                            
                                                                                
     Small fires can be stamped out, while larger fires will require a bucket   
     poured over them to reduce them in size before being stamped out.  Fire    
     produces smoke, which can pass between rooms and through open doors and    
     hatches.  This means that if a fire has occurred on the lower deck, you    
     may need to open the hatches on either side of the ship to let the         
     remaining smoke out.
     Beware, however - fire can spread and dragons can escape through open
     hatches.                                                              
                                                                                
     When both the hull and an inner wall have taken significant damage, the    
     ship will begin to take in water and eventually sink, ending your mission  
     in failure.                                                                

See also
     cargo, plug, power, rope, steering, storerooms

Searching the storerooms

Many items can be found in storerooms A, B and C.

Carpentry repairs
  • carpenter's hammers (using a hammer from outside the ship also works)
  • iron nails
  • wooden boards
  • fire axes - smash doors or tables or the mast to make planks which can be used to repair stuff (smashing the table on the bridge might make navigation difficult)
Fires
  • fire buckets - fill with 2 gallons of water to pour on fires to put them out
Security / healing
  • coils of rope - you need lots of those to secure the crates and tie people to the railing and replace the ropes that break
  • box of bandages - bandage
  • old linen towels - tear to use as bandages, maybe to put out players on fire, dry yourself
  • juicy lemons - feed giant fruitbats - not dragon food (it doesn't seem to find it appetising)
Dragon / engine
  • dragon food
    • medium sized lumps of coal
    • tins of shoe polish
    • large brown bottles
  • dragon boredom
    • rubber toy ball
    • squeaky toy animals
  • water tanks - fill engines
  • control rods - put dragons to sleep
Fighting monsters
  • arbalests - fired
  • arbalest bolts - ammo
  • steel-tipped harpoons - thrown
  • fire axes - thrown

Searching uses adventuring.perception. Higher skill can result in finding two of the item you were searching for.

  • Searching for something specific 'search <item>' seems harder than just searching, often you'll get something random instead.
  • Increasing int by holding a klein bottle seems to increase the odds of finding items instead of not finding anything.

As it says in the help file below, you must move the items outside the storerooms or they will just get lost again.

All items get taken away when you leave the ship area, so you need to search to get new items every time you start the mission. Some items from Niknax probably help for sailing.

 
Impossible Voyage : Storerooms - Help file
storerooms             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     storerooms - how to get all the supplies you need to keep the ship running 

Syntax
     l junk                                                                     
     search <item name>                                                         

Description
     Running a ship uses a lot of stuff, doesn't it?  Here's where you can get  
     more stuff.                                                                
                                                                                
     Each storeroom starts with certain things you can find, shown by looking   
     at the junk.  You can search for those things and, depending on how        
     perceptive you are, possibly find them.  Once you've found something,      
     however, the things you can find in that storeroom will change!            
                                                                                
     Searching for supplies takes time; if your group is short-handed, you can  
     do this before starting the ship, or stop the ship whenever you run out of 
     supplies to get more.                                                      
                                                                                
     Note: Don't leave your newly-found stuff lying around in the storerooms -  
     they might get lost in the junk.                                           

See also
     cargo, repair, plug, power, rope, steering

Fighting off sea monsters

Warning.png WARNING: The Kraken can now insta-grab you with a tentacle, and start crushing you doing damage, and another player - who can also get tentacled - will have to try and "cut" you free.

Some bugs were fixed, the kraken damage was reduced and now it should be a lot less lethal to player with low max hp, even if you have no coordination. If you have help from others it is also less dangerous.

Also slime shield from kraken sweat should protect you from the attacks of the sea serpent, not reported yet for the kraken.

During the third leg of your impossible voyage one of the two monsters always show up to attack you and your ship!

You'll encounter either the sea serpent or the kraken!

  • Both coil around the ship at the beginning of the third leg of the journey and they start attacking living things on the top deck until they are driven off or someone dies.
  • The monster only attacks people on the (top) deck.
  • If no one is on the (top) deck, the monster wrecks the ship.
  • The following needs checking after the kraken changes.
    • The monster leaves after you have done enough damage to it. This can take several blows (depending on how hard those hit) or two swamp dragons exploding.
    • Evading the monster by going in the direction it's coming from to catch or eat you will make you get caught or eaten.
      • When the kraken catches you then you are stuck and taking damage until someone frees you. This can kill you if your health is too low.
      • When the sea serpent catches you then you take damage. This can kill you if your health is too low.
    • Shields help against monster damage.
    • To hurt the monster you have to throw or fire when you get the line about the tentacle chasing or the monster's mouth being open to eat a player. This is also the time to run away if the monster is targeting you. While it is possible to do both, you should move first to prevent getting damaged.

You can fight the monsters with thrown or fired weapons. In order of damage dealt:

Weapon Skill Suggested bonus to hit reliably Damage potential Gp cost
steel-tipped harpoons fighting.range.thrown 300 weakest low
arbalest and bolts fighting.range.fired 300 medium medium
fire axes fighting.range.thrown 450 strongest ?

You determine that the arbalest is an extremely powerful triggered type fired weapon. It could be loaded with an arbalest bolt. 

load arbalest with bolt

The steel-tipped harpoon is a polearm which can be used to stab. It would also make a good thrown weapon.

Roles

While everyone taking part can do all the tasks, the boat is large and there are many tasks that come up through a journey, and so it is advised that members of a group follow certain roles and focus on specific tasks fitting their skills.

Dedicated essential roles
Description Location Deals with Tool(s) Action Skill(s) Failure entails
Captain /
Navigator 		Fore, upper deck Ship's wheel Sea, sun / stars, navigator's sextant Hold / turn / centre wheel, l sea adventuring.movement.sailing, adventuring.direction, adventuring.points Ship hitting things, getting lost
Dragon wrangler
/ Engineer 		Boiler room port / starboard Swamp dragons, engines Lumps of coal, tins of shoe polish, rubber toy balls, squeaky toy animals, control rod, water tanks, engineer's brush Placing / feeding / distracting / knockout dragons, (re)filling engines with water, emergency stop crafts.husbandry.animal.grooming, crafts.points Fire and smoke, wrong speed
Deskhand

These roles can be done by everyone, but most commonly done by what are called Deckhands, unless doing the mission with two persons.

Description Location Deals with Tool(s) Action Skill(s) Failure entails
Deckhand / Carpenter Overboard / below Hull / indoor walls / crates / doors Carpenter's hammer, wooden boards, iron nails, shipwright's hammer Carpentry repairs crafts.carpentry.furniture, crafts.points, adventuring.movement.swimming, adventuring.points Water in the ship / sinking
Deckhand / Cutter and Breaker Overboard (hull), everywhere for ice Dire seaweed / ice Weapon (sharp for cut) Cut seaweed / Break ice ? fighting.melee.*, fighting.points, adventuring.movement.swimming, adventuring.points Damage to the hull, inner walls
Deckhand / Firefighter Engine room, everywhere Fires (dragons, lightning) Fire bucket, footwear Pour bucket on fire, stamp out fire adventuring.health for burns Damage to crew / ship, death, sinking
Deckhand / Defender Upper deck Fighting monster Arbalest & bolts, steel-tipped harpoons, fire axes Fire <fired weapon>, throw <thrown weapon> fighting.range.fired or fighting.range.thrown, fighting.points Ship damage, sinking, death
Ropes & store rooms
  • The person with the highest adventuring.movement.sailing should tie all cargo crates.
  • Deckhands that will go overboard should tie themselves if they are not completely confident in their ability to swim to catch the ship. Might also help at low sailing bonus in case you fall off the ship.
  • Everyone should search the cargo rooms for the needed items after boarding.
Description Location Deals with Tool(s) Action Skill(s) Failure entails
Rope expert and Deckhands Railing / cargo rooms Crew on top, crates of cargo Coils of rope Tie cargo / people, look at ropes, when fraying untie & tie with new rope adventuring.movement.sailing Lost crew, cargo damage
(Everyone) Quartermaster Store rooms Items needed for everything else Quartermaster's shovel Search for items adventuring.perception Lack of items for other tasks
Support roles

Note that none of these roles are popular, you can do without them.

Description Location Deals with Tool(s) Action Skill(s) Failure entails
Relief Lower deck Fatigued crew Relief, Holy Sacrifice Give GP for tasks faith.rituals.curing.target, faith.rituals.misc.target, faith.rituals.special, faith.rituals.misc.self, faith.rituals.curing.self, faith.rituals.offensive.target Not enough GP
Doctor Crew stations Hurt crew Bandages / healing rituals / oak wands Healing crafts.medicine.firstaid / faith.rituals.curing.target / magic.items.held.wand Crew death
Co-pilot Cabin Heading, position Sea, compass (sun / stars), charts, navigator's sextant Determine heading and position, assist navigator adventuring.direction Getting lost
Lookout Top of the mast, overboard Sea obstacles Climbing aids, Sacred Fins, Fishy flippers Guide ship (overboard for fog) adventuring.movement.climbing.tree, adventuring.movement.swimming Ship hitting more things

Notes:

  • Adventuring.movement.swimming is only needed when you are not tied (or the rope breaks) to avoid losing crew at sea. This is a harder check if you are holding things. This is a problem because the person that fails is out of the instance and cannot help any more.
  • Everyone should search in the store rooms at the beginning and transport the items outside the store rooms.
  • Everyone able should fight the fires as soon as possible to keep the situation from getting out of control. Once the fire is out open the doors / hatches to clear the smoke.
  • Everyone needs adventuring.movement.sailing to not be thrown into walls (deals damage) and to other rooms or overboard while sailing and when tying ropes.
  • People not wrangling the dragons should avoid entering the boiler rooms for no reasons, because it can make the dragons look back and start fires. You can stamp out the fire from one dragon if you are fast enough, after you step into the room. But if two dragons spray fire on the floor you won't be able to stamp, you'll need to pour water on the fire.

Dangers and events on the journey

Fire and smoke!
  • Swamp dragons that are not handled well enough will put fire to the ship. Use a control rod to put unused dragons to sleep, don't leave them unattended.
  • Lightning can strike the ship and start fires all over the ship!
  • If not extinguished fast enough the fire will spread and deal lots of damage to players (fire and smoke) and to the ship!
  • Open doors / hatches once the fire has been extinguished to get rid of the smoke.

Map hazards:

Giant turtle
You hear the distinctive sound of an angry giant turtle bellowing, followed by the rather less distinctive sound of a giant bite being taken out of the ship.
Whirlpool
The ship abruptly starts spinning in circles.  After a few rounds, it manages to escape the whirlpool, heading in a different direction from before.
Ice
A loud thud sounds from the front hull as the ship runs something over.  It sounds like ice might be forming on the hull!
A ominous crunch sounds from the front hull, the ship shaking violently from the collision.  It sounds like ice might be forming on the hull!
A loud crunch resonates from fore, the ship shaking violently from the collision.  It sounds like ice might be forming on the hull!
Seaweed
The ship plows through a field of floating dire seaweed, some of which glows green and latches onto the hull aggressively!

Seaweed doesn't like ice. 

You see some dire seaweed drifting off into the sea, complaining seaweedily.  Looks like it didn't like the cold.

Seaweed is afraid of the shipwright's hammer. (Skill used? This seems to use magic gp.) 

Clinging on to the hull for leverage, you brandish a shipwright's hammer at the dire seaweed.
Looking like it recognises the shipwright's hammer somehow, some of the dire seaweed detaches from the hull and flees into the ocean.

Failure

You failed your mission because the SS Unsinkable sank.

Sinking happens if you pull the plug from the fore corner of the lower deck.

If you take too long (four discworld hours) it probably fails too.

 
Impossible Voyage : Plug - Help file
plug             Discworld player help            Impossible Voyage


Name
     plug - giving up                                                           

Syntax
     pull [the] plug                                                            

Description
     Sometimes, all hope is lost.  Perhaps a critical group member has died, or 
     all of the dragons have fought each other to the death.  In situations     
     like this, the plug offers a way out.                                      
                                                                                
     Pulling the plug will instantly sink the ship, failing the mission.  As    
     with a regular mission failure, this sends everyone on the ship and all    
     items on the ship that didn't originate from the ship to a certain beach   
     south of the Circle Sea, where you can call for a Pishite or go to one of  
     the secret docks to start another mission attempt.                         

See also
     cargo, power, repair, rope, steering, storerooms

Leaving

You cannot use a broomstick to fly away when on the ship.

If you move away from the ship when already overboard you will lose the ship and find yourself at the (failure) beach.

  • The (failure) beach is always at the southern end of the Circle sea halfway between Ephebe and Ankh-Morpork.
  • The mission continues for the others, but there's no way to get back, unless (this is far-fetched) you were to track the ship instance back to the ship or you could find a way to fly/portal back, but this is probably not possible.
As you swim a little too far from the ship, a current catches you and sweeps you far out.  Soon, you can't see the ship any more, but manage to wash up on a beach before you drown.

If the group continues on, so long as you remain a member, you can still receive credit for the mission.

If the ship sinks, you will wash out to the same beach with around 10% hitpoints left and you will receive the Achievement: Sinkable.

Rewards

Rewards depend on the amount of cargo crates delivered.

You can collect payment from Captain Smith in Ankh-Morpork (room after sail) or from Chidder in Ephebe (start sail room).

  • The payment will be in the currency of the city where your collect payment.
Experience

You get awarded experience after the 4 legs of your impossible voyage.

  • When you get a lot of experience fast enough there is a reduction to what you receive for a while afterwards. This can accounts for varying amounts, especially in the last leg.

In the following table only the maximum amounts of experience seen are put for each leg.

Crew size Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Finish Crates delivered Monster
5  ?  ?  ?  ? 8
4  ?  ?  ?  ? 8
3 112000 112000 156800 227010 8 sea serpent skipped
2  ?  ?  ?  ? 8
Money
  • You gain more money with more cargo crates delivered, max 8.
  • You gain more money if your crew/group size is smaller.
Crew Crates delivered Monster Money rewards
5 8
4 8
3 8 sea serpent skipped &&&&&&&&&&+48000 AM$120
2 8  ? &&&&&&&&&&+48000 AM$120
Ambergris

After a number of successful sailing missions, you receive ambergris as a bonus.

  • Your credit seems to accumulate until you have done enough missions to collect at least 5 ambergris.
  • Sometimes you get 6 ambergris instead.
  • The number of missions you have to do before you receive ambergris varies, but with smaller crews it seems to happen faster.
Frazyl's sailing missions
Crew size (crates delivered if not 8) Number of missions Amount of ambergris
4 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 4 5 5
5 - 5 (7) - 3 - 4 4 6
5 - 3 - 3 3 6
3 - 4 - 4 3 5
3 - 3 - 3 3 6
5 - 3 - 3 3 6
3 - 4 - 3 3 6
4 - 3 - 3 3 5
3 (7) - 4 - 3 3 6
Reputation

Furthermore, doing missions will change your reputation with both the smugglers and the city of Ephebe.

  • Doing missions raises your reputation with smugglers.
  • By doing missions regularly, even if you are killing the smugglers below Ephebe, you can offset the reputation hit for the purpose of buying from Niknax without penalty.
  • Your reputation with the city of Ephebe will degrade as you do missions, but not very fast. You can slip several minae to corrupt officials or bureaucrats to offset this.

See also

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