SHIP'S LOG:

Moonbeam

Spaz Skunk 3/23/2021 10:45pm

"Squirrelly Acres, chief."

"Franzine Foxx."

"Billy Badgerton, at your service, guv!"

It was a great wide hall, filled with pillows and low tables and hookas and chocolate fountains. Greens and blues and purples and great soft drapes and open windows.

"Howlin' Wolf. Awooooooo!"

"Toady McEvershine. Burrrrp."

"Whims Wormington."

Well that last chap was a bit odd. But overall, I find myself introduced to a giant room full of... people like myself.

"Chip Monk!"

"Wilma Wolverine, cheers."

"Ermine Stoat."

I mean, it's like a convention in here.

"Pleased to meet you I'm Chinchilla Devine."

"Weasel Least."

"Bridget the Boar!"

How many of us are being held captive here?

Harry Otter 2/8/2021 9:11pm

Test, test... come in @Captain Jack Fenris. @Strange Katz. Anybody there?

I don't think anybody can hear us on this frequency. Because they don't have radios here! Or cell phones. Or microwave ovens.

The Moonbeam was underway for, well, days now. I lost track. But I'm holed up in a broom closet and there isn't a porthole, and I haven't been able to sneak out on account of the especially smelly soldiers who have taken the ship over.

But the ship came to a halt, and they've seemed to disembarked.

If you're on the ship--and not captured and thrown in some dungeon somewhere--it seems like to coast is clear.

I'm leaving the broom closet to explore the ship an see where we are...

This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 12/28/2020 10:52pm

"Step forward, creature!"

Everybody's looking at me. The barbarian queen lounges on her huge throne, while the entire hall of her musky robed warriors trembles in fear before her.

"Gooooo!" one of them whisper hisses at me, and gives me a kick.

After days of forced march through rough land, we arrived at massive stone gate, cold and foreboding. It took even more days before we reached a huge fortification of towers and walls and more towers. After days of travel through its warren of tunnels and alleys, we waited for days in a dungeon, before being brought before their queen.

"And it is not merely a fur coat? Some kind of costume?" she asks.

"No, my queen," one of the soldiers stammers. Probably a general or something. "And the tail is real too."

"Excellent. Give it a bath, then introduce it to my court."

Harry Otter 11/10/2020 10:38pm

Psssst hey everybody. I have to whisper because I'm hiding the in the midshipman's broom closet. Actually, in the secret compartment in the midshipman's broom closet where he keeps his secret stuff. Did you know about this? Wow he's really got some stuff in here.

Anyway there were just too many of those very large and smelly soldiers boarding the ship so I hid. I am making my log post via personal assistant locket. Just like I gave you all in your gift bags at my last birthday.

Is there anyone there? I know they took @Spaz Skunk off the ship. In chains. That's when I hid! I mean, there was no way I could take them on. I'm just a radio operator! And they have armor. Or robes or something. And they don't take baths.

Oooo. I feel the ship moving. Can you feel that? They're taking the Moonbeam.

@Captain Jack Fenris are you receiving??!!!

This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 9/25/2020 10:47pm

Fweeeeeeet! YA! *crack*

"Get along, you varmints!"

At least that's what I assume he's saying. Learning a language goes faster with the crack of a whip on your back. And my fellow captives teaching me words here and there. Like "down" and "thirsty."

I've no idea what happened to @Harry Otter or @Strange Katz or @Captain Jack Fenris or the rest of the crew. The Moonbeam was taken quickly in the night, and I found myself in chains and herded up with an assortment of other sailors and townspeople.

The soldiers are large and musky smelling, hidden in folds of robe and armor. And they'll strike you with their whips if they catch you looking too closely.

Fweeeeeeet! YA! *crack*

"Get along!"

They keep us marching, towards the east.

*tingaling*tingaling*tingaling*

One of them thought it would be funny to tie a bell to the end of my tail.

*crack*

Baron Von Dingo 8/18/2020 11:56pm

Strange Katz, Spaz and Harry,
While Captain Jack lay sleeping,
Rode their mighty ship the Moonbeam,
Down the drain!

It was a timedrain they were lost in,
Stuck in a backwater bronze-age town,
But the cyclone's growing nearer,
How will they ride it out?

Hey kids it's me, Baron Von Dingo, your favorite friendly bard and storyteller here. Just doing a little checkup on the furry little crew of the Moonbeam. Adrift in the timestream as they are, they are still finding plot coherency a problem, what with the tachyon overflow and the supermassive entropy at work. We'll just see if they can grab this next twister by the horns and make it out alive.

Strange Katz 7/9/2020 4:03pm

Some of the brightly colored ships seem fascinating, but also a little much, as if they were more for show. I went to get some supplies but it's weird trying to communicate. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do on the ship anymore, but I want to be useful. I burned my wrist the other day and I've been licking the wound. I haven't seen @Captain Jack Fenris for a while though. I wonder where he is...

Strange Katz 6/28/2020 6:56pm

Meow meow mewling mew
Purrrr...
Meow?

Spaz Skunk 6/3/2020 10:00pm

Spaz Skunk, Ship's Shaman Third Class here, @Captain Jack Fenris, and I've got to report some strange activity on the horizon. Not the LITERAL horizon of course ha ha but I mean in my Scrying Teacup. I was having tea this afternoon and I couldn't find my ordinary tea cup so just grabbed one off the dish rack and as I'm sipping off the last dregs I looked down at the leaves and went into a Level II fugue. I fell backwards and almost broke the cup!

But what I saw was this. It was sunset here at the port, and the penteconters and triremes were securing themselves for the night, the last rays of golden sunlight sparkling on the water and the gilded sails, the dockworkers and tradesmen taking care of their end of day business. Then, from the east, there were airships. Not like ours, but ornate, multitiered, open deck ships, trailing great scarlet ribbons and and long fins.

The magnificent parade passed overhead, and the workers on the docks and in the ships raised their hands and shouted great hellos. I began to cry from the beauty of it all.

But these gorgeous boats of the air didn't slow down, didn't stop. They were rushing ahead, shouting tersely at us down below.

I looked back to the east, at a great swelling darkness. I began to cry again, but not out of joy.

It's then that my fugue ended, and I crawled to my bunk to sleep it off. I would have reported sooner but you know how strong the fugue effect is, and this one was a doozy. But I came to report it to you as soon as I was able.

That is my report, sir.

Harry Otter 4/26/2020 9:43pm

The appearance of the Moonbeam at this busy bronze-age port caused less attention than you might think. Many of the ships are far more beautiful to look at than the Moonbeam. Not that the Moonbeam isn't a handsome ship, but these boats can be ornate, with so much color, dyed sails, and multiple tier construction--spiny with oars and rigging. A few of them look like they could take off flying on their own.

But the lack of interest seems like it's something more. Like they've seen the same kind of thing before. But I really don't remember anything in airship history class going back this far.

Sure wish we could speak the language. But that hasn't prevented us for trading various knickknacks on board for food to the local street vendors.