Play@YSDC

[OOC: Ok, I've started this thread just for your three characters so that you can follow your own set of posts more easily.

As this thread runs simultaneously with the main IC thread, please keep an eye on that as any events not limited to your investigation will be posted there, and that is where any other characters can interact with you. If anyone else joins your investigation they can start posting in here as well.]

Here are the last two IC posts from the main thread, that relate to this investigation:

OrionUK wrote: James being a little suprised by Professor Moore's reaction nods & turns to Callum "I think we should organise a room where we can start questioning the crew straight away"

Once Professor Moore is out of earshot he continues "This voyage has certainly been plagued by more mis-haps than I find acceptable & I do not intend to see anyone else's life put into unnecessary danger, we are going to have to take a firm hand over the questioning, starting with Henning, if he is fit to be questioned, and any other crew that were close by when the incident happened. We will need to make sure secure quarters for any suspects are arranged and all security staff co-operated with to get to the bottom of this.

Ghost_1971 wrote: "I dont think that questioning the crew is what Moore had in mind James. Something a bit more subtle is needed here. Perhaps we should start with going through the Crews personal belongings, on the quiet of course, to see what we can find. We'll have to be very careful though, sailores can get a bit touchy about things like that..."

Who's plan are you going with?

If you want a 'private area' then your own cabins (14 & 18) are as good as you are likely to find aboard, but take a look at the deckplans, maybe you can find a better location. Perhaps you could recruit people from the same cabin(s).

It you want to snoop around the crew's quarters then I need to know where you plan to start, all cabin allocations are with the deckplans. Remember that the deck and engine crews, as well as the officers operate in three watches so there are always a few sailors in their cabins at any one time. The stewards on the other hand work during the day, and rest at night.

Thanks Gary.

I will post in the main thread my reply to Callum but do a more detailed post here.

In reply to which plan are we going with I think we should start off by checking all the supplies (water, equipment etc) out to see if they all look ok for now then start by very subtly checking out each area of the ship, in a thourough systamatic way, and if we come across anyone asking what we are doing or starts questioning us then we should take them to one side, question them about how long they have been part of this particular crew, where they have come from, what they know about expeditions etc and then explain that we know there is a sabotour onboard and we intend to find them to try to put the sabotour off making any more attempts to delay the voyage?

I dont know what Callum thinks to that but if happy to start with the search then we should start from top deck aft to forward and work down in that order if thats ok?

I'd rather you replied here than in the main thread, as I'm trying to separate those two conversations/investigations from the main story.

"Checking the supplies sounds like a good place to start James. I'd be happy to go along with that for now. Hopefully we can catch someone in that act"

OK Gary I will just post in here whilst relevant 8)

"Right lets get started then Callum, I will go an ontain a note pad and pen to make any notes on the supplies & to note anything that anyone says that might be of use and meet you at the main hold. As you say hopefully we will find the culprit in the act if, we are careful, and they try anything else"

There's about an hour or two left before lights out. Unless you work through the night you won't get a whole hold checked out without carrying on in the morning.

As the holds are unlit I'll assume that Callum borrows a couple of flashlights from the crew while James is getting his notepad.

Remember that there are five cargo holds on the Gabrielle, each split into a Lower and a Tween deck section. The lower holds are only accessible through the Tween deck holds.

Shall we say that you start with #5 Tween Deck Hold and work your way forwards, as with your later plans for searching the rest of the ship?

Hi Gary,

Yes that is fine with me - I dont think they would want to work through the night, probably work quite late but will finish say around midnight? and would like to start again straight after breakfast.

Yep. Sounds ok to me. Lets get going.

Sorry, I've been too busy to post in my games for a day or two.

I'll post an update for you two at lunchtime.

SS Gabrielle - Main Deck, Above the #5 Hold

Carrying their borrowed flashlights Callum and James walk back along the darkened deck to the hatch down to the number 5 tween deck hold.

The hatch is closed, as expected, so James opens it and shines his flashlight down into the utter darkness of the hold. He doesn't spot anything, but hears the sound of a large rat or something scurrying away into the shadows, disturbed by the sudden appearance of the torch-beam; the tiny sound is quickly lost though as the expedition's dogs smell the visitors.

This hold contains the cages for the expedition's 36 Alaskan Malamute dogs. They constantly howl throughout the hot daylight hours, but are mostly quiet during the night; now though they sense the arrival of the two familiar humans as soon as James opens the hatch. Most of the dogs bark with excitement, expecting a surprise meal, while several of the more aggressive hounds growl ominously at the disturbance.

[OOC: Ready to go down? It's very dark.]

"Come on James! Lets go. You're not scared are you? Ha Ha" Callum heads down the steps into the darkness. "Good dogs calm down now." he says gently, trying to calm the excitable animals. "It's not dinner time yet.."

"Of course not, I love dogs, we own several hunting hounds at home so I have grown up with them, the grumpy ones will settle if we leave them alone"

James heads down swinging the torch to the area where the 'Large Rat or something' went scurrying as he wouldn't be suprised if they found someone skulking around in here and would actually be quite excited at the prospect of catching the saboteur so early on.

The dogs soon settle back down, disappointed not to be getting fed. They all appear to be healthy, and this hold doesn't contain everything else apart from the rack of dog cages and a couple of emptied packages of pemmican rations used to feed the dogs.

James shines his flashlight around the hold, but is unable to locate the rat.

It only takes thirty minutes to check all the dogs and cages over, so there should still be time to start looking at the #5 lower hold tonight. An opening in the floor in one corner of the tween deck hold leads to the caged ladder down to the lower hold.

[OOC: Want to carry on down there tonight?]

Callum heads over to the ladder. He peers over the edge of the hole, using his flashlight to check out the area, and the climbs down.

James takes one further look around where he thought the Rat (or whatever) might have headed and if he still spots nothing he also heads over to the ladder to follow Callum down and will start making notes & looking around the lower hold area.

SS Gabrielle - #5 Tween Deck Hold (Dog Cages)

The harsh beam of Callum's flashlight illuminates the caged metal ladder down to the #5 Lower Hold. Nothing looks out the ordinary from up here, so he starts to make his way down.

James continues to search in vain for the rat that he heard earlier, eventually he gives up and follows Callum. Perhaps it was just his imagination.

The #5 Lower Hold contains most of the timber and other building materials that will be used to construct the expedition's base camp in Antarctica. There are approximately five tonnes of materials in all, secured to a dozen or so cargo pallets.

[OOC: A cursory check of the pallets will take thirty minutes to an hour, so you'll be finished with the #5 hold tonight and ready to check the #4 hold tomorrow

A more detailed check of all the materials will probably take at the whole of the morning.

If either of you are unsure whether to carry out a detailed examination of five tonnes of building materials then you may as well discuss it briefly IC, as they're chatting in the other investigation thread so I'm not ready to move onto the next day yet]

James is happy to make sure nothing has been tampered with & all looks in order & call it a night, if nothings looks out of place.

"That's a good idea James" says Callum "We can carry on where we left off in the morning, after a nights rest."

James and Callum spend the rest of the evening searching through the contents of the #5 lower hold, they don't find any sign of sabotage.

[OOC: It'll probably take you about two more hours in the morning to complete your search of the #5 holds, then you can move forward to the #4 holds.

I'm just waiting for a couple more posts in the other investigation thread and then I'll advance the time to the morning]

If you haven't read it yet, I made a post before this one, at the end of the previous page

SS Gabrielle - Callum's Cabin
Around Midnight

When James and Callum head back to Callum's cabin to discuss the evening's search they find a grave looking Isugtag waiting for them.

"Callum, James, I trust you both and I don't know how many others I can really say that for."

"Today's incident is very worrying, I do not believe it was an accident. We must hunt down this saboteur before someone is killed."

"Starkweather made me head of camp security, so I feel responsible, even though we have not reached the ice. Will you help me?"



[OOC: Mr Juan hasn't been logged in here for over a month, and I like Isugtag so I think he should get involved.]

"Well Isugtag it is good to hear that you feel we are to be trusted & I agree I do not think the incident was an accident either so am happy to help in any way I can. Callum & I have just come from Hold 5 where we have started making an inspection of the rest of the expeditions materials ect, to ensure nothing else looks tampered with at the moment, & hopefully to try to catch someone out if they were to be thinking about making any further sabotage attemps but I didn't see any signs as yet & only heard what sounded like a rat or something scurrying into a corner"

Callum walks over to his store cupboard, removes three glasses and a nice single malt whiskey. "Its good to have you with us my friend." says Callum whilst pouring a drink for each of them. "Like James said, as yet, our search has turned no up nothing unusual. Do you have any ideas of your own what we should do next? Or should we just carry on what we are doing for now?"

James wrote: "...& only heard what sounded like a rat or something scurrying into a corner"

Isugtag chuckles, "When a ship has no rats, then you should start to worry."

Callum wrote: Callum walks over to his store cupboard, removes three glasses and a nice single malt whiskey. "Its good to have you with us my friend." says Callum whilst pouring a drink for each of them. "Like James said, as yet, our search has turned no up nothing unusual. Do you have any ideas of your own what we should do next? Or should we just carry on what we are doing for now?"

"Carry on what you are doing for now, it's important to know what other damage has already been done." The Inuit guide takes a sip of his scotch, "I can help you out if you like, two of us could search while the other observes the holds from outside."

"We could change places regularly to avoid drawing attention. By seeing who goes in and out of the holds perhaps we will learn who is the saboteur."

Isugtag Wrote:

When a ship has no rats, then you should start to worry

"Very true, I suppose I was just looking out for something more, but we should realise that these things sometimes take a while to get to the bottom of." James swills the scotch round & takes a mouthful

"I am happy for you to help out with searching the holds and the idea of swapping round a look out is a good thought, not only will it help not to rouse suspicion but also means we will have fresh eyes for the searching & gives us chance to get some fresh air from time to time"

I'll be moving things on soon, hopefully this evening.

Everyone's ready to move on now, but I need to double check a couple of details before I make my new posts.

Keep watching this space.

Hopefully after finally finishing this very, very long day we can finally make some headway (I never knew before this, that there was some sort of invisible wall near the equator that prevents further progress )

Work checking the holds is slow going, with the main cargo hatches closed up whilst at sea everything must be done either by torchlight, or by rigging the heavy cluster lights from the Bosun store. The #5 Tween-deck hold is already lit during the day for the benefit of the dogs, but none of the other holds have cluster lights rigged at the moment.

Also everything must be done manually as the closed hatches prevent the Gabrielle's cargo cranes from being used to manipulate the cargo. Because of this most of the chambers will take a full day of hard work each to check.

Tuesday 26th September, 1933

Working in shifts with Isugtag, Callum and James spend the full day down in the #5 lower hold working by torchlight sifting through all of the base camp building materials stored in there. At the end of a long day they have found no sign of satotage.

Apart from Mr Turlow (the first officer who regularly checks all of the holds) and the two messboys (Scott and Henning) who regularly access the #4 hold, the only other people to access the cargo holds today are McRaven, Kitt and Sean who appear to be checking out the #2 hold (where two of the planes are stored), and the 2 dog handlers who access both the #4 and #5 holds.

Scott and Henning need to access the #4 hold as it's the only way into the reefer store, which is still being used to store what's left of the food, including the boxes of pemmican.

The dog handlers (Erik Frodesen and Olav Sørensen) need to enter the #5 hold for the dogs (obviously) and the #4 hold to get to the pemmican (to feed the dogs).

Wednesday 27th September, 1933

Today you were due the check the #4 hold were two of the Boeings are stored, but when you arrive you find that McRaven, Sean (and probably Kitt) have also arrived to do the same thing. As it makes sense for pilots to check out the planes I've assumed that you leave McRaven to it and move forward to the #3 hold instead.

The #3 tween-deck hold contains all of the camping equipment, sorting through it is a huge task and at the end of the day you still haven't finished, you estimate that you'll be done by lunchtime on Thursday. So far you have found no sign of sabotage.

Thursday 28th September, 1933

You are about to continue checking the #3 tween-deck hold when there is a disturbance, see the main IC thread.

"What on earth is all that commotion?" James exclaims to Callum & Isugtag "We should go see whats going on although at least 1 of us should stay near the holds to make sure this isn't some kind of diversionary tactic"

"You go I'll stay here," replies Isugtag.