The Mana-Verse

[Phi]

(Mmmm... Boobie-cut glass...)

(... a pair of drills, that could pierce the heavens... nah... )

(If Toshi was a Robot Master, this could totally work. )

[Blue Valkyrie]

((I'll let Wily do the post for when we arrive.))

[Quickman]

((...What does the airship look like?))

[Sakura Leic]

(I honestly have no idea, I was thinking it was a blimp in my head but it could look like anything from a blimp to a flying cruise ship to what ever the heck Final Fantasy 10's airship looks like.)

[Quickman]

((Is the helm open-air?  The rest I can fudge, but I need to determine of the helm is open to the air.  Roughly how high would the airship go?))

[Phi]

(I always imagined it as this:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

The Airship from Treasure Planet. But maybe with fewer sails.)

[Sakura Leic]

((Is the helm open-air?  The rest I can fudge, but I need to determine of the helm is open to the air.  Roughly how high would the airship go?))

(I hope not, otherwise Fxeni and the Prof are going to be holding on for dear life with the turbulent winds.

Typically Airships can go over mountains.

Here's a list of different Airships you can see, the flying cruise ship I was talking about is under Bravely Default and Grandship, the Eschalot is a tinier airship.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Airships)

[Blue Valkyrie]

I pictured Whitebeard's airship the Dark Star looking like the Blackjack from FF6.))

[Sakura Leic]

(Okay so me thinking of the Falcon wasn't far off.)

[Quickman]

((So, the helm is exposed to air.  Though, it's not the winds I'm concerned about.  It's the cold.))

[Sakura Leic]

(Maybe you can alter it a bit.)

[Quickman]

((Actually, I want it open-air.  Me plotting.))

[Blue Valkyrie]

((uh oh? ))

[Dr. Wily II]

((I'll let Wily do the post for when we arrive.))

(*buries the lot of you under tons of snow*)

[Fxeni]

(Blackjack works for me, although I do have a soft spot for the FFIV ones.)

[Blue Valkyrie]

((So we just want to arrive or are we going to encounter something in the air?))

[Quickman]

((Give me a few, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do and how to word it.  Bit distracted right this second.))

[Dr. Wily II]

(This should be fun. )

[Blue Valkyrie]

((No worries, your in charge for this bit then.))

[Quickman]

Aside from some turbulence, the journey to the North was largely uneventful.  However, the storm front the ship was approaching was far too large for the Professor to chart a course around without diverting their trip even farther away.  The ship had to go into the storm.

The cold winds picked up and the airship lurched as the Professor held tight to his map, rolling it up and tucking it into his heavy cloak.  He pulled out his compass and sextant and looked for stars and objects to sight.  However, the clouds were too thick and the rain wall far too heavy.

As he tucked his instruments away, he noticed a gleam along the hull.  Inspecting it, he ran his bandaged hands along it and found it to be ice.

The airship was icing up.

Turning on his heel, he darted from the helm, yelling and waving his arms. "We have to descend!  We have to descend!  We have to descend now!"

[Phi]

"We have to descend!" Pema waved back, then paused, "... Wait, why do we have to descend?"

"What's going on, Professor?" Salem asked.

[Quickman]

"The ship!  She's icing up!" The Professor pointed to the coating of ice forming on the hull.  "If our rudders and engines freeze... if they freeze... We have to descend, we have to descend below the clouds!"

((Did some quick research on airships in cold weather and had to change something.  The ballonets and balloon would actually be fine.  The mechanical bits, such as steering and propellers, would not.  I doubt they have de-icing in the Dwarf Fortress anyway.))

[Fxeni]

"This is worse than usual... I'll have to be careful," Fxeni said as he began the descent through the clouds, noticing that the rudders already felt a bit stiff.

[Sakura Leic]

"This Airship was definitely not built to withstand freezing weather like this." Calien shook his head.

"Even if the airship helm wasn't open air like this I don't think the rudder would have faired better.  If we continued like this we'd crash for sure." Sakura sighed "Even though I never even been in a ship before I do know even just losing the rudder is bad."

[Quickman]

The Professor looked around as the wind picked up, whipping him in the face with stinging ice pellets.  The temperature was dropping quickly, and as he scrambled for the hatch, he slipped and skidded on the icy deck.  Sprawling across the deckplates, he managed to crawl to the hatch and open it, climbing down inside.

As he made the descent into the stuffy, warm tunnel to engineering, he heard the unmistakable grinding and knocking of an engine starting to seize.

Sweat beaded on his brow as he stepped off the ladder and entered the engine room.  A blast of icy air hit him as he opened the hatch and stepped into the half-open engine room.  To his dismay, he didn't need to get any closer to see that some exposed pipes had formed icicles.

Turning, the Professor scrambled for the ladder and climbed it as fast as he could before popping out of the hatch. "The engine is freezing!"