YOUR FIRST SAIL
There is a lot to learn in the smuggling mission, so don't worry if there seems to be an overwhelming amount of things happening. If you're sailing with The Unsinkables, you will probably be asked to act as a deckhand on your first voyage, as it's the easiest role to learn with the most leeway when mistakes occur. The deckhand's role is primarily to keep the ship's hull in good condition, clear weed and ice, and to put out fires on deck. These are simple duties that only require a hammer for repairs, a slashing+piercing weapon for clearing weed and ice, and fire buckets to put out fires. For your first trip the important thing is to learn the process, so you will not be expected to complete every task perfectly!
1. Get used to moving around the ship (see below). Some people use movement aliases to remap directions, or a plugin to remap their keypad (here's one I wrote that will also display stage times and the mission cooldown: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jj2NB42TjL01duAs_AsLWVrm32s0vEpr/view?usp=drive_link -- once installed, toggle directions with the command !sailkeys). However, the on board directions can all be used with one or two letters e.g. "f" for forward, "a" for aft, "pf" for port-forward or "sa" for starboad-aft, so you may find it just as easy to learn these.
fore / forward
port-fore * starboard-fore
\ / \ /
*+*+*
port -- | | -- starboard
*-*-*
/ |x|x| \
port-aft *-*-* starboard-aft
aft
2. Once you've mastered moving around, take up position over the starboard hatch, which is the first room you arrive at on board. This is where repair materials (boards and nails) tend to get piled, and as it's by the edge of the ship you can 'look overboard' to see the hull's condition. To repair the hull, simply hold your hammer, pick up some boards and nails, go 'overboard' and 'repair hull with boards and nails', then 'board' to get back on the ship. You will need to be tied on with a rope so you don't get washed away from the ship, so make sure an experienced crew member ties you to the railing before the ship sets sail.
3. There are four weather stages to the voyage: fog, gales, hail and thunderstorms, with calm seas at the start, middle and end. Each weather stage has different effects: the fog blocks sight for the person steering, gales turn the ship from side to side, hail coats the decks with ice, and lightning in the thunderstorm sets fire to the deck. The deckhand only has to work hard in the latter two, clearing ice on deck from the hail and putting out deck fires in the thunderstorm.
4. During the hail stage, hold a piercing weapon and look for lines about ice on the deck in the room description. Then use 'break ice with held weapons' to clear the deck.
5. During the thunderstorm, lightning will hit the deck and start fires, so you need to make sure you are carrying two fire buckets. To fill the buckets with water, simply go overboard (an alias like 'overboard;board' will be quick) and they will fill up. Then find the fires (the lightning strike message will show where it hits in relation to your position, and flickering firelight will be visible from neighbouring rooms) and 'pour my buckets on fire'. Each lightning strike will take two buckets of water to put out if you get to them quickly -- if you leave them, the fire will grow and eventually start spreading to neighbouring rooms. But if that happens, simply pop overboard again to refill the buckets and pour them again.
6. The MONSTER. In the middle of the voyage a sea serpent OR a kraken will attack the ship, and the crew have to fight it off:
Every few seconds during the encounter, the sea serpent will try to bite a random crew member. To avoid being bitten, you just need to move away from the attack: if the message says it attacks from aft, move any direction EXCEPT aft. Magic and faith shields will help with the damage if you do get hit. For your first sea serpent fight, just focus on staying alive: if you need to, hide in the deckhouse and it won't attack you there.
The kraken is a little trickier: it's important that everyone stays together in one room (usually the starboard hatch) because the kraken will grab people with its tentacles. When this happens, another crew member needs to cut 'cut <player> free' with a slashing weapon as quickly as possible. The tentacles will do about 1000 damage before releasing a player, so if everyone has been grabbed the damage can quickly get out of hand. For your first kraken fight, just make sure you hold a slashing weapon and keep cutting people free.
Remember: on your first trip, you're only expected to learn these processes. You don't have to master them! Experienced sailors can help a lot with aliases, what messages to highlight with colour triggers and any questions you have.
GENERAL TIPS
1. Use client-side aliases, with easy-to-type shortcuts of 2-4 letters. e.g. "obo" for "overboard; board". Client-side aliases are much faster than in-game aliases, and easier shortcuts will avoid typos and improve speed (most important for fighting fires, but generally useful).
2. Set up colour triggers. For the helm, the most important ones are the winds that change the ship's heading during the gale stage. It's also good to highlight the messages given when the ship runs into a patch of dire seaweed, or when it hits a whirlpool. As wrangler, the most important messages are the dragons spraying fire when you move into the room with them -- simply highlighting "spraying" should be enough for this. For everyone, set up colour triggers for the monster fight, showing when the serpent is attacking and when someone is grabbed by the kraken.
3. A sailing bonus of 350-400 is highly recommended for all roles if you want to sail frequently. It will stop you getting thrown around when the ship moves, it affects the distance forwards and backwards currents move the ship if you're at the helm, and makes ropes last longer when tied (for both crates below and people on deck).
4. A shipwright's hammer is the most useful of the tools Niknax sells. Every sailor can benefit from having one of these, so they can help with seaweed, ice or hull repairs if needed.
DECKHAND
You will need to bring: a weapon with piercing damage for breaking ice, a weapon with slashing damage for clearing weed (shipwright's hammer works for both).
Things you will need from the ship's stores: rope to tie yourself to the railing, a fire bucket, boards and nails, and a carpenter's hammer if you don't have access to a shipwright's hammer.
Have your hammer/weapons held at all times other than the monster fight, and stay by the ship's rail so you can 'look overboard' to check the ship's condition...except during the thunderstorm (see point 5 below).
1. Clear dire seaweed before repairing the hull as it will just keep rotting away the wood until it's cleared. Seaweed can also cause the interior of the hull to get damaged, leading to leaks.
2. Put out any fires you see, as top priority after clearing seaweed.
3. Don't bother repairing the hull until it's at least "rather dented" (second stage of damage). Carry 2 boards and 4 nails so that you can quickly repair it. Higher cr.ca.furniture will make repairing the hull use fewer materials.
4. Don't bother clearing ice from the hull if there are only a few patches. Likewise, don't bother breaking ice on the deck if it's only around the edges. DO break ice on the deck if it's covering some or most of the room, otherwise people can slip and take damage, or even fall overboard.
5. During the thunderstorm stage, stand by the mast as you will then get the clearest messages about where lightning strikes are causing fires on deck: the different messages will always indicate a different room, e.g. lightning 'port fore' will mean the room to port of the deckhouse, 'fore' means the helm room, 'starboard' means directly to starboard. Move to the struck room quickly, pour a bucket and stamp on the fire, then overboard/board to refill your bucket and go back to the mast ready for the next lightning strike. You will not need more than one bucket and stamp for a single lightning strike, if you get to them quickly.
6. Avoid going below deck when the ship is moving unless you know how to wrangle dragons, as moving around working dragons can cause fires and other issues.
If you feel things are getting out of hand, ask for help! This could be due to running out of gp, failed skillchecks, too many damage types occurring at once, or your safety rope needing to be retied.
WRANGLER
You will need to bring: a weapon with piercing damage for breaking ice, engineer's brush (optional).
From the ship's stores: a control rod, a fire bucket, dragon food and toys.
Have a control rod held in one hand at all times when wrangling dragons, so you can knock them out quickly in an emergency.
For your first time just wrangle one dragon at a single boiler and get used to the commands and the boredom/hunger system. Don't wake up the other dragons. Once you're used to how it all works, introduce a second dragon at the same boiler. Get used to juggling two, and then introduce a third one on the other boiler. You only need to wake the fourth dragon and set it working when it comes time to feed the first three, as three dragons between the two boilers can keep the ship moving at full speed (if there's no ice on the hull).
You will need 2+ toys and 1+ food items for each dragon you're going to wrangle. If the helmsman is inexperienced, or the ship is moving slowly with only 1 or 2 dragons working, you will need more food and toys for each dragon --- the faster the voyage, the less feeding and playtime is needed.
To start the boilers going:
1. Take dragons to the boiler room one at a time, put them in the circle once they've woken up.
2. Fill the boiler from a tank. You will need 4-5 tanks total for most voyages, but the more water there is in the boiler the slower it will heat up and cool down. For top speed, only fill the boiler with one tank at a time, but be aware that if a boiler runs dry while you're on the other side of the ship you might end up with boiler fires. Bury empty tanks so they don't get in the way.
3. Look at the dragons and boiler to see their current status (or 'check dragons' to just see the dragons' numbers). 250+ grooming bonus is necessary to see the boredom/hunger numbers. Looking at the boiler will show the current water level, and if it is running dry (less than 1/10 full) then add more water.
4. When dragon boredom is 60-80/100, pick up that dragon and drop it in a room with no other dragons. Use one of the toys (throw toy ball/squeeze toy animal) to lower its boredom back to 0, then pick it up and put it back in the circle at the boiler. If boredom reaches 80, the dragon will stop working and wander away to entertain itself by starting fires and breaking stuff.
5. Likewise when hunger is 50-70/100, follow the same process but with a food item (feed <coal/lemon/tin> to dragon). It will take longer to eat than to play, so only move it back to the boiler when it is finished eating. You can leave the room to do other things while it is eating.
6. When you move into the boiler room with a dragon working, it may start a small fire. Keep an eye out for the word "spraying" and immediately stamp it out. If both dragons spray fire, you will need to pour a fire bucket over the fire and then stamp it out. If it gets out of hand, decant a tank onto the fire and that will extinguish even a huge conflagration (useful alias is "decant tank 1 onto fire; bury empty tanks").
To stop the boilers:
1. Knock out the dragons by hitting them on the head with a control rod.
2. Optionally, add water from a tank to cool the boiler down faster, or "pull lever" to empty it.
HELM
You will need: navigator's sextant (highly recommended).
From the ship's stores: rope to tie yourself to the handrail.
hubwards
turnwise-hubwards | widdershins-hubwards
\ /
turnwise - O - widdershins
/ \
turnwise-rimwards | widdershins-rimwards
rimwards
1. Hold the wheel. Periodically check the ship's heading (see above) and, if you have a sextant, the distance to your destination, with 'look sun' or 'look stars', depending on whether it is day or night.
2. Keep the compass directions above in mind. To reach AM from Ephebe, you want to be travelling hubwards. Widdershins is to the right, turnwise to the left. Ideally, you don't want to deviate more that one point away from hubwards, but you may have to occasionally in order to go around obstacles. When you're not heading within one point of hubwards, the ship is not getting closer to your destination, so if you have to go around something try to get back on course quickly.
3. Turning the wheel one notch to port or starboard will change the ship's compass heading when the ship moves: e.g. if heading widdershins, turning one notch to port will change it to widdershins-hubwards. If the ship is moving at top speed, this will happen with each forward movement, but if it's slower it may turn without moving rooms. The ship will keep turning around the compass with each movement unless you centre the wheel. Turning it two notches to either side will make it turn by two points rather than one. It's easy to get turned right around if you don't centre the wheel quickly enough.
The most common maneuvers in an Ephebe-AM run are shown here (not taking into account gales shifting your heading at any point in the scenario!):
a) you want to avoid the backward current, so you turn to starboard (turn wheel starboard) and then after the ship moves, you want to get back on the same heading so you'll need to turn to port (turn wheel port by 2 notches), and then after the ship has moved again, centre the wheel (centre wheel).
b) if you want to catch that forward current, turn sharply to starboard (turn wheel starboard by 2 notches) and then after the ship moves, centre wheel and turn to port (turn wheel port). Remember: this zoom will take you to starboard by one point of the heading you started with! Then after the zoom, centre the wheel again, or keep turning to port (let the ship move once more before centering) to get back on your original heading.
c) to catch the forward current on your present heading, turn starboard, then after the ship has moved turn port by 2 notches, then centre after moving again. This is the same maneuver as in a). However, if you want to catch the zoom heading one point to starboard, for example if you're heading turnwise-hubwards and want to head hubwards, just let the ship move ahead once and then turn to starboard (and centre after the zoom).
d) in fog, it can be most efficient to travel turnwise-hubwards or widdershins-hubwards (depending on which side of the Ephebe-AM line you started) for these cases where you can see one room around you. Here, the ship is heading turnwise-hubwards, so we can catch that zoom by turning sharply to starboard (turn wheel starboard by 2 notches), then centering the wheel after the move. The new heading will be widdershins-hubwards.
