Running an airship was completely unlike anything Ranma had done before. In this case, Ren was not much help as she had never done something similar herself.Dwarf - One of the six surviving races known collectively as the Descendant Races. The dwarf element is stone or metal, the element they have most trouble with is wood. Roughly three times as massive as an elf, and at half the height, dwarves typically dwell underground or in partially underground communities called steadings.
Dwarves rarely attain mastery in the higher arts of magic, save in the field of stonework, metalcrafting, and alchemy. Their innate nature tends to ground out magical energies and this added hurdle discourages many dwarves from this field.
The dwarven race was badly depleted during the War, and most have retreated to their steadings where they maintain a wary isolationism.
-"A Wanderer's Findings", Krinos Malfange.
The ship was as simple as airships got. Steam engine, levi-stones, cabin area, helm, cargo area, and so on. If it had been on the water, it would have been considered a boat, but as it was an airship it was automatically a ship. Ranma dubbed it the Chibi Maru on the papers, rationalizing that he could come up with a better name whenever he got around to thinking of one.
It was obvious, at least to Ranma, that they were going to need help. He didn't have too much trouble with the idea of repairing a ship. He just didn't have much skill in that area. He'd covered it back in that Togenkyo mess by playing around instead of joining in on the repairs. Here he didn't have a choice. Ren was as clueless as he was about a lot of things, and apparently had been sleeping for a few decades or so.
How to fly the thing - he was able to learn that much easily enough. Gamlain showed him the controls. This lever increased the speed of rotation of the levi-stones - which increased the lift. This wheel turned the ship. Ranma took the wheel during the lessons and the only tricky part seemed to be keeping the engine running. Well that and using the two controls together.
There was a single sail, and you could use it to increase speed or to slow things down faster, but Ranma wasn't going to bother with that for awhile.
No, the help he was going to need was in finding someone who could fix things as he went along. He was going to have to learn some of it himself, but he needed someone who could do that in the meantime.
Ren turned out to have few skills at all and a tendency towards melancholy. Ranma decided he was going to have to get her to smile more. He just didn't understand her. Oh well, it wasn't like not being able to understand a girl was something new.
Ranma decided to check here at the mostly-dwarven settlement and lucked out in that he did find someone who knew something about repairing airships and WAS interested in seeing new places.
This person being:
(Posted Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:45)
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