A Spelljamming Vessel, The Bugger All.

TURN OFF LIGHTING

History And Notes

The Bugger All was formerly HEHS/J The Dark Whisper, a fourth-class ship-of-the-line (Allegation Class), in the so-called "Witch-King's" Naval Service. His Eternal Highness, Grand Prince Devrok, had an empire that at its height, stretched across no fewer than five planes of existence, and encompassed millions of souls. (The exact population figure is disputed, given the number of Undead and other Souless Sapients that resided there). Allegation Class vessels were produced in significant numbers during Devrok's final two centuries, and since the empire's fall, have become relatively common vessels in the jamming lanes.

The current owner/operators, one Cerviel Nonchalance and his coterie, have filed the paperwork declaring transfer by just conquest from _The Cult of the Dragon_ of the _Prime of Toril_, along with a affidavit attesting to the just cause. Given the nature of this statement, a _discreet_ request for Confirmation of Just Conquest has been submitted to the Embassy of the Modrin of Mechanus, with attention to the Office of the Primus. Even more extraordinarily (a phrase that one could not, in any way, expect to follow the previous), one of Cerviel's associates, Silence from-the-Egg of-the-Hive, has asserted the right to carry and fly The Lady of Pain's Personal Ensign onboard. They have been convinced that they should only do so under the most dire circumstances, and agreed to fly the Merchant Ensign of Sigil unless circumstances warrant it.

It is unclear how _The Cult of the Dragon_ came into possession of The Dark Whisper. In fact, it had not been recorded at a Port of Note for over a decade. As the class of ship is well know, this may be due to the registration change not be correctly filed at a Recognized Authority and lax record keeping at smaller ports of call, rather than the ship having been out of service for any length of time. As this could be malicious it warrants investigation, but it seems more likely to be the result of the _Cult_ being a single-Prime based organization, and thus unfamiliar with the accepted civil authorities, and the inter-planar laws, treaties, and traditions.

The S/JV Bugger All has received a full refit along with its new registration. While it still carries the supplies for a necropolis, the current owners have shown that these tombs do not carry the shock troops that would have been present under the original flag. The owners claim to require these supplies in the near future. Still, this cargo is of concern, and a note has been sent to all harbor masters, urging them to perform a full inspection if the materiel remains on board when The Bugger All docks at their port.


Reference:

The Allegation Class

Despite the ship's large size, the Allegation Class was considered a fourth-class ship-of-the-line due to its low crew capacity and corresponding light armament. Featuring only 14 light ship-to-ship Ballista (no more than 10 of which could be brought to bear at any given time, even in ideal situations) and no billets for dedicated war-magisters or Priests of Granath, the class's role in the line was comparable to Desperation Class Frigate or the similarly fourth-class Fading Pallor design. Instead, Allegation Class ships were best suited to roles that could take advantage of the vessels large size.

The Class served well as a mixed role Transport/Cruiser or Supply/Cruiser, as it only required armed escorts into theaters of the highest risk. It was most commonly used in a long-range Patrol/Light-Interdiction role, as it could carry sufficient supplies for extended tours without resupply, and had the fire-power to eliminate most single-vessel and small-fleet pirate threats. It is due to this Patrol role that so many of these vessels were not present at, and therefore survived, the Dark Collapse. It is rumored that Commodore Narath attempted to use The Dark Whisper's sister ship, The Discrete Secret, as her faction's flagship following the Collapse. However, as that faction vanished along with the Plane of Bloodwaters during the Aftermath, it is hard to judge the class's suitability to that roll.

In practice, it is hard to make an unbiased evaluation of the performance of this class of vessel as it was frequently used for evaluation tours for Captains-Candidate and Captains-Reincarnate. Generally, a Captain would only serve two tours, and no records have survived for any commanding officer serving more than three tours on this class. Thus, we have to remember that these Captains were unlikely to be able to use the ship to its fullest capacity. The recorded results of the evaluation tours are this:
* Highly successful evaluations (top 5%) would see a Captain assigned a third-class, or rarely, a second-class Ship-of-the-Line vessel.
* Successful evaluations would lead to assignments to ships better suited to single-role assignments (such as the aforementioned Desperation or Fading Pallor classes) (next 20%).
* Merely Adequate evaluations would lead to unenviable assignments, such as tours on Heavy Supply or Repair/Raise vessels (after which, the officer would be expected to retire) (next 25%).
* Failed evaluations would, obviously, result in Reincarnation or Reclamation (without Absolution), as appropriate (bottom 50%).
There are no known examples of the CO being assigned to the Inverted Halo (i.e. HEH's de facto Privy Council) after evaluation, but rumors persist that a perfect evaluation could have resulted in one.

For others, assignment to an Allegation Class vessel was generally considered career limiting, regardless of rank. This wasn't strictly true -- for instance, a Chaplin's career was unimpeded, but this is probably because their assignments were controlled by the Church, not the Admiralty. Similarly, the Chimurgeon, most of whom would leave HEH's service after their three-Tour conscription, would have no black marks. The few Chimurgeons who sought commissions, instead of discharge, were directly granted a lieuftenancy and could be assigned to a junior officer billet, anywhere in the Navy. The only other officers with decent prospects were the ensigns, if they both survived. While the Captain would brevet one -- usually the only surviving ensign -- to the 3rd lieuftenancy, if both lived the other would be assigned a position elsewhere, usually junior aide in the staff for one of the Hallowed, or a 5th lieuftenancy on a First or Second class ship-of-the-line (as they were consistently short of surviving ensigns to promote). As the ships served as evaluation tours, Numbers-One would be repeatedly assigned to remain on board, ensuring an senior deck officer was familiar with the ship. Third Lieuftenants would be promoted, and Numbers-Two, having no where to go, would usually either be discharged or, if they served with distinction, offered Reclamation with Absolution. Of course, if the First Lieuftenant did not survive, things went differently; often the 2nd would be blamed and given Reclamation without Absolution, and the 3rd promoted to First, but this was highly inconsistent. On occasion, these late-Firsts would be granted Reincarnation (and thus a Captaincy-Reincarnate), but as this was not a privileged inherent to their rank, it required some combination of (1) service with distinction, (2) extraordinarily long, loyal service, and (3) connections in the Inverted Halo.

As for the Marines aboard, it was a mixed blessing. Service on an Allegation Class effectively commuted their sentences indefinitely. As the vessel almost never participated in boarding actions (their targets being too small to survive long enough to be boarded), and not serving with an invasion or enforcement battalion, the marines had little hope of earning a Pardon from the Grand Prince or the Inverted Halo. While the Captain of Marines could request Absolution with Reclamation after 10 years in rank, most would try to wait until 15 years for Absolution with Discharge from service. Even on as safe a vessel an Allegation, few made it to serving over twenty years as a Marine. Rather than try to outlast their direct commanders, Lieutenants of Marines had to hope the ship's captain would achieved assignment to higher class vessels, and then they could petition to accompany them to the new ship, thus gaining reasonable access to a Pardon.

Crew (Not including Shock Troops)
60: 10 Officers, 15 NCOs (Including Section Chiefs), 35 Ordinary Crew

Commissioned Officers in order of Seniority and Authority when Underway - All Commissioned by the authority of the Inverted Halo except when noted
10: 6 Deck Officers, 2 Marine Officers, 2 Support Officers
Billet (Bunk Location) : Rank(s) (Role(s))
Captain (Captain's Stateroom) : Captain-Candidate/Captain-Reincarnate[1] (Commanding Officer)
1st Lieuftenant (Officers' Wardroom, Executive Officer's Quarters) : Lieuftenant (Executive Officer)
2nd Lieuftenant (Officers' Wardroom, Inner) : Lieuftenant (Senior Duty Officer)
3rd Lieuftenant (Officers' Wardroom, Inner) : Lieuftenant (Duty Officer)
Chaplain (Chaplain's Office) : Acting Lieuftenant[2][3] -- Warrant issued by the Church of Granath (Also, Colonel of Shock Troops, if necessary)
Captain-of-Marines (Captain's of Marines Stateroom, Marines' Wardroom) : Lieutenant[2][4] -- Warrant issued by the Executioner's Board
Chimurgeon (Surgery) : Acting (Senior) Ensign[2][3] -- Warrant issued by the Board of Bloodletting
2 Ensigns (Officers' Wardroom, Outer) : Ensigns
Lieutenant-of-Marines (Lieutenant's of Marines Quarters, Marines' Wardroom) : Sublieutenant[2][4] -- Warrant issued by the Executioner's Board

[1] - In theory, the CO could hold a Rank of (Full) Captain. This never happened in practice.
[2] - Technically, a Warrant Officer, not a Commissioned Officer. In practice, and by Standing Orders of the Admiralty, these Warrants were treated as Equivalent to a Commission, except in a few special cases.
[3] - Acting Officers only have Authority when Underway. When the Vessel is Docked at Friendly Port (and the Vessel is not Standing at Alert), or when the Acting Officer is on Leave, they have no Authority, like any other Civilian.
[4] - Usually not a spellcaster, so not generally capable of Commanding the Vessel. In the rare cases where these Officers would have to assume Command of the Crew, they would need to appoint a Pilot of the Vessel. This could be from the lower ranked officers surviving (if any), a member of the crew with a latent blood-talent (if any), an Incapacitated Senior Officer (if any, and they remain Capable), or, in truly desperate measures, Awakening an Officer of the Shock Troops.

Non-Commissioned Officers, in order of Seniority - All Bunked in Crew Wardroom unless noted
15: 5-7 Officers' Mates, 1 Marine Sergeant, 0-2 Civilians, 7 Section Chiefs
Vessel's Master : Master Mate
Boatswain : Senior Mate
Purser : Senior Mate[1] (Also Quartermaster)
Carpenter : Senior Mate[1] (Also Cooper)
Sergeant-of-Marines (Marines' Wardroom) : Sergeant
Master-at-Arms : Junior Mate (Also Armourer)
Clerk : (Acting, if Civilian) Junior Mate
Cook : (Acting, if Civilian) Junior Mate
6 Yeoman : Able Crewmates (Section Chiefs)
Corporal-of-Marines : Corporal (Section Chief)
(Relative Seniority of all Section Chiefs by date of Rank, regardless of Billet)

[1] - On occasion, either the Purser or Carpenter (never both) could hold the rank of Junior Mate. In these cases, they would be the most senior Junior Mate on the Vessel, moving their precedence to immediately following the Sergeant-of-Marines.

Ordinary Crew
35:
21 Ordinary Crewmates (Crews' Wardroom)
14 Marines (Marines' Wardroom)

Shock Troops (Actual Composition is highly variable based on Availability, Suitability, and Compatibility)
Approx 70-150
All, except the Colonel, are Resting In Peace, until Awakened.

Colonel (Ship's Chaplin -- if alive, the only living member)
8-15 Officers (Vampire, Ghost, Death Knight, Ghoul/Ghast, Wraiths; potentially, any intelligent undead with spellcasting. In practice, as their Colonel is the Chaplin, and not a full Priest, these are usually weak-willed, young, or otherwise impaired Officers)
60-140 Troopers (Skeletons, Zombies, Spawn of one of the Officers, otherwise controllable, low/unintelligent undead)