Zinsy Sparksprocket

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

**Zinsy Sparksprocket** is the ship's engineer, specialising as an artificer.

## Biography

Zinsy is the engineer of the *Nightingale*, and has served with Captain Vermillion Versailles and Lignus Stormsent for a long enough period to become accustomed to them. After a new navigator, Saara Smallwick, joined the crew, Zinsy took part in the efforts to decipher the map Saara had obtained, recommending they visit Zinsy's friend of sorts, Widow, who ran an intelligence operation out of Valt. Zinsy had last seen Widow about a decade ago, and had worked with Widow for a long time, having also given Widow some technological knicknacks Zinsy made in her free time.

After fondly reuniting with Widow, Captain Vermillion and Lignus largely dominated the conversation over the map and the cost of deciphering it. After they left, Captain Vermillion was spotted by a Novalbian Navy officer, Billingsworth, who tried to arrest them. In the ensuing fight Zinsy was quickly cut down after failing to bring her thundercannon to bear in the melee, and spent the fight unconscious and bleeding out until she was stabilised by Lignus. After the fight Zinsy was dragged away back to the ship by Saara, after spending a time disguised as illusory barrels of ale.

After the ship cast off Zinsy was part of the boarding party onto the *Farmer's Fortune*, a missing ship which Zinsy recalled went missing about 4 years ago. Zinsy tried to use a magic-detecting gadget on the ship, which failed to detect any magic on the ship, but worked when directed at her companions. While searching the conspicuously abandoned ship she disturbed some dust on a trap door, causing a spectre to attack the group. Despite attempts by Zinsy to talk it down it still attacked. Zinsy managed to use her thundercannon to some effect by hiding behind Versailles, but the creature was ultimately destroyed by the ship's swivel harpoon used by Lignus. Afterwards, Zinsy helped dismantle the harpoon gun on the *Farmer's Fortune* and brought it over to the *Nightingale* on Versailles' orders.

Afterwards, Zinsy and Saara figured out their next location, Isla Verde; on their arrival, Zinsy spent most of her time recording and observing the island and its inhabitants. After getting assistance from Roxas, Zinsy and the others went to observe "the Twins", two constellations. While waiting for them to move into position, Zinsy conversed with Saara, noting that Vermillion had a rather old-fashioned way of thinking after the captain had been combative over Saara's Imperial heritage; Zinsy also implied that Vermillion was bad at planning.

After they figured out their next location - a trio of islands - they cast off. While en route Saara, frustrated over being unable to understand the map, spoke with Zinsy, who told her that Widow didn't like being made fun of, and felt that Widow would not have made the map as a joke. After reaching Whale Corpse after skirting the first island, Bright Coral, Zinsy along with Lignus noted that the island seemed very out-of-place. Stumped, they eventually set off for the next island, shrouded in fog. As they neared the ship's LeValt engine cut off and the ship plummeted it restarted. These engine difficulties continued as Zinsy struggled to bring it under control. She realised that as the LeValt engine was magically powered, forming a stable portal to another plane that allows a controlled flow of magic through, that there was a sympathetic resonance engine affecting engine output. Zinsy managed to control the ship for it to moor off the island. As they left, Zinsy remained concerned for the ship.

On the island they snuck across, helping the considerably taller and less-subtle Vermillion around. Later, they decided to rest for the night, and Zinsy set up a trip wire system to alert them in case anyone came near. The night passed without anything happening, but when Zinsy woke to dismantle the lines she was approached by a traveller. This man introduced himself as Sever Wickham, a treasure hunter and pirate who eventually tagged along with the group. After Vermillion drew Wickham off to investigate a leviathan that they had spotted, Zinsy and the other three went to the location where they believed the next clue to be, which Wickham had noted to be a belltower.

The three ran into a hostile screaming skeletal horse that attacked them. After Lignus was bucked unconscious by a second one, Zinsy stabilised him and eventually killed the second with her Thunder Cannon. Faced with the difficulty of having an unconscious Lignus, Zinsy and Saara were forced to carry the heavier dwarf between the two of them overland, which they struggled to do even as Saara attempted to use her magic to assist, and eventually resorted to constructing a stretcher for the dwarf. Encountering a strange bone snake creature, the terrified two carried Lignus inside a nearby construction with Saara illusioning a door that managed to fool the snake. Zinsy was unhappy at having to leave Lignus behind, but Saara eventually convinced her to leave him on the upper floor of the building.

Sneaking over to the bell tower Wickham told them about, Zinsy couldn't find any traps but spotted strange bones on the floor that she recognised as the bones of a large, skeletal and slumbering conscrictor snake. Despite this revelation the two went up the staircase to the belfry; a hatch was seen on the beam the bell was suspended from, but the bell chain was wrapped around the hatch, making accessing the hatch without ringing the bell impossible. After some discussion - with Saara stripping to offer Zinsy some cloth to wrap the bell clapper in to muffle it, to Zinsy's embarassment - Saara lifted Zinsy into the bell to remove the clapper, chaining it to the wall using the lanyard chain she had made for Saara. The two managed to detach the clapper and haul it up without disturbing the snake. Opening the hatch they found it contained some gold, but the item in there, suspected to be a spyglass, was missing.

After getting back to Lignus the three returned to the camp site where Versailles gave Zinsy and Saara a rune that he had traced from a strange pump he had observed; Saara and Zinsy had observed a similar construction from the bell tower. The two realised it was an ancient Moerian necromantic pump that was resurrecting all the skeletons.

When they went to make a deal with Wickham, who left overnight, Zinsy helped identify that his spyglass was in fact magic. Later in the fight on the leviathan Zinsy again provided ranged support. As they reached a hole to enter the beast, there was a window overlooking it that Zinsy took overwatch in, mounting an optic on her Thunder Cannon. She shot and managed to kill a strange blue tendril creature this way. In the fights in the leviathan Zinsy was particularly concerned by the slugs, which at about a foot long were a third of Zinsy's height. Zinsy initially found greater success finishing off wounded slugs with her wrench than with her thundercannon. As they traversed the tunnels inside the beast it became clear that there were gemstones lining the walls of the tunnels, and Zinsy attempted to secure some while her companions guarded the rear, but only managed to collect one gemstone worth 10 gp.

When they went further down into the beast to where its heart was, they spotted a tendriled great gelatinous eye, the heart of the leviathan. A portal lay above it, surrounded by 8 runes, which they surmised that destroying could affect the heart. In the fight Zinsy would snipe the runes with varying degrees of success, but with each destroyed rune the heart was stunned. Ducking behind a column to hide herself from the beast, Zinsy was unclear of how the fight was going, and was forced to defend herself against another slug. Eventually the beast was killed, with Zinsy's sniping contributing to the fact that none of her companions went down. Afterwards, Zinsy tried to get some more gems - another 3 - before they were forced to leave due to the failing structural integrity of the creature. When they met Sever Wickham again, the pirate informed Zinsy that if she had anything recovered from the beast, then Artemis Blaines, High Recordkeeper of the Emerald Krait would be interested. Later, however, Zinsy attempted to steal Wickham's spyglass again to Lignus and Saara's dismay, leading Wickham to easily catch her and politely ask her to stop.

At their next stop, "Beachhead Island", they found a trapped and locked door in the eye socket of a giant skull on the beach. Zinsy realised that it was constructed by the legendary Grant Johnston, a pirate from 100 years ago who built trapped hoarding sites to save his wealth, and that it would create mud creatures to defend the hoard. Zinsy managed to untrap the door, removing the conjuration crystal mounted above the door, then picked the lock to open the vault, inside of which was the treasure the map promised. After collecting the loot Zinsy asked for and received permission to examine and dismantle the trap mechanism to understand it.

After the crew returned to Valt, Zinsy was preoccupied with getting the ship repaired and the salvaged harpoon mounted, and was recommended to visit Edna Corpsley, the former head of the shipyards. After bribing her way in with alcohol, the two formed a friendship, helped by Zinsy having formerly visited Valt when it was bustling when she was young, and the two mounted the harpoon in a drunken stupor. Later, Zinsy acquired the assistance of Sullivan Callan, personal assistant to Morpho the Magnificent to mount Johnson's trap on the deck of the *Nightingale*. In her spare time, Zinsy attempted to study the planar slugs and was asked to make a timed firestarter for Vermillion. Soon Versailles' schemes developed and Zinsy became involved in a plot to blow up the HMS *Tireless Pursuit*, forging papers for Versailles.

In the following fight with the HMS *Tireless Pursuit*, Zinsy's timer was discovered but Versailles' ploy ensured heavy damage to the larger vessel. Zinsy helped man the guns of the *Nightingale* and provided fire support with a harpoon during the boarding action. After the ship was taken, Zinsy put out fires before being asked to accompany Saara to unlock the storeroom, which was trapped. Zinsy was belowdecks on the *Nightingale* while events were occuring abovedeck. When the *Tireless Pursuit* was taken under tow back to Valt, Zinsy and Versailles went to find Edna to get her assistance in fixing the ships up, and was heartened to see that Edna had thrown off her alcoholism and thrown herself into engineering again.

As the crew made preparations for the impending Novalbian task force, Zinsy assisted in the preparation of the *Nightingale*, and the trapped door from the *Tireless Pursuit* was removed and brought aboard but there was no time to mount it.

## Personality and Traits

Rather excitable, Zinsy is considered by her shipmates to not have a particularly good judgement. She is very interested in arcanotechnology, and often debates with Lignus about its merits. She previously helped contribute to the construction of Widow's "pet" clockwork spiders, Spot, Fido and Clifford. She has developed glasses to help with her eyesight, as she is short-sighted, and uses chain lanyards to keep track of her tools.

Originating from a formerly-independent landshard, it was occupied by Novo Albia at some point. Zinsy had previously owned a shop next to her parents', but hers was destroyed in a riot after Novo Albia seized control of the island. Zinsy remains in close contact (by letter) with her parents, whom she regards fondly.

Zizny has a somewhat-categorical knowledge of ships of note, including missing ships, and has a highly exact measure of the passage of time.

In battle, she uses a thundercannon, a large blunderbuss-like weapon about as long as Zinsy's leg, which is kept attached to a harness strapped to her leg and hidden under her dress. Outside of battle she also relies on a variety of tools and gadgets. She has used both the stock of the thundercannon and a wrench for self-defence.