Web Video / Dirigible Days

At the height of the Victorian Age a strange asteroid crossed the orbit of our planet. While it didn't collide with it, Earth was caught in the meteor storm that followed. The End of the World as We Know It ensued. Islands in the sky and odd animals appeared.

Now, almost a thousand years After the End, civilization has scrambled itself back together: steampower, medicine, architecture and politics flourish. Having figured out the secrets of the aetherite, humanity took to the sky as explorers, colonists, miners, exiles and pirates.

The current year 997 is a turbulent one. With dissent among the Royal League, the expansionist policy of Empire of Rabasa and the Abrahamic Auctoritas being replaced by odd new faiths, like the Cult of Cthulhu, adventure is inescapable in these Dirigible Days.

The Dirigible Days series consists of five web original live-action episodes and a continuation comic book that introduces new characters and a new mission.

Features voiceover narration by Anthony Daniels.

Crowdfunded. For more information, see the official website at: dirigibledays.day304.com.

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Tropes found in these DIRIGIBLE DAYS:

• Acoustic License: The S.S.Beatrix boys manage to have a perfectly good conversation in the engine room.
• Adventurer Outfit: Josie wears the Airman variant: a cool leather vest, an aviator scarf that hides the steampunk contraption on her neck, a newsboy hat and a pair of goggles that actually protect her eyes while flying.
• The Alcoholic: Right after Keitel specifically warns him that one more offense of drinking on the job will get him fired, Albertson is seen, already drunk, downing a shot in the very same tavern where Dunbar is seeking for a mechanic. And where Antonio Cornell, the man he's supposed to be on a lookout for, is casually reading a newspaper, with only a hat to conceal his face. Antonio Cornell himself steals bottles and drinks on the job while on board of S.S.Beatrix.
• Artificial Limbs: Captain Dunbar has a Gatling-Arm Cannon, because he lost his own in an airship crash.
• Big Damn Heroes: Hooper attempts to brain Strega with a wrench, but the Hierophant notices and captures him, too. The resulting cliffhanger is resolved by Josie walking in with her dagger AND the S.S.Vandal crew boarding the ship.
• Blackmail: Cornell won't tell the authorities a word about the brawl Dunbar and Hooper have just won, if they take him and his "cargo" aboard. So they do, and get caught in the plot.
• Bling of War: Captain Dunbar might have a number of medals, but captain Keitel habitually wears enough of them to protect him from bullets.
• Bounty Hunter: In the web series, Cornell, an agent of Pinkerton Bounty Hunters, is after Salazar Strega. With extreme prejudice.
• The Cameo: Once an Episode intro narration by Anthony Daniels.
• Casanova Wannabe: Dunbar. When confronted with Josie's Dark and Troubled Past as a Cthulhu cultist (he hates those) he rhetorically asks why she couldn't have been in the Sisterhood of the Almighty Orgy instead. And there's the flirting with the tavern wench. And a female mercenary. And the off-colour jokes.
• Comeback Tomorrow: Albertson, not the sharpest tool in the shed, comes back with a gun. And he was the one to start the insult match in the first place!
• Creepy Monotone: No matter what Strega is saying, he says it in the same, even, slightly buzzing tone.
• Cthulhu Mythos: A Cult of Cthulhu is mentioned as one of the new religions that have been popping up. The web series has a leader of it as the main villain - he was born in Boston and holds two degrees from the Miscatonic University.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Josie has one. With Strega and the Cult of Cthulhu. Her vocal cords have been cut to Make an Example of Them.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: It takes the combined forces of all the S.S.Beatrix crew, AND a happy accident but yes, they manage to kill Strega dead. Or is he dead? .
• Disabled Snarker: Josie is very mouthy for a mute girl (she uses a chalkboard). She also has a weird gramophone thingy on her neck that allows her to speak normally, but prefers not to use it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Arrive late for the Cult of Cthulhu ceremony, and interrupt Strega's preaching? Lose your vocal cords. Tell Strega you've got his eye on him? Say goodbye to the eye.
• Divided States of America: In the cast page, Hooper is stated to be from "United Tribal Nations of West America (Shoshone)".
• Divided We Fall: Cornell inflicts this trope on Dunbar and Josie.
• Drunken Song: Dunbar and Hooper are sitting over some bottles. Cut. Cue Dunbar and Hooper on the street, staggering, singing something that may be in French. Or just gibberish.
• Due to the Dead: Villain he may be, but Strega closes the eyes of Antonio Cornell after killing him.
• Evil Gloating: Strega has a habit of monologuing about the Great Old Ones (and how they will conquer the world, and so on) in Creepy Monotone. He does not change the tone after taking several bullets to his chest.
• Eye Scream: Strega, having come to a logical conclusion that captain Dunbar is not blind enough rips his eye out and quips about it.
• The Faceless: Strega. He wears a breathing apparatus that may or may not indicate an alien nature.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: When confronted with the sheer, unflappable nutcaseness of Salazar Strega's beliefs:
  Dunbar (chuckles): Spoken like a true believer.
• Fantastic Slurs: "Squidhead" for Cthulhu cultists.
• A Father to His Men: As long as you're on captain Dunbar's boat, you direct all your insults to him and his Hand Cannon.
• Gas Mask, Longcoat: Salazar Strega. Also a Commissar Cap with an octopus badge and the sort of black gloves that every discerning villain should have in his wardrobe.
• Genki Guy: Hooper, the new engineer on S.S.Beatrix. Lovably bumbling, totally overqualified, took the job because he "wants to see the world".
• Grease Monkey: Hooper, the good-natured Mr. Fixit, gets impressively greasy while working. He's also an impressively efficient mechanic, who manages to improve the engine output by 5% on his first day.
• Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: A huge meteor shower that broke up parts of the planet "at the height of the Victorian Age".
• Hollywood Atheist: Dunbar has a pretty low opinion on religions in general and hates the Cthulhu cultists in particular.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Strega has this kind of attitude towards Josie Deveraux, which is creepy even when the "pretty" isn't tied to a railing.
• Illegal Religion: The Cult of Cthulhu. Wonder why...
• Jerkass: Cornell steals from his fellow bounty hunters, goes out of his way to antagonise people whom he's already blackmailed into giving him a ride, and is generally a rude idiot with a badge.
• Kraken and Leviathan: Apparently, there are flying ones around.
• Living MacGuffin: Salazar Strega, at least until he gets out of the brig is more or less just a MacGuffin for mercenaries and Pinkertons to hunt and steal from each other. Of course, when he does get free, we get to see just why.
• Monochrome Past: The flashbacks in the web series are in sepia. Subverted in Josie's flashback, where the cultists of Cthulhu wear red robes and masks.
• Obligatory Joke: Strega has an unhealthy love for quips, including "she's a bit tied up at the moment".
• Old Soldier: Captain Dunbar isn't old in years, but he's seen his share of action and has the medals to prove it.
• Orphaned Punchline: With a Lame Pun Reaction by Josie
  Dunbar: So I said to her - I may only have one hand, but that still means I've got five fingers!
  (...)Josie: All your tales end up the same way. You probably haven't shagged in years!
• Perpetual Poverty: Dunbar "can't afford a navigator".
• Pin-Pulling Teeth: Everybody and their uncle opens bottles this way. Must be a gold mine, being a dentist in this world.
• Private Military Contractors: The Woe Claw Mercenaries, complete with organisational tatoos. The most prominent one we meet is Lincoln Keitel, captain of the S.S.Vandal and yet another Bounty Hunter after Salazar Strega.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: The Cult of Cthulhu is big on those.
• Red Baron: Salazar Strega, the infamous High Priest of the Cult of Cthulhu, is known as "The Hierophant".
• Revenge Before Reason: Josie has valid reasons to hate Strega, but seriously, Vehicular Sabotage just to make sure her ship is the one to take him to his execution?
• Science Is Bad: The Cult of Cthulhu is of this opinion, which doesn't stop them from using technology to destroy the technology and bring forth the Great Old Ones (insert Evil Laugh here).
• Shrouded in Myth: Strega is supposedly a magician, a divine prophet of Cthulhu and invulnerable to fire and steel. Captain Keitel disbelieves, though.
• Silent Snarker: Whenever Josie isn't snarky in writing, she uses gestures and makes faces.
• The Sky Is an Ocean: With islands and monsters and ships and stuff.
• Special Effect Failure: Okay, we get the low budget, but the obvious model-in-an-aquarium look?
• Spoiler Opening: In the intro, Dunbar is wearing an Eyepatch of Power. He's got both his eyes in the series... until episode four, that is.
• Steampunk: Oh, yes! With The Wild West feel.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Captain Dunbar, especially in promo pictures, where he's sporting all his medals.
• Stock Scream: The Wilhelm scream is used in Cornell's flashback.
• Swallow the Key: Strega steals the key to the strongbox that holds his things, and swallows it for later use.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: In episode one of the web series, Captain Dunbar is trying to hire himself a new mechanic. Interviewees are: a bearded Old Windbag, a saloon-wench who has no idea about mechanics (but the good captain is hitting on her shamelessly and gets splashed with his own drink when he overdoes the flirting), The Bartender (who's also a navigator), and Hooper. Also, he ends up a bit drunk.
• Those Magnificent Flying Machines: S.S.Beatrix not only looks like a small sailboat with a slipper attached over the deck, it seems Bigger on the Inside!
• William Telling: Keitel's killing time by shooting at a "Wanted!" Poster of Strega, held by his crew-woman. She doesn't even flinch.
  Crew-woman (with absolute sincerity): Excellent shot, sir.
• World in the Sky: Parts of it have been set floating in the sky by some phlebotinum in the meteors.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Dunbar and Josie spend much of their time arguing. Sometimes, it's Anger Born of Worry, other times... not so much.