westwhere | no man's sea

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no man's sea

Avast ye — sprawling til 18 June is part I of the Storm at Sea travel arc, which doubles as a test drive. Participants don’t need an invite to reserve or apply over 10-17 June.

Try to label if you’re a test drive tourist or an old timer — and don’t hesitate to leave an OOC note to opt out of random NPC piraaaaaaaargh interaction. Test drivers can post both log and network prompts. Have fun!

NO MAN’S SEA

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AHOY! SCALLYWAGS

Departing Ke-Waihu, the existing party joins paranoid pirate king, turned stalwart saint Samuel Vane — the feared Quicksilver Sam — aboard the Pariah.

Test drivers awaken anguishing at sea, floating on rafts, or on minuscule patches of deserted land. They are collected by two pirates and the recalcitrant sorceress Karsa — who supplies translation and communication devices. She explains the newcomers were summoned into the land of Akhuras by warring undead factions. Karsa’s master, the elusive Merchant, ferries newcomers east to beacons hoped to return them home. He has secured them passage on the pirate vessel Queen Zanyra of ’Wet Rope’ Caladan Kreil, an associate of Quicksilver Sam.

The Pariah and Zanyra meet at sea, a day’s travel away from Ke-Waihu:

■ Characters overhear that Quicksilver Sam seeks to reach the haunted Crossing Seas and ‘settle an old score.’ Long-term ally Caladan Kreil supports his cause.

■ The two vessels make daily supply and crew exchanges by rowboat. The Pariah’s passengers must give the passcode: flaunted like gold to board the Queen Zanyra. Staff of the Queen Zanyra must speak the words before the blind man to access the Pariah. Forget your passcode and fall at the mercy of whoever patrols the decks!

■ Tasks await all passengers: diligently clean and polish decks, climb tall masts to sew torn sails, banish a preposterous number of seagulls, fish, read post or… dubious novels to sailors, count loot, guard the decks, clean cannons or serve as boat lure for shark fishing. Medics and cooks can practise their natural trades, while musicians and entertainers should amuse the crew.

■ By all means, grab thematic garments from crew coffers. Also available: daggers, swords and rare pistols.

■ Characters may notice both ship crews are spirited, but grow weary when Quicksilver Sam fitfully orders his five on-call priests to carry out protection rites, or to ‘exorcise’ evil from random staff — through ineffective bitter potions, shrill chants and requests to sit in unusual luck-incurring poses, or to commit some mundane, repetitive task. Let’s bore the devil away.

■ Treat senior crew with respect: some pirates are equally drunk on rum and fleetingly authority and reward perceived slights with a 24h-stay in the brig. These fine accommodations fit two and annul powers while there. No dinner.

■ Sleep where you can: hammocks and rotting mattresses can be found in great common halls beneath decks. The sick and women (naturally, ill omens at sea) can share the four private cabins of each ship. Sumeragi Subaru has his own cabin aboard the Pariah.

■ Each night, expect drinking beneath the halls and a pirate’s greatest hobby: gambling. Conmen might lure you into an ‘innocent game’ that sinks you deep into debt, winning your valuables, favours, or kidney!

■ Ladies are afforded a wide, begrudging berth and some authority over the crew.

■ Accommodations: fresh potions are readily available to ward off sea sickness, and magically resilient oranges are on hand to counter scurvy. As woe would have it, the long-serving Mr. Ishmael has passed, and his earthly remains have been retained aboard the Pariah for Kaneki Ken. Viktor receives a leashed emotional support albatross — a large, loud but docile bird that flies above him counter-current to balance him, whenever the ship’s sway threatens his footing.

OBJECTIVES

■ Discover why good Quicksilver Sam is intent on his haunted travels. The captain declines audiences, but try to get information from the two crews.

■ Please share the information gained via network…!

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THAT SON OF A BISCUIT EATER

Trouble starts to brew, within days at sea:

■ Be on the lookout while on watch duty: on a handful of occasions, new faces appear aboard. They fail to offer the passcode — and attempt to injure characters, throw them overboard, or to enter the captains’ lodgings. Sound the alarm or seize intruders!

■ After interrogating an infiltrator, Caladan Kreil sends word that the assailants hail from the Concord, a war vessel of the Dawns’ Reach Trade Company that is pursuing the pirate ships at distance under the command of Maximilian Hawk. A credit to his name, Wet Rope Caladan has the spy hanged.

■ Prepare to get drafted for double watch duty, as both Caladan Kreil and Quicksilver Sam bolster defences. Tensions escalate, with pirate crew questioning the loyalties of newer recruits.

■ A few days later, at dawns, the silent, swift and massive Concord approaches close enough to fire its cannons at both ships and send vicious militia to climb aboard. Defend your ship!

■ The Concord withdraws by midday, after lightly damaging its opponents. Help with repairs and enjoy some rum — you’ve survived your first sea scuffle!

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MOLLYWICK

Just short of entering the Crossing, where the seas are dark and highly opaque, the Queen Zanyra and Pariah encounter a stretch of vibrant, lushly forested land.

■ Both vessels send crew over for a few hours, with captains urging quick incursions. Pair up to collect berries, scant mushrooms and sweet water. Curiously, no animals are found.

■ Veteran sailors say this is the Neverflight isle of myth, where sea kings have buried their treasures. Pirates share legendary coordinates of long lost loot, archived as riddles or poems. Grab a shovel and a-digging you go!

■ …ah, but don’t linger too long. What pranksters your sailor friends are. Within hours of the island’s appearance, the earth beneath your feet crumbles and quakes, and the land starts to sink. Evacuate or call for help to get out of here — as the great white whale Mollywick submerges in the waters with the Neverflight island it carries on its back. Hopefully, you don’t go under with them.

■ If you’ve threaded out a treasure dig, drop a line to receive some especially deplorable loot. You deserve it.

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THE CROSSING

The Pariah and Queen Zanyra — frequently chained together to avoid separation — creep into the Crossing : a stretch of eerily silent waters, dark and volatile.

■

■ Slowly, a thick, nearly impregnable fog dawns during the day, covering the sun and leaving the skies a desolate slate. Dreadful storms spark at night.

■ Strange, talking carps jump on board, offering to tell you your future. Caution: they only make bad luck readings (request yours) that turn true. They appear wherever their target flees and are exceptionally annoying, until either the moon rises, or you apply the superstitious cure of throwing salt on them.

■ Nightmares haunt you — your own, or glimpsed memories of ships crashing, sinking, falling to storm. Note: only your character suffers these memories/nightmares, but everyone else can experience their exhausted grumpiness, come morning.

■ Be wary, when pairing to cross over to the other pirate ship: you may find another rowboat beside yours, its sailor begging for an oar or ladle. If you give him one, he shovels water into your boat with inhuman speed — desert your vessel and swim quickly to a pirate ship, before undead hands pull you into the sea.

■ While alone on deck, characters might hear sweet, coaxing voices that urge them to walk the plank into the water. Break your brethren from this spell, or watch them fall into the arms of man-eating mermaids.

■ Now and then, the ships are shaken by long, whips of something lashing from the depths.

■ Pirates become increasingly skittish and on edge. Priests perform countless protection rites and exorcisms on both ships.

■ At night, a handful of undead men climb aboard. They lack awareness and are in a clear state of discomposure, looking to catch the living and drown them. With toothless, rotting mouths, some rasp, This is kinder.

■ As you officially enter the Crossing, beams of light erupt in the horizon, showing the distant silhouettes of several ghost ships.

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NOTES

TEST DRIVE QUESTIONS

OLD-TIMER QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The answer has the immediate effect of making him tense from head to toe, even the hairs on his nape standing on end. The shock stops him from answering immediately, or from hiding the surprise at her answer, but the few seconds he gets from the silent pause that follows at least helps him quickly interpret those words and understand that there's only one way that's possible at all. ]

Well— in that case, I'm afraid we're not quite from the same reality.

I'm not sure I understand.

( how he would know that. she understands about other realities to a degree, has heard of one before, accidentally done something with another but... how does he know? )

There was this... phenomenon, almost six years ago. A time traveling incident set a sequence of events into motion that came to create my reality, a divergence from a main timeline that had already been established. I existed on that reality too, but things were different.

A lot... of things were different, and are different.

[ He takes a deep, slow breath. He knows that there are things he can't say, or rather he would prefer not to say as to not cause her unnecessary pain and grief. So he decides for not the whole truth, but the truth nonetheless. ]

Christopher Pike was Captain of the Enterprise for only a short while, and Spock as his First Officer. Soon after, he was promoted to Admiral, and the command of the ship was passed onto me.

[ Whether or not that was the right decision, he can't say. But he believes he's done more good than harm, that he's become a good Captain, even if he didn't get the chance to rise through the ranks, evolve and learn in the same way that his counterpart did. ]

So— I'm Captain of the Enterprise. I've never met my universe's version of you, so I can only assume you were assigned to a different ship for whatever reason.

[ Beats thinking that she died during Nero's attack, that would be an awful possibility to share, so he keeps it to himself. ]

( she's quiet for a time after he stops, processing the information, really making sure that she's understood it.

yeah, that really would change things. she'd served with chris for ten years, nine of them as his first officer. to not have ever met him? but it didn't seem as if it was just her and chris that were different, not if spock was first officer, not if chris hadn't been on the enterprise for long.

there were many questions she had, many concerns too but one jumps to mind )

What was the year?

[ He knows it's a lot to process, and he can only imagine how she must be feeling about some universe where she's never met the crew she's a part of, or the Captain she's been serving with for years. Jim can't do much to make that better, though. Unless she did meet him before Jim did, but he finds that highly unlikely, given her post on the Enterprise. ]

For me? 2263. But I became captain in 2258, very shortly after the Enterprise was launched.

[ He's not sure, but he believes that was different in her world too, that his ship was older there, and also lasted longer. ]

Launched?

( some of the emotion gets put aside for the confusion evident in her tone. that she knows is wrong, or at least different. she wasn't just launched then.

and for him, now... what about april? he'd been captain before pike, her first captain. it was a lot. and weird )

She was launched in 2245. April 11. ( considering she'd been on the shakedown cruise and had always planned to return to the enterprise it's no wonder she knows the exact date ) Captain Robert April, then Captain Pike.

( both were excellent men, excellent captains. not that una can speak to his circumstances or skills )

[ He can understand her confusion all too well, as well as the protectiveness that's apparent in her tone and her choice of words. It wasn't his intention to stir any bad feelings, or claim some kind of ownership or right over other Captains— perhaps they even deserved it more than he did; perhaps they would have done a better job than he has.

But these are facts, and they matter. He would rather be honest with her and potentially gain an ally than keep all of this to himself. He would've hated to pretend to be someone else. ]

In your reality, yes. I was vaguely made aware of that. I also became Captain in your universe, if it's the same that mine originated from, but it was years after I did. Different circumstances.

( for a moment he's given a harder look than he deserves, he's being honest and una really can respect that. it's a breath before that look drops, her gaze lowering a little with it. after all, if chris is right and the future is as he's seen he has a deadline, an end point to his service. that isn't a reality that una wants to believe either, she'd like there to be a way that he's saved as well as the cadets but-- )

Well... ( she pauses, a momentary hesitation, and it's an almost change of the topic ) I've met one Kirk, maybe I'll end up meeting you as well.

( in her own time and reality, not this confusing one she's been presented with )

[ Her words have the very immediate effect of shifting the conversation and Jim's focus visibly. His eyes widen and his pose shifts, and he very nearly drops the bag of mushrooms he's holding in his hands. ]

... George Kirk?

[ At least in Starfleet, it's the only Kirk that comes to mind. Either that or his mother, but suddenly he is overwhelmed with the thought that she might've met his father, alive and well in her universe. ]

No. Lieutenant Samuel Kirk.

( she'd assume brother based on the age of the man in front of her and the man she's met but she doesn't--

who's she kidding, she definitely read the man's file fully, like she wouldn't. she knows, buddy )

He only recently joined the Enterprise.

[ Hope is crushed almost too quickly, but it's so quickly replaced by confusion that Jim can't even feel the tinge of disappointment. His eyebrows furrow more deeply, and he cants his head slightly. ]

Sam's in Starfleet?

Apparently, your anomaly changed a lot more than just the Enterprise.

( not una knowing how close her words are actually hitting. but it's an easier comment to make than talking about the of course from her world. she could fill him in on what sam's doing on the enterprise but-- no )

No doubt we'll discover just how much throughout numerous conversations.

Yes, [ he trails off, a little stunned by this new piece of information, as well as all the implied meaning in her words. ]

I'm sure we will.

[ He smiles a bit, and honestly finds himself hoping that will be the case. Just anyone who's at all familiar, with such a similar background, is such a relief and a comfort. He knows he'll want to talk more with her, get to know her better as they get used to their new circumstances. ]

So what have you been getting up to since you got here? Found any interesting information?

I've found the other people in our situation far more useful.

( than superstitious pirates. shame on them )

I was shown a star map that had been made, one I need to look at again to fully copy. Unfortunately, the area isn't familiar. ( she pauses only briefly ) There's also someone here familiar with time travel.

[ Well, she's a woman and they're a bunch of misogynists, so absolutely no surprise there. She doesn't look harmed at least, so that's one thing he's not too concerned about for the time being. ]

Well, you and I are from different realities, regardless of similarities. So maybe there are others here from different times, and very different places.

Did you ask them if time travel's common where they're from?

It's a conversation in progress.

( they'd had a lot to talk about and just stood here she's not yet intending on sharing all of it. maybe back on one of the ships, sat in a room where they can properly talk and make plans, gather all of the information both of them know )

But they are from a different time. ( and as she'd potentially learn a very different earth, a very different history ) Though I was looking at the device they use. It's non-functional but might have other possible uses.

( like for something she's contemplating building )

[ Jim nods, and slowly goes back to picking mushrooms and what little fruit he can find. It's still a task to accomplish, and he knows that these will come in handy for them. They all need sustenance to survive while out at sea, and starvation's not something Jim ever wants to have to deal with again. ]

Thinking of fiddling around and putting something together?

[ That certainly has Jim perking up in interest. ]

Can I ask what you're thinking?

It's a work in progress.

( really she's got about five different ideas, though it depends on the parts that she manages to find, what she's actually able to turn it into and make functional )

But I arrived without a tricorder. I'd like to know more about the planet, see if there are any signals we can detect. When we are. And perhaps determine how exactly we're left here.

( that last one would be a much bigger job, she knows, but if she had the parts she's feeling confident that she could get something together. though whether it actually worked would be the harder part than building it )

Mm. Pretty ambitious task you've set up for yourself.

[ Far from a criticism, for the record. He knows a tricorder, or anything like it, won't answer all those question for them, but even the smallest pieces of information would be incredibly valuable for them. And it's a start, something to focus on rather than flop around uselessly. That's never been Jim's style. ]

Alright, then. If there's anything I can do to help with that project, let me know.

I've got some ideas of where to start.

( a proud smile sits in her expression for a moment because she is that confident in her abilities. at least in her knowledge )

But I'd appreciate the extra hands, especially in finding suitable components. However possible that is.

Got it. Poke around and see what we find.

[ Without stealing from others like them, that is. He's sort of not very okay with that. And he doubts the pirates will have anything they can actually use. ]

Did you arrive with any piece of technology on you?

Just my communicator, though we're too far out of range for it to transmit.

( if the enterprise isn't in orbit... though she wonders about his communicator, if the hails she'd tried hadn't been heard by him )

Did you arrive with anything?

[ He pauses a moment, hesitant to answer at first, and speaking quietly when he does so. ]

My phaser. It's not working right now, but I don't know if that's because of this place or if it got broken on the way here.

May I?

( she holds her hand out for it, assuming that it's still on him rather than stored somewhere.

if it is on him, if he does hand it over she'll have a little tinker with it, examining it, seeing what she can tell without completely ripping into it. especially as she doesn't have any tools )

[ He does have it on him, there's absolutely no way he'd have left it on the ship to be found by the sailors. Since his uniform doesn't help much in hiding a weapon, he's been carrying it in a small bag hanging across his chest, but he'll have to figure out something a little easier and safer than that.

Anyway, he hands it over to her, figuring there's no harm in that even though she will notice the different design, and the fact that the technology seems more advanced than what she'd be used to. It's also not working, like Jim said, but it seems to be in perfect working condition otherwise. ]

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