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westwhere2022-06-03 07:06 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-06-03 07:06 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arcane: viktor,
- asoiaf: daenerys targaryen,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- idolish7: tenn kujo,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- mo dao zu shi: xue yang,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- star trek: jim kirk (aos),
- storm at sea,
- test drive,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- travel arc,
- umbrella academy: diego,
- umbrella academy: five,
- vampire diaries: damon salvatore,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion
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!
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…!
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!
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.
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.
NOTES
no subject
I should teach you how to cry on cue. Your complexion might not make it work, but people tend to be sympathetic to children. Though you are a boy, that might have a damper on things...
[She looks to him, thoughtful, and then the corner of her mouth twitches in a smile] I don't suppose you know how to crossdress?
no subject
He frowns at that look on her face. If this is her revenge, it's extremely subtle. ]
You can stop picturing it. [ Let her never meet Klaus; he'd take an idea like that and run. ] I'd rather handle corpses.
no subject
They do certainly say a lot less. Usually. [Winnie straightens then, watching the battle as it begins to creep closer, hands folded lightly in front of her]
I suppose we have a lot to talk about, don't we. [it's not a question and she flashes him a little smile again] Do I make you nervous?
no subject
...You want to talk? [ He can't tell if she means now, or if she's just trying to throw him off, but it puts him weirdly on edge. ] Do I need to guess what it's about?
no subject
[She pouts at him a little, as if he was a naughty schoolboy she was disappointed in.]
That's why I'm wondering if you're nervous, or if you think you've done something I should be angry at you for. [She raises an eyebrow]
I can't get angry, you know that don't you?
no subject
It gives him a strange feeling to be missed, if she means it or not. He supposes that she wasn't left with many people to confide in, however that ended up being him. That's why he's been treading lightly after the incident. ]
You know what I did. [ And what he has to be nervous about. Which he still isn't. ] I didn't listen to you.
1/2
And I hope that's taught you quite the important lesson. But you see, Five, dear, the trouble with apologies--should you be thinking off offering one--is that they are, after all, just words. Anyone can say words. I do it every day! Several times, in fact!
[Winnie laughs and doesn't even flinch at the high-pitched death scream of a man near-by.]
But tell me... Were you afraid? Did it worry you, what happened to me in the aftermath? Were you worried when I returned, when I remembered. Did it keep you up, once or twice at night?
no subject
There's nothing I could do that could be worse than the punishment you might've already given yourself.
no subject
It wasn’t his biggest mistake, but it’s up there, and the consequences are still ongoing. He felt guilty enough that he let it slip more than once that he broke the mirror, or at least said enough that they reached that conclusion, but he’d left out their argument and how he threw it directly at Winnie when it happened.
It bothered him that he didn’t know if she’d survived and assumed she hadn’t. And it bothers him now that she doesn’t so much as hold it against him.
He stews and crosses his arms, but nods, slowly. She’s right, he may be a killer, but there’s a difference to what he can and cannot justify about his actions. It’s weighed on him. ]
…He was grateful. [ Anurr. She already knows that, but he didn’t share the note he left him, or the gift. ] It’s probably a bad idea, but if we get into a bind, I have a way to call him. He wanted to do the same for you, but he couldn’t find you.
[ She deserves to know. He’s been thinking about telling her, so he might as well now. ]
I’m also pretty sure that he’ll find a way to kill me on sight if he ever feels betrayed, but that’s a problem for another time.
no subject
Oh! Is that so? How kind of him! He must be quite happy to be all put together again. I wonder if I could say hello to him some time... I wouldn't mind having that kind of power at my call, even if just once.
[Being killed on sight should he feel betrayed doesn't worry her though, it's not like she's planning on betraying anyone outright ever, and she kinda liked Anurr in general.]
Interesting, though, that he couldn't find me... That means something more powerful than even he and his kin are pulling the strings behind our appearances and disappearances.
no subject
He assumes it would be the same for Winnie.
It's nothing he wants to advertise more than he has, but she's involved if she meant to be or not. He doesn't go as far as telling her that he's been carrying around Anurr's severed finger on a necklace, but he'd rather not risk her asking to see it. ]
At the time, I took it as proof that you were dead. [ He focuses on the fighting in the distance, then shrugs stiffly. Before she came back he didn't really believe anyone who disappeared actually went home. ]
It's only good for one time, as far as I know. Thankfully I didn't have to resort to that for the volcano. [ He considered it. ] If all you wanted to do is talk, he's been on the network before. He'd answer you.
no subject
Instead she looks at Five, frowning a little.]
...Were you worried? That I was dead? Did it make you sad? [From someone else it might've been mocking, but she asks it genuinely]
no subject
I noticed. [ He'd looked for her and all he'd found were the broken mirror shards. It was a bad time, and she saw the state he was in. Afterwards... ] It didn't feel right, leaving it like we did.
no subject
...Thank you for telling me. [She concludes softly, touching a hand to her heart]
Being noticed is nice. I'm glad my absence was at least noticed and felt. I think... [She trails off, trying to find the words]
I think I would be...sad, if you were to leave. I would also 'notice.'
no subject
Winnie has an excuse of not having a soul, while Five is just someone who lived alone for forty-five years. True, he had Dolores, but it was... difficult to reacclimate when he was picked up by the Commission after all that time. He been trying to get back in touch with his humanity ever since. ]
Would you? [ He frowns again and looks to the side. Almost forgetting about the body they left there until he sees it again. ] ...Well, you can relax. I'm not going anywhere until I find my family.