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

( though una had walked past him, taken a few more steps it's his words and the sincere belief that he really wouldn't move unless she talked to him. and she hates it, hates being backed into a corner.

there really is a consideration of just leaving him, of abandoning the briefcase... but una isn't a quitter and after what he'd seen-- telling him contains it better than ignoring it. and she wants this knowledge contained, kept small )

It's my immune system. ( her wonderfully bio-engineered immune system ) I'd picked up a fever, some contaminant being here. It... burned it out.

( literally burned it out. that's why she glowed. and she stops talking after that, a slightly more intense look (focused, really) of her now not backing down. she told him, she's done. can they go now?

strangely, for how she wants it contained, she doesn't ask him to keep it a secret. perhaps trusting that the knowledge will stay with him. even though he doesn't know why it should )

[ It's the smarter approach on her part. He had made a judgment call about her, and immediately lying about something he'd seen with his own eyes would have shattered any chance of trusting her with the one piece of technology that brought them here.

Even if explanation is lacking, and he can tell that she's still trying to brush past it like it's perfectly normal. Or like she's embarrassed by something he wasn't meant to see. ]

Your immune system. [ A lot of them have powers, but that's a new one on him. He keeps staring at her, still trying to decide if she's telling the truth. ] That must come in handy. Something the cage was blocking?

I assume whatever the barrier was had a bio-dampening effect.

( which is what she'd mentioned inside the cage but it bears repeating again )

Otherwise, I wouldn't have been sick. ( for more than about a minute. about as long as it took for her to burn it out exiting the cage )

[ Five squints a little at that. Of course he remembers her mentioning 'bio-dampening' in place of 'magic', and he'd buy that if it wasn't a rusty cage on a pirate ship. ]

So you could tell. [ He also remembers her saying that she couldn't feel anything when he asked. After a pointed silence, he huffs out a breath and shakes his head. ] You know, most of the people the Merchant picks up have some sort of ability. That's probably what got you here, so there's no point in hiding it from me.

( there's a beat, two-- )

I hide it from everyone. It's necessary to.

( for her or at least for her in her time. she hasn't given him context for why and is almost on a knife edge about it, able to fall either way as to whether she will or not, though una would much prefer not to.

and then shevpauses, changing track )

Are you calling what you did an ability?

( so not a really specific personal transporter )

[ He looks perplexed, but then like he's seriously considering that statement. Sure, they had to hide abilities in Taravast for a time, but Five didn't really experience much prejudice when his power makes it easy to get the last word in. The worst were the necromancers who could sense the mirror inside him and kept trying to operate on him. Are there people who would want to... harvest her blood or something?

So many questions, but he's thrown by what she asks him. ]

Spatial jumping? [ What else could she be talking about? ] Of course. It's not magic, it's just something I can do.

[ Not unlike her glowing immune system, he's guessing. ]

Spatial jumping.

( the repetition is a process, una's never heard of it before, at least not on an individual biological level. and this wouldn't be something her people do: how would it serve them? )

I've never seen it in that way. Without technology.

You have technology that can do that?

[ That's encouraging. She might actually be the right one to look at the briefcase; although spatial jumping is the infinitely less complicated part of the equation. ]

There are other people here who can do something similar, but nobody quite like me. [ He looks at her, considering something... ] Is it the same for you?

( there's a pause. he's asking her the questions that she doesn't want to answer. whilst una feels no shame for being illyrian or her bio-engineering it's not a topic she talks about, has to lie about. and whilst starfleet might not be here admitting it all still isn't simple )

No. There are others like me. ( others with an immune system like hers, recorded records that she'd pulled up on the enterprise. and then other illyrians quite unlike her.

but she'll sweep past it again, happier to return to the technology ) We have transporters, able to move someone from place to place.

( which are more complicated than that but easy to generalise )

They're standard by now.

[ He's completely stopped leading her anywhere when he's hit with the sudden realization of what mankind is able to accomplish in a future that doesn't end. He was born with his abilities, but they're firmly based on science and math, and there's no reason they couldn't recreate it using real life technology and enough time to study it. Until now he hadn't met anyone who could understand the basis of his powers beyond the magic of it all. ]

Really? Huh. [ Good for them. He keeps staring while that sinks in, then he shakes his head to bring himself out of it. Standard. ]

These others. How related are you? Any siblings?

[ Out of wild curiosity. It's probably nothing like his family, but she's being weirdly hesitant after she managed to get him interested in her. ]

( god, whilst she was hoping that he'd quit it seems that he never will. and she can't entirely blame him but talking about it... )

Can we at least get to the briefcase? Do questions there?

( instead of in the middle of this corridor. and maybe she'd figured out what to answer. because in her time people generally knew about illyrians and what they did, it's why she hid herself, so... maybe she could do general )

[ That gets a frown, if only because he's so rarely this interested about where someone came from. He's about to say something else, but then he decides that's really not an unreasonable request and it's possible he's letting himself get too distracted. ]

Yeah. Sure. [ She's either dodging or really curious about a time traveling briefcase, but he's going to circle back to this. ] We should get out here before —

[ That's about when he lifts his head to the sound of thundering footsteps. He adjusts his grip on the axe as they're predictably joined by a handful of irate pirates shoving their way into the corridor. ]

— they catch on. Must have found their friends.

( the thundering of footsteps is a very good warning, giving her a chance to internally grumble about the whole situation before turning to meet the pirates.

and block. thankfully they're not carrying swords, lashing out with a fist that she easily blocks, looking for the next one )

Just stay close.

( she doesn't know if he can fight but she's not expecting it. and really, she doesn't like to fight, knowing how to from her training but in a situation like this her preferred manoeuvre is defense: block and then use a stronger-than-expected hit to knock someone out. as harmlessly as possible )

[ Five makes a face when she tells him to stay close — who does she think took care of the first guards? — but he has to give her some credit for being quicker than he expected her to be. He complies initially just to see how she handles herself. It's easy to tell from the start that she's suspiciously stronger than the average person, and the pirates don't have enough skill to out maneuver her in the tight space.

Really, he could probably sit back and let her handle it, but he's not a child that needs protecting and they were in the middle of something. He sees two more bodies filtering behind them when he decides this will go faster if they tackle it at both ends. Once he's sure she's capable, he blinks to the opposite side of the corridor, axe swinging to bring a man down at the knees and follows through with a blow to the head with the blunt end.

Then he blinks again on top of another pirate's back and proceeds to strangle them as he wrestles them to the ground. It takes more effort not to snap their neck, but he doesn't want to scare someone useful away by being too efficient.

Which means knock them out as quickly as possible. The less chance they have to alert their crew mates the better. ]

( his methods are a lot different than hers, though she's certainly seen worse and more brutal, unfortunately. combined with his blinking and the use of his axe the pirates don't really stand a chance.

the one that una had been blocking is joined by a second, her catching the punch of the first, pushing him away and narrowly avoiding an incoming hit. she doesn't like it but she's got the same idea as him: knock them out and leave.

it's why her response to the second man is a bunch, one that's aimed well, forceful enough that it sends him down and unconscious without a beat to it. and it gets the first man's attention enough that she can get in behind him, wrapping her arm to hold him, second around his through to make him pass out )

We need to move, now.

( she speaks before the man's unconscious, though when he does go limp in her arms she's more careful about lowering him to the ground )

[ He looks up when she calls to him and clenches his jaw as he considers their options. They could either stay and see how much of the ship they can take down and still have enough to sail, or get out and hope none of them recognize them later on.

So he moves. Another pirate swings at him when he blinks away and appears next to her. ]

Hold on.

[ He grabs her arm and pulls at space again, this time bringing her with him. It spits them out in a flash behind a few barrels he remembered near the end of the deck. The cool air blows past them and he lets her go to get her bearings and to catch his breath.

It's not exactly where he would have liked to land, but he was teleporting a lot back there and he hasn't eaten anything lately. They're far enough away from the brig that it'll take them a while to figure out where they went. ]

Sorry, we'll have to walk the rest of the way. [ He huffs and gives her a sidelong glance, noting that she hasn't broken a sweat, then jerks his chin in a direction. ] There's a latch over there with ladder into a storage room, just below here. We should hurry.

( she's seen him blink around enough but feeling it herself when he grabs onto her arm, when they're now behind some barrels--

it's unpleasant and nothing like a transporter, something that she is very used to. and doesn't feel like this. a hand presses against a barrel to steady herself, closing her eyes a moment to breathe through how she feels, a different kind of sickness to in the cage, a little disorientation--

but then he's moving already and as much as she'd like a moment to let her body settle after being pulled through space she knows that they need to hurry. so she's biting it down, persevering through. she'll sit and rest when they stop )

[ Five has jumped in tandem with enough people to know that it isn't pleasant, but once she wasn't throwing up he's satisfied that she could handle it. He only looks back to see that she's following, then leads her around the corner to where... another barrel the size of him sits on top of the latch.

That wasn't there before. Stupid pirates too lazy to put their supplies in the right place. He groans inwardly, but he's not up for another jump so he points to the other side. ]

It's under here. Help me lift it.

[ The trouble he's going through for all this better be leading somewhere. ]

( she's really starting to dislike pirates and after being caged and attacked she can't be blamed. but there's no complaint, una moving to help him lift it, letting him be part of the effort even though she could do it alone. but she doesn't plan on letting him know that.

so she gets one side of it as he gets the other, the barrel sliding easily away from the door, sitting in a much easier place even if it had nicely hidden the door )

You chose somewhere hard to find.

( when barrels are on it )

[ Five had some doubts they'd be able to get it off once he grabs his end, but remarkably the two of them barely struggle with whatever was in it. Probably fish, from the smell. ]

I'd say that was the idea, but that wasn't there an hour ago.

[ That's just his luck at work. Once it's off he opens the latch and quickly moves down the ladder into the (thankfully unoccupied) storage room. It's also darker than he remembers. But if nothing else, he has an excellent sense of space, and he easily locates where he left it.

He's completely focused on his task as he moves some things out of the way to eventually drag out an enchanted box. Hopefully he can bypass any explanation of why he has an enchanted box, or where he got it from, because there is more than a briefcase inside it. He just works on getting it out and barely glances behind him. ]

If you can find a lantern. I think there was one down here before.

[ Or just do her glowing thing, but he keeps that part to himself. Doubts something that useful would be something she could just turn on, but he's open to being surprised. ]

( the glowing thing is definitely out of the question and she's glad that he doesn't say it. her attention on him disappears for a moment as she looks for the lantern he mentions, letting him sort his box out unnoticed )

It's likely they were moving it.

( before they caused a distraction.

after a little longer the lantern search is a success! though she has no idea how to actually turn it on )

[ Five is already onto the next thing, so he doesn't make the connection to an obstacle they've already overcome. He'd have something to say if he knew she was mentally blaming it on their jailbreak. ]

Moving what?

[ He walks up to her side and looks at the lantern, briefcase in his other hand. And it... definitely just looks like a big, if dented, briefcase. ]

Good, you found it. [ The lantern. The lantern that has gone out. He rubs his eyes. ] Should have taken one that was still lit from the brig.

[ He could try to jump back and get one, but instead he just sighs and sets the briefcase on top of one of the crates. At least things should die down for as long as it's going to take to get started. ]

...I'm going to see if they have any flint around here.

Is that it?

( she gestures to the briefcase as he steps away to find flint. she's confused again as apparently when he'd said briefcase he actually meant it. which meant that the device was small enough to be inside it rather than the briefcase itself. so she assumed )

[ He's not surprised she doesn't recognize it. If she had, it would have meant she was a part of the Commission, and he likely would have had to kill her. Hence the way he pauses in his search to judge her reaction before he responds. ]

That's it. [ He goes about checking the shelves, still keeping her in his periphery as he searches. ] ...It broke after it brought me and my siblings here. Probably because it wasn't supposed to work that way.

How did you use it?

( and how was it supposed to be used?

her hands run over the outside of it, feeling first for anything strange before then looking to the latches to open it )

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