Horizon Walkers (Game Thread) Dead

[Lunar Templar]

The morning up to the point where the raft seemed to stop was pretty uneventful, people got moving, fires put out, and people left to fend for them selves, assuming they even lived.

She's seen worse.

when Nettil finally said something Lucia was laying on her side staring out over the water. "Compared to where I'm from, it's not so bad" Lucia said in reply to Nettil's comment, looking back over her shoulder to find Zuria quiet literally, a sleep at the wheel. "Oh for ..." she grumble before getting up to wake Zuria "Hey! We're not there yet, wake up!"

 

[hiei82]

[HEADING=1]SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL PLAYERS[/HEADING]

Due to the result of the survey of the players, the consensus is to take a break from this game for 2 weeks. Game will resume 18May15. For further details, see the spoiler tag below

During this time we will put together the new recruitment thread, though we will not launch it until this Horizon is nearing completion.

Thanks to everyone who answered the survey!

Spoiler: Survey Results

Survey Results

Full Survey Results [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ScesRMT_PYcI0Ka7Cv6TRxYn-J3Ash2qVn1ahD9lI08/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm]

Break: looks like a 2 week break is the number the most people can agree with so let's go with that.

Replacement: Looks like no one save Avo has any intention of switching out characters and most think that it be done by special review of existing players.

Recruitment: The average number of players people want added is 3, but with a large standard deviation relative to the scale, skewed toward the higher end. So it looks like 2-4 new players, depending on submissions. These will also be judged by the group as a whole.

New Horizon: Rawen and Josh have both submitted horizons. We can figure out what to do with this as the recruitment drive begins.

[HEADING=2]Edit[/HEADING]

As of today - 18May15 - the game is now back from break.

 

[DarkRawen]

The night before going with the raft was a quiet, if cold one. It wasn't until they got onto the raft the next morning that something actually happened, though Des did, with some interest, watch as Kes skinned the goats.

When they were drifting on the raft, Des spent most of the trip worrying about Kes, trying to make the raft-ride more pleasant for her. He had noticed that she hadn't been well on the larger boat either, and he would sit next to her, offer to rub her stomach or some water he had prepared -there was so much snow- every now and then. After a while, he realized that what she wanted was probably akin to some peace and quiet, and instead offered to help out with getting the raft moving, only to hear that Zuria apparently had it covered. He didn't really sleep, but after a while, he closed his eyes, head against Kes' shoulder, and relaxed.

When the raft stopped moving, Des didn't make much of an effort to get up or even open his eyes. He only muttered, lazily, to Kes.

"Do you feel better now? The raft has stopped."

"Awfully cold, isn't it?"

It was Nettil's voice. He wasn't sure if they were still supposed to be angry with her, so he gave her a non-nonchalant, sort of friendly reply.

"It is. I'm freezing."

 

[hiei82]

"Do you feel better now? The raft has stopped." Des asked. He'd spent much of the trip trying to help her. There wasn't much he could do to help, but the thought was nice she supposed. "A little." Kes finally answered in a soft tone. Even stopped, the waves and movement on the raft made up the bulk of the shifting so Kes still felt sick.

She heard Nettil complain about the cold and Des respond, but Kes remained silent. She didn't really have a leg to stand on; literally and figuratively. She could hardly comment on Nettil disliking the cold when she couldn't handle the boat. Fortunately, the discussion was quickly paused by the sudden arrival of... something.

Janice - as the being introduced herself - apparently wanted some chains broken. For her part, Kes didn't really have a problem with it. She had her own distaste for chains so she could understand where Janice was coming from. Further, if the being could get them to land... well, Kes had a bias against the ocean so she'd be grateful. Of course, she had to wonder why the woman was in chains in the first place. Also, if Janice wanted her to break the chains, they'd have to get to land first.

"I'm okay with breaking the chains, but I'd need to get to land first." Kes said once a break in the conversation came before throwing up slightly into the sea.

 

[DarkRawen]

"A little."

"It'll be better soon, I'm sure of it."

"Perhaps we could make a deal, looks like there none nearby to help either of us. But maybe you can help me. As you can see my hand are rather tied, and not for fun. Would any of you adventuring types happen to be strong enough to poor little me free? I'm Janice by the way. What bring you out here anyway?"

All of a sudden, an odd, woman had appeared. Chains, several sets of arms an snakelike, she wasn't a regular mortal, he wasn't sure she was a mortal at all.

I think we should help her.

Before he had spoken his mind, however, Kes started talking.

"I'm okay with breaking the chains, but I'd need to get to land first."

Des rubbed Kes' back as she threw up, and he looked towards this Janice again. She looked akin to the way some mortals described demons where he came from, and he had to admit there was a familiar sense about her looks.

"I'm with Kes. Bring us to land, and we'll break your chains, okay?" He smiled, warmly. "I don't know why you're here, or why you're chained, but we'll help you if you help us. At least..." he trailed off. Des suppposed they would have to listen to the others in the group as well.

But she doesn't look evil.

Evil in his eyes, at least, was a rabid, ugly thing, like the people that would burn young maidens for being a little different than the rest, or the ones who wage wars for their own benefits. It was a mortal thing, judgemental and cruel. Des lacked such evil, and thus, he wouldn't judge.

"That's what I think."

 

[Josh123914]

Nettil hopped off the raft and managed to keep both feet dry, and listened to the large snake woman.

"As agreed?"

"Oh, of course." Nettil stated, taking a step forward to the large being and pulling out her staff, pointing it at the chains with one eye closed.
It was at that point she remembered the dead goat, and Kes' anger at her aiming. It was on target last time, but just in case, such a violent weapon could shear off bits of flesh along with the chains.
"Sorry," she said, lowering her weapon rather than firing, and then looked back to the others for someone else to break the chains.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia had been silent the whole time, a side the sound made by shaking the snow off her gear. As for this serpent woman, Lucia had little to add. There didn't seem much reason to distrust her, for now anyway, but an accord was reached to remove the chains, Kes volunteering to be the one to remove them, though at the moment she seemed predisposed to losing her meal.

So Lucia stepped up after Nettil moved out of the way. instead of just breaking them though she looked for a lock of some kind. Breaking the chains would be easy, but that'd cause undue wear on her gear. With a sign though, she drew her sword and wedged it between the links, and with a sharp twist, snapped the link and broke the chain.

 

[Josh123914]

"You can't be serious? You?re helping this?"
"Well, at least I didn't try to break the chains" Nettil thought, relieved, before speaking. "We were in a frigid sea, with icebergs and cliff faces everywhere, and this... being." She said, gesturing towards Janice, "Decided to push us to shore. Now, if Janice was going to kill us or something, wouldn't it make more sense for her to do so while we were stranded on a rickety barge?"
She said, hoping Zuria satisfied with her justification.

"But, we probably should have woken you up." Nettil added, biting her lip on why exactly their unofficial expert in this world was asleep.

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

Sitting in the boat as things went Kyras did what he could to keep himself warm. What little could be burned around him was needed whole to keep everyone alive. His mind as people moved was placid as he looked into the water the cold keeping it so as things came to a stop and voices came. When movement came suddenly he turned to look at the thing that had dragged them to land as the moving stopped again. A flicker of recognition came in his mind from the days before the bloodsport as he looked at the creature.

Kyras couldn't place why he recognized the situation but he did and so he turned to the creature and asked "Why are you chained?" before looking to Zuria and asking "Why is she chained?"

 

[IFS]

"Why is she chained?"

"An excellent question," Alex said "however we aren't likely to get an answer we don't like from Janice here."

He had been watching and thinking curiously since they had discovered Janice, Zuria seemed strangely against unchaining Janice but had given little in the way of an explanation as to why. Could be any number of reasons, rational or irrational, if she can't explain herself then she's not worth listening to though.

He turned to Zuria "If you've got a reason we shouldn't free her let us know," he said "otherwise I am perfectly in favor of following the bargain we have set. She has done no harm to us, and has even offered assistance."

Of course that doesn't mean I won't keep an eye on her, but that's an easy enough thing. At the moment though she's been more help to us than Zuria, so if I had to take a side between the two... hmm. Well let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Smiling at Janice he approached her "Let me see the chains," he said "perhaps I've heard of something like them in my travels."

 

[Josh123914]

Chained up to keep me from unchaining others
Nettil looked at Janice and then to Zuria. "Well then what do we do? Leave her and continue on our way?" she asked, wondering where exactly they are supposed to go from here.

 

[hiei82]

Kes glanced back and forth between Zuria and Janice. Clearly the pair had some history and it wasn't pleasant. This in particular left Kes in an awkward position. On the one hand, Janice - the "mother of the sea" - had helped them and they'd made a deal to break her free in return. Kes preferred to keep her word. Further, Janice spoke of "unchaining" others; a cause Kes agreed with. The fact that these Stharn had locked her up at all was a point against them as far as she was concerned.

On the other hand, Zuria had helped her on the previous Horizon to free slaves and Kes still felt she owed the woman for it. Further, if Janice was the literal "mother of the sea" as her title suggested, than Kes had a reason to dislike her. Further, while she didn't condone slavery of any kind, she also couldn't help but wonder what 'terrorizing' the Stharn meant.

All the while, the two seemed to hurl challenges and insults and accusations at each other; none of which held any meaning to Kes at all. This just served to annoy Kes; how was she supposed to know what to do if they didn't explain anything? "Will one or both of you just say what's going on! I at least don't know anything about your conflict; much less what a "mother of the sea" is." Kes finally said, once her frustration had boiled over.

 

[DarkRawen]

Des was happy to be back on land, and he was happy that the others were willing to help out this mysterious lady as well. However, then came the less pleasant part, the chains didn't seem that easily broken after all. Some sort of magic, apparently, though Des had no idea what, this wasn't his home. Besides, he never had experienced a lot of magic before horizon travelling, the mortals where he came from believed in a lot that wasn't true.

So does mortals everywhere, apparently.

Of course, then it went from bad to worse, Zuria woke up, and apparently there was a disagreement between Zuria and Janice. Des didn't understand why everything had to be so complicated.

"I don't know why she's chained up but it's not important. That's the mother of the sea, terrorised my people for centuries before I killed her. I've been defending the Stharn ever since, figured it was a sort of justice to use one of her own gauntlets."

"Chained up to keep me from unchaining others."

"Well..." Des started. "If you were enslaving people, you can't really say that you're better than her. You've already killed this beautiful lady once, shouldn't she the very least be able to walk free? Besides, we made a deal, it wouldn't be proper to disregard it." It made no sense to Des, surely being killed had to be enough of a punishment. The fact that she might not have gotten killed didn't strike him, as it did not sound too strange for him to have someone get resurrected.

He then got closer to Janice, before noticing something odd. Her vitae was... not where he expected it to be. There was a large amount of vitae from the water, enough for him to be able to sense it from where he stood.

"Why is your vitae underwater? Could it be... that this isn't your real body?" he asked, tilting his head. "If so, wouldn't it be better if we removed whatever is keeping you there?" His voice bore no suspicion, he had no reason to doubt her, after all.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Lucia, having failed her attempt sheathed her sword, took a few steps away from this 'Mother of the Sea' and just let her and Zuria argue, though she kinda started to tune it out after a little bit.

It was starting to remind her to much of some of the more asinine bickering she'd had to deal with between nobles back on her world and it hadn't gotten more tolerable since the last time. Though in this case it seemed more like some one arguing with Leviathan, for being Leviathan.

 

[IFS]

Mother of the sea? A goddess perhaps? The very thought made Alex shudder, whether you liked the gods or not they had power, their very existence had weight, and he for one was not about to stand against a goddess. They say that the illness in my world began from the injuring of a goddess, I cannot let such a thing happen here. Besides which it was the utmost hubris to stand against the divine, regardless of the divines intent. Besides which Janice had helped them already and offered them further help, Zuria seemed to fear for the people of the Horizon, which gave him pause, but still he knew where he had to stand.

"It doesn't have to be like that return my gauntlet and you can go. I'm not anyone here's enemy, I can even show you a way out."

"I stand with Janice," he declared, moving to stand alongside the woman "though I would know what you intend for when you are restored. More specific than 'to keep from unchaining others' if you please."

The gods can be fools themselves, I will not fight her so if she intends to bring calamity the best I can do is attempt to dissuade her from such a course.