The Unknown: A Game of Fear, Ignorance, and Adventure

[MasterSqueak]

Spoiler: OOC

Talk to me, noone else will. ;_;

 

[Dragonearl]

"So, what's your opinion on the others currently then?"

Alexis raised his eyebrows, it was something he hadn't given much thought about. Being a dwarf naturally meant he regarded others with guarded curiosity but about his fellow crew mates..

"Hmm!, well I do agree the elves do concern me a bit, especially the painted elves. They seem to be, very, um, unstable?..if that's the right word for them. However, the humans seem to bother me more. They are always the most dangerous. With a painted elf you expect mischief, with an ice elf you expect the lack of humor, with an orc you expect strength but..." he paused for a moment to take a swig of beer, "..with a human, you never really know what's going on. They have bizarre tendencies and motives. They are very irrational and rational at the same time. To be honest, they creep me out more than anything. I have been ke-!" Alexis was suddenly interrupted by a commotion outside. Instinctively he got to a defensive stance as two figures hurtled towards him

"What the?" he yelled aloud as a fight erupted between two elves. Whatever the reason for the fight, it appeared it had resolved itself as quickly as it started for soon both parties began prancing about and laughing.

"Come on fellas join the fun!"one of the elves gestured towards Alexis and Mareck.

"um..um..ok..I guess?!" Alexis stammered cautiously approaching the group. "What's going on?"

 

[Octorok]

"Elves..." Gris muttered to himself. How entirely like them to brawl over a cockroach. Sighing with distaste, as he stepped to the left to avoid a sudden migration in his direction. Bored, and in no mood to fight, he strolled across the deck. However, conflict interested him. It let him size up his comrades.

Wasn't much of a fight he had to admit. Just a few swings and now they were all friends again. How very like a Painted Elf... changing his mind in a matter of honour. Sighing again, even harder, he watched them giggle and dance, then one of them got down on one knee and offered to escort a newcomer.

I hate Painted Elves. Ice Elves aren't bad chaps, they have a sense of propriety, but Painted Elves are so... unpredictable. They have no bearing, and change moods very suddenly.

 

[Zemalac]

The captain peered over the rail at the main deck, watching the flurries of activity.

"Explorer?"

"Yeah?" Deslock said absently. He'd tacked his map to a small table near the back rail and was using a sextant to check it for accuracy. Thus far the readings were looking solid, though the cartographers had misplaced a mountain a ways back.

"Looks like you've got a fight already," Grummond said. "A couple of your crew are brawling down there."

"Really?" Deslock craned his neck to peer down at the deck. "Fah. Painted elves. If it lasts more than a few minutes I'll break 'em up. If I do anything and it isn't serious they'll both start shouting at me for interfering in their sacred traditions or something."

The captain and the explorer stood quietly for a moment, watching the elves. It was a very brief fight, as Deslock had predicted.

"See? Nothing to worry about," Deslock said. He set down his pen and sextant and glanced at the sun. Changing the subject completely, he asked, "It's about time for lunch, don't you think?"

The captain grunted. Deslock took that for an affirmative. "I'll go shout at the cooks for a while," he said, and left the captain at the wheel.

A short time later he burst out onto the deck, trailed by men in stained aprons. "Gentlemen!" Deslock shouted. "Lunch is served! Today, since we just barely set out, we have actual food instead of sea rations! Consider yourselves lucky!"

From the mess the cooks brought a small barrel of apples, beef swimming in gravy and other fresh foodstuffs. It was by no means a feast fit for kings, but Deslock was busily assuring everyone that by the end of the voyage they'd be looking back on this meal with bitter nostalgia.

It is now lunchtime on the ship. Presumably, your characters are now eating as they talk, unless they've eaten their fill of cockroaches or whatever.

Tomorrow I will spin the wheel of time once more and it will become night, and the first secret actions round will occur. Until then, this is some fine roleplaying we've been getting here. If you haven't been a part of the roleplaying, and you don't see any way to just approach someone and start talking, my suggestion would be to just write about what you're doing. That way it's easier for the other players to approach you, because they know where you are.

On combat: fights like the one between Derlan and Reeko don't really need to be done through the GM. If the fight is basically a part of roleplaying, neither party is really trying to kill each other, and the players involved can agree on the outcome without arguing, then you can narrate it yourselves. It's just an extension of roleplaying, like I said. The times you call on me are during the epic, desperate, and lethal battles. You don't need the GM for a scuffle over a cockroach, unless that fight somehow escalates to the point where people are drawing steel and calling in airstrikes.

On a totally different subject, I've added a section titled "Current Status of Players" at the bottom of the opening post. This section tells you the username, character name, race and current status of all known players. I put it in to try and avoid the occasional confusion over other player's characters that I've been seeing. Hopefully it will prove useful.

 

[ThreeWords]

The Ice Elf did not reply, so Jakob released him and walk off to ward the food table with a spring in his step.

He closed his eyes and waved his hands over the table, muttering a few words, then announced the food to be 'sufficiently blessed' and dropped his hand, eyes still closed, to select with unerring precision an apple.

He moved a chair and crouched atop it, munching the apple with a thoughtful look on his face, as if it produced a complicated puzzle or interesting philosophical problem

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Mareck had decided to take part in the later part of the fight, following dwarvish tradition before Deslock appeared on deck and declared lunch to them.


"Gentlemen! Lunch is served! Today, since we just barely set out, we have actual food instead of sea rations! Consider yourselves lucky!" Deslock declared when out of the mess tent came several cooks with apples, beef and gravey. This was going to be a nice meal compared to the rest of the trip.

"Will I?!" Mareck said to himself as he harged straight for the food, reaching for a slice of beef and and apple as well. Following that, he sat down at his table, and thought about what Alexis had said about the humans. They weren't really something he considered as a threat but that would be foolish to just assume, so he would need to look into them more.

Coincidentally, I need to keep an eye out on the humans. I'm not sure if I'll be able to trust them. What are they up to? He thought to himself, as he sat down, and started to rip at the beef with his jaw, pausing afterwords to think about the others, and whether or not he could trust people. Alexis definately seemed like someone he could trust, painted elves for now definately seemed like the opposite. As for the others, he wasn't sure. To be safe, he didn't trust the orcs, as you want to be on your toes if something like that could be against you. But that still left gnomes and humans, and he had no ides what to think about them. He puzzled this , staring down at the table not eating anything whilst he did this, as if the grains in the wood of the table were a work of art.

We're not even on the voyage and I'm pondering who I can trust. *sigh* This is going to be a tough trip, that's for sure.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

The sudden commotion of the fight had grabbed Raven's attention. He turned to look over at the two painted elves wrestling on the ground, from what he had gathered in between the grunts and punches was that one had eaten the others pet cockroach.

"Typical painted elf behavior!" he muttered half in disgust and half in amusement. He contemplated about pulling the two elves apart but he restrained himself knowing that this being a painted elf fight, it might actually be a form of welcome and friendship to one another. Eventually the fight came to an end and both parties immediately began singing and dancing around one another.

Raven shook his head in wonder as he began pondering about the days events. "Wonders will never cease to amuse me about these elves, they fight and then they forget why they fought, it's like they have the attention span of a na-?!"

"Gentlemen! Lunch is served! Today, since we just barely set out, we have actual food instead of sea rations! Consider yourselves lucky!" Deslock's voice rang out across the deck

Raven paused his thoughts, "Lunch!" he exclaimed almost surprising himself. It had been a while since he had a proper meal, and while he doubted that the food on board would rival the feats from a local tavern, it was something he would have to endure. With a faint smile he moved on toward the galley of the ship.

The expedition members were slowly beginning to fill in their seats, Raven could see the barrels of apple and beef gravy being placed around the dining table by the ships crew. "Not bad! he thought as he recalled his last sea voyage. Moldy bread and water was not something he had enjoyed very much. He was now standing in front of an empty seat, to his right was a dwarf he had recognized earlier as Mareck Nonovan. Raven cleared his throat and put on his widest and most polite smile that he could muster;

"Is this seat taken, master dwarf?" he asked politely gesturing to the seat beside him.

 

[Flying-Emu]

Spoiler

I'm confused. So how many gnomes are there?

I know there's Tickyvanillius Leviticus the Third, but are there any others? Everyone is using "gnomes", as in the plural form.

 

[Dragonrabbit]

Reeko looked around the cargo hold, it had emptied out as far as he could tell. He walked back onto to the deck squinting his eyes as he emerged from the hold. In the distance he heard Deslock yelling about lunch. Reeko smiled and followed the voice, the cockroach hadn't quite filled him up. He searched the table pocketing as much fruit as he could, before viciously tearing into the nearest piece of animal flesh he could find. He glanced up at a chef who was staring at him with an odd look, "Ermmf, Can I help you sir?"

"Oh it's nothing, I just thought Painted Elves were vegetarians?"

Reeko finished his slice of meat, wiped his face off on his arm, and responded, "Oh, we used to be, but it's only in the Year of the Spider Queen that we have to be vegetarians."

"Ah, of course the Spider Queen, yes that makes sense how silly of me."

He stared apathetically at the chef, "Yes, how silly of you."

Spoiler: Emu

You're the only Gnome. At least I think you are.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Mareck sat at the table, still thinking about who to trust when by coincidence a human waled up to him. As Mareck looked up at this person he recognised the man as Raven Del Cid, one of the people in the tavern last night.

"Is this seat taken, master dwarf?" Raven asked Mareck. Mareck looked up in bewilderment still before realising he was asked a question.

He looks like a nice person, but can I trust him just on- oh wait, he has just asked me a question. Better answer it to be polite.

"Uhh, no, master human. Fell free to sit there." Mareck responded as politely as possible to the human, gesturing at the wooden seat that was next to him before deciding to start eating his apple.

 

[BoVinE]

Interesting. That barrel stopped talking when I ran out of beer. I'll see if he wants to talk some more tonight.
In the dim light of the hold, Kirk gets up and dusts off his jacket. Trying to look his best dwarven sober, he climbs up to the deck of the ship to eat.
Oh, just great. Quite a mix of races here, It's going to be hell with the elves and the orc's though. And the painted elves... better to stick to my people.
Kirk grabs a bowl of stew and meanders over to the nearest dwarf, Alexis. "So friend, what are you trying to get out of this trip?"

 

[MasterSqueak]

Marneus sat down at the table, and proceeded to astound everyone by shifting his helmet so that he was able to eat through the eye slit. As he ate in silence, he listened for any conversations going on. Nothing interesting, a man asking for a seat, and some painted elf drivel.

He thought about Deslock, the slightly insane leader of the expedition. No doubt he would get them into trouble in the future.

He was interrupted from his thoughts, as someone sat down beside him.

Spoiler: OOC

Now you HAVE to aknowlidge(?) my existence!

 

[BoVinE]

Spoiler: OOC

Wait, who has to?

 

[ThreeWords]

Spoiler: how about me?

I'll do ym duty and go and chat with Marneus

Jakob fineshed his apple, grabbed a small loaf, and sat down in a completely new seat. Next to him was a be-helmed man who had somehow managed to eat through his eyes, and Jakob was most impressed

"Good sir, are you truly eating with you eyes?" he asked, full of fascination and wonder

(Just as an aside, the berry he ate is still having an effect =P)

 

[MasterSqueak]

Marneus put down his fork, and re-adjusted his helmet so he could see.

Glancing at the painted elf, he sighed and answered his question.

"No, I am not eating with my eyes."

Marneus stared longingly at the door.

Spoiler: OOC

BoVinE, I was just trying to get people to remember there is a fully armored knight onboard. Oddly, few people noticed Marneus, despite my attempts to create a noticable character.

 

[Zemalac]

Deslock had found a perch next to the place where the cooks were emerging from their savory realm, a place where he could reach out and snag portions as they went past. Thus far he had acquired two apples, a pear, half a loaf of bread and a mug filled with something resembling beer, or possibly watery tar. He had also received several murderous glares from the cooks, but unless they started coming at him with cleavers he didn't much care about that. He was leading this Expedition--the least they could do was let him get first pick of the food.

He watched the Expedition at lunch, noting eccentricities. The knight was eating in full armor, he saw, which spoke of either intense paranoia, focus, or absentmindedness. One of the painted elves had already frightened off one of the cooks--no surprises there. The rest of them were simply talking, with various degrees of animation and sobriety.

An unwary cook wandered past, and Deslock was able to scoop up a slab of beef in his bowl. He received a glower in return, which he ignored. The sun was shining, the wind was crisp, the food wasn't horrible and he was off to parts unknown. Life, for the moment, was good.

______________________________________________​

Elsewhere

In a black-marked, low-trimmed boat trailing behind the Cepolada, three cloaked men watched from spyglasses and oiled their knives.

In a counting house in Buron a paper was found in a dusty cabinet, handled with gloved hands and read with masked eyes.

In the inner sanctum of the Church, behind doors warded against all entry, a prophet stared in horror at what he had seen.

In the dead of night a shadow slid through the six walls at Riven Pass, eluding both Illarym Soulless and Merdallan sentries.

And in the unbeating heart of a land that is dead, something stirred.

As roleplaying continues during the meal I'm starting the first secret actions round. You have until Thursday afternoon (GMT-5 is my timezone, if you were wondering) to send me secret actions that you want to do during your first night on board the ship. On Thursday I will declare it to be night and narrate what happens during the hours of darkness. Some of the narration might be in the thread and some might be by PM, depending on what happens.

In the meantime, keep talking and eating or whatever you're doing.

Edit: Secret Actions and Secret Action Rounds, Explained

Several people have asked me to explain secret actions in greater detail. Since the problem seems to be widespread, I decided to post this explanation here.

Easy definition of a secret action: any action you take that you don't want your fellow players to know about. For example, contacting your faction and asking for information, or looking through someone else's luggage, or trying to kill someone as they sleep. Those are all actions you probably wouldn't want the other players to know about; thus, those are all secret actions.

You can only do one secret action per round, unless you took a certain advantage. This is because keeping your actions hidden from the rest of the Expedition takes a lot of time and effort.

A secret action round is any time when you can do secret actions. For example, at night aboard the ship. During a round I will set a deadline, and then at the set time narrate the results of the secret actions in that round. While secret actions are being sent in roleplaying will continue as usual, as in the current instance. It's currently lunchtime on the ship, but you'll be sending in secret actions that will take place during the night.

In different rounds different secret actions will be possible. For example, if you are actively being chased by a monster, a secret action might be "I attempt to trip [player name]" in the hopes that the monster will devour him and not you. Basically you can do whatever your character would be able to do in that scene. Use your imagination.

In this case, the scene is (that is, will be) night on board the ship. Thus, your secret action would be you sneaking around doing something while everyone else is (presumably) asleep.

You will continue eating, talking, or whatever it is you're doing right now. On Thursday I will cut off any conversations and declare it to be nighttime. I will collect all the secret actions I was sent and, with the help of my dice, tell you what happened. Some narration might be in the thread, for actions with obvious results (for example, stealing Deslock's tobacco pouch would have some very obvious effects the next morning), but most of the narration will be by PM to the player(s) involved.

I hope that cleared things up a bit. If you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

Spoiler: To MasterSqueak

I think it's less that they didn't notice him than that a fully-armed and armored knight tends to discourage conversation.

I like the image of Marneus eating through his helmet. Makes me wonder how he's planning on sleeping.

 

[Dragonearl]

Alexis looked up at a voice near him, it came from another dwarf that he hadn't recognized before. "So friend, what are you trying to get out of this trip?" the voice said. Alexis raised an eyebrow, clearly this was someone who presuming too much about himself.

"That's a bit forward don't you think?" he said between gulps of beer. "I don't even know who you are, I don't recall seeing you in the tavern at Buron. Did you board the ship before we departed?" he asked at a stretch before realizing that he had bombarded a friendly dwarf with questions.

"I mean, hello!. My name is Alexis Moonspear. What's yours friend?" he extended his hand for a shake

 

[Flying-Emu]

Tickyvanillius sighed. He picked slowly at his food while the others noisily munched their foodstuff of choice. Ticky had chosen something simple; bread, a bit of cheese, and water. He had never been much of a meat-eater; flesh was hard to get ahold of when you could hardly reach the tip of a spear.

He nibbled lightly on his meal, watching as the others stuffed themselves. "Absolutely repulsive. I miss the Church... At least there we had table manners."

Ticky used his foot as a brace and leaned back on the chair. The calm sweep of the waves was oddly soothing to a gnome who had never sailed in his life. He removed a small pipe from the pocket of his breeches and, using a match, lit it. He took a long draw from the pipe and sighed with a smile on his face.

Over the din, he shouted "Stories, anyone?" A pause. "I figure, since we're all full and happy now..." He glanced at some of those still eating "Or at least on the way, it'd be nice to share a few stories. Life stories, homeland fables, anything?"

 

[Shapsters]

Derlan was scarfing down his food, no matter where he was, he ate food like a beast.

"Stories anyone?"

"Ya, I have a story, once upon a time, there was Painted Elf who had the power to control the weather, one day he decided he didn't want to anymore. Thats why its always sunny!!" Derlan bursted out with laughter, "Hehehaha! I crack myself down. Now if you would excuse me from the table."

He stepped away from the table and bowed, he then kissed the plate he ate off and threw it off the boat.

"Just a little elf tradition... or is it?!" he laughed as he walked away from the dinner table.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

"Why thank you master dwarf" Raven acknowledged as he sat besides Mareck. "My name is Raven, you must be Mareck. I recall seeing you at the tavern when Deslock called on for people to join his voyage." he added with a nod. He wasn't sure how far to pursue a lunch time conversation, after all dwarves usually occupied more time with food and drink than with small talk. He smiled as he reached for an apple and simply commented, "Nice spread our hosts have produced for us here huh?"

Looking around the table, the sight that greeted him was far from the norm. Painted elves were tucking into meat dishes, a knight ate with his armor on and one member threw a plate out the window, granted he was a painted elf and that action should have been expected but still, such a diverse crew meant for the most unexpected of events.