I'm afraid I'm not going to be. I've been feeling like I"ve been running on empty for a little while, and I'm afraid I have to drop out. Thanks for letting me play, and I wish you the best of luck.
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It's okay, I think I can work with them as is.
Yup, and I can just focus on her being a melee person. I kinda wish I could redo her feats, but that's okay.
Will definitely look into it. I was also planning on looking into the rest of Southeast Asia as well. Thanks for the advice.
"Then where's his attacker," Torfrun asks as she gathers as much as she can safely carry.
I've heard of Critters, but I'm not currently a member. As far as the cultures I was thinking about, I was thinking cultures from southeast asia, india, and china. The population pressures there are probably going to drive most of those people out into any colonies. The other main influence on Post Diaspora cultures is going to spanish speaking cultures, for much the same reason, population pressure and shear numbers. sorry if it's a little rambly; it's late over here and I'm having issues thinking coherently at the moment.
"Tamas, you might wanna warn whoever's on the other side when you do that," Torfrun says after the man demolishes the door.
Hey now, that's Tennessee. Not Alabama. :D
Why we called American football football is one of the great mysteries of my nation. (I am sure I can find out, I just like running my mouth. :P) Is culture out? I'm working on a novel and still doing the world building, so I'm kinda curious how cultures outside the Southeastern US do things. Anyone care to give a 'Murican a primer?
Torfrun, following a few feet behind Evaline, is a little slow to react, but she does rady her sword and stabs at the creature.
"Yeah, I'm coming," Torfrun says as she grabs her gear.
"Maybe, but in either case we should be careful. No one goes off alone and we keep at least two people on watch," Torfrun says. "I remember hearing tales as a little girl about spirits that would drive men mad and make them feast on each other's flesh. I don't want to think about what kind of madness could lead someone to that, even out of necessity."
Raseri doesn't eat much that night. There's something a little-- slimy about the meat and she gives her portion to whoever wants it. "What's a lighthouse," Torfrun asks the others, utterly confused.
"I wasn't saying you couldn't, only that we didn't know how badly you may have been injured," Torfrun answers Aerys. "Let us get to work then."
"We can give him ten minutes to find what the birds know," Torfrun tells Evaline quietly.
Don't worry not taking it personally at all - I did take the condescending flaw - I tend to think conflict in character, carefully managed, makes for interesting RP and generally deeper relationships that spend much more time getting explored. And I do feel like a bit of a cheat if I drop charisma and don't play it. Sorry, I can get a little paranoid sometimes about these kinds of things. Torfrun's learned that things are done a certain way for a reason, so that's likely going to cause friction between the two of them. Well we have not had any feedback on the survival to see if this would be a good sight yet, nor do we know if there is any more beach to be explored - I suspect there is not as I am fairly sure I used the beach map from this in another game, though possibly not an official one. As I said, this is one of the few APs that I know nothing about beyond the basics. I'm going off of common sense and what little survival knowledge I have. DMing in parallel is more work that enables you to do things more quickly, but not necessarily what you want as a GM - it's enough work as it is for many. It can also create wealth and experience disparities, though both are solvable. As a GM, I don't use experience points and I tend to be pretty generous with treasure anyway, so this isn't something I've ever run into. It can be more work, especially if you have eight characters and do individual things with them, but I think its use as a narrative device is more than worth it. It's not my call in this case though.
I wouldn't see it as having less of an adventure as an opportunity to have one that's a little more personalized. Might be a good idea to talk to the GM first though. In this instance, though, it makes sense from a survival standpoint to divide and conquer I think. Still, not trying to cause an argument, just saying what I'm thinking.
First, lemme say that Torfrun's attitude is not meant to be personal, it's just that Tamas seems like a Know-it-All and being one myself, I know how annoying that can get for other people. The problem with setting up on the beach is that if a storm comes in, the surge is going to wash away the camp. Also, this isn't setting up a camp, this is finding a place to set up a camp. The idea is to use the supplies from the ship while we get things set up and gather enough food to eat without having to use preserved stores. Ideally, a good camp site would be on the leeward side of the island with a good view of the shipping lanes and have a good supply of freshwater (a spring would be awesome.) Having easy access to the beach would just be a bonus. Also, having GM'd in real life and in PBP, I have to disagree, it's about the same amount of work in either, and PBP has the advantage of allowing the GM to run things in parallel. If it is going to be a problem, then I ask that the GM disabuse me of the notion. If he wanted, he could just say "Yeah, you find a better site," or "No, you don't find any survivors" and move on.
"Tamas, we really don't have time to be arguing about this," Torfrun says as she pinches the bridge of her nose. "We may have food for one meal, maybe two, and you may be able to make water out of nothing, but I am not betting the survival of everyone on one person staying alive and well," she says as she looks up, her eyes blazing, "this is not your comfy little garden in your nice safe city, this is the wilds, and survival does not come easy. Knowledge from experience, not from books, is what's going to keep you alive out here. If you can't understand that now, then you best learn before you wind up dead." The ulfen woman takes a deep breath, calming down some. "This may work as a camp for a few days, but what happens if a storm blows in? what if whoever lives on this island does not like us being here? We need to find someplace we can take shelter from the storms and that we can defend. We need to work quickly to salvage as much as we can from the ship and Rava can probably carry things that are too big for us to handle easily. I don't like splitting up either, but we need to get as much done as we can as quickly as we can. My mentor hammered in his mantra of survival, 'prepare early, prepare quickly.' Time and again I've seen that born out. We cannot wait to begin looking for survivors. We cannot wait to find a source of freshwater or a more defensible campsite. We cannot all go and do these things. Jask is bound and Aerys is still not ready to walk on her own. You can grumble about what I am doing all you want, but one does not survive in Irrisen by being stupid. You may want to consider the wisdom of eating anything that has a sting on it, as well. If we can get a net or two from the ship we can get fish that won't be likely to poison us."
"Evalina's right," Torfrun says grudgingly before adding, "We need to find shelter and a source of fresh water. Then we need to worry about food." The young ranger grabs her gear then moves to where Aerys lies. She picks her up and moves her from the surf to the shade of the trees before trying to wake her. Whether the attempt succeeds or fails she turns to the others. "Unless anyone has any better ideas I think Evalina, Sasha, and I should look for a place to set up a permanent camp, somewhere with easy access to a high vantage point that we can use to keep an eye out for ships that pass close enough that we can signal them, easy access to freshwater, and easy access to the beaches. Tamas, you, Ishirou, Gelik, and Cethel see if you can find anymore survivors on the beach. Use Rava to carry any who can't walk and make sure you're back here before low tide. Karathiel, can you and Chikura keep an eye on things here? The three of us will try to be back by low tide, but if we aren't, search the ship without us. Grab food and water first. Ropes, nets, tools, and anything else we can use to make shelters with after that, then anything else that could be useful. Use Rava to haul as much as she can carry without slowing too much. We'll try to find a trail she can use to get to whatever campsite we find," Torfrun looks to the others, studying their expressions, before asking, "Any questions?"
"Are you guys coming or not? Time's not exactly in our favor at the moment," Torfrun calls back from where she thinks she's found a safe path to the wreck, completely unaware of Chikura basically saying the same thing just a moment before.
"I am not cooking these things," Torfrun tells Tamas, her accent coming through thick. After a moment she calms down and looks at the scratch on her hand. It was minor, and more irritating than painful, but she didn't know if these things had any poison or not. With sigh she cleans her dagger and sheathes it. "I'm going to look for a safe way to get to the ship," she tells the others, "I know we are still missing people and I'd rather not leave anyone for dead if they aren't dead." With that, she begins to look for a safe path to the ship.
Almost instantly, Torfrun rips her dagger free from its sheath and moves to plunge it into the creepy things trying to eat her companions, pumping her arm to try and stab it with each cry.
I figured. It's just that Torfrun has had a lifetime of every mage she meets is a jerk and that is not something you overcome easily. That respect and politeness is why she's cautious and not in flat out denial. :) As for why the White Witches are such jack-holes, her favored theory is that they are so cold no normal man or woman will bed them. Who wants their nether bits touching what is basically a living ice sculpture after all? Besides that, she imagines that when two Jadwiga make love, they feel like they're heading into necrophilia territory and that just takes the fun out of it. If asked about her love life, she just turns beet red and mumbles an answer before beating a hasty retreat to the galley, or shooing everyone out if she is already there. She has never had one, obviously. ;)
"There's a reason they agreed to let me be the cook."
"Still say that you're fibbin' about there bein' no snow. It can't be that hot all the time." I think she'd be cautious about believing what you are saying. Most of the White Witches, the Jadwiga, that she's met have either ignored her, or ground her face in their opinion of her. The three that didn't were too busy hurling spells at her to kill her.
Sensing that there's more to this than just blind prejudice, Torfrun decides that she'd best find a nice quiet part of the ship and talk to Evaline about what was going on. It wasn't that she didn't agree with her, Tamas annoyed her almost constantly, but that it was not fair to accuse the man of being a thief. Hubris, not greed, seemed to be his shortcoming. And to be fair, he wasn't the one rousing her ire at the moment. "That's not a fair comparison," she growls as she stomps off to the galley, now needing something to work out her anger on. Anyone watching her as she heads below can see that Evaline's last remark had stung. Over the course of the next few hours, furious chopping, and some muttered curses in a lilting tongue, can be heard coming from the galley. Every now and then, there's a sniffle, but she doesn't come out until lunch is ready, a hearty stew, that's probably more spicy than intended, served with some strong rye bread. Anyone who takes more than a casual glance at her face, sees her eyes are red, but the glare coming from the normally talkative Ulfen lets everyone know that, no, she does not want to talk about it.
Chikura would likely have found out her distaste for anything resembling witchcraft at some point. She's a product of her raising, and in Irrisen, The Ulfen are just dogs that are expected to do as their are told and beg scraps from their Jadwiga betters. Also, not only does it get that cold, it stays that cold. This is Torfrun's first experience with anything approaching a seasonal cycle. Frankly, she'll find Chikura's descriptions of the Expanse just as unbelievable. It can't stay that hot. There's no way. Everyone'd sweat to death!
Torfrun just shakes her head at the argument between Evaline and Tamas. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but the man had a point. She hadn't really gotten to know any Varisians in her flight form Irrisen, but what she had seen of the wandering folk, she liked. "Evaline, I'd be careful making such accusations. I've never had a problem with Varisians (for the most part,) and I'd say it's grossly unfair to judge them as a whole based on the actions of a few," the ulfen told the other young archer in a weary voice. "It's better to judge a man on his actions than to simple assume that he's like every other of his kind that you've met." Now finished with her scrubbing, the young woman dumps the dirty, somewhat sudsy water overboard. She thought about saying something to Tamas, but he'd, honestly, not done anything wrong, save returning Evaline's jabs with his own. "Anyway, I need these back in the galley, so if you'll excuse me."
Didn't know you were in Alabama. If you are heading to Mobile, Wave as you pass Prattville. :)
"That assumes a man has talents," Torfrun muttered from the rail she was at as she hauled a bucket of water up to wash the pots and dishes used for breakfast in. Every morning she'd had to listen to Tamas' horrific singing, though today was a little better than most. The day was too pleasant to remained cooped up in the galley, though, so she decided that she'd clean the pots and plates up on the deck, even if that meant sharing it with Tamas'. The work was relaxing, and soon the young woman was humming, then singing herself. Singing an old song she'd learned when she was just a little girl as she scrubbed. There once was a man who thought to race the fast flowing river
The river it gave no reply to the the man's a-bluster
Down the banks the man did race, his heart all a flutter
To the sea he did run, his ire fully roused
No more of the man was ever seen, not even his cowl
First, thanks for having me, despite the grief I've put Saroune though. :) That said, I really am happy to be here, and I'm looking forward to Serpent's Skull. Its the only AP before Iron Gods or Giantslayer that I don't have any of the books for, so I have no idea what to expect. So, onto how Torfrun relates to the PCs. Tamas Dolchescu: Torfrun finds Tamas to be, perhaps, the single most irritating thing about her voyage. She doesn't understand why he looks down on everyone, nor why he has such faith in the Harrow. Given her heritage and upbringing, she is wary of magic, and Tamas' personality is enough to give her fits by itself. In short, Torfrun doesn't like him much. Karathiel Fellgaze: Because of her eyes and her initial demeanor, Torfrun would have been nervous around Karathiel until the elf began to open up. Torfrun would have probably asked about elves from other places and the rest of the world in general since she had would have only dealt with Snowcaster elves, if any elves at all, in Irrisen and she'd been too busy running to pay attention on her way to Magnimar. A lot of this would have become painfully obvious when she would have asked, "Does it snow in Alkenstar too?" Chikura Mutota: Being one of the two people that boarded at the Jenivere's last stop, Torfrun would probably know Chikura the least. Given his personality, though, she probably gets along well with the man, all things considered. Jacquline: Given her views and her open association with the Asmodean church, Jacquline is the person that Torfrun likes the second least. Jacquline's opinion that order is the best way, damn the effects on the people under it, has often caused Torfrun to just walk away from a conversation in disgust. The inquisitor is also the only other person, besides Tamas, that Torfrun has wanted to deck on the ship. Cethel Iphesilia: Cethel and Torfrun have talked a great deal since he came aboard. She wanted to learn more about where she was going, and in exchange, she agreed to tell him about Irrisen and the White Witches. She's come to enjoy the time she gets to spend with the gnome, and has even asked him to join her in the galley as she prepares the ship's meals so she can try to wheedle some recipes he might know out of him. Evalina Braeton: (Consider that offer accepted) When Torfrun was looking for a way to get on the Jenivere she was pleasantly surprised to find that Evaline, one of the guards that had been hired on, was willing to help her sneak aboard. Even though she was caught shortly after that, Torfrun never admitted that Evaline helped her get aboard, or find food. She and Evaline became fast friends and Torfrun hoped that the two of them could find work together. The only thing that the ulfen woman has found annoying about the other woman is her narrow-mindedness in certain things. Having lived in a world where she was forced to wear blinders and be hobbled just because of her heritage, she finds Evaline's provincial attitudes a bit annoying, though the two of them are of a similar mind where Jacquline is concerned.
"Aye, for a very loose definition of food." |