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PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Re-Recruit Recap is Here


To hear the greys sing it, all were a-scared that the world would end in fire. They were all wrong: it drowned.



The seas rose and the lands sank, and the Maelstrom scourged those that remained. But some did manage to survive it all, eking out a life where where they could. But you have it easier than most, for you’ve found yourself in The Shoals:

A place where the bones of the Old World lie exposed, and there’s shelter from the perils of deep-life and the Maelstrom. Still its a bit of a good-news/bad-news, as there are all sorts of fuckers that want a piece of the pie too.

So what will you do?

++++
I’m looking for 4-5 players for an Apocalypse World 2nd Edition PbP game set in a waterworld. Things aren’t as bad as in a certain movie, but we’re still talking almost everything underwater.

For Apps:
-Use the Core and Extended Playbooks from the 2nd Edition
-The World is your Oyster (possibly literally). Shape it into something cool.
-Recruitment will be open until Friday, October 28th

Apps
Specialist Sinclair, James R., the Quarantine x x
Iris, the Brainer x x
Jacqueline Roux, the Hardholder x x
Selkie, the Battlebabe x x
Raincatcher, the Waterbearer x
Koo, the Child-Thing x x
Driftwood, the Faceless x
Frizzo Red, the Savvyhead x x
Gallow, the Maestro'd x x
Siren, the Hocus x x
Dakuwaqa, the Gunlugger x x
Marlin, the Driver x x
Henry Bemis, the News
Deep, the Child-thing x x
[b]Rox Kit, the Gunlugger
x x

PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Mar 2, 2017

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Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




Definitely looks sounds like a good basis for a setting. Character writeup incoming.

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Specialist Sinclair, James R. the Quarantine

What the gently caress happened? They said this would be a routine test. My unit was assigned to guard the brass while they took some sort of holiday cruise around the Gulf on this experimental new destroyer. Next thing you know we're getting orders to stow in some sort of, God, I don't even know. Pods? Sure, let's go with pods. We're getting in them -- chain of command, not that it exists any more -- and they put us on ice! Figurative ice. I think. One of the techs was trying to explain it before... this. He didn't do such a great job, but I guess he was more than a few shots in at that point. Guess he knew what was coming. Guess the brass did too. Did I? I can't remember. It's all a blur.

It's all gone, isn't it? The US? Civilization? My family? Jackson is definitely gone. She woke up with me, but... wrong. The eyes were wrong. Dead things peeking out through them. Tried to kill me. I was faster on the draw. Always was. Am I wrong too? Am I too far gone to know? A little piece of me hopes I am. This is all some sort of dementia-fueled hallucination. Snapped from the stress and they put me away. At least everyone I knew would still be alive.

I still don't know what woke us up. Some sort of timer, maybe? We're the first watch out to see if whatever hosed it all up is still doing so? Might just be the impact of the destroyer into whatever this place is. Maybe an oil rig? Some collection of flotsam and junk? Seems to be lodged in there pretty drat good. Haven't had much opportunity to scout things out yet. Spent a lot of time in my bunk after that first night and even more running an inventory. Enough for me for now, but I need to figure out how to get the rest of the unit off ice. Figure out how to stop them from waking up wrong. Figure out what the hell the world looks like now.

Well, it's not all bad, I guess. Humanity still exists, plus or minus -- scratch that, definitely minus -- a few teeth and hygiene. Maybe they just need a reminder of what we all can be with a little work and a hot shower. I'd imagine more are going to need a reminder that you don't gently caress with the US of A.

The Quarantine posted:

Name: Specialist James R. Sinclair
Look: Man, Ancient Fatigues, Young Face, Clear Eyes, Athletic Body

Stats:

Cool +3
Hard +1
Hot =0
Sharp +1
Weird -1

Moves:

Combat veteran: You get +1cool (cool+3).

Disciplined engagement: When you inflict harm, you can choose to inflict any amount of harm you like, less than or up to your harm as established, including s-harm. Decide at the moment you inflict the harm; you need not tell anyone in advance how much harm you intend to inflict.

Eager to know: When you go to someone for advice, they must tell you honestly what they think the best course is. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If you pursue that course but don’t accomplish your ends, you mark experience.

Gear:

• an assault rifle (3-harm close/far loud auto-fire)
• a 9mm sidearm (2-harm close loud)
• military body armor (2-armor valuable hi-tech)
• your fatigues and scrounge, but no jingle

Stasis:



The stasis facilities are onboard the USS America, a state-of-the-art destroyer. The ship was designed to be self-sustaining while the passengers were in stasis, but it's clearly taken a beating in the years since Sinclair went into stasis. It's firmly lodged into part of the Slurry quite recently and the surviving automated defenses have made it quite unappealing to get close to.

You emerged from stasis a few days ago. Remaining in stasis are the rest of your unit, plus your colleagues and your superiors. Stasis has remained untouched by outsiders because it has deadly defenses and it was securely hidden. When you emerged from stasis, Specialist Jackson, Tammy M. emerged with you. The world's psychic maelstrom inflicted Psy-Harm, and you were forced to kill her in self-defense.

Unlocked Facilities:

Medlab: Stasis includes a workspace with life support and medical technology. Bring someone injured into it and you can work on them like a savvyhead on tech (cf ).

Past:

You were there when the world ended, but you’ve been in stasis for 50 years and your memory is only slowly returning. At the beginning of each session, roll+sharp. On a hit, ask the MC one of the following questions and she’ll answer it. On a 10+, you can ask a followup question, which can be from the list but needn’t. On a miss, the MC will choose a question and you will answer it.
— Where was I when the world ended?
— Did we know whose fault it was?
— Who did it hit worst?
— Was it sudden or gradual?
— Could we have stopped it?
— Who were the first people to know?
— What was the first year like?
— How long did we hold out hope?
— What did we try that failed?
— What were the first signs that the world was ending?
X Who did I lose?
— Who seemed safe, but wasn’t?
— What’s the worst thing I saw?
— When it reached us, what did we already know?
— What let some people survive, when others couldn’t?

Quarantine Special:

If you and another character have sex, roll+sharp. On a hit, ask their player questions. On a 10+, ask 2. On a 7–9, ask 1:
• Whom do you most miss?
• What do you hope for the future?
• What makes you feel beautiful? Loved?
• Who was your first kiss? Did you like it?
• If I asked, would you stay with me?
• In what ways are your mind and soul pure?
They may ask you one in return.
On a miss, you each get -1Hx with the other.

Hx:

On your turn, ask:
• Which of you did I meet first when I emerged from stasis? For those characters, write Hx+1.

For everyone else, write Hx-2. You are not from here and you do not understand.

Tricky fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Oct 31, 2016

Heliotrope
Aug 17, 2007

You're fucking subhuman

Iris, the Brainer

I wasn't always free to run around like this, doing what I want when I want. I found very early on being a child with psychic potential makes you very valuable, and Burroughs wanted someone like that. So my parents sold me to her. Or maybe she used some of her own powers to make them accept the deal. Who knows.

Anyway, life with her was poo poo. She was of the thought that going through horrible experiences was what made powers emerge faster and better. The idea being that you needed to adapt quickly or die, so your body would try and figure out this weird poo poo you can do so that you don't end up drifting in the Ocean with bullets occupying your brain. And there wasn't anything I could do about it - she was way too powerful.

Well, one day we were out by the cliffs overseeing the city and...well, maybe it was destiny or luck or the will of the Maelstrom or loving whatever but she slipped and fell and into the Ocean she goes. Kind of a bad situation there but you might be able to get out. She seemed like the kind of person who would just swim back and then come kick my rear end for not looking out for her or whatever she'd make up.

Turns out Burroughs couldn't swim. I didn't think there was anyone in the world who lacked that skill nowadays but maybe she was just too used to being here on The Shoals and never got around to learning. When I saw her flopping around I was so taken aback that I laughed. I just laughed and laughed until she went under and didn't come back up. Then I went to where we lived, took ownership of it, and when the Maelstorm showed me where her body would be drifting ashore I waited there until it showed up and took what she had on her. Who knows where she got it but it's mine now.

I'm still working on carving out a space of my own here on The Shoals. But I have my own powers now. Maybe Burroughs had the right idea for how training this poo poo should work. Or maybe it was just going to happen anyway. Regardless, it helps make sure that no one fucks with me. People really don't like the idea of getting on the wrong side of someone with weird powers who can communicate with the Maelstorm and that suits me just fine.

I can make my own way through life.

quote:


Woman

High formal wear

Smooth face, deep eyes, soft body

Cool+1 Hard-2 Hot-1 Sharp+2 Weird+2

Direct-brain whisper projection: you can roll+weird to get the effects of going aggro, without going aggro. Your victim has to be able to see you, but you don’t have to interact. If your victim forces your hand, your mind counts as a weapon (1-harm ap close loud-optional).

In-brain puppet strings: when you have time and physical intimacy with someone—again, mutual or 1-sided—you can plant a command inside their mind. Roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 1. At your will, no matter the circumstances, you can spend your hold 1 for 1:
• Inflict 1-harm (ap).
• They take -1 right now.
If they fufill your command, that counts for all your remaining hold. On a miss, you inflict 1-harm (ap) upon your subject, to no benefit.

Gear:

Small fancy weapon:
• silenced 9mm (2-harm close hi-tech)

Brainer gear:

Violation glove (hand hi-tech)
For purposes of brainer moves, mere skin contact counts as time and intimacy.

Pain-wave projector (1-harm ap area loud reload hi-tech)
Goes off like a reusable grenade. Hits everyone but you.

Oddments worth 8-barter

Fashion worth 1-armor (blue suit that uses low amount of psychic energy to project a barrier around the wearer)

HX

Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.

List the other characters’ names.

Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask 1, 2 or all 3:
• Which one of you has slept in my presence (knowingly or un-)?
For that character, write Hx+2.
• Which one of you have I been watching carefully, in secret?
For that character, write Hx+2.
• Which one of you most evidently dislikes and distrusts me?
For that character, write Hx+3.

For everyone else, write Hx+1. You have weird insights into everyone.

BRAINER SPECIAL

If you and another character have sex, you automatically do a deep brain scan on them, whether you have the move or not. Roll+weird as normal. However, the MC chooses which questions the other character’s player answers.

Heliotrope fucked around with this message at 09:04 on Oct 22, 2016

Schizotek
Nov 8, 2011

I say, hey, listen to me!
Stay sane inside insanity!!!
Saint Nix (aka The Parish)
"A saint, Inji? It's like...a less powerful god what used to be a normal person. But he did so much good stuff he gets to become a god and have great powers. Well Inji, it's short for Nick O' Lots. It was Mark's nickname. He and his followers dressed up in red suits, which is why they were called The Reds, and they would go around beating up rich folk and then wrapping the loot up and giving it to the poor. They made a whole holiday out of it, and it would last half the entire year, where people would eat all of the seagull they could stomach while feastin and singin."

Well this is it. A little slice of heaven on Earth. Or Ocean as it were. Back in the day this place was run by the biggest band of slavers around, the Sun Kings, but I'll tell you about them later. We're one of the biggest settlements around, and definitely the free-est. Used to be some kind of scrap melting facility and the neighborhood at the top of a tall hill. But the only things poking out of the surf these days is the top level of the factory, an old church tower, and what we've cobbled together out of the waves. Thing about it is the factory walls are undamaged. No major cracks. So the Sun Kings sent down divers to block all the windows and doors below the water line, and bailed out all of the water using us slaves. As a result, the Parish of Saint Nix has some of the best quality metal found in the entire Shoals, because we can make it ourselves instead of using the corroded and rusted garbage of the old world. These days everyone's equal, even the boss. Except I'm not supposed to call her the boss no more. We's all "comrades" now. Everyone get's an equal share, and nobody loafs about mooching off the rest. And yeah, we're a bit low on food. And medicine. And we could probably use a vacation now and again. But we're free. Whatever that means.
pre:
Size: ~300 Souls +
Gigs: Hunting, crude farming, scavenging, and a fully functional manufactory (surplus: 4-barter, want: hungry, idle, disease, savagery)+.
Defenses: a makeshift compound of concrete, sheet metal and rebar. +1 Armor on Defense
Jacqueline Roux
Official Title: Comrade Jacqueline
Unofficially: Boss, Jackie, Mad Jack, Red Roo, The Sun Queen, The Prophet of Mark
"'Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men. It's the music of a people who'll not be hosed with again!' No, I don't care if it doesn't 'scan right' Inji. I started this Revolution and our anthem is what I say it is you silly arse."


Oh right. The Sun Kings. Family group based out Saint Nix. A bit full of themselves and not fond of bringing in outsiders, with the usual problems that come from breeding a bit too closely together for too long. But after awhile families get pretty big, and not everyone in the extended family can get full benefits see? So they don't become slaves, but they don't get a big share of the loot either. Enter Jackie. Grand-daughter of the last Sun King boss, but through a daughter and some sniveling bookworm cousin or halfbrother or something. When the ma died, what use did the boss have for em? Why waste perfectly good loot on some smarmy rear end in a top hat and his freeloadin' daughter? They didn't go hungry, and their shack was better than the slave quarters, but gone was all the shine and the chrome. When Jackie was old enough the boss put her to work as an overseer, with the promise that she could come back into the families graces if she didn't gently caress it up too bad. Instead she secretly began riling all us slaves up with talk about some guy in one of her fathers books named Mark, who would set us all free if we "seized the means of production" which was Jackies way of saying gently caress up the Sun Kings and take their poo poo. Worked for us. Since Jackie was an Overseer, she just unlocked all of our shackles and we did the rest. Shame we had to spare most of her rotten family. Made a big deal of chopping off her grandads head, though. Put a big smile on all our faces seeing his head plop into the ocean.
pre:
Name: Jacqueline Roux
Background: Hardholder
Appearance: Woman, Junta Wear, Aristocratic Face, Commanding Eyes, Sensual Body
Stats: Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird-2
The Sand Clots (AKA: The No Pants Gang)
"What? No it's just a name Inji. Yes you need to keep wearing pants. I mean not if you don't want to because You Are A Free Man And I Hold No Claim To Your Body And Person. But please do keep them on. Fine, you can ditch the shirt."

I'm Comrade Inji by the way, leader of armed forces of Saint Nix: The Sand Clots. Except we're all equals. But I'm the MOST equal besides the boss and so everyone does what I say or they get a pick through skull. We're about equal parts former Sun Kings and former slaves. The Sun King half are lead by some idiot cousin of Jackies. But everyone knows I'm the more important one. One word from me and off that little bastards head goes for being a "counter-revolutionary". And I'm the one who helps keep the population motivated. We might be free, but that doesn't mean we're free to the rapidly diminishing food supply. If someone doesn't wanna work, they can leave or fend for themselves eating seaweed or something. They raise a stink about it? Then they get a pick through the skull. Get caught stealing food? Pick through the skull. Spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda? Pick. Skull.
pre:
Armory: Sophisticated and Extensive
Garage: poo poo. 2 utility vehicles and 2 specialized battle vehicles (detail with the MC).
Gang: 60 violent Emancipated bastards Comrades (3-harm gang large unruly 1-armor)

Schizotek fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Oct 22, 2016

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

:q:

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012


Selkie, the Battlebabe

Too many people, not enough land. Too much water, not enough to drink. I do my part to help with those problems, at least. I've cleaned the sea scum off of rigs for every two-bit teapot despot you'll find around the Blue Hole. I've led raids on Shithole Atoll three times because those Salt-Sick* congregate there for some reason. I do it better than anyone. Maybe I'm part of the problem. Who cares. World's hosed anyway. We're the ones who hosed it. You all deserve to die as much as I do.

The Battlebabe posted:

Name: Selkie
Look: Woman, showy armor, smooth face, merciless eyes, slim body

Stats: • Cool+3 Hard=0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird-1

Moves:
Ice cold: when you go aggro on an NPC, roll+cool instead of roll+hard. When you go
aggro on another player’s character, roll+Hx instead of roll+hard.

Merciless: when you inflict harm, inflict +1harm.

Gear: 2-Pair (both 3-harm close reload loud area)
Oddments worth 4-barter
Leather Jacket (secretly plated), padded fatigue pants, leather combat boots, miscellaneous belts, webbing and combat gear. (2-armor)

Custom Weapons: 2-Pair
Base: handgun (2-harm close reload loud)
Options: automatic (+area) 3-round burst (+1-harm)
x2

Battlebabe Special: If you and another character have sex, nullify the other character’s sex move. Whatever it is, it just doesn’t happen.

*from Takanago's post

Alaois fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Oct 24, 2016

Frgrbrgr
Jan 20, 2009


Deep (right) with brother, Dark

quote:

Name: Deep
Playbook: The Child-Thing
Look: Girl, scrounge-wear, innocent face, bright eyes, child's body

Stats
Cool =0
Hard -1
Hot +1
Sharp +1
Weird +2

Moves

The mother's heartbeat
When you withdraw into the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+weird. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7–9, choose 1. You emerge again, about an hour later, and…
  • …Meanwhile, you can still watch and hear what’s happening where you were.
  • …You can re-emerge in a different place altogether.
  • …You are healed of all harm.
  • …You can bring someone in and out with you.
On a miss, you are in the dark and warm, listening to the mother’s heartbeat, and many hours pass.

Ferocious, snarling, shrieking, biting, and quite possibly rabid
When you go aggro on someone, roll+weird instead of roll+hard.

Gear
  • Keys to Unnernee
  • Spear'd, A long pole with a stabby end (2-harm hand)
  • Hack'd, An iron bar capped with a sharp, circular dome on one end (2-harm hand messy)
  • Dirty, ragged, rat-bitten clothing, complete with a mask made out of a human skull (1-armor)

Den

Unnernee



Long ago, known as the Market Street Subway Station, it was filled with businessmen, housewives, families - now, it's a dark, damp, half-flooded wreck, a remembrance of humanity that many are unable to cope with. But Deep and her clan have claimed this place - with its crooked, labyrinthine, interconnected tunnels and boltways - for their own. They call it Unnernee, for indeed, it is underneath almost everything in the Shoals, only accessible through several unlit, locked passageways that few have the keys to. Of course, once inside, it's not much to talk about - almost everything lies in ruins, its only saving grace the sheer fact that it leads to more and more abandoned stations just like it, and from them, a way into ancient underground vaults, cavernous, echoing, and endless. It's only a miracle at this point that the whole area hasn't flooded, perhaps a miracle as unfathomable as the Shoals remaining as well. Of course, to Deep, this place has but one small glimmer of light, a calendar, perfectly preserved, showing beautiful people in beautiful places. She'll stare at that calendar, posted behind a long-shattered glass panel in the conductor's office, for hours on end - wishing to be anywhere... anywhere but Unnernee.

Wolves of the Maelstrom
The maelstrom’s wolves are hunting you - Deep calls them the Growlers.

Under their disguises, they look like people, but they have wolves’ faces and they have awful voices. They're perversions of birth.

Child-Thing Special
In addition to food, you eat bizarre things: metal, people, plastic, minds, electricity, art. At the end of the session, if you’ve eaten something from this list that belongs or belonged to another player’s character, you know them better, and get +1Hx with them. If this brings you to Hx+4, reset to Hx+1 and mark experience as always.

Hx
On your turn, ask each other character in turn:
  • Are you a wolf of the maelstrom?
If they say yes, tell them what they look like under their disguise, and write Hx-2. If they say no, write Hx-1. If they say anything else — that they don’t know, that they’d rather not say, anything — write Hx+1 and keep your eye on them.

Allayoo, where go? I think to myself for the billionth time, Where go and why leave Deep alone?!. I scream and throw my hands against the glass barricade once more, knowing it won't collapse, knowing it won't even if I do it a billion more times. Here'd be Growlers soon'n if Deep gets catched, well, it'd be youse at fault, Dark!

I sigh and spin around, collapsing against the glass and resigning myself to the circumstances. Weeks ago, Dark and I found this place - Unnernee - and finally believed to have a home. For all my life, we've been on the run - from big things, from people, especially from the Growlers. But Dark never had the heart to tell me why. Just that we had to keep running - keep hiding - keep looking for a place where we could be free of them.

We thought that was here. But then Dark disappeared.

I still can remember his last words to me. Allayoo, stay! Mefinds some scratch and bring'd it back to yoos. Stay! So I stayed behind, with what few things he had managed to gather since our arrival. But now - the food is running out. The water is running out. And Dark still isn't back! He's never been gone this long - he's never even gone a night without returning. But now almost a week has passed, and no Dark.

I slam my fist into the ground. Wachoo think yoo doing Dark?! Mekkin me comin'n findya? Still, no getting around it. So, I grab my weapons, Spear'd and Hack'd, some foodbits, allacrap, and head back up to the surface.

Time to find my brother, escape the Growlers, make some scratch, and find out why me'n'him even exist... in no particular order.

Frgrbrgr fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Nov 10, 2016

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!
some kind of boat-driver?

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...

Raincatcher the Waterbearer

Don't drink the Salt. It'll kill you.

All the water of the sea is infected with Salt, Waste, and Death. The Maelstrom buried all of the sins of the past beneath the waves, and if you drink that water you'll drink all of that, too. If you're lucky, you'll know when to quit. If not, you'll end up like them: the Salt-Sick. You'll grow mad, feral, and then you'll die.

There once was a time when I was a Salt-Drinker. I drank it every day. And I sinned, lied, and murdered just like many savages do out there today. And do you know what that does to you? It rots you from the inside out, in ways you can't even imagine. Me? I was lucky to be as tough and hardy as I was. I saw many a man go mad and die for drinking half as much as I. But it did take it's toll on me. Before I started drinking, I was a healthy young man. Or about as healthy as you can get when you're out on your own in this world. And now look at me.

And I'm the best case scenario.

So, trust me on this one, you really don't want to drink the Salt. But luckily for you, I and the people of Cistern are here so that you don't have to. You can drink fresh rain Water straight from the Gods Above if you want. And you won't even have to pay an arm and a leg for it.

All you have to do is pay us a small tithe, and agree to the Five Rules.

quote:

Name: Raincatcher
Look: Man, disease-scarred face, deep-set eyes, wiry body

Stats:
Cool: +2
Hard: +1
Hot: -1
Sharp: +1
Weird: +0

Moves:
Lawbringer: When someone breaks your law, roll+cool. On a 10+, choose:
• You let them off with a warning, reduced penalty, or reprieve.
• You make an exception for them and they have no blame.
• They must face the full penalty.
On a 7-9, they must face the full penalty. On a miss, or if you are unable to enact judgment for any reason, responsibility falls to you, and you must face the penalty yourself.

Embargo: You can go aggro with deprivation as your weapon, inflicting d-harm (water).

All Are Welcome: When you personally welcome newcomers in, roll+sharp.
On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7-9, ask 2. On a miss, ask 1 anyway:
• Are they hiding any weapons?
• Are they hiding any valuables?
• Are they hiding a disease?
• Are they hiding my enemies among them?
• Are they keeping any malicious secrets?

Gear:
A harpoon gun (2-harm close slow)
Oddments worth 4-barter
Water-resistant clothing. Old-world survival jackets and pants.

Waterbearer Special:
When you and another character have sex, ask them to do something for you.
Whether they agree or refuse in the moment, if they go on to do it, you mark experience.

Hx:
On your turn, ask either or both:
• Which one of you once gave me water in the wilderness, real or metaphoric? For that character, write Hx+3.
• Which of you, like me, serve the source? For those characters, write Hx+2.

For everyone else, write Hx+1. You saw them coming.


Cistern, The Source

The depths of the Sea contain nothing but Sin, Salt, and Blood. If you want to escape the Sins of mankind and find freshness and purity, you must head up towards heaven.

Cistern is a small community, a church, where we collect fresh rainwater from the Gods Above and distribute it to all those around who need it. It's also a refuge, a place we keep free from the Sins, Violence, and Sickness of the outside world. Out there, they might murder, lie, and cheat, but we would never allow these things within our walls. And if anybody doesn't like it, well, they can drink the Salt until the Rain has the chance to wash away their Sins. We are gentle folk, but we are tough. If we weren't, we'd be dead by now.

Cistern was here since long before my time, and hopefully will be around long after me. We are the light that keeps the people around here healthy and civil, and if we disappear I can only predict that destruction and ruin will come to the rest of you all not much later.

Now, would you like a drink? Just swear upon the Five Commandments, and pay a fair tithe. And then you can drink your share.

quote:

The Source

You have a source of abundant pure water. Choose the water’s special quality:
It is the only reliable source of clean drinking water around.

Choose 3-5 features of the source’s atmosphere, surroundings, and culture:
• Catch-tarps & plastic barrels
• Calm & Quiet
• Faith & Ritual
• Pipes & Plumbing
• Tended Gardens

Many people have come to the source over time, and some of them have become your
chosen friends. Detail 3 of them with a name. They give you insight.


Clearwater, my librarian. He's the one who knows most about the Source, and he's the one that believes in it the most.


Filterface, my potter. He helps take care of the water systems, and he's the one most wary of the danger of the Salt. He believes it's in the air itself, and refuses to take off his mask.


Jay, my foundling. It's been many years since I took him in, and he's starting to really become a young man now. He trusts people more than any of the rest of us.

The source has laws that all must obey. You didn’t create these laws, but it’s your responsibility to enforce them.
Choose 3–5 laws and the penalties for breaking them.

The Five Commandments of The Source

I. Honor the Gods Above that give us Fresh Water from Heaven and save us from the Salt. All those who dishonor Them must not be allowed to drink from The Source until the end of the next Rain.
II. The Source is a place free of the Sins and Grudges of the outside world. All those who bring any outside quarrel into the walls of the Cistern shall be imprisoned until the end of the next Rain.
III. Violence is what caused the Flood and filled the Sea with Blood. All those who commit violence or intentionally does physical harm to another must not be allowed to drink from The Source until the end of the next Rain.
IV. Those who tell lies and falsehoods are inviting Sin and Salt into their heart. For each falsehood that any person utters, they must be forced to drink one bottle of Salt Water.
V. To keep civilization together, all deals spoken must be kept and honored. All those who break any sworn agreement with their fellow man shall never drink from The Source ever again.

Takanago fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Oct 24, 2016

suicide4sexbots
Jul 24, 2015

caught in a hyperloop,
spun out into static -
you were never there,
i was never here

so why does my car
still smell like ass
College Slice
pls don't do it... don't draw me back to this...

gently caress

Rockopolis
Dec 21, 2012

I MAKE FUN OF QUEER STORYGAMES BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH MY LIFE THAN MAKE OTHER PEOPLE CRY

I can't understand these kinds of games, and not getting it bugs me almost as much as me being weird

We are coming. We are the future. We are what you made.
Sink or swim.

Koo the Child-Thing posted:

Koo
An ambiguous child, clad in scrouge wear. Pale eyes peer out of an inhuman face.

Stats:
-1 Cool
+0 Hard
-1 Hot
+2 Weird

Moves
The Mother's Heartbeat:
When you withdraw into the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+weird. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7–9, choose 1. You emerge again, about an hour later, and…
• …Meanwhile, you can still watch and hear what’s happening where you were.
• …You can re-emerge in a different place altogether.
• …You are healed of all harm.
• …You can bring someone in and out with you.
On a miss, you are in the dark and warm, listening to the mother’s heartbeat, and many hours pass.

Feral:
At the beginning of the session, you can choose to spend 0-barter for the equivalent of a 1-barter lifestyle. You can survive happily on whatever you can find.
Special:
In addition to food, you eat bizarre things: metal, people, plastic, minds, electricity, art. At the end of the session, if you’ve eaten something from this list that belongs or belonged to another player’s character, you know them better, and get +1Hx with them. If this brings you to Hx+4, reset to Hx+1 and mark experience as always.

Gear
Spear: 2-Harm, Hand
Thrown Stone: 2-Harm, Hand
1-Armor
1-Barter

Nomadic brat, part of a new type of human, already adapting life in this changed world.

Den posted:

You have a den, a secret(ish), secure(ish) place I can live and hide in. In it, you have
some uncertain number of your siblings and kind, no two alike
and
a way into ancient underground vaults, cavernous, echoing, and endless
and
ways into basically everyone's spaces, even if they've taken pains to close them off.

I figure the den is actually like, a giant whale.

"The Wolves of the Maelstrom posted:

The maelstrom's wolves are hunting you, and under their disguises, they look like:
Shadows
But
they don't stand on the ground
and
they're invisible.
They're perversions of birth.

Unfortunately for our aquatic friends, there's more in the water than just Salt. They're not the only way forward.

Rockopolis fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Oct 22, 2016

Sax Battler
Jul 31, 2007

Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Driftwood the Faceless and also Harold




Hello, there haven't seen you around before!
Usually it's just us and the fish and the awful things that gnaw and writhe so it's nice to get someone else to talk to once in a while.
Driftwood they call me. Well, me and Harold do.
Now that I think about it, there have been a lot more people around lately.
A whole fleet of you?
Oh, that's nice, it's been hard keeping the place tidy leave none alive all by ourselves, what with the dwellers below water damage, let me tell ya!
Me, I've been here for years and years and years and years and years and years.
I don't quite remember, I was on a boat and the in the water and then I met Harold and here we are now.
I've kept myself busy clearing the houses of all the twisted remnants of the old that cling to form in vain hope junk.
And fishing. So much fish and things pretending to be fish I'm not fooled.
You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat other than fish, do you.
We are so tired of fish. So tired.

Driftwood posted:

Name: Driftwood
Look: Man, scrap clothing/armor, blank eyes, wiry body

Stats: Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot-1 Sharp=0 Weird+1

Moves:
Rasputin: shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being
scary as gently caress and coming at someone, you get +1armor. You still get shot and stabbed,
bleeding just doesn’t bother you that much anymore.

Juggernaut: take -2 on all “when you suffer harm” rolls.

Norman: you seek the advice of your mask. Roll+weird to see what it directs you to do.
On a 10+ mark experience and take +1forward if you do as your mask wishes. On a 7–9,
take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under 􀃫re if you don’t. On a miss, it has its own
agenda. Act under fire if you don’t follow it.

Gear:
Harold
Long harpoon (3-harm hand messy)
Scrap armor (1-armor)
Oddments worth 2 barter


Harold posted:

Harold

Type: Scrounged wooden mask

Look: Salt stained

The Unexpected: when someone sees you unmasked for the first time, they take s-harm,
in addition to anything else that happens.

Unmasked, you are:
Vulnerable. Whenever you suffer harm, you suffer +1harm.
Irresolute. When you inflict harm, inflict -1harm.

Sax Battler fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Oct 22, 2016

Kid Blink
Feb 24, 2013

Of course, the whole point of
a Doomsday Machine is lost if
you KEEP IT A SECRET!
Frizzo Red, the Savvyhead

The problem ya know, is that drat near everything’s waterlogged. An’ I don’t mean in that sense that we’re floating on a ball o’water, no not that philosophical junk. I mean all the little bits an’ piece of junk’s just dead or shorted out before I even get my hands on it because its god loving water on its circuit board!alright, take this off… I have to throw out a third of what I work on just because it’s been drowned to hell. I guess that’s the little irony of it though, right? ‘Cause, if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to work my mojo on it. I gotta taste what’s wrong with it to get a clue. tie this here… All it takes is a drop in my mouth an’ I’ll know it capacitor to fuselage. Gets bad when the storms come by ya know. You try piloting your boat when you keep picturing how everything on its broke every time a big wave comes over you. It’s a nightmare!

You ever been to Floatsam boss? How ‘bout King’s Rock? No? Shame. I love the fleet cities. So much old tech just sitting around. Big hauling projects. aannnd plug this here… The Shoals here has good pickin’ but it can’t really compare. We used to float with one, ya know? Pearltown. Colonies like tinkers that float in groups. Means we can get more done before more storms come through. Better bargainin’. But a’course you run into pirates one time and everyone decides to split up cause it’s safer. Still miss it though. Jed says that ya used to be able to just set down somewhere and the people would bring broke stuff to you. Now that'd be the dream huh? Be better than having to ride through one of them Sea-Eatin' storms to get to some radio call that may not even be there. Ya know, the ones with the lights when it looks like the sky's suckin' up the sea? Yeah...

Anyway boss, I’m done here. Thanks fer listening, its easier for me to work when I’m talkin’. Yer boiler’s for poo poo but you should be good to chug for at least the next few weeks now. I’ve got another job so I need to make wake, unless you wanna pay me for something else of course.

quote:

Name: Frizzo Red. The Saavyhead
Look: Man, scrounge wear plus tech, open face, appraising eyes, slight body

Stats:
Cool: +0
Hard: -1
Hot: -1
Sharp: +2
Weird: +2

Moves:

Things speak: whenever you handle or examine something interesting Whenever you taste something’s water, roll+weird. On a hit, you can ask the MC questions. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7–9, ask 1:
• who handled this last before me?
• who made this?
• what strong emotions have been most recently nearby this?
• what words have been said most recently nearby this?
• what has been done most recently with this, or to this?
• what’s wrong with this, and how might I fix it?
Treat a miss as though you’ve opened your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom and missed the roll.

Reality’s fraying edge: some component of your workspace, or some arrangement of components, is uniquely receptive to the world’s psychic maelstrom (+augury). Choose and name it, or else leave it for the MC to reveal during play.

Gear:
Makeshift Blunderbuss (3-harm Area Messy)
Oddments worth 3 barter
Loose cloth clothing. Water-resistant pouches and tool bags.

Special
If you and another character have sex, they automatically speak to you, as though they were a thing and you’d rolled a 10+, whether you have the move or not.
The other player and the MC will answer your questions between them.
Otherwise, that move never works on people, only things.

quote:

Workspace – The Gellepi

Controlled growing environment
Transmitters and Receivers
Skilled Labor:

Roxy Nakamura

Jed O’Partton

When you go into your workspace and dedicate yourself to making a thing, or to getting to the bottom of some poo poo, decide what and tell the MC. The MC will tell you “sure, no problem, but…” and then 1 to 4 of the following:
• it’s going to take hours/days/weeks/months of work;
• first you’ll have to get/build/fix/figure out ___;
• you’re going to need ___ to help you with it;
• it’s going to cost you a fuckton of jingle;
• the best you’ll be able to do is a crap version, weak and unreliable;
• it’s going to mean exposing yourself (plus colleagues) to serious danger;
• you’re going to have to add ___ to your workplace first;
• it’s going to take several/dozens/hundreds of tries;
• you’re going to have to take ___ apart to do it.
The MC might connect them all with “and,” or might throw in a merciful “or.”
Once you’ve accomplished the necessaries, you can go ahead and accomplish the thing itself. The MC will stat it up, or spill, or whatever it calls for.

Augury
Welcome friend, to the radio room. Don't! touch anything please, thanks. Now, this is our setup for catchin' maintenance and work offers. We got a constant transmittin' signal says to go to our reliever frequency that we listen to, an' if someone picks up on their ham or whatever they got workin', they give us a ring with their offer. An' this beauty is the Bellweather. Eats the generator like'a shark but we can get some crazy poo poo on it. How's it work? Well friend, that there's privileged information. Now, how 'bout I show you some other parts'a the ship?

When you use your followers or your workspace for augury, roll+weird. On a hit, you can choose 1:
• Reach through the world’s psychic maelstrom to something or someone connected to it.
• Isolate and protect a person or thing from the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• Isolate and contain a fragment of the world’s psychic maelstrom itself.
• Insert information into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• Open a window into the world’s psychic maelstrom.

By default, the effect will last only as long as you maintain it, will reach only shallowly into the world’s psychic maelstrom as it is local to you, and will bleed instability. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7–9, choose 1:
• It’ll persist (for a while) without your actively maintaining it.
• It reaches deep into the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It reaches broadly throughout the world’s psychic maelstrom.
• It’s stable and contained, no bleeding.
On a miss, whatever bad happens, your antenna takes the brunt of it.

Kid Blink fucked around with this message at 09:07 on Oct 25, 2016

Josef bugman
Nov 17, 2011

Pictured: Poster prepares to celebrate Holy Communion (probablY)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
Gallow the Maestro'd


I am a man in a tough spot. Now it could always be worse, I am not presently on fire and I am not being measured for a long stop under the water. But at the moment I have a rather large problem. My bar is doing well, we've got a decent clientele, we got several different flavours of beer and I am one of exactly three traders who can go to the dawn islands and not be gutted like a stuck fish. But I know and loathe this time of the Shoals. See every few years the tides change slightly. People start to demand that things get changed. Now the smarter bosses, like old ruster over by the whale stop, they'll make some changes, promote someone a little and try and solve the big movements. But some don't. Some start to clamp down harder and harder, until it all comes boiling out. I have had to defend my premise from 5 of these outbursts and I can feel the next one in the air.

We run a tight ship here, we and the girl Opal run most of the fronts talk, I do the gabbing and she serves drinks and carries stuff. We've got a good detail with us to. See the deal with the Dawnies means that we get a discount on some of their... more exotic surplus. In this case they had found these guys. Bunch of toughs from the far west who thought to steal some sunlight. It didn't go too well, so now they're sworn to me for the foreseeable. We've got beer from them, hooch from our own still, even some of the oldest bottles around from the far north where the salt licker's come from.

But we have to survive, we've gaine d alot these past few years, but some nights I have started waking up with nose bleeds and sudden awareness of how close the storms been coming.

quote:

Name: Gallow Glass
Look: Man, display wear, expressive face, inquisitive eyes, well kept body, precise hands.

Stats
Cool 0
Hard 0
Hot +2

Sharp +1

Weird 0

Moves
Fingers in every pie Put out the word that you want a thing—could be a person, could be somethin somethin, could even be just a thing—and roll+hot. On a 10+, it shows up in your establishment for you, like magic. On a 7-9, well, your people make an effort and everybody wants to please you and close is close, right? On a miss, it shows up in your establishment for you with strings wicked attached.
Everybody eats, even that guy
When you want to know something about someone important (your call), roll+hot. On a hit, you can ask the MC questions. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7-9, ask 1:
• How are they doing? what’s up with them?
• What or who do they love best?
• Who do they know, like and/or trust?
• When next should I expect to see them?
• How could I get to them, physically or emotionally?
On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but they hear about your interest in them

Gear
a wicked blade, (2-harm hand)
• oddments worth 2-barter
• fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1-armor (you detail)

quote:

Gathering Clouds- My Bar

Main Atraction: Drinks (we found a working still for cheap hooch and have a contact on the Dawn Isles for some beers)
Secondary Attractions: Games (not always for money, but we do a roaring trade in that if'n your wanting to win crap from behind the bar)
Scene (we're usually moving through most of the Principalities in the Shoal, people come on board to mark and learn bits and pieces)

Atmosphere: Smoke, Bustle, Luxury, Eavesdropping.

Security
A real gang (3-harm gang small 1-armor)


Whose your best Regular:


Oh that's easy. We all call her Watcher. She's tall and thin and she's not quite a brainer. Got a line into the mass of shadows, but not a real close one like most of them. Far as we can tell she just knows when a big storm is coming, when something big is on the way, either maelstrom or otherwise. We keep her in drinks when she needs it, games when she wants it and other diversions if she asks for it. We all owe her a couple of lives by now anyway.

Whose your worst Regular

Lady by the name of "Healer" she's a good doc, spends a lot of time with everyone. But she's also got "preferences" like human hair knitting and bone collecting and... well put it simply she's given herself to the Long Pig for some time. Doesn't take anything from anyone that doesn't need stitching, but it's always terrifying to see the stare she gives, like she's imagining you on a plate.

Three NPC's have an Interest in your establishment

Who wants in on it? Local boss looking to make a name for himself. Goes by the name of "Gonda". He's a tall sort, rail thin and given to throwing jingle at every problem. He wants me to sell up and give him more of the bar so that he can "Make it a more accomodating establishment". He's going to continue to get Jack and poo poo.
Who do you owe for it? I owe the Dawnies. They require 3 outsiders to make trade on the islands, to do that I have had to give them a lot. Time and information for the most part but sometimes they need one of their own looking after. Or worse they need one of theirs taken away in chains. It's never good when that happens.
Who wants it gone? Creature by the name of Sorhat. I say creature 'cause nobody has ever seen the fuckers face. But his minions make an occasional stab at ending us. Weird ones, all fish eyed and staring. Apparently they hate the Dawnies, and want us out of the way so that they can send a message to them. Mostly we gut them and throw them in the water.

quote:

NPC'S
Opal- The bartender and player of games

The Shark Boys- Imagine three guys like this that talk with sign language

Watcher- Not Quite a Brainer

Healer- Don't go to hers for dinner

Gonda- A Man to watch


Josef bugman fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Oct 31, 2016

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Got some awesome apps so far, keep’em coming. Thought this would take a little longer, but since we’ve got a sizeable number of completed apps, here’s the first batch of questions:

Specialist Sinclair, James R. the Quarantine
Jackson had to be put down, she understands that. So why is she still angry with you? Also, what name have you seen on a tube that definitely does not belong there?

Iris, the Brainer
Who did you have to deal with to prove you weren’t Burroughs’ puppy anymore? Is there anyone out there that you could trust to help you out in a time of need? What’s the last thing you told the Maelstrom?

Jacqueline Roux the Hardholder
What’s Inji got on you that you’ve given him such a loose leash? What fear sits in the back of your head, waiting for dark o’clock to clench your guts?

Selkie, the Battlebabe
They say things out Blue Hole way are sweet and pure. Why ain’t you back there? Who’s put the biggest scar on you, and are they still gunning to finish the job?

Koo the Child-Thing
What disguise did the last Wolf you encountered wear? Has anyone not of the sibs come into the Den?

Driftwood the Faceless
Heard tell that the Taking King came to your patch but never left. That true? You found something Below that wasn’t full of teeth and hatred, what was it?

Frizzo Red, the Savvyhead
The Gellepi seems pretty shiny, but what’s the deal with all that damage a-stern? What bit of flash out there has your blood on it, but you ain’t taking credit for?

Gallow the Maestro'd
So Opal, she sworn to you too or a free agent? What’s the worst deal you’ve had to make to safeguard your operation?



:getin:

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage


PoultryGeist posted:

Specialist Sinclair, James R. the Quarantine
Jackson had to be put down, she understands that. So why is she still angry with you?

It was the damnedest thing. Right after I shot her, she looked at me and whispered, "Remember your promise, Sinclair. Remember." I'll admit that all of that wasn't the first thing on my mind during the first my day or two awake. Too much to do, not enough time for the half of it. Well, it was on hers. I've seen her around the ship. Keep seeing her. She's dead, right? Can't take that many bullets and get up. Not even Jackson. She keeps telling me to remember my promise. Found a picture of her in my locker. It's faded a lot, but definitely her.



Why was it there? I have a family, right? Had. It's such a blur. What was she to me? She looks so mad when I see her. Frustrated, maybe? What the hell did I promise her? I can't... can't remember. There's a lot that I don't. Can't. Won't. Weird as it is to be haunted by Jackson -- and believe me, it's really weird -- it's at least something familiar. One of the few things that is. The air even smells wrong. It's all salt and decay and filth. Nothing like what it was before. And the sky? Jesus. The first time I looked up there I had to go back below-decks and have a bit of a freak-out session. It's Jackson's eyes all over again.

quote:

Also, what name have you seen on a tube that definitely does not belong there?

This is going to sound really weird, but Jackson had two pods with her name on them. There's the one she came out of that was right next to mine, but there's also another one in the VIP section. General So-and-So, Admiral Whoever, Specialist Jackson, and then probably the President or something. Those pods creep me out. I don't like going back there. Did she hide someone away? Is that what I'm supposed to be remembering? Can't imagine how she would have pulled it off. This whole thing was a surprise, right? It'd be nice if she just up and told me rather than giving me the silent treatment.

Alaois
Feb 7, 2012

PoultryGeist posted:

Selkie, the Battlebabe
They say things out Blue Hole way are sweet and pure. Why ain’t you back there?

Y'wanna know why all the rigs and floaters out near Blue Hole are so clean? 'Cause when you dump something in the Hole, it goes away. Water's clear as the air over there, you can see right to the floor unless you're lookin' in the Hole. It's a void. People think there's something down there. I've known guys who've tried diving in, searching for something. Lost treasures of the Old World. Secret underwater societies. Ancient, unfathomable sea monsters. A portal to another dimension. The Hole draws people in to it. They never come out, so more people go in looking for them, or looking for whatever got 'em. The Blue Hole is gonna devour everything in that place. So I aced the gently caress out. No thank you.



PoultryGeist posted:

Who’s put the biggest scar on you, and are they still gunning to finish the job?

That loving snake, Aldridge.



Greaseball scumbag. Fronts a band who play out of the Sunken Buoy in Jetsam. Bunch of fuckin' thugs. Someone gave 'em a fat chunk to make an example out of me. He invited me up on stage, turned me around to face the crowd, I get a guitar to the back of the skull. I was out immediately, but the whole band stomped me. Dragged my broken rear end out of the bar and dumped me off the side. Would have drowned if Gundy wasn't scraping for shells at the time and saw the splash. I haven't been back to Jetsam since, so they all think I'm gone. Don't think I ain't itching to go back though. Gonna feed that piece of poo poo to the crabs.

Alaois fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Oct 24, 2016

Heliotrope
Aug 17, 2007

You're fucking subhuman

PoultryGeist posted:

Who did you have to deal with to prove you weren’t Burroughs’ puppy anymore?

loving Blackstone. Some crazed warlord who lives out near the Dark Waters. Burroughs was who he paid to interrogate and/or terrorize the prisoners he took. Most the latter option. Nothing freaks people out more then someone who can kill them with a look. The only time she didn't do what he wanted was if he didn't have the jingle to pay yet. So I guess when Burroughs died he figured I'd be taking over for her. Wrong. Eventually he must have realized that and sent some of his people out to "have a talk." Yeah right. He sent Ripsaw after me, it's pretty clear he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Guess he thought I wasn't going to be as powerful as her. So I activated the handy pain-wave projector I keep with me and made a run for it. Some of the assholes he sent got hosed up pretty bad, but unfortunately Ripsaw wasn't one of them. I'll have to figure out a way to deal with him.

PoultryGeist posted:

Is there anyone out there that you could trust to help you out in a time of need?

I suppose there's Smoke. She and her crew go out fishing, and they really do need the help of someone who can talk to the Maelstrom. Aside from the creatures and natural dangers out there, lots of people wouldn't mind attacking them. I can check in the with Maelstrom, see if something's going on at a location they're heading to. I think I could trust her because she needs me, but unlike a lot of other people she doesn't seem to fear or distrust me. She'll ask me how I'm doing, and if there's anything I need. She doesn't give it away for free of course, but she can find someone who can get it.

PoultryGeist posted:

What’s the last thing you told the Maelstrom?

A few days ago, Sniper wanted me to look into the Maelstrom for anything important about that big run down mansion near the docks. The Maelstrom wanted to know what I honestly thought of him and why I would agree to this task. Sometimes the Maelstrom does this, asking me questions before I can get an answer. It knows if I'm lying, so I always just tell the truth. I told it that I didn't like him because obviously he didn't like having to rely on me, and I was doing it so I could get paid. It just said "Okay then," and told me that years ago there had been a massacre of people living in it who had come to The Shoals to escape their former life. Guess it didn't work out well, huh?

SHY NUDIST GRRL
Feb 15, 2011

Communism will help more white people than anyone else. Any equal measures unfairly provide less to minority populations just because there's less of them. Democracy is truly the tyranny of the mob.


Siren, the Hocus

I guess you could say I'm a victim of circumstance. I kind of always drifted with the tide, and more often than not I felt caught in the undertow. For most of my years is was unglamorous toady work. I'm not a fighter so I would just do whatever to make the ship run or keep the outpost afloat. Then eventually we would be raided and every able body would be killed. Me and maybe a few others hid so we didn't die, but we didn't get away either. Whoever raided us figured a few more hands would be useful and took me to keep their engine greased or whatever asinine thing they didn't want to do themselves. It was drudgery punctuated by moments of terror. Until of course the time I got caught up in the violence. Some maniac had an affinity for explosives.

I can't really say what happened after I blacked out. I can only go by the angel's word. Doctor Markus. He rebuilt my body. Not out of charity, mind you. No he wanted to "sate his intellectual curiosity." Apparently I was never going to use my legs again so he didn't take the time to ask if I wanted to participate in his experiment. He figured since he added in arms that I needed I would forgive him for being creative with my legs. I'm... still not sure how I feel about this. It does work exactly as well as he had hoped. I can swim as well as a fish. Land travel is... not great. That was to be sorted out in later builds, I was the prototype. Obviously I resented being a guinea pig. I didn't want to stick around on the chance he would take me apart after building me up to learn something else. It wasn't long before the opportunity presented itself. The good doctor's lab is the white whale of all the raiders in the area. I'm living proof of the quality of equipment Markus has on hand. They never get far, but create quite the ruckus. I was able to slip out during the distraction.

Honestly I didn't know what to do with myself then. For the first time I was free to go where ever I chose. I had no idea even where I could go. My aimless wandering had me bump into the folks I am still with. It must have been providence. They're convinced it was. Hell they all can't even swim. To say they were impressed with me would be an understatement. I didn't understand at first, so it was too late to argue when I wanted to. They say I'm divine. A demigoddess. Ships are gifts from the gods as they sustain life. They way they see it I'm part ship.

And honestly I'm believe it myself now. They really couldn't get by without me. I maintain the fishing traps. And sometimes I'll lead a ship to our barge. Usually the crew will join us. Which I like a lot more than the other way we get their stuff. And everyone likes to lavish me with gifts. They like to make me pretty dresses and I even have a crown. As long as the traps are working well.

quote:

Siren
Hocus

Woman, Formal Vestments, Open Face, Clear Eyes, Soft Body

Cool=0 Hard+1 Hot-1 Sharp+1 Weird+2

Fortunes: fortune, surplus and want all depend on your followers. At the beginning of the session, roll+fortune. On a 10+, your followers have surplus. On a 7–9, they have surplus, but choose 1 want. On a miss, they are in want. If their surplus lists barter, like 1-barter or 2-barter, that’s your personal share, to spend for your lifestyle or for what you will.

Charismatic: when you try to manipulate someone, roll+weird instead of roll+hot.

Seeing souls: when you help or interfere with someone, roll+weird instead of roll+Hx

Cult of the Flotilla
20 Followers Fortune +1 Surplus 1-Barter

Your followers are joyous and celebratory. Surplus: +party.
Your followers are eager, enthusiastic, and successful recruiters. Surplus: +growth.
Your followers aren’t really yours, more like you’re theirs. Want: judgment instead of want: desertion.
Your followers rely entirely on you for their lives and needs. Want: +desperation.

4 barter

HX
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.
List the other characters’ names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask either or both:

• Which of you are my followers?
For those characters, write Hx+2.

• One of you, I’ve seen your soul. Which one?
For that character, write Hx+3.

For everyone else, write Hx+1. You’re a good
and quick judge of others.

Sex Move
If you and another character have sex, you each
hold 1. Either of you can spend your hold any time
to help or interfere with the other, at a distance or
despite any barriers that would normally prevent it.

SHY NUDIST GRRL fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Oct 24, 2016

Brainamp
Sep 4, 2011

More Zen than Zenyatta



Rox Kit, Gunlugger

I hate this place. I hate the constant smell of mildew. I hate eating the same slime-coated fish from the market each day. I hate being paid to butcher people in their sleep. But most of all, I hate that this garbage pile is the best this world can offer me. Somewhere out in the deep ocean, far past the Great Shark Reef, is my home. The Flotilla, a veritable loving paradise floating on top of a drowned world. Real farms, ancient tech, and actual safety. Not this joke that passes for protection here in the Shoals.

Why ain't I still there, you ask? Because God has a lovely sense of humor. Even paradise has its downsides. Every kid past the first two from a couple is given a death sentence. Or the next best thing anyways. "Those families that bear a multitude of children are blessed in the eyes of the Lord, for they shall be our guides, our protectors, and our gifts to God." The sermon rambles on for a while longer, going over just how drat special the kids are, but the translation basically boils down to, "We can't feed everyone, so we're kicking your unlucky rear end off."

Yeah... and guess who's rear end was born as a twin. Near as I can tell they flipped a coin whether to keep me or my brother. Anyway, it's not an immediate thing. Hard to convince parents to set a bunch of babies off on a boat all by themselves. Nah, they wait till you're a teenager and just beginning to give a poo poo about the words the Fathers constantly shove down your throat. Until then, it's training, training, training. Everything they think you might need to know when you're set loose gets crammed in your tiny baby head. And after the mental lessons, then comes the physical ones. Almost funny how much work they put into me and the others, and basically all of it's a waste.

I still remember my "graduation" ceremony. The instructors waking everyone up in the early morning, going for a jog, then assembling us on this little platform tied to the bottom of the Madrid. Most of us were still waking up when they cut the line. We were adrift a good minute before anyone realized the Flotilla was leaving us behind. Several jumped, trying to swim after the ships. Guess they drowned. Rest of us were more concerned with our supplies. Lemme tell you, twenty-some kids, minus the idiots that swam off, all crammed onto what was barely a raft was hell. poo poo, what am I saying. Every waking moment and even some of the sleeping ones since then have been hell.

It's been years since all that, but I still wake up each morning wishing I could see those gleaming ships on the horizon, just so I could personally teach the Fathers what us survivors have had to learn. Skinning my brother would probably feel good too.


pre:
Gunlugger
Look: Woman, Battered Old Armor, Dull Face, Sad Eyes, Compact Body
Stats: Cool+2 Hard+2 Hot-2 Sharp=0 Weird=0

Moves

Battlefield instincts: when you open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom, 
roll+hard instead of roll+weird, but only in battle.

Prepared for the inevitable: you have a well-stocked and high-quality first aid kit. 
It counts as an angel kit (cf) with a capacity of 2-stock.

NOT TO BE hosed WITH: in battle, you count as a small gang, 
with harm and armor according to your gear.

Gear

Grenade launcher (4-harm close area messy)
Magnum (3-harm close reload loud), silencer (hi-tech)
Many Knives (2-harm hand infinite)
Worn Fatigues and Bulletproof Jacket(2-Armor)
oddments worth 2-barter

Sex Move

If you and another character have sex, you take +1 forward. At your option, they take +1 forward too.

Hx

Sinclair: Hx+3
Raincatcher: Hx-1
Gallow: Hx+2
Deep: Hx-2

Brainamp fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Oct 29, 2016

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'



Dakuwaqa, the Gunlugger

Concealed, scrounged armor, blasted face, raging eyes, hard body.

Cool-1 Hard+2 Hot-2 Sharp+1 Weird+2

Moves:
Battle-hardened: when you act under fire, or when you stand overwatch, roll+hard instead of roll+cool.
Prepared for the inevitable: you have a well-stocked and high-quality first aid kit. It counts as an angel kit (cf) with a capacity of 2-stock.
Bloodcrazed: whenever you inflict harm, inflict +1harm

Gear:
assault rifle (3-harm close/far loud autofire)
grenade tube (4-harm close area reload messy)
ap ammo
many knives (2-harm hand infinite)
gear providing 2-armor
oddments worth 2-barter

Hx:
TBD

-we are here to save those who can be saved
-but many more will simply end
-we do not know which side of the scroll you are on
-but do you?

Captain Foo fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Oct 25, 2016

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

And now I have an APP playlist queued up for the next hour, cheers!

Kid Blink
Feb 24, 2013

Of course, the whole point of
a Doomsday Machine is lost if
you KEEP IT A SECRET!
Frizzo Red, the Savvyhead

quote:

The Gellepi seems pretty shiny, but what’s the deal with all that damage a-stern?
She is a beauty isn't she? Jed's been working on her port hull for years, but it wasn't until me and Roxy showed that we were able to salvage and cludge on her starboard bit. Ah, but yeah... those holes in her stern. Well see, maybe the extended stay in the Shoals maybe weren't so voluntary. Last couple'a years been good, don't you get me wrong, but I've been on edge cause we're not too far out from where those things did that to the Gellepi. See, after Pearltown broke up, Jed put me 'n Roxy in charge of gettin' the work together. We've got a... special rig together that we use to answer maydays and fixin' requests.

So one day Roxy's on the horn, and she says we got a real garbled mayday 'bout 20 clicks southeast o' the Shoals. We get out there and and find one o' the tops of the old world buildings pokin' up through, not too unusual that close to the Shoals. But when the rudder started creaking and popping, and the paddle motor whined and started smoking, we knew something was up. I figured pirates or slavers, something mundane. But no. I poo poo you not, we started having Finwalkers crawlin' all over the Gellepi faster than storms roll in.



I know! I wouldn' a believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes! Friggin Muties!. They started yanking chunks off the Gellepi with hooks and ropes, and tossin' harpoons into her stern! Roxy managed to hold'em off while Jed and I got the backup motors goin', but goddamn. The whole place smelled like fish guts for months. drat things. Gurgiling up seawater and tryin'a stab us. Don't even know what the hell'd they do with a ship like Gellepi. I mean, if they're livin' in the old world poo poo, what'd they need steel for? drat things.


quote:

What bit of flash out there has your blood on it, but you ain’t taking credit for?

How does this keep gettin' brought up?!? Did Roxy put you up to this? I'd bet she did. She's had it out for me all week. Fine! Fine. Yea, I've had my hands in a lot of pies in my times, an' some of them, hoo. Real kickers. We're talkin' old tek war gear and mappin' modules and even old dive armor. Crazy beepin' lightin' up imagination type stuff. Got my hands on a rifle accelerator that some'a the gun boyz were makin in geartown once. drat. Rose glasses and all that but drat. You just don't get that in a one ship shop like that.

But...god dammit... if Roxy's puttin' ya up to this she wants me to tell ya about the Hound Dog. Before I joined up with Jed or Pearltown, I was part of a team workin' on a special ship. We'd been commissioned by Brooklyn Salvage to make a ship that could go underwater. Right? It was pretty awesome.



We even put our names on it, we were so drat proud of the thing. So we pass the thing off to Brooklyn and listen in on first dive they do. Things're going well and they manage to secure a good haul. But then the flaw with our beautiful boat becomes apparent, yeah? It goes underwater, but we forgot to make a way for it to go back up... Aaaaah! It was so obvious and dumb! I hate thinkin' 'bout it! I mean, a'course they'd wanna come back up! Its salvage. Ahhh!

Yeah, so Brooklyn weren't exactly happy 'bout that. We all scampered after that, figurin' she'd come lookin' for blood. I heard later in Pearltown that she'd gotten some other crew to adjust it later. Prolly' dredged it up for'em. But I ain't never gonna say I had a hand in it. Prolly' be my neck, not to mention I'd have to explain how drat stupid I was.

Kid Blink fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Oct 25, 2016

Josef bugman
Nov 17, 2011

Pictured: Poster prepares to celebrate Holy Communion (probablY)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund

PoultryGeist posted:

Gallow the Maestro'd
So Opal, she sworn to you too or a free agent?

Opal? Nah she's a free agent. Interesting story though. Turns out her daddy had been one of the people who used to own this place, back in the day. We found that out when she broke in through one of the vents and tried holding me up at knife point for "stealing" it from him. We got her calmed down eventually, and it turned out her father had been somewhat more mercenary with the truth than I was. Her dad had got in deep with the men who used to run the area. Big, scary sons of bitches with teeth like crocodiles. They had given him this place to run and he'd made it into their fortress. Eventually though the had fallen and he'd high tailed it out with the rest of them. Left me an opening and I, like the good service man I am, took it over. She'd been told by her dad to gut me, take it back and start holding the same ceremonies in the basement (took six weeks after we took it over to get the still set up and the blood stains cleaned). I made her a better offer. Mind the bar, don't get murdered, have a decent shot at a life. She was all of 13 at the time. It's taken time but we get on well. She's still got more of an issue with anything repitllian, and I still can't trust her alone with Healer, but what we've got works.

quote:

What’s the worst deal you’ve had to make to safeguard your operation?

The worst? That wasn't as long ago as I'd like. See a little over 8 seasons ago (Opal was working with me but the shark faced ones hadn't yet decided it was a good loving idea to steal sunlight) I was forced to deal with a royal bastard by the name of torsh. Guy was a nightmare, constantly buying up everywhere with jingle, setting himself up as a "merchant king". Now I don't like bastards who lord it too much, it always collapses and it generally does so on top of the lowest on the ladder. Now we can't go at this all guns blazing because if we do I either a) End up in charge of something I can't handle or b) end up a head on a pole.

So I decided on doing something better. I got his family to get rid of him. It's not something I am proud of but I convinced every single last one of his kids to turn on him the second they sensed weakness. Now he'd helped set that up by having a brood of kids who'd sooner cut off a finger than show weakness. But I still managed it. To one I swore blind that I had seen old Torsh talking with a hated rival. To another I said how he'd been playing a game which meant death in some languages. To a third I simply informed them of their fathers role in the murder of a man they were screwing. It took weeks to set up and Torsh was always watching for me to slip up. But eventually the big day came when he would decide a successor for the next month. It didn't go well. There was a riot, a fire, 2 different suicides and a whole helping of pointed fingers. I escaped the worst of it, but I had essentially helped an entire family annihilate itself. I am still not happy about that.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!


"You wanna go where? Oh, that's going to cost extra."

Drifting from settlement to settlement in search of ways to pay for fuel, ammo, and spare parts is a way of life for plenty of folks these days. Plenty die young, but Marlin is pretty sure she's different. Smarter, faster, and luckier than the average mariner. Better adapted to the new world than the old-timer she inherited her boat from, but not as lost to the Maelstrom as the Painted Men or the Kelp Witch. The Crate is going to help her stay alive - maybe it was just a fishing boat once, but a 2600 horsepower diesel engine and a tough hull go a long way in the new world.

The Driver posted:


Name: Marlin

Stats: Cool+2 Hard= 0 Hot+1 Sharp+1 Weird-1

Look: Woman, Showy Scrounge Wear, Gorgeous Face, Cool Eyes, Slim Body

Moves:
  • My other boat is a battleship: you get a specialized battle vehicle
  • Weather eye: when you open your brain to the world ’s psychic maelstrom, roll+cool instead of roll+weird.

Gear: In addition to your car, you get:
  • 1 handy weapon (Big Knife 2-harm hand)
  • oddments worth 4-barter
  • fashion suitable to your look (you detail)

HX
  • Which one of you once got me out of some serious poo poo? For that character, write Hx+1.
  • Which one of you has been with me for days on the road?For that character, write Hx+2.
  • Which one of you have I caught sometimes staring out at the horizon? For that character, write Hx+3.
  • For everyone else, write Hx-1. You aren’t naturally inclined to get too close to too many people.

"Crate" - Specialized Battle Vehicle. Speed 1 Handling 1 Armour 1 Massive 3
  • Frame: Utility (Fishing Boat) Massive 3, 2 Battle options.
  • Strengths: Rugged, Workhorse.
  • Looks: Garish, Quirky
  • Weakness: Loud, Guzzler
  • Battles Options: Speed +1, Handling +1, Armour +1, Mounted .50 cal.

thatbastardken fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Oct 24, 2016

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

Kid Blink posted:

Ok, ooc real quick. This may kill my app, but I can't figure out for the life of me what "a bit of flash" is. I looked through the mc playbook hoping, but couldn't find it. I figure its bit of tech or a weapon or something, but would you mind clarifying?

No worries, sometimes my apocalypse-speak gets too thick. There's something out there that Frizzo worked on that is fancy and high tech, but he doesn't want the credit for making/fixing

Shogeton
Apr 26, 2007

"Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

Henry Bemis



"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee"

It's apparently part of some poem, but none of the books I've got have the full part, but I really like this one. I don't get all the words myself, but I know that continents were huge pieces of land before the Maelstrom swallowed it. Europe was one of them. Manors were very luxe digs. But the most important part is the last one. The bell tolling was a message someone got cacked. It means that every time someone dies, a bit of you dies as well., even if it's an rear end in a top hat from over yonder An extra pair of hands less, another mind gone. Another bit of land swallowed by the seas. And just like all those clods ended up being washed away one by one, eventually, there's gonna be nothing left."

"We've all fallen to pieces. Not just in a physical sense, in that a lot of things are broken. Nothing that a good Savvy-head might be able to fix. And the things we just don't know how to make? Well, we made them once. We can make them again. Or find some alternative. No, I'm talking about us. As a people. Everyone's on their own little islands. And we don't help each other. We keep things secret. We destroy things so others can't get it. We even kill each other. We're not letting clods get washed away, we're actively digging parts of our island, and throwing it in the deepest sea.

"Now, that's more than just having some warm fuzzies. That means some serious compromises. Some folks do things you don't like. Maybe they rule by the might of weapons, rather than popular consent. Maybe anyone who strands on their island becomes merchandise. Maybe they worship weird things in the sea. Maybe you feel justified in putting some rounds in that rear end in a top hat. Maybe you are justified. But maybe justice is just something we cannot afford these days. I'm not gonna ask anyone to just bend their neck for any rear end in a top hat with a gun. If someone starts poo poo, I guess you defend yourself. But think twice before finishing it for real. The old stories speak of plenty of people who spared their opponents and became better for it.. Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Frodo and Gollum, Snake and Ocelot."

"If we can do that. If we work together, well, the good news is that this works in two directions, now doesn't it? Any person born adds to us. Any secret learned or recovered makes us all greater. Any wound healed is all of us healed. We can reclaim every last one of these 'clods' We can rebuild. We can do more than sitting here waiting for scraps and fuel to run out. If we do it together, and us here in the shoals. Let's start it right here."

"Well, enough of my yapping at you. I've got a visitor today. Guido from the Fishing fleet is here to tell us about some of his best tips for getting that tasty, tasty fish. And how to recognize which ones are luxe eating, and which one will get you the wild growth. After that, we'll continue with our next chapter of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Maybe this chapter, we'll know what the hell a hitchhiker is."

quote:

The News
Look: Man, Utility Wear, Open Face, Bright Eyes, Solid Body, Deep Voice
Stats: Cool+1 Hard+0 Hot+2 Sharp=+1 Weird=-1

Studio:
By default, your radio studio is a makeshift building which can comfortably house 2–4 people, with broadcast equipment and a single NPC guard (2-harm 1-armor, you detail).
*Spare rooms to comfortably house up to 10 people.
* NPC assitant (detail coming)

Guests, Radio Dramas (dramatic reading of books) Expert Advise

It attracts an endless stream of desperate people and you have an obligation to help.

Choose some people with connections to the station:
Name 3 informants:
Name your biggest fan:
Name 2 people you’ve pissed the gently caress of

Moves

No bullshit: when you read a person, you can always ask “is your character telling the
truth?” for free.

The good fight: when you talk passionately with another player’s character about your plans, the future, or how hosed up things are, roll+hot. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 2. You can spend your hold 1-for-1 to ask that character to do something, and if they doit, they mark experience. On a miss, they hold 1 over you, on exactly the same terms.

Gear

stun gun (s-harm hand reload)
Cargo pants, short, bag of books
• oddments worth 1-barter

Sex Move

If you and another character have sex, you see through
each others’ personas and get a glimpse of the person
underneath. They can choose to ask you 1, 2 or 3 questions,
and you can ask them the same number:
• What are you most afraid of?
• What are you most proud of?
• What do you do that’s just an act?
• Who do you secretly love?
• Who do you secretly hate?

Hx

Kid Blink
Feb 24, 2013

Of course, the whole point of
a Doomsday Machine is lost if
you KEEP IT A SECRET!

PoultryGeist posted:

No worries, sometimes my apocalypse-speak gets too thick. There's something out there that Frizzo worked on that is fancy and high tech, but he doesn't want the credit for making/fixing

I sort of figured, but wasn't sure. Thanks. I edited my response. So many good apps so far!

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
Man, y’all aren’t gonna make the choice easy, are ya? And here I was thinking an ocean-y setting might not be as interesting to folks.

Anywho, next batch of questions:

Raincatcher, the Waterbearer
Who held the Cistern before you came? There’s a threat to the Cistern or its people out there, what/who is it?


Siren, the Hocus
You run across Doctor Markus or his works since you *chuckle* high-tailed it? Which of your followers has given you the most trouble, and who’s sailed away that you miss?


Dakuwaqa, the Gunlugger
You’ve got some hardcore gear, where in Sea did it come from? Do you actually believe, or are you just in this for the violence?


Marlin, the Driver
Where’s the closest you’ve come to actually settling down, and why didn’t you? What's the weirdest thing you’ve out there in your travels?

PoultryGeist fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Oct 25, 2016

Frgrbrgr
Jan 20, 2009
Application done, above.

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?

Frgrbrgr posted:

Application done, above.

Gotcha on The List.

Schizotek
Nov 8, 2011

I say, hey, listen to me!
Stay sane inside insanity!!!

PoultryGeist posted:


Jacqueline Roux the Hardholder
What’s Inji got on you that you’ve given him such a loose leash?

PoultryGeist posted:


Jacqueline Roux the Hardholder
What fear sits in the back of your head, waiting for dark o’clock to clench your guts?

"Listen, I love my fellow comrades, each and every one. But half of them were from bands of murderous bandits or slavers themselves who were just too weak to fend off the Sun Kings. None of them actually seem all that enthusiastic about my ideology, and half of my armed forces consists of my insane incestuous family that just got overthrown, but I need to keep around to play against the former slaves so that no one gets time to realize that they could probably seize power for themselves. Return things to the old ways just with them at the top. You wanna know what Inji has on me that makes me let him do whatever he wants? Giant muscles, the respect of the populace, a complete lack of ambition (as far as the boring duties of rulership are concerned), and a giant well used pick axe. His talk of becoming my "Sun King" is just fanciful thinking. Even if I were leaning that way towards him, it wouldn't make either of us royalty. Saint Nix is a democracy after all."

Schizotek fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Oct 25, 2016

Rockopolis
Dec 21, 2012

I MAKE FUN OF QUEER STORYGAMES BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WITH MY LIFE THAN MAKE OTHER PEOPLE CRY

I can't understand these kinds of games, and not getting it bugs me almost as much as me being weird

PoultryGeist posted:

Koo the Child-Thing
What disguise did the last Wolf you encountered wear?
It looked like a grownup. Like any other human. This one was hunting for one of the sibs, hoping to catch a stray. It's not a safe world out there.
They're not something you can tell by looking - that'd be too easy. No, it's how they act. Some of them are real good at hiding until they smell weakness.
Just because it looks human, don't mean it can't act like a Wolf.

(homo homini lupus)

PoultryGeist posted:

Has anyone not of the sibs come into the Den?
Yeah. We're safe there, who can beat all the sibs? So we we can take in who we like, when we like.
There's only two kinds of people that need to come into the Den. The lost, until they're found, and the Wolves, till they're dead.

thatbastardken
Apr 23, 2010

A contract signed by a minor is not binding!

PoultryGeist posted:

Marlin, the Driver
Where’s the closest you’ve come to actually settling down, and why didn’t you? What's the weirdest thing you’ve out there in your travels?

Ever heard of Cloudland? It's where the Painted Men live. I got stuck there one after a storm blew me in to their harbour and they got on board before I realized where I was. They have actual solid land there, coming up out of the sea - it's called Cloudland because half the time the land is on fire, and melts, and makes steam from the waves. The black rock and ash-soil don't grow anything much but it's pretty inspiring to walk on real earth without a dive suit.



Anyway, I got caught. Their chief, Oar-lord, wanted me dead straight away for trespassing, but they have a shaman/brainer dude called Tekkany who said that I needed to stay as a 'Bride of Pele' because I was a gift from the sea. Tekkany won the argument which meant I got to live in a gilded caged for a couple months. Didn't need to work apart from being a feature in creepy rituals, I've never eaten as well before or since. I was only sneaking out at night to make repairs to the Crate from force of habit, really. I had to leave when the island started suffering worse tremors, fishing started to go bad, and more than one raid failed. The Painted stopped seeing me as a good luck charm, and I overheard talk about feeding me to the Red Mouth if things didn't improve. Maybe things would have turned around, but I wasn't going to take that risk. I had enough fuel stashed to make a run for the Shoals, and so I made a break for it one moonless night when the cloud could cover my escape. I feel kind of bad about it, but I never asked them to put me on a pedestal.

The weirdest thing I've what? Seen? That would be the Mirage. It looks like a huge before-times city that appears a few miles away at dusk, glowing with light and movement, but when you sail towards it moves away, and keeps retreating until dark. Then it just vanishes, and usually you've sailed into a trap or onto a reef. Heard? The radio on the Crate isn't the strongest, but I've had signals come in in languages I don't understand, some times things that don't sound human. The worst was a screaming voice that went on for what seemed like days, blaming me personally for fire and famine. It was my own voice, though. The weirdest thing I ever met was a talking whale. Just pulled alongside me and chatted for an hour about krill and sharks, then dived away. Never saw it again.

The Ocean is loving strange, is my point.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

PoultryGeist posted:

Dakuwaqa, the Gunlugger
You’ve got some hardcore gear, where in Sea did it come from? Do you actually believe, or are you just in this for the violence?

-some of it we do not recall.
-some if it we liberated from a so-called Wrecking Crew. We believe this crew to be destroyed, now; it seems unlikely forever. Did not seem to be the type.
-some of it we have been gifted for the destruction of others by a long-dead Chief of the Kings.
-some of it is lucky scrounge from the Locker.

-what is to believe, inquisitor? there is the fact that we roam, there is the fact that we destroy, there is the fact that we save.
-we are are our own instrument, do you question us?


edited my sheet, forgot gunluggers get 3 moves

SHY NUDIST GRRL
Feb 15, 2011

Communism will help more white people than anyone else. Any equal measures unfairly provide less to minority populations just because there's less of them. Democracy is truly the tyranny of the mob.

PoultryGeist posted:

Siren, the Hocus
You run across Doctor Markus or his works since you *chuckle* high-tailed it? Which of your followers has given you the most trouble, and who’s sailed away that you miss?

No of course I haven't seen Doctor Markus. He never leaves his lab. Actually, thinking about it, I never saw him while I was at his, uh, lair. He spoke to me through speakers or proxies. I suppose I would be doing errands for him if I was still there. Though who knows what might have happened. I was worried about being discarded as a "prototype," but maybe I should have been worried about being upgraded. I have seen some of his work. Mostly from a distance. It was quite dangerous. She was asking around about something I suppose. When she didn't like the answer she bot she just blasted away whoever she was dealing with.

Was she ever human? If it was a robot it would be way more advanced than the little wheeled servants bumbling around the compound. I don't believe he can create real intelligence. That's why he starts with people that can already think, I would guess. If that was the case all you would need of the person though is the brain. I would be pretty upset if I lost anymore of my body, probably. So I understand such a person having a hair trigger temper. Regardless where I saw her is no man's waters now. It's a shame, there was some ruins under the water surface I was there to explore. But now I won't get the chance too. It looked really fancy, like the compound.

Peter is the secular leader of the people. Such a position has to exist, I can't micromanage them. But he is particularly frustrating for his interpretation of my divinity. He believes the sea itself is a god, not just a force of nature. Ships, the ocean, and myself are all a celestial battle to him. That isn't the unique part. It is his begrudging respect for the sea. He believes in the need to appease it. When things are going fine it's not a problem. But when the catches are getting sparse or there is some other problem he gets ansy and gets ideas. The others might have their doubts but never argue against something that might bring the fish back if it doesn't demand too much of them. One time he claimed the sea was jealous of my gifts and he took all my nice dresses. That week was absolutely terrible. I guess it did motivate me to chase down a giant fish and catch it with my own hands. But I refuse to give him credit!

I really miss Ruth. She made me my favorite dress. It's not the most pretty. But it's this odd material that is good with the water. I don't know where she got it. I guess I never will now. But yeah I can wear it when I swim with no problem. It doesn't get caught in my joints. Or absorb water and become heavy. Or become see through. I try to always keep it on hand. Hmm now that I'm thinking of them both at the same time Ruth left when I told her about that cyborg. I hope she didn't sail in that direction! I told her how dangerous it was. That's why I even mentioned it. I really hope I see her again. She was really nice. Maybe she just got fed up with Peter. They were always butting heads.

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
A correction:

some idiot who spellz gud posted:

Raincatcher, the Waterbearer
Who held the Cistern before you came? There’s a threat to the Cistern or its people out there, what/who is it?

PoultryGeist
Feb 27, 2013

Crystals?
One more batch of questions:


Rox Kit, Gunlugger
What’s the closest you’ve come to The Flotilla since you got rafted? Who do you go to when the hate becomes too much?


Deep, the Child-Thing
Where in the Unnernee is even Dark afraid to go? Who have you been keeping an eye on?


Henry Bemis, the News
Where did you find all these books, and how do you have the mastery of the old words? Who’s the oddest listener you’ve encountered?

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Brainamp
Sep 4, 2011

More Zen than Zenyatta

PoultryGeist posted:

Rox Kit, Gunlugger
What’s the closest you’ve come to The Flotilla since you got rafted?

Closest was... half a decade ago. poo poo it's been a while. Thing about the Flotilla is that the drat thing is almost never anchored outside of the worst storms. Makes finding it again loving infuriating. Anyways, I'd picked up rumors about it after signing on with a bounty hunter over in Abra's Landing. Couple of fishers talking about these giant silver ships that appeared briefly on the horizon, then vanished. Idiots went on and on about it being some product of the Maelstrom, but I knew my home. Wasn't in a position to ditch the job I'd just gotten, but I had a spot and a direction. More than I can say for myself nowadays.

I didn't know about it when I was still a kid, but the Navigators had some way of knowing if other ships are nearby. The Flotilla ain't the fastest thing in the world, being so big and all, but if they knew someone is closing in on them they'd be moving in another direction asap. It's part of how it's managed to avoid the worst groups out in the deep water. How do I know this now? Cause I spent two loving years hopping from hold to hold chasing the same rumor. All the while I'd thought, "This time I'll be close. This time I can find a boat fast enough to get me out on the waters." Problem being that there ain't a ship fast enough before they've gotten a new heading.

So here I am now. Still working as muscle for anyone with the jingle, keeping an ear to the water for the silver ships.

quote:

Who do you go to when the hate becomes too much?


The who's the easy part. Conway Baines. Only other one of my group to drift up to the Shoals so far, though not by his own choice. A slaver crew'd gotten a hold of him and thought to barter him off here. Conway's what the people around here call an Angel. Lord knows why. He ain't exactly a saint, but he does know how keep your guts from spilling out onto the floor, so I guess that's good enough. Folk with his set of skills usually fetch a premium on price. What they got was a couple of my knives. Slavers are scum and damned if I was gonna let them try to sell one of my people. He's been here ever since. A close friend and basically family. Turns out having someone you can drink and vent with makes the Shoals seem a hell of a lot nicer then when you're sober.

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