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4b: You're not on a horse 5: You and the Mechanic   1: You Wake Up 2: You Decide To Go Forward 3: That... that's really quite bad. 4: You Turn Right 4b: You're not on a horse 5: You and the Mechanic ============================================================= Chapter 1: You wake up. Your eyes open slowly and painfully. You blink at the sun, peeking intermittently through thick clouds. The humidity and heat feel like someone's pressing a hot towel on your face. You struggle to your feet. You have no idea where you are. You have no idea how you got there. You are 100% sure that you shouldn't be here, though. Your hands reach for your pockets. You feel a pen, some dollars, a handkerchief... and a note. Directions. The note is directions to your hotel, for your wedding. In a small town near Paris. Where you're supposed to be. Today. The wedding isn't until Wednesday, but you feel a surge of rising panic. You have to get to an airport. You also remember vaguely a show about desert survival you watched recently. It seems like it might apply here, too. You should communicate as fast as possible. You must stay on the roads. It looks like you could go in either direction, forward or backwards.  Where are on earth ARE we. Where should we go? Bacter fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Sep 28, 2015 |
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Aug 9, 2015 23:22
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TRAVELER'S WALL O FAME: For those who get our characters to stop being lost, and get found! First adventure: Carbon Dioxide  Bacter posted:Bacter's pre-update note: Bacter posted:Bacter's post-update note Current Status: Healthy. No major injuries. Getting kind of hot. Tired. Thirsty. Pretty Thirsty Inventory: Directions to hotel near Paris Pen Handkerchief Lint Water bottle (empty) Bottle of alcohol Clues as to location: After finding bank notes, we're almost certainly in Chile We're somewhere between "Chaiten" and "PTO Cardenas" Skills Cost accounting English, conversational French, basic Spanish Likeable Bacter fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Sep 21, 2015 |
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Aug 9, 2015 23:25
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Eh, let's go forward.
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Aug 10, 2015 01:02
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i'm scared, let's go back
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Aug 10, 2015 01:23
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Mind reeling with indecision, you take a moment to collect yourself and observe your surroundings. You turn to your left  This is DEFINITELY not Paris. You turn to your right  This... doesn't even seem like it'd be anywhere between New York and Paris. A plane crash seemed like the most likely explanation, but you don't see any wreckage anywhere. Or see anybody else, for that matter. You look behind you  Dang son, those are some pretty mountains. Well, the discarded road blocks, general condition of the road, the pipe you saw off to your right, all mean this area isn't TOTALLY deserted. You are starting to feel a little thirsty in the heat. You realize that as long as you stay reasonably close to the road, you could probably do most anything. You could search for something, you could use anything you're carrying or wearing, you could try to call for help, or, again, you could... go: backward or forwards
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Aug 10, 2015 04:09
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May as well just keep going forward.
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Aug 10, 2015 04:58
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take one of the red things on the road
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Aug 10, 2015 05:13
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Grab those two white boomerangs on the ground, you may need to kill your dinner or defend your self. Also, I say go forward!
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Aug 10, 2015 06:18
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Dammit guys, this is what happens when you get Charlie to organise your stag do! We didn't even get to the hookers and blow part! Get the pipe, we'll need something to defend ourselves when night falls and the wolves show up
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Aug 10, 2015 07:04
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Contemplate the futility of life
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Aug 10, 2015 15:14
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Go forward. The boomerang reply was very funny, klen.
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Aug 10, 2015 19:07
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Forward
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Aug 10, 2015 21:17
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Onwards we go!
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Aug 10, 2015 22:06
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Bacter's pre-update note: This is probably a good point to start to bring this up. We're playing a character here, and we only have access to what they would have access to. In other words, some of you might, for instance, use Google to determine where we probably are based on the popularity of, oh, say, a bottle of water. But our hapless character has no idea where this bottle of water is from. I think the MOST fun will be if you can resist the urge to try to figure out beforehand where we are, but for those of you Google fiends, just know that you can't use any "psychic" knowledge. That said, we can at least eliminate, say, the possibility that this bottle of water was made somewhere where they don't use the Latin Alphabet. If you can think of anything else useful a regular guy could determine from our surroundings or inventory, feel free! In future modules, I'd like to do some (blind) character creation before we begin, but for the purposes of right now, assume that 1) We are a native of the US 2) We have traveled to France, England, Mexico, and Canada, but only for short trips 3) We are fluent in English and conversational in French, with a smattering (a smattering!) of Spanish 4) We have basic outdoor survival skills. We've gone camping before, and could probably create a small shelter, but we couldn't start a fire without materials. 5) Our profession is So, close to "the average Joe" If somebody gets a good idea of some trick to use that they think an average guy could come up with, I'm more than happy to allow it. Just nothing that requires specialized skills or lots of practice. I'm not saying a fire is going to be necessary or useful (man I hope we find our way into a city before nightfall), but we won't be able to start one with just sticks. We've heard of people starting a fire by friction, but we've no idea how. END OF UPDATE NOTE ============================================================= You resolve to move forwards! Blind Sally posted:take one of the red things on the road The triangular red/orange road blockers are pretty dented up - it looks like they were tossed aside as some vehicle plowed through them. You try to lift one, but it's absurdly too heavy to carry. You contemplate returning them to their upright position, but decide you've got much, MUCH better things to do. As you return the barrier to the ground, something rolls out one side of it:  A bottle of "Cachantun". It looks and smells like water. Definitely not alcoholic, at least by odor. It might have been left behind by whoever put these barriers here, or by someone who moved them. Or just somebody walking along the road, whatever man, it's free water. It's open, and super hot, but you take it anyway. It's too big to comfortably fit in your pocket, so now one hand is occupied. klen dool posted:Grab those two white boomerangs on the ground, you may need to kill your dinner or defend your self. Also, I say go forward! You notice the white triangles with a start. Reaching out, you grab one only to find that you are SUDDENLY PARALYZED! Unable to move forward, you stumble backwards, falling to the ground. You drop the boomerang-like triangle in a fright, and suddenly find you can move forwards again. You make a mental note to never do that again. Rarity posted:Dammit guys, this is what happens when you get Charlie to organise your stag do! We didn't even get to the hookers and blow part! You could really use a pipe, but THIS one is a drainage pipe, and also absurdly too big to carry.  This is it. Pyroi posted:Contemplate the futility of life You immediately and violently regret your decision. Chorus of Goons posted:Move forward! Right! On we go!  You crunch on the gravel road past big broadleafed trees and shoots of bamboo. Besides birdsong, which you don't recognize, you hear no vehicles or human noise.  Note: I'd love to get some better gif compression software, until then, we'll say we're still a bit woozy from the heat You see water standing in fields, and sometimes in small creeks that pass underneath t he road.  You see more mountains rise up as you continue on. Clearly, you're in some kind of vale between the mountains. Since you don't see a road cross over them, there must be a way around. As you trudge you, you get a little overheated. You're now quite thirsty, but there's no telling how long it'll be until you get to a city, so you're not sure how much to drink, if any. Once, near the edge of the forest, you catch a glimpse of  this little guy, munching on some grass. He gives you a blank stare, and turns and trots away into the foliage. Just a little bit farther, though, and your heart skips a beat!  Civilization! Well, civilization that's more than just a road that could be traveled once a year. The fence looks old but somewhat well-maintained. Sure enough, a little further down the road  A house!! You see no movement. Nevertheless, this is certainly the best news you've had today. You're somewhat around the bend from the house, probably concealed behind a few outlying trees. As you're about to move towards the house, you hear the first man-made noise you've heard yet: a loud CRACK that makes you wince. It could have been a gun, or an engine backfiring, or... that's all you can come up with at the moment. Nevertheless, it gives you pause. What do we do now? As always, options include most anything you can think of. We can re-visit anywhere we've been (it's not a long walk away), use anything we have, drink, shout, go investigate the house, this is a D&D style "what next". Except that we can't multiclass. Or level up. Sorry. WHAT'S NEXT, MY DROOGS? Bacter's post-update note In case anybody's wondering: I certainly won't include every inch of road we encounter - we might be hundreds of miles from a proper town, you know! I skipped some regular terrain this time, for instance. That said, I'll include anything I think is interesting, and I won't skip roads and suddenly put us somewhere new, and I won't mix up chronology - you'll see things in the order in which we encounter them on the road. While I know where we are (this time!), I haven't scouted the whole path, so it's a bit of discovery for both of us. Assume anything we don't see is more road, with no special features. Bacter fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 04:05
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Approach the house and be real quiet. If you don't hear more cracking noises, approach it like normal.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:18
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Note that the second post will be updated per updates, with current clues, status, etc. Feel free to propose ideas as to where we are. If I generally agree that it's a good idea and that we could figure it out, it'll go there!
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Aug 11, 2015 04:29
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That brand sounds vaguely Spanish, I guess? Call out "Hola amigo! Como estas?" Ok, Transatlantic flight, lots of mountains, dirt roads, tropical environment. If we do meet a Spanish-speaking person, I'm calling Cuba plus timewarp to pre-9/11 when hijacking a plane and not being immediately shot down was still a thing. Added Space fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 05:00
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zfleeman posted:Approach the house and be real quiet. If you don't hear more cracking noises, approach it like normal. Sounds sensible, so I'm going agree.
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Aug 11, 2015 05:25
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Bacter posted:You could really use a pipe, but THIS one is a drainage pipe, and also absurdly too big to carry. Ah gotcha Crawl into the drainage pipe! Cachantun has a vague Aztec vibe about it. I'm thinking we're in Mexico/Central America
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Aug 11, 2015 06:15
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I've seen how those survival shows go...let's hunt for worms.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:38
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If there's anything I've learned from watching endless reruns on Discovery, it's that there's no use in rationing water! So chug that
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Aug 11, 2015 10:36
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First of all, please fix my tables (it's the line of === ) Secondly, that stream seems clean enough. We have a steady source of water if we need it.
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Aug 11, 2015 11:01
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That little deer dude looks like the South American pygmy deer I've seen at the San Diego Zoo and in various nature documentaries, but could be a completely different species as I'm pretty sure there's little deer guys like that in a bunch of places (and I'm not looking that up). In any case, there's nothing like them in the vicinity of the North Atlantic so we're clearly pretty drat far off course. We're clearly in or near the tropics and the bottle, plus the whole look of this place screams "Latin America" while the variety of plants, foggy weather, and big-rear end mountains all suggest we're at fairly high elevation. There are more than a few places that could look like this, but my guess is we're somewhere in that spine of mountains that runs from central Mexico to the Andes. Spanish is definitely the language to try, but English or French might actually work as well. e: Start off with a "buenos tardes" and follow it up with "me gusta los nachos" as needed. Duckbox fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 11:55
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Duckbag posted:e: Start off with a "buenos tardes" and follow it up with "me gusta los nachos" as needed. Also a "dos cervezas por favor". We are pretty thirsty.
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Aug 11, 2015 17:54
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Time to dredge up the memories from Mrs. Crabfrock's Spanish lessons. Let's see... Donde esta la biblioteca?
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Aug 11, 2015 18:24
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I think the pilot had the compass turned the wrong way. Maybe they thought 'East' was 'South'? Let's go toward the house. If we do find someone, we need them to get us to the airport. Stick out arms, make zooming noises, and say "Where is the airport-o?"
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Aug 13, 2015 19:31
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I say we try to communicate with the only true universal language. Interpretive Dance.
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Aug 13, 2015 23:25
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Chapter 3: That... that's really quite bad Righto, first things first: Duckbag posted:That little deer dude looks like the South American pygmy deer I've seen at the San Diego Zoo and in various nature documentaries, but could be a completely different species as I'm pretty sure there's little deer guys like that in a bunch of places (and I'm not looking that up). In any case, there's nothing like them in the vicinity of the North Atlantic so we're clearly pretty drat far off course. We've been to the zoo a few times, but for all we remember, this thing could be native to anywhere from Central Asia to Zimbabwe. That said, we DO know it's sure not found in the US, natively. We recognize that we are DEFINITELY SUPER OFF-COURSE  You think a little more, and take in your surroundings. Rarity posted:Cachantun has a vague Aztec vibe about it. I'm thinking we're in Mexico/Central America Duckbag posted:We're clearly in or near the tropics and the bottle, plus the whole look of this place screams "Latin America" while the variety of plants, foggy weather, and big-rear end mountains all suggest we're at fairly high elevation. There are more than a few places that could look like this, but my guess is we're somewhere in that spine of mountains that runs from central Mexico to the Andes. Spanish is definitely the language to try, but English or French might actually work as well. While you don't have any hard evidence, your best guess is that you're somehwere in the Andes mountains!  You know a smattering of Spanish, and a little more French, so hopefully we'll be able to communicate when we find somebody! While you are excited to find other people, a natural sense of caution stops you from bounding right in. You decide you should be in the best possible shape before confronting whatever lies ahead. inscrutable horse posted:If there's anything I've learned from watching endless reruns on Discovery, it's that there's no use in rationing water! So chug that You down that mother in basically one gulp. You didn't realize how thirsty you were! You're now cooled off and not at all thirsty! Rarity posted:Crawl into the drainage pipe!  That would take a little too long to backtrack, unfortunately. You DO refill the water bottle from a nearby stream of water (with small pipes that would be impossible to climb into). It's kind of murky, yo. It's got little pieces of grass and other particulate matter in it. That said, at least it wasn't a stagnant pool! whitehelm posted:I've seen how those survival shows go...let's hunt for worms. You really "luck out" as far as this one goes - you find a whole mess of worms in a big tree near the side of the road. You take a few minutes and pick a bunch of them.  You're not really sure how to hold onto them, so they're just in your hand for now. You could probably keep them in the water bottle, but then you'd have to empty it. They'd squish in your pocket. They're kind of gross, but they are at least fat looking, and they could be super nutritious. Or poisonous. While you're picking worms, you hear one more crack. Crouching near the creek, you hear a few car doors slam, and an ATV drive in the direction you were coming from. You see a few men in the jeep, wearing bandanas. It's not possible to tell much about them, as the ATV was moving pretty quickly by the time it reached your corner of the road. You creep towards the house. You see a propane tank in the back, and discarded plastic bins littering the exterior of the house.  Deciding that if it wasn't safe, you should at least try to make a good first impression, you knock on the door and let loose with a salvo of remembered Spanish. Buenos dias! Como estas? Dos cervesas, por favor! Buenos tardes! Necesito ir al aeropuerto.... Your voice fades away abruptly. The door swung open at your knock, and you see a man slumped in the shack. He had been sitting, and was evidently shot, at least once, in the chest. His eyes bulge, and his mouth is... really open quite a lot. Much farther than you'd assume a mouth would normally open. His jaw is probably broken. His hands twitch one and then go still. You're caught between fear of being in the room with him, and fear of being outside, where more men could see you. You take a quick step into the room, and the door swings shut. Eyes adjusting to the light, you can see some wooden furniture, a set of tools, housewares, and a few beds in a room in the back. There is a figure laying in one of the beds, not moving. Nothing seems to be ransacked or particularly out of order. You jump and give a shout as you feel motion against your arm, and realize it's one of the stupid handful of worms you're still carrying, which wiggled free of your grip and is crawling down your arm. You scoop it back up. You feel a crawling dread at being caught on the road by the men in the ATV (though you don't know them to be hostile) - who knows where they were headed? But also an intense desire not to be around the grotesque old man. You can see out the back window a tarp covering something out back, there is the bedroom yet to explore, and the road ahead...  or behind, where the dust is barely settling on the ATV's tracks...  as you take a moment, you decide what to do now?
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Aug 14, 2015 20:28
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Just a little aside: I AM running this a bit like D&D - as in, the men in the ATV were always going to be there. If we'd been less cautious about barging in, would have had to deal with them (but might have saved the old man. Maybe not SUPER likely, but possible!), so things will happen around us, and we've got to make the best job of it we can.
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Aug 14, 2015 20:31
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This is messed up, but we are lost and need supplies. Loot.
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Aug 14, 2015 21:42
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Wentley posted:This is messed up, but we are lost and need supplies. Loot. Works for me.
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Aug 14, 2015 21:47
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Try to remember the car's license plate Additionally, Look for any information that could identify your location in or around the shack
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Aug 14, 2015 22:04
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Guys... this is kinda hosed up Fall to our knees and pray to God for salvation
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Aug 14, 2015 22:38
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You loot the house Wiping the sweat from your brow, your dressy clothes are thoroughly soaked with sweat from walking in the midday heat - it's even hotter indoors, it's like an oven in here. Rarity posted:Guys... this is kinda hosed up You fall to your knees and pray that things work out well, but you have the uncanny sensation that somebody stole your prayer for their own use. How impolite! Wentley posted:This is messed up, but we are lost and need supplies. Loot. Good idea. Just to start with, in the corner you find a sack of rice, one of beans, and one of dried peas. There's also plenty of salted meat, and, in an unrefrigerated but closed cupboard, some raw meat. There are also onions and big banana looking things. Plantains, you remember from some whole foods run. You also find some avocados and other fruit-looking things. There are strings of dried peppers hanging, along with garlic. You also find a few jerry-cans full of water, and a few bottles of some kind of alcohol. You dump your gamey-looking water out the window and refill from this clean source. There are various wooden plates and pieces of cutlery, an oil lamp, and wooden furniture. There are plenty of colorful blankets, and a stiff-bristled broom leaning in the corner. Past the kitchen in the main room there isn't much - a few chairs, some empty bottles and jars, and a central table with a bible and rosary on it. The man sits in a chair on the far side of the room, slumped in a chair. He's wearing rough-worn clothes, muddy leather boots, and his hands and face look weathered. You prefer not to look at his face too much, though. Back in the bedroom, you see the same weathered wood used to make beds, with nails driven into the walls used as clotheshangers. There are two beds. Clothes are stored in a wardrobe, along with a few crumpled bills. You see a lump under the covers, and make some noise - first by banging on the wall, then by calling out. When you get no response, you draw the covers back and see thick black hair matted on a face wet with perspiration. The young woman's eyes are open and staring, and her jaw is cracked open, like the older man's. Hands shaking, you do a final sweep of the room, finding another lantern, a worn flashlight, some spare boots, a coil of rope, and a leather rucksack. You're really starting to regret carrying this handful of worms around. Peeking out the side window, you can see a table and a stack of tires in the small building outside, Carbon dioxide posted:Try to remember the car's license plate Two top-notch ideas. You can't recall the license plate - it was long and thin, black letters on a white plate. What you DO remember was seeing an insignia painted on the back, a half-circle with three arrows pointing towards the center and two smaller arrows crossing the circle, with a star on the outside. It looked something like this:  The bible in the main room is clearly in spanish, but you almost don't need it:  The money is from Chile, so unless this guy is an international traveler, you're there. You pat yourself on the back for guessing the Andes correctly, at least! So, after COLLECTING WHATEVER YOU COLLECT from the house (tell me in comments below what's worth taking!) You head out cautiously down the road.  For a while it's just more fences and crunching gravel.  You're excited to see a road sign, unfortunately it's just a warning about the turn you just passed.  Despite the situation you're in, the mountains make quite an impression on you. The hot sun can't quite burn away the mist, and you get an impression of immensity and age - you always did like the mountains.  About a half-hour's walk later, you run into the first sign of (modern, non-hostile) civilization! Some kind of tower - for radio, you guess, or cell phones or something. You're no engineer.  You do note that after that station, there are electrical lines. You feel encouraged that this is probably the direction towards civilization!  About 15 minutes past that, you start to see more and more structures built just off the road, and you think you hear the lowing of cattle from somewhere off past the treeline.  The streams are getting larger and more frequent - you can even see some small fish in them! You see some large birds of prey swooping past the forest overhead, they could be hawks or eagles.  Freshly stacked firewood! You must be close to another house somewhere!  And indeed you are! This place looks much better equipped than the previous shack - they've even got DirecTV! The house is silent, and you don't make a lot of noise as you walk past.  That house is more like a compound - the number of structures and fields stretches far down the road - if this is a farmer or rancher, they sure own a lot of land. You don't see any bodies, but you don't see living people outside too. You guess you wouldn't want to be out working in this heat, but you have no idea if the lack of activity is suspicious or not.  Now THIS is looking big-time! The sign reads "Puente las Estacas". You remember Puente is point, but you don't know "estacas". It could be the town name?  There's obviously been some felling of trees and shoring up of rivers around here - evidence of attention. Not to mention that road you can just make out...  You see cattle grazing for the first time.  A real road sign! Your heart practically skips a beat. To the left is "Chaiten", to the right is "PTO. Cardenas".  And just past that is a real, paved road! Your sense of relief is palpable. You're not out of the woods yet, but with every step closer to civilization, you feel a bit safer. This road isn't exactly packed, but you can count on ~5 vehicles to be passing in either direction per half hour or so. It's currently late afternoon. and you're pretty hot and thirsty after that walkin'. BUT, GOONS, OUT OF THE WOODS WE ARE NOT! First, we got to decide what we took from the shack, if anything. Second, we got to decide what we did along the way to the highway, if anything. Did we check out the bigger house? They could give us directions or help - or be suspicious of the foreigner who appeared out of nowhere - to say nothing of if they learn that the guy down the road is dead gruesomely! Or they could be dead themselves, or you know, whatever. And finally, assuming we don't get directions, which way do we go?? Bacter fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Aug 16, 2015 |
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Aug 16, 2015 06:42
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So, this first one was pretty simple, but do note that Carbon Dioxide gets on the wall o' travelers, for being the one who made us found instead of lost!
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Aug 16, 2015 06:51
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Take the rucksack, lantern, salted meat, avocados and rope Empty the sack of beans, put the worms inside and take those too Eat a plaintain while we walk Go right to PUERTO Cardenas
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Aug 16, 2015 07:02
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Rarity posted:Take the rucksack, lantern, salted meat, avocados and rope This seems like a good plan. Except the worms. Dump the drat worms.
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Aug 16, 2015 11:33
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Rarity posted:Take the rucksack, lantern, salted meat, avocados and rope Agreed. Bring the plaintains too, but don't eat them while you go. If you don't cook those things you're gonna get a stomach ache. Eat an avocado instead. Drop the worms, but do bring the money. You don't recognize the town names, so toss a coin or a similar object to decide which way to go. Carbon dioxide fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Aug 16, 2015 |
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Aug 16, 2015 13:05
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We'd better grab a bottle of alchohol if it's not too big. Useful for tending wounds if we have to, possibly burning for fuel, or bartering for a ride. I'm in favor of turning toward Pto. Cardena, because you can't spell 'aeropuerto' without 'pto'!
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Aug 17, 2015 03:13
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And I'm assuming nobody wants to look at house #2? I'm not saying that's a BAD idea, mind (or it might be!)
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Aug 17, 2015 04:16
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