BOAT: THISTLE

[crittersheep]

[ You’re in a sleek, gilded reception room aboard a large and - aside from your team - empty ship. It’s full of fabulous kitchens (splattered with blood but still usable!) and ballrooms (full of instruments, all playable!) and glittering spires and stagnant-smelling but comfortable sleeping quarters. When nobody is using the intercoms to speak, a tune hums through.

Other than that, there’s thick mist surrounding everything, a path lit only by the ship’s signal light as it travels toward whatever it is you’re in search of and away from the home you can never return to. Waves crash gently against the hull, growing louder and fiercer as time goes on, and there’s faint wailing and howling in the distance…what is going on in this sea? Well, it’s not very important to you. What’s important is surviving.

You have a life to live. ]

Comments

FIRST VERSE

[crittersheep]

Name your ship and answer the following questions as a team: you are seeking something familiar to you, yet unknown.

What is it?

When you find it, will you welcome it?

When you find it, will you become one with it?

DISCUSSION

[crittersheep]

Re: DISCUSSION

[reportinastorm]

[Flora has never been on a boat before. She peers out uncertainly at the crashing waves before retreating into the reception room.]

What happened? We're... on the ocean?

Re: DISCUSSION

[leonheartedly]

It's this one again . . .

[survivaltricks]

[. . .]

[DRYLY]

This is one way to welcome a guy back, I suppose.

Re: DISCUSSION

[pictureimperfect]

[I objectively do not have a life to live]

Can we be seeking a mop to clean up all this blood?

TURN-IN

[crittersheep]

SECOND VERSE

[crittersheep]

Treasure: 100
Light: 100
Nervous Impairment: 0
Nethersea Brand: 1
Little Handy Charges: 3

CURRENT JOB: Sailor
ABILITY: SPEED UP!: Increase your ship’s speed to escape your pursuers chasing you, bringing peace of mind. Reduces Nervous Impairment by 10 points but will create a wake that might damage anything else floating in the waves nearby.

EVENT 1

[crittersheep]

With no choice but to flee from the catastrophe afflicting your home, you set sail in search of satisfaction. However, you’re stopped by a ship under the ruling flag of your home, demanding a port fee of 10 Treasures. Despite the pursuit that’s underway, these people at least aren’t hostile to you. Yet, anyway…

Do you pay?

EVENT 2

[crittersheep]

Your ship’s galley has a serious pest problem. The food you left with was whatever you could gather, and it seems it was tainted - Rodents (Large) and Insects (Innumerable) ravage your food stores, leaving your flock with little to eat.

What do you do?

TURN-IN

[crittersheep]

Remember to also state whether you're paying Ship Maintenance (-10 Treasure or +10 Nervous Impairment) or not!

DISCUSSION

[crittersheep]

THIRD VERSE

[crittersheep]

Treasure: 100
Light: 90
Nervous Impairment: 10
Nethersea Brand: 2
Little Handy Charges: 2

CURRENT JOB: Sailor
ABILITY: SPEED UP!: Increase your ship’s speed to escape your pursuers chasing you, bringing peace of mind. Reduces Nervous Impairment by 10 points but will create a wake that might damage anything else floating in the waves nearby.

EVENT 1

[crittersheep]

Your ship, and the people living in it are all rather resource poor. You can’t stand to see the suffering - something needs to be done, you think. There’s a major shipping lane nearby...perhaps you could take a detour and relieve those merchants of their goods?

EVENT 2

[crittersheep]

You find a survivor in a shipwreck - which also has plenty of resources to salvage. However, this person has something strange, translucent, and blue dripping from them. Do you rescue them?

TURN-IN

[crittersheep]

DISCUSSION

[crittersheep]

FINAL VERSE

[crittersheep]

Treasure: 110
Light: 60
Nervous Impairment: 50
Nethersea Brand: 2
Little Handy Charges: 2

CURRENT JOB: Sailor
ABILITY: SPEED UP!: Increase your ship’s speed to escape your pursuers chasing you, bringing peace of mind. Reduces Nervous Impairment by 10 points but will create a wake that might damage anything else floating in the waves nearby.

EVENT 1

[crittersheep]

!!CURSE!! YOU ARE CURSED. A cry of lament sounds out from the ships of your pursuers, cursing you for your crimes. You feel cold and pained, and eventually you develop HYPOTHERMIA and a sense of impending doom.

EVENT 2

[crittersheep]

Your nerves fray significantly, and you start to suffer nightmares of the deep and waking hallucinations of mishappen kelp and barnacle covered creatures stalking the halls of your ship. In addition, the sea seemingly calls to you - it is hard to resist the urge to submerge yourself in the depths. Paranoia begins to seep in, making you suspect every sound you hear as a harbinger of something terrible.

Your wounds grow worse, and eventually you grow feverish as they become INFECTED.

EVENT 3

[crittersheep]

You just kind of find some treasure floating out in the middle of the sea.

This definitely seems like a trap.

MESSAGE

[crittersheep]

"Thistle my dear, there's a problem, I fear.
To your dismay, that swear tax is there to stay,
As you did name your ship something vulgar this day."

TURN-IN

[crittersheep]

DISCUSSION

[crittersheep]

CODA.

[crittersheep]

Treasure: 90
Light: 50
Nervous Impairment: 40
Nethersea Brand: 0
Little Handy Charges: 0

CURRENT JOB: Sailor
ABILITY: SPEED UP!: Increase your ship’s speed to escape your pursuers chasing you, bringing peace of mind. Reduces Nervous Impairment by 10 points but will create a wake that might damage anything else floating in the waves nearby.

You did not find what you were looking for, but you did come out with more than you started. Well,

a final altercation with The Prima Vista has left your entire flock STABBED and SHOT and with at least ONE BROKEN BONE, as well as 20 Treasure poorer as a reprisal for pirating on their turf. But still! You might be cursed, you might be disdained...

...but it all kept you safe, so that's really all that matters. You survived.

Return to the surface.