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Post #0 (isolation #0) » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:59 am
Postby JDodge »
Welcome, one and all, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and children of all ages; you are about to take the first steps on the path to a new world. So you are driven, by destiny and fate, to one goal; what is this goal? Time will tell. So walk with me, one and all, on this...
The Incredible Journey.
Here's how this works:
The game is divided into 10 books, each with a varying number of chapters. Each chapter, you will be given a choice. Some choices are good. Some could be fatal. There may not be a right choice. There may not be a wrong choice. If you do make a wrong choice, chances are you're going to get hurt. All players have an HP score that goes down varying amounts with wrong choices. If it hits 0, you're dead.
Don't take everything at face value. Everyone lies. Nothing is as it seems.
The Journey So Far:
Book 1 - Fire
- Chapter 1.1 - Let's Start The Show
Islanders Arc
- Chapter 1.2 - We're Starting a Fire
- Chapter 1.4 - It's My Desire
- Chapter 1.6 - It's Only Money
Pirates Arc
- Chapter 1.3 - A Soul to Sell
- Chapter 1.5 - Jungle of Sin
- Chapter 1.7 - Reach Into the Fire
Last edited by JDodge on Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:25 am, edited 5 times in total.
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Post #2 (isolation #2) » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:03 am
Postby JDodge »
Book 1 - Fire
Chapter 1.1 - Let's Start The Show
Another beautiful morning dawns aboard the Defiant, a merchant ship sailing for Port Royal carrying a shipment of tea. You are members of its crew, a dangerous task in this day and age of piracy. You're at most four days out of port. You look forward to standing on dry land again, having been at sea for a while. Another day of hard work awaits you - better get to it!
It's about noon on the high seas. The tropical heat is making you sweat. The sun glistens off of the waters. A ship draws nearer on the horizon. You're all rather wary of the situation; Sir Henry Morgab had warned you of the pirate besieging the local trades. Captain Pierre le Picard, he was called. He'd been an officer under both l'Ollonaise and Sir Henry Morgan. He was a force to be reckoned with, to be sure.
The white sails of the approaching ship gleam brightly in the midday sun. A man stands atop the crows nest, staring intently at your ship. The ship begins to turn...
Bang.
A flash streaks across your vision. Wood shatters across the side of the ship. A single black flag waves atop the mast of the approaching ship. You don't stand a chance. Your captain waves the white flag and surrenders to the pirates. A man comes aboard the ship, in garb that makes you think he's the captain of the other ship.
Yes, they are the pirates besieging the waters. And they're giving you a simple choice; you may either join their crew or you may be marooned upon the nearby uncharted island. The island appears to be relatively large, with rolling hills and a beautiful waterfall. On the beach you see many palm trees and some beautiful white sand. Really, you couldn't ask for a better place to be stranded without any hope at all at this time of the year.
What option do you take?
Head for the island
or
Join the pirate crew
You must choose your destiny by Tuesday morning. To play in this game, simply make your decision.
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Post #34 (isolation #5) » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:12 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.2 (Islanders) - We're Starting a Fire
So you ended up stranded on an island. You may never see your families again. You may have to resort to cannibalism to survive. But for now, you know you need one very important thing; a fire.
The beach is strewn with wreckage and various tidbits; it would appear that this is a hotbed for shipwrecks. You could probably also guess that by the rotting corpses of the last people stranded on this island, and the bones of the ones before.
Nasty.
But right, the fire. Strewn across the beach are numerous things that may or may not help you; a pistol with no bullets, some gunpowder, numerous sticks and rocks, an old oil lantern, some coconuts, eyeglasses, and a yellow-tinted book. The book's cover says "Fire Starting (and UNIX) for Dummies".
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Post #36 (isolation #6) » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:28 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.3 (Pirates) - A Soul to Sell
Congratulations! It is now a pirate's life for you. You pillage, you plunder, you rifle, you loot; you kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot. You extort, you pilfer, you filch and you sack, maraud and embezzle, and even hijack. You kindle and char, inflame and ignite, you burn up the city, you're really a fright; you're rascals, scoundrels, villains and knaves; you're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs. You're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads; but at least you are loved by your moms and your dads.
Now that the painstaking lyrical reference is out of the way, it's been a couple of weeks since the incident at sea. You're adjusting fairly well to the pirate lifestyle, and today the captain has his sights set on another merchant ship. Looks like fairly easy pickings.
Your ship approaches the other. Closer and closer you get. It's then that you notice something amiss.
Sure, this is indeed a merchant ship you're approaching; but it's most definitely not being used for merchant purposes at the moment. It is filled with soldiers of the crown. Your ship pulls parallel to theirs. It's too late to turn back. You have to go into battle. You have a choice between grabbing a pistol and a cutlass and boarding the other ship, going below-decks and manning the cannons, or hiding like a sissy little girl. The choice is yours. So, do you:
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Post #47 (isolation #8) » Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:36 pm
Postby JDodge »
Hybris wrote:Well, I'm going to assume that since we already have two, and probably several more people working on the fire, I'm going to go do something else with my time. Like go fishing and getting some food. And trying to gather supplies to build small shelters out of, because a single fire is going to go out as soon as it begins raining. And, I'm sure I can find fresh water around this island. So I'll help with that.
Oh, and I'll take the pistol as well, despite it having no bullets. We might need it sometime and it'd be bad to forget it.
You were stranded in different places with suspiciously similar refuse lying around. You're going to be awful cold tonight without a fire.
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Post #60 (isolation #9) » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:03 am
Postby JDodge »
JDodge wrote:
Hybris wrote:Well, I'm going to assume that since we already have two, and probably several more people working on the fire, I'm going to go do something else with my time. Like go fishing and getting some food. And trying to gather supplies to build small shelters out of, because a single fire is going to go out as soon as it begins raining. And, I'm sure I can find fresh water around this island. So I'll help with that.
Oh, and I'll take the pistol as well, despite it having no bullets. We might need it sometime and it'd be bad to forget it.
You were stranded in different places with suspiciously similar refuse lying around. You're going to be awful cold tonight without a fire.
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Post #65 (isolation #11) » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:22 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.3 (Pirates) - A Soul To Sell (Pt. Two)
The cannons flash. The boarding crew jumps aboard the other ship, swords drawn. A small group of pirates run and hide in the deepest recesses of the ship.
The military opens fire with its cannons. The shot splits through the wooden sides of the pirates' vessel. Scraps of wood go everywhere, especially right in that room with the hideaways in it. They each manage to get at least one shard of wood embedded in them.
Roll for damage.
Original Roll String: 4d3
4 3-Sided Dice: (2, 1, 1, 1) = 5
Meanwhile, those manning the cannons set to fire back. They light the fuses, and with a mighty bang, the shot shears through the merchant ship. Well done.
The boarding crew is locked in a fierce swordfight with the Royal Navy. Some are faring better than the others; their skill with a sword is immense. The clanging of metal on metal fills the open seas with its almost choral sound. But unfortunately, not everyone is quite as good at this swordfighting business...
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Post #66 (isolation #12) » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:30 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.3 - A Soul to Sell (Pt. Three)
Down below decks, the cowards assess the damages to themselves. dahill and Flameaxe are the best off; dahill has a small wound on his arm, and Flameaxe has a similar-sized wound on his leg.
dahill1 and Flameaxe lose 1 HP.
Xyl and ShadowGirl are worse off, though. Xyl has a rather large, nastily bleeding gash across his forehead. ShadowGirl has a small piece of wood jutting out from her arm.
Xylthixlm and ShadowGirl lose 3 HP.
Back on board the merchant vessel...
Madam.fobs.hero. proves to be quite an adept swordfighter; she dances between the navy men, fending them off and cutting them down with great ease. Scot is passable; he has a few small cuts here and there, but otherwise is unscathed.
Unfortunately, bird and Setanta have proven to be quite poor at the swordfighting thing. Bird narrowly avoids a blow directly to his shoulder. Unfortunately, the sword catches his finger, which rolls off the deck and into the sea. Ouch. Setanta is similarly unlucky, losing a good portion of his right earlobe. They fall back, getting their wounds wrapped in what bandages the pirate crew has left.
bird1111 and Setanta have lost 5 HP.
The battle is being lost. You fall back onto the pirate ship and attempt to flee...
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Post #67 (isolation #13) » Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:47 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.5 (Pirates) - Jungle of Sin
You sail away from the merchant ship, defeated. It doesn't seem to be following you - how odd. You sail towards a familiar-looking island. Something seems odd. You draw closer, and closer...
A member of the crew walks up to the captain, asking why they're sailing so close to the island. The captain doesn't respond; he just stands there, holding the ship's wheel, dripping blood...
Wait. Blood?
The crewman makes a horrible discovery. Right through the captain's chest is a gunshot wound, made by a pistol. He panics, screaming and getting the rest of the crew worked up. Nobody has the presence of mind to grab the wheel...
An almighty crunch. People are thrown from the ship with great force as it collides with a black rock. You included. You black out.
You awake on a beach of crystalline white sand, with beautiful palms trees overhead. The crew of the ship is attempting to salvage what they can from the ship. At very least, you can use it as shelter for now. It's doubtful that you'll be able to sail away. You are truly stranded.
Thankfully, you won't have any trouble building a fire. The real issue is the fact that you have no clue how to get off the island, or even if you're alone. One thing is for sure right now; you don't want to be here. Unfortunately, it appears that the rest of the crew except for yourselves is rather gravely wounded. They likely won't survive the night. You decide that you must elect yourselves a new captain of your journey, to help you survive on this island. You probably shouldn't choose anyone of the dying, so one of you will have to lead the voyage from here on out.
Please vote for one other player on the pirate side to be the new captain. You may not vote for yourself.
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Post #82 (isolation #15) » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:08 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.2 - We're Starting A Fire (Pt. Two)
You begin work on your fires.
farside, Cybele, Reecer and Drench follow through with eerily similar plans; each builds a neat little pile in a neat little pit neatly surrounded by neat little rocks. They proceed to pour lantern oil over it, something probably horrifyingly unnecessary. They each shine the glasses on the fire to magnify the sunlight. They have to get a bit close to the fire to light it.
The fire lights. It grows rather quickly. They don't exactly have the time to move fairly quickly. They each manage to sustain small burns to their arms, and Cybele now seems to be missing his eyebrows.
Ouch.
farside22, Cybele, Reecer6 and Drench have lost 1 HP.
Meanwhile...
Yawetag takes a more relaxed approach. He splits open the coconut and takes time to relaxedly drink the milk inside. He digs a pit using the coconut shell, and creates a similar pit to the ones the other four were using. He builds a similar pile out of sticks and book pages. And then proceeds to pour gunpowder
all over it
.
Now to the casual observer, just the act of pouring gunpowder
all over the fire you're trying to build
sounds rather stupid. But it gets better. He takes the wick from the lantern, and lights it using magnified sunlight through the glasses. He then gently sets the open flame atop the gunpowder.
BOOM.
A mighty explosion rocks the beach. Flaming debris goes flying for yards. Yawetag is knocked unconscious from the blast. When he awakes, it's late at night, and he has rather nasty burns to his entire body. Especially his face.
Yawetag has lost 9 HP.
Meanwhile, skitzer and BSG take a more down-home approach; they create a neat little fire from magnified sunlight, coconut husks and other bits of refuge. Rather boring, but incredibly functional.
Gurgi, Ting and Hybris decide to take what I like to call the "smart-arse" approach to fire-building and read how to do so in the book. Unfortunately, they neglected to notice that none of them can read particularly well. Apparently it was really "File Servers on Unix for Dummies". They waste the entire day, but at least now they can chmod to their heart's content. They're rather cold that night, though. It's draining.
Lord Gurgi, ting =), and Hybris have lost 1 HP.
MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE ON THE BEACH....
ortolan cries to himself, wishing he could find his comrades. He never did do to well on his own. Just then, an explosion rocks the beach. A piece of fiery wood hurls itself in his direction...
A mighty scream. ortolan lies in agony on the beach. Thankfully, it doesn't last that long. The massive blood loss sort of fixes that.
ortolan has died from a wound caused by a flaming stick lodged in his carotid artery.
It's then that they realize that you weren't separated after all. You were just really, really dumb not noticing that you were 3 feet from each other. You group together, and spend the night worrying about your survival...
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Post #91 (isolation #16) » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:33 pm
Postby JDodge »
mykonian wrote:just a question: gunpowder doesn't detonate, does it? so when you burn it, while not being in a closed space, it doesn't explode, it only burns.
And people don't really scream when their carotid artery is severed as much as spew huge amounts of blood from their neck wound and die.
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Post #98 (isolation #17) » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:52 pm
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.4 - It's My Desire
You're all getting rather hungry. You have had no luck fishing. You decide that the best course of action is to head inland to look for food. You leave your fires burning as you head into the forested inland. You search, and search, and search, before stumbling upon an amazing sight.
A ziggurat-like structure towers above. It appears to be ancient, abandoned for years upon years. You go inside, realizing that you will not need shelter if you set up camp in here.
The halls are carved with symbols and glyphs; you can't decipher their meaning, but you hazard a guess that this is where some civilization prayed to their gods. You head deeper inside. You find it odd that the hallway is lit so well, considering there are no visible light sources.
You come across six pedestals in a circle, each with an object on it. One holds what appears to be a rather large ruby. Another holds a blue orb. The third has an intricately carved stone on it. Number four holds some sort of vase. Upon the fifth sits a statue of a human foot. And finally, on the sixth, is a mummified severed head. Do you take anything? Note: Only one person may take each object. If more than one person selects an object, a dice roll will determine who gets it.
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Post #116 (isolation #19) » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:38 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.4 - It's My Desire (Pt. Two)
Six of you stroll up to the pedestals. BSG and Lord Gurgi fight over the blue orb. Gurgi ends up with the orb.
Suddenly, the foot turns to dust in front of your eyes; the other artifacts begin to float out of your hands...
The ruby releases a strange glow into yawetag. He feels strangely empowered. He holds out his hand; small flames erupt from his fingertips.
Yawetag has learned how to manipulate flames.
The orb begins spinning, and emits a strange light from within; it shatters, sprinkling an odd mist on Gurgi. He holds out his hands. They emit a white light.
Lord Gurgi has gained healing powers.
The vase tips over, sprinking an odd dust upon Ting. He blinks the dirt out of his eyes, which glow oddly. He begins to see things that aren't there...
Ting =) has gained the power of precognition.
Cybele holds the mummified head by its hair. It comes alive and bites him on his wrist. He feels a horrible illness in the pit of his stomach. He feels as if his entire being is being ripped apart. When he awakes, his skin has obtained an otherworldly greyish tint; his hands grow a deep black.
Cybele has gained an unknown power.
The stone flies around Hybris' head. It moves with great force, before smashing itself straight into his forehead. He is knocked backwards by the force. The stone is gone. The symbols that sat upon it are now engraved into Hybris' forehead.
What will come of these events? Time will tell. Time will tell...
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Post #118 (isolation #21) » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:48 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.6 (Islanders) - It's Only Money
Lord Gurgi has healed yawetag for 3 HP.
The pedestals sink to the floor. A deep rumbling resonates through the temple.
A boulder falls from places unknown and begins rolling towards you. Seems like time for an action-packed chase sequence! Skitzer stands there, paralyzed in fear.
Crunch.
Skitzer disappears from your sights, with only the boulder remaining. You run down the hallway, narrowly escaping. In front of you, though, is a perilous sight; a pit, filled with skeletons of past shipwreck survivors. They look too brittle to walk across. The wall behind you begins to move, pushing you closer to the pit...
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Post #119 (isolation #22) » Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:56 am
Postby JDodge »
Chapter 1.7 (Pirates) - Reach Into The Fire
You come across what appears to be a rather primitive campsite; books lie strewn across the beach. You almost trip over what appears to be a crater made by a rather extravagant explosion.
You decide that you need to get off the island, and you need to build a raft to do so; you also need to work on a shelter to protect you from the elements while you're still here. At least you have these nice warm fires. You notice a strange stone sculpture in the bottom of one of them. It'd probably be best to pull it out; it may be valuable.
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Post #137 (isolation #24) » Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:56 am
Postby JDodge »
Since I was apparently not clear enough on the Islanders side, everyone will be given another 48 hours. It is quite far across the pit; you can barely see the other side. The pit is full of skeletons. You cannot see the bottom.
