Werewolf XLII, Mist in the Barrow Downs

[Farael]

It was a dark, misty night. The wind was howling on the Barrow Downs and a deep sense of foreboding seemed to fill the air. Breathing deep sense of foreboding in is something that most species of living creatures find awfully displeasing and so they run away, coincidentally finding safer places (after all, anywhere is safer than a place where the air is full of a deep sense of foreboding.)

However, humans are notoriously lacking on deep sense of foreboding senses. An elf would’ve looked up and muttered “my heart is filled with dread, let us be wary and be away from this place”. A Dwarf would’ve growled in deep tones, ran his fingers through his beard and doggedly crossed the place without ever stopping to admire the scenery (which was covered by mist anyway). A hobbit with good hobbit-sense would’ve simply ran away.

But humans? They lacked the common sense of a good squirrel, the keen heart of an elf, or even the sense of purpose and determination of a dwarf. Curiously enough, the fact that they were all braver than an average hobbit was a problem this time around. Instead, a group of men (and women) from all sorts of places and all sorts of lifestyles came together at the precise centre of the Barrow Downs, all at the same time. It was a most curious phenomenon, since none of them had any idea that the others were near-by and they had –of course- not agreed to meet there at all.

One elderly man looked around the faces and frowned. Then he opened his
mouth. Closed it again. Then he sighed and with a resigned sigh he said:

-“Let me guess. We are a ragtag bunch of companions who need to come
together and overcome their differences in order to defeat a common enemy.”

The mist stopped dead on its tracks. The sense of foreboding disappeared all of a sudden, and a deep, loud voice boomed “Well, I was planning on that...you know, throwing a few random encounters at you, causing a little drama, before having you all fight the most scary-looking monster in the Dungeon Master Boo- I mean in Middle Earth! Now I suppose I shall do something different something much more worse. Laughs evilishly”

-“You are supposed to laugh, not just say it” Said the old man

-“Farael! Stop this, I’m trying to set the mood here”

-“and you su-“ But lightning and thunder cut-off Farael’s very witty remark.
The fog was back, and so was the deep sense of foreboding which once again the men and women in the group failed to notice. However, some in the group did feel a slight tingling sensation. “hehehe it tickles” said one of them, but unfortunately the mist was so thick that no-one could see who it had been.

Alright, that was an intro for the game. You are all invited to post here to sign up for the game. The theme is a mix of pen and paper Role Playing Game and the Mist in the Barrow Downs chapter of the books. A group of travellers come to the barrow downs by chance and they are attacked by the Ghost Prince of Cardolan and his minions. Or would’ve been, hadn’t one of them spoken out and challenged the mod. Now he has thought of a much more cunning plan.

Werewolves

I know, I didn’t see it coming either. The game will be a regular Werewolf game, with two or three wolves and one or two gifted. There will be a bit of a twist actually, and it is that there will be two awards at the end of the game (other than you know, the winner of the game).

*First of all, there will be an award for the player who has chosen a character and done the most effort to stay in-character for as long as possible, as good as possible.

*Second, there will be an award for the player who makes me laugh the most. I want the game to be friendly and light-hearted, so being funny is a plus.
There are no real benefits to the awards, other than a bit of recognition. However, if I feel a player is taking advantage of this to be nonsensical and avoid suspicion (while effectively avoiding contributing anything to the game) this player will be warned and if the behaviour continues s/he will be removed through a freak accident on space-time continuum.

So if you’d like to try it out, you are welcome to join! Post here to sign up, and when we have close to enough people we’ll discuss a start date.

[Roa_Aoife]

Roa sighed and began to look over her character sheets again. I don't have any ranks in survival, of course. Why did I choose a Duskblade over a Ranger? Oh that's right, Duskblades rock.... She chuckled a littled bit as she stroked her dice bags. When Farael had asked her along, she'd agreed as a favor. She'd thought co-mod was like a co-DM. It was looking less and less likely, however. She could only hope there wouldn't be a TPK.

This mist kept swirling, and some got into her eyes and mouth. Roa coughed violently for a minute, before recognizing the way it smelled. Covering her nose and mouth, she moved towards the thickest spot of the mist. She felt around for a minute, and then found what she was looking for.

"Aha!" she cried triumphantly as she held up a power cord. The mist began to dissapate and a small fog machine appeard at the base of the tree. "That's much better. Now we can all breath while... we..." Roa dropped off as mist swirled ominously about her feet. A deep chuckle sounded through the woods, and she groaned.

"Don't tell me," she began.

"That's right," boomed the voice, "I picked up a few spares. Now stop ruining the Scene."

"Scene? What gaming system are we using here?" Roa desperately began to look for her other set of rule books.

"What else?" said the voice, "This is Werewolf, after all." Roa began to panic as she realized she'd left most of her d10's at home...

To be continued....

[Gwathagor]

Is this where we sign up?

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

Is this where we sign up?

"Ah, it is our friend Gwathagor, bringer of rhetorical questions," said Sally with a laugh. "Yes, my dear friend, if you think you are able to handle a task such as this Werewolf game, you shall notify our mod-gods Farael and Roa at this location. Might I suggest you bring an offering of sarcasm or silly banter to please them?"




OOC note: you all KNOW my duck's a-coming back in this game, right? Because I didn't do her justice in the last game.

[Gwathagor]

Gwathagor ShadowBlade, Scourge of the North, Defender of Truth, Terror to the Lawless, Friend to the Fatherless and the Oppressed was sick and tired. Despite being a level 41 Ninja-Elf (Sign: Thief, Class: Scout, Guild: Warrior), who could do 1,305 damage to all enemies (save the Grand Half-Orc Claw-of-Doom-bearing Wizard of the Fourth-and-a-Quarter Dungeon) within a 30-foot x D20 radius with his favored Sword of the Godly Winds ability, he found himself bored. In addition to be being bored, he had a stuffy nose. He had just slain 3 armies of 500 and their gryphotaur captains on an unspecified hill-top, and had sat down to catch his breath, when he discovered that he wasn't having fun anymore.

The realization hit him like a thunderbolt. He wiped his nose. Sniff.

"What am I doing here? Am I really happy? Did I miss my true calling? Is this a mid-life crisis? Hold on....I'm immortal, that's impossible. I don't have a mid-life."

This wasn't strictly true. ShadowBlade was not an elf; he only played one in D&D.

One of the abject gryphotaur minions was still alive. He leapt up and ran at ShadowBlade with a blood-curdling screech. Absent-mindedly, Gwathagor ShadowBlade flung his Battle-Axe of Cold Northern Death 100 feet or so, splitting the beast cleanly in two.

"I need a holiday," he declared.

However, he only thing his travel agent could find was a Werewolf game taking place in the Barrow-Downs. He packed immediately, and caught the nearest stagecoach to the Downs, ignoring several pleas for help along the way.

He thought it would be fun.

He had no idea it would be dangerous.

[Note: I prefer to be referred to as Gwathagor, BUT if you INSIST on finding something shorter, then I will settle for Gwath, as that seems to be a common truncation of the full name. As long as you don't call me Gwathy, we can be friends.]

[satansaloser2005]

Suddenly Sally realized what she had signed herself up for, and she momentarily considered withdrawing from her obligation. "Such a strange event, to play a game where the players hunt each other at night, and lynch each other at sunset! A game where the object is to murder other players viciously without a second thought as to their feelings, ambitions, or lives outside the situation." Sally paused a bit to reflect upon her thoughts. "Sounds like Christmas with my kinsmen at home," she admitted flatly.

Sally turned around to see Gwath arriving across the way. "Interesting, another victim, erm, I mean player. Nice to meet you." Sally extended her hand to Gwath, but he stood motionless, save for his eyes darting around the Barrow-Downs, taking in that which surrounded them both. "Are you all right, sir? You seem shaken up. This is the Barrow-Downs, host site for our game of Werewolf. Does the scenery surprise you?"

Gwath's bags dropped to the ground, and Sally hastily picked them up for him, noting that he seemed to have packed lightly for such an adventure, and led him to the nearest place to sit. "Here, sit down, rest awhile. Would you like something to-" Gwath finally spoke to her. Only three words, but after hearing them Sally knew it was okay to leave Gwath to his own devices. "This....This....," stammered Gwath. "What is it?" probed Sally. Gwath looked her square in the eye and replied, "This....is....AWESOME!"



OOC note: yeah, I'm too lazy to type it all out. Tried ShadowBlade for a post since it was in yours, but still too much

[McCaber]

McCaber, the new guy in the group, was sitting off to the side with a glum expression on his face. "Seriously, why do we have to do D&D now? I've been waiting for the 40K game for five years, I get one of the last copies ever, and to add insult to injury they shut down the company within hours of when I finally got my book. No, I'm not bitter at all about that."

The DM spoke to him with displeasure in his voice. "If you really want to leave, you may. But everyone else will get all of the treasure and XP ever."

"You wouldn't!"

"Try me. If you leave, Roa gets double experience for every encounter, just to make up for last time."

McCaber struggled to contain his fury. "Fine, I'll play," he said, "but let's make it a quick game. All right, my character is a cleric named Richard the Unobscure. He's Lawful Evil, despises the rest of the party, has no qualms with manipulating others to get his way, and may even resort to sm- "

"Now that's enough. Please, this is a serious game."

"Alright, but I'm keeping the class and name. I can come up with background for him on the fly, if I really need to." McCaber grabs a book, his dice, and character sheets. He is ready for the challenge.

[Thinlómien]

A merry-looking young woman appeared from nowhere.

"Well, she couldn't have been there before, for otherwise she would have already joined in the discussion as she's such a chatterbox", her player said defensively, expecting the game master/dungeon master/whatever he should be called to protest to her character Thinlómien appearing from nowhere.

"Hello. I'm Thinlómien of the Dúnedain. You may wonder why do I have a Sindarin name. That's simply because I'm named after my Elven grandmother." Oh, now I sound like I was bragging about my bloodlines... not a good start of making friends... Thus she turned to the others, smiling a bit apologetically. Still, she couldn't help feeling a bit superior. Or maybe it was just her player feeling superior. "Richard? Is that a proper ME name? I don't think so. I mean, I confess giving some minor NPCs uncanonical names when I was a GM but you... you name your character Richard. Now I'm glad the Prof is already dead and doesn't need to hear of such a horrible crime." But unfortunately Thinlómien's player, like her character, had never been good in faking anything. A mischevious smile in her eyes revealed that she was only bantering with this new McCaber guy.

Then she turned to Sally and Gwathagor. She exchanged conspiratory glances with Sally. "Last game was excellent, my friend", she grinned, "let's be as excellent this time."

"Gwathagor? Unless I'm mistaken, you're new here. Welcome. It is more fun that you can even imagine."

"Roa, Farael, are you there? I think Thinlómien should receive extra bonuses to her wisdom and intelligence, being of Elvish descent... oh, and also to dexterity and charisma... and maybe strength and constitution too? You know, Elves are so good at everything..."

[Roa_Aoife]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

"Roa, Farael, are you there? I think Thinlómien should receive extra bonuses to her wisdom and intelligence, being of Elvish descent... oh, and also to dexterity and charisma... and maybe strength and constitution too? You know, Elves are so good at everything..."

I object, as I have a grudge against Elven characters. Can't stand them, infact. I might have to give you some penalties....

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Roa_Aoife

I object, as I have a grudge against Elven characters. Can't stand them, infact. I might have to give you some penalties....

Thinlómien's player's brow furrowed and then her expression turned to a (rather uncomfortable) smile. "But Roa, my friend. She is only 1/4 elf so surely that makes her count as a human, right?"

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Lommie

"Roa, Farael, are you there? I think Thinlómien should receive extra bonuses to her wisdom and intelligence, being of Elvish descent... oh, and also to dexterity and charisma... and maybe strength and constitution too? You know, Elves are so good at everything..."

"Seems to me like Miss Lommie may be getting a bit of a big head, which I can unsterstand for someone of her breeding," quipped Sally.






Ummmmm well.... neither of the deadlines are particularly attractive to me, but I would vote for the 7-8pm CT DL because it's the better of the two by a slight margin. The mornings I'll be in class (or on my way to class I should say) but the evenings I'll be gone half the time and would have to post/vote like 3-4 hours pre-DL.

[Farael]

Well, we can't decide until we have everyone on board, but right now it's looking like 9 AM CST (3 PM GMT if my complex mathematical models* are correct).

The question is, will you Europeans be able to contribute at that time? It may very well be during work-hours for you folks, so keep that in mind. The game will not have retractable votes, so being around at the deadline won't be as crucial.

------------------------------------------------------------
*By complex mathematical models, Farael means five fingers in one hand and the thumb on the other.

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by satansaloser2005

Ummmmm well.... neither of the deadlines are particularly attractive to me, but I would vote for the 7-8pm CT DL because it's the better of the two by a slight margin. The mornings I'll be in class (or on my way to class I should say) but the evenings I'll be gone half the time and would have to post/vote like 3-4 hours pre-DL.

The one you like with "a slight margin" would be something like 3 or 4 AM in our time (four to five players this far of those enrolled would have that middle of the night then) so if that margin really is slight let's make it the other one?

Okay we still need a few players and let's see from wherever they come from...