Werewolf XLII, Mist in the Barrow Downs

[Nogrod]

It seemed no one had noticed the stout elderly man who carried his Rolemaster-books under his arm. He followed the discussion for a while before entering it.

"Brains, not bonuses my friends...", he began. Then he pulled the d10's from his pockets and shook his hand before throwing the dices to the ground. "And a little luck to be sure...", he smiled after recognising the result.

After picking the d10's up he took his character sheet and marked the result of his throw into it looking at the sheet thoughtfully for a moment. He adjusted a few stats and folded the sheet back in between the pages of his Character law & Campaign law. He looked around pleased.

"Okay I'm called Nogrod. That's not my real name to be sure as that is Akseli but you need not bother yourselves with it."

Suddenly he recognised a most familiar looking face among people gathered around. "Ahh, Thinlómien of the Dúnedain! How nice to see you! And already bantering about things with weak arguments. What's wrong with Richard when the prof. himself used names like Bill and Sam? I mean even if someone wishes to be called Timmy that should be okay. It's their own shame." He smiled heartily to the Dúnedain.

"I'm in. But don't expect me to flood the discussion this time. I think it's a high time for me to try and change my tactics in these Werewolf games. Let's see if I manage to do that..." There was an ironic smile in his face as he shook his head. "Let's see..."

[Volo]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

"I'm in. But don't expect me to flood the discussion this time. I think it's a high time for me to try and change my tactics in these Werewolf games. Let's see if I manage to do that..." There was an ironic smile in his face as he shook his head. "Let's see..."

"Haven't you said that in the planning stages of four or five preveous games?" said a very self-content voice.

Nogrod turned towards the voice and saw a large black shape lumbering through the fog.

Whoever this gigantic person was, he was now talking in a rather impatient fashion to someone else. "Slow down Bungo! You don't want to give a bad impression of me, do you? Now, now set me down so I can see them all".

"Ook", answered a deep inhuman voice, which suited better to the big lumbering creature.

A black gorilla entered the circle and took off the painting that hung on his neck on a heavy golden chain. He sat down with a thump and set the painting in front of himself.

"And so we meet again, Nogrod!" said the self-content voice of the painting. The painting was of a man with a broad moustache, wearing an odd light brown jacket and hat. The painting turned his gaze away from Nogrod and said, "As you all know, I am Volo and I detest funny people. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible because my team will leave to explore the Alps in exactly two weeks".

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

A pair of dice gently rolled down the steep hill. The pips on their sides kept flashing with bright yellow colors on the deep purple background.

"Smoke on the waa..."

I said background.

"Stop that CD player," the DM said, pointing to the other side of the room. "We are not going to hear a word. We'd better prepare everything - should I make a recapitulation of the last session?"
"I can hear you well even with the CD playing," spoke the player sitting on the DM's right. "And besides, we need to wait still for Viktor and Milan to come."
"Viktor wrote that he's coming late," said a voice from the kitchen. "But I say we start without him. Do you want the crisps now or later?"
"Whose is this dice?" the DM asked.
"Probably mine," said the youngest and smallest of the players. "Then put it away from the map," the DM ordered him. "This is the steep hill you camped upon the last time. The trolls you spotted..."
"Look, I managed to catch the net here! Is that wi-fi of yours fixed?" one of the players screamed.
"No, you are catching the neighbour's."
"Viktor just wrote that he is stuck in a traffic jam."
"Oh yes, I don't want crisps, do you happen to have some jam?"
"...as I said, the trolls..."
"And Milan, as I know him, is coming at least an hour later. That's typical. Did he ever come on time?"
"...the trolls you spotted..."
"I think he didn't. Oh, look, it runs perfectly smoothly. How fast connection does your neighbour have?"
"...trolls are down there. Look, if you don't want to listen to me..."
"Well, I don't know about jam, but I could call Viktor to buy something when he's on the way."
"Where's your tortoise? He's not inside the vivarium anymore."
"He's crawling on the map. Isn't he going to eat the dice?"
"Not sure. Can we use him instead of a troll figure? What do you say, DM?"
"DM?"
"Where is DM?"
***
The mist did not move even by the slightest breath of the wind. The Barrow Downs were covered in an impenetrable veil of cold vapours, and the shadowy figures speaking softly with each other were almost unseen on further distance than a few yards. The character of the ex-DM stepped as close as he dared and lifted a hand in greeting. "Salutations, good people. Am I on the right place for hunting Werewolves? Or, being hunted, for that matter?" When he did not get immediate answer, he continued. "Silence gives consent, I take it, so I'm glad to join you." He reached his hand in turn to each of the present ones. "I am called Grimburgoth, son of Herion and Peath. I come from Geann A-Lisch. You never heard of it? It's in the Drúwaith Iaur, a mighty fortress of the Dark Lord. Well, more like a ruin now." He looked around at the stern faces. "Well, as I said, they call me Grimburgoth, but that's secret - not for you, because it does not concern you. My current mission is to act as an agent and pretend that I am certain... Legate of Amon Lanc. You can call me Legate if you wish, at least it will help me if there are opposing forces around and listening. I know you are going to call me that anyway." He winked at one of the bystanders. "I am having a break currently from my mission, because -" a chuckle louder than thunder resounded all over the place and Grimburgoth looked up into the mist "- well, because my opponents are not ready to face me yet."

[Aganzir]

With a loud pop, the fat highwayman Dúnadan turned into a young Rohir man who was stroking his little grey kitten with one hand and his chin with the other, and then into a young and rather short she-creature with a hooknose, long nails and a wide grin.

"Sorry if you were scared by the noise," Aganzir said in a charming, Northeastern accent and didn't sound sorry at all. "It took me a while to decide which of these wonderful persons I'd like to play... And I ended up with the most wonderful, of course."

She took her crumbled and stearin-stained character sheet from her pocket and tore it into pieces, then looked at her two pretty-coloured d10's almost sadly and threw them away.

"I am fed up with rules and restrictions. And besides, if I have played Rolemaster for all my life (well, almost), I'm not going to change that to D&D. I will do without."

She looked around her and counted quickly those that weren't still lurking in the mist.

"One, two, three... seven. Plus Grandpa Farael and Lady Roa," she nodded at them courteously. "It seems that almost half of us are here already."

Then she bothered to look with whom she would be playing.

"I'm actually a bit scared of Uncle Gwathy..." She stressed word Gwathy. "He looks so... violent. And- it can't be sally and Lommy!" She blinked her eyes innocently. "Have we met one another before? No? I'm surely just mixing you up with some of my old... friends. Oh well. Cab, do you mind if I call you Wagner?"

Aganzir looked at the man who bore noticeable resemblance to one Alastor Moody she had once seen long ago. "Akseli had a good point about names the Prof used. And I have a bad feeling about Lommy. Really, she's accusing someone of something she's doing herself as well!"

Aganzir smirked nastily when she noticed the gorilla and the painting. The gorilla didn't do a thing to stop her when she took a brush and a little tube of Alizarin Crimson and painted the man's lips and cheeks. Then she clapped her hands, seemingly delighted.

**

Farael, shouldn't you add an I in the title?
And what will be the deadline?

edit: xed with Leggy

[Farael]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Farael, shouldn't you add an I in the title?
And what will be the deadline?

The mist swirled, twirled and... hmm... got thicker-ed? Bolts of lightning were seen on the distance. Or would've been if it wasn't for the mist, but still, the light of... well, you know what I mean.

The Mod was displeased

"Where is my I?" boomed his voice.

The players looking at each other with fear on their eyes. They were so fearful that they even started laughing. And pointing. It was high school all over again!

------------------------------------------------------

It seems I've forgotten to add an extra I to the title. Does anyone know how to fix that?

Also, I was waiting until more people were around to set the deadline. It would probably be later-ish in the evening on North American times, as I cannot guarantee I'd be around at any other time. I'm thinking 7 or 8 PM CT (which I think is GMT-6) would work best for me. However, should we have (as it looks likely now) a large amount of European players, I might make the deadline 9 AM CT, which would be 3 PM GMT.

So, to make this fair, I'll give you folks two times and we'll see which one works better for most

First one is 7 or 8 PM CT

Second one is 9 AM CT

Also, here's the list of who has signed up so far... Let me know if I left anyone out:

Aganzir
Legate
Volo
Nogrod
Lommy
McCaber
Sally
Gwathagor (oh the wonders of copy+paste)

For a total of eight players. And of course
Roa and Farael as co-mods.

We still need at least four more people. As an incentive, for every player over 12 that signs up, I will add a number of half-werewolves who have repented from their werewolvish ways. In essence, they are just like an ordo, but with another name. However, you know you want to be a half-werewolf... so tell your friends to join in!

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Farael

It seems I've forgotten to add an extra I to the title. Does anyone know how to fix that?

Yep. PM Morm to do it. The mods can change the titles of the threads. We ordinary deceased have no power over a title that we let go from our hands... They are the final GMs.

I'm thinking 7 or 8 PM CT (which I think is GMT-6) would work best for me. However, should we have (as it looks likely now) a large amount of European players, I might make the deadline 9 AM CT, which would be 3 PM GMT.
So, to make this fair, I'll give you folks two times and we'll see which one works better for most
First one is 7 or 8 PM CT
Second one is 9 AM CT

Do you mean with CT actually CST which is GMT(/UTC) -6?

That would mean in Finland either 4AM (8PM CST) or 5PM (9AM CST). So you can just guess which one we would support...
(Legate's hours are -1 to Finland so I guess he might side with us here.)

Adding Legate to the tally we have 5/8 (as far as I know) coming from these East-European time-zones... Well just recruit more Americans to shift the balance...

And anyways: traditional Werewolf on offer which everyone were waiting for. C'mon people!

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

(Legate's hours are -1 to Finland so I guess he might side with us here.)

Right you are.

One more thing. Please, I don't want to be disturbing, but for all further American Mods, I'd have a pleading request: I don't know how you are accustomed to count the time, but I would like to kindly ask you to try and post all times in GMT! As far as I know, GMT is worldwide-used main time (why, since it's called MAIN time), and for us Europeans, and mainly for us who are on bad terms with maths, it is terribly difficult to count anything on other terms! Surely everyone knows, or can very easily check, what his time is in relation to GMT; but I have never heard about things like CT before so I don't even know what it is and where it is used (well, I have an idea, but you got the point). I could also formulate it the way that we are lucky we don't have Asian Downers playing, though what is not now, may come in the future, and for this reason things like main time have been invented. Of course Farael did include GMT, but that is also for other people who read this (and, to be picky, even you, Farael, first wrote CT and GMT mentioned only once as a side issue and not in the main proposal of yours where it sticks out).

[Roa_Aoife]

That will be 8 AM for me. I can be there at deadlines if that's the time. I may only post who died and then come back with a story later (after I wake up more) but I can do it.