Currently active we have Minque, Danny, canis, Mustard, jack and myself. Unless anyone else reemerges from hibernation soonish that's probably too few to go with the whole splitting the group totally thing but equally I think something had better happen soonish to keep things moving. Anyone got any thoughts? We could send whoever off to the worksite to discover something and have those remaining find something in the camp (or be sent to get something). So they'd only be apart for a day to keep momentum together...

Anyway I think I'm done for the arrival day so would vote for moving it along...

Well, I don't really mind what we do but I do have a problem. I mean, I know that Haz is going to try some sabotaging. (probably on the line of ripping up administrative documents, or spoiling food. He doesn't want the slaves to suffer too much from his actions. It's not worth it....yet.)

But what about Eno? Quite honestly, other than signing in his supplies tomorrow, he doesn't have a thing to do but hang around waiting for a caravan back to Balmora. I guess I could say that he lost some of his supplies at the ruins. As a penalty he would have to...I dunno. Eno doesn't come across as a laborer. Although now that I think of it, he does know how to make and maintain tools so he could be put to work helping out there, providing nails and fixing hammers and stuff. Heh, maybe I'll be able to get some interplay between Haz and Eno going on. Haz starts displacing nails and breaking hammers, Eno makes new nails and fixes the hammers while complaining about boneheaded workers not looking after their stuff properly.



Anyway, I suggest we figure out what there is to find and where first before we think about splitting up. Maybe it is best that we set up the find for the day after tomorrow and spend one day having everyone go about their bussiness. While doing their job, they see and hear things. Then later during the night, someone else might note that what they saw was a bit odd.

For example, let's say there something odd in the behavior of a few of the people. How about improper handling of the bones that would mess up the ritual? Then it's best to have Dralas observe it since he's looking for his ancestor's bones and might go out of his way to watch the ritual. Then during the night, he might talk about it. Rothan notices that the ritual was not quite the Ghostfencing ritual. Though I'm not sure he would be that knowledgable on this. Or maybe Rianne figures something is odd, I don't know how much she knows about Ghostfences either, but she might know a few bits about using bones in magic rituals.

I think Rothan would be more likely to notice certain people or documents were off (he has good reason to do some spying) than anything about obscure rituals, I suppose he might notice if it was invoked to the wrong god or something big though.

How much do you want him to go looking for Haz, at the moment I've got it in the back of his mind but he could easily forget until a more conveniant time when things get interesting.

I like the idea of rounding off tonight (if no one has anything left to do) then having a day settling in and doing their stuff before being sent off or finding anything too interesting. If we go with the being sent to retrieve an artifact which is actually an ash statue type thing then we could hear reports of that - say Rothan hears that it exists, and maybe plays into their hands by suggesting its retrieval, and one of the labourers hears something nasty about it being haunted or whatnot.

We could all end up going to get the artifact, Rothan would want to and they'd need people with better knowledge of the ashlands (Rianne and Dralas), Dranas might tag along to see if there's anything worth stealing... Eno is a bit trickier but there might be a reason, or another character could be introduced to interact with him in the camp...

Yeah, I also thought his specialty lies elsewhere but he was the most likely person I could think of. And I seriously doubt they're going to invoke the wrong god. That would be way too obvious. It should be something subtle that is just enough to break it. Or hell, how about this. Have the ghostfence be activated in sections as it gets built. Then we can see that something went wrong if a newly finished part of the ghostfence is weak/flickers or something. It doesn't need to be completely broken, just not functioning the way it should be. Could be a mere accident, could be sabotage. Either way, it sounds worth investigating to me.

Have Rothan ask Dralas if he can identify the ones who did the ritual since Dralas mentioned earlier that he was there the day before or something.

Or maybe do that after visiting the cave if we're going to do that. Ya know, give the guys time to finish the section instead of having everything happen within hours of each other.

As for Eno, I can think of two reasons for him to go. Well, not reasons, just ways for him to be useful.
1: Pull some previously unmentioned skill or knowledge out of his behind and probably link it to his Redoran past.
2 (more sensible): Make use of his habit of making his own tools and have him come along as a sort of item repair guy. Much easier than taking a whole forge with you and a big toolbox or a billion spares. Same thing with locked doors. If it isn't magic, he could probably whip up a key out of twigs and bone fragments. But then again, we could just have someone pick the damn lock and be on our way in ten minutes.


For Haz, Rothan probably won't find him and even if they do come across each other, odds are that Rothan won't recognize him. Although, a tailless Argonian stands out a bit. Yeah, it's a double-edged sword but I needed the disguise ability. Anyway, you can have Rothan just casually look around as he goes about his bussiness and perhaps become slightly worried after having been all over the camp.


Ok then, back to the ash-statue idea and then I'll shut up. I agree it would be best to use tomorrow to gather rumours and we can put them all together at a campfire and then decide: could be worth investigating. Or maybe they just put them all together, shrug about it, have Apelles then pass over the word to a superior (Sleeper?) who then basically gives him the order to go out and find it.

Next morning, Apelles rounds up the rest of our dudes (minus Haz obviously) and invites them to come along since they know as much about it as he does and he already knows that they're not useless in a fight...well most of them. Also, he should probably mention that he's cleared things already with the administration so that if they go along, they won't be reported as slacking off on the worksite and later find that they have to pay a fine/doing extra work when they come back.

I moved us on a day, if anyone's got objections I'll edit. The above ideas sound good to me. I shan't have Rothan officially register yet, I think some snooping around may be better for moving things on. I was thinking of him finding some ledger/whatever with figures which don't work and suggest very poor organisation or sabotage (probably have one work team moving stone to a site only to have the next clear it or something of that ilk). I might have him hear about whatever artifact too?

Depends on what other people are planning though...

i say go for it, olen. sounds like the best way to make it work with the remaining active players.

seconded! I'll try to post soon...

I'm not sure what anyone plans for the next RP day but if anyone's at a loss and fancies RPing snooping around some official buildings it would be better than me just having Rothan wander around on his own.

Well, I was just thinking. I could make it that someone wandered off with Eno's supplies during the night. (yup, one of those administrative errors in action) Now Eno being Eno, he doesn't want to register and end up paying for the 'lost' supplies when he's damn well sure he had them all with him last night.

His first step would be asking any familiar faces, such as Rothan, whether they've seen his bags.

Go for it. It gives him a good excuse to go raking through some log books.

Alright, I set up the situation. Just thought I'd announce it here since I edited my last post in the playground instead of making a new one.

Yeah, as you've probably figured out by now, I've been pretty busy IRL right now. I don't know if Apelles has been written out yet, or what - the format has changed and it's a bit late at night for me to go through the whole thread right now.

I plan to get Rothan into the top room and have him find something but probably be caught. He'll hear about the artifact as he's trying to talk his way out of it and suggest it should be recovered, if there was a sixth house sleeper there then they would agree probably because it would either kill him or get them what they wnt with all the suspicion landing on him. That sets up the next part.

Jack - not sure how much of this you want Eno in on. It could give him a reason to stay (some off legal thing) or anything really. Just thought I'd post my plans.


EDIT: Seeing as it's quiet and we've really just arrived at the main location now would be a good moment for anyone wanting to join to do so I think... I can write a summary if anyone wants one (though we're only on playground 2 so there's not so much to read).

Well, let's see. If we were to alter the facts a bit about the artefact, we could feed Eno's professional interest in it. Say we claim it sings some sort of song when touched by the wind. That would be enough for Eno to claim it might be hollow and serve as some sort of exotic musical instrument which would have him dying to inspect it.

As for how things go in the top room, it might be better if you tell me some more about what you expect it to be. I'm assuming an office or an archive since we've switched our investigation towards paperwork. But are there people as soon as we enter, or only when Rothan spots and interacts with whatever he finds?

And I'm not sure if Eno would actually follow Rothan up the stairs now that I think of it. He does have some trouble moving around and stairs would be (or should be) something he'd rather avoid. He might as well just decide to wait at the bottom, inside the building but out of sight to anyone on the top floor.

The artifact could certainly be some sort of musical device (noise makes people behave strangly or causes bad dreams type thing?). As for the top room I'm not really certain, probably where the important stuff is, so any valuable items, perhaps the leader(s) office(s) away from the chaos downstairs and some archived paperwork.

Again I'm not sure if I'd have people immediately, if you want Eno there you can write it if you want. If there aren't Rothan pokes around a bit and finds some suspicious ledger before someone walks in on him and demands he sees someone higher up, if there are then he'll just grab something likely looking and strike moderately lucky but be forced to sign up with someone higher up. Either would further us to having some suspicion and a lead on an artifact to recover.

If Eno waits out of sight then he could be caught as well or not, though it might be difficult for him to go on a recovery mission if he's not signed up (unless there's a reason no one cares/notices).

I like the musical device idea. Sixth house has the bells and stuff, and it gives Eno a reason to be in on the investigation as an instrument maker. I'm thinking of combining the bell and ash statue: read on.

on another note, I'm thinking of another element of the story; figuring out about the artifact to begin with. Maybe while eno and rothan are snooping around finding ledgers and stuff, Rianne and Dralas kinda stumble upon some rumors.

The head leader guy of the camp (who we should think of introducing and come up with a name for pretty soon) is behaving strangely, and people are starting to talk. Dralas and Rianne could overhear some stuff, and get suspicious, as it sounds awfully sixth house-ish.

Then later, after eno and rothan's suspicions meet dralas and rianne's, they all decide to investigate. We sneak into the leader's room or whatever (would have to be separate from the office rothan and eno are in), and find a 6th house bell. That's proof enough of foul play for our characters, but they don't understand the significance of a bell. Turns out, the bell is being used to amplify the power of an ash statue that is hidden far away. (the leader can't be caught with an ash statue in the camp, now could he?)

so we realize who the enemy is, and tell the temple officials, but they dont believe. now that we've told them what we know, though, the leader knows that we know and works faster towards his goals. more and more sleepers pop up in the camp, construction slows terribly, and the corprus monster attacks increase, and our characters have to take matters into their own hands, find the ash statue, and dispatch the bad leader guy.

Yeah! i like that idea...hmmm of course dralas and rianne can sneak around, nobody cares about a couple of ashlanders...especially not if they're working or just strolling, so yes let's go for it!

Hello all,

Hopefully I'm not bothering anything posting over here, but as I'm not allowed to use the PM feature for some reason this is the best I can do

I was hoping I could get in on this RPG, it looks great! I would like to join right now, but I would also join after it is finished if you guys would rather. I'm a pretty veteran RPer, and you can check out my character, Faladin, over in the Order of the Black Dragon sign-up page.

Thanks!

Well, it looks like we'll be busy with this one for quite a while, so I suggest that instead of waiting you could just hop right in. Feel free to make a character in the character thread so we can see how to fit him/her in.

Yea this RP needs the people, I see no reason why you shouldn't join up. We've just reached the construction site of ghostgate (you might want to read over what's been said/RPed already to get a better idea of what's going on) so it would be easy to place a character as already there before we got there (or even on the caravan we came in on I suppose).

If you need any more stuff explained just ask...

And while I'm posting what exactly do we want this artifact to be? Some sort of musical thing but where? How well guarded etc. Basically having had him caught looking at it I moved things on abit but I don't want to step on anyone elses toes. I could have him suggest going to get it as mentioned then requesting Dralas and Rianne as ashlander guides, or anything really. I'd like suggestions before I move him on though.

Well, I thought that the plan was that of an ash statue, linked to a bell. The bell would be in the office, and the statue in a different location.

Of course, Eno just ran out of the door. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. But anyway, for the location. How about we plop down an ancient, abandoned fort somewhere nearby? We can use that as our sixth house base and it makes more sense to me to look for artefacts there than try to investigate every single cave on the island. As for why the fort isn't there during Morrowind the game...They used it shortly after the events of the rp as construction materials for the gate or something.

How wel guarded...the important thing to remember is that right until the end, the sixth house worked kept its existence and activities as much a secret as possible. So let's extend that and make the fort completely undefended on the outside and little more than a token defense on the inside.

Mostly sleepers, maybe one or two ash zombies and for the leader of the place...let's take an Ash ghoul. Sleepers and vampires are a bit too high and even the ghoul is pushing it.

Regardless of professional curiosity, Eno will probably offer to come along. He feels kinda guilty for not being able to help Rothan out of his predicament and hey, it doesn't sound that dangerous yet.

Hey, sorry I've been on the outs for a bit with this RP. Anyone have any suggestions for getting Dranas involved in things? His knowledge of the ways and hows of smuggling might be useful...

If you position him in the officey bit Rothan just passed through I'm sure he could become involved. I'm about to have Rothan tasked with going and getting the bell thing (with the intention that he doesn't return) so he'll point out Dranas as someone he wants with him seeing as Rothan knows he can fight and he's less likely to be involved in any funny stuff (well sixth house funny stuff anyway) than a random.

I'll have him point Dranas out and if it's not what you want he can always refuse etc.

Ok so I think the time has come for Dralas and Rianne to join the pack! Maybe Rothan could just "find them" or something. They had heard some strange conversation which maybe Rothan could be interested in...

Seeing as I posted last I edited, Rothan has seen them and waved.

If anyone is looking to join this RP I dare say it would do well with more than just five of us. Now would be the time seeing as it would be harder to introduce a character (or at least limit your options more) once we're in the wilderness. A few more people might give it the momentum it needs...

alright, seeing as we're all about to go bell hunting, maybe we should plan the encounter a little? What is in the fortress? Is the bell going to cause strange events on the return trip? Discuss.

Also, I'm noticing a lot of new blood in this little corner of the forums. I'm also noticing that they are having trouble starting up RPs. Well us old fogeys are having trouble keeping RPs going strong once they start. Maybe we all need to combine forces?

Well, I think the original idea was to have very little resistance on the way in, but some on the way out. Aside from that... I dunno.

I wouldn't bother with any actual battles on the way in, possibly a bit of RPing in the wilderness and maybe some subtle hint of sixth house activity (but not enough to put them off). Then get in and get the bell before meeting some minor ash creatures on the way out? Corpus stalkers, ash slaves and possibly an ash zombie we can bash on the way out before getting into the wilds with the bell.

I hadn't really thought about the journey back though, they could start being affected by the bell a bit, bad dreams and that sort of thing... Or more.

Hey Jack, what do you have in mind with Eno's purchase? Unless you're looking to set up something, I'd think we could more or less settle it "off-stage" so to speak.

I guess that we are holding everyone up. So yeah, let's handle this off-stage. My idea was anyway exactly what Eno proposed. Pay partially in gold, then make a few goodies Heleran can sell. We'll just assume that this isn't the first time he's dealt with instrument makers so he knows exactly what Eno needs.

Does anyone have much more to do in this RP day or should we cut to the following morning?

If the Ashlanders are getting anything meaningful from Dranas, there might be something to do, but otherwise I imagine any purchases can just be mentioned down the line as something "bought from Dranas Heleran" or whatever. Do I have any plans to do anything before leaving for the fort? Nope. In fact, I'll post something to move it along w/Dranas and Eno--basically just a "they concluded their business" line.

unless minque had something in mind, i say move it along.

It's ok...start moving, Rianne just might try to buy something from Dranas....

Woops, got a bit sidetracked by stuff. Anyway, I'm fine with fastforwarding. In fact, I think I'll make a next day post tomorrow. It's getting a bit late where I am and I want to think over what to do without being half-asleep.