A place for all things OOC.

Sean Seamus Dugan at your service. Or John James, if you prefer. But mostly in these parts, he goes by Jack. And Duggan. Irish, if you like. And if you don't like, well... Irish all the same.

He's known as a wild colonial boy, somewhat irresponsible and high-spirited, likely to lark about and shirk his work (for which he's received a few floggings). He's also thought to be a touch light-fingered where moveable property is concerned. Not the most trustworthy of companions, perhaps, but a true friend to his friends.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:59, Sun 12 Jan 2020.

James Osmund Gill here. On probationary release to the Free Settler family Cleary, he had worked on their Ranch as a hand for nearly half a decade. Starting back before Mrs. Cleary passed.

He's a little taciturn, but hard working and able bodied. The man does like to "come in" for a drink and company now and then, and does not shy away from deeper conversational topics.

Possessed of a large frame, he is rough and does not go out of his way to look decent. This has not done him any favors with the ladies, or the Governor's men.

Good lads, both. Excuse me while I rename the Firearm skills, I've messed up somewhere...

Is Gill Irish in origin?

And how does the Countess come to be in Australia? What does she do here?

James himself hails from Cornwall and the village of Camborne, but the name has northern origins I believe.

In reply to James Gill (msg # 6):

Ah. Well, we'll not hold a man's origins against him here in this brave new land.

From those in my personal aquaintance, the Cornish refuse to believe they were colonised by the English without ever gaining recognised independence, and instead consider England to be part of Greater Cornwall...

Tom, on the other hand...was it London you were from again?

Thomas Daniels checking in.  Working on character and background forth coming.

^ Thomas is from Derbyshire! (We'll forgive him.)

Just waiting on some last details from a couple of Investigators and to see if I hear back from a late entry that sounded promising. Hope to get going sometime next week providing the doctors don't steal all my blood for mysterious auguries (I am beginning to feel persecuted) and work/other health issues stay manageable. Hope you'll all enjoy this episode of stark, relentless daylight horror with me.

Hello Everyone, I shall be playing Brigitte your ever friendly tavern owner.

Update: first in-game posts due just as soon as our last player has a fellow fit to go and I can get my act together. I am still here, I promise. Some very nice backstory stuff to be woven in, too.

Henry cotton here all! Pleased to meet you :)
In real life I’m an English guy, tho this week has been horribly hectic-in San Fran and then texas for work!
Looking forward to meeting you all properly.

Henry is rather wide eyed and trusting, an apprentice to one of the geologists I think.

Welcome Henry.

Welcome to the game Henry

Cheers guys - looking forward to starting :)

So we have:
- Brigitte - tavern owner
- Jack - irresponsible colonial rascal
- James - ranch hand
- Thomas...?
- Henry - wide eyed apprentice

Do we know of each other loosely as we start (possibly through Brigitte's place?) or new acquaintances?

Thomas is a Police Detective.  I'm good with everyone knowing each other.  Sometimes it makes the game go easier to begin with.

The others know each other better than Henry, who's fresh from Sydney.

Jack works for the Countess, and before you think Tom is currently a detective, he's a convict who works the Cleary spread with James, so that's who knows whom best. The steadings are adjacent along the river. Henry will have been at the Clearys' a few days by the time we start.

What are the approximate ages of our characters.

Jack is not yet twenty.

James is 32

Thomas and Brigitte are mid-twenties, and Henry is a bare youth, not even quite Duggan's age. Half a year on a ship probably seemed like forever.

All right, so there's where we are, and it's past 1am, so I hope everyone can find their character's bit and location all right. Any questions can be answered when I'm actually awake and functional.

Please note that on the Cleary farm thread, it's the same exclaimation from Margaret everyone hears, just from different distances, she's not repeating herself.

I'm going to give it a day to let Henry chime in if he would like.

Failing that, I'm get a post up tomorrow.

Definitely all right, I've only just got home tonight myself and I need to go lasso the other thread...

Going to give Henry a bit more time to un-jetlag himself and appear before narrating onward movement over there.

Meanwhile, Australian cicada yelling for reference, because everything yells in Australia.

Man, that is jarring.

Ain't they grand over at Cleary's? wash basins, is it? Towels, is it?

Lah-dee-dah.

In reply to James Gill (msg # 25):

Possibly the world's loudest insect!


Of Jack & Brigitte's thread...on the one hand dangit, they avoided my nefarious plot to have them sneak up on a room full of [REDACTED], but on the other hand, I think if I had to use my standing offer to request stats from the supplement's developer for those he'd wonder what on earth we were doing...

edit: oh, and deer haven't been introduced to Australia yet, for the player that's relevant to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:39, Sun 02 Feb 2020.

Woop! Back from my work adventure to merry England :)
Sorry I’ve been quiet, was my sons birthday at the weekend so that and jet lag took priority :)

Henry is at your service!

Good to see you about, Henry!

I'm about to head to bed since I have one of a series of doctor's appointments in the morning (also I hope to be asleep before the last round of painkillers wears off - your Keeper is badly put together in general and sometimes my entire nervous system wants to tell me about it) but do keep the plot rolling as you have been, this is good stuff!

Ah, hope the good doctors work their magic to fix any sub par components of your good self!

I wish. Still, the present round of medical stabbing makes me far better equipped to not fall over and die, which means we can keep playing   without an oi joe board, yay!

Just a note on riding all the way to Sydney for troops - whilst Brigitte is willing to believe a(n impossibly aged) bloody floor is the work of an unknown 'whatever', the NSW Corps are going to assume it's the work of local Aborigines unless given very good evidence otherwise. Who may be captured and hanged if possible, or, if anyone flees/picks up a spear to defend their women and children, shot.

How old (ish) is Janey btw? I’m assuming younger than Henry so he won’t have a boyish crush on her, but if she turns out to be 17-19 I can imagine the lad might be bashful around her.

Her actual age isn't known. Physically she's somewhere in the 14-16 range, but mentally more like 6-8*...which is why Maggie Cleary (19, 20 in Jan) or her uncle (44) will actively murderise Henry if they suspect dishonourable intentions, since their adopted little sister/child would be easy to seduce. I suspect James - already a convicted murderer, NB - would back them up on that.



*in human terms. She shows some clever-dog/clever-parrot flashes of logic/inspiration that a human child of that age wouldn't.

I hasten to assure folks that the mess in the Ryan farmhouse is unrelated to present bystanders and not the work of evil emus.

Also that there are more updates forthcoming, but I need to get home first.

Ha, then the secret crush might be on Maggie ;)
Henry is probably 17 I think, and I had a lot of crushes at that age!

She's a pretty lass. Less likely to bite if overstimulated, too.

Right now I need sleep badly (I am sorry, I looked up scenery for descriptions and got distracted by the extreme weirdness of Australian wildlife...malleefowl come out of the ground), but I just got a lurker request - most of the game'll be public anyway, but should we split up into groups for any reason, are we all right with that?

edit: link added
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:51, Sat 08 Feb 2020.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 36):

no objection to lurkers

Lurkers fine by me :)

What is the etiquette around dice rolling?
- do you want us to put the target skill number in the roll itself to make pass/fail easy, or keep that stat hidden?
- do you want the dice roll in a specific post, or shall we just roll and you’ll see in the dice window? Example, Henry just rolled spot hidden- I’m heading out with the kids so don’t have time to do a full IC post, but have rolled to make sure I don’t slow the game down (am also personally happy for you to roll for me of pace requires it).
10:22, Today: Henry Cotton rolled 12 using 1d100.  Spot hidden.

My preferred format for rolls is OOC brackets in-post, small, in a colour you don't speak in. Ideally, result bolded and your skill present, e.g.

[[10:22, Today: Henry Cotton rolled 12 using 1d100. Spot Hidden (75) ]]

Then you can see easily that your result is under your fifth value, which is especially good. For transparency, I give horses automatic success at smelling things close to them, since it's what they're made for, but only roll a Spot Hidden for mounts in regards to movement: a horse might pick up the general presence of something hostile, but unless it's easily visible and unfamiliar or seen moving they won't do more than keep an ear on it in passing. Of course, unlike a car or bicycle, horses can also decide to remove themselves from danger, even if the "danger" is just emus who looked scary at the time.

Reminder @ Brigitte that although the Emu War has not yet happened in this period, emus can puff up over six feet tall and potentially disembowel a human being.

Meanwhile, Henry's staring at sticks made me think of this article I found whilst distracted from looking up December-blooming NSW wildflowers for flavour.



:D

Glad I’m in the dawn thread...jack and brigitte your thread looks a whole lot bloodier!
So long as Henry dosnt meet a snake everything will be ok...

What? I've given you plenty of blood, you just didn't want to unwrap those bundles on either side of the clearing there...also note that Tom made his Spot Hidden to see things from his angle, he just hasn't had time to post yet.

Janey isn't generally given to hoarding dead wombats or whatever's in there, by the way.

Ugh, feeling pretty terrible - going to sleep presently, I think. 'night!

Ha, as a player I’m dying to unwrap the bundles, but as a character, who amongst us would find a bundle of cloth filled with rotting flesh surrounded by flies and decide to have ‘fun’ unwrapping?! If the bundles had looked harmless Henry would have ‘em open by now ;)
Here’s to hoping the others don’t come up with half sensible reason for the lad to go prodding and probing - eek!

[shifty eyes from archaeologist often to be found bagging roadkill for reference specimens] No-one...definitely no-one would do that.

I am teasing, by the way. General heads-up that I tend to do that, to myself as well: I'm not actually criticising/making fun of IC decisions for being IC. Or demanding gratitude for providing enough blood.

Incidentally, feel free to use this thread the same way folk yell advice to the participants of a horror film.

Going to separate threads off to keep up the mystery at this juncture, I think, and also go to bed within the hour even if this is a weather headache rather than baby migraine (I think it is, but this past fortnight has me worried that might be wishful thinking).

[sees new post in checking who's been about] Thomas appears to have scuttled up the boulder already...Tom, give me a SAN check and hang on a moment while I get you some description...

Oh delicious last post GM-I applaud you!

Thanks! I got the recipe from Baba Yaga.

On the theme of recipes for witchcraft and/or suffering, do we all know of the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast? I've been listening to the archive whilst trying to finish a craft project and it is Very Good.

As in, extremely real-feeling alternate-universe versions of events that don't feel exploitative or insensitive, working-class protagonists, a very, very skilled interweaving of folklore and weirder cosmic horror and...well, you know the kind of good something has to be to make zombies genuinely frightening in this day and age? That good.


Unrelatedly, I know we're not generally about at weekends and I've had evening hail/thunderstorms the past couple of days, but...Thread 1a, are you stuck or/and waiting on each other? Can I help any?

As a general note, if ever I think I've been clear and I'm not, feel free to query details.

Snow on its way here in england which is always fun, shouldn’t stop the posting from me tho :)
Have been a bit quiet the last few days as wife over in Germany for work since Saturday. She got back last night so am a little less overwhelmed in my down time-thanks for the patience.

I’ve not listened to that podcast keeper-but did enjoy the case of Charles dexter ward on bbc sounds (some drama on the commute) which was decent. I also tried ‘the good freinds of Jackson Elias’ because I (very loosely) know one of the guys on it. Enjoyed their stuff on the mountains of madness-obvious super fans!

Snow already here in Scotland, though it doesn't tend to stay long on the Northern Isles, what with the salt wind. Still, the hills look bonny.

Oh! I had not known of that adaptation, and may see if I can get to it. On the theme of England, snow and quiet creeping horror, do we know about the M.R. James readings by Michael Hordern? If ever there was a near-perfect match between story and audiobook reader...

I am out of lunchbreak, but Brigitte & Jack? Sgt. Wilkins is very bemused.

I just saw The Lighthouse and, uh. It really makes you think about...shipping. Gosh.

Going to sleep to shake off this headache and hopefully recover some SAN; responses in the morning. 'night!

Glad your enjoying your snow across the pond.  We're suffering the worst winter in recorded history here in Ca.

Surely it puts some moisture into all that burnable brush, though, no? If by 'worst' you mean 'snowiest'. Burn some of your climate change denial conspiracy theorists to stay toasty - if you eat creatures, I have it on good authority that as a bonus, they'd taste like bacon. That or take the excuse for hot chocolate, I don't know.

All well on that thread? Need any help?

Going to give James until after 8 here (lunchtime there, I think) before moving things along as per the Absence Policy. Hopefully it's a good kind of busy he's got.

Meanwhile, the other thread is actually turning out far better than I'd feared (I mentioned it to my sort-of apprentice, who predicted that between armed redcoats and an Irish suspect "there isn't going to be a lot of interrogation...") - great teamwork and RP over there.

edit: that wasn't a challenge, you guys.

I'm immediately reminded of the second-to-last panel of this Beaton comic...and no, Peel's reforms are sixteen years in the future.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:41, Wed 04 Mar 2020.

Dreaded triple post to ask whether folk on the 1b thread are stuck, and/or whether players in general would like me to roll ambient (or even all) Spot and/or Listens for them to save time. What do we think?

For those newer to the game, the notice skills can occasionally be life or death when it comes to ambushes, monstrosities, and sitting on snakes, which is why I'm making the prospect of rolling your "notice things" and "notice impending doom" for y'all separate offers.

Everyone look at this Good Bird: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/sci...environment-51835946

edit: ...and this Prizewinning Idiot Bird: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-51852202
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Thu 12 Mar 2020.

Really beginning to feel like I'm talking to myself over here...

Attention and replies please:

Since two out of three players on Thread 1b have currently vanished, should I make the threads intervisible again for ease of communicating the two groups' findings later? Or would that lead to too much meta confusion?

Sorry chief - world very hectic at the moment. I'm still with you, just VERY VERY hectic at work, have no down time. Agree, having the opposite threads open could be entertaining, unless we are close to colliding with each other in which case keep it as a surprise :)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:06, Wed 18 Mar 2020.

Hi! Thanks for checking in and giving a reply, too, appreciate both of those a lot. Remember, if you have an idea how long you'll be away I can cover for that, so long as I know about it. Incidentally, Thomas, where's yourself?

Anyone else going to weigh in on thread visibility or/and passive rolls? please? c'mon folks, I'm trying to facilitate here.

I'm fine with seeing both threads. Not a problem to separate charcter knowledge and meta knowledge.

Also fine with GM rolling.

I'm also fine with the two thread idea I really haven't been keeping up with the other group anyway.

I to have been busy with work but should be calming down shortly.

GM rolls work for me as well. If it's easier I'm also fine with continued rolls for myself

All right, we'll become highly visible shortly. edit: made a few PMs more visible, too.

@Tom - Good to know, thank you. The proposal was just for passive rolls, like noticing surroundings, clues etc. : you'll still roll your own skill checks and so on.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:19, Wed 18 Mar 2020.

I'm overdue to be asleep, but just wanted to say a) thanks to Brigitte and Jack for surviving the exposition-heavy posts: letting you get a word in edgeways right now and I assure you you'll get your thread back within two more posts at most...b) Thomas, are you closing in on the thicket with James there, or sniffing about the ground in front of Henry (who's currently distractedly looking in the other direction)?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:37, Fri 20 Mar 2020.

The Bozo just cancelled going outside and I am Upset.

Anyway, giving Thomas a chance to get a post in there...Brigitte, don't feel obliged to go look at holes in the ground if you don't want to, I can arrange things either way.

Idiots havnt been doing any kind of isolation. My freinds in London tell me it’s stupid there with people ignoring distancing so Boris had to take action. Really tough times.

BTW, does anyone have any tips for finding a group for online play? Need an escape!

Ha! Like that scunner cares about anything but his ratings...having lived in London (my parents still do) I can confirm that short of lockdown it's only the richest suburbs of the city where a 2m gap between folk going outside at all times would be even possible, unless you staggered everything's opening hours in some crazy fashion. It's like the man never had to use a Tube train. Don't blame Londoners who have to earn to live for Tory idiocy (also, stir up hysteria and a public shaming system over a non-virulent plague after years of cutting even subsistence benefits and then expect people not to stampede the shops? Slow clap there, guys).

You're...in one? I think you can pick up randoms on Roll20 if you're desperate for realtime play, though. There are far faster games here as well.

Ha, I mean, a night of play using skype/hangouts whatever...not to replace play by post.

If you're leery of Roll20, probably it's best to ask for recommendations on the 'Offsite Gaming' forum, I think.

Unrelated to that but vaguely related to this game, I've been had the Irish-Australian folksong Moreton Bay on the brain somewhat of late...it's something about the mixture of the usual soft, sweet Celtic lament/complaining-song, usually about lost loves or homesickness and the utter, unflinching brutality of the lyrics there.

I should maybe add that for purposes of period interaction, the Irish were classed as natives of colonised territory by the Empire in exactly the same way as Indians, Maori and Native Americans: Thomas Cleary would be thought of much like a minor Iroquois chieftain (in the fledgeling USA, tragically hilarious as the notion is to anyone who's seen a collection of Irish people, the Irish were classed as "coloured"). Respected by the redcoats, but expected to fall in line with colonial edicts or suffer stiff reprisals for treachery.

Have never tried roll 20...will look now.

Just seen Janey spot the snake, lol :)
This message was last edited by the player at 08:38, Wed 25 Mar 2020.

In the bush, you can roughly tell the time of day with a large rock like that: if it's early in the morning, the snakes are on top. Near noon, they're tucked in underneath where it's shady. Beware early evening, when they're on top again, only now you can't see them.

Incidentally, that was an Eastern Brown Snake, they're an unusual combination of incredibly venomous and extremely brown. The big spid Brigitte and Margaret found in Henry's drawers was a female Australian Huntsman on her mating season walkabout. Has Henry encountered a real live scorpion yet, or does he think they're part of Greek mythology, like centaurs?

Bah, Scorpions aren't real, what are you talking about? And spiders are mostly harmless right?

I've not read up on the other thread yet.

Yep, nothing to worry about with those little black ones with red backs...you might even find a cool sort of spider that builds a long cone of a web, or one that lives in a disguised hut in the ground - how exciting!

Oh, naught but a Frenchwoman rummaging through your drawers. https://images.app.goo.gl/ZuAZz9RtoU4uvKn99

Posts over there in a little bit.

I'm a bit confused.

I thought Cleary was taking Murphy and Wilkins (and Jack perforce) to Cotton's room while Maggie and Brigitte went through the wash. But it seems Maggie and Brigitte have examined both the wash and Cotton's room.

So what are the three men doing?

You were examining Thomas Daniels' room in the feed shed and I'll have a post up for you as fast as I can type, just let me get there...

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 75):

Thanks. Thought I'd got lost.

You're just jealous Brigitte got to rifle through Henry's pants, I see you there.

Oh, and before I take this horrible shut-in headache to bed, if anyone was thinking of getting the Alien RPG but put off by the price it's currently half off on DriveThruRPG for "a limited time".

Right. Gone. Blargh.

*ferry announcement bing-bong* Just a note that we're within a handful of posts of a chapter end (and finally being in the same place, huzzah!) so please avoid starting a long philosophical discussion/fight with any NPCs until after that, thank you.

Addition: Not ignoring you, room raider thread, just waiting on a post from Henry so that I can close both threads at once. Brigitte has an incredibly significant find there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:44, Sun 29 Mar 2020.

I've got the Alien rpg it's a good system if you're a fan of the movies and such

...and I definitely am! Even if I'm part of the tiny minority who doesn't really like Aliens and thinks if you cut the inexplicable premise out of Alien³ it's the better of the original sequels, so people might point at me and go 'heretic!' rather than trust my opinion. I just like grimy settings and pretty xennies.

I've hardly looked at my copy yet, though, had a pretty useless weekend all told. It looks worth all the awards, however, and I'm excited that if another game should ever show up here I'd get to play with some knowledge of what I was doing.

...looks like someone found the Calder Expedition after all.

I'll try and get the next chapter up later this evening, but presently I'm heading out to scavenge the scoured post-apocalyptic landscape of Lidl to see if I can make what I wanted for supper or whether I'll have to suffer terribly through a nice egg and chips. edit: being so excited to find a can of tomatoes I actually started cooking entirely too late at night and now I've reached the stage of overtired where I start to get bilingual glitches and punctuation that looks applied with a shotgun, so I'm going to sleep. Thank you for your patience.

Are we enjoying sunny Australia so far?
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:45, Mon 30 Mar 2020.

Bilingual glitches? What flavours of language are glitching in there?

No rush - am supposed to be working anyway :)

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 82):

Having a fine time.

Things -

There'd be a messenger dispatched by Cleary to update folk at the tavern as to Brigitte and Wilkins' remaining away: if Brigitte wants to send any special message with him, feel free to put it in your first post or to me via PM as desired.

Jack (or/and Brigitte, if you're all right with being as stinky as everyone else and turned down the cool sponge offer for ladies such as may be ladylike), if you'd like to try and nab Thomas' old notebook and try to decipher his personal note-taking, let me know.

Also Jack, if choosing to help Maggie (who's a little panicked at extra people and it not being the day she thought it was/not having the supplies she thought she did) you'd be put on managing oven temperature and told to manage a soda loaf - easy enough, possibly something Jack's done in childhood as a youngest child helping his ma - whilst Maggie goes and gathers warrigal greens and suchlike.

Henry doesn't know Brigitte, Jack, or Charles Murphy, but he's heard of the former and might be a little awestruck at a surviving French aristocrat (she was an infant during the Revoloution, but still) who clearly shares lineage with an English dynasty. Or suspicious of her, because French. Or both! And/or mildly terrified he might get flirted with and not know how to respond to it due to the French reputation.

Neither Thomas nor Henry (nor James) know Sgt. Wilkins; they can react to him however they generally react to a military presence. Thomas has encountered Murphy a few times; he'd know him by sight - easy enough since Murphs is very ginger and the most freckled thing for miles - and know the information on the Cast List about him.

---

@Jack - I'd arrange a barbie, but I don't think that's been discovered as a casual thing yet. Welcome to rum, though!

@Henry - French rather than anything exciting, I'm afraid. I was going to excuse myself a bit of distraction by explaining that I was in train of teaching myself tricotage, which is...not sensical English, and the point at which I should decidedly go to bed.

Semi-relatedly, if anyone here is a non-native English speaker and feels they might be disadvantaged in things like interpreting Janey's phonetics or fancy upper-register or inflected English, do let me know and I'll arrange something.

---

Lastly, on trying to work out what summer foods were about I have to share this colonial recipe for parrot:

"Obtain 1 rock, 1 pot and 1 parrot. Pluck, trim and clean the parrot and place parrot and rock into pot.

Boil for two days, discard water, discard parrot, eat rock."

I'm an English speaker and I feel like I'M disadvantaged by her speech! She's a bit tricky to follow.

Parrot joke made me chuckle ;)

That's not disadvantage, that's the same as everyone else in-world not constantly in contact with her. That said, even Maggie doesn't always know what she means. Repeating best guesses back to her the way James does usually works best for getting clarity. The girl does her best.

On which note, just thought I'd point out that when Janey said she  couldn't say the name of the Bad Man who made everyone strange, you don't know if that's because she's been threatened/thinks it will summon him, is a secret, or if it's just a harder combination of sounds for her to get straight.

I get the impression Australian parrots are not known for their tender and succulent flesh...search crew will have had some snacks at the early afternoon rest, by the by, but probably be very thirsty by now. James may have shown Henry which grasses aren't poisonous to chew an end of to keep moisture in the mouth and build up less of that horrible chalky stuff, which might help a bit

To smooth over any temporal questions we'll assume Brigitte will re/join the party once they're inside and settled a bit. I'll give Henry until Friday evening our time to get a word in before gently sweeping everyone indoors, though it'd be nice to have his impressions.

I was going to add something pertinent and exciting here, but I forget what it was. Some absoloutely cartoonish spring weather today, though - before today's Single Sanctioned Exit For Excersise, calm and sunny; I go out, 40mph hail, snow, sleet enough that there's no point in going back because it's not like I'd get more soggy and I need a lot of walk...I eventually stagger back in like a sanblasted ice cube only for the wind to almost immediately drop and the sun come out again. I don't think I offended any ice wizards recently...

Those ice wizards can be very pesky! Suggest making a pact with Nyalathotep to protect you.

OK, I'll do that.

...so, thanks to a combination of not knowing how to make a pact with Nyarlathotep off the top of my head and not entirely paying attention to Google autocomplete, it seems I am now a warlock of Nyan Cat.

It's, uh. Pretty cool, actually.


edit: announcing such a thing properly/being very silly and stuck indoors.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:20, Tue 07 Apr 2020.

Brigitte, I'm giving Thomas a chance to post - just in case I'm not immediately about to give an intro, assume Brigitte comes in about the point when he's done so and will hear/can react to his reply to the sergeant.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 92):

No problem.

Might be an ideal time to add in Janey's observations of what she saw on the land, there...

Well, a belated Happy Passover/Easter to you folk, and/or happy Cheap Chocolate Egg Day to those who've found worthy secular distractions.

I'm going to give Henry 'til tomorrow evening (a couple of hours or so before this time tomorrow) to look in before sweeping things along myself.

To stay on-theme, here is an Easter Bilby.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 11:49, Tue 14 Apr 2020.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like punching the Sgt. in the face?

In reply to Thomas Daniels (msg # 96):

Yo.

It's great to have motivated players.

Approaching a wrap-up for this thread, fair warning, and do we want a designated Clues Thread to keep track of gathered info?

That would be really helpful actually.

For example, I don't think I understand who Ryan is...and why that impacts Maggie?
He's the squatter who lived near by? Are we seeing that Maggie had a thing for a local squatter?

Other clues I think are...

The hole dug in the dirt
The site of the 'ritual' (and we know the 'shael' is hidden near by)
The drawings/sketches taken from the ritual site
A stick with Cleary carved in to it
A ring belonging to a squatter named Ryan
A journal belonging to Tom suggesting he's been gone for some time
Janey's descriptions of the bad man (wild hair and beard, height of a teen girl, had been to the house once before he started being bad)

Anything else? Some stick figure things?


I liked Brigitte's idea around asking Janey to draw the bad man. If he's Janey's height and a member of the Calder expedition tho there cant be many options...does that fit anyone's description? Or did any of the Calder crew have distinguishing features that we can use to ask Janey 'did he have blue eyes/a scar' etc.

The Ryans are the squatter family who've been mysteriously slaughtered, though the mother is still just about alive.

Maggie is upset her neighbours have been brutally murdered, including children she was familiar with: imagine being a teenager under the background stress of being the only mentally competent woman for miles, living surrounded by convicts and hard-to-spot natives that may or may not decide to kill you, and then the little anchor for European normality, a cheerful young farmer and his family, get cut up and put in a pot. It's upsetting, and too much for Maggie after a day worrying about Janey getting hurt, poisoned, or stolen by bushrangers. Not every frontier woman can be made of iron all the time.

I'll go set it out properly in a bit since you need it, but everyone missing the same amount of time is significant, the fact there's Alexander Calder's logbook here when the expedition is completely missing is very significant, and there are also things individual players know they haven't or don't want to share. Henry ought to pass Murphs that stick and mention there was another one, though.

Remember how Janey said she knew his name but couldn't say it earlier? Cleary is about to crouch down and start listing 'em. Getting Janey to draw things is a good idea for interpreting her in general, but I don't think we'd get much out of it here. If Brigitte insists after supper she'll get a sheet of hands, sheep heads, random fauna and flora that looked interesting at the time, and maybe rough don't-want-to-remember versions of the figures and drawing that Tom copied earlier.

 If asked to draw the "shael" she'll produce something that looks like a broken bowl or a chunk of a big smooth rounded rock.

All right, I think that's everything. Let me know if there's anything I've missed and remember y'all have scratchpads for a reason!

Nothing new about the Intro thread, just nudged it to the top to please my aesthetics. Right now I'm going out for my One Allowed Walk as far as reasonably possible to walk off a little of the Camembert fondue with honey-thyme dressing I had for breakfast because the things that're left in the shops by the time I get there at present is the fancy stuff that's reduced since the ravening hoardes are after the staples.

Jack Duggan, a veritable font of "no useable information" indeed.

Excellent! Let's see what the information that Jack suddenly remembers even more murders than were previously known of (whilst babbling about ghosts again) is useful for.

As a random side note, as a rough mixture of two outlaw Charlies from film - Charlie Prince from 3:10 to Yuma and Charlie Burns from The Proposition - I honestly did not expect Murphs to turn out so sweet-natured. He is, though. Just a genuinely good lad. Which doesn't mean he won't shoot you if he feels he has to, of course, but still.


Edit: spelling and clarification
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:48, Sat 18 Apr 2020.

Chapter 3 up very soon, once I've got a bite of cheese, cursed the fact that everyone is apparently in Lidl right before closing (hooray for the online crowdedness-checking thing, though) and finished tormenting Thomas & Henry's sleep. May well be tonight.

Additionally, although I have been vegetarian since the last millennium, I vividly remember that kangaroo tastes sort of like dense peanuts. For your information.

edit: Done. Also, Sergeant Wilkins is extremely hungover.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:59, Fri 24 Apr 2020.

In case anyone was curious, these are a small version of what the average late 18th/early 19th century chicken looked like. Fancy modern-looking French/Dutch hens won't reach Australia for a good while yet.

Semi-relatedly, I got jealous of Brigitte's breakfast (that chocolate is probably part of their festive treat stock, but how else should one entertain nobility?) and decided to pull out great-grandmother's recipe book from 1907 to make myself some caraway buns. Despite the "handful of this, [obscure measure] of that, cook until done" nature of old cookbooks they turned out all right and I know what I messed up, but I rediscovered the terrifying mystery of "Vegetarian Shape".

I half want to try it to see what actually results from the somewhat arcane list of ingredients, but I'd need a jelly mould - which I lack, because vegetarian - and two pounds of tomatoes sounds like a lot. I think you'd wind up with something like a lentil log, but..hmm. That recipe book is great fun, though: it has household hints in it as well, including "how to get bloodstains out of silk, crêpe de chine &c." and a cough remedy involving eggs, menthol and cocaine.

I have a health issue that requires some surgical correction. The surgery is scheduled for next week. I will be prepping on Tuesday and in surgery Wednesday morning. Recovery in the hospital may last to Saturday and I doubt I'll be back to my computer before Sunday May 10.

Thanks for the heads-up, always appreciated, and all the best for the surgery/recovery therefrom.

Seems to be crickets around here for a while anyway, I'm honestly wondering whether everyone's busy or I've just messed up that badly...

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 107):

That post was masterful in my opinion. I've been digesting it and crafting a response. Should be up shortly.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Aw, thanks. See, it's not just Jack I've been tormenting with ghosts.

Accurately beaning the Clearys' chief cockrel with a boot would be a Throw roll, should that information ever be required.

Sorry for the delay.  First week back to work and supper busy.  Should be back to normal posting rate next week.

I hope you're in NZ, not Weatherspoons. Thanks for the notice.

Edit: I presumed Thomas at least dressed after taking notes there. If not, let me know!
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:20, Thu 30 Apr 2020.

I am greatly amused to discover that Murphy swears with a random selection of profanity when startled like I do.

If anyone wants to know what breakfast tastes like, Townsend's has you covered: it is a heart attack in a pan if you don't intend to spend the day scything a field or herding cattle but it is amazing. Chop fragments of pig corpses in at your whim if you eat such, though in the age of easily available plant oils there isn't much reason to grease a skillet in such manner.

Also, I think I cracked the carraway buns! This batch are much better, mostly due to sufficient rise times, partly due to making up a pseudo-barm for yeast. I also accidentally threw tea over my reindeer skin, and am hoping the handy hints in great-grandmother's book for cleaning tiger skins apply...

If everyone wants to hunker over their plates/cups/drawings and ignore noises off, that's fine, just let me know. The tea is probably a rough Congou, if anyone was curious, and Cleary, like Mme. d'Anjou, has enough wealth for proper leaves rather than the literal warehouse floor-sweepings a lot of settlers would be putting up with.

Also, I found this on Twitter and thought I would inflict it on you lot because it seems on-brand: https://twitter.com/scienceshi.../1256732749336989696 (hit 'Page Up', not sure why the link doesn't centre on the image there.)

[laughing] Well, since everyone seems to have avoided making any IC decisions on this, is there any player preference for

a) the direct route after Calder
b) tracking ?Bowen from his last known movements near the ritual site  or
c) locating some locals to ask without being filled full of spears

...or do we leave these decisions to Wilkins?

In reply to Charles Murphy (msg # 114):

B, I think.

Vote noted. Bear in mind that as Murphy said, that'd take a bit longer and none of you know if Sally Jane Towler's still alive, or how long she might remain so if she is.

Anyone else?

I also vote for B

Also noted.

I'll poke Henry's player again to see if he reappears before the character reverts to NPC status, but I presume he'd pick Option A due to being friends with some of those on the Calder expedition and being keen to try and rescue Miss Towler, having an awkwardly gallant streak. Option B'll let y'all play around with the ritual site some more if you want, maybe die get a closer look at that thing Janey put securely away and warned againt touching/interacting with.

Jack?

Jack'll go where he's dragged, but he is curious to see the ritual site, if a bit feared as well.

Yes I'm still up, but hopefully that all makes sense...as ever let me know if not. Since Jack seems to be encouraging my compulsion to describe everyone else's eyeballs, know that PCs are welcome to describe theirs if they want. [nod]

A little more seriously, take note that Wilkins, whilst marginally less horribly hungover, isn't particularly inclined to climb up and stare at the ritual site himself without persuasion. Brigitte and/or Henry can go/be sent up there without permission, of course.

@Jack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x79LK9qfUq4

I assure you Ngamurudyin does have a good reason for staring at the lads' feet, I just wanted to give Brigitte a chance to report on her findings/decide what she personally wants to stare at before moving that bit on.

Third! Post!

...going to give Thomas a chance to reply before doing up-top description for Jack (though feel free to give first impressions in the meantime, Brigitte).

---

Would've got to this last night but yesterday was a Bad News Day for archaeology and I'm only just about over that kind of visceral supressed rage that makes you want to spit up bits of bone...I think I can gracefully set Henry aside in a bit (will change his tag tonight, I think), but considering we're 2/5 players down now, do y'all think I should go fish for another?

I was thinking another friend of Sally Jane's gone up looking of their own accord or a relative of the Calder expedition's native guide (who hasn't come home either).

---

edit: In case anyone was unfamiliar with this sort of sandstone outcropping, a visual reference or so - sort of like this from below (with trees and slope behind, of course), and if they spent a while riding about upslope it'd look more like this.

-
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Thu 28 May 2020.

I know it's the wrong side of the planet in all ways, but song for y'all, so you can appreciate that at least most Australian flies don't bite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjLBXb1kgMo

Going to give Thomas until tomorrow evening then move things along. Heads up that we're about to have some downtime as the group moves up into the hills - is there anything anyone plans or would like to do besides travel and sleep?

Also, do I take the resounding silence as no objction or comment on the prospect of my fishing for a new player?

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 124):

A new player sounds good.

Thanks, Brigitte. Since there were crickets from everyone else, I've put the ad out: should the post count move without going red that'll be me starting a new private intro thread for any new player/s that does show up.

Presently just giving Jack a chance to post since it affects a few background rolls.

Although Brigitte left the scene first she might have seen Thomas approaching the sheep head up top and realised for herself that it was in a different condition to the ones below.

Optional reply on that one, Jack. Wilkins did not notice the thing.

Everyone else, my apologies: I seem to have brain blep right now and have somehow managed to time many work-related words coincidentally with many game-related words because I am a fool in green trousers. Things should smooth out over the weekend, but I doubt I'll get to more than updating the Clue Thread tonight.

Thank you for bearing with me. Right now I am going to go monitor my focaccia.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 127):

I like your trousers.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 127):

No problem.

Thank you, both.

I, uh. I appear to have got into a minor(?) squabble with the gods mods. I didn't mean to, at all, but if I get myself banned to the stratosphere know I...well, still didn't mean to, and am very sorry.

Last night I started a squabble among an academic mailing list, I'm on a roll, team. Possibly in the same way as crispy bacon.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 130):

We have all been there....

Really? That's...either encouraging or discouraging, I'm not sure. Anyway, I managed to explain I wasn't fighting, though I don't think any attention whatsoever was paid to my point. Ah well, huzzah for not being bannified!

Setting notes: those resident at the tavern will likely have seen a billycan before used as a trade object, empty or full, though they're still quite new-fangled.

The portable soup is better officer-quality than Wilkins is likely to have come by honestly, i.e. tastes of something other than salt beef. He's actually a mean hand at Tarot, which is still a normal game in the period and leaked over from French POWs.


In other news, did you know some granary flours contain whole grains and don't tell you about it? Whilst very good in actual bread, this makes the experience of cake-inna-mug a lot more exciting, like a sponge pudding laced with gravel.

Yes, it is nearly 3am. No, it is not significantly different from 11pm or 9am this time of year. I will go to sleep.

A heads up that it might be the weekend before I get a post for the main thread up, because eesh does my nervous system hate me and work has been messing me around. This is the weird pulsy proto-migraine stage, but I can't really see straight right now so I'm going to bed.

Thomas, if you're too busy to do a post right now you can just PM me that Luck/CON roll like Jack - its effects come in later rather than immediately. Brigitte, any thoughts, observations or objections over there? Having been in female company a bit more over her life in general she might notice the baby is a quiet creature by European standards, though seemingly alert as any other while awake.

Also, would we like a thread for Calder's journal for reference?

Blargh. All right, gone. Goodnight!

Hope you feel better soon.

A Calder Journal thread would probably be good.

Thanks, I'm more or less all right today, though yesterday was only 'railroad-spike-through-left-eye' bad. They put this portrait up yesterday, though  and I could not resist. :D  <-

Journal thread up! Actually makes things a bit easier for me in terms of quoting, collecting, and so on to make that the compulsory reading bit rather than anything in-thread. Assume Wilkins just says "Botany, botany, botany..." when skipping over the plant bits.

Going to do some actual walking and regret it with all my joint-related nerve endings but maybe regain a bit of SAN, then catch up with our indigenous Investigator's thread.


There's nothing new about the RTJ thread, I just like to keep it on the top.

Very well, since I seem to have muffed the tempo of things, we'll just move on and I'll get a new thread up for you all with fun mountain adventures. It's a tricky bit between skips and intro here and I'll try to do better with it. My apologies.

For that purpose - since there's a hidden mechanic for extra information only one Investigator has found so far - could I have a general idea of how the first journal reading affects our characters? Do they feel alarmed or reassured to be forewarned, or merely confused?

Additionally, Thomas, do you want to try and decipher some of your old journal in your tired state (an INT roll to make sense of the notes, then a CON roll to see if you'll be affected by cutting into sleep time on the morrow), or rest up (no rolls needed)?

Brigitte, if I could get a POW roll from you for the night, then another CON roll from Thomas & Jack (at disadvantage for Thomas if he took and failed the last one) to see quite where we get to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Tue 30 June 2020.

Brigitte d'Anjou rolled 27 using 1d100.  POW = 60%.

Thanks.

Brigitte develops a general feeling of unease at the description, but is so tired it does not stop or interrupt her sleep.


-
This message was last edited by the player at 02:05, Thu 25 June 2020.

Noted, thank you.

Could I have a general idea of how the first journal reading affected your character, please?

Jack is disturbed at the description of a family being sacrificed. It's too close to the memories he still can't quite surface. And they all seem to be ghosts; he's had more than enough of ghosts.

Almost like it's the same kind of ritual, huh. I...don't know if Jack will be more or less pleased as things progress here.

To be fair, the most the ghosts he knows he's met (or hallucinated) so far can do is give someone a mild headache. If they tried hard.

May I have that roll for the next day's War on Shrubs?

& thanks for the edit, Brigitte. Seeing as she's a Proper Lady Brigitte gets excused watch duty anyway, same as the prisoners.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 140):

No problem, I had to do it on my phone so it was easier that way.


-

[thumbs up]

...I am just going to say that Ngarungadurung's current predicament reminds me of this and leave you all to speculate.

All the typing.   x_x

Jack & Thomas, I did those CON rolls for you, hence Jack getting some Fun With Humidity Dehydration. Remember you need your hands untied if you want to do anything whilst not tied together, unless you want to turn this into one of those buddy movies.

Brigitte, your spider serpent sense remains to your benefit rather than something else's, yay! For now, anyway.

Sorry very busy at the moment. I will try and get something up tonight when I get back from work.

That's both fine and appreciated. I think I'll actually split the threads up for a bit if Jack isn't overwhelmed by the desire to get into combat just now, so look out for that.

Oh, and Jack, the baby isn't actually trying to mug you; she's easily peeled off if you keep your fingers out of re-grabbing range there.

Team Stream are having such a chill day over there. Even the carpet python. The sun's just started shining, the birds are singing in the trees...

Sorry had to do an overnight for work. I will get something up soon.

Please get some sleeping in as your top priority...as someone who has great trouble with doing so I can confirm that is much more important. Besides, Junji Ito says we should.

Just giving the main thread folks a chance to move that side forward before sweeping Team Stream back in.

Unrelatedly, someone seems to have left an elaborately-painted pebble outside my door...I think they are trying to bless me, not curse me, but I am a touch neophobic when it comes to objects presented to me personally without context. I wonder if they want anything of me, though I can't think that one of my friends would do something in quite that style. Maybe a particularly artistic neighbourhood child?

I feel like I should hop up and down and yell CAW at it to determine the level of threat, but that might be because my crow friends are the ones I've seen most over lockdown (three babies this year! They have dutifully brought them to show me so I know not to eat them).

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 149):

That sounds very cool, my cat left me a somewhat elaborately eviscerated bird this morning, but thankfully he thought better then to bing it inside. He has only learnt to do this, so we have had one each day for the last four days.


-

Oh dear...helping evoloution along in the local bird population, at least. I'm impressed you're getting a present every day, though. Probably trying to help you heap up supplies to lower the household's anxieties.

A friend of mine had a big barn cat years ago who never came into the house until she was recovering from a miscarriage, whereupon he stepped up to provide extra meat and teach her other "kittens" to hunt. Which is why all three of her kids are very good at catching live rabbits in living rooms. I don't know how well they'd do in an open field, but probably better than most.

I have just found this out and I can only say "GET 'IM, GIRLS!"

https://twitter.com/MilesKlee/...098609053697/photo/1

(I think they're actually rheas or something, but still)

All right, sweeping along sweeping along...if anyone had any questions for Ngarungadurung over breakfast, please post them here. Garangwaari would've run translation duty in camp, it's just a bit unweildy to play out in this format.

I made a bit of presumption that Brigitte would want to be in on the action rather than left minding the horses in the land of Over There. I could arrange something if she badly wanted to stay back, though (I say in my least sinister voice).


What else...not sure. I have been listening through The Magnus Archives whilst not allowed back at work and it is very good for a horror anthology podcast, if not quite up to the hype as far as I've got. Being written in American for a "wider audience" with an all-English cast is driving me bananas, though. It's incredibly jarring to hear a fancy English voice talking about garbage, elevators and cops and use Imperial measurements whilst sounding under 50.


edit: I remembered that I was going to say that my Ngarungadurung-facing descriptions of pale colouration as freaky are historically documented by several sources rather than just me messing about. Visiting Europeans had previously encountered Asian popluations to whom pale skin was a beauty marker due to the association with not being a tanned field-working peasant, and were terribly surprised that the Aboriginal peoples they encountered in Australia and Tasmania weren't at all impressed. There's an entertaining account of some officers letting themselves be painted black with charcoal by Aboriginal women in the spirit of making them more handsome, but it's noted that the natives still had a horror of pale eyes...it's odd to think about an unknown human colouration nowadays and quite how alien that'd seem.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:19, Sat 18 July 2020.

Ngarungadurung is now a visible man!

(Hope that wasn't overly pre-emptive, Ngarungadurung, I just saw the portrait you submitted had come through and got excited.)

       <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW9u_T5WEls>SCREE-EEE-EEE-EEEE-EEE-EEE-EE</a>


I just want to note that these aren't even weird or eldritch cicadas, Australian cicadas are just Like That. I don't know how anyone sleeps.

Sorry folks I've had some family things come up the last 48 hours. I should be able to post by Saturday night if all goes well.

May all go as well as it can do, and thanks for the heads-up.

Be well.

Oof, sorry I've been slow the past few days - folk're putting down great stuff as usual, I've just had early starts for archive work out at the Ness arcane interactions with mysteriously marked stones and only yesterday recieved the ritual stabbing that keeps me properly bound to this fleshy husk (always entertaining when you call up the hospital and the doctor who actually pulls your notes up to look at sounds surprised you're still alive).

Anyway, whilst aware it makes perfect sense in context I was highly amused that Jack got kicked in the arse and called an 'orrible little man and thus came to the realisation that the human condition is that of great capacity for both cruelty and compassion as ordered by the individual will, like cause and effect. Really enjoyed that, plus Brigitte being sensible and Ngarungadurung taking the time to go talk to/hug a tree (it's all right, he knows that tree). All good things.

Whilst I actually possess some energy now, it is silly in the morning, so I shall go to sleep. 'night!

You know, of all the ways interactions with a man who achieved his status in life by being very good at killing people could turn violent, I was not expecting SAN-loss-sparked protectiveness towards the Investigators.

.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:07, Mon 03 Aug 2020.

Really I was going to have Brigitte pick up a rock and brain him.... just kidding, sort of.

That just makes it funnier!

Yes, I am quite aware the colony at this point is called New South Wales, populated mostly by Irish people in terms of workforce and administrated by a Scotsman...I think when Wilkins unconsciously interchanges 'England' for 'Britain' he just means "somewhere worth saving".

https://youtu.be/uKadFsH6gsw?t=9

...

All right, going to be a little bit before the next thread's up, so...Europeans, do we wish to prod our new indigenous friend about the speared man, and Ngarungadurung, how much would you be willing to tell them?

This group of Europeans don't seem to know what they want.

They can't debate among themselves without threats and wrestling.

They abandon their companion to the wilderness.

They're led by the strong, not the wise.

Their warrior-leader is fearful, not brave.

None of these are good signs.

They are probably not wicked people, but Ngarungadurung doesn't trust any of them them very much.

It would probably be best to say only a little.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:05, Sun 16 Aug 2020.

Right, so if the others have many questions that can be played out in camp, where Garangwaari can interpret, and if few questions we can have them here and start the next thread a bit further along. Europeans?


...does Brigitte win a little trust for voluntarily coming to talk with Ngamurudyin, maybe? Ngarungadurung's probably heard the settlers don't like talking to women when they come to a camp, so he might think Brigitte is wary of men outside her band (whose wife/sister does he think she is, by the way?) or just doesn't expect them to talk to her.

Also, I don't believe I'm defending Sgt. Wilkins, but he has plenty of physical courage, just not the emotional courage to admit he carries any psychological scars at all, much less try and deal with them...then again, Ngarungadurung has established whose totemic auspice the redcoat falls under, so that's not surprising. Dogs get upset about things they can't bite.

I think Ngarungadurung will be wary but impressed by Brigitte's patron once he learns of her, but predict horror and alarm should anyone attempt to explain a saint medallion or worse, a crucifix..."so this commemorates the time Sky Father came to visit us like a man and we nailed him to a tree...well, a wooden object made specifically for the very normal purpose of nailing living people to, see, it looks like this..."


edit: I just had the thought that if Ngarungadurung took 'wrestling' as a normal European mode of asserting dominance that might be surprisingly effective (or possibly a quick way to get shot, depending on stealth skills). Your average colonial official would not in any way be prepared to be bodily tackled and/or put in a wrestling lock.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:00, Sun 16 Aug 2020.

I've been caught up in a lot of work this week, so will be slow to reply. Do the rest of you want to sort your questions for Ngarungadurung out and I'll answer them all with a single post later in the week?

They might have very few, or just suspicious looks, give 'em a chance to say...I think the others are also busy, though.

Whilst I encourage communication, I also encourage not feeling rushed, so no-one worry. Maybe I'll get Calder's next journal entry to read a little smoother - it's a tricky balance, getting something that looks like someone's notes that is still comprehensable to others.


edit: That said, I will start gently prodding folk come the weekend, because there's such thing as loss of momentum and this is a "Keeper needs X information to move forward" situation. Even if all y'all want to know is that the speared man is a man with a spear through 'im, I need to know that.

Also, thinking of trying to fish for a player for Sally Jane, since she's (as yet) still alive and would be helpful to the Investigators if she could reach them, what do we think?
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:55, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

New player could be good.

Noted.

...and does Brigitte want to ask anything about the speared man, or anything about what Ngarungadurung hopes to find, or what he's seen locally in his travels? 'No' is all right, I just need to know.

Sorry, I think she will. It was just not the weekend for posting.

-

It certainly was not! You are officially and warmly excused from posting when there is no site to post upon. [nod]

 She wishes to ask about all those things, then? Sounds best played through - Jack? Murphy will notice that Jack looks a bit beaten up (again) if Jack wants to recruit him to try and take the worst off the sergeant's attention/tell him how fed up he's getting without the question of being a homicidal maniac coming to the fore.

Should RPoL remain up until evening I actually found an amusing thing about Melusine on the Internet yesterday, but I'm on the wrong device to find it again right now...

Keeper, I think you're in the best position to determine the new player question, based on story needs and where we are in the story arc. I always consider the more the merrier.

Jack wants to know more from the aboriginals about the Speared Man. Is he part of their local legends or something unknown to them? What might his presence mean?

He'll only provide nonverbal cues to Murphy--a shaken head, a hearty sigh--he knows the ranger knows Wilkins better than he, and the type above all.

From my perspective it'd be a great lark for someone who wanted to play a 'final girl'-type run and then skip into a shared climax, plus a bunch of behind-the-scenes rolling off my hands. On the other hand, a new player is always an unknown factor in terms of table dynamics and how I'm balancing folks' posting rates vs. available energy and such. Just prefer to know I'm not going to turn someone into the awkward-because-unexpected bit of the narrative by shoving them in there where someone else was aiming to construct a different thing with the dynamic as it stood.

Structural integrity, is what I think I'm on about. I see TTRPGs as much like playing with Lego, and want folk to feel able to do their thing and make the tower look cool as well as building it up. I...have not slept enough and am very rambly.


Anyway, great! I have the last chunk of Calder's notes ready and I'll see if I can get you all a post up tonight. Tommorrow if I get distracted, the brain is not much behaving here.

Also, I know what you meant (and it is period-accurate), but describing Murphs as a ranger makes me badly want to give him an animal companion. If we went down that route, though, we'd have to bring in this guy and then everything just gets very silly.

Oh! and the pseudo-1900s speculation on how Melusine would work between shapes, which amused me (if the text is too small to easily spell into Google Translate, the unhappy skeleton in her guts is labelled 'unwise lover').

Nope, it is now midnight and I cannot brain. I shall sleep.

You can have Calder's remnant notes to look at, though. The sergeant does read the crossed-out bits, noting that they are crossed out, and indicates there are a few more details of hallucinations from margins and field notes he's not troubling with as they're more of the same. Garangwaari translates the reading into Darug.

Sorry guys, it's been a crazy week. Hope to post on the weekend.

That's great, and don't worry. Real life is what it is and I just took two days over ~200 words, if that.

As a warning, I might possibly ping up the clues thread with a highlight or two of the new information from Calder's diary sometime soon and make the post count go red, but that's admin, not...beshitting is something entirely different in English, augh...whatever the word is for poking someone into a state of exhasperated annoyance is, my intention is not that. Good blood, I've really messed up on sleep of late.

As an aside, I picture the smooth rounded rocks much like the Moeraki Boulders, which I have personally interacted with. I remain unconvinced those aren't eggs, too.

On the theme of baby Lovecraftian monstrosities, if anyone here likes graphic novels and has been spooky of the high reviews for Black Stars Above I can confirm it has definitely earned them. The interactions between human and Other are just spot-on in both directions...it's like an actual Mythos addition, but better, is all I can think of to describe it. Same recipe, more skill/keen understanding of how to use a semi-visual medium to best effect, not fried soggy-tough in the ol' racist juice.

Anyone watching Lovecraft Country ?


-

Haven't had a TV I so long I don't know if I could get foreign programmes if I tried (I remember when 5 channels was exciting news) but if it's worth getting as a box set someday do tell me about it.

From the trailer I saw online the premise looks either really good - non-cop Investigator-type protagonist! !! - or really "let us graphically illustrate violence against the marginalised because you [presumed comfy white* audience] won't believe it happened otherwise, making this show a miserable watch for that group, also we'll show racism by having That One Bad Guy and he gets shot/eaten/was a lizard person anyway so racism is over, yay". Which is...less good. Not that I don't love to see the KKK get their arses handed to them as much as anyone else, but the mass media storytelling dichotomy between good guys=humanised and bad guys=cartoons, i.e. definitely not the guys down the street who buy you a round sometimes (which there's more horror potential in, trust me), is among the cultural reasons the US gently slid into open fascism & probably contributes to England being well on its way there. So. Keen to hear, feel free to ramble at will and don't worry about mentioning any Issues alongside the good bits.

(+ if you'd like another extremely cool, if iron-bitter little cosmic horror story try The Teeth of America, here: https://michaelwehunt.com/2020...he-teeth-of-america/ )

I am really intrigued to have caught the word "doggoth" floating around the internet, though. They sound adorable. Though again a bit worrying, if the bred-as-slaves Mythos race have been hybridised with something recognisable as animals. I mean, Lovecraft would definitely approve, but that is not what anyone should aim for...does the protagonist get to try and communicate with them, or does some cultist have them on a leash?


Also also also Season II of Old Gods of Appalachia drops this week!!! Much excitement, even though I am set to be extremely busy for most of it and might not get there for another week...still! A piece of media that makes folk witches actually seem like they're wrangling dangerous, never-tamed powers to do good by force of will, doesn't flinch but isn't exploitative of trauma, tells working-class stories and has actually terrifying undead? You could push your hands to the elbows in their dark sense of history (deeper than colonial conception, for sure) and not grasp the idea of an end, just down and deeper dark...


*replace with 'male', 'straight', 'cis' as required depending on trauma pulled onscreen for entertainment.

[[edit: emphasis, clarification - not excepting the UK from casual consumption of right-leaning tropes.]]
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:42, Tue 08 Sept 2020.

I haven't watched any of Lovecraft Country, but the novel was a good read, if a trifle forced. I preferred Winter Tide (Ruthanna Emrys) among the recent-ish spate of new-Mythos novels.

Black Stars Above looks interesting, though I'm not really a graphic novel aficionado. I read mostly on my ebook these days, having neither the eyesight nor storage space for more print. I've bookmarked Teeth in America for a careful reading soon. I'll be looking at Wehunt's (what a name) Greener Pastures too. Thanks.

[looks this up] Oh, that looks good, thank you very much for that. I have a great fondness for feeple and weird families both, not to mention any work that would make H.P.Lovecraft climb a tree in alarm, and they often get handled so badly. Lovecraft's scary, scary thesis wasn't that Deep Ones would marry you when you don't want to marry them, it was that people wanted to marry feeple in the first place...

If you ever wanted to read one, that would be my pick to read. The Teeth of America...well, you will have to get there, but it has a deep creepy sense of witchcraft rooted in soft, murderous unreason and though you can't see Nyarlathotep, I would not be surprised if he was there.

Teeth of America is a great piece.

Maybe the most horrifying thing to me is the casual reference to Trump's re-election.

"The Teeth of America has given news outlets such as Fox and Breitbart more fodder for their anti-antifa ramblings—how dare this liberal cult target white people..."
This is the line that made me stop and think about our present, because it made me go "Of course they would."

The one aspect that jolted me out of my suspension of disbelief was the lack of any reference to LEO body cameras. Not that they wouldn't have produced recordings of the creatures, that was covered in the early reference to flashlights and mobiles malfunctioning, but I felt there should have been some mention that there's no video because of the malfunctioning. A quibble.

Thanks for hooking me up.

Right? I think it's especially effective - at least to me - because honestly I can't entirely shed the emotional gratification in the notion of channelling the energy and socus of far-right nonsense into something creative/productive, even though that's...that. Culting. The strong believability, despite what you'd have to be to do that.

Oof, I hear that. May he continue to alienate the military.

I'm probably missing a lot of cultural references/nuance, but it's the phrase "anti-antifa" that turns my stomach: that genteel centrist creation of doubt where there is none, a place for rottenness to root. That the Pale Man is pulling handfuls of raw chaos magic out of there (from decomposed lawful evil!) and may not be acceptably right to the sane but is not wrong, either: the struggle to see a being that is what it is so strongly and not see a stamp of dark divine...that's some good horror there.

Fair enough - he probably thought the static in the other videos covered it, but I see how it might stick out if that was the first evidence expected. Incidentally, I mean to go order Winter Tide from the local bookshop when my joints/nervous system hate me a bit less.


[shoos folk back towards thread] Now, go think about those witches a moment.


Oh, and I think we may actually have a player for Sally Jane! A very exciting development indeed.

I was also today old when I learnt this and yes, well-thought-out mildly optimistic future detail, good: https://twitter.com/Jayfuz/status/1300809408662904832

(also RIP that poor Welsh guy's phone)

Dreaded triple post to let everyone know that yes, Jack made an excellent summary there, but also that I have a case of the Visiting Aunts, so a decent response might take a while - late tonight at the very earliest. Disappointed that the seemingly enthusiastic person that offered to take Sally vanished without a trace, but ah well (I hope they didn't get burnt down by gender essentialists or get the Doom Cough).




Behold, a snapshot in time before T-posing was invented.


edit: Sort of a post & me running out of brain. Anyone who wishes can feel free to add in there, but/and I'll move things along tomorrow. Sorry for the delay and thank you all for your patience here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:24, Sat 19 Sept 2020.

Hi everybody - new player here, looking forward to getting into the game!

Yay. Welcome!

Yes! I found a player for Sally Jane after all and you have no idea how much work this saves me/what chaos is afoot...

Meanwhile, I was going to make fun of the Europeans for not noticing the scenery, but it seems everyone has heat/cicada hypnosis...if the NPCs don't come through on this I might actually change the outcome of the thing, let's see. [a-rolling goes]

Oh, and can I say - well, I can and so I shall - that I really appreciate the post quality here, it boosts the game no end to get player participation like that.

Greetings, Sally Jane.

[wiggles Mysterious Clothlike Shape at main thread players like a feather-onna-stick for a kitten] psst psst psst...you can ignore my lovely ambush trap horrifying revelation adventure hook if you want, but you have to tell me...

Meanwhile, now I'm on a device that's not bastardly about links I think those here might be interested in Abbie Howard (of The Last Halloween) having just put up one of those choose-your-own-adventure style games for PWYW: https://abbyhoward.itch.io/scarlet-hollow-chapter-1

edit: now with actual link!
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:32, Sat 26 Sept 2020.

Sorry, I'm in quarantine at the moment and juggling work and family. Will be less responsive until mid-October.

Oh no, that's rather rubbish. I hope any sickness passes over the worst quickly and that you have sufficient distractions available to come out with at least some SAN left. Thanks for the notice, at any rate, and here is a picture of a cat, which I believe is the traditional internet way to express sympathy.

I will assume Ngarungadurung is being stoic and quietly observant in the meantime.

I just found out a horrifying fact about kangaroos and I feel like I've failed a SAN check. Augh.

Post three! To say sorry for the glacial pace, I have merely been afflicted by the inherited curse (probably exacerbated by Canada performing dubiously legal experiments on my mother) that means I occasionally have to fight a skeleton and a pile of gross goopy organs and nervous tissue. They're my organs and nervous system, but it sounds more badass that way.

Also that I finally recieved Winter Tide in the post and am excited though I can neither see nor concentrate enough to read right now. Perhaps tomorrow will be better, though I was planning to try brownies to use up clearance eggs and if I eat dark chocolate any time soon I feel my head might fall off...hmm.

Sorry to post out of turn, but I figured it was urgent enough to do so :)

Justified and extremely badass; will give the situation my full attention tonight.

Brigitte, since that roll was up in he 90s I'd like another Luck roll to determine if anything broke skin.

Also, warning that I am going to ask for SAN checks when the Europeans spot him, just with the penalties greatly reduced by the warning, because the Speared Man is just so clearly recognisable as both once-human and a Thing That Should Not Be.

Well I don't think I could have rolled worse to be honest.

Brigitte d'Anjou rolled 99 using 1d100.  Luck = 40.


-

Hahaha, at least you got Wilkins, too. Poor Brigitte.


Murphs' natural habitat is gorse bushes, for those of you less familiar with the Northern European heath biome; they are even spikier than they look and not that easy to steal horses through (though very useful for ditching pursuit among, should one be pretty good at stealing horses).

Ach, I must sleep.

Meanwhile, Sally Jane is being devoured by emus.

I take it back, she is being adopted by emus. A woman who missed out on a lot of being free of care as a child can now benefit from the foraging advice and general dadly powers of a large ratite.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:41, Tue 06 Oct 2020.

Have update my post. Thanks.

Excellent: feel free to reclaim 1d3 HP (if you roll a 3 you can either use it on Wilkins in a moment or consider it a sucess so good she's convinced her horse not to get spooky/ier about the blood and I'll give you a bonus die on the next "make a horse do something it's not keen on" roll).

Meanwhile, though we have a vague idea of at least where Murphy, Ngarungadurung and the Speared Man are, everyone has lost sight of Jack.

I usually hide NPC rolls, but combat's a bit different, so I left all but Murphs' SAN check (he got a 6!) out on the dice roller - do people prefer seeing Keeper numbers in-thread for ease of reference just in case, or is that all right?

Brigitte, you can't see much more than distant movement out there, but you can hear Murphy swearing. HP roll before anything else, though, please.

I'll just put this roll here and I will; try to get something up tonight. Thanks.

Brigitte d'Anjou rolled 2 using 1d3.



-

Ah, good! Full bar of health, you're good to go make more holes in yourself (do not actually do this, it is not smart).

Related to nothing but the general theme of horror, I am not entirely sure how I managed to do it, but if you ever need to convince someone their kettle has become rabid or/and possessed by the Devil, apparently a tiny bit of washing up liquid will do that.

I must say, you guys are making me look extremely clever right now.

https://youtu.be/l1dTcUyzQL8?t=65

Hey, I'm *trying* to get to some sort of civilisation! I was split up to begin with!

Just try and keep your arms on, then.


...a note to everyone else: unless you get far enough away from the rest to be completely out of earshot, if I'm lagging oddly it's for others (Investigators or other people or things that may be on their threads) to keep up with noises off etc.

Sorry, I'm buried in work at the moment. Will be back in a couple days at most I hope.

Thanks for the heads-up, always appreciated. ....although currently, by coincidence, I'm waiting on everyone else.

Won't stop me posting the Bunyip Song at the end of the week so that everyone can get it on the brain for Hallowe'en/the full moon, though. Mildly traumatic children's cartoons are the Best*.


*extremely traumatic children's cartoons are not, though. My mother sat me in front of Watership Down when I was 4 thinking it was a nice film about bunny rabbits and I still can't hear 'Bright Eyes' without automatic internal screaming. The bunnies...so much blood...

I feel like I should officially declare it Tackle Jack Day at this point. If anyone finds Jack, they get the right to tackle him. [nod]

edit: it is now the end of the week, therefore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtrYO-Mog60 !

edit II: ...and whilst I still have a minute or so of the 31st left I feel I have to inflict this earworm on someone, why not my players: https://twitter.com/NickLutsko.../1321430802035560448

...& also hinting to...well, there's only Brigitte left over there, but the main expedition did hear a horrible animalistic scream right before Jack yelling "bastard!" at someone. It seems long ago to us but only a few minutes IC.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:05, Sun 01 Nov 2020.

In case anyone needs a bit more lighthearted distraction than being lost in a hot forest today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcx3nArwM_g

I have to say, I love that Jack and Ngarungadurung talk to each other even though neither of them have any idea what the other is saying. It's being willing that counts. ^_^

In re: thread swaps/postage elsewhere: I did have part of a post going on my scratchpad over lunch, but right now I need to wait on a couple of player rolls to see if we all get a nonstandard Game Over, as it were.

silly in the morning edit: No worries, everything is fine. Whew!
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:04, Thu 12 Nov 2020.

This is going to be brutal...

What skill are we going to use for the cut itself?

I'm just glad someone caught what was going on before Murphy simply keeled off his horse with fever, honestly. We could easily have lost him.

I'm going to ask for an EDU roll, of all things, to cover knowledge of anatomy picked up from butchering animals being applied over to a human,  then a damage roll for use of a knife that I'll adjust according to that result. You'd be aiming for 4, I think (I have checked at lunch) which can be mitigated afterwards with a successful First Aid or Survival roll.

_{_}
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:16, Fri 13 Nov 2020.

Got a PM to the effect that Brigitte will be on holiday for a couple of weeks - I'll post for her as necessary, but consider her to be Over There Somewhere/let me know if you're currently waiting on madame's reaction.

Meanwhile I was just thinking recently about how providing something for a patient to bite into was more about keeping them alive (pre-antibiotic medicine could do bugger all about infection spread via a cracked tooth into the jaw) than specifically saving their teeth and the odd lag in the medicine of the early-mid British Empire - they'd worked out that prisoners died less if you salted wounds after flogging (though admittedly probably just because the Romans did it) and that duelling shirtless (against getting cloth fibres caught in wounds) was more sensible if you only meant to go to first blood, but not "soldiers die less if you wash the last guy's blood off the saw first" or "strong perfume actually has less effect in curing sick people than onions; miasma theory may be Flawed".

Just an odd period for Western science all round, really. </rambling>

I'm having a busier week than expected but will try to get a post up before friday

Thanks for the notice!

@Jack - Just since it's been a while OOC - when Murphs is actually conscious and all that he might be interested in knowing where Jack's horse went.

@Sally - your name might be George now.

Mostly a note to say I'm not ignoring Sally, but I mean to turn in early tonight to try and sleep out this headache (added to bonus mystery stomachache which I've had the past two days, maybe a chill) and will be out most of tomorrow.

edit: before I switch off, eldritch router problems.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:53, Fri 20 Nov 2020.

How dense is the bush here? Wondering if climbing a tree might give us a better sense of where the rest of the party is, and other nearby features...

Extremely dense, as it hasn't seen native controlled burning for centuries and natural fires just serve to keep everything from entirely suffocating itself and dying back. Being at horseback-height will allow a vague view of perhaps a dozen metres more, but higher than that is a hopeless jumble of leaves, vines and branches.

It may also be of note that things powerful enough to remember and project interactive echoes of complete human beings from "loud" (fatal/terrified) impressions of human minds can probably render easier instincts to mess with - e.g. distance or orientation - less than trustworthy.

It's not known how/if any yowies* in the area are affected by this, but by the lack of entity-associated witchcraft's effect on Janey it seems that the entities' recognition of humans, confirmed as potential threats to the wellbeing of eggs, might include thought-patterns associated with complex speech and minds weighted for abstract reasoning over sensory detail, which Janey doesn't have. Although Darug lore considers woollymen to have once been human, it's worth remembering that human/animal boundaries get a lot blurrier towards the edges of the Dreamtime and a lot of entities behaving like humans in stories are aspects of/can become non-human things without a change of selfhood. Witches can be wicked spirits and whirlwinds at the same time, for instance.

*ahem* That is to say, the Europeans might classify yowies as large primates and Ngarungadurung might classify them as pre-Palaeolithic hill tribes transformed by new country, and these can both be true. That said, despite a lingering belief in woodwoses (Western European Sasquatch) as recently extinct in the British Isles, Europeans remained deeply uneasy with their discovery and attempted classification of great apes throughout the century.


*I use the translation of the Darug term, "woollymen" IC because "yowie" is later and of uncertain origin and I can't find the original word.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:51, Sun 22 Nov 2020.

I had to just say that I picture a certaippeal as being a very assertive pale-morph cockatiel. Also that in the unlikely event Jack and Brigitte managed to find their way down on their own without being mazed, murdered, mundanely lost or mangled by wildlife Jack would probably start dreaming of a couple of bedsheet ghosts.

One more consideration is that - if y'all don't care about trying to save Sally Jane as much as Murphy does (he's such a good lad, I don't know why he's such a good lad) - Brigitte's father's sword is presumably up here somewhere and Bowen likely knows where it is.

IC update once I've scuttled to the shops (yes, it's 9pm - I forgot my mask today and wasn't going to go into any much-shared indoor spaces with the teatowel from work).

I will always try to ensure that no flies are swallowed by characters who have recently suffered a loss of sanity, as swallowing Australian spiders to catch them would likely result in more than wriggling and jiggling and tickling inside one.

A heads up that I might update the Clues Thread soon, even though we're not quite at a thread change (it mostly depends on what Sally does next), since we don't wear rocket skates around here. So phantom red pings up in the Notices would just be that.

Lastly I will show y'all this twitter thread, because it's been a tough day and the description of Lovecraft made me laugh: https://twitter.com/midnight_p.../1333848887174467586

edit: also, TheDreamRot bot sums up this adventure: https://twitter.com/TheDreamRo.../1335748865182588928
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:07, Tue 08 Dec 2020.

Letting the emus forewarn of some archiving thread bumps as I shift things around. New threads tonight, and things are very much hotting up for the, ah, exciting bit of a Cthulhu game, where you try not to die.

I've been trying to *not die* ever since I joined. So not quite sure I like the sound of that...

...but not being dead yet means you're really good at it, right? Nothing to worry about...

Updates tomorrow - my brain has given up and I should actually attempt the sleeping thing, too, just been a stressful few days. That said, tomorrow - which occurs in 12 minutes for me & is already today for two of you - will match the in-game date, closing in on Australian midsummer.

Just to note that yowies aren't generally considered particularly aggressive, but they are supposed to be able to grab and kill kangaroos by shaking them, and this one was annoyed before getting within range of the influence of our subterranean friend/s...

Edit: it seems Giselle is continuing the tradition of "upset horse" being the most deadly thing to be found in any of my Cthulhu games. Oof I am glad Murphy made that Luck roll not to be squashed flat & only took minor damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:58, Sun 20 Dec 2020.

Ahoy, Thread 6a, are you both simultaneously busy or waiting on each other over there? If the latter, would a bit more description/moving on somewhat help?

Thread 6b, Ngamurudyin did get the gist of Brigitte's response there; just giving Sally a chance to get some reaction in.

Since Ngarungadurung is in the lead and since Jack feels dependent on his buchcraft, he's waiting for the tracker's reaction to the shot.

Sorry. I've been busy. Quick post to move it along.

@Ngarungadurung - thanks!



I'll give Jack a chance to react, then. Also, please know my intention whenever I notice typos isn't to be mean, but I read the above as "butchcraft" and am struggling not to picture Ngarungadurung going swift and silent-footed yet also doing muscle poses like Johnny Bravo to ward off eldritch influences, so now you have to struggle too.

I thought Ngamurudyin was the real master of butchcraft in our party, TBH...

I mean, everyone knows lesbians get exponentially more powerful the more access to lumber they have, so yeah, she's off the scale...but not there right now, so you'll just have to do your best.

(now I keep thinking of this Mad Max-based MGDMT strip: https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/1942 )

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Heh, happy European Present-Opening Day and a calming Christ's Mass or equivalent on the morrow to any Christians present, and indeed huzzah for holidays! I hope everyone does indeed get some days off and decent food/some little lamps to light regardless.

I tend to "observe" more literally observable events myself nowadays, so a belated happy solstice and Great Conjunction to you all, and may the waxing year treat us all better than the last.

...because I feel like it, mostly. These are of course vegetarian, but I assume adding meat scraps, being basically extra cooked fat and a bit of carb/protein, wouldn't make them any worse.

For leftover cabbage: hopefully you steamed this rather than boiling it to heck, but this'll probably work anyway: toast up some walnuts in a pan, set aside, put some oil(or other fat, if using meat scraps) in the pan, fry onions in it, throw a pinch of caraway in there against gaseousness and any other spices you like (ginger, nutmeg and a tiny bit of clove are good), dump the cabbage in and fry hot. If it's red cabbage, add balsamic vinegar a little after the cabbage; if white, cider vinegar nearer the end of cooking. When good and hot and fried throughout, add a sharp cheese (a veggie goat's cheese or Stilton work well) and the nuts, throw in chilli flakes if desired, taste-test to determine if it needs extra salt and serve.

Leftover root veg/sprouts: add what looks like a lot of tumeric (2tsp?), some cumin, leaf coriander and optionally a tablespoon of coarse peanut butter per food processor/fat blender-full of cold cooked veg. Leave them sat there in the bowl/food processor, with an extra dash of oil mixed in if they look dry. Meanwhile, if you have no cranberry sauce to hand, take a big handful of cranberries and rehydrate them with abot a third as much balsamic, a little wholegrain mustard, a moderate amount of chilli flakes and a third as much brown sugar as cranberries, cooking to a lumpy jam-like consistency. If you have cranberry sauce, mix some sweet chilli sauce in. Heat some oil or the oven, drop an egg into the veg and blend (if you're very good at frying things and there's fluffy sweet/potato in the veg you mightn't need the egg, but I find it helps). Scoop out handfuls of the mixture manually or with a huge spoon and flatten them into burgers. Cook fast by frying or more slowly in the oven, looking for browning on both sides & heating through to be done. Serve in lightly toasted bread with the chilli-cranberry sauce and some garlic mayo (grate garlic into some mayonnaise) or sour cream on either side of the burger. Spinach or some other dark green optional. Provide some kind of napkins, as these are impossible to eat delicately.

Brassicates and potatoes will also soup up well together - I don't like most veggie stocks and use a handful of herbs thrown in some hot water with butter and marmite, but if you have a large dead bird in your house you could boil any remaining flesh from its stripped carcass and use that quick stock for a base instead. You'd want to throw black pepper into the warming stock/veg before blending and a dash of vinegar at a matching lightness to your cabbage/sprouts near the end of cooking. Optimal if you have any roast garlic to throw in.

</random interlude>


Meanwhile, in Australia: https://twitter.com/andy_park/.../1342603579949862913

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I am hopping to get a post up this afternoon.

Cymon.

Hopping appreciated!

On the theme of which, I'll let Sally get a response in, but I rolled you both a DEX for the awkward dismount necessary to actually start doing anything about stabilising that broken clavicle without making things worse - Brigitte, go get 1d3 HP to give to Sally Jane there; Sally, take note that you'll be back on the ground to be healed and will need help/another treestump to re-mount if desired.

Brigitte d'Anjou rolled 1 using 1d3.  HP for Sally. Better then nothing.......


-

Ah well, we'll say Brigitte made the exact extent of the issue clear enough for medical attention to be possible. Hopefully Garangwaari will be able to bind it properly.

That said, these injuries aren't directly Bowen's fault - Sally can give more detail should she feel safe/sane enough to do so, but he hasn't been violent towards her at all...so far. We're actually at a very interesting stage where things could go very right or very wrong; I'm keen to see how things fall out here.

I must say I appreciate the dice roller's efforts to keep Jack from using his not-inconsiderable rational brain, it really adds something to the "instincts being hijacked by Canada geese*" effect of lost sanity.

*entities are not actually Canada geese. This will not stop them being increasingly mentally LOUD and ANGRY the nearer anything gets to their nest.

It might make the difference between life and death!

True enough, though honestly your mental fortitude can be as much as a lifesaver in this game as anything. Particularly this game, in fact.

At any rate, I've just added 4 more to your sheet from our qualified bush doctor Garangwaari there, despite making a mess of secret and un-secret rolls on the dice roller.

Unrelatedly, I learnt another, almost equally horrifying thing about kangaroos the other day...in fact I'll share this one, since the SAN damage is about equal to the utility of actually knowing the fact: kangaroos standing in water desire to drown you.

This is apparently an alert stance taken up against dingo packs to negate the advantage of multiple/shorter attackers; though it may fake being trapped and wounded, the kangaroo is just looking for a situation where it can get its entire strength and body mass on top of a predator. For extra fun they're sometimes pre-emptive about this tactic and may drag dogs and stray children into deep water specifically to stand on them. These are herbivores, why is Australia like this.

Yeah, but... have you met the locals?

https://video.nationalgeograph...99-affb-f7ecfae50000

See, this looks like bogan bravado to the rest of us, but a) she was definitely considering disembowelling that mastiff and b) turning your back on a kangaroo in fight mode is a good way to get your kidneys torn out your back.

I mean, behold the stubby wee feet of NSW's comparatively small, gracile kangaroos when not striking at 40mph: https://images.app.goo.gl/DETDMbHrUSDgZSCM6

[a Darug man who looks possibly related to Ngamurudyin crosses the threshold carrying coal and cake and is rewarded for his efforts with a dram of whiskey. He looks bemused by the process, but takes what he's given and leaves without protest]

[the Keeper toasts all here] Welcome to 2021, friends and company, may it be less of a dystopian future than the year preceding. Here's to health, ease, and smokeless air to breathe, and good fortune to you.

God bless us every one.

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. [nod]

Following on from the header, I think it should be known that the virtual display Edinburgh put on in place of the fireworks/everyone getting together and setting things on fire for Hogmanay as usual involved the highly comforting and reassuring action of summoning a giant staring eye over the Highlands, among other things.

That's pretty cool!

Sure, and there's a cool bird design in Part 3 if you click through, I just wonder whether any hillwalkers lost some SAN that day.

In other news, this afternoon I attained something that's been a goal of mine for about a year now, having recieved some proper pottery clay from a friend (in a socially-distanced fashion). Pictures, before I mess up the complicated 'cure, cut in half & hollow out' process:

     

Cthulhu is described as a chubby, chubby god but almost never depicted as such. I have wanted to make him round for a long time (and yes, he's in my bathroom, that is the only place I can currently work with wet non-food items in my tiny, tiny house). No, I don't know what I will ultimately do with a round Cthulhu, but nothing bad ever came of extreme impulses to depict elder gods in a clay medium, right?

Y'all get to see this because I am so pleased and actually somewhat proud of the thing coming out right first time in circa 50 minutes. I asked my aunt (via e-mail) if she wanted to see and I am still not sure how offended I should be that her response was "all right, if it is not pornographic". I have never sent my aunt porn in my life. Especially not...Cthulhu porn. Why would I...???

Just wanted to mention OOC that nothing bad happens if either of Team Rocks decides to wiggle in the wiggling place. I mean, things get a lot more upsetting at the bottom, but the trench is nice and clean.

edit: Oh, hiding! Hiding is good, too...yess..
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:55, Mon 11 Jan 2021.

Laurel and Hardy set an ambush.

You want to take that INT roll, or do you want me to just assume Jack failed it, given he's trying to hide by lying in a barely more than ankle-deep construction/has given in to the subconscious suggestion to wiggle in the wiggling place...?

As I told our Keeper, I'm pretty much guaranteed to flub easy rolls at dramatically inappropriate moments...

That whole Speared Man thing, yeah, you have my dice rolling ability to thank for that.

It's great! Keeps me on my toes, makes everything entertaining...I'm going to nudge the other thread on tomorrow if work hasn't let go of the relevant player by then to keep things running, but in terms of story rhythm this "third act" is getting (appropriately) a bit like Hall of the Mountain King.

I still have no idea if everyone's going to make it out perfectly fine (minus injuries already collected) or die horribly. Or adorably, in Ngarungadurung and Jack's case. [nod] They have a significantly greater risk of dying adorably.

...I realised whilst cooking supper that I have unintentionally done something FANTASTIC on Thread 6a, and have to say so now because anyone finding out what I'm talking about will think I meant to put it there. I did not, but now it's there I won't alter or apologise for it, even if it has minor capacity to cause someone an embarrassing death if annoyed enough.

It's not a Dropbear is it?

IT IS!!!!

I mean, technically it's one of the "imagined animals" that's crossed the threshold from the Dreaming due to a combination of local factors and the not-geese's ability to leverage said factors, but effectively? It's a hecking dropbear with a 1/d3 SAN cost. XD

I did not realise I'd done this. Here is me and my Very Serious Spooky Game and my subconscious goes and perfectly sets up drop bears. Let me go and fetch a jingly hat.

.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:43, Thu 14 Jan 2021.

And all this because I fell on my bum. First the Speared Man, now Dropbears. I am a menace.

Heheh. The funny thing is that Sally (and Bowen) had "happily" existed with it claiming that patch of trees for a while, I just never realised quite what it was before because Sally didn't make it angry by invading "its" trees. Which is when I worked out its aggro patterns, and...yep.

If you do see the thing before dying a silly death from above and Jack passes his SAN check well I might actually waive the point loss, since he doesn't know that's not something that just grows like that, because Australia.

Hm! We might get a more subdued and mysterious conclusion if Brigitte suceeds in her attempts to decapitate her current prey (that horse deserves a good rub down and a lot of oats after this, by the way).

Ngarungadurung, could you post a Climb roll in with that last post for me? Unless completely disasterous at 99+ it's just determining how fast and/or noisy you are getting up there, no worries.

Thread 6b, you're both doing good things; with that last roll/decision to stay put on Brigitte's part I plan to sweep you all up together, but...in the morning, at earliest, because it is silly at night.

I'll be very busy for the next several days, at least, and may be slow to post.

Thanks for the notice, I appreciate the heads up. Very keen to see the results of Jack's SAN check, considering where you are.

Other thread, you're still open and about to make a considerably plot-affecting decision, carry on. I'm sorry if my post-midnight phrasing was confusing there.

Hff...I think I'm going to nudge 6b on a bit tonight if neither player is available, because we're kind of approaching a Mountain Bride situation in 6a up there. Not exactly - no intention to accuse Madame d'Anjou's kin there - but when the characters are mildly wondering when plot will be discovered and the Keeper is twitchy with anxiety over impending IC events, that's probably the wrong way round...

---

Also, related to nothing but me being rambly, I have found maybe the only recipe that would be improved by making it vegan as the original recipe intended whilst messing with it, which I only didn't because (despite being enough of a stereotype to always have oats on hand) I couldn't be bothered to make oat milk and had cow milk right there already...anyway, for a Very Good high-protein pancake mix:

- large banana
- tablespoon chunky peanut butter
- heaped tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons oil/margerine
- tsp bicarb
- ~100g wholmeal flour, probably more if using white or anything more sensible
- ~100ml oat/milk for a stiff batter
- raisins or other inclusions if you want them
- syrup to go on top.

Blend everything up to the oil in blender (or give to an enthusiastic child, I suppose, if you have one to hand), put in jug, stir in milk, sift in flour & bicarb whilst heating pan, fold in. Throw fruit like pumpkin demon onto cooking pancakes if desired. Very good. [nod] ...as a note, I say this as someone who hates peanut butter as a concept on its own and only discovered uses for the stuff after having surplus after having to keep a lost/injured baby bird alive over a weekend, so.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:29, Wed 27 Jan 2021.

I'm quite busy at the moment, so if the other party needs some RL time to catch up with the narrative, from my side I'm happy to pause the action with Ngarungadurung and Jack hiding in the trees whilst they wait for what comes.

We should put a deadline on any pause though, so a brief wait doesn't turn into death by idle...

It's less catching up time-wise and more...all character decisions are critical right near the end here, and I need to know if we're heading towards a really quiet ending or, ah, a very unquiet one.

It could also be that I've dropped the ball and am not being clear/compelling enough, of course, to which I can only reiterate that I am always willing to help if stuck and I don't throw a tantrum if criticised (so long as the criticism makes sense -edit: that is, I still won't throw a tantrum, but you're not going to get much useful adaptation out of my methods if your criticism is on the lines of "this sucks because it's not D&D"). Still, if a pause would be of benefit to folks, please, do let me know.

Likewise, if folk are uncomfortable making decisions on the strength of their remembered conclusions and want me to check over/update the Clues thread if necessary, I can do that.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:32, Thu 28 Jan 2021.

It might be useful to update the Clues again.

I know I'm also guilty of deliberately skipping clues--like not trying to interact more with the repeating ghosts--in the interest of keeping things ticking over fast. Now that I'm up a tree it's a bit late to go poking around after them...

I'll get on it, and don't worry, I say this with the greatest amused affection for an extremely good group of players*, but the whole lot of you are and have always been hilariously clue-avoidant.

There is currently a way for this to end with no-one really finding out anything that was going on, and I still don't know if you'll get that or get mushed, eaten or die an adorable death, and it's great. Anyway, enjoy your tree - get comfy, take a nap. Just...try to be out of the area before dusk, maybe. Or some time before that, depending.


_{*seriously, something this niche running this well is a beautiful thing and I appreciate your collective attention to character/immersion over meta; very much not a complaint here.}

<quote The Keeper>Still, if a pause would be of benefit to folks, please, do let me know.

Clues thread updated. Can I get some communication here, pretty please?

Hiya, boss!

Jack and I are okay waiting to see what happens next. No rush.

Hi! Thanks for responding!
The metaphorical crickets were making me worried there...

I take that to mean you don't need an official pause but don't mind if others do, and have no particular complaint of confusion/sticking-point - duly noted. Jack can also take a nap right on top of deadly peril if he wants, Team Ambush seem to be having a chill time up there with their drop bear.

Anyone else?

I've been extremely busy the last few days and am going to remain so, unfortunately.

In terms of what comes next IC, Ngarungadurung and Jack seem painted in a corner--we're laying in ambush so it doesn't make much sense to break cover without a really good reason...

With particular apologies to Brigitte, I will collate and [shuffling papers into proper rectangle motions] thingy needs/commentary when I have regained the ability to brain.

Also my apologies for going quiet, it's been a few busy days. I'll try to steal away here and there to be more active :-)

No worries...thanks to Ngarungadurung's incredibly reliable jinx for failing easy rolls at times of appropriate narrative action it looks like no-one will have a quiet time at any point soon...

(That said, OOC, if folk need me to officially slow or pause the post rate, just let me know! I am here to make the game do the thing, not make y'all work in your off hours.)

"Off hours"... yeah, I vaguely remember those.

Wait...aren't you in charge of your own office times? Should I be encouraging different parts of your brain to unionise to demand balanced hours?

Running your own business does give you a choice of your own hours, but they are rarely regular. Plus, we're growing, which means on top of everything else I need to review CVs, schedule interviews, make sure new hires have their equipment...

It's great, don't get me wrong, but it does keep me busy :-)

Growth is pretty impressive at present, though you also need to sleep sometimes, or you will die. [nod]

Incidentally, I called in that standing offer from the devs to get koala stats to make a proper drop bear out of; those of you getting horribly mauled by drop bears, it is officially hoped you enjoy it. :D


...sooo, those koala stats were in a fragment of a draft that came with some other wildlife, and I had to share that they statted up several venomous creatures and made helpful notes as to when antivenoms were developed/the first time someone survived being attacked by a _____ long enough to identify what got them. That they did this for the Blue-Ringed Octopus and Box Jellyfish (20+HP contact poison damage) cracks me up, because if any Keeper actually used those stats for a pre-1950s setting it'd go something like:

player: I wade in to swim over to the mysterious rocks.
Keeper: [rolls] ... [rolls] CON check, please.
player: [fails]
Keeper: ...so the good news is you die instantly.
player: ??!?? From what??
Keeper: [being very dedicated to historical accuracy] ...Australia.

~
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:31, Thu 04 Feb 2021.

Hopefully only vaguely related to our tale here, but I think this is less a case of some amoebas being very big as some shoggoths being very small: https://twitter.com/Lee__Drake.../1357911580671758337

I'll be busy offline for the next couple days. Back on the weekend I hope.

Thanks for the notice - much appreciated. Thread 6b, I'll try to nudge you on as ambiguously as possible some time tomorrow if Sally has to go to the Land of Over There Somewhere, fear not.

Soooooo sorry. I read the post, then wanted to reply later, when I'd have more time and completely forgot about it!

Heh, isn't that always the way? Anyway, you're here now, I can move that thread on with the "camera" since both viewpoints are in the same place, and hopefully soon everyone will be together again! Yay! That and/or possibly eaten! Yay!

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 288):

yay?

Ah, such vim and enthusiasm!

(your thread's due a noises off post as soon as I've finished the spaghetti currently cooking, bear with me.)

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 290):

Why are you cooking spaghetti with a bear?

If you have a bear in your house, you make sure he gets as much spaghetti as he wants.

Three great rolls in a row. And now I'll pay for it.

From the player whose dice-rolling brought you the Speared Man, may I introduce you Screechy: also my fault.

Jack, Ngarungadurung, Screechy: *massive dustup 50m from nest*
Not-geese, getting fed up and straight up hijacking Jack's brain: There has been too much violence...

(only instead of 'fuel', think 'collected people juice')


@Jack, in case you were waiting: Ngarungadurung got dragged over onto the other thread, so Screechy is making new friends now.

To those of you still in the 14th (& yes, I will go to sleep now), happy Demise of Captain Cook Day! To quote a saying of the people whose monarch he was trying to steal at the time: "he was not God, he was not Good, and he was not [even] delicious."

Might I suggest a sanity check for Jack?

...if you want, sure.

My reasoning was it's just 1.2 adorable, chubby itty bitty alien tentacles where tentacles should not be by pitiful mortal logic and this is a continent with platypuses, but Jack has been taking the brunt of the crazy for a while now.

Apologies for my slow posting. I continue to be extremely busy IRL and likely will remain so for the next couple of weeks. If I idle the Keeper can feel free to throw Ngarungadurung off into the bushes somewhere until I can get my head above water.

It's fine, I'll handle things. Thank you for the notice/permission, though.

Sally will just sit there quietly on her horse and watch all y'all handle the beast. She's really not much of a fighter.

That's all right, it was all Murphs was asking of her - the whole 'weilding knife wronghanded from horseback due to broken bones' thing doesn't help either. Now to see if we're likely to get the best ending via a weird route, since Jack just got an astonishing roll...

edit: Rolling done, and all right! Unless anyone wants to hang about and pick fights with the not-geese, this is the start of wrapping things up and tying a bow on it! As such I'm going to need more than my five minutes left of lunchbreak for the next few posts and I may PM some folk about some things; consider me to be working in the background for a bit.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:54, Tue 16 Feb 2021.

It certainly astonished Jack.

Y'know, I think he loves that girl!

...aaand pan out.

Hopefully things make sense - PMs to come tomorrow...well, more tomorrow, not silly in the morning now - and my general intent is to have a last thread summarising the trip down and then let you all get little wrap-up posts in with whatever you'd like to say about how your characters got on before slapping a 'ZE END' on it.

However! If there are any scenes you'd like to do/see played out, or specific questions you'd like answers to (I may answer them OOC if there's no IC opportunity) then do let me know. The Sergeant will definitely beat the tar out of interrogate Bowen when he's capable of talking again, some of the PM things will relate to longterm character motivations, and I can no longer brain at 01:11 and am going to bed.

Thank you for the lovely post in Jack's thread.

Aw, I'm glad you liked it. ^_^

Edited in your PM'd addition/determination to get covered in eldritch koala dust there. Still working in background here: your patience is appreciated.

Long post is long, and I hope it makes some sense in there - wanted to get it down rather than stuck editing and/or getting distracted until silly...well, sillier at night, in the best case where you actually got it down.

Anyway, I prodded the Ascent thread to make the thread numbers line up nicely, there's nothing going on there, and please don't read too much into the music choice: it's just a song about being happy to see someone who's had a rough time lately that was also an Australian folk song/by an Australian artist, which I've been trying to keep most of the music to.

Oh, and if it's all right with those who came in later, may I shift your Prelude threads to public? Ngarungadurung's at least may make the mechanics of witch-hunting a little clearer. I can make formerly-Secret dreams and such generally visible if anyone'd like that, too.

I invite everyone to make a tying-up post, as short/long/immediate/longterm as you like, and then I'll tie a bow on it.

---

Questions, comments and yes, criticisms all certainly welcome - I could go on with metaphysics a lot but then nothing would get posted, ahaha.


...as a little behind-the-scenes rambling I think that maybe the biggest tragedy in the scenario is that personality-wise Bowen really was a gentle, sweet-natured person with a strong nurturing/protective streak.

He's Welsh, by the way, firstly because I find the very idea of Welsh villians funny - it'd be like a wicked Canadian to Americans, I don't know how stereotypes of nice people shake out elsewhere - but partly because of this Scandinavia and the World comic based on a news story.

Triiiple post!

Near-dead-asleep silly in the morning post to add that I meant to say that if folk would like to roll a gain of d4 SAN for defeating the witch-ghosts/looking after the baby whilst others defeated the witch-ghosts and a gain of d6 for somehow making it down the mountain alive despite everything to gauge how their character is feeling (or to put on their sheet in case you're playing in this era again) you are very welcome to do so.

That was a most marvelous coda, Keeper. This whole story has been magical and mystical. You wove with sheer artistry and I am glad to have been afforded a part to play.

Glad you liked it! That said, for the game in general you can thank the other players as well - and yourself, I suppose - since honestly I could sit here plotting and doing my spookily verbose fancy best all day but without involved, dynamic and committed players this story wouldn't be even the half of what it is.

I'm immensely grateful to all of you for sticking with this endeavour, for the sensitivity and willingness to keep historical accuracy, and great and well-realised characters whom I'm sure I'll remember fondly for a very long time. Truly, thanks.


Tangentally, if anyone was concerned, the babies were absoloutely fine and genuinely appreciated/loved Bowen in their way, much like neonatal mammals appreciate any source of milk and affection. He died an adorable death.

...to be fair they'd probably have been fine with no human intervention whatsoever, but bringing more fluid up during the drought would have been a lot harder/more dangerous for the parents than letting one of the odd little upright creatures that start acting funny when you give their minds the gentlest boop gather what he thought was most nutritious once he'd proved nonthreatening.


edit: Oh, and Wadanggari's fine, too. I don't think our underground buddies even recognised her as a human or animal worth confusing...she won't even have the vaguest idea any of this happened at all.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:45, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

^ bringing this down just in case anyone missed the former question/offer, and to say that absoloutely no-one's obliged to take up that invitation on pain of funny looks or anything, but I'd like to know if not so that I know to give notice and sweep up responsably. No rush, just clarifyin'.


Further behind-the-screen silliness: I eventually gave up rolling for not-goose influence on the sergeant's instincts, since he always came in under 21, making even Hard INT rolls to be aware he was being messed with. Apparently he's just that single-mindedly devoted to his own babies (and no-one else's).

That's a lovely post, Keeper!

I am just barely restraining myself from going and combing the typos/broken grammar out, but ah, I am sincerely pleased to hear it. There are folk out there who scorn not casting a CoC ending in a grimdark grimmy grimmy gloom-gloom light, but I feel that's kind of a cheat and shallow interaction with something that should at least feel complex - the looming shadows of the vast uncaring unknowable.

I mean, our Investigators have stumbled their way through things they still don't entirely understand save as big and weird (possibly eldritch) and reached a Best Ending that involved letting a severely mentally and physically ill man be eaten alive. Plus everyone's carrying injuries both visible and invisible, the latter of which they'll never fully be able to explain to anyone who didn't experience it, no matter how much that person cares...but the thing is - the thing is - that sometimes just surviving is a win.

Whether it's by effort or by luck, I think that deserves to be recognised. If everyone had got et, of course, the impersonality of great and terrible forces would be a mercy, such mercy as there might be...I am very overtired and rambly and will go to bed, I think.

tl;dr thank you.

Would it be all right to make your Prelude visible?

Thank all for a great game, and especially The Keeper.

You may make my Prelude visible.

I don't know that I have a prelude. If so, please share it.

And this story will stay with me for many reasons.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:43, Fri 26 Feb 2021.

Yours was Thread 1a, effectively, but you should be able to see Ngarungadurung's now.

Y'know what, I'm going to make the bedsheet ghosts on that thread generally visible, too...

edit: ...and the starting dreams of the players who buggered off from thread 1b, mostly because it explains Cotton's shirt - the poor lad's fever dreams 'shorted' with the psychic surge of the memory-wiping spell and his unconscious was desperately trying to "re"-connect him to the songline Bowen hacked/channelled not-goose energy into. Which isn't wholly physically/literally in the country, but eh, close enough.


Heh, I suspect it comes in under "CoC game with most dropbear-related injuries", for sure.

-
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:47, Fri 26 Feb 2021.

Right, so most of you have no additions - I'm just waiting to hear back from one player, not wanting to cut anyone off because of unavoidable busy.

Thought I might as well give advance notice that once that little "the end" bit goes up that'll mark your week's notice before the game's deletion. It's highly unlikely the mods'll go on a sudden final deletion spree, but you never know, so I advise making any downloads, character sheet copies etc. during that period.

Additionally, if anyone wants me to give them a heads-up should I be starting a) other CoC games or b) game-type shennanigans in general, feel free to let me know (I advise rMail so that I have your username). I've had great fun here and any of you are welcome back to my weird little virtual table.

Would it be possible for you to download all of the IC threads and email us a copy? Players can only copy-paste one post at a time, which is tedious and scrambles the text anyway.

I for one would like to re-read this story one day :)

Wait, is that a thing GMs can do? If so, tell me how, 'cause I've been downloading one thread at a time all these years like every other mug...players can get entire threads, though, you just hit 'all' at the page count on top of the thread, then go to File -> Save As and grab either everything with a bulky extra file per thread, or just the html.

Also, before anyone frets that they might miss out if they do not reveal their True Names unto me, I'd probably seek out a file-sharing site if the above is truly a Thing.

In the top right corner (on the old site) there is a "D/L". Click it and there are various options for saving, (eg. removing character bios from every post).

(You still have to do every thread.)
This message was last edited by the player at 08:28, Wed 03 Mar 2021.

Players can do that too, though...at any rate, I have never been able to make that link do anything other than open the thread in a new tab, but I am game to try, after work...will the settings I view the site with (custom theme, portraits off) make any difference to what you get?

Yes, clicking the different options allows you to save it without portraits, for example. I have to click around and experiment every time...

How can players do it? I don't seem to have that option...

I...seem to have hallucinated that really vividly. Still, the manual method of just viewing & saving entire threads from your browser works fine, just without the pretty colours. Investigations commencing presently, at any rate, though I need to go out and run about screaming a bit this lunchtime or my wee eyeballs will go square.

edit: nope, I can't get the D/L thingy to behave in any sensible fashion, but if y'all want me to assemble a file of manually downloaded game threads with or without pretty colours (let me know) I'll be doing something that anyway and might as well share. Bear in mind that you'd see each others' PMs and stuff that way, though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:37, Wed 03 Mar 2021.

I'm working on a Mac so it might be different on a PC, but...

After clicking D/L, select the options for "Display on screen"; "Display blank lines between posts" and "Show private lines". Then click "Download". This gives the simplest and cleanest view.

Then in the browser, "Save As..." and "Webpage, Complete". That should preserve formatting and colours in a file that can be viewed in the browser. Still have to save individual threads, of course.

Aye, but it sucks the forum boards themselves out for some reason...I suppose you would be able to see the text if I changed my background to something light, but it's still oddly arranged that way. As for showing PMs, I'd want everyone else to be happy with that.

I'm happy for my PMs (and Language:Darug posts) to be visible :)

Sorry I had intended to write a piece for a longer ending as Brigitte sells the hotel/grog shop and travels to Sydney to take a ship to Dunedin, New Zealand, But alas I am very snowed under at the moment with work, which I am very grateful for.



-

's all right, I'll work that into the last paragraph or so, with some information from others, too...I've had a tab open since getting home tonight but my brain's a bit fried from data-scrubbing years' worth of source material for Harris matricies to then archive-dive for specific material with and my badly-put-together body has been set on 'ache' the past couple of days, which is distracting (I hope my nervous system isn't working itself up to set itself on fire in the next ~2 days, but I have Suspicions). Working on it!

Please know that I really do appreciate everyone's patience.

[knocks thread to the top for aesthetics]

...and if that was too upbeat for you, here's a melancholy short film about some poor echo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZy8BbMz_U

Oh, and Brass managed to survive, somehow. Always a bit lame on that leg on cold mornings, but the old horse was all right. That's it now, I'm going to bed.

---

Threads with HTML files to do the colours, if anyone else wanted them: https://drive.google.com/drive...Bi54zNbs?usp=sharing

& reminder that this game is gently shunted to 'deleted' at the end of the week.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:46, Tue 09 Mar 2021.