There we go. Things should go more smoothly from here on out, though I have been having such a bad time of things of late I wonder if I've killed a spider.

Drafting replies whilst my skeleton/nervous system leaves off trying to kill me long enough to type, though I'll possibly/probably wait until 1c get posts in so's I can line them all up nicely. Continued thanks for wating, though maybe reading each others' threads may amuse you? I'll likely keep separate IC groups in separate OOC threads later when information gets more specific/relevant, but right now revelations in the introduction will likely become communal. I hope that makes sense.

edit: never mind, I realised that if I give 01c a fair amount of time to post I can still make things line up nice. Oof, I am desperate to be outside by now, though my lower joints will hate me.


Oh, and if anyone wonders about Polzeath later: yes, he is, and no, it's not necessarily relevant, it just amuses me.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:03, Sun 18 July 2021.

Aww Hessie, you too?

She was actually wondering if she could greet Maggie from there and stop her running away from the exposition, but Ben doesn't know that. Just maybe that unguarded food or small items that might become food after a quick roadside sale tend to suddenly disappear around Maggie.

I never...nobody saw...ye can't prove...

I think the general idea was for one of us mount the stag and ride it across the green. Maybe all the way to the Fox Estate.

I mean, if you roll under...let's see, 3% on an Animal Handling roll...

(which would, of course, mean everyone else would have to join hands and perform a freaky chain dance, possibly whilst rapturously listening to music inaudible to the ears of the outsider. Them's the rules.)

Seriously, though, are you going to go up and poke the Devil [looks up Imperial] 400 ulbs of unpredictably weird-acting wild animal? Stop two metres away? Four? Eyeball it a bit, decide 'nope' and start sprinting in the opposite direction?

Thomas will stop at the edge of the grass to give the animal some space should it decide to run.


-

He's no further than most other observers, then; too far to make out any particular details. I should maybe point out that although the majority of those in the village itself at this time of morning are women, Goodie Westcott isn't here yet.

How high is your Animal Husbandry skill?

Wrong kind of mounting there, Doctor. *cough*

Sure, but the original statement takes on a whole new light with that (incorrect) context applied!

Yes, well, don't let your imagination go buck wild.

That said, though it comes with the territory for a great deal of folk horror, I can't help but feel there's somewhat more Subtext about than I intentionally put in. Might be because I can see the back of the embroidery/myceliae of the bloom, so to speak, but...hmm.

Why do I feel like attempting to scare the stag off has the potential to end like this?

https://youtu.be/tGH3XdERdd8

Generally speaking, red deer stags only 'roar' and show teeth when their brains are hormone soup, so...here's the Subtext back again. (It's understandable. He's a hart throb. What a deer.)

Meanwhile, Polzeath being convinced this animal is actually the Devil gets even funnier if you realise he's at about a 50-degree angle to the normal conception of religion. Tangentally, I think I will have to try and draw this man, with effort and such: he'll likely be about enough to deserve a Cast slot, but he's so peculiar looking no picture I can find will quite do, yet not peculiar enough that I could get away with an orc or Abe Sapien or something...

OOC:

Does the rabbit look to be a healthy looking one? Fit for the dinner table?

[[message moved by Keeper, who has a Thing about 'empty' posts]]

The rabbit is under a box in the scullery with some nice plump birds.

What you are looking at presently is a hare, a much larger, more muscular animal commonly associated with witchcraft (possibly due to being the sacred animal of various Celtic goddesses depending on who you ask, possibly because instead of running immediately when disturbed at a distance or at night, hares will often stand up and stare, and thus - being small toddler-size with deeply inhuman shining eyes - be easily confused with the Good Neighbours).

They can be eaten, but unlike rabbits where you just scald, skin and cook away, hares are so sinewy and tough they need to be bathed in acid (vinegar, lemon juice) and steamed for hours, pressure-cooked in a specific manner for hours, or rotted down ('hung') for a few days (maggot action ideal - the meaty maggots can be served as a side if desired) to be tender enough to eat. As with most foods invented because some fancy bugger already ate all the palateable stuff, hare is now considered a delicacy, and was just becoming gentrified at this point in time: city people would think the dish fancy, country folk would be bemused and turn their noses up at it if there was any possibility of eating anything else.

I am also highly amused at this scene for obscure folklore reasons: if there was a period Italian present at this scene they would have all their fears about Protestants being in league with the Devil confirmed...due to the similarity of period carrots to the wild version (Queen Anne's Lace) and the difficulty non-herbalists have in telling QAL and hemlock* apart, early carrot cultivars had an association with witchcraft. How else could these grandmas who'd worked with plants all their lives make tasty soups from poison roots? Clearly, this wayward English priest is offering Satanic vegetables to his familiar...


Unrelatedly, a fun thing about making jam from the first trim of the rhubarb crop? Scaring yourself silly with the sudden weird noises made by the jars as they cool and safety-seal when you use metallic lids...gah.


*as in what they executed Socrates with, I know there's an American tree called hemlock for some reason, but...it's not.

edit: spotted one last typo, 'vingegar'... agagagagaguh.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:15, Mon 26 July 2021.

[bolding mine]

I, um. You realise I have to think of some way to incorporate the absoloutely horrific mental images engendered by this typo in the plot now, right?

(big Hannibal ravenstag* vibes; I like.)

To return to my previous rambling about Satanic Vegetables, please note that sail power is not consistently fast and you never know when terrible Orcadian pirates will steal all your fish and/or hats and give you a load of beeswax in apology (poor John Gow, he was so bad at piracy); most things that come in from the Empire come in dried, powdered, or as seeds. Out of season foodstuffs consist of whatever can be grown in a late Little Ice Age English greenhouse or rehydrated from storage. We do have real live non-fantasy potatoes, though!

Also a lot of the in-game varieties of crops and livestock don't look like ours, mostly being smaller and taking longer to mature. As an illustration as I go to bed, behold the beauty of old-timey carrots: https://images.app.goo.gl/xZczGhxnQLJHEdzS9


*spoilers(?)

I have a story of a wild pig when I was involved with search and rescue, but that involved a deer..... still along the same lines.



-

...are we getting vampiric watermelons?

@Thomas -  that...raises so many more questions than it answers...

@Dr. Lovelace - ask the Magic 8 Ball if the Fox estate is greenhousing watermelons, since otherwise any you see a month early, well...they'll have been out for a full moon after Christmas, and then some. Zrrrrl!

(see, paying attention to seasonality is Important in historical games.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:41, Tue 27 July 2021.

08:48, Today: Martin Lovelace got the result "Very doubtful" on the magic 8-ball.  Is the Fox estate growing watermelons?

Alas, it was not to be.

Your peace of mind? Now we've established they can't be got fresh, it follows that any given watermelon encountered is either extremely well-preserved...or the annoying undead! [scare chord]

Very busy weekend for me. Catching up on all the goings on now.

A Ben! Excellent. Which belongings are you taking to where, there? Or is that a handful of shoes and gaiters being wrangled along with any tack kept warily with the clothes?

If the latter and attempting to put them on and go downstairs at once, a DEX check may be in order...

I had meant his satchel, but since I don't see him carrying two, and his original was taken from him, let us say it is his gaiters, shoes, coat, etc.

For the sake of fun.

And for my penance in not posting over the last few days.

18:23, Today: Benjamin Craddock rolled 64 using 1d100.  Dexterity vs 35.