Welcome to S2's OOC thread, folks. You get the banner I made in case of a new game board, and this Lord Huron song, because I am doing my best not to stray from English folk songs, but, well. Yes.

Feel free to settle in and scuff about, new threads incoming.

*slinks out of bed in the dead of night*
*sneaks downstairs for a cheeky snack*
*finds lights on, everyone up*

Uhm. Hi.

*brings in some popcorn*

Hello!

Now you're talking!

*proceeds to stuff face*

[distributes the marchpane]

All right. That's all threads at least started off - Vicar, I will try to get hold of the others on yours when it's not 1am, and do some minor shunting if they don't subsequently show up. Really hope they haven't buggered off. I think that's it, save to say that all threads are connected offscreen, so no-one attempt to push any time skips/be aware there might be some odd pacing ahead. I hope not to be quite so slow going forwards, but I am so busy at present I tell myself I'll get to things tomorrow/tonight and then have the wit and concentration of old lemon peel. Right now I can't even type straight, so...'night all.

For whatever it's worth, I'll say I'm having wild fun on mine thread, and for the avoidance of spoilers, only that it involves chamber pots ;P

Looking forward to more fun/meeting all of you fine gentlefolk!

I had some kind of witty observation here, but my brain is making fishtank noises. My apologies. Poking elsewhere is done. I'm going to go to bed...

Maggie turns up with a bucket of beer and a clutch of tankards.

Hello, old friends and greetings to Kitty. I’m certain her mother has held Maggie up as an object lesson of how not to behave,

Oh! Love the banner!
This message was last edited by the player at 00:38, Sun 04 Feb.

That oak really is in Somerset!

Dropping a note here to wave to Maggie, whimper slightly at having to be up early tomorrow to have a chance at getting food before attending to the committments pushed into the weekend by the sheer volume of work, and say that the Doctor has been seen! Gosh I hate that players can't see others' login days any more.

Real life's been chewing on that player, too, but I got a note the morning after posting for him in desperation (as per Absence Policy). This makes Long Tom - last seen trying to move before a spate of storms - now our only missing player.

Maggie's sincere attempts at Ladylike Deportment with an agitated guardian around reminded me of the last panel here: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=176

Hello Maggie! Glad you're back!

Considering Kitty's current, uhm, predicament,



, I find this utterly unrelatable.

*nervous laughter*

Welcome to Wyzenwood and Scorch Norton in spring: we have Subtext.

Note to say that Tom has been sighted alive and well if not well-supplied with internets, and that I'll prod the Doc with his week's warning and shunt that thread a little if he doesn't show up by this time tomorrow.

I'm amused that Maggie, the level-headed party in terms of the practicality of setting fire to damp woodland last time the forbidden topic of trying to bring fire into the Wyzenwood came up, is now suggesting trying to set fire to a ditch. It's understandable that thinking clearly is a challenge at present, but still, that's funny...

We just have to wait a couple hundred years, then hit the damn thing with a fuel-air bomb.

You'd need to spend almost as much 200 years later as you would on black powder and flour presently to make a dent in the Wood, to be honest. I'd say 'leave it in a note for your descendants', but the ditch would probably have silted up by that time and a very annoyed Edmond released into the wild...I will say that the legends about firestarting of any kind being Not Tolerated in the Wyzenwood are accurate, though. There are slower ways to die, but upsetting Herself on her own sacred ground is up there with slurry accidents in terms of rapid and unpleasant ways to go.

"Dear doctor Shrewsbury, there is a certain wood that needs your unique, subtle approach..."

Note: please do not render any eldritch entities radioactive, it doesn't help.

Making a public note here that I'm giving the Doctor a bit more of a chance to make some possibly more useful observations about help available before moving that thread (and by extension Sam's) on and hopefully getting everyone closer together. I am also reminded to leave a herding NPC in such scenes whilst things are slow that's not Trugred. It's doing its best, its best is just unfocused and has side effects...

Hm. Martin, Maggie, are you heading off-thread to have serious discussions of some sort, or just to get off-camera at the cottage/on the way there awhile and deal with the distractions of the flesh? You can PM/Private line me or Trugred's slot if you'd rather.

Vicar, I may be rearranging what I thought I was about rather severely, but for my information/so I know what I'm about, do you have anything you'd like to ask or discuss with Polzeath?

Tom, consider yourself prodded.

Kitty, you may get to stay the night where you are after all, let me see what's going on here.

edit: Sam, I don't think I can help you at present, you just need to decide what you mean/are doing down there.


edit II: Rattling this post because I've only had responses from Kitty and Tom and really need to know what everyone else is doing. Come on, my pretty chickens, talk to me.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:28, Thu 22 Feb.

You know me, I'm just playing silly beggars around the Hall like a horny teenager on a sleepover be-- oh wait.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:41, Thu 22 Feb.

Thank most of y'all for some responses: pretty close to being able to work out what we're doing.

By the way, those of you living in the US in particular, please take a moment to help save the Anglophone internet if you haven't already, it's important and far too easy to throw onto the "someone else will save us" pile. [tries and fails to phrase right for almost an hour at this point, very tired] ...queer kids deserve to live, and go freely, they do.

...it is now past midnight and I need to fold myself away, I think.

I'm not in the US (thank goodness), but queer kids do indeed have a right to exist and be left alone. Thanks for sharing this.

Yeah, having grown up legally too filthy to mention under "think of the (cishet) children! " legislation, I can guarantee this will scar those most vulnerable kids it doesn't kill. The UK's version, alarmingly forced through despite the House of Lords' efforts (it is very weird that the deeply archaic institution of effectively hereditary MPs provides a buffer between party extreme election-seeking laws and constituents) is just waiting for all the US legislation to swing into place to be enforced; I'm disappointed Wikipedia isn't doing blackout protests like it did with the first version of these a decade ago, since it's going to come under fire.

There should be more specific spaces for children and teens to go online, for a start, but also investment in education about online privacy to push back against the Facebook Effect and IT in general. Apparently there are US teens who don't know what a computer is, much less a file tree, and think the Internet is the TikTok app, which is terrifying. I believe the situation isn't as bad here, but don't directly know anyone in that age group to confirm.


Anyway...Tom I put my reply in your post with just a roll in, it is a real update really.

All right, general update: due to various factors including my misjudging how much some players were likely to be around, it looks like the gang will meet up sometime on the morrow rather than tonight, which I'll need to think about how to achieve. Those of you who are regularly around right now, please do continue to post, I'll start steering you towards a scene end when necessary.

In reply to Christine Chantry (msg # 22):

I fully agree (not just as one of those queer kids). The way it's written is so arbitrary that anything could be considered to "violate" it.

Well, I hope you at least gave that a click. I hate writing to my MP, but damn did I feel guilty when I had laptop trouble and couldn't get at my e-mails for 3 days to actually send a thing before our version went to debate. I've heard that most US senators consider more than a dozen calls to be a 'hot issue', so it really takes very few people actually doing something to make a difference.

Anyway, to stay vaguely on-topic, here's that museum guide's entertaining video about the Hellfire Caves (and the Baboon Incident!). The fact that she seems to think that 'rake' is a title or social movement kind of cracks me up, though. It's like...yes, some people self-identified that way, but some people self-identify with insults today. She's also a little out of touch with what's being satirised, but it's good fun. I have been down there at least as far as the Styx, but I was just six and don't really remember much except wanting to go see the golden ball and not getting close to it.

I seem somehow to have lost the IC thread. Or it has lost me. Maggie is apparently floating between dimensions at this point.

HALP!!

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 26):

I had already contacted my representatives about it.

Bravo, Sam!

Maggie, you left that thread over a week ago; a) kindly attend to your PMs and the queries therein, and b) having left him, it's no longer fair that you get Ye Clues from the Vicar's conversation with Polzeath, hence being locked out. Also c) glad to see you're around.

Gosh I hurt in general right now.

Well, I'll see if I can catch Maggie's player elsewhere, there's been no contact since the above. {{ rattling this game }} since I would sincerely like to get on - Tom, Vicar, have ye anything more you'd like to question NPCs about? Sam, you don't have any tipsy penalties for making holes in yourself, so long as you do it carefully. Polzeath is likely to be tied up for a bit.

You make it sound like something out of a period bodice-ripper. No Polzeaths were actually harmed in the making of this scene.

It's not? Phew. I was getting FOMO.

In reply to Christine Chantry (msg # 32):

I suspect the only genuine libertine in Scorch Norton answers to the name of Edmond, and he's currently somewhat cock-blocked. Somewhat..

Sorry. Indeed, Polzeath isn't even wearing a bodice.

[pause]

That is, our favourite fish lad is wearing other clothes. Vicar, do you want to say anything else to him?


That said, aside from physically speaking being about as far from a Period Romance Heroine as it's possible to get, Polzeath does tick off a remarkable number of the criteria for one...bright and plucky incomer from a poor background, oddly naieve and charmingly rural in some ways, personally targeted by an antagonist who would like to claim and/or endanger that body, saved by a dashing gentleman with a quietly troubled past...

*ahem*




Not that I'd necessarily count out the Fox Hall guests at present, but Edmond is indeed very willing to accept company in his hole ditch current place of residence, if only anyone would let them in there. I can't say it'd be wise to let him passionately rip one's bodice off however, since he doesn't tend to stop there. Or at the shift. Or the skin.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 23:52, Sat 09 Mar.

Happy 3,300th post! ^_^

#...we have reached the post three-three hundred//not much has changed: Edmond's still underwater...#


yes I have had the only part of said old pop song I know intermittently stuck in my head since Kitty lost 4 SAN investigating one of the unfollowed Hall leads from last season with great enthusiasm.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:56, Wed 13 Mar.

I have to say, best 4 SAN spend ever, 10/10 would go almost-crazy again.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:58, Wed 13 Mar.

I mean, you do possess the means to do so, if Kitty wasn't currently playing dead to get out of awkward social situations and all.

All right, a heads up that we're within a couple of posts of a new chapter all round, and I shall endeavour to sweep said new chapter into a sensible arrangement. The Vicar has provided a means for me to get Kitty into the plot since my original plot-plotting failed, so now I just have to sweep Maggie in...wish me luck. Party cohesion in this game is still like trying to get multiple live eels into one jar.

---

Unrelated to anything, I'd like to wave a calm little historical game on RPoL that's been struggling for want of players under folks' noses here, since we like history, play a form of BRP and already get on: The Honorbound.

At present it's a trio of knights trying to keep on top of an exponential werewolf problem and possible witch/cult with no clear source without panicking the peasantry, but it'd be really nice to expand and engage with the as-yet unconquered alt-Occitania setting if we could get some religious folks and/or ladies involved, if not a troubadour or Cathar shepherd. I have a knight there whose base concept is being a sweet summer child raised and content with the knowledge that fighting and/or killing people is what he's for and I love the daft lad dearly, so I can vouch for one friendly contact/the entertainment that concept provides, and that the world's neither D&D shallow nor irritatingly gritty.

Oh, I'm so glad that game went ahead! I was briefly there at the very beggining before it picked up speed (Emma de Trencavel), but was shamefully absent and so swamped in work that I ended up being kicked out (entirely my fault). I doubt they'd give me a second chance, lol.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:37, Fri 15 Mar.

Ask? The GM is a bit ruthless on the absence policy, but would probably be glad of the interest/encouraged that you came back. The boss lady has been kind of relegated to Quest Giver, but if on thinking it over she decided to ride out herself, Quin would be the tiercel on her fist all the way.

...well, the GM says no hard feelings if you're interested, Kitty.

update: Waiting on a couple of posts to come in, then will make a start on gathering a bit of overnight info from a few folk and posting new chapter threads. Excess of busy and poor sleep may slow things down, but I'm hopeful things'll get easier, particularly if I can get more than one of y'all into one thread for more than ten in-game minutes.

Meanwhile, whilst I fully intend to get other things out of Lidl's Japanese Week out of curiousity, I got some "vegan sushi" while scavenging for reduced items yesterday and have discovered that wasabi (or the pretend wasabi in supermarket sushi sauce packets) is actually some kind of malignant preternatural substance. It's just slightly horseradish-flavoured pain. I mean, yes I have hypersensitivity and presumably experience more wasabi per wasabi than average, but I like horseradish, mustard, and several kinds of chilli, and that stuff's just...torment in a paste. Cultists scrape it off the floor after summoning entities of extreme reality-scorching might, I'm sure.

Actual wasabi (which I haven't tasted myself) is supposed to be milder and more subtle, also prohibitively expensive because it's nigh impossible to cultivate outside of Japan, apparently. I vaguely recall reading about a British farmer who had managed to grow real wasabi for the first time ever... four, five years ago? And the journos had been asked to keep the location of his farm confidential because it was such a trade secret, apparently.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:18, Sat 16 Mar.

(also thanks for asking on my behalf, Keeper, that's very sweet of you. I'm pondering whether I actually have the time and mental bandwidth to play one more quality game; some games one can play with half a brain switched off, others deserve/demand more intellectual effort).

In reply to Christine Chantry (msg # 43):

Yes, it's like real soy sauce, vanishingly rare to start with and even harder to export...the sauce packet did have a Japanese company name on, but maybe I'll forgive wasabi if it's like truffle produce and they just show a vat of concentrate of similar substance a truffle/piece of wasabi the size of your little fingernail to make it "truffle/wasabi _____". I think it might even have the same short window of peak flavour issue. Props to the Secret Wasabi Farmer for working out how to do it, though, I think you need to replicate a volcanic mountain stream with a perfect amount of daily mist or something.

As for The Honorbound, it's very chill, kind of a 'you get out what you put in' kind of game. Not really worth it for anyone expecting to be led by the nose, but not high effort either, so long as one keeps some hold of the plot. Trust your gut, though, if there's any way to definitely have a bad time it's overstretching yourself.

Tapping the OOC to put it on top of all the closed c1 threads and provide an update that I'm in the process of going around and prodding folk for overnight answers in PMs. Just picture a little 'working in background' hourglass here (or play with the cat in the meantime).

edit: fixed link, sorry.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:48, Thu 21 Mar.

It's me. Every time Cecil enters a scene, the other PCs hurriedly scurry off.

In reply to Reverend Palmer (msg # 47):

Hear that, gang? Proverbs 28:1

...sounds like all of you are full of S̷͚̙̞̥̖̦̥̤͑͆̈́̈̽̈́͜I̸̢͇̬̞̳̠̍͆͆̇͊̋̌̎̄̓̎͒͌͘͝N̸̨̛̝̺̯̝͋̉̈.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 48):

Is it sin or cringe that we're full of? I mean, I can see both, at least for myself.

In reply to Samuel Hartman (msg # 49):

You can confess to, and be forgiven for, both in theory. Depends on your audience. ^_^

I don't really understand The Youth's concept of "cringe", it makes me cr- deeply uncomfortable. At any rate, if you're unhappy with your character, Sam, come talk about it in PM and we'll sort it out.

Waiting on overnight info from Tom and I have to pass on to Sam how others' interactions will affect his night. We're presuming the Doctor AWOL for now.

Think of it as second-hand embarrassment, on behalf of the person or thing that is cringe.

That...sounds like an empath thing. I thought things that were "cringe" didn't know they were embarrassing and were just doing their best, though? Like old dads or youth pastors trying to be cool and failing, kind of thing. Sincere affection badly pack...wait. I'm terrible at rl social cues, cheerfully weird and refuse to be aloof and cynical in a way that sucks joy from life. I...I think I'm cringe. I don't know what to do with this information.

Not to get too deep into just an idiom, but methinks it gets repeated and used for slightly different cases, until it ceases to have any significant meaning, much like any other idiom (e.g. 'boomer' had a very specific definition initially, and I've heard/read people use it for anything from 'old-fashioned' to 'you said comething uncool according to me'). I do think it initially held that meaning: someone who should cringe at their own words/behavior, but doesn't, so the observer/speaker feels the cringe for them. So, a degree of empathy involved indeed.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 51):

Oh, I'm actually fine with Sam as a character, I was just joking.

Well then...don't bully your character, I suppose.

New threads as soon as I can get 'em, folks. Background stuff mostly settled, please forgive what crazy old iPad's autocorrect has done to the Clues update. I'll prod it later but I have to actually go do some things today.

I feel your pain (metaphorically). The autocorrect on my phone is exasperating.

That was an odd first sentence to read, since I currently have a headache. Crazy inherited iPad is a funny object and something of a prude besides, but I think I caught and fixed all the oddness last night.

As an update, I am getting there, if slowly. Trying to remember how to do the 'sleeping' thing, which'd help, but also wondering if I can find some way to fold Maggie and Sam's threads together straight off (I don't think I can).

edit: Need to consult a bit. Think I'll post threads as I finish 'em. Getting there.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:14, Wed 27 Mar.

Given this game's geographical location I find this Tumblr poll especially funny, thought y'all might, too: https://probablybadrpgideas.tu...at-old-ones-out-sure  Keen to see the results!

Let's eat capitalism.

Looks like "the Great Old Ones are just woke or Welsh" to me...though honestly, if you've seen written Welsh you can see how the confusion would arise. Iä! Iä!

A bushy one?

In reply to Reverend Palmer (msg # 60):

I am fully agreed, eat the rich. The only thing you have to lose are your chains!

I'd advise against it. Quite sure the rich aren't a wholesome meal, and contain loads of poison and heavy metals.

Yeah, you need to fungally compost the rich for safety if you plan to eat any number of them yourself, but I don't think produce raised on fad diets and packed with plastics'd do Cthulhu any harm. Make him a bit hyper, maybe. That's kind of adorable.

Free ideas for your next Cthulhu Modern campaign, come and get 'em.

Doh, the perils of posting by phone, that auto-correction doesn't look at context too well.

Bah. Sorry Maggie, I'll get there.

Consider the servants in the Fox Hall thread to have beat a retreat with the carrying items whilst you're all munching away, they'll be back to clear up later. Everyone got enough protein?

Really going to sleep now. Augh.

[scoots a thing at y'all gamers]

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 68):

I've been enjoying that so far - right now I'm stuck on the password, but I'm definitely enjoying it.

Delightful, isn't it? (you need to obtain a newspaper for the password, though I suspect you've worked that out by now.) I shan't spoil the thing for anyone that wants to play, but...yes, delightful. Ended my run with a happy blush. I love all the things they were doing to play with the interface, too.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 70):

I had worked that out, but not the password. Glad to hear you enjoyed it

BWAhahaha. I suppose Kitty doesn't consume a lot of natural philosophers...

Oh, what can be read into that statement based on the biblical ethnonyms proposed by Gatterer, Schlözer and Eichhorn in this time period!

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
"Once you go Hamitic, you never go back." (Very naughty of me. Bad Semite! Bad!)

---

I'm not sure what the appropriate reaction to that is, but your spoiler-cut text gave me a huge urge to throw kosher salt on you for making charcuterie puns in the first place (which isn't the appropriate response either, but at least...uh, establishes if you're undead?).

Kitty likes her game meat fresh and rare, doesn't go much for the old salts.

Bleg...having just about all the migraine symptoms except the actual migraine; going to fold myself up presently, drink something very plain and go to sleep. Not ignoring y'all.

That sucks. Hope the folding goes well and you feel better soon.

Right, I've just let Team High Road keep Group 2 and will throw Sam into it when I set up another sub-thread (just doesn't feel like a chapter-end to me, and Maggie/Sam haven't been about as much to get far). Let me know if there's any issues with that from those of you no longer seeing 2a - if so I can reshuffle groups a bit.

Sam, if there was anything you wanted to add before dashing across the village, you have a short interval in which to throw that in, then consider yourself on the next new thread you can see, when you can see it. I'll maybe get there at lunch, right now I need to actually go do work...

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 78):

All good - I'll just join the group whenever I see the thread. :)

So! The thread exists, but the thing I forgot to do at lunch was let you into it...I am a very intelligent scientist. Also got dehydrated enough to still be dizzy and suffering a little through my own fault today. >_<

Fair notice that what has been a headache all day (and might be the same headache I apportioned to dehydration yesterday) is starting in with the migraine symptoms, so I may look in later or I may just fold myself away for tonight. Think y'all are all right without me for a bit, but you're not being ignored. augh. I stop typing now.

Kinda-sorta on-topic, and the primary source extract made me laugh: https://vinceaddams.tumblr.com...opera-the-tailors-at

He lost the cat! Also, (17)80s fashion choices...

It's always heartwarming and reassuring to learn ancient people did unexplainably dumb stuff out of boredom and why-the-hell-not-ness, just like their descendants.

People are still people, it's true. Just picturing the slightly drunk master doing a double take at the cat's entrance makes me laugh a great deal. It's like something out of a sitcom.

What do I roll to invent Morse?

...honestly, with a hard INT you could probably come up with something like 90s texting code (though you'd probably want to keep a visual reference to how the letters were grouped), but it's probably the best use of time to stick with yes/no for now.

other thread (yes! Everyone else has been collected!): the Doctor has been poked; if he doesn't show up by tomorrow evening I'll shunt things along a little.

I'll be fairly busy this weekend with my sister's graduation.

Thanks for the notice, and well done sister! Rude of the university to have academic ceremonies at the weekend, though.

All right, I'm to bed.

In reply to The Keeper (msg # 88):

Thanks on behalf of the sister.

Shocked I am to have reached 400 posts, 271 of which are actually mine. Here's to another 400!

Top o' the board, Reverend! ...and Kitty's already racked up eleventy-one contributions so far, too, I'm impressed.

I'm spammy, but ta! ^^