Delorphin

I think that's a great and natural way to continue forth with the narrative!

I'd rather let someone else do a vow, Yorick's current status has him a more passive character until circumstances change. So it's more appropriate I feel if either of you instead pledge the vow.

Yorick and Grendel | Momentum: +4 (10/2) | Health: +5 | Spirit: +5 | Supply: +5 | Fails: 0 Following the rest of the crew, Yorick went to get a bailing bucket as well. He noticed, much to his surprise, that Haegoth grabbed the largest and had set out for the lowest part of the ship, where the water would pool the most. The others situated themselves evenly across the ship, and Yorick at the prow near Grendel. Stormward, the ship sailed, following the shadows of the other two ships, further out. Every creak and groan of the ship sent waves of unease and terror that tasted of salt water. The torrents of the heavens pouring harder than ever and the waves, like tormenting hands, pushed and pulled on the ship. In the distance, a punishment of the sea, a huge wave that could engulf houses was coming. "Grendel! Grendel! To the middle of the boat with you else the waves will tip the boat and the sea will swallow us all!" said Yorick. The monstrous beast awoke at the call of her guardian. It went bounding down the boat, miraculously avoiding knocking anyone back or spilling more water into the boat. The boat, with the wyvern at the centre, felt more balanced. It won't be enough to weather this coming storm. Secure Advantage: Move Grendel Secure Advantage(Heart+Animal Kin) Challenge Dice 1 Challenge Dice 2 Taking momentum

Alright sounds good, I'll hold off posting until afterwards then.

In terms of the major advantage, I think that makes sense.

Hector quietly stayed in the corner, patiently waiting for his turn to speak. He had a restless night, memories of his past failures resurfaced with the new addition to the list. In his mind, replaying different scenarios of what to say to Mrs. Gelman when he has to go visit her. Part of his anxiety and panic spread to other areas of his life, including what he'll say to the chief during the statements. "I hope no one was hurt in that accident," he says to the chief, "it would be nice if our worldly concerns were only relegated to chasing escaped chickens in the night. That would be nice." Spot Hidden

Hey, yes I'm still interested, I was waiting for TOM to post and have been busy lately, I will get to posting soon enough.

Elroy Lee, Rift of Don Quixote General Details Name – Elroy Lee Mythos – Don Quixote Age – 25 Occupation – Office Worker Hobbies – Reading, writing, visiting art galleries and watching movies. Or that's what he did before work consumed his life. Likes – Art of all sorts, passion in any manifestation of it, dreaming Dislikes – His job, corporations, the status quo. Backstory Elroy was always a creative child. At first this was a point of pride for his parents, pointing to his insatiable love of reading and talent for creative arts in general as their point of pride. However, as he became older and older, he only became more engrossed with his imagination. Meanwhile, his parents started to shift focus to more useful fields, the sciences and especially being a doctor. They'd settle for lawyer too. Instead he pursued an art degree, failing to become a curator, a historian or an artist in the process. He found himself slinking into a corporate job just to make ends meet, even as his family kept telling him "I told you so." Awakening Event It wasn't too dramatic. He worked everyday, even on weekends, for his company. Coming in early, leaving late, grinding his body into dust to help reach their bottom line. He hoped that he could be useful. They just fired him. That lead him down a depressive spiral, burying himself away from reality. Eventually he started realising that the world was speaking directly to him. He followed his instincts and found himself a higher paying corporate slave job. Now he wants more, he can be important for once. Divination - See the Giants "It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that thou art not used to this business of adventures; those are giants." Mystery – What is going on beyond rationality? What hides in the hidden dimensions of reality? A) Unfiltered wellspring of imagination D) Everything is connected in reality G) Reliable gut feeling H) The world speaks to me A) Fact or fiction? C) The rational explanation Routine – Corporate Drone Identity – Just another cog in the corporate machine, that's all I am. A) Black company office worker E) Office Thespian I) Buried in books and paintings A) Crippling hollowness Personality – Major Arcana, The Fool Identity – I have so much potential, my horizons stretches far an wide; I can be everything. I am everything. A) Fantasy-prone F) Unconventional thinking H) Encyclopaedic knowledge of trivia A) A strange, strange man Training – Artiste Identity – They just don't get it, they don't get the deep commentary the banana taped on the wall is. A) Art degree C) The cultural zeitgeist J) Allusionary world B) Know-it-all anti-conformist Note: If this character is too whacky, I have a more serious character idea in mind as well.

It wasn't the first time the bodyguard laid his eyes on Grendel. Yorick remembered him clearly, a few years ago when he joined the secret projects conducted by his commanders, they hired mercenaries to fill the ranks. Some called the mercenaries evil, their loyalty so easily swayed by a bigger bag of coins. Others said they are the most loyal, since their creed was more tangible than mere patriotism. Unlike the others on the boat, the man never showed fear towards Grendel. He did help kill her mother after all. "Sidan, Sidan!" Lagon said to his bodyguard, "you've been all across the sea haven't you? Help me talk some sense into Vigo." Sidan broke his gaze from the wyvern and turned his body to face the rest of the people. For a moment no one spoke but there was no silence. The symphony of howling winds punctuated by the percussive hammering of crashing waves made Sigla groan with each movement. "Consider the fact that we're travelling through unknown waters, going into the storm will throw us off course and lead to us being more lost than we already are. If there are rock formations created during the Sunduring, we risk destroying the ship and being trapped in the middle of a storm. Both paths lead to blind luck but the amount of risk involved is not proportional." With each passing moment the five other ships were travelling further and further away, slowly getting obscured by tall waves and fogs. In either case their chances would be much greater if the ships were together rather than being alone in the open sea. From the corner of the ship, steeled by the mercenary's words, Yorick spoke up, "There's an unlikeness between having gone through a storm as a rider and as a lodesman. Lagon, you–" "No one asked for your opinion, scum!" shouted Hægoth, shoving Yorick into Egrim, "Just stay in your corner with your damn monster, you're lucky the war's over or you would've been executed the moment we saw you approach the ship." The sky morphed into haunted day for a brief second, but instead of the blue skies, it was that sickly green. One could only hope that it was a trick of the eye as lightning scored the sky and illuminated the storm-ridden clouds; one could only hope it was not the storm engulfing the firmament itself. The pattering of rainfall joined the soundscape, blanketing the world in its deafening cries and the cold, heavy bites of each drop. Yorick sat back down and huddled under his shield, ineffective as the winds carried the rain around it. While farmers in peacetime would always rejoice at rainfall, the superstitious folk, he remembered, always wept before rain fell. "Oh the rain! The rain! Beware of its foul smell and cold touch. Stay away from its petrichor scent, its corpse-like graze. In its shadow, oh misfortune, the cruel spirit stalks us all!" The worst still was yet to come.

, it looks fantastic, I'll hopefully make a post that matches your caliber. Happy Easter to all, or just a great day in general!

City locations thank you for doing this. City locations as follows: Tapaqli Kithka'aype Mangthenodir

Not quite, more like tables and procedures that help aid a narrative. For example, as an addendum to the location oracle found in Ironsworn, we could also toss in Wanderhome's location natures if we need a better understanding of the location. An example would be the "bridge" nature. This doesn't mean that the location is explictly a bridge, but takes the conceptual elements of one, being a place of passage from one to the next. It also includes moves that the bridge can do such as describe what's on the other side and push something off the edge. There are other tables that I have that offer more specificity and flexibility than those found in the oracle if we would like to roll and get some ideas as well. There are other procedures that exist, such as in Mythic GME, but may increase the overhead to an undesirable amount so I'll hold off on that until we actually start playing.

On the topic of the proposed archive, if any of you would like some resources external to what Ironsworn offers, I'll be more than happy to add them in. Just let me know if it's procedures, location tables or other tables in general.

I agree we should wait for TOM and see if they are ok with all the decisions thus far. I think the merit of it being collaborative is that we can also support each other with that, the pressure of it all is distributed between the 4 of us rather than the daunting task that GMing is for a new player. Furthermore, I imagine the scene facilitator's role is mainly for that starting post per scene anyway, setting the mood, ideas and questions. Afterwards it's all up to wherever we want the narrative to take us rather than them being the 'head' of the scene.

Yes, I was thinking of something like that. Combined with the higher food requirements and its propensity towards violence, I doubt many war weary soldiers, who probably at best tolerated the wyvern for its combat used, would tolerate it now when they want to get home peacefully. At least having it would help drag the boat to shore. Yeah that's the exact kind of ship I was imagining, I didn't realise it was a merchant vessel. I think we're ready to start, any other details can be ironed out through narrative after all.

Bit late to the party but I think 's second draft is a great placement for the nation.

One thing we can also do, if we want urgency but low stakes could be dealing with internal strife. By virtue of having a wyvern, it will cause conflict either by fear or resource loss. Any disaster out at sea could be further amplified by its existence.

One way to cut down on the amount of people other than just killing them off could be just a division. Apparently longships have 25-60 people, which is more manageable as well. We can have a fleet of survivors that slowly dwindle either through death, or ships separating as they disagree on how to navigate the unknown geography. This will also give us potential as well to see them in the future. I think, like with all stories, rhythm and pacing is important. Right now, when our characters aren't super well defined nor their relationship to the world, each other, and themselves, a higher stake start could give us the momentum we need to help the story start and chug along. Afterwards we can go towards slower paced scenes as we get more comfortable with the game and our characters.

I like the second idea for dealing with the distinctions between each nation. As it stands, the ability score can paint a general picture, which is good enough for those who prefer a narrative, rules-light experience. Adding traits rather than creating more specific stats can help flesh out the mechanical side while reducing overhead and keeping the focus on the narrative. Using Iamanec Athiri's martial forces as an example, we could have it as: Vestige of revolution (+1 martial when engaging in guerrilla warfare) if you want to focus on a mechanical benefit or (your armies are smaller and more nimble, able to act autonomously) if you want a narrative benefit. The difficulty with land is that it all really depends on the type of land available as well. Having vast tracts of land in a desert is less meaningful when comparing it to owning the land situated at the Nile. The only real solution is to focus on narrative, elements and possibly custom regional tables to roll on depending on where your nation extends to. Naturally this means a map of the world will need to be set up. We can probably incorporate oracles, mechanics and random tables from solo games to supplement this. Add in some guidelines of what can be considered a reasonable narrative that we all can agree to and I think we shouldn't need to worry too much about the storytelling becoming too unbalanced. I'd like to hope that we can also move beyond dice occasionally and trust the ability for each other to tell a good story – the curse of dice is that it has no real understanding of a narrative continuum after all. It could make the game seem arbitrary if we react to the same basic table of events after all. Thread tables like in Mythic GME could be an interesting addition to add dice but that custom narrative as well. Since we are going off a weekly update, we can probably rely on a vote for edge cases to veto what gets accepted into the canon. I think that's a great setup. 1. I think changing the artistic to cultural gives it a better defined role, artistic if anything feels like an individual trait. 2. Although I enjoy rules-light games most of the time, I understand that it may not be for everyone, and may not be wholly conducive in a more competitive environment. The only real addition I can think of are traits if we want a mechanical distinction between the nations, as some have very similar stat spreads to each other. 3. I honestly think that the minor GM aspects would be a major part of the game. It is a narrative game after all and by narrating for others it makes the world feel like its our world rather than sections of a world that we share and interact with each other on occaison. It could help keep invvestment and be excited for what everyone's doing. Different thoguhts and ideas could also make it more dynamic and surprising as the narrative can move in different ways that the player isn't expect, just like in life. 4. Any day.

"Brother," Hector begins, "worry not, I'll... I will try to comfort Mrs. Gellman tomorrow. I pray by then she can take comfort in the services up until the end of today, that she would cherish that memory." Although, it is difficult to rid yourselves of the worst thoughts. Hector remembers hearing from the University that we, and all creatures created by the Lord, hold are worst memories dearest to us for those are the ones that will keep us alive. Yet here, in a world where survival is more or less assured, it only acts as a burden on our soul. One can only hope that this final memory of the Professor is not the one that people remember ab immemorabili. He turns to the others who still remain at the wake. "I've seen a few desperate people like that as well. It's hard to say what compels them to their actions, but they are always birthed from a product of their environment. Those who lose their mind could do any number of things just to feel like they remain grounded on Earth. I don't know the person but we best forgive him for his actions and not disparage him for his mental state." He only lived because there were those who forgave him after all. "Although rifling through the good Professor's office is in poor taste, I think it wold be prudent to help communicate with the man. I find it odd that he reacted to Professor Seagrave speaking in Latin as well. And Professor, I regret to say that today was the final day of the wake for Professor Gellman. It's a shame that it ended so poorly. Hector wants to find out some information, at least to help Mrs. Gellman reconcile.

I think all of the above sounds good, starting on a ship is a great idea. I like how it can avoid the explicit events of the cataclysm and puts us straight into the aftermath and the focus on its aftermath. Starting on a ship is also great for letting us establish our chracters and dynamics before the focus shifts towards what's happening with the rest of the world. If everyone else is down, I think that's enough information to start.

From my experiences of playing other story games, although I don't know how it will translate here, one way to do this is to have the GM or whoever is facilitating the current scene proactively asks the player who might have an interest to explore the scene. For example, after I describe a town with a strange happening, I'd ask Vlad what spirit resides in this place and the nature of it. This would give an opportunity for them to explore it and especially do so in relation to Melia. Same could go for Wizard, asking about what her father did to help this village and the impact of it. Or asking TOM how Vigo's mercenary company failed to help this village any of his soldiers were from here. Of course this does not need to happen all the time so everyone can have a go describing a variety of situations, but it helps extend a scenario by having a basic procedure of how to hand off the narration in a diegetic way and help tie the characters more closely to the world and story. This can also nudge people to explore their own characters in a different way based on the prompting of others. Pulling from Wanderhome an additional thing we can do here is when we reach a new destination or leave the one we are currently at we can take a step back as well to set things up / reflect. In the case of arrival, we can do a brief discussion of the kind place we are visiting and some characters we might find there. This will keep us all vaguely on the same page as we keep pushing the narrative forward. We can even do it as if in the eyes of the memories of the pre-cataclysm to keep some level of surprise. Whoever is in charge of describing the scene when we arrive there might alter the characters or place based on the aftermath of the cataclysm. When we are departing from a location, we can focus inwards and either just summarise or discuss our characters and how their arcs are shaping up after the last location, how they are changing and where you would like to see their progression head to. In regards to the archive, I think that's a great idea. I can also add resources for more tables / aides to facilitate the procedures we use in play if you would all like.

Following option B) as proposed by TOM we could start in media res, already travelling home. Maybe we've been travelling across an island that is not in the Iron Lands just yet, trying to help each other, whether they be former allies or former enemies, figuring out which direction even is home. This could be difficult due to the vastly different geography of the entire world. Maybe harsh waters and lack of resources had prevented any initial escapes, prompting people to band together and prepare? The island we're on could have an ever increasing amount of spirits warping the landscape and the inhabitants, or the island itself could be sinking, which is where the story begins. Following something like that, there would have been enough time after the cataclysm such that the world is completely different and in the aftermath of the event while still giving pressure to escape.

Tenkano, Yhava'iir Srishvra Upon seeing the new arrival, Tenkano stands up and greets her, making sure to keep his second in the periphery of his vision. Mbe-Jethehyp, who is still standing, pats the left side of his hip as he puts down his cup of wine. A warrior as well. He could feel her ambition matching his own. Tenkano stands and gives a fist-and-palm salute, bowing down his head slightly, and no smile on his face. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, although my people call me Yhava'iir Srishvra, here I am merely Tenkano, representative of Iemanec Athiri. Devhaka Srishvra tanyth yii hmote syshegkae," he says, smiling once more, looking at the women. "In the great tapestry of the cosmos, no thread is any more important then another. We, the threads, can't see the Great Art, only the fibres on each thread and make our judgements from there. Young prince, I know little of your customs, enlighten us." Is this what it feels like to be an older wolf, lingering at the back of the pack? When spring comes, it is as if they feel the vigour of the harbinger of summer while he only feels the whispers of grudging winter, grasping at his soul. His dancing and fighting can only stave off the torment of years for so long before the younger generation takes hold. Here he is, surrounded by them, at the spring of the new emperor, so ambitious and vigorous they all are in their youth. Just like him back then, just like him right now. His body won't be able to keep up with his dreams for more than a decade at most. These young ones remind him of his daughter, could he leave a legacy that will make it easy for her to take rule once he goes to the firmament? He pours a cup of wine for the new arrival, this time with his left hand. "I am Mbe-Jethehyp," Tenkano's aide says, mimicking his salute, "I happen to be a storyteller. If you would like, we can exchange some stories to pass the time? I even have some books with me, if you would like to read them."

I have changed the names to match the tsevhu language, to make it more distinct and coherent when interacting with others.