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player plot | castaways!
WHO: Bastien, Benedict Artemaeus, Eli Ever, Jayce Talis, Lalla Vesperus, Laurent Vesperus, Peter Parker, Victor Vale
WHAT: Carnivale cruise vacation.
WHEN: Justinian 9:49
WHERE: A Sea
NOTES: This is a make-your-own-adventure log. General outline and prompts are below. Everyone is invited to the crystal post here and also free to make their own for other things too.
WHAT: Carnivale cruise vacation.
WHEN: Justinian 9:49
WHERE: A Sea
NOTES: This is a make-your-own-adventure log. General outline and prompts are below. Everyone is invited to the crystal post here and also free to make their own for other things too.
I. PROLOGUE
So what happens is: the Crossroads collapse.
Before that, the mission goes well. Lord Cardin Popelin and his expatriate Tevinter cousin Novia Traiana and their respective spouses are very charmed by, you know, the charm, and intrigued by the harmless hints of innovative magic-science, and some combination of money and collaboration is likely forthcoming once they've had some time to stew in their charmedness and intriguedness for a few days. And the shortcut that Riftwatch's envoy takes back through the Crossroads to avoid days in wagons or at sea goes as well as it possibly could, too, until the part where the path collapses.
(The cause of this collapse could be anything. A statue knocked in passing. The wrong stone tile stepped on at the wrong time. The last syllable of one Trade word and the first of the next forming a forgotten elven word that triggers a forgotten elven safeguard. There's room for no fewer than four people to be sure it's their fault.)
The pathway collapses, is the bottom line, and it drops them not into the endless twists of the Crossroads' mix-and-match gravity fields, but into one of the Crossroads' rivers. Sometimes these rivers end in waterfalls (or water-rises, depending on where you are). But this one, running through an ancient aqueduct tunnel that forces everyone entirely underwater, ends in an eluvian, forgotten and unlocked, blocked by debris but not so blocked that the sudden pressure of eight human bodies doesn't make the dam burst and deliver them through the mirror and into elsewhere.
II. ASEA
All of that happens quickly. The time they are underwater is brief. Thirty seconds, maybe, give or take the time it takes anyone particularly disoriented by suddenly being in deep open water to make their way (or be dragged) to the surface of the sea.
A sea. A warm one, fortunately, on a relatively calm and sunny day, as bright and cheerful a blue as a sea has ever been. Also fortunate: various pieces of debris, mostly ancient and apparently rot-proof wood, have emerged with them and floated to the surface. Several of these pieces of wood are large and flat enough to support a person or two on their own. Others are portions of logs, or scraps of ancient bookshelves and chairs, and one fully intact still-alive shrub.
That is about it for the good news. The bad news is that the eluvian is now unreachable, the current of water rushing out of it from the Crossroads making it impossible for even the strongest swimmer to go back the way they came. Additional bad news is that they are, again, in the middle of an unknown sea, and judging by the height of the sun, they have a good ten hours before they can attempt to use the stars to do anything. Also, someone might have lungs full of water, and someone else might have been struck by a log somewhere in this process, and—
It'll be fine.
III. ARAFT
At some point, somehow, using some people's genius engineering skills and long strips of some people's clothing, they have managed a raft. It is inarguably better than being in the water. (Is that a shark fin? It is a shark fin. But sharks are mostly harmless.) But it is not better than a lot of other things, such as, for example, being back in the Gallows. Especially considering it goes on for two days—two days during which they have to try to figure out water, something to eat, shelter from the skin-crisping sun, and what to do about the squall that suddenly swells up around them in the evening.
IV. ASHORE
The storm likely gets most of the credit for the fact that they do not have to stay on the raft. When the sky clears and the rain lifts enough for the island to be visible, it is already very close. The waves are rocking them steadily closer, but working out a way to row—or hopping into the water to propel the raft along with kicks, or swimming and leaving Laurent behind to die, whichever—will make it quicker.
The island is an uninhabited speck, easy to walk all the way around in an hour at most. No other islands, specks or otherwise, are visible in the distance from any side of its shore. It's too small to support any large animals, its foliage short and scrubby and grassy rather than tall or tropical. But there's fresh water! There is a cave, hidden in a hillside and awaiting discovery by whomever would like to save everyone else from having to built huts or tents. And there are rabbits who, in the absence of many natural predators (aside from a pair of eagles spotted overhead) and with an abundance of grass to eat, have done what rabbits do and become so numerous it would be hard not to catch one. Everything's coming up Team Castaways, unless/until someone tries some of the berries growing on the island (the rabbits are eating them too!) and discovers they're hallucinogenic.
Other than that, though. Huge improvement over the open water, not least because—
V. EPILOGUE
—being one static location for several days and nights makes it much simpler for them and their friends back in Kirkwall to pinpoint their location. In the end it is a combination of the constellations and the fact that the rabbits are of a particular Antivan domesticated breed, a beloved pair of which was famously set adrift in a lifeboat by their owner to save their lives when his ship was taken by pirates in the Northern Passage about five years ago, that allows Riftwatch to narrow the search radius enough for griffons to spot their campfire on a tiny island east of Par Vollen and get them out of there.
BABY SPIDER you deserve so much better than Eli's attention :')))
But Peter smiles, so he smiles back. Peter seems young, but probably not too much younger than Eli looks. He got used to dealing with college age kids for a decade, pretending to be one of them because he didn't age and it got him what he needed at the time. He's not outright lying about his age or anything here, but if there's some misconception that they're peers, how is that Eli's fault?
"As long as you're sure," he says, still concerned because that's what this situation should call for, especially with younger people. Everyone is always so worried about people they think are young.
He has his own ripped up piece of wood. The clothing here is heavy, which makes some of this treading water business more tiring than it has any business being, he'll admit that.
"I'm managing," he says, which is an understatement. "Hell of an unplanned trip, huh?"
Just more of his Parker Luck coming into play!
"Yeah, quite the detour we took," he replies wryly. "Hopefully we'll be able to find land soon. Or like, at least a boat."
Peter's starting to get thirsty, and tired; he knows better than to drink the water he's currently swimming in, but at this rate, he's fighting against his lesser instincts in order to avoid making that mistake. He already swallowed enough of the stuff when they all first fell into the sea in the first place.
"I'm Peter by the way," he says, figuring he should introduce himself at least. "At least it's not boring?"
Still trying to find the bright side.
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Having to deal with things like thirst again are inconvenient, but whatever.
"Eli," he says with a smile. "You're right about that. And here I was beginning to think nothing exciting would happen outside of monsters existing."
Eli's sense of humour isn't very good at the best of times, but he's excellent at playing off of others. Peter's trying to stay light and maybe optimistic about this situation? Sure, he can work with that.
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"Well, whatever caused us to fall through the Crossroads clearly took that personally," he says, still joking.
He'd been so eager to see the Crossroads, ever since he first heard about them. It seems fitting that his first venture to the Crossroads ended up with him and his group dumped into the ocean.
"Nice to meet you, Eli," he continues. "In spite of the circumstances."