So some of you may remember you, som of you may not. For those who did not come across it -- here it is:





Exactly the same OP as last time. Not made any changes, but I might depending on feedback. I'm thinkin of starting off in the village where the previous group ended up, so that some people may resume RPing old character should they so wish to. If a re-make is wanted, I will be changing the rules alot to enforce the survival point of it, such thing's as vampires and were critters which are normally welcomed into my RP's will be off limits. Same with mages, I maye allow one or two mage characters of varries abilities. I'd much rather see a group of bakers/blacksmiths/tavern owners/barmaid's/errand runners/merchants surviving this ordeal than a group of hardened warrior's and mages.

So?

I wouldn't mind re-joining this, but only if it was more condensed. That is to say, have everyone start out in one place so they aren't wandering around the ruined fort for four pages trying to meet up with eachother. Maybe have a bit more urgency too, so they aren't compelled to go search for supplies rather than survivors or a way out.

My thought's exactly. I think we should be starting in the town north of Black Rose, perhaps inside the chappel barricaded inside.

Who exactly would we be? Would we be just regular town-dwellers in the middle of the mess? How come we haven't been attacked or inflicted with this mysterious curse? Of all my knowledge of a prey-predator relationship, and especially zombies, they would first go for the bigger clumps of civilization first, than progressively attack smaller and smaller groups until they had to live off single travelers (who would be dumb enough to travel alone in that situation anyways?)

How deep are we within the confines of this nation? How hard will it be to get out? Also, since you say food is scarce, there will have to be some hunting or improvisational food-finding. Can plants be affected? (Most plants in the Black Marsh are poisonous anyways) Can animals be infected? Even if the animals are infected, will it be safe to ingest the plague? (Like how Rattlesnake poison is OK to drink) Is the disease transmutable, or does it only travel from zombie-to-corpse? I suppose that this disease affects each individual differently based upon your Bestiary, so I guess that there are some questions answered with that.

How will other nations react to this? Will they intervene, or let nature run her course? What will the Argonia Gov't do? Abandon hope or still try and rally the troops? This sort of situation reminds me of the Enclave in Fallout, where the Gov't tries to rally the nation, not give up hope, but they also aren't the nicest people. I suppose more events will pop up as the RP progresses, but it is not unheard of for people to take advantage of this situation and form gangs and stuff and try to ride this out. Most people the RPers will might will be hostile, driven mad or just untrustworthy towards any foreigner they find.

There is much to be fleshed out, and I am sure I will return with more questions.

But, most importantly, I want to join. This has a lot of potential (the OP was written exceptionally well), and it looks like fun.

We would be either A- an escaped prisoner or B- A villager or C- a Traveller.

The reason they havent been inflicted by the curse or even attacked yet is that we would be started no more than four hours after the initial break out at the Argonian naming ceremony. The Zombies will be spreading throughout blackmarsh -- north toward the prison and then further north -- consuming and turning everything they come across, eventually when numbers pick up they will fan out, you have to think of them as a force of nature or a storm if you will, rather than a hunting party.



We would be near the central core of the province, around the murkwood region. It would be very hard to get out, but thats because of the heavy emphasis on survival more than anything. Plant's can indeed be affected but they will be infected at a slower rate, think of Argonia as a living organism, all plants and tree's and vegetation is connected, the first hist tree to be infected will spread the infection throughout those around it and so on, the longer time goes on the faster the infection will spread throughout the plant life. Animals can also be infected either by normal means (being bitten) or by eating infected vegetation. It would not be safe to ingest the plague, It would be like eating a lump of meat riddled with salmonella, but instead of vomiting you become a zombie. The disease travels from plant to plant, plant to person (if ingested) or zombie to person. A person doesnt have to die to become undead, they need only be bitten, but even if they are fed upon until the point of eath due to blood loss, or a vital organ is removed, they will still re-animate.

As for the beastiary -- the black scale undead where the first tribe to be animated, after drinking the hist -- they are the strongest and fastest, having had no tissue damage whatsoever prior to turning as time goes on meeting these zombies will be rarer and rarer, but not unheard of. The next are the black undead -- they are undead who re-animated after being fed upon, these are slower and weaker due to large amount of tissue damage sustained after being attacked by the black scales -- they may be slow and weaker (dont underestimate their strength though, they are still quite strong enough to overpower a well built man or woman.) but they still carry and use items they had on their person in death. So if a legionnaire is infected, you will find yourself fighting an armoured and armed zombie.




Other nations wont even know about this until it's too late -- we're literally on day one, the plague will spread faster than we can travel to warn the outside world, other nations rarely go into the central core of the swamp -- so by the time we make it out into the outer ring of the marshes the undead will have enough number to over run the rest of argonia and spread into neighbouring provinces. The Argonian Government may or may not help, it depend's how I feel at that point.

But a wonderfull thing is, as the plant life dies there will be no poisonous gasses being released -- so it will be quite possible to travel into the central town's and cities of blackmarsh, which have been previously unavailable to anybody but the argonians.

As for food ( I forgot to mention it above) the majority of animals/fish will be fine to eat. But mainly, you want to concentrate of imported goods (fruits, vegetables, grains and oats etc) anything that is already dead before the infection started may be safe to eat, depending on how long it's been dead for, for example -- if you come across a fishing village with already dead and gutted fish hanging about, you can chance eating them, but dont expect a pleasant bathroom brreak.

Hope I answered all your questions, good post EB.

Alright, you answered most of my questions. Thanks alot, that helps.

I'll work something up tonight, character-sheet-wise.

I'll join mate, just for your sake. This could be pretty fun too.

I'll get something together tomorrow hopefully. There is a lot of potential in this.

If you want to join, do it because you want to, not for my sake. No point sending me the sheet's until a few more people confirm they are joining, keep them to yourself and edit or build upon them until numbers grow.

Well I am joining because I want to. Alright then.

I'll be joining, as I remember this awesome RP. And was in the last one. So far it sounds awesome. But this time I think I won't be a cook at the prison.

Well Solidor, tell us when we can make our sheets.

I am thinking of creating some type of trapper-hunter. I think this could really get interesting.

remember, ordinary people, bar maids, cooks, caretakers, scholars, merchants etc.

not sure if im going to make it or not. just had a pretty rough break up and i've totally lost my enthusiasm.

Looks pretty intriguing. I wasn't in these parts for the first, but what I've read seems like it has a lot of potential.

I'll PM you with a few ideas for my character, Solidor, (my characters tend to be a bit more unconventional, at times) and see what you think before I type out a full character sheet.

Well I read both your sheet's and I was largely impressed by them.

after reading the quality of HK-47's sheets, I've decided that weapons can be allowed. HOWEVER, You MUST RP FAIRLY. In other words, if your RPing against a zombie, and kicking it's hide, That wont stand for nothing, RP with your enemies the same way you would in pvp, openly and fairly. It may be a case of i post narratives for the enemies and what not, control them myself, unless you can prove your not going to go overboard with the combat, I want it to be fair, a struggle, a group of peopel against impossible odd's clawing their way to survival.

That being said, absolutely no enchanted weapons, no deadric or ebony, ebony as a decoration (say, a family crest made of ebony on the hilt) is fine. No glass either. And I'd prefer character sheets that dont have weapons in abundance, say a guy with 4 swords and a dagger, or a guy with a bow a sword a dagger and a spear or something. YOu have to remember these guys are in a marsh, alot of weapons would be dead weight that slows them down against an enemy faster and more agile in their natural environment (black scales).


I want to get this up ASAP, so send your sheet's if you want to, post them up here and you can all decide whats fair and whats not if you're unsure perhaps?

If you have any suggestions regarding weapons or how to ensure fair combat, please post away.

Good to hear that you're still going through with the Rp as well. I'll have a full character sheet prepared for you sometime today or tomorrow

Sound's good to me. Just one or two characters? If people use multiple sheet's I probably wont need any more than 3 people to join.

If anybody need's to discuss something with me feel free to add me on msn.

Well for starters one character. I may bring in more as time goes on, depending on how things go.

I'll have my sheet in soon...I'll start working on it now.

NO. I CALL A SPOT. Making a sheet nao.

Solidor what town did the other group leave off in?

Solidor, since I can't PM you the sheet, here it is. I think this will be an interesting writing edition- the usual hunter getting to see what it is like being hunted. He isn't going to be killing, but he is going to be avoiding and trying to get out of Black Marsh!




Name: Josiah Mouroun

Age: 31

Race: Redguard

Gender: Male

General Appearance:

A clean shaven head and face, his head a muscular oval with ears and deep brown eyes fitting on them perfectly. His tone is moderate for a Ra Gada, being the normal light brown. You can tell the man is in shape having a well defined muscle tone around his body. He stands at 5’10 being the height of an average man, but weighs in at 180 pounds. He is stocky and solid, his physical shape required by his profession. His hands hold scars more scars on them than any other part of his body, due to the fierce thorns of the swamp. His hardened hands allow him to grip anything well. With this, Josiah is more fortunate than many in this plague having the physical speed and strength to make an attempt at surviving, rather than being overcome before having a chance. Though he is experienced hunter, he is just about to leave his prime at the age of 31. His body is beginning to go into the next stage, and this may hurt him.

Psychological Profile:

Josiah is a serious, well respected, hard working man. He finds many jokes immature, though some are humorous in his mind. He doesn’t respect people who always try to get a “free ride”. When he sets his mind to something, he does it, but he often takes decisions into deep consideration. He often tries to see the opinions of others, but if the subject or decision is something he knows fluently, he will go his own way. He is laid back in a sense that is someone does not agree with him, he will not make a big deal or grudge over it. After this, if someone is to go into a fatal situation, he would not risk his own life to save them do to their foolishness. In other cases, he would. He lives by the quote “If a man has nothing to die for, he is not fit to live.” When he looks at failure, he takes it into a deep perspective. He learns from failure, and he realizes it is needed to improve on anything in life. Now, he knows failure means death, and he knows if he fails this time…there won’t be any improvement.



Weapons:

Josiah carries an oak bow at the length of between 3.5 and 4 feet. It is mounted on front with iron and leather is attached to that to allow more gripping of the bow. The oak has been prepared through wetting and drying and is flexible swamp wood, capable of bending. A thick linen-wool string is used to propel the arrows. He carries a leather quiver over his back, holding 20 or so light iron-tipped arrows. As a close range weapon, he carries an iron machete, mainly used to chop brush in the swamp (but however can be deadly to anyone or anything). He carries around a small dagger-knife, used to cut strings and other small things. Other than these basic “hunting” tools, he tries to travel lightly; due to the fact agility is needed in the swamp.

Apparel:

Josiah wears a green-wool shirt, followed by light-brown (almost tan) linen pants. His hands are bound with fingerless leather gloves to give him more grip on his bow. He wears rough leather-padded shin guards, as well as leather bracers to protect his joints from possible injury. Although not protected very well, he does not need to be burdened with armor in the swamp, as it is not necessary for hunting.

Miscellaneous Possessions:

Josiah carries around a few lockpicks for anything he may find in the forest, as well as a few coins (these have no value). He also carries a small sack which hangs from his belt, holding pieces of metal in which one would use to build a trap with. He also carries another additional small sack filled with strings for his bow, and another filled with hooks and such things. These are very small, not burdening the man.

Miscellaneous Information:

One advantage Josiah has as a hunter is that he knows some of the surrounding area, due to the fact he has hunted in it in the past. Of course, his knowledge of the forest and its animals don’t matter now…there is a new animal.

Class name: Professional Hunter

Class skills: Trapping, Marksmanship, Survival skills, Cutting, Climbing, Forestry-landscape knowledge

Class description:

A professional hunter, skilled in the arts of hunting animals and trapping along with having decent knowledge of the area; with all of these skills used for hunting animals, the hunter will have to manipulate these skills. He is no longer hunting animals- there is a new animal in the forest – and it is hunting him.

Bio:

Josiah grew up in Nibenay, and was raised as a hunter by his father through childhood. His interest in hunting drove him to practice it. From the time he was a teenage boy, he went to hunt with his father. When it came time for him to become a man, he began hunting more frequently, selling many of his hides as he had always done as a boy. He developed into what was the town hunter, like any man in any other city who hunted for a living. Now, he has traveled to Black Marsh to explore its creatures, especially the Dreugh, which Josiah finds more interesting than many creatures. Josiah is faced with something else entirely. Now the hunter has become the hunted; now the hunter is the prey. There is a new animal in the forest. He now has to think like the hunted animal, getting the opposite end of the stick of his original profession.

I wouldnt consider an Oak long bow the same height as it's 5'10 wielder to be considered as "Traveling lightly." Oak is a heavy wood, and a long bow is useless in dense foliage, it's a long range weapon.

Reading sheet's now. All two of them.

Yes I was actually debating that. I'll shorten it to 4 feet or so, maybe 3 1/2.

EDIT:

It'd be kind of hard for a 6 foot bow to maneuver through the swamp anyway...I guess I'm just so used to the Bretic longbow it kind of came naturally...anyway, it's changed.

EDIT:

I thought it over, and I've changed his bio to where he is a traveler, that way he'd fit in (because he wouldn't be a native of Black Marsh, that would be unlikely).

Sorry, I did hurry with this a bit. Lots of school work.

That ones better wooly.


New op. read it and weep.


The Black Plague of The Marsh.






The Sload, a repugnant race of highly intellectual slug men who feel no emotions like other Sentient of Tamriel; they think fast but move slower. They view all other life as play things and experimental canvasses, they are responsible for the biggest calamity to mar the face of Nirn since Men and Mer first walked the earth, soon enough they will be responsible for a second, the Black Plague of Black Marsh.


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Esctacy shot through the air like a thunderous current as the tribal drum beats reverberated rhythmically through the canopy around them; six fires burned around the great Hist tree, Argonians wearing feather covered skulls and masks danced around them nvde shaking crude instruments and ceremonial weapons, singing in unison with the Hist tree in their ancient and native language -- a mixture of shaking quills hissing noises and almost wrenching sounds from within their throats.

Every one was elated; the music flowed through their bodies like one long perpetual orgism, they chanted and beat their chests, howling into the night at the young ones walked forward almost like a unit, moving each foot forward at the same time. The tribe elder smiled as they walked closer to the Hist; one of the children wondered how he could see them if his eyes where stitched closed with the jerked intestines of the swamp walluga, a great eight legged boar hound that was traditionally hunted by their tribe.

The fires shot up higher and higher as the Hist energy was released into the air; nobody noticed a ball of pestilential black energy shooting forth from the grease covered hand of a corpulent plague infested Sload, hitting the Hist tree with a violent shudder that shook the swamp to its core. Nobody noticed as the veins of sap flowing through the bright green leaves turned from brightest yellows to darkest black.

And the children drank.

They drank from the Hist and did not stop; they gorged themselves on the liquid without pausing for air, their eyes filled with an ink like liquid and their scaled hardened and lost all colour? When the Hist dried out the music stopped.

The sounds of the tribal beats were replaced by terrified screams.




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A low pitched buzzing noise shook its way through the congested streams of air and smoke in the forest, the sound of the black shadow advancing from the core of the swamp send shiver’s running through the limb’s of it’s flora, the native Hist. The sun waned somewhere beyond the vast canopies of swaying tree’s that dominate the horizon, it was getting hard to see anything but the pinpricks of light in the distant settlement of Longmont. The only sound that can be heard over the din of the black shadow is the sound of two feet beating furiously against the sodden ground.

A small lithe body flashes through the undergrowth, flattening plants and skipping curled root, ducking under snapping plants and curling vines. He run’s for his life, his hunter unseen -- save for a black shadow scraping across the landscape. His tail flicks out, helping him stay balanced, never before has his life depended so much on something so simple as balance.

Closer to the village, his red scales shine in the final few minute of the sunlight that breaks through the well defended canopy of leaves, splashes of green leaf like patterns can be seen on his world weary face. He craves quiet, tranquillity, his feet pounding against the ground drag memories from his mind. Thing’s that happened only hours before -- his brothers and sisters drinking from the Hist at their naming ceremony, the tribal drum beating that abruptly stopped as the newly named turned on their friend’s and family, biting and clawing, eating? killing.

He didn’t know if anybody got away, all he knew was he was told to run -- so he ran.

At last, the town is in sight, it’s rickety wooden buildings standing the test of time against the swamp -- each one looking more like a natural fixture than a man made structure, thanks to the amount of plant life and moss that had grown over them in the years.

Cheerful faces greet the outsider as he run’s frantically toward them waving his arms screaming for them to turn and run, many laugh and some look shocked, but none of them move. Not even an inch. He darts through; squeezing past the mass of bodies, many Argonians but a few Imperial and Dunmer, slavers or drug smugglers no doubt. Not that it mattered.

As he passed through her heard one of them cry “Flesh flies!” No doubt referring to the vast shadow of insects that followed in the small Argonians wake. Panic shot up in the air like thunder crackling through rain drops, people ran inside or dived under the tiered housing, which was raised off the floor due to flood weather. The small Argonian said a prayer for them in his native Hist, that they be spared a slow death.

He knew the flesh flies where the least of his problems.

Then -- just as he reached the far side of town, an arm reached out and grabbed him roughly by the waist, word’s where said to him in a calm reassuring voice but he barely understood them, the only thing he noticed was the smoothness of the skin.

He was pulled inside -- forced under a bed while the door was barricaded. He didn’t dare look out, tear swam between the scaled eye lids.

Then they came. The insects passed over within moments, ignoring citizens of Longmont. But within moment’s more noise came, the noise of hundreds of feet running -- hunting, screaming.

The Argonian boy closed his eyes and whispered in his native tongue as the screams turned into slaughter.



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Rules:

1. No vampires.

2. No were-critters, just too uber.

3. Weapons are allowed this time, but nothing enchanted -- nothing high grade such as mythril/glass/ebony/daedric etc.

4. Armour is allowed at your own risk.

5. No ubering, you kill five zombies single handed without a scratch I send ten more, you kill ten more I send a hundred. Be on your toes and fight to survive. In other words, be realistic.

6. Character control is not allowed unless discussed via PM first, in which case please make sure you make it clear that it is has been discussed for the benefit of other played via OOC: tag so you don’t get wrongfully accused of unlawful character control . If your character is injured and needs help walking feel free to let people know via OOC that mild character control is ok so long as its just to help them move.

7. Romance is allowed if you find the time but keep it clean.

8. Absolutely NO OOC only posts, if it’s urgent please PM either me or somebody you know if going to post so they can tag their own post in an OOC for your benefit. Or post in the General discussion thread.

9. PM all character sheets to me for approval.

10. If you are unsure of something PM me (Example being, you want to kill something big and hairy but you don’t want it to look uber).



Character Sheets:




Name: (Nicknames and pronunciations as well if possible)
Age: (don’t have to be specific, a ball park figure like 20-25 or 40-45 will suffice)
Race: (Try to be lore correct, Khajiit and Argonians are known to have sub races to let us know which.)
Gender: (obvious)


General Appearance (includes height, weight, build, and hair colour eye colour hair style facial hair, everything you can into this bit.)
Clothing/Armour: (Again be realistic.)

General skills and talents: (Describe what your guy does best and why he is trained in that art. Tell us if he also likes to paint or sing, it all counts really. Don’t just say “Heavy armour, Restoration, Destruction.”, try to break out of the habits of game mechanics if you can.)

Personality and temperament: (Wets himself under pressure? She giggles furiously when she’s scared? Goes quiet around strangers? It all goes here.)

Brief History: Doesn’t have to be pages long just give us a general idea of your character and what he/she is about. Secondary characters (who are destined to die or just aren’t that important) Can be left blank and developed along the way.

Misc: Couldn’t fit something any where else? Put it here




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Bestiary,

The Black scale Undead, The first to be turned by the Sload’s plague. These Argonians drank straight from the Hist, they are as strong and mobile as they where in life, and the only difference is now they are bloodthirsty and relentless. They identify their prey through the pheromones and hormones that the living still produce, so they will never attack another undead. Their scales and eyes are as black as the velvet night sky.


The Black Dead, The second strain of undead, not as fast or strong as the Black Scales due to the fact that they became undead during or after being eaten -- so some body parts and muscles may be missing. The majority of these undead are legionnaires (for now) but it isn’t uncommon to see civilians amongst them. Be warned, they may still be heavily armoured even in death.



Miscellaneous,

We will be using http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z10/leecarey_2007/cyrodiillargelowrescr7.jpg I will be adding a Key and marking certain things on the map as the story progresses (including our own groups should we separate and objectives should they arise.) The group will be starting in Longmont.



Objectives,

1. Investigate the attack on Longmont

My character!