[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hZPsXqQd5g][img]http://i.imgur.com/UBJJcIA.png[/img][/url][hr]
[quote='Safety Statement for The Drop, Doherty Outreach Center']"Arms in, head straight. Don't move, and try not to scream. Clock in once you hit the ground. Good luck."[/quote][/center]
[hr][center][h3][ [color=8493ca]S T O R Y  E V E N T S[/color] ][/h3][hr][/CENTER]
[center]CURRENT TIME: 9 Days Since Departure on May 15th, in-world time.[/center]
4/8/2017
[quote]The intrepid explorer's crew of the UIS Garrloch has made contact with a strange new world, right in the middle of apparent festivities! For better or for worse...
[/quote]
2/20/2017
[quote]Having just barely survived an attack by an impossible monster, the crew of the Garrloch is back at sea, using a strange, futuristic map discovered during their explorations.
[/quote]
10/31/2016
[quote]The Garrloch has landed. First night outside the Ring of Thunder, and things aren't all sunshine and rainbows, unfortunately.
[/quote]
10/22/2016
[quote]The Garrloch has survived the Ring of Thunder. There was a few close calls, and a freak lightning strike tore a hole in the ship's main deck, but aside from that, everything is just fine.

As a matter of fact, land has just been discovered by the Garrloch's prototype VTOL aircraft. Who knows what might be out in the brand new world?[/quote]
A while back
[quote]The UIS Garrloch has just launched from the DOC! Aboard the brand new exploratory vessel is an experimental new piece of aircraft technology, alongside a smattering of non-government hitchhikers and explorers.

The first order of business is to get outside the Ring of Thunder, but the storms are not likely to let our intrepid adventurers through without a fight.[/quote]
[indent][i]Stay tuned...[/i][/indent]

[hr][center][h3][ [color=8493ca]P R E M I S E / I N F O[/color] ][/h3][hr][/CENTER]
[quote]You are a member of the newest expedition chartered by the UINC, an agency created by the United Isles council to explore the oceans. The United Isles are a collection of floating islands, surrounded by a never-ending ring of storms that makes traveling by air impossible. 

No one really knows how the islands float or where the storms originated, but it's generally accepted that the massive Obelisk on one of the islands is the cause. 

The United Isles Ship Garrloch is heading out on her maiden voyage into the unexplored ocean world, in an attempt to figure out just what in the hell is out there. The crew of the Garrloch is as varied as they come: practically anyone with a will or a reason to explore could be on it. That's you.

Welcome aboard.[/quote]

Traveling down to sea-level is accomplished through the Doherty Outreach Center. It's basically a giant elevator. Around the outside of the elevator is a series of harnesses and storage containers. That is the Drop, and it is essentially a controlled free-fall toward the ocean when you need to get down there [i]fast[/i].

The time period is about 70 years back from today in our world. The United Isles is a fairly anachronistic world, however. Let's say about 1940s in our world, with some differences. Before the construction of the Outreach Centers, ship technology was largely constrained to lakeboats. Yachts, fishing boats, etc, with long-range shipping barges and warships being largely useless in a floating world. Instead, aerial transport was invented early, with gliders being first, parachutes close behind, and motor-powered aircraft being invented almost in sync with automobiles.

In other words, ship technology is not very well developed, while aircraft technology is far more advanced for the time, with helicopters already being used frequently, airplanes being far more optimized, etc. Just try to imagine how life might be different if humanity had evolved for 2000 years floating in the sky.

Some history is below, if you're interested. It isn't really required.

[hider=The History of the United Isles]
[CENTER][ [color=lightgray]T H E  U N I T E D  I S L E S : A  B R I E F  H I S T O R Y[/color] ][/CENTER]

Some two thousand years ago, as near as any historian can tell, some of landmasses of the world broke free from their tectonic plates, somehow rising into the sky without explanation. In defiance of all logic and the laws of physics, hundreds of islands floated above the ocean at dizzying heights.

To add further confusion to the rapid shift of geography, a ring of freak storms surrounded a group of the floating landmasses. In the span of roughly one month, five large isles (as well as numerous smaller surrounding islands) had been cut off from the rest of the world, unable to even see past the seemingly endless sheets of rain, and the torrents of thunder and lightning.

Humans, as humans do, survived through tenacity and adaptability. For two thousand years, the people of the five isles lived, worked, and evolved. Aside from the storm ring, the fatal drop, and the floating, not much else had changed for the inhabitants. Gravity still worked, plants still grew, and human ingenuity continued to shape the world. Somehow the rivers and lakes of the floating planets stayed full, with frequent rain from the storm ring replenishing the water supplies as fast as they drained. For two thousand years, mankind grew better, smarter.

Yet through all that time, one question never stopped being asked: why?" Why had the islands been torn away from their rightful home? What kept the isles aloft? As more time passed, and the five islands remained cut off from the rest of the planet, another question formed as well. What was out there? Perhaps answers. Perhaps more humans.

After the first brave inventor put their parachute to the test, long ago, humanity has been working since then to get back to the ground. The Isles came together on common ground, the United Isles, working for the betterment of everyone within the Ring of Thunder, as they had taken to calling it. The United Isles Naval Coalition was chartered some eighty years ago, and began work on a series of massive elevators, which would finally allow the people of the United Isles to reach the ground.

It was slow going. Fifty years of hard work and experimentation and construction, but eventually the first of the lifts was finished. Christened the "Doherty Outreach Center", humans were finally able to safely travel to sea level and back, and more importantly, large quantities of cargo were finally able to be moved as well.

Alongside the construction of the Outreach Centers, UINC also worked to create new ship technology. Pleasure Yachts and little lake-craft were well established on the islands, but few bodies of water were large enough to accommodate exploration ships, which were massive by comparison. The construction of these ships really only could begin at sea level.

To shorten the story, the world is in a state of constant excitement. An earlier ship expedition found another obelisk beyond the storms, and now everyone and their mother is trying to go out and explore. Great caches of valuable materials--gold, silver, cotton fields--have also been discovered, and everyone wants a piece.

Anyone can use an Outreach Center, provided they reserve use of the lift in advance. Unfortunately, this can often mean waiting years, as there is a large backup of requests. However, on short notice, anyone who is deemed fit enough can take the Drop.

You are on the Garrloch. For whatever reason, you and your fellow crewmates want to see what is out there. Gold, glory...answers from the past. Who knows what could be waiting?[/hider]
[center][b][i]THE CHARACTER SHEET IS IN THE CS SECTION. SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION. PLEASE POST THE CHARACTER SHEET HERE, IN THE OOC, OR PM IT TO ME, BEFORE POSTING IN THE CHARACTER SECTION.[/i][/b][/center]