NorthernKraken

The Silent World (Stand Still, Stay Silent)

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100 years have passed since a terrible illness known as 'The Rash' swept the Earth.

Some nations were spared.

Most weren't.

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Art by Minna Sundburg

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Today, most of the remaining population lives in Iceland, although there are significant settlements in Norway, Denmark, Finnland, and Sweden as well. Levels of technology vary throughout the settlements, with Iceland and Sweden having more advanced technology (but nowhere near modern levels, think early twentieth century for everyday tech, and more modern for military tech), and isolated parts of Finnland not even having electricity. These settlements make up the Known World.

Beyond the borders of The Known World lies The Silent World - occupied by relics of the old world and victims of the rash, human and animal alike, transformed into terrifying creatures known as trolls. Trolls could easily tear the average person apart, but their true danger lies in their ability to spread The Rash to those who are not immune. Upon infection, the person will either succumb to the rash and die, or transform into a similar beast. If the rash reached the safe areas, it would surely mark the end of what remains of civilisation.

Map of The Known World
Nationalities of The Known World

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This RP will be set in the world of Minna Sundberg's webcomic 'Stand Still Stay Silent' (although you don't need to have read the comic to participate!) - a post apocalyptic version of Nordic mythology featuring zombified trolls, mysterious folk magics, and lost ancient knowledge. The comic follows the team who first decide to explore the Silent World and the perils they face upon the way.

This RP will take place ten years following that initial expedition. Further travel into The Silent World has taken place since then, but it is by no means a common thing. Of the seven expeditions into the Silent World since, only two have made it back, and none have made it back with their whole team intact.

Your character has been hired by an anonymous benefactor to undertake a similar mission to The Silent World. All you have been told so far is to head to the Oresundsbro military base in Norway. The fastest (and cheapest) way to do so is by the Dalahästen - a train that goes from the capital of Sweden, Mora, straight to Oresundsbro.

I plan to divide this RP into chapters, allowing for new players to join easily and for older players to take breaks/switch characters/drop the rp more easily. In the future, this will possibly also lead to opportunities for 'guest GMs' if anyone has a cool idea they want to play with.

This first chapter will focus on that journey from Mora to Oresundsbro. You may do whatever you wish with your first post, just ensure your character ends up in Mora ready to board the train by the end of it.

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Including randomisation can make for a fun, unpredictable game and can even out natural variations in how powerful people think their character should be. That said, I do find just pure randomisation a little bit empty and unfulfilling, as it doesn't account for variation and specialisation in a characters abilities. I do want this game to be accessible to those who don't play tabletop rpgs however, and so, I hobbled together something amounting to dice rules. These are not very good, and I expect to change them as I discover weaknesses and sticking points. I also want players to express things they find frustrating/cool/could do with tweaking as we go, because, ultimately, these are designed for you guys.

That said, here we go!

Core Rules
Professions (basically classes)
Icelandic Magic
Finnish Magic

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I don't want to be super strict, but I do think it's important to outline some basic expectations so that everyone is on the same page.

• Respect each other
• Respect the GM/CoGM's decisions
• Do not bunny, godmod, or otherwise control another player's character without their express permission, regardless of circumstances. This is not something that will be tolerated. Once is an honest mistake, twice is a habit and you will be asked to leave.
• I expect at least one post every week. I'm willing to be lenient in regards to waiting for a GM post/another player messing you around, and you may be granted a 3 day extension under these circumstances. In return, feel free to pester me if I screw up with posting. As always, real life happens, and if you need the occasional extension for whatever reason, I don't mind, so long as you let me and other players know as far in advance as you can. If you need to go on hiatus, this can be arranged in such a way as to allow you to return if you so choose.
• Collabs are great! I absolutely love collabs! However, a month is not an acceptable timeframe for a collab. Upon starting a collab, let me know, and you will have a week to finish it off. If it isn't completed in this timeframe, please post the unfinished collab so that other players may interact with you.
• I don't need, or even particularly want, super long posts. I want this rp to focus a lot on character interaction, so I'd rather you did two kinda short posts than one really long one. That said, one line is not acceptable. As a guideline, I'm going to say minimum word count is 200 words, although I'd expect an average of 300-400 words for the majority of posts. If you're unsure, that's about one long paragraph.
• Join the discord (once I set it up), even if you don't talk on there.
• I expect writing ability to be high casual, even if I don't expect super long posts. As such, I'd like you to link a sample of writing you're particularly proud of. Doesn't have to be an rp, could be a short story, or something you wrote whilst working on your character for this, it just has to demonstrate your writing ability.

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And now for the fun part! I'm going to leave formatting very basic so that you don't have to mess around with stuff if you don't want to, but feel free to play around with fancy fonts and stuff!

Name: (What is their full name? Do they go by any nicknames?)
Age: (Minimum 18 - you are going on a dangerous expedition after all!)
Nationality: (Consult the nationalities guide provided above - can be Swedish, Norweigan, Danish, Icelandic, or Finnish)
Languages: (All characters can speak Icelandic + the language spoken in their country of origin. Academics can select an additional language if they so choose)
Height:
Are they Immune?:

Profession: (Please consult the linked profession guide)
Attributes: (Please consult the linked core rules guide)
Strength -
Charisma -
Dexterity -
Constitution -
Wisdom -
Intelligence -
Skills: (Please consult the profession guide)

Appearance: (Please provide a detailed (Minimum 2 paragraph) description if you are not providing an image.)
Personality: (Doesn't need to be detailed, just a short overview of how they come across to people)
Present Circumstances: (NOT a history! What are they up to right now? What does their life look like? If you have backstory ideas you're unsure about/want worked into the story, please PM the GM)
Theme Song: (Optional, if you need help embedding a YouTube video, please ask!)

The Red Hoods: Initiates

This has been a ride, and whatever the future brings, I'm so grateful that I got to meet and write with all you lovely people :) Whilst it's always a shame when things don't work out quite the way you'd like them too, starting fresh is something I'll be looking forward to doing armed with the lessons learned from this go round. Even though it ended prematurely, I think I can honestly say that clicking on that cool looking IC during my first few days on the guild was one of the best decisions I've made in a long time.

@RedVII you're an amazing GM and an even better friend, and I don't have to tell that I'm on board for wherever you decide to take this next :D

Red Dead Reckoning

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Image

Background

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⯎ Location: Armadillo Saloon ⯎
⯎ Mentions: Temp@c3p-0h, Seven@RedVII, Erik@ONL, Roz@Berlin ⯎

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Penny had been in Armadillo almost a week now, and each day of that time had been spent, diligent, as she smoothed out the creased bit of paper on shop counters and against windows, the same questions passing her lips time and time again. Each time, the same reply - variations upon the theme of a solid and resounding no.

Fortunately, no one had outright asked her to leave yet. Unortunately, the woman with blood on her skirt and no husband was starting to draw attention, and so, Penny had decided the previous night it was better to leave of her own volition than to be chased out with pitchforks, or worse, bullets, at her back. She’d come up with a plan.

Evenings at the Armadillo saloon were always loud and full. Bounties and bets and promises, lifelong loyalties and bitter rivalries, made and kept and broken, all over the course of a stiff drink. It was a place of birth, and it was exactly where she needed to be.

A bright red sun hung low in the sky as she made her way down the main high street, it was a quiet day, people going about their business as calm as they ever did in Armadillo, and Penny drank it all in. She’d never considered herself much of a talker, but there was something comforting about being around people, even the weathered sorts you found all the way out here. It was calm, until it wasn’t.

Footsteps pounded behind her, the sound of a young woman shouting loudly for someone to "For fuck's sake, move!". It wasn’t directed at her, but Penny found herself shifting hastily, long skirt rasping against the dusty ground as she pressed herself against the nearby window of the general store. Her eyes widened, just a little, as a short whirlwind of a woman barrelled past.

She was gone within seconds, but Penny continued to stare at the spot where she’d been long after. It wasn’t an uncommon sight; a disconcertingly large portion of the population moved about Armadillo as if the devil himself was coming for them, but Penny was in a reflective mood, and for a moment, she allowed herself to wonder.

There was only one thing in Penny’s life she had anything approaching that level of certainty about, and it was nowhere to be found in a place like this. What was important enough in Armadillo for someone to be quite so intent on getting to it?

She didn’t get chance to dwell any further.

Gunshots rang in the distance, the closest thing to a church bell Armadillo had; it sent a chill up Penny’s spine nonetheless. As always seemed to be the case now, her memory betrayed her, awareness leaping to the revolver secreted away in a makeshift leather holster wrapped about her thigh. When she drew close enough to see the poor men who’d fallen victim to the violence, she saw six bodies instead of four, and the little red holes picked in their foreheads had been put there by her hand alone.

It perturbed her, yes, but it did more to spur her onward. Armadillo was a breeding ground for the easily tempted, the violent and cruel. It brought out the worst, and whilst she didn’t know the whole of it, Penny had a feeling she had a lot for it to take. She had to move on. The sooner she found her husband the better, and that meant leaving with the first group who’d have her.

She walked into the saloon.

There were several figures who drew her immediate attention. A man who’d walked in shortly before her, downed his glass and called for the sheriff seemed to have the eye of most patrons, something which allowed Penny to enter mostly undetected. Perhaps almost as intriguing was the young girl, a child really, sat, forthright at the bar, as at home as any one of the couple dozen grizzled looking men in varying states of sobriety. A woman stood by a different man, looking like she owned the place, meaning that she probably did.

And then Penny saw her - the woman from earlier, the one who’d been in such a rush, stood behind the bar, serving drinks. Late. She’d been late, that was all. Penny almost laughed aloud at the mundanity of it. It was hard to imagine caring so much about something so… normal. That probably said more about Penny than it did about the woman, but still, her attention had been caught, and she needed to start somewhere.

Carefully, she slipped through the crowd towards the bar, before sliding into a free spot. Arms folded delicately on the varnished counter top, she waited patiently, attempting to draw attention with little more than the slightest amount of eye contact.

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Red Dead Reckoning

Penny

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Appearance

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Theme

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Appearance

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At 5’3, Penny’s short, willowy stature comes across as entirely unassuming. Her delicate features are almost entirely unmarred by the harshness of life in New Austin, and whilst she usually keeps her tresses of soft brown hair tied back out of her face, it falls long and wavy when she lets it down.

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Assets

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Nothing but a revolver, the clothes on her back, and a small amount of cash in her pocket.

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Personality

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Penny prides herself on being a good homemaker, her value being in the skills she brings to the table. Cooking, cleaning, mending and other domestic tasks are her forte, and she remains demure and quiet when not called upon to act.

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History

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Those seven words scrawled on a piece of tattered paper with rust coloured creases make up the entirety of what Penny knows about her past. The letter, along with the formerly white dress she was wearing were the only things she’d had on her when infamous outlaws Jack and Luke O’Reilly found her with blood in her mouth (and everywhere else), half dead, face down in the dirt. It wasn’t a lot to go off, but Penny knew one thing - she had to find her husband. At any cost.

Miles from anywhere and unwilling to leave an injured woman alone to fend for herself, the O’Reillys quickly adopted Penny as one of their own, and she adopted them right back. They came to an agreement - the O’Reillys would keep Penny safe whilst she looked for her husband, and she would cook, clean, and generally make their life on the road feel a little homier.

Penny was aware of the things they did that weren’t quite… legal. The gunfights and the bloody clothes and the running weren’t part of the simple domesticity she longed for. But true to their word, they kept it away from her, and true to hers, she continued to search her husband wherever they went. It was an easy routine, until it wasn’t.

One second, Penny was stirring a pot over the fire, humming softly under her breath - a tune she’d heard Luke sing on several occasions. The next, the O’Reillys were barrelling into camp, half a dozen of the sherrif’s men showering them in bullets. Penny hadn’t even realised she was moving, but then Luke’s revolver was in her hand and

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Six men. Dead on the ground with bullets dead centre between their eyes, and just like that Penny was a killer.

Horrified at her actions, Penny ran away into the night, not even stopping for food or an extra change of clothes, the only possessions she had were the rifle and the clothes on her back. She walked for days, before coming across the town of Armadillo. It was imperative now - she had to find Porter. Her husband. It was obvious now - she was nothing but a mindless killer, and that was okay if it was keeping her husband safe, but without him? Those men had died for nothing.

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Do you have a personal story arc prepared? Of course not, whatever gave you that idea? =P

Cold Front: Tacitum (Completed)

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Alice eyed Reika coolly, eyed the gun pointed, point blank, right between her eyes. She’d been on Reika’s end enough times to know how it would end - squeeze, bang, splat, and the only thing left would be one hell of a mess to clean up afterwards.

Her phone buzzed in her bag. She ignored it. Continued to stare Reika down from behind the heavy layers of makeup hiding the even heavier bags beneath her eyes. Leo was dead, and ‘innocent’. Rachel as well. Two. There’d been two.

Of course. Of course it came down to this. Ever since meeting her, she and Reika had been at each other’s throats. It made sense that now, at the end, it was the two of them. The past few days.. she’d kept the other woman safe. A word in the ear of the right person, a promise of a well timed look, and Reika’s various crimes had been hidden from the sight of any who thought to look.

Selfish, really. If Reika went down, all eyes would’ve gone straight to her. Not that it did much good now.

In the end, it was just the two of them.

She stared down the barrel of Reika’s gun. She swallowed, maybe… “Reika. Listen. It’s not me.” she glanced, just for a moment, at Lucia and Vinnie, “We need to leave. Now.” she said quietly, eyes cold as ever, “It must be one of them.”

|| Primordial Uprising - [Kaiju & Monsterverse-Inspired RP] ||

Hi everyone, I've messaged Lmpkio, but I thought I should probably say here too that I'm making the decision to drop this rp. There's an awful lot of characters, and to be completely honest, it's a bit much for me to keep up with. I hope you all have fun going forward though!

Cold Front: Tacitum (Completed)

Oop, sorry, been having a little writer's block with this one. Will try and power through and post tomorrow

The Red Hoods: Initiates

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Village of Traffyn Fenwd - Beds For Ewe! (External)

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@MsMorningstar@ZAVAZggg@Damo021

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Colin’s cheek stung.

For a moment, that’s all there was. Just that stinging. He probed the tender flesh with tingling fingertips, blinked dumbly as Eliza of all people rushed to his defense. His knees shook, and he could hear screaming from some place distant and buried. Do something. He should do something. Don’t just stand there, or do you want to die? Stop hiding behind your sister and fight like a man. For fuck’s sake, what’s wrong with you?

“-miserable shell of a man like him-"

A part of him was terrified.

The lock clicking. Smoke and burning flesh. A child’s screams.

But then something else roared - flame licking the doubt, the coherence, the hesitation, turned them to straight ash. If it hadn’t smothered even the possibility for anything else, it might’ve frightened him. But it had, so it didn’t.

His sister was in that inn. Eliza centimetres away from the creature. Fendrel was gods knew where. The rags over it’s shoulder were starting to look awfully person shaped.

He had to do something, or it would slaughter them all. He charged into the inn. Humid air, the stench of dog, threatened to swallow him up. He ignored it. Eyes found the creature, right by the entrance.

His daggers were in his hands.

He launched himself, straight towards the threat.

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|| Primordial Uprising - [Kaiju & Monsterverse-Inspired RP] ||

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The thing about Japan, as Noah was quickly coming to realise, was that he did not speak Japanese. And no, regardless of what Amber, the editor of Cryptid Weekly, seemed to think, a semester abroad way back in university did not make him ‘more or less fluent’, something he’d tried to tell her ever since being given this assignment. Of course, her response to that had been to just point out that he wasn’t meant to be talking to the Kappas. Just, y’know. Looking for them. That begged the question though.

Could Kappas talk?

The thought gave him pause, before he pushed it away and kept going, almost like he hadn’t stopped, mid stride as he made his way across Hakata’s busiest bus terminal. It was a warm day, and people were clearly busy, if the glares they were shooting in his direction were anything to by. He frowned, before pulling out the paper map he’d brought with him and opening it up where he stood.

It was heavily annotated, red sharpie lines carved swathes through the different districts, post it notes fluttered in the slight breeze, and the margins were filled with blue-black scribbles. Noah traced one of the lines across from where he was now to what looked to be a small hub of nightlife which had been heavily circled several times. Next to it, Noah’s own black biro scrawl outlined its significance.

Whoever this ‘Kappa Man’ was, Noah had a feeling he’d find more information from him than he would poking around some random river. The only trouble was, Noah had no idea where to start.

His phone buzzed in his pocket,and he pulled it out glancing at the glowing screen. A text from Amber, two simple words spelled across the LCD screen - ‘Food Baka!’. His stomach gave a treacherous grumble, and he realised the Kappa Man would have to wait.

He grinned and shook his head, before tapping out a quick reply, and setting off to find somewhere to eat.

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When Sarah told people she worked in HR, their reactions were almost too easy to predict. The slight glaze over their eyes, the polite nod and smile, the instantaneous and blaringly obvious lowering of expectations. As depressing as it was to have her career be an instant turn off, it still felt like an inside joke, given what she actually did. Because yes, Sarah worked in HR, but she worked in HR for TERRA, and that was an entirely different ball game.

It was a Thursday morning like any other, and she stared at the rolling bank of monitors at the end of the large office. Thousands of global press releases, only around half even in English. Everything from major diplomatic issues, to kitschy stories about local celebrations. There were operatives in charge of specifically combing the non-stop feed for anything relevant to TERRA operations, but Sarah’s team kept an eye out anyway.

Sourcing the exceptional, the weird, the too curious for their own good - Sarah personally had recruited well over a hundred agents into TERRA during her time. Some she kept in contact with out of personal preference, others out of professional obligation. The latter category was mostly scientists, those who kept an ear to the ground in their respective fields without actually working for TERRA directly. She made sure their info kept coming, and their mouths stayed shut. If it got out what they did here… what they were keeping secret… Sarah didn’t want to think about it.

She leaned back in her desk chair, and booted up her PC, taking a sip of strong black coffee from the mug she’d brought with her from the kitchen. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she ignored it deliberately. It was probably, no, definitely Haley. The break up had been messy, but that was only half her fault, not that you’d know it from the endless stream of texts and missed calls she’d been bombarded with since. It’d die off soon, at least she hoped so. As much as she was a ‘stone cold bitch’ in Haley’s words, she didn’t want to block her.

Another buzz, and Sarah scowled, before pressing the power button down hard. She was at work. Haley knew that. She pushed it out of her mind for now though, she had bigger fish to fry. Namely, a Ukrainian scientist just a bit too interested in Egypt for Terra’s liking.

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It was a late afternoon in the small village of Drumandochit, Inverness when it happened. The temperature had skyrocketed over the past couple of days, and in response, tourists and locals alike had turned out in droves to enjoy the rare good weather by the loch. Queues for the single ice cream truck had waiting times of over an hour, the Loch Ness Centre was so packed with people it was hard to see the exhibits, and boats full of people coursed chipperly over the calm, deep waters.

On one such boat, Timothy Johnson, four, was enjoying a day out with his parents and two younger siblings. His baby sister had been screaming for the better part of a half hour, and whilst his mother attempted to soothe her, his brother, comparatively new to the world of bipedal motion was running rings around their father, leaving Timothy comparatively unattended. And so, he’d decided to entertain himself with the cheap disposable camera his parents had gotten him for the trip. It had up to 100 pictures he could take, and when specialists at TERRA would later pour over the film, they would find most of them to be pictures of people’s sunburnt legs, the floor, and an unusually large number of interesting bushes.

One of these images, however, would prove to be quite a bit more important than legs and floors and bushes, because Timothy Johnson was pointing his camera at the water the exact moment the ground quaked. There, on a cheap disposable camera, was the moment Loch Ness monster exploded out of the water, snatched an unfortunate seagull in her pointy teeth, and retreated back beneath the surface, changing Drumandochit forever.

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[Open Legend] Onto a Sea of Stars

this seems cool :D