Prestississimo

The unlikely trio trekked through the wilderness. Cecil swatter irritating buzzing flings and the occasional creeper vine alike, trying futilely to minimize his suffering in the tropical environment. The island was beautiful, sure, but it was also warm and covered in lush greenery, attracting all the annoyances inherent with those wonderful additions. The captain sighed. He'd rather be on the ship right now, or maybe in some city somewhere. Pretty much anywhere but here. Hopefully the haul would be wort the pain. Eventually the walk bore fruit, and Cecil was able to use a couple of landmarks to identify their next objective. Cecil stock his shovel into the loam below, finding turned earth. On the first X, when he'd found the same thing, he'd been excited. Unfortunately, this appeared to be a part of the map-maker's sadistic plot. Not only had he and his cohorts made thirty X's on a map, they'd excavated each and every point to make sure that whoever was looking wouldn't be able to eliminate locations based on a lack of evidence of human digging. Well, at least they were in the right spot for this X, even if it wasn't their true objective. Wordlessly, Cecil gestured at the soil and eyed his two companions, making sure his orders were clear. The captain got to digging, working to unearth something that might not even be buried here. Whether they found the treasure or not, hopefully with the three of them working together this one wouldn't take too long.

Alright, sounds good. Thanks for letting me know!

Alright, this month's main thread is up Here. @Holden and @Sad Trumpet Noise post in whatever order you like. Side threads for this month should be easy if anyone is interested, there are currently 5 parties of Aria pirates combing over a tropical island in search of treasure. Their hunt is complicated by the fact that whoever created the map dotted it with 20 different red Xs in varying locations on the island. To combat this, Lydia, our navigator, faithfully reproduced 5 copies of the map, one for each party. So, if you want to do a side thread, grab some friends and go searching for treasure! (or maybe detail what's happening back on the ship while most everyone is away on the hunt). As always, questions, concerns, thoughts, feelings, opinions, all are welcome! Oh, and @Slank44, @ODSTDRAGON, and @MrDoubleSunday, I'm gonna need all of you to check in by the 14th or I'm removing you from the roster. Next month we're gonna have another big recruiting drive to try to grab some fresh blood so look forward to that!

@Sad Trumpet Noise @Holden A warm tropical breeze flowed over the ocean, up the beach, and through the gently swaying palm trees covering the island. Birdsong filtered through the overgrowth, lyrical and pleasant, yet not overbearing. The shade provided by the forest kept the oppressive sun and bay, and the sound of gently crashing waves was a comfort to the ear. All in all, the scene would have been perfectly idyllic were it not for the two sweaty men groaning with exertion as they labored away with at the ground with their shovels. Cecil through one more load of dirt out of the hole before he slammed his instrument into the ground such that it stood up and sat back against the low wall behind him. "Alright Eli, I don't think it's here. Let's pull out and head to the next spot." So-saying, the captain vaulted the edge of the hole and pulled his shovel along with him. He set it on the ground and pulled a map and a compass out of his pocket. He pored over the faithfully drawn copy of the original map still currently housed in the holds of his ship. Lydia had worked tirelessly to have five copies of the map ready for when they arrived on the island, and her effort had paid off. Five full parties of the Aria's crew combed the island concurrently, drastically shortening the time necessary to find their goal. Of course, none of this extra work would have been necessary if they creator of this wretched map had had any common courtesy. But no, the bastard had to go and draw not one, not two, but thirty different tiny red X's on the piece of parchment. The captain sighed as he scratched out the second X they were assigned too. Cecil and Eli had pulled the metaphorical lowest straw (pirates use dice to decide such things, not straws), and had the southeastern quadrant of the island. This meant that one of their X's was perched at the top of the islands only mountain. Not a particularly tall one, as mountains go, but still a pain to scale all the same. Cecil was really hoping someone would check in with results before they got around to that one. As he looked up from his map and compass, having figured out where they were going next, Cecil noticed Lobo out of the corner of his eye. The old captain smiled and patted the dog once on the head. Lobo was Eli and Cecil's recompense for having the worst route. The canine's boundless energy, affection, and care were already legendary among the crew, and he was quickly becoming almost everyone's favorite. The envy from the rest of the crew about the team assignments meant that none of the other crew members really felt all that bad about leaving the captain and the gunner with the mountain to climb. "Mutinous layabouts." Cecil muttered fondly under his breath. He stood waiting for his other human companion, and once Eli had gotten out of the hole and joined the pair on the forest floor, Cecil pointed to the direction of their third objective. "Alright gentleman," Cecil said, nodding to man and canine, "on to the next X."

Hey everyone, at the behest of Roboblu, I will be providing this fortnight's bi-weekly challenge! This challenge actually involves two steps (hence the spoiler). Step 1 is to go and write a post for one of your threads as you normally would, but leave it saved in a document instead of posting it. So, go on, do that. Once you're done, come back here and open up the spoiler for step 2! Oh, and no clicking on anyone's spoilers until you've finished part 1, unless you're not planning on participating (obviously I can't enforce this, but you're depriving yourself if you do spoil things. It only hurts you!). I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts, and I know roboblu is too! Let's keep this thing going guys!

Sorry for the delay everyone, look for the post tomorrow or Friday. Once I've posted, either of you can post and we'll decide the post order from there.

How do you mean? Hurttoto, I'd appreciate it if you made your posts clear instead of leaving cryptic sentences and/or phrases. It would facilitate much smoother communication.

Okay, so it looks like this month's main thread will have me, @Holden, and @Sad Trumpet Noise involved. Our three characters will be hunting treasure. Pretty exciting stuff. Look for an opening post sometime later today or tomorrow. Thank you everyone else for the interest! Right now the priority is making sure that different people each get a chance to be in a main thread if they so desire. Speaking of, if anyone wants to run the main thread for the month of November, simply PM me about it before the 14th and give me a brief outline of what you want to do. In other news, side threads are as always open and encouraged. If you need any help getting them started, feel free to pick my brain for ideas and launching off points. Additionally, I need participation from @Slank44, @MrDoubleSunday, and @ODSTDRAGON this month, in line with our goal of keeping our members active and participating in at least one thread every two months. As always, thoughts, feeling, concerns, opinions etc. are welcome and encouraged.

Hello loyal crew! It's the start of a new month, which means it's time for a new main thread! No one has expressed interest in running this month's main thread, so I will be doing so again. I'm looking for one or two active poster who, and this is important, are willing to post at least once every three days to keep things moving. It's pretty late right now and I'm operating on not much sleep so I will elaborate further tomorrow. Expect a bigger post and status update sometime then. Until that time, the call is out! If you're interested in participating in October's main thread, please let me know!

And finally the post! Sorry for the delay >_< I will be more punctual in the future!

Darkness clawed at the edge of Ellen's vision, and howls called out to her from the void. She felt herself slipping again, and might have fallen all the way down had she not been pulled up. Ellen felt herself jolt as her back slammed against something, and gradually, her vision cleared, leaving her staring into Alarin's golden eyes. With a start, the researcher realized she had been restrained, her own body pinned against the wall by her companion's larger frame. Alarin's mouth was moving, and Ellen's hearing returned in time for her to make out the back half of Alarin's words. The larger woman held the pair close for a moment longer, before stepping away with a dark expression on her face. Ellen looked down at her feet, and let out an embarrassed "I'm sorry." Her usual fire was totally absent, replaced by a dull ache of pain and sorrow. The wiry woman looked even more skeletal than usual, which paired rather poorly with her pallid complexion to leave her looking rather ghastly. The researcher tried to collect herself for a few moments, before finally she answered Alarin's question. "Thorald, um, bound, something, to his house. An entity, of sorts. Think like a spirit or elemental, but of the greater kind. He tortured and restrained it with wards, trapping it here, and it's captivity is, uh, deforming it. Warping it, into something," the researcher shuddered, "something horrible." Ellen looked up, and met Alarin's eyes, only to realize that the other woman wasn't looking at her, rather she was staring at something past the researcher's shoulder. She turned around and followed the larger woman's gaze down a hallway behind her, but saw nothing of note at the end of it. Confused, the mousy woman turned back to Alarin, only to realize that the other woman's gaze had refocused on her. Blinking confusedly, Ellen continued, "Anyway, the entity controls the house. That's why it doesn't like it when we use ward-based spells. It hates them, probably. Yeah that makes sense, after all they keep it trapped here. I think, I think it might have returned the favor though, to Thorald. I think it controls the magic in the house, and it trapped the wizard here, left him to rot. That's probably why no one has seen him for so long." The researcher shuddered again. "We need to do something. Free this thing, or end it's suffering, I don't know, but I'm not sure we're getting out of here until we deal with it."

Long Summary: Researcher Ellen, Librarian Morrin, and the Greenwitch Circe joined forced in Palgard to suppress and outbreak of water elementals emanating from a well located in the city. Circe tracked down Ellen, and the pair then found Morrin, who was in the process of retrieving one of his books from a prime example of the mischievous elemental. The powerful mage evaporated the creature with a powerful flame spell, and the trio set to work investigating the well together. Upon arriving at the well, Morrin attempted to barricade the well from the arcanosphere, preventing the creation of any new elementals. For better or worse, his efforts were interrupted, and a crowd of water sprites set upon the trio of mages. Through some collective problem-solving the elementals end up evaporated, and with no other way of proceeding, Ellen is volunteered to plumb the depths of the well. The researcher dives in, and quickly finds a suspicious object. Intent on bringing it to the surface, she pries it loose from its place in the well. However, before she can ascend with her prize, the water around her turns hostile, as if reacting to the loss of the object. Morrin is forced to use a shocking spell to paralyze the well-sized elemental, and the other two mages reclaim marginally injured researcher from the depths. The reprieve was short-lived, however, and the three were then accosted by the well-spirit. While Circe distracted the elemental and Ellen recovered from her ordeal, Morrin took the object Ellen had retrieved and utilized a spell to remove the object from the immediate vicinity of the elemental. The hulking form collapsed, leaving the three mages safe. A conference is held, in which the trio decides to research the object more at Morrin's laboratory, and the three separate with a tentative agreement to meet again. Short Summary: Ellen, Morrin, and Circe investigate an odd well that has been propagating mischievous water elementals. Inside the well, the three mages find a strange object of uncertain origin that appears to have been causing the disturbance. The trio remove the object from the well's presence, halting the creation of new elementals, and then go their separate ways. Quest Hook: More and more elemental incidents are occurring in Palgard. It seems increasingly likely that someone is planting archaic devices in various places within the city, with the intent of creating harmful, mischievous, or unruly elementals. What this hypothetical individual's purpose is in all this, however remains unclear.

Heya, sorry for the delay everyone. I got smashed under some papers this week and some unforeseen responsibilities GMing an tabletop game. I will get on this when I get the chance, though I won't like it could still be a little bit >_<

Post is up. (@Hurttoto, @ODSTDRAGON) This month's misadventure is set, once again, at Cutpurse Cove, where Cecil and a couple of crew members are busy making a back alley deal with a captain from another crew. This profitable endeavor is rudely interrupted, however, by an unknown third party, which has opened fire on the two captains and their attendants. We start from here, and we'll see where we go. This month is gonna be pretty action heavy in the main thread so keep that in mind. As far as side threads go, the call for reinforcements should go up rather quickly, so someone has to get the Aria into position to help out. If no one is interested in that, it's another crazy night on the Cove for any pirates looking to have fun on the town, so there's plot potential there. If you need any help coming up with side thread ideas, just hit me up and I will assist as best I can. As always, questions, concerns, thoughts, feelings, etc. You know what to do. @ODSTDRAGON, you haven't informed me what character you're going to participate with. I made the thread up without mentioning his/her/their name and I'll add it in with an edit when you inform me.

The peaking edge of a crescent moon was the only illumination available on the weather-beaten docks. Torches and lamps were discouraged so close to see-going vessels at dock, and the business conducted around here was better done by darkness either way. The muggy night air hung just as heavily as the darkness on the assembled figures standing by the water's edge. Six people of varying nature stood squared off, three on one side, three on the other. Cecil stared at the three individuals leering back at them, careful to keep his eyes on their hands. They were giving him and his crew-mates the same treatment, and the show of mutual distrust relaxed the captain slightly. "Do you have it?" the tallest of the figures on the other side asked. In response, Cecil hefted a canvas bag that had been prior sitting at his side. "All accounted for. You're end?" The opposing figure reciprocated, holding up a case and gesturing to it. "All here." Cecil nodded, and beckoned with one hand. "Then we'll meet in the middle as plann-" The captain's sentence was interrupted by a shout of alarm from the other side. One of the figures leapt at the man carrying the case, shoving him to the ground. Halfway through their fall, a resounding crack pierced the still night air, and a flash of light from Cecil's left coincided with a howl of pain from the now grounded pair. Bedlam broke loose instantly as everyone on the dock scrambled for cover, eyes scanning for the unseen assailant. The muzzle flash from what could have only been a magi-tech firearm left anyone looking at it slightly blinded, as the differential between the intense light and the darkness around them clashed in the viewer's cornea. Cecil found shelter behind a barrel, and the third member of the opposing party was dragging one of their number behind a small boat as shots began opening up in earnest. The captain had lost track of his two companions, and of his counterpart in the deal, but the man was apparently still alive, because a shout rose above the gunfire: "Duer, you bastard! I always knew ye'd betray us!" Cecil's response was loud, and immediate. "It's not us, Orlins! Captain's honor!" More shots rang out, this time directed dangerously close to Cecil's head. The one of the bullets pierced through the wooden dock just behind the pirate captain. Perhaps his response had been a bit too loud and immediate. Cecil was forced to abandon his barrel, as it was apparently insufficient as cover, and he made a beeline for a taller pile of crates, firing his pistol from the hip in an attempt to put his opponents in cover. It seemed as if the shots were coming from the warehouses that stood overlooking the ocean just behind them. The number of assailants was unknown, but there couldn't be too many, or they'd all be riddled by now. Cecil made it to the shelter of the stack of crates, and once he felt relatively secure in his new position, he shouted out instructions to his crew members. An impressively loud voice from the other side of the dock assured him that Captain Orlins was doing the same. "Chad, we're gonna get torn apart out here! Give us some cover so we can make it to the warehouses. (Insert name here)! Call up whoever's still on the Aria! We need them here yesterday!" More shots rang out, slamming into the crates he was behind, and seeking other members of the two parties as well. More and more weapons added their voices to the racket as both sides began laying into one another in earnest. Cecil grimaced. It was shaping up to be a long night.