Chương 131: 4.21 The Sound of Silence - Disturbed

Z3ke (Original Poster) Holy hell does Lashings take its music seriously. Sorry for the radio silence, but in my defense I've got an excuse. After you all forced me to drop a bunch of money on that godawful coat, I spent the rest of the day just wandering. I didn't have an itinerary and didn't have you all chattering in my ear about going anywhere. I just took in the city.

By the time I made my way back to the harbor, the sun was already dropping and I figured that I'd look for an inn or hotel or whatever that I could rent a room and get some rest. What I found instead was a massive group of people gathered near the docks. There were a couple hundred people easily and I clocked a few from the ship that I sailed in on. Cottenwaite was there along with a couple other sailors that I didn't recognize.

Everyone was morose and I remember looking at the crowd and thinking: oh man, I just walked my way into a support group or a wake or something. I tried not to intrude. I backed away towards the edge of the crowd and I figured I'd loop around the block to where the inns were, when one of the sailors from the ship spotted me and just grabbed my arm and pulled me into the group. Let me just say that I'm not really good with this sort of thing. Ever since coming to this world I've made a few friends but I haven't…

I don't really know how to put this. I'm not trying to sound heartless or anything, but most of the friends I've made here have been more like work acquaintances. I liked Jackie and Milicent and Daryl and Patches, but other than with Patched I feel like I haven't really bonded with most anyone else. When I was hanging with Jackie, it was more like we were co-workers thrown into an incredibly stressful situation than actual friends.

We went through some horrible shit together, and I'd have been devastated if she'd gotten killed while we were trying to escape from the Black Teeth, but at the same time I didn't really know her long enough to really develop a deep friendship with her. You know what it was like? Have any of you ever worked a service industry job? I had a buddy once who likened it to being in a warzone.

That's probably too much and I'm gonna get a lot of flak for that, but his analogy was that we were all in the middle of a war and we would bond really quickly with one another. You see your coworkers at their worst and you joke with them and make fun of them and everything. You can develop some quick friendships as a server or a bartender. But then one day they're just gone. They left the server life and it's like they stepped on a landmine and blew themselves up.

You're joking and laughing and then the next day you find that they're heading off to college or they got a "real job" and you know you're never gonna see them again. It's kinda sad, sure, but at the same time you know there's gonna be a replacement coming in that you're gonna make friends with. Damn. I just read that back and it's really bleak and I'm just babbling. I'll shut up now. All I'm trying to say is that there was a huge group of people by the harbor and they were keeping me from checking into a hotel.

They were singing all these sad songs for the people who'd been lost in the Kraken fight (or who'd been lost at sea over the past few weeks.) All told, the whole thing was kinda a downer. So yea, the sailor guy recognized me and he pulled me into the crowd and I was bracing for something like "hey, you know our pain because you fought the Kraken too and probably lost some friends." But that's not what happened.

The guy knew that I was a musician because I'd been fiddling around with my guitar on the deck of the ship as we were sailing to Lashings. He asked me if I could play something and I wasn't really sure about what to do other than I knew it'd sound rude if I turned him down. We were in the middle of what felt like a wake so I decided to play something sad. One of you had given me the tabs for The Sound of Silence by Disturbed.

I know it's actually a Simon & Garfunkel song, but honestly it's one of those rare songs where the cover just hits better. I remember listening to the Disturbed version of the song while sitting in a bar watching the World Series, and I'd been letting my mind drift through all the random shit that I had going on in life. I was just feeling bad for myself and then that song came on and the dude's voice got me thinking holy shit this is amazing.

Anyway, that's the song I played and the harbor crowd absolutely loved it. I mean, they really loved it. People were coming up to me afterwards and shaking my hand and thanking me like I'd done something important. There was this lady there who looked positively ancient - I swear she was 90 or something - but that didn't do anything to detract from her strength. She hugged me so hard that I swear I heard my ribs popping.

There was another guy next to her and he was just standing there crying after I finished playing. When he finally managed to collect himself, he just said that his brother would have loved that song. That was two days ago and word travels fast in this town because I haven't been able to have a quiet walk since. I'll be there, trying to mind my own business by checking out a shop or a landmark or something, and someone will just stop me on the street and ask if I have a minute to play something.

They'll talk about a person they lost or a ship they were on, and I say yes every time because they just look so broken up about it. It's been good practice. I've been playing my music but no magic has been activating. It's just me and a guitar and a ton of grief from strangers. But it's also become a little annoying because I'd like to go more than four blocks in the city without getting flagged down. Cutter_Kestrel | Holy hell does Lashings take its music seriously. | Yea it does.

We should have flagged this before you left the ship. That's on us. It's another bit of worldbuilding that we should have made you aware of: dirges. We already talked about the reputation economy of Lashings, but I guess none of us mentioned the mourning songs. If you're a musician in Lashings and you play at memorials, wakes, ship-launches, or things like that, you can make a ridiculous amount of coins and reputation. You actually might want to keep doing that.

Considering all the money you probably spent on the Bilge-Rat coat, plus the fact that you're sitting on a pile of MIZ gold that you haven't turned into Emberveil currency, it might be a good idea to do the whole dirge thing for a bit. Z3ke (Original Poster) Wait… I was supposed to be getting paid for that? MushroomCleric HAAAAA. Oh my god. Okay, if nobody has been giving you money after you played, then you've been racking up reputation instead. But yes, you can get paid for dirges.

You're basically sitting on a culturally sanctioned money printer right now. Z3ke (Original Poster) Reputation doesn't pay my bills. What can I buy with reputation? And in my defense, nobody said anything. I thought it would have been tactless to play a song for a bunch of grieving strangers and then hold my hand out and be like "money please."

AngryBeavers Can we talk about the fact that the man has integrated into Lashings and been roped into the funeral economy, all the while the actual plot is lying face-down in a ditch somewhere? Sailor(Paul)Mooney He's on vacation. Let my man vacation. Gormommie I'm with Angry on this one. How many updates in a row has this been where he's wandering the city and playing tourist?

SignalLoss We spent all of Frontiers watching this man get dragged from one nightmare to the next with a grand total of four minutes of downtime between disasters. Now that he's somewhere that is relatively safe, you all want him chasing the next catastrophe. And why? Because you're all bored? Burnout is a real thing. Zeke needs to breathe and rest and relax. Gormommie I'm not saying he can't have downtime.

I'm saying there's a difference between taking a few days to decompress and Zeke opening up a small business and putting down roots in Lashings. HollowHeartsClub I love this stretch of his fic. The tourist stuff, the wandering, the little slice-of-life updates. It's a nice change of pace after Frontiers and it's some of the warmest writing that he's given us in a while. BUT, I do think Gormommie has a point buried in his complaints. There are threads sitting unresolved that aren't going anywhere on their own.

We still don't know what happened to Simon Pucco. We don't know where Zeke is going with the Living Story stuff. We don't know what Zeke's next move is going to be. We don't know how he will get information about his magic OR a way home. Roshambo99 If this were a TV show, we'd be in the clip episode. And not even the good kind of clip episode like what Community did. I'm talking about the kind where you get three minutes of new material and spend the rest of the episode rehashing what happened over the last season.

TableFlip_DM OOOOOO. That's my cue to introduce myself.:: confetti rains from the heavens while an unreasonable number of fireworks explode in the background.:: Hello Zeke, I'm TableFlip and I'm your new Primary. Please, hold your applause until the end, because I've got even MORE good news for you.

Not only do you get one of the most knowledgeable members of this community as your next Primary - you should think of me as the person who's going to grab this plot by the scruff of its neck and drag it back onto the road - but you are also getting a two-for-one special.:: even more confetti rains down. Slightly fewer fireworks go off this time, mostly because whoever is handling the fireworks has apparently run out of money.:::: the smoke rolls across the screen, obscuring everything for several seconds.

When it finally clears, Warden_Actual is standing there looking deeply unimpressed.:: That's right Zeke, you've got TWO Primaries. Warden and I are going to be working together on this, and we're going to be handling it similar to how Crush, Mushroom, and 7Spirals handled the Reclaimer arc. We're combining our Primary slots and operating as a team rather than handing you off after a few updates.

The reason we're doing it like this is because we've got a fairly long arc planned, and we want enough room to actually develop everything instead of trying to cram an entire campaign into a single Primary rotation. Before anyone asks, yes we've got a plan. More specifically, we have a plan that addresses the multitude of problems that are currently on the table.

We're going to do something about that whole Living Story mess, we're going to give you a way to earn a ridiculous amount of money, and if the dice gods smile upon us we're also going to get you some killer loot. Oh, and if everything goes according to plan, you're going to get the chance to seriously screw over one of the more reprehensible factions in Emberveil. Frankly, this has the potential to turn into one of the more interesting arcs that we've had in a while. So, any questions?:: crickets chirp.

Somewhere in the distance, a tumbleweed rolls past.:: Yea, I thought not. StoryLeech Jeezus. And I thought ReCoil was bad. Vantavoid | any questions? | This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I've got one. What's up with the whole:: thing? Lorem-Ipsum Holy crap, I haven't seen that in years. For anyone who wasn't terminally online in the early days of the internet, there used to be a bunch of RP chatrooms where you used:: to indicate an action.

For instance, you'd write something like:: does 10 pushups.:: and that meant your character was doing ten pushups. I haven't seen anyone use that in ages. Hey Table, how old are you? TableFlip_DM Irrelevant. The important thing is that I have discovered the powerful and ancient technology known as roleplaying and I intend to abuse it during this arc. Also, the only other thing that matters is the amount of amazingness that is about to emerge from this arc.

Age, terminal-internet-user status, and the horrifying realization that I remember what IRC was all about are all completely beside the point. Warden_Actual I just want to step in here and say I'm not as… colorful as Table. I was just the next name on the list. CrushDaddyXx I'm on the fence here. On the one hand, I was the first Primary to band people together to build a longer arc, and you did specifically invoke the Crush/Mushroom/7Spirals model. That feels good.

On the other hand, I haven't heard you say anything about combat. Get to the combat. Where's the combat? NullSigil You gonna take that Crush? Table basically said you needed THREE Primaries to accomplish what they only need TWO for. That's got to hurt. Of course, you're all still chasing my all-time #1 ranking. 7Spirals HAAA. Okay, now I want to hear this. How would you rank everybody so far, Null? NullSigil Oh, that's easy. Obviously there's no contest for #1.

Then there's a massive gap between me and everybody else, followed by another massive gap between everybody else and Binary. It's really not that complicated. Me. Me with a hat on. Me with a wig on. Me with a hat AND a wig on. CrushDaddyXx / 7Spirals / MushroomCleric Malv0lio, for getting Zeke into a completely different game and helping to introduce Simon Pucco. Castellan_Mike, who had one of the hardest jobs because he walked directly into the middle of a clusterfuck and somehow kept it moving.

ReCoil, for using entirely too many big words and forcing me to open a dictionary. N/A N/A Binary, for being a dick. Gaminoru | We're going to do something about that whole Living Story mess | You know, something I have not seen mentioned yet is the possibility of Simon Pucco being a Living Story himself, and the weirdness that has happened coming as a result of that. Writer_of_2814 ^Gaminoru. I mean, it makes the most sense.

The man is basically 'cool pirate story' incarnate, and he clearly has none of the survival-based human motivations. Guy's practically a nuisance streamer. Hyo-the-Flower Yea… but how could a Living Story kill another Living Story? That doesn't make sense. I think you're all off base here. Nyartholep I'm thinking that Simon "Gave it an ending" alright, but I'm thinking instead of the ritual he met an exotic kill condition.

They're called Living Stories, not proto-gods, most stories have an ending, and stories cover the protagonist as much as the antagonist. Enter Simon who had gone full Captain Ahab obsession on the creature. Then he embraces the role of the hunter of leviathans in the Living Story, and he goes hunting a leviathan. My theory is that Simon had the correct 'type' of weight but the hunter often doesn't survive this hunt. MapHackJunkie Uh… what? Gave it an ending? Weight? What are you talking about here?

Hyo-the-Flower | Simon "Gave it an ending" alright, | You read my thread? I retract all my complaints. Carry on good sir. Z3ke (Original Poster) Wow. Okay. Uh, TableFlip… you good? I just read everything you wrote and I'm fine with you explaining your plan to everyone. I also read through all your guys' comments and I get your complaints about how the "story" is moving slowly, but if I might say something about that. Tough shit. I'm enjoying myself in Lashings right now.

I know it's not Hawaii and there aren't any umbrella drinks or a nice beach where I can sit around doing nothing. But it's also not the Deadlands where I'd have a bunch of strange creatures trying to wear my skin as clothing. TableFlip_DM:: pulls out an ancient leather-bound notebook filled with details about Emberveil scratched into it. Blows approximately two decades of dust off the cover and cracks his knuckles.

:: Okay, since Zeke has officially given me permission to reveal the plot for the arc, let's talk about the Collectors. Zeke, this is important information for you because you're the only person in this forum who doesn't know who I'm talking about. Everyone else already has had dealings with them. The Collectors are a relatively minor faction in Emberveil; one that most players barely interact with.

They're not involved in the major quest lines, they don't hand out a bunch of missions, and they're mostly absent from the faction politics that dominate the game. If you're playing normally, you can actually play through most of Emberveil without ever meeting them. All they do is collect things. By that, I mean they collect ALL the things.

Magical artifacts, historical objects, weird curiosities, ancient weapons, cursed knicknacks, relics from civilizations nobody has heard of, objects nobody can identify, a letter opener from some dead king three thousand years ago, all of that finds its way into the hands of the Collectors. Most of the time, they're just background flavor in the game. You'll find them standing around in cities - mostly at auctions and museums - and while everyone is busy saving the world, they're shopping.

They're the NPCs that you walk past and think to yourself, "huh, rich people still exist even after the apocalypse.":: leans closer to the microphone.:: Except they're creepy as shit. When I say the Collectors collect everything, I mean they collect EVERYTHING. They've got more money than they know what to do with. They've got an information network, connections, agents, and access to artifacts that nobody has ever seen before. It's not even that they collect things. They also collect people.

Not so much "put you in a jar" collecting. Well, probably not. It's more that they recruit people who have useful knowledge, unusual talents, rare expertise, or connections to things that the Collectors want. I'm talking about scholars, explorers, craftsmen, historians, treasure hunters, magical researchers, and all that. This is why you need to get an in with them. We've already established that you're trying to get home. Well, who do you think knows how to do that?

If your answer is: probably the people who buy everything and then just file it away, then congrats, you are one smart cookie. Which brings us to the fun part. The Collectors hold private auctions and you are going to break into one of them and STEAL ALL THE GODDAMN THINGS.:: writes "HEIST" in the margin of the notebook, underlines it twice, and draws a little skull next to it.:: Unfortunately for you, the Collector auctions aren't generally accessible to outsiders. That's the main problem in this arc.

You can't just walk up to a Collector's meeting and tell them you're here for the secret auction. For one, while this forum can map out where all the Collector bases are, we can't tell you where the soonest auction is going to take place. So we're going to need to get you into the room legitimately, and then once you're in the room is when you heist everything. So, the first step in our plan is getting you an invitation to the Collector's Auction.

And the way we're going to do that, is to first get you in the Figurehead Auction happening in Lashings. That will get you into the Collector's orbit. We send you in there, you bid on something, and the Collectors take notice of you and bring you to their next auction. Think of it like a classic D&D infiltration scenario. We can't have you kicking down the door to the evil wizard's tower in session one. First, you need to meet the weird merchant in town and discover he knows the wizard's apprentice.

You do three increasingly suspicious favors for him, get invited to the wizard's dinner party, and then spend the next four sessions pretending your rogue isn't currently lifting the silverware. The Figurehead Auction is session one and the Collector Auction is the dungeon. What happens between them is where Warden and I come in. IridumSky | Figurehead Auction that is in Lashings. | God fuckin damnit. We should've told him to get the Why Not's figurehead! That would go nuts!

PaperSnakes Eh, I don't think it was really an option. The Why Not is sunk to the bottom of the ocean now. Plus, Zeke was in the middle of an armada that was already about to tear itself apart. If Zeke and the ship he was on had stopped to salvage the figurehead, there was a chance that someone would have noticed. Someone in the armada would have taken offense to that and chased them down, meaning they wouldn't have been able to escape when they could. CrumhatB Uh…

I'm confused about why Zeke would need to do the Figurehead Auction? I understand getting him to meet the Collectors and then heisting from them. That's a pretty big payday. But why have him deal with the auction in Lashings? For one, Zeke doesn't have the money for that. For another, those figureheads are cool for store owners or someone with a house, but our boy is a nomad. There are much better things for him to spend his money on. Warden_Actual I guess it's up to me to clean up everything that Table just wrote.

Short version: Table and I want you to break into the Collector's Auction and steal everything of worth in the place. To get you into the Collector's Auction, we need you first in the Figurehead Auction. | But why have him deal with the auction in Lashings? | The reason for that is that the Collectors are going to be watching the room. If someone starts spending a ridiculous amount of money on a particular figurehead, the Collectors are going to notice.

If someone demonstrates unusual knowledge about the history of one of the figureheads, they're going to notice that too. That's what we're trying to exploit. You have a problem, Zeke. And that problem is that you don't have a bunch of money. But you're going to pretend that you do. When you get to the auction, there is going to be a moment where everyone can mingle and look at the figureheads that are up for sale.

Get the names, the ships they came from, anything the auctioneer says about their history, and whatever other information you can reasonably gather. Then post that list here where we'll do the research. TableFlip_DM | look at the figureheads that are up for sale. | Don't you mean: the figureheads that are up for sail?:: somewhere a young man hits the snare drums and cymbals. Badum hiss.:: Warden_Actual Jeezus. Disregarding that.

The research part is where the internet hivemind of this forum is going to most help you. We'll have a bunch of people searching through Emberveil lore, quest logs, item descriptions, and obscure NPC dialogue. We'll figure out which of the figureheads are actually interesting and, more importantly, which ones might have trace magic left in them. That's what we're looking for. The Collectors are interested in stuff that has a little bit of magic clinging to it.

They want old, unusual, and something worth investigating. If you pick the right figurehead, you can find the Collector agent in the audience and start talking. There is going to be a Collector agent in the audience. You don't want to just walk up to them and say "hey mysterious person." You need to be subtle about it. Casually make conversation with the man. Mention something about the history of the figurehead that most people wouldn't know.

Maybe we can find you a story about the ship it came from and you can drop some obscure bits of lore. The point is, you're trying to make it so that your name rings out to the Collector agent. You're trying to get him interested in you. Then comes the bidding. You need to bid on the figurehead. It needs to be large enough that the Collector would notice you, but you don't need to win. Just drive up the price. Actually, you don't want to win because you're not going to be able to afford it.

The entire point of this is to get the Collectors even more interested in you. Eventually, you'll be outbid, but you don't get angry about it. You let the Collectors have it, and that's when the actual challenge comes into play. It's a social challenge and you're going to need to speak with the Collector. Congratulate them. Make a comment about the figurehead. Talk about how you were interested in it. Try to get them to take you seriously.

This is something we can't help you with, but with your Persona skill you should be able to convince the Collector to be interested in you. The goal is to build a relationship. We want them walking away thinking that you're interesting. That's the whole trick. CrushDaddyXx That sounds boring. Not the Collector Auction part - that you haven't really touched on. That sounds awesome. If Zeke can get a unique weapon or something it would make everything worth it. I'm talking about the Figurehead Auction.

All you've got him doing is walking in there, taking a look at a few things, giving us info, and then having him talk out his ass. Networking isn't fun. It isn't dramatic. It isn't exciting. K1LLPR1EST We're talking about Zeke here. You KNOW his ass isn't going to be boring in the Figurehead Auction. Something is going to go wrong. His protagonist's luck is going to go haywire. We're going to get some action there. UnhelpfullyHelpful I don't like being seen to agree with Crush, but I do actually agree with him.

I like your plan Warden/Table, but there needs to be something more than just 'bidding on a figurehead' that would draw attention to him. Warden_Actual I'm all ears. How exactly do you propose to spice up an Auction? I'm not sure what you're expecting though. UnhelpfullyHelpful I actually do have a plan for that. Two words: horror show. Let's give the audience something to remember. Give me a day and I'll come up with something. I need to check and see exactly what Zeke is working with here.

Z3ke (Original Poster) What the hell guys? I haven't said I'm going to do it yet. TableFlip_DM Hey Zeke, even if you don't want to rob an entire auction's worth of gear that you could sell for a truly ridiculous sum of money, and even if you don't want to scour the Collectors' records for a way to get you home, and even if you don't want to learn more about the lore behind all these unique weapons and use that lore as payment to keep us all interested…

you should still hang out in the Figurehead Auction because it would be a good bit of vacation for you. It won't be dangerous. It's just an auction. Z3ke (Original Poster) … In your own words::: narrows eyes at TableFlip.::