ER:Thread summaries

From The Heretic Knowledge Vault

In which are summarized the various threads created during the Errant Road on-line free-form role-playing game, in order of their creation. Threads typically run between 200 and 250 posts, then are closed and replaced by new ones. There are occasional "forks" when a thread ends with action going off in two more more different directions; these are indicated in the text.

Note: In the following, the descriptions of the threads are written with a more or less straight face. Often, however, the threads themselves ... aren't.

Kiyoka

First entry 2008/05/12; player characters introduced: Lucas Ravanel, Jamie Porter, Roger Monteith, Toivo Pohjola, Jonathan Zeve, Vernon Atwater, Grope, Argus Cleiviein, Sister Rose, Layla Sorensen

Several would-be travelers (Jamie, Roger, etc.) converge on a travel agency in Kiyoka called Heer Thar Be Draagons, hoping that the proprietor, Lucas, can help them get out of town. Following a shootout with some relatively inept Gewehr goons, the group escapes via an underground passage into a neighboring mission of the Veracian Church, interrupting a service that's going on and doing damage to the temple as they bug out. Grope, a troll lurking on the rooftops while he tries to find out what happened to his long-missing mate Zhbrigeeul, kills some of the Gewehr thugs, and Jamie, Roger and Lucas take out the others en route to the water-borne beginning of their "tour." (Fork at this point; action with this group resumes with the "Port Lorrel" thread, below.)

Meanwhile, new mother Layla Sorensen, alias "Andrea Samuels," is tending a vineyard outside town, which is the cover and safe house for the Gewehr operation in Kiyoka. Grope sees her working among the grapes as he continues his search for his mate, but is horrified to discover Zhbrigeeul's dried hide stretched on the wall of the safe house. He doesn't immediately connect Layla (who's the big boss of the local Gewehr) to what happened to his mate, but after taking a bit of Zhbrigeeul's hide and gaining "Wisdom" (and, most unexpectedly, a very rudimentary capacity for spellcraft) from it, Grope himself heads for the waterfront to travel back to his homelands and find a new mate. At the same time, Layla is similarly horrified to learn that one of the dead Gewehr forces at the dockyards is her husband Arty, and is ordered to fold the Gewehr operation and go home to the Gewehr's home base in Farrel. She accomplishes this with unexpected "help" from the typically deluded Kureji Mesuinu and Rokku Sona, who come visiting in a case of mistaken identity.

Back in Kiyoka, down-and-out mage Argus Cleiviein is recruited by an unorthodox nun from the Veracian mission to help figure out what caused the damage, and understand why the Kiyokan authorities are so disinclined to investigate. Following some sleuthing that reveals the recent passage of a troll (Grope), Argus is joined by shape-shifting Sister Rose, another nun from the mission, as they try to get information from one Captain Kitaura, a big wheel in the Kiyokan "Homeland Security" operation, which combines police/investigative and military functions. This is unsuccessful, and Kitaura later dispatches an underling to apply some muscle to Argus in his hotel room, which backfires painfully as the thread ends.

Port Lorrel

First entry 2008/7/20; player characters introduced: Marcus

Jamie, Roger, Lucas, Jonathan and Toivo (and Ayiee) make landfall in Port Lorrel to continue their "tour," pausing for a meal at a local restaurant where they adopt various magical disguises (and are eyeballed by various watchers). Most of the group goes off to seek lodging at the World Traveler Inn, but Jamie is diverted to a rendezvous with one Elke, who turns out to be a big shot in the "Eisenfaust," another Farrelite mercenary guild similar to (and arch-rivals of) the Gewehr. Elke confides that Jamie is under the Eisenfaust's protection and discreet(?) surveillance, in return for some future consideration that isn't revealed to Jamie, although some side action hints at its nature.

Back at the World Traveler, several forms of magical weirdness break out as "deathmage" Marcus appears and dismisses the "Gray" of a girl who was murdered earlier at the inn. While he's there, the desk clerk, having checked in most of the travelers, is killed by an exploding coin (given him by an Eisenfaust operative), and investigated and re-animated by Lucas. Unfortunately, the process of animating the corpse has magical side effects (as usual when Lucas casts a spell) elsewhere in the inn, leading to some alarmingly frisky furniture. With some of these subdued, the group turns in for the night, only to discover some other nasty furnishings the next morning that have to be dealt with. Having learned of an amusement park somewhere to the north called "Mountain of Madness," they leave town to see the park, despite Lucas' protests that it really isn't worth seeing. On the way they have an encounter with a pack of giant, carnivorous rabbits -- "Lepivores" -- that are dispatched with the distant, nearly unseen help of Layla, who (like Grope) has also reached Farrel on the way home.