gerard_of_amber

The wind blew through the giants hair as he stood on the edge of the precipice. He had a dull ache at the back of the skull and the sun was just a touch too bright for his eyes as it reflected off the desert sand below. His memory of the tavern the night before was still a little hazy. He clearly remembered a drinking contest, which he was sure he won. He also remembered a boasting contest, which in some ways he must have lost. Unfortunately not only was he a prince of the realm, but an honorable one. So when he gave his word, even with liquor loosening his tongue, he had to keep it. He hefted the rope in his hands, lighter then silk, but stronger then titanium cable. He thought it might be a little over kill, but if you were going to do a thing, he always believed, never do it half way.

A loud screech rocked the mountain and the muscled man grabbed his hand and winced as his hangover amplified the sonar vibrations. He took a breath as the creature came into view. It was bigger then he had imagined. Like a great black crow, the beast's beak could swallow a man whole. It's wing span was over two acres in size, an acre per wing. It's blood stained claws large enough to crush an Abrams main battle tank like a empty aluminum pop can. Ok, so maybe the rope wasn't overkill after all. He begun swinging the lasso over his head. He paused looking over the bird, and made the loop larger, then started again. He let it fly, and on the first try looped the neck and was surprised by the strength of the creature. If he had not tied the rope around his waist he would of lost it. As it was he found himself dangling 30 feet below the creature. His strong arms, taunt from years of naval service, pulled the man up, hand over hand, as the creature thrashed in the air, unhappy with it's leash. It took nearly an hour to reach the neck, but he wad hardly the type to give up. Finally, his arms burning from the strain, he sat astride the Roc. The creature bucked like a unbroken bronco trying to dislodge the man, but he only laughed looping the rope around making a bridle. He fought to tame the kind of the air.

The merchant swore at the noonday sun wishing for shade as he treked his line of camels across the golden waste. As if the spirits of the sand had heard him, a great shadow of a cloud turned day into night, coming upon him from the rear. The merchant looked up in relief, this part of the desert rarely saw rain so such clouds were great omens. He saw no clouds though, his face paling at what crossed his vision. His camels broke and ran as the great bird of prey closed on them. The merchant shuddered and dropped to his knees, knowing running was a waste of time. Only one thing could save him and he looked through his bag for his lamp, and the magical spirit enslaved inside. His mind reeled and raced as to what to wish for. He sat in indecision frozen with fear trying o think of the best option. His eyes picked out a form on the back of the creature and he stared in disbelief at his drinking companion of the night before. "You actually did it?"

"I said I would, now I think you owe me one magic lamp?" That was the bet. He looked at his most prized, most valuable possession in the world, and then up at the man above. He shook his head slowly, and tossed the lamp to the Roc-rider. The Genie, a beautiful woman woven of magic and desire, kneeled, floating in the air before him. "What is your wish, my new master?" she asked in a breathy voice. Gerard of Amber took a long appraising look at the woman and smiled from the back of his new pet bird.

-Text by Syed

CARP knows how to treat a guest speaker, let me tell you. My head feels like the inside of a codpiece, despite being adorned with one of those new-fangled Lovelace corsets from Begma. Apparently Begma gadgetry is becoming all the rage here. Maybe it's because the bodily harm caused by Begman artistry isn't too far off from that caused by a life of piracy, and CARP already has the hospitals in place.

The black crabs and other beasties seem to have gone all mulish and stopped multiplying. There's still plenty of them about, but at least they aren'tl,nhflh...sorry, I'm using the corset owner's back as a writing table and she's ticklish...

Still no Source for the draining of the Seas. I have a nasty suspicion it's not Black Road at all, but tied in to Minos's missing seas. They went somewhere, once, maybe they're all going now. Although, like the beasties, that seems to have slowed to a standstill. But we really don't want to be Minos, land of swamp and salt.

Hope things are doing well back home, and that Rebma hasn't gotten all uppity in my absence. One of these days, Benedict's going to just let out a scream and start hacking away, I just know it.

Selections from the forthcoming party game from Barimen Games:


Drink if:

*Benedict has to correct someone about how to address him.

*Anyone dies and comes back to life, or has bits of them removed and grows back quickly.

*Despite there being an expert present, with a fancy title and everything, someone else is asked for advice.

*Someone announces they're pregnant. (Unless you are the one who is.)

*Take one drink for each exclamation mark from Taleyn.

*Take one drink for each extra "hi" used in a row from Raphaela on a channel.

*Anyone on the weir channel gets into a "mine's bigger" contest.

*Someone creates a character steeped in the history and blood of one shadow/house/playgroup, then spends all their time in another shadow/house/playgroup.

*A woman with impressive real estate holdings breath deeply.

*Addsion posts a My Zork Life entry. (Hint)

*Someone does a hit & run RP (comes into a scene, poses quickly, leaves) (Must drink whether this was arranged or not)




Drink everything in the room if:

*Benedict gives a soliloquy.

*Gilgamesh does not lose a weapon in a big fight.

*Someone creates a character with a rare bit from one shadow/house/playgroup, then spends all their time in another shadow/house/playgroup,or else stops logging in.

*Caine smiles good-naturedly.

*Julian breaks into a song and dance routine.

People think this is easy.

"I wish I could walk that squiggle in the basement and go out and get whatever I want."

The problem is, when you can do it, people expect you to.


Delay #3, this trip: While these guys can breathe water and air, the pollen of this particular shadow we had to pass through turned them into balloons and they floated away.

Heading out for a slightly different shadow.

+gossip/public ao-lower Freebasing Taleyn=Rumor has it that the old cults of Duelists...those who pitted Emma against Taleyn in fantasy dueling matches...have a new passion. They seek to aquire locks of Taleyn's hair, in hopes that freebasing it will grant them extra energy and exclamation po...



DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.DELETE.....

Taleyn is struck by a thought and eyes Gerard with a sort of calculating look. She has been drinking with the Prince before, and her brain is practically humming aloud with the effort of calculating the amount of booze it must have taken to give him a hangover. After a while, she nods, then asks, "Admiral, for the sake of checking my calculations, do you happen to recall how much Beverage you consumed?"

Gerard says, "Are we counting glasses or casks?"

Raphaela offers helpfully "Wine cellars?"

Taleyn purses her lips. "I was thinking of cubic feet, myself."

my idea for a character is that ee cummings is the secret son of brand i feel that i could play this character very well although setting my desc may be difficult as i hear i have to use an equals sign in the code however i feel that ee cummings or e to his friends would make a fine scion of amber in fact i believe he could beat liam out for his job please consider my application forthwith

Some background: The first version of Gerard had a codpiece war with a certain Rebman Ambassador that escalated to horrific proportions. Since taking over Gerard, I have not had an idea for this bizarre fetish that would allow Gerard's escalations to continue.
Work was annoying enough Thurs that I got an idea, just to exercise my cruelty outside of my co-workers. Sorry, Lucius.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


From afar, Lucius must now commit ritual suicide.

Lucius pages: CODPIECE. My party has been ruined by rock and roll, and crotch-mountains.

Having trouble distinguishing who is who amongst the crowd, Kincaid moves closer to the easiest figure to spot. "Evening again uncle." He greets Gerard and says, "Liam no longer performing? Hope you caught some of the performance it was very good."

Gerard turns towards Kincaid, thwacking him with Tir Na Nog. "Oh, sorry."

From afar, Gwen almost spit out her drink just now.
OOC: Celeste says, "So. Wrong."
OOC: Lucius says, "I know that's not what /I/ dream of."
OOC: Liam now has nightmares about being thwacked with Tir-Na Nog'th.

Kincaid would blink if he could and probably look horrified but he chcukles with a merry grin, "Um... thats okay. In fact I've got to ask." Not wanting to wave a hand toward the code piece but signaling it anyways, "Do I want to know what is so interesting about that?" Wincing a little.

Gerard says, "I'm simply wearing the Mighty Kolvir Mark I. At least you didn't run into Rebma."

Liam puts one hand over his mouth when Gerard talks about his, ah, appendage enhancement device. Then he can't help himself and asks: "Uncle Gerard, what would happen if someone DID run into Rebma?"

Gerard says, "A mighty roar. Rebma shall NOT be invaded! Bad things will happen if anyone tries."

Greetings!

I've created a LJ page for Minosan announcements and NPC posts. This way everything's in one place and can be handed off if I ever retire.

Included therein shall also be links to other LJ logs of things that happen in Minos, making it easier for people to find things, rather than "Wait, whose LJ account should I look for that, again?" as people go looking for logs. You'll still have to look, but you can keep it to one account to search. (To that end, if anyone has a link to a log from the past you want Minosan to list, toss Minosan a LJ msg.)

Now, given Cyndre's player was the one who maintained the community watch list (unless I misheard), and she's semi-retired, I don't know how long it'll take before Minosan to show up on the daily roll call of posts. so befriend Minosan if you want to see things before then, when you hit Friends.

If you don't give a damn about What's Going On In Minos, please pardon the spam!

 OOC: Rae's post http://rae-r2a.livejournal.com/23346.html?view=85042&style=mine#t85042 leads to a question about those dogs, which Malachi aanswers:

From afar, Malachi had a tokened war dog army. They had armor. Also, opposable thumbs, which helps with the armor. Also, according to the token, a tendency towards dirty jokes.

 

You paged Malachi with 'We need a trump of them playing poker.'.

 

Malachi pages: You supply the trump artist, I'll supply the dogs and playing cards.

Yes, you.

Entertain me!


Where's the Finndo's Tomb Expedition of Doom's Frolicing halftime entertainment?

Just a heads up.

1) Once upon a time, Gerard Mark 1 was sole proco of Minos. Then Dinah and Cyrus were made co-procos. When I took over Gerard (as Mark II), Dinah and Cyrus still remain my co-propcos.  While Iam leading charges over here on certain plots, they have OOC prop history on IC things that I was not privy to. They are valueable assets to anyone wanting to do things with Minos.

2) While the Black Road is affecting Minos, there is no attack as yet like there was on Pathi or Amber herself. At present, there's weird stuff going on...black crabs of a foul temperment and composition (and in small, medium, and WTF is that? sizes), sea levels diminishing, weird tentacle beasties, etc...but no outright attack. These are all things that can be played with if your adventures take you to Minos. However, if you have not heard, things are picking up speed in Weirmonken, and Emrys showed great awesomeness by checking with me as a propco to make sure he wasn't stepping on my toes in timing or content. As such, there's coordination going on so players who would overlap in play don't feel pulled one way or another.

3) What's going on in Minos is a long-haul adventure. Lucius is putting a TON of fabulous work into worldbuilding one of the Lost Seas, and once we hash things out, we will be running everything past staff; so if it sounds like there's been alot of talk about Minos but no actual play, it's because it's being worked on extensively, so that there's a structured yet flexible adventure playland for players to kick around. What we're trying to do is allow for an Elder Scrolls type situation...lots of variety in small adventures and exploration, while meanwhile the overall main quest starts to form and solidify for the end game win. The trick is doing it in such a way that allows plenty of room for play, but not to wear out our welcome and stretch it too far. (It should also be stressed that I'm a big believer in character moments, roleplay over roll play, machiavellian twists, and culture/politics affecting play. This will not be a straight military engagement.)

 The rumors that the Minos Writing Team are redesigning Minos so that the Black Road is making the whole shadow be a ripoff of Robert Ulrich's masterpiece The Ice Pirates are false.

Honest.

(See http://gerard-of-amber.livejournal.com/4037.html )

If you're interestd in running scenes, I have ammunition for you to play with. If you have shown interest in the past and have goten starter packs, please check your +mail and respond to the mail sent days ago.*

(The exception being the player who's been talking to me the past 2 weeks about all sorts of ideas)


*If you've changed your mind, please let me know so I'm no longer waiting on feedback from you. Likewise, if something's holding you up...RL happens!

 Lucius comes calling upon Prince Gerard, quite formally.</div></div>

What is it with the tentacles around here?

We haven't hit land yet, so I haven't seen any of these damnable crabs yet, but I'll try to catch one later this evening.  Likewise, can't tell if the water's low here or not, as there's no land to judge it against. Water's too dark, though, it looks like the sea before a storm, but there's no clouds in the sky.

But this is the third time we've seen black and purple tentacles sticking up out of the water, waving about slowly as if the owner had been out partying way too long and was facinated by the undulating motion.

Not that I have personal experience with that.

 Anyone who submits a Pirates of Darkwater plot to me as a Black Road in Minos idea will be locked in a hold with 7 Zark 7 and the original Ninja Team Gotchaman. 

And Zoltar will be your hairdresser.

 As some of you may have guessed from the gossips, something is brewing in Minos.

In a few weeks, after Hypericon, there will be a call for mystery and high adventure in these oceans. It will involve lost cities, lost cultures, monsters of teeth and tentacles as well as as human, and, of course, Black Road.

But meanwhile, a call is going out for those on the game who are interested in running scenes. The framework has been written, the background setting approved.  What I'm looking for is tapping some of you creative, scene running folks to work with to flesh out (and run) adventures in these lost cities...a collaboration effort to give the players some kick ass rp and story.

The idea here is to do what the best TV shows...especially genre shows...do with a staff of writers. There's a show bible, a head writer, and a staff writing the season.  We have the bible, the propcos are the head of the table...but I want this to be a gestalt production, and for that, we need the awesome scene runners who have stepped up to the plate in the past.
 
Interested parties, contact me. Note that Dinah & Cyrus are still co-propcos. 

 Minos: The Commodores 

Pathi: Earth Wind & Fire

Begma: Led Zepplin

Cibola: Bob Marley & the Wailers (with honorable mention for Minos as The Whalers)

Rebma: Bobby Darin

Tir Na Nog: Clannad

Lyonesse: Gloria Gaynor

Weirmonken: Warren Zevon

Tanus: CCR

Kitzeh: Spinal Tap

The Black Road: Alice Cooper

Amber: Theme from the Brady Bunch