OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

[Raiko]

Had a ridiculously busy weekend. Sorry for not posting, I thought I'd have more time than I did.

Like where?

Well firstly I've got to admit that having looked an actual map again Australia's more isolated than I thought!

But basically anywhere in the Indian Ocean or Far East seems to be considered a fantastic exotic holiday location for us Brits. Especially Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia for backpackers and little isolated islands like the Maldives for beach lovers. Even though these places are a long flight for you, they're a huge journey for Europeans, but one that most would like to make.

Most Brits would love to visit Australia because it's far away & exotic (to us!), but has no language barriers.

The thing is you live in such a vast country. All of Europe (discounting Russia) is pretty small. I pretty sure that I live closer to SuAside, wherever he lives in Belgium, than you do to Sydney. But looking at a map Australia, Sydney looks "nearby" for you!

I have no idea what the costs compare like. I'm lucky enough to live in a geographically tiny country, that has three of the world's busiest passenger airports, one of which is only a 40 minute drive away, so it's easy to get onto a flight to virtually anywhere in the world. And airfares around Europe at least are dirt cheap these days. It's quite possible that it's cheaper to fly to say Vietnam from the UK than it is from Australia, especially if you'd have to make an internal flight first.

[Laraqua]

Not sure myself. To find out I'd have to compare online and then look at exchange rates sooooo ... no thanks.

In truth its far cheaper to go around Australia but that's big enough to be quite an undertaking. Unfortunately, while Australia has a lot of geological pretties its geologically quite dormant and therefore those pretties are spread far and wide with long gaps of the sameness in giant stretches between them. I'd love to go for a rural look at our many types of plains (some are quite cool) but plains get a bit, well, plain after awhile and its a long drive to get past them.

By the way, it takes a couple days to cross the Nullabor Plain from Peth to Adelaide and that's a straight as an arrow road with no real peopled areas in between. There's a reason why we take our bumper stickers (been to Blah) quite seriously around here!

Well, no, we're Australian. We take nothing seriously. If you want to get a confused Must-be-Mad look, if you ever visit Australia compliment us on our culture and history. We're very much ex-Brits and think that a culture is nothing if it doesn't extend past half a dozen occupations / invasions that span a few thousand or so years of known history. As for culture, surely we don't have one? Cultures are interesting things that you can boast about. We just have ... existence. Yeah, that's it. We're too boring to have a culture. Conversely, be aware that we are also quite proud of our history and culture (despite not thinking we have one) and we like to hear good things about ourselves and we don't like hearing tourists say anything bad about us (just like everyone else).

If ever you decide to make a mammoth journey to Adelaide, let me know. I can show you around! I've actually looked into Adelaide's history and we've actually got a fair few interesting spots! Like Glenelg not wanting a fort (we had two, Fort Glanville and Fort One-I-Forget) because it didn't want to be a military target! A Russian fleet once turned up at Glenelg and the citizens hurriedly invited them in for a big celebratory party of our Russian allies (in fear they might be an invasion force) and we wined and dined them then sent them off again and all worked out all right in the end.

Oh yeah, and one of the three indigenous groups we have here (not tribes, they weren't actually tribal as that's a specific form of society), the one in the hills, mysteriously disappeared. While our forebears could get quite genocidal, we don't have any evidence that they were wiped out by force although they might have integrated with the other groups for whatever reason. No one's quite sure.

[SuAside]

Alright, I'm back.

Cyprus was nice (like 30°C nice in the middle of october), but very weird indeed. As a formerly british colony with still a lot of active british military bases, I was expecting them to speak greek & english, but turns out that they know russian better than english. Stores full of fur coats in a country that barely goes below 24°C in the winter is kinda strange.

Did a lot of hiking (18-25km a day in 30°C heat), where I tended to go off-path/off-road a little more than what was good for me. Ended up scaling up a small rock face, almost stepped on a snake, fun times.
Best for me were not the beaches, the pools, the fancy hotel or the trendy bars, but sitting in the shade under a pine tree on some mountain you just conquered solo with no idea how you'll make it back down before you run out of water.

[Laraqua]

From what I know of you, SuAside, that doesn't surprise me! Not at all.

[Raiko]

Alright, I'm back.

Cyprus was nice (like 30°C nice in the middle of october), but very weird indeed. As a formerly british colony with still a lot of active british military bases, I was expecting them to speak greek & english, but turns out that they know russian better than english. Stores full of fur coats in a country that barely goes below 24°C in the winter is kinda strange.

Did a lot of hiking (18-25km a day in 30°C heat), where I tended to go off-path/off-road a little more than what was good for me. Ended up scaling up a small rock face, almost stepped on a snake, fun times.
Best for me were not the beaches, the pools, the fancy hotel or the trendy bars, but sitting in the shade under a pine tree on some mountain you just conquered solo with no idea how you'll make it back down before you run out of water.

Nice!

I think Coffee Demon is back as well now, so I'll get the posts moving again.

@Coffee: I think you & SuAside could plan a fine vacation together. You're both too adventurous for me, I'm more of a "relax around the pool with the kids" kind of guy!

[Mr. Handy]

Gomez hasn't logged in for over a month now, and he hasn't posted in a month and a half. I'd like to rejoin this campaign until such time as Gomez does return. I know it may be some time before you can resume posting in my thread, which currently has no active players in it, but that's okay. I'll be away anyway on November 2-4 and November 9-18, and I'm busy anyway, so there's no rush.

[Raiko]

No problem. I'm planning for Jones to be involved later anyway.

[Laraqua]

I was going to run a Masks mash up in my Demon: the Fallen game (only way I can tabletop Cthulhu) but have decided to put it off in favour of continuing in this play-by-post at least awhile longer. Instead I'll be doing Tatters of the King and, later on, Horrors on the Orient Express (wish I'd bought the special pack now!) and perhaps Masks after that.

[Raiko]

Thanks Laraqua.
Sorry I've been absent this week it's been one of those weeks where everyone's ill.
I'll be posting again on Monday if I don't manage before (I'll try to get time tonight.
@Laraqua, I'm getting the HotOE Box, I backed the kickstarter, but could only afford a low level, so not too many extras. I saw your post on the other forum, they're definitely selling it as a retail set, it's intended to launch at Gencon 2013.

[Laraqua]

That's cool!

Yeah, I'm going to do Tatters of the King and then probably Horrors on the Orient Express. I'm a really big fan of this game which is very lovingly crafted and moves forward brilliantly. I don't think I could balance that sort of epic clue-making brilliance nor remember all the threads over a play-by-post's long process.

[Laraqua]

Hello everyone. Raiko has kindly let me start running this campaign again for him (I think you're a he?). I will be continuing to use his clue threads, timetable threads, and any other helpful thread he's started. If Raiko ever wants to hop back on, or if he wants to make floorplans or find pictures, or anything else then I'm more than happy to take a seat back.

We have Mr. Handy and Decrepit back on board. I haven't asked Syrinx yet because I forgot he had a character until I started re-reading back into the London section. I'll do that presently.

I'm also pretty proud of myself. I have almost finishing reading all of the IC threads and I only started Monday!

[carnage_lee]

Awesome! Good luck everyone

[Laraqua]

*does a little dance to the tune of "I'm all shook up" by Elvis Presley" only it's "I'm all read up!"*

Thank you, Carnage Lee. I'm already piecing together what the next section will be. I'm just waiting to see how many players clamber back onboard and if there are any takers for the listed three characters in the Existing Games thread. Once I collect a set of PCs I should be able to re-kick the threads into gear.

[Laraqua]

All right, I have Caroline, Jones and Nethaniel Moore back in the game. Let's see who else I need to remove the red shirt from....

[Laraqua]

Imme won't be reprising her role as Elizabeth so that'll be a new character that either opens up or wears a red shirt.

[SuAside]

I applaud your wish to breathe new life into this, but I kinda fear I don't have the motivation to participate atm. I'll think about it, but I think I've largely been drained of motivation since almost none of these campaigns ever seem to come to a conclusion. I've also completely lost all touch with Timour and the back story.

Quite frankly, I think you actually might have more luck getting a team of players together if you start something anew.

If you get a full house, maybe I might be swayed to reconsider.

(sorry for taking a while to reply)

[Laraqua]

That's cool. I can totally understand that. If ever it changes, or if you want to tackle a more short term thing like a single Masks Chapter, then feel free.

[Raiko]

Just dropped in to say that I'm eternally grateful to Laraqua for offering to take over running this terrific campaign. I lack the time to continue running it myself, I have had such a good time running it for you all that I simply didn't have to heart to move it into the graveyard. :'(

I couldn't have asked for a more capable Keeper to take over the game, and I'm sure she'll do a terrific job.
I'm trying to fill in Laraqua with details of what the bad guys were up to when I stopped posting to help with continuity. And I've offered to run an abandoned character if any aren't picked up.

Regardless, I intend to read every post.

[Laraqua]

Thank you for promoting me, but I'm merely a sergeant.

Hehe, love the line! Made me giggle. I love Sergeant Jones' wry humor. I figured Elizabeth would be a bit too distracted to have remembered ranks at a time like this.

[Mr. Handy]

Thanks! I actually once accidentally promoted a detective at work to lieutenant, but I had him mixed up with someone else.