cityship: (Meanwhile...)
cityship ([personal profile] cityship) wrote in [community profile] trans_92011-10-24 10:59 pm

Shore Leave: Geartopia [Open to All]

||Attention all crewmen, shore leave is now in progress, attention crewmen, shore leave is now in progress...||

Stacy's voiced called the entire crew, until all of them were gathered at the Obs Deck. Then, a dossier appeared on the screens, along with the image of a rotating planet.

Planet Designation: Geartopia
Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Yes.
Sentient Life: Homo Sapiens, Homo Animalia, Machina Erectus.
Water: 20.6% of the planet's surface.
Climate: Earth-like, Arid desert
Landscape: 70% Desert..
Air: Normoxic concentration.
Air Pressure: 101.3 kPa (kilopascals) = 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch)
Sky: Blue
Sun: A class G2V, yellow star.
Warnings: Wildlife, humanoids and plant-life can be hazardous.
Nomalanga has given us a map with which areas to avoid.
Mission: Shore leave, and preparing for an attack in a few days, planet's time. Nomalanga has promised food, clothing and animals in exchange for your cooperation in aiding her.




Once, long ago, Geartopia was built by aliens visiting the planet and granting intelligence to some native species. Of course you wouldn't know this apart from the giant black obsidian monoliths humming precariously outside of town. They are formed in a circle formation that might remind those who come from earth of Stonehenge, only built out of a much more study device. This is what Nomalanga used to contact you. The rocks cannot be moved and any attacks on them will be useless. The Wild Ones will come out of the forest at night, leaving a trace of plants as they go back and fro their own forest. The technology the elder aliens left them allows for contact with Stacy but otherwise there is nothing futuristic going on on the planet - the aliens wanted it this way and for the most part the population respects this.

All except Snidley and his goons, of course. Thankfully most of them have gone into hiding once their plot was found out. In fact, Nomalanga and those still loyal to her are busy working on making this planned attack, and getting the townspeople ready for it.

You can also find a few remains of their culture scattered around the land in the form of large stone carvings around the town, in between a wooden tavern bar or used as a sort of tribute, covered in dry plants. Most of the area is dry and arid, with very tiny grass and shrubs growing over the hill, and, strangely enough, an area from town that is densely populated by forest. Few dare go in, due to it being the territory of the Wild Ones.

As you walk around, you notice that the technology is steampunk with a cowboy flare; there is one train that comes from the towns every morning at 6am and leaves at 9pm. Horses can be rented for a price (some normal, some like this), chariot rides as well. Gears and dark clothing seem to be the norm, possibly due that their source of leather. The inhabitants are mostly humans, humanoid animals, alien natives and steampunk robots.

But enough of that, let's see what you can do here:

- Saloon and bars of all sizes, most comically named with an object, and a color. You can find all sorts of them across town, but those on the western side are more sympathetic towards Snidley and hate strangers with a passion. Do not go there unless you're ready to fight a few of them.

They do, however, have the best drinks, and card games.

There are hotels with gear pianos playing wistful tunes as you drink hard liquor made from cactus juice, honey and barley. The honey wine is especially prized and costly.

There is also a small carnival with steampunk and old west fair, sugar and cactus fruit pies, whole animals roasted over open pits, musicians, and a single wooden coaster. It's not much, but the food is excellent.

Be careful, however. The cactus fruit does cause stomach aches for most people not native to this world. Think of it much like lactos intolerance. It's a chance you take eating it. However if you do, it tastes much like an orange, strawberry and a banana were put together in a blender.

As thanks for helping her out, anyone stepping into the city is given by the mayoress as part of her exchange bartering price, one cowboy hat (all brown), one pair of steampunk goggles, a steampunk vest, and, most importantly, one part of leathersnake steampunk boots. This is a gift for anyone who is just visiting to blend with the locals and to prove she's honest about her dealings. As if it wasn't obvious after the first mission, in any case. She'll need your strange and powerful manpower in the upcoming days.

And hey, if you're up to it, you can help with a little cleanup. After all most people here don't know your skills. However, it's also calm and quiet in the farms. You want to do some honest work for a day, they'll give you some of their seeds in exchange. The system seems to be based more on services and barter than any money.

There is still currency and Stacy has given you a few golden coins, spend them wisely. A few farms are opened up to sleep for free, if you don't mind being with the animals.

The General store has steampunk items for sale, but most of them are much too expensive for anyone on the ship to by. You can try to barter.

Oh and news travels fast. Cause problems, and Nomalanga won't be too happy about it.

[OKAY ALL DONE GO FOR IT. You are also free to create additional places, to post your own private logs involving the town! Contact me if you need extra information about Geartopia either via PM to things_go_boom's account or by AIM, I'll be happy to answer. NPC goons if you want to do a bunch of bar fights, just think typical cowboy stuff. Shore leave will last until the 31st and players can go to and from the ship to the city each day, so you can have your characters stay for a day or two and then come back.

People in the miniplots, the mini plots will start up in a few days! There will also be a general fight for anyone who wants to join in on the 29th. Thank you and enjoy yourselves!]
appletastic: (Applejack squints at this post)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-10-31 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Wait. So your town traded...people?" Something about that sounded like a bad apple in the bushel. She wondered what kind of world he was from, if it was a harsh place.

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-10-31 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"Traded? No. We simply tithed our warriors to the Imperium at large, in exchange for protection, technology, and a beneficent administration. Some worlds make food, some worlds make weapons... our world made warriors. Nothing more than that. We were not slaves, I became as I am willingly."

The harshest place. But he was content with it, nonetheless.



appletastic: (Just some healthy skepticism)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-01 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"So you had a choice." Maybe it wasn't all a choice. Sometimes she'd felt that way about her upbringing. Could she have chosen the city life? In her heart? No.

"Is it good work? Satisfying?"

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-02 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
"I can imagine doing no other work." He halts, and there is a sadness about him, at least for a moment.

"But here... without my brothers, it is a very strange thing. There is only one being like myself aboard the entire ship, Cargn, and he is very... different from me. I have not heard of his order of Knights before."

His sadness is replaced by steel, a moment later, as the Black Templar visibly straightens, brushing off the moment of vulnerability as though it never happened.
appletastic: (Default)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-02 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
Applejack can certainly understand that. She sighs and kicks her hoof into the grass. "Know what you mean. Family can bug you and make you wanna tear your mane out and you think you're better off without 'em and---then they're gone."

But they had to cope. "What's this Cargn fella like? No good?"

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-02 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
"Not bad. Different. There are 1,000 chapters of the Emperor's Astartes at large in the galaxy. We all have different ways, different mindsets. The sons of Vulkan are pragmatic and humane. The Black Templars, my own chapter are faith, zeal and ferocity. The sons of Fenris are brute savagery. The Blood Angels combine bloodlust with artistry, the Ultramarines pride themselves on their doctrinaire methods of war, and our progenitor chapter, the Imperial Fists, are siege-masters without compare, stubborn and unyielding."

He contemplates the idea of a family for a bit, and a melancholic silence falls on the warrior, then says, "For a being such as yourself, imagine that there are many kinds of horses. You ran with horses that were alike. And now you are alone among smaller beings. Sheep and things. There is only one other horse, and he is not your family, though he is also a horse. That is how strange I feel."

appletastic: (Aww shoot)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-02 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Applejack thought about it for a moment. "We do have other kinds. Pegasus ponies, unicorn ponies, Princess Celestia, the alicorn...and then there are the earth ponies. They tell us we're nothin' special, that we don't have powers or wings so we're no good, but they'd be wrong."

But that was off the subject. "I do miss everypony. I've got two friends, but they're not like me. Your...this other person ain't your friend though, is he?"

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-03 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Black Templars do not have friends."


He hesitates, then corrects himself. "Outside of the Chapter, anyway."


appletastic: (Default)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-03 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
That was...sad. No friends? Applejack knew what loneliness was like, and she never wanted to head back there. It hadn't been a pretty sight.

"So you're one of those independent types. Do you do a lotta readin'?"

A friend of hers had come to mind.

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-05 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
"I wasn't always. I was a member of the Sword Brethren, but I was set apart when i was chosen to be the Emperor's Champion. It was a position of honor and responsibility, but it... isolated me from my battle-brothers. And now I am truly alone, the last of the Templars."

He considers the question of a lot of reading, "I read many of the old texts. The Tactica Imperialis, the histories of the various crusades, the stories of the dead heroes of my chapter. So yes, I suppose I do quite a bit of reading."
appletastic: (Uh huh. Really.)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-05 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Applejack's face lifts, but it's not quite a smile. Oh, people and their high and mighty responsibilities!

"I knew someone a little like you. Had all this stuff to do, all these books to read, couldn't mingle with the common folk. Means you're important or somethin'."

Hey. It wasn't her thing. "There's a heapful of people like you around. Important, distant, 'cept now we're lonely and all pulling the same plow."

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-07 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
"And what happened to this person?"

He doesn't consider himself important. He is Astartes, a Knight of the Emperor, but his is a life of service and war, and, Emperor willing, a destiny.

"And... well, I take your meaning."

He looks at the strange beast almost sympathetically.
appletastic: (Fun between friends)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-07 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Why, she became our friend o'course!" Applejack spoke as if this was the most obvious outcome in the world. She still holes up with her books every now and again, but she's got us now. Or. She did. She got rescued, I just have to wait to see her again."

And wait she would. She smiled up at him. "It'll get better, you'll see. Hard to go down from here."

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-08 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
"I am glad that you, at least, have not lost your friends."

Erhart shrugs, his shoulder pauldrons exaggerating this gesture massively. "I am not sad. Astartes do not feel that emotion often. I have a task to undertake and I shall do so. A war to prosecute. The only time I would be well and truly lost is in a world of utter peace. "

appletastic: (Buck up and let's play!)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-09 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Applejack silently thanks him with a tip of her hat, then wonders. What's he saying?

"Huh. Couldn't you find a hobby? I'm sure you're good at somethin'. Artwork, dance? Sports?"

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-09 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
Erhart laughs, somewhat filtered by his vox-augmitters.

"Artwork, dance? Sport? You would make a Blood Angel of me. No, the sons of Dorn are builders of fortresses. Even the Eternal crusade leaves great stone keeps in their wake, and reliquaries. I can shape and build stone structures, if need be, and provide for their defenses."

appletastic: (Aww shoot)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-10 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Huh. Well I s'pose that's close enough," Applejack shrugs, considering that. "Think I saw some new stone in the city we've got down there. They've been buildin'."

She stopped to think for a moment. "I'm sure you could get some trades going."

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-10 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Trades? What do you mean?"

The armored warrior cocks his head, truly puzzled.
appletastic: (Buck up and let's play!)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-11 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Applejack seemed to get excited. Yes, this she could manage. "Well, since nopony's got any money, how else do we do business? I could use your buildin' around my barn if anything I've got to grow interests you. Or you could trade with somepony else who's got more."

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-11 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"Very well. Do you have a ready supply of stone, or will I have to procure one?"

He sounds excited. Something to DO. Even if it was with a weird gene-engineered steed that could talk.
appletastic: (Now lemme think a minute)

[personal profile] appletastic 2011-11-12 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
"If we've got one, I'm not in charge of it. But I'll go trade for that too. Or put in a request---we fix the barn, it'll help everypony get some more to eat."

She'd get around that roadblock soon. "I'll call you when we're good to go."

[identity profile] swordofdorn.livejournal.com 2011-11-12 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
"This sounds viable. Thank you for the idea. It has given me... purpose. Good day." He nods his massive head to her by way of farewell.