Event Log: The Beach Episode

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The event log for the transition to our new planet!
Where: The city, which has now been fragmented onto four separate islands.
When: May 27th-June 10th
Warnings: Surf's up! If by 'surf', you mean separation from your friends, weird sea creatures, and cold rainfall.

The sun and the sand and a drink in your hand- well, it all sounded pretty nice when you voted for the island planet, but ultimately what you're getting is a bit less glamorous.

The transition takes place instantaneously, with very little noteworthy shakeup, though those of you who are particularly in-tune with the supernatural may feel a bit dizzied or nauseated by the sudden movement. And that's exactly what it is: for those of you who are outside, the change is fairly noticeable, as in the span of a single blink, what used to be miles of desert is now rocky ocean. The city is simply in one place one moment, and then somewhere entirely new a second later.

And that somewhere new is exciting! The islands have plenty of landscape to explore and weather conditions to adjust to, fish to catch, and- wait, how do you get to the other islands? What if your friends or your home or the bar is on these other islands? Enjoy having to figure out who is where and how you're going to get by with only a small fraction of the city to work off of- hopefully those boats will come sooner rather than later...

► This log covers May 27th-June 10th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
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► If you drown or get eaten by an alien shark, let us know here.

Comments

[hot_mes]

Exactly. But to build a ship like that might strip most of the forest and take time. Not to mention an expert shipwright who knows their way around a brig sloop - or larger.

[throwing out the terms as a test, to see what Curufin knows versus what he can figure out with some trial and error]

[so_dark_a_road]

Whether you risk stripping the forest depends on just how large you want to make the ship!

You're speaking of a round-bottomed vessel with two square-rigged masts, with a gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sail attached to the mainmast as well, and perhaps a couple of trysails rigged to the foremast? This type of ship was not known in Middle-earth in my time, but they were built in a later era. I know this because after I died, I was whisked away into a sort of facsimile world, my world but later. There was a dilapidated harbor with various types of ships, all of which needed repairing. I and some companions made a journey there to look the ships over and begin work on at least one of them.

They sail differently than the boats I was familiar with, but the principles are the same. It just takes some experience.

[hot_mes]

[well those terms came out pretty quickly. Law peers suspiciously.]

Something like that. Not exactly, but I guess that means you understand me.

The size of the ship depends on how far we need to go. Even with fishing for food, it would need to carry enough supplies for the journey - going and coming back, it isn't one-way. That's all unknown, yet, there's no reason to pick up a hammer right this instant.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ It did help that Curufin had access to shelves of texts and manuals as well as to the ships themselves. The authors were eloquent and graphic on the topic of ship construction.]

I do indeed understand you.

And the problem, of course, is that we have no idea how far we'd need to sail. We'd have to guess. [ This is assuming that Curufin is invited. Even if he's not, he'd still be happy to build the ship, or to help build it. It's too interesting a problem to turn down. ] How soon would you want to set off on this voyage of discovery? Do you have a timeline, or are you just waiting to see what happens here, before deciding?

[hot_mes]

I don't have a schedule yet. But ships take time to build. It's difficult balancing a desire to get moving before it's too late, waiting to see if the gods deign to give us a hint, and making sure we discover whatever we need before Fear decides he needs to move the city again.

[a lot of vaguery for soon but not instantly, since he knows a ship the size he wants would take a long time to build. Only the well-trained Galley-La shipwrights of Water Seven could build a galleon in a week, and that's when there's forty or fifty of them. He's got one or two carpenters who've never built a brig sloop before. Tough choices.]

[so_dark_a_road]

Indeed, a ship of that size would take more time to build than a longboat. But if you want help on this project, I'm in.

Yes, there is no telling what the gods are up to, until they tell us. I have no idea whether they really want us to discover anything new about the Door, or whether Sorrow was just putting us off with vague promises. And I certainly hope it takes the Null a while to find us, this time. It would give us time to get a few important things done first.

[hot_mes]

I'm not a carpenter. I can't build for shit. So it would be on you, unless you can find others with the skills.

A month. If the gods haven't moved by then, it's for us to take charge. [he decides arbitrarily]

[so_dark_a_road]

I'll look for others with the skills. I'll have to assemble a construction team in any case, because we need more boats even without yours. And we need to build piers on each island to make our nautical lives easier. Would you be willing to be the official project manager for your ship, even the work is done by me and others? You certainly are the person who knows what you want in a ship. We'll need you to help draw up the plans, at the least.

[ He nods. ] A month. That sounds about right to me.

[hot_mes]

Project manager...? [so much stinkeye. He's in his element and it's going to his head already] I'm the captain. Naturally, what I want in the ship is on me to dictate.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Grin. ] Of course it is. I would expect no less.

[hot_mes]

[he's not making any snap decisions now so...]

If it comes to that, I'll be in touch.