[Game Thread] Chapter 1: Who Watches The Watch?

[Allistair]

Old Man's Narration The old man looks on at his younger companion for a few moments before continuing."Okay... Where was I? Oh yes! On this particular day there was a group of, well, let's just say that an odder bunch of people had not been seen together in a long time. And anyway they were assembled in a hallway, outside the office of the captain of the City Watch..."

In The Story You find yourself standing in a fairly common looking hallway on the second floor of the City Watch Headquarters. Opposite you, is a big door, with the word CAPTAIN inscribed on a name plate. As you stand waiting, you hear a noise from down the hallway and a small, scruffy looking Halfling wearing an old leather vest makes his way down the hall towards your group. He gives you a quick once over as he nears. "Ahhhh yous all here then? Good Good!" He moves towards the door and knocks not once, not twice, but three times. A loud banging noise that repeats itself can be heard and suddenly the door is pulled inward revealing a large Dwarf. He has long brown hair and a beard that stretches below his girth and is neatly braided. Where his right leg should be is a small wooden stub that is affixed to, what remains of his thigh, via a metal contraption. His weathered face wrinkles when he sees your assembled group. He ignores you and looks towards the small halfling. "Finnias?" he grumbles, his voice very very deep. The Halfling salutes "Cap'n." The dwarf points a thumb into his office. "A word please." He pivots on his wooden leg and stomps back into the office, the Halfling trailing behind before the door slams shut. A loud muffled voice can be heard through the door and it is obviously the Captain. You can barely make out parts of the conversation."I ... good men ... bring ... this lot in ... you like ... a large pike ... so far up ... sit right ... next year ... late now ... with them!" You hear a few thuds and a few loud bangs and then the door is opened again revealing the Dwarf. He turns his head to regard each of you. "Welcome to the Watch. You can store your gear in the bunkroom, there's a locker at the foot of each bed for all your stuff. From now until I say so, you are all constables. You will uphold the law to the best of your abilities, whatever they may be. Unless you have a bloody good reason to ... DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR!" With that he pivots on his wooden leg and slams the door behind him, leaving you standing in the hallway.

OODM Okay everyone. Welcome to the Watch! Make your introductory posts and we will be on our way.

[Finch]

Jimmy looked first at Quorky sitting on his shoulder, then at the group. The Raven glanced back and communicated an exasperated feeling, knowing exactly what was to come.

Jimmy had been right. Oppression and a reactionary system within the watch, degradating shouting and mobbing, policies of closed doors and rigid structures of hierarchy suppressing any human individual characteristics by abstractly categorizing them by function.
Constable.

Well, he was here to revolutionize it all, and he was glad that he already had a core unit of like-minded comrades to support him in it.
Although there was also the part of upholding the law, which could become important later on.

He heaved the sack with the belongings he had gathered from the university dorm over his shoulder, his spider-thin arm trembling slightly, and turned to his comrades.

"Weeeellll. That was more than clear. I just knew it. This will be a hard and long struggle and we will have to stay unified." He said in a meaningful and emphatic way. On his shoulder Quorky did a remarkable imitation of rolling his eyes and ruffling his feathers.

"I am Jimmy by the way. Glad to meet you, and to have such fine comrades in a venture like this."

[copatt]

Sillitta scrunches up her lips and eyes the closed door suspiciously for a few seconds before turning to take in the rest of the group.

A young man, Jimmy, is the first to introduce himself, and Sillitta cannot help but inwardly laugh at that introduction. Hard and long struggle? Stay unified? What's this guy think-- that we're about to embark on some sort of quest to sway the outcome of a great war? I'm sure that happened at some point in the past. If I thought about it hard enough, I could probably recall just such a war. Fine comrades? Now he's just politicking. Maybe whoever gets put in charge, gets more to eat.

Sil runs a hand through her short, carefully messy, brown hair. Wiggling her bare toes and smiling, Sil waves at the others. I am Sillitta, uh, I mean, I'm Sil. It's, ah, a pleasure to meet all of you.

[Ockerdoodle]

The door slamming in his smiling face, Lumperious Bimblechin turns to look at his new comrades. His gleaming smile shining at all of them, he listens to both Jimmy and Sil introduce themselves, and then folds his small body into a deep (and almost precarious looking) bow. His rather prodigious proportions quavering ever so slightly as he moves from his bow to walking around and shaking hands with all assembled, Lumperious begins to speak.

"Greetings to all of you, it is my pleasure to be serving in this esteemed company, and I'm sure that our exploits shall be sung of by bards for centuries, if not millennia to come. My name is Lumperious Errnock Bunkmadge Bimblechin, though since you are now all my newest friends, you may call me 'Lumpy'"

At this point, Lumperious begins walking around erratically, poking, prodding and exclaiming at the fine equipment and magical animals that his companions have brought along. He is heard saying things such as, "Is that real?" and "I've never seen one so big before!" and upon sight of the Jermlaine, "My goodness gracious sir, I don't believe I've ever met someone smaller than myself before. Congratulations on such a feat and thank you ever so much for proving to me it was possible before I've lost the blessing of my sight.

Eventually his exclamations trail off, but even as the others introduce themselves Lumperious can be seen clapping ever so quietly and cheering softly when others mention their names.

[chaosaccountant]

The green-faced figure fixed his beady eyes on the gnome. "Aye, u'm smaller 'un you. But only 'til I kick out yer ankles. You wanna try it?" Unslinging a grubby and non-descript bottle almost as tall as he was and taking a swig, he surveyed the assembled misfits. "So you're Lumpy? U'm thirsty. 'E," the gremlin gestured with the bottle to the tallest mage " 's verbosity. 'N' a fine bunch a' dwarves we'll make yet. Now why don't you all put all yer stuff in my - u mean your - boxes, 'n' we cun go un' ma'be check a few houses fur burglars 'n' such."

[Tarot Warrior]

Yet another individual, a very bright eyed brunette in pretty pale yellow dress, had her hands clasped together, close to her cheek during the whole exchange with Finnias, then the Captain, then amongst themselves.

"Did you hear that?!" she asked in an overly sweet voice. "He said we were constables! Isn't that wonderful?" she beamed, finally unclasping her hands as she addressed the others.

"It's such a pleasure to meet everyone, my name is Liliyana. I'm sure we'll be the best of friends!"

[reyoleon]

When the introductions start Adam removes his Mithrial helm to reveal that the suit of armor in the middle of the room is not a decoration, that in fact a man with shoulder length black hair tied back into a ponytail and a full beard is wearing this Mithrial Armor. "Greetings fellow pla . . .umm i mean Hi my name is Adam and ill be your walking Tank, if you need to take cover do not be afraid to dive behind me, and yes it is real Mithrial" Hows that for an introduction post

[copatt]

Sillitta squeezes her eyes tight and rubs her temples. This is already giving me a headache. Who are these people, and what did I do to deserve to be grouped here among them? Have I really made such poor life decisions? Sillitta finally opens her eyes and takes in he rest of the motley crew: a gnome, an imp, a princess, and a knight. Along with the wizard and me, the loveable rogue, we have the requisite cast for an entire collection of fairy stories.

Come on Jimmy-- let's go check out the bunks.

[Tarot Warrior]

"Thank you for your offer," Liliyana graciously told the Jermlaine. "But it wouldn't be fair for you to have my things in your personal locker."

"A walking 'thank'?" Liliyana then repeated what Adam said curiously, obviously not having heard correctly. "I'm very glad you enjoy saying your thank yous, Adam, but you don't need to start right away. We didn't even do anything yet."

Then she noticed that people were beginning to leave. "Oh my, wait for us! Sillitta! Jimmy!" she exclaimed, gathering her dress in her hands so she wouldn't trip while running after them, the ambient lighting playing off against her ridiculously long brown hair in a way that made it look... glittery. The fact that it was pleasantly scented didn't help either.

[Finch]

She likes me! Sil was clearly fascinated by him. This was beginning to be the stuff for legends. He reflected a moment on his comrades. Quorky was sure to point out all their flaws later, but they seemed very likeable. Only the Jermlaine seemed a little odd to him, but at least the watch was waking up to it's duties concerning the equal treatment of other species.

Jimmy wondered, not for the first time, if Quorky had only become a grumpy cynic because he didn't like the name Jimmy had given him, or because Ravens were naturally like that.

"Yes sure, let's got!" He replied to Sil turning around and following her. He tripped after the first step and just caught himself.

Hearing a rustle behind him and seeing Lillyana rushing towards them, dress gathered up and long hair waving after and around her, a thought struck him.

"Do you, aeeh, I mean... Did the captain mention anything about separate Dorms? I think I just heard something about one bunkroom."

Jimmy was now torn between outrage at the complete lack of thought given to the special necessities of the female personnel of the watch, and the heart-warming thought of sleeping in the same room with said female personnel.

[chaosaccountant]

The shifty gremlin perked up when the suit of armour started talking. "Uh tank, eh? U've don a bit uh that mu'self. Yu' wouldn'a suspect how much liquid yu' can fit in me. Yu' seem like a lump u' metal u cun get behind." So saying, he dashed around the suit's feet to jump on the moving sorlett, making himself comfortable on the metal boot as they made their way to the bunkroom.
Behind him scampered a filth-smeared rat, still dripping with the 'water' of the streets outside, and glaring balefully at the raven sitting on the wizards shoulder.

[copatt]

Catching sight of the rat, Sil forgets-- as she so easily does-- that she is the daughter of an evil wizardess and a street-tough rogue. Squeeling, she is instantly up on one pudgy halfling big toe, clutching Jimmy's leg for dear life. Sparkles! What's that?

[chaosaccountant]

Amadeous grinned but said nothing as the rat, apparently able to sense discomfort, halted it's journey toward the bunks and faced Sil, lashing it's whip-like tail and showing chipped yellow teeth below beady, far too intelligent eyes. After a long pause, the gremlin finally spoke up. "Dun yu' mind Otto. 'F 'ee bites yu, it means 'ee likes yu. An' that yuh gonna die u' plauge." He followed with a couple of short, sharp whistles and a squeaky click, to which the rodent suddenly lost intrest in the halfiling and hurried to Amadeous' side, where he held out his bottle for the rat to drink from.

[copatt]

Sil slowly lowers herself back onto both feet and releases Jimmy's leg. You mean he's a pet, and, and, he's bitten people and given them the plague, and no one has put him down yet? Yech, that's foul. I'm taking one of the top bunks, Sil says, turning toward the woman in the poofy dress, and I suggest you do the same princess. That things more likely to chew off one of your toes than help you make a new ball gown.

[Tarot Warrior]

"Eek!" Liliyana also joined in the hysterical screaming at the sight of the rat.

"What a, um... special... pet." the cheery woman had a hard time saying something nice about Otto. "Oh my..." she added when she saw the gremlin sharing his bottle with the rat.

"I think you have a point." she added much more cheerfully to Sil. "But I'm afraid there's been a bit of a misunderstanding, I'm not a princess. What ever gave you such an idea?"