Botany Bay: Scandia Resurgens (NC)

[OldSchoolGamer]

For some background on the story universe in which this adventure takes place, go here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=148929.0
For a map of the major powers extant in the story universe, go here: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=150335.msg6858064#msg6858064

Several years ago, a trading company based in Oslo, called the Sharp Pine Trading Company, launched an expedition to Africa.  After having been blown off course, the expedition landed and went ashore, encountering a native tribe.  Of course, the Northern Gods did see fit to populate the Earth with lesser breeds to serve as labor, so the expedition had no problem with pressing some of the natives to help it look for gold.  However, the hunt and dig did not go well, and relations between the Scandians and the natives soured as the white men forced them to work harder.  There was a fight, and some of the natives ended up killed.

A native shaman then cursed the expedition.  Days later, the expedition began to fall ill from some sort of wasting disease.  Half died.  The others, fearing for their lives, and having little to show for the two years they had spent here, retreated back to the ship and left.  Of the 20-odd men who left, only 8 were alive by the time the ship reached a Caliphate port.  Taking on a new crew, the ship went back to Scandia.  For a few years, the expedition was all but forgotten, its logs sitting in a drawer in a cabinet somewhere in the Sharp Pine Trading Company's headquarters in Oslo.

Four years passed.  The Sharp Pine did rather poorly, suffering several setbacks, and ended up dissolving in bankruptcy.  The files were taken by one of the creditors, the Twisted Axe Sundries and Supply Company.  There they sat another six months before some auditors went over them.  Intrigued, the auditor brought the expedition and its logs to the attention of one of the company directors, Earl Svenerge.  The Earl, who had some expertise in botany and geography, concluded that the previous expedition had been foolhardy to keep searching for gold when it was clear the locale had only a few flecks.  However, in reading over the notes, he concluded the tribe's area would be much more profitable if plantations were established to grow tropical fruit, spices,  and flowers for dyes. 

The natives would have to largely give up their way of life to serve the company and work on the plantations, but to the Earl, that was simply the natural order of things, ordained by the Gods.

Thus, another expedition was organized and dispatched.  However, ever mindful of costs, the Earl kept it small.  Only 35 men would go, on a small but fast ship.  Under the will of the Gods, the area would yet be colonized and made to serve the greater interests of Scandia...

And here is where you come in.  You will play the role of one of the men on the new expedition, on the privateer vessel Blue Bolt.  You have the option of playing one of the survivors from the original expedition--however, if you do, your character will need to be at least in his mid-20s.  You can also play someone new to this part of the world.  There will be some of everything in this game: problem-solving, character development, sex (including non-con sex, perpetrated by your characters most likely), resource management, and role-playing and politics.  Your mission is to colonize this area, bringing the natives under your control, getting their cooperation.  Of course, your character will have personal goals too.

Post any questions or character concepts here.

[CalypsoNymph]

There was a curse... will there be any other use of magic in this?  And if not, why?

[OldSchoolGamer]

There was a curse... will there be any other use of magic in this?  And if not, why?

I'm putting in a hint of fantasy here...but only a hint, or before you know it this will turn out to be Hogwarts meets Lord of the Rings.

And it's not established that the "curse" was in fact magical or even supernatural at all.  It could have been a tropical disease.  Or poison.

[OldSchoolGamer]

To elaborate on magic...there will be very low-level magic, but not that your characters explicitly have access to.  If you are a priest of a Northern God, you may have some very light mystical powers.  This will not be of the "I cast magic missile on the dude behind the tree" variety.  The magic in this story will be much more abstract and low-level: the occasional premonition, dream, omen, etc.

[OldSchoolGamer]

If anyone is interested, go ahead and submit characters here.

[Frelance]

(For Consideration.)

Name: Eilert Njord
Position: Navigator
Age: 28
Appearance: A good six feet tall with light brown hair. He is not as heavily built as many of his fellow country men and would be considered slim by most. Growing up in a colony in Africa has made sure his skin is much more heavily tanned than those born in the native land of the Scandia people. He has tattoos of the cover the back of his hands and a large portion of his torso.


Bio: Eilert grew up in one of the African colonies held by Scandia. He spent his childhood learning his ancestry and the pagan gods while he did the work that was expected of him but while he worked he also learned about the gods of the slaves. So as he grew he learned to respect the pagan gods but he held a lesser amount of respect for the gods and spirits of the slaves after witnessing what seemed to prove they had power even if it was less than that of the pagan gods.

When he was old enough he started working on the ships in the colonies harbor where he found he excelled. At the age of seventeen he was able to secure a position on board a trading vessel headed to the far east. It over the next four years that he met many people in the different ports and learned the secrets of Alchemy. Although the men who he got the information from were of lesser races he did not care once he tried what he had been taught and it worked. He only had respect for the knowledge and not the men who taught him. It was on the second half of the voyage that the ships navigator fell ill and Eilert was trained as his replacement. The man died soon after the ship reached their home port. Eilert received the mans Rutter. Eilert stayed with the ship until they arrived in Oslo when he was informed about an opening on the Blue Bolt that would bring him south into the warmer parts of the world where he grew up.

[Vassus]

I know that our original thread isn't going too well, but, I have to ask, will we be in the same game? It seems so, and I would find it interesting to see where you go with this.

[Frelance]

I know that our original thread isn't going too well, but, I have to ask, will we be in the same game? It seems so, and I would find it interesting to see where you go with this.

From what OldScholGamer has told me it is going to intersect with the other thread if things go well.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I know that our original thread isn't going too well, but, I have to ask, will we be in the same game? It seems so, and I would find it interesting to see where you go with this.

Yes, the two threads will be played out in the same story universe, with the possibility of the two groups meeting and cooperating...or fighting.

Edit: assuming the original thread stays alive.  I'm not exactly sure why it's running so slowly.  N.B.: if players have concerns or things they would like to see or like to stop seeing in a game I run, I wish they'd be up front with me about it.  I'd rather fix things that are wrong than have the thread die.