Help Uncover "The Secret of the Cloud People" {Modern-Day Adventure/Mystery}

[rick957]

[updated Dec. 15, 2012]
Our story so far ...

Daredevil archeologist Benjamin Crocker has been recruited by an older colleague to assist in a hunt for a storied relic, one with immense value not only to historians but to many others with more ruthless and selfish aims.

Accompanying them are Alice Weaverly, beautiful daughter and apprentice to the senior archeologist, and Kallpa, a native Bolivian friend of Ben's with knowledge of the area they are to investigate.

Their quest had barely gotten under way when Elfreide von Gieslingen, an outsider with unknown motives and a threatening past, tracked the team down and offered them her assistance in fending off an attack from a local tribe of savage primitives.

Hints of the dangers ahead have already begun to surface ...

Rumors of an ancient tunic capable of bestowing horrible powers upon its wearer ...

Legends of a lost civilization of mysterious "Cloud People" with a terrible secret, yet unrevealed ...

Expect swashbuckling thrills, dastardly deceptions, scandalous intrigues, romantic triangles, betrayals, surprises, twists, turns, and breathtaking revelations of every kind imaginable -- guaranteed to boggle the mind!

All that and more can be yours, if you can muster the courage (or craziness!) to join ...

Sacha Puya:  The Secret of the Cloud People





Starring


Branwen as Elfi von Gieslingenand



RedEve as Alice Weaverly



Rick as Ben Crocker



and many more!


Coming soon to an RP near you!

Here you'll find a lengthy and somewhat haphazard explanation of just a few of the many types of roles available for newcomers to the game.  We're just getting off the ground of what promises to be a wild ride, ladies and gents, so now's the time to jump on board!

PM or reply here if you're interested ... but don't deliberate too long!  We don't want to rush you, but the notorious Cloud People aren't known for their patience!  ;) 

-- Rick, your corny neighborhood GM

[Gekido]

I really don't think I can rp this, however I wish you luck and I may be reading from time to time :)

[rick957]

Ooo I love it when anybody reads RPs.  :)  Thanks for stopping by.

[RedEve]

Hoping this gets a lot of response, I have high hopes for this game. :)

[RedEve]

Here's my girl, Alice. She's not what you'd expect as the daughter of a boring academic, and her interest in her father's work has always remained fairly shallow.

[Tamhansen]

Sounds quite interesting.

I might be willing to take a role as one of the expedition members. A recently graduated archaeologist and palaeographer perhaps. Late twenties, eager to impress the expedition leader. Something like that.

[rick957]

Sounds promising, Katataban.  You get the door prize for being our first person to express interest in joining.  Although Gekido was first through the door, but not as a possible joiner ... We'll throw him a cookie or something.  :)

[RedEve]

Another taste of things to come? :)

Even though George Weaverly belied many of the stereotypes of the stuffy academic, he was still a cautious man at heart. Which is why his daughter’s nightly activities would have greatly concerned him. No doubt Alice would have received e lengthy lecture had George know that the girl usually left the safety of the campsite around dusk to have herself a private bathing moment in the river. Not only did it mean leaving the relative safety of their encampment, the girl also went un-chaperoned. In Alice’s own mind, she had little choice in the matter. Her only alternative was to bathe with the men, and she wasn’t about to bare her bum in front of her dad and a bunch of his associates and workers every day. So each night after they had their dinner, Alice would excuse herself, stay in her tent for five to ten minutes and then sneak off to the river.

Their camp site was now some 500 meters away from the water, which meant that she had to trek through some jungle paths in the near dark to arrive there. Once she reached the river and was free from the thick foliage of the forest, there was usually enough light left for her to flick off her flashlight. That night she had managed to arrive there a bit earlier than usual, due to her dad having called a halt to the work earlier than usual. That was only due to him discovering an especially interesting piece of artwork, which he could not wait to take back to camp and examine in more detail. It afforded the workers a shorter workday, and her the opportunity to sneak off earlier. She put her towel and soap on a little plank near the riverbank and proceeded to undress. Her crème-colored shirt went first, then her khaki pants and boots. Last came her bra and panties. They were far more practical than frilly and enticing. There was no use for her to buy fine lingerie, not under the conditions she was living in most of the year.

As she moved into the water until the water was up to her thighs she heard a noise in the thick brush behind her. An animal? Or something else? That feeling was back… the same feeling she had endured for the past few days, the tickle in your neck you tend to get when something or someone is spying on you. She raised her voice and called out. “Who is there?” If there was someone there, they did not take her call as an invitation to make their presence apparent. Instead they stayed quite mum… Or she had simply imagined things again. Her father always told her she had far too vivid an imagination for her own good and then went off on long and boring tangents about how her mother was just like her. Alice remained silent and stared at the tree line for a few more moments before shrugging and starting to soap in her body.

Pepe’s heart was beating in his chest so forcefully that he briefly feared that the girl could hear his heartbeat. He was only half-relieved when she turned back around and started soaping in her naked form. He had been spying on her bathing ritual for the past week, each time daring to sneak a little closer. When he had snapped the dried branch with his foot, he briefly believed she would finally catch him, but thankfully the foliage and the half-darkness had done enough to conceal his form. He was now rendered to a breathless spectator to her unwilling show. The girl was beautiful… her youthful beauty would have stood out amongst a crowd, but as the only women amongst a group of increasingly lonely men her beauty shone like a bright star in the middle of a dark sky. He knew he wasn’t the only one who stole glances at her during the day, desperately trying not to be caught by the Boss. Her father was the leader of the expedition, which made it a risky proposition for any of the workers to attempt to get close to his daughter. So all the men dared to steal from her were looks… Though Pepe had taken things a bit further by following her to the river one night and discovering to his surprise he was being treated to a private show. Instead of sharing the information with his workmates, he kept it to himself.

As the girl washed her nether region, he too involuntarily grabbed his crotch and started rubbing his hard member through the fabric of his pants. Eventually the trousers were undone and he tried to remain as silent as possible whilst stroking his rigid cock. He was taking a huge risk, but it was hard to think rationally when one’s blood rages from lust. As the girl was using a small bucket to rinse the soap off her taut physique, he groaned ever so slightly and felt his seed being spilled onto the dark soil below. He realized just in time that his groan had been loud enough for her to hear it, as she turned her gaze back to the forest. She looked straight at him, which made him briefly believe she could see him, though he then realized she had just looked in the general direction of the sound. He turned around and then dashed off, not even bothering to tuck his cock back into his pants.

Alice had hummed a song through her nightly cleansing and had enjoyed her private moment when the sound came. It was a nearly animalistic grunt that briefly made her believe that it was indeed an animal and not a human prowling around. That was until she noticed a stir in the foliage nearby the area she was staring at and then heard the familiar sound of person running off along the jungle path she had just taken. She blushed deeply when she realized that she likely had been watched by a peeping tom, no doubt one of the workmen in her father’s camp. She hurried out of the water to cover her body with the towel before drying herself off. It took her a good amount of time to gather the courage to take the path back to the camp, but eventually she did. Thankfully George Weaverly remained blissfully unaware of the goings-on, too transfixed he was by the mask he had uncovered that afternoon…

[AndyZ]

I like the idea but I'm not sure what would be a good char idea.  Anything in particular you're looking for?

[rick957]

Yay for more interest.  :)  Hi AndyZ, thanks for the question.  Hope everyone enjoyed RedEve's intro of Alice as much as I did.  That will be the second post in the game thread, once we start it.

Players are welcome to bring in their own ideas or to modify any of my suggestions according to their liking.  That said, here's a raft of role suggestions that I imagine could work and be fun.

1. Alice's father, an older archeologist named George Weatherly.  There is a hint or two of his personality in RedEve's post above, but for the most part, he's a blank slate for now.  He knows Ben, the other archeologist (played by me), and he's collaborating with Ben on some kind of excavation or exploration of a historical site in Bolivia. 

At this point, for the sake of convenience and until they get developed further, I'm picturing Ben as Indy (Harrison Ford) from the movies, so I picture George as Indy's father -- think Sean Connery.  If you saw the third movie, it's easy to imagine all the fun interactions those characters can have, although we don't need to go in that direction unless you like the idea.

2. We already have one other named character with no personality or details; that's Kallpa, the Quechua Indian.  He's a native of Bolivia and knows the rainforests well; he guided Ben and George and Alice to the site they're currently excavating.  He probably knows Ben primarily as a friend.

If someone plays him, he might be played for comic relief, or he and Ben might behave towards one another like the leads in a "buddy movie" (ex. the Lethal Weapon flicks or Beverly Hills Cop flicks or any film with two male leads), or they could be played as an "odd couple" pairing -- frequently getting on each other's nerves and in conflict with each other.

3. A junior archeologist or an equal colleague to Ben or to George.  Could be male or female.  If someone takes this role, then I'll make a conscious effort to differentiate Ben's personality from this other archeologist, so you could use the Indy/Harrison Ford personality model (which sounds like hella fun to me), and Ben will do something else.  If the character is older (ex. one of George's colleagues) you could play it like Connery from the third film.  Other alternatives borrowed from the films:  you could use Marcus Brody or Sallah as personality models.

Link to an Indiana Jones wiki with pix and character info, to refresh your memory.  Please don't read up on any movies you haven't seen yet, though, unless you don't plan to ever see them (but you should, at least the first three, especially the first and third, most especially the first).  Because that site is bound to be full of spoilers, and those movies are waaayyy too good to have them spoiled for you.  (I haven't seen the fourth one yet, incidentally.)

4. A rival archeologist.  This character could be on the same team with Ben and George, or he/she could be working on his own.  The competition could be open or secretive; he probably has ulterior motives.  If he's on his own, he could be evil -- think Belloq from the movies.

5. Possible bad guys in the story .... These will be challenging because we'll have to find ways for them to interact with the good guys frequently, but we'll pull that off together.

5A. A powerful politician, could be South American or American or European, he/she knows something about archeology and will compete with the good guys because we're all after the same stuff.  What are we after?  Something that will translate into big bucks (Incan gold or relics) or has high value as a weapon (ex. a fabled relic with a mystical reputation, as the Ark had).

5B. A military figure working for a dictator or wealthy, highly-placed politician.  Again, could be South American or from elsewhere.  Will compete with the good guys to retrieve the same valuable stuff.

5C. Any undercover espionage agent posing as a friend to the good guys.  Will use the good guys to get access to the valuable stuff and then turn the tables on them and betray them.

5D. Leader (ex. king or queen) of a South American tribe of ruthless natives bent on foiling the good guys' efforts to retrieve the valuable stuff.  May or may not want the valuable stuff for himself/herself.

6. Characters that get dragged along on the adventure and can have interesting relationships (including sexual ones) with the other characters ...

6A. For example, Alice could have a tagalong civilian boyfriend who might lose her to Ben eventually (that idea can only happen with RedEve's approval). 

6B. Ben or George could go to some sexy civilian woman for help on their quest and then have her join the team -- this was basically the model for the lead females in the movies.  Brings options for romantic triangles (romantic competition) with Alice or George.  Could be a professor or a policewoman or the proprietor of a business or a badass security expert or an expert in some field like linguistics or cartology.

6C. A South American native civilian male, same options as 6B.

I can keep going with stuff like this, but in order to narrow down the infinite possibilities, it helps to know if any given player has any personal preferences for the characters, such as wanting to be a certain gender, age, nationality, or wanting to interact mostly with any particular character (although you'll interact with everyone somehow).  Even very general characteristics like gender help a lot to start focusing in on a character, and then we will build the story around that person.

Hope all that helps somebody out there, if you're looking for ideas!  I may update this thread later if necessary with more specifics about the story, but for now, just imagine the plot of any of the movies.  The good guys will be working together to retrieve a valuable something with historical importance, probably something from the Inca Empire.  Except we will have surprises and reversals too, so the goals and stakes in the game will change at least once or several times.  And of course there will be romantic or sexual relationships and rivalries to weave in, between the action/adventure/intrigue stuff.

Oh, lastly -- the Indiana Jones movies are far from the only models that you can use for imagining characters and story developments; those are just the ones I assume people are most familiar with.  If you want more ideas, think of the Lara Croft/Tomb Raider games or movies, or the Mummy movies, or anything else involving swashbuckling high adventure, ex. pirate movies or action movies set in the modern day.  We may change geographic locations too at some point; maybe more than once, who knows.

[Tamhansen]

Well like cI said, I'd like the role of the junior. For character influence I was kinda imagining Daniel Jackson from the stargate series, but without the outer space theories. Or possibly with, might be fun

[Branwen]

May I ask what era you've set this in? 

[rick957]

Sure, it's modern day, 2012-ish.  Just out of convenience.  But we'll have occasional cartoonish action that may seem kind of anachronistic, like a throwback to a much simpler time period.

More Details Than You Probably Wanted Dept.:  The Indy movies, like the original Star Wars trilogy, were modeled in part on the very old adventure serials, which were way before even my time, but I understand they were short films that were loaded with daredevil stunts and highflying melodrama and especially cliffhanger endings, to get audiences to come back and shell out for the subsequent episodes in the same series.  Time period of those, I think were like 1930s-1950s, ballpark.  It's also part of the reason why the Indy and Star Wars movies are very fast-paced and melodramatic (in a wonderful way) and emphasize action and spectacle over dialog and interpersonal drama.  Similarly, we'll have some romance and sex but will frequently turn the focus to action and especially cliffhanger intrigue, mystery, plot reversals ...

There's a timelessness to those films (even though the Indy movies had historical settings, they are somewhat stereotyped or genericized), and we'll be aiming for something similar, except set in modern day.  So there won't be lots of high technology, for example, and some characters will seem like throwbacks to past eras, for example, we've already seen a generic native tribe of savages (totally outdated concept) attacking a band of archeologists, which probably hasn't happened in the real world in at least a few decades now, I would hope!  :)  We'll take license like that for the sake of having fun, which is our paramount aim.

[AndyZ]

Wait, is this game already active?

[RedEve]

It is not, we are still hoping for more people to submit before we start. :)

[AndyZ]

Okay, sorry for misunderstanding.

Yeah, trying to think of something interesting that would fit.  No luck so far.

[RedEve]

Okay, sorry for misunderstanding.

Yeah, trying to think of something interesting that would fit.  No luck so far.

Well Rick has suggested a lot of very good archetypes, in fact I hope we get at least some of them in. :)

[rick957]

Maybe you got confused, AndyZ, by the fact that the first two game posts are already here in this thread?  We put them here so that people could get a feel for our characters and the game.  We'll copy and paste those two posts over to the game thread whenever the game actually starts.

[AndyZ]

Yeah, I did get confused.  Sorry.

[rick957]

There's a bullwhip around here somewhere ... If you like, I can give you a few lashes as punishment.  ;)  Or maybe you'd rather RedEve handled the whip ... >:)

[RedEve]

There's a bullwhip around here somewhere ... If you like, I can give you a few lashes as punishment.  ;)  Or maybe you'd rather RedEve handled the whip ... >:)

Only if I can use a Russian accent whilst doing so. :P

[Steppenwolf]

Hi!

I'm interested in joining this game; I'd like to play the love interest - as it were - for the female character. I can play as a guide, as suggested by Eve, or as any kind of expert, be it archaeological or otherwise. I actually have quite an interest in archaeology (and particularly paleontology), so I should be a perfect fit!

I've recently moved country and job, so I haven't been on E very often, but now that I'm settled in and have time again, I'm eager to get my teeth into a good story! I've also never played with a GM, but I'm keen to do so; I understand that the GM's role is merely to set the scene and control the events, and my characters will always respond to the story as appropriately and realistically as possible.

As I've said, I'd love to play an archaeologist (junior/senior/rival/whatever) or a guide; I tend to play intelligent characters ahead of brawny ones. If anything of the sort is open, let me know if you're interested and I'll pull up a character description ASAP! :)

[rick957]

Welcome Steppenwolf, I love your avatar by the way -- never seen that before.  :)  No need to put too much work into a character yet; feel free to start thinking and/or discussing character ideas with us, but no one should do any real writing yet, until we decide who's in the game.

So far we've got Steppenwolf and Katataban who have said they're willing to play.  AndyZ and perhaps Branwen might or might not be interested in joining; we'll wait to hear if they want to be considered or not.  And there's still time for others to be considered too!

As soon as we have four or five people who say they're not just contemplating it but are actually willing to participate, then RedEve and I will put our heads together and figure out who to play with, based on looking at your other posts or intro thread.  We'll let everyone know then.

[Steppenwolf]

Sounds great! I'll check back in routinely :)

[Branwen]

Thank you, Rick.  -1 biscuit for me for not reading carefully enough for details in your original description.