Phase 2 ~ Merry Christmas / Strange Southern Sightings!
Date: December, 2598
In the beginning of December, Joseph gathers as many people as possible into a colony-wide meeting. Leading the +250 large crowd, he first explains the details of his new policy regarding children, stating that a child may come off of the ship accompanied by an adult and no less than 50 meters away, with a one child per adult supervisor ratio. The response is widespread approval, especially among the children who have become tired with the ship they had been on for years now, and we anxious to explore the outside world.
Next is a meeting process. Various names are suggested, including Arstotzka which Regalia initially critiques for lacking any symbolic significance, and it falls through not for the cybergirl's protests but instead because it is simply difficult for everyone announced. Instead,
Novus becomes the name of the colony to the liking of everyone.
The final policy adjustment is made in regards to the safety of the colony, no one is allowed beyond two hundred and fifty meters of the ship unless they are in groups larger than ten. There is some protest to this, but Joseph reaffirms that it is necessary due to the sightings of larger creatures among the horizon. With that, the protests are silent, and the protesters realize that if they simply gather in groups of over ten people, they can still explore so there is no difficulty in enacting the said change.
To conclude the meeting, Joseph personally volunteers to demonstrate how to chop down trees for the benefit of the colony.
As Joseph proceeds to demonstrate the cutting down of trees, Jakub takes one of the unused laser saws in storage and begins to tinker it to try and figure out a more optimal design for the task at hand. [Mechanical Engineering: 4+2] He finds out the saws have been designed in operating with a delicate pattern of parts and electrical systems to the extent that tampering with them even a little causes the entire system to malfunction, making them extremely difficult to modify. Jakub is disappointed by this, and a bit frustrated by
Cornel Tools Inc., the manufacturer of these devices for making them this way, but he does manage to find a setting that will make them significantly less dangerous for those that use them, which he immediately speaks to Joseph of; the leader congradulates Jakub on making the work safer which will benefit the colony as a whole.
Jakub then goes about constructing a bandsaw, hooking it up to the solar panel electrical system on the ship. [Mechanical Engineering:7+2] This goes much smoother and by the end of 2598, Jakub has constructed a fully functional solar-powered Bandsaw on the ship. The colony appears to be excited and impressed by this innovation and begins discussing possible plans about dedicating an entire workshop for these type of projects, but that would require either converting some of the space on the ship or making a new structure outside.
With Jakub's new developments in safety, Joseph begins to demonstrate his wood-chopping prowess but not before Cynthia has the opportunity to tell him why people got injured cutting down the trees in the first place: the lemon-like fruit that grows on top of them will burst on contact when people touch them. This makes sense, since those injuries occurred when people were climbing up the trees in an attempt to tree and deleaf them earlier, they must have inadvertently come into contact with the Lemoon fruit, which exploded on them and caused them to fall. With this knowledge in mind, Joseph carefully begins hacking away at a nearby tree with a group of workers surrounding him. [3] Joseph's tree cutting starts out with an engrossed crowd, which begins to thin out as Joseph takes a very long while to get this tree on the ground. By the time he is finished, Joseph has cut down one tree when there are thousands visible just by looking around, and his taken several hours. Despite not saying anything, the workforce is not impressed. [4] Under Joseph's guidance, the efforts to continue reclaiming the land go slowly. During the December month, a small patch of Lemoon trees are felled and by Joseph's estimates, at the current rate they are going the reclamation should be done in...a little under 10 months.
Joseph distracts himself from the somewhat failing land reclamation project by focusing on a field he is much more familiar in than lumbering, constructing, particularly in constructing the distillery. [Construction: 7+2] And here there is great success! Before the Christmas comes, the first structure on Lustrum is complete, the Distillery! Inside this building, several large steel drums and constantly boiling away, (currently hooked up to the ship without their own power supply) and should provide a great boon to the drinking of both clean water and potentially even alcohol for the colony. Joseph makes a special occasion of this, gathering the colonists around and converting swamp water to a clean glass of water for himself, and then proceeding to make every other colonist a glass should they want it.
Mao continues leading the Cooking Corps in their baking duties and with the discovery of new edible berries, attempts to create a new dish with these berries as a central ingredient. [Asian Cuisine Cooking: 2+2] Mao develops a sort of bun-style snack forming a bun with bread with a blue berry centered. When Mao has some members of the Cooking Corps taste his new concotion, they reject it as flavorless; it turns out that Mao's method for making this new recipe involves heating up the berries until the sugar evaporates and leaving a rather flavorless pile of blue goop to be eaten. Mao doesn't understand, as he likes this new meal just fine!
Mao Discovers a Blueberry Bun Snack Recipe (That Only He Likes)!Lenny and his robot companion go around the ship collecting the waste material being thrown out by colonists, salvaging the usable material while neatly compacting the rest. [Scavenging: 3+2] This turns out to be less of the salvaging and more of the compacting. Lenny gets a little frustrated at the lack of good stuff being thrown out that he could use or repurpose, while his metal buddy is perfectly contact with sorting everything into perfectly shaped boxes being kept in a corner. Observers from around the colony are now taking note of this highly precise area of garbage squares is has been built by Lenny and his machine and continues to grow each day. Lenny does find a plastic hairbrush in good condition that he could either keep or hand over to his companion.
A few colonists complain about the squares that the robot is building, saying that they are a health hazard.
Adam, popular with the other children, uses his newfound skills and potential to complete an objective previously never successful: finding a girlfriend. He does this be helping the girls with their computer based devices and uploading copies of his game to their software. [Seduction: 9] Adam's games are so good and his ability to talk to girls, (this ability mainly stems from the fact that if they have questions about the game he is the chief person to ask) nets him not only one close female acquaintance but two. Madalyn is a Greek girl, with long black hair, glasses and glasses. She's the same age as Adam and, like him, she was a person who mainly kept to herself and her electronics back on Earth, and the two of them are able to easily bond over their shared background. Then there is Principe, a Cameroonian aged 16 with flowing braids. Unlike Adam or Madalyn, she's seems like the type of person to attract and bask in attention. Still, she talks to Adam and appreciates the games he supplies which cuts down on her boredom. Plus, she commands authority and respect by being the oldest child on the colony, and Adam learns she is sort of the de facto leader of the children, (some say they have seen her going up and directly speaking to Joseph!) which he notes carefully. With two loving girls, Adam knows that he must make a crucial choice. Or does he? After all, new planets, new rules, right?
Cynthia spends the month of December searching the perimeter of the colony looking for anything new or odd. She asks for some assistance for safety reasons when doing so, [Charm: 10] and attracts a group of able bodied men (and handful of women) to protect her, perhaps too closely. Who knew that corny science jokes counted as flirting nowadays? The upside of having a dozen-plus attentive companions is that they are able to travel beyond the set boundaries of the colonies per Joseph's policy. [Scanning: 7+2(Biology)] In the weeks of December and across the duration of several short-term treks that lasted a couple days at the longest, Cynthia is able to find what she considers multiple important discoveries. First of all, her efforts are rewarded in Discovering the creatures able to devour the Lemoon Fruit without being injured in the process, which must be the same creatures responsible for the seed distribution of the trees. Additionally she Discovers a quadruped land-based species, as well as the first type of observable aquatic life that anyone has been able to observe so far. Giddy like a child, Cynthia comes back to the base of the colony to report her findings.
Cynthia Discovers Lemoon Fruit Eating Species!
Cynthia Discovers a Land-based Quadruped Species! (Squirrel-sized)
Cynthia Discovers a Tiny Aquatic Species! (Minnow-sized)Koran, along with Mahyang and Bonfio, continue to travel far and wide searching for animals. [Tracking: 9] While out in the swamp, the trio is confronted with and attacked by a group of animals that are over knee-height! When the pack charges forward, each of the Hunters fires into the crowd, causing the critters to scurry off and killing one of them in the process. The three of them look over the body, observing it and marking it as a new Discovery. As such, they carry it back to the camp as a specimen to be observed. While some of the colonists are intrigued by the find of this new animal that attacked the three of them, others are dismayed at their breaking of Joseph's policies.
A few colonists report Koran and his hunting companions to Joseph, stating that they ventured far out into the wilderness with a group of only three.
Koran discovers a Hostile Knee-High Species! (Wild Boar-sized)
Several colonialists take it upon themselves to carry out a Christmas/New Year's celebration which Joseph does not explicit prohibit (nor endorse). [Festivities: 8] The celebration is led by Dr. Rahmich Noleto, formerly a dean at a prestigious Christian university. While it is mainly Christians preparing this event, people of all different creeds and backgrounds also help, because regardless of its religious connotations this as an occasion to spread cheer and hope to Lustrum. A nearby tree is decorated and food such as stuffed turkey and roasted ham is served, (Mao acquiesces for Christmas day, allowing Christmas food to be on the menu instead of Asian Cuisine as usual). There is no work for the day and songs are sang, most importantly, presents are distributed!
Joseph receives a Top Hat and a Silver Walking Stick.
Mao receives a Metal Spatula and a Chef's Hat.
Regalia receives a Frilly Black Dress.
Cynthia receives a Spade, a pair of Binoculars, a pair of Hiking Boots, and an Electric Lantern. She is also offered a kiss from one member of her "guard" which she rejects graciously and no hard feelings are had.
Jakub receives a Wrench.
Adam receives a copy of the game "Street Kombat: Unleashed".
Ilyena receives a Trapping Kit.
Koran receives a Machete.
Gaspard receives a new Fishing Rod.
Lenny receives a Companion Cube.
The celebrations last a few days longer than planned, with everyone enjoying them so much. While they are going on, Gaspard personally stands watch at the Southern edge of the colony, looking for the large creature that was spotted in the previous month lurking about. Gaspard does not carry a rifle, instead he wields an improvised Club made of Lemoon wood that he claims will knock the creature out if it should attack him, (Gaspard also claims to have incapacitated bears and gators in the Louisiana bayou with this same method). [Perception vs. Stealth: 7 vs. 2+2] Gaspard, in the distance, spots the creature coming towards him! He hides in a patch of bushes nearby, club at the ready.
Coca, meanwhile, has come back to the ship and is attempting to sneak back on to it and get some valuable supplies. As she creeps closer, trying her best to be elusive, she can't help but feel that someone is watching her...[Perception vs. Stealth: 7 vs. 6] Just before she clears the line of trees, Coca sees a pair of eyes in a bush glaring at her. Her eyes widen and she runs back into the swamp at a blistering pace, heart pounding and unable to stop. Gaspard jumps out of the bush and yells at her to wait, realizing that his "animal" is not some sort of alien killing machine but a human child! But is too late, her agile and nimble body is out of eyesight and venturing that deep into the swamp would endanger himself needlessly, as well as endanger the colony if he brought back some dangerous lifeform by accident.
Coca makes her way into the brush and when out of sight, takes a rest, sitting down and panting. [Swamp Survival: 5] Unwilling to return to the ship, at least for the rest of December if not longer, she continues to live off of the land, supporting herself on a meager diet of blue berries and whatever clean water she can find. She is still debating whether or not to catch and eat one of those Flying Spiders, not sure if they would be toxic or not, despite them not bothering her. Life continues to be dull and lonely.
Gaspard returns to the colony thinking about who and what he should tell about this sighting when he finds that he is not done finding shocking new information; he steps onto what looks like a log, but is far squisher. He looks down and sees a body, lying facedown! He quickly rolls it onto its back and realizes that it's Alex Shatter, dead!
Looking over Alex for a few minutes, Gaspard gets a rough idea for the cause of his death and runs back to the colony to find it still in the full swing of celebrations! What is he to do?
Gaspard has Discovered Information About Alex's Death![In this case, Gaspard has Discovered roughly what the "cause" of Alex's death may have been, but not any information leading to the source. The cause itself can be anything from an accident, (ex., found him crushed beneath a pile of Lemoon fruit) suicide (he throat was slit and he was holding a blade), betrayal (he was shot in the back of the head), slaying (something had broken his limbs, something stronger than a human), or whatever you think of. If you wish, Gaspard can have found something ambiguous enough that he isn't sure what could have caused it.]
Due to the Christmas/New Year celebrations, more supplies were consumed than usual: 1.2 Months worth of Food & Water.
2598
November:
Koran Smith - "Flying Spiders"
Ilyena - "Lustrumian Tree Borer"
Gaspard - Small Mushroom-like Plant Cluster.
Lenny Morgan - Species of Blue Berry.
Cynthia Redguard - Citresius Arborium "Lemoon Tree" & "Springhole Shrub"
December:
Mao Zedong Liu - Blueberry Bun Snack Recipe.
Cynthia Redguard - Lemoon Fruit Eating Species, Land-based Quadruped Species, Tiny Aquatic Species.
Koran - Hostile Knee-High Species.
2598
October - The S.S. Primus lands on Lustrum.
November - Joseph Lenox becomes the unofficial leader of the colony.
December - The Colony is officially named "Novus". The Distillery is completed.
Population: 300 (231 Adults, 40 Children, 29 Elders)
Incapacitated: 4
Sick: 0
Deceased: 0
The Colony of Novus
Leader: Joseph Lenox
Co-Leader & Leader of Cooking Corps: "Chairman" Mao
Marshal of Entertainment: Regalia Hawthorne
Projects:
Land Reclaiming Process [11%]
Distillery [50%]
Collective Inventory:
S.S. Primus Ship
- Food & Water Supplies [9.8 Months Remaining]
- Oxygen Recycler
- Housing
- Medical Facilities
- Excersise Facilities
- Entertaiment Facilities
- Solar-powered Bandsaw (Built by Jakub Kucharz)
Exterior Structures:
- Solar-powered Distillery
Name: Joseph Lenox (Coolrune206)
Gender: Male
Age: 44
Skills: Leadership [Level 4] Construction [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Revolver [Family Heirloom] [Well Maintained] [No Ammunition], Top Hat, Silver Walking Stick
Name: Regalia Hawthorne (AbstractTraitorHero)
Race: Cyborg
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Skills: Fencing [Level 4] Entertainment [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Solar-powered Jukebox [Morale Bonus] [Tons of Songs!], Frilly Black Dress
Name: Mao Zedong Liu (Nakéen)
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Skills: Asian Cuisine Cooking [Level 4] Cook-Fu [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Ancient Wok [Family Heirloom] [Well Maintained] [Unusually Strong], Metal Spatula, Chef's Hat,
Name: Cynthia Redguard (DigitalDemon)
Gender: Female
Age: Young Adult - 29
Skills: Biology [Level 4], Archaeology [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Prototype Area Scanner Model 9X271 [Family Heirloom] [Advanced Scanner] [Prototype Quirks], Spade, Binoculars, Hiking Boots, Electric Lantern
Name: Jakub 'Cook' Kucharz (Wozzy)
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Skills: Welding [Level 4] Mechanical Engineering [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: KSH20 Electron Beam Welder [Contains Welding Mask & 20lb. Capacitor] [Self-recharging] [Must be carried on back], Wrench
Name: Adam Red (Ukrainian Ranger)
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Skills: Programming [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Artificial Intelligence "Oppo" within Gaming Console [Self-Learning], "Street Kombat: Unleashed" Game
Name: Ilyena (Urist Reborn)
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Skills: Big Game Hunting [Level 4] Piezoelectrics [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Piezoelectric Bolas [Electric Weapon] [Continuous Shock], Trapping Kit
Name: Koran Smith (Greatness942)
Gender: Male
Age: 51
Skills: Hunting [Level 4] Gathering [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Blunderbuss [Ancient Weapon] [2 Shot Capacity] [Can Improvised Ammunition], Machete
Name: Coca Bucket (Fniff)
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Skills: Stealth [Level 4]
Status:Normal
Inventory: Stowaway Pipe [Improvisable Multi-Tool]
Name: Gaspard Doucet
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Skills: Swamp Survival [Level 4] Navigation [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Gaspard's Swamp Kit [Navigational & Survival Tool] [Comprehendable Only to Gaspard], New Fishing Rod
Name: Lenny Morgan (Vgray)
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Skills: Scavenging [Level 4]
Status: Normal
Inventory: Slightly Used Waste Allocation Load Lifter [Loyal Companion] [Cleaning/Ordering Specialization], Pile of Twigs, Pile of Blue Berries, Plastic Hairbrush, Companion Cube
That took a lot longer to finish than intended. Sorry guys. X_x
I aged everyone by 1 as I will do at the beginning of every year. I hope everyone finds this reasonable.
If I missed anyone's action on accident, please tell me.
Author
Topic: Pioneers - Phase 3 ~ Cooking Up a Storm (Read 25230 times)