Avast, ye swabs! - Pirate RP Sign-up Thread

I suppose we have enough people as it is.

Alright then, folks. I honestly don't know what kind of introduction should I write, but know this: you are the crew of one of the most splendidly outrageous ships to ever grace the waters of Lubnara Archipelago, the galleon under the name of Azure Drake. You're either an experienced sea dog or a mere deckhand, a man of the water or maybe a just-reverted-landlubber.

Regardless, apparently one day your beloved Cap'n managed to get a hold of a piece of a treasure map, supposedly leading to a sunken city of old where innumerable treasures - but also worthy guardians protecting them - are gathered. There are three more pieces needed to complete it... and they can only be somewhere 'round the Archipelago. 'course, there will be many lesser adventures involved in this big one as well as dealing with rival pirates and three countries' armadas hunting down any reckless swashbucklers.

Avast, ye swabs! Tell me your names! 'tis a time for an adventure!

---

Char sheet is as follows:

• Name: Self-explanatory.
  • Alias: If applicable.
• Role: What do they do on Azure Drake? Are they a cook, a navigator, a carpenter? Positions of Captain and First Mate are off-limits.
• Age: Keep things sensible in this regard.
• Gender
• Appearance: A picture is nice although a description is nice as well.
• Personality: What defines your pirate? What makes them tick and what makes them happy? Do they have any vice or virtue?
• Abilities: Any skills that can come in handy.
  • Supernatural: Here go any extra qualities if they happen to be, say, an undead lad, a mermaid, a witch-doctor etc.
• Equipment: Pistols, cutlasses, bottles of rum, the works.
• Misc: Anything that was missed in points above that you wish to add.

edited 16th Sep '14 12:33:44 PM by FergardStratoavis

grah

Name: Anita Sanchez

Alias: The Blue Devil

Role: Quartermaster

Age: 47 (Early 30s in human years)

Female

Appearance: Anita is a Siren. She looks roughly human in shape, but has light blue skin, small fins on her arms and legs, and gills on her neck that she prefers to keep covered by her long black hair.

Personality: She's loyal to her shipmates, aye, but everyone else can burn in hellfire as far as she's concerned. Among the crew she's rather jovial, though she views humans as a bit... odd.

Abilities: Good at organization, capable swordswoman, has some carpentry skills.

Supernatural: As a Siren, Anita can breathe underwater, and her voice has a slight hypnotic capability, though it can certainly be resisted. She needs to immerse her body in salt water every 48 hours or so, otherwise she gets violently ill.

Inventory: Cutlass, two pistols, compass, and a barrel of finely aged rum that she guards with extreme jealousy.

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

I'll need a little more information to get Goddard onboard the Azure Drake.

---

• Name: Goddard Burke
  • Alias: The Horror of the High Seas, the Rictus of the Rising Tide
• Role: Demoralizer - Goddard's serves to terrify the foes of the Azure Drake; simply knowing of his cursed presence aboard the ship alone tends to keep rival pirates and pirate hunters off their backs. However, he relishes battle with those poor fools ignorant of him, or brave enough to still engage. He remains in the dark belowdecks in most other situations, as he also frightens his own crew.
• Age: 50s
• Appearance: A clean skeleton wearing the tatters of a long-tailed, dark blue captain's coat.◊ His skull is crowned in a matching tri-corner hat that's seen better years. Ocean-blue specks of light shine in the depths of his eye sockets. His rictus grin displays several silver teeth.
• Personality: Goddard tends to keep to himself, though only by necessity. He is quick to make friends with those who tolerate his presence, however, endlessly telling tales from his long, adventurous life. He can no longer share a drink with his mates, but he'll gladly sing the old songs right along with them. His curse has done nothing to quell his thirst for adventure and exploration. If anything, he pays less heed to superstition than ever; he has already experienced the worst of such things and has little left to lose.
• Abilities: Goddard makes an art form of wielding a boarding axe and knife in either hand. Whether fighting one-on-one or amidst the chaos of boarding, he kills with efficiency and style. He has the skills to captain a ship in his own right, though such is rarely entrusted to him anymore. Goddard is also utterly fearless, for he is the one who spreads terror.
  • Supernatural: Being a skeleton, Goddard need not eat, drink, or breathe. He also cannot swim, and will sink to the bottom of the ocean if he should fall in. Without flesh slowing him down, his agility is something to behold, and he can jump very high. While swords, bullets, and other piercing weapons will find no organs in his body to puncture, blunt impacts that get past his coat can deal catastrophic damage.
• Equipment:
  • Boarding Axe◊
  • Boarding Knife◊ (more of a sword)
  • Double-Barreled Pistol
  • Reinforced Longcoat
• History: ^Expand Decades ago, Goddard Burke was elected captain of his ship after challenging and killing his last, a treasure-hoarding tyrant, in a duel. He made for a popular skipper, sharing the wealth as he and his men captured the fortunes of various nations from trading ships fit to bursting with gold.
  
  Looking to broaden their horizons, he set sail for the far east. He found the customs there quite strange, but the fighting and plunder was as good as ever. Yet he did not understand why their temples were left utterly unguarded. His assumption was that they did not carry the riches found in the west, but he was soon proven wrong.
  
  Goddard landed his ship upon a small island with one such; a dominant, multi-tiered building with sloping roofs. He led a small crew to explore the place - the only men who weren't so cowardly as to warn him from doing so, as it turned out. The rest of the fools cited "bad feelings" about the place, but Goddard curiosity far outweighed the ominous chill of the island.
  
  Inside, he found beautiful statuettes of jade, piles of gold and silver, and most notably, an ornamental parang sword that seemed to glitter with ethereal moonlight. He ordered his men to gather as much as they could, but as they began to leave, the temple awakened. Darts tipped with ancient maladies turned two of his men to bloated, screaming piles of pus. Another man was split in two by a swinging guillotine, and a fourth found himself transfixed by a wicked spike that suddenly appeared from the elaborate stonework. Goddard felt a sickness creeping within himself, and as he ran, dodging all manner of cunning traps, he dropped the glittering sword in surrender to the spirits that apparently haunted the place.
  
  That did not appease them, he found. To his horror, as he reached the entrance to the temple, his flesh began to slough off like cooked meat. He ran shouting to his ship for his men to attend him, but seeing what appeared to be a walking corpse, his crewmates lost what was left of their nerve set and off, presumably toward familiar seas.
  
  Marooned on the island, he found he would not die. Not from the affliction that took his skin, nor from starvation or thirst, for that matter. He realized he could walk the ocean floor without needing air, and by this method, slowly reached an inhabited isle where he could climb aboard a docked ship.
  
  With an ill-concieved plan to capture the ship, Goddard attempted to take the captain hostage and order it westward. The man showed no fear, however, and by happy coincidence, this Azure Drake was due to head back that way regardless. Despite his frightening appearance, the captain negotiated Goddard's service in exchange for the trip, and to forget the desperate attempt to commandeer the vessel.
  
  As the years passed, due to Goddard's presence the ship developed a reputation of housing a curse as black as the seas themselves. To this day the captain has done nothing to dismiss the rumors, as they drive off all but the most brave or foolish who would otherwise pose a threat, as well as doing the same for any potential crewmen - only the brave or foolish are fit to serve aboard the Azure Drake, after all.

edited 17th Oct '14 8:42:01 AM by StygianEmperor

Flesh is a design flaw.

• Name: Hadrien Corby
• Alias: The Crow, "Chase Jackson"
• Role: Assassin: Hadrien is a skilled swordsman, allowing him to serve as a bodygaurd or enforcer, however, he also has a knack for stealthy(ish) and his above average agility allows him to serve as a lookout, or assassin.
• Age: 31
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Hadrien is a thin, scrawny man standing about 5,10 tops, He has two cutlasses hanging from his belt on each side, and an oppened button up shirt with the sleeves torn off at the elbow, over a red sash and black boots. he has neck length brown hair, and a red bandana which he often wears as a headband.
• Personality: Corby is sarcastic a hedonist, known throughout the crew for sleeping around, and being drunk seemingly more than he is known for his unique skills. He tends to enjoy going into wild escapades, which more often than not has resulted in him being arrested, Corby also exhibits an interesting view of magic, where, if it's against him, he will almost always try to reason it away, while if it's able to help him, He'll believe in it with all his heart.
• Abilities: Ambidexterous, Corby is an extremely accomplished swordsman, capable of using two cutlasses at once with ease. He is also extremely good at climbing, capable of scaling almost sheer cliffs and not even having to use the riggings to reach the crow's nest. He also has a silver tongue and a knack for pickpocketing.
• Equipment: Corby has two Cutlasses, along with a pair of daggers hidden in his boots, and a pair of pocket pistols in his, well pockets. He also often has a jug of rum.

edited 17th Sep '14 5:52:26 PM by TroyandHawk

Good to be back

Tired now, will try to post character tomorrow.

Trump delenda est

All three look pretty well for me. They're initially accepted until Truth has a look and confirms.

Pretty sure it's just a formality though. Welcome aboard. :)

grah

• Name: Karim bin Soussan
• Role: Ships doctor, alchemist, spy (Only the Captain and First Mate know about this last part.
• Age: 43
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: A small man of Middle Eastern appearance with dark eyes and greying hair who looks about ten years older than he is with large ears. Usually wears loose, flowing robes and a turban.
• Personality: Quiet and meticulously neat in both his person and his surgery. Prone to cryptic and sarcastic remarks. The more observant will notice that he always seems to be looking or listening for something. Prone to popping up seemingly out of nowhere.
• Abilities:
  • Herbalism and Alchemy: This extends both to cures and poisons. Also to explosives.
  • Surgeon: A good cutter, his patients tend to have a better than average chance at recovery due to his cleanliness and his habit of rubbing his instruments in alcohol

The following skills are ones he doesn't advertise and like his role as spy are only known by the Captain and First Mate although more intelligent crew members may suspect something

• Stealth: He is very good at moving quietly and in hiding in spots you wouldn't think he could fit.
• Lockpicking
• Knives: His skills with knives extend beyond the operating room whether hand to hand or throwing them.
• Garrote
• Martial Arts: Skilled at unarmed as well as armed combat
• Demolitions: quite good at both making and handling things that go "Boom!"

• Equipment:
  • Various herbal and chemical compounds
  • Various surgical tools
  • A laquered wooden box kept hidden in a false bottom of his medicine cabinet containing:
    • Some well balanced throwing knives
    • Some extremely nasty poisons
    • a wire garrote.

edited 17th Sep '14 11:59:00 AM by tricksterson

Trump delenda est

• Name: Ambrose Wake
• Role: Navigator. Although he doesn't steer the ship, he plots its course and mans the crow's nest.
• Age: 25
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: A lanky man, fairly skinny but notably tall. He has dark hair, which is short but constantly untidy and piercing blue eyes. He wears typical practical clothing, with a spot on each side of his belt to hold his daggers.
• Personality: Ambrose is excitable and seems to be present mostly for the adventure, despite being fully aware of the more serious aspects of their occupation. He's also loud and makes his opinions known but is fairly friendly, attempting to make a good ally of every member of the crew.
• Abilities: His most notable skill is navigation. The sea and the stars above it are almost second nature to him and if he has a map and a compass, there's no doubt that he can reach his destination. He's equally skilled on land and has notable climbing ability. Beside that, he's also reasonable with his daggers.
  • Supernatural: He owns a magic compass that he refers to as the Celestial Eye. Normally it just points north but when he focuses on it, it shows him the stars above him and along his route. With this, he can navigate even in the worst of weather.
• Equipment: His two sharp daggers as well as the celestial eye, an additional mundane compass and numerous other navigational tools.

I was under the impression that the quartermaster functioned as the navigator. If not, what exactly do they do?

Flesh is a design flaw.

Quartermaster was basically the caretaker of the ship.

Just a quick question, what would be a reasonable age for a very young shipmate? I had considered going for a lad of 13, just wondering if you'd shoot that down from the start or like to see the rest of the profile, I can submit one fairly soon if you think that's fine

I am smiling

Well, while kids on ships were anything extraordinary, being a pirate requires some experience. I'd say somewhere around 15 at least.

As for the other two, they look fine to me. Like with the others, they're formally accepted, but I'm sure it's mostly a formality to stamp an OK on them. Welcome aboard. :)

grah

In the end I decided on a slightly older but still relatively young character, so here goes: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: Benjamin "Brando" Acosta

Age: 19

Role: cabin boy, common sailor and rigger

Appearance: About 5 feet 7 inches, lightly built but not thin, with very tanned skin and unkempt curly black hair. he often wears a thin long sleeved shirt under a sleeveless leather jacket, with baggy shorts tied off at the knee. He wears a scarf belt which conceals a pair of karambit knives worn one at each hip and sometimes wears a bandanna to keep his hair out of his eyes while he works.

Personality: Benjamin (he prefers Benjamin or Brando as he hates being called Ben or simply 'boy') is often quiet and has a bad habit of talking to himself or appearing lost in thought in pressing situations. He tends not to trust people until he's known them for a long time, and is quite superstitious, even bringing some of his home customs aboard, hanging various odd, sweet-smelling herbs around his sleeping quarters. He would definitely find it hard to get along with any non-human crewmates, but he isn't one to start arguments. He keeps himself well to himself and often won't respond to an order with anything more than a barked "Aye" unless he heavily suspects something is wrong.

Abilities: Trained in the martial art Eskrima, specialising in knives and improvised weaponry, Benjamin is a skilled close quarters fighter. He is also a keen hunter and is proficient with most spears and is a competent sword fighter. His diminutive size and relative inexperience puts him at quite a disadvantage in a fair fight, but he is surprisingly fast and agile, making him good at running and dodging away from enemies and climbing and useful as a rigger on board the ship.

On land, he has good survival skills, being good at hunting and fishing, and able to quickly discern which plants and berries are safe to eat or can be used as medicine.

Supernatural Skills: Benjamin keeps an ancient tome called the Grimoire of the Deep, the writing in which is incoherent to anyone else as though the page has been soaked and the ink has run, though Benjamin can read it perfectly. The pages also seem to shuffle and change if the book is closed, with Benjamin using bookmarks of various forms that he finds within the book to return quickly to important pages.

Benjamin also claims to have a sixth sense, making him better at seeing through disguises, sensing traps and sometimes receiving strange dreams and visions.

Equipment: a pair of balisongs (butterfly knives) a pair of karambits worn one at each hip, with self-made knuckle duster attachments a pinuti (a cutlass-like sword with an 18 inch blade) several sibats (rattan spears with metal heads) with various heads for different purposes. the Grimoire of the Deep, with a few lock-boxes and books used to store bookmarks. assorted knives and karambits of Phillipine origin

History: Benjamin hails from one of the larger islands in the south of the Lubnara archipelago, where as an orphan he worked from the age of nine as an indentured servant to a wealthy merchant. When the merchant discovered he had the ability to read the Grimoire , he began to train him in its use. Many years passed until the captain of the Azure Drake heard a legend of a man with a tome "The reader of which holds the magnitude of the wind and tides" living on said island.

When they made port and sought out the home of the merchant, they found it ransacked and learned the old man had been murdered. The Grimoire was passed on to Benjamin, as the old man had given it to him and sent him to live elsewhere just a few nights before his death. Benjamin heard of the pirate crew in search of him and the book, and made contact with them shortly after an attempt was made on his own life. He joined the crew hoping to lend his supernatural talents to completing the map and finding the treasure, as well as to try and escape whoever was trying to get their hands on the Grimoire.

I am smiling

Looks good, even if he's likely gonna have trouble with all these weapons on his person.

I'm gonna have ask though, what does this Grimoire do? Either I'm missing something or it... seems a bit lacking in its ability.

Regardless, welcome aboard. :)

grah

ah sorry, when I originally typed in the bio it got lost in the internet on the way so i had to do it again, I can see I forgot some things, mainly that.

The Grimoire is an encyclopaedia of occult knowledge, especially fate and the secrets of the seas. It requires both the rare gift and some serious training to read it, let alone know what to do with it.

It supposedly can predict the future, but this is very sketchy, mainly because the things it predicts are not always likely, entirely true or easy to understand.

It also has a nasty habit of surrounding anyone who would try to steal/misuse it with a vindictive case of bad fortune, even if they fail to do so. It clearly "wants" to stay with it's proper owner, which is currently Benjamin.

I am smiling

• Name: Theo Braxton
  • Alias: Raphael Harper

• Role: An information broker and mage, he gathers info from whatever insects he can find.

• Male

• Age: 36

• Appearance: A slender Eastern European man with glasses, wearing a loose green coat that is two times his size, with rolled-up pants, he wears a buttoned-up shirt. Wears boots. He has curly blond hair and stubble. He has an intricately carved ruby ring on his right index finger. When wearing disguises, he applies makeup and a vast collection of wigs.

• Personality: He's charming and friendly to all but is paranoid that they will go after him. His greed can also blind his common sense, once he hears about something, he will want no matter, damn the consequences. He tries to make friends with all those he meets, seeing them as potential allies for whatever he plans. He doesn't drink alcohol, preferring to smoke. Also a chronic liar.

• Skills: Employs rapid-fire talk, obfuscation, lies, charm and manipulation in order to get his information, good with pistols, likes to play with poker cards
  • Supernatural: Can control bugs and uses them as low-level spies to record data and as a mass swarm attack enemies

• Equipment (all kept in his coat):
  • A battered deck of poker cards
  • Two pistols
  • Notebook and pen
  • Small cage for his personal pet beetle
  • Several cigarettes and lighter

edited 20th Sep '14 8:06:20 AM by Nouct

Oh God, I'm terribly sorry for not noticing your entry. D:

He looks okay from what I see though. Welcome aboard. :)

Also, posting this to see if the interest is still alive. I kinda neglected the whole thing... anyone who's posted an accepted char sheet, stand up!

grah

Thanks, I wasn't sure if it was a good character or not.

I guess I should have followed up with finishing Goddard's background. I'll figure something out.

Edit: Done.

edited 25th Sep '14 2:29:25 AM by StygianEmperor

Flesh is a design flaw.

Still here.

I'm ready to start the arrrrrrrrr-p

Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!

Aye, ye lubbers I still be herrre.

Trump delenda est

I'm at the ready Cap'n, I've been away too these past couple of days, but I'm ready whenever So how many crew does that make now, with any people who have reserved spots but haven't put up their character sheets yet? I'm guessing we'll have some NPC crew too to make up the numbers, is that something we've addressed already?

I am smiling

Well, since Truth backed down there will be some NPC's for sure.

I... honestly have no idea how to make this whole thing work out, so I suppose there will be a lot of improvising once we get rolling. ^_^;

grah

Is this not going to happen?

Flesh is a design flaw.