OOC [Recruiting] The Outside Threat

[Delusional]

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments!

 

[Therin]

Sorry for being absent the past few days. This week is finals week, and I've been busy trying not to fail.

It looks good, so far. Nice post, Delusional! I'll try to put one up either today or tomorrow, but I've got a few questions before I can really flesh out my idea. Rizen, can you describe the afflicted to us? You used the terms "hive-mentatlity" and "vampiric", but what else? Is it a variant of sanguine vampiris? Do the afflicted face any physical mutations? Are they after blood, brains, or just carnage for carnage's sake? Are they quick, like vampires, or slow, like zombies? I'm assuming that they're more primal than intelligent, am I wrong? Any info you can give us would be helpful to remain as true to your idea as I can.

 

[rizen]

Good questions! Ok, where to start? Here's my concept of the afflicted...
...In terms of appearance, pretty much human but without blood to sustain them they will begin to deteriorate. As for mutations - Firstly they don't breathe anymore and the skin goes very pale....you're gonna love this part - They have insanely low heartbeats per minute (4 BPM), if their blood is exposed to air (scratches, cuts) it will coagulate very quickly and seal the injury like an accelerated healing. However, this is how a wooden stake to the heart would be effective as it would expose the heart to oxygen and continue to do so if it were to stay lodged in there (I don't know if you're aware of this but timber fibres under a microscope look like tiny straws. It breathes).
The virus could be compared to a parasite that requires a host. A tumor that grows quickly attached to the heart. If samples of the tumor were to be scraped and analysed beneath a microscope, the scientist would think that the sample had been contaminated by mixing in samples of brain tissue (except this brain matter doesn't require oxygen - which is why they don't breathe...the host's brain shuts down and the parasitic 'brain' takes control)...this is pretty much the means of the hive mentality, I haven't figured that bit out yet but when I do, it's gonna be a doozey. Basically, I've taken the oldschool version of a vamp and sci-fi'd it up a bit. Old rules apply (except for holy ground not mattering to them), sunlight burns to death if exposed too long (lack of pigment), can't enter a building unless invited (I haven't thought up a reason for this one aside from it being a saving grace situation when needed)...which are nice little saves when downtime is needed.
The lower level vamps...I guess we could call them 'grunts' or somethng along those lines, are physically driven by the thirst for blood...The higher level vamps I guess could be compared to satellites, bouncing on a broadcast from a source to the grunts. These higher ones are granted with intelligence for sake of keeping their respective dominions in check, and to uphold a balance - a ratio of food/turn btw is 9-1. The virus itself is motivated to dominate...To expand and become the dominant race. The virus' reasoning is that this is a reasonable figure to expand on, what will follow is sustainability, whether this ends up being people treated as livestock and being farmed, I haven't decided yet either.

There's more I can add on top of this but it'd be at the cost of plot twists that I'd like you all to enjoy when they're revealed. Hope that information has helped

 

[Delusional]

So, these afflicted look like a regular human, but their skin is very pale. What about their movement? Does the virus impede their movement? Are they able to run, jump, swim, crouch, etc.? Do they move like a regular human? They have a thirst for blood, but is this all that differs from a regular human's mindset?

Also, if they cannot enter without invitation, wouldn't we be invincible if we just holed up in a fort? Make supply runs every so often, but wouldn't that just allow us to stay put in a building, safe from the afflicted?

 

[rizen]

Yuh, still look human but paled skin, still very mobile but limited to same as human movement. The biggest threat would be getting overwhelmed (think the rage zombies from 28 days later as an example except more strategically)...the mindset isn't all that human (aside from the higher level vamps with the ability to reason, the lower ones solely chase for victims and follow orders from the higher ones).
I didn't want to level the enemy too much to begin with, after all, the characters are average people with little to no combat experience. Don't worry though, as the story progresses, the stakes will raise accordingly.

About the afflicted not entering unless invited...these times give us a chance to flesh out characters, work in backstory, dialogue interactions without getting run-down by vamps, all the good stuff that makes a character feel more real. Yes, in theory it would keep them safe in the short term. But as you say, supply runs would be needed...and vamps aren't necessarilly the only threat. Also, our characters wouldn't know about this being a limitation of the vamps to begin with either and it'd be terribly risky to vouch for your own safety when someone else that is looking out for themselves could be persuaded to say, invite them in?
If it's something you think should be removed, we can do that...but it'll run at the cost of character's stories.

 

[Delusional]

Alright, so the afflicted are just humans, but with minds solely bent on their thirst for blood, meaning they have the same motor skills as a human. Got it.

Yeah, it makes sense that earlier in the outbreak, the infection isn't as bad, but as time passes, the virus grows and becomes more dangerous, making the afflicted harder to deal with.

Yeah, I get that it allows us time to flesh out characters, but I'm not sure that having those dialogue interactions requires a 'safe-zone'. I'm not saying remove it to the point that the stories of the characters are in jeopardy, but allow the chance the afflicted could breach the walls of a safe area, throwing everything into chaos and panic. I'm not saying that no place is safe, I'm saying that there is that chance, that danger, of a breach. We could still have those dialogue interactions, character fleshing-out, and backstory work, but there is that ever looming danger.

Plus, I hope that the afflicted are not everywhere, and we are able to flesh out characters and build backstory while on the road, traveling from place to place.

I'm picturing the Walking Dead as I imagine this, except with the zombies being hive-mentality, bloodthirsty humans. We can hole up in a place and flesh out characters, but that threat of infiltration is omnipresent.

The survivors holed up in the prison for an entire season, but the zombie threat was still there, and breaching was still a danger, but the characters were still able to grow, and the story of the season was able to progress forward.

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense, I'm just spitballing some ideas I have been tossing around in my head.

 

[rizen]

All good, I'm not attached to this concept at all, it's open to evolving...If you think it'd have a better impact to the story with a looming sense of breach, then let's roll with that....To be fair, I hadn't come up with a decent reason for them to require being invited into a premises anyway...also, I had a little bit of an issue with the chances of somebody being in the early stages of turning, being carried into a place where the sick are treated and it all working out...so, forget it, they can infiltrate wherever

 

[Therin]

I have to agree with Delusional on this one. There's no religious aspect to the afflicted; its completely biological, so having an invitation-only rule to a threshold doesn't make much sense, plus it gives us too much safety. If I were in that situation, I would just wait until noon each day, go grab some supplies for a few hours, and return well before sunset, so I'm in little to no danger. The population of Skyrim isn't that large (nor should it be for a sustenance farming civilization), so turning only 1 in every 9 people won't produce a large amount of afflicted, anyway. If you think about it, there would only be one or two per village, at most ten per city. I don't see us being completely overwhelmed by those numbers, so having this rule seems to work too much in our favor. Or maybe I'm just looking at this too closely. At the end of the day, its your story Rizen, and I'll play by your rules.

 

[rizen]

It's all good...perhaps i was too fixated on the character creation to begin with...i have no issues in switching it up...you DO need to be aware that this is not the only threat though...so don't go mistaking this for things being to much in your character's favour...we'll roll more gangsta then....cos damn it feels good to be a gangsta

 

[Delusional]

Yes, soon enough the groups of survivors are going to cross swords at one point or another.

But, I believe that, for the sake of the roleplay, the population of Skyrim should be drastically increased, and the world greatly expanded. In-game Skyrim is a joke, I can walk from Solitude to Riften in less than 24 hours. There's like 20 people living in 'big' cities - and that's simply because anymore, and the system might have been stressed too much.

The size of Skyrim should be exponentially larger, as well as the population. If only ten people from each settlement are infected, what kind of outbreak is that?

 

[A.Auditore]

Alright... So I kinda have no idea on where or how to start my post... which is why I haven't written it yet... ideas on what city I should probably start at?

 

[Delusional]

Well, where does your character live? You should start where they live, and then explain how your character became aware of the disease, whether by a note from a higher-up, like mine, or an actual afflicted appearing in your town, or anything you can think of.

 

[A.Auditore]

I umm just don't know where would be a good place to start you boys where naming off all these places and I kinda got lost and distracted

 

[Delusional]

Well, what city in Skyrim does your character live at/in?

 

[A.Auditore]

-_- I didn't give a place because I didn't know how close I needed to be near wherever we are meeting or whatever

 

[Delusional]

Well, you decide where you want to live in Skyrim. It doesn't really matter how close it is to Fort Sungard (the meeting place).

For reference, Fort Sungard is in the southwest, in between Markarth and Falkreath.

 

[rizen]

Yes, soon enough the groups of survivors are going to cross swords at one point or another.

But, I believe that, for the sake of the roleplay, the population of Skyrim should be drastically increased, and the world greatly expanded. In-game Skyrim is a joke, I can walk from Solitude to Riften in less than 24 hours. There's like 20 people living in 'big' cities - and that's simply because anymore, and the system might have been stressed too much.

The size of Skyrim should be exponentially larger, as well as the population. If only ten people from each settlement are infected, what kind of outbreak is that?

Yeah, thank you, Del Sorry about that, I should have mentioned that earlier. We can assume that the population is greatly increased - a city having the capacity of a city, a town is a town and definitely expand the area more realistically, where a leasurely stroll through an entire mountain range takes only a few hours doesn't quite cut it

Auditore...Since your character is a hunter/farmer, you've probably got the most options of where to begin, either a rural setting or a farm located around the outskirts of any of the cities would be cool...although I tend to think that rural makes more sense since she's a hunter. Even still, that leaves a lot of options.

 

[A.Auditore]

So to say her running into these infected people would be ok or should I pass that off until a later post?

 

[rizen]

However you'd like to begin is fine.

 

[Delusional]

We gonna get this thing on the road? It appears we stalled just outside the city limits.