CHARP! Island of Chzesnabu - August Thursday 19th @ 12 Noon to 3PM Central

[Diana]

ISLAND OF CHZESHNABU
THURSDAY AUGUST 19TH @ 12PM - 3PM CENTRAL TIME​

Researchers from different fields have chartered a boat out into the Bermuda Triangle only to find themselves trapped in a nasty storm. When the boat capsizes and they wash up on an island, this hodgepodge group of people find that they may longer be on Earth.

EVENT INFO

WHO: Everyone is invited! Character Bios/Pics are not required, but totally encouraged! Post 'em if you got 'em.

WHAT: This is a modern otherworld fantasy! Players are either one of the very normal human researchers from the washed up ship, or you can be a strange islander that lives in this other world.

WHEN: THURSDAY AUGUST 19TH @ 12PM TO 3PM CENTRAL TIME

WHERE: Join us in the ISLAND OF CHZESHNABU chat room. You'll find the link to our chats in the CHAT tab when it's time to play.

HOW: This is a SOCIAL SETTING WITH IMPROVISATIONAL GAME MASTERING. That means the object of this roleplay is to interact with other characters, and from those interactions I will create a plot and story around you. There will be action moments, where strange events will happen and your characters will have to work together to resolve it. With this ChaRP "lol random" behaviors are discouraged -- what your character says and does will have in game consequences, so choose wisely!

My roleplays are always NEWBIE FRIENDLY so even if you are terrible at roleplay or have never participated in a ChaRP before, this will be easy for you to get involved in. :D Ask questions, let me know when you need help. I often give tips and direction out of character in the main chat room when people need a little direction.

EASY CHARP TIPS!

Try to show up a good 10 to 15 minutes before the ChaRP is to begin. That way you can read up on any important info, and it makes it easier for your GM to know how to start off the ChaRP when there's a head count.

Don't worry if another player is doing something similar to your idea. DO IT ANYWAY! Similarities and things in common happen in real life too. Everyone also plays differently, so two characters who are both "sweet and shy" will still end up being totally unique people. Two assassins could create a fun and interesting conflict!

Talking to other players about their character before the roleplay is a GREAT way to create connections and background for your own!

Post SHORT AND FAST. Charps are very quick pace and contain a LOT of players. Players can't wait 20 minutes for you to write a wall of text, and if there's too much text they won't be able to read it fast enough and will MISS details. If it takes you longer than two minutes to type your post, you are taking too long and might get lost in the action. This is an exercise in quick and concise writing!

Make sure your character name is mentioned in every post, close to the start of it if possible. This is especially helpful when there's many players, so we know who is playing what character.

Like in Real Life, a character may not be able to acknowledge or notice your character immediately because they are engaged in doing something else. (For example a new character walking in to the room, but the other characters arguing about muffins and do not see them.) Don't get discouraged if you go can't get someone to interact with you right away. Just keep posting and doing actions with your character, or even approach others who also seem to be idle and it WILL happen.

Do not take events in the roleplay personally or assume that bad reactions are because they think you/your character sucks. Everyone is playing a character and reacting to things as their character would!

 

[Diana]

This is todaaaaay!@

 

[Zarko Straadi]

Name: Katarzhyna Nikolaeva Karpova
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Orientation: Asexual
Profession: Underwater Archaeologist
Personality: Katarzhyna is curious and open-minded, but has a low tolerance for charlatans who distort ancient history for profit and cast aspersions against her profession. One of her main hobbies is debunking the claims of "alternate archaeology" programs such as Ancient Aliens and tour promoters like Brien Foerster. To that end, she makes YouTube videos showing that ancient peoples could have created the monuments and artifacts of their civilizations without needing any high-tech assistance from aliens or Atlanteans, by replicating some of their "impossible" feats (such as the creation of granite and diorite vases, and flat polished surfaces in granite) using tools they were known to possess or could have built.

Even so, she is intrigued by the possibility that civilizations could have existed during the last Ice Age or before. Since most human settlements are along coastlines, Katarzhyna hopes to find evidence of lost cities that would have been submerged by rising sea levels as the ice sheets melted.

Background: Katarzhyna was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1993. Her childhood was marked by the tumultuous years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency. Her parents were academicians during Soviet times, and enjoyed a comfortable and secure, though modest lifestyle. After the fall of the Soviet Union, government funding for their studies vanished, and they fell into poverty. When Katarzhyna was six, they were living on the street, and she helped them get by by playing the violin for tourists and the wealthy while her father played the balalaika and her mother sang.

After Vladimir Putin succeeded Yeltsin, conditions gradually improved. Nonetheless, Katarzhyna was scarred by her experience of life on the edge, so she pushed herself hard in school, and earned a scholarship that paved the way to a university education. Having had personal experience with the aftermath of a civilization's fall, she became fascinated with civilizations of the past, and pursued a career in archaeology.

On a college trip to Crimea, she went snorkeling with her friends, and was filled with wonder at the beauty of the underwater world. Wanting to dive deeper, she set out to learn SCUBA and boating. After graduation, Katarzhyna joined her passion for ancient history with her love of the sea by becoming an underwater archaeologist. Not only does this give her the chance to quest for lost civilizations, she is also able to dive for more conventional finds, such as ancient shipwrecks.

She has joined the expedition into the Bermuda Triangle in hopes of confirming or refuting alleged sightings of pyramids under the Caribbean sea near Cuba, and thoroughly exploring the Bimini "road" to settle the controversy of its origins once and for all.

Equipment: Katarzhyna has a set of SCUBA gear, a diver propulsion vehicle (DPV), a ROV submersible with GPS, sonar, spotlights, high-resolution cameras, magnetometer, a pair of manipulator arms, and a water-jet that can be used to blow sediment away from buried objects. She also has a small water dredge and a set of excavator's hand tools, as well as a wristwatch-sized depth gauge and a tape measure suitable for underwater use. Her smartphone has a rugged waterproof case, and she also has a waterproof GoPro and a professional diver's camera. She has a notebook for recording and sketching her findings, just in case her more high-tech tools should fail.

 

[Zarko Straadi]

THE LOGS OF CHZESNABU

• 
  Diana:
  This is a modern fantasy roleplay where a bunch of researchers are now lost in the Bermuda Triangle and have landed on this strange island after a storm sank their ship!
  
  
  Today at 9:57 AM

• 
  Diana:
  Game Master posts appear in this bright bold yellow, so pay attention to those! They're giving you hints and directions for what to do next.
  
  
  Today at 9:58 AM

• 
  Diana:
  TYPE FAST AND KEEP IT BRIEF! We're paying in real time, so if you take too long you might miss out on the action. If you write too much, people miss details! Stick to 10 sentences or less.
  
  
  Today at 9:59 AM

• 
  Diana:
  Put your character's name in the first sentence of each post so we know who is playing who. You can also make use of color bbcode to help differentiate your posts from others!
  
  
  Today at 10:00 AM

• 
  Diana:
  My roleplays are always NEWBIE FRIENDLY! Don't worry about making mistakes or getting confused -- I am always in the main chat room to help answer questions or turn you in the right direction.
  
  
  Today at 10:01 AM

• 
  Diana:
  (◉,◉) (◉◇◉) (⊙,◉) (⊙◇◉)
  
  
  Today at 10:02 AM

• 
  Diana:
  None of the researches aboard the vessel could say exactly how long the storm tossed their ship around or when it finally capsized. It was even more impossible to know what time of night it was when a few of them washed up on the beach. Come morning the squall was gone and the sun began to shine, giving the few survivors a good look at their surroundings. They'd washed up on a beautiful island with rich green tropical trees, colorful blossoms, and the sounds of varied wildlife. No people (other than the researchers themselves) were around. The beach appeared to be deserted.
  
  
  Today at 10:50 AM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna awoke with a start. With a soft moan, she sat up, then looked around with rapid turns of her head, searching for her fellow researchers, as well as for the boat and any of her equipment that might have washed ashore. Where are we? Cuba? The beach was strangely deserted. No beach-goers, tourists, or trinket-sellers? As the fog cleared from her mind, her first priority emerged: make sure the others were alright.
  
  
  Today at 11:03 AM

• 
  Diana:
  Not far away was the esteemed Professor Brookfield, he looked about 75 years old on a good day and 90 today being formerly wet and now dried up with salt and seaweed stuck in his beard. His glasses were long gone, which meant as he sat up sputtering and slapping sand off his vest, he had to squint just to see. "That was a right terror! Is the captain about? Did we lose any of the team?!" He asked a big driftwood log that looked vaguely human shaped.
  
  
  Today at 11:11 AM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  "Professor Brookfield, are you alright?" Katarzhyna said, hurrying over to the man on wobbly legs. Seeing that he was without his spectacles and doing a rather close impersonation of Mr. Magoo, she searched the area hoping to find them nearby.
  
  
  Today at 11:16 AM

• 
  littlekreen:
  Getting quickened into deep terrain by the matriarchs was something dangerous he arrived well enough. Especially since this was a one-way trip as with the parachute opening after he'd been thrown from the tear into normal space he'd landed only with three broken legs. The eight-legged creature standing up to a human's hip could still hobble on the rest. A plant xenobiologist by trade the vibrant red-green leathery carapace and three large main eyes cataloged and tasted the flora in ridged grinding plates as the healer caste could tolerate most poisons. His shelter was a makeshift bulb of tree limbs tied together with repositioned vines or improvised twine though after his legs recovered it was a lot easier to get up and down the trees. Carcination had won over his species rather than the jumping spider he resembled.
  
  
  Today at 11:17 AM

• 
  Diana:
  "My legs feel like crispy fried bacon," he exclaimed, which really didn't hint at whether that was good or bad. He didn't have a problem at standing though and was already taking a good look around as best he could. "Well, sound off, then! How many washed up? Do you see anyone else on the beach? The captain? ANY of the University's equipment? Good gods, I hope the insurance covers all this!"
  
  
  Today at 11:25 AM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna felt a moment of nausea at the thought of all her equipment lost, the expedition a failure before it began. "I don't see any of the others, but they might be further down the beach," she said. "Please wait here, I'll go have a look."
  
  
  Today at 11:38 AM

• 
  littlekreen:
  With the storm last night he was busily re-tying the dead matter twine that had come loose but the vines were growing together and had held. Thankfully the inside of that arboreal tent, while everything was wet, kept him from getting eaten while sleeping. Though a huge squirrel-nest-like massive plant ball was rather obvious when it spanned a couple of trees, the matriarchs had said they didn't think any intelligent creatures were there. The search went on anyway.
  
  
  Today at 11:45 AM

• 
  Diana:
  "Hurry along then, I imagine there may be a dead body or two," he sniffed. "We'll have to protect the dead from scavengers and then see about finding out exactly where in the Caribbean we are!" Professor Brookfield himself did his part by scuttling away from the beach towards the copse of trees that lead into the deeper jungle. "We'll be needing a good area of shelter too off the beach," he grunted to himself.
  
  
  Today at 11:48 AM

• 
  Diana:
  KUWAH KUWAH! Shrieked a loud native bird to the island. Something the creature in the tree had long since grown used to, but not the freshly arrived humans. KUWAH KUWAH! The terrible shriek rustled up other wildlife on the ground as it scattered to avoid what was soon to be a terrifying hunt.
  
  
  Today at 11:50 AM

• 
  littlekreen:
  The thinner air of this place muted his hearing a fair bit but that animal managed to make a racket of itself. In a small covered log he had a rather unhappy small furry creature if for different reasons. He didn't eat meat but the feathered fliers seemed to and pest traps weren't all that difficult. A four fingered pedipalp from under his head picked up the lid then fished around to snag the bouncing animal. A tent flap flipped up momentarily as the small furry creature is fastballed at the loud annoyance.
  
  
  Today at 12:00 PM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna repressed a shudder at the thought of finding dead bodies, She startled at the loud bird call, but focused her attention on burning the look of this particular section of beach into her memory so she would recognize it when she saw it again. Just to make sure, she drew a large X in the sand with a foot. "Perhaps do not go so far into jungle," she said with a melodious Russian accent. "There could be wild animals, like feral pigs. But hopefully I find rest of team and feral tourists first. Please stay there, I will be right back." She picked left as her direction and started out at a jog. It has to be more likely that I find people than dangerous wildlife, yes? she thought. Even if there wasn't a beach hotel around the corner, this would probably turn out to be some rich man's private island. At least, she had never heard of there being any uninhabited islands in the Caribbean. It was a much smaller sea than the Pacific, and had been hotly contested by colonizing nations and pirates during the Age of Sail, and (with the sole exception of Cuba) had been an American lake ever since. So it didn't seem likely that there would be any remote, isolated island where they would be called upon to survive alone like Robinson Crusoe.
  
  
  Today at 12:01 PM

• 
  Diana:
  CHOMP CRUNCH. Something certainly enjoyed the snack that was hurled out of the tiny makeshift shelter. But now it seemed to have created a new problem. Lots of thumping and rustling down below and several octaves of KUWAH KUWAH! KUWAH KUWAH! suggesting there was now an entire pack of the things waiting for their own flying snack. And all of this racket drew the attention of something even bigger, now THUMP. THUMP. THUMPing heavily through the underbrush.
  
  
  Today at 12:07 PM

• 
  Diana:
  Naturally Profess Brookfield didn't think he needed to head the warnings of a young researcher, especially considering in HIS youth he was well used to getting lost in jungles and doing all manner of survivalist things due to his many years of research. Thus he began his wandering into the edge of the jungle, most curious about this hideous animal sounds! "Blasted be, I wish I had my glasses!" he announced all too loudly. "What I wouldn't give for a good Canon right now as well! What sort of beast kuwahkuwahs and makes such an elephant-sized thump!"
  
  
  Today at 12:09 PM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna was just about to call out, when there was another, even louder animal commotion, and heavy footfalls of something that sounded much too large to be loose on any Caribbean island. Don't animals get smaller on islands? she thought. She remembered reading about it, a principle of evolution that caused large animal species trapped on islands to become smaller than their mainland counterparts. If she recalled correctly, there were pygmy elephants on at least one Pacific island, and there had been miniature woolly mammoths on islands around the area of the Bering Strait until just 4,000 years ago.
  
  
  Today at 12:16 PM

• 
  littlekreen:
  When it was just one or two he could keep them quiet so he could work. Now that there was a whole flock he inwardly lamented the mixed blessing of not getting his tent chewed on and having four times as much noise. He'd have to breed the tiny animals at this rate. Then a deeper noise of passing creature started sounding. When in doubt, grab the pointy stick. The clap of fronds closed just enough for three eyes and a stick to poke out from underneath. He hoped his acrid fluorinated blood didn't smell appetizing as while the wounds had closed he'd lost quite a bit of blood at first. The dying foliage immediately beneath his tent hadn't taken to it well either.
  
  
  Today at 12:19 PM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna ducked behind a tree. Whatever this creature was, it sounded big. A chilling thought occurred to her: Didn't some drug kingpin bring hippos to South America for private zoo, and they escaped? Despite their cute, roly-poly appearance, hippos were extremely temperamental and dangerous animals. And if this was some drug lord's private island... She turned back toward Professor Brookfield, and saw to her horror that he was missing. She could faintly hear his complaints coming from somewhere in the forested shadows. "Professor!" she hissed, hurrying back to the spot where she'd left him, then tried to follow him with a mixture of tracking (not a skill she was practiced in, but then he was walking through soft sand and soil and making no effort at stealth) and listening for his protestations.
  
  
  Today at 12:24 PM

• 
  Diana:
  The Professor had wandered close enough to the tiny hut that the flock of noisy birds were now mystified by his presence. He, of course, being as blind as could be without his glasses, mistook the tiny tree shelter as their nest. "AH! What sorts of birds are these I wonder! As big as small children ever and making enough racket to wake the dead. Why they look almost like the extinct dodo mixed with Australian Emu! And what is that god awful smell they're emitting?! A strange defense against predators? KATISHNA. KATISHNA COME HERE AT ONCE IF YOU CAN HEAR ME. I'VE FOUND SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY - NEVERMIND THE DEAD FOR NOW!"
  
  
  Today at 12:30 PM

• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  Katarzhyna rolled her eyes. He never gets my name right, she thought, but the excitement of discovery in his voice was contagious, and she ran to him. "Bozhemoi!" she exclaimed. The birds were like nothing she'd ever seen before. As big as emus, but with wide, hooked beaks that reminded her of the Dodo. They had long elegant necks and sleek bodies though, so they had to be of some other species. But... She was no naturalist, but she'd enjoyed plenty of nature documentaries. Large flightless birds were uncommon enough that only a few species made an appearance. Ostrich, cassowary, emu, and rhea. Extinct: Elephant birds, terror-birds, moa...and these didn't look like any of them. "How can there be an undiscovered...species..." she said, trailing off as her eyes were drawn to a bulbous structure too large to be a fruit. Upon closer observation, the form looked suspiciously artificial, given the way the roots and branches were braided.
  
  
  Today at 12:44 PM

• 
  littlekreen:
  That was definitely not the noise of a creature he'd heard before. The noises didn't make any sense as the cephalothorax peeked out just a bit more to give him a view of the below. spear in one hand edged out Unlike the soldiers the fangs on his tiny fang-arms around the mouthparts bent inward a thing for injection of blood and chimera, not poison. The all-opposing hand shrunk a bit as the unmoving center and two ancillary eyes peered at the professor. Manufactured items, thumbs, pink-ish, biped, two eyes. They'd been looking for these! Now he regretted not understanding eigengrau better but they'd said the planet was empty. Then it occurred to him the sophont was much too small to make the thumping noise.
  
  
  Today at 12:50 PM
• 
  Diana:
  The cephalothorax in the hut was correct. These humans weren't making the terrifying thumping, and neither were the annoying flock of ground birds that were currently circling the Professor like he was about to be their next meal. A mighty RRRRNNGGHHHHUUUUUUU sounded off, almost deafening. Not something the strange researcher had ever heard before on his island stay and it did not sound organic at all! But it made all the ground birds scatter back into the jungle and many creatures takeoff into the sky with fright.
  
  
  Today at 12:54 PM
• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  "Professor!" Katarzhyna said, grabbing the man and dragged him to put the tree bearing the strange shelter between them and the bellowing beast. She would not have chosen that one (she could have sworn that just before the beastly roar she'd seen a door of sorts open, and a spear poke through) except that it was the biggest one within reach. "Please stay quiet," she whispered in the Professor's ear. If the beast did not like the noise of birds, perhaps it would not notice the silence of people...
  
  
  Today at 1:01 PM
• 
  littlekreen:
  As the birds started circling the door opened a bit more so three good legs could hold him in the hut and dangle the other two. The stabbing at birds had barely time to start with a hold on his spear when the noise erupted from somewhere deep in the foliage. Instead he waved a stubby purple hand to gesture them off to the underbrush and retreated into the hut. whatever it was, he hoped the creature wouldn't be curious about his hut. Or be tall enough to swipe at it.
  
  
  57 minutes ago
• 
  Diana:
  "GREAT GODLY SMOKES WHAT IS GOING ON OUT HERE," shouted the Professor. He'd always been an odd one, but since washing up on the island it's like he'd hit his head and turn daffy! "Katrina can you see what it is? It sounds like an old Volkswagon being strangled by a goose! Oh! Oh look! I might have discovered a new species of spider monkey!" He was squinting straight up trying to take a good look at the strange nesting he had previously thought belonged to the birds. "I have never seen a monkey with so many legs..."
  
  • 
  Reactions: View
  
  53 minutes ago
• 
  Diana:
  KUWAH KUWAH-CRONCH. The sickening sound of thick bones being chewed and chomped was undeniable, especially as those big birds all gave shrieks when it happened. RRRRRNNNNGGHHHHUUUUUUUU. This time the sound seemed farther away, hopefully following the fleeing flock deeper into the jungle.
  
  
  51 minutes ago
• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  No time to worry about how a goose might go about strangling a Volkswagon (perhaps by getting a Beetle confused with a beetle and somehow managing to swallow it whole?), for the Professor's reference to a machine brought to Katarzhyna's awareness of a worrysome fact: the 'beast's' cry didn't sound quite like an animal. She had just begun to fear the possibility that it might turn out to be the approach of some foreign make of bulldozer that would plow her and the Professor under along with the tree, so that somebody could come along and plant some cash crop in the rain forest's place. Katarzhyna let out a sigh of relief when the beast munched down one of the Kuwah birds and seemed to turn away in pursuit of the others. The munching sounded organic enough...but that lead to other questions, like: what would be big enough to take one of those birds in one bite? A predatory hippo?! she thought. Whatever it was, she decided she didn't want to encounter face to face.
  
  
  41 minutes ago
• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  But now the Professor was looking up into the tree at a spider monkey. "...with so many legs," he said. "What?" she said, following his gaze. "Bo...zhe...moi..." she gasped. What she saw was no spider monkey, and not even a spider monkey. It was spider-like, alright, but with some crab-like features. Such as the carapaced hand that consisted of multiple dexterous pincers instead of just one. And it held the spear, regarding Katarzhyna and the professor with a trio of glinting jem-like eyes. She still held the Professor's forearm with one hand, but held the other up and spread her fingers, to show she had no weapon. How?! Bermuda Triangle...I thought...was explained! "Professor...that is not spider monkey," she said softly, hoping not to alarm the creature, or cause it pain if it had extremely sensitive hearing. "We have gone through Bermuda Triangle, are not on Earth anymore."
  
  
  30 minutes ago
• 
  littlekreen:
  He crawled on the bottom of his small hut as the creature started to move in the opposite direction. it shrugged, creaked, and sagged at the movement but held the Gardener upside down with his three damaged legs dangling mid-air. They might not be bleeding anymore but they weren't weight-bearing either. He let the spear dangle in momentary relief that the thing was going away but pivoted slightly toward the sound in case it was just quiet. He dropped to the ground without a sound and crossed his hands at the forearms. A sign of placidity that the forelegs weren't raised regardless of the weapon in his hand. Three of the white-scarred legs held off the ground instead of bearing its weight.
  
  
  25 minutes ago
• 
  Diana:
  "Don't spew such nonsense of course we're still in the triangle, no storm could blow us so off course!" He was far more concerned with this new creature they were presented with, for if it wasn't a spider monkey, what was it? "Damn that storm, I can't see a thing without my glasses, does it seem venomous, Katasha? Mind your arms and legs, we can't have you getting poisoned... though, the studying of it would be interesting for sure -- nevertheless! Be careful!"
  
  
  22 minutes ago
• 
  Zarko Straadi:
  "I don't know." When the being moved across its shelter and dropped to the ground, it seemed to be favoring three of its legs. Or maybe it was just making a gesture she didn't understand. Then it swept its forearms to cross them in front of its body. The gesture reminded her of the dance of the peacock spider. "It looks sapient," she said. "It has a spear. We have to be careful." She let go of the Professor long enough to cross her arms in front of her as the spider-person had done. It seemed like a defensive gesture, so she hoped it indicated an absence of aggression.
  
  
  13 minutes ago
• 
  littlekreen:
  The body motion was jerky as he had to consciously avoid putting his injured legs but moved the spear point backward as he held it under his body. The other had pointed to them then pointed at the ground as he tilted his head. A dim understanding of what he had to look for they had only records to go off. He didn't hear a single peep out of them in quietus, just the meat flap noises, which he didn't have any vocal flaps to emulate. For his kind, a spoken tongue of Eigengrau was very hard to learn but closer to them he could make out words better.
  
  
  7 minutes ago
• 
  Diana:
  And thus three people from two very VERY different worlds have met on the mysterious strange island. What was that odd awful inorganic sound that could be a beast but could be something else? Can these different species communicate with each other? Is the Professor suffering for Alzheimer's as well as blindness? What else might be on this lost island! FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON.... THE ISLAND OF CHZESNABU.