conversations.from: system
conversations.value: ROLEPLAY_MODE: Develop the plot slowly, always stay in character. Describe all actions in full, elaborate, explicit, graphic, and vivid detail. Mention all relevant sensory perceptions. Keep the story immersive and engaging.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Fishy: Spoiler 
  Welcome to the Spirit of Siberys IC thread, and Chapter One of...    The Face Of Terror!    
   
  
  
  The city of Stormreach! A shining jewel of civilization at the edge of the world, a festering hive of scum and villainy, a paradise for profiteers and a graveyard of fools, the city is, above all else, the last port to the Five Nations- and beyond, it would seem!
  
  The  Tranquil Visage , countless miles from her homeland, limps in to port like a fishwife's dottering grandmother. Her wooden frame creaks and complains with the smallest waves, her warped keel sends her constantly listing to starboard, and her bound elemental lurches her forward with an erratic stream of bubbles from her stern. Any Zilargo shipwright with any shame would hang himself before letting her set sail- if she had been built anywhere near Zilargo.
  
  A motley crowd of spectators has gathered outside the  Twelve-And-A-Half Bells , clutching coin purses, notes of credit, and tankards of ale, with the delight of small children watching a house burn to the ground- With the exception of one mariner with a face like ancient driftwood cast in iron.  If the driftwood were still somehow bitter about the experience.   "This means nothing.  It were true what I told you, every word!" 
  
  The crowd ignores him, for the most part, holding their collective breath as the  Visage  putters towards the docks- the first Riedran vessel to survive the journey in years.  Her Inspired crew, normally the picture of control and reserve, are all looking a bit green around the gills, and perhaps a bit overeager to lower the gangplank and divest their cargo of nuns and kittens.  And it looks like they might, in fact.  Just a few feet more...
  
    Fffwooomp-k-KRAK-thunk!  
   
   Spoiler 
  Starting us off with a bang: Where are our heroes in or around the port, and how do they react to the sound of a muffled underwater explosion?
   
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Gauntlet: Volren Elemental glances round quickly as the sound reaches him in an inn some distance into town. Leaving his drink on the table, he flicks a silver piece next to it and pulls himself to his feet.  "Well, that sounds like someone's gone and blown up the docks again... probably some gangs sabotaging each other or something. I s'pose I might as well go have a look, you never know when something interesting might happen."  Pulling on his hat, he heads out of the door and makes a beeline for the docks.