<span style="font-style: italic">I've decided to go ahead and plop down a first post! I know not all of the characters have officially been posted yet but I'm pretty sure everyone is at least close to being done, and this will allow other players to start working on a first post. I agonized a bit over how much information to include and how long or detailed the first post here should be, but I eventually decided to not try and pack too much in at once or overload the post with information. The details not yet covered will be put into future posts as asides, probably in the form of italicized pre-scripts or post-scripts like this one has! The assumption so far is that the characters, with a few exceptions such as Celrie/Arcea, are unfamiliar with one another and have only had minimal interaction on this journey so far. Though the following might suggest a starting point/location for your characters, where exactly you begin is up to you. Your allies and retainers are also assumed to be present unless you'd rather have them already at the town waiting for you to arrive.<br/><br/>Don't worry about it if you haven't posted your character sheet or bio yet. Just post them when you're ready, either separately or appended to your first IC post, as you prefer.</span><br/><br/>Cookering Trading Post marked the very edge of the Empire's influence on the<br/>southeastern tribal lands. A prime example of the current Empress's obsession with oversized<br/>and impractical architectural mandates handed down from above, it resembled nothing so<br/>much as an enormous, 4,000-yard-long donut powdered with snow, and airships alighting on<br/>top of it like bumblebees. Despite the huge size and expense of the structure it was mostly<br/>unused so far, except for trappers and loggers setting up tents inside the cavernous halls.<br/>The clearing around the structure, a field of recently-cut tree stumps, extends only a few<br/>hundred feet before giving way once again to dense alpine forest. A small herd of oversized<br/>elk lingers at the edge of the clearing, nibbling casually on underbrush, undeterred by the<br/>presence of humanoids or their contraptions.<br/><br/>Almost all of the naive fortune-seekers and exiles coming to settle in the new<br/>shadetown (currently called 'Catspaw' in reference to an old carved shrine in the shape of a<br/>feline paw overlooking the village) passed right through Cookering without stopping. The<br/>toroidal structure had ramps allowing hover-trains to pass over or through it without slowing<br/>down. Due to airships being appallingly slow - not much faster than a horse-drawn carriage<br/>unless there was a good tailwind - these trains were the preferred method for the majority of<br/>commoners and free-women and men who were forbidden any sort of 'mount' - even poor<br/>farmers who relied on oxen rather than machines to bring their goods to market had to walk<br/>and guide the beasts with carrot-and-stick or noserings rather than from the saddle - riding<br/>on a train conducted by a landed baron was the only option for coming this far out into the<br/>tribal lands. However, the last train of new arrivals to this town - the one carrying those who<br/>would supposedly rule over it - was the only one stopping here, still five miles of rough<br/>terrain and a river-crossing away from the newly-finished Catspaw station.<br/><br/>The energized tracks leading in that direction were blocked by a newly-erected<br/>barricade of felled timber just 100 yards out. Hanging on the front of this disorderly pile of<br/>fallen logs was a freshly-painted red sign: "BRIDGE OUT". Not having expected to have to stop<br/>at this trading post at all, the conductor  (an elderly mouse whose grumbling announcements<br/>to the passengers had been rather incomprehensible) was barely able to bring the heavy<br/>six-car, two-engine train to a halt before a collision.<br/><br/>Sharp declarations of annoyance began to emanate from the palace car<br/>immediately, Duchess Glana (whose presence was required for the official on-site signing of<br/>the town's charter) and her friends (including Alexis Du'Bucovina, a favorite sycophant of hers)<br/>sent servants to inform the conductor that this trip was taking far too long already so far as<br/>they were concerned. Conversely, the rearmost car, a spacious cargo car in which Chief<br/>Marlust and his court had set themselves up, had catfolk eager to get out of this metal box<br/>and stretch their legs pouring out of the doors almost immediately. Representing the official<br/>Imperial governance of this territory and the newly-established which was joining it, neither<br/>the Taileton nobility nor their new tribal peers had been interested in one another's<br/>company, nor expecting to stay at such an out-of-the-way place long. The old-family nobles like<br/>Glana would be eager to get back to 'civilization', and the catfolk tribe had herds to hunt and<br/>territory to defend.<br/><br/>The lead car, just behind the engine and separated from the Duchess and the cat-<br/>tribe's chief by the dining car and crowded servants' quarters, were the newly-minted<br/>countesses who would lord over Catspaw. The town and surrounding territories had been<br/>divided up into six sections and given to them in return for the expectation that they would<br/>find some way to establish worthy estates and keep the settlers safe enough to facilitate<br/>further expansion. Since the earliest settlers had arrived mere months ago, there wouldn't be<br/>much for them to move into upon their arrival except for log cabins and minimally-furnished<br/>caverns.<br/><br/>Those bivouacing in the front car had an... interesting experience to say the least.<br/>One of the rooms had actually been barred from the outside and bars installed on the<br/>windows, with a guard stationed to ensure the tiny, furry little female inside didn't make any<br/>unscheduled stops. There were rumors that she was being sent out of sight here only to avoid<br/>the scandal of ending up in an asylum. There were also a pair of rooms with heavy black<br/>fabric draped over the windows and doors to keep out the daylight for... passengers who<br/>preferred to be active at night.<br/><br/>The largest and most finely furnished passenger compartment also happened to be<br/>under even heavier guard than the room with barred windows: a tireless knight-like guardbot<br/>had stood sentry in front of the door, telling anyone who asked that the passenger (only<br/>referred to cryptically as "Lady R") was "feeling unwell" and shouldn't be disturbed. A few<br/>times, the other passengers had noticed someone trying exit the cabin - but the door only<br/>opened one way and the machine's bulk blocked it shut. That was until today, however - the<br/>sudden, screeching halt by the train caused the war machine to topple to the floor<br/>motionless, making no effort to keep its balance or rise again. Apparently, it had broken or<br/>run out of power cells sometime over the last two days and no-one had noticed.<br/><br/>There was also one additional room set up for an elven passenger - but Duchess<br/>Glana and her courtiers had been insisting that she spend most of the trip with them. They<br/>didn't have much interest in meeting the others, but the elf was considered great company...<br/>though said elf had soon discovered that the aristocratic rat and bat pair of Glana and Alexis<br/>had ulterior motives, subtly trying to convince her to return back to the Empire proper rather<br/>than staying in Catspaw. There were many prominent nobles happy to have her as a guest or<br/>performer at their court. Of course, they still didn't consider this elf to be an equal - in fact,<br/>she was the one they ended up sending up to the engine car to see how soon the conductor<br/>could get them back underway. Since the conductor was demanding that the operator of this<br/>shoddy trading post come to him and apologize for not warning them of this delay earlier<br/>(and for blocking the track so crudely), the elf had no satisfactory answer to give.<br/><br/>No word comes from the station - aside from the few airships docked up top, the<br/>trade post seems even more deserted than usual. Eventually, a shrill whistle floats in through<br/>the front car's doors and windows - a solitary figure has emerged out of a shack situated<br/>about 50 feet away from the hover-rail.<span style="font-style: italic">(<a class="postlink" href="http://postimg.org/image/oi2k8ohk3/">http://postimg.org/image/oi2k8ohk3/</a> )</span>.<br/>The brown-furred female waves cheerfully with an apologetic expression on<br/>her face and beckons anyone looking to come closer.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Mechanical actions and dice rolls should be placed at the end of a post in OOC italics. Players may choose to allow the GM to roll or log onto the rolz.org room and roll themselves, but to keep things from getting messy, card-drawing should be done solely by the GM. Also, of course, feel free to inquire on skype, aim or PM if you have further questions before you start posting.<br/><br/>If/when combat breaks out, we will probably need to use a map for anything involving more than a couple of characters, and sometimes even with that few. Roll20.org has a pretty nice map function that I'll be making use of with the standard inch-based distances used in the Savage Worlds book.<br/><br/>Lastly, due to a play-by-post format and the very human failings of me the GM, there will undoubtedly be continuity issues arising from time to time. Whenever I need to edit a post to clarify or retcon something, I'll make a dated note of it in bold italics at the bottom of the post.</span>