The Lamplit Men
“The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.”
- Proverbs 13:9
It is the year 1756 - The kingdoms of Europe are on the brink of war, powdered wigs and tricorn hats are the stock wardrobe of every Western gentleman, and in a small hamlet in Romania, the dead begin to walk the earth.
Within months, the pandemic has crossed the Bosporus and wrought havoc in the Ottoman Empire, enveloped the entirety of the Balkan Peninsula, and is now ravaging the east Prussian countryside, inching ever closer to the Rhine. It is becoming clear in Western Europe that the continent will not be safe for much longer. With refugees (and infected with them) flooding in from the East, the great colonial empires of Western Europe turn to the safe haven they have been constructing for centuries - the New World. All over the continent, papers are hurriedly pulled out of drawers, prepared, and signed, all meaning one thing to their bearers - safe passage to the Americas.
And the Americas are not happy.
The colonists are more resentful now, for it is not just the colonial authorities sapping away at their resources - refugees from Austria, Greece, Denmark, and Italy are now the recipients of the bounty of the New World. Tensions between colonists and colonial authorities are at an all-time high, with many territories suing for independence and the right to dictate their own migratory policies. One of those territories is Saint Alexander, an island colony governed by the British Empire seventy-five miles off the coast of South Carolina. As the easternmost territory of the region, Saint Alexander has been unceremoniously christened as a ‘halfway house’ and the first responder to the refugee crisis in those parts. The island is now burdened with the danger that comes with a large intake of refugees, and it is becoming increasingly clear that even a minor outbreak would merit an island-wide quarantine. The residents of Saint Alexander are angry at two parties - those in the east who force the dangers of the infection onto them, and those in the mainland in the west who refuse to share the burden of accepting the damned of Europe.
You are a refugee arriving at Saint Alexander on the H.M.S. Lioness in the autumn of 1756, nine months after the infection started. You could be from anywhere from Turkey to Spain: all that matters is that you get to the mainland as soon as possible, which at the moment is not at all likely due to the Province of South Carolina having implemented near-impossible requirements for entry of persons and materials. If you don’t find a way to North Carolina soon, you could very well be trapped on Saint Alexander as part of a quarantine. You have also heard, from mutterings and rumors on the voyage, that the Indian savages have developed a cure - and that some of them have traveled to Saint Alexander to help.
Good day, fellow Guilders. I am BingTheWing, and this lovechild of mine is pretty much zombies with flintlocks. We are refugees from Europe and beyond, having fled to the American colonies from the disease called the ‘Grey Rot’ (named so after the complexions of its victims) that seemingly resurrects the dead and turns them into mindless cannibalistic corpses that spread their infection through the contact of bodily fluids, most especially biting. Your task could probably be the ensuring of your own long-term survival, most easily obtained if passage to the mainland is acquired, or you could stay and help find a cure to the disease. I’m looking for an initial group of about 5 to 6 - we could accept more members if the roleplay is going slowly.
I'm also not sure whether to put this in Casual or Advanced - I'll just make two IntChecks, I guess.
Anyone up?
Link to Casual IntCheck
1x Like
Are you just sending me your character biographies?