Dark Jack

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

sigh I know... I'm very sorry, it wasn't exactly my intention for it to end up like this either, though it seems as though it's almost an inevitability on this site, or at least in the Advanced-section; would have to check and see if the same phenomenon is occurring in the Free- and Casual-sections. It's one of the big reasons I stopped trying to join RPs altogether and decided to focus on GM'ing, since then I could at least rest assured that the GM - which, and this is not intended as a boast, is arguably the most important role in RP to have filled by someone reliable - would not just abandon it.
I've thought about posting in the Discussion-section about this observation and what could be done to counter it, but then I spot the status bar, and almost every day I see someone posting about going on hiatus, coming back from an extended hiatus, or talking about how hard and terrible life is in some way or another and how the state of life as a whole is going to prevent them from posting for varying, often indeterminate amounts of time... and I wonder if there even is anything to be done?

I don't mean this as an insult or chastisement of the people on the site, or the people who have dropped by this RP and left (though the ones that have just vanished without a word do irk me), but it seems as though trying to hold people's attention for an extended period of time is nigh impossible. Between people coming upon hard times that prevent them from RP'ing, people losing their interest and enthusiasm, and people that just move on or disappear without a word as to why...
And I've asked, again and again, if there is something I need to do differently. Do things need to be moving faster? Do I need to facilitate more action in the story? Do I need to shorten my posts? Do I need to be more open about what I'm planning? Do I need to be more in control rather than giving you players as much free reign as I can? I'm willing to reconsider the way I GM if it keeps my RPs alive, but there doesn't seem to be any answers forthcoming.

Eh... yeah, needless to say this is something that is on my mind as well. I'm wondering whether I should bump the recruitment thread for this RP, but then I think about it and wonder how demoralizing it would be if no one responded to it.
What do you think? Any ideas?

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Upper Cathedral Ward, the Lumenflower Gardens

Vicar Harold watched Morgraine attentively as she pondered his question, a gentle, patient smile on his face, as if trying to reassure her wordlessly that whatever she wanted to say, he would be pleased. He seemed not to notice her hesitation and confusion as she pieced together her reply, merely nodding approvingly at her words as she spoke.
Then, once she had finished her somewhat revised version of the impression that seemed to forcibly occupy her mind whenever she thought of this man, he closed his eyes. For just an instant, the sensation of wrongness intensified to a certainty, only to then swiftly abate, fading away until she barely felt anything out of place at all and even the memory of strangeness faded to nothing more than an absurd thought. Nothing strange was going on, after all; he was just a nice, old man that she could definitely trust.

“Thank you very much for the kind words, my girl,” he chuckled happily, clearly and boundlessly satisfied with her answer. “That is high praise indeed. I will certainly work my hardest to earn those words, just as I work to deserve the faith of Yharnam. Gods willing, I hope to one day be it worthy.”
Still kneeling and presenting his sword, Dietrich hesitantly cleared his throat without raising his gaze from the floor. “Milord Vicar, please forgive me, but it is a Night of the Hunt, and...”
“Yes, yes, you are right. Lives are at stake, time is of the essence,” the Vicar nodded, walking the last bit of distance that separated himself and Morgraine to place a hand gently on her shoulder. “I am about to tell you something very important, Morgraine. You may have learned some of this already, but regardless I want you to listen very carefully.
You are what we refer to as a 'Paleblood Hunter'. That means that you are very, very special, and extremely valuable. All the factions will want to sway and control you, but you must remain resolute and remember that we fight for the gods, and for Yharnam and its people. We need you more than you could ever imagine.”
Vicar Harold smiled apologetically. “As a Paleblood Hunter, you have one foot in the realm of the gods. If you fall asleep, lose consciousness or even die, this connection will pull you from the waking world to a place called the Hunter's Dream. In effect, this makes you immortal. You have likely seen small, nightmarish creatures around the city, especially back at the clinic where you awoke; these creatures are drawn to your kind, and only Paleblood Hunters can see them.
Do you understand so far, my girl? I know this is a lot to digest, but the gods need you to understand the power you wield so that you can truly serve as their agent.”

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Upper Cathedral Ward, the Lumenflower Gardens

Vicar Harold smiled warmly at Morgraine's words as he continued his approach, arms slowly lowering back into a resting position. His light-brown eyes had a kind, almost loving expression that spoke of the sheer depth of the devotion this man felt for her, and indeed, all of his subjects. This was the highest-ranking official in all of Yharnam, the de facto ruler of not only the city, but the surrounding lands as well, and it was not surprising that he had been chosen; the sheer intensity of his charisma made his presence almost overwhelming.

Beside Morgraine, Dietrich lowered his head as he moved his sword from its perch atop his shoulder, placing it tip-down into the floor in front of himself and gripping it with both hands before lowering himself to one knee, effectively offering his sword to the vicar in a tremendous show of respect and submission.
Harold quickly and dismissively waved a hand at Dietrich, barely even looking at the First Hunter, as he kept smiling at Morgraine.
“I do not, no,” he responded to her question as to whether he had grown the garden himself. The flowers, all of their blossoms facing their side of the garden, seemed to shine even more brilliantly than before with an almost silver-like sheen, like an entire field of small full moons. “These were left behind by the old Healing Church five years ago, and grew and survived long before I came to Yharnam. They are called lumenflowers. You are fortunate in your timing; they only bloom at night, and are the most beautiful when there is no moon.” He smiled softly. “This is my favorite place in the city. I like to be here, speaking to the lumenflowers. They are so... understanding.”
His gaze lowered in thought for a moment before shaking his head, chuckling to himself. “Ah, but I am too used to talking to plants, I suppose. You have better things to do than listening to me chat about my hobbies. Tell me, Morgraine: what do you think about me?”

Through it all, Morgraine has a very faint sense that there is something strange about this place, though the feeling is so fleeting that it could easily be dismissed without a second thought. Perhaps if she was more insightful about the secrets of the world, she would be able to interpret what she feels more accurately.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

One small correction to your post, bloonewb: you wrote

Through twists and turns they traveled, in grey stone spaces leading this way and that, barely illuminated unlike the previous hall.

bloonewb

I was confused for a moment reading this until I considered my own post, and realized how my description of the area might be difficult to grasp just from a verbal description. I'm guessing that the "twists and turns" mentioned refers to what I wrote here:

What awaited them on the other side of the doors, however, seemed like a completely different world than where they had just come from. The door opened onto a stone walkway running left and right before them, about as wide as the hallway behind them, with a small drop to the side opposite of them. The stone walkway reached a dead end at a wall to their left, whereas to their right it made a left-turn, following what seemed like the top of the actual Grand Cathedral, with part of the wall there being an actual mosaic window beyond which the cathedral interior could faintly be seen. At the opposite end the walkway made another turn, this time to the left, forming a sharp U-shape around the central area below the walkway, reachable by several sets of stairs, one of which was right in front of them.

Dark Jack

This doesn't actually describe a hall, but a walkway that only has a wall on the outer side of it, whereas it is open on the inside facing towards the central area. The area I was trying to describe is actually the Lumenflower Gardens (best image I could find to show its layout; its the one in the middle left of the map, with the Celestial Emissary) from the game, only entering from the opposite side of the garden and with two additional stairs built to allow access to the central garden. No twisting or turning necessary; the moment Morgraine and Dietrich left the long, straight hallway, they would be right above the garden.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

It's quite all right. Thank you for saying so.

It also occurs to me to assure you (since my last two posts advancing things for Morgraine ended up progressing things quite a bit and including various things Morgraine might have wanted to comment on, as well as advancing time for her a around eight minutes (would've been longer if not for the absurdly fast-moving elevators in Bloodborne)) that it is quite allowed to retroactively have Morgraine do or say things during the events I described. I will then, likewise retroactively, account for this in my next post and either add to events-technically-already-past or rewind and describe how this changed the course of events.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Insight gained: Vicar Harold

Morgraine

He is a nice old man. They can trust him.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Cathedral Ward

After making sure that Morgraine had no interjections due to what had just transpired and the reveal of his modest office, Dietrich gestured for her to continue following him and crossed the room to the door he had indicated as the way to the vicar before. Once more the First Hunter produced a key from his pocket to unlock the door, revealing that it, too, had been locked, before crossing the threshold.
Beyond the door they were met by a very tight space, with maybe two meters of floor straight ahead from the door before they were met by a sturdy metal mesh blocking off access to the remaining six by six meter shaft before them. Like the workshop and the office of the First Hunter, the walls and floor here was all stone, though the elevator shaft before them did have tiny windows in the wall opposite of where they entered, all centered along the width of the wall and evenly spaced vertically, one above the other, allowing a little of the pale light of the night outside to spill into the otherwise dark room.
The shaft was currently empty, but Dietrich turned to their left and pulled a floor-mounted lever there, which immediately prompted the now-familiar sound of an elevator approaching them, though this time it came from above and was lowering toward them. Only once the elevator had reached the bottom did the metal mesh slide aside, folding at the sides, to allow them access to the metal platform beyond.

The ride was not dissimilar from the one Morgraine had been on earlier in the evening with Victor, except that this time she ascended an almost completely sealed-off elevator shaft rather than descending one that allowed one to view the outside. The only hints of the outside visible here were the swiftly passing windows, each no larger than a human hand. Watching through those windows would reveal that they were ascending high above the rooftops of all the surrounding buildings; indeed, it seemed as though they were leaving most of the entirety of Yharnam behind and rising to the heavens, or at least the tallest structure that Yharnam had to offer.
“I don't like it up here,” Dietrich entrusted Morgraine during the ascent. “I prefer staying below, with everyone else. The Upper Cathedral Ward feels so distant... and lonely, somehow. But the vicar rarely comes down, so I have to come up here to see him. Ah, and here we are.”
And indeed, even as Dietrich spoke those words they would be able to feel the elevator slowing down, and within moments they arrived before a metal mesh similar to the one that had met them at the bottom. Once again the mesh folded to the side once the elevator had fully arrived, allowing Dietrich and Morgraine to disembark unimpeded.

Outside the elevator they were met by a long, vacant hallway, spanning six meters in width but stretching out what seemed like eighty meters or so in length, giving an intimidating sense of isolation and scale. The walls, floor and ceiling were all once again stone, only this time completely unbroken until a doorway at the far end of it.
The walls on either side bore lit, gilded sconces fashioned to look like robed and hooded women leaning out of the wall, hands clasped in prayer with white candles clutched between their arms. This posture also meant that they were effectively burying their faces in the candles, and the melting wax of the candles was slowly running down to cover their heads and backs as the wicks burned, casting their flickering light.
Other than those, the only thing that broke the monotony of the closed-off hallway was a thick, soft red carpet running from one end of the hallway to the other, placed in the middle but spanning only about half its width. The carpet bore extravagant golden embroidery along its entire length, drawing strange shapes seemingly at random, with no apparent pattern or meaning to their design. It looked strangely alien, almost, compared to what one would normally see of such decorations.
Dietrich was silent for the entirety of the walk down this long, eerie passage, drawing further attention to just how silent it was up here, so far removed from the world below. Morgraine might also notice something else: as they walked down the hallway, coming closer and closer to the end, the chill in the air slowly abated and finally gave way to a comfortable warmth, as if they were in a room with a hearth to heat it, though no such thing was in sight.

Finally at the end, Dietrich got a key from his pocket for the third time on this little trip and unlocked the big, heavy, iron-banded double-doors spanning nearly half of the sixth meter width of the hallway. He unlocked it and gave it a push, only for the doors to swing open easily and lightly as if they were weightless.
What awaited them on the other side of the doors, however, seemed like a completely different world than where they had just come from. The door opened onto a stone walkway running left and right before them, about as wide as the hallway behind them, with a small drop to the side opposite of them. The stone walkway reached a dead end at a wall to their left, whereas to their right it made a left-turn, following what seemed like the top of the actual Grand Cathedral, with part of the wall there being an actual mosaic window beyond which the cathedral interior could faintly be seen. At the opposite end the walkway made another turn, this time to the left, forming a sharp U-shape around the central area below the walkway, reachable by several sets of stairs, one of which was right in front of them.
Above was some kind of structure held up by four massive, solid marble columns, partially blotting out the night's sky... but whatever light the stars or moon might have cast on this place would have seemed insignificant compared to the magnificent, pale brilliance flowing from the garden below the walkway. There, a field of large, white and luminous sunflower-like blossoms illuminated the area as if it had been under a full moon... and, amidst these otherworldly flowers, standing beside one particularly tall flower, a single figure turned to face them.

It was a nice old man. Morgraine could trust him.

The elderly-looking yet dignified and well-groomed man down smiled at them as they stepped onto the walkway, and moved to meet them. He wore a strange garb of white-and-black flowing robes and appeared to be unarmed as he approached.
Morgraine would be stricken with how apt Dietrich's earlier description of Vicar Harold had been. He really was a nice old man. They really could trust him.

“Welcome, Morgraine Geiradot,” Vicar Harold greeted her merrily, throwing his arms wide as if inviting her to embrace him. “I am so happy you're here.”

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

It may be a little late for me to give this reminder, bloonewb, but if you feel like none of what happened in my last IC post would prompt Morgraine to do anything aside from following Dietrich, just say the word and I will presume as much and throw out another post assuming that she continues to follow in silence.

Also, as a reminder and recommendation not only to you, but to all players (in fact I'll go check whether it is mentioned in the OP and add it there if it isn't (update: checked, and I actually have the recommendation there, too)), I think it would be advisable to either have a post dedicated to having up-to-date information about your characters or updating your CS as changes occur. I do this for all of my NPCs, too; for instance, Victor's CS originally contained points reading:

Clothes: Wears the garb of the white church.
Hunter gear: Wields a Ludwig's Holy Blade and a Hunter's blunderbuss, and carries a hand lantern on his person.

Victor's original CS

Whereas now, those points read:

Clothes: Wears the garb of the white church. A 7.6 centimeter (3 inches) hole has been cut through the front and back of the garb, each hole surrounded by a large, dark bloodstain. The right shoulder has a long, blood-soaked tear.
Hunter gear: Wields a Ludwig's Holy Blade and a Hunter's blunderbuss, and used to carry a hand lantern on his person. The lantern has since been destroyed.
Currently has four blood vial and thirteen quicksilver bullets.

Victor's current CS

I'm mentioning it not only because some of the characters (Nigel, Arcturus and Ludolf, specifically) earlier received a blood vial each and that it would probably be beneficial for the players to have a way to remind themselves of as much, but especially since Morgraine is currently in an ideal position to get herself a significant amount of supplies, and have changed clothes. I keep my own notes on not only my NPCs and your characters and what they have on them, but it would probably be useful for you to have that information as well.
(Morgraine is also still unarmed, just for the sake of mentioning it.)

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Lower Cathedral Ward, White Church Hunter's Workshop

Dietrich slowly nodded his head with a serious mien, listening attentively to Morgraine's selective recounting of her experiences with Victor.
“I see,” he mused once she finished talking, lowering his gaze and cupping his chin with his left hand in thought. “I imagine the fighting he must have done was before then, from your retelling of events.” He looked at Victor. “I am still convinced that something is wrong since you refuse to look at me... and I am curious how you managed to get so thoroughly soaked in blood with such little damage to your garb...”

A full twelve seconds passed of silence, with Victor remaining in the corner and stubbornly staring at the wall, while the First Hunter deliberated on the information available to him. Dietrich looked first at Victor, then at Morgraine, at the door to the outside and finally back to Victor again, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper the longer he thought. This was clearly a decision he was taking very seriously and wanted to be sure to consider carefully before committing.
Finally, right before he spoke his decision, Dietrich's eyes fell on the ornate box in Victor's left hand, barely visible from behind since he was clutching it to his abdomen. Coincidentally or not, that appeared to be the moment he made his decision.
“Well, it is a Night of the Hunt, and we do need all the Hunters we can manage out there dealing with the beasts. Whatever might be wrong, I suppose that as long as you can hunt, we still need you out there in the streets.” He sighed. “Clean yourself up, get a fresh uniform, resupply and get back out there, Victor; for as long as this night lasts, Yharnam needs all the protection she can get.” He paused for a moment, thinking. “The most urgent need at the moment would be reinforcements for northern Central Yharnam, near the edge of Old Yharnam; a lot of beasts seem to be appearing there, including novel types we've never seen before.”
“Yes, sir,” Victor agreed without looking away from the corner. “At once.”
“Oh,” Dietrich added as he turned away, in a way that seemed almost deliberately disinterested, “and you can leave that box here with the clerics. I will have someone put it somewhere safe.”

“Shall we?” he asked rhetorically, making a sweeping open-handed gesture with his left hand inviting Morgraine to follow him. The instant he had dismissed Victor, Dietrich's smile, charm and almost boyish cheerfulness all seemed to return in full force, as if nothing had happened. He started walking without waiting for her agreement, moving diagonally across the room toward the opposite corner, leaving Victor behind without so much as another glance.
Dietrich approached the rightmost of the two solid doors on the wall to the left of the entrance (D/E 6). He produced a small iron key with his left hand and quickly unlocked it, before throwing it open and inviting Morgraine into the room beyond.
What was revealed past the door was a fairly spacious, if somewhat spartan office-space. Immediately inside the door and to the left were a pair of mostly empty tables, occupied only by a couple of errant sheets of paper, a quill and an inkwell, with a small brass sconce on the wall behind them. To the right, at the center of the room, was a slightly bigger table with a chair on either side, all of which were rather plain aside from some slight bits of ornamental carving into the edge of the tabletop and on the backs of the chairs. This central table appeared to function as a desk to whoever was assigned to it, as it bore a surprisingly tall, neat pile of papers, another set of quill and inkwell, a plain brass candle holder and a small, nondescript brown-covered book of some kind.
All the furniture in here was wooden and all three potential light sources, with a second sconce opposite of the first, next to a door in the far right end of the room, were currently unlit, giving the room an almost abandoned feel to it.
The most extravagant and decorative thing in the entire room was a narrow, elongated wall banner hanging behind the desk. It was made from white cloth with intricate gold and black trimmings, and bore two prominent symbols one above the other, each stitched in red thread. The upper image was one frequently used to represent the Healing Church, though this might have been the first time Morgraine encountered it, whereas the lower symbol – despite being just as new to her as the former – somehow immediately managed to convey its meaning to her: “Hunter”. Looking at it made something behind her forehead itch.

“This is my office,” Dietrich explained once Morgraine entered. “If I can't be found in the main room or here, it means my presence was required for a hunt, but I am never gone for too long at a time. Feel free to come by anytime. I could really use someone...” He seemed to stop himself mid-sentence, grinning. “I could use the help. But the vicar takes priority.”
He pointed to the only other door in the room besides the one they had entered through. “There is an elevator past there that will take us to the heart of the Upper Cathedral Ward. Vicar Harold is but a short walk from the top of it.”

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

I mean, I suppose that would be fine. As long as you're prevented from participating, it's probably preferable to know that you're away for a while, but are intending to return, to wondering whether you're in or out still.