This is an old post of mine. I would like to use certain aspects of it in my story. I wish to use Shaln Vae as a city of the \'legendary Pradesha - ruled by the enlightened Ahrijani\' ,as briefly written about in the Setting page. It will be used tactfully without a large impact on the current Plainshift world. However, if there is strong opposition to this, I will not use it. No opposition mentioned, ship enlarged to accommodate goods, story adapted... The Mist Sea and its island city of Shaln Vae, the hidden isle.
The Mist Sea is similar but not influenced by the stories of Avalon (I thought of Avalon after I came up with the idea) and creates the ability to use ships in PS without the need for large areas of water. The idea of the Mist Sea fills several criteria established by the PS devs for good role-playing. One is that there would be a lot of player interaction on the ships. Think of them as floating inns. Also, keeping with the RP factor, a player could discover that his/her character has a fear of water or has seasickness (how many lines of code would it take to make a retching kitty? ?winks at Moogie?). If their ship was attacked by sea creatures or pirates, complete strangers would have to fight together to stay alive. You can?t do that in an inn or plaza.
Ok, this, in my vision, is how it would work. A large, roomy, blue and white catamaran with no sails or other visible means of propulsion emerges from a cloud of mist that mysteriously appears over a body of water. The ships arrive at set times and set places (like a special dock). Players buy tickets and board via a long rope-railed gangplank. New travelers may notice that there are no signs of a crew, because there isn?t one. When the ship is full or time is up, it turns silently back into the mist and as far as the rest of the world is concerned, is gone. For it has entered The Mist Sea.
On the ship is another story. Players converse, eat, drink or find themselves very sick. Herbs may help with the sickness. Some journeys may be as uneventful as watching an albino kitty turn green
. Others could be under constant attack by sea creatures, brigands, and what not.
Imagine gazing into the eerie mist surrounding you and suddenly a huge black tri-hulled warship appears out of nowhere and spews out a hoard of angry, smelly (for those of us blessed with smell-O-vision) pirates. The battle ensues. You and your newfound friends deal sweet justice to the black hearted fiends. Then you go back to the bar for another ale and wait for the end of the passage.
And what an end it is! As your ship emerges from the mist, you are greeted by an expansive view of the island city of Shaln Vae. Gleaming white towers with cerulean blue accents reach asymmetrically into the sky everywhere you look. Great blue flattened domes with huge white stone buttresses forming perfect crosses dot the city. Oddly though, there seem to be no windows facing the sea on any of the buildings. Waiting at the dock are men dressed in white and blue (seeing a pattern yet?) robes. Also odd, their backs are turned the sea until the ship touches the dock. You ask why and are told that the residents of the island believe that it is bad luck to watch a ship depart and very bad luck to watch one return.
I don?t know what would be in the city besides blue balconies that you can?t see the sea from, and a strange unease the NPCs would have when talking about the water.
When you leave, you can go to anyplace that has a Mist Port by choosing the right ship. You hop on board, no fee this time, watch the robe people turn their backs, and you disappear into the mist...
The way this would work is that once the ships entered the mist, they would stop moving and become separated from the rest of the game. In effect, each ship would become a world of it?s own for a set period of time. Mobs would enter this small zone randomly or via a scripted quest. This would open up many role-playing opportunities simply not available in walking from town to town. Think of it this way, do you know more interesting stories from the sidewalk, or from the subway? And who knows what mysteries could wait in, under, or around the hidden city of Shaln Vae...
