Longfellow's Experimental Record - Chapters 1-6

In-character discussion

Moderators: Siobhan, Sebastian, Drocket

Longfellow's Experimental Record - Chapters 1-6

Postby Homer on Fri Sep 12, 2003 8:56 pm

Day One Observations
I am somewhat concerned for the experiment.
In the first place, I do not see how there is any hope that the subjects will accomplish anything at all. The situation on the island is much worse that it was at the time of the shipwreck. I didn’t realize until now how bad it is. With no merchants, the subjects will not be able to acquire tools or medical supplies or even food. My thesis will fail if they have no options at all. Moreover, it would appear that they are incapable of challenging even the weakest enemy on the island. The healers are almost as weak, and will not drop any dead evildoers in their laps.
In the second place, if they SHOULD have any limited success, they can easily leave the island without really proving anything, as Kiefer and the Captains association provide bargain travel fares right from the docks. So far, I have managed to plant false information leading the subjects to believe they must raise several times the actual cost before they can leave, but they could discover the truth of that very soon,
Finally, I must me much more careful in making my observations, or I will be discovered. Even on this first day, I am afraid Mayflower might have spotted me and the orphan spent a long time studying my disguised tracks.
Nothing to do but continue, for now.
So far, three subjects and one innocent healer have died. That is unfortunate, but unavoidable. For their part, the subjects have not so much as seriously wounded any of the island indigenants (at least nothing a little wood putty and some Pledge won’t fix).
Last edited by Homer on Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:12 am, edited 5 times in total.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Day Two Observations

Postby Homer on Sat Sep 13, 2003 9:29 pm

Day Two
Results are not very good. The subjects have finally managed to kill something, but only indirectly and have not improved their situation in any significant way. The island hostiles have encircled them and the noose seems to be tightening. Four more subject deaths have been recorded, as well as additional casualties among the medical staff. Suprisingly disturbing.
The only positive results to report are a couple of examples of improvizations and adaptations, in the form of use of campfires for light and snake training. Improvization, but not effective ones.
Concealment continues to be a problem. Subject Smudge continues to study signs of our activity and both Oldham and Penn-Hedley appear suspicious. Mayflower seems to be making dangerous subconscious connections. If they come to understand the experiment, the results could be tainted. Perhaps they might even become irrationally violent. I will seek to misdirect their suspicions, beginning with Smudge's.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Longfellow's experimental record Day 3

Postby Homer on Sun Sep 14, 2003 9:58 pm

Day Three
There is good news and bad news. The subjects are suddenly showing some signs that they can fight back against their situation. Their successes are puny, however, and how will they do when starvation steals their ability to recover from injury and exhaustion? Nine deaths are starting to eat away at their skills, and that situation will only get worse. I find myself almost sympathetic with the plight of the subjects.
I don’t think the planted boot was as good a plan as it seemed at first. Perhaps I have overestimated the naiveté of the subjects.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Day Four Observation

Postby Homer on Tue Sep 16, 2003 9:12 am

Day Four
At least they have more pressing things to worry about than me today. With five more deaths, there is no way the subjects can survive at the present rate. Finding out that there are no merchants will send their morale crashing. They are no match for the tougher entities here. Now, they are losing equipment, not acquiring it.
If they are going to make adaptations that will allow them to survive, now would be the time for those. I am beginning to doubt.
The massacre of the healers by the mage Emmitt was unfortunate. Great science cannot be acheived without sacrifice, however. Just ask my fellow rodents in human laboratories.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Longfellow's Experimental Journal Day 5

Postby Homer on Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:37 am

Day Five
I didn’t bring them here just to get them carved up by pirates far too powerful for them to challenge nor to starve them to death. There was clearly either something wrong with my premise or the challenge simply too great to be overcome. Abandoning my thesis will mean condemning myself to a life sentence in the academic backwaters of this world, but I prefer it to murdering these naïve, helpless subjects.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Longfellow's experimental record- Day 6

Postby Homer on Tue Sep 30, 2003 5:11 am

Day Six
I don’t know what to think. They rejected my warning, and now they have a tool that might save them from hunger. Worst of all, my theory is being tuned inside out. A basic tenet of my thesis is that the driving survival force is desperation. Yet, at the very time they were most desperate, they rejected the course of action that would deliver them, and that rejection resulted in a positive shift in their fortunes. I must study these results at length.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri

Postby Homer on Fri Oct 03, 2003 2:24 am

Day Seven Observations
All right, they managed to kill a pirate brute. That is a long way from bone dewd or a rogue knight or a named mage, let alone a sister or a pirate captain, neither of which the castaways have even met yet. By the time they do, their skills will be hopelessly deteriorated due to the repeated deaths. The subjects are not so much desperate or resourceful as they are stubborn, dragging this study out without offering any hope of success. I would put an end to my observations and return to Moonglow, but I brought the subjects here, so I suppose I am bound to stay with them. I hope it doesn’t go on too much longer.
Homer
Regular Poster
 
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Oct 12, 2002 11:01 am
Location: Independence, Missouri


Return to Fellowship Hall

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron