Real Life Time: PST: Mon Jan 28 20:28:59 2002 MST: Mon Jan 28 21:28:59 2002
           MUSH/CST: Mon Jan 28 22:28:59 2002 EST: Mon Jan 28 23:28:59 2002

Log Intro:
	This is the log of the OOC Seafarer Meet held on 1/28/02, in which
was discussed the final details necessary for bringing the group on camera.
Issues discussed cover:
	1) A recap of crew positions
	2) A recap of which PCs had volunteered to go overboard and which
were remaining with the crew
	3) Who was slated to be first contact RP for the various PCs of the
crew, both of the Overboard Group and the Crew Group
	4) How long we should be at sea; where our homeland is located in
the world of Abode, and how long it would take us to get from there to 
the location of the MUSH
	5) Known Crew NPCs
	6) Names of the various city-states of our homeland represented by
the members of the crew
	7) Name of our overall land, and what to call us as a collective 
people
	8) Names/functions of deities
	9) How last names should work, for commoners and nobles
	10) When our first RP should be scheduled and whether to have a big
group scene initially, or move on to splitting us up

Log Participants:
	Vardeus, Valnek, Kephissa, Rizon, Franni

----------
Vardeus looks around for the rest of his crew.

Valnek shrugs. Looks like we're it, so far.

Kephissa thinks Valnek ate them all. ;)

Vardeus snorts. :)

Valnek sighs. That's the problem with being a member of a subjugated culture. 
  No one believes you're innocent.

You say "Well, okay, I'll ask you guys at least: what do you think is 
  standing in the way of being able to RP, and do you see any reason why any 
  last few details we might need can't just be made up as we go?"

Valnek thinks the only thing standing in his way is his inability to get a 
  +roster of the crew.
Valnek doesn't know who he should salute and who he should eat. ;)

Kephissa is too stringy, don' eat me.

Vardeus has kinda hit a mental brick wall, personally, in making up new 
  stuff, and is kinda thinking that if he could just start RPing, he could 
  break the block. As for saluting, you salute me, and you salute Tiana. 
  Actually eat anybody, we'll kick your ass. ;)

Valnek sighs. "They're so touchy about this cannibalism thing."

Kephissa says "Well, I'm ready to go, assuming I can get motivated to write a 
  desc, just need a few details sketched out on where everybody is coming 
  ashore, and who we run into first."

Valnek says "I'd suggest that you post a rough timeline of our trip out to 
  the mailing list, Var. That'd get everyone on the same page regarding their 
  +info and such."

You say "Okay. As to where everybody is coming ashore: me, I'm going to be 
  found by Raven and/or Flashfire and will park myself wherever sounds handy. 
  You were on the 'volunteered to fall overboard' list, right Keph?"
Vardeus nodnods to Valnek. Good idea.

Kephissa says "Yeah. But its a lot less exciting to fall overboad and end up 
  all by myself."

Valnek says "You should also recap the "falling overboard/staying on 
  boat/other" list."
Valnek thinks he got volunteered to fall overboard.
Valnek is happy either way, though, actually.

Vardeus nodnods and goes to doublecheck said list.

Valnek considers. "The wizards need to make the required modifications to the 
  "Seafarer" portion of the +roster command. (As in: It don't work now.)"

You say "Well, I asked Traest about the +roster. He asked me not to diddle 
  with it, 'cause he thought it was screwed up or something. I'll ask him 
  again. Hold on."

Valnek thinks a final recap of the crew's positions would be good. (For 
  example, I should /know/ what Keph does on board, but without looking it up 
  tonight for myself, I wouldn't have.)
Valnek also thinks you need to (if you haven't already) run through the bgs 
  of all the Seafarers, and make sure we don't have a problem somewhere that 
  doesn't appear until later.
Valnek grins. That enough work to get you started?

Kephissa snerks

Valnek looks innocent. Hey, he ASKED, didn't he?
Valnek says "What's the status on us meeting up with the Raft tribe?"
Valnek says "Are there any other tribes we'll be split up among?"

You say "Hold on, writing some of these things out in an email..."

Valnek taps a foot and manages to look as though he's not waiting to spring 
  anything else on Var he can think of. ;)

Rizon has connected.

You say "Rizon! Dude. Remind me, were you on the Fall Overboard List, or the 
  Stay With Tiana list?"

Rizon says "Stay with Tiana list."

You say "As per the request of Valnek, I am composing a list of information 
  we need recaps on. Okay, thanks. :) That means Remirric was the other Fall 
  Overboard."

Rizon appologizes for the delay work snagged him.

You say "Not a problem."

Valnek offers to keel-haul the monkey man for the boss?

You say "Okay, so that's thing #1 to recap. Fall Overboard List: Me, Keph, 
  Valnek, Remirric. Stay With Tiana List: Tiana, Franni, Aeolus, Rizon."
You say "Thing #2 to recap: Who's going where. Tiana's half of the PCs, along 
  with all remaining crew NPCs, should be assumed to be coming ashore wherever 
  y'all deem appropriate; I would suggest Dancer Beach. Noises were also made 
  about Tiana's group encountering the Hoan g'Tay Sho as first contact, and 
  that'll want to be worked out with Kerl, probably."
You say "I am getting found by a Raft PC and probably also Flashfire, which 
  means that the Rafters are probably going to see me first. Their earlier 
  noises about scheduling RP with us had more to do with this monster that 
  Zalehrin had been allegedly going to sic after us, rather than their RPing 
  with us directly, so."
You say "Kephissa, as I recall, you'd made vague noises about being able to 
  bump into an Olbar PC?"

Rizon says "Weren't we using the monster as our segway?"

Valnek thinks the rafties killed it.

You say "Well, the plan was that the Rafties would have killed one of its 
  offspring, Mama gets pissed, happens to find US first."

Kephissa says "Yeah, I need to talk to her, I think."

Valnek needs to edit his BG, then. I'm still usign the pair of storms.

Vardeus nodnods to both of y'all. Okay, Keph, I would recommend you touch 
  bases with said Olbar person. Valnek, if you still wanna be Go Overboard 
  Boy, I would recommend you be found perhaps by Briarholt or Ravenholt, as 
  those are the two closest elf tribes, or we can put out a general call for 
  any PC who wants to bother to come schedule themselves to be in the area 
  when you are to find you; do you have a preference?
You say "Alternately, there's nothing that sez you and Kephissa couldn't be 
  found together or something, if you wanted. :)"
You say "Or you and Remirric. :)"
You say "Or hell, all three of you."

Valnek will put himself up on the general bid on the RP board, and if no one 
  claims me, I'll go with Keph/Remirric (assuming that's all right with them.)

Kephissa says "Fine with me."

You say "That sounds like a plan. :) Though if any Rafters volunteer to find 
  you, we might want to arrange a staggering of findings, given that a 
  Rafter's already called dibs on me. ;)"

Kephissa says "I'm sure Xhosa would appreciate finding some males. ;)""

Vardeus goes to take a few more notes for the recap email.
You say "Okay, so I've got recaps for who's going where. Valnek also wanted a 
  recap on crew positions. So let me cover that right quick"
You say "Me: Captain, of course. Tiana: My second in command, i.e., my first 
  officer. IC, I'll probably just generally be calling her my second, just 
  because it feels like the right thing to do. Ship's cook: Remirric. Ship's 
  cargo master: Rizon."
You say "Franni: general sailor. Kephissa, last I checked you had no formal 
  position? Are you also a general sailor?"

Kephissa says "Sail/Rope maker"

You say "Got it. Aeolus, although not originally part of the crew before we 
  got ourselves blown off course, has become the ship's weaponsmaster/smith 
  because the actual member of the crew who had that position will have died 
  en route."
You say "Valnek, how about you?"

Valnek is general sailor, ship's lug-that-big-heavy-thing guy, and lookout.

You say "Okay, that covers everybody. :)"
You say "Okay, that's four things on my recap list. What else... you 
  mentioned a rough timeline of our trip, Valnek..."

Valnek nodnods. Big help for making sure our BGs agree. ;)

You say "Now, this is something that I only have a rough idea of because I'm 
  not clueful enough about sailing _OOC_ to give a proper estimate. But I'll 
  tell y'all what we do know and we can see if we can work this out, okay?"
You say "Have y'all all seen the world map of Abode which was published in 
  the Wolfriders' Guide to Elfquest?"

Valnek has not, but Imagined long ago there must be lands not pictured on 
  news map.

Kephissa has seen it, but its a bit fuzzy at the moment, have to dig out my 
  guide.

Vardeus goes to see if they have it up on elfquest.com.

Rizon thinks he's seen it. Even thinks he's seen it on the net someplace. 
  Hrm..

You say "Okay, I don't see it offhand on elfquest.com, so if you can dig it 
  up on the web somewhere, Rizon, that'd be handy..."

Rizon goes to work searching for weird stuff.

You say "In the meantime... I'll say basically that I have decided that our 
  home port is on the continent that's directly to the south of the one that 
  the MUSH takes place on, and furthermore, is way down at the bottom of said 
  continent and on the western side. Consider as a rough RL equivalent that 
  we're coming up from oh, say, the bottom end of South America."

Valnek says "So we more or less came north along the coast, then?"
Valnek says "noting that there's not always a coast in view alogn the way."

Kephissa figured us being more equatorially located.

Vardeus nopes. We don't grok the equator IC -- but that comes into play as to 
  why the hell we got lost. As I shall explain. ;)
You say "If you look at the Abode map, somewhat to the northwest of us there 
  is an archipelago of islands that will have been our _original_ destination. 
  We'll have been smacked by a hurricane on the way there, which will have 
  blown us severely off-course and swung us up northward. <more coming>"

Kephissa wishes she had a clue where her wolfrider's guide was

You say "My spouse IRL has described for me that usually a hurricane IRL will 
  come up out of the Atlantic and tend to hit the southeastern half of the 
  United States or thereabouts... but every so often, every couple hundred 
  years or so, you get a weirdo hurricane that will actually swing wildly up 
  towards England. We'll have been hit by a storm like that, and it'll have 
  been _totally_ outside our experience. <more coming>"
You say "In the process, we'll get blown across the equator, _which we don't 
  know about IC_... so the winds will be backwards from what we're used to 
  _and_ the stars will be wrong."

Valnek translates: We're screwed.

You say "So even though we think we might be going the right way, we're 
  totally screwing ourselves over, because we don't grok that if you cross the 
  equator, the winds are going in the opposite direction. ;)"
You say "Exactly!"
You say "So what we need to determine is how long IC it'll have been 
  reasoanable for us to have been at sea. Anybody got any hint whatsoever?"

Valnek can answer that one.

Kephissa says "Do we have a distance estimate close to a RL span. Like 
  crossing the atlantic, crossing the pacific, or something else?"

Valnek needs to know how much water the human body requires per day to 
  survive.

Vardeus goes and gets his Wolfrider's Guide to see if that has any scale of 
  distance on it. One moment.

Franni has connected.
Franni waves.

You say "Heya Franni. :)"

Vardeus takes a moment to get Franni caught up!

Franni is being a naughty girl and taking a break from her studies. ;)

Rizon has -no- comment.

Valnek thinks it's rather a moot point, though. Figure out what length of 
  time we expected to be at sea, and use a figure a bit less than double that. 
  Since we could catch fish from the sea, and water from rain, it's feasible 
  that we were at sea "long enough".

You say "What we've talked about so far: recaps on 1) who has what position 
  in the crew, 2) who's getting washed overboard and where they are planning 
  to wind up, 3) who's staying with Tiana and where Tiana's group is going."
You say "Current topic: how long we'll have been at sea."
You say "And here's a question, guys: do we need to get specific other than 
  'quite a long time', do you think?"

Kephissa says "Weren't we also going to make landfall at various points too. 
  Just because we're lost doesn't mean we out of site of land."

You say "How crucial is it to our RP that we nail it down to a figure more 
  specific than 'months'? ;)"
Vardeus is assuming landfall at some points along the way if nothing else on 
  random tiny islands.

Franni says "I don't think my character would really care..."

Valnek doesn't think it is. If we need a specific time, call it three months?
Valnek says "Or would we have expected to be out longer than that?"

Vardeus looks at the map. Bugger. No scale of distance on this thing.

Valnek grins. I can provide the scale, Vard.

Kephissa says "Well, it has to be far enough that nobody ventured this far 
  before. Beyond that..."

Valnek says "Look at news travel times, and compare the distances to the ones 
  used there."

Franni says "Yep, we don't want any reason for the raft elves to have 
  'happened' upon our native soil."

[Text of 'news travel times' clipped here. Check 
  http://www.twomoons.org/news/travel-times.html for a reference of the data 
  that was discussed at this point in the log.]

Valnek says "News travel times provides a rough guess on how many miles it is 
  from north to south on this continent. Make a rough guess at our original, 
  expected trip distance from that."

You say "One moment..."

Valnek twiddles his thumbs, and dreams of roasted monkey instead of sushi.

Rizon wakes up from his searching and @twaps Valnek.

You say "Very VERY roughly, our continent (Sunholt) looks about as wide as 
  the MUSH's continent (Iceholt) does. Iceholt's taller, though. Thang is, 
  there's a body of water between them, so I'd be less worried about the 
  Rafters than I would the Cat Elves, as they are supposed to be the 
  southernmost elves, last I checked. ;)"

Kephissa says "But cats don't like water"

Franni snickers.

You say "Also very very roughly, our contient looks a little less tall than 
  the MUSH's continent does. (Though personally, I think this map's probably 
  got a WAY bigger scale than the MUSH map scale does, given that the MUSH map 
  IC does not go as far as any ocean on the east, and it also doesn't go as 
  far as the body of water to the south of the Cat Elves either, and as far as 
  I know neither of these bodies of water have ever come up in RP."

Valnek figures the MUSH map scale is 625 miles north to south (25 days travel 
  at 25 miles per day). How many times that distance was our original trip 
  supposed to be? 2? 3?

You say "going by the very very very rough estimation of the map in the 
  Guide, I'd say 2 to 2.5 times that. But that feels wonked to me, because 
  that's only like 1200-1500 miles and there is NO EARTHLY WAY that the world 
  is that small from north to south, surely?"

Vardeus has the suspicion we're running into another example of the Pinis' 
  penchant to be extremely lax about these things. :P :)
Vardeus is not sure roughly how big Abode is supposed to be in comparison to 
  Earth but surely it can't be that much tinier. *scratches head*

Valnek shrugs. Call it 4500?
Valnek says "(It's a rough guess, Vard. IT doesn't have to fit perfectly 
  anyway, and no one will question it. ;))"

Kephissa says "Its not like we'd have comprehension of those kinds of 
  distances. Far, far, away."

Franni says "Exactly. Just a rough estimate of travel time should be enough. 
  Make it up. ;)"

Valnek nodnods.

You say "Yeah. Given how NOT precise the maps are, anybody got any objections 
  to us having simply been at sea for 3 months and run with that? ;)"

Valnek thinks it's perfectly fine by him.

Kephissa says "Plus we might have caught a fast current, or the storm 
  propelled us faster than we'd normally go."

Valnek nods. Toss in a sea monster and it's anyone's ballgame.

You say "Ooh, Traest sez I can put us on the roster. Hold a mo while I go do 
  that."

Kephissa cheers.

Valnek says "Goody-Goody."

Franni says "Are Humans actually outnumbering the elves tonight? That's 
  pretty odd."
Franni says "Or pretty darn close to it..."

Kephissa says "I noticed something happening in the Olbar village"

You say "There we go folks. :)"

------------------ Roster information for the Seafarer tribe -----------------

Led By:         Vardeus (IC Captain, OOC Chief)
                Tiana (IC Second-in-Command)

Members:  Vardeus, Aeolus, Franni, Remirric, Valnek, Tiana, Kephissa, Rizon.
Total number:  8
Reserved names:  None
Last updated:  Mon Jan 28 22:07:45 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Franni says "Woohoo!""

Kephissa says "Weee, +twho works."

===================== Tribal WHO for the Seafarer tribe ======================
     Name           Idle    Conn  Location               Tribal Position     
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OOC  Franni           4s    0:22  The Windrider
OOC  Kephissa         2s    2:07  The Windrider
OOC  Rizon           14m    0:53  The Windrider
IC   Valnek          50s    2:33  The Windrider
OOC  Vardeus          0s    7:37  The Windrider          
=================== 5 members of the Seafarer tribe online ===================

You say "Hot dog. Now where the hell were we?"

Franni says "Do we have any reserved NPC names?"
Franni points at Salmakis

Salmakis
Before you is a weathered, wrinkled, gray-haired human male. The hair is 
  unkempt, though not ratty, and seems to go in every which direction except 
  straight. A pair of gray, bushy eyebrows rest over a pair of ice blue eyes. 
  The eyes, contrary to the rest of the man's body, seem to sparkle full of 
  life and energy. A droopy, white moustache covers his top lip, just below a 
  slightly bulbous nose. Thin lips curl up into a thin smile, which he seems 
  to wear upon his face no matter what the occasion. The entire face of this 
  man is wrinkly and somewhat leathery, and you can guess, by human standards 
  anyway, that he has seen many years of life.

The man wears a long, elegant robe made of a fine silken material. It is 
  colored a deep red for the most part, trimmed along the hem with some kind 
  of gold material. The collar is made of the same golden fabric, and is 
  studded with tiny, red stones. The cuffs of the robe match the collar, down 
  to the same red stones. The man's feet are hidden underneath the robe. A 
  rich, red sash is tied about the man's waist, holding the robe together.

Kephissa says "We've been at sea for 3 months"

Franni thinks its time she took a bath. *winks*

You say "At sea for 3 months, coo. Okay, Salmakis is clearly an NPC, he 
  belongs to Aeolus; we'll have to hassle him for the details of this guy's 
  background, but we can assume he's one of the set of 20 persons who actually 
  make it to land."
You say "One moment while I go check that log fragment of me and Tiana RPing 
  about her coming on board, just to see if I actually mentioned anybody by 
  name there."

Kephissa says "We do probably want to keep track if we name any NPC's in RP, 
  so we don't end up with 30 names for 20 people."

Franni says "And so if interested people want to join in later, they can take 
  an NPC?"

You say "Indeed. :)"
You say "Okay, so in that last log fragment I had with Tiana, I named a 
  sailor lad by the name of Virdi, so that's another name we can play with. I 
  don't think we have any other names on record as of yet though."

Kephissa says "Could you send that log out?"

Vardeus puts "Salmakis" and "Virdi" in his recap notes email, as Known Crew 
  NPCs.

You say "And one moment whilst I cobble that log into readable condition. 
  Keph, I kinda emitted you in that anyway, so you should doublecheck me on 
  that. :)"
You say "And see if what I did works for you."

Kephissa laughs, and made her rp debut before she knew it.

You say "Here comes that log..."
You say "Hey Keph, it was Xhosa you were going to talk to, yes?"

Kephissa says "Yeah"

You say "The player who plays her little sister is making noises about 
  wanting to find Valnek. :)"
Vardeus has mentioned that perhaps the four of you could work something out?
You say "There's no reason why more than one of us can't be found by more 
  than one of the Olbar. :)"
You say "Okay. What else do we need to talk about?"

Kephissa says "Nope."

You say "What other things do folks feel like we need to settle before we can 
  get going? :)"
Vardeus also ergs. Should I be logging all this yakking, guys? :)

Rizon says "I'll snag it if ya'd like."

You say "Or will a recap email suffice?"

Rizon says "At least till I got here."
Rizon says "Or since I got here rather."

Vardeus will snag out of his recall buffer. One moment whilst I spam myself 
  silly. :)

Franni says "Ooh! What is the name of our homeland?"

You say "_GOOD_ question. We haven't settled that yet."

Franni says "Or heck, the city-state the sailing operation comes from..."

You say "Questions to consider: how many different city-states do we have 
  represented amongst us, AND, do we need a collective IC name for all our 
  people in general?"

Kephissa says "I think we had at least three city-states, didn't we. I seem to 
  remember an email laying all that out at one point. (Not with names though."

You say "Like unto how all the folks from Athens and Sparta and Minos and 
  Crete, e.g, seem to get collectively labelled as 'Greeks'. ;)"

Rizon is from a seperate city-state. He's leaning towards a more inland one.

Franni is from a northern sea-side city-state named Boreus currently. It might 
  be flipflopped to the south though....

You say "I think we have at least three or four little city-states represented 
  amongst us. Vardeus' home port is a big influential one, and Rizon is from 
  one of its rivals which is also big and influential. Keph and Tiana are from 
  an immediate neighbor of Vard' home port."
You say "That makes three... Franni's makes four... I think Aeolus may make 
  five since he's supposed to be from a place that Vard's home port just made 
  a big alliance with."

Franni says "We already determined that we sit below the figurative equator 
  right?"

Kephissa says "Well, considering that various crew members were probably 
  picked up as the ship made port having a variety of cities isn't untoward."

You say "Let's take these one at a time, I think. We _do_ need a name for 
  Vardeus' home port as that is the headquarters of the Windrider so you guys 
  should all IC be familiar with that. I arbitrarily now declare that port to 
  be Shalros. And yes, Franni, our homeland is south of Abode's equator."
You say "Tiana and Keph will have come from Catranides."

Franni says "And actually, my character emigrated from her city-state 2 or 3 
  years previous to the main city-state to begin working."

Vardeus nodnods to Franni. Rizon, if you wanna be from a rival port to 
  Shalros, you get to name it. ;)
You say "Valnek, you coming from one of these places we're tossing out names 
  for? :)"

Rizon says "And my city-state shall be called.... Bob."

Vardeus snorts. :)

Franni snorts.
Franni says "D'oh! We've been jinxed."

You say "Let's try that again, Rizon. ;) And if you say 'Fred', I'm kicking 
  you overboard. ;)"

Valnek was a member of a culture subjugated by one of these places. The name 
  isn't important.

Vardeus okays to Valnek, if that's not in the way of your ability to RP, we 
  can just determine that when the time comes. :)
You say "Rizon, ditto for you. Especially since as I recall you were 
  deliberately hiding your being from that rival city-state?"

Kephissa says "But if we knew the name the rest of us could curse by it."

You say "That's true. ;)"

Rizon says "Ravinok."

Franni says "Hmm, I might rename Boreus to Notus and move southwards. The 
  climate I'm fishing for would make more sense the further away it gets from 
  the Equator... Not that important...just nitpicky stuff."

You say "SOLD! *puts both of these in recap email*"
You say "Okay, so that leaves Remirric as the only PC who doesn't have an 
  original home city-state. As a general note, most of the NPCs will probably 
  be from Shalros just because that's where Vardeus is from. :)"

Rizon says "So no Bob?"

You say "No Bob. ;)"

Vardeus thinks. It would be nice to have a collective IC name for our people 
  in general, for my personal satisfaction. What do the rest of you think?

Kephissa says "Go for it. ;"

Franni says "Yup. That way we can confuse the heck out of the elves."

Valnek nods.

You say "I.e., if we go far enough back in our local city-state's histories, 
  are we originally all the same people who managed to have split up into 
  these little separate city-states?"
You say "Or do we tend to think of ourselves IC as 'Shalrotian' or 'Notian' or 
  'Catranidian' or what?"

Rizon says "Assuming that any remember that far back.."
Rizon says "I consider myself as a Bobbyian."

Kephissa says "Well, I think the Greeks did both. Internally they were from 
  their respective city states, but externally they were still the Greeks."

Franni says "Well, any culture is going to have a macro-culture and a micro 
  one. I'm a Texan and an American. (which might be contradictory according to 
  some insane groups)"

Vardeus okays and thinks a moment to see if anything nice and arbitrary and 
  decent-sounding comes to him.

Rizon says "Corilian.. err.. never mind.."

Vardeus snickers.

You say "Vraeyan?"
Vardeus hrmm.

Rizon says "Adelphia?"
Rizon says "Elmira?"

Vardeus wants something short. For no particular reason. :)

Kephissa :could go with Vraeyan

Rizon says "Hobart?"

Vardeus punts Rizon overboard. :)

Valnek eyes the monkey.

Rizon says "Cortland?"

Vardeus giggles. No Cortland. Becaue that's too close to Cort and that's too 
  prone to remind me of Russell Crowe characters NAMED Cort, of which there 
  are one. ^_^ However, I wouldn't mind Vraelander, either.

Franni yanks up the greek deities page.

Rizon says "Canisius."

Valnek says "Callard?"

Vardeus tosses out Vraelander or Vraeyan for general consideration.

Valnek would prefer the latter, if those are our options.

You say "Canisius sounds like a city-state to me, more than an overall land. 
  But not a bad name. Callard sounds... French. :)"

Valnek says "Cansius? As in Kan-sas?"

Rizon says "Hofstra?"

You say "Guys, guys, slow down. :)"

Franni says "Nereus?"

You say "We're getting random names tossed out here and no second-the-motions 
  on any of 'em. Plus I'm still dumping into a log and spamming myself. ;)"

Valnek realized he's missed an I, and shuts up. Canisius actually isn't bad.

You say "Let me recap, and we can see if we have multiple votes for any names. 
  :)"

Rizon says "Rensselaer."
Rizon has more. Really he does.

You say "Rizon, what part of slow down did you not catch? :)"
You say "Please, stop for a minute. I'm spamming myself. :)"
You say "Options so far are as follows:"
You say "1) Vraeland (overall name for our land in general), Vraelander (name 
  for somebody from our land);"
You say "2) Vrae (overall name for our land in general), Vraeyan (name for 
  somebody from our land);"
You say "3) Canisius (though I personally like this as a city-state name 
  better, myself); I would suggest that this would go to 'Canisian' for 
  somebody from that place;"
You say "4) Callard; possibly with Callardian (?), Callardite as 'person from 
  there' names?;"
You say "5) Nereus (though again this might be better as a city-state name?), 
  Neredian/Nereid/Neridite as 'person from there' names?;"
You say "I'm going to make those our first five voting options for now. That 
  last one of yours was not bad, Rizon, but I think it probably sounded a bit 
  too Norse for our purposes. ;) Do I hear any second-the-motions for any of 
  these five options?"

Valnek thinks we should strike #4. We've got plenty of these to pick from. 
  I'll cast my lot for #2. It sounds better than #1.

Franni says "I like #2."

Kephissa likes 2 too

You say "If Rizon is cool with #2, #2 it is. :)"

Rizon likes #1. ;)

Kephissa says "Always contrary, Rizon is."

Valnek is going to get a chance to eat that monkey yet.

You say "Well, you're outvoted. ;) BUT, if you like, feel free to have a local 
  dialect in your city-state that translates us to 'Vraeland/Vraelander'. ;)"

Rizon says "I'll swing to #2 if I can change my city state to Rensselaer."

Vardeus chuckles. Okay.
Vardeus duly adjusts yer mention in the list of where we're from.

Franni doesn't think she'll be able to swing Rensselaer as a 4 letter 
  word...hmmmmmmmm

You say "Okay. How shall we pronounce 'Vrae', guys? To rhyme with 'way'? Or 
  'eye'?"

Kephissa says "As shifty as a Rensellaer"

Valnek thinks long A.

Rizon says "Or as shifty as a Rensi."

You say "I like 'Rensi'."

Valnek nods. Not bad.

Rizon says "Plus to a Rensellaerian Rensi would be a bad thing. :)"

Vardeus notes that 'Vrae' pronounced with a long A is what he'd first thought 
  as well. And I think that's how the accent will say it in Shalros. Y'all can 
  feel free to say it with a long I if yer local accents might dictate. ;)

Franni says "Vrae with a long A. Or Vrae with the cool combo ae with would be 
  pronounced Vree"

Vardeus duly notes this in the notes as well.
Vardeus snickers. If we have multiple pronunciations that'll confuse the hell 
  out of the locals, too.

Rizon cackles and had to get a New York college into the history some how. (In 
  fact he'll make that his goal to get one college from each state in his 
  info. Muhahaha.)

Franni thinks Rizon needs to be let off work early. ;)

Rizon cackles even more, "He works the early shift now so he's at -home-! 
  Muahaha. *cough* *cough*.

Franni woohoos!
Franni says "I think I'll work it to look like "Vrine" when I'm saying 
  Vraeyan. ;)"

You say "Damn, we're being productive tonight. So! We have a bunch of 
  city-state names established, a collective name for us and our homeland..."
You say "Anything else we need to cover? How about gods?"

Franni says "Well, I found that Nereus, is the benevolent seagod..."

Kephissa says "Probably need to come up with a Sea god at least."

Franni says "From Greek mythology that is."

You say "Okay. Let me recap what my own personal thoughts were on gods, as 
  well as some stuff that came out of prior discussion and we can build on 
  that as we need to."
You say "Gods that I'm seeing us having so far:"
You say "1) A Skyfather/Seamother pair commonly worshipped by sailors. These 
  are the deities favored by Vardeus, and I don't yet have names for them, but 
  they are commonly called the Skyfather and the Seamother. The eternal vigor 
  of their mating is said to be the cause of storms."
You say "2) A deity of the hearth, generally favored by those of domestic 
  bent, whether male or female. I am negotiable on whether this is a god or a 
  goddess."

Franni says "Make it a male god. Be contrary. :)"

You say "3) A deity of the forge, ditto to #2. (Possible sibling of the deity 
  of the hearth?)"
You say "4) An overall creator deity who could be a god or goddess, I'm good 
  either way."
You say "That's what I'm seeing so far. Thoughts on these, guys?"

Valnek agrees with Franni. Make #3 female.

You say "That would be cool. ;) D'yall think #2 and #3 are sibs?"

Rizon says "Twins."

Kephissa says "twins"
Kephissa says "jinx"

Franni says "And I'd like a God of Harvest of some sort. As for #2 and #3, why 
  not?"

Valnek says "Triplets... Er... wait."

Vardeus giggles. Twins it is. And sure, we could toss in a harvest god as 
  well. Do you want a god or a goddess, Franni?

Rizon thinks his city state doesn't believe in gods.

Franni says "Female. Harvest is usually associated with fertility."

You say "Okay, we can work with that. Am I seeing this overall creator deity 
  as a female? Any thoughts on that, gusy?"

Valnek doesn't have an opinion one way or the other.

Rizon will become religious after when we survive.

Franni says "Though it'd be fun to have all the sacrificial goodness 
  associated with one... death for life and all that loveliness. For the 
  Harvest goddess that is... Umm...creator god(dess)..doesn't matter to me."

You say "Okay. Here's what I'm gonna declare when it comes to gods, then:"

Kephissa says "Female creater goddess is fine. She gave birth to the world and 
  all that."

You say "We got ourselves a big ol' pantheon, so we can make up deities pretty 
  much at random as far as I'm concerned, but I will send around notes on 
  established local deities so's we don't contradict each other. We should all 
  be operating with the same base set of gods. Y'all can pick and choose which 
  if any (and 'none' is a valid option) you pay personal homage to."

Rizon says "Question about last names. How are they formed? Especially for 
  your home town Vard?"

You say "So. Yeah, I think I'm seeing the overall creator as a female. One of 
  those dark, elemental sorts of figures that didn't just create the earth, 
  She created the matter out of which all else was created, and started Time 
  and everything. All the other gods and goddesses are Her children. If you 
  look in Greek mythology a proper equivalent from there would probably be... 
  Cronos, I think it was."
You say "One moment, let me settle issues of gods to my satisfaction before we 
  move on..."

Rizon wanted to throw it out before he forgot.
Rizon is 'Rensi' like that.

You say "I'm seeing the creator as being a big scary figure people probably 
  don't invoke lightly. She is probably not even mentioned by name except in 
  the most sacred of rituals. We might awedly refer to the First One or 
  something like that. I'll also make up names for the Skyfather and 
  Skymother. Other gods... anybody who wants to call dibs on the hearth/forge 
  twins, feel free to do so, or the harvest goddess."
You say "Any other questions on gods before I move on to last names?"

Franni says "Nope not really...though my suggestion for Harvest Goddess name 
  would be Seid. (pronounced SEEd) *grins*"

You say "Sounds good to me! *notes it*"

Franni says "Or I guess spelled with a C...Ceid?"

You say "Do you have a preference? I could see either."

Franni says "Nope. I guess Seid will be fine."

You say "Seid it is. *notes it*"
You say "Okay then. On to last names."
You say "So far, Tiana, last I checked, was the only one of us who had come up 
  with a last name for her character..."

Valnek hadn't given it any thought.

Franni has one...

Kephissa shares Tiana's. "Or rather her original one, not the fake one."

You say "Ah okay. :) So that's at least three of us with last names. Is 
  anybody seeing any reason why we can't assume that any last names we're 
  carrying around are any more complicated than 'this is the name of my 
  family/House'?"

Valnek says "Nope. Think I'll use Torunn, while I'm thinking about it."

Rizon thinks Rensi's are going to have really long and elaborate names that 
  takes at least 2 minutes to say.

Franni says "Nope, unless certain areas have select rules for their names... 
  Mine was just an arbitrary one I picked out of a long list of Greek 
  surnames."

Rizon says "But y'all won't know that."
Rizon says "Yet."

You say "No wonder we think you people are shifty. ;)"

Kephissa says "People with long names aren't to be trusted. ;)"

You say "But anyway. Yeah, I see no reason why any surnames just can't be the 
  name of our family or House, though local custom may vary as to whether 
  families of different names may have merged to form Houses. I hereby 
  arbitrarily dictate that unless you're noble you probably at most just have 
  a family name to go with your personal one."

Rizon noddles, "Works for me.

You say "I'll also arbitrarily dictate that if suitably powerful families 
  decide to ally themselves, they may duke it out as to which name they'll 
  wind up using, or come up with a totally new one to collectively use for 
  themselves."
You say "Feel free to come up with quirky little variants between the name of 
  your family vs. the name of someone FROM that family. For example, over on 
  another MUSH I had a character who was from House Nemea, but the name of 
  someone from that house was Nemeides. This could be more of a noble-flavored 
  custom, though. ;)"
You say "Any other questions/topics we should cover before I hit the last 
  thing >I< can think of?"
You say "Which is, specifically, when the hell can we all RP? ;)"

Franni says "I'm just simple folk. We just have a last name because our daddy 
  did and his daddy did and so on..."

Rizon says "As soon as I work 50 colleges into my background. ;)"

Franni says "Hrmm...."

Valnek laughs. I RP when I can. Sometimes days, sometimes nights, and 
  sometimes not at all. ;) (I'm on a rotating schedule, work nights, and have 
  class during the day.) Rather than working around my schedule, just let me 
  know when the RP is, and I'll be there if I can arrange it, and tell you I 
  can't if I can't.

Kephissa says "Tomorrow? ;)"

Valnek says "Tomorrow evening, yes."

You say "Tomorrow's a little early. ;)"

Franni gaks...

You say "Since we're missing a couple of people. :) Let me ask y'all this, 
  though:"

Franni says "This week is awful...I have tests Tuesday, Wednesday, and 
  Thursday"

You say "Do we have an overall group desire to RP the big monster attacking 
  us, first of all? If yes, we need to schedule that. If not, we could move on 
  to having People Who Got Thrown Overboard arranging their initial RP, and 
  Tiana's group arranging to go meet the Hoan."

Valnek thinks we should RP that event, yes.

Rizon says "I personally think it'd be great to kick off the plot with a group 
  one then go from there."

Kephissa says "I think it would be nice to RP _something_ as a group before we 
  split up."

Franni says "How does the big monster factor in to us getting knocked off 
  course/thrown overboard/et cetera?"

Valnek says "I mean, it'd be good to get an idea of who you all are (aside 
  from your BG) before I'm expected to know you."

Rizon says "We can start out as a last super sort of thing. We're eating 
  basically the last of the provisions and bam! Sea monster.. Or something."

You say "The Big Monster factor is responsible for the damage to our ship 
  which will cause us to be run aground and the Windrider to be rendered 
  unsailable; her keel will be severely cracked. It will also be responsible 
  for eating hapless NPCs and will have taken the last round of lives to get 
  us down to the roughly 20 people I think we have left as we come on camera."

Franni says "Oh!!! I gotcha. So this is the same big sea monster from the Raft 
  holt?"

You say "Those of us who will be knocked overboard can safely assume we'll be 
  knocked overboard in the melee, though I am intending that I will be 
  specifically heroically jumping in after some poor slob who gets pulled 
  overboard or something. ;)"

Valnek nods. I like Rizon's idea for a setup, personally. Maybe make a note of 
  that, Vard?

You say "Yes. So overall, in other words, we want a big group scene to start 
  off with a bang. how that scene starts off, we can deal with when we 
  establish WHEN we're going to RP. :)"
You say "Here's what my schedule's looking like these days guys:"
You say "Monday and Tuesday: pretty much wide open. Wednesday, Thursday, and 
  Friday: only available in the evenings, 'cause I'm working part-time at a 
  friend's bookstore. Saturday: Usually available given advance warning. 
  Sunday: Afternoons are out unless I specifically warn otherwise in advance, 
  because Sunday is when my jamming group meets. Evenings: generally here, at 
  least after supper."
You say "So a big group scene needs to fall for me within those time 
  constraints."
You say "Saturday afternoon or a Monday or Tuesday would be ideal, as those 
  would be the times I'd have the biggest block of time when I would not be 
  tired. :) Are there any screaming objections to any of those times?"

Kephissa is only available in the evenings (west coast) during the week, but 
  weekends are wide open.

Valnek would prefer the Saturday afternoon.

Kephissa says "Saturday afternoon works."

You say "Let's get more specific: any screaming objections to _this_ Saturday 
  afternoon?"

Franni says "Once I get the 2nd computer moved so it's operating on the other 
  phone line, I'll be opening up a huge block of space in the evenings that I 
  can hop on."

Rizon screams.

Franni says "Not that I can think of..."

You say "What's yer ish with Saturday, Rizon?"

Valnek can be here until 7pm, then must leave for work. Aside from that, this 
  Saturday is fine.

Rizon says "From 2:55pm till 9:00pm I play lacrosse. (Times are Pacific."

Vardeus hrmms.
You say "Well, in the ideal world we could have a time where ALL of us could 
  show up. If a majority of us can make Saturday afternoon, are you okay with 
  that?"

Valnek may be able to do Monday and Tuesday next week, but can't say until he 
  gets a copy of next month's schedule.

You say "How soon would that be, Valnek?"

Valnek says "Wednesday."
Valnek says "At the lastest. Probably today."

You say "Okay. Does anybody have any issues with Monday or Tuesday of this 
  next week?"

Rizon says "If the majority goes for Sunday then do it. Assume that Rizon was 
  sick or something."

Kephissa nopes.

Sunday? Yeah, he's a Rensi alright. "Saturday!"

You say "Okay. This Saturday afternoon is going to be our tentative plan, 
  then, unless people can get me enough data to support a switch to Monday or 
  Tuesday."

Rizon says "I can do Mon or Tues."

You say "Does anyone have any issues with roughly 2pm Pacific Saturday 
  afternoon, 5pm Eastern?"
You say "Also, if we were to do Monday/Tuesday, when should I schedule to 
  allow for a maximum number of us to be here, for those of you who actually 
  still have jobs? ;)"

Valnek has no issue with it, aside from only being here for two hours 
  (roughly) that day. Am I the only one who cannot (as of now) make 
  Monday/Tuesday?

Kephissa says "After 5:30 at least."

You say "5:30 which time zone? :)"

Kephissa says "Pacific"

You say "Okay. I'm not seeing any other issues with Monday/Tuesday, then....?"

Rizon says "Any time after about 4pm PST on Tues. 5pm PST on Mon. (Monday's 
  are scary sometimes."

Vardeus will need to consult with those who didn't make it tonight, to see 
  what other data we can get -- I don't want to do this without Tiana, 
  obviously. ;)

Kephissa snickers

You say "Also, I want to check with Zalehrin to see if that feller wishes to 
  emit a monster for us, or whether I should hassle the Rafters for a 
  volunteer from their ranks."
You say "Okay. This then is the plan, guys:"

Franni has no problems with it as long as she knows of the time in advance.

You say "Plan A: Shoot for roughly 6:30pm Pacific time, 9:30pm Eastern on 
  Monday of next week. Plan B: Shoot for roughly 2pm Pacific time, 5pm Eastern 
  this coming Saturday."
You say "Sound good to everybody?"

Franni says "Yup"

Kephissa says "Yep"

Valnek nods. Assuming I don't work Monday night, I can make that.

You say "We got ourselves a PLAN. HOT damn. :)"
You say "Okay. I'm pretty much done, guys, unless anybody has any other 
  burning issues we need to cover?"
You say "There will be a log of this session as well as a summary email, as a 
  general FYI. :)"

[No further issues were brought up, so the meeting ended here.]