This is the initial game thread for Graham Horton (not to be confused with his nephew Graham Bryden, currently in play at Through Hell and Bah'k). Character generation took place offline following the steps outlined in the first four posts of The Character Generation Thread; I can post the sheet upon spectator request, but the most recent copies will be on referee and player hard drives.
Graham, on your nephews' recent visit (during which Multiverser was never mentioned, because it does not exist; for any memories involving it, substitute Champions), little Graham brought with him an especially new-fangled PS2 peripheral. However, it must have suffered some damage during transit -- otherwise, it would never have broken in your hands in the middle of Guitar Hero, no matter how vigorous your solo. Inspecting the damage, you notice a golden mercury-like liquid leaking out of the device onto your fingers. You receive a short sharp shock and black out.
_____
You're beginning to come to. Even with your eyes closed you can tell you've been moved – you're outside, and the air is chill and damp. You're lying on a slight slope with your feet downhill, and the surface beneath your back is soft and wet. The air smells like grass and dew, and from the way your clothes have soaked through, you've been lying here a while.
There's a slight soreness in your hand, but other than that the pain is gone.
Graham Horton? I take it this is someone related to you? Brother perhaps? Just curious.
John - as it happens, most of my players are related to me. Paul is my younger brother, Graham Bryden is my father's sister's son, James and Robert Marsh are my mother's sister's sons, and Graham Horton is my father's brother. Technically, that makes him my "uncle," but you were close. Very recently I've added my sole non-relative player, Tarek Sadeq, a friend Graham I. That's six players, up from three; I'm thinking of starting a link thread just to keep track of them.
There was a brief live session which it falls to me to summarize. I'll try to keep the summary equally brief:
___
Taking stock of his surroundings, Graham found himself on a grassy and foggy hillside, mere yards from a castle wall similar to those he'd seen in Scotland and surrounded by various items from his home. The fog limited visibility to about fifteen feet, preventing Graham from seeing the top of the wall or its end in either direction. Packing his equipment into a large rolling duffel, he began to follow the wall.
He soon came upon a deeply-set door. Knocking, he was eventually answered by an aging green-eyed man who spoke with him through the grille. After some awkwardness and a few odd questions ("Did your house come with you?"), Graham was allowed to come in out of the damp, even though the Master was out and they weren't expecting visitors.
The man's name was Henry, and although his clothes were decidedly old-fashioned, he could be considered well-dressed if he did not appear to have been wearing the same faded suit for the past month. Even so, he was clean and polite - almost deferential - speaking with a British Isles accent which Graham could not identify.
After a short flight (four steps), Graham found himself in a large room half-filled with junk, contraptions of various kinds, and clutter (including hand-bound books and loose papers), in roughly equal measure. Notable features of the room include a narrow, banisterless staircase hugging the far wall; a string of spherical electric lights hung high along the walls, connected by bare wire; a large stone fireplace with waist-high hearth and the embers of a small fire; a small sink by the fireplace with visibly ancient plumbing and an outdoor-pump style faucet; an oblong oaken table large enough to seat perhaps six or eight (but only half-free of clutter), with a few simple chairs and stools; and a functioning cookoo clock on one wall.
The conversation is fuzzy in my mind; primarily it was both polite and odd. Graham soon asked about a phone, which Henry took to mean a gramophone (which he was 'still tinkering with,' terribly sorry); when Graham specified a telephone, I think Henry's response was that that sounded like a useful device, and had Graham come across one before?
Come to think of it, where was Graham? Henry glanced over a sheet of paper off the table (with the help of a monocle from his pocket), walked over to check the cuckoo clock, and replied, "we should be over Edinburgh in half an hour." Wait, what? What country was he in?
"Oh, erm, Ratatosk. What country did you come from?"
___
If you have any questions, have something to add to the summary, or if you remember something differently than I do, now's a great time to speak up. Otherwise, I believe the conversational ball is in your socio-behavioral court.
And I mean it when I say I love questions. They give focus and direction to my posts, and help prevent embarrassing miscommunications. Don't be shy.