Yes, we have embarked; the ship's name (established in RPG post #211 and repeated in #212) is "Ent's Surprise", sailing under the capable leadership of Captain Dimwi T. ("Dim") Cirkdan. The ship's healer is a parrot named Dr. Macaw. Other crew names have not yet been established, so anyone continuing may add to the roster. They can be multi-racial, of course, but the first mate must be an Elf, as the parrot tends to point out the shape of his ears. (Pun intended, though not of Rimbaudian quality...)
Some planning for this part of the journey:
Time - depends on the frequency of posting. (That means, at our present rate we should reach Valleyum sometime next June!
) I'd like to allow enough time to develop the many possibilities of this ship trip.
Number of posts - I'm thinking that each writer should post once at the very least, but if we take advantage of the many ideas possible, it can be more. When we have the feeling that it's no longer interesting, the 'Ent's Surprise'-Ship will reach Valleyum.
Ideas for posts - Here are a few to get us started:
Middle-earth variations:
Ossė and Uinen have a marital spat, whipping up a storm that endangers the ship and its passengers.
Pirates (Corsairs?) attack the ship
Star Trek variations:
The ship lands on the island of the week. Cirkdan is later found pulling on his boots after a "cultural exchange" with the native leader, who, though of a different race, happens to be a "fully compatible" female.
Another island of the week - its primitive people are controlled by one of Melkor's evil machines. Cirkdan talks it into self-destruction.
Adorable, cuddly creatures (perhaps some kind of Zerl?) infest the ship.
Other sources:
Lewis' 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'
'Titanic'
many more - even 'Gilligan's Island', if you can pull it off...
These ideas are up for grabs, free to all, first come, first served.
Kuru has mentioned having the talking Narnia mouse as a stowaway, so unless someone asks him for permission, that's his.
Request: I'd like to avoid saves for this part of the story. After all, the posts can be very episodic; true to the nature of TV series, nothing is different at the end of the episode. Use a save only in exceptions, perhaps when you are almost finished with a post into which you have invested a lot of effort, so that someone else does not beat you to it. In the exceptional case that a save is up, the others may post as if nothing changes, so please do not wait. I'd like to have the story moving along again!