event 01 plotting

[thestewards]

Welcome to the first plotting post of A Gentle Night.

The first event of the game will see characters arriving in Draega in the wee hours of the night—and immediately suffering an attack from the Hunter Guild. The Hunter Guild loathes the Blood, and they have decided that Queen Fayura's actions must be answered with immediate and severe violence. Meanwhile, the Queen is no where to be found and the Old Town Bazaar burns.

You can read the full event here. The post is currently locked for responses and will open at 8PM EST on the 24th. Take this time to talk to each other about what you're interested in doing and accomplishing in this event.

Questions should be asked here. As both Allairavar and Loren are out and about in this event, you may request that they engage with your character using our NPC request form. Comment to the appropriate character's top-level. For events like this, simply let us know which of your prompts you'd like the NPC to respond to. Remember that members of Fayura's First Circle appear in the event and as minor NPCs can be driven by players at-will.

This is also a good time to talk to your fellow players about the jobs and activities around Draega that will allow you to gain influence this month.

After this event…

► Players can assume that characters know all the information given in the info pages. Whether you handwave a conversation with random NPCs or assume that Loren answered your characters' questions, as of the end of the event all PCs have been informed of the landen Guilds, the Ebon Council, and the state of the world.

► Characters may move out of the Queen's Residence and establish their homes elsewhere. Many buildings in the city are empty and in need of repairs, but no one will stop Strangers from moving in.

► Any one who remains at the Queen's Residence will receive a modest stipend, enough to cover food and drink. Loren will make clear that Strangers who do not live at the residence will not be afforded this money but also that Strangers who do stay are considered part of the Queen's court in as much as actions they take will reflect back on the court.

► Allairavar reminds everyone who chooses to stay at the residence that if you live with the court, you practice with the court. He expects all the Strangers who stay to be on the practice fields with everyone else at dawn. To those who are reticent, he explains that no one needs to learn how to fight only how to defend long enough for help (he seems to imply himself) to arrive.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[thestewards]

[cmbr]

What does the condition of the earth around Draega feel like?

[thricefold]

✨ For the event log, Zita will be primarily focusing on helping individuals by healing them with her magic at the Queen’s Residence and escorting individuals out of the fires when at the Old Town Bazaar. I would love for Zita to partner with someone for the events of Old Town Bazaar, since she’s very susceptible to fire damage due to being a witch.

✨ Zita will make the decision to stay in the Queen's Residence for a little while longer to get her bearings and to familiarise herself with the new world, but she'll be interested in striking out on her own soon. She'll be checking out some of the buildings that grab her interest soon enough, more or less shopping around for her future residence. Company when she explores the city will be really welcomed.

✨ Due to her decision to stay in the Queen's Residence, however, she'll have to be part of the practice drills and she'll be... really and obviously bad at it. Anyone willing to help her out in training or, at the very least, learning how to hold a sword proper?

✨ I'm also hoping for a chance for Zita to do the jobs Going Postal and Hope's an Ember with someone! Mostly because these sort of jobs are in-character of her to participate in after the events of the night, and a little bit because these sound fun to play out with her.

✨ You can hit me up here if you have other ideas you want to try out with Zita or over at my plurk (prognostic) if you want! I'm pretty much game for anything since this is the first event and Zita will just be trying to get through the night, so anything is a go.

[cmbr]

Sen is a firebender and she's going to arrive in her element, oh boy!

She would participate in the rescue and use her canon abilities to direct the flames to a harmless place. I was thinking of having her gather some fires and let them 'burn out' high in the atmosphere, creating flares that might be visible across the city. She's not good at moving things, but she is immune to fire, so she would try her best at running into burning houses and welcome assistance in carrying people out (or people to yell at her afterward).

Other than this, I would like to do the tinker's guild influence mission. Sen is good with her hands and her skill in heat manipulation would help fashion things - she's from a scientific world despite the 'magical' nature of her abilities, and I'm looking for like-minded people for her to work with and maybe teach some science to the guild members.

Sen is naturally suspicious of political stuff and will move out of the Queen's residence in an attempt to keep neutral. When things have settled down, she would be interested in surveying the state of the environment in Draega and the outskirts as well as work on restoring some green, if possible.

I'm open to anything really, just hit me up and we'll make it work. :>

[cmbr]

HAI YES FIREBENDER TO BEND THE FIRE OUT OF YOUR WAY??/

[thestewards]

Not great. Perhaps surprisingly, in the city itself, the land doesn't seem so unhealthy. In the parks, the trees are alive and vibrant. Immediately outside the city, the land isn't in as good shape in spite of how rigorously it's been tended by the people who live on it. It yields crops, but it yields crops with great reluctance. The land wheezes and groans, it's cracked and dying. The further away from the city anyone travels, the more obvious this slow death becomes.

[thricefold]

Hello hi yes please keep Zita from turning to Witch BBQ. She'll owe Sen so much because witches from Zita's world and fires certainly do not mix.

[stickypete]

Two questions.

1) In the opening bit where they wake up and there's screaming, is that them vs. possible npcing or can they find fellow PC buddies there?

2) With the farcasters, is the network they communicate to fellow Strangers something that can be accessed by other parties, like the Court or the guilds? And if so, are there ways for the tech-savvy to somehow make communicating to fellow Strangers more secure.

Thanks, mods! Event looks awesome!

[thestewards]

1. The intent was to give you guys the flexibility to choose whether or not you'd like to be attacked. If you choose to write a top-level with option i., the screams you hear could be another PC or it could be an NPC in the court. There's really no wrong read here unless you say it's Fayura.

2. The Strangers have what amounts to their own list-serve with the farcaster. Messages can be made more or less secure, or filtered to people in whatever kinds of groups you'd like. Messages that are left unfiltered can be seen by anyone.

[phykios]

so

how would it go over if percy possibly broke some old town fountains to control the water for putting out the fire purposes?

also: can he wreck havoc on some fountains/plumbing to put out the fires?

i assume the river's too far away for him to feasibly try waterbending without, uh, maKING A MESS

Peter Parker Picked a Peck of Pickled Pyrotechnics

[stickypete]

A. SWEET DREAMS AREN'T MADE OF THIS

I'm game with both option i. and ii.! So if you'd like to help Peter out or have him flip in to help your character, let me know!

B. FLAME AND FURY

i. Saving people from fires is one of Spidey's specialties. I'd love to have him team up with others for some rescues. His webbing is slightly flame retardant and can help hold buildings together so they collapse just a little slower. I plan to also have him augment them with some Craft to snuff out fires better.

ii. I also have an idea for him to team up with someone else and have to fight a few Hunters while in a burning building. While trying to rescue a baby. And then the floor collapses and they land in a shop underneath that sells ladders and others furniture that they can jump all over. Because it'd be fun to go full Jackie Chan. So someone to pass a baby back and forth with while fighting would be amazing.

C. INFLUENCE TASKS

I'm also game for the "Unquiet Riot" or "Hope's an Ember" influence task thingies on the influence page.

I'm especially game for "Unquiet Riot." I'd like to have Peter get in trouble with different factions for being very openly defiant of all the really brutal stuff. He'd really be grateful toward anyone willing to do it with him because of the enemies they might be making.

D. OTHER STUFF

Peter will think the Queen's court is a little shady and try to get his own place. For after the plot, anyone want a cranky, messy roommate for their character to get a place with?

E. WILD CARD

If you have some other idea that'll fit inside plot, like Spidey visiting your character while wounded, or wanting to chit-chat about Allairavar and Loren's convo, let me know!

Feel free to hit me up for anything!

[handvore]

Velvet has a smallish soft spot for Zita and is happy to help her train! Maybe even do a job as well?

[thestewards]

The locals are gonna be so shocked and confused. He should definitely do this. As an FYI, in terms of world consequences, if he destroys fountains on personal property, the owners will likely be displeased. Little will come of this except that Percy might notice side-eyes from a handful of people, should you want to include that conflict in a future thread. The Queen may eventually have a word with him about destroying public property, but he'll realize very quickly that she (and her Court) isn't displeased because the destruction was for a good cause.

He sure can wreak havoc.

The river is probably about half a mile from the pavilion at the center of Old Town.

[phykios]

i am so happy, thank you!!! i definitely want the side-eyeing and maybe some queen talking-tos, omg.

[phykios]

SO AFTER HAVING A GREAT TIME WAKING UP UNDER ATTACK -- percy's of course going to head out to rescue people at old town. he's somewhat fire-resistant, so he'll have no qualms about running into burning buildings to save people. and he'll be using his power over water to try dowsing the flames where he can! this means he will definitely be destroying local fountains, sorry....guys....as for hunters, he'll be looking to fight them off either hand to hand or with his sword/water powers, mostly trying to knock them out or scare them off

also his sword passes harmlessly through non-magical people, so that's a thing anyone's free to notice. he'll be hoping to intimidate violent locals since he's still ostensibly carrying around a pointy weapon, and they don't know he can't/wouldn't hurt them.

whether or not he stays in the palace is gonna depend on his castmates, so stay tuned! he'll probably want to stick together with them.

i'd love to get percy involved in the hope's an ember or unquiet riot missions! hmu if you'd like to do something.

[stickypete]

Sorry, one more question. For tdm threads that are going to be considered canon are they icly timed as being before or after this plot?

[arrogator]

Mordred's getting woken up by one of the assassins and they're pretty much going to have a bad time. After she's done with that, if anybody wants her around to help out with any of the other ones, I'm good with that!

After that terrible wake up call, she'll be focusing on the Fire and Fury side of things. She'll definitely try and contribute to the rescue efforts, but she's mostly looking for a chance to take the fight back to the Hunters. She's probably better for rescuing than anything else since she's definitely willing to drag people out of those buildings whether they're reluctant to go or not (and probably while acting put upon and angry about it the whole time). And that'll probably make her a target for Hunters, which is fine with her.

I'd also definitely like to try and do the Unquiet Riot stuff from the influence page with her if anybody else is up for it! I think she's more likely to get involved in that and try and keep the peace (if not keeping the peace in a peaceful manner) at this point.

Currently leaning towards her staying in the residence at the moment. She doesn't mind doing the practice drills (and more importantly isn't really used to living on her own for real). Dealing with the court stuff will probably be a hassle, but she'll make do. Probably. Or end up moving out sooner rather than later.

[kesi]

The characters sure are getting a warm welcome, aren't they? Anyway here's what I'm planning for Takame!

*For the rude awakening they're all facing, with option i. curiosity will get the better of him hearing a scream like that. I can work with it being from an NPC and running into someone else who heard it too or it being your character who's in option ii and him breaking in to lend a hand. A sword hand. Through a gunman. At least then the assassin won't get to open fire.

*His skill set is more tailored to physical actions than stopping fires so he'd probably also be helping out mostly with the rescues. Or if anyone else is doing rescues or helping otherwise and not watching their backs for assassins he can be that guy who watched your back. But he's also that reckless guy who tunnels and forgets his own back. The whole situation is really igniting his fighting spirit.

*He won't think to branch out for his own place immediately and will probably think he's forced to/supposed to stay in the Queen's Residence until someone else is like "Hey get out" right to his face cause he's slow on the uptake... That said he will try and help out with the aftermath of the fires and smoking out of any riots that spring up.

*If any of these here sparked your interest, let me know! And if you wanted to plot further, I'm on plurk @ bonpuns!

I'm not sorry for anything in this post.

[thestewards]

TDM threads will occur immediately after this event. This is the only time (as far as we have planned!) that this will happen.

[kesi]

Takame here is also staying in the Queen's Residence for a while and is like 200% used to things like practice drills so he would be able to help Zita out with swording

[mollymocked]

Oh cool, you know it's really awesome to get a second chance at life even if it's in a strange new place and HOLY SHIT IS THAT A GUN IN HIS FACE.

Literally going from dying in the snow to waking up to fire and someone trying to blow his brains out does not make for a happy tiefling, so he's gonna be dealing with some rage and taking it out on the hunters, 'cause like people coming after him and being generally awful piss him off particularly right now. Who knew?

People will have the opportunity to see his powers in action if we talked about that being cool for CR building! Yay!

He will also try to put out the fires when there's no more people to stab but his primary focus is gonna be murder death kill.

I'd like to do the Hope's an EmberUnquiet Riot for Influence if anyone is interested in those! Also possibly Going Postal, because I want to see how long before mail fraud gets committed.

[mollymocked]

Okay since Molly is a dual-wielder but he only came with one of his swords is it possible that any of the assassins would have any light dueling blades that he could steal off a corpse so he's not off-balance?

Also because this is a D&D character and I have to freaking ask... Do the assassins have anything interesting on them if their bodies are looted. I promise I will not ask this every time this happens.

Re: QUESTIONS

[playing_hearts]

That unshielded conversation between Allairavar and Loren can be overheard by anyone, right? So then would it be possible to approach Loren after Allairavar storms off? Basically can I use the npc request form to request a thread specifically regarding that or is it intended for more general things?


And, far less importantly, how do you pronounce 'Allairavar?'

In other news this looks like a really cool opening for the game. Looking forward to it.

[unwieldy]

Haein's not much of a fighter, and putting out fires sounds like a bad time. He'll leave that up to the professionals.

He'll mostly be around for the REST FOR THE WEARY part, as he is a healer. But will he be doing any healing? Signs point to probably not. Haein would really rather not use his powers if he can help it, and he'll try to get away with simply aiding by reluctantly fetching things for the other healers. Someone feel free to notice him half-assing things and call him out. I also want him to eavesdrop on the conversation that Allairavar and Loren have near the dining hall so his suspicions can go way up.

As for quarters, he'll be staying at the Queen's Residence. He wants to remain close to what brought him here. That means training for him! And boy will he be terrible at all of it.

Gaining influence is actually a thing Haein won't be completely unwilling to do. He knows he's a shitty person, might as well collect influence so it doesn't come back to bite him in the ass too hard later. I'm interested in Hope's an Ember, Snow Patrol, and Going Postal!

[verstoned]

Rhus sadly not a mage so he cant help heal because he doesn't have his cane. But...!

• Rhus is a tanky tank who tanks, and carries Sapphire, so he'll be able to protect someone with a lighter gem, or doesn't have any self-defense abilities! This is honestly his main goal for the event, protecting people from the assassins. ... And possibly killing assassins too. So if your character would need help, he's your dark knight.
  
• Rhus will also be running into the town and help evacuate people out of burning buildings. Like, seriously, he's going to go whole hog with this hero shit. He can shield himself enough from damage so he probably bother using his Jewel though.
  
• May also assist the medics anyway, even if it's just carting people around and shit.
  
• He's going to stay at the Queen's Residence in the end. He wont turn down "free" housing!

Feel free to hit me up on my plurk payoncave for more plotting!