event 04 plotting

[thestewards]

This month, we're going to roll the plotting and intro post into one spot. There is a top-level just for new players here.

The morning that comes with the new Strangers’ arrival is an ominous one. Somber mood becomes stark, horrifying reality soon enough. In the night, a coven of Black Widows sneaked into Draega and broke a young witch who had the potential to be a good, strong Queen. The Blood are reeling, shocked and stunned by this egregious attack on a child.

While the Guilds and the Ebon Council use this as an opportunity to attack Fayura for her inability to defend the city, Fayura reaches out to the Strangers and requests they help her find the coven who attacked the young girl. To do this, she sends them out into the city, where tangled webs the coven wove in the night ensnare their minds and cause them to live through dark memories and terrible visions. Characters can be trapped in the web and acting out the memories, break into the web to free someone else, or try to change the course of the memory. As always, if you would like to take a prompt in another direction, you are welcome to do so.

PLEASE BE AWARE: The prompts featuring tangled webs are laden with triggering content. Each prompt has a trigger warning beside the header so that you are aware of the content inside the prompt. Most of the triggering content is not described in detail, and in many cases is only alluded to or described in passing.

You can read the full event here. The post is currently locked for responses and will open at 8PM EST on the 18th. 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. For this event, Queen Fayura will be available to answer questions. Some of the NPCs may utilize the Farcasters, so keep an eye on the network as well. As always, you may drive the cityfolk as you please.

Some additional information…

► Fayura and the little girl’s father will be available for questions with the first prompt. The little girl who was broken is in the residence and under Allairavar’s guard with her mother. No one will be allowed to speak with her. For your OOC understanding: being broken is deeply traumatic, often results in insanity, and is a despicable mental violation considered worse than any other by the Blood. Everyone in the residence wants to give the young witch the time she needs to heal and a safe space in which to do it.

► Fayura has asked the Strangers to discover the witches who attacked the young girl and the city at large. If you would like to bring a suspect before Fayura, Grejor, or Niall, you may volunteer to do so here within the next 48 hours. Anyone may volunteer to bring in a suspect. The mod team will randomly assign suspects to characters who chose to bring a suspect forward. For example, if CharA, CharB, and CharC want to bring suspects forward, the mods will take Suspect1, Suspect2, and Suspect3 and randomly assign them to each character.

► After 48 hours, the mods will post a suspect list in the OOC community. Each suspect will be accompanied by a short dossier. Using this information and hints in the IC event post, characters may accuse up to three suspects of being part of the coven.

► We understand that many of the prompts for this event containing triggering material. As such, players are encouraged to share information OOCly as handwaved character conversations. Please also feel free to have these discussions in-character in the network community.

► For each correct accusation, the player who brought that suspect before the faction leaders will be able to assign 5 points of influence to any faction of their choice. For example, if Tony Stark brought SuspectA before Niall and SuspectA is correctly identified as a part of the Black Widow coven, Tony will be allowed to award 5 points of influence to the faction of his choice. Characters can and should pressure each other to support one faction over another. Tony will also gain 1 point of reputation with each member of the faction he awards influence to.

► As a whole, the Strangers will be able to determine which faction should deal with the accused Black Widows. This will result in that faction gaining a significant amount of influence within the city—the exact amount will be determined when we update influence, but will be no more than 10 points.

After this event…

► New 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]

[illequipped]

it isn't really an ic question, so like, can emil give the little girl's dad something for her... like a get well teddy bear..... is that allowed??

Re: QUESTIONS

[theladyofwinterfell]

The second web is obviously rife with things that actually happened to Sansa. Is it possible that it will interfere with her own memories such that she'll get confused and think she's reliving her own experience or will she just be firmly trapped in the experience the Black Widow wove/thinking she's that person?

[sunborne]

Wrong character but - Zita would like to offer her services in creating a ward in the wing where the young girl is staying, to add another layer of protection for the young girl and her mother. Will that be accepted or simply sending a charm to help ease sleep and dreams a better option?

And for the right character - Daylight would be very interested in helping out with the webs and finding suspects! Who should he ICly approach to ask questions about Black Widows and the Top X Things You Need to Know About Black Widows, so he doesn't go into this ICly blind? Let's... have Daylight causing international incidents to a minimum...

[strikingtwice]

So related to the food shortages, are there any places were wild game might be hunted if Meallan wants to maybe take some people and be super elfy?

[garmr]

With regards to bringing in suspects - is it safe to assume that this will involve some kind of struggle or will it depend on the dossier assigned to each character?

I made some plans for Guts to get some help through a traumatic memory, since he has plenty that a Black Widow could take advantage of. I'm thinking it would make the most sense as part of capturing a suspect rather than the ambient webs of the city, but wanted to be sure if this fits with what you had in mind!

[championbittersweet]

Hey mods, in regards to suspect tracking... did all three Black Widows chase the little girl in her mind (the wording is a little.. interesting. "One peels off" and "the other doesn’t slow" so I'm trying to parse if there were only two or three there) and how would that work if one of the Black Widows was broken? They don't have a Jewel of rank any more so do they have a limit on how far they can chase?

[kesi]

related to the suspects but would the ones who are broken disclose what Jewels they wore before they were? or is there a way to detect that otherwise?

NAME A SUSPECT

[thestewards]

If you want to volunteer to name a suspect, please comment here.

[sunborne]

Volunteering Daylight to name a suspect.

[championbittersweet]

Jon would love to find someone to eat for what they did name as a suspect

[verstoned]

volunteering rhus!

[arrogator]

Volunteering Mordred for naming a suspect!

[yesterweek]

Volunteering Calvin to name a suspect

[kesi]

Volunteering Takame for subject naming.

[garmr]

Volunteering Guts!

NEW CHARACTERS

[thestewards]

If you were newly accepted during this app round, please post here so that you are more visible for plotting.

Kes

[strikingtwice]

This is clearly the best time to bring in new characters so Meallan here is going to be super confused and on edge about everything because honestly he just left one world that was starting to fall apart again and now he's in another one and his magic is limited and can he just have a break from everything getting messed up for like five minutes??
He will probably hit the ground more or less running because he's used to this though and will be throwing himself into trying to help out and figure out about the Coven and just generally helping out. The food issue will also stand out a lot to him and you can't be a video game protagonist without fetch quests so I might get him to do something there and maybe take out a hunting party or something??

Jonathan is going to be extremely annoyed about this Coven and their actions and be all about hunting them down as much as possible. I'd love for him to do some nocturnal exploration with people and get tangled up/run into other tangled people in webs and see what happens? I think it would be good for him to try and help other people in ways outside of relying on powers or action and having to take a more supportive, less commanding role if possible. So if anyone would like a vampire trying real hard to be Nice I would be down.

Also also following from his conversation on the network about his dietary concerns I'd love to do a log with anyone who'd be willing to help him out and have the conversation about what that would look like, although ofc with the topic I'm also happy to work out details oocly and handwave.

[mollymocked]

Molly supports your decisions to try and be nice, Jon. Also he's probably gonna get tangled in a web. SAVE HIM.

[verstoned]

SO! Rhus is coming back from an excursion in Black Widow-infested wilds... to this. BOY HOWDY

First off, because Rhus has seen Black Widows before, he can assist in educating people in what they do! He'll be sharing that information in a toplevel I'm planning on making.

Secondly, Rhus will be forcing himself to use his Echo in an attempt to find the Black Widows faster. The Echo is a canon ability that has a lot of different perks, including its user being able to see someone's memories, but the owner of an Echo cant control what they see or when they see it, and while viewing the memory it leaves them in a vulnerable state, and a slight headache afterwards. However, Rhus has been thinking that maybe he can control what he sees because he now has a Jewel, and will be attempting to force it at every opportunity he can get because he cant let this kind of shit slide, even if he's not overly interested in dealing with children.

Meaning!! Please let me know if you want Rhus to accidentally peek into your character's memories or not, and which memory you want to share. More info on that can be found on the link. If you choose to share a memory, it doesn't have to be one in the game, it can be a small bit from canon as well.

Other than that, I might just sign Rhus up for bringing forward a suspect. He'll also be prowling around for baddies, aside from taking care of his plants and guarding them very, very closely. If either of those interest you, lmk! Feel free to also grab me on my plurk payoncave

[mollymocked]

oh maaaan. it's really tempting to blow all that bonding during the wilds up with some good old fashioned memory sharing.

[kesi]

Say it with me, kids. Yikes.

Before anything, I wanna go ahead and link Takame's Permission post for the Echo. A clearer description of what it does is linked on the page but the main focus here is that he can see people's memories. It's the same general warning here like w/ Rhus in that he has no control of what he sees except his power to view someone's past will leave him considerably more vulnerable and it could probably end up with him being knocked flat on his ass or worse. Feel free to poke at it if you want him to see something of your characters' and what.

He's also been trying to force use of it through his Jewel but that's also much weaker and may end poorly but he'll try it anyway just because he will absolutely not let whoever did this get away with it. He has a soft spot for kids so he's going to be very pissed off and do whatever it takes to see that they face judgment. Might also sign him up for suspect pointing cause you know the whole memory sight thing could help. Or it might just mentally screw him up, who knows!

I wanna get him involved in one of the webs as well, either getting lost himself in one or getting someone else out of one because he's used to vivid experiences in someone else's mind. If you wanna hash out something specific feel free to come to my plurk @ bonpuns so we can plan stuff!!

[thricefold]

For this event, Zita will be supporting others. This will be coming in the form of helping others out of the tangled webs should they become ensnared in it when they're out in the wilds.

She’s a very old witch with a lot of experience with dark subject matter back in her world, both from personal experience and from exposure from others she's known along the way. As a result she’s mentally prepared and ready to enter these scenarios and drag people out of them. Her Green Jewel helps boost her healing magic when taking care of others, so, as always, she's offering those services to others should they need it.

In terms of influence and factions - She’ll be asking the others to consider the Courts and the Council’s favours, if they gain influence and/or bring suspects to one of the faction leaders. She feels like they’ll be the most capable in handling the situation in light of what happened to the girl.

[sunborne]

Daylight will be taking an active stance in what's happening in the event. Mainly in the form helping out with the investigation by sussing out suspects and bringing them back. He’ll have an idea where to look for the Black Widows thanks to his conversation with Fayura here. He's hoping to find a way to mimic(?) the psychic scent of a potential Black Widow to lure them out, or use it to track others down if he gets close enough to them.

Due to his build and his size, he thinks he has a good shot in being able to confront Black Widows and keeping things from getting messy. However, he's also a wearer Opal so any help from those with a darker jewel would be immensely appreciated when confronting them. Especially those talented in shielding or defensive magic, because he... has not practiced his Craft a lot.....

For the factions and influence - He's open to suggestions on who to bring his suspects to and how to reward influence with, should his accusations be correct. Otherwise, he's going to be throwing his lot with the Guilds, because he works for them and would like to continue working for them. Politically savvy, Daylight is not and it shows with how he simply wants to help track the people who hurt the girl and prevent this from happening again.

Since he has a more active stance on this, he, unlike Zita, will be having a toplevel set up when the post is open to comments! Zita will be tagging out to others but I wanted a base of sorts for Day to keep track of his stuff.

comes in late with starbux

[garmr]

Guts will be interested in helping out in the investigation for this, including looking for suspects (and he's signed up for bringing one in). He's fought against things that mess with his mind on a daily basis back home, and has ironclad willpower, but he isn't too adept with Craft. He also has plenty of his own traumatic memories that a Black Widow could take advantage of. He'll probably need some magic support to tag along with him, just in case.

Possible Plans include getting some help from Zita and Lalli through a memory of the Eclipse, and helping Sansa with her web-tangling. I am open to having him jump in and/or being assisted by someone else through the Widows' webs, or at any other stage of the investigation. I may not do an open top-level but will be down for tagging yours with a prompt!

For faction influence: he'll suggest Fayura's Court or Ebon Council, because none of this seems like much of the Guilds' business. Also, the Blood will probably have a better idea of what to do with their own.

If you have any ideas feel free to hit me up here or on my plurk at hematite

comes in even later

[strikingtwice]

TRAUMATIC MEMORIES YOU SAY

that sounds like personal side quest with large fighty friend if you ask me

[theladyofwinterfell]

For this event, Sansa is going to get tangled up in the second Black Widow web. I am locking that to some close CR of hers (Zita, Guts, Molly, Bucky, Tyrion & Horatio). Sansa has EXTREMELY triggering backstory that directly relates to this web so if you are her close CR and you don't want to play it out, I'm not offended.

Here is a primer on the abuse she suffered at the hands of her second husband, Ramsay Bolton. The mods have okayed for Sansa to actually see Ramsay in the web and have it trigger her own memories instead of the vision the Black Widow wove.

She will be so traumatized by her experience in the web that she won't be seeking any faction influence or looking for suspects.