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lostcompass2021-08-07 08:03 pm
groundrules) wrote in lostcompass2021-08-07 08:03 pm
arc ii: taravast | arrival
Welcome to Taravast! Spend some quality time with the the brief of the citadel locations & team assignments. The below events should keep characters busy until around 31 August. Feel free to make your own posts and logs, though some mod-led log posts will be put on for certain events. Don't forget to share your character plans here!
The Story So Far page has been updated with a summary of the Stairs of Sighs interlude happenings, and a new NPC inbox featuring Taravast's who's who is now up. You can find a link to the old inbox and all your threads there.
Lastly: questions.
Mazyar leads the caravan into Taravast in the footsteps of a grandiose convoy of large animals, carts of gold, artefacts and spices — the retinue of the foreign princess Odile, come to persuade young Macaluso to pick her among the dozens vying to become his consort.
- ■ Yes, characters are effectively Odile’s back-up dancers when Macaluso receives her in the main piazza of Taravast. Characters will receive local garments, their upgraded communicators and masks, as per Taravast custom. Anurr and his undead go mysteriously missing.
■ Earn an ally by supporting Odile's marital cause. Macaluso enjoys gifts and exotic act performances, and he might think better of Odile for an exceptional offering. Alternatively, there’s good old-fashioned wingmanery. Let Odile be your muse.
OBJECTIVE: Figure out three gifts or hustles to raise Odile in Macaluso's graces. Or she can go back to swiping right. Masks will keep Macaluso from recognising you later...!
Pride once tattered, the party falls in the sticky hands of eccentric and influential Lady Rigarda, a friend of the Merchant who reveals the game:
- ■ Macaluso and his cousin Vannozza will soon begin their electoral campaign to win the Conclave's support to succeed their grandfather Bonaccorso as Doxe.
■ Bonaccorso cautiously refuses to restart the ancient beacon of Taravast, but gratitude could compel his heir. To cover all bases, characters have been divided to support both contenders, but those assigned to Macaluso have been told to discreetly sabotage him so Vannozza triumphs.
■ Rigarda allocates characters their Taravast identities, introducing them to key noblemen and their benefactors. For good or ill, many in Taravast have already heard of their reputations. Characters will be put in Macaluso or Vannozza’s wing of the Palace of the Doxe. Rigarda will warn them against public contact that betrays their collaboration. The communicator channel is private to the party.
■ Bonaccorso’s kin will prove scarce: Macaluso busily receives his suitors, flaunting his marriage as a recourse to strengthen Taravast's foreign ties. Vannozza hunts or visits the healing and necromantic districts. Gossips say she is often indisposed.
■ Attaryl witches will be apprehensive distant from fire magic practitioners, while Bessis adepts will lure them into their fold, or begrudge them the liberal use of 'their' arts.
■ Over three-four days, characters can roam Taravast, explore court, start befriending the districts or poke and prod at various magical and art institutions. 'Borrow' local garments and guard uniforms to infiltrate the academies, the inner areas of the healers' district, or the reception rooms of Macaluso and Vannozza. Careful of curious glances: you may find yourselves followed by invisible eyes, amid a fleeting sinking feeling.
■ On day three, demonstrators will invade the gardens of the Palace of the Doxe, objecting to Macaluso for 'selling out' Taravast with his marriage plans. Macaluso sends guards out, escalating the largely peaceful demonstration to violent clashes. Help the poorly armed protestors escape — discreetly, if you work for Macaluso — seize them, or watch on. The floor is yours.
■ Some protestors (...or even characters) will end up imprisoned with shackles and magical wards in the jailhouse of the Rooms of Justice. You could break these folks out.
OBJECTIVE: figure out your stance on the protesters, set up base and explore. You'll need it.
Macaluso will welcome his visiting royal suitors at a masquerade ball, with beloved cousin Vannozza and her allies also in attendance.
- ■ The pair's electoral champions — that's you! — will receive top seats at two separate tables, with Macaluso even bringing a delicate celebratory confection to his guests.
■ Enjoy that sweet tooth while you have it. Those who consume the confection will find their senses and their strength gradually sapped, threatening to kill them within three days. The poisoning, which will not affect characters assigned to Vannoza, will be blamed on a protestor found dead in the kitchens.
■ Macaluso will bring in healers to address the sickness. Stumped, one of them will suggest a superstitious all-cure: the feathers of a magical owl, whose kind was last seen in the Spina hunting grounds. Alas, only the lady Vannozza enters the site freely, keeping the ground keys in her quarters. Another healer will recommend the necromantic district and its underground 'potions' brewers.
OBJECTIVE: ...stay alive?
NOTE: Sign up your character to get poisoned here, with caution: unless characters work to find an antidote, one might not be discovered.
Any member of either team can look for the cure, though Vannozza’s people should be discreet in their pursuit or package their attempts to save the enemy as somehow benefitting the lady.
Some pre-discussed quests or custom plot opportunities emerging from previous involvement:
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When he spoke to Lily about her ghost friend and the story that ghost friend told about being burned alive, Wrath connected that to the residual feelings he got from Lady Vannozza's forest that the undead left behind there. So I think Wrath at least is looking for any history/feelings that he can pick up with regards to that specific battle as well as Hatisse and how it might relate to Vannozza and her family/what she is going through. He'd be interested in seeing if there's any evidence of this Eye that Lily mentioned too, but his primary concern is the above questions.
Especially given his connection with death/the dead and his connection with dark emotions in general.
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For your current Q: the tough part here is that I'm not sure how Wrath would be able to identify the (tombs of the) people who are relevant to his exploration. So I'll throw you some bits and bobs that I think he might notice, but you might have to execute a 'convenient' way for him to run into this knowledge. (Keep tripping on relevant tombs, Wrath.)
■ The mausoleum contains the tombs of all the previous Doxe since Taravast's inception. Wrath may notice they are very few, some seven-eight. Their tombs have carvings of birth and death years that suggest they lived especially long lives — many, 200+ years. One allegedly died at a respectable 317 years of age.
■ There are many tombs of higher-born sorcery practitioners who seem to have died during the same year. Any of the mausoleum caretakers can confirm this is the year when a sorcery district of Taravast sank underwater. These tombs are empty, with lids carved in the images of the honoured dead. (The bodies were all left underwater, past reach.) The death year is five years before the current time.
■ If you somehow break into Hatisse's tomb, in a move both brazen and, dare I say it, rude: Wrath may notice her body is well conserved, as if she barely passed. She is missing her eyes, tongue, left ear, and right hand.
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He had Emilia ask around with her connections (high society), and he is asking around with his own (scholar, necromancy) to find out more about her family in general/specifically related to death, etc. That might be how he could come into that knowledge? If he knew he was going tomb hunting, he'd ask around (even to Vannozza herself) about relevant tombs before hopping into all that.
But that is all very good information in general! He might be interested in just teleporting into Hatisse's tomb to see what's up, but I know it's all warded.
From this alone, I think he'd potentially be interested in investigating the underwater sorcery district as the next place to look into.
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Going into the stone tomb?
That's so claustrophobic and hilarious, I feel compelled to allow it.
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It's not like he is claustrophobic at all. I am, but him? No. Gonna chill with this corpse and see that wow, she's missing some limbs/eyeballs.
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#benefits of being immortal??
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....
...totally. TBF no one would notice him inside the tomb. So y'know that's fairly subtle.
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Satan appreciates you!
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He can take parts of her body, clothes or her jewellery, if he wishes.
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...he would only take anything he felt was like ~magical~
otherwise he'd just make note of what was missing and then teleport the fuck out again.
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