bring your dragons, your hordes

[groundrules]

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

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Poison-free and proud, characters can tap deeper into their espionage skills over the next two weeks to prepare for an inevitable infiltration, as Macaluso and Vannozza officially compete for electoral favour.

A log covering the intrusion will go up on 17-18 SEPTEMBER. (Parts of) that event will double as a test drive meme, and we might try incorporating the suggestion to consider tdm activity as a game invite this time. Feel free to leave your own plotting comment!

At player discretion, characters who were poisoned during Macaluso’s banquet can fully recover within 1-5 days of consuming their cure.

SUMMARY

The witches of Bessis promise their vote to whomever of Macaluso and Vannozza presents them the most extraordinary magical item at an upcoming celebration.

■ Macaluso asks help as he sets out to capture and enhance a water dragon as his offering.

■ Instead of participating in the competition, Vannozza deploys the party to ruin the draconic efforts and to inspect a recent mystery at the halls of the Bessis, hoping to blackmail the witches. An opportunity arises to steal a map from a visiting Bessis, which could help with infiltrating their headquarters later.

■ Characters can be volunteered for a RNG drawn encounter with Macaluso and Vannozza's grandfather, don Bonaccorso.

■ Characters can help with any of the quests below, irrespective of their team membership — just be discreet.



■ Setting out to stitch back the tatters of his reputation, Macaluso competes with Vannozza to win the vote of the witches of Bessis, whom he has previously patroned. His suitors remain at court.

■ The Bessis and Attaryl are Taravast’s two leading sorcery schools, both formally supporting the Doxe and the Conclave. The Bessis specialise in elemental magic, particularly fire. The Attaryl are given to diplomacy, prophecy and mental sorcery. The two schools were previously at war.

■ The Bessis challenge Macaluso and Vannozza to show them extraordinary or rare magic at the upcoming annual celebration of their alliance with the Attaryl.

■ Macaluso seeks out exotic magic. Vannozza takes a different approach to persuading the Bessis.



A BEAUTY AND A BEAST

■ Past Taravast’s canals, in the city-side bay, Macaluso has rallied a fleet of fishing boats, offering fishermen and his supporters a substantial reward to capture a rare white dragon whose magic can be enhanced with ice sorcery.

■ White dragons migrate south this time of the year, seldom coming close to Taravast. Fishermen lure them by diving deep underwater with familiar shards, for some Sa-Hareth survivors — they originate from one of the mirrors that can consume anguish, fear or discomfort.

■ Some sorcerers will summon violent ice pellets or storm the waters to draw the dragons near — also catching the attention of nearby dolphins, sharks, sea creatures and mermaids now alive.

■ Dive in or protect locals throughout their efforts. Sorcery permits characters to breathe and speak up to an hour underwater, courtesy of a thrall can be applied thrice a day, with breaks in between sessions.

■ Those who dive very deeply can encounter the underwater wreckage of a former district of Taravast.

■ Capturing a dragon will take roughly a week. Once it is near, it can be subdued with cold magic, ice or borrowed mirror shards or any other similar tricks up your sleeve. Macaluso’s sorcerers will reduce its scale and transfer it into an ancient chest.

■ The captured dragon will sojourn comfortably in its new abode. Macaluso pledges it will be released after it is put before the Bessis. No dragons were hurt in the making of this quest.

■ Characters can take turns playing with guarding the dragon until the day of its presentation. Still reduced in size and sedate, it will roam free in the great pool between Macaluso and Vannozza’s wings of the Palazzo. As a symbol of sincerity and wisdom, now upgrading to more magical ability, the white dragon will leave those who spend a few hours beside it unable to speak falsehood for one-two hours after they’ve left its company.

■ Plot dragon shenanigans to directly detain the beauty.



NO MORE MRS NICE GUY

■ Vannozza suspects the Bessis are too biased in her cousin’s favour to award her the vote fairly. Her associates in the necromantic district report that local necromancers have increasingly visited the Bessis halls, hinting the witches are hiding something fragile, potentially incriminating and valuable.

■ Obviously, that secret's game to blackmail the Bessis. Vannozza assigns characters in her employ who can discreetly draw in their counterparts who serve Macaluso to chase any information around court. Ask specific questions here.

■ She tasks her supporters to sabotage Macaluso’s attempts to increase the captured white dragon’s magical abilities by distracting visiting sorcerers from their rites, or removing the amplifying beacons left by the creature’s pool. Beware the guards — and destroy the cold beacons before they freeze your hands. Macaluso’s employees could, of course, always... accidentally kick one or two away too.

■ A last assignment: a leading practitioner of the Bessis, don Urbano de Fiescho, has returned from fundraising abroad. He is spending a few nights at the palace to catch up with Doxe Bonaccorso. He is overheard saying he has rescued many long lost artefacts of the Bessis from foreign hands — including a map to the Bessis halls. Get it.

■ Incidentally, don Urbano is also a lecher of great self-importance, given to gambling and flaunting his skills. He can be detained in the game halls, if needed.

■ Four guards are posted before don Urbano’s rooms. The balcony door is protected by a wall of fire that dissipates for five seconds every five minutes. Inside, only a small caged owl that sleeps. Several scrolls, three jewellery pieces and a tome are spread out over Urbano’s table. Move quickly and silently: if the owl wakes, anyone in its line of vision will be paralysed in place until she blinks.

■ Plot great theft here, vandals. Getting the map will give a substantial advantage for the next event.



MEANWHILE…

■ Word has spread in the necromantic district that the Bessis request the services of able necromancers, feeding hopes speculation that high-ranking members of the school might be nearing death’s door.

■ Don Bonaccorso asks to speak to a character under Macaluso and Vannozza’s employment in an audience. Drop a line here to submit your character for a RNG draw. This will mean a quick lightly threaded interaction in the NPC inbox, so please be available for it!

OTHER QUESTIONS

Comments

GOTTA CATCH'EM DRAGON ALL

[groundrules]

Real talk, whoever successfully leads the expedition to catch the dragon gets to name it.

[weifinder]

I'm not saying this guy's gonna have success, animals generally don't care about him either way, but I will say he's heading out because he's going to be fascinated and deeply, deeply needing a break for some good old fashioned hunting. He's a good swimmer, and can come up with some creative means of herding a dragon around, though also: what the hello this is a dragon, incredible!

Also warns people not to mess with the mermaids, such as they are, of course.

So anyone wanting to partner up! Raise a hand!

[wooden_one]

Clearly they should go together. What could go wrong? (Everything, everything can go wrong.) He'd be surprisingly okay with some creative means as long as it's not embarrassing, anyway, lol.

[weifinder]

Who doesn't love great plans?

Now what kinds of means to herding white water dragons do we want to work with? Wei Wuxian has lots of talismans and could tell about the qi binding/bonding technique he has that, er, Wanning is better off using than Wuxian is, but! What else do you have in arsenal on your end? I'm still not 2ha familiar enough to guess, sobs

[wooden_one]

He's good with barriers, he has a magic guqin that can calm things (does it work on dragons? We'll have to see) and also a fear of flying on things other than his paper dragon talisman (that I did not have him bring because goodness knows canon never actually explained how it worked!!). He can also dry your clothes and make them toasty warm afterwards because cultivator magic.

[weifinder]

im so glad he gets that kind of cultivator magic because i swear mxtx is allergic to it in her works or the series adjacent to her works lmf

OKAY so, want to ask how his qin playing above surface might do, if it'll have an effect to start? barrier to keep the dragon(s) from getting outside of a region out to deeper waters might help; again if he needs a different inspiration to this, he's def got the power and wei wuxian can go "woe is me, if only i had the power to golden net qi this entire area" looks to chu wanning, pleading

[malicing]

Yes, let's partner up!

I'm kidding. Kidding.

[weifinder]

get in the boat and try to diplomacy charm a dragon, guangyao, just do it!!!

[malicing]

He's gonna die.

But he will die a hero.

Does that bother you?

[weifinder]

Okay okay no, wait, I have an idea, and I asked Ruxi if this could fly but:

What if he does actually die.

And.

Sure it can be heroic to the fisherfolks.

But!

But.

Wei Wuxian, ever helpful, liaisons with Lord M, and gets Guangyao resurrected... owing... Lord M. That big favour he can't turn down.

... Would this at all amuse you to get him foxed into a place of having to work for Lord M?

[wooden_one]

Chu Wanning both wants to fight a dragon and doesn't trust Marcaluso not to hurt the creature so he'll definitely be around. Jiuge's ability can also calm things so that might be helpful! He could also be found feeding scraps from his own plate to the dragon later on.....probably all the meat bits he doesn't want to eat.

[scrapgege]

as a fight jock, Xie Lian would absolutely be up to fight a dragon, let him punch things!

also he would probably volunteer to play with the dragon afterwards, and I feel like we could use his terrible luck for great shenanigans here............. im just saying.

[topoiran]

Lan Sizhui is all for cold water dipping, and he has the strength/speed/agility of cultivator so he can absolutely help with the catching.

Su Xunxian is here for helping with things after. Much like Chu Wanning, Su Xunxian doesn't trust Macaluso so if he can communicate with the dragon, he'll try to keep the it from causing too much damage whatever may happen.

[downswing]

Son, let's catch a dragon, but mostly just have a bath.

[paperbutterflies]

Yes, sounds like a plan. He'll make you proud and come out real clean. And ... salty?

[downswing]

Just don't end up married along the way.

[paperbutterflies]

... wait where did this come from, is marriage getting discussed ... how where who why

[malicing]

This one wants a dragon. But since he lacks the physical strength of his fellow cultivators, he will be forced to be clever. Just ignore the shepherd-prophet luring the dragon to him with...music? Traps? Something. He'll figure it out after he watches them for a bit.

[groundrules]

...hold up. Is Jin Guangyao going to rally fishermen to fulfill a prophecy to capture a hapless dragon.

[malicing]

Yes. That's exactly it. How did you know?

[elfuego]

Given that dragons are pretty important to Firebenders as a whole Zuko will have a lot of reservations about capturing a dragon and will want to come along if only to ensure that nobody hurts it. His abilities are fire and heat-based, which might come in handy during frosty moments.

He's also got previous dragon encounter experience as well, and thus far a 100% survival rate!

Also if anyone wants to explore some underwater wreckage I am so here for it.

Re: GOTTA CATCH'EM DRAGON ALL

[corvis]

Gil thinks Raven can make progress in assistance.

Re: GOTTA CATCH'EM DRAGON ALL

[groundrules]

Most excellent! There are a couple of you good folks wanting a hand in dragon capture (or in sabotaging efforts) - perhaaaaaps join efforts?

Re: GOTTA CATCH'EM DRAGON ALL

[corvis]

I shall have him address the network about it then.

[softheartedshizun]

Shen Qingqiu is all about going out and capturing it and then playing with it after.

Though he would have an easier time with a sword if he can find an appropriate one somewhere.