PLAYER PLOTS | 2h APRIL

[groundrules]

Hello, busy people! Just patching together details of the two upcoming optional player mini-plots you folks have nimbly sewn together!

HEISTING HOMIES

With so much salt in this city, eating the rich was never tastier. IC and OOC momentum has been building, so now's probably a good time to iron out who's doing what.

As per our beautiful calendar, the merchant vessels are discharging in the second half of the month, and the auction houses start earning sweet coin over the 17-24 April period — meaning more eyes will be on them and on guaranteeing safe transfer of the revenues they earn, than on the bank itself.

I hadn't planned on a mod-led log for this, as I was thinking you might want to do your own posts — but let me know if you need me to put up a post on this on 17 April.

Otherwise...

MAKE IT RAIN

• A SCRAWNY BANK MAP APPEARS. Like a manta ray on Sci-Fi steroids. • The bank is publicly open between 6:00 - 18:00 and locked up with magical reinforcements overnight. • GENERAL ACTIVITY the public at large is welcome on the ground floor open area, and in the spots for lenders and currency exchange. The government finance and library keep are open to administrative personnel and rare government officials. High-ranking merchants might be permitted to escort their goods for storage, or to meet on the upper floor. The lower floor is exclusively open to bank personnel. • SECURITY: armed lightly — swords, batons, some rare talisman-crafted binding magic that can temporarily paralyse targets, if they're struck. Day-to-day security forces are neither magic users, nor adept at casting magic. GROUND FLOOR: 25-30 sentries, shift changes midday local time. UPPER FLOOR: 15 men, shift changes 11:00. LOWER FLOOR: 15 men, shift changes 10:00 and 14:00. • Civilian administrative personnel (lenders, cashiers, servants) are unlikely to risk their hides to defend the goods. • SLEEP CURSE: cross into the casting regions (helpfully delineated by purple carpets), fall down dead asleep for four hours. Security sentry badges have been magically enhanced to protect against the curse. The guards have a curse-breaking password that will wake the affected instantly or render speakers immune for eight hours. The password changes daily. • Actual vaults are locked securely and might need a lock-breaker. Unless someone's got some interesting picking skills in their satchel — hire a NPC? • PLANNING THREAD HERE.

ROW THEM BOATS

As merchant ships gather to sell human alongside inanimate wares, Archeval ( darkeststars ) player Loren said our resident Sith Lord would be prime game to raid some boats and release some of the (wo)man-shaped merchandise. He will lead this fine expedition, with some help from NPCs and from any other characters willing to throw their hats in the ring.

This plot allows us a window of opportunity to try our hand at a test drive meme — so let's see how we do, and how we like the idea. Some key points:

JUST ANOTHER SAVIOUR COMPLEX

• Calendar dixit: the weather starts deteriorating again over 26-30 April, to certain supernatural effects. • Ahead of that, a NPC post on 24 or 25 April (TBD!) will alert characters of the arrival of the vessel Imperious (that's right, Archeval), carrying a substantial number of slaves and potentially some otherworldly captives. Characters will be ICly asked to join the rescue, but participation is optional on an OOC level. • Scout information from the so-far absentee Merchant will relay some of the obstacles ahead. • 27 April: we will have a combined log for existing characters playing out the rescue, as well as any new characters interested to test drive. • This event will count as game canon for any characters that participate. • APPLICATIONS OPEN: 3 May. • QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/CHAT THREAD HERE.

Comments

BANK HEIST

[groundrules]

Plot in before you cash out —

CHARACTERS PARTICIPATING

[groundrules]

Respond to this comment with the character name + journal, and I'll compile a list of folks looking to make a dime on the back of the already deteriorating Sa-Hareth economy. Y'all are princes(ses).


Beitang Moran | beitangmoran
Bai Mingyu | descendency
Five | somebadnews
Rachel Silva | thehoneybadger
Wei Wuxian | weifinder
Catra | plentystrong

QUESTIONS...?

[groundrules]

THAT MAP, THOUGH

[groundrules]

If you can pitch me a cute scenario that would entitle your character's grubby hands to that there bank map, I'm here for it.

A (sketched out, rougher) version of the map can also be purchased for 25,000 pieces if you send word out to our boy Haltham in an IC post. (Please link here, if so — and let me know how that's getting funded. Perhaps characters will come together in this time of financial need?)

[descendency]

Mingyu is currently sucking some pretty important dick. How much dick would he have to suck to get a bank map?

[groundrules]

...







Christ.

[groundrules]

Okay, we're doing this:

i. Mingyu can earn the equivalent of 35,000 in three weeks' whoring wages, from regular clients, or in a week and a half of whoring, if he starts getting involved with some of the House of Dew courtesans' mid-level clients.

Or:

ii. Mingyu can have a very poorly sketched out map from sleeping with a low-level government official who visits the bank regularly for the government finance section.

Or:

iii. Mingyu can have a fairly intricate map if he sleeps with a high-level bank official, who is typically the client of one of the most esteemed, established and jealous courtesans of the House of Dew.

Which option do you want?

[weifinder]

Look I've just got a guy who can shove his consciousness into a paper man and defy physics and sensibility by running around a bank and sliding into places or just outright observing. If things are more than paper-thin-slip or "timing lets me get past because for some reason as paper I can arbitrarily FLY" then I offer Wei Wuxian's services as that guy someone's going to need to either carry his paper doll self in (which could be great, to the public level) while anyone else guards his KO'd form that is, thankfully for Lan Wangji, going to continue breathing.

Point is I have one demonic cultivator who has strange skills that can help with surveying an area over one or more days, and can listen in to figure out some of the interior nonsense going down. If. Paper guy running around can be a helpful thing.

[groundrules]

Paper man can go as it pleases. It will not be impacted by the sleep curse, as it's not recognisably human. Paper man can't lug loot, though.

I recommend paper man keeps an ear out on the sleep curse password, personally. If paper man scouts on multiple days, it would be able to realise the password keeps changing, so it'd know to listen in for the password on the day of. It would also be able to jot down when the sentry shift swaps happen.

But I'm not sure it could sketch a map beyond general positioning, because everything would seem so huge to it. It would have no sense of scale.

TIME TO CRASH THIS PARTY

[plentystrong]

okay I don't have a fully formulated plan or anything, so. things catra's good at:

- strategy!!

- being sneaky

- literally tearing open steel doors with her claws

things she is bad at:

- cooperating and listening to others

- impulse control

[somebadnews]

Oh good it's the cat lady........ fantastic.

Re: THAT MAP, THOUGH

[soulsrob]

raises hand

Winnie's going to be helping mingyu buy the map! she's going to be selling whale bone from her corset which she will promptly be hacking up for this, and lace from her clothes + parasol to get the money for it.

she will probably not be whoring unless by whoring you mean dazzling men (or women, whatever) with the bajillion poetry and stories she's memorized in lieu of sex. so. yeah

[somebadnews]

You're a peach, Winnie.

[groundrules]

As a result of Winnie selling off her corset whale bone, she will also become the subject of adoration of a local group of archaeologist merchants, who will be seeking her out by description, after learning someone has been selling these vital pieces of whale carcass freely.

Enjoy the nerd fans.

PLANS

[groundrules]

Talk among yourselves: when is the operation taking place? Who's handling what part of it? Which of the vault areas are characters going to? How will they handle the vaults? Lug the money out?

NOTE: you do... incidentally happen to have a party member who can teleport. And a party member whose acid can erode all the things.

[somebadnews]

Five is Very Bossy and I apologize for him. He's going to want to know what everyone involved can do, and then dismiss most of their ideas and tell them what they're going to do etc. He's fully planning on teleporting his way to success and needs a hand with the extraction because this stuff is heavy. He can possibly teleport in with one or more people, but they'd have to be useful. (Assuming they want to listen to him! He at least sounds super confident.)

Also I'm fully up for a hit to his ego if anything goes wrong. Because getting hit with a sleeping curse and having to be carried out would be something he did not anticipate...

[weifinder]

Please teleport Mina in.

... Please.

IM VOLUNTEERING OTHER CHARACTERS I REALISE!

Wei Wuxian is much better at scouting out the situation, but look Mina can produce endless Acid. That's useful inside! THEY CAN TAKE SHORTCUTS. But yeah Wei Wuxian can scout out the floors and have that inside eye on things, depending on mod decree on what a tiny paperman carrying a guy's consciousness can witness and deduce.

Wei Wuxian's usefulness in this would be more to scouting out the area, or in asking Lan Wangji to carry things afterward as needed (are the things him, seems possible).

RECAP

[beitangmoran]

Just to recap so far we have :

- Mingyu on whoring duty to earn half of the money for the map, other funds to be provided.

- Wei Wuxian on reconnaissance as a paperman to verify accuracy of the map

- Five and potentially Mina teleporting in for actual looting.

- Possibly Catra on standby in case muscle is needed for a hasty escape?

LOOT

[somebadnews]

Ahaha so... I'm democratic, even though the very tired manchild here is expecting effusive praise for all his (and only his) hard work. So feel free to weigh in!

From the list here I'd say something like this:
Sell:
- All the obvious gold bars ($$)
- Most of the gems. (Make a case?? for the pale ones, because Five isn't making jewelry over here, argue as you like)
- Ring (just looked like it would be worth something, what)
Keep:
- Sword (he probably used it before the heist was over tbh so... maybe less than pristine ??)
- Mirror (shit from the magic vault was hard to get so figure it out)
- Cloak (might... wear it... at some point?? it's cold out?? what would happen...)
- Keys (assuming they're to something come on, they're gold...)


Just my thoughts, discuss as you like. :>

[thehoneybadger]

LET'S FUCKING

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[pinkxeno]

Just commenting here to make it official Mina will be giving everyone a hand, despite her feeling a bit weird that she is breaking the law and doing something like this. BUT YOU KNOW. Desperate times, etc etc

Plans!

[somebadnews]

So if Mina does go along with Five into the vault, we can talk about what happens to give an idea! Obviously they get some loot, so it has to go right in the beginning. Five would teleport down with her and into the side gems vault, but might want her help with the magical loot safe after getting the password, because popping in there would just get him hit with a curse. Gotta open that safe door.

If things go DOWN badly... Five would have no qualms taking out any guards, so it'd be up to her to stop him from... you know killing someone. However you'd think she might!

After which it's entirely possible that Five take the last of the loot and due to injury/too many jumps can't go back for her (??). And have to have the backup plan guys go down there for her. MAYBE.

Those are my thinky thoughts feel free to shove me away haha....

SOME THOUGHTS

[somebadnews]

I've had enough hours of sleep now to think about some stuff. Since I feel semi-responsible with this bag-of-crazy, I thought it might help to get some ideas out to see where everyone fits in or where handwaving happens. We can thread out or not or whatever, and there's no rush to figure this stuff out, but because heists are fun here are some optional options:

- Looting starts off perfect. Amazing. A+ plan great teamwork with the maps and getting the loot thanks.
- Things that could cause it to go to shit:
A.) The distraction team is actually recognized by the guards and they prove to be a little TOO distracting. Alarm gets raised to highest level and muscle team has to decide if they want to go in for backup or stay with the loot.
B.) The looting team sets off the alarm by doing something silly like MAKING A NOISE and one or more of the guards go into the vault and it gets messy. (ie. Five gets all overzealous and Mina has to stop him from being a big ol' psycho.) Distraction team comes in to pull extra guards away.
C.) The muscle team gets spotted where the drop off location is, resulting in guards coming out to deal with them / checking the vault and yadda yadda escalation happens.
D.) All of the above?? or your much better idea

Some other things that could happen:
- After too many jumps and/or injury, Five can't teleport back for Mina after the last delivery. Thus the distraction team or the muscle team have to decide if they want to go back after her or split up with the loot.
- Post-Heist: regroup thread where everyone sits back and counts the money
- Profit (???)
- (Calm down and stop trying to make 'fetch' happen, Sheep)

[descendency]

Mingyu will be nearby with Xiao Xingchen and listening over the network for emergencies such as ABANDONING A CHILD IN THE BANK, and will (grudgingly) step in if things truly go tits up.

I actually really like the mental image of Five accidentally hitting a sleep curse and needing to be carried out like a baby but I guess since we have the safeword that's unlikely. SOME OTHER TIME....

[pinkxeno]

SO ABOUT MINA who will be left behind in the vault IT'S COOL IT'S COOL

Mina can melt metal oh so easily and she can make shit tons of acid! So once Mina realizes Five isn't coming back to pick her, she will be very willing to make her way out on her own - specifically through the ceiling of the deeds vault. Expect a blob of acid coming out of the basement - great way to keep enemies away for a while.

While she can keep producing acid for a long while, she will still need help because Mina is still very pink and she wouldn't have much of a chance to run away and hide somewhere. Also, a downside of her using her acid too much, is that her skin gradually loses its natural resistance to corrosion, so at the end of all of this her skin will be burning and she will be in need of healing )=