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

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.

[descendency]

You asked for a cute scenario.

[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?

[descendency]

He hit the ground whoring so let's do 1. He'd like to climb the ladder a bit, just not enough to get more than the occasional retaliation from jealous courtesans because he knows hell hath no fury like a courtesan getting out-fellatioed.

However, he is definitely not fronting the entire cost of the bootleg map himself. He'll put up half the funds, so if your character is able and willing to contribute cash please let me know and he'll stop by to collect.

He will reach out to his dear buddy Haltham though. He's got that covered. He'll suck that dick too.

[groundrules]

Sure.

Just make sure it's audio, if you plan to make a post (if not, handwave it). Haltham can't read :(

[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.

[weifinder]

What you're really saying is Wei Wuxian has no sense of scale and I, for one, think that's correct albeit in a more general sense of things—

General positioning it is! He can have nothing to scale, just "these are things next to things in this order." Since it is something of a need to know schedules of sentry changes etc, multiple days of going in (and being really, really exhausted by the end of this, I'm saying, because that has to be exhausting doing day after day) would make sense, and thus would listen in and see the purple... probably.

He lugs nothing but himself around, I refuse to have him use his like. Five minutes of qi to float anything, I'm rolling with Suibian simply was too happy to feel him hanging around that she was like, "YEAH WHATEVER I'LL FLY FOR YOU!"

Okay we have now seen what he can do, carry on everyone else, he can draw no good map just basically what you'd get out of someone describing a place they've been through as a child but you're all walking through as adults.

[descendency]

Could paper man look at Mingyu's bootleg map and verify if it's accurate?

[weifinder]

I'm going to guess that he can verify: yes, these things are next to each other. Or if there's something "missing" say "something should be between these two points" and nod toward it, just not able to give a context for anything size related or how far from point A to point B.

He should be able to verify if things are not correctly placed, pending it's not like. Figuring out where purple carpet isn't, since that's going to be a sea after another-carpet sea.

Oh Modly one, please verify yay/nay!

[groundrules]

If I'm reading the room right — aye. The paper man can do what it wants, but it's so tiny that everything will look huge to it. So it can confirm where things are relative to each other, but it's probably not the best at assessing if a room is 30sqm or 60sqm, since it's all one immense and endless run for its tiny paper feet.

[descendency]

Nice. Wei Wuxian come get your dick sucked over light bank robbing plans. (Or, you know, just pretend to be a friend getting a rowdy favor while actually discussing crime. Platonically be gay and do crime.)

[downswing]

Why are you people like this, do you realise this moron's soul leaves his body every time that paper man hits the treadmill.

[descendency]

But it goes back? Failing to see the problem. You're talking to a man who gambles with bleeding out every time he asks to see people's horrific past traumas because he has trust issues.

Also for a moment I thought you meant Wangji's, like, out of worry and was just like yeah, that tracks. Then I realized oh no literally. It's fine though Wei Wuxian's soul takes regular vacations from his flesh vessel and one time swapped out entirely he's like. Experienced.

[downswing]

When Lan Wangji finally massacres the entire party in a hissy fit over whatever, which is just inevitable at this point, Mingyu goes first.

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.

[plentystrong]

she's not missing out on some good ol'-fashioned rabble rousing ok

[somebadnews]

This is a delicate operation and oh my god you stand out so much. BUT it's fine, just... stick to the plan....... or he will leave you behind

[plentystrong]

she'll wear a hat

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.