the imperious... imprints? impresses?

[groundrules]

The Imperious and her delicious cargo are slowly creep-creeping their way to the icy port citadel of Sa-Hareth, leaving a narrow opportunity for the Archeval-led rescue mission of incoming captives .

To keep things tidy, everyone’s welcome to ask general event questions or specific test-drive meme ones, and to chatter about the fate of the Imperious. Remember: actions have consequences, and sinking the boat too close to the port could congest naval traffic for the foreseeable future.

Test-driving players: Eastbound’s so far survived on locust-style enthusiasm for out-of-the-box plotting, so don’t be afraid to pitch plots or ask tangential questions. The general guideline is that as long as you don’t break the sandbox, you don’t need mod permission, and you can check out the locations page if you need a map or general grasp of Sa-Hareth.

Hydrate & have fun, now with zombie mermaids!

Comments

EVENT QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Step right up...!

[groundrules]

Pre-empting one: ...yes, the fish can tell Su Xunxian there is undead trouble in the sea. I'm afraid I'm not certain how they'd describe mermaids. Poetically, perhaps, as 'that which has noble hair, now freezy, also sharp teeth.'

[topoiran]

Upper limbs like you lower limbs like us... or something. And yes, sharp teeth.

Are there NOT undead mermaids?

[groundrules]

Pre-storm, the mermaids are very much alive and well. Post-storm, well... climate change strikes them.

The mermaids swam alongside the ship, so they came from warmer pastures, without their winter coats :(

[sankta]

Do newbies know how they appeared on the ship at all?? or just remember waking there?

[groundrules]

At this point in time, the last thing they recall is waking in front of that mirror — to whatever (or none!) of the effects listed, whichever way you prefer it.

[sankta]

perfect <3

question 2 - how do the undead like direct sunlight.......??

[darkeststars]

So what else is in the harbor vaguely near the Imperious? Any smaller boats anchored nearby? Or structures such as like, small wooden buildings, things along those lines?

(Trying to think of what items might be around that Arche could realistically Force-shove against the ship to start knocking it further out into the harbor.)

[groundrules]

It's a trade harbour — I would expect other large ships that've brought in merchandise and some smaller maintenance ships.

Possibly also some fishermen's rafts or small vessels nearby.

Also. Dead mermaids.

[darkeststars]

Pelting the deck with dead mermaids like the world's grossest catch, clearly the way to go here.

Thank you!

[weifinder]

When the mirror on board the ship shatters, does this have any immediate effect on anyone enchanted by it/obsessed with it? Would there be an effect after the lapsed time? How are the mermaids, undead as they are, feeling about that mirror after shattering? (And if there's a difference in right then and in more time lapsing.)

[groundrules]

Long story short: shattering the mirror doesn't automatically break its effects on those it has already drained or enchanted. It also doesn't immediately dissolve its hold over the mermaids.

With time (days), the mermaids would gradually stop being called to it. They're not drawn to the shards.

[weifinder]

Yeah, given the way it works on the captives, this is what I was guessing. Good!

Secondarily: in the process of fighting to control some of the undead mermaids against the mirror's thrall, would Wei Wuxian be able to figure out what he's wresting control away from/that the mermaids are thralled?

[foxable]

In case I just can't read and I missed it: How does the mirror get destroyed?

Fox and Archeval are on their way there and Fox would want to destroy it if it isn't already, if you want players to do it?

He'd also want to take a shard with him to see if he could at some point backwards-engineer / figure out what the original magic was on it?

[groundrules]

You did not miss that! I'm afraid someone's already had a go at that poor mirror by the time captives are broken free.

Fox is welcome to a shard — Karsa's taken a few, to similar avail.

[pinkxeno]

coming in here late with starbucks

can mina take a shard of the mirror? Cand the shards do anything or will they just become powerless once the mirror has been broken?

[groundrules]

I'd say I'd drink your Starbux, but that's £3.99, too expensiiiiiiiiiiiiive —

Yes, Mina is welcome to collect a shard! Don't cut yourself, pink thing. I'm afraid the broken mirror is powerless, at least for now.

TEST DRIVE MEME QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Here for all your "?" needs.

You can ask event-linked questions here too, but for any character specifics.

[jeoha]

Okay so from the post I gather that during the ship ride itself, no powers, no memories, though memories slowly start coming back. What about for the rescue? Is there a point where TDM chars will be able to use powers for that, or are they nulled until after the event?

[groundrules]

Entirely up to you. If you last had your character visit the mirror, say, the day before the rescue, then you'd need 2-4 days from that point. You can play with each of the effects to the extent that you find attractive for your character's experience during the voyage. But the effects would not simply disappear just because the character's left the ship, if that makes sense — they are not confined to that single space.

THE IMPERIOUS

[groundrules]

LET'S BURN HER DOOOOOOOOWWW —

Which is to say, that would be dreadful and irresponsible. Let's definitely not do that.

( Unless. )

[darkeststars]

Oh boy here we go y'all!!

Before this really gets into full swing, I would just mainly like to note that my character is supposed to be a decent leader, but personally logistics are extremely not my strong suit lmao. When in doubt assume everyone is competent and we did something that makes sense. Unless it's more fun not to, I suppose.

EDIT: oh boy that sure is a creepy ass giant mirror

Hey boarding party do we want to take the creepy ass giant mirror (now shattered apparently) or let it sink to the bottom so the mermaids uhhhhhhh get what... they want... kinda........

[weifinder]

For what it can help! Wei Wuxian is not a sea-man, but a river man, so his experience with boats has that cast, but that said, piers being blocked means no river trade, so he would be a voice to bring up that if the boat is being sunk, sail it out of the pier to do so, both so it's not blocking port (since in theory one way out they have is by boat, and if boats can't go, then they don't go that way) and also have a means to get back in (so a smaller dinghy or whatnot to get off, he has no idea if people can fly or otherwise walk on water, or heck, swim without getting hypothermia and dying) once its sunk.

Also if anyone has the extra skillset to shove the ship back out of the shallows of port because otherwise, if they all need to sail it, that's another concern.

(There is one sad joke here, and that joke is once they're in the thick of it and have zombie mermaids around, I can ask how his success rate of getting zombie mermaids to help haul the ship out into waters deep enough to sink could go, but prior to that he has zero skill or ability to move the ship himself.)

[downswing]

Hello.

I heard we were inflicting justice with absolute disregard for logistics. I came.

Mostly unrelated-!

[somebadnews]

Reposting because I know where things go for last-minute plans: Five cameo is going to be a thing. He eavesdrops on everything, and gives zero care to telling anyone what he's doing, so you might have to deal with the thirteen year old appearing in the middle of everything for the sole purpose of finding his family.

He's still probably not at 100% after the super-perfect flawless heist, so his teleporting might crap out on him again. And then... it's fine, an exit strategy will come to him.

Yadda yadda. He'd very much like to grab get to his sister before she destroys the world, and might even recognize the light from her powers from far off, so. That's probably happening.

Do you even want his opinion on burning to down?? He's not preserving any timelines here, go nuts. (Unless it impacts him negatively in any way, and then you're all idiots. That's how this works.)