lostcompass | (no subject)

Hello, hello! Some admin notes and a few updates, based on recent rolls & developments, to keep everyone nicely busy!

EVENT & TEST DRIVE

Taravast's coup event will kick off on 2 December and will also serve as our test drive. Like last time, test drive participants can app without an invite over the next three weeks ( until 21 December ). As a heads up, applications won't be judged over 24 December - 2 January.

ARC II WRAP & ARC III

A series of votes on the fate of Taravast, the beacon and our ensuing Arc destination will take place over 5-12 December. As with Arc II, we'll have a four-six week 'travel' interlude to reach the setting of Arc III. The events of the journey will feed into the Arc III plotline.

THE BEAR

...will still visit before we leave Taravast.

For now...

Image source.

THE BUBBLING WAIT
■ Commoners repeatedly come to the Palace of the Doxe to beg Doxe Bonaccorso Spina's support to restore their districts from recent undead damage. They are turned away: Bonaccorso has once again taken ill, and the Taravast coffers are tight. Careful in the great outdoors — some furious petitioners throw rocks and minor fire spells at windows and into the gardens.

■ To contain the unrest, don Bonaccorso orders a tight curfew ( 06:00 to 20:00 ), bans the liberal use of sorcery or the display of weapons, and prohibits groups of more than five people.

■ Urged to action by Alina Starkov, Macaluso Spina seeks an audience with Bonaccorso on 27 November. By midday, word spreads that Macaluso has been placed under house arrest in his quarters and awaits trial for allegedly attempting to assassinate his grandfather.

■ Macaluso's household is broken up. Vannozza Spina offers the hospitality of her palace wing to her cousin's supporters for ten days while they make arrangements to depart Taravast.

■ In this period, characters assigned to Macaluso have their stipends reduced and receive unfriendly treatment at court. Guards often shove roughen them up in corridors. It's safest now to seek short-term accommodations in the rooms of Vannozza's supporters.

■ With their champion Macaluso detained, the Bessis sorceresses retreat from the Palace. Alone, the increasingly arrogant witches of Attaryl deliver the lady Vannozza for extended and highly guarded visits to don Bonaccorso's quarters. They also tally characters and question them about their backgrounds and magical abilities.

ADMIN QUESTIONS

PLOT QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Absolutely! Are Giacomo Zanardo or Sebastiano Bianch known to the group already?

Not exactly — they've recently reached out to Slick to ask his advice on... taking a more hands-on approach to articulating their political concerns, but no one's really spoken about them otherwise.

Aha! I did wonder if this was connected to that. Wrathion might be interested in getting close to them, if nothing else to slow them down with reasonable questions about their long term plans like "what will you do if more undead come" and "who will be in charge" and that sort of thing. Dyou want me to jump threads and talk to Spider?

Sure, why not!

A for answers to your questions — unfortunately, you will find the revolutionaries very enthusiastic but perhaps... less than organised.

What will they do if more undead come?
But why would they come? Taravast has avoided them so far. Once they bring don Bonaccorso back to his senses, he will make sure the undead never return.

Who will be in charge?
A people's conclave will be established, to counter ill and gentry-focused interesting of the existing noble conclave. This congregation will advise and gently steer Bonaccorso towards the righteous path of behaving in the interest of his people, when he forgets to do so.

This is exactly what he expected tbh.

His aim is to sort of keep them busy planning to try and buy time for everyone doing.... whatever schemes they are doing inside and out, to delay the pitchfork mob phase or at least.... gentle it? By impressing on the leaders how wrong it could go, and how it'd be their fault then oh dear me hopefully their plan is solid.

This could temper them! Perhaps fewer fire grenades.

The bar is very low so he'll take that.

IDK if you get alerts if I reply to someone else in the thread so done

Worry not, Big Brother watches.

Another question, which came upon me while I was staring out the windows of the train as things often do.

Does it feel like Giacomo Zanardo or Sebastiano Bianch are the source of the idea to take a more hands approach, or like it came from someone else?

I was thinking if they seem like the source, and the vibe is just 'we need to do SOMETHING', he might try to redirect their energy by talking them toward considering 'what if Bonaccorso's continued neglect means the city is attacked by undead again while you are all fighting in the palace, perhaps we should be building defences just in case'.

But he wouldn't want to cause a.... mass panic, so he'd only approach like that if they seem like they just are... yknow eager for things to be done, and could organise people into that Carefully. If even 25% of the rebels are building defences instead of throwing fire bombs that's a win.

(I'm willing to throw Wrathion into an NPC thread to see if this works, if it all tracks logically).

It feels as if it's an idea that's been stewing and brewing and coagulating among several of the higher 'echelons' of the revolution. The duo are willing to enact it, although they somehow still believe they can do this bloodlessly and without any kind of strain. The Doxe, after all, just needs convincing. He is but a swayed but gentle and fair old man, under whose rule Taravat has thrived.

They might take some light precautions against the undead, but they think the odds of a return are very small. This is only the second time they've had any kind of undead intervention in a decade — they're not 'due' too soon.

Kids these days wont eat a decent diversion when its fed to them. Wrathion tried so Nobody Can Criticise Him.

Hey! Just to confirm: Looks like Slick is going to organise this revolution but Wrathion is absolutely not going to assist in strategizing this. He'll probably stay undercover long enough to have an idea of what is going to happen and when, exactly, with only the mildest of commentary to make it clear he's still paying attention and involved -- then he'll make sure everyone on their team has clear warning if they aren't already out, though Fox has already sounded the alarm and he's giving away information there.

He's not keen to get deep into the politics of something he's this new too, he's made things worse before and right now he's all about survival. As PART of that survival, however, he will make sure the Merchant & Karsa are aware. He technically owes them, and doesn't like that but it's just the way it is.

Slick did indicate he'd explain to the locals what is going on -- I wasn't sure how much that will change things? Make it more or less violent? Accelerate or decelerate things? Just so I'm having Wrathion leak the right information.

Heya! Yes, not helping the locals strategise is absolutely fine. You can stay undercover and try to influence the mobs if you choose to, Wrathion ( this will all be a significantly clearer advantage when the coup event hits )

You're welcome to handwave telling the Merchant or Karsa or to hit up the npc inbox, up to you! The only difference is sometimes more follow-up can come out of direct threads - genuinely up to you.

Bear with my pre-caffeine brain for one question: what do you guys mean by "explain to the locals what's going on"?

If it's 'we suspect Bonaccorso is trying to take over the body of his niece,' that will sound too outlandish for them to believe without evidence.

If it's 'Bonaccorso has imprisoned his own nephew,' they might actually be even more impassioned in their venture, thinking surely this is the end of a malign influence on poor Bonaccorso, and their gesture will push the Doxe further in the right direction.

A key thing to remember is that, as far as the people are concerned, Bonaccorso has an otherwise good record of rule, and it's only recently — since the start of the electoral games, the involvement of the witches — that they've seen any change. They're more inclined to think poor Bonaccorso has just become the victim of his relatives or his advisors, rather than that he was morally corrupt all along.

You'd perhaps have to ask Spider how much of it they were going for -- since Wrathion was just the sidekick in the talk trying to balance out his intense army vibes. I THINK it's perhaps both? Just generally, that since they don't seem to be across what's going on, I got the impression Slick might try to inform them from that thread : to help them know what they were getting into. To be fair, if Slick didn't directly mention the imprisoning part once they began explaining Wrathion might just to try and hint to them it isn't all as it seems, but he wouldn't push it on his own as this isn't his city and it's really their choice. Black Dragons meddling in politics is historically a bad look.

And yeah, I can vibe they REALLY THINK THEY'RE DOING THE RIGHT THING AND HE'S A GOOD GUY. It's an unfortunate thing but wow, politics are on the whole Full of Unfortunate Events. Who knew.

I'll hit up Karsa, since she was the first one who helped him and she seemed pragmatic so he'd probably vibe that!