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

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!