march plotting & plot rolls

[groundrules]

PLOT & ROLL

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Hey guys! Getting the plot show on the road, ahead of the 12-13 March update — some of the big-picture mission objectives available:

■ finding the babe-eating serpent woman mentioned by Taksui

■ looking into the dark well waters

■ finding out the village links to the feral Beastmaster

Beyond that...

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There are three mod-assigned plot rolls/objectives available — — comment here by 23:5 GMT on 11 March to enlist your character.

You can also sign up for a RNG selected conversation with either corrupt village leader Hok-Shinn Weisi or with mysterious blind priestess Hyang-Tai, also by 23:5 GMT on 11 March. The expectation is to try to finish a thread with them by 20 March, if your character is selected — and to share findings with the group, after.


PLAYER PLOTS

If you want to carry out your own plot or exploration, fill out the below form and try to recruit other other folks into your fun. You can ask for help or a mod roll here, if you want rewards or consequences for something characters try to do (ex: two fools try to burn a volcano. What happens? Heh. )

<b><Small>PLAYER NAME</small>:</b> <b><Small>BEST CONTACT</small>:</b> <b><Small>CHARACTER</small>:</b> <b><Small>PLOT IDEA</small>:</b> big or small, short or long term - anything goes, just be specific! <b><Small>WHO/WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN</small>:</b> weapons, accomplices...

No ideas? Join someone else's plot!

ANCESTRAL CURSES

Regarding ancestral curses — your character's atonement can be as specific or general to the curse story as you want.

Example: if your character is making amends for the wrath/indifference of a daughter-in-law who quietly suffered the nonstop criticism of her new family, until one day she snapped and took an axe to them: you could do story-specific acts of atonement, like finding the remains of the woman's family and making offerings to silence their aggrieved spirits or cleaning the last drop of blood from their decaying house, midway-specific ones like teaching new brides patience or how to cope with nagging in-laws, or more generic solutions, like promoting pacifism worldwide.

Generally, curses are just meant to prompt characters to exit their comfort zones and ice break some new CR — have fun!

QUESTIONS

Comments

NPC THREAD SIGN-UPS

[groundrules]

If you want to sign up your character for a fact-finding chat with either Weisi or Hyang-Tai, please drop a comment here by 11 March. There's only one slot for each NPC, and the lucky 'winner' will be picked via RNG draw. Jot down the name of the NPC you'd like in your comment header — and bear in mind their personalities...

Note: you'll be expected to tag and finish the thread by 20 March and to share the information with the group via network post after. So, you might need availability over 12-20 March.

MOD-LED PLOT ROLLS

[groundrules]

If you want your character involved in a mod-led plot roll or objective, please sign them up under one of the headers below by 11 March.

Please try to share the information you get as a result of this work after, and reach out to other people who share your roll to collab!

THE FIELDS

[groundrules]

It's a terrible time to be an agriculture-led village.

THE VOLCANO

[groundrules]

But it's never a bad time to be a terrifying dormant volcano.

THE FOREST TRAILS

[groundrules]

Can none of you take a hint about the woods?

INDIVIDUAL PLOT HELP

[groundrules]

If you need some info or consequences / rewards for your plot — small request, if you're asking for information, please be specific with questions.

QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Anyyyything else?

Hyang-Tai

[beitangmoran]

signing up with Moran, let him see the other seer in this place!

[scrapgege]

Canonically, xie Lian working in the fields has resulted in him being struck by lightning on account of his luck, so I have to.

[good_taste]

PLAYER NAME: Spider
BEST CONTACT: Disco @ CellarSpider#9984, Plurk @ PaleAntiquarian
CHARACTER: Astarion

PLOT IDEA: People exploring the woods might find dead animals, with a couple of puncture wounds on their necks. Local farmers and homesteads might lose a few in the night as well. With a snake lady slithering around, the bite marks might get blamed on her. But these animals are looking pretty bloodless...

Who could it possibly be? Is it another forest spirit? A cursed townsperson? The pale, red-eyed, fanged elf who just joined the party a week ago? Nobody knows! You've got a mystery to solve! And do it quick--who knows when the killer might turn their sights towards more challenging prey...

WHO/WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN: Okay, obviously it's Astarion. But if anybody wants to investigate these goings-on, I'd be happy to help out with that. If anybody wants to run into Astarion under suspicious circumstances or confront him, hit me up!

And if anybody wants to get bitten, I'll be happy to oblige. I'd prefer if there's some CR established beforehand, though.

Let it be noted, Astarion has never actually bitten a thinking creature before, and the first time it happens, it'll be overwhelming for him. There's a fair chance he'll forget to stop without some pointed encouragement.

[blackscales]

Hey!

My brain is VERY foggy currently, sorry in advanced. So I did want Wrathion to keep picking for information about the village connections with the Beastmaster but I've been slightly at a loss for which direction is best for him. This post reads like there is stuff to unravel, but I wasn't sure if it was tied to a plot roll or if there's still stuff to dig in the village as an aside. It felt before like maybe the villagers don't know as much as the leaders, who he'd avoiding a little. I'm very happy to play things out and fish, he's just very cautious and I've slightly struggled to invent indirect ways he can ask around. Assist a regular villager and flatter them a bit about how great their village is, the Beastmaster must be a kind patron, hope they give good info? Approach the witches in the woods and try for a trade for information? Scout for a way up to the top of the very safe volcano? Try to get someone to help with a distraction and poke around in someone's house? He can do trading, word games, cautious espionage (he grew up in Ravenholdt), but when he's also worried about drawing attention it... narrows choices a bit and raises stakes. I'm not looking for the answer here! I just need my options narrowed a little because I don't want to keep coming back 50 times to ask you 50 more questions.

[groundrules]

Heya!

Information about the Beastmaster will emerge organically anyway, even if it's not pursued here, but the best way to snag it would be to try to do some exploration/investigation, I'd say.

You're correct that the villagers wouldn't know as much as the gatekeeper Weisi — so, perhaps try to find a way for Wrathion to catch his eye. He could offer his services to the community, find the head-lady and solve Weisi's headache as outlined by Taksui, or get involved with the Hok-Shinn.

Alternatively, the witches of the forest might also be an option, although Wrathion might have to win them over as well — and I can spoil you that they'd have witnessed the Beastmaster indirectly (that said, still good intel). They're isolated, lacking access to sophisticated goods and gossip, and haven't seen pretty, shiny things in a while...

[blackscales]

I think he'd avoid Weisi and Taksui under the 'don't draw too much attention' banner, but if the witches are amenable to trade he could definitely offer them goods and shiny things. He is currently living next to a poppy farm, and poppy seeds are functionally useful! And he could, obviously, make them something shiny.

That said, I could have him unwittingly net attention because he is team 'leave monster lady alone, how do you know these villagers didn't torment her'. He just wouldn't do it on purpose, because they might be like 'congrats on being useful NOW WE SHALL PRESENT YOU TO THE BEASTMASTER FOR YOUR REWARD!'

[rumorate]

Slides in here, it makes sense she would be hanging out with something likely to explode.

[chosenbylight]

He never has been very good at staying out of trouble...

[groundrules]

Right you are — which one of the two paths would you prefer?

[weifinder]

honestly this is me asking: is there a way to get wei wuxian cursed into a fox form where only pendant thought text works to communicate for a bit

mostly a "while I'm really not sure what my energy levels will be like post-op" bit, but that's going to be flexible on a day to day basis

[groundrules]

...ah, the furry plot route, I see.

Yeah, sure. It'll have to be a short-term thing, though. A week or two. Would that suit?

[weifinder]

Laughs yeah that should be fine, that's basically going to be the worst of my potential haze. Also, perhaps a rabbit instead of a fox? Really anything that would be native to the area but doesn't fly!

[consignation]

no we die together, as slutty, slutty foxes and also as brothers

we do this in honor of the freeing of tamamo-no-mae

[weifinder]

ududtiyfiyf

okay brother time to be foxes and please ignore that his first instinct is to run from you and also every dog including your dog WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DOGS HERE HELP HE CAN'T EVEN SHRIEK FIRE LAN ZHAN IT JUST COMES OUT YIIIIIII

[consignation]

JIANG CHENG'S DOG WILL HAVE TO GO IN THE CARE OF ANOTHER BECAUSE HE WANTS TO BE AROUND YOU SO MUCH

im over here screaming at ruxi what if the foxes are identical, and wangji is stuck with both of them, and wangji is CONVINCED he can tell them apart, but he full cannot. not even a little. at any given moment he is misidentifying jiang cheng.

[weifinder]

me going "it's easy only one of them is trying to bite wangji, the other one's trying to hide in his sleeves"

but also look
wuxian takes his important people getting along in whatever form it finds him

[consignation]

no ruxi told me wangji would hand feed the wrong one and jiang cheng will immediately yanli code him and then it's a fight for who can be more affectionate for morsels of chicken

[downswing]

Sound legit.