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lostcompass2022-05-12 07:35 pm
groundrules) wrote in lostcompass2022-05-12 07:35 pm
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THE TITHE | ARC III FINALE
Hello, good people! It’s all about to go down with a Boom on 18 May during the log finale of Arc III.
- ■ After wrapping up Arc III, the party will enjoy a plot-light(er) ‘journey’ segment totalling four-six weeks, then head into Arc IV.
■ An out-of-character vote will go up over the next few days, so you can choose between two destination options for Arc IV.
■ Our next test drive meme takes place in early June.
For now, a brief idea of what to expect in the Arc III finale log below, so you can plot & plan your moves ahead.
Catch-up: desperate villagers are revisiting human sacrifices in hopes of swaying the Ke-Sanwon volcano’s eruption. The rites were stalled for a few years, during which a traveller’s cure for droughts was purchased with tributes collected by the undead Beastmaster. The witches of the Fetters gained their power and animal hybrids began to roam around this time. Wrath and Emilia discovered the volcano contains magical energy and tormented spirits that have been capped by a fracturing dark mirror. The group stole keys to enter the House of Ravens sacrificial temple — which now opens for the eruption.
In family drama, it emerges the Beastmaster was once married to the Huntress (formerly Anui), who offered their son to Ke-Sanwon without his father’s say. The child disappeared. Both parents hope to find him in the House. Wrathion, Daenerys and Viktor have all will be sharing juicy details by 18 May, once NPC threads wrap up.
Upcoming:
THIS HOUSE IS YOUR HOUSE
The party must infiltrate the House of Ravens overnight and wait until dawns, when the temple dais slowly opens to reveal the mouth of the volcano.
- ■ Those who enter the House are fully or partially depowered and have their ancestral curse immediately lifted.
■ In the midnight to dawns period, characters are supernaturally tempted to act on their greatest individual sin.
■ They are chased by the temple’s… unusually large defenders, if they succumb to these instincts. Good luck til dawns, folks.
LET THERE BE BLOOD
The cultists of Ke-Waicai greet dawns by exposing their first chosen sacrifice to Ke-Sanwon, showcasing exactly what happens to their ‘Chosen.’ Roughly two hundred villagers attend the rites, along with eight powerful priests who use elemental magic.
In good (?) news: seeking his missing son, the Beastmaster bring his xenomorphic creatures to attack the House of Ravens.
Characters should:
- ■ Dress up, join the crowd and free the remaining tributes during the beastly skirmish.
■ Take control of the House’s dais by defeating or killing the priests.
! Characters can remain partially or fully depowered throughout, if you prefer.
FIRE AND BRIMSTONE?
The dais remains under the party’s control as long as a character (literally) shoulders the head priest’s ancient white raven and holds its leash.
- ■ Whoever carries the raven becomes the target of the village mob and of the Beastmaster’s creatures.
■ The raven should be passed around. Defend the bird’s current holder and throw off their pursuers.
■ If the bird dies, the dais closes, and the volcano erupts. No pressure.
For those looking to stop the eruption, options include but are not limited to:
- ■ Throwing more dark water into the volcano to fix the mirror crack.
■ Using ice / cold magic and scientific processes to cool down the volcano’s warmth and help the mirror regenerate itself.
■ Exorcising some of the spirits within the volcano.
■ Absorbing some of the magical power contained by the volcano. IMPORTANTLY, this can lead to substantial or permanent effects for your character, detailed here.
■ Persuading and guiding sane villagers to bring sea water. Helpful tips: remember those cool phoenix rides and the very fast Ke-Waiar werewolves.
■ PLOT HOW TO TACKLE THE VOLCANO. You can come up with your own solution. Calming Ke-Sanwon is a huge enterprise, so the more help, the better.
THE BEASTMASTER
Group up and pitch a plan, if you want to slay the Beastmaster.
He will drive his animal to raid the House of Ravens and devolve into a fury when he does not locate his son. Grief renders him vulnerable and unpredictably violent. He is also significantly less powerful in the House of Ravens.
WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CIVILIANS?
Beyond the House of Ravens, villagers need help safeguarding their possessions or preparing to evacuate aboard incoming ships. The gradual spread of Ke-Sanwon’s seeping magic will infect some villagers, leading to animal hybridization in the farmers’ ranks — stay safe.
Whoever stays in the villages can also coordinate water and supply deliveries with those at the House of Ravens.
The Arc III beacon will briefly open, allowing characters to head home before sadly faltering. All characters dropped or AC swept in May will be said to have safely gone home through the beacon.
COMMENT HERE if you want a canon update for your character. They will briefly go to their home world, then return when the beacon fails. Characters do not retain memories, items or powers gained in game while they are in their home worlds, but they recover them on return.
It’s an Arc finale: go BIG, and you might go home. Respond with your very own shiny plotting comment, featuring:
Murder Organisation
Also, as noted here, it's not really feasible for everyone to all be in a thread trying to get info from him. So how do we want to play it?
i) assume they get nothing from him!
ii) assume the first part they ask him is 'will you renounce the brotherhood', Beastmaster says no, and the person who wants to kill him goes 'okay bye' and does so before they ask questions -- only works if there's someone this is IC for!
iii) Decide on one/max two people who talk to him, everyone else steps aside, murder after?
iv) ICly agree to question taking it in turns, OOCly explain away other people not talking to him by having the first character just murder him for giving the wrong answers before anyone else gets a chance, oops?
Or something else. I'm open! I have easy time to spam through an NPC thread, but I also did do a huntress one so happy to have Wrathion give someone notes on what he wants to know and just stand back and look menacing while they do the talking. If everyone would ICly want to ask questions and we can't find a working route 'He doesn't feel like talking' is always there!
Re: Murder Organisation
He won’t strike the killing blow under existing circumstances.
If y’all want to do a thing where he tries that and it goes approximately nowhere due to someone else doing a murder, that works for me. (It was never going to go anywhere anyway!)
If we want to do something where he doesn’t even get that far with it (did Beasto really want a guy with a heavy Sheffield accent in his face yelling at him to CHANGE HIS WAYS anyway), that also works. I went into plotting assuming that anyone talking to him was probably unlikely, and Beasto has Done Enough that someone just killing him before anyone gets him to talk sounds pretty valid and reasonable.
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Diego would have no issue delivering the killing blow. Like yeah, the guy has a sad story but he's undead and doing awful shit. Cool motive, still murder. The Graces can feast on him.
I mean.
What?
He'd try to give people the chance to talk him down but once it's clear it's not going anywhere.....
So if Jon wanted to try to get him renounce the Brotherhood and didn't go anywhere he'd be happy to step in and throw some well aimed knives.
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Also Wrathion agrees: cool motive, still murder and mind control which he is very sensitive about okay.
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giving him one chance to say no to that life also sounds good but given circumstances I don't think Xie Lian would advocate dragging it out since they're all depowered. they need him down now. he'll aim for disabling first tho.
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Yes, there is plenty of damage to be done before the killing blow. but yeah, diego wouldn't want to drag it out. disabling first is a smart idea
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RANDOM ASIDE
Wifi was asking the statues about the child, linked by the red fabric, so basically just has "a small human kept visiting and was last seen here three to five years ago."
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yeah diego would let wifi deliver it first.
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