lostcompass | arc iv: serthica

Entry tags:

arc iv,
serthica

arc iv: serthica

Hello, hello! Get your goggles on and take a gaze upon Arc IV: Serthica, which kicks off ICly through our 13 August arrival event.

■ The LOCATIONS page now includes the Arc setup and site descriptions for Serthica citadel halves Eidris and Minaras, along with Neutral Zones and the Mouse House underworld.

! Necromancers and the spiritually sensitive cannot sense any spirits or dead things in Serthica, even from fresh corpses.

■ Check out TEAM & LOCATION ASSIGNMENTS. To confirm: characters can still cross over into the ‘opposing’ citadel half or meet on neutral ground — just be discreet.

■ You’ll spot characters have also been assigned false identities and roles in Serthica. They inherit them alongside forged identification papers and are publicly expected to uphold them. No worry: they can be very terrible at their jobs. The roles give characters a personalised local advantage and easier access to certain locations or citizens for information gathering. If there is anything about your character's role you are OOCly uncomfortable playing out, get in touch and we can chat about re-assignment.

■ The Arc IV NPC inbox is now live. You can hit up an available NPC at any point over the Arc’s duration. A grateful Quicksilver Sam has been accepted into the fold, courtesy of our latest vote and/or bleeding hearts.

You’ll get full details of the upcoming three-week event in the 13 August log write-up, but a loose sketch of what to expect:

■ Joyful arrival in Serthica, just in time for yet another Eidris-Minaras commemorative peace summit in the Neutral Zone. The Mouse House team will meet their colleagues there.

Note: no weapons or magical artefacts are allowed in the Neutral Zone. Those who don’t surrender their weapons cannot attend the summit — this is sadly non-negotiable with the locals. If your character can't compromise, they can head to their citadel half.

■ An inevitable assassination attempt against the Minaras officials assembled at the summit. That includes any Minaras PC character representatives.

■ Characters settling into their assigned roles and citadel halves — some barracks and minimal accommodations will be available, but best if they group up fir their own living arrangements ( 2-4 characters per unit).

■ Eidris: a dragon clutch is born, to simultaneous local horror and celebration. No animal or dragon death!

■ Minaras: civic indoctrination sessions, droid acquaintances and close surveillance.

■ ...probably tech errors and/or typos, the log does goes up on the 13th.

If you want to plot & plan, fill out...

QUESTIONS

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

PLAYER: Kitty
PREFERRED CONTACT: PM journal
CHARACTER & CANON: Xie Yun, Legend of Fei

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Eidris

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: "Veteran miner and coal connoisseur, with a conveniently useful work pass. Your worth is your access, young man." The man canonly can make swords and forges. He will be right in his element. (After all, he'll be around things that can be used to make weapons)

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? Better bet he's with his wife, Zhou Fei.

WILL THEY HAVE A DRAGON/DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: Lets face it. There's going to be a little dragon who follows both of them around. If it can't find Xie then it will find Fei. Can't find Fei then it will find Xie. It will probably even try to follow warrior mama to work.

ANY LOOSE PLANS:

- Exploring is a definite must.
- Use the mining job as an excuse to forge and make weapons. He's damn good at it.
- Bar fights. Except it'll probably be his wife fighting and him standing about looking pretty, unless she needs the help.
- Help steal things when he's not working, with his wife, or checking up on those he's grown close to/cares about.

Edited 2022-08-09 23:29 (UTC)

He will totally help his wife if she needs help with dragon matchmaking questions.

tell her all about dragon riding, baby.

PLAYER: Kathrine
PREFERRED CONTACT:

chocolateisbrainfood
CHARACTER & CANON: Yuki Montgomery | Original Character

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Eidris, because he kind of needs Sunlight on the regular.

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: Morale Upkeep Officer. He sucks at physically emoting, is too blunt and cynical, and will utterly lose his mind while trying to figure out how to succeed at this job because he can't handle failure.

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? None yet so I'm definitely open to anyone interested in living with someone who barely sleeps, is always trying to stay busy, and is obsessively organized. Also looking at his permissions post due to close quarters and his extrasensory abilities.

WILL THEY HAVE A DRAGON/DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: He is going to get a dragon while insisting he never has any intention of getting a dragon. She will be his Mascot and way better at his new job than he is.

ANY LOOSE PLANS:
-- Him trying to turn himself into the Mister Rogers of Serthica will be hilarious.
-- Doing magic and trying not to hate himself for it even though he has no reason to, but you know, emotions aren't logical.
-- Offering his services as a doctor to people in Mouse House where they need it most and to people around Serthica as a discreet alternative.
-- Making more connections with people, hopefully! I really want to expand his CR.
-- Testing ways to sneak into Minaras (hence having to give in and use some magic).

Edited 2022-08-10 00:54 (UTC)

☾ I absolutely need so much with these two angry at being separated YET AGAIN - his transvenio-ing directly to her cause fuck that, he'll also be very confused by the lack of spirits anywhere and would look into that, giving her some of his ridiculous money for whatever she'd like, and also he'll be recruiting her help to see what she can find out about these assassination attempts since he would prefer not to be scapegoated again...

Dats too much like his regular existence.

He's gonna show up in his noir coat directly in front of her :') Hello, wife-to-be.

☾ I am so excited for Red to see Emilia gardening to hardcore increase the Persephone vibes she'll get from her, which will immediately bring her a great deal of comfort and make her latch on. Also, living together times - please let Red experience how delicious food can actually be. ...and then watch as she never stops asking for different meals this entire arc and then be very sad when inevitably there's an arc where kitchens are not so readily available. :(

Since she's rich, can Vanessa land a sweet pad, like a penthouse or big house or whatever fits the setting? She was definitely used to mansion living back home, so it will feel natural to her. She will slowly try to fill it with people if so. Sharing the wealth!

Yes, but to keep things fair — no more than two PC guests and the droid!

If you take this option, however, Vanessa and her sharers must put up with a daily three hours of morning calls from prospective suitors who know where she lives.

Her droid will also be constantly on the lookout to ensure none of her guests are doing anything untoward to ruin her virtue. Earnestly suggest hiring Jiang Cheng.

PLAYER: Sheep
PREFERRED CONTACT:

lonesheep or PM or discord chat
CHARACTER & CANON: Five Hargreeves | The Umbrella Academy

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Minaras

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: Animal Rights Representative

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? I am not going to force Allison to live with him, like he won't be constantly inviting himself over anyway. Feel free to let me know if you want to pair up! He'll probably find the best coffee and that's definitely the only thing that matters.

WILL THEY HAVE A DRAGON/DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: Yes! I was thinking a cute little octopus-looking guy, maybe? Like a mix between Ben and AJ, because that's nice. It has long legs to help him reach things he can't.

ANY LOOSE PLANS: Five has been in kind of a downward spiral lately, and he has some regrets, so he's going to be diving into his very good time-travel plans and obsessing over fixing his briefcase with any encouragement. Feel free to get on his case about that magic tongue he got all weird about, or-! Just get on this train, he's going to be figuring this out and making things happen. Nothing can possibly backfire.

I'd also really like him to get into this animal advocate role just enough to grow attached to One Stupid Creature. If the stars align let him give it a ridiculous name and carry it with him. I owe him this much.

Otherwise he's going to be watching his family very closely and being extra paranoid because he's even more convinced that he can't trust anyone. He will be available to question anything you're getting into and have no qualms about spying. Come to him with your teleportation problems, if he needs money maybe he'll figure out that he has this one useful skill.

He'll also be blinking back and forth for updates from the Other Side because this is what he does.

(Also he'll be Very Into these clocks, he's going to take a lot of pleasure tapping on a pocket watch please tell me he gets one.)

Totally fair! 2 guests, meaning 3 PCs total, or 2 including Vanessa?

Oh my god, men calling on her... adfkjhkd Perfect. She'll be so annoyed, lol. She's too old for this shit. Practically a spinster by Victorian standards! It'll be like a dig in her side at what Could Have Been in London. And I was already going to play her droid as being overbearing about that, so this is perfect.

Jiang Cheng deserves better aksdjfh

PLAYER: CJ
PREFERRED CONTACT:

geekorthodox or PM
CHARACTER & CANON: The Doctor | Doctor Who

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Eidris

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: Keeping the peace between Mouse House and Eidris

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? Nothing solidified so open to anything. I can say that he will be the perfect roommate because he: 1) Basically never sleeps/doesn't really need to sleep so he'll be up all hours tinkering around, sneaking out probably, being very annoying more than likely; 2) Cooking up very weird concoctions depending on what they have access to, though some of what he makes might be accidentally good if you're into weird flavor combos, you never know.

WILL THEY HAVE A DRAGON/DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: He would very much love to meet a dragon and talk to one. Before he would consider riding one, he would need to know they weren't being harmed, that they were being treated well, etc.

ANY LOOSE PLANS:

▶ The Doctor being a liaison to keep the peace is hilarious and I can't help thinking something will go awry at some point; not because he isn't fully committed to helping maintain peace (and especially to advocate for Mouse House), but because as is his MO, he will eventually ask too many questions of the wrong person probably. On the other hand, he likes to believe he can charm anyone so this will probably be fine.

▶ There will be dragon shenanigans of some kind. Whether that's riding one or trying to free them remains to be seen lmao. :|

▶ He'll be wanting to explore The Sanctuary in the Neutral Zone, and AGAIN probably ask too many questions. Not probably. Will.

▶ Trying to find a way to possibly bring people from the Mouse House up, or at least trying to better their living situations. :| He will be doing a lot of exploring and calculating this possibility. He'll be doing everything he can to take care of everyone down there.

▶ Being very obnoxious and bothering the people he first arrived with in the Mouse House lol because they're all his friends now basically.

▶ Pretty much some kind of chaos and/or trouble will happen around or because of the Doctor at some point, I imagine. HE JUST WANTS TO HELP EVERYONE and keep the peace, but. This is the Doctor.

Three PCs total! Vanessa + 2 others ( +droid ).

If she takes a chaperone, I guess it could be +3, but really, anything more is just untoward.

#3 sleeps on the back porch to skirt the rules. > )

I doubt she'd WANT another chaperone. Unless dudes start getting weird and the droid isn't enough to hold them back. Or someone breaks it like a jerk. Then... Jiang Cheng my man, where are you?

( lmf actually, check if they're even in the same area — but he's a chaperone for hire, only reason I thought of it. )

...damn! He's not. That could have been Perfect. Boss, you broke mine heart.

☾ YES omg it'll be like kotw all over again with them working as detectives together solving a mystery. ;; i would really love that, them re-discovering what a good team they make. assassination attempts are not fun AS THEY BOTH WELL KNOW. she'd def be invested in helping figure this out, and goddess help anyone that tries to hurt him. 🔪

i also think, based on her role, she might look into renting a place out as an apothecary of sorts? but i'm still chewing on that idea and should have more as the deets unfold and also yes. please transvenio to her whenever possible.

with that coat. and sometimes without it.

☾ I REALLY AM SO excited to see Red in game here. she deserves to try out tasty food and also to be with people that don't want to keep her in chains. she can also help out with her future hypothetical garden, if she'd like. emilia would be very interested to hear about her world and the ways it intersects (and doesn't) with her own. hopefully we get an opportunity to give them a wild first meeting.

i feel they kind of deserve it.

PLAYER: Sheep
PREFERRED CONTACT:

lonesheep or PM or discord chat
CHARACTER & CANON: Marcos Diaz (aka Eclipse) | The Gifted

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Eidris

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: Dragon gambling promoter, heck yeah

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? There was basically a zero-percent chance Marcos wouldn't be living with Lorna when given the choice. But I really doubt they'd have the heart to turn anyone away who needed a room.

WILL THEY HAVE A DRAGON/DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: I feel like he should have a dragon, yes. Maybe a little shoulder-surfer guy that can help him with his gambling promotion. A really shiny reflective buddy that really catches the light. Maybe gold?? Classy.

ANY LOOSE PLANS: I am going to be throwing Marcos at everything and see what sticks! For sure he's going to be finding whatever bar he can and getting some time to unwind after how stressful the pirate adventure was. He has some money leftover from the cursed village so he can afford a round or two if anyone needs it. Do they have steampunk billiards somewhere?? That's a fun aesthetic I bet I could google it.

He'll also be very interested in the peace talks, because that's never panned out for any mutant ever but he likes to believe it's possible.

I'm all about playing with gambling promotion role, he's really good with people and if he can charm his way into finding out the major players here he will. (And hey, if he can tie that promotion into Lorna's dragon dancing routines... no shame there.) Otherwise, he's here to support anyone who needs an empathetic ear. Go ahead and tell him anything, chances are he won't judge.

She's gonna pine for V.

babe

they gotta find the hedges

Look between the dragons and the hanging out in bars there's got to be a reason for them to get up to something! Can he help her with better questions for matchmaking dragons?

Based on their past convo, he probably will ask him if he indeed found some dead bodies to eat when they landed just to check up on his buddy over there and make sure he's thriving.

The chicken duck woman thing gets mentioned when more info drops in a few days, I just know it in my soul.

PLAYER: Jesse
PREFERRED CONTACT:

cherto | Pactoris#0587

CHARACTER & CANON: Vanessa Ives | Penny Dreadful ( PERMISSIONS/POWERS OPT-IN )

THEIR SERTHICA LOCATION ASSIGNMENT: Minaras.

THEIR ROLE IN SERTHICA: A lonely heiress with time on her hands, and too many gold-digging suitors trying to steal away that time.

LIVING/PAIRING ARRANGEMENTS? Room for one more! Fancy house with three bedrooms available (droid sleeps in kitchen, Finn and Vanessa each get a room). Finn's the only Mouse Houser in Minaras, so he got an auto-invite. (I assume there are more bedrooms bc she's a RICH HEIRESS, but need to keep it fair and not hog all the roomies, so will say those bedrooms are undergoing remodels?)

WILL THEY HAVE A DROID? DESCRIBE THEM: A butler/chaperone droid that's a little shorter than Vanessa. It won't leave her alone with men. It often adds a little too much salt to meals (a malfunction?), but makes fantastic desserts. Always seems to appear nearby when poetry is being read or music is being played, like it's listening. It seems a little melancholy.

ANY LOOSE PLANS: Vanessa doesn't have a job that will take her anywhere, but the sky's the limit! Please deliver unto me your ideas for hijinks. Here's what little my brain could scrape together:

✦ Every morning she'll have to suffer three hours of dudes 'calling on' her. Fucking...help save her, good God. Make an excuse to get her out of it one morning! ~~Propose in public if that's what it takes!~~ Anyone living with her will have to tolerate this nonsense each morning if they're in the house.
✦ Shopping! She's got money and can spend it. Join her~! She'll need more clothes, too. Let her help you clothes shop since she's already got the Victorian fashion aspect down! Or maybe help her embrace the 'steampunk' aspects.
✦ Help sneak her across the border to Eidris check on her fellow Mice and see the sights over there! Help her figure out tf to blend in so she isn't caught being sneaky.
✦ Merchants' markets! Also in Eidris, so explore with her and help her not be conspicuous.
✦ Checking out the local academia to get a feel for how these people think. Academies, institutes! Nerd stuff! Alternatively help her figure out if these people also put stock into their arts. She needs a poetry refuel.
✦ Trying to figure out how the droids work. Maybe trying to duck and dodge her droid at least once? Help her try to trick it into leaving her alone! Or teach her what makes it tick.
✦ The Place of Sigil. What's up with these assassinations? What's grinding people's gears? Help her investigate.
✦ Anything in the Neutral Zone? She'll definitely be checking that out on her own.
✦ When she realizes she can't sense spirits if she tries (that may take awhile), she will have major confusion. Not sure how that can come up, but it's possible given the nature of the game.
✦ Please give me your ideas!

Edited 2022-08-10 02:13 (UTC)

Why ARE there assassination attempts everywhere?! Let's find someone to ask.

Yesss! Absolutely Marcos can help in this thing that he's an expert on, since he's such a romantic (no really).

Just don't hit him when he initially thinks she's joking when she tells him this is her assignment. This is their lives now. He's not making promises that they'll all be winners, but he'll give it his best shot.

absolutely wants to support Emilia and her garden, and be in awe of it. If Vanessa can be snuck over there and somehow doesn't look too conspicuous, anyway. Finds a way! Til then, network might be easiest introduction, and I should have cause for her to post soon (I think!)

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arc iv: serthica

Xie Yun | Legend of Fei

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Yuki Montgomery | Original

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five hargreeves | the umbrella academy

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marcos diaz (eclipse) | the gifted

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vanessa ives ☓ penny dreadful

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