lostcompass | 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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

How does the average population treat the opposing side if they visit in the one hour windows the barriers are dropped? Is everyone generally hostile, or neutral, or a mix where some are fine but some areas he would be just totally blocked from? Does Wrathion's position as this fancy investor make a difference or do they not even care either way because they generally don't want to serve him?

Generally, I'd say the response isn't homogenous — some folks are understandably wary, some won't give you service while in the opposite camp, some straight up assume, a truce is a truce, walk around freely.

Wrathion probably gets more leeway than most!

He loves leeway, give him lots of free rope he can hang himself with it all so easy --

So obviously follow up is how the... dragons behave around him. Like do they sense something familiar in him or is he Just Some Guy, You Know? Would they want to DEFEND AGAINST STRANGE MALE POSSIBLY DRAGON if he went near little ones or would they just not be bothered.

Dealers choice imho since obviously he's a different brand of dragon, he can sense other dragons of his own type in canon even under their visage even when most (not all, but most) regular folk can't so his visage obviously isn't 100% but he could equally be so strange they dunno what to do with him.

So, I'll be honest — in this particular case, what I'd like to avoid is a scenario where Wrathion is forced to go haywire/rogue to compromise the mission early because of his dragon background. Since we can plausibly go either way, which option would help more with that on your end — dragons engaging with him (partially, since he's not of their own) or dragons ignoring him (because they think he's human, or some such)?

It changes nothing long-term for me plot-wise, so I'm keen to accommodate on this.

I see we're saying early, not at all, so the bar is really very low here.

But honestly, while there's arguments in both directions, I think if they acknowledge and communicate with him at least a little then he'd be able to get a clear sense they're not like... unhappy and in distress which would lower the urgency of his desire to make them to go build their own city with blackjack and hookers and burn down this one that KEPT THEM IN SERVITUDE --

you know. It would definitely postpone any potential riot-causing and would alter his angle to engaging and try softer tactics first.

Okay, let's go with them having a degree of communion with Wrathion, then. It'd have to be partial, because they're not the same species of dragon, and they'd be understandably confused by Wrathion when he's in human form — for smelling dragon-like, but not wearing the appropriate shape.

As with Su Xunxian: the dragons don't communicate in the traditional sense, but do so through pulses of images and through physical gestures. So they'd be able to communicate feelings of nurture and harmony to Wrathion, but not articulate, 'We're happy.'

They're very used to fellow dragons being peaceful and to humans largely bringing them no harm — as opposed to ships, they would have fought those off during the Minaras-Eidris conflict — so they wouldn't necessarily defend against dragon-Wrathion. They might be inquisitive about his colouring, but they'd generally just assume he's of the community. Smells wrong, but they might try to nest with him and scent him. Bring him back into the fold.

They would not be as satisfied if he were to ride them, because he's not really fully human, and he wouldn't be able to give them that connection of symbiosis that they get from the link. He'd be a substandard rider.

He would never ride another dragon, it would be rude and also too open to suggestive comments.

That said this works, he can spend his downtime for this arc trying to invent 500 different ways to get the dragons to understand him properly so he can explain his whole 'leave the humanoids, end your servitude, go make your own city' pitch properly. If they understood him they'd definitely go for it!! Maybe if he draws a diagram?? Maybe if he tries a few different mental links?? Learns sign language?? He will persevere.

It sounds workable!

arc iv: serthica

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