(no subject)

[groundrules]

Hey everyone, TGIF! We're doing this early, so you OOCly have the time to plot, plan & tinker, but ICly, characters will only get this information on 9 November. At that point we can assume (read: handwave) they will be formally polled how they want to proceed. On 10 November, a mod or NPC post will detail the result of the vote, and what this means for Arc IV.

Please cast your IC vote (one for each character) by 23:59 GMT on 9 November.

The sorceress Karsa's spell activates once talismans have been burned in the Neutral Zone's haunted clock tower. On 9 November, she alerts the party to access a new, particular camera function on their communicators:

■ The communicator must be pointed at people physically in front of you for this feature to work.

■ The communicator feature is only active for six hours from when Karsa gives the go-ahead. It can be re-accessed later depending on how many talismans are burned by 8 November, or offer further benefits if Magnus' dragon eye is brought to the tower telescope in that timeframe.

■ Among the seemingly living population, Karsa says the camera will show the following: mould-like black spores on those who have been infected with the 'coal sick' — which she confirms as a hybrid sickness with magical enhancements, explaining why Minaras and Eidris respectively struggled with a purely medical or exclusively magical solution.

■ Karsa says individuals who are mannequins that have taken human shape show up luminous, pale, nearly glowing. Jim Kirk and Finn's doll appears like this.

■ Looking around the streets of Serthica, characters find roughly one out of four people are truly alive. Of those who are not alive, about a third (25% of total population) are entirely covered in mould (signalling undeath), while the rest (50% of the total population) are disguised mannequins. The mannequins are also in various stages of mould infection, betraying the purpose of the fresh 'batches' made in the Remembrance wall wombs.

■ All Eidris dragons are entirely mould-covered (undead). Cain d'Ubiq's martial dragons are alive.

■ Everyone in the Mouse House is alive.

■ Those who happen to point the communicator at Serthica denizens who previously behaved aberrantly (or 'glitched') discover these individuals were mannequins.

■ McCoy shows up sad and mouldy. But not yet dead.

■ Following this revelation, the Merchant recommends for the party to cut their losses and immediately abandon Serthica without waiting for the beacon's natural start-up over the next four-six weeks. Karsa believes that now they are aware this is a curse-sickness, it can be broken with a combination of the party's existing medical resources and figuring out the source of the magic — and exorcising it — within the next month.

■ Characters can vote ICly (please +1!) to leave Serthica, stay, investigate and break the sickness-curse or propose their own course. Results are announced through the aforementioned NPC or mod post on 10 November.

■ Opting to leave Serthica would end Arc IV, but there is still scope to go out with a bang. McCoy and anyone else affected by Serthica's sickness can be cured on exit, regardless (though they would not ICly know that).

QUESTIONS

Comments

QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Gotta love a good undeath census.

[weifinder]

Do any of the party other than McCoy show signs of the mould settling in?

[groundrules]

Let's go with... as an opt-in, some characters who have encountered the child in the Tower or Unwinding event can, exclusively on player choice, show very, very, very early signs of mould spores. No where to McCoy's level.

[blackscales]

I assume this means all the baby dragons are undead too.

[groundrules]

The transport dragon ones, yes. Sorry, dude :(

[weifinder]

I'm lazy about switching accounts right now, but Licyn would ask Karsa point blank what the benefit/loss analysis of leaving vs staying and solving this curse is: it's easier for him to understand the Merchant, but he abhors the magic here, and tearing it apart would make him deeply, deeply happy.

Also there's the chance of going home etc, which seems further delayed elsewhere.

[groundrules]

So, that's not really... something she can tell, she can't guarantee they'll solve this. She thinks knowing this is a problem that needs to be attacked from both directions, and with everything everyone knows about the child by now, there are odds of saving them. But you can't ask for a pro/con from her that would realistically reflective — and I wouldn't feel comfortable giving one OOCly either, if I'm honest, it'd risk skewing votes.

[bravelyrunsaway]

... So like some of the kids in Serthica are alive, right?

[groundrules]

Yes! Some of the population is alive, no real pattern to it (old, young, social class, so on.) These are the people who escaped the sickness.

[kahl_175]

Is Kahl's dragon okay with getting put to rest? :(

[groundrules]

.........ummmmmmmmmmmm.

I mean. It doesn't know it's dead... most of the time, the dragons can't tell, although some suspect it. There was a hatching of eggs, when one of the dragons felt the babies were dead and freaked out, so there've been indications, but...

[hatejakku]

Just to clarify (and if this is something that the party wouldn't realize on the 9th/time of vote, don't worry about actually answering) but uh.... would fixing this whole curse dealio mean that Jim and Finn's mannequin daughter dies? In a manner of speaking.

[groundrules]

So, that's not something that would come up on the 9th-10th, and a lot of it would depend on if/how the party finds a cure. If they're successful in dismantling every part of the curse work that's keeping Serthica alive — in theory, yes, that would annul all the mannequins.

However: the great thing about this mannequin is that one, it hasn't degenerated yet. It's 'new,' fresh out of the batch, it wouldn't even have spores! (Which Jim and Finn are very welcome to notice. It's clean!) Of course, it's also not passing 100% as human yet, so there's a... small con there, though she's working on it!

Long story short: I don't have an answer for you on whether she would die, ICly. But I do have an answer for you that if you and the Jim player want the mannequin to stick around after Arc IV, irrespective of whatever the conclusion is, I can OOCly make that happen for you. I would need both of you to consent to that (and there's plenty of time!) by responding here, though, if that's okay, just to make sure no one is saddled with caretaking for this thing beautiful creation when they're not in the mood for it.

eta: and when I say OOCly make that happen for you, I mean work something out that for Jim / Finn to hustle a little to keep her alive and among us. As God definitely did not intend.

[slippin]

Is one of the NPCs icly handling/tallying the votes? (I ask so Jimmy can potentially pester them.)

[groundrules]

The thought was to handwave it, to avoid the awkward mechanics (as technically this is forward dated to 9th-10th, presumably characters would be answering fairly immediately). But what did you have in mind?

VOTE

[groundrules]

Please cast your IC vote, one per character, by 23:59 GMT on 9 November. Results will be announced through a mod or NPC post on 10 November.

Please +1 the option your character would support. You can also propose a new option in the OPTION THREE subthread, or +1 one of the existing proposals there.

LEAVE SERTHICA

[groundrules]

Take the Merchant's suggestion and tank Serthica's Yelp reviews on the way out.

+1

[beitangmoran]

+1

[strewth]

john sez fuck this place.

+1

[saintclaire]

"This is outside our area of responsibility, and we could get sick, too."

+1

[slippin]

skippin (town) jimmy

(HOWEVER he would want to make sure zenobius wasn't stuck in serthica--if that complicates things [always welcome], please lmk!)

+1

[vdovy]

+1

[topoiran]

Because he'll vote with Moran.

STAY & TRY TO BREAK THE CURSE

[groundrules]

Tough it out another four(-to-six) weeks until Serthica's beacon opens and try to investigate to break the curse-sickness in the interim.

Note: there's no way to bring the dead back to life, but you can give the living their closure.

OPTION THREE

[groundrules]

The floor is yours! Pitch in with another suggestion your character would favour, or +1 one of these proposals. Please try to check someone else hasn't suggested something that's very close to what you were going to, just to avoid splitting the votes in too many streams — thanks!