we should totally just stab caesar

[groundrules]

Hi, everyone! Still a bit of The Channeling event to go ( til 18 November ), but a wild plotting post appears to transition us into the last phase of Arc VII.

Plotting for anything requiring mod feedback is open til a hard deadline of 23:59 GMT on 19 November. A summary of everything planned & approved follows on 20 November.

You can play out everything agreed here til 4 December — and will receive the setting and CR opportunities for your one-month cooldown event on 5 December. December is historically a crammed month, so expect a classically haunted winter wonderland and small-scale plot opportunities. An obscure teaser.

WHAT WE KNOW

Ephes struggles to decide on undead Lady Messalina’s request to receive the elite army of the Hand and vanquish the undead Brotherhood abroad. Senate leader Caius Justus calls to refuse Messalina and says the citadel’s divine patron, the apocalyptic Chained God, would want Ephes itself to conquer, without an intermediary.

It emerges that Caius Justus, who created the Hand, and cultishly devoted Hand leader Narula have been supernaturally enhancing recruits by feeding them ‘dark water,’ a sinister magical medium that always appears where the undead are, like the mysterious Matthias. Dark water is revealed to desperately want a shape, much like the Chained God once did. The black liquid has been slowly absorbing Ephes, reanimating corpses and trying to consume the Chained God — before Mo Ran killed him. RIP Chained God.

…meanwhile, a young boy claims his ‘friend’ Matthias must cut off parts of himself and leave them behind, to anchor the dark water on a premise. Matthias has been receiving sea shipments of grain infested with dark water from the Hand and Caius Justus. The child still wants his umbrella.

STATUS QUO

The Senate votes to give undead lady Messalina the Hand, with 53 in favour. Messalina comes to the Senate to gratefully accept command — only to be apprehended by Hand leader Narula on orders of Caius Justus, who accuses her of manipulating the vote through witchcraft, bribery and intimidation. The Senate is divided between his overwhelming faction, that of Caelius Silvanus who wishes to investigate, and Messalina’s own supporters, led by Maximus Faustus also known as the shapeshifting demon Alir.

Bounties are hereby issued on anyone previously assigned to work for Messalina, or seen consorting with her. Your choice if your character qualifies!

Aggressive curfews, frequent weapons searches and crowd controls are imposed on Ephes, with businesses finding their activity highly surveiled and restricted, while daily clashes take place in the streets, and the Hand roughhouse civilians to impose discipline. Assassinations of politicians and business figures who supported Messalina — much in the style of the murders that took place at the banquet of Maximus Faustus at the start of the Arc — are frequent. Rebel Senators plot in utmost secrecy. Civilians turn conspirers.

Meanwhile, Mo Ran’s… dismissal of the Chained God has crumbled his temple: this has fortunately revealed the beacon in the levels below… which is being slowly unburied from debris. Anyone seen at the temple in days prior is sought for arrest on suspicions of blasphemously injuring the temple. Your choice if this applies to your character! God-killer Mo Ran may enjoy nightmares of chaining and captivity for a few weeks.

MISSION GOAL:

■ Survive til 4 December when Karsa calls the party to the Chained God’s ruined temple in secret, to activate the beacon and send otherworlders home.

■ Characters that drop or fail activity in November go home through the beacon. You can also canon update your character through a beacon malfunction.

OPIUM POWDER, TREASON & PLOT

Rescue Ephes from its dire political straits or pitch anything else you’d like to do! The options with the most player support will be implemented, so please +1, collab and figure out what your character can do! Please note: you’ll be expected to play out rather than handwave what you commit to.

Players will have to sort out their own logs / posts, unless a mod-led log is requested.

QUESTIONS