AC + ADMIN | HATTHEVAR

[groundrules]

Happy New Year, everyone! Wishing you all a lovely, bear-rific 2024! A bit of ground to cover this round, so:

AC & ADMIN

■ The calendar page has been updated!

■ Characters that were dropped or swept in December will be said to have stayed (briefly) behind at castle Netvor to help rehabilitate the forest.

■ Activity requirements are back in January! They were waived in December, unless you’d hiatused or failed AC in November.

Of those who had to present December AC, enough proofs couldn’t be found for:

   Su Xunxian | Oh! My Emperor

Please holler if threads were missed, or you need to talk AC!

BEAUTY & THE BURNED

The party’s stay at the castle of Netvor stretches until 9 January, with plenty of architecture yet to burn down to a crisp. For those following the mystery:

…a summary of key findings so far!

Status on arrival: roughly 10 years ago, the cruel Netvor clan carried out a Red Hunt that decimated the nearby forest, until blood fully drenched the castle grounds. In retaliation, a witch cursed the remaining clan heir into a beast, turning his servants into fellow creatures or talking objects. This prince may break the curse by restoring the forest and its wildlife to old glory. The village of Panna that serves the castle is keen on neither the Netvor clan, nor the witch — while demonic wolves haunt the grounds, and the prince’s beloved, Julien, yearns for a day when the curse lifts.

What the party has learned arrival:

■ The witch took ’lives and likenesses.’

■ The witch is a man.

■ The prince did not attend the Red Hunt, but works assiduously to make amends with the forest.

■ It is unclear what happened with the remaining members of the clan Netvor.

■ Castle servants are wary of Julien, who is enamoured and possessive of the prince.

■ Julien is lonely and owns few possessions. He appears resolute to convince the prince to fulfil his end of the curse.

■ The hunting cabins where the demonic wolves hide and the children of Panna village leave cooked food and warm clothes also bear the scent of adult humans.

You can chat about the mystery or next steps, or go rogue to make everything better/worse for the castle — but please mind the deadline!

ARC VIII: EPHES | BADGES

You know the ropes! Grab and customise your badge wallet and fill it up with any badges from the general or Arc-specific set that think match your character’s experiences to date! This is all 100% just for OOC fun.

EPHES BADGES

            

            

            

            

ARC IX: HATTHEVAR

■ Arc IX: Hatthevar will be set in a milling city of ghosts, spirit and the dead. Notably, not one of undead. ■ So far, the plot of Hatthevar is planned to include exploration, combat, investigation, care/nurture and potentially execution. To help with customization, check in by 23:59 GMT on 7 January with what you think you’d like your character involved in! You can still throw them into anything afterward, this just helps with task customisation and mod planning! ■ Unlike previous mysteries, this one will have more to do with figuring out how to prevent something... for a change! ■ By the end of Arc IX, characters will have the additional options to retain their memories of Akhuras when they travel back to their home worlds, or to stay behind in Akhuras and continue their adventures. ■ Matthias’… body… parts connected to dark water and discovered by the party, along with any dark mirror shards collected along the way will prove useful now. If your character has one such item, but you think you’ll struggle with availability in Jan/Feb, shout, and we’ll reassign it! ■ Wish fount: drop a line by 23:59 GMT on 6 January if there’s a particular event, setting or prop/artefact you’ve always wanted to play with (anything from ‘a Rubik cube!’ to ‘we just haven’t burned enough libraries’) — you’re unfortunately not guaranteed it’ll happen, but best effort will be made! ■ During the first event log of Hatthevar, the party will be able to run into dead characters from their home world. Anyone — whether an existing eastbound player or just a visiting one — can play these characters for one-off encounters confined to a specific area of Hatthevar on the log. The requirements will be: — to show up in Hatthevar, dead characters must either have previously been in Akhuras or be from canons currently represented in the game — the character must be dead by the time the canon ends (dead and revived still counts) — no doubles of existing characters

Comments

ACTIVITY CHECK / AC

[groundrules]

Yes, January is the last formal AC month!

Re: ACTIVITY CHECK / AC

[northerndragon]

Just a quick query: when Dany's player asked if I'd be too bothered by her dropping (her health is not letting her do this last run), I kind of agreed partly on the assumption that she'd be around until they hit a beacon so, from an IC sense, she wouldn't be gone. This is perhaps my bad for assuming without asking.

But given that they've been largely attached at the hip and it wouldn't have been IC for her to stay behind at the castle under the circumstances, would it be all right to assume she's *not* staying behind, and is around but just isn't doing anything of interest? This is solely to save me having to figure out the logistics or play out Oh Noes My Girlfriend Is Gone with so little left to go.

Re: ACTIVITY CHECK / AC

[groundrules]

Yep, that works!

BEAUTY & THE BURNED

[groundrules]

You can chat amongst yourselves if you want to brainstorm further steps — or shout (put something in the comment header!) if you need modly answers/help!

talk it out

[weifinder]

Nynaeve recommends they talk with Julien about what the specifics are that he believes the curse needs met, and honestly. She wants to table having him and the Prince sit down and talk, because what she's heard makes it sound like they're on two very different pages, and it's foolish. Be clear! Be direct!

[groundrules]

Will leave you guys to talk it out, but just to confirm: if someone wants to chat with Julien, happy to do that on my side (just hit up the npc inbox on the log!), as long as we get the thread done by Jan. 9!

[cartographie]

Nami wants to do something to fix this creepy problem of theirs and Julien's so she can help mediate if you're interested, it's more proactive than snooping and she's tired of this place messing with her.

+1

[companionsgrasp]

Benedict wants to help so he would support this. Sorry late to the party because of sickness but just want to put it out there that Benedict was very invested in this mystery and wants to help out however he can.

He has been putting it out there, too, that he suspects that Julien might be the witch. And he thinks Julien and the prince should figure out what the hell they're doing instead of just moping around blaming each other for stuff in the past. Forcing them to talk it out sounds like a good initial idea that causes no immediate harm (hopefully).


As another aside, he's also concerned with the wolves and worries they're the rest of the clan. Though not sure how to help them, he'd be willing to offer to...idk...gather them? capture them? He doesn't want to hurt them but without breaking the curse he's not sure what else to do with them. House train them. This could go hand-in-hand with trying to help the forest--he'd suggest helping plant new growth as the prince has been doing slowly and whatever else the group could do to help replenish the forest while they're here. It might not be much but the show in concern, faith and hope might help them out with talking to the witch.

HATTHEVAR

[groundrules]

...yes, it was initially called 'Hatthewar,' it just didn't roll off the tongue —

QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Keep it down to anything very urgent, if you can! You'll get much more info when the Arc is formally introduced c:

[groundrules]

To help with customization, please comment here by 23:59 GMT on 7 January and choose which one of the following options you'd like your character involved with, in Hatthevar:

■ exploration
■ combat
■ investigation
■ care
■ execution

Please only choose one section c:

[blackscales]

It's the final arc, lets fight! Go big or go home!

[reparo]

Care for Hermione so she can be awkward because she can't just boss people into listening to her, she has to be nice. I'm sure things WILL get set on fire anyway....

[fiercechains]

Exploration.

[northerndragon]

Investigation, I think.

(Although Jon will always find himself pulled towards combat and/or exploration as well; investigation is just more fun for me.)

[revengeisalie]

I'd like Rin in investigation, please!

[traaaaaash]

Eda could go and do some care!

[starlingroad]

Exploration for America!

[stomacles]

Investigation

[mustact]

Can't believe you're making me choose one.

Exploration.

[somebadnews]

Execution

[cartographie]

Investigation please!

[spoilers]

Investigation, I think.

RE-ASSIGNMENT

[groundrules]

Got a... body part/mirror shard you want rid of?

WISH FOUNT

[groundrules]

Make your wish by 23:59 GMT on 6 January — there's unfortunately no way to guarantee everything will materialize, but we've only got this playground another few months, let's give it a try!