north, south, west, ea...

Hi, everyone! Say goodbye to January blues, and hello to our last activity check & admin post.

A couple of key points:

■ The Story So Far has been updated with all the January developments & Hatthevar findings to date.

■ The February calendar is up!

■ Planning post for the Hatthevar: Part II log, due up over the weekend + relevant sign-ups o/

As January was the last AC round, characters were passed if they met the majority of activity requirements. Below is a list of characters for whom largely no AC was found last month:

( activity list; )

If your character’s on the list, you can supply missing activity or reclaim them on scout’s honour that you’ll please join us for a last hurrah in February. If you think you won’t make it with us this month — thank you for all the fun times so far!

You can assume that any dropped or AC-swept characters are still with the party in Hatthevar until the end of the game.

Hi folks!

A few admin bits and bobs below, as we prepare to wrap up Arc VII with the imminent announcement of the tyrant Caesar Caius Justus’… repeat fall onto a plethora of knives. Gravity: the leading cause of death among the Ancient Roman 1%.

But first — activity check. In November, sufficient activity wasn’t found for:

Daenerys | A Song of Ice and Fire — RECLAIMED
River Song | Doctor Who — RECLAIMED
Benedict Fox | Last Case of Benedict Fox — RECLAIMED
Lan Sizhui | The Untamed — RECLAIMED
Su Xunxian | Oh! My Emperor — RECLAIMED
Eda | Owl House — RECLAIMED
Vanessa Ives | Penny Dreadful — RECLAIMED
Merrin | Star Wars — RECLAIMED

Drop a line by 23:59 GMT on 4 December if any proofs were missed, or if you’d like to talk about potentially reclaiming.

Otherwise:

■ Applications are now open for a final round until 18:00 GMT on 5 December!

■ The Story So Far and Calendar pages have been updated.

■ While we bask in the holidays, the party will be heading into a cooldown period combining the stuff of fairytales with a few... chills. A final wrap of the impact of everyone’s decisions in Ephes will be posted in the cooldown event plotting post.

■ On that note, in keeping with tradition: there will be no activity requirements this month, except for people who hiatused or failed AC in November, who will now have to produce regular activity in December.

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a delightful, lucky, healthy and cheerful 2023!

Short and sweet on the admin update this round:

■ December was AC-free, but we return to regular activity requirements for January.

■ UPDATED: Story So Far with the last Arc IV + January calendar

■ The sand worms, desert & definitely-not-Sarlacc pit event of 6 January will double as a test drive meme... and an IC chance to get some valuable leverage, going into Arc V. Apps follow on 16-21 January — this time, they'll be open for anyone who has an invite or participates in the test drive meme.

Because of the tighter scheduled span of Arc V, this will probably be the only app cycle we hold until we’ve exited the Siege.

Speaking of...

ARC V: THE SIEGE

...is going to play out a little bit differently, over six to eight weeks. You’ll get full details later in the month, but a ticking countdown and territorial distribution across levels means small teams will have to take on a variety of mini-assignments against a backdrop of fusillades, ramming, curses and shattering defences. All hands on deck!

Not at all binding, but to get a sense of areas at interest — factor in your own OOC enthusiasm, and check in each of your characters at one of the relevant links below by 23:59 GMT on 22 January, if you play a character who:

■ Would manage to broker a cutthroat deal with ruthless passing merchants

■ Can & would play bodyguard to a king/prince

■ Is a medic, and wouldn’t mind spying on a patient

■ Would investigate supernatural murders at potential risk to oneself

■ Would stay behind to bitter end to hold up swarmed defences, to bide other people time to flee.

■ Can & would get actively involved in manipulating succession games, if needed last-minute.

■ Would try to run, in a cowardly but sensible manner.

■ Would go into the depths of local hell (note: this option is the most dangerous out of all of them.)

To confirm, this is just to give an indication of where to position your character and what to call on them for. You are not obliged to accept the mission just because you checked in here. It also doesn’t mean you cannot play something you didn’t check in for, later.

Separately, if you don’t mind providing some additional details, to help prep your character for the Siege...

Many thanks!