north, south, west, ea...

Hello, hello! Some admin notes and a few updates, based on recent rolls & developments, to keep everyone nicely busy!

EVENT & TEST DRIVE

Taravast's coup event will kick off on 2 December and will also serve as our test drive. Like last time, test drive participants can app without an invite over the next three weeks ( until 21 December ). As a heads up, applications won't be judged over 24 December - 2 January.

ARC II WRAP & ARC III

A series of votes on the fate of Taravast, the beacon and our ensuing Arc destination will take place over 5-12 December. As with Arc II, we'll have a four-six week 'travel' interlude to reach the setting of Arc III. The events of the journey will feed into the Arc III plotline.

THE BEAR

...will still visit before we leave Taravast.


For now...

Image source.

THE BUBBLING WAIT
■ Commoners repeatedly come to the Palace of the Doxe to beg Doxe Bonaccorso Spina's support to restore their districts from recent undead damage. They are turned away: Bonaccorso has once again taken ill, and the Taravast coffers are tight. Careful in the great outdoors — some furious petitioners throw rocks and minor fire spells at windows and into the gardens.

■ To contain the unrest, don Bonaccorso orders a tight curfew ( 06:00 to 20:00 ), bans the liberal use of sorcery or the display of weapons, and prohibits groups of more than five people.

■ Urged to action by Alina Starkov, Macaluso Spina seeks an audience with Bonaccorso on 27 November. By midday, word spreads that Macaluso has been placed under house arrest in his quarters and awaits trial for allegedly attempting to assassinate his grandfather.

■ Macaluso's household is broken up. Vannozza Spina offers the hospitality of her palace wing to her cousin's supporters for ten days while they make arrangements to depart Taravast.

■ In this period, characters assigned to Macaluso have their stipends reduced and receive unfriendly treatment at court. Guards often shove roughen them up in corridors. It's safest now to seek short-term accommodations in the rooms of Vannozza's supporters.

■ With their champion Macaluso detained, the Bessis sorceresses retreat from the Palace. Alone, the increasingly arrogant witches of Attaryl deliver the lady Vannozza for extended and highly guarded visits to don Bonaccorso's quarters. They also tally characters and question them about their backgrounds and magical abilities.

ADMIN QUESTIONS

PLOT QUESTIONS

Most of the August calendar remains subject to update once Arc II has been set up, but you can find loose indications here. The calendar will be updated, likely next week.

The location setup for Arc II, “team” and identity assignments and a small event will go up 6-8 August. Thank you for everyone's help with assignments — now no longer taking input.

Some characters will receive individual quests/aftermath instructions, following on mod talks or events in Arc I and the Stairs of Sighs. At this time, they are Five, Archeval and Eleven. Two other characters are slated for optional quests based on Taravast’s setup — Zhou Zishu and Wen Qing. Their agendas haven’t been forgotten, and all that info will be laid out when we hit Taravast. Bear with me!

If there is a longer-term character arc that you want to work on and need some environmental or mod help with, hit up the player suggestions area!

Moving forward, the Story So Far page will (hopefully) be updated with summaries on a monthly basis, to help our newcomers.

Lastly, given the clue and plot-oriented nature of Eastbound, some folks have asked about a potential game Discord chat. While I’d be happy to set one up, I’m not currently in a place where I could actively moderate a chatroom — if you have thoughts on how we could go about making a non-mod-led one happen (or if you feel one is needed to begin with), happy to hear them!