north, south, west, ea...

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