player plot suggestions

[groundrules]

PLOT SUGGESTIONS & QUESTIONS

If you want to pitch or brainstorm a player plot for mod assistance, you're in the right place!

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[bearshermark]

A child of light and two necromancers walk into a bar try to restore the humanity of one of the thawing undead.

So El, like at least a few others, is taking a neutral stance on the whole undead conflict bc just no one should be ruled by undead but citizens be how they like. Taking extreme pity on one of the thawing undead, I can easily see his heart breaking to be asked to help put them down and instead contrives to try and help one of them. Which uh, probably involves capturing and keeping them restrained on the farm somewhere while he tries to talk to it, apply healing/life magic, inquires about mirrors, and consults Wei Wuxian and Archeval for help.

So this is here to ask: is it possible they could help to restore (even some of?) its humanity? Or are all efforts futile? I don't mind how it works out either way, just wondering!

[groundrules]

Heya! There will be an opportunity to catch an undead soon, if you guys want to take that direction — if you check out the May calendar, there's an upcoming 17 May event where we can weave in an undead's capture.

Re: restoring their humanity — there are some ways to achieve that, though limited (I can only think of one that sort of manages that and is currently available to characters). It and other methods are going to be organically revealed over the plot's span — so, for now, I'll say that rather than me spoiling that: what were the methods you guys were considering? More importantly, since they're different kinds of undead, which do you want a captive of, Unhalad's undead or Anurr's?

[bearshermark]

I'd honestly wondered if there was something ICly already coming along that vein, but! Couldn't be sure. That's cool to know though, looking forward to it.

I was looking at the 22nd, for Unhalad's thawing undead that El takes a compassionate approach to if they're asking to be put down.

Re: methods, El's intention would be to try and heal and warm them- attempting to combat the cold and death. I'd hoped to have him ICly learn of Winnie's mirror when he inquires about the mirror the undead would mention. I don't know the extent of Wei Wuxian or Archeval's necromancy methods to say specifics on their end, though I could ask if the details are potentially important!

Otherwise, I'm happy to just have this be a thing he tries until the IC plot to do so unfolds? Assuming that's happening sometime around/soon after the 22nd.

[lancifolium]

just a couple of magical miscellaneous questions before I get ahead of myself:

The patronus charm is pretty difficult and I'm unlikely to let Lily cast a fully corporeal one right off the bat, but for general defensive purposes what effect would it have on the undead?

Additionally because The Ginger one so Helpful, I think I'd like to have her tool around with using the expansion charm, on her satchel as well as on other containers for the group's benefit. Nothing Mad Eye level of expanded, but ideally large enough for someone to climb in and hide (uncomfortably) if they had to. It's tricky to cast and highly regulated back home so she's not practiced in it and I expect to have her fail a few times.

For the sake of not breaking the game I wanted to run this all by you, let me know what you think!

[groundrules]

Hello!

The undead don't feed on fear, and they're equally indifferent on the topic of happiness — in short, I don't think it'll really do much for them.

Sure, go ahead with the expansion charm! Sounds practical.

[lancifolium]

Faaaaabulous! Thank you!

[lancifolium]

Forgot to ask in my original post, magical herbs Lily would know and be able to use for Potions? Would there be any out and about around the farm/the forest?

[royal_venant]

Hey, so Chel and I were wondering about a plot for Lily and Regulus.

Lily and Regulus have discussed using the Protean charm on two of the notebooks Lily brought with her when she arrived here, here's a link to the charm's wiki for clarification on how it works: https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Protean_Charm. Since it would bypass the quartz network we wanted to check in with you first before we embark on playing out this idea in any way, especially since it might be used during the upcoming plots for the different groups to communicate?

If the answer is no – we are totally okay with playing out them attempting and utterly failing.

If yes, we intend to have them be unsuccessful in making the charm work throughout the month and then succeed at a date that works for you.

[groundrules]

Hey! So, I think the only problem I see is — it's not the spell itself, it's the extent to which characters might ICly want to revert to this kind of system, moving forward, for safety reasons. Then it would be harder to justify the use of a network-type system on an OOC-level, which might erode one of our game platforms.

So let's do this:

Yes, it can happen, but only two linked items at a time

It can't be as reliable as the other communication devices / the connection "breaks"

Don't launch it for a few weeks, please — Fox just had his magical system epiphany, and let's give the little guy a few days to enjoy it!

[royal_venant]

We agree to all of that. Only the two notebooks. And we can pace ourselves so as not to outshine Fox.

And as for "the connection 'breaks'" how would you prefer to have that done? Like, would they have to keep reapplying the charm regularly to keep it working, etc.?

Did someone say sneks?

[unswervingcompanion]

Can I please sign Hendrik up to battle snakes 🐍🐍🐍? that are obviously not on a plane

[groundrules]

Of course! My suggestion would be — do an OOC comm post of some kind (or plurk/disco/whatever your prefer) and find two/three other characters to help tackle this with. Once you're all together and have a battle plan (and will pretty please log or network post this out!), let me know, and I shall... give you your loot goodies B)

[unswervingcompanion]

Hi!

Already got the Luminary to sign up over text message, but I can do an ooc post and will do a log!!!

Thank you!

[somebadnews]

Just wanted to follow up! We are definitely doing this great plan in the early October timeframe. Just let me know what dates work for you. :>

[groundrules]

Heya! Whatever timeline before the new event works for me, probably better earlier in the month, in case you want to play with the aftermath more.

Let me know when you've threaded it out up to the point of the mirror breaking, and I'll input.

[somebadnews]

Excellent! Sounds perfect. Will do the thing.

[notsansa]

So this isn't really a huge plot idea or anything, more like an itty bitty interaction that I absolutely should have asked sooner, but RL obligations made me lose track of time! I am so sorry to pester you when your hands are already full, especially with something so backdated!

In Hermione's network post around the 20th/21st of November, Alayne offered to introduce Hermione to the Witches of Bessis in the hopes that they would be willing to impart some knowledge on local ingredients in brewing potions and the like. This would have been before everything went south on the 27th, so is there any chance this would have led to something, or would they be denied? Alayne is absolutely looking to benefit from this potion knowledge, as well.

[groundrules]

Hey, no worries! I'm happy for the introduction to have happened, absolutely. I'm not sure how much more benefit beyond that we can inject without creating timeline issues, unfortunately.

[notsansa]

Understandable. During that introduction, though, would they have shared any knowledge of local herbs/mixtures or anything like that, or would it be better to say that the introduction was kept short, with Alayne stupidly assuming they could have another meeting later (which obviously wouldn't happen when they flee after the 27th).

[blackscales]

Hey!

So Hermione mentioned to Wrathion that she doesn't like her wand and he offered to make her a new one. What, like it's hard? It's just a stick to focus magic! You get those for like no money off the auction house!

There's a fiddly aspect with attunement (tm) by HP laws, and wood is important? Apparently? But it just so happens Hermione's original wand and her icky one both use... dragon in the core. And it turns out, Wrathion has access to lots of dragon-related stuff pretty easy.

Cella is conceptually cool with him actually doing this successfully at some point, which just leaves a question of how successful we let him be and I'm leaving this up to you! Obviously anything he makes won't be made by HP rules, so some funky side-effects are entirely possible.

1. Its just a wand, but romantic because he made it. You ever had someone make you a wand with a bit of themselves in it? Romantic. (This is the 'no actual side effects' option).
2. Its a wand but any spell she casts that could be considered earth or fire based always comes out SLIGHTLY more powerful than she wants, both useful and frustrating... and potentially comedic.
3. Its a wand but weirdly extra attuned to her emotional state, and when she's feeling volatile her spells become more volatile. You won't like her when she's angry.
4. Its a wand but her eyes flash red when she casts with it. Spooky.
5. Some combination of the above, or an alternative? I am down for suggestions.

I've tried to be conservative with these and just keep them like, Fun Flavour rather than Absolute Nonsense!

I'm also down to be punished if Hermione ever loses this wand that probably has Wrathion's blood in it. When you make decisions you gotta commit to consequences!

[groundrules]

Heya. I'm going to be honest — on review, wand making is described as a "complex and mysterious branch of magic". Hermione herself, as far as I'm aware, please correct me!) doesn't know how to make a wand.

So I'm not sure how Wrathion would gain these kinds of skills to produce the article. As far as I know, Wrathion himself doesn't know how to make wands of any kind, so even if we go by non-HP rules — I don't see how he'd be able to do it...

[blackscales]

I was going by the rules that he makes items that are already inherently magical, and allow people to use magic, and is generally able to learn new crafting techniques with little effort to adapt by a need. By Warcraft rules, he can enchant items that would be considered way more complex than 'you already have the magic, you just need to focus it'. Magic is so like..... intrinsic to everything in Warcraft that actual wands by Warcraft standards are not even special. Basic ones cost like, no money. They're obviously different to Harry Potter wands, but I was mostly working from the standpoint of 'they're both magical items, he already knows what her original wand that worked for her was MADE of, it's a question of trying to recreate it in his own way'.

If that's a reach though, that's fair!

[somebadnews]

This is an idea I've been kicking around for a while, and I'm very aware the stars have to align for it to work, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on a player plot that could be as big or as small as it needs to be. (This is all Very Tweakable if the initial pitch is too convoluted. Also happy to shelve this for whenever it's handy. Or just tell me it won't work because time travel breaks the game, my feelings will not be hurt!)

This is my Five Makes Bad Time Travel Decisions plot.

For background if you haven't followed all of Five's Shit: Back in Taravast, Five lost both Vanya (now Viktor in s3, but until they know this will still be referred to as Vanya) and Klaus at the same time, then came to the conclusion that they were dead and promptly went insane. Thanks to his old buddy Mingyu's quick thinking, he calmed him down before he broke time trying to get them back by making him forget they were ever there by using his mind-altering magic. Except he took it too far, and made it so Five doesn't remember that Vanya ever existed. It's been a huge problem for someone who desperately wants to get all of his family back.

Very Soon (with thanks to Allison's meddling) he's going to be connecting the dots that it was Mingyu (and not a mirror) that did it, and he's going to get her to help him pin down an approximation of exactly When This Occurred because Mingyu is gone now and if he can just open up a portal to that time he can get his siblings back and get Mingyu to fix his stupid memory spell. And then maybe murder him and have himself a nice day.

THE IDEA (and more background):
- Aside from Allison's detective work, Five has elicited the help of a certain Engineer from the Future to take a look at that old broken time-traveling briefcase he's been lugging around for a year+ and had all but forgotten about. Sometime between working on this, and combining it with his powers, he's able to open a portal to the approximate time and place he's trying to reach.
- Unfortunately, Klaus and Vanya disappeared around the time the Ice Dragon was going on a rampage on the tower in Taravast. (Good times! See if you already know where I'm going with this.)
- Instead of going through the portal and reaching Mingyu or his siblings, said rampaging Ice Dragon comes through the portal to the present time/making the portal collapse and possibly destroying the briefcase in the process.
- Everyone gets the joy of having to defeat something that they've already defeated before and any mayhem it creates and the stress of wondering if they've created a parallel timeline where the dragon disappeared and what that means. (It shouldn't change anything but-! you know this is just a natural thing you stress about.)
- We relearn the lesson that time travel is bad.

Five has been here for over a year, and he's only had one major mistake, so it seemed timely. Of course it would be destructive, so it could be wedged in anywhere this would work or be a handy plot device.

I told you it was convoluted, but it would put a nice little bow on the Five Problem everyone thought would go away.

That's pretty much the whole thing! Thanks for reading. :>

jon & daeneyrs - nov return

[groundrules]

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, just touching base here about Jon & Daenerys' return. Because of the timing, there isn't an explicit quest that's immediately available, since the two were hiatused over what ended up being one event & we'll have a player vote pretty substantive to the remainder of Arc IV over the next few days.

But if you'd like Jon and Daenerys to have been outside of Serthica during October — as a matter of preference or if this works better with justifying their absence — there's scope to say they were in the Sibilant Sands region after Cain d'Ubiq's initial assignment. There are a few things they can come back with from there:

— confirmation that the Sibilant Sands held a lot of dragon bones and some remains (mostly magical scales — though ideally they would not bring back more than a dozen scales between the two of them). The farther into the Sibilant Sands they travel, the more remains they can find, as long as they dare the sandstorms

— they can also notice the debris of Minaras-branded airships, shot down by dragons during the Eidris-Minaras conflict. Between this and the dragon remains, the Sibilant Sands were clearly the stage of a large-scale slaughter. The two factions were not kind to each other — as hinted but not fully disclosed by the intensely skitting, traumatised Cain

— they can find and bring back two abandoned, unhatched, seemingly fossilised dragon eggs, which any necromancer or life-sensitive character in the game can attest feel very alive. Drogon can help find the eggs buried deep in the sand and linger by them, if you need an excuse for why Daenerys and Jon would bring them back despite their state. (The eggs could help if we later have to bolster the Eidris dragon population)

Have a chat if you'd like to work with this, and aye/nay it here, please — thanks!

[song_of_fire]

This sounds like a good idea to the both of us, so we'll go with it.

In the books, Dany is able to sense life in the eggs. Would it be okay if we keep that dragon magic?