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faderiftooc2019-08-27 09:12 pm
faderifting) wrote in faderiftooc2019-08-27 09:12 pm
Entry tags:
MOD POST ↠ SEPTEMBER ASSIGNMENTS
SEPTEMBER ASSIGNMENTS
Assignment teams and details will be posted and linked as they're determined.
↠ Follow That Baron - Overture: Athessa, Isaac, Leander, Mhav, Romain
↠ 21 Jump Street: Kaz, Derrica, Laura, Tavin
↠ Tis I, a Humble Capitalist: Ilias, Darras, Mhavos, Silver
↠ Burning Bridges: Lino, Yngvi, Kostos, Nell
↠ Amaranthine Jones & the 100 Pillars: Eshal, Freddie, Wysteria
↠ Lend Me Some Sugar: Athessa, Bastien, Coupe, Fitcher
↠ Not in My Crossroads: Barrow, Anders, Matthias, Derrica
↠ There's Something About Larry: Alistair, Flint, Yseult, Lino
↠ Dragon Rage Origins: Aziraphale, Julius, Val, Mhavos
↠ Test Flight: Teren, Nikos, Marcoulf
If you didn't sign up for assignments and wish you had, we'll have more next round (or sooner)! And if you did sign up for assignments and wish you hadn't, hahaha sucker.
Jk, just let us and your teammates know if you need to back out for any reason.
RULES
OOC, the only two rules regarding these assignments are: (1) they must be RPed in some way, not entirely handwaved, and (2) you have to file a report by the deadline. Otherwise, you can handle them basically however you want. For example,
— Format: You can write a log addressing the main action/meat of the assignment, handwave that and do a log or crystal post that’s instead focused on deciding what to do about the problem or discussing how it went after the fact, or whatever else, as long as you RP about the assignment’s substance in some way.
— Personnel: You can limit the assignment to only the assigned team, if you prefer, or you can take other people along, whether that means involving just one other specific character to go for some specific reason or turning the assignment into an open log/discussion that the whole game can participate in. Just make sure everyone on the team is on board with whatever you decide, and check with the relevant project leaders or division heads if you want to include someone whose suitability for something is in question, since they might not be willing to OK their inclusion.
— Content: If you want to add obstacles, problems, pit stops, etc. to your assignment, you can, as long as they’re reasonable given the scope and spirit of the assignment. For example, if your characters are tasked with finding a lost child in the woods, it’s fine for them to accidentally wander into a bear’s den or to get caught in a storm that causes a flash flood in a ravine, because those are hazards that make sense given the assignment and its setting, whereas finding a zany artifact that causes bodyswaps or assassinating Corypheus would be outside the scope.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
— Chain of Command: Division Heads are everyone’s boss, and Project Leaders and Assistants should be deferred to on assignments originating from their projects. Otherwise, if a situation arises where you need to know who would be formally in charge—such as if the involved characters are split on how to approach something and someone would need to have the final word—you can come up with your own reasonable answer (“Bob is the only one with experience here so let’s say he's the leader”), you can choose whoever has the highest ratio of consonants to vowels in their name, or you can ask us and we'll decide using another test that is equally arbitrary but more unpredictable.
— Resources: Unless otherwise stated, assume your characters have a budget sufficient to do what they’ve been asked to do, but not enough to be reckless or wasteful. If being short on money would make something more fun to RP, you can do that. If acquiring something extravagant and ridiculous, like a team of dancing bears, would make something more fun to RP, talk to us about it first—not so we can say no, but so we can arrange a way for your characters to luck into acquiring things at a bargain without anyone having to pretend it’s a good use of money.
— OOC: Everyone assigned to the team is responsible for RPing the assignment and getting a report posted by the deadline, and everyone assigned to the team is eligible to earn 5 bonus AC points when the report is done. Extra characters who are brought along or involved but not assigned aren’t eligible for the bonus points. If for whatever reason something can’t get done by the deadline, please talk to us about it! Failing to complete a report without contacting us might result in the group getting last priority when future assignments are handed out.
FOLLOW THAT BARON
DEADLINE: October 31
MISSION: The infamous Baron Deshaies. Go and find out if he's a Venatori loyalist who did it For The Cause, if he got blackmailed into it, or if he's just a traitorous opportunist (chase that paper).
BRIEFING:
DETAILS: Making your way (or returning) to the Baron's property won't be too much of a problem. What does pose a problem is how to go about accessing it. You might...
What all you'll find out depends on how you decide to approach the situation, so discuss amongst yourselves and let me know what you're doing and I'll tell you what falls out when you shake the tree.
Alternately, if you'd prefer to know all available information up front and make your decision that way, you can let me know that too, and I'll just info-dump you and you can sort it out from there!
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Isaac's distance position will allow the team to be well aware that our friend is not in the château, but saddling up suspiciously quickly for a 'hunting expedition'. This will mean that the front door crew will be able to avoid all the stalling/misdirection from the staff and catch him out.
Caught this way, Deshaies will straighten up and lay it out. His motivations were self-protective: his land lies right in the path of the invasion (should it push further south), and he was being proactive in saving it from such a fate via making this deal with the Venatori. He has his family to think of and a responsibility to protect those who live and work on his land. He'll swear up and down that he's made no further dealings with them and is willing to tell you how to contact/locate his Venatori handler for your own purposes as well. Given the presence of one (1) intimidating Duke he'll even offer to set up the meet himself, to His Grace's--er--Riftwatch's specifications. Please don't kill him or tell Celene.
From servants, Mhavos will find out: the names of two other minor nobles (randomize their names pel i know you have the power!) who began frequenting the estate and Deshaies' company around the same time, one of whom once notably absolutely lost it at a servant for walking into the room where they were talking to bring refreshments. Nobody will say these things are suspicious, of course, but that's because nobody has to.
From doing crimes, Athessa will find: A nice little treasure trove of correspondence that could definitely be used as concrete proof, should you all decide to tell Celene, along with some documents that are obviously ciphered and some that are not but are so vague as to be immediately suspicious.
--
If you now have additional questions, let me know! Nice work, gumshoes.
BURNING BRIDGES.
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: Riftwatch's plan to waylay a vital transport of food and equipment into occupied Orlais by destroying a key bridge connecting Val Chevin to the Imperial Highway is complicated upon the receipt of a desperate letter from Mistress Genoveva Almonta, the wealthy wife of a notable Antivan banker. It seems that their second son, who should have been safely committed to his studies in Val Royeaux and therefore comfortably removed from the war front, took a poorly timed holiday with his school friends to an estate just outside of Val Chevin immediately prior to the battle at Ghislain and hasn't been heard from since the invasion. Riftwatch agents will be tasked with recovering the misplaced would-be scholar, then racing back to sabotage the bridge in time to stop the shipment. This mission is expected to favor combatants, action nerds, and those with building/engineering expertise.
DETAILS: It's a matter of logistics. Get over the bridge to save the scholar before the shipment goes through so the bridge can be dismantled. Hopefully with no one on the bridge! If that's a thing you, uh, care about...
As for the rescue: The wayward scholar is, lucky for you, among the refugees clustered outside the city. Asking around will eventually get you a story about Velasco Almonta and his solemn vow… to woo a Chantry sister away from the Maker so they can be wed. Search the several makeshift chantries outside the city walls, and you'll eventually find Sister Cateline and her helper Velasco. Velasco won't leave his lady love, and the good Sister will not leave until all the refugees under her care are safe and away from the fighting. A feat which, you know, requires an intact bridge.
As for the bridge: We suggest explosions or seriously disruptive magic aimed at the major weight-bearing points of the bridge. Only two or three need to be taken out, but it must be done quickly, lest the party doing the damage is found, identified, or worse.
You can prioritize the bridge, or the rescue, or something in between. How you convince or cajole or downright kidnap the kid is up to you, along with how quickly the shipment is coming, and how much time you have. Or we can dice roll it, if you'd prefer. The world is your oyster… bridge.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
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THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT LARRY.
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: The precise circumstances of Former Warden-Commander Larius’ apparent involvement with Corypheus and subsequent disappearance remain unclear, but intercepted correspondence and thorough digging have unearthed the name of an early Venatori adherent who may be the bridge between the two. Those same sources indicate he’s fallen out of favor lately. A team will be sent behind enemy lines to take advantage of an opportunity to nab him and see what, if anything, they can persuade him to give up.
DETAILS: The Venatori, named Appius Arvina, can be acquired en route to his summer home near Marothius. He'll be escorted by guards who seem to be answering to him, but watching long enough will reveal signs that the dynamic isn't quite that clean and it's more that everyone involved is just politely pretending he's in charge and going to his summer home of his own free will. The team can kill and incapacitate the guards to take Arvina, or they can wait until he steps off to piss or something and take him quietly, or anything else they decide seems like a good idea.
Arvina, once acquired, will be difficult primarily because he's a difficult person. He's ancient and in poor health, naturally fussy and temperamental but now outright cranky due to his various aches and pains and the lack of respect he's being shown by everyone all the time, and an imperfect witness due to a potent combination of genuine forgetfulness, self-aggrandizing embellishment, and glimmers of canny duplicity that show how he might have once been a formidable politician in the Magisterium. How cooperative he is will primarily depend on how good everyone is at appealing to his ego.
Assuming he isn't insulted so much he refuses to cooperate, however, he will eventually confirm that he first met Corypheus while the Elder One was wearing the guise of a ratty old Warden (with a lot of emphasis on how weak he was and what a large and important role Arvina played in keeping him alive during those days) but, once he'd regained his strength, shed that form and became the enormous big-headed monster he is today. He'll know little else of use, having been relegated to the sidelines shortly afterwards, except what's already publicly known about Corypheus' promises to restore Tevinter to glory and so on, which Arvina will still believe in—he's just offended at how small his role in that has been.
Depending on the manner of his acquisition, Arvina can potentially be turned loose to return to his guards (who he will immediately tell he was kidnapped by ten thugs), killed, or kept, either to hand over to the Inquisition or to keep in the Gallows. If kept and transported back south, he'll make several escape attempts, not all of them completely inept—he is a powerful old mage—so we'll make you role for whether or not he gets away.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
TIS I, A HUMBLE CAPITALIST
DEADLINE: October 10, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: As the shadow of civil war becomes more well defined, it becomes imperative to know how well the Van Markhams and Penteghasts are supplied and who exactly stands to make money from one or the other taking the throne. To that end, a Riftwatch asset has identified a number of shipments destined for Aurelia Penteghast's key supporters which all trace back to the same warehouse on the banks of the Minanter. The suspicious part? All the crates in question bear the distinct trade stamp of Leona Marcellus, a prominent merchant in Nevarra City who doesn't seem to have any connection to the warehouse in question. Riftwatch agents are to gain access to the warehouse so they might assess the nature of the goods being shipped, discover who's behind the counterfeit shipments, and potentially destroy the goods should they or their proprietor prove to be a threat.
DETAILS: Gaining access to the warehouses can be done a number of different ways - by force, under cover of darkness; slipping or talking past the posted sentries; by posing as investors or parties interested in adding their stock to the supply trains making their way from the warehouse, etc. One the team has gained access to the warehouses, they may discover both the legitimate stock on the main floor and the secret subfloor at water level where the crates stamped with Marcellus' mark are kept. Strangely, neither the legitimate or marked shipments seem to differ much. They comprise of coffees and teas, rich spices and lovely cottons, fine Antivan wines and dyes. There are shirts and boots and leathers; grains and flour and fruit. There are no suspiciously magical artifacts and no secret papers hidden between one fine Orlesian porcelain plate and another.
The warehouse's office keeps two sets of ledgers (the latter of which lives in a separate drawer but isn't hard to find once the lock is jimmied). The second ledger will reveal that the Marcellus stock seems be carrying an 70-30 profit split and regular payments have been dispersed to Nevarra City to Lady Marcellus. It looks for all the world like a perfectly legitimate business partnership.
Lycasta Papadakis, the owner of the warehouse and a woman clearly flush with recent wealth, will at some point interrupt the unsanctioned audit of her property. If the team had to knock some heads together to get where they are, she'll be flanked by two impressive guards. If they managed to get through without violence, she'll be accompanied only by her adorable preteen son.
The team may use whatever methods they see fit to get information out of Lycasta. She will reveal that a few years ago, when tensions between the Pentaghasts and Van Markhams began to rise, she spied an opportunity and proposed a partnership to Lady Marcellus. Marcellus would use her social currency in Nevarra City to gentle Aurelia's supporters from entering into an immediate conflict with Van Markham's backers. Meanwhile, Lycasta would oversee shipments to both. Between Lycasta's confession and ledgers, it seems both women have turned a tidy profit by supplying both sides of a would-be war burgeoning at a snail's pace.
Which leaves the team with a choice: do nothing and allow what is at the end of the day a perfectly legitimate business to continue, or sabotage and/or destroy the goods (in which case, are they messing up everything or only shipments destined for a particular set of supporters?).
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
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Ultimately, everyone decides the most important thing is Riftwatch getting a cut of the cash and a bit of blackmail just in case, with Ilias convincing them to leave everything else as-is; while the team skews pro-Van Markham, Ilias makes a good point that tampering with supplies to hurry the war up isn't exactly in the interest of the greater good.
NOT IN MY CROSSROADS
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: A team of Venatori were discovered in the Crossroads prior to the attack on the Temple in the Arbor Wilds, and the prospect of the enemy gaining greater access to the eluvian network opens up a host of dangerous possibilities. A Riftwatch team will be sent back into the Crossroads to try to discover where that group of Venatori entered from and prevent future use of that entrance. It will be best suited to characters skilled in tracking, and combatants.
DETAILS:
Potential hazards encountered in the Crossroads include:
The Venatori’s eluvian point-of-origin will be discernible by the new growth of grass around it, well-trodden by foot-travel, and the cold but recently-used fire-pit placed just inside the mirror. The mirror itself will be easily activated if touched, but will appear inert otherwise.
The other side will find the eluvian placed in an underground elven ruin, with a limestone cavern apparent beyond the much-damaged walls, and the thin filter of sunlight from the distant cave-entrance. It is embedded in the wall it was originally mounted on, now sealed there forever by overlapping drips of sedimentary limestone deposits, as is everything else in the house. Furniture, decorations, former inhabitants, and even the textures of the floors are preserved in limestone, where they haven’t been destroyed by the Venatori’s attempts to make the interior liveable, or to extract long-decayed artifacts.
The exit to the cavern is well within Tevinter’s borders, in a natural cave of no particular provenance or notable use on its own, situated within a heavily-forested area. The entrance is extremely narrow, and can only be made with a difficult, single-file climb, though there is a logging camp situated nearby to the cavern entrance, indicating a possible intention to dig out and rebuild the entrance to make it more suitable for military use.
As the Venatori clearly already know the eluvian is there and there's no convenient way to move it, the only course of action will be to destroy it in the Crossroads—which can be done with enough physical force or other means that would destroy a big sturdy mirror.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
AMARANTHINE JONES & THE 100 PILLARS
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: Some ten years ago, a small group of Chantry scholars traveled to The Hundred Pillars and were never heard from again. Recently re-discovered Chantry records suggest that these scholars may have been searching for the final resting place of an artifact related to Archon Hessarian—and they might have been on the right track. Given Hessarian's symbolic importance to both Tevinter and the Templar Order, the Chantry would like that artifact found and returned ASAP. Ideally, the team will be balanced between researchers and combatants (in case whatever killed the first team was more than an early blizzard).
DETAILS: After an arduous and frankly weird climb over what seems like far more than a hundred mortar-like pillars, the team will discover a cave marked with a very old, very worn carving of a flaming sword along the wall. Inside starts out like a natural cave — caverns of various sizes connected by awkwardly small passageways and surprise drops one might have to throw a rope to swing across — but once the team gets further in than a casual weekend spelunker might, they'll find it's chock full of man-made traps.
Which traps exactly are up to the players involved, and the traps can easily force characters to separate into smaller groups or pairs if that sounds more fun to thread. Most of the traps will involve fire, swords, blinding light, and more Andrastian symbolism than you can shake a stick at. Such as:
In the final chamber, a high skylight shines down upon a huge mosaic, a cloudscape painted gold and studded with shards of glass to give it a luminously reflective surface. The altar in front of this mural hosts an intricately carved box in the shape of a city, a hundred spiraling towers similarly studded with pieces of mirror—a clue! If the team approaches the altar, pillars of fire will block their path. However, if they instead face away from the gleaming mural long enough to let their eyes to adjust, they will see another option: a grate in the floor that lifts on a hinge. Following that path will lead to a modest chamber occupied by the trap-maker.
Sister Maria will initially attack the party, but at 76 and armed with a plaster knife, she is not necessarily in the best fighting shape. If she is subdued rather than killed, and/or if her rambling diary is examined, the team can learn she was part of the original group of Chantry scholars tasked with finding the artifact. A surprise blizzard did indeed kill most of the party, but she and Sister Zenata (whose charred bones and ashes sit in a makeshift urn — AKA: a bucket — on the second bed) made it to the cave and found the artifact: a piece of Hessarian's sword, which is supposed to have been used to pierce Andraste's heart and end her suffering on the pyre, later becoming the symbol of mercy-killing used in Templar insignia. After Sister Zenata succumbed to her injuries, Sister Maria made it her mission to keep the artifact Extremely Safe. She would like it to remain that way, and will become increasingly distressed by any attempts to remove it from her care.
The team will have to decide what to do with Sister Maria and the artifact in question: leave both well enough alone, or try to retrieve or destroy the artifact at the risk of having to kill Sister Maria as well. Let us know which choice they would make and how they would approach Sister Maria about it, and we'll let you know how she'll respond!
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
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If the team has other plans for the artifact though they will have to fight her.
21 Jump Street
DEADLINE: October 10, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: Gaelan Van Markham is the most viable alternative to Aurelia Pentaghast, but very little is known about him and what kind of king he might make. A team will be sent to the University of Markham, where Gaelan studied, to try to find out whatever they can about his personality, political leanings, close friends, and so on. The Van Markham family has donated generously to the university, so the administration cannot be trusted to assist without alerting them. This means Riftwatch agents must infiltrate the University in the guise of students. Intelligence suggests that there may be Venatori agents trying the same thing, so in addition to posing as bright eyed young scholars, subtly interrogating everyone about Gaelan Van Markham without raising suspicions, and discreetly acquiring whatever records related to him the university keeps, it will also be necessary to keep an eye out for your evil alter-egos.
DETAILS: It won't be difficult to get students gossiping about Gaelan Van Markham--as long as your characters make an effort to look and act as if they belong, their classmates will be happy to discuss the now-famous alum who might just become King of Nevarra. Gaelan left the university two years ago, so there are a number of students who knew him one way or another, but also plenty who are eager to seem like they did. What will be difficult will be sorting out fact from fiction: stories they will hear about him run the gamut from a perfect golden scholar-prince who stunned everyone with his intellect and kindness to a psychotic asshole who beat people up for fun.
There are three main routes of potential investigation: (1) acquiring Gaelan's class records from the administrative office and focusing on speaking with his professors about Gaelan's performance and attitude in their classes and looking into their affiliations, (2) focusing on students who knew Gaelan personally to hear their accounts and figure out what if any biases are coloring those stories, and (3) acquiring Gaelan's full academic record from the Dean's office (which is much more secure than just his class schedule, but would also be expected to include information like grades, progress reports, significant pieces of work, disciplinary files, commendations/awards, any correspondence with him/his family).
Given the urgency of the mission and the looming presence of Venatori agents, the team will have to decide how to divide its time among these goals, which will determine how much info you get from each and, for route #3, your chance of success in obtaining the file before the Venatori do without being caught. Basically, you have 4 "points" to spend (representing the time and effort of 4 team members) between these three routes. Let us know how you'd like to split them up. You can focus entirely on one option, or divide evenly between two, or try to do a bit of everything, it's up to you. If you want to do fractions (i.e., Person A is going to split their time between route 1 and route 2, so 0.5 points in each) that's fine, but no need to get too crazy. Let us know ASAP and we'll let you know what they can find out.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
no subject
• Derrica and Tavin will get info from admin and attempt to wrangle the Dean into a long conversation while
• Kaz and Laura will sneak into the Dean's office to steal some records.
That said, they'll put a half-hearted effort into talking to students as well (mostly for the OOC lol factor) and may or may not end up at a wild party and/or pretentious salon full of Les Amis de l'ABC-esque students. Mostly so that Kaz can do a kegstand and Tavin can look around nervously for people he knows, but also so they can all practice their gossip-about-Van-Markham skills.
Points-breakdown-wise, I'd say .75 from everyone for their Real Assignment + .25 Trying To Be Normal At A Rager, which would result in totals of:
• Acquiring class records/distracting admin & professors: 1.5
• Talking to students for deets: 1
• Acquiring records illicitly: 1.5
Or, character-wise:
Kaz: .75 records .25 students
Derrica: .75 admin .25 students
Laura: .75 records .25 students
Tavin: .75 admin .25 students
Please let us know if you need more information. Thank you!
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We'll circle back in a bit with the specific intel about Gaelan they'll be able to bring back, but wanted to get you this info first so you can go ahead and start RPing if you haven't already. Let us know if you have any questions!
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Gaelan Van Markham's Permanent Record
Stories From Students
DRAGON RAGE: ORIGINS
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: Corypheus’ red lyrium dragon remains a threat and a bit of a mystery—is it an archdemon? Did he graft red lyrium onto it somehow? Where did he acquire it, and when? A team will be tasked with piecing together known information about Corypheus’ early whereabouts and the dragon’s possible origins to figure out exactly what they’re dealing with and, especially, whether he could potentially make more of it. This will involve both book research and a dragon field trip.
DETAILS: The book research will point the team in the direction of the theory that Corypheus’ dragon may have been a natural high dragon at one point before it came under Corypheus’ sway. Following up on said research will turn up reports of a high dragon that previously had been harassing the northern Fereldan coast (west of the Storm Coast, equally rainy and difficult to traverse) before stopping about six months before the explosion at the Conclave. After traveling there, the team can get information from a variety of individuals, potentially including:
In addition to conversations with one or more of these people, the team could also potentially find remains of a high dragon lair in the area, though long abandoned and without evidence that the dragon died of natural causes. (If you're interested in dealing with some danger, they may also encounter or have to go out of their way to evade a lingering drake that's still defending a handful of dragonlings.) Overall, if successful, the team should be able to put together with reasonable certainty that Corypheus’ dragon started out an actual dragon, rather than an archdemon. The question of how the red lyrium grafting was accomplished remains.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
shhhh.
...Since the team is heavy on bookish and nosy academic types, they'll run into a bit of trouble when they invariably meet up with the drake, suffering minor injuries. They will try to recover as many dragon bits as possible, both for evidence and Val's scrapbook.
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DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: A team is being sent to take possession of a hunting lodge in the Hunterhorns that the Inquisition was gifted use of during the Grand Tourney. Ostensibly, they are there to take inventory of the fortress, scout the surrounding lands, and return with a report upon its importance as a support to the front lines. But they will also be tasked with discreetly surveilling a neighboring estate, which is suspected of being a base for Orlesian collaborators. This mission will be best suited to those skilled in stealthy surveillance and reconnaissance, traveling through wilderness areas without detection, and handling the logistical needs of setting up a forward operating base. Whether there is some combat may be up to the PCs.
DETAILS:
There will be a roll to find out whether or not you hear this noise with some modifiers based on which riskier sources of information you decide you want to plumb (Chatelaine/Pub/Castle) and how you’re planning on mitigating the spread of info about your good selves. I’ll throw the info you learn back at you when you let me know which avenues you’re pursuing!
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
no subject
The team will pretend to be a hunting party that is in pursuit of a mythic Fade-touched beast that would be useful to Riftwatch somehow, rather than twig anyone onto the fact that they’re thinking of using the lodge for other strategic reasons.
They’ll visit the pub for some rumor gathering, and in the meantime they’ll tell their own tales about their quarry (while pretending it’s a secret no one should spread, shhh) to encourage people to talk about their fake hunt for the fake animal instead of what else they might be up to. They’re going to have a fake bestiary page and a song about the fake animal to sell it as totally real actually. They’ll plant some fake tracks and stuff in the woods and near the village, too, just as a gift to themselves/the world.
Then they will absolutely be terrible and go to the castle. They’ll approach by continuing to pretend to be hunting, and having someone fake (or actually acquire) an injury that warrants going there to ask for help or shelter. Maybe in a thunderstorm or something.
Tell us how bad it is.
Thank you!
no subject
Okay, so.
First off: the huntmaster is going to be really interested and wants to know everything about this beast. (In his youth he fancied he'd hunt Dragons one day and then gave up on that for the security of this place) How you found out about it, about the difference between Fade-touched and normal beasts, how you tracked it/linked it to this area, he's heard no rumors of such a thing, etc etc. Not in a suspicious way, in an excited way. He'll want to hunt with you for it; he knows every inch of these woods!!
He'll be deep hype about the tracks and stuff, provided you fake them well enough to trick a career tracker and woodsman. Since you've got some brilliant liars who can sell even a bad job and he Wants To Believe and we now have to deal with Castle Panic, he'll be out of your hair combing the woods again with a sincere promise to report if he sees more tracks or comes across the beast itself, plus you've made a very strong proponent of your beautiful lie.
The Pub: Here you can learn all sorts of things (make up whatever you like), including:
The Castle: Unfortunately for you this place is full of at least a medium sized merc company, a pet Bard or two, and possibly some Venatori spies, never mind Actual Cannibal Rolant de Ezoire, so
of which there are many-several, the first being do y'all prefer a discord chat, a plurk, or conversation here?
TEST FLIGHT
DEADLINE: October 31, 2019
ASSIGNMENT: The enemy's occupation of Perendale is not the war's most pressing problem (their capture of Val Chevin is far more troublesome), but it is a problem that is close to the hearts of any potential Nevarran leader. It also provides an opportunity to test a new strategy in an area where the enemy is more complacent, so deep in occupied territory, than they would be in Val Chevin. A team will fly into the city on griffons under cover of darkness, disguise themselves as citizens, and spend 24 hours gathering information about the enemy's defenses, the status of any resistance efforts within, opportunities for sabotage or recapture and so on before they are picked up by griffon again. Secrecy is of the utmost importance not only to prevent their capture, but to avoid putting the enemy on the alert for future griffon infiltrations.
DETAILS: The team is able to sneak in under cover of darkness, taking advantage of the double new moon to fly in unseen and land in a quiet corner of the city next to an abandoned stable where they can stash the two griffons.
In general, the city is not oppressively overrun with enemies or under ironclad martial rule. The occupying force is a definite presence, obvious on the walls and patrolling the streets, in Tevinter banners and decrees from the new General-Mayor Gosleus posted and cried on corners. The general mood among the populace is subdued and wary. Mostly life seems to go on: citizens go about their business, walk, shop, work, drink in the taverns, but so do the enemy soldiers quartered in the city, who can likewise be found nearly everywhere whether on-duty or off. There are superficial signs of discontent: sketches of wanted criminals posted on notice boards and regular announcements about the penalties for harboring them, papered over older notices announcing the capture and scheduled hanging of several others for murder of a Tevinter officer and crimes against the public order. Anti-Vint graffiti can be found here and there, Pentaghast and even Orlesian symbols also occasionally scrawled on walls. The guards are on the lookout for trouble but not for foreign spies, so it will be possible for them to travel the streets unquestioned as long as they look like they belong and aren't doing anything overtly suspicious. Getting near any government or military buildings will be more difficult, requiring either legitimate business or substantial stealth.
Their visit is limited both by how long the griffons are willing and able to remain there undetected, and by the phases of the moons, which give them just three days of full darkness. They'll thus have to use their time carefully.
Their orders are (1) above all to avoid capture of themselves or the griffons, (2) by discreet observation to gather information about the state of the city and its defenses, and (3) if possible to identify and make contact with those said to be likely leaders of any internal resistance and deliver a Riftwatch raven to them to establish future communications. Of course there are also other courses of action they could pursue if they don't care about following orders: (4) openly attacking the enemy, (5) committing sabotage, or (6) infiltrating the General-Mayor's office.
The team will have to decide how to divide its time among its goals, which will determine your chance/degree of success at each. Basically, you have 3 "points" to spend (representing the time and effort of 3 team members), which can be spent on the goals numbered above. Let us know how you'd like to split them up. You can focus entirely on one option, or divide evenly between a couple, or try to do a bit of everything, it's up to you. If you want to do fractions (i.e., Person A is going to split their time between gathering intel and going rogue to murder someone, so 0.5 points in each) that's fine, but don't get too crazy with the decimal points please. Let us know ASAP and we'll let you know what they can do and find out.
QUESTIONS? If you have questions specific to your assignment, reply to this and we'll answer them. If you have general questions applicable to every assignment instead of just yours, ask here.
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You can find it here!
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(1) They will be able to get in and out without being personally captured (yay!) or losing any of the griffons (yay!), and they won't need to leave prematurely or hasilty to manage that. The griffons will be spotted, at some point, but it will be by some local street children who can be easily persuaded to keep their mouths shut, at least until the party leaves, in exchange for either food or being made to feel like they're being brought in on and made keepers of an exciting secret, and especially if they get to meet the griffons.
(2) There's good news and bad news.
Bad news first: Perendale was so terribly outnumbered that it was besieged and taken without any real fight, which means that the city walls are completely intact and in very good shape. The soldiers garrisoned inside were mostly captured and are imprisoned except for the few who refused to surrender (they're dead, obviously). They managed to destroy some of the defensive armaments on the walls before the occupiers could arm them, but there are still several large ballistas and various other defenses (murderholes, etc.), and re-taking the city would take either substantial firepower or enough time for a long siege. In the meantime, there is a sufficient number of enemy soldiers in the city to keep the populace subdued and resistance low. While morale among the populace is low, conditions are generally fine-ish. There are some shortages and rationing, which is a source of grumbling, and many industries have been repurposed to support the war effort (smithing, sewing uniforms, healing potions, etc.) but the citizens aren't being starved and while resistance is harshly punished, there is a rule of law enforced and soldiers aren't roaming the streets murdering at will. The one major exception is that any citizen convicted of a non-hanging crime is subject to being enslaved. Those in charge of the city get first pick, and everyone else is sent back to Tevinter for sale in periodic wagon-loads.
Good news: Given the demands of the war elsewhere (which only continue to grow as they succeed in capturing more cities and occupying more ground) the enemy has to prioritize, and Perendale does not appear to be a priority. Which makes sense: it's too deep in occupied territory to be under any serious threat from Orlais/the Inquisition, and Nevarra is too much a shambles to seem likely to make any move to recapture it themselves. So while the number of enemies in the city feels high on the streets, careful observation will suggest that in fact, it's not as well-defended as it appears. People will be able to tell them that troops have left Perendale for the front were replaced, but watching those currently present going about their business suggests that many of the newer arrivals are less soldiers than quartermaster-types, focused on managing the complicated supply train that funnels goods from Tevinter and the Anderfels south.This is not to say that they're all pushovers. There are, as mentioned above, enough soldiers in the city to keep the populace subdued in their current state. But they're fairly complacent, confident that they're not under any serious threat from within or without.
(3) They'll be able to make contact with a small resistance effort that's currently focused on undermining the occupying force's authority and disrupting its attempts at imposing curfews and other restrictions on the locals. However, due to a combination of factors—the city's leaders being killed or imprisoned, previous resistance efforts resulting in additional deaths, the difficulty of operating undiscovered for long in a relatively small city, and most people with families/brains understanding how surrounded they are and how hopeless the situation is and thus keeping their heads down—the resistance will seem to consist primarily of idiots. Just complete dumbasses. Eager, though. They've never done this before, they're optimistic, and they'll be thrilled to be noticed and to be given a way to connect with outside support.
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