MOD POST ↠ NOVEMBER UPDATES

[faderifting]

MOD ANNOUNCEMENTS: NOVEMBER

OOC & ADMIN UPDATES

Notable Dates

Applications: Open until November 20, then closed until January 7.

Leadership Application Deadline: November 20

Party Banter Meme: Mid-December

Test Drive Meme: Mid-January

Please make sure you add war table assignments and any player plots with plot impact/wide relevance to our Calendar so everyone knows when things are happening!

Mod Hiatus/Holiday AC

MOD HIATUS

Each year around the holidays, the mod team takes a Holiday Hiatus, a wonderful and astoundingly short month-ish period in which we do absolutely zero modwork. No apps, no posts, no plot requests, no answering questions, no AC, nothing. It's a necessary break to allow for holiday travel and recharging our batteries to continue running for another year.

The hiatus covers the holiday season, running from Thanksgiving through Epiphany (November 21 - January 6, inclusive). So in order to make sure we can get everything squared away before we retreat into our caves for a long winter's nap, the deadline for all new requests/questions/apps/etc. is 11:59pm Eastern on November 20th. Any apps or requests received before that deadline will be handled before we consider ourselves completely off duty—so hopefully before December 1.

Once the clock ticks over onto November 21, apps will be closed, and we'll ask that you please refrain from submitting new plot requests/questions until we resume work on January 7. (Even if we don't have to answer things right away, seeing them pile up while we're trying to take a break can be stressful, and the urge to just discuss them or handle a couple while we have a minute can be overwhelming, and then before you know it we're not really taking a break.) We'll post reminders when the deadline approaches, but this is your formal heads up to please keep this in mind as November winds down and make sure you plan in advance for any plots you want to run in December or early/mid January.

HOLIDAY AC

The good news for you is that our hiatus includes giving K2, our incredible and incredibly overworked list mod, a month off from processing AC. Everyone must submit AC as usual for November by November 30, but there is no AC requirement for the month of December and no one is required to post an AC comment for that month.

Threads RPed in December can still be counted for AC rewards as usual, so if you do RP that month instead of taking a hiatus, you're free to post an AC comment for the month to track your reward points.

For IC leaders whose leadership post/thread requirement would be due in December, the deadline will be moved to January instead.

New Page: Plot Reports

We have a new info page for plot reports! This page is meant to explain the process a bit more for newcomers, as well as to provide a place for "secret" reports on things that your characters wouldn't formally tell Riftwatch about IC but that we might need to know about as mods. Non-secret reports should continue to go on therookery, as usual, using the existing form.

And this is just for reports; plot and info requests still go in the same place as before.

IC & PLOT UPDATES

The dead continue to occupy Nevarra City, having been shut in when the last of the Nevarran soldiers left. There are reports of isolated pockets of undead in the countryside outside the city, which are being handled by the Nevarrans, but they wouldn't mind assistance from Riftwatch as long as people promise to be as respectful of the corpses as possible. (So if you want to run a little one-off handling a few undead who either escaped before the city was shut or were accidentally raised from crypts outside the walls, you can do so without submitting a plot request, similar to how you can go close a rift somewhere without asking us first. Just do a report afterwards so we know it happened.)

Many Nevarrans witnessed one or both of the darkspawn Magisters who made an appearance in the city, but the rapidly-spreading rumors about them are frequently only partially true. Some claim Corypheus was there, himself and alone; others insist they saw anywhere from three to nineteen talking darkspawn. Similarly varied rumors of Riftwatch's involvement include stories that the organization blasted multiple magisters to pieces with green anchor magic, that it had its ass kicked, and that it captured one of the magisters and spirited him away on a griffon for unknown purpose.

Both the Pentaghast and Van Markham armies were outside the capital when the attack began, and while they both sent soldiers to help contain the dead, the Pentaghasts sent more. Most of those soldiers—along with the many who were already guarding the royal palace—were killed while helping evacuate the city. This means that the two sides are now more or less evenly matched in terms of fighting men.

What remains of the Pentaghast court has relocated to the royal palace in Cumberland and much of the Pentaghast army has joined them to reinforce the city, which remains on high alert in case of another attack. A portion has been held back to monitor Nevarra City and ensure the dead remain inside until a solution can be found.

Of the many dead in the attack (and others still unconfirmed) the most notable are the two most senior members of the Pentaghast dynasty. Once the remainder of court had regrouped in Cumberland, it was announced that King Markus Pentaghast had perished, too weak and ill to survive the chaos of the attack and flight from the capital. His brother, Duke Ferdinand Pentaghast, was also killed repelling an attack by the dragon on the royal palace, putting to use his storied past as a dragon-hunter to defend the escape of a number of courtiers and servants. Aurelia Pentaghast—who personally led the soldiers who raced back to help defend the capital—has quietly assumed the throne as next in line, but made it known that the grand pageantry of a coronation is not a priority. Her stated intentions are to find and punish those complicit in the attack, and, once the Nevarran people are more secure, to join the fight against Corypheus.

The Van Markhams clearly have no intention of recognizing her rule. Their army now looks set to remain in Hunter Fell, occupying both the royal summer palace they recently sacked and their own ancient fortress-turned-hunting lodge. Because of Hunter Fell's rather precarious location, jutting into territory that's now largely Tevinter-held, the Inquisition quickly announced it would be sending a contingent of soldiers from the front to assist in its defense.

Old War Table Missions

Just a reminder to please submit a report for your war table assignment on therookery if you haven't already. If there are threads in progress but you need more time, please let us know by replying to the original assignment comment with a request for an extension (which we will almost certainly grant). If you haven't made progress and would prefer to put the plot back on the shelf for someone else to do in the future, please let us know that, as well. The only thing that isn't fine is not saying anything at all, since that means we remain indefinitely unsure as to whether something happened IC or not.

New War Table Missions

November is, technically, month one of our new plot cycle. Everything will be knocked a little off-schedule due to the mod hiatus in December, but we still intend to post a small number of new war table missions at the end of the month for players who want to do things in December instead of kicking back all month.

For IC leaders, submitting war table assignments for this cycle is optional, and we would advise sticking to just one assignment if you choose to do one—things are usually pretty slow during the holidays, so if you're overflowing with ideas, pick one and save the rest for later. There's a new form on the plot request page for submitting things you'd like placed on the war table, and you can contact us if you have ideas that need discussion before you submit them!

IC Leadership Updates

The following new IC leader has been appointed:

Master of Information: John Silver

We'll review applications for IC leadership roles next on November 20, and then they won't be reviewed again until January 30, 2020, which is a fake date that will never actually arrive, leaving us in limbo forever. So if you're interested, review the list of open positions and submit an application before November 20.