faderiftooc | MOD PLOT ↠ SECRET STEEP'D ROOTS

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! mod post

MOD PLOT ↠ SECRET STEEP'D ROOTS

MOD PLOT: SECRET STEEP'D ROOTS

This cycle's main event will find characters trapped in a remote jungle, with no specific idea where they are. They'll have to figure out how to avoid starving, being eaten, or killing one another in frustration while they figure out how to get home. They'll also come across a few points of interest along the way.

HOW THEY'RE GETTING THERE

The kidnapping is an urgent situation, so as many people as reasonably possible will be assigned to assist with the search. Since the Venatori have a couple hours' head start, Riftwatch will need to cover as much ground as possible and won't be picky about who participates, within reason. Unless your character is currently confined to the Gallows or seriously injured, you're welcome to say they volunteered or were ordered to assist. If you're unsure whether your character would be permitted to go, please check with their division head or with us.

If you'd prefer to sit this one out, you can assume that your character was either traveling outside Kirkwall at the time or had a time-sensitive Riftwatch mission that could not be rearranged, was one of a few people deliberately asked to stay behind to keep an eye on the Gallows in case it was an intentional ploy to draw everyone out, or just arrived too late for some reason.

The short version: everyone will be trying to track the missing characters and their captors through the puzzly maze of the Crossroads, and eventually they'll succeed in pinning them down and pursuing them through an eluvian. Once they're there, however, the eluvian will be destroyed and they'll wind up trapped in an unidentifiable jungle location.

The long version: everyone will be sent back into the Crossroads with a map of the location where the kidnapping occurred and a particular route to search and report back on in groups. This will be handled as systematically as possible, but overlapping and getting lost is inevitable given the nature of the place and the difficulty of communication, given that sending crystals don't work in the Crossroads.

Early on the second day of the search there will be a sighting of the kidnappers and the prisoners still hiking through the Crossroads. Everyone will be organized and to race after them from three different directions in hopes of surrounding and trapping the kidnappers on an isolated portion of the Crossroads before they can escape.

But as Riftwatch converges on the Venatori, they'll veer off and escape through the nearest eluvian—a massive one, turned over on its side—seemingly chosen out of desperation. When Riftwatch follows, they will find it exits into a ruin half-buried by foliage in a thick, mountainous jungle, and that the enemy's path appears to split into two. Orders will be to split Riftwatch personnel into three—a group to follow each enemy party's trail, and one to stay behind and guard the exit. Which is smart, because the Venatori will double back to the eluvian by sunset, hoping to sneak back out and leave their pursuers behind in the jungle. And in the chaos of the fight the eluvian will be shattered, trapping everyone in the jungle.

OOC, we're pretty much skipping past all of the searching and pursuit and everything, because we've been RPing in the Crossroads for a while already. The IC log (which will be posted soon) will jump straight to the jungle.

WHAT THEY'VE GOT

This plot is designed to be survival-RP focused. In that spirit, the supplies and equipment at everyone's disposal when they arrive should be limited. Please remember that everyone would have been rallied on very short notice for what was meant to be a fast-as-possible pursuit in the Crossroads and possibly some combat, not a long jungle camping trip, and be reasonable about what they would have brought along. No one should have a duffle bag of clothes and tent and food for a week.

Everything they don't already have, they'll have to manage to provide for themselves from their surroundings. There are plenty of edible plants and animals, but there are also those that are dangerous and poisonous. Much of what's around them is unlikely to be familiar and it will be on them to figure out how to not die.

We won't be policing what characters can or can't realistically make once they've arrived—just make sure you respect that many things should be a struggle and that some people might want to play that out. So if your character is able to build a perfect two-room tent by weaving together bark and leaves, that's awesome, but don't say they made 50 of them in one night so now everyone has a tent with their own room and doesn't need to worry about shelter.

Please also keep in mind the normal limitations on magic, both in terms of the abilities your character has had approved and what can reasonably be extrapolated as possible in the world vs. what needs prior approval. When in doubt please check with us first, especially if you're adding something that would make characters' lives here significantly easier.

WHERE THEY ARE

Everyone will also have to figure out where they are and how to get home, because the area will be completely devoid of helpful local NPCs or familiar landmarks. They'll be able to pick a direction to start walking in, but—spoilers—they won't reach civilization in any reasonable amount of time. The IC post will focus on their journey through the jungle, and an OOC follow-up will tie up loose ends about how exactly they get home.

The good news is that everyone's crystals work, now that they're out of the Crossroads, and it will be possible to phone their friends in the Gallows for help. The other good news is that we're not going to OOCly make this a legitimate puzzle that everyone has to work hard to figure out or they never get to go home. But we're also not going to just tell you right now, because that's boring.

Instead, some of the characters who sign up below for random pairing assignments (see below) will receive prompts that include some information about a specific bit of flora or fauna or other clue that could potentially help identify the location.

Meanwhile, characters back at the Gallows who also sign up below will be given some bits of info they can find out from remote research that will assist in either narrowing down locations or figuring out a way back. If everyone involved shares the info they're collecting on the network, it should be possible to match up the clues people in the jungle find with the information the researchers uncover, narrow down where they are, and make a plan to get home.

Footnote: this will all be stuff we're making up fresh for Fade Rift, so no one needs to know minor canon details or comb the wiki for clues or research real-world biomes or anything like that. We're going to hand it to you. Just in several pieces instead of one big one.

WHAT TO DO

This is a Survival RP/Shitty Camping event, and characters will be largely focused on surviving, staying organized and together, and figuring out how to get home. The log includes some wildlife and hazards your characters can encounter. You're also welcome to make things up. For example, just because we don't specifically say there's a beautiful waterfall with a little cave behind it doesn't mean your character can't come across one. We also haven't described every kind of animal they might come across. You're welcome to use real-life tropical rainforests as a rough guide for the types of things they could encounter and/or to put a Thedas spin on stuff. Just keep it reasonable.

In addition to setting up open top-levels for whatever you want:

There are three open top-levels set up for exploring ruins that Riftwatch will come across and need to catalog. You're welcome to tag into as many of those as you want.
You can sign up to be randomly paired up and given a mini-task or mini-crisis to deal with your partner. Some of these will include tidbits of information that help answer the question of where everyone is. If you're interested, sign-ups are below.

Meanwhile, characters remaining behind in the Gallows will be (1) trying to keep things running as best they can with most of the organization missing, and (2) trying to remotely assist in determining where they are, as well as looking up answers to questions like "is the mushroom someone is describing edible or deadly." If you want your character to help with figuring out where everyone is, you can sign up below.

WHAT THEY CAN KEEP

If you want your character to bring a monkey home or find a set of untouched ancient armor or anything along those lines, you're welcome to do so! Just be sure to use the AC rewards system for anything that would typically be an AC reward. If you've read the rules and are still unsure, ask us below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi.

jenny lou's gonna fly up to get a bird's eye view of things after she sobers up. she's not going to be able to stay up there or investigate anything for very long, but would there be any landmarks ect she'd notice before she gets body slammed by a hawk?

Nope, it's just a shitload of rainforest over some low mountains, and the river winding its way south through it.

hello is there anything important i need to know if dick decides to chew on some hot spring plants for "science" it just occurred to me i should not Assume.

It will not be a good time! He'll experience a stronger version of the same symptoms, now including some visual hallucinations as well, all increasingly alarming depending on how much he eats exactly. Think a bad trip, but not bad enough to cause permanent damage.

soooo what do the bones under the moss look like? will we be able to take some with us ~~to donate to blathers in the museum~~?

Like bones? Hard to say. And no, they will dissolve a hole big enough to fall through in any container they're put in, including hands.

QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

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SIGN-UPS

BLAME!

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JUNGLE PAIRS

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RESEARCH