Cass & MJ here with a player plot! Totally unrelated to the modplot, a small group of characters began experiencing some weird shit in Wintermarch/January, and as several of them have figured out, it's probably about phylacteries. At this point, anyone playing a Circle mage who has an intact, unaccounted-for phylactery can also opt in. It's absolutely fine not to opt in—this isn't something that would be affecting every mage.

If you do opt in, then over the next several weeks your character may experience the effects of various spells, with no apparent caster, always during the late mornings or early afternoons. How often it happens is up to you, though it won't be more than once a day and no single incident will last more than the usual duration of the spell you've chosen.

Some notes:

• This won't require your character to leave Kirkwall (or to stay home from missions if they're out and about instead). How much of their time it takes will be up to you, depending on the severity of what they experience.

• Your character may be harmed, but nothing irreversible, and you can choose the maximum level of harm you’re comfortable with when you sign up. We’re going to randomize and assign spells based on the degree of harm you’re okay with so we can make sure a variety of things happen instead of everyone dramatically bursting into flames, but you’ll have flexibility about when your character experiences their assigned effects and for how long.

• There will be a quest-style log for a group to go investigate and resolve the problem, with traditional sign-ups and limited participation and all of that. That portion of the plot won’t be limited to Circle mages. Opting into this will neither require you to participate in the quest log nor guarantee you a spot.

• It will stop in mid-late February, though your character can stop experiencing effects sooner than that for no apparent reason if you'd prefer.

• Characters who were involved in the first part should opt in again here if they want to continue participating. You're also welcome to stop participating now if you'd rather!

There’s a form below if you’d like to opt in. Do so by February 5, and in February 6 we’ll do some randomizing live in color chat and let people know precisely what their effects will be.

P.S.: It's fine for there to be some IC confusion and speculation, but we do want to be absolutely clear OOC that this isn't related to the modplot illness, just so we don't muddy the problem-solving waters any further. To help try to make that clearer IC, we've submitted a news item (to ourselves…) specifying that some mages at Skyhold and elsewhere are experiencing the effects in the player plot, whereas the modplot illness is contained to the rifters and Templars in the Gallows and Kirkwall. It's also only affecting mages from Circles, not mages generally.