This cycle's mod plot is focused on Riftwatch's involvement in the allied effort to retake Val Chevin, the Orlesian port city that has been held by Tevinter forces for several years now and has recently been the source of increasing problems and disruption in the western end of the Waking Sea. Val Chevin is a walled city, which is why Tevinter has been able to maintain its foothold there for so long despite the retreat of the rest of its forces from the Fields of Ghislain a year ago. The difficulty of taking a well-defended, entrenched position has made Orlesian and Chantry forces reluctant to take on a full-out assault, but given the recent launch of new ships from the Val Chevin shipyards to harass shipping and threaten Val Royeaux, it's been decided that the situation is no longer tenable.

The Orlesian and Chantry armies will bear the burden of forcing a way into the city and capturing it. Riftwatch will assist with this effort in several ways, and has also been asked to undertake two crucial missions in the lead-up to the battle that will help make a successful assault possible. To allow some pre-plotting before the log goes up, we're going to give an overview below of what PCs will be doing. We've also got some sign-ups, preview of a new mechanic, and return of an old favorite.


IC: PCs will be informed of the upcoming attack and involved in preparations for Riftwatch's involvement in the battle. Each member of Riftwatch or non-member volunteer will be given assignments appropriate to their division and their skills. The two specific missions Riftwatch is working on (the ones with sign-ups) will not be announced to the general company. Instead, Division Heads will seek volunteers for unspecified dangerous missions that require certain skills. Only those volunteers who are selected for these missions will be told the details of what they'll be doing, and due to recent security issues (Gideon), they'll be instructed to keep them secret until afterwards.

OOC: You can choose where your characters are involved to begin with from the duties described below, we just ask that you be sensible about it as usual and don't make leaders look like idiots by claiming your bruiser was assigned to a desk job or your healer was handed a sword. There will be some ability to move between places and different types of work throughout the course of the battle, to provide some flexibility to RP, and there will be chances for even non-combatants to deal with perilous situations. Everyone will have something to do. If you aren't going to RP a character in the event, you can handwave that they did something along these lines or that they were left in the Gallows specifically to be on guard duty in everyone else's absence, but there is no total, "ignore this and go about business as usual"-type opt-out for members of Riftwatch.

What Are We Doing

More detailed info will be provided in the log post, but here's a broad-strokes overview of what's going to happen and the role Riftwatch is playing for plotting purposes:

On the ground: The combined forces of Orlais, the Exalted March (including the Inquisition), and whatever fighters Riftwatch can muster will be attacking the walls of Val Chevin from the north in an attempt to overwhelm them, get the main gate open, and get into the city. Orlais is trying as much as reasonably possible to avoid damaging the city's defenses and endangering the tens of thousands of civilians inside, so the attack will be focused on getting people over the walls and through the gate without bombardment by siege engines. So think fighting over walls, defending a battering ram, some fighting in the streets once they're inside, etc. There will also be healing tents just outside the walls where healers will be assigned.

Characters who are known to have a reasonable degree of melee-fighting ability will be assigned to this, especially if members of the Forces division. Characters who have some melee ability will be permitted to volunteer, provided that they wouldn't be more useful elsewhere, i.e. a healer would probably be assigned to heal even if they're also a decent fighter, though mages who can do both are more likely to be sent into the battle and asked to heal in the field.

In the air: Characters who can ride griffons will be assigned to help out from the air with a number of duties, including reporting on enemy troop movements and the progress of the battle from the air, providing air support to those fighting on the ground, evacuating seriously wounded back to the healing tents behind the front lines, and things of that nature. They may be assigned to do any or all of the above depending on relevant skills. Any character who is a griffon rider may be assigned to this, though it's not OOCly required if you'd prefer to put them elsewhere. As a reminder, becoming a griffon rider costs only 10 AC points.

At sea: Despite being a port city the battle here will be primarily on land. The Orlesian navy will be focused on protecting Val Royeaux and chasing Tevinter ships around to make sure they don't interfere or counter-attack. Riftwatch will be using a ship as a staging area and base of operations just off the coast, at a safe but convenient distance. Characters based here will be helping coordinate information and assignments, doing things like tracking the troop movement info provided by griffon riders and conveying it to allies, arranging for one group to go support another in trouble inside the city, directing griffons to where to pick up wounded, and things like that. A few characters may also be stationed here to provide emergency healing and to help guard the ship. While this is ICly designed to be a relatively safe place for non-combatants to assist, we can OOCly promise there will still be an opportunity for those aboard to deal with danger when the ship runs into difficulties.

Moving between places: Characters will be assigned to just one of the above duties, but over the court of the day will be able to move between the battle, the ship, and griffon-back, so it's possible to participate in more than one. It won't be so easy that they'll be able to bounce back and forth at a whim, but for example, it would be possible for a character to start on a griffon, end up on the ground trying to help someone and get temporarily sucked into the battle, then later reunite with their griffon and head to the ship to get healed, or a character assigned to the ship could be asked to hop on a griffon to go confirm some information or deliver a message or help with an emergency situation. We're not going to police how people move around, just please be reasonable about it.

Closed Missions

In addition to the efforts above, some volunteers will participate in two specific missions. Those assigned to these missions will be instructed not to speak to their colleagues about the plan until after the battle, to ensure there aren't any leaks or security issues.

To facilitate everyone being able to RP beyond this plot and know the status of Val Chevin sometime before January, these missions will succeed at their basic objectives by default. However, extra good super success will require the log for each mission to reach at least 20 tags by January 1. (That's total, not per participant.)

Team Dreadnought: Riftwatch members equipped for close-range combat and large-scale damage will board the Qunari dreadnought--which Riftwatch has been holding onto for a special occasion--and crash it into the harbor of Val Chevin to damage the ships there as much as possible. Once they've made landfall, they'll disembark to wreak as much havoc as they can: taking out enemy personnel, lighting fire to ships and supplies, smashing whatever they can smash. Then they'll get out of there and join the Orlesian assault to retake the city or divert to assist with any of the support work Riftwatch is doing, as described above.

Team Shield: Riftwatch members equipped for subterfuge and/or handling magical artifacts will also enter the city via the dreadnought, but while the others are causing a lot of distracting havoc, will sneak into the city to locate a magical artifact, relying in part on information provided by their recent defector. The artifact is a powerful object that is magically fortifying the walls and physical structures of the city, which will make the assault difficult to impossible unless it's disabled prior to the attack.

To participate in either of these missions, sign up in the comments below by End of day EST Thursday 12/2. Each mission is capped at 5 participants and will be RNGed if necessary.

Aftermath

As we did with the big Battle of Ghislain however long ago, we're going to set this battle up to allow RP to focus on the aftermath as well by providing some info about how the broad strokes of it will work out, allowing everyone to RP about recuperating afterwards, dealing with CR fallout, and assisting with the needs of Val Chevin in the days immediately following the battle.


We're bringing back random injury generation! Like in the Battle of Ghislain a while back, for those who were around then, we'll use your preferences and a random list of wounds and body parts to assign battle wounds to your character. The purpose for this is threefold: first to help establish the severity and difficulty of the fight, second to give people who are shy about having their characters dramatically wounded a push toward doing it anyway, and third to give everyone a little creative-writing exercise by giving you the basic injury but letting you decide how it happens.

This time things aren't quite so dire, so it will be opt-in rather than something we do for every single character whether you like it or not--but we do encourage opting in!

To receive an assigned injury, sign up in the comments below by End of day EST Thursday 12/2.