Perivantium, one of Tevinter's great cities, hosts a chariot race each year to celebrate the end of summer. Historically, the race once involved competitors nominated strictly from the immediately regions immediately and featured teams decked out in notable regional dress, colors, and insignia—the bright yellows of the Elossos foothills renowned for its trade in Dawnstone, or the orange and green of Nyla, a town famous for its ochre and malachite dyes, and so on. These days, the competition is rather more fierce and significantly more astro-turfed: while every team still nominally has a tie to a local region, town, or industry, it's common for outside parties to pay for the opportunity to deck their own athletes and carefully bred racing animals with the requisite colors to participate in the race. A lot of money and prestige is now involved in the event, and (mostly wealthy, because who else travels?) visitors from all over the Imperium flock to Perivantium to enjoy the spectacle.
Which makes it a perfect meeting point for key members of the Broken Blades to have a clandestine meeting. Given that many of the group's members are actively enslaved and must go where their households and masters demand, this may be one of the few opportunities available to them to coordinate their work without having to relay secret messages across long, complicated, and highly vulnerable lines of communication.
With all this in mind, Riftwatch—specifically, Vanya and Clarisse—have been given what should be the relatively simple directive to safeguard the meeting that's meant to occur. But before that can happen, one of those aforementioned key members is thrust into participating in the race personally.
Solvara is a member of one of the Tevinter Army's many enslaved companies. In fact, so notable is her reputation for valor and bravery during Tevinter's recent military campaigns that some Tevinter citizens know her by her own name. More pressing, she's won real recognition and power (and therefore, enemies) for her master. Intelligence intercepted by the Broken Blades's agents in the city suggest that a number of those enemies plan to use the chariot race as cover to assassinate Solvara and see her master knocked down a peg or two. Vanya and Clarisse will be sneaking into the race in an attempt to help Solvara, and the intelligence provided by her advantageous position in the military, survive it.
The race takes place throughout the city itself, winding along multiple miles of Perivantium's broad thoroughfares and winding, narrow stepped neighbors. It climbs switchbacks and circles palatial fountains. It races across bridges designed for foot traffic, and through narrow archways barely wide enough to permit a chariot to pass. The route is beset with various hazards as well—some designed by the race officials, and some rather less official and more cheating and sabotage shaped. Luckily, chariot teams can wear whatever their sponsored regions desire. Given how dangerous the competition has become, most teams are bedecked in some version of armor and their dracolisks and horses (there's fierce debate over which is the preferable animal) sport a considerable amount of protective (and offensive) tack. Spikes are a popular accessory for chariots, riders, and racing animals alike. Double lucky: this should make it doable for Vanya and Clarisse to step into the relatively anonymous shoes of another team. (I'm not going to specify how they do that—could be that a Broken Blades agent helps them accomplish it, or they knock out a team, stuff them in a broom closet, and take their clothes—and you shouldn't feel obligated to either.)
Each chariot has two riders: a driver and a brakeman. The driver does exactly what you expect, while the brakeman is nominally responsible for engaging the heavy wheel brake to assist with taking hairpin turns and various tricky maneuvering. In reality, the brakeman spends a lot of time playing defense against rival teams.
During the log, you can optionally roll a d6 to receive a prompt for your tag. You can also include the prompt at the end of your tag for the next person to deal with. You aren't required to roll a number for your tag if you have something else you would like to do instead. Any prompt that doesn't specify a target may be directed at either an ally (including yourselves) or a rival.
1. A magical or alchemical environmental hazard is triggered—blinding smoke, a gout of hot fire, a patch of the raceway is iced over, etc. 2. A rival racer attacks either Clarisse and Vanya's chariot, or Solvara's—spiked wheels, vicious dracolisks, backup drivers with sneaky weapons smuggled on their persons. 3. A mechanical failure occurs with a chariot—a damaged wheel, a snapped piece of a driving harness, etc. 4. A section of the raceway is damaged or partially obstructed—the work of a saboteur on foot, a street tightening, a narrow bridge. 5. Interference! An attack from an assassin hidden among the spectators against either Clarisse and Vanya's chariot, or Solvara's—a crossbow bolt, a bag of vipers dropped from an overhead pedestrian walkway, and so on. That's not very sportsmanlike! 6. Disaster is averted! A rival racer takes a hit meant for Clarisse and Vanya's chariot, or Solvara's instead. Maybe this was an accident; maybe you made a friend. :')
If you roll for a prompt, include your rolled number in the subject line of your comment so that you both know what it is. If at any point the same number is rolled two tags in a row, this triggers a MAJOR THREAT—something negative happens such as an assassin closing in to make a major move against either Vanya and Clarisse's chariot, or to Solvara's, or a major mechanical failure opens them to attack. Racking up two MAJOR THREATs against either chariot over the course of the log will result in Solvara dying (though I promise failure is absolutely a dramatic option for this assignment and won't result in destroying alliances or cutting off access to future plots). If this happens, Solvara doesn't have to die instantly following the trigger of the second major threat. Events just must somehow conspire to see her bumped off before the end of the race.
Because Clarisse is actually good at this (!!!), you have the option to re-roll twice.
(ty to MJ for the dice mechanic idea that I'm ripping off)
Please file a report by no later than 9/30. Please make sure to include whether Solvara lives or dies in it. If you want any aftermath information for report/wrap-up purposes, feel free to hit me up.
no subject
Perivantium, one of Tevinter's great cities, hosts a chariot race each year to celebrate the end of summer. Historically, the race once involved competitors nominated strictly from the immediately regions immediately and featured teams decked out in notable regional dress, colors, and insignia—the bright yellows of the Elossos foothills renowned for its trade in Dawnstone, or the orange and green of Nyla, a town famous for its ochre and malachite dyes, and so on. These days, the competition is rather more fierce and significantly more astro-turfed: while every team still nominally has a tie to a local region, town, or industry, it's common for outside parties to pay for the opportunity to deck their own athletes and carefully bred racing animals with the requisite colors to participate in the race. A lot of money and prestige is now involved in the event, and (mostly wealthy, because who else travels?) visitors from all over the Imperium flock to Perivantium to enjoy the spectacle.
Which makes it a perfect meeting point for key members of the Broken Blades to have a clandestine meeting. Given that many of the group's members are actively enslaved and must go where their households and masters demand, this may be one of the few opportunities available to them to coordinate their work without having to relay secret messages across long, complicated, and highly vulnerable lines of communication.
With all this in mind, Riftwatch—specifically, Vanya and Clarisse—have been given what should be the relatively simple directive to safeguard the meeting that's meant to occur. But before that can happen, one of those aforementioned key members is thrust into participating in the race personally.
Solvara is a member of one of the Tevinter Army's many enslaved companies. In fact, so notable is her reputation for valor and bravery during Tevinter's recent military campaigns that some Tevinter citizens know her by her own name. More pressing, she's won real recognition and power (and therefore, enemies) for her master. Intelligence intercepted by the Broken Blades's agents in the city suggest that a number of those enemies plan to use the chariot race as cover to assassinate Solvara and see her master knocked down a peg or two. Vanya and Clarisse will be sneaking into the race in an attempt to help Solvara, and the intelligence provided by her advantageous position in the military, survive it.
The race takes place throughout the city itself, winding along multiple miles of Perivantium's broad thoroughfares and winding, narrow stepped neighbors. It climbs switchbacks and circles palatial fountains. It races across bridges designed for foot traffic, and through narrow archways barely wide enough to permit a chariot to pass. The route is beset with various hazards as well—some designed by the race officials, and some rather less official and more cheating and sabotage shaped. Luckily, chariot teams can wear whatever their sponsored regions desire. Given how dangerous the competition has become, most teams are bedecked in some version of armor and their dracolisks and horses (there's fierce debate over which is the preferable animal) sport a considerable amount of protective (and offensive) tack. Spikes are a popular accessory for chariots, riders, and racing animals alike. Double lucky: this should make it doable for Vanya and Clarisse to step into the relatively anonymous shoes of another team. (I'm not going to specify how they do that—could be that a Broken Blades agent helps them accomplish it, or they knock out a team, stuff them in a broom closet, and take their clothes—and you shouldn't feel obligated to either.)
Each chariot has two riders: a driver and a brakeman. The driver does exactly what you expect, while the brakeman is nominally responsible for engaging the heavy wheel brake to assist with taking hairpin turns and various tricky maneuvering. In reality, the brakeman spends a lot of time playing defense against rival teams.
During the log, you can optionally roll a d6 to receive a prompt for your tag. You can also include the prompt at the end of your tag for the next person to deal with. You aren't required to roll a number for your tag if you have something else you would like to do instead. Any prompt that doesn't specify a target may be directed at either an ally (including yourselves) or a rival.
If you roll for a prompt, include your rolled number in the subject line of your comment so that you both know what it is. If at any point the same number is rolled two tags in a row, this triggers a MAJOR THREAT—something negative happens such as an assassin closing in to make a major move against either Vanya and Clarisse's chariot, or to Solvara's, or a major mechanical failure opens them to attack. Racking up two MAJOR THREATs against either chariot over the course of the log will result in Solvara dying (though I promise failure is absolutely a dramatic option for this assignment and won't result in destroying alliances or cutting off access to future plots). If this happens, Solvara doesn't have to die instantly following the trigger of the second major threat. Events just must somehow conspire to see her bumped off before the end of the race.
Because Clarisse is actually good at this (!!!), you have the option to re-roll twice.
(ty to MJ for the dice mechanic idea that I'm ripping off)
Please file a report by no later than 9/30. Please make sure to include whether Solvara lives or dies in it. If you want any aftermath information for report/wrap-up purposes, feel free to hit me up.
Good luck, and happy racing!