MOD PLOT: A Night Without Moon and Stars

[faderifting]

MOD PLOT: A NIGHT WITHOUT MOON AND STARS

Howdy! It's finally mod plot time. Head on over to investigate an odd occurrence in a village on the edge of the Tirashan Forest. Highlights include demons aplenty, rocks where rocks ought not be, a guy in a tree, and the introduction (see rewards, below) of magic for people who have no business doing magic.

REWARDS

Rewards are earned by writing tags in the mod plot. For each thread you complete that has at least five tags from you, up to three total, you unlock a tier and earn a reward. In its most basic form this will look like choosing one Tier 1, one Tier 2, and one Tier 3 reward if you complete three threads. But you can also choose from lower tiers if the higher tiers don't appeal to you – three Tier 1 rewards, for example, or two Tier 1 and one Tier 3.

As you may have noticed, we're currently struggling with some burn-out, so we're not currently creating a bunch of unique rewards for every plot. (We're not saying there will never be any ever again, just that we're going to stop promising them and then not delivering so hopefully you can be pleasantly surprised if they do appear instead of disappointed when they don't.) Instead we've added a "plot-related item" reward at each tier that you can use to create your own if you're so inclined. These items must be themed on the current mod plot in some way (e.g., Nevarran/necromancy related artifacts from a plot set the Necropolis, elven artifacts or odd spontaneously-enchanted items here). If you have an idea and aren't sure which category or tier it would fall under, ask us! For special items unrelated to the plot, use the Enchanted Items reward.

We've also added a new reward: Fade-touched person. This is only available for characters who don't already have magic (or special rifter abilities, which in Thedas are all functionally magic). It may come with potential in-world consequences, such as potential for future plot developments and for being politically lumped in with mages and included in whatever may happen with them in the future, so purchase with caution.

To claim a reward, reply here.

Since we didn't get a rewards post up for the Nevarra plot, you can submit reward requests for that one in this post as well. We have a separate top-level comment here to help us keep track of what's being claimed for what.

Tier 1

• Runes. You can acquire any one canonical runestone to add to your character's weapon or armor so their sword has fire or their armor is imbued with some magical protection.
  
• Rift items, gag/simple variety. Your character can find an item that came through a rift from another world, their own or not. Snack foods, posters of pop idols, underpants with elastic, etc. Things that are fun or sentimental but don't have much in the way of moving parts and won't generally be useful on missions.
  
• Weird pets. Bring home a monkey or a wolf. The pet must be something that can semi-realistically be either permanently contained (sharks in tanks, small rodents, etc.) or trained/tamed out of being dangerous to the general populace. No dragons, nothing rideable (see mounts under Tier 2).
  
• First anchor ability. If your character currently has a vanilla anchor, the anchor can develop either an offensive (shooting small rift-energy projectiles) or defensive (generating a small rift-energy protective barrier, similar in size to a personal shield) capability.
  
• Plot-related item. An item of your choosing, enchanted or not, that your character finds on-site over the course of the plot. For Tier 1, these items can be enchanted for minor quality of life improvements — things like a magically powered fan, enchanted game boards for playing in a bumpy wagon, or other things that are primarily about entertainment, etc. — but cannot not be weapons or otherwise have significant work/plot-related utility.

Tier 2

• Fade-touched materials. Your character can acquire materials that have been touched by the Fade and have them made into a weapon, armor, or other item that has special abilities. There's a list here.
  
• Half of a specialization. To reflect the time and effort it requires to actually learn a new specialization, acquiring a new one requires two rewards spread across two mod plots. You can use one of the canon specializations or create your own. If you create your own, put it in mod contact for us to review and approve.
  
• Mabari. A mabari can imprint on your character. How your character acquires the mabari—getting unwillingly adopted by an old one without a master, intentionally buying a puppy, etc.—is up to you.
  
• Weird mounts. A hart (or equivalent), dracolisk, or nuggalope.
  
• Second anchor ability. If your character has a first anchor ability (see Tier 1), they can now have the second one, too.
  
• Fade-touched person. Available only to characters without powers (i.e. not to native mages or rifters with any special abilities). Your character's prolonged exposure to the energies of the Fade has, you know, touched them. They will permanently acquire one magical ability — for inspiration you can look at this list of Fade-touched materials and their effects, but you're not restricted to what's on the list and welcome to propose your own effect based on Thedosian spells or enchantments. For the foreseeable future, a character's access to this ability will be unpredictable; they may not always (or ever!) be able to do it on command, and when they do it will typically be weak, with unpredictable power spikes, especially under emotional duress.
  
• Plot-related item. An item of your choosing, enchanted or not, that your character finds on-site over the course of the plot. For Tier 2, these items can be weapons with minor effects or other items with minor work/plot-related utility, such as lockpicks that hum at different frequencies to help guide you or griffon-riding goggles that never fog up, or be QOL items with bigger and more useful effects, like a box enchanted to be a deep freezer.

Tier 3

• Enchanted or legendary items. You can use named items from canon, invent your own named item from made-up Thedasosian history, or have an enchanted item of your own invention or discovery that doesn't have a name and/or former owner. These can be items that are useful in combat, like weapons and armor, but they don't have to be. E.g., a self-filling tea pot.
  
• Rift items (magical/useful/complex). Your character can come across an item from another world. This tier is for things more serious and useful than snacks and underwear. As a rule, advanced technology (if it is allowed at all) will be converted into something enchanted.
  
• Griffon tamer. Now that the griffons are breeding freely in the mountains around Kirkwall (and the original griffons are reaching middle age), your character can befriend, tame, and ride a wild griffon that you invent and name yourself.
  
• Anchor upgrade. This reward is only available to characters who have had their anchors for more than nine months. With this upgrade anchor can grow to the size of the Herald’s anchor, allowing them to close rifts alone. They'll also exhibit more powerful versions of the anchor abilities (if they have them).
  
• Plot-related item. An item of your choosing, enchanted or not, that your character finds on-site over the course of the plot. For Tier 3, these items can have significant utility for combat or for other types of work, within the bounds of what is possible with Thedosian magic; the only upper power limit being whether we'd allow it in the game at all.

Comments

REWARDS REQUESTS: This Plot

[faderifting]

<b>Player:</b> <b>Character:</b> The character receiving the reward. This doesn't have to be the same character used in the log you link. <b>Link(s):</b> A link to a thread in the mod plot with at least five tags from you. Open top-level comments count as one tag from you, if you top-level, so you'd need to reply four times after that to reach five total; the same top-level comment can count as Comment 1 of 5 multiple times. <b>Tier Reached:</b> 1, 2, or 3 <b>Reward:</b> As it's listed. <b>Notes/Specifications:</b> If the reward is customizable or open ended (such as enchanted objects) and needs further description, let us know about that here. Remember to submit any custom specialization requests to the mod contact page for separate approval.

i'll be back for more things later but:

[elegiaque]

Player: libbitha
Character: Gwenaëlle
Link(s): tree guy and ness, top level + the Emmrich thread.

Tier Reached: 2
Reward: Fade-touched person.
Notes/Specifications: The ability to essentially cast fade step via her wings — able to teleport anywhere clearly within her line of sight by flapping them. Controlled use of this ability requires her wings to be unbound; uncontrolled use of it may result in not teleporting anywhere but visibly and tangibly ‘blurring’ as her body attempts to move via the Fade and fails to do so.

[faderifting]

Approved with a couple of notes:

(1) The involvement of Gwenaëlle's wings is fine with us, but it'll be essentially a psychological tic on her part — similar to mages from different traditions learning different ways of creating fire, but none of those ways actually being fundamentally necessary to creation of fire rather than something that helps direct their will. So if at any point down the line if/when we allow people to develop better control, it will be fine with us if she learns to do it independent of her wings, or if she continues to rely on them to focus, whichever you prefer at the time.

(2) In addition to blurring, uncontrolled/spontaneous uses could also result in her teleporting to unexpected places or teleporting when she hadn't actually intended to do so.

[elegiaque]

awesome, ty!

[interroga]

Player: Julie
Link(s): 1, 2, 3
Tier Reached: 3

Character: Cassian Andor
Reward: T1 - Rune
Notes/Specifications: A basic lightning rune for embedding in a sword.

Character: Cassian Andor
Reward: T2 - Plot-related item
Notes/Specifications: I just really liked the idea of “lockpicks that hum at different frequencies to help guide you”. Can he have lockpicks like that pls.

Character: Cassian Andor
Reward: T3 - Plot-related item
Notes/Specifications: A small handheld bell which, when rung, ripples a sphere of magical silence around the user for 15 minutes. Usable once per day; useful for e.g. guaranteeing a conversation’s not being overheard, or loudly breaking a window without being noticed. Basically the Cone of Silence from Get Smart.

[dirthsal]

Player: nina
Link(s): 1, 2 (cw emeto), 3 (cw fantasy racism)
Tier Reached: 3

Character: talin
Reward: T2–half a specialization (1/2)
Notes/Specifications: not pulling the trigger yet, though i know it'll be emerald knight themed–i'll drop a message when i have it more hammered out!

Character: ness
Reward: T3–enchanted item
Notes/Specifications: a prosthetic enchantment... of some kind! i'll get in mod contact once i've figured out what i want.

[wythersake]

Player: k2
Link(s):

Dr Strange

Cpt Strange

Athenais

Tier Reached: 3

Character: Isaac
Reward: T1 - Plot-related item
Notes/Specifications: Some pretty ever-flowering wood cut from Mr. Tree Elf, to incorporate into his staff.

Character: Cedric
Reward: T2 - Half a spec
Notes/Specifications: Eventual extension to current custom.

Character: Cedric
Reward: T3 - Anchor upgrade
Notes/Specifications: So he can dry up those holes

[thereneverwas]

Player: Cami
Character: Barrow
Link(s): Tree Guy & Rowena, Cassian

Tier Reached: 2
Reward: Fade-touched person
Notes/Specifications: Barrow's body is able to heal itself on a level so superficial as to escape his notice, in the form of slow regeneration: if he gets wounded it will take most, but not all of the time it normally would have for the skin to heal. His arthritis won't progress, and neither, strangely, will any degeneration related to his lyrium use or general old age.
He's not immortal or immune to sickness or injury, his system just works a little faster and resets itself in the vein of like. cancelling a debuff.