faderiftooc | player plot: Out flew the web and floated wide-

Okay team Serault - Bruce, Kain, Jehan, Ciri, Sabine, Velanna - plotting time! I plan to do what I usually do which is have a draft log up with examples of the starters so you can make requests/suggestions/etc ahead of time and so I can throw the log up right away when we're ready. So, things to cover from the last post since it was pretty vague:

Do you want to do a little thing where Morrigan approaches your character to get them involved in this (probably via inbox for ease) - I'm good with handwaving if you are but if you'd like to thread it out recruitment I'm more than happy to
Dates: I'm thinking of putting it up fairly soon so we can forward date and then tag at our leisure, that way no one feels rushed and we're out of the danger zone for thanksgiving for anyone in the US
Option A vs Option B
Option B: who wants to be captured (a rogue +1) and how do we handle this situation?
The Venatori Agent how do we want to handle this? (Mods - since one of you is coming - feel free to chime in and help guide me here!)
Anything else I'm probably not covering

As I mentioned previously, there are two paths this mission can take but it isn't a fail state. It's completing the mission without the optional objectives/some of the rewards. Which is why we required rogues with stealth and lockpicking or people with those skills (hi Ciri!)

Once the party has made it to just outside Serault, we have a decision to make:

(A) Either they go in since they are all genre-savvy enough to know that Orlesians do not offer invites freely, not even Serault, and just accept what comes, doing their very best to be prepared for it since it's a trap, if you don't know that your invite is rescinded. Perhaps they can talk the situation down because they don't know about the Venatori presence.

(B) They attempt to do some scouting but since this is Serault, it's highly unlikely people will be 1. familiar with the area and 2. the Venatori are firmly entrenched so those persons will be captured meaning great we need to rescue them too/they need to rescue themselves (they're going to rescue themselves honestly or else it'll be a boring plot for them but for the sake of people discussing it ICly and probably fun awkward npc conversations where we're going to have to lie to the npcs about people being captured)

If option (A) is chosen then the Inquisition will go to find out (of course) that there's no invitation to tour the glassworks of Serault. Only Venatori. A lot of Venatori. It's not going to be a pleasant fight since it's in a workshop for working glass and maybe not everyone came ready for a battle, maybe some people were here for negotiations just to be safe. So expect hazards. And hapless npcs that might get in the way since they are quite literally chained to their workbenches, ah that classic Venatori motivational methodology.

If option (B) is chosen then those persons will be separated but will be able to make an escape (at least one rogue is required for this part) to rejoin the group but they will need to be careful because well there's blood magic and that requires bodies and there are a lot of apprentices. If the pair aren't careful they'll kill some apprentices to fuel a really powerful spell they're using to attack the main group.

That's a lot to digest so I'll be putting the impacts and consequences, the goal in general, and the Venatori Agent in the comments along with choosing a path.

eta: please enjoy this draft log - if you've got thread requests/suggestions, let me know!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

The younger child of an Orlesian Marquise, if anyone on the mission is involved in court gossip - looking at Sabine in particular, probably Jehan too - or if they were involved at all in the spa mission etc then there's a rumour they're one of Florianne's lovers. There will be a retainer. This retainer is Fereldan??? How strange.

Do we want to find clues to the identity of this retainer? Yes or no?

A general note on battle numbers: 5-10 Venatori with 2-4 Red Templars - do you have preferences on the numbers or shall I just RNG that and see how we go? I was probably going to err somewhere in the middle (7/8 Venatori, 3 Red Templars).

Acquire some fancy Serault glass and some gratitude from Serault. Look it's Serault but beggars can't be choosers and the Inquisition is most definitely the beggar in this scenario. Also killing more Venatori and unmasking a Venatori agent in Orlais potentially and getting some clues to their mysterious retainer if we decide we want to do this.

If it's carried out well then there's a glassworker or two that might like to come join the Inquisition with their apprentices, and they would send along some famous glass as a gesture of good faith before they start getting to work on any negotiations for some sort of more regular supply. So this opens up an armour crafting option for folks!

If option (B) is chosen, the pair escaping alert the Venatori and the apprentices are killed, only the glassworkers will join along with an advance supply of Serault glass, no immediate negotiation options for a regular supply. Expect rumours to be much worse depending on the pair that were captured.

Last but obviously not least, picking A vs B. The only fair way to do this is by voting I think since it's going to have an impact on the Inquisition. Not so much on the outcome of the mission itself all things considered but people will die and that's going to be on the Inquisition, and depending on the people captured, that's going to probably start some nastier rumours i.e. an elf and a mage would get some extremely nasty rumours etc.

I'll be leaving this decision entirely up to you since I think that's the fairest way to go here but again, it's not a fail state. Think of it (if you play them) like the Assassin's Creed games with the sync bonuses.

I'm really tired I've probably missed things even in this wall of tl;dr

Just condensing my stuff in this comment so i don't spam in every single one lol

totally down with Morrigan approaching Bruce and stuff, but if its too much we can handwave, I'm cool either way

forward dating/posting it advance is cool with me, esp with that thanksgiving thing for the americanos

Venatori agent: if there is fishiness abound and the characters can sense it or whatever, Bruce would probably vote for finding out wherever they can beforehand to be better prepared. Know your enemies etc.

Goal: definitely what they came here for in the fist place (the glass/glassworkers??) since that's the priority. If things get too hot with the agent and stuff is too dangerous to proceed Bruce would say its better to book it. Live to fight another day.

uuuuh i think that's everything?? the vote will be separate just so its easier to track annnd if there's anything I forgot let me know!! nano is killing me big time lmao

A! As much as scouting would be good, its also a fact that there's only a few of them and they're in a completely foreign place. Best to not risk things too much in Bruce's opinion.

well i always played assassin's creed by charging in the front gate and killing everyone. And that's how Velanna would roll too, so she would also go for A.

I'll add to the votes for A! Kain would pick the more direct approach anyway, and yeah, he knows how other Orlesians can be.

Yet another vote for A!

KICKS IN DOOR

i'm into recognition/court knowledge of rumours! definitely the kind of thing sabine will keep track of, and would like to uncover evidence for, if that's what you mean.

Yep that's the plan! I set up a starter for evidence gathering since I know people like to poke at things whenever and I put a request in with the mods so I can nail down some details.

player plot: Out flew the web and floated wide-

Venatori Agent;

Also what is our goal here?

Impacts and consequences;

A vs B;

Questions;

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Re: A vs B;

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