MOD POST ↠ THE WINTER PALACE, PART II

[faderifting]

THE WINTER PALACE, PART DEUX

After much delay, PART II of the Winter Palace is up! This is an open log - go wild, have fun, and we'll be reading your logs to see how we can incorporate your characters' actions into the outcomes for Orlais, the Inquisition's reputation, and specific NPCs.

And as a reminder, no weapons were allowed in the Winter Palace. It's fine if your character hid a few knives in their boots, but this is your opportunity for your character to improvise a bludgeon out of a lamp while wearing a ballgown. Don't squander it with swords pulled out of hammerspace.

OPEN SCENARIO PROMPTS

In the comments for the new log there are two open SCENARIOS. These are a little bit of an experiment! Rather than signing up, you can tag into whichever one you'd like. (But only one, please.) Our goal with this is to prioritize people who are ready and able to tag, rather than locking in a group in advance and having some folks wind up not participating.

Each prompt is meant for a single thread/log, rather than multiple groups, and presents characters with a choice between two priorities. Which person/goal your characters protect or pursue will have an impact later, so while your characters are welcome to attempt to do both somehow, please only have them succeed at one.

There's no cap on the number of characters who participate in each prompt and no deadline to join in. Characters can arrive late to help or leave early to fight elsewhere if you decide you don't have time/desire to continue. Please limit yourself to one prompt, even if you have multiple characters, and try to strike a balance with tag speeds. Unless everyone who is tagged in is boomeranging, stick to a couple of tags per player every 48 hours so slower taggers aren't entirely left behind. But also don't get hung up on tag order and let things stall because you're waiting for specific players. If people don't tag, just assume their characters are in the background and keep going.

These logs will not be GMed, though we may pop in with GM tags to help depending on how things go - if your group is stuck and you need assistance, let us know. Every player is welcome to control the involved NPCs and advance the plot in turn. If you have questions about NPCs or plot progression, please ask - but, like with War Table Operations, you're welcome to make up your own details within the parameters of the prompts.

You aren't required to participate in these logs. You can also treat the post like an open event log and make your own top-levels, or do both.

WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?

Fight the Freemen, rescue nobility, let the nobility burn, steal from the royal bedrooms while no one is looking. You can save or fail to save any of our NPCs, as well as those of your own making. Or your characters can hunker down under a table and cry.

TIMING

Our plan was to have PART I and PART II of the Winter Palace plot take place IC on Firstfall (November) 30. However, we obviously are very late in getting Part II up, so we think it would make more sense to say that this event is occurring on Wintermarch (January) 15. If this timing adjustment causes a problem for you that you can't solve with some gentle retconning, please contact us and let us know so we can help you solve it.

As a reminder, both PART I and PART II will determine the outcome of the power struggle in Orlais. We'll tally tags in both parts for consideration toward who emerges with political power - see our PREVIOUS OOC POST for details and the survey, if you haven't already completed it. The new cut-off date for tags on either log to count toward the plot outcome is January 25.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[faderifting]

Here!

NPCs & Claims

[faderifting]

Please refer to last post's list of NPCs present in the Winter Palace. If you would like your character to rescue (or fail to rescue) (or murder) one of these NPCs, please reply to this comment to "claim" them - we won't want one person to murder an NPC who's later rescued by someone else, and we also need to know who might be dead in the aftermath and who might owe the Inquisition a huge favor.

[tactical_alert]

Gonna claim to save Duchess Laurentine Trellier--and her gaggle of praise-singing NPC artists. Because she supports Celene and think of all the art that might come out for the Inquisition just about this night alone. Think of the art, people!

[gatheringstorm]

Rescuing Baroness Marie-Delphine Comeaux--less going out of her way to do it and more that it happens while she's dealing with enemies anyway. But it's the result that counts, right?

[rowancrowned]

If Thranduil stumbles upon Estelle or Lazare in the course of his evening, he will do his best to pull them along with the rest of his group, plus any other maids/stablehands they might be hiding with.

Because elves.

[ichaer]

Claiming Comte Benoît Daucourt for rescue because it's about time for all that money earned in the war to perhaps flow in another direction as well. She won't be nice about it and will linger until he gets really, really scared for his life before bouncing in.

[alankazam]

Claiming Odette to attempt to kill Bernadette, if that's alright! (Bernadette lives)