PLANNING POST - INTO THE DEPTHS

[thewatchers]

PLANNING POST - INTO THE DEPTHS
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After reviewing the results of the OOC poll, there was a clear winner as to which plot thread you wanted to follow up the most. (For those who voted differently, we haven’t forgotten you - we’ll be doing something about it as time goes on.) With that in mind, here are the OOC details for the continuation to Something Riding.

In this mission, characters who follow the Dullahan’s lead will be able to discover a great advantage that Utultar holds power over, hidden deep in ancient fae territory; eliminating this advantage will give the Academy further insight into certain parts of Utultar’s power, as well as provide powerful aid.

Descending into these deep parts of the Outlands is no small feat, however. It requires characters to don the mask of a fairytale archetype, gaining strange powers that come with strange weaknesses as they undergo a journey into a place that obeys only its own rules. In addition, the sheer concentration of power that leaks from these deep places has the potential to transform your character in minor ways, giving them physical evidence of the journey that will stay with them permanently.

In addition, this part of the Outlands is a world unto itself that can be considered strange and alien even by those who have experience in Outlands travel. We will be providing guidance on what sort of things you can find here when the log goes up, but we encourage people to have fun and go wild in describing the places a character’s journey takes them through.

Archetypes
An archetype is a broad category under which one or several fairytales or myths can fall. (For examples of how an archetype works, please see this site.)

For the purposes of this event, characters use masks to take on the form of an avatar of something from that archetype in order to undergo a journey through the Outlands safely, and undertake a self-transformation of their own. Behind the mask, they see and relive their own personal version of that ‘tale’ made real, or they may participate in someone else’s and learn more about them - or both.

Characters aren’t limited to being the protagonist of such an archetype, either. A story about a dragon that kidnaps a princess, then is slain by a knight, can have a character be either the dragon, the princess, the knight - or even a strange, mutable combination of all three that becomes a new role entirely, if that suits the character best.

Characters are also able to share an archetype - a story has many forms, after all, and the personal interpretation of a story varies from one person to the next. They may also share a story- one character being the hypothetical dragon while another becomes that dragon’s knight.

Becoming an avatar of an archetype requires the character to wear a mask, and wearing a mask is necessary to walk safely while following the dullahan’s path. While in this part of the Outlands, they cannot remove the mask; it will be their choice as to whether to take it with them when they leave, and be able to invoke the strange powers it provides elsewhere.

Players can choose whether to keep these powers for their characters, as well as make minor physical changes to their appearances. We ask that if you decide to keep these powers, you update your applications as per the power updating rules.

We will not be providing mod-set archetypes for players to fit their characters into. The purpose of this post is for you to plot and choose what tales and powers best fit your character and exercise your creativity. This is also a post for making plans and ideas with one another - none of your characters will be alone on the journey, and they must help each other, or allow themselves to be helped, in order to discover what lies beyond and strike a great blow to the Herald.

Masks and Powers
Like the fairytales they categorise, an archetype’s various actors revolve around one specific theme. The power of a mask is guided by that theme; the mask that invokes a ruinous dragon may allow the user to pull on a dragon’s wings for flight like a cloak, or to utilize wicked claws or flaming breath. But only one of those things can be granted by wearing the mask, and in exchange, the user develops a weakness tied to it. The wings may be uniquely weak to arrows, or the firebreath may be turned aside by shields. Maybe the flames cannot burn the worthy or the wicked - it depends entirely on where the archetype originated, and what the purpose of the dragon is within the story.

Wearing a mask changes the appearance of a character for as long as the mask is on, depending on their role. This can be anything from the mask itself looking more alive and vivid to donning a thematic costume, but no matter what form they take, it always looks both vividly colourful and decidedly unreal - as if the character stepped out of a storybook, from within a painting, or off a theater’s stage.

Physical Changes
The Outlands is full of strange places, filled with their own kind of magic. When those places are disrupted and torn apart, the magic that once suffused itself throughout the land begins to leak out, potentially affecting anyone who passes through it.

Examples of physical changes a character may experience include, but are not limited to:
Patches of scales, feathers, leaves, or other features not native to a character’s species
Small changes not native to a character’s species (such as horns, spines, claws, eye changes, teeth changes, etc).
Changes to senses and how they perceive certain things (light, movement, magical phenomena, etc)
Magical ‘scarring’ with minor effects (patterns glowing in the dark, moving around the body, etc)

If there’s something in particular you would like to do and aren’t sure about, please feel free to use the toplevel below to ask and clarify anything you aren’t sure of! We want to make this mission an interesting and fun experience for everyone.

Ultimately, though, the thing to remember is this: see your story through to the end. We cannot promise a happy ever after, but we can tell you that there is something waiting on the other side.

If you make it that far.


code bases by tricklet

Comments

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS

[thewatchers]

[hattersgonnahat]

SO IF A CHARACTER ALREADY HAS A MASK that can protect them from weird magical things, could they also use that, but still have the fairytale effects?

[thewatchers]

The mask given to characters is special and already has strong supernatural effects attached to it! If you were to use a mask that already existed and had a specific effect, that mask's previous effects would be overwritten.

[hattersgonnahat]

Would it be permanently overwritten, or only for the mission?

Or possibly secondary question: Can the effects later be taken off if needed?

[thewatchers]

1. It would be a permanent overwrite, due to fae magic's unpredictability and the strength of the effect.

2. You can try, but it would be...incredibly difficult.

[hattersgonnahat]

Alright, I'll figure out something then

[preventedmurder]

I'm going to make a comment that this sort of plot seems relevant to an antagonist I included in Anand's app, and while he's definitely more of the "hang around in the shadows and be amused at unfolding events" character than someone who would intervene, I wanted to ask to what degree I could potentially work with you guys to foreshadow or reference later conflicts. I understand this was set up to a greater or lesser extent waaaay in advance of my application, but the thematic parallel is real strong anyway.

[thewatchers]

We're more than happy to work with you to reference things that are relevant to your character in the future, no worries! We would like you to elaborate in more detail the kind of thing you'd be thinking of, though, so we can integrate it properly.

[thefoolreversed]

Considering Caim's unique circumstances (secretly working for the enemy & also secretly harbouring a powerful fey), would it be possible for him to have his mask altered or "faked" by his fey partner? My idea is that it would be effectively the same as everyone else, but he would ICly be choosing his own role and relying on the Hanged Man's magic instead of gaining any additional powers. He wouldn't want to end up in a role that actually helps anyone so mostly it'd just be to give himself a villainous/trickster-type role and have an excuse to fuck people over without drawing too much suspicion, and possibly to use his partner's magic in the future while pretending it's coming from the mask instead.

[thewatchers]

As long as the Hanged Man is altering the mask that's given to him (rather than making a fake one), that's absolutely fine.

Keep in mind, though, that tampering with the mask may allow other characters the possibility to see through it depending on the powers of their own masks. There is also the possibility for some interference from the fae magic that makes these masks possible, giving it the potential to go slightly awry.

[thefoolreversed]

it's almost like layering dubious fae magic with even more dubious fae magic might be a bad idea, hmmmmm...

Duly noted! If I decide to go that route I'll definitely keep that in mind.

[hatesdragons]

Ahh, so I've been thinking about this, and I have a few questions for Emille's fun fae magic adventure time.

--Is it okay if her story heavily involves her now-dead sister Aitelle? I kind of want to make this reflect something that happened between them while she was alive that Emille didn't know about. That would make it harder for others to join in if they wanted to, however.

--Is it also okay that the power gained from this actually involves Aitelle as well? She's currently in spirit form hovering around Emille but is unable to be directly communicated with, so it's not something that Emille herself can control. It's basically just a very limited use protection ability that Aitelle triggers.

--And uh is it possible for this protection power to be a Flame ability that Aitelle is still able to activate while in spirit form? If so, then she would have activated it once before her death without knowing what it was. I'm just trying to kind of have some sort of explanation as to why this ability is able to happen, as neither of them are magical. Aitelle's spirit being magically altered by this experience in the Outlands is also a plausible explanation if the previous doesn't work.

Thanks!

[thewatchers]

All of this should be fine, but we will need you to submit an NPC app for Aitelle if she's going to be appearing on a more regular basis. In addition, please update Emil's app with a detailed explanation of this new power, like you would with any other newly-gained ability.

[hatesdragons]

Thanks for the reply! I will keep that in mind for Aitelle -- I only have it planned that she says a few (about six?) sentences at the end of this storyline, and she isn't able to communicate normally. When this power will be activated, Aitelle likely won't say anything/really be involved, it'll just happen. However, if you feel she needs to be apped at any time, please let me know!

And yes, I will make sure to update Emille's app with a power update once this event finishes. :)