eastbound } { volcano plotting

[rumorate]

A one stop shop for all your plotting/touch base needs! A couple of starting thoughts:

• The best format for this might be a closed long with no tag order to keep things moving, as long as that works for everyone? We can also break out certain portions of the adventure if some of us are more into one aspect than others.

• What kinds of thoughts or feelings do we want shared? Would it make more sense to set that portion up as a space for one-on-one threads to make the most of those CR building moments?

• How successful do we want them to be? Do we want to go for the reward?

I figure we can use this to compile our questions/plan and take this over to Ruxi when we're all ready. Threadjack/comment/track as needed!

Comments

[blackscales]

Hey!

Closed log with no tag order works for me, though I am an EU timezone so I guess there's a degree of 'is everyone but one of us the same timezone' and/or 'is everyone but one of us available most days'? If someone only tags say, Saturdays, I wouldn't want to obliterate them with overtags with my midweek activity.

The hook seems like we all just agreed to be nosy about the same thing ICly and went to investigate a volcano, does anyone need more of a pull than that? It honestly works for Wrathion who is very nosy and will assume a volcano isn't dangerous to him. Sucks to be him, this volcano is supernaturally hot and spooky.

Separate share threads feels the way to go, if we're losing tag order it might be weird if you wanted to have a moment and then someone else was having a moment at the same time or... something. You get what I meant! I'm not exactly sure what to share, because Wrathion doesn't really have solid CR with anyone except for like, Emilia (Emilia fixed his arm! Instant kudos to Emilia) but probably the takeaway from his of his thoughts/feelings would be 'extremely cool outwardly, absolute hot mess inside'. Potentially a sense he's used to invasive, paranoid weird outside thoughts/voices and has experience ignoring them I guess?

I cannot see an immediate reason Wrathion would cause them not to succeed, he's got decent control of shutting out invasive thoughts, but if someone else wants to go super chaotic I can offer him to help shut them down so the rest of the group can progress! Or if we wanna communally mess up I can add to the chaos obviously.

If we do succeed I feel like the obvious thing to ask about is the beacon? The Merchant said there was one here. Where! Wrathion wants out of this nonsense place, please show him the exit.

[valeas]

(Hi, Wrathion! Emilia will want things.)

Maybe what we can do is split the closed log into two separate sections? So there's the section that will be for the group thread and also a top level under which we can all do one-on-one things as needed/desired?

For timezones, I am EST and would give the group thread my full priority. I like no tag order as a general rule, because sometimes it makes sense for my character to be skipped if, say, Alison asks Wrath a question even though it's technically my turn y'know? That said, I'd really like to keep in mind your timezone and if people do prefer tag order I can easily go with that, as well.

re: whether they succeed or fail: I was saying this to Carlee last night that we kind of assembled a powerhouse group, so I can definitely see them going all the way. I think so long as we really make them work for it and give them some close calls, we should be good to go. (Failure is fun to write, though, so if others have that preference I'm down!)

[rumorate]

Hi!

I'm mostly available on evenings EST, but I think we can definitely find a way to work out times that are convenient for all of us. If we want to coordinate a day to spend some time banging tags out I'd be down for that, depending on our schedules.

Welcome to Team Secret Hot Mess, one day Allison will get them all t-shirts! I haven't one hundred percent decided on what I want Allison to share yet either, so we can always cross that bridge when we get to it.

I'm gonna come back to what they might ask for but I agree that the beacon will be the number one priority. We just might want to have a back up in case that's not on the table.

[blackscales]

Emilia can have anything she wants, people who heal injuries and don't throw shade about it get priority treatment.

Two sections works for me, if that works for anyone else! And yeah, I'm fine to be skipped to keep pace! As long as it isn't egregiously skipped for 25 comments while I sleep, it's chill.

I feel like a bunch of high power people in a spooky paranoia place is a decent source of close calls, so we should be able to make them work for it!

[valeas]

alksj bless

and yeah, i think that's a really good rule of thumb: keep things moving along but if it feels like someone is getting left behind, to slow down and give them time to jump in. all five characters should really feel a part of it. teamwork!

[blackscales]

The problem with both the beacon and the back-up is finding ways to not blow their cover story, I think. Like I guess they could claim interest for some research reasons?

As a back-up I know Wrathion is personally very interested in the village's patron, the Beastmaster, but I absolutely cannot think of a casual way to ask that without generating some elaborate OH YOUR VILLAGE IS SO FASCINATING AND WELL LOOKED AFTER lie, lmao, and he's feeling very prickly and anxious about drawing attention to himself so wouldn't want to directly ask himself.

[rumorate]

Well, the upside of Allison is they could ask for the information and then she could rumor him to forget that they asked for it. (Which could also mean that they don't really need the favor, necessarily, but Allison will feel less gross about it if it's rumoring to protect their cover vs. stealing information that could have been willingly given.)

[blackscales]

INTERESTING GAMBLE.

If Allison was convinced it would work he'd be down for her trying, but like, with one foot out the door just in case if you know what I mean.

[inferus]

This might be a good opportunity for Wrath and Wrathion to further develop their CR towards ultimately working toward taking out the Undead more (I really loved their first thread btw). Wrath will be not very affected by most things, but I will definitely have some of his emotions/thoughts able to be read to turn the tables on him a little. If there's anything that he could think or feel that might help develop their CR in that direction, I'm down.

As for the Beacon, I believe I read (and I went back and checked to be sure cause it was a bit ago >>"), but they're actually told by the villagers when they arrive that the whole group will be led to the Beacon once they end the tributes to the House of Raven. So they, at least, know what they need to do be able to access the Beacon/be given the location of the Beacon, but we can always check with Ruxi - maybe there's other Beacon information available.

So we might want to go with the secondary thing of learning more about the Undead in general though I know Ruxi said that the Beastmaster information would come out in time, and Wrathion's doing some stuff with the Serpent lady to find out more information sooner as well, right?

Maybe there's another favor they could use it for, but I'd have to think/look over everything again haha to think of what might make the most sense/might be beneficial to them all.

[blackscales]

Yeah I was wondering if there was anything else they could ask about it, like it FAILED BEFORE when they tried to use it maybe they can be more prepared now? Get hints like 'its in the middle of a lethal swamp' before they get there? Or 'btw it's SUPER broken and we weren't going to warn you before?!'

HAHA also yeah, the first time around Wrath came on like SO ENTIRELY UPFRONT Wrathion felt like it was "hello, I just stalked you and I see you're anxious, I'd like you to explain why" so his hackles went up comically and he DIDN'T EVEN GET WRATH'S NAME so really they can only improve from here. Honestly, seeing Emilia trust him might be a good buy-in for Wrathion? I don't know if there's anything particularly that would help Wrath feel like he was worth paying more attention to. I guess maybe sensing Wrathion might have a decent amount of experience resisting mental influences might be good?

[valeas]

I've been thinking on this bc -- as you know -- I suffer by being drawn to characters that are way, way more cunning than me and I want the gift/favor to be g o o d. I also potentially have been considering a blank check a la Teleios in a when-we-need-you way? But I don't know if that would work. So I'm still at the drawing board and will come back with more suggestions!!

[rumorate]

I had another thought in terms of structuring this log - it might be best to pick the beats we really want/need to thread, and handwave/apply time skips as needed. So aside from the thought sharing, which will have it's own section on the log, what are the areas we really want to hit?

[blackscales]

I guess -- do we want to handwave them agreeing to look into this together or play that out? We need some vague agreement for how they came to that point.

Do we all actually know each other?

I think Wrathion has technically spoken to Allison once via that one whole network comment but I guess theoretically (?) they might have interacted more during that event.

If not necessarily the agreement/etc, potentially arriving at the entrances and initially entering as they discuss the theory of the volcano? Commenting on how creepy the entrances are?

The actual skull retrieval bit seems important. Are we gonna have one person pick them up or all collectively take turns carrying weird skull or what?

Does anyone have a particular desire for their character to begin becoming paranoid? If so that's a good focus. Does anyone have a particular reaction to heat/volcanos/paranoia ICly? Wrathion will be surprised he's not immune to heat tbh

I guess also -- does anyone have a curse they want to play up during this?

[thebrideoffire]

Heya, sorry I'm late to this. I was hoping that Dany could tag along? She'll be dragonless, but this sort of environment would be fun for her to explore. You guys will of course take the lead with the events and conflicts, just point me where you want me and I can join in. So long as I don't step on any toes. <3

I'm on central time. I'll prioritize these tags and do my best to reply quickly.

[valeas]

I think the other beat that I'm most interested for Emilia/on my end is the one about them becoming alert/paranoid they're secretly trying to be burned (for reasons you well know). Maybe someone pulling her off an NPC or something lmao.

[valeas]

Not stepping on any toes! And since Emilia and Dany are house mates, and Dany knows Wrathion, maybe that can be some potential ways to bring her into the fray? I imagine the former would've interacted by now, if that's okay to assume.

[valeas]

I'm good with some handwaving. I sometimes like starting a thread midway, I find that gets the ball rolling in interesting ways so long as everyone is on the same page about the details, of course. I can see small clusters of people meeting up at the entrance of the volcano and realizing they're all there for the same reason.

I do think they'd all know of each other by now, if not directly. The group isn't that big and they all travel together, so even if first meetings are not played out, it makes sense to me there'd be at least a passing familiarity, in a 'oh they're one of us' kind of way.

I'm among those who'd be interested in playing out some paranoia that'd need to be shaken off. Emilia is a witch, and in her canon, they're very much burned at the pyre. So that used to be a fear of hers, before she discovered she could actually summon fire.

[rumorate]

I'm also +1 to handwaving the introductions, as needed. Given that everyone in the group has a connection to at least one of the others, I think we can make it work, we can just sort out the details OOCly.

I'm down for playing up the paranoia! Allison is also struggling with a Pride curse which I think could lead to some crises of confidence as they get deeper in, which the paranoia could play into.

I'm sure that will be fine.

[rumorate]

Ooooh yes, poor Emilia, being stuck around all that fire.

[rumorate]

Yes, of course! We're thinking about the beats of the adventure that we want to prioritize, so if there's anything you're interested in hitting for Dany, please let us know!

[blackscales]

If you like, I'm down to have Emilia turn on Wrathion -- he might just conjure flame instead of using a torch (potentially not immediately, but maybe later I can have him lose his torch or sth so it's a surprise in some way). It might give them something to talk about later after all, once they're free!

[inferus]

Yeah, I think at least in Taravast, no one in the city or even the people who had control of the beacon really understood how it worked or how to activate it, etc. It definitely may be different here, of course, but some of the information may come out later whenever they are given access to the beacon regardless of their using a favor. However, we can always float it by Ruxi, specifically asking if there's like just anything they could ask about the Beacon now that would help them or is it stuff that would come out later. It's a good avenue of thought for what they could ask for though since they all want to get back.

lmaooo Wrath has no idea how to people, but it definitely makes sense Wrathion's hackles went up. Also, Wrath's kind of menacing seeming regardless of whether or not he's attempting to be. But yes, Emilia does trust him (now) (and love him, and he loves her, shh). I think Wrath definitely already knows like that Wrathion has something going on with the Beastmaster so he's interested for that reason, but would also be interested in seeing/finding someone else that has resistance to mental influences so he'd definitely be interested in that too!!

[inferus]

OMG YESSS, but also SOBS EMILIA that makes perfect sense ;o; If you have her go after Wrathion potentially, you know I got Wrath here to like help pull her off him or whatever the case may be /dies .-.

[blackscales]

Wrathion thought he was bad at people so it's always fun when someone is worse than him, because he has no idea if it's him misunderstanding or doing something wrong.

If Wrathion sensed him caring about Emilia in some way that might help him trust Wrath too, tbh? Because if he cares for at least one person Wrathion trusts, then he's probably not completely deranged??

(Also Wrathion is entirely new to the experience of loving someone himself so, sympathies on loving someone while being bad at people Wrath. It's such a nightmare?? How do you say any of the right things, he has no idea).

If you want the long play manipulation and/or research angle, I could let Wrath pick up that Wrathion thinks about Anduin a lot, but that's one of those trigger points where it could blow up if they interact weirdly and Wrathion finds out then considers it threatening since he's very protective -- though yknow that could potentially be amusing if you like abrasive interactions HAHA.

ALSO I forgot, it might be funny once he learns Wrath's name because Hermione mentioned him and comedically he had a moment where he was like 'WHOEVER THIS PERSON WHO HAS HALF MY NAME IS, THEY'RE ON THE BAD LIST FOR BEING RUDE TO HERMIONE' until she clarified it wasn't so bad. Hermione called Wrathion her friend so that's it, he's now ride or die for her forever. Even when she doesn't want or need it.

[inferus]

Agreed with the handwaving!! The traveling group is relatively small enough that they would all know of each other even if they didn't know each other's names. Otherwise, I think Wrath has talked to like everyone in the group and has close CR w/ Emilia and Allison at least so I think everyone can easily be wrapped in.

Since there's multiple skulls, maybe everyone can carry some to make it fair? I am just gonna assume they brought like bags or something they can carry them out w/. Not sure how many skulls are down there.

I will not have Wrath get paranoid himself because that would be very bad, but he's definitely here to help out others who might get paranoid and do something wild. Wrath is not affected by like heat/fire, but fire does turn like silver when he's standing near it, which is pretty damn coollllllll so I'll try to mention that as often as I can for flavor!!