July 2015 Plotting Post

[undergroundmods]

July 2015
Here we go, it's the Underground plotting post for July! There's a lot of exciting things happening this month. This weekend I'll be posting our second Test Drive Meme for potential new players to get a feel for the game. Towards the end of July, we'll have a welcome log for new characters, themed around the hunt. OOCly, in mid-July will be the game's first How's My Driving? meme, giving you the opportunity to ask for feedback on your characters. It isn't mandatory to post to the HMD meme, but I do highly encourage you to do so.

You can make use of the information here to plot what your character will be doing in the next month. Check out the calendar for a quick summary of when things are happening.

Factions
The Redbright Institute's takeover of Barnet unwittingly provoked a response from Circle Midnight, after a number of dark witches were driven out of the borough. They have now started to regroup, and in July the first Midnight coven will publicly declare itself.

Changes are afoot in the East End Pack, which recently appointed a new alpha, Derek Hale, following the mysterious death of their previous leader. Meanwhile, the Islington Nest faced problems of its own when a very old and powerful vampire named Carmilla swept into town intent on causing trouble. Hunters have been kept busy following a string of attacks by Carmilla and her minions. She was eventually killed along with most of her minions, leaving the supernatural community to clean up the mess.

Still, at least the weather is improving.

The Seelie Court remains dominant over the summer, with July marking the start of their hunting season. They're in a jovial mood: do take care not to stumble into one of their hunts.

Territories
The Redbright Institute has now taken over Barnet, previously a neutral territory, extending its reach further north. Circle Daybreak remains the most powerful faction in the city, with six territories. Current disputes include Greenwich and Haringey, which are both claimed by vampires and werewolves. Meanwhile, Lambeth and Lewisham remain lawless territories and are dangerous for anyone to enter. See the Territories page for more information.

If your faction would like to claim a new territory, please comment to the appropriate thread. Players will then have three days from the date and time of the initial claim to sign up for the conflict. Anyone can sign up, but please only volunteer your character if they are a member of a faction involved in the conflict or they have IC reasons to actively help out. Please do not volunteer if you won't be able to participate in the plot.

If the outcome of the conflict is not already guaranteed, I will then look at the sign-ups list to calculate which faction will emerge victorious. It is up to players to plan and play out the actual conflict itself. If you comment to claim a territory, then you should also take the lead in planning and organizing it.

Minions
We are delighted to introduce the following new minions this month:

Erik Treacle | Vampire, Islington Nest | Level 1
‣ Erik's a newborn vampire who was hunted by the Hillingdon Clan. Cooper took him under his wing.

Elites
I'm also delighted to introduce our new list of elites! These are characters made up by you, with a few tweaks here and there. Thank you to everyone who contributed! As a reminder, the aim of the information on this page is not only to put a name, face and personality to the faction leaders, but also to help all player characters determine the goals of their factions, based on the strategy of their leaders.

I do have plans to do a bit more with this list later on, so watch this space.

Drops
The following characters will be leaving this month:

Dandy Mott | Islington Nest | affluenza (Will remain in town)
Lion Ushiromiya | Redbright Institute | llywelin (Will remain in town)
Wanda Maximoff | Unseelie Court | chosetofight (Leaves town, 26/06/15)

Dropped characters can either die, leave town or become a minion. It is up to their faction to decide their fate. Please vote for your preferred option and feel free to incorporate their exit into any of this month's plots.

Events

2nd July – FULL MOON.* Werewolves, it's that time of the month! Will you chain yourself up or spend the night in a cage? Roam wild in the London parks? Or perhaps find a witch to make you a wolfsbane potion. Whatever you choose, better be prepared.

4th-25th July – HUNTING SEASON.** Of course there's never a bad time for a hunt in the Other Realm, but in July they really make a festival of it. In the first week, the Seelie king and queen take a fancy to foxes and all red-headed things (yes, that includes humans). In the second week they hunt game birds, and the Royal Feast of the Swan coincides with the swan upping over in the mortal realm. In the third week they turn their attention to the legendary White Hart, and upon its capture much merry-making ensues. (Should a hunting party pass through into the mortal realm during this hunt, they will appear as drunken louts searching for a pub.) As the hunting season reaches its peak, the influence of the fae will be felt across supernatural communities in London. Hunting instincts will be heightened in all predatory types. There will be a mod-posted log for the third week of events only.

13th July – SWAN UPPING. This is an actual thing that exists. It is a census of the swan population on the Thames, taking place in the third week of July.

24th July – SCHOOL YEAR ENDS. School's out for the summer! Hope you did well in your exams. Teachers, this is your chance to sit back, relax, and... wait, what do you mean summer camp? Enjoy the break while you can, summer camp starts in August.

26th July – GRADUATION. It's graduation time for the latest batch of Redbright students. There will be a short ceremony for the graduates, taking place at the Institute, and then tea and cakes on the lawn. Family and friends are of course invited to attend.

*This event will be covered in this month's TDM.
**This event will be included in this month's newbie welcome log.

Plots
The following prompts are up for grabs this month:

1) There is a bounty on a rogue ghost. The ghost was killed by a vampire and is now haunting them, making the vampire's existence a misery. Please get rid of them. Reward: A vial of vampire blood. – Claimed by Cass
2) Your next door neighbour has discovered what you are. They call the police.
3) A stair on the Underground turns into a portal to the Other Realm every Tuesday at 11.33pm. A number of people have gone missing already, but the strangest thing is that some of them have turned up again sporting animal ears.
4) An animal attack is reported. It's not a werewolf or a shapeshifter. It's a meta human whose power is controlling animals. – Claimed by Lauren

About plots and events
• You may claim one plot prompt per month.
• You can also run your own plots based on the events listed above, or create your own.
• If you claim a plot, then you also volunteer to take the lead OOCly i.e. planning and organizing with other players, deciding on the outcome, setting a timeline etc.
• Once you have claimed a plot, you should introduce it ICly within the next month.
• Plots may not be entirely handwaved. You may handwave some of the plot, but you should play out at least part of it.
• Some plots will require NPCs as well as player characters to fill different roles. Please feel free to make up and play the NPCs yourselves.
• Plots are generally open-ended enough that you can make them big or small. It is up to the player who claims the plot to decide how they would like to handle it. You may want to do open sign-ups for your plot and specify whether there is a limit on how many characters can participate.
• Plots can also be self-contained or form part of an ongoing storyline. Again, it is your choice on how you would like to handle it.
• Please feel free to integrate plots and events or join plots up where appropriate. For example, if you claim a plot that involves a murder, why not choose an event during which the murder could happen? As long as the mod and other players are aware of your plans, I'm happy to accommodate.
• Do not ask the mod to explain what the plot is and what your character should do or discover. That is up to you. These plot ideas are just that, ideas, and it is up to you to run with them and decide how and why these events are happening, what your characters are going to do about it, and what the consequences will be.
• You may ask the mod questions pertaining to game mythology, to check that what you are planning to do makes sense within the game world.
• This list is not meant to be limiting in any way! Player plots are also very welcome.
• If you have an idea for a player plot, please feel free to comment here and see if there is any interest. Run it by the mod first if you're unsure of anything.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[undergroundmods]

[acrookedchild]

Question so I can amend my plotting if need be.

Obviously, if two territory claims are happening on the same day, someone can't be at both. But for something like Abby's, where it's going to be a slower process throughout most of the month, people are a-okay for signing up for more than one during that, right?

I just want to know because if they can't, I'll totally change my claim time around.

[undergroundmods]

Yes, that's fine! ICly, of course no one can be in two places at once so I would expect players to take this into account when signing up. The current rule is a little different though:

If you fight more than one territory dispute in the same month, then you will be required to split your forces.

This applies to factions. What it means in this case is that since we have one faction (Seelie/Unseelie Court) making two claims, then no individual character can support both of them. They have to pick one.

There's no rule to say that individual characters can't support more than one faction, though. So right now every character in the game can choose to support the Circle Midnight claim and/or one of the Seelie/Unseelie Court claims. Or they could choose to oppose them on behalf of a different faction in which case the same rules would apply for the opposing claims.

[warmheartedly]

Does summer camp mean the Redbright students go somewhere out of London?

Also is summer camp required for all students, period? Or its optional but required only for certain people like boarding school students/etc to keep them busy?

[undergroundmods]

No, it's basically a summer school at the Institute and it's optional! Its main function is to bring in potential new students, although I expect the boarding school students would get roped in.

If an instructor wanted to organize a school trip outside of London, they would be welcome to do so.

CLAIM A TERRITORY

[undergroundmods]

Comment here to claim a territory! Please complete the following:

Plot lead(s): Who is going to run this plot? This should be you, but you can also list any other players who will be co-running the plot with you.
Faction: The faction that is claiming the territory.
Territory claimed: The territory that you are making a move on. It must be adjacent to a territory that your faction already owns.
When this will happen: Give the timeline for your plot. This should be in the next month. If you haven't decided on an exact date yet, a rough approximation is fine.

And here is the same information in a handy form for you to fill out:

<b>Plot lead(s):</b> <b>Faction:</b> <b>Territory claimed:</b> <b>When this will happen:</b>

Once a claim has been posted, players should then reply to the comment to sign up. Please specify which side of the conflict your character will be supporting.

Do not use this thread to start plotting. This thread is for claims and sign-ups only. Please start a separate thread or post to plot.

[entitles]

Plot lead(s): Cass
Faction: Seelie/Unseelie Courts
Territory claimed: Bexley
When this will happen: July 8th

[looksatkings]

Supporting this claim

[undergroundmods]

Since this will be the first time the Seelie/Unseelie Court have won a territory, I've got a couple of questions! Feel free to discuss with the faction and then let me know the following:

• What will the faction do upon claiming the territory? How will they consolidate their victory?
• What rules will be put in place? (See the Territories page for examples.)
• Finally, a super important question... What colour would you like to represent the Court on the territory map?

One final consideration: Dandy Mott owns property in this territory and he's still around as an NPC, so you might want to discuss with Islington and see if there's anything you want to do with him.

[acrookedchild]

Plot lead(s): Lynn
Faction: Circle Midnight
Territory claimed: Enfield
When this will happen: July 3rd-24th

[detectiveofthewest]

Plot lead(s): Tetra
Faction: Seelie/Unseelie courts
Territory claimed: Bromley
When this will happen: July 9

CLAIM A PLOT

[undergroundmods]

Comment here to claim a plot from the prompt list. Please complete the following:

Plot claimed: Which plot are you claiming?
Plot lead(s): Who is going to run this plot? This should be you, but you can also list any other players who will be co-running the plot with you.
When this will happen: Give the timeline for your plot. This should be in the next month. If you haven't decided on an exact date yet, a rough approximation is fine.

And here is the same information in a handy form for you to fill out:

<b>Plot claimed:</b> <b>Plot lead(s):</b> <b>When this will happen:</b>

Do not use this thread to start plotting. This thread is for claims only. Please start a separate thread or post to plot.

[entitles]

Plot claimed: Getting rid of the delicious rogue ghost.
Plot lead(s): Cass
When this will happen: Mid/late July

[iceolationqueen]

Plot claimed: 4
Plot lead(s): Lauren
When this will happen: Early/mid July

RUN A PLOT/EVENT

[undergroundmods]

And finally, comment here if you are running your own player plot or event. This could be one of the events listed in the calendar. Please complete the following:

Plot/Event: What is your plot?
Plot lead(s): Who is going to run this plot? This should be you, but you can also list any other players who will be co-running the plot with you.
When this will happen: Give the timeline for your plot. This should be in the next month. If you haven't decided on an exact date yet, a rough approximation is fine.

And here is the same information in a handy form for you to fill out:

<b>Plot/Event:</b> <b>Plot lead(s):</b> <b>When this will happen:</b>

Do not use this thread to start plotting. This thread is for claims only. Please start a separate thread or post to plot.

[acrookedchild]

Plot/Event: dinner and dancing at Geap Manor
Plot lead(s): Lynn
When this will happen: July 1st

VOTE ON THE FATE OF DROPPED CHARACTERS

[undergroundmods]

Here is where you can decide what happens to this month's dropped characters. You can only vote on characters from your faction.

Vote DIE, LEAVE TOWN or BECOME A MINION.

If the fate of these characters has not been decided after a week, they will be assumed to have left town.

DANDY MOTT

[undergroundmods]

LION USHIROMIYA

[undergroundmods]

GEAP MANOR PARTY

[acrookedchild]

Abby's going to be opening her home to the supernatural public for a party. Dinner and dancing are promised on the invitations (which have been sent personally to a few people and en masse to various influential figures in the supernatural community), but Abby will also be making an announcement after dinner.

Circle Midnight has a publicly declared coven, and they are claiming Enfield as their safe zone.

The invitations do say that everyone is welcome as long as hostilities are avoided, so anyone who wants their character to come can have them there!

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

[entitles]

So I've signed up to claim this plot:

There is a bounty on a rogue ghost. The ghost was killed by a vampire and is now haunting them, making the vampire's existence a misery. Please get rid of them. Reward: A vial of vampire blood.

If you would like to join in, just let me know! By the way, Balem doesn't really like vampires and doesn't even want the vial of blood, so any characters who come with him can fight over that reward. But Balem's going to be a bit exhausted after his territory claim, and, well. He's gonna eat the ghost to recover some energy. Yum. He's not going to tell anyone in advance that he plans on eating it either, because he's a jerk like that.

If you want to join in and you already have CR with Balem, just say so! If you want your character to meet Balem and get involved, I have an open post here or we can handwave something!

[megidoomed]

rubs my tiny little ghost hands over this plot

If you're still bueno for Aradia showing up, I'd love her being there trying to help the ghost deal/get revenge/move on/what have you and then just. either getting buttmad at Balem and running or just plain running from him because she's also bite-sized compared to a Fae

Attack Plot

[iceolationqueen]

I claimed plot #4 up there:

An animal attack is reported. It's not a werewolf or a shapeshifter. It's a meta human whose power is controlling animals.

Elsa wouldn't take kindly to a meta using his/her powers to attack other people. Not cool, as she feels that gives metas a bad name and she's way into metas being accepted by supernatural society. For this plot I'd like some attack victims, be they regular humans or supernatural folk, for her to interview. I'm also open to having people help her investigate since I know there are a lot of cop-minded characters in this game.

I'm figuring that the attacking meta is going to be an NPC and I'm not sure if they will be reported (is there an underground law enforcement system?) or if Elsa is just going to be like, dude why are you doing this? and then they work it out from there.

If you want to be a part of this, feel free to comment here or PM me or send me a message on plurk.

[detectiveofthewest]

Volunteering to be on when animals attack, I mean attacked by an animal

Re: Attack Plot

[knightscode]

I'm open to having lance be attacked, investigate with cop skills or both! c: