February 2017 Plotting Post

[undergroundmods]

February 2017
Welcome to your February plotting post! You can make use of the information here to plot what your character will be doing in the next month. Have you thought about having your character join the Night Council? This month you can! Guardian nominations are now open, and will close on the 4th. Mid-month we'll have our next faction reward and towards the end of the month will be a new test drive meme.

I'd also like to thank everyone who responded to the State of the Game update in the last HMD post! It was extremely useful to get your feedback and as a result I've been planning out some future scenarios that will take us through the next few months. The first visible sign of that is Samantha Okeke, a new NPC who made her debut on the Night Train. Expect to see more of her in the coming months.

In the meantime, check out the calendar for a quick summary of when things are happening. You can also check the game timeline to see what has happened in the game so far.

Factions
The last month has seen two new players in London's political world make their entrance. The first is John Cooper, who won Islington's recent election to become the new Vampire Representative. Many who saw him with a witch on his arm on the Night Train in January are wondering how he will change the dynamics of the Night Council, not to mention how his relationship with Jean-Claude will affect the Islington Nest. Democracy is a brave new world for vampires in London, and it remains to be seen how this experiment will come to fruition.

The second new face is that of Samantha Okeke who will be announced as the new Mother of Witches at the end of January. Little is known about the new Mother who is only thirty-one years old, but rumours are already beginning to circulate that she and Sylvia Redbright do not get along. Samantha will make her first official appearance in her new role during Imbolc, an event hosted at the Redbright Institute and open to all who wish to celebrate with the witches.

Meanwhile, February means two things. One, Lupercalia is coming up and the East End Pack's leader Katherine Moore has decided that the festival is the perfect time to strengthen the pack's numbers. Accordingly, the pack will be looking for enemies they can sacrifice in order to turn members of the pack who have not yet activated their curse.

Finally, this month sees another round of recruitment for the Night Council, as every supernatural community is invited to submit their nominations for potential Guardians. The Council chooses from those offered, and new Guardians are officially inaugurated in the second week of February. Since all vampires were ejected from the Council along with Raymond Harris last year, there are no vampire Guardians left. The Council is not making any particular effort to encourage vampire nominations, but the good news (for vampires) is that they're no longer banned.

Territories
There were no territory changes in January which means that Circle Daybreak and Islington Nest remain the joint top factions, with seven territories each. 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
The following lucky minions will be promoted this month:

Torrence "Tub" Lauberg | Vampire, Islington Nest | Level 1
‣ Once an aristocrat, now he owns a sweet shop. Come visit if you're in need of penny sweets or liquorice allsorts.

These minions will decide to leave town this month:

Ingrid Lewis | Witch, Circle Daybreak | Level 1
‣ An older witch who specialises in potions and enchantments.

Laureen Nightingale | Witch, Circle Daybreak | Level 2
‣ A young witch who specialises in potions. She enjoys the scientific approach to mixing amounts and testing results.

Greg Martin | Werewolf, East End Pack | Level 2
‣ Family man and pastor who was turned less than a year ago but has adapted well.

Sebastien | Vampire, Islington Nest | Level 1
‣ A French vampire upstart, Sebastien likes to pretend he was once a member of the French nobility for all those gullible enough to buy the act, but really he was only turned in the sixties.

Iona | Vampire, Islington Nest | Level 2
‣ One of the oldest vampires in the city, she might have once been a formidable foe but now she cares little for your petty dramas. As far as she is concerned, her cats are the only thing left for her in this world, and while you may laugh, god save you if you do so to her face.

And these less fortunate minions will sadly die this month:

River McConnell | Witch, Circle Daybreak | Level 2
‣ River spent a year kidnapped by the fae and raised among them, something she seems convinced now makes her an expert on all things fae.

Jessica White | Human, Islington Nest | Level 2
‣ A human ally who hangs around for the purposes of providing a willing meal. She thinks vampires are super cool and super hot and most of them keep her around for the groupie factor more than anything else.

Želimir | Fae, Unseelie Court | Level 1
‣ A wish-granting fae with a mean streak.

Factions may decide how and when their minions die, leave town or receive a promotion. Feel free to work these developments into any of this month's plots.

Events

2nd February – IMBOLC.* The festival of Imbolc marks the coming of spring. Traditionally, young witches are initiated to become full-fledged members of their covens, wearing garlands of the earliest spring flowers e.g. daffodils or snowdrops. It's a time for new beginnings and so this event will also mark Samantha Okeke's first official appearance as Mother of Witches. She's hosting an open celebration at the Redbright Institute courtesy of the previous Mother, because they totally get along, why would you think otherwise.

3rd February – GUARDIAN NOMINATIONS. Every six months the supernatural communities of London are invited to nominate potential Guardian candidates to join the Night Council. The Council members decide which Guardians to accept. Comment here to nominate your character!

10th February – GUARDIAN INITIATION.* The chosen Guardians will attend an initiation ceremony at Westminster, where they will be officially brought into the fold.

11th February – 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.

11th-19th February – SCHOOL HOLIDAY. It's half-term, just in time for Valentine's Day. Lucky you.

14th February – VALENTINE'S DAY. Love, romance, a chance to tell that special someone how you feel... Or a cynical marketing ploy to sell cards and chocolate. You decide. Of course, if the fae get involved and decide to play Cupid, you may not have a choice.

15th February – LUPERCALIA. An ancient Roman ritual, the Wolf Festival is observed by many werewolf packs and some shapeshifters too. It is still tradition in the older shapeshifter families to kill an animal of their own form and wear its skin during the celebrations. Meanwhile, werewolves mark the occasion by honouring those in their pack who have recently activated their curse. Some packs take this a step further and carry out ritual killings, activating the curses of young members of the pack to prepare them for their first transformation. This year, Katherine Moore of the East End Pack wants all young men and older women in the pack who have not yet activated their curse to do so. That means they need living humans to kill (sadly, vampires and fae don't count), so her orders to the pack are to capture suitable victims alive (e.g. werewolf hunters, regular human criminals) so that they can be sacrificed for the good of the pack.

*There will be a mod-posted log for this event.

Plots
The following prompts are up for grabs this month:

1) There is a bounty on a vampire hunter who seems to be taking this whole hunting business a bit too seriously and is targeting any and all vampires they can find. They're persistent and well-armed. Reward: £500 and a Blood Replenisher
2) A "feral" shapeshifter has been discovered living in Hyde Park. Still a child, they've spent most of their life in animal form and have very little idea of how to function amongst humans. Should they be integrated back into society, or left to survive in the wild? – Claimed by Autumn
3) You wake up in the middle of a field with no memory of who you are. In order to regain your identity, you must connect with the people that matter to you most. – Claimed by Emily
4) A mischievous fae casts a spell that causes various supernatural residents to have romantic dreams about the person they most secretly desire. If two people dream about each other, they'll have the same dream. – Claimed by Saro

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]

[specifiercity]

So following Imbolc Finnick and Eames are pretty suspicious about Samantha and her intentions so they're going to be looking into their coven as subtly as they can to see if she has a history of ill intentions against the fae. Mogget really threw them off at the party :')

Eames is also hiring Arthur on the 14th to tail one of her covenmates most of the day so I'm just dropping in to ask if they might find anything interesting on that specific search or if some more superficial digging might turn anything up.

[brightwitch]

The 14th is possibly not the best day to tail someone since it's likely that the witch they follow will be going out in the evening for a Valentine's dinner. Before that though she'll be driving to Teddington for a meeting in this building. It's a space that Samantha is looking to hire for her centre of innovation. Nothing magical there at all yet since the witches haven't moved in, but the purpose of the meeting is to negotiate acquiring that space.

If you want to investigate Samantha further you'd be better off going to Manchester. The fae there will have some tales about how being summoned to work for witches is common practice although there's nothing to directly implicate Samantha herself. She's a good upstanding witch. ;)

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 and state the faction they are supporting to sign up. Please only sign up if you intend to participate in the plot.

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.

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.

Re: CLAIM A PLOT

[dirtyredneck]

Plot claimed: Feral Shifter Kid!
Plot lead(s): Daryl Dixon
When this will happen: Early to mid-month

[outstandingbalance]

Plot claimed: Romantic Dreams
Plot lead(s): Natasha Romanoff
When this will happen: The week leading up to Valetine's.

Re: CLAIM A PLOT

[dredefulchilde]

Plot claimed: 3 - Amnesia
Plot lead(s): Emily
When this will happen: After February 9.

RUN A PLOT/EVENT

[undergroundmods]

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.

CR PLANNING

[undergroundmods]

Comment here to ask for and offer CR!

Shifter Adopts Feral Child

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl's gonna end up finding that feral kid in the early part of the month and attempt to take her under his paw. He has no idea what he's doing.

Pls Help.

For the kid's sake if not his.

Re: Shifter Adopts Feral Child

[stauncherhearted]

Yo, Nance is 100% here for feral kids and getting jobs.

[ghoulaid]

can ghoul laugh at him

Valentine's Birthday

[loveconquersdinosaurs]

February 14th isn't just Valentine's day, it's also Thomas's birthday! And naturally, he will be throwing a party at his rather large apartment. Everyone he knows will be invited, and anyone he doesn't know is welcome to come. Human donors with the nest will be there, but he will stress that they are there as guests. If they want to let vampires feed on them while they're at his party, that's fine, but he will make it clear that they're there for their own enjoyment, not to be snacks.

Food, beverages and 'blood punch' will be provided.

Dress code is 'less is more'.

Re: Valentine's Birthday

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline is definitely there :)

[excrucior]

/wears every piece of clothing he has tbh

damn you sexy vampires and your inability to keep your shirts on

Offering him up!

[knowntohisfriends]

The Artful Dodger! Pickpocket, thief, and good at tailing people. He's always interested in making a bit of spare cash, and willing to stick his nose in where he probably shouldn't. Services are open, though he reserves the right to decline anyone he chooses.

Samantha and other NPCs

[brightwitch]

Right guys, I want to give a quick rundown of where I see things going with Samantha and how this could affect factions in general. There are several things here that could have a big impact on individual characters and factions, if you choose to get involved. So let's plot!

Samantha's goals
You may have noticed one odd thing about Samantha's profile on the Elites page, which is that unlike all the other witch NPCs she's actually against the Redbright Institute. This is because she doesn't approve of the whole "let's all get along and work together" thing. Witches Forever is where it's at. For a long time, Redbright and Daybreak have been closely aligned and controlled a large part of London between them. Samantha is going to change all that. One of my goals for her is to cause a rift between Redbright and Daybreak, which could ultimately result in the two factions turning on one another.

But before that, Samantha is going to pursue a number of goals that will put her on a direct collision course with Sylvia:

1) Change the definition of dark magic to no longer include summoning magic, so that witches can freely recruit fae to use in their magic.
The aim is to lay the groundwork in February in order to petition the Council or force its hand in March. To that end, Samantha will be wooing the Night Council NPCs and she will also want to speak to Cooper to get his buy-in.

2) Change the seal in Daybreak territories that prevents fae from being summoned so that fae still can't open doors in Daybreak territory, but they can be summoned by witches.
This one is dependent on the first, but she might just do it as a way of forcing the Council's hand if she doesn't get her way.

3) Investigate Seelie/Unseelie territory to identify potential weaknesses and select fae to recruit as servants.
Samantha's view is that the only reason fae should be in London at all is if they're working for a witch. The moment she has succeeded in changing the law she will be targeting fae to enslave, and in the meantime she'll be identifying potential targets.

So, would any player character fae like to be captured by Samantha? The likelihood is that this would either precede or follow a territory claim against the Seelie/Unseelie Court in March or April. Being made a familiar or simply forced into servitude would cause the fae to switch alliances to Circle Daybreak. This plot would be temporary, but it could well last for several months so it would require a serious commitment. It would also likely be traumatic for the character involved because they would lose their freedom and be forced to work against the Seelie/Unseelie Court. Let me know if you're interested!

4) Make friends with the werewolves.
Samantha has spotted that the werewolves are feeling left out of London politics right now and she thinks there's an opportunity to ally with them first against the fae and then against the Islington Nest. To that end she will be approaching Katherine Moore this month to offer a potential alliance, and she may consider offering the East End Pack moonlight jewellery in return for their allegiance. East End Pack players, let me know what you think about this and if you would like to talk to either Samantha or Katherine about it!

One last note, this may sound like it's set in stone, but of course much will depend on how player characters react. Let me know how you'd like to get your character involved if you're interested (or discuss ideas if you're not sure yet!) and I can adapt accordingly.

[knightscode]

This would make Lancelot super uneasy, from a Daybreak perspective, because as much as he knows individual fae can be perfectly nice people he can't help but feel a little safer when living under a seal. Fae kidnapping backstory and all. Was a part of the early faction wars. There are just some biases that are harder to undo.

How would she be selling it to Daybreak? And, I suppose, since Lance is technically a part of the Night Council via the Guardian division -- would she actually try to sell it to him or does she not care a fig because she's the law now so tough.

[falsify]

Oh boy, binding is quite tempting. Eames could be quite a lucrative target, if very difficult bc a) what even is his true name, and b) he's pretty powerful. On the other hand I think I'd like to have him free to try and figure out what's going on once stuff starts getting squiffy.

I can say that if the Council acquiesces, that would immediately terminate their (admittedly shaky) pact of non-aggression and Eames would start looking for ways to dismantle both Daybreak and the Night Council. He's never liked Sylvia but he could respect her at least, this is just awful.

He has also been considering making friends with the new Alpha, so they could have a bidding war on that front.

[ghoulaid]

redbright vs daybreak sounds so cool. i will have so much popcorn ready.

as for the wolves! well, this one in particular. he's a salty lil piece of bacon. he's kind of soured on the whole council idea. his line of thinking is like, what right do a bunch of snooty witches and vampires have to tell him what to do anyway? how dare they try to be the boss of him when there aren't even any wolves on the council? etc etc. that kind of FUCK THE POLICE, grudgey attitude is pretty central to his character and he's going to be a real, real hard sell on anything involving the council... or even witches in general at this point in time.

watching samantha (who's a witch in the first place so shame on her, that's strike one) stick her fingers in to all kinds of council pies will make him wary of her pretty quickly. when he finds out she's gunning for summoning fae and using them for servants, he's going to be soooo far against her so fast that he'll probably give himself whiplash. that's another huge no-no issue for him personally. he will he get very loud and possibly very destructive towards her/her faction's territories once that comes in to play. he'll push hard for katherine to either ally with the fae or at least not trust samantha. if katherine is open to conversations about it he'll def talk her ear off. i'm totally open to him talking to samantha too if for some reason you want to participate in the rp equivalent of setting an entire landfill on fire.

ofc, he's a dumb newbie puppy so i totally get it if katherine brushes him off. she's grown, she will do whatever she wants.

but wow offering even a few pieces of moonlight jewelry is such a dirty move omg, i can see how that could win over katherine and/or the pack in general. it's so rude. i love it.

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha is going to be very wary of a schism growing between Daybreak and Redbright. She's not exactly an optimist or naive about the politics of the situation, but she's pretty in favor of Redbright as an institute all the same. She's run into some suspicion and what have you there, but they still gave her a chance, and that goes a long way for her.

At this point, she won't take any real action. She's not in a position to be making decisions or anything, and she realizes that. Buuuut she probably be trying to find more about about Samantha. JJust quietly seeing if she can dig up any dirt.

[emotioneater]

As far as Cooper's role on the Night Council goes, he's very intrigued by this idea. Personal bias against the fae, considering what's happened to him in his past at their hands, are definitely going to be coloring his opinion. Also, having dated a witch who was part of Midnight in the past means he's more inclined to bend the rules in terms of what is considered to be dark magic.

But, considering that the vampires only just got their position back on the Council and are still sitting on a precarious perch, he's going to be having a long discussion with Jean-Claude first to consider his opinion on the matter.

[ghoulaid]

if anyone wants to meet a real live wuff during the full moon, come at me bro. that's one of my goals for this month. REAL DUMB ACTUAL WOLF THREADS. please stop me.

or if you just want ghoul for anything specific hmu.

ps, his "break all the vampire things and take all the territory" feels will be evolving in to a more "TAKE DOWN THE ENTIRE ESTABLISHMENT" ideal. any fae in particular are in the danger zone. nobody likes fae, nobody likes wolves. why not like each other and make the rest of the world burn?! if you want ghoul to slam in to your fae character some more and be super obnoxious, holler at me.

Become a Guardian! February 2017

[undergroundmods]

Comment here to nominate your characters to become Guardians!

Guardian nominations are officially submitted on 3rd February. The Council members then decide which nominations to accept and the initiation ceremony for new Guardians will take place on 10th February. Your character can be nominated as a Guardian if they meet the following criteria:

- Your character is an adult.
- Your character is level 2 or above, or they're at level 1 and you can move them up to level 2 at the next activity check.
- You have or will have three points to spend on joining a new faction at the next activity check.
- If your character is a member of the Redbright Institute, Circle Daybreak, Islington Nest, Hillingdon Clan, or a werewolf in the East End Pack, they can sign up to be a Guardian and remain part of their home faction.
- If your character is a member of the Seelie/Unseelie Court or a non-werewolf in the East End Pack, they must renounce their faction when they join the Night Council.

Interested? Fill in the form below:

<b>Name:</b> Firstname Lastname (<user name="journalname">) <b>Age:</b> <b>Species:</b> <b>Faction(s):</b> The factions your character currently belongs to. <b>Skills:</b> What skills would your character bring to their role as a Guardian? <b>Moral compass:</b> Does your character have one? Will they see this role as a champion of justice or will they relish in punishing anyone they don't like? How upset will they be if required to do morally questionable things?

You have until 4th February 20:00 GMT to submit your character. ICly, these nominations will be submitted to the Night Council on 3rd February. This will be hand-waved, and I will approve the nominations OOCly. If you'd like more information on what becoming a Guardian involves, this previous Guardian nominations post has more details! Or you can ask me questions in this post.