Player Plots

[apocalypsehowmods]

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Player Plots

Player plots are plots that have a large enough reach to require some sort of sign up, or would be difficult for those not directly involved to ignore, or need some sort of NPC/mod involvement.

Examples of player plots include:

Actions that would negatively affect 4-or-more PCs.

Death of a PC.

Death of a named NPC.

Death of more than 1 unnamed NPC at the same time.

Significant property damage.

A PC gaining powers as a result of aligning with a patron Entity.

Anything that could potentially expose the supernatural to the wider world.

Please submit player plots at least a week or two in advance of when you'd like to run it. In the event something happens suddenly that would escalate to a player plot, please let us know as soon as possible.

<b>Player Name(s)</b>: <b>Character(s) Involved</b>: <b>Dates</b>: When you would like to run the plot. <b>Plot Type</b>: PERSONAL, PAIR, GROUP <b>Plot Summary</b>: Please let us know what you're doing! <b>Questions</b>: Do you have any specific questions for us?

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Comments

[inlieuofadad]

Helloooo! I had an inquiry that could lead to a player plot down the road.

In canon, Gil is incredibly well-connected, both on the legal and illegal side of things. If he doesn't know a guy, he probably knows a guy who knows a guy. He would definitely look to make those kinds of connections in Gloucester. How would I go about setting that kind of thing up/what kind of resources could he potentially have access to as he gets to know the locals?

[apocalypsehowmods]

As mentioned in the State of the Game post, ordinary people whom Gil interacts with on a regular basis will have a much higher likelihood of going missing/being attacked/suffering some terrible, supernatural encounter. It is completely possible for Gil to build up this kind of network, but it may take longer than he's used to with these unfortunate happenings picking off his potential contacts.

Could you give us an ideal timeline for having a network and the sorts of information/connections he's specifically looking to make? He could certainly find his way to people like Lucky or Sable for trading in both legal and illegal goods. Lucky can also provide gossip about strange happenings in town that people might want to look into for smaller, self-contained missions.

[aelwyn_aberration]

So I was wondering about this, because it's something that was never really concretely addressed in my application and may lead to a player plot down the line. But I've mentioned Kalina a few times so I think I should make clear some things about her and how they're relvant to Aelwyn and the RP.

So, Kalina is a creature of demonic origin but she isn't a demon, rather, she's a plague. Only people infected with the Shadowcat's Plague can see her, and only people infected with the Shadowcat's Plague can be reached by her magic that allows her to see through the victims eyes, manipulate their senses, and even directly take control of them. The plague is spread in a way that's closest to a sexually transmitted disease (though it can just be caught through airflow or touch), it's just that Kalina's power is the only symptom, so it's entirely untraceable without the use of magic. Aelwyn's been operating under the assumption that Kalina can't actually reach her while she's here. So, I want to know if she's actually right in that assumption!

For context, the way that she connects to this setting, Kalina is a creature who works for the Nightmare King, a god of all the horrors that the human consciousness can imagine. She's bound to the Nightmare King, but if she realizes she's been spread further into the multiverse, she might relocate and turn into a formidable entity aligned monster who wants to turn the entire world into her personal fear bank. I just want to know if doing anything with that is possible considering it's a different character. (I'd completely understand if not, though!)

[apocalypsehowmods]

Luckily for Aelwyn, Kalina is completely cut off from her in this universe! Unfortunately, with this being a separate character, it would not be possible for her to come through unless someone applied with her. But there may be opportunities for something Kalina-like to exist to torment Aelwyn! There are other avatars out there that characters have yet to encounter. We will keep this sort of situation in mind when designing future events.

[ployboy]

It looks like it's happening but I wanna run this by y'all before filling out that handy dandy plot form, in case there's something I've missed and that y'all would like to know, or in case this isn't possible at all lol

I present to you: World Domination via TikTok, yes seriously, and I'm so sorry about this derailment.

Back in late August I asked in the FAQ page about the feasibility of having Tim create a social media following surrounding some anonymous accounts posting Real Magic for the masses. Since his arrival, he's become privy to magic/powered individuals who have either used their powers around him, or referenced having done so in the game's setting. Seeing no immediate threat of these individuals murdering or terrorizing (in the way he'd assume poses serious or ample harm), and especially with no immediate, horrible, other-worldly consequence of Fenix Down Extravaganza performing in the city, he'd be inclined to begin exposing the general public to small doses of magic and the supernatural. Why?

Because he wants to help the people of this world more than he wants to help ADI, and he thinks ADI keeping this shadow war uh in the shadows ultimately is hurting more than helping. If magic exists, why not alert the people? Why not give them some opportunity to fight back? Why keep it all for ADI to figure out? In his universe, superpowers, alien invasions, gods throwing tantrums and ripping open the fabric of space-- someone will alert the local PD at least to help with the logistics of sorting through and controlling so many human variables, in times of crisis. Tim thinks he wants that sort of fall-back: he wants some people to be able to help themselves, in case he, they, ADI, fail to offer that protection.

Can't help yourself if you don't know what you need saving from. And should shit hit the fan, Tim wants an audience that won't just scoff at the idea of the supernatural being real.

So enters the micro-dosing. He's not in a rush to get it done but he does want it done. He'd want to build a page/pages/"brand" showcasing clips of controlled magic. He could add convincing enough effects, to start with a show that's plausibly just well edited fx footage and also fix up any distortion/blurs/statics that comes with recording the supernatural with a mundane lens. With any considerable growth of views/followers (who he would like to cyberstalk to keep track of) his plan would be to leave the magic more raw as time progresses. End goal would be to yes, convince some of the general public that the magic/supernatural is real. All shorts would be filmed away from Gloucester proper, on burner tech, posted through public wifi, will be queued to post on random hours/days, will not show voice or face/body of whoever he'd convince to join in the act etc

Because he'd want to lean in to his Bat compulsions of stalking folks, he'd want to track any missing or odd-acting online followers, he'd want to know what new scary stories of the supernatural pop up through the grapevine which may be related to Magic on the Internet. With something drastic, he'd be quick to pull the plug-- but yeah, basically: Anything that could potentially expose the supernatural to the wider world. What are we missing to make this disaster happen.

[sorser]

Moved over from this set of questions!

1. It’s hard for Stephen to turn down the ask for medical assistance, and the fact that ADI will want to vet him first would be enough incentive to work in their facilities. However, he’d still want to live outside of ADI housing, even if that puts him in more of a volunteer role than “paid job” role with the organization. Would he still be able to reside in the flophouse if he goes this route?

2. I think the goal of having Stephen doing volunteer work in the hospital would be fun, especially since it would be a few months departed from now, giving him time to work up to it. Having a source of intel regarding any odd injuries coming in could also work as a starting point for clue-gathering or the beginnings of an event/plot, especially if it’s related to any of the history in the area, which he would doggedly research and report back to ADI, if necessary.

Specific character goals for this setting would relate to finding a balance between wanting to help people and how being near them (or giving in to… scaring them a little, maybe) puts them in more danger. Other than that, I really just thought it would be fun to utilize a hospital as another location in the setting to add some spookiness and mystery. I’d be open to brainstorming for the sake of being a vehicle for the plot if needed! I don’t have very specific questions, other than if what outlined here is reasonable?

[conning]

This is very much a down the line kind of thing (8-9 months, I would guess), but Neal at some point is going to try and break in to some of the more restricted areas of the ADI to see what can be seen. His whole thing is theft and less-than-legal entry to places--world renowned cat burglar blah blah blah whatever. I don't know if he'll try to pull together a crew for this or not, because I don't know what information he'll be able to gather about the restricted areas, what's in them, and what their security is like, but I figured I would ask first if something like this is even possible or if it would 99% likely end up with Neal jailed somewhere oops.

[cacophonish]

Just a handful of questions for my problem child, which seemed better suited for here than the FAQ since they could develop into a player plot.

1. MADDENING MUSIC. One of Jeff's goals is to get some regular music gigs, either by joining a townie band or by going at it as a solo singer-songwriter. He would use this as an opportunity to feed the Spiral here and there (not so regularly as to be totally obvious as the cause for the audience, at times, going WIIIIIILD, and he'd try to be subtle enough to have plausible deniability).

As ordinary folk, would his bandmates constantly meet unfortunate ends? Or would the fact that they'd be (unwittingly) serving the Spiral kind of keep them around and kicking longer? Would he even be able to find a place to regularly gig at, or would the, like, manager just get eaten by a monster.

2. MAGICAL PROGRESSION. Since magic is kind of fluid in his world, and only limited by the individual user's talent + their ability/desire to crack the magical code for whatever they're trying to do, would it be possible for Jeff to work on some new spells over time? I figure anything he learns would be influenced by the Spiral, but wasn't sure what all of the factors would be (if this is possible at all). Basically, he wants to work on upgrading his goofy FUN LIGHT SHOWS spell into actual illusions. Because what could possibly go wrong?

3. SUSPICION & CONSEQUENCES! Would this stuff plus his past issues following directions and getting obsessive over the mirrors AND occasionally mind whammying people while busking land him on the ADI's radar as a Potential Problem, or would he wind up attracting the attention of an Avatar in some way? I'm down for any consequences (I mean, short of straight up killing him and taking him out of play), especially since it's looking pretty likely he'll fall into the Avatar path before long, so mostly I'm just trying to figure out the timeline from here and what it might entail / how to fold it into upcoming events, etc.

I think that's all the questions I had, I'm sorry for this terrible bard

[chainreactions]

Hello Mods!

I'm thinking about having Kurapika use the Dowsing Chain on ADI personnel or ADI-related people. The way he'd do it is that he would record video and then use Dowsing Chain later, with the use of Emperor Time. Would it be possible? He'd focus on Nia, Reyes and Neil in ADI, and for other NPCs, Bonnie and The Visionary.

Thank you in advance!

[earthshine]

Player Name(s): Terra
Character(s) Involved: Takashi Shirogane
Dates: No specific date I guess? Just whenever/if this is approved.

Plot Type: PERSONAL ( aligning with an entity and acquiring a power )
Plot Summary:
Entity: The Flesh
Gained powers: Selective Intangibility ( if this is okay ofc ).
Choices: Shiro was a customer at Packer’s Cut and had a special appetizer brought to him by a particularly attentive server. Shiro didn’t notice anything amiss and thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Basically, Shiro encountered a manifestation of The Flesh and was marked without realizing it.
Manifestation: He’ll feel compelled to nitpick the physical attributes of other people, both by picking up on what others are self-conscious about and by simply pointing things out without his usual tact. His powers will manifest into small things at first ( phasing through inanimate objects for a short period of time ) and ultimately, with regular feedings, will lead to being able to phase through people, such as invoking further fear in his victims by reaching inside them and prodding at their organs.
This power will also further shiro’s own dissociation with his body, a feeling that his cursed galra arm has already exaggerated.
Questions: I don’t think so.

[twicelost]

Hi there. I have had some thoughts that might maybe possibly become a player plot and/or impact the setting, idk.

So, Katrina here is a mermaid. And after a while, she'll want to swim in the ocean. (Canon is kind of... weird about this. Too long out of the water and a siren loses the ability to assume their siren firm. But there's no indication they get sick from it. It also semes like it takes a long, long time for that effect to happen, so I'm just... going with years.) Ocean water triggers the transformation - but in game, it won't happen because

If she goes into the water off Gloucester and transforms, she will explore a lot and hunt. If she encounters mermaids... well, what would happen? Will they just fight her off? (I'm assuming they're even more hostile than the ones from Katrina's world, pls correct me if I'm wrong.) Would this somehow pose risks to land?

I'm thinking it might be interesting for Katrina's fear of losing her birthright (siren form/the ocean/etc) to push her to try and transform in game. Idk, maybe it works as just a character arc, having her get really angry about until she breaks something. But I think that it's not out of left field for her to like... lose her sense of cooperation out of impatience? The game has a fixed run, so I don't see this being a repeat occurrence. But also, it might have consequences if she does decide to go for a mermaid swim.

That all felt a lot more coherent in my head lol my apologies. In short: Katrina will probably want to mermaid. If she succeeds, how bad will the cost be, and would it affect more than just her/the local mermaids? Thank you!

[aelwyn_aberration]

Player Name(s): Kai
Character(s) Involved: Aelwyn Abernant, Bucky Barnes / Winter, Stephen Strange, Beauregard Lionett, TBA
Dates: Some time in march at the latest, probably.

Plot Type: GROUP
Plot Summary: The Extra-Judicial Execution of Fenix Down. Aelwyn and Stephen were tasked a few months ago to come up with a plan to elimenate Fenix Down without connecting it to ADI. The plan that she has in mind is to create a false culprit and motive in the form of a made up criminal organization called "The Shadowcats" that would pose as a dark-aligned cult, and would kidnap Fenix, kill him, and then stage his murder in a very specific and practiced fashion. But that's subject to change as they discuss it amongst themselves.
Questions:
- Would Aelwyn be able to get in direct contact with Nia during the planning stages of this and would she agree to this plan?
- During this player plot, would it be possible for Aelwyn to take a desolation aligned artifact like a Leitner style book from Fenix Down or his circus that she could study and learn a process on ritualistically becoming an avatar at a later date?

[apocalypsehowmods]

Answers:
1. Nia will be back in town next month for a brief time, so yes! Aelwyn will be able to get in touch with her. She would agree to this plan with the caveat that they squeeze Fenix for whatever information they can before killing him and they bring along one of the seasoned, native ADI operatives. This will be a man named Austin who will be appearing in the next TDM. He will provide general logistic support to make sure no one gets left behind and no one is using magic (folks can slip things past him, but he's not going to make that easy). She will want to hear how they plan to actually do the killing, as well. Nia will go with whatever the PCs' plan is for that piece. From an OOC-perspective, the mods have privately identified a few ways in which Fenix could feasibly be killed in a permanent way. Please be aware, depending on the method your characters ICly choose, this may result in only a temporary death for Fenix. He is definitely killable, just difficult, given his nature as a powerful acolyte of the Desolation.

2. There wouldn't be any books with that particular content available to take; however, Aelwyn could pick up another Desolation-aligned object or even a book (just not one that's going to be a how-to guide) that could pull her closer to the Desolation and propel her into becoming an avatar. A couple ideas off the tops of our heads as a starting point (feel free to use these or propose something else):

- An old children's book called I Am Fire. Reading it induces a tingling, then burning feeling across one's body. It is excruciatingly painful if one reads all the way to the end, feeling like your joints are actively on fire. However… if one were to experiment in reading this book TO others, they would quickly find that the pain and burning effects can be passed on to someone else.
- A mason jar labeled 'Important Things.' There is nothing inside the jar, but anything put there seems to vanish as soon as the cover is put on. The owner of the item that has been destroyed will feel a physical and emotional pang of loss commensurate with the personal value of the object that's been burned. The person who has destroyed the object will feel a burst of pleasure to a similar degree as the pain.

Notes and Questions from the Mods
3. We are onboard with your timeline. We have another player plot that's going to be happening at the end of February, so we'd prefer either early in February or later in March to give both groups appropriate spotlight for what they're doing. Please let us know which you'd prefer!

4. If you want the group to ask Nia or Austin any specific questions, please get together a list, and we'll answer them like we did for Kurapika's questions plot. You may ask unlimited questions for Nia and Austin. For Fenix, the number of questions will be limited to the number of characters engaged in the kidnapping plot. At the moment, they would get four solid questions.

5. Fenix is a powerful avatar surrounded by other powerful avatars. We'd like to see at least some measure of negative consequences for one or more of the group involved in this. Not everyone has to personally suffer something, but it will be impossible for the entire group to get away scot-free. Some potential options include:

- Burns (1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree are all options) - All troupe members can inflict these
- Chronic pain (it would be up to the player the specific location and nature/degree of what this is, but it should be something that would present a potential disruption to their life/activities they enjoy) - Fenix can inflict this
- Temporary (or permanent) vision or hearing loss - Roderick and Penny can inflict these if they're engaged.
- Capture and torture (and eventual release as a potential trade for Fenix) by one of the other avatars in Fenix's troupe.

[wolfssegen]

Ches has been hunting people - first he would stalk them in human form to get enough power to be able to change into a wolf, and since then he's been stalking and hunting people in parks or the woods whenever he can find them. So far, he hasn't been actually allowing himself to catch anyone.

I'm very vaguely (at this point) considering steering him in the direction of becoming an Avatar of the Hunt eventually, because he loves being a werewolf so much that he probably can't live without it at this point. I was just wondering what would be involved with that and what the consequences would be.

[apocalypsehowmods]

It sounds as though Ches is already on the slippery slope path to Hunt Avatarhood, and we'd be happy to help facilitate his fall to the dark side. In order to become a full Avatar, a character must make the conscious choice to serve an Entity. Sometimes the choice may not seem like much of a choice at all (such as in the case of a character who is forced to choose between becoming an Avatar versus dying), but we would like to see a key defining moment in which Ches actively chooses to serve the Hunt. This could take a variety of forms, the most common of which would be things like taking a life, terrorizing a lot of people all at once, or allowing the Entity to bring him back from the brink of death.

Regarding consequences:

Metaphysically, tying himself to the Hunt as an Avatar would mean that Ches would face much stronger compulsions to feed the Hunt, and would suffer physical deterioration and/or mental instability during any periods in which he chose not to do so. An in-game example would be the NPC known as the Visionary, who chooses not to feed his Patron and who is physically weak, mentally foggy, and eternally hungry as a result. However, should Ches feed the Hunt after becoming an Avatar, he would have consistent access to his powers rather than the conditional access he currently experiences.

Socially, becoming an Avatar could lead to a target being painted on his back, depending on how well Ches hides his new status and whether he's known to be feeding the Hunt. ADI is in the business of taking down Avatars and will have little sympathy or mercy if they discover he is harming people to feed an Entity. We want you to be aware that if ADI comes to view Ches as a threat, he may become unplayable due to the NPCs actively attempting to murder him. We're happy to facilitate any variety of player plots from clandestine Avatars to crash-and-burn violence; we just want you to be aware of those potential consequences so you can make plans according to whether you prefer for him to "get away" with being an Avatar versus going out in a blaze of unholy glory. He may be able to keep his Avatarhood under wraps at least for a time if he continues to do smaller feedings and/or focus his efforts on ADI's enemies (e.g. other Avatars).

Please let us know if you have any additional questions! Once you have an idea of when and how you would like Ches to become an avatar, you can contact us again via this page to get your player plot on the calendar and make sure it's incorporated into the larger game plot.

[failedpromise]

Well, Cortana was going to try to see what she could manage to break into, but while she's still interested, the lack of proper cybersecurity among her fellow interdimensional coworkers seems a much more pressing concern. Cybersecurity lessons are one thing she'd propose, but she's also going to want to see about convincing ADI to add multi factor identification to user accounts (ie, setting it up so if they try to log in on a device other than their phone they get sent a code they have to enter in addition to their password, or requiring voice or face identification, something like that) since people don't understand they need to keep their passwords a secret.

She may outline a hypothetical scenario involving people aligned with the entities hijacking accounts and sending links to malicious websites or downloads of malicious software to people while pretending to be a friend as an argument for why this is necessary.

Who would she need to contact about this stuff? Would she be able to set up mandatory security classes? What about the multi factor identification?

[apocalypsehowmods]

Apologies for the delay! For your proposal:

1. This is all eminently possible. Her best route to get this done will be going through the network administrator, Pam Ruan, in HR. Pam is, notably, missing a hand, but seems to have a very fancy prosthetic that she's still clearly getting used to. The outlined scenario will cause her to look absolutely stricken and very close to tears before she pulls herself together and agrees that all of that sounds necessary. VITALLY necessary. The only reason they hadn't had it before was the challenge in training people from other times and other worlds how this sort of thing works. They'd disconnected the network from the rest of ADI's systems specifically because they knew there were weaknesses in it. But more is better. MORE IS BETTER.

2. They will implement mandatory cybersecurity classes (we'll note this in the State of the Game, update our arrivals info, and include a prompt related to them in our next TDM to give you a good start), and they would ask that Cortana take on the role of instructor along with any other volunteers she can recruit for it.

[cuttypie]

cw: mentions of addiction and related themes, blood, infection, body horror, body dysmorphia

Player Name(s): Indy
Character(s) Involved: Luka Kovač, Ade Bennett
Dates: 3 months, starting from May - July

Plot Type: PAIR

Plot Summary:

This conversation has made both Luka and Ade realize that they might possibly have a way to help people use the healing abilities of a c'nataat dose with the least amount of feeding an entity possible. They talk about possibly knocking patients out so that they won't have to feel the worst of the fear effects of a c'nataat infection. (Will it work, well, they're trying anyway.) Luka thinks that he will be able to pay the 'price' of fear to use Ade's abilities, so they come up with a plan that Luka can get a dose of c'nataat and suffer the fear effects while Ade donates blood to fuel his abilities.

Sounds like an easy plan, right? Right.

Month One: So this may go pretty well for the first month (May). It seems as if the c'nataat in blood stores last for about a month before they go bad (regular blood is six weeks) so they figure they'll have to do this on a monthly basis. Ade donates, Luka gets a small dose, suffers the effects, everyone is happy. Luka starts to get a little ahead of himself here and maybe uses one too many doses on people than he should. But everything is fine. It's fine, right? The Stranger notices them at this point.

Month Two: The second time Luka doses to fuel Ade, it doesn't go so well. He's not experiencing the same fear to fuel him (the Stranger is involved.) He asks for a second dose and because it takes more to fuel the fear, the mutations and percieved body horror are more intense to scare Luka. It's fine because it works and it's scary, so Luka just deals with it. Things start to slowly spiral out of control as he starts to sneak doses for himself, wanting to keep himself topped up so that he can just draw from his own veins to save patients, it's faster this way, up to the point of a whole unit of blood at this time, which starts to go through the supplies. The Stranger definitely notices.

Potential powers from alignment: Luka ends up saving a patient out in the field but doesn't have time to put them under so they have to experience the fears. But they don't--the fear passes to Luka instead, he experiences it for them. They're able to get the benefits but Luka pays the price. He tries it again on another patient later on, and it has the same effect--he can be a fear repository, drawing the fears from people and taking them on for himself.

But!

What he doesn't realize is that the side-effects of this is that he starts to look like other people briefly, in an uncanny way. They look at him and for a brief moment he's someone else, looking terrified, and the next...it's just him. And in other cases, he starts to look like their worst fears. An enemy, the person they're most afraid of, slenderman, a shadow...

The Stranger gets to feed off the fears Luka has stolen from them--they're not afraid of the dark anymore, but now they're terrified of the uncanny thing they see, which feeds the Stranger.

Month Three: Luka is outright dosing nearly as much as he can at this point, thinking he can basically save anyone and everyone that gets hurt. He takes a unit of blood at a time, giving him accelerated healing (and the ability to pass on the accelerated healing to others) for a few hours to a day. Between the c'nataat mutations and looking pretty much like an alien, plus the effects of being a fear-repository means he probably can't leave ADI at this point. He doesn't care, he's completely addicted and focused on saving people even if they're not actively dying, wasting so many doses and not realizing what he's doing to himself, the people around him. Ade will cut him off at this point and the c'nataat mutations will fade, but he will be left with fear-repository ability and side-effects. If he goes out into the non-ADI world again he can still appear as himself, but the effects will be difficult to control. He will accidentally take on fear--or simply be inspired to if some entity shenanigans happen.

Some side-effects that could happen are the effects are actively physical and can last longer than a blink depending on the severity of the situation. He genuinely is another person/slenderman/weeping angel for a brief period of time, and taking on their fear means he feels every bit of it himself, which is of course detrimental to his psyche. The effects can last a longer time the bigger dose of fear he gets. He will start to feel like he's not himself, coupled with all the effects from the c'nataat doses where he'll feel like an alien, and start to actively fear losing himself and his identity, and being replaceable.

Potential problems: Luka will do his best to keep this all under the radar and away from ADI getting involved because he doesn't trust them and what they did to Katie Dunn. If he's questioned why he's looking like an alien so much, he will lie to try and avoid any confrontation, say he's suffering from some kind of ailment and needs the healing effects of the c'nataat, etc, up to the point of faking medical records for it. Besides, he's a doctor, he knows what he's talking about, right? ...

Questions:
Thank you and totally up for any changes or suggestions on how to make this even more disastrous or anything that will need to be fixed!

[apocalypsehowmods]

Thank you so much for reaching out to us on this! We wanted to go over a few considerations and questions with you before fully approving this plot.

1. ADI is only interested in using supernatural healing abilities if someone is dying when they arrive in Gloucester. Otherwise, they are vehemently anti-supernatural healing because, as with everything supernatural, there is a price to it. The experiments with Ade's blood that they might approve would be limited to animals to test if his infection is something that can spread to others. Beyond that, they're not interested in pursuing any sort of medical advances or advantage with Ade's blood. All that being said! We just want to check if Luka and Ade are planning to keep all of this on the DL, or if they're going to try to seek ADI's permission first. If they try to seek ADI's permission, they will be told no and be under much heavier scrutiny, particularly Ade. If they start out doing this quietly, they would be under less initial scrutiny. Luka's going to need to find some alternative place to store any of Ade's blood outside of ADI's medical unit if it's being collected at volume. (Would Luka's roommates like a blood freezer?) He's also going to need to disguise that he's using it. If it's for non-life threatening/minor injuries, they're going to be a lot less attentive to what he's doing than if Luka's out here healing someone who was stabbed in the lung.

2. On that note, less fear = less power. The more the boys try to limit how much fear they're generating, the less effective the healing properties of Ade's blood are going to be. They're free to discover this in the worst way possible, if you so desire! Trying to heal someone and finding out that it doesn't actually work for the full healing for a more serious injury unless there's a significant amount of fear.

3. This timeline works for us, but we just want to make sure you're aware that the team is going to be on a field mission from mid-May through June. There may be less scrutiny on what they're doing as personnel will be occupied, and there are going to be bigger fish for them to fry. There may also be more opportunity for healing as this is going to be a very dangerous mission.

4. Regarding healing and Luka's own blood being the vessel for c'nataat, we'd like to see the proposal tweaked a bit. Given the general theme of 'no good deed goes unpunished' in the Apocalypse How universe, Luka attempting to use his own injected blood for healing is going to have severely diminishing returns until Luka starts scaring people, himself. Essentially, at the point that Luka is the source of the blood, rather than Ade, Luka will need to induce fear in others, not himself, to get any healing power out of the blood. Becoming a fear repository will work to a point when he's working with Ade's oversight, but once it crosses over to Luka trying to do all of this himself, he's going to need to start scaring his patients/someone else, to get the healing to work. Because it's no longer Ade really doing anything. It's all on Luka. And there has to be intention to receive any benefit from the fear. Ade is free to notice after a certain point that he's feeling weaker and hungrier, like the whole situation he's set up with Luka isn't working anymore, or something's changed.

5. We would strongly recommend for the sake of long-term playability that Luka's mutations be kept very much on the downlow. If he goes full alien monster where ADI can see it, they will be inclined to lock Luka up and force him to go cold turkey on the blood or simply kill him. Ade may suffer a similar fate, if they find out that he was on board with this and not just a victim. It's possible that Luka could be running healing services out of Bonnie's Flophouse if he decides to move in there. She will not ask questions about what he's doing or why he might look… Stranger.

6. We'd like to clarify if you're intending to have Luka become a full-fledged avatar or just be Entity-aligned with the Stranger? Could you let us know?

7. In general, the powers you've outlined are just fine for either! The strength of them will just be lesser/greater depending on Entity-aligned vs. Avatar status.

[graveyounglady]

Player Name(s): Terri
Character(s) Involved: Mercy and anyone she can rope into it.
Dates: July-October

Plot Type: Group
Plot Summary: Mercy would like to make a concerted effort to fix up Bonnie's flophouse. After seeing what the group can do in restoring a home for people in Wolf Pen, she is more focused than ever on getting the flophouse up to standards that would make people want to live there, rather than under ADI's complete thumb, even if she trusts them for the most part. All supplies for the repair will be paid for by Mercy and anyone else she can wrangle into helping her. The labor to complete the repairs will be similarly provided by the PCs. Work will be performed whenever there are off hours from work and when things aren't going horribly wrong.

July - Roof and exterior repairs. This month will be dedicated to getting the exterior of the building including its roof, walls, and windows repaired or replaced. The goal is to make sure the flophouse is no longer a leaky mess whenever it rains and to set up something that will prevent flooding into the basement.

August - Plumbing repairs. This month will see replacement of old pipes, unclogging of drains, and general fixes to prevent the plumbing from causing additional flooding or water damage to the building. They will be working to improve insulation for the pipes, as well, to prevent freezing and future damage.

September - Electrical repairs. This month will involve hardening the electrical system in the building, and making it more energy efficient. If it's possible and depending on which characters get involved, this might involve installing a back-up generator for the building to make sure everything stays up and running if city power gets cut.

October - Interior repairs. This will be the final month, dedicated to improving insulation within the house, sorting out squeaky or crooked doors/cabinets, and generally repairing any sort of damage that's been done. A lot more carpentry and masonry will probably come into play here.

Questions:
1. Is this a feasible timeline?
2. Would Bonnie object to any of these efforts?

[apocalypsehowmods]

Hello! Thank you for putting this together.

1. As described, this player plot and its timeline are reasonable and can go forward.

2. Bonnie will initially be surprised by the offer coming from someone who does not live in the Flophouse, but Mercy will be able to convince Bonnie of her goodwill. Bonnie will assist with the repairs as she's able...and keep an eye on the volunteers. She won't say outright that she's concerned ADI might have sent them to keep tabs on those who have chosen not to live in corporate housing (particularly the Visionary), but it will be possible for involved characters to put those pieces together.

Please remind players involved in the plot to take expenses into account as well as characters' time commitments; their characters may not have as much spending money during this period if they are contributing to the project by buying tools and materials.

[failedpromise]

You know how most people could live without their powers/entity connections but seem intent on keeping and using them anyway? Well, Cortana's got the opposite problem: she's not entirely sure whether she can even be sustained by conventional technology anymore, but she wants to try find a way so that she can disconnect herself from the Eye and its influence as much as possible.

Fuck this shit, she wants out.

In the interest of doing so, she's going to start talking to her fellow IT peeps and researchers about the connections between entities and advanced tech and just what is available without entity influence.

Eventually, if it seems like it might be possible, she may reach out to higher ups at ADI-whoever seems most able to help her-about this plan.

Would this actually work/is there anything she can learn/would ADI even want to help her? She'd be willing to go as far as blind herself to completely sever her ties to the Eye (provided she learns that that is a thing a person can do) as long as she had reasonable assurance that she wouldn't go rampant or immediately die.

...OOCly, I don't actually care whether or not she finds a way to make this work or it simply turns out to be impossible: both her current level of abilities and the limitations that would likely come with a separation from the Eye would be interesting to play with. I'm also cool with her losing her hologram form and being confined to a robotic body (or even just a computer system, though that may make playing her difficult) loss of most or all of her abilities, etc. Really, this is more about Cortana coming to the realization that she has been manipulated by an omniscient eldritch asshole to a far greater extent than she thought and that she does not want to be used by any other omniscient eldritch assholes of any sort, ever, than what actually results from that realization.

[apocalypsehowmods]

We think this sounds like a great plot! A couple of notes:

1. What you're requesting with Cortana severing herself from the Eye via inserting herself into a robotic body is possible. ADI would be in favor of assisting her with this endeavor if it means throwing the finger at the Eye.

2. Removing her ability to see would not be necessary. What we would consider a sufficient 'sacrifice' in this instance is Cortana giving up her 'superhuman' connection to technology and becoming as close to 'baseline human' as a robot can be. She would find herself processing information at a much slower (human) rate, would need to relearn her hacking to do it manually instead of via some kind of neural link, and she'd likely have some challenges, initially, maneuvering her new form. It can take whatever look you would like, whether that means that Cortana is now a roomba with arms and a knife or something more like a humanoid android.

3. You're more than welcome to reach out to other players to facilitate this plot, as well as relying on NPCs to help with acquiring base materials they might need. Please just let other players know that it's a robot sans any bells and whistles that needs to be created to fully sever the connection. They can discover this as they go along, if you'd like to pursue that angle. Like, Cortana gets a shiny model that has extra features, like built-in weapons/fancy uplink abilities, and discovers that still isn't enough to sever her. She'll find that as she takes the fancy things away from the new form, the sense of connection to the Eye will diminish more and more until it's gone.

4. We'd like to request a general timeline for this plot. It will likely take her and other characters at least a couple of months to build the new body and test it.

[friendsfordinner]

Player Name(s): Kates
Character(s) Involved: Cornelius Hickey
Dates: whenever!

Plot Type: PERSONAL (aligning with an entity & gaining a power)
Plot Summary: After spending literally three months chasing down literally every lead he can find and shaking down every supernatural entity he can get his hands on (to the point where he outright bothered an Avatar), the Hunt is realizing that this stubborn little bastard is a good fit and is claiming Hickey. Also, he got outright mauled by one of the White Things back in Wolf Pen.

POWER: Enhanced senses.

MANIFESTATION: Hickey's drive to chase down every lead he can find will be compounded, especially now that he's a much better tracker due to his power. It's not an Eye sort of 'I have to know what's causing this'. Knowing doesn't matter, what matters is finding the thing yourself, tracking it down, and getting what you want. Obviously there's a big ol'metaplot way for him to feed his Entity as it aligns super well with what ADI wants, but he could also feed the Hunt in smaller ways. If someone got mugged, finding the mugger would work (and then knifing said mugger in the back because it's Hickey).

Questions: none!

[apocalypsehowmods]

Hey, there! This all sounds good to us. We typically like to see some kind of specific inciting incident that will properly kick in Hickey's powers. Is there anything you have in mind for that? It doesn't need to be a big player plot (though, it can be, and this month would be great for something like that). It could be something as simple as Hickey and another character doing something in Dogtown or around Gloucester that has him inducing fear and suddenly realizing those burgeoning powers. There will also be an opportunity with next month's event to facilitate this. We can provide more detail as we head into October if that's of interest!

Helping Hands (George and Co.)

[apocalypsehowmods]

Bringing this over from the Mod Contact for Linds.

Due to George's efforts to stand up to Greta Thomas and the people who want an ordinance outlawing sleeping on public property, the people at Helping Hands and the people they help would be targeted by supernatural forces in the form of eye-based graffiti that would enhance paranoia and distrust in buildings it's painted on and various cursed objects left near those people for them to find and suffer to. George and co. would, of course, be welcome to try to find and remove/destroy the things causing problems and help those afflicted. The cursed objects are something we'd love to collab on for brainstorming. We have a few ideas, but would love to hear the group's. As an example:

X-ray Ring (mod suggestion): A ring that looks like it has an eye on the top of it where a gem would be set. Putting it on grants the wearer X-ray vision, but in the process, it inflicts increasing levels of pain on the eyes over the course of several days up to the point that even opening the eyes becomes excruciating. The ring cannot be removed once put on. The only way to get rid of it is to sever the finger it's on.

Glass Evil Eye Pendants (Linds suggestion) - Attract bad luck and negative interactions to any carrying them or who have them displayed in their office or homes.

Hallucination Glasses (Linds suggestion) - Supposedly from a charity for people who can't afford eye wear, they cause progressively worsening vision with hallucinations of terrible creatures just at the corners of the eyes. Taking them off stops the hallucinations, but the vision degradation is permanent.

We would ideally have this plot culminate in George and co tracking down the culprits causing these problems in December when we have a particular event planned.

Players are welcome to brainstorm additional cursed items and ideas for this and propose actions they might like to take to track the culprits. This plot will play out over several months purely for metaplot and event-spacing reasons, so please take that into consideration when identifying specific things your characters would or could do. We might chime in to suggest a particular idea take place later in the course of the plot or ways to make it work so that it's not an insta-solution. Players are also welcome to play out their efforts and run any afflicted NPCs, themselves.

So Many Questions

[conning]

I'm both sorry and not. OKAY, HAVING DONE ALL MY CATCHING UP HOMEWORK YESTERDAY, I wanted to pose some queries to the good moderators.

1) While I haven't been as dutiful as I wish I could have been, Neal definitely would have been fostering connections to people in the community who are aware of the supernatural. If he brought Lucky the occasional unsanctioned bit or bob he found in the course of his duties (some legitimately supernatural, some not), would he be able to exchange those items for information, favors, etc? He wouldn't have taken Lucky anything outright dangerous. In the same vein, while working on improvements at Bonnie's over the last few months, would it be fair to say that Neal has gotten to know her a little bit? How avoidant is the Visionary of strangers? Neal would also have checked in on Khalil periodically, bringing him small baked goods/etc and just generally seeing how he was doing--both out of simple human concern and because he knows a good potential resource when he sees one. He would have been more formal and professional with Simone, but would have done favors for Sable if asked (and they weren't unreasonable.) He also would have made friendly contact with Rae after she got transferred to Gloucester. How open would she be to occasional conversation/coffee/etc? ((All of this is relevant to forthcoming questions I swear.))

2) During the August event, could Neal have been snagged by any of the ADI security cameras, either interior or exterior? What might he have seen that ADI officials would not have wanted him to see?

3) What might the Dogtown victims share with a willing and sympathetic listener? Neal is canonically good with young people and good at getting people in general to talk. Would there be any details from victims that weren't readily available in the prompts? Who else might he speak to and get further information? Medical professionals/hospital staff? Student counselors under the auspices of student safety investigation? Shady police? Lucky or Khalil? Were there any homeless victims? Neal hasn't had much direct contact with them thanks to the risks posed by the supernatural, but he has been leaving food and supplies out in safe areas whenever he can.

4) Can he steal a Barbie. Is there one in Gloucester or nearby. IS IT SHADY.

5) Would he be able to go to California to get his peepers on that Escher? He's an Art Guy and is wildly curious, separate even from his ADI duties.

6) If he went clubbing to try and spy a firebug or similar supernatural shenanigans, would he come across anything suspicious?

7) LAST ONE: He finds Zyrian very sus. What might come from him reaching out to Cindy (through a burner phone acquired outside of ADI) about their local activities in Wolf Pen? Would he be able to turn up any information about Zyrian that's not readily available in the prompts, if he were to investigate without using ADI resources?

THANK YOU I APPRECIATE YOU VERY MUCH.

[apocalypsehowmods]

1) Neal bringing Lucky unsanctioned bits and bobs is possible. We want to warn that this WILL result in negative consequences for this NPC and potentially others because of Neal's actions, though. We want to verify you're okay with that before you proceed with that as an idea.

Bonnie is available as an NPC for anyone to be friendly with, so this is very possible! She doesn't really have any information about ADI since she tries to stay out of their business. Most of her information is about how to help people in need in the city and odd jobs that might be available.

The Visionary is extremely avoidant. Neal probably would have been able to corner her for one or two conversations, but they're not looking to make friends after they've fed on two off-world arrivals.

The proposed efforts with Kahlil would be fine, and he'd be appreciative of the kindness.

Sable would just have a few different jobs around the dock, and Neal would be paid for them. She will not take 'just a favor' as an answer. She's outwardly friendly, but it's very clearly a veneer. She's much too shrewd and paranoid to let herself be put into Neal's debt in any capacity.

Rae is a busy person, but she'd assent to the occasional drink given Neal's good impression on her. However, she would stipulate that she'll only attend group meet-ups for employees, not one-on-one with Neal. She would view private time with him as inappropriate when she's partially his manager now.

2) Any info in the prompt would be available for him to have seen. Mainly Reyes' actions with cursed hooks into birds and Neil Grace's lunchtime missions to a mysterious building. Beyond that, if he was picked up by an internal camera, he might have spotted that Avery Silvers (they/them), Head of IT, plays competitive Mahjong online during office hours and clearly has a gambling habit.

3) Could you let us know what you're hoping for Neal to learn here? We're a little uncertain what direction you're trying to take with this, and it would help us to know what your ultimate end goal is/what success looks like!

4) There does, in fact, happen to be a Barbie in one of the nearby toy shops. Neal can steal it like a MONSTER and deprive some child of their dream toy. Congrats, Neal, you are now the proud owner of a completely ordinary, life-sized Barbie doll!

5) Please hold onto the thought here! ADI wouldn't trust Neal enough to fly him across country when they have other resources in the area to draw on. We are aware of several players' interest in this particular thread and will bring it more to the fore for all players in future events.

6) We answered a similar question over here very recently! We would suggest combining forces with our Steve player to pursue this.

7) We can get back to you on this a little bit later on. Given the number of threads/ideas being pursued, we'd like to throttle information just a bit to make it fair for other players who might want to pursue different threads/leads. If no one has picked at Zyrian Steel as a lead come mid-November, we can provide some more intel for you.

[canofmanji]

Player Name(s): Zig-zag
Character(s) Involved: Manji
Dates: No set date

Plot Type: PERSONAL
Plot Summary: Not sure if this is a 'plot', but I thought I should let the mods know of something Manji is going to want to eventually do. (CW: Mention of worms/missing body parts/elements of body horror) Basically; Manji is going to be on the look out to replace his missing arm. In canon he can literally pick up any body part, hold it up to a cut he has, and after a few minutes the limb will be attached thanks to the worms that keep him immortal.

Now he won't be killing or maiming just anyone for this. More-- if something convenient comes up. It would need to be someone he thinks will be roughly the right body size for him dies or has their arm cut off near him. He's aware that if he suddenly shows up to work with two arms instead of one this might upset ADI, but he also doesn't care because having two arms is nifty.

I'm not sure if he'll ever get this chance, but I thought I should let the mods know. As depending on how creepy he finds certain Avatars... he might not have a problem taking their arm either. (Dependent on Mod approval.)

Questions: Just a general; is this okay? If I do think the stars align and there happens to be an arm Manji would want to take I'd probably send the mod team a PM with the thread in question to re-ask if that particular arm is okay to take or not. If you have any questions for me then please ask!

[apocalypsehowmods]

After having a discussion about this, we're ruling that we'll allow it. However, given the arm is magically attached, it would need to be maintained via fear. Otherwise, it will simply rot and fall off within a week. ADI's response to this will be zero-tolerance, though. If they find he's done this, they'll quarantine him until the arm falls off and then try to work with him on getting a prosthetic arm, instead. If Manji tries it again, they will treat it as him going down the avatar path and take a much more lethal approach to dealing with him.

[conning]

Player Name(s): Jae, Indy
Character(s) Involved: Neal Caffrey, Luka Kovac
Dates: Now/as part of the dream event oops

Plot Type: Personal/Pair(?)
Plot Summary: Neal is going to encounter and fall into alignment with the Lonely in the course of being terrorized by Luka in the dreamscape. The alignment would manifest as potential accidental use of Lonely-aligned abilities to defend himself against Luka's attempts to manipulate the lucid dream to scare Neal.

Potential ability ideas:
- empathy for negative emotions
- temporary emotional manipulation
- the ability to manifest illusions based on sensed social anxieties
- temporary memory manipulation
- the ability to generate intrusive thoughts

I'd like for the negative-emotion-empathy to be something that comes on and off outside of his control, a kind of passive ability that fatigues him when it arises unless he feeds his Entity. OOCly, of course, it would only happen with consent of the players in the thread. The other abilities would have to be deliberately used, and would all be temporary and depend on player consent/player desire in terms of duration, power, et cetera, and would require proportionate feeding of the Entity for use. The emotional manipulation would come easier when the emotions being manifested are negative, but if a positive emotion is pushed on someone, the come-down from it would be emotionally as severe as physical withdrawal from a narcotic.

[apocalypsehowmods]

Thank you for your patience. Overall, we like the general idea of this! There are rather a lot of proposed abilities for a native alignment, rather than full avatarhood. We'd ask that you choose a maximum of three from your proposed list. In addition, a lot of the powers you've proposed seem to lean more toward Eye/Spiral. We'd request that you just keep in mind the Lonely flavor when applying any of these.

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

cw: mild body horror, mind manipulation

Player Name(s): Indy
Character(s) Involved: John Sheppard
Dates: Dec 1

Plot Type: PERSONAL
Plot Summary: Entity Alignment! John has been attracted to the Hunt from the dream event, and actively used the dream to hunt down other characters, so the Hunt has taken notice of John. The November event has also activated a bit of the Hunt within John due to the vampirism-like effects of the salt. At the beginning of December, John will experience a dream in which he will come face to face with a version of himself—what the Hunt wants him to be. Something that can protect people (like Rodney), something that can keep him safe in a world where the supernatural is real. Except this thing isn’t quite human, more beast and monster than anything else. The Hunt will offer this ability(s) to him. John has no problem with accepting something that could be dangerous but gives him an advantage over the enemy (even if it’s an enemy). John’s biggest fear is being afraid of himself and what he can do, too, so he himself would be a source of fear to the Hunt. Once he accepts, he’ll wake up aligned and with the following abilities (if approved!), that will create a sort of ‘hunting persona/alter-ego’ (but is it really an alter-ego or his true inner self come to light?):

1. Physiology that will make him a better hunter: Faster, stronger, more agile—not to the point of Superman levels but basically let’s say twice the amount of normal human ability. (If these count as each individual powers and I can only choose enhancement, it’ll be strength.)
2. Retractable claws: Small, cat-like retractable claws in his fingers and toes that allow him to climb and attack stealthily.
3ish more of a curse than a power: Hunting and animal instincts: The near-insatiable urge to hunt something that catches his attention, mostly in a physical sense such as some poor jogger running in his periphery, but can be applied to more complex subjects. This can become a problem, making it difficult to focus at times or for him to become obsessed with a target. Good luck with laser pointers, buddy. This ties into John’s fear of being dangerous, and he’s experienced succumbing to instincts before (when he was a bug, because that just happens in Atlantis) so there’s an extra snacc for the Hunt as well. Purring at Rodney might happen.

These abilities will only show up once he’s properly caused fear, and fade within the hour. However the more fear caused, the longer his hunting persona lasts. This can take 24-48 hours for the effects to fade. Theoretically if he has a constant source of fear to draw on he could remain in hunting persona indefinitely, but this has a deteriorating effect on his mind and causes him to be more violent in his hunting.

Questions: Open to any suggestions to make John’s life more miserable!

[apocalypsehowmods]

This timeline and info generally looks good for us. A couple of notes:

1. John can have all of the noted enhancements if they're kept to the extreme of human capability. If they're going to truly superhuman levels, we'd request that you pick one, rather than all three. Please let us know either way!

2. We just wanted to put in a gentle reminder that ADI will take notice and act with potentially lethal force if John is chasing after every jogger he sees. John would essentially get one strike and then they would consider him more of a problem than he's worth. Just something to keep in mind in terms of him ICly having motivation to keep things under wraps!

Questions - cw: blood, gun violence

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask but it has the potential for branching out into a player plot! :)

1. Are there any bullet casings from the bullets from square S2 in Dogtown? Or bullet fragments lodged in trees, the ground, etc? If so, what do they look like and can they be taken out of Dogtown for examination? And if so, can the type of bullet be determined?
2. Can a sample of blood be taken out of the blood river and if so, what happens if you look at the blood through a microscope? What happens if the blood gets on a character's skin?
3. John will want to try throwing stones at the river from the riverbank, and then at the sea monster to see if it's aggressive. Will it notice him or the stones?
4. Is there any evidence of aquatic life around the river, or plants, insects, fish, etc? Any strange smells like rot, or does it just smell like blood?

[apocalypsehowmods]

1. The bullets don't seem to exist after they've been fired. Ghost bullets?! It's more likely than you'd think. As a result, these cannot be collected.

2. It can be collected and taken back. The blood appears to be... blood! Probably don't lick it. Who knows where it's been? Testing would show it's a mix of human and animal. The human blood doesn't match anyone in particular. If someone gets the blood on their skin, they'll have blood on their skin. There's nothing particularly reactive about it when you're not swimming in it. Take the plunge if you'd like to see what happens when you are. This can be done via a Search Request, rather than as a player plot if it's something you'd like to pursue!

3. The sea monster seems to take no particular note of the stones. Whether it's because it doesn't notice him or it doesn't care about stones is questionable. The stones don't appear to injure it, at least.

4. It smells a whole lot like blood and it's a dead zone, devoid of life about 5-ft out from the banks. It would seem that nothing inland does particularly well in blood-only soil. It's probably too salty for any freshwater plants, you would hazard to guess.

[musicdied]

Player Name(s): PG, Gail, Ali-chan (possibly others)
Character(s) Involved: Yelena, Winter, Steve Rogers
Dates: Late December-early January, depending on the month's event

Plot Type: Group
Plot Summary: Road trip! Yelena wants to head to Wolf Trap to see if she can pick up Amber's trail from where she apparently vanished into the foster system, and she's bringing backup in case things get hairy or she needs to do some serious physical infiltration. Planning to employ a combination of cover story - she and her brothers lost track of a foster sister, looking to reconnect, family's so important this time of year, etc. - and breaking into foster agencies/children's aid/schools to try and get the beginning of a paper trail to fill in the ten year gap, with an eye to compiling a list of likely suspects to be the "Mr. S" mentioned in Ava's note last Hallowe'en.

If they can find fosters, or other people who knew Amber after the fire, interviews would be in order, targeted at what she was like, if she was particularly close to anyone.

Questions: Can they find Amber's foster family/families? If so, what happened to them? Does anyone stand out as particularly important in her life? Is it possible to build something of a history?

[apocalypsehowmods]

H'okay! After some internal discussion, we've determined that the best way to run this is a series of questions and answers to NPCs, rather than one enormous info-dump. To that end, yes, it would be possible to find some of the foster families associated with Amber. Some of them are alive and fine, others are dead via what seem to be natural, if unusual causes (e.g., heart attack at the age of 30). The remainder of your questions would be answered in the process of a further Q&A with NPCs. The infiltration you've mentioned would be possible and would be the source of information to track down some of these NPCs.

The way this will work:

1. Please provide a full list of the participants in this effort (you listed 'possibly others, so we don't want to miss/exclude anyone).

2. Once we have a list of participants, the mods will present an equal number of NPCs that these characters could find on their trip. We will provide some basic details about them and their relationship to Amber.

3. Each individual character will have the opportunity to question one NPC. They will have a maximum of 5 questions they can ask the NPC.

4. Mods will respond to the 5 questions.

5. Asking characters will receive a maximum of 3 follow-up questions.

6. Mods will respond to the 3 follow-up questions.

7. Asking characters will receive a single final question.

8. Mods will respond to the final question. Further attempts to engage that NPC will not be successful for any number of reasons. They get fed up with questions. They are busy living their lives. They get scared and run off, what have you.

Please let us know if this works for you! The time frame you outlined would be fine.

[setthetone]

Player Name(s): LP
Character(s) Involved: John Carter, anyone who would like to participate
Dates: late December - potentially however long people are exploring Dogtown?

Plot Type: Personal/Group
Plot Summary: So with more and more people venturing into Dogtown and spreading the news about ghost bullets and other terrible effects and - most importantly - the injuries they sustained, Carter would be toying with the idea of a mobile clinic/emergency tent outside the Dogtown entry(ies) in case people need quick medical attention or someone to get in there and grab them. This is of course nothing he can do by himself, so he'd ask for PC volunteers to either get a rotation going or try and organize a stand-by duty system where exploring characters can let them know they're heading inside.

Questions: Would ADI let him do this since the tent would be visible for the public eye? He'd be willing to double it as a temporary walk-in clinic of some sort for the general population if a front is necessary. Would they be willing to fund the supplies? If they won't allow it, could he try and organize some sort of voluntary on-call service?

[apocalypsehowmods]

ADI would, indeed, allow this! With people coming back with bullet wounds and such, they're rather more concerned about that than the public perception. They would want it to have the facade of being a general walk-in clinic and suggest that Carter work with others to set up two mobile clinics, one at either entrance to Dogtown. ADI will fund the start-up and supply maintenance of this set-up. Volunteer NPCs will be available to help run things while PCs are otherwise occupied to ensure they're always manned.

The Big 'Un

[bindlestifflost]

Player Name(s): Linds and GG
Character(s) Involved: George and Nick
Dates: Some time during the plot this month, even if we need to backdate a little.

Plot Type: Pair
Plot Summary: George and Nick want to help rescue the captives in the church. George will be killed. Nick will disappear.
Questions: Can they go out on a high note doing something a little heroic? Not rescue everybody or solve anything big, but just enough to make it meaningful. Thanks, and thanks in particular for being so awesome. I have really loved my time in the game and had a great arc. Y'all rule, but you also know that!

[apocalypsehowmods]

This is all good on our side. We will be sad to see George and Nick go. You've both been fantastic, as well! Some ideas we had that you're free to use or modify in regard to a moment of being Big Damn Heroes:

- Work with other PCs to draw aggro and get killed while they take down one of the named big bads.
- Collapse a portion of the church that's under repairs, drawing a lot of aggro and giving other PCs a distraction.
- Find a hidden basement which houses more sacrifice victims and usher them out before getting jumped.