apocalypsehowmods | Player Plots

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?

Edited 2022-01-21 21:44 (UTC)

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.

Hey, there! We wanted to reach out about this. There are some upcoming things that will be affected by what the group ends up doing with regard to Fenix. April will not have a mod plot, and this could be run then, or it could be run prior to/after the main events of the modplot in March. In May, there will be a temporary location shift that we'll be going over more in the State of the Game later this month. It will mean that this plot will have to be put on hold while that plays out if it has not gone off by then.

Please let us know what additional guidance you might need, and we'll work to get it to you!

I think April would be a good spot to run it!

I'm sorry for the delay, I've been struggling with motivation and a bit daunted at the prospect of running a player plot given it's my first. I'll get an OOC post up today so that we can plot out some of the details! Thank you for being patient with me.

No worries! We're happy to facilitate whatever you and the other players come up with!

Hey, there! Given the level of interest in this plot, we've decided we're going to offer that we can do Fenix's interrogation ICly for characters who might like to be involved. We can also offer some other general comments and ideas:

1. We can add a headline to this month's Headline News featuring info on the cult that Aelwyn and her team are spinning up. Just let us know what the general gist of the cult is, and we'll go ham with it.

2. If you want to set up a log for the capture/interrogation, we'll tag into it with a prompt for people to tag into. If they wanted to do this stealthily/without engaging the rest of the Circus, we would recommend using Jeff's access to Fenix's personal phone number via his business card. He'll meet at whatever location is requested within a reasonable distance of where this Circus is at the moment. They'll be in Springfield, Massachusetts this month.

3. If characters decide to engage the larger circus, they can kill regular circus employees with guns as they're just ordinary humans. The main troupe performers (Fenix, Penny, and Roderick) are bullet sponges and will be wholly unaffected by that sort of thing. The same goes for blades, poisons, or the like. They're essentially made of wax and will shrug off purely physical assault as minor irritations. Austin will be there to suggest that flash freezing with liquid nitrogen or melting into a container are probably the most effective way to contain Desolation avatars of this nature.

4. Pyre will be notably missing from the Circus with no information on his whereabouts available. If questioning regular performers, they'll be told that Pyre left to deal with 'family issues.'

I can't finalize certain aspects of the plan without input from other PCs but here's the outline for the log. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to add before posting it to the comms, and from there we can see what's decided.

One thing that will prominently feature is black cats as a motif, and Aelwyn wants it to seem like this cult has existed for a long time and is only recently resurfacing.

It seems like we've got a Spotify link there!

LMFAO no idea how that happened. Here.

We are SO sorry, but that entry is protected. Third time's the charm?

Shooooould be fine now. I made it public.

This all looks good! Thanks so much, and sorry again for the technical difficulties.

Finalized version of the plan. Would you still be willing to write the prompt for the attack and interrogation? I believe the plan is for Jon to compel a statement out of Fenix. Would Austin be able to identify that as magic?

If Fenix is clearly being forced to answer questions against his will, Austin will be able to identify that as magic at work, and Jon will be in trouble with ADI. To the tune of being treated the same way Jeff was: Followed by ADI employees, brought in to discuss why what he's doing is wrong and bad, and told that there will be significantly more consequences if he tries that again. Austin would not actively interfere in the interrogation, but he'd scruff Jon after it and be babysitting him until they get back to HQ.

We can definitely do the set-up for Fenix's kidnapping. Would you like to start from the point of him being in the interrogation room, or the actual capture. Given it's a bit later in the month, we would suggest starting at the point of the interrogation.

For the general attack on the other performers/circus, we can do a set-up post detailing the circus grounds and where performers are/how they're generally acting, but we hadn't anticipated NPCing Roderick and Penny. In general, folks taking them on will face the following:

Roderick
- Unaffected by the blackout in terms of his ability to see what's going on/respond to threats from the dark. His laser light accessories run on their own batteries. He will use said laser lights as weapons.
- Potential injuries from engaging: Blindness (temporary or permanent) from the lasers, burns from the lasers, dismemberment from the lasers when they're highly concentrated, deafness (temporary or permanent) from noise-based attacks he can throw at people (think supersonic screech)
- Parameters for taking him down: We'd like to see a minimum of two characters dedicated to taking him down. At least one of them should suffer some substantial injuries. More are welcome to sustain substantial injuries!

Penny
- Affected by the blackout in terms of her ability to see, but she will counter this by setting her whip on fire. She is extraordinarily nimble and can dodge/acrobatics her way away from people.
- Potential injuries from engaging: Blindness (temporary or permanent) from the gouts of flame she can spontaneously produce on command, burns from the whip
- Parameters for taking her down: We'd like to see a minimum of two characters dedicated to taking her down. At least one of them should suffer some substantial injuries. More are welcome to sustain substantial injuries!

I would agree with starting it at the actual interrogation, though Ros might want to thread out Jeff's meeting with Fenix. I think the larger interactive bit would have to be specifically the interrogation though.

Either way, just a set up detailing what's going on would be good for the attack.

We've got the set-ups here: LINK.

If you want to let us know which sections in your log to post those under, we can do so. C:

The circus grounds set up can go under execution and the Fenix Down encounter can go under interrogation. Thanks!

And dropping my questions here!

So Jeff's real goal here is to get his hands on the Spiral mirror. Once Fenix is kidnapped and the others are going after the circus troupe, Jeff's going to be (making an attempt at) avoiding the fighting and try to steal the mirror.

...assuming he can get close to it, anyway. I wasn't sure if, as a Spiral avatar, it might affect him differently now -- at the very least, he wants to see if he can get some new insight from it, commune with his patron, amp it or his own powers, etc etc. And if nothing else, he doesn't want the ADI getting it!

Of course, I'm fine with him being unable to take it, getting hit with some consequences for going after it, and anything else! (Also fine with him getting captured, unless that would lead to his own death or derail the rest of the Fenix plot for everybody else)

We'll need to discuss the actual mirror part internally, but we'd recommend reaching out to Kai/the other players in the plot to confer on whether or not Jeff's capture would derail things. In short, if he's captured, he could absolutely be used as a bargaining chip to keep Fenix, Roderick, or Penny alive. If you guys want to do that, that's up to you! We have plans in place for all or some of them living/dying. We'd leave that up to all of you!

After some further discussion, the mods are okay with Jeff attempting to steal the mirror, but this is a full-length mirror. How is he planning to carry and conceal this when he's getting taken back to Gloucester? It's roughly a 2-hour drive to Gloucester. Austin is very much of the 'leave no one behind' mentality. Jeff's absence will not escape notice, and would precipitate a manhunt for him, likely involving the rest of the PCs involved in this effort. Is he planning to break the mirror, perhaps? Given his connection to the Spiral, he would be more capable of actually moving and breaking the mirror than any other character who has attempted as much.

You know, I was so preoccupied wondering whether or not he could take it, and never thought about if he should. Or more specifically HOW HE SHOULD--

Anyway, I'll ask Kai to chime in, but I was under the impression that Jeff's involvement was strictly off the books, so he wouldn't have been directly included in any of the planning/travel/etc on the ADI's end. But I also don't want to assume that he could/would have managed to stay off their radar, especially since he'd been identified as a potential problem already, plus it's not like Fenix couldn't have narced on him... So I'm happy to roll with any consequences on that end if he goes through with it.

But I did wonder if he could break the mirror and bring the shards back, so if that's an option, it's the one he'd take!

Edited 2022-04-28 10:51 (UTC)

Given he's playing an instrumental role in luring Fenix for capture, it might be a little bit difficult to keep Jeff's involvement hidden. We can offer that his involvement, as long as they're aware that he's using his business card connection for the lure, would actually go over well with ADI. They'd be appreciative of his assistance and see it as him finally making an effort to be a team player. It's if he starts doing obviously spooky Spiral things, then there would be potential consequences.

Something else to keep in mind if he got himself there by himself, he would have needed to figure out the logistics of doing that (both physically and monetarily) and have managed to lose his ADI tail. This isn't impossible, it would just be a challenge. In addition, there's the matter of the team coming up with a consistent cover story and lying to Austin about how they got Fenix... and then relying on Fenix not to narc. Which he absolutely will. Not intentionally, as he doesn't know the plan or what's going on, just in the course of interrogation.

We could also offer:

If Jeff is trying to be clever, he could take some of the shards of the mirror back, and he could also offer up the majority of the pieces for complete destruction by ADI. That way he gets a couple shards for personal use and ADI sees him as doing good.

If Jeff is trying to be contrary, he could destroy the mirror and hide most of the shards to come back for at some later date if he can, while taking a few of the shards back with him. This could lead to detrimental effects on the town for Springfield... but y'know? Probably fine.

Or a third option of whatever would make sense for Jeff, if neither of those work!

In any case, the pieces of the mirror will contain a fraction of original mirror's power. This is essentially going to let Jeff create some localized similar effects (i.e., making people see things in nearby mirrors that aren't there or seeing loved ones moving away from them that they can't reach). He is also welcome to see whatever he wants in the mirror itself. It might well show him what he wants to see, even (especially) if it isn't real.

OH perfect, yes, it definitely makes more sense for Jeff to seem like he's turning a new leaf and finally being a team player with the ADI! So with that in mind, yeah, his involvement won't be a secret; he'll be part of the team in an "official" capacity.

And since he's trying to look like he's behaving now, he'll also offer the majority of shards to Austin for proper destruction, and keep pieces for himself.

(And speaking of his tail and the ADI's monitoring of him, I will say that Jeff's behavior has seemingly improved since the blackout! Since he's moved on to subtler feeding habits, he doesn't do anything shady when he busks these days, so it's all just normal, totally mundane music.)

With all that sorted, a few more questions!

1. re: Fenix's capture and the ADI's knowledge that he's the one luring him out, I figure this means Jeff shouldn't try to use any Spiral powers to subdue him, since that'll get back to them. Should we play the thread out like he just takes him as far as X location, before Austin and more involved ADI personnel intervene and make the capture?

2. re: the mirror, Jeff's somewhat convinced there's something beyond/inside it, like its own liminal space or something. (Mainly because of the specific types of hallucinations it triggered in him way back in the Circus Circus plot and subsequent TDM prompt.) So one thing he'll be trying to do over the long term is access this theoretical space that probably doesn't actually exist-- eventually, like many months down the line, could this potentially build to a player plot of some kind?

Specifically, my goal with him as an avatar is to either be coaxed back in the direction of humanity, OR become more monstrous and more like a concept, since the Spiral's brand of fears tend to be more abstract. So becoming a what more than a who (like the Distortion/Michael/Helen), if that's even possible within the perimeters of the game. With the mirror, I was wondering if that could tie in, in a similar way to Michael's doors. So, like, eventually building to a plot where he's actually luring and trapping people in liminal spaces via the mirror, or using mirrors to travel and do spooky shit to feed, etc etc.

This is all vague and totally theoretical at this point, just brainstorming, but I just wanted to see what was even remotely possible before hammering out any actual details!

1. Yes! Please go ahead and run with those assumptions in place. ADI will consider this a major step forward for Jeff, and you can assume his tail will be less of a constant presence and more of an occasional check-in.

2. This is something that would be feasible down the line, yes! We would suggest that the best timing for something like that, if Jeff goes full monster, would be Arc 3, when becoming one won't lead to immediate focus for destruction by ADI. Just for your awareness, Arc 3 is planned to begin in mid-2023.

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