|
Amidst the two biggest factions trying to influence the future of El Nysa, other groups move in the shadows or walk in the light. In Olympia, Overseer Voss of the Temples of Thesa pursues his own agenda to preserve the light of the Goddess, while in Wyver, the mysterious gang leader Cree seeks to expose the supposed treachery of the people in power.
Can you really believe everything you hear?
How do I complete a quest? For the most part, all you need to do is a link to your (AC length) quest thread under the appropriate heading! Some quests require signing up beforehand in order to receive additional information, so read the requirements carefully.
Can I sign up for more than one quest at once? Yes and no! If a quest has limited slots, please refrain from signing up for more than one at a time in order to give everyone an even chance. Otherwise, you may thread all the quests you want. Cree and Voss' quests are separate, so signing up for one from each at the same time is fine.
What makes my quest complete? In order to obtain the silver reward and any other information for each quest, you must submit an AC length thread under the correct quest heading in the comments below. If you sign up for a quest and fail to submit a thread, it will be considered incomplete and someone else may sign up.
Do I get REP from this? Not exactly! Cree and Voss are unaffiliated with Olympia or Wyver, faction-wise, so helping them will not get you Olympia or Wyver REP. It will get you custom benefits from either/both of them, however. Reaching 10 REP with either faction does not impact your ability to take quests.
When do quests have to be "done"? Typically, a quest that is time-sensitive will be "due" - meaning an AC length thread must be submitted, not necessarily a complete log - by the end of the given availability period. This is usually the end of the month! However, if you sign up for a quest with a time-sensitive due date very close to said date, we'll be flexible and let you know when to get a response in. Quests that do not have a time-sensitive due date are obviously not "due" within a given time frame.
Can I play the other side of these criminal quests? Will I get anything out of it? Yes and sort of! If you would like your character to discover these quests and oppose what is taking place, for example: a member of the guard stopping a smuggling job, you may. However, they will not receive positive recognition from the NPCs putting out these quests or special recognition from others, as it is already expected of them or just another regular occurrence of vigilante justice. We encourage plotting with quest takers solely for the experience of threading that interaction out.
Please list all involved characters under the sign ups thread so we know what's going on! If you have any questions about what kind of opposing actions can be taken, ask us! Keep in mind that these oppositions would follow the same rule as quest success: if there is not an AC length thread submitted, it didn't happen.
REQUESTS FROM THE TEMPLES OF THESA
Overseer Voss entreats Olympian citizens and all refugees to aid him in the various tasks of interest to the Temples. He announces his tasks both in written form, found around the city, and over the speaker in the Temples. ICly, signups and report submission will be done in an office on the first floor of the Temples (this interaction will be handwaved).
Quest: A Day in the Life
Description: Overseer Voss distrusts the captain of the Royal Guard and thinks the deception may trickle down into the lower ranks. By whatever means necessary, sneak into the Guard offices and investigate the name you've been given. Voss expects detail and discretion; if you're going to get caught, don't bother.
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: REQUIRED: Sign up under the correct quest title below with the names of your group members to receive additional information.
Follow-up quest: TBA
Qualifications for success/increased Temple rapport: Proof of a successful investigation can be submitted to Voss in the form of a written message or oral report delivered to an acolyte.
Tips & tricks: As few as 2 and up to 4 people per investigation group. Knowledge of subterfuge may be helpful.
RESTRICTIONS: Technically none, but Guard members should take extra care not to be caught for obvious job security reasons.
REWARD: 1,000 silver for a successful report
Quest: Dangerous Patronage
Description: While the Temples are a place of religious observance, they do need money to stay in business. Many of the merchants who sell their wares on the first floor of the Temples have a more lucrative (and dangerous) customer base in Wyver, where eccentrics and Olympian expatriates will pay a higher price for genuine items depicting Thesa. Help these merchants make their deliveries by disguising the shipment as generic goods; Wyver patrols will not abide by Olympian merchandise entering the city and will respond with any hostile means necessary to stop the shipments.
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: Unlimited
Follow-up quest: TBA; dependent on how many shipments make it to Wyver
Qualifications for success/increased Temple rapport: Submit what your group has accomplished (or not accomplished) to learn the consequences of your mission.
Tips & tricks: Diplomacy and subtlety are ideal, but in a pinch, a couple good fighters wouldn't hurt.
RESTRICTIONS: None.
REWARD: 900 silver for each successful delivery; less silver for loss of products or delay in delivery times.
Quest: A Blessed Entourage
Description: Taking advantage of the refugees' ability to move between Olympia and Wyver unbothered, for the most part, several supporters of the Temples have requested refugees to serve as a number of their bodyguards during trips to Wyver for "personal business." Through an anonymous message delivered to an acolyte familiar with these travelers, the Temples have learned that an attempt may be made on their lives while outside of Olympia - someone in the traveling group is a traitor. This is the only information available; the attacks could come anytime once the trips are underway. While on the surface this is a simple escort assignment, the Temples have asked the refugees to deal with any would-be assassins without alerting the nobles of the threat. Listen closely to your wealthy host, and you might hear something of interest...
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: Limited to 5 groups, sign up under the correct quest title below with the names of your group members. Additional information will be provided!
Follow-up quest: TBA
Qualifications for success/increased Temple rapport: Safety of the noble is required; safety of the other NPC bodyguards less so.
Tips & tricks: You'll be bodyguards, so some brawn would help. A discerning nature is key, as well - you never know who could be betraying you.
RESTRICTIONS: None.
REWARD: 3,000 silver if the target survives.
Quest: Preaching in a Material World
Description: Overseer Voss has few vices, but one of them is his particular fondness for crystal drops found deep in the magical lakes outside Wyver. Remember that price the Wyver merchants asked for those gems? Voss will double it, even triple it for a crystal of considerable size and clarity. Gather them, bring them back, and meet with his personal appraiser to get your silver. Voss himself might come to check out the goods if they're exceptionally rare.
There are also gems of a different variety that can be mined from a cave located in the Edrathe Ruins. They look like milky quartz in all variety of colors and can be found embedded in the cave walls deep in the heart of the tunnel underground. While the surrounding land is barren and few creatures thrive here, some dangerous beasts make their winter home in this cave and do not like to be disturbed.
Dates available: Always
Sign up/limited slots: Unlimited
Follow-up quest: N/A
Qualifications for success/increased Temple rapport: The more high quality gems, the higher Voss' personal opinion gets.
Tips & tricks: Cannot emphasize enough how much he wants beautiful rare gems.
RESTRICTIONS: None.
REWARD: 300-500 silver per gem, maybe more.
( LOCKED )
A Day in the Life: Take Two
( LOCKED )
Need to Know Basis
REQUESTS FROM THE GILDED CAGE
Cree's tasks always appear in the less frequented areas of both cities. Perhaps you will be playing a bet on an upcoming fight, visiting a house of ill repute, or just frequenting your favorite bar when you notice strange advertisements on the back wall. They were not there before, and they will not be there when you return. The details are vague until you arrive at the location, where you will be debriefed by someone that frequents the Gilded Cage. ICly, signups and report submission will be done via this individual or by scrawling your name on a list in the Gilded Cage (this interaction will be handwaved).
Quest: Blinded With Science
Description: In light of the fact the Institute has manufactured both biological weapons and sentient androids meant to deploy them, Cree would like refugees to take a closer look at what remains from a hasty clean-up. Break into the Institute archive and uncover what you can regarding disease manufacturing and artificial intelligence, but don’t let word get back to Evras that anyone has gone through his personal projects.
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: REQUIRED: Sign up under the correct quest title below with the names of your group members to receive additional information.
Follow-up quest: TBA
Qualifications for success/increased Gilded Cage rapport: Return with significant information about the archived weapons. Bonus points for speculation on future methods.
Tips & tricks: The Institute is not as closely surveyed as the Guard. Members within may partake in this mission with outsiders, but if they run the risk of being recognized by coworkers. Some precautionary measures are advised.
RESTRICTIONS: None, but Institute employees should take extra care not to be reported to Evras for obvious job security reasons.
REWARD: 1,000 silver for a successful report
Quest: Strong Armory
Description: Due to high tensions between both factions, weapon imports from the northern colonies have trickled in less and less. Determined to slow the process of both cities gearing up, Cree has become more ambitious in what he would like to restore the Cage’s armory with. Proud smithies have not submitted to protection fees, and thus have had their chance to work out a deal. In Olympia, The Sharper, and in Wyver, the Forged ship weapons to guards in the outskirts of the city. Intercept their crates by any means necessary, and deliver the goods to him before the Guard catch wind.
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: Unlimited
Follow-up quest: N/A
Qualifications for success/increased Gilded Cage rapport: Bring the weapons to the Gilded Cage, all accounted for.
Tips & tricks: Both brute force and skills smuggling are useful here. Shipments are delivered by workers who know how to use the weapons they forge, and the crates have to be taken back unnoticed between city walls in order to discover a door to the Cage.
RESTRICTIONS: None.
REWARD: 900 silver for each successful delivery; less silver for loss of weapons.
Quest: Disturbing the Dead
Description: Before the fairly recent days of more organized crime, the lands of El Nysa were riddled with various gangs and radical groups. While Cree offers no explanation as to why it has become such an exclusive trade, he does have the locations of where other groups once hid. There is a large crypt located near Namarak Mountain where raiders named The Ivory Hogs deposited their gains, and you have been given the task of retrieving stolen heirlooms. Upon arrival, the crypt will feel more like a maze, riddled with traps such as tripwires and loose bricks that will trigger a wide variety of deterrents. If you aren't careful, you'll find yourself falling through a trapdoor, or carrying a party member hit with an incapacitating agent, or even so much as triggering a small explosion. Oh, and uh, it's probably haunted. Good luck?
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: Unlimited
Follow-up quest: TBA
Qualifications for success/increased Gilded Cage rapport: Leave the crypt with at least one heirloom. Or have a detailed spiel as to why you should be compensated anyway.
Tips & tricks: Those that are trained in the art of disabling traps are almost vital here. However, spiritually inclined may be able to determine which paths will be more destructive, as some have entered here and never left.
RESTRICTIONS: None!
REWARD: 500 silver for an heirloom, 200 for no heirloom but a report of what traps you encountered, and an artistic drawing of a bird for all participants.
Quest: The Kids Are Really Not Alright
Description: Happy Child Bakery is a well-known franchise in El Nysa, with prominent locations in both Olympia and Wyver. The delicacies they serve are almost always sold out within the early hours of the morning, and customers always walk away, well, happy! There's just one catch: their hospitality serves as a front for psychedelic drug testing. Though the goods in the storefront are free of anything beyond an added pick-me-up, there is a delivery system with less than legal contents in the afternoon. Deliver packages to marked locations with contents in tact, and don’t try and take a sample for yourself. Seriously, don’t.
Dates available: January 7 - 31
Sign up/limited slots: Unlimited
Follow-up quest: TBA
Qualifications for success/increased Gilded Cage rapport: Successful delivery of baked goods.
Tips & tricks: Despite the presence of guard in both cities, this operation is generally unknown or overlooked. Avoid more the more perceptive members in your deliveries, and you should be good to go.
RESTRICTIONS: None.
REWARD: 400 silver for each successful delivery. 200 for a botched.
( LOCKED )
Blinded With Science: Take Two
( LOCKED )
Highest Bidder
CURRENT QUEST SIGN-UP & SUBMISSION SIGN UP FOR THIS MONTH'S QUESTS HERE!
SUBMIT THE RESULTS OF YOUR QUESTS HERE!
LOOKING FOR GROUP?
|
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
The living bodies.
Of the nobles.
That they're guarding.
GROUP 3
How? By asking 3 free questions in reply to this comment. Your questions can be IC (as in, "My character would ask X about their YZ, what would they say?") or OOC (as in, "What would my character observe if...") -- clues will be given that will help guide you toward making an IC decision!
The fine print: Obviously a question like "is X the guilty one?" won't receive a yes or no answer, and some NPCs may be able to circumvent mind-reading or other PC abilities. Each group gets 3 questions total, not per participant.
Your NPC companions are...
no subject
Question 1 is the OOC general observation question: Once they're on the road, what would our characters notice about the way the NPCs interact with one another?
no subject
Vanderhorn has no interest in socializing with any of the group, and frequently complains that they're taking too long to travel, citing the "business to attend to" he has. While he seems like a bit of a ditz at a glance, the way he speaks suggests otherwise.
no subject
That said, Krieg takes a liking to the kid, and will offer his giant meat body as a training dummy during travel breaks and the evening camp, if he wants. Or, if he doesn't want, Krieg may not be the best conversationalist but his ears work just fine and he's genuinely down to listen to some teenage woes if the kid wants to open up.
Zer0 will opt to spend more time with the bodyguard (Maybe? Drinking with her? Does he drink? We just don't know!) and chat with her. He's better than Krieg at holding real adult conversations, but is also about as mature as Krieg, so his favorite things to talk and hear about tend to involve stabbery and fighting - Surely an experienced bodyguard has some cool stories along those lines to tell?
Basically, due to his assholish behavior, neither of them cares much about Vanderhorn's wellbeing and they don't particularly try to hide it. They're just here to do their job and get paid at the end of it. What sort of things might they learn about their cool traveling companions by hanging out with them?
no subject
The bodyguard gets rowdier and rowdier the more she drinks, and she too has stories to tell. Notably she has nothing really interesting to say about working for Vanderhorn; it seems that he mostly ignores her too when not criticizing her drinking, but he pays very well so she puts up with him. She has plenty of gossip about all the people he knows at court, though: apparently he sleeps around, and how! Who knew!
Vanderhorn, for his part, is surprisingly fine being ignored by the group at large. When he is not criticizing anyone, he spends his time alone reading a stack of letters he's brought with him, and at one point will simply go off alone for an hour or so without speaking to anyone.
no subject
Well at this point Lord Fancy Pants is clearly the most suspicious I mean--OKAY SO: All of this being the case, Zer0 and Krieg have a proposition for their two cool travel buddies: They'll straight up tell the NPCs they suspect one of them is involved in some kind of plot to make Vanderhorn D-E-D dead, and they seriously, honestly don't care. All they ask is that the suspected ambush is held off until after they get paid for getting him safely to his destination.
They are even willing to ambush Vanderhorn themselves and do the murder after they get paid, if that's what it takes.
If none of that is persuasive, they're also willing to part with some of their reward money to sweeten the pot. Possibly half, possibly 2/3rds. Getting paid is more important to them than keeping Lord Fancy Pants alive, but the actual money isn't super important. They're just here to have a good time.
If none of that is persuasive, and we've wasted a question, please tell us what Zer0 would witness if he were to ninja-stalk Lord Fancy Pants when he disappears by himself for an hour.
no subject
~*can you believe everything you hear*~If they confront their new friends about this supposed plot, they'll be met with genuine surprise! Not so much that someone would want Vanderhorn dead, at this point, but that they themselves could be suspected of involvement. Neither of them are particularly offended, and after a while of considering the offers, the servant boy will cautiously make a suggestion, since the effort was made to bond with him early on: at the risk of all of their freedom, he can probably distract Vanderhorn long enough to be subdued so someone can get the papers he won't let go of.
Now it's our turn for a question: What will you do?
no subject
They like the kiddo so they're not going to let him take that risk, although the offer is appreciated! Same for the bodyguard - she's a good lady! They hope both of them can find a better boss when this is all over.
Krieg and Zer0 will stage a loud, dramatic, and distracting fight. While Krieg punches, kicks, and screams unsettling things about nipple salads and sweet singing blood, Zer0 will deploy his decoy for Krieg to punch, kick, and scream things at and go ~*Invisible*~.
While ~*Invisible*~, Zer0, trusting that both his buddy and his decoy are suitably distracting, will attempt to pick Vanderhorn's pocket.
If this is successful, he will disappear somewhere quiet to go through the papers and see what they say while the Decoy fight is finished.
If it isn't successful, the backup plan is to straight up punch Vanderhorn until he's unconscious. Since Krieg's a big guy and Zer0 is a whippy little ninja-bot, they'll contrive to make it seem accidental - the Decoy stepped this way, and WHOOPS, the Psycho, going in for a punch on the Decoy accidentally gave ol' Fancy Pants a knuckle sandwich to the FACE. If Vanderhorn buys it when he recovers, cool. If he doesn't, hopefully all of the guilt is laid on Krieg and Zer0 and the kid and bodyguard clearly weren't involved in whatever foul plot the horrid refugees were up to.
no subject
The staged fight will work. While the bodyguard and the boy will step back (and on the bodyguard's part, not really make an effort to get between them and Vanderhorn, as it so happens), Vanderhorn himself will be drawn out of his secluded rest to see what's going on. His pocket will be easily picked while he's distracted!
Before this excursion, the acolyte at the Temples provided the intelligence that was passed to them re: the supposed traitor in the group; a piece of paper with that much written on it and nothing else. That paper is long gone as it could have given away the real purpose of the mission, but having seen it, Zer0 will notice something about Vanderhorn's papers, most of which are actually just boring lists of his accounts:
The handwriting is the same. It won't be long until Vanderhorn notices his papers are missing.