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soddersays2021-02-01 12:56 am
tetractys) wrote in soddersays2021-02-01 12:56 am
Player Plot: The Wild Hunt
On February 6th, a group of Sleepers from various worlds will pitch a plan on the Fluid network, one that will hopefully result in freeing everyone from Deerington and stabilizing the town. Assemble our Champions. Open the way through the remaining layers. Find Julia Sodder. Hold off the Guardians. Kill her, or save her, use dream manipulation to transfer the psychic impression of the town to a willing, stable host, and open the gates to every other world.
The child is dying, and the answer is here. But can you trust the person offering it to you?
Interested in fighting a god? Good choice, reach heaven through violence. Here's how this part works.
There are seven boss-level monsters in Deerington, or so it is believed. One Guardian for each layer. The Mayor, Cynthia, the Moss King, the Dog Keeper, Ramona, the Pthumerian Queen, and Mother Superior. On February 6th, Bill Cipher will introduce himself as someone capable of giving massive, temporary boosts to ordinary Sleepers. He is looking for people who resonate with each Guardian to form a sort of equal and opposite pantheon. What this means precisely for your character is completely up to OOC choice. Someone who is associated with dogs or with helping others may resonate with the Dog Keeper, for instance, or a stern leader to resonate with the Mayor, but these are just examples and the resonances can be much more abstract than this. Bill has some people he has his eye on in particular to match every position, but more than one person can be associated with each Guardian. (If you'd like to go in a more odd direction, and have your character resonate most with Sodder herself, they might not get a boss fight, but they DO get a special role later on.)
The goal of this pantheon of counter-Guardians is that, with a strong power boost from Bill, each sleeper "champion" will be able to hold off their Guardian counterpart for as long as this plan requires. This can be through combat, through talking them down, through simply restraining them, or whatever you like. Everyone associated with the same guardian will all be working as a pseudo-team, but by the end of this thing it's going to be such pure chaos that you can honestly fight anybody you want WITH anybody you want.
But, wait. Why go to all this trouble? There are people who have beaten the Guardians before, and nobody bothered with making sure they had something in common with a Guardian. Why not just ask them for help? (In character, Bill will, of course, have a magical and practical explanation for this that seems reasonable enough...) What would someone want from assembling a copy of the system Sodder uses to hold Deerington together?
Interested in puncturing the layers? Also a good choice!
Varian and Stanford Pines, (and Bill) with the help of Fern's Enchiridion, have devised a machine that can make brief doorways appear between layers. With the way they are warped, they can only open once every 1-2 days. They are going to build a portal in our ordinary layer of Deerington to the Great Sleep, make camp there, and begin building a second portal, inside the Great Sleep. This camp might be in some danger, and some people might volunteer to protect it. Once the Great Sleep's portal is built (a few hours), the Great Sleep portal will be activated and they will move to another layer, and repeat the process.
The characters are currently operating under the assumption that there are five layers left instead of two. Once this is discovered, things may get a little hectic. More portals are still needed to build up more power for this plan. Magical or scientific experts may be needed to come up with ideas about the most efficient place to put more portals. Ford has an idea to put them where Deerington is thinnest - near the doors in the Deep Dive, Flesh Falls, and Summoning Stones sinkholes. They will certainly need people to protect them as they attempt this. Characters involved in building or protecting the portals nearest the doors may get some plot hints for the future!
Once we have enough portals (around February 12th) and the time has elapsed that all of them are able to open again, every built portal will be fired at once, aimed at the same place, accelerating and feeding in to each other across every remaining layer. This force, characters are hoping, will allow them to puncture to the layer on which Sodder is hiding herself, allowing sleepers to get to her before Mother Superior. Bill's abilities are all dream-based, and he's made a world like this before. He's confident that if he can reach the source of power here - the girl dreaming all of this - he can stabilize Deerington, open its gates, and make the monster events caused by her nightmares no longer something that will harm or kill anyone.
But, wait, what's the plan for Julia herself? Do we want to kill her? Save her? (If your character has professed a desire to save Sodder, Bill will try to reassure them that the plan is to save her before she dies. If your character can't forgive Sodder and has been public about it, Bill might make it seem like the plan is to simply kill her and free the town without harming any Sleepers.)
At first, the plan will appear to work! The scream that keeps people away from the lab on Mount Rheum will echo through all present characters, exactly as debilitating as it always is, and an image of Sodder will be visible. And then all hell will break loose, as it does.
BOSS RUSH.
The good news is that the general calculations were wrong, and there are not seven guardians to face. There are four bosses: The Mayor, the Moon Presence, the Pthumerian Queen, and the Dog Keeper. The other good news is that Bill will come through with his promise of a boost: characters will be much bigger (maybe double or triple your normal height) stronger, and harder to damage. Even characters that are normally not fighting experts or particularly tough will now be able to pack a hell of a punch if they want to join in and be boosted. You can also glow if you want, because that rules, and if you're interested in experiencing something like a dark magic berserker effect where you feel more aggressive to both friends and foes, well, I don't know. It's a horror game, we're all masochists. Be my guest. That's not at all required, though.
(Bill himself is nowhere to be found. That's normal, though, he said that his warps make him totally ineffective in a fight.)
The bad news is that the champions are going to have to fight all the Guardians at the same time while protecting the portal team. Players with good combat skills are most suited to protecting the teams, while less-combative characters are most suited to helping keep all the portals open. It is likely that this stage of the plot will take place in either the Great Sleep or the Death Realm, not in the usual layer of Deerington, but the open gates means anyone could potentially be pulled in at this stage, run away at this stage, die at this stage, be injured at this stage, or survive at this stage. The choice is yours!
Came along just because you were curious? Not a hero, just want to save the little girl or strangle that monster? A scientist type?
That image of Sodder is is still there. Not for long, and it's time to make a choice. Ruby Rose, anyone else chosen that has something in common with Julia herself, and those who want to personally try to save or kill the entity responsible for Deerington as it currently exists, will have a bubble of calm to try to do their work, as the Champions hold the Guardians off. This will be an opportunity to talk to Sodder, whether or not she is able to respond.
With something as powerful as Julia is, it may not come down to whether the Sleepers want to forgive her or condemn her. The real question is: Does Sodder want to be saved, or forgiven?
Or.
After everyone makes their pitch, Bill will make his. All power boosts will vanish. Anyone who permits or wants it OOC will get an agonizing electric current run through them briefly as Nightmare Bill turns on everybody, holding essentially the entire team hostage to force Sodder to make a choice. It turns out he was lying about being warped to be too weak for combat - he's just warped to be weak against NPCS. He is perfectly capable against other Sleepers.
Mother Superior shows up.
Any subdued Guardians will immediately get a burst of energy as their purpose (protecting Sodder from her) makes them rally. The Champions, the Guardians, and Mother Superior plunge back into a fight that now has three sides. Bill Cipher, representing the Fuck You side, will be gleefully sniping at absolutely everybody. The portals all begin to destabilize - portals, which I will remind everyone, are the only way back home.
Portal team, can you hold the door open?
Champions, can you fight a war with three fronts?
You're going to have to. There will be many moments for heroism here, and many moments for your character to prove themselves. The last stage of the plot has only one goal: Survive long enough to return home. Save your friends. Get the remains of the Sodder team out of there.
And decide what to do next.
Milk has said it's fine to contact them if anyone has any questions / specific NPC dialogue you might want for your interactions!
Fire is Bill's mun,![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
bluecanary on plurk & Fire#9401 on discord, feel free to hit me with any nitty gritty plot stuff like What? and Who r U? and Portal?? but mostly just in the comments of this entry that like, just seems easier.
ETA: The IC announcement is up!
ETA 2: The log for the events of February 7th up until just before the Boss rush is up!
3: Boss rush log is up
The child is dying, and the answer is here. But can you trust the person offering it to you?
click for FLASHING/ANIMATED banner, hidden for photosensitive friends
Assemble our Champions
Interested in fighting a god? Good choice, reach heaven through violence. Here's how this part works.
There are seven boss-level monsters in Deerington, or so it is believed. One Guardian for each layer. The Mayor, Cynthia, the Moss King, the Dog Keeper, Ramona, the Pthumerian Queen, and Mother Superior. On February 6th, Bill Cipher will introduce himself as someone capable of giving massive, temporary boosts to ordinary Sleepers. He is looking for people who resonate with each Guardian to form a sort of equal and opposite pantheon. What this means precisely for your character is completely up to OOC choice. Someone who is associated with dogs or with helping others may resonate with the Dog Keeper, for instance, or a stern leader to resonate with the Mayor, but these are just examples and the resonances can be much more abstract than this. Bill has some people he has his eye on in particular to match every position, but more than one person can be associated with each Guardian. (If you'd like to go in a more odd direction, and have your character resonate most with Sodder herself, they might not get a boss fight, but they DO get a special role later on.)
The goal of this pantheon of counter-Guardians is that, with a strong power boost from Bill, each sleeper "champion" will be able to hold off their Guardian counterpart for as long as this plan requires. This can be through combat, through talking them down, through simply restraining them, or whatever you like. Everyone associated with the same guardian will all be working as a pseudo-team, but by the end of this thing it's going to be such pure chaos that you can honestly fight anybody you want WITH anybody you want.
But, wait. Why go to all this trouble? There are people who have beaten the Guardians before, and nobody bothered with making sure they had something in common with a Guardian. Why not just ask them for help? (In character, Bill will, of course, have a magical and practical explanation for this that seems reasonable enough...) What would someone want from assembling a copy of the system Sodder uses to hold Deerington together?
Open the Way
Interested in puncturing the layers? Also a good choice!
Varian and Stanford Pines, (and Bill) with the help of Fern's Enchiridion, have devised a machine that can make brief doorways appear between layers. With the way they are warped, they can only open once every 1-2 days. They are going to build a portal in our ordinary layer of Deerington to the Great Sleep, make camp there, and begin building a second portal, inside the Great Sleep. This camp might be in some danger, and some people might volunteer to protect it. Once the Great Sleep's portal is built (a few hours), the Great Sleep portal will be activated and they will move to another layer, and repeat the process.
The characters are currently operating under the assumption that there are five layers left instead of two. Once this is discovered, things may get a little hectic. More portals are still needed to build up more power for this plan. Magical or scientific experts may be needed to come up with ideas about the most efficient place to put more portals. Ford has an idea to put them where Deerington is thinnest - near the doors in the Deep Dive, Flesh Falls, and Summoning Stones sinkholes. They will certainly need people to protect them as they attempt this. Characters involved in building or protecting the portals nearest the doors may get some plot hints for the future!
Once we have enough portals (around February 12th) and the time has elapsed that all of them are able to open again, every built portal will be fired at once, aimed at the same place, accelerating and feeding in to each other across every remaining layer. This force, characters are hoping, will allow them to puncture to the layer on which Sodder is hiding herself, allowing sleepers to get to her before Mother Superior. Bill's abilities are all dream-based, and he's made a world like this before. He's confident that if he can reach the source of power here - the girl dreaming all of this - he can stabilize Deerington, open its gates, and make the monster events caused by her nightmares no longer something that will harm or kill anyone.
But, wait, what's the plan for Julia herself? Do we want to kill her? Save her? (If your character has professed a desire to save Sodder, Bill will try to reassure them that the plan is to save her before she dies. If your character can't forgive Sodder and has been public about it, Bill might make it seem like the plan is to simply kill her and free the town without harming any Sleepers.)
Find Julia Sodder
At first, the plan will appear to work! The scream that keeps people away from the lab on Mount Rheum will echo through all present characters, exactly as debilitating as it always is, and an image of Sodder will be visible. And then all hell will break loose, as it does.
Hold off the Guardians
BOSS RUSH.
The good news is that the general calculations were wrong, and there are not seven guardians to face. There are four bosses: The Mayor, the Moon Presence, the Pthumerian Queen, and the Dog Keeper. The other good news is that Bill will come through with his promise of a boost: characters will be much bigger (maybe double or triple your normal height) stronger, and harder to damage. Even characters that are normally not fighting experts or particularly tough will now be able to pack a hell of a punch if they want to join in and be boosted. You can also glow if you want, because that rules, and if you're interested in experiencing something like a dark magic berserker effect where you feel more aggressive to both friends and foes, well, I don't know. It's a horror game, we're all masochists. Be my guest. That's not at all required, though.
(Bill himself is nowhere to be found. That's normal, though, he said that his warps make him totally ineffective in a fight.)
The bad news is that the champions are going to have to fight all the Guardians at the same time while protecting the portal team. Players with good combat skills are most suited to protecting the teams, while less-combative characters are most suited to helping keep all the portals open. It is likely that this stage of the plot will take place in either the Great Sleep or the Death Realm, not in the usual layer of Deerington, but the open gates means anyone could potentially be pulled in at this stage, run away at this stage, die at this stage, be injured at this stage, or survive at this stage. The choice is yours!
Kill Her/Save Her
Came along just because you were curious? Not a hero, just want to save the little girl or strangle that monster? A scientist type?
That image of Sodder is is still there. Not for long, and it's time to make a choice. Ruby Rose, anyone else chosen that has something in common with Julia herself, and those who want to personally try to save or kill the entity responsible for Deerington as it currently exists, will have a bubble of calm to try to do their work, as the Champions hold the Guardians off. This will be an opportunity to talk to Sodder, whether or not she is able to respond.
With something as powerful as Julia is, it may not come down to whether the Sleepers want to forgive her or condemn her. The real question is: Does Sodder want to be saved, or forgiven?
Or.
After everyone makes their pitch, Bill will make his. All power boosts will vanish. Anyone who permits or wants it OOC will get an agonizing electric current run through them briefly as Nightmare Bill turns on everybody, holding essentially the entire team hostage to force Sodder to make a choice. It turns out he was lying about being warped to be too weak for combat - he's just warped to be weak against NPCS. He is perfectly capable against other Sleepers.
Stabilize Deerington Mother Superior Shows Up
Mother Superior shows up.
Any subdued Guardians will immediately get a burst of energy as their purpose (protecting Sodder from her) makes them rally. The Champions, the Guardians, and Mother Superior plunge back into a fight that now has three sides. Bill Cipher, representing the Fuck You side, will be gleefully sniping at absolutely everybody. The portals all begin to destabilize - portals, which I will remind everyone, are the only way back home.
Portal team, can you hold the door open?
Champions, can you fight a war with three fronts?
You're going to have to. There will be many moments for heroism here, and many moments for your character to prove themselves. The last stage of the plot has only one goal: Survive long enough to return home. Save your friends. Get the remains of the Sodder team out of there.
And decide what to do next.
Milk has said it's fine to contact them if anyone has any questions / specific NPC dialogue you might want for your interactions!
Fire is Bill's mun,
ETA: The IC announcement is up!
ETA 2: The log for the events of February 7th up until just before the Boss rush is up!
3: Boss rush log is up
Questions!
no subject
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Sign-Ups
Ozpin & Jon Sims
I'd like Ozpin to get involved as a fighter-type supporting the portal teams. He'll probably get pulled along by Ford, and can then do a lot of flashy anime battle shit to protect vulnerable characters. I'd like for his first death to occur during the finale chaos, but that's up in the air.
Meanwhile, Jon Sims will likely be on the front lines just to learn the Secrets of Deerington TM. This will take him all the way to Sodder if possible, since he... really vibes with her in some unfortunate, eldritch ways. Sadly, he's incompetent in a fight and will need defending when shit pops off. Please save this scrawny researcher.
Sign-Ups
Maybe fight Bill because WTH Bill?!(no subject)
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Oscar
I've no plans to kill him. He is just trying to help his friends.
no subject
And he def has the combat skills to fight and protect. He's kind of a tank so there's also the possibility of him physically shielding people while getting hurt himself c:
no subject
Through her magical lamp she's gleaned that her and Sodder both had dreams of being heroes growing up but has become colder, disillusioned and guilt wracked over the harm she's done in Deerington. So she's going to be trying to convince her that she can work through these issues and make up for the pain that's been caused. That there's still a chance for her to be what she always wanted to be.
She's mainly going to be using their similarities to try and communicate with Sodder. Low key divine beings gotta look out for one another after all.
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Fern
• He'll also be assisting with the building of the portals. He and Varian have been quietly planning this for months now and was the one to connect Bill and Ford up with Varian, so he'll be helping them and his boyfriend out in whatever way he can (mainly materials acquisition and manual labour).
• When the boss rush happens he'll be running support/protection for the portal teams as a fighter. He's dealt with all the bosses that will be appearing for this and is experienced in combat. He's a hard counter to the Moon Presence's and PQ's blood draining, has fought a bizarre amount of gigantic monsters like the Mayor, and will be mostly avoiding the Dog Keeper since he's weak to fire. He'll end up near Sodder at some point I think, since he'll be suffering some injuries due to Jon's healing warp. Thanks Jon.
Varian
Arid
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Stan Pines
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Ford Pines
● When Mother Superior shows up and things start to go to hell, Ford will be focused on evacuation and directing anyone who needs it back through the portals and to (relative) safety.
● I'm planning to have Ford die during this plot! Details are still pending (I'm leaning towards having him stuck on the wrong side when/if the portals collapse) but if you'd like to be present or involved with either the event itself or the aftermath then let me know.
● Finally, Ford is currently under a magically binding contract with Bill, which is forcing him to go along with this plan. He will not be telling anyone this and will deny it if asked (some established CR may get straight answers, however), but anyone with appropriate powers that wants to notice he's got something compelling him can go ahead!
Margot
no subject
except she'll go a little overboard with the power-up towards the end and end up doing immense amounts of AOE damage with her powers which, uh, she won't be bothering to try to avoid hitting other people with. oops?
she won't have much input about sodder on account of being fried by electricity and too exhausted to move thanks a LOT, BILL
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Re: Sign-Ups
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When everything goes crazy, he'll be in the middle of things fighting the big bosses. He's definitely used to fighting to kill and isn't so skilled at defending people, but he'll be good to team up with anyone else fighting.
He'll also be all for letting Sodder live given he sees much of himself in the girl and her life and will argue the point in a very stubborn manner for anyone who thinks otherwise.
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Orpheus
He's also very prone to getting his ass kicked so like someone may want to do something about that before he gets hurt. He's got some magic instruments thanks to Fern and Glitch so he's not totally helpless, but you know.
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Qifrey
So he will use magic to help protect whoever needs it!
Ref's Immortal Gents
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Wei Wuxian
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Michael
Dippin Doodle
Gore's Gar, and Scorpia
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Qrow Branwen
Alex Reagan
Hartley Rathaway
Lysithea
Gee
He will be against killing Sodder.
no subject
On top of which, he'll be defending those with the portals with his sonic screwdriver. When crap, happens, Ten will try to shut down the portal. The fate of the multiverse is more important than them getting back.
Also! Ten will offer to help this being find a 'body' for Bill and might offer up himself.
no subject
Bill already has a body, no worries there!