“TAKING” DORCH — THE PLOT

[usurpers]

hello you guys!! i heard you wanted to go full rebel



a quick summary that prompted this: there have been discussions about the possibility of freeing the city without necessarily starting a war— sometime afterwards, through torturing a poor soul in a bathroom, we've learned that monsters are being bred under the guise of human orphanages (more info here under answer four!).

this has great potential and can be an awesome city-wide chance for characters to get involved in a movement that can give the resistance a huge start to an upper hand over our lovely morgana, so this serves as a plotting post to free the monsters being bred for sale, destroy dorch’s slavery supply and stock and help the resistance take dorch for good*!

*they might not actually be able to take dorch, but we've definitely been given the ok to make a positive difference!

there are plenty of parallel investigations going on such as wall enchantments (that i could think off the top of my head, i know there are more!), and even those can play a part in our final attack, so to speak! what i have so far:

— eren will disclose the locations to the resistance first, then the mirrorbound shortly after in a network message (it'll show up in the log itself as an intro, so no replies or convos to it will happen icly anyway— characters will get further information from the resistance itself).

— people can choose a group that best suits their character that we could have to act together with the resistance (but not limited to, so please feel free to add, these are just a base):

💥 team war horse: these will be responsible for either literally starting fires or just general mayhem/distractions in dorch's most vulnerable points or in and around the orphanages themselves, to get the attention of the black city's army/workers away from their real objective. decoys, if you will!

💥 team dark horse: responsible for getting into the orphanages and ushering the hidden monsters out safely, leading them to resistance tunnels, etc etc. the human children will need some help too!!

💥 team gift horse: our dignitaries might be of use here to show that you do care. civilians and humans alike need calming, guiding and saving as well from the possible chaos that could be caused— baby sitting the orphan kids, perhaps? whatever your imagination can fix up! protect them and keep their minds sound, all while keeping aefenglom’s name clean and monsters in a better view!

💥 team trojan horse: our (mostly) fighters infiltrated in all groups to help with their task and offer protection against counter attacks and douse threats. they could also be tasked with restraining the army from acting against them.

icly, i was thinking that this could be planned to happen close to before the mirrorbound leave, at night (with some magitech sabotage to get rid of any extra light— you won’t need that with fires around). monsters saved that would like to return to aefenglom with them via transport machine can disappear in a blink, maybe? :') the rest are welcomed to stay to join the resistance ranks and take what’s left to lighten the black city. in real time, i can put up a post as soon as this week, when we have something comfortable to ride with!

this is just a gist of things, and i’d love to see different groups showing up to take advantage of the event and crack down on more breeches that we’ve seen investigated!! different takes on the groups mentioned, ideas, raid somewhere else, go crazy. the only thing that most people, and i also assume the resistance, would like to keep in mind is a careful hand on the violence— minimal number of civilian casualties possible, as the objective here is to act before there’s an actual chance of war, and not so much a real reason for one. it’s not like aefenglom is the cause of this!!! right???

but no one said you couldn’t, and the resistance is very willing to do everything they can 👀👀👀👀

make top levels for your plans, if you have new ideas you can put them in the headers for easy reading & finding, and feel free to ask questions about our limits under the correct comment (that i believe mods will be keeping an eye on!). most of all, have fun!!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[moustre]

Re: QUESTIONS

[wiggleon]

I assume this would happen towards the end of the visit? So the characters in the dignitary team in the first group who came back wouldn't be able to participate?

[usurpers]

popping in to say that i just remembered that there were two dignitary teams and wouldn’t want the first group to be left out— if the mods are okay with this, i’m good for either pushing back the date (which is no big deal) or doing something so that both could be there! please supply us with magic reasoning, mods 🙏

[moustre]

If they let Captain Heuf in on this, he'd be more than helpful in returning those from the first dignitary team to Dorchacht -- only them, however, as they've already been checked in prior by the Coven there.

[towards_okeanos]

Just to be sure. So there will be a network post from Eren detailing his/their plan? Iskandar is not involved in anything Resistance related so I was wondering if he would even know what’s going on.

[usurpers]

that is correct! he'll be telling the mirrorbound first and then relaying them to the resistance for more detailed explaining/team talking, so everyone should know about it existing!

[towards_okeanos]

Who from the mirrorbound? How? Network post ? In person? Sorry for the barrage of questions but I’m trying to figure out if there will be an actual place for one furious King of Conquerors to yell at the instigators of this party.

possible team opportunist aka get the door

[futhark]

Hey, a question that I figured I would put in here. Ever since Caster had thrown what he learned on the Enchantment on the network, there's been a theory that people's memories and minds might be fed to fuel the Enchantment.

Naturally, that means a merry group of misfits (potential codename: colicing horse) decided to devise a plan how to get behind that door, see what happens and return with a tale to tell (hopefully not get stabbed/not stab anyone).

So given that the city suddenly on fire, it could be used as a distraction to get behind those doors.

Their plan is as follows:
- Get a volunteer or three. (and hopefully, someone to bail them out)
- Two runesmiths and an abjuration nerd design warding tattoo that would protect against mind control and memory jumbling/stealing (preferably in a way, that when the protection enchantment is active, the surface memories can seemingly be tampered with/suppressed, the real memories are not affected and can be unlocked with a spell paired with it later
- tattoo the volunteers
- get them infected(no)/fake Cwyld infection
- free check-ups at Coven hopefully leading to see What Is Behind The Door
- ?????
- profit? find way to turn off the enchantment on the walls maybe??

Obviously the question is what would happen if these volunteers tried to put the plan in motion. Would they be even taken behind the door? Would their ward work at all? Or would they be found out or stabbed?

[moustre]

The rune described is quite high leveled, so the full effect may not be possible, but the Resistance can aid in that diviners are able to "pull" memories back to the surface... Why they're unable to do ones prior to Morgana's rule is unknown, but they believe it's due to the fact that one is short term vs long term memory, so the sooner they're pulled up the easier it is.

That said, they are able to do one that would aid in resisting against mind control/manipulation, so command spells and the soothing influence of what's within the walls (information that can be gained by those who went into the room in the first place, though basely will say that it's nothing that hasn't been seen before in the city itself). It won't erase the effects completely -- this is essentially an amateur's design, even with help from the Resistance, against someone's mastercraft -- but it will be far easier to resist.

By this time, the Witches within have seen the tattoo on at least one other person, but as they did nothing to it then they'll do nothing to it now, far too assured that Morgana's craft is perfect beyond comparison.

They'll be able to get inside the room, though at most two at a time -- for reasons they claim as having only two Witches on duty at a time, which can be confirmed by any who'd gone in previously. Too many fake scares will start them waving off any who venture close, so at most the volunteers have three tries to make this work... the best way to go about this, as Fang and Ursula may confirm, would be to have a Monster-Witch pair go in together, with a Monster being "worked on" while the Witch investigates. There are things to be found from both parties, be it confirmation or something new.

As for turning off enchantments, you might wanna ask Yako or Entrapta for help.

Team Get The Door

[rollfordiplomacy]

Everett and Sokie will be making an attempt to discover more of what's behind the door! They are a bonded Monster and Witch pair. The plan is as follows!

-Everett is going to pretty seriously (and deliberately) twist his ankle. He'll claim he might have caught the Cwyld from Myr before he went in for hist treatment. Everett made a fuss about Myr being taken in alone, so he'll insist his bonded Sokie goes with him when he goes in.
-Everett has a naturally high willpower, but additionally will have the resisting mind control/manipulation charm on him, created by the Resistance. Sokie will have the same. She will have covered the mark with stage make up to disguise them both from the Coven Witches, to hopefully avoid suspicion (provided this won't dampen the effects? I presume the Resistance could inform them if it would.)
-Everett will be doing his best to distract/charm/keep the attention of both the Witches on duty! He'll try to stall as long as is reasonable.
-Sokie will use a subtle magic charm and/or to illusion draw attention towards him and away from her.
-Sokie will look for any information possible! She's a thief, so she'll definitely have an eye out for anything of interest she could steal.
-They will hopefully leave without causing too much suspicion. Everett will really have had a twisted ankle and along with some dark, worrisome scraps for them to have inspected, but won't actually be touched with the Cwyld. He's just a dramatic man and worried after what happened to Myr! Silly him! They'll be moving along now!


That's the plan! What would this yield?

EVERETT IS A FAUN ADDENDUM: (Myr's player let me know about this detail- ahem...)
-Everett *might* be aware of how the Witches need to treat Fauns differently from normal patients, in order to work around their natural resistance to charms. This information would have been gained from a Resistance Diviner looking into Myr's memories for the clue. This is at mod discretion, of course!
-In this case, he would not specify he is a Faun or even a Monster. His appearance is still largely human, though he has some bumps from horn growth beneath his hair. Within the Coven he has not made a point of being a Monster, preferring to be assumed a Witch without actively lying about it. If they don't ask him, he won't say anything, possibly avoiding the radio signal they put on to specifically distract Fauns? (Feel free to disregard all of this if they would already be aware of him being a Faun, by some means! Everett will have to rely on the resistance charms and his natural willpower, if he cannot specifically skirt the Faun Treatment)

Team Get The Door 2nd step

[futhark]

Hello! Before detailing anything, as some kinks are being ironed out, I'd like to ask what is a way to contact Nessie? Should we write here what our characters would tell her or do I prefer NPC interaction?

I'm asking because I distinctly remember Nessie having her own IC inbox once (I think linked on the Coven page) but now I'm unable to find that way of contacting the NPC.

Team Get The Door sorta 3rd step, now in correct place

[futhark]

Nel agrees they have to tell Nessie stuff She also goes off and does her own stuff solo!

(Linked with permission and after consultation with the player)

[hippocarnival]

Since the doors are inside the coven this seems like a good plan to tie up with the group 2 dignitaries, esp if they're pulling a distraction/alibi like down below. Someone who's been able to stay in the building with enough trust to keep attention off this group's shenanigans/directing them down?

[futhark]

Ooh that's perfect! Even more organized effort! Which of the top levels relates to that? We could throw this effort there

[boneofsword]

Looks like Archer's going to play the bait. Dragons get infected too easily.

[futhark]

Just don't get actually infected!!! But that's perfect, since they need the monsters. Since it's going the teams of two, preferably witch/monster as detailed in mod answer Archer could go with Caster or with Nel

[belligerentwarrior]

Our two haven't crossed paths before, but I'm super intrigued by all this. Fang and Ursula have been down behind that door because this dumbass here actually did go out into the Wilde after arrival and got herself infected just to take a peek.

Definitely would love to have them consolidate information or help with this operation.

[futhark]

Chaotic dumbass is alignment I swear. Caster and Zelda went from the opposite end kinda, they tracked the enchantment in the walls, and found out that what is powering the spells is behind the door.

Since Fang and Ursula already were there their expertise would be greatly welcome! As now there is a team trying to figure out how to get behind the door and keep memories of what they saw. Help us Obi-Wan Kenobis!

[niespodzianka]

i'm not sure what geralt's doing yet for this, but i thought i'd toss in my driveby support/curiosity :eyes emoji:

[futhark]

heeeeey 👀

so far, there are three spots for [preferably of two ppl] teams and Nel doesn't have a pair

alternatively, they will probably need someone to help with abjuration spells to combine with Enchantment/ bail them out after the action/ be a distraction allowing escape (or just stop the attempt of calling reinforcements). they promise hopefully doing something good, maybe fame and glory, and NO TELEPORTS

[usurpers]

what can we expect from dorch’s army in retaliation to this?

[moustre]

Once things begin to show as less of a coincidence and more of a bold move from the Resistance, Witch handlers and their Monsters will be becoming more of a common sight -- like an officer with a handful of leashes latched to bloodhounds, they'll be making use of the Monsters natural abilities to seek and cease the riots and the like.

They're far more used to their shows of power being effective versus actual combat, but as these Monsters are more broken than most they're more instinctual and genuinely... Well, wild, though it's easily apparent that they're aggressive purely due to their Witch handlers. Taken away from their Witches or otherwise incapacitated, they become sullen and able to be moved.

They also have a piss-poor stamina, since feeding/commanding 4-5 Monsters magic at once is awful, so they can't be everywhere at once -- they'll be focusing on the most "troubled" areas and then moving out from there. The people of Dorchacht will notably avoid them like the plague, while the Resistance welcome their new guests with minor inconveniences both Dorchacht-made, Aefenglom-made, and any collaboration between their inventors and Entrapta.

While Fae and Dragon are a given for being exceptions to their frontlines, notably they have a lack of Faun as well. There's a handful of them, who are exceptionally keen to the radio and will easier break from their handlers once the normal lullabies are disrupted, so please enjoy your "they've got the spirit, they're just a little confused as to what's going on" allies.

[usurpers]

smiles in freedom

and how would aerial attacks be dealt with? arrows/weapons to shoot them down, or magic against them? i know we have a few flyers on our side, dragons and harpies included!

[niespodzianka]

i just realized i put a question under the wrong heading (i even put back in the question heading, confused at the time, like the smarty smartpants i am), so uh, yes.

[moustre]

You're fine! As for your question, which we'll reiterate here for visual reference:

i see team dark horse is going very sneaky pacifist (which is fine and good and i have no desire to make geralt traumatize steven more), but i'm curious about the level of security and guard/enforcer/etc retaliation on something so hush-hush and inherently horrifying as forced reproduction camps, and if there needs to be a team... darker horse. because slavers don't get rights!!

There can be a Team Darker Horse if you'd like! Slavers don't get rights at all, and certainly need to be given their due.

Despite it being so hush-hush, and perhaps because of that, there is actually a lack of security about it; the Resistance informs that it's due to the generalized belief that there can't be anything wrong with a "care center" for the lost that there's no one actively looking into it (and they've tried themselves), so they're more or less easy to break into...

... It's the getting out as the hard part, as Monsters will feel compelled to act like the pairs in the breeding center themselves -- and those Bonded to them may feel the same. It's due to the scents in the air, aphrodisiac aromatherapy in essence, and as those who work in these places are licensed, it's been historically impossible for the Resistance to get one of their people into their ranks for espionage purposes.

Being more "underground" than the rest of the city, these captive Monsters are not effected by the compulsion magic and are simply terrified of what happens if they don't produce their next batch of children, which they don't tend to recognize as their own in the first place in some cases -- they're just something that comes from the process, like waste, in their eyes. The captive Monsters are heavily scarred and weary, and may not take easily to the thought of leaving at first, since this has been a relatively "safe" place so long as they behave, but some will reluctantly join their rescue band; they'll also insist they're taken as pairs, because, well. They're paired. Once one agrees the other will to, so it's simply a matter of convincing half.

The slavers themselves are notably not Witches, just your regular licensed auctioneers and apothecary practitioners, but even they can put up something of a fight. Just remember that while they don't have rights, there are worse things than death.

If there's anything else you'd like knowledge of, let us know!