PlotRelay/Ninjas
Starter Title: They're Not Ninjas, Honest! - IanPrice
Dawn - Prelude -- Darloth
Several people dressed in completely black outfits have been seen sneaking around town lately, with unknown motives and unknown talents. Who or what are they, and what could they possibly want. One thing's for sure, they look awfully like Ninja.
Zenith - Challenge -- ArabianNinja (Oh the Irony ;)
However, everyone in town knows the Local Ninja Clan is down south for its seasonal get-together with other Ninja clans. So several concerned citizens go out to seek who these mysterious people are. The team consists of Verdant Winds, Outcaste Air Aspect Dragon-blooded, followed by his childhood friend and Heroic mortal, Poised Blossom. They are not alone, as they are joined by a Night Caste Solar, Still Shadow, currently hiding himself as a Censor of the Realm, and last but certainly far from least, is the No Moon Lunar, Immaculate Crane. Her interest in these Ninja imposters, as she believes, is somehow linked to the underworld.
Thier paths cross in the lonesome night after each has found one of the dark-clad ninja would-be's only to find them dissapearing in the town square itself.
Twilight - Development -- DeathBySurfeit
After brief words are exchanged, it becomes clear that the ninja-like figures have not disappeared, but hiding! Ninja attack! In the course of the battle, Still Shadow is forced to reveal his Solar nature, and Verdant Winds flees before the dual horrors - what becomes of Immaculate Crane is not known in all the confusion, but one thing is clear - these are definately not ninjas. They fight with bestial ferocity, lashing out with hands and teeth; from the dead it can be discovered that these creatures are in fact the Dune People of the far South, hidden from the day sun beneath black uniforms!
An investigation ensues, each individual pursuing their own path. Verdant Winds suspects the Anathema had a hand in matters, and is trying to call down the Wyld Hunt; Still Shadow is furtively trying to discover their base of operations in the surrounding fields and catacombs of the ruined city below, and as for Immaculate Crane, no-one knows - perhaps she has a stake in matters, or perhaps she simply works alone. Who will the party aid? With the fanatical fire-Aspect in charge of the Wyld Hunt in the region, it is only a matter of time before the town is reduced to a ruin to smoke out the Night Caste and his supposed attendants - answers must be found!
Night - Conclusion -- Paincake
1. Party and Verdant Winds; the party and Verdant Winds are not necessarily at odds if they have not revealed their nature (or are not Anathema). If they know what is good for them, however, any members who follow winds and his injured mortal ally will attempt to convince Winds to not summon the Wyld Hunt; you earn his respect and gratitude for healing the critically injured mortal, a neutral and suspicious stance for talking him out of it, or you can simply kill him before the message gets out. If you're a jerk.
2. Shadow prowls the catacombs, and any party members who go with him discover the snarl of Underworld interfering with reality, and the terrifying entities bribing these wyld-twisted dune people with slaves which they then convert into Ghosts and undead soldiers. They also discover the whereabouts of Crane, and the prevention of her grisly end at the hands of the Deathlord's agents may mean the difference in the tide of battle; there is no less than a full circle of Abyssal Exalts here to face the heroes, along with the Fair Folk Duke of Lights, leash holder and hound-master of the Dune People, liason with the Deathlord.
1a. Regardless of the party's actions on behalf or against Verdant Winds, the Wyld hunt arrives.. alerted by an artifact in their possession about the presence of beings Outside of fate, the DarkStar Compass, of soulsteel and starmetal forged. If they have aided or word-bartered with Verdant Wind, they may rendezvous with the Leader of this company (Cathak Noir, as militant an anti-anathemist as any.) peacefully, keeping their nature a secret.
2a. In the Catacombs, all hell breaks loose when Cathak Noir, Verdant Winds, Poised Blossom, and a handful of other Exalted Wyld-hunters of middling power burst on the scene with their armed party. They are underprepared; without the PCs help, they will surely lose the battle against the powerful Abyssals on their home ground, ready and warned of their arrival through sorcery. The grisly end of the No Moon can be prevented best here, but if the PCs do not act now she is devoured by the Fae. With the PC's help, she can relay the message to the room at large; a powerful item is here, a compass made of moonsilver and soulsteel; it slowly alters reality through the Moonsilver into the death of soulsteel, and has been breeding a Shadowland. She was caught attempting to destroy it. Only by being united with an item of similar manufacture and the two remaining Celestial metals can this gateway be sealed.
3. Shadow and the PCs are drawn into the conflict regardless; he refuses to stay out, and they are surrounded on all sides by the grand melee. Together, all sides may well be equal; Dynasts, PCs, and the two other Celestials against the cream of the Deathlord's forces and their nightmare army, fighting on their home ground.
4. At the height of the battle, reinforcements arrive for the depleted Deathlord forces, and the Dynasts are hard pressed, withering under the assault of Solar-level exalts. The Abyssals begin to crow in their hideous, misshapen voices; these reinforcements are the vanguard of their Deathlord master, who is soon to arrive. Shadow(If the No Moon is alive, she does this instead) screams that the portal must be closed, and he and Cathak Noir, both very dominant types (by now aware of the Anathema, though perhaps too occupied with the evil-er Anathema to fight) attempt to do so.. some of the PCs must hold and defeat the Duke of Lights and the Abyssals, while the rest fight their way to the Shadowland's entrance, before some Greater evil seeps through and slaughters them all.
5. So they do, and Cathak Noir and Shadow (or Immaculate Crane) are dragged into the Shadowland with the destruction of the Starmetal and Moonsilver compasses. Their fate is for the future.. if no PCs are present for the shadowland's collapse, they merely find an empty, bloodspattered room and the shattered wreckage of the two compasses, pinned to a stone obelisk with one of Shadow's orichalcum knives.
Eclipse - Epilogue -- Han'ya
The company is now left with an awkward situation. If Winds and Blossom are still alive, what do they do? They have consorted with Anathema, and the Wyld Hunt may now decide to kill them (just to end the day on an up note, you know). If Shadow (or Crane, whichever didn't get exploded) is still around, what will happen? Will they run away, team up with Winds & Blossom and then run away, or team up with Winds & Blossom and try to persuade the Hunt not to kill them?
- Here's how it might go...
- The surviving PCs team up and try to persuade the Wyld Hunt not to gank them.
- If they succeed, the game could turn into them either calling more Wyld Hunts to smash t3h 3v1l, smashing it themselves, or recruiting an army from the surrounding area to smash it down.
- If they fail, they either die or run away. In the latter case, see next bullet.
- They could run away and then have to deal with the twin threats of the Wyld Hunt and the Deathlord.
- The Wyld Hunt could call down more Wyld Hunts, or even Realm legions if they social stunt. If this is the case, the PCs should haul butt the heck outta there. Alternately, the focus of the game could shift to an exploration of the Underworld to find out what happened to their lost compatriots (you could do this if they teamed up with the Hunt too, actually).
- Or the PCs could compete with the Wyld Hunt to recruit an army from the local populace, or pit their army against both the DBs and the zombies.
- The PCs could, in the event of full-scale Realm intervention, just bide their time, either aiding them subtly or not at all.
- Once the Realm is victorious (if they are) the PCs could emerge to shatter their grip over their new colony.
- If the Realm loses, you basically go back to the old "Heart-Compelling Method v. Blazing Solar Bolt" dispute, like with the Wyld Hunt.
- There are too many damn bullet points here for me to even begin to discuss the implications of Fae involvement, if it's not just the one dude acting alone.
- Also, you could switch player focus to the remnants of the Hunt, and play out the whole shindig from their perspective.
- The surviving PCs team up and try to persuade the Wyld Hunt not to gank them.
Peanut Gallery
I didn't feel like giving any locational detail - someone else can fill it in on another step, perhaps, if it's needed.
-- Darloth
Admittedly, there has only been one plot relay so far, but aren't the plots supposed to be for potential players, and therefore not include specific characters? Or are the Zenith folks the NPCs the players will be interacting with? (This makes a big difference to the next step, of course) - FrivYeti
Yeah, I had a little trepidation over writing characters with names, logically, one could assume that the Named Characters are other "Concerned Citizens" that PC might run into as speed bumps, and the like. But I didnt make this relay, so assumptions had to be made - ArabianNinja
I'm a little confused; do these concerned citizens meet with the PCs in the square, or is this done independantly of them? I don't know whether to write for them in the background as a separate entity or actively involved with the PCs...DeathBySurfeit
I left it open ended deliberately, but if you want somthing more solid, go with that the PC's have run into the named characters at the same instance, basically: "What are you doing here?" "Following the Ninja's" and so forth. Whether they are actively involved with the PCs, hinderances to the PCs, or perhaps something more... is up to whoever else comes along to progress the plot. - ArabianNinja.
I tried my best. I'm so tired. =P Paincake
