Wheat and Chaff

[Nymph and Dragon]

I'm bored.

As of now, there's a cult somewhere in Althanas that works in black magic, feels that the destruction of evil people is their mandate, and that is intensely opposed to killing the innocent. Not that they don't kill, they just have to justify it sufficiently to their own satisfaction, so it still sucks for you if you're not Mother Teresa or OJ Simpson.

This cult kidnaps people seemingly at random and take them to their lair (a village hidden away inside a mountain or somesuch) and keep them as "guests" that are under constant supervision. These "guests" are forced to interact with the members of the community (all of whom are magically endowed), take part in trials and tests, and are, at the end of their stay, judged to determine whether or not the cult deems them worthy to continue living according to how evil or good they present themselves during the time of their stay. The catch is that the "guests" don't know they're being judged; at least they don't at first unless they're extremely clever and figure it our or can read minds. :rolleyes: The cult members want their guests to fail and therefore set up situations to try their guests to their limits in the hopes of making them prove that they are too evil to deserve to live.

If you read through all that, you get extra points for your patience with my blabbering. There will be plenty of room for plot maneuvering (since what you've read is basically what I've got) and this will be a lot about character development and figuring out how he or she responds to stressful non-combat situations (though I'm not ruling that out as a potential challenge). The really interesting part will be figuring out a way to get us all out alive . . .:eek:

Applicants may have martial competency because these cultists will, of course, have some way of nulling your weapon or ability that might otherwise make you unkidnappable. So a random conglomeration of "guests" would be great. I'm gonna be picky about who's in because I'm a meanie like that, but don't let the fear of rejection keep you from applying. Regular posting is required and I will happily write people out if they decide to poof on me. But I'm a patient meanie.

[Melancor]

How do you even figure things this ingenious?

Right now I am going for a bunch of non-battle quests. I am done with Epic-ness after "The light of Knowledge" and I may be pretty tiered of it after the war journals.

Now I am trying to write on the first person. It seems as I am getting more out of my writing that way. And I kind of like it more.

But eh, You already know how I write. I really don't mind if you don't pick me because I can't write snot, or because my post timing is irregular. I'm cool with it. :O

I'll have to show my interest. But if you've somehow, for some reason, accepted my application, then just leave it on hold. I still need to put some time management into Althanas.

[Elijah_Morendale]

This quest would almost be too much fun for me to do with either of my characters, what with Nadia always pressing Elijah to do something bad and Madison being an insufferable prick when backed into a corner and just a plain ol' jerk every other time.

But if I had a choice, I'd RP this one as Maddy, just because she could use the EXP... >.>

[Toy Soldier]

Wow.

This plot is really interesting. I thought about having Zephyriah in this, but decided that Tobias Battalion would work better in this sort of thread. Hopefully you wouldn't mind having a crazy orphan around.

[Nymph and Dragon]

I like orphans . . . for breakfast. Dunno how long is normal to leave a recruiting thread open, but I think I'll give the slow readers a few more days to get through my first paragraph before startin 'er up. Thanks for the interest!

[Mathew Amtrum]

I am game

[Krista]

I like orphans . . . for breakfast.

Count me in.

Pleaaaaaaaaaase.

I need to get this character going.

[Nymph and Dragon]

Having researched extensively and debated internally about an appropriate cast for this quest, I've decided that I'll be taking three people with me. Those three, if still interested, are BlackandBlueEyes (or whatever Madison's username is), Toy Soldier, and Matthew Amtrum, characters I feel will comprise an appropriately varied perspective in this scenario.
Mostly it was that the characters chosen all have somewhat darker natures or abnormally violent tendencies, which I think would be interesting to explore when they have to be "good" enough to be allowed to live. If you three are still in, please post here and I'll start a new thread in the RPC for plot development and stuffies.

Thanks to everyone who showed interest, and I hope we can quest together in the future!

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Rawk.

[Toy Soldier]

Tobias is still in. Let's get this freakshow on the road.

[Nymph and Dragon]

Hey, Toy Soldier, BlackandBlueEyes, and Matthew Amtrum!

'Kay, so we're just gonna chat here cuz I don't like wasting new threads when old ones will do. Call me cyberconomic.
Or not.

I'm thinking that this cult could have some kind of round little innocuous-seeming colony-thing with big wooden walls all around it, kinda Amish in appearance, so the region they're in just tolerates them because they seem so harmless. Of course, the important people of the colony are the ones who have capacity and skill in magic, but these are very well-kept secrets.:eek:

There are three classes to these people: the Keepers who have magical ability who never leave the colony and who are responsible for enforcing the will of the Arbiters, who do not have magic but who are the ones responsible for deciding the fate of their individual charge. There are also Seekers, who are rarely within the colony because it is their responsibility to find people who seem to deserve judgement. This is important because they have to have some justifiable reason for bringing you in; they have to witness behavior that warrants your "arrest." Everybody else doesn't have a title, they're just the villagers/expendable crewmen who live in the colony to give it the semblance of normalcy and who carry out the non-magical aspects of the testing.

Oh, wait . . . that's four. Whoops. Their names are totally changeable, so if sommet better occurs to one of yous, feel free to say so. Also, this is totally NOT "my" story, so please, please don't leave all the brainstorming to me. I don't have any concrete plot ideas or challenges, so . . . that is all.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Will the cult purposely bait the four of us into potentially bad situations, like loading Madison with a few heavy drinks and surrounding her with a couple assholes who try and hit on her? Or will they just be allowed to run around town at their own whim?

Also, it might be a good idea if our characters had something happen to them that makes them forget that where they are is not where they were supposed to be in the first place. Say, a short-term memory loss charm or something.

[Zephyriah]

Memory loss would not work for Tobias. However, it won't be difficult providing a reason for Tobias to get captured since Coronian government is already after him. And if this will take place in another region, it still won't be difficult for me to provide a good reason to this cool quest.

[Nymph and Dragon]

What I was thinking was that the whole point of these "Seekers" life is to go out and find people who deserve to be judged, so some have access to police records or governmental stuff, others sit around in questionable establishments following rumors and waiting for bad things to happen . . . somesuch. So either your Seeker could have been looking specifically for you, or (in the case of nobodies like Twyla) they'll get lucky in finding how naughty she is. It works either way, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The colony-thing is pretty much built like a prison, though not obviously so, and each person would be under constant unwavering supervision. They won't be told what's going on, but they will be forced to participate in the "activities". Again, our characters aren't going to be explicitly told what's going on, but it's not as if the Arbiters are working hard to hide the fact that they're weighing everything you do, because they are in charge and they do have vays of making you cooperate.

As far as the "activities" go, how do you guys think we should do them? In groups, individually, as staged competitions (which could add an extra layer to the personality judgement), or . . .

[Toy Soldier]

I think that the way to make this work and seem believable is to have this be a secretive government sponsored program, which would then take care of why such intrusive activities would be allowed. As far as activities go, I think we should go with staged competitions and group activities. We could do individual, but there would be limited interaction with regard to that route. Now if the individual activities affected other people in the colony then that would be something cool.

[Nymph and Dragon]

Hmm. The "secret government agency" would work, especially if it was one of those things that started out really official and legit before it turned into more of a cult thing.

So each of us gets a personal Arbiter once our Seeker gets us pegged and then the games begin! We can do team or individual events, and since we have magic we can do forced handicaps and tricksy mind games and all sorts of fun stuff.
Nothing particularly fun comes to mind at the moment . . . any ideas? Relays, boardgames, scavenger hunts . . . they could be lied to and told that the winner's going to be released to make sure they participate.

[Toy Soldier]

I like the boardgame idea. Perhaps there be a part of the quest where we're forced to actually take part in a live boardgame?

[Nymph and Dragon]

What if we did a boardgame theme? That would make sense because it would be structured and judicial, and we could do both live board-gaming as the pieces and table-top gaming as the players. Length-wise we're probably only going to be able to get in two or three challenges, right?

[Toy Soldier]

The board game theme sounds cool. As for the challenges, I think two or three will be enough since we'll obviously have three quality challenges and not something just thrown together.

[Nymph and Dragon]

Wow, this is the slowest conversation ever. I wish I had time for an AIM discussion so we could get this moving before we're old. :rolleyes:
Oh well.

Boardgame theme it is. What game? Chess is easiest, but also the most cliche. On the other hand, I've always been a big fan of Clue. And Scrabble, which isn't applicable. Do we make one up based loosely on another's rules or tailor a brand new copyright-able game that suits our characters?

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Please don't hate me...

But with three battles at the Pagoda, three other quests, and the Conquest Trials going on, I'm gonna' have to bail.

Sorry!!!

[Nymph and Dragon]

Please don't hate me...

But with three battles at the Pagoda, three other quests, and the Conquest Trials going on, I'm gonna' have to bail.

Sorry!!!

Bailer. I hate you.

Sorry for being so slackerly; it's midterms next week and I'm uber busy. I've been trying to think of how to do the boardgame stuff, and if I come up with anything I'll tell y'all about it, but I'm going to try to get this quest started anyway ASAP. It might be a while . . . as much as two weeks, if I don't finish some of my papers in the next few days . . . but it WILL happen.

BlackandBlueEyes, I still hate you. With the passion of a thousand high school crushes.