Blitz: The Jagged Masquerade

[The International]

This idea has been bouncing around in my head a day and I decided to strike while the iron's hot. Here's the Thread (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?23022-V-The-Jagged-Masquerade&p=185947#post185947)

The town of High Point has been bullied by a rogue cavalry unit from the Empire for a year now. They need a solution to their problem. After the last brutal attack by the cavalry unit a little girl sent carrier pigeons with a distress note and the town's coordinates in all eight directions of the compass rose.

What Vespasian intends on doing is teaching the people of High Point how to fight using pole arms and a bit of magic, thus turning them into the Swiss Reisläufer (http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_armies_swiss.html) of Althanas. What he needs though is someone strong enough to fend off the cavalry until the town is ready to fight. They'll attack every few days in between their encounters with the Rangers and it should be pretty straight forward. I'll set 'em up, you knock 'em down. I'm not looking to win a JC off of this or anything, so I'd like to play with the Blitz concept that Letho introduced with Deluge of The Dead.


The rules are simple and rather similar to The Cell in a way that it is required of all participants to post once every 24 hours. The difference is that this won't be a battle, but a quest, since I find battles without some serious history behind them repetitive and boring, and about as interesting as a Final Fantasy X random encounter. Also you're not eliminated for not posting in time. Instead you lose a quarter of your gold stash. And the next time you don't post in time you lose another quarter. And the third and last time you don't post in time, your character dies a gruesome death and you are eliminated. The gold is split between other players at the end of the thread. The eventual death you deal with any way you like. If you don't want to deal with reviving your character somehow, just disregard the events of the quest completely, I don't really care. Lastly, you get one "get out of the jail free" card, meaning you can miss the deadline for one time and one time only. But please try to notify your fellow writers in time that you won't be posting so they can get their posts up in time.

Now, I would need at least two more people for this, preferably people who I haven't wrote with yet. The reason for this is twofold: 1./ This will be a rather simple action-oriented quest and I don't want to deal with like three pages of history between characters just yet; 2./ I just want to write with some people I haven't wrote with before. But if there's no interest, I'll take just about anybody, I'm not picky.

While the theme with that one was straight up zombie killing, the theme here will be "defend the castle"... ish. So whose up for it?

[Zerith]

Defending a town from a cavalry unit? with polearms!?

Zerith was totally built to be in a thread like this, if you'll have me.

[The International]

You're definitely in! If you want to put in a post now feel free. I won't be starting the Blitz rules officially until the third player posts.

[Amen]

I've been waffling on this like all night. Now that Zerith is in, I know I'll kick myself if I don't at least throw my hat in.

I assume others will express their interest tomorrow morning, so I'll leave it up to you. If you'll have me I'm in, if somebody else expresses interest that you think will fit in better I won't be offended.

[The International]

Naw naw this is perfect. Zerith and Amen, you're in! This is now officially a discussion thread for the jagged masquerade, and since I got two participants way faster than I thought I would the Blitz can begin *looks at watch* NOW!

I set up the premise to get you guys there, but you'll have to find a way to get past the Empire horsies. If one of you wants to use a secret passage that comes from Akashima southeast that would be awesome!

[Amen]

Sorry for the length, I started having fun and got carried away.

[Zerith]

I just did a basic explanation of why Z would get involved. But since it's up, I assume we're onto the blitz now.

[The International]

Posted! I have six men on horseback heading to High Point. If Amen and Zerith are already there, they'll be able to take those six down.

As you can see, Vespasian's loyalty seems questionable, and his plans are very ambiguous. He's a spy, so I like making the reader wonder about him, but I am setting up a huge twist here right now.

Amen, it's your turn.

[Amen]

I love it.

[Amen]

I wasn't sure if Zerith wanted his character in High Point yet, so I did what I could to leave it open. If you need me to edit, let me know.

If he IS in High Point already, feel free to bunny Marcus kicking ass while you ride to the rescue. If he's not, International can describe the aftermath.

[Zerith]

Sorry, I had to work a few long, slow days at work. So I'm not as creative as I could be at the moment. So I just threw a small thing together to keep things moving.

Feel free to bunny Z alongside Marcus as they kick ass and whatnot.

[Amen]

Oh! Before I forget, and since Vespasian and Marcus are about to run into another again for the first time since their Citadel bout: I'm writing this as if it happens AFTER the events of Pirates of the Am'aleh Seas, and thus also after my current solo.

Marcus will have physically changed a lot, so it would not be far-fetched if V did not recognize him at first.

[The International]

There would more to recognizing someone than just visual cues. There's body language, voice, other things. Vespasian would at least recognize Marcus a little bit, especially if he's wearing the same attire.

Anyways, I've posted. Split the remaining three between the two of you then come to the town square where a crowd is gathering. Interact with the townspeople however you like. It would be cool to open a dialogue about what the townspeople should do about the situation while Marcus and Zerith are interacting with them. Some could consider abandoning to Akashima via a secret path (we need to set that secret path up). Some would consider sending a message straight to the Viceroys the same way the little girl did. Some would say fight. Some would say to turn the three new heroes in to appease the horsemen.

[Amen]

This was 1) way too close to the deadline and 2) an awful post.

Sorry about that!

I guess I sort of figured Zerith could post answers to the questions about the Rangers or...something. I'm not really sure, I didn't plan this out too well. The person approaching from behind at the end there was meant to be Vespasian.

[The International]

I thought it was a lovely post. Now all we need is for Zerith to get a word in and it'll be my turn again.

In the mean time I need to get to that other Blitz thread I'm in.

This is fun!

[Zerith]

Okay, I'll think over what Z could say and post after I finish work tonight.

[The International]

Uh oh.

[Zerith]

Yeah, my mind wasn't able to come up with anything. So I had to force a something out in hopes that it was better than nothing.

Whatever happens next is up to you guys, I just had Z suggest the whole "teaching the people how to use polearms" idea in order to keep things moving.

[The International]

AAAAAAAAND I'm late. Both Zerith and I owe you Amen lol

I had to lightly bunny Zerith to move things along. I hope it's okay with you.

@ Amen. You can tell them my name. As far as I see it this scene is over. The townspeople will be convinced that they have to take the fight to the Empire's cavalry. What I've imagined would follow is a training montage set to Eye of The Tiger. Here are a few ideas we can put out to start getting them all ready.

(They'll be using their farm tools for now.)
- Individual and small group tactics games with Marcus. He can show them how to fight one on one or in a group.
- Zerith can hold large group sessions in the city square or out in the fields
- Vespasian will be composing the formations

@ Zerith, You have two Ranger troops with you, right? I'd like for you to send them, with Vespasians money to Akashima via the secret passage mentioned earlier, and we'll use a few details from one of the missions we were considering for the Storyboard.

"The passing of Akashima’s late master weaponsmith Murakama Kashihiro left a void for his star apprentice, Nijo Ikku. Ikku has learned everything Murakama could teach him, but has yet to finish his required twenty years of labor as a smith to be considered a ‘master’. This mere inconvenience in semantics notwithstanding, he is a skilled forger of weapons, and he has developed an assembly line method to create good quality weapons in a relatively short period of time."

The Ranger troops can take the money to him, he'll make halberds and pikes and bring them back through the secret path.




PS the Cavalry can come to town at any time you guys wish.

[Amen]

I like it!

Quick question, since we haven't finished our battle yet. Should Marcus know Vespasian by name, or just by "V"?

There's plenty he can say about V's nature, so it doesn't matter much for my post, I just don't want Marcus to know Vespasian's full name if there's no way Vespasian would give it to him previously (being a spy, and having nearly chopped his arm off. And there's the whole issue of the attempt to catch him on fire. And he will have tried to drop a burning building on him). We should decide how friendly these two are, even if Marcus respects him regardless.

[Amen]

Sorry it was late. I got into it a little more than I thought I would.

Let me know if you'd like me to change the little bit Marcus knew about Vespasian.

[Zerith]

I'm really, REALLY sorry guys. With my grandmother being rushed to the hospital last week, I kinda put my life on hold in order to help my grandfather around the house.

Thankfully she's home, though now she'll have to deal with doctors and other medical stuff. But with all of stress behind my family, things are getting back to the way they were.

I will have a post up within 24 hours.

[The International]

No biggie. I was going to offer a pardon for 4th of July anyways.

[Zerith]

Sorry for the lackluster post, I still feel like I haven't found the energy yet. If you need me to change anything, let me know.

[The International]

@ Zerith. The idea of transporting the money through Akashima for the weapons is Vespasian's idea. It would be unrealistic for him not to have at least come up with that idea.

@ Amen. V would be preferred, and it's your decision as to how you want Marcus to view Vespasian. Vespasian's a good sport, so if he looses the battle he wont take it personally.

[Zerith]

I made the small edits you asked for. Z now tells the guards Vespasian will offer to give them the money, and that he's also the one that heard about the blacksmith. Feel free to have him give the guards the gold and send them on their way.

[Amen]

I made some minor edits, wherein Marcus identifies him only as V. The idea that he cautiously respects him remains, hopefully.