Recruitment: Dread Lord

[Vendredi]

Mission Title: Lingering Dread
Status: Available
Faction: Bladesingers
Requirements: Any number of participants; may be a quest or battle; available to one group at a time (first come, first serve); may be claimed again if previous group fails to kill the Dread Lord.

While Xem’Zund has died the final death, remnants of his power remain. The last known Dread Lord, Maeril Thyrrian, still reigns from the undead stronghold of Trenycë in northern Raiaera. The city is a festering boil of plague and poison, swarming with whatever remnants of the Corpse Horde that Thyrrian is able to control. While paling in compared to Xem’Zund’s power, he is still dangerous, and represents the last gasps of the shadow now receding from Raiaera, not to mention a constant thorn in the side of the Bladesingers. Short on manpower, the legendary Raiaeran guardians have stopped to recruiting mercenaries to assail the stronghold of Trenycë and kill Thyrrian.
Battle Option: A player may choose to side with Maeril Thyrrian and defend him against the warrior(s) seeking to destroy him.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Confirming participation.

To expand on what Ven wrote, Maddy is siding with Maeril in order to build his confidence and grant her access to Xem's books that he has, and give up the locations of the others. In order to obtain that information, she will help him achieve his own goals.

[Antheruin]

Expressing interest for Antheruin. Will provide details on side via PM.

[Ioder]

I'll be throwing myself into the mix.

[Antheruin]

I'll be returning to this in a bit, need to change my setup and link my profile.

[Vendredi]

Bard needs to come in and lay out his plans. :')

[Antheruin]

I'm going to do that Vendredi, right after I finish voting and add my profile. Then after I do that, we can discuss things.

[Kryos]

What is the timeline for this? Will it be starting in the next few days? Weeks? I am considering having Kryos re-enter Althanas through this, but need to keep my momentum rolling right now, else I will probably vanish for another few months.

[Abomination]

HeLlO, i aM uP fOr sOmE mOtHeR f***** dReAd LoRd HuNtInG : o)

[Vendredi]

@Kyros -- No idea! Talk to Bard!
@Rayse -- No idea! Talk to Bard!

In all seriousness, probably starting the thread within the next week or two. Anthe/Bard has been working on some backstory, so they need their say. :)

[Antheruin]

@Kryos I’m hoping to have this started by Friday at the latest.

@ Abomination's I have no idea what you said.

While I’m willing to except both of you, I don’t think we should accept any more after this. We’ll get too crowded. Just saying. Kryos and Abomination's if you’d post up a line saying whether you want to be on the side of the Dred Lord or on his attackers, I’d appreciate it. I should have the initial summery of a plan for action up by noon, was working on it last night, but we lost power for a bit, and that threw me off my stride a little.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Oh my gosh

Let him in

Let Draug Remi play

*puts on Maddy's fighting trousers*

[Abomination]

Bard's computer doesn't like clown-speak, I see. To clarify for your programs and listening apparatus, yes I will to be AGAINST the Dread Lord.

[Kryos]

Count me in then. I will take the side of the attackers for affiliation, although due to Kryos' current story, I could start on the Dread Lords side. In the end, though, he will side against him. His last known actions were involved with the Dawnbringers when they were taking down Xem'Zund.

Working with others will keep me on top of everything for with regards to time, and I should be able to be flexible if we need Kryos to serve as a unique perspective and role. Even I don't know where he has been for the last two years IC.

[Bard]

Vendredi, got your PMs, and have listened to them. Give me a bit to talk to Anther for just a bit.

I'm seriously thinking of splitting this into two threads, the quest aspect that involves stuff leading up to the fight with the Dred Lord, and a second thread that's the actual battle; thoughts?

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I think that's a good idea. One thread for the questers, one thread for those who would rather battle. Scratch both itches, makes the story easier to follow, and breaks us up into two groups that way we can run them concurrently.

[Abomination]

Whatever you want, mang. I can do both/either.

Also, for a bit of self-promotion, this is a good resource: http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?27732-Raiaera-Reborn

Although if you want to consider this to be the last 'Dread Lord' that's fine, the ones i listed in that thread aren't really interested in carrying on Xem'zund's work anyway.

[Vendredi]

I like two threads! :')

[Antheruin]

@Draug Remi, actually some of the information from that thread is what we are using to help plan this, but thanks for the link. Bard and I are spinning it that beyond reasons specific to this thread, most of the other Death lords are held up in the plague lands, which makes it extremely difficult to launch attacks against them, while Maeril Thyrrian, for various reasons is not.

And two threads it is then. Back to working on summery. Will have it up ASAP. No seriously.

[Ioder]

I'm going to be participating and bringing a faction of my own men to the party. With respect to my men, I volunteer their use as common news for this thread.

These men are the crew of The Risen and faithful religious zealots who would lay down their lives to purge the evils of the world. They all owe life debts to Ioder for one reason or another and believe him to be their uncontested leader. So if portrayed with dignity please use them to further our ranks.

[Bard]

After talking to Antheruin I’ve been asked to take this over. I’ll be addinto to it, but not changing anything in it, until discussion occurs.

Let it be known, this represents everything known to date, based on information provided to me by all players involved. To lay one concern to bed super quickly, I’m only going to be responsible for four NPCS, one of which I need to still talk to Cards or Tobias about, just to make sure of a few things. When I post as one of these NPCs I will alter my name accordingly to that NPC, so there shouldn’t be any questions to who the main perspective is. If there is a question or a concern, please post it here, or PM me about it. If you have any questions that you want to PM to Anther, pm them to me as well, as she still isn’t getting the e-mail messages that’s she’s got a PM. I’m also on almost every day, so I’m more likely to encounter them before she is.

Now, having said all that, let’s talk quest.
Background notes
(stuff that happened before the thread)

Vendredi’s characters, An'xier & her brother Gwaine.
1. At the beginning of the thread, An'xier (or Annie) knows that her brother is alive, and has an inkling that he might be on Xem'zund's side. However, she is unwilling to accept that, and she does not know that he's currently with the Dread Lord. In addition, she is recovering from a personal failure (in which she chose herself selfishly over duty), which'll be laid out in a separate thread.

2. In this prelude thread, Gwaine was stealing a piece of knowledge hidden in the College Arcana (related to the Tap, and Soul magic). He would have met Annie and learnt that she's alive. At this point, he hasn't really began to think about how to use her in his plots. However, he has a gut feeling that she's usable. At the end of that prelude thread, when escaping from the College Arcana, he would be injured.

3. I'm ok with Annie being recalled back to the army, and with there being an NPC overhead. However, her relationship with the rest of the army would be terrible. This is in my plans as well. She gets coerced back by her old squad, after much argument. Once back, her old squad finds that she has changed. She's not the person she used to be. She's rougher, less willing to abide by the rules, and more prone to bursts of temper and cold blooded acts. She used to be rough as well, but never to this extent. Her squad gets sent out to a number of the dirtier, dryer "clean-up" missions. During these, she starts to chance into Gwaine. Sometimes he's the enemy. Sometimes he drops clues about himself, and about the Dread Lord.
100

Blac And Blue Eyes character will be Maddy.

1. Maddy makes a deal with Maeril Thyrrian, in which the pair reach an agreement that Maeril will reveal the other known locations of Xem'Zund's tomes to Maddy once she helps him fully unlock the secrets in the one he is in possession of. She will be helping him do so with Pode's magic and her own Briarheart abilities and knowledge of plagues, modifying
and evolving the work of Xem'Zund into something new entirely--or so she hopes.

And so, Madison will do her damnedest to keep Maeril alive until he reveals the locations of the other tomes to her. She would prefer to do this without
making an enemy out of him, if at all possible. That's why she's willing to offer her abilities to help make his zombies harder, better, faster, stronger
in exchange for access to Xem's other books.
100

Ioder’s character will be Ioder.

Ioder will be recruited, as a mercenary by the Raiaerans.
100

Kryos’ character will be Kryos.

The fact that Maeril Thyrrian, and some of his subordinates, is engaged in a ritual involving souls would serve as a hook to interest your character. At least given your character’s description and background (more on this to be described below). Having him start on the Dred lord’s side would be interesting, as your character might naturally be drawn to how these beings are using soul magic. It would help if you were willing to draft up some kind of explanation of how he might have gotten there, since the fact that he originally fought against Maeril Thyrrian’s master might be a point of contention. I don’t recall Maeril being there when you guys took on the forgotten, but it’s been a couple of months since I listened to that thread, so I’m not entirely sure.
100

Abomination’s character will be Draug Remi.
Mercenary hired by the Raiaeran military.
100


Antheruin’s character will be Antheruin.

Antheruin will be one of the two military officers assigned to this mission. One of her two allies( see background), Gilgalion Searabonnen will be telepathically providing her with information throughout this mission. While Gilgalion Searabonnen was initially assigned to the spellsinger Elmirah, he was transferred given his abundant knowledge on soul magic. Thanks to information given by this individual the current mission was planned.

100

Bard will be responsible for in the quest, Gilgalion Searabonnen; Lellyn Erralin, bladesinger & commander of the mission; and lastly faust Caundur an Alerian elf associated with the Wanderers in Starlight (while I won’t be going through the formal process of character creation, as all these characters are NPCs, I’ve not finished writing up descriptions on all three).
100

Plot

Thanks to a number of differing sources it has come to the attention of the higher echelons of the Raiaeran military, that Xem'Zund’s lieutenant Maeril Thyrrian is engaged in a two part plot that might be the end of Raiaera as the elves have known it. The first is that the necromancer is building up an army of undead, vastly superior in both intellect, and abilities than previously encountered. This in of itself would be bad enough, if the second plot hadn’t come to light.

It is known that Maeril Thyrrian plans to somehow utilize the city of Beinost and Eluriand to further damage the Tap. It is not entirely known how he will do this, only that the means involve the numerious souls of the undead that went into constructing the city in the first place. An unconfirmed rumor has that his spellcasters will not be utilizing the Tap, but souls, to fuel their magic, while the bardic magic of the elves will be greatly affected. Another unconfirmed rumor has it that he may even have a means of tearing the favric of reality and opening up a portle to the Nether relm, allowing horrors to spill forth as yet unseen.

the plot outside of rumors

With the exception of the portle to the Nether, the rest of what has been obtained is utterly true. The necromancer is indeed building an superior undead army, and does indeed plan to conduct a ritual that will use the undead of Beinost and the minuscule remnant of the enchantments at Eluriand, heavily modified to further damage the Tap. While the impact of this damage, if successful, won’t impact magi using the Tap further away from Raiaera, the affect on those attempting to call on Tap magic in Raiaera, will have considerable difficulties in doing so, giving the undead forces a considerable advantage. For this reason, and others, this mission has been planned.

100
Plans for the quest thread

What has been mentioned as goals by certain members of the party will be summarized here, as well as the basic plot as it currently stands, this is for the quest only, and not the battle (I expect this to change somewhat after discussion).

Maddy’s goals for this is mostly gain as much info related to the books and material left by Xem, and of course fight fight.

Antheruin’s goal for this, is to try and capture the soul of Maeril Thyrrian and see as much of his power destroyed as possible. To further establish her character and gain a couple of allies.
Vendredi’s goals for this, are as follows:

Over the course of the thread. Annie has a discovery arc (both external and internal). She loses one of her squad members to an underling of the Dread Lord during a mission, and finds herself capable of cold-blooded torture and savagery. At the same time, she confirms that her brother is with the Dread Lord. Both events break her a little. However, because of Gwaine's info-leak, Annie believes that Gwaine is still on her side.

Over the course of the thread, Gwaine has a discovery arc. He sees Maddie, and thinks this is what using yourself in experiments can lead to. He sees Maddie as a warning sign. However, he realizes that he's not afraid, and even willing to use the people closest to him in his plans and plots, and that includes his sister. At some point, his information leak gets caught by his master. He lies his way out of trouble, but his master is not so merciful. He finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place, and hardens his heart to sacrifice his sister, if necessary. He doesn't know what to feel about that (but does it regardless).

At the end of the thread, the Dread Lord dies. Gwaine is released, and may find himself "dying a second time" during this process. He has an epiphany, and inherits a shard of the Tap power, and ends up obliterating Annie's squad because of his inability to control this ability. Then he disappears before his name could get out. Annie loses her squad and everyone she cares about, and thinks that she is a failure. However, the world thinks she's a hero because she helped save Beinost and was part of the group that destroyed the Dread Lord. She has now given up on getting Gwaine back as he was. She goes hunting for him -- partially for revenge, and partially to understand. Gwaine is off learning to control what he has inherited (soul-magic-esque/necromancer things). Setup for my next thread with this pair of characters.

Now, it should be noted that “killing” the Dred lord doesn’t mean he’s necessarily dead, since frankly Maeril Thyrrian seems to either be undead, or prepared to undergo the ritual to become undead. This is something to be considered.

The two sides

For the bards[/b]

Antheruin
An'xier
Ioder
Draug Remi
Lellyn Erralin
faust Caundur
Ioder’s fighting force
Various soldiers under the command of An'xier & Antheruin

Dred Lord forces:
Maddy
Kryos
Gilgalion Searabonnen.
Maeril Thyrrian
A lot of undead

In the case of the writers of Draug Remi
& Kyros, if there’s anything specific you want out of this story, please let me know. Now before I open up the floor, for discussion, a few questions I would like considered are:

Do you want me to control/ write for Maeril Thyrrian
In the battle thread?

I ask, because back when Antheruin and I were discussing this, back before we knew it was going to be a mission, she thought I should write for him. I leave that up entirely to you all.

For those writers spinning part of the story on the part of Maeril Thyrrian’s side, any issue with the idea that slaying blow comes from someone expected to be on his side? Obviously, Whether this is the final death blow for the Dred lord, or just a temporary set back is something only to be decided by our score.

2. I know I’ve probably missed things, so feel free to point them out. So thoughts?

[Abomination]

Whatever Draug's reasoning is, I don't really want to involve The Cult. I'm still not sure what he's like in a Post-Cassandra world, especially since she's going all godlike and all memories of her are reshuffled as if she was a deity the whole time. His motivations here are not really important, in any case, he's a wildcard after all. Here's a few ideas for how Draug can be involved:

1) He teams up with the do-gooders from the get-go, or once they reach the Plaguelands, as one of the mercenaries hired. He could either go as himself or incognito, since he can shapeshift. Bonus points if he wants to protect his party for some reason? Really he just needs an audience to go "holy shit" when he rips trees out of the ground and throws them at zombies.

2) He arrives to the party at a later date as you speculated, although I would miss out on juicy interactions between Draug and people he DOESN'T want to kill, something which people have been asking me to do.

3) Draug is helping Madison + Maeril, and betrays them later. Predictable, though.

[Bard]

1. Works for me, will message Anther, but I'm sure she'll be fine with it. Does anyone else has any objections?

[Kryos]

I do like the aspect of souls being a draw for Kryos, and makes sense for him. More on that below.

Post Dawnbringers:
Kryos exact actions during his involvement with the Dawnbringers is not clear, mainly due to my absence just when things were getting good. For the sake of continuity, I will leave it that way. Ingwe, Flames of Hyperion's character, left that battle with a broken mind a soul, wandering aimlessly. Due to the massive amount of devastation and magical outpouring that took place at the final battle with Xem, I was thinking of having Kryos be in a similar state. While his soul remained intact, areas of his mind were damaged. This includes parts of his memory to include the majority of his involvement with the Dawnbringers, although he still remembers names of people he has otherwise forgotten. He knows his own first name as well as his race and affiliated powers, although has lost some of his ability to fargaze into the realm of souls and use the "soul fire" abilities (probably going to re-work those anyway.) So, he survived the battle with injury to memory and ability.

Connection with Maeril:
How he survived may be a key to how he becomes affiliated with Maeril. Several options here: he was trapped somehow in the aftermath and was discovered by Maeril or one of Maeril's subordinates after the last battle. Captured, possibly while unconscious or otherwise, and when inspected further is able to use his connection with souls to be allowed to live. Perhaps his soul didn't fragment like other's should have during the battle, and that alone causes curiosity for Mearil. Conversely, Kryos isn't trapped, but is alone, broken memory and all, and trying to survive the hordes of undead in Raiaera when he is found. Maeril may have gone to the site himself to confirm Xem's death and thus they meet within a day or two of the battle.

Motivations:
Whatever the interest that Maeril has for Kryos and how Kryos can perhaps help in his efforts, Kryos will most be concerned with his memory. He will remember key figures, some of which are dead and others simply gone, that he feels holds the keys to regaining his memory. He will have no way to know if they are alive or dead, but he will suspect that some will certainly be dead. Because he can no longer see into the realm of souls (although he is able to see the souls of the living), working with the Necromancer may provide answers to getting these abilities back, as well as provide avenues to getting his memory back as well. In addition, due to the lack of memory of the events of the Corpse War, and other scattered details, Kryos wouldn't have a problem working with an evil necromancer for his own goals.

So, the motivation and drive is there, and in recap the way that Kryos ends up with Maeril is probably just happen stance after the battle with Xem. The situation remains for two years as both Kryos and Maeril and seeking answers along similar fields, with Kryos himself seeing his memory and abilities, and Maeril perhaps using Kryos as an additional lens in studying souls and perhaps interested in Kryos' lost abilites, hoping to utilize them when they return.

Hopefully this provides a good platform to continue planning with regards to my character. The broken memory and abilities I am pretty certain I want to have regardless of anything that happens, but everything else can be flexible and changed.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Bard, if you want to focus on the Quest part more, I can take control of Maeril for the battle thread. I have a pretty solid personality profile for him scribbled down for my notes for the solo I'm working on. A battle-hardened general, very calculating and intelligent in his decisions, but starting to grow desperate as he feels himself slowly losing control of everything he's worked hard to control ever since Xem big the bit one. The weight of his loyalty to the Forgotten One and his own personal ambition is starting to make him weary, but refuses to show it to his subordinates.

[Bard]

I like, and that way I don't have to go into my first fight with only the knowledge of listening to others fight. If no one else objects, I say go for it.

[Vendredi]

Whoo! No objections!

[Antheruin]

How he survived may be a key to how he becomes affiliated with Maeril. Several options here: he was trapped somehow in the aftermath and was discovered
by Maeril or one of Maeril's subordinates after the last battle. Captured, possibly while unconscious or otherwise, and when inspected further is able
to use his connection with souls to be allowed to live. Perhaps his soul didn't fragment like other's should have during the battle, and that alone causes
curiosity for Mearil.

I like this idea, personally. and it can give you in an 'in' to work with Gilgalion Searabonnen.

[Bard]

Kryos, just listened to your PM. The soul fire ability would work great, as it could mean you could work with Gilgalion Searabonnen, as Antheruin said.

Given that Gilgalion Searabonnen is a telepath, he could possibly prompt certain memories to be restored, wittingly or unwittingly.

also, Kyros can be helpful in crafting IC posts explaining what is going on. We can either discuss that more via PM, or here. I want everyone to be included in crafting this.

[Kryos]

I would love to be able to provide the IC narrative through Kryos, but would definitely appreciate discussion on how best to do that. Having been gone for so long, I am doing what I can to get up to speed, but I am mostly reading through summaries more than actual quests, where I can see exactly the kind of world Althanas currently is.

May I also be referred to learn more about Gilgalion Searabonnen? He is the only one so far who I don't understand his role. I initially thought he was on the Bladesinger side, but then he is on the Dread Lord side in the posts above. Clarification would be appreciated.

And I really like the telepath and memories idea. If Gilgalion is bad, is it possible to plant false memories? That might be an interesting plot device we could utilize; however, it wouldn't be necessary.

As for the soul flames, the ability will still be there, but I am reworking the manifestation to something with a bit more, finesse.

[Antheruin]

Let me start by telling you that Gilgalion Searabonnen is first mentioned in Antheruin’s backstory. It was initially planned by me, and agreed to by Bard, that a story arch would be launched that would culminate in the battle against the Dred Lord. Events in our lives delayed those plans, my increased work load and Bard’s cancer issues, and then being shot around Thanksgiving on top of that. That is neither here nor there, save only that it helps to explain why certain things haven’t been done.

To answer your question Gilgalion Searabonnen, isn’t serving the Bard Council, he’s working with Antheruin, it just so happens that to a certain extent Antheruin’s overall plans, and the Bardic Council align. Antheruin might be a soldier in the Raiaeran military, but some of the thing’s she’s done, and some she will do, would have her dishonorably discharged at the very least. Bard is working on his character sheet, but to give you a little history, Gilgalion Searabonnen was a friend of Antheruin’s lover Silontol Ullume, and was a member of a group that started studying the interplay between psionic, blood magic, & soul magic before the beginning of the war with the forgotten.


According to official military records, the half-elves Gilgalion Searabonnen & Vingilótë Meliane was slain during the takeover of Trenycë. This is in truth a falsehood, as both joined with Haraldur Rekajaven, before the cities take over, and both currently serve under the spellsinger Elmirah.


At some point, not yet specified, Gilgalion Searabonnen would start working under the Dred Lord directly, given his knowledge of soul magic. Gilgalion Searabonnen, was and is, a plant for Antheruin. He loves her as a dear friend and is very much caught up by her natural charisma. He has every intention of going along with the Dred Lord’s plans and in seeming the dutiful subordinate with an ax to grind against the Raiaerans, all the while providing Antheruin with what information he can, and will betray the Dred lord when the time is right to do so. In this case with the soul ritual, which will consequentially damage the undead forces within the city considerably.

As for keeping up the deception, Gilgalion Searabonnen doesn’t like most Raierans.

His mother was a half-elf that was sold to a Salvarian merchant, when her uncle needed money to pay debts accrued by gambling. This same uncle lied and told his brother the girl’s father that the woman was killed during a mugging. Gilgalion was born and remained a slave until Silontol Ullume purchased his freedom. Thus, it’s not hard to see why he’s so loyal.

Gilgalion Searabonnen used his telepathic powers, along with a host of actions during the initial part of the war, to earn the good graces of the Salvarian and Death lord Haraldur Rekajaven, and has served in a variety of capacities ever since that point. He steadfastly believes that all of his actions are necessary to build a better Raiaera. The ends justify the means, and certain evils are necessary for the greater good, etc.

He’s not going to be an easy person to get a read on, because on the surface he typically projects a highly rational air of someone that’s always interested in the next discovery, in understanding that next peace in the puzzle, either arcane, or scientific, and thus, most see his workings with the necromancer as an extension of that interest.

It’s not hard for him to project this, because this part of his nature, the rest is buried, deep. If you want false memories planted, talk to Bard about it, since he’ll be writing for him, he’ll be on later, I’m sure, but this should give you a little bit of something to work with in the meantime.

[Kryos]

Got it. Makes a lot more sense. Thanks for filling me in.

[Bard]

Anther asked me about these last night, but forgot to post them. I confirmed that she did, so am posting them now for a general vote and response:

1. With regards to the separate battle thread, do we want to simply have a link to it in the quest thread, or do you guys want to write it up in the creative endeavors thread and then we bring it over?

2. Do you guys want to wait until after the battle to have the ritual go awry, or during the battle?

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

1) Just link it over in the other thread, that way we're writing it in the correct forum anyway

2) I don't care.

[Kryos]

1) No preference.

2) Also no preference. I'm assuming the ritual that goes awry will result in the weakening of the undead, right?

[Bard]

in this area, yes.

There willalso be some localized destruction as excess energy is released. .

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Right, so, before I get overwhelmed with the massive amount of information here, can we get an organized list of who is going to be in the quest thread, and who is going to be in the battle thread?

[Bard]

Eyes, I'm not going to be writing in the battle thread. As people answer I'll put it together and put it in a separate post. I'll also shoot you a PM with the same.

My apologies for the inconvenience folks, but here’s an attempt to rectify a few issues. One, since none of you have written with me before, and I’ve only started one thread here with Drum that folks can actually see as a form of IC writing, you don’t know of a habit of mine. I like to post location, sublocation if necessary, date and so forth, in first post related to a scene. This will be particularly important as we have two groups, and will be moving about. Even more so, since I’ll be handling three NPCs.

In other words, you can expect to see something like this, regularly throughout my postings:

Office of Special Operations
Eluceliniel
Day of Galatirion, Spring 1816.
(Marching Orders)

Then I’ll begin the post from the perspective of a character. As setting and time changes, like when I do a post from the perspective of Gilgalion Searabonnen I’ll start it with mentionin something like Ritual site, Trenycë, and go on from there. This way people will have temporal and location markers in which to work from. Other people can do this, or not, but I’d prefer if you used some marker in your post to reflect whether you are with the force asigned by the Bardic Council, or working with Maeril Thyrrian (this might make judging easier).

Now Kryos, you and I as Gilgalion Searabonnen will be playing off each other regularly, so if you have any questions of me, PM me or ask them here. That goes for everyone else.

Now for posting order, Antheruin has requested that she either go kind of in the middle, or last. I have no preference, but will need to post at least twice, since I’ll be covering NPCs from both sides, so who wants to go when?

[Kryos]

I can be flexible when it comes to posting order, although I would prefer to go close to when Gilgalion goes. One of my pet peeves in writing is when the story bounces around to much--it messes to much with the Continuity too much. We are, after all, telling a grand story, so the flow should be somewhat logical. With that in mind, we could either start with the Bardic Council issuing the mission/starting the mission, which gives the intros to the characters of the council, and then jump to show what the Necromancer forces are up to. Or conversely, we could show a small teaser, from the perspective of one of the characters on the Necromancer's side, that builds up some mystery, intrigue, and some general, "oh, snap, that isn't good," and then go the the response with the Bardic forces getting organized and moving out.

And I suppose I can get started with some questions Bard, although I suppose if you wanted to respond via PM that would be fine as well (leaving some mystery for the other players to enjoy firsthand as we post.) I guess the first thing would be that, on Gilgalion's and Kryos' initial posts, what will be happening in terms of content? I don't know if there is a lot of planned content already discussed before I joined up, but the sooner I can start thinking of what will actually be going on in out posts, the better. I am looking forward to writing with you. Also, will someone be posting as Maeril himself in the quest? I know someone will play him in the battle thread. Otherwise, will it just be Kryos, Gilgalion and Maddy posting on the Necromancer's side?

[Bard]

Kryos are you also going to be in the battle thread?

[Kryos]

Kryos are you also going to be in the battle thread?

It would certainly make sense for me to be there. I could be involved in a role that betrays Maeril, especially when he comes to term with some aspects of death that I have discussed with you previously. He is a capable fighter, and might also prove key in getting the Bardic force out of the city/fortress. Either way, Kryos is more than up for some fighting, although he will probably only be intending on killing Maeril or undead, unless if his own life is in immediate peril.

[Antheruin]

Thanks Bard for catching my oversight.

As for posting for the quest, I think, personally, that a teaser would work good, with Bard, Kryos, Vendredi's character, and possibly BABE, then we switch gears to the Bardic Council, I don't really care about order here either, but would just suggest that it be Vendredi's female elf character, possibly me, then Ioder, then Abomination, and then Bard last.

Now, according to Bard,as of last night, for the battle thread we have: Abomination, Kryos, BABE, & Ioder; meaning the only person I'm not sure about is Vendredi.

Vendredi are you going to be in the quest and the battle thread, or just the quest thread?

Bard will be PMing BABE with the list of battle players later after his check up.

So, did I miss anything?

[Abomination]

I'm a little confused as to what exactly is supposed to take place in 'the battle thread' and 'the quest thread' and what differences they have and how they're related. As part of the Against party, wouldn't my involvement happen early on?

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I think for those in the battle thread, it would be easiest if I set up the idea of Maeril going to perform the ritual in my opening post of the battle thread, then we have him exit the scene until the last round of posts in that thread. I say this because his fate is decided based on the scores of the threads, rather than the actions that take place inside them.

That way the four or five of us in the battle thread can just focus on doing what we do best--providing an awesome conflict with tons of sweet action. The Quest thread participants can interrupt the ritual if they want, but the battle thread should be focused on the bigger battle with the stronger characters in it.

[Abomination]

I still don't quite understand, but I do have some requests and maybe those will help others to understand what I'm saying to say. Namely, as fun as it would be to just show up post 1 and start destroying stuff, it's not all that interesting. I see Draug in this as a disguised mercenary, helping out the party of Good and trying to pass off as normal, since they are the only ones that could lead him to the Dread Lord. I want to try a bit of character development instead of raaargh crush kill destroy etc.

[Bard]

I’m going to send a PM with this information in it to everyone.

Just as a precaution.

To make sure everything is as clear as I can try and make it, this thread started out as a quest in planning and scope, and a portion of it has continued as such . One group of players were goint to represent forces allied with the Bardic Council, and one group was going to be allied with the Dred Lord.

Since that time it has become two threads, to be run consecutively, one that is the quest that deals with events leading up to the battle with Maeril, and events related to dismantling the ritual, and another thread that deals with the battle with Maeril itself.

In other words, there is thread A, which is a quest thread, and a thread B, which is a battle thread. One thread. IC timewise, thread B (battle thread), takes place after much of thread A (quest thread), takes place. This battle thread will involve some of the characters from the quest thread, but not all the characters from the quest thread. Essentally the party’s are going to split up, one to battle Maeril or defend Maeril, while others will try and keep the ritual from completion etc.

100
Cast of characters | threads they belong in | Side
Maddy | Both? | On Maeril’s side all the way
Kryos | Both | Maeril’s side for quest, turns traitor at battle
Gilgalion Searabonnen | quest only | hidden traitor to Maeril’s side
Anther | Quest only | BC all the way
An'xier | Quest? | BC all the way
Ioder | Both? | BC all the way
Draug Remi | Both? | BC all the way
Lellyn Erralin (NPC) | quest only | BC until he dies.
faust Caundur(NPC) | Quest only | BC all the way


I have question marks by Maddy, Draug Remi, and Ioder, because I’m not absolutely sure you want to be in both. As this get’s updated, I’ll edit, and then resend pms. If this doesn’t clarify matters let me know.

[Abomination]

I think I want to be in both until the split happens.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

This may have gotten a lot bigger than I originally anticipated and far wider in scope than I feel comfortable properly writing for.

I think I'm gonna' duck out, guys. Sorry.

[Abomination]

I'm out as well if Madison is out.

[Bard]

I do apologize for this, but the writer for Antheruin, who is the main reason for why I took up the management of this thread, is pulling out of Althanas. This is totally unexpected. I'll be getting back with you all, over the next couple of days to see if any of this can be salvaged. Again I'm sorry for all the issues that this has caused.

[Kryos]

Regardless of what happens, I think I want to proceed with this quest. It has given me wonderful opportunity to figure out how to re-introduce my character into Althanas. Remember guys, we can always pull back a bit. Battles have happened in quest threads in the past, and we can figure out a way to make it easy on everyone. I will be waiting to see what news comes from Bard and Antheruin.

[Ioder]

I'll be dropping this thread as well. If this this is presented in a simpler fashion I'll reconsider.

[Bard]

With Antheruin's leaving of the site a much simplified version of the quest will be drafted. I should have something up by Sunday, and we can go from there.

[Vendredi]

If Kryos and I are the only ones still in it, we should probably just hammer things out with Bard's inputs around canonity.

[Bard]

As Antheruin’s writer is no longer present, I would like to briefly outline my original thoughts for what I’ve lossely described as the Dred Lord Story Arche. Originally I thought having the writers have separate threads, either in solo or in groups, that explain how they wind up in Trenycë would be a good thing, and indeed Eyes has started one for Maddy. For those writers not much interested in this, they could join up with a group, write a few posts and these threads, but essentially wait it out until we got to the battle thread. For those interested another quest thread that described the after math could be written as well.

Initially I wanted the Death Lady Elmirah, AKA the spellsinger Elmirah there as well, who would continue the early stages of the ritual after Maeril Thyrrian leaves.

Thus, There would be two battles, a ritual battle, which I really wanted to do, with groups not only engaging in direct spell battle, but also trying to disrupt elements related to the ritual, and the fight, fight, fight, associated with Maeril Thyrrian.

The part that got discarded was that both the ritual battle, and the battle associated with Maeril Thyrrian, would be based on the score of the thread. What also got discarded was the idea that even though I’d be writing for both sides, dice rolls would be influencing my actions, so its possible that any number of the NPCs, even all of them could wind up dead by the time the battle was over, although death is hardly permanent for the side associated with Maeril Thyrrian.

Antheruin’s writer didn’t like some of this and as a friend, and possibly a bit of a push over in this regard, I acquiesced to her wishes.

So, Gilgalion Searabonnen will not be betraying his superiors, and telepathically contacting the group, since Gilgalion Searabonnen, as I had initially created him had no attachments to the party. Antheruin snatched that and added it to her background, and I went along with it, because I wasn’t going to be like no you can’t have that.

So after all that, who is still interested in doing this? If you still want to bow out, after all of this, I’ll understand.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I still think I'm gonna bow out.

Thank you, though.

[Kryos]

So who is still game? I will be, as Kryos is currently there with Maeril. I will be doing a solo as a reintroduction, then a joint recruitment into Tarot with Maddy and Cards, and then this will be chronologically next. What say you?

[Bard]

I'm still in, just busy with a new job. Unfortunately, I'll be pretty busy the next couple of weeks, but will try and have a post up by the 23rd.