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balance_ooc2020-01-28 06:22 pm
balancemod) wrote in balance_ooc2020-01-28 06:22 pm
Field Mission 7: The Queen of Hearts, Call to Arms
 1. THE ENCROACHING TIDES Three weeks past the celebration of H.R.H. The Queen of Heart's annual celebratory commemortating event of her coronation, the ground begins to violently shake with an unknown pulse. All throughout the kingdom, from the reaches of the Emberwharf to the tiny hamlet of Harrowyn, it's felt. For those of you who've begun to reclaim your memories, you know something just isn't right. The way the world churns, the lack in spots of your own detailed memories, the apprehension and dread that it brings... all of it seems to be one big sign of trouble. Karsus, now known to all as Merlin, the cryptic and helpful (questionable) wizard, resides in the Enchanted Forest, awaiting the Lady of the Lake to give him some sort of sign that she's still out there. As you may have guessed, she's actually Mystra, in hiding, and her role in this story is more important now than ever. Does she know who she is? Is she hating on Magi*Mari as much as everyone else? It's hard to tell. But time is starting to become a scarce resource. You look out to the horizon, and you notice something out of place. The Expanse. It's encroaching at an alarming rate. Around the perimeter of the wall, towns are engulfed into it and lost entirely. This star is dying, becoming consumed. The Evil Queen was right; there's no telling when this would happen, but it was always something that was destined to unfold. And this time, when you look out into the great abyss, it looks back at you. Eyes watching you- all of you, observing. If you haven't recovered your memories by now, a few of them might come rushing in. You can almost make it out. The thing that you've been told to fight. The thing that's been hunting Lucretia and her crew for 100 years. The Hunger's here, and waiting... just outside the bounds of this illusory world. It's time to put a plan that started a year ago into action. It's time to bring magic back to Faerun and take back your stories. But where is that relic? |
AWAKEN: LUCRETIA (CHARISMATIC - MAX OF 3)
SIGNUPS
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you know it's a big deal when sans is bringing up responsibilities
aka I'm signing sans up
(but he was in the last cta so if anyone who wasn't signs up I'll step back)
YOUR TEAM IS...
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SUBMIT PLANS HERE
Plans are due by February 4th at 6pm ET.
Team anime + a skeleton GO!
Monika and Honoka will be trying to secure a private audience with the Queen using their (now fake) royal titles, using the excuse of an emergency. If that fails, Sans will sneak them into the castle. He has been popping in and out as the Cheshire Cat for quite some time now, so he knows the layout quite well. He can also use Digital Phantom to help with them sneaking through. Additionally, Honoka can provide distractions with Minor Illusion and Prestidigitation if needed and if things REALLY go to shit, she can also use Sleep to put anyone on alert to sleep, but that will be 100% a last resort if it’s looking like they can’t get in any other way.
Before they enter the Queen of Hearts’s throne room, Honoka will use Bardic Inspiration to help boost the group’s morale as well as hopefully making convincing arguments to remind Lucretia of who they truly are.
Monika will approach the Queen of Hearts with her head held high, but the energy she brings to the room is much different than the many times she’s met with the other Queen. She not nearly as abrasive, but she seems almost desperate to have this talk.
“Listen to me, Your Highness…. Lucretia. We’ve been enemies for so long now. At least, we’ve believed that. But none of that matters anymore. You must believe me when I say that the real enemy is out there! It’s the Expanse… the Hunger! If we don’t do something, it’s going to destroy everything including us! And I know I’ve bothered you about it for so long… but I don’t care about my title, my queendom, my… whatever anymore!”
As if to prove a point, Monika raises the crown off her head and tosses it to the Queen of Hearts’s feet. It clatters loudly, but she doesn’t even look at it. She’s looking Lucretia dead in the eyes.
“I’m not the Evil Queen, and I never truly was. Sans isn’t the Cheshire Cat, Honoka isn’t the Sugarplum Fairy, and you aren’t the Queen of Hearts. We’ve wasted too much time already, and we need to stop the Hunger now.” She takes a deep breath and casts Sanctuary around them. “I know this all sounds crazy, but you must believe us. Would I be able to stand here if I was the Evil Queen?”
She reaches out toward her. “Come back to us Lucretia. We need you. We need our Director, or we will lose.”
Sans approaches Lucretia much in the same way he always has--between his Cheshire Cat self and his normal self, that did remain the same. Still, he pulls his hoodie back and casts Arcane Hacking--he knows he can't shut off the power of a relic this way, but he's hoping to maybe loosen its grip on Lucretia at least a little bit.
"I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not even a cat." He winks, because the fake ears and tail are pretty obvious, as well as the fact that he's, you know, a humanoid skeleton. But anyway, he continues. "As far as I know, I've been here since you started this whole reclaimer thing, so if you want a list of stuff that you should remember, I've got it. Like our first mission? Man, looking at it now? That went great. No exploding relics, no losing all magic... But I guess we got some stuff done later, too. We got Lucas and pulled Miss Zarves back into this plane. Got back some of the other relics, too. And you had that camping trip... You've always been big on the group cohesion thing, huh?"
Sans stares at Lucretia, and his tone drops to a more serious one.
"Look, Lucretia. Far as I can tell? We've all been running around playing fairy tale games for a year. The Hunger is coming. Hell, it could be right outside whatever we're stuck in right now. I know you've been trying to figure out what to do about that longer'n we've been here. I know you've made sacrifices to do it, and sometimes that was us, and I guess I don't know, but I'd bet on you feelin' pretty responsible and guilty about it. And you remember what happened the last time all of us started betting on things.
"All of us reclaimers? There's a lot of great people here, but none of us are from this world, and none of us know how it works like you. Lucas can't rally everyone like you do. I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can bring me back to life. Don't even know how you did that the second time. What you've got--not just the magic, but the way you usually are--we need that. You've never told us everything, so that means you, more'n anyone, have to stop playing pretend and get back to work.
I mean, we all know I'm not gonna do it, right?"
Honoka's approach to Lucretia is a little different from the energy she usually brings as Sugarplum -- she's as affable as ever, but now she's addressing Lucretia not as a fellow queen, but as a fellow Reclaimer.
"Director-san... I'm sorry, but we really don't have time to play around like this anymore. Monika-chan's right! None of this is real and we need to go back to how we really were. I'm sure you must remember!"
To drive this point home, Honoka uses Disguise Self to alter her appearance, so she no longer resembles the Sugarplum Fairy, but is instead her regular self in her Reclaimer uniform that she's been wearing for all the missions so far.
"This is how things are supposed to be! We're all supposed to work as hard as we can together to make things right. We might not always get it perfect, but I really do believe we're going to get there in the end! But we can't do it on our own. The whole time, you've been helping us along and telling us where we need to go! And if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here in the first place! But there's so, so many other people out there right now who need our help too. Not just our friends! There's more people than I could ever count in so many other worlds and if we don't stop the Hunger right here and right now, all this will have been for nothing.
You saved us back then. Won't you help us save everybody else, too?"
They hope their words will reach her, bring her back to them. But if all else fails, Phoenix was kind enough to share a poem with Sans in case of an emergency. Maybe it’ll help be the final push if necessary.
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Getting into the castle on a persuasion check! DC 12, +2 for the outcome.
-Failure: DC 12 to utilize some sweet magical espionage powers. +3 for the outcome due to the various path actions coordinating well with the intent.
Attempt #1: Monika. The thrown crown is particularly compelling. We'll give this a high DC of 16, but the approach is sound enough to net that bad boy a +4.
Attempt #2: Sans up at bat. DC 16 for arcane hacking, no bonus. We're talking about an object that is actually more powerful than the Weave. Possible, but hard. If it succeeds, we'll give advantage on all subsequent checks moving forward.
That PEP TALK THOUGH. It's real sweet. DC 12, with a +2 to the bonus for speaking from the heart.
Attempt #3: Honoka takes the stage! That uniform is looking really good. DC 12 to make it pull off. If you win, we'll give an additional +2 to the next roll. A heartfelt imploring for Lucretia to snap to. DC 14 on that.
FINALLY... if all else fails, the poem might be awfully effective. DC 12 on that, but if you didn't fail any of the above by greater than 3, we'll take a +1 forward on each near success to a maximum of +3.
Sound good?
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For persuading your way into the castle, you don't really do so hot. With a 9 as the total result, you basically get shunned at the door. Excuse me, why is the Evil Queen here!? You weren't on the dossier today. Good-day!
But that doesn't mean you're not stealthy as heck. You manage your way in there with fantastic ease, which is kind of apt, considering all the guards are pretty much other members of the bureau from other rolls, or guards from the Moon Base. A 16 guides you in and keeps your presence concealed.
However, someone does manage to divine what you're doing through a series of observations and assumptions. You see one, amazingly stalwart little boy, in the middle of a receiving hall, wearing a deerstalker and examining clues with a magnifying lens.
"Hello sirs? Is anyone there?"
It's ANGUS! Only, he's kind of... Sherlock Holmes at this point? That's kind of apt.
"Okay, I'm just going to go into this armory room then, and if you spirits don't want to have a tet-a-tet, that's okay. But I highly suggest it!"
You accompany him into the room, because it's Angus. Of course you do. Pretenses aside, he clearly knows who he is, and has known for about... 11 months. In that time, however, he's been examining and figuring things out.
"I assume you're here to wake Lucretia up, right?"
Right.
"Before you do that, I have to warn you. I've been studying the apparatus she uses to destroy the relics over the last year and discovered something. The energy output from killing a relic is too high for a machine like this to sustain. We've seen the energy signatures from the release of the relic's energy in Lyrabar, and this doesn't add up.
Lucretia hasn't been destroying the relics at all. I think... I think she's been absorbing them into her staff.
And I think that staff is a Grand Relic itself."
Which, okay. That's a lot to take in. But he describes the science behind his hunches, and eventually ends with an "it's elementary, my dear sirs!"
Either way, with this new knowledge, all of you go to confront Lucretia.
And it's a smashing success. Monika throwing the crown on the ground (22) staggers her belief, but it's only followed up by Sans' plea, offering a pep talk back to someone who gave him a pep talk when he needed it most (18), and ends with Honoka looking amazing in her uniform and inspiring Lucretia to wake up (14, unnatural 20).
You see the last heart shaped crystal begin to light up, and her features soften in recognition of her Reclaimers. She starts to cry, yeah- cry, as she reaches out to embrace all three of you at once.
"I'm. I... I'm so sorry."
You have one last thing that you need to take care of, though. Everyone needs to retreat back to the castle, or else risk being swallowed up by the Hunger. She asks if you can help her in that. Meanwhile, she looks behind her at the throne.
"Oh gods, the bond engine. Did it work?"
Did it? We'll see.