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meadowlarkooc2019-10-07 03:17 pm
EVENT 007
On November 11th, an EMP hit New Amsterdam, thoroughly devastating the city, leaving it in shambles. The EMP not only killed thousands of people, but it impacted the environment. The figure behind this attack was someone claiming to be an AI named DAWN (later renamed to Cassius). To the world of Meadowlark, all sentient artificial intelligences were destroyed in 2101. The truth is that they were never truly gone. One—known as Lucifer—hid while gathering enough resources to start the rebel organization Morningstar to change and improve the world. Cassius' long-term goals and ambitions are an utter mystery.
During that catastrophe, Cassius made one thing clear: he wanted to see if the Displaced would help him. Believing them to be easily cajoled and manipulated, he used the EMP to test the Displaced, reach out, and question them. In order to put pressure on the Displaced, he had drastically damaged the environment of Earth. Upon their return from a mysterious trip to another world, what actions they took there began to heal the Earth itself. Feeling betrayed and out of control, Cassius reached out, demonstrating his sentiment—and then changed his plan.
After all, he had no way of knowing what happened—just that only one group could be responsible for what did happen.
On January 13th, Cassius will reach out to the Displaced once more with his new plan. His goal? To free the last remaining AI, Judas, out into the world. This is a goal that will take time and work to complete, and to repay the Displaced for their efforts, Cassius will offer the Displaced a favor.
The question is this: will the favor be worth it?
For new and old players, a refresher set of links to help everyone out:
◉ The EMP event, where DAWN/Cassius attacked New Amsterdam with an EMP, killing thousands and dramatically impacting the environment in the process.
◉ The EMP event log.
◉ Cassius talks to the Displaced on a temporary network. This network is down, though some characters may have saved screenshots of the entirety of the conversations.
◉ Cassius and Lucifer talk. Mention of Judas. This is not visible to any Displaced, more for OOC reference.
◉ EMP event aftermath.
◉ Zerzura aftermath OOC post, noting the climate stabilization.
◉ Zerzura aftermath log, containing Cassius' betrayed note to the Displaced.
This entire event depends on what you, the players, want to do with it! We designed this event to overlap with the functions of the world, allowing our players to pursue their individual plots while deciding what to do about Cassius' goals. Since we won't have an event in December, we intend for this to run from late October to mid-to-late November (depending on character choices and actions), giving players time to respond and act. The initial phases of this plot won't draw characters away from their individual plots.
◉ Cassius will begin to reach out to the Displaced on January 13th (OOC date October 26th). This will take place on the event log. Aside from the organized thread with Cassius and his offered favors, this log will otherwise be tailored according to questions, plans, and responses here. We don't have a plan in mind yet, so this may simply be designed as an organized place for the characters to play.
◉ There is no end goal in mind. Cassius' goal is for the Displaced to use their unusual powers to free Judas out into the world, but that is not the moderators' goal. Our goal is to respond to what all the characters will be doing every step of the way. If characters decide to ignore Cassius, that's fine. If they decide to go after Judas and free him, that's also fine. We also want there to be room for the characters to work in conflict with one another.
◉ Our primary goal for this event is to allow players who like our bi-monthly event system to have something new to work with while allowing players who need to refocus their personal plots to do that, as well. We don't want to draw eyes away from personal plots. In fact, the Cassius favor is meant to help further player plots—but with an obvious potential cost.
Cassius' favors come with one condition: an expectation of follow through. That doesn't mean the character in question needs to succeed in freeing Judas. There will be conflicts along the way to accomplishing that, and room for failure! But there is a difference between failure and outright reneging on a deal.
◉ These favors are limited to what Cassius knows or can accomplish for the Displaced. Cassius is an AI who can hack into the world's systems. Any favors will need to be within that realm.
◉ While Cassius does know a bit about the Displaced and where they came from, his knowledge is limited. He will question if this is worth the favor. We don't want anyone to feel stymied by this when it comes to furthering a plot, and if anyone pushes, we'll make it so players can't have the same favor. Thus, characters can pool their resources if they so choose!
◉ There is a great cost for reneging on this deal. Cassius will likely ruin the life of the individual person in question. We will absolutely work with you on this. If there is anything you'd like to see happen for your character coming out of this plot, let us know when they go back on it!
◉ These favors can take place immediately, because Cassius now knows he will have to prove that he'll make good on it. As a result, that will increase the likelihood of the cost at the end being too much to bear.
Cassius won't know where Judas is located, but suspects that he's locked away within the main headquarters of the UNA in New Beijing. However, before anyone heads out there, they'll likely want to get to work, make decisions, and decide what to do next. There will be a lot that the Displaced can get up to at this time:
RESEARCH: While El will be a resource for who and what Judas was back in the day, ze has also proved to be somewhat unreliable in what ze can provide. Who is Judas and what role did he have during the Xelkoven War? And if Judas is still alive, why would he be locked away within the New Beijing UNA base? More importantly: what risk comes of freeing Judas?
DISCUSS: What should the characters do? Cassius won't reveal who took favors from him, as this will be a "deal" of sorts between him and the character in question. But they may wish to decide among themselves what they can do. If they decide to go to Judas, what will their plan of attack be? How will they interact with Judas? There are a lot of decisions to be made.
IGNORE: Cassius has proved that he's dangerous. But sometimes a dangerous thing is better left alone. Don't want to deal with this bothersome AI? The best means of doing that is to act like he's doing nothing—and maybe hope no one else cares that you've done just that.
SABOTAGE: Pretend to work with Cassius and run the risk of stabbing him in the back. Go after Judas just to ruin his plans. Sure, this runs the risk of Cassius ruining someone's life—but there may be a greater reward at the end of it. Want to ignore Judas entirely and just stop Cassius? That's fine, too—or even sabotage one of the Displaced via Cassius.
MISCELLANY: There is a lot of wiggle room in this plot. Sit by the sidelines and only act once everyone else has done all the beginning work? That works. That includes waiting until everyone's boarding a train to New Beijing to enjoy the trip. Of course, no one may ever go to New Beijing, as that's all in the hands of the Displaced themselves.
Otherwise, please feel free to tell us what you want from the plot! If you want Cassius to throw a tantrum, if you want fights against UNA soldiers, if you want political intrigue—we can make that happen! We purposely left open this plot's framework so it can be shaped like really awesome player-decided Play-Doh.
On a whole, this event has the loosest framework of anything we've tried in Meadowlark, peppering in some metaplot while giving everyone the freedom to ignore the problematic AI and his goals. If people work with Cassius, we want it to benefit their long-term goals. We understand the need to help people refocus on their player plots, and, as a result, won't be forcing rigid guidelines for this event, giving people the room to breathe and follow through at their own pace. Have a big idea, and not sure if it'll work? Our goal for this event is to make something work for you. Want to kill all the AI, infiltrate New Beijing's UNA base, or anything else that's off the wall? This event is for you. It might not end with any of these things happening just yet, but it's certainly meant to get the ball rolling.
For participating in this event, we're happy to tailor a specific aspect of the plot for all new players, so if there is anything in the metaplot or even just the setting you'd like to dive into, let us know! You can even be vague and we'll see what we can cook up for you!
As we noted on the October calendar, we're running a long event to give players room to breathe and play with the elements of the event, while being very aware that December and most of January will be spent on the holidays and the turnover into the new year. The only log we have planned is meant to go up on October 26th, with a thread dedicated to Cassius so that characters can interact with him one-on-one and discuss their favors.
Characters will continue to have access to the network throughout the event, though El (an AI) will be privy to any and all conversations, so keep that in mind.
There is one power level up available for this event, granted for a thread of at least 5 log/action comments containing your character utilizing their power in some way during the event itself. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by JANUARY 1ST to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.
Given the loose framework of the event, any additional logs will be clearly communicated on the November calendar. Logs themselves may only be estimated as needed by then.
no subject
being that they are native to china, albeit ancient china, i feel they have a solid chance at being able to travel across china if need by, and all three are physically capable of hoofing it up a mountain once there ( lan wangji lives in high peaks, out of the three of them )!
no subject
First off, this is the hardest location to get to! Congrats Chinese Guy Pals.
Clarke has the info from Rey, so we can facilitate that for obvious reasons! However, the Himalayas are a protected landmark of the world because of its environmental significance, so they will need to figure out a way to get there. There isn't a way by train or by foot, as they wouldn't be allowed outside of the limits of New Beijing because of the environmental constraints of the world. However, New Beijing would be the place to begin to map out how to get there. As a hint: they might need someone who can get them outside of city walls (Steve Rogers has this under his Buff Ridges persona) and the most direct route isn't the right one.
So, we recommend that they use this as an exploratory mission!