September Plot II: Plotting Post and IC Objectives

[savmods]

Greetings!

The breakout log is up. The player characters are, at this time, their own authorities. Mother will remain in contact, but her child cannot be saved without a way to the Ingress Complex—something that will be achieved next log. While we are opening OOC signups now (more info below!), characters will need to find the intermediaries' leadership to accomplish this—and to hopefully resolve their conflict with the Savrii as a whole.

The goal of these weeks is to allow you to put your characters in a position to do so. While the fighting will come to a head in two weeks' time, the successes of the characters between now and then will determine how much of an edge they have in that confrontation.

Fortunately, some advantage has already been obtained. Before falling prey to the simulation, Adrien Arbuckal solicited the help of Alan Bradley and Nihlus Kryik in modifying saved Trojan code into a functioning program. They then released this program into the Savrii's servers. Over the last month, it has been saving up data, and on access to any sufficiently high-clearance terminal, they will be able to receive the reports.

The below list contains a set of potential goals, derived from both their information and the situation as a whole. Please note: character choices are in no way limited to these options! The main purpose of this post is to provide a forum for OOC plotting as you decide what your characters want and how they will achieve it. Take a look, decide what interests you, and tag around! Teamups are the name of the game.

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Objectives

Item Retrieval:

Maybe that sword was a family heirloom. Maybe they stole your pet cat. Maybe you keep your brain in a frisbee. For whatever reason, some people might not be content to fight a whole planet with shock sticks and fickle dinosaurs alone. Once downloaded, the Trojan's data will point the way to your belongings, but there's still a complex full of guards and killers to fight through—supported by beings who can neutralize half your number. Plan?

Communications:

If not quite so terrible as people rifling through your mind, people rifling through your communications isn't fun. Moreover, it makes it very hard to coordinate assaults across a planet. Are you planning to take down the network hub? Hijack it? Supply misinformation? Take your pick.

Intermediaries:

Speaking of people rifling through your minds... kill them with fire, or try to spare? The intermediaries don't seem to be especially combative on their own, but anyone left alone with them for long might find their side of things oddly appealing. Possibly more concerning than the ones in sight are the ones you can't find. Those familiar with the intermediaries' power structure might notice that all the ranking members have disappeared from sight. Weren't there rumors about that one "remote" mediation center? It might be worth a search.

Public Relations:

Even if you don't trust the intermediaries, surely some of the Savrii have to be redeemable. Salvageable? Worth telling about the manipulations of their leaders? Or maybe you want to talk to them about those ominous storm warnings... or the way the sky seems to be splitting open. Not many will be willing to listen, but you can certainly give it a shot.

Defense:

Between all the crazy people throwing themselves in harm's way to help and all the crazy people throwing themselves in harm's way to murder... someone has to play the sane middle ground. Set up a perimeter, stake out a warehouse, or just play bodyguard. But make sure others come back safe.

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important notes

• One objective not listed in the above is rescuing Mother's child. While ICly a character goal throughout the process, that will be OOCly accomplished during—and parallel with—the confrontation with the intermediaries' leadership. The remote mediation center where they are holed away contains the necessary controls to deactivate the Artifixx field, and once the characters who enter do so, those helping Mother will be free to invade the Complex.

  The two missions will be logged separately and simultaneously—so please note that a character cannot be in both places at once. If you have interest in being part of the rescue team, sign up for the RNG below.

• As alluded to in the log, character deaths or captures during the next two weeks will have unique consequences. With deaths, players may choose to have their characters' bodies recovered by their teammates, resulting in continued death until the setting change (end of the month), or by the Savrii. Those recovered by the Savrii will be brought back to life, and reunited with their companions on the 24th! They will not, however, be entirely on the same side. The same goes for anyone who is captured.

  If you have interest in subjecting your character to this experience, sign up below!

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With the player-directed focus of this plot, we realize clarifications may be needed. As usual, please feel free to deposit questions or ideas for us below! For this event in particular, we encourage public plotting, but if you need to privately communicate an issue to us, the feedback page is always open.

Kick ass, take names, and have fun!

Comments

[shashka]

R.I.P. chomp leaf clover John the Second.

you were a good plant. :'(

[savmods]

THE SADDEST DEATH. D:

[shashka]

ONE MORE QUESTION

would it be possible to capture an intermediary to interrogate?

[savmods]

While difficult, it would be possible! Perhaps unsurprisingly, any captured intermediary would be very willing to converse, though not necessarily with the details the player characters are looking for.

What questions would be asked, and under what circumstances?

[shashka]

Depdending on the level of cooperation from the intermediary on the information at hand, it could go from affable if they're cooperative to pretty rough if they're not, with the specific aim of extracting information as quickly as possible. Canon-wise Ocelot is very good at getting information from people under duress but, he does have limits, especially if psychic stuff is involved. He'd likely be asking questions about know where the intermediary facility is, names of the leadership, and general information from the top-down. On a more personal note, he'd also like to find out how much control intermediaries can have over everyone else. Vague information or misleading information is all good too.

[savmods]

Ocelot's captive would claim to have no knowledge of the remote facility-- that she has heard rumors, perhaps, but only ever been to the more public mediation centers. She maintains that the intermediaries (and Thisavrou as a whole) has no leadership as such; decisions are made through consensus among groups and talking out any issues of conflict.

She could offer a few names of intermediaries she knows, but would treat the dialog as an exchange more than a surrender. She would ask Ocelot's reasons for taking these actions, and seem genuinely distressed by the bloodshed and murder. She would ask that he and his friends stop. That they work out a peaceful solution-- she's sure that if they lay down their weapons and just stop killing people, then any mediators they want would be glad to speak with them.

She appears sickened by suggestions of control, and claims they don't do that here-- that's the behavior of outsiders ("your kind", if the conversation gets too heated).

Edited to add: would Ocelot ask further questions, respond to her requests, or take further steps to compel answers? (The relevant log is being drafted, so any contributions from this line of inquiry will need to be resolved relatively soon.)

[shashka]

Apologies! The reply to this got lost in the either.

He'd definitely push a little harder on the rumours, and where they originated/who in particular. He'd say that they both want the same thing, and if they get the answers they want, then no harm really needs to come to anyone. Given his background in interrogation, he'd appeal to what it seems like she'd want.

On the subject of control, he might push a little further, and knowing what he does about the system from others, he might also try to get a little of her backstory, see if the lower-level intermediaries are also pawns in this.

[savmods]

Her immediate cooperation would be contingent on reciprocation; she would try hard to open a dialog about why he and his allies are taking these actions and persuade them to cease hostility. This would appear to be what she did want: an end to the violence, both from him and from others. Provided Ocelot engaged with her on this point, she would give a few names. However, those following up would have difficulty making any headway with the names she provided-- either the individuals cannot be found, or they know nothing but second- or third-hand rumors themselves.

If asked about her backstory, she would explain that she grew up here. That she always admired the mediators and their talents at bringing peace, and studied from childhood to do the same.

When you say Ocelot would "push further" on the subject of control, can you be more specific? In particular, on the methods he would use and the questions he would pursue.

[shashka]

It honestly depends? Clearly force doesn't seem to be effective so he'd try to appeal to her. Ideally he would use truth serum but that's not available so he'd stick to more "good cop" interrogation methods for the time being since those seem to be the most effective?

Honestly his main interest was the remote mediation facility/getting information to piece together with others and if there's no further information that he can get from that he'd probably just kill her and be done with it.

[savmods]

We hadn't OOCly assumed any use of force from your previous responses; you noted that he would remain affable if his captive cooperated and that he would do his best to appeal to what she seemed to want (peaceable discourse). If you would like us to assume differently, let us know!

Otherwise, we'll run with the captive being killed after providing the above information.

[shashka]

Like I said, it really depends on the captive and what they respond the best to in giving actual solid information? He'd be throrough in trying to get all the information she had, at least starting off with a friendly demeanour but if no solid info/leads were gotten, it probably wouldn't be all that worthwhile? but like if he had the feeling she knew more than she'd originally given, he would go to more violent means since the end result is death regardless. But again if nothing really worthwhile is found out, it really doesn't matter much one way or another.

Sorry if I wasn't that clear, but I'm not an expert on interrogation by any means..... I know normally the character does adapt his methods to the individual and what seems to get the most information in the quickest amount of time! So again it really depends on how the intermediary would reply/the info given that determines the methods used!

I should probably also mention some of this would be in cooperation with the rest of the group going after intermediaries?

[savmods]

The intermediary would appear to be very forthcoming in regards to friendly or more personable approaches. As noted above, long-term pursuit of the leads (names) given would reveal little, but in the immediate moment, she would give off the impression of being earnest (if a little scared) and genuinely hopeful to foster some kind of understanding between groups. Whether Ocelot believes this or assumes she is lying isn't something we can OOCly decide for you-- though we can note that the intermediaries he worked alongside previously seemed genuine in their desire to cooperate as well.

If he, or if any of the group he works with, would resort to other methods or ask different questions, feel free to drop off more replies. The post will be going up tomorrow, so this line of inquiry will need to be resolved by then, but we're glad to answer questions in the meanwhile.

[shashka]

Given that info he would see her as lying so would go for harsher and more violent methods to try and aim for concrete info? he'd definitely remain calm throughout and would ask her if she's sure that's all she knows? Again, he is a professional in this particular regard.

[savmods]

If you can be more specific as to Ocelot's methods, we may be able to offer more information regarding their effect. We're definitely not expecting you to be an interrogation expert, or play out torture scenes in depth. But the modteam is canonblind enough to be unsure whether Ocelot's "harsh" interrogation involves injury, threats, or something else, or how far he would go, and consequently, having trouble working out how the NPC would react (or if she would survive the process).

Speaking generally, though: on experiencing violence against her person in captivity, the intermediary would become much more shocked and panicked. She would claim she had been willingly helping him already, accuse him and his people of being murderous brutes trying to destroy their worlds, and attempt, at least initially, to claim she already told him who to talk to. She says they didn't tell her where it was.

[shashka]

Again as a character he tends to go for what people's psychological weaknesses are (the times we see him torture/interrogate people and they die without giving him information are he actually wants them to die). he talks about "quick, psychological strokes" and how the the people he broke "gave up everything". As such, he tends to adapt his methods to the individual but does note that the hardest person to break is the one that's lying to themselves. He would look for her psychological weaknesses and go target what he sees her most vulnerable points. When he's done he'd again, probably just kill her and talk to the others about pooling information.

Again, thank you for your patience! it is difficult for me to say exactly what he would do because of how versatile he is with interrogating people and how he adapts to the person in question.

[savmods]

Understood! At this point, the log is about to go live, so we're out of time to back and forth specific details. Given Ocelot's skill at interrogation, however, we would consider it fair to say he managed to acquire one further piece of information from her: that the remote center was in active communication with the intermediaries left out in the field. This would point Ocelot to the data recovered by the comms team-- which, as will be posted shortly, contributes significantly to the discovery of the center.

Thank you for your explanations, and your interest in the plot!

[shashka]

That works! Thanks again!