PLOT POST FOR APRIL 5th

[theearth]

This format of plot post is designed for players to ask questions and find ways to influence the plot. Be bold and ask what you can or can't do; the worst that can happen is that I will say no. As plots in Save the Earth are not self resolving nor on a time limit they can evolve in many ways. Although some potential outcomes are given, they are little more than suggestion and can be changed by character action. What role you take is up to you.

---

Events occurring currently;

• As detailed here the Vermini continue to roam the city, infesting small animals and have begun to swarm in large enough number to be confident in attacking the player characters.

If anyone would like to have their home investigated by the suspicious humans due to repeat appearances by Vermini infested animals, speak up and we can either play it out or work out the result. Additionally, if anyone wants to bring together the four or more required reincarnated characters to exterminate the Vermini, let me know.

• Paul Ben, thewalkingdork, has died. And in doing so, he has revealed;

a) The invasion exists.
b) Under the influence of the invaders is the city's Chief of Police, a general of the American Military and the head of the most powerful and insane Mafioso Locke has ever seen. Who knows who else is involved?
c) That knowing too much will get you, and your family, killed.
d) The invaders cannot further their plans without finding a 'snake.'
e) Their base is somewhere outside the city limits, possibly a farm.

---

Events occurring in the immediate future:

• Now what're you going to do about it?

At this stage, you can start putting forward plans. How proactive the characters are going to be will directly influence what's happening. At present, the invaders do not even know there could be resistance outside of ordinary human society and are not going to be chasing the players yet. Emphasis on yet. Your plans can be subtle or daring, and they might be successful, fail or be completely pointless.

• The Thunder Corporation continues its plans.

Still rather underplayed, the news will contain many references to the currently fruitless campaign by Thunder to renovate the Dead District. Soon, a more otherworldly escalation will make it more apparently sinister.

---

Events potentially occurring in the immediate future:

• The Vermini?

If the Vermini aren't dealt with, something is going to happen. By April 8th, infested animals will just...disappear. But that ain't the end of it. Details will be given if players want to go this route. If this event is allowed to occur, at least three characters will be investigated due to constant infested animal appearances; either volunteers or chosen at random. If you feel the characters need an IC kick in the pants to tell them they have to deal with this stuff, I suggest letting this run.

---

Potential Echo Opportunities

Until resolved, characters who have not yet received an Echo from the strange creatures or Vermini will still have the chance to. Just witnessing Paul Ben's death is enough to receive an Echo. If the Vermini are dealt with, the mutated human is worth an Echo for all invovled. If the Vermini are not dealt with, it will kick off a plot that will offer a few. Potential Echoes await in proactive plots too.

Please direct questions regarding these plot points to the thread below and not the post in general.

Comments

Re: QUESTIONS

[professorwolf]

What time of day does the Paul's post happen?

Also, if Lyall were to get close enough to one of those NPCs to get a good sniff, what will he smell? (Related: is it possible to get close enough to sniff? As long as he's in the equivalent of the same room, that's probably enough.)

Is there a concentration of the infestation/Vermini/etc anywhere near this facility?

I might be interested in getting involved in the four-character pile-up. Lemme think on how to make Lyall manage it. (Besides summoning all his students involved to class for a talk about safety... which actually would be really easy... >.> )

[theearth]

About seven o'clock. I'll add that to the post, good catch.

I'm going to answer the related question first-That's up to you. If you can think of a way that Lyall could get close to any of them, suggest it and we'll plot it out. All three of them are quite hard to get close to under normal circumstances, but who knows? If you can think of a way for one or all, I'll answer the smell question.

About the Vermini, they have all gone running into the city. They're more interested in the reincarnated humans than anything around there.

[professorwolf]

Best option I think would be I think the police chief... playing the concerned teacher, asking after a missing student he was supposed to have a conference with Friday or Monday who didn't show and whose parents don't know where he is? He might not get close to the chief, but sniffing around the office might at least give him an idea whether he should try harder, and it's the first plan that would come to him. I will think further if that doesn't work as a stepping stone at least.

ETA: Whoops look at me not even reading the whole plot post. I try to reply too fast and miss shit XD Nevermind on the missing student deal, given the news. Maybe he could come in instead with a made-up lead about arson at the house?

And if you think the four-character plotline would work using Lyall and his students, let me know and I'll contact said students and see if they're interested ^^

[scramasax]

If the answer you receive in the teacher-student conference gone awry is yes, I'd be all for Anthony being there.

[theearth]

Heh-heh, caught it before I woke up at least.

That plan won't get Lyall to the chief unless he pulls some sneaky stunt whilst in the department, but it will get him into a department. Pretty deep, too! He won't be able to sniff the chief, but other clues will pop up just from that. I'm currently on my iPad away from my notes, so please hold on a while for the details on that. ETA:

Right! If you want to play it out or not, Lyall will be able to smell that a lot of the police (but far from all) smell unusually of various animals. Nothing exotic, but it's a scent that clings to them. The policeman that meets with Lyall will go through the motions of taking his statement but tell Lyall it's not considered suspicious and not to expect anything out of it.

And something completely unrelated to smells that is still important will come up.

In the lobby there will be a large stone carving in the style of a totem pole, depicting a snake atop a heart. Being near the statue causes a strange feeling in any reincarnated character, similar to an Echo but diluted. Instead of one powerful heartbeat, the heart rate rises so long as they're in a twenty foot radius and rather than a direct change to the character it will feel like a subtle force trying to persuade the nearby character that Simon Edward's judgement is good and to trust him. Someone who has experienced a genuine Echo will be able to feel it and being aware of the sensation easily resist its persuasion. What it's doing to ordinary humans? Who knows.

Anyway, sure, that could work. Tell me if you get your people together.

[professorwolf]

All right! Also, The Psionic is apparently doing some hacking to get files on the three people mentioned for Lyall... I'm not sure if his mun has contacted you, but if not, what will that get Lyall?

I don't think it's required to play out, as that looks like all the information he could glean at his current level of understanding/sneakiness is what you gave me there... so I'm good with handwaving and using this info in particular :) So thanks!

I'll put up a network post for Lyall and his students to get this started. Though if the hunting party happens first, does that mean ours is moot, or will we be allowed to mutated humans to play with?

[theearth]

Hmm. I'll have to talk to them about it and see what and where they'll be trying.

Excellent.

Anyway, there are only enough Vermini for one mutated human. It might be an idea to discuss who gets what. As Lyall is already discovering the statue, might be an idea to spread the action out, but it's up to those involved.

[professorwolf]

Possibly so... I HAVE kind of been throwing Lyall at EVERYTHING OMG. Let's see which group gets the required amount of people first, I suppose?

I can have him talk about the police station trip and statue with people instead, if we don't get a mutant... give the kids something "safe" to do by doing research on those symbols and snakes in mythology and whether anything else like that is cropping up in the city :: chinscratches ::

[dorkytracksuit]

I'd really like to try and get to fight the mutant if its okay? Since Davin is trying to track the vermini and stop them I think it makes more narrative sense, but we can sort something out if you like?

edit: like maybe lyall can be part of their meetup and be involved that way? anyone else who wants can come too? seems easier to involve everyone who wants to go if we do it that way than thinking of someway for the other chars to go to a student safety meeting, but if you have any other ideas let me know?

[professorwolf]

Nah, it's cool, you guys can have it. Since I did get the police station thing, and I came up with something else to do with that meeting anyhow.

And Lyall is dead set against the animal hunt, so getting him involved is a no go X3 It's fine. You guys go kill a mutant.

[horrorterribubble]

Yeah - I was kind of hoping to get to be a part of the mutant thing? It doesn't even have to be with the hunting party specifically, but I think that making these things into a WHOEVER THROWS UP THE POST FIRST WITHOUT DISCUSSING battle is pretty massively lame. I had been intending on making an OOC post trying to make sure anyone interested could get involved in the event, but then I saw that it was being debated here.

So like...if you want Lyall there anyway i'm for it? But I would appreciate if you could share the love in regards to plot stuff especially since it's not as if other people were being secretive about doing the hunting thing.

(Not to mention since this is a collaborative narrative, it really just comes down to a backdating battle in terms of what comes first which is pretty much the opposite of fun.)

[professorwolf]

I'm ceding it to you guys. Lyall is dead set against going animal hunting (and would be useless anyhow).

But yes, if there are one-group-only set-ups in the future, there needs to be some kind of means of determining who gets it besides "first come first served". Sign-ups and randomization perhaps?

[horrorterribubble]

To be honest, I hate artificial feeling "sign up" scenarios and randomization as much as first come first serve stuff. Unless by "sign ups" you just mean like...making a list of who's interested and making it work. Honestly, since the game isn't very large, I don't think it's a lot to ask just to have some amount of OOC discussion about these things. Like, even just making an OOC post that is like "Okay, here's a plot opportunity, who wants in and how can we make it work?" would go a long way.

We don't have nearly a huge enough player base to demand much more than that yet.

[professorwolf]

I kinda thought that this WAS a post for discussing the plot opportunity, which is why when a second request went up I asked whether we could both try it out. And when I was told no, I came up with another reason for Lyall's meeting. I left it open just in case. I'm sorry if that looked like I was trying to steal the event, I didn't mean to.

However we wanna do it, I'm happy to go with it.