EVENT PLOTTING: THE EMPTY THRONE PT 2

[aionmods]

The Empty Throne Pt 2

By the end of the seventh day, more and more of those that have resisted the Kenoma's pull will be awakening to the power of the Pleroma, expelling what remains of the ritual's poison. Though they are still being held within the cavern, any lost powers will begin to return... which means that conflict against the ones imprisoning them is inevitable. Xishen, the orchestrator of the ritual, has not made any orders and the Hylician soldiers are increasingly agitated and unsure of what to expect. Are those that remain free of the Kenoma's influence meant to be executed? Imprisoned more securely? Freed?

Unknown to the rest of the Regent's assembly, a short while before this impasse, Xishen bestowed the secret of teleportation to Father Abel Nightroad, suggesting to him that he could use it to escape and bring the other survivors with him. Though her motives for doing so are yet unknown, Abel and any other Pleroma attuned he explains this process to will be able to use the teleportation spell as explained on the powers page to escape the cavern. Two to three casters will be enough to plausibly bring all of the newly christened Pleroma with them; the trouble is that the ritual takes up to a half hour to cast, and once they begin, it will become apparent to their captors what's happening.

Once the teleportation ritual is discovered, Xishen will order the Kenoma inductees to put a stop to it, though she does not step up to fight herself. From there, the Pleroma will have to hold off the Kenoma for 20-30 minutes while the ritual completes, the exact speed depending on how many people are dedicated to casting. Player versus player conflict can occur during this time, and mod-rolled RNG outcomes to individual match ups will be available if they are desired.

Of course, the Kenoma have had time to recover and the Pleroma have not. As if to compensate for this disadvantage, the hope granted by this change of escape will awaken a surge of power in the Pleroma. Similar to how the Kenoma felt upon accepting it, Pleroma will receive a boost in endurance, strength, and magical capabilities during this time, though the effect will gradually fade afterwards.

When the ritual ends it is expected that the Pleroma will be able to escape, whether it's on their feet or by having their battered body hauled into the ritual area by a comrade. All characters who participated in The Empty Throne will be awarded 1 Reward Token which can be used to purchase new abilities and regains.

❖ INCLUDED EVENT PROMPTS

◆ PVP COMBAT: Those Kenoma that are willing to listen to Xishen's orders will have the opportunity to clash against the Pleroma as they try to escape. Fights and mod-rolled RNG results can be requested here. Kenoma are not required to fight but those that do will receive a boosted positive reputation among the Regent's forces.

◆ REGAINED POWERS: All characters who have attuned will have their canon powers returned with the nerfs indicated on their applications. This include all Kenoma and all Pleroma. Pleroma characters will be receiving a hope-based power boost during the escape. For those with the Normie Discount, your Reward Token can be spent immediately and any new powers can manifest during the fight if that's something you'd like to play out.

◆ TELEPORTATION RITUAL: At least 2-3 Pleroma characters will be needed to cast the ritual, but the more there are the faster it will go. Past magical experience is not required for this plot role, though it may help make it more intuitive ICly.

◆ AFTERMATH LOCATIONS: Both sects will have a unique 'aftermath' location to thread in taking place after the escape has happened. This will cover the immediate aftermath of the event. Further locations and travel opportunities will be posted on April 2nd.

◆ ATTUNEMENT TRACKER: As of this event post, most sect attunements should be locked in! Please go update your Attunement Tracker with your character's current sect status.

Comments

[expiera]

Hiccup... 🥺 We could absolutely have a bit of leading up chat to it, though she won't be very responsive since she'll have kicked herself into full "work" mode, but his attempt will be Noted! If he's an experienced combatant, he's free to notice she may feel like she's holding back/not giving her all, as if playing along with the stalling? And how any attempt at restraining him will stop completely with or without convenient excuse (i.e. too busy engaging other fight oriented Pleromas, oops a stray explosion knocked his bonds loose) once the teleport spell is ready, she may even yeet/shove him in that general direction herself if they end up "fighting" a bit once he breaks free. This could definitely be neat to stage out, we could maybe do a joint TL for it too. Would you have any preference in what you'd like done/how to structure it out?

[dragon_rider]

Honestly, I'm down for anything and know my dumb boi has the habit of trying to talk to people that are enemies and being used as hostage :( He still wants to trust people too easily.

A leading up to it chat could be fun! Hiccup is a Talker irregardless and will usually try to talk to someone he thinks can be reasoned with before fighting and given he's unarmed... Easy enough to subdue since he's not much of a hand-to-hand fighter (mostly experienced with a sword). He's definitely stronger than he looks though so he'd probably... Notice and be a half willing hostage like SQUINT what are you doing you could be leaving you know.

(He'd also 100% try to convince kenoma to go with them but not push it he's dumb I'm sorry, except maybe not)

A joint TL could work as well! I think if we did something within that regard |b A brief Hiccup tries to communicate then Ciel does the Thing. Be funny to play with the duality of Hiccup realizing she's not taking it super seriously, but my brain is mush on how to word it

(and ofc if it doesn't work out that's fine! even without others it could be a fun set up for future cr since hiccup will just eyes emoji her for the rest of time-- in a good way, not a bad way)

[expiera]

Hmm how about we start with a closed prompt where they talk a bit and where the hostage taking first happens, then move on to a separate joint TL where Hiccup is free to keep talking to everyone since he'll probably have his limbs bound, but not gagged? If you don't mind a bit of injury she totally would make a show of it making a tiny cut to draw blood at his neck, but by the time he's free and get his hands back, won't feel any lingering wound on his neck at all as if there's nothing there even if he's SURE he was lightly cut?

...Since things REALLY escalated in the server chat today everyone could WTF at the mauling session once it happens later down the thread? This is definitely happening with how much SPICE it's bringing to the table, God. Sorry Hiccup you are absolutely walking out of this more traumatized than Ciel herself is...

[dragon_rider]

A closed prompt would be good! It doesn't have to be long after all and Hiccup can just be exasperated that this always seems to happen. Injury is also and always is fine! I don't imagine he'd struggle too much at first with it anyway — a genuine 'oh come on, really' personality when he wants to believe in someone. I'm sorry Ciel. So a minor injury and healing for him to go all 🤔🤔🤔

( Since he doesn't believe Kenoma are bad people it helps)

I mean.... YEAH. You guys sure did go off. He's not necessarily gonna leave traumatized — he's seen his fear share of stuff that's carefully hidden behind y7 labels ( you don't go to war with dragons and others and have some of them die pretty brutally and not know, they just hide it). He's just gonna be vastly exasperated the only solution someone came up with is MAULING someone.

While they're prob mauling each other it could be possible he undoes his bindings and gets away, maybe? Esp if I decide to go the angle of giving him his sword during it. If that's a decent option (I'd say he could try to intervene which is funnier yet, since he'd be in Big Disagreement but that'd be too chaotic and I htink Abel has that handled)

[expiera]

Oh small blessings he won't be traumatized... Sorry about all the blood 😔 And that sounds good! I am probably going to ping you and Quix/Estinien's player to hash this out on Disc later once we get the full setup of the event to see how everyone would like to do this? I'm mainly concerned with how open you guys OOCly want this to be, since this SHOULD be a very public thing others can react to ICly. People checking in on Hiccup to make sure he's ok/reigning Estinien back in can be open prompts for both of you to keep pursuing Pleroma side CR, which would hinge on the outcome of the hostage fustercluck. We could either try hashing things out in advance or boomerang a little to set up the foundation? I may be thinking too hard about this, but yeah potentially you can even team up with Abel's player to drag Estinien away, there are options! So depending on what YOU would like to do too, we can probably fine tune it more so we can all make use of the aftermath to build more upon?

[dragon_rider]

It's not okay he's just y'know. Not going to be as traumatized as he could be (maybe a little later, who knows). I think moving to Discord plotting would probably be easiest since that's at least 3-4 people involved and it would be something public, yes! Getting the baseline so we can all do our threads before the next event is also a wise decision.

|b I THINK yeah hashing it out a little more may help regardless because I can't see Hiccup sitting back and just letting that happen prisoner. He's naive not dumb, after all, but yeah I think hashing it out is the best way to go.

(I'm sorry I feel like I'm offering nothing here, haha)