Conquest of the Horde

It all started with a zeppelin.

Goblin transportation has always been a dangerous way to travel. Nonetheless, zeppelins have been a staple of long-distance transportation for several years. You found yourself on one, traveling off to a nice vacation island out in the sea, to take a good break from the worries and cares of the world. The goblins promised it would be a trip to remember. Turned out they'd be right, though not in the way they'd expect.

"...Frexx, I think we're off course." The captain of the zeppelin peered down at the ocean below. Curious, your gaze followed his to the unfamiliar waters, and a bit of land in the distance. "Where are we, exactly? That's not..." The captain trailed off, peering over at the goblin navigator who was blinking at the island in the distance, then back to his map.

A moment of silence passed between the two, before the navigator, Frexx, shook his head. "Erm. I dunno captain. This island...don't think this one's on the map."

"You pointed us in the wrong direction!"

Frexx shook his head frantically, "No captain, I double-checked our coordinates just a little while ago. We couldn't have possibly-"

Your interest snapped away at the sound of a loud crash within the hold. The two arguing goblins didn't even seem to notice, though as you looked back at the distant island, it no longer seemed so distant. A dark and gloomy place if you had ever seen one, getting closer and closer. It was then you realized that the zeppelin was slowly losing altitude. Panic was starting to spread among the passengers, as the goblins struggled to get the zeppelin back on course. The following events were like a blur in your head. You were ushered to get off deck and down in the hold, while the goblins shouted and argued to get everything fixed. Yet, with every problem that was remedied, it seemed like another sprung up. There was a crash, and then darkness.

You and your fellow passengers awoke on this island, far from civilization. Disorientated and wounded from the impact, you struggled to make sense of what had just happened. Worse comes from the feeling around you...the darkness, the hate. The island itself loathes you, and you can feel it in your bones. This place is cursed, it isn't right, and this is far from the vacation you've been promised. You have to get off this rock, before this place claims your life.

It's time to survive.

The Two Sides

There are two distinct sides to this struggle that you can take, either the survivors or the skin thieves.

The survivors of the crash are those struggling to stay alive on the cursed island. They'll need to find the food, water, and shelter needed to survive, all the while attempting to find a way off of the island they've found themselves trapped on and avoiding the island's attempts at defeating them. Survivors will have to be careful, though...as they'll likely find out, not everyone is to be trusted, but at the same time no one can survive alone. They'll need to walk a delicate balance, working together without blindly trusting their supposed friends.

A few of the survivors, however, were taken by a mysterious force, and in their place was a duplicate, a double that looks, sounds, and acts like the person that they are replacing. These doppelgangers, however, have only one goal: to ensure that the survivors do not leave the island. The exact nature of these skin thieves is a mystery, one that may be unraveled in time. The skin thieves should do everything they can to keep their nature a secret, instead striking out in hidden ways and subtly undermining the efforts of the survivors.

Warnings and Rules

First of all, this is a survival event. While I will attempt to keep character death to an absolute minimum, there is always a certain element of danger within such an event. As a result, do expect that some bad things may end up happening to your character. The usual character warning rules apply as normal, however: I will not kill or permanently injure a character unless you do something particularly fool-hardy, and others will need to apply warnings as well in the rare cases where character death may be a possibility.

As for rules, make sure to read these carefully:

1. Metagaming is bad. Due to the nature of the event and the hidden nature of the skin thieves, I kindly request that everyone in the event NOT tell other people OOCly who is or is not a skin thief. I will be keeping the side of each character a secret, and so should you. If you're caught cheating, expect to be booted from the event. Also, because of the dangers of metagaming in this event in particular, I'd like to request that people not dual-box or otherwise have multiple characters within the event.

2. The cursed nature of the island suppresses certain kinds of magic. This is both for IC and OOC reasons, in order to keep the event flowing and without letting it have a conclusion too early. While on the island, no forms of teleportation magic function, meaning that one cannot use teleports, portals, blinks, summons, or death gates. In addition, druids will find themselves unable to use their flight or aquatic forms. Long-range communication magic is also out of the question. Abilities that allow one to sense demons and undead (such as the effects from warlocks and paladins, respectively) are scrambled while on the island, making it so they don't function correctly. Same applies to the ability to sense magic in general, as the entire island is magical in some sense. Finally, healing magic will function, but the effects of such magic are weakened by the evil aura of the island. Don't expect a quick way out of damage taken, but broken limbs aren't necessarily crippling for the entire event. The same corrupting aura also twists and spoils any food or water conjured by mages.

3. There will be special rules for PvP against survivors and skin thieves. As conflict is inevitable, yet I want to keep death to a minimum and let people stay for the event as long as they wish to be in it, the "death" of a character will instead result in the character switching sides. A survivor that is captured and defeated by the skin thieves, and not able to be rescued in time, will be spirited away and replaced with a double. On the other hand, if a skin thief is discovered and then killed, the abducted character will be able to return. What he or she may remember from his or her abduction will be handled when it's necessary. As a result of these rules, if you wouldn't feel comfortable playing an evil duplicate of your character, you may want to reconsider joining the event.

4. If you're a skin thief, make sure also that you don't reveal the nature of your allies, even if you yourself are discovered. Also, skin thieves have the memories and abilities of the people they are emulating. How perfect this emulation is, is up to the player. The skin thief, whatever he may know about the victim, is NOT the victim, and so subtle hints as to the fact that something is wrong with the character may be given. Don't be too obvious with these, however. Remember, your objective is to NOT get caught.

5. While the characters are held hostage, I'm not holding you hostage. If you want to leave the event early, I can simply retcon you off of the island. If you want to join the event late, that's fine too. Hop on in and I'll try to catch you up to speed as best I can.

6. As always and much like in Kidnapped, if someone says that they're uncomfortable with something that you're doing to their character, cease and try to work out another solution. We are, after all, all here to have fun.

I would like to keep track of any switches that occur in player faction, so if a skin thief dies or a survivor gets abducted, please send me a whisper (or a PM if I'm not in-game at the time.) In addition, if something has happened, no one saw you, and you want it known after the fact, feel free to whisper me, and I'll make a raid announcement. For example, if a Skin Thief poisons food when no one is looking, but doesn't want anyone else to meta-game who did it.

Sign-Ups and Dates

Currently, the plan is for Skin Thieves to start on Sunday the 24th of July, ending on Sunday the 31st of July. The tentative time for this beginning is 2PM server time.

If you wish to sign up for the event, send me a forum PM with the following template:


Much like with Kidnapped, I will try to emulate Loxmardin and come up with personalized bits of story and intrigue for characters signing up. Assuming I don't flake out or run out of time, I will endeavor to do something for people who sign up by Wednesday, July 20th. Don't worry if you don't sign up before then, you can still hop on and join the event, you just won't get any story snippets I might write up.

The exact location in-game for the event is still being discussed and decided. I'll let everyone know once a decision has been reached, closer to the time of the event.

Finally, a note: depending on how many people sign up for each side, I may have to do some balancing. I'll try to check to make sure it's okay with the people, if it's required.

The current list of signed up characters:
Xera (Reigen)
Kaghuros (Kaghuros)
Izaria (Xigo)
Volthorn (Karunzo)
Kentado (Imagenashyun)
Aroes (Aroes)
Molly (Wuvvums)
Rhozak (Psycho)
Thragash (Grakor456)
Mokaku (Hawk)
Jean (Cressy)
Kaah (Loxmardin)
Safksha (Reese777)
Velial (Dragonmad)
Roddrick (Djurawuzhere)
Endling (Rigley)
Hebry (Dastmo)
Tarania (Scout)
Raphael (ThePharaoh)
Talys (Delta)
Glyndin (Muhaha8 )
Minnalla (Esthrunil)
Joshua (LostStranger)
---
Sathia (Uguu)
Kravin (Krilari)
Rhyan (Evaszion)
Kelarria (Saronsen)
Ruibarra (Ruibarra)
Tikar (Ural)
Dalikan (zenethen)
Franziska (Rokhjin)
Aleksandr (Serendipitous)
Tiki (Lendri)
Thrazin (DaveM)
Lekan (Avon)
Jastus (Ozewse)
Spiligrack (Ben)
Suliya (Crowson)
Teztez (Spiky)

I'm going to put forth location ideas here, so folks can discuss the possibilities. A quick list of the possible locations thought up so far:

Purgation Isle (Southwestern Hillsbrad) - I like the look of this place, and it has the right feel. Unfortunately, it's really small, essentially just a dock, a winding path, and then a ruined tower and bonfire at the top. I could spawn some tents and the like, but it's still not a lot of room to walk around in.

Fenris Isle (Eastern Silverpine) - Has the Silverpine look, which is appropriately dreary. Lots of buildings and little nooks to RP in. The one downside I see is that it's in the middle of a lake instead of the ocean, so we'll have to use our imagination and pretend it's in the ocean.

Riplash Ruins (Southern Borean Tundra) - I love the look of this place. It's big, roomy, and has lots and lots of ruins, giving a good mix of indoors and outdoors locations to be in. Also, there's a permanent fog effect on those in the area, which is also nifty. However, maybe it's too big, and I could see the fog getting annoying for long durations.

Alcaz Island (Northeastern Dustwallow Marsh) - Where the first Kidnapped event was held. It's a good place simply because it's a big island with enough structures to be interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the dark or haunted look I'd prefer for the event.

Any comments so far?

(07-13-2011, 08:29 AM)Grakor456 Wrote: [ -> ]Riplash Ruins (Southern Borean Tundra) - I love the look of this place. It's big, roomy, and has lots and lots of ruins, giving a good mix of indoors and outdoors locations to be in. Also, there's a permanent fog effect on those in the area, which is also nifty. However, maybe it's too big, and I could see the fog getting annoying for long durations.

Yes. YES. YEEEESSSSSS.

There's no such thing as too big. Do it.

Riplash Ruins sounds great, but while Purgation Isle is very small, the fact that it's tiny could provide additional psychological drama in how cramped and trapped the survivors feel. It'd be boring for us OOCly, but ICly cramped quarters can really hamper down a person's mental state, and that can be interesting to see if certain survivors are not exactly known to be mentally stable or secure. Just an idea, though.

(07-13-2011, 09:07 AM)Reese777 Wrote: [ -> ]Yes. YES. YEEEESSSSSS.

There's no such thing as too big. Do it.

I'm partial to Riplash myself. I'm thinking either Riplash or Fenris, depending on if I hear a convincing argument to sway me one way or another. I'll keep thinking on it.

I believe there's an issue with Riplash in that the mist effect unphases you if you're trying to move around in it.

If that could overcomed then that place would be awesome!

Fenris.

(07-13-2011, 10:56 AM)Xigo Wrote: [ -> ]Fenris.

If there can be phases for Riplash, I think that would be pretty sweet and I support it (Though you could just phase the mobs out instead of the people). Fenris, on the other hand, is a good place too though it has been used a lot before for different things.

Fenris!

EDIT: To expand, I think the fog would annoy me after a while. Heck, even when I do dailies I'm irked by it when I'm trying to fly away.

(07-13-2011, 10:29 AM)Grakor456 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm partial to Riplash myself. I'm thinking either Riplash or Fenris, depending on if I hear a convincing argument to sway me one way or another. I'll keep thinking on it.

Well it's not as though the size won't give the island a sense of eerie-ness, wouldn't you say? Makes someone feel more alone, even when they're with someone. Easy to get lost in. Easy to get tricked into wandering. Etc. Etc.

Between Riplash and Fenris, I'd personally say Riplash. The ruins themselves are fairly neat and the size has both its profit and drawback. I think Riplash answers more to the eerie/creepy feeling you want than Fenris does, too.

Minor update on the rules: in order to prevent the survival aspect from being too trivialized, the island also twists and corrupts food and water summoned on it.

I'd choose Fenris. It has more islandish feel and the fog effect on Riplash will most likely annoy some people, as it was pointed out several times. I, personally don't have a problem with it, honestly.

Riplash. That place is more legendary than Thunderfury and Sulfuras combined.

EDIT: Changed my mind, Fenris looks much more islandish and I like the grimdark feel of it.