07-30-2012, 10:54 AM
Skin Thieves 2: Northwind
Another Tale of Stolen Lives
It was all supposed to be over.
They were ghosts without form or memory. They stole the bodies of those still alive to give themselves purpose. They were dealt with then, their bones buried and their spirits laid to rest. You thought that was the end of it, that never again would another horror like that return to the world.
You were wrong.
It started with a dream. Even now the exact order of events is nothing but a haze in your mind. You remember unfamiliar, foggy streets. You remember dark, monstrous shapes lurking just in the corners of your vision. You remember the feeling, as if you'd been called to this place, and yet it bore a resentment to your presence. You were faced with a juxtaposition, desire and loathing, a calling and a rebuke.
It made no sense, until yet another string of events led to an all too familiar conclusion. A zeppelin with a few chance malfunctions, and a drop...a drop down to a deserted town of fog.
They're back, and this time the rules have changed.
Escape, or die trying.
Premise and the Two Sides
In this event, Skin Thieves meets the town of Northwind. Much like the first Skin Thieves event, we will be having doppelgangers taking the place of player characters. However, this premise comes with an added twist of the new setting. Northwind has its own dangers and horrors lurking about, and only the foolish would face them recklessly.
However, we're highly encouraging that people interact with the environment! You may need to ensure the appropriate event runner will be about (Rigley will be handling much of the Northwind specific goings-on and I will be handling much of the Skin Thieves specific goings-on) but you are highly encouraged to read books, go through barrels, scavenge for materials, and so on.
Survivors are those that are still the "real" survivors of the zeppelin crash. They are now in the town of Northwind, seeking to survive and escape back outside of the town. This won't be easy, however, and to survive they will need to work together and scavenge through the town for needed supplies. Unfortunately, not only will they have to contend with the uncertainty that their own allies may be Skin Thieves, but the town itself is not going to be kind to them.
Skin Thieves are evil doppelgangers that seek to kidnap survivors, replacing them with other doppelgangers. They have the memories and abilities of those that they replace, but with subtle differences that can mark them as something else, to the observant. They will have to do their best to avoid detection by the survivors and escape themselves. However, as it turns out, the town doesn't want THEM here either...
Northwind is a place of many dangers.
Warnings and Rules
This is a joint project between myself and Rigley. We'll be doing our best to guide you through an enjoyable event, but that means you'll have to listen to us. Given the nature of these events, you are on your honor to avoid metagaming as much as possible and to be at your best behavior.
This is a survival event. While we will be trying to keep death to a minimum, know that bad things can happen to your character. It will likely not involve anything permanent unless you consent to such or you do something especially foolhardy, but the warning is out there nonetheless.
A few notes and rules need to be made beyond this:
1. Metagaming. I know I just mentioned it, but it needs to be mentioned again. If someone is cheating by using information OOCly that their character doesn't know ICly and you get caught, I will boot you from the event. For this reason, I highly recommend that you also keep from sharing information OOCly. If you know who the Skin Thieves are OOCly, don't spread that around. Some information is best not known for suspense! Similarly, if you're a Skin Thief ICly, don't spread around who the other thieves are, ICly or OOCly.
2. For obvious reasons, like in most survival events we'll be shutting off certain kinds of magic, particularly those that deal with flight and teleportation. No easy way out of this one, guys.
3. Due to the nature of this event, we'll have to treat combat very carefully. Most of the strange creatures in Northwind can't be fought in any conventional manner, so all fights dealing with such creatures will be trust. In Skin Thief vs. Survivor confrontations, you'll need to decide a fair way to get these confrontations concluded. Keep in mind the main purpose of the event, so be fair!
4. If someone gets uncomfortable with something going on in the event, say so. Much like with Kidnapped and other such events, we'll try to avoid making players uncomfortable as much as possible. We are all here to have fun, after all.
5. If you have a question on what you can or can't do, especially as far as interacting with the environment, ask one of the event runners. We encourage poking about and trying to do things with your surroundings, but you may need to ensure one of the event runners are present to deal with certain things.
6. 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.
7. That aside, the specifics: If a skin thief "defeats" a survivor, said survivor is kidnapped and becomes a skin thief. If a skin thief is killed, the survivor returns. If there are any questions during the event on this, we'll try to answer them.
Sign-Ups and Dates
We are planning on starting this on August 5th at around 2pm server time. The ending event may be a week from then at the same time, but may come earlier depending upon the momentum of the event.
I won't be doing intrigues this time, as I don't feel they added much to the first event. We will, however, still require sign-ups, including for late comers. People will still be able to jump in mid-way through, but we'll want a sign-up in order to get information for your character be made available for our nefarious purposes.
The following is the sign-up sheet. Fill this in and send it to both myself (Grakor456) and Rigley.
Spoiler:
Quote:Character Name: (Full Name)
Race: (If you want, you can be specific on nationality as well.)
Trade/Class: (Your character's main career. Include other things, like variants, too.)
Starting side: (If you're coming in part-way, you're a Survivor. Otherwise, choose between Survivor or Skin Thief.)
Significant friends, family, etc:
Significant foes, fears, etc:
Significant character traits:
Please leave nothing blank. The more you include, the more can be worked with during the event.
If there's a significant number one way or another, I may need to do some balancing.
Sign ups so far:
Widdle (Vee)
Gavin (Avitz)
Gregg (Reese)
Mathabaeus (Rowgen)
Mezrin (Mezrin)
Aulten (Muhaha8)
Telendrin (Noble)
Serada (Psycho)
Myron (Loxmardin)
Lin (auroraphoenix44)
Gantrithor (CappnRob)
Rekka (JVNemesis)
Zaroth (Zarquon)
Caravan (Caravan)
Ralerian (Ozewse)
Brisand (Delta)
Syia (Felix)
Rensin (Rensin)
Aroes (Aroes)
Kalai (Aruk)
Jami (ImagenAshyun)
Endling (Rigley)
Clovis (Clovis)
Versich (Xigo)
Mokaku (Hawk)
Maya (Wuvvums)
Sweetbrier (Krilari)
Balgarn (Grakor456)
Reiki (Ruibarra)
Xelti (Ghurm)
Ruffirant (chedarcheesy)
Reigen (Reigen)
Faelara (Erynn)
Kroldul (CrypticOcean)
Kilik (NodCommando)
Geezle (kindle135)
Flora (Dae)
Cyelus (solitary)
Elaana (Theredy42)
Dazennar (DaveM)
Grazmot (ghaskan)
Voragh (Sol)
Celen (Stealthscout)
Koringar (Spiky)
Update, the patch download (see my post below) is here: public.ds003.info/gopatch/InstallFromScratch_335_001/patch-D.MPQ