Event 2
High Treason
13 Apr - 9 May, 2015
Introduction
While their military is abroad, all is not as well as it seems in the Empire. There have been numerous setbacks hampering short-term military and economic advancement for a while now - all small things and all unrelated, but nevertheless bad luck seemed to hover wherever progress went.
The suspicions started with the grim harvest for Bratkowice. Under the guise of a local festival, investigators secretly converged in the rural city; but what they found there was not what they had expected. While they did not discover the cause of the blight, one investigator did unearth a shocking discovery - there is sabotage of a grand scale being set in motion in the Empire.
A network of saboteurs in the employ of Miras has been preparing for an ambitious act of treason by destroying the core of at least one of the Empire's military or economic pillars - and time is running out to stop them. Through creative interrogation, it has come to light that the date when everything converges is the 7th Seeds, but the perpetrators and their means are still alarmingly unknown. The Empire must enlist the help of everyone it can to avert catastrophe.
There is grand sabotage being planned in the Empire by its enemies, and must be stopped! The Song-Lu Peacekeepers have been enlisted, and in an unprecedented act of cooperation between Koben and Reluir, several of the Queens' Assassins have been dispatched to assist but time is ticking and everyone's help is needed.
Event Details
High Treason
The Emperor has issued an urgent request for any information that could help stop the saboteurs, for a handsome reward. This edict targets three people suspected with holding the key to triggering the event:
◆ The Cloaked Rider
A figure associated with Iadlain, and who was said to wear a signature Iadlish cloak with blue flowers. A master of the natural world and potentially a Druid or Ranger with basic mage skills, the Cloaked Rider prefers to take refuge in forests and wild places - particularly favouring deep, dark places with high magical energy.
◆ The Windcrafter
Purported to be a weather mage, he is said to have infiltrated the main Air Force research base and an unknown number of other military and industrial facilities via connections with schools and scholars of the Wissen Fellowship. He is characterised as smooth operator who moves deftly in high circles of all sorts.
◆ The Patriot
A figure said to be deeply embedded in the black market networks around both the Empire and Kingdom, although she is not explicitly high-ranking. She is described as patently self-serving, incredibly shrewd, and able to don disguises with great skill. Her tell-tale trademark is a broken laugh.
The locations they may target are:
◇ The Koben Air Force Main Base
Located in the Crown Ridge, this is where the prized and feared dreadnoughts are hangared. It is also the centre of research for imperial airship development.
◇ The Song-Lu to Koben Rail
Essential for the transport and freight between the two cities, the Song-Lu to Koben Rail is also a landmark of pride for the Empire. As popular as it is with the citizens of the Empire, it could be a site of terrible casualties.
◇ The Linhythe Naval Base
The Linhythe Naval Base homes the lion's share of the Imperial Navy ships. Since the return of the contingent sent out to Amedra and Belport, an attack here could be devastating for the naval power and morale of the Empire.
◇ The Tusa Scrying Tower
Built on an outcrop of rock in the middle of Tusa city, this scrying tower is the largest of its kind and facilitates much of the scrying communication that occurs in the Empire. Its destruction would severely impede communication, as those built in other cities are much smaller.
◇ The Bratkowice Primary
The Bratkowice Primary Storage and Distribution, a facility on the outskirts of the city by a river, is the centre of the food distribution around the Empire and to the Empire's military. The fire that shocked Bratkowice years ago was here, and now that the Empire relies on the city more heavily than ever before, a similar incident could spell even wider disaster.
◇ The Iadlain Air Field
Although it is small in profile, the Iadlain Air Field from which cargoes are sent via airship from isolated Iadlain to the rest of the Empire has a special importance - it provides the line to transport several essential alchemical supplies for the military's weapons and airships. Without that trade route in operation, the military's effectiveness would be on numbered days.
Story
Activities
Event Outcomes
Each of the three suspected saboteurs have been assigned a city in which they are hiding; one will trigger the destruction while the other two - although they are persons of interest - are not the direct perpetrators for this event. The true perpetrator has sabotaged two targets, one of which can only be stopped by catching them, and one of which has been set up beforehand to require direct interference at the site to prevent.
Characters must be depicted taking part in the man-hunt or investigation, selecting one city and one lead to explore. So that it remains flexible, the clues and people that your characters investigate are to be invented by you - as long the success is not conclusive. This means you create the suspect or clue (e.g. a suspicious person at work or a strange thing at one of the target sites) but do not depict your character unveiling that the lead they have taken is necessarily true.
To stop the two acts of sabotage, at least one member character must be depicted investigating the right saboteur in the right city (for the in-person sabotage) and at least one member character must be depicted investigating the right target (for the prepared sabotage). Both may be stopped independently, so it is possible that one is stopped while the other succeeds. The character(s) who make 'correct hits' on these will be canonised as the one(s) who thwarted the sabotage - which will be rewarded in-canon with accolades and/or monetary rewards - and the clue they investigated canonised as the true clue. If there are multiple characters who investigated the same correct person/target, one will be chosen to be made canon.
Event Participation
Prediction
On this journal via comment, guess the real saboteur and the target! You may make one guess on the perpetrator and one guess on the target each - those who guess correctly will be rewarded with 5EXP per correct guess (i.e. you can win 10EXP if you get both). This is in addition to other entries, and is OOC so it is available to everyone regardless of side or ability to participate.
Event Participation
Event Art
Draw, write or in any way depict your character's involvement in the main event to affect the outcomes! Art or literature entries will receive a bonus 30 EXP. Only main characters are eligible for the bonus EXP and the outcome.
Event Participation
Prompt Art
For characters who cannot be directly involved in the event, you can use this event as a prompt (e.g. reacting to the news from another city). Prompt submissions will get a bonus 10 EXP for the submission but will not count towards the event outcome.
Event Participation
Action Statement
If you don't have time to make an art piece, you can get 5 EXP by simply stating what your character is doing for the event via a post in the #event-board Discord channel. This applies to main characters only and there must be direct involvement with the events to get this. Side characters' involvement can be described to contribute to the event canon however no points will be given. If you go on to enter an art submission later, the EXP received for this will be replaced by the art submission points.
Special Role
🙡
None
There are no special roles or quests for this event/interval
Conclusion
All over the Empire, people of all walks turned their efforts to catching out the saboteurs and so protecting their home.
The military bristled at the Air Force Base and the Naval Base, keen to prove their mettle after mixed results in Amedra and Belport. With the help of increased vigilance from its members, suspicious activity was quickly and efficiently clamped down on. While the three in question were not caught on military ground, several others were apprehended on suspicion of being involved. In the cities hosting the bases, Koben and Linhythe, the highest and lowest circles burst into an under-the-surface flurry of second-guessing as they attempted to turn out the three - and although the real perpetrator of the sabotage was not found, in Linhythe the Patriot did reveal herself...
In the far-away Iadlain, vigilance was high too as the already clannish Iadlish consolidated to protect their own. There was a definite and deepening rise in hostility towards foreign visitors for the month leading up to the 7th Seeds - which did indeed drive out all potential threats, as well as reinforce that no-one should touch Iadlain but the Iadlish themselves.
Song-Luans, in contrast, seemed to be largely nonchalant about the risk. Those who knew noted with varying concern that the Peacekeepers had almost all left to spread over the rest of the Empire, leaving their home eerily deserted save for a scant base crew. As it turns out, they were justified - Song-Lu remained unscathed in spite of its vulnerability, and the Peacekeepers on duty targeted the right place...
Following the original lead, the Peacekeepers turned out in force in Bratkowice. It was here that the Cloaked Rider was outed by a lucky find and some creative detective work. It wasn't a Peacekeeper, however, who averted catastrophe - it was a former citizen who, with the help of the Serdar, managed to stop a destructive rune circle from activating in the Bratkowice Primary. A disastrous repeat of the blaze there years ago was thwarted.
Luck, however, was not smiling everywhere. While they turned out in force, the Windcrafter slipped through the fingers of investigators in Tusa. In spite of the price on his head, he followed through with his plan - to destroy the Tusa Scrying Tower. Using his connections and wiles, he had smuggled himself into the giant spire overlooking the city and, over the course of several weeks, planted a fatally destructive spell deep within it - after all that, he could hardly stop. Moments after he left for the final time on the 7th Seeds, he activated it. The results came in an instant - hundreds of high-grade scrying crystals shattered and the tower, the communications centre of the Empire, came crashing down. All in it at the time perished, as did many in the city where it fell. The Empire's scrying communications, previously so reliant on the tower, are now in a crisis.
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Congratulations to axelro4191 for preventing sabotage at the Bratkowice Primary, and to faithom and KiyokoAmaya for discovering the Patriot and the Cloaked Rider respectively! You will be contacted in the next few days to work out the details of the outcome, and the in-universe rewards/repercussions for your characters.
To everyone, thank you for all your hard work, and hold on tight! The Empire and Tusa especially still need you!