Shards of a Broken Empire, Planning Thread Options

[Uleni Athram]

OK, let's do this.


First off, we need to plan where are we going. Hey Jack, wanna go for another try for the Roots? This time without a crazy spy thinking he's a warrior? Or an assassin and his wife? *shrugs*

TBH, I prefer this. Second time's a charm, yes? There were so many potential in being in Morrowind and Black Marsh, and we didn't even got a chance to properly set up shop. If we choose this, we go there with the same way, boats and all. This time, however, we properly land someplace other than Seyda Neen. Perhaps Ebonheart? Either way, once we get out of the ship, we get to hear some crier about how the local lord is hiring mercenaries for an 'assault' on a nearby.....

Just pick a province before I talk your ears out



And since I get a feeling that "making things up as we go" would likely result in the horrid death of this RP, NPCs that has some sway in the story is very much needed. These NPCs I would list in the following list: only if we meet/heard about them in their respective province. I control these NPCs, of course.


I'm going to introduce some plot-moving NPCs with, hopefully, humanized personalities. I would update this list in a seperate thread when we progress with the plot or set foot in each respective province so you guys can get a 'feel' of each NPC's ambition and goals. First off:




CYRODIILS


Emperor Martin Septim

The illegitimate heir now turned Emperor, Martin Septim rules the Fourth Era as a broken man. He still has his wits and sanity, but in those blue eyes one could see the turmoil that plagues him. The province of the Imperial race is safe under his fair, yet firm, guidance and the Legion reinforces the peace. As the Fourth Era now dawned on Tamriel, the weakened Empire has lost its leash on each province and chaos now reigns. Mysterious artifacts also appeared in seperate locations and Martin has some strange interest in them, hiring mercenaries and sending Blades to recover each one. While the reason is unclear, some say it would be vital in restoring peace.


The Champion of Cyrodiil ( the preset character just to make it easier and not confusing )

The lone wanderer who repelled Oblivion single-handedly. His name and background is unknown, but his deeds marked him as one of the powerful Heroes who rose before him, like the Incarnate. Currently, he resides in the Royal Palace, guarding the Emperor despite his friend's wishes for him to venture out and collect the Gems.



Severus Horatius Caesus

Succeeding Adamus Philida as the overall commander of the whole Legions and a military advisor to the Emperor, Severus is regarded as a brutish man with the mind of a genius. Under his command, the borders of Cyrodiil is kept safe. While the Emperor is sending out mercenaries and adventurers to collect these hogwash 'Gems', the Primo Legatus is waiting for the opportune moment to mobilize the Legions and pacify the independent provinces with brute force. And he is running out of patience.


Councilman Noriquel

With the demeanor of a shifty rat and the personality of a zeta male of the pack, this Bosmeri is reputed as one of the greediest and disloyal in the whole of the Elder Council. Many times has the other Councilmen petitioned for Noriquel's retirement, but it has always been rebuked. Simply because Noriquel is one of the best in the games of politics. Ruthless and efficient, he could get the job done. He has many pawns under his thumb and all of them are arguably spies, too. Nothing can get in and without of the Royal Palace with Noriquel not knowing of it. Emperor Martin dislikes him and the Champion is outright suspicious of him, but they keep him simply because of his political savvyness. Lately, however, the Bosmeri councilman acts with strange eccentricity and keeps mumbling to himself during Council sessions.

A great plan is in work, he says. A great plan is in work.





Praetorian Lania Horatius Caesius

Women serving in the Legion is a strange sight. Women having the ranks even senior officers can only dream of having is viewed upon with disgust and secret awe. Lania, daughter of the Primo Legatus, is the head of the Praetorian Guard: an organization bent on defending the Royal Palace and the Emperor himself, in conjunction with the Blades. Founded by Martin to reinforce his security from assassins, the Praetorians maintains the safety with borderline-fanatiscism. And this job suits Lania well. She was not the one who seeks out battle, unlike his father, but would rather have battle seek her out. And this job, it attracts assassins like a moth to a fly. But with the erratic behavior of Councilman Noriquel and the restless demeanor of her father, the tension inside the palace is unbelievably thick. No one knows who is loyal to whom, and enemies hide in the guise of friends. It is times like these that Lania loves her job.


(When the RP starts, I would edit this post and this "Character List" would be moved up so new comers would get an idea of the RP. Hope it makes sense, which it probably wouldn't)

[jack cloudy]

Well, one other way is by ignoring mournhold completely. Granted, this will require the guys and girls to discuss the alternate plan first and vote on it. But anyway, here is my reasoning, or Semir's if you want.

1: The legatus' plan was to put it mildly, simplistic. It is also rather obvious. While the boat was supposed to be subtle according to the guy, Semir expects the docks to be under observation. Now take our motley gang of mercenaries and have them board an unmarked boat. A small merchantmen or whatever the legatus thought appropriate and sneaky. Now have said boat leave the harbour at night. Boat, strange passengers boarded in the dark, plus it leaves at a weird time. Can you say suspicious? Hell, even if we leave along with a lot of other boats in the middle of the day, we'll still stand out. News of all those mercenaries at the party, and the lot that left after receiving letters from the champion of Cyrodiil him/herself, will spread like wildfire. Yeah, that wasn't very subtle, not since people were talking about it.

2: As Semir already said, he doesn't like the prepared disguises. Sure, we know he can do disguises, but the disguise needs to be geared to the situation and level of preparation available. Doing a peasant or other low-class civilian is easy, mercenary likewise. Nobles or even middle-class merchants take more time, both in ways of appearance and the necessary documents. Pretending to be a member of a highly exclusive, elite order with a religious backbone takes months, at least. So in short, the robes might work. Ordinators? Yeah, Semir isn't going to place any bets on that one.

Ordinators are ridiculously visible and are kept to very strict standards by every level of the population, not the least of which being other Ordinators and the priesthood. And in Mournhold those standards are probably the highest. It is the capital after all. He wouldn't just need to learn the right words, but when to say them, in what tone, how fast or slow. How to walk, how to react to things and other people. To make it all seem natural. Experience can cut down on the amount of needed preparation, but he doesn't have that. Not disguising himself as an Ordinator or something similar. And this is just for the guy who has disguises as part of his job description.

Actually, we can go with the disguise plan. We just need to liberate some Bonemold or Chitin first. Those sets also come with face concealment, are military in nature which will help when meeting the Dunmeri army and they're used by less important folk.

3: We don't actually have information on how to contact the Mournhold informant. Ok, this is nitpicking. Anyway, we could solve that by retconning one of our Blades into having the info. The more elegant solution would be to have it waiting on the boat.

4: By the time we reach Mournhold, the front will have moved. I also expect that we'll then have to go to said frontlines. So basically we'll be spending precious time doing catchup. Better perhaps is to go straight to said frontlines and try to infiltrate there. This is also where the most up to date information regarding the search can be found. I'm assuming the Dunmer didn't just decide to invade Argonia because last sunday had such nice weather. We could copy that information and use it for our search. The most risky option would be to wait till the Dunmer had found it, then run in and snatch it before they can whisk it away.

5: If the Argonians are the ones to find the loot, we'll have similar issues as with the Dunmer scenario, but it is less bad. The Argonians will be sufficiently provoked to want some payback. They'll be looking to counterattack and probably utilize the roots as an equalizer. So far, they've been doing poorly after all and they'd lose badly outside the swamps it seems. This gives us a larger amount of time to do the snatching than with the Dunmer scenario.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Oct 31 2011, 07:23 PM