The Powers That Be (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
powersthatbe) wrote2019-01-12 06:24 pm
powersthatbe) wrote2019-01-12 06:24 pm
Market of the Vanities: Plot Role Info.
If you are not a plot infiltrator or someone with IC reasons to share knowledge available to plot infiltrators, please do not read the comments of this post.
If you ARE a plot infiltrator, please comment under your toplevel to let us know you've read it; please also pop over here to announce your plotroleishness to the game at large. We prefer that you do any confidential plotting with other plot-important folks in the comments here, rather than on plurk, and please comment no later than January 23rd, January 31st, February 8th, February 16th, & February 24th with a brief (as brief as 1 sentence; as long as you like) summary of your activity during the week & plans for next week. These comments will help the mods shape mingles and plot events to keep the story dynamic and player actions important to the outcome. Likewise, comment at any time with any questions you may have, and a mod will get back to you within 36 hours at the outside.
-Links to folklore are included not to pigeonhole you into using those names or background details, but only to share our inspirations for the roles and allow you to draw from them as much or little as you like.
-All your characters may be safely assumed to have access to monetary resources and minor magic items to sell or trade; doing so will constitute skill proof for the character receiving the item. Such magic items should convey a minor advantage, a cantrip or trick - an endless torch, a self-mending piece of clothing, a sword that draws itself in times of danger - but not an item that conveys a major advantage or wholly new ability, such as a sword that fights on its own, a torch that can light endless fires, or clothing that can alter itself into other outfits. If you're not sure of an item or want to sell or trade something more powerful, contact the mods under your toplevel and ask - the Market is meant to be a place of wonders and you're the biggest suppliers in it.
-Obviously the skills listed below are exceptional even by Traveler standards. If you have concerns about a skill, yours or someone else's, potentially unbalancing the game, please let us know ASAP so we can address that concern & work out a fix if necessary. Your characters are under no obligation to sell, trade, or give away these skills, but are able to do so, and we've worked to give many or most of you some possible motivation to justify the skill trades. If you cannot imagine a circumstance where your character would make any trades, let us know so we can clarify and explain.
If you ARE a plot infiltrator, please comment under your toplevel to let us know you've read it; please also pop over here to announce your plotroleishness to the game at large. We prefer that you do any confidential plotting with other plot-important folks in the comments here, rather than on plurk, and please comment no later than January 23rd, January 31st, February 8th, February 16th, & February 24th with a brief (as brief as 1 sentence; as long as you like) summary of your activity during the week & plans for next week. These comments will help the mods shape mingles and plot events to keep the story dynamic and player actions important to the outcome. Likewise, comment at any time with any questions you may have, and a mod will get back to you within 36 hours at the outside.
-Links to folklore are included not to pigeonhole you into using those names or background details, but only to share our inspirations for the roles and allow you to draw from them as much or little as you like.
-All your characters may be safely assumed to have access to monetary resources and minor magic items to sell or trade; doing so will constitute skill proof for the character receiving the item. Such magic items should convey a minor advantage, a cantrip or trick - an endless torch, a self-mending piece of clothing, a sword that draws itself in times of danger - but not an item that conveys a major advantage or wholly new ability, such as a sword that fights on its own, a torch that can light endless fires, or clothing that can alter itself into other outfits. If you're not sure of an item or want to sell or trade something more powerful, contact the mods under your toplevel and ask - the Market is meant to be a place of wonders and you're the biggest suppliers in it.
-Obviously the skills listed below are exceptional even by Traveler standards. If you have concerns about a skill, yours or someone else's, potentially unbalancing the game, please let us know ASAP so we can address that concern & work out a fix if necessary. Your characters are under no obligation to sell, trade, or give away these skills, but are able to do so, and we've worked to give many or most of you some possible motivation to justify the skill trades. If you cannot imagine a circumstance where your character would make any trades, let us know so we can clarify and explain.
Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Thread Expectation: three threads / twelve comments per mingle.
Check-In Expectation: every Peregrine who accepts your offer!
Privileged Information: Fuck the Princedom; you’re here for the Peregrines. You’ve been authorized to sell Infernal real estate - every Peregrine who chooses can be a Knight in Hell, owning an acre of land and pledging loyalty to the Parliament of Princes, which includes an obligation to spend a third of every Eschaton fighting angels on the front lines. Peregrines lack the power of Angels, but they do have one advantage: they cannot die, being dead already. (They can be dismembered and prevented from reassembly, as anyone who punishes damned souls knows, but on the battlefield, that’s tricky). You do have an army just across the Styx from the Market, and it is ready to cross if the Marquis makes a bridge. However, that’s not why you’re here. It’s just true.
Outlook: You honor your bargains. Period. Hell needs a diplomat who may be trusted, and your inability to speak untruth serves the Parliament very well. However, not speaking untruth is not the same as honesty, and you take great pleasure in deceiving people by the selective and tactical application of true but misleading statements. You have no compunction about tricking the greedy or deceptive into bad bargains and their own illusions. However, if someone approaches you in good faith to make a bargain for which they have no profit motive, you will unfailingly treat them with goodwill and integrity. It’s very rare that such honest souls attempt to make deals with devils, and you find it refreshing. The tawdry games of illusion the Prince of the Gaps plays are less refreshing.
Everyone distrusts you because you are a demon, despite knowing you cannot lie: you do very little to reassure them you are trustworthy. Let the buyer beware.
Goals: Very quietly sell real estate to militant Peregrines.
Mythic/Folklore Inspiration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orobas
Skills: As Dignities, these abilities may be traded or sold. They may only be reported as skills for one character at the end of the Jaunt, but if you give the power away in a thread, that thread counts as a skill proof for you. You are still limited to two skills a month if you do not sell a skill, or three if you do sell a Dignity.
An Acre of Hell. Each of these Dignities, of which you possess twelve, may be sold to a Peregrine. Besides the land, it grants them either the ability to conjure fire by the handful; to summon a trident of unbreakable metal which can pierce any armor or barrier; or Nobel-laureate level knowledge of any one scientific field. Any which are not sold during the Jaunt become unteachable; however, you may keep one for yourself.
Caveat Emptor: This Dignity permits you to enforce one true thing for the duration of one scene. For example, if you say None in this room have weapons drawn, those words will be writ in the air in letters of fire, and unless some power extinguishes those letters, no one will be able to draw weapons. However, if one person had a knife in hand already, hidden behind their back, they may break the letters by revealing the statement false. During the Jaunt, this may be used at will, but only once per thread. After the Jaunt, it may be used once a month.
For purely aesthetic reasons, the mod team recommends using html tags to make your Caveats red.
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Next week will be trying to see if the peregrines are open to his advances, and which aspect of the Acres will appeal to them the most.
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Sen's tried chatting up Briar and Alcuin for selling off Acres, but no dice just yet!
Week three is trying to get some saaallless. I haven't really looked around to see what else he could get tangled up in, but there's that too
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
He's offered to get Lethe water for the NPC angel and bug Aseiriel but hasn't been able to sell anything to Peregrines just yet.
I'm only just getting my head around week4 - I will let you know!
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Selling the dignities gives the power to conjur fire regardless, and then one of the other two?
Will he also have sins to sell/bargain with re: tricking people into shitty deals? Because that would be very fun.
Re: Jim Kirk: Prince of Chess
Any of the Acres he sells can have any one of the three attached example-powers, it's not like, four of each.
He would have a small stockpile of Sins (and Virtues)! Just not the huge quantities the Angel of Scorpions has.
no subject
In return, Chess can sell off the Immortali Princedom, plus the Banner & the Fiddle listed below. IF you're not up for that this week, no problem, let us know ASAP & we will have another Immortali or Demon oversee selling off the items below instead.
Sword of the Prince of the Market. This Demesnes grants you a big space near the middle of the Market to erect a tent; permission to draw water from the Styx at need, a seat and a vote on the Market Council, and the ability to conjure one magical weapon or tool which embodies this authority. Losing physical possession of the tool, when conjured, forfeits the authority of the Princedom to the one who has the tool. The Princedom does not give you de jure authority over all beings of your type or kindred within the Market, but many behave as though it gives you de facto authority.
The Power of the Sword is to cut portions or boundaries according to deals made, in such a way that the deal is enforced precisely as intended. This power may be used once a week or, after the Jaunt, once a Jaunt, but does not work for deals in which cutting portions or boundaries are not relevant. When Solomon had possessed this sword, however, he could have given two potential mothers two perfectly functional one-half-babies.
Horseman’s Fiddle. For as long as this Angel-Graced fiddle is played, one listener cannot help but dance unless physically prevented from doing so, such as by an attack. If the fiddler dances as well, two listeners may be compelled. If you play the Fiddle in order to invoke your Dance of Unveiling, the dance reveals one of your desires to any who watch it. If someone else plays the fiddle, however… you cannot force them to give it back. Be cautious. After the Jaunt, usable once a month.
Under the Banner. This banner, which appears alternately and randomly green and red to observers, may be used to force any ‘green’ observer and any ‘red’ observer to switch bodies. The effect ends when neither of the two is standing beneath the banner. Various means, such as magical dances, may be used to compel someone to remain under the banner. The Banner also grants Demesnes to a small summer house overlooking the River Cocytus (this house will not be accessible after the Jaunt). Usable once per week during the Jaunt, and once per Jaunt afterward.