The Intolerable Clock: A Non-Canon Hexarchate RPG

[GM's note: This is Ashari's summation of the mission briefing to Sasha, who is the new team leader in the interests of whisking away inactive PCs. While this letter is addressed privately to Sasha in-character, players are welcome to have out-of-character discussions [in bracketed comments] about, e.g., logistical concerns or things that they would like for their own characters. Regular IC discussion--e.g. if Sasha decides to start a meeting to discuss planning--can also happen in comments to this post, without the brackets.]

[Reminder: I'm out of the country from Sun., Dec. 2 to Wed., Dec. 5, so will be out of commission during those days and maybe a couple after. I apologize for the bad timing but hope this will give y'all something to chew on in my absence.]

[ETA: For reference, this is the one existing map of the hexarchate]. It's ca. Revenant Gun, but you can see some sites of historical interest. Candle Arc, for instance, is near the bottom center, in the Glover March.]

Congratulations, Sasha. You're in charge now. I expect you have very strong opinions on how things should be done. I look forward to hearing all about it upon my return.

As I told you earlier, Kaliyan, Ankat, Yehan, and myself will be siting a new base of operations just in case we need to cut our ties to the rebellion, or the Quill-led part of it. But don't worry. I wouldn't leave you entirely without hawks and foxes to play with. Don't hesitate to bully the new recruits as necessary to get the job done. I for one consider it highly promising that you seem to be getting along smashingly with the new Kel.

Here's your part of the mission. I have received reliable intelligence (no, you don't get to ask what I did to get it, unless you want to arm-wrestle for it after I get back) that there's going to be a significant push into the Lanterner era. Moreover, Quill is involved with rebellion operations via a rift to the heptarchate during 852 [h*archate timeline for reference]. Given what I understand to be the historical significance of that time period, this could be a major push.

Your task is to enter 852 via the rift map that Nirai Remi has provided us and figure out what Quill's people are up to. If this is a major intervention, what are they trying to accomplish? Can we get anything out of it?

The exit of the aforementioned rift will take you to a Lanterner orbital stronghold called Autumn Pyre. (They seem to have gotten their naming sensibilities from the Kel, how tiresome.) It's three days' travel by Cantata to Candle Arc, which has not yet happened. (You know what I mean.) Autumn Pyre is a military base, but it also houses a Lanterner aristocrat-diplomat named Aramis kae Pharon who fancies themself a natural philosopher and is interested in studying rift phenomena. Like civilized people, the Lanterners put their family/house name first, the personal name last. The "kae" designates an aristocrat or person of high rank--it can be given to generals and the like even if they're of low birth, it's all very complicated. Unfortunately for Autumn Pyre, but fortunately for us, Lanterner cultural peculiarities mean that kae Pharon is what we'd consider the "ranking officer."

Quill's people have already made contact with kae Pharon. Quill herself doesn't appear to be on site--yet. I've obtained forged orders that should make you look like reinforcements for the rebellion. Things are chaotic there anyway, what with interdimensional travelers. Get to Autumn Pyre and find out what's going on before it comes around to bite us in the ass. Oh, and if you get a chance, grab me some Lanterner red cordial, I've always wanted to try it. Good luck!

Ashari

Purely optional, purely for fun!

Here's a running list of questions you can answer about your character! You're welcome to post the answers in comments to this post, or you can put them on your character's wiki page. (Email or message yhlee if you need a login. I'm at yoon at yoonhalee dot com.)

Here's a few to start.

As of 11/23/2018:

1. What media does your character watch? (Kel dueling TV, Andan soap operas, illegal streams of heretic foreign movies...)

2. What is your character's favorite food and drink?

3. What does your character always keep in their pockets (or equivalent)?

4. What D&D alignment would your character be?

5. What animal does your character identify with?

6. What is your character's favorite color?

7. What does your character wear for parties?

Feel free to leave more suggested questions in comments and I'll edit them into this post.

Just so you know, I'm going to be out of town for a conference this weekend (Saturday, Nov. 17 to Monday, Nov. 19) and then I will have a house guest for a few days, so I may have limited availability online. I'll try to get new players integrated into a brand-new story arc sometime in the week following that.

If there's some kind of emergency, the fastest way to reach me will be email: yoon at yoonhalee dot com.

Please post character applications as comments here.

I will make a note when we close to new applications. We are currently looking for six to eight new players.

EDIT, 11/14/2018: We are now closed to player applications. Thank you!

[For reference: Character Applications, Round 1.]

[GM note: This is a wrap-up move to close off the Station Moongray arc. Well done, everyone!]

[IMPORTANT: There is a roll call thread in this move. Please respond if you intend to continue as an active player for the next arc. Otherwise I will move you off the active list and to the NPC/inactive list.]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~0900

Kaliyan (NPC) successfully guides the Wasp to the rift without complications or interference. She reports that the Rosemallow ship has veered away and chosen not to pursue or harass them further--at least in this timeline. The ship will be spending the next five to seven days in rift travel.

In the Rift:

Ashari orders everyone to catch up on sleep in shifts. After this has happened, they call a meeting that includes Sulen, Virmad, Sasha, Iawa, Alaric, and Mikodez [if pengwern is available], with Gerae (NPC) and Remi (NPC) as guests. The Wasp (NPC) may also venture opinions through Alaric and Sasha as interpreters. Kaliyan (NPC), Ankat (NPC), and Yehan (NPC) oversee the ship in case of emergency, but can be called via the ship's grid if anyone has questions for them specifically.

Tentative agenda as per this thread [Move 23]: (a) addressing problems in teamwork during the Station Moongray mission, (b) how to rectify those issues, and (c) next steps, including any recruitment.

[GM notes: Players are welcome to suggest plot hooks for what they'd like to explore in the next arc. Going after Quill? Rabble-rousing? Crashing the heptarchate's stock market?

Also, I'd really prefer the team leader to be a currently active PC rather than an NPC. If someone would like to volunteer their character for the job, I can move Ashari (NPC) to more of a background/support position, or maybe "shadowy boss who doesn't get involved in the day to day decision-making that much."

For recruitment, I still think the team would benefit from a couple of more fighty/meat shield type characters, and I'm thinking of opening up applications so we can recruit two more PCs. Thoughts on this are welcome, either IC or OOC. I'm personally not opposed to opening up mothlings as adoptable PCs, although they're not really meat shields yet...]

Sorry for the late notice, it's been a Day--I'm about to be out of town and without a computer until Sunday night (Sept. 9). I will have internet access through mobile but I'm going to be busy doing Things, so my ability to check in will be limited. Please not to burn the game down while I'm gone (unless your characters' D&D characters want to burn something down, that could be fun but run it by D&D GM zuhrovet :p ). See you on the other side!

[This is as IC or OOC as you want to make it, and takes place in a mysterious timeline of its own.]

Remi shows up one day in the common room of the Wasp with a GM handbook and a bunch of character sheets and quickstart guides, wondering if anyone else wants to play Prisons & Pangolins, a hot new RPG that he got an advance copy of. He is really good at min-maxing; he is also prepared to GM although if someone else wants to do it, he's happy to let them have at it.

[I suggest that people start off by describing how their characters come in, what they're wearing, etc. and introduce the game-in-the-game characters they want to play. I'll start with an example.]

[GM note: Our mission, lovely players, should you choose to accept it, is to get the hell out of Dodge get off Station Moongray this move! After that, we can debrief a bit and figure out where we'd like to go next, including maybe recruiting a couple more players--I think y'all would benefit from a couple tanky/fightery types, but I'm sure y'all have your own thoughts. Anyway, stuff to discuss in a locked post, etc.]

For easy reference:
- the escape plan [wiki]
- Station Moongray Timeline [wiki]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~08:00

Aftermath of confrontation with the baby fox
Picking up from this thread:

Ashari (NPC) has finished overseeing the interrogation of Mikodez. Ashari tells Sulen, "Secure the fox kit so we can deal with him later. I'm sure you'll want to do some kind of follow-up with him without--" They gesture irritably at their eyes, which are no longer rose-blue. "Iawa, if you could make sure that the foxling is in stable condition, I'd appreciate it. Sometimes people have adverse emotional reactions coming out of enthrallment, if you know what I mean."

Once Mikodez is secured, Ashari will release enthrallment and ask Sasha to coordinate with Kaliyan (NPC) and make sure that no last-minute nasty cyberattacks come from Station Moongray or the Rosemallow ship during the getaway. Then Ashari will retire to their quarters to recover from the effort of enthrallment.

The disposition of a magistrate-thief
Picking up from this thread:
Gerae (NPC) responds to Virmad's expression of reassurance with a tremulous smile of relief. "It's not often that lower-ranking wolves are allowed to mingle with foreigners," he says. "Is he the only foreigner in your crew? It must make for some very exciting cultural interchanges."

Fluffy (NPC) decides that she wants to investigate Virmad and, if permitted, will attempt to hop onto his shoulder to sniff his neck.

Taking care of adorable baby mothlings
Alaric's order of unsedative has been produced by the medbay's pharmacopoeia unit and is ready for application to the poor baby mothlings. Remi (NPC) offers his assistance: "I want to make sure there's no permanent damage," he says. "Unfortunately, we don't have a great deal of data for their baseline."

Other
As aforementioned, Kaliyan (NPC) is piloting and ready to zoom the hell away from Station Moongray. Yehan (NPC) is on standby at comms. Ankat (NPC) is keeping an eye on Istradez (NPC), who appears to be in stable condition.

Heads-up that I will be out of town for a family vacation from Aug. 1 (Wed.) to Aug. 5 (Sun.), with possibly limited internet availability. I'll try to keep an eye on the game via phone if necessary but if I'm slow to respond, please bear with me.

I'll be responding to the latest round of comments in just a moment. Please not to burn the game down while I'm gone. ;)