BDE! VAMPIRES INVADE... Baltimore?!

[rebelseekspizza]

Hello, Fandom!

On April 29th, it’s time again for our Spring BDE! Yep, everyone is going to wake up on Tuesday morning to find out that a shield has appeared around Fandom, blocking off the Causeway. OH NO! What danger awaits us?

… nothing is going to happen. In fact, portals off the island will work just fine. Two intrepid Fandomites will examine the barrier and find out it’s a protective spell meant to keep bad things out, not good people in. Once that spell is broken, the shield will give way to reveal…

… that vampires have overrun Baltimore. Specifically, a group of master vampires and their most capable children are running amock, biting people and throwing the whole city in disarray. It’s a strain of vampirism that doesn’t kill outright: those bitten will go into a deathlike state, and then reawaken as ravenous, aggressive beings. But it takes blood - a lot of blood - to become a real vampire.

It will be up to Fandom to venture into Baltimore, defeat the vampires, and… discover how capable the people of the mainland are at outright denying anything unusual happening in town. No, really. This is going to get chalked up to a chemical leak, from the vampires (see? Chemtrails are real!) to the heroic green people (aw, those nice neighborhood cosplayers).

SO… NOTHING TOUCHES THE ISLAND?
Not entirely. When the barrier is broken, a group of young vampires will burst onto the island. That’ll prompt a fight, in which all Fandomites can participate - and you can get bitten.

Getting bitten means that you’ll spend the Tuesday of the BDE in a state of near-death torpor. On Wednesday, you’ll wake up, feral and bitey, to cause a day’s worth of havoc before you get cured on Thursday.

OKAY, BUT WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?
I’m glad you asked! We have a science team and a strike team. Two members of the science team will be picked to figure out the barrier on day one. The rest of you will try to figure out what these vampires are, and whether or not the fledgeling vampire state can be cured. (Spoiler: Yes.)

As for strike teams, we actually have two! Strike team one will show up in Baltimore on Wednesday to scope out the chaos. This is more of a reconnaissance mission, though there’ll be some fighty. This can be preplayed if players prefer it, but it's really all just wandering around a messed-up Baltimore looking at things and getting into optional fights, so it's SP-friendly as liveplay.

Strike team two will venture into Baltimore to take down the master vampires and their older spawn. This will cure everyone affected by the vampire plague, woo!

Again, this can be preplayed, either by individual or as a group; let us know.

AND IF I DON’T WANT TO BE INVOLVED?
Outside of that small vampire fight on Tuesday near the causeway, nothing will affect the island. In fact, even the Baltimore authorities will be eager to forget anything happened by Thursday evening. So stay inside, crochet, have a party, it’s all good, the island’s safe.

OKAY, BUT WHAT IF I WANT A BALTIMORE NPC TO REMEMBER THE HEROIC THING I DID FOR THEM?
It's fine if you have an NPC or two you made up you'd like to remember everything! A government cover-up is a government cover-up, and just because all of Baltimore will go on to try and forget the invasion, doesn't mean individuals will. Just keep it reasonable.

And now: sign-ups! Please make sure to get yours in by Friday, April 27th!

Comments

Research Team!

[rebelseekspizza]

Two of you will be RNGed to do work on the barrier - please let us know if you have Relevant Magical Experience (tm).

The rest will work on cracking what's going on with the vampires and how to cure the fledgelings on Wednesday.

Re: Research Team!

[always_someone]

Let's toss Norman here! He's never really worked with barriers before, but I figure between his training with Bob and his access to magical whatsis at the Magic Box, he'd be willing to take a crack at anything he's needed for. :D

Re: Research Team!

[hashtag_chocobro]

YOU KNOW WHAT?

Let's go ahead and get Prompto in on this with research.

He has RME in...passing, I guess? His city has a magical barrier on it, but he's got no personal involvement in any of that, but who knows?

Re: Research Team!

[2_old_for_this]

I might as well put the vampire magus in here, right? :D

Re: Research Team!

[talentforlying]

Sure, put John here. He'll be in the library anyway, and has more than enough RME.

Strike Teams!

[rebelseekspizza]

There's two of these! You can sign up for both; we'll only move or remove people who double if we have too many players on one or both teams.

Strike Team One!

[rebelseekspizza]

Team One will venture into Baltimore on Wednesday, May 1st to scope out the problem. This will largely be a reconnaissance deal, though vampires can be fought, and the RNG may select several players to take on a specific enemy.

Please let us know if you'd prefer preplay or liveplay.

Re: Strike Team One!

[goldfishontherocks]

This seems like an excellent way to use Keyleth's Wild Shape ability, so let's put Kiki here. Aaand yeah, the beginning of the month is the busy part at work, so preplay preferred.

Re: Strike Team One!

[died8yearsago]

Definitely putting Rosa in for reconnaissance! Probably with a preference for preplay.

Re: Strike Team One!

[sith_happened]

Anakin would definitely like to be in on this. If it's in fake night time, Eric would also want to see (RNG 'em if you get too many folks, of course :)).

Re: Strike Team One!

[uncertain_dume]

Let's toss Kanan here. Let him earn his Spectre stripes, get some exercise. :D

Preplay or liveplay work for me, whatever is easiest for y'all.

Re: Strike Team One!

[intotheout]

Tip goes here! With a preference for preplay, since there's no telling if work is going to be busy.

Re: Strike Team One!

[biotic_psychotic]

Jack would go as Kanan's backup. I would greatly prefer preplay since I don't know yet whether that's going to be an infusion day or not.

Re: Strike Team One!

[throughaphase]

Kitty will go here if there's preplay because I have a wedding that day. Yes on a Wednesday.

Re: Strike Team One!

[what_the_shock]

This guy for recon! (And preplay, please.)

Re: Strike Team One!

[misshapen_spark]

Wrong journal, but Ghani for the recon RNG plz.

Strike Team Two!

[rebelseekspizza]

This team will form the final push into Baltimore on Thursday, May 2nd!

This will also largely be a free-for-all deal where people can fight and establish things at their leisure. However, there will be one more specific thread where all participants take on the master vampires.

Please let us know if you'd prefer preplay or liveplay.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[somethingwithturquoise]

Summer will be super stoked to use her previous vampire hunting experience in a way that doesnt end in her having to kill clones of her grampa. *thumbs up*

And pre play is probably better because schedules are mean.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[notallbluemonks]

I can't not put Beau in for a fighty BDE thing. Cool monk shit ahoy! Preplay would be my preference, also.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[crack_that_whip]

Vampires, you say? Of course Treffy needs to be in on this.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[built_fjord_tough]

One friendly neighbourhood green cosplayer for Strike Team Two, please! Fjord is twitchy and needs to fling some eldritch blasts around. (Again with preplay or liveplay, whatever makes most sense for wherever he's needed!)

Re: Strike Team Two!

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae goes here, again with a preplay preference!

Re: Strike Team Two!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

And Sabine can go here! Again, preplay probably works better.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[spin_kick_snap]

Wrong journal, but Verity here please, and preplayed like whoa

Re: Strike Team Two!

[unusual_sith]

Sith goes here!

Re: Strike Team Two!

[puppy_fair]

I take it back, I'd like Zack to be here getting his fighty on rather than turning into a chompy pal.

... Mostly because the logistics of restraining a guy who has canonically taken out gods went and broke my brain, but he still wants to be involved, hi don't mind me.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[misshapen_spark]

YANG GOES HERE. I can do either, but preplay is always love.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[battlewithstyle]

Mitsutada should do more things!

Preplay is prob. best.

Re: Strike Team Two!

[heroic_jawline]

Steve goes here!

I Wanna Be A Vampire

[rebelseekspizza]

Get bitten on Tuesday and fall into a coma! Turn into a feral, bitey (but not turning-other-people-into-vampires-y bite-y), blood-drinking mess on Wednesday! Get cured on Thursday!

Let us know here if you're in for this. This is just a headcount, so if you sign up here, you're good to go.

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[firstofitskind]

IT ME.

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[special_rabbit]

Oh, I'm definitely signing Amaya up for this one.

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[in_sidon_we_trust]

I'm not sure I can talk myself down from thinking a giant vampire Zora needs to be a thing in my life.

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[magnusrushesin]

Look, Magnus just super wants to listen to someone do a Dracula voice. Again. In the future?

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[meepmeepmeep]

Beaker will be an amazing vampire.

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vettepire!

This girl needs to get her chompy on. ;D

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[vdistinctive]

Vampire Eliot! How could I resist?

Re: I Wanna Be A Vampire

[spin_kick_snap]

Continuing the wrong journal theme, Hardison here!

Because bwahahaha

Questions!

[rebelseekspizza]

We know you have 'em, have at!

Re: Questions!

[biotic_psychotic]

We have several ships available. What about an extraction/refugee gathering squad? Strike Team 3? Maybe organize one of the teams to funnel evacuees toward drop points where the ships can get them?

Re: Questions!

[rebelseekspizza]

You're more than welcome to RP out a brainstorming/planning session for this! We don't really see a space for this in the BDE itself, though. The island will only be aware of the situation in Baltimore for 24 hours before it gets resolved; the city has 600.000 residents, many of whom don't believe anything evacuation-worthy is really happening, which would be a massive logistical headache under any circumstances. There won't be enough time and materiel (ICly) and players/admin time (OOCly) to run an evacuee squad alongside everything else.

Re: Questions!

[built_fjord_tough]

Oh, yes, a question about the folks-turned-feral! Just how feral are we talking? Basically reduced to a snarling animal state feral, with no real consciousness to speak of? Or still at least semi-sentient beings capable of communication, just driven by a need to feed and willing to throw all inhibitions to the wayside in order to get it?

Basically, are people going into a state not unlike the Hollows from previous BDEs, or something at least a little more cogent? Will folks who have been bitten still have access to powers or the ability to use weapons and such? Can they Clever Girl a door open, or would they be thwarted by an inability to comprehend doorknobs? :D

Re: Questions!

[suitably_heroic]

I'd say the level of feral is up to the discretion of players! Feral characters will feel an overwhelming urge to attack and bite people, but to what extent that overwhelms them (leaving them completely speechless and only driven by violence, OR able to somewhat fight the haze to grunt out a few words) is up to you.

They definitely will have access to powers and to weapons, though they'll feel instinctively inclined to use their body (grabbing, bodychecks, trying to get at the nearest vein...) because the urge to attack will overwhelm all but the most primitive senses of battle tactics. Same goes for doorknobs - a somewhat-clearer-than-others feral person might be able to figure one out after a few goes, but their brains will be fuzzy as hell.

So think "Stereotypical caveman" at the high end, "snarling ball of mindless rage" on the low end.

Comments!

[rebelseekspizza]

We'll take those too.

OOC

[rebelseekspizza]

This is just the GIF section.