Molten Aether News

New Positions Filled

The posting of the positions list has proven very effective in the short time since it went live. We already have 3 of the many positions filled, one in each setting.

In Angelic Sins we now have a new Master Vampire for the city of Chicago, Victoria Romana played by Dasfier. Victoria is going to be a major player in future plots taking place in Chicago, being the most powerful Vampire in the area.

In Blazing Umbra we have the new Master Systems AI of Nimbus Station being Neo Akazuli played by Jumping Script. The old character is seeing new life as an AI as discussed with Jumping Script last year. The character was a valuable addition to the station before and now has new plot opportunities open as an AI and the adjustments that must, by definition, come from being an AI that was once flesh and blood.

In Embers of Soteria we now have an owner of the Hearts Refuge Inn. Previously it was stated to be two local brothers, but this didn’t come into play very often as they were not actual characters. Now the owner is Rachel Oxen, played by Dasfier, a minotaur woman who has an appropriately tragic backstory to build off of.

Please seek out some role play with one of these fabulous characters! Thank you to Dasifer and Jumping Script for their contributions.

Open Positions Lists are Live

A list of key roles for important positions in each game are now live and available. This lists may change, those wishing to apply character for such a list should submit a character application through the forum and note which position they are applying for. There is a dedicated list for each setting and additional positions may be added as needed.

The lists are available on the WordPress site listed under Applications (or you can click here).

Applicants will have their character application reviewed by all the staff and the staff will vote to approve / disapprove or request the player to make changes. Characters in positions of power make for more responsibility for the player. Players should consider how they want to play a particular position and if they have the free time to do so before applying.

Upcoming Server Changes

Our survey on things to potentially change on the server was fruitful and we got some really good feedback and discussion, which is still ongoing as we make some changes. Two of the biggest problems for people were about how character applications are processed both for moderators approving characters and players submitting characters. There was not a lot of love for the Google Forms approach. To solve this we’re going back to something we did early on, that is using the forum for character applications. The difference is now there is a default template that can be just filled out then cut/paste directly into the wiki with minimal modifications.

I will also be creating a list of open character positions soon. The page, Current Positions, is up now but I haven’t filled it in yet. Each setting will have a list of open / available positions in that setting. Once the list is up it will have each open spot with a spot for the location the position is in and any notes associated with that role.

A Potential New Beginning

For the last few years we have consistently hit a wall as to what is available within the confines of each setting and its history / lore. The three separate (but related) settings has its drawbacks. Moving between settings to this point has been treated as a bit of a no-no among players without special permission.

I have long been toying with the idea of finding a way to remake the settings in such a way to divorce them from some of the problematic sources. Star Trek in and of itself can be quite limiting and is not always consistent in its plot elements, we have attempted to smooth these difficulties but as we have developed a cosmology model for the 3 settings we have come to some issues.

The question comes, what do we do about it. I’m not doing anything right away, I still have about 6 weeks in my student teaching. In preparation though, I have created a survey. Please review the survey and give some responses. I’m not going to lie doing this would be a monumental task, depending on what is changed. I would need help in doing it but it would also allow us the opportunity to forge a new game from scratch and make it truly ours / divorced from Star Trek, Star Wars, VtM, D&D, etc..

Revered Ambassador Dies

Federation Ambassador D’Osch passed away today on his way to the station Unity One after brokering a peace treaty between settlers of the Tendara asteroid in territory formerly belonging to the Cardassian Union. The colony, administered by the Unity One space station, has been one of the most hotly contested issues since the Dominion War. Negotiations came to a peaceful close yesterday when Bajoran and Cardassian settlers signed a peace treaty signifying that the two sides are ready to put to rest decades long animosity. D’Osch is well known in diplomatic circles as being a pivotal player in advocating for the rights of all, in line with the highest ideals that the United Federation of Planets represents.

The space station, Unity One, is home to the governing body of the settlement commanded by the Fleet Admiral J. J. Belar Governor of Cardassia and head of the 5th Tactical Task Force. Tensions have been running high since the appointment of the Unity One space station to administer the settlement. Bajorans have been weary of leadership with its origins in Cardassia since the 50-year Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. Cardassian settlers are known to have taken umbrage with objections to their leadership, stating that the occupation was a “long time ago” and perpetrated by a “different Cardassia”. Many of the older settlers are known to have been survivors of the occupation, which is known to have stripped Bajor of its natural resources and made prodigious use of slave labor camps. On the heels of Federation-Bajoran cooperation at Deep Space Nine (formerly Terok-Nor) at the administering of the Bajoran Wormhole to the Delta Quadrant, many questioned the choice to put the settlement under Cardassian jurisdiction. The efforts of Ambassador D’Osch have pulled forth the new component to strengthening peaceful ties between Bajor and their former oppressors.

D’Osch, originally from Corridan, is known to have successfully negotiated some of the most tricky treaties of the modern era, a key player in Dominion negotiations nearly a decade ago. In the wake of his passing delegations from every major power are said to be arriving at Unity One to pay respects in the coming weeks, including Solas Tempus where Admiral Lance Thomas himself is said to be personally attending the service. While no record exists of D’Osch and Admiral Thomas meeting in person, an unnamed source within the Federation Diplomatic Corps states the pair knew each other well and that D’Osch assisted with negotiations between the organization Solas Tempus and the Federation.

The Solas Tempus / Federation treaty is largely seen as the backbone of a mesh of agreements which allow Solas Tempus to operate as de facto protectors of the timeline. If it is true that D’Osch assisted, even in secret, with crafting parts of that treaty it is very likely that he is one of the key members of the Federation to thank for the continued protection against temporal incursion. Admiral Thomas was not available for comment, though Fleet Admiral Sal D’Amico made a public statement earlier today:

A great man has been lost. Our hearts go out to the family of Ambassador D’Osch and we thank him and his family for the contributions made over years of dedicated service. Solas Tempus stands with the D’Osch family and the Federation in shared sorrow and grief, as if he was one of our own. Peace is a difficult thing to come by in our time, beset often by greed and villainy, to quote Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers.” This is certainly true with Ambassador D’Osch. He will be missed.
Fleet Admiral Sal D’Amico of Solas Tempus

In accordance with his wishes, we did not reach out to the D’Osch family for comment. We humbly request that any thoughts be sent through the Federation Diplomatic Corps to the family, the date and time of a public service will be announced by the Diplomatic Corps when set.

OOC Note 1: I know to those in my game this seems a bit weird. Someone on a Facebook group for Sci-Fi renders posted an homage to his grandfather passing. Reading it, I thought of my own recent losses. Since the homage was put into perspective of a Federation Ambassador I requested permission to post this article here. I know that during this pandemic a lot of people have lost loved ones. I hope that perhaps this article, as minor an insignificant as it is in the weight of such loss, brings some tiny morsel of peace.

OOC Note 2: At the direction of the original author to bring the article in line with the story he is writing, I have made some edits / corrections.

Overdue Plot Update

Starting off here with an apology. I have found it difficult to get my shit together and keep plots moving, a recurring problem. Getting back on top of things here is a plot update for everyone.

Blazing Umbra

Bucket and I have decided to reboot the Marine Force Recon raid in the Bone Nebula to reform it into a smaller and easier to manage mission. The new raid will be a small force intent on planting a transceiver into the stations computer network.

The final piece of the puzzle for the Exploring a Derelict plot is almost done, that being the alien entity itself. Once that is completed we should be able to begin the actual game. A most heartfelt apology from me on how long it has taken to go from idea to an actual plot on this one.

Last but not least for Blazing Umbra there is the redone Desert Phone Booth plot. After discussions with Dasfier and others we’ve got a new plot outline up and now we’ll get things set up. In particular a character needs to be created to be the plot antagonist who may be used later (if they survive) in future plots involving Onyx. We’ve always been short on antagonist characters which has somewhat limited plot development. There are other plot elements to outline but assuming everything goes normally we should be able to start the new plot within the next week or so. We will also need a Temporal Operative which I can play myself but anyone wishing to play that part (or the part of the Onyx antagonist) are welcome to drop me a message or ping me on Discord to let me know.

Angelic Sins

My main focus in this setting is the Corrupted Children plot. The setup for the plot is pretty well done but still have not called for players to participate and actually begin the plot. Since I’m just getting a lot of things fired backup, going to probably call for players next week once I have a chance to look over everything again.

Embers of Soteria

Our two primary plots of interest are the Return of the Fae and the Necromancer on Elder Soteria.

For the Return of the Fae we’ve done a call for players already and gotten some response. Ideally I’d like to have at least 2-4 Fae and about the same number of humans. I’m happy to start things with less. As of right now we’ve gotten response from Dasfier and Liz on the forum. Before going on and outlining the first act in more detail, I would like to have our cast of characters who are going to be there. Thus anyone wishing to play a fae or human for this should let me know as soon as you can. I really like this plot idea and am excited to see where it goes.

The return of the Necromancer on Elder Soteria is also in the planning stages. We’ve got out BBEG (Big Bad Evil Girl) and still have to come up with an outline for the first act. I plan to get that rolling by the end of this week and also do the general call for players who want to join. As previously said we already have some interest in this from Dasfier, Chubby, and Bucket. Others are welcome as this is going to set up (along with the Return of the Fae) for the bigger Weakening of the Veil plot.

In preparation for the Weakening of the Veil plot I’ve also started a thread to brainstorm a needed character for that plot. There is going to be an old wise wizard (male or female does not matter) who is going to be the only person still alive which can actually read the magic runes that protect Elder Soteria from the Dark Aether plane. Thus anyone who has any ideas for such a character is welcome to put their 2 cents in. I want to make the character unique and not just an NPC plot device, with the hopes of using them regularly for expositional purposes.

Roundup

I know it’s been a while. I had expected to feel more like doing this stuff while I was in California but I’ve had a really hard time being comfortable sitting down to do things. I’ve mentioned it on the forum and in the chat before, so again my apologies for the plots and stories that I’ve left hanging. I would like to get more going on in Angelic Sins, I like the setting a lot but seems to be the least interesting to anyone. It does not help that I’m not particularly good at horror, it isn’t a genre that I like in media all that much.

Anyone with any ideas about plots or stories to do in Angelic Sins (or anywhere) I invite to let me know. I’m happy to put ideas on the list, though if I’m doing the development it may take me a bit. Everyone is welcome to come up with any of their own ideas and just get approval from the staff too. I will help out in any way that I can to get plots off the ground.

Murderous Children

Officials today reported information on 3 new cases being investigated by the police. In each of these cases the evidence points almost entirely to a sudden and sustained outburst of extreme violence from a child. Each of the 3 cases happened within the last 24 hours and police have not found any commonalities between the cases other than the fact that children are the primary suspect in each.

In the first case, which occurred at approximately 3:03 AM today. Video evidence shows the child, whose name has not been released, running at a young man. The young man, approximately 24 years of age, knelt down and attempted to catch the child appearing to assume the child was in some kind of trouble. The child then gouged the man’s eyes out, pushed him over, and stomped on his throat, chest, and head. The child’s parents were then found having been bludgeoned but still alive. The child was found dancing having painted their face in the man’s blood and rolling the removed eyes along the ground. Police were attacked by the child but EMTs on scene were able to administer tranquilizers to the child, who is now hospitalized.

A similar case at 7:33 AM this morning a child on a school bus attacked and strangled the bus driver while the driver attempted to pull over to the side of the road. In this case there is no video evidence but the students on the bus have remarkably similar stories as to what happened. The child in question grabbed the radio microphone and used the cable to wrap around the neck of the driver and pull tight. Some of the witnesses recall that other children were cheering as the driver was being strangled, though these accounts are confused. The child, along with 4 classmates, is now missing.

Finally at approximately 2:00 PM this afternoon, a child was caught in the fact of stabbing pencils into the face of a teachers aid. The child had already punctured the aid’s brain ramming a series of 4 sharpened pencils through the eye sockets of the adult and into the brain. School authorities pulled the child off and the child is now hospitalized as well.

Police have issued a statement asking for any information about increases in violent behavior. They are exploring several avenues but believe there may be some kind of chemical influence on the children, looking for anyone who has seen strange people around children recently. The public is being asked to be careful of who their children come into contact with until police have more information as to any potential causes.

Anyone with additional information on these incidents are asked to contact the authorities immediately.

Weekly Plot Update

Anyone can pick up any plot that is unassigned and work on it, I simply request that updates to the Infinite Codex are posted on a semi-regular basis and / or any documents, notes, or anything else are attached to the card in Trello so we can find them.

This week’s plot update is a bit shorter than the last, mainly because I need to pear down the number of plot elements I’m working on at once. Real life has again been pressing on my time and I have found that plotting and planning has become too cumbersome, I’m doing too much at once. Thus, I’ve decided to rate plots to develop based on a few criteria, one of which is the level of interest generated by the RFC (Request for Comment) posts on the forum. These posts are cross-posed to the server as well. Moving forward be considering the amount of interest in a plot to be measured by the amount of interest generated by my requests for help in planning and plotting.

This does not mean I won’t develop any other plots but it will determine what I work on when. Plot ideas are all up on the Trello account as well as the forum (Infinite Codex), the Wiki, and on OneNote. I believe I’ve expressed before but anyone who wishes to look at the OneNote account for the game can do so here. Everything about every plot I’m doing or considering doing is on a combination of those four places, Trello, OneNote, forum, and wiki. This follows the work-flow. Anyone can pick up any plot that is unassigned and work on it, I simply request that updates to the Infinite Codex are posted on a semi-regular basis and / or any documents, notes, or anything else are attached to the card in Trello so we can find them. I’ve said this before, but I really would like this to be collaborative, the game only benefits from as many voices as possible participating. We have some amazingly creative people who just lack confidence, this is a safe space for new ideas.

Blazing Umbra Plots

Since Blazing Umbra has more plots than the other settings, it has been heard to cut back as several plots are in progress. The main plots being worked on right now are:

Desert Phone Booth (Rewriting)
Onyx MFR Raid (In Progress on Discord)
Final Hail Mary (In Progress on the Forum)
Midnight on Sol 3 (In Progress on the Forum)
Stellar Horizon (Stalled on Discord)
Exploring a Derelict (Planning)

That’s a lot going on at once. The other plots still exist, such as the Schatten System Trading Hub group of plots as well as the Onyx False Flag plot, planning those is paused until I can clear some of these off of my plate.

Final Hail Mary

This plot has stalled a bit, waiting to start the 2nd act, which I’m going to try to get doing by the end of the week. I’ve got a good idea of what needs to happen, though I may need to make a few characters. The 3rd act is still being planned as to exactly what that will look like. The plot should only have 3 acts, but may add a 4th if the story calls for it.

Exploring a Derelict

I had planned to have this going already, but unfortunately the above-mentioned real life. We’ve got players and I’ve got the background almost all the way done. I have to finish coming up with the alien who is on the derelict and once that is finished, we’ll be ready to begin. I’m figuring to be done with that by next week and be able to begin at that time. I’ll make a final call for players to join before beginning.

Onyx MFR Raid

This has been stalled online but we have begun. The group has just gotten onto one of the enemy stations and has yet to be discovered. It is a very large assault force so stealth is going to be tricky. I look forward to seeing where it goes. I plan to kick this one in the pants today and see about getting it moving.

Stellar Horizon

As I mentioned before, this has stalled out. I plan to push this forward today and see about getting the game moving again. If this fails I am considering just cutting off the plot line until it can be rewritten. I like the plot and there is definite interest but it doesn’t seem to move anywhere.

Angelic Sins

I’ve narrowed this down to a single plot. There hasn’t been a lot of interest in any of the plots for this game that I’ve introduced, so I’m going to work on a single plot and see if we can get it going. This will be the Corrupted Children plot line (related forum posts can be found here and WordPress posts here). I plan to get a call for players going by the end of this week and have the first act outlined by then. Some background posts are already posted to set up what’s going on to make things urgent.

Embers of Soteria

I am trying to work on 3 plots, they all are part of the group. The main plot is the Weakening of the Veil post which broadly covers the weakening of the protections for Elder Soteria from the Dark Aether and the ending of the Peace of Ages. This will be intended to be an overarching plot where the world slowly descends into chaos and potentially war. Right now the two main plots are:

Return of the Fae (Planning & Setting Up)
Necromancer on Elder Soteria (Planning & Setting Up)

Return of the Fae

I’ve got a lot to do yet on the Return of the Fae, characters need to be made but I’d like to (again) call for anyone who wants to put a Fae character into the context of returning from the Backlash (wrongful / erroneous banishing of Fae from Elder Soteria) so that I’m not having to play everyone. It’s pretty simple, any Fae character would do (Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, etc.) will do just fine in the context of like 1000 years of being banished to a horrible place.

Necromancer on Elder Soteria

The main antagonist is made I just have to write up the plot, which I plan to have something for next week and be able to do a more general call for players. We’ve already got 2 (Chubby and Dasfier) who will be with my character on this. I’m mainly catching up the planning / plotting here so that I’ve got an actual outline / plan to go off of. I estimate we’ll be ready to begin in a week or two.

Boarding Schools See Violence

Violent offences among young children in Los Angeles boarding schools. Recently reports have started to circulate within the educational community that those high priced boarding schools may not be the safest place to send your children. Over the last month 3 of the most prominent boarding schools in Los Angeles have seen a troubling surge in violent offences. Not from adults in the school, but from the young children. A 12 year old boy was hospitalized when another student leaped over several desks in the middle of class and began to beat the boy with a stapler. Our investigation revealed this is not the first such case, not even close. Over the last month 14 different kids, with the youngest being just 7 year old, have been sent home after a mix of violent outbursts, paranoid behavior, and in one case a near suicide.

Police are investigating on several fronts, at this time they have declared the incidents are not related. The schools themselves declined the comment. We did speak to a number of parents with children attending the different schools who are concerned. Disciplinary cases of other kinds are on the rise as well. Though public schools have not seen a matching rise in disciplinary actions which has some parents wondering if the problem is not during the day, but at night when the children are boarded at the school.

With the recent rise in violent crimes at group homes there are some hard questions to be asked. While police and other officials continue to say the two events are unrelated, it is difficult to believe they are.

Fair Folk Sighted

If the Fae have returned… What do they want? Many worry that they will want revenge for the Backlash.

Recent missives have raised the questions about times gone by. Small towns in the mountains have told of fair folk being sighted in the woods. The Fae have not been seen in the world since the Backlash when the Peace of Ages was formed. The ancient mistake which lead to the Backlash has been a source of sorrow for the Souls Templar. The Templar takes personal responsibility for the Backlash which pushed the Fae out of this world, banishing them with the Dark Fae. If the Fae have returned to the world it could herald the return of evil and the war.

Long ago years after the Peace of Ages, when the Ageless Ones left this world they spoke of a prophecy, that war would return and warned that the people would have to be vigilant and not allow old grudges to return. The prophecy is unclear, only the Souls Templar has the original text, they say this will allow them to divine if the prophecy is coming true.

If the Fae have returned… What do they want? Many worry that they will want revenge for the Backlash.