Chapter 2: Shadows of the Crow

[Mooncalf]

(Please note, as with chapter 1, I wanted to proceed with the overarching story in spite of the lack of an in-game missions mechanic in order to keep things flowing. Still, the basic concept is the same as it will be in future chapters; your in-game and roleplay actions count as a vote, and the results of everyone's actions determine the ending of the chapter, and the change to the game mechanics and overall storyline.)


Chapter Description (also found on the wiki)

For months after the fall of the Broussard crime family and the army of blood thieves, vampire kind lapsed into a state of uneasy peace. The focus of their in-fighting again became the bounty system -- a system put in place by the ever-vigilant telepathic wraith, Crow, used to maintain order and secrecy within the ranks of super-human vampires.

Some vampires actively enforced the bounty system to the point where any fledgeling stepping a foot out of line was immediately put down. Other vampires found this to be heavy-handed, and though some made plans to fight back against the bounty-hunting groups, these rebellions were squashed before they could even take root. At times, bounties were used seemingly as an excuse for political assassination; any vampire who spoke against the vampiric secrecy and bounty systems was targeted with far more efficiency and speed when they made the grave mistake of getting themselves on the bounty list maintained by the omniscient watcher, Crow.

Then came the message on Crownet, which only a handful of vampires saw, and was deleted not long after it was posted. The message read as follows:

Fellow creatures of the night,

It has taken me some considerable time and effort to gather the power needed to block our overlord for a duration sufficient enough to send this electronic message. I have used the essence gifted to me by those wishing to learn the skills of the telepath, but it will not mask this message from Crow for very long.

Crow is a lie. He is not what you think. He masquerades as a mute, long-dead telepathic vampire, whose interests are foremost concerned with the survival of his living brothers and sisters, but have you not wondered about him? From where does he gain so much power, without the aid of the living or the dead? How is he able to see all? Why would he devote his existence to the survival of vampire kind? Ask yourselves these questions, and you shall uncover the truth.

Crow is a master manipulator. Everything he has done for over 200 years has been for his own interests, and those of the Old Gods. Yes, the Old Gods, those you call the Fae. Every lie you have been told has been to manipulate you into doing the reverse of that which you have been guided to do, for Crow and all other Old Gods know full well the pride and rebellion in the hearts of vampires.

The concentration required to form this electronic letter from beyond the grave is tiring indeed, and Crow is ever watchful, so heed me, for my time is short! You must use your knowledge of these rituals you have uncovered. You must seek out other rituals, for within the bounds of your city-cage lies the knowledge required to do two things of great import: one to block the all-seeing eye of our overlord, and another to make me and my allies flesh once more. Return us to life and we shall aid you and protect you from all your enemies.

I will attempt to block Crow for as long as I can, so as many can see this note as possible.

Faithfully,

Lord Darius Eskoph

The possible ramifications of these allegations have already been touched on. Vampires that once trusted Crow and saw the being as the shepherd that saved all vampire kind are now starting to doubt. Those who dislike the bounty killings have already been quick to use these revelations for their agenda, but how will it hold up against the mass of pro-secrecy vampires?

Who will use these new rituals, once they are found, to block Crow, or give flesh to vampires more ancient than the living "first generations"? Who first discovers this hidden knowledge, if it exists, could change the entire fate of the city, if the individual uses it wisely...


CHAPTER CHOICE: Do you trust Crow, the wraith guides, or neither side? Do you seek out these rituals in the hope of returning the wraiths to life, or do you stand against them?

And what of the Crow's omniscience? Would you do everything in your power to stop a "big brother" from watching over you and controlling who dies and who lives? Or do you go one step further and reject the idea that vampires should be kept secret from humans entirely? Perhaps the wraith guides will have different ideas on how to keep vampires safe from extinction once again? Or perhaps Crow can be reasoned with.

As always with all Path chapters, you decide where the story goes.


Game Mechanics
To start with the chapter is purely about finding the rituals in question, and trying to work out if the wraiths speak the truth or not. Pick a side, or stay neutral, while you seek out the 20+ rituals scattered around the city, and plan your next move.

Once the rituals have been found, the chapter will progress. There will be many ways of aiding either side, hindering either side, or even taking a stance somewhere in between the two possibilities offered. I will more clearly outline the various issues at stake in later parts of the chapter, and the various things you can do to influence the outcome.


Thread Roleplay
You are encouraged to roleplay stories surrounding the chapter's theme. I will be updating the wiki soon to include descriptions and personalities of the wraith guides, and things they might talk about if you were to engage them in a conversation. However, please do not make any major changes to the chapter's central characters without first consulting me.

[Mooncalf]

The chapter sliders for this chapter are now capped at 80%, and the "grey areas" have appeared on each slider. Push the X over these grey areas to "win" on that issue. Remember that the sooner each issue is determined, the greater the effect on the story.

The exact date of these grey areas appearing have been planned for some time. The cap grey areas will decrease on a pre-determined timeframe. Only myself and Keara know the exact date and time the chapter's grey areas will increase, but these dates cannot be changed no matter what.

[Mooncalf]

Crow's power has been severely sapped by the overwhelming number of attacks against them. As it was the first chapter issue to be solved and was done so in the first possible chapter resolution period, the impact is much greater.

The entity vampires know as "Crow" hasn't vanished entirely, and his or her presence can still be felt in the Vathia or sometimes the shadow realm. However, any special omniscient powers the entity once had have been all but neutered. Crow is still able to maintain Crownet, to a degree, and can still see certain things, but no more than a powerful telepathic vampire could.

The list of changes are as follows:

- Humans can now hack into Crownet. On grid you need hacking of at least 11 to access bounty lists, etc. The forum, however, is open to any human who you wish to roleplay as having found a way to post there and read. Crow is simply no longer able to prevent humans from connecting, if they know the proper address and passwords, or are able to hack it.
- City alert level is instantly boosted by 5% due to Crownet being less secure.
- Alert level now increases a little each day instead of decreasing due to the fact that Crow can no longer keep certain evidence under wraps.
- Sources of Crownet funds have been revealed. Hackers will soon be able to divert stolen funds from Crownet accounts, to their own accounts.
- Bounty increases now only have 50% chance of being added per violation, because Crow is less able to see everything.
- Bounties on people now show if they are at $500+ (a temporary measure Crow has elected to put into place to make up for his or her new lack of "sight".)
- Events have been set in motion which will possibly reveal the undead roaming the catacombs to humans soon enough.

It is important for me to point out that individual chapter issues such as this will always change the game in ways which keep options open for as many types of characters as possible. I will always strive to make the changes interesting, and keep the plot moving based on your actions in previous chapters. Those worrying that this change will end the masquerade need not fear; that is a chapter for much later down the road.

Also, you should be aware that the bounty system issue won't restore Crow's power, but will instead force them to consider changing the way the bounty system is done, one way or the other. Which ever way it ends up, bounty hunters will still have something to do, if they wish. It just won't be exactly what you are expecting.

Have fun with the rest of the chapter.

[Mooncalf]

The bounty system issue has been decided, and is now at -64%. The main thing which pushed this so far over the grey boundary was that anti-bounty people have placed hundreds of electromagnetic pulse emitters all over the city. At day change, there were so many more emitters than there were crow eyes (counted per building, not per gadget) that the slider was pushed 4% over the marker.

There is still the matter of the rogue vampire biker gang to go (which will alter the final resting percentage), but the outcome to this chapter issue is decided now. All that remains to be seen is the full extent of the outcome. Once this roleplay is finished, we will post explaining how the game and the story is changing due to this chapter issue.

The wraith chapter sliders remain open for now. Their resurrections or banishments could influence future chapters.

[Mooncalf]

For full details of the chapter changes (in terms of mechanics), you should check out the new announcement thread entitled "Chapter 2 Outcome & Changes". This thread is mainly for story updates.


Crow
As already announced in the chapter updates thread, Crow, having come under serious attack by distrusting vampires, has been all but stripped of his or her power. Aside from Crownet no longer being protected by supernatural forces, this also means that the undead in the northern catacombs have been discovered by human government. These changes, as well as the other things also left now-unprotected by Crow, will have consequences for many months to come.


Wraiths
Only one of the wraiths were resurrected. None of the wraiths (including those standing against Crow) were banished, however, and so all these wraiths may yet have parts to play in the forthcoming chapters and story events.

Revyia, the one resurrected wraith, will remain alive until she is killed once. As she is a chapter character, she only gets one life. How she shapes the future of the story depend mostly on her writer.


Bounty System
Crow's loss of power, coupled with the fact that vampires put tons of work into essentially stopping the bounty system in its tracks and showing general, loud disapproval of the system, means that Crow's has made the decision to get rid of the automated functions of the bounty system, as it currently stood. Crow will no longer increase people's bounties based on what violations Crow spies the perpetrators involved in. There is no longer a Crownet bank fund, from which bounties get paid out.

The bounty system's slider ended at 64% against, which is quite a large amount. While this does, logically, mean that there can no longer be a bounty system, the fact remains that the city wasn't overwhelmingly against it ... just mostly against it.

With this in mind, Crow's decision was to create a new system and simply hand it over to vampires so that the community can maintain, finance, and populate it. The system is very simple, and isn't really anything that vampires couldn't have realistically created for themselves, if they were of a unified mind.

Essentially, Crow has said 'fine, you disagree with how I do things, then you decide who they should be done.' Now, any realistic violation of vampiric secrecy can be reported by anyone who sees the event, or uncovers evidence of it. Moreover, the new system is linked with the existing independent his-list system, and uses this list to finance contracts on those who reveal vampires to humans. This means that player characters will now need to put forward money for hits on violators, if they have the funds, and if they feel it is necessary.



Future Chapters
Chapter 3 will be announced sometime in the early part of the new year (after some major gameplay updates). The choices made in this chapter will of course affect elements of this next chapter, and even chapters following on from that.