(SORT OF BACK ON TRACK?!): "The Mana War" - full scale RP PVE campaign

Argent Dawn
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AN UNDERGROUND FACTORY WHERE MANA USERS ARE CRUSHED INTO PASTE!

AN ALL DEVOURING TEAR IN THE FABRIC OF TIME AND SPACE!

AND AN ARMY OF LOYALISTS AND CARNIES AND MUTANTS - OH MY!

Altogether, it can mean only one thing - the Mana War has well and truly begun!

Or at least, the build up to it has!

We might have been lucky enough to prevent the end of the world this time - but with all the B-list badguys of Azeroth united under the command of the mysterious figure known only as “Mother”, and dozens more mana-user mangling factories spread all over the planet fuelling an aray of diabolical doomsday machines, just how much longer can our luck last?!

Will we even reach the start of the campaign proper - or will the forces of evil triumph long before we can coordinate a counter attack?! There’s only one way to find out folks; there’s still a few spots on the campaign open for anyone who’s interested in attending, hope to see you there! =)

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When guild plot and campaign plot collide-!

That’s right folks, in true modern Blizzard style, rather than laying the story out in a one stop shop that’s easy to find, we’re scattering it out across a dozen mediums for your reading annoyance!

…Alright, I’m not quite that terrible; here’s the news in brief!

The badguys have broadcast a hypnotic message across the radio waves of Azeroth, freezing thousands of innocents on the spot - and are sweeping in to seize as many affected mana users as they can, dragging them away to their doom!

Unable to resist, frozen mages, warlocks and more from Alterac to Zuldazar have been pounced upon and kidnapped by the forces of darkness - and with so many names on the evil doer’s hit list, the Dust Devils and their allies can’t possibly get across the world in time to save them all, right?!

Well ,there’s only one way to find out; the prequel events are still on going, and there’s still a few more slots left open for anyone who wants to sign up and save the world! =)

Hope to see you there gamers, peace-!

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“S-so you s-see, Miss uh…Supreme Leader, d-despite our best efforts, the uh…enemy forces w-were still able to…”

“It’s quite alright darling, there’s no need to be so nervous”.

Came the response; the Leader’s tone calm, soft, and sickeningly sweet.

“And please; there’s no need for such formalities between comrades! Tydell will do just fine. Now, my friend; enemy forces managed to…what, exactly?”

She continued; lips curling into a sympathetic smile, eyes wrought with understanding pity for the poor man who stammered and shivered before her. His heart pounding in his chest, fingers twitching with awful anticipation, the Leader’s pitying tone evidently gave the messenger little cause for comfort.

“I uh…understand…y-yes, of course, Supre-…Miss Tydell…t-thank you…”

He winced; still barely able to form a coherent sentence, let alone address his master by something so casual, so familiar as her given name. Desperately summoning whatever confidence remained in the distant bowels of his gut, the unfortunate soul took a moment to compose himself, before attempting in vain to continue:

"The enemy w-were able to…d-defeat…our forces, s-seal the Hell Gate…a-and…rescued many of the…captured mana users…"

Another pause; only through sheer nervous adrenaline was he able to eventually force himself to continue.

“By now, it is…almost inevitable, that they have altered the broader Horde of our plans…and possibly passed along news to the Alliance as well…”

Disguising an immediate, agonised grimace, the man threw his head down in an apologetic bow; inwardly cursing both his ravaged nerves, and the wretched misfortune that had lead him to being selected as the one to deliver bad news to the Supreme Leader. A moment passed; merely a few pulse-pounding seconds at most, but each of them crawled along at the pace of a lifetime. Body weighted with nerves, he was unable to lift his head; eyeing the droplets of sweat from his forehead bursting as they hit the cold, stone floor below.

“Oh…”

At last, the Supreme Leader replied; her voice shot through with dismay, even as the man’s eyes widened with alarm at the touch of her hands against his face.

“What a pity. What a senseless waste of lives and resources…”

She continued; coiling her fingers around his chin, gently raising his gaze to meet her own, her elven features evident, though her eyes concealed as always behind a pair of thick, black spectacles.

“A loss we could very well have avoided - but, fortunately, one we’re more than able to adapt to, no?”

She questioned, rhetorically, her smile widening, even as the messenger’s expression collapsed to the point of utter despair.

“After all, we still have -plenty- of uninterrupted, and, thus far, entirely successful projects operating all over the planet. What’s the loss of …one silly little gate between friends, hmm?”

Her hand finally moved; releasing the messenger’s chin - as her long fingers snaked up, to give him a playful, yet reassuring pat on the head.

“So why don’t we all take a step back, and put this one down…to an unfortunate accident, hmm? After all, as we know very well…accidents happen”.

A sudden, blinding flash; a wave of heat erupted through the chamber, scorching the tips of distant hair and furniture alike. When the light cleared; the Supreme Leader stood alone, a pile of smoking, black ash at her feet.

“Does anyone else come with further news?”

She asked; to a resounding mutter of “No” from the assembled crowd, who had hitherto remained in terrified silence.

“Good.”

With a nod, the elven woman rose, standing straight backed to address her onlookers as one, dusting the ash from her elegantly gloved hands.

“Now let’s try to avoid any similar accidents in future, shall we?”.

THE MANA WAR RAGES - BUT IT’S JUST GETTING STARTED!

Only 3 weeks into pre-campaign prequel events, and the combined forces of Horde and Alliance have already risked life and limb all across the planet to shut down the legions of evil before their dastardly plans can come to fruition!

But for each mana-fuelled doomsday device we destroy, for every group of captured mana users we liberate, a dozen more are built or captured to take their place!

Will we be able to keep up the pace with the badguys, and keep fighting the good fight unti the war begins in earnest; or will we lost steam too soon, and hand over the world to its self proclaimed enemies?!

There’s only one place to find out folks; we’ve still a few spots for anyone who wants to sign up, but otherwise, peace! <3

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Prequel events have been so fun! I can’t wait to go on more adventures :slight_smile:

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Heyo!

If there’s any spots for individuals left there’s a Kirin Tor Evoker who is certainly interested.

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There certainly is friend; welcome aboard! :smiley:

Feel free to join the discord; we’ve still a few prequel events you can join if you like before it starts!

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Hello gamers, this Warlock wants a piece of the action as an individual! If there’s room, of course.

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There sure is gamer; welcome to the club! =)

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“And to you; our BELOVED representatives of the Banshee Queen-!”

The elven woman bellowed; throwing her arm out to the left - the rapid gesture followed by the glaring beam of a roving spotlight, swinging to illuminate the cohort of green uniformed forsaken, high ranking officers of the diabolical New Order sat amidst the cheering crowd

“I ask; WHO was it, carved through SCORES of your faithful troopers, OBLITERATED your magnificent works of military science; TORE through technologies they could BARELY understand, leaving these marvels discarded along the roadside like COMMON TRASH?!”

A haughty bellow from the assembled forsaken matched the booming pitch of her own; a torrent of sneering responses as a dozen different voices each added their own thoughts to the rising cacophony of accusation

“THE HORDE-!”, cried one
“THE ALLIANCE!”, counted another
“THE DUST DEVILS!”, added a third
“THE DUSTPAW-!” offered a fourth -
“THE-!”

On and on it went, a deepening smirk of satisfaction building upon the elven woman’s face, before she suddenly threw her attention over to the right of the crowd

“AND TO OUR INSECTOID BETHERHEN!”

Came the address; the spotlight tilting rapidly to illuminate a chittering swarm of insectoid creatures, hovering above their seats, twitching and scratching with barely concealed excitement at being suddenly bathed in a source of dazzling light

“Was it not the very same crowd of so called HEROES who TORCHED your habitats, CRUSHED your children, BURST through the stomach of your EVER LOVING broodmother; trampling down your blessed spot at the PEAK of nature’s creation?!”

“EKEKEKEKEKEKEK!” came the furious response; a dozen insectoid mandibles clattering together to produce the bug folk’s eccentric spoken tongue.

The elven woman paused for a moment, an eyebrow raised; she never learned to speak bug man, but she was sure it was close enough to the target.

“AND TO MY, OF COURSE, ESTEEMED LORDS AND LADIES OF THE VELVET GLOVE-!”

She rapidly continued; another vibrant gesture, another swing of the spotlight, another list of furious accusations spat into the crowd, all with the intention to rile the assembled union of villains to ever greater levels of outraged fanaticism .

One by one, the elven woman addressed them all: the golden robed nobles of the snobbish Velvet Glove; the white clad clinicians of Serenity Falls; the cackling carnies of the Carnevil; the solemn robed figures of the Grey Choir. Azero-Dex; the Children; the Village; the Joy Division; the Grifters; the Lockjaw Gang…

For what seemed like hours, each band of villains was given their moment in the spotlight, their chance to furiously condemn by name those who had defeated them, time and time again!

“HORDE-!”
“ALLIANCE-!”
“BROTHERHOOD-!”
“SISTERHOOD-!”

“WELL NO MORE, MY FRIENDS-!”

The elf interrupted; her commanding voice amplified by magic, shaking the very rafters of the ceiling.

“Our enemies defeated us ONLY when we stood alone! Only when loyalist science stood isolated from Glove funding; only when Joy Division creativity stood divorced from Azero-Dex efficiency! Divided we have fallen, but UNITED, WE SHALL BE UNSTOPPABLE!”

Unfurling from the ceiling; a vast sheet of fabric, an elaborate banner - depicting the burning planet of Azeroth, confined in the coils of a multi headed serpent, ichor drooling from sharpened fangs as each separate head bit into its own devastated corner of the world.

“NO LONGER are we merely the loyalists; the swarm; the Glove! Bickering enemies, squabbling over the scraps! Now, we are combined, into a SINGULAR force, a LEAGUE OF EVIL - A MIGHTY SHARPENED WEAPON, TO CUT DOWN ALL WHO OPPOSE US!”

Stretched already to bursting point, the elven woman’s titanic ego all but erupted at the deafening riot of praise seething from the chamber - hundreds of once squabbling villains, united at last in thunderous applause

“MY FRIENDS; WITH OUR POWERS COMBINED…THIS MISERABLE PLANET…SHALL BE OURS!”

EVIL UNITED!

HEROES SCATTERED!

THE MANA WAR HAS ALL BUT BEGUN!

With only a week before kick off; do the forces of righteousness stand a chance against such an overwhelming mass of enemies - united at last into the formidable “LEAGUE OF EVIL”?!

Or will the tides of darkness ravage Azeroth once and for all?!

There’s only one place to find out friends; let the mana war COMMENCE!

(in about 7 or 8 days)

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Hey friends;

Hope you’re all good -and have a lovely Easter weekend ahead of you!

Unfortunately, we’ve had to take the decision to postpone this campaign for a little while, most likely a month or two. I know that’s disappointing for anyone who had signed up - there’s a fuller explanation and apology in the campaign Discord, which I hope makes more sense.

However; it’s not cancelled by any means, and hopefully one day we’ll be able to get this show back on the road, for anyone who is still interested. On which note; if there is anyone out there who’d like to try their hand at DMing for the campaign, we’d be more than happy to hear from you while we try to thrash out a new date <3

Stay tuned folks, and we hope to get the Mana War in full swing as soon as we can.

Apologies to anyone who’d put time aside for it - but the last thing we want to do is run a sub par campaign for you guys, so I hope folks understand why we pushed it back a little bit.

Thanks gamers; see you as soon as we can.

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dont know if sign ups has close but wouldt mind signing up if it haven’t, maybe I can aid as a DM.
Just my lonely mounted rear.

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Rumor has it something is brewing. :eyes:

In the meanwhile, the Sisterhood have learned the identity of the mysterious Horde renegades, and in doing so entangled themselves in a conflict with the Shattered Hand agency! Spicy :hot_pepper:

Right now they have their sights set on a prisoner ship-of-the-line sailed by none other than the Fang of Mo’botu. :passenger_ship:

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Hello gamers! :smiley:

Been a while! It’s your girl Kaitylinn, back at it again with an update nobody asked for!

Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a previous post, we weren’t able to run the Mana War as a full scale campaign due to a lack of available DM’s - which isn’t at all to say that nobody stepped forth to volunteer as a DM (many people did, and I can’t thank them enough for all their support!), there just weren’t enough of us to pull it off in a way that’d give our attendees the best possible experience, without overloading the DMs we did have with far too many players to handle each event! ;-;

However, after a lot of discussion and some tweaking, I’m proud to announce the Mana War is risen from the grave and back on track -sort of!

Rather than a two week long intensive campaign as originally planned for, we’re now running it as a sort of drop-in drop-out story line running every Sunday - where I’ll be dropping in to Ratchet (quite literally, from the sky, as is usual for Kaitylinn) to run a Mana War related event for whoever signs up! A bit less intense, but given the current state of the game, hopefully the next best alternative =)

Essentially, every Sunday at about 20:30 realm time, Kaitylinn will land in Ratchet with a new mana war related adventure for up to 15 people at a time, each one slowly progressing the story line over the course of a few months - though people are of course welcome to run their own content in between !

So, if you’re ever at a loss for something to do on Sunday evening; feel free to come along for an event - the plot is pretty self explanatory so you should be able to catch up if you miss a few weeks! If you’d like to take part, feel free to join the discord; I’ll be announcing events there for people to sign up to as and when they please :’ )

Hope to see you around gamers; and hopefully this will be something to tide us all over to the next expac, when there’ll finally be enough gamers back around to run proper campaigns again, right?!

R-right?! :cold_sweat:

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HELLO YES THIS IS STILL A THING!

As I type, tonight’s heroes have just NARROWLY avoided being flattened by a train, and are now infiltrating a giant badguy factory, where thousands of innocent mana users are being ground down into paste- and reprocessed into all kinds of diabolical mana fuelled monsters!

https://imgur.com/a/zlZhPCk

Will they manage to shut down this nightmare forge, or will our heroes find themselves all mangled up on the assembly lines?!

There’s only one way to find out!

If you want to get involved in the Mana War, we’re running an event every Sunday for the forseeable future - starting in Ratchet at 20:30, and open to all who wish to take part! :smiley:

Just join the discord and sign up for that weeks event, and your in! =)

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An absolute ton of fun! Kaitylinn and the people helping out have been super welcoming and great at creating wacky hijinx every week!

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i wonder: when does kaity makes her events now?

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Bless you gamer; as ever youre far too kind! ;_;

Aaah! Well, it used to be twice - sometimes 3 times - a week, because honestly if I’m not DMing I dont know what to do with myself!

Sadly though for about a month that’s shot right down to 0 times a week, because my new job is absolutely kicking me to the curb - case in point, I didn’t sleep last night because I did’nt have the time with everything that needed doing! :sob:

BUT! Hopefully work will calm down in about 2 weeks, so by then I should be back to my regularly scheduled routine of Sundays and Thursdays =)

…assuming I can find anyone to come

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i understand that 100%, work comes first. and i hope you get some relax! and when you do come back, i will be glad to join ur events!

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