Stronghold Project

[Rasputin]

I believe that it is possible to merge the Houses’s existing Prime Artifact with their Strongholds. If I am correct this will revolutionize how Houses function, in both obvious and subtle ways, several of which I have put a lot of thought into and consider to be, on the whole, positive.

In addition to making Prime Theft a thing of the past, a Stronghold Artifact’s more direct connection to the physical Stronghold will likely allow the House to draw upon it’s strength to make additions and improvements to the Stronghold. However, we can not expect complete House security through this project as I fully expect that an art can be devised to allow direct attacks against the Stronghold. The project includes considering what such an art might look like before we get to full implementation and a plan to develop this art with the input and support of all interested parties.

On Tuesday September 26th at 9pm DST, in Provenance, I will be holding a discussion group to enlist the aid of anyone interested. None of this plan has been set in stone and I welcome any criticisms and suggestions that anyone can bring to the discussion. This is a project that could affect many Dreamers and I would like for anyone with an idea on the subject to have a chance to contribute.

Following is a more detailed explanation of the 3 parts of the project. From here on out it gets a bit long winded.

Basic Explaination
The idea is to house the Artifact function within the Stronghold Essence Room and the strength storage throughout the Stronghold. Essences will be deposited for processing by anyone with the new “Offering” art that when used in the Essence Room will offer the essences in their pack to the Artifact. An alternative method has been suggestion that will use a mission board to accept essences to be processed. Power Tokens will be created as usual, but require the Guardian or Ruler to be in the Essence Room in order to create them. Other house arts, such as Initiate and Ascend, that currently require the Prime will function anywhere in the house, drawing the strength needed from the Stronghold’s reserves.

Part 1 - Proof of Concept
The project will start with implementing a Stronghold Artifact within a test environment before any attempt to implement the merger at an open Stronghold. There are three different approaches I’ve developed which I plan to attempt from most to least ambitious. As with all my plans, these are subject to change.

Plan A - Closed Stronghold Method
If we are able to access one of the currently closed Strongholds we will then have to either create a new Artifact or retrieve an existing Artifact to attempt the Merger. For this approach the Trinity Stronghold seems like the Stronghold which currently seems to have no one laying claim to it.

Plan B - Proxy Stronghold Method
This method requires a Stronghold like area in the City to use as a “Proxy Stronghold” to test the theory. This will require some Planesmithing to modify the space to make it suitable to function as a small Stronghold. The Neutral Home has been suggested as a possible location for this.

Plan C - Planesmithing Method
I have begun to study Planesmithing with a fair amount of success. I have begun to design a basic Stronghold in order to test my project. It contains just a Facade, Gathering Hall and Essence Room. The first hurdle with this method is actually connecting this Stronghold to the City itself. For that I will need the aid of others. When we are able to connect this new Prototype Stronghold to the City I will need further help in creating and installing the Artifact in the Essence Room.

Part 2 - Stronghold Customization
Storing the Strength throughout the Stronghold itself is likely to provide some interesting opportunities to harness that energy in new ways. It may be possible to install Elemental Pads or create new library or armory rooms, possibly even improve the House Art. It may also have the side effect of causing some of the basic Stronghold functions to require a reserve of Strength in order to function as expected.

Part 3 - Warfare
With all the strength being stored within the Stronghold it will be vulnerable to attacks directly against the house that will deplete the strength. Instead of allowing another group to create the method this project will engage the Dreamers of the City to help create the means by which Houses can be attacked. I want input from anyone who has ideas on what method would work best. I have come up with one approach to this that can certainly be improved on and may be replaced entirely.

Plan A - Siege
I propose the creation of an art with the working title of Siege. Siege will be evoked by a House Member wishing to attack an enemy House. It will have a long evoke time (10 plus seconds?), will require one or more Power Tokens, and has to be evoked in the essence room of the attacked House. It will provide a short window of time (5 minutes?) in which the Sieged Stronghold Artifact can be attacked directly with Chakram or Blade, but under a significant absorption (90% to 95%?) with damage depleting the Strength from the Artifact. After the attack window has closed the attacked Stronghold Artifact will be immune to Siege for a period of time (6 hours?). If the Stronghold Artifact is Sieged again within a short period (30 minutes?) of the immunity expiring then the absorption will be reduced (by 5%?). Further windows that are not missed will result in further reduction in absorption, while missed windows will result in one step of absorption recovered. Additionally, a message will be left on the Stronghold’s Mission Board with the names of all those who damaged the Artifact.
This allows for the defending House to have an opportunity to mount a defense before the attacking force can reduce the absorption enough to do severely cripple them. This is a first draft so all the specific numbers and details are open to adjustment based on discussion and necessities of getting it to function within the City. For instance, I have considered the benefit of allowing more attack windows while making the opportunities to reduce the absorption less frequent.

**Edited to adjust Planesmithing Method from Plan A to Plan C. Making Closed Stronghold Method Plan A and Proxy Stronghold Method Plan B.