Cracking Masquerade, a Dresden Files/MCU Second World War quest

[mouli]

Cracking Masquerade

This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.
- Ferdinand Foch, Maréchal de France​

It is the end of an era. As the governments of Europe and beyond gather in Versailles to argue over the peace and the empires squabble over far-off sands, what goes unspoken is that their time is ending. For four terrible years the crowns of Europe bled their people white in a war that engulfed the world. For four terrible years the globe echoed the thunder of artillery and the crack of rifle fire from the sands of Arabia to the muddy fields of Flanders, the dead consigned to memory in lands as far off as India and Japan.

The peace is not an easy one. In Germany the Kaiser has fled, abandoning the throne in the face of open defiance by the army, leaving the empire to the Socialists and the military. In France, the victory is a bitter one as the long rolls of dead are tallied in every village and town from the Alps to Algiers, as the nation comes to terms with a generation hollowed out. In Britain, the empire appears stronger than ever - but that appearance is deceiving, for there is the specter of overreach and revolt hanging over territories such as India, Egypt, Palestine, and most of all Ireland. In Russia, the empire is dead. The Tsar is on the run, the army is fragmented, and the red flag flies from St. Petersburg and the Kremlin.

For the shadowed world that watched the slaughter, the changes are by no means less profound. There are those that died in the war, for their principles, debts, or simple greed. There are those that saw opportunity in the deaths of men, who attempted workings of great might and terrible cost that were averted only by the barest of margins. There are those who thought to intervene for the good of all mankind, who died for those principles at the hands of the keepers of the masquerade. There are all of those and more, lives measured in centuries and skills refined over ages ended by the indignity of naval gunfire and field artillery, by the blades of the Wardens and the fire of the gifted.

It is an age marked by the turmoil in the midnight realms, the mantles of the dead and the crippled changing hands each year while the mortals strive to put out the fires. There is the title of the Redcap, whose old bearer was crippled by HMS Terror as it bombarded the Channel coast. There are three of the Fallen, whose coin-bearers were killed by the German VI Reserve Corps in Verdun as it stormed the trenches of Dead Man's Hill. There is a knight of the Cross, killed by a Japanese sniper as he tried to infiltrate the lines around Tsingtao in search of a Denarian. All these and more of the great and the mighty, and the Wardens of the White Council at half their numbers or less - the mask threatens to break as the mad try to rise.

It is a time of dreams, of terror, and of flux. It is the end of the age of high imperialism, and as the church-bells toll across France and Britain you watch the world change.

Pick one start date:

[]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[]1940: France has fallen, China suffers, and the British Empire is on the brink. A darkness has fallen on the world, and the sane grow desperate. Between Kemmler, Schmidt, and Zahn the Wardens are spread thin - and there are others still to consider. Fire and brimstone beckon as the veil threatens to be burned away.

Pick one setting/modification:

[]Magic and Shadows: The mortals are akin to children when considered singly, but the nations at war are mighty indeed. For all the might of the Sidhe and the magics of the ancient wizards, there is something to be said for airstrikes, heavy artillery, and a battleship's guns. Dresden Files type of setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

[]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

A quest to (potentially) run in the holidays, I will update once each morning for it. Updates are short and will slow once the year-end break finishes. Feedback on the idea is welcome. If anyone else wants co-QM, let me know.

 

[mouli]

Mechanics​

You are a minor mage, special-operations trooper, or spy in the Second World War. As such, chances of survival are not the best, and you're not exactly one of the great and mighty to be able to power through any obstacle. So we're not going to pretend that you have time to get good, time to train from a master, or a great skill. All you have are what you choose in character-creation and the wits of the playerbase, facing down everything from old gods to fallen angels with no more than a rifle in your hands and a spell on your lips.

The skills are as follows, and each tier of the skill allows another d20 to be rolled for it. Combat will be rolled against an enemy's skillset, and noncombat against a fixed DC (for convenience). Skill tiers are from Unskilled(0/200xp) -> Trained(0/400) -> Skilled(0/800) -> Master(0/1500), and perks and equipment add bonuses to this. Skills are:

Mundane: Combat: Ranged, Combat: CQC, Technology, Speech, Tactics.

Supernatural: Alchemy, Artifice, Evocation, Rituals, Culture.

You will have one-month turns of downtime + mission, and in the event of a PC dying you will have a chance to pick another with a bonus from the older PC (dependent on how advanced the older one was). It's a simple system, and perhaps not the best - but then I'm running this more for fun than anything else. Feedback is as always welcome.

 

[mouli]

Mikasa Shirohime

Affiliation: Black Chamber, United States Occult Intelligence

Rank: Special Agent

Skills:

Mundane:

Combat: Ranged: Skilled (0/800), 3d20

Combat: CQC: Trained (0/400), 2d20

Technology: Trained (0/400), 2d20

Speech: Skilled (0/800), 3d20

Tactics: Trained (0/400), 2d20

Supernatural:

Alchemy: Unskilled (0/200), 1d20

Artifice: Unskilled (0/200), 1d20

Evocation: Fire: Trained (0/400), 2d20

Rituals: Unskilled (0/200), 1d20

Culture: Trained (0/400), 2d20

Equipment

Mauser Evocation Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.

 

[NeonLights]

[X]1940: France has fallen, China suffers, and the British Empire is on the brink. A darkness has fallen on the world, and the sane grow desperate. Between Kemmler, Schmidt, and Zahn the Wardens are spread thin - and there are others still to consider. Fire and brimstone beckon as the veil threatens to be burned away.

[X]Magic and Shadows: The mortals are akin to children when considered singly, but the nations at war are mighty indeed. For all the might of the Sidhe and the magics of the ancient wizards, there is something to be said for airstrikes, heavy artillery, and a battleship's guns. Dresden Files type of setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[minerva-n-memes]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[Happerry]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[useofstrike32]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[Parzival95]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[Solarstream]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[veekie]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]Magic and Shadows: The mortals are akin to children when considered singly, but the nations at war are mighty indeed. For all the might of the Sidhe and the magics of the ancient wizards, there is something to be said for airstrikes, heavy artillery, and a battleship's guns. Dresden Files type of setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[ChaosCircle]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]Magic and Shadows: The mortals are akin to children when considered singly, but the nations at war are mighty indeed. For all the might of the Sidhe and the magics of the ancient wizards, there is something to be said for airstrikes, heavy artillery, and a battleship's guns. Dresden Files type of setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[StarkDemise]

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]Magic and Shadows: The mortals are akin to children when considered singly, but the nations at war are mighty indeed. For all the might of the Sidhe and the magics of the ancient wizards, there is something to be said for airstrikes, heavy artillery, and a battleship's guns. Dresden Files type of setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

 

[mouli]

Character Creation: When and Where
​

Spoiler: Winning vote

[X]1937: War has flared once more, in the East this time. The Imperial Japanese Army has thrust into northern China, and with it the world has changed. The moonlit world echoes this as the Chinese call on whatever they can to stem the tide, and as many among the Council discard their oaths for older ones. So goes the East, so perhaps will go the masquerade.

[X]To Touch the Sky: There are mortals that touch upon the divine, that seek to mechanize the energies of life and death. There are those that build engines of power and those that wield mantles of a new age, and the high lords of the moonlit world wonder whether or not to intervene. For what cost the masquerade, when a single enhanced infantryman can take on a lesser vampire? DF/MCU fusion setting, I will take some liberties with lore.

​

​

AN: Pick one location and one faction from the location, each location is discussed below.

It is a time of strife and turmoil as the world turns to war once more, and as the Imperial Japanese Army besieges Shanghai. As the Republic mobilizes for war and for the first time in decades, China forms a united front against the common foe.

China is a warzone, its coast the domain of the Imperial Japanese Navy and its northern cities the realm of the kempeitai. Murder of hostages, torture, and worse add salt to the wound of yet another national defeat - and for all that the Japanese hold the cities they cannot hold the countryside. Arms flow into China from multiple sources, from British and French weapons sold at discount to the Nationalists to Soviet arms and volunteers to build up the military. Yet for all the aid and all the desperate, reckless bravery - it may not be enough.

Will you stand in China, as Nanjing falls and Shanghai stands besieged? As Japan moves inland and Mao withdraws to the hills of Shanxi? Will you stand amidst this most bitter of wars and seek to calm the moonlit world of the East, or will you get stuck in?

[][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.

-[]Shanghai: A city both Western and Chinese, there's now a lot of Japanese here as well. To be precise, three battalions of Japanese Marines and the Imperial Navy's Third Fleet facing three of the NRA's 'German' infantry divisions. Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Shanghai.

-[]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?

-[]British Empire: Whitehall has an interest in anything that disrupts the balance of power, and this war certainly does that. You act as part of the Army of India's Corps of Guides, and you've seen plenty beyond the normal - both here and in the Khyber Pass.

-[]United States: The US has long had an interest in China. With that interest and with the creation of the Black Chamber came an interest in the world beyond the veil and its influence in the halls of government. You are a Black Chamber agent in China, brought in as a Legation Marine, and yours is the task of seeing what's shot at whom.

-[]Soviet Volunteer Group: The Volunteer Group is also at this time a way to dump the more unreliable of the Party's adventurers, and you were among them. You are of the NKVD's 19th Chief Directorate, whose existence is classified for more reasons than just the capitalists.

-[]White Council: The Wardens are occupied elsewhere against greater foes, and to the rank and file falls the task of watching the dead. You are one of those that wear the stole and speak the Latin, and as a Wizard of the White Council you have responsibilities in times of war - not least among them guarding the dead.

Yet the conflict is far from localized. There are other areas, other theaters where peace now turns to a cold war. One of these is the Russo-Japanese border, the long sweeping stretch from Vladivostok to Siberia where the Kwantung Army and the Far Eastern Front watch one another across the wire. Do you begin here instead, where a cold war stirs and warms bit by bit, as the IJA and the Red Army test weapons beyond the normal, where the NKVD and the Kempeitai fight a deadly battle in the shadows?

[][LOCATION]Russian Far East: Begin in the Soviet Far East, just prior to Stalin's purges and facing threats from both the IJA and your own in the NKVD.

-[]Vladivostok: The great seaport and naval base of the Soviet Far East, here the substance of Russian imperialism sits atop ancient grudges and wars. Here is the HQ for both Army and NKVD, and you're not sure which is worse.

[][FACTION]Russian Far East: The Soviet Far East isn't a place where many have a presence, and it's more a choice of who you'll serve in the Union's factional wars than anything else.

-[]Red Army: You are part of the Red Banner Far Eastern Army's Occult Operations arm, reporting to Marshal Blyukher and no other. While that means you get what support you need whenever something needs to be put down, it also marks you for the NKVD.

-[]White Council: You are one of an endangered breed - wizards in the New Russia, watching the unfolding carnage with more horror than fascination. The ancient defenses and pacts that once shielded the Tsar's subjects are now replaced by the iron fist of the Red Army and the NKVD, and they've made it clear that your presence is tolerated - for now.

Then there is the last of the theaters in play, the last of them to see war as well. India is ancient, vast, and restless under an foreign boot. It chafes at British overlordship even as its mighty and its learned seek to keep the sleeping sealed away. It is a land of old gods, older magics, and a thin veneer of Western manners on a mass of unrest bubbling away. Army of India command is seeing revolts in every protest, the INC is seeing independence come closer each year, and the Princely States are seeing the world they knew come apart bit by bit. Amidst all of this awaken the sleepers in the Himalayas and the Khyber Pass, for the scent of war is on the horizon once more...

[][LOCATION]India: Army of India command at Delhi covers a great sweep of land from the Afghan border to Thailand, and reaches south to Ceylon from the heights of the Himalayas. Keeping the peace in such a place is a herculean task indeed...

-[]Bangalore: Army cantonment and major railway depot, this is a place for reaction forces to assemble for the Deccan and for you to base yourself in South India. A land of temples, hidebound traditions, and of fierce local independence, the writ of established authorities runs thin in these lands.

-[]Rawalpindi: Another army cantonment and air base, this one watches the Khyber Pass. A place of death and war since the time of Alexander, there's always something stirring there - if you're lucky it's just another Afghan razzia.

-[]Calcutta: Eastern India is a hive of unrest, and Bengal foremost among them. A vast number of seditious intellectuals and members of the INC hail from Bengal, and the more extreme among them are willing to give of themselves and others for the cause.

[][FACTION]India: Part of the British Empire and under the eye of British counterintelligence, there are few other powers that chance their luck here. Yet.

-[]Archaeological Survey of India: Originally intended to supervise excavation and cataloguing of artifacts from the subcontinent, it also developed a bit of expertise in dealing with what some artifacts often came with. From curses to guardians, the ASI has seen them all.

-[]Indian National Congress: The INC's main leverage is its ability to bring the subcontinent to a halt on demand. That's all that keeps the raids away and the Army in barracks rather than deployed, and the leadership know it. Which of course is why they want countermeasures against more subtle things, some of them not entirely natural.

-[]Corps of Guides: The Pandits of the Survey of India were subsumed into the Guides once the Survey ended, and they now watch and map the more-than-normal. You are one of them, trained more as an observer and advisor for the Army than a mage and combatant - yours is the task of grassroots intelligence-collection and watching over the dead.

-[]White Council: When the Merlin went to Kedarnath, he did so as fast as possible. He lived, the temple was undamaged, and the Wardens were reinforced to six no more than a week later. The White Council is acutely conscious of its inability to fully lay the land to rest, much like China. Here you're just another gora to the local practitioners, and more a target than a friend - expect that to get worse if the British crack down more.

Pick one location and one faction, and we pick from character backgrounds in twenty-four hours. As always, feedback welcome.
Edit: Edited Multan to Rawalpindi.

 

[ChaosCircle]

[X][LOCATION]Russian Far East: Begin in the Soviet Far East, just prior to Stalin's purges and facing threats from both the IJA and your own in the NKVD.
-[X]Vladivostok: The great seaport and naval base of the Soviet Far East, here the substance of Russian imperialism sits atop ancient grudges and wars. Here is the HQ for both Army and NKVD, and you're not sure which is worse.

[X][FACTION]Russian Far East: The Soviet Far East isn't a place where many have a presence, and it's more a choice of who you'll serve in the Union's factional wars than anything else.
-[X]White Council: You are one of an endangered breed - wizards in the New Russia, watching the unfolding carnage with more horror than fascination. The ancient defenses and pacts that once shielded the Tsar's subjects are now replaced by the iron fist of the Red Army and the NKVD, and they've made it clear that your presence is tolerated - for now.

This sounds like it'll be more fun than the other options. I'm not really interested in a War Story or British India. NKVD v. Army sounds more interesting.

 

[minerva-n-memes]

[X][LOCATION]Russian Far East: Begin in the Soviet Far East, just prior to Stalin's purges and facing threats from both the IJA and your own in the NKVD.
-[X]Vladivostok: The great seaport and naval base of the Soviet Far East, here the substance of Russian imperialism sits atop ancient grudges and wars. Here is the HQ for both Army and NKVD, and you're not sure which is worse.

 

[Secondskink]

[X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]United States: The US has long had an interest in China. With that interest and with the creation of the Black Chamber came an interest in the world beyond the veil and its influence in the halls of government. You are a Black Chamber agent in China, brought in as a Legation Marine, and yours is the task of seeing what's shot at whom.

 

[Karugus]

[X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]Soviet Volunteer Group: The Volunteer Group is also at this time a way to dump the more unreliable of the Party's adventurers, and you were among them. You are of the NKVD's 19th Chief Directorate, whose existence is classified for more reasons than just the capitalists.

I legitimately can't think of a bigger clusterfuck and a better way of getting hurled way past the deep end then getting roped into the Massacre of Nanjing. Every other option kinda feels like small potatoes when the death and debasement of hundreds of thousands is right there.

 

[Ifraka]

X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]United States: The US has long had an interest in China. With that interest and with the creation of the Black Chamber came an interest in the world beyond the veil and its influence in the halls of government. You are a Black Chamber agent in China, brought in as a Legation Marine, and yours is the task of seeing what's shot at whom.

 

[KnightDisciple]

[X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]Soviet Volunteer Group: The Volunteer Group is also at this time a way to dump the more unreliable of the Party's adventurers, and you were among them. You are of the NKVD's 19th Chief Directorate, whose existence is classified for more reasons than just the capitalists.

 

[mouli]

I legitimately can't think of a bigger clusterfuck and a better way of getting hurled way past the deep end then getting roped into the Massacre of Nanjing. Every other option kinda feels like small potatoes when the death and debasement of hundreds of thousands is right there.

Click to shrink...

To be honest I'll write only peripherally of the siege's aftermath. I honestly feel that I can't do justice to something that horrific, and that's also why there isn't a Chinese option for faction. It's a war that I honestly feel a bit intimidated to write from the perspective of a Chinese republican or a PLA trooper, whereas the Soviet/US/British view is 'outside' enough that a few slips can pass.

 

[ChaosCircle]

I legitimately can't think of a bigger clusterfuck and a better way of getting hurled way past the deep end then getting roped into the Massacre of Nanjing. Every other option kinda feels like small potatoes when the death and debasement of hundreds of thousands is right there.

Click to shrink...

Tbh, it is a bad topic for SV because it just can't be horrifying enough to do it justice.

 

[Karugus]

To be honest I'll write only peripherally of the siege's aftermath. I honestly feel that I can't do justice to something that horrific, and that's also why there isn't a Chinese option for faction. It's a war that I honestly feel a bit intimidated to write from the perspective of a Chinese republican or a PLA trooper, whereas the Soviet/US/British view is 'outside' enough that a few slips can pass.

Click to shrink...

Understandable, I kinda figured you weren't going to cover the gritty details of that and I can agree wholeheartedly with the reasoning- but it's the biggest event with the most ramifications I can readily see out of all the options and the one where I can see a lot of shit getting set in motion off in the sidelines we might have to deal with.

I suppose part of it's my own biases, outside of Shanghai, Nanjing, and *maybe* Khalkin Gol-esque shenanigans I can't really think of specific events associated with these starts.

 

[mouli]

At the Mountains of Madness ​

The world is changing. As always, the genius of mortal men approaches the realms of the divine, this time without aid or assistance. As always, there are those among the moonlit world that seek to cast man down. To tear down the Tower and scatter to the winds the purpose of mankind, to deny us our claim to this world.

As I stand here on Kyffhauser, I see the winds gather and the magics converge. I breathe a little deeper and cast my net wide, and the Reichsburg responds even as the Sidhe come. Iron rises from the battlements as the dead of the Empire walk once more, as ice crystallizes in the circle atop the keep. The circle I stand before.

The air chills and the dead pause as the Queen of Air and Darkness simply appears in the circle, one hand idly toying with a bone-white spear. "Thrice you have called, and so I have come. Speak."

"Thrice I have called for the Winter Court, and yet only to recoup a favor. Is this the way Sidhe repay their debts?" I'll be damned if Mab manages to win this, and yet maybe I am. Whatever the case, her face smooths itself into a mask of propriety, cold and blank and utterly expressionless. With all the beauty of a thousand Helens and yet nary a scrap of humanity in those predator's eyes.

I grin back at her, bile rising in my throat as the feedback from the works I've laid down start to hit. "I have one favor to ask of the Winter Court, one favor in return for the aid I gave fifteen years ago in the matter of the Redcap's mantle."

"An unforced favor, aid unasked for." Her cool tone is stripped of the usual wheedling of the Sidhe, her eyes measuring me for a coffin. I keep the grin on my face, for all I know it'll drive her to anger. All the better, that.

"Aid recognized." Indeed, the Winter Lady herself naming me in that. All very nice at the time. "Aid that you thought you'd not have to repay, at least until I acquired the violin."

"Name the favor, Erich Zahn."

"There is war coming." My words get no reaction at all, and I plow on even as the cold starts to bite and in my awareness the Wardens' blades strike my risen dead. "There is war coming, and in that war will be those that trespass on the divine."

"Which is not my task or mantle."

"Which I would have you guard." I pause once more, directing a squad of knights towards Donald Morgan as he tries to scale the keep's walls. Very innovative use of the aftershock, that.

"The Wardens come, Zahn. Ask, and I shall act." Amusement colors her tone as she tests the circle once more, and the bone violin thrums in my awareness as it seeks to act on the field of woe.

I laugh. It's all I can do, after all this. "I will not waste the favor on this. I have one task, and then we are neutral, Queen of Winter. There are mortals in this book-" I toss her a book, one I've compiled over centuries with most of the names crossed out. "Seek out the ones still alive, all three of them, and keep them safe on the paths between the worlds."

"Is that all?"

I nod and with a wave of my hand the circle disperses, "That is all. Safeguard them from the moonlit world, and we are done."

Mab nods and smiles, beautiful and terrifying. "Then we are done, Erich Zahn." She pats me on the cheek, all icy hands and porcelain skin as the Pale Violin comes out, and she vanishes in an aurora as the Wardens end the last of the revenants below.

As I laugh amid the battle-madness and the voice of the Pale Violin rings out the toll of the battlefield, as the souls of the brave guardians of man are flensed from their bodies while my own burns with magical feedback.

Three names, with the power of the Winter Queen to guard them.

Three names. Erskine, Fury, and Stark. American, but then the others are more well-guarded.

Three names and the others besides, and for them I kill humans once more in the hopes that the world is worth a few more dead.

It is after all an MCU fusion. This is canon for the quest, btw. First time I'm writing first-person, so feedback is quite welcome. Votes remain open.

 

[Parzival95]

[X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]United States: The US has long had an interest in China. With that interest and with the creation of the Black Chamber came an interest in the world beyond the veil and its influence in the halls of government. You are a Black Chamber agent in China, brought in as a Legation Marine, and yours is the task of seeing what's shot at whom.

 

[Mask]

[X][LOCATION]China: Begin in China, in the middle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pick one location: Cannot be taken with other locations.
-[X]Nanjing: Iwane Matsui believes that taking the old capital will convince the Republic to seek terms. The Soviet 'volunteers' gather here to defend it with a scratch force of Chinese infantrymen under Tang Shengzhi, and the battle is a foregone conclusion - as is the aftermath. The war will go on, but will you? Begin in the opening phases of the Battle of Nanjing.

[X][FACTION]China: There are quite a few player in China, and none of them here in force save for the Chinese and the Japanese. Who do you serve, in this time and place?
-[X]United States: The US has long had an interest in China. With that interest and with the creation of the Black Chamber came an interest in the world beyond the veil and its influence in the halls of government. You are a Black Chamber agent in China, brought in as a Legation Marine, and yours is the task of seeing what's shot at whom.