Welcome to Gaia! ::

The map only shows the placement of the church in the town. The actual layout of the church is only basic as to which floors hold what rooms. Their features you are welcome to create.

The Moon Church is only about two years old. It began as an alternative to the typical religion of Juska and Seska. But as it has grown, the basic ideals have changed making those clergy within believe they are the one true religion. Or so it appears.

They no longer preach that the living should get along with the dead or even that homage should be paid to the Moon goddesses. They have very neatly cut out the belief that the living owe the dead anything at all.

The first floor of the church contains the foyer where a couple of acolytes greet the people as they arrive. It also has the donation box for those who walk in and leave money or items. An acolyte is always standing in the hallway to keep watch. The auditorium and various classrooms are just beyond the foyer.

The second and third floor contains the acolytes who live at the church as they receive their training. They are given simple rooms on the both floors where the main offices of the clergy are.

The basement is used for training in magic. The acolytes all have some sort of magic skill. Some use fire while others use water. They have been practicing harder than normal or so it has been rumored. The Bishop merely commends them and replies to questions stating that they are simply being diligent.

At the top of the order is Bishop Arthurs. He has been with the church since its building and believes in a firm hand with his parishners. Continually he isolates them, trying to make them believe that the church is their life and that there are those beneath them. Sometimes his parishners or Acolytes even clean his house for him.

His influence grows day by day and he is one of those who was rumored to be behind the festival changing to something more 'appropriate' for the growing city they were becoming. It would not do to hold onto the old myths and stories when there was so little proof. Most do not believe their eyes when they see things move or even a portion of a ghostling is revealed as it moves. The Bishop strictly enforces the tithing also, calling for a firm 20% of whatever his people earn. In fact there is a motion at the mayor's office to ask for 25% at the next board meeting.

The Bishop has a grand house next to the church. It is very luxurious, perhaps too much so for such a supposedly pious man. Some think he is lining his pockets with their tithes, but none can prove anything.

Acolyte Merison is a new acolyte. At first he ignored the gut instinct he had about the church. But of late, he suspects that something is going on behind the scenes. He has remained silent except for asking for this help. At night there have been strange things heard coming from the basement and the crypt nearby in the cemetery next to the church.

The problem :

Is the clergy pious or not? What is going on behind the scenes at the church? Is there another reason that the tithes are so high and that few are ever allowed into the inner sanctum of the second floor? Is there something going on that leads into the crypt? Just how much influence does the Bishop really have and where will it lead? Find out what is going on there.

Reward:

A personal auto-encounter with a special NPC ghostling during the Metaplot that can be caught.

What you need to do IC :

Post #1 : Write an interaction with Acolyte Merison getting all the information you need. Meet him and gain his help. He will do anything you need done, limited to what an acolyte of his skill would be capable of which would be minor fire magics.

Post #2 : Join the church as an Acolyte and get a room to live there. Get to the point of being semi-trusted and start looking at the way things are done. Is it legitimate or are the acolytes being used in preparation for something else?

Post #3 : Check the Bishop's house for information. Find an excuse to look around the entire place. Is there a library or office? Are there rooms in the basement, the offices, and any trouble that occurs there? Describe what you see.

Post #4 : Check the people who have access to any of the crypts in the cemetery and see if anyone knows anything. Include those who sit on the benches day or night to be near their loved ones. Perhaps they have seen something or nothing. It is up to you to create the atmosphere of the buildings and people there.

Post #5 : Check the main church. Find the daily class schedules and any papers in the offices that you can for clues to where specific goods are located and who has opportunity to spread out the donations whether goods or money. Search every nook and cranny and see what is going on.

Post #6 : Check the security and the acolytes who perform this service. Find out when their patrols are, the routes they walk, when they exchange shifts to see if there is a reason for such protection to be necessary.

Post #7 : Find out exactly what is being done with the tithes and donations that come into the church. Are they really being given to parishners?

Post #8 : Report to back to Acolyte Merison. Give him a written report and explain to him what you have discovered. Include the security patterns of the guards. He will take it to the Mayor who wants this problem solved. If the Mayor is involved, it is not Merison's problem, but a different quest.

OC Notes :

You can use this form for the report, but the length is up to you. Just be sure to include all the information asked for or that you have figured out.



There should be at least 4-6 decent paragraphs per post. Have fun with it. Play with new characters. Play with the NPCs listed below as you see fit. Play with descriptions of the area. It is up to you to create the small details that make it live. And if it is longer than what has been outlined, additional perks might be rewarded. Create a few more Acolytes, Residents that frequent the church. You decide what and who you need.

NPCs that you may freely control are : Bishop Arthurs, Acolyte Merison. They may have information or clues that you need. You decide.

Expect the unexpected. I may very well see something to toss an unexpected problem into your story. Then again, I may not.

One post a week is sufficient, but if you are really enjoying and finish the quest, simply let me know.

Sadie walked briskly, hands empty at his sides. There was a particularly seedy part of town, the Rathole, between the park and that new Church that he had to pass through on his way home, and he was smack dab in the middle of it. His soft-soled shoes were silent on the battered cobblestones, except for when he had to jump over an area where the stoned were missing. Looted, no doubt, to shore up someone's decrepit deathtrap of a home.

The boy was tall for his age, and a life spent working whatever jobs offered had given him a well-muscled physique. Why lift heavy things when you could pay some poor urchin to do it? His clothes were only slightly better than what was generally worn in this district, and so didn't make him particularly. The biggest differences really were that his were better mended and cleaner. He did have a couple nicer outfits, only minor, invisible mendings and re-dyed to look almost new, but these were his work clothes.

Walking as quick as he dared, eyes darting left and right subtly to take everything in without drawing undue attention to himself, Sadie passed through the Rathole unmolested. He sighed with relief. Even as raggedy as he was, there were those worse off than he in that dingy place, and he had been mugged more than once. He always carried a few small coins in his pocket as mugging fodder, anything else was carefully hidden in the special lining of his waistband, muffled so it would make no noise. Sure, he could have gone around the Rathole, but he was looking for someone. Two someones, actually; his younger brothers, a pair of identical twins about eight years old. Since they had not turned up at any of the orphanages in town, this was the most likely place for them to be. He refused to think of the alternative, that one or both of their small bodies would turn up at the docks, floating around one of the piers. They had disappeared over a week ago while running an errand, taking an offering to the new church. He might not believe in this new lunar deity, but it was never a good idea to alienate the clergy, especially when the Bishop was growing in popularity so quickly, and they lived so close to the place, so he offered his monthly tithe like the rest. Rumors were the tithe might be increasing soon, and Sadie wondered what they could possibly need even more money and goods for. None of it seemed to find it's way back into the community, not even as payment for goods or services, as these were either obtained by tithe, or requested as a free service "for the good of your soul."

No matter where he went, Sadie's eyes were constantly watching for the flash of twin strawberry-blond heads, his ears listened for the sound of high voices that often spoke or even laughed simultaneously. Alert as he was, it was no surprise that he noticed the man in a concealing brown robe that started following him shortly after he passed the unofficial boundary of the Rathole. Perhaps his relief had come too soon, one could be mugged anywhere after all. He turned to confront his brown-clad shadow.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but I have little of worth. I will gladly give you what little coin I have if you would just let me go on my way, please." he held out the few copper coins, hoping to placate the mugger. His eyes widened when the man neither took the coins nor moved to attack, but rather held a finger to his lips and gestured towards a sheltered alcove.

Sadie complied. There was no more danger there than in the open, no one was about, and it was unlikely anyone would aide him if they were. Once in the alcove, the man removed his hood, revealing a face only a few years older than Sadie's own fifteen years. The man again held his finger to his lips, indicating that even here they needed to be quiet. His first words shocked Sadie so much he couldn't have made a sound if he had wanted to.

"You are looking for your brothers, yes? Little boys, as alike as two twins ever were? I fear for them, and not just them. They came to the church about a week ago, I was one of the acolytes stationed by the front door. But I swear to you, they never came out, not by the front door. And they are not the first. The others, they do not watch who comes in and who goes out, only that none take from the donation box. I watch, and I've seen many go in that never did come out again. Always the young, or the old. Always those who are poorer, and alone, always when there are not too many others in the church.

And then, late at night, when my brothers are all asleep, sometimes I hear odd noises from the basement, or occasionally from the crypt in the church cemetery. The sounds are muffled to mere hints of noise by the thick stone of the floors, but they do not have the sound or rhythm of prayer, that is for sure."

The acolyte swallowed, looking at Sadie with eyes full of pain and pity. "I fear it may be too late for your brothers, though if they live I suspect they are still in the church somewhere. Still, I ask for your help. I have tried to search, but with no luck. Will you save others from whatever fate may have befallen your brothers? Will you aide me?"

Sadie stood there for a moment longer, in shock. Hikaru and Kaoru, dead? Their bright laughter, silenced forever? He had raised them alone since their parents died over 5 years ago, and they were almost his sons as much as they were his brothers. It was impossible. They must be captive, somewhere in the church, and he would find them. And if, impossible as the the thought was, he found them dead, Bishop Arthurs better hope that his lunar deity was watching out for him, because Sadie would be out for revenge. Eyes hardening, he looked the acolyte in the eye for the first time, and the emotions there made Merison shudder and wonder if he hadn't unleashed a hound, only to find a wild wolf in it's place.

"I will help you. And if my brothers have been harmed, I will bring the very walls of that church down around His Holyness."

((Skipping over meeting with Bishop, at least for now. Will add it in later if inspiration deigns to strike.))

Sadie left the Bishop's office, a smug smile behind his carefully neutral mask. It hadn't been easy, the Bishop was much better at reading people than his underlings, but he was an elitist at heart. He expected deceit and sly planning from the merchant and noble class, not from one so lowly as Sadie obviously was. A worker's muscles and rough hands could not be faked, and they were a central part of his act as a simple but earnest follower, below suspicion.

Sadie had been directed to follow the hall to the left, up the stairs to the third floor. There he was to turn right, then left, and his new room would be the third on the left. If he had his bearings right, that meant he would have a view of the small, sheltered cemetery with it's high walls. That suited him just fine.

He had been told that the previous owner of his new room had left suddenly, "family emergency." One more thing that could bear some looking into. Sadie wondered if the unfortunate acolyte had seen something in the cemetery that he shouldn't have. If so, he hoped he would have the same opportunity, but without getting caught.

Sadie reached his room and opened the door. Inside was a small bed with a chest at it's foot, a bedside table with night candle, a modest but sturdy desk and chair, and the expected view. He had a partially obstructed view of the mausoleum that led into the crypt, and new there was likely a second entrance somewhere in the church.

He put his smaller belongings in the small drawer in the bedside table, the rest in the chest, beside the supplied blankets. If the tithes were being misappropriated, the riches certainly were not trickling down very far. The blankets would be warm, so long as he layered them so the holes did not overlap. It had taken him less than ten minutes to get settled in, a bit of a depressing realization.