ifMUD Helvetica Campaign

A campaign set in nascent Switzerland, in the early days of the Montaigne Revolution. Run by Miseri, with inky as Arvid, an older Vesten gentleman scholar and member of the Invisible College, Jota as Hans, Eisen soldier-turned-combat-instructor, and lpsmith as Gert, Hans's fiancee and outdoorswoman/groundskeeper. (A bit more on Gert here.)

Miseri has foisted upon us a long list of NPCs, and a fun game to play with that is 'spot-the-ref'.

And, in fact, we finally decided there was enough going on that we put together a wiki to keep track of it all (the NPC page in particular has moved there).

After the first couple sessions, we were introduced to Catherine "Cat" Matravers, played by maga.

• Act 1: wherein we see the daily life of our three teachers, some furniture is delivered, some of the girls sneak off into the woods and find some refugees, and two other students learn their parents are in trouble, and disappear.
• Act 2: wherein our heroes track the missing students to Bois-Franc, a guillotine factory explodes, and the erstwhile parents and sibling are broken out of jail. Mme Guillot herself likewise escapes with the group, and the nine (!) of them make it back to Geneva in one piece.
• Act 3: wherein we meet Cat, and wander around town investigating Lucille's whereabouts, and how the wagonner was killed.
• Act 4: wherein Lucille is tracked down. Sadly, she's a vampire (or something) and the players have to sit on her before figuring out what to do.
• Act 5: wherein Lucille is safely exorcised and then given a proper burial, and intrigue simmers at the college, including the revelation that Justine's brother is one of the Bois-Franc lackeys; Joseph du Paix.
• Act 6: wherein Joseph and Sir Galahad are revealed to be in cahoots and anti-revolutionary, Andre and Guillot are revealed to be madly inventing something, and the Schreiber siblings are revealed to be playing pranks on Trujillo (the newly-rescued teacher), so that Andre won't go ballistic on him for treating him like an idiot or something. Plans are made to go rescue the Schreiber elder sister, captured and to be executed in Montaigne.
• Act 7: wherein Our Heroes travel to Montaigne, scope out the prison and the du Sices (empty) mansion, find a couple mirror ghosts, and overhear Cat's parents, Chevalier, and Nicolette talk about buying the mansion. N. turns out to be a Porte-weilder, and Chevalier turns out to know. And be Cat's potential husband.
• Act 8: wherein we plan a lot, and then the plan goes off basically smoothly! Crazy. We catch and release Chevalier (it's not open season for Judges yet), flummox Cat's parents, rescue Nicolette from probable danger and Agathe (and a couple other prisoners) from certain danger, and escape to the countryside, mirror ghost in tow.
• Act 9: wherein we get back safely, and a great many plot hooks are revealed to have taken place in our absence. So many, that I will merely redirect you to the Plot Threads page on the wiki.
• Act 10: Gert searches for Brother Etienne and finds him returning mysteriously to the abbey, and then Gert, Cat, and Arvid chat with Justine and then Stefan, who's paranoid about someone claiming to be the Inquisition.
• Act 11, in which a bunch of boring stuff happens and then Gert shows up and plans a duel.
• Act 12. A young girl attempt suicide (but is thwarted), and the group heads to Fischler, where they believe Raoul is about to commit fraudulent bigamy. The plot thickens.
• Act 13. Arvid and Gert arrive at the scene of the wedding, find a disguised groom, give him wine, and steal his ring. The baron and the grandmother of the bride are enlisted to reveal the dastardly red-handed bandit.
• Act 14. A bachelor party gone HORRIBLY WRONG.
• Act 15. After a brief duel, the group heads back lickety-split to Helvetica, where they meet the Vodacces abducting Stefan, and discover Montaigne has invaded.
• Act 16. The group replans, heads to the monastery, and Arvid turns into a newt. (He gets better.)
• Act 17. The group passes themselves off as Montaignian revolutionaries in order to do some graverobbing, then heads for the duSices mansion.
• Act 18. The revolutionaries disguise works for a little bit in Montaigne, as the group tracks down the location of the letter to a book, just as it's being sold to a Faustus. They buy the book instead, a fight ensues, and everyone gets the heck outta dodge on another flying carriage.
• The Final Act! Our Heroes make it back into town in the nick of time, accidentally help create a new mirror ghost, swap the Baron back with his double, and fight the bad guys. Much epiloging ensues, including a lovely wedding.