[Concept] Pumping Magic

There is an event I want to organize, but it would involve a couple of questionable moments. That is the reason I am posting this here, to get feedback, and luckily get stopped from doing something outrageously stupid.

1) Group of cultists decides to capture holy energy of the Cathedral of Light and channel a dark presence deep into the catacombs. Such a mighty spell would require a big ritual, and doing anything of such magnitude inside the Cathedral would not sit well with those priests and paladins. [First feedback point: is it acceptible to steal some of that holiness, and place some dark energy deep inside for use in future evil plots?]

2) Now, the only reasonable thing to do, albeit rather insane, would be to do the Ritual eslewhere and 'conduct' the energy along the ley-lines from the Cathedral to the place of ritual. The downside is, that this will involve a dozen cultists standing on the streets of Stormwind and conducting vast ammounts of energy along this arcane pipe-line. Very suspect. The idea would be to pretend to be a group of mages, doing legitimate ley-line research, approved by the Tower, and with royal permissions. For a few minutes or so cultists will actually do the actual ley-line research in case any wizards drop by for an inspection. [Second feedback point: is it alright to have a permission to conduct a 'reasonable' research. That is, some wizards channeling token ammounts of magic alongside the leylines. NOT actually going INTO the cathedral OR place of ritual yet!]

3) Now, invision a dozen cultists targeting each other with focusing lenses and spinning an intricate pattern through the city. Every bored guard would jump, permit or not. That is the reason I want to hold an event at a good RP-day, at reasonable time (20:30ish?) but without informing any good guilds about the actual date OOCly. I would like the guards to be minding their own RP, doing their own stuff instead of sitting there at appointed hour and itching for RP. [Feedback point three: is it alright to not give Goodies the date?]

4) The moment cultists start channeling into the cathedral, and transferring huge quantities of energy - it will become rather obvious. So, we will arrange distractions all over the city and make other arrangements to prevent interferences. The 'darkies' win if they manage to channel magic for some time. Very hard. Lighties win if they can interrupt the magical piping at any point. [Feedback point four: how long should it take for Darkies to finish the ritual? Five minutes? More? and would anything 'bad' happens if Lighties interrupt the pipe somewhere in the middle and have all that magic break loose, instead of stopping the ritual]

Thank you for taking your time to read this!

Not sure why there needs to be a 'conflict per-se', IE one that either side can 'win'. Surely, that which produces the most interesting result would be the direction to take the event, so as to avoid any kind of drama?

I'm also not sure about the idea of having it as a 'surprise' since most people will probably want to stay with whatever RP they're currently doing rather than attend something that, while they know to expect it, would possibly come at an inopportune time.

Finally I just don't get why it needs to be the Cathedral. Isn't there enough silly things surrounding that place already, the catacombs especially? Newsflash, cultists, catacombs are still holy ground, except there are dead people there! There's nothing unholy or 'dark' about them except the lack of sunlight.

Just saying, channel your evilness somewhere where it'll be comfortable.

Not that I know much about that and since I don't play alliance you might not care.

1: I would think it is possible since it's the magic you are talking about and not something vague. But I cannot imagine it's easily done.

2: Discuss with guild leaders around SW, I'd say whoever is with the council and has the seat of magic if they weren't on vacation.

3: Maybe really give a time (such as 20.30) but not a date, maybe give a honorable member of the roleplying community (or several) that are not involved and have no gain, the date you have in mind, so nobody can go "but they only choose then because nobody of us was online".

4: Have a neutral party keep an eye on the time, aswell as setting the alarm yourself. If the cultists are spread out over the city, you could give a time penalty for every cultist that falls untill the minimum has been reached and the ritual has stopped.



Edit:

Merandil wrote:Not sure why there needs to be a 'conflict per-se', IE one that either side can 'win'. Surely, that which produces the most interesting result would be the direction to take the event, so as to avoid any kind of drama?

I'm also not sure about the idea of having it as a 'surprise' since most people will probably want to stay with whatever RP they're currently doing rather than attend something that, while they know to expect it, would possibly come at an inopportune time.

Isn't the choice to pay attention to it or not/ do something about it or not, part of the roleplaying experience?
You choose to do something with it or not, but either way it has consequences. Heck, maybe 10 people decide to see what happens and run interference on the guard

I consciously chose for 'not informing' exactly because the awesome RP with distractions, misinformation and hold-ups. Suppose you know there is an Evil Plot happening today at 20:30, would you chase after that petty thief on 20:28? I believe it adds a lot of fun to guards, byastanders and cultists alike this way.

Conflict is added because this is an event about conflict, when I make a non-conflict event nothing can go wrong and I would not put the concept ahead to be judged.

The point about Cathedral, evilness and such is a fair point. I will rework it to something more plausible and inventive.

At last, If I wanted to ask for Minister of Magic's permission I would 've done so. I am asking for community's permission here.

Well AS Minister of Magic any magic events are most welcome it uhm.. Gives me something to do!!

Hmmm.. If you are going for the ley-lines.. Then both Lore and "real- life wise" do note the ".." here.. It should in theory be very much possible indeed:) Informing the good guys of the date seems unneeded. People should be more prepared and enjoy suprises more. After all you have informed them now that something like this might happen, just not when^^ And isnt the rp also about not knowing stuff?^^ It would suck if our chars always (and we)knew what would happen when we walked around the next corner^^ So good job. I can see the concerns about the cathedral and the fact that soo much has happened there already etc etc... But despite how many that talks down on the cathedral area rp... It is an unchangeable fact that shit loads of rp happens there everyday.. So it is ideal if you want to involve or give as many as possible the chance to be involved in what ever way they may prefer. "The Cathedral is like the Twilight series.. - people claim to never rp there and people claim to not watch it..." Still.. The books and movies bring in loads of gold... Hmmm very odd no?^^

Thanks for the feedback both on the forums and especially in-game

-more realizm has been added to the event by defining specific goals of the experiment, getting 'independent' (*cough* not! *cough*) mages to supervise it, setting up the experimental HQ as a place to go with their questions during experiment and asking the guards to be present to avoid interference.

-goals have been refined to be more elaborate and less cliché, but also more fun to RP with due to being well-defined!