The Russian Hostage Crisis

## Summary

The Russian hostage crisis was an event when user DropVM trapped the Duke of Magicheim in a jail cell for over 2 hours. This event took place in DropVM's town of Tomsk, Russia and led to a diplomatic issue between Russia and Magicheim.

## Background

This incident took place when DropVM and the Duke of Magicheim had proposed a trade deal where DropVM would trade Enchantment books for gold and emeralds. When the Duke arrived at Tomsk, DropVM offered to show the Duke where the villagers were cured. The Duke accepted this offer and followed DropVM into. DropVM proceeded to lead the Duke into the top floor of a building where he told him that was where villagers were being cured. He showed the Duke a hole in the ground and told him there was a villager inside. DropVM then proceeded to tell the Duke to go inside the hole. The Duke obliged and once he went into the hole, DropVM set the Duke's status to "Outlaw", disabling the duke's ability to teleport.

## The first response

For the first minutes of the trapping, the Duke admitted the humor in the trap. But after being stuck in there for 10 minutes, the realization set in that the he would not be released anytime soon. The Duke appealed to the leader of Russia, Bulln, who sympathized with him. Bulln came to Tomsk to view what was happening but after realizing that he, the ruler of Russia, did not have trust in Tomsk and therefor could not build or destroy, it became apparent that the only person who could release the Duke was DropVM

## 2 Hours

For 2 hours the Duke was trapped inside. During this time, all appeals for release were denied. However, at one point, DropVM had accidently fell into the hole and was murdered by the Duke, who took all of his gear. DropVM proceeded to tell the Duke that he would be released if DropVM's gear was returned. The Duke stated that he would give half of the gear back and the other half upon release. DropVM refused the the captive situation continued. Later DropVM had stated that for 120 gold the Duke would be released. This did not go well with the Duke who refused the offer.

### Support

During these 2 hours, more and more people were starting to take notice of the situation, all of which siding with the Duke and asking for release. DropVM continued to refuse and kept the Duke hostage. Some of these people were planning on travelling to Tomsk to see the event unfold.

## Release

The release of the Duke finally occurred when he decided that he would take the chances of giving Drop all of his gear back before release. Once the gear was returned, DropVM told the Duke to wait. 10 minutes later Drop finally released (By removing the Duke's outlaw status) the Duke. The Duke returned back to his home of Magicheim after 2 hours of captivity.

## Aftermath

DropVM proceeded to leave Russia and create Helsinki, Finland. The Duke declared Drop an outlaw in Magicheim. This incident had shown the serious flaws with Towny as despite being the leader of Russia, Bulln had zero control over Tomsk and his subject's actions. In the aftermath of the crisis and following Drop’’s abandonment of Russia, StuddedDiamond became the leader of Tomsk.

The immense folly by the Russian government would lead to distrust from foreign and internal partners. Numerous towns began to stop taking orders from Moscow and began to act in its self interest. This further divison of the Russian state would play a key factor in the collapse of Russia and the rise of the USSR.