let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2021-08-20 07:55 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2021-08-20 07:55 pm
feast and make merry
The following events should cover the span to 31 AUGUST. Feel free to make your own posts/logs, or use this one! Routes have been built based on previous plotting, but any last-minute questions can be asked here. Try to limit it to asking concrete outcomes for things you are definitely exploring in your tag-ins!
■ Don Macaluso has welcomed his suitors, including the party's very own Diego Hargreeves. And his wolves. He stretches Taravast's hospitality to a lavish masked fete, observed at the Palace of the Doxe. No expense spared, no opportunity to flaunt lost.
■ In attendance — sorcerers' schools, foreign dignitaries and suitors, prominent healers and academicians, artists and politicians, members of the Conclave and, somehow, the Merchant's hooligans. Good gossips, one and all. Show up or throw the gauntlet: those who do not come willing will be escorted in by guards.
■ Even Lady Vannozza and her supporters come to wish Macaluso well in his conjugal pursuit. She publicly gifts him a cryogenic rose, urging her cousin to award it to his intended. Macaluso calmly accepts the flower, then discards it on his table.
■ Out of respect for the nascent political contest, the supporters of Vannozza and Macaluso — yes, you — are seated at two different tables on each side of the fleetingly present Doxe Bonaccorso. The old man will appear in feeble health but firm dignity, excusing himself after a tremulous speech that ends, tenderly, "Citadels are for the living. They are for the gathering of means, of magic, for the making of families and legacies. They are not coin for commerce. I welcome you to my home."
■ For the grand finale, Macaluso's servants introduce a traditional fragile, sweet confection offered to his private guests. It can be refused. Those who consume the confection will find their strength and senses progressively deteriorate, threatening to kill them within five days.
■ A good showing by Fox, Mingyu, Wen Kexing, Zhou Zishu, Xie Lian and Alina earned the Lady Odile more of Macaluso's favour. In gratitude, her servants send word to these characters only that there is poison afoot, without mentioning which dish.
■ Within the hour, Macaluso calls the celebration to its end, pained to announce it has been stained by sabotage and poison. Macaluso's guests, including the characters in his employ are drawn into private quarters and examined by physicians, who name the cause of the sickness — winter lily mist — but offer no clear antidote.
■ Frustrated, two healers will list two superstitious cures: the elusive, shady 'fire water' of the necromantic district's underground
■ Characters assigned to Macaluso will spend the night huddled together, with healers. Fearing her people will be unfairly faulted for the poisoning, Vannozza will lock her attendants in her palace wing. The atmosphere is tense, with Vannozza's people accusing characters and each other. Overnight, some of Macaluso's drunk supporters will try to enter Vannozza's palace wing and cause a brawl. Defend the lady?
■ Come morning, the poisoning is blamed on the ringleader of one of the recent protests objecting to Macaluso's marriage to a foreigner. Characters may circulate freely.
■ The necromantic district is a... literally and metaphorically shady congregation of small, run-down houses and the city's 'finest': criminals, thieves, the mates of your horsecar friend Caspar, actual necromancers and sellers of flesh parts.
■ Those who ask for 'fire water' will face a few days of exploration until an old beggar finally takes pity on their cause and, in exchange for wine, offers them an introduction to a secretive
■ The Watch are an eerie group of grotesquely deformed necromancers, some of whom have clearly been stirred back from death a number of times themselves. They explain that the 'fire water' is a brew that can be obtained from two sources: the blood of either a man who has killed many innocents ruthlessly (such as the many murderers and slavers who travel the darker corners of the district) or of a...
■ ...harpy, not unlike those encountered in the Stairs of Sighs corridor: winged creatures dripping tar and harrowing sorcery, that crowd in flocks at the periphery of Taravast. The harpies of Taravast are ancient defenders of the city, who have forgotten their purpose and turned feral. Their claws run sharp, causing cuts that bleed without healing properly for hours.
■ The harpies are best faced in pairs, but beware: if you speak too long, they will learn your voice and imitate it to lure in your companions. They will also attune to emotions and mimic the voices of people characters remember.
■ Retrieve two blood vials from either man or creature to the necromancers, along with two vials of your own blood, and the Watch will prepare two batches of antidote. One cup for you, the other for their own purposes.
■ Wen Qing has brokered access to the hunting grounds, for an easy entrance point. Those who wish to find an alternative route can try to have their characters infiltrate Vannozza's quar ters and steal her keys — but only theft such offensive can be carried out, so unite forces.
■ The Spina hunting grounds are a few hours' ride away, and carriage drivers seem unwilling to make the journey. Help the local economy: steal a horse.
■ The forests are a magnificent spread of everything dark and haunted, drenched in mist and sporting minimal visibility. There is a pronounced air of death and the stench of decay, with perfect, eerie stillness during the scant sunlight and a torture of creaking sounds, whispers and ghostly chills at night.
■ In addition to the typical violent forest fare — wolves, foxes, bears — the grounds also host the first sign of true undead: less well composed than some characters might remember the men of Anurr, lacking true awareness. Their garb and occasional garbled talk will reveal them as former sorcerers and witches of Attaryl and Bessis, killed during the confrontation between the two schools. Their spirits have been bound to protect the grounds — and they give vicious chase, calling on fire magic and wooing animals to help their hunt of invaders.
■ Run. Run fast.
■ Only two antidote owls emerge at night, drawn to drink from the forest's (shallow, broad) lake water. They are a mated pair, highly sensitive to sound, likely to escape on the first few attempts of capture and indifferent to magic. Farmhouse lesson: careful with the lake waters. The hands of bound spirits might seek to pull innocents in.
■ Owl feathers, ground and thinned with water, can create a highly potent cure that will take days to return a patient to full health — their hearts, eaten whole, can give one person instant recovery. Up to you, if you want to be that asshole.
no subject
Of course she helped him. There's more to that story that he's not heard, one that involves someone else he's associated with. She was the one sibling he wasn't worried about, and while he wasn't looking she was aligning herself with someone who might as well be signaling the next apocalypse.
"Neither do I." They're not yet enemies, but he wants to make it clear how quickly that could change. He's not letting Wrath out of his sight as long as he's anywhere near his family. "She's determined to go with this friend of yours, so I'll be chaperoning. Since you both owe her, you'll make sure nothing happens that would make her regret that."
It takes some nerve to threaten a demon when he's stuck in this younger body, but he outright refuses to back down. He's only started to gather his family again, he's not about to start a chain of events that forces him to lose all the progress he's made.
"I'm sure you already know where we're going."
no subject
The weakness that he is beginning to feel is only adding to his frustration, but he manages to reign in his anger once more. He presents a cooler front - one born from an eternity of dealing with brothers who use and manipulate one's emotions against one another and mortals alike.
"I keep my word, and I repay my debts without need of a veiled threat from you. I did not ask your sister to do this, and I am not responsible."
Within the Underworld, there are clear procedures for all of it - for offers made and accepted and what repayment will be. Blood debts are given only when someone freely chooses it and only when they know what it means to choose it.
"...I would assume the Necromancy District." His jaw locks then as he surveys the room, and then attempts to teleport but cannot- The magic that is usually there cannot even be summoned up to push him outside of this room they are to stay in. His hands are fists at his side as he swallows thickly, forcing out the shaky breath after a moment. "I need your assistance to get there quickly, which puts me in your debt as well. What do you wish in return?"
no subject
Wrath seems personally offended that he would be threatened by the likes of him, and Five does nothing to retract his statement. He doesn't appreciate being thrown into what he so narrowly avoided, and the terms of his agreement are clear. The same poison that can affect a demon was meant for Vanya. For him. They narrowly avoided a death sentence and a desperate search for a cure, only to be dragged into the situation anyway by his other sister. Because for whatever reason, she cares what happens to him.
Is it any wonder why he's in a bad mood? They have more enemies he's yet to draw out, that he needs to before things escalate, so he can barely call up any sympathy for Wrath's sickness.
"Got it in one." Five deflates slightly, thinking of how far that is to teleport when he's only just regained some of his energy after what Lan Wangji gave him dissipated. There's a lot that he could ask for in return, both personally and for the sake of his family, but he can't focus in that now. He sighs. "You're right, you do owe me. We can talk about that later."
He's about to insist they leave, but he casts him one more scrutinizing look. Half the people who ate the poison already act like they have one foot in the grave, and there was a strange amount of urgency when Allison informed him of what their plan was.
"What is it doing to you?"
no subject
Five's question is not one he wants to answer. He knows better than to reveal any weakness. Lessons learned through ancient history. Brutal lessons he could never forget. But instead of not answering at all, he is vague about its effects (failing to mention the powers it appears to be ripping from him one after another).
"I feel... weak."
The way he says the last word makes it clear he is unaccustomed to feeling like that.
"...are you ready?"
no subject
He frowns, but doesn't press further about the possibility that he ingested a curse. Or whatever the magical term is.
They aren't exactly running downtown to pick up a cure, so hopefully he won't keel over in the middle of it. Without giving an answer, or so much as caring who sees them, he places a hand on his arm and pulls at his powers. In the next instant they're gone in a ripple of blue light.