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)
westwhere2021-09-17 07:35 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2021-09-17 07:35 pm
Entry tags:
- avatar: zuko,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- harry potter: lily evans,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: emmet fox martin,
- star wars: anakin skywalker,
- taravast,
- test drive,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- watch_dogs: wrench
headed straight for the witches' castle
Welcome to the bashful event covering 17 September – 9 October, working double duty as a test drive meme (TDM).
Existing players can strut their stuff here, or make separate logs & network posts. Our TDMing guests are stranded in this playground, but can include network options among play prompts.
If you’re test driving a character, you can apply them until 8 October without a game invite. Apps stay open beyond that, but you might need an invite or please get in touch @ groundrules to figure something out..
Cousins Macaluso and Vannozza Spina vie for the favour of the witches of Bessis, in their bid to succeed their grandfather Bonaccorso as liege of magical citadel Taravast. In exchange for their endorsement, the Bessis have asked both electoral candidates to present extraordinary sorcery at a fete commemorating the Bessis truce with fellow court witches of Attaryl.
On the day of the
It’s all fun and games if you’re enjoying Bessis hospitality upstairs — test drive characters might be rating their hotel stay a little less enthusiastically.
TDM TOURISTS
Days ago, you woke up sequestered in an immense bird cage, chained near the ceiling of a tall, dark room that once served as a library or academic hall. Imprisoned with you are several strangers, equally warded from their supernatural powers and partly sedated — all the better to amuse the nearly two dozen (visibly) undead who roam the room, despite being loosely fettered to posts. They often swing for your cage, but fail to reach it.
- ■ Sorcerer sentries briefly release characters daily to feed or bathe in a repurposed nearby quarter with a large pool.
■ Characters receive basic devices that translate speech and writing, so they can understand their caretakers’ instructions. All along, the guards urge, Keep the animals distracted.
■ The undead reek of burning and wail their hurts. They are gifted in telepathy and often mentally share memories of carnage — two armies of sorcerers, one raining fire upon its enemies. At night, the undead seek to control the minds of caged characters, luring them to come down or harm others.
■ Necromancers sometimes visit to study the undead. The latest necromancer guest temporarily immobilises the creatures and throws three bundles of identical keys into the cage — he reveals he is employed by a Merchant, who wants the outsiders to travel east and return to their homes. They are currently in Taravast, captives of the witches of Bessis, who hold annual celebrations tonight. The keys will help with escaping the cage and accessing nearby tunnels.
■ The necromancer leaves behind rope, two daggers, and three potion vials that generate mist once smashed on the ground. Leave within an hour of your dinner, he says, before releasing the undead from his magic.
■ Get out. As soon as you can, running like hell from guards and the undead. If caught, the undead will rip you to bathe in your body’s waters and ease their burns.
■ The underground tower tunnels are patrolled by guards, who can be overpowered by groups. Characters will recover any supernatural powers within 40 minutes of leaving their prison. Escape tip? Steal the guards’ clothes.
■ The tunnels inevitably lead to the aqueducts, allowing you to meet Vannozza’s group.
UPSTAIRS
The halls of the Bessis sprawl over a pristine ivory tower, whose walls refract light in homage to the witches’ devotion to fire.
The tower receives guests today to celebrate the armistice between the sorcery schools of Bessis and Attaryl. The two groups futilely sought to slaughter each other many moons ago, with the Bessis notoriously gaining the upper hand — explaining the tense smiles of the Attaryl witches on premise.
The event is a standard Taravast masque: if there were coin to spare, someone poured it into the obscene dining displays and alcoholic fountains. Enjoy dimmed lights, the rare pickpocket or recreational narcotic — or test your luck at gambling tables, where winners can claim a forcibly extorted secret from losers over games of dice or cards.
Come masked and visibly unarmed — weapons are confiscated at the doors. Smuggle them in. Just outside the tower, take a walk through labyrinthine walled gardens surrounding a deep water moat and leading to abandoned aqueduct pipelines.
OF NOTE:
- ■ Magical sentries — armed with swords and fire spells — watch the banquet halls, stairs and outside grounds.
■ Bessis practitioners showcase fire, wind, water and air dances in the reception halls, along with performing token duels. Get involved, if you want.
■ Don Urbano, a respected Bessis sorcerer returned from abroad, announces his betrothal with Wen Qing, as orchestratedand financedby Beitang Moran.
■ Come sundown, Macaluso invites fete guests, Vannozza and the Bessis to join him on the balconies and behold the canal moats, where swims his recently captured white dragon. The creature is magnificent but tense, its ice power crackling.
ASSIGNMENTS:
- ■ Run recon of the halls. Keep track of guards, divert them from the aqueducts and alert your friends downstairs of their presence. Be obnoxious, loud and attention-grabbing when sentries get near the opened aqueduct entrance.
■ One of the night’s most profligate gamblers, Caterina Zalle, leads a coalition that produces magical weapons. She is allegedly in talks with forces abroad that fight their undead oppressors. Even tipsy, she only speaks with those who best her at the gambling table — pair up and figure out how tocheatimprove your chances, then drop a line here to win donna Caterina’s answer(s).
DOWN BELOW
A jaded spirit, Vannozza knows Macaluso’s historical patronage of the Bessis makes them unlikely to favour her. Better to take advantage of leaked information: the Bessis hide a secret that’s required them to mysteriously invite necromancers each day. Learn what the Bessis are shrouding, so Vannozza can extort them later.
The lady offers her protegees — and anyone dragged along for the ride — a map to abandoned aqueducts accessible through the sentry-patrolled gardens that surround the tower of the Bessis. Guards will be thinner at the start of the evening festivities, but keep in touch with your counterparts upstairs, who can distract them while you infiltrate.
- ■ The aqueducts can be entered through a shielded gateway that will require characters to dig extensively for access. Divert the guards creatively: use magic, tricks, everyone is a hapless beggar or a drunk...
■ The intricate waterways once served Bessis sorcerers who specialise in water arts. The pipelines range from roomy and rusted to highly claustrophobic and slick with a coating of dark tar that gradually starts to follow you.
■ You find out quickly why the pipes were abandoned: the tar starts to accrue behind you, taking your shape and diplomatically doing its best to choke or drown you. Luckily, the creatures disperse after scant minutes — characters who traversed the Stairs of Sighs will recognise this is the same molten tar found in the rocky corridors.
■ Brace yourselves — for a short stretch, the canal dips into the moat surrounding the tower, home to Macaluso’s dragon. The creature is currently peaceful, but its constant chill has largely frozen the waters. Swim across the moat through ice pellets to re-enter the canals.
■ The aqueducts ease characters into pool quarters, which show signs of recent use for bathing. In the nearby corridors, guards are posted before a room that erupts in frequent howls. Get in, somehow —
■ ...and find a large study hall with an immense suspended cage, a series of freshly freed newcomers and undead witches, who use telepathy, levitation and light mind control to their advantage.
■ Now, you take your newcomer fools, choose between returning through the aqueducts or daring the heavily guarded tower corridors — and you run.
EVERYONE TOGETHER NOW
Nothing spices a party like nearly two dozen undead witches that seek to salve their burn wounds with the blood of the living. Some undead invade the banquet halls, others the gardens, while a few head into the aqueducts. They use telepathy, levitation and mind control diligently — and wear the decayed insignia of witches of Attaryl.
The chaos and the undead that enter the moat agitate the water dragon, who goes on hours of rampage, breathing sheets and walls of ice around the tower and effectively locking everyone within for two-three days.
...with the wandering undead. The witches of Bessis assist with fire magic and torches, but it’s every man for himself. Beware: the dragon starts with magical attacks, but quickly progresses to throwing itself bodily to topple the tower.
TO-DO LIST:
- ■ Calm or immobilise the berserk dragon to ease the ice storms
■ Capture the fire-fearing undead
■ Protect and evacuate Taravast’s useless 1%
■ Stay alive?
NOTES & MAP
■ Old timers: GO HERE to vote on the fates of the dragon
■ TDMers: TDM events count as game canon if you app in! TDM questions here.
B
How dreadful! The fair lady must be rescued at all costs!
[ He's fine. Though Moran knows him enough to realize Xunxian's attention is divided between the play at hand and the dragon.
Because he can understand the large creature and that means he can possibly communicate, and maybe that can save lives? ]
no subject
[And yes, of course Xunxian would be keeping an eye on the dragon. Hopefully, they can keep its movements in check while the others down there escape through the moat.]
Let him keep the dowry down payment, I don't even want to touch anything that has to do with this. Shame on you, sir!
no subject
His eyes do sharpen at that mention, however. ]
Ah, but hopefully the down payment only, for would it not the money go to finance more of, [ a motion of his wrist in the direction of the undead, ] that kind of thing? Perhaps ... once we are through with this current situation, arrangements should be made to release both the lady and any financial commitments.
Just a friendly advice.
no subject
[There is the dragon, yes, but the hell Moran is raising is attracting more than his fair share of onlookers, that he is more than happy to exploit in the name of his righteous fury for his 'niece'.]
Who would dare hold me and her beholden after witnessing this? Could anyone deny our right to withdraw with no injury from such a match?
no subject
Good gentlefolk, what think you? Should the engagement be broken off?
[ ... Don Urbano might, by this point, be sputtering, because how is it his fault that the undead are there? But who is paying attention... ]
no subject
Moran will supremely ignore Don Urbano, and the people murmuring are shooting strange looks his way as well as whispers travel of the Bessis and their secrets. With all eyes on this side of the room, Moan points at the nearby doors.]
Let us not stay here to be doomed to tragedy by this man and his ilk's folly!
[The more people they can get out of the tower the better... if that is possible at all. A growl from an undead seems to jumpstart the small crowd at last.]
Xunxian, are there any animals in here you can use for scouting ahead?
[Whispered softly.]
no subject
[ Xunxian nods, not looking at him
though that part is hard. ]Insects and rodents. But there do not seem to be a great many very safe places. Seek out where there is fighting, or avoid?
[ On the one hand, a no-fighting area might be safe and a place to find quiet for a little while. On the other hand, there may be undead waiting there, either having gotten rid of the living or in ambush. ]
no subject
[The dragon might yet escape the confines of the moat and the tower, but getting most of the people back into the city would at least limit casualties from that. As for the undead...]
We might have to lead the way. I am pretty sure none of these people have ever wielded anything sharper than a butter knife.
no subject
The next corridor to the left, and then down the stairs, but no more than two flights right now, then we seek a place to hold on for a little while. I'll cry out if the situation changes.
[ If the need to change course.
But talking too log with each other will likely not do! So with a single, longing look, Xunxian shuffles further way before calling out to all that he can see the dim, shifting light of maybe fire the way that they are going, perhaps they should take the next turn as soon as possible. ]
no subject
[If anyone can see the path ahead, it is Xunxian. And Moran can take care of the beheading if they encounter dead people.
In the panic, some actual weapons have bene abandoned by guards, and he grabs a short sword, pulling it out of the sheath to make sure it's a real and solid, and not one of those decorative weapons some of these people like to wear.
Then he looks at the assembled crowd of trembling nobles and raises an eyebrow.]
If you wish to live, I suggest moving, and quickly.
no subject
With the words ringing over the small crowd, he places one hand over his heart. ]
My lord will defend us, if it comes to that? I will certainly come with.
[ And he steps in Moran's direction without hesitation, giving one of the ladies a charming smile and offering a hand to help her along. He's supposed to be a seducer, after all. ]
no subject
At least Moran has his general voice to fall back on, which spurs on even the most frightened people as they make their ways down two flights of stairs.]
If the way ends up blocked further down, we'll have no choice but to find a place to stash them in and hope the tower doesn't collapse.
no subject
[ Not quite an absolute sign, but at least a bit of reassurance.
And, also. ]
... the fighting is moving too fast, we won't be stuck here for long.
no subject
[It's the several-ton creature who might decide to slam into the tower just for the hell of it because it's been annoyed enough.]
If your friends aren't worried, we won't be either for now.