headed straight for the witches' castle

[groundrules]

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..

SCALE THE TOWER

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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 distasteful masque held in the upper levels of the Bessis tower, characters assigned to support Macaluso and Vannozza will split into two espionage missions — one upstairs alongside courtiers, charlatans and the Bessis, and another deep below, crossing abandoned aqueducts. Characters can participate in either effort, but should be discreet if they’re working against their patron.

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 | UPSTAIRS (TEAM MACALUSO) | DOWN BELOW (TEAM VANNOZZA) | COMMON TIMELINE | NOTES & MAP



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.

» GET WET



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 orchestrated and financed by 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 to cheat improve your chances, then drop a line here to win donna Caterina’s answer(s).

» SMILE AND CARRY ON



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.

» UP WE GO



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 and later, the undead! And ask any questions you might have.

■ TDMers: TDM events count as game canon if you app in! TDM questions here.

Comments

[reparo]

[There is the smallest hint of a smile at that.] Anakin. [She won't say it's nice to meet him, because given the circumstances...it likely isn't. But she does nod back, with that hint of a smile, because Dr and Dr Granger raised a polite young woman.]

I have reserves of anger and current anger. [There's the reason for the smile. The idea that someone in this cage can actually reserve anger for later is...strange. Then again, Hermione always reacts fast and reckless when angered, even when those reactions are well-planned elf liberation societies.]

Not sure what to do with it all.

[chosenfordarkness]

[ It's less so that he wants to reserve it for later and more that he worries that if he acts out it will result in repercussions for everyone. He can take whatever's thrown at him, he doesn't want to assume that of anyone else. ]

My Master always tried to teach me that meditation can help clear your emotions. Tried, anyway.

[ He shifts into a different position, pretzeling his legs. ]

Maybe I'm just better practiced for these kinds of situations. [ He absolutely is not. ]

[reparo]

I've heard that helps. [Three guesses whether or not she has tried it. There was a few moments, in the Forest of Dean, where it crossed her mind to suggest to both Harry and Ron to try meditation, and calm the heck down, but that would've gone down like a lead balloon.

Plus, it sounds very much like a practice Trelawney would encourage. Connect with your inner eye! - or something like that.]

But I don't think I would encourage you to open your mind right now, with these things below the cage. They project their thoughts - I've had to start reciting old school books to keep them out.

[chosenfordarkness]

[ Anakin hums in response. He hadn't been prepared the first time it happened, plagued with the visions of inescapable fire from the skies. He's kept his mental shields up since then, but the memory still lingers, morphing uncomfortably with the too-recent nightmares of his wife dying. ]

They're not exactly cheery, no. You're doing alright keeping them out?

[reparo]

I'm not very experienced in this practice... [Occlumency was meant to be Harry's talent, born out of a need to keep Voldemort out of his head. Hermione was busy learning other things, busy pretending like there wasn't a war brewing that would overpower her life, busy focusing on homework because it felt safe.

In other words, no, they've gotten inside her brain too easily.] I have half a mind to ask someone to tie me up so I don't throw myself at them at night...

[chosenfordarkness]

[ Anakin makes a face at her suggestion. ] I don't think we have to do anything that drastic. Not while I'm here, anyway.

[ Not to brag or anything. He turns to the situation at hand. ] That's okay, neither was I at first. When you're focusing, try to imagine a durasteel wall wrapped around your mind. That nobody can get through without your permission.

[reparo]

[Not to brag or anything. Everyone in this cage seems to have some sort of gift or talent, it doesn't make either of them special. Besides - if she had her wand on her, there's nothing she couldn't do. They'd be out of this place in no time. She'd Apparate every single person, one by one, or all in Side-Along. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

But - since her wand is in the box, she gets to plot all her different escape routes quietly.

So, when he suggests how to focus and shield her mind from the telepathy of the undead, she closes her eyes instinctually, and takes a deep breath, trying to. (Listen, unfortunately Dumbledore never assigned her special Occlumency classes, see?)

There's one thing, though.] What's durasteel?

[chosenfordarkness]

[ If he could see where her talents were, he'd be delighted. Instead, they're all stuck in a cage above some zombies. He's thought of a few escape attempts, but with the way people have been complaining about the cage swinging, they'd really hate the plan he was thinking of.

Anakin blinks, confused. What kind of planet was she even from? Her clothes are kind of weird, too. He raps his knuckles on the metal bar behind himself. ]

[reparo]

[That's just steel, as far as she knows, but who is she to judge? Definitely not a metal expert.

With a little side look, she nods and closes her eyes again. Imagines wrapping a thick layer of regular steel around her mind. Spontaneously wonders if this was what Occlumency lessons with Snape were like for Harry, and is hit with a wave of missing her friend, her hard-earned peace, her wand.

It's fine. She's handled a Horcrux hunt. She can handle this. It's fine. She'll be steel.]

[chosenfordarkness]

[ They will have to have a meeting of the minds on proper terms for things. Everything is different and weird.

Once she's closed her eyes, he watches her. ]

If that doesn't work, picture reinforcements. Something they'd have to work hard to get through. It may not work very well at first- it took me a couple years to get the hang of it, but hopefully it'll help at least a little.

cw: puking

[reparo]

[What, that's it? Imagination? She doubts it will work just like that, or more people would be expert Occlumens. She could have become one, and saved Harry the pain of all those lessons in sixth year...

Okay, I can't fix the past. The present is more concerning.

She really does try her best, but her thoughts are running a mile a minute and the undead groan below, and the opposite happens. She lets the reinforcements of her mind drop, and where there was resistance before, the undead find none, find a give, so they push.

(fire and death and fred and lupin and tonks oh god lupin and tonks that means teddy's an orphan and oh god fred he was so fucking young why didn't we stop this sooner why - so hungry, so hungry, jump, girl, just jump.)

Whatever strength she has left, she pulls a barrier up around her mind and shoves their influence out, but it's not fast enough. She has time to turn away from Anakin, stick her head out of the cage, and empty out her stomach on the poor souls below.]

Ah...fuck.

[chosenfordarkness]

[ As far as he could tell, she was doing good, but it changed so suddenly. He can only watch her with surprise, his brow creasing in concern as she empties the contents of her stomach through the bars of the cage.

Anakin winces in sympathy, patting her on the back. ]

It's alright, you tried. It's.. hard to keep them out.

[reparo]

Bloody undead...

[The world's most tired groans from the person whose hunched back he's patting.]

Let's agree to not talk about this...

[chosenfordarkness]

Don't worry, your secret's safe with me.

[ He gives her another pat and moves to give her some space. ]

..Feel any better, at least?

[reparo]

...somewhat. [She pulls herself together, sitting back against the cage bars, her throat raspy.] Meditation is...utter drivel.

[chosenfordarkness]

[ He tips his head back, laughing quietly. ]

It can be, yeah.

[reparo]

[She peeks open one eye at the sound of that laugh, and barely hides her slight smile.]

I'll make a deal. When we get out of here - when, not if - there will be anger and violence, and then I'll meditate again.

[chosenfordarkness]

Don't worry, I'm not so much a pessimist that I don't think we won't get out. I've already thought of a few escape plans, but they were..uh. Less than ideal, given the circumstances.

[ He makes a vague, sweeping hand gesture. ]

But we'll table it for later.