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

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian, who would love to advise in sword riding even if his qi couldn't be wasted on such a frivolous thing at the moment, where he's finding no purchase and readying himself to leap away from the water's frothing, ice-broken surface.

Instead, his lifetime fate with whips has one curling around his waist and yanking him toward another man, who he barrels into with a yelp and reflexive grasp, prepared to start fighting if needed. There's familiarity in Chu Wanning's features, enough to hold Wei Wuxian back and allow him to look for a safe landing space as the dragon rears back, head coming around and snapping at them or a witch or something in the air by them, glistening teeth and fish-rotten breath bearing down on them hot and immediate.

[wooden_one]

Even though Chu Wanning didn't enjoy physical contact he held Wei Wuxian close. The height and the fall is terrifying but not as much as if he were on a sword. It was strange perhaps but the worst has already happened: they're free falling. But unlike relying on a sword while flying, he can at least rely on himself.

So while his heart is hammering in his chest, he isn't pale and shaking. He twists in the air so he's facing the dragon coming towards them, holding out his hand to cast a barrier...right over the dragon's mouth. It wouldn't stop it from opening or closing but it would prevent them from being in between those jaws if they close while also preventing it from biting anyone else. At least, for now.

The barrier glimmered gold and another flick of his wrist creates another barrier, this one blue, right under them. A barrier for blocking wind more than anything but it catches the air and slows them as they fall.

He tried to adjust their position, to put himself on the bottom both to keep an eye on the dragon (but also so he'd fall first).

"Don't let go." The words are a command but the way he holds onto Wei Wuxian is firm but not painfully so.

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian doesn't find this particularly comfortable or desired, himself, but his mind was on the reality of what they faced. The dragon, and the barrier that his erstwhile 'saviour' had cast, reminding him of his own invention long past his capability to handle these days. He gasps, in pure admiration, clinging to Chu Wanning in the way an over-curious child holds the hand of a parent: absently, and with fingers twitching tighter in sharpened interest.

"Just what do you call these barriers?"

Please tell him they have names! He doesn't respond to the 'command' to not let go, though he wouldn't share the unnecessity of the reminder. Free-fall, slowed or otherwise, carries certain associations he finds painful. Even when this had nothing to do with those of his past, and he hits the water with Chu Wanning, the dragon whipping its head back and forth. The massive head lowers toward the side of the tower, where it proceeds to rub its muzzle to rid itself of the golden barrier that didn't actually prevent it from moving its jaw.

The water, ice cold, steals Wei Wuxian's breath from his lungs when they hit the surface, next to a lurching coil of ice dragon, splashing overhead. He does finally let go when submerged, freezing for the moment it took for shock to process. A near inhalation of cold water follows before he kicks for the surface and away, heading for the shore, whichever was closest. The tower's base, or the increasingly ruined gardens.

[wooden_one]

Chu Wanning's first thought is, that's what you want to ask? Right now? So he glares.

"Now isn't the time!"

He does his best to brace for the impact. The barrier beneath their feet disappears as they hit the water but it had slowed them enough that breaking the water surface isn't back breaking as well, but it still manages to knock the air out of him.

He follows after Wei Wuxian shortly afterwards, letting Tianwen fade from his hand temporarily as he makes use of both hands to swim.

The gardens were closer, at least it felt so to him in the brief seconds after he broke the surface and had to choose a direction to go in.

Behind them, the dragon was still trying to get the barrier off, and in the process was rubbing stones off the side of the building. The barrier would hold for a little longer yet.

Chu Wanning was shivering when he reached solid ground but rather than dealing with that he reaches out to catch Wei Wuxian's sleeve in his hand, passing a little spiritual over to warm and dry his clothes at least slightly.

"Are you injured?"

[weifinder]

There's no time to answer that anytime is the time, just not the time for follow through, not when they're hitting the water. Through the cold, the miniature icebergs floating in the choppy wake of the dragon's magnificent irritation, they haul onto shore, and Wei Wuxian stands as a ghost, single white layer of dress left to cling to his body like a wet, heat-devouring beast intent on marking him as foresworn.

Chu Wanning's assistance is a shock to his system, felt viscerally, tearing through him electric. His mouth drops open, and he gives him such a look of confused bafflement as to be laughable, heat from his clothing stark compared to the chilling torment it was seconds before.

"You didn't have time to charm them, you're directly using qi to dry clothing?"

Again, not the right focus, but he waves a hand and reaches out to pull Chu Wanning further along, away from that edge of the water, from the eyeline of the dragon now fighting the barrier as a living creature when it was nothing of the sort.

"No noted injury, none, come, come, out of the way of that creature's eyes—warm yourself, too, yes?" All the chatter as he's tucking them into the plentiful foliage of short-cultivated trees quailing in the dragon's wake, hemmed by well-trimmed topiaries that disguise even them from immediate view.

[wooden_one]

"Why not?" He says it like a challenge. "It's a small amount of energy."

It's not much of a sacrifice.

Somehow, he had remained calm and aloof before a dragon but he sputters when he's grabbed and pulled. He glared even though he followed after.

When they're behind some plants he pulled his hand free. "I'm not cold."

He said it but in truth, he was and probably would be colder if his cultivation were lower.

His clothes dry surprisingly fast but it's also not immediate. He's just being stubborn, in truth. He tries to peer through the leaves as if this conversation is already done in his opinion.

[weifinder]

Too much of a similarity to Lan Zhan, in ways that make Wei Wuxian blink and ache, unidentifiable. He clears his throat, smiling again when Chu Wanning directs his attention elsewhere, then prods him in the shoulder.

"I'm cold. You feel cold to a cold man, ah, take some time to warm yourself so your reactions aren't losing that edge."

Then he too peers through the leaves, watching the bulk of the dragon as a white wall that shifts and veers and rears back, calling out, to slam down into the waters with an impressive, thunderous wham.

"We're going to have to do something to calm this poor creature down, corral the remaining dead witches, and somehow not have all the fools sitting rich and pretty in the tower from ending up dead. Which do you feel best equipped to handle?"

He doesn't hold still, shifting foot to foot and flicking his fingers and otherwise ensuring he's moving, not getting stiff with chill.

[wooden_one]

He shifts away a little. Then he turns and glares, still stubbornly refusing to dry himself off.

"I'm fine."

His body language is defensive, like a cat with its hackles rising, arching its back to appear bigger and scarier. He looks like he'll pick a fight with anyone who further implies he might be losing any of his sharp edges.

The sound of the dragon hitting the water, he decides, it the end to that conversation. He looks far more composed when he's simply being asked what he can do rather than being shown concern.

"I am equipped to handle any of that." He says it without bragging, like he was just stating a fact. All it comes down to is: where is he most needed?

He watches his companion for a moment. "And you?"

[weifinder]

Truly, prickly, this one! Absurdity means he wants to smile in spite of himself, breathing out in a huff of amusement that remembers Lan Zhan, years ago, acting similarly. He wonders if it is for any shared reasons or not, but it's easy enough for now to turn away from irrelevant thoughts.

"I'll head back to the tower. Corral the twice living, and with their... handling, one way or another, can assist with the dragon. At present I'm not fit for handling noble company."

A gesture to his drying but still pitiful single layer, and the wrappings underneath.