interlude: ellethia

[groundrules]

ELLETHIA

---

En route to their next destination, the Merchant detours the party through his home citadel of Ellethia — the first, haunted casualty of the undead, now divided into Ellethia-Allayar and Ellethia-Hamsour.

Feel free to tag into this log or make your own posts!

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ONE FOR THE ROAD

Macaluso Spina’s plans to escort the group out of Taravast are overturned by the Merchant’s transmission:

”It appears many of you remain indifferent to the stakes of our endeavour. So, you will see them. You go to Ellethia, jewel of innovation, the first cradle of the dead. My home.”

With the sorceress Karsa now gone, the party is entrusted to journey master and kindly-mannered biologist Enam.

Characters retain their bare essentials and what little can be carried on their backs. Magical storage is minimal. Everyone receives bags containing: three raw candles, a bundle of red clothes, a light blanket, two flasks of fresh water, a dagger, two bandage strips, two needles, strong thread, four textile patches, dried food, a pouch with two fistfuls of kiln-dried broken firewood and some flint. Supplies are replenished periodically.

Enam and his six assistants carry larger loads — with two aides transporting heavily bound humanoid forms. They’ve got you, Kaneki.

Ellethia requires delicate travel. The group first travels communally by ship, reaching the East Arakuthia Seas at sunset, meeting 25 small boats that can home between one and three passengers.

The group only travels at sea by night, when the depths are safest. The 3-17 January period covers two nights of seaborne travel, broken by journey on land across the two segments of Ellethia. Sea shipment will take characters from East Arakuthia to Ellethia-Allayar. A second voyage will later deliver them from Ellethia-Allayar to Ellethia-Hamsour. They spend roughly seven days at each land location.

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TROUBLE AT SEA

The small boats have been thralled to slowly progress through mist and water to their destination. Enam quickly discloses the rules of seaborne engagement:

■ Keep the light. Enam offers each traveller a lit candle brazier to wave periodically around the boat and “ward away evil.”

■ If your candle blows out, rush to it light back with help from your boat-mate or other vessels.

■ If all of a boat’s candle lights have been died, travellers have three minutes to light fresh candle flames. The vessel begins to sink, seized by hands of rotting flesh and shadow. Undead mermaids attempt to drown those who fall in.

■ Sunken characters can be rescued by other vessels but remain “marked,” experiencing a bitter, unrelenting cold that no fire can tame. The saviours’ ship are intensely targeted by mermaids that seek to capsize it and collect their lost prize. You are rattled but safe as long as your lights hold.

■ Perhaps you dozed off, or briefly looked away — no matter your distraction, a newcomer (?) has now climbed into your boat, teeth chattering and terrified. These undead visitors are unaware of their condition and beg to be delivered to shore. They are not violent, unless ignored and often spark conversations. Over time, they become paranoid that they will not be rescued.

■ Those who share their names with these creatures feel compelled to take them to ground, where they trigger immediate medium-scale explosions. Other boat-mates or vessels can stop this.

■ Forcibly push your stowaway into water, trick them in, or pose a riddle they cannot solve.

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AHOY, LAND

Ellethia has been cleaved into two — Allayar and Hamsour — by the Huntress, whose extended presence crumbled stone, decayed organic matter and eventually sunk districts and passageways. Crude bridges connect sectors of the citadel that have been partly submerged.

Although the tragedy of Ellethia occurred within the last decade, its ruins have been completely overrun by lush vegetation.

The following applies to both Ellethia-Allayar and Ellethia-Hamsour:

■ Characters must don their fashionable red gear once they reach land. Over 15 minutes of direct exposure to the crisp Ellethia air leads unprotected skin to erupt in a rash, then into gashes and tissue-deep decay. The wound fully regenerates within the hour.

■ Patch your party suit immediately, if it is torn.

■ Science-prone characters can notice no sign of radiation. Sorcerers feel no magic. Necromancers sense a complete absence of death.

■ There is no other human presence on land. Plants develop abundantly. Animals live an entire cycle of birth, growth, maturity and decay in the period between sunrise and sundown, reaching their prime around midday. Corpse remains patch back together into the creature’s new-born form at sunrise.

■ There are no human corpses anywhere.

TASKS

■ Forage or hunt. Replenish resources. Water from Ellethia’s canals is potable.

■ Help Enam find samples of the Widow’s Yearning. The plants grow in small fields whose scent woos travellers into a restful sleep they struggle to wake back from on their own. Widow’s Yearning can be ground into a potent hallucinogen.

■ Explore the pastoral surroundings.

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ELLETHIA-ALLAYAR

The party first reaches Ellethia-Allayar, which hosts the ruins of the citadel’s seats of banking, commerce and governance. Ellethia-Allayar has been deeply flooded, with many streets partly overcome by water.

■ Amid torn-down halls of rhetoric and administration, characters can find bright flags on public office buildings, and glitter debris and street cups on the ground.

■ Several decaying pamphlets remain in the main piazza, whose halls have been submerged 1 meter underwater. If recovered, the pamphlets bemoan: Toss a Bone to Your Taxman: He’s Already Got the Meat, Gristle and Fat, Dowries: Sense or Sentiment? Join Tonight’s March for Free Wedlock, Who Watches through Your Mirrors?, Selling: Minor Palace with Main Street View and Cat, 90 Days Since Conscription: Where Are Your Sons?, Taravast Was Our Fathers’ Question, We Are the Answer.

■ Fresher pamphlets littered on public streets announce extended burial grounds in the botanical garden.

■ Roads and buildings show signs of clawing and trampling, along with spattering of long-dried blood.

■ The carriages, streetlights and infrastructure of Ellethia suggest a technology level near the 1800s.

THE SILENCE GAME

Ellethia-Allayar’s impromptu “canals” have made it a prime target for mermaids, who only infiltrate at midday — the peak of the accelerated animal life cycle.

■ Enam urges retreating to the high ground of the peripheral residential areas, as midday draws near.

■ Between noon and 13:00 each day, swathes of vicious mermaids storm the Allayar canals, working in packs to draw unsuspecting animals or humans into water. Some mermaids are dead, some living. While they always circle Ellethia during the day, they only proactively hunt in this period.

■ The thick fogs of Ellethia throw a boon: if they are very silent and very still, characters can hide even on low ground. Beware: the mermaids’ hearing has evolved to compensate their weaker sight, helping them locate close-by characters who speak or heave.

■ Mermaids imitate the animal calls and human voices they have heard to lure out prey.

■ Most central and public buildings are on low land.

Enam directs characters to their boats again to head to Ellethia-Hamsour within the week.

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ELLETHIA-HAMSOUR

Unlike Allayar, Ellethia-Hamsour is a completely demolished territory, bordering a wasteland. Water infiltrations have been minimal.

The fog runs thicker than in Allayar, compounding the dangers of the collapsing, decayed roads and bridges.

The strong, vibrant greenery only breaks in coastal regions. Beneath the plant beds, you can find signs of the academic, science or technological districts. In some manicured gardens, flowers have overtaken hundreds of newer stone plates bearing local names and the marker, Truth Bows Only to the Sun.

Any remaining stone edifices display intense clawing and blood residue.

Characters are tasked to head to a distant lighthouse, lone in the horizon.

■ Characters become increasingly obsessed with reaching the lighthouse, often neglecting food, safety and sleep.

■ The single-minded focus leaves some vulnerable to being lured into steep pits or down cliff edges, into the sea.

■ Some characters become possessive of the lighthouse and plot to prevent their fellow travellers from reaching it. The lighthouse is not safe, if others get near it. It does not want them. Only you.

PLOTTING POST

QUESTIONS

Comments

[bearshermark]

I. In a Boat

Eleven was happy to take charge of the lantern, to wave it about and keep the candle going with a snap of fire magic. He peered out at the other boats, eyes on their flickering lights, watchful for any of those that might go out. The water, he could sense with a shiver, was home to undead creatures.

"You can rest," he offered his boatmates. "I can manage this much."


II. Ellethia-Allayar

He hadn't expected to find the ruins beautiful. They were vastly overgrown, with moss carpeting stone, ivy overlaying every cracked wall or broken archway, and entire swaths of trees grown in open spaces. Eleven wandered the ruins with a quiet sense of awe; the tragedy of the city's fall only a quiet accompaniment. He occasionally stopped to remove a glove and touch a particularly vibrant leaf or flower- and rarely, in a patch of sunlight, kneel or sit to pray or meditate for a short while.

But it was the effect on the animals that most drew his attention. He'd watched the animal die the night before and the corpse was still there the next morning. Only now it began to shrink and take on a new form, birthing a tiny, shivering and furless creature with weak limbs.

Eleven stopped, heart in his throat, then sank to his knees. His arms braced against the ground, quaking.

"There is a cycle," he said, muted in his helmet. He reached up and removed it, tossing it to the ground to take in a wet inhale. His eyes misted.

"Merciful Goddess above, there is a cycle."


III. Night Watch

Hands clasped in prayer, holy light stretched in a band of bright runes to encompass their chosen campsite. The light couldn't reach the outer edges of it with how many they numbered, but Eleven hoped it would be enough to provide warning at least. Eyes closed, he remained in a state of meditative prayer until pull of magic began to threaten exhaustion.

Eleven opened his eyes and loosed the spell with a drop of his hands. The band of runic light faded and fell away. He stifled a yawn and blinked around the campsite to reorient himself, then met the eyes of another with a tired smile.

"How much longer until the shift change?"


IV. Lighthouse

It called to him, crooning his unspoken title in the way of omniscient forces.

Luminary. A light in the dark.

His heart at once understood the intrinsic promise of it, and Eleven moved for it without further thought. Moved faster once it became clear that he had to reach it first. It was dangerous to others; it was his sole duty to restore Light and Life to the world. He'd already done it once before, and could do so again, he was sure- if only he reached it in time.

No matter, his entire existence was meant for this. It would happen, and nothing else mattered so much.

The crash of waves against rock echoed a warning that was drowned out by the urgency to reach the place he was meant to be.


V. Wildcard

[As always, anything adjacent to these prompts, other, pre-arranged things we might have discussed, or feel free to hit this up for smaller details like fishing/hunting/foraging business if you like!]

2

[inferus]

Wrath hates this suit. He hates this unnatural place. He watches at the reaction to the animal coming back to life when it has no reason or purpose to, and he grimaces. His shoulders straighten, and his eyes darken.

"...an unnatural cycle."

He has killed an animal now, watched as it remained dead. He feels no death here, and yet death clearly can claim these beasts.

But not death by 'old' age.

[bearshermark]

Eleven breathes in a steadying breath, grateful for the air even while knowing he couldn't expose himself to it for long. There was something about it.

He stared at the newborn creature, still with wonder on his face.

"It's too fast," he agreed, shifting to sit back on his knees. Eleven cast a glance back at the man- a dark energy he recalled brokering a truce of some kind with. "But that it exists at all- even just here- is a blessing. If there was a force in place to regulate it properly.."

[inferus]

"There is no death here - none at all."

And yet, somehow Wrath was able to kill an animal and find that it remains dead. He is not certain how that could be possible - Death is death regardless of if it is from old age or otherwise. Technically, these animals become corpses before they are born anew from it.

He supposes this place refuses any natural death because death no longer naturally exists here, but death by any other means is accepted. As a former angel of Death, as someone who calls himself Death still at times, he does not like it.

"You have been in a place without a cycle?"

[bearshermark]

It's true, Eleven realizes belatedly. The place teems with Life and buoys his spirit unlike anywhere else they've ever been, but even as he extends his senses for the pall of Death, he senses echoes of it from only one nearby source. How strange, and how completely unlike anything else in this world.

He chews his lip a moment, weighing that before answering Wrath's question with a sense of preoccupation.

"A broken one- where the source of Life had fallen, and souls found themselves trapped in the Void, unable to re-enter the cycle of rebirth. I thought this world's cycle must also be broken. I still believe that, but here at least, there is one- even flawed as it is."

III

[wooden_one]

Chu Wanning was not someone who enjoyed being idle. So it was inevitable that he would come over when he noticed a familiar figure and also a magic he didn't recognize. Observing and learning was more interesting than staying still.

Yet, he quickly went from interest (that he failed to really hide) to concern (he tried to hide that behind a frown as well).

"Now." He answers flatly, "You need to rest."

[bearshermark]

His smile faltered. Eleven recognized him, knew they'd fought together before, but his name escaped him. The absent knowledge itched; fully aware that he knew the man's name, and certain he'd recognize it swiftly. Goddess, he'd recently reread it in one of his letters written to Archeval when mentioning the tower.

"I will," he assured the stern mask with a soft acquiescence. "I'd promised to have enough magic left for an emergency. Are you taking over for me, then?"

[wooden_one]

"Of course." He says it in the tone of voice of someone asking, did you even need to ask?

He looked around them with a frown for a moment before, with a flick of his wrist he summons a barrier, golden in colour with impressions of haitang blossoms swirling slowly on its surface. It is more translucent than the others he'd cast, but then, this one was cast over quite a wide area. It is not the strongest but it would do.

He doesn't sit down but he does look over at Eleven. He looked curious but also like he was trying to hide it. They had fought together but never had the time to actually talk normally.

"You were casting some sort of protection spell earlier?"

[bearshermark]

Eleven tipped his head, not in any particular hurry. His lips curled into a self-conscious smile.

"Yes. It's a holy aura that usually wards off monsters, but it seems effective against the undead, here." He picked at something on his pant leg and flicked it away. "I don't know that it's much use in a place mostly absent of death, but better safe than not."

ii.

[valeas]

She'd never seen anything like it.

Not too far from where Eleven kneels, Emilia watches the furless creature take in new and shivered breath. She saw it shrink before her very eyes only minutes ago, and now — now it is reborn.

A phoenix rises from the ashes for a reason. Unbidden, Envy's voice whispers in her ear like some faded thing. She studies it with equal bouts of wonder and trepidation, lowering herself down to her own knees.

She almost doesn't blink as she watches. "How...?"

[bearshermark]

"There's a cycle," Eleven repeats in answer, the fragile hope in his heart blooming warmth into the phrase. He smiles and sits back, presses a hand to his chest and breathes.

"I'd thought it was broken. Maybe it is.." Maybe a lot of things. There were so many possibilities that his head spun with them. He watches the creature and already knows its fate. His smile fades.

"It isn't regulated properly." He looks about, as though he'd find the source just by doing so, but nothing stands out to him and his attention returns to the newborn. "But that it exists even just here tells me there is hope for this world after all."

[valeas]

During the siege, while the Huntress was sundering whatever she could, she asked Lan Wangji what would be left. He'd answered hope. She'd forgotten this moment, as she'd forgotten so much else, once she stepped through that beacon —

But it returns to her now, reminded of the word upon looking at Eleven's face, long before he utters the word himself. It is so fragile and tentative a thing. Consumed by her anger and her need for retribution, there hasn't been much room for hope in her heart. But his reaction to the discovery of a cycle reaches her, and if only for a moment, she wishes she shared it with him.

This hope.

"May you be right. I didn't mean to interrupt, if you were praying."

[bearshermark]

Eleven flashes a smile to her and shakes his head.

"No," he answers, choosing to sit back on the grass and soak up the sun and fresh air for the brief time he can. "I was just beginning to think there wouldn't be life like this anywhere in this world. I have many questions, but.. I'm glad for it. I've grown so tired of being surrounded by death and darkness."

v. i do what i want

[lancifolium]

After determining that the best way to keep as much of the boat illuminated as possible with minimal effort was by sitting in the middle of it back to back, each holding their brazer high.

Lily doesn't appreciate not being able to see Eleven's face, but she doesn't mind settling back against him either, her head tilting backward enough to rest against his shoulder while she looks at the sky, watching the ethereal ribbons of color unfurl across the sky.

"It's beautiful," she began in a quiet voice, giving the spectacle some consideration before adding, "I hope it doesn't try to kill us."

Tipping her head back a little more so that she could sort of make out his upsidedown from this angle profile in the dark Lily raised a brow at him as she quietly appreciated a moment alone without suits. "I found a map in a library, there used to be a lighthouse in Ellethia-Allayar. There also used to be magic mirrors, some people thought the powers that be were using them to spy."

Rummaging around the ruins had given her a good deal to think about, and she intends to take advantage of the time alone with Eleven to share what she's learned.

[bearshermark]

Eleven hummed quiet agreement and shifted to be sure she wouldn't overbalance them by leaning back so far. It was sweet, having the boat to themselves like this, with such a view over them. It was only terrible that they had to be suspicious of even beautiful things. Light, he reasoned, shouldn't be something to fear.

"Magic mirrors," he mused as he was wont to since the beacon, letting the words sink into his mind with a now-familiar echo of vague memory, testing his recollection. Tugging on a line, calling forth impressions from another time like looking into clouded waters.

"There was something about them in Sa-Hareth. There was a body in the lake.." He frowned as it slowly pieced together again. "Five mentioned something about dealing with it. He needed a newly forged sword, so I'd made him one. He suffered some effect. But those could be different from the ones in the lighthouse. I don't know how a body can absorb a mirror.."

[lancifolium]

"I remember the body at the bottom of the lake." There's a hard edge to her voice as she says it, shuddering briefly as she gives the wrist that thing kept hold of for a night a twist, glancing down at it with a frown.

Reaching behind her she rest her free hand on his arm and looked back towards the sky. "What did the body have to do with a mirror?"

[bearshermark]

"It gave off the energy of one." He didn't recall feeling that himself, but he'd tested it in a manner of speaking. "The undead we'd brought to it simply died when it entered the water. I don't know that I ever found out what the purpose of the mirror was."

Eleven frowned, then gave a brief shake of his head, likely thinking on half-faded memories too long. "Were the mirrors important for the lighthouse?"

3

[enucleation]

Kaneki hardly sleeps, and given everything that has been happening since he arrived - and all that he learned - he is sleeping even less than before due to his paranoia. He is not comfortable during the night, out in the open like this, and although they all seem to have the same objective Ken has a hard time trusting strangers to keep him safe. Thus he keeps himself safe by staying awake.

Seeing Eleven's magic makes him curious, though. He approaches while still keeping enough distance between the two of them, and silently waits for him to be finished. Magic is not something Kaneki is familiar with, it doesn't exist in his world, and while he has seen golems and undead and mermaids in this new world, it's still pretty fascinating.

Once Eleven is done, he finally speaks. "I can take over now." technically, he already has, kaneki has been awake all this time.

[bearshermark]

Blue eyes slot open to regard the person Eleven is almost sure he doesn't recognize. But it's a friendly smile he offers, if a touch guarded.

"As you'd like," he agrees, stretching briefly. "I don't think we've met before. My name is Eleven."

[enucleation]

Since Blue smiles, kaneki offers a smile of his own as well a nod, being the polite person he is. "I'm Kaneki." just Kaneki is fine, thus he doesn't add his first name.

"I arrived recently, when the situation in Taravast was nearly resolved." it's natural most people of the group didn't get to meet him.

I

[baum]

John jumps, startled out of his own thoughts. He's immediately furious with himself for losing focus. There's supposed to be undead in these waters, and if one of those turns up, he wants to see it.

He hasn't really slept since he got here, though, and at this point it probably shows.

He looks up, blinking, and offers an uncertain smile.

"I don't think I could sleep, anyway," he says, sitting up a bit straighter. "Feel like I'm being watched, you know? Probably imagining it."

[bearshermark]

Eleven winces, guilt niggling for disturbing what little rest his companion had already managed to glean. He hums a thoughtful note, glancing off at the black water reflecting rippling lamplight.

"I think they watch the lights. Still, I'll agree it's an uneasy feeling. Take heart at least, that I have magic to restore ours if anything takes it."

2

[blackscales]

The dead should stay dead.

The creature coming to life may be a cause for joy to Eleven, but it leaves Wrathion uneasy the way necromancy does. The way the scourge does. The way the Black Empire did trying to bind him and raise his dead family once more.

He approaches Eleven slowly, staring at the creature as it begins life anew.

"This is a comfort to you?" he prompts. He supposes for some, any sign of life is better than none. Yet Wrathion wonders if it remembers each death, begins each day knowing it will die again. Being unable to truly die that way would be a curse beyond bearing. An endless torture of feeling yourself rot away and then be reborn.

[bearshermark]

Another person he doesn't recognize- an ominous sort at that. But at least, he doesn't feel darkness or death off of him. And well, even if he did..

"Yes," he says after a moment. "That a cycle exists is proof that death might not conquer the whole of this world. I worried.. the living seem so few and so vulnerable, but all hope isn't lost, it seems."

[blackscales]

Wrathion hums in thought, turning that over. Is this preferable to being conquered by death?

He drops to a crouch, tilting his head slowly as he watches the process.

"I fear this has gone too far the other way. These creatures are unable to truly die, trapped in this place and continually returned to an endless life of suffering."