arc iii: house of ravens | arrival

[groundrules]

Hi, everyone! Our Arc III arrival event covers 20 Feb-11 March and doubles as a test drive. Participants don’t need an invite to apply by 11 March. Reserves live here. Try to label if you’re a test drive tourist or an old timer — and have fun!

COTTAGEVORE

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TDM TOURISTS | OLD TIMERS | COMMON PROMPTS | NOTES

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TDM TOURISTS: THE SCENIC ROUTE

You flinch awake, hand weighed by a sharp stick, stone, or makeshift torch. Your clothes sit stiff, splattered with dried dirt and dusted leaves. Here and there, scratches and shallow wounds litter your limbs, the marks of days of dazed survival alone that you mistily remember. Your strength and supernatural powers are currently largely depleted, but should recover within two to three days.

As they journey, characters discover stretches of the eerily silent forests briefly transform into woodlands or recognisable spots of nature from their home worlds — perhaps they’re now seeing the meadows outside their home towns, their backyard orchard, or a fondly remembered lake pier. These images are short-lived illusions that other characters can also see.

Mind your steps: the mirages try to lure characters deep into the forest, where unfriendly animals and hidden pits wait.

A. THE MORE, THE MERRIER

Trailing through the labyrinthine woods, you stumble upon a group of heavily armed bandits who are already herding several captives. Depending on how agitated you are, expect shackles, leashes and tusk pendants that allow characters to speak and glean local tongues — including the thugs' barked instructions. The outlaws are on a three-day voyage to cursed village Ke-Waihu, where they intend to sell their prisoners to the Hok-Shinn criminal clan.

■ Ensure fellow captives survive the trek, avoiding leg-hold traps, snares and hunting nets.

■ Beatings continue, but morale never improves: help mouthy prisoners with their tasks or wounds.

■ Capture or forage food — and stop naïve captives from going deeper into the forest to follow glimpses of beautiful (wo)men or cries for help. There’s nobody there.

■ At night, prisoners are locked in stitched-shut tents — get friendly quickly.

B. JUST CRUISING

The bandits never saw you coming — but you’ve been watching them collect their prey. Perhaps you’ve even found others like you — also spared enslavement, but condemned to trail after the thugs towards Ke-Waihu. Characters can pick up discarded translation and communication tusk pendants, scraps of food and frail weapons.

■ Beware: superstitious thieves frequently patrol at night, while woodland predators are emboldened by the absence of fires.

■ Leave messages or instructions to the bandits’ captives (tree husk carvings, anyone?) and maybe try to rescue them.

■ ...or leave them for dead and trot on to Ke-Waihu. You savage.

» GO CAMPING, THEY SAID

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OLD TIMERS: CURSES FOR ONE, CURSES FOR ALL

After a bumpy ride aboard the Salamera II, the party arrive at idyllic village Ke-Waihu.

They are greeted by Hok-Shinn Weisi, the slippery mayor who officially helms Ke-Waihu, while his brother Sairen leads the clan’s heavy underground ventures. Weisi’s flippant and spoiled son Taksui is the Merchant’s local liaison. The botanist Enam and his apprentices set out to explore, taking the group's baggage along.

■ Weisi was told the party members are families of Taravast refugees, seeking finer fates in Ke-Waihu. Each family has been assigned a humble but serviceable dwelling — see what luck has in store for you.

■ Weisi officially welcomes the newcomers in Ke-Waihu’s main bustling marketplace. Every merchant, fishmonger and beggar stops to watch as foreigners are briefly stripped of their ostentatious jewels, clothes or weapons, soaked in iced water and told to embrace the village by accepting its old, its new, its ugliness and its truths.

■ To join the community, characters must absorb and redeem the wrongdoings of a deceased ancestor. They are served flasks of a thick, bitter brew that slides down mildly corrosive and cold.

■ The brew’s effects vary: some drinkers feel only a sudden, electric awareness of the story behind the curse they inherited. Others feel scalded from the inside, agonising for hours. The ancestral curse effects start to take hold that night.

■ Characters are sent off to their new homes in Ke-Waihu — but are contacted within hours by one of Enam’s anguished apprentices. His master and his peers were captured by bandits while inspecting the elusive forests for plant specimens. These wicked men took everything: your goods, your Ellethian high fashion, your extra weapons, even your Sleeping Zenobius. Go get’em — but beware the deadly illusions of Ke-Waihu’s forest.

» DUDE, WHERE’S MY COMATOSE SLEEPER?

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ALL TOGETHER NOW

The thugs, the old timers, the test drive prisoners and their creepy watchers collide in the mist-drowned forests of Ke-Waihu.

A. BANDIT BANE

■ Infiltrate the thug group in, kick some outlaws’ teeth on the way out.

■ Release and escort roughened-up newcomers to Ke-Waihu, picking up strays along the way.

■ One of the thugs snitches that the remaining stolen loot is hoarded in a nearby secluded cave, drowned under foliage. The entrance is watched by large, agitated boars with startlingly hard, but not impervious skin. With gold, gems, guns within reach, anyone for pork dinner?

■ After speaking with the new arrivals, party botanist and guide Enam confirms they have been summoned to serve as weapons in this world’s ongoing conflict between warring undead factions. The Merchant, Enam’s collaborator and the party’s patron, is leading otherworlders east, where forgotten beacons might return them home.

■ The villagers Ke-Waihu, Ke-Waiar and Ke-Waicai reportedly know the location of such a beacon. They will unveil it if the party breaks the curse of the House of Ravens.

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B. THE BLUSHING BRIDE

When the group returns, Ke-Waihu is celebrating the joyous procession of dozens of lavish 'weddings.' The (false) rites are carried out to commemorate the marriage of a huntsman and his fox bride...

■ The roads are awash with flower petals and rice, houses extend their hospitality freely, and the rich give away coin. Even Hok-Shinn clansmen don their finest garments and hand out gifts and favours, while lawmen grant pardons to captives held for minor offences.

■ Villagers pose as 'brides' and 'grooms' to play act public weddings. Characters are asked to participate as brides and grooms, or to join the wedding retinue of a NPC villager. Characters can unknowingly marry, but not become foxes.

■ The evening culminates in a grand market fete, with stalls offering sickly sweets and strong alcohols. Poets recite love songs, professional weepers wail to strangers that they lost their children to insidious in-laws, and petty clashes erupt among merrymakers.

■ Some of the NPC fox 'brides' seem to grow wide-eyed and alert, suspicious of the many hunting dogs that watchmen walk around the marketplace.

■ Come nightfall, 'wedded' pairs are escorted to suites in a large and extravagant inn. For each 'couple,' accommodations comprise one room for the retinue and a linked conjugal bedroom.

IF CHARACTERS MARRY A (FOX) 'SPOUSE':

■ They are handed three pieces of parchment before they are locked into the marital suite with their consort and their retinue.

■ Once alone in their 'marital quarter,' characters first enjoy polite conversation with their spouse, whose eyes start to glimmer golden, while their teeth and claws lengthen, their mouths distort to snouts and their hair reddens. The fox brides do not seem aware they are, in fact, foxes, but try to scratch, bite or maim their partners. Viciously quick, strong and prone to thralling their victims into spells of lethargy, these foxes could get the best of you — happily, the little parchment papers you received can share some survival tips.

■ Fool the fox spouse into thinking you are already married or pledged to someone in your retinue. Affronted, the fox bride will exile you out of the wedding room. Refresh the salt lines that surround the conjugal room, and gently steer the fox back if it flees overnight.

■ Your retinue and you should impersonate a hunting hound, down to howling, running on all-fours and sniffling. The fox will hurriedly isolate itself in the conjugal room, but will actively try to escape at night. Keep every inn door and window closed.

■ Become a widow(er). Call your retinue and make the best of your fists and a butter knife. You will need to kill the spouse a few times before they stay fully dead, each time reviving more and more fox-like in appearance.

AS A WEDDING RETINUE MEMBER:

■ Awkwardly hold watch outside the conjugal bedroom of the dashing NPC cannon fodder groom and his fox bride.

■ The NPC groom might request help as above — or might fall deathly silent. If that happens, villagers instruct, character must loudly ask if the wine pleases the couple. The flushed, visibly fox-like bride will then open the door to complain their new consort — clawed dead in the marital bed — won’t even share a wine cup with them. The fox does not seem to grasp they have killed their groom.

■ Defeat the fox at drinking — the fox bride can hold its cups, but slipping in some of the relaxing opiates on hand will help the cause. Sneak the NPC groom's corpse out with a buddy when the fox drops asleep.

■ Or prove you are a fairer marital prospect by verbally wooing the fox or doing battle with your retinue companion, to prove your worth. Your wingman may wish to throw the fight, feed lines, or generally smoulder. The fox bride will offer the NPC corpse as a betrothal gift.

Come morning, the villagers open the now-delapidated inn. Those who survive fox weddings receive braided bracelets of red, golden and tangerine rope, earning good will in the village. The murderous fox brides have disappeared — in their place, yellowed and dust-drenched bones 'sleep' in the marital beds, covered by withered and torn wedding clothes.

Villagers share the whole story: a huntsman encountered a fox goddess in the forest, when she had taken the shape of a beautiful woman. Lovestruck, he brought her back to Ke-Waihu as his wife — but the horrified villager slaughtered her and her husband on their wedding night. The fox god cursed the village to relieve yearly 'fox weddings,' during which the bones of those murdered during the previous 'conjugal' festivities rise as brides to terrorise new spouses.

Skipping the fox wedding rites, villagers say, shrivels their crops and depletes their food stocks for several seasons.

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C. A-HUNTING WE WILL GO

It’s all fun and wedding games, until one of the victims of the recent nuptials is the son of influential wine merchant Saguk Chaomin. He vengefully sponsors a a hunt to finally lift the foxes’ curse.

■ Saguk Chaomin assigns weapons — from knives, spears and sharpened sticks to bows, arrows and rifles operating on gun powder — alongside lanterns and climbing rope to the brave adventurers. The contingent splinters into smaller groups to avoid detection.

■ The forests now aggressively conspire to lead characters to their deaths: whether it’s through fostering illusions that trip them into gullies, or decrepit bridges that crumble, sending travellers into whirling river waters. Animals (excluding wolves) attack travellers fiercely. Keep a hunting hound close.

■ Characters with unusual physical features or suspicious behaviours — from supernatural powers to a fear of dogs — are accused of being shape-shifting foxes.

■ Fox spirits assume a mortal but resilient shape the day after the wedding — strong, large, feral and willy. They’re quick to bite, and their presence dulls the senses of hunters.

■ To exorcise the foxes, kill their mortal bodies or obliterate or repair their small, decaying forest altars. These are stone rings the size of one’s hand, often hidden at the root of ancient trees. Cleanse the altars of filth, vermin and predatory creatures, and replenish the stones with fresh river pieces. Beware rare fox spirits that come to protect altars or hide their young.

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D. WELL, WELL, WELL

In the wake of the weddings, characters head to their abodes, while test drivers are garrisoned in communal temporary shelters. Over the next few days, everyone may notice:

■ Villagers have a marrow-deep fear of the Hok-Shinn clan, whose members behave as if they are immune from repercussions.

■ Villagers tell eerie tales of strange encounters in their locked stables, abandoned houses or wells — they have seen a creature with the head of a beautiful woman, whose hair braids to form her snake-like body. 'She' slithers away once discovered.

■ Word spreads across the marketplace that dark waters have returned. A farmer’s well has dried, leaving only a thickened, tar-like liquid at the bottom. Another villager shamefully admits his well also dried a month ago, clogged by dark filth — the fount was old, and he assumed it had naturally depleted.

■ Horrified villagers speak no more of this, but superstitiously volunteer flower and food tributes for the Ka-Sanwon volcano. Mayor Hok-Shinn Weisi intercedes to reserve the resources for the upcoming return of the patron lord of the volcano’s three villages — the undead Beastmaster.

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QUESTIONS

Comments

QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

...before you ask, whether you need to disclose marriage to a fox-possessed skeleton on dating apps is between you and your conscience.

[chosenbylight]

MAYBE this is a silly question to ask first, but how humble are these houses exactly, in terms of sleeping quarters for instance? Are there separate rooms, should they all be expected to share one, or is this up to the "families" to decide themselves OOC?

(Relevant because of how many people are gonna be crashing chez family #5 haha)

[groundrules]

Dealer's choice, within the confines of the housing descriptions. Just be reasonable about it.

I'd shove all guests on the floor on principle, anyway. Bunch of mooches.

[blackscales]

Hey! Thank you for this it is delightful.

For the illusions, once we go trudging into the forest to save Enam & the test drivers -- should we be sticking environmental changes only, or can they include flashes of people from home trying to lure us into danger too?

Also for obviously inhuman people who, say, have glowing red eyes for example (asking for a friend) -- are the villagers actually going to... hunt them too? Or just suspiciously harass them? & once the hunt and exorcism is over, will they be free of suspicion then or still low key considered shady?

[groundrules]

Heya!

1. You're welcome to stick in flashes of people, but not fully-fleshed presences someone can interact with. Ex: Wrathion can glimpse the silhouette of his mom (we went there) dashing into the forest, but he wouldn't be able to stop her and have an extended chat.

2. The villagers would be expressly paranoid during the hunt, because they realise quickly that the area is subject to illusions, and they reckon maybe some of their fellow huntsmen are foxes under glamour. They'd harass and try to trick those they suspect of being foxes into revealing their true forms. They'd settle down once they return to the peaceful village.

Try to keep Wrathion from interacting too much with Weisi, by the way — Wrathion remains marked by the Beastmaster, after all.

[song_of_fire]

So this is just a random thought, but could the bandits have kidnapped a certain dragon?

[groundrules]

Why ever not?

[somebadnews]

A question from someone who is definitely not me: if a person were to have two characters already in game but wanted to futz around with a third one on the TDM, is that cool?

[groundrules]

That's definitely cool. If you're serious about a prospective third character — that's an option, as long as you're in good AC standing for two months of game time with your existing characters. It's something I've failed to announce, but will do so currently and change in the existing rules.

But yes, even if you're not really contemplating a third character, go ahead!

[blackscales]

1 other thing: what's the climate like here? Once Wrathion's curse-scratches get deep enough to bleed very normal human lava-like-blood he'll need to start layering up hard to hide it, and I want to know if everyone else will have their male presenting nipples out in the baking sun and he'll need an excuse or if he'll blend in because it isn't that warm.

[groundrules]

You're looking at a transitional winter > spring weather, to start with — layering is acceptable. Some 16C.

[sacral]

hello hello! do tourists have any of their innocuous would-be inventory items or clothing confiscated by the bandits upon capture? (and does this answer perhaps change based on captive behavior...)

[groundrules]

Down to you — whatever gives you more joy.

If you want to go midway on this, you could also invoke the bandits' piglet and say it's trotting Subaru's innocuous possessions around in its friendly snout, always just out of reach, until the critical moment.

But really, whatever you prefer. As long as it's not sharp or blatantly a weapon, it wouldn't really be confiscated. You're not dealing with a sophisticated villain force here. Their safe-guarding mechanism is a batalion of giant feral pigs.

[reparo]

The idea of being stripped of her possessions (she doesn't have jewels but she does have her pendant to communicate, wand and bag with the extension charms on it - which she won't have left with Enam) will be extremely unsavoury to Hermione. Could she out of desperation/panic offer a favour to the villagers if they return her wand and bag to her as soon as she's consumed her lil potion with the curse?

Like, say, volunteering herself as a bride during the fox marriage festival thing? You know, integration and all that.

[groundrules]

That's absolutely something that could happen! Although you should know she'd get her effects back either way.

[in_theworks]

So, with the taking of ostentatious jewels, clothes and weapons, would they let Wrench keep his mask, if he threatened to throw hands?

[groundrules]

Well, he'd need to consume the beverage, so he's probably be taking that off? They return the items as soon as the ritual participants have consumed the elixir! It's purely to walk into this endeavour with a pure and noble heart.

[weifinder]

Can we resurrect a fox-possessed skeleton?

[groundrules]

You can resurrect it during the night of the wedding ceremony, for sure.

You can resurrect it with a bit of difficulty the day right after, but it'll die again in a few hours — it doesn't have a 'spirit' to sustain it per se, it's more of a curse.

You can't resurrect if many days after the wedding ceremony.

Under all three scenarios — you are resurrecting the fox-dead spirit hybrid that inhabits the body, not the original dead person's spirit.

Re: QUESTIONS

[rumorate]

In the interest of context: In the initial plotting I didn't realize that the curses would be something the characters would actively have to choose/drink something to take on. Could you provide some more information on what would happen if they attempted to refuse/the consequences of that? Are they phrased as curses?

[groundrules]

Heya! Sure, of course: the community of Ke-Waihu has a strong sense of civic experience and accountability. Since atonement can be done in various ways — ranging from minor to severe, depending on your luck of the curse draw — the villagers consider the act of redeeming an ancestor's sins not only symbolic, but in many ways a privilege.

For them — and they would certainly present it in this way — you are choosing to join a community, and so you must want to help ease or cancel out the suffering imposed on it at the hands of an ancestor. You must want to improve this joyous village. Just as, if you, a member of the community were to commit a heinous crime, some other future newcomer would atone for you. It all evens out across generations.

They would not refer to the downsides of the curses as 'curses,' more as 'marks,' 'reminders,' 'incentives.' These impairments would be seen as part of a challenging but ultimately exhilarating experience, because, Gosh, you're doing your civic duty. How lucky are you!

The most important thing is this: they have truly drunk the Gatorade. They genuinely believe this, and aren't just trying to foist their curses on random incomers.

I hope this helps! But if it doesn't, and you're struggling for ways to figure out how to coax Allison into drinking this or obtaining her curse, let me know — we can work something out, for sure.

[enucleation]

Questions! Sorry if some might be repetitive...

- if Kaneki asks around, would anyone be able to tell why the villages names changed from their original names and when? Any relation to curses, etc?

- Kaneki needs some munchies, so I was thinking of getting him to approach the Witches’ huts. He'd meet them in secret, he doesn't want the villagers to be offended, but ANYWAY! Is it okay for him to drop by, find some delicious food there, maybe chat a bit about the villages and the people and the curses, and learn anything if at all?

- If Kaneki were to follow from a distance the memebers of Hok-Shinn (Weisi, Sairen and even Taksui) would he be able to find out anything? He realizes they are criminals and huge assholes, but everyone is afraid of them, so kaneki wants to learn more about how they got power over the village. And what better way to do that but to stalk them?

- ACTUALLY about the cursed doll and the heart that kaneki carries with him at all times. Anything strange happening to them, or no influence from the spirits/foxes/curses?

[groundrules]

Hello! Back at you:

1. The villages tweaked their names following the last eruption of the now dormant local volcano Ke Sanwon. The shift was superstitious: Ke in old tongue means 'brother,' 'sibling.' They believe that perhaps, in this way, brother Sanwon will not spill his wrath on his younger siblings.

2. Yes, absolutely — go ahead and talk to the witches. But you'll need to tell me what exactly he's asking, because "learn anything at all" is a tiny bit vague... can definitely give you a lil something-something, if you give me one or two topics.

3. The Hok-Shinn seem to be ruling primarily by force — based on overhearing them, Kaneki can figure out that they're a mix of relatives (an inner clan) and of unrelated recruits. They seem to have their finger in every pie: loans (at dreadful interests), honest merchantry, gambling and 'security' — acting both to guard the village and to request steep 'protection fees' from damages some of their associates can cause.

There are signs of an external 'high administrative office' that never seems to intervene, leaving Ke-Waihu at the mercy of the allied Hok-Shinn.

Sairen travels in a highly combat-ready group, so he might be more difficult to stalk and definitely not in any of the gang's hiding places (at least not if Kaneki is acting alone — if you'd like to rally some more forces, happy to give you guys something!). Weisi has a minor retinue, but fear of Sairen's retaliation seems to keep him nice and protected anyway. Weisi primarily keeps busy with administrative tasks: speaking with merchant guilds and farmers, visiting village homes, etc.

Taksui is the worst. His father and uncle both seem to donate money to the cause of his endlessly dissatisfied pouch, and he wastes it profligately on gambling, whores, etc. H e has a minor gang of 4-5 thugs he's recruited all on his own, who are clearly only following him for money. On the plus side, he seems to be genuinely good at fishing.

Hope this helps!

[blackscales]

Do the villagers know when the return of their patron lord is due? Does he visit on a regular schedule or is it just a vague anticipatory window? Asking for a friend who doesn't want to be there the same day.

[groundrules]

The villagers can share that the return of the lord is seasonal, but only Weisi ever knows details.