westwhere | arc iii: house of ravens

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

TDM TOURISTS | OLD TIMERS | COMMON PROMPTS | NOTES

Image source.

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

Image source.

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?

Image source.

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.

Image source.

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.

Image source.

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.

Image source.

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.

Image source.

QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ lorna instantly feels awful, knowing how it feels to have hope ripped away from you and knowing that caitlin's already experienced that a thousand times prior to even arriving here. caitlin doesn't jerk away from her touch, so lorna doesn't withdraw it; just allows her to feel what she's feeling, knowing from experience that she may need a minute to process it. ]

When Clarice arrived with the portal and asked us to go with her. Right? [ it's the point she and marcos are both from, though she guesses it's possible for caitlin to be from a point where she's not aware of that. but she'd said 'kids', not just lauren, and she doesn't seem angry with her, so lorna's fairly certain that her instincts are correct.

caitlin seems to go through all the stages of grief in about thirty seconds, and once she brings up marcos she nods in full agreement, glancing around before she pulls out her device. ]

We should find somewhere to wait. [ the atmosphere around them is still chaotic, old timers and newcomers and bandits (oh my) surrounding them. lorna takes caitlin's hand with her spare one, looking around and spotting a cave not too far from where they're standing and nodding towards it. ] There, c'mon.

...of course. [ the idea of non-linear time is for documentaries and late night college bullshit sessions in uncomfortable white plastic chairs while smoking up and talking about the meaning of life, but caitlin is back in control enough to catch that lorna seems to be asking as much as confirming.

it's on the tip of her tongue to ask if there are other options, but the apparent possibility the answer could actually be yes feels like a stone better given a little more time to breathe before she turns it. instead, caitlin watches lorna use her device carefully, filing away every detail of how comfortable she seems to be with what caitlin could swear was a brand new world in order to analyze and panic about what that means for andy and lauren later. ]

Okay, let's go. [ she makes her way for the cave, only dropping lorna's hand when her quick movement tugs at the connection and reminds her she hasn't done so yet.

it's been a long year, and the shock of losing andy again and lauren for the first time in the bargain is the kind of blow she's not going to finish processing anytime soon.

once they're inside, the questions start to bubble up until caitlin can't hold them back. ] You said you were somewhere else. Before here, but after the portal.

[ which is impossible and thus absolutely happening isn't it oh for the love of god says her flat tone. ]

Edited 2022-03-02 07:31 (UTC)

[ caitlin's already seemed to have picked up on the evidence that suggests that she's not wrong about that statement. her clothing's different, her hair's longer, and she looks even more battleworn than when caitlin last saw her. this place is still different than the others they've been to since first arriving in the cage in the castle, but there are some constants in how the people they're with continue to move and fight.

the headband is placed back on her head just so she doesn't lose track of it, then she nods to caitlin before taking off running, leading her to the cave. once they're securely inside she exhales with relief, glad they're in the clear and that caitlin's taking this well enough to have questions. ]

I did. We were. It's hard to explain, but when Marcos and I went through that portal, we ended up somewhere else. We were held captive in a cage above a group of undead psychics in a castle until we got help getting set free.

[ that's...a start, anyway. ]

[ 'undead psychics'. caitlin's gotten used to rolling with deeply, deeply crazy punches, but this is a new one.

a queasy urge to laugh rises, clear in her voice. ]

So after you got away from the... undead psychics, you came here. And now you're here, with me, even though I was just there, and you were just there with me... but after that and before right now, you were in a cage. A cage above the undead psychics. For months. [ husbands who become nuclear bombs and a music box that wanted to make her kids evil: totally logical, why not, it all scans.

but this... this is her dot above the i, folks!!! this broke her. caitlin actually does laugh now, and it's not a happy sound. ]

Okay, saying it out loud made me feel worse. You heard how that sounded, right? [ caitlin's willing to take it on faith lorna isn't fucking with her, but this is insane. ] I don't understand. Any of it.

Edited (caitlin is so broken the end) 2022-03-02 19:01 (UTC)

[ lorna instantly feels worse listening to caitlin recount the details (or what she thinks are the details, since the accurate description is much more complicated than she's been able to recount within just a few minutes), but she doesn't interrupt, sensing the need for her to get out her own rationalizations before she shakes her head, looking grim. ]

No, we weren't with the undead psychics for months. It's hard to explain, but that's where we started. Since then we've been with this group to a few different places, this one's just the latest. [ she nods, trying for a smile that's reassuring, but it's weak and still a little grim. ] And yeah, I know how it all sounds. It's a lot to reconcile with.

[ there's a part of her that wants to reach out and hug her again, but she's not sure if it's something that would be welcome. she may need another minute first. ]

I'm not positive how it works, but there are people who come in at certain places. We ended up joining a group that had been around for a while and have been sticking with them since, trying to figure out how to get back home. And helping the people we find in need where we can.

[ that's the most basic explanation she can figure out right now; she figures the simpler, the better. ]

It's insane. Completely insane, but... [ caitlin shakes her head, a very familiar feeling of resignation settling in the pit of her stomach. ] But what isn't?

[ it's always easier to keep moving than stand still in the world of caitlin strucker. shelving worries for later is as routine as breathing, a tendency the underground only honed to a deadly sharp point. ]

If I ask about the other places you two have been I think I'm going to regret it. I want to know, just... later. [ she'll want to hear absolutely everything, regardless of how insane it sounds. now, though... ] Tell me about this group, instead.

[ lorna knows that feeling well; resignation to the impossible was something she had to learn to accept a long time ago. she nods when caitlin requests that she table the rest of what she and marcos have been through since arriving for the time being, getting it and not wanting to overwhelm her when she's already been through a lot, not just today but over the past few months. ]

Okay. Later.

[ she settles on the ground, pulling her legs up and crossing her feet at the ankles before balancing her arms on her knees, waiting for caitlin to take a seat as well. ]

What do you want to know about them first? [ she knows caitlin's being asked to handle a lot, and she's letting her set the pace when it comes to what she wants to know. ]

arc iii: house of ravens | arrival

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject