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This log covers 7-25 April, drawing from previous discoveries. Feel free to tag in here or make your own posts/logs!

Sign-ups for NPC threads remain open until 23:59 GMT on 9 April.

THE LION’S DEN

WEN QING’S RESCUE | THE HUNTRESS’ CURES | THE HUNT | THE OLD MOUNTAIN

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SWEET HISSED NOTHINGS

CONTENT WARNING: MENTIONS OF SNAKES, SERPENT CREATURES

Prior to the Huntress’ arrival, the group’s healer Wen Qing is captured by a feral half human, half serpent creature. Characters might overhear visiting woodsmen who say a woman was heaved into the woods at night by a large serpent.

After journeying through the illusion-casting forests of Ke-Waihu, prospective rescuers discover that traces of struggle lead them to a 20m-deep, wide pit on brittle pale soil, close to the Fortune fetters ruins:

■ If you cross the Fetters, local prophetesses cryptically advise you to shed torches or clothes and to run to cold streams, if you encounter danger. A distressed Hyang-Tai pleads kindness for ‘ancients’ and ‘children.’

■ The surroundings of the pit are eerily silent.

■ Rescuers can spot a sleeping Wen Qing at the bottom of the pit, patches of her bared skin covered in a slick shine and showing the start of growing scales. She is surrounded by dozens of dormant snakes and nagas, tightly and peacefully coiled around her.

■ Wooden stakes have been thrust into the pit walls — serving as challenging, but workable steps.

■ Some snakes are poisonous — with many cures available in the forest or back in Ke-Waihu — but most bite viciously without venom. Some nagas emit phlegm that briefly impairs the vision or blinds.

■ Watch your step! The creatures are drawn to warmth, fire magic and sound. They stir and climb the pit to attack if they feel threatened.
■ Rusted weapons and broken shields litter the bottom of the pit, dropped in by previous… visitors.

OBJECTIVES

■ Remove Wen Qing from her dire straits.

■ Wen Qing is left with serpentine sensitivities, instincts and scales. To cure her, healers advise a seven-day brew treatment of widow’s lace — an opiate plant found in large forest bushes.

■ Grab a few flowers at a time and store them well — collectors exposed extensively to widow’s lace experience four-six hours of light euphoria, paranoia or bizarre visions — swindling foxes and philosophical parrots are apparently commonly imagined.

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THE MAIDEN’S WATCH

The Huntress joins the group, deprived of her powers and absent her steed. She pointedly stares at the ground, but those who meet her gaze may revisit harrowing moments in their lives.

Following group conversations, her shelter is rotated between two locations: a shallow forest cave and the now deserted snake pit that previously hosted Wen Qing.

Take turns shielding her from the animals that seem drawn to besiege her. The Huntress spends her time in tears or penitence and speaks in a maddened tongue. Voice coarse and wet, she summons the composure to share her knowledge:

■ The Beastmaster and she both seek to witness the imminent eruption of the Ke-Sanwon volcano, expected within a month. The Beastmaster will become more human as that time draws.

■ Ravens excepted, local animals obey the Beastmaster and spy for him.

■ To avoid the pull of the Beastmaster and his Hunt, seek out:

THE SHRINE

Trek through Ke-Waihu’s haunted forests and find the village’s only shrine devoted to ravens, outside of the elusive House of Ravens.

■ Wear pebbles or wood splinters from the shrine to disrupt the Beastmaster’s thrall on you. These items must be replaced after three days.

■ Fox spirits have raised dozens of illusionary copies of the shrine. The stone of the original altar is marked for ravens in a small wooden carving, while copy shrines worship foxes.

■ Young fox spirits imitate ravens or play distant bells to distract travellers from finding the raven shrine.

■ Sometimes, fox spirits swarm, offering to show the way if visitors perform a small dare or tell them a meaningful secret.

■ If asked, Ke-Waihu locals share the shrine was raised by a wanderer, who spent a month in the village many years ago. He was disgusted with the arrogance of Ke-Waicai’s zealots, who insist ravens are sacred and can only be worshipped in the House of Ravens.

THE BRIDGE

Ke-Waihu has briefly reopened its gates to the nearby village of Ke-Waiar — to which it is connected by a fragile and narrow bridge high above a misted abyss.

■ Wind gusts shake the ropes of the rickety bridge, and several wooden steps are putrid, dangling or loose.

■ Ad you near the bridge’s end to Ke-Waiar, you may find a couple of fox spirits are purposefully rattling the ropes to unsaddle travellers. Plead or barter: you can offer anything from riddles to treats, a good performance, a poem, a favour, a shouted confession of true love…

■ The village gates open between sunrise and sunset. Characters who arrive early find many villagers sleep until late in the day. By sundown, some locals become frantic, alert, increasingly irritable.

■ Water can be freely taken from any of the wells within Ke-Waiar to satisfy the quest. Villagers offer it gladly — they too suffer from resurging drought and dark waters.

■ If you arrive at sunset or night, you can see villagers turning to werewolves in various stages of transformation, between humanoid and large wolf beast. They are lured out of Ke-Waiar, gates closing behind them, and released into the thick, vibrant woods — with you.

■ Take cover in the forest, to escape the pack of werewolves and wolves. Some might prove lenient if they catch you, while others feel compelled to draw blood.

■ To wait out the night: climb the forest’s sturdiest trees with help of the ropes purposefully bound from tall branches. Some trees even host rudimentary treehouses.

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THE HUNT

The Beastmaster, his xenomorphic creatures and mutated animals arrive in Ke-Waihu to behold the ‘imminent’ volcanic eruption.

The Beastmaster’s creatures possess sharpened senses and hearing, intense speed and hard carcasses that provide additional but imperfect protection from blows and missiles. They often hunt in packs, but behave themselves in Ke-Waihu during daytime.

The Beastmaster excuses himself from the underground Hok-Shinn clan’s attempts at a welcome celebration, taking residence with his beasts in his village hut. He may be encountered walking the village beside five or six of his creatures, inspecting the markets and even advising new huntsmen — his manner slow, speech rough in a way that suggests oral injury beneath his facial bandages.

THE TRIBUTES

The Hok-Shinn and an envoy of Ke-Waiar each present 10 distinguished but eerily listless youths of their village to the Beastmaster.

■ These tributes are then held in groups of five across four abandoned homes, each closely watched by six-seven men of the Hok-Shinn.

■ Team up, rescue some tributes — and get out alive.

■ For easier infiltration, try the forest-facing back of the houses, or the generously large, defective chimneys. Beware slippery or broken roof tiles

■ Hok-Shinn guards possess great brute force… and gratefully accept liquor.

■ Some tributes might fight their rescuers and attempt to alert the guards. Some claim it is their privilege to join the Beastmaster, while others say they should be sacrificed to the volcano Ke-Sanwon for their families.

■ You can hide the rescued tributes in the witches’ huts or the Fetters — gather them coin so they can book seats on the next ship out of Ke-Waihu.

THE HUNTING SEASON

The Beastmaster’s creatures are mannered during the day, but join the Hunting season that kicks off after the full moon:

■ Participation is (OOCly) optional.

■ For five nights, come moonrise, some characters feel compelled to flee into the forests and run, hide or avoid detection — alternatively, they join the Beastmaster’s creatures as hunters, chasing this quarry and forest animals.

■ You can chase each other or ‘pack’ up against a common target or enemy.

■ Anyone can ‘hunt’ or ‘be hunted.' Roles can swap across the five nights.

■ Characters can develop overnight instincts akin to an animal of hunt or prey of your choice, and they will be helped by these animals for the night. Snakes and ravens do not participate.

■ Hunting can be vicious (seeking to injure, kill or consume prey) or symbolic (just violently giving chase).

■ Certain characters feel especially compelled to join the hunt and to protect the Beastmaster outside of it. These include characters who are given to war, hunting, violence, wrath, gluttony or feral/animal characteristics. It also applies to those who previously turned xenomorphic during the Beastmaster's trip in Taravast, or whom he marked.

■ To avoid the hunt, stay out of the forest, apply the Huntress’ cures or lock yourself firmly indoors.

A couple of fun locations for hunt participants:

■ A tree enclosure where characters can hide for up to an hour, invisible to their pursuers. They can still be heard or scented.

■ A small lake, silvered at night, in whose waters you can breathe freely.

■ A fox spirit shrine, where a group of four-five vulpine friends defend you alongside their territory.

■ Abandoned wells and the forest streams previously touched by dark waters. The Beastmaster’s creatures seem very curious about the liquid, but ultimately pull back, as if obeying instructions.

■ Areas with strong fire or utter dark deter the Beastmaster's creatures.

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OLD MAN MOUNTAIN

Dormant volcano Ke-Sanwon shows signs of upcoming eruption: soil swells, increases in local temperature and small, low-grade earthquakes.

■ Characters with magical powers may find their strength sometimes fluctuates, suddenly swelling or briefly waning completely.

■ Dark waters fill out some of the ground cracks that follow earthquakes. The liquid is cold, settling as if it were iced. This dark water heals shallow wounds on any skin it touches, or gently revives vegetation over one-three days on any ground it is set on.

■ The strength of the dark water fades over a week’s time.

■ Digging through the ground cracks reveals thin rivulets of the dark water are present all around Ke-Sanwon.They are more numerous the closer you get to the volcano. Dark water also smears the mouths of hell.

THE JEWELLER

A few days after the earthquakes state (after 20 April, for network posts), characters wake to distant screams, as a group of 10 of Ke-Waihu's masked concerned citizens drag handsome young jeweller Dong-Yun out of Ke-Waihu.

■ The group is taking Dong-Yun through the predatory forests.

■ You can play out finding the captors’ convoy separately, or tag into the jeweller’s rescue here.

■ Bring the jeweller back to Ke-Waihu. Dong-Yun can share that his abductors intended to sacrifice him to the Ke-Sanwon volcano. One of the participants in the rescue: please share with the rest of the class!

”I’ve heard, but I’ve never — they used to, when my mother was young… she told, me even when she had me, all the mothers hid their young. She told me, they used to give them to Sanwon. The prettiest, the smartest, the most skilled. Give it all to Brother Sanwon, give it to… so it won’t take everything else. Give it our best, and it will leave us the rest. But this doesn’t happen anymore. The mountain doesn’t want it.”

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QUESTIONS

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"Of course," Anduin reassures, gently. He knows all too well the terror of being abducted, being made a pawn in someone else's game.

The rest of this, though. It troubles him, more than he can rightly say.

"This has been a fairly regular occurrence, then," Anduin says, not exactly a question. He supposes he is not exactly surprised. These people, they are a superstitious bunch. The question is whether the sacrifices really did make any difference, or whether they just think it did.

"But you said the mountain does not want the sacrifices anymore?"

"I don't believe it does," he murmurs, only pausing now and then to wave cautiously at the other stall keepers, sellers of vegetables, fish and fruit. A tightly-bound village, each face largely known. He cannot be seen under suspicious circumstances.

"We haven't given it anything for years. If Brother Sanwon did want," This, reasonably, because normalising sacrifice is an art in which fair Dong-Yun has become prolific, "Would we not have felt his wrath before?"

Anduin has been filling in himself as the village wise man. He is not unfamiliar to some of these faces himself, and turns to flash a smile of his own as they walk, though his attention is largely focused on the man at his side.

"Those men who took you certainly thought otherwise," he says, as gently as he can. He does not mean to remind Dong-Yun of painful things, and yet. He's hoping that there is something in this that might be able to help them all.

"I am sorry to revisit such events," he continues, softly, "but I must ask... Can you tell me what you remember of that night? Of those men? Do you think you might be able to identify any of them? Did any of them say anything to you, that you can recall?"

There's a moment where Dong-Yun appears on the verge of gasping, of shaking his head, of walking away. When he wants, very badly, to excuse himself from this conversation. But his inhalation comes deep and sharp, and he nods, as if he should first confirm he'll go ahead with this —

Then, finally, proceed. "Nothing... of meaning. That I shouldn't — that I should feel honouring. That I'd be doing a service to everyone, to myself, that it can't hurt. Done in a moment. Brother Sanwon loves us, he won't let it hurt. They didn't want to be cruel, it just — had to happen."

As for the second part, "They all wore their masks throughout. I don't think... I suppose, if I were to take a look at their bodies, but... it was dark. Very dark. And working off bodies alone, to point and finger and throw blame, I wouldn't feel right. Not me."

Anduin's expression softens and he reaches out a hand to lay gently on the other man's arm.

"Of course not," he agrees, gently. "Thank you, for your honesty. For your bravery. It is good to see you at the market again today, though I do hope that you had time to rest and recover from your ordeal. Does your family...?"

He trails off, raising a gently inquisitive eyebrow. He had not appeared to have explained to his master, but -- what of his home life? Who did this young jeweler have there for him, to see that he was taken care of?

He tips back into his companion, in a playful, bittersweet camaraderie. He knows, if they were different people, of a same age and village road, they might have schooled together, or joined the apprentice houses at a same time.

And then, his family. His face blanches, and before he can think the matter over, "Don't tell them. Please, don't tell them. They never needed to know, me always so late from the forges. I sleep there sometimes. I told them nothing."

Oh.

Something within Anduin twists in response to the sudden desperation that fills Dong-Yun, and he squeezes his hand where he has left it resting on the other man's arm.

"No, no, I will not," he says, softly. "But my friend -- this is a heavy secret to keep to yourself. If not your family nor your master, is there no one you trust to share this with?"

Suppose they were to target this young man again? Will he truly ever be safe here again? The thought troubles Anduin more than he can say.

In broad daylight, denial emboldens him. He stutters in his step, biding his time before he barters a shrug, poorly fabricated. "What's there to share?"

He seems, somehow, to gain courage and strength as he assembles his thoughts. As if it is only be speaking them that he believes them. "I'm fine. I'm really... I'm well."

He's alive. Bruised, a little worse for his wear, but ultimately hardly tattered by last night's excursion.

Anduin's eyes are clear, blue, and sad as he watches this reaction from the other man.

What is there to share?

He had been kidnapped by his fellow villagers with the intention of being thrown into the volcano, that is what. He does not know who they were, but they know exactly who Dong-Yun is himself.

Perhaps it does not trouble the young jeweler, but it certainly troubles Anduin.

"I am glad," he says, after a long moment. "I am happy to see you so well. I --"

He takes in a breath, shaking himself free of the darkness of his thoughts, the corners of his lips quirking for a moment. "I do have a request for you. A commission, I suppose. So that I am not entirely wasting your time with your questions. If I might only ask a few more first?"

He waits for the young jeweler's assent before he continues, "The patron of this village... He is quite the curious character. What do you know of him?"

"I... I should be getting back," he murmurs, although a commission might ease some of the master's pressures. This one last question, then, though he already turns them to start the walk in return. "What commission? We'll do most work. Reasonable time, and... and if you're not choosy on the amount of silver true, then..."

But never mind that. For now, "The... you mean, the lord beast? He comes, now and then. Every few seasons. I suppose, sometimes he's delayed a year. Takes what the Hok-Shinn and the people of Ke-Waiar bring him. And he leaves with them. Usually, he doesn't stay long, but... I suppose, with the Brother breathing warm, everyone's waiting to see if he'll burst."

"And what does this beast lord offer the village in return?" Anduin asks, frowning.

There has to be some reason for this arrangement. From what Anduin has seen of the Beastmaster himself -- merely passing glimpses on the street, but it was certainly enough -- he is an intimidating individual. Along with the creatures he travels with as well... From everything he has seen of the villagers' reactions to the supernatural, he would think that they'd be terrified. And maybe they are. Who is to say this is not a relationship based in fear.

"Has this happened before, for that matter? The volcano? Are -- you not afraid that you should not leave now, in case it does breathe fire?"

"He's a good patron. He brings us hunt and keeps us safe," he offers, an answer stronger to his own ear, now that the events of the evening have passed. He thinks — and it heats him to say, "He wouldn't approve of last night. He doesn't like that sort of thing. Any superstition."

The Beastmaster isn't one for the old ways, especially none so cruel, so beholden to hardship. He intends to speak again, but they've grown close enough to the stall again already, and his master seems eager to have him returned to his tasks.

Sheepishly, Dong-Yun speaks louder towards Anduin, so the elder jeweller might hear and be appeased for it, "Thank you, sir, for your trust. I understand you'll want word at home before agreeing the carriage. Now, what was the commission you meant to order today?"

Anduin understands that he has taken enough of the young man's time. It has been good to see him today, and while he still has some concerns about whether he is doing as well as he claims, he is at least doing better than he had been on the night that Anduin had seen him last.

He offers the other man a soft smile of understanding, but he does not immediately turn to go. The mention of a commission had been genuine, and instead he moves to reach and push up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a silver cuff around his wrist, crafted into a lionhead design, with two light blue gemstones for its eyes not unlike the color of his own.

"I had... My partner had this crafted for me," Anduin says, choosing his words as carefully as he can, so as to not incriminate Wrathion. "It need not be something quite like this, but. I would like to be able to give him something in return." He understands that, having made this cuff for him himself, Wrathion could of course make himself something of the sort. But that would defeat the purpose of a gift.

He hesitates for a moment before adding softly, with a quick glance toward Dong-Yun's master, "I... Cannot pay a great sum for it, but I. I would pay."

A moment of silence as Dong-Yun accepts the cuff, rolls it in his hands, measures its weight. After, with a slow nod, tenderly conclusive, he holds it back to its rightful owner.

"We'll aim for something good." And he will indeed deliver it within days: a thin silver coin featuring the etching of a lion's head, no pay asked.

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