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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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( there's no response to his actions from elsewhere, at least not immediately. wei wuxian had only stuck around enough to ensure he didn't hear any pained responses after a weapon draw, and then he was undoing locks and freeing 'tributes' who, at least in majority, swarmed forward and out. two come to a pause by moran, looking between him and the guard on the ground, fearful. is he a guard too? does he want something worse, or more immediate?

the third just walks right out and scampers away into the shadows, which isn't actually helpful, considering where in the area does this person expect to be going?

it's the final two that wei wuxian appears with, wrestling them forward and holding onto their collars with a wan expression on his face. )

The problem with a system of tribute is it doesn't stop the problem, and only keeps those paying tribute in line out of fear. We'll handle it, thank you, please stop trying to run straight toward death.

I of course do not suppose you have seen any of the Hok-Shinn Clan in these tributes.

[An assumption he feels safe to make, honestly. They are so... stereotypically bad.]

I wonder what ties they might have to the Clan the Beastmaster is from. Also peculiar that his Clan somehow bred two people with extraordinary powers.

[Is he just ignoring the freed people in favor of the big picture? Yes, for now.]

( still holding the two who want to sacrifice themselves by the collar, and one starts to argue with moran. wuxian ignores them, responding instead to Moran after a nod to the cooperative former tributes, out of this village, to where the witches see. )

Does create it's own link, mm? And for one to become more... close to the living than the deathless as the mountain swells and bleeds it's own life granting dark waters, versus the rest. Or if those are simply the corruption.

Death certainly is a bit of an elastic concept here. It would stand to reason that life also is.

[There's one glare towards the man who started arguing, and apparently, even tired and in foreign territory, Moran still has the Imperial Stare of Dissatisfaction down pat, because that shuts him up really quickly.

He pushes himself back to his feet, wiping his hands on his robes.]

He and Hyang-tai appear to be of the same generation since they share a part of their name. I think she is older than she appears, but they still both seem to be younger than Anurr. I do not know enough about the Huntress.

Anurr is eldest of all those we've met, and likely older than the Brotherhood. Our own spirit scholar is older than even Anurr.

( ... prob...ably, because he remembers before... there were undead being around at all, when slavery was certainly around as much as always, but that had been why he'd been killed. )

Ah, have you spoken with Asgeirr before? He didn't like our time at the tower, it made him too aware of his unnatural lingering due to its own unnatural state. He may have some insight for the overall considerations, but specific to this place...

( He pauses, frowning. Shooing forward the rest who need to continue onward and out, and even the arguer grumbles but moves forward. The two he'd been hauling by the collar are looking at him in utter confusion, not tracking where his mind is leaping, or what spirit scholars are, or if this man's crazy, and appearing to decide he must be, but they'll sort out escaping the crazy man later.

Ergo, they're ready to herd all but the man who ran ahead out of the courtyard of the small home and ... toward the fetters. )

You don't mind snakes, do you?

I cannot say I have spoken to him, no. The very concept of his existence is just...

[He waves his hand a little, which shows, quite adequately, that this is not, for him, a problem of superstition or fear, but of logic. Just like he ignored the ghosts on the Stairs of Sigh simply because they were not supposed to exist.]

I'll just have to get over it, I suppose.

I have nothing against snakes, no. Is that where we're taking them?

Mm, best to remind ourselves this land doesn't believe in our truths anymore than we believed in its before we arrived.

( for him, that'd be the bodied dead, in such a way that does not happen in his world, but for Moran, it's been very clearly any sort of spiritual influence. such as it is. )

Yes, with the witches, the fetters is about the only place liable for all of you not to be dragged back and marched off again.

( for which most glance at him and nod, fingers knotting into worried lines before them, shoulders hunched, and through the outskirts they move, to the paths which will take them further still. )

Hm, the locals probably will not want to come fish them out of there. And I don't think Hyang-tai will object... but maybe I should arrange to have a bit more food sent out.

[So, smart move indeed.

By now the former captives seem to have noticed, too, just how similar in look the two men are, eyes clearly going from one face to the next and then back, and exchanging looks and a few whispers.]

So many superstitions, though... what do they think throwing people in a volcano can do?

Although I must say, I have my doubts that these people would have ended up with that fate.

Mm, in a land that still pays credence to a lord of death, where bodies are fuel for armies which are not apparently content to be only as they are, I doubt it as well.

( a flickering glance toward two of their charges when the staring is too pronounced. one glances away, rubbing at the back of their neck, while the other one blurts out: Are you twins?

wei wuxian tosses moran an amused look, and a flick of his fingers. )

Care to educate?

( because left to wei wuxian, in his present mood, utter fabrication might be his personal whim. )

I would think the answer is rather obvious?

[Who said fabrications are only your hobby, Wei Wuxian? Besides, it might actually be interesting to see how fast this rumor spreads, and how, if it does.

And besides, it's not like he lied either.

For now, though, he goes back to ignoring whatever turmoil is going through their charges and go back to examining the big picture.]

I'm quite interested in knowing what exactly happens in that House of Ravens. My best guess is human trafficking, but yes, they're probably being conscripted for the Beastmaster's armies, or any of his allies.

( while the whispers about the twins they must be are now beginning in their small group, he continues herding them around and to the narrow paths through to the fetters, nodding to the gentle fears of these frightened people, and not allowing them to balk. along those paths, they find the one who'd bolted ahead, waiting for their party before they too continue onward. )

The two hardly exclude each other, and trafficking here isn't limited to the living, but it seems to matter that you accept something in the process, something about how each lord crafts their soldiers. Unhalad used hunger, famine, things of that nature. Anurr's winds called for vengeance, delivered cold as the mountain air. What do our current guests rely on?

Sin? Guilt?

[They sure love those curses and those superstitions.]

It's complicated, because some of them seem to genuinely like the Beastmaster, just like some people in Sa-Hareth liked Anurr. And if the curse that grips Ellethia wasn't so severe as to forbid any kind of life there, I wager we would have seen the same thing.

How the volcano factors in all of this, I still can't fathom. Most probably, human sacrifices were a thing a long time ago. I doubt they are still being carried out now on a regular basis. But now we have an eruption coming and two undead lords who have come to it in search of more power.

... And a rift among them. Has anyone managed to piece out why the Huntress has decided to leave her allies?

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