READY TO ROLL OUT
That awkward moment when even a brothel won’t have you.Characters will end their sojourn at the House of Dew early morning, helmed by Haltham (and his murderous goat, chomping on his prosthetic wooden hand for splinter nutrients). Courtesans and attendants will send the group away with parting gifts: a few sacs of grains, handfuls of spice, a small barrel of brew, several of water, thin blankets and four fat chickens.
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The decrepit farm stands an hour’s walk east of Sa-Hareth, bordering the forest at the foot of the mountain.
...and it has not wanted for company. Monstrously overgrown wolves prowl the region, with some of the pack settled inside the farm. The wolves are halfway between dead and living, instantly aggressive, sharper, faster, smarter and blue-eyed beyond natural expectation.
The wolves are drawn to heat and fire-bearers. They can be slain, or pushed back into the forest. If the brawl drags on, the wolves may receive reinforcements.
Distantly, characters can observe silhouettes of pale-eyed, humanoid creatures in the forest, covered in animal skins. They seem to speak to the wolves, though it is unclear if they soothe or set them to attack. |
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Once an elaborate woodsmen’s station, the 'farm' is a generous, sprawling outpost built, home to now-barren inner garden.
The farm spreads across kitchens, bathing rooms, hefty storage barns, a handful of isolated rest halls and broader communal areas. A study room has been crammed with accountancy tomes, papers and other books, many torn alongside glass shards on the floor. A shakily furnished barn was coarsely repurposed for banquets.
Set up, inspect, repurpose. There’s enough dust and mildew to go around, and several walls and roof stretches will need reinforcements.
“Ah,” characters say innocently, “Surely the cold will keep away vermin —” You have rats. Large, uncuddly, distinctly violent, prone to swarming once the sun’s downed. Enjoy that first night.
Haltham will provide some base construction supplies over a few deliveries, along with a personal gift: a herding dog, to watch over two fluffy sheep.
Flex those green thumbs: many moons ago, enchantments were set in place to warm the garden to a tolerable level that will allow the expedited harvest of an arctic patch. These spells will need to be activated and periodically recharged every few days by characters donating recoverable amounts of magic or physical stamina, by touching a nearby rune. But, hey: potatoes, turnips, kale, mmmmmmmmm, a balanced diet. |
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“Never open your doors at night,” Haltham says on parting. Lend him an ear — and, once the moon rises, hear the forest whispers. Some voices will beg rescue from the cold, others will tease and taunt, a few will imitate enemies or kin. Some will even disrupt dreams.
The voices will seek to lure characters out of their shelter. Those who heed will find themselves compelled to walk into the forest, entranced and ignorant of the cold that slowly envelops them. They will be vulnerable to the elements, tundra predators and the woodland creatures, growing increasingly feral.
Those who survive the night in the forest will wake to find themselves floating in a chilled, but strangely not-yet frozen lake in the morning. They can have faint recollections, as if they themselves lived any of the following events: a friend taking a dark path, the loss of a dear skill, years in a coffin, a close friend parted, a beloved reunion, a lost brother, a tender romance and rare bliss in poverty.
At the bottom of the lake, they may spot the still corpse of an undead that feels too heavy for anyone to lift. His arm has a tattooed red sleeve.
During the day, characters who visit the forest will find it eerily silent, with some trees showing signs of scratches and lingering rope. The lake can still be found, but entering it during daytime will not allow characters to experience foreign memories. |
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Karsa will reconfigure everyone’s quartz pieces to translate outside of the House of Dew and communicate in a private channel. Still nothing like individual inboxes at this time!
Up to player discretion if Karsa had the time and humour to change their usernames, or stranded them to their House of Dew identities a little longer.
Characters will also be able to access a secondary local fishermen’s network and listen in on their schedules, local gossip and daily weather updates.
Woodsmen, tradesmen and miners will be surprised to see anyone inhabiting the farm, with some men pulling away, calling the place cursed. |
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groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2021-05-10 08:56 pm
no subject
The dry look Archeval casts Five now is a little amused. It's not like he has room to judge the other's ethics; sometimes in the pursuit of safety or power or answers, one simply has to accept some drastic methods. He can respect that, if not how standoffish the other man has seemed so far toward the rest of the group.
"Call me when it happens, then. Better three than two. And if I go out there properly prepared for it--" He narrows his eyes over at the closed door.
"Well, assuming this is a spirit or spirits, I have a great deal of experience dealing with ghosts."
And he'll try his best to protect them all-- But he doesn't say that part out loud, not wanting to poke at Five's pride or make him overly suspicious. In the absence of the rest of Five's family, perhaps consulting with an outside specialist could at least speed up his research, though 'Darth Imperius' is undoubtedly less easy to trust.
"...unless you're still determined to solve everything and escape this whole place all on your own, I suppose," he adds, giving Five another wry glance. He still can't quite get a read on the other man, but somehow can't completely dislike him either -- perhaps it's the Force offering him a faint premonition or just simply seeing how the other behaves, but something in this furtive and standoffish stranger reminds him a little of himself.
no subject
That's something he keeps running into. No matter how often he pushes them away, there's always someone popping up to offer a hand. They can tell him it's because they're all in this together, but he still thinks it has something to do with how he looks. They have no idea what he's capable of, and that goes the same for any of the rest of them.
At least with Arche, he's starting to get a better idea of his abilities, having experienced them first hand. It forces him to be more careful than he'd really like to be.
The look he gets when he makes his last comment speaks for itself. Mock all he wants, Five is the only one of them capable of solving everything. That's not his ego speaking, it's just the simple fact of who he is. He's not going to rely on some mysterious portal once he gets his family back. Or anyone else for that matter.
He takes a sharp breath.
"You do remember that you nearly choked me to death the last time I followed you into the woods." All of ten minutes ago. "So thanks for the offer, but I think I'll take a different approach."
It still bothers him though. Why he's acting so friendly after what just happened. He hasn't exactly encouraged him. "What makes you so eager to help me?"
no subject
"As for why would I help? Because I want to. It's not complicated. Should I seek to thwart you just because we argued once? Near as I can tell you seem a suspicious, nasty little asshole, but if I condemned everyone I knew with an awful personality I'd have to kill half my staff and also myself."
The blunt words are accompanied by a bone-dry stare; apparently the subtle approach just isn't going to work out here. Ah well, he's more used to the Sith way than all these social niceties anyhow.
"If what you are really asking is what I think I'm going to get out of it, the answer is I don't. Perhaps we'll collectively run across something that helps make this little group safer or get us home faster, but it's just as likely you'd somehow manage to keep that bit all to yourself. As I said to you once before. My objective is for all of us to get out of here, with life and limb intact, including you. That is all that I want. Whatever you think you need to keep from the rest of the group with all your skulking about, if you're not planning to murder us all or strand us on this world then you're wasting your time with me. So far, you remain the enemy of my enemy who has not betrayed me just yet--"
He gave a careless little shrug.
"Good enough."
no subject
The more he goes into his reasons, the more he watches him for any tells that he's got anything more on his mind. The man obviously doesn't trust him, and all but says he expects him to keep vital information to himself, but he's still willing to take that gamble. Should Five be flattered that he expects him to figure something out? As far as he knows, he's one of the most determined people here, so it's probably a smart move. The rest of them are too easily distracted.
He can't even say he's that far off in his predictions, which is why the caveats he makes are almost funny. He's not planning on either of those things, but he can't say he hasn't fantasized about them once or twice. Possibly more. He tells himself that he's done with that life, and meant it at the time, but when you've killed as many people as he has sometimes it's hard not to picture it. And it's been stressful here. Not 'the apocalypse is in three days' stressful, but his poor mood should be expected.
Still. Other than throwing in the word 'little' he doesn't make a crack about his age, so a welcome change.
"Sounds reasonable enough." Are they reaching a truce? That seems premature when he's still a stranger to him, but he seems to have formed some pretty solid opinions. For all Five has eavesdropped, he has too. "To be clear, I'm still here because I'm looking for my family. Now I've found my sister, and I know the rest are out there. Once I find them, we're going home."
After he cleans up this mess. He doesn't know how yet, but it's what he spends most of his time working on. Just because it's extraordinarily complicated math, doesn't mean it's impossible to untangle.
"This is a relationship of convenience. We don't owe each other anything, and I'll keep it that way." He doesn't make friends. He makes deals. -- Then for whatever reason, he decides to relent. Not because he's tired of doing everything on his own, but because he knows it'll be more of a headache if they all turn against him.
He eyes him for another long moment, then nods.
"Fine. You want to help, so long as you keep your distance, I'll take it."
no subject
"I am content to be used for my skills as long as you're willing to offer the same. And I'm sure you're aware it doesn't matter if I keep my distance--" Briefly, he gives Five another amused quirk of one brow.
"But as long as you don't lay hands on my person without prior warning, you are otherwise safe with me." For exactly as long as Five doesn't screw him over, of course, but surely that goes without saying. (And there seems very little chance that 'we' refers to the whole group rather than Five's family alone, so surely it's coming somewhere down the line, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets there.) It's actually pretty refreshing to converse with someone who speaks his language. Negotiating boundaries with a very dubious ally who might turn on him at any moment, so that at least the both of them won't get gobbled up by the much more dangerous threat lurking over their shoulders... Ahh, brings back memories of his Academy days.
"But in that case." He glances out the window toward the dark forest again. "If we have established we'll be collaborating a bit on this matter, I'll have a look out there in the morning with proper preparation, see what I can feel out about this... presence. If a daylight investigation reveals nothing of use, well, we shall see."
no subject
If what he says is true, there shouldn't be a need. Their goals aren't completely the same, but they're similar enough in this.
"What does that mean? Are you going to try to conjure a spirit?" He still thinks what happened earlier is more akin to mind control, but he's curious how many people have that power.
no subject
"But detect the presence of anything lurking there, perhaps. If it's largely dormant during the day, even odds whether I might get the jump on it or simply not find anything at all, but I won't know until I check. If I do find something--..."
He hesitates a moment before giving a little shrug.
"I doubt it will negotiate, but once in a blue moon these things are willing to go away if you satisfy their wants. Failing that, I'll get rid of it. Provided it's actually a spirit of the dead, of course."
no subject
"So in your best case scenario, the entire episode was caused by a single spirit that you can locate and disperse. The voices in the woods disappear, and we're left with our more tangible enemies who are somehow unrelated." He phrases it that way for the obvious point. The wolves and the other beings in the woods are clearly after them. If it really is only restless spirits and undead, why the tactic of luring them out one at a time?
The alternative is something he's still considering. But he also has to think of his sister. Keeping her safe and calm is a priority, for her sake and all of theirs. They're not going to get their hands on her.
He looks Arche up and down once more before he agrees in a quiet monotone.
"I'll show you where we were."
no subject
"Single spirit... Yes, perhaps. I'm making many assumptions that may or may not pan out, of course. But typically I would expect a single particularly powerful, malicious ghost to be behind a phenomenon like this. A group often has less interest in the corporeal beings around it -- but that's not a universal, of course, and naturally conditions here may differ from what I'm familiar with -- the death-based sorcery in this region alone has already proven to--..."
He stops himself with a wave of one hand before he can get too far into the weeds.
"Well, I'm sure you don't want a whole dissertation. Whether I can rid us of it, or them, should not be a problem. Even if it is somehow allied with the other inhabitants of these woods, that won't be an issue if it's no longer present." Probably, anyway, but he's certainly not about to get into the details of his methods and what he'd actually be doing with a ghost if there is one, not with someone who's spent weeks eavesdropping to learn about him instead of just asking. Five plainly distrusts him more than enough already.
"The real question is whether it's a ghost at all. But yes, at any rate... I suppose we shall see in the morning what, if anything, I can dig up."
no subject
In either case, it doesn't make a huge difference if he's successful or not. They can eliminate one threat or be stuck with the ones they started with.
"Right." It still feels strange. Makes him uncomfortable not having total control over this plan, but what choice does he have? Despite what he said earlier, he doesn't see a way to avoid going into the woods alone with him if he's going through with this. Whatever he digs up, and however he deals with it, Five will be there to witness himself.
For a moment it seems he might just disappear with the agreement that they'll meet in the morning, but he holds his gaze a moment longer in thought.
"Do you see the ghosts, or can you only sense them?"
no subject
"Both?" He gives a brief glance out the window again before making himself turn away entirely at last. "It's not an exact science, ghosts are great individuals. If they're powerful and aware enough to have any interest in an outsider's presence, usually they will show themselves to me. If that is the case, most likely you will be able to see them as well. But there's no telling, really. I can conjecture all I like, but with this place's track record so far, only experience will tell us if things here work remotely as I am used to."
( Hi, once again I'm so sorry for dropping the ball on this! They're close to a stopping point here, so are you good with maybe wrapping up Five and Arche's evening and just handwaving that they didn't find anything conclusive in their daytime search? Let me know if it'd be more useful to do something different. )
no subject
Well, notable but maybe not entirely useful in this case. Five's curiosity ends with a sigh.
"I assumed as much." He shakes his head, suddenly feeling tired. This could be a waste of time, but on the off chance it isn't, it's preferable to sitting around hoping the voices don't get to him again.
"We'll meet here in the morning." Their agreement settled on his end, he gets up to leave; abruptly turning around and disappearing in a ripple of light without waiting for a reply.
( Completely fine! Five could have blinked away in the tag before this, so it's very realistic for him to do so now because he's this way. We can handwave that it wasn't conclusive, but he has more to say on it since then in light of kidnapping and newcomers so I'm sure there will be follow up of... some kind. )