let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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westwhere2022-08-13 03:17 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-08-13 03:17 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arc iv,
- asoiaf: daenerys targaryen,
- baldur's gate: astarion,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- legend of fei: zhou fei,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: red,
- owl house: eda clawthorne,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- serthica,
- shadowhunters: magnus bane,
- star trek: jim kirk (aos),
- star trek: leonard mccoy (aos),
- star trek: una,
- star wars: finn,
- the gifted: marcos diaz,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- touken ranbu: kanesada,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- umbrella academy: five,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- word of honor: zhou zishu
serthica: war & peace
Clockwork Serthica’s arrival event stretches til around 3 September. You’re welcome to hit up this log or make your own entries. Characters not assigned to a region can still access it, as long as they’re discreet.
Please share cool plot clues via network — and have fun!
SUMMARY: The Merchant assigns the group to determine if the dead lurk within Serthica’s adversarial halves. Eidris and Minaras hold a summit to normalise trade within Serthica’s elusive Neutral Zone — while a resistance movements attempts to capture Minaras lead figure Arabella. In Eidris, locals must calm a maddened dragon and her cohort and retrieve her hatching eggs. Minaras hosts its eerie civic indoctrination that seeks to extirpate physical and moral decay.
FAIR FORTUNE
The party at sea is smuggled into Serthica with help from false passport papers secured by their Mouse House companions. The two groups meet at Serthica’s port customs, in time for the Merchant’s private transmission:
”Good afternoon. I salute and thank the efforts of our recent additions. You performed exceptionally.
You will hear Serthica is sundered by war, sickness and irreconcilable differences. In truth, she is likely divided by the interests of those who weaponise fear and manipulate opportunity.
In Eidris, they claim Minaraians are not human. In Minaras, they speak the same of Eidris. Disgust, dismay and paranoia have created a… system of profound physical avoidance. If this is mere fearmongering, it is distasteful, but inconsequential. However… if one of the citadel’s halves has succumbed to the dead, who now know to feign they yet live… this marks a dire escalation. You must study this.
Your transportation beacon sleeps in the holy grounds of Vassarizhia. It will light within months, when the Heart’s clock quiets for its annual winding. You may visit the grounds during the upcoming trade summit.
While in Serthica, your only objectives are to survive until the beacon’s eye opens, and to discover the dead present. I pray but question you will prevail.”
You will hear Serthica is sundered by war, sickness and irreconcilable differences. In truth, she is likely divided by the interests of those who weaponise fear and manipulate opportunity.
In Eidris, they claim Minaraians are not human. In Minaras, they speak the same of Eidris. Disgust, dismay and paranoia have created a… system of profound physical avoidance. If this is mere fearmongering, it is distasteful, but inconsequential. However… if one of the citadel’s halves has succumbed to the dead, who now know to feign they yet live… this marks a dire escalation. You must study this.
Your transportation beacon sleeps in the holy grounds of Vassarizhia. It will light within months, when the Heart’s clock quiets for its annual winding. You may visit the grounds during the upcoming trade summit.
While in Serthica, your only objectives are to survive until the beacon’s eye opens, and to discover the dead present. I pray but question you will prevail.”
SWITZERLAND
After a lengthy inspection of their passport papers, the party is steered towards the Sanctuary of Serthica’s Neutral Zone — a vast institute near Serthica’s great clock tower. Here, representatives of Eidris and Minaras assemble at midday for peaceful negotiations to improve distant trade relations.
- ■ The Merchant recommends mingling to broaden your investigation into Serthica’s dead. Even Minaras leading figurehead Arabella will attend.
■ For peace-keeping, entrants to the Sanctuary must surrender their weapons or allow them to be sealed, if they want to carry them in. Weapons are released on departure. Physical enhancements that characters cannot remove (ex: vampire fangs) are excepted.
■ Those who are unwilling to give up or seal their weapons can head on to Eidris and Minaras.
■ Summit attendants receive badges reflecting their Serthica identities, or can divert the greeting droid and liberate the insignia of a delayed delegation. Higher-ranking badges earns you more lenient treatment and higher security clearance.
■ Eidris attendants receive golden armbands or scarves, those of Minaras dark blue.
■ In bustling halls, officials negotiate grain exchanges, new train railways, the currency exchange rate and the saddening conditions of Mouse House exiles. Alas, if only someone (not them) could help.
■ Those drafted into the talks are toasted with a green, mint-like potion — an unadvertised truth serum intended to keep negotiations honest. The potion’s effects last two to four hours, compelling truth but not speech. But do talk: candour wins answers.
■ Artisans display their finest novelty items in the main reception hall. Aggressively enthusiastic traders seek testers and investors for their wares — potent opiates, goggles that show you the world in 10 years’ time, even detailed plans for luxury teahouses offering droid companionship. Extricate yourself with as much coin and dignity as possible.
SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP
- ■ The great clock of the Neutral Zone strikes 18:00, triggering a light three-minute earthquake and the rise of nocturnal Minaras.
■ The Sanctuary loses all electric power. As servants rush for candles, you might notice some native summit delegates behave peculiarly: their eyes look glassy, faces trapped in an expression of comical, exaggerated dismay. Many are frozen in tense positions. Others move in sluggish, uncoordinated and jerky spasms. One might catch your wrist and attempt to speak in staggered, guttural croaks.
■ Lights return once the earthquake finishes. Locals resume regularly and do not seem to have noticed any erratic behaviour.
SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP
CONTENT WARNING: TERROR ATTACK
- ■ Starting her speech, Arabella of Minaras calls a tribute for those lost to the great Culling sickness that struck Serthica mere years before. The vigil is interrupted by a fusillade of rifle shots fired from outside, through the Sanctuary’s wall-long windows.
■ The bullets exclusively target Minaras delegates and do not contain gunpowder, but a thickened, pale liquid. Once shot, those wounded experience a hysterical, incontrollable terror and the certainty that their greatest fear is hunting them. Many of the shot delegates develop an instant flight response and seek to claw their way out of the Sanctuary, with no care for whom they trample in their path. This terror lasts 30-60 minutes. Please content warn if you graphically describe your character’s greatest fear.
■ As rifle gunshots die down, a voice from outside introduces the Remembrance coalition, pledging safety if the summit surrenders Arabella.
■ The Sanctuary activates emergency measures: protective magical wards start to slowly reinforce, while attendants risk their lives to return characters’ weapons.
■ You could team up and help Arabella’s few remaining guards to escort her to safety in Minaras. Drop a line if you take this route.
■ Outside, you find the Sanctuary’s grounds have been drenched in a thick fog that barely allows you to see steps ahead. Your senses dull, and you are gradually prone to sleep — while masked men close in with rifles and vicious droid hunting hounds.
■ Help Sanctuary guards take out the assailants — and submit your character for a RNG draw to interrogate a lone captive.
■ Characters who later investigate the Sanctuary can find some of its windows have been very carefully pricked, fissured or even minutely holed, easing the way for attack.
Crawl back to your home base in Eidris or Minaras — you need the beauty sleep.
EIDRIS | THERE BE DRAGONS
Eidris’s relaxed atmosphere might balm your rattled nerves after the Sanctuary’s disasters. Startled citizens gather to offer you help settling in, while dragons seek you out to curl up and nuzzle.
Eidris is governed by natural order and harmony, achieved through firm etiquette, consideration and reminders to slow down. You can hole up in a room in one of the many abandoned and repurposed villas, or group up to take a whole house. Local technology is a blend of mechanical gears and magic that substitutes fuels. Sorcerers are frequent, boastful and admired.
Dig deeper, and you’ll find the people of Eidris are unwilling to linger on negative experiences and gradually lose memory of them. If queried, many natives have normalised intermittent amnesia, with some using their link to their dragons to stay anchored in the present.
- ■ Acclimate to your roles in Eidris and enjoy the sweet welcome of neighbourly gifted meals and knitwear and a personal, signed letter of support from king Thivar.
■ Eidris prepares for the rare hatching of dragon eggs, lain by the beautiful fire-breathing Aiva — one of the fewer martial dragons used by Eidris’ military. Two weeks into your stay (around 25 August, forward date at will), word spreads that Aiva’s mate has been deeply injured by a Minaras scouting ship during the 6:00-7:00 overlap period when the two citadel halves are both overground.
■ A panicked, distrustful Aiva collects her silver-shelled eggs from the formal nest quarters, hiding them on the rooftops or in the balconies of tall, dangerous buildings. Several other martial dragons assist Aiva by guarding these hideaways until the young dragons can hatch.
■ Eidris calls back most transport dragons to avoid altercation with their fire-breathing, paranoid brethren. This might strand some riders on the nearest decrepit rooftop, while testy dragons fly by. They don’t initiate attack, but are more prone to warning tail sweeps or light charring, if you come close.
■ Dragon lord Cain d’Ubiq urges riders that can reconnect with their dragons to help retrieve the 1m, 50-kg eggs and deliver them back to the dragon grounds nest before they hatch by sundown — terrorising the baby dragons that wake alone and ripping into local architecture. Other riders are needed to spread a trail of deep incense smoke in the air that can soothe dragons from their outburst. Lend a hand!
■ Characters who enlisted for dragon riding on arrival could be middling riders by this point.
■ Aiva’s children hatch moments before the clock ticks 18:00 and Minaras also surges overground. Characters linked to a dragon feel the birth: first as an overwhelming exuberance, then as an all-consuming and irrational dread that briefly reduces them to inexplicable tears.
MINARAS | EYES ON YOU
A sharp departure from Eidris’ laissez-faire is watchful Minaras, where citizens obsess with schedules, orderliness and time — as if every second is both borrowed and wasted.
Newcomers can choose between one-person 2.5x2.5m ‘sleep units’ in packed industrial homes, or pool funds to rent small refurbished alcoves that once served as hospital or science halls. Space is a luxury, silence a myth: helper droids constantly fuss after their masters, steam engines cough outside, and the gentle thrum on the streets betrays the current-shifting omnipresence of large Watch ships.
Civic sound systems periodically bleat reminders for citizens to STAY HALE, STAY WHOLE, alongside tips for basic droid care, the latest in scientific discoveries, paid ads and reminders not to park your robotic carriage near hydrants.
- ■ Quickly learn the ropes of your assumed identity, as Minaraians have a duty to report peculiar behaviours.
■ Watch ships prevent lawbreaking while Minaras is overground. Crime rates spike rapidly when Minaras falls underground.
■ More than violence, Minaraians appear to fear their pocket watch times being wrong, filth and sickness. The smallest cough earns a stern glance and a wide berth.
■ As part of Minaras’ periodic social indoctrination, you are robotically escorted alongside your peers and other unrelated Minaraians to a civic integration centre. Here, you take turns before a mechanical droid sphinx labelled ASCLEPIOS that asks, ”What rots you? and compels an honest answer (this can be emotional, mental or physical sickness, minor or severe).
■ A painless tattoo appears on the back of your hand, listing your Decay (ex: ‘malnourishment,’ ‘a choleric temper’). Others in the indoctrination centre must help you mend through acts of care (ex: cooking you a meal, helping you meditate). The tattoo fades after 72 hours, or once sufficient acts of care have ‘cured’ you.
■ After one week (around 20 August, but feel free to forward date), a transmission from Arabella informs watch, aerial, military and health units that Minaras is changing the daily schedule of its scout ships. The last scouts will now be deployed at 4:15am and return to base by 5:00am.
no subject
[ She will not trust the droid at her side to protect her, but she still has a blade hidden on her person. Vanessa would sooner take it to the throat of any who try to drag her back to that building that risk further exposure to her bruised soul.
Her anger is quick to quiet in Moran's presence, however. It's better to focus on what he says next. To solve a puzzle is far better than linger in self-pity, but they also must be careful what they say. In Moran's presence, her droid will not leave, in fact doing its best to place itself between them. ]
To fear decay is natural, I should think, but to brand us with it is more than fear. It is terror. Should they suspect we bring another plague, then our stay may yet worsen. Lucky we are all in good health.
[ Even if any of them aren't, better not to admit it in the presence of her metallic spy. ]
no subject
[That being said, back home, a lot of the attacks he withstood were not from unvetted strangers but from people deeply embedded in the day to day life of the palace so in a way...
And no, he doesn't seem worried about the droids.]
This might well be the most dangerous place we have been to, and when you caught up to us, we were just coming down from a volcano eruption and a giant squid.
no subject
The grandest dangers often lie in the unknown, do they not? I would take a care in its presence.
[ She'd love to hear about volcanos and squids. If only she could figure out how to send it away while in a man's company. At 'home', she can have it busy itself in the kitchen or with cleaning, but out here... ]
It is overly protecting when I am in the company of men, unfortunately. I do not care for it, but it is quite adamant about this one matter. Ridiculous, really.
no subject
[Although the makings of that particular machine, well...]
Would it help for it to know I am already spoken for? My life companion is stuck in Eidris for now, but I am well and truly accounted for in that regard and with no wish to part from them, even if our union is not official.
no subject
Her rebellious nature has created so much trouble for people in the past that she is slower to let it rise here. The guilt would be too great if she endangered the others in her company before she even knows what they're capable of handling. ]
To be separated in such a way must be painful. Perhaps I am lucky to be alone, then. Are you able to meet in the Neutral Zone, as they call it?
no subject
We can, although we're both quite busy, so it's not a very frequent thing.
Will your metal companion allow me to escort you back home, if he's chaperoning? have you escaped the horrors of communal living or not?
no subject
[ Vanessa will even stand to offer her hand, but the droid is diligent about scuttling between them before she can take Moran's arm. She observes it with a dry smile, acquiescing but knowing it can't do much to stop them from simply walking together, even if it's with a slight distance. ]
I was lucky enough to receive my own estate, though I did not wish to remain alone. So many from our fresh company found themselves across the city, but dear Finn remained near and so I invited him to stay with me. What of your accommodations?
no subject
[Or rather, he can make himself function on little sleep for quite a long time when needed and this is definitely needed.
he didn't actually react to the droid getting on between them because actually taking the arm of a woman you are not married to or related to wouldn't have been a thing he would do himself, but he does give it a small smile.]
Also, my droid keeps getting weird looks. I had to actually cloth her to stop people from gawking.
no subject
His bold jest regarding murder invites a raised eyebrow and a gentle smirk. Perhaps she's been luckier than she realizes... Neither does she sleep very much, but certainly not due to obnoxious snoring. She's been gifted with more space than others in their party, and she mustn't gloat about it. If anything, it can be lonely. ]
Gawking? Whatever for? I should think the people here ought to be accustomed to metal people scurrying about the place. They are the ones to have engineered them, after all.
no subject
[Honestly, it doesn't bother Moran at all, because her 'skin' is mainly metallic scales so she doesn't look naked, to him at least, but he's not one to give second thoughts to things that don't merit them in his eyes. People gawking is an annoyance so he'll take care of that and move on.]
They're the ones who assigned her to me so I assumed they were used to having such machines around, but it doesn't appear to be as common as I thought. Most of the ones I have seen around are a lot more robot-like.
no subject
Ah. A hand goes to her mouth while she smiles a little, not wanting to cause offense with her amusement. ]
Have you attempted to dress her? I would be happy to help you find the proper clothes for a lady, though the fashion here does have some curiosities compared to London's.
no subject
[And she's silent, except for a few bleeps, which is welcome too given that he can hardly get a moment alone.]
If she's being used for surveillance on me, people must be astonishingly bored. She spends most of her days carrying my reading materials piled high enough I doubt she can even see anything. She has sensors to avoid obstacles so she doesn't really need to anyway.
no subject
I wonder if someone was playing a trick on you, burdening you with such a...suggestive assistant. This is the first I've heard of such a case. Did you anger someone you ought not have?
no subject
[As nice as he can be, he has a tendency to be an insufferable know-it-all at times.]
It's not exactly a burden to me, to be honest. I don't really care what she looks like.
no subject
Your preference lies more with your stacks of books, then? What sort do you favor, if I may ask? History? Poetry?
no subject
My life companion writes some very successful erotic novels, and they're quite good if I do say so myself.
[You should try them, they're really nice!]