let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2022-09-03 10:23 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-09-03 10:23 pm
Entry tags:
plot roll | they walk among us
THEY WALK AMONG US | THE NEUTRAL ZONE
Neutral Zone bridges connect Eidris and Minaras in the two one-hour intervals of each day — 6:00-7:00 and 18:00-19:00 — when both citadel halves are overground. These are safe and shielded spaces — until protesters linked to the Remembrance resistance join the milling crowds.
Protestors rent ’eyes,’ paying exorbitantly to possess the bodies of willing strangers. They are difficult to spot until they’re right beside you, trying to lure or abduct you into the cause of forcibly reuniting Serthica. Both Eidris and Minaras offer bounties for Remembrance members. Remembrance lieutenants are meanwhile actively recruiting, asking an act of fealty to join their ranks.
✘ OBJECTIVE: capture Remembrance members or play spy within the group.
- ■ Shallow inquiries reveal Remembrance members have been infiltrating the Neutral Zone crowds for a week prior. The Eidris and Minaras administration offer 50,000 coin for every member of Remembrance brought in.
■ The job is encumbered by the use of ‘eyes’: Remembrance members make their getaway by abandoning their rented bodies when they face trouble. To avoid this, Minaras and Eidris loan out miniature hand-held body-lock gear that will keep someone’s awareness in the body they occupy for six hours. To activate the lock, touch the bracelet to the subject’s nape. Each body-lock gear can only be used five times.
■ Remembrance members typically wait until you’ve reached a narrow and crowded part of the bridges, before slipping beside you to whisper their pitch: ”Don’t you miss your family? Was only one citadel, once, our Serthica. Could walk free to our mines, then, to our factories, our dragons. What’s division done for you, except make rich people richer?”
■ They withdraw into the crowd at the first sign of hostility, but will entertain whispered conversation, if you appear interested. Some speak of their leader Chrichter — an allegedly honest, stalwart man of the people — as Serthica’s true hope for the future.
■ Remembrance members work in groups, with a scout alerting the others when constables walk by.
■ Characters sensitive to life forces might feel the ‘eyes’ have multiple spirits inside them, or the spirit that occupies the body is very blurred and undefined (because of regular substitution).
■ As Remembrance seeks political leverage, the easiest way for new conscripts to prove their loyalty is to bring a captive or coerced member of the Eidris or Minaras aristocracy or a person ofpassablestanding — …who may be an unlucky NPC, or one of your allies, finally polishing their acting skills.
■ Keep up the act: Remembrance has zero tolerance for those who belittle or question the cause.
■ Some members of Remembrance might abduct you, using chloroform and brute force, and pretending you are their good friend who has taken drunk or ill in the crowd. If you have been kidnapped or are joining Remembrance freely, prepare to be blindfolded and led down a winding path through the Neutral Zone — and into the impoverished underworld of the Mouse House.
■ The headquarters of Remembrance is in a large, now destitute train station. It would have once served the coal train that traverses the Mouse House daily. High-standing Remembrance lieutenants access the station with large, peculiarly shaped keys.
■ Everyone in the group wears a mask — you receive one as you head in, both for privacy and to fend off the stench of pestilential wet and mould.
■ The Remembrance base is dusty, chaotic, brimming with scraps and random tech projects. Here and there, find dissected or repurposed droids, along with several man-sized burlap mannequins and mislaid toys. No child is ever present. On the walls, colourful graffiti writes, OPEN THE WALLS, PLAY WITH YOUR DOLLS, TWO PENCE A POP, WHERE HAVE YOUR DRAGONS GONE?, BRING OUT YOUR DEAD…
■ Remembrance reunites a motley crowd of desperate men and women. Their households were either destroyed by the ‘coal sickness,’ or divided when work obligations confined some to Eidris, others to Minaras. Several group members are tinkerers, devising new protest weapons and gear — including the terror bullets witnessed during the trade summit. Many members work honest jobs overground, with a minority serving the Neutral Zone. They have minimal interaction with the Mouse House.
■ Remembrance offers the train station as a crude, but functional shelter. Best avoid sleeping here overnight — in your wretched dreams, your dark-fingered hands go to your throat, and decay haunts your body, as you attempt to flee a sinister mountain at all costs.
■ Remembrance leader Chrichter is a frequent (masked) sight, seen speaking and planning with his lieutenants. There is word of a coming attack during the ‘Unwinding.’ It is unclear if Remembrance expects to attack or be attacked.
■ Now and then, the headquarters activity shuts down, and you should hide as overground constables conduct Mouse House raids .They never enter the train station — and Chrichter and his men often prepare bribes. But you’re fair game if you’re captured for your own negligence.
■ A locked back room in the Remembrance headquarters leaks rare rivulets of blood or blackened water. Sometimes, you hear fists banging on the door or animal-like howling for a scant few seconds. Everyone studiously ignores these incidents. The door only opens once — when a furious Chrichter exits, kicking a lifeless burlap mannequin off his clawed, bleeding back.
■ You can enter the headquarters freely if you supply the passcode, WAKE UP. You might want to release the forced Remembrance captives on your way out.
NPC ACCESS: CHRICHTER
no subject
That may not be a good thing.
Everything about this room not only sounds awful, but the feeling inside is also just...wrong. It doesn't feel like anything exactly that he's experienced before, but he wouldn't be surprised if this world had something similar to resentful energy. And with the description of a table with chains, all the blood, and the occasional screams coming from the walls...
Of course, he wonders if this is a torture chamber. It certainly has the right feeling. But then there's a dollhouse and drawings and those don't seem to fit. Then again, if this is a madman's murder room, then it doesn't have to make sense to someone like him. To the person doing the bloodletting, this could be completely normal.
It doesn't help that the covered sword on his back, Shuanghua, fluctuates between vibrating and not, as if it cannot decide what kind of danger this room represents. Undead? Dead? Something else? It's best for him to not jump to conclusions.
What Xingchen does, however, is reach behind him and unwrap the sword enough to draw it out a few inches. Then he runs the palm of his other hand along the blade to draw his own blood. He dips a finger into the blood and focuses, visualizing his own qi, before drawing a protection talisman on his own sleeve. It may not work. He hasn't been practicing writing for a while, but thankfully Chu Wanning's help has stuck with him. Hopefully, it's better than nothing.]
There is nothing good about this room. I can offer to draw a protective charm on your clothing, if you would like.
no subject
Hell, at least, has strict rules about what exists inside of it, which are enforced by the ones who rule it. This room is some being's idea of taking control over life and death itself. His gaze is sharp as he takes in the details of the room, noting the stains of dark water, the blood stained upon the ground both human and other, and the strange childish drawings.
The table is a clear sign of some sick experimentation, someone's twisted idea of creation as if they were a god. What manner of choice do beings have in this? Are they even capable of choice? More burlap, twisted in strands. Like the dolls discarded outside, like the one clawing at Chrichter's back. Too bad it did not slice his throat open and spill his damned blood to the Earth, or is he one of these too?
He picks up a piece of it and flicks it off again. The room grows colder as Wrath's anger grows, but his focus is clear.
Magnus' attention was drawn to the wall: living but not is an accurate assessment. Hands beat up against the wall near Wrath's face, and he does not flinch. Mouths bite through the wall on the other side, desperate and clawing. What true Hell, do they exist in?
Open the walls, the writing said. )
There's something beyond.
no subject
The familiar weight of Youhuang provides an evaporating degree of comfort, as Fei's blood runs cold, catching sight of the hands that press against the other side of the skin wall, seeking to get closer to Wrath when he nears it.
When Xingchen speaks up, offering a protective charm, she hums in assent. ]
You should, I think we need it.
[ What they needed was to burn this monstrous room to cinders, but not knowing if that would bring harm to the children living at the orphanage, or the civilians dwelling below the cities keeps Fei from making that recommendation. ]
What could have made such a place?
[ She stops beside Wrath, watching the wall warily. ]
We cut it open then?
[ Like an infection. Break the skin and drain the ick out, right? ]
no subject
The dark stains are like the dark water in the volcano, beneath the sea. Whatever is taking place here, it's experimentation, and it's- it's a twisted, dark, terrible action taken by those who have no right to interfere with life in this way. These are people - not gods.
One way or another, he intends to put a stop to it. His dark, gold gaze rests on Fei as he places his serpent dagger against the membrane, feels the softness of it against the tip of the blade. )
It appears to be the only way to find out what is truly happening in this room. They will realize this room was discovered soon. ( And they will take measures to prevent being discovered, he can only imagine, and then as his knife presses into the wall - he stops as it writhes against the blade. ) There will be consequences to anyone who goes within.
( It's a warning. There is no way they can cut into this magical, damned wall of life-but-not without some result to whoever chooses to do so. )
no subject
Still, he takes a breath and approaches Zhou Fei first, smearing a fingertip into the blood on his opened palm.]
Hold still. I don't see like I used to.
[Now isn't the time for a joke, and not one such as that, but it still settles him a little more. He draws on her sleeve with the same focus he gave his own clothing, then offers the same service to the others, should they accept.
Once that's done, he thinks of what else he can do. If they're going to open the walls, regardless of not knowing what is behind them, then they need to be prepared to hold anything back.]
Is there any place on the floor that is unobstructed? I will draw protection there, as well.
[And to make sure it doesn't lose any effectiveness, he needs to not let it cross into any of that old blood...or other unknowable stains.]
Be careful. If anything gets to be too much for you, come back out. Your lives are more important.
no subject
Two steps forward should give you the space to draw, bring you close enough to the wall.
( But not too close to be potentially be in danger from whatever lies beyond especially if that protection holds. He does not bother saying that he is immortal, that he cannot easily be harmed and even when he is, his demon magic heals it. He is one of the seven princes of Hell, the king of Hell itself, and he will not be bested by a living-but-not room.
His dagger's tip is pressed against the wall again, and he watches the way it pulsates against the sharpened blade. The creatures beyond let out another unholy screech, and Wrath's expression turns predatory, knowing Fei intends to cut through too. )
Now. ( And he dives the blade in, sharp, watching the way it cuts open the wall as if it were flesh though no blood spits out in answer. Unfortunately. )
no subject
Lifting Youhuang she moves towards it, ignoring the revulsion to press the tip of her weapon against the unsettlingly skin-like surface. She hears Wrath and sees him make his move from the corner of her eye before pressing forward to do the same, slitting the wall enough to walk through without needing to stoop.
Alert, Fei keeps her sword out in front of her as she stares down at the dark water she's stepped into before a soft noise by where the mannequins are clustered together pulls her focus towards it, the sight making her eyes widen. ]
What are they?
[ Treading water she steps sideways, closer to Wrath and just a bit in front of him, like she's preparing herself to take the first blows for his sake (dagger or no who knows what he's capable of). ]
no subject
...you do not have to protect me. ( He can heal from all damage though the dark water does appear to be sapping his magic away. It will heal as soon as he leaves these waters regardless, and he cannot die. )
Burlap mannequins like the ones outside.
However, some of these appear to be - human, alive. That is how they feel.
( He gestures to the ones with features, the one where the burlap appears to be more like flesh. )
But obviously, nothing about this is... natural.
no subject
She acknowledges Wrath's mention of not needing protection with an absent nod. ] Refreshing.
[ As long as this one doesn't trip over himself like Wangji does and prove her wrong, that is. Fei's stomach turns as she surveys the lifelike faces some of the mannequins have gained while back here soaking in this strange water. The hand not gripping Youhuang raises to her cheek as she stares at them. ] If they have no bones to break, they can open their mouths wide.
[ The feeling of her own jaw beneath her hand makes something click while she looks at them, but before she has a chance to look towards Wrath and affirm he garnered her meaning, the sharp sound of movement through water makes her prepare herself, as the once lifeless things in here with them seem to start to wake. ]
no subject
However, they are soon accosted by burlap and flesh and all states in between as these creatures react in fear.
He feels their fear. It gives him a boost to his magic through their attack despite the dark water simultaneously draining them, and he fights them off, wrestles them down one after the other. Within the midst of the battle, they work in tandem - two trained warriors.
No words required to throw a mannequin her way as she uses her sword to block and parry and push them back. Eventually it is the two of them in the quiet that follows with dark water at their feet, and the sounds of the mannequins pushing further into the headquarters. )
We need to leave.
no subject
A fast look over her shoulder orients her, and though she's aware she doesn't have to, out of habit she's already working to give him cover so he can get out first.
One of the dreadful creatures gets its grip on her free arm and Fei's focus is pulled by the new effort it takes to swing her sword and beat the thing off of her. She can feel the rough edges of half-formed fingernails dig into her skin through her clothing but pushes the discomfort aside to focus on the fight. ]
Quickly, the way is to your left.
[ Old habits and all that. ]