plot roll | they walk among us

[groundrules]

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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 of passable standing — …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.

QUESTIONS

NPC ACCESS: CHRICHTER

Comments

[snowcleave]

[ Intrigued Fei keeps her sword at the ready but hangs back and watches Xingchen work, looking away once Wrath's brandished weapon pulls her focus, the sound of the cries beyond the wall making her skin crawl.

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). ]

[inferus]

( Wrath raises an eyebrow when she steps in front of him a little bit. )

...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.

[snowcleave]

[ The more of this hidden chamber she takes in, the more her face hardens into a mask of revulsion, exhaustion creeping in the longer she treads water, making it more difficult to keep her expression level.

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. ]

[inferus]

( Wrath does understand her meaning though they have little time to share in this understanding. The mannequins come to life. He had been using his device throughout to show the rest of the group what they've discovered - some things defy words, which is why action is also so important to him.

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.

[snowcleave]

[ Even though the water slows her down in a number of ways, Fei keeps moving, ignoring the way her sword seems to grow heavier the longer they remain, fighting these clawing, blind, panicked creatures off.

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. ]