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westwhere2022-10-22 07:42 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-10-22 07:42 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arc iv,
- arc iv: serthica,
- arcane: caitlyn,
- arcane: vi,
- better call saul: jimmy mcgill,
- better call saul: kim wexler,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- hellblazer: john constantine,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- legend of fei: zhou fei,
- mcu: yelena,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- noragami: yato,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: licyn mansbane,
- original: red,
- owl house: eda clawthorne,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- shadowhunters: alec lightwood,
- shadowhunters: magnus bane,
- star trek: christopher pike,
- star wars: finn,
- the clock tower,
- the gifted: lorna dane,
- the gifted: marcos diaz,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- touken ranbu: kanesada,
- umbrella academy: five,
- umbrella academy: lila pitts,
- untamed: lan wangji,
- untamed: wei wuxian,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- warframe: kahl 175
the clock tower
Happy Hallow-elevator! The clock tower event lasts between 22 October and 8 November. ICly, the tower incursion stretches around a week, and you’re welcome to have your character investigate something else, if they finish early!
ALL IS AS ALL WAS
Play it cool, as Serthica’s customs officers pore over your passport papers, before grudgingly allowing you overground. Minaras, you hear, is hunting a delinquent.
Both it and Eidris fare well, with no sign of the damage that preceded the Unwinding. Locals no longer behave eerily, dragons and clockwork droids roam freely, and everyone hates taxes.
Yet perfect strangers insist they know you. Your assigned address leads to a different house. The roads, buildings and architecture look ‘lived in,’ but changed.
No one remembers the Unwinding.
- ■ Burlap mannequins sometimes watch from mirrors, windows and reflecting surfaces.
■ You might hear shifting and scratching in Eidris walls.
■ Minaras has doubled its bounty for a man not unlike Leonard McCoy.
■ Black fungal spores are found on the increasingly voluminous experiment vials, specimens and supplies thrown out by Minaras medical facilities.
■ Frail and confused, Ellethia survivor Zenobius finally awakens. A short thread is up for RNG grabs.
TRIALS & NO ERRORS
The guard troops that Eidris and Minaras assign to the Neutral Zone now protect King Thivar and High Councillor Arabella during the annual Sanctuary Reckoning trials. Both adjudicate cases that violate the ceasefire.
Prolonging the trials buys time for your companions in the clock tower.
- ■ Create a distraction — flood the judgement hall rooms? Fire? Illusions?
■ Pose as trial participants: perhaps you are of Eidris, and you caught this wicked Minaraian raiding your home? Mayhap this wretched man of Eidris stole your girlfriend? Wait, you’re a Minaraian who wants to kill King Thivar?
■ …organise breakouts, if Thivar or Arabella have your jailed. You are first imprisoned in makeshift Sanctuary cells — all but poorly locked, glorified closets. Get a trial sentence!
■ Thivar and Arabella treat the trials as a box-ticking exercise.
THE TOWER
As Eidris and Minaras play court, you can infiltrate the Neutral Zone clock tower of Vassarizhia.
- ■ Only token security remains. The door is unlocked.
■ Karsa supplies paper talismans that must be burned in the watch fire at the tower’s top level.
■ Each burned talisman amplifies the reveal spell that Karsa activates. Link a finished burning thread by 8 November to help the cause.
■ A November mod post will describe how much of Serthica’s ‘undeath’ characters can see.
■ Placing Magnus’ dragon eye before the tower’s telescope will allow characters to always see Serthica’s undeath, moving forward.
✘ ELEVATOR ETIQUETTE
Imperfect stillness dominates Vassarizhia: your footsteps do not click, words die in your mouth. The tower’s rickety gear slither silently. Your heartbeat aligns with the clock’s tick… tock.
You have the growing, gnarly certainty that you have invaded something ancient and alive.
The tower’s entryway level is large, deserted, stacked with gears. At its core is a dilapidated open elevator shaft.
A large sign says to find and pull the floor lever, if elevators stop.
- ■ There are two elevators. Each narrow lift can hold up to four people, crammed. The upper half of the carriage is chain-link fence, while the floors contain hatches that sometimes open mid-travel for 30 seconds. Hold on to ceiling-bound leather straps.
■ The ropes holding the elevators are thick, but tattered.
■ The elevator’s creaking squeals can awaken swarms of 1m-tall bats and bat wyverns. They rattle the lift, but ultimately withdraw.
■ The elevator can stop at as many levels as you want (or none!).
■ Beyond the second level, you feel intensely paranoid and see your companions as the persons you most hate/fear for five to 10 minutes. Reaching the top, you are tempted to cut the lift ropes of those who follow. (The ropes and elevators recover, after crashing to the bottom. )
■ On each floor, as you exit the elevator, a nearby wall shows a different scratched instruction, signed by DAVID.
LEVEL IV: THE ROOM WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS | LEVEL V: IT’S RAINING (AGAIN)
LEVEL I: THE LABYRINTH
CONTENT WARNING: MINOTAUR, BODY HORROR
Step into a jail maze, flooded to knee level. Confusing corridors narrow, widen and contort, while wall torches dim.
Intermittent howling reveals you’re not alone. Hiding, you see child-like chalk drawings of forest animals on walls — and a great minotaur. Keep silent.
- ■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY.
■ Collect some of the many discarded daggers or axes. Rope bundles float in water — use them to paralyse your captive or briefly force them under your control.
■ Don’t linger in one place: rotting, bodiless hands surface to restrain you.
■ Bad news, if you swallow water when the minotaur or dead hands try to drown you: your skin stretches and bursts, while your bones pop and extend. You mutate into a half human, half woodland creature, all bloodlust. ( Inspiration, anyone? ) Your companions should still recognise you; between hazy memories and constant pain, you might struggle to remember them and even attack.
■ Morphed characters can (painfully) return to normal within minutes of re-entering the elevator.
■ A smaller and distressed three-headed minotaur also roams the labyrinth. Two of its heads sob, while the third urges you to hide with it when brother approaches. It tries to throttle you with a noose to make brother happy, if you follow. David did say.
■ The minotaur and its sibling have poor sight. They cannot enter a corridor where you’ve drawn or laid down a line.
■ Pull the lever, and a straight corridor leads you to the elevator.
LEVEL II: THE ANCESTOR
CONTENT WARNING: GIANT SKELETON, BLOOD DRINKING
Here, only barren stone and thin rivulets of fresh water pouring from wall fountains with sharp-tipped ornaments — your spilled blood quickly infects the basins. Knives, pins and bowls have been abandoned nearby.
High pressure and vertigo overwhelm you. Follow a rhythmic heaving to where the upper half of an enormous skeleton — the Ancestor — has broken through a wall. White, silk thread fetters it. Dried blood rims its cracked mouth. Before it, the stone floor has been tarnished, up to a 5m radius.
The Ancestor appears dormant, a crown of iron thorns on its head. It clutches the lever tightly in its right hand. Above it, an engraving urges, SPILL WINE FOR YOUR ANCESTOR.
- ■ David S P’s elevator scrawl says, WATER TO WINE.
■ Dally staring and you feel dizzy, nauseous, depressed and compelled to share your close-death encounters. Before you know it, you are stepping into the Ancestor’s radius…
■ …where it plunges for you, if you don’t bear a filled cup. The silk ropes keep the Ancestor from reaching beyond 5m.
■ Two carvings under his fists read HONOUR THY FATHER and DISHONOUR THY MOTHER.
■ Quickly distract the Ancestor from crumbling his captives, tearing their arms or attempting to eat them.
■ The Ancestor is instinct-driven, consumed by thirst. It cannot see or smell, and only remembers taste. Sounds divert it.
■ Improvise: there is no actual wine here. Infuse water, spill blood, or vocally pretend you are delivering wine, and the Ancestor might spare you.
■ If sated, the Ancestor releases the lever.
LEVEL III: TAG! YOU’RE IT
CONTENT WARNING: SCARECROW, SKINNED CREATURES
Enjoy pitch dark, dread and bile spreading in your gut. Take a candle from near the elevator and roam through small, unlocked rooms that feature tattered beds, strips of tanning leather and blood or wax spilled on the floor.
- ■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, O CATCHES IT.
■ Ahead, you see candle-bearing mannequins that dance a hora to the same song played by Jim Kirk’s music box: “Up the mountain, in the grove, hand in hand to Ke-Waihu, fresh harvest’s a treasure trove, each fall we feast anew.”
■ The creatures are patched abominations of wax, skinned flesh and burlap. In the middle of the hora is a wiry scarecrow, eyes blazing with candle fire as it points a large cleaver. In certain lights, the scarecrow’s face briefly contorts into that of your mother. It wears priestly robes that Arc III survivors may recognise from the House of Ravens.
■ As the dance finishes, you notice the lever in the middle of the circle, where flame spells out TAKE THEM, NOT ME. The game begins.
■ The abominations run, gleefully manic and screaming TAAAA~AAAAAG. YOU’RE IT! The scarecrow unflinchingly cuts them down while pursuing you. Hide in the abandoned rooms, or risk snuffing your candle to avoid detection.
■ Some abominations slap you, hold you, or alert the scarecrow. Others offer shelter. A few peel off wax skins from their limbs — showing black fungi beneath. They murmur, IT NEVER GOES AWAY.
■ Parchment strips fall from the scarecrow’s sleeves, reading, HAPPY NAME DAY, MOTHER KNOWS BEST, THE SIN RAN DEEPER THAN SKIN, IF YOU CAN BEAR IT, IT’S A GAME.
■ Bless David: draw the scarecrow into a drawn or makeshift circle to trap it.
■ Intense, paralysing fear arrests you, if the scarecrow catches you. The wax abominations chant, TAKE THEM, NOT ME. One might even take pity and move your numbed mouth to utter the words. Say them — and the scarecrow lands deep cuts on your arms, then pursues your companion.
■ If you betray someone, the abominations take the appearance of your worst version: whether physically mutated, with a temper that amplifies your worst features, or both.
LEVEL IV: THE ROOM WHERE NOTHING HAPPENS
CONTENT WARNING: MANIPULATION, MENTAL COERCION
You enter a quiet room. The lever sits on a table, beside rope and a dagger. As you approach, your surroundings transform: perhaps your dearest dead appear to warmly welcome you. Crowds of your doubters celebrate your success. Or you are in a calm oasis, where nothing hurts.
- ■ David S P’s wall scrawl says, THIS DREAM IS A NIGHTMARE.
■ Whatever your deepest wishes, the room’s vivid illusions provide. With time, your beautiful dreams deteriorate into horror. Sometimes, you hear whispers of, Make a wish.
■ The room increasingly drains your life force. Within half an hour, you have gaunt flesh, brittle bones and a hunched back. Or you might feel compelled to harm yourself, clawing your arms and face, or pulling your hair out.
■ The damage comes undone minutes after reaching the elevator.
■ The room focuses on one person: if someone joins you, they see fainter echoes of what the room shows you, but they are not enthralled. They must coax or drag you away.
■ If you are under the room’s influence, it forces you to make any later intruders stay.
LEVEL V: IT’S RAINING (AGAIN)
CONTENT WARNING: PLAGUE, THE CHILD
At the tower’s open-sky top, fire crackles from a small stone pit, shielded by a familiar, immovable blood-spattered white umbrella. Nearby, discover an immense rusted telescope and other discarded astronomy tools.
You trip on rain-battered yellowed bones at every step. One skeletal hand holds a watch piece, engraved for Mr. David Sebastian Pumpkins.
- ■ David S P’s has only scrawled his signature.
■ You might reach the flame easily, or be overwhelmed by sickness, black fungal spores blooming on your fingers, while you cough blood and experience intense fever. The symptoms wane once you reach the fire.
■ Burn paper talismans and link finished threads to help Karsa’s spell.
■ The child with a fox mask from the Unwinding could appear. Sign up for one of three short threads, which must finalise by 3 November.
NOTES
- ■ Some of the bigger plot clues have been emphasised, to help navigate through the horror details.
■ You can hit up some NPCs during the trials.
■ Check out plotting posts for last-minute team-ups.
■ Back to the top.
no subject
( At least, he's keeping close, grip on the umbrella slackening, twirling it around overhead, while he natters: )
Huntsmen are important men, strong and... and quick and wise. And they hunt animals, so the village can eat. Or they shoo them away, if they're wolves, so they don't come close and prey on the village, when it's winter.
( When they're hungry, he doesn't need to add. As for the second part: ) I don't know how how the best pelts are chosen. Um... I suppose you learn when you're a huntsman. Because you're clever.
no subject
Is that what I will not like? The sight of the pelts? Or the sight beneath?
no subject
You want the see the citadel, don't you? All the way below...
( Traipsing, half walking, half hopping, he loiters near the telescope, peering through the lens. ) It's a really long way down! So long. This tower is big, it's the tallest ever. It's as tall as... as seven, or eight houses! Or fourteen! Or...
( ...twenty? Ah, but to be young, with no true grasp of mathematics and architecture. )
But it doesn't show what's below prettier, just because it's tall. It can't make sickness go away.
no subject
She ought to rely on the people she's met along the way to look in her stead, but in some cases betrayal had trumped friendship. She feels indebted to some for getting this far, yet somehow very alone while staring at the strange boy. She can't tell if he moves any puzzle pieces or just watches them. ]
Can anything make the sickness go away? Something you or your friend in white might know of?
no subject
He can.
( This, spoken confidently — as if whatever might strike the boy as uncertainty, the friend in white is not one. He seems almost reverent, easily fascinated. )
Sort of... he just. Puts it all back together again. Like you patch broken bowls, he'll do anything.
no subject
Her balance wavers. ]
I am surprised that someone with such grand healing capabilities isn't more renowned, but then I have still much to learn. Does he have a name?
no subject
( Bright eyes, behind the heft of his mask. Brown, lively, rimmed by long lashes. Eyes that might suit a beauty — but then, the better part of his face is unknown.
He blinks, long and even. )
He won't tell me. He says if he tells me, I'll say we're friends, and we're friends, because he can't stay. He's made me an entire dollhouse to play with, because he can't stay.
( A moment, and he wiggles his umbrella. ) This was his, and he gave it to me, because he can't stay. So I think we're friends, he just doesn't know it yet.
no subject
A dollhouse?
[ How familiar. ]
Why doesn't he stay? [ She wants to reach for him, but she stills her hand at her lap. He could disappear again with the wrong pressure applied. ] Do you want to stay? You could make a show to all of your umbrella and your dollhouse.
no subject
That's right. That's... ( When he stops, steadying, it's to scratch at the back of his mask, to tie the laces again — to right it. )
This citadel is my dollhouse. All of it. And that makes you...
( ...well, don't make him impolite enough to say it. )
no subject
She stares. Patience is wearing thin. Why must it always be dolls. ]
Did he not teach you how to better care for your dolls? Did you want them to rot?
no subject
...I didn't.
( Look here, when he curls into himself, as if he's retreating, as if there is anywhere left to hide. When he tips his umbrella to hide the face that his mask is already long shielding. )
I like people. I don't want anyone sick. I didn't mean to.
no subject
At first her eyes narrow, that murmur from within picking up its agitation, but Vanessa is tired, and cruelty would be too easy. It would easily scare him off, too, she imagines. Besides, it's joined by pity. Her breaths rattle, and she unclenches her teeth.
He doesn't seem like an evil puppet master. Is there such a thing as a kind one? Does it matter how well meaning? If he was tricked? ]
We must always strive to fix our mistakes. Perhaps you still can, and we can think of a solution. Won't you help?
no subject
I am helping. You're the one who isn't. Who's looking to spoil things and make everyone sad.
( Excuse the heat, rising in clever, costly increments. Excuse that he's spiting out words, hardly measuring their tone. )
They're happy now. So why won't you leave them to it?
no subject
Presumptuous. ]
They aren't happy, they are afraid. They blame one another for what they don't understand. They are fighting for a truth that's being concealed. What do you gain from any of it?
no subject
...no, they're not. They're happy. They're eating, and they're not being beaten, and they can go to their work, and the children can play, and nothing is wrong to them.
( There's an edge to it, frustration oiling the corners. As if he has suddenly been presented with a problem for which a patently rehearsed solution — the only one he knows — won't do. )
no subject
Such a simplistic view makes her consider where it came from. ]
It must eventually come to an end, you know, but it can also mean a new beginning, even for you. We could become friends, but not while you hide the truth from me.
no subject
( It seems, for a moment, as if he might be tempted to rip his hair out, to stomp. Hair cradling the sides of his head, digging it, never quite gripping, then letting go. His hands slip at his side, umbrella neatly knocked down, forgotten. )
I don't know what you're talking about. ( He does not stomp, but his leg trembles, threatens to. ) You're all coming to me and... and... and talking riddles. I didn't go to school that long, I don't know riddles. I'm sorry. And you're... you're too sick to talk to, anyway. You should go.
no subject
I would love to go. Far away. But I'm here, and I'm not happy as you think your dolls are.
[ Curious, she'll try to pull the umbrella closer to her side, gaze caught on the blood only a moment before returning to him. No matter what kind of powers he has, he is certainly a child in behavior. ]
You can't be happy, can you, knowing about the rot? We may see it now. Will we see more? [ A curious frown. ] That doesn't make you happy, either. What would make you happy?
no subject
It would make me happy if you left, if you all left, if you'd never come. We were happy here, and I was keeping everyone safe —
( And he's not sobbing, not weeping, but in that heated, semi-feverish state that so swiftly transitions between phases of exasperation. He's worn himself out, drawing his sleeves over his mask, to hide a face already shielded. )
I'll count to ten. And you should be gone. Or I'll make you gone. I'll make you gone really quickly. Go.
no subject
[ The sight of a distressed child brings her no pleasure, but her sympathies are coming up short after the tower's trials, especially if she's to think on just everything the boy has been responsible for so far. If he means to make her forget as soon as she sees the citadel, to unwind it all, to continue thinking of them as mere dolls...he is a danger, whether or not he means to be.
If anything, she ought to take his threat seriously, and she does, but she isn't able to concede. It's just impossible. The concept of him just magicking her away, or him disappearing in turn, is shunned. She needs to know more first.
Before she can risk him actually completing a countdown, Vanessa knocks the umbrella aside, leaning forward to reach for his wrist with a weakened grip. She doesn't know if it will keep him from disappearing anyone, but if she can grab hold for even a moment, perhaps in that moment of contact she can reach into him and see something real in his psyche; something that led to any of this happening, something that made him this way. ]
no subject
I don't want to kill...
( But he hears her, is the happiness of it, the one blessing in their game. Hears the violent shift of air, as she approaches, feels his umbrella tumble, collapsing down, and leans to catch it before he can be touched, shrieking: )
Don't hurt me —
( — and he's gone with his umbrella, dissolving in dark spores of mould that burn quickly into ash, spreading over the graveyard of bones. )
no subject
She wouldn't have hurt him...would she? She's willing to go far for more answers. For now, whatever the telescope reveals will have to suffice. What will he do when they start taking further action?
He had said he didn't want to kill. Not that he wouldn't. It's a quandary that she can identify with more than ever. ]