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westwhere2023-01-27 08:34 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-01-27 08:34 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- all souls trilogy: sarah bishop,
- arc v,
- arcane: caitlyn,
- arcane: jinx,
- arcane: viktor,
- better call saul: jimmy mcgill,
- better call saul: nacho varga,
- btvs: spike,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- final fantasy xiv: stephanivien,
- final fantasy xiv: vrtra,
- harry potter: hermione granger,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- mcu: bucky barnes,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- mcu: pietro maximoff,
- mcu: stephen strange,
- mcu: wanda maximoff,
- mcu: yelena,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: red,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- star trek: una,
- star wars: merrin,
- star wars: merrin. 2ha: chu wanning,
- umbrella academy: five,
- untamed: lan sizhui,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- x-men: charles xavier,
- zettai karen children: kumoi yuuri
the scattering
And now, hard siege during Alem’s first log event, covering 27 January to 12 February.
This Arc relies on information sharing and troubleshooting solutions, whether to keep the watch towers standing, find the Reaper, hold back Rathakku or evacuate civilians. Don’t be shy!
As a refresher, character have individual assignment & notes — but rest easily, they can largely go anywhere in Alem and play out any prompt below.
Click each header for scenarios!
Alem’s chilly welcome includes a gift of weapons, clothes and meagre food provisions. You are quickly given your posts and grudgingly tolerated by fortress natives, many of whom accuse you of collusion with Rathakku or the merchant guilds. Expect unkind tests or teasing from soldiers who want you to prove your worth.
■ SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS: rare beds and hard pallets in the Keep barracks, sharing broad rooms infantrymen. Alternatively, sleep in the Wards, with refugees or the sick.
■ ARSENAL: you receive serviceable weapons or inherited clothes — ragged, over/undersized and perhaps livened by fleas.
■ FOOD: scant, dry, hard and prioritised for the weak, young, sickly or actively fighting. Scarce additional resources, such as berries and deer meat, can be procured from the nearby forests on the lower half of the mountain.
■ ACCESS: characters can go to anywhere, except the Room of Seals. Entering the Watch Towers will be discouraged during attacks, unless you were assigned these posts.
■ Between 7-10 February, Rathakku will Claw — meaning necromancers, the dead and those who are incredibly sensitive to life and death are vulnerable to his thrall. They could be conscripted into his armies, if they exit the fortress or linger long outside. Ghosts might woo them to enter the mountain forests, and they will itch with wanderlust and a sense of incompletion. Comment here with an idea of what you'd like you character to do/a> if they are lured to Rathakku’s side.
■ NPCs: each fortress level has a designated NPC you can reach out to. Deimar will additionally be visiting the Watch Tower, following Stephen Strange’s taunts.
THE WATCH TOWERS
The first and most war-torn line of defence. The watch towers keep Alem standing — fend off their attackers.
EASTERN TOWER
- ■ Assigned to the Eastern Tower: Jinx, Vi, Hermione and Chu Wanning. Medic: Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy.
■ Harpies frequently charge here, using their blade-sharp claws and deep fangs. They are humanoid but carnivorous and expressly prey on tower watchers. The scent of blood lures them — so Bones should quickly bandage wounds.
■ Bad weather hides their attacks. Beware the mists of 29 January and the blizzards of 3-6 February.
■ Cut the harpies’ legs if they fly away with you — better to risk a hard fall into the mountain’s snowy than being dragged into their nests.
■ They are vulnerable to loud sounds and vibrations. Set off the great, rusted tower bells to sound the alarm and repel them.
WESTERN TOWER
- ■ Assigned to the Western Tower: Eleven, Xie Yun, Kahl and Eda. Medic: Sarah Bishop.
■ Flurries of arrows frequently rain down, plain, fire or poison-tipped. They are shot in two broad attacks (morning and evening) by orc archers.
■ Sarah receives a kit of local ointment antidotes, but must make haste — the sickness spreads quickly and paralyses limbs. (Effects disappear over 1-6 hours, once the antidote is applied).
■ A rare few arrows are tipped with hallucinogen substances that trigger paranoid visions.
■ Orcs may try to scale this tower, using climbing hooks. Push them down.
SOUTHERN TOWER
- ■ Assigned to the Southern Tower: Jon Snow, Stephen Strange, Red and Finn. Medic: Wen Qing.
■ Irenia, Frost’s Scourge, an ancient, extremely large but slow dragon stops first at the Southern Tower before proceeding to other watch posts. She will turn back, if she is stopped here.
■ The dragon breathes down frost that can paralyse you in place, or freeze limbs. Wen Qing must prioritise warming the affected.
■ A few anti-frost shields have been supplied, but their magic wanes after a few hours. Use them as a last resort.
■ Irenia’s hide is tough and leathery, but she can be deflected by continuous attack. She no longer seems to hear or see as sharply.
■ She largely flies by, breathes ice and tries to pick up watchers in her great maws, then crack their bones or throw them down on hard stone.
■ Repel her for three consecutive days and she will not return for a week.
NORTHERN TOWER
- ■ Assigned to the Northern Tower: Kamala Khan, Wanda Maximoff, Merrin and Jiang Cheng. Medic: Anduin.
■ Demons draw large catapults near the fortress walls and throw strong projectiles at this tower — stone, large steel balls or even human or demonic.
■ The worst missiles comprise stones alight with ‘living fire’ — an extraordinarily hot blaze that can quickly incinerate tissue. Anduin should immediately attend to burns.
■ The tower is exceptionally weathered and structurally unsound, marked by large, destabilising holes. Kerasstone asks you to fix the infrastructure or guard his repairmen.
■ The ongoing damage sometimes triggers quakes in the fragile tower — hold on and don’t fall crumbling to your deaths.
■ Use the one-man crossbows and range weapons available, or the fixed large tower crossbows to shoot back and destroy the catapults.
THE KEEP
Life at court, when the knives come out: barracks, royal halls and Crown Prince Haiva’s medical quarters await.
KINGDOM COME
The court of Alem bustles with rival proposals: the supporters of Crown Prince Haiva want to surrender the citadel, while proponents of former Regent Thyvault seek to raise the remaining armed forces in a desperate last stand against Rathakku. King Deimar, mere months in his rule, has opted to evacuate convoys and resettle them, after sealing away any last chance of Rathakku accessing hell’s gates.
- ■ The supporters of Haiva, Thyvault and Deimar wage frequent wars of words that accuse Thyvault of Deimar of usurpring rule, and Haiva of being too weak to lead.
■ Thyvault’s men slyly wonder if Deimar killed the beautiful woman he was seen wooing mere months ago in the fortress grounds. Proof of her death or continued survival would benefit the three causes.
■ The woman was last seen chased by a fair-haired rider into the frosted forests that Rathakku has peopled with monstrous wolves and undead Alem huntsmen. Interrogate hunters & commoners or track her down.
■ Tempers boil over Jan. 29-Feb. 5, with arguments frequently devolving into fights and shallow stabbing. As ‘supporters’ of the three gentlemen, you should defend their cause — but do pull back blows before you kill each other.
■ Deimar punished brawlers with a few days of penitent confinement in the barracks, where you are expected to reflect on your sins and attitude, and certainly not join the cliques of heavily drinking men playing dares and cards. Hold your liquor, survive the exceptionally spicy Alem meals and take advantage of the general inebriation to ask your questions of the brass — without showing your horror when you hear them boast that Thyvault’s men drove the local ice mermaid population extinct.
IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?
The Haiva’s medics ( Bones, Sarah Bishop, Anduin and Wen Qing) are repeatedly called in to inspect his fits of sudden and elusive sickness. He exhibits a varied multitude of bizarre symptoms when his healers visit him:
- ■ Bones finds Haiva is a haemophiliac, his skin brittle like paper.
■ For Sarah Bishop, Haiva is overwhelmingly feverish, battling an unseen infection.
■ Wen Qing sees patches on Haiva’s skin that resemble decaying, moulding or gangrene.
■ Anduin notices Haiva’s skin feels clammy, his breathing stalled, as if his body were entering rigor mortis. He is very much alive.
Haiva is always weak, but gratefully and mysteriously cured of his symptoms within hours of his consultation. You can start a thread with him!
Info sharing with the medics’ club is caring!
THE CROSSING
The bustling, stifling and overheated Crossing reunites the main ground-level gates and corridors of Alem’s castle. Merchants traverse the halls, volunteering their wares at exorbitant prices, while former Regent Thyvault leads the departing troops.
HAGGLE GAGGLE
- ■ Colluding merchants offer their less-than-stellar goods at heinous rates. You get 100 coins to haggle long, hard and to the bone for food, cloth and maps, amid war inflation. Offer your hair, your virtue, the ugly side of your fist as needed. No one will mind if you liberate a few wares.
■ Two of the most prominent merchants — boastful Batthour of the grains and stern Eles, vendor of maps, silks and steel — openly despise each other. Their apprentices frequently start brawling — stay out of their way or stoke the clashes…
■ Batthour and Eles are both open to trade, but seem distinctly disdainful of Alem, expressing pleasure from profiteering in its downfall. Group up to raise coin or other goods to trade, then put in your best offer. The next few Alem convoys require 500kg of wheat and at least three maps of eastward provinces to resettle.
THE WAR IN WORDS
- ■ WHEN IT GRAINS, RED POURS: Under Thyvault’s leadership, Alem’s scouts and infantry gather in the Crossing for final instructions then advance into Rathakku’s territory. You can join them on a mission to the Ivory plains at the bottom of the mountain, where a few frozen storage houses still have summer grains. Steal back the supplies, bypassing snow-buried traps and Rathakku’s lingering feral creatures.
■ King Deimar has prepared new missives for Rathakku. Multiple envoys can group up to ensure delivery down the mountain and into the warlord’s encampment in the Tattered Highlands. Your white flag buys limited patience from Rathakku’s demonic armies. Only two characters can directly interact with the warlord — Sign up for one of two spots by 23:55 GMT on 30 January. Note: Rathakku should be approached lightly.
THE WARDS
The ill-lit Wards house the wounded, young, crippled or vulnerable of Alem, alongside those preparing to evacuate the fortress in upcoming convoys. Where there is sickness and overcrowding, expect poor provisions, the astringent scent of antiseptic, and a sense of residual decay. The lucky few sleep on pallets — while most dwellers take the hard ground and share dry bread. Soft-spoken Crown Prince Haiva visits regularly.
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
- ■ Weak civilians are often targeted by soldiers, who are frustrated by sharing their resources with ‘leeches’ who do not defend the citadel. Intervene to protect the vulnerable and redistribute any food that is unfairly confiscated. Prince Haiva will lend his scarce authority to correct any reported wrongdoings.
■ Learn to supply first aid, console orphaned children or widow(er)s and ease the spirits of those petrified by the recent murders.
■ A convoy prepares to leave on 9 Feb, with another due on 15 Feb. Pack the scant effects of the weak and plead for the gold or charity of the Keep’s gentry. Whatever resources you gain will greatly help the survival odds of those who resettle.
■ Inevitably, death visits some of the wounded. Professional grievers and coarse embalmers perform cleansing and mourning rites for survivors. Help them, or participate in the local habit of sharing tales of your most tragic sorrows, to distract them from their own.
WATSON ON DUTY
- ■ The investigative summary, as civilians can share them: five unrelated deaths took place over the past 11 weeks. Some speak superstitiously of a Reaper, who punishes the people of Alem for abandoning their fortress and sacred duty to protect the gate to hell.
■ The victims were all men aged 22-35 of diverse appearances and backgrounds. Some had minor injuries. They were all found without marks of wounding or sickness, bearing a white string bound to their wrists. One of the men was a foreign merchant.
■ Senior sorceress Althea searched the site and cleansed bodies, finding no evidence of magical interference.
■ Haiva has reinforced guards, but Deimar seems indifferent. Thyvault believes this is only an inevitably level of mundane crime.
■ Some nights, you might wake to the haunting song of a plangent woman. You enter a state of dreamy, confused hypnosis, drawn to a narrow, steep staircase you had not glimpsed before. You fumble towards the lake caves of the Gut’s Bind. Even the intrusive voices of Alem tell you to snap out of it and awaken — but your best bet is a companion’s help.
■ The staircase cannot be found again, come morning. The call is fainter for women, and does not affect the same person more than one-two nights.
■ Guards, sorcerers and civilians can answer your questions — but prepare your bribes and wooing.
THE GUT’S BIND
It’s nice, dark and quiet in here, barring the comforting thrum of the forges. Paladins and sorcerers are hard at their elusive work, reinforcing the Room of Seals. Access to the Forges, mines and glacier lake caves remains liberal.
LAKES, MINES, MAYHEM
- ■ THE MINES: Characters deployed to find new escape routes find a series of corridors leading into the previously bustling gold mines, where ore resources remain well supplied. The territory is overwhelmingly shaky, with mine shafts and structures prone to collapse. They appear dusty, brittle, husked and far older than their actual age. Go deep enough and you can find sheets haphazardly strewn about and the remains of partly devoured demons.
■ THE LAKES: Saunter into a series of four interconnected ice lake caves, where the brutal cold is viciously wounding and pervasive. The first three caves give you no trouble, beyond ridiculously sharp icicles waiting to drop down. As you enter the fourth cave, you find gleaming stretches of golden, gleaming… scales that float on the lake waters. Grab one to study — but beware the starved creature that guards them.
■ THE FORGES: some entirely abandoned, some functional, all well-equipped at this time. Settle down alone, or in the company of Kerasstone’s people — the old blood that preceded even Alem’s settlement and holy seal in the mountains.
■ Keep an ear out for sudden sounds or unexpected steps behind you, as you travel the tighter and tighter passageways to find or shovel new exit routes through the mountain: some of Rathakku’s creatures appear to have… wandered in. They camouflage as stone and lay perfectly still in wait of their prey, before descending. They’re vulnerable to strong light and a jolly smiting.
LOCK YOUR DOORS
- ■ Paladins and sorcerers enter the heavily warded and barricaded Room of Seals every few hours. They emerge exhausted, their resources drained. Some also bear heavy gashes.
■ Characters are barred from entering and incarcerated for a day in one of the Keep’s jails or brought before Galatea’s judgement, if they attempt to sneak in.
■ Groans and screams can be occasionally heard from within, followed by spikes in the sense of deathliness of the place. Some paladins are never seen exiting.
■ You have one chance to enter, at midnight on 1 February, when the Gut’s Bind erupts into calls for healers to attend an emergency. Collapsed paladins are urgently pulled out, while sorcerers attempt to ward the room before ultimately fleeing to help their brethren. You can infiltrate and stay inside for 20 minutes before the stoked anger of the room completely overwhelms you, and you begin to bodily attack everyone and everything around you. This is a dangerous route: check in for one of three findings scenarios.
MERCHANT OFFERS
Group up and pool your items or coin — see how much the good master merchants will give you for your trouble. Don't be too afraid to get cheeky by asking for other items to be thrown in!
( You can NPC the merchants yourselves in your threads, once you have your outcome. )
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The idea was Tess would present Eles with an example finished product. Stephanivien personally would probably seek maps, but he & Tess would be going more for trying to see if Eles would be interested in a longer-term partnership from a distributor angle, and less directly "we're trying to get stuff for Alem".
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You can have a map for four pistols.
But you need to send someone in the mines to get you some iron and saltpetre.
For a distributor relationship... what're you offering?
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Rather, Stephanivien would seek out Eles to act as his distributor. the idea would be that Stephanivien reserves some capacity for custom and/or personalized firearm pieces, with Eles acting as the sole point of sale. Such specialized personal firearms (particularly of the handgun variety) would only be available as sale through Eles, and as such she keeps a tidy cut of the profits. especially if he starts further enabling them or enhancing them with the magic necessary for fancy trick shots.
Since his main bid is larger armaments/warmachina, which is generally a more wholesale bid, he'd prefer to keep that managed directly, but is interested in Eles, as someone who already deals in fineries AND weaponry, to be the exclusive point of sale for his more personal arms.
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And I'm going to... give you until next comment to... think it over.
So, with that in mind... you're sure you want to give Eles the weapons to sell on?
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It's perfectly in character for her to not give a single shit about who it hurts down the line as long (even Alem tbh!) when making deals, and she's down to scale up –– but she's going to want to figure out:
a) how to secure materials from the mines and whatnot before she considers this a viable deal to pursue, as without that they don't have shit to trade anyway, much less do Bigger Things.
b) is going to need to assess whether these pistols are actually of any threat to Alem if sold on to Rathakku or whether they're just novel, like, does a gun even matter if the enemy has already weaponized the undead/magic? Also, why do do larger armaments if they just need the four pistols to get a map?
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Stephanivien would be marketing such pistols/handguns as novelty items, and not making them en-mass, and certainly not before the entirety of the siege is over, as he fully expects the likelihood of a gun or several getting resold
to Rathakku, even. That's why they're a limited commodity.He's also thinking for the longer road. It was my understanding that Eles sells not only for this conflict but also in broader aspects in the world at large, and—theoretically—would be interested in a partnership that continues on even after Alem is resolved in whichever way that happens.
a) Stephanivien already has some inroads for this, at least for the larger material problems & general iron, but the saltpetre is something that will be investigated further
b) The larger armaments aren't for sale outside the keep, and more specifically, to anyone who isn't Deimar. They're off the table altogether. Deimar spoke for half, and Stephanivien's technically reserving an additional quarter as a thank-you bonus. The rest will be personal armaments
for other PCsor individual, unassembled pieces meant on retainer for the purpose of repair/replacement of what he's already selling/giving Deimar.no subject
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if clara & nacho were to, say, sneak around with one of them being invisible and the other distracting the merchants with questions, would they be able to, say, maybe swipe a map that way?
also! would nacho be able to get any leverage/blackmail any of the shadier merchants into giving him a deal on grain by threatening to tell everyone they're ripping people off? if so, how much leverage? he may or may not have someone else helping him with this negotiation tactic, but i'm curious!
thank you btw!
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— sneaking around: yeah, go for it, get that
coinmap.— I think it might be worth looking first into why they do that...
no subject
— Roger that! So why do they do it? :D?
Please tell me it's this easy...no subject
If he's sweeter about it, or perhaps pretends he's a fellow merchant looking to understand how much he can get away with while practising his trade, they'll admit to it and say that former Regent Thyvault is fully aware of the trickery, but accepts the deliveries without fuss. It is 'sanctioned.'
no subject
Oh! Ty!!!
He's probably aggressive the first time tbh, but then tries again with a sweeter/more underhanded approach on a different merchant a second time when that doesn't work. If you guys think he'd be able to get away with that, ofc!
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It might be a good one to explore! I'd say yes, but it'd depend what and how you ask!
no subject
(Sorry, the merchants being sour on Alem is a bit broad to give more specific direction off the bat...)
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- grain, natch
- coffee (the War on Tea begins NOW)
- a treat for his bodyguards (he wouldn't outright say that, so if Batthour were to assume he had three kids or something...I would find that funny), maybe 3 sad pastries or some halfway decent beer
- ye olde fantasy advil?? some kind of pain reliever
- some kind of sleep aid
- he'd ask about wine but mostly bc he wants to figure out who's supplying it to Deimar 👀
no subject
...you see.
That seemed more like a, ah. Gift. :' )
I think you can get some herbs, buddy, but the rest will cost you more gems. But what a fantastic good will present!
One on the house: the wine is Alem's own. One of the few things they produced locally and why it's in such strong supply.
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...and the potential for a gem heist 😈