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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.
no subject
I imagine that it was easier to grow up in such a place -- in such a role -- with a companion of your blood by your side.
[At least, that's how he had always imagined it might be, if he had had a sibling himself.]
no subject
( They strike quick harmony, their composures and postures patient mirrors of each other. For a moment, Haiva waits to see where this string of thoughts might lead — but Anduin holds back, and so too does the prince. )
So it was.
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My apologies. I do not doubt you have been through this before. I understand you have been ill for some time now. I would ask that you tell me a little more about your illness, in your own words, if you do not mind. Has it gotten any worse for you, as you have gotten older?
[Does Deimar have true cause to worry? Is there more reason than simply not having the heart for it that Haiva had not stood forward for the throne himself?]
no subject
( Ah, his illness. The smile is indulgent now, faint. More familiar territory that he embarks on with learned patience, absently reaching out for a dish of hard candies left forlorn by his bedside. He offers it to Anduin — liquorice, lightly salted. A local delicacy. )
I was young when it appeared. First, they thought it a cold sickness, then a plague, then... in truth, for years, I believe they thought I was pretending. But it stayed, and soon enough the fatigue, the cough, the gauntness never waned. I settled into them, really. Some symptoms, better than my friends. We tried everything: this is too complex for herbs and healers, and there is no root of magic in the sickness. It's... banal.
( Laughter, light. ) Of course, I couldn't... acquit myself of all my duties. After a time, Deimar began to step in. I know what they speak of him, but it was never like that. He was graceful, kind. I urged him towards the throne.
no subject
May I ask what the symptoms are? You mentioned fatigue, cough...?
[He certainly seems... Drained would be a good way to describe the young man's pallor. Anduin is grateful at least for his patience. While he has not been in anywhere near the same scenario as Haiva, he has spent time in recovery before. He did not necessarily handle it well.]
no subject
That, and... I feel of late, cold. Breathing is a hardship.
( Even now, he exhales with difficulty and inhales greedily, his skin clammy and pale. But he holds himself back from indignity, not rushing through the account.
Desperate men jump to take the first hand offered to them. He has lived through this often enough. )
At times, I have coughed blood. My head is split by migraines.
no subject
Anduin presses his lips together for a moment, before offering:]
As you know, I am a healer. A Priest of the Holy Light, they call it where I am from. The methods I use are perhaps unfamiliar here, although I get the sense you are used to strange and foreign physicians being called upon. Perhaps making you promises of miracle cures.
[He smiles sadly.] The only promise I can make you is that I will do no such thing. But I would like to examine you more closely, with your permission. And at least try to make you a little more comfortable.
no subject
I admit, it seems... forgive me, unlikely that you'll succeed where dozens have failed. But I might be simply frail in my hope.
( He concedes it with a nod, an easy glance as if to take the measure of Anduin and locate the invisible source of his power on his person. Nothing reveals itself. Little could. )
You may try. ( He waits, patiently. )
actions within slightly less dramatic than this but i have no better priestly icons sweats
There is nothing to be forgiven, Your Highness. Though I would share with you that -- a wise prophet once advised me to live every day with hope in my heart. I do not mean to give you pretty words, but there is strength in the power of belief.
[His smile flicks up at the edges as he clarifies:] And I do not say so just because I am a priest. Now... I apologize if this stings a little.
[It might, especially if it finds anything it can put right. At least it should help take some of the pain and discomfort away, for a while yet.
Anduin rises slightly, hovering ever-so-slightly over the edge of the bed so that he might place his hand flat upon the royal's chest. Closing his eyes as he murmurs a prayer to the Light. A soft radiance filling him from within, then racing down the length of his arm. Its golden light soaking through into Haiva's skin. The healing is done literally in a flash, Anduin glancing toward his patient's face for any sign of discomfort or unease.]
no subject
( It does sting.
For all Haiva raises his hand the very moment discomfort strikes him, waving away any attempt on Anduin's behalf to cease the treatment before it may take place. It is not hurt, only the natural inconvenience of strange energies entering his body, which first curls into itself, then gently loosens.
He waits until Anduin seems to have completed his application, before offering a tentative smile. )
Thank you. I am not ungrateful for your efforts.
( And look here, he even offers more of the liquorice candy, while stealing his own piece to reward bearing with the treatment so seamlessly. A perfect patient. )
no subject
There is no need to thank me. I hope that I have at least brought you some comfort where perhaps there was none.
[He moves to sit back down in his chair once more.]
I was hoping that I might be able to assist in perhaps a different way, though. I understand that you are arranging the evacuations in the Wards…?
no subject
( He has learned, throughout time, not to disappoint his healers with reminders of their own futility. It does their personal esteem better to think they have delivered Haiva some good. And what does it hurt him to let that thought linger with them?
He remains still, smile placid. Let healer Anduin make of it what he wishes.
Then, the Wards. )
Yes. Deimar's entrusted me with the task.
no subject
It is an important job, although it might not seem as such in the moment. The people down there...
[Anduin's hands tighten slightly, his knuckles whitening.]
They are the future of this city. Of your people. I would like to help, in any way that I can.
I understand that there has been some trouble, as of late.
no subject
( At this, he brightens rather considerably: )
Of course. We could always do with more healers in the Wards, whenever your duties at the tower allow. ( He bites his lower lip, tentatively. )
Of course, we can't expend too much of the energies you should be devoting to the war effort, but even if you are able to consult a few of the wounded, or diagnose them. I'm afraid we always have more injured returning from the frontline than we do healing hands.
no subject
Your brother has said that you have had some success, in evacuating the citizens. And when they failed it was met with a blockade?
[Anduin frowns.]
Have they been sealing off routes of escape?
no subject
Yes, Deimar spoke truth. When they find the escape routes, they seal them or set guards.
( Holes in a mountain's walls are sadly less subtle than men might wish them. Haiva's smile turns apologetic once more. )
We've tried to set magicians to cover the entrance and exit ways with sorcery, but... the sudden presence of persistent magic draws Rathakku's scouts, inevitably. ( Even so, placidly: ) So, we find new routes. Attevar is long and broad.
no subject
Forgive me if it is too straightforward to ask such a thing but. I have been on the towers, if only briefly. I understand how dire an effort it is to keep up the defense.
[He frowns.] But that is not to say that the evacuation is not equally as important. Do you believe that you have enough men left, to hold the lines and get it all done in time?
no subject
Deimar's dedicated a third of the army to each purpose: defence and offensive, the Wards and, of course, the Room of Seals. We can only trust it will be enough.
( What chance do they have, if it isn't? The absence of options justifies this one course of action. They will proceed as they can. Duty calls.
And Haiva too must answer it. )
Forgive me. I would like to rest. ( Before he is expected once more to the Wards for another long shift of service. He knows better than to present himself with his energies depleted. ) We will speak again.
no subject
[Anduin smiles softly, sitting forward to rest a hand gently on the other man’s arm.]
Do not hesitate to ask for me, whenever you have need of it. [His lips quirk to the side for a moment.] Healing, conversation. Chess? I have it on good authority I play a mean board game, when pressed.
[His expression softens once more before he pushes himself up to stand.] May the Light be with you, Your Highness.