the scattering

[groundrules]

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!

THE SCATTERING

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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

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■ 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

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■ 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

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■ 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

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■ 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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

QUESTIONS

Comments

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian watches, expression pleasantly neutral. When he digs into the front of his robes, he pulls out a chained necklace of paper, curled and crushed and folded in a deliberate manner.

"Deep in the Gut's Binds, at some of their many lakes." He glances toward where they'd walked down, the staircase lost in the gloom. Or so he thinks, trying to make out the opening against the shadowed faces of the stone. He hadn't brought a lit torch with him, but he can manage better light than the lurid, gentle, diseased glow the lake and this cavern provides in unequal parts. "I followed you down a stair I hadn't seen yet coming out of the Wards. What were you hearing?"

He holds out the paper necklace, simply saying, "Please wear this. It aims to preserve your consciousness independent of any outside energies trying to lay claim to it."

It brought a near dead man out of a coma of months, gave him his own mind back to him. He doesn't say that yet, simply holds it out, expression serious, sincere.

"Enduring is its own folly after a certain point, Five Hargreeves. We passed that point long ago."

[somebadnews]

Sleepwalking was never a habit of his, but he can remember some instances when he was a child. Before he learned to calculate distance, he would teleport somewhere unexpected. It took years to perfect his ability so he always ended up where he meant to be. He'd always wanted to exceed expectations by showing complete control over his powers; to challenge any authority placed on him and push at his limits in spite of his father's warnings.

He takes a moment to not let his thoughts spiral by how little control he has now. Made worse by literally regressing to his younger self. He's child again who lets things happen because he doesn't have the power to stop them. And it's only getting worse.

The last time he was in a trance like that he spent days assembling a broken mirror. This possession comes too soon on the heels of the dream he had. There's no proof that something similar couldn't have happened to his siblings when they disappeared one by one because he wasn't keeping a close enough watch. Because he was powerless.

Wrath mentioned being able to train to resist that type of mind control, and it seems he's going to have to take it more seriously. Then Wei Wuxian simply offers a magic necklace that's supposed to do that for him. The point he's making isn't lost on him, as unappreciated as it is. That he's endured all this suffering for nothing. He hesitates to take it, examining it and the man holding it, before he finally reaches out and slips it over his neck.

"I heard singing. A woman's voice, but I didn't make out any words." Judging by the question, he was the only one who heard it. He turns to the lake and it's hard not to make the connection. Wei Wuxian might know what he's thinking when he looks at it.

"Has anyone gone in the lake?"

[weifinder]

He listens, considering, as he walks toward where they descended. Only as he does, the shadows morph, gain sharper relief, display... nothing? He frowns, and his hand lifts, the characters for a fire talisman about to be etched. Then a considered pause, and his hand lowers, slips into his robes to tug out one talisman.

He's written enough. This one he flicks forward, the sudden flare of a controlled flame illuminating the wall behind them. The unbroken wall, craggy and carved, with no staircase where once there had been.

Cursing under his breath, he answers in distraction.

"Not and lived, depending on the lake. Creatures stalk the depths of this or that one, might here too. You want to look." He turns back to Five, expression neutral, shoulders back.

"The Stairs have gone. We're going to have to take the long way out, once we can find our way back to the marked passages. Should we delay here first? Aside from marking this lake, which we should do, I don't have supplies for an extended foray. Do you? Does your portaling work as expected?"

[somebadnews]

Five can only think of the dead body in the lake that lured people out to experience visions. It hadn't grabbed onto him then, but something did here, and it wanted to show him something. If Wei Wuxian hadn't stopped him, he might have gone in.

He isn't sure what he's looking for until he mentions the stairs. Ones he doesn't have any recollection of going down. When prompted, he balls his fists and reaches into space, only for it to push back and the light around his hands to fade. He hasn't been getting enough rest and running around in his sleep certainly hasn't counted.

"I need a minute." As much as he hates to admit weakness, it doesn't feel like magic restricting him this time. The arduous task of walking back up by foot in possibly demon-infested corridors isn't something he's looking forward to, but the alternative is waiting here where he was possibly being called to his death. Or call for help, which is less appealing.

If it'd even work. The stairs disappearing takes it a step beyond magic compulsion or possession. He'd rather not have to ask, but he's finding it harder to tell. "This isn't a dream, is it?"

[weifinder]

Curses, luring, and hell open below them, in a matter of speaking both literal and otherwise. Wei Wuxian grimaces, then approaches the wall and leaves a mark on it, to send resentful energies and evil energies alike into avoiding this place.

He opts to not consider that it's the pad of his thumb he opened up to draw on the rough stone. It isn't important: he lacks other supplies.

"It's not a dream," he says, and it's a calm, neutral statement, like they're conversing over everyday things. "And take your time. We should see about moving, in case the lake is occupied... I can fight, but it'll be inconvenient if it isn't fully dead, whatever's in there."

His flute in his waistband, as it almost always is, and no other supplies. He considers, stepping back from the wall and hunting down stones to leave a more mundane trail marker.

"Lao Five, will you consent to having a talisman to repel resentful energies drawn on you?" To be one less attraction for what lies in the tunnels, should they prove to not be abandoned when the two of them reach any of them.

[somebadnews]

Not a dream. If he can take that confirmation as fact, it shouldn't be such a relief. Dreams aren't supposed to make sense, they're supposed to be easy to dismiss, but by now his have been invaded enough times that he can't call them harmless. Now that he's sleepwalking, they've obviously found when he's most vulnerable.

He watches Wei Wuxian mark the wall, in another way he can't decipher, then glances back to the lake. It's deceptively quiet with just the two of them down here. With no discernible explanation why, all he knows is that it's a trap and he can't trust anything. At the question, he turns and narrows his eyes.

"The necklace isn't enough?"

[weifinder]

"The necklace is for you."

He says, gazing out across the water, watching the unnatural stillness of it. There are creatures under the waters, he's seen their evidence before. Now he suspects one lurks again, ready to drag them down, perhaps, or to drag their spirits free.

He wouldn't think it past this world, not in the slightest.

"It protects you, keeps your head clear. The kind I'm talking about are deterrents for anything we come across."

[somebadnews]

Five is very aware of the weight of the paper necklace around his neck, and how easily he put it on. He's offering more precautions than he ever has before. Maybe that's fair after he was caught sleepwalking to his doom, not counting the other times he's been compelled by magic or other means, but he's still wary.

He doesn't like this. Everything here feels off. The dream with the demon, the singing, the disappearing stairs. Looking around it reminds him too much of that cave with the jackalopes and the cursed pair of dice.

"Resentful energies. What have you seen down here?"

[weifinder]

"Creatures. I'm as concerned by what I haven't seen, but have felt." A flick of his gaze away from the waters to Five, and he motions for them to move, while he looks for anything to use as a torch longer term. Eventually he simply pulls out his pendant, activating the recording screen that sends a soft glow ahead of them as they walk.

"Creatures of death and dying and something worse. The talisman I have in mind encourages those things to go elsewhere than toward where that talisman is." No mention of his inversion of it, for different reasons, a lifetime ago.

[somebadnews]

That's vaguely ominous. Five clenches his fists again, tries to pull at his powers, but this time his hands barely give off a faint blue light. He nearly wishes he was being offered the food he'd given him back when he was dealing with the hyenas. He's pushed himself too hard going above ground and he'd bounce back quicker if he could get some quick carbs to burn.

Reluctantly, he follows and adjusts the necklace around him. There's another, worn beneath his shirt, that he doesn't need it getting tangled up in. He takes several more steps before he's finished weighing his options.

"...Alright." He firms his jaw and absolutely refuses to acknowledge how uneasy it makes him to allow for a magical precaution. His paranoia occasionally gets the better of him. "If you think it's necessary. But only if you explain exactly how that works."

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian stops, angling so that his body and the pendant are made bluntly visible to Five. He brings his thumb back to his mouth, biting again the wound he'd already given himself so that the dribbling blood restarts again, the pain ignored and dismissed almost as its felt.

He has to undo his overlayer of robes, exposing his pale underlayer of robes, giving him the blank canvas he needs for this purpose. Wei Wuxian explains as he paints on himself in blood, the necessity of the moment overriding what preference he has for his proper writing implements, his cinnabar, his inks, back in satchels above them in the presently distant Wards.

It's not a perfect explanation: he's a genius, and in the failings of that makes leaps logical to him with his knowledge of these ins and outs and a whole cultural context that he doesn't even have the depth of awareness to fully circumnavigate for someone whose own cultural context he only understands in narrow, briefly shared, or briefly encountered ways. The clarity is still there. The understanding of how writing a seal like this repels dark energies, death energies, resentful energies away from that which it was on. How a person wearing the ward is testing it further, that it would need renewing if they linger overlong, that it's too powerful in a way for what materials he has to use. (Blood, he doesn't say. Blood, he believes should be obvious. It's not his robes that give it the heightened strength of a shouted command instead of a coaxed one.)

"Your answer?" Asked at the end, after the explanations, continuing to watch Five. Waiting, like the lapping waters of the lake behind them just enough to no longer be all that looms dark and pregnant with its dark potential, to their side.

[somebadnews]

Five should have assumed he'd be using blood after watching him mark the walls. He watches impassively as he draws the mark on himself, either to aid his explanation or to show him that it's safe. The detail he gives is purposely abstract in concept, and Five can tell that he's trying to put it into words that he'll understand. Like he needed to explain how he teleports or time travels, only with more patience than he would have used. As he's done before, he doesn't push and waits for Five to make a decision.

Unlike with his powers, nothing happens that shows when the mark is working. He just has to accept that it's doing what it's meant to do. Five might have answered differently, objected simply to avoid wearing another bloodstain, but for the fact that he honestly feels targeted down here. Clearly his own defenses aren't sufficient.

After a moment, he nods.

"Fine. Do it and let's get going." He drops his hands to his side and locks his jaw, but leaves himself open while he stares at the symbol on Wei Wuxian's robes. Attempting to memorize it to pay close attention that it matches the one drawn on him.

[weifinder]

The downsides to not having come after Five carrying along his supplies. As usual, make do, and make it work.

Permission eventually granted, Wei Wuxian nods, bridging the distance. Blood doesn't flow as readily as ink or cinnabar, his fingers have no smooth finish to them the way of any brush, but the ragged, powerful lines of his making carry their own blunt beauty even like this.

The work is quick, his expression set the whole time, his pendant back around his neck and casting light by which he works. Done, he steps back, surveying the whole before he nods, once.

"Done. This way."

He turns, sticking his finger back in his mouth to lick it clean, then dries it on his sleeve as he strides toward the darker cavern of the tunnel out, ready to make his best guesses getting them back out, as long as Five's own talents remain out of touch.

[somebadnews]

For all the times Five has been covered in blood, more than he could count, he's never enjoyed it. Not like some of the psychopaths that worked in Corrections. Once he was finished with a job, he wanted nothing more than to wash up and put on a set of clean clothes. Allowing Wei Wuxian to write on him makes his skin itch, but he doesn't pull back or look away. Only when he's sure that the symbol matches the one he drew on himself and he turns towards the tunnel.

Five follows shortly after in some seemingly random direction, when he feels a shift. At first he just rubs at it, assuming it's got something to do with the talisman, but that only seems to make it more pronounced. He takes a few more steps before looking down to see a distinct twitching under his shirt.

Oh. Shit...

He hisses under his breath as he quickly grips his shirt and the undead finger hidden beneath to keep it from wriggling off. Even in his closed palm, he can feel it moving back and forth and he holds it tighter to force it to be still. Repeals death energies, he said.

Once he's sure he has a solid grasp on it and his panic subsides, he starts walking again, this time further behind and considerably more distracted. Fortunately he sounds tense but level when he tries to direct the subject.

"Sense anything up ahead?"

[weifinder]

The overall area is too thick with death in varying degrees of freshness for what's on Five to register in particular, but the hiss isn't ignored; Wei Wuxian looks back over his shoulder as he walks, sees Five holding the material over his chest.

Frowns to himself, taking note, but there's no increased breathing, no indication of it being Five's active distress on a health level. He's more familiar with those signs now, but it doesn't mean there's not something he can't miss, when he's no Wen Qing or any other dedicated doctor.

"Nothing presently worse than what was already there. This is a lower period of... death, of darkness, resentment, negative things. More a living period. We're in luck."

The times where the Gut's Bind feels more dead, the expanding exhalation of hell or of Ratkingkong has its own obvious dangers.

"How are you feeling? Any aches? Numbness?"

[somebadnews]

This was a mistake. Five can tell that Wei Wuxian notices as soon as he glances back at him, but he can't release the death grip he has on his shirt. It dawns on him that this could turn into a bigger problem if Anurr thinks he's trying to contact him, and worse if he thinks he's trying to use a spell against him. None of which he can easily explain if he reveals what he's been carrying around all this time.

"I'm fine," he finally replies once he hears the question. The finger twitches again and he adjusts his hold. He's going to have to take care of this somehow, but he can't risk losing it. "What's the range on your talismans?"

[weifinder]

The wrong responses for the heart trouble Wei Wuxian first suspects. Would it be emotional overload? Or twitches of what was carried within him? He hummed a note to himself, a command if any resentful energies were nearby to hear it: hold.

"Many li. Many miles, using your word. Miles is a distance measurement you use, isn't it?" Which makes it seem overly powerful, and in ways, it is. But slow acting for further distances. Much, much slower. "It's stronger at the centre of it, not the fringe. That far away it's a suggestion. This close, a command."

With an eye to Five and the grip he has on his shirt, waiting, watching. Concerned, but suspicious increasingly too. Five is a man of his secrets and glib dishonesty as suits. That ever remains the truth.

[somebadnews]

Five sees the suspicion in Wei Wuxian's eyes as he waits for an explanation for how he's acting. The answer he gives isn't encouraging for handling it quietly. It's not a matter of taking off the necklace and putting it in his pocket so it's not directly touching the talisman. In retrospect, it sounds like overkill to draw it on both of them.

He continues to work his jaw as Anurr's finger squirms in his grasp. What he did is going to come out, but he'd rather know what his options are before telling him anything.

"Can it be broken?"

[weifinder]

Five is making this even less easy to believe nothing harmful is happening.

"No," he says, slowly. "Not broken. Removed. Lao Five, will you tell me what you're holding onto, so I don't have to guess?"

If nothing else, the ongoing track record of Five keeping things too close to his chest until they come out in unfortunate ways has some weight here, but equally, that Wei Wuxian hasn't taken anyone's secrets to the group at large to sing about them. He ends up holding up a hand, stilling himself in place.

"Something's ahead. Living." Nothing mystical about it, except that it's strange in the manner of all creatures that live here.

[somebadnews]

That's a question that will only lead to more questions; ones that Five doesn't particularly look forward to dodging. He had been hoping he would simply tell him how to break it, but in the process made his intentions too obvious. Anurr is supposed to be his last resort if everything else has gone to shit. But as usual, his smallest mistakes have impossibly overblown consequences. When Wei Wuxian signals to something ahead that eluded talisman's protection, it really drives home what a bad idea it was.

"So it doesn't work on anything living." Again, he regrets giving him that opening, and he feels like an idiot for not realizing what he'd be doing after it was explained to him in detail. A sense of urgency creeps into his tone the more it moves in his hand after so many months of being dormant. He can keep an eye out for any approaching beasts, but that's no longer his greatest concern.

"Never mind that." He already knows he's hiding something, so he might as well drop the pretense. "If you don't remove them, we're going to have a problem. You'll have to trust me."

[weifinder]

"Which means you're carrying something dead." A longer look, eyes narrowing. Then Five's asking him to remove it, and he almost, but doesn't quite, sigh in exasperation.

"Take it off. It's done in blood, Five, take off the shirt it's on." Until they clean it, the problem is it's a strong talisman. Working directly on whatever Five's keeping under his shirt, and doesn't want activating. Much like...

Wei Wuxian stops, fully turning to look at Five.

"Anurr?" In the scheme of things that Five has which are dead on his body, it might be the tongue (very... strange), but there's as much of a chance that the young old man responsible for returning Anurr's power to him in Taravast could be tied to him still. If nothing else, Anurr does have some begrudging sense of turnabout and favours.

"I'm not joking, Five, shirt off."

[somebadnews]

He tells himself that he was being too obvious, but honestly he's unsettled by how quickly Wei Wuxian makes the connection to Anurr. The way Five locks his jaw and glares back at him is confirmation enough. He'd argue that it wasn't a betrayal, but the undead finger keeps reacting no matter how tightly he holds it, and it drives him to action. When his orders echo his own mounting paranoia, he reluctantly complies.

It's an awkward dance to keep his hold on the finger while navigating around the paper necklace to remove it with his shirt, but he's not allowing any opportunity to snatch it from him. He kept it safe all this time. He's carried that finger around his neck constantly since Taravast, and it's never reacted like this. If he ever did activate it, he'd naively thought it would have to be intentional.

"Oversight on my part," he mutters with false calm once he's got the talisman away from his skin. He wills himself not to react to the cold that brushes past him, but he's all too conscious of how he looks right now. He avoids mirrors as a rule, aside from the one that took home inside him, but he's aware of how scrawny he is and how years of malnutrition and constant turmoil wear on a teenage body. Usually he'd be in more layers to compensate, but of course it had roused him while he was sleeping.

A minor problem. First they need to get Anurr to settle the fuck down. He lets the shirt fall in a crumpled heap on the ground and nods to it. "Now what? Burn it?"

lmf forgive me i've only got a short tag in my brain right now

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian is already shrugging out of his outermost layer, whisking it around Five's shoulders with unaffected concentration on his face. Five can choose to take it or leave it; Wei Wuxian isn't interested in studying his underfed form anymore than he's interested in anyone seeing he still stands too thin, but at least adult. "We don't need to burn anything," he says, and Five will feel a similar reaction of the finger now pressing closer toward Five, then relaxing again as Wei Wuxian steps back.

"We need to walk away. This way."

tags should be however long they need to be, you’re fine!

[somebadnews]

From his reaction, Five half expected him to try to take it from him when he moves closer, but he doesn't. Instead he throws a layer of clothing on him, that Five quietly accepts to spare his dignity, and urges him forward. When no questions or accusations follow, he adjusts his defensive posture and lets the subject fall away.

The finger in his grasp pulls away from Wei Wuxian, but finally seems to settle when he steps back. It’s possible he was exaggerating on the talisman’s range, or Anurr is a special case that needs contact for it to have an effect.

No harm done.

He follows at a distance, and keeps his attention divided between Wei Wuxian and the shadows around them. Waiting for a sign of whatever he sensed ahead.

[weifinder]

The creature that lumbers out is awkward shaped, four limbed and hunched, pale greys and darker blacks that mottle as a good camouflage for the environment of the tunnels, more rock based than ice formed. Wei Wuxian gestures for them to stop, because here, sound is more relevant than vision, and the creatures of these tunnels rely on it more than they do on other senses. Some are better at scenting, too, but this creature doesn't sniff, doesn't scent the air.

It huffs to itself, stalking forward, head swinging. The soft glow of light they have catches its eye, but doesn't reflect on either of them enough to make them stand out in any particular manner. As long as they hold still.

The creature huffs again, stepping forward, emitting a few clicks and appearing to listen to the resulting sounds. Whatever it hears doesn't offer easy answers, perhaps because both of them through circumstance are next to a wall, rather than standing away from it.