westwhere | the scattering

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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!

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah.

( but what else is new? most of his recent life's felt disorienting for one reason or another. this is just another chapter in that book.

as se moves through, he steps in after her, looking around. it feels like this was walled off for a reason, trying to stop people from getting through. )

This doesn't feel like a brand new path.

No.

[She sweeps the torch around, taking in the clearly old and abandoned tunnel. Covered in dust, what bits of metal remain being eaten away, even a few shards of glass on the ground that were once a lamp.]

I wonder why they closed it off. [She can imagine a few reasons, none of them pleasant.

She takes a step further into the tunnel, not knowing what she's looking for but hoping to spot something.]

Edited 2023-02-07 02:44 (UTC)

Love to say there probably wasn't a reason but —

( you don't wall off something like this without a reason and he knows it. he frowns. )

It smells stale in here.

It's been walled off a long time, then?

[Caitlyn is not overly experienced in abandoned mines. To her, it's difficult to tell whether the air in here is staler than the air out there, but she's willing to take his word for it.

She holds the torch out to him. They'll need light in here, if they're to keep exploring, and she can't hold both the torch and her gun.] I'll need both hands for the rifle.

I can't tell but — it feels like it's been awhile.

( after a moment, he takes the torch and holds it up, starting to walk again. )

Doubt they would have walled this place off if they didn't want someone discovering something. Or getting out.

[Caitlyn begins moving further down the passage, not waiting for him or the light he's now carrying. He's probably right that there's something dangerous hidden in here, but, if anything, that only spurs Caitlyn on.

She's only gone a few yards when the faint torchlight catches a dilapidated wooden structure in front of her - a rusted metal winch holding a wood box from the ceiling. She touches the floor of the box with her foot and it creaks loudly in protest.]

There's an elevator here, [she calls to him over her shoulder.] It looks as though it hasn't been used in years.

Then we probably shouldn't use it either.

( he comes up beside her and peers at the elevator. it's...well, it's an elevator. it doesn't look very well put together and he doesn't think it's safe but he wonders where it goes. )

Whatever they used it for, they either have another way to get there or they abandoned it.

[There's a lever by the side of the elevator, which she assumes will operate it. And there's only one way to know how deep it goes or if there are any other passages currently blocked by it further down the mineshaft.

She reaches out and throws the lever.

The elevator creaks loudly before the chain begins to unwind and it slowly, painfully, and above all loudly, begins to lower down the shaft.

She peers down after it, looking to see if there's anything worth spotting down there.]

Yeah, that sounds great.

( it does not but he can't deny that he's a little curious. he watches the elevator go down and then he leans over the edge, trying to see if there's a ladder or something. )

You wanna go down there?

We've come this far.

['This far,' of course, being a few yards, but as nervous as she is of heights, and of falling from a height in the dark, and of whatever caused the miners to wall off this passage, she'd much rather go down after the elevator than give up and turn around.

She squats down before leaning over the edge, not eager to accidentally tip over and fall after the elevator.]

Look, there.

[What she would guess is one level down, she spots a tunnel branching off the elevator shaft. There's no ladder or other easy way to get to it, but...]

We could slide down the elevator chain.

I'm gonna go on record as saying this is a bad idea but —

( the elevator chain sounds doable. he reaches out and gives the chain a hard pull with his metal arm before he grip harder and jumps off, letting himself slide down.

his feet touch down quick and then he's looking up at her. )

Safe enough, come on.

[Caitlyn quickly stows her rifle in the case on her back and takes a deep breath before reaching out and likewise grabbing the chain.

As long as she doesn't look down, it's fine. Just don't look down.

It's rather an awkward, ungainly descent, but she makes it down without incident. Once her feet are on solid ground, she pulls out the rifle again.]

We haven't introduced ourselves, have we? I'm Caitlyn.

Bucky.

( he nods, not offering his hand because he thinks they're past that after going down an elevator shaft.

he stills for a moment, listening for anything that might jump out at them. )

You hear anything?

[She takes a moment to listen.]

I don't-- [But then she does. It's faint, so faint she almost misses it. A sort of scratching sound, something scraping against the rock.

She glances at Bucky, her worry evident on her face.]

Yeah, I figured there'd be something.

( because there always is. and it doesn't sound human. he curls his fingers into a fist and turns in the direction of the noise. )

You armed?

[Caitlyn raises her gun, staring along the barrel into the darkness of the tunnel. The rifle remains steady, but her stomach is twisting with nerves, and she exhales slowly in an effort to calm herself.]

Come out where we can see you!

[Nothing.

She takes a slow step towards the sound.]

Might not be something that understands the language.

( aka it's probably some terrifying monster with tentacles or pincers or something.

he steps closer to the sound, holding his hand up for her to cover him. )

If this is a giant spider, I'm done with this place.

[The scratching stops abruptly, followed by a sort of stuttering, chittering growl, the sort of sound an insect might make, but deep. A sound only something massive could make.

Caitlyn exhales again, but this time she can hear how shaky the breath is. She holds back, covering Bucky as instructed, knowing that the person who can punch through walls ought to be in front of the person whose primary - or only - combat skill is ranged.]

They said Rathakku has... creatures, [she says softly.

Is that what this is?]

Yeah.

( yeah, that's what they said, isn't it? and he's seen evidence of creatures around gut's bind. he sighs. )

I'm gonna get up closer and you cover me.

( she's got the weapon, after all. he starts moving closer, towards the growl, cursing himself and his lick with each step. )

[Caitlyn nods, keeping the rifle steadily trained on the darkness past Bucky. So far, there's nothing there that she can see, nothing moving at all, but the moment anything threatening appears, she's ready to fire.]

( bucky let's her get herself positioned and starts moving again. there's nothing that he can see but he doesn't think that whatever was there just left.

one step, two steps, three and — that's when whatever's there leaps out. it's long and black, an ugly thing with spindly legs and claws at the ends. it jumps out of the brush and bucky just manages to get his arm up to block it from embedding itself into him.

it still clings and he grunts, trying to shake it off to give her a clear shot. )

[At the first sign of movement, Caitlyn's aim adjusts abruptly. It's some sort of inhuman monster, she can tell, so she has no qualms about simply killing it.

She waits a moment, making sure that she has a clean shot and won't hit Bucky. For the first time since coming down into the mines, she feels calm. She has to; if she can't stay calm, she might miss.

A single shot rings out, the bullet piercing the creature's eye. She keeps the gun up, just in case that wasn't enough to kill it.]

( while the shot doesn't kill the thing (yet), it knocks it completely off his arm and it skitters away, a horrible scraping hiss emanating from it as it moves back into the brush.

there's black blood that follows its path. bucky makes a face, shaking his arm even if the only damage was a few scrapes. )

The hell is with this place?

[Caitlyn tries to follow the creature with the gun, but it's gone in an instant before she can fire off another shot.

She waits a moment to see whether it will come back before lowering the gun and rushing over to him.]

Are you alright?

[She saw it latch onto his arm, and she's not sure whether all that blood belongs to the creature or whether some of it is his.]

Fine. Tried to eat something that's not going to go down very well.

( he lifts his arm, shows off the metal underneath his sleeve before he glances at the bush. )

I don't know if you killed it.

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