westwhere | stage iii

stage iii

THE ASHES

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Rathakku’s forces deepen their siege, with sharp-clawed harpies, fire-bearing catapults and archers raining hell upon Alem. The last two watch towers collapse, along with half the roof of the Keep. Several structural pillars dissolve and most windows shatter.

The Lord Who Waits has tired of patience.

HIGH CASTLE

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■ Attack is vicious and perpetual: Rathakku’s creatures descend from above, harpies make lairs in dark corners, and the fallen rise as undead enemies. Rathakku now necromances even the recently deceased, who retain a sense of personhood. Characters with mind control and necromantic abilities can take over these units. The recently resurrected have yet to decay substantially and hide they perished in order to infiltrate.

■ The dragon Irenia dips in to breathe frost onto Rathakku’s forces, but never lingers long. She disappears on March 20 but will return post-Arc.

■ Aware of his native Ellethia’s implicit role in raising Rathakku, Zenobius offers to teach you how to use the rare metals and saltpetre of Alem to create generous explosives — a set that triggers a very high blast, and a smaller shipment that can annihilate any magic — including death and summoning sorcery — in a 20-metre radius for two hours. Zenobius is a hard, curmudgeony taskmaster: expect to be worked and criticised to the bone.

■ Expect frequent quakes in the fortress, as catapults strike and the roof and pillars wobble. A hard winter is no longer contained by shattered doors and windows. Fire kindle and other supplies run scarce. Huddle together.

■ Paladins fall into zealotry, calling to sacrifice young princess Cle-Florens to ensure their success in battle. Deimar does not dissuade them, but lowers the number of guards protecting Cle-Florens’ quarters.

■ The voices that haunted Alem now multiply, increasingly likely to drag you into a dream-like state to descend into the glacier lakes underground. Spy thereabout at night, and you spot demonic fire sirens of golden scales, who gather in the fourth glacier lake’s cave to urgently complete their task before Alem falls. Their leader produces a purse of dark glass shards. A siren painfully transforms her tail into human legs by consuming such glass — she intends to infiltrate the fortress as a refugee. Sign up for a RNG thread to interrogate this mermaid.

■ With a few more shard crumbs, the sirens summon a ‘Jatharin’ — a fast dispersing silhouette that floats ethereally. They give it a white-silver string punish Prince Haiva for wronging a sister.

■ The Jatharin survives only two hours in the human realm. It lacks human consciousness and memory, remembering little of its target’s description and pursuing what ‘young men (with pale hair)’ it finds in the Wards. It is invisible to all who did not witness its birth — so keep your companions out of its way. It approaches a target and chains itself to them with a shadowy ‘umbilical chord,’ before sucking dry their life force. It can also deplete energy through... mouth-on-mouth action. Clean executions: Victims make no sound and barely shudder throughout their entrapment. Some say, these are painless deaths.

■ Sirens summon a Jatharin for three nights.

	HARPIES Fast, perpetually furious, prone to consuming human flesh. Deterred by loud noise and vibrations. Imbue their claws with poisons that prevent blood coagulation, extending bleed-outs.
	CATAPULTS Deliver projectiles of stone, fire and minor explosives. Rathakku’s most ferocious instrument, taking down Alem’s foundations. Manned by four undead apiece. Sturdy but slow, best targeted aerially.
	FIRE SIRENS Native to Hell. Deeply bound to ‘sisters’ and ‘family.’ Possess golden scales and shards of the previously encountered dark water mirrors. Their song is tinny but compelling. Their speaking voices are crackling and gravelly. Survive the glacier lakes’ cold by exuding flame. Skin burns to touch.
	JATHARIN Smokey, dispersing silhouette. Invisible to those who did not witness its birth. Kills by consuming life energy. Descended from the Motherless of Hell. Cannot be outright stopped, only avoided, enslaved or consumed. Can be distracted if you take an aspect similar to Haiva. Leaves a golden string on unintended victims.

THE DEPARTING

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■ King Deimar orders caravans to urgently evacuate, carrying refugees and provisions through mountain routes into a new settlement. Able men, guards, healers and merchants make preparations around the clock and will gladly accept, command or guilt your assistance. Help them.

■ Courtesy of Jimmy and Nacho, merchants Batthour and Eles provide some last-minute wagons and resources. An Alison-coached Deimar strikes a tenuous agreement for supplies.

■ Having received ‘healing’ flowers, Prince Haiva seems entirely recovered — far more confident, he menaces guards to assist the caravans. Deimar watches uneasily. Haiva asks the party to lead the refugees through the icy mountain passageways, where Rathakku’s immense bat demons loom.

■ The caravans journey to a well-warded settlement near the base of the mountain — former paladin monastery Hassir. Those who wish to avoid conflict can remain here. Prepare to kill any wandering pursuers, before they may alert Rathakku of the settlement's location.

	MOUNTAIN BATS Monstrous, blood-thirsting. To the size of 1.5-3 metres. Bulky, quicker to use their brawns than their speed. Stalk together, but compete for food and want to drag their prey to some great distance before consuming it, for privacy. Use that time to escape.
	HUNTSMEN Undead forces, typically old resurrections of Rathakku. Once human natives of Alem. Excellent knowledge of hiding spots and the mountain. Hostile, take perverse pleasure in the game. Will prolong a chase for sport and give their hungering hounds the chance to catch you. Unusual kinship with local animals, who sometimes obey them. Some scent blood.

COME HELL, THEN DARK WATER

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Hell is ruthless, but pragmatic — and must be sealed, before Rathakku controls Alem and weaponises it.

The growing cracks in Alem’s underground Room of Seals widen to reveal full-fledged stairs. More and more demons emerge as the rifts broaden. You have mere days to close Hell, ICly starting on 18 March.

■ Back/forward date your posts and logs as needed. Network access is spottier in Hell. Deimar’s paladins accompany the group.

■ To prevent the outpour of Hell, you must reach Level III and record disrupting at least three Motherless.

■ Each level of Hell shows shallow stains or streams of the familiar ‘dark water.’

LEVEL I

■ The Room of Seal leads into an underground stone passageway. Demons and skeletons are chained to stones or pillars, begging water. The dead are fickle: some offer directions, others answers to your questions. Most lie for their own gain.

■ The stairwell to Level II is behind locked gates, on a stone dais framed by a wall of flames. To reach it, cross a threadbare walkway of bones in a large hall room that has largely submerged into lava.

■ If the bridge ruptures, jump onto the nearby talking floating skeleton heads. Skeletal hands reach out to destabilise or drag you into the fire waters, as do demonic lava mermaids.

■ As you near the dais, the wall of flames might depict either the time when Thyvault’s people slaughtered the lava sirens, or your worst memory of betraying or failing someone. That same person is found shackled with long chains on the dais. If you never wronged anyone, this is someone to whom you are dearly indebted. At times plaintive, at others incensed, they appeal to your guilt or goodwill, bartering the gate key for their release. Their chains will only open if someone agrees to take their place in imprisonment.

■ You can steal their key, kill them — at which point, they return to their true form as a reptilian shapeshifter, or offer to take their place. Do so, and your character is stuck in Hell, suffering the intense heat and occasional clawing of mermaids, until Hell closes.

■ Up to you if anyone else can see your character’s memory in the flame wall. Please trigger warn adequately if you are describing sensitive memories.

LEVEL II

You descend deeper, into an underground urbanscape infested with flesh-like structures. Some stretches of land and stone are covered in membranous, dense, thick surfaces, letting you feel the faint, distant heartbeat of Hell. Other landmarks — lairs, adornments — are made of the remains of fallen demons.

■ Step lightly and rapidly. Flesh-eating demons roam these lands, as do hungering hell hounds and golems that chase you for parts to patch their limbs.

■ The next stairwell is guarded by a deathly groom or bride, their tentacles barring your path.

■ To proceed, you must gain the ring they are safe-keeping for a future ‘intended.’ You’ll need to persuade a local demon, assemble a passing corpse bride, sell a companion or offer yourself to betroth them — and negotiate a dowry.

■ The groom is crafty, cunning, eager to manipulate you into offering your soul as a dowry; the bride is cruel but irresistible, stirring you and your companion to violently compete for her hand.

LEVEL III

Behold true hell, an endless wasteland, its horizon fathomless and grey. Your mouth tastes of perpetual ash, bone dust scattered at your feet. You walk aimlessly for hours in fields of gravel, haunted by stone snakes and shapeless bone creations.

■ Demonic creatures rally as armies, fighting each other for crumbling territory or for overground dominion, as they prepare to invade Alem. Some drag rows of sullen, depressed or bellicose dead men behind them, whose souls you can liberate furtively when the demons make camp, or are assaulted by Deimar’s paladins. These captives did not all originate from Alem.

■ Some of the lesser demons may part with information, if you give them memories, important trinkets or a taste of your soul.

■ Most paladins are on this level and will shield you. You hear from them or from passing demons that Hell is now able to seep into Alem because of the Motherless — dark and flickering silhouettes, two-three times the size of a man, who float high above ground. They send down thick ropes like umbilical cords that consume the energy of whatever they attach to. They redeliver this energy as tectonic blows against Alem above.

■ Beyond a hatred of the Room of Seals, the Motherless lack conscience, speech or allegiance. They are drawn to the warmth of living things, or the purity of their spirit. Their ropes are broken easily — but the presence of a Motherless can quickly drain you.

■ The Motherless are briefly visible when they fling their ropes down, but otherwise roam invisibly and can only be recognised by the trails of barren land and aridity in their wake. You know a Motherless has stopped above you when you are suddenly paralysed by chilling fear — run, at all costs.

■ The Motherless swarm when endangered. They cannot be killed.

■ Deimar’s paladins share that, hundreds of years ago, their brethren committed ritual suicide, so their spirits could perpetually hunt the Motherless in Hell. You find ghostly paladins walking listlessly in lakes of dark water, seeming to remember nothing of their mission or their former selves. Try to remind them of their duties without entering the water and stranding yourself.

NOTES

■ Hell demons can recognise if your character is canonically connected to hell. Up to you if that’s a (dis)advantage!

■ Everyone should eventually make their way to the Hassir monastery.

■ Sign up for a RNG thread with an unexpected travel companion on the trek to Hassir.

NPC THREADS

QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's a dog! How does anything?!

( you do not DO, you DEPART and DO NOT share space with it! right up to the point where the hellhound has more wisdom than a panicked necromancer, since he absolutely does not know he's still clutching at bucky in any capacity, and the oddly snazzily dressed creature lurking before them emerges from the depths of shadows.

where the groom, flesh and veins grown in such a way as to imply form, to imply form that stands clothed, and eyeless, mouthless, speaks to them: )

Thou shall not pass without the ring.

( at which point, wei wuxian, still panicked, looks at this creature...

... and heaves a sigh of relief. his heart hammers and races, his nerves are strung out, the hellhound is not creeping closer because it knows better, so this is exactly where wei wuxian wants to be. )

Which ring?

( the groom looms down at them, quiet. then leans forward, and says: )

My bride's.

You're married?

( bucky just blurts that out, unable to help himself because what the hell, what the hell. he wants to get out of this place so badly and now he's faced down with a hellhound asking for a ring.

he glances back at wei wuxian. )

Do you have this guy's ring?

( wei wuxian is continuing to edge closer to the monstrous fleshy groom creature, because it's further away from the hellhound. which may not be at their heels at present, but that's a dog. doglike thing. it will be. those monsters are made of the desire to gnaw, to bite, to rend, he knows it, knows it, fears it.

that what stands before them may be similar is oddly okay, because it's not canine, therefore is manageable. )

Never actually been one for rings myself. My fine... you who is to be wed! Where's your bride?

( unhelpfully, the creature laughs without a mouth. something ringlike emerges from the flesh of its outstretched limb, gaining a form almost like a hand. not really one, but an approximation in crude childishness. )

For a sweet gift of spirit, either of you might be. Or might find one who wishes wedded bliss—

( wei wuxian interrupts with: )

You can have the terrifying dog's soul, may your happiness be unending, thank you!

( with the nervous jerky suddenness of unpredictability, snatching the ring to the mutual surprise of the groom, himself, the hellhound who definitely heard it's now on offer, and also the bride, who's off doing the equivalent of demonic knitting, not on stair duty for the moment and considering with heavy sighs what joys of marriage await her, if only she manages to actually capture and hold her wedded bliss.

like a spider.

with a moth.

the simple joys. )

( later on, bucky's going to have to wonder how he gets in the middle of these things. he doesn't mind a fight, been in plenty of them to fill his entire life but this kind of fight?

he doesn't even know what to think. because there's a hellhound and there's another thing and the two of them, in the middle because of course. )

Did you just...take the ring from that thing?

( wouldn't that put a target on their backs? wouldn't that be a bad idea? )

You, you! Haven't given me what I asked—

( panicked wei wuxian is not here to stay, he's here to go. he hasn't used his qi to bother with most techniques he once blithely used it for, being far more parsimonious these days due to limited supply and longer refractory period (... in a manner of speaking), but now? now he flicks his fingers, and a line of energy snaps out to encircle the groom's wrist. the other end goes flying in the vague direction of the hellhound, wei wuxian not bothering to look to where it catches. just knowing it will, because he knows, and he's trying to tug bucky along after him as he bolts for the stairs.

the bride, for her part, starts laughing. it's a hideous sound, sending the small hairs on his neck and arms standing on edge, but he's not even slowing down as he panic races them through the latticework living protrusions down, down, down, because he needs to be away from that dog. )

Mahahahahaaaany blessings on your mahahahahahahaaaaarriaaaaaaaaaage, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa—Lan Zhaaaaaan—

( okay yeah, that's it. he's not sticking around here. he doesn't want to be here and he's getting good at dragging people out of caves.

he grabs at wei wuxian's arm and he takes charge, dragging him up the stairs that he'd been angled towards. he doesn't know what's going to happen with the hellhound and that other thing but he's not going to stick around and find out.

he's tired of this place. he was tired of it a year ago. )

( he lets himself be pulled along, and it's up, and oh isn't that a blessing? is that not kindness? is that not bliss?

higher, and the top, the plateau of this plague of flesh is the sudden end of it, and the sliding smoothness of the way down the other side. wei wuxian stumbles, pulling out of bucky's hold with a yelp as his feet slide forward and he falls, right onto his rump. the slide is dust strewn and ash slickened, a slide forward that has him gaining speed and leaning back to not go into a tumbling roll.

he waves his arms, scrambles to slow himself, and suffers from the smoothness of it all that doesn't allow him the justice of a stop. he also doesn't see the figure standing frozen at the base of this sliding hill, the one that dips deeper than the steps they'd climbed, only that this person, this paladin by the look of the armour, stares out into the distance and stands eerily still. right in the pathway of wei wuxian's sliding gaffe, and he calls out, but it doesn't deter the man. the woman? impossible for him to tell before he's bracing himself for the impact incoming.

he hits the frozen figure, passing through air remarkably chilled for the ambient temperature, and the both of them go tumbling in a heap of limbs.

the cold is absent in that moment. for that moment.

the unseen motherless child's meal interrupted, and the paladin gasping for air, eyes wide and white rimmed. a whisper from her lips: )

...un...

Christ.

( it all happens so fast that he doesn't even have a chance to try and grab for the other man. he just moves out of the hold, stumbles and then he's gone, flailing and pinwheeling his arms until he goes right through the person at the bottom of his fall.

and then everything seems to stop, still while they land. he starts to scramble down to try and make sure wei wuxian's okay. )

Hey? You alive? What happened? Stay still!

( wei wuxian, for his part, has at least seemed to start calming down. even if he's confused as to what the paladin is trying to tell him. even if he's winded. the only person scrambling down the hill is bucky, the man who was there when his husband was getting tossed by scale guarding creatures, and no dogs.

no dogs of any kind.

for the first time, his heart rate starts slowing down, and he rolls off where he's pinned one of the paladin's arms by accident. )

I'm okay! I'm okay! Are you okay?

( she's still struggling to breathe, so pale, her lips are almost blue. she tries again: )

R...uuuh...n.

( as bucky makes it to them, with wei wuxian sitting up and the paladin still prone, he casts him a confused and concerned look. )

What does that sound like she's saying to you?

( there's a bruise forming on his face, at his cheekbone. that final crash has doubtlessly bruised him elsewhere, but it's irrelevant: he's fairly sure this woman is telling them to run. from what? )

It sounds like she's saying we need to get the hell out of here.

( and while he's not really one to turn tail and get out of here, he has a feeling that that's probably the best bet here. he doesn't think either of them should stick around.

he grabs up wei wuxian by the arm and holds him up, trying to back him away from the paladin. )

Had a bad freaking experience with one of those already.

With what?

( he feels like he's missing something, aside from the clear and present danger that this layered hell poses from the start. he moves with bucky's grasp, more and more reasonable as no claws skitter behind them, but...

... huh. )

With....nothing.

( he makes a face and shakes his head. maybe he's seeing things, maybe he's going nuts. but he's just going to — )

Can you walk? At least no one threw you into me. Had that happen a lot lately.

Haaaah, it wouldn't be my first time getting thrown, so we're both happier. I can walk, though what was it you were saying about with—

( when he pauses this time, he looks back at the paladin, then around them. there's a clear trail of... lifelessness. his gaze whips back to bucky. )

Can you help me carry them away? One of the Childless is here.

You didn't take a knock to your head or anything, did you?

( just checking since that seems to be happening a lot to the people that he ends up with. )

What's a Childless?

A creature that consumes the life energy of those it comes across. It's what was being summoned up above, that left those men drained and dead. They consume everything. No spirit remains. Nothing.

( he waves one hand to dismiss the question of his head; )

It's fine, I'm thick skulled. We need to get that paladin up, if we leave them the Motherless will continue feeding. Between us, do you think we can?

Oh, great.

( yeah, that's just what they need. someone who consumes life energy. there's a lot of things he can deflect and come back from but he doesn't think that's one of them. )

Fine, let me do it. You can barely stand up and you keep getting into stuff that causes more problems.

( he manages to look mildly offended, but in the manner where he then nods and rubs at the back of his neck while he makes sure he really does have his feet beneath him. he takes to scanning the area, but the blotch of lifelessness hasn't shifted, and the trail behind it is... still obvious. )

I'm fine, I'm fine, let's get going, ah?

( the paladin struggles to try and sit up, failing in the process. )

I'm the one that's going, you're the one that's falling down and getting married to other creatures.

( just saying. )

Am I gonna have to drag your ass?

Hey, Lan Zhan isn't a creature!

( sometimes we deliberately take things other ways because the point was he got the flesh monster married to the monstrous horrible terrible EVIL DOG that he now, reflexively, looks up the slope to be sure hasn't tracked after them.

so far, he stands safe. safe enough. he's standing, and no dog is incoming, thus this is safe. )

I'll be fine following, I promise, I do! No lifting people. No running yet.

I didn't mean him.

( no wangji was a human missile, that's what he was and that's what bucky's going to think of him as for the rest of his time here. )

Come on. You feel all right? No injuries or anything?

( before they get moving and all. )

Nothing more than my face, ah, we can go, you can help them!

( because yes, his face, his pride, are the only things which have taken blows worth noting. he doesn't register the bruises or any small cuts: they're irrelevant.

he shoos bucky towards the paladin, scanning the hellish landscape around. )

Quick, quick, before it drops back in!

Quit — shoving me.

( but wei wuxian has already done it and bucky's beginning to get the idea that it's futile to tell him not to do something because he's going to do it.

so, he gets shoved and he walks around the paladin, glancing back. )

You, come on. Not leaving you alone.

( this man's known him for a few weeks and yet Wei Wuxian feels very seen right now. maybe some of Lan Zhan rubbed off on him when he kept being thrown his way? stranger things happen here )

I'm coming, I'm coming!

( he's also finally recalling his flute at his waist, tugging it free and taking it in firm hold. the paladin has managed to sit, glaring at them both for not running already, and oh: )

Quickly, the Motherless is coming back!

( he's swift after Bucky, watching the death swatch come closer again. )

Great, that's just what we need.

( he starts running, looking back to make sure that both wei wuxian is there and running. he doesn't want to leave him behind.

so, he runs but he doesn't run as fast as he could, not in case wei wuxian decides to be stupid and stops to do something. )

What's with the instrument?

Tool of my trade!

( he's keeping up, perhaps surprisingly well given his not so distant panic from earlier, but wei wuxian is nothing if not a survivor and a scrappy one. ignoring what his body tells him is more regular than paying heed.

which means he catches up with bucky, matching stride. let this man set the pace, when wei wuxian could, in theory, take leaping steps far beyond. )

To sway the dead, or convince them—doesn't work on the Motherless Children, not if they're as the one above, but others! Others it will!

( not a boast: a guarantee. still. )

We need to find a group of the paladins, get an update down here, ah?

( the words tied between footfalls, so the cadence of it jars as minimally as possible. )

<3

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