stage iii

[groundrules]

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

Comments

[jatharin]

( He whispers, slow, crackling, even as he comes close — as he holds his arm out. )

You denied me. Your betrothed. Your prince. Isn't that what you called me? Your hope-bearing prince. Yours. And then you turned on me, and when you turned on me, you turned on our union.

( A pause, then softened: ) I wanted to be healthy for you. I wanted to be a good man, for you. The kind of man who'll stand up to the Council, who'll put Deimar in his place, who'll put an end to madness. You stopped me, you prevented me, because you... are afraid. I know. Of your people, of what they'll say, of... that's what stopped you, isn't it? Why you wouldn't give me the glass. But you shouldn't be afraid. I'm here now. And you were selfish and wrong, but we are all selfish and wrong, and love makes us better. I want you to be better now. Like I plan to be better.

( Conclusively: ) I forgive you.

cw: violence

[valeas]

( He takes a step closer still, in spite of her warning. Close enough that she can feel his breath on her skin.

Emilia's hand reaches out to clasp his neck, fingers searing into pale flesh. ) I was warned of your obsession. Your delusions. You should be the one afraid. I've not come here for forgiveness.

( Nor to listen to more lies.

Vines with sharp, oversized thorns erupt from the earth and crawl up his yes, feet. Lock him in place. )

You killed Massarir. She loved you, and you killed her. Her people. ( The thorns dig into his ankles with the intent to draw blood, to absorb it and let that blood feed her power and force his truth. ) Confess.

[jatharin]

( He screams, and it's a sound wet and white like the hurt that seizes his nape, the feverish torture that slides up his legs, and worse still the suffering of her accusations —

He turns towards her, eyes wet with pleas. )

I did nothing to your people, that was uncle, that was Deimar, it was their work, to hide the... the ....hide the...

( But he cannot speak it, cannot face what he has done, cannot bear it. ) I didn't do anything that needed their lies, they were wrong, it was all — it was all a misunderstanding, it was... we... you remember. You remem —

( Another scream, this time from a part of himself that will not admit his faults. )

You went to the forest, you rode out, and I only followed, I... I was... it's a misunderstanding, you said no, what was I to do? ( Scowling, snarling: ) I needed it, and you wouldn't... for foolishness, you wouldn't... what was I to do, when you were unreasonable?

[valeas]

( Her lip curls back in revulsion. Emilia looks unmoved by his screams, to the point one might think her wholly unfeeling. No one would believe she holds compassion at all, even though she does, and deeply — for his victim. )

Massarir is dead. You have killed her.

( She will say that as many times as she needs to. )

And there aren't enough mirror shards in this world to cure you of your weakness. Your entitlement. ( The vines now reach his knees, their grip tightening as the truth spell takes full effect. Chokes at him just the same.

She repeats, her voice now dark and piercing, ) Confess.

[jatharin]

She isn't — you're he.... he...aaahhhh — ahhhhhhh... ( Gasped, first, then thinning — screams he is too breathless to shape, with the vines rounding his limbs, climbing. ) You're here! Here to —

( And he does shriek now, aches too well. )

I see you! You're here! We'll be — ahhhhh — we'll be... I forgive you, I see you.

1/2

[valeas]

( Even now, he cannot bear to say the words aloud. The truth washes over her all the same, certain of what he refuses to face.

Strands of her hair lift as if there were suddenly a breeze. A faint glow surrounding her, Emilia interweaves her fingers, moves them until the magical image of a rue branch takes shape. The five stalks of her cimaruta symbol extend to encompass Haiva overhead. )

Enough. The people of Alem have demanded sacrifice.

( He will do.

The symbol needs one last push if the portal is to open beneath the prince — as above, so below. A looming shadow behind Emilia advances toward them, as if in reminder she was never alone. )

2/2

[inferus]

( The shadows follow him as he steps forward, his very presence chilling the air.

Wrath reaches a hand out to call on the power of Hell itself below them, causing an isolated tremor. The symbols beneath Haiva activate in the very same pattern, fire carving the pattern into the dirt around his feet before the ground starts to fracture.

As above, so below.

Let Haiva fall into the yawning void and toward the sirens waiting to welcome him in.

In Wrath's palm remain two eyes.

The warning was to keep the prince's gaze away, after all. )

[jatharin]

( The end comes dark and swift, like maws opening.

He falls in — first listlessly, then startling awake — then jolting, screaming, anguished, hands flying and nails scratching hard land, two of his rings springing loose.

He falls in, and he screams.

He falls in, and heat and hell take him, and he weeps to the bitter end, only a man, only his fear. )

Massa — I forgi — ahhhhh... Massa — ...ahhhhhhhhaaaaaa!

( But only echoes remain. )