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

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This is an undead maaaaaannnnnnnnn's world. This is an undead maaaaaaaaaaaa's worth.

But it would mean nothing. Nothiiiiiiiiiing...

Drop a line with a starter here or in the NPC inbox to speak to Deimar, Haiva, Galatea or Thyvault.

Cle-Florens is strictly watched, but can receive correspondence. Sadly, others might read your letters.

Rathakku can receive missives.

Drop a link here to your finished thread* disrupting the cord of a Motherless by 23:59 on 22 March.

*only the part relating to the Motherless needs to have finished by the time of submission for recording purposes c:

Disrupt three Motherless to seal Hell.

( Oooorrrrr bring your own wildcard prompt, if none of the below work for you! )

open and closed prompts to follow!

Open and closed starters to follow! You're likewise welcome to tag this comment with your own wildcard if nothing I've written strikes your fancy.

[ Or tag with your own wildcard adventure if none catch your fancy. ]

I. HIGH CASTLE

[Like others, Moran has noted the quite significant thinning of Cle-Florens's guard.

Unlike others, he has decided to be completely and unrepentantly open about his intent to protect the little princess. Disguises are al well and good, but there comes a time where it just isn't enough.

Those who have met Moran after Sa Hareth might be a little put out by his appearance. And the first Paladin whose hand even strays too close to the door handle swiftly gets a very sharp blade pressed against their throat.]

And just what do you think you're doing, sir?

II. THE DEPARTING

If there is someone who can organize an evacuation convoy, it's definitely the army general with experience in ruling an empire. Between Haiva's newfound authority and Moran acting, well, like the Imperial Prince he actually is, which means he gives orders and expects them to be obeyed, which in turn means many people obey them before thinking about this, the forming of caravans is actually starting to look pretty efficient.]

We need a few more armed men to leave with this convoy. If not soldiers, anyone capable of holding a pike and thrusting the pointy end in anything menacing will do.

I. Hell level one [TW: GENOCIDE, PANDEMIC, TORTURE]

[It turns out, the lava and the skeletons wasn't the hard part.

The hall of flames is suddenly engulfed in a crowd of people. Gaunt, bloody, some of them baring scars or missing limbs, some of them showing grotesque faces growing on parts of their bodies, and all of them, raring and raging towards a while silhouette that is clearly Xie Lian. on the mural, his body is pierced by a myriad of swords, all but skewering him entirely, and his mouth is open onto a silent scream.

And then the rattle of chains, and this dais is barely enough to contain the amount of people who seem to be appearing there, all of them calling out.]

'You trash god!'

'God of misfortune! You brought all on this on our heads!'

'This is all your fault! We didn't do anything wrong, you deserved it!'

'If we have to stay here then so do you!'

[Xie Lian takes a deep breath, plasters a smile on his face and turns around to face them.]

Come on, now. We all know this is not real and all these people have been dead for centuries. Who are you trying to fool?

II. Hell level two

[Why is it always weddings with spirits? What always gets into them?

Xie Lian throws the bits and pieces of the demon he just dismembered to the side and wipes his hands on his robes.]

I'm pretty sure we have enough corpse bits in here for a makeshift ghost wedding... Unless you have a better idea?

III. Hell level three

[Ruoye slaps away a tentacle like appendage that attempts to tie itself to Xie Lian, and he jumps back as far as he can. Not that it will help much. They are everywhere. And as powerful as Ruoye can be, the demonic energy in this place means its power are much less able to shield Xie Lian from detection.... And his power seems to keep drawing the Motherless to him.]

You really need to keep them away from me ! I don't think anything good will happen if they manage to siphon energy from me!

... I wonder if I could take some from them though?

( A collecting spot for starters! If you'd like anything specific hit me at

miscreates, or feel free to drop me a wildcard. )

The Departing

[It's chaos, even when they are finally able to depart and travel through the mountain pass. Safety is something that's never been expected, but hope has always been her childish wish, no matter how many times she's disappointed. Dany travels to and from the front of the caravan, checking on the women, children and sick at various points. Drogon is not far away, sweeping through the canyons in large, aggressive loops.

Despite her attempts to call Drogon back, his shrieks echo off the stone, sending a few pebbles tumbling off the sides of the mountain. Save for the horses and general hum of the populace, much of the way seems quiet. Or, quite likely, Danny is hypervigilant for the sound of pursuers or threats nearby. It's why she's quick to peer over the side of the road, gazing down where the sound of fluttering wings is coming from.

With a jolt that spooks the horses, Drogon launches up into the sky, tearing at another winged creature (a bat, Dany thinks). Both screeching at each other, ripping at the other's neck with long fangs. No. No. She can see a few scales fall, a cry of...fury? pain? sounds from her dragon.]

Drogon! Dracarys!

Level I

Dany, please!

[Viserys' voice is as sharp and pleading as the night her husband bestowed him his crown. Chained to the wall, there is no change to him. His clothes, the fine garb Illyrio had given him, is torn and bloodied. There are hints of gold specks at his shoulders and collar, moving ever so slightly as he leans towards her. Violet eyes bore into her back, driving a dagger through her skin, even if she turns away. Take my place! Take my place!'

No, he's dead. He's long been dead.]

How are they doing this?

i: Did you think he wouldn't whip someone?

[Chu Wanning has barely been resting. He's setting up barriers wherever he could. Protecting against attacks on the battlefield, barriers for keeping out the cold where the wounded and defenseless rested.

He offers what meager rations he has to others, pushing himself to his limits...and all for what? He--and others, have bled to save as many as they could and what do these paladins do? Go after a child? Sacrifice her...for what ends? What could they possibly accomplish with that?

The anger over the situation simmers and simmers until like a pressure cooker it explodes the first time he finds a paladin trying to get into the princess's rooms.

He only confirms that the paladin was guilty--Tianwen's ability made sure to get an answer. And then he whips the man. Armour is a useful thing against normal weapons but Tianwen is not a normal weapon. It cuts through the armour with only a little application of spirit energy...then Chu Wanning keeps on going.

He doesn't intend to kill the man but he doesn't intend to let the him off easy, either. Attempt to stop him...

...or don't. Eventually he stops and hauls the man off, throwing him in another hall where others can see, a staircase between the paladin and the princess's chambers, one long enough that going up with such severe wounds will make such a trek difficult.

Then he steps around the man and heads back out into battle, looking as if he'd whip the next person who looked at him wrong. He does not stop to explain himself.]

ii: let me accompany you into hell (Level 1)

[Even when tired he wouldn't hesitate to go into hell. He wouldn't be Chu Wanning if he did.

He has many people he feels guilty towards that show up in the walls of flames, they flicker, changing as Chu Wanning passes towards the dais.

Nangong Liu's wife, Rong Yan: a hole on her chest where her heart should be accusing him of letting her die--of letting her murderer go.

Huai Zui: accusing Chu Wanning of being a good-for-nothing, ungrateful thing. That if he couldn't leave his spirit core behind then at least Chu Wanning should stay here in his place.

If someone stops him he will, but otherwise he passes by these visions, his nails biting into his palm.

Then the image changes and it's Mo Ran: accusing him of being cold, of being awful and condescending. Isn't it Chu Wanning's fault he was nearly skewered in Butterfly Town? Wasn't it Chu Wanning's failure that he was nearly killed under Jincheng Lake? Would things in Peach Blossom Springs have escalated if Chu Wanning had just done his duty as his Shizun?

This was the worse one, this one made Chu Wanning pause when he came up to the dais and saw "Mo Ran" chained there.]

The least shizun can do is set me free by taking my place.

Edited 2023-03-12 05:11 (UTC)

( all prompts ota. )

→ HIGH CASTLE

As Emilia anticipated, tending to the deep fissures in the Room of Seals depletes a great deal of her strength. Her magic wavers; where her body had sung with power, she now feels its limit like a wall erected. It isn't just the curse holding her back this time, either. Hell is greedy, and consumes what it can.

Wei Wuxian will take the next shift. Wrath after him. She closes her eyes for minutes, or so it feels, and opens them to renewed screams. To the fortress shuddering its last breath.

She snaps into action, intent on making her way back to the Room, to Wrath. She seeks familiar faces on her way, slashes her dagger into what she must. If blood splatters on her face, she barely notices.

A catapult strike lurches her sideways, and what happens after is instinct: a ring of protective light flares up in a twenty-foot-radius around her. The dome shape of it bears the brunt of rubble from the collapse above. Hands extended, she looks to the people inside the translucent dome with her.

"Where were you headed?"

→ COME HELL, THEN DARK WATER

The fire water is familiar to her. Emilia stares, entranced and unharmed, as some of it splashes onto her foot. I was not born, she thinks, a memory rattled. I was made.

She was never a star witch, but the stars were hers, once.

The fire water recognizes her, in turn. So does the mermaid that starts to reach out, and stops. Tilts her head with that recognition, before she grudgingly submerges back into the lava. There's no time to be disconcerted, to question herself and a life that she'd thought real.

Indecision is death, and she charges forward with her companions.

A wall of flames up ahead slows her steps, her exhale scorching. The shape of it has yet to take full form, and she strains her eyes to make sense of it. Does anyone else see the depiction, too?

NOTE: I love prose and brackets equally, so follow your heart and I'll match your preference. Feel free to wildcard or reach me at

moonstones if there's something else you'd like to do with Emilia.

[ open and closed starters below! hit me up at

geekorthodox for anything more specific! ]

[ lorna's had nightmares of futures like this when her mind sinks into its darkest places, especially since she'd first learned she was pregnant. this is just a little less reminiscent of terminator, unfortunately for her. at least she could work with the metal if there were more murderous robots.

she realizes, belatedly, that she can feel it in the air, mistaking it for the blood of another person at first. but then she feels a stronger pull, something almost tangible, and that either means somebody's spilling a lot of blood or they've got a potential weapon with them.

she breaks into a run, carefully stepping around stone and narrowly avoiding the serpents, until she comes across another woman, crouched over something she can't quite make out from where she's standing. green energy encircles her hands, which are poised in a way that suggests she's trying to feel something out. ]

Hey. Are you hurt? [ the sensation is too strong to just be blood, but that doesn't mean she isn't. ]

[Allison is - gently - giving orders as they gather people together, making sure that all the supplies are loaded onto the proper caravans. They don't have a lot of time, so she's trying to keep this as efficient as possible, and smooth over any friction between the merchants and the locals.

They're all trying their best, and they'll all die if they don't get out of here as a team. She's trying to do her best to remind them of that.

After starting to load some of the children onto one of the caravans, she spots a familiar face in the crowd and relaxes that her friend seems to be okay for now.]

Hey. Everything good?

so, so, so late...

Hassir

Wildcard

ooc: Or drag him into shenanigans on the way.

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