the sunken | part i

[groundrules]

THE SUNKEN

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Welcome to the first log of Arc VI: the Sunken, which covers 15 May – 2 June and doubles as a test drive meme.

Back/forward date as needed! The calendar date suggestions are indicative.

The TDM is open to everyone! If you decide to apply to the game, you can get an invite from current players or the upcoming enabling meme — or participate in the test drive meme and get in touch @ groundrules to chat things over. We currently have 13 slots available for new players.

Test drivers can use this post for logs and network posts — old timers, please make your network posts at eastbound.

LOST AT SEA | TEST DRIVE TOURISTS

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You wake, gasping, in a stormy sea, your thoughts slowed to a confused trickle. Skill, floating wood or a kindly stranger — who you can’t understand — help you to reach shore.

Villagers discover you collapsed on sand and provide critical (if rickety) communication and translation devices. They say you are in Sunken Yancai, a fishing village progressively overtaken by waters and cursed by the secretive ‘ladies of the lake’ to transit through time.

■ Rescuers group newcomers and supply questionable village couture, warm meals and accommodations in abandoned, half-flooded homes or spare small boats anchored in Yancai’s waterways. Huddle up, recover your strength and don’t think too hard on why your memories are hazy over the next three days.

■ Come morning, you visit village leader Quanze Tsaymien, then the sorceress Karsa — who explains you are otherworlders summoned into Akhuras by undead lords who wish to weaponise you in their battle against humans and one another. Karsa is an associate of the Merchant, who leads otherworlders towards ancient transport beacons east.

■ One such beacon rests dormant in Yancai. The group must infiltrate the village and wait a few weeks until it shifts to a point back in time when the beacon was active.

■ Newcomers are handed passport papers with their new identities in Yancai, where they may be known as a bankrupt merchant, perpetually drunk sailor, whale hunter, raft surveyor, mermaid who has just gained their legs, crab collector... feel free to invent a dutifully hilarious apt role for their seaside sojourn.

OLD TIMERS | THE DRIFTING

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You dragged yourself here in a haze. You arrived long ago, as if in a dream. You were born and bred in this village. In truth, your memories of reaching lively Yancai feel nebulous and alarmingly inconsequential.

Characters are facilitated new identities and dwellings by the Merchant, or believe they have had them all along.

■ A weary Karsa warns to say nothing to party members with altered memories, until the sorcery that affects them runs its course.

■ Memory-altered characters progressively regain their memories within three to five days (by 20 May). They have their memories partially or fully back at night ( midnight to 5 a.m.). Throughout the day, memory regains can trigger migraines, eerie confusion and paranoia.

■ Hauntings begin once characters have fully regained their memories.

■ Once everyone is ‘back to normal,’ Karsa explains that Yancai periodically transits through time. The memory alterations are a magical solution endorsed by the village council, which ensures locals mentally weather these shifts. Villagers continue to blithely accept you as part of the community.

(DON'T) HOLD YOUR BREATH

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Karsa reunites the existing party and newcomers, issuing first assignments. The Merchants’s information suggests the beacon of Yancai will be online once the village travels in time within weeks. A dubious Karsa asks the party to check on the beacon, located in the former House of Commerce of the largely inundated merchants’ district. Reach it by rowing boat.

■ Villagers say the Master of Commerce, a famous musician, took precautions against intruders.

■ All ground and lower floor entryways of the palatial House were boarded to restrict flooding. To enter, pick locks or climb the putrid stairwell towards upper balconies.

■ Inside, the hissing of running water — and, in the lower levels, of thin, slippery leeches whose bite numbs your limbs, while they attempt to feed. You seem to experience pronounced vertigo when entering any decaying rooms covered in black mould.

■ The beacon is located on a dais in the basement vault room, where water rises near 1 meter. Only a few scattered scrolls and golden decorations remain among decorations, while a large ceiling carving writes, greed deafens man to the cries of his conscience; music sets him free.

■ Some tiles of the marbled floor stand out as you wade — step on one, and all doors abruptly slam shut, while dozens of obscured holes in the wall start to rapidly spill water, threatening to fill the room to the ceiling within the hour. You hear the tinny, waning sound of a village song played from a hidden source.

■ To stop the pouring water and open the doors, sing the song you hear, or find the music box that produces it amid debris on the water-covered floors. Wind it, and it plays its song in reverse, revealing the voice of a laughing elderly man who says, Depressingly, Anurr was right to worry.

■ Don’t forget to check the beacon — and report back to Karsa that it looks structurally untarnished.

THEY SLEEP

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After surprising revelations at previous citadels, Karsa tasks you to investigate just how… permanent death is in Yancai. Villagers share that their dead are buried in a strange rite at sea — part of which will take place within days.

■ The dead are ‘entombed’ in one-man sarcophagi ships with carved and chained lids that depict their likeness. These burial boats are set at sea on the first day of each season and return three months later.

■ Join the harbours around 22 May, when mourners gather to receive the burial boats. Characters must pretend to be greatly anguished relatives, acquaintances or debt collectors to join the grieving.

■ The boats float towards you, seemingly of their own volition. Gaze afar and spot a boat carrying a man in black — the same who haunts some characters — who observes until the last burial ship has reached the piers, before he disappears.

■ Sailors draw up the boats and unpeel the untouched chains and lids, to reveal… no corpses. Peer closer and find neither biological signs (stench, liquids) of discomposure, nor the magical chillness of spaces where cadavers have lingered long. Scratch marks litter the inside of some boat lids.

■ Mourners seem grateful that the waters have ‘accepted’ the bodies. Some say that their relatives whose boats have yet to return must have been stolen by the ‘ladies of the lake,’ a villainous witch coven. Speak to mourners or sailors for clues.

■ Linger long near opened burial boats, and you feel tempted to throw yourself into the sea, slowly losing consciousness — until someone rescues you.

AMONG US

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On 25 May, village leader Quanze Tsaymien drags the chained and half feral mistress Miang-si to households and Yancai’s largest market square.

The young woman, he says, was seduced by the ladies of the lake — the furtive witch coven that condemned Yancai to time travel. Luckily, the village elders have… coaxed Miang-si back onto the righteous path.

■ Miang-si is brought door-to-door to point out her 'accomplices.' Ill at ease, villagers whisper of similar witch hunts leading to false accusations and blood-curdling repercussions.

■ Both men and women are suspected and brought before Miang-si. Perhaps she takes an eerie interest in you, getting especially close to catch your scent, touch or remark on (in)visible hurts, or even dotingly kiss you. If you whisper quickly while she’s near, you might be able to ask one question.

■ If you are patient and kind to Miang-si, she briefly squeezes your hand as she withdraws. Within the hour, you find blood writ on your palm that warns, Our fat moon rises red.

■ If you are agitated, or if Quanze rushes her during your visit, Miang-si erupts into sudden, side-splitting cackling — while you find yourself croaking like a toad, or transforming into one and retaining human speech. The spell dissolves after eight hours.

■ Quanze’s long-suffering men say this sorcery breaks faster if you kiss one of the curmudgeonly emerald toads that hide in some of Yancai’s lakes. Catch one such delightful, slime-spitting creature or barter it from merchants at a costly premium.

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT

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A full moon is set to rise within days of Miang-si’s visit, on 27 May — just as Yancai shows signs of time shifting. Villagers are prone to stilling and staring askance, seeming lost or adrift.

The village itself evolves: one moment, the same house appears freshly new, then drowned, while waterways overfill with water, then seem barren. Overall, the village deteriorates.

■ That day, the sun suffers a midday eclipse, while droves of black birds circle the woods and village outskirts, attacking those who come close.

■ The waters increasingly thicken and darken, preventing boats from entering certain waterways.

■ An exceedingly bright moon and a diffuse lunar replica rise with nightfall. Come midnight, the village is alive with the sounds of ripping, structural collapse and shrieks. Tar-covered corpses emerge from the waters, clawing on and climbing up piers. They swarm, drawing passers-by into waters to drown them. Help them — and foremost, yourself.

■ Light and fire keep the dead at bay. On some waterways, wildfire now spells, WHAT IS WET WAS WRONGED

■ Weaker alone, fresh corpses climb into your rowing boat, pretending they are innocents who seek shelter. They betray themselves by speaking very slowly, struggling to keep track of the conversation or obliviously peppering it with details of their death. They stubbornly ask questions about you, repeating your answers, and become violent if you say they are dead. Push them into the water at first opportunity.

■ Quanze Tsaymien and other men of the village take arms, urging villagers to barricade in the nearest home, harbour or warehouse and weather the night. They advise to be silent and beware the dead who imitate living voices, warning not to touch any black mould or water that suddenly appear in your home — which alert the dead of your presence within.

■ Some dead try to tear you apart, while others seek to feed you a disgusting, tar-like black mould. A small taste of it makes you sluggish and feeble for two-three hours, while an entire fistful can kill.

■ If the undead infiltrate your house, hold your breath, do not move and keep from screaming. The dead have weak sight and olfactory senses and might pass you by, as long as you stay silent. It can be more efficient to fool than kill the dead.

■ By 5 a.m., houses start to replenish themselves, gaining a new appearance, while water and mould retreat. The dead withdraw into waterways. Outside doors have been marked with blood: vertical lines tell how many living people remain inside; horizontal ones count how many within died overnight.

■ You step to seize a brave new day — while Yancai enters a new time period (further details due in the next plot update).

NOTES

■ The game enabling meme goes up on 25 May.

■ Hit up available NPCs here or in their new inbox!

■ QUESTIONS.

Comments

Wen Ning | The Untamed | Tourist

[fiercechains]

[ Arrival ]

He is not entirely sure how he ended up in a place filled with sand. Nor does he understand what it is that he's handed. It was probably a good thing that the device translates their words or he would not understand what they are talking about. Nor has he ever heard of Yancai.

The warm meals that are provided were not needed so he makes sure that they go to someone else, someone who needed them more. He knows that, for now, he needed to make sure that everyone was alright and that they were not in any danger.

Though, when morning comes he's none too happy about the message. After all, he's been considered a weapon before. As for the passport papers, he would find out what that was all about after taking everything in.


(DON'T) HOLD YOUR BREATH

There were leeches that bite and try to get something from him, to feed. Did they feed on fierce corpses, on the undead? Though, that was far from the problem that laid ahead. Especially when the hissing of running water seemed to fill the room.

If water were to fill the place then he would sink to the bottom as he did not swim. Perhaps if he were still human then he would but he was not human anymore. The water does not, however, stop him from heading off toward one of the rooms.

When there was need for help then he would do what he could to help.

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT

The village was... wrong. That was the only feeling that he knew to put it as. Though, it does not show on his outside features. He has watched as the structures collapse and the shrieks hit his ears. Whatever the Tar-covered corpses are he does not care, not at the moment.

When the corpses go to swarm, go to drag anyone in, they will be met with chains. Wen Ning will do what he can in order to in order to help those that pass-by and keep them safe.


[ Wildcard ]

OOC: If something else catches your attention, toss it my way. ♥

Arrival

[beitangmoran]

[If Wen Ning starts exploring his surrounding, he might, suddenly run into a familiar face.

The face is attached to someone dressed entirely unlike Wei Wuxian, thought. Long flowing blue and silver silks, silver and pearl hairpin holding his hair back and as his gaze falls upon Wen Ning, no recognition at all seems forthcoming. His eyes just move on, until he starts frowning as a man suddenly pulls on his sleeve asking for something.]

The shop is closed, good master. Come back tomorrow, I don't have time today.

[He doesn't have time any day to be a merchant, but what do these people care?]

[fiercechains]

[ The man before him did share a resemblance to Wei Wuxian but not enough that Wen Ning couldn't tell them apart. He also couldn't see the man who he's been loyal to for a long time wear silks like that or a pearl hairpin.

He still is not sure where there are crabs in this village but that could be worried about later. Wen Ning waits until the man leaves and watches Moran for a moment. ]

You share a resemblance to Master Wei.

[ Probably not the first time he's heard that. ]

[beitangmoran]

[This is definitely addressed to him, and Moran turns to face whoever spoke.]

So I have been told. If it is him you are looking for, he is around somewhere here.

... I assume you know him from your home?

[fiercechains]

Young Master Lan mentioned Master Wei was here.

[ Though he has yet to find Wei Wuxian. If he could truly smile then he would when Moran asks about how he knew the man. So, instead he gives a bow before rising. ]

I've known Master Wei for a long time.

[ If not for Wei Wuxian then he would not have his consciousness. ]

[beitangmoran]

[He can't make sense of the pallor and the markings, really, but the tone of voice and attitude say enough. He answers the bow with a small nod, the attitude of someone who is more used to being bowed to than bowing to others.]

And you will be glad to meet him again, it seems.

There is a cave on the outskirts of the village. That is where he resides currently although... he might not yet remember. This place does strange things to people's memories. Give it a bit of time.

[fiercechains]

[ He does not mind that Moran does not bow in return. ]

I will be happy to see Master Wei, yes. I will also be happy to see my jiejie.

[ Sizhui had mentioned that his sister was there too. The mention of not remembering has him canting his head slightly. ]

It has not done anything to your memory?

[beitangmoran]

We are.... differently afflicted. This has happened before.

[And is never easy to explain.]

Your older sister is here too?

(Give him a minute to think of Wei Wuxian's acquaintances.]

You are Lady Wen's brother?

[fiercechains]

This is not the first time memories have been altered?

[ Who would dare do something like that? ]

My jiejie is here.

[ That is what A-Yuan told him. That she was one of the ones who were there. ]

She is my sister. I'm her little brother, Wen Ning.

wildcard

[silverneedles]

[ Wen Ning's voice haunts her dreams, and mornings bring dread: he is never there. The dreams fade but the fear and the worry linger, a knot of terror in her soul, the worst of the shame.

The village is too wet for Wen Qing, born to fire and heat, but nowhere can she avoid the water, and the village girls turn away from her in fear. Solace is found at the bottom of a bottle, along with a sudden understanding of why Wei Wuxian drank.

The afternoon finds her hungover, the ache of a hangover stinging behind her eyes as she squints out over one of the lakes, edges of her vision hazy. She sees Wen Ning, but that is impossible: he's dead— except no, not even that: he's chained up, a ghost kept in hiding.

She points at him, hand wavering, the good doctor unsteady for once in her life. ] You. You keep haunting me. You're not a-Ning.

[fiercechains]

[ Wei Wuxian had told him that he needed to find his sister. He had not, unfortunately, found his sister just yet.

It's only a bit later that he does find her and she didn't look so good. Something that didn't sit right with him. Which is why he moves over toward where she is, catching her words. ]

I'm here, jiejie.

[ This? It wasn't some ghost haunting her. He does, however, reach out to place his cool hand over her own. A hand that was nice and solid. If he were a ghost then he'd go right through her hand, wouldn't he? ]

I'm here.

[silverneedles]

[ There have been waking dreams, and ghosts made solid, and corpses rising from the ground with faces much like the ones she's loved and lost before.

Even when this ghost reaches out, hand placed against hers, Wen Qing refuses to believe. He calls her sister, which no one has done here, but these ghosts are tricky.

The sun is too bright, making her wince, and she lifts her free hand to shade her face from the sun. ]

No. No, a-Ning is— [ She looks away from him, her gaze hazy. ] He's at home. Finally released, after— [ —after she failed to protect him. ]

[fiercechains]

Jiejie

[ He doesn't know what was going through his sister's head. Though, he knows that he lost his sister too and is happy to see her. No matter how long she's been in this place it was good to see her.

He kneels down before her, keeping his hand over hers. ]

I'm not at home. I came with the new arrivals here. Even Master Wei said I needed to find you.

[ It didn't matter that Wei Wuxian was no longer his 'master' but calling the man Wei Wuxian seemed wrong to him, in a way. ]

What happened to you here?

[silverneedles]

[ Why was he here? It's Wen Ning, he shouldn't be here. Home was better for him, not the horrors that existed in these places, dangers lurking everywhere. He'd be safe back in their world, not subjected to these horrors, especially after the torment he'd already experienced.

Wen Qing stares at him as he kneels, everything about her unsteady, so unlike her usual demeanor. ] Why are you here? I can never find you when I wake up, and you won't tell me where to go.

[fiercechains]

[ Horrors existed in both worlds, didn't they? However, him and Sizhui had gone off to build a cenotaph. Something that they'd wanted to do together for the Wens that were lost, which included his sister.

Those eyes watch his sister, hating that she was so unsteady. She wasn't normally like this. ]

I was brought here with others, jiejie. If you tell me where you're staying then I will be there any time you wake up. I'm really here.

[silverneedles]

[ Wen Qing drops her hand from Wen Ning's, then squats down beside him. Why is he here? But she doesn't ask that, just reaches out to catch his chin between her fingers. Her eyes aren't quite as hazy, some clarity returning to her. The haze of alcohol still lingers, a pounding presence in her temples. But the image isn't disappearing, even as she touches him. ]

Wen Ning?

[fiercechains]

[ Those eyes watch his sister as she squats down beside him. He had already told her why he was there. That he'd come in with the arrivals. Though, he still wasn't overly happy about the fact that he'd been told they were being weaponized against others. His sister wasn't a weapon.

He doesn't pull away from her when he feels those fingers reach out for him. ]

It's me, jiejie. I'm here.

ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT

[starlingroad]

America does her best, punching left and right, but after a while, there's just so many corpses, and she's tired. She can't even seem to open a portal to shove all of them in. She finds herself lagging, and just as she thinks she can no longer do this she sees chains whip into the crowd of swarming corpses.

"Thank you!" She doesn't even know this person, but they have just given her time to at least recharge, and breathe properly.

She does put out a flashy punch, complete with a bright white star, to one of the ones that grabs for her. She is not getting caught by these things!

Re: ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT

[fiercechains]

Wen Ning can hear the person that isn't that far from him. He does not know who it is but it does not stop him from keeping the undead tar covered beings at bay. This? It was probably better having two people go at them than just one.

"You're welcome."

The punch was different than what he's seen and when another comes from a different angle he slams his chain into them. He hoped that they would be able to get away from the corpses or that America would be able to, if she needed to, get a bit more energy within herself. He, himself, would not tire.

[starlingroad]

Two people is usually better than one.

She looks at the chains, then looks at Wen Ning.

"How long can you do this for?" Because...now that she's had help, she's not just running off without the other person.

[fiercechains]

"I do not tire."

So, he could do this for hours if it came down to it. He does not know if the girl with him could do the same. After all, he wasn't exactly like her. So things were a bit different for him than they were for her.

[starlingroad]

"Well, I do," she informs Wen Ning. But not too easily.

She's better rested now, too.

America starts to punch a few of the corpses out, then grimaces.

"Okay, I don't want to keep touching them, though. This is gross." She shakes her hand, then rubs it on her clothes.

[fiercechains]

"Rest."

While she rested and stopped touching them he would take them out with his chains. However, if she wanted to leave then he would leave with her and make sure that nothing followed them. He did not know her but that did not mean he would not keep her safe.

my apologies for the lag! Something came up, but things are better now

[starlingroad]

She almost wants to protest, but maybe Wen Ning has a point. America breathes in deeply.

No matter what, America isn't just leaving anyone there.

"Okay. But just for a moment. Then I need to help you take these out. Then we have to make sure everyone else is okay. Deal?"

[fiercechains]

Wen Ning was completely different than America. He didn't feel any pain nor did he get tired.

Her not leaving him was new but he didn't mind it either.

They would probably not be able to take all of them out, not if they kept coming out of the water. "When you are ready we will make sure everyone else is okay."


[ OOC: No big! I will backtag into forever. ]