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westwhere2023-05-15 05:49 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-05-15 05:49 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arc vi,
- arcane: caitlyn,
- breaking bad: jesse pinkman,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- final fantasy xiv: stephanivien,
- harry potter: hermione granger,
- horizon: aloy,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- mcu: america chavez,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- mcu: natasha romanova,
- mcu: wanda maximoff,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: red,
- outlander: claire fraser,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- test drive,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- umbrella academy: five,
- untamed: lan sizhui,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- warframe: kahl 175,
- zettai karen children: kumoi yuuri
the sunken | part i
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
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 dutifullyhilariousapt role for their seaside sojourn.
OLD TIMERS | THE DRIFTING
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
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
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
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
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.
tavern
Her head's felt oddly scrambled the past few days, and the notebook - currently clutched tight to her chest as she makes her way stiffly and awkwardly towards the bar - isn't helping. No matter how much she tells herself it's all a fantasy, there are small kernels in it that ring so true that she can't ignore them.
She's making up her mind to leave when a woman nearby collapses with a pained cry. Caitlyn runs over to her.]
Here, let me help you. [She turns to a man sitting nearby.] Get her a cold compress, quickly. [If the woman's got a migraine or other head pain, Caitlyn needs to take her somewhere dark and quiet. And if it isn't head pain, the woman covering her eyes certainly makes it seem like she needs to be somewhere dark. So she asks the barkeep whether there's a room she can take the woman to, and he nods towards a stairway.] Come on, let's go somewhere quiet.
no subject
At the moment, Caitlyn's face is the only one she vaguely recognizes, and for that Vanessa lurches to hover close...careful of any touch this time. ]
You've seen it, too. The death in the water.
no subject
But there's something vaguely familiar about this woman, and when she tries to remember where she's seen her before, Caitlyn gets the same sort of dull ache behind her eyes that she gets when she thinks too hard about her notebook. And that's enough to make her curious.
So she leans in close and asks quietly,] What do you mean?
no subject
They crooned a song I've known intimately. You saw, didn't you?
[ She straightens and backs away from the scene to look past any other rowdy tavern-goers. She can't hear them, but she can hear something else. A memory.
Somehow, her grating whisper still carries. ]
They call to me still. Shall we go to the water?
no subject
[There are pages in the notebook about a song, creatures in the water that sing to lure men to their deaths. Can a stranger truly have memories of this work of pure fiction that Caitlyn inexplicably has written in her own hand?]
Yes. [If this woman has answers, of course Caitlyn will go with her. She steps carefully over the shattered glass on the floor, holding out her hand in case the woman needs help to avoid stepping on it herself.] Yes, of course.
no subject
The smell of Yancai hits different once outside, and there she stops to squint out at the darkness. It's familiar, but...off just enough that the pain stabs through her skull again, and Vanessa grits her teeth through it this time. ]
No. Where is he?
no subject
She's just in time to hear the woman's question.]
Who? Who are you looking for?
no subject
The man in the boat. Do you not remember? ...And the dead.
[ A shadowed gaze is cast over her shoulder, once again pinned on Caitlyn. The recognition is better forming, and she edges closer to the water with barely a glance where she's stepping. She may even sway. ]
They are...still out there.
no subject
Is this who you're talking about?
[She holds the notebook out to the woman, prepared to hand it to her, only to immediately yank it back when she remembers the very personal message written only few pages later. Even if she doesn't know who it's written to or why she'd write such a thing, it's not something she wants anybody else to accidentally see while going through the notebook.]
Is. Um. [She tears out the offending page, folds it quickly but very neatly, and holds out the notebook again.] Is it him?
no subject
She glances warily between the notebook and the young woman when it's presented again, but moves away from the water now so that she can have a better chance at reading. The moon is not yet full, so she relies on the light outside the tavern. ]
A man in white. Yes.
[ Finally, she can feel something break through the cloud, and in relief Vanessa reaches out, past the notebook to grab for Caitlyn's arm, pulling her close for another whisper. ]
You only want to protect the people of your city.
no subject
I don't know what you mean. [She's always lived in Yancai.
But she's spent days pouring through this notebook, reading all about far-off places, and there's a name that springs to mind unbidden, one that isn't in the notebook but which she must have learned somewhere.]
Piltover?
[The pain is sudden and intense, like a a sharp spike being driven between her eyes. She cries out, pressing a hand to her forehead as her eyes squeeze shut.]
no subject
Let me help.
[ Gently, she lets her fingertips drift to Caitlyn's temples, caressing as a mother would. ]
Sshh. Let me see.
[ If she can use her clairvoyance to see what's in the young woman's mind, then perhaps some answers will be discovered. It's worth any further pain, and it may ease Caitlyn's burden. ]
no subject
As long as she doesn't think about - she's already forgotten the name - the pain begins to ebb. But there's something there, and she's never been good at leaving well enough alone. She has to know, even if it hurts.]
Piltover, [she repeats quietly, trying to hold onto it, trying to conjure memories she doesn't have from the word, even as she's gritting her teeth against the pain.]
no subject
Where is Piltover? ]
Keep your eyes closed.
[ When it seems that Caitlyn may yet be able to remain upright, Vanessa loosens her grip on her shoulder, gently smoothing back her hair. She keeps her voice low, with the whisper able to carry easily into her hair, even with the rowdy sounds going on in the tavern behind them.
Closing her eyes, Vanessa's thumb caresses Caitlyn's temple, her words drifting through the other until they can find somewhere to coil and settle. Somewhere to nurture. ]
Is it like Yancai? Can you smell the sea? Or the scent rotting wood where polite folk are meant to avert our eyes?
no subject
Not the sea. [A river. Near the sea. She remembers... a view. A view she's never seen before, from high atop a building. A tower? A balcony. The sun rising over a golden city reflected in the water. There's another view she remembers, from outside the city, watching it gleam above the low-lying fog, and she feels...
Pride? Commitment? There was a woman. But Caitlyn can't remember her face. Someone she's never met. Someone who she knows is dead.
Where polite folk are meant to avert our eyes. A smell. Old, stale, sulfurous. A sickly purple light reflected in the eyes of people living beneath the world. A wall covered in children's drawings. And for some reason, that's more painful than all the other not-memories. She cries out, bringing a hand to her head as the fingers of her other hand dig into the woman's arm.]
no subject
Even still, the vision is fragmented. Scents and sights collide where they shouldn't, and Vanessa smells something like vanilla cake while cutting her hands on freshly dusted rubble where unfamiliar names are half-dissolved. She knows they are names of children, and that others like them are worth crying for. If she isn't careful, she could fall, but where else to? This is the belly of Hell.
Though she flinches as Caitlyn's grip tightens, Vanessa struggles to keep her focused. ]
When? When were you here?
no subject
Did she ever know her parents? She's always lived in Yancai, but was she born here? Have her parents ever lived here?
There was another man, tall, handsome. She used to have to crane her neck up to see his face. But then, after a while, she didn't. Did she grow up with him? Was she a child in Piltover, or an adult? She can't have lived there her whole life, she's always lived... She's always lived in...]
I-- I don't know. [She was a child, running through a forest, the city on the horizon. She was an adult when they handed her a badge.
What did she need a badge for?]