westwhere | the sunken

the sunken | part i

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.

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Wrath looks over at Five - the concept of a well known secret is difficult for Wrath to wrap his head around (demons are incredibly talented at keeping secrets) except it relates some to Emilia. Everyone except for her was aware he was the devil, but that tied into the curse itself, into everyone's tongues being tied because of it.

"It has become clear over time that we are being purposefully moved to places that are in need of services only our group can provide while also being presented with these opportunities for a beacon."

Which is ultimately never effective for long.

"It is possible the beacons themselves, however, are placed in places which already are fractured or they become fractured due to the beacon's presence. We know the White Wanderer has been in the locations we have been in, and he leaves a particular path of destruction behind."

That's an angle he hasn't considered yet; that the beacons themselves are a source of the turmoil they run into wherever they go. When this whole thing started he had no idea that they'd run into it again and again, only for each beacon to fail shortly after it sputtered to life.

"I don't suppose Hatisse has any insight into who created the beacons?" He doubts it's the White Wanderer, but it's something to think about. As much as he'd like to blame all their misfortune at one specific thing, more than likely it's a combination of all of the above.

Wrath has the slightest of grimaces at mention of Hatisse, and then he shakes his head in response to the question.

"I have not asked her." He does avoid speaking to her when he can given her habit of ignoring boundaries. "I remember studying the first, and the people there believed it had been present in the city for a long time, longer than their lifetimes."

It would be less relevant, but they've been around long enough that they should be able to recognize patterns. He'd ask Hatisse himself, but there are possibly a couple other options before settling on the woman Wrath justifiably barely tolerates. So he drops it for now.

"That's probably secondary to stopping what's happening. Even if it is manipulative, we can't just let this one go." It's not Hell breaking loose, but the consequences could be similar enough. Nothing to do with the fact that not understanding how any of this is working with his vast knowledge of time travel is already driving him insane.

Then there's that other thing he hasn't brought up. This doesn't feel like the right time.

"I'm going to do some more digging. The cover they gave me is turning out to be pretty useful for that." Having his powers back after that long train ride doesn't hurt either. "Nothing this big doesn't leave a trail."

Wrath nods then seriously.

"You have spoken of the consequences of interfering with time previously. It is imperative." That they find how to stop what is happening. He can see the results already in the effects upon the group itself.

There's a pause following the rest of those words.

"We can both report back with what we've found."

There's a greater pause as he looks at Five for longer - they did speak about ridding him of his curse at the next location, but Wrath does not want to have to be the one to bring it up first.

He didn't think he'd have to remind Wrath of the consequences when he's the one who prevented Five from taking that risk. He's never taken it lightly; his ability to time travel ruined his life, and he spent most of it trying to undo the mistake he made as a child. If even he has a difficult time making a precise jump that doesn't completely fuck them over, he has far less faith in anyone else doing it.

Just as he's motivated to spring into some kind of action, he notes the pause, and Five nods slower in agreement.

"Alright." He lingers there, because he's very aware that he promised to take care of his curse once they arrived. It'd be easy to put off, with this much going on, but that's always been his excuse. The memory of throwing up blood is still fresh in his mind. That itself was a risky move, but he knows that if it hadn't worked to relieve what had built up, he'd be in a dire situation by now.

"...I take it you remember everything else we talked about. How much time would you need?"

Wrath appreciates that Five does bring it up himself after all the conversations they have had about it. He does know how difficult it is for Five to trust, to let go, and to a certain extent, this will require that of him. He will have to trust Wrath to be able to remove this mirror from him so he never has to throw up blood again, so he never has to be overwhelmed by despair again.

"I remember."

He shakes his head following the question.

"Not long. I would want to speak to Emilia about it and be sure she has all she needs especially with the state of this village." She has powerful magic, and Wrath's own focus will be on Five, on pulling the mirror from him. He can trust her to make sure they are safe while they do what must be done. "Have you spoken to your sister?"

If he hadn't felt that Wrath was testing him to see if he would keep his promise, he may have continued to prioritize their more direct problems. Like he has been. Like he'd prefer to keep doing if all it meant was suffering on his own.

Five has come to accept that he's never going to be comfortable with this. No matter how much consideration he's given, or frankly more patience than he's earned after the mistakes he's made. He trusts Wrath more than anyone here, and it still makes him recoil at the thought of being that vulnerable again. He tries to push back the thought that if something goes wrong, or it takes him too long to recover, it might keep him from doing what he has to do here.

He listens to what he says without objection. Emilia being involved isn't news to him. He'd rather it be the two of them.

"Not yet," he admits with a slight frown. That was the one thing Wrath suggested, and he had ample time on the train. She might have noticed he was being more active once he'd found his temporary solution, but he also hasn't been keeping her up to date on how badly the curse had been affecting him. Or what happened in Hell.

"She worries too much. Better to wait until just before."

Wrath looks at Five as he explains that he hasn't told Allison yet, and he simply nods at the explanation. It is not Wrath's job to judge when it comes to things like emotions, like revealing one's self. He tends to be as reserved as possible - even with his wife. There were things he did not tell her because of the curse, could not tell her, and other things he chose to keep to himself.

He cannot begin to navigate mortal emotions, relationships, family.

"I will talk to Emilia and let you know when the ritual is ready."

Then he'll have time to talk to his sister about it.

It's a small reprieve that they'll need some time to prepare. Assuming that's time they'll be given. He doesn't try to suggest putting it off again, for as long as he's tried that. While he's better now, it's going to build up again until he's cured.

So he nods, thankful that he doesn't press him on having that discussion sooner, or blaming him for not doing it already. His problems are a distraction they don't need.

"You'll let me know if there's anything else I need to do." If anyone should be hunting down ingredients, it should be him.

He has one other concern, and it involves getting cured only to be flung back into the past before it happened. "There's a chance... something might go awry if we're pulled through time. That's how I ended up like this."

Wrath nods his assurance that he will ask if anything else comes up, but he does not think it will. Given his role within the village, he has already amassed quite the collection, and they will not need much. He will look through what he has already amassed and then let Five know if there is anything else.

There's a pause following the statement. It is a worthy worry this time. Much of what occurs in this world, Wrath can promise he can defend against, but he cannot stop time itself from reversing.

"We will give it some time to see if we are pulled through time and what occurs to those within the group that are unaffected by the town's curse. If our bodies are affected somehow, I would not want to do the ritual only to find we must do it again."

That would be a waste of time and a waste of the trust Five has put into him to finish this.

Five expected some push back, or at least some reminder that he's been delaying this for one reason or another for years, but maybe he shouldn't have assumed. Wrath has always had a level of understanding about him that he's never encountered before they met. He knows the difference between a logical concern and an excuse.

It may have been a different story if he hadn't managed to drain it and couldn't afford to put it off any longer. But then, he knows Wrath prefers to do this when he's at his most clearheaded. In theory, that should help him now while he's piecing together how they managed to create a time anomaly.

So far, it's mostly given him a headache.

"Or our memories," he adds, all things considered. Even Wrath was affected when they arrived, and he doesn't want to take that risk at a critical time. "This place... it shouldn't exist. I'm usually ambivalent to what happens after we leave, but we can't leave before we put a stop to them one way or another."

"Or those."

It may be too risky to do the ritual here in a place where time is not set, but then they will plan to do it immediately following (assuming no other risk comes, but he would like to imagine that Wrath should be able to protect against those other options). Wrath's gaze rests on Five with all the seriousness in the world at his next words.

They have spoken in detail at this point, and Wrath trusts his assessment of the situation in this village.

"As we did not leave Hell when it was erupting from its, we will not leave time broken either."

He knows the consequences are equally dire.

It may not be as readily apparent as the gates of Hell opening, but what they've created here is just as volatile. Even if they do fix what's broken, there's no telling what might happen to it when time corrects itself. Wrath knows enough not to assume he's overreacting. The most Five can do is maintain hope that he'll still be alive when he's ready to get the mirror removed.

"The world is always on the verge of ending. I should have figured that out by now." He'll keep pulling himself up, trying to work out some impossible way to fix it, but dammit if he doesn't need a break. To say nothing of how nervous that makes him if the ritual puts him out of commission for any length of time.

"What was it like to not remember that for a few days?"

"I remembered everything," Wrath says, and he is thankful for this. This village should be thankful for this. He cannot imagine believing he had lived a mortal life, experiencing that. It is what happened to Emilia in their own world. She was trapped in the Shifting Isles. She believed she lived through an entire life as a mortal, believed she was mortal, forgot him and forgot herself.

"I only thought our group had stayed longer than we had." Then a softer admittance- one he only makes because it's Five: "I do not want to imagine believing I had lived an entire mortal life here."

It is not something Wrath can wrap his head around - every aspect of mortality is impossible to understand. He was never a child. He has never grown. He has always been like this. The only changes that ever occurred for him, an eternal being, was when he chose to fell and became a demon instead of angel, when he was cursed and lost his wings, when he fell in love with the Goddess of Fury and then when he fell in love with her again (mortal as she was), when he lost Emilia and was made to forget that loss despite his desperate attempts to remember.

But mortals change so much in their short lives, mortals have families, mortals are weak. He cannot imagine it.

There's something in his reply that hints at a deeper meaning. The way Wrath talks about mortals. It must be strange, to be living and working alongside them for this long, but then what's a few years to an immortal? Practically nothing. That all changes if he forgets who he is. Five can't blame him that he doesn't want to be them.

"Going back in time alone shouldn't have caused that. The magic they used is... oddly specific. If I had to guess, your memories were altered to cover their tracks. It must have been effective until now." He's all but certain it's related to what he's been seeing in the windows. His memories weren't changed, but there's something else tethering him to this place.

"I haven't solved it yet, but I'll do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen."

"The magic they used is... messy. I imagine it was used in a moment of desperation with not nearly enough preparation or power," Wrath says, and weren't there a number of other spells they could have taken beyond this going through time five years over and over again? What was the ultimate goal? Save everyone for exactly five years and have it rewind back? "And the alteration of the memories of those who have come into the area is merely an unintended consequence."

Wrath looks over at him, knowingly.

"So will I."

Five certainly is not in this alone, but for now, Wrath is merely grateful to have his memories straightened once more.

And yet it worked. In some backwards, impossible way, they created an anomaly that has been cycling through these past few years for who knows how long. Five could spout off a hundred ways it could fall like a house of cards and wreck havoc on time, but he can't deny that they did something he can't. Magic.

He's grateful he has Wrath to sort out that part of the equation. Hopefully it'll stay that way if they don't solve this by the next jump.

"Good." It went without saying, but for some reason the reassurance is nice to hear every now and then. Five would welcome a chance to redeem himself after Hell, but he won't kid himself that he can do it alone. His gaze lingers on Wrath for a moment or two, then he straightens back up and nods.

"I'll check in later with whatever I find."

And with that he disappears in a flash of blue.

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the sunken | part i

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