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westwhere2023-07-02 05:47 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-07-02 05:47 pm
Entry tags:
- 911: evan 'buck' buckley,
- arcane: caitlyn,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- harry potter: hermione granger,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- lockwood & co: anthony lockwood,
- mcu: america chavez,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- owl house: eda clawthorne,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- star wars: cal kestis,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: five,
- untamed: wen ning,
- untamed: wen qing,
- warcraft: wrathion
the sunken | moonrise
The final Arc VI event lasts three days ICly and until 23 July OOCly. Yancai goes back another two years in time to the Huntress’ visit, Miang-Si’s corruption and the memory-meddling rite of the ladies of the lake.
The party can choose to stay neutral, only heading to the House of Commerce to access its now-active beacon — or they can inevitably get mixed up in the affairs of Yancai and endanger the village’s time loop.
For a quick catch-up: the latest clues | everything about Arc VI.
BOAR’S HEART
Rattled, on high alert, feeling watched and skin prickling from static electricity, characters wake to find Yancai has gone back another two years in time. It is now nearly dry, barring rare waterways. Mould is absent. The village bustles with activity: a heavy influx of new arrivals comes by sea, and frequent fishermen’s and merchants’ markets set up in the open road — enjoy fresh fish delicacies, discounted pearls, rare cloth textiles and dyes that include the unique Yancai green!
- ■ No more hauntings take place, and only one moon loiters above the village. Villagers still remember the party under their false identities.
■ Word has spread of the conflict between elder Quanze Tsaymien’s council and a beautiful woman who has taken up in the forests at the village’s outskirts. Gossipmongers say she wastes away in the woods weeping — while ground cracks beneath her feet, grass wilts, waters poison and animals drop dead nearby. Young men are drawn to her and are later forcibly recovered in a state of rambling, feverish exhaustion. Village healers gladly accept your nursing help.
■ Village elders have given the woman — correctly identified by the party as the Huntress — until the following sunrise to leave Yancai on pain of death. You have 24h to encounter her.
■ The forests are livelier than in previous iterations of Yancai, but you feel perpetually… watched, as if sharp eyes follow your progress. These heavy gazes may belong to the young men bewitched to protect the Huntress, or to razor-clawed venom-spitting creatures that hunt her.
■ You may find some of the aforementioned creatures bleeding on the forest path. They possess slightly above canine intelligence, cannot communicate in human tongues, and hesitate to let you approach — but nursing one might reward you.
■ The death-touched (necromancers, those who died or revived, or otherwise marked) may optionally feel compelled to join the Huntress. Physical distance dwindles her pull, as can your own magic or solutions.
■ Luck (?) leads you to a silent and bloodied forest clearing, come sunset. Here, two dozens of Yancai’s recent dead have risen alive and surround the Huntress, some battling the creatures that assail her, while she speaks to 16-year-old village beauty Miang-Si. There is a gaping, if regenerating hole in the Huntress’ chest; in one hand, she holds her yet-beating heart she cuts in several parts she wraps in parchment. She asks Miang-Si to bury these pouches near Yancai to ‘hold her power close,’ in exchange for permanent and ever-blossoming beauty.
■ Wait as the Huntress and her forces retreat — then catch up to Miang-Si, capture her, or find the pouches. The ground where they are buried is desaturated, brittle, nearly pulverised. Hawks and ravens circle above and plunge down to claw at intruders, or attempt to pick up children or feebler adults. To the magically or death-sensitive, the pouches emanate a revolting aura of withering death.
■ Beware if heart pouches were buried beneath aged, thick trees — their roots burst out like nooses and writhing spiders’ legs, looking to either slam you against the tree trunks or entrap you within.
■ Finding at least two heart pouches prevents the dead from rising in Yancai in the years to come! Keep the heart cuts fettered — touching these parts directly can overwhelm you with the need to consume this or other hearts, to compensate for the sudden and unfeeling… coldness in your chest.
WAKE, UNWAKEFULLY
Sunrise finds the Huntress gone from Yancai — while waves of the dead rise from the sea to attack the village. Some come chained, or dragging pieces from the casket-ships in which they were set for water burial.
This is the first undead attack witnessed by Yancai villagers, who are largely clumsy, slow and petrified. Some sentimentally believe their revived relatives never died and plead not to kill them. Many are caught in undefended areas, such as open port harbours, fishing boats, markets — and need help to travel to their families. The Huntress’ spell starts dissolving by midday, with the dead largely pulling back into sea and lake waters
- ■ Beware the village waterways: touching the water replenishes the strength of the dead and saps yours. Look closely at the bottom of the waterways, and you find them lined with dozens of resting corpses. Some wake slowly, as they clutch shards of glistening black mirror — best to… use a very long oar… or plunge very quickly to recover shards.
■ Carrying a mirror shard puts the dead around you to blissful sleep. Those who possess a cut of the Huntress’ heart can take control of up to 20 of the risen dead. Necromancers can control up to 10, even without such a token.
MOTHER MOON
Come midday of Day II, Yancai villagers start to move freely and reunite with loved ones. Waters begin to gently rise and flood the grounds, while the first spores of black mould appear on walls.
The first to help the injured are the washerwomen of Yancai, who favour the young and magically sensitive. You notice they work in perfect synchrony and have developed a hand sign language they can teach you. Keep an ear out, and one might entrust they are hedge witches, the so-called ‘ladies’ of the lake.
■ Join them, either invited or unseen, when they gather at one of Yancai’s three great lakes. Each lady picks up one of the silver coins tossed in the water for luck-bearing. Take one yourself, and you will be able to breathe and speak underwater, following as the ladies dive and swim through thin underwater passageways. Beware countless skeletal remains that line the lakes and sinister fish — both burst out to shackle your limbs, or sound the alarm about intruders.
■ You find the ladies have begun to shelter and ward the dead in lake caves, to avoid their rising up again. The ladies re-emerge in the forest, speaking of a protection rite they agreed with the elders’ council. They are not strong enough to break the Huntress’ lingering spell, but hope to later recruit nascent witch Miang-Si, who teases she has power from the Huntress. For now, the ladies have decided to create a five-year time loop, moving Yancai back and forth in time whenever the dead attack.
■ To achieve their rite, the ladies use large pieces of black mirror confiscated from the Huntress’ dead and the energy of the hunter’s moon that shines down a bloody red tonight. Those with a lunar connection feel the moon aches, disgusted by this violation. Even those unaffiliated with the moon feel irascible and prone to violence while under its gaze.
■ Interrupting the rite rescues the moon, earning you a reward, and breaks villagers from the five-year loop, allowing them to live their true lives. It also exposes Yancai to the dead, unless you remove the heart cuts. Co-ordinate and choose wisely.
■ The ladies conduct their chanting, rune-painting and summons throughout the night of Day III in the forest. You have a wealth of options to break their spell: interfere with the magic flows, disrupt the guarded ash circle of convened witches, summon irate villagers to raid, persuade Miang-Si to intervene, break or steal the rite’s black mirror pieces… You can also reach out to the coven’s strongest witches, who agreed to sacrifice themselves to become overseers in the time flux — the Lumberjack, Red Lady, White Woman, Man in Black and the Milk-Toothed Babes. You can still sign up for a RNG draw to chat.
BAIT & BEACON
To take attention off the ladies of the lake, Yancai’s council organises a sumptuous masked banquet and charity auction for the victims of the undead attack at the lavish House of Commerce. The House has been thoroughly cleansed by the time of your arrival, with only faint, clumsy traces of blood, decay and debris lingering from the previous offensive.
On site, servants are still jittery from the undead assault, while openly armed guards walk the grounds and answer any small provocation. Be kind to the staff or offer sympathy for their likely recent losses, and they might let you in unnoticed, or offer a hand.
- ■ Anyone who brings an item for the auction or who
can pretend s/hepossesses massive wealth can join the banquet. Show up with anything you can brazenly talk up as elite, exquisite or one-of-a-kind — or perhaps auction your services?
■ The House of Commerce contains a locked room with the village’s now fully active beacon. The Master of Commerce has the only key-tokens to access this quarter, somewhere in his study room — pick a lock, sweettalk the staff, or work your magic to get inside the study and grab one of the rune-inscribed tokens. The study room brims with scrolls, globes, letters to and from the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company and maps of… Arc I’s Sa-Hareth in the west, where hand-written news reports say the dead are rising.
■ Back at the banquet, the richest wine and… relaxing herbs and powders are offered freely or sometimes slipped into food to ease spirits. Aiming for levity, participants don comical animal masks or play a local game of ‘bait or hook,’ whereby they approach you with the aforementioned fishing bait or fish hook in closed fists, asking you to pick one. Depending on your choice, you must ‘bait’ the audience with a song or dance, or ‘hook’ them in with a joke or anecdote.
■ Around midnight, attendants are invited to an increasingly competitive auction, punctuated by elbowing, loud voices, crowding and the occasional threat. Beautiful concubines might stick to your arms, asking to be purchased this or that (exorbitant) small nothing as a gift. Participate to keep up your cover, but beware landing in hard debt!
■ Most banquet goers pretend they are indifferent to the undead attack, but some question whether the woman of the forest was to blame — while others mention that the mysterious, far too independent coven of the ladies of the lake is meeting even now, and might be cursing Yancai.
■ However you spend your night, the witch Karsa asks you to infiltrate the House of Commerce by dawns and attempt to leave through the beacon. This will only be possible if at least one person has picked up a key-token…!
no subject
I offered a range of options, you'll note. You've made an assumption that there shouldn't be any need. If we travel down there and they have five human sacrifices ready to go, will you politely stand back and tell them you disagree with their methods?
no subject
[She says it with an awful lot of conviction for someone who has no idea what may or may not happen during a ritual to create a time loop.
She starts wading into the water, impatient to catch up with the women.]
Come on, we don't want them to get away.
no subject
You have terrible manners.
[ Said drily, as he begins to follow her into the water anyway. ]
no subject
It doesn't matter what he thinks of her. And she's been accused of much worse than bad manners. But it's an irritation, having someone pestering her over such a thing while she's trying to work.]
Stay alert in the water. [Still all business, but she's genuine in her desire not to see him hurt.] There are skeletons down there that may try to grab you.
no subject
[ A placid answer here, an acknowledgement of what she says as he moves deeper into the water. ]
I'm not certain if they're still under the thrall of the Huntress, this far from her, or if they're animating under the power of whatever pollutes this water.
no subject
She doesn't know Wrathion that well, and she hasn't entirely decided what to make of him. He's smart. Stubborn. More pragmatic than compassionate, perhaps. A bit prickly, certainly. She can't help but wonder why that is.
With a deep breath, Caitlyn plunges under the water, shooting another glance back to make sure Wrathion is coming along, and kicks off deeper into the lake.]
no subject
Yet still he swims, deeper, careful through narrow passageways, pausing to examine deep underwater caves before following. A skeleton lunges for him and he turns, lashing out with a blade quickly then pausing to see if anything further has awoken.
He'd rather they didn't alert everyone to their arrival, but if they have... well, it cannot be helped. ]
no subject
She backs away as quickly as she can, but not quite fast enough. The skeleton digs its fingers into her arm. She cries out again, kicking out at it, thrashing in an effort to shake it off her.]
no subject
Did she not bring a weapon? She had mentioned the undead, she knew they were here.
... Why did she not bring a weapon? Titans, if she'd been down here alone what would she have done? She'd looked like she intended to go in regardless too.
He lunges at the skeleton near him once more, slashing until it's a twitching collection of floating bones, then pushes himself closer to her and yanks the skeleton off her aggressively.
It's arm detaches from its socket, apparently intent on holding onto her. He wrestles it back and scans the area for any more about to close on them. ]
no subject
She kicks off again, swimming in the direction that the women seem to have gone, keeping an eye out for any further dangers even as most of her focus is on the path ahead.]
no subject
Yet the water begins to give way, to turn back upward instead of only down. A relief, even with the charm, and Wrathion finds himself grateful to haul himself back up and out. ]
You aren't armed at all?
[ The first thing he says after catching his breath. Listen, he still cannot believe this! Still, his eyes dart around the area. Now they're out of the water, there's the risk of other people close again. The plan is still... somewhat malleable, given they aren't quite sure what they're about to walk into. ]
no subject
She hauls herself out of the water with the grace of a fish flopping onto dry land, and immediately yanks off one of her boots. A torrent of water pours out.]
Would you like me to have brought my rifle? A weapon notorious for its underwater capabilities.
[Scowling, she puts the boot back on and pulls off her other boot to drain it too.]
no subject
[ You know, small? Practical? Easy to carry? He begins wringing out his clothing and hair, trying to get some water out of his own shoes. ]
There's plenty of those around. You could have --
[ He cuts himself off, raising a hand to draw her attention as his eyes narrow through the forest ahead. There, distantly, he sees a figure in the trees. A familiar, young figure. ]
no subject
[She starts up indignantly as soon as his first sentence is over, even as she's making sure her boots are on and getting back on her feet. She starts moving forward, regardless of whether Wrathion's ready to go or not, but stops short when he suddenly stops talking.
But as soon as she recognizes Miang-Si, she starts moving again. She's doing her best to be relatively quiet and careful.]
Come on. [This is a good opportunity to try to speak with Miang-Si alone.]
no subject
Remember, we're on a time limit.
[ Murmured under his breath as they approach. Of course, she is welcome to try, but they cannot linger here forever. For now, he lets Caitlyn lead. She clearly wants to talk to Miang-Si, after all, and although he's not certain her approach will convince he won't deprive her of the chance.
As they approach, Miang-Si senses them and glances around -- gaze ripped away from nosily watching the area where the ritual is. What an odd duo they must make, too, suddenly appearing her. What are they doing here?
Wrathion watches Caitlyn, attention continually darting around their surroundings to be sure they're still safe. Well, she's up first if she wants to sell this. ]
no subject
Miang-Si? [She wouldn't remember either of them, would she? This is years before Caitlyn's ill-advised attempt at courtship.] My name is Caitlyn. And this is Wrathion. We're here to help.
[Miang-Si looks about as unimpressed as she did by Caitlyn's 'marriage proposal.' Caitlyn forges ahead anyway.]
Do you know what they're planning? The ladies of the lake?
[Caitlyn glances at Wrathion to make sure he's not going to barge into the conversation before she continues.]
no subject
Miang-Si, meanwhile, is still unimpressed. Who are they? Why are they here? They were not invited, she is sure. Her manner is cold, tense, caught out for being here at all.
Wrathion, who has some patience but not much, feels his nerves beginning to thin. ]
The time...
[ Under his breath, a reminder. This is a slow approach. They need to speed this up, soon. ]
no subject
They're going to lock the village in a time loop. They hope to keep as many people as possible safe from the undead, but in truth they'll only condemn everyone who lives here to a half-life. But if we can stop them, if you can help us stop them...
[It's an earnest plea, made by someone on whom an appeal to the greater good would work easily. But Caitlyn's words seem to fall on deaf ears. It quickly becomes apparent that Miang-Si has no interest in the fortunes of the village, only her own fortunes. So Caitlyn switches tactics.]
I've seen your future, Miang-Si. I've seen you chained up, paraded around as a witch. They'll capture you and force you to tell them who the ladies of the lake are. But you can avert that, you can make a better future for yourself, if you help us stop them. [She recalls the wistful way in which Miang-Si described the ladies during their last meeting. Free.] If you help us, you won't just free the village. You'll be free, too.
[But even a plea for Miang-Si's own future doesn't seem to work.]
no subject
As such, Wrathion's patience hits a wall. He steps forward, drawing attention, and lowers his voice to an urgent hush as Miang-Si's eyes fix on him. ]
Please, listen to me. If you are trapped here, the village decaying around you, you will never truly reach your potential -- and you will be trapped. You will never leave if this ritual completes, not even if you managed to evade capture. The world outside this village has so many beautiful things, and people would would appreciate your beauty.
[ He fishes in his pocket, draws out a small back and from it a pendant hanging from a chain. Something shiny, to try and draw Miang-Si's interest. He has a sense it might be working. ]
Surely you want to see them? Surely that is better than... an eternity of this?
no subject
But Miang-Si does seem interested by what Wrathion is telling her, and ultimately, the important thing is that they secure her aid. Even if they have to appeal to her vanity to do so.]
We can help you travel. We'll... talk to the Master of Commerce about employing you as an envoy. You'll be able to see the world. [Wrathion is right - Miang-Si is probably interested in those outside Yancai being able to appreciate her beauty. And Caitlyn can't help but think that it will do Miang-Si some proper, genuine good to travel. Which, of course, has nothing to do with that fact that all Caitlyn herself ever wanted to do was travel...] And the world will be able to see how beautiful you are.
[This all seems to pique Miang-Si's interest. The girl is eyeing Wrathion's pendant with decided curiosity.]
no subject
Excellent. He's made himself a mark, now. It's never good for someone to realise you'll simply give them whatever they want, and Caitlyn's endless appeals followed up with his offering gifts have clearly clued her in. How will she travel? She is unmarried! She hasn't the money to travel! Surely they cannot expect her, a young unmarried woman, to fund her own way? Even with the help of the Master of Commerce, should they succeed in their convincing... ]
I'll make sure you have funds.
[ Said with vanishing patience. Is this enough? Finally?
Miang-Si considers, looking between them. Begrudgingly, she nods. She will... help. ]
Excellent, then we need to get moving.
[ Time limit still. Yes? We're moving now? Good. Wrathion is moving, at any rate. ]