the sunken | moonrise

[groundrules]

THE SUNKEN | MOONRISE

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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/he possesses 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…!

QUESTIONS

Comments

[thedreamer]

[ Lockwood wouldn't know it yet, of course, but though he can try masking any perceived weakness and put forth his bravest and most capable persona, the Doctor will worry, he'll see through it eventually, and worry all the more. It's not that he doesn't believe in his friends and how very capable and how very brave they are. He wouldn't choose them if he believed otherwise, after all, but they're all so fragile, far too fragile.

And here in this place, it's different, more unpredictable, more dangerous for it. The people around him, for better or worse, always seem to want to do more, to show how very capable they are. Like Rory had said once; they want to prove themselves, and they're in more danger because of it. The thought of Rory makes his hearts ache, but he brushes it aside quickly. Can't think about him right now, not another person he "lost track of." Lost entirely.

So, yes, the closer he can keep the boy to him, the better. ]

Keep it close and safe. Not now, of course, but later — give me ten minutes, a pack of Jammie Dodgers, two spoons, pot of tea, and a carrot, and I'll fashion you something so you can keep it around your neck if you like. [ He offers no further explanation for the seemingly extraneous material requests. They're all important, obviously.

He feels the tap to his shoulder and it grounds him for a moment, pulls him out of his whirling and twirling and endless thoughts going in all directions all the time. A moment, an anchor, a connection. He does understand, without it needing to be said. And, what would he say now, even? For all that he talks, he keeps so much of himself locked away, but he's trying here, in this place, to do less of the running from people, from connections. Perhaps, perhaps he'll try. He's sure of one thing, though; he won't be leaving the boy alone for long. ]

The children and everyone else, off we go! A busy day ahead of us, wouldn't have it any other way.

[ And only sparing one more glance to make sure that Lockwood really is steady, the Doctor bounds up ahead eagerly, legs and arms moving about in ways they really shouldn't for the simple task of walking ahead. ]

Legs! Moving quicker! Do be careful though, you're still wobbly. Don't go sideways. Straight, preferably, bit of leaning to the left to make it exciting, if you like.

[recklessenough]

[ This had the potential of ending in tears. They were too much alike, even on the subject of maintaining safe distances to avoid the pain of loss. Difference being, Lockwood knew himself well enough to try to avoid drawing anyone into his orbit. He didn't want to leave behind survivors.

Smiling at the list of seemingly unrelated items and the promise of a necklace at the end. Even if it was merely the Doctor being THE DOCTOR, Lockwood still tried to envision the final product. ]

I'd get jam on my shirt. [ He observed, never mind the fact that his shirt was filthy with water and dirt already. ] Besides. Rather eat the Jammie Dodgers. Sugar is a good restorative for malaise, and there is always room for tea. Not the biggest fan of carrots.

[ However. There was no tea. There were no sugar laden Jammie Dodgers, not even a carrot. What there was, was responsibility. His name on the door plate. Responsibility was what kept Lockwood moving forward, even when his body just wanted to fold up and disappear into the pile carpet.

As the Doctor sprang ahead, the youth quickly followed. He didn't have the grandiose movements in his long limbs, but if they were going to run, then by gosh it was time to run. ]

Think I hear voices calling help up ahead and to the left! [ He called out, pointing with his left hand in an attempt to guide the Doctor into take a turn by a small building.

He then grinned, wickedly, and from somewhere in his frail, human body, dug up the energy to put on a burst of speed. Hurry up, Doctor! Or he's going to get to all the fun before you!! ]

[thedreamer]

[ Oh, no, no, no, that simply won't do at all. Can't be bested by the younger man, especially not when he'd been affected by the water as he had. Come on, Doctor, feeling your age, are you. Of course, it's all in good fun and their purpose is getting to the children.

A muttered, playful, 'Oi!' leaves his lips briefly before he quickly closes the distance between them, and then they're nearly there.

It's another point of worry that Lockwood can rebound so quickly, or at least, force himself to. There are children to be helped, other people to be helped, and Lockwood seems to shoulder so much of that himself that he'll force himself into being okay. ]

To the left and straight on 'til morning.

[ Barely breathless. All that Time Lord stamina! A bit of a joke, even in a time like this. Levity in serious moments is always appreciated, right? He tries to excel at it.

When they reach the door, the Doctor is quick to shift into more serious mode, though, calling out to the children and assuring them they'll be safe. ]

Off you pop with us, you'll be perfectly safe.

[ Safe being, perhaps, relative here with everything happening around them, but for now they're safe and they'll remain so if the Doctor has anything to say about it. And Lockwood.

As he moves to lift two of the children into his arms, he looks to his young friend. ]

Further into town, I saw a larger group taking shelter together near the bakery. They'll be safer with them, and everyone else we find along the way.

[recklessenough]

[ They were too much alike. What else does a body do except force themselves to be okay until they are okay? It is how the world, universe, time works. Isn't it?

Also no fair! Two hearts and all that rich oxygenated blood, foo!

Lockwood hangs back a couple of steps and lets the Doctor take the lead with the children. His track record with children, particularly young children is spotty at best. He will protect them with his life, but Lockwood doesn't exactly engender the idea of comforting arms.

To that end, as the Time Lord gathers up the smalls, the youth draws his rapier. Positioning himself between the older man, his precious cargo, and the horrors behind them in the water.

No games now. They had innocents to protect.

Glancing towards the Doctor, Lockwood nods in agreement with the Time Lord's plan. ]

I don't believe we'll have trouble from the water, but I'll keep an eye just in case. [ And will be right on the Doctor's heels as they make their way to reunited the children with, if not their parents, perhaps at least people they know. ]

[thedreamer]

[ The children are small enough that they tuck themselves into the Doctor's shoulder with little fuss, not protesting, at least, which makes it easier to carry them along. Glancing over his shoulder, he does remark at the sight of the sword. ]

Be careful. They can be quick.

[ Though he doesn't like weapons himself, he'll acknowledge the purpose they serve on occasion, and by the manner in which the weapon is held, Lockwood appears to know what he's doing with it. Always a good start! The Doctor himself has employed use of a sword on rare occasions, though he's tended to use his sonic screwdriver more often in defense and always prefers avoiding combat entirely. It would happen, of course, that his sonic screwdriver is useless here.

Blessedly, it seems, some of the undead are retreating back to the water, though many still remain in the village. They are, at least, not overly quick in their movements, at least not so much they can't be dodged. As they near the building the Doctor spoke of, he keeps glancing back at Lockwood to make sure he's not been suddenly ambushed, though he'd hear it first, he knows. Can't be too careful. The house in sight now, the Doctor carefully and slowly opens the door, still trusting Lockwood to watch his back as he carries the children inside. They're immediately swarmed by their parents, and he's relieved to know their family is safe, at least for the time being. ]

Just stay here. I'm securing the door on the way out, don't tamper with it and you'll be safe. They can't get in.

[recklessenough]

[ Obviously the Doctor's words are meant for the people huddled together in the building.

Certainly they were not meant for Lockwood.

While it had been touching, watching the two youngsters dash into the arms of their frantic parents, it had also prodded hard at the open, emotional wounds that Lockwood carried. Punching and already livid bruise, resulting in Lockwood striding purposefully for the door.

Because when emotions threatened to become overwhelming, there was nothing quite like loosing himself in physical struggles against impossible odds. He is out the door before the Doctor can (assuming the Doctor would) protest, hands set on lean hips as he waited for the Time Lord to secure the door. ]

There's no way they're the only ones who have gotten separated in this chaos. We should head back towards the water, be on the lookout for others.

Should we split up? Cover more ground?