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

number five | the umbrella academy

[somebadnews]

[ Prompts below. Feel free to wildcard or ask for a specific starter. If you want to plot, feel free to make use of Five's plotting comment or reach out. Will match action or prose etc etc. ]

boar's heart

[somebadnews]

[ The Huntress leaves a trail that's easy to follow. Five enters the forest with the intent of finding a trigger, and he's long since suspected it started with their evasive weeping warlord. The path itself shows exactly where she might have traveled, so it's no wonder it was so well known to the villagers. He doesn't intend to take on an undead army if he can avoid it, but needs must, and there's no telling how long he'll have to wait to get another chance to disrupt the loop.

No matter how quietly or carefully he proceeds, he's sure that she knows exactly where he is. He teleports in an effort to throw them off, not far enough to spend all of his energy, but blinking from one side of the path to another whenever he hears them growing near.

He knows exactly when he's stepped in a pool of blood on the other side. With a deep scowl he follows where it leads to a badly injured beast. Sloppy work. If it were smaller he might have thought to break its neck to put it out of its misery. He's still considering it when it becomes clear that he doesn't have time for mercy.

The path is leading to quite a crowd up ahead that quickly demands all of his attention. ]

There you are.

[traaaaaash]

[ Look. Eda isn't usually one to stick her nose in business that isn't hers. Mostly because generally, that leads to people getting all up in her business too. Not really something you want when you're a highly sought-after criminal.

And most people don't greatly care about the well-being of a monster, so why should she give a rat's ass about theirs?

But see, thing is, lately she just can't stand still for long. It's almost as bad as when she was a tragically underchallenged teenager at Hexside. It itches at her ankles and drives her to grasp at any occupation she can find.

So maybe it's not really surprising that she ultimately finds herself in the midst of the forest, hot on the heels of... something. She doesn't know either. Maybe she just wants to clear her head.

The horde of undead ahead on the clearing are just a bonus.

As for the pint-sized geezer sharing the path with her... well. Eda isn't fully sure what to make of him yet; he seems smart, but also like he might have a temper. And it's not like Eda is entirely against fighting off a zombie horde right now -- she could use an adrenaline kick -- but they're gonna want the advantage. She approaches carefully. ]

Hey, psst!

[somebadnews]

[ Five is seconds from blinking closer when he sees movement behind him. His head whips around to spot Eda, trying to get his attention, and he nearly does anyway. But considering that might get her chasing after him, he merely gives her an impatient look as she gets near.

If she thinks she's going to convince him not to check it out, she's mistaken. He nods forward. ]

The Huntress is up there.

[traaaaaash]

[ Eda blinks in surprise. ]

Huh. I can tell there's something going on there, but looks like we hit the jackpot.

[ A grin spreads on her face. Oh, she's not going to stop him. She's going to join. ]

[somebadnews]

[ He notices the smile and spares enough time to raise an eyebrow. Has she run into the Huntress before? He considers her for a moment more, and the likelihood of them being spotted if he leaves her to sneak into the gathering of undead herself.

Let no one say he isn’t generous. ]

I can get us closer, but don’t look her in the eye.

wake, unwakefully

[somebadnews]

[ He shouldn't have taken so long in the woods. By the time Five returns to the village, it's already in the throws of an attack from the undead. No one rushes to him for help, but a few beckon him inside where it's safe. Others recognize him as the young man who came to their door and ask him to pray for them. He says nothing when he turns away to look for those he left behind when he was tracking the Huntress.

The waterways prove to be an annoying obstacle. He blinks across the shorter distances, but quickly finds that the crowds are too intermingled with undead to find who he's looking for. He takes out his pendant to call instead, and it's exactly that moment that he's grabbed from behind. A short violent tussle to shake them off ends badly for the undead, but more so for the pendant that falls directly into the water with it.

Momentarily gobsmacked by his bad luck, he rushes to the edge of the dock to watch as it sinks until it's nearly out of sight. ]

...Son of a bitch.

[matermali]

[ Vanessa is just attempting to rush over to interfere with the assault (how? she'll figure it out as she goes), but before she can worry about Five being tackled into the waterways, he's managed to fend off the undead himself. Somewhat out of breath from her attempt to herd some fear-struck villagers to safety earlier, she stops just near him and takes the moment to catch her breath while stepping around fallen undead. It only takes a moment to check on what one of their own is doing amidst the chaos, after all.

She certainly saw the pendant fall, and they all ought to be wary of the water, but she isn't certain why he doesn't immediately teleport down to fetch the fallen pendant. ]

What is the matter? Fetch it. You cannot be without communication at this hour.

[somebadnews]

[ Vanessa's presence registers just quickly enough to keep him from reacting without thinking. For as many undead have been bustling around, he wasn't actually expecting to run into a familiar face. It's barely any better that she saw what he dropped, and he shoots her a quick glare as he crouches closer to the water to try and see if he can still spot it.

His hands glow blue briefly, but they sputter as he reconsiders. ]

I tried this already. Blinking underwater is... tricky. [ And there's still an undead body that he shoved down there somewhere, though he can't see it now. He's not saying he can't fight it off down there, but he's also exactly known for his superior swimming abilities.

Something glints from the bottom of the water and he tries to keep it in his sights, but he's also noticeably not diving in. ] Not that deep. It's fine.

[matermali]

[ A weakness to his ability? Something to note, though in most cases she can only count it as an incredible inconvenience. Is that not his most useful skill to provide? No doubt he can fire his gun well enough without it, but so can anyone else with enough training. It must strike a nerve to not be able to use it now when most needed.

And he seems to be afraid of what's down there. She has lost that fear.

Casting a quick look over her shoulder to be certain they aren't about to become beset upon, she slips free of the bag ever-present over her shoulder. With the constant time skips, she keeps everything important on her at all times. It's difficult to let go of anything, but she must act, and the bag shouldn't get wet. To that, she's suddenly stripping free of her garb. Not everything—fortunately for anyone caught unawares by this sudden act—but she plans to be rid of her outer layers so that the skirts won't sink her like an anchor or give any 'drowned' dead anything extra to drag her down by. Serthica's undead waters taught her well.

Her voice remains low while she works, as if this is quite fine don't worry about it. ]

Once I have brought it to you, use your power to take us somewhere less exposed.

[ So that she can catch her breath, of course. Re-dressing takes a minute or two longer than removing it. ]

[somebadnews]

[ Five turns to see Vanessa stripping layers of her clothing and looking ready to jump right into the zombie-infested waters with relatively no other prompting. True, it's a pain to find another enchanted communicator, but what's that to her?

It takes a few seconds after she confirms that she fully intends to dive in before he fully appreciates what's happening. ]

You're confident. [ His own reluctance to jump leaves him in an awkward position. It's not that he couldn't. ] You know that's not all that's down there.

[cosplayqueen]

[Unsurprisingly, Kamala is making it her business to get these people to safety. The undead are terrifying to her, especially after meeting Matthias. She has never had the best luck with water either. The teen pushes past it with the thought of how lucky she is to be born somewhere people come out of nowhere to save her from such horrors. There is no Captain Marvel or Thor here. They get her and whichever Avenger is still left. It's not what these people deserve, but Kamala is still trying to make up the difference with her limited abilities and inexperience.

Of course, it's all a matter of perspective. Objectively speaking she is hopping around on fragments of purple hard light above any potential trouble, swooping in for a rescue, and going on as if it's nothing. Her steady travel turns into an outright run when she spots Five from afar and in trouble.

He handles himself long before she can reach him. Kamala is at least in time to rescue his pendant.] I've got it! [Her arm is quickly enveloped in the purple light she uses to travel around on, and extends forward as a solid, purple extension of itself into the water. The light coming from this arm construct makes it easy to see where the pendant is falling. With a thought, the construct alters itself until a hand wraps around Five's pendant.

Kamala grins, pulls it up, and gently deposits it onto the dock in front of Five.] Here! [Just as quickly as it appeared, the light recedes back from where it came from. The teen steps off her platform onto the dock.] Are you okay?!

[somebadnews]

[ Despite training her enough to be somewhat aware of Kamala's abilities, Five wasn't prepared for a superhero to come swooping in to save him after such a clumsy fumble. He stares dumbfounded at the pendant that was miraculously saved from the water, by no less than a giant glowing fist, and only belatedly bends down to pick it up. ]

Kamala. [ He was... just about to call her. Apparently he didn't need to worry about her getting swarmed by the undead. It seems he didn't hear her question, because he's still processing what happened while he looks over her for any signs of injury. ] Quick reflexes.

[cosplayqueen]

[Kamala is returning the favor by looking Five over for what little good it will do. She's not exactly an expert on combat-related injuries. The more she practices shaping and harnessing the hard light, the harder it is to hurt her. Kamala has no practical knowledge to draw on here.] Thanks. It's probably all the video games I play.

[She crosses her arm and looks around. The teen is fine if only because as long as there's an open space, she can escape any real danger and attack from out of reach. For now, she's got the calories to spare.] So not going to lie: this is looking really bad for us. We're not Alem-bad yet, but kind of seems like we are approaching the general area.

[She waves a hand around to emphasize the point.]

[somebadnews]

[ If he'd been hurt at one point, Five gives nothing away. His exhaustion has far more to do with how much he's been using his power than fighting off undead — so it sure is something how Kamala breezed in. Not that he's annoyed by that she came to his aid; she was one on his short list to find in the chaos.

He pockets the pendant and takes a sweeping assessment of the area. It's not a good sign. ]

You're not wrong. This must be what prompts them to do the ritual.

bait & beacon

[somebadnews]

[ When Five enters the commotion in the House of Commerce it's well past midnight. Karsa's instruction to 'infiltrate' and find the beacon is barely enough motivation for him, but he has a suspicion that the banquet was pulled together to distract from what the ladies of the lake were doing in the forest. They may have even enabled them. He has a strong desire to make his opinion known before he finally washes his hands of this village.

The auction is loud and lively, and Five is small enough that he slips by with barely a need to teleport inside. He turns a few heads, some disapproving of a kid being there if not outright shoving him aside, and he barely expends the energy to flash them a cutting smile as he passes through. He recognizes the Master of Commerce at a distance and stalks him silently from across the room, making note of where he comes and goes. Who he talks to. Eventually he notices him sneak into the study. A locked door is nothing to him. He can either wait for him to leave, or assume he's alone and take care of this now.

And if he grabs a glass of wine off someone's table while he's deciding, no one could blame him. He earned it. ]

[northerndragon]

[That Five is drinking wine is unsurprising; he remembers drinking too, at that age. And he's seen Five's gaze dart around enough that he's sure that his mind is set on getting to the beacon.

Well, whose wouldn't be?]

You drink enough of that, you won't be getting in anywhere.

[Jon, for his part, is dressed more finely than usual, attire from two or three cities ago. He feels like a mummer here. He keeps his voice low.]

[somebadnews]

[ Five barely has time to swallow the wine before Jon interrupts. A sour look momentarily crosses his face, then he gives him a tight smile and downs the rest of the glass. Only half out of spite; it really has been an exhausting few days and he needed something to take the edge off.

When he lowers it again he gives Jon more of a once over, noting the clothes, and nods to the man he's been stalking. ]

I take it you had the same idea.

[northerndragon]

[A small, subtle nod.]

Aye. Though these days, I have little faith that it will matter.

[The one time a beacon had taken him, it had spat him back out again.]

You have a plan yet?

[somebadnews]

[ He shrugs. After everything he's done the last couple of days, this part seems simple. The only thing he needs to worry about is timing. ]

I could use a hand searching that room. [ He gestures to it with a tilt of his head. For all of Jon's... oddness... he's usually up for a scheme. ] It probably won't be empty long.

wildcard-ish.

[inferus]

( Wrath has already found a heart with Wei Wuxian's assistance while Emilia and Lan Wangji kept watch on the Huntress. He has reunited with his wife and then determined to find another piece of that heart. The more pieces of her heart they have, the better prepared they will be against the Huntress - the stronger the spell can be to weaken her, making her vulnerable enough to kill.

Emilia is going to keep an eye out while she keeps that one piece they've found safe, protected. She has already begun to ward it for safe keeping, which will take time, and it is important.

Wrath can sense one of those heart pieces further away from where the Huntress currently is, but they would both prefer if he did not go alone, which is why Wrath reaches out to Five via his own pendant. They talked previously about their plans going forward to put a stop to all of this, and so he knows Five will be out here already but he wants to confirm. )

Are you in the forest?

[somebadnews]

[ Five wishes he could say he's had as much success. He saw the Huntress enough to know what to look for, but he's had a few distractions get in the way of digging up her heart. (Hermione is still hasn't responded since she disappeared, so who knows what she's got into.) It's nice to hear from someone less unpredictable when he pulls up the pendant. ]

You guessed it. [ He keeps his voice down, but it's clearly tense. He came out here at the cost of losing track of what's happening elsewhere. ] Did something happen?

[inferus]

( Wrath is now trying to sense Five's distinct signature among the anchors, among the undead, among the monsters in the forest. It is... difficult, which is why he reached out to him to begin with instead of simply appearing beside him. )

I have found one of the Huntress' anchor, and I am seeking another. I would like your help.

( If he is willing to give it, but he knows this is as important to Five as it is to him for different reasons - the addition of time changes everything. )

I am several paces to the west of the entrance into the forest.

[somebadnews]

[ He doesn't need to same more. Five gives one last futile look around him, then abandons the area in a flash.

It's unusual for Wrath to need any assistance finding him. Might have to do with draining the mirror, but he won't dwell on the one convenience that curse gives him. Starting at the entrance, he moves west, looking for the familiar silhouette in a forest where undead have mostly retreated. ]

I'm there. [ And not long after that he spots him and blinks the rest of the distance to appear beside him. ] I saw her with Miang-Si, but I didn't catch where she went after. What did she do with them?

[inferus]

I did not see Miang-Si. ( Wrath's expression shifts into something of a grimace, but of course, she is involved, working against the village. He wonders what the Huntress promised her, what she agreed to. Is it worth it in the end? ) I only felt the anchors and followed - now that they are so fresh, they are easier to find. She must have buried them.

The one that I already found was deep beneath roots, surrounded by danger.

( He doesn't think he has to warn Five about that, but it will not be easy to get another piece of that heart. It's simply necessary, and so Wrath starts in the direction of the one he does feel. )