unkharil | event

[groundrules]

UNKHARIL

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Leaving the House of Manouk through waypoints, the party arrives back to the present time of Akhuras, in the jungle swathes of Unkharil. Those undergoing a canon update fleetingly detour into their home worlds. Old or new, you wake with a start, on high alert — body ablaze with static electricity. Some characters might struggle with vertigo, misted memories and dimmed powers for up to 48 hours, while their bodies readjust to no longer being lost in time.

You are in the care of a highly disciplined, if largely nomadic caravan — the refugees of most holy Alem, the kingdom built upon hell that succumbed to the undead. Karsa informs new recruits that the party assisted Alem’s king Deimar with evacuation efforts and with sealing the gates of hell, months prior. Their kingdom lost, Deimar has now taken his people to his mother’s ancestral grounds of Unkharil — a temple-fortress in a valley bordered by four tall mountains that serve as its protective walls.

Legend says the four mountains pillared the heavens, while snake god Kharil-asuk nested in the valley below to recover after birthing the world. So long was his sleep that cloud gods sent down the first bursts of lightning and thunder — frightening awake Kharil-asuk, who slithered into the jungle, never to be seen again. Since, sacred Unkharil has served as site of worship and coronations.

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King Deimar — whimsical, breezy, but cuttingly sharp — welcomes you in Unkharil, until the Merchant finalises your travel arrangements east. His people are weary, battle-worn and starved for kindness. Where applicable, some might optionally remember you under the false identity you wore in Arc V.

Seek out accommodations in the stone huts of the temple-fortress or the humble, often single-person cells that were dug bluntly into the mountain walls for hermit monks. Unkharil was deserted over the years as Kharil-asuk’s cult lost worship — but superstitious bandits have kept their looting away from temple grounds. You may still find furniture, pieces of clothing and worship, while refugees can spare clothes and food supplies.

TASKS

■ Assist with cleaning and reconstructing the destitute grounds of Unkharil, raising new stone columns and cleansing altars. Those with a connection to nature or the animals sense this is a quiet, revered territory.

■ Many survivors of Alem’s siege suffer from burns, cuts or trauma you can allay. The orphaned, widowed and wounded appreciate a kind word, company or help settling in.

■ Find a thin golden stream in the jungle, whose tepid waters may accelerate healing, improve your spirits or give you a day of staggering good luck. Bring back waters for recovering refugees.

■ Learn to use mountain scaling gear (rope-bound pairs encouraged) — or tame a 3-meter Kalioperus flier (useful for scouting and the Wailing below). Refugees and the few remaining temple monks may assist, but it’s learning by doing on the slippery mountain sides and with the thin-tempered fliers.

■ Largely warriors, Deimar’s people lost numerous troops defending Alem and now replenish their forces by teaching their youth weapons combat and light magic. Come dawns, join them in the courtyard to learn a skill or offer your own lessons. Alem instructors are strict, disciplined and martial — but fair. Characters who lack natural magic can learn to operate gem-triggered spheres that generate shields or a burst of fire/lightning. You may keep the gems after, but your character will need a few weeks of study to achieve mastery.

■ (Learn to) fish, hunt and forage to renew supplies. Beware flesh-eating fish in some jungle rivers. Ride an okapi?

■ Yet wary of traders, Deimar (grudgingly) invites merchants to revive their routes to Unkharil, with many caravans, errant scholars, priests, necromancers and sorcerers arriving to study his proposition. Some arrive all the way from magical jewel city Taravast — including an exuberant acolyte of old master Wrath! — and may offer exotic food and drink, or unique items. You may trade or earn coin by selling services or performances. Musical, art and thespian instruments can be found on the grounds.

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QUESTS

THE HEART(H) OF IT

”Rise and shine, lads! Heat of a jungle’s sun won’t be waning, no use waiting it out. The iron here’s rung cold too long. What little’s left of it. Shows the place was run by monks. They abandoned the smithy, once the fires guttered, and the mines, soon as the mouths collapsed only a little! Ha. Spoiled devils. Even left behind the ore already dug out. You go right in and fetch some iron… some copper, some silver… whatever yo find. We’ll get the blaze going. Time to forge. Don’t worry. We’ll make it worth your while.”

— Eitam, master forger

Deimar’s ironmongers revive the smithy of Unkharil but require precious ore and materials for manufacturing. Scale the steep mountain of Masida that walls in Unkharil to the east and infiltrate its abandoned mine to recover some previously discovered, but abandoned goods. Beware crumbling paths, rotten wood stairs and moulding ropes, as parts of the mines threaten collapse. Refugees supply golden fireworks that can shoot out to alert anyone within the mine you are in danger. Blacksmith rewards await.

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Visiting merchants are willing to resume trade, but have ongoing safety concerns.

■ Meet a first set of incoming grain-bearing caravans in the jungle and escort them on the last six-hour leg of their voyage to Unkharil. These are hefty and slow wagons, frequently targeted by bandits who dam their paths or pretend they are wounded, while their brothers attack from tree outposts.

■ Destroy the encampments of the vicious jungle-based Red Claws bandits. These outlaws typically attack in groups, share nightly meals and drink to strengthen their ties, providing excellent ambush opportunities. They cover their faces with a cinnabar or blood print of their leader’s palm.

■ Hold talks to appease the merchants Balthazar (easily impressed by shows and the arts) and Anathula (who wants a clear business pitch). Give diplomacy your best!

THE WAILING

”… they were so happy, so holy, then why do they shame themselves with tears now? You must be wondering. The truth does not honour us: first, Unkharil’s priesthood only accepted brothers from among those who survived snake’s poison. But the chosen were few, and the lands needed tending. Then, Unkharil accepted brothers from men of great skill, literacy and wisdom. But the learned were few, and the lands needed tending. Then, Unkharil accepted orphans, survivors of the jungle, men of the snake’s vision. But wanderers were few, and the lands needed tending. And soon, what recruits Kharil-asuk did not provide, in his mercy — his priesthood took… from the breasts of widows, from pillaged homes, from bandits. They kept even the most unwilling.”

— groundsmaster Kayik

Unkharil’s new residents soon find their beauty sleep disrupted by nightly wails, projected from several of the monk cells dug into Mount Nathadi, which walls in Unkharil from the south. These are the ghosts of former monks, whom you can appease by scaling the mountain and cleaning their cell, recovering their bones for burial (where applicable) or providing a minor service for the ghost (your choice of what the monk might desire: perhaps the recitation of a poem, an update on the weather outside, a good deed, etc.) Many of the monks were especially devoted to Kharil-asuk and to theories of reincarnation — for the lives of men are to the soul like a snake shedding its skin — and may impart you their wisdom.

WATER MY CROPS

Help Deimar’s people to revitalise local soil, seed gardens and crops, build dams and redirect jungle rivers. Water or lunar tide sorcery also work. Alem refugees were primarily warriors and will need you to illustrate the basics of gardening and land care.

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TO DAYS GONE BY

To welcome the start of their new lives, the refugees hold two nights of celebrations. During the day, you prepare tall bonfires or purify the lands with incense and sage-infused water, finding you are readily welcome in every home.

■ The first banquet night (OOCly on 25 August) pays homage to the lost: the survivors of Alem remember the siege and encourage you to speak of your own dead. Letters of penance, love or remembrance are written to the dead, read by the witness of your choosing and burned in bonfires. Heavy, syrupy and thick drink abounds.

■ The second banquet night (OOCly on 5 September) honours the living: everyone must show and express gratitude to someone alive, for any reason. Grit your teeth and offer thanks.

SERVANTS OF AFIRU (warning: snakes)

”There was no strength left in the bones of Kharil-asuk, after birthing the ground and the sky and the moon, and man and his mountains. And the first son of his likeness paid the price: brave white Afiru, small and feeble, but how proud he was! And the dozen men who caught him, not knowing his right divine, thought they did him a kindness to cull his pain young: to set him on a slate of stone and cut him in small parts, and eat of him for their dinner. Fools! Each bite of Afiru took root within them! Come morning, a dozen men woke in the image of Afiru: half snake, half human, beastly and cunning, their roiling bellies only quenched when they ate of their brothers. So, Afiru seeded his curse, and that same stone plate is now his altar: and just as he washed it with his life’s blood for men, so too must men now pay the price of bleeding.”

— old village tale

Within the jungle depths sleeps the minor, ruined temple of serpent god Afiru — malicious son of Kharil-asuk — whose mind-thralled servants abduct hapless innocents as sacrifices to the deity’s naga emissaries. Infiltrate the decayed temple to ruin Afiru’s altar — releasing his servants from their thrall and ending his worship. The naga priests are half beasts, half men, but deathly silent and possessed of fiercely sharp and venomous claws and fangs. If poisoned, your wounded limb swells, then numbs, then darkens as the toxin spreads through your body. You have 12 hours to get back to Unkharil, increasingly groggy and stiff, and drink a cure — or may pre-emptively carry a few doses, going in.

A HUNDRED MOUTHS (newcomers only)

Large stone gates carved into the northern mountain that walls in Unkharil hide an ancient granary whose wares could allay starvation… and interest visiting merchants. To open the doors, you must fit missing ruby beads back into the gate’s carvings. The gems, you learn, were picked out and dragged away by feral Kalioperus fliers — larger and more vicious than the ones you ride — and taken back to their nests at the very tip of Unkharil’s walling mountains. Report your ruby finds — rewards await.

ANOINTED (warning: snake)

”I saw him! With my mind clear, and my eyes shut, and my heart open. And he was beautiful! I ran in high grass, and my feet tore, and my dress ragged, and do not listen! I was not as the others are, greedy. I wanted nothing, nothing! He asked, ‘Daughter, what do you wish of me?’ And I said to him, ‘Only to see you.’ And he said, ‘So be it.’ And after mother Moon rose, and the good rain downed, and it was silence in this world he gave us, but for this breath, that was the murmur of the skies! No vastness greater than the drums of his heartbeat, and his sundered gaze: one eye, it was blood, and the other gold. And together, they saw me. He saw me. And he loved me! So he gave me the silk of his shed skin, to remember him by. In the morning, old women say, hunters found me in the jungle, stroking a piece of old, mouldy rope. But I know, it was him, it was the Father. And he saw me, as they do not see him”

— Laila, weaver

Deimar inherited his mother’s lands, but his uncles are likely to contest the claim of a pauper king with a feeble army. To legitimise his rule, Deimar wants the blessing of snake deity Kharil-asuk. The few remaining locals of Unkharil say the great serpent may be seen on stormy nights with lightning and thunder by those who wait at night in the jungle, after purifying themselves with meditation or partaking of ‘mind-cleansing’ asuk — a strong drug that triggers hallucinations and prophecy. The enormously large serpent body of Kharil-asuk — two-kilometres long, 100 meters wide — slithers before his chosen and must be chased into the depths of the jungles, no matter the animal and bandit dangers, before it disappears.

Inquisitive and untamed, but not necessarily malicious, Kharil-asuk often seeks to shrug off his pursuers, camouflaging in the landscape. He speaks as a voice in the heads of his pursuers, assessing them with questions about true worth and what entitles men to land, wisdom and nobility. He may attempt to drive those he deems unworthy for their past sins (betrayal, murder) in the path of mortal danger (cliffs, bandits, traps). Anyone can chase Kharil-asuk and speak with him. You can still sign up for a RNG to receive his blessing.

NOTES

■ Newcomers may be introduced to the large undead dragon, now bound to the party since Arc V. Formerly a tormentor of Alem, she keeps her distance and flies outside of Unkharil for now.

■ This downtime event lasts until 15 September and is followed by Arc VII. Pace yourselves and engage in as much or as little as you want, quests-wise!

QUESTIONS

NPC INBOX

Comments

[somebadnews]

[ Five tilts his head when Vanessa refers to herself as 'she'. There's a great deal that he still doesn't know about her, aside from ominous warnings when they were on the brink of an apocalypse. She would know that's where his mind is when she tells him the air becomes ash, and his jaw clenches as she moves in the small space.

Is she goading him on? If she'd come to him after the ritual he wouldn't have noticed the anguish being called towards him; something he's grown accustomed to ignoring, but he's acutely aware of when he wants to be. As if it's not apparent enough by looking at her. Whatever she feared must have come to pass.

It occurs to him then that he's chosen the right place to bring her. With nothing to scale the rock ledge, he's her only option for getting back down. He has her cornered by her own request. ]

Tell me what happened.

[matermali]

[ Should one offer excuses first? Should she attempt to beg forgiveness? She hadn't the first time, so why bother now? God was the only one who could dare to, and he had refused her. She had called out for him one last time, and instead she ended up here. Why must this torment be further stretched out? Already her fate has become too taut; let it snap, let it end.

But he has always wanted answers, and she promised him payment. Vanessa's voice is a murmur, husky and thick as she suppresses every urge to shed tears going back over the memories of her other life. ]

'All light will end and the world will live in darkness. The very air will be pestilence to mankind.' [ Through her, the voice of Amun-Ra's physical manifestation echoes. ] 'And then our brethren, the Night Creatures, will emerge and feed. Such is our power, such is our kingdom.'

[ Then, her breath trembles. No, she holds fast. ]

It was prophecy, you see. ...I was prophecy. [ She moves suddenly, stepping toward him with a lurch and rapidly narrowing eyes. ] I could not defeat myself.

[ Can he? ]

[somebadnews]

[ A prophecy. Five may not understand exactly how or why it was made, but the change in her voice is enough to prove that there's something bigger going on with her. The apocalypse follows him, even if it isn't directly caused by his family, so it makes a terrible amount of sense that he's the one she'd confide in.

Wind blows past the exposed dwelling, adding to the echo of her words. She's in control now but he doesn't know over what or for how long. ]

You end the world. [ No need for him to read between the lines. She's admitted as much, to the one person she shouldn't. He's been to Hell, and he has no intention of returning before he's ready. ] Even if I killed you, you know that won't change what happens in your time. Did you succeed?

[matermali]

[ Succeed. Succeeding would have been destroying herself before it ever came to pass, but she had never been able to. Some sliver of hope had kept her standing, something that had been almost visible through the smog, but that glimmer had never been holy. It had been merely the glow of hot coals.

Does she need to answer? Isn't it clear enough to him why she's here? Hope has finally been snuffed out. It only took thirty-two years. Or...is it thirty-three? Time has become... Other. ]

If I am here, then some form of me still lives. It may have never ended, then. And even if so?

[ Even if it had been her final death on Earth, what does that mean for Akhuras? What if it meant nothing, and she simply can't bear this existence any longer? Can't he understand? ]

What of this world, Mr. Hargreeves? Have you heard, can you imagine...the threat of the enemy gaining our power? ...Shall I paint you a picture? [ She takes another step closer. It shouldn't be too difficult to provoke him if he is truly getting cold feet. ] Your sister would be in it.

[somebadnews]

[ Vanessa isn't leaving much room for interpretation. There's a level of desperation in her answer that proves exactly where her mind is. Whatever possessed her is obviously still taking up residency inside of her, and she expects to lose control of it again. Maybe she thinks she's sacrificing herself for the greater good. She's doing everything she can to convince him, but then she takes it a step too far.

Threatening his family is a mistake.

He clenches his fist beside him and his fist glows faintly blue as she gets closer. She picked him for a reason. Somehow she knows that he's killed people more innocent than her, all in an effort to save the world. ]

I'm aware. [ It'd be easy for him to grant her wish, and logic tells him he should. But something she said holds him back. ] ...You know why the Merchant keeps us alive. Your death could deliver you to them. Do you really want to take that risk?

[matermali]

[ Not a mistake at all if it presses him to do what needs to be done. Vanessa knows well the need to act to protect family; it was what had given her the courage to face Lucifer. How sorry then that his brother was the one to finally corner her, when she felt she had no more family left to protect. ]

...You don't understand.

[ The shame is palpable now, and before she can advance on him further she sinks to her knees. If only she could pray again. ]

I am already one of them.

[ Now, her voice trembles as it scrapes out her horrible truth. ]

You can burn my body. Find one of Karsa's talismans if you must. But this thing before you is no longer alive. It has no soul.

[somebadnews]

[ Five wasn't prepared for this. Not like Vanessa had, and it's clear to him now that she'd planned for this happen since the first time she came to him. Seeing her now, he can barely remember what he'd asked for in return for doing her the favor of murder. Most people might have chosen suicide, but she doesn't seem to trust herself enough for that.

The situation isn't entirely foreign to him. You don't kill as many people as he has and never see someone beg. It's just that in the past, they'd always begged for their life. He'd never once held back. Back when he knew it had to be done, he didn't lose a minute of sleep over taking a life for the greater good. Vanessa would even make it easier than most, if he can trust what she says. And yet... it doesn't feel right. Like he's missing something.

His jaw flexes as she mentions Karsa, as if he'd need her help. If he does this, no one will find out it was him. ]

What are you? [ If he wants answers, this is the time. ] What do you think you are?

[matermali]

[ Why must he make this so difficult now? It isn't as if she makes this request with glee in her heart. She had thought there was an understanding, she had been certain he would make it quick, but of course this is the payment he would demand.

She could throw herself from the cliffside. At this height, it may do away with her, but what a sight it would be for others to discover. Vanessa could never bring herself to the task, no matter how simple it could have been long before now, no matter how she has threatened. If she was ever able to take her own life for true, she would have opened a vein long before she tore the stars out of the sky and let the world suffer in darkness with her.

He hopes for understanding, for names. Devil, goddess, witch? Vampire? Words that she refuses, banishes them to the pit where the name Amunet remains crudely buried. She has only ever been herself. She knows who that is; she knows what that is. It is too old for a name. ]

I'm—

[ The shake of her head is so slow, creeping like the lift in her chin. The occasional gust of wind that peppers the mountaintop casts dark hair to billow over an ashen face, but eyes just as pale still peer through. ]

I am the end of days.

[somebadnews]

[ It's not really an answer. At least not one that she hadn't already supplied, and it feels like such a slap in the face that he openly scoffs back at her. She thinks she'll cause the apocalypse. After seeing as many of them as he has, he can't say it's impossible. Either she thinks she's a vessel for whatever possessed her, or she has powers she can't control. It barely matters if it's against her will when those are the stakes.

She knows of his family, about him, and why he's her best option. If there's even a possibility that she could end the world, he should make good on his promise.

It's then that he remembers what he'd asked in return. ]

Show me. [ Not for his conscience, but for his curiosity. He told himself once that he was done with killing, back when he was stupid enough to think it was over, and here he is again. He pulls out a dagger hidden at his side, so she can see that he's prepared. Then he steps back nearer the mountain ledge. ]

Go ahead. I'll stop you before you cause any harm.

[matermali]

[ Were she the sort, she would claw the ground and scream and shake him until he acquiesced. Were she— ]

You are cruel.

[ To look in the eyes of a woman who demands death and request a magic trick. The gall is remarkable. His pragmatism has always been something to be admired, but not when used against her favor. All crimes are forgiven until they impede her choice.

And this was a choice he had also made. He didn't have to do this. Vanessa's head hangs, her fingers buried in her hair as she rocks back onto her knees with a mutter. ]

Don't.

[ Were she—

—to become the sort?

She is also cruel.

But don't — a plea buried low beneath a threat. ]

[somebadnews]

[ There's another very real possibility that she's blown this all out of proportion. From what he knows of her background, Vanessa may have just enough power to make her believe she's the anti-christ. — He won't deny his cruelty in dragging this out, but he doesn't care. Right now she's too much of a mystery to be sure of anything, and he doesn't want to leave any loose ends.

Five grips the dagger as she rocks back, and he swears he can feel her anguish flowing into him. This may be a mistake, but he doesn't back down. ]

Those were my terms. [ He leans in. ] You've learned my secrets. I think I'm owed something in return.

cw; arachnid description

[matermali]

[ Owed? What a childish concept. He should know better

A final shudder tips her chin back up and casts out a wide-eyed gaze from between gaunt fingers. When her hands drop to the ground to reveal cheeks damp from tears, Vanessa chokes through the words gone jagged. They’re spat out as though they cut at her tongue, with a voice no more than a scratch through the thin air between them. ]

A first-rate pragmatist.

[ If she gives any indication that she’s about to move, it’s too quick for most to catch. The rocky patch where she’d been crouched has little but the dust that drifts from a breeze that was already passing through the mountaintops. That lift carries her with a blink of its own sort, and she’s launched to twist Five’s wrist back after circling behind him. Thin fingers grip his jaw with a merciless yank, wrenching his head to the side until the muscles in his neck grow taut from the strain. She tugs his arm back at such an unnatural angle that his joints begin to creak. The strength is unnatural.

Vanessa could lift him with ease, but she simply leans to keep him further off balance, holding him close enough to feel a tickle of her breath near the nape of his neck. With nails pinching into his skin like claws while she pushes and pulls, a raspy whisper creeps into his ear to crawl toward the back of his skull. Scratching, scratching within, but the scorpion doesn’t sting. Not yet. ]

You're a great disappointment to me.

[ The sigh she releases is so full of sorrow; so heavy with grief. As though she is sorry. As though she would prefer to embrace him like a mother rather than squeeze at his neck with a threat to snap.

Cruel, cruel child. ]

You can't change what's to come, Five.

[somebadnews]

[ In all honesty, Five didn't know what he would see if he pushed her to finally reveal what she's capable of. Nothing good could come of it. That in itself would point to how unwise it is to demand a demonstration, while she's begging for death, just so he'd finally know.

The last thing he expected was to hear her quoting from someone long dead. She'd called him pragmatic before, but this immediately feels different and he narrows his eyes in suspicion. How the Handler loved to try to convince him that he's exactly who they made him to be. She took joy over it in a way Five never did. His grip tightens over the handle of the dagger.

And then she's at his throat.

She'd meant to distract him, and it worked remarkably well as he strains against the position she contorts him into. Any doubt that he'd had in his assumptions are erased as she continues to repeat what the Handler told him, line for line, in a meeting that only ended when he tossed a grenade at her. Vanessa is stronger, and he quickly finds that he can't twist his way out of the hold she has on him. When he closes his eyes he can picture that same woman who would always get too close to him. Who knew he didn't like to be touched.

He disappears in a flash, and reappears mere feet from where he was caught in her grasp. The space isn't large enough to put more distance between them, but he's not going to let her take him by surprise again, even as his mind races to make sense of what just happened. He'd always suspected the Commission might find its way here, if they weren't directly responsible for trapping him. And Vanessa seemed to know what he was capable of, in a way few assume. His reputation shouldn't have traveled to her, unless... ]

What did you say? [ It could just be a trick of the mind, but if she read his it would explain so much more. ] How do you know her?