westwhere | unkharil

unkharil | event

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Victory! His smile is soft and harmless, casual. ]

What kind of sweets does a-Xing like?

[ He's not done! Don't go to war against Lan Xichen. ]

( He's immediately finding his fan to snap open in front of his face, thank you very much. )

The better question is what kind don't I like. Sadly, I highly doubt we'll find mooncakes or Tanghulu. ( Is he judging? Maybe a little. ) We might be lucky with some fruit, though. ( And then, more curiously. ) Do you have a sweet-tooth?

[ Hah. Wen Kexing is cute when flustered, though no mention or special note of the much-needed fan is given. Xichen is more polite than to do that and just accepts the win. ]

I like tangyuan and mooncakes. Steamed sponge cake was often made in Caiyi Town at the bottom of the mountain where I live, it's cheap and fluffy, drizzled in honey. In Cloud Recesses there is a rule which says you're allowed no more than three helpings of any meal, so you can imagine how often I saved my requests for dessert ... until my shufu caught on.

[ Chuckling, Xichen keeps an eye on the newly raised marketplace around them for a treat they can enjoy. ]

There are, however, minor advantages to being sect leader, such as inspecting the kitchens.

I could probably make tangyuan, if we found the right ingredients but therein lies a similar problem.

( Desserts aren't that much different from the more savoury of rice balls, though the markets might not be as familiarly stocked. ) But wait, you were told how much you were allowed to eat? ( An incredulous eyebrow arching, Wen Kexing's fan movements stilling so he can glance at Lan Xichen more properly. ) First the lack of spices, now this. Do the Lan actually get to enjoy eating?

( It isn't exactly an attempt to be rude, especially when Wen Kexing is intimately familiar with both the scarcity of food and the perils of overeating it. He'd made himself sick, the first time he'd escaped to the Jianghu, gorging himself on all the things he had never tried before. He gets that it's complicated. )

[ Nodding, he pauses to consider some hairsticks. His ornate silver guan is hidden away in a qiankun sleeve, a smooth stick picked up along the way somewhere in Yancai keeping his hair half-up in a bun. ]

We have very high-quality meals, all vegetarian. I let the juniors eat what they like when we travel, if only to gain more worldly experience outside of the boundaries of Cloud Recesses where the rules ... do not apply as strictly.

[ He feels very fortunate that food is the main focus of the boys whenever they go anywhere. ]

The lack of spices is more of a regional happenstance. We live in the heights of a mountain, any rare additions to our meals run out quickly. What is your favourite meal of all, would you say? I will make a point of remembering.

Mm. High quality doesn't always mean good. Sometimes what the soul wants is something badly made and from a shady looking street vendor. ( He thinks fondly of the times he'd run around the same kind with Zhou Zishu, the other man's face drawn into a frown but still very much there to hand over his coin in the end. A stab of longing lances through his chest, though his smile never wavers. )

It's good that Zewu-Jun allows some lenience. Children who grow up in too strict a place often end up acting out when they're adults. I know you wouldn't want that for your little disciples.

( Wen Kexing has to pause then, thoughtful, mulling over the question as he leans in to examine the hair ornaments. They're pretty, but he isn't about to waste the time nor money on them. ) It changes from place to place. Some towns have the best dandan noodles, some the best wonton soup. Recently I queued for half a shichen just to try some famous Wolong Nuts! Life's too short to stick to one, I want to try everything.

[ He takes note of the way the hairsticks have been carved, fully intending to give it a go and make his own tonight. As they move on, he listens to Wen Kexing describe his favourite meals and has the imagery of him hopping around a marketplace excitedly invested in trying all the different stalls. It makes him smile. ]

Life is. [ Too short. ] Hedonism is frowned upon in Cloud Recesses, that is why I ease the four-thousand rules significantly when I travel, for both the disciples and myself. We were originally a sect of monks, yet no more. That is only our heritage, though a far more ascetic life than most is what we are known for.

( An easy snort. ) Only four-thousand? Ah, Zewu-Jun, not to offend, but that sounds miserable.

( Presumably still more pleasant than the Ghost Valley, which does not have rules but does harbour the constant threat of having one's throat slit at any given moment. )

I'm afraid I have never successfully abstained from anything, aren't you worried I might lead you astray?

[ Used to people being daunted by all the rules of Cloud Recesses, he only smiles. That is, until Wen Kexing asks Aren't you worried I might lead you astray and Xichen pauses to take the time to look at him. Really look, considering everything about Wen Kexing up until this point. ]

I'm not worried about being a-Xing's friend, no.

[ He gives him a gentle pat on the back of an arm, walking again. ]

( Wen Kexing has to take a moment, seemingly entirely baffled by Lan Xichen's ... everything. When was the last time, beyond Zhou Zishu, that someone considered him a friend? With something like an incredulous laugh, he chases after him, suddenly exuberant. )

Mm. Well, if I truly do something that sits ill with you, you'll have to tell me? Lan Huan has been kind to me, I would hate to lose that closeness.

( If he is to stay long than he presumably will, he knows himself enough to know there's something tainted inside of him. Maybe one day he will be too vicious, too cruel. But for now, the jagged parts are tucked safely away. He can hope to keep them there a little longer. )

What could you do that would sit ill with me?

[ He glances at him as they walk, his gaze weighty but serene. ]

A-Xing thinks me indiscriminately kind, perhaps a little naïve. [ A hint of a smile calms any misunderstanding about where he is going with the topic. ] I met a bold young man who was able to deal with spirits and was not easily cowed by them or the threat of the new realm around him. He could have given me poison, taken my sword and supplies, but he did not. He helped me. His form is excellent, his mind sharp, and while he is well-read he is also no shy scholar; he misses little to do with his surroundings.

[ Turning his face into the warmth of the sun as it banishes the chill of the closely-grouped market streets, his simplified robes and wooden hairstick do little to take away from a posture or thoughtful gaze that belongs to Zewu-Jun as he looks at Wen Kexing. ]

Perhaps he is not without flaw but Wen Kexing is not bad, I think, and he will not lose my friendship because of anything he does. If he has done something in his past that he is scared I will discover or is unwilling to tell me, I urge him to do so and to give me a full account of his side of things.

... But he needn't, as I will remain his friend in any case.

( It's ... a lot.

Especially all at once. Lan Xichen reminds him so suddenly of Zhou Zishu that it's a little dizzying. Oh, they're completely different people, yes, and Wen Kexing's heart would say what he wanted to say with less care than the man before him, but the sentiment is similar. It's terrifying, in a way he can't really quantify, because it is an opportunity. He could tell Lan Xichen of his crimes, lay out all the darkness and the filth between them and leave it to air, blood soaked in the sun. An experiment, a way to run through the act of confession. He barely knows the man, it would hurt less to lose him.

But, he thinks it would hurt, a little.

Instead he goes quiet, his expression dropping a little of that forcible cheerfulness he usually wears. If he were kinder, he'd walk away, he'd keep himself to himself here because these are good people and Wen Kexing is ... not. But the Ghost Valley mantle has been a poor fit for too long now, he struggles to put it back on. )

Ah, Lan Huan, you can be too much.

( It isn't meant to be cruel, but he lifts a hand to rub at the ache in his temples anyway. He could be the worst thing a man like that has ever met. Surely, the blood behind his teeth would be enough to turn even the most hardened of stomachs. )

I --. ( He stops again, seemingly wrongfooted. It's buried just as quick, lips turning up in caricature. ) Maybe I merely meant my history of drunken debauchery, my promiscuous habits, mm? You said your clan used to be monks, I've done things that would make your ancestors blush so hard they came back to life.

[ He blinks down at some little cakes on a stall, requesting four from the vendor. As he glances at Wen Kexing it's as if he doesn't need to watch the little performance of jovial sassiness, giving him a mild smile that would be there even without the display. ]

I am not my ancestors, [ his smile kicks up, playful in its confidence, ] and much harder to provoke a blush from.

[ New topic, then. A safe one, for his friend's sake, ambushed as he was in public. He swings the little paper bag of treats, offering it to Wen Kexing to inspect the contents. Xichen has never seen such pink cakes before, it's intriguing! Also, a distraction from delving perhaps too deeply, judging by Wen Kexing's discomfort. ]

( He isn't expecting the reprieve, and so he takes the bag with a slow blink, letting his gaze drop to the contents inside. Eventually the corner of his mouth lifts a little, back into something more genuine, and he steps closer to Lan Xichen if only so he can place a hand cheerfully on his back, squeezing his shoulder. )

Just wait until I'm drunk enough to tell you some tales.

( He does have the good kind, the ones that are funnily scandalous and not simply awful. He wonders what Lan Xichen would make of them. )

These smell good. ( Lifting the bag up to take a sniff. ) Sweeter than anything I recognise.

[ Those tales will surely be interesting! As for now, he nods along and leans over to sniff the contents too. ]

Shall we break one in half and try it?

[ It smells ridiculously sweet; he has his apprehensions about this but is feeling adventurous today with Wen Kexing nearby. ]

( He nods, plucking one from the back to break up. It's easy to hand Lan Xichen's part over with a smile, something almost childlike in wonder at the casing of the cake. Subtleties and rules are out the window, Wen Kexing doesn't wait for Lan Xichen to take the first bite of his piece, instead he's sinking sharp teeth into his own, eyes going a little round at the texture and the taste. )

Mm.

( He's clearly pleased, if the delight in his voice is anything to go by, demolishing his potion with greedy ease. Little pink cakes? A win for his sweet tooth. ) See, this is why it's hard to have favourites. I think I'd do unspeakable things for those cakes.

[ Sniffing his own half as he watches pleasure suffuse Wen Kexing's expression, he snorts a laugh under his breath and finally takes a bite after that roaring approval rating.

His face twists as if having bitten something sour, the excessive sweetness prompting him to raise a sleeve to hide behind as he makes a noise like a trapped bird and shakes his head, chewing open-mouthed out of sight. That's far sweeter than any honey he's tasted!! ]

Edited 2023-09-04 15:33 (UTC)

( A laugh comes without Wen Kexing fully thinking, leaning close to peer at Lan Xichen. )

No? Ah, poor Lan Huan, your palate is so sensitive.

Ah.

[ He swallows what's left as he looks up over his sleeve, faced with a pair of dark eyes very close; his finger lightly taps Wen Kexing on the nose, if only to regain Xichen a bit of space as his warm cheeks cool off. ]

I prefer creamy desserts, but I'm not surprised a-Xing liked that. You can have the rest if you want, share them with your friends.

What friends?

( A little too glib, but he tucks the bag more carefully under his arm so as not to squash the rest. )

We'll find you something, or I'll learn to make you something.

I cannot be your only friend, you've been here long enough to have several.

[ But!! ]

I would like to learn how to cook for my family and friends, when you are free.

( He's actually very hard to stomach. Lan Xichen should see how he behaves in front of his brother. )

Ah, I've been a little remiss in finding my way but don't worry, I'm not wanting for much. ( Then, curiosity more firmly piqued. ) Well, we can definitely do that. We might need to find supplies but I'm sure we can arrange something.

I would also like to cook for you, to show my deep appreciation for your friendship.

[ Mentioned as they walk and he keeps his eyes trained ahead. ]

( He needs to become better at accepting sincerity, if it keeps throwing him off it shows he's not used to it. )

All right.

( A little shyly pleased. )

It would be nice to have someone to teach. Gu Xiang, my ward, never wanted to learn despite how much she eats, and Chengling, well, Ah-Xu has him exhausted and we were travelling so much. I like cooking. ( Carefully, as though he doesn't share that part very often. ) It's good at keeping your thoughts quiet. You have to focus. And there is something to show for the effort, after. Keeping people fed has always helped when I do not know what else to do.

[ When I do not know what else to do. His heart softens to hear that, stealing a glance at Wen Kexing and wondering how often he has struggled, outside of his little family, to make himself feel useful or needed. Xichen can relate to that feeling, after the events at Guanyin Temple. There is a hidden noble, sweet streak to the brash attitude that so often takes precedence in the other man's personality in public, but it is so obvious to Xichen that Wen Kexing cares deeply (when he does) that it's mildly puzzling why he hasn't surrounded himself with more friends since his arrival. ]

It must be said, you have done a lot for me without ever lifting a single spoon.

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