westwhere | the chainings

the chainings

THE CHAININGS

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Escorted by shepherds, the party reaches most decadent Ephes — a citadel with a newly-raised, lethal army and ambitions of imperial expansion. The undead lady Messalina has approached the Senate of Ephes, asking for the citadel’s forces to liberate the unliving from the undead Brotherhood that “enslaves them.” In exchange, she pledges Ephes any territories she frees.

Ephes hides a beacon within the main temple of the world-making and world-ending chaotic Chained God, currently closed off while Senate leader Caius Justus considers Messalina’s proposal.

OBJECTIVE: Survive Ephes until the temple opens.

This first event of Arc VII lasts until 3 October. Use your character roles, pursue leads or nudge NPCs for clues!

POLITICS

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Politically-minded characters take residence with their benefactors and receive two iron chain bracelets, which represent the Chained God. These bracelets and the red-purplish trim of your white cloth identify your political standing and attract the nagging, desperate or aggressive public pleas of your petitioners.

You hear, hastening to attend Senate sessions, that long-serving leader Caius Justus is unlikely to earn a new mandate. His peaceful, sedentary governance is unsuited to Ephes’ military ambitions.

Pair up with party members and submit threads by 23:59 GMT on 27 September of bribing, cheating or outright fulfilling the needs of one of the politicians below, to secure their vote for or against Messalina.

■ War veteran-turned-politician Sextus Longinus wants to leave his mark permanently on Ephes.

■ Senator Publia Secunda has been struck with court summons on charges of tax evasion. The court claims it has proof she has been passing the precious wares on her ships as geese.

■ Senator Ovidius Petronius’s wife fled home, ruining his image as a family man, after he was caught in compromising circumstances with another woman.

■ Severus Silvanus was overcome by sickness and wishes to throw a party worth remembering as he lives out his final year.

■ Once a formidable soldier, Senator Cassia Floriana has been for years denied an audience by the priests of the temple of the Chained God because of the blood on her hands.

■ Maximilianus Tacitus wishes to eliminate his reputation for stinginess — while spending not one coin.

Note: if multiple players go for the same Senator, we’ll assume they had more than one vote to cast!

GLADIATORS | non-gladiators can spectate or patron

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Those assigned as gladiators are received by arena leader Laetio and housed in single or shared barracks cells in grounds near the largest stadiums.

Accommodations are scarce — pallets, hard stone ground — but food, healing and care are generously provided. Veteran gladiators are frequently measured and assessed. Strife is contained, and brawls are forbidden, while priestess of the Chained God visit periodically to bless warriors as ‘his children of chaos.’

At times, as you train or sleep, you sense you are watched. On other days, you wake from violent nightmares to see your wounds and bruises have vanished.

■ Newcomers are paired and taught how to throw fights, exaggerate their reactions and create slogans and outrageous personas. They are offered tattoos, haircuts and makeup.

■ You experience the first day in the arena around the OOC date of 18 September, when gladiators re-enact the Chained God’s first defeat and Chaining.

■ Characters can fight NPCs, each other, or demonic large beasts. These hefty creatures attack head first and thrash the arena, often striking spectators.

■ Injuries can happen when fighting beasts, but unlikely from other gladiators. The highest official attending a fight may choose the loser’s punishment, but must pay exorbitant fees for losses to the arena. After a noble boy orders a veteran gladiator severely beaten, you hear Laetio threatening the child’s anguished father with repercussions from Narula, leader of the Hand.

■ Submit a fight thread by 23:59 GMT on 27 September for the winner/s to address the stadium.

■ Other party members can pay or coax Laetio to receive their ‘favourite’ gladiator(s) overnight at their villas. Return by dawns.

WHITE NIGHT

One night (OOCly: 24 September), after gladiator games on the sixth of twelve Chainings, you wake up in a bleary haze, your thoughts and movements slow. Stifled screams and heavy footsteps erupt distantly. In pitch dark, you spot the slithering, deep silhouettes that are checking cells — progressing towards you.

■ If you glimpse their coarsely carved masks depicting wolves, you are overcome with a sudden, insurmountable terror and the certainty that your visitors are inhuman.

■ Stumbling, you flee your surprisingly open cell, overcome by dread that won’t abate until you find living company. Some of the emptied cells you pass by have been clearly ravaged. On the walls of three untouched cells of veteran gladiators, you see a wolf’s head coarsely painted in fresh blood. Hide with your companions, until sleep suddenly claims you.

■ The next day, you wake back in your sleeping quarters. Laetio accuses some gladiators of going mad from last night’s celebratory drink and destroying the cells. Servants have been cleaning attentively, with all blood paintings gone.

■ Your memories of the night are increasingly diffuse: at times you describe the intruders. At others, you speak of creatures or people from your own past that terrify you.

■ A veteran gladiator, the Beast of Brenne, is absent from the morning call. Laetio regretfully informs he perished from wounds incurred in yesterday’s games. He calls a toast to the Beast of Brenne and bans drink for the rest of the Chainings.

THE HAND

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Characters reach the barracks as part of a set of 100 new recruits. They are subjected to three days of intense training, ranging from running and parkour basics to weights and strength building, basic dagger combat and surviving hard (magically induced) weather conditions. The recruit batch is overseen by Hand leader Narula and members depend on each other for food or care.
Throughout this, recruits are made to heavily depend on Brother Narula, who negotiates and awards privileges and regularly visits for interviews not unlike interrogations. Recruits are largely orphans, convicts or disinherited — lone wolves, says Narula, who only find their pack in the Hand.

Every ten days of the 100 after recruitment, the worst performing five conscripts are removed from the ranks, stoking vicious competition and internal sabotage that Narula allows on the premise of soldiers needing both brawns and cunning.

Permanent injuries are banned. Beware blades left in your shoes and itchy, ground nettles powder on your uniforms.

HONEYED

Within days of receiving your assignments, you must shadow a group of Hand veterans and guard a Hive — an agricultural cluster outside of Ephes — during a grains transfer.

■ New recruits follow veteran soldiers into the eerily silent, vast farmland dominated by high rows of wheat and corn. You feel watched and something touches your legs and thighs. Within farmers’ hearing, veteran soldiers laugh it off as rabbits, snakes — but privately tell you to walk outside the line of vision of scarecrows littered in the fields.

■ The transfer proceeds peacefully until midday, when alarms blare, and a brawl starts near a defunct watering well: a dozen Hand veterans have gone berserk and attack indiscriminately. They are dark-eyed, heaving and struggle with speech and coordination. They seem less wrathful than anguished, desperately calling to ‘Make homes’ as they slaughter and sever limbs.

■ Immobilise the attackers, or take civilians to safety in warehouses.

■ The berserk soldiers are removed — allegedly taken for healing and discipline, but never seen again. At the barracks, Narula says the incident was the result of heatstroke.

MESSALINA’S INFILTRATORS

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Some party members join Messalina’s group as paid campaign aides. Stationed in the Senate’s summer villas outside of Ephes, the lady’s eclectic group comprises volatile magic users and necromancers, the undead and demonic creatures — who coexist in tenuous peace. It’s every wo/man to themselves after dark, when the villa walls and defences are drawn up and gates lock to prevent the indiscreet exit of a blood-thirsting demon.

Mid-summer

It becomes rapidly clear that Messalina does not trust the good will of Ephes and wants to cut a deal quickly by bribing, blackmailing, or interceding with Senate leader Caius Justus. She also seems unsettled by the Chained God, who she fears is a hidden undead liege controlling Ephes.

”Not every Sleeper sleeps deep.”

Messalina assigns party members to bolster the campaign of Maximus Faustus — previously a young, promising and popular politician with hopes of becoming Senate leader… who has been replaced by demonic shapeshifter Alir.

■ Infiltrate noble functions and learn what would steer patricians towards Faustus’ cause.

■ Patricians widely feel that Caius has been too sympathetic towards plebeians and neglectful of his own people. They want to see more grand gestures celebrating Ephes’ noblest class. See to it.
■ Some superstitiously associate Caius with the cult of the Chained God, whom the Senate leader brought back to forefront.

■ Alir is fiercely intelligent, quick-witted, dry — with little regard for humans, beyond their delicious hearts. Watch him while in public, as he succumbs to his hunger and lures innocents in dark corners to rip out their innards and feast on their flesh. Pay off or exterminate witnesses.

■ A derisive Alir questions Messalina’s plans for peaceful coexistence and the innocence of Ephes. He urges his caretakers to inspect Caius’s private home on the night of the full moon (OOCly: 20 September). You may take along other party members.

■ That night, Caius’ villa is well lit, bursting with song and closed from the inside. Scale the walls to enter and find a feast held by shadowy silhouettes of Caius’ ancestors. First they interact with you, then ignore you, then, increasingly inconvenienced, seem to recognise there is something wrong about you, before giving chase, daggers in hand.

■ On a high table in the great reception halls, you can find the entombment masks and personal effects of all of Caius’ ancestors who are present at the feast. Caius’ personal study contains nearly year-old letters of trade, reports on the fragility of the then-6,000-strong Hand and a broken worship tablet depicting the Chained God’s fourth Chaining.

■ In the kitchens, you find well-secured barrels of fish and wine — jump in together, or hear movement from the servants hidden within. You have time for one question.

CIVILIANS

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Characters assigned civilian roles may safely assume their Ephes posts for a handful of days, before the religious celebrations of the Chained God’s twelve Chainings start. The all-Father of the universe, the Chained God is set to birth, consume and rebirth the world, and was chained twelve times by the first heroes of humanity to contain his destruction.

■ The numerous priests of the Chained God wander the roads and mark the foreheads of civilians with salted ash — which briefly brings out your anger, greed or selfishness.

■ Priests say you feel the frustration of the bound Chained God. Some of those ash-touched experience visions of a heavily fettered, amorphous creature, struggling in agony in a cavernous room. Those with supernatural powers find their abilities are volatile for a day.

■ Those who ‘see’ the Chained God are brought and tested for holiness by Priestess Valeria, for it is known the Chained God chooses brief emissaries during the days of Chaining.

■ Newer acolytes greatly defend the religious cult: a great earthquake rattled the main temple of the Chained God last year during the Chainings, and falling debris only spared the faithful who prayed within.

Off with his —

On the sixth day of Chaining (OOCly: 23 September), the news shouter of Ephes’ main marketplace receives a pouch containing the decapitated head of Tavernus, brother of Ephes army leader Narula.

The shocked newscaster drops the head, shakily reading out the message stitched on the pouch: Animals die for men to live. Men die for gods to prosper. — a quote attributed to the Chained Gods and carved on his main temple’s outer walls.

Locals may share Tavernus was a taciturn man who previously served as Narula’s lieutenant in the Hand, before retiring five months prior and taking up agricultural trade.

Group up to investigate — and throw your hat in for a RNG pick to win the head.

NIGHT OF KNIVES | EVERYONE WELCOME

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The twelfth day of Chaining (OOCly: 29 September) ends the yearly religious festivities of the Chained God with multiple street celebrations and private dinners.

Popular political upstart Maximus Faustus holds his own night-long banquet, opening his doors to all.

The affair sprawls over multiple floors of Faustus’ enormous villa, with entertainment ranging from poetry, theatre, artistic and magical recitals on the lower floors to a gladiator performance and heavy opioids upstairs. Conveniently, the guest list includes every figurehead of Ephes and their main political and financial backers. Patricians seem amused but flattered by Faustus, who was ‘no one’ before Messalina’s support, but who has been generous in his appreciation of the city’s elite.

■ Sign up for a RNG draw for a conversation with Faustus by 23:59 GMT on 18 September.

■ No better time to publicise your feats or generosity. Why not have your character (including gladiators) perform or bring an offering?

■ Servants apologise as you smell an excess of musk and oud, hiding, they say, spillage from an accident caused by a fired manservant. You can still glimpse glinting trails of cleansed lamp oil.

■ Messalina attends the banquet for two hours, but hastily withdraws at midnight, after receiving a letter.

■ Towards the middle of the night, priestess Valeria asks to conduct a religious séance, allowing one person to channel the Chained God and speak to Ephes.

■ After 2 a.m., torch lights dim down, as twenty masked pantomimes enter the main banquet halls, shushing the rooms silent. In good spirit, they ridicule the partygoers, even poking fun at you with inside jokes they should not know about…

■ …before slashing the throats or stabbing some of the high-profile Senators present, sparking a chaotic stampede.

■ The main villa doors have been closed from the outside. Fire broke out within and spreads rapidly, after the rims of main halls curtains were drenched in lamp oil. Rescue some of the Senators, or help the crowds escape Faustus’ burning villa.

■ The assassins are exceptionally strong fighters whose combat style some might recognise from the Hand’s drills. They fluctuate between having physical bodies and merging with shadows.

■ Come morning, a list is found on the main hall floor of Faustus’ villa with an assassination contract for the murdered and targeted Senators. All had intended to support Messalina. The contract is signed with the seal of a ring showing a wolf in profile.

QUESTIONS

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[[ooc: more prompts available as desired! For those unfamiliar with Kahl, I'd recommend at least watching a minute or two of his canon introduction, to get a sense of the cyborg dude you're dealing with here. He's got an eyepatch now, but that's the only physical change from this. Spoilers for Warframe's New War poltline!]]

All the white marble makes Kahl squint. Too bright in the sun. But he keeps walking, hauling heavy stuff with him. He's a porter this time. Carrying other people's stuff. Making deliveries.

It's good. Nobody pays attention to porters. As long as Kahl doesn't block traffic, nobody stops to think about a big man carrying a big box, or those clay jars. Am-phor-ae. He has trouble pronouncing that, but he's got one on his shoulder now, big enough to hide somebody in if they need it.

Kahl can get stuff into lots of places. He can get into lots of places too. The big white marble houses (more squinting) don't let anybody in the front doors without invitation, but they forget about the back doors. He shows up, says he has a delivery, and then offers to carry it in when the servants struggle with the weight. Sometimes the box has something useful in it, sometimes there's someone in it, other times there's just rocks at the bottom. He pretends not to know, and makes friends while he's there. The whole time, he's mapping the place, just in case.

Want to help him with a delivery? Already on the inside, doing politics or fighting, and need something snuck in or out? Maybe even sneak yourself somewhere? Kahl can help.

Wrathion has been watching the people coming and going within Ephes, getting a feel for each of their roles and for the situation they're being dropped into.

There's interesting information to be learned, he's sure, but Wrathion is as much interested in what people might be saying unguarded in the privacy of their homes as he is what they say in the senate to one another.

So it is that he waits to catch Kahl, when he happens to be delivering something to Procula Avita. The dragon positions himself outside, eyes skimming over him, and he offers a small smile in greeting. He's dressed himself easily to blend in, and seems perfectly at home in the wrapped lengths of draping fabric.

"Good to see you," he murmurs, making a show of coming forward to inspect the delivery. "Ephes is treating you well, I hope?"

Kahl smiles back, carefully setting down the heavy load for inspection. "It good enough for Kahl," Kahl doesn't fit so naturally into the surroundings, at least when people stop and look. From Eidris, he tells people. Good machines there. They buy it, because who would lie about where their metal feet came from? Besides, he's got a little dragon wing trinket on him. Wrathion's magic wore off ages ago, but he's not going to throw out something like that.

"Go all over. Heavy box get you everywhere." Ephes was pretty, and he enjoyed getting a chance to see it all. Taking care of people comes first, though. "Wrathion do good too? Need anything?"

"I've a role in the senate," he says. Likely obvious from where he is, and his outfit, but sometimes better to be straightforward about the basics. "Assisting with matters involving widows, orphans and veterans."

He pries open the crate, begins to inspect the contents carefully.

"I've wondered if you've heard anything, in your time delivering? I'm particularly interested in Caius Justus himself. I've heard a rumour that he has not been... clear headed of late. I'm curious if this just disagreement with his policies, or if there is something more to it."

Edited (repetition ) 2023-09-20 18:36 (UTC)

Kahl nods in approval. "Good work to do." The city reminds him a bit too much of faithful Corpus, worshiping their Profit. Anything that goes against that is welcome.

Caius Justus, though, the stuff he's heard is weird. "Kahl talk to workers." He leans in closer, as if pointing out stuff in the shipment. "They not like job. Ask Kahl if other houses want help. Look scared. Not say why."

"Asked at depot--No deliveries to house." And he'd confirmed, taking breaks at vantage points where he could see the entrances. "Hand soldiers go in, though."

Scared? Wrathion frowns up at Kahl, listening intently. Soldiers going in and out, no deliveries, scared staff.

"Scared of Caius Justus, perhaps? Behaving erratically?"

That's one option. 'Not clear headed' may be a more pleasant way to describe that he's unravelling, either via natural means, personal intoxication, or outside influence. Somehow, based on descriptions of his previous even temper, Wrathion suspects some manner of outside influence.

Religion isn't something Kahl understands all that well. Or at least he thought he didn't, until he started hearing priests talking about their Chained God. Now he gets it, that uneasy feeling he got back home when Corpus brothers talked about Profit, or when he heard Narmer machines broadcasting. The weird ramblings that he knows the veils force their slaves to believe.

He's already skeptical, when one of the priests comes up to him with some ash. But it's just ash. His face gets dirty all the time, it doesn't do anything bad to him. So he lets them reach up to mark his face.

Anyone watching will see things change very fast. Kahl scowls and rubs away ash that's fallen in his eye, then freezes, jaw going slack for a moment.

Then Kahl grabs the priest by the throat, lifting them straight up off the ground. "Kahl have own mind," he snarls, metal fingers squeezing tight. "Stay out."

Jacob's not been smeared yet- thankfully. He's not exactly the religious type either, not the sort of blindly just letting other people touch him unless it's going to cause an incident. He would really rather not end up experiencing the justice system of Ephes from within, not yet.

And not for something so petty as insulting the priesthood.

Unfortunately, from his vantage point it looks like someone is doing much more than insulting a priest. The fellow is big, very big, almost enough to make Jacob think twice about doing what he does- which is interfere.

"Hey, hey!" He calls out, weaving through the crowd on quick feet, getting to the giant of a... man, he supposes, before he kills the priest. Accidentally, or on purpose. "Big guy, put the old man down!"

Kahl swings around toward the voice, lowering his arm without releasing his hold. "Priest put thoughts in Kahl's head." He drags the struggling priest with him, almost like he's forgotten with a new target.

"Nobody do that again. Ever." This planet did it over and over, and it brought the bad thoughts back every time. Kahl was sick of it.

On the plus side, the priest isn't being held up by the neck anymore. On the negative, he's still being held by the neck.

Jacob puts his hands up, as if to say I'm not armed, see? although he really doesn't think that's fair, as he is armed. It's just not so obvious. Hopefully, it doesn't need to be.

"No, no one should be doing it. But if he dies, he can't tell the others to stop, right?"

It is the only line of logic Jacob can grasp at that moment, but maybe it'll be enough.

"They not stop Kahl."

He tosses the priest at the man, sending robes and limbs flailing through the air, turning to glare at onlookers.

"Nobody stop Kahl." He should just kill one of them. That will scare them off. That's the army way.

He takes half a step forward, then blinks, grimacing and trying to rub more of the ash off his face. He's not in the army anymore. He hates the army. "Kahl not go back," he takes a deep breath, fists clenching like he's trying to strangle the bad thoughts instead. "Not slave to anyone." Not the Queens, not Narmer, and not some stupid priest.

"Bloody hell!"

Jacob isn't expecting the priest to be tossed at him like a rag doll and while his reflexes are good, they aren't good enough to avoid the human projectial completely. He doesn't catch the man either, only manages to break his fall and stop him from going head first into the cobbles and potentially breaking his skull. The citizens of Ephes who witness this move forward, trying to help the priest up, and Jacob let's them.

His attbetion is on the giant man in fron of him, and in his mind's eye, this situation could get ugly very, very quickly.

"Keep ahold of that idea. You're not a slave. But if you don't want to cause a riot, I suggest we go."

Maybe it's stupid, to hurry forward and touch the big guy by the... arm? Artificial limb? Armour? Jacob doesn't know exactly but he tries to steer him away from the people and towards some narrower side-streets.

Kahl glares at the priest, but he's too conflicted to fight now. Still angry. But there's good anger, and there's bad anger, and whatever the priest did, it brought out the bad along with the good. Trying to fight one kind with the other doesn't work well.

Kahl could probably take them all. But...

He spits, getting some of the gritty feel of ash out of his mouth. "One priest not worth it." He lets himself be led away, not looking back, but privately watching people swarm the priest from his HUD. He hears them say stuff about visions and the Chained God, but none of it quite makes sense right now. Too many voices overlapping, and words get harder for Kahl when his mind isn't working right.

Kahl needs one thing to focus on, and sideburns guy is it for now. The face looks a bit familiar, but there's a lot of people in the group now. "Got taken here too? From other place?" He needs to make sure, before he can say anything else.

Jacob's keeping half an ear on them too, not for any specific conversation, but for a general mood of the crowd, making sure they're not about to turn nasty. As far as he knows, he's between a rock (the giant) and a hard place (a possible mob) but as long as neither actually starts trying to kill him, he can spare some attention for both.

"No, he's not." Jacob agrees, although he's not entirely sure killing a whole temple full of priests is a good idea either, unless they're trying to sacrifice people. As far as he's aware, that's not what is going on here, or at least, he hasn't heard of anyone sacrificing people either to this Chained God or to the undead camped outside the city in Messalina's care.

He is still not entirely sure if he's going to get punched by a hand about the size of his head, but he nods.

"Yeah, not long ago either. Still trying to work out how to get home, although that doesn't seem all that easy. And you are too, right?"

He doesn't say he recognises the big man from the time camping in the jungle- they didn't meet, it's just impossible to miss someone so enormous. But Jacob had been occupied by bandits and abandoned mines at the time, and hanging around in camp was not on his to-do list.

A. Generosity

"Here," Kahl doesn't look like the kind of person who owns too many shiny things. But he's got a surprising amount to share tonight. "From home. Grineer-made, no one else have." He's not kidding. The little treasures he's doling out have the curvy designs of grineer knotwork.

Where'd he get this stuff? When the locals ask, the only answer is "Dividend. From good investment."

B. General Mayhem

This is... normal for Kahl. Bad normal, but normal. He knows what to do when the blood and screaming starts.

"Get behind Kahl!" He blocks a blade with his forearm, taking a swing in return at an assassin that suddenly isn't there. Just a dark blot of something he has trouble tracking.

"How they get Grineer tech here?"

"What's 'Grineer'?" Benedict asked as he turned to be back to back with Kahl. Better to thwart off any attackers if they worked in tandem to keep them at bay from one another. And Benedict, too, was a veteran of war...and more.

He was pretty sure by this point in time that 'tech' was short for 'technology' at least so he didn't ask about that, too. His voice was curious if a bit strained from the tension and adrenaline from the sudden attack. This fight at 2am after a (relatively) peaceful party up until this moment was an unwelcome surprise.

"And why do you think they have it?" Because Benedict would have attributed the attackers abilities to magic or supernatural feats before technology really occurred to him. The disadvantage of being from the 1920s of an Earth where eldritch horrors and rituals to summon them abound.

"Like Kahl," he grunts, watching This planet was full of magic stuff, and he knew that. But. "Like Manics. Small, twitchy brothers. Kill lots." Having one deployed with you was already difficult to handle. But this?

At least that means Kahl has experience with things like this. Enough to know how bad this is. "Head for exit," he takes a swipe at one of them, blade only just barely catching on something before it fades away. "Kahl got your back."

"Like...manics?" Benedict mused aloud even as he ducked out of the way of an incoming attack. His words were low and preoccupied as he fought with his opponent. He would have liked to ask more. The name of Kahl's smaller brethren was worrisome though and Benedict filed the information away for later when he could ask more questions freely. If allowed.

"Sure," he replied after their opponents flitted away. Benedict wasn't sure where they disappeared to, but now was as good a moment as any other to make a move. "Just don't-" he hesitated to say, "-don't fall behind."

He began to move towards one of the exits, blade in hand and sharp eyes keeping watch for another attacker. He wouldn't move too far away from Kahl. As far as he was concerned they were in this together. If the other didn't move to keep up, Benedict wasn't going anywhere either.

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the chainings

Kahl-175 |⍓| Warframe |⍓| Civilian

Civilian (Porter): spying, special deliveries, and squinting at stuff

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Ash Rage

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Night of Knives

Mayhem--because clearly conversation in the middle of a fight is best way to get to know each other

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