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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A friend of ours and his missus are having a spat. Looks like it's going to get messy.

[He says, still smiling as he takes a swallow of beer, making sure they're both on the same page before Wen makes his offer. He considers it, briefly, and then reaches for the amphora.]

Lead the way. I suppose I'll trust you to keep your hands to yourself.

Edited 2023-09-21 14:38 (UTC)

I'm a man of honour, I don't know what you're talking about.

( The smirk certainly doesn't help prove his innocence, and yet it's right there as Wen Kexing gathers his belongings and leads the way towards the back of the building. They pass several bodies in differing states of dress, but he pays them no mind, taking Jacob through a doorway with a beaded curtain and further out back. His office is tucked away, a smallish room filled with crates of wares, a desk, chairs, a low oil lamp that he lights upon arrival. He waits until the other man has taken a seat, shutting the door behind him, before he moves across to the room, plucking up his drink as he does so. )

Mm. So the rumours are true, then?

Bollocks.

[He tries to be as helpful as he can be, but he is carrying beer, amphora and gathering up the wet cloak. No offense Wen, but he's had plenty of stuff nicked in pubs and brothels before now.

He follows him without any real gawping at any of the people they meet on the way, opting not to delay and give anyone an audience, relaxing a little once in the little office. And it really is little isn't it, modest even. It makes him like Wen even more.]

Seems to be. The neighbours around old Petronius’s place seem to think he's been going out a lot more than a devoted husband ought to be. So I thought I'd follow him, like you asked.

( He slides into the chair across from Jacob, all slithering grace, one hand bringing the cup to his lips while the other drops his fan down on the desk top with a thud. After another sip - the taste is growing on him - he speaks. )

And? Are there more than one?

( A single affair can be a mistake, repeated offences on the other hand -. )

Let's just say he's canvassing in a wide area, shall we?

[ Jacob says in reply, taking a seat on the other chair and leaning back, taking a drink and pleased that Wen is enjoying it.]

I followed him around for three days, two nights. He didn't go anywhere very suspicious during the day, but on that first night he went to another house in the neighbourhood where all the rich bastards live. On the second night he went to one closer to all the warehouses.

[ Another swallow of beer. ]

At first I thought the warehouses would be where side-piece was living, and fancy house was where his wife had gone to stay, you know, with a friend or a sister or something. But that was not what I found. Do you want to hazard a guess at what I found, Wen?

Edited 2023-09-21 16:35 (UTC)

( He won't begrudge Jacob the moment to tell a good tale, and so he simply listens, drinking, face an impassive mask. )

I wouldn't dare, go on, tell me what you've found.

[ Jacob appreciates it, basking momentarily before he tells his tale. He looks like the cat who got the cream.]

Side-piece lives in the fancy mansion. Villa? Yeah, villa. The husband is also in the senate, but he's off in a province on official business, so I don't think he has any clue.

That's useful. Obviously political harmony would be hard to achieve if you knew your dear brother-in-arms was fucking your wife.

( The act of apologetic, sorrowful husband wouldn't stand up either, were he to be found in another bed. Wen Kexing drinks again, thoughtful, long fingers tapping against the wood of the desk. )

What about the warehouse? Or was that official business?

Edited 2023-09-21 16:50 (UTC)

But it's a great way to stick up two fingers at a political opponent don't you think?

[ But Jacob has to admit, its probably not a great career move.]

Ah, that's... a bit of an unknown. Doubt it was official, in the middle of the night. But he met up with a couple of men and talked for twenty minutes, then left. Couldn't hear much apart from a discussion about a fee. Trying to find out what that's all about might take a day or two more.

Useful, either way. You've done well.

( It means blackmail's an option. He eyes Jacob up from where he's sat, brows knitted thoughtfully. )

What do you think of the place, Master Frye? Politically, I mean?

[ As tempting as it is to scoff because of course he did well, he's been doing this since he was six years old, he doesn't. Praise still hits him awkwardly.

So he drains the beer to cover it, and pours another.]

I don't trust any of them as far as I could spit. There's something wrong with this place.

No, I don't think you should. We're pieces in a game only. Finding out which side we should follow is even harder.

( He leans over, holds his cup out to Jacob with the most pleasant of smiles, like they're discussing the weather and that alone. )

Have you heard of the shapeshifter?

I don't plan being here long enough to be following anyone that isn't in the same boat as the rest of us.

[ He pours Wen another drink, as that's what he seems to want. That smile should be banned for making promises it won't keep. ]

Shapeshifter? Are you talking about ghosts again?

No. A creature who has been feasting on the hearts of women. It is part of Messalina's camp of undead.

( And the reason Wen Kexing lingers much nearer the whorehouses than he should. Not because he is afraid, but because the women need protection. )

Have you thought much of her?

I think... I think I have come across a victim.

[He pauses, thinking about the gruesome mangled body in the alleyway, torn to shreds. He didn't know it was a monster then, per se. A monster in any form other than a human, who are bloody cruel without any additional help.]

Try not to. An... associate told me a little bit about these undead lieges, whether she is one or not I don't know. But the dead should stay dead, in my books. Their influence fucks up the living enough as it is.

That's an opinion not all of our companions share.

( Wen Kexing is ... not quite ambivalent. He has people under his care here, and the monster has a preference. But he is also the very same kind of master that would unleash crueller things on to unsuspecting victims. It is hard to have his own savagery thrown into his face, with very little ways of changing it.

He does not exactly know which way he should turn. )

Some believe Messalina a kinder alternative, and would willingly offer up enough that her creature was sated. You and I have not been here long enough to understand the intricacies of this place, but -. Well, I would rather choose no jailor at all, much less a vicious one. So far her ilk seem worse. Would you agree?

I didn't think it would be. We're all from different places, we're all going to have different experiences.

[ And even people from the same worlds are probably disagreeing. ]

I don't think either option are good. But I don't think we should be the ones making the choice. We don't have to deal with the repercussions to this city. We can fuck it up and move on. There's people here that can't.

Not that we can sit back and do nothing either. I guess... we find the facts first. That's normally the place to start.

Unfortunately it would seem we're the ones in prime position to do something about it.

( Truthfully, Jacob's right. If Wen Kexing had his way he'd just sail through life here long enough that he could leave. But problems persist, and he finds he does not want to leave the people in his charge so undefended. )

It is. Though I'm sure some have gone through great lengths to obscure the truth. So you have no allegiance then?

[ Jacob looks up, meeting Wen's questioning gaze and holding it.

There's a lot to that question, a lot of heavy assumption. The truth is that he very much has an allegiance, he was born and brought up knowing nothing but all-consuming dedication to the Creed.

But he and Connor are the only ones that represent that here.

So the truth is, he supposes, quite simple. ]

I have an allegiance, and I'm sworn to it. But here and now? It means keeping the ordinary people of this city safe from the cruel and greedy bastards that rule them.

( That's ... interesting. He wonders what a man like Jacob may pledge himself too, when usually he's giving off the air of the woefully unbothered. Wen Kexing makes a note to try and pry the answers from him later, but for now there is business to attend to.

He takes a sip of his drink, carefully thoughtful. )

There are ways we could do that.

( With the air of a man who has been scheming. )

I would need your help, however.

[The seriousness of the conversation melts away and Jacob smiles, glad to be back on the subject of something he enjoys. He sips his drink again, looking at Wen as the corner of his mouth tugs upward.]

Somehow Wen, I knew you'd say that.

[He lifts a hand, gesturing for the other man to take the floor and share his idea.]

Well, what is it you'd like me to do?

I want you to send a message.

( A hum, another sip. )

Our mutual friend has been taking some care to hide away his indiscretions. He's been playing woeful husband all this time, and yet he's still not repentant. I think were he to be aware of what we know, he might be persuaded to do as we ask. He has yet to cast a vote, you see.

( Easy, as if he's not discussing blackmail. )

I'm sure he'll see reason, don't you?

[ Jacob grins, extremely pleased with this task. Although perhaps he's got the wrong end of the stick... ]

I'm sure I can deliever a very clear message about the correct option to vote for, when it comes to it. I'm sure he just needs a little bit of guidance to make the right decision.

[And the bruises won't even show!]

I'll give you a letter. You can wait for his response. If he doesn't see reason then by all means, use whatever force you deem necessary.

( He wonders if Jacob will read it before it's delivered, if he cares which way Wen Kexing is trying to turn the tide. It will be interesting to watch play out, either way. )

[ A letter is a lot less fun than threatening someone with physical violence, but Wen Kexing is the one paying for all this, so he calls the shots. That is if it is in fact a paying job. ]

Alright, alright. Who are you asking him to vote for?

[Jacob isn't going to beat around the bush about this Wen, he's not going to open the letter and read it if he trusts you'll be honest and upfront with him. That's half of his problem, he'll believe people far too easily. But why shouldn't he believe Wen? There's not been any reason not to so far.]

the chainings

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