blood & sand

[groundrules]

Hi folks! Welcome to Eastbound’s last test drive meme and the second event of the Ephes Arc, stretching until 25 October. Applications next open over 20-25 October, with invitations required for new players (but not returning ones). Individual cast and game caps are off.

Test driving characters can use this space for both network and log prompts, as well as play both the newcomer and shared prompts. Enjoy!

BLOOD & SAND

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NEWCOMERS-ONLY PROMPTS

You wake to the creaky swaying of a large wooden cage, in the back of a cart. Balmy sun pinches your cracked, dried skin. Haziness and nausea assail you, your legs weak. Your supernatural powers are muted, due to recover within 48 hours. Several other carts trot by. You share your cage with a dozen others — largely farmers — and sacks of freshly harvested wheat, their bottoms stained dark.

The farmers point you towards a heap of rusted pendants that allow you to speak and glean local tongues, and access a network. They say you were recovered following an earthquake at a Hive — one of the agricultural clusters feeding the extravagant Senate-led city of Ephes. The Ephes army, the elite Hand, was patrolling nearby and is taking you to the citadel for healing.

■ Gather your bearings and distribute the scant water that Hand soldiers dole out — the earthquake, you hear, has dried the Hive wells.

■ You quickly learn why the Hand encaged all of you, as one of the Hive farmers starts to jerk, growl and shake, weeping black water as he strikes at anyone around him. Fend for yourself, before the Hand soldiers come to remove him!

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You arrive at the main gate of Ephes, where crowds vie for passage. Your carts are inspected, and an irritable woman enters each cage, checking each passenger — before taking you and a handful of others for ‘further customs investigations.’

In the back of an alley, she introduces herself as the sorceress Karsa — and says you are otherworlders brought into the realm of Akhuras by undead lieges of the Brotherhood, who seek to weaponise you in their wars. Her patron, the Merchant, leads otherworlders to ancient transport beacons that can deliver you home.

One beacon sleeps in Ephes, where the rest of Karsa’s party is scattered. The citadel has mysteriously accrued an elite, nearly supernaturally strong army that the undead lady Messalina seeks to borrow from the Senate, in her quest to free her undead companions from the Brotherhood. The Senate is yet to vote on her request.

The black water that has touched you, Karsa says, has previously been found where the undead rally. For now, Karsa gives you a little coin, passport papers identifying you under various civilian roles (player’s choice, but keep it Ancient Rome-themed) and an iron pin of an eye with a sun for a pupil to identify other party members.

SHARED PROMPTS

Decadent Ephes is overrun by rumours, after several Senators who intended to support undead lady Messalina were mysteriously assassinated at the banquet of prominent Senator Maximus Faustus — who, Karsa informs, is one of Messalina’s shapeshifting creatures. Messalina offers her protegees demonic hound escorts.

Hand army recruits protect official buildings, while the rich hire gladiators to watch their homes. Both move freely.

The Senate fears further retaliation against those who champion the dead. Senate leader Caius Justus distantly mourns the Senatorial murders from seclusion at the temple of the Chained God.

Civilians face increased tensions and whispers of curfews in the market. Crowds frequently quarrel over undead allegiances

Following an exercise in divination, priests of the city’s patron, the Chained God, spread word that the deity holds strong despite his Chaining, and he still wishes to destroy and rebirth the world.

Karsa informs the existing party that more otherworlders joined Ephes and wear iron pins depicting an eye with a sun for a pupil. She gives the party similar pins for identification purposes. Newcomers and old timers can recognise each other by their pins or engage over the network!

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THE PROSCRIPTIONS
OBJECTIVE: procure proscription lists.

You hear from the city crowds that partial target lists are circulating with the names of politicians targeted for bounties. Karsa tasks the team to recover the lists, which can be used as political currency. Find them by either:

■ Infiltrating a tavern run by the ruthless city gang of Livius Decimus and packed with unscrupulous bounty hunters, thugs and professional assassins.
A local ‘delicacy’ drink of wine and pickle juice is often inflicted on strangers. Brawls erupt randomly. Coax shady patrons to share target lists.

■ Visit the empty marketplaces just before dawns and raid the chained wooden submission boxes of news shouters, who receive anonymous tip-offs about fresh bounty lists. The boxes are pinned to the ground and tightly locked, but rusty from the cold seasons — allowing you to break them or pick their locks, while someone keeps watch. Tampering with a news shouter’s box is a jailable offence.

■ Turn in a finished thread to receive a clue!

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AT SEA
OBJECTIVE: investigate abandoned ships and rescue sailors.

One early morning (OOCly: Oct. 13), as you entertain sailors for gossip on the docks or fish breakfast, you witness the port authorities screaming for help as several small merchant ships appear abandoned at nearby sea for reasons unknown.

Lookouts spot no activity on board, while sailors organise rescues.

■ Row a small boat some 15-20 minutes to one of the merchant vessels. All merchant ships have roughly three hours afloat, as they slowly sink from numerous small erosion holes in their sides.

■ You find no crew on deck, and doorways to the cabins below are locked from within. Below deck, you find numerous sacks of wheat from the Ephes agricultural clusters, the Hives. A black liquid, thick and tar-like, is seeping out of the sacks — corroding the ship’s wood and creating leaking holes.

■ You find a handful of dazed sailors who claim a dark, slithering creature knocked them out. They were selected by Narula, leader of the elite Ephes army of the Hand, to transfer grain onto the vessels of the ‘merchant’ Matthias, much farther at sea. If you mention Matthias to Karsa later, she reveals he is a man (?) who potentially created the undead Brotherhood.

■ Seven sailors who did not know each other were chosen to man the ship. Eight men are in the room, meaning one ‘man’ is the assailing creature. You must decide who to release upstairs for evacuation.

■ Tips: the creature, disguised as a human sailor, has no pain receptors and isn’t afraid of typical dangers (fire, drowning). It does not bleed if hurt. It sometimes forgets to blink and increasingly, unwillingly, slowly morphs its features into yours, the longer it speaks with you. Lastly, the creature has a tattoo on its forearm identifying it as a soldier of the Hand.

■ Once found, the creature turns violent, dissolving into wisps of shadow and materialising once more to strike from behind you. The shadow creature cannot be outright killed — but you can lock it inside the ship.

■ Leave by small boat before the vessel sinks & claim a question if you saved sailors. Merchant vessels can be patched up, if successfully returned to port.

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THE RATTLING
OBJECTIVE: survive & explore the arena.

To stoke her popularity in Ephes, undead mistress Messalina organises a sumptuous gladiator game at the Colosseum (OOCly around Oct. 20), inviting plebes, patricians, politicians, soldiers — and you.

Gladiators may be hired (or coerced) to perform, while servants supply copious amounts of wines, oysters and honey pastries. A tiny mechanical golden mouse, passing by each seat, drops folded pieces of parchment with fortunes and riddles, ranging from teasing to morbid to philosophical or sweet. Pick up yours and make sense of it with your neighbour!

Politicians often interrupt the games to announce donations or make elaborate speeches. Toss peanuts to signal your discontent — or join in with your own speech.

■ The games start with matches between humans, but are building up to face-offs with reptilian demons, mounted rhinoceros and flying gargolyes whose voices thrall you frozen put.

■ During the games, you feel slight vibrations, and — if supernaturally sensitive — an undefined magical tension. By 15:00, this ramps up into earth tremors that worsen over 12 minutes — as columns and seats topple over, and the ground breaks in deep rifts, releasing black, chilled, tar-like water.

■ Crazed mobs rush for the exit, stampeding carelessly, while columns and decorations tumble down.

■ Dozens of the monsters brought to gladiate free themselves and hunt down spectators. Soldiers of the army of the Hand — disturbingly fast, strong and disciplined — intervene but it’s best you look after yourselves. Some spectators shout these Hand recruits practise some of the techniques performed by a recently missing gladiator — the Beast of Brenne.

■ Passing by the earthquake rifts, you see wisps of the tar-like liquid that gushes from them is gradually assuming the shadowy shape of humans. Stalking after you, they do not speak or bring you harm, but slowly steal your likeness and drain you of vigour and stamina. You get the sense that all they want is a shape. Encountering shadow creatures leaves you with a sense of bitter loneliness that only living company can soothe.

■ If you study the arena, you see the same black liquid is gathering around freshly downed corpses, slowly reanimating them. These newly-crafted undead struggle to walk and speak naturally and remember their lives, often unaware they died. Anguished, they beg help to escape, before inevitably succumbing to the instinct to harm you. Remind or convince them they are dead, and they withdraw.

■ The largest earthquake rift in the arena is overrun by the black liquid and by nearby undead. Within it, you notice a bloodless hand that seems to never sink — Enter a RNG draw to collect it and its clue.

■ As you gather your wits outside, you see followers of the Chained God rallying in the streets, comforting the traumatised crowd that all will be well now — for the Chained God’s destruction will be mercifully swift.

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THE QUIET HOUSE
OBJECTIVE: Explore the abandoned gladiator barracks.

NOTE: a Halloween special, this area is entirely opt-in and features several frights. Mind the warnings!

As chaos consumes the Colosseum, you notice the earthquake has destroyed a previously locked arena gate, revealing a decayed tunnel. The corridor leads inside a closed-off barrack whose doors and windows have been barred from the outside with wood planks and chains. Touch these restraints, and your unhurt hand leaves behind a fading blood print.

The barracks building is withered and clearly abandoned, with scarce furniture and a few weapons in a training room.

Several discarded torches stay alight on wall fixtures. Pre-prepared braziers have been filled with spirit-fending incense of sandalwood and sage. Explore for clues.

■ THE HALLWAYS ( cw: guilt haunting ): corridors flow into each other, often leading back where you started. You run into shifting wall engravings, some listing the name and ranks of Hand soldiers, or precepts such as GODS OF THE ARENA and BECOME AS STRONG / AS FAST, AS NIMBLE / AS GLADIATORS. A large portrait of Hand leader Narula is increasingly more scratched, every time you encounter it, while the painted man looks healthier, younger and stronger. Inevitably, you hear heavy steps — a deep-shadowed spectre, the Drillmaster, who starts to stalk you with slow persistence. Visible to you and your companions, the Drillmaster fluctuates between assuming the appearance of Narula and the distorted, monstrous figure of someone from your past, who heavily criticised or intimidated you. The corridor lighting changes depending on your proximity to the Drillmaster: green for safe passage, white to tread lightly, red to stop. You can make the Drillmaster disappear out of your way by facing or acknowledging whatever weakness (true or self-perceived) you have that has caused extensive criticism or self-doubt.

■ THE BATHS ( cw: doppelgangers): a long marble hall featuring a large swimming pool, now drained and filled with mould and debris. Steam overwhelms the room, except for a wall-length black mirror at the end of the hall. The more you look into the mirror, the more the black substance that covers it slips down, flooding the floors and also dripping from walls and the ceiling. As the mirror clears, you see your black-eyed reflection that suddenly screams out verbal abuse or plunges at you. Once you subdue the doppelganger (claim a clue), it dissolves into more black water, while the mirror shows scratched inscriptions of A RIGHTEOUS HAND SHAPES EACH OF ITS FINGERS.

■ THE DORMITORIES ( cw: membranous cocoons): hollow, empty, quiet, the dormitories sport strange membranous cocoons in the walls, from which shadowy hands reach out. You hear young wo/men, whimpering and murmuring that they aren’t afraid and want to change to make Brother Narula proud, before erupting into screams or laughter. Break the cocoons without getting trapped into their webs — only to find nothing inside, except stone dog tags, engraved with the names of Hand soldiers. On the floor, you find primitive tattoo needles and ink.

Luck strikes at sunset, when a previously barred door opens to release you from the house — back into Ephes.

NOTES:

■ QUESTIONS

■ NPC inbox (for test drivers)

■ Event title shamelessly pilfered from a gory gladiator show!

Comments

[wifedup]

He blinks at him when Zhou Zishu rubs at his cheek, momentarily stilled. Eventually his laugh comes along with the flush, turning away. "You know me, Ah-Xu. I like to get myself involved."

The streets beyond the arena are empty, and he wonders who made it so. Maybe word got out quickly enough the damage is minimal. He feels a little guilty not lingering to check, not trying to figure out if any of his cohort are caught up in it, but - well. Zhou Zishu is here. And so Wen Kexing will do what he must to keep him safe.

"There'll be wine."

His residence isn't far. It needed to be near the taverns after all, and so Wen Kexing leads him into a building, taking the stairs quietly as he slips a key from his sleeve. He lets Zhou Zishu in first, forgetting to fret about the state of the rooms. They're not ... dirty, but it is a little like a whirlwind by the name of Kexing has torn through it, robes frown over a chair, missives lain in piles, a number of empty bottles that he sidesteps without glancing at in favour of finding one that's full.

"It's not like back home, but it does the job."

Is he nervous? Why is he nervous?

[lonelydream]

"Why are you nervous?" Zhou Zishu is both concerned and amused. "It's just me." Who is much less neat than Wen Kexing is, and usually leaves things piled up until Wen Kexing snaps at him to clean up. The only things Zishu keeps meticulously organized and well-maintained are usually his cosmetics and poisons.

The room is unusually messy for Wen Kexing, though, and Zhou Zishu trails his fingertips over the clear signs of life. Of Lao Wen having lived there. "You've been here much longer than you should have been," he notes. He'd seen Lao Wen just a few hours before he'd fallen unconscious and woken here, the younger man terrorizing anyone within reach to make sure Gu Xiang's wedding will go perfectly. Zishu had fled to his room with a stolen flask of wine; Kexing would have found him once he was done hovering to complain, anyway.

[wifedup]

"Over two months now."

Which might explain some of his nerves, he thinks. He hands Zhou Zishu the wine, lingering a little closer than he might usually. He feels oddly starved for it, for the feeling of the other man's presence - putting distance between them doesn't bear thinking about.

"There's something about the magic of this place that makes it possible. Master Lan did not notice his brother's absense once, and he'd been here years. Time doesn't turn for the person left behind, or that's what I'd been told. I didn't believe it, but you - well, you don't seem all that angry so it must not have."

Though, sly, "Unless you were grateful for the peace?"

[lonelydream]

"I saw you less than two shichen ago." He shakes his head, taking the wine and tipping it back, not bothering to wipe the mouth of the bottle from where Wen Kexing must have drank as well. "Or at least before I was brought here."

Zishu finds a space to sit on the ground, propping his arm up on one knee as he tilts his head beside himself in clear invitation for Wen Kexing to join him. "I don't know Master Lan."

[wifedup]

"He's a friend?"

Framed like a question because Wen Kexing is still not used to it at all, "The elder. Not the junior. Second Master Lan is the worst stick in the mud I have ever met but we keep ending up in the same place and it's a little funny, winding him up. Xichen is nice though, you'll like him. Though if he tells you tales you're not to listen to them."

He hesistates, for a moment, before he's taking the space beside Zhou Zishu and reaching for the wine, allowing himself a deep drink without breaking eye contact.

"Ah-Xu."

The corner of his mouth lifting, showing crooked teeth. He reaches out to touch again, as if to prove his presence.

"I thought I'd gone mad."

[lonelydream]

It's an odd feeling, for Zishu to find how much he doesn't particularly like that Wen Kexing has friends he doesn't know. This must be how Kexing felt when he met Beiyuan. On the other hand... On the other hand, he's glad that there's been someone here for his Lao Wen. Two months. Two months. Two months with Zishu or Gu Xiang, it's good there's been someone to help Wen Kexing remember who he is.

He makes small noises of acknowledgement as Wen Kexing talks, and he makes a mental note to meet both of these young Master Lans as soon as possible. "Mmm?" He hands the wine over when Wen Kexing calls for him, and holds still to let Kexing touch what he wants. "If you've gone mad, I'm gone mad with you."

[wifedup]

It's greed that has his fingers curling around Zhou Zishu's arm, squeezing just slightly. He pretends it's so he can examine the blue robes ( he hasn't seen them before, doesn't recognise them, doesn't like that he doesn't ) but in reality it's just to touch. Some of the panic he's been carrying around for months recedes a little, at having his zhiji close.

"You're being very agreeable."

It's sweet, it's heady, he thinks of how many times people have implied that Zhou Zishu is something more to Wen Kexing and has to fight the urge to lean in, to really cling.

"Did my fainting worry you? I'll try not to do it again."

[lonelydream]

"Among other things," he mutters. Fainting, yes, but also the whole falsifying his death thing. Zishu tilts his head, eying Wen Kexing speculatively. "Meanwhile, you're being surprisingly blase about everything."

[wifedup]

"Am I?"

He thinks he's a wreck, actually, with how desperately he wants to hold on to Zhou Zishu and never let go. He must be a better actor than he thinks.

"Maybe I think this is all a dream and tomorrow I'll wake up and you won't be here." The thought makes him pull a face, displeased, snagging the wine back to take a greedy swallow. "I might go mad then, if that's the case. I've already been visited by enough ghosts here, imagine if you were one of them."

[lonelydream]

This ridiculous, overdramatic man.

He debates pointing out how he's not the ghost in this room, but Wen Kexing looks a little too fragile for that sort of teasing. Brittle, as if too much pressure might cause him to fracture down the middle. Zishu's well-acquainted with that sort of look.

"I'm right here," he says instead, and leans over to grab at the flask. "Stop drinking the wine you brought out for me."

[wifedup]

"There's more."

But he lets go of it easily, obedient, the touch of his hand lingering against Zhou Zishu's for a brief second before it slides away.

"The perks of the job, ah - I have a job?"

He laughs a little, pulling a knee up to his chest so he can rest his temple against it, eyeing Zhou Zishu sidelong. "You're probably not going to like it, I'm a senator's little lackey, easing the way of wine, women, and opium across the Ephesian capital." A heavy, dramatic sigh, "But I can't live a life of idle wandering like I used to, my grumpy benefactor took too long to get here."

He flutters his eyelashes a little, a little less sharp than his usual dogged flirtations, softer because of his mood.

[lonelydream]

Zhou Zishu lowers the flask, eying Wen Kexing with surprise. "You have a job?" he echoes, his eyebrows climbing with every subsequent word. "You're someone's lackey?" He has no doubt his Lao Wen is far more than that; Wen Kexing wouldn't allow himself to remain in any sort of menial position of grunt work.

Drinking is an easier way of dealing with this than anything else, even if he can't taste it, can't quite feel the burn of it sliding down his throat.

[wifedup]

"Well, close enough."

He's sure he'll have to tell Zhou Zishu about the brothel management at some point, the ladies tend to be in his business and word will get around that he has someone here. But he thinks it can be a conversation for later, when they've both shaken off the dregs of today's misfortune.

For now he affects an offended sniff, arching one eyebrow.

"Thankfully I'm not going to take that too personally, so I'll allow you to share in my ill-gotten gains. You'll stay with me, won't you?"

[lonelydream]

"Where else would I go?" he asks rhetorically. "I'm not going anywhere, Lao Wen."

Not on purpose, anyway. The holes in his chest, he'll...deal with another day. Some other time. Wen Kexing doesn't know about them, and Zishu would prefer to keep it that way.