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

– i. arrival | warning for spoilers everywhere~

[serio]

( the swaying of the cage doesn't bother him at all as he's used to sleeping on a hammock on the going merry. in fact, it's lulled him into a deeper slumber. what messes up his ability to catch up on more sleep though is the constant poking at his shoulder. zoro lets out a muttered curse, swatting his hand at this perpetrator who dares disturb his sleep. it's criminal. punishable... he grabs the hilt of his sword, sitting up all of a sudden before dry heaving with his face pressed against the wooden cage, a wave of nausea sweeping over him. it takes him a whole minute before he manages to open his eyes and get his bearings, slumping down next to the girl with tangerine hair. )

Don't tell me... Buggy. ( because he will murder that fucking clown. they'd only just dealt with arlong and his crew. hell, this collection of fish skin on his chest has barely dried... zoro gets that this is his life now, but really, can't a guy get a day to rest? looking over at nami, he gives her a quick once-over, wanting to make sure she's not hurt. could've just asked if she's okay, but no. just no. )

blanket warning for spoilers throughout the thread tbh

[cartographie]

[ Watching Zoro react makes Nami wince. She feels as shitty as he looks, and as of right now, she's got no solutions for any of this - just a lot of questions and dread. At least they have their things, even if they're not in any condition to try and fight their way out of the situation. It's not like she'd have any idea where to go if they could. She groans when Zoro finally pulls himself together enough to settle, shifting so that they are shoulder to shoulder, doing what she can to make sure that one, or both of them, can see the rest of the wagon around them. ]

Not Buggy or Marines. [ Nami tilts her head towards a few conscious farmers huddled against the sides of the cage wagon and the stained sacks of grain at their feet. Crossing her arms over her chest with a frown, her gaze returns to Zoro, and when she speaks again, she lowers her voice considerably, not wanting to talk about these strangers so they can hear her. ] These people don't look like pirates, they're farmers or something, but I can't think of what island this is or how we got here. [ Or where the rest of the crew is. She doesn't want to say it and make herself feel worse. Clearly, he's assumed she hasn't got a clue, or she would have told him otherwise. ]

[serio]

( he's taking in his surroundings as well at this point, realizing that the rest of the straw hats are nowhere to be seen. how'd they even get to land so quickly? zoro's pretty sure they weren't anywhere near any islands. then again, what would he know? he's not the navigator. just as he's thinking that though, nami mentions not knowing how they got here or what island they're on... )

How's it possible you don't know? ( seems like a fair question. considering this orange-haired girl's biggest dream is to draw a map of the world, her saying she has no idea what island they're on seems almost as ridiculous as him proclaiming out loud he wants to be the world's greatest swordsman, but wait, no, he can't, for the life of him, figure out how to swing a sword around. ) Was this island hidden or something? Thought reading maps is your thing. ( how'd she miss this? something doesn't add up. )

[cartographie]

I don't know how it's possible. [ Nami answers, tension tight in her voice despite how quietly she speaks. She aches all over but that doesn't stop her from pulling her rucksack into her lap and getting the notebook that's always with her out, keeping it close to her chest like she's afraid someone will snatch it out of her hands if she isn't careful about it.

Wincing in the sunlight that bears down on them she traces her finger over the map on the marked page depicting the open sea just before Loguetown and shakes her head again. ] What's the last thing you remember?

[serio]

( he gives nami the space and the time to look through her map, but at her question, it's his turn to need a minute to recall what he last remembers. the sun, the sea, the breeze, the straw hats standing around in a circle, and her bright orange hair. ) You saying you were gonna draw a map of the world. ( and then nothing else. which is weird. it's like he'd blacked out or something right after. which makes sense since he'd woken up feeling like his head is about to split open. the last time he'd felt this way was when he'd woken up in that well in syrup village.

getting up on his knees, zoro presses his hand flat against the solid wood of the cage and tries to push against it with all of his strength. it's just wood. he can get them out of here. hell, he'll punch through the damn thing if he has to. )

[cartographie]

[ Nami leafs through her notebook, the frown on her face growing graver by the second. ] That's about all I remember too. [ She says, turning another page and not bothering to look up at him. ] You're going to be the greatest swordsman in the world. [ At least, once they figure out where in the world they are. ]

Sit down. We don't know where we are. What are we gonna do? Bust out and go...somewhere? [ Nami sighs and ruffles the pages of her notebook, feeling more and more unsettled by how what she's looking over makes no sense, given their current predicament. There shouldn't be any islands between them and the Polstar Islands - and yet here they are, rolling around in a cage. ] We need a plan.

[serio]

Yeah, you come up with a plan. ( his irritation is growing as he's finding it difficult to break the wooden panel off. this should be easy for someone like him, so why the hell is he struggling? ) Because I am gonna bust us out. ( he grips the edge of the wood, ignoring the way the small wooden shards are digging into his nails and his skin. ) Not gonna let myself be taken in as some kind of prisoner. I know that's your thing. ( the moment the words escape his mouth though, he immediately realizes his error, and he stops trying to break out and does sit back down to just lean against the wooden crate, staring out of the tiny gap, sort of regretting having said that, but also stubbornly refusing to do anything about it, hoping the awkward moment will just past.

when he sees movement out of the corner of his eye though, zoro slides his sword out just a bit, moving the hilt and the position of his arm in front of nami, halting this old man's attempt to pass them a drink of water from his canteen. lowering his hand, he glances over at nami, indicating she should take a drink from it if she wants. the old guy doesn't stop there as he gets zoro to pick up one of the pendants in the corner. if only to shut him up, zoro does as he's told, tossing one to nami as well.

he might have had a hard time understanding the conversations going on around him at first, but the rusted item's somehow given him the ability to converse with the man who tells them the gist of what's going on: something about them being taken to a safer location after an earthquake hit the area they were in, and well, that's that. it's not much, but it's something. back to him staying quiet once they're left alone again, and zoro busies himself with trying to pick at the splinters that are stuck in the palm of his hand. )

[cartographie]

[ Nami blinks, shocked by the insult, and left sorely tempted to raise her foot and kick him while he fights pointlessly with the wooden door. By the time Zoro relents to the cage door, Nami has been seething long enough that he's met with a hissed out– ] Weren't you tied up in the yard when Luffy found you? [ Before she goes quiet, squinting in the bright sunlight as she glares ahead.

With her head aching like it is, it's easy not to say or do anything else until Zoro moves his sword between her and the man with the canteen. She scowls at him but reaches for it, taking a drink before offering it to Zoro, and finally passing it back to the owner with a muttered thanks. After turning the strange pendant around in her hands a few times Nami puts it on and sits back, her arms moving to cross over her chest before she catches sight of what Zoro's doing in her periphery.

She hasn't forgiven him for saying that before, which explains why she doesn't bother to explain herself when she takes hold of his wrist and pulls his hand into her lap, resting it palm up on her knee so she can set about doing a better job getting those splinters out, using her nails to do it. ] Stay still asshole.