westwhere | the channeling

the channeling

THE CHANNELING

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WEALTH WHISPERS

Assignment: the Merchant fears that Matthias, alleged father of the undead Brotherhood, might be the ‘merchant’ who was due to receive dark water-infused grains by sea from the Hand. Chasing information, the Merchant routes party members towards the docks-side underworld district of Tibras, in the outskirts of Ephes. The Hand keeps grain warehouses nearby.

In Tibras, short and decayed houses are like parasitic growths toppling each other, plaster peels falling into rivulets of bloodshed. Tension thrives. Petrified, natives overwhelmingly number beggars, pleasure workers, crude bounty hunters and thieves, who look to cut throats or purse strings. Occasional bodies drift by the docks.

■ Just outside of Tibras is the abode of the merchants’ syndicate — a ring of warehouses, private clubs and houses of currency. Merchants here are protected via steep fees and travel freely. Inside the syndicate house, doorways are barred by inextinguishable living fire — which you can cross unharmed, if you rearrange the runes marked N, W, S, E on a nearby wall in a cardinal-point formation. You can also pretend to be a servant, a merchant or quality inspector to get to the Hand warehouses. Ask a clue.

Alternatively, the Merchant forewarns that a notable guest will join the syndicate for three nights: Captain Maximilian Hawk of the Dawn’s Reach Trade Company, which deals in magical artefacts. Hold him at knifepoint, seduce him, do your worst for knowledge!

■ By the entrance to Tibras is the shop of Apollonius, noted collector of supernatural artefacts and information broker. Crafty and sly, he will cooperate, in exchange for a pair of ‘eyes’ from the ghost Tykhe, who haunts the nearby anonymous burial grounds. Come midnight, Tykhe’s spirit — whose sight was gouged — appears and picks out and bewitches a pair of marbles, buttons or stones to act as her ‘eyes.’ With them in hand, she searches the graveyard for her dead sister, Cassandra. You can steal the orbs, or she’ll give them freely, if you escort her from tomb to tomb to reunite with the mute ghost of Cassandra. Return to Apollonius.

■ Deeper within Tibras is a gambling nest of sailors who were cursed by a scorned sea witch to assume the appearance of sea creatures. Led by the giant octopus Crassus, they charge protection fees from commercial merchant ships and even intimidate pirates, gleaning information from sailors and recovering drowned bodies. This illustrious group adores games of chance — as long as you can cover your losses.

You can decide or RNG how many tries it takes for your character to win — submit a finished thread to get a question! The higher the stakes, the better the information.

— a scantly informed junior goldfish throws dice. Lose, and you must share a highly embarrassing secret.

— a moderately informed catfish, offering Baccarat. Lose, and he steals your good luck for 24 hours.

— a composed, well-informed whale plays roulette. Lose, and you must share one of your most precious memories.

— a highly-knowledgeable shark, Aurelius Longus, plays a mean hand of poker. Lose, and he asks blood or a pledge to save his life one day.

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THE FLOORS

Senate leader Caius Justus exits his seclusion, ending weeks of prayer to convey the message of Ephes’ divine patron, the Chained God of chaos. And he says in a public speech:

Friends, Ephesians, countrymen…

”Friends, Ephesians, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to speak for the Chained Father, not to praise him. The victory men reap lives after them; but cowardice is often buried with their bones. So let it be with Ephes. The noble Senate tells you, the Chained Father wishes only Ephes’ destruction. If it were so, it is a grievous fault, and grievously has the Father answered for it. Here, under leave of Messalina and the Senate – for Messalina is an honourable speaker; so they are all, all honourable speakers – come I to speak of the Chained Father’s wishes. He was my maker, faithful and just to us: but Messalina says, turn away from him. And Messalina is an honourable speaker. He has brought many territories under the heel of Ephes. In his name did the Hand rise: did this in the Chained Father seem unworthy? When now you weep asking empire, the Chained Father answers: tells you to be made of sterner stuff. Yet Messalina says the Father is unworthy. And Messalina is an honourable speaker. You all did see that I withdrew to his temple, where he spoke to me: Ephes, seize your path alone — was that unworthy? Yet Messalina says to turn away from him. And sure, Messalina is an honourable speak. I speak not to disprove what Messalina spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know: you are all children of Chaos, not without cause. What cause withholds you, then, to use the Hand yourselves? O, ambition! You have fled to brutish citadels. And men have lost their courage. Bear with me: my heart is in the temple, there with the Chained God, and I must pause and beg the Senate to vote against Messalina, til it comes back to me. ”

Returning to public life, Caius Justus advises the Senate to refuse Messalina’s proposal, but defers to a vote. Citing recent civil unrest, he imposes citadel-wide 10 p.m. curfews, bans congregations of more than eight people in the streets and sends the Hand to confiscate any visible weapons and to quiet or pre-empt unrest. Hand members — forced to present in large numbers — appear erratic, prone to violent outbursts and to taking out their anger on civilians. Hand leader Narula is excessively smug.

Newscasters are careful with their words, speeches decrying Messalina abound, and senators are‘escorted’ by Hand delegations, also for their protection. Caius Justus announces he will run again for Senate leadership — to begrudged murmurs among Senators, given his previous pledge to retire.

Assignment: lure Senators toward the position that the party supports. After Caius Justus’ return:

■ 51 Senators back Caius Justus to refuse Messalina’s proposal.

■ Maximus Faustus convinces 53 Senators to accept Messalina’s proposal

■ Caelius Silvanus persuades 47 Senators to vote to postpone a decision on Messalina’s proposal for another season.

Following the party’s previous interventions, Senators are open to considering Messalina’s cause. Many are skittish, fearing their careers or lives will end with disobeying Caius Justus. Optionally, party members previously assigned a political role might receive threats from Caius Justus’ supporters.

■ Persuade, bribe, threaten or blackmail a minor Senator to switch votes. Perhaps you can offer coin or rally supporters in the marketplace for their next election, or heal their donkey or get rid of that pesky boy mooning after their daughter. Or maybe prove their corruption streak, or place a polite knife at their throats. Hold the whole Senate floor hostage, if you want, of blockade Senators from entering the Senate on voting day!

■ Ask for a RNGed Senator if you want or submit threads of swaying votes. A final tally will be taken on 19 November

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INCENSE

Priests of the Chained God whisper that the god shows signs of awakening to trigger an apocalypse. Chained and warded twelve times to prevent the end of the world, the Chained God allegedly rests in the Halls of the Sleeper, in the underground belly of his main temple in Ephes. Above ground, the temple is silent, rife with milling priests, hummed prayers and cloying hallucinogenic incense that encourages lethargy. Access is unrestricted, but monitored.

To progress downstairs, you may need to convince guards that you are one of the groups of ferociously devout pilgrim worshippers, or a priest. Below, you feel overcome by creeping, paralysing dread.

■ You are haunted by sinister, saccharine voices murmuring intrusive thoughts only you hear, diminishing your worth and paranoically asking if your companion means you harm. You are more irritable and prone to violence.

■ The halls increasingly resemble narrow subterranean corridors with limited and overheated air reserves. You reach locked stone gates, covered in loose chains and crudely carved with the inscription, the Sleeper awakes. Instructions state the Chained God demands sacrifice and proof of chaos.

■ To enter the Sleeper’s Hall, instructions say, you must commit an act of betrayal, by: drawing your companion’s blood and smearing it over the inscription (lean into the corruption!), which prevents them from entering the halls with you; or chaining them to the door with the gate shackles, condemning them to watch as you enter; or pushing your companion away, verbally eviscerating or attacking them until they flee. With player approval, your character could get a sense of what theirs is emotionally or physically vulnerable to, then exploit it. Acts of betrayal cannot be faked.

■ The Sleeper’s Hall is narrow, nearly spherical and lit by thin rivers of flowing magma that cross cracked floors. Amid swelter, you hear the periodic gulps and quakes of stone trembling around you. The supernaturally sensitive feel the presence of great, if constrained power.

■ The black water previously associated with the undead also gushes from rifts in the ground. It has a cold, sinister aura.

■ Search the room for clues — and leave urgently, before corruption consumes you.

■ Towards the middle of the room is a large, nebulously shaped creature, fully fettered and covered in magical wards, chains and blood-painted runes. Anyone in the Chained God’s presence may feel overcome by emotional or physical agony, claustrophobia and bloodlust — but the divinity only speaks with the RNG winner.

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NOTES:

■ Some players have asked about potentially ~~stabbing~~ ousting Caius Justus and Narula in a coup — everyone can plot and participate in that, and a plotting post will go up on 16 November.

■ NPC inbox, if you need anyone!

■ QUESTIONS

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[ Getting people drunk and talking is easy here like it is back home. After finding out the finer points of the specter’s haunt from one loose-lipped tavern patron, she’s left bait for the spirit by way of two round smooth white stones left waiting inconspicuously on a windowsill on one of the side streets she’s been told the ghost will drift down.

Ever the burglar, Nami knows how to keep herself out of sight while she waits, able to keep the gasp that threatens caught in the back of her throat when the ghost actually appears, leaving her floored. It’s one thing to wait for a ghost, it’s another thing for that ghost to show up and be a ghost, rather than someone trying to pull a fast one in disguise. She would have believed the latter, but being hit with the former is a whole new level of weirdness, and suddenly the instructions she’s supposed to follow to get those stones back from the ghost and trade them seems a lot more spooky.

Why couldn’t it have been just a random eccentric in a very good costume?

She doesn’t want to, but Nami makes herself follow the ghost, keeping a careful distance through the entrance of the graveyard. The sight of someone else who seems to also be in pursuit of Tykhe is almost as startling as the spirit herself, and though it throws her enough to make her halt in her tracks, briefly letting Tykhe float ahead as she holds a finger to her lips, not daring to disrupt the ghost’s quiet. Instead, she waves the other person over, jerking her head in the direction Tykhe floated off in, in a wordless indication they should follow. Two heads are better than one, and hell - maybe company will make this whole ordeal less creepy. ]

( These are not the night time vigils she expected to have: the dead were meant ot be dead, to stay that way, and to be woven back into the Wheel for their next iteration, and yet. What else has she learned in this world of death and distorted dreams given physical form? In this place where one cannot evade the cloying scent of the dying, the scent of decay, or of actual ghosts... and she grimaces, moving on quiet feet through a graveyard this night, thinking of the other ghosts, or what she would do if, perhaps, she had the ability. What she wouldn't do, likewise.

What she can't do, for the dead.

The sight of another person slipping between headstones, moving after the fumbling, sightless ghost, the invitation to close distance, sees her grimacing and changing direction, a rendezvous between them as Tykhe continues on, floating through tombstones, through small mausoleums, emerging from the far side with that same confused, searching air.

Low, a murmur to help keep it from carrying: )

Apollonius?

( If it's this one's reason for coming to this place at this time in pursuit of a ghost, and really, it wouldn't surprise her if it wasn't.

Of course there'd be multiple people wanting something from the dead. Isn't that the case everywhere in the darkness of this world? Isn't that what the senate argues over, day after day? Which dead, which horror, they'll believe gives them more than the next. )

Yeah. [ Then, as her eyes travel from the woman in front of her towards the luminescent form of the ghost still weaving past the headstones. ] Can you believe this? Ghosts? [ Maybe she can. Nami is realizing people in their group come from all sorts of places with a host of perils all their own - and she thought pirates were bad.

There's not much time for small talk, waving the other woman to follow as she gets moving again, keeping her steps quick and quiet as she works to close some of the distance between them and Tykhe. ] Have you seen her sister anywhere? [ Nami hopes they just had to find a grave and lead the ghost there, but she's wondering if she's really going to be that lucky. ]

( She grimaces, fingers twitching toward the end of her heavily braided hair. )

Before this world? No. Not as such.

( More practical realities, more physical horrors, Fades and the like were real enough. Ghosts didn't need to be. Had no place until this one, and here, they simply won't stop. Just... sad, most of them. The ones like this especially.

Nynaeve shakes her head, then shakes it again, to answer the question even while she stalks forward, a woman familiar with the hunt and considering its merits. )

Not yet. If she's here. Her eyes... that man should choke on his request, hasn't she suffered enough?

( Eyeless and seeking, endless night after night. Nynaeve can empathise with the unending need to find, to track down, to protect. Failing that, to at least try. )

[ It's not much, but she'll take the fact that this is as weird for the other person skulking around the graveyard that night as it is for her.

At Nynaeve's words, Nami shakes her head, frowning at a row of headstones they dart past. ]

So, it doesn't stop? If we help her find her sister, they just do this again the next night?

[ Having to relive the worst loss of your life sounds like a pretty bad hand to be dealt - she thinks she gets where the other lady's coming from wanting the merchant to choke on his ask, to say the least. ]

We should check the names on some of these, and keep her in our sights.

( Her grimace likely says enough, but she gives a small, firm shake of her head. )

As I understand it, until they let go, they remain.

( Grimace shifting into a full frown, and her eyes flick from the ghostly figure of the one dead girl to the names on the mausoleums they're approaching. The first is too damaged to read, as if calculatedly destroyed. )

Unless they've been bound. It takes more then. Someone with the right skill.

( Those who work with the dead. She reads the next name as they draw closer, murmuring it under her breath. No twitch of interest from the searching ghost. )

Of which we have a few in our group, and more who aren't.

[ Nynaeve isn't the only one left grimacing. As far as she knows, this kind of thing doesn't happen where she comes from. That trapped souls are condemned to live in a loop is unsettling enough, but adding the tidbit about people traveling with this group handling that sort of thing? Yet another piece of information she's filing away to tell her crew about later.

After she's done shaking in her shoes about roaming around a dark cemetery after a ghost, following the example of an unknown companion and softly reading the names off of headstones.

Squinting in the low light, Nami pulls her glasses out of her rucksack, setting them on her nose as she leans in to try and read the name on one particularly weathered tomb ] Cas...s..or, Cal? [ Nami looks towards the other woman, cocking her head down at the stone. ] Can you read this one?

( She squints, coming closer to try and make out the same name. THe lack of proper lighting doesn't help, but she also doesn't plan to make herself an unnecessary target with a large torch or lantern; perhaps if she had a properly shuttered one. )

Cassanlra?

( Leaning in further, she resolves it to: )

No, Cassiandla.

( Their ghost pauses, turning their way to listen. When the name isn't corrent, she looks downcast, but determinedly floats on. Nynaeve steps to the next one, this time reading out: )

Cassandra?

( Their ghost stills at that name, then comes flying their way, all a fluster. Nynaeve rears her head back, avoiding having the ghost's pelvis pass through her head, but the murmur and the call of, "Sister, sister?" has her frowning harder than the strange near miss. She shifts around to the side, calling out the same name: )

Cassandra? Cassandra, are you here?

( Visible to Nami from her angle might be the softer glow of another ghost, drifting in and out of the wall of the mausoleum and the one connected to the name Nami had been trying to read. Truth told, whose to say if one or the other hadn't been the proper one? The stone weeps its words, too unclear to say. )

Edited 2023-11-09 04:23 (UTC)

[ Oh, she notices, she notices, and it's taking all her resolution not to shriek when, after the first ghost rushes over in an unfathomable rush of spectral light, a second disembodied figure makes itself known, drifting out of a nearby sepulcher. ]

Um. [ Fuck. Fuck. Okay, she'll wave at the ghost, it's fine to wave a ghost over and not at all the freakiest option possible - though, perhaps not given that there's another ghost already present, and the two seem to know each other.

That observation brings the reason why she's here in the first place back to mind, and Nami steps back, getting out of Cassandra's way as the ghost glides towards Tykhe, whose transparent arms are thrown open as she approaches. ]

I think we did it. [ Nami whispers once she's standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Nynaeve, trying not to think of her own sister or about how this meeting of two souls is meant to be short-lived and likely only repeated the next time someone lends a hand - whether for their personal gain or not. ]

( Nynaeve's head jerks up when she likewise sees the second ghost, the one silent, but opening arms to the sister who sees her by the stones held in hand. She shifts to place herself somewhat ahead of Nami, as if against ghosts it matters, as if for a stranger she should: she doesn't think about it, more than anything else.

The sisters embrace, and Nynaeve swallows, mouth dry. Heart aching, unaccountable for a woman who has never had siblings of her own, whose parents never had the chance. Who has stood in a place of failing, what feels like far too often of late, to protect those she feels responsible for protecting.

The four a world away, and may they stay there, safe somehow, even while she fears it's been anything but safe. )

The more important task.

( The one that will always be too late. The sisters don't speak, until a sound from Cassandra that is no such thing as words has them parting just far enough to hold the one free hand Tykhe has. She turns her hand with the stones their way, her head following a beat behind. Her eyes remain closed, useless as they are, empty and sullen sockets. )

Thank you. For my sister, and my sight.

[ The ghostly sisters hug and Nami's thoughts drift away from the inherent strangeness of the situation and towards Nojiko, back in Coco Village likely wishing and believing the best for her sister, not having a clue of the mess Nami's landed herself in this time.

It's surreal and - no pun intended at all - haunting, to see the two figures reuniting while being aware that this is just another loop of the cycle they're stuck in. These women might have died a long time ago, but the idea that come tomorrow night they'll be back to square one doesn't sit well with her.

Nami's so fixed on her train of thought she jolts in surprise when Tykhe turns to her and her new companion - eyes first - to express her gratitude. ]

I wish we could do more for you. [ The sentiment's all honesty and out before Nami can think to keep herself in check, staring up at the eyeless ghost's face as the spectral woman appears to shake her head, as though there were nothing else for her to want for. ]

You have done us both a tremendous boon tonight. [ Tykhe says, warm despite being dead. ] Why? What is it that you seek me out for?

( The woman's words echo in Nynave's chest: she's practical enough to understand there's nothing she can do to create a fair world for the two dead girls. She's also annoyed enough at Apollonius. )

We were asked by a fool of a man, Apollonius, for supernatural artefacts. He deals in information we're looking to get, related to the circumstances of this place and where we need to go. I don't want to take your seeing stones —

( Tykhe and Cassandra drift closer, the first handing the stones out to Nynaeve. )

It's all fine. I only wanted them to find Cassandra. I don't need to see her when I know she's there.

( Nynaeve frowns, fingers slow to curl around the stones. Then she nods, tucks them into a pocket, and pulls out her overlarge knife to cut off two buttons from her coat. She holds those out in turn. )

We wouldn't leave you blind. Here, can you use these?

( Tykhe's smile is slow, and her empty sockets are sad pools of darkness; it's Cassandra who looks achingly uncertain if she's grateful or otherwise. Her hand reaches out, plucking the two buttons up, and starts to infuse them with another glow before she hands them into Tykhe's spectral grasp. )

You... didn't need to. Cassa, thank you. Strangers, thank you. And that Apollonius, well, if he wishes to see... I shall also see tonight. If that's when the gifting happens.

( She smiles at that, the buttons standing on narrow edges in her hand. )

(Xie Lian is.... not actually hiding very well. First, his robes are pure white, so that's pretty visible. And second, he just seemed prepared to stride towards the ghost as if it was just normal, and he actually looks a little surprised to be signaled to not make noise and come closer.]

... Is something wrong?

[ That the lean stranger appears so at ease in the cemetery is curious enough, but when coupled with the robes, it presents an even odder picture - maybe he works here?

Spotting the pin puts that suspicion to bed, but still - she's trying her best not to tremble just seeing the disembodied figure of the woman drifting through the cemetery, and this guy looks like he's out for a walk in the park. It begs the question– ]

Are you...[ Namis gaze darts sideways towards the ghost before flicking back to the stranger, finally proceeding with her question. ] Do you know that lady?

... Not personally, no, but I thought we needed to ask her for her 'eyes', so I thought I'd just... ask?

[And yes, that apparently seems entirely logical to him, but then he remembers a thing.]

I take it you're not used to dealing with ghosts? They're really not all bad. At least, not all of them are. This one doesn't feel malicious.

Edited 2023-11-10 16:37 (UTC)

Ask?

[ Again she looks between the man and the ghost, still sizing up the situation when he asks her about her familiarity with ghosts. ]

Not a whole lot of them where I come from, no. [ At least that she's heard of, based on what she's heard they're in for a whole new host of oddities and weirdness once she and her crew get out of here and make it to The Grand Line.

So, she should get used to something like ghosts, probably. If only so she can keep it together while everyone else is freaking out. ]

But, she's looking for her sister, isn't she? Will she give you her eyes before you help her? [ Not to mention - the spirit's fate is sad based on what Nami's heard of it. She wants to help, even if she's creeped out, and having someone around who's completely calm about this would be helpful for that. ]

Not before, no. That would be rude.

[And clearly, being rude to ghosts is not something she could do.]

Typically, if you help a ghost, they might be inclined to help you in return. You can fight them of course, if you know how, but that's rarely productive unless they're aggressive or actively bothering mortals.

So let's see if we can help her, shall we?

[A small smile, and he's once away walking towards the ghost, fearlessly.]

Hi. I heard you were looking for someone? Can I help you look?

[ No, she definitely could not fight them, nor would she. Nami's got a staff and she knows how to use it, but she's not going to try to go toe to toe with a ghost either.

Recognizing that she's in a rare, unique position where her knack for bullshitting isn't going to come in handy at all - because she's too chicken to try it, mostly - Nami lets the gentleman step ahead of her, waving him on with wide, curious eyes. ]

Uh...if you're sure. You can do the honors.

[Xie Lian seems content enough to take point and chat amicably with the ghost. It's a little difficult but he does end up getting some information out of her.]

She's looking for her sister Cassandra. There should be a gravestone with that name. And we need... something round. Two somethings. To replace her eyes. Do you see anything that could serve?

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the channeling

– long time no see (wealth whispers, ota)

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please do the honors and submit this thread once they have the eyes if you want!

thumbs up! will do as of this tag

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