the channeling

[groundrules]

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

Comments

[stomacles]

( Well, this is a major switch for Ben. After being a ghost for seventeen years, he does feel some sympathy for the one that wanders around them, but he can't deny there's a satisfaction that fills him when Nynaeve holds out the round stone. )

( His eyes widen when the other rolls away. )

You're a life saver. ( He whispers the words, then lowers himself to carefully, but quickly, grab for the other one. )

( Ben stops and smiles as he looks at Nynaeve, again. She's pretty, he muses, but is wise enough to keep that to himself. This isn't the time, or the place. And they did just meet. )

( Ducked away, he doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of the ghost managing to find him, even if they have its eyes, he speaks again, in a whisper. )

How do you want to do this? I don't know if that thing is going to be happy, or have an easier time finding us to gut us.

[mashiara]

( She's truly tired of dealing with ghosts, but the more practical one is about them, the more likely one gets done with their nonsense sooner. It's not always true: they're worse in some places than others, but the bodied dead have been the most troublesome, and also, no one's currently drugged and chasing down snake gods.

There's a scale of what level of ridiculous she's finding before her now, and it's acceptable. )

She doesn't leave the grounds. How fast can you run?

( There, the quirked eyebrows, the dry curl to her voice. If they can outrun her, she can't gut them. Simple, right? )

Or we can start by talking with her like sensible people.

( And adapt, however that then proceeds. There's no... blade, that she can hold to this. The One Power, the True Source, that which she's unhappily accepting has some relationship to herself, that might help, but in no way does she know the wielding of it, and so she discounts it entirely. Better to rely on what she does know, and if this young man helps, isn't that enough? Sensible steps taken in an insensible world.

Nynaeve doesn't have the stones, and leaves them with him, but she does take steps toward the ephemeral shape of the dead woman, calling out: )

Tykhe. Girl, what are you looking for out here like this?

( Sensible if she'd been living, only sensible now because the ghost startles and spins, losing aspects of herself that reform when her sightless face points more or less their way. She shimmers, moonlight on wind-touched water, and solidifies a touch. She doesn't breathe, and that more than anything sits as a sad weight in Nynaeve's stomach.

Still, the ghost responds, voice like winds curling through pipes, the rustling of leaves in autumn. )

A way. To see. My sister.

( Not a broken sentence: three individual driving needs. )

[stomacles]

( At least Ben isn't a ghost, right now, then. He imagines his brother feels much the same as Nynaeve, tired of dealing with ghosts. Ben, though, remains almost fascinated. )

I run pretty fast. ( He smiles about that. )

( But any mild mirth is replaced by his own heavy, sympathetic emotion when Tykhe answers them. )

( Ben looks down in his hands and sighs. Then he looks to Nynaeve. ) Think we can trust her? ( After being parted from his siblings, he can't deny someone who just wants to see a sister. Or someone who wants to see. It seems cruel to do otherwise. )

[mashiara]

( Her own lips are a thinned line, studying Tykhe. Her nod is short, brief, sharp, in answer to the question the young man asks. )

For this. For anything beyond it, no.

( She gestures to him, to step forward, join her as she stands, still watching the ghost. This is not the way that people should be caught up, trapped instead of woven into the greater turning of the Wheel, and yet it's what this place knows, what it thrives on.

How hollow, how wrong. How vulnerable, when any one ghost can be stripped of their own driving recollections and used by necromancers against their own wills. That's not seduction, that's not recruitment.

That's a danger even a sightless ghost in search of her sister will face, if the dead reach greedy here. )

Well. We have a sister to find. Who may be a ghost herself, or may be... the memorial to mark her having lived.

( She brushes her hands against her sides, tugs at her braid of braids once, frustrated, unhappy, and sets her shoulders back, looking for the angle of the moonlight to begin reading grave markers, moving up the line of them in their assorted shapes toward the mausoleums that sit, hunchbacked, higher on the hillocks. She doesn't wait to see if Ben hands over the stones, if the ghost accepts them, if either follow.

In a sense, she simply believes should they have any sense of their own, they will. )

[stomacles]

( There is something that gnaws at Ben, the weirdness of being on the other side of it, the desire to help, but also the distrust that remains. Nynaeve's words help with that. )

Got it.

( He follows Nynaeve's lead. Ben looks down at the stones in his hand. )

Hey, maybe these will help? ( He offers them out to the ghost, and he will, indeed follow. Don't they need a name, though? Or will they somehow know when they've found the sister? )