let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2023-11-01 05:35 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-11-01 05:35 pm
Entry tags:
- arcane: caitlyn,
- assassin's creed: ratonhnhake:ton,
- ephes,
- event,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- lockwood & co: anthony lockwood,
- mcu: america chavez,
- mcu: bucky barnes,
- mcu: natasha romanova,
- mcu: yelena,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- one piece: luffy,
- one piece: nami,
- one piece: sanji,
- one piece: zoro,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- umbrella academy: ben,
- umbrella academy: five,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- wheel of time: elayne trakand
the channeling
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.
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
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.
NOTES:
■ Some players have asked about potentially
■ NPC inbox, if you need anyone!
■ QUESTIONS
no subject
He can't be blamed if they have no taste. That's where the liquor comes in to help pave the way. More than once, he's found himself saying 'no, you don't eat that, it's a garnish' or 'if I cook this anymore, it's an insult to the meat'. Sanji is burdened with having to deal with culinary nonsense his entire life, it seems. At least he has a captain and crew who will eat almost anything.
It's in the midst of a service lul when he's approached by Lan Wangji and Sanji can't help but grin at the question, tossing the man a wink. ]
For mine, yes. For theirs? That is entirely up for debate.
no subject
( ...ah. He has seen the horrors visited upon both the cook — bake these oysters — and his people — there are limits to how close service knives may come to the vision line of attendees.
He sides, on principle, with his own people, for all Sanji errs on the side of obscene excess for the Lan palate with his application of spices — which is to say, he peppers any at all. But they are men bound to an honest cause (subterfuge) of virtue (electoral fraud) and they must not lose faith in one another (having barely met and therefore a lifetime of disappointments to gift one another, ahead.)
As a token of his respect, Lan Wangji tempts fate and his own health by fishing out skewered, molten aubergine drenched in a thickly sauce and tickles the very edges with his teeth, grazing. )
It is. ( Waaaaaaaaaait for it. ) Unprecedented fare. ( Exactly one freckle of spice reached his tongue, he's already on course to reddening and combustion. )
no subject
He doesn't watch in nervous anticipation exactly, but he does want to know what the guy thinks. Well. ]
I appreciate it! Since you're here, if there's something else you'd like, just say so, yeah? I like to make sure everyone's got something to eat.
[ With as much of his bitched mutterings as Wangji has probably heard, his words are earnest. Sanji knows they have a job to do and their meal of deceit is more for the politicians than their little group, but the sentiment is the same. ]
no subject
Perhaps, plain rice.
( On an audacious day, beside clear broth and pickles. But no, this is no time for games or taking advantage of Sanji's considerable, readily exercised skills. A feast spreads long and distinguished before them, the slew of appreciative Senators speaking plainer of its success than mere words might.
Few things endear Lan Wangji more than a true master, set to illustrate his craft. And so, behold an icicle bravely thawing enough to initiate conversation. )
Beware: you serve royalty on this night. ( The sliver, long and lean, of a smile batters his lips. ) King Luffy.
( All hail, all bow. )
no subject
[ At least it will give him an idea of what's too much. Sanji takes a moment to survey the spread, making mental notes of what needs replenishing and what remains untouched. The idea that he's serving royalty and had no idea startles him until King Luffy and he barks out a laugh. ]
Luffy's no king. At least not yet, anyway. Our crew will help him get there.
no subject
Kings win crowns through birth or conquest.
( And, by all accounts, the young man was not born to the blood — nor does his behaviour indicate the sort of finesse of breeding that betrays rank. No, he is... if not a peasant, then of the people, entirely unmannered, powered by fortune beneath the Heavens and enthusiasm alone.
Then, the alternative: ) Bloodshed suits you?
( Cooking, after all, is an entirely domestic, home-making activity, bereft of wrath and bloodlust. All the same, a middling correction: )
Rice balls suit travel, sooner than dining. ( Only children and men dedicated to the road would prefer them to an honest bowl. )
no subject
Sanji frowns, tilting his head in consideration as he watches a platter of herb scones disappear. ]
I don't go looking for it, but if we have to knock down some deadbeat pirates along the way, they have it coming.
[ There are always bigger, meaner fish in the sea and Luffy is a magnet for trouble, so it will happen sooner rather than later.
His attention flicks back to the man, a smile sliding back onto his face. ]
You could say the same with a pastry or a kebob- they may be suited for travel, but it's all about presentation. Before you even take your first bite, you're eating with your eyes.
no subject
( Eating with his... eyes. Yes, form. Presentation. In Cloud Recesses, where sustenance and moderation are key, a humble aspect is best. But he has seen the gilded kitchens of Jinlintai and master cooks at their work. There is an element of showmanship to the culinary arts that the man Sanji appears willing to embody.
Certainly, the repeat visitors of his tables agree with the practice. And is this delicate, dainty approach compatible with life at sea? With... piracy? )
Your... ( Leader? King without a throne? ) — companion appears to misunderstand the nature of pirates. He thinks them — ethical. Brave.
( In truth, no better or worse than the average sailor, yet still burdened semantically by the legacy of theft and bloodshed that piracy entwines. Perhaps the tables are truly turned Luffy's world offers pirates as a moral proposition.
...much likelier, the boy is misled, wholly and unmistakably. )
no subject
[ The most ridiculous and endearing thing about Luffy is his misguided definition of piracy. At Baratie, it didn't matter whether someone was a pirate, a Marine, or just a seafarer- everyone ate and no one fought. Sanji thought he knew well enough what a pirate was meant to be like until Luffy and the rest of the crew walked in and subverted all his previous expectations.
At the heart of it all, they're just five people out to try and reach for their dream. While they're all driven by something personal, Luffy is their captain and they'll get involved in whatever he decides is a worthy cause. ]
Perhaps that's what a pirate should be. To Luffy, it's about freedom and adventure.
no subject
Is that not mere... sailing?
( Words, sir, carry meaning, purposes. They're the edge of a blade, claiming intent. He does not accuse, only withholds himself, back straight and a hand strapped behind, and eyes bright, lit with amusement. Perhaps Luffy is not the only one inspired to mischief, from time to time.
But then, questioning the existential purpose of a group that's effectively stumbled into chaos seems at best ambitious, and at worst apolitical, unkind. ) Apologies. Your matters, your own.
( ...presumably. Whilst led by a scant improvement on a mutinous child. No, no. He will not pass judgement. ) It is devotion.
no subject
[ Luffy's bounty is sure to paint quite the target on their backs for whoever wants to attempt to collect, aside from the Marines. While they don't actively act as pirates, fighting other pirates who don't have their Captain's same morality on the subject seems to be on the docket.
It's hard to know what will happen next. They went to sail for the Grand Line and ended up here. Wherever that is. ]
Whatever Luffy wants to do, we're all in.
no subject
...apologies. Did not understand your world's famine, men measured in fruit.
( Even millions of berries should not equate a human life under plain and normal circumstances. But then, starvation is ugly business, all-encompassing, merciless. Children cannot be allowed without their meal. If Luffy is weighed in his value in local fruit, then —
Then Lan Wangji should accept the effort Sanji must have invested to deliver them here, now, a true feast when surely it must be that he is not afforded the proper resources to do so, under normal circumstances. A wretched oversight, poverty down to skin and bone.
No matter. He shrugs, shudders, peels his gaze away. ) What does Luffy want of this place?
( If he commands a mob whole. )