bygones be bygones

[groundrules]

BYGONES BE BYGONES

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Welcome to the finale log event, stretching until 22 February. You can find a summary of recent events here. The finale log is broken in four sections:

■ Anurr’s attempt to enter Hatthevar by corrupting party members

■ The citadel’s increasing hauntings and abductions (largely CR-building scenarios)

■ Investigating a ghost ship, for final clues

■ The fall of undead creator Matthias

Thank you for being here & enjoy!

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WALLS, WAILING

The tide of war are turning: his scorpions and sand lurkers defeated by Emilia, Wrath and Benedict, the undead Brotherhood’s foremost general, Rathakku, pulls back his armies. A handful of monstrous creatures remain and will grudgingly serve the trio as their new masters.

Wind master Anurr, foe of the Brotherhood and its maker Matthias, continues assaulting the citadel with ceaseless blizzards. Those exposed to the storms may hear dark or saccharine voices that corrupt, threaten or woo them to open one of the four (north/west/south/east) gates of the citadel and allow Anurr’s forces inside.

■ Those prone to loneliness, despair or self-doubt are the most vulnerable to Anurr’s coercion and can easily turn aggressive, if anyone attempts to prevent them from their goal. A burning need to free the winds and a hatred of Hatthevar overwhelm you, while Matthias’ very name sets you off in a rage.

■ Those coerced are invulnerable to Anurr’s blizzards and the broader cold but highly susceptible to heat and flame. Their skin turns pale, limbs stiff and nearly gelid. They are slower but much stronger, and their touch can chill. They must be warmed — either by fire-side or trapped into heated rooms — to regain control of themselves. It may take up to 48 hours before they’re fully back to normal, waking up at night with a longing to walk into the wind.

■ The gates of Hatthevar remain guarded by enormous man-eating ghosts, but these sentinels have been worn down by war and are more easily overcome. Pass them and your companions and open the gates — and you will win Anurr a healthy advantage.

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A HAUNTED PLACE

Two of Matthias’ beacons have been conquered by Vanessa, Wrathion and Five, who retain them as long as they stay along. Inevitably, they are often hunted by spirits.

Not realizing why his summons have weakened, Matthias directs more and more energy towards the three beacons under his control. The turbulence agitates the spirits of Hatthevar, who become secretive, paranoid, prickly and increasingly riotous.

■ Some scatter quickly as they see you — others gang up, mutinously targeting ghost slavers or anyone who reminds them of those who wronged them when they were alive. Hauntings multiply, while ghost slavers take advantage of the riots to conquer parts of Hatthevar.

PART & WHOLE

Combative crowds, often led by ghost slavers, are especially drawn to characters who own any of Matthias’ limbs or organs. Promised rewards, they seek to abduct such owners or anyone unlucky enough to be mistaken for them, dragging them to decrepit, barely standing and abandoned Whispering Houses while they barter payment from Matthias.

■ Ghosts are fiercely attentive but also superstitious watchmen: spook them, organise a rescue party or sneak out.

■ Watching the walls, you see ink brush paintings of the silhouettes of men, their beady eyes sometimes shifting to look at you. At other times, their limbs seem to shift minutely, as they begin to run towards you, until shadow men burst out of the wall to detain you. They pull back, if you also stop moving.

■ Those who possess Matthias’ parts may find ghosts are unusually submissive to them. Their tokens will likely get seized, if they are captured.

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TROUBLED

Hatthevar succumbs to hauntings, friendly or foul. On any given day, you might experience:

■ THE BURIALS: Come morning, your shoes might be missing, buried in the nearest dirt patch — or you yourself might be entombed in the gardens, forced to dig yourself out before you suffocate. The crystalline sound of chiming bells can lead rescuers to you. Ghostly hands might try to hold onto you, if you are dragged out.

■ THE FACELESS: Lithe faceless dancers dart through the crowds of the ghostly bazaars, carrying demonic wooden masks that they place on the faces of stunned passers-by, fleeing thereafter. The victims now look like the demonic masks, while the masks have copied their likeness. If this happens to you, run after the faceless dancers, steal the mask and put it back on your face to recover your original appearance.

■ THE WATCH: Walking through the streets of Hatthevar, you find yourself visibly, unmistakably watched by an increasing number of people. First, they only steal glances; then, one or two point you out; small groups begin to whisper about you; finally, you notice whole crowds are standing eerily still, watching you covetously and seemingly struggling to keep themselves back from assaulting you.

MASTER GAO’S HUMBLE HOUSE

Least said, soonest enjoyed of Hatthevar’s new fashion of culinary delights. Amid a pick-up in crime, the street food vendors disperse, leaving behind a smattering of secluded establishments drenched in dizzying incense and patroned by… ethereal diners.

Master Gao’s family restaurant promises a once-in-a-lifetime experience, amid ghosts, ghouls and the monstrously dead. Take a seat at a private table, where you are treated to a pleasantly sweet, liquorice brew — then informed politely that you have been lethally poisoned and will die within two hours. Already, you feel your body feverish, overly stimulated, your thoughts given to wonder.

Focus, focus: the antidote, says the listless waitress, is in one of the numerous incoming dishes. A game to focus you on enjoying your meal. Even one bite will heal you.

THE MENU

Still on the fence? Reviewers say:

★★★★☆ Came for the bao buns, stayed for the screams of endless agony.
★★★★★ most places on lotus street went to the hell dogs, master’s gao stays lit, the demon bacon’s sizzle drizzle
★★☆☆☆ Two stars for the incredible heart of virgin sacrifice, cooked al dente. But this will be our last visit, after unprofessional staff treated us as if we were at our first cannibal rites.
★★★★☆ Hand-made blood pasta, rolled like grandma used to make.

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THE HEADLESS DANCER

Five and Wen Kexing share that word on the street is Matthias has favoured two hideaways. The most widely known one, where you are headed first, is the Headless Dancer: a ghost ship that appears on nights of the full moon in the misty lagoon near Hatthevar. Half-sunken and ragged, the Headless Dancer appears like a conglomerate of titans’ bones, carved and welded together. It is a proper sea vessel, atypical to sail through a lagoon.

Your objective is to search the ship for any sign of Matthias.

■ As the vessel passes, you hear a staggered, loud rattling: the chattering teeth of the skull heads that shape the ship’s hull. These hungry mouths reach to crush and gnaw you, if you fall in the waters close to the ship.

■ A pirate crew is hard at work to keep the vessel afloat. At first, the men appear normal, but their skeletal, corpse-like appearance is revealed when they come under moonlight.

■ Many crew members ignore you, chained to each other and the deck and condemned to perform their tasks while singing their ol’ song. Only the captain speaks liberally: cursing, whipping his men and carrying a bundle of chains as he makes his rounds. Hide — at times helped or betrayed by crew members — or risk getting chained down by the captain, your powers entirely muted until you are released.

■ Midway through your visit, the ship sails back into the fog, beneath a strange wave of clouds shaped like enormous fish and sea life . Spears and chains that resemble fish spines plunge down to pin the ship in place: they fly across the deck, at times skewering and stabbing crew members. Take cover or jump overboard.

■ After a few moments, the spear-chains latch onto the vessel’s sides, turning it over and submerging into the lagoon. Instead of sinking, the Headless Dancer breaks water, once again upright… in strange new sides (the ‘Other Side’) in the middle of an intensely violent storm of blood. The previously skeletal crew and captain are now fully human and are struggling desperately to keep the ship from sinking, despite furious winds and the vessel taking substantial amounts of water. You understand quickly this is an illusion or memory of some kind: there is no saving the ship. Spend the last few minutes before the Headless Dancer sinks trying to stay afloat and search the captain and main passengers’ cabin for clues. Within 20 minutes, you hear the mast of the Headless Dancer give way, while the rapidly flooding of the hull causes the ship to break in half. You fall unconscious, waking up battered but alive in the real-world shores of Hatthevar, the splinters of the Headless Dancer’s deck stuck beneath your nails.

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HE BLEEDS

Following our latest vote, the People have overwhelmingly chosen that undead creator Matthias will die.

Carrying out the plan is open to everyone, whether you did or didn’t get involved with the voting — jump in freely!

Matthias will be discovered in the second lair location uncovered by Five and Wen Kexing — the Whispering House of Hatthevar’s foremost wish maker, the Red Lady. He dwells on the first floor, which has been turned into an immense room decked in dark mirrors, whose windows have been entirely barricaded.

There are two types of mirrors: some show you exactly what you most wish to see, progressively captivating you while rapidly depleting your stamina and vitality, until you are reduced to dried husks and bones within the hour.

Looking into the second type of mirror, your character sees a person of tar that reaches out to touch them until their hand exits the glass. Upon contact, your character is overcome by a feeling of intense, spreading coldness, as if their insides are being infested by a rapidly propagating alien creature. They may feel its highly primitive, emotion-led thoughts: a jumble of jealousy, the wish to have a shape and manifest, hatred that your body is not malleable, fear, hunger. The creature takes your body over within the hour.

You can escape both types of mirrors if you cover them, do not look into them, or if someone breaks the thrall (by taking your attention away from the mirror or by physically removing you).

Matthias is often away from his hideaway, giving you valuable time to plot and tinker.

Killing him will involve:

■ Scouting the Whispering House. The Red Lady, a powerful sorceress, is unlikely to allow intruders to go where they please inside her home. But the ‘I’m just a poor wish maker, looking for the bathroom’ excuse is a time honoured classic!

■ Using Matthias’ severed limbs and organs to reduce his power: this can be done by destroying the parts. Fire will do the trick.

■ Setting down traps (tentacly or otherwise!) in Matthias’ quarters to detain him.

■ Creating an illusion or shapeshifting someone to look like Matthias’ daughter Cosette and distract him, when he returns.

■ Feeding Matthias a memory potion that will force him to remember his part in Cosette’s demise.

■ Killing him. Per RNG gods, Emilia gets the dubious honour of delivering the killing blow (most likely, with help from a special tool obtained from the Headless Dancer). Everyone else is still free to char, sting, entrap or force feed memories to Matthias!

Since several people might get involved, it’s probably logistically easier if you play out prep work or threads in groups of no more than 2-3 and assume other party members are around.

You can either NPC Matthias yourselves in your threads or ask for mod involvement.

Note: everyone who threads out any of the events of Matthias’ capture or demise can “inherit” some of his power over undeath once he is killed. Your character will then have to choose what they do with this power (keep, transfer or disperse it).

QUESTIONS

Comments

[captain_marvel]

[Carol is pushing through the crowd, trying to catch up with the dancer when she hears America's voice in the crowd. Beelining towards it, she catches up to her and places a hand on her shoulder.]

Did you see my face?

[She knows her face is terrifying right now, but at least she still sounds like Carol.]

[starlingroad]

[ Yeah, this is pretty creepy. America's eyes widen. Absently, she points in the direction she saw Carol's face go. ]

Wher...how? [ America just tries to form full sentence questions. ] You're Carol?

[captain_marvel]

Yeah. I think one of the dancers stole my face.

[And she's annoyed about it. You can't just run around stealing people's faces.]

Which way did they go?

[starlingroad]

They can do that? [ Pause. She looks at "Carol" with confusion and hesitation. ]

[ There's a split second a voice in her mind suggests this could be a dancer, and they're using Carol's voice, but no. She doesn't think so. She points. ]

It went that way! [ She reaches to take Carol's arm, because if they lose each other in a crowd full of faceless people, it's going to be hard to find each other again. ]

[captain_marvel]

[Carol follows quickly behind America, letting her leave and grateful for the girl's trust. Hopefully this will pay off in the end, because Carol very much wants her face back.]

How long ago did you see it?

[starlingroad]

[ America's eyes flicker around. ] It was about seconds before you showed up!

[ With that, America takes off in the direction the Carol Face Stealer went, so they don't lose anymore time. ]

[captain_marvel]

[Carol is right on her heels, making sure that she doesn't lose her in the crowd. As one of the dancers start to swing their way through the crowd, still masked like the one who stole Carol's face, the other woman tenses as it starts to make a beeline for America.]

Look out!

[starlingroad]

[ Yeah, if they both lose their faces, that's going to be a little harder to keep track of each other. It's still more panic that causes one of America's short-range portals to pop up. ]

[ Giving Carol a wide-eyed confused look back, she pulls her along and intends to bound through it. It will put them only ten feet ahead, but away from the attempt at face stealing! ]

They really are everywhere. [ She can't rest easy, not yet. ]

[captain_marvel]

I have an idea. Hang on.

[She means that literally. She wraps an arm around America's waist and gently pushes up from the ground, giving them a birds-eye view of the square and the people bustling through it, while putting them out of the reach of the dancers - at least for now.]

[starlingroad]

[ America's body stiffens, but once they're up in the air, she stares, slack jawed, at the world around them. ]

So, you're definitely the real Carol. And flying is so amazing!

Over there! [ She spots the imposter and points. ]

[captain_marvel]

I'm just glad that flying didn't go with my face.

[But it doesn't take much for her to follow the direction America is pointing in, and she shifts to aim in that direction.]

This is probably going to be weird, but hang on, okay?

[starlingroad]

If they took our powers? [ America's eyes widen. ] That would be extra awful. This is already creepy.

[ She nods her head and grabs on to Carol. ]

[captain_marvel]

[Carol doesn't go full speed - she wants to make sure America can comfortably hold on - but she goes fast enough and soon she's skidding past the creature with her face and landing in front of it.]

Hey. I want my face back.

[starlingroad]

Let me go. I'll punch them. [ America looks at Carol, then smiles sheepishly. ] Not the face, though.

[captain_marvel]

Would appreciate that.

[Carol jokes, but Carol does as she asks and lets America go, curious to see her in action for herself.]

It is my calling card.

[starlingroad]

[ America hits the ground not far from the face snatcher, then aims a punch to their back. A giant star forms behind them, and they go to the ground. ]

Oh...hope that didn't scrape your face. [ She's quick to get behind the face stealer and hold their hands so they can't just run off. ]

How do you...get your face back?

[captain_marvel]

I don't know. Maybe I just -

[She reaches forward, grabbing at the mask on the creature's face. It comes easily enough and she steps back with a frown.]

Oh, that's weird.

[starlingroad]

Yeah. [ America just watches this procedure - Carol removing her face and holding it. ]

So very weird. Think you can just.... [ She mimes putting a mask on her own face, still slack-jawed. ]

[captain_marvel]

Worth a shot.

[Carol takes a deep breath and positions the mask over her face. She puts it back on and when she pulls her hand away, her face stays in place, and her mask returns to the spirit.]

How's it look? Did I put it on straight?

[starlingroad]

[ America stares, wordlessly, for a while, even after Carol's question. ]

[ She swallows, then finally answers. ]

Uh, yeah. It's straight. [ Stare. Finally a blink. ] That was just really weird to watch.

[captain_marvel]

I can imagine.

[It felt weird doing it, if she's honest. She then glances back to the dancer.]

So what do we do with this guy?

[starlingroad]

I guess we can't let him just run off and steal other people's faces....

[ America frowns, though, because they don't have many options for these situations. ]</small But it's not like we have a jail to throw him in.

[captain_marvel]

[The dancer looks between them impassively. It's not going to be helpful in this situation.]

Maybe we could take it to the edge of the city or something?

[starlingroad]

I guess. I don't think that will stop it. But...let's do it.

[ This is totally out of America's level of experience. ] First time I've ever helped catch one of these dancers.

[captain_marvel]

I'll clear the path if you think you can keep hold of it?

[Carol's pretty good at getting people out of her way when she wants to.]