he rode in, a king

[groundrules]

HONEY, WE’VE GOT VISITORS

Sa-Hareth-brand Cassandra tries to flag the future, gets left on read. True story — and then, the dead come. His offer neglected, a desperate Unhalad resorts to sieging the farmhouse in search for the mirror that was previously on the Imperious.

He’s in for disappointment, while the party prepare for... house guests over the early-morning 16 June to 17 June period.

Around 3:30am (16 June) of a storming night, those who are awake or sensitive to the supernatural may hear the winds and fleeing rats whisper that something comes. At 3:45am, Karsa’s wards around the farmhouse set off, briefly shrieking. Within minutes, Unhalad’s undead infiltrate the farmhouse, with one slight creature first entering down the kitchen chimney. A small faction of undead remain on the roof, while a swarming majority circle the farmhouse. Throughout the night, they attempt to break in through doors and windows, making slow progress. They are warier of the forest-facing back entrances. The attackers comprise droves of undead, some clearly only recently converted in haste. They are weaker for it.

Over time, the undead drip into the farmhouse. They lack the coordination for a concerted effort. Attempting to exit within the first three hours of the siege will prove disastrous, as too many undead wait outside. The undead will seek a mirror, being first and foremost drawn to Winnie, who carries a similar item on her person. Fox and Five will also be of interest. Fox can escape attention by discarding the shards. Any character that was bound to Anurr’s tree still bears the lingering marks of Anurr’s undeath is especially perceived as an enemy. Regulus enjoys the same treatment, given his extensive recent stay with the free people. The undead will savagely wreck the house in their hunt, striving to kill those in their path. They can be slain regularly. The older, "properly" summoned undead (identifiable because of their clear state of rotting) should be incinerated or severely amputated to avoid further resurrection. Because of the overwhelming number of undead, it is best to keep lean, mean and mobile within the house. Karsa joins the farmhouse around 6am. She’ll teleport in, but the density of undead outside will prevent her from teleporting out safely. Alongside three party volunteers, she reinforces some of the wards, decelerating the advance of the undead. Her group will also throw away any of Unhalad’s markings (salt and ash) out of the house and into the inner garden pond.

Come sunset (16 June) Unhalad himself will ride outside of the farmhouse, holding distant vigil over the hostilities with his retinue. On his arrival, unbound farmhouse animals will flee into the forest. Unhalad will be recognisable because of the immensity of raw power he emanates — a feeling of great and overwhelming despair and hunger. Options to evacuate the chaos include sneaking out, fighting the undead, calling on reinforcements from any local allies, or holding position until around 8am of 17 June, when Unhalad’s last-minute forces start to disintegrate because of the haste in which they were summoned. The minority of Unhalad’s forces that were summoned back alive with the appropriate diligence will not break down and will need to be banished. The free people will not intervene, unless they are called in.

If you’ve made it this far into Sa-Hareth’s worst hazing ritual, congratulations. A few more days of crud to go. Over the next few days before the 21-22 June departure, characters will have to make do with their shattered lodgings and dearth of supplies, or can seek sanctuary back in Sa-Hareth. Any money spent on accommodations will have to come out of the travel fund. You're on your own, kids. The animals can return from the forest, and the free people might spare some food and water, gifted to those who stood out during Anurr’s trials. The Anurr cultists of Sa-Hareth could also part with a few provisions for their good friends, Xie Lian and Xiao Xingchen. To opt out of the event, have characters out of the house on the night of the siege. It will be difficult to re-enter. The OOC plotting floor is yours!

FARMHOUSE LAYOUT

Comments

[somebadnews]

Five had lost track of time. Every part of him hurt; a pulling ache that gradually took up home in his chest and radiated out to his limbs. The gore that covered him made it impossible to take stock of any injuries, and he was long past being able to pinpoint where the pain was coming from. He even thought it was all in his mind at one point. Visions of the apocalypse merged with the present, and he simply wasn't equipped to separate the two realities. Death followed him.

A part of him reveled in the violence, in the efficiency of his kills that by then he could barely distinguish from living or undead. He left them all in pieces scattered in the snow. Somehow they always returned, and the more he tried to separate himself from the group, the more it began to dawn on him that he couldn't keep this up. Exhaustion weighed him down, and the overuse of his powers drained the last of his reserves. They'd catch him sooner or later.

The room he entered seemed to appear out of nowhere; a retreat he didn't remember making. When a voice addressed him, he whipped around and his mouth parted, but nothing came out. A woman with a wand like the one he'd seen hours before. She seemed familiar, and he squinted at her face to try to place her in his memories. And even more important, to make sure she was really there. That she wasn't a threat.

Movement caught his eye and he turned in time to see a corpse bounce off of thin air. He watched in a perplexed moment of fascination as it scrambled back up, but it didn't get a second chance to lunge at him. The moment it tried, he brought the blade he carried down on its neck, slicing it neatly from its shoulders and sending a fresh spray of old blood on the floor.

He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and tried to replay the question she'd asked in his mind. Was he alright. That suddenly sounded funny, and his face split into a grin when he turned back toward her.

"Never better." -- He made it another two shuffling steps forward before he collapsed.

[lancifolium]

As exhausted as she was, Lily didn't think she looked nearly as drained as Five did when he seemed to funnel whatever he had into one last smile, and two steps forward. It was a surprise, to say the least. Quickly she cast the ward on the doorway again before moving to kneel by where Five had landed.

"Five? Can you hear me?" She whispered the question urgently before looking over at the room's open entrance. "Stay still," Lily warned in a hiss before lifting her wand, casting another charm, this one meant to muffle the sounds they made, replacing it with a buzzing sound that would hopefully deter the undead nearby, and keep them away long enough for her to figure out how she could help Five.

"I can get you to the study where Eleven is if you need healing," turning back to him she spoke in a more normal tone of voice as she looked him over for injury. It was hard to tell. He was still bloody from the last undead he'd beheaded.

[somebadnews]

Darkness begged to take him, but he resisted, pushing stubbornly against it no matter how his body protested. The sword had fallen from his hands and he wasn't sure he could lift it again after that last swing. With it, he was distantly aware that he was losing his grip on whatever control he had over their fate. It could be taken away from him that easily. His heart pounded in his ears as he worked himself back up on his elbows and stared at the smear of red that he left when he stumbled.

It seemed to occur to him again, how screwed they were if he was too exhausted to fix this. There was still that voice calling, and he looked up at her -- Lily -- with a scrutinizing expression. It almost seemed strange to see someone fully alive, and he had to remember why he came there. Some vague notion of wanting to end the suffering that had taken home inside him.

"Not mine," he explained with a scowl, as though he was offended at the idea, though he didn't know for sure. He glanced around and didn't see anyone else, so he settled back on her. "You're alone? Why aren't they here?"

[lancifolium]

"They?" She looked over her shoulder towards the (thankfully) vacant doorway of the room before turning back to Five, shaking her head in confusion.

"Everyone is everywhere, I've been trying to keep this corridor clear for the injured." Hours earlier Lee Chang had stressed the importance of time and space, two things Lily could clearly see the value of now that they were under attack from seemingly all sides. Providing that for those in the group that were wounded and heading to the study from this side of the farm while fortifying the structure where she could was a practical use of time - even if it felt remarkably impossible given the number of undead.

"Are you sure you don't need help from Eleven?" Even if none of that blood was his, he looked - well, terrible.

[somebadnews]

Five shook his head, not feeling the need to waste his energy arguing the point. Telling her that he was a magnet for the undead would take too many words and he needed to focus on what was important. Eventually he would reach his limit, if he hadn't already, and that left him with few options. He should have spent the time he had driving the undead away, not bringing them back to where his sister was still hiding somewhere. If he could just think more clearly.

It might be a moot point. He had to rest long enough to catch his breath and hope the world didn't end before he could recover. With the aid of whatever was in reach, he forced himself upright; the discarded sword became a wedge to get his feet back under him and he swore silently at the difficulty. It felt heavier in his hands by the time he stood up, so he left it lowered at his side.

He looked back at Lily and wondered how she managed to drive them all away from the corridor. How that barrier worked. Before he could, a noise grabbed his attention and he whipped his head back in the direction he came in from.

They hadn't taken long to find him again.

The barrier held against the first undead, but they'd already gotten the attention of others. A familiar feeling of dread took root as they started to gather, relentless in their desire to break inside. Instead of retreating, he turned the sword around in his hand took a few steps forward.

When was close enough that the shadows shifted, he stopped in his tracks. He recognized them. Each one, their skin gray and covered in ash, wore the face of one of his siblings. His eyes bounced between them, horrified as the reality stuck him. After all that time he spent looking for them, they found him. What the hell happened...

"Let them in," Five called back at Lily, gesturing but never letting his gaze leave them. Their injuries were hard to make out, but they were obviously in pain and they were trapped. His voice took on an edge of panic when she didn't immediately do what he asked. "Let them in now."

[lancifolium]

The wards weren't built to withstand the undead. She had thrown them up in a pinch, as a means to buy herself a moment or two to catch her breath, providing at least enough resistance to ready herself if she caught the attention of the undead while trying to scramble for whatever seconds of respite a person could find in a situation like this. But, just as Five was skipping explanations for brevity's sake, so was Lily, who looked at the doorway and tightened her grip on her wand, watching while Five moved towards the approaching undead.

She was going to tell him that she couldn't let them in, that in a few moments they'd show themselves inside when the wards broke and it wouldn't matter anyway - but being told to admit the undead was strange enough to cease any reply but one.

"No. Are you daft?" Torn between looking at Five and the undead just beyond him, now slapping at the invisible barrier the weakening ward provided. "We're not letting anything in." He was not alright. That she had to say as much to him spoke volumes as to how not alright Five was, and that was a problem.

What that meant for when the wards failed and the undead got through Lily didn't know, but she gripped her wand a little tighter and tried to brace herself.

[somebadnews]

All it took was the word 'no' to shatter the remaining sanity that Five had been holding to that point. Only a few seconds ago he'd been close to passing out without any further assistance, but the audacity of that word shot new adrenaline through him, and he paced the length of the door and back, seeing each of his siblings mouthing words he couldn't hear and his frustration boiled over.

"I wasn't giving you a choice." He was shouting now, angry the more he watched as his family was locked out in the burning wasteland and he started to make out more details. They weren't only covered in ash, they were barely standing, wounds both old and fresh, reaching and clawing to get in. He had no idea what they went through to get there, to survive. If they even had.

He dismissed the thought immediately that they'd joined the undead. He'd fix it. Over and over again, but first he had to get them inside.

Then it happened. Whatever was keeping them out shattered and they staggered forward without the resistance pushing them back. Any relief he had was short lived. Whatever they went through was radiating off of them, and he could only hover near. Terrified that it was too late and unsure of how to help relieve the pain.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lily holding her wand up and he snapped. His powers reacted, and in a flash of blue, he blinked in front of her with the sword in hand, and he swung widely with every promise to disarm her before she had a chance to attack.

[lancifolium]

Whatever scathing reply she might have given him after he shouted at her was lost forever as the wards finally gave way to the small cluster of undead waiting just beyond. Ready for the inevitable advance of the undead Lily raised her wand, a spell on the tip of her tongue when the line of her vision was broken by the sudden appearance of Five.

Looking deranged and moving towards her faster than the undead behind him, his sword raised Lily lost half a moment, staggering backwards, affronted and aghast before the words 'Petrificus Totalus' shot out of her mouth, purple light shooting out of the tip of her wand to hit Five in the chest.

When he went down the undead behind him advanced, and while the moment this skirmish had ended she would be rattled to the core, all Lily could do now was hold her ground, hurling the Reductor Curse at them as quickly as she was able, disintegrating their bodies on contact.

[somebadnews]

Five made the mistake of giving her an opening, but Lily still managed to surprise him with a single humbling blow. The sword fell noisily a second before he hit the ground, and he couldn't catch himself when he landed roughly beside it. Magic locked his limbs at his sides and his mind raced as a terrible realization set in. This body could control time and space, and he couldn't fucking move. Couldn't turn his head, but out of the corner of his eyes he see them, and he wanted to scream at what he knew occurred right after when she shouted a spell that turned their bodies into ash.

All of them were dead.

It was so like a nightmare that he questioned if he was awake at all. Logic didn't line up the way it should, and he might have been able to sort it out if he weren't gripped with the sudden panic of being rendered helpless. Restraints had never been a problem for him, nothing could hold, and here he was paralyzed and if he weren't so exhausted he would be out of his mind with fury.

He mentally swore her name up and down as he tried to focus on the cause of his torment. Every second weighed on him, and he counted them, waiting for a chance that was quickly slipping away.

[lancifolium]

"Salazar Slytherin's overly pendulous left bollock," she sputtered angrily once the dust had settled, glaring down at Five as her mind raced with possible next steps. Aware that she had to keep moving, and that she couldn't possibly leave Five behind, she was so focused on him that she didn't need to speak to use the Dangling Jinx, lifting Five's immobilized body into the air by the ankle with a sweep of her wand.

"What is wrong with you?" It wasn't like she thought he'd be able to answer, but his actions certainly begged the question.

Holding him aloft, Lily dug her makeup bag out of where she'd tucked it safely in the waist of her jeans, pulling the zipper open with her teeth. Using her wand to steer him, she held the bag open and guided him into it before zippering it shut.

She could hear the advance of the undead, coming in the direction she needed to go. Doing her best to ignore the rising fear that this recent brush with death had brought on, Lily secured the makeup bag in her jeans and tucked her shirt back in, readying her wand and preparing herself to push to the infirmary, where, hopefully, Five could be brought back to his senses.