the harp(y) was a big winged lyre | event + test drive meme

[groundrules]

Hello, hello! Fresh out of the box is the action spanning 14-31 July, also serving as our second test drive meme (TDM). The event is broken in three parts: one exclusive to TDM participants, one that's for the existing crew, and a communal section, as... sparks literally fly, when characters cross paths.

OOC planning & questions are HERE. Existing players can use this log to party, or you can alternatively make your own logs & network posts. Our TDMers are stuck in this playground only, but — to replicate the game experience more faithfully, they can ask questions and briefly interact with NPCS HERE.

Tiny reminder: eastbound is an invite-only game for size control, but if you found yourself here, love the setting or the playerbase but don't know anyone — PM @ groundrules, we'll figure something out. You're welcome to make a note in your top-level comment title, if you're a TDMing newb, shiny and chrome!

TDM TOURISTS | OLD TIMERS | COMMON TIMELINE | NOTES

TDM TOURISTS

A great day to be alive, chipping manicures and clawing out of a salt mine just in time for a befuddled undead cavalry to whisk their visitors away, one by one as they're recovered.

TDM characters receive quartz stones that function as translation and (network) communication devices, before they are presented to Haltham.

Cursing his luck, Haltham informs newcomers they are in the frozen citadel of Sa-Hareth, controlled by undead warlord Anurr. Characters were wrenched free from the mines of deposed death king Unhalad and... two weeks behind the eastbound caravan that is the Merchant's troupe — their one ticket home.

IS THERE AN ACCOMPLICE IN THE HOUSE?

As Haltham brokers their getaway, newcomers are foisted on Caspar and the Lucky Hands, a gang of thieves set to hijack a port delivery of silvered powder. The Hands handle the theft on D-day, but pairs of newcomers are each saddled with a stolen pouch to transport furtively across Sa-Hareth.

They must escape frequent sentinel searches and other petty thieves to rendez-vous within a day at the dark, dusty and overpriced Hog & Mead tavern in the Merchants' Arena.

Anyone caught by local enforcement can spend a few hours imprisoned in a converted fishermen's warehouse, guarded by three underpaid officers, before breaking or talking themselves out. Thank your predecessors, who ruined the only decent jailhouse.

ALL ABOARD

The travel hell punishment fits the larceny crime: after rendez-vous, Caspar, Haltham, two undead and the TDM tourists join some noble passengers, who seek refuge in Taravast after vocally supporting Unhalad.

They board a seven-wagon streetcar pulled by twelve mechanical horses, heading out of Sa-Hareth down the haunted Stairs of Sighs passageway.

To keep the peace, newcomers must pretend to also be disgruntled Unhalad supporters — and to know nothing about the many bags of exotic opiates that Caspar has dragged aboard.

As they advance down the Stairs canyon, characters may observe each night brings a full moon and blood rains that disappear without trace, come morning. They can also hear the melancholic, indecipherable song of a woman — and find themselves dreaming nightly of burning alive, or being buried under hot tar. They will wake alert and increasingly distrustful of their companions.

At one point, the express train horsecar will pass by a galloping arctic bear, which will stop to salute. Do not feed it.

Characters receive a red helleborus brand on their left wrist to identify each other. It disappears within a week's time.

Test drive questions HERE.

» THE NEXT STOP

EXISTING PARTY

THE WAR IN WORDS

The recent emergence of the dark tar-like creatures gradually unsettles Lord Arha and his ghostly armies into violent outbursts. Throughout the day, the legions become progressively corporeal, no longer flickering out of existence and retaining their memories. They remain dead.

The following morning, the harpies throw down their usual homages of splintered aged bone, now alongside withered parchment. The strips feature excerpts from the letters of Arha and the Lady Hatisse — which Mazyar and his people can translate.

After reading one such parchment, a soured Arha takes unasked command of Mazyar's caravan, imposing benevolent but firmly enforced curfews. Grim-faced ghost soldiers start to keep watch of characters at all times. Some will accuse caravan travellers of being witches or spies of Taravast's Attaryl school.

Those crafty enough to pick up Arha's discarded letter can see his hands have smeared it bloodied. Translated, the missive encourages Arha to turn back with his armies from Taravast.

DON'T HARP ON ABOUT IT

All hell breaks loose as Allison, Lily, Wei Wuxian and Five follow tar harpies inside their makeshift "nest" — going down a steep pit into one of the canyon mountains, and reaching the cavernous and shifting corridors of a stone temple. The passageways lead to small chambers that host stone tombs, many opened and still holding the remains of bones and drips of tar.

Angered by the intrusion, the laired harpies turn aggressive and exit into the canyon, starting an attack spree. They throw rocks, claw or fly down and pick up stray animals and humans. Arha and his army can help you defend against the creatures.

With their main entryway compromised, some harpies will leave the lair through the fissured canyon wall, creating a crude and claustrophobic opening. The sorcery contained within the temple will seep out, with magically sensitive characters finding they can no longer quite tell the difference between the living and the dead. (All) characters can now sometimes briefly see the flickered figures of people they deeply miss around them.

Existing character questions HERE.

» AND THEN YOU GET VISITORS.

OLD TIMERS & TDM TROOPS

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BU—

Gone rogue, some harpies will target a rapidly incoming seven-wagon streetcar, destroying or flying away with eight of its 12 mechanical horses, and the sad coachmen. The remaining steeds are completely unmanned.

The existing crew can wave their handkerchiefs as the train horsecar speeds by the caravan, set to crash into a canyon wall — or lend a hand to evacuate our TDMers, more Sa-Hareth refugees, and... our good friend Haltham and two of his creatures. Also, opium.

TDMers can meanwhile (haphazardly) board off or try to take control of the mechanical horses.

Write your starters as you will, or plan out the fate of the train horsecar HERE.

FRIENDS & FAMILY PROGRAMME

Following their unlikely survival, newcomers can join the existing party as part of smuggler merchant Mazyar's prosperous caravan. They will receive food, decent clothes and a donkey, horse or elk mount — a rare upside from the ongoing blood rain weather forecast, and the tar-drenched harpies that throw down aged bone.

They will also notice that Mazyar's caravan has been escorted by a ghost army led by the Lord Arha. He travels to free his lover, the oracle Hatisse from her alleged imprisonment by the witches of Taravast. All characters will experience a blood-curdling dread whenever they think to tell Arha or his men that they are dead — but speaking the words is now possible. Report HERE, if you'd like to break the bad news.

As the caravan stops for a few days, the existing party and newcomers can make merry, recover or raid the open haunted temple — where they may find several untouched stone tombs, including one engraved with a sculpture of Lord Arha. It will prove highly difficult to remove that lid without a group effort... but for that, or any other tomb questions, GO HERE.

NOTES

FRESH MEAT GONNA EAT

TDM events count as game canon, if you app in.

You can do network-style posts & log starters. Invent a username for communicators — but you're stuck with it after!

You can use the two allied NPC undead during the train horsecar disaster portion. Deploy them as you see fit to keep your character alive. The undead come with higher strength, speed, hunting instincts and a... disturbingly cold presence.

Haltham can make last-stand miracles happen for you, but at a heavy price. Inquire here.

OLD TIMERS, THINE WRINKLES SWEET

Existing characters won't be able to tell whether the newcomers or each other are living, dead, memories or ghosts, as a result of the (temporary) temple magic.

...yes, any leftover opiates are up for grabs. Hooligans.

You're welcome to respond to network posts from TDMers — but please keep your network posts in eastbound, think of Ye Olde AC.

Comments

a

[lancifolium]

[ Given already having won the disdain of most of the soldiers for using magic in their presence (or so she gathered from the muttering) Lily prepared the promised cups of tea in her tent before setting off through the camp to find Moran.

Weaving her way through, Lily paused by the fires she passed before finally catching sight of someone going over scraps of parchment beside one. Not sure how engrossed in his task he was she cleared her throat as she approached, offering one of the mugs of tea in her hands to him. ]

Are you Moran?

[ She looked at him hopefully, already itching to take her notebook out and ask him about the parchment he held, whether or not he was the person she presently sought. ]

Re: a

[beitangmoran]

[It actually takes him a second to sort of blink back to reality and look up, giving her a smile at the question.]

That would be me, yes.

[He's learned not to bristle at people calling him by his first name. It seems many here are not familiar that it is not the done thing, and he cannot expect them to call him a title that means nothing to them. It's just a bit weird when before only two or three people ever called him that, and all of them very close to him.]

I take it bits of correspondence have found their way everywhere?

[lancifolium]

[ Seeing someone else being as scrutinizing as she had been over the scraps of paper she had managed to collect from the harpies, Lily couldn't help but look very glad to meet him. ]

I'm Lily, it's wonderful to make your acquaintance.

[ Nodding enthusiastically at the question she took a seat beside him, pulling her bag into her lap and getting her notebook out. Opening it to where she kept the scraps of letter she had come across she held them out for him to look over. ]

I've found other things too, when one of those wall sculptures caught me, they took me to a room with a book of poetry in it. Have you studied much of this place?

[ Having someone to compare notes with about this entire experience would be an outstanding stroke of good luck, and the hopefulness she felt showed on her face. She was tired of having more questions than answers. ]

[beitangmoran]

I have tried to acquire as much knowledge as I could. Learning the local language, or as much of it as I could get my hands on, was a start.

This is a bit different from what I have seen previously, but there are similarities.

[He'll pore over hers scraps, frowning more as he does.]

This conflict of the Attaryl and the Bessis is referenced everywhere, but the end of the story...if they attacked together, either there was no conflict, and she lied to him on purpose to draw him there and have him eliminated, or she and her people were coerced in some way. But whatever her motive, she did draw him to his demise knowingly.

[lancifolium]

[ Finally, someone with solid, sensible priorities. Hearing that he knew the language made her look unexpectedly delighted. She had hoped someone else was inclined to take a more scholarly approach to the predicament the group was in, and seeing that at least one of them had been taking notes was a tremendous relief. ]

Have you mastered the language? Do you think you could show me how you did it?

[ She wouldn't be so presumptuous as to ask him to teach her, but if he explained his method, it would give her something to work on, on her own. Lily swiftly opened her notebook to where she had jotted down everything Izahad, her friend the solider had told her about Arha and their journey to Taravast. There was also a sketch of Izahad in the corner of one page, enchanted to move and play the flute./small> ]

She did, if my friend's account is true, she promised to open the gate for them. I wish we knew more about her end of things, although I'm uncertain she lied - in that bit of letter from him, he almost made it sound as though news of the conflict had reached him by sources other than his lady.

[beitangmoran]

I wouldn't say 'mastered', no. I can barely hold a simple conversation in it, and then again, only in Sa-Hareth's version of it. This is a bit different.

Mostly, I used the accounts books at the farm, and the help of a few friendly locals to decipher some words and the alphabet. I can sound most of the words, but not necessarily know what they mean. I added a bit to my vocabulary with those.

[But that last bit of information is interesting.]

He was a ruler of a nearby power. One would expect him to have spies in places that could give him news.

[lancifolium]

A simple conversation is far more than anyone else that I'm aware of among us. If you're willing to share what you know I'd love to learn.

[ Glancing back at the letters in front of Moran curiously, she considered the two lovers and the apparently massive mess they made. ]

He had a hold over several towns and villages across a wide landscape, spies everywhere would make a world of sense, though what it was that made her turn against him I still don't understand. It's one thing to not want him to come anymore, but it's quite another matter to rain fire down on him when he arrives.

[beitangmoran]

That is the one thing I cannot get to the bottom of. The fact that she betrayed him is rather obvious. But was she deceiving him on purpose, to that very end, from the start? Did she love him and then discard him with no regard to their past feelings? Or did she do it with her heart breaking but without another choice? It's very unclear on that point.

[Her actions seem to be consistent from one version of her story to the next, but her feelings are barely mentioned, mostly glossed over.]

Popular opinion seems to think she was the bad person in this whole thing, but popular opinion is rarely right.