lostcompass | the beastmaster and...

The Huntress must be prevented from staying in one place too long, or her presence will corrupt and eventually succumb the grounds. To achieve this, characters and NPC witches can lure her on wild chases throughout the various districts of Taravast.

It is best to do this in teams, or at least pairs: a bait and at least one anchor.

The bait will run on foot or horse ahead of the Huntress, luring her with torches lit with the endless fire of the Bessis or light magic. If they have their own magic, and especially if they practise it in some way while running, they will be of especial interest to the Huntress.

✘ The healers of Taravast can provide potions to increase stamina to up to four hours.

✘ Beware looking in the Huntress' eyes, if you are caught. You still have a chance to live if only she alone has found you, by outrunning her.

✘ Would not recommend trying to fight her: you're unlikely to kill her before her creatures catch up.

✘ If the Huntress’ retinue — typically some five minutes’ distance from her — catches you, it’s probably Game Over.

Anchors can perform multiple functions, and a bait should ideally have more than one. The anchor role is best suited for characters who have a sense of organisation/strategy, but lack physical prowess or magical ability. Anchors can:

✘ Take a high-post position on top of Taravast’s higher buildings and, using binoculars, use the communicator to guide the bait down freer roads. You will be relatively safe on rooftops, but will have to move with the bait.

✘ Find and direct the bait to shelter or any recharge area if they are wounded, need a fresh horse, water, etc.

✘ Intervene and divert the Huntress or her retinue from the bait, if the bait is cornered. This will require the anchor to be on the ground too, opening them to potential risk.

✘ Talk to other anchors or baits to take the ‘shift’ over, if your bait has finished their chase, or needs urgently to have the Huntress distracted away from them.

If you want to participate, reply here, one comment/character, putting BAIT or ANCHOR in your reply header. If your character’s a bait, say how they’ll be running and what they’ll be using as lure (fire/magic). If your character’s a potential anchor, mention what you’d like them to do.

Find teammates here, or in your logs! The same anchor team can probably serve more than one bait, since their role is less physically taxing.

the others
submitted by: ~~sansa stark~~ alayne stone ( notsansa )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: A Song of Ice and Fire
HOW MANY PRESENT? Two.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: (from GRRM/the wiki) "Strange, beautiful… think the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous." They are not actually dead. They wear delicate, reflective, camouflaging armor, able to pick up the images of things around like a clear pond. They and their blades seem to be made of an ice from another dimension, colder than should be possible and freezing things on contact.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: Probably hanging where it's coldest, or where they can find the most ~~converts~~ hot-blooded people. They'll likely kill anyone alive in their path, but can be hidden from and out maneuvered, especially if distracted. White mist is a good indicator of their proximity.

ATTACKS: They're skilled sword fighters, and when their swords touch another blade it's like a high-pitched shriek of an animal in pain. Stronger than a normal person, and their frozen blades can freeze and shatter steel blades.

WEAKNESSES: Any weapon made of obsidian. Fire can destroy animated wights, and hurt/dismay the Others. Magic fire should be able to kill Others.

the white no-face
submitted by: xie lian ( scrapgege )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: Tian Guan Ci Fu
HOW MANY PRESENT? Just the one.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Bai Wuxiang is a tall youth donned in a white funeral garb with wide sleeves and a white mask showing a half-laughing, half-crying face. Beneath the mask, he hides his scarred face from Human-face Disease.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: He'll roam in dark streets, mostly.

ATTACKS: General manipulation is his schtick. He'll fight with illusions from the victim's world and swords alike.

WEAKNESSES: Bai Wuxiang is technically a ghost king/Calamity, and this will be more of an illusion than the real thing, so anything that could kill a really powerful ghost will work on him, whether it's spiritual swords, qi attack, seals, talismans, or straight up punching. You'll just need to do it a lot for it to work.

ghost-head spider
submitted by: shen qingqiu ( softheartedshizun )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Proud Immortal Demon's Way)
HOW MANY PRESENT? with mod dispensation, twelve

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: A spider the size and shape of a decapitated human head.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: They can be found in caves and forests, generally in groups. Here, they would stick around dark corners and alleys. Where there is one, there are more. They can jump up to double human height and further than 12 feet.

ATTACKS: sharp legs allow them to puncture the temples of their victims and suck their brain out. They tend to jump on faces, and swarm their prey.

WEAKNESSES: Easily stabbed dead, most vulnerable on its underside.

empress dowager of huangdao empire
submitted by: beitang moran ( beitangmoran )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: Oh! My Emperor, Huangdao
HOW MANY PRESENT? one

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This, plus four Imperial Soldiers.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: lurking in on one of the main piazzas and ordering the execution of passers-by.

ATTACKS: All she can do is sic her soldiers on you.

WEAKNESSES: She's technically entirely human.

wine gourd
submitted by: chu wanning ( wooden_one )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: The Husky and His White Cat Shizun
HOW MANY PRESENT? two

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: A giant gourd, roughly as tall as two human adults. It has a mouth, arms and legs.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: One of a pair of gourd demons that together make up the Wine and Lust Gourds. It's not terribly dangerous, but it will only listen to someone who can beat it in a drinking contest. Doesn't speak human tongues, mostly making a gulugulupo sound. Can speak with plant people. Has a pearlescent shine and sprays pink mist from its top, but also sometimes drops of wine.

ATTACKS: Run after people and spray wine in their mouths until they can't drink anymore. May offer a cup if asked/threatened... assuming one is able to communicate with it.

WEAKNESSES: outdrink it. When it loses, it turns back into a small green gourd in a puff of smoke. Could also be scared off by someone scary or powerful.

eldritch horror
submitted by: five ( somebadnews )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: Umbrella Academy
HOW MANY PRESENT? one

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: In canon we only see the tentacles, pictured here. Your basic horrific giant tentacle monster who probably has teeth in the middle somewhere. For something more visual, think something like this.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: Likely to gravitate towards any gathering groups. Favours roofs/high places.

ATTACKS: the Eldritch creature likes to attack by grabbing bodies and flinging them in the air, against surfaces and the ground until they are a bloody pulp. Its tentacles have a rather large reach.

WEAKNESSES: You'd probably want to go for the squishy middle where the mouth might be, trying to cut off or evade the tentacles at all costs.

hellhound
submitted by: wrath ( inferus )

WORLD OF ORIGIN: Kingdom of the Wicked
HOW MANY PRESENT? three

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Three-headed dog-like creature, whose fur is white like the snow and whose eyes are glacier-blue, with teeth like dinner knives. One is the size of a horse, the other two are the size of dogs.

GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: Prowling the streets indiscriminately like a wild predator. Their attacks are fast and brutal, and they will hunt you down when they catch scent of you or decide you're their prey.

ATTACKS: Tear you apart with its teeth and claws.

WEAKNESSES: Can be killed with any weapon or magic. More susceptible to light magic, but will likely get in some bites on the way down. Please leave the horse-sized one alive for Wrath to find at the end of the last day. You can hide from it by smelling like death itself, aka cover yourself in some corpse remains or hide among corpses, and it won't be interested. Or you can trip into some corpses and marvel at your luck.

Edited 2021-10-24 21:39 (UTC)

Fill out the below form if you want to submit a monster or a monstered adaptation from your character’s home world for the Huntress’ retinue. You can even make a hyperbolic version of a character/thing your character fears. Ex: a violent high school bully who steals lunches translates as a cannibal giant with the bully's general likeness.

Let’s keep it to one monster type per character.

Please be generous with nerfing monster powers or adjusting their weaknesses so that they’re still surmountable by the average Eastbounder! Avoid submitting monsters that only your character can overcome, or whose defeat requires specific weapons/skills/items unique to your character's home world.

Once submitted, these monsters will go up ON THE LIST. No edits are accepted after that.

Thanks!

Sign up here to infiltrate one of the cardinal-point towers. You can find a very brief description of each tower below — this is for OOC knowledge only. Your character wouldn’t know what to expect, going in.

Characters will be supplied the relevant passcodes and instructions on how to activate the towers.

Team work is dream work! Comment under the tower your character would like to go to, say what they can help with, and tag around to make a team. Please comment back with a link to your log/post where the tower has been activated, to count that towards the mission objective.

✘ Very tall tower, narrow and dark, twelve floors. Good condition.
✘ Absolutely infested with creatures, from ground level to level six. Fewer of them, the higher you go. The most dangerous tower.
✘ Most creatures are dormant, but can stir easily.
✘ To activate it, reach the last floor and turn back a large clock, saying: "the powerful, whose blind eyes see."

✘ Short, stout, six levels. Wide. Battered at the lowest level, fairly intact at the higher ones.
✘ Shortage of creatures here, though scratches on the very thick walls indicate they were (are?) present.
✘ Activating the tower requires characters to climb all the way to the twelfth tower and toll a bell, saying: "light, blight and holy."
✘ You’ve guessed it: the moment that dreadful bell noise starts, creatures start swarming up the levels. Close the doors best you can and cordon off the last level against the creatures. After, best to escape down parapets and walk the walls out than to go down the tower.

✘ Eight-level tower, highly torn down. Blood and corpses strewn about, suggesting guards could not evacuate the tower in time.
✘ Beware the high and adorned ceilings, where several creatures have tangled up and sleep. They can fall down on characters and try to enshroud them and take them back up for cocooning.
✘ To activate the tower, pick out the eight emerald stones discarded among other gems on the war table and arrange them in a circle, saying: "he looks upon skies vast and men cruel."

✘ Ten-level tower, burning.
✘ The creatures are largely outside the tower, as they also avoid the horrible flames. If you take on this tower, move very quickly, as parts of the structure are likely to collapse.
✘ Those creatures that are inside are particularly fast and vicious.
✘ To activate the tower, reach the topmost level, where several mirrors are located, showing you at various stages of ageing. Find the one that shows you as a crone and, standing before it, say, "and weeps, for his soul must live again aground."
✘ You only have to stay behind fifteen minutes to keep this tower active.

Let's do this.

I can volunteer one [1] tank and his surprised Pikachu face when the bell tolling wakes the undead.

He's very good at grandstading.

Unfortunately, his best attacks rely on music (sound), so... he might be as helpful as he is detrimental to the cause.

Let's get this lifeboat party going Billy Zane. I have one magic ginger here to help and then get skirted off to be cocooned

............he'll have to come back for her, God damn it, ginger child.

Papa she was just trying to help

How are we defining "monster" for the purpose of drawing things in from home canons? Can droids or other inorganic beings count as monsters, or would they need to be adapted?

Good question! I think I'll need it to be organic, if possible. Do you have something like that, or can we work a droid? Just make its wires flesh-born/intestines, its metal plates carapacea, and you should be... transitioned?

~~True switching~~ I can offer Lan Wangji up as either role — in a shocking turn of events, where this man has actual value.

As a bait, he's fast and ~~furious~~ possessed of strong magic, with deep stamina. He will need very firm and clar guidance, if you want to direct him anywhere.

As an anchor, he'd be very good on the ground, effectively freeing up pathways / running ahead of the bait. Communication isn't his, ah, forte, so we might need a third person to handle that side of things.

Let me know if you want him for either...!

MONSTER NAME: Others 
CANON/WORLD THE MONSTER HAILS FROM: A Song of Ice and Fire
HOW MANY OF THESE DO YOU WANT AROUND? Two, perhaps?
LOOSE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: (from GRRM/the wiki) "Strange, beautiful… think the Sidhe made of ice, something like that… a different sort of life… inhuman, elegant, dangerous." They are not actually dead. They wear delicate, reflective, camouflaging armor, able to pick up the images of things around like a clear pond. They and their blades seem to be made of an ice from another dimension, colder than should be possible and freezing things on contact.
GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: Probably hanging where it's coldest, or where they can find the most <strike>converts</strike> hot-blooded people. They'll likely kill anyone alive in their path, but can be hidden from and out maneuvered, especially if distracted. White mist is a good indicator of their proximity.
ATTACKS: They're skilled sword fighters, and when their swords touch another blade it's like a high-pitched shriek of an animal in pain. Stronger than a normal person, and their frozen blades can freeze and shatter steel blades. They can attempt resurrecting dead men as 'wights'.
WEAKNESSES/HOW CAN IT BE DEFEATED? Any weapon made of obsidian. Fire can destroy animated wights, and hurt/dismay the Others. For the sake of this plot I'd think magic fire should be able to kill Others.

MONSTER NAME: Bai Wuxiang, aka the White-Clothed Calamity, aka White No-Face
CANON/WORLD THE MONSTER HAILS FROM: Tian Guan Ci Fu
HOW MANY OF THESE DO YOU WANT AROUND? Just the one, that's way more than enough
LOOSE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Bai Wuxiang is a tall youth donned in a white funeral garb with wide sleeves and a white mask showing a <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/heaven-officials-blessing/images/7/7f/Baiwuxiang.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200212134758">half-laughing, half-crying face</a>. Beneath the mask he hides his scarred face from Human-face Disease.
GENERAL BEHAVIOUR: He's going to be roaming about in dark streets, mostly.
ATTACKS: His ultimate goal is technically to torture Xie Lian, but in general manipulation is his schtick... but he's also a very souped down version of a ghost king, so he'll fight with illusion and swords alike. basically, he wants to make people relive his own personal hell and admit no one can be good.
WEAKNESSES/HOW CAN IT BE DEFEATED? Bai Wuxiang is technically a ghost king/Calamity, and this will be more of an illusion than the real thing, so anything that could kill a really powerful ghost will work on him, whether it's spiritual swords, qi attack, seals, talismans, or straight up punching. You'll just need to do it a lot for it to work.

That can be done! Could things like shields and energy weapons be explained by Magical Business, or should they be replaced with something organic as well (swarms of energy-deflecting insects, horrible caustic projectiles, etc?)

Thank you, added! I've just taken away their resurrection powers, but otherwise, this is up. Thank you for the donation :)

I leave that up to your artistic inclination!

Edited 2021-10-23 19:38 (UTC)

To qualify as having "nearly died" does it need to have happened while in this world, or could it have been a past near-death experience?

Juuuust for the write-up - what kind of illusions does our fella like to use? Of monsters, or from the victim's mind, or...?

Anywhere, at any point you want. And remember, death is... apparently relative. If someone with a peanut allergy was saw a Snickers bar and their player is really feeling this loophole, we'll allow their near-death experience to count.

the beastmaster and...

QUESTIONS

BAITS & ANCHORS | THE HUNTRESS CHASE

MONSTER LIST

MONSTER SUBMISSIONS

TOWER ACTIVATION SIGN-UPS

NORTHERN TOWER

SOUTHERN TOWER

WESTERN TOWER

EASTERN TOWER

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BAIT OR ANCHOR

winter is here!

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indeed, winter is!

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