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.

Okay, so, with my brain being soup as of late I'm going to lean towards two aspects of the plot: Paying the consequences of Five's bad life choices and trying to save people from the Godzilla vs. Kong fight happening around the towers.

THE WICKED COLD:

Allison has been almost killed twice and definitely killed in instances that Five has since erased, so she is going to feel the thrall of Anhurr's call and be pulled out into the snow. I'm down to play with all of the aspects there re: hallucinations, and open to setting up multiple instances of her getting drawn into the snow and fished out if needed, but I'll say we'll limit this to three total. (I am also down for group threads if needed.)

MASTER AND COMMANDED:

While Allison will not be liberating one of the towers directly, she will be looking to help bystanders escape. This option is going to be a little more OTA. So if you need someone to motivate your character into joining, or getting fished out or want to dodge this monster movie situation we've got going here, Allison is your girl. I'll probably set up some options in her top level and you are free to go nuts.

If there is an additional thing you really want Allison for, I am open for some wildcard shenanigans, but this is the stuff that pinged me right off the bat so feel free to let me know!

Lan Wangji is set to either bait or anchor, get swarmed at one point and rescued by Emilia, as well as activate the southern tower. Here, if anyone wants to get in on that.

He might also need to lock away his necromancer bff, we'll see.

I'm otherwise open for anything you folks need ~~a tank~~ him for: he's fast, strong and magical. Much of his musical offensive abilities will unfortunately be off the table around the sound-lured xenomorphs. Most of what Lan Wangji can do is exorcise or kill — and this seems like a grave and burial kind of situation.

If you need him helping out with your monsters or your quests, I am heeeere. And not 100% sure if I'm top-leveling just yet, but happy to jump on anyone else's stuff, for sure!

Lily is signed up to be bait for The Huntress, but she’d also make a fair anchor if one is needed.

She will be charging on ahead to the Southern Tower and getting Xenomorphed like a dumbass, she’ll menace Wangji when he arrives (and anyone else on team Southern Tower if you like) before heeding the call of the Beastmaster to go tear up the town - literally. She’s set to have a bit of a co-rampage with XenoSlick as well.

If you’re interested in being menaced let me know, also if you’re feeling merciful and want to knock this poor xenoging out and save her from herself that would be wonderful too!

In the early stages of this hot mess, she’ll be trying to get civilians to safety amidst the chaos, and I’m open to her crossing paths with/helping out anyone who might need it.

Eleven will initially feel compelled to the southern, frozen district and tell himself it's to try and help people that aren't being offered sanctuary. He has fire magic to help endure against the cold, a bit of holy magic to temporarily ward off undead/light-fearing sorts, and hopefully help escort some people to somewhere not frozen.

After that, I've signed him up to go for the northern tower. You know, the dangerous one with all the monsters bc I want him to fight things. Could def use a teammate or two to tackle it effectively. Pls.

Going to try and save his xenomorphed girlfriend at some point.

My goal for this event is to ~~terrify him~~ have an excuse to light up the sky with a flare of Luminary-powered lightning.

Zuko is signed up to be bait, and to help retake the Eastern Tower because being concerned about fire and one’s well-being is for plebes.

Beyond this, he can use his firebending to keep himself warm, and it’ll buy him a little extra time in the southern districts, thus he’ll be running Bessis fire to the people trapped in the frozen districts who need it, or evacuating them/other characters who are getting a little too cold when he can.

I’d also love to toss him at some of the awesome monsters people submitted, so if anyone wants to buddy up to face something horrible let me know!

Five is that special kind of person who can turn being too paranoid to get help into dooming you all, so I'm very happy to play out the consequences. He isn't in great shape, will be extremely concerned for his family, and obviously guilty. While he won't be outing himself to anyone he comes across, he'll feel ~~horrified~~ responsible enough to be more open to teamwork. Do you feel like dealing with someone in the middle of a meltdown? Hang around Five and see what happens.

I'm offering him as an anchor to anyone who needs one. (He'll do fine.) He's your best bet to get out of a tight spot and can teleport you away to a better location.

He's also going to be in a panic trying to find his family and generally enjoying the festive atmosphere. (Obviously he needs to at least see his brother's eldritch monster at some point, but I'd love to play out many of these fun monsters!) This is not his day, so he'll likely get into situations where he needs a hand/people to report on his siblings please.

Otherwise, I'm waiting to see how things pan out to see if he needs to get involved with the towers. If you need him, I'll be able to come up with a good reason for him to be there!

Marcos can help in a bait situation, or to help anyone out who gets into trouble. He's got a pretty good light/heat-based power set, so feel free to take advantage!

That being said, he runs very hot, and can act as a human heater if anyone needs help warming back up after spending time in the cold. (So happy I get to do something with this. Just when I was bummed he missed snow-land.) He already has some plans of this nature with Allison. He'll very likely be tag teaming with Lorna when there's fighting involved, because they work well together and they know it. Where she goes, so goes his army etc.

He'll likely be involved in the skirmishes with the monsters hanging around. (Although again, if he starts to bleed from any major cut it's a whole situation they'll have to deal with. But it will be pretty! Super easy to spot his glowing blood from far away.) Generally Marcos will want to help any way he can, so if you need an extra hand in one of the towers just let me know!

Edited 2021-10-24 02:29 (UTC)

I haven't signed him up for anything yet, mostly I want him to fight monsters.

Despite his contribution to the current state of things, he will admit no wrongdoing and that, instead, he was right to keep the weapons "just in case". As for allocating, he's fine with others deciding who needs what most. After all, he doesn't know everyone or what their needs are.

He will do his best to protect anyone he comes across and keep back whatever monsters might be causing problems. He's quite strong, fast, and capable in this regard.

lorna's been signed up for bait duty and can help when it comes to fighting from a distance (potentially, depending on if there's metal in the area) and has plans to help allison out in the woods with the hallucinations and will be trying to fight by marcos's side as much as she can.

those things aside, i'm pretty open to suggestion, so let me know if you've got anything you'd like to do with her!

The Wicked Cold

I could see the Doctor attempting to deliver some fire to folks... only to have them slam the door in his face. He has a rather grim reputation that might not make him the most welcome houseguest even if he is trying to be helpful. He does have some natural resistance to cold but as this is likely magical cold I think it will only help in in not needing a big heavy coat as long as he doesn't stay outside past that two hour mark.

The Huntress

I think in dealing with her he would be better suited as an Anchor so I signed him up for that. I suggested bringing in the Macra. As there are very few villains in his canon that aren't machines of one kind of another! So if approved he might have to run into some giant crabs at some point.

Master and Commanded

And he might be trying to help with the Western Tower. Those poor guards... They didn't stand a chance really.

The Wicked Cold
So back in Sa-Hareth, Xingchen drank some of the Anurr kool-aid. This alone doesn't mean he would go to the frozen district, but he also very much was poisoned here in Taravast and thus was just days away from dying, so. You know. Just checking those boxes. He would definitely help the residents there, both because he's just a good person and also in a sad attempt to try and make up for some shit he's done. And he'll definitely be hearing voices in the cold. It's very possible Xingchen could just straight up die from hypothermia. Please drag his scrawny ass inside.

The Huntress
I haven't signed him up, but assuming he is brought out of the cold, he could fill in as bait for the Huntress chase, if we end up needing more.

Master and Commanded
I'm not into the idea of Xingchen getting xenomorphed, nor have I signed him up for any tower reclamation, but that could change. Just drag him along somewhere as an extra pair of hands, lol.

Etc.
I'm a bad person and I'm okay with Xingchen biting it in Taravast, honestly. Again, it could be from the cold, or maybe he has a run-in with one of the myriad monsters running around, or maybe he even saves your character in the process. Hit me up if any of that sounds interesting!

the wicked cold

There's never a day off in this city, is there? Hermione gives up on maintaining her cover as a modiste at the first given opportunity. When the citizens of Taravast beg the wealthy for supplies, she will transfigure all her fabrics into blankets and bundle them up into her bag, which by now has the extension charms on it again (she keeps busy); she'll venture out into the cold, Warming Spell cast on herself, and deliver as many as she can before she starts to get frosty. Then she'll Apparate back to her room if possible.

It's likely one trip won't be enough to distribute all the blankets so she'll try to do it again; gives plenty of opportunities to find her and a. ask her to look at her life choices or b. try to help.

At one point during these trips, she'll seek out additional stamina potions & one more wand.

the huntress

Volunteered as bait. To keep myself sane, I can manage 3 separate team-ups throughout, but I'd love to have them make some narrative sense - anyone who's interested in plotting out the team-up from joining forces to being split apart, holler at me.

master and commanded

I can never say no to fire, so Hermione will be trying to capture the Eastern Tower. Heyyyyy, witches.

etc.

Generally not into her kicking the bucket at this point, but I expect it to be a hard time nonetheless. Who wants to overhear her muttered rants about war being hell?

Also, it's Spooktober, so I vote for Hermione ending this whole thing wearing a pointy witch hat.

I don't have much time coming up int he next two weeks unfortunately, so : Moran will be with the Attaryl witches, keeping an eye on Vannozza, Macaluso and Bonnacorso and all the gentry and trying to coordinate rescue efforts for the citizenry because he has actual experience doing that, figures ruling and actual empire would help with this.

And also taking care of his new niece who has just arrived and is kindly asked not to get in trouble.

He may or may not end up in trouble if Xunxian also gets in trouble because we are not doing the dying thing again, Su Xunxian.

I'll probably be mostly tagging around to people's open prompts where it would make sense for him, but if you fele liek you need him or if you want him to have a future vision of some kind to either confuse your character or help them, hit me up.

Xie Lian isn't too happy with his buddy anurr so he'll be doing his best to help the citizens of the southern district and killing monsters.

And you watch him lose his entire shit at encountering White-No face while he does that.

I'll probably top level for him a bit later, but he'll be also mostly tag around for this unless wanted for something specific.

Slick is going to be directing evacuees during the early stages of the event, and working on getting defenses set up so those that can't make it to the protection of the witches will still have some ability to fend off the impending shitestorm. If anybody wants a trained professional on the scene, let me know.

Slick is signed up as an anchor or emergency bait for the Huntress, and is going to be tackling the Southern Tower with Lily. Team Friendship!

...Which unfortunately isn't enough to keep them from getting captured and xeno'd when a magical evasion tactic goes awry. Both of them are going to get quite thoroughly xenoed, with Slick losing his armor (somebody please save that for him!) and ending up extensively carapaced, including a hardening and cracking of his face. That's not to say he's not flexible, though. Horribly flexible.

If you want to be xeno menaced by somebody who's thought about this far too much, I am very down for that. I'm also down for getting his uncanny xeno ass saved by somebody. Once he's gone on a co-rampage with Lily and anybody else who wants in on the monster-y fun.

(All pictures enthusiastically credited to Molly Brown. More of her work can be seen at freeindarkness on Tumblr and deadlymelodic on Instagram. She also has a horror creature design course available on Class101. Check out her stuff!)

Cold: Wrath will be saving people. He is pretty much immune to cold even magical cold. In a snow storm in Hell, he was entirely unaffected even his hair and clothing stayed in place without any snow in it. His body heat is very warm too so y'know. Feel free to see him in the snow completely unaffected by it or to need saving so he can just pick you up and drop you off somewhere warm. He has no bedside manner fyi. Dang mortals always getting into trouble.

The Huntress: Wrath will be compelled to follow the Huntress, but he will be aware of it so. The first day he will assume that he is fine, because he is Satan and obviously he can fight back against this compulsion, but by the end of the day... he'll give in. Emilia will save him dramatically and beautifully and badass-ly (the visuals we created are /chef's kiss). Up until then, there will likely be moments where he will start to lose himself a little if anyone wants to catch that/snap him out of it. This is his actual Nightmare. Freewill matters so incredibly much to him. Once he is brought back by Emilia, he will have to spend the next two days fighting against the compulsion. Sometimes he'll be shackled, sometimes in a room fighting the compulsion. May need help w/ that-guard him, distract him, maybe joint witch sleep spells to give him some relief?? He will not want to feel this way anymore and may not have much choice cause he is eternal and does not get affected by much. No one wants him on the Huntress' side, it would be terrifying and many people would die.

On the final day, he will be full of terrifying, unbridled, and unholy rage, and he will be unleashing it on the monsters- complete with taking sides of buildings down on top of some to stop them, killing as many as he can with his dagger, moving inhumanly fast and strong and being a demonic beast fully unleashed upon the world. Feel free to mistake him for one of the monsters or be saved by him and his puppy or both. At the end of the final day, he will find his horse-sized hellhound, and it will be following him and killing monsters alongside him as it bites into them with its dinner knife shaped teeth. Nom. Good boys who deserve good treats.

Eastern Tower: He's part of a nice little team here ~~with his wife~~. He will probably be generating the General side of him which involves a lot of coordination, staying near Emilia cause this Event has been the worst, helping teammates out on the way up, catching a glimpse of himself with wings in one of the mirrors.

In the aftermath, he will be a bit of a mess due to total lack of control/freewill. He gave up everything so he could have the ability to choose before. But it's... fine.

QUESTIONS

BAITS & ANCHORS | THE HUNTRESS CHASE

MONSTER LIST

MONSTER SUBMISSIONS

TOWER ACTIVATION SIGN-UPS