interlude: ellethia

[groundrules]

ELLETHIA

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Goodbye & farewell to Taravast, as the party heads into the mysterious, if sadly downtrodden Ellethia. Our latest log has gone up to cover 3-17 January, and you can make your individual plotting comments or ask questions here!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

[song_of_fire]

Time for my obvious question: how do animal companions respond to the new locale? Are they effected by the environment in any way? What can dragons, hunt here?

[groundrules]

Heya - as an outsider to Ellethia, Drogon won't be affected in any way by what has befallen the other animals. There is plenty of wildlife for him to feast on: rabbits, deer, goats, other field animals I am likely forgetting...

[notsansa]

1. Those who share their names with these creatures feel compelled to take them to ground. What about fake names/aliases (like Alayne)?

2. Characters must don their fashionable red gear once they reach land. Over 15 minutes of direct exposure to the crisp Ellethia air leads unprotected skin to erupt in a rash, then into gashes and tissue-deep decay. The wound fully regenerates within the hour. So characters can remove these suits to take care of, um, bathroom needs like going potty and bathing so long as it's quick? Please say our characters can bathe or it's going to get terribly rank up in there. Also, how do they eat? Take the helmets off and mash food into their mouths like they're employees at Walmart taking their 15 minute break? This may all be obvious, but I'm just triple checking on how it works.

[groundrules]

1. False names/pseudonyms won't work.

2. Yes, that's correct - you have to do your tasks in 14 minutes 59 seconds.

You can go bare, do your thing, cover up for a while, go bare again, etc.

[chosenbylight]

Is it the candle itself or just light that is warding away evil/scaring the mermaids off? Asking for a Light Priest...

[groundrules]

It's the candle light, specifically. You can definitely use other types of light or fire to light the candle again, but these resources won't substitute the candle light.

You're absolutely done for if every passenger on a boat tosses their candle overboard, in other words.

[blackscales]

1) Was I too last minute to qualify Wrathion for a small token for posting up about helping with the rebuild? If Y, don't worry, If N, only wanted him to ask for a book on herb properties in the area to buy Hermione's friendship with because he's still vaguely thinking about his conversation with her about how he doesn't know what the fuck anything does here. I figure he can't carry too many anyway on this travel-light trip.

2) I'm assuming the skin decay applies to even Wrathion who is only pretending to be a human and is secretly a giant lizard--

Assuming it DOES he'll probably test it for a hot second anyway. So ​-- when Anduin punches him you can see it kind of... breaks his visage for a minute? Like his skin goes black with a scale texture and sort of flame effect, but then it vanishes away like the visage papers over it all "nothing to see here, just normal human skin."

How do you feel about this impacting him the same way? Sort of patches of decay appearing then vanishing under his visage but probably still hurting underneath it etc while he tries to play it off and rapidly suit back up? I like the visual mental image of it weirdly crawling over his skin and then vanishing do you agree Y/Y

3) This is just a formal complain on behalf of fire wielders that they gotta light candles, fire is superior how dare you make them wield puny candles, Ellethia sucks 0/10 on trip advisor

[groundrules]

Heya!

1. No, I'm sorry - I just missed it. That's a perfectly adequate reward. Toss in a book about astronomy. You'll need it later.

2. Yes, that would sadly still apply.

He should also stay humanoid throughout this, that spandex won't stretch to giant lizard.

So, the way I imagined it, but didn't put down too graphically for fear of spooking y'all, is that exposed skin effectively starts imitating the decay-rebirth cycle. It's not pretty. You're welcome to play that into his glamour — the point isn't whether it's visible or not, it's just what flesh does in Ellethia.

3. But the candle industry is really booming.

[reparo]

dear diary,

life's fine, a dragon's trying to buy my favour so that's happening i guess

[topoiran]

1. Any comprehension / communication possibility between Su Xunxian and the mermaids? I know that he couldn't really reach the undead ones before.

2. Would... there be, say, a fish / sea creature large enough that might attempt to carry two men towards the lighthouse, separate from the boats? Possibly for the future, would that be a possible means to reach it?

3. Is the falling in water cold marking applicable for Ellethia-Hamsour or only for the journey there?

[groundrules]

Heya -

1. Hmmmm okay, let's give Su Xunxian a little help - yes, he can sort of communicate with the living ones. Basic takeaways: they're feral, boast a good appetite, and they'll eat anything.

2. Like a whale? In theory, but you'd have to protect your 'vehicle' from the mermaids. You're kind of calling that thing to die, if you get it close enough to shore that the mermaids can take an interest, basically. But if you're okay with the whale taking the hit, by all means.

3. Only for the journey!

[violetchaos]

If Yen was irritated enough by the whole situation and tried to portal off one of the boats, how would that go for her? Is magic even possible on the boats?

Cause you know she'll try.

[groundrules]

Remind me again — she doesn't need to have previously seen or been to the areas she teleports to, right? Her pre-existing knowledge of an area isn't a limitation, right?

[blackscales]

Bonus question:

I can see mention that the Lighthouse is a thrall pulling people to it. Is it just a flat magical effect drawing their interest or is there any sentience to it? I know the detail will be up later and that's all chill, just poking at this aspect for now because Wrathion has a whole backstory of being hypervigilant to mental nonsense from Old Gods trying to whisper people into doing all sorts of things so it would have a... reasonable impact on him if he thought something was compelling him. He's fine, it's fine, it's not like he cares, but he does care a lot okay yes.

[groundrules]

Everyone's too far out of reach for whatever's in the lighthouse to make a difference right now.

[cairhien]

in ellethia are there fish in the canal? :3

[groundrules]

Y..................... es.

[inferus]

For science, what would happen if Wrath were to kill an animal and then just watch over it/keep it near for awhile to see what happens? Would it return to life at the start of the cycle like those dying from old age, or remain killed?

[groundrules]

It would stay dead!

By the same principle: the bones of the deer you eat at camp-side won't coalesce back into an animal at dawns.

[lancifolium]

So we're lorehounding, so what.

What, if anything can be gleaned from copies of the pamphlets 90 Days Since Conscription: Where Are Your Sons?, Taravast Was Our Fathers’ Question, We Are the Answer, and Who Watches through Your Mirrors? If repairing magic has to be used to get them to be legible so be it.

Are there any other interesting bits of information about Ellethia and what happened to be gleaned by extensively poking around looking for books (and using a bubblehead charm to get at things underwater if it comes to it)?

If people head to the botanical gardens what's the situation like?

[groundrules]

Hello!

1. The pamphlets are mostly self-contained and require no real magical reconstruction. The water damage might make some parts slightly illegible, but wouldn't bar readers from overall gleaning the following:

90 Days Since Conscription: Where Are Your Sons? it is unclear what the purpose of the conscription was, but the poster drawing shows hesitant young men being forcibly removed by a lawman from the loving grasps of their weeping families, while a man toying with a fire ball watches on with a smile.

Taravast Was Our Father's Question: includes a few paragraphs on why Ellethia must pursue its own path to growth and thriving glory, rather than remain locked in this ongoing rivalry for magical exploration with Taravast. The essay argues that constantly benchmarking off Taravast will stunt Ellethia's true progress.

Who Watches through Your Mirrors? a community group questions whether the newly debuted mirrors of luck, counsel or protection that have become popular in Ellethia are not secretly being used by the government to spy on its citizens. The group argues that Ellethia has come to overrely on magic that only the elite understand, ensuring their wealth and prosperity.


2. Are there any other interesting bits of information about Ellethia and what happened

Bear with me — what happened...?


3. A visit to the botanical gardens will reveal hundreds of stone plats, some marked with names. The phrase Truth Bows Only to the Sun, also found on the plates of Ellethia-Hamsour, is engraved on some of the plates. Most stone pieces have been cut to the same size, but the discrepancy in length/width and the cracks in the engravings suggest a rushed job. There are no actual graves. The dates inscribed on the plates show the deceased passed at various ages: children, adults, elders. They all perished in the same year. The plates that mention a day show the same one.

[bearshermark]

Would Eleven glean any strange impressions from the flora anywhere around Ellethia? Just vibing with some overgrown plants, making vaguely curious spiritual noises at trees while he meditates and takes in the flush of Life like a sponge.

[chosenbylight]

Before I reply to point this out to a character, I just want to ask to clarify:

"In some manicured gardens, flowers have overtaken hundreds of newer stone plates bearing local names and the marker, Truth Bows Only to the Sun."

Those local names were like. Peoples' names, right? Like as in grave markers? Or am I reading that all wrong haha

[reparo]

hi hello
very sorry for going back to find the right event for this question but BACK WHEN I WAS NOT ON HIATUS while they were in elletheia, wrathion and hermione agreed to go looking for Widow's Yearning. most specifically bc hermione's always down to brew some potions.

they would have shaken each other awake one way or another. could they have collected some cuttings/samples? they would've shared them with enam (but hermione would've kept one) (handful)