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lostcompass2022-02-14 07:45 pm
groundrules) wrote in lostcompass2022-02-14 07:45 pm
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arc iii: house of ravens
Welcome to Arc III: House of Ravens — with brand new locations and individual curses and 'family' residential assignments.
As we depart lore-laden Ellethia, pass your eyes over a few key takeaways. It's all aboard on the vessel Salamera II for a trip by sea over 14-22 February, before arriving at the elusive village of Waihu-Jeou.
Jump into plotting, after a quick peek at what to expect from the arrival log of 23 February, which will also serve as our test drive meme.
As the Ellethia travel arc has been fertile ground for background revelations, here is a small, incomplete selection of some of the key information gained & publicly revealed by party members over the network, info share sessions, etc. Characters can be assumed to have access to this background:
- ■ Ellethia was racing to outdo the feats of Taravast’s Attaryl witches, who prevailed to extend lifespans.
■ The Sleepers of the lighthouse, known to the Merchant and attended by caretaker Zenobius, were technicians overseeing mirror experimentation in Ellethia's Institute of Technology. Ellethian civilians were conscripted for trials.
■ Zenobius once gifted a doll to fellow technician Matthias Lemaitre — a ‘pale man,’ newly returned from mourning.
■ The previous lead technician resigned, citing ‘ethical concerns’ and ‘national safety.’ They were grudgingly replaced by Matthias.
■ The undead appeared at the institute between midday and sunset of the same day. Fleeing slaughter, Zenobius was pushed into a well by Matthias. He returned after the Sleepers had already engaged with a destroyed 10th floor mirror.
■ The institute was converted into a lighthouse, which a thralled Zenobius used to lure ships to their mermaid-driven doom. Hundreds of sailors’ bodies lie in the coastal seas. There is no death on Ellethia. The close lighthouse premises are unaffected by Ellethia’s accelerated life-rebirth cycles.
■ The lighthouse thrives off granting wishes.
■ Parts of the broken mirror on the 10th floor are thrown into waters to pacify mermaids. Party members were lured to rebuild the mirror. Upon completion, a man fitting Matthias’ description briefly dragged Jon Snow into the amorphous, dark and aquatic mirror-realm, where a creature hungered for shape.
■ The mermaids obsessively covet the lighthouse and mirror despite their wishes or exhaustion.
■ Zenobius’ ‘duties’ ended when the Sleepers died. At that time, he also fell into Sleep, and the lighthouse premises lost their self-replenishing sustenance.
Full details on all the uncovered information can be found in the February plot roll write-ups, here and here.
On 14 February, the Merchant shows his love by sending a large commercial vessel — the Salamera II — to retrieve the party from Ellethia.
To protect the crew, the vessel cannot berth and stays at a sullen distance that characters must cross in their protective red gear by small boat. Pair up in groups of two or three and beware the vicious, waiting mermaids, who will attempt to grab travellers, drag them into water and drown them. Good luck with that.
Characters no longer need to wear their red garments once they have boarded the Salamera II. They receive fresh clothes and ample water and feeding throughout their journey, which lasts until 22 February. A fresh (if gristly) body has been brought along for Kaneki. The crew reluctantly accepts Wei Wuxian’s petition to bring aboard the sleeping Zenobius.
As they depart, the merry mayhemers can see the lighthouse’s topmost floor crumble down, leaving behind just the ruined infrastructure of the Institute of Technology. The intensely sharp-eyed can see a frail figure at the top of the tower, watching on.
In exchange for their hospitality, the captain of the Salamera II requires newcomers to earn their keep through honest labour: cleaning the decks, keeping watch, fishing, assisting in the kitchens (not you, Xie Lian), or looking after the ship’s prized merchantry wares — dozens of exotic parrots, who proudly utter interesting, mean, fond or perverse truths at passers-by in perfect imitations of any voices they’ve heard.
Very heavy storms spark over 17-20 February, with strong winds quaking the Salamera II and threatening to throw voyagers off board — get help asap, if you or the sailors fall over, and lend a helpful hand with any injuries in the line of duty. The Salamera II may need some moderate repairs once the storms break — while handsome shark circle by, waiting for anyone to slip in.
After a... peaceful journey by sea, the group discharges at Waihu-Jeou, informally known as Ke-Waihu — the first of three interlinked villages, which encircle a mountain, its haunted forests and the eerie House of Ravens. A developing guide of the locations is here and will be updated as the second and third village (Waiar-Seong /Ke-Waiar and Waicai-Lian/Ke-Waicai) become available.
The villages have a reputation for their devotion to local divinity and their community spirit, but have suffered a strange spell of chronic drought. The Merchant has heard of underground trafficking of young villagers and other conscripts, funnelled to the forces of the undead lieges. The villagers meanwhile speak of being forced to offer human sacrifice to the House of Ravens, to abate the unyielding drought and other curses. They offer to show newcomers to their beacon, if they assist.
Characters are introduced as part of family or clan units, which have been assigned here. You can huddle up and decide what the clan’s identity story is (refugees? merchants? pilgrims?), and who everyone is within that unit. The Merchant has alerted the villagers that fresh tranches of remaining family members could arrive.
To be fully integrated into the villages, party members must join in the regional faith and accept curses, so they can proudly atone for the sins of long deceased local ancestors — then, for their own wrongdoings. You have the entirety of Arc III (roughly three months) to carry out this redemption work...!
The group’s tasks over Arc III are to:
- ■ Main: end the tributes to the House of Ravens to learn the beacon’s location from the villagers.
■ Atone for ancestral and individual sins.
■ Optional: investigate the village drought.
■ Optional: end the conscription circuit that supplies the undead Brotherhood with new legions.
You’ll get the full feast of details when the Arc III arrival log / Test Drive Meme lands on 23 February, but here’s a small “spoiler-free” summary of some things to expect. This does not include events exclusive to test drivers!
Prepare to…
- ■ Confront a pack of bandits (...yes, hooligans may steal their loot).
■Get lost intraverse a forest area where the environment briefly shifts to spaces from characters’ home worlds, also visible to other travellers. This and certain distractions could lure characters to the forest’s unique dangers.
■ Enter the villages and accept the ancestral curses.
■ Take ownership of dwellings as 'blessed' families.
■ Join the village during a strange banquet celebrating multiple weddings and participate in a particular rite of the procession. Face the blood-curdling morning after, under the curse of the regional fox spirits.
■ Lift the curse of the fox spirits by capturing them in the forest or helping track down and rebuild their ancient miniature worship sites.
■ Behold the first of the drought and its ‘dark waters.’
Feel free to plot & plan for the arrival log here. Make friends. Make families. Throw a plotting form on top:
Wrathion | Warcraft
CHARACTER: Wrathion
CONTACT: PM, or ping me in the discord server -- if you aren't in it and want to chat I can PM you my handle!
CHARACTER FAMILY #
#6 | Rufus, Su Xunxian, Marcos, Chu Wanning! Sorry to all of you. At least I can say he won't ask for much?
ANCESTRAL CURSE PLANS?
A horny guard let some graves be defiled. Wrathion doesn't know much about what would help there, so he'll probably initially try to work out if anything has been done for the graves already (to... undefile them? Wrathion has no idea) and consider doing some shifts watching the burial grounds at night himself to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Wrathion's overall attitude would be that he wants to get through this atonement business as quickly as possible. This will mean he initially probably has the wrong attitude, but he will at least want to learn as much as he can as soon as he can which should get him there.
I'm going to give him the lust side-effects, since emotional distance and occasional ruthlessness is... already a thing for Wrathion quite honestly. The scratches will fascinate him, however, until the fact that they don't heal begins to bother him more and more. I don't expect him to leave it so long they become horrendous, but I'm thinking as they progress some will begin to seep his hot lava-ish blood occasionally which will be a problem. It will definitely ruin some clothing for him. Also, seeing too many open cuts on himself may make him panic a little so he'll be covering up everything twice as much he doesn't have to look at them.
The loneliness will be especially interesting. It's something he has felt before, and tuned out, but being magically forced to dwell on it will make him withdrawn until he gets out of this.
GENERAL PLANS:
Wrathion will be very interested in the conscription circuit to the undead brotherhood and the drought. He likes a good mystery, but he's also antsy about the undead legions in general because he's uneasy about the idea he might run into the Beastmaster again (it's a hard No from him). Especially since he hasn't confessed to many people he's a dragon. I am sure there will never be any consequences for his repeated attempts to hide himself.
He's also interested in this human sacrifice aspect, because that really feels... you know. Bad. Culty.
So!
- Looking for people to help Wrathion understand about respect for the dead and how you handle defiled graves. He's very focused on respect for and protecting the living so this is a little outside his remit.
- People interested in investigating the underground trafficking of folk to the undead legions.
- People who also feel human sacrifice is a no-no, and want to know what is going on in the House of Ravens.
- Family Unit Shenanigans. Wrathion has literally never, uh, lived with a family before? He knows theoretically how families behave but be prepared for him to find this confusing.
- Tips for clothing that doesn't burn easily?
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teaching respect for the dead (let's laugh together, this is coming from a necromancer, who also can knowingly and easily disrespect the dead)
dealing with underground trafficking
and STOPPING HUMAN SACRIFICE he is heavily against this nonsense having lost too many people to it, essentially, then also himself, let's not talk about the past let's look to the future
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ANYWAY
I want you to know the best part is that Wrathion has a long and storied dislike of necromancy, because cultists wouldn't stop bringing back his insane family members from the dead and also trying to use him for that.
However I don't think he has an IMMEDIATE understanding that Wei Wuxian is in fact a necromancer, beyond some vague realisation he controlled some of the dead mermaids, so there's a long game in here for him finding out.
However let us INDEED not look at the past, Wrathion agrees, having done so many shady things in the past tbh. LEARN FROM THE PAST, LOOK TO THE FUTURE. Let us try to respect the dead awkwardly and also stop human sacrifices.
And hopefully not doom these villages by doing so?
Our track record so far is poor.
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BEAUTIFUL because he can have fun identifying that over time, Wei Wuxian himself only will refer to being a demonic cultivator if anyone asks, dealing in resentful energies. most of what he does here ends up being with wards and talismans, and his control of the dead mermaids (he doesn't like it, but he's practical, and it's been necessary lately)
... which frankly i should ask if he sometimes reads as undead to the other undead if/when they cross paths with any in process, but that'll be relevant at that point
ALSO YEAH look let's not screw everyone over, the merchant only now finally surprised that it'll just Happen
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Also I just realised.
Anduin is housed with Lan Wanji so they should bump into each other both comically sneaking over to the same house.
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Re: Wrathion | Warcraft
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He's already busy atoning for his own crimes he doesn't have time to atone for other people's.
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Please what is the FASTEST way to get this over with, he will do it.
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Re: Wrathion | Warcraft
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Anyway, nerds exchanging knowledge!
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He's interested in helping stop the sacrifice and trafficking - it will be a great family fun bonding time.
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Do you know, they've actually got a bunch in common personality-wise. They're both kind of ruthless, manipulative, dramatic people who don't want anyone to know they've ever had a single weakness if at all possible. They're also both trying to make amends, although for different styles of fuckup. They might vibe -- there's always a chance they might clash because when characters are too similar that can happen but also I think they'd potentially both hate fake-families more than each other so bond over that.
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They'll have fun working together then, Rufus denies he's trying to do the right thing and show weakness because it's just easier when everyone thinks you're just a total asshole. But he at least tries to make an effort so he can respect that effort.
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i mean also probably could help with clothing tips. herbs. reading up on that astronomy book he has. a lot of magic stuff
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He's a dragon hunter maybe???
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