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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:
eleven | dragon quest xi | family #3
CHARACTER: Eleven
CONTACT: Plurk
CHARACTER FAMILY # 3, with Yan Zhengming, Slick, Jiang Cheng, and Akira
Of this family, he only has meaningful cr with Slick thus far, so I'm interested to see how dynamics play out! Generally, he'll be busy out in the village, but he should be a helpful bean around the house. His cooking skill is limited to simple fare, but he'll source food and if someone else is a better cook, help clean?
Matters of note: Lily is his wonderful girlfriend, and with Hendrik returning to the game, he's going to have a very tall, broad, purple-haired shadow in short order. Expect to see both of them regularly :')
ANCESTRAL CURSE PLANS?
Thinking a vegetable garden or efforts to revive a food-bearing field through good old fashioned farming work. ..But also possibly through some magical encouragement, as practice. If that turns out to be fruitless, then maybe apprenticing a few baby smiths, fishermen, or at a stretch, healers.
He'll be suffering Pride effects, until the curse is resolved.
GENERAL PLANS: Aboard the ship, Eleven is going to throw himself into work and take his tasks to heart. He's going to make himself useful if he has to scrub his hands raw to manage it. Also healing injuries, as the storm hits.
He'll set himself to work in the village with similar determination to atone for the ancestor curse, and likely want to help lift the drought curse bc well, bean wants to grow things excuse you?? He's also fully ready to crack down on human sacrifice to the undead bc no.
In his downtime, sparring with Hendrik and vibing with nearby plant life.
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u good bro??no subject
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ok but on one condition: Wangji harvests them himself.
Re: eleven | dragon quest xi | family #3
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listen man, he's going to save these people with the power of farming and take personal offense to the drought attempting to stall his efforts
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But also he wants to clean the gods' altars and stuff, so help him out?
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I'm interested to see how this goes :>
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anduin has his own feelings about his own rigarda-shaped mistakes that he has made and he's gonna be throwing himself into the human sacrifice investigation. also he'd be interested in having a talk with el in general because he has some vague awareness that he was involved in the whole sleeper thing and that he was in a bad way because of it. and he is a PRIEST and being gentle and consoling is what he is supposed to be good at! you know, when he's not forced into being a king and leading an army and all the rest of that nonsense...
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It's interesting I think, how El can look at Anduin and easily see himself. He's in the market for a new cosmic friend to talk about divine chosen one things~~
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SERIOUSLY THOUGH they should get together and have some chats bc i think it would be good for both of them! they really are very similar, and i'm sure anduin can see a bit of himself in el as well. anduins not exactly a divine chosen one but he's a priest who also happens to be... a king, haha, and not only that but he is the leader of the whole alliance, so he's always been Special. maybe with a little bonding he might be the first one anduin actually tells that bit o3o
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he hasn't been very shy about talking about THE LIGHT and his whole priest schtick haha, hopefully that is an opening for them to get together about this. it's the one thing about himself he's like incapable of hiding so he hasn't even bothered. and he's got wrathion to vent to about yk. other life stuff. but...
suppose he might want to vent about wrathion to someone HAHA. it would be nice to make a friend he could trust with Things
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if you'd rather that we set something up specific to the pair of them rather than these generic starters let me know and we can get the ball rolling on that instead! c:
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i know that we largely wanted to be able to let them just TALK to one another, idk that the wedding prompt really allows for that and neither does the introduction one REALLY given how distressed anduin is about them taking his mother's locket from him...
i can set something up in the village during the beginning of the drought perhaps, if that works for you/el in terms of plot timing? just let me know!! c:
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I think El is going to have far less patience and tolerance for this bs than usual bs, so that'll be fun :>
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Akira is a decent cook, thanks Sojiro, and has some skills of a gardener, thanks Haru, so maybe they can bond over that stuff? And over taking down whoever's out there causing curses and sacrificing peoples.