lostcompass | ARC VI: THE SUNKEN

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ARC VI: THE SUNKEN

Happy Friday! Curtains are drawing on the Dream a little dream of her... travel arc, with the conclusion one cut away — warning for spoilers, if you're still threading out the mystery

IT WAS ALL A DREAM

As the team has been piecing together, there is something amiss with good Firo, and the numerous suggestions in answer to his ransom offer push M. le Bagade to accuse the renown heroine that she might be... a living dream. The Conductor threatens her expulsion, to the anguish of her sister Lita, who takes full responsibility. Firo, she says, was unaware — Lita, also a living dream, has been secretly feeding her stolen sedative herbs to induce sleep and make Firo think herself a 'normal' person.

Seeing her spouse mired in conflict, Prassenze emerges from where she has been changing appearance in the passenger crowd. A blank slate more than a person, she confesses she is also living dream, forged as a companion to Firo. As the party suspected, she has been using a dream thief to recreate herself on each wedding day and better suit beloved Firo and her companions. Sadly, Prassenze and the dream thief ran out of dream tokens to power their efforts, and Prassenze chose to hide away. Hugo — Natasha has learned, of the Merchant's homeland Ellethia — bashfully admits he is the dream thief, who created the perfect hero (Firo), her stalwart sister (Lita) and the blushing bride (Prassenze).

While the Conductor should remove living dreams from the train, Hugo patiently reminds him of the many years when he and his team allowed dream thieves to continue their work undeterred on the Sandman, for a price. To protect the train's reputation, the Conductor calls the incident closed. The group retires to their compartments — Firo and Prassenze agreeing to talk, Lita a little shattered, and Hugo... telling the Merchant's party that, if he had known what trouble they would cause, he would not have procured their tickets.

Betting results: 40,000 coins to Wei Wuxian and Dean each, 20,000 to Beitang Moran and Lan Sizhui each, 30,000 to Five.

ARC VI

We officially enter Arc VI on 15 May, when the group arrives in sunken village Yancai during a first log event — which doubles as a test drive meme.

■ Yancai location details are now live!

■ Courtesy of the Merchant, characters are assigned false identities/occupations and dwellings while in Yancai. Unrelated to the Merchant, they might be haunted. CTRL+F your character's name to learn their fate. The haunting & atonement are entirely optional — feel free to ignore or tweak.

■ A new NPC inbox will follow shortly.

■ Characters are coming into Arc VI with varying levels of false memories of being native to Yancai. These false memories are temporary and will dispel within days of arrival. During this period, characters can still sense they have a connection with their CR (as deeply or shallowly as you want), even if they have a diffuse sense of how it was formed. Ex: character A might know they love B, even if they don't recall B is their spouse of 50 years. They would (and should) be startled by this discrepancy in their memories.

■ the first Arc VI log will cover: a few days of acclimating to the village (and fully recovering character memories, where applicable), getting optionally haunted, exploring the lakes and and searching sunken territories for clues about the time-warping decay.

■ QUESTIONS

To line up some excellent rural CR, fill out the below and spam to your hearts' content:

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PLAYER: rakel
CONTACT INFO: hit me up here, on discord, or plurk!

The big, big caveat is I'm going to be largely not here for the rest of May, and very start of June will be rocky. This is establishing some of what my characters will be up to, but the one I'm actively threading right now is Wei Wuxian, with my other two on hiatus. One thread per each is probably all I can manage sanely right now? If that.

Wei Wuxian | The Untamed:

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? He's a Minstrel, and this is unfortunately something he's going to be Very Enthused about at first, and then Very Amused by later while definitely hamming it up. He's going to be annoyingly fast to pick up new instruments, but will primarily stick to his flute.

MEMORY STATUS: He believes he's from the village to start, sensing his connections to all CR, if not necessarily having it make sense to that CR. You're all part of his village! Or... wait... are you? Is he?

GENERAL PLANS: Once his memories are back, his haunting is one he'll deal with, though his first instinct is going to be you know. Actually dispelling it or trying to break whatever the tie is, because he's going to be Curious that this is happening. The details of it are ones he's going to be sad about, but he knows the names and why they're there and his culpability or his lack of sole culpability in the deaths he's caused. If his cavemates or any CR wants to come calling at night when he's dealing with those beads and their names, hit me up!

He's a good swimmer, so he's also on hand to help with swimming tasks or saving people from water or generally retrieving things (nods to Wangji, here to help you out bae if you want), and he's going to be Very Interested in resolving this time oddness and whatever's cursing this town, because it's always a curse. It just is. And what do you mean the beasts of the Beastmaster might be in the woods? He remembers what a number of those were like from Taravast, that's Not Great News! Anyway we're hunting down any that take out villagers right? Right. Good talk.

Licyn Mansbane | Original:

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? I had to double check that I recalled what a caber was but yes, it's a ... it's a pole. He's going to find this hilarious and easier than it should be because of what he is (werewolf, essentially), and he is the best caber tosser you've ever met! He will live this up. His pole is now the largest. Remark upon it.

MEMORY STATUS: I think I had him recall from start who he is, or be befuddled a bit, but honestly it's easy enough for him to integrate recalling he's brand new here and disliking the feel of magic all over. Why is everything so steeped in this searing nonsense?

GENERAL PLANS: He's supposed to help rescue someone to break his haunting, and I'd like to do that, but also: I want at least one person to find him when he's leashed and being dragged by the Lumberjack, up to the point where the Lumberjack disappears.

He's absolutely flirting with the patrons who come looking for the missing brothel ladies/gents/whomevers, though pointedly kicking them all back out again because he is not sleeping with people who expect it to be a financial exchange #gofigure, so feel free to call on him (you can literally! shout!) if you want help kicking someone back out, fellow people of the house.

Nynaeve al'Meara | The Wheel of Time (Amazon):

WHO IS YOUR CHARACTER IN YANCAI? Mermaid researcher. This means she doesn't have to deal with idiots unless she wants to (she never wants to, but she will work healing as a matter of a driving need to do so), and she can swim.

MEMORY STATUS: Again I forget if she remembers or only remembers at night, but either way she'll be mostly familiar and very aware of who she is and what's going on at night regardless. Also giving you all the "..." looks for thinking you're from here full stop, those who are.

GENERAL PLANS: After the first round of former hooligans coming over to clean, she will absolutely have no fear bossing them around; anyone also living with her please be amused by this. Nynaeve is focussed on figuring out what's causing all this nonsense, since that seems likely to lead back to getting to the beacon and gateway and thus home. She'll play hide and seek with her haunts a few times before she'll be helping with the villagers needing healing assistance (not the drunkards, they can suffer) and resolving things that way, so if you want to help her search the first night or two lmk! Then we can handwave it.

How will they arrange their cave, that is the question here.

with so many written sheets of musical thoughts that end up being notes on everything off in town plastered everywhere and talismans and wards and a straw mattress sleeping space

this guy had a red pool of water her called the blood pool so you expect him to do what improving to a cave, truly

Five is going to be Extremely Concerned about Wifi's memory situation, since like... he needs him... to not be crazy. It's important. Does he need to slap him?? Because he will.

And I know you've got a lot on your plate, but if there's anything you'd like to thread out with Licyn I'm happy to oblige. Unsure how Five would be around with the Lumberjack situation, but I can come up with some excuse in a pinch. He'll have zero idea what that's about, but in theory it'll all make sense someday.

but he's fine he has no idea why you're worried, let him play you something to ease your tension, xiao five!

hahaha let me see, i'm still so slammed i'm not even sure what i'd want to do with licyn yet, but he'd be properly Verklempt with everything here lbr

give me a week to see how i'm doing the far side of... it, bc i'd like to do something if i can get the irl side to calm down a bit more!

Don’t let him break your flute, buddy. :(

Totally no pressure to rush anything! You know I’ll always be around for backdated stuff, and I have your back for any fun times you want to wiggle in there. Good luck with everything!!

Roommate things! Someone might appreciate the Minstrel in Wei Wuxian when she's going a little unhinged.

His haunting makes me sad and it would make Vanessa sad :c

Yes please! Would you like to have her see him dealing with his named beaded bracelet in the early nights after they regain full memories?

Oh yes, I'm ready to cry.

She sleeps as little as she can, so she'll be up at whatever hour his haunting hits. Do you want her clairvoyance to kick in for any of it for extra ~flavor~, or keep that at bay for now?

excellent, let us make this happen! and yeah i say go for kicking in her clairvoyance as you like, just cue me in for what you need more of so that ability can be best used! i'll have him wake up coughing, his husband sleeps through everything (that isn't deadly, this isn't deadly) so he can find her in a forward part of the cave, maybe they can boil water for tea?

Her sensitivity and clairvoyance is as convenient (or inconvenient) as the 'plot' dictates, but touch or close proximity can easily trigger it, especially if there are strong emotions or recent trauma, or recollection of old trauma. If he was projecting anything subconsciously with enough force, especially with his supernatural abilities and a haunting in the area, she could technically sense it no matter how far away she is (obviously only in theory, with player permission).

If you want, she could sense the haunting from where she's supposed to be sleeping, and it could be a vague/incomplete 'sense' or a complete vision, whichever you prefer. She can experience what the other person in the vision is feeling and seeing, but it can be also just be something with only one of the senses, or 'a feeling'.

I saw you tagged and am working on a reply asap~ Anything with Yanli will really make Vanessa sad and relate in a weird way :c

Probably once he's awake he's projecting a sort of subconscious regret/resignation, and that on top of her feeling the haunting/sensing the haunting to motivate her out to his tea making attempts (if only they had better tea) — maybe catch a glimpse of the Dark Man if you want, there's not a real vision otherwise attached, and the feeling is .. at that point I want to say more resignation and bone-deep sadness for the moment!

Yeah, Yanli being one of the beads is a big part of it for him
I figure it has other names on there he doesn't care about but he was responsible for in whichever way (lbr, there's a number of people he killed for revenge who just he does not Ever Regret having killed) so yes

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ARC VI: THE SUNKEN

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