Unhalad's knock knock knocking at your door...!

[groundrules]

Last few steps of the Sa-Hareth stretch come with Unhalad's mini 16-17 June siege event and the ensuing few days of marauding. Feel free to use that post as a log base, or do your own thing, and discuss any character plans here.

Many thanks to Kalyn, who is lending us Winnie as effective live bait over the event! She won't... regret it...

If you want to have characters severely wounded or killed, there will be more healers and necromancers available in both options for the upcoming arc — for a fee.

The sorceress Karsa will be available on premise once she enters the farmhouse, and you are welcome to NPC her helping your character's plans. To give you an idea, Karsa's primary offensive skillset is fire, so be careful what you have her do in closed quarters. She will not be able to teleport anyone out because the swarm of undead surrounding the farmhouse make it difficult to 'land' safely.

As a result of this... unfortunate domestic development, the Merchant won't be presenting his options on the 15th as initially scheduled, and this will have to be delayed to 17 June. But! Characters should still be out of Sa-Hareth by 21-22 June. Goodbye, winter wasteland. We barely knew ye.

QUESTIONS THREAD

Comments

MOD QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

What's up, bosses?

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[scrapgege]

Just one quick one : Will Xie Lian's Ruoye be able to form an adequate if smallish protection against the undead like it does in the ghost bride arc in canon?

The rooms are small so it won't work as well as outside, but if he can keep a few people safe while punching zombies through the roof.....

[groundrules]

I'm so sorry — I forget what that protection did. I assume, it kept characters out of harm's way from what was happening? In a radius?

If so, sure. Just not extensively.

You have 24h of this, so pace yourselves.

[sergeant_slick]

Slick's been discussing making specific portions of the farmstead more defensible after he heard that there was an attack before he arrived: Specifically, reinforcing doors and window shutters, and preparing barricades so people can block off avenues of access within the farmhouse.

While he'd like to have metal reinforcements to doors and window shutters, he'd be getting a start with whatever he had, probably meaning wood. Would he be able to get some barricades made to provide fallback positions within the compound?

[groundrules]

Yes! They'll give in after a point, but they'll offer a good delay. The farmhouse used to be a woodcutting station, so the lumber is well stocked (see map for where the storage is, just careful it means exposure to the outside to visit it.)

[weifinder]

I see you're last dashing with your tank there Ruxi SO HOW ABOUT AN OUTSIDE PINCHER ATTACK

But really, remember way back when I asked about Wei Wuxian going around getting in touch with all the resentful energies in the citadel? Also how he goes to the citadel pretty much daily for supply reasons and for information, and that this could reasonably mean a delay of a night if he's out too late and doesn't want to be hauling back.

Anyway... a. could he end up seeing the trailing end of this happening?

b. can he get in touch with Karsa? and

c. can he summon up those resentful energies as his own spirit army at the end of this (possibly after doing some guerilla warfare from the fringes) because that is an undead army attacking where his son and possibly bae is (I was going to offer if Lan Zhan also wanted to be dragged to town to help play haul the supplies back to the farmhouse and help haul the extra produce down to the citadel, then he'd potentially be on the outside for this too, but that was more to give you another option if you liked), and we know how much he likes people going after his loved ones, let alone his friends (which now number pretty high inside). He's not going to have the sheer storage capacity etc that having any of the yin iron once allowed him, so it'd be using/Pied Pipering these energies and then releasing them again/sending them on if they're so inclined, but he's guessing they have very good reasons to be not happy with Unhalad's forces, in particular.

[groundrules]

a. Yes.

b. The quartz pieces remain fully functional, so yes!

c. You can have an undead energy army, but towards the end, please, and Wei Wuxian better be hammered after.

[darkeststars]

So, Unhalad is some kind of restless undead. When we stick several pointy objects and other assorted things through him, presumably he's then a bodiless restless undead spirit.

Do you think Arche could Force walk and grab that to gobble up? :D The ultimate indignity of doing to Unhalad what he tried to do all of us, lol, shackle him to use his power.

I understand if not, or if it just doesn't work that way, but thought it would be fun to ask lol!

[groundrules]

To confirm: you're asking if, once the flesh shell of Unhalad is destroyed or briefly killed, Archeval can consume the thing that possesses him?

If so: yes. But it will try to consume him back over time. I'm happy to start Arche on that arc, and to give him later ways out of it, but you have to be aware there would be severe consequences &mdssh; and he'd probably be attacked til the day he is out of Sa-Hareth by any forest people that see him for feeling too much like Unhalad.

He will effectively become a human mirror.

Have a think if you want to set him down this path and lmk!

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[lancifolium]

Lily’s been wandering the farm and taking notes on the layout at night, how do those stack up against the map presented?

Big If, in a moment of presumably certain doom Lily uses one of her carp scales in likely magically produced, magically warmed water, to tell the carp that the group is in peril and ask for help what will happen?

I'm going to have more questions before this is over, and I'm sorry in advance.

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

The map is faithful to the current status of the farmhouse, give or take some less straight walls, so should work great against Lily's notes. Unless she's dreadful at cartography!

Ah, I was hoping you'd scale up your efforts. The fish can only act through water, but they will make that spot safe haven for one person within it, who cannot leave it. Advice: use it in the pond. But the moment Lily or anyone she uses it on leaves that area, the scale is forfeit, the shield is down.

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[royal_venant]

Given Regulus' particularly Dark Art skillset, could fiendfyre be utilized on the undead army OUTSIDE the farmhouse, like at the end? Or is this a bad-good-bad idea?

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Liaise with Wei Wuxian's incoming army at the end, and don't kill the idiots attacking Unhalad (or maybe the fire can distract so they can get close?)

Either way, Regulus has to be exhausted after.

[foxable]

Can Fox get a bit of a bump up on his understanding of magic in this world by basically gluing himself to Karsa?

Also just checking but - since the mirror pieces are basically useless to him, can he write over the enchantment to do things like, say, blow up once in the hands of an undead after 2 minutes?

[groundrules]

A. I think Karsa'll be Operating at too high a speed for a tutorial, Fox, she's gonna earn her paycheck this time

B. Sure!

[descendency]

cracks knuckles

1) okay, we offset our angry confrontation with haltham until this event. should we be yelling at him mid-chaos? wait for the dust to settle?

2) mingyu can control/puppet people he has line of sight with, one person at a time. does this work on the undead? i figured he might use it in short bursts to make undead attacks miss their targets/walk into trees/whatever.

3) jiang cheng is going down, down, down. this isn't a question, just a warning.

4) do we have our daughter yet? i need to know how many active liabilities mingyu is dealing with here.

that's all i have for the moment thank u for everything

[groundrules]

1. Up to you! Let me know

2. Does his power usually work on living people? If so, then no.

3. Down, down, down = dead? Or you can let me know before the 21st please, so I know to include a necromantic option of some kind next arc.

4. Up to you, she can be with you now or when they skip town

[somebadnews]

1) Five might be extra stressed for it if you want to go for it during??? Consider the person you want at this meeting. I can make anything happen, I support this.

[somebadnews]

Hi again, it's me with another question. Just in case it comes up. :>

[groundrules]

Hello, hello! What's the question, please? I think your thread's moved on, so I'm a tiny bit unclear.

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[corvis]

Hello hello, I'm here as promised. What can a crow that is taller than a several-story house that has fire capable of burning so hot it can disintegrate most things normal fire can't even hope to scratch, and has a shitton of chains at its disposable to smash things, ensnare and throw things. I am guessing its hallucination ability and such will be kind of worthless on the undead
since it works on the active mind ...? Or am I thinking about this undead army all wrong?

Raven is a true tank or maybe a nuke but he's a single nuke. Gil can't manifest him for very long because he's so strong and becomes promptly useless afterwards. I am going to say Gil currently can't manifest him for more than 30 minutes max, less if he does more than his basic abilities, and this is a pretty long siege compared to that sort of time window... (I'm also pretty sure I'm being generous with Raven with that timeframe, especially for a world that isn't their canon one.)

So I'm not sure where I could best put him into the timeline without...like raining on someone else's cleverness or strategy point, if that makes sense? Any thoughts or places/points in the timeline you see so far that it may be worthwhile for Raven to be put there to help any close calls where the group might be vulnerable?

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[groundrules]

Up to you, entirely, but! I think there's a lot that's being done outside already, with the army, etc, but these guys will need help to keep Winnie and everyone else safe within the house.

I think if you have Gil manifest Raven when things get really bad when they're swarmed inside, should do the trick. If you're wondering where he can fit: honestly, I'd just wreck the place, but if Gil's feeling considerate, the garden.

Perhaps get Winnie, Fox or Five to go in there and lure the undead there, and then.................. it's raven time.

[jeoha]

would this be a good time to dramatically have ylsa killed or should i save her for the trip

the important questions


now some context because my questions never seem to make sense out of my head:

Ylsa will obviously be helping fight off the siege with Lee Chang, but if she would be good set dressing for Unhalad doing terrible things, I'm happy to put her on the table....

[groundrules]

She is yours to do with as you please! Just let me know if you'd like her resurrected, and I'll make sure the next arc destination has some necromantic options! And a way to... carry our dead.

Re: MOD QUESTIONS

[somebadnews]

Hi again! Late question. Lily's player is asking how evil Five's curse is: "because she's been tossing up wards that aren't made for the undead so they don't do much but provide a really brief buffer but i wondered if he'd bounce off it"

So I thought I'd check.