lostcompass | the sunken

the sunken | part iii

THE SUNKEN | PART III

Image source.

Hi guys, July’s nearly upon us! Given responses to the latest check-in following the Titan tragedy we will go ahead with finishing Arc VI as originally scheduled. Scenario options with heavier water or underwater exposure are disclosed below.

The final event of Arc VI goes up on 2 July, spanning a handful of days ICly and roughly three weeks OOCly. At the start of the event, the party wakes to find Yancai has gone another two years back in time, to around when Huntress’ visit, Miang-Si’s corruption and the rite of the ladies of the lake all took place. Hauntings no longer happen, and only one moon loiters over Yancai.

The party can stay neutral and infiltrate the House of Commerce to access the now-active beacon — or they can meddle in the affairs of Yancai and risk breaking its time loop.

The final Arc outcome and the next destination will be tailored based on what quests you complete, and in what way.

ARC VI CLUES SO FAR

Allegedly cursed by the furtive coven of the ladies of the lake, the sunken village of Yancai is overrun by mould, the dead and the hauntings of several ghostly tormentors (the Lumberjack, Red Lady, White Woman, Milk-Toothed Babes and Man in Black) who demand atonement. Villagers’ memories are jumbled and constantly changing. Yancai elders hunt down the ladies, and, in the future, apprehend the vicious Miang-Si as their accomplice. Separately, Yancai practises a strange burial rite of setting its dead at sea in chained casket ships that later return empty — barring a handful of ships that do not come back at all, stolen away.

After Yancai went back three years in time, the party learned:

■ The Huntress — herald of the undead, who leaves barren lands and terrible creatures in her wake — visited Yancai another two years prior. Villagers drove her away.

■ Vain village beauty Miang-Si encountered the Huntress and was enthralled. The ladies of the lake want Miang-Si for ‘something,’ while she chases eternal beauty.

■ The ladies of the lake take corpses from casket-ships and keep them underwater to prevent ‘her kind’ (the Huntress') from summoning them as undead soldiers.

■ …the ladies of the lake are affiliated with the village washerwomen.

■ A moon of future Yancai feels ‘false’ to those with a lunar connection. The moon was once involved in a ritual of the ladies of the lake.

■ The ghosts haunting Yancai (the Lumberjack, Red Lady, White Woman, Milk-Toothed Babes and Man in Black) were cultivated by the ladies of the lake

■ The Lumberjack was a guileless, magically gifted man of Yancai, who fell in with the ladies of the lake and now haunts village residents so that, in atoning, they can travel through time unburdened.

BOAR’S HEART | DAY I

Come morning wake-up, the party realises Yancai has gone another three years back in time — it is now largely dry, vibrant and abuzz with chatter of a strange, beautiful woman who arrived in the forest in recent days. Young men are drawn to her, while her mere presence decays the land, poisons waters and raises the dead. Village elders have told her to leave Yancai by the following sunrise, on pain of death.

■ Venture into the forest, facing creatures, eerie magic, and the enthralled young men of Yancai.

■ Optionally, the death-touched (necromancers, those who died or revived, or otherwise marked) may optionally feel compelled to betray their comrades and join her cause. Distance, chaining and your own precautions can help diminish her pull.

■ Find the Huntress that evening as she gives an admiring Miang-Si several boxes with cuts of her heart. Miang-Si agrees to bury them in the forest — you must find and unearth them before they can take root and anchor the Huntress’ spell (quest warnings for violent ravens, tree roots…)

■ Finding at least two heart boxes will prevent the dead from rising in Yancai after the Huntress departs. It can also break the time loop.

■ Sadly, the Huntress cannot be killed at this time ☹ But you can pitch a plan to incapacitate her, dwindle her power, track her or talk to her.

WAKE, UNWAKEFULLY | DAY II

As the Huntress departs Yancai around 3 a.m., she unleashes a first wave of undead, who rise mostly from sea and pier waters.

Hold your ground and help villagers quietly traverse dead-conquered territory. The undead largely retreat with sunrise, but many float underwater, prepared to return any day now.

There will be an opportunity to collect black mirror shards belonging to the Huntress from dead-infested waters — historically they are connected to the evils that assail Akhuras. Doing so can break the time loop.

MOTHER MOON | DAY III

Wait by the rivers after the attack and infiltrate the group of washerwomen of Yancai, who comfort the weak, the abandoned, the abused and the magically sensitive. They take men and women alike.

■ Although guarded, they speak more freely around you, if you persuade them of your dire straits.

■ They are self-taught hedge witches who meet in secret caves beneath lakes, travelling through underwater passageways. Follow. (quest warnings: underwater journey, currents and creatures beneath the lakes, skeletons).

■ These ‘ladies of the lake’ plan a rite in the woods to protect Yancai. Though they are not strong enough to fully dispel the dead, their magic pushes the village back in time, forever outrunning the Huntress’ undead — and forcing villagers to relive the same period of roughly five years.

■ To cast their spell, the ladies of the lake steal power from the hunter’s (red) moon, visible on this night, and from a piece of black mirror taken from the Huntress. They create a reflected pocket of time and reality where Yancai can be fitted, and where the hunter's moon appears as the village's second, diffuse red moon that characters saw in the future.

■ Whether you want to free villagers from the time loop, rescue the stolen moon power or just meddle, you disrupt the sorcery by interfering with the ritual, convincing some witches not to participate or perhaps appealing to young Miang-Si.
(More details on the rite and obstacles to follow). Choose wisely, as this can inevitably break the time loop.

■ The village elders publicly condemn the witches, but privately accept the rite as a last resort. Several of the coven’s strongest witches sacrifice themselves to become overseers in the time flux — the Lumberjack, Red Lady, White Woman, Man in Black and the Milk-Toothed Babes. You can sign up for a RNG draw to speak to one of them.

BAIT & BEACON | NIGHT III

To distract villagers while the ladies of the lake carry out their spell, Yancai’s elders organise a charitable auction for those affected by the undead attack. It is held at the House of Commerce, which hosts the village’s now fully active beacon.

The Master of Commerce has the only token-key for the beacon room in his private and locked study. Infiltrate the fete as a guest or auction participant (just what are you offering?), sneak into the study room, and grab one of dozens of key artefacts that line the desk — hopefully, you choose wisely.

Party witch Karsa asks everyone to be prepared to infiltrate the House of Commerce by the dawns of the fourth day, to attempt to leave through the beacon.

WHAT HAPPENS IF WE BREAK THE TIME LOOP?

*please don't worry, it just influences the Arc VI outcome / travel Arc destination!

To plot & plan your next steps, fill out the below and comment around majestically!

QUESTIONS

Threaded | Flat

The reign of moist terror is nearly over!

Edited 2023-06-28 18:21 (UTC)

Please mind the sign-up deadlines — thank you!

PLAYER: Jack
CHARACTER & CANON: Wrathion & Warcraft
CONTACT: PM or find me in the discord

PLOTS & PLANS:
Down for basically all of this

- Wrathion has been convinced the Huntress and the detail of what happened with Miang-Si were central, so he'd be down to stalk them to the forest. Burying body parts? Hell yeah he's digging them up to add to the collection! Love a good body part collection!
- Holding back waves of undead AND collecting spooky mirrors? Hell yeah, he's not to date actually touched a spooky mirror and he's ABSOLUTELY been wanting to see one so lets get ourselves cursed!
- Not strictly sure on moon shenanigans but happy to have him assist someone else in bad moon ritual ideas. He's not a big moon ritual person but he will happily support a plan!
- Infiltrating an auction? Sneaking around? Stealing keys? Wrathion is absolutely in. He is a big fan of a little breaking and entering. Using our existing fake identities one last time, the Village Matchmaker is here to take part in the auction!

For Huntress plans: Wrathion isn't quite 100% certain what they can achieve when they're so divided resource-wise while she's here, but he'd suggest they may be able to slow her down/distract her with illusions. They know what both her husband AND son look like, so could use that! And he can help cast illusions!

Edited (additional info) 2023-06-28 19:22 (UTC)

PLAYER: ruxi
CHARACTER & CANON: Lan Wangji / the Untamed
CONTACT: PM and/or exar

PLOTS & PLANS:

— this woodman should try to get a chunk of Huntress heart

— ..................sorry, children, we may need to disrupt the rite to save the moon *if Emilia says so

— at this point, he should auction his will to live to get into that charity ball; he'll offer an exceedingly rare, utterly gourmet piece of almost-bread baked at Yelena's arson-bakery. It's not his fault if anyone thinks it's a meteor relic. Surely this will get him a +1 or two into this fine event, you are welcome. Houston, we're going in.

— we've got to punt an undead here or there and save some peasants, come on. It's in the travel guide.

PLAYER: Lae
CHARACTER & CANON: Anthony Lockwood | Lockwood and Co
CONTACT: Here or DM this journal!

PLOTS & PLANS:

BOAR’S HEART | DAY I - This could go one of two ways. I am open to specific plotting for Lockwood to suffer the curse of his death touch for the first time and turn on someone. He's wickedly good with a sword, but otherwise baseline human so probably easy to knock out and tie up somewhere if someone has the time.

WAKE, UNWAKEFULLY | DAY II - Fight the undead you say? Sounds like a day ending in Y. Collect shards of a creepy mirror? When did Bickerstaff get here?? For all his youthful exuberance, Lockwood is available to be a voice of caution and reason when trying to handle these shards. Oh we should definitely collect them, just via safe means!

MOTHER MOON | DAY III - Magic is not his strong suit at the moment, so I can offer him as support to the plans of others?

BAIT & BEACON | NIGHT III - Infiltrate an auction? He's done this a couple of times and will go in as a guest. Open to working with others to help with distraction, etc to help the group attain the ultimate goal!

PLAYER: laura
CHARACTER & CANON: marc spector ( steven grant / jake lockley / moon knight ) — marvel comics
CONTACT:

spandex, pm

PLOTS & PLANS:

— marc's death-touched (three times¹, fam!! comics ain't playin'), and he's very, VERY good at making shitty-ass decisions and being manipulated by QUESTIONABLE BEINGS, meaning i am v. down to have him as one of those willing to betray everyone else. he'll feel awful about it afterwards, fwiw.

— generally speaking, forest venturing, heart-box finding (cue nirvana, my friends), and something-someone incapacitating slash talking to (he's not, like, exceptionally great at talking to anyone unless they want bleak pessimism, but he Can Try. he's done a lot of speaking at villains in his time, to mixed effect.)

— obligatory vigilante does undead fighting!!

— SOMETHING with the hunter's moon and ritual interfering? tbh i only say this bc 1. moon knight and 2. a second fist of khonshu has been established and his name! is hunter's moon! i mean, yes and no. his name is dr. badr (dr. moon, comics are fucking stupid, fam), but he's also HUNTER'S MOON. he knows precisely nothing about magic, but he's very good at being magic-adjacent and confused.

— fete infiltration! (marc has no skills or talents he'd be willing to offer beyond that, alas.) marc does have a history of attending charity galas and the like, albeit to an extent as it's more often been steven grant rather than marc. given marc's canon point and his general feelings re: himself, this'll likely be a solidly MARC SPECTOR affair instead of steven grant, but willing to be flexible given the right impetus.

— marc has been experiencing hauntings from the lumberjack, so. waggles eyebrows.

¹ eh, maybe three times. marc thinks it's three times, but he's a very fucking unreliable narrator. at least once. (probably.)

PLAYER: Kris
CHARACTER & CANON: The Doctor | Doctor Who
CONTACT:

geekorthodox | PM | discord @ witcheryofliving

PLOTS & PLANS:
▸ Fancy a fun romp into the forest to unearth one of the heart boxes?

▸ Has Yancai not been a good time lately? Turn that frown upside down, let's hold back hordes of the undead together and collect some black mirror shards, those seem mighty important >>

▸ Pretty much everything going on with the 'ladies of the lake' pings the Doctor so you know what to do. Buddy system and all that.

▸ It's been A Time. In between the action-y bits, the Doctor is here to offer hope, possibly unwanted camaraderie, and to shove tea down people's throats as needed. He's here for you!

PLAYER: Cloude
CHARACTER & CANON: Clara Oswald | Doctor Who
CONTACT: PM or lifewasawillow on discord

PLOTS & PLANS:

I'm coming off of hiatus and baby-stepping it by planning to only tag around. Still though, I'll be eying many things with great interest, including:

Quest in the woods! Quest in the woods! Let's go play with body parts or something

Accidental magic disruption b/c she wouldn't know what she's getting into anyway

Auction participant as a guest

Obviously there will be more to come so this is an ever-evolving situation!

PLAYER: bluesy
CHARACTER & CANON: Number Five/the Umbrella Academy
CONTACT:

lonesheep / PM / Ping me on the discord chat

PLOTS & PLANS:
- See if you had listened to him, they could have prevented this... he thinks, having had no idea how. He still doesn't know, but he's going to be super happy to hear there's more mirror shards around and will absolutely get in the face of people touching them. Go ahead and ask him about them!

- Five happens to be one of the only people he trusts with dead body parts, and he's not death touched despite carrying them around, so you know. Buddy system with this guy when you go to the woods and let him take care of it. A+ hoarder they'll be fine with him.

- Very liable to sneak around during the auction! What perfect time to drop in on some elders who thought time travel was a good solution. He also doesn't trust the Master of Commerce, so he'll be easily seen during any break-in attempts.

- Regardless of how things pan out, Five really would like to put a stop to any notion of this happening again by whatever means. He's likely to take his frustrations out on the witches in question if you want to assist/prevent him from going too far with it. Because he 100% will. (As a side note: he is not a great swimmer.)

PLAYER: Emily
CHARACTER & CANON: Allison Hargreeves | The Umbrella Academy
CONTACT:

iluvroadrunner6 | discord: iluvroadrunner6

PLOTS & PLANS:

I think I'm probably going to mostly focus on the witches end of things, because that's where I think Allison would be the most useful, using her diplomacy skills to either talk to the witches and tried to break the time loop.

I haven't decided if I'm going to slide her into the RNG yet, but I'm inclined to I just need to make a decision about which witch I want.

I will probably have more details about angle of approach, etc. depending on the further details we get, but if anyone wants to team up with persuasion tactics, let me know!

PLAYER: Ashley
CHARACTER & CANON: River Song | Doctor Who
CONTACT:

formallyintroduced, PM, or formallyintroduced at discord.

PLOTS & PLANS: I'm a little behind and still playing catch up, but I exist! My ongoing work issues of months finally hit a peak, and well, now my time's a little freer for the moment.

Initial thoughts:

» I'm feeling this forest quest for heart boxes.

» but also River is definitely vulnerable to the Huntress and someone might want to keep an eye on her?? She isn't really keen on being influenced again, so she will want to keep her distance. But she's known to be reckless.

» She's more comfortable with body parts than evil mirrors, but hey, if it's gotta be done, it's gotta be done.

» Not magically inclined, so she might not be much help with the witches.

» Definitely about infiltrating the auction. Making like you belong and stealing things is her favorite.

Edited 2023-06-29 03:29 (UTC)

PLAYER: Kitty
CHARACTER & CANON: Xie Yun | Legend of Fei
CONTACT: PM

PLOTS & PLANS:

• BOAR'S HEART (Day 1) - Venturing into the forest.
- Finding a heart box after the Huntress departs.

• WAKE, UNWAKEFULLY ( Day 2)

- Will help villagers get through dead-conquered territory.

• MOTHER MOON (Day 3)

- Playing his xiao to comfort the weak.
- Follow the hedge witches into their secret caves beneath the lake.

• BAIT & BEACON | (Night 3)

- Infiltrate and go sneaking around to find the key.

PLAYER: Kitty
CHARACTER & CANON: Wen Ning | The Untamed
CONTACT: PM

PLOTS & PLANS:

• Boar's Heart (Day 1) - He is death-touched. So he would need someone to keep him from betraying those he cares about.

- Venturing into the forest to fight.

- Finding heart boxes.

• WAKE, UNWAKEFULLY ( Day 2)

- Will do what he can help the villagers.

• MOTHER MOON (Day 3)

- Will interfere with the ritual because to help the villagers.

PLAYER: Val
CHARACTER & CANON: Eda Clawthorne, The Owl House
CONTACT:

honeyfoot

PLOTS & PLANS:

- Eda will not hesitate to chain you up if needed, just saying

- the Eda taxi is once again available (staff or harpy)

- we can go on quests to find heart boxes or mirror shards, sure

- she's gonna be all up in that witch business, being a witch herself. might do something drastic, idk yet. she's prone to it.

- hey you know what, what about the CURSE she has that CORRUPTS MAGIC. that could be something. if the situation is dire enough, she might just deploy that little side effect - though it needs to be dire, as it will hurt her too!

- since her canon update, she's kinda soured on the beacons! maybe we can dig into that, or something

PLAYER: Rose
CHARACTER & CANON: Izuminokami Kanesada | Touken Ranbu
CONTACT:

LadyotRings

PLOTS & PLANS:

IN SHORT he is all for breaking the time loop because time loops mean something is broken??? We should fix that maybe?? But feel free to try and dissuade him, should you wish.

- Day 1: Oh yeah, Kanesada is all for digging up those heart bits. Even of the idea of having more random body parts among their party is still creepy.

- Day 2: Sword boy is available to sword those pesky zombies let's goooo

- Day 3: Meddle? Meddle. Unless, again, someone changes his mind.

PLAYER: Rose
CHARACTER & CANON: Cal Kestis | Star Wars
CONTACT:

LadyotRings

PLOTS & PLANS:

Cal is not as gung-ho about breaking the loop as Kanesada, though getting to the root of the problem is definitely ideal for him, so he's not against it, either.

- Day 1: He is available for helping keep you necromancers and death-touched in the time-out corner!

- Day 2: He is also very available for protection duty! And should he get involved with mirror hunting? I mean probably not but also what's a little curse when your life is already a heckin mess?

- Day 3: Heck yeah let's infiltrate some witches. If nothing else he's just interested in their witch ways.

- Night 3: His psychometry would work perfectly for figuring out which key is the right one so uhhhh sneaky sneak times, yes.

PLAYER: Jesse
CHARACTER & CANON: Vanessa Ives | Penny Dreadful
CONTACT: PM |

cherto | discord: pactoris

PLOTS & PLANS:

✘ Attempting not to have another breakdown after having her mind messed with so much recently.
✘ Someone teach her defense magic.
✘ Or try to calm the eldritch chaos that has taken over all her thoughts.
✘ Do you need some blood magic or clairvoyant mumbo jumbo? (She'll need convincing.)
✘ Absolutely going to nurse a venom-spitting demon monster. What should we name it? (Her compulsion will work on a couple of them should anyone need a hand.)
✘ Vanessa may feel a bit ‘lured’ by the Huntress if anyone wants to slap some sense into her.
✘ She may try to save some of the more helpless villagers and (try to) provide them a safe space to cast a ward around them.
✘ Who wants to have some summer fun and go diving for mirror shards?
✘ Vanessa doesn’t have the fanciest clothes since fleeing Alem, but maybe she can recall some seamstress skills to re-work that and sneak into the banquet. Willing to help others who want to reach the beacon.

Edited 2023-07-03 20:12 (UTC)

PLAYER: sel
CHARACTER & CANON: natasha romanova | marvel cinematic
CONTACT: in the discord, or

iothe

PLOTS & PLANS:

💀 natasha is .. going to want to break the time loop, but what will probably seem most realistic to her is preventing miang-si from being enthralled to start and/or stealing the heartboxes
💀 i, a bad person, am tempted to have natasha join the huntress's cause!
💀 if she does join the huntress's cause, would love for folks to try and take her down and lock her up until she snaps out of it — be warned this is not for the faint of heart, she'll hurt people and will feel sorry later but that won't be helpful to your character who needs a bandaid
💀 if she doesn't join the huntress's cause, would love for her to team up with people to infiltrate the washerwomen or search the woods for the boxes
💀 otherwise, she'll definitely be a guest at the auction and is a sneaky sneak who can steal keys (though maybe not the RIGHT key)

Edited 2023-07-03 19:42 (UTC)

Belatedly coming in here because she has a top level on the log and if anyone needs me for plotting, this is a good place!

PLAYER: Cella
CHARACTER & CANON: Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)
CONTACT: Discord handle is shortitude, as is plurk; I'm more likely to ramble and lurk on Plurk, and more likely to jump in on plotting on Discord so choose your warriors

PLOTS & PLANS:
- a little bit of joining the Huntress won't hurt nobody; she's going to snap out of it eventually, but if you're itching to get your character attacked by some vicious spells and contribute to Hermione's guilt and shame, @ me here
- immediately upon securing a sort of protection (thanks Wrathion) she's going to head right back into the woods to find heart pieces because the Huntress messed with the wrong witch or something
- during wake, unwakefully, will be around Yancai ushering villagers to their homes and generally putting herself in the middle of danger; i'm a terrible person who would like her to get the energy sucked out of her due to falling into water with a mirror shard, and getting a little injured as a treat
- during moon mother she can end up following the ladies of the lake to their place of ritual, so is available to disrupt rituals if anyone has an idea or plan

Threaded | Flat

QUESTIONS

SIGN-UPS

no subject

lan wangji | the untamed

Anthony Lockwood | Lockwood and Co

marc spector, marvel comics

no subject

no subject

number five | the umbrella academy

emily | allison hargreeves

River Song » Doctor Who

Xie Yun | Legend of Fei

Wen Ning | The Untamed

Eda Clawthorne | The Owl House

izuminokami kanesada | touken ranbu

cal kestis | star wars

vanessa ives | penny dreadful

natasha romanova | marvel cinematic

hermione granger (hp)