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lostcompass2023-08-13 04:39 pm
groundrules) wrote in lostcompass2023-08-13 04:39 pm
Unkharil + CR / intro meme
Well done for surviving the House of Manouk! The witch Karsa takes the group out of the House’s time pocket dimension with the help of the discovered waypoints — while some members leave the resident necromancers a fiery gift.
The party returns back to Akhuras in the present time in the jungle swathes of Unkharil. Characters wake in the care of the refugees of most holy Alem — the fortress built upon hell, succumbed to the undead.
Newer recruits may learn from Karsa that the party assisted Alem’s king Deimar with evacuation efforts and sealing the gates of hell. Their kingdom lost, Deimar has now taken his people to his mother’s ancestral grounds of Unkharil — a temple-fortress in a valley dug between four bordering mountains that serve as its natural protective walls. Legend says the valley was once the nest of snake god Kharil-asuk, who slithered out through the pathway that now leads to the jungle.
Deimar welcomes you to stay with his people in Unkharil, until the Merchant finalises travel arrangements east.
This is a downtime event lasting from 17 August (when you will receive additional atmospheric details) until 15 September. You can engage in your own jungle plots, or in any of the opt-in activities below.
LOGISTICS
- ■ Stone houses are available within the temple-fortress, and humble (often single-person) cells were dug high into the mountain walls for hermit monks. Deimar’s people can provide some spare clothes and food supplies.
TASKS
- ■ Assist with cleaning and reconstructing the destitute grounds of Unkharil, healing the survivors of Alem’s siege (physically or emotionally), and looking after those crippled or orphaned. A kind word or touch can change a war-marred life.
■ Learn to use mountain scaling gear (rope-bound pairs encouraged) — or tame a 3-meter Kalioperus flier (useful for scouting and the Wailing below).
■ Seek out a fabled thin golden stream in the jungle — bathing in its waters may accelerate healing, improve your spirits or give you a day of staggering good luck. Bring back waters for recovering refugees.
■ Largely paladins and sorcerers, Deimar’s people lost numerous troops defending Alem and now replenish their forces by teaching their youth weapons combat and light magic. Join them to learn a skill, or offer your own lessons. Note: characters who lack natural magic can learn to operate gem-triggered spheres that generate shields or a burst of fire/lightning.
■ (Learn to) fish, hunt and forage to renew supplies. Beware flesh-eating fish in some jungle rivers. Ride an okapi.
■ Deimar (grudgingly) asks merchants to restore their routes to Unkharil, with caravans, errant scholars, priests, necromancers and sorcerers honouring his invitation. They set up bazaars and bring their own coin that the Merchant urges you to earn for future travel expenses — sell services, performances or goods. Musical, art and thespian instruments are available in Unkharil’s ruins in various states of preservation.
QUESTS
THE HEART(H) OF IT
Deimar’s ironmongers revive the smithy of Unkharil but require precious ore and materials for manufacturing. Scale the steep mountain of Masida that walls in Unkharil to the east and infiltrate its crumbling abandoned mine to recover some of the already rescued goods. Blacksmith rewards await.
THE WAILING
Unkharil’s new residents soon find their beauty sleep disrupted by nightly wails, projected from several of the monk cells dug into Mount Nathadi, which walls in Unkharil from the south. These are the ghosts of former monks, whom you can appease by scaling the mountain and cleaning their cell, recovering their bones for burial (where applicable) or providing a minor service for the ghost (your choice of what the monk might desire: perhaps the recitation of a poem, an update on the weather outside, for your character to perform a good deed, etcetera.)
PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Visiting merchants are willing to resume trade, but fear for the safety of their caravans that traverse the jungle.
- ■ Escort a first set of incoming grain-bearing caravans to weather bandit incursions on the last leg of their voyage.
■ Destroy the encampments of the vicious jungle-based Red Claws bandits, who plunder caravans.
■ Hold talks to appease the merchants Balthazar (easily impressed by shows and the arts) and Anathula (who wants a clear business pitch).
WATER MY CROPS
Help Deimar’s people to revitalise local soil, seed gardens and crops — as well as build relevant dams and redirect jungle rivers. Water magic (or moon sorcery, when the tide serves) also work.
TO DAYS GONE BY
To welcome the start of their new lives, the refugees hold two nights of celebrations. During the day of these events, you may purify the lands with incense and sage-infused water or prepare bonfires.
- ■ The first banquet night (OOCly on 25 August) pays homage to the dead: the survivors of Alem remember the siege and encourage you to speak of your own dead. Letters of penance, love or remembrance are written to the dead, read by the witness of your choosing and burned in a bonfire. Heavy drink abounds.
■ The second banquet night (OOCly on 5 September) honours the living: everyone must show and express gratitude to a living person, for whatever reason, however artificial. Grit your teeth and offer thanks.
SERVANTS OF AFIRU (warning: snakes)
Within the jungle depths sleeps the temple of serpent god Afiru, malicious son of Kharil-asuk, whose mind-thralled servants abduct hapless innocents for sacrifice to the deity’s naga emissaries. Infiltrate the temple to ruin Afiru’s altar — releasing his servants from their thrall and ending his worship.
A HUNDRED MOUTHS (newcomers only)
Large stone gates carved into the northern mountain that walls in Unkharil hide an ancient granary whose wares could allay starvation and interest visiting merchants. To open the doors, you must fit missing ruby beads back into the gate’s carvings. The gems, you learn, were picked out and dragged away by feral Kalioperus fliers — larger and more vicious than the ones you ride — and taken back to their nests at the very tip of Unkharil’s walling mountains.
ANOINTED (warning: snake)
Deimar inherited his mother’s lands, but his uncles are likely to contest the claim of a pauper king with a feeble army. To legitimise his rule, Deimar wants the blessing of snake deity Kharil-asuk. The few remaining locals of Unkharil say the great serpent appears before those who wait at night in the jungle, after purifying themselves with meditation or partaking of ‘mind-cleansing’ asuk — a strong drug that triggers hallucinations and prophecy. The enormously large serpent body of Kharil-asuk slithers before his chosen and must be chased into the depths of the jungles, no matter the animal and bandit dangers, before it disappears. Kharil-asuk often speaks as a voice in the heads of his pursuers, assessing them with questions about true worth, what entitles men to land, wisdom and nobility. Anyone can chase Kharil-asuk and speak with him. Sign up for a RNG to receive his blessing.
You can ask immediate questions — but you’ll get further details when the event goes up on 17 August! You can also get involved with as many quests as you want, but general advice is to focus on one and serve as back up on any others.
PLOTTING & CR MEME
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