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TRAIN-CRASHING NEAR YOU

Heya, bonjour, think of Bastille! This post will serve as the main plotting and Q&A hub for our recent event and test drive meme (TDM).

Feel free to make a plotting comment, if you want — and to flag if you're playing a TDM participant or an existing character in the comment title, to help with precious, beautiful organisation.

For any general questions, you have the following main threads for:

TEST DRIVE QUESTIONS

EXISTING CHARACTERS

THE COMMON TIMELINE

Thanks so much and enjoy!

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Not sure about you, bae, but bae#2 would probably want to know how/why these folks died, I think, and if there's a way to put them to rest. He would also not be keen on using these energies /s t a r e

...

But bae can do whatever while Wangji's on a convenient bathroom break or something.

Follow up question: would Lily and Wei Wuxian be able to locate Izahad's tomb inside the temple during their group excursion?

How's about the inventory of TDM characters: safe to say they have some things in their pockets from home or did they lose it all in the shuffle as per the original crew?

(Apologies if you already said and I missed this!)

I'd say "keep it to whatever you can carry in," but what were you thinking of, exactly?

Literally just a cellphone and earbuds to play music off of until the battery dies and nothing else. I didn't want to assume he'd have it!

A gun or something would have been smart, but no, some tunes should fix this entire situation right up.

Sure, go wild.

Hearing back, it seems like the group would be more inclined to wait for bae to show up LFMASDLKJ IM SORRY RUXI, but wait for Wangji to show up and for some Inquiry to happen before determining if the ghosts saying don't do it are saying so with any viable reason to listen, versus "this is something we're going to need to handle"

So... sobs, I'm sorry I'm dragging you backward into things, Wei Wuxian would want to know why these ghosts are here if any are aware, what is in that sarcophagus, and be generally on board for doing what they can to send spirits on, he's just also the guy well aware that sometimes you need to wrestle resentment and perhaps part of that is going to play out here whether they want it to or not

All right. Compelled by Inquiry, the ghosts can reveal...

Why are the ghosts here?
The Lady Hatisse locked them in the temple, to avoid that they should take vengeance against Arha.

What is in that sarcophagus?
The remains of Lord Arha.

As for Lan Wangji's questions:

How did these ghosts come to be?
Lord Arha and his people murdered them.

Why?
They travelled the canyon with their own caravan and encountered the army in its yearly voyage. They told Arha he had passed and how. Angered and unable to bear the truth, he ordered his men to slaughter them.

What would set them to rest?
They were but innocents who sought to help Lord Arha's soul rest, through honest revelation. Some wish vengeance against him now. Others only want that their fate should not visit others. The Lady has sought to ensure that by closing off the Stairs of Sighs, except for the short yearly period of Lord Arha's pilgrimage — but some of the ghosts would want the canyon brought down, so that no one can be tempted to travel it and live through what they have done.

Can I also put in for 3 or 4 letter pieces whenever life lets you exist, don't sweat it.

Sure, of course — the second excerpt will be signed by Arha, making it easier to identify who is penning what, based on calligraphy:

i. Hatisse to Arha: she is returned to Taravast, where she has found the Attaryl in the chaos and tensions previous reports from her sister sorceresses suggested. As Arha knows, the Attaryl are diplomats, pacifists. Surely they are no match for the aggressions for the Bessis? Surely they cannot be culled like cattle when they lie defenceless? But the conclave of Taravast gives them no help in this.

ii. Arha to Hatisse: a wealth of praise for Hatisse's lips, her eyes, her hair. Beauty beyond compare, kindness without tarnish. He is not a man of poetry, not a scholar, but for her, he yet learns.

iii. Arha to Hatisse: they say tensions have mounted, that the Bessis and the Attaryl have clashed in the streets now, that blood will pour until one destroys the other to become the single faction of sorcery in Taravast. They say the Attaryl led the onslaught first. Were they fools? Do they not know the Bessis bring fire? What will their pretty words do then, their courtly manners?

iv. Hatisse to Arha: she sees now, how their enemies have converted him, how their voices speak through him. It aches her so. Let him keep his distance, then, let him leave her and her sisters as the conclave abandoned them already. He is a man grown, he rules an army. Hatisse joined his court to advise him, but she has failed, that much is plain. She has taught him nothing.

late to this train, but Catra would be the person to just blurt out "HEY YOU'RE DEAD"

always down for a good looting

she can bring the brute force and the climbing/sneaking skills

Hey! Whom to?

she would absolutely say it straight to Arha's face, but if that spot is taken, she'll also yell it at a foot soldier

Hello! Just wanted to check, as you'd had some plans for a network post for Eleven as a result of his interaction with Arha — can I ask when you wanted to handle that? Asking because there's now a second person who'd like to have a heart-to-hear with Arha, and I need to chronologically set them for their interaction to happen after Eleven's!

Okay! At the latest, I will have that post up tomorrow- may be tonight though. Soon, I promise!

That's absolutely fine, no problem! Just needed to know to give the other player an indication. I'll give them a period after 20/07 for their interaction, then — thanks!

Happy for her to approach Arha, though because of the aforementioned overwhelming feelings of dread, it might not end up quite a "HEY YOU'RE DEAD" moment.

As the second person to approach Arha with this particular reveal, Catra will find the warlord already testy on the subject — in a fit of fury, he will scream that he and his people would never fail Hatisse by perishing before she has been released by the Attaryl, and he will accuse Catra of attempting to poison his mind with doubts. Catra will be dragged away for two days of house arrest, under the close supervision of six ghost soldiers, all increasingly more corporeal as the days pass. She will retain access to her quartz stone.

Arha will visit on multiple occasions throughout her imprisonment to ask, half savagely ridiculing, half himself haunted, how it is that he died, if Catra knows so much? Where is this enemy who killed them? They go to Taravast, the road is empty, Hatisse will open the gates once they reach the citadel, and they join her to defend her against her sister witches — how do they die, then? He will appear in real want of an answer, more seeking to talk himself into confidence in what he knows to be true.

After her release, Catra will be very closely watched by the ghost soldiers and will find herself given the worst camp tasks and strictly forced to obey the curfew. She will no longer be allowed to do night watches, if she intended to.

Eleven is the first lucky news breaker for Arha, and their player's planning a (network) post by 18 July — if you could do one sharing Catra and Arha's situation with the group in the 20-22 July period, that'd be great!

His tomb is definitely there, but it wouldn't be marked in an especially visual manner. The poor don't get sculptures. If Lily learns how to recognise the writing of Izahad's name from Mazyar or the boy himself, she will be able to find his sarcophagus, if she searches most of the plain tombs.

Alternatively, she can bring the ghost in to point it out.

But.

I like the foreboding sound of that but. Okay, if it's cool to say that during Izahad and Lily's conversations the language difference has come up I'd like to pursue that but. Lily's thinking is that if Izahad knows he's dead and wants to rest maybe that he's willing will make helping him somewhat easier, because she's young and dumb. Wei Wuxian is obviously the right candidate to pester about this.

So, you'd like to have Izahad come see his own tomb, once it's discovered?

Maybe just getting him to write his name down and trying to seek the tomb out would be the less drastic choice. If that's possible I think the low-impact option might be best, anything to note

Edited (hit enter) 2021-07-19 02:26 (UTC)

You may find (most of) his bones within the tomb. Sadly, some are missing, having been taken and weaponised or used as cores by harpies previously. You are welcome to any of his effects: scraps of uniforms, a ragged flute.

*rubs hands* CAN DO

Right so, because she promised she would find a way to help him find peace - when Lily and Wei Wuxian find Izahad's tomb, what happens when Wei Wuxian cleanses his bones?

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