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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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Hello! Never a wrong place.

So, in good news for the invasion squad, the harpies bulldozing out of the temple means they have a ground-side exit as well. It's claustrophobic and likely to get uncomfortable for everyone but ~~Shorty~~ Five, but it should serve them well.

Alison can certainly take her crew to the images she saw previously, though she will find the walls bearing them have shifted and they are now on other rooms, still within the temple. They can spend as much time inside as they want, they've successfully kicked the harpies out, sending them on a rampage. Might as well enjoy their view.

The stone tombs — think closer to a sarcophagus — are definitely the main draw, but it's up to the gang if they decide to try opening any. Arha's in particular might require some group hustle. The carvings are replete with images that seem to tell the same story: magicians, united against an army. A beautiful woman, weeping by Taravast's closed gates, while tar and fire fall down on the army.

If they loiter long enough in the temple, they may start to hear whispered, bell-like voices, urging them to "Tell them nothing." And if they stall the hallroom of Arha's tomb — call it longer than 15 minutes — they may hear, "Do not let the butcherer loose."

Excellent. I will take this to the team and see what they want to poke at. /rubs hands together.

Follow up! Is there any indication in the art who the "butcherer" might be? Or anything familiar about the voices from her last time in the caverns?

Edited 2021-07-16 00:45 (UTC)

Nothing familiar... in fact, worryingly unfamiliar. These are not the voices that seng the merry nightly song. No indications on the butcher's identity, but perhaps touching base with Mingyu's players about the recent discovery of letters might... help you out, if characters agree some information sharing.

That said, if you give me a hint of what kind of things the folks in your crew might look at or do, I can list more findings, if any available.

We've got too many who are poking at everything they can: any open sarcophagus's they'll be looking into, and the consensus appears to be they're going to try and rally to open up Arha's lid, because collectively they also share the name Pandora.

Wei Wuxian side of things is all: what energies are there in there, does he have anything to manipulate, who can he sing up who isn't in the army/a harpy, if there even is anyone? He mostly wants better intel, and with those other voices cropping up wants to see if they can be lured out, and so on.

If there is, this is probably when he'd be calling for Lan Zhan (I'm so sorry as I keep dragging you in sideways) for Inquiry, unless we have some viable entity he can Empathy on then apologise to bae for later. It's also possible he can do the call out that brings both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng if that's helpful, as Wei Wuxian going HEY SHIT WE FOUND SOMETHING INTERESTING is kind of hilarious/bad to the two men who have Big Fear of Wei Wuxian going around finding something interesting.

Right you are! In order of queries:

Any open sarcophagus: yes, some are open! Interestingly, you can find an assembly of old bones, some traces of tar, and sometimes weapons or armour buried alongside the dead as their memorabilia. The clothes are heavily frayed and torn, suggesting a not negligible period of time has passed since the burial. The bones have been picked at: aligns with the harpies having bone pieces within them.

Restating, re: energies, for convenience of having info aggregated: once the temple opens, there will be the spirits of 40-50 dead 'available': women, men, children. Careful with them, as they are highly anguished and carry deep fear and hatred of Arha, their slaughterer. The look of them, if Wei Wuxian summons them, can indicate they are/were also once civilian caravan travellers.

Opening Arha's lid: just want to confirm, are you guys going ahead with this despite the voices' warning? Not trying to influence either way. Just making sure the warning was glimpsed.

Diiiiid I miss anything?

Just verifying I've read this and am reverifing with the group!

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.

Bae can have bae#2 for Inquiry.

Bless you bae, do we want to ask questions related to this butchery or what will happen if that sarcophagus opens or do we want to ask and have the group yolo anyway, or anything else on the end that these two would get up to. Look! He found more dead!

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.

look he's borrowing the energies once to ... okay i have no idea what the timelines are like, in theory help not crash the wagontrain as badly

but yes, good, also bae wanna spot him on arha's bones or just deal with the aftermath

...............

wangji need drink

and thus we finally got drunk lan wangji--

He just told son to beware

He just told son

son came and asked!

... just late!!! HE DIDN'T SUMMON ANY ARMIES OKAY he laid a few to rest
wants to check in on arha's bones see if anything's funky

hatisse why were you sealing souls to not revenge couldn't we work out why this is happening as a whole HATISSE THIS IS KIND OF MESSY

GOD DAMN IT, SON

son is beautiful and we love him u_u

so keep him over there while we go knocking on arha's door

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