npc inbox: sa-hareth + stairs of sighs

[groundrules]

NPC INBOX: SA-HARETH

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

CURRENTLY WITH THE PARTY

	THE MERCHANT username: raven master The patron saint of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few.
	KARSA username: lady of the willow tree Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.
	MAZYAR Charlatan, crook or wise man, Mazyar has worn all the names. Once an exceptionally skilled smuggler, now an equally apt tradesman and caravan master, allied with the Merchant. Less cryptic than his 'associate,' if more prone to riddles and keen on items with value.
	GHOST ARMY OF ARHA A maudlin, marauding and eerily fixated army led by the young lord Arha through the Stairs of Sighs. They seek to rescue Arha's oracle lover Hatisse from Taravast.
	OUHRSSON Guys, it's a bear.

SA-HARETH

	"HALTHAM" | ANURR username: Haltham | illiterate The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.
	THE (NOT-SO) GOOD PEOPLE From distressed locals to busy-bee merchants, guards, enchanters, tradesmen, politicians and looser-tongued courtesans — never underestimate the value of indiscretion in a citadel built on commerce, rumour and stubbornly choosing to ignore the expanding rule of the undead. Not every piece of gossip or legend's worth your time, but beggars can't be choosers.

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Comments

[aprescoup]

Anurr and his two undead companion — worse for the wear of travel after the horsecar's explosion — have been idling at a respectful distance away from the caravan's encampment, all the better to avoid startling the living travellers.

Even Arha's people appear to give them a wide berth, and so, when Xie Lian draws near, the borrowed face of Anurr's Haltham body brightens in a lopsided approximation of a smile.

"We BrOu GhT yo uR fRiEn Ds."

[scrapgege]

"Ah, well, I don't know any of them, but I guess you mean they're like us, right? Did they appear in the same place we did? Isn't that odd?"

After all, what would it be about Sa-Hareth in particular that it would suck in souls from other worlds...

"Have you gotten anything to eat? Wait, do you need to eat? I forgot to ask. I know some spirits and ghosts get hungry, but... Oh, and I promise I won't make the food! They've just made a lot anyway, so there's no need."

[aprescoup]

"ThE Y WerE N Ot EXPec T eD." But there's a shrug there, started by Anurr and rippling through the posture of his companions, mimed.

As for feeding, their bellies do not ache, never yet hungered. "wE wa nT FoR NoT HIng."

They are of complete make, self-sufficient — watchful of Xie Lian, as he carries on aimlessly. There is something pleasing in him to Anurr, something living. "Yo U StaYEd Ali Ve?"

[scrapgege]

"... Were you expecting us? Was there a sign, before we arrived?"

He did not think to ask before, but the Merchant had said it wasn't the first time it had happened.

But if they don't need to eat, then that's fine. One less worry.

Xie Lian scratches his head at the question.

"Well, it's not that hard for me to do, really, since I can't die. Not like you, but you know... But yes, everyone else is alive. We've had a few scrapes, but nothing too serious. There's a good doctor with us too, now."

[aprescoup]

"W E weR e ImPRisONe D wHEn Yo U CaMe." Unwilling, incautious denizens of the jailhouse, released by the man Lee Chang thereafter. Anurr knows. Anurr remembers.

"Do CT oR." And a pause, as another human traverses this part of the encampment, and Anurr recalls the skins of 'Haltham,' reshapes the sounds of his mouth and the sit of his bones to summon back his mannerisms. "Keep ye'rself alive'n'well. Does you good. Keeps you happy, that it does."

[scrapgege]

"Ah... I arrived later, you know? On the ship?"

So, he wasn't around for that little bit of fun.

The sudden shift to a slightly more human demeanor and speech pattern is swift, but it doesn't really faze Xie Lian either. He's seen spirits trying to pass as human before. not many of them manage it as well as this.

"... Do any of these people know who you are? Apart from us? Most of the refugees are from Sa-Hareth."

[aprescoup]

Sooner. Later. What is the lifespan of these mortal things but a slowed blink of Anurr's eye?

His companions stare from him to one another, and their lingering interest burns down to fine crisps. He speaks, carefully, "Me, I'm Haltham."

And don't be going around saying otherwise to good folk.

[scrapgege]

"Of course! Of course."

Fine, fine, he'll keep his mouth shut.

"... The Merchant did ay you might want to come with us, but then you weren't there when we left, so I wondered. Is it really okay for you to leave your own place behind?"

[aprescoup]

Another long moment's silence, weighed and carefully considered, and Anurr's stare dark and bland for it.

"This place same good as any other," he spits out the words, friendly-like.

[scrapgege]

"... Hasn't Sa-Hareth been your home for a very long time?"

He's not quite sure how long, to be quite honest. Xie Lian still thinks he is probably older than Anurr, even with the weird timeline issues, but of course it's also a bit different because he himself never died.

Or is it?

[aprescoup]

Home. A twisted, futile concept that men create to soothe their loneliness, their desire for permanence.

He does not stir. Says, finally, with purpose to end the line of questioning, "I am where I need to be."

[scrapgege]

Xie Lian knows enough to know when he might have touched something sensitive, so he won't insist.

"It would have been nice to have you along for the beginning of the trip. Although I guess it's lucky for the new people that you were around to get them out when they arrived."

He pats his chest, the place where he's been keeping the lock of hair he was given.

"I've been keeping what you gave me safe."

[aprescoup]

"Did nothin' much, me. Hardly touched'em. They're squeaky and soft," he counters, and rounds one of his legs beneath himself, sat cleanly on his log. A good, watchful observer. Devoted.

"You done good."

[scrapgege]

"Ah, yes. Humans are like that, aren't they."

And yet surprisingly sturdy at time.

Xie Lian crouches down, his hand still holding onto the lock of hair under the fabric.

"... Does it do anything? Like a talisman, or... something to locate people?

[aprescoup]

As for that, Anurr-turned-Haltham spares little concern for the braid, less for Xie Lian's question — honours both, at the last moment, with a nod.

"You keep it safe."

[scrapgege]

So he can't answer, or he won't. Not that it matters. Xie Lian has met enough powerful beings in his life to know that even if the lock of hair itself has no magical properties, it is meaningful in some ways.

"I will."

A small beat and...

"Say, if you've been around for a long time, you wouldn't happen to know more about this ghost army, would you? Their general... he feels almost like a Wrath-level ghost, and that means he either has been around for a very long time, or what is keeping him here is very strong."

[aprescoup]

"Know nothing about no wrath, me," he murmurs with a borrowed mouth, a quieting of the voice that doesn't become it. This skin always ill fit him, stretches and tightens at the wrong corners.

"But it's getting stronger as it walks." And there's a grin well-lived at the corner of his mouth, one his companions mirror. "Appetising."

[scrapgege]

That catches Xie Lian's attention.

"........ You're planning to eat him?"

That's... not actually as outlandish as one might expect, at least when you know ghosts and spirits the way Xie Lian does.

"He's keeping a whole army tethered. That's very powerful."

[aprescoup]

Ah, but he keeps his smile thin, his pace measured, the shrug well-learned. "Me, I'm just visiting."

And he's stayed, past his delivery. "You go off, now."

[scrapgege]

Well then, he's being dismissed, very clearly.

he's stand, and dust himself off and give a little bow, but still... Eating the ghost. It could pose some problems in the future, depending on how that affects him.