groundrules: (Default)
let's set d o w n some ([personal profile] groundrules) wrote2021-01-08 08:32 pm

npc inbox: sa-hareth + stairs of sighs


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.


NAVIGATION MENU

descendency: (08)

un: anglicized - to haltham

[personal profile] descendency 2021-04-17 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
My good friend Haltham, are you available?

I'd like to ask you for your type.
beitangmoran: (Default)

That lady from the fabric shop [Audio]

[personal profile] beitangmoran 2021-04-18 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello, I should be back soon to finish paying off for that blue fabric I had you set aside.

And I was wondering... My companion was a bit impatient last time, my apologies for it, but I heard there was a sort of local legend about the red sleeves? Someone as world-wise as you surely has heard of it. Would you mind telling me when I next come pick up the wares? I'm very curious.
pulvisetumbra: (Default)

[personal profile] pulvisetumbra 2021-04-22 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
( Days after the heist, following this conversation, the Merchant will be reaching out to Winnie over an exclusive, quieter channel. )

Madam.


( Pick up, Winnie. )
weifinder: (thinking | by the side)

tamaiu | audio

[personal profile] weifinder 2021-04-25 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
( In the hours following talking to Karsa: )

Dear, wonderful madam Tamaiu, might this humble one trouble you for less than an incense stick's worth of your time?
bearshermark: credit: <user name="morninglight"> (Imma do the thing)

Merchant; written

[personal profile] bearshermark 2021-04-25 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Karsa tells of a ship with more captives approaching that will hold more like us. Would they also share your hospitality if freed?
pulvisetumbra: (Default)

archeval | audio

[personal profile] pulvisetumbra 2021-05-03 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
( The day after the ship rescue. )

Good morning.
topoiran: (A Beauty)

audio; un: xunxian, to: raven_master

[personal profile] topoiran 2021-05-09 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ Since it was not known that he would be reached via proxy, Su Xunxian is going to try for the user name directly, but at the same time cautiously. ]

Master Merchant? If I may, when would be a good time for a few more questions? It is nothing urgent.
foxable: (jumping)

un: silhouette among silk spreads - Haltham / Merchant

[personal profile] foxable 2021-05-12 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
Um - hey, Haltham? I was told you could pass on a message for me?

Basically, ah-- Okay, well, you know I do magic, right? Enchantments. Thralling, I think you called it. Anyway, I don't want to draw too much attention to myself - to all of us - so I was wondering it maybe there was a way that I could, uh, set up through his network? Um... Like, if I had someone pretend to be the mage but then I do the actual magic necessary, yeah? They can get a cut for their help, or whatever, but, ah.. I need a way to make some coin. A lot of coin? I need a way to make more coin than a courtesan can.
weifinder: (smile | are dishonest men)

tamaiu | gifted

[personal profile] weifinder 2021-05-23 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
( He'll casually be asking if the madam of the establishment is presently busy, then sending along with one of the more trustworthy of those working in the lower levels:

a length of silk in purple;
a painting of an 'exotic' landscape, familiar to him and those who've seen yunmeng, with an overall air of sedate contemplation;
a nicely calligraphic thank you in the characters he knows;
the, uh, return of a certain quartz, named "old dog turning new tricks."

In gratitude, for having hosted those of us, who have troubled you.
)
bearshermark: credit: <user name="morninglight"> (smiles)

Haltham

[personal profile] bearshermark 2021-06-07 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Cheer, though with a frisson of nerves]

Haltham, how are you? Were you able to pick up my gift from the House of Dew?
descendency: (12)

visiting upon tamaiu

[personal profile] descendency 2021-06-09 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Mingyu drops by wherever Tamaiu might receive him, after finishing with all his clients for the night and picking up his earnings. ]

Dear Mistress, [ he murmurs, offering her a smooth smile and sweeping bow. ]

Have you a moment...? I thought to ask on my... performance for your esteemed house as of late.

[ And he'll put a closed door between them and the rest of the house, if he can. ]
descendency: (08)

interrogating Haltham (with Five)

[personal profile] descendency 2021-06-13 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Mingyu and Five intend to corner Haltham if possible and ask the following:

1) Why have you been lying to us?
2) Who are you, really?
3) What are your motives?/What do you want?
4) Why should we believe you now?
5) Why did you set us up?
6) Give us one good reason not to fuck you over for all the deceit.

Mingyu will be doing a very hurt and betrayed friend thing which is, to his dismay, only halfway an act. Five will be agitated paranoid bad cop.
jeoha: (pic#14129407)

Calling in a Favour (for Anurr)

[personal profile] jeoha 2021-06-15 10:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ After giving a crystal to the forest man Five had been keeping, and with him and Mingyu in the room, Lee Chang instructs the man to pass a message to Anurr, in the most direct way possible. ]

Tell him that the man sending him word is Lee Chang.

Tell him I wish to speak to him, if he considers his freedom worth the right to parley.
binghua: (12)

Asgeirr

[personal profile] binghua 2021-06-16 10:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Xingchen has met Wei Wuxian in the garden to discuss potentially confidential information, but has also been introduced to a certain death-soaked cloak. And since he's been given a moment to try and call out to the spirit attached to said cloak, Xingchen does just that.

He still doesn't reach out to touch the cloak, but stands close enough, or so he hopes, and calls out to the ghost.]


Master Asgeirr? My name is Xiao Xingchen. Wei Wuxian has told me about you.
scrapgege: (Default)

[Haltham/Post-siege]

[personal profile] scrapgege 2021-06-20 10:51 am (UTC)(link)
Helping clean up post-siege means Xie Lian will mostly be hauling most of the corpses out of the house to build some sort of funeral pyre with them a little way away from the house. Better to burn and disperse the ashes, make sure nothing remains.

The undead felt like low level ghosts to him, and he hasn't been quite close enough to Unhalad to feel what he's like, but while carrying a corpse slung on each shoulder, he'll feel a rather more imposing presence in the woods.

One that feels.... somewhat familiar. Not exactly the same of course, but not completely alien either.
foxable: (Default)

Karsa, in person, during the trek

[personal profile] foxable 2021-06-24 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Fox appears as he always does - somehow right beside you, when you swear he wasn't there a moment ago. He lowers his hood and gives Karsa and imploring look. ]

What am I going to have to bribe you with to talk through some magic theory with me? We've got time now - we're not, like, currently under seige with zombies, and I think I could really help you out if I had an idea of how to work my magic with yours.

I even had an idea for layering enchantments over your thralling, yeah? Kind of like an emergency broadcast system in case someone wanders off and gets lost and then almost fucking dies or something. It's not a bad idea, right?
sergeant_slick: Slick observing a situation (watching)

An Ghost, in person, during the trek through harpyland

[personal profile] sergeant_slick 2021-07-16 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
He's been avoiding the ghosts. Look, the locals have been weird and creepy before, but this was just too much.

But after a while, the sheer fatigue over the whole situation wore him down. Sure. Ghosts. That was a thing now. And they might be extremely dead, but they still were an army. They were moving with purpose, and with a logic to their organization that made sense to him.

Wait, was he really considering talking to ghosts because he was homesick for the army? He shouldn't be. The army was literally the worst thing that ever happened to him.

...But he was going to talk to one of them anyway. He was on watch right now, and bored as all hells.

He'd been observing long enough to figure out one of them was an infantry sergeant, or whatever the local equivalent might be. He waited until a moment when the ghost was off-duty. Well, closer to off-duty than the whole "grimly marching on" or "fighting weird goo birds" or "staring mutely into the void" parts of their schedule.

"Sky's quiet for now. I suppose you lot have dealt with these things before?"

Because the practical stuff always comes first. It's a better introduction than "Hi, I see we've both got a tragic army backstory" or something.
Edited (i realized bracket format meant MILES of smallfont, and switched to the prose it was always meant to be.) 2021-07-16 01:55 (UTC)
scrapgege: (Default)

Anurr, your friend is here

[personal profile] scrapgege 2021-07-24 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Xie Lian hasn't exactly been on the lookout for Anurr ever since learning he's around there - their big caravan just got a lot bigger, there's monsters, it's busy all the time - but the moment he actually catches sight of him, he's just going to wave happily.

"Hi! I dind't think we'd see you again so soon."

He actually looks happy to see him, too.