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groundrules) wrote2021-06-24 10:18 pm
groundrules) wrote2021-06-24 10:18 pm
Entry tags:
our story
Arc-based summaries of our story played out over three years.
Previously...
- ■ ARC I | Sa-Hareth
■ INTERLUDE | Stairs of Sighs
■ ARC II | Taravast
■ INTERLUDE | Ellethia
■ ARC III | Arc III: House of Ravens
■ ARC IV | Clockwork Serthica
■ ARC V | Alem
■ ARC VI | Yancai
JANUARY: on the footsteps of undead creator Matthias, the party arrived in Hatthevar, former seat of mysticism, Oracles and wish granting, now turned into a citadel of ghosts. Hatthevar has been under siege from Rathakku, conqueror of Alem and warlord of the Brotherhood, and undead wind lord Anurr, unaffiliated with the coalition. Matthias, meanwhile, has been working the five local beacons and calling upon all of his power to try to bring in and revive spirits from various points in time and space — in a bid to summon and resurrect his long lost daughter, Cosette. At times, he senses her close, but she shortly disappears from the citadel. Desperate, he offered the party all of his power over the dead, in exchange for being reunited with his daughter.
Benedict, Emilia and Wrath defeated some of Anurr’s frost wyrms and Rathakku’s demonic scorpions and sand lurkers, preventing them from entering Hatthevar. Rathakku withdrew his forces, while Anurr continued to attack with his blizzards. Vanessa took over one of the beacons, guaranteeing the party an exit point. From the Hatthevar lagoon, Red recovered a substance from a cauldron typically used to eliminate memories. Along with supplying access to some of Matthias’ recollections, the liquid also enables the party to retain their memories of Akhuras upon departure. Five and Wen Kexing learned two possible locations suspected as Matthias’ hideouts.
Several party members also investigated the whereabouts and fate of the dis- and reappearing Cosette, whom Matthias described as a young blonde child. No such girl was seen wherever he sends the party. A puppet master, who worked at the bazaar when Matthias sensed Cosette was present there, says he was possessed to put on a play of a father-daughter quarrel, at the end of which the daughter ran off and was killed.
The party learned that Matthias, formerly a technological and magical scientist of Ellethia, extracted two presumably shameful or painful memories: one was of him giving permission for his team to create a fierce magical storm and recover a power source, endangering nearby ships. The second memory was of running into a young blonde woman who disdainfully said she had not admired him since she was a child.
At one point, a woman seen where Matthias felt his daughter present traded a memory in which she was on a ship in the middle of a large storm, arguing with Matthias. River suspects Cosette may not have been a child at the time of her death. If the woman is Cosette, she does not wish to return to her father.
FEBRUARY: The party pursued Matthias at the two lair locations unearthed by Five and Wen Kexing — aboard the haunted ship, the Headless Dancer, and in the Whispering House of the foremost Wish maker of Hatthevar. Aboard the Headless Dancer, the group found out that the vessel was once used by the Ellethian court of governance, which was attempting to reach a powerful artefact sunken offshore Ellethia before the institute of technology might achieve the same. Cosette was one of the representatives on board during this venture, when Matthias obliviously authorized the summoning of a deathly magical storm that was initially intended to scare away all other rivals for the artefact (later revealed to be dark water). She and her crewmates perished, Cosette told Benedict during a ghostly encounter, stressing she wanted nothing to do with her father. Wrathion meanwhile discovered a tool that the spirit of Cosette vengefully stole from her father — the knife with which he has been cutting off his limbs to make magical anchors, and one of the few instruments that can harm him.
In Hatthevar, wind master Anurr attempted to take advantage of Matthias' distraction and launched a last-resort attack, using his blizzards to corrupt several party members onto his side of the warfare. They did not open him the gates.
Faced with the dark truth of all that Matthias has done to his family, the spirits of Hatthevar and the world of the (un)dead at large — several party members lured him out with illusions and false appearances of Cosette, before Emilia dealt a final killing blow with the knife facilitated by Wrathion. With some inheriting the remains of Matthias' magic, several party members made a last use of the dark water's overwhelming power to isolate and seal Anurr in his human body, trapping him once more and preventing him from seeking to usurp what territories the Brotherhood once held.
Free of their dead, their curses, their nightmares, their wishes and long grief — the living of Akhuras may tend to their own and heal.
As the party, finally possessing strong and stable beacons, may choose to head home with or without their memories.
ARC I: SA-HARETH
Seeking to sponsor the wars of his eastern 'brothers,' undead warlord Unhalad summoned a curious mix of otherworlders with magnificent, easily absorbed powers. They arrived as captives in the frozen, decaying commercial citadel of Sa-Hareth, where they were saved by associates of the elusive Merchant — who will facilitate their voyage east to portals hoped to return them to their worlds. Along the way, Lee Chang unknowingly released Anurr, the previous undead leader of Sa-Hareth, from imprisonment.
Over the next few months, the party gathered funds for their exit east by robbing the bank of La Rea and assisted with rescuing fellow otherworlders from the vessel Imperious — which delivered a magical mirror that Unhalad hoped to utilise to deplete Anurr's power. Informed by the party, Anurr and his allies broke the mirror before it could be put to use. Some of the foreigners investigated among the natives, learning the legend of Anurr — a hero and would-be chieftain betrayed by his successor, who gave his body to the ancestral cold and winds in exchange for a chance at vengeance. They also found that Unhalad was a lesser power: an embodiment of the hunger, dread and despair that haunted those stranded in Sa-Hareth's mines.
As Anurr's supporters grew emboldened, a desperate Unhalad took the characters' farm home by two-day siege to procure the mirror he believed to be in their possession — only to be killed by Sith Lord Archeval. Separately, Five put the body in which Anurr had transferred the mirror curse out of its misery. A second, different, mysterious mirror retrieved from the bank lies with Winnifred — its powers hinted, but unknown.
Battered but somehow still running, the group elected to head east — for Taravast.
INTERLUDE: STAIRS OF SIGHS
The party was smuggled out of Sa-Hareth in the caravan of the merchant Mazyar, who braved the Stairs of Sighs canyon as a shortcut to Taravast. The Stairs were curse-bound to only open for the yearly pilgrimage of Lord Arha's ghost army, which sought to rescue the sorceress Hatisse from Taravast. As characters traversed the canyon, they began to unravel the witch's curse: a haunting love song, rains of blood, and tar-winged harpies built around the remains of the army, throwing down bone. All these tricks of sorcery aimed to remind Arha of his demise and rest his spirit peacefully — an indelicate attempt to reveal his fate had led to the slaughter of another caravan's members.
Allison Hargreeves led a group into the harpies' lair, sending the creatures in a fit of violence that saw them attack an incoming horsecar and nearly kill further newcomers. The spree also opened up the cliff-burrowed temple holding multiple tombs of the ghost soldiers, allowing a team to infiltrate and cleanse Arha's bones — while, in the outside world, several characters disguised Bai Mingyu as Hatisse to distract the dead warlord and bide the tomb raiders their time. The story of Hatisse's betrayal of Lord Arha, who could not bear her scorn, surfaced. In the end, Lord Arha and his army were appeased and sent off, although Wei Wuxian and Lily Evans still seek to give final justice to the spirits of their victims. The witch's curse has dispersed. The Stairs of Sighs passage is now freely open for travel.
ARC II: TARAVAST
Arriving into Taravast, the party found itself the unwilling retinue of Lady Odile, advancing her suit as a foreigner seeking the hand of Lord Macaluso Spina — who, in rivalry with his cousin Vannozza, contends in a contrived election to win citadel leadership from his retiring grandfather Bonaccorso. To cover their bases, characters have been divided to support either Macaluso or Vannozza under the guise of local identities, in an effort to win access to the dormant transport beacon of Taravast no matter the electoral outcome. Protesters disturbed the peace of Macaluso's courtship proceedings. Later, some of his supporters — including characters of the party — were poisoned at a welcome banquet, facing low odds of recovery. A (dead) demonstrator was blamed.
Vying for the Bessis vote in the electoral campaign, Macaluso and Vannozza were challenged to produce extraordinary magic at the fete commemorating the witches' truce with the sorcerers of Attaryl. Macaluso's party captured a water dragon, enhancing its ice abilities. Wrath and Wen Qing began investigating Vannozza's eerie sickness. Vannozza sent her supporters to investigate rumours of the Bessis' recent involvement with necromancers, seeking blackmail leverage. Vannozza's party infiltrated the Bessis tower during the fete, finding captive newcomers and the first sign of undead in Taravast — former witches of Attaryl. They ran publicly rampant, setting off Macaluso's dragon that was brought around the Bessis tower for a presentation. The group set out to smuggle and release the creature at sea.
During the brief downtime following the disaster of the Bessis tower, Hermione Granger and Anakin Skywalker uncovered donna Rigarda has been mediating on behalf of don Bonnacorso, historically arranging deliveries of magical weapons to the undead brotherhood that governs most other citadel, in exchange for Taravast's ongoing freedom. The coalition demands missed shipments. Eleven and Shen Qingqiu were drawn into a failed such transport, retaining the weapons. Bai Mingyu and Lee Chang attended an underground fight of undead, organised as a sporting fete for nobles. Don Bonnacorso took ill, causing a lockdown of his palace on suspicions of foul play. Chu Wanning learned of the mysterious murder of servants during this confinement. Five broke the ancient mirror in Winnifred's keep, returning the majority of warlord Anurr's powers. With a contender undead lord in Taravast and failed weapon deliveries, the brotherhood launched a brief warning siege of the citadel: the herald Huntress led the vanguard, with the Beastmaster and his creatures following in wake to meet the forces of Anurr. Both withdrew by the end. The party set out to defend and evacuate residents and reactivate tower sorcery defences that could limit the Beastmaster's invasion.
Several party members discovered the Attaryl witches used servants of the Palace of the Doxe to practise transferring the spirit and minds of other individuals into different bodies. At Bonaccorso's instruction, the witches of Attaryl have been for years grooming Vannozza Spina to house the spirit of her grandfather, who seeks to extend his lifespan and allegedly safeguard Taravast's future. Lily Evans and Wei Wuxian struck a deal with the briefly resurrected Attaryl witch Hatisse to grant her a body in exchange for her help with working the Taravast beacon. She joined the party, bound to Wrath.
Neglected by their leader, with many of their residential sectors ruined and with necromancers and sorcerers suffering the worst of the city-wide curfews, the people of Taravast took to the streets in an ill-organised but surprisingly efficient revolution that sought to still retain Bonaccorso in power, but install a people's Conclave. At Alina Starkov's urging, Macaluso attempted to speak sense to his grandfather, but was put under house arrest, pending trial on charges of attempted assassination. Hunted by his niece and surrounded by his own people, Bonaccorso Spina ordered the witches of Bessis to burn down his own people. Jon Snow and Allison Hargreeves caught and talked down the leader of the Bessis, promising that their champion Macaluso will be instated and that the Bessis can have their way with old frenemies Attaryl. Other party members discouraged more spirited Bessis witches. Daenerys Targaryen organised some shelters for the weak. Alina Starkov and Wrathion urged Macaluso to sense, while Lily Evans pacified Vannozza, who finally executed her grandfather and took on an advisory position to Taravast's new leader, her cousin Macaluso. The witches of Attaryl were all brutally slaughtered. Kaneki Ken recovered a beating dead heart from the Spina hunting grounds. Anduin's unwillingness to kill Rigarda at the Merchant's urging left Macaluso the same recourse of trade with the Brotherhood that his grandfather practised.
Hatisse prevailed to open the beacon of Taravast, allowing some party members to return to their home worlds — until the gateway dissolved, prompting the group to head further east to chase further beacons.
INTERLUDE: ELLETHIA
The Merchant arranged a detour into his native Ellethia — the first site conquered by the undead. The citadel-island is encircled by feral and highly aggressive mermaids and has been sundered by sea into the twin regions of Ellethia-Allayar and Ellethia-Hamsour. Vegetation is lush and rampant, but lacks a human population. Exposed animal and human beings are subjected to a horrifying acceleration of their ageing processes. Local animals are born fresh at sunrise, age over the course of the day and die by sundown, only to resurface alive and well, come next morning. Special gear provided by the Merchant has spared the party the gruesome consequences of
radiationexposure. Travelling to the island by sea runs the risk of encountering dead sailors, who climb boats and ruin the shores they reach.The party was drawn to an undocumented 'lighthouse' on Ellethia-Hamsour, whose premise was immune to the rebirth cycles. The spire homed several curious and enthralling broken mirrors, magically-entraptured Sleepers and their attendant — the haze-minded Zenobius. Obliviously, the man used the lighthouse to daw a nearby distressed ship towards fog-hidden sirens and its untimely doom. The incident was barely prevented by Akira, Anduin and Lily Evans — to Zenobius' own later gladness. Kaneki Ken and John Connor encountered a mysterious doll down a dark well hiding the entranceway to a safehouse. Five and Daenerys, alongside the unfortunate Jon Snow, helped patch together some of the elusive mirrors — only for Jon to be drawn into the blood-curdling, dark mirror world by a pale white man and subjected to the horrors of an eerie thing attempting to make a house of his body.
Eleven, Yennefer and Moiraine were meanwhile pulled into the memories of the Sleepers, and, convinced they were suffering victims of the mirrors, agreed to euthanise them.
Characters have been able to learn:
■ The Sleepers of the lighthouse, known to the Merchant and attended by caretaker Zenobius, were technicians overseeing mirror experimentation in Ellethia's Institute of Technology. Ellethian civilians were conscripted for trials.
■ Zenobius once gifted a doll to fellow technician Matthias Lemaitre — a ‘pale man,’ newly returned from mourning.
■ The previous lead technician resigned, citing ‘ethical concerns’ and ‘national safety.’ They were grudgingly replaced by Matthias.
■ The undead appeared at the institute between midday and sunset of the same day. Fleeing slaughter, Zenobius was pushed into a well by Matthias. He returned after the Sleepers had already engaged with a destroyed 10th floor mirror.
■ The institute was converted into a lighthouse, which a thralled Zenobius used to lure ships to their mermaid-driven doom. Hundreds of sailors’ bodies lie in the coastal seas. There is no death on Ellethia. The close lighthouse premises are unaffected by Ellethia’s accelerated life-rebirth cycles.
■ The lighthouse thrives off granting wishes.
■ Parts of the broken mirror on the 10th floor are thrown into waters to pacify mermaids. Party members were lured to rebuild the mirror. Upon completion, a man fitting Matthias’ description briefly dragged Jon Snow into the amorphous, dark and aquatic mirror-realm, where a creature hungered for shape.
■ The mermaids obsessively covet the lighthouse and mirror despite their wishes or exhaustion.
■ Zenobius’ ‘duties’ ended when the Sleepers died. At that time, he also fell into Sleep, and the lighthouse premises lost their self-replenishing sustenance.
Full details on all the uncovered information can be found in the February plot roll write-ups, here and here.
Wei Wuxian and Anduin pledged to look after Zenobius, taking the new sleeper along the journey east, to cursed village Ke-Waihu. The curious doll remains in the possession of Kaneki Ken.
As the party fled Ellethia, the infrastructure of the lighthouse fell apart, leaving behind only the bones of the institute tower. A blurred figure appeared atop it, but made no attempt to engage.
ARC III: HOUSE OF RAVENS
The party joined cursed site Ke-Waihu, one of three villages surrounding the Ke-Sanwon volcano, alongside the beastly Ke-Waiar and the steadfast Ke-Waicai. All three locations worship the undead Beastmaster as their patron. The group was taken in under the dubious protection of the 'ruling' Hok-Shinn
mobclan and invited or tricked to atone for the inherited sins of village elders.The party was dragged into yearly 'foxed weddings' that repent for the village's former murder of a fox spirit, and into investigating the resurging droughts of Ke-Waiar, crowned by the apparition of a serpentine woman and other snakes. Various explorations revealed that the 'dark waters' found at the bottom of drying wells also generates mutations among forest animals and vegetation, while Ke-Sanwon's labyrinthine innards are brimming with monstrous creatures covered in tar. With the volcano hinting iminent eruption, the Beastmaster announced his return to Ke-Waihu — and his former ally, the Huntress begged the party for shelter.
APRIL: Party member Wen Qing was captured and rescued from the mutated human-snake creatures of the witches' Fetters. The Huntress offered the group two options to avoid the Beastmaster's thrall, while the lord of creatures joined Ke-Waihu to receive 10 human tributes each from the village and from the nearby Ke-Waiar.
The party freed the tributes. Visitors discovered villagers cursed with lycanthropy roam Ke-Waiar freely. Sanwon showed signs of imminent eruption, with local drought intensifying and with healing dark water visible in the wake of earthquakes. In Ke-Waihu, superstitious villagers restarted abductions to appease Sanwon. Amid rising fears, a representative of
cultisthighly devout village Ke-Waicai journeyed to proselytise a return to the old ways of offering human sacrifice to settle the volcano and ease the drought. The House of Ravens has begun to open.Wrath and Emilia discovered that Ke-Sanwon's impending 'eruption' is the result of growing magical power and of agonised spirits that have been accruing within the volcano. This force has cracked and threatened to burst through a containing shield of dark water.
Daenerys, Wrathion and Viktor learned the Huntress was once Anui, a former Ke-Waicai zealot who willingly offered her son into the House of Ravens as tribute to 'appease the mountain.' Her husband Hyang-Won, later the Beastmaster, set out to recover the boy, leaving through the forest with the 'White Wanderer' who previously supplied Ke-Waihu's drought cure. The child was not found. The Beastmaster returned inhuman. Both he and the Huntress now await the opening of the House in hopes of finding traces of their son — whom Daenerys later found evidence could still be alive.
The group infiltrated the House of Ravens, occupying the sacred site in the middle of a skirmish between the Beastmaster and the Ke-Waicai zealots. Several party members cooled down the volcano or exorcised its spiritual energy, depleting the its magic sufficiently to avoid an eruption. Some group members sacrificed themselves to Ke-Waihu by absorbing some of its curious magic. Others worked tirelessly with villagers to revive local agriculture. Diego Hargreeves slayed the Beastmaster. The beacon of the House of Ravens briefly opened, allowing a few characters to depart — before failing.
Party member Sumeragi Subaru brought fresh word of a ticket onwards east to the next beacon — aboard the vessel Pariah, manned by the crew of pirate king Quicksilver Sam.
ARC IV: CLOCKWORK SERTHICA
Newcomers arrived ahead of the remaining, seaborne party, securing passport papers into Clockwork Serthica — a citadel divided in two adversarial halves: dragon and magic-loving Eidris and disciplinarian, tech-geared Minaras. Everything in Serthica feels alive, including the recently dead. Serthica was splintered by a now-gone plague, who killed all those whom it infected, the Doctor learned. Currently, Eidris emerges from the underground depths over 6:00-18:00, while Minaras surfaces nocturnally between 18:00-6:00. The two citadel halves meet overground over 6:00-7:00 and 18:00-19:00, with natives occupying spaces in the Neutral Zone bridges and Sanctuary.
The party joined a trade summit at the Sanctuary, where attendants from which side briefly... glitched for a series of moments of jarring, puppet-like behaviour. The terrorist group Remembrance attempted to kidnap Minaras' high councillor Arabella. Escorting her to safety, Wrathion, Licyn and Beitang Moran found a key pointing towards the inherited factories of Eidris dragon warlord Cain d'Ubiq and to Serthica's impoverished underground world, the Mouse House. Wrath and Emilia read out an anonymous note Arabella received, which triggered her into possessed behaviour.
Party members were assigned a stay in one of the two halves of Serthica: in Eidris, a dragon went berserk and the party helped recover her hatching eggs, following injury to her mate — at the presumed hands of a Minaras scout ship, whose reconnaissance work was decommissioned days before the incident. In Minaras, the local indoctrination centre sought to cure the rot of citizens. Meanwhile, Kaneki Ken discovered some Minaras morgue corpses have a strange, unexpected 'rot'-like sickness inside their bodies.
SEPTEMBER: More signs of strangeness surfaced in wake of the summit: dragons often go listless, while some droids do not recognise theirs masters. In Minaras, several factories and facilities abruptly ceased to function, with cogs and gears showing signs of poor maintenance and repairs at the hands of Mouse House substances. Investigating a medical facility, McCoy contracted the seemingly resurrected 'coal sick.' An Eidris flight reconnaissance mission revealed the plane that injured a dragon — suspected of Minaras allegiance — was manned by burlap mannequins and part of a decommissioned Serthica healing squad, which preceded the 'coal sick.' The Remembrance group became more public and aggressive in its recruitment, conscripting captives. Finn and Jim Kirk broke their way into a hidden room of the organisation's headquarters, recovering an animate burlap mannequin and a music box that, once fixed, referenced Arc III location Ke-Waihu and produced the noise imitated by 'glitching' citizens. Wrath, Xiao Xingchen, Magnus Bane and Zhou Fei found 'womb walls' behind which such mannequin creatures seem to gain human likeness and awareness — while bathing into dark waters.
OCTOBER: The party was drawn into the annual U n w i n d i n g — a drop into shifting planes of reality shaped by a child's mind, which bore several marks reminiscent of Arc III location Ke-Waihu. The child — a boy bearing a fox mask — introduced himself as slain undead liege Hyang-Won, the Beastmaster. Warnings scattered across the U n w i n d i n g warn children lie, while the white wanderer of the undead-savaged Ellethia resurfaced.
After the U n w i n d i n g, the party was approached by skittish dragon warlord Cain d'Ubiq, while recovering in the underground citadel of the Mouse House. D'Ubiq urged them to retrieve dragon scales and artefacts from the Sibilant Sands where he conducted Eidris' last attack against Minaras during Serthica's civil conflict. Several party members rescued scales, which signal when their holders are physically near undeath. The dragon eye in Magnus Bane's possession shows decay and dying.
Above ground, Serthica now appears renewed by the U n w i n d i n g, with natives exhibiting no further aberrant behaviour. However, local architecture has tellingly changed and Minaras has bolstered attempts to cure the 'coal sick.' Fearing much of Serthica has been corrupted, the Merchant tasked the group to infiltrate the Neutral Zone clock tower and help activate the sorceress Karsa's spell that will briefly reveal the extent of undeath present in the citadel. The party might the decide to await the beacon's yearly start-up, or exit. Within the tower, the group encountered further animated mannequins, woodland creatures and priestly robes not unlike those of Ke-Waihu — and the child again, who accused Serthica of deathly sickness.
In a final push, the party devised creative methods to simultaneously cure the magical and scientific aspects of the curse-sickness triggered by the Child, on arrival in Serthica after somehow surviving the trauma of sacrifice in Ke-Waihu. The Child's presence — and ongoing abilities — seeded the curse-sickness by perpetually decaying bodies and particles around him. The White Wanderer succeeded to contain the spread to Serthica. A pathetic Cain d'Ubiq and grudging Chrichter confirmed that upon returning from one of the final clashes between Eidris and Minaras after the sickness sparked, nearly 3/4 of the population of Serthica had been killed by the plague. Overwhelmed, they agreed to the Child's ploy to use custom-grown mannequins that copied the likeness of the dead and amnesia-triggering sedative gases to deceive survivors and the Mouse House that the city remained well. The yearly Unwinding reset this magic. Remembrance stoked conflict between Eidris and Minaras to distract the people from the uncanny proceedings.
The Child agreed to Wration restrain his powers of decay while the party worked. Using herbs retrieved from the Sibilant Sands, hijacking medical academy laboratories and taking down two magical anchors that had coagulated the curse, the group succeeded to remove the plague — and, unexpectedly, revive the population of Serthica, including its dragons.
*tik-tok-tik-tok-tik-tok
ARC V: ALEM
S e i z e the day.
JANUARY: After crossing the desert, the party took fleeting control of sand worms to create underground channels and enter the mountainous underbelly of Holy citadel Alem — the last bastion against the hell mouth of Mount Attevar and victim to the year-long siege of undead lord Rathakku. Alem's new king Deimar has neglected his uncle Thyvault's counsel and wishes to reinforce the hell seals. His brother, Prince Haiva orchestrates regular civilian evacuations. As Deimar's price to access the local beacon, the party must help defend Alem, find new evacuation routes, treat with the predictably vicious Rathakku and the inexplicably hostile merchant caravans that prey on Alem in its time of need — ...and solve the mystery of a missing woman last seen in royal company, and the serial killing 'Reaper' who claims victims from the castle. All in a day's hard work.
FEBRUARY: Two towers succumbed, while a large refugee caravan escaped. Prince Haiva mysteriously recovereed, but suffers greatly while walking. He needs a mountain flower to heal... one found in the same waters roamed by the silhouette of a beautiful missing woman. The Reaper struck again, this time killing Vataz — Thyvault's son, cousin to the king — and the creature of the caves from where Bucky brought back mysterious scales. Kahl and Cassian Andor spread word that King Deimar may be looking to sell the group to Rathakku. After being abducted with Caitlyn and ineffectively plunged in cave water, Emilia joined Wrathion in learning it was likely Haiva who kept the missing woman company. Wrath temporarily helped seal hell, while Yelena learned that an accidental Alem discovery may have drawn Rathakku to attack. The Lord asked the party to sacrifice 10 people and Deimar, in exchange for his withdrawal, but received no action. A small contingent of the group took on the dragon Irenia — and unexpectedly anchored her undeath on Jon Snow.
A recuperating Haiva began to arrogantly assume control of Alem's retreating forces. Efforts refocused around abandoning the fortress through underground tunnels. In the depths of the netherworld, the demonic Motherless doubled down on breaching wards to seep Hell into Alem, forcing King Deimar, his paladins and several members of the party to head in and fight back. Several party members defeated the Motherless, successfully interrupting Hell's invasion. Caitlyn, Licyn, Wrathion and Emilia discovered Haiva secretly seduced and killed a siren for dark mirror shards that help mermaids gain legs while on ground and give men the ability to reshape and strengthen their body. Her sisters summoned an avenging jatharin — a demon that sought to kill men bearing Haiva's likeness, perpetuating the recent serial murders of Alem. Emilia and Wrath murdered Haiva, with Emilia and Wrathion later publicly telling the masses that the prince perished while nobly sacrificing himself to appease Hell, instead of his sister Cle-Florens — whom Yuri helped rescue.
A forlorn King Deimar returned from Hell, despite his initial death wishes, conceding to bring hope to his people in their new settlement near the monastery of Hassir... and the key to Alem's dwindling beacon for the Merchant's party. On the way to Hassir, Kamala had the group's first direct encounter with the White Wanderer linked to every event of undeath misfortune encountered so far — Matthias of Ellethia.
ARC VI: YANCAI
What was wet was wronged.
MAY: The party arrives in Sunken Yancai — a drowning, molding, port-side fishermen's village where memories are often jumbled and artificial to help native residents withstand the site's numerous fluxes in time. A council of elders says that the furtive witch coven of the ladies of the lake cursed Yancai to perpetually wander the past and future — and that newcomers, themselves susceptive to the memory games, must weather this out until the village arrives at a point in time when the currently defective transportation beacon
iswas operational. The dead of Yancai are set at sea in chained casket-ships in a distinct rite of burial that sees most vessels return emptied, if clawed and untouched — while the ladies of the lake allegedly steal away the village's strong, young dead. Six ghost-spirits (?) haunt villagers, compelling them to atone for their sins. Within days of the prophecy of Miang-Si, purported lady of the lake, the undead rise on the night of a dual bloody moon and assail Yancai — which falls back in time.JUNE: As Yancai slipped three years into the past, the group encountered a village only partway sunken, wherein young Miang-Si has only just debuted. Pretending to be her suitors and matchmaker, Wrathion, Mo Ran and Caitlyn learned she is vain and ruthlessly ambitious — and that she has something the ladies of the lake want, in addition to natural talent. Five and Ruka unearthed a connection between the ladies of the lake and local washerwomen. As several villagers bemoaned the hauntings of the forest in the wake of a mysterious beautiful woman that enthralled all around her, Lockwood, Wei Wuxian and Wrath uncovered that this was likely the undead lords' herald, the Huntress, and that those behind the hauntings of Yancai, including the guileless Lumberjack, were pulled into a rite of the ladies of the lake that intends to fend against her. Heading below waters during the next sea burial, Xie Yun, Wen Qing, Xie Lian and Hua Cheng brought back sinister news that the ladies of the lake are holding the dead for safekeeping, so that the Huntress does not raise them. Meanwhile, those with a lunar connection couldn't help but feel drawn to the sunken palatial residence of the Storm's Stage, where an intruding Emilia found signs that the moon was trapped and used in the strange time sorcery of the ladies of the lake.
JULY: Yancai travelled backwards again, now arriving five years in the past, when a vengeful Huntress decided to unleash undead upon the village in retaliation for her mistreatment. Tearing her own heart out, she cut it in slivers for Miang-Si to hide — laying down the groundwork for magic that would bring back the dead to renew their hostilities. The ladies of the lake, decided they can only fend off the massacre by sending the village back in time, forcing residents to relive the same five-year period in blissful ignorance, robbing the moon of some of her power and sacrificing some of their own witch kind. A difficult gambit. Recovering from the first wave of undead, Yancai held an auction to raise funds at the House of Commerce — where the village’s beacon rests, entirely operational.
Through coaxing and conversation, the Doctor, Five, Wrath and Lockwood persuade the Man in Black not to participate in the time and memory rite of the ladies of the lake, with the Lumberjack also agreeing to discourage other witches from doing so. Wrathion and Caitlyn convince Miang-Si to speak to the ladies of the lake and also talk them down from their ritual — while Wrath, Emilia, Wei Wuxian and Beitang Moran disrupt the lunar sorcery, releasing mother moon from the witches’ thrall.
Many party members scavenge, procure and consume parts of the Huntress’ heart, destroying the anchors of the spell that would have unleashed fresh legions of undead upon Yancai. Unexpectedly, in exchange for Jon Snow’s information about her son, the Huntress agrees not to renew hostilities against Yancai.
The village’s fate might be unknown — but at least now it is free. The party’s sorceress Karsa summons everyone to the banquet of the House of Commons — where a transportation beacon can be accessed, after two keys were procured. They’re enveloped in sizzling, volatile magic, bound home —
Only to end up in a pocket time dimension.
ARC VII: EPHES
SEPTEMBER: The party arrived in opulent Ephes — a citadel with a suspiciously newly-raised, lethal army, the Hand, and ambitions of imperial expansion. The undead lady Messalina has approached the Senate of Ephes, asking for the citadel’s forces to liberate the unliving from the undead Brotherhood that 'enslaves them.' In exchange, she pledges Ephes any territories she frees. Senate leader Caius Justus has retired in the main temple of the local patron deity of chaos, the Chained God, whose annual twelve religious festival days of Chainings take place imminently.
Party members were separated between the Hand, the professional gladiators' arena, civilian tasks, the Senate and support of Messalina. A tumultuous Senate session revealed Senators deeply divided on Messalina's plea, with some earnestly spiting Caius Justus' absence. Wen Kexing and Jacob Frye blackmailed a Senatorial vote against Messalina, with Connor earning one in favour.
In the gladiator arenas, party members were repeatedly subjected to spartan training, with one old timer — the Beast of Brenne — going mysteriously missing.
A day at the market turned bloody when a newscaster received the head of Tavernus, brother of Hand cult-like leader Narula. Lockwood detained the head, and Wei Wuxian's necromancy gleaned off it that Tavernus first commanded the Hand, before abandoning it in fury over mysterious circumstances linked to the farmlands.
New Hand recruits witnessed an unusual outbreak of inexplicable violence from a Hand veteran in one of the Hives, the agricultural clusters the army supervises. Su Xunxian learned a strange drought is plaguing the farmlands.
Messalina's begrudging 'supporters,' meanwhile, found that the shapeshifting demon Alir, who is passing as candidate to the Senate leadership Maximus Faustus, has a regrettable human heart-eating habit they resolve by having Vanessa thrall him into only consuming the organs of criminals.
A banquet of Maximus Faustus in honour of the twelfth day of Chaining resulted in midnight massacre, with supernatural forces targeting pro-Messalina Senators and setting his villa on fire.
OCTOBER: Earthquakes rocked the agricultural clusters of Ephes, revealing... dark water typically associated with the undead and bringing in new otherworlders, who were first taken in by the Hand to 'attend to their wounds,' then hijacked by Karsa. The Hand seem to be delivering dark water-infested grains by sea to a ‘merchant’ Matthias — perhaps the same man assumed to have spawned the undead. Creatures made of dark tar, copying human likeness, were present on the ships.
Created by Caius Justus, the Hand numbers feral members who were taught how to act human-like by mimes and who copy the exceptional combat skills of gladiators, as learned by Wei Wuxian, Emilia and Connor.
Priests say their patron Chained God will soon destroy then rebirth the world anew — but some advocates are bribed and news shouters are coerced to spread the faith, Benedict discovered. Caius Justus previously invoked the Chained God to galvanize Ephes towards violence and military action. In the vein of violence, Wrathion and Jacob found that fresh assassination lists for Senators were written... on Senate paper.
Looking to revitalise public opinion in her favour, Messalina organised games at a Colosseum that was curiously rattled by earthquakes, which sprouted fresh waves of dark water and undead. A cursed severed hand was found in the middle of the arena, seemingly generating the water rivers, and possibly planted by Hand leader Narula. The appendage is now with Wen Kexing.
Running from the Colosseum, some party members entered a blockaded 'quiet house' — a deserted former barracks of the Hand, carrying sinister evidence that suggests the group's soldiers were exposed and perhaps enhanced by dark water. Anduin unconvered that all that the dark water wants is to gain a shape.
NOVEMBER: Returned to office, Senate leader Caius Justus calls to refuse Messalina and says the citadel’s divine patron, the apocalyptic Chained God, would want Ephes itself to conquer, without an intermediary.
The Chained God reveals the elusive dark water resembles him in sinister origin, and that both only ever wished for shape. The black liquid has been slowly absorbing Ephes, reanimating corpses and trying to consume the Chained God — before Mo Ran killed the deity.
A young boy, once sacrificed to the volcano of Ke-Waihu and the perpetrator of Serthica's tragedy, reappears — and claims his ‘friend’ Matthias must cut off parts of himself and leave them behind, to anchor the dark water on a premise. Matthias has been receiving sea shipments of grain infested with dark water from the Hand and Caius Justus. The Child entrusts Clara Oswald with information about Matthias and his purpose.
Initially divided, politicians vote to grant Messalina the army of the Hand. Furious, Caius Justus accuses her of bribing, cheating and intimidating to secure votes — and puts her under house arrest and all of Ephes under a tyrannical curfew and military surveillance regime. Now that diplomacy has failed, Lockwood pitches convincing Narula he has been betrayed by Caius Justus, prompting the general to murder his patron in the Senate house — while Connor leads efforts to assassinate Narula himself thereafter. In the shadows, Wrathion and others work to replace both men and keep Ephes' governance afloat.