westwhere | the tithe

The Arc III finale stretches until 2 June — and it’s erupt to no good.

THE TITHE

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THIS HOUSE IS YOUR HOUSE

The Ke-Waicai believers prepare for human sacrifice rites to prevent the eruption of the Ke-Sanwon volcano. They will lead tributes to the volcanic crater, which is lidded by the grounds of a decrepit haunted temple — known as the House of Ravens.

At the heart of the temple is a trodden dais that comprises four slowly receding plates. Numerous temple columns and deteriorating walls offer overnight hiding places, but beware the flinching statues and irritable large ravens. Meat, blood or shiny offerings can distract the birds.

■ Use the three previously gained keys to infiltrate the House of Ravens at night through forest pathways revealed by the Huntress.

■ Entrants to the House of Ravens are fully or partially depowered. Their ancestral curse is immediately lifted. Their strength is pulled into the Ke-Sanwon crater, which brims with raw magical power.

■ Hide on temple grounds until dawns, when the dais plates fully open to reveal a 10-metre entryway into the volcanic crater.

■ Overnight, characters are relentlessly tempted by mirages that only they witness: the eerie voice of a loved one might coax them to commit their greatest sin, or they could repeatedly relive memories that led them to such follies.

■ Characters guilty of drunkenness and gluttony feel deathly parched, starved and drawn to a lavish spread that is constantly far out — and ends up comprising raw corn and stale water, when they finally reach it. The lustful find their companions irresistible, or trail after a delectable beauty, who dissolves when touched. The wrathful mull violence, while the envious suspect their companions possess what they most desire. The proud are contemptuously incited to prove their superiority or independence, while the slothful give in to callous indifference towards their peers.

■ The stone statues that decorate the House of Ravens retaliate once visitors succumb to their sins: smaller sculptures throw stones or throttle nearby sinners, but only move when you do not look into their eyes. Larger 4m-tall statues exit the walls and give (slow) chase, retreating after 10-15 minutes. The statues stop attacking at dawns.

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LET THERE BE BLOOD

CONTENT WARNING: BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF NPC PAIN, TRANSFORMATION

By dawns, the believers of Ke-Waicai have rallied their tributes — each crowned with wreaths of branches and crops — before the open dais. Roughly two hundred villagers attend the rites, along with eight powerful priests who use elemental magic.

■ A first sacrifice walks a long narrow plank that starts from the dais and goes a few metres into the mouth of the volcano. The plank shivers under from heat, but withstands weight.

■ During 15 minutes of exposure, the volcanic magic enshrouds the sacrifice, who painfully transforms into one of the animalistic tar creatures housed in the labyrinths of Ke-Sanwon.

■ Magically sensitive characters can feel this tribute now hosts volcanic magic, and that Ke-Sanwon’s power has slightly diminished.

■ The rites are interrupted by the significantly weaker, but wrathful Beastmaster, whose xenomorphic creatures attack the temple and seek his missing son

■ Characters should free the remaining tributes during the skirmish. They can be as nerfed as you need (if at all) during the rest of their stay in the House of Ravens.

■ The dais must stay open to access the volcano. You can take control of it and of the House by defeating the magically endowed priests, (literally) shouldering the head priest’s ancient white raven and holding its leash.

■ Pass the raven around and defend the bird’s current holder! Whoever carries the raven is often targeted by the village mob and the Beastmaster’s creatures.

■ The clashes last a few hours, until the Beastmaster and villagers exhaust their forces.

■ Diego Hargreeves, Xie Lian, Wrathion, Daenerys and Jon Snow apprehend the Beastmaster, slaying him, when he refuses to relinquish the Brotherhood. Decide who lands the killing blow. His last words: ”You’ve… seen this place. My animals… our dead… have more compassion than these living.”

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FIRE AND BRIMSTONE?

The volume of magical energy and tormented spirits inside the volcano weighs heavily on the fracturing dark water mirror that has prevented Ke-Sanwon’s eruption so far. It’s going to blow, unless you:

■ Throw more dark water in to fix the mirror fissure. You can get dark water from volcanic cracks, dried wells and creepy crop fields.

■ Use ice / cold magic and ol’ science to cool down the volcano and help the mirror heal. Or lend Moiraine and Magnus a hand as they work with cold magic, and protect them while they cast.

■ Help Wrath and Wei Wuxian exorcise the volcano’s ancient spirits. Many have lost consciousness, reduced to memory fragments and feelings of wrath, pain and resent.

■ Guide villagers to bring sea water. Anduin (on top of the dragon Wrathion) and the harpy Eda are flying in supplies. Viktor is coaxing shipments from his werewolf friends of Ke-Waiar. Large phoenixes are also up for grabs for deliveries. Ensure couriers can safely arrive and quickly discharge their water.

■ Several characters are set to each absorb some of the magical power contained within the volcano, developing aftereffects. They must walk the wobbly plank and stay exposed to the volcano magic for under 15 minutes to avoid transformation: the longer they linger, the more power they take in, feeling as if they are burning from within. Exit quickly and rest copiously after. Those who spend over 10 minutes exposed suffer intense fevers and require immediate medical assistance to cool down.

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WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CIVILIANS?

Beyond the House of Ravens, assist villagers who want to safeguard their possessions or evacuate by sea.

■ The gradual spread of Ke-Sanwon’s magic infects some villagers with temporary animal traits. These effects dissipate within three-four hours.

■ Characters who remain in the villages may feel more irritable and resentful, overcome by the feelings of the volcanic spirits.

■ Coordinate water and supply deliveries with those at the House of Ravens.

■ The Hok-Shinn are divided in their response: some resort to daylight robbery to secure the funds for their own safe departure; citing security, the men of Sairen unsympathetically rally commoners into designated parts of the village, often splitting apart families that then need help finding relatives; alone, Weisi’s followers keep the peace, but are frequently overwhelmed by waves of panicked villagers, thugs and animal hybrids.

■ The magical spillage overwhelms the forest fox spirits, leaving some enraged and prone to attack. Others assume the shape of beautiful wo/men and ask escort into Ke-Waihu for shelter, without disclosing their fox natures. These ethereal strangers betray their origins with cold smiles, glimpses of fleetingly sharp teeth, a fondness for chicken, and… is that an extra set of ears? No harm befalls those who bring a fox into the village, though s/he may insist on now being your lawful spouse.

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THE AFTERMATH

With the clashes and Ke-Sanwon subdued, the villagers of Ke-Waicai request back their temple keys and white raven. They lead the party to the beacon of the House of Ravens — the beautifully carved and now-closed dais above the volcano.

■ Party companion Hatisse confirms the beacon can be revived within days.

■ She warns that an eruption was prevented by depleting the volcanic magic now, but that the threat could recur within five to 10 years.

■ All character curses (ancestral or individual) are lifted, and powers return completely.

■ Spend some downtime in the villages. Ke-Waicai offers the most luxurious, but frosty accommodations, while the werewolves of Ke-Waiar are tired, but thrilled hosts. Those who suffer from lycanthropy are now experiencing fewer and fewer ‘nocturnal episodes.’

■ In Ke-Waihu, villagers have now calmed and are grateful for help with reaping the fresh harvest and watering their crops, as well flows revive. Every other night, Hok-Shinn Weisi organises a bonfire with village musicians, hearty dances, fresh bread and ale. Villagers seek to marry off their… alluring spawn to their saviours.

■ Within days, Hatisse summons the party to the activated beacon: a pool of white energy, in which one must slowly descend. Characters who were dropped or AC swept in May enter the beacon first and are presumed returned to their home worlds. Characters set for a canon update follow in — but are spat back by the portal and return within minutes.

■ Inevitably, the remaining volatile magic of the volcano disrupts the beacon and ruins the dais. Happily for you, the Merchant will soon get in touch with your next ticket east.

QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( There's a natural pause in his playing which allows him to speak, his eyes dark and cutting when they slide toward his back, to where Xue Yang stands. He will never have faith in what Xue Yang has made of himself, does not tolerate him so much as remain aware he exists for the purposes of not being allowed to die again here in unfortunate ways.

That he had at minimum spoken to his martial uncle remained the most important fact; anything they did with themselves was at that point their business, done in full knowledge.

And now, there is a volcano's worth of spiritual pressure, of fragmented souls that as far as he could tell from his run ins with Xue Yang had never been perfectly controlled, and not without a conduit of some sort. )

Deflect whatever comes free.

( He says, the resentful energies of fragmentary spirits clinging to him even now, coiled around him like so many small shadowed snakes curling into dragons, sliding past him to shoot skyward in spiraling coils. )

Don't let them feed.

[He doesn't respond in words, but his stance shifts, he moves his sword and he focuses on the energy that is his own, resentful as it may be, but different enough, familiar. He can wield it and he can discern it, deflecting the fragments of spirits escaping the volcano. Doing as he's been told.

Doing this as he listens to Chenqing playing, there is a part of him that finds it incredulous. More something he'd read about in a scroll recovered from Yiling than something he could be present for. It makes him smile for many reasons.]

So much pain...

[But should it bother him, isn't his own pain more present? As self-centred as his thinking may be, it helps him keep focus, rather than letting any outside soul feed on his energy. Helps him deflect, control. Exorcise.]

( wei wuxian is no creator of his practice, not in the way some believe: there is a dark irony that his survival was against the nightmare that (for his world, for his knowing) xue yang's great-forebearer created in his twisted consumption of lives after a cause that the wen patriarch fell into, open armed. power corrupts without temperance, without balance; so went the xue patriarch, the wen patriarch, two generations of jin patriarchs. so fell, in other ways, patriarchs of the lan, patriarchs of the jiang, patriarchs of the nie.

they are all flawed, and they are all wrong, and they are all right. not at the same times, or for the same reasons, he supposes.

but it's true, just as this is true. just as his song is a command so difficult to ignore, the pain of those spirits rising in their fragments, and then higher, gone, ordered into the departure that he's not sure has the cyclical flow they know. doesn't need it, perhaps, may be a crossroads for worlds in more than the gated way, but still.

the pain rises, ebbs, rises again, crescendos, and it is a pain of leveled cries, of heartache and grief and anger and hunger and thirst and confusion, in each fragmentation that flew close, until upward it rises, toward the skies and the mistaken though that absolution lies somewhere there, instead of the everywhere all around. )

[Letting pain flow, he's no stranger to that. Nourishing it, taking strength from it or suppressing it. Or, as in this case, passing it on, letting it rise, feeling all that rage and sorrow with screams of nothingness be released into who knows where, just not here.

Is this a good thing to do? He doesn't know and it doesn't concern him much either, although it may later, when talking to his daozhang, when wondering what makes a person worthy of whatever it is he's after. All vague, because his mind can't grasp it.

He understands the pain better, that resentment, and he looks up to where they've sent it, lost in emotions, perhaps not all of them his own, for several moments. Then he laughs, in the way that sounds only slightly broken, and he looks at Wei Wuxian.]

Such an honour, laozu.

the tithe

this is what they do at necromancy parties right

and then they tell jokes and/or ghost stories, same diff

someone will be laughing, chances are only one of them at a time

when they laugh together, things are likely getting scary