The Necropolis (IC)

[mystic1110]

Round 0

The candle flickers in a wind that isn’t there. The candle shouldn’t be there either.

It appears in the Ruler’s bedroom, in their private sanctum, in their holy of holies, their most intimate refuge. They are alone when it’s there, and if they weren’t who they were, if their will was not iron and steel, if they were not rulers of their Districts, they would’ve thought it was a trick of the mind. That sanity had, like everything else in the Necropolis, died.

But no. The candle is real, and its dancing light is mirrored by another candle further away. It feels like a summons. But that would be insulting. An invitation perhaps? A peer’s outstretched hand? Nonetheless, an intrusion. One that must be investigated.

Following the candle leads to another and another and another. Without noticing, the walls of their District are slowly replaced with ancient masonry. The transition is subtle at first – brick dust instead of steel shavings, a slight change of architecture, but then they find themselves abruptly in a hallway of a grand palace. Behind them is a path of candles leading to their District. Ahead is another path, the candles more numerous.

The candles seem to dance to the same tune. There is no wind, but the flames mirror each other in their movements. The candles are in holders, lanterns, candelabras, but mostly they rest on the stone floor itself. The wax has run off them in rivulets, merging together to form a carpet on the corridor. Each candle seems half used. They are scentless, the only odor is of age and smoke. Despite the light, the palace still seems dimly lit. The candles, innumerable, insufficient to entirely dispel the gloom.

They walk further following the wax and oil, passing through a stronghold fallen into ruin. Tapestries must’ve adorned the walls, but all that is left are cinders and cobwebs. Furniture, now charred husks – precarious candleholders placed on their flat surfaces. With no rhyme and little reason, stained glass windows intersperse the monotony of neglect. The stained glass all depict a sun standing alone in a red sky, but it easy to tell that there is no real sun behind the glass. No light shines through the windows and if one to place a hand on the window itself one would feel nothing. A frightening nothing. No heat, no warmth, but also no cold. One can’t even imagine a yawning void behind the stained glass. Instead, perversely, the thought occurs that if you break through a window, you would find yourself breaking into this same said palace.

Further, the Ruler reaches a doorway on which above, a motto was once written. Of the four words, only the third, and longest, still legible – “Never”. The door begins to open inwards, but before the Ruler can step through a low growl emerges from the opened gateway. Pushing itself through the opening is an enormous and mangy wolf. It’s fur is knotted, falling off in patches, despite its size its ribs show through it’s skin. A great collar adorns its neck, the choker rusted brown and flaky. A chain, thick but corroded slinks off the collar, onto the stone floor, where one can see streaks of grooves. The wolf’s tail though is strange, it is an elongated arm, almost human, but stretched beyond reason, naked, the wolf’s matted fur only reaching up to the elbow of the bizarre limb. In the tail-hand’s vice-like grip is the other end of the chain. The wolf holds itself prisoner.

The creature opens its fanged mouth, and instead of a tongue, extends another arm. This arm, as well defined as a tongue is strong, licks itself out of the mouth and twists until the hand seems to greet the ruler. From how the wolf moves, it becomes clear that it was the one that opened the door to you in the first place. The hand from the toothed smile, scarred by fangs, welcomes you inside.

Moving past this enigmatic greeting, the Ruler enters a room adorned with candles surrounding a throne made of dripped wax. The wolf creature closes the door behind you with its tongue-hand, while its tail hand jerks its chain for it to follow you meekly. While the candles are mostly uniform in their pure white coloring, the wax of the throne seems grayish or tan, and sitting on it is an ancient king. The king’s skin, both leathery and paper thin, is stretched over bones akin to knotted wood. The king’s six hands rest wearily over the sides of his throne, one of them resting on a ill-used sword, covered in notches along its worn blade and hash marks adorning its flat. The king stands as you enter, showing the ruler of a District the proper respect and he bends over to his side to wearily lift an iron wrought lantern covered in verdigris. Creaking, the king extends to his full height, the wolf dragging itself to lie down by his throne. The king speaks with a voice like dusty paper so old that one fears that his very words might catch fire from one of the many open flames.

Hear me, for I am the Sovereign of Wax and Wick, reigning supreme within this somber Necropolis, where shadows dance with echoes of ages long past. Through ceaseless contemplation, I have unearthed a path, a path that leads us from this realm of unlife and undeath, back into the vibrant embrace of existence. Behold this lantern, a beacon of hope amidst the darkness, bestowed upon thee to partake in a game of fate. Each of thy peers shall receive a lantern akin, and together, a collective decision must be made - a decision to transcend, to soar once more towards the radiant zenith of life's golden age. Let us etch our names anew upon the annals of time, reclaiming our destiny from the clutches of oblivion. But know this, the choice rests not upon one, but upon all.

Once passing you the verdigris lantern, the king collapses back onto the throne, the wolf soothes him with a calming touch of its tongue-hand upon its masters foot. The Ruler turns to go, following the path of candles out of the throne room, past the door, and back through the halls of the stained glass suns.

***

Walking along the path of candles back to their District the first thing the Ruler notices is amiss is the smell. The scent of the halls of the king of wax and wick was nothing but age and disuse. The smell of dead moths and spiders, the smell of the thin smoke of countless, endless candles. Soot and dust. But now a new smell invades, a think pungent moist foulness that rises up from the ground. And now that the Ruler looks down, expecting the masonry and wax of the halls of the king, there is murky sewage water. The candles are suddenly gone and the only think illuminating the Ruler is the Verdigris Lantern that they had been gifted.

The water is rotten, but it is what floats on the water that is fouler. Debris, lumps of fat, tangled knots of hair, fluids, feces, the waste of a dozens of Districts, dozens of Fallen Empires, flows through here in the Gutters. Occasionally the Lantern picks up a flash of gold as the Ruler trails the muck. Mirth in the grime. Joy that had slipped through someone’s fingers. This is realm of trash but also of the lost. Perhaps the line between is negotiable.

Up ahead the Ruler hears humming in between fits of hacking coughs. Holding the lantern up they see a hunched figure dressed in filthy rags, black mold growing in patches on them. The stench unbearable. They see a great mass of rats and centipedes with red eyes along the edges. The figure is using a miner’s pan in the runoff. Humming off-key and chuckling to themselves they pocket a nugget of golden Mirth and they return to their task.

Oi, oi, hold yer horses there, stranger! Give ol' Charlie a sec, will ya? Just need to shoo off these pesky shadows, ya know?

The figure lunges to grab one of the rats in one of their six hands, four of which are bandaged and broken, tied up in rotten splints. The figure grins as they look at the helpless rat and then proceeds to bite off the rat’s head and then yell at its companions as they scatter into the dank darkness. Turning towards the ruler they gather themselves to an imposing height, such that they have to bend their neck at an angle to avoid the top of the Gutter. They lean forward and leer with yellow spoiled teeth.

Ah, that's better. Now we can have a proper chat, just you and me. So, what's with the fancy lantern, eh? Think you're better than ol' Jack with their tattered cloak and worn-out shoes? What's that bigwig got that I don't, huh?

The figure squats down and extends one of his arms between their knees and swings it around like a prodigious member. They quickly uses their other unbroken hand to slap the crook of the arm such that the pantomime springs upwards towards the Ruler’s face, trying to make them flinch.

Why do you trust him, anyway? Is it 'cause of his fancy clothes and polished manners? Lemme tell ya a little secret, mate. Why play his game when you've already won? How many empires you reckon ended up in this dump, huh? Cream of the crop! And here you are, immortal as can be. So, why bother with all this talk of going back to being mortal, eh? Stay here, rule if you want. Make more trash for me. Trash is the real truth, after all. It's the endless heaps of waste an empire spews out that shows what truly matters: the humble scraps of meals, the discarded tools, the abandoned spaces. That's where the real story is, mate, in the leftovers and the forgotten bits. Trust ol' Bob here, little lordling. I ain't hiding nothing from ya.

The figure cackles, but extends a dirty hand.

The choice of the Ruler to shake or not . . .

***

Later, the Gutters and the Halls past, the Ruler places the Verdigris Lantern on a surface back where they had started from. The only souvenir, along with their choice, of their journey. The Game had Begun.

[Players, please privately let the GM know your choice on whether you are open to being a Traitor. Before Round 1, the GM will choose traitors from those who opt in.]

[mystic1110]

Round 1

Chapter One – Traitors and Faithful

The King of Wax and Wick walks slowly through his halls, the faithful wolf holding its own chain prowling behind him. He pauses in front of a stained glass window and looks at the depiction of a sun, the sun. The flames of the candles dance with synchronicity during his silent contemplation.

Sludge seeps between the masonry as the Gutters begin to join with the Halls. A rat scurries from one darkness into another darkness. A centipede wraps itself around a candle until it burns itself on the flame. Footsteps squelch until they echo. The Beggar walks beside the King to stand by his side to look at the same painted glass. The King is ramrod straight, ignoring the Beggar, but the wolf’s hair bristles as it snarls, it’s tongue-hand grasping out of its mouth clawing at the air. The King makes motion with one of his six hands for it to stand down. The Beggar leans towards the King.

Do ya know how many of your precious Lanterns took my offer? All of 'em, ya fool! None of 'em want to be mortal.

Enough, wretched pauper. I know the extent of the corruption you dare to spread. The Faithful shall seek it out and purge it, like the vile mold it is.

The Beggar raises their two hands and spreads them as they circle in place looking at the candles in the hall.

Got enough fire left to burn the mold, do ya? And so what if you do? Scum and spore, I'll just make more. Purity's fragile, but filth? Filth is easy to replace.

The King turns his head towards the Beggar, his eyes deep hollows at the center of which red lamps of rage burned, without a word he unsheathes his discolored and oxidized blade and swings at the Beggar. The Beggar caught the movement in time, but was only able to block with one of their two remaining arms, sacrificing it to avoid the full impact of the blow. The sword did not cleanly cut the arm off, its sides were too hacksawed with age and rust. Instead it bit into the arm, with which the Beggar jumped backwards, their newly damaged limb hanging off with sinew.

Oh, have I struck a nerve? Think you can escape? You're trash, just like the rest of us. You've been written into this story, mate. You ain't the author.

The Beggar turns to flee into the Gutters, but the King of Wax and King raises his hand, twists it and clenches it into an upturned fist, the entrance to the sewer beings to close up with bricks, waste water replaced by wax. The Beggar looks startled and now begins to run through the Halls looking for a way out. The King advances slowly, while the wolf howls for the hunt. It doesn’t matter where the Beggar runs, it leads to where the King stalks. The Beggar looks upon the King and then left and right, each direction a stained glass windows stands. They jump and lunge through the left window – shattering it outwards, only for the shards to land inwards from the right window from which they emerge shattering it at the same time. Landing back where they had jumped from, the floor now covered in broken glass, the Beggar looks at the King bewildered right as the King lunges catching the Beggar in the shoulder spinning them around.

The Beggar catches themselves along the wall, their dirty rags catching fire on the candles. They shriek in curdled pain. The King advances and swings the blade again striking the burning beggar in chest. The Beggar falls flat on the ground, raises their one remaining arm in feeble protest and begins to lisp something with their burned lip, but the King shoves the sword down the Beggar’s mouth and throat killing the words before they are spoken.

Indeed, pauper. But know this—you shall not have enough time.

Instead of blood, polluted water, filled with refuse and clumps of rot, spews out of the wound. The King stands over the Beggar and raises his sword over his head and begins to swing down over and over, cutting, hacking and sawing them as one would butcher an animal. Tendons are severed, flesh is carved. The spoiled water spreads along the brickwork of the halls.

The wolf moves towards the mutilated Beggar. Its tongue-hand reaches out of its mouth and picks up a toe cut off at the toe knuckle, and holds it up to its own eyes.

Its flesh is corruption, and it shall make thee ill. Yet thou shalt consume each piece and dispose of it as one would with filth. Return them to the Gutters.

With that order, the King continues his walk in the empty halls, the flames of the endless uncountable candles following after him with practiced waves, as the wolf begins its gruesome meal, shoveling the rotted portions of the beggar into its maw. Some of the pieces are so festering and diseased that the wolf retches them out only to eat them again. The King’s orders, for it, are absolute. This tableau overseen by the stained glass of a sun standing alone in a red sky, rebuilt and unshattered. Same as it ever was.

Chapter Conclusion – Finish the Lantern Game

Spoiler: Lantern Game Reminders

Show

Lantern Game Reminders

During each Round

Lantern Actions can be taken once whenever a stat hits 4 or 8. Lantern Actions are unrolled secret non-actions PM'd directly to the GM and not noted in your normal post.

There are the following Lantern Action's each associated with their own stat:

• Discretion – Probe: Investigate if another Lantern is a Traitor. This information is sent to you privately and not posted publicly by GM. The results you can expect are “This Lantern Holder is Compromised” or “This Lantern Holder is Faithful”. If your Probe is Disturbed or your target was Safeguarded, you will receive a result of “Your Lantern's light was Obscured”.
• Force – Safeguard: Protect a Lit Lantern from Probes and Snuff Outs.
• Entertainment – Disturb: If the Targeted Lantern is taking a Lantern Action you will cancel that action. You will not learn if the Targeted Lantern took an action or not.
• Conviction – Relight or Snuff Out: Target either an unlit lantern and give it back its flame or take a lit lantern and take away its fire.

Only one Lantern Action may be taken per player per round and being the target of a Lantern Action makes you immune to all Lantern Actions the round after.

Between each Round

Players who hold at least one Lit Lantern may post in the IC one of the following votes:

• Accuse – Declare that another Player is a Traitor. If a Player has been Accused by a Majority of Players before the Next Round beings, one of their Lanterns is Snuffed.
• Conclude – Declare that they believe there are no Traitors with a Lit Lantern left. If a Majority of players have voted to Conclude the Lantern Game, the Lantern Game will end.
• Withhold – Declare that they do not have enough information.
• Abstain or Forget to vote.

Players are encouraged, but not required to have fluff or plot along with their Vote. The winning vote is one with an affirmative Majority (51%+) of votes; half of all players is insufficient.

Chapter Two – Exploring the Halls of the Dripping Throne

As you embark out from your District, as you trek through Penumbras, you hold the grand ancient Halls of the Dripping Throne in your mind, your heart and where you might have held a soul. As the Districts recede, whatever vista replaced by worn stone, candles greet you. The soft smell of smoke, the scent of dust settled on disused luxury. The stained glass of a sun on a red sky. The halls are empty and despite the light, dimly lit. Walking in either direction feels like a maze made of crossroads. Crumbling statues on corners, old empty armor. Candles. Wax on the floor. Your footsteps echo, but only briefly. What may the center of the Necropolis hold? Are you even welcome?

Chapter Conclusion – Exploring the entirety of the Halls of the Dripping Throne

Spoiler: How to Travel and Explore the Halls

Show

Travel to the Halls

The Hall of Dripping throne is at the center of the Necropolis. Each Round, Players may use a Discretion Action to journey to the Halls of the Dripping Throne. When they journey to the Halls – players should list out which of their characters travels to the Gutters and what sub-action they take (see below). The Journey and all subsequent sub-actions may be taken as secret actions.

Exploring The Halls

Each Round when a player uses a Discretion Action to journey to the Halls of the Dripping Throne, they may, initially, take only one sub-action. Enactments, Artifacts, Miracles, Conviction Bonuses and even GM specific events, may allow players to take additional sub-actions in the Halls.

Exploring the Halls is otherwise treated like an Event – and players may use the opportunity to trade (such trade being counted as their one sub-action).

For sub-actions, if it is your Ruler that traveled to the Halls you may roll with the relevant attribute. If it is another named character, roll half the relevant attribute. If you are unsure what attribute to roll for a particular sub-action, inquire from the GM.

Generally, the Halls may be explored with a Conviction sub-action.

Players may assist or hinder each other in the Halls as their sub-action in the Halls. Choosing the relevant roll of another player, they may roll using the applicable attribute with the related bonus for an TN of 12. If a success they add or subtract 2 of the targeted roll.

If your Ruler is exploring the Halls during a round, they may not also be involved as a Commander during a Battle.

Failing a search of the Halls, will usually have the player’s character find themselves back where they started. Once a specific location, such as the Throne Room, is located in the Halls, players may choose take actions from that room.

Chapter Three – Trudging through the Gutters

One does not typically visit the Gutters by choice, one often falls into them, swept away by poor fortune, a sudden storm of ill luck. Rats and centipedes watch you enter with red eyes before they scurry back inwards through grates and holes to carry their messages. Vermin are the least of your concern as you sludge forward. The sewers are a maze of twisting passages, even stairs and pipes leading further down into a fetid moist swamp that lines the drains and creeps along the iron. The water flows from somewhere to nowhere and back to somewhere else. Trash gathers along slow corners only to rush forward in rapids in other places, the current uncertain and shifting. Looking down is an exercise of revulsion. A finger brushes your legs as it is swept past.

Chapter Conclusion – Exploring the entirety of the Gutters

Spoiler: How to Travel and Explore the Gutters

Show

Travel to the Gutters

The Gutters exists in between each District. Each Round, Players may use an Entertainment Action to journey to the Gutters. When they journey to the Gutters – players should list out which of their characters travels to the Gutters and what sub-action they take (see below). The Journey and all subsequent sub-actions may be taken as secret actions.

Exploring The Gutters

Each Round when a player uses an Entertainment Action to journey to the Gutters, they may, initially, take only one sub-action. Enactments, Artifacts, Miracles, Conviction Bonuses and even GM specific events, may allow players to take additional sub-actions in the Gutters.

Exploring the Gutters is otherwise treated like an Event – and players may use the opportunity to trade (such trade being counted as their one sub-action).

For sub-actions, if it is your Ruler that traveled to the Gutters you may roll with the relevant attribute. If it is another named character, roll half the relevant attribute. Additionally, all sub-actions in the Gutters take a Penalty equal to ??????. If you are unsure what attribute to roll for a particular sub-action, inquire from the GM.

Generally, the Gutter’s may be explored with a Discretion sub-action.

Players may assist or hinder each other in the Gutters as their sub-action in the Gutters. Choosing the relevant roll of another player, they may roll using the applicable attribute with the related bonus for a TN of 12. If a success they add or subtract 2 of the targeted roll.

If your Ruler is exploring the Gutters during a round, they may not also be involved as a Commander during a Battle.

Failing a search of the Gutters, will usually have the player’s character find themselves lost in the sewers, which carries a consequence of ??????.

Additionally, ??????.

Chapter Four – The Fall of 0-Rion

Fewer and fewer individuals braved the treacherous journey toward the core, and the spectacle that once ignited a sense of purpose dwindled into a grim reminder of their entrapment. The enclaves of 0-RION became even more ghostly, their metallic halls echoing with the faint remnants of a lost civilization becoming even more lost. Fewer residents moved through these haunted corridors each day, the remaining souls merely going through the motions, their eyes hollow and their steps heavy with resignation. The enigmatic influence of the Overseer, once feared and respected, lost its hold as people stopped caring, their apathy not even a final surrender to an unseen tyrant.

As the spirit of the occupants faded, so too did the vitality of 0-RION itself. The once self-repairing systems, powered by the collective belief and will of its people, began to malfunction and fail. Lights flickered ominously and stayed off longer, plunging entire sections of the structure into stygian darkness. Doors that once opened with a mere thought now jammed or remained permanently sealed, their mechanisms rusted and unresponsive. The infrastructure began to deteriorate, the metal walls and floors corroding, revealing the decaying innards of the behemoth to the cold void outside.

Cracks formed in the outer rim, spreading like a spiderweb across the surface. The spokes connecting the rim to the shattered core weakened and snapped, sending chunks of debris spiraling into the void. The core itself, once a dense mass of metal and technology, began to disintegrate under the strain of its own weight, its integrity eroded by the apathy that had seeped into every corner of 0-RION. What remained of the once mighty structure was reduced to fragments, slowly ground down into smaller and smaller particles, destined to be reduced into dust.

And then, the sound of a great pillar cracking, a compacted scream of bones, flesh, hopes and dreams crushed underfoot, reverberated through each District of the Necropolis. The District that was 0-Rion falls from that strange unlife further and further into . . . . what lays beyond history; oblivion and nothing. Who remembers 0-Rion? No one. Not you. Not me. No one at all. It has never been or will be again.

Chapter Conclusion – Each Player is to Acquire and hold at least Two Diversions within Three Rounds, or their Capitol will fall into Listlessness.

Spoiler: Listlessness Reminders

Show

Listlessness Reminders

Social disunity, inertia or apathy creates physical Listlessness in the District itself as its ties to the Necropolis falter. This manifests in the people first, but then even the structures of the District become lethargic, fading into obscurity and into the pages of history further than even where the Necropolis resides.

• If a player’s capitol District is listless, then all actions affecting such district have a -2 penalty and of all that player’s actions outside that district suffer a -2 penalty.
• If a District in a player’s penumbra is listless, then all actions that touch on that district take a -2 penalty and that district does not contribute to a capitol’s “distance”.
• If an unowned District is listless, then all actions that touch on that district take a -2 penalty.

If you own a District that is Listless you may take a special action of any stat to enliven the people of that district and to resolve any disunity, inertia or apathy – this roll is rolled against 12 (but also suffers the -2 penalty).

If a nation is listless for too long, there might be GM specific events related to it, but there are no rebellions – if events go that far, then often the fabric of the district is so worn that it will fall apart and away from the necropolis.

[Stygian]

The Synod of Savagery (SVG) Ruler: Bloodcaller Valyn (she/they) Dis 2 | For 5 | Ent 3 | Con 4 Units: 3 Mirth: 1

Round 1 - WIP [Force] - Recollect Tactical Doctrine [Conviction] - Consecrate District 20 using Mirth, success (13 vs TN 12) [Conviction] - Consecrate District 14, failure (10 vs TN 12) [Action 4] Non-Actions: Resist all attempts to Consecrate an Altar to a different religion in Hraesholm. Resist all attempts to acquire "The Hunt" diversion from Hraesholm. Bookkeeping: Roll Links - #1 Stat Changes: +1 Conviction Resource Changes: -1 to Mirth

[MappyPK]

Chronocruise Enterprises

The Aetherial Mechanica



Ruler: SeaEO Vivienne Locke
(DIS 5 | FOR 3 | ENT 5 | CON 3)

Mirth: 3
Units: 1

Actions:

• 1. Recall Cultural Identity - Acquire Diversion.
• 2. Acquire Diversion - Theatre in Unnamed District 4.
• 3. Acquire Diversion - Brothels in Unnamed District 24.
• 4. Acquire Diversion - Music in Unnamed District 28.

[Lleban]

The Holy City of Uxmal
The Veiled General Toyollo VII
Mirth 3
Units 1
Discretion 4
Force 3
Entertainment 2
Conviction 4

Actions


Conviction
Conviction
Entertainment
Entertainment

Liturgy of Xyothos

Remember when the Red Magpies scaled the Great Walls
The clangs of their shields and boots ruled the halls
We trusted their slings to strike true
Where did their strong blood go
That Crimson hue

[Lleban]

whoops double posted