player plot: the horror of sarrux's pass

[aberratic]

WHO: Caius, Gwen, Hermione, Jayce, Ness, Siorus, Stephen, Vanya (sumptus, elegiaque, reparo, pathlit, aberratic, wildered, portalling, wearyallalone)
WHAT: The Horrors Cometh
WHEN: Beginning of Harvestmere (October)
WHERE: Sarrux's Pass, outside Wycome
NOTES: OOC post here. TWs for body horror, NPC death, ghost town/apocalypse vibes, children in upsetting situations, and general horror stuff.

Characters

CAIUS

GWENAËLLE

HERMIONE

JAYCE

NESS

SIORUS

STEPHEN

VANYA

The residents of Sarrux's Pass, a small village tucked into the mountains of the Free Marches, have long held that their settlement used to be a bustling trade city where dwarves were as plentiful as humans and they had constant contact between the surface and the Deep Roads. These were assumed by the surrounding cities to be nothing more than fanciful legends for decades, but any long-time resident swore it was the truth, lost to time and "monsters in the deep."

Residents were finally vindicated a few months ago when an earthquake caused a landslide in the surrounding mountains, revealing a long-lost outlet from the Deep Roads. At first, residents of the pass were apprehensive, all too aware of the dangers posed by such an opening, but the longer they went without Darkspawn spilling from the entrance, the more eager they became to investigate.

Eventually, the bravest among them began to enter the Roads, in search of ore and artifacts. They were vindicated again, finding both, and Sarrux's Pass quickly became a magnet for treasure hunters, Lords of Fortune, historians, archaeologists, and anyone in search of a quick buck. Even in the face of the Venatori invasion of the Marches, the promise of fame and riches drew handfuls of people seeking their fortunes to the Pass. News from the area was steady, and filled with discoveries and success stories—as well as the brawls, backstabbing, and even the occasional murder that comes with any good gold rush town.

It's been a few months since the reveal of the Deep Roads entrance. News from Sarrux's Pass has slowed to a trickle, then a drip, and now, in the past weeks, nothing. The last message to make it out of the village three weeks ago said simply: "We weren't just right about the dwarves." The parchment was stained with an unidentifiable liquid—not water, not blood—which smelled of the sea.

Riftwatch has been tasked with investigating the village, with three goals: find out what happened to the residents, recover whatever valuables they can from the Deep Roads, and, if necessary, close the entrance again. There may be Venatori in the area, or Darkspawn, or territorial prospectors—without contact with the village, there's no way of knowing what Riftwatch may discover. © tessisamess

Comments

[aberratic]

"You think it was left behind?"

Because Ness is starting to have the unnerving feeling that she's holding a dead man's final words. The excitement of uncovering a puzzle has left her eyes, replaced with a dreadful sort of apprehension, worrying what she'll find next with each turn of the page. Rather than read each entry out loud now, she speed reads in silence, hovering closer to Vanya with each page and each new unsettling discovery.

The final pages stick together, and Ness can't unstick them with one hand without ripping them. Her hands are shaking, anyway—she sets the book down and presses her palms together to steady them.

"Something happened here," which she immediately shakes her own head at, because obviously, "I mean, something beyond the well going bad, and everyone just leaving. He wrote of some kind of vomiting illness taking everyone, and there were attacks—monsters, he said, but not Darkspawn. Homes destroyed, families disappeared... I think they started burning people who got sick without waiting for them to die first."

[wearyallalone]

He certainly hadn't suggested the journal had been left out of optimism for its author's fate. But it doesn't seem likely to him the writer died in the inn itself, either, so it was left at some point. Perhaps she's right, though; perhaps it was intended for retrieval and those intentions were circumvented.

"Monsters but not Darkspawn is ... unexpected," finally, after a pause. "When something has gone so wrong this close to the Deep Roads, well, there is usually a grisly but obvious explanation for it." This is horrific in a human way he wasn't quite braced for. That said, she's clearly more shaken than he is. (He wonders if that's temperament or if he's just seen too much. A question for later, or not.)

"Come on," a bit more gently. "If you've finished with the journal, we should meet up with the others, tell them what we learned." Even if being in a larger group won't necessarily be any more cheerful, it will perhaps feel less like a ghost is reading over their shoulders. And everyone could stand to know the complications that they might be up against, at least as much as Ness and Vanya do.

🎀!

[aberratic]

"Yes," she agrees softly, giving her shoulders a subtle shake to rid herself of the dread that's fallen over her. There's still more homes to search and answers to uncover; she can't waste everyone's time cowering in a corner.

One deep breath, and she picks up the journal again, then lifts the guestbook, not unkindly, from Vanya's hands.

As they leave the inn, she mutters, more to herself than him, "There may be a census somewhere, we should know who lived here, let their family know what happened if they have any..."