un: Black Prince; video

[blackscales]

[ The arms-folded image of Wrathion appears to be in a very bland, dark room, stone with nothing much more than a few cushions.

Anyone who's spoken to him there will realise he's still in his cave, anyone else who's noticed he's been missing might be surprised he is actually still around.

He looks subdued, thoughtful, as he tries to get through what he wants to say. He's less tired than he was, more focus returned to him, but there's a faint air of frustration that wells up the further he gets into what he wants to say. ]

It seems we are running out of time to solve this mystery, given we're likely not long from the eruption now that earthquakes have started. The volcano is surely at the heart of it, and this House of Ravens they speak of.

So, what do we know?

The volcano itself appears to have strange, humanoid antlered residents. They're armed, hungry and violent -- but somehow reticent to truly reveal themselves, they only hunt those without a torch to ward them away. They have a camp in central chamber. Some manner of mutation has touched them, perhaps, from the waters? I hear they can cause that, although the dark waters erupting from the earthquakes also heal. I'm unclear what causes one reaction over the other.

Waters touched by the White Wanderer seem to ward the Beastmaster's influence, as do pieces from his shrines, but he was said to be sick. Is there something of his influence in this contrast of effects? Sickness and healing combined both? Or something else entirely going on here?

The camp made by the creatures in the volcano held a pile of skulls, from previous offerings. We removed them and buried them, although if that will truly do anything to delay this eruption I cannot say. The messaging here is mixed, many say Ke-Sanwon does not want sacrifices, although some clearly believe otherwise if recent events are anything to go by.

[ He frowns, lifts one hand to rub at his beard as he decides how to go about describing the next part. ]

The volcano itself is also strange. It has an... environmental effect, of sorts, allowing those within it to hear each others thoughts -- and the thoughts of those who went before. That it is a source of power is unsurprising, given that is why the Beastmaster and the Huntress both anticipate its eruption. The previous victims brought here were unwilling, and suffered -- cursing the villages and their families as they they died. Given the state of things, I would imagine they were successful.

In strange contrast to that, it seems locals suggest the Beastmaster doesn't like any sort of superstition -- that he doesn't approve of the sacrifices to Ke-Sanwon. So what happens to those he takes, then? It sounds as if they're unnaturally calm, I would guess subdued in some way. Perhaps they are taken to the House of Ravens directly, or away to some other location the undead lords use? Similarly, where do the missing children from the village go? There were no recent looking bones in the volcano, and they appear to vanish regularly -- every two to three years in small numbers. Less frequently than the Beastmaster's visits. The peculiarly snakelike creature who has been seen here doesn't appear immediately violent toward children, at a test, although villagers suggested she ate them none could admit actually seeing her do so. Her head is human enough but her body is not, exactly, flesh. More a composite of hair and bone. She flees quickly rather than staying to fight.

These pieces all fit together somehow. The sooner we find what we are missing, the sooner we can stop any more harm being done -- and stop ourselves causing any inadvertently.

Comments

un: absterge

[downswing]

( So much knowledge to consume, slowly digested. Perhaps they will all swell fat like great white moons.

And so, adding: )

Dark waters appear amid dried wells. In corrupted crops.

All-pervasive beneath volcanic ground.

[blackscales]

The question is what causes the different behaviour. Are they two different sources, the dried wells and the volcanic ground? Or related, and one a natural state of it and the other change? Perhaps the volcano purifies the water? Or something else corrupts it?

[downswing]

It lived in cracks and ravines. Where all else perished.

[blackscales]

Are you suggesting the lack of all else where the healing water wells up renders it untainted? Or that it destroys all else?

[ Please, for once, say what you mean clearly. ]

visual | un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

Ah, antlered persons? Given one of the villages at the mountain's foot has persons who gain... wolf... tendencies, ahahaha, oh goodness, at night, it's not hard to believe.

( watch him glance away, clearing his throat and crossing his arms over his chest. then back to the visual he's watching, which in turn allows him to be seen. )

Of note that the villagers themselves, independently of the tribute captives, will elect to take their own best and brightest, as in most attractive and skilled in some craft or trade not considered essential to life, and voluntarily... sacrifice them. A handful of us interrupted the most recent attempt, but when you and I were spending a lovely time together in the town cemetery, one of the spirits who lingered was speaking. At the time I couldn't make sense of what she might have meant, but since then, I've determined she was the mother to one such village-chosen sacrifice.

I don't believe they put them directly to the volcano, but to this House of Ravens, or something similar... but they don't come back, whatever the case might be.

[blackscales]

But there were skulls in the volcano, which leads me to believe there may be two separate threads here at a minimum.

[ Those skulls got there somehow, after all. So two different types of offering, one for the volcano, one related to the House of Ravens -- and perhaps the Undead Lords directly? ]

[weifinder]

Could be, or could be linked in some way which creates those beasts of his... regardless, death has been involved on all levels, just as something of life is at the moment, too. The contrast between dark waters and what kind of dark they are, if they're from close to the volcano, versus further away.

[blackscales]

Distance may be a factor, particularly if the volcano is a source of some specific power itself. Something here certainly has been causing my abilities to... fluctuate, which may be a build up towards a show of power.

[ An eruption, and whatever that brings. ]

visual sure

[reparo]

They're doing what?!

[weifinder]

Abducting their best and brightest to offer as an extra, unsanctioned sacrifice to the volcano. A handful of us interrupted the most recent attempt to do away with in such a manner a local jewelry smith.

1/2

[reparo]

[The undiluted anger...]

They're just...sacrificing...I

[reparo]

Hate this place.

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

I would consider the fact that those undead armies we have met before recruit people, willingly or not. Human trafficking seems to be a much more logical explanation for he activity of the House of Ravens, and the volcano sacrifices are a very convenient excuse to explain why the people given never come back.

[He needs a bit more time to absorb the idea of ... 'volcano antlered creatures'.]

[blackscales]

That's certainly what the merchant suggested, he mentioned human trafficking was rumoured here, but there's still more than one thread to be unravelled. There's those given to the Beastmaster, there's skulls in the volcano, and then there's children going missing. They aren't all exactly the same thing, though they may be related.

[beitangmoran]

I have no doubt sacrifice to the volcano has happened before, I just have my doubts that it has in recent years.

As for children supposedly going missing, I have yet to see proof it actually happened. Do we have names? Dates of the incident? Bereaved parents?

[blackscales]

We spoke to several families. The children are, at the very least, missing. Two daughters, one son. The parents distraught, believing their children dead. No specific common location they disappeared in, all went within a span of ten days. One playing by the bank of a river, one infant from its crib in the night, one in the forest playing hide and seek with siblings. No remains found.

un: man's greatest treasure (text)

[reparo]

The snakelike creature might be the one Kaneki was talking of, before? He mentioned that the creature was looking for her children - maybe might explain why she won't harm children.

When Wen Qing and I were guarding the merchant's home, it was a slither we heard. The lady followed the creature and I followed her, but when I caught up she got caught by a naga. So - altogether different, but I had thought perhaps it had been that snakelike creature instead.

[blackscales]

I can confirm that: Kaneki, Anduin and I did find her. We simply couldn't persuade her to talk, she was fast and uninterested in us. Her motive, therefore, remains opaque. Is she kidnapping the children herself? Or is she seen around the village because she's aware children are being kidnapped by someone else, so she's alert to the behaviour? With no direct sightings of her taking them, it could still go either way.

[reparo]

Oh, I didn't know - well done in finding her at least!

[blackscales]

There was not much worth mentioning, considering she left so fast, beyond an updated description. We had to resort to an elaborate trap to draw her out, she's difficult to track.

un: white pawn; video

[chosenbylight]

[Anduin frowns, trying to piece it all together himself.]

Dong-Yun, the young jeweler the Hok-Shinn tried to use as a sacrifice. He said when the mountain troubles started when he was young, they would always give it a sacrifice before the troubles came to fruition. That it has not happened for some time, until now.

Also -- when I was in the forest with the others trying to track down the source of the animals' curse, we came across a carving upon some stone which mentioned the name of a village woman, Anui. I tried to ask after her in the village, but all I seem to have come up with is that she was of remarkable beauty and that she went missing some years ago. About a year before the business with the snake woman began, although they do not resemble each other -- I doubt they are one and the same.

[blackscales]

Do you remember the rest of what the carving said?

[ In case it is important.

It may, of course, just be graffiti -- but nonetheless he can add it to his list of puzzle pieces. ]

[chosenbylight]

Yes, of course. I -- wrote it down. Here...

[Because Anduin Wrynn likes to solve riddles too, even if this one is somewhat macabre. Going from memory, he might get this phrasing wrong. He knows that sometimes the exact choice of word does matter.

Fishing out a notebook, he reads:]

did you know
Anui
happiness sleeps at the bottom of each cup?
Anui
have you drunk your fill?
Anui
let me pour for you
the next cup, we drink at your grave’s side

video;

[reparo]

[interrupting quickly, because - dammit.]

I know where she is.

[chosenbylight]

[Anduin's eyes widen. He has been literally ALL OVER THE VILLAGE asking after her.]

You do? You've found her?