video. un: a_civil_serpent. threadjack away.

[inferus]

( Wrath's expression is as unreadable as ever as he, and presently Lockwood, walk away from Kuthuba, who has taken a rock and thrown it at the moon, howling, "Stooooooooooop looking at Kuthuba!" More rocks follow, shot upward and plopping back to the ground at Kuthuba's feet.

Wrath pauses, lets out the slightest of sighs, and then continues forward. )

At least they're not howling derogatory words this time. [ Lockwood remarks in a mild tone, though the quick look he shoots Wrath suggests there may be a story there. ]

How lucky for the rest. ( Though Wrath might take the howling at the moon personally given his wife's lunar connection. Regardless. Now that they are far enough away, Wrath gets down to business as there is much to convey: ) The Huntress was here before. Her influence, at least, remains.

For those unaware, she is part of the Undead Lieges - the brotherhood. Two years previously, according to Kuthuba, a woman ran through the forest here. She was sought by mortals for her beauty. Many died in their search, lost in the mist. She wore no clothes, had long, red hair, and eventually, was banished to her husband. As some in our group may remember, she was married to the Beastmaster who was slain months ago. In our initial encounter with her in Taravast, she was able to control those associated with Death to follow her, do her bidding, ( the slightest lock of his jaw - near imperceptible, but the flash of violence in the gold of his eyes is far more visible, he would like to see her destroyed ) and she was drawn by fire and magic. She does not linger.

It would also seem the two of us can now view the Lumberjack haunting and stop him. We spoke to him. He believes his work is good as it forces people to face their past, making them better people, more able to move through time... unburdened. He wishes to do well with his haunting so he does not disappoint a 'them'.

The lumberjack, seems to be someone who wanted to do right, but who was easily influenced, used and abused. The villagers were not very kind to this young man, yet he always saw their actions in an innocent light. [ Does Lockwood sound a little judgmental about those who had been using this kid? Yes. Yes he does. ]

We recovered three pages of what appear to have been this young man's diary. On one of the pages he recounts that his family believed him prone to starting trouble, that odd things happened around him, like water bursting, or air turning stormy. I get the sense that he was a lumberjack because it was an out of the way occupation for him.

Apparently he tried helping his uncle selling fish one day, but had an altercation when a customer tried to haggle the price. The customer began to choke, struggling to breath. A foreign woman in white, [ Lockwood recounts the woman's details as if reading from the diary page itself ] approached our lumberjack, told him he was special, that she could help him. Then all of a sudden the customer could breath again. [ Which had obvious implications. ]

Has anyone else encountered anything about a woman in white, or other villagers who seem to have abilities they are either unaware of, or unable to control?

Comments

un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

A woman in white, not a man? An interesting change.

[inferus]

He specified a woman but little else in terms of a description. It may have more to do with what is happening here than the man in white whose path we have followed time and again though I would be surprised if he had not visited himself at some point.

[blackscales]

The colour is not exclusive to him, but I'd be interested in a better description of her attire to be sure it isn't a familiar uniform. Especially given that described behaviour.

[inferus]

It is unclear how much the Lumberjack haunting remembers of his former life. He was not willing to answer many questions about the present including about this 'they' that he did not wish to disappoint, but it is worth trying.

I see you have learned Miang-si has potential tutors. Could they be the same as this 'they'? The lumberjack certainly has... immortality in a sense. ( and he was sought out for having a special power he could not control. )

[blackscales]

Perhaps. She mentioned they can speak to ghosts, after all. It seems as if he may qualify, to some degree. Not all can see him, he is no longer living. Perhaps they control him?

[downswing]

The Huntress.

( This, as much, is blood-chilling. ) Signs of her power?

( He remembers, far too closely, its impact on the dead, the necromancers. The risk inherent. )

[inferus]

Unfortunately.

I do not believe she is presently here, but if this village continues to move through time, we will likely see her again.

[downswing]

She took too much last.

[inferus]

Did she? Then we must stop her from taking any more this time.

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ He knew it. (Or 'Wei Wuxian was right' but he still was inclined to think it was her.) The Huntress at least means it's not someone they haven't encountered before, but he's suddenly distracted by the last question. ]

...I've seen the woman in white.

[ Continues to see her. She likes to hang out in windows, but recently... ]

I'm pretty certain Miang-Si has too.

audio.

[inferus]

You have?

It was mentioned here she is another haunting. ( So he imagines that is the particular one haunting his friend. And the two (woman in white and lumberjack) clearly are related to one another both in life and in what state they are currently in. ) What makes you believe Miang-Si has seen her as well?

[somebadnews]

[ He's seen her many, many times. He'll skip past that to answer his other question. ]

I searched her room. There was a rope leading out of her balcony with strands of cloth from the woman in white. [ That he could identify them is telling enough. ] ...Red strands too, but I don't know who they belonged to.

[inferus]

Red strands of cloth. Perhaps another haunting. The Huntress has red hair, but I do not believe she would have lingered here long enough.

( And Five would be able to determine the difference between red strands of hair and red strands of cloth. ) When did you search her room?

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

Of the specters haunting people these days in this place, one is a woman in white. She takes the appearance of someone you know and reenacts some of your worst memories.

Also interesting to find the Huntress here. I do wonder if her passage is not what prompted the start of the funeral rites we've witnessed and that others have reported on. She probably called the dead as she went. It was a veritable parade through Taravast, if you remember.

voice.

[inferus]

I do. ( remember ) It would be reason enough to want the dead far away from this place if the Huntress had been here, returning them and wielding them as her personal attack dogs.

I seem to recall in Taravast if someone met the Huntress' eyes, she would force them to relive a moment of their past, and these hauntings seem to be doing the same.

voice.

[beitangmoran]

I was never close enough to her to experience it myself, but if that is so, then it seems to fit... yet I am not inclined to believe the ghost I have seen is her. Somehow, those kind of hauntings do not seem proportionate to the kind of power she wields. An underling of hers, perhaps?

voice.

[inferus]

The ghost and the Huntress are not the same, no. I do believe she may be related to the creation of these Hauntings, however.

What better way to leave behind remnants of her influence? ( Wrath avoids conversation with her himself, but he did read over the post she made. )

Action

[recklessenough]

[ Lockwood, for once in his young life, holds his tongue and listens rather than throwing around his opinion. At least, for the moment! There is a lot to be learned, especially about this 'Huntress' and the feedback they're receiving about the woman in white also raises a lot of questions.

Eventually, he breaks his silence. ]

Are we thinking this 'woman in white' is this Huntress? If she's a ghost, then shouldn't we try to locate her source and seal it up?

[ Oh Lockwood, you sweet summer child. He is deliberately not thinking about his repeated failures to locate the source of the milk tooth babe hauntings he's experienced. ]

[inferus]

The woman in white is not the Huntress, and I do not believe the woman in white is a simple ghost at least not as they usually appear in this world. She seems to have more power than that, the ability to move between people and force them to face their past.

( There is a pause, however, as Wrath turns to the young man. He keeps the device out for any new information that might pour in, but he does lift an eyebrow at Lockwood. )

...what do you mean by locating her source and sealing it?

[recklessenough]

[ Distracted by his thoughts, attempting to process everything he's been learning since he arrived in this place, Wrath's question did not immediately compute. It caused Lockwood to look up briefly with a bemused blink, before he was able to switch mental gears. ]

They're terms from my world. [ He explained as they walked along. ] My Earth, I suppose I should clarify. Something happened, fifty years or so ago in my world and it caused the dead to start haunting, and slaughtering the living. Millions of people, over the past five decades, have died as a result of ghost-touch. [ Trying to put The Problem in a nutshell was hard. ]

The only way to destroy a ghost, properly keep the dead, dead in my world is to identify the Source that tethers the visitor to the mortal world. Usually a tangible object, sometimes skeletal remains, sometimes an item of great value to the deceased, agents like myself are trained to locate the item, and then seal it in a net or container made of silver or iron. It's then taken to the furnaces and burned, which severs the connection between the spirit and the mortal world.

[inferus]

( Wrath has heard about magic from different worlds. He has experienced and seen the magic here, and he has heard about how death works differently in other worlds, how afterlives can change depending on each individual world. Like this one, he is not certain there is one here despite visiting Hell when the group had been in Alem - it had few spirits, no king. And so many spirits get caught lingering within the world itself.

This is an example of an afterlife, of powers, of terms that he has never heard before - him - the one called Death in his own world. It is infuriating to imagine such a possibility where spirits can not only linger but kill the living. )

The spirits are fully destroyed then in your own world. We have some among us who can help spirits to move on through a series of various rituals. I do not know where in this world they move on to.

Is there an afterlife in your world beyond spirits lingering in the living realm where they do not belong?

un: song | voice;

[spoilers]

He's clearly been used by someone. Should we assume the other figures in the hauntings might be as well.

( She prefers figures to spirits. )

» private for Wrath

( It isn't that her death is any great secret, but she doesn't like broadcasting her concerns about being influenced again. She's been there and done that, before her death and now after. )

Do you think the Huntress will return? Do you think that's what they want?

( Or in other words, ) How much of her influence?

private.

[inferus]

They could be. However, at least one of the figures was manipulating the lumberjack.

I do believe this village could continue into the past to when the Huntress once roamed the forest. It is certainly a potential theory as to what they want, but they would not need to go back into time to find her. They would merely need to have a way to reach out to her in the present as she still roams the rest of the world. One would think she would have left them a means to communicate.

...you worry she will control you.

private.

[spoilers]

( It would be a more than inconvenient way around things. She's said as much elsewhere and only hmms in agreement. No one can think that perpetually pulling a village back in time will end well. )

I'm not thrilled by the possibility.

private.

[inferus]

Her pull is incredibly strong. ( Wrath resisted it for days before he could feel himself begin to succumb, and his wife saved him - saved the city, saved the world. She was the only one who could. ) Do you have the means to protect your mind?