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lostcompass2022-01-18 07:42 pm
groundrules) wrote in lostcompass2022-01-18 07:42 pm
Entry tags:
the lighthouse & plot rolls
Did someone say to… turn off the lights? Brace to explore Ellethia’s ghostly lighthouse — and help with a freshly baked plot roll. The below should tide us until 6 February.
If you’ve received a plot roll and want to rally the troops for assistance, feel free to top level for your search here, or do your own lostcompass post, hunt down a carrier pigeon… Note: Ellethia is surprisingly fertile ground for plot opportunities, and there is "spare plot" for about four more character. If you missed the 'deadline' to ask for a roll but still want one, drop a line in one of the subsections! But don't feel pressured: the people who have received a plot roll will need a lot of support, and there're plenty of ways to get involved with their roll. Allocated, thank you!
Crawling, clandestine or crumbling, you’ve made your way to the mist-drenched lighthouse of Ellethia-Hamsour — a gargantuan, converted tower that regularly flashes an eerie green light signal. Those who know MORSE code can recognise a strange mix of BEWARE, STAY AWAY, DANGER — and COME THIS WAY.
The compulsion to possess the lighthouse disappears when characters come in a 3km radius of it. In the tower surroundings, they can find sweet water wells, vegetable gardens, chicken coops and sheep, all seemingly well looked after and self-replenishing overnight. These plants and creatures are not subject to Ellethia’s life-death-rebirth cycles. Characters who stay within the aforementioned 3km range of the lighthouse can now safely remove their haute couture red gear, Enam reveals. He urges the party to reside at the lighthouse for the next three weeks, at the end of which one of the Merchant’s ships will collect them to travel east.
Characters can journey back and forth to Ellethia-Allayar over this period.
The tower spreads over 12 floors, featuring exceptionally high and vast rooms with emptied bookcases, sturdy tables, and scatterings of technological tools on the ground. On the walls, mindful visitors can spot discreet engravings of an eye with a sun instead of a pupil. A room on the ground and first floor each have cracked signs, spelling out IN TI T OF TE N LO and IBRAR O AR S, respectively. The 8th and 9th floor house well-used sleeping quarters, with bathing rooms located on the 6th floor. The 10th floor is all one large room, barren except for the wealth of very thin, crushed shards of various mirror types. The 5th floor hosts several long, ornate discussion tables — at night, those who travel it can hear ghostly whispers of vitriolic conversation, with speakers insulting each other and their impudence.
Those who spend time in the 1st to 4th floor past midnight will sometimes hear screams urging everyone to retreat, as “they come from above.” Sometimes, the long staircases will grow wet overnight with blood and decay, which disappear come morning. Across the various floors, the nightly ‘soundtrack’ includes panicked shouts, glass smashing, feral screams similar to those of the undead and running steps.
The lighthouse keeper Zenobius takes little notice of his visitors, allowing them to make their quarters where they please and partake of his resources. Enam’s helpers supply Kaneki some lugged-around stale dead meat, or he can fish undead mermaids. Using a fluffy sheep as bait is always recommended.
Zenobius is often found on the 12th level, absentmindedly using mirrors, lantern lights and glass panes to flash MORSE indications. He is often rushed, distracted and unwilling to converse. Sometimes, he appears to forget the people he has already encountered; on other occasions, his own name eludes him.
Swarms of mermaids encircle the coastal area close to the lighthouse, furious, feral and trashing to crawl onto shore. Every few days, Zenobius brings broken glass pieces from the 12th floor and throws them in the water, briefly appeasing the creatures before their fury stokes once more.
Every day, Zenobius spends several hours on the 11th floor, whose main entrance is sternly locked and enchanted. Characters can still climb to the 12th floor — where Zenobius sleeps — without entering the 11th floor hallways. To the right of the 11th floor main hallway door is a mechanical device that requires a palm print, which Zenobius seems uses for entry. On the door, a sign asks, WHAT DO YOU WISH FOR? Scratched beneath it, possibly by human nails, TURN BACK. For each time they want to enter the 11th floor halls, characters must speak a different wish and face the consequences.
Inside the room sleep 10 men and women of various ages, seemingly comatose on stone slates. Some show signs of scratches or healed bite injury. Depending on the hour of entry, you might find Zenobius sponge washing their bodies, combing their hair, mending their clothes or massaging their limbs.
The Sleepers live.
PLOT ROLLS
- ■ Lily, Joker and Anduin
■ Five and Daenerys
■ Yennefer, Eleven and Moiraine
■ Lorna, Wrench and Marcos
■ Zuko and Slick
■ John Connor and Kaneki
■ Hermione and Jon Snow
FIVE AND DAENERYS
Any point before 5 February: No time like the present to be a terrible guest. One fine morning, Daenerys’s companion Drogon returns to her his latest catch — a tattered grey coat that is more patches than garment, brought down from the 12th floor — the site of the lighthouse lanterns, and good Zenobius’ sleeping abode. It appears Drogon hasn’t helped the coat’s wear and tear, with its frayed edges now also showing signs of heavy burning. He brings down various items from Zenobius’s lair — all rags and debris, torn tools and trinkets, such as half-finished clocks and mechanical gear. Zenobius’s scent fascinates the dragon.
Drogon takes to following Zenobius around, often neglecting Daenerys’s calls or orders. He spends much of his time on the 10th floor — in a fortuitous turn of events for Five, who finds himself in the level’s hall of mirror shards, every time he seeks to teleport anywhere. Even when Five doesn’t, he is compelled to the floor, a part of him wishing to be close to the halls. The shards give him a feeling of distanced, eerie coldness, very similar to that of the mirror already inside of him.
At one point, when Five has been compelled to piece together some shards of a dark silver mirror, he sees the very pale blue eye of another man staring from within. To his luck (?), Drogon flies in, calling on Daenerys to follow him, and destroys the reconstructed mirror part.
One dragon can only do so much. Hereon, Five and Daenerys both feel called to restitch the dark silver mirror, one fine shard at a time. Every time they connect another shard, they briefly lose a memory, for something like a 6-hour span. The memory losses deepen the longer they spend gazing into their reconstruction, giving them an air not unlike that of poor, perpetually confused Zenobius.
The lost memories need not be the same ones every time, and it’s up to you whether they are minor or major. Sharing the work with others spread out the memory losses, but it will also condemn new participants to feeling compelled to piece back the mirror themselves. ( Five and Daenerys would not ICly know this. )
As pieces accrue, Five and Daenerys start to see a man wearing a white coat in the restitched mirror.
Re: FIVE AND DAENERYS
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"Balerion's fire had temperature of around 3300°F/1800°C, which was enough to melt the stone walls of Harrenhal. Drogon's fire is much cooler (1500°F/800°C - 1800°F/1000°C)" - So maybe not melt it, but it can at least blast it apart, I would think?
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But if you have Drogon do that, you're kind of ending your plot roll there. I'm happy to go with that, if that's what you guys want! But you're closing the door on your plotline.
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If you got as far as near completion ( the 95% of completion that can be replicated, given the absence of pieces ), there would be an outcome — though you'd require at least two more people helping out. We're talking some very small shards that have to be pieced back in just the right order here. Huge puzzle.
I think as a first step, you guys should let me know how far down the mirror reconstruction path you want to go ( 20%? 50%? more? ). As a general heads up, the more of the mirror you patch up, the greater the lore reward — but also the higher the risk to your character.
The outcome won't be revealed until you guys let me know how far you want to go (though I'll always give you a courtesy heads up if an outcome ever involves physically impairing or killing characters, before producing it).
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plotting!
With that many people helping, they could potentially get the max possible amount of the mirror done. (Or 90-95%??) I'm all for this, but I wanted to pose that to anyone involved who would like to weigh in.
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I agreed to this before I realized I could still sign Jon up for a plot roll! His stuff with Hermione and the box begins on/after 29 January, and I’ll be working on nailing that down tonight. (I assumed that for this, since it’s not really his plot, he’d just help with a few shards and lose a few memories for a while. Extra apologies to Ruxi if I’ve made this hard without meaning to.)
If the two conflict, he’s out of this, unfortunately. But if they don’t, he’s in and should be added to the percentages.
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(Ned Stark Lives. 🙃 )
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Re: FIVE AND DAENERYS
As the mirror assembles, it will sometimes show distorted versions of whoever stands before it: older or younger iterations of the characters it reflects, happier, anguished, bleeding, carrying marks of achievement or perhaps children. At times, the reflection will be no different than what the mirror sees before it. Sometimes, instead of the real-life image, it will show a dark, watery space devoid of real shapes, and the reflection of a man in his late thirties or early forties, with such pale skin and hair that might suggest potential albinism. His gaze is a watery grey. He wears a white coat.
The man appears to be mouthing something in an indistinct or foreign tongue, but his voice has been muted by the mirror. His manner is calm, if not resigned. Now and then, he assists by pointing the shard collectors in the general direction of where on the mirror surface the next glass piece belongs.
The man appears able to be heard for a few moments during each of the three days, at around 4pm. You can ask him only one question, for each day. Choose them wisely, and let me know here, one at a time (as I assume you might want to build the ensuing questions based on the preceding responses). Or submit all three questions at once, whatever you prefer.
After giving his last answer on the third day, the mirror restored to as much as it can be, the man that resides within it will seem suddenly terrified and feral, giving out a — blissfully mute — scream. His hands will reach out through the mirror to capture whoever is before him, and either:
1. begin to strangle them
2. drag them into the mirror for a minute or two
Please decide who the lucky, lucky victim is among yourselves, and which option you prefer. Warning: option #2 will lead to some very deep trauma for the character involved, if you decide to pursue that route.
Drogon will helpfully fly in just as the violence takes place, and will shatter the mirror. The man's victim will be either released or returned to the tower at that time. Drogon will roast that sucker, melting down all remaining shards into liquid form.
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victimparticipant is...Jon Snow!
Talking to Liz, she said she wanted Jon pulled into the mirror. Questions will be incoming soon.
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— Jon physically disappears from the lighthouse once he is dragged into the mirror. He will be absent for what feel like two-five minutes for Five, Daenerys and the group. Jon himself will feel he has spent somewhere closer to a few days within
— the mirror territory is the equivalent of vast, unpopulated cosmic space, with the only tactile sensation being that of (often broken) glass beneath his feet; now and then, the landscape changes, and Jon sees around him a slightly shallower aquatic dark, along with a scattered dappling of light high above
— at first, Jon 'drifts' throughout, feeling watched by something in the deeper dark. The pale man is no longer with him. The only human 'presence' are fragments of various voices that sometimes fill the space. Over time, Jon can hear: 'will not take more than you can give,' 'don't,' 'subjects fourteen, thirty-nine, fifty-two, eighty-eight', 'this isn't what we were supposed to do,' 'if Taravast takes lead,' 'did you hear me? Do you even listen?', 'which floor?', 'one time, once only,' 'you can give everyone the choice she never had', 'what would he do', 'left, he just left,' 'what would you do for it?' 'take it, take it,' run,' 'have to do what he couldn't,' 'death is only a choice,' 'hundreds, and they're ready,' ''don't let them in,' 'our only hope,' 'this isn't who we are,' 'only have to wish it done,' 'I had a dream last night.'
— these voices seem otherly, echoed and strange, as if the mirror-void is replicating sounds it has heard before
— Although Jon possesses and senses his body, he cannot move it — but he is fully aware when whatever waits in the dark begins to claw and tear at his flesh, which quickly replenishes and prevents permanent damage despite the ceaseless torture. There is not much that Jon can do against the amorphous, mute creature, beyond withstand its onslaught. It has no shape, gives no sound, offers no identifiable marks — it simply is, and seems to covet ownership of Jon's body
— sometimes, the dark infiltrates Jon's flesh as a second presence that is quickly expelled out; during these periods, Jon feels the cold, alien and overwhelming sensation of something plastering as much as it can to the inside of his body. Without communicating with the creature, Jon can feel that what it wants is shape
— he reappears on the floor beside the mirror, following Drogon's attack. On his back, there are deep lines of scratching, already starting to heal (up to you if you prefer for them to scar). Beyond the torture, Jon feels a bone-deep terror of being alone for a few days
— for at least three days (extending to however long a period you choose), Jon will intermittently see complete and utter void-dark when he looks into a mirror
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(He can take it.)