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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
JOHN AND KANEKI
He directs the duo to a western well, thick and vastly-rimmed, which he says is never typically slated for domestic use. He supplies both young men with generous buckets. As they’re shown how to operate the well, John and Kaneki might notice... something amiss when they gaze deeply in the water. They appear normal in their reflection, but their friend Zenobius looks increasingly younger by some ten years, his hair less greyed and more voluminous. His entire reflected appearance better groomed, except for the blood that stains his grey uniform, the signs of shallow wounding on his body and uniform and the clear distress on his face. The Zenobius of the reflection seems frightened, barely catching his breath, before a tall man appears beside him — dressed in white, with eyes pale enough to be white. In the reflection, this man tips Zenobius over — just as Kaneki and John feel hands pushing them hard into the well.
Was it Zenobius? A being of another name? Hard to say, though certainly no one waits by the well, nor does any man answer, should they look up or call out.
They fall around 8 metres and land in shallow water that goes up to a height of about 1 metre. Curiously, they suffer no shock or bruising from their hard landing. To their luck, they can find small, slim bars of metal and makeshift pieces of wood awkwardly pinned into the well wall — just sturdy enough to serve as steps or holds, and allow the two up. The ‘ladder’ was clearly not built in and was attached by an amateur.
Clumsy, short — animal or human nail — scratches line the lower part of the well. Three successive dates seem to have been scratched into the wall.
The second fixture of the well, located around 1.5m from ground on one of the walls, is a small lateral gated opening, not unlike the mouth of a sewer. The water level does not reach it, and the rusted bars could yield before a show of strength
or fire, a chainsaw...Alternatively, beside the opening, you can find a carving in the wall in the shape of a downturned oval, with a single screw-like pillar in its middle. Looking around the engraving, Kaneki and John can also find a loose piece of wall brick in the shape of a sun, with a convenient hole at its centre. Removing that piece and setting it in the oval engraving — to complete the now-familiar shape of the eye with a sun for a pupil that seems to haunt Ellethia — will prompt the gate to open without the need for physical force. Needless to say, both gentlemen can fit through the opening.If Kaneki and John listen closely, they can hear a young girl’s voice singing eerily from whatever enclosure the gateway leads to. She does not answer but intermittently stops singing, if they call out to her.
Note: if Kaneki and John leave the well, they will find Zenobius in the midst of one of his fits of amnesia and bleary-eyed confusion, By now, he has seemingly forgotten both who the young men are, or that he has visitors at all. If they return to this well, they find it covered by a wooden lid, with Zenobius insisting they never take water from it. The well remains accessible, despite his protests.
Plotting!
He's not physically any stronger than any average teenager so would be more likely to investigate the area and find the missing piece of the engraving's puzzle, to open the gate that way.
He'll be freaked out by the girl's singing, but he'll ultimately stay on task to get them out of this.
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Luckily(?) he is not human and can do very well in a fight, so he'd tell John he'd protect him if he wants to come, BUT!! kaneki will not force him to go along at all.
But Ken wants to see who is singing and where this thing leads to, he's just that type of person who doesn't like to stay still.
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The only question is how they go through - would Kaneki be able to power through it? If not, John is definitely investigative enough to open it the long way.
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— a tight, fairly claustrophobic channel leading from the opening to a sizeable underground hideaway. All walls and floors within this enclosure are made of stone and bare, and the scant furniture comprises tables, benches and standard work tools, alongside residual machinery. Around nine to 10 mirrors have been packed and reclined to face the wall. If they're turned around, they will show distorted images of Kaneki and John, typically reflecting the versions of them if some of their greatest hopes and wishes were fulfilled. There is a small bathroom and bathing facility connected to the room, including old, rusted cleansing and shaving tools. Some show light bleeding marks.
— one corner of the hall shows the room was at one point briefly lived, with table cloth set on floors or bundled in what appears to be the shape of a pillow. The ensemble is dusted, suggesting whatever occupant lived here has long vacated.
— there are spare technical parts on site, including crudely cut wire, steel and wood. Kaneki and John can see some parts of these were repurposed to create the "stairs" of the well. Slabs of stone are mounted towards the back of the room, though they have been artlessly cut into.
— all across the floor, 37 pieces of stone have been lined up. The different sizes and poor angling betrays the mason was either an amateur or inexperienced. Blunted knives scattered about the room were used to sculpt names into the stone pieces, alongside the THE TRUTH BOWS ONLY TO THE SUN motto seen on tombstones in Ellethia-Hamsour. Each stone rectangle is inscribed with a full name, the same date (coinciding with the first of the dates carved in the well), and short notes about the honoured person. Mostly, the carver has put down their occupation: technician, department of the arts, cook, mechanic, senior healer, keeper of the grounds, board member, professor, etcetera. The majority of the dead are technicians.
— three stone pieces have unfinished inscriptions that only list, matthias. The title of 'Matthias' is engraved differently on each stone piece: lead technician, master of the halls and board member.
— on one of matthias' three stone pieces sits the room's singer — an old and battered rag doll. The painted lines that previously shaped her face have largely been eroded by time.
— half an hour into Kaneki and John's exploration of the hall, the doll stops her song, and says she cannot see, for her button-eyes have fallen off. Is it her father she hears, here to take her home?
Let me know what you'd like to do with the doll, but please be aware — there is a (non-life-threatening) cost to deciding to take the doll with you, if you do.
Consider sharing some of the findings with the class!
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He'll be pretty freaked out by all of this, but he'll internalise most of it. The main thing he'll want to do is try to find out from the larger group if the name Matthias meant anything to them, or whether any of them have heard that phrase about the sun before.
He'll suggest to Kaneki that they should perhaps leave the doll where she is, but if Kaneki still wants to take her, he won't fight about it! (But if it turns out to be haunted, he told you so.)
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Do we need to find Kaneki an old priest and a young priest?
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LOOK
kaneki makes questionable choices BUT maybe the doll is... nice? sob
anyway!! I think a network post could work well to ask about Matthias. And MAYBE also let the group know they are now haunted (well, the doll Kaneki has is oops)?
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You've all, ah, earned it.
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Also, anything worth mentioning regarding the doll and her actions, or is she just gonna tag along while singing and nothing else? Oh! And would she answer questions/realize she is a doll?
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— the paints that depict the doll's expressions are typically withered; they sometimes reappear, often when the doll is at her most child-like
— she seems generally unaware of her surroundings, but sometimes random sounds or words catch her attention. At that time, she goes very still and peers intently, or asks what that something is; she sometimes acknowledges the answer, often not
— she does not really take questions/has the general awareness of a small toddler, when she does
— she soemtimes wakes to ask for her father
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So do we want to have a joint network post, with the doll featuring in the background? I could set up a google doc if you like!
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Alright, I went ahead and made one (hopefully it can be edited, let me know if there is any problem):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/152FN3p7jZsszy3pYOXwp9Nhi9reWOjBAYAw5KwZwGgc/edit?usp=sharing
I was thinking John can be the one talking about the well and Matthias, and Kaneki will be the one talking about the doll, if that works?
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NOW i'm trying to gather the things we know. The reflection of the well: was it the same man Kaneki saw when he asked about the doll? And if he tries to mention the name matthias to Zenobius, will he get any response at all?
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Hey! I've requested edit access, it didn't let me do that from the link. Separating it up like that sounds great to me!
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Okay! I added some things, if you want to have a look!
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Well now Kaneki will haunt it how about that
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