the lighthouse & plot rolls

[groundrules]

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!

THE LIGHTHOUSE

---

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.

Image source.

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

Comments

[northerndragon]

Confirming!

[groundrules]

Right you are, thanks for confirming —

— 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

[northerndragon]

YIKES. 😈 thank you!

(He can take it.)