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westwhere2022-01-26 06:18 pm
lancifolium) wrote in westwhere2022-01-26 06:18 pm
a meeting of the minds part 2: lighthouse edition (open)
WHO: Everyone! You, you big silly! Get on in here!
WHEN: Feb 3 (giving everyone time for plot roll things to happen ic hopefully)
WHERE: Early evening, on the 5th floor of the Lighthouse
WHAT: Another study group. We Need To Talk Fam.
WARNINGS: None yet
basic prompt: [ A message on the network (moonage daydream, text): ]
We need to discuss this lighthouse, Ellethia, and why it might be we've been brought here. It's clear we've stumbled into something powerful and very precarious, but what isn't clear is the real reason we've been sent on this detour. I'll be on the fifth floor of the lighthouse just after dusk. The space will be magically reinforced so that our conversation remains private.
ooc note: [ Hurrah, study group the second! We'll be doing this like we did here since that seemed to work out. Since IC there will be many people talking, there will be a top-level marked 'ooc info' where you can drop off any information your character would share with the class (please try to keep it bullet-pointed or otherwise organized for easy information parsing).
There's also a top level marked 'open discussion' which you can treat like a network with the idea that things are being said in a round table setting - because group threads after a certain size are ungainly. Branch out, threadjack, have discourse, etc.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! ]
WHEN: Feb 3 (giving everyone time for plot roll things to happen ic hopefully)
WHERE: Early evening, on the 5th floor of the Lighthouse
WHAT: Another study group. We Need To Talk Fam.
WARNINGS: None yet
basic prompt: [ A message on the network (moonage daydream, text): ]
We need to discuss this lighthouse, Ellethia, and why it might be we've been brought here. It's clear we've stumbled into something powerful and very precarious, but what isn't clear is the real reason we've been sent on this detour. I'll be on the fifth floor of the lighthouse just after dusk. The space will be magically reinforced so that our conversation remains private.
ooc note: [ Hurrah, study group the second! We'll be doing this like we did here since that seemed to work out. Since IC there will be many people talking, there will be a top-level marked 'ooc info' where you can drop off any information your character would share with the class (please try to keep it bullet-pointed or otherwise organized for easy information parsing).
There's also a top level marked 'open discussion' which you can treat like a network with the idea that things are being said in a round table setting - because group threads after a certain size are ungainly. Branch out, threadjack, have discourse, etc.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! ]
ooc info
no subject
- The Merchant's home and the first city to fall to the undead, though it remains unclear why they were targeted. They were magically and technologically ahead of other cities, which may be part of the reason why Taravast failed to come to their aid.
- There was a conflict between Ellethia and Taravast, information on pamphlets in Ellethia suggests that some thought of Taravast as 'the problem of their fathers' and sought to break away from the rivalry between the cities to focus on their advancement.
- The symbol of their magical academies is an eye with a sun for a pupil. The phrase seen around the ruins of the city 'truth bows to the sun' may also be a marker for such places.
- The people of Ellethia used magic mirrors for an assortment of reasons, like communication and good luck, though some believed these mirrors were also being used to spy on citizens.
- Given the way the dead were put to rest in the Botanical Gardens, it's clear there were survivors other than the Merchant, seeking them out when the group arrives at a more populated place may prove useful. Understanding what took Ellethia down is a good way to understand what the group is up against.
The Lighthouse
- The lighthouse is not found on a map of Ellethia Lily recovered from the ruins of the city. There was a lighthouse pictured by Ellethia-Allayar that she found the ruins of, but the one the group currently resides in was not on there.
- When asked about the lighthouse's location the Merchant said 'That lighthouse has never been anywhere but where it is.' which may hint that the lighthouse was put here after Ellethia's fall.
- When asked about the lighthouse keeper, the Merchant said 'I believe he is precisely where he wishes to be.' Given the nature of that door you can wish on, this might be a hint as to what happened to the keeper.
- This lighthouse is full of horrible things in the middle of the night, don't take baths at 3 a.m.
- However, those horrible things may be similar to what the group experienced traveling the Stairs of Sighs, in that they may be echoes of past horrors. After some of the group helped to redirect a group of lifeboats away from the lighthouse, Zenobius took them upstairs to show them the remnants of a shipwreck, explaining that he was unable to bury them here without a candle "to rest them easy". It may be that this is the same shipwreck some of the group helped divert away from the lighthouse.
Other
Apart from forever being down to talk magic she's been here since late in Arc I and taking notes the whole time. Lily's happy to impart any of the information she's picked up from the places the group has traveled. Also, she is especially interested in discussing the Merchant because he is shady af and seems to know a lot of stuff he definitely shouldn't know.
no subject
- Wrathion can share that Karsa mentioned to him before that the Merchant is of Ellethia, and that Taravast thrived and rose again because Ellethia fell. She said that if Taravast burns, they wouldn't care.
The Lighthouse
- Wrathion has been experimenting with the safe zone around the Lighthouse. He captured animals from Ellethia and brought them within the 3km radius, at which point they stopped their death/rebirth cycle. It seems like it eases from around the 3.5km mark progressively!
- Once creatures come within the 'safe zone', they stay in whatever part of the cycle they were in. They also become more docile, he notes.
- He'll say he's been to the 11th floor, and saw people in an unnatural sleep within. He'll note that their sleep seems tormented, and that he noticed healed bite marks from that looked to be from human teeth rather than creatures.
- He'll also note that after connecting with a sleeper and leaving the floor he suddenly developed an abrupt... understanding of things. He believes nothings naturally dies here, and unlike Ellethia itself there is no cycle at all. Things only endlessly live. He believes that whatever mechanism offers to grant wishes is behind that: that someone wished to live.
no subject
- Zenobius spotted a merchant vessel out in the sea in a storm and used his mirrors to get its attention. Once they redirected their course however it became clear that the men were not the only ones to have spotted the light -- a large group of hungry mermaids had as well. It became clear that they would never survive if they continued their trip to shore. Zenobius became distressed at this, weeping, then retreating into the lighthouse. - Anduin, Lily, Akira, Wei Wuxian, Moiraine, and Allison worked together to formulate a plan to divert them back out to sea -- and it worked! To the best of their knowledge...
- Once Zenobius realized the danger had been averted for this vessel, he took the rescue group up to the top floor of the lighthouse and directs the light down into the water, where it illuminates countless boat wrecks and the salt-preserved bodies of their crew. Using a telescope, Anduin recognizes one as a man who tried to climb onto his boat on the journey to Ellethia-Hamsour.
- Zenobius tells them, "Couldn't bury them here. Not even a candle to rest them easy." Do the candles have something to do with keeping the dead... dead? Or do they suppress the cycle of death and rebirth somehow? Is that why the dead do not stay that way, perhaps?
- "IN TI T OF TE N LO" and "IBRAR O AR S" -- Anduin definitely thinks these signs originally read INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY and LIBRARY OF ARTS (although Wrathion argues with him the last one is LIBRARY OF STARS)
no subject
The mirror shards found around the 10th floor compelled several people to work on reassembling a broken mirror. They temporarily lost memories as they did so.
A man who was not in the room eventually became visible in the mirror, and when it was close to completed, the man was able to reach into the room through the mirror and drag Jon in.
While it only seemed like a few minutes to those who had been left in the room, it felt like several days to Jon. He was in a dark, formless space with what felt like broken glass against the soles of his feet, although sometimes, he could see a glimmer far above him that gave the appearance that he was underwater.
While he was in this space, he was constantly tormented by a presence trying to get into his body: it tore at his flesh. Sometimes there was a second presence within his body, which would try to take shape (his shape, Jon believes) before being pushed out.
He also heard voices: strange and echoey. He doesn’t remember everything they said, but “this isn’t what we were supposed to do,” “will not take more than you can give,” “if Taravast takes lead,” “give you the choice she never had,” “death is only a choice,” “only have to wish it done,” and “I had a dream last night.” Also something about subjects and numbers. He hesitates as he tries to remember these things, and they come out over several minutes, as they come to mind.
He found himself back in the tower when Drogon destroyed the mirror, and his back was covered with very deep scratches which had no explanation other than his experience within the mirror. He was terrified to be alone for several days — “And I am no craven,” he said — but is feeling better.
—
(OOC: Oh whoops! This is happening too early for Jon to discuss the entire box thing here, which is my bad, but I can at least give you all the mirror info. It should be assumed that anyone who wanted info about the box of papers found by Jon and Hermione was allowed to sort through them on Feb 6th-7th, and that its “owners” kept a pretty close eye on the papers so none of them would disappear.
Technically the man in the mirror was visible to Five and Daenerys much earlier than stated here, but their helpers did not see him until a later stage of completion.)
open discussion
no subject
IN TI T OF TE N LO and IBRAR O AR S
Apart from the completed phrases 'institute of' and 'library of' the rest remains unsolved, but she's hopeful at least one person attending that evening might have some insight or ideas. ]
no subject
Anduin offers Lily a smile, both in greeting and in response to the now-familiar notebook laying open in her lap.]
Hard at work?
no subject
[ Looking up at Anduin she tilts her chin towards the seat across from him, wordlessly inviting him to join her if he likes as she turns her notebook around for him to read. ]
Does it look like anything to you?
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The signs. A friend and I were having a debate over what they were supposed to spell out. We both agreed the first might be, "Insitute of Technology".
[Anduin wonders whether that has any bearing on his earlier connections between the cycle of life and death on the land and the Blight that he had made. If so, it seems a little too on the nose for his tastes...]
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Finally, he sits up a little, rubbing at his eyes under his glasses.]
I feel like I should be able to figure those out, but I also feel like it probably involves places I've never heard of, since I just got here.
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[ Lily frowned down at the notebook and prodded the page lightly with the tip of her pencil. ]
Does it look like any words? Trying's better than not, right?
no subject
You already have 'Institute of' and 'Library of'. That word looks a bit like 'stars', but that doesn't explain the gap. And it's not a big enough gap to be Taravast. Which wouldn't make sense anyway, since we're not there now.
[It's the only place he knows about other than the two halves of Ellethia, though.
He's also just brainstorming.]
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[he hasn't seen anything that fits the bill, as far as he's concerned, since he got here. (?_?)]
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Or, you know, anything else. ]
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So... The common denominator in what has been altered by undead presence here seems to be time. It either passes too quickly, or not at all.
Each of these undead lords seem to have different effects on their surroundings. Unhalad with hunger, Anurr with cold... Then the Huntress seemed to make things decay in her wake, and what of the last one? Did anyone observe any effects on his surroundings?
And now time.
It's almost as if they're different species, and yet I remember the Merchant telling us Unhalad has 'brothers', and they are more powerful than he is.
no subject
They could all be related, just with different, uh, specializations. There's something sorta like that where I come from.
no subject
[He's also a little pensive about this.]
I also wonder about timelines. Whatever happened in Sa-Hareth, it was at least several hundreds of years ago, but it appears the disaster that befell his place might be more recent. The Merchant speaks of it as if he suffered through it himself, and while he is of respectable age, I wouldn't imagine he is more than hundred years old... unless, of course he got afflicted by the curse of this place somehow, maybe.