WEEK 4

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 4

[After the meeting, Lilac gives everyone a small vial of something red. Those who left the meeting receive it from the rats on the crew. She gives instructions as to how to take it. Take in a drink, preferably tea. Drink it slowly. Make sure you can get to your bed once you finish. The headache will come quickly.

Nevertheless, even as everyone slips into sleep, they are visited once more by the Conductor in what must have been a dream. Or was it? It's not clear.

She is quiet as she speaks, looking out the windows, even though the view is obscured by the glass.

"I know you think me as a monster. Maybe I am after all these years. I have no illusions. But I cannot regret the things I've done.

"Nor can I regret the Bazaar...it was so wonderful. It opened my eyes to the truth of things and opened doors I never could have seen on my own. It was the first time I felt true love for another. I wasn't the only one-my daughter, too, passed through the Wicket. Saw the sea more sunless within the Bazaar's body. Learned as I learned. She sought to rival me in symbols, in marking skin."

She closes her eyes.

"She is dead now, of course. Everyone I knew in the Neath-on our Earth-is. Well. Almost everyone. London endures, naturally. But the Echo Bazaar...it's beautiful promise...it's gone. The Seventh City will never fall, and it's Message will forever remain undelivered. Of all the creatures in the universe who might remember it, I am alone in honoring it.

"Perhaps it's noble. Perhaps it's foolish. In any case, maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it's the thought that's important. As long as I am here, there is yet a possibility that the deed may be finished, somehow.

"Still, I wonder. Maybe you have the answer.

What happens to a Message, when neither the sender and receiver exist anymore?"




As the day dawns, everyone wakes up to the sound of howling winds and darkness. Their head hurts, but they do have a new memory to accompany the ache. They are also at a new port. It is a dark place, teetering on the edge of safe space and the unknown in between void, where those who enter rarely return. Or, so you have to assume, right? Either way, that blackness on the deep horizon doesn't look particularly fun to try to drive through.

There is a legitimate fear in Lilac's expression that betrays her for the first time, as she lets everyone disembark, including the unicorn and the young man, who quickly jump onto another train to get away from this place. She also refuses to leave the train. She does leave you with a fair warning.

The Synod of Carcels is dangerous, in its own way, and everyone can feel it. Everyone can feel something hanging in the air. It's not natural. It's bending reality. It's also not something that started with you or your arrival. Yet it threatens to become that way, to become part of you. You can feel the temptation gnaw at you. You can hear the winds whisper of it. There is a hunger here-and knowledge as well.

The question, of course, is whether the price to uncover those things is worth it-and what will be found here with the price that is paid. But as the Conductor said-a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not forever.


There are eleven strangers left in this place.]

((IMPORTANT OOC NOTE: This week and it's investigations involve major Fallen London spoilers, in particular spoilers regarding Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name and one of it's endings. If you, as a player here, are playing Fallen London and do not wish to be spoiled, let us know, and we will make sure you are not given any ending spoilers to the best of our ability. We will also be marking spoiler-filled comments with tags, and we request that our players do likewise, in consideration for those who might look through this post in the future.

With that said, have fun, and remember-all shall be well.))

Comments

[otherworldlyking]

[ He has plans to because he's got nothing else better to do.

First, he'll see how easy it is to turn around and leave right outside of the darkness. That should be simple by him turning around and walking back, right? ]

[strangerpeople]

[Somehow, it is.

It's just going further in that seems to be strangely distorted.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ Hm...well okay.

First, he'll bother to head on the way to the train to grab Tango and then see if he can find another person to rope into a "fun" adventure because he's bored.

He's not going to spend much time looking though because he's going to head back within the hour. ]

[charmingheroine]

You found something, didn't you.

[It's a little odd to see him moving with purpose like this, that's all.]

[otherworldlyking]

Something like that. You should come along.

[ They'll have a guide. Sort of. ]

[charmingheroine]

All right.

[She can be a lamp. Sort of. It'll work out.]

So, where are we going?

Seven Stations revisit

[otherworldlyking]

This way - it's some kind of cave.

[ Because he doesn't really know the name of it or cares tbh.

But hey, they're re-entering the Seven Stations with a robotic cat and Charlotte as a night light!! ]

[strangerpeople]

[Have fun with that first station, Charlotte, with its candles of...wait. Is that wax, or...or fat? NOPE. DON'T DWELL ON IT.

The light Charlotte emanates seems to be swallowed by darkness and the sound of lapping water. Only that which is immediately around Charlotte seems to endure as they make their way through the maze that shouldn't be.

The corridor seems to stretch as the sound of a Ferris wheel starts to echoes into the chamber.]

Sorry for holding this up!

[charmingheroine]

[She knows that sound - the whirring and creaking of a Ferris wheel. It doesn't belong in this kind of darkness. It belongs to carnivals, to dark pushed back by a thousand blinking electric lights.]

Sorry, I thought I'd be more use than this...

[She isn't going to walk into a low gate or anything like that if she continues forward, is she?]

np np

[otherworldlyking]

[ He doesn't seem all too bothered. Hello darkness, my old friend. ]

Eh, it could be worse.

[ What's gonna happen once they get further in? ]

[strangerpeople]

[It takes what feels like an eternity, but then. There is a flash of a circus tent flutter to her side. A mirrored reflection of herself, staring back. Caleb talking to thin air, cigar smoke wafting around him.

Then she sees the candles, and a tablet. She and McBurn are alone with it.]

[charmingheroine]

[That tablet isn't going anywhere just yet - ]

Caleb?!

[She whirls, trying to find him. Nothing, of course, if she and McBurn are truly alone....]

God, what is this?

[otherworldlyking]

Some illusions, probably. Trying to figure them out is a waste of time.

[ Though he figures that it could be a little more than that. That being said, he predictably hardly reacts to any of it.

He'll yawn and take a look at the tablet. ]

EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS

[strangerpeople]

STATION OF THE CARNEVALE

We are but fish in the unclouded sea, and even stars hunger. Let this light be your bait. Let your candle draw you closer. Let the well eat your sins. Let us set the hook upon thy lips.

Open, dear ones. Open wide.

Open as the well does as you fall.

[charmingheroine]

Well, that's cheery. Let me guess, now the floor is going to fall out from under us, isn't it?

[She wishes she could be as laconic as McBurn, really.]

[otherworldlyking]

...Nah. Let's get moving.

[ Because he doesn't want it to happen just by her saying as much, little cares or no. ]

[strangerpeople]

[Aaaaand this is why you never tempt fate.

Have fun abruptly falling in complete darkness with no discernible bottom folks! :D]

[charmingheroine]

[So. That light beam thing she can do. Any chance of it slowing their fall if she can somehow grab McBurn and figure out which way is actually down?]

[otherworldlyking]

[ He's pretty close by so it wouldn't be too hard to grab him anyway...and he can feel a sigh coming on despite the situation.

Falling isn't his idea of a fun time!! ]

[charmingheroine]

Do you stay shaped like yourself when you change, or could you manage wings somehow?

[She's clumsily managed to get one arm around his waist, then, and is still sending light downward from her free hand, hoping against all logic that it might help somehow... there's no recoil, so it can't be doing anything.]

[otherworldlyking]

...That'd be convenient, but nah.

[ Well, he's not too happy about the position either, but he'll slide an arm around her too. If need be, he could see if also shifting position and rolling them on the ground or something - with...himself shielding her he guesses - would also cushion their fall, but it seems like they will be like this for awhile. ]

I'm hoping it doesn't take forever for us to reach the bottom.

[charmingheroine]

We should be so lucky... ugh, I shouldn't have given this place an idea!

[At least they'll die pretty if they don't make it out of here, not that the thought actually comforts her any. It's funny more than anything else... never married, never even really kissed, and she stands a good chance of dying in a wedding dress.]

For what it's worth, I'm sorry I keep comparing your hair to festival food.

[strangerpeople]

[And it's at that point that they hit the bottom. It's not a hard hit, though. They almost gently land on the ground, as if buffeted by feathers. However, there is nothing around them but hard, glittering crystal.

And that is when they see the candlelight nearby, the bright pink tapers ensconced with another tablet. ]

[otherworldlyking]

...Seems like there wasn't a need for any last words or regrets. So there's also little reason for me to accept the apology.

[ He's actually not offended and doesn't care that much (slightly amused if anything), but hey.

Anyway, time to head over to the candlelight after letting go of her. ]

[charmingheroine]

[She's good at picking up subtle things, such as the closest she's heard to genuine amusement in this man's voice. It's enough to make her smile for a moment, and then she follows.]

Let me guess, this time it's literally just "Blood for Father Set! Give flesh unto the Serpent! Despair, all ye who gaze upon these words, for now no god can save thee!"

[It's the kind of thing her normal companion for a dungeon crawl like this would have said, though maybe he would've been less flowery about it. Maybe. He'd dived into those old pulp magazines just as she had....]

I mean, if it turns out it's that short, it's just less work for us to remember it, right?