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

[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?

EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON/SMEN SPOILERS

[strangerpeople]

[Sadly no. It doesn't say that, Charlotte.]

STATION OF THE WELL

The first descent was that which was given for that which was promised. (He makes no promises to us. He gives us only lessons.)

For the second, He remembered the ways of sunlight, and learnt the stories of the heart. (The Drowned Man's heart was flensed, and we will taste it.)

The third: O, the treacherous walkers of the river's shadow! They snared Him! (This began the chain, which culminated in His first-feast. So praise that treachery.)

The fourth descent gave us nothing. (As it always has been for Him so shall it be for us.)

It was upon the fifth, that He at last betrayed us all. (Thus at last He grieved, and thus He burned. Let us mourn this treachery of the First and Only.)

[otherworldlyking]

[ He'll give a little yawn. ]

Doesn't really look like they gave anything like that. So, more work for us.

[ Their cat companiom meows helpfully. He alao sees about trying to take one of the crystals lying there. If he can't he'll just wait for Charlotte to move them right along. ]

[charmingheroine]

Well, this place is right out of a backissue of Weird Tales, I thought I might as well give the idea voice... and it seems like doing that didn't have any effect on it, so that answers what I was wondering after we fell.

[She shrugs. This is just familiar enough that she's starting to loosen up a little.]

This is the third one we've seen, but it talks about five... instances. The first two didn't mention numbers, but you don't think we missed anything in the fall, do you?

[strangerpeople]

[Don't mind me, I'm just a tag. As if we had a tag order. But, as they talk, they will hear the distant sound of a foghorn. in front of them.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ What tag order.

But hey with both of them chill at least it makes for smooth journey instead of a rocky one. ]

Unless it's out of order on purpose or something like that.

[ That sure is a sound though. ]

[charmingheroine]

That's - that's entirely possible, but - did you just hear that too?!

[A foghorn. Great. At least this time it's not a train, though that sure would be thematically appropriate... does the sound repeat, and is it getting closer?]

[strangerpeople]

[It does. And it gets closer.

Soon they are shrouded in fog, thick as pea soup. It goes on and on until they see a light. It is candlelight, illuminating another tablet.

Yet. At the same time, there are no candles actually emitting light. Hm.]

[otherworldlyking]

[ Things are starting to get a little foggy here...and it's not him forgetting something important this time. ]

It'd be impossible not to.

[ That's probably weird, but it is what it is. Might as well keep going. ]

[charmingheroine]

Yeah, at this point...

[She had assumed a ship, but is this a lighthouse ahead with the tablet, then? For that matter, what's on the tablet once they're in reading distance?]

[strangerpeople]

[There is no lighthouse. There is no writing on the tablet. There is nothing here.

Yet words still come to mind.]

STATION OF THE NOT

If you seek nothing, you will be nothing. There are no star-schemes in the electric places, there was no journey East to flee the White and the Westernmost’s games. There is no Gate which was opened by the Seven-Fold Knock, nor is there a Darkness between the Clusters which leaked into the firmament.

There is no Replacement of the Earth with the Other Earth which the Blue so craved. There is no anger in His shapeling-wards, there is no hunger that cannot be sated, there is no treachery that cannot be undone.

There is nothing here, and thus it is so that you, now, are nothing.

[otherworldlyking]

[ This is so edgy, honestly. ]

...To think someone just wasted their time writing this.

[ Well he's ready to move on. ]

[charmingheroine]

"I'm nobody, who are you? Are you - nobody - too? Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! They'd advertise, you know!"

Sorry, that's... I memorized it for school, ages ago. So... shall we?

[If it wasn't for the way she has to be the loud one, this would be almost like home. It's definitely nostalgic.]

[strangerpeople]

[They soon find themselves plunged into a strange purple mist. It's familiar. It hurts. Its much like that which permeates from the Conductor.

Soon their heads will start to hurt.]

[otherworldlyking]

...Too bad any of the tablets didn't say any of that.

[ That's one way to get a headache. No choice but to keep going, though. Kind of a pain but here they are. ]

See that lady anywhere?

[charmingheroine]

Everywhere and nowhere... it's exactly her color, you're right....

[She's used to pushing through headaches at this point. Almost. Is this intensifying? Does it come with other symptoms?]

[strangerpeople]

[No. Just headaches.

However, there is a flash of light, and soon enough the fifth tablet is visible.

There is a breath on their necks as they read.]

[otherworldlyking]

...

[ ... Okay moving right along here because that's weird - he probably barely read this one. Alright, who're we kidding, he barely read any of them except for the first one. ]

[charmingheroine]

[Charlotte will read this one, at least. Even though that... definitely not a breeze... is creeping her right the hell out.

She's expecting teeth to follow.]

CASTLEVANIA...SPOILERS?...

[strangerpeople]

[No teeth, but whispering as they read that fifth tablet.]

(You know of a man, don't you? Perhaps you don't. A product of the commingling of choirs, to create a symphony of the night.

Maybe you will meet him, one day. Maybe you never will. It is amusing to wonder, isn't it?)

[It sounds like the Conductor.

But no one is behind her when she looks.]

[charmingheroine]

God, would you stop talking in fucking riddles, just once?!

[Yes, she whirls; yes, she's looking for the eyesearing "woman" that has driven her to the point of using language she never would have dreamed she'd use in front of anyone else; no, she doesn't know just yet who that man was. Or is. Or will be.

The words will haunt her for a very, very long time. She may yet figure it out. But for right now... she's simply too furious and disoriented.]

[otherworldlyking]

...Seems to be kind of her specialty.

[ He doesn't whirl around - there's hardly any reason for him to think of the words as much. ]

Might as well keep going.

[charmingheroine]

I just hope we get out of whatever this is soon, my head's killing me now.

[It is a petulant, very childish whine, but she feels very childish right now. Confusion and pain and fright do that to most anyone, though, don't they?]