{(unless: (history:) contains (passage:)'s name)[\
<p>Stepping through the image in the mirror you find yourself in a strange otherworld.</p>
<p>A vast lake spills forth in front of you and you are surrounded by strange tentacles made from toughened vine that remind you horribly of sickened and diseased trees.</p>
<p>Along the shore, cloud waves break, and twin suns set behind it. A city of spires and towers lies on the far side, and to your right you can see along the deadened shores a ruined town, blasted and blackened as if by cannon. To your left, hills rise to meet mountains.</p>
<p>The shadows are beginning to lengthen, and black stars begin to rise in thesky, scattering shapes across the languid waters.</p>
<p>A short distance from here you spy a small structure on the edge of the lake(if: $WhereIsBoat is "Colossus")[, and a boat tied up which seem incongruously human amidst the alien].</p>
<p>You feel choices, decisions you must make like strange oppressive thoughts brought to bear on a conciousness that cannot bear them.</p>
](else: )[\
You are on the shores of a vast lake.<br/>
To your left are hills.<br/>
Distantly to your right is ruins.<br/>
Ahead of you is a structure(if: $WhereIsBoat is "Colossus")[ and a boat.]<br/>
]}\
[[Head down to the Water->Colossus Shore]]
(link-reveal-goto:"Head along the shore towards the ruins","The Wastes")[(set:$Time to $Time+1)]<!--[[The Wastes]]-->
(link-reveal-goto:"Explore the hills","Explore the hills")[(set:$Time to $Time+2)]<!--[[Explore the hills]]-->
(unless: (history:) contains "Dark Stars")[\
[[Watch the Stars upon the waters->Dark Stars]]
]{<p>Here lies a ruined base of a statue, in the thick placid waters a marble hand reaches forth holding a torch surrounded by jagged rocks of all kinds.</p>\
(unless: (history:) contains "Dark Stars")[\
<p>Dusk settles on the waters and you see the lights of unfamiliar constellations swirl on the surface</p>]
(if:$WhereIsBoat is "Colossus")[\
<p>Bobbing gently, tied to the base of the statue is a boat, a rigid inflatable, clearly taken from our world into this one, thick reddish muddy liquid pools at the bottom and an outboard motor protrudes from one end</p>]
<p>Far in the distance across the lake you see a city with shining towers</p>
}
(unless: (history:) contains "Colossus")[\
[[Examine the base of the statue->Colossus]]
]\
(unless: (history:) contains "Dark Stars")[\
[[Watch the stars in the water for some time->Dark Stars]]
]\
[[Return to the shoreline where you arrived->Through the Looking Glass]]
(if:$WhereIsBoat is "Colossus")[\
(link:"Use the Boat")[(set:$Time to $Time+0.5)(goto:"Ythill Coast")]<!--[[Use the Boat->Ythill Coast]]-->
]This shore is nearly without any notable feature, like a wide muddy waste, plants struggling to survive and uninspiring views, except across the lake. Mountains prevent you from heading further away from the lake.
The only thing to hold onto is the ruins, and heading further along the coast to where you arrived.
(unless: (history:) contains "Dead Dinosaur")[\
Perhaps though not completely lifeless, a scabby looking creature that looks like a Triceratops grubs in the dirt out in the wastes.
[[Hunt the Dinosaur->Dinosaur Hunt]]
]\
(link:"Go along the coast to the shore you arrived at")[(set:$Time to $Time+1)(goto:"Through the Looking Glass")]<!--[[Go back to the shore you arrived at->Through the Looking Glass]]-->
(link:"To the outskirts of the ruins")[(set:$Time to $Time+1)(goto:"Ythill Outskirts")]<!--[[To the outskirts of the ruins->Ythill Outskirts]]-->{<p>You struggle on up into the hills. It takes you many hours but you eventually break free of the lake shoreline and can see for many miles beyond.</p>
<p>A little way from here there stands a single monolith above which hawks and vultures gather and swirl.</p>
<p>On the highest hill there is a grand fortress, a city with walls of onyx, and lit with great oil lights, a large bell tower tall above it and there in the centre, on a mound, a circle of crude monoliths surrounding a squat windowless building made from uncouth stone.</p>
<p>In the lake below you see large creatures moving in the depths, things that squirm and squelch along the bottom, and in the ruins in the distance you see that there are lights moving amongst its fallen buildings.</p>
<p>In the city on the lake you see that there are fireworks being produced and all manner of banners and bunting sways from every balcony</p>
<p>You are looking about for somewhere to set down for a few moments to ease tired feet when you notice a cave set amongst the craggy hills, and strange skink like men watching you with curious feral eyes.</p>}
(link:"Head on to the Fortress")[(set:$Time to $Time+2)(goto:"Hastur Gates")]<!--[[Hastur Gates]]-->
[[Go down to explore the caves->Skink Cave]]
(unless: (history:) contains "Monolith")[\
[[Take a gander at the Monolith->Monolith]]
]\
(link:"Return to the Shoreline")[(set:$Time to $Time+2)(goto:"Through the Looking Glass")]<!--[[Through the Looking Glass]]-->Black stars sing in the reflection of the water, their melody impossible and uncanny. Yet somehow, you remember the tune. It is as though your earliest living memory has returned to you.
You feel compelled to sing along, anybody that chooses not to do so may make a Composure + Wyrd roll or spend a willpower if the roll fails.
[[Somebody sang along]]
[[Everybody chose and managed to resist]]**Singers Only:**
You hum at first, ripples appearing along the water's surface as your volume increases. The lyrics return to you, and you join in the stars' singing, your voice echoing across the twisted realm.
Your eye is drawn away from all other things and focuses on a shattered tower in the ruins.
(set: $StarSingers to true)
**Everyone else:**
The unnatural resonance of the singing echoes in your skulls and you know that you have lost something that you never had, you look upon the singers and desire what they have found here.
You remember as though the words had never left you **You must unmask**
(set: $MustUnmask to $MustUnmask+1)
Unless your vice is envy you can choose to lose one willpower or one glamour.
If your vice is envy you may steal one glamour from the singer and if you do recover one willpower.
(link:"The song is done")[(goto: (history: )'s 2ndlast)]<!-- [[Dark Stars]] -->(Set: $MustUnmask to $MustUnmask+1)You remember as though the words were always with you, and you know that they are truth.
[You should unmask. Only once we unmask are we fit to stand behind the King]<kinginyellow|
(link:"Tear yourself away from the water's reflection")[(goto: (history: )'s 2ndlast)]<!-- [[Dark Stars]] -->
{(set: $MustUnmask to 0)
(set: $StarSingers to false)
(set: $WhereIsBoat to "Colossus")
(set: $Time to 0)
(set: $inv to (a:"SilverKey"))
(set: $GraveWorm to false)
(set: $reloadInventory to "(replace:?inventoryHook)[(display:'Inventory')]")
(set: $reloadStats to "(replace:?statHook)[(display:'Stats')]")
(set: $reloadHeaderBar to "(display:'HeaderBarOutput')")
}(set: _CasildaSpectreAlreadyTriggered to (history:) contains (passage:)'s name)
{<p>The boat skims over fetid water, everything in this water seems to be diseased and there is a fetid smell. Everywhere wisps of mist seem to hang pendulously. The occassional fish gapes its wide maw in your direction.</p>
(unless: _CasildaSpectreAlreadyTriggered)[
<p>You see a figure in the water, who appears to be naked and wading to the hip. You are certain the waters are deeper than that, so you cannot account for what you are seeing.</p>
<p>She is facing away from you, and seems to threaten to dissappear into mist at any second. In one hand she holds a flap of leather, and in the other a sharp knife dripping with blood.</p>
]
<p>Distantly, you see the shimmering spires of a tower across this lake, and you can see two places you could set the boat down along this coast. One is the crumbling remains of a colossus that looks like it once acted like a lighthouse. The other is at the edge of an extensive set of ruins.</p>
}
(unless: _CasildaSpectreAlreadyTriggered)[\
[[Call out to the woman->CasildaSpectreTurns]]
[[Cut engine and drift quietly towards the woman->CasildaSpectreDrowns]]
]\
(unless: (history:) contains "Catch Fish")[\
[[Try to catch a fish->Catch Fish]]
]\
(link:"Take the boat to the ruins")[(set:$Time to $Time+0.5)(set:$WhereIsBoat to "Ythill Shore")(goto:"Ythill Shore")]<!--[[Take the boat to the ruins->Ythill Shore]]-->
(link:"Take the boat to the colossus")[(set:$Time to $Time+0.5)(goto:"Colossus Shore")]<!--[[Take the boat to the colossus->Colossus Shore]]-->
(link:"Use the Boat")[(set:$Time to $Time+0.5)(goto:"Hali Middle")]<!--[[Head across the lake towards the city->Hali Middle]]-->{(print: "<script>$('html').removeClass(\)</script>")
(if: (passage:)'s tags's length > 0)[
(print: "<script>$('html').addClass('" + (passage:)'s tags.join(' ') + "'\)</script>")
]
}{[
<div class="modal">
<div class="modal-content">
<p>You can eat food that you have collected along the way.</p>
<p>You could also consume one hedgefruit each to reduce your hunger and you're changelings so perhaps one of you knows the contract of eternal spring and has sufficient glamour to cast it.</p>
(link-repeat:"Invoke Gift of Warm Breath<br/>")[
(set: $Rests to $Rests+4)
(set: $Fed to $Fed+1)
$reloadStats
$reloadHeaderBar
(replace:?eatModal)[]
]
<!--For each item in the FoodItem array-->
(for: each _food, ...$FoodItems)[
(if: $inv contains _food)[
(set: _item to (_food of $Inventory))
(link: (_item's foodLink))[
(set: $Fed to $Fed+(_item's nutrition))
(set: $inv to $inv - (a: _food))
$reloadStats
$reloadInventory
$reloadHeaderBar
(replace: ?eatModal)[]
]
]
]
(link-repeat:"Eat Hedgefruit")[
(set: $Fed to $Fed+1)
$reloadStats
$reloadHeaderBar
(replace: ?eatModal)[]
]
<span class="close">
{(link-repeat:"We have no food")[(replace: ?eatModal)[] ]}
</span>
</div>
</div>
](eatModal|
}{[
<div class="modal">
<div class="modal-content">
<p>There's no good place to rest here. But you're changelings so perhaps one of you knows the contract of eternal spring and has sufficient glamour to cast it.</p>
(link-repeat:"Invoke Gift of Warm Breath<br/>")[\
(set: $Rests to $Rests+4)\
(set: $Fed to $Fed+1)\
$reloadStats
$reloadHeaderBar
(replace:?restModal)[]\
]\
<span class="close">
{(link-repeat:"No rest for the wicked. (close this panel)")[(replace: ?restModal)[] ]}
</span>
</div>
</div>
](restModal|
}[[Follow the track into the hills->Explore the hills]]
[[Follow the yellow brick road->Hastur Terrace]]
[[Summon the Gatekeeper]]{<p>This apparently once served as a lighthouse, guiding travellers through the rocks to the jetty.</p>
<p>Some catastrophe seems to have rended the statue from its base, and you see claw marks like those made by a giant beast - perhaps a dragon</p>
<p>Upon the base is scrawled grafitti</p>
[<p>The last days are now, come not upon us, devourer of dreams, specter of truth</p>]<grafitti|
<p>And in a different hand, apparently in sharpie</p>
[<p>Cassilda lies - Do not travel to Hastur without Happiness</p>]<grafitti|
<p>There is a small bag containing food for travelling hidden from the rain. **You gain Rations**</p> (set: $inv to $inv + (a:"Rations"))
$reloadInventory
}
[[There's nothing else here->Colossus Shore]]{(unless:(history:) contains (passage:)'s name)[
<p>You are greeted at the mouth to the cave by three figures, slightly taller than a man, with the bearing of skinks stood on hind legs, they speak in high-pitched sibilance.</p>
<p>One of them is dressed in gold and robes (though disturbingly they seem to be dirty and designed for a smaller creature), he wears the yellow sign around his neck.</p>
<p>You can see beyond in the cave, what appears to be a village of sorts.</p>
<p>["Strangers to these lands. You must be weary, stay with us a while"]<lizardman|</p>
<p>["Perhaps you have things we might trade for, or stories to tell. We offer you our hospitality"]<lizardman|</p>
(link-reveal:"Ask what they are doing here")[
<p>["We are travellers from afar, that were trapped here when the curtain closed. We seek new things, for there is no time here. Travellers with good intent are always welcome."]<lizardman|</p>
<p>["How did you come to be here?"]<lizardman|</p>
(link-reveal:"Dissemble")[
They accept your explanation, and gesture to indicate that you should come inside.(replace:?TellThem)[]
]<br/>
[(link:"Tell them about the Players of Blood and the Mirror and the Silver Key")[
(set: $SkinkFightText to "SkinkFight1")
(goto:"SkinkFight")<!--[[SkinkFight]]-->
]]<TellThem|<br/>
]
(link-reveal:"Ask them about the yellow sign")[
<p>["Human priests come sometimes and leave their sacrifices at the monument to the ladder. We take what we like from the corpses, but never touch the masked ones, they are cursed."]<lizardman|</p>
<p>He plays with the pendant.</p>
<p>["This one was from a priest, his prisoner escaped and broke his skull but the jub-jub birds don't care who is the offering."]<lizardman|</p>
]<br/>
[[Accept their hospitality->Lizard Hospitality]]
(link:"Quickly attack and rob them!")[
(set: $SkinkFightText to "SkinkFight2")
(goto:"SkinkFight")<!--[[SkinkFight]]-->
]
[[Politely Decline their offer and leave->Explore the hills]]
] (else:) [
(if: $SkinkHostile is true)[
[[The cave entrance has been sealed up->Explore the hills]]
](else:)[
<p>The cave is as you found it before, except the way in is no longer guarded.</p>
[[Enter to receive the Lizard Mens hospitality once more->Lizard Hospitality]]
[[Turn back->Explore the hills]]
]
]}{(set: _boatIsHere to ($WhereIsBoat is (passage:)'s name))
(if: (history:)'s last is "Ythill Coast")[
<p>You glide to rest against a crumbling sea wall and step up onto the platform.</p>]
(else:)[
<p>You walk along the sea wall out towards the ocean</p>
]
(if: _boatIsHere)[
<p>A boat is tied up here</p>
]
<p>The ruins of a settlement lies are at the end of the sea wall, you can see a tall tower that remains intact amongst the ruins</p>
<p>The sea wall leads out onto a lake, perhaps lake wall is more accurate</p>
<p>Grafitti on a building here depicts a creature much like the slender man painted artistically, over which somebody has sprayed in yellow paint symbols that you understand mean ["Have you seen the Yellow Sign"]<kinginyellow|</p>
<p>The building is clearly an observatory, strange telescopes, encrusted with grime but largely intact protrude from the buildings roof. Above the door is a depiction of a strange alien solar system in the form of an orrery.</p>
[[Explore the ruins->Ruined Ythill]]
[[Enter the Ancient Observatory->Ancient Observatory]]
(if:_boatIsHere)[
[[Head out on the boast->Ythill Coast]]
]}
[[Go towards the great city->Carcosa Coast]]
[[Go away from the great city->Ythill Coast]]
[[Go towards the tall tree->Forest Shore]]
[[Go to the temple at the foot of the hills->Hastur Shore]]
[[Walls of Carcosa]]
[[Hastur Shore]]
[[Hali Middle]] [[Steer into the mists->Mists of Hali]]
[[Head back into the Lake->Hali Middle]]
[[Carcosa Docks]]
[[Take the boat out to the Lake->Hali Middle]]
[[Follow the Yellow Brick Road->Hastur Terrace]]
[[Head along the shore line->Forest Shore]] [[Don't Deviate->Hali Middle]]
[[Follow the singing]]
[[Follow the light]][[Hastur Shore]]
[[Hastur Gates]][[Carcosa Market]]
[[Forest Shore]][[Walls of Carcosa]]
[[The Aldebaran Gates]]
[[Carcosa Docks]] [[Balls->Hastur Gates]][[Carcosa Market]]
[[Carcosa Coast]] [[Head to the Market->Carcosa Market]]
[[Head along the shore->Blasted Wastes]]{<p>Now you stand in the centre of the ruins, beneath the tower that stands firm while all around lays in ruin. You can see why, it was clearly built to withstand assault, and even then its doors have been smashed in.</p>
<p>From here you can see the other buildings that must have formed the beating heart of this city.</p>
<p>A stone pier leads out into the lake and by that a domed building with instruments protuding from the top.</p>
<p>Here amongst what must have been the institutional buildings, one has all the signs of being some form of public library</p>
<p>Just outside of town a short walk from here you can see standing stones, lit by some strange ethereal light.</p>
<p>You can also head south (maybe?) into what looks like the suburbs of this once proud city.</p>
[[Enter the Tower->Ythill Tower]]
[[Head to the Pier->Ythill Shore]]
[[Enter the Domed building->Ancient Observatory]]
[[Enter the Library->Ythill Library]]
[[Head to the Standing Stones->Ythill Standing Stones]]
[[Head to the Outskirts->Ythill Outskirts]]
}
{
<p>The interior of the Observatory is a large open space, filled with a technology unlike any you recognise, though the use of mirrors and lenses is clear it all then seems to feed into a strange organ like device that covers much of one wall.</p>
<p>A table or workbench, which seems to double as a stone star chart, though unlike any starchart you've seen before - seemingly based on alchemical principals rather than geometric ones is covered in notes. Strangely some of these seem to be modern terran workbooks and there is a Tickle-me-elmo™ on the table as well, quite incongruous with the rest of the building.</p>
<p>There is some evidence that the place was cleared out and a large array of some kind on the floor speaks to magic that has been performed here. In the center of which there is a font of some kind acting as a reflecting pool onto which light from the skies is reflected.</p>
<p>Two doorways lead out of this building, one onto the central square of the settlement, where a large tower looms and the other out onto some sort of stone pier.</p>
[[Try to look through the mechanism at the heavens]]
[[Investigate the organ]]
[[Read the Notebooks]]
[[Play with the Tickle-me-elmo™]]
(link-reveal:"Look in the font")[
(if: (history:) contains "Dark Stars")[
<p>The stars move in their complicated swirl but nothing more can be seen from them.</p>
]
(else:)[
[[The stars swirl hypnotically->Dark Stars]]
]
]
[[Head towards the settlements centre->Ruined Ythill]]
[[Leave towards the pier->Ythill Shore]]
}<p>You arrive on the outskirts of a ruined city. Here and there the buildings still smolder and you realise you are seeing it in the moment of its destruction. There is no evidence as to what has caused such destruction, but blood stains and destruction are all about you.</p>
<p>Every now and then you think you see figures outside of the corner of your eye.</p>
<p>Inside the city you notice that there are several buildings that seem mostly intact, a large tower in the middle of the city, some buildings out towards the docks area and a large square building.</p>
<p>Everywhere the stone work is covered in graffiti. Mostly covered in symbols you recognise as the Yellow Sign. Some of it calls out that the end times have come. You see some names that are cursed amongst the writings: Casilda, Alar. A nearby buildings has a red cross drawn upon its doors and underneath are the words.
[<p>"We were visited by the Red Death, breathe words to the gods for our souls."</p>]<reddeath|
[[Explore the Plague house->Plague House]]
[[Enter the Ruins->Ruined Ythill]]
(link-reveal-goto:'Head out to the wastes', 'The Wastes')[(set:$Time to $Time+1)]<!--[[The Wastes]]-->[[Ythill Standing Stones]]
[[The Aldebaran Gates]]
[[Enter the Mine->Blasted Mine]][[Blasted Wastes]]
[[Ruined Ythill]] [[Hali Middle]] [[The Skein]]
[[Hali Middle]]Double-click this passage to edit it.{
(replace: ?sidebar)[
{(css:"font-size:16px;font-family:sans-serif")[
<div class='sections'>
[(display: "Stats")]<statHook|
<!--[[Stats]]-->
</div>
<div class='sections'>
[(display: "Inventory")]<inventoryHook|
<!--[[Inventory]]-->
</div>
<div class='sections'>
[Actions]<statLabel|
(link-repeat:"Eat")[(show: ?eatModal)]
<!--[[Eat Modal]]-->
(link-repeat:"Rest")[(show: ?restModal)]
<!--[[Rest Modal]]-->
(link-repeat:"Somebody Died")[(show: ?deadModal)]
<!--[[Dead Modal]]-->
</div>
]}
]
(display:"HeaderBarOutput")
}She turns to face the boat. And screams at the sight of you.
Her throat has been cut from ear to ear, and the skin peeled up and over her brow. You now see that she holds her own visage as a bloody mask in her hand.
["I come now unmasked! This is the Truth"]<casilda|
["This world is a lie, but in sacrifice it is torn away"]<casilda|
Pointing at the boat.
["You, sir, should unmask. We all have laid aside disguise but you."]<casilda| (set: $MustUnmask to $MustUnmask +1)
And with that she fades into the mists, the mask slipping from her fingers and becoming like a floating blob of wax upon the water. But your hands are drawn, seemingly against your will to your faces. (set: $inv to $inv+(a:"WaxMask"))
All should make Strength + Resolve checks, 2 successes are required to resist the compulsion. You cannot resist and prevent others from succumbing.
(link-reveal: "Somebody failed")[
Those who failed cannot stay their hands, and begin to claw at their faces. Make a Strength + Brawl check against yourself, applying defence but no armour unless it would cover the face. Your finger nails dig in to the skin and so all damage that would be bashing is treated as lethal for this attack.
]
[[She has departed->Ythill Coast]]Cutting the engine, you glide towards the figure as though transported by unseen currents, drawing dead in the water a couple dozen feet away.
["Oh Lord of a Thousand black sons. See now the yellow sign"]<casilda|
She weeps
["Who showed us the truth and gave us the spark. I am vanity, I am foolishness."]<casilda|
She discards the knife, which is taken by the mists.
["Give me that power, which you have given to so many others, that I too may leave this realm. That I may take my place amongst the gods."]<casilda|
["Unmasked now, bend the knee"]<kinginyellow| cries a voice across the waters, terrible, unaffected, drawn from a mouth with no teeth, without pity or emotion.
["I will drown. Come now upon me"]<casilda| She trembles as she speaks softly
["You must bend the knee, as emperors and kings and gods have done. For I am the living god."]<kinginyellow|
With one last wail she bends down beneath the waters, and is seen no more.
[[Quickly! Search beneath the waves]]
[[Depart this apparition->Ythill Coast]](if: (history:) contains (passage:)'s name)[
Ugh, wretched fish
]
The water is foul and the fish slippery.
Make an appropriate attack against the Fish, the fish has defence 3 and the noxious waters impart a -3 penalty unless you have Tolerance for Biology. It has three health, filling its boxes with any damage is sufficient to knock it unconcious/kill it but it will flee after one turn.
If somebody wants to get in the water to catch it, then assume it is caught, but they will need to make a Stamina+Wyrd check vs 6 dice of lethal damage, as some of the water goes up your nose or is swallowed. This dice pool can be reduced by Toxin resistance and/or Iron Stomach.
{
(link:"Caught the Fish")[
(set: $inv to $inv + (a:"FetidFish"))
(goto:"Ythill Coast")
]<!--[[Caught the Fish->Ythill Coast]]--><br/>
(link:"Try again")[
(set: $Time to $Time+0.25)
(goto: "Catch Fish")
]<!--[[Try again->Catch Fish]]--><br/>
[[Give up->Ythill Coast]]<br/>
}You paddle the boat close to where she knelt and feversihly peer down into the waters.
Make a Wits+Composure-3 check, the penalty can be mitigated like all watery penalties if you have appropriate contracts, kith powers or merits.
[[We see nothing->Ythill Coast]]
{(link-reveal: "Success")[\
<p>Those who passed must now make a resolve+composure check as the words ["Bend the knee"]<kinginyellow| echo sinisterly in your minds.</p>
(set: $inv to $inv+(a:"WaxMask"))\
(link-reveal: "All passed")[
<p>You discover a waxen mask drifting just below the waters.</p>
[[And nothing else...->Ythill Coast]]
]<br/>
(link-reveal: "Any failed")[
(set: $GraveWorm to true)
<p>You discover a waxen mask drifting just below the waters.</p>
<p>Those who failed the passed the first check but failed the second, see themselves bloated and drowned beneath the waters. Face pallid, bloated and rubbery, your limbs undulate and mash about like some great wretched grubby worm. Lose one willpower, if you cannot then some of your flesh turns to gloop and you take a lethal in damage.</p>
[[You move swiftly away->Ythill Coast]]
]
]}The monolith is several hundred meters tall and made from some sort of granite, weird figures leer from the faces of the Monolith.
At its base is arrayed a number of figures, some of them are mummified and have silver masks over their faces. These seem ancient, possibly thousands of years old. The rest are modern creatures, staked to the ground through their hands and have died violent deaths. They have been excarnated by the weird birds around.
(unless: (history:) contains "Study the Monolith")[\
[[Study the Monolith]]
]\
(unless: (history:) contains "Silver Mask")[\
[[Take a Mask->Silver Mask]]
]\
[[Return to the hills->Explore the hills]] The monolith is covered in faces at the base and more abstract figures at the top.
Make a Wits+Academics check with perception penalties for clarity reversed.
(link-reveal:"Success")[
The faces at the base of the monolith are the faces of earth gods, here you spot Odin, there is Aphrodite. Stranger still you find the face of Mazda, and the face of Hecate, and they are the faces that you see in their current Lost Pantheon guise. Towards the top of the monolith, you see a figure in tattered robes reaching down to help these faces ascend through the top of the monolith as though it were a mirror, it is baffled and attacked on all sides by creatures that appear to be wearing priestly robes that have no faces at all, and with horror you recognise these as depictions of Blank Men.
]
[[Step away from the Monolith->Monolith]]{(set: $inv to $inv + (a: "SilverMask")) $reloadInventory}
You peel away one of the silver masks and take it, as you do so you reveal a collapsed space within the mummy, which is filled with horrible grubs. Like fleshy plump grave worms they squirm and squelch inside their container.
There is a strange pattern to their dance. Make an Int+Expression check.
(link-reveal: "Success")[
The creatures are trying to tell you something, you feel like that they are communicating to you through their terrible procession that you have taken something, an offering and you envision yourself with the grubs spilling from your face.
You feel like death still exists in this timeless place, that change is possible and that you have the power to make a change. By spending glamour you realise terribly that you can transform somewhat to the state these creatures are in. Making your flesh squirmy and waxen you can downgrade one attack from Aggravated to Lethal damage, but when you do so, you are fundamentally changing your nature and this represents a 3-dice clairty sin. **Gain wax visage as a power** (set: $inv to $inv + (a: "WaxVisage")) $reloadInventory (set: $GraveWorm to true)
]
[[Step away->Monolith]]This is no normal earth dinosaur, it has no eyes, and tentacles spill forth from behind its head crest, apparently parasitic and it has thick feathers that hide spikes covering its thick hide. Fortunately for you, it seems to be weakened by hunger.
The wastes are relatively flat and open, but there is sufficient cover to allow a stealthy approach. The creature hears but does not see.
**Run this combat**:
Creature stats:
Initiative 4
Speed 8
Defence 2, Armour 2
Notice 5L
Health 19
Attacks:
Gore 17L (All out attacks when it charges)
Spiked Body Bash 13L
Tentacle stats:
Defence 4, Armour 0
Notice -
Speed -
Health 8
Attacks:
Tentacles 12L
Ignores supernatural armour and attacks (as a blank man)
On an attack with at least 5 successes, target must make a Sta+Wyrd check or the damage is upgraded to Resistant Agg.
Tactics: Will charge a creature it spots if it gets close. Will fight until it has take 12L and then attempt to flee. Targets the creature with the highest threat (your judgement), the tentacles will attack the person within reach who is the most actively magical.
[[We killed the creature->Dead Dinosaur]]
[[We have decided to run away or to let it leave->The Wastes]]{(set: $inv to $inv + (a:"DinosaurSteak"))}
The beast collapses to the ground, its tentacles limp.
You carve away the creatures flesh for food
[[**Gain Dinosaur Steaks**->The Wastes]]{<p>You spend many hours resting and eating and laughing with the Serpent men.(set:$Rests to $Rests+1)(set: $Fed to $Fed+1) $reloadStats</p>
<p>They explain that they are from some distant place called Valusia, and that they were trapped with the other denizens of this place in the timeless cataclysm that has befallen here.</p>
<p>They put you up in a fancy looking cave which is clearly designed to house visitors. Studying the potraits there, you find one that seems to be an oil painting of what would have been reflected in the mirror. You see a key hole.</p>
(Link-reveal: "Ask about the local area")[
[<p>"Carcosa is the large city on the far end of the lake. It looks impressive but is just as haunted as everything else. Foul denizens still live there, but they will probably leave adventurers well alone. The ruins are fallen Ythill, once the scholarly centre of Hali, it was ruined when the twin cults fought, in the days before the curtain fell."</p>
<p>"On the highest hill is the citadel of Hastur, we dare not go there, a pallid king rests in half-slumber upon its heights. And beyond that the volcano where his queen dwells squirming and writhing beneath its crater, the entire area is overrun with monsters.</p>
<p>They give you a map of the area</p>(set: $inv to $inv+(a:"Map")) $reloadInventory]<lizardman| (show:?cults)
]
(link-reveal: "Ask about the king in yellow")[
["We dare not speak of him, even before the cataclysm his name was forbidden and whispered only by the most foul."]<lizardman|
]
|cults)[(link-reveal: "Ask about the cults")[
[<p>"In the days before the curtain closed, there were those who embraced the coming of the nothingness, the destruction of the memory and self, for they saw existence as an evil joke. Then there were those who turned to the past, to the stories of the King who was, that emperors served"</p>
<p>"In the last days, at dawn on the day that Casilda sang of Dim Carcosa, they threw off their masks and made war in the streets. The carnage was unimaginable. The nobles, those who could fled this realm and called the curtain."</p>]<lizardman|
](show:?casildawho)(show:?nothing)]
|casildawho)[(link-reveal: "Who is Casilda")[
[<p>"She was the princess of this realm, the day of her coming of age when whe was to be married to the prince of Alar and unite the realms was why we came here, to show respect."</p>]<lizardman|](show:?Alar)]
|alar)[(link-reveal: "Alar?")[
[<p>"A realm beyond the mistwaters, reflected in the Lake, the way is sealed now."</p>]<lizardman|]
]
|nothing)[(link-reveal: "The Nothing?")[
[<p>"A creature of nothing, beyond time, a devourer of memories and stories, an ender of tales."</p>]<lizardman|
With creeping horror he goes on to describe creatures that step without walking, and that dwell in the places unobserved.
You find yourself looking around and see that the pikes are tipped with iron, and that the lookouts are paired to face each way.
[<p>The speaker finishes "Supposedly though, they are trapped in eternal struggle with them we do not speak of, between the past and the future."</p>]<lizardman|
]
]
(link-reveal: "Ask about the curtain")[
[<p>The future that cannot be reached, the place beyond here that lives in eternal now. They lowered the curtain so that no more story could be told, and placed the blank god, the tabular rasa in the moment between moments, caught like a butterfly. We too though are trapped here, as are you unless you know the secret ways."</p>]<lizardman|
]
[[Leave and head back out->Explore the hills]]
(link-reveal: "Use the key on the Mirror")[
<p>Swirly portal effect</p>
(link-reveal:"Step through the portal")[
<p>You arrive back in the real world. Everything from the mirror world stayed there.</p>
(link-reveal-goto: "If you all went, click here", "Game Over")[]
]
]}["They have the key we have longed for! We have made no vows of peace! Though it is dishonourable we must escape! Take it from them!"]<lizardman|<!--[[SkinkFight]]-->You set yourselves upon the Skinks, who draw wicked blades and set to defend themselves. <!--[[SkinkFight]]-->{
<p>The Lizards are dead, you saw in the way they fought that they were not bad people, merely desperate warriors trapped far from home. In the distant interior of the cave you hear cries and war drums, and you know you must get away from here. (Counts as murder for the purposes of Clarity).</p>
<p>However you see an opportunity</p>
(link-reveal:"Seize the Yellow Sign")[
(replace:?leaveSign)[]
<p>Choose one person present to take the sign.</p>
(link-reveal: "Selected")[
<p>They need to make a resolve+wyrd check with a penalty equal to the difference between 7 and their current clarity.</p>
(set: $inv to $inv+(a:'YellowSign'))
[(link-reveal:"Passed the check")[
(replace:?failedCheck)[]
<p>You feel a shudder. The weight of history in your hands, but the moment passes, the sign nothing but cold metal in your hand.</p>
(show:?returnToHills)
]]<passedCheck|
[(link-reveal:"Failed the check or choose to fail")[
(replace:?passedCheck)[]
<p>You feel the memories of this pendants previous owner wash over you, the feel of service to a higher power, the sacrifices made in its name, the rush of power from setting your own destiny. If you have the megalomania derangement it is triggered unless you spend a willpower, if you don't then you gain the megalomania derangement temporarily (for the rest of the weekender, doesn't cause a clarity check now).</p>
<p>You know now that the [Truth]<kinginyellow| is found in Carcosa, that you found it in the butchery of the nobles, and the end of their decadence, spilling it all over the streets.(set: $PriestMemories is true)</p>
(show:?returnToHills)
]]<failedCheck|
[
[[Prize in hand you rush away->Explore the hills]]
](returnToHills|
]
]
[
[[Leave the Yellow Sign and flee->Explore the hills]]
]<leaveSign|
}(set: $SkinksHostile to true)(display:$SkinkFightText)<audio src="music/05.mp3" autoplay loop preload></audio>
Run the following fight:
Tactics: Toe-to-Toe fighting, Serpentmen will not retreat, the leader will attempt to grapple an opponent that has drawn a lot of threat (and will use claws if going first). They will not chase far, but will take cover inside the cave if the fight turns into an attempt to snipe them from distance.
Serpentmen have initiative +6
Serpentman Leader
HP 9
Defence 4 Armor 1
Attack Claws 9L
Grapple 8
Venom Bite: If grappling an opponent automatically deal 4L toxic damage (one-off) which can be reduced by a Stamina+Wyrd check
P:3 F:4 R:3 Wyrd:-
Serpentmen Warriors (two of them) **Mook quality**
HP 8
Defence 3 Armor 2
Attack: Pike 12L
P:3 F:3 R:2 Wyrd:-
[[The fight is done->LizardsDead]]
[[We ran from the fight->Explore the hills]]{[
<div class="modal">
<div class="modal-content">
<p>Ooops, well the good news is. They're not dead, they reappear in the real world (or hedge) where the Mirror is, they don't take the final hit that would kill them, instead they are reduced to 0 hit points. Things taken in and consumed are lost (such as Hedge Fruit) but any gear you took and somehow lost, is returned to you. Similarly any items you had in the Mirror fall to the ground in the Mirror realm. The exception is the Silver Key which stays with the party in the Mirror.</p>
(link-reveal:"We all died")[
<p>Pretty much the same, except that the Silver Key travels back with the last person and isn't lost inside the Mirror.</p>
[[Game Over]]
]
<span class="close">
{(link-repeat:"Understood.")[(replace: ?deadModal)[] ]}
</span>
</div>
</div>
](deadModal|
}The mirror has returned to the state you originally found it in.
(link:"Turn the key in the mirror")[(reload:)]You turn the key, and step through the portal.
I need to ask just one question.
Do you have the Sword of the Old Ones?
(link:"Yes")[
(set: $inv to $inv + (a:"ThatSword"))
(goto:"Through the Looking Glass")
]
[[No->Through the Looking Glass]]Double-click this passage to edit it.[[Blue Room]]The Library is destroyed, torched, and as you pick through the rubble, you find only a few books and fragments that have been saved from the flames.
As you turn a corner around a stack of rubble you are terrified to find yourself face to face with a blank man, dressed in priestly robes, hovering four and a half feet in the air with six withered and clawed arms in the act of descending upon a figure dressed in armour on which is painted the yellow sign. The figure wears a red silk mask over their face and wields a weapon of wicked iron. The blank man has a pair of ebony white wings that extend from its back. Both seem to be frozen in time, in the moment of conflict.
(link-reveal: "Interact with the figures")[\
Nothing you do can move either figure, they are outside of time free of action and reaction. You notice that the silk mask flutters slightly though as your hands pass close.
[[Take the Mask->Library Mask]]
]\
Read books:
[[Discussions on Nothing]]
[[The Sons of Hastur]]
[[Haiti the Shepherd]]
[[The Truth]]
[[The Music of the Spheres]]
[[The Yellow Sign]]
[[Leave the Library->Ruined Ythill]]{ <p>The Blank Man whispers without moving. You are unsure how you know it was the creature, but your mind insists upon it</p>
[<p>Taker. Wearer. Red Cloth. Red Mask. Red Death for you. He will find you. There is no escape even in his tender arms.</p>]<blankman|
(set: $inv to $inv + (a:"RedMask")) $reloadInventory
[<p>The Poor take the Red, the Learned take the Yellow</p>]<blankman|
[<p>Keep your masks on tight or they will eat you. They are decay and corruption. Cleanse this world of their wickedness.</p>]<blankman|
[[Nothing else seems to happen->Ythill Library]]}[[This book is entirely blank->Ythill Library]]{<p>This book seems to be a genealogy</p>
<p>It details how people are descended from a number of figures, one is Xastur the first, another is Haiti the Shepherd.</p>
(link:"One character may trace a genealogy")[
<p>No matter how you follow the family tree's you always end up at the same conclusion. That fantastically somehow, you are related to the Sons of Carcosa. That you are somehow born of this place, and more than that you are of royal blood. A diadem that somehow went unnoticed before lies nearby. You seize it and you know that you are bound to be king.</p>
<p>If you have the megalomania derangement it is triggered unless you spend a willpower, if you don't then you gain the megalomania derangement temporarily (for the rest of the weekender, doesn't cause a clarity check now).</p>(set:$inv to $inv + (a:"diadem")) $reloadInventory
]
[[Put the book back->Ythill Library]]
}{[<h2>Haita the Shepherd</h1>
<p>In the heart of Haita the illusions of youth had not been supplanted by those of age and experience. His thoughts were pure and pleasant, for his life was simple and his soul devoid of ambition. He rose with the sun and went forth to pray at the shrine of Hastur, the god of shepherds, who heard and was pleased. After performance of this pious rite Haita unbarred the gate of the fold and with a cheerful mind drove his flock afield, eating his morning meal of curds and oat cake as he went, occasionally pausing to add a few berries, cold with dew, or to drink of the waters that came away from the hills to join the stream in the middle of the valley and be borne along with it, he knew not whither.</p>
<p>During the long summer day, as his sheep cropped the good grass which the gods had made to grow for them, or lay with their forelegs doubled under their breasts and chewed the cud, Haita, reclining in the shadow of a tree, or sitting upon a rock, played so sweet music upon his reed pipe that sometimes from the corner of his eye he got accidental glimpses of the minor sylvan deities, leaning forward out of the copse to hear; but if he looked at them directly they vanished. From this -- for he must be thinking if he would not turn into one of his own sheep -- he drew the solemn inference that happiness may come if not sought, but if looked for will never be seen; for next to the favour of Hastur, who never disclosed himself, Haita most valued the friendly interest of his neighbours, the shy immortals of the wood and stream. At nightfall he drove his flock back to the fold, saw that the gate was secure and retired to his cave for refreshment and for dreams.</p>
<p>So passed his life, one day like another, save when the storms uttered the wrath of an offended god. Then Haita cowered in his cave, his face hidden in his hands, and prayed that he alone might be punished for his sins and the world saved from destruction. Sometimes when there was a great rain, and the stream came out of its banks, compelling him to urge his terrified flock to the uplands, he interceded for the people in the cities which he had been told lay in the plain beyond the two blue hills forming the gateway of his valley.</p>
<p>'It is kind of thee, O Hastur,' so he prayed, 'to give me mountains so near to my dwelling and my fold that I and my sheep can escape the angry torrents; but the rest of the world thou must thyself deliver in some way that I know not of, or I will no longer worship thee.'</p>
<p>And Hastur, knowing that Haita was a youth who kept his word, spared the cities and turned the waters into the sea.</p>
<p>So he had lived since he could remember. He could not rightly conceive any other mode of existence. The holy hermit who dwelt at the head of the valley, a full hour's journey away, from whom he had heard the tale of the great cities where dwelt people -- poor souls! -- who had no sheep, gave him no knowledge of that early time, when, so he reasoned, he must have been small and helpless like a lamb.</p>
<p>It was through thinking on these mysteries and marvels, and on that horrible change to silence and decay which he felt sure must sometime come to him, as he had seen it come to so many of his flock -- as it came to all living things except the birds -- that Haita first became conscious how miserable and hopeless was his lot.</p>
<p>'It is necessary,' he said, 'that I know whence and how I came; for how can one perform his duties unless able to judge what they are by the way in which he was entrusted with them? And what contentment can I have when I know not how long it is going to last? Perhaps before another sun I may be changed, and then what will become of the sheep? What, indeed, will have become of me?'</p>
<p>Pondering these things Haita became melancholy and morose. He no longer spoke cheerfully to his flock, nor ran with alacrity to the shrine of Hastur. In every breeze he heard whispers of malign deities whose existence he now first observed. Every cloud was a portent signifying disaster, and the darkness was full of terrors. His reed pipe when applied to his lips gave out no melody, but a dismal wail; the sylvan and riparian intelligences no longer thronged the thicket-side to listen, but fled from the sound, as he knew by the stirred leaves and bent flowers. He relaxed his vigilance and many of his sheep strayed away into the hills and were lost. Those that remained became lean and ill for lack of good pasturage, for he would not seek it for them, but conducted them day after day to the same spot, through mere abstraction, while puzzling about life and death -- of immortality he knew not.</p>
<p>One day while indulging in the gloomiest reflections he suddenly sprang from the rock upon which he sat, and with a determined gesture of the right hand exclaimed: 'I will no longer be a suppliant for knowledge which the gods withhold. Let them look to it that they do me no wrong. I will do my duty as best I can and if I err upon their own heads be it!'</p>
<p>Suddenly, as he spoke, a great brightness fell about him, causing him to look upward, thinking the sun had burst through a rift in the clouds; but there were no clouds. No more than an arm's length away stood a beautiful maiden. So beautiful she was that the flowers about her feet folded their petals in despair and bent their heads in token of submission; so sweet her look that the humming-birds thronged her eyes, thrusting their thirsty bills almost into them, and the wild bees were about her lips. And such was her brightness that the shadows of all objects lay divergent from her feet, turning as she moved.</p>
<p>Haita was entranced. Rising, he knelt before her in adoration, and she laid her hand upon his head.</p>
<p>'Come,' she said in a voice that had the music of all the bells of his flock -- 'come, thou art not to worship me, who am no goddess, but if thou art truthful and dutiful I will abide with thee.'</p>
<p>Haita seized her hand, and stammering his joy and gratitude arose, and hand in hand they stood and smiled into each other's eyes. He gazed on her with reverence and rapture. He said: 'I pray thee, lovely maid, tell me thy name and whence and why thou comest.'</p>
<p>At this she laid a warning finger on her lip and began to withdraw. Her beauty underwent a visible alteration that made him shudder, he knew not why, for still she was beautiful. The landscape was darkened by a giant shadow sweeping across the valley with the speed of a vulture. In the obscurity the maiden's figure grew dim and indistinct and her voice seemed to come from a distance, as she said, in a tone of sorrowful reproach: 'Presumptuous and ungrateful youth! must I then so soon leave thee? Would nothing do but thou must at once break the eternal compact?'</p>
<p>Inexpressibly grieved, Haita fell upon his knees and implored her to remain -- rose and sought her in the deepening darkness -- ran in circles, calling to her aloud, but all in vain. She was no longer visible, but out of the gloom he heard her voice saying: 'Nay, thou shalt not have me by seeking. Go to thy duty, faithless shepherd, or we shall never meet again.'</p>
<p>Night had fallen; the wolves were howling in the hills and the terrified sheep crowding about Haita's feet. In the demands of the hour he forgot his disappointment, drove his sheep to the fold and repairing to the place of worship poured out his heart in gratitude to Hastur for permitting him to save his flock, then retired to his cave and slept.</p>
<p>When Haita awoke the sun was high and shone in at the cave, illuminating it with a great glory. And there, beside him, sat the maiden. She smiled upon him with a smile that seemed the visible music of his pipe of reeds. He dared not speak, fearing to offend her as before, for he knew not what he could venture to say.</p>
<p>'Because,' she said, 'thou didst thy duty by the flock, and didst not forget to thank Hastur for staying the wolves of the night, I am come to thee again. Wilt thou have me for a companion?'</p
<p>'Who would not have thee for ever?' replied Haita. 'Oh! never again leave me until -- until I-change and become silent and motionless.'</p>
<p>Haita had no word for death.</p>
<p>'I wish, indeed,' he continued, 'that thou wert of my own sex, that we might wrestle and run races and so never tire of being together.'</p>
<p>At these words the maiden arose and passed out of the cave, and Haita, springing from his couch of fragrant boughs to overtake and detain her, observed to his astonishment that the rain was falling and the stream in the middle of the valley had come out of its banks. The sheep were bleating in terror, for the rising waters had invaded their fold. And there was danger for the unknown cities of the distant plain.</p>
<p>It was many days before Haita saw the maiden again. One day he was returning from the head of the valley, where he had gone with ewe's milk and oat cake and berries for the holy hermit, who was too old and feeble to provide himself with food.</p>
<p>'Poor old man!' he said aloud, as he trudged along homeward. 'I will return to-morrow and bear him on my back to my own dwelling, where I can care for him. Doubtless it is for this that Hastur has reared me all these many years, and gives me health and strength.'</p>
<p>As he spoke, the maiden, clad in glittering garments, met him in the path with a smile that took away his breath.</p>
<p>'I am come again,' she said, 'to dwell with thee if thou wilt now have me, for none else will. Thou mayest have learned wisdom, and art willing to take me as I am, nor care to know.'</p>
<p>Haita threw himself at her feet. 'Beautiful being,' he cried, 'if thou wilt but deign to accept all the devotion of my heart and soul -- after Hastur be served -- it is thine for ever. But, alas! thou art capricious and wayward. Before to-morrow's sun I may lose thee again. Promise, I beseech thee, that however in my ignorance I may offend, thou wilt forgive and remain always with me.'</p>
<p>Scarcely had he finished speaking when a troop of bears came out of the hills, racing toward him with crimson mouths and fiery eyes. The maiden again vanished, and he turned and fled for his life. Nor did he stop until he was in the cot of the holy hermit, whence he had set out. Hastily barring the door against the bears he cast himself upon the ground and wept.</p>
<p>'My son,' said the hermit from his couch of straw, freshly gathered that morning by Haita's hands, 'it is not like thee to weep for bears -- tell me what sorrow hath befallen thee, that age may minister to the hurts of youth with such balms as it hath of its wisdom.'</p>
<p>Haita told him all: how thrice he had met the radiant maid and thrice she had left him forlorn. He related minutely all that had passed between them, omitting no word of what had been said.</p>
<p>When he had ended, the holy hermit was a moment silent, then said: 'My son, I have attended to thy story, and I know the maiden. I have myself seen her, as have many. Know, then, that her name, which she would not even permit thee to inquire, is Happiness. Thou saidst the truth to her, that she is capricious, for she imposeth conditions that man cannot fulfil, and delinquency is punished by desertion. She cometh only when unsought, and will not be questioned. One manifestation of curiosity, one sign of doubt, one expression of misgiving, and she is away! How long didst thou have her at any time before she fled?'</p>
<p>'Only a single instant,' answered Haita, blushing with shame at the confession. 'Each time I drove her away in one moment.'</p>
<p>'Unfortunate youth!' said the holy hermit, 'but for thine indiscretion thou mightst have had her for two.'</p>]<booktext|}
[[Back to the Library->Ythill Library]]{<p>This book is unreadable, contradictory and entirely subjective. It slips into strange fractal arguments that always wrap around to find a reason to negate whatever finality it tries to convey.</p>}
(link-reveal:"Though the subject matter is hard, we will study it")[
<p>A rigorous examination would take many hours</p>
(link-reveal:"Give it a go")[{
(set: $Time to $Time + 1)
$reloadStats
$reloadHeaderBar
<p>Extended roll: Int+Academics, target 15, one hour per roll</p>
(link-repeat: "Roll Again")[{
(set: $Time to $Time+1)
$reloadStats
$reloadHeaderBar
}]
(link-reveal: "Finally Success")[{
<p>The Truth is that nothing is real, and that we shape our own subjective realities. This is both casually and rigorously true - we tell narratives about ourselves, and therapy is a way of changing that narrative. We play out parts and roles as designated by others - the group mind, the state, the community, the corporation, in our jobs and in our tribal obligations.</p><p>This is a self-sustaining relationship between mind, body and reality. Just as it might be seeded through the spark of conciousness (for there is no truth without self-awareness, the fundamental truth being that one exists), it might unravel itself from a single point.</p><p>Thus always is the destructive nothing - writer's block, soulless bureaucracy, the urge to primitive destruction, entropy, misunderstandings - balanced by that which binds us together, the shared stories and the relationships we forged along the way, and no stronger form of this exists than the tribal shared fantasy. King Arthur and his knights, the legendary emperors of China, the Messiah of the Jewish people. And here in Carcosa, the tale about the King in Yellow that walks beyond time, and who has given power to emperors, the ruler that was and shall always be.</p><p>You must submit to him, to the nameless one, [You Must Unmask]<kinginyellow|</p>
(unless: $inv contains "TheTruth")[(set: $inv to $inv+(a:"TheTruth")) $reloadInventory](set:$MustUnmask to $MustUnmask+1)
}]
(link-reveal: "Dramatic Failure")[
<p>Despite any progress you were making the book has abandoned you and you find your sense of an objective world truth actually escaping you. You fall slowly, into a cycle of existential crisis and no longer exist in this world, your mind floating free. From the perspective of your fellows, you slump and die in a convulsive fit, yellow tears pouring down your face.</p><p>Follow the instructions in "Somebody died"</p>
]
}]
]
[[Throw the book down in disgust->Ythill Library]][<h2>The Music of the Spheres</h2>]<booktext|
This book seems to detail a researcher who worked at the observatory, and discovered that their world was being studied from outer space by some creature that communicated only in noise, and infected those who heard it.
He discovers a conspiracy amongst the leaders of the city of Carcosa, those infected by the creature.
The book is badly damaged, but a section at the end seems relatively intact.
[...mind was slow to absorb each of these responses, they were too gargantuan to fully comprehend. Each answer bloomed into a thousand more questions.
“What becomes of those who step through the Pit of Charity?”
[They are made like ghosts, as the one whom you met that called himself Gabriel, though that is not his real name. They are trapped in Carcosa still, but without bodies or visible form, without human sensation or warmth, without the bodily comfort and pleasure of the Dulgees. Layers of life and experience are stripped from them. They become the memory of a person, empty shells, their consciousness imprisoned for so long that they forget what it was like to be human entirely. They forget their own names, forget everything about which they once felt the pride of accomplishment, the things that filled them with the illusion of purpose.]<kinginyellow|
I sank to my knees, thinking of Collette and the child I had never met in the predicament the being had just described, floating around lifeless in Carcosa with no rest or relief. If only Collette had known what her fate would be. If I could have only stopped her.
“You said... you mentioned an end to Carcosa.”
[Yes. The indeterminate day in the future in which, either, every person in Carcosa has stepped through the Pit and made the whole place a stoic city of ghosts. Or, the more likely scenario, the day in which I grow tired of this iteration of Carcosa, clap it shut like the door of a casket and everyone inside, ghost or person, will cease to be entirely, their collective consciousness gone in the blink of an eye, entering permanent, eternal nothingness.]<kinginyellow|
I was huddled on the ground, my face in the dirt, my hands covering the back of my head. I rocked and moaned, sobbing. It was too much to bear.
I managed, “Why are you telling me all this?”
[It makes no difference for you to know it or not, there is not a thing you can do to alter the nature of what I have just described. And your mind will be gone presently. Besides, I find conversing with humans fascinating. But even my intrigue has a limit.]<kinginyellow|
I sensed the being beginning to turn around, to face me.
I looked up, tears running wet down my face, to behold the being. My countenance yawned into a paralyzed, silent scream of horror. My breath had fully stopped.
Its face was horrendous to behold, like an elongated and deformed skull, but much more, much worse than only that. Seeing it was the summation of dread, the amalgamation of every evil feeling, emotion and idea. The creature seemed to have reached into my soul, into my very being, and torn out every inkling of light or joy. The very thought that I had ever been happy, at peace or satisfied in all of my life had been obliterated, erased, made untrue. Though terrified, I was unable to look away. On all fours, my body shook, sweating profusely but chilled to my core. I tried to make a sound, any sound, but could only sing that dreaded arcadian nocturne...]<booktext|
[[Put the book back->Ythill Library]]{<h2>The Yellow Sign</h2>
<p>This seems to be a book explaining the sickness that is both seemingly the aristocracy and which the author claims will seize the aristocracy. It seems to be a manifesto to violent political action, and has been well thumbed.</p>
<p>Towards the end there is a section on spells and incantations that can be invoked in conjunction with the yellow sign.</p>
[<h3>The Vedigree Decay</h3>
<p>Let the practitioner of the Sacred Arte make a likeness in tallow wax of his intended victim, this to be patiently worked upon only at the Hour and on the Day of Lord Xastur after the falling of darkness, while contemplating the Dark Star beyond Aldebaran. Let a drinking vessel of the victim be pilfered, and let the practitioner bury this with the wax likeness in some noisomely damp or infested spot, so that the creeping blight which overtaketh the likeness be transferred to the throat and thence to the whole body of the victim.</p>
<p>Let the practitioner of the Sacred Arte curse and revile the victim throughout the whole period, and sacrifice to Lord Xastur a lamb of newest birth</p>]<kinginyellow|
<p>A note is scrawled in the margin - does not work, though I got a cough from all the damp</p>
<h3>The door that is barred</h3>
<p>The door will only open to the bearers of Truth, Happiness and the Yellow Sign. For only they are prepared to look upon the King to whom the emperors have bent the knee.</p>
[[Useless Tome->Ythill Library]]
}{[
<div class="modal">
<div class="modal-content">
<h2>[Shouldn't see this text]<invModalTitle|</h2>
[]<invModalImageURL|
<p>[Shouldn't see this text]<invModalDescription|</p>
<span class="close">
{(link-repeat:"Neat!")[(replace: ?invModal)[] ]}
</span>
</div>
</div>
](invModal|}
{<!-- This actually runs before Startup and that's correct-->
(set: $Inventory to (dm:
"SilverKey", (dm:
"Name", "Silver Key",
"Description", "The Key that allowed you entrance to the mirror",
"ImageURL", "SilverKeyCard.png"),
"ThatSword", (dm:
"Name", "Nan Madol Blade",
"Description", "The Sword that fell with the Camelot from above the skies of Nan Madol",
"ImageURL", "NanMadolSword.png"),
"Rations", (dm:
"itemName", "Rations",
"Name", "Ration Packs",
"Description", "British Army ration packs",
"ImageURL", "rations.jpg",
"foodLink", "Eat the Rations",
"nutrition", 1),
"TinnedGoods", (dm:
"itemName", "TinnedGoods",
"Name", "Tinned Food",
"Description", "A variety of local processed foodstuffs in tins",
"ImageURL", "TinnedGoods.png",
"foodLink", "Eat the contents of those tins",
"nutrition", 1),
"FetidFish", (dm:
"itemName", "FetidFish",
"Name", "Fetid Fish",
"Description", "Just, how was this thing alive. Yuck!",
"ImageURL", "threeeyed.jpg",
"foodLink", "I mean we could eat the fish, yuck",
"nutrition", 1),
"DinosaurSteak", (dm:
"itemName", "DinosaurSteak",
"Name", "Triceraptos Steaks",
"Description", "Big hunks of dino",
"ImageURL", "dinosteaks.jpg",
"foodLink", "Eat the Dinosaur Steak, Yum.",
"nutrition", 2),
"WaxenMask", (dm:
"Mask", true,
"Name", "Wax Mask",
"Description", "It is cold and slimy to the touch",
"ImageURL", "WaxMask.jpg"),
"WaxenFlesh", (dm:
"Name", "Wax Flesh",
"Description", "huh, disgusting but useful",
"ImageURL", "WaxenFleshCard.png"),
"RedStain", (dm:
"Name", "Red Stain",
"Description", "You feel touched by death",
"ImageURL", "reddeath.png"),
"DeathCoin", (dm:
"Name", "Bronze Coin",
"Description", "Taken from a child's skeleton, probably a grave good of some description.",
"ImageURL", "coin.png"),
"Map", (dm:
"Name", "Local Map",
"Description", "A map of the area surrounding Lake Hali",
"ImageURL", "Map_new.jpg"),
"Diadem", (dm:
"Name", "Nice Diadem",
"Description", "A diadem of purest gold, blazing with diamonds. It is a diadem fit for a king among kings, an emperor among emperors. The King in Yellow might scorn it, but it shall be worn by his royal servant.",
"ImageURL", "Diadem.jpg"),
"StarMask", (dm:
"Mask", true,
"Name", "Mask of Stars",
"Description", "All of the heavens rested upon my brow.",
"ImageURL", "StarMask.jpg"),
"SilverMask", (dm:
"Mask", true,
"Name", "Silver Mask",
"Description", "Clearly once belonged to a noble or a priest",
"ImageURL", "SilverMask.jpg"),
"RedMask", (dm:
"Mask", true,
"Name", "Red Mask",
"Description", "A red silk mask",
"ImageURL", "RedMask.jpg"),
"YellowSign", (dm:
"Name", "The Yellow Sign",
"Description", "a curious symbol or letter in gold. It was neither Arabic or Chinese, nor as I found afterwards did it belong to any human script -- Mr Scott, testimony to the court in defence of his murder of Tessie Reardon",
"ImageURL", "YellowSign.jpg"),
"TheTruth", (dm:
"Name", "The Truth",
"Description", "The Truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.",
"ImageURL", "TheTruth.jpg")
)
)
(set:$FoodItems to (a:))
(for: each _item, ...(datanames:$Inventory))[
(if: _item of $Inventory contains "foodLink")[
(set:$FoodItems to $FoodItems + (a:(_item of $Inventory)'s itemName))
]
]
}[Inventory]<statLabel|
{(for: each _item, ...$inv) [\
(set: _InvObject to _item of $Inventory)\
(link-repeat:_InvObject's Name)[\
{
(show: ?invModal)
(replace:?invModalTitle)[(print:_InvObject's Name)]
(replace:?invModalImageURL)[(print:"<img src='art/Inventory/"+ _InvObject's ImageURL +"'></img>")]
(replace:?invModalDescription)[(print:_InvObject's Description)]
}<!--[[Inventory Modal]][[Inventory Datamap]]-->
]\
]}{(set: _HungerLevel to (max: (floor: $Time/4) - $Fed, 0))
(if: _HungerLevel is 0)[(set: $Hunger to "Fine")]
(if: _HungerLevel is 1)[(set: $Hunger to "Peckish")]
(if: _HungerLevel is 2)[(set: $Hunger to "Ravenous")(set: $hungerPenalty to $Time - (($Fed*4) + 7)) ]
(if: _HungerLevel > 2)[(set: $Hunger to "Starving")(set: $hungerPenalty to 5)]
(set: _FatigueLevel to (max: (floor: $Time/6) - $Rests, 0))
(if: _FatigueLevel is 0)[(set: $Fatigue to "Awake")]
(if: _FatigueLevel is 1)[(set: $Fatigue to "Okay")]
(if: _FatigueLevel is 2)[(set: $Fatigue to "Weary")(set: $fatiguePenalty to $Time - (($Fed*6) + 11))]
(if: _FatigueLevel > 2)[(set: $Fatigue to "Exhausted")(set: $fatiguePenalty to 5)]
[Hours]<statLabel|<br/>
[$Time]<stat|<br/>
[Hunger]<statLabel|<br/>
[$Hunger]<stat|<br/>
[Fatigue]<statLabel|<br/>
[$Fatigue]<stat|<br/>
}{
(replace:?headerbar)[]
(if: $Hunger is "Ravenous")[
(append:?headerbar)[\
<div>You are very hungry. Apply a penalty of -$hungerPenalty on rolls containing physical attributes or skills</div>\
]\
]
(if: $Hunger is "Starving")[
(append:?headerbar)[\
<div>You are starving. Penalty is -$hungerPenalty on rolls containing physical attributes or skills</div>\
]\
]
(if: $Fatigue is "Weary")[
(append:?headerbar)[\
<div>You are very tired. Apply a penalty of -$fatiguePenalty on rolls containing mental attributes or skills</div>\
]\
]
(if: $Fatigue is "Exhausted")[
(append:?headerbar)[\
<div>You are exhausted. Penalty is -$fatiguePenalty on rolls containing mental attributes or skills</div>\
]\
]}{
(enchant: ?kinginyellow, (text-color:yellow))
(enchant: ?casilda, (text-color:blue))
(enchant: ?lizardman, (text-color:green+white)+(text-style:"expand")+(text-style:"italic"))
(enchant: ?booktext, (text-color:"#f1e9d2"))
(enchant: ?grafitti, (text-style:"outline")+(text-color:yellow+black))
(enchant: ?stat, (text-color:white))
(enchant: ?statLabel, (text-color:yellow))
(enchant: ?reddeath, (text-color:red))
(enchant: ?camilla, (text-color:red+blue+white))
(enchant: ?blankman, (text-color:black)+(background:white))
(enchant: ?headerbar, (text-color:red+black)+(background:'rgba(220,220,220,0.6)')+(css:'width:100%;text-align:center;'))
}{
<p>In the house you discover that the destruction has spared it, but death found its inhabitants.</p>
<p>Skeletons are arrayed as though they died from something violent, curled up in fetal positions are small skeletons probably children wrapped in the arms of their mother.</p>
(unless: (history:) contains "Telling of the Red Death")[
<p>Tattered rags lie upon them, and the smallest child seems to have a coin in their mouth.</p>
]
(unless: (history:) contains "Telling of the Red Death")[
[[Take the coin->Telling of the Red Death]]
]
(link-reveal:'Raid the cupboards')[
{
(set: $inv to $inv + (a: "TinnedGoods"))
$reloadInventory
<p>You discover some tinned goods which have not perished</p>
}
]
[[Run from the House->Ythill Outskirts]]
}{
(set: $inv to $inv+(a:"DeathCoin")) $reloadInventory
<p>As you take the coin the whole room seems to come alive as though a moment of time trapped here has been released, the figures within don't seem to notice your presence.</p>
<p>Three figures in plague masks walk among the bodies in the building. Their leader hunched and haggard with age, tends to the victims with red leather gloves.</p>
[<p>"The Red Death continues to devastate these poor places. No pestilence has ever been so fatal or so hideous."</p>]<reddeath|
<p>He lifts up one of the victims limbs demonstrating that they are not covered in blood, but that rather blood has seeped from their skin as though the flesh no longer served its purpose of holding it in</p>
[<p>"Blood is its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and horror of blood. The progression of the disease is sharp pains, sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. See how they are stained crimson upon the face. Fortunately for them perhaps, the disease does its business in but half an hour.<p>]<reddeath|
<p>One of the others stoops to take the same coin you have just taken.<p>
[<p>"Leave it, it is an offering for the gods, although as we all know scholar brethren, the gods of the city have long since died and deserted them."<p>
<p>"If further proof were needed that us men of reputation should have any other recourse than to take the Yellow Sign this is it."</p>]<reddeath|
[<p>"I still worry,"</p>]<camilla| says a particularly sweet throated individual from the back, [<p>"If we should not have a care that the tale that we weave should have the better of us, our mystics tell us it is the only defence against the nothing, but what terrible things might we do to ourselves in the telling"</p>]<camilla|
[<p>"The king that walks beyond the stars, who is the last and the only true king shall protect us. You will see, when Truth wins out."</p>]<reddeath|
<p>The final plague doctor turns towards the exit.</p>
[<p>I must unmask. Let us leave and seal this place, draw a curtain over its diseased interior. Make marks that warn those who would enter.</p>]<kinginyellow|(set:$MustUnmask to $MustUnmask+1)
<p>Whoever took the coin must make a Stamina+Wyrd roll.<p>
[(link-reveal:"Success")[
You feel light-headed, and your skin runs red with blood, but you realise it is nothing but the dream of disease. You concentrate and your mien returns to its normal state. (lose one glamour or one willpower).
(show:?hideThis)(replace:?failureText)[]
]
]<successText|
[(link-reveal:"Failure")[
You shake and are suddenly dizzy. You spit up a great deal of blood, (take 2 lethal damage). You fall to your knees, and whimper as intense pain courses thoughout your whole being. Eventually you shake it off (lose on glamour or one willpower) but you remain stained by the Red Death, like a bloody print upon your face.
(set: $inv to $inv+(a:"RedStain")) $reloadInventory
(show:?hideThis)(replace:?successText)[]
]
]<failureText|
[
[[The Vision Fades->Plague House]]
](hideThis|
}[HeaderBarOutput]<headerbar|{
(display:"Dead Modal")
(display:"Eat Modal")
(display:"Enchantments")
(display:"HeaderBar")
(display:"Inventory Modal")
(display:"Rest Modal")
(display:"Run Each Page")
(display:"Sidebar Menu")
}<p>:: Hour 2 - Following the instructions given to us by the blessed Weyland we have located this observatory in Ythill, we took the boat, and avoided the vision of Casilda. So far no problems</p>
<p>:: Hour 50 - We have traced out the stars in the skies and have confirmed that the celestial position appears to be around Aldebaran, however we are also now convinced that this is a realm somewhere adjacent to the Skein, like an Arcadian realm but utterly different.</p>
<p>:: Hour 87 - Supplies are holding out well, Brother Azalea thinks he has found a pattern in the organ music.</p>
<p>:: Hour 123 - We went out looking for supplies again, Brother Simeon has become infected with the Red Death. We would like to return the world, except that Squire Fassbender was eaten by a velociraptor and he was holding the Silver Key, I hold out hope that we can find a way out through the mists.</p>
<p>:: Hour 220 - Supplies have run low, and we grow ever more desperate to find a way back to the real world. Brother Simeon has suggested we attempt to meet with the King in Yellow, but I have told him we are under strict orders to avoid contact with it.</p>
<p>:: Hour 370 - Time is strange here, I have been reading in the library about the curtain, and I think this world is trapped in a Klein bottle. Brother Simeon has started experimenting with ways to manipulate it.</p>
<p>:: Hour 391 - There is
<p>:: Hour 412 - We have uncovered the true function of the organ. Unfortunately that meant that we have lost Brother Azalea after he became infected by the Hum. Potential weapon </p>
<p>:: Hour 420 - Simeon has discovered a way he thinks to enter the curtain, I told him not to pursue this research, but at least we might be able to store these notes for future expeditions.</p>Double-click this passage to edit it.{<p>Even though the operation is alien, the functions are intuitive to those of a scientific bent. If your group contains a Telluric, then proceed otherwise make a group Int+Science Check.</p>
[(link-reveal:"We have a Telluric")[
<p>The stars are not actually moving in the skies, but rather your perception of them is being distorted. The nagging feeling that you have had since you got here are confirmed, time is not passing in this realm, and you place the whole realm somewhere in the Hyades, possibly circling Aldebaran. You are also certain that something is missing from the skies, like part of the celestial clock is missing, possibly stolen, though how is unclear from just looking.</p>
<p>The device is hooked up to the organ, probably to express the music of the spheres quite literally</p>
<p>As you spend some time looking you feel the starlight fall upon your face, and crystalise into a mask. (set: $inv to $inv+(a:"StarMask")) $reloadInventory</p>(replace:?successHook)[](replace:?exSuccessHook)[](show:?goBackHook)
]
]<telluricHook|
[(link-reveal:"Success")[
<p>The device seems to be quite bad at looking at the stars, it doesn't for example have any capability for looking outside of the visual spectrum, nor for analysing spectra. You suspect it somehow pipes photonic input through a crystaline matrix to the organ device.</p>
(replace:?telluricHook)[](replace:?exSuccessHook)[](show:?goBackHook)
]
]<successHook|
[(link-reveal:"Exceptional Success")[
<p>The device seems to be quite bad at looking at the stars, it doesn't for example have any capability for looking outside of the visual spectrum, nor for analysing spectra. You suspect it somehow pipes photonic input through a crystaline matrix to the organ device.</p>
<p>You discover a log of previous settings, and that the device was set to sweep a particular section of sky which is now entirely blank. Devoid of even the pendulus dark stars, black holes, that seem to define this region of space. The logs appear to be signed with Weyland's maker mark.</p>
(replace:?successHook)[](replace:?telluricHook)[](show:?goBackHook)
]
]<exSuccessHook|
[
[[Stop using the device->Ancient Observatory]]
](goBackHook|
}That was fun!
[[Stop playing->Ancient Observatory]][[Green Room]]
[[Ythill Tower]][[White Room]][[Yellow Room]]
[[Red Room]]
[[Green Room]][[White Room]]
[[Black Room]][[Ythill Tower]]
[[Black Room]][[Red Room]]
[[Yellow Room]]