[ public ] text | un: astudyinviolet

[astudyinviolet]

Type: Text
Sender ID: astudyinviolet (Sherlock Holmes)
To: Public
Subject: Who is familiar with this entity?
Warnings: The worst book club ever, talk of eldritch horrors, potential poking at the 4th wall for Sherlock

I made the purchase of ‘Encyclopedia Necronomica’ earlier but had not the opportunity to make a study of it until now. Having done so, I must ask: who is familiar with the entity pictured here? What do you know?

I shall include photographs from the book and of my sketches in reference to imagery related to my world.

Furthermore, if anyone else wishes to reference or compare this book with entities encountered recently, I am at your disposal.

S.H.

[ Sherlock had some sense of mind to not study this particular book while feverish and ill. He should be praised for that, honestly, because he spotted something frightening familiar when he finally did.

Wait a minute, when did Arthur Conan Doyle write about Holmes going up against Cthulhu? ]

[ photograph of a book page which claims there are Cthulhu-type entities out there that are almost squid-like but impossible to say without more research ]



[ A sketch of the painting, including the frame ]



[ A sketch of only the Cthulhu statue (no Sherlock) ]



[ A sketch version of the above image ]



[ A sketch pulled further back of a nondescript figure sinking in water with Cthulhu looking up at them from deeper below. ]

Comments

text | un: BlossomingTide

[withermarked]

I also found a copy of this book, but I haven't really sat down with it yet. Learned anything useful?

[ He's had a lot going on. It was intriguing when he found it... and then became a low priority. ]

Don't think I've ever seen that entity in particular. Might not be that out of place back home, though. Seen plenty of water Angels.

[ Jut not very many with tentacles. ]

text | un: astudyinviolet

[astudyinviolet]

[ What has he learned? That is a good question. ]

Water Angels...

[ Wait a moment. ]

Is that why you named the Cerberus pup "Angel"?

[withermarked]

Yes. Most strange animals such as that are some kind of Angel, back home.

[ There's a bit more context; he named it after a particular Angel, because that one had... multiple dog faces, too. But he's not sure he should actually try to explain the sentinel. It would make the name less cute. ]

text | un: astudyinviolet

[astudyinviolet]

Are they also considered messengers of the gods?

I am lead to believe that this entity is the god in question, slumbering in the ocean and waiting to be awoken to destroy everything.

[withermarked]

Messengers, servants, beasts they have dominion over.

[ They don't often deliver coherent messages, but they do theoretically follow the (often inscrutable) will of their god. ]

You've encountered this entity before?

[ ...He can't help but be reminded of other entities, though. The Trawler-man wasn't slumbering, but he was awaiting the great flood. The river's rise. The very thing Faulkner used to be working towards. ]

[astudyinviolet]

Not directly. I've encountered people worshiping him, depictions, and some of his inhuman followers.

[ Somehow, he doesn't think his mind would have any sanity left if he had witnessed the entity fully in person. ]

[withermarked]

This was in your world?

[ He still hasn't found anything here referencing gods from his own world, so that's... interesting. ]

[astudyinviolet]

It was. All of it had been beyond my wildest imagination, but it was all real.

[ Seeing reference to the god here is having the odd effect of making Sherlock question his sanity... in the other direction for once. Is he more sane than he believed? ]

[withermarked]

[ And he takes this at face value. Plenty of gods are real where he's from, it doesn't seem especially wild to him. ]

Do you think this book is from your world?

[ If not, if the same god exists in both places, or even the same legends... he's not sure he likes that. Though he supposes the other option might mean the book is not actually of much use here. ]

[astudyinviolet]

The book? No. I do not believe this is from my world, but as there are other commonalities between worlds, I fear this might be one as well.

[withermarked]

If I'm honest I'd hope the same powers don't have dominion in more than one.

[ His own prayer-marks don't work. Not even now that he has magic. Not even now that he has water magic. He's been taking comfort in that. ]

You think he's here? With the rest of the creatures down below?

[astudyinviolet]

You will find no argument from me. I would prefer this threat to remain one of my world only. Yet, with this book showing his image and claims that he could exist, I cannot deny the possibility. The happenings underwater are beyond my ken and ability to investigate.

[ Blacking out whenever partially submerged in water makes that very difficult. ]

[withermarked]

You can't visit the depths?

[ He supposes it would be prying to ask why, now that he thinks about it. ]

I suppose I can keep an eye out, if I know what I'm looking for.

[astudyinviolet]

I cannot. For one, I get seasick.

[ That is not the main or only reason, but that should be reason enough. ]

Besides the image in the book, I can tell you something of the cultists wanting to wake the entity, but really any cultist sacrificing people should be warned about.

[withermarked]

[ ...There are ways to get there without being on a moving boat this point, but, he decides not to question it. He's got his own issues with the water, despite his persistence in pushing through them. ]

That's a point, but I'm still curious.

[astudyinviolet]

They abducted a great number of people from across my world, from many different nations and races, before conducting the ritual. Those abducted were then brainwashed to repeat the same phrase over and over. Blood sacrifices, hanging people from frames around a large bonfire, piles of skulls, strange symbols written in blood are found in their lairs and camps.

The ritual itself involved those people chanting while mesmerized by special glass lenses casting a sickening light. They would then sacrifice themselves from jumping from atop a lighthouse to their deaths in the ocean below. A terrible storm arose around the area, possibly even before the ritual fully took place as many ships had found themselves wrecked on the rock coastlines nearby.

[withermarked]

[ Something in his stomach twists a little. Even before disowning his own god, he wasn't comfortable with sacrificing people on that scale... whether the distinction being in the numbers was rational or not.

But it answers another question, too: they don't really sound like any version of the Parish of Tide and Flesh. There's something both comforting and depressing about the idea the Trawler-man is limited to one world. That he's not that important in the grand scheme of things. ]

They don't sound exactly like anyone I've encountered, in this world or in mine.

[ Not that that says much; they still wouldn't be all that out of place if a version of them were there. ]

[astudyinviolet]

I sincerely hope it stays that way. I've seen the piles of skulls and the gathering of brainwashed people atop the lighthouse. There were still more who did not survive the ordeal of being moved from one area to another.

I cannot begin to fully comprehend how many people suffered at the hands of that cult.

[ He could estimate it to be the population of a single leviathan the likes of Eltrut. Terrifyingly large. ]

[withermarked]

It sounds like a massive following, and a massive ritual, even by the standards of my world. How successful was it?

[ As much as he doesn't exactly enjoy the topic, he can't help but be curious. ]

[astudyinviolet]

It neared completion, but Watson and I managed to interrupt the ritual by destroying some of the components before the Great Lord awoke. Were it not for Watson, I fear the worst outcome would have become reality.

[withermarked]

I'm not sure who that is, but it sounds for the best you two were able to intercede.

[astudyinviolet]

If what the cultist texts and members said proved true, I would not be here to tell the tale had we not.

[withermarked]

Then I suppose it's also for the best that you don't know how truthful they were.

[ Even if not knowing could be frustrating in its own way. It's good to be aware of the details of a threat. ]

[astudyinviolet]

Perhaps a small mercy in the larger scope of things.

[ Not knowing is frustrating. He wants to know, often to his detriment. ]

[withermarked]

Perhaps.

[ He's not quite sure what else to say about that, though. ]

Anything else of note in the book, do you think? I wouldn't mind sitting down to catch up on the thing.