Information Collecting [Lonely Lighthouse quest]

[crystalrepose]

Type: Text
Sender ID: crystalrepose (Miriam)
To: Public
Subject: Information Collecting
Warnings: N/A for now


Greetings,

I’m called Miriam; I’m one of several who’s been investigating the disappearance of the villagers from Marrowmouth, down the coast from the lighthouse. Though I do not know all of you, I believe I have information to share instead of feeling as though I’m chasing shadows.

Whatever took all these people also took the village’s boats, save for one too mired in red seaweed to be salvageable. There was a cut net on board, however—and the net was surrounded by a binding circle. To keep an entity contained—or trap those who came along to look into the matter. Which almost happened to me.

The crimson seaweed that washed up on the shore has its origins further out to sea; its stalks go far deeper into the water than any kelp forest I’ve seen, and it doesn’t seem attached to anything. Large mats of it drift wherever the current takes them. They feel...unpleasant to touch, but the worst is what hides within them. Predatory fish, some from my world. A group of hostile mer has made exploring the sargassum a bit troublesome.

If you’ve uncovered other information, I’d be glad to hear it. Others may find it useful, as well.

P.S. I’ve found what that antivenom was for, Sherlock.

((OOC: Further information has been gathered here! This is part of a leadup into a player plot development next month. And feel free to threadjack around this post if a subject of interest comes up.))

Comments

text;

[activatingcombatmode]

The more I read your notes on this, the more I think we've got some sort of ocean demon on our hands... If there's such a thing as ocean demons? This is all still bad news.

I'm not great at this research stuff. But I want to keep helping here.

[crystalrepose]

Your help is very much appreciated, Zack. I'm also better out in the field; Sherlock and Zelda are helping me where my research skills are lacking.

But with all the things the ocean seems to contain I'd honestly be more surprised if there weren't demons in it.

But--you bring up a good point. That binding circle on the boat--it was the same kind the Guild used to manage a summoned demon. Why would it be there after the fact?

[activatingcombatmode]

Well, together we make up for a pretty good mini crew for this.

So you're thinking this binding circle was ... Keeping something in? [Keyword- Was.]

Something got out and it left the circle behind. Maybe.

[crystalrepose]

Yes. But circles like that usually go inactive once breached. This one was repaired after whatever it was escaped.

I've had binding circles just like this one used against me in the past, and they're also the same Enochian as what keeps my crystal sealed.

[activatingcombatmode]

Did someone use a circle like this against you? How.

Does this mean... Someone is in charge of this circle?

[crystalrepose]

My crystal is enough to count, it seems. My f-


Alfred, he's the one who enscribed the Enochian bindings on my crystals to stop their advance. He also used the same script writ large to try and keep me away from a castle he was going to demolish.

But he is





not here. No one from the Guild should be. The Alchemists' Guild was destroyed a decade before I arrived here.

I have only taught a few here what Enochian is, and I don't suspect them at all.

[activatingcombatmode]

[Zack is only learning he has more questions than comments, now.]

Then we don't exactly have a lead on who's dealing with these circles, now. Or why they're even here in the first place.

Do you know how to get rid of them, at all?

[crystalrepose]

Yes, and I can show you. Just be certain that you want whatever is contained to be freed. Those bindings made of chalk or paint are simple to unmake; those carved are harder, unless they're still inactive. The one aboard the fishing boat was drawn quickly.

If you're already trapped, your options are fewer; overwhelming the circle's power with your own, or hoping for outside intervention to break the circle. Wriothesley was able to get me out of that one before the boat sank.