The Lighthouse

Out from the Beachhouse; exact location unrecorded

Current Status (as of session 10): Active. The party set out from the Beachhouse to look for a lighthouse, got caught in a loop on the way (see quests/the-loop.md), and reached it. Astor the Controlling was waiting there and handed over a note in a script none of them read, which Percival got through with Comprehend Languages. The language itself is unidentified. The note says the lighthouse was not built to guide anyone — it was built so that "the Beneath" would not be forgotten — and it sets out three conditions and a price for entering "the place where the First Ones fell". Nothing has been acted on yet.

Overview

A lighthouse the party went looking for. Why they wanted it, and where they heard of it, is unrecorded. What the note turns it into is a marker rather than a beacon: something built to keep the Beneath from being forgotten.

The Note

Handed over by Astor at the lighthouse in session 10, written in an unidentified script and read by Percival with Comprehend Languages:

The light is not meant to guide the lost. It was built so that the Beneath would not be forgotten.

When the sea takes the shore, seek what remains. When the flame goes dark, follow the one who still shines. When the door has no handle, offer what you carry.

Only those who surrender the gift may enter the place where the First Ones fell.

Three conditions, each with an instruction, and a price on top: surrender the gift. None of the four is explained. Whether the three are a sequence or three separate keys is unrecorded.

History

• Session 10 — the party leaves the Beachhouse to look for it, is caught in the loop on the way, arrives, and meets Astor, who hands over the note. Percival reads it with Comprehend Languages. See sessions/session 10.md.

Open

• Where the lighthouse stands, who built it, and whether the light still burns.
• What the Beneath is.
• What "the place where the First Ones fell" is, and whether it is the same First Ones as the invocation on Percival's sheet (Lessons of the First Ones) — unconfirmed.
• What the gift is. Things in play that have been given or taken, none of them connected to the note so far: the cards, Percival's deal with Valis, the 3 marks from session 7, the card dust vial handed to Percival in session 9.
• What the language is. Comprehend Languages got Percival through it without naming it, and the spell is not on his sheet.
• Why Astor is the one delivering this, and what he gets out of the party going.