It's a beautiful morning as the smell from the sea invades your senses. The birds squawking and chirping fills the air with the sounds of the sea.
It takes about 15 minutes for even Aunt Loosa to make the short walk. As you approach the wharf you see the painters are already up and painting.
As you walk into Bradley Bros Ships and Fishing, it is a small fishing store. There is a counter that splits the store in half. The walls are covered in Nets, Fishing gear, Rope and other boating supplies.
You see Michael Dryver standing behind the counter. "Yea, can I help you."
He looks at you a bit suspiciously when you walk in, but after your request he relaxes, "Is that all you wanted yesterday? You can freak a guy out sneaking about his property that way. These damn painters got me on nerve all the time anyway. Its like watching ghosts out there."Michael says, he turns and looks at a board behind him with some tags hanging on it. "Would you need someone to pilot it, or you taking it out yourselves, and how many are there of you?"
"Thank you, Mr. Dryver," says Eddie. "There are three of us, and we will be needing to hire a pilot too. Do you know anything about what happened to the lighthouses?"
"Not a problem, we can accommodate you." He slides up a window in the back, and takes a colored flag and waves it, then turns back to you. "What do you mean, did something happen to the lighthouses?" Michael asks.
"Sure thing," says Eddie, taking out his wallet and paying him the two dollars. "That's funny, my name's Eddie too. This is a beautiful wharf you've got here, Mr. Dryver. I can see why the painters are always coming around to paint it. I understand how it could get to be an annoyance, but you could probably make some moeny by selling them refreshments."
He looks at you strangely, "does it look like I'm a pop stand? besides those guys don't have a dime. Town folks come and feed them or they'd all starve out there."Michael smirks, "here's your boat now, enjoy."
You see a small sail boat pull around next to the wharf. An unshaven middle aged man is manning the tiller.
"All right, thank you," he says. He'd like to ask more questions, particularly about the Bradleys, but he doesn't want to upset Dryver any further. Perhaps the ladies might have better luck with him, or it might be better to wait until returning from Thatcher Island. Once they are ready, he goes with them to the boat.
The sailor has a small sail boat and helps everyone into the boat. As you greet him he only grunts at you. After everyone's on board he asks, "So what's your pleasure, a quick tour around the bay?" As he unties the boat and pushes off.
"We'd like to go to Thatcher Island and see the lighthouses, please," says Eddie. "I was thinking we could put in at the nearer one and walk across the island to the other."
Aunt Loosa watches from the background whilst Eddie arranges hire of the boat for the day from Dryver
Aunt Loosa thinking: I don't really trust him, there is something...untoward about him.
Strange what he says about the artists though, almost as if they are entranced by what they paint or see
OOC,I'll make a Psychology roll on Dryver
Psychology 75 [dice]0[/dice]
Alyssa shifted her hands behind herself on the seat and leans back, basking in the sun. Keeping mostly to herself and made mental notes of Dryver's behaviour.
Alyssa,you can tell Dryver is mad at the situation, but not mad at the painters. He more feels sorry for them, and mad at someone else.
The boat trip out to the island is pretty uneventful. It's a beautiful day and the sun is out. As the boat pilot pulls up next to the pier, he drops his sail and pulls out an oar to guide you in. "Here take this rope and jump up on the pier, tie us off." He says to Eddie. "I'll wait here, go check out the lighthouses, I wouldn't take too long a storm front is supposed to move in later." He goes about tying off the boat and helping the ladies out of the boat onto the pier.
On the island you can see 2 large lighthouses, 1 on each end of the small island, that stretch up into the sky. A walkway goes up from the pier to a small house at the foot of one of the lighthouses.
"Thank you,"Eddie says to the boatman before turning to the ladies. "Shall we try the house first? Maybe someone lives there who can tell us more about the island and the lighthouses."
The sailor kicking back with a magazine overhears you, "Yea, old man McFee should be up there, he's the light keeper." and he goes back to his Life magazine.
The slow day had tested Alyssa's patience, her eagerness drawing closer and closer as the boat moored to the dock. Alyssa grabs Eddie's hand, pulling herself out the boat, "Well, let's make our way now, while we're still young."Alyssa smiles to Aunt Loosa as she offers her hand.
Aunt Loosa takes the proffered hand and climbs unsteadily from the boat, showing for the first time the physical frailty of her age. She smiles at Alyssa
Thank you dear, me and boats don't tend to get on too well she smoothes down her clothes and turns to the pilot Thank you for the safe crossing, how long do you think we have before the storm arrives? she glances towards the sky, a light worry creasing her brow or tides, do we need to worry about tides?
Eddie (the boat captain) smiles, "Tides won't be a problem. Should be 2-3 hours at least. Keep an eye North, if you see a line of black clouds," and he points in one direction, "then high tail it back here. Them light houses are strong but I wouldn't want to hold up in 'em during a storm."
Eddie feels a tingle when Alyssa takes hold of his hand. There's nothing like being with a beautiful woman to make him feel more alive. "Thanks, we'll do that," he tells the other Eddie. "Those lighthouses must have been standing for a long time. Did they ever get hit by a storm before?"
As you walk up the graveled walkway you can see the 2 lighthouses standing proud. One on the most Northern tip. The other on the SE tip. You ware walking towards the later. In front of you a small 1 story rock house sits with a porch. An man in is mid-50's is sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, smoking a pipe.
The walkway branches, one part going to the house, the 2nd path heading towards the closer light house. And the last path heading up towards the other lighthouse.
"I think you're right," says Eddie. "I'm Eddie Donovan, and these ladies are Miss Alyssa Ryan and Aunt Loosa. Would you mind if we asked you a few questions about the island and the lighthouses? I understand the lighthouses were destroyed in a storm a few years back and rebuilt."
"Nope, lighthouses never been destroyed in no storm. We did rebuild them but only because the originals were kind of small. These newer ones have been lit ever since." he says.
"That's good to know," says Eddie. "Would it be okay if we went up to the top? The view must be spectacular. Aside from the lighthouses, what other points of interest are on Thatcher Island?"
As you walk up the trail there is a light house. You can walk up the steps and open the door, it is unlocked. You see a spiral staircase that leads up to the top.
On the wall opposite you is a switch behind a locked cage. A big sign on it reads, 'Do Not Touch'.
It's a long way to the top and Aunt Loosa struggles with it, but with your help she makes it to the top, even if a bit winded. From the top of the lighthouse, you can see for miles. You can spot the Woods house you are staying at and can see all of Thatcher island including the other light house.
"The inscription said 'Seekers should look between the Cyclops that were blinded for blood,'" says Eddie. "If the lighthouses are the Cyclops, then whatever we're looking for must be somewhere between them. A spyglass or something would be helpful, but we'll just have to use our eyes. If we don't see it from up here, we'll have to look for it as we walk to the other lighthouse." He focuses his vision on the area between the two lighthouses.
It is not that hard to see the island clearly. You can easily see the path that leads between the 2. The only thing around what you would estimate would be in the middle of the trail is an old small tool shed.
"The clue must have been talking about that shed," says Eddie, pointing it out. "If it's not that, I can't imagine what it would be. When you're both ready, we'll go back downstairs and walk along the trail to the shed."
Oh yes dear, there are a lot of steps for these old legs of mine. I'd just like to take in the view a little longer if I may she takes a slow walk around the perimeter of the lighthouse - looking for any landmarks, objects or buildings that could mark out the constellation shape. She imagines looking down from above, a birds-eye view, and whether the lighthouses and other features could be points on the constellation.
Spot Hidden,She'll use the this lighthouse and the next as the initial reference points: Spot hidden[75] [dice]0[/dice]
[ooc]Do you have a picture of the constellation/pattern for us?[/ooc]
Aunt Loosa takes the sketch of the constellation from her bag, she looks out at various features and landmarks and tries to orient the map to these features, trying to align the lighthouses to the pattern.
Well dears, apart from the view, which frankly isn't as inspiring as one would have hoped for, there doesn't seem to be much to see from up here. she waves her hand drawn sketch of the 'constellation' at them I was hoping that from up here we could see that various landmarks corresponded to the pattern of the stars or whatever they may represent but no matter how I hold the map, I can't make anything match up.
Shall we proceed to the other lighthouse - maybe a new perspective will help shed 'light' on our search she chuckles at her little joke and heads towards to the staircase.
"Or 'shed' light," says Eddie with a grin. "I think that shed between the lighthouses is what we came to find. It probably has the next clue. I have a feeling it won't be as simple as finding all the answers there." He helps Aunt Loosa back downstairs.
You get to the bottom of the lighthouse and make the trek down the trail, about half way between the 2 light houses, a small shed is sitting just off the trail on the right. The grass around the building has overgrown. An old rusted chain is running through the handles on the door.
The shed looks weathered and the wood is rotting. Its a bit of a surprise its still standing.
A chill wind breathes across the back of your neck. A quick glance behind you reveals the line of black clouds in the distance.
"We'd better make this quick," says Eddie with a nervous glance at the incoming storm clouds as he tries to remove the chain. "We're not going to have time to go to the other lighthouse and back."
Alyssa buttons up her coat at the sight of the black clouds in the distance, "Are you gonna muscle that chain?"Alyssa stands on lookout by the lock, keeping an eye for any unwanted attention.
The chain is looped through the rungs that act as handholds and the lock runs through them. Even though the chain is rusted it is far too strong to break.
You can pull the doors open so you have about 2" to see through the doors. The shed looks old, full of cobwebs and doesn't appear to have been used in years.
The wood looks very old, a few good kicks might break a board.
"I hate to do this, but we don't have much time, and the storm is going to wreck this shed anyway once it rolls through," says Eddie. "If neither of you ladies knows how to pick a lock, I'll have to kick it in. If anyone asks, we heard a noise inside that sounded like an animal was trapped in there, and we had to free it before the storm hits." He lends his considerable might to kicking an opening in a weak-looking board.
As you kick in a couple boards, they break easily enough and you can squeeze through the opening.
ooc,please let me know who is going in and if anyone is staying out.
It is dark in here, the only light coming from the small gap in the doors, the hole you kicked in and the cracks in the walls. You are immediately covered in spiderwebs as you climb through.
Aunt Loosa squeezes through the opening that Eddie created. She nonchalantly brushes the cobwebs aside and steps to the side to make way for the others to follow. She mumbles something mostly inaudible and incoherent to the others, though the words Papa Legba can be made out.
Ben,I'm going to try and do some kind of divination or detect magic - I'm, not sure of the game mechanics for this so I'll just leave POW & Occult rolls here ;)
POW[15]: [dice]0[/dice]
Occult[90]: [dice]1[/dice]
Eddie squeezes inside, wipes the cobwebs off of himself, and takes out his cigarette lighter. He flicks it to produce a flame in order to light up the interior.
Aunt Loosa,You detect that there is some sort of power here, possibly a Lay Line. It is much older and and subtle than any spell.
As the old barn lights up, you see some rusted old tools hanging on the walls. Several spiders are crawling all over the walls, mostly Daddy Long Legs. The tools include shovels, hows, rakes and picks.
Eddie looks around carefully, using the lighter to push back the darkness. "I don't know what we're supposed to be looking for," he says. "There are shovels here. Maybe we're supposed to dig?"
Ben,Is she able to determine a flow or direction of the power - if it were a ley line is it North to South etc.
Does the energy raise her hackles, does it put her on edge, does it feel sinsister - would she feel comfortable trying to tap into?
Aunt Loosa slowly moves around the old shed, examining the walls for any marks or sigils, the same on the floor, to see if anything may have been inscribed and scuffed out, as she does so, she says loud enough for the others to hear
There is a power here, an energy. It feels...old...ancient even...it is subtle but once you feel it...you can't ignore it
She moves to the centre of the shed and stands still, her eyes closed, she mumbles under breath, trying to divine the nature of the energy.
Aunt Loosa,it seems to run north to south. You have been on a Lay Line before, you know they are natural and not good or evil. But they can be very powerful. You have know people who died trying to tap into them because it was just too much power. You have never had the need for so much power. Make a % check for me.
"That's odd," says Eddie. "It's a dirt floor, but there's no grass growing inside the shed. I definitely think we're supposed to dig here, unless someone objects." He takes one of the shovels.
Aunt Loosa opens her eyes and gives a cheeky smile to Eddie
Yes dear, dig here, right under where I'm standing. The energy is strong here, I can feel it...vibrating...yes dig, dig here, quickly! she steps aside to allow Eddie the space to start working
Alyssa dear, I know this is men's work but I fear we are racing the storm - grab a pick and pass me a shovel, let's see what's under the dirt before the storm gets here. she rolls up her sleeves and beams her smile at Alyssa
You dig around the edges and instead of a box you find a piece of wood 12" by 18" and only 1/2" thick. When you lift up the board you see underneath a bronze plaque. On the wood, which is in surprising good shape considering it was buried you can easily make out words burned onto the wood.
"When the world is turned upside down"
You look down at the bronze plaque. Dirt has filled into the areas around the raised letters embossed on the plaque. It takes a few minutes to clear the dirt away but after a few minutes it is easy enough to make out the lettering.
“Jr qht gbb qrrc, naq sbhaq bhe tbq.”
If you try to lift the bronze plate it seems to be embedded into the granite rock underneath it. You estimate it could take you hours to try and dig it out.
"There's no time to dig it up," says Eddie. "The storm will be on us soon, so we'll just have to write down the message and hurry back to the boat." He examines the writing. "It looks like some sort of code, where each letter has been substituted for another one. Seems pretty simple." After some thought, he has it. "Of course! Upside down. I think that means that each letter should be shifted halfway through the alphabet. The message reads 'We dug too deep, and found our god.' Huh. Cracking the code was the easy part. I think we need a translation for the translation. Maybe we'll have another dream tonight that will explain it."
"Thank you," says Eddie as he quickly covers up his find. "I hope to make detective one day. Yeah, we'd better get back fast. I could carry you, if that's all right with you."
Aunt Loosa looks at Eddie with feigned shock and indignation. a cheeky glint in her eye
Young man! I'm old enough to be your mother! Such impropriety! her face switches to her default smile Let's see how far I can get on the old bones of mine first, if I need to be swept off my feet by a handsome young police officer you will be the first to know she winks and her smile breaks into a laugh.
Come on, lets get back to that boat! I'll race you! she heads to the broken boards and leaves the shed, still chuckling.
As you rush along the path you can feel the North wind blowing down on you. The clouds are still North of the city but they are drawing much closer. You can see the sea waves are picking up and white crests are now churning as each one rises to its height.
You make your way down to the pier and you see your boat captain urging you on. "Five more minutes and I would have left you," he says. He already has the boat untied and ready to get underway.
Aunt Loosa climbs unsteadily into the boat as it rocks with the chop of the waves. She takes a seat and grips firmly, her knuckles whitening. Her face is set grim, she is in obvious distress at being on the water in the face of a storm.
The boatman helps the 2 ladies in then holds the boat while Eddie gets in. The pilot then jumps into the boat after Eddie and pushes off from the pier. He raises a sail and begins to head the boat what looks like the wrong way. The waves are hitting the side of the boat and a spray of salt water splashes on you. Its not enough to get you too wet but its cold. Combined with the now cold wind and you feel very under dressed for the day.
Just when you couldn't decide if the owner of the boat was an idiot or you were lost, he turns the boat and is now heading out to sea. Obviously he couldn't go directly into this stiff wind. The boat feels like it is almost flying, skipping over the tops of the waves. A lot fewer of the waves are crashing over the side, but a few still do. The seaman is standing at the back of the boat, tiller in one hand and rope for the main sail in the other, tightening it or loosening it as needed to keep the small craft moving ever faster. You hear him laugh, "You won't catch me today, old witch."
He smiles down at you for a second then back up to the waters ahead and launches into his story, "The story goes that the old woman who lives at the witch house in Pigeon Cove would summon these freak storms to send sailors to their deaths. That some creatures living in a city under the water would catch them when they went into the water from the overturned boats. They would then drag them down into the depths and sacrifice them to their dark gods." He looked at you to see if he was getting reaction, "That the witch was in league with these underwater creatures. But its just an old wives tale."
"Yes ma'am" he says swinging the small boat into the harbor. The rain begins to fall, its still gentle, but you can see its going to be a downpour soon.
He pulls up to the dock, and quickly ushers you off the boat. "Thanks, I need to get her battoned down for the shore, you folks have a good day." And he pushes off and swings it back to where the boats are moored.
"Thanks, you too," says Eddie as he disembarks. "Let's hurry back to the Woods House, ladies. We're not in danger of drowning any more, but we still don't want to be caught out in this when it gets worse."
Aunt Loosa climbs unsteadily from the boat, obviously relived to be back on dry land.
Thank you for getting us back safely she says to the sailor before turning to EddieYes, lets get back. We have much to discuss as they walk away out of earshot of the sailor she continues in a low voice Did you see anything in the water when we were on the boat, when the boatman was talking about the witch?
Aunt Loosa shakes off her shawl before calling out Hallo! Is anyone around that would be kind enough to make a nice hot pot of coffee
She sits down and faces he companions I don't think it was shark Eddie - I got a very good look at it, it looked more frog or toad like and it looked directly at me before heading beneath the waves. We have cane toads and bull frogs down south but nothing that size and I don't think they can live in salt water.
She pauses and then pulls her notebook from her bag and reads aloud We dug too deep and found our god - what do you think that might mean?
Ben,do I think that the creature looked intelligent/sentient?
She ponders the quote for a while and then looks directly at Eddie holding his gaze You know what Eddie, the more I think on it, the more I'm sure that the frog creature I saw was intelligent. And I don't mean intelligent like a dog or a monkey but intelligent like you and Alyssa.
I been thinking to myself, maybe I imagined it, being at sea and racing the storm and being nervous but I know my mind and what I saw - I'm not some pickaninny to be frightened by some old tale and seeing things that aren't there. she holds his eye, almost challenging him to doubt her.
Then she shakes her head slightly and smiles You know what? I really could do with that coffee, I wonder where everyone is at? she gets and heads towards the kitchen Hello! Anyone about?
"I've seen enough that I have no doubt," says Eddie. "I don't know how that creature can exist, but I believe that it does. I don't know what the clue we found means, but maybe we'll know more once we compare notes with the others - or have another dream tonight that explains it."
Aunt Loosa busies herself in the kitchen and makes a pot coffee. She brings it through and serves everyone.
Yes, we need to see what the others may have discovered but I think today has been fruitful. she drains her coffee cup
Now, I think I'll go and lie down for a while - I'll see you all for dinner tonight with that she get's up and gathers her bag and heads up to her room.
Ben,Loosa is going to head up to her room and conduct a seance/speak with the spirits (in particular Papa Legba - the doorkeeper to the spirit world) about what they discovered.
"All right, take care, Aunt Loosa," says Eddie. He turns to Alyssa when she leaves, a concerned look in his eyes. "Are you all right, Miss Ryan? You haven't said much lately."
