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===Evening in Varchas=== All visitors to Varchas are given one night's accommodation in the city's only inn. It is a handsome stone mansion arranged around a pleasantly cool courtyard: frescoes of city-life are painted on the walls. Given how few visitors Varchas hosts, you suspect the Inn is more usually used by philandering locals. Evening falls - or does it? The town's Five Principal Mirrors are mounted on coiled-spring mechanisms, and alter their angles subtly to create the impression of evening. Across the city, the Fire-Keepers throw pinches of coloured powder into the lamps and the quality of light yellows to a softer brightness. {| class='ss-table' style='width:100%;' !style='width:15%;'| Actions !style='width:25%;'| Requirements !style='width:25%;'| Effects !style='width:10%;'| Notes |- | <span style='color:white'>'''Sleep'''</span> The bed is low and wide, and draped with cotton sheets stamped with vegetable-dye patterns in muted greens and blues. | <ul> [[File:SS sidebarbizarresmall.png|23px]] [[Menaces: A Dream of Smoke]] = 0<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5 - 6<p></p> </ul> | You fall into sleep easily despite the bright light, but your dreams are full of whispering, glittering smokes - mirror-vapours that coil into reflection-warping shapes. You see your limbs bend, your skin slough, your eyes twist.. You wake with your heart pounding. Your nostrils are full of the fungal-rot smell of Varchas. Your body is as it always was, but somehow that is not as comforting as it should be. <ul> [[File:SS sidebarbizarresmall.png|23px]] [[Menaces: A Dream of Smoke]] = 1<p></p> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:red;'>+10</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 7<p></p> </ul> | |- | <span style='color:white'>'''Use the Mirror-Charm'''</span> You hang it upon the mirror by your bed-side, and hope for quieter dreams. | <ul> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[A Mirror-Charm]] β₯ 1<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5 - 6<p></p> </ul> | It seems to work; at least, you do not remember any particularly vivid dreams when you wake. You retrieve the Mirror-Charm before you wake. Is it your imagination, or does some of the script scribbled on the paper-scraps seem slightly ''blurred''? <ul> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>-5</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 7<p></p> </ul> | |- | <span style='color:white'>'''The Wine-Mazed Lamp-Lighter'''</span> He is dressed in saffron robes and is indeed pouring wine down the throat of a very attractive dark-eyed boy. You could tell him his sister is looking for him. | <ul> [[File:SS candlesmall.png|23px]] [[Varchas: the Tardy Lamp-Lighter]] = 1<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5<p></p> </ul> | He starts up in horror, spilling burgundy-red wine everywhere. His young companion looks irritated. "I'm late!" he shouts. "Mihir forgive me, the Agnihotri is going to skin me alive!" He pumps your hand in gratitude. "Thank you, Taamas! I won't forget this. Here! Take my arc-jewels - " <ul> [[File:SS candlesmall.png|23px]] [[Varchas: the Tardy Lamp-Lighter]] = 2<p></p> [[File:SS guisemalesmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+3</span> x [[Outlandish Artefact]]<p></p> </ul> | |- | <span style='color:white'>'''Smoke-dreams await'''</span> The bed is comfortable... but the mirrors are watchful. | <ul> [[File:SS sidebarbizarresmall.png|23px]] [[Menaces: A Dream of Smoke]] = 1<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5 - 6<p></p> </ul> | Once again, your dreams are full of whispering, glittering smokes - mirror-vapours that coil into reflection-warping shapes. You see your limbs bend, your skin slough, your eyes twist.. You writhe awake with a cry. It's worse. Each time, it's worse. <ul> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:red;'>+ (10 + [[Menaces: A Dream of Smoke]])</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 7<p></p> [[File:SS sidebarbizarresmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Menaces: A Dream of Smoke]]<p></p> </ul> | The amount of [[Terror]] gained increases if you have slept. |- | <span style='color:white'>'''Dawn in Varchas'''</span> Outsider time in Varchas is strictly rationed. Each morning at dawn, the Guard visits the inn to eject any Taamas they find. They are polite, but very definite. | <ul> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] β₯ 7<p></p> </ul> | <span style='color:white'>'''Into the dark'''</span> "Return," the Guard tells you, "but not yet." With that, they usher you into the darkness beyond the walls. You blink mirror-dazzles from your eyes. It's cold out here. <ul> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 0<p></p> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:red;'>+1</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS gamekeeper_cottagesmall.png|23px]] [[That's all for now]]<p></p> </ul> | |- | rowspan='4' | <span style='color:white'>'''The Kitchens'''</span> The smells of cooking mingle with the fungus-rot; but you aren't going to let that put you off your food. | rowspan='4' | <ul> [[File:SS heartssmall.png|23px]] [[Hearts]] challenge (<span style='color:teal;'>'''50'''</span> for 100%)<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5<p></p> </ul> | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Failed event</span> | rowspan='4' | |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952;' | The Inn's Cook is a large, scowling man with arms like a stevedore, who turns you out without a word. Are all cooks fearsome? What you wouldn't give for a crease-faced kindly old lady with sweet-tarts in her pockets. <ul> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]]<p></p> </ul> |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Successful event</span> |- | The Inn's Cook makes thick spiced stews of fungus-flowers and lotus-root, eaten with chunks of boiled cassava and rice imported from inland. But it is the light-hungry fruit grown in the city which makes your mouth water. Tart-scented oranges and bruise-yellow bananas, pineapples bursting with juice, tender coconuts with the silky white flesh scooped out and sap-sweet on the tongue. Do you not eat meat, you ask in wonderment, and the Inn's Cook calls to Mihir for strength. "It is forbidden to eat the flesh of living creatures," he says. Lucky the Varchaasi don't fancy the zee-faring life. <ul> [[File:SS bloodstainsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>-1</span> x [[Menaces: Wounds]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]]<p></p> </ul> |- | rowspan='4' | <span style='color:white'>'''The Courtyard'''</span> Cushions are arrayed around the marble fountain in the middle; musicians pluck their instruments under the shade of the twisted, yellow-leafed trees. | rowspan='4' | <ul> [[File:SS mirrorssmall.png|23px]] [[Mirrors]] challenge (<span style='color:teal;'>'''50'''</span> for 100%)<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5<p></p> </ul> | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Failed event</span> | rowspan='4' | |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952;' | You hear the word ''Taamas!'' being whispered, and the musicians grow so nervous that their fingers slip on the strings and their tongues forget their lyrics. You leave them to their music, before you ruin their evening entirely. <ul> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]]<p></p> </ul> |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Successful event</span> |- | Their songs are curiously prosaic, the lyrics more like a biographical report than a poetic invention. You listen to a Lake-Dredgers' water-logged, lotus-rooted dirge; you sway to the slow, steady ballad of the Fungus-Collectors, and join in the Lamp-Lighters' quick-footed dance which mimics their evening rounds. The evening finishes with the Song of Mihir, which is sung to the accompaniment of stringed instruments and drums and polished glass prisms which split the white light into rainbows in counterpoint to the notes. <ul> [[File:SS island2small.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+3</span> x [[Memory of Distant Shores]]<p></p> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>-2</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS jigsawsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+5</span> x [[Fragment]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]]<p></p> </ul> |- | rowspan='4' | <span style='color:white'>'''Don't sleep'''</span> It won't be difficult to stay awake in this constant light. But the lack of rest will take its toll. | rowspan='4' | <ul> [[File:SS heartssmall.png|23px]] [[Hearts]] challenge (<span style='color:teal;'>'''84'''</span> for 100%)<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 5 - 6<p></p> </ul> | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Failed event</span> | rowspan='4' | |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952;' | You watch the light scintillate across the inn's wall. You pinch the delicate skin of the insides of your elbows and pace the length of the room. Did the mirror by your bedside just give you a roguish sort of glint? Are you going out of your zee-faring mind? You decide, very deliberately, ''not to look'' <ul> [[File:SS jigsawsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:green;'>+1</span> x [[Fragment]]<p></p> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:red;'>+2</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 7<p></p> </ul> |- | style='border-bottom: solid 1px #1D4952; background: #002020;' align='center' | <span style='color:white;'>Successful event</span> |- | <span style='color:white'>'''A meditative evening'''</span> Up late, reading, thinking, watching. The shouts from the streets die as Varchas sleeps. But you're tired, the next morning. <ul> [[File:SS skullsmall.png|23px]] <span style='color:red;'>+5</span> x [[Terror]]<p></p> [[File:SS mirror2small.png|23px]] [[Varchas: The Knells of the Towers]] = 7<p></p> </ul> |} {{Navbox locations}} [[Category:Sunless Sea ports]] [[Category:Sunless Sea locations]]
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