The Affair of the Phantom Arch
Since the morose gray fog settled over Samarkand, rumors have spread of a gate which appears on the darkest nights, and of the wonders visible past its doors. None who entered have returned yet.
Aspects
- Relevance: Lantern
- Relevance: Grail
- Incident
Visitors: Lantern
| Visitor | Start | Fail | Success | Acted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lady Audrey Leigh Howard | I have interest in Samarkand. Significant financial interest. | I need to know whose game this is. And what we might do to save a profit from it. | A likely disaster, but perhaps I could send word about some precautions. When Nowhere is involved, I advise our foremen to burn a particular fuel in their lamps. I’m sure they’ll be fine. And if not, we’ll cover the cost to the families. | Lady Audrey realized Nowhere-powers worked through the Gate, and so chose to advise her foremen to burn a particular fuel, rather than pull her people out of Samarkand entirely. |
| Dr. Shams Mohammad | Do you know what Samarkand means, Librarian? A common translation is ‘City of Stone.’ More precise is ‘Fortress of Stone.‘ | There are many doors in the House, but the seven Doors of the House are greatest among them. I do not believe this is one of them, but the atmosphere, the descriptions - it is close to one of their natures.‘ | There are things which dwell unseen in the Silken Sands. One of them has somehow found a way into the Wake and taken after the Spider’s Door. Coaxing it back to Dream will not be an easy matter, but this knowledge shall make it easier. Thank you, Librarian.‘ | Believing the gate to be an escaped spirit, Dr Mohammad departed for Samarkand, intent on herding it back into the Silken Sands. |
| Dr. Delilah Molotla | What is happening in Samarkand has likely happened before, in Takalik Abaj. | Don’t ask how I know–I was on the dig, but it took a fair amount of Nyctodromy and a Raw Prophet’s help. Hopefully nothing like that will be necessary with your collection. | I guess I shouldn’t pass up this opportunity for some practical application. I’ve been obsessing over the parts of the Sun that passed to Nowhere, and this might be my best opportunity to look into it. Here’s some compensation for your time, and I’ll be sure to cite you properly. | Dr Molotla determined the gate was her best opportunity to investigate the fate of the Sun, and so set off to do some field research in Samarkand. |
Visitors: Grail
| Visitors | Start | Fail | Success | Acted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Delilah Molotla | What is happening in Samarkand has likely happened before, in Takalik Abaj. | Don’t ask how I know–I was on the dig, but it took a fair amount of Nyctodromy and a Raw Prophet’s help. Hopefully nothing like that will be necessary with your collection. | Of all the keys, why blood? I have a rule, librarian: blood is fun to read about, but a nightmare to work with. That’s why I keep my hands clean. Here’s some compensation for your time, and I’ll be sure to cite you properly. | Dr Molotla determined the gate, whatever it is, was asking blood of those who passed through it, and resolved not to get involved. |
| Sra. Maruja. Mallo | No, I won’t go to Samarkand anytime soon, but these rumors reminds of a particularly seductive species of flower cultivated in the higher regions.‘ | There are foxlilies which induce particularly powerful visions. Any who falter to them lose their will, falling amidst their leaves, destined to become their fertilizer. This gate seems to employ a similar method, but gates, as I understand them, do not usually require sustenance.‘ | To rule over any place requires subjects to rule over. I believe that gate leads to such a place, where something is building a domain where no one, not even the Hours, could defy its rule. Such a place cannot exist, but Nowhere is hospitable to those things which have no place.‘ | Maruja came to believe the gate led to an impossible place outside the authority of the Hours, and so decided that the gate must open into Nowhere. |
| Prof. Ji Yuan | This can be an opportunity for myself, for my benefactors. I just need help sorting out certain logistical problems.‘ | Whatever lies past that gate, I’m certain it will yield something scrumptious - if you can return from the other side, anyway. Need to brush up on temptations, and hopefully, methods of resisting them.‘ | Well, this is unfortunate. If the Flowermaker was responsible, perhaps it would be a worthwhile risk. But a far greedier Hour is acting here. I doubt these treasures are even real. Thanks anyway, Librarian, for keeping me out of that thing.‘ | After concluding the wonders past the gate were neither real nor of the Flowermaker, Prof. Yuan decided not to depart for Samarkand. |
Faculty Consultations
| Faculty | Start | Failure | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Who Did-Still-Will-Continue | Those who dwell in the grays of the Silken Sands… arched, unseen, slow-stepping… we almost share a common nature. | We are known by our traces… as a reflection is known by those it imitates… I need no form to remain, to be known… but they require blood, if they wish to see the redder Light once more. | Lesson: Purifications & Exaltations |
| Isodoro Dahlmann | To pass through a place is to open way; for yourself, and for all who come behind you. The Princes knew this. It is why they only built one tunnel along their roads, at the Apurímac. | The roads of the Fourfold Realm, some say, took after the Ways of the Mansus. What Way do you think the tunnel emulates? The only one you walk within, not through; made safe by Blood, just as Light sanctified the Princes’ works. | Lesson: Sacra Tetrarcharum |
| Shura the Pythian | Thirst is a lock; Blood is its key. The latter oft comes to the former, but why could a lock not hunt for its key? | I passed not the Spider’s Door, but I know its Thirst. Perhaps it roamed before, as I once roamed, to find what may sate us. Yet to chase satisfaction is to drive it from our reach. So we wait until what we lost arrives, gives of itself freely. | Lesson: Pentiments & Precursors |
| Robigo | The road not taken is Temptation, and at its end lies paradise. That goes for ways still unmade as well - but they are not all unplanned. | We learned to walk the ways laid down by the Rising Spider. She was proud of Sahib-i-Qiran, and so we went to know him; he received us well, then she put him away. But we learned what the Crown needed - that History sought the shape of Empire. | Lesson: The Great Signs and The Great Scars |
| Charles Lacombe | If I were not bound, I come to wonder if I may have walked through. And afterwards, I come to wonder if I could ever choose to walk through. | Before I was outfitted as I am, I hungered. Oh, I hungered so! For wine, for flame, for caul. And perhaps I still do! But the chrysalis-creature seeks to become before it hungers. Even so, the shape of that hunger still flits round my lips! | Lesson: Spices & Savours |