Difference between revisions of "Cascade Archipelago"

You stand on the brink, a psychological one, overwhelmed by a sense of dislocation and loss that is nearly impossible to shake. The scientists manning Firebase Zulu have codenamed this region "The Marooned Shores," and you can see why this name is appropriate. You feel as though you have washed ashore in a hostile land, cast off from everything you know. You fear, for an instant, that you will never again find the way home. You fight down this irrational fear and move on, lest it consume you.

You have found a place of peace and calm in a land of madness and danger. High stone walls hem you in on all sides, but they grant a feeling of security and solitude and not one of confinement. You wonder idly why none of the horrors that prowl the landscape around you ever find their way into this place of calm, and you are grateful. Even the unearthly chattering and howls of the Shadow Shard's denizens fail to penetrate here, you almost feel as though you could stay here forever, just lay down and rest, safe from all concern... but you cannot. This sense of ease is an illusion, the safety is a lie. Nowhere is safe here, and you'd best move on before this land robs you of all desire to.

A sense of floating encapsulates you, a lightness of being that does not bring with it feelings of ease or contentment, but of nothingness and insignificance. Vertigo sends your senses reeling and the urge to leave this place is undeniable. You do not belong here, you are the alien here, and nowhere else is this feeling more acute.

Low voices vibrate the very air around you, issuing from no mouths that you can see. No matter where you go, you cannot escape the constant chanting of the nonsense phrase "...uuLArUUruUlaARUuaALuU..." You cover your ears but it cannot deaden the sound. You dream of earplugs, you fantasize about cotton swabs suffused with wax, you wish for an ice-pick to puncture your eardrums, anything to make the chanting stop. It is not long before you realize that the chanting is not coming from without, but from within, from you. It is your own mouth that chants this dark refrain, something commands you to speak and unless you leave now you wonder if you will ever stop.

You look upon this pool of red fluid and your mind says "blood." But despite this another part of your mind says "drink." And you do. It tastes like the scent of green grass, of the metallic tang of an adrenaline rush, burnt rubber, your mother's blueberry pie, and on and on. You realize that it is not flavors the liquid is eliciting, but memories, and with each passing second they come on one after another until you become nauseous with the sensation overload. You spit the liquid from your mouth and vow never to taste it again. But...

The briefing listed this area as "Tyrant's Rock," though you are not sure why. Perhaps it is the growing sense of duty and entitlement that fills your chest with unbidden pride. You cast your gaze across this shattered landscape and are struck by a sudden feeling that it is yours, by might or by right. Your heart thuds with a martial drumbeat and you nod at the truth of it—yes, it could all be yours. You will find the one who rules this land and take their throne by force. But you shake off this irrational notion and the realization of where you are slaps you in the face. These thoughts are a trap meant to distract you from your real purpose here.

Gravity operates strangely in the Shadow Shard, but more than just the floating masses of rock, there is a gravity here of a more spiritual kind. You feel it drawing you inexorably forward towards an unknown destiny. All thoughts of retreat are discarded as counterproductive, there is no other course of action but to press on. You've been caught in an unseen orbit, around a power you cannot possibly fathom.

You have found the source of the Crimson Falls. Scientists who have studied it have only theories as to its source and composition, but they are in agreement that it is not entirely of this dimension. Some think that perhaps it is a form of quantum foam; exotic particles and degenerate matter drawn to the Shadow Shard from other dimensions. Swimming through it you find that it offers little resistance, does not make you wet, and while immersed in it you find yourself recalling past events. These recollections become fleeting, as though drawn from you to suffuse the fluid. One memory follows another and as each one does, it becomes increasingly difficult to bring them back. You fear that were you to stay here much longer, the fluid would empty you of all memory.

You have spent a great deal of time working with the military at Firebase Zulu earning the Dimensional Explorer Day Job. Logging out in the Shadow Shard will earn you a Jetpack power, when you log back in, for a short time.

Firebase Zulu has classified you as A.W.O.L., but they wouldn't welcome you if you showed up, either.