Blood Red Wednesdays: Waypoint Shrines and Watchtowers

Psychonauts who begin to explore the Shadowlands will quickly find that beginning their incursions only at the Landing Zones of a Realm will limit their ability to get far in a single incursion. The Psychonauts of old made deals with inhabitants and Others- mostly the Fair Folk. These deals resulted in the creation of the Waypoint Shrines and the Watchtowers.

The Waypoints act as fast travel locations. Once a Psychonaut reaches a Waypoint and synchronizes their Avatar to the Waypoint, they may begin any Incursion at that Waypoint. Waypoints can be either  'Safe' or 'Live'. Psychonauts can liberate a Waypoint during an incursion, but that Waypoint may fall again in the interim based on events in both the Shadowlands and the Bonelands.

The Watchtowers are themselves Waypoint shrines, but also unlock the Waypoint shrines around them. Unless a Psychonaut has synced their Avatar to the associated Watchtower, they may not sync to any of the Waypoint Shrines that the Watchtower protects. The requirements for syncing to a Waypoint Shrine or a Watchtower will vary from shrine to shrine and from tower to tower. But as a basic heuristic, the deeper a Psychonaut ventures into the Major Realms, the more involved the process of synchronization will be.

But for the Psychonaut wishes to do more than splash around in the shallows, this is a necessary task.

The Hell Keys

There are numerous minor realms in the Shadowlands. None of them are so well established as the Realms of Fair Folk. Their realms connect to all the major realms and the liminal realms. And the doors to the various demenses in this realm are the Hell keys.

The Recurrence of the Tower

Whether its the Tower of Retribution in Berserk or Kami's Watch Tower in Dragon Ball, The Tower of Babel in Ancient myth or the New Tower of Babel in the film Metropolis, The Dark Tower quoted in King Lear or the Dark Tower in the works of Stephen King; no matter the form of the story, epic tales grow towers like damp houses grow mold.

 

A brief Snapshot of the Foglands

The Foglands is an eerie place for new arrivals to experience. The concrete hard sand dunes and broken rocky ground have been desaturated by some earlier tragedy and most of the landscape is the weird monochrome of a 1950s television broadcast. The sky, by contrast is a toxic looking bloody orange by day, and a deeper near opaque orange black at night- marked by a hallowe'en orange moon. The brackish lakes and inland seas are nearly all a rusty orange from the oxidizing metal and salt content of the water. Grey and Orange. Monochrome and and garish contrast. The visuals along are enough to make some new arrivals lose what lunch they brought with them for the incursion.

Shadows and Artifacts

Objects in the shadowlands are not stable. Things collected in one incursion will not be retained into the next incursion unless they are attuned to the psychonaut's avatar. Things that can be attuned include artifacts, spells, watchtower links, realm keys, sparks and such. Any normal bits and pieces found in the shadowlands will fade upon departure from the shadowlands.

Fading Lake Regional Locations: The Witch Hut

The Witch Hut

A traditionally Forboding hut sits on the edge of the Fading lake, standing on low stilts to appear to float in the water when the lake is high. A Witch is always present in the Witch Hut. Which one is present will vary, although the Witch will rarely be a named Archetype, and will rarely admit a definitive identity- least of all to a green Psychonaut not worth her (or more rarely his) time.

Wastelands Regional Location: The Fading Lake

The Fading Lake

The Fading Lake is a brackish lake whose water line rises and falls with mysterious apparently non-tidal rhythms. The Fading Lake harbors secrets beneath the silty bottom, but Psychonauts will be hard pressed to explore those secrets without impressive preparations. Some experienced Psychonauts have claimed that beneath the silt is a half flooded temple from the time of the Mirrored City, whose machinery still runs. They further claim that the turning of these ancient clockworks is what causes the waters of the lake to rise or fall. Other experienced Psychonauts who have sought to prove or disprove this claim have failed to return to the Foglands for later incursions.

Wastelands Region Location: The Haypenny Camp

The Haypenny Camp

The chief competitor to the Salt Market, the Haypenny camp is cleaner and tidier, but also smaller and less well stocked that its more famous Plateau based competition. The Haypenny camp is also nearly half settlement if one looks purely at the number of tents, and sacred hospitality is practised in both the Open Market and the Old Camp. The people of the Haypenny Camp are not free peoples, but no Stillborn Army or Hungry Empire either. They sit in between, balancing on the blade of rusted straight razor, trying to survive on the business provided chiefly by newly arrived Psychonauts.

The genre savvy Psychonaut will quickly realize that the Open Market operates as the starter shop and the Old Camp functions as the first hub village for Psychonauts making incursions into the Foglands.

Wastelands Region: The Womb

The Womb

A collection of natural limestone caves twist beneath the the heart of the wastelands. Expanded by unknown denizens, stalagmites sculpted into strange humanoid forms and new passage way added and small corridors expanded to accomodate foot traffic. In some places, unknown visitors have placed altars and shrines and statues of sacred beings, and time has allowed the limestone to partially encase them in stalagmites and sometimes full limestone columns. The Womb is now a dangerous set of labyrinths used by many denizens as a place to conduct rites of passage and ritual vision quests. Bioluminescent fungi and airborne spores dimly light different areas of the caves with strange iridescent raninbow lights. But beyond the light lurk monsters, including the occasional chimera- suggesting a link between the Womb and the Painted Labyrinth.

Altar Stone Regional Locations: The Screaming Stone

The Screaming Stone

To the East of the Altar Stone Plinth is Screaming Stone. One of three truly enormous humanoid statues (the other two being the Weeping Stone and the Thinking Stone), The Screaming Stone looms above the landscape and stands over three times as large as the largest Giant. The Three Great Stones are hollow structures, though still impossibly heavy and monolithic. Psychonauts could disappear into one of the Great Stones and wander for months, and that's before they discover the vast tunnels underneath each stone monster. The open maw of the Screaming Stone is a massive viewing platform, from which one can view the landscape for miles in any direction and which is a good place to get an early glimpse of the Plateau.

Altar Stone Regional Locations: The Altar Stone Plinth

The Altar Stone Plinth

Psychonauts who find the first gate key will inevitably end up in region of the Altar Stone Plinth upon their first use of the Foglands Gate. The Plint itself is a massive stone, carved as though to be a base to hold some larger statue or vase. The Plinth is as large as a human temple, and the top shows scraping and wearing that is visible on to those tall enough to see the top or brave enough to scale a structure considered sacred to the Giants. What, if anything previously sat upon the plinth is unknown, but the Giants are entirely too willing to place dead psychonauts there as offerings or leave live Psychonauts there- presumably to die of exposure (although their actual motive is a mystery).

Around the Plinth are a collection of stone barrows and dolmen built from large standing stone placed by the giants and then modified by smaller denizens into burial grounds and holy places, hiding holes and ad hoc housing. Psychonauts will find many secrets in these structures and many denizens- friendly, neutral and hostile.

After much exploration, Psychonauts have discovered that a series of more impressive Dolmen, which are connected by a series of underground corridors, are associated with key stars in the Northern night sky. Interestingly, the sub locations in the Step Pyramid region have similar references to key stars in the Southern night sky.

Wastelands Locations: The Altar Stone Region

The Altar Stone

The area of the Wasteland known collectively as the Altar Stone or Altar Stones is a collection of statues and standing stones that radiate out from a central point. The area is apparently sacred to the Giants, as Psychonauts who journey there will find that the area always has a few such visitors. The Giants will prostrate themselves before the enormous humanoid statues, and will leave offerings. Psychonauts should be wary near the Altar Stones, as the Giants visiting the stones are more animated than normal and an unwary Psychonaut may find themselves beaten to death against a rock and then gently placed before one of the stones as an offering from some devout Giant.

Speculation on the relationship between the Giants and the Stones has gone on for as long as both have been known to exist. Some scholars speculate that the humanoid apeparing statues are in fact dead or hibernating Giants. Other vocies have suggested that these are simply altars to whatever gods the Giants worship. Experienced Psychonauts have noted that first time visitors to the Foglands always find themselves deposited in the region of the Altar Stones, and have suggested that the Giant might revere the area itself as a bringer of food. The suggestion being that the giants subsequently built the Altar Stones around the region where unready and easily captured meals appeared with satisfying regularity. Whatever the reason, the Giants aren't telling and certainly aren't going away.

The Altar Stone region is filled with secret rooms and hidden tunnels and labyrinths. Experienced Psychonauts do incursions to explore the Altar Stones frequently. For first time visitors to the Foglands, the Altar Stones are a dangerous place filled with practically unkillable very hungry Giants and ancient death traps that stubbornly refuse to rust or malfunction. The area is confusing and maze-like, with huge stones and statues forming twisting labyrinthine tunnels and troughs in the landscape that the psychonauts must navigate carefully to escape with their limbs intact.

A very very Short and Thoroughly Incomplete List of Locations in Arcadia

• The Village
• The Cematary
• The Lake
• The Mountain
• The Forest
• The Plains
• The Coastline

An Abridged list of Locations in the Mirrored City

The City

• The Ward of Gildguld
• The Ward of Mitchuas
• The Ward of Gaibrus
• The Ward of Zeudin Vashas
• The Ward of Lamris
• The Ward of Friedites
• The Ward of Valstaris
• The Ward of Xerfer

The Lef River

• The Northern Waters of Gongin
• The Southern Waters of Lamlex
  

The Frontier Lands

• The Mountain Stronghold
• The Frozen Plains
• The Windswept Plains
• Strongiron Village
• The Living Forest
• The Second Forest

A Brief and Incomplete list of Locations in the Ring

The Threshold

The Lotus Garden

• Village Region
• Graveyard Region
• Lake Shrine Region
• Dark Mountain Region
• Bone Forest Region
• Great Plains Region
• Coastal Seas Region
• Bridge to Stellar House
• Bridge to Void House
• Bridge to Gate Room
• Bridge to the Threshold

Void House

Stellar House

The Gate Room

• The Front Room
• The Back Room

Brief Overiew of Location in Hidden Heart

The Dual Core Chambers

• The Chamber of the Survivors
• The Chamber of the Scavengers

The Three Wings

• The Glass Wing
• The Emerald Wing
• The Dust Wing

The Four Corners

• The Table Corner
• The Dark Corner
• The Scorched Corner
• The Salt Corner

The Five Terminals

• The Serpent Terminal
• The Mystery Terminal
• The Bridge Terminal
• The Ancient Terminal
• The Alliance Terminal

Brief List of Location in the Painted Labyrinth

The Shrines of the Three

• The Firebird Temple
• Weaver Cave
• The Spiral Tower

The Meeting Places

• The Amphitheatre
• The Globe Sepulchre
• The Bazaar
• The Council Stronghold
• The Alliance Gate
• The Witch House

Precursor Ruins

• The Beetle
• The Twin Collosi
• Dikinesh Canyon
• The Altar of the Elder Brothers
• The Grave of the Corn Lady

The Pillars

• The Great Western Pillar
• The Great Eastern Pillar

The Bridges

• The Hummingbird Bridge
• The Butterfly Bridge

Campaign Grounds

• Barren Island
• Hunting Grounds
• Tenfold Manor
• Damacles Graveyard Throne
• Daemon Temple
• The Short Tower
• The Keystone Cave
• The Solar Moon Henge
• The Place of Slaughter
• The Fern Forest
• Cavern Lake of Discord

A First Look at the Dead Gods of the Mirrored CIty

When a god accumulates enough power from offerings and worship they may build themselves a seat of power, a sacred throne which both amplifies their power and serves as a vessel for that power. When the Locust King began to build the capital of his Hungry Empire, he sent his forces to hunt down appropriate gods and steal their thrones for the Hungry Empire. The City of Glass is built around these thrones, now bonded to the wards of the city. The gods from whom the thrones were stolen are now shadows of their former glory. Publically lauded as official Gods of the state, they are little more than propaganda puppets; trapped in the stones and steel of the cityscape, whispering prophecy and begging for offerings in exchange for favors.

• Gildguld, God of Tax Collectors
• Mitchuas, The Son of Ash
• Gaibrus, The Birdgod of the Dawn
• Zeudin Vashas, The Six Faced Lord of Thunder
• Lamris, The God of Obedience and the Underworld
• Friedites, The Goddess of Sin and Purity
• Valstaris, The Goddess of Love and War
• Xerfer, The Goddess of Jealousy and Greed

The Path of the Grey

The Path of the Grey through Myth and Culture

The Grey begins its time in any new Shadowlands as nothing more than whisper of being. Fear of disorder. A desire for control. A flash of red or a reflective shine to the eyes of those who listen to the Grey as it whispers- first in their dreams and then during waking hours. The Grey prefers the dark and the cold. The grey prefers high altitudes and thin air and open spaces. And in these spaces one can hear the Grey more clearly.

And as one's story spins darkly out control, as impending doom approaches due to impersonal forces beyond one's control; then the Grey can sense one's mind and make its offer.

Grey Aliens

Assuming a physical form is possible for the Grey even in its weakest stages of development in this world. In its embryonic form, the Grey appears not unlike a Grey Alien: smooth grey skin, with an over sized head not unlike a Mayan Mummy. The eyes are black upon first inspection, but prove an impossible deep red if light its the eyes at the correct angle. The Grey will move itself as though gravity did not affect it, and without moving any of its body- levitating in total stillness with not limbs moving. Even as it grows in strength, the Grey will still assume this form in many dealings. It appears fond of the form.

The Grinning Man

A horrible precursor to the arrival of the Grey's more powerful Forms. The way will be paved for the Grey by a series of strange homunculi called the Grinning Men. They appear almost human, but their faces have no eyes, merely skin sunken into empty sockets with rictus grins cause by mouths with no lips. The Grinning Men speak without moving or opening their mouths, directly into the minds of the listeners without fail. They dress in anachronistic though formal clothing, ten or twenty years out of date. They do not walk, rather they simply appear in a different location when one blinks or looks away.

They act as evangelical ministers, spreading the word to those willing to hear the Grey's message. They offer warnings of impending real danger. They make promises of safety and good will. And they will insist that they "breath and eat and bleed as men do".

As people begin to listen to their warnings, and people will, despite their terrifying visage; the Grinning Men will begin to speak of a coming danger. And they will offer solace and safety through allegiance to their Elder: The Grey.

The Mothman

The Grey, like most elders, can assume an approximation of a human form once it has sufficient strength. Said form is a tall thin grey figure with reflective grey eyes. The Face looks like a strange mixture of insect and owl-like features- although without features or chitin. The avian/insect hybrid features are cast upon pallid grey skin stretched across a skull which appears overly large and elongated like a classic alien or a preserved Mayan mummy. The Grey wears a grey leather or skin cloak or overcoat which appears to merge with the body of the figure. The Interior of the coat is colored brown and umber and dusty ochre, in patterns which strongly suggest the wings of a moth. Sometimes, the figure will have hands separate from the cloak, sometimes the hands and arms will merge with the cloak. The cloak will move and spread like wings if the figure moves into the air.

The Grey makes sounds, but they are out of sync with it's movements. If it speaks, the mandibles in it's mouth will move after the words have been heard. The sounds of beating wings or scratching claws will come before or after the movements that should produce said sounds.

Ancient Astronauts theory

Stories have power, and the Grey and its homunculi will tell stories claiming credit for human advances int he Bonelands. They will claim increasing influence of the events depicted in recorded history. For as stories are retold, so does history change. As people come to revere the Grey, so does it's power grow. It devours the histories of other cultures and other gods to make itself strong. It will start with rumors and whispers, to make people talk about it. Then it will transform that talk into reverence. Then it will transform that reverence into religious fervor. And finally it will anchor that religious fervor with fear. And it will use that fear to institute control. And through control of the stories told, the Grey makes itself into the Elders and Gods and Demons and Spirits from other older stories. It travels back in time through the minds of those who believe its stories and remakes the history that they know.

And the world that these people live in becomes one where the Grey was always the one true God, and all other supernatural beings which survive in the cultural discourse are demons or evil spirits. The world becomes the story which people tell, and being born of fear becomes a god who rules through fear.

The Grey in more Depth

Fear is inescapable. Fear is inevitable. Heroes use fear as their sword and shield, as their drive and fuel. But some use fear as a cage within which they capture everyone, including themselves. In the hopes of total control, the Grey inspires the Locust King to cage and devour the world.

The Grey is a kidnapped infant demiurge. The grey as a reverse alien abduction. 'God' as an accidental prisoner from another story. Always an outsider to the story they infect. The Grey is an infant old one dragged into each new shadowland as an embodied hypersigil thoughtform by the desperate magick of the Locust and the Lion. The child godhead has been driven mad by fear and sensory overload in the new world. He is pain and fear and simple morality and id urges. Because demons and gods live in stories, the bootstrap Paradox is a viable option. The Lion and the Locust are faced with a Wendigo invasion. Wendigo are caused by the Locust touch and thus the Grey, but the paradox can eliminated if the Locust and Lion make the right choice in this retelling.

The Grey Locust/King and the Grey always start as Dead Gods from somebody else's story. They infect new stories. Pulled in when somebody else invokes and embodies their story as a means of power and/or survival. The Grey is anti life. It seeks silence and stillness and order. It seeks to make the world still . Because it is afraid. It is a being from the dark Era of the universe... when entropy has made everything uniform and dark and still. It can't handle the chaos and messiness of the Stellaferrous Era. And so it seeks to enforce order. It is a creature from the end of all stories. It does not understand middles.

Thus the Grey is not evil. The Grey is applying a morality that does not function in this story. It is not evil. It is alien. It is applying tools not appropriate to this world.