come_sailaway | In her sepulchre there by the sea

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In her sepulchre there by the sea

Who: Palamedes Sextus and his cavalier, Camilla Hect, the rest of the House Heirs, a gaggle of spooky monks, some skeletons, a murderer, and you!
What: Memshare adventures! All memories are open to all.
When: Anytime in March
Where: Canaan House, Earth!
Warnings: Canon-typical blood, violence, and mild body horror
Notes: Below the cut you will find some scene-setting and descriptions/notes for each of the prompts. Prompts themselves are in the comments!

In general, characters will assume that you arrived with the other visitors to Canaan House a few weeks before any of the events described below, but they will have no idea who you are and why you’re there, and will be extremely suspicious of your presence.

Canaan House rises out of the sea like a castle, a tower, a crumbling mausoleum. Outside the small island on which it stands, the ocean stretches as far as the eye can see, sparkling under the bright rays of Dominicus. The building itself is clearly old, crumbling in places, windows cracked and bricks pitted; even on a thanergenic planet, where life must fight for its existence, nature is slowly overtaking one of the last symbols of humanity on the planet all people once called home.

Inside, the sense of grand decay continues. If you squint, you might notice the way it resembles a university building, some wings made up with wood floors and elaborate bannisters, fading paintings and rotting tapestries on the walls, while others are full of large, light-filled spaces, all glass, and steel, and concrete. There is a large courtyard with a dry fountain, broken elevators and flights of stairs that end halfway up, and dozens of doors with numbers above the threshold, each with its own unique lock, each requiring a key to open. Listen closely and you might hear an ambient hum of electricity, or the quiet clatter of bone from the dozens of otherwise-silent skeleton constructs that clean, and cook, and gather food for the planet’s first guests in nearly ten thousand years.

Welcome to the First House. Don’t stay any longer than you have to.

The Wind Came Out of the Cloud By Night
Investigate a murder scene! This is the best chance of meeting lots of other characters or exploring Canaan House more broadly.

The Demons Down Under the Sea
Solve a puzzle, fight a skeleton monster, hang out with Palamedes and Camilla

We Loved With a Love That Was More than Love
Experience Palamedes death! Please note that unless previously discussed, characters will not be able to interact with this memory, only observe.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Seconds after Wayne steps through the doorway, a knife flies through the air embeds itself into a metal grate on the wall next to his head.

The woman who threw the knife is standing with her feet planted wide, eyes narrowed, and draws two short swords. More slowly, Palamedes turns around to face Wayne. “Cam,” He waves her back, raising his eyebrows in something like wonder. “My goodness, aren’t you remarkable.”

There's an immediate flinch at the sound of the knife hitting the metal so close to his head, a sharp inhale and a grimace lightly contorting his face as he stares at it, then back at the man approaching him. His hands come up on reflex palm-out, trying to de-escalate the situation before it comes down to the possibility of a fight.

"Hey, whoa, hold on-"

But then he processes that there doesn't actually seem to be a fight, even if the woman startled him badly enough to take the initiative. "Uh...hi."

“Hullo.” Palamedes slowly steps forward, a choice that Camilla clearly isn’t pleased about. She takes another knife from her belt and grips it at her side, rocking up onto the balls of her feet and back down again.

Pal, meanwhile, looks like he has spotted a rare animal or made a scientific discovery. He holds out his own hands in an effort to look as non-threatening as possible. The creature seems fully aware, almost human in his affect and not at all dangerous, but one never knows. “Where did you come from? Do you live down here?”

Teacher had said there were strange monsters in Canaan House’s basement.

Wayne attempts to relax a little as the man approaches, though it seems obvious that his companion is ready to strike at the slightest provocation. He's moving right past the immediate feeling that being called remarkable gave him, that if he had the subcutaneous blood supply for it that he might have blushed, because this is not the time nor place.

"No, I, uh. I'm kind of. Lost?" His hands fall back to his sides, only moving some as he tries to explain himself. "I was only trying to explore a little and ended up not knowing where to go. Not the first time it's happened." He sounds, for all intents and purposes, like a normal person, quiet and somewhat monotone as if trying not to disturb their surroundings. "What even is all this?"

“Lost?” Palamedes almost smiles. “Camilla, do remind me to tell Teacher that he severely mischaracterized what we might find down here.” Cam doesn’t look half so amused, but Pal plunges on, speaking directly to Wayne now. “There is a lot to explore down here, isn’t there? We’ve counted eight distinct laboratories, presumably one for each House, each with its own puzzle that will lead to a unique key.”

Then he turns and gestures at the wide window in front of him. “We aren’t sure what this is yet. The door over there,” he points to the one in the center of the window, “doesn’t seem to open by an obvious means. No buttons, no levers. Unless there’s something I missed?”

He looks almost hopefully at the newcomer. If the monster is going to be so nice about everything, then maybe he can help them figure out what they’re meant to do here.

As the woman seems to relax, so too does Wayne, his hands tucking into the pockets of his jumpsuit as he pans around the room, looking to the window- the door. Well, he's not bad at puzzles, he's solved plenty, even in places a bit like this. He wishes it wasn't quite so dark, but he could push down the nerves about that if it meant he could try and explore a little more and maybe even help.

He's quite forgotten that this is supposed to be a memory and that all of this was already done.

"Checked for any depressable tiles in the floor or wall? Sometimes that'll get this stuff started." He's watching the floor underfoot as he shifts his weight, before turning his attention back to the two of them, then looking Palamedes in the face. The man is actually a little bit taller than he himself is, not accounting for the horns that make his head its distinctive crescent shape. "You guys got any kind of hints coming into this or is it all on the fly?" They have a reason for being here, he realizes that, but how much information do they have in the first place?

“Ah, good suggestion. Cam?” With a nod, Camilla begins to inspect the tiles on the floor, starting near the door in the windowed wall. She’s obvious still more suspicious of Wayne than Palamedes, glancing at him from time to time, one hand never far from the sword at her hip, but she is clearly somewhat mollified by his willingness to help.

Wayne’s question makes Pal huff softly, a sort of wry laugh. “Our hosts are very nonspecific. We—Camilla, myself, and seven additional pairs of necromancers and cavalier—have come to discover the path to becoming Lyctors, something no one has accomplished in thousands of years. We were given one instruction: that we cannot open locked doors without permission. What that means for the secret of this particular laboratory, I have no idea.”

“Warden.” This is from Camilla, who has reached the door in the side wall. “Come look at this.”

The room on the other side of the door, which slides open automatically when anyone approaches, was small, dusty, and filled with rusting, nondescript machines. At its center was a tall metal pedestal, atop which sat a flat panel of reflective glass. In the dim light, surrounded by so much grey decay, the glass almost seems to glow.

"Weird...okay," he murmurs, and eases to one side to start a slow patrol around the room to try and find something for himself. Gloved fingers trace over the walls in the hopes of coming across something that might make progress toward the task at hand.

"What's a Lyctor?" he's asking just as Camilla is calling Pal's attention away, and Wayne turns to watch the door opening, grateful immediately that at least one of them is having better luck. He follows at a distance, hoping to stay out of the way as much as he can.

This...well, this actually makes more sense to him, in a broad sense. He circles around to get a better look at the pedestal, though he doesn't immediately touch the glass. Best to get an idea of what it does before laying one's hands on an unknown device.

"Look like what you're searching for?" he asks, glancing between the two of them.

Palamedes is investigating the glass window, looking for some crack or seam that could imply a hidden panel. He looks up with a grin when Camilla calls to him and ambles over to investigate. “A lyctor is an extraordinary powerful necromancer,” he tells Wayne. “Immortal, or so they say. They serve at the right hand of God.”

Inside the second room, barely more than a closet, Cam stands with her arms folded, looking intently at the pedestal, but keeping his distance. Like Wayne, Palamedes circles it. “Perhaps, perhaps.”

After a few moments, he takes something small and grayish-white out of his pocket, almost like a stone, and places it on the pedestal’s glass surface. For a few moments, nothing happens. Then, Pal cocks his head to the side, and the pebble grows into a perfect replica of the skeleton of a human hand. As the bones settle, a small cage erupts from the glass and settles over the hand.

From the other room, there is a whooshing sound as the door in the large glass window opens.

Wayne listens, taking in the information as it comes, though necromancy is an alien concept to him. He can break down the component parts of it to figure out what it means though, and he has to wonder how such a thing would work when it comes to people like him.

He doesn't get to linger in that train of thought for long before he hears the door opening, and he looks back at Palamedes, then at his companion, hoping that she would at least trust him enough to let him look into the chamber on the other side and continue attempting to help.

"Okay, I'll go this way," he announces to Camilla and starts around the outer edge of the room from just inside the door, looking around at all the small details in case there was something in here that they would perhaps have to touch at the same time. He'd come across other such triggers in the past after all, remembering the labyrinth that he and his crew had been forced to traverse. All the while he'd been attempting to hold it together, being deeply unhappy about having to go through yet another maze that he was sure was going to make him outright quit before they found the end of it.

The moment the door slides shut again, he would be right on edge, hand back on the handle of his axe. They wouldn't just lock a stranger in here, would they?

Camilla follows him, parking herself in the doorway between the two rooms so that she can keep an eye on both the Master Warden and this surprisingly helpful yellow monster. When the door to the chamber whooshes shut, she unsheathes her sword, the movement almost exactly in time with Wayne’s grab for his own weapon. If Wayne happens to look back, he will see the girl looking inscrutable as ever, with only the slightest tightness around her mouth to show her concern.

“Warden, something’s happening,” she calls to Pal, who is making a grimace of concentration and doesn’t respond.

Meanwhile, a strange, soupy mist fills the chamber. It swirls around Wayne for a few moments, and then, just as it begins to dissipate, a skeletal monstrosity emerges from the darkness. With eyes that glow, it charges at Wayne, its scythe-like arms swinging.

“Warden!” Camilla calls again, more urgent now, rushing in to the pedestal room and bodily yanking Pal away from the glass panel. At the twitch of his wrist, the cage around his hand retracts. In the same moment, the mist in the chamber clears, the skeleton dissolves, and the door slides gently open.

Wayne makes a sound that could very well be interpreted as an 'oh not again' sort of groan as he shifts his footing, squaring his stance and preparing to pull a defensive Gesture. His hands are raised with the handle of his axe balanced on his wrist, until the skeleton dissolves in front of him.

"Uh...Warden?" He doesn't actually know Pal's name yet, but a title is better when they're not familiar with each other right? He straightens up, still watching the place where the skeleton disappeared. "What did you do?"

Both Palamedes and Camilla hurry back to the first room, only to find the door open and the monstrous construct gone. “I took my hand off the panel,” Palamedes says. “Of course. Naturally, if the dermal contact sets the trial in motion, then removing it will cause the trial to abort. Quick thinking, Cam. That was quite the beast in there.” Turning to Wayne he adds, “I am very sorry to have put you in danger, friend.”

Cam has gone still. “Warden?”

“…Yes?”

“How do you know what was in the chamber?”

Palamedes blinks and locks eyes with Wayne, realization dawning. Everything had happened so fast, he had barely had time to comprehend that he had been looking through Wayne's eyes. “I saw it.”

Looking between the two of them as they discuss, Wayne's brow furrows, then smooths as he starts connecting dots himself.

"But why? To separate your crew? If you have to fight this thing on your own, but...you saw it too... Did you see anything else?" he asks, looking from Cam to Palamedes. There has to be a reason that a mechanic like that was implemented into this trial, right? Nothing like that was ever accidental.

“That is the question.” Palamedes presses his hands together and begins to pace. “Necromancer and cavalier are forced to split up. They cannot combine forces in the chamber…” Suddenly he stops, eyes going wide. “Or can they? Sir—I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name—I did see something else. But I can’t be sure what.”

He frowns faintly. “I don’t want to put you in a dangerous situation, but I would be grateful for another look, if you don’t mind returning to the chamber.”

"Wayne," he replies, looking back toward the chamber again, putting together what he's pretty sure they might have to do as soon as Palamedes starts to walk himself through it in kind. That's...huh. That's clever, if this is supposed to be a test of bonds. One person outside, and a talented fighter in would give them a better chance at solving this.

So Wayne props his axe against his shoulder, shifting his weight and assessing himself briefly, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out an anomalous juice box that seems to be a much lower graphical fidelity than the rest of the surrounding space, sucking it dry then crushing it to put back into his pocket. If he's going to be in a fight, he needs to be able to perform accordingly.

"Let's do this."

“Wayne,” says Camilla, her expression implying that this is not the sort of name she expected a Canaan House-dwelling monster to have.

“An absolute pleasure, Wayne,” says Palamedes with, as usual, much more good cheer. He claps his hands together. “Excellent. Cam, you stand watch as before.” To Wayne he adds, “We’re pulling you out the moment things get dire. Now, let’s take our places.”

Pal returns to the smaller room, leaving Camilla watching Wayne. She looks…just a bit impressed. Before long, the door to the chamber slides open once again.

She wouldn't be the first person to be surprised by his name being decidedly human. At least Palamedes seems to be in much better spirits than his companion.

Knowing that others are at his back again is comforting, and Wayne moves as soon as the door opens again. He looks back at the man with his hand on the podium and offers an easy thumbs-up. To Camilla he adds, "We got this." He's confident in his ability to fight with this extra bit of guidance after all.

The moment the door slides closed behind them again, Wayne's hand is out, and he curls his fingers in such a way that the air before Camilla warps, and a protective barrier wraps around her. A simple precautionary measure that would blunt the first blow that she might take. Best to make sure that the other walked away unscathed one way or another.

Camilla draws her sword as the air shimmers around her. For a moment, she’s wary—Cam is familiar with thanergenic barriers, but they are usually stationary. As she shifts from foot-to-foot, though, she realizes that the protective bubble moves with her.

“That was unnecessary,” she tells Wayne. “But…thanks.”

They don’t have much more time to chat, though; once again, the strange milky mist surrounds them, and then forms itself into a great, monstrous creature. This time, though, a speak crackles to life, and then Palamedes voice can be heard.

“Oh! Oh goodness, this is awfully strange with two of you. I have a sort of double vision! Well, they say two heads are better than one, so why not three?”

With a barely suppressed roll of her eyes, Camilla takes a swing at the charging skeleton, striking one of its scythe-like arms. It only takes a few moments for the arm to grow back.

While Camilla goes one way, Wayne moves the opposite, giving her a thumbs-up in reply to her thanks. He makes a move similar to hers and swings his axe up to defend himself while at the same time whipping his hand out, snapping his fingers, and in the same instant one of its joints seems to explode without anything having made physical contact with it. Unfortunately, any victorious feeling is short-lived as the limb comes right back again.

"Not great," he murmurs, brow furrowing. If it regenerates, it might also be capable of duplicating as well, at least if it works anything like things that he's fought in the past and that is absolutely not something that he wants to deal with in the here and now. So instead he backs up several steps, and calls for Camilla to do the same, just for the moment.

Then he lifts the same hand that had Snapped, and instead points his fingers outward almost as in admonishment, then spreads them as his hand pulls back. It's as if a string soaked in gasoline and lit on fire wraps around that same limb that had just regenerated, leaving it to continuously burn. Hopefully it would be enough to make a dent.

Just in case, he calls back toward the door, while keeping his eyes on the monster. "Warden?"

After a moment of stunned silence, during which even Camilla Hect lifts her brows in surprise, Palamedes voice again crackles over the loudspeaker.

“Wow. Wow! That was—Emperor’s bones, how did you do that? No, of course, that’s for later. Cam, to your left!” The cavalier returns to life, beating back the construct with dodges and swings, her strikes keeping it at bay, but doing nothing to truly conquer it. Meanwhile, the creature’s arm continues to burn, but beneath the fire, the limb is slowly growing.

When Palamedes speaks again, he sounds almost breathless. “Wayne, can you see the fourth thoracic vertebrae? Strike it there!”

“That’s the one in the middle of the back,” offers Cam, who understands that not everyone has Palamedes’ anatomical knowledge. “He’s asking you to run it through.”

“Thank you, Camilla!”

There's a moment of surprise when they both pause to boggle at his Gestures. There's not actually any time to explain just now though, as the thing rallies and turns its focus to Camilla.

The guidance catches his attention and directs it toward the creature's spine, even if he doesn't know exactly what part of its spine they're referring to. He's not unintelligent, just new to dealing with human worlds. He calls back a "got it" before ducking low and rounding to the back of the construct to perform a similar Gesture to the one that had protected Camilla, only this one wraps the spine of the creature in a corrosive layer that starts to eat away at its vertebrae. It would reduce the amount of power that the thing could put into its strikes, albeit temporarily, and give him the chance to strike at that weakened place with his axe. It does a fairly substantial amount of damage, but likely not enough to destroy it outright.

Would he even gain any flesh from this thing when it fell? Would that matter here? Hm. Probably not.

“Brilliant!” Pal says over the speaker. “This is—this is remarkable. By striking at the regeneration theorems, you should be able to disable the creature. Cam, third left-hand tibia; Wayne, lower right rib. On my mark—“

The monster may not have been destroyed by Wayne’s earlier blow, but it has clearly been affected. Its movements are slower now, and its burning limb has begun to be consumed. Still, he has plenty of strength left, and it lunges for Camilla.

“Mark!”

The upside of having used Dissolution on it is that the damage is continuous just as the fire had been, meaning that the construct is going to be slowly falling apart while they hack at it.

While both the burning and dissolving are active, he can manifest other abilities, but at a greater cost to his personal energy reserves. He'd have to wait until the next shift in the thing's weak points to be able to reactivate either one and so for the time being, the best he can do is strike out at the rib where he was directed, circling back around while it lunges and launching a ranged Snap that would chip off part of the bone and further cripple it. The next one would be more effective at least as he was able to light a new fire.

"Camilla?" he calls to check in on her. If she takes that hit, her defenses would no longer be fortified. He needs to know that she can fend for herself until he can re-up it.

Cam strikes where Pal directs and dances away—but not quite fast enough. The creature slices downward with one of its swordlike arms, and she braces for the blow. But when it comes, the impact on her arm is strangely softened, as though she’d been blocked by an invisible shield. She’ll have a nasty bruise later, but nothing worse.

The shimmer around her dissipates, but that doesn’t seem to trouble her. “All right!” she calls, emboldened enough to strike at the construct and slice off one of its arms. Even though it begins to grow back immediately, it’s still a satisfying hit.

Pal can feel Wayne’s focus shift to Camilla, and though he knows they should stay with the construct, he can’t help but follow those thoughts. “Wayne, can you give her the same protection again?” 

Cam huffs. “Warden!”

“I’m going to need both of you to hit dead center next. You need all the help you can get!”

In her sepulchre there by the sea

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