In her sepulchre there by the sea

[hellonspectacles]

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.

Comments

[hellonspectacles]

Palamedes looks at Cassandra with renewed interest and makes a conciliatory gesture.

"By all means."

[not_the_last]

She draws one of her daggers, reverses it to hold it gingerly by the blade, and lays it down where Palamedes rested his hand.

If the cage doesn't close around the inanimate object, she's going to try with her own hand next.

[hellonspectacles]

The pedestal hums faintly, and then closes around the dagger.

"So it responds to weight, not biometrics," Palamedes observes, taking a walk around the pedestal. "But what's it meant to do? There doesn't seem to be an additional affect, and I have a hard time believing that it's a glorified mousetrap."

While Cassandra and Palamedes experiment with the pedestal, Camilla has been doing a more thorough examination of the room itself. "Warden, this door's locked." She peers through the door's tiny window into the first room. "And the other one's opened."

"I stand corrected."

[not_the_last]

"It opens the other door, but to keep it open one has to stay here ..." A pause. "Two people. It's designed to make it impossible for anyone to get in without at least one other person's assistance. There might be a way to circumvent it, but that has to be the intent."

[hellonspectacles]

Palamedes and Camilla share a look. “Of course, of course,” says Pal. “It wasn’t merely a formality to invite both house heir and cavalier primary, but an integral aspect of the trials. Masterful.” He looks at Cassandra. “Miss de Rollo, please lift your sword. I want both of you to go out there and tell me what happens when I put my hand on the panel.”

[not_the_last]

"Very well." She nods, retrieves her dagger, and makes for the door; she's fairly sure by this time that Camilla will already be following the implied order.

Once out of the smaller room, she glances at Camilla, trying to gauge the weather in her expression.

[hellonspectacles]

Camilla leads the way back to the first room, where she pauses in front of the glass chamber’s locked door, and looks back at Cassandra. As always, her expression is terribly hard to read, but she appears calm and faintly curious.

As expected, the door slides open after a few moments as, presumably, Palamedes places his hand on the pedestal. “I’m going in,” Camilla calls, and then cocks her head at Cassandra. “What sort of weaponry do you have on you, aside from the dagger? And do you know how to use it?”

[not_the_last]

"A few more daggers," she says. "A rapier. Some items that aren't weapons but have potential applications in combat." A beat. "And yes. Do you think there's any point in one of us attempting to hold the door open?"

[hellonspectacles]

Camilla nods. She doesn’t think the woman has any reason to lie, but if she is, for some reason, they will find out soon enough.

She draws her sword and steps lightly into the chamber, then looks back at her companion. “Probably not.” But because she isn’t Palamedes Sextus’ Hand for nothing, she takes a small. sharp knife out of her pocket and places it across the auto door’s threshold. Then she cocks her head to the side, as though to say to Cassandra, Coming?

[not_the_last]

Cassandra draws her own rapier, and nods to Camilla in a silent Yes, coming, and follows.

If they hear anything suggesting Palamedes is in danger, alone ... she tries to tell herself that surely he must have come through this successfully the first time, but it still feels a touch like turning her back on him.

[hellonspectacles]

Camilla rocks onto the balls of her feet in anticipation as the autodoor begins to close, behind them. When it reaches the knife, it opens again, and for a moment, it seems like nothing will happen. Then, suddenly, it closes with a force that shatters the blade.

"Damn," says Camilla.

As soon as the door slams shut, a strange, soupy mist fills the chamber. It swirls around the pair inside 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 towards them, its scythe-like arms swinging.

25 and 13 to hit, whatever that means in this context

[not_the_last]

Cassandra is at Camilla's left shoulder; she slaps together the heels of her boots, and hurls two daggers at those glowing eyes.

Without waiting to see if they hit, she dodges left, hoping Camilla will dodge right. If she can get the creature between herself and Camilla, she'll have better odds of doing some serious damage.

[hellonspectacles]

Bouncing on her heels, Camilla feels Cassandra shift her weight ever-so-slightly and immediately understands the plan; she springs to the right as the construct charges forward. It may be fast, and it may be enormous, but it isn’t very smart, and seems baffled to find itself faced with two enemies on either side.

That’s all that Cam needs. While the construct hesitates, she twists round and charges back towards it, leaping with her two swords raised, bringing the blades down on two of the many appendages. She only manages one hit, but even that victory is short-lived, for the severed bone immediately begins to grow back.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Cam says under her breath, readying for another charge.

[not_the_last]

The one of her daggers that hit seems to have half-severed the thing's jaw, but it grows back in the same way, even as her blades blink back to her belt.

"Keep it distracted," she calls, "let me try --"

And she tries two of her enchanted daggers this time, with their acid and lightning runes. Maybe it'll be more vulnerable to magic, or to anything that isn't just straightforward physical damage?

[hellonspectacles]

Camilla gives Cass a sharp nod and dives towards the construct in s summersault. When she leaps up, she is in the midst of its many limbs, blades swinging. Each broken bone immediately regenerates, but she hopes to keep all the appendages occupied long enough for Cass to do whatever she needed to do.

Suddenly, the speaker high up on the wall crackles. “…Magical daggers? Well, that’s not something you see every day. Cam, left. Miss de Rolo, aim for the lower right limb. At least, I think it’s the lower right limb. Emperor’s bones, this is like nothing I’ve ever—“

“Warden!” Cam breaks through, still hacking and slashing, “Get to the point!”

“I can see through your eyes.”

[not_the_last]

Well, that's -- fascinating? Horrifying? Some of both? Later.

She's going to assume Palamedes means the creature's right, and aims for the limb in question. And with Camilla occupying the creature's attention, she has that much greater an advantage in aiming for the spot she's been told is vulnerable.

Lightning arcs purple-blow from dagger to bone with one blow, and acid sizzles green into the target of the next.

[hellonspectacles]

Meanwhile, in the other room, stars are exploding behind Palamedes’ vision and his free hand is gripping the edge of the pedestal hard enough to leave marks on his palm.

He sees Cam swing her swords, almost as though in slow motion, and can feel her determined calm give way to frustration as each sliced-off limb. “Don’t worry, Cam, I have a plan,” he says, and though she responds through clenched teeth, he hears her loud and clear.

“You better.”

Meanwhile, Cass’ explosion of green acid hits its target, eating through the theorem that only Pal can see. “That’s it!” Palamedes calls in triumph. “I can see them— I can see the theorems. Cassandra, right scapula. Cam, third vertebrae. Now!”

[not_the_last]

They strike together, and she can almost feel some crucial part of the creature's structure give way under each of their blows. The fear that it's wishful thinking flickers up and dissolves in the next moment, as the demolished bones do not regenerate.

"Whatever you're doing, it's working," she calls out, and circles to stay behind the thing as it lurches toward Camilla again.