dramatispersonae

IOLITE

You sink down, down, down through the water, the light fading away above, but somehow you neither get wet nor have trouble breathing...

Occasionally, fragments of song reach you.

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You need to live, goes the snippet of song in your head.

Welcome to the bottom of the sea. It should be dark here, but something illuminates a vast garden surrounding you. It should be wet here, but the sensation of the water around you is distant, and you stay dry.

At the center of the garden rises a great spiral staircase carved out of mother-of-pearl.

Glimmering with the light, the opalescent stairs rise high above, vanishing into dark water once out of range of the light. A coral gate bars them from you for now. It is locked, but the faint outline of a key can be seen in the lock.

Whenever you get near the stairway, a snippet of songs resolves into words in your head:

Make a wish from your heart.

You know that is what one person here must do to proceed.

You need to love, goes the snippet of song in your head.

As you come to a broad shelf on the sea floor, a peculiar sight unfolds before you in the returning light. The ancient remains of a shipwreck litter the ground, but before them, a number of marble statues have been arranged like some kind of art installation.

Beyond all this, another mother-of-pearl stairway rises into the waters above as they approach the surface.

The opalescent stairs rise high above, wavering faintly in the rippling water as they go up, then vanishing into more gloom. A coral gate bars them from you for now. It is locked, but the faint outline of a key can be seen in the lock.

Whenever you get near the stairway, a snippet of songs resolves into words in your head:

Make a wish from your heart.

You know that is what one person here must do to proceed.

You need to dream, goes the snippet of song in your head.

The water falls away around you as you emerge into a cavern, its stone walls dappled with light reflecting off the calm water. Plants and seaweed grow in the shallows, and all around you in the sand are fantastical sculptures.

The way out of the cave is barred by another coral gate.

The walls of the cavern slowly narrow into a tunnel to the outside. Yet another gate made of coral blocks the way to it, though. It is locked, but the faint outline of a key can be seen in the lock.

Whenever you get near the stairway, a snippet of song resolves into words in your head:

Make a wish from your heart.

You know that is what one person here must do to proceed.

[Kind of... trying to listen in to the song.]

Do you hear that too?

[nods, closing her eyes and focusing]

I hear it, but not enough of it at once to get the melody.

[opens her eyes again and looks around the garden; what kind of plants are there here?]

Great fronds of kelp rise out of the ocean floor, gleaming faintly in all shades of green, as well as red and purple. Strange creatures as beautiful as any flower inch slowly along the sandy bed, and brilliantly-colored fish dart in and out of the waving seaweed.

The song drifts in and out of your awareness, always repeating that same brief lyric--unless you get close to the stairs, that is.

Yeah, it's like it's stuck on repeat. It's just the same little fragment, repeating over and over... It seems like it's different around the stairs, though.

Let's head over there and check it out, then.

[are there seashells around? if so, she's going to pick some up.]

When you attempt to pick up a shell, little legs pop out from beneath it and wave frantically in the water, trying to get away.

Oops! Sorry, little guy.

[puts it back down!]

Still, we're supposed to figure out the theme here, right?

[Hm, what could the theme be... I'll examine the kelp in more detail.]

The tall, waving seaweed is surprisingly sturdy, and in places it tangles with itself to provide nooks of shelter, guarded from the faint currents outside.

[...Well, let's see if there's anything inside those nooks, then.]

[meanwhile, the shell thing might not have worked, but what about touching the fish?]

The fish dart away from your hand. They are every shape and size imaginable. Some of them might be anemones; others might be sea cucumbers. Some have spines, and others look as if they would be soft and squishy to the touch. But all of them are strange and colorful.

As you watch the fish and the things that crawl along below them, a larger fish darts into a school of small ones and scoops several into its mouth.

There doesn't seem to be anything inside the nooks, but they look surprisingly homely and inviting.

[...Hm. How big are these? By which I mean, can I fit into one?]

[...that just happened.]

...ah...

[not going to fuss at it to let them go, but she looks kind of sad.]

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IOLITE

THE LOWEST LEVEL

EXPLORE AND DISCUSS

ONWARDS

THE MIDDLE LEVEL

EXPLORE AND DISCUSS

ONWARDS

THE TOP LEVEL

EXPLORE AND DISCUSS

FINISH

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