Insanity

[Rezantis]

"Did I ever use the basement for anything, Molly?" Nathan queries, "What -is- it used for?"

[Brian]

"There's the furnace, and the coal-chute," she says slowly.  "Oh, and storage, but I don't think you ever used it.  Maybe you did and I don't remember?"  She shivers.  "Oh, I hope not.  That place scares me."

[Rezantis]

"I might as well have a quick look," Nathan muses, "I know I must have had some other workroom - or something, in any case.  There are some books that should be there."

"If you don't want to come down, though, that's fine."

[Brian]

Molly looks nervous, but follows Nathan anyway.

The basement is a series of cavernous room, mostly empty, and very dark.  There's no anabaric lighting down here, either, so Nathan has to carry a candle.  Then, near the first set of stairs (there are several, across the manor), the first thing Nathan encounters is the furnace, currently turned off, and a monumental pile of coal.  A shovel sits in one corner.

Probing deeper into the mess leaves Molly shivering, but still following, until there's a noise in the darkened corner of the room.  Molly shrieks and clings to Nathan, trembling, as a rat (big one, too -- almost the size of a cat) scurries away from the light.  Looks like it was hiding under some ancient, falling apart vanity or cabinet of some sort ... still, this is a good possibility.  The cabinet is not as dusty as other things laying around down here.

Now, if Nathan can just get the hyperventilating ghost-girl to let go of him, he could try and investigate it.

[Rezantis]

Oh dear.

Nathan waves the candle around with his free hand, looking around the room.

"Do they always get that large?" Nathan asks, as he waits for Molly to calm down.

[Brian]

"Er," Molly manages, realizing her position and releasing Nathan with an eerily vibrant blush.  "I d-don't rightly know.  I don't like to come down here, not at all!"

[Rezantis]

"I don't blame you with rats like that," Nathan agrees, "but let's have a look at this."

He walks over and tries opening the cabinet - if it's unlocked, anyway.

[Brian]

The cabinet is indeed unlocked.  And within is ... a stone tablet.

It's pretty decently sized -- about 40 centimeters wide, 30 tall, and 5 thick.  It's etched with all sorts of interesting moon language with no readily apparent meaning.  The stone is dark brown, and looks ... oddly enough ... natural.  Maybe it's just really well crafted.  There's nothing else inside, except for a torn bit of cloth, probably a bedsheet, that had been placed beneath it.  Now, though, the cloth looks a bit chewed up.

"What's that?" Molly asks, unable to keep the nervous tremor from her voice.

[Rezantis]

"This . . . would probably be what I brought back through the gate," Nathan says thoughtfully, "and so I was hoping it might have some answers."

Drawing on the Strength of Apollo, he reaches into the cabinet with his free hand and picks up the tablet.

"I think I'll take this upstairs and look it over in my study."

[Brian]

Molly blinks as Nathan's arm is encased in a golden gauntlet, but nods, happy to get out of the basement.

Shortly, Nathan has the stone atop his paper-covered desk.  It's easier to see in better light, but doesn't seem to react specially.  And the symbols carved into it still remain a mystery.

[Rezantis]

Nathan leans over the tablet, examining it carefully and trying - hoping - to find some dredges of memory that might give him an inkling of what this is, or how to find out.

He was supposed to be an archaeologist, surely he had to know something . . .

OOC: Influence to, ah, +1 int rolls, (5 points) +3 cryptography, (3 points) +3 deduction (3 points), speed reading (4 points)?

That gives me a crypto check of 17-, a deduction check of 17-, and a standard int check of 14- plus speed reading for going through the books and notes . . . basically just hoping my previous self had some degree of skill in this sort of thing, and if not, turn his library upside down trying to find this out for myself.[/url]

[Brian]

Nathan spends a lot of time going through the papers in the room.  Most of them are produced from the (or at least, a typewriter), and are easy to read, neatly formatted.  Most of them are also summaries and quotations of other works, too.  Once Nathan puts his mind to it, everything fits together in a very familiar-seeming pattern.

Generally, it also happens to include the history of Anabara.  There's not much of any evident religion -- outside the Church of the Gates -- but Anabarans all believe that some single supreme 'Creator' character put the world together some time back.  Various stories and myths share certain features, but there's also a lot of disagreement.

The only constant factors are the Gates, which are proof that the Creator existed.  Then it goes on about how the Gates bridge the chaotic Shroud, from which all reality was drawn, and that the Creator built the Gates.  According to the general populous ... that's it.  The Creator set the world up, said, "Have at!" and vanished.

Some of the myths are more specific, but also more fantastic: The Creator had a house, people went to the Creator to ask for stuff (often with very moralistic conclusions, those, which link to a social concept called 'the Integrities'), how the Creator decided to make gambling....  Nothing really concrete, except now with the stone....

There is a single legend of the Creator leaving a message behind for people to understand how to use the Gates.  It's unclear what form that message takes, but the story explains that it will be 'heard', even though it's a thing that's carried.  Nathan's otherself took extreme pains to clarify the distinction, to the point of underlining those bits with pen.

Then the history continues: Anabarans have a really unfortunate history with a butt-load of war.  Scholars debate the existence of records that have lasted beyond the last four hundred years.  Very little genuine history remains, but the story is that for whatever reason, parts of the Shroud around the sphere got broken, and started leaking in.

This led to a shortage of land.  Good land was worth fighting over, so thus began the wars.  Eventually, a hero emerged, devising a new piece of technology.  The Anabaric tap.  He was proclaimed the ruler of the land, and drew the excess power from the Shroud, causing the leaks to vanish.

As a very convenient side-effect, this cleared up the issue of Anabaric energy just drifting around, and freed up more land to resettle.  It was then decided that anyone who had the power to make such devices would be the ruler of their land, and the ability to devise new tools and machines was called: 'The Spark'.

Now, while every member of the royal bloodline shares the Spark to some degree, it almost always manifests differently.  Sometimes the royals go mad.  Sometimes they instead become supremely powerful anabarists.  But most of the time, they come up with profound new inventions, and win the trust of their people.

The rest of the documents go on to suggest that each 'sphere' had its own native group, and all evolved differently.  With their power over the Gates, the Church expanded beyond their own lands, and apparently stamped out all non-Church religions.  It's unclear on this point; when the Church attempted to take over Anabara, the current ruler's Spark was for weapons of war.

This led to the Church declaring Anabara to be an enemy of their religion, utilizing some mostly-forgotten passage in their holy book about the Shroud being divine, and not to be touched by mortals.

From there, the Anabarans have pretty much just advanced as much as they could without being able to expand through the Gates, while the Church is equally unable to take over since Anabaran technology tends to vaporize stray legions of Templar Guild knights.

Nothing is mentioned about how Nathan's otherself got to through the Gates, and back, nor are there any real suggestions on what the tablet means.  Some of the shapes and symbols crop up in the scattered notes, which at least suggests that other-Nathan was looking for this plaque, or another one with similar symbols ... but that's the extent of it.

As far as Nathan can discern from looking at his otherself's abilities, he probably is an anthropologist ... just in a world without a very clear idea of what they're supposed to do.  Especially since except for the tablet, everyone seems to speak the same language.

[Rezantis]

This is all interesting, and Nathan devours it in short order.  The 'questionable' books may be missing - possibly in the safe, come to think of it - but this was fairly informative.

He's about to start digging for more information on the church - precisely what sort of technology they have, and how they operate, as per Bjorn's request - when it occurs to him that he has no idea what time it is.

Hopefully the sun isn't up yet . . .

[Brian]

Judging by the shiny brass wallclock with the steam-whistle (currently disabled, thanks to a visible switch), it's about two A.M.  Molly has been patiently waiting the entire time, and (curiously enough) seems to have fallen asleep on the floor at some point.

[Rezantis]

Wildly unsure of whether that's actually uncomfortable for a ghost and vaguely surprised that she even needs sleep, Nathan kneels down and gives Molly a shake.