@Grandmaster | Audio

[paletteswap]

[Kuai has been here for over half a year and has never made a network post. The fact that this technophobe is using his tablet for something other than Sudoku is already pretty alarming. And then...]

Rosinante, General Hughes, and I went searching for the downtown area some had seen in their dreams, following the map that was created. We found it, but we found something else as well.

[Faint in the background is music, it sounds like they might be being pursued by a marching band. There's also hooting, hollering and sounds of general shenanigans in the distance.]

There is a group of forest spirits in some sort of a parade. They are heading towards town. We are trying to get back ahead of them, but if we do not, something is wrong about this. There's a sense of ... wanting to follow them.

Stay wary.

Comments

[paletteswap]

I can try but I don't know if that's wise. There's some compulsive aspect to it we're trying to avoid.

[pearlstrings]

Yes, you mentioned that you felt compelled?

But perhaps it might affect them in turn? To hear it back? It's a gambit with little to lose if you're unable to resist- and a record might be helpful when it's over if we can ask other spirits. Perhaps the librarian or post master.

I apologize for asking more. I realize you've already done your best to warn us.

[paletteswap]

Yes it felt like we had to consciously resist following them. And to focus on that above all else in order to be able to leave their presence.

Describing what we saw may be enough for the post master or any of the other spirits, I'm sure if they've seen it before they know what it is. As for recording it... We'll be returning eventually, since there's other structures and stores and residences here, and if it is still around I'll see about attempting that. Right now we're most concerned with them not following us back to town.

[pearlstrings]

I understand.

Be careful out there. And thank you.

[paletteswap]

Of course. When we're back we can explain further, and maybe try and figure out what's happening.

[pearlstrings]

Agreed. I wonder at what happened to make them emerge now. I haven't found any notes about spirits arriving the way we do, so they must predate their discovery.

[paletteswap]

Concealed by the darkness of the forest until we stumbled across them.

The hotel was set up as if they expected guests at any moment. Maybe they knew we were coming.

[pearlstrings]

Perhaps they were.

I don't know if the spirits have a memory that outlives the resets.

[paletteswap]

I wonder if the resets effect them. I never thought to ask, but I don't see a reason that it would? They're not the ones that are trying to solve the problem of the world eaters.

Unless it resets the entire world and absolutely everything in it, not just the residents.

Is that how it works? I have not talked to Robin in some time.

[pearlstrings]

I suspect that's the case. A kind of time loop.

Pluto mentioned something similar when I asked her about the resets, that one of them happened as the World Eaters were on their doorstep. I hadn't thought to ask about the spirits, but it seems an argument could be made in either direction.

Perhaps they forget because even the World Eaters are affected.
Perhaps they don't because they aren't living things and are part of this world.

[paletteswap]

It affects the World Eaters as well? I didn't realize that. I thought that the resets cancelled out the lantern light so they could no longer find Beacon, since they're attracted to the light.

I may ask her later. It doesn't seem critically important, but it would be nice to know.

[pearlstrings]

It's only conjecture. The reply I'd been given was as vague as everything else we've learned- but I find it hard to imagine that the World Eaters would head directly for this place, and then once the light goes out turn around and move off.

If they aren't redirected, shouldn't they be much closer after so many resets? And shouldn't our window of opportunity have narrowed?

[paletteswap]

Maybe it has. It's possible that former groups had decades to try and solve things.

Unless everything here existed before the light was destroyed, some of this must have been built by former residents so they had years at least.

But you're right, if the World Eaters are sentient they would wait here for more to show up, especially after so many cycles.

[pearlstrings]

My thoughts exactly.

So why haven't they?

[paletteswap]

Magic? I honestly don't know. Even a wild animal would know to return to the same area its prey always appears in.

There's the possibility that other Beacon's were not at this location, but someone built these buildings.

[pearlstrings]

Yes, and Robin mentioned that at each reset the spirits try to destroy the evidence of previous residents. That sometimes they miss things.

I wonder if some of them could be negotiated with.

The spirits want us to find a solution. If we could communicate the value of old research and discoveries, that kind of information could be very significant for us.

[paletteswap]

If what Daylight and Soldat have gathered is true, they do want to help us, but don't understand how.

Someone mentioned the spirits thought killing us would be helpful and didn't understand we'd be mad about that - so I'm not sure how much they can be reasoned with since their view of things is so divergent from ours.

But it's definitely worth a try.

[pearlstrings]

Yes, I remember learning that as well. Though I wonder if it's true of all spirits, like the green-eyed spirits for example. They seem to have a hierarchy of their own.

[paletteswap]

The others seem to be afraid of the green-eyed ones. It might be in our best interest if we could separate them somehow.