Stephanie's Heart: The Archive

[reading_rainstorm]

In your dreams you are in a thick and foggy forest. It could be mistaken for the woods around Tributary if you don’t know your plants. You are on a trail leading into a clearing, in the center of which is a simple, concrete structure with a single door. A chaos star has been spray painted on it with a stencil.

You approach the structure. Looking over your shoulder you see a large shape lurking in the fog, obscured by the foliage. Two shining Feline eyes peer at you from the brush. You feel your heart rate spike as you turn the knob and find an old fashioned elevator tucked neatly inside with an accordion grate standing between you and the ornate, gilded interior. It creaks open as the presence behind you steps into the clearing. It is a sphinx, an eight foot tall lioness with the face of a woman and the large brown wings of an eagle on her back . The feminine face and olive skin tone of a Greek woman from antiquity smiles as she readies herself to to pounce, the wings on her back stretching and give a few readying flaps.You back into the elevator and close the gate with shaking hands as the sphinx leaps at the elevator. Her claws twisting and shearing the metal of the grate slowly, but she is too late. The elevator springs to life and you descend.

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A small light above flickers on as it illuminates your view outside the exposed elevator as you sink into the concrete structure. You descend for a few moments before an opening in the concrete gives you the view of an observation deck on a hill, looking down on the sprawling suburbs and campus of a college town. The elevator continues downward. The concrete gives way to old, dusty marble as you continue sinking. You see a vast maze stretch far and away that gets nearer and nearer. This has to be it, right? Your destination? No. You plunge further down, past the walls of the maze and the marble is replaced again by well polished wood. Beautiful stained mahogany rises past you as your descent finally starts to slow. You are greeted by another grate that creaks open for you. Entreating you to enter.

Comments

[reading_rainstorm]

The Marker in the book is a tarot card, The Hermit. The page marked by it has a highlighted section about the differences between how sphinxes were depicted in the ancient world, the androsphinx being a male protective figure in Egypt and the gynosphinx being a malevolent figure in Greece.

"According to the men who are attributed for recording the canonical myths of Greece, the gynosphinx is a daughter of one of the mothers of monsters in their pantheon. A demon of bad fortune, and described as having gore and rotting flesh in its teeth and talons."

The page continues with information on sphinxes and sphinx like figures of cultures outside the mediteranean.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Reads it with interest!! There's soooo much she'll be able to tell her brother later. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The text goes on to describe the form of a sphinx like creature that the god Shiva took to fight Vishnu and that some countries that follow buddhism worship the sphinx as a protector of the northern direction. There is also the Manhussiha, a creature that has two lion bodies joined at a single human head created by buddhist monks to protect a royal baby from being eaten by ogres.

[dragonindungeon]

Sooo cool . . .

[ Committing that text to memory, Falin puts it back with all the other books!! Though she takes the tarot card and examines it. She has no idea what it means . . . time to go ring the bell for help, in that case! ]

[reading_rainstorm]

“Just a moment please!”

There is a sound of papers being rustled and a drawer closing before a figure rounds the corner of the card catalog drawers.

It is a woman carved entirely from wood wearing a brightly colored paisley dress. She shares a striking resemblance to Stephanie. Her brows are thinner and her lips rest in an easy smile. She moves strangely, like she is at a lower framerate than a living person, like she is being animated by stop motion.


“Oh, hello Falin. Welcome to the Archives of High Priestess Spiros. How can I aid you today?”

[dragonindungeon]

[ stares a bit longer than can be considered polite ]

Oh, um... Hello. I was wondering what this card meant?

[reading_rainstorm]

The wooden librarian claps her hands excitedly.

"Oh wonderful! That's one of the missing tarot cards I've been looking for. They are supposed to open the Hall of Fate but I've been having trouble tracking them all down. That's The Hermit, it represents solitude and inner knowledge. It's a card of wisdom, if somewhat of a lonely one. I actually have another here." She opens a drawer and pulls out the The Tower card.

"This one represents a disaster. The total upheaval of a person's status quo."

[dragonindungeon]

Neither sound very good. How many cards are there?

[reading_rainstorm]

"There are twenty two major arcana, we are missing five...well four now."

[dragonindungeon]

Which ones?

[reading_rainstorm]

"Death, The Emperor, The Lovers and Strength."

[dragonindungeon]

Okay. I'll go looking for them.

[reading_rainstorm]

"Would you? That will help quite a lot dear, thank you. Oh!"

She presses an unseen button on the desk and the steps of the spiral staircase tilt and flatten together, becoming more of a ramp, as it widens for Falin's size.

"That should help somewhat."

[dragonindungeon]

Thanks, that's a big help.

[reading_rainstorm]

"Of course dear. Wouldn't want you to have trouble getting around."

Dreamscapes are nice, huh? So, where is Falin off to? You can examine the shelves here more or go to the Remembered Rooms or Diorama Hall.

[dragonindungeon]

[ She'll reach for the high shelves, looking for subjects that seem like they might be relevant to Stephanie and the possible card associations first! ]

[reading_rainstorm]

Your hand finds book titled Pictoral Key to the Tarot by AE Waite, Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism and Spirits and Divination by Stephanie Spiros.

[dragonindungeon]

!!!

[ going RIGHT to the book Steph wrote ]

[reading_rainstorm]

"This text should act as a guide for possible interpretations of the cards of the tarot, emphasis on possible it is the height of foolishness to think that there is only one meaning to them as they are a collaborative language unto themselves. It is a means by which we might communicate with the spirits that surround us and order the shape of our reality. These spirits dwell in all things around us and by communicating with them we can gain insights into things we cannot know alone.

If spirits live in all things, then they must also live within the cards, we have assigned the cards symbols with which they can speak back to us in a way we can easily understand. The spirits talk amongst each other with each shuffling of the deck. Each fortune a game of telephone from the spirit world to us..."

[dragonindungeon]

[ That makes complete sense to Falin. Perhaps she should try communing with the cards . . .

And because she IS a spiritualist, Falin tries to focus on a card symbol and reach out her senses, trying to pick up on a lead that way. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

Focusing on The Hermit fills you with a sense of determination, knowing the path ahead is the right one. It urges you to go to the diorama hall, to witness the fruits of some of Stephanie's labors. The Tower fills you with a sense of dread of oncoming problems that ripple out and effect Stephanie to this day. It points you to remembered rooms to see how the fallout effected how she stumbled later in life.

[dragonindungeon]

[ As tempting as the diorama room is, it feels as though Falin might be more help in the remembered rooms. That way she will go! ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The hall of Remembered rooms is well lit and has more of the bookcases like the main hall, but between the cases are doors that do not match with the rest of the decor of this place. There is a simple rectangular door with a cheery blue coat of paint on it, a door that looks like it belongs to Sun House, a rotting, decrepit door that could easily be broken apart, and a plain metal door painted white with a small slit window in it. A nervous looking man with Stephanie's eyebrows and resting frown tries to make himself even smaller alongside the bookshelves as he puts re shelves some books from a cart.

[dragonindungeon]

[ Gives the man a polite smile and nod, trying not to look too threatening. And will go towards the white door, knocking at it lightly before entering. ]

[reading_rainstorm]

The door swings open and you are in a modern hospital room. Tile floor, the smell of antiseptic, eerily quiet. Someone moves behind the hospital curtain. You can see a pair of crutches leaning against the wall beside the bed. A knot forms in your stomach. This is wrong. You don't want to be here. You turn around and the door is gone.