text; un: camliax

[speakerstone]

Greetings, fellow travelers! Or captives. Or whatever you choose to call this strange little commune we've found ourselves in.

I am Sypha, a Speaker and an adventuring scholar. I'm one of the crop of recent arrivals, so I thought it would make sense to introduce myself. Most people seem to use this board for personal advertisements and posing profound existential questions. This isn't...not that, but it's a bit of something different, too.

I'm looking for help with my scholarly pursuits, and I'd like to to learn more about this place. Specifically, how it used to be. I get the impression that very few records from that time have survived, if any at all, but if you know where to find information that could help me start to piece it all together, I would greatly appreciate the assistance from our city elders. 😉

If you don't have knowledge of primary sources, I'll also gladly listen to any local legends you might have heard. Strange as it seems, there may well be a grain of truth hidden in every off-the-wall story. Heck, if you have any boogeymen from your own worlds you're eager to chat about, I suppose I can listen to those stories, too! Not that studying can't be exciting, but it'd be nice to have something else to do while I'm here.

So! Ancient history, local legends, distractions from daily chaos...or perhaps other things you think may be important! If any of those sound like something you'd know about, and you're willing to share, I'm eager to collaborate.

Comments

[veiledvanity]

as I said, the jorogumo are excellent hosts. They must find a way to entice their prey into their nests, though. they took many techniques here, so i'll describe just a few — and i find this one quite beautiful. sometimes, the gorgeous woman would capture the heart of a shallow young man, and she'd tease him and play with him, stringing him along with her charms and caresses. every day, the enchanted young men would come to pay her a visit, but she was a coy flirt, and kept telling them all "another time, another time," refusing to ever let them fully in, which just kept driving them back... day after day, the men became weaker, sicker, and more obsessed with her beauty. indeed, it still was always a treat to see them, as jorogumo had been savoring their deaths slowly. unbeknownst to her infatuated gentlemen callers, the lovely lady's venom had been working its magic on them day by day.. they'd give up their wives, families, jobs, lives, everything, just in the hopes of courting this vision of beauty, killing themselves by virtue of their love for her. by the time she finally allowed them the amorous chance they'd begged for so eagerly for so long, the men were nearly drunk to death on the poison of their own passion... their veins virtually full of venom now, they wouldn't have been long for this world no matter what, even if jorogumo didn't devour them the moment the door closed.



but of course these are merely snacks, mind you. one can't get by on snacks alone. 🙃