spacetogrow / Ilphyl Palace Run

Content Warning

Parts of Ilphyl’s past deal with religiously motivated child abuse, sexism (albeit fantasy sexism as it is against male drow), transphobia and fantasy racism. If you want to engage with Ilphyl’s Palace, but not this content, let me know and I can make sure you stay on an alternate route. I’ll also put warnings on particular rooms if it seems likely to come up, and use the subject lines of threads to add in warnings if it comes up unexpectedly.

Goal
Find and return Ilphyl's consciousness to prominence. You know it will take the form of a small bat, but aren't sure how you know this.

Flat / Top-Level Comments Only

- Posted by

spacetogrow

You are in a stairway that descends down into the earth, seemingly unlit though you can still make out the walls and stairs of dressed stone. It’s hard to say how long it goes before you hit a door. It is covered in vines and fungi that look to have tried to swell it shut, but a hole has been knocked in it.

Entering the room shows that it is lit well enough that you can see, again with the sense that your night vision is far better than human's. The room is cut stone, with a vaulted ceiling. Briars and various fungi and lichen have done their best to cover every solid surface, but they only soften the lines of the room without obscuring much. A patch of floor at the front of the room is clear, almost as if burned away. An altar sits in the middle of that patch, with some woven tapestries behind it. The tapestries are somewhat faded and hard to make out. The stonework inlayed in the floor and the motifs on the altar have a distinct spider or web design.

The puffball mushrooms mark the margins of the no-go zone for the flora. The briars curl around them, though one can’t say if it is to protect you from what they contain, or them from you breaking one open. Either way, it seems just as likely that the briars will break them open as you would by touching them directly.

The masked elf is as still as a statue, and you can actually see the whites of their eyes, even through the mask. “The only way out is through.” This is said almost at a whisper.

> Talk to the masked elf.
> Investigate the plants.
> Touch the puffballs.
> Investigate the clear area or altar.
> Soemthing else?

Edited 2022-09-10 18:14 (UTC)

- Posted by

terribletwos

>Investigate the clear area

- Posted by

spacetogrow

[The plants are visibly growing towards the area, but something is repelling them, almost painfully, judging how they twist a bit and pause before resuming the growth]

- Posted by

terribletwos

[Getting closer to the plants to see if he can tell what's pushing them back]

- Posted by

spacetogrow

[It appears to be defined by the design of the floor; the puffball mushrooms have made it the farthest in.]

- Posted by

terribletwos

[Will check out the mushrooms then, to see what's special about them]

- Posted by

spacetogrow

[The briefest touch of the puffballs causes them to explode into spores, crafting an image...
The spores resolve into a dark elf woman, wearing silk robes with a spider motif that matches her surroundings. She stands over a child sprawled on the floor, looking down coldly at them. The child appears to be a young boy. The child slowly rises to hands and knees, moving gingerly, as if they are in pain. They are facing away from you.

“Do you understand your error?” the woman said.

“Yes, Mother,” the child answers. The voice has a distressing amount of self-control for someone not yet entering puberty, and still sounds hoarse and whispered from pain.

“My son, your loyalty to me and your House does you credit. That and your discretion is what has saved your life today. Focus on the ambitions of males, as the Goddess intended for you. I will have a daughter soon enough as my heir. Rise.”

The child rises and turns. It could be a younger Ilphyl, but even in the outline of mushroom spores, it is clear they are badly bruised. The woman frowns and mutters something about ‘his face’. She reaches out and the child makes a visible effort not to flinch, but she casts a healing spell instead.

“Go find Belantar for lessons.”

The child bowed, still moving gingerly, even as their face is healed, and steps away. As the memory ends, both the child and the woman solidify. The child, as soon as they are near the wall, starts moving as if holding something small and precious (that has large eyes and wings) to their chest, and ducks into the shadows. The woman turns as if finally noticing you. ]

“What are you doing here? This space is not for you.”

- Posted by

terribletwos

[Is kind of confused by some of this but does understand that this woman hit someone who looks like Ilphyl]

What were you hitting them for?

- Posted by

spacetogrow

"He needed to learn his proper place. Anyone other than family would have done worse unless they feared me too much to touch him."

- Posted by

terribletwos

What does that even mean? Proper place?

- Posted by

spacetogrow

He is male. He cannot be my daughter, and it would be blasphemous of the first order if he tried to be a priestess. The Goddess would be merciful if she simply killed him for his presumption, and did not remove the entire House.

- Posted by

terribletwos

Your Goddess sounds like a horrible person if they want to kill someone just for wanting to be something important to them. What does it matter if they're a priestess?

- Posted by

spacetogrow

[that sound you hear behind you is your guide trying to figure out if they should be applauding or diving for cover in abject terror of the collateral damage]

[meanwhile, it seems you have pissed the woman off]

Impudent fool!

[there are some very large spiders crawling out from the rafters]

[meanwhile, the child has returned, and is trying to stay out of sight, while making urgent 'get out of there' gestures]

Ilphyl Palace Run

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