Yellow Lake

“The caverns of the Yellow Lake lie below the land above; everything moves slowly in a viscous fog, and its waxy rivers drip into a dirty white lake. The trunks of spermaceti that hang from the ceiling reflect the pillars in the churches and chapels above. Here is where the two headed eagle once met with Ramon by the lake.”

Description

The Yellow Lake is a very large underground cave reached from the beach, it’s main feature being a lake of spermaceti at its deepest point. Trunks of hardened spermaceti fall from the foggy ceiling into a network of rivers, which all flow into the lake.

This is the place where Luminary Ramon first planted their bowl of wax and, as more wax was poured into the holes above, this meager bowl spilled its contents to form into a lake.

The corpses of animals float down the rivers and into the lake, where they eventually wash up on its shore. They can also be seen in the pillars of spermaceti, absorbed into its wax. Swarms of rod-shaped insects can be found patrolling the dark passages and hollowed caverns, which cause blindness if one gets too close.

“The bending effects of the lake make it so that everything crashes together or seperates like oil and water. Here, everything feels as though in stasis, even the rivers move at a snail’s pace.”

The lake has split the village into moments, so that it is organised in layers, leading up and up toward its peak, the Fen Churches.

Insects

In the Yellow Lake and the Chapel Beach, clouds of insects fly around bodies of wax. They are small creatures of a rod-like appearance, with many small wings around their body. If one gets too close to these insects, they cause blindness.

There is a specific kind of blindness observed amongst creatures in the hamlet, betrayed most typically by cloudy blue, bright eyes. The skin of the afflicted can also become ulcerated and even burnt, as in the case of Luminary Ramon and Smut. The large nose observed in some of the unsighted is due to the same illness.

Smell

This blindness can cause olfactory hallucinations, as read in the Luminary Omens. Many talk of a "strange, sea-scented" smell in the village, however, none talk of the scent of the actual sea, despite the hamlet being built upon its shores.

The Healing Pig

‘’’Healing Pig’’’ is an animal that has been washed up on the shore of one of the rivers. Parts of the pig are still covered in wax, and parts of it are missing. It is surrounded by thousands of other similarly washed up creatures, none of which are alive. The pig is despondant, but if one has Smut's Incense it will speak.

Dialogue

I remember sinking down to the bottom,

there are creatures here that I don’t think I’ll see again.

I’ve changed now, I’ve seen so much,

Our bodies are different now,

we think we can never die.

And I don’t know what’s happened to me,

and I don’t really care.

One day I was asleep,

now I am awake.

At this point, the pig will leave you with a Lump of Wax.

Smut

Smut is found wading out into the lake, then spreading her arms and legs out wide like a star so that she floats on top of the wax.

Dialogue

These small insects buzzing in great swarms

around this cavern,

given time, like seeds from long grass,

will dig their hooks under my skin

and lay more eggs.

But I do not care...

because I am already blind.

Those newly born here,

brought into a world

whose light is quickly killed.

I want to cry just thinking about it.

Connections

Beach > The Yellow Lake