Dark Room Dark Room

The Dark Room is a room that exists outside of known space. It is a place with an interior, but no exterior, as far as anyone can determine. Once, it was the pitch-blade and gore-soaked lair of the demon Bune, shackled within by some kind of mystic restraints, and finally slain by the Maple Shade Cell.

Appearance

The Mystery of the Antechamber

Opacity: 3 • In order to begin to scrutinize the Mystery, the viewer must be within the Antechamber (also called the Dark Room).
Surface Information: This is the result of any successful Revelation test done before the Mystery's Opacity has been unraveled completely.

• Foundations: The Antechamber was wrought by Awakened magic. It used the Practice of Making, using several Arcana.
  • There were multiple individuals involved in its creation, and they created it between two and three decades ago.
• Environs: Furnishings randomly appear and disappear, often as needed.
  • Nothing that relies on electricity appears, and items that go unused (usually shoved out of the way) tend to disappear once more. This can be used to redecorate the space as needful.
  • It generates light and air sufficient to see and breathe, and everyone within it experiences the temperature as close to neutral as they understand it, even if those benchmarks are different for everyone.
• Gain 1 Arcane Beat.

Deep Information: This is the result of a successful Revelation test done after the Mystery's Opacity has been unraveled completely.

• Extraspatial: It exists outside of mundane Space, but it is still part of the Fallen World.
• The Dark Circle: The circle in its center was once used to imprison a goetic entity of some significant power. Now, it contains a number of symbols marked in a permanent soot-like substance - there is one symbol for each person who has the Dark Mark.
• Metabolic Stasis: It establishes a sort of metabolic stasis: those within it do not need to sleep, eat, drink, or excrete while they are there, but those states quickly "catch up" upon departing the Antechamber. It is even possible to be rendered unconscious or even starve in this way.
• The Dark Mark: Only those with a Connected Sympathetic tie can enter the Antechamber. The room causes those who have such a tie to manifest a tattoo-like symbol on their body, called the Dark Mark.
  • The chamber prevents the use of magic or other abilities from creating artifical sympathetic connections. Everyone who bears the Dark Mark may induct another into their fraternity by gathering at the edge of the circle, placing the inductee into its center, and then each of them spending 1 Mana. This creates a Connected Sympathetic tie to the newly inducted. This is not reversible.
  • Those with the Dark Mark may enter the Antechamber by touching any wall in the Maple Shade and willing themselves there as a reflexive action. This does not function if a Sleeper is viewing them.
  • Those with the Dark Mark are treated as though they possessed the Attainment: Sympathetic Range (Space ••) for the sole purpose of casting spells into the Antechamber from outside of it, or from any other part of the Dark Tower.
• The Stairway Door: Hidden in one wall, perceivable only by using any Active Mage Sight to study the chamber is an archway of polished stones set into the wall. Beyond this arch is a landing and a set of stairs that rise upward. The arch can only be passed by someone using Active Mage Sight.
• Gain 1 Arcane Beat.

Now, it is a room with a red, always polished hardwood floor, walls covered in rich wallpaper in jeweled tones, and chandeliers that seem to hang in nothingness, as its ceiling is not visible in the darkness beyond them. It has furnishings that seem to be well-cared-for antiques from the turn of the century, which have been organized into a pattern useful to the cell. Unused pieces of furnishings (those shoved off to one side) tend to disappear overnight, though they occasionally make a re-appearance somewhere in the room, along with the occasional piece of new furniture.

The Dark Room has neither windows nor doors, and is marked by a circle of black smudge in the center of the room, which contains one sigil for each of the people who bear the Mark. The widest part of the room has tall bookcases that stand some twelve feet high, just shy of the height of the chandeliers.