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| The Last Signal-Box | |
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| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 297054 |
The Last Signal-Box is a Sunless Skies Story Event.
Log Entries[]
Here is the lost fifth signal box of the Isambard Line. Can a thing be forgotten, if people never knew of it?
Story description[]
Pale clumps of Hybrean fungus cling to the old signal box. Inside, the contamination is even worse. Fungus coats every surface, as pristine as fresh snowfall. When you open the door, you scrape a neat arc in the carpet of it. Otherwise, it is undisturbed. No one has been here in years. White spores hang in the air, like snowflakes afraid of falling.
Trigger conditions[]
Area: Limbo
Frequency: Always (100%)
Interactions[]
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
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| Brush the spores from the shapes on the bedside table
One of the shapes is squarish, the size of your palm. The other is larger, and domed.
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Undisturbed
The spores rise in puffy clouds; you shield your nose and mouth. You uncover an empty packet of cigarettes and a grey bowler hat.
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| Examine the corpse on the bed
It is only a rough cylindrical shape under its cover of bedsheets and fungus.
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Folly's end
The corpse is desiccated, ravaged by fungus. It lies on its side facing the wall, knees drawn up. Its back is to you, which makes the act of brushing off the spores seem like a violation of privacy. But you have to know, and indeed, under the coat of pale spores it wears a grey Isambard Line uniform.
Was it the cold that killed it? The fungus? Sickness? It is impossible to say. The High Wilderness holds a thousand quiet deaths. You can only be sure that it has lain here, undiscovered and undisturbed, for years.
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| Unlock the cabinet
A key protrudes from a door in the bedside cabinet.
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A life's work
Inside, safely secured away from the fungus, is a thick, handwritten manuscript: 'Signs and Signals of the High Wilderness: an Omnibus'.
Its pages are filled with the Fatalistic Signalman's hurried penmanship and describe almost every signal-language used in Albion and the Reach with encyclopedic thoroughness. In appendices, the omnibus also addresses the secret signals used by marauders and smugglers, attempts to interpret the spasms and tattoos of scorn-flukes, and deciphers the echoing shrieks of Curators. There is nothing else of value in the signal box. The trail ends here, at a white, silent grave.
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Game note: The Omnibus is sufficiently comprehensive that even a basically-qualified signaller can use it and operate as a much more experienced one. It functions as an officer, and can be assigned to your signaller slot. It grants +10 to Mirrors and +2 to Affiliation: Villainy.
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| Leave the last signal box
You have seen all you care to.
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Farewell
You step outside and close the door. Behind you, the spores are already settling. Climbing back onto your engine, you brush them off your sky-suit. The crew are keen to be away from here.
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