Galápagos Islands: The Cloven Pine

21) The Cloven Pine
Thal’n’lai, June 29-30, 1845

A) The Tanks
It takes some effort to climb the stairs, and at first travelers may think the labor was not worth the view. The top of the island is flat and bare, a solid heptagon of polished black basalt.

Except…

Except for the tanks.

Located in the center of the island are a pair of crystalline tanks. Both are heptagonal in shape, about 10 feet wide and 15 feet tall. A spiral staircase is positioned between the tanks, with arching platforms branching to the tops of both vessels. The staircase is made from the same titanium alloy as Lowell’s stylus, and duplicates the uncomfortable dimensions of the basalt steps. Decorated with spiral filigrees and splitting into a “Y” shape, the staircase looks almost organic—it’s easy to see why Quiring calls this apparatus the “Cloven Pine.”

Each tank is filled with a different liquid. Lowell’s so-called “communicant’s tank” contains a pinkish, transparent gel. The opposite tank—the “tabernacle”—contains a very different substance, a soupy liquid pulsing with an unwholesome yellow radiance. Red veins of a fibrous material drift gently in the murk, and an unsettling shadow darkens the center of the tank—is there something in the fluid? Whatever it is, it seems to be roughly barrel-shaped, nearly eight feet tall and four feet wide. Occasionally something flickers from the edge of the shadow, and the jaundiced fluid swirls with some inner disturbance. Is this thing alive? Both tanks produce a faint hum, transmitted through the floor and vibrating the traveler’s bodies to a queasy pitch.

The Elder Thing, a.k.a. Ariel, a.k.a. Sarah
The tank holds the captive Elder Thing, imprisoned 50 millions ago and placed in a form of stasis. The alien has been dying a slow death, and is quite insane. Its flesh and mind violated by the K’th-thyalei, its genetic codes unwillingly transcribed, its consciousness severed from the Space of All Colors, all that remains is the creature’s desire to escape its rotting body and depart this terrible prison.

B) Quiring’s Reckoning
If the characters have been in pursuit of Ingo Quiring, he awaits by the tanks with Mary Roberts. Finally shorn of his defenders, the Jesuit is reduced to desperation. The Keeper is free to determine Quiring’s ultimate stance—he may attempt a last stand with his Potzdam musket and Wrack spell, he may plead for his life, or he may threaten to destroy the Cloven Pine and deny Lowell his final Communion. He may already be in the tank, hoping to free Ariel and be rewarded with super-powers! The Keeper must also determine the actions of Mary Roberts. Although she’s pregnant with Quiring’s child, she truly believes her unborn daughter is destined to host the spirit of Ariel. If Quiring is dethroned or defeated, Mary will change loyalties very quickly. The Keeper should remember that Quiring and Mary are not inherently evil. They both started off as decent people, but prolonged exposure to the Elder Thing has driven them to delusion and madness.

Why Is This Up to the Keeper?
White Leviathan is a complex scenario, and this encounter with the Elder Thing is the climax of the campaign so far—the closing of the first act, so to speak. After Thal’n’lai, there’s no going back. The Mythos has been revealed. The characters can never return to their “placid island of ignorance.” There’s so many ways that player characters may have interacted with Pynchon, Castro, and the Republic of Caliban it would be foolish to describe a definitive “Quiring’s Last Stand.” It’s up to the Keeper to bring the Galápagos narrative to a satisfying climax, one that feels right for the game so far. Do the players want blood? Then let Quiring go down shooting! Is this a horror story? Perhaps Quiring slices the fetus from Mary’s belly and sacrifices it to Ariel. Or even worse—the characters find Mary emerging from the tabernacle, possessed by a splinter of alien consciousness now residing in her womb. Does Lowell require a redemption arc? He could release them all from madness by butchering Sarah in her bath. Or maybe Castro saves the day, biting off Lowell’s finger in the process? Whatever works best for each individual game is the correct “Quiring’s Reckoning.”

C) Accessing the Tanks
The spiral staircase leads to the top of the tanks, which are sealed by flat heptagons carved from a material that resembles malachite, but contains bands of transparent quartz studded with flecks of gold. Hovering five feet above the center of each tank is a crystal globe, about two feet in diameter and half-filled with quicksilver. Each globe is perfectly fixed in space, but there’s no visible armature—another violation of physics, or some form of magnetic mesmerism? Examining the quicksilver allows a Spot Hidden roll. A success observes that the mercury is somehow etched, its density inscribed with a three-dimensional pattern of glyphs. An Idea roll suggests this offers a three-dimensional system of writing that maintains perfect fluidity. Is this magic or science? Is that dichotomy even valid anymore? If anyone attempts to break a globe, it proves impervious to damage.

Each tank is opened by touching its respective globe with a living appendage—even a fingertip triggers the mechanism. The globe starts spinning, centrifugal force whirling the mercury into a vortex of gleaming silver. Glyphs tumble past the crystal, breaking apart and recombining in a flickering dance of alien grammar. A few seconds later, a hatchway irises open beneath the globe. Should a character desire, he may lower himself gently into the tank. Or, you know, be forcibly thrust down.

Prisoner Scenario: The Cloven Pine

If Lowell has been cooperative, Quiring can barely contain his excitement as he escorts the professor to the Cloven Pine. If a different character is being introduced to the tank, Quiring explains that he’s “in the presence of Ariel,” and should prepare himself to be “baptized by the daemon.” Quiring renews his pledge to transform the character into a Caliban disciple—if and only if he proves “worthy” by emerging from the Cloven Pine with his “spirit, mind, body, and soul intact and aligned with our ideals.” Meanwhile, Silvio Marroquín begins whispering to someone who’s clearly not there. A Language (Spanish) roll suggests he’s talking to his dead wife—“Thank you, beloved, but not today, no, this man is going in the fishbowl; but soon, I promise María, soon, and then we’ll be together again, we’ll be a family again, like before the fever…”

White Leviathan, Chapter 4—Galápagos Islands
[Back to Encounter 20, The Starry Island | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 22, Contact and Communion]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 27 December 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]