Scattered Manse
The Scattered Manse is a copy of the historic mansion found just up the hill from Twin Valleys Bend in Kit's Crater, Nevada - only this copy exists in Unallocated Space. Timeless and fragmented, the Scattered Manse was a dangerous location to explore even before its adoption as an extraplanar research facility by a Golden Cloister esotericist sect.
Purpose / Function
Once created, the purpose of the Scattered Manse became to permit the study of the Word with regards to summoning magic and to promote the privacy and security of the cult researchers stationed there.
Architecture
The Scattered Manse was called into being by a sect of Golden Cloister operatives doing research into the lesser-known properties of summoning and teleportation magic. By carefully applying their knowledge of the Word, instead of calling forth monsters from beyond the veil of reality, these cultists were instead able to teleport themselves bodily into Unallocated Space. Once there, they used summoning and sculpting magic to forge a connection between what would become the Scattered Manse and the original (ostensibly abandoned) old manor in which they had been previously conducting their research.
This allowed them to recreate each individual room of the manor in Unallocated Space, but there was a catch: places in Unallocated Space are more defined by their connections to one another than their actual physical location in space. As a result, the rooms in the Scattered Manse, while visual indistinguishable from those of the original manor, are connected together in ways that defy physical analysis. For example, more than one set of rooms is connected such that, if they were laid out in regular space, they would overlap with one another. Similarly, there are rooms on the first floor that adjoin to rooms on the second floor with no obvious change in elevation, thereby violating the conservation of (potential) energy. Attempting to cut through a wall to bypass these odd connections deposits those who attempt it into an overlapping room or, more often, into the naked Unallocated Space that exists coterminously with the rest of the Candledusk Instance.
Defenses
The material world version of the manor is patrolled by heavily-armed Golden Cloister goons and their magically-enhanced bull mastiffs. Even should these guards be overcome, getting to the Scattered Manse requires finding the teleportation glyphs in the upstairs study along with an appropriate degree of arcane knowledge to activate them.
Once in the Scattered Manse proper, interlopers have to contend with the various magically-mutated cultists, magically-dominated blanks, and elite occult researchers found there. These protectors also cannot be sieged out of the Manse, as, because time does not pass there, the ravages of age, hunger, and thirst also do not apply to them. The eerie silence of the place in the absence of any air currents whatsoever also makes stealthy infiltration all but impossible. Traps, both mechanical and arcane, are laid throughout the place to further hamper invaders.
Finally, even if all the cult members present in the Scattered Manse were to be eliminated, getting back to the material world from Unallocated Space is no easy feat for the uninitiated. The components for the return teleporation sigil are scattered between various cult members as a means of ensuring security; these must be gathered and returned to the ritual sigils in the main study and then charged with arcane energy to create the portal home.
Type
Mansion / Villa
Owning Organization
Comments