The Sextant in Shadow

The Sextant in Shadow

An old bounty returned from the #theHulls past, lurking around their hidden lair, searching for the Sextant in Shadow. The Hull’s concern for their lair’s security struggled against their curiosity to know more about the Sextant. And now they’re finally on the verge of its discovery. This is what they can find.

Appearance

The Sextant in Shadow has a large curved piece, one-sixth of a circle, nearly two hand spans at its broadest, made from darkly etched bone and bronze. Mounted on this are numerous polished lens, mirrored silvers, gears, toggles, crosshairs, scaled markings and other paraphernalia. It is chill to touch, with a faint pulse felt if you hold your breath and still your own. It has a small Makers plate: Tyrnkerian Companions. A grubbier engraving shows it was once the property of Milos Atah. It appears flecked by shifting shadows, even in the strongest light.

Ghostfield observation: In the ghostfield, the other five parts of the Sextant can be seen. The whole can be likened to a helix of sextants, spiralling out at impossible angles from the physical sixth. Gathered from anecdotes, talking with ghosts and others who’ve seen it, and through direct ghostfield observation.

History

This must be one of the last remaining mechanisms crafted by Tyrnkerian Companions. Records of the Companions have been rare since ___. They were known as master alchemists and mechanists, and their creations are sought by mariners, occultists, scholars and criminals. This Sextant was salvaged from the ship Blood Rose when it floated close to Doskvol, abandoned and scuttled at sea. From there the Sextant made its way into the black market inventory of the Hive, where it disappeared some __ years ago, only to reappear recently in the hands of ___.

Info for the gathering

Rumour: The Sextant can be held and controlled by a living body or a ghost, in more or less the same manner. Gathered from stories about the Hive theft, the Blood Rose and other tall tales.

Experimentation: By correct adjustment and use (of its physical instrumentation) the Sextant can allow the user to attune with the ghostfield and to perceive spirits and ghosts. Gathered from exploring histories of the Tyrnkerian Companions, journals of users and scholars, and through direct experimentation.

Design research: Broadly, the Sextant is designed to find shortcuts in the ghostfield that can be traversed. Technically, this involves a non-Euclidean transformation of the planar angle between an object and a referential constellation. In practice this requires using the Sextant (along with astrotidal charts, etc.) to:

– sight a destination point in the physical realm, typically an object visible from a distance

– sight a reference point, such as a constellation submerged in a large body of water

– correctly adjust all six parts of the sextant, both the physical sextant and its five counterparts in the ghost field, and

– make calculations referring to tabulations and predictive charts.

The end result is effectively sighting/calculating electroplasmic pathways to the destination that skip the intervening space and can be traversed by ghosts and other disembodied things. Gathered from technical manuals, reverse engineering studies, crib notes and journals of use, and through extensive research and study.

Occult ritual: There have been occult rituals performed that used similar instruments as a key component, that led to aspects of forgotten gods manifesting in the physical realm. This required sacrificing souls and overcharging the instruments, typically destroying them. This is perhaps one reason such masterworks of the Tyrnkerian Companions are rare. Gathered from the inner circles of secret societies and cults, Faustian bargains with demonic beings, listening to predictions of doom and the end days.

Experience

Traversing the electroplasmic pathways calculated by the Sextant has been described as turning a corner that’s not there, walking through a reflection of the world, paper-thin, sharp, and vast.