A Strangeness In Glamsbury (Steampunk Eldritch Cultist Quest)

You are Evangeline Hemlock, and you've always loved art.

You've loved it ever since you were little, but when she came into your life and introduced you to its wonders properly, your mere fascination bloomed into an all consuming obsession.

You yearn for the world inside the portraits. Inside the pictures. Inside the books and the plays and the stories. All of it was precious to you, and even though you've never had any friends as a child (with a singular exception) it never bothered you even once.

Right now, you might've gotten your wish at last. For you are inside a prismatic whorl of colors, an maelstrom of endless colors and sensations so intense that you had to squint your eyes.

You realize now that you must be dreaming.

You examine your surroundings carefully, examining every shade and tinge of this new, vibrant world you've been thrusted into. You look at your hands up and down, examining how your pale skin glimmered beneath the many, many lights.

For a moment, you were truly content. Here was a world you had dreamed of for so long. A world of colors and peace. A place where you can truly be happy.

..It's beautiful.

You think for a moment to the cold monotony of Glamsbury. The way the air is covered with black smoke. It's almost a shame you'll have to return to that black, loveless place.

A beacon of light flares into existence in front of you, shattering your thoughts and forcing you to draw your attention towards it.

You stare towards it, transfixed at the alien hues imposing themselves upon your eyelids. You quietly admire it for a moment, before squinting your eyes when you notice a rapidly approaching shape floating towards you from the middle of the beacon.

You try to look closer..

Closer…

Closer still..

And then you saw it.

The shape bathed in the light around it. A massive shape carved into the tall, gaunt figure of a man. Cloaked in resplendent colors, with a radiance around it comparable to the stars themselves. Its robe was long, a trailing hem fluttering behind it. Its face is entirely blank and featureless, save for two constantly shifting orbs of lights that serve as its eyes.

This was a creature of majesty. A creature of strength. And you have never felt so small in your life. It barely even seemed to acknowledge you, like you're nothing but an ant compared to it. You probably are.

You find your mouth has gone slack with shock. Tears flood down your cheeks at the sheer power this creature radiated. It shifted through a thousand colors at once, shades you've never seen or experienced in your life. Its form wavered and danced like a candle in the wind. One moment it's barely humanoid and the next it was something indescribable, a nightmare beyond human comprehension.

You weep and weep and weep until your eyes bleed. How could a creature be so beautiful and so horrifying at the same time?

Until finally, it seemed to be bored of examining you, and turned to leave. You throw your hand out in it's direction, wordlessly begging for it to stay.

But it's already gone.

And you.. wake up.

---

You wake up.

You toss yourself out of bed so quickly you almost fall down to the floor in an embarrassing fashion. You take a moment to catch your breath, before rushing to the mirror.

Your eyes are red, and your cheeks are wet from the tear stains. You gulp down lungfuls of air, steadying yourself from the experience.

You needed a moment to compose yourself, and when you finally managed to maintain some semblance of placidity, you took a look at the card on the side of your bed, and the address written on it.

You harden your heart and steel yourself. You know deep within you that this address has the answer for everything.

You need to know.

---

When you arrive in front of the Regis Gallery, you find yourself struck by a feeling of wrongness.

There was almost nobody around for one, even though the gallery is placed smack dab in the middle of one of the busier parts of town. The whole place seems to radiate something that makes people want to avoid it.

You push the door open. The lights are dim, and there's nobody inside. Undeterred, you push on. You enter deeper into the gallery, before a voice cuts you off.

"Can I help you?" It's a man. He looks young. Skeletal thin. His eyes are laden with bags and he looks so weak that a push would send him flying. He's wearing a painter's apron, which is stained with varying colors.

"I'm just.. looking for something." You respond. How else would you explain that you had a bunch of odd dreams that pushed you to this place? You'd sound like a total lunatic. Or even worse, be branded as a heretic and shoved into one of the Inspectorate's cold cells.

"Oh! Are you the one Sir Alastair was talking about?" He chirped cheerfully. Was Alastair the bald man you met at the party yesterday? "Oh I'm so happy that we have another patron!" He claps his hands together, and the bone deep exhaustion that seems to permeate every inch of his bones seems to dissipate at the sight of your appearance.

He grabs you by the hand and leads you in, and you bristle in irritation. You don't like being touched without permission. As he leads you in deeper, you notice something odd about the scenery. The walls begin to separate from each other. They melt into a blank void dotted with stars that shift in hues and shades. Doors begin floating in mid air as the space breaks down into non euclidean chaos.

Normally, you'd probably question what's going on, but after what you saw in your dreams last night, you were already expecting this somewhat. All you want right now is just an explanation. Something to make sense of all the chaos around you.

You're walking on the floor in the middle of a colorful void. You don't see that everyday, but with thaumaturgists running around it's not like you haven't heard of more odd things happening.

He leads you to the front of a door, and opens it gently. You leap inside it as he grabs you along, and finds yourself in a cold room.

The room's walls are patterned with red wallpaper, and lit with fluorescent lights. It's somewhat nice, if a bit bland. The room is filled with scattered canvases and splattered paint, thrown about everywhere with reckless abandon.

In the center of it, you can see the man from yesterday. The one who offered you his card. He sees you arrive, and his eyes noticeably light up. "My lady! You've arrived!"

You're unsure of how to respond, so you simply give him an awkward wave. "Darius here did not seem to tell you much, so I'll simply have to do the honor!" He laughs and waves his hands.

"You see.. we are a society. A society for esteemed artisans." He takes a moment to savor those words, pausing in the middle of his sentence. "We gather the most promising of talents. The most intuitive of patrons! All for the service of our lord." He finishes himself off with a flourish. "And you, my lady, are lucky enough to be invited to join our fold."

"And who is.. your lord?" You ask in confusion. Oddly enough, he raises an eyebrow at your question, as if he's the one confused by your question. "You should already know by now, no? Did you not witness his splendor last night?" He asks.

Last night.. the figure you saw in the beacon of light? Was that who he's talking about? "I might have." You admit. "Oh, how I wish I could witness him once more.. to fix your gaze on that unparalleled radiance.. how lovely." He tilts his head upwards and you can see bits of moisture gathering in his eyes, almost as if he's on the verge of tears.

You take a moment to pause and think about what this means for you. You're definitely caught up in a cult. An almost certainly illegal one at that. The Inspectorate doesn't take any worship of any other deity aside from Tesrevan lightly. If you get caught.. well, you can't bear thinking about that.

You tune out most of the conversation the man's having with the boy, and think deeply about everything you've experienced so far.

---

You remember when you were a child.

You remember witnessing the way Glamsbury treats those who are downtrodden and unfortunate enough. You remember asking your mother in confusion about why they were being treated so harshly, and she had simply patted your head and told you: "They're not good enough sweetie. You'll understand when you grow up."

When you grew up, you did understand. Glamsbury values success above all else. Everyone who doesn't manage to make the cut is ground beneath the gears mercilessly.

It's a cruel world. An unfair world. And you longed to escape to a more beautiful place. The world in the portraits. The world in the books, the plays. The world of art.

But what if you could make that world a reality?

You recall the sensations you witnessed last night. The world you saw. The dizzying blend of colors, the arrays of light. The majesty of the being you saw earlier. Surely.. if that could be real.. if that could come to this world..

Then perhaps everyone would be happy. Perhaps being taken away from this terrible place will be enough for them to find solace.

You close your eyes, and make a decision.

---

"I'll do it." You say at last, piercing through the murmurs of conversation between the two men. "I'll finance everything this gallery requires." You clarify. "I'll make sure that you'll want for nothing, and need for nothing either in terms of financial requirements."

They both look like they're on the verge of tears. "Oh that is so generous of you my lady!" The man shakes your hand with as much force as he could muster, and you wince. "We've been so deprived of money lately! I've done as much as I could, but it's getting tough just to finance this place even with my income!"

"I can paint with better materials.. I hope he plucks me when I've managed to catch his attention at last.." The youth whispers, his expression locked into a visage of starstruck joy. "I understand, but this does not come for free." You say. "I wish to understand more about you and what you do. And I wish to know more about our.. mutual benefactor as well." You stand up and dust yourself off.

He clasps your hands for the upteenth time and whispers: "I shall be honored to do so, my lady."

---

You're honestly still reeling from the revelation today has brought you. For one, you're a cultist now, and the fact alone unnerves you. You risk imprisonment, injury, and severe death just from helping them out alone.

And yet..

You remember her.

You remember her gaze. Her soft cries as she was dragged away from you.

You remember how she cried when you were separated, and you wept and kicked and pleaded. Please don't take her away. Please let her stay.

And that was the day you realized that this world is unfair. That you could never be happy as long as this wretched, rotting husk of a city remained intact.

So you've made up your mind.

"Wait for me." You think. "I'll make a better world for the both of us, and I'll make it so that it's exactly the same as in the pictures."

Outside your carriage, the sun has set, leaving only the gray hues of the sky to keep you company.

---

Final part of character creation!
Allocate stats for Evangeline!
Power: 1
Resilience: 1
Cunning: 1
Knowledge: 1
Devotion: 1

You have 15 points to allocate.
Stats max out at 10.